A surprisingly approachable offering from Gemelo this week.
See Matthew@1 regarding the theme, which I missed completely.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PRINCESS |
Slate size of incorporated jam sandwiches (8)
|
| PRESS (jam) around (sandwiches) INC. (incorporated) | ||
| 7 | BOFF |
Slug born into freedom (4)
|
| B (born) + OFF (into freedom) | ||
| 10 | PENNON |
Founder of US state directed towards flag (6)
|
| [William] PENN (founder of US state) + ON (directed towards) | ||
| 11 | STRIPE |
Bar succeeded with moonshine (6)
|
| S (succeeded) + TRIPE (moonshine) | ||
| 12 | ACCRETE |
Join network, needing preliminary acceptance (7)
|
| ACC. (acceptance) + RETE (network), with “needing preliminary” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 14 | ILIA |
Long story short, they’re found in skeletons (4)
|
| ILIA[D] (long story) minus last letter (short) | ||
| 16 | RUNDLES |
Rotten scoundrel not taking care of discs (7)
|
| Anagram of (rotten) S[CO]UNDREL minus (not taking) C/O (care of) | ||
| 17 | MISER |
Scrooge? It’s boring (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | AFFRONTED |
Did insult offend tar at sea? (9)
|
| Anagram of (at sea) OFFEND TAR | ||
| 22 | EEL-SPEARS |
Tools for catching fish; else fresh fruit (9)
|
| Anagram of (fresh) ELSE + PEARS (fruit) | ||
| 26 | NERDY |
Socially inept mass losing head in big city (5)
|
| [H]ERD (mass) minus first letter (losing head) inside (in) NY (big city) | ||
| 28 | SPRAINT |
Otter’s dropping fish; keeping cool (7)
|
| SPRAT (fish) around (keeping) IN (cool) | ||
| 30 | A FEW |
Some restrained by safe word (4, 2 words)
|
| Hidden in (restrained by) [S]AFE W[ORD] | ||
| 31 | GOODMEN |
Husbands no longer extend warning about daughter (7)
|
| GO (extend) + {OMEN (warning) around (about) D (daughter)}, listed in Chambers as “archaic,” thus “no longer” | ||
| 32 | NUTLET |
New means of expression, having lost first stone (6)
|
| N (new) + [O]UTLET (means of expression) minus first letter (having lost first) | ||
| 33 | RAVINE |
Engineers welcoming – after changing bit – Avon Gorge (6)
|
| RE (engineers) around (welcoming) {AV[O]N changing O to I (after changing bit)}, the reference being to the binary digit of computers, which switches between 0 (O) and 1 (I) | ||
| 34 | DISS |
Mock Constantine’s grass (4)
|
| Double definition, the latter referring to the third-largest city in Algeria, after Algiers and Oran | ||
| 35 | RISPETTO |
11 converted to Italian folk song (8)
|
| Anagram of (converted) STRIPE ([solution to] 11[A]) + TO | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | RECLINER |
Take ship’s chair (8)
|
| REC. (take) + LINER (ship) | ||
| 3 | INCUS |
One group of students burying canine’s bone (5)
|
| I + {NUS (group of students) around (burying) C (canine)} | ||
| 4 | COED |
School of fish preserving energy (4)
|
| COD (fish) around (preserving) E (energy) | ||
| 5 | ENTRY FEE |
Watch faceless fairy, ready to come in? (8, 2 words)
|
| [S]ENTRY (watch) minus first letter (faceless) + FÉE (fairy), with “ready” in the sense of “money” | ||
| 6 | STINKO |
Right idiots, rolling drunk (6)
|
| {OK (right) + NITS (idiots)} all inverted (rolling) | ||
| 7 | BRIDE |
Wait outside possibly reading The Woman in White? (5)
|
| BIDE (wait) around (outside) R (possibly reading, in the sense of “the three R’s”) | ||
| 8 | OILLETS |
Painting suffers small holes out of use (7)
|
| OIL (painting) + LETS (suffers), listed in Chambers as “an obsolete form of eyelet,” thus “out of use” | ||
| 9 | FEAST-DAYS |
Primarily faith-based dates, say, to make merry (9)
|
| &lit and anagram of (to make merry) {first letter of (primarily) F[AITH-BASED] + DATES + SAY} | ||
| 13 | RHEA |
Birdbrain lacking help from wings? (4)
|
| &lit and [AI]RHEA[D] (birdbrain) minus (lacking) AID (help) from around the outside (from wings). A very tight clue. | ||
| 15 | AMPERSAND |
What connects, briefly, French physicist & French novelist? (9)
|
| &lit and [André-Marie] AMPÈR[E] (French physicist) minus last letter (briefly) + [George] SAND (French novelist), with the two parts of the wordplay also literally connected by the symbol “&” | ||
| 18 | TRAITORS |
Stroke, roughly, tailless rats (8)
|
| TRAIT (stroke) + OR S[O] (roughly) minus last letter (tailless) | ||
| 19 | HEAD RENT |
Disciple dropping ad revenue for property owner (8, 2 words)
|
| ADHERENT (disciple) moving the letters AD down two places (dropping ad) | ||
| 20 | FLORETS |
Leftovers scrambled without skin from vegetable, maybe some broccoli (7)
|
| Anagram of (scrambled) LEFTO[VE]RS minus (without) outside letters of (skin from) V[EGETABL]E | ||
| 23 | PRIMER |
E.g. 101, right? (6)
|
| &lit and PRIME (e.g. 101, i.e., a prime number) + R (right), “101” also being the customary designation for an introductory-level university course | ||
| 24 | SEED |
Understood non-standard first principle (4)
|
| Double definition, the first listed in Chambers as “non-standard or dialect” for the past tense of “see” | ||
| 25 | BAWLS |
Screechers dropping resistance with no loud cries (5)
|
| BA[RN O]WLS (screechers) minus (dropping) {R (resistance) + NO} | ||
| 27 | REMIT |
What might happen when sleeping with Italian, in brief (5)
|
| REM (what might happen when sleeping) + IT. (Italian) | ||
| 29 | SOAP |
Nothing found in drain cleaner (4)
|
| O (nothing) inside (found in) SAP (drain) |
I didn’t notice until after I had finished solving that this puzzle is a tribute to the recently deceased director ROB REINER who appears in the eighth row and the grid also contains the titles three of his films: (The) PRINCESS BRIDE, MISERY and A FEW GOOD MEN. There is a backwards THE abutting the end of BRIDE which I didn’t count, but I hope I didn’t miss anything else.
It took me a while to understand the clue to RHEA and I didn’t fully appreciate the clues to FEAST-DAYS and AMPERSAND until I was checking I had understood everything at the end . I thought for a while that 25d must be HOWLS which meant I had trouble working out 28a. I suppose if I had spotted the theme earlier it would have been obvious that 25d had to start with a B.
Thanks, Cineraria and Gemelo.