As it is the last Wednesday of the month, Dac has vacated his usual slot to make room for Crosophile.
I hadn’t solved or blogged a Crosophile puzzle for a while, which might explain why I seemed to make heavy weather of this one, taking far more time over it than I would over the average Dac.
I seemed to solve the puzzle in two halves, with the bottom half surrendering itself fairly painlessly, while the top half overall took far longer. I struggled with 3, 9 and 11 in particular; the composer was not one that sprang readily to mind.
As for my parsing, I need confirmation (or otherwise!) of the definition at 18D, where I can’t find a noun form of “tell” in Chambers, while the solution can surely not be a verb. Furthermore, I am not sure of the reference to “Crimson title” at 18A. Incidentally, I spent a long time wondering how “roué” with its acute accent could be part of the homophone at 17, before I realised what kind of “bounder” we were looking for!
My favourites today were 10, for its overall construction, and 25, for its smooth surface achieved through the use of “hide”.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | FIRM | Sound // business
Double definition |
| 03 | BIRTHMARKS | Original areas of distinction
Cryptic definition: birthmarks are distinctive to the individual and are there from the very beginning of someone’s life, hence “original” |
| 10 | OUTPOST | Oaf’s beginning to drop off letters for men on edge
<l>OUT (=oaf; “beginning to drop” means first letter dropped) + POST (=letters, i.e. mail); the “men” in the definition are soldiers |
| 11 | RODRIGO | Composer Stewart King’s one work?
ROD (=Stewart, i.e. singer) + R (=king, i.e. rex) + I (=one) + GO (=work, i.e. function); the reference is to Spanish pianist and composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-99) |
| 12 | PORTADOWN | Ulster town left one feeling depressed
PORT (=left, i.e. on ship) + A (=one) + DOWN (=feeling depressed) |
| 13 | LIONS | Meat joints slightly cooked inside for big cats
L-OI-NS (=meat joints); “slightly cooked inside” here means that two letters in the middle of the word – the “o” and the “i” – swap places |
| 14 | TWANG | Sound of a guitar – not quite a duo, one’s no good
TW<o> (=a duo; “not quite” means last letter dropped) + A (=one) + NG (=no good) |
| 16 | BARKING | Mad piece of music, Crimson title?
BAR (=piece of music) + KING (=Crimson title); the Crimson King is the title of a character in the Dark Tower novels of Stephen King |
| 20 | TABLEAU | Greek character has fit in dramatic scene
ABLE (=fit (for/to)) in TAU (=Greek character, i.e. letter of Greek alphabet) |
| 21 | NOVAE | Brilliant stars bearing the flower of the bard to the West End?
E (=bearing, i.e. East) + AVON (= “flower” of the bard, i.e. river on which Stratford stands); “from the West End” indicates (here full) reversal |
| 23 | YOUNG | The second person with icing here in Paris dropping litter
YOU (=the second person, i.e. in grammar) + <ici>NG (“here” in Paris – i.e. the French word for here, ici – dropping” means letters “ici” are dropped) |
| 25 | STEELYARD | Weighing machine square to support lardy sort
S (=square) + TEE (=support) + *(LARDY); “sort” is anagram indicator; according to Chambers, a steelyard is “a weighing machine consisting of a lever with a short arm for the thing weighed and a long graduated arm on which a single weight moves” |
| 27 | ASTRIDE | I stared around and up, maybe
*(I STARED); “around” is anagram indicator; “up, maybe” refers to being on horseback, sitting astride a horse |
| 28 | TINWARE | Cheap metal goods can conflict with a touch of elegance
TIN (=can, i.e. as noun) + [E<legance> (“touch of” means first letter only) in WAR (=conflict)] |
| 29 | SHAGGINESS | Feature of long story? “Silver and gold’s beginning to sparkle all around ship”
{[AG (=silver, i.e. chemical symbol) + G<old> (“beginning” means first letter only)] in SHINE (=sparkle)} + SS (=ship); the reference in the definition is to the expression shaggy-dog story |
| 30 | ISIS | A couple of islands in river
IS (=island) + IS (=island); the Isis is a name given to the Thames at Oxford |
| Down | ||
| 01 | FOOTPATH | Hard to knock over fellow standing up? Way to go!
H (=hard) + TAP (=knock) + TOO (=over, i.e. excessively) + F (=fellow); “standing up” indicates (here full) vertical reversal |
| 02 | RETARDANT | Soak passionate adult for unwanted energy – this will subdue the fire
RET (=soak) + ARD-A for E –NT (=passionate; “adult (=A) for unwanted energy (=E)” means letter “e” is dropped and replaced by “a”) |
| 04 | IN TROUBLE | One disheartened nationalist’s currency experiencing difficulties
I (=one) + N<ationalis>T (“disheartened” means all but first and last letters dropped) + ROUBLE (=currency) |
| 05 | TURIN | I go around town with a shroud
I in TURN (=go, e.g. in game) |
| 06 | MEDALLION | I’m all done with new fashion for a bit of bling
*(I’M ALL DONE); “with new fashion” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | RHINO | Broadcasting one hour about endangered species
ON (=broadcasting, as in Newsnight is on!) + I (=one) + HR (=hour); “about” indicates (here full) reversal |
| 08 | SPOUSE | Maybe wife’s special love that’s above good
SP (=special) + O (=love, i.e. zero score) + USE (=good, as in It’s no use/good) |
| 09 | CODA | Prompt payment’s advanced the end of work
C.O.D (=prompt payment, i.e. cash on delivery) + A (=advanced) |
| 15 | GO BEGGING | Kisser’s giving encouragement to be free
GOB (=kisser, i.e. slang words for mouth) + EGGING (=giving encouragement) |
| 17 | ROULETTES | It’s said bounder allows gambling games
Homophone (“it’s said”) of “ROO (=bounder, i.e. jumping animal) + LETS (=allows)” |
| 18 | GIVEAWAYS | Tells of wages Ivy squandered touring Austria
A (=Austria) in *(WAGES IVY); “squandered” is anagram indicator; to tell (on) someone is to give someone away, betray |
| 19 | LEWDNESS | New deal’s beginning to change into not so much crude behaviour
*(NEW + D<eal> (“beginning” means first letter only)) in LESS (=not so much); “to change” is anagram indicator |
| 22 | BYPASS | Avoid congestion by climbing from abyss before parking
BY + P (=parking) + ASS; “by climbing from A – BY – SS” means that the letters “by” go to the front of the word, with “p” being slotted in before the remainder of it |
| 24 | ULTRA | Pull strap repeatedly in the middle? – not in the middle
<p>UL<l> + <s>TRA<p>; “repeatedly in the middle” means that all but the first and last letter of both words are needed; e.g. politically, anything ultra- is far from the middle of the spectrum |
| 25 | SKEIN | See wildfowl flying from hide round end of lake
<lak>E (“end of” means last letter only) in SKIN (=hide, i.e. leather) |
| 26 | LONE | Say money borrowed is not in company?
Homophone (“say”) of “loan” (=money borrowed) |
Thanks RR and Crosophile,
I also found this tricky in places.
Re 16 dn – King Crimson is a popular music group.
Re 18 dn – “tells” are giveaways in poker parlance.
Sorry, 16 across
Thanks to Crosophile and RR!
Part easy, part devilish. I couldn’t get BARKING as I know neither King Crimson nor Crimson King! 🙁
For RHINO, I took ‘Broadcasting’ as the anagram indicator and got the ON from “about”. Different approach, same result!
I too parsed GIVEAWAYS like Muffyword@1.
[This comment didn’t show up the first time I posted it; my apologies if this is a double posting.]
Abhay
For some reason (I know not why) your original comment, and your re-post, were intercepted by Akismet, the site’s spam filter, and put in the queue for me to review. I have now un-spammed your comment.
Thanks, Gaufrid!
I crashed and burned with Rorschach yesterday and nearly did the same today. I wouldn’t say tricky in places, rather tricky all over. I don’t remember Crosophile being as difficult as this. So first off, thanks to RR for parsing several that I couldn’t.
There were some good clues here: I liked ROULETTES and SKEIN. But since I’ve been roughed up by setters two days in a row, I will have a bitch about LIONS (‘slightly cooked’?), STEELYARD, which I’d never heard of, and BIRTHMARKS, which I didn’t much like as a cd.
I’ll stop bitching now, thank the setter, and see what’s on offer in Another Place.
An enjoyable if tricky puzzle as others have mentioned. I had the opposite experience to RR inasmuch as I found the bottom half harder than the top half. I agree with Muffyword@1’s comments re: 16ac and 18dn. LEWDNESS was my LOI after I realised 21ac was NOVAE rather than “novas”, which also fitted both the definition and the wordplay.
Thanks for comments so far and for the blog, RR. Sorry for the NOVAe/s ambiguity, which I missed. And yes, at 16A the reference is to the popular beat combo, King Crimson.
As usual there’s a nina though it’s rather obscure – an undeservedly little known genius guitarist and three of his superb solo albums…
Typo in 28A, which is TIN + WAR + E.
Imagine the Nina is something to do with King Crimson, but that doesn’t help me.
Thanks to Crosophile and RatkojaRiku.
Yes, gwep – (though also Zappa, Bowie, Talking Heads, Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson …
That’ll be Toyah’s hubby then I guess
Nope. Not Mr Fripp.
It’s Adrian Belew (altogether now: Who?) who’s hidden in the grid, and his solo albums include Lone Rhino, Twang Bar King and Young Lions. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I’m sure, but he did the deranged guitar solos in the middle and at the end of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW1IqW6kNdU I LOVE it!
Why didn’t I see this?
Well, because I never see this.
I like crosswords (and I liked this crossword!) with a flavour of pop music.
Actually, I am the proud owner of Young Lions, the record that contains one of Adrian Belew’s better known songs, Pretty Pink Rose (a duet with Bowie). I just took the cd off the shelf and into the cd-player.
Perhaps, some may think this is too modern but how can you say that about someone who was born in 1949?
Obscure, yes, perhaps, though not for me.
I liked this and all of that.
Thanks RR for the blog.
Hi Sil.
Nice to meet another fan of Belew. I can’t understand how he isn’t a household name. Got a great voice too!