Its Friday, Its Bradman, Its a pleasant challenge on the FT today.
Thanks Bradman for the fun start to the best day of the work week.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | DAMASK | Fabric provides a covering on side of bed (6) |
| [A MASK (covering)] on D (side of beD) | ||
| 4 | WHISTLER | Make shrill sound meeting Regina or Rex? (8) |
| WHISTLE (make shrill sound) R (regina) – Rex Whistler, Britist artist of yesteryears | ||
| 9 | CO STAR | One of the top actors rendering Shakespearean bumpkin endlessly (2-4) |
| COSTARd (shakespearean bumpkin, from Love’s Labour Lost, without last character). Interestingly enough, a “rendering” of the word ‘ACTORS” leads to the solution as well. | ||
| 10 | EMBOSSED | English male told what to do, moulded into shape? (8) |
| E (english) M (male) BOSSED (told what to do) | ||
| 12 | SPELLICAN | Add I can’t, but . . . . ? I may be wooden, but I’m not thick! (9) |
| parsed as “add i can’t but SPELL, I CAN..” – referring to a fragment or splinter, an alternate spelling for SPILLIKIN | ||
| 13 | LATIN | Language in Italy, except for extreme parts, going back (5) |
| Hidden reversed in “..iN ITALy..” [without initial and last characters – extreme parts] | ||
| 14 | UNDER SUSPICION | Dodgy nun with pi discourse thought to be guilty maybe (5,9) |
| Anagram of NUN PI DISCOURSE | ||
| 17 | HOW THINGS STAND | The general situation on their feet? (3,6,5) |
| cryptic clue | ||
| 21 | ADEPT | Expert in a warehouse missing nothing (5) |
| A DEPoT (warehouse, missing ‘O’ – nothing) | ||
| 22 | TOOTHACHE | Excessively stupid chat by the fellow – mouthy problem (9) |
| TOO (excessively) [ Anagram of CHAT] HE (fellow) | ||
| 24 | HEADBAND | Alice maybe to perform as lead singer? (8) |
| cryptic clue, to perform as lead singer might be heading a band. Alice headband wiki | ||
| 25 | AUGUST | Grand time to take a holiday? (6) |
| double def | ||
| 26 | SKEWERED | Like some meat needing weeks for preparation, then barely cooked (8) |
| Anagram of WEEKS followed by RED (barely cooked) | ||
| 27 | HEPTAD | Magnificent group? A bit trendy to begin with (6) |
| TAD (a bit) after HEP (trendy) – referring to the movie The Magnificent Seven. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DUCK SOUP | Film with terrible score, awful opus (4,4) |
| DUCK (terrible score, in game of cricket) anagram of OPUS – 1933 movie starring the Marx brothers | ||
| 2 | MISLEAD | Man perhaps taken in by idiotic fool (7) |
| ISLE (man, perhaps) in MAD (idiotic) | ||
| 3 | STALL | Stop everyone going beyond street (5) |
| ALL (everyone) after ST (street) | ||
| 5 | HOMING PIGEON | I go with men, hoping somehow one will know the way back (6,6) |
| anagram of I GO MEN HOPING | ||
| 6 | SHOELACES | One of us may be in and out of Oxford (9) |
| cryptic clue; oxford referring to the shoes. | ||
| 7 | LESOTHO | Drunkard Henry bumps into lion in the country (7) |
| [ SOT (drunkard) H (henry) ] in LEO (lion) | ||
| 8 | REDONE | Embarrassed-looking individual performed again (6) |
| RED (embarassed-looking) ONE (individual) | ||
| 11 | ACQUAINTANCE | Someone known to have nicely old-fashioned African party in a church (12) |
| [ QUAINT (nicely old-fashioned) ANC (african party, African National Congress) ] in A CE (church) | ||
| 15 | ROTATABLE | Like something a twister could get his hands on? (9) |
| cryptic clue | ||
| 16 | ADVERTED | Non-editorial matter to which editor gets referred (8) |
| ADVERT (on-editorial matter) ED (editor) | ||
| 18 | OVERAGE | Old woman, say, getting upset – being too old (7) |
| O (old) VERA (woman) GE (say = EG, reversed) | ||
| 19 | ACCOUNT | Report from a noble fellow with a stutter (7) |
| A C-COUNT (noble fellow, with a stutter) | ||
| 20 | PATHOS | Way seaman shows pity (6) |
| PATH (way) OS (seaman) | ||
| 23 | HOUSE | Residence in hospital north of river (5) |
| H (hospital) OUSE (river) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Interesting challenge from the Don with only the one obscure word (to me anyway) in SPELLICAN and maybe the not so well known Shakespearean character, COSTARD (spotted the alternative anagram as well).
Not quite sure about ROTATABLE – thought that there was more going on with it than just a cryptic definition – with ”hands’ referring to cards that could be distributed on a TABLE or ‘hands’ receiving their ROTA (list of jobs) on a table. Still couldn’t get it all to work though.
I went with the 1927 Laurel & Hardy version of DUCK SOUP, but the same story that was later made into the Marx Brothers one in 1933,
Liked HEPTAD when the penny dropped with it, It was the third last in, followed by the tricky ADVERTED and AUGUST (in which I had to forget about my ‘antipodeaness’ and see the time for summer hols there).
Thanks Turbolegs.
Good to see The Don referring to Rex Whistler rather than the more famous James McNeill (today’s gentle nod in the direction of the relatively obscure?). Very much more light and decorative than the one with a famous mother. Tragically killed in Normandy in 1944.
I’m with Bruce in having august and adverted as my last ones in.
Alas, I adore Bradman, but today was one of those days when I didn’t have time to think or complete — nearly there, though, and enjoyed as much as ever. Loved 12ac and 17 ac. Thanks, TL, for the usual good job.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.
This was typically Bradmanic, I thought, with its SPELLICAN, Costard, reference to Oxford as a shoe, a seventyish year old film, and Rex Whistler.
More fun to set than to solve, and completely inaccessible to most people under forty years old.
I enjoyed this.If being under 40 means having no interest in Shakespeare or art, I’m relieved that I’m past it.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.
I must agree with Janetman. A reference to a 1933 film title & Oxford as a shoe, make this inaccessible to a younger audience.
Nice to see several solvers stop by.
To Janetman@4, and Armband@6, my personal take on this is that the solver didnt need to know about either the 1933 movie reference or the Oxford reference to be able to completely solve this. The former was ‘getable’ from a clue breakdown and the latter, after the cross-refs were filled in. In fact, the reference of Oxford with regards to shoes is not that uncommon in FT puzzles. Like Brucew@1, I did find ‘Spellican’ obscure but got to it in the end after the cross-refs were in.
To Brucew@1, I really tried to make ROTATABLE work with a more elegant parsing but kept coming short for the same reasons you mentioned. Finally just gave up (in the interest of having the blog posted) and half expected for some regular to enlighten me.
Cheers
TL
I’ve only just got round to this excellent puzzle and hence this blog. Oh so right, Janetman. Let’s have more Justin Bieber and Twilight and Big Brother in crosswords! Out with boring old stuff like classic literature, films and art!
Good to see that Janbabe’s got support from “Armband” though a more obvious sockpuppet couldn’t be found in Punch and Judy’s hosiery shop. Bradman’s had this stalker for a while (he’s not the only FT setter to have one). Is it possible to put a block on people posting from the same IP address with different names?
Almost makes you yearn for Hedgehoggy – troll though he was, at least he didn’t come across as stupid.
Thanks Turbolegs and Bradman.
I’m a huge Marx Brothers fan but would recommend DUCK SOUP to anyone in-initiated. Just because a film was made before you were born should not exclude it from your viewing list, much the same with a book!
Having said that, I needed your help to parse CO-STAR – not being familiar with Love’s Labours Lost.
SPELLICAN was new to me as well but gettable from the clue so thanks for the new word Bradman!
Not having children to worry about, August is the one time of year I wouldn’t consider for a holiday. Too hot, too crowded, too expensive (bah humbug I hear you all day).
I have to admit that I found the last few a bit of a slog. ROTATABLE seemed clumsy, HEP as a variant of HIP was very obscure, and ADVERTED seems a very un-pretty word. Another example of noun verbification?