Thanks to Yank for a Good Friday puzzle.
Not a particularly American flavour, except perhaps for the instrument at 22a and the biscuit at 24d, but a couple of European references with a German film and “pastry”.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | HALF HITCH | Knot tied in less-than-committed marriage? (4,5) In an uncommitted marriage you might be only HALF HITCHed |
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| 6 | MEDOC | Wine tossed back during Cinco de Mayo (5) Hidden in reverse of cinCO DE Mayo |
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| 9 | LEANT | Favoured dictator’s time to give up (5) Homophone of “lent” (a time to give up vices or luxuries), and if you favour somemthing you lean towards it |
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| 10 | CHICKPEAS | Spooner’s to opt for dairy product, hummus ingredient (9) Spoonerism of “pick cheese” |
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| 11 | ORAL HEALTH | It requires brushing hale harlot off (4,6) (HALE HARLOT)* |
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| 12 | ASHE | Legendary court figure that was seen all over Herculaneum, reportedly (4) Homophone of “ash”, which covered Herculaneum and Pompeii, and tennis player Arthur Ashe |
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| 14 | SUTURES | Repairs ruptured uterus, opening surgically (7) UTERUS* + S[uture] |
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| 15 | DEADPAN | Without expression: ‘Improv rock band is dreadful’? (7) The Grateful Dead were famous for improvising in live performances, so such a criticism could be a DEAD PAN |
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| 17 | TARTARS | Two turncoats left skinhead’s horde once (7) RAT (turncoat) reversed (to the left) + the “head” of Skin |
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| 19 | DINE OUT | Geraint’s beloved returns to South Central to visit restaurant? (4,3) Reverse of ENID (legendary lover of Geraint) + the centre of sOUTh |
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| 20 | ROAN | Dappled horse in river, did you say? (4) Homophone of “Rhone” |
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| 22 | SOUSAPHONE | Tosspot taking up a largely synthesised instrument (10) A PHON[y] (synthesised) in SOUSE (drinker, tosspot) |
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| 25 | CIGARILLO | Garlic oil turned into smoke (9) (GARLIC LIL)* |
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| 26 | TENOR | Singer, major part of Ronettes’ comeback (5) Hidden in reverse of RONETtes |
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| 27 | LASSO | Young lady with not a single way to catch horse (5) LASS + O (zero, not a single) |
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| 28 | NOTORIETY | Ugly tie picked up by avowed liberal getting unwanted attention (9) TIE* in NO TORY (avowed liberal) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | HELLO | Conclusion of Moor’s pick-up line? (5) The ending of otHELLO (the Moor of Venice) |
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| 2 | LEAD ACTOR | Star of heavy metal, needing no introduction or finale: Plant (4,5) LEAD (a heavy metal) + [f]ACTOR[y] |
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| 3 | HIT THE ROAD | To begin journey, addled Edith Wharton losing direction, first and last (3,3,4) Anagram of EDITH WHARTON, less the initial and final W and N from the surname |
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| 4 | TIC TACS | AI trade-off in methodology producing sweets (3,4) TACTICS (methodology) with the A and I swapped or “traded off” |
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| 5 | HOISTED | Picked up off-site, collected by brick-and-mortar tool (7) SITE* in HOD (bricklayer’s carrying device) |
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| 6 | MOKE | Equine owned by Jomo Kenyatta (4) Hidden in joMO KEnyatta |
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| 7 | DIETS | Legislatures, losing propositions (5) Double definition: diets are ways of losing weight |
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| 8 | CASHEW NUT | Johnny, you and I stand on head for snack item? (6,3) CASH (Johnny Cash, singer) + reverse of WE (you and I) + NUT (head) |
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| 13 | SAINT PETER | Ten pirates slaughtered early Pope (5,5) (TEN PIRATES)* |
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| 14 | SATIRICAL | Like Swift, awfully racialist (9) RACIALIST*, with Swift being the satirical writer of Gulliver’s Travels etc |
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| 16 | PRONOUNCE | I, for one, pursued by religious institution, say (9) PRONOUN (of which “I” is an example) + CE (Church of England) |
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| 18 | STOLLEN | Laptop dropped into hot pastry (7) The top of Lap in STOLEN (hot). Stollen is more a bread than a pastry, I would say |
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| 19 | DAS BOOT | Turning Down Wellington: movie with sub-plot? (3,4) Reverse of SAD (down) + BOOT (Wellington). Das Boot is a film about a German U-boat, so it has a “sub[marine] plot” |
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| 21 | ARGUS | Guardian is sugar-free (5) SUGAR* |
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| 23 | EARLY | Primitive, like a peer? (5) A peer could be EARL-Y |
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| 24 | OREO | Biscuit switcheroo (4) Another lift-and-separate to give an anagram (“switch”) of EROO |
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Mostly unchallenging, but failed on TARTARS – having assumed the Tarbacs must be some historical horde with shaven heads, that I’d not heard of before. Also didn’t parse TICTACS though it’s obvious now I see it. I’m pretty sure I’d have got both of these with a bit more thought, but to be honest I wasn’t very inspired by this puzzle – maybe it’s just me – I’ve liked previous Yank offerings.
STOLLEN is indeed technically a bread, but if slices were on sale in a coffee shop I think they’d qualify as ‘pastries’.
Favourites PRONOUNCE, DAS BOOT.
Thanks Andrew and Yank.
Thanks Yank and Andrew!
Liked CHICKPEAS, DEADPAN, TIC-TACS and DAS BOOT.
Beaulieu @1. It wasn’t just you. Can’t put my finger on it, but something just didn’t quite work for me with this. I agree about the stollen. It’s not pastry, but a slice would be A pastry.
A very enjoyable Good Friday puzzle. Thanks Andrew for the parsing of SOUSAPHONE, which I was stuck on, having tangled myself in thinking UP A must feature in an anagram of something or other… I was also initially puzzled by parsing of LEANT, not helped by misreading ‘dictator’ as ‘director’ and going down a David Lean-related rabbit hole. Hey ho. Thanks to Yank for the fun.
HALF HITCH
I think it’s a cryptic (whimsical) def. If we take it as a DD, the second one
seems to face a part-of-speech mismatch.
I thought PRONOUNCE was very good and DAS BOOT, whilst an unconvincing surface, has a delightful definition. Same faves as @1. The puzzle felt quite anagram-heavy, particularly in the lower half.
Thanks both
Sub-plot! 🙂 Worth all the hard work on the others! TYVM, Y and A.
Very tough puzzle.
Favourites: CHICKPEAS, ASHE, DAS BOOT, NOTORIETY, STOLLEN, HELLO.
New for me: ENID = Geraint’s beloved (19ac); SOUSAPHONE.
Re 15ac it took me a while to work out that it was a reference to the Grateful Dead. I don’t know their music at all and cannot name a single song or album!
I needed to come here to find out why it was HELLO (but obvious now) and how you got SOUSAPHONE, tosspot being SOUSE wasn’t something that I considered.
Thanks Yank and Andrew
Eleven question marks – near record!
I tried LAVA at 12a first (Rod Laver), but I would have complained about it if it had been right.
PRONOUNCE my favourite too.
[TIC TACS reminds me of the apocryphal David Beckham – England football captain – story. Being interviewed before a match, he said “They’re small and minty, and Victoria says they have less than a calorie each”.
The manager intervenes “I asked you to talk about tactics, David”]
Quite easy for me, but share the opinions of @1 and @3. Never thought I’d see DAS BOOT as an answer in a crossword. Best submarine film ever. Liked NOTORIETY.
Found this easier than I usually find Yank but still a challenge. Certainly a Guardian crossword and a few clues had to be read a few times to see where I had to split the words.
Liked TIC TACS and the sub-plot of DAS BOOT gave me a chuckle.
Thanks Yank and Andrew.
I’m also with the thoughts at @1 @3 etc. It must be a wavelength thing. I thought TICTACS clever, not having seen it before, and DAS BOOT definitely my favourite.
Interesting that people came here for parsings of several different answers, not just the more usual one or two. Many of us seem to have missed something different.
Thank you to both
Blog on 25, typo in GARLIC OIL anagram I think. Obvious, but you might want to fix it. Fun crossword
Michelle @ 8 “Re 15ac it took me a while to work out that it was a reference to the Grateful Dead. I don’t know their music at all and cannot name a single song or album!”
See me after school 😉
After HALF HITCH and LEANT, I thought we were going to have a film directors theme, after I also like moh @4, misread dictator. My favourite by far was the superb DAS BOOT followed by PRONOUNCE. I also liked Pope and Swift in consecutive clues, which surely can’t be coincidental. Couldn’t parse SOUSAPHONE, so thanks for that. DEADPAN was a good effort but it just doesn’t work for me.
Ta Yank & Andrew.
Sometimes, after a run of uninspiring offerings with word-salad clues and drearily over-convoluted parsings, I find myself wondering if there are fashions in crosswords: if, with the likes of Nutmeg and Rufus long gone, it’s now the Ludwig-style that has taken precedence and perhaps I should focus on other intellectual diversions.
And then today’s crossword comes along – and I remember why I enjoy doing them.
DAS BOOT is a little cracker! There are several other beauties in there, too – but that one wins the rosette. (Jaw-droppingly brilliant TV series, as well.)
Thank you very much Yank, for restoring my faith – and thank you Andrew for help finishing the parsing of SOUSAPHONE and DEAD PAN.
Like muffin, I thought of Lava for ASHE. I suppose the other Americanism is “avowedly liberal” for No Tory. Nice clue, though.
Nice one. Quite a lot of anagrams, as PostMark noted, but they are all good ones, as is the Spooner clue. I’ll join in the praise for PRONOUNCE and DAS BOOT.
I don’t have an issue with STOLLEN being ‘pastry’: products of sweet yeasted dough are definitely pâtisserie – Danish pastry, anyone?
Thanks to Yank and Andrew
Held up by 1a, which so clearly had to be OPEN HITCH until it just as clearly couldn’t be.
I don’t think LEANT=favoured really works. ‘I favoured … ‘ would be ‘I leant towards … ‘
Aside from those, I enjoyed this. TICTACS made me smile.
poc @20: you took the words right or of my tablet. I failed to find a sentence where LEANT and favoured can be interposed.
Plenty of inventive clues elsewhere to enjoy, though.
Comment #22
Yesterday’s Brummie left me cold – I started revealing answers quite quickly – but I persevered today and was pleased to finish. I was grateful for the anagrams and liked HALF-HITCH, DAS BOOT (in my head for some reason though I’ve not seen it) and OREO (clever). I do know the Grateful Dead but wouldn’t have made the connection.
Maybe because I’m a Yank too, this was a fast solve. Moke is a new word for me, but clear from the cluing.
I found this very enjoyable, with lots of fun surfaces and clever parsings. For once I was in tune with the lift and separates, and the difficulty level was about right for me. However, it does seem to have divided opinions.
I failed to parse SOUSAPHONE and see I’m not alone in that. And I shrugged at the parts-of-speech mismatch in 9A and moved on.
Thank you Yank and Andrew.
Some GK needed for this; I DNK moke, ENID and ARGUS, but got there in the end. I liked Spooner’s CHICKPEAS, the Liberal’s ugly tie in NOTORIETY, the AI producing TIC TACS, the HOISTED tool, I for one who can PRONOUNCE, and DAS BOOT, although this might have been difficult if you didn’t know the movie with a sub-plot.
Thanks Yank and Andrew.
The initial capital.in Plant (2 down) is presumably a reference to Robert, a star of heavy metal with Led Zeppelin, although he’s into gentler sounds these days.
Thanks for the blog. I couldn’t parse sousaphone, not helped by usually spelling phoney with an e, but had never even heard of the instrument. How would non-Americans be familiar with it? A movie, a tv show, a song even, something from pop culture?
Lots of clues and answers to like, not all that happy,though, with the PHON(Y) in SOUSAPHONE and despite being an old Deadhead not convinced by the answer to 15ac.
brandom @28
You have probably seen a sousaphone, even if you didn’t know what it was called. It’s the large brass instrument the player has essentially to wear! It’s seen in marching bonds on this side of the Atalantic too.
Me @30
I added the last sentence as a last-minute edit, and didn’t have time to correct it. It should of course read:
It’s seen in marching bands on this side of the Atlantic too
Brandon @28 the character Dwight in the TV series Fame played a sousaphone, although the actor David Greenlee couldn’t really play and had to, well, act.
Had the same thoughts as muffin@10, but even after the fact think ASH to ASHE versus LAVA to LAVER is a remarkable parallel.
“Dictator gives up favoured time” gives LENT (LENIN – IN + T). The wonders of wordplay!
But seriously, isn’t there a missing preposition when equating “favoured” to LEANT (the blog uses “towards”) – I just saw poc@20 noted the same thing.
This was Dead good, sort of “Workingman’s” level rather than the full “American Beauty”, but perfectly satisfactory. Geraint and Enid being an item was today’s addition to the list of things crosswords have taught me.
“Sub-plot” was worth the price of admission on its own.
Thanks Yank, and you Andrew.
The only one I couldn’t parse was HELLO. I liked several of the clues but held myself up for a while with a typo in PRONOUNCE. That one stood out along with HIT THE ROAD, NOTORIETY and the popular DAS BOOT.
Thanks all.
Despite some helpful anagrams, this was well my pay grade. And like Claret and Aoxomoxoa, I would never pan the Dead.
I’ve now read a synopsis of the tale of Geraint and Enid as it was new to me, thanks for the introduction Yank.
I parsed sousaphone as sous (chef) = one who tosses pots, a from the surface and phone(y).
Fun trot out for a Bank Holiday.
I too got (Rod) Laver stuck on my mind for 12ac.
As a massive “Deadhead” I am ashamed to say that I completely missed the Grateful Dead connection at 15ac. Got it through the “crossers”.
Always love a Spoonerism clue. Fave of the day.
Thanks Andrew and Yank.
It really didn’t help that I misread dictator as director in the clue for LEANT, and spent time trying to force David Lean to be part of the answer. But then I found my glasses.
(I see I wasn’t the only one).
I’m struggling to understand what “direction” is doing in 3d. I interpreted it as EDITH WHARTON losing the start and end of DirectioN, rather than losing WhartoN
LobsterDarts @40.
I guess W and N are both directions (west and north to be precise); they are the first and last of Wharton, and both are lost before undertaking the anagram with what remains.
I enjoyed this, not something I can often say for a Friday puzzle.
Favourites already mentioned but a special mention for the movie sub-plot.
Only real problem was the Led Zeppelin rabbit hole I fell into for far too long until the penny finally dropped
Thanks to Y and A.
Aoxomoxoa@15 Do you want me as well?
Enjoyed this more than I expected, having been unimpressed by some earlier Yank puzzles.
I loved the “AI trade-off” trick in 4d, and I’m in the 19d fan club although I’ve never seen the TV series.
I couldn’t parse SOUSAPHONE and, seeing the blog, I’m not surprised.
Failed on TARTARS, although it’s obvious when you see it.
As for 15a, even if you were wanting to roast the band, the order / wordplay doesn’t really work for me (nice to see so many Dead fans here, though).
28a: I quite enjoyed ‘No Tory’ for ‘avowed liberal’, didn’t occur as especially American.
Cheers Yank and Andrew.
Pretty nice puzzle. As well as the clear winner DAS BOOT, I liked LEAD ACTOR and NOTORIETY.
Quite surprised OREO didn’t meet howls of rage. Are they common in Britain now?
Btw, the blog entry for SUTURES should, I think, be UTERUS* + S[urgically]. Also enjoyed Garlic Lil, who no doubt sleeps peacefully even in Transylvania 😃.
Thanks, Yank and Andrew.