An enjoyable puzzle, mostly straightforward but with a few tricky clues thrown in to the mix.
For the trickier clues I particularly like the way Cinephile picks words and definitions that are not common, but also not too obscure either. The definitions and meanings can be guessed at, the dictionary is used to check the guesses rather than trawling for help. I think this is a skill he has honed to perfection over the years.
My favourite clue was 7 down for the anagram, very clever. Thank you Cinephile.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BUSHBABY | George BUSH with BA (degree) BY – definition is ‘primate’ |
| 5 | STUPID | TUP (male sheep) in SID (Sidney, boy, little=short name) |
| 9 | SEA HORSE | SEA (sounds like “C”, start of Cocaine) with HORSE (heroin, slang) – the genus containing sea horses and other small fish. In this clue ‘to affect’ means ‘to take on the appearance of’. |
| 10 | QUICHE | HE (man) following QUICk (fast) with K (king) missing- definition is ‘food’ |
| 12 | CHUNK | C (one hundred, a number) applied to HUNK (piece larger than a chunk) – definition is ‘solid piece’ |
| 13 | EZRA POUND | RAP inside Englisg ZOUNDS (old oath, singular) – Ezra Weston Loomis Pound, modernist poet |
| 14, 18 | CORPUS DELICTI | (CULTS PERIODIC)* – the legal principle that a crime must be shown to have actually been committed before someone can be found guilty of that crime |
| 16 | WATTEAU | vieW AT TEA Unexpectedly |
| 18 | See 14 | |
| 20 | CARAFE | RA (painter) in CAFE (teashop) |
| 22 | AMBUSCADE | CADE (rebel) on AM (morning) BUS (transport) – |
| 23 | CREDO | RED (revolutionary) in CO (company) |
| 24 | CORBIE | sounds like “Corby”, a former steel making town in Northamptonshire – definitio is ‘raven’ |
| 25 | OPEN PLAN | PEN (write to) inside (PAL ON)* |
| 26 | DAY OFF | OFF DAY (bad time) reversed |
| 27 | TRENCHER | Definition and cryptic definition – a trencher is a old word for a plate or board, and one who digs trenches |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BISECT | (dry) inside BIT (portion) |
| 2 | STATUE OF LIBERTY | EATS OUT (anagram=sadly) and FLIBBERTY (sounds like flibberti which leads to gibbet, a gallows, something for suspension) – definition is ‘free representation’ |
| 3, 4 | BLOCK BUSTERS | Double definition |
| 6 | TRUMPETER | TRUMP (winnning card) and ETERnity (for ever, start of) |
| 7 | PICTURE OF HEALTH | (OUT HALF THE PRICE)* anagram=turned |
| 8 | DREADFUL | Doctors (first letter of) READ (to study) FLU* anagram=possibly |
| 11 | DRAW | Double definition |
| 15 | PECKSNIFF | PECK (use beak) and SNIFF (use nose) – villain from Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens |
| 17 | ADVANCED | Double definition |
| 19 | IVAN | IV (fourth) AN (indefinite article) – Ivan the Terrible |
| 20 | CREEPER | Virginia Creeper (plant) and a reptile is ‘a creeping thing’ (as defined in Chambers) – a bit vague I thought |
| 21 | BOGNOR | BOG Standard (common=slang) with NOR (and not) – Bognor Regis, a royal town on the south coast of England. |
| 23 | CANON | sounds like “cannon” |
*anagram
Hold mouse over clue number to read a clue.
Thanks for the blog. I particularly liked the flibberty/liberty 2d today.
22a – you’ve got a weird slip there. On just means on; CADE isn’t inside AMBUS!
Thanks PeeDee and Cinephile.
My highlights were the two long down clues — concise and similar defs (‘fit representation’ and ‘free representation’) leading to solutions of the same format, ie ‘something of something’. I thought this a neat touch.
Thanks Thomas99, I’ve no idea what I was thinking there.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee. I agree with all of your preamble.
I’m afraid you have another weird slip [I know how easy it is!] in 10ac: it’s K[ing] that’s missing.
Thank you Eileen. I think I must have had my mind on other things while writing this blog.
2d: “Flibbertigibbet” is the spelling given by Chambers and OED, so shouldn’t the wordplay be (EATS OUT)* + FLIBERTY (one B) which sounds like (reportedly) “flibberti”, which leads to “gibbet”?
I’m not quite sure how you equate “gibbet” with “suspension”. A gibbet is something you suspend things from, and to gibbet is to suspend, but hey, this is Cinephile/Araucaria, so we don’t go into these things too closely, do we? 🙂
Tom_I
You said not to go into it, but… I think gibbet would mean suspension if you referred to someone being punished with/condemned to/deterred by “the gibbet”, by which people presumably meant being suspended from the gibbet, not just the wooden thing itself.
I think your parsing of 2d is right.
I see what you mean. It really needs the word “the”, not just “gibbet”, but I suppose we can take that as understood.
Tom_I – Reading the blog again I realise I have written the “sounds like” in the wrong place. Fixed now.
Not my best day’s blogging I’m afraid.
Thanks PeeDee and A. Enjoyable this, and not too hard. Fairly raced through it but was then totally stumped by 10, QUICHE. It is a tricky clue (nice) but I can’t think why I didn’t see it. Must be the cold weather . . . !