Another Saturday Bluebird that has coincided with my blogging duty, and that’s no bad thing.
Solving began well. Although I couldn’t cold solve 1D I did get 22D BURNS to get a couple of juicy first letters. But also a possibility of a Burns themed puzzle, after all it’s not so far from Burns Night. There are a few other references to Rab or Rabbie which are somewhat Burns adjacent. Not really enough to be an overriding theme.
Those first letters bore fruit and the bottom half of the grid began to get filled in. It didn’t last. The first pass ended with less than half the clues solved, mostly on the left hand side. The bottom right was bare till the end when the last few answers to fall were 17, 27, 29, 16 and finally 25.
I have absolutely no idea how the wordplay in that final 25A works.
And I haven’t fully parsed 15D either. So help please with those two.
Of course there is every likelihood I have more wrong here.
Favourite clue 3D for the reference to the highly visible strings on the Thunderbirds puppets.
There is a Nina in the top and bottom unches: “Ian is nae Scottish”
I might have had less trouble with the last few down clues if I had spotted that earlier.
But again it leads to further questions:
Who is Ian?
The Scottish version is often Iain but I believe that’s not exclusive.
What does it mean?
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | NARCO |
American agent managed to turn around company (5)
|
| RAN< (managed, turned round) CO[mpany] | ||
| 10 | ROTTERDAM |
City wall with banana on? (9)
|
| DAM (wall) after ROTTER (banana) Maybe – Are bananas particularly known for rotting? (at least they signal it by going black first) All fruit rots. Some quicker than bananas. Edit: I’ve been put right: Bananas rot faster than other fruit and give off ethylene (C₂H₄) that helps ripen and rot both themselves and other nearby fruit |
||
| 11 | EMBRYONIC |
Early poem’s second half – reminiscent of Don Juan? – moving boyfriend’s heart (9)
|
| [po]EM (BOY [f]RIEN[d])* AInd: moving. Better parsing from Comment #2: [po]EM then BYRONIC (reminiscent of Don Juan) with R, the middle letter of boyfriend, moving |
||
| 12 | PAPER |
Secretary accompanying a Scotsman? (5)
|
| PA (secretary, Personal Assistant) PER (a). Scotsman is an example of a [news]paper. | ||
| 13 | COSTA |
A Scot renovated cafe (5)
|
| (A SCOT)* AInd: renovated. | ||
| 15 | CYCLICAL |
Vacated county hospital disposing of nickel and aluminium in rings (8)
|
| C[ount]Y CLINIC – NI (hospital minus nickel) AL (aluminium) | ||
| 18 | TRINKUM |
Scotsman’s small ornament from ice- skating arena kept by corporation (7)
|
| RINK (ice-skating arena) inside TUM (corporation) | ||
| 19 | BELLINI |
Cocktail made by short attractive woman in Italy (7)
|
| BELL[a] (attractive woman, short) IN I[taly] | ||
| 20 | ENTREATS |
Bowed, without cap on, a holy man turns and prays (8)
|
| I cannot see how “Bowed without cap on” delivers ENTRE, but then A (a) ST< (holy man, saint, st., turns) Comment #3: [b]ENT (Bowed without a cap) RE (on) A (a) ST< (St., turned) |
||
| 21 | MONET |
Artist with endless resources and time (5)
|
| MONE[y] T[ime] | ||
| 23 | UNITE |
Connect with Baudrillard’s article about computers (5)
|
| UNE (article “a” in French (it’s Baudrillard’s)) around IT (computers) | ||
| 25 | RETENTION |
Holding tight, enter Tesla with Bluebird alongside (9)
|
| ??? no idea about wordplay here ??? Comment #1 et al.: (ENTER T[elsa])* AInd: tight, then I (Bluebird) ON (alongside) |
||
| 28 | NEIGHBOUR |
Quote from Black Beauty – “Beauty’s beginning to lead our close associate” (9)
|
| NEIGH (quote from Black Beauty), B[eauty] OUR | ||
| 29 | TAMES |
Scotsman given drugs becomes gentler (5)
|
| TAM (Scotsman) ES (drugs) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INNER CITY |
Hotel near Morecambe where one’s depressed and tense, with yen for central London? (5,4)
|
| INN (Hotel), ERIC (Morecambe) becomes ERCI (I drops down, one’s depressed), T[ense] Y[en] | ||
| 2 | ARAB |
A Scotsman who lives in Dubai? (4)
|
| A RAB (A Scotsman) | ||
| 3 | NOSY PARKER |
Sony mobile carried by highly-strung chauffeur who’s always interfering (4,6)
|
| (SONY)* AInd: mobile, PARKER ( “highly strung” chauffeur, Lady Penelope’s puppet chauffeur in Thunderbirds, thus “highly strung”) | ||
| 4 | IRON |
Strong start to Howard’s wedding vows? (4)
|
| “I, Ron, take thee …” Ref. Ron Howard, film director | ||
| 5 | STOCK CUBES |
Keep, say, eight thousand building blocks in the OXO Tower? (5,5)
|
| STOCK (keep) CUBES (Building blocks) OXO is a brand name for Stock Cubes, but I cannot explain away “eight thousand” (20 cubed?) in the clue. The OXO Tower is now an art gallery on the South Bank of the Thames between National Theatre and Blackfriars Bridge. From Comment #2: Eight (8 = 2^3) and thousand (1000 = 10^3) are both examples of cubes (thus the final “?”) I might have not read 8000 and treated them separately if the clue had been worded “a thousand and eight” |
||
| 6 | NEEP |
“North-eastern European people” – originally what a Scotsman called a Swede? (4)
|
| First letters (originally) of N[orth] E[astern] E[uropean] P[eople] | ||
| 7 | ADAPTATION |
A lawyer rattling a tin pot for change (10)
|
| A DA (a lawyer) (A TIN POT)* AInd: rattling. | ||
| 8 | EMERY |
Energy drink in France with unknown mineral (5)
|
| E[nergy] MER (drink, i.e. the sea, in French) Y (unknown) | ||
| 14 | SCIENTIFIC |
Methodical setter in Cologne provided with one cruciverbalist’s tip (10)
|
| I (setter) in SCENT (Cologne) IF (provided) I (one) C[ruciverbalist] | ||
| 15 | COMPATRIOT |
Politician attending debauched event with fellow countryman (10)
|
| MP (Politician) inside COAT (?? I cannot explain this??) , then RIOT (debauched event) From Comment #2: CO (fellow) MP (Politician) AT RIOT (debauched event) I also removed underlining from “fellow” – not part of the def. |
||
| 16 | ILLUMINATI |
Sick and twisted Athenian character in a twisted sex cult (10)
|
| ILL (sick), MU< ( Athenian character, twisted), IN A (in a), IT< (sex, twisted) | ||
| 17 | KITTENISH |
Likely to play with equipment around 10? (9)
|
| KIT (equipment) TENISH (around 10) | ||
| 22 | BURNS |
Scotsman’s flowers for another Scotsman (5)
|
| Flowers as small rivers. Def. ref. Robbie Burns | ||
| 24 | ECHO |
Repeat base expression of Scotsman dropping ball (4)
|
| E (base, mathematical base e) OCH shift O to bottom | ||
| 26 | TART |
Bittersweet (4)
|
| Bitter, sweet and Bittersweet | ||
| 27 | ISMS |
Theories expressed through one’s manuscript (4)
|
| IS (one’s) MS (manuscript) |
RETENTION: Def = Holding. Tight (anagram) ENTERT with (juxtaposition) Bluebird = I alongside = ON = RETENT I ON.
And, yes, bananas rot faster than most fruit – they give off a gas that not only speeds their own deterioration but also that of other nearby fruit. I’m afraid I cannot help with the eight thousand Oxo Cubes
I agree with PostMark. 15d – CO (fellow) MP AT RIOT (politician at debauched event). 11a Should be BYRONIC (like Don Juan) with the middle letter of boyfriend moving. 5d took me a while – STOCK (keep) CUBES (8 & 1000 DBE) with the rest of the clue as a slightly cryptic definition.
Thanks both setter & blogger.
ENTREATS: Bowed without a cap = (B)ENT. ON = RE. A = A. Saint ‘turned’ = TS.
Had EMBRYONIC & STOCK CUBES as shikasta. Had RETENTION as PostMark presumably meant to say, i.e. an anagram (tight) of ‘enter’ + T (Tesla) + I (Bluebird) + ON (alongside).
In 18a, blog should have ‘rink’ = ‘ice-skating arena’.
I think compatriot is
politician = MP, attending = AT, debauched event = RIOT and fellow = CO.
Thank you Bluebird. I’ve been moaning for years about the stock use of Ian as Scotsman in crosswords, but he just won’t go away. Maybe this will help him follow the actor Mr Tree into obscurity.
Thanks also to beermagnet
Yes, Scots Ian, along with German Hans and Otto, are all overdue for retirement, but are so useful.
I thought neeps, as in “tatties and …”, were turnips, not swedes. Happy to be disabused.
Nice puzzle, ta Bb and b.
DuncT @6…well, I am Ian, and I never spot myself when “Scotsman” is the clue word. My mother wanted a short name, which nobody could abbreviate. Inevitably, in scouseland, everybody called me “E”.
I now live in Greece, where they can’t get “Ian”,
so I am Yanni.
On which note, I quickly spotted TAM in 29(ac), from the nickname of Sir [Thomas] Sean Connery in his body-building days,( “Big Tam” ), but I was stuck with TAMER as my answer for ages.
I’m not sure that “becomes gentler” works as “TAMES”, which seems to be ” makes gentler”to me.
I had a world of pain with a lot of the parsings, so the blog and posts are a boon…thanks to all.
Though I did think, reading Hovis @ 4, that a shikasta was a cryptic device!
A tough puzzle, and I’m still not convinced by some of the clues, but a lot to like.
Thanks to setter, blogger, and posters.
Ginf@7. In Scotland turnip is used fairly generically (but you’ll also hear them called neeps and tumshies). I never heard anyone say “swede” when I was a child. As the word derives from “Swedish turnip” I don’t think this is much of a problem but some people get very worked up about the distinction.
ENB&@8 – yes, part of my gripe is that Ian has become a crossword codeword with no external basis, which reduces solving to rote substitution.
Bluebird has given me a bit of a therapy session today!
Thanks Bluebird for a tough but worthwhile crossword. This required thinking & thinking again to see what was happening. The Nina helped a bit & somehow I completed this. Favourites included TRINKUM (new word for me), IRON (LOI), ADAPTATION, EMERY, SCIENTIFIC, & ILLUMINATI. Even with a question mark I thought clueing ‘rotter’ as ‘banana’ was a stretch in ROTTERDAM. I also wondered about ‘with’ as a link word in MONET; I gather there are two schools of thought on this. Neither of these ‘nits’ ruined my day, however, since the crossword was so good overall. Thanks beermagnet for the blog.
Thanks to everyone for the comments and especially for completing the parsings.
I have added a few addendums in green in the blog.
As to the difference between turnips and swedes (and neeps): Swede is named via “Swedish turnip” and they are both part of the massive “Brassica rapa” taxonomy.
The trouble is there are many, many varieties of these root vegetables, just like other major food crops the big producers concentrate on what they know they can sell, and this varies from country to country.
In France, swedes (rutabaga) are generally considered animal feed, like mangelwurzels in this country. (By the way, it took some effort to find the French for swede because, inevitably, all a translating dictionary gives you is the “person from Sweden” definition).
I did try a sugar beet once, snaffled from an enormous pile of many tonnes sitting in a field in northern France. Not recommended. It just tastes of mud.
Re the second paragraph of the blog: you don’t think the enormous number of Scotsmen in the clues, together with the Nina explaining why none of them are Ian, is a theme right there?
And to add to the swede/neep discussion: it’s called a rutabaga over here, making it one of the many vegetables with different names in AmEng v BrEng. (see also zucchini, cilantro, arugula, eggplant, snow peas, etc…)
@beermagnet – 8000 is also the cube of 20.. but that doesn’t explain the plural..
You did wash the beet before tasting, right?
> 8000 is also the cube of 20
That was my issue: I read the clue’s “eight thousand” as 8000 = 20^3, i.e. one cube. One example did not seem enough to be a “definition by example”.
I never thought of treating “eight” and “thousand” separately.
> You did wash the beet before tasting, right?
Very thoroughly. The sugar beet didn’t have any flavour of its own. It seemed to have taken on the taste of the ground it was growing in.
“The sugar beet didn’t have any flavour of its own. It seemed to have taken on the taste of the ground it was growing in.”
To an oenophile that’s terroir!