Good morning from Philadelphia. This is Braze (a zebra with two twists) filling in for Eileen. Thanks to Brendan and also to the hosts for giving me an opportunity to crossword blog (and digress) again!
Phew! I was anticipating a very hard puzzle but the editors saved this one for today because this Friday is the 13th. Brendan found lots of ways to reference 13 in this puzzle, which was lots of fun. My favorites were 4d, 21d, and 15d for the misdirection.
I was also pleased to see Rodin make an appearance, so I could call out the Rodin Museum here on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which is our avenue of museums. It’s the only museum outside France dedicated to his works. Philly is underappreciated as an art town: everyone thinks it’s just the Rocky statue, but besides the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and its annex) we also have the legendary Barnes Institute, which is the most concentrated collection of masterworks you’ll ever see. Be sure to make time for it if you come to Philadelphia.
On to today’s clues and solutions!
Across
| 1a | ALPHABETISING | Way to produce order using 26 characters helping a bit as arranged (13)
*HELPING A BIT AS (anagram indicated by “arranged”) Thanks to Crispy @6 for the correction. |
| 10a | OUTBACK | Both parts of return trip in remote region (7)
OUT + BACK (two legs of a return trip) |
| 11a | TWELFTH | Some flight flew there, returning before 13th (7)
<fligh_T FLEW T_here< (hidden word indicated by “some,” reversal indicated by “returning”) |
| 12a | THEFT | Taking one of London’s papers (5)
THE + FT (Financial Times, a paper familiar to solvers!) |
| 13a | RE-ENACTOR | Person taking part in historical pageants? Not to be confused with career (2-7)
*NOT + CAREER (anagram indicated by “to be confused”) |
| 14a | CHILD | French cookery expert, one of 13, possibly (5)
Julia Child, famous TV chef (and wartime intelligence analyst too) |
| 16a | SLIDE RULE | Line written in regret after another splits party – that can speed up division (5,4)
S(L)IDE RU(L)E (L [line] inserted in SIDE [party] + RUE [regret]) |
| 18a | REGROWING | For instance, din in arena is on the rise again (9)
R(EG + ROW)ING EG (“for instance”) + ROW (“din”) contained in (“in”) RING (“arena) |
| 19a | RODIN | Frenchman who sculpted river god (5)
R (“river”) + ODIN (“God”) |
| 20a | LORDLIEST | I strolled haphazardly, like most aristocratic types (9)
*ISTROLLED (anagram indicated by haphazardly) |
| 23a | VIRUS | Cause for complaint from man in Latin America (5)
VIR (man in Latin) + US (America) |
| 24a | NAMABLE | Mediterranean islander backed as OK for nomination (7)
<ELBA + MAN< (“mediterranean islander,” reversal indicated by “backed”) |
| 25a | RED CARD | Punishment for player, one of 26 (3,4)
Double definition, reference to a deck of cards |
| 26a | ROUGH DIAMONDS | Trump listened to group of 13 unsophisticated types (5,8)
RUFF (homophone indicated by “listened to”) + DIAMONDS (“group of 13,” also a reference to cards) |
Down
| 2d | LETTERING | Allowing to capture queen – writing on wall, perhaps (9)
LETTING (“allowing”) containing (“to capture”) ER (“queen”) |
| 3d | HEART | Middle one of 13 (5)
Double definition, and another playing card reference |
| 4d | BAKER | One of three sea-going tradesmen who understates 13? (5)
Nursery rhyme reference: three men in a tub: the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. The 13 is a reference to a “baker’s dozen.” |
| 5d | TETHERING | Securing 13 at sixes and sevens? Good (9)
*THIRTEEN + G (anagram indicated by “at sixes and sevens”) |
| 6d | SHED A TEAR | Apparently was moved from hut over a rent (4,1,4)
SHED (hut) + A (†) + TEAR (rent) |
| 7d | NO-FAT | Kind of diet contributing to reduction of a tummy (2-3)
reductio_N OF A T_ummy |
| 8d | SOUTH CAROLINA | Shout out and sing in a part of US – one of 13 colonies (5,8)
*SHOUT (anagram indicated by “out”) + CAROL (“sing”) + IN A (†) |
| 9d | THIRTEEN A SIDE | Like some Rugby matches I attend here, is mishandled (8-1-4)
*I ATTEND HERE IS (anagram indicated by “mishandled”) |
| 15d | DOODLEBUG | Setter, for example, including double anagram for old weapon (9)
DOG (“setter, for example”) containing *DOUBLE (anagram indicated directly!) The weapon referred to was the V1 “buzz bomb.” New one to me: I know of the doodlebug as a little railway carriage. |
| 16d | SWINEHERD | Farm worker has drink in piece of pottery (9)
WINE (“drink”) contained in (“in”) SHERD (“piece of pottery”) |
| 17d | UNDERHAND | Less than 13 given to bidder? That’s dishonest (9)
Cryptic definition: I parse this as a reference to bridge, where each player is dealt 13 cards. |
| 21d | ROMEO | One of 26 on radio, partnered with one of 13 (5)
NATO phonetic alphabet, the partner is Juliet |
| 22d | TERRA | Land part of Peter Rabbit (5)
peTER RAbbit (hidden word indicated by “part of”) |
| 23d | VIDEO | Record second half for South American city (5)
monteVIDEO (capital of Uruguay, omission of first five letters indicated by “second half”) |
Apologies to those waiting to comment–I didn’t know I had to open the post to comments. Have at it!
Thanks Brendan and Braze
Some of the 13s I still don’t understand. Why does the BAKER “understate 13”? Why is Juliet in 21d a 13? I didn’t see why CHILD was a 13 either, but that was explained on the Guardian site.
Favourite LOI VIRUS.
Thank you, Braze, for the blog – and for the info about the attractions of Philadelphia 🙂 – and to Brendan for yet another intriguing and creative puzzle. Lest there be doubt about ’13’ references in 14A and 21D, they both indicate age (of children) – Juliet was 13, nearly 14.
Thanks for stepping in Braze. Much appreciated.
Thanks for stepping in Braze. Much appreciated.
Hi Braze. Thanks for the blog. You need AS as part of the angriest for ALPHABETISING, otherwise it doesn’t work. The indicator is simply “arranged”
Thanks for the blog. I really enjoyed this puzzle and all the different ways that Brendan used his theme. I missed both the references in 14a and 21d so thanks for the explanations. I’d forgotten that Juliet was so young.
Muffin. A “Baker’s Dozen” is 13. So if a baker states dozen he is understating 13. Possibly?
This capped off a nice week of relatively easy solves for me (considering there’s usually at least one cryptic a week that completely baffles me), still gave up on a couple here but the parsing was fair. The only one I’m still somewhat stumped by is 14, I did not register the chef reference at first (only knowing that she was a chef and not in a particular cuisine) but am still struggling to understand how the second part relates to the answer. Best I can guess is that someone could be one of 13 children, but that seems quite weak. And since she was born in 1912 I’m not sure how it could relate to her age? Unless I’m misunderstanding what you meant @3 judygs?
Smudgekent#8 I’d say definitely!
Thanks, Smudgekent @8. Beat me to it.
I get a buzz when I see Brendan’s name, as I know I’m probably in for a theme-based masterclass and this didn’t disappoint. My favourites were NAMABLE, THETHERING (6+7 =13), VIRUS, VIDEO and ROUGH DIAMONDS. I don’t understand the reference to 13 in CHILD. You gotta love his puzzles
Ta Brendan & a warm welcome to Braze.
Very clever as always from Brendan. As well as anything else, there are of course THIRTEEN letters A SIDE in the answers around the edge. I particularly liked LORDLIEST, for the clever “like most aristocratic types” which misleadingly suggests “like the majority of aristocratic types” but really means “like the types that are most aristocratic”. Also VIRUS for the clever “Latin American”. But plenty of other ticks.
Many thanks Brendan and Braze, and welcome to the latter.
Sen#9 ‘… one of 13, possibly’ = a person aged 13 = a child.
Wonderful puzzle. I didn’t parse ‘child’ – as with the best clues, so obvious when you know the answer … .
I really enjoyed this and got stuck into it last night with 1a going straight in and then after spotting the theme got through over half before realising it was very late. I particularly liked how none of the references to 13 were to the clue/answer for 13a.
The last few took quite a while today but I got there in the end. I’ll confess I needed a word search to solve the stragglers. I was looking for ‘cuine’ to be French slang for a master chef before PDM with Julia Child.
In 26a I didn’t know ‘ruff’ as to trump in cards and was thinking along lines of flatulence. 21d ROMEO held me up for a while too before some Googling revealed/reminded me that Juliet was depicted as 13yo.
For 8d I parsed the definition as including ‘part of US’ otherwise those words seem redundant. In the blog for 11a the H of flight should be capitalised. Agree 17d is a reference to contract bridge.
Many thanks to Braze for the blog (and Philadelphia tips!) and Brendan for the puzzle. Wishing everyone a lucky day!
@15 judygs Aha, thanks – seems so obvious when you point it out. Thankfully seems like I’m not the only to have overlooked such an obvious parsing, so I don’t feel quite so silly as I might have…
Thanks for the attempts to explain the “understates” in 4d, but there’s nothing that refers to “dozen” in the clue, and if it is assumed it is a baker’s dozen it is 13, not an understatement.
Thanks Braze, and firstly I hope all is well with Eileen.
I thought this was classic Brendan: inventive and challenging (but not excessively) with a 13/26 theme appearing throughout the clues in different guises, appropriate for today’s date.
I didn’t really get either part of CHILD (the 13 or the cookery expert); hadn’t heard of SHERD before (or if I have it was probably on this site, but I have forgotten it, being myself old enough to be discovered in an archaeological dig like an ancient piece of pottery).
I was also defeated by ROMEO’s partner Juliet being “one of 13”, and could’t quite see why the FT is one of “London’s papers”, as I’m sure I’ve seen it on sale here in Brighton.
But overall, lots of fun clues, with favourites perhaps SHED A TEAR, RED CARD and OUTBACK.
Thanks to B&B.
Sorry muffin @20, I don’t follow you. A BAKER “understates 13” because he or she describes it as a dozen, as in a baker’s dozen. Quite amusing I thought.
Impressive that Shakespeare knew that Juliet had a Scrabble score of 13.
Lord Jim @22
But a “baker’s dozen” is 13, so not 13 understated. Someone else’s dozen would be “understated 13”, but not a baker’s!
I was thinking of the Hunting of thecSnark for the baker, but Braze has it right
A Brendan puzzle is always a delight. VIRUS is brilliant; other favourites include NAMABLE, LORDLIEST and BAKER (which I couldn’t parse but, when explained, liked a lot). Thanks a lot Brendan, and Braze and others here who helped explain the parsing
Thanks Brendan for a cleverly themed crossword. Many of the clues were very satisfying with my favourites being VIRUS, SHED A TEAR, NO-FAT, and SOUTH CAROLINA. I found the SW the most difficult portion of the puzzle and I felt a few of the words reflected a bit of ‘grid-fill panic’. I guess that’s the trade-off in a heavily themed crossword so I won’t complain. Thanks Braze for the blog and for promoting Philadelphia’s art scene. [BTW, if you like beer and Belgian style food Monk’s cafe is a must.]
According to onelook.com, apparently CHILD is also the thirteenth Lenormand card in cartomancy.
??
Lovely puzzle with lateral use of a topical theme and some clever misdirections, enveloped in some splendid surfaces. Favourites : SLIDE RULE, VIRUS, SWINEHERD.
CHILD was my LOI: I took the clue to read ‘cookery expert from France’ until I realised it should be read as ‘expert in French cookery’ (like the misdirection in the clue for LORDLIEST which Lord Jim @14 observes).
Many thanks to B&B – have a cheese steak on me
muffin@20: If this baker packages a loaf he/she will put in 13 slices to avoid any risk of being accused of underselling. If asked how many slices there are in the loaf the baker will say ‘a dozen’. Hence ‘understating’, no?
(Just seen I am echoing Lord Jim’s comment, sorry)
Buddy@24 I wish there was a “Like” button on this site! Brilliant!
I was initially held back by trying to link the “13” references to 13ac, but soon got the hang of it. I was completely oblivious to today actually being Friday 13th till I came here, so the appositeness of the theme passed me by while solving.
Thanks Braze and various commenters for the enlightenment on why CHILD is a “13”; I’d not heard of Julia Child (famous TV chef) before, so it was a bung-and-hope for me.
I very much liked all the variations on 13-ness (dekatriacism?) in the long clues on the edges.
I still have my British Thornton SLIDE RULE. It’s labelled on its case as “‘DTS’, X13 Queens’ “, so I must have still been using it at University – in fact I now remember having the scale all visible at once was very useful in “on sight” indexing of X-ray diffraction data.
SLIDE RULE is also the title of Neville Shute’s autobiography, relating to his time as a “calculator”, as one of the many such doing the design calculations for the R100 and R101 airships – yes, using slide rules. Worth reading.
Thanks Brendan and Braze, and hoping Eileen is on the mend.
Ah, Doodlebugs.
Only 80 years since the Flying Robots attacked London, and already, we forget.
But I must keep from droning on…
A Baker hands me 13 buns. How many buns are there, Mr. Baker? A dozen. [which for the rest of us is less than 13, hence understated] Great puzzle.Sorry others have already made the same point..
[For it is he…]
(I emailed Eileen, who is back at home. Her convalescence seems to be going well and she hopes to be back blogging in a few weeks’ time)
Ah. No comments were up when I posted (me@21), and a quick peruse of those who got in ahead of me has answered most of my queries.
CHILD being “one of 13” is a definite smack my head moment, and a quick google of the esteemed cookery expert of the same name reveals that although American (which I knew), she was an expert in French cookery (which I didn’t): nice deception. Now I understand what Brendan was up to, that is actually another favourite clue.
I try to ignore the fact that Shakespeare’s Juliet was 13: yikes! Absolutely no connection whatsoever to Trump turning up in the same puzzle.
muffin @20: as I understand it, if asked for a dozen loaves or whatever, the baker historically gave 13, in order to escape a flogging (the punishment for selling underweight bread: different times). Thus, if the baker said “here’s a dozen” while offering 13, it was an understatement. Neither the butcher nor candlestick maker operated in such a way, and “baker’s dozen” meaning 13 is well known. I don’t think the clue needs a reference to “dozen”: 13 and baker are enough
When I started cooking, for a couple of years I had only two cookery books – Good Housekeeping and Julia Child et al.. It wasn’t until I acquired more that I realised what an unusual book the latter was.
Not convinced about the baker!
D the S @33: triskaidekacism is the barbarism you’re looking for!
Outstanding.
It took quite a while to understand some (yeah, ROMEO’s Juliet, I mean you in particular), which was part of the fun. As for the BAKER’s understatement- I did get that one straight away, and it made me laugh aloud!
Also, there was a great penny drop moment when I stopped trying to link to the 13th clue.
I thought the whole puzzle was witty, clever and enormous fun.
Lots of thanks to Braze for the blog.
Late to the party but worth spending time on this one. Like some others, I failed to see the (now) obvious parsing of CHILD, although I didn’t know the chef. My picks were TWELFTH for being nicely hidden, VIRUS for the man in Latin America (I spent ages trying to put an L into the answer), TETHERING and THIRTEEN-A-SIDE for great anagram spots [and the latter referencing the grid].
Thanks Brendan for an entertaining puzzle and Braze for stepping into the breach.
Gervase@36 Thank you for your post – very best wishes to Eileen for a speed recovery.
muffin@38
Let’s try it with muffins…
I visit my local baker and ask for a dozen muffins. The baker (mindful of the firm views of Trading Standards on members of their trade if they are caught underweighing their bread and similar products, and the strict enforcement thereof which involves a dozen or so lashes), deliberately sorts me out 13 and says “here, a dozen of my finest muffins”.
When I get home I count the muffins and realise that the baker’s “dozen” is in fact 13, and that the baker has understated the number supplied.
I enjoy an extra muffin, and the baker escapes a flogging, so everyone wins, except possibly the butcher and candlestick maker who don’t really play a role in this scenario.
[MCourtney@34: it’s when you stop droning on that we should run for cover!
Bobsie-Pie@39: that is quite a barbaric mouthful… I was making something up direct from Greek (thank you, Duo) – I had forgotten, if I ever knew, of that word.]
If you include 13ac as a 13 reference then there are exactly 13 clues that reference 13 in the crossword. Great stuff, very enjoyable
A man named muffin debating a clue involving a baker is worth the entry fee on its own.
The delightful LORDLIEST was my favourite of many fine clues in yet another high class Brendan puzzle.
I was another who couldn’t see the significance of 13 for CHILD and Juliet (who was considered old enough to be married off by her parents, so less of a child then than she would be now). But finding all the other 13s (none of them 13a!) and 26s was good fun, and luckily we had ruff=trump fairly recently so I remembered it.
Welcome Braze and thank you.for the blog. I see from Google that the American “doodlebug” insect is a (non-flying) ant lion larva, which is probably what the railway carriage is named after. Whereas the UK doodlebug is a large clumsy beetle which flies rather inexpertly on warm summer nights and tends to come in through open windows and blunder noisily around the room – and gave its name to the V1 flying bombs. Probably quite a lot of the UK solvers’ parents had stories of their experiences of the things: my mum certainly did.
Nice crossword, and thanks for the blog. Re: a baker’s dozen: if you buy a dozen oysters at a French street market, it’s also normal to be given thirteen (well, I’m going back at least 8 years, so things may have changed) . But they don’t seem to refer to ‘une douzaine du producteur d’huîtres’ but just ’13 à la douzaine’
gladys@47 My mum took me from London to Lancashire to get away from the DOODLEBUGS. When she found that the lodgings she’d booked were in a brothel she brought me straight back again.
The combination of clue and solution in 8d made me think of James P. Johnson’s piano composition Carolina Shout. Anyone else know it?
I am, sadly, still completely baffled by 14a.
The chef’s name was Julia, not Juliet.
AS @51: Any 13-year old, though a teenager, could still be considered a CHILD. Ms Capulet has nothing to do with this one.
Ah. Okay. Thank you. Obvious really.
Perhaps I am more than usually stupid today. Or perhaps I am always this stupid.
Wow what a fun one, honoring a favorite – would we call it a holiday? – of mine. Thanks Brendan and Blaze! Lots to enjoy and some pleasing misdirections, including that 13 never actually indicated 13ac, unless I missed something. 4D was perhaps my favorite.
I’m interested to learn how unknown Julia Child appears to be across the pond — stateside she was a giant in the field (and not referring to her 6 foot height!) She is credited with bringing French cuisine to the US and also, I believe, popularized the concept of a cooking television show—hers was immensely popular and long running. Not to mention the OSS experience Braze noted. I highly recommend her enjoyable book My Life in France if your curiosity is piqued!
There’s a rather sad film called “Julie and Julia” about a young woman (Julie) who attempts to cook all the recipes in Julia’s book. When she completes, Julia refuses to meet her, as I recall. The film was quite popular over here, so might have been a way in. Meryl Streep played Julia.
Like others here I’m always delighted when I see “by Brendan” in the header. This was a gem that even the friggatriskaidekaphobic could enjoy. Many thanks Braze, but a slight nit-pick: are you ignoring the Cantor Arts Center, located at my old stomping grounds?
As an aside, I parsed the Romeo and Juliet clue differently – J or Juliett is part of the NATO alphabet, and J for jack is one of the cards in a suit, so one of 13.
Thank you to Braze and Brendan.
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. I knew who Julia Child was, and had no trouble with the baker’s dozen. I had forgotten that Juliet was only 13, but that didn’t matter.
My lack of knowledge of certain card games meant that although I got Underhand from the crossers I didn’t fully understand the clue. And I had no idea about “ruff”, so how the current US president = Rough was a complete puzzle to me.
Thank you Braze. Enjoyed the info on Philly. I don’t get the romeo partner juliet being one of thirteen. What is the one of thirteen? And why on the radio?
About Julia Child; as I said back at me@33, not someone I’d heard of: I guess the UK equivalent would be Elizabeth David. She wasn’t a TV cook, but her books, which brought Mediterranean cooking to Britain in the pinched post-WW2 years and beyond, were a staple of middle-class kitchens for decades. I think there are probably two or three on our kitchen bookshelves even now.
Kirsty@59: in the NATO phonetic alphabet (26 letters) (used to spell out things in radio communications etc.) , “R” is “Romeo”, J is “Juliett” (Juliet with 2 t’s so as to clarify pronunciation for non-English speakers). Juliet in Romeo and Juliet was 13 years old, so “of (age) thirteen”.
Kirsty@59, DTS@61: Yes, Romeo is R in the NATO alphabet, but his partner isn’t ‘on-the-radio’ NATO alphabet double-T Juliett – Romeo’s partner is simply the 13-year-old Juliet.
#62
Yes, Juliet- pronounced (“on the radio”) Juliett.
I read NO-FAT as a double definition, and got hung up on reduction of tummy, so was it LO-FAT or NO-FAT. When I got 1a after that I realised what the answer was, but I still didn’t see the hidden! I think the whole clue is &littish.
Re UNDERHAND – Calling the clue a cryptic definition suggests that the clue can’t be broken up into “fodder” and “definition”. In this case, the dealer in bridge giving a player not enough cards. But a misdeal is an honest mistake, not a form of cheating. And, BTW, in that scenario, “Less than” should be “Fewer than”.
My parsing was:
“Less than” = UNDER, and “13 given to bidder” = HAND.
Really enjoyed this. Caught the theme fairly early, and it helped a lot. Right off the bat with 1a ALPHABETISING, I was wondering why Brendan gave the game away with “26 characters” when the clue would work without it. It soon became clear!
Couldn’t quite complete the SE corner, with 23a VIRUS (Latin America) and 23d VIDEO (South America) stubbornly holding out, for a dnf
Favourites 10a OUTBACK (“Both parts of return trip”), 12a THEFT (succinct), 20a LORDLIEST (great word), 7d NO-FAT (clever hidden)
Great fun. It’s all been said, so I’ll just add that judygs@52 explains it best IMO (not that I actually twigged how that one worked, nor CHILD, which made me feel rather dense when coming here!); and that I fully agree with TiP@65 in that the surface reading is gramatically flawed if parsed as an CAD and so the clue must instead be interpreted as he suggests (although one can bid in many games, and card players receive 13 cards in many games whether or not they are the current bidder and whether or not it’s a bidding game at all) – so that one made me shrug slightly.
Thanks both, and delighted to hear that Eileen’s on the mend.
[gervase@36 – should you email Eileen again, and have some key-tapping to spare, please convey my very best to her
muffin@38 – obduracy is not the most attractive trait!]
Blessed Brendan banishes boredom beautifully and brilliantly…. as always!
Mostly a breeze even though I didn’t get all the ’13’ references and had no idea of the date…but I find that’s common in retirement. A particular shout-out to SLIDE RULE and ROUGH DIAMONDS…
John Caird was a 19th-century author known for “The Complete Confectioner and Family Cook” – one in 13 (cards).
All because I couldn’t parse Child! And hadn’t heard of her. Was she really only thirteen?
Paul Chandler@70 Not sure if your final question is serious! But if it is: Julia Child was the French cookery expert, and a person aged 13 is a CHILD.
I agree with Terry@65 about the parsing of UNDERHAND – that was how I saw it too.
And pace William@68 I agree with Muffin. If any baker is known to always give you 13 of anything when a dozen are requested, then when a baker states “there you are, a dozen oatcakes” the recipient knows that 13 are meant, so there is no understating going on at all.
Anyway, thanks, Brendan and thanks to the zebra with two twists, too.
Re baker’s dozen, it would only have become a term per se once it became common knowledge that if you asked a baker for a dozen items you would be given thirteen.
Ergo, until it became a term per se bakers would have been understating thirteen for an unknown number of years.
1. Rather gives the solvers age range away when no one complains of not knowing SLIDE RULE 😄 (and yes, I still have mine in a drawer somewhere)
2. I only know of Julia Child from a rather good series about her on Primevideo starring our own Sarah Lancashire of Happy Valley fame
3. I always thought bakers made 13 cake/loaves etc. in case one went wrong so you could still have a dozen in hand.
Loved the puzzle though
It’s been a while since I’ve attempted one of these. Just finished on Sunday morning. Great puzzle!
That’s interesting, MinG @74. I thought that if anyone outside the US had heard of Julia Child it would likely have been via Meryl Streep’s 2009 portrayal.
Was not quite sure what was going on with all the ‘one of 13’ clues. I could not parse 14ac (I know of Julia Child but I didn’t understand the one of 13 bit), and also 21d.
New for me: DOODLEBUG.