Radian’s certainly developed a fairly unique and often fairly tricky style in his short time as an Indy setter, but I’m a fan. There’s some nice stuff here. There’s a kinda theme too I think, with the word AND (or a variation on A N and D appearing in an awful lot in the answers.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | WANT ADS – WAN,TADS – A very nice clue |
| 5 | ADMIN – D in (Idi) AMIN |
| 10 | ANDIRON – 1 in DR, all in ANON |
| 11 | SCANDAL – C and A in [-o]SL[-o] |
| 13 | GERMINATED – (GERMAN DIET)* |
| 14 | DARN – DAR[-wi]N – The subtraction here is a touch ambiguous I think |
| 15 | HEATHLAND – (Ted) HEATH,LAND |
| 17 | HANDS – Hidden in healtH AND Safty, although I’m not sure where the indicator is here |
| 18 | NAIAD – A in N[-eed],AID |
| 20 | ANDALUSIA – (A,SAL[-m]A[-g]UNDI)* |
| 22 | LUCY – LUC[-k]Y |
| 23 | IDLE-HANDED – LE (loose ends) in I’D HANDED |
| 26 | RWANDAN – (DARWINIAN)* less all the Is |
| 27 | ABDOMEN – B[-ombay] in (MOANED)* |
| 29 | ADMAN – [-br]ADMAN |
| 26 | ADORING – (DORIAN)*,G[-ray] |
| Down | |
| 2 | ANDORRA – AND,ORRA – |
| 3 | TARNISHED – (DRAT SHINE)* |
| 4 | DONNA – No idea on this. Clue is ‘Verdi lady joins e-mobile’ |
| 6 | DEAN – Hidden in maDE A Name |
| 7 | INDRAWN – WARD rev. in INN |
| 8 | CARGO HANDLER – ARGO in CHANDLER |
| 9 | ASCENDED – Odd letters of AlSaCe,ENDED |
| 12 | LONG-STANDING – LONG + STANDING |
| 16 | ABANDONS – ON in A,BAND’S |
| 17 | HOLLANDER – HOL,LANDER – Hague as in ‘Den Haag’ |
| 19 | INCHARD – (RANCH I’D)* |
| 21 | SIDEMAN – NAMED IS rev. |
| 24 | ELAND – Last part of MatabelELAND, &lit. |
| 25 | EDNA – E,D.N.A |
4d. There’s an aria in Verdi’s Rigoletto called ‘La Donne e Mobile’.
Sorry ‘Donna’. Must stop using that stuff, it blurs your vision. 🙁
“And” or anagrams (of DNA?) appear in ALL the answers, except Lucy.
In HANDS, I think it’s not hidden but is using abbreviations of Health and Safety. Strange puzzle, noticed A in every answer and lots of ANDs and, then as mentioned above, no A in Lucy, which threw me. Is there something more behind it all that I’ve missed?
I suspected from the less than 50% checking in the top and bottom rows, there would be a theme.
PS in 12 I think it’s LONG (STAND) ING stand = partnership (cricket) in longing.
I parsed 17a and 12d in the same way as Nmsindy.
It is interesting that 22a is the only answer not to contain a combination of AND. It could easily have been changed to LAND with 19d becoming INNYARD then all answers would have been alike.
I am wondering if Lucy was used so that she didn’t feel excluded when Dan featured so prominantly. Incidentally, A N & D also appear in the setters name.
Perhaps his real name is Dan Air, and his partner, Lucy, contains no DNA?….
Nice one Ian, though my memories of Dan Air are not good – too many dodgy landings?!
You’re nearly there. Everyone contains a random mutation of DNA except our common ancestor Lucy of Olduvai Gorge fame – in whom it’s taken for granted – oh, and her identical twin Edna.
Here’s Lucy:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/human_evolution/mother_of_man1.shtml
She’s not much of a looker, but at least she doesn’t have Edna’s specs
damn, I was literally seconds too late in posting about that Lucy. I guessed that the joke might be that she was a missing link, though.
Thanks for a very entertaining puzzle, Radian, and Ali for the helpful post.
Ta Eimi for your correction: Lucy’s stomping ground was apparently Ethiopia, not Olduvai. That’s in Tanzania.