Anyone would think there was some sort of election happening today…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 6 | U in (WHINED BLATHERED)* – RED WHITE AND BLUE. |
| 9 | PALIN[-g] – got this from “candidate” (and the appearance of all the others in the grid) as I couldn’t see what “stakes nearly all” was. Paling is an upright stake or board in a fence. |
| 10 | IS,IX in (LOUV[-re])* – LOUIS XIV. Tricky one to work out; once I had L???S filled in I guessed LOUIS and worked back from there. |
| 11 | hidden in “beatEN FOR CERtain” – Harry Callahan meant nothing to me but I spotted the hidden word once I had some letters filled in. At which point I guessed it might be “Dirty Harry” (the Clint Eastwood character), which Googling later confirmed. |
| 15 | PA,(VOX MUSIC B)* – PAX VOBISCUM, or peace be with you. |
| 19 | M[-c]CCA,IN – somebody else you might have heard about recently. |
| 20 | SOR(CE,R)ER |
| 22 | D,M in (NOT ONE)* – EDMONTON. |
| 24 | BI(D)EN – 12’s running mate. |
| 26 | ER in (MAINTAIN CAVES)* – NATIVE AMERICANS. |
| Down | |
| 1 | DESPOND – the Slough of Despond is a deep bog in the Pilgrim’s Progress. |
| 2 | O in (LAW)* – AWOL. |
| 3 | PICNIC – sounds like “pick nick” (a ref to Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader) |
| 4 | (QUESTI[-o]NS)* – INQUESTS. |
| 5 | I(B,I)S |
| 7 | I in (RUMPUS BLUE UN)* – E PLURIBUS UNUM (“Out of many, one”), a motto found on the Seal of the 8/13. |
| 8/13 | UNI,(TEST DATES)* – UNITED STATES. |
| 12 | OB,AM,A |
| 14 | A,M(US)E |
| 17 | A[-r]CADIA – I’d never heard of this before but it was easy enough to solve from the wordplay with a couple of letters in place. |
| 18 | LEONINE – which can mean “lionlike”, and the British rugby team are known as the Lions. Not sure why it’s “using words” though… |
| 21 | R,R in (TO BE)* – ROBERT. |
| 23 | OHIO – take out RAT from HORATIO and move the O to the front. |
| 25 | DICK – guessed this but I don’t know why it’s right. DICK Cheney is the current VP of the 8/13 but I’m not sure if that’s what the clue is referring to. Don’t understand the FBI reference also. |
I enjoyed this one. I’m similarly confused by 18d.
However, the online version had four missing apostrophes! Some were obvious Canadas for Canada’s but some were initially confusing candidates for candidate’s.
Oh, and it it worth pointing out the Radian has definitely put an X next to Obama.
I did wonder if the few exes meant more.
25d DICK is slang for detective and so a member of the FBI. I think you are right with the Dick Cheney part.
18d The eleventh-century pope was Leo IX which, ‘using words’, becomes LEO NINE.
Minor point: I thought in UNI TED STATES, it was not an anagram but TEST and DATES overlapping.
neildubya: there’s a small typo in 19a (“-c” for “-e”)
It’s great to have this topical theme 🙂
I was enjoying the puzzle enormously until two clues before end accidentally navigating away from the page and losing everything, which probably happens once every three or four times I use the applet instead of buying the paper. At least this is easy to fix…
The online version has now been fixed. It’s all to do with curly apostrophes. Some setters provide copy containing these, but they disappear in the web versions. I change these to straight apostrophes, but in this case Radian supplied a few amended clues which I cut and pasted in, complete with curly apostrophes.
Thanks for the explanation Eimi. I get the same when people submit stuff for my running club website except it usually shoes up as an easily spotted symbol. I blame Microsoft.
Eimi, is there any chance that there will be an easily printable version on the website in the near future? I’m sure many of us would really appreciate it. Thanks for all your work in making the Independent crossword so consistently enjoyable.
Had to be a USA08 themed puzzle really, so I guessed it would be Radian (or Virgilius). Found some of it pretty tough going though, I must admit.
If you’ve never seen it, today is as good a day as any to revisit one of the all-time puzzle classics:
http://barelybad.com/xwdthemes_110596.htm
Thanks for your kind comments, Mhl. I have no say in whether the crosswords are available in a different format. I was able to respond to requests to put the setter’s name and number in the puzzle, but that was only achieved by hijacking the “Across” line.
I don’t think it’s a secret that the Independent has the lowest circulation of all the ‘quality’ papers and in a difficult financial environment I’m sure they’d lose more paper sales by making the crossword available in an easily printable format. Perhaps it might be possible to go along the subscription route of the Times and Telegraph.
The best advice I can give is to ask those responsible for making the decisions. If they are aware of the demand something may be done.
Thanks for your reply, Eimi – I quite see the problem.