Guardian 26,081 – Brummie

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As is often the case with Brummie, this turned out easier than it appeared at first sight. A nice variety of clues, though, with only 1d being a bit of a disappointment

 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. THEMELESS No subject gets trim in steel tempered by sun (9)
HEM (to trim, in dressmaking) in STEEL* + S
10. MOTEL Spot large roomy place (5)
MOTE (spot) + L[arge]. A motel is a place with rooms, so a “roomy place”
11. LUCILLE Rock ’n’ roll classic clue stuffed with wicked content (7)
ILL (wicked) in CLUE* – “stuffed” indicates the anagram, not an insertion as one might think
12. AIRDROP Superior aid distribution or rapid transport (7)
(OR RAPID)* – distribution “from above”, so “superior”
13,3. MONK SEAL Fish-eater‘s brother close up (4,4)
MONK (brother) + SEAL ( to close up) – a seal (that eats fish) found in Hawaii
14. IRIDESCENT Glowing with colour, one possibly cycles a bit (10)
I + RIDES + CENT (a bit = coin)
15,25. INKBLOT TEST Which might reveal one’s inner thoughts of careless penmanship? (7,4)
This is what I call a sesquidef, or a definition-and-a-half: the definition refers to the Rorschach test, which purports to reveal things about people’s personality through their reactions to a set of inkblot patterns
17. CERAMIC China capped electric leads on memory microchip (7)
First letters (leads) of C[apped] E[lectric] + RAM (memory) + IC (Integrated circuit, microchip)
19. SIDESWIPER Not a straightforward critic of unrestricted, wide press coverage of Independent (10)
I in (WIDE PRESS)*
23,22. SLIPPED DISC Record down in the charts? That can be a real pain (7,4)
If your record is down in the charts then you might have a SLIPPED DISC
24. INTERIM Provisional playwright drops leading character: one is contracted (7)
[Harold P]INTER + I’M (= one is, contracted)
26,5. ELLIS ISLAND Lives in Lille’s changed together with a former immigration HQ (5,6)
IS in LILLE’S* + AND (together with). Ellis Island in New York Bay was where immigrants to the USA were processed between 1892 and 1954
27. CROSSWORD Darn leisure activity? (9)
Double definition – “darn!” could be a “cross word”
Down
1. PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM Theoretically, it makes us universally central
Cryptic definition of the pre-Copernican geocentric model of the universe. It seems a bit lazy to use just a cd for this – it would be hard to guess the first word if you don’t know it, and there must be some good wordplay in there somewhere. For example it’s an anagram of LOST MY SPACETIME or MYSTIC APOSTLE, ME.
2. PEACENIK Maligned dove I can keep up in the air? (8)
(I CAN KEEP)* “A pacifist, esp in a derogatory sense” says Chambers (it doesn’t mention that it’s obviously modelled on “beatnik”), so a “maligned dove”
4. SEWER RAT Creature that’s drained of water’s, er, done for (5,3)
(WATER’S ER)* – sewer rats might be found in a drain
6. EMBRASOR Jury briber supporters dividing capital return (8)
BRAS in ROME< "One who seeks to influence jurors by corrupt means […]"
7. STERNE He wrote back to addressee, finally (6)
STERN (back) + [addresse]E
8. SLAPSTICK COMEDY It makes Cyclops, cryptically, about the ultimate in crossword’s unsubtle humour (9,6)
[crosswor]D in (IT MAKES CYCLOPS)*, and the surface reading nicely descibes how one might think of Cyclops, Brummie’s alter ego in Private Eye
16. LAST POST No more fencing for camp men about to retire? (4,4)
If you’ve reached your LAST POST then you can’t put up any more of your fence. This bugle call is probably best known to most people from its use at Remebrance Day, but it’s also the signal for the end of the day in an army camp, so time to “retire”
17. CREDITOR MASH director, who wants paying (8)
DIRECTOR* (“mashed”)
18. MAILROOM Man flu, old style, you could say, post operations here (8)
Homophone of “male rheum” – apt for me as I’ve just got over a dose of man flu myself (at least it wasn’t a 23,22)
20. DRILLS Doctor Sorrows is boring (6)
DR + ILLS
21. INDICT “Charge” contained by concise reference work? (6)
IN DICT[ionary]

27 comments on “Guardian 26,081 – Brummie”

  1. Thanks Andrew and Brummie
    NW was a lot harder than in recent crosswords. I am pleased that you weren’t happy with 1dn – I guessed it from the definition but was worried that I couldn’t see any wordplay.
    LUCILLE and ELLIS ISLAND relied on general knowledge rather a lot. “Fish eater” is rather a loose definition for MONK SEAL, I thought.
    Favourites were MAILROOM abd CROSSWORD.

  3. Thanks Andrew and Brummie
    Enjoyed this but although eventually got EMBRASOR from the wordplay, had not come across it before and could find no dictionary reference to it. Had IRIDESCENT as I(one) RIDES(possibly cycles) CENT(a bit, US coin as in ‘two bits’). Enjoyed PEACENIK and MAILROOM although dictionary gave the latter as hyphenated.

  5. Enjoyed this a lot, with PEACENIK and LAST POST being my favourites. While i agree it’s a bit loose, I wasn’t too bothered about 1dn, but only because it reminded me of CS Lewis’s last scholarly book, The Discarded Image. I also wasn’t too keen on ‘no subject’ for THEMELESS – ‘having no subject’, okay.

    Am I the only 50-something not to have heard of ‘Lucille’? (I guess I’ve heard it but listening on YouTube brought back no memories.) I must have led a very sheltered life, as it’s been covered by absolutely everyone, including The Beatles, most of whose early stuff I know quite well. (‘Though this appears to have been recorded for a couple of radio shows rather than being released as a record.)

  6. Oops, a bit of a senior moment there – I saw 14 as I + RIDES + CENT when I solved the puzzle last night, but carelessly misremembered when I wrote up the blog this morning. Now corrected.

  7. Has to count as a dnf as I misspelt ‘Ptolemaic’ (o instead of e). I was pleased to have got the rest correct though as, on a first run through, I thought that I was going to struggle to get near completion.

  9. Thanks, Andrew. [Glad to hear you’ve recovered.] I agree that this turned out to be easier than it looked at first sight.

    I agree with the reservations about 1dn – a lost opportunity there – and the definition of THEMELESS, although, like rhotician, I spotted the symmetry with CROSSWORD and thought that was rather neat. [A reminder of Brendan’s 25,335, which Andrew blogged, with its Nina, ‘There’s no theme in this crossword’.]

    Thanks to Brummie for the puzzle.

    EMBRASOR is in Chambers, as an alternative for ’embracer’.

  10. Thanks Andrew. The NW was tough. Last in was 13,3 but by then I had ‘cell’ for 3. It could only have been EMBRASOR, but confirming it took a bit of delving. Liked the anagramming of PEACENIK.

  12. Thanks Andrew, I agree that it turned out simpler than it first appeared. First in was IRIDESCENT, from which, aided by the two part solutions, I was able to complete the whole puzzle with crossing clues without making a fresh start, so to speak. Failed to get EMBRASOR however. Got the ROME bit, but forgot the old chestnut BRA = supporter.

    You could have mentioned that Lucille was a big hit for Little Richard, and Laurence STERNE was the Anglo-Irish creator of Tristram Shandy.

  13. By the way, EMBRASOR appears in my Chambers under Embracer, and is defined as “a person who seeks to influence jurors by corrupt means to deliver a partial verdict”.

  14. Yes, that’s the definition I (partially) quoted in my explanation. (Except I now see I slightly misquoted, putting “one” instead of “a person”. I blame the man flu again.)

  15. I’m with ulaca@9 on Lucille.

    First thought on 15,25 was FREUDIAN SLIP, which doesn’t fit, so wondered if some other psychologist had the same idea, though JUNG seemed unlikely.
    Whole puzzle was rather recalcitrant, as I had difficulty with the anagrams this time.

  16. Thanks to all who’ve helped me with EMBRASOR. I guess I have to get a Chambers – but I’ll find it hard to kick my lifetime OED habit!

    OED has EMBRACER, but doesn’t cross-ref: reasonably enough, since the …SOR spelling isn’t used after C15, it says. Hmm.

  17. Thanks Brummie & Andrew.

    Well, it wasn’t simpler than it first appeared to me. I struggled through with copious use of word searches. I thought 1d would have ‘centric’ in it somewhere, but no. I agree that it would have been better with some wordplay – plenty of anagrams as Andrew pointed out.

    Little Richard’s Lucille is truly a rock classic. JohnR @16; as muffin @11 says the online Collins is very useful. 🙂

    I liked the PEACENIK for its misleading indication of the anagram as I thought ‘maligned’ was an anagrind for ‘dove I can.’

  18. Thanks Brummie and Andrew. Like Robi @17 I tried to fit ‘centric’ in 1d. Also learned that
    ‘dove I can’ anagrams to VOIDANCE but unfortunately doesn’t work in this puzzle. Lucille was
    popular (stateside) in 1957 so 50-somethings may be excused for not remembering it. New word
    for me was EMBRASOR. Doubt I’ll see it again.

    Cheers…

  19. Unfortunately in the US a bit is 12.5 cents. Perhaps there is some other country where a cent is known as a bit?

  20. Duke @19 I think he’s relying on Chambers definition of bit as ‘a coin’. A bit as in ‘two bits’ for 25 cents comes from the practice of dividing Spanish dollars into 8 reales (pieces of eight)

  22. Count me as another who didn’t find this puzzle easy, particularly the NW.

    PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM was my LOI when I finally dredged it from deep in the old memory bank, and I agree that it wasn’t the best of clues given the possible anagrams that Andrew pointed out in his blog. I had no problem remembering LUCILLE, EMBRASOR was previously unknown but the wordplay was clear enough, and I thought the clue for PEACENIK was excellent.

  23. A slow burner, this one.
    I was stuck with NW corner too.
    2d could be parsed to yield VOIDANCE with ‘maligned’ as anagrind of ‘dove I can'(which begins to hint at ‘up in the air’ as definition).
    EMBRASOR a new word.
    ‘Lucille’ also covered brilliantly by Status Quo.
    Thanks to Andrew

  24. Easy enough except for the dodgy EMBRASOR! This held me up for ages. Word play and crossers led to EM_R_SOR so supports must be BRAS. However no such word in my online WordWeb or SOED!!! So I continued to search. Only when I dug out my old-wave paper Chambers did I find EMBRASOR. (I’ve never even heard of the more common spelling EMBRACER in this sense so I still feel a little cheated. An esoteric spelling of an esoteric word???!!!)

    So thanks to Andrew and Brummie.

  26. Found this quite hard, especially the NW, like others. However, EMBRASOR was one of the first in. Sadly, I’m obviously wired up to think immediately of female apparel whenever ‘support’ is mentioned.

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