Several answers, especially the longer ones, were written in very quickly, but this still took a long time with quite a few obscurities. Favourite 4dn – I’m unsure of my parsing of 12ac and 27ac.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WASHPOT | Moab as revealed by Spooner’s high-class, eh? (7) |
| “Moab is my washpot” is a quote from Psalms – see also Stephen Fry’s autobiography [wiki].
Spoonerism of ‘posh, what?’=”high-class, eh?” |
||
| 5 | MOOCHES | Hangs around in dances slowly beginning to get going (7) |
| [s]MOOCHES=”dances slowly”, with the beginning s going away | ||
| 9 | MARITIMES | When St David is celebrated by group of provinces (9) |
| the name of a group of provinces in East Canada [wiki].
St David’s day is March 1st, or MAR[ch] I TIMES |
||
| 10 | TIMER | One could show minutes into game, right? (5) |
| &lit definition. M[inutes] into TIE=”game”, plus R[ight] | ||
| 11 | NETT | Like some financial figures — caught editor out (4) |
| or ‘net’, taking into account appropriate deductions.
NETT[ed]=”caught”, with ed[itor] out |
||
| 12 | HENCEFORTH | So unhappy to have just missed podium, not seen as superior looking ahead (10) |
| Parsed this as: HENCE=”So”, FO[U]RTH=”just missed podium”, without/”not” the U=upper class, as opposed to ‘non-U’=”seen as superior”… which means “unhappy” is redundant?
Or perhaps “not seen as superior” is an instruction to remove the first letter of “unhappy” from FOURTH? |
||
| 14 | AMRITA | “I ___’, says educated girl, living for ever (6) |
| Sanskrit for immortality, the drink of the Hindu gods [wiki].
Reference to the film Educating Rita [wiki] – “I AM RITA”, says educated girl. |
||
| 15 | OPOSSUM | Animal getting round cat writer, not old (7) |
| O=”round”, plus [Old] Possum=”cat writer, not old” – a reference to TS Eliot’s poems Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats [wiki] | ||
| 16 | RUSHDIE | Get killed on the run? Thankfully he didn’t! (7) |
| Salman Rushdie [wiki] was had death threats made against him.
DIE=”Get killed”, on RUSH=”run” |
||
| 18 | NARCOS | Society managed to rebuff drugs agents (6) |
| SOC[iety] plus RAN=”managed”, reversed/”to rebuff” | ||
| 20 | SEPARATISM | A miser’s apt to become perverse, not joining in (10) |
| (A miser’s apt)* | ||
| 21 | RAMP | Wheeled carriage beginning to move when this is provided? (4) |
| &lit definition. PRAM=”Wheeled carriage”, with the beginning P moved to the end. | ||
| 24 | UKASE | Edict that puts our country at sea, confused (5) |
| a [Russian] edict. UK=”our country”, plus (sea)* | ||
| 25 | LOAMINESS | See, when going round pits, quality of soil (9) |
| LO=”See” over there; plus AS=”When”; both going around MINES=”pits” | ||
| 26 | STOUTLY | Roguish ticket seller being seized in robust manner (7) |
| SLY=”Roguish”, around TOUT=”ticket seller” | ||
| 27 | SIMPSON | Foolish American boy, who makes you think of Wallace? (7) |
| Bart SIMPSON is a “Foolish American boy”, and “Wallace” sounds like ‘Wallis’ Simpson, who married Edward VIII. Is there more to this? | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | WOMEN | Half of all adults were victorious, this person included (5) |
| WON=”were victorious”, around ME=”this person” | ||
| 2 | STRATUM | Tot eats food item sitting up in rocky bed (7) |
| SUM=”Tot” up; around TART reversed=”food item sitting up” | ||
| 3 | PUTT | Stroke little cherub, showing no love (4) |
| PUTT[o]=a “little cherub” in works of art, without O=”love” | ||
| 4 | TEMPERAMENTALLY | According to mood, modify account having secured the last word (15) |
| TEMPER=”modify”, plus TALLY=”account”, around AMEN=”the last word” | ||
| 5 | MUSIC TO ONE’S EARS | What an iPod can offer is very pleasing (5,2,4,4) |
| cryptic def of “What an iPod can offer” | ||
| 6 | OUT OF DOORS | What badly stocked builders’ merchant may be in the yard? (3,2,5) |
| cryptic def of “What badly stocked builders’ merchant may be” | ||
| 7 | HUMERUS | Bit of a buzz comes with the raising of certain skeletal component (7) |
| HUM=”Bit of a buzz”, with reversal/”raising” of SURE=”certain” | ||
| 8 | SORGHUM | Grass a problem in the mouth, might you say? (7) |
| a variety of grasses. Sounds like ‘sore gum’=”a problem in the mouth, might you say?” | ||
| 13 | RINDERPEST | Deer prints seen around — bad news for cattle? (10) |
| a disease of cattle. (Deer prints)* | ||
| 16 | RESCUES | Regrets key being jammed — gets out after trouble? (7) |
| RUES=”Regrets”, with ESC[ape]=computer “key” jammed inside | ||
| 17 | SOPRANO | Carmela, perhaps, as a noted female (7) |
| as in musical notes. Carmela SOPRANO [wiki] is a character from the TV series The Sopranos | ||
| 19 | ONAGERS | An ogre’s destroyed due to stone-hurlers (7) |
| =ancient military engines for hurling stones. (An ogre’s)* | ||
| 22 | PUSAN | Asian city god wanting American investment (5) |
| or Busan, a city in South Korea. PAN=Greek “god”, around US=”American” | ||
| 23 | FIRM | Determined to show concern (4) |
| double definition | ||
I parsed 27 as “simp” (US slang for “simpleton”, thus a “foolish American”) plus “son” for “boy”.
Ditto. I was stumped by AMRITA, though it’s so obvious when you see it. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks to Pasquale and manehi. A frustrating puzzle. I did not get 1a WASHPOT as did not know the quote from the Psalms or the title of Stephen Fry’s autobiography. I only know Moab from The Book of Ruth. Also missed 19d ONAGERS as I put in TRAP for 21a (wheeled carriage). Also missed the Salmon Rushdie reference at 16a and filled in RESIDUE with no idea why. New words were 14a AMRITA and 24a UKASE. In the end I enjoyed 14a “I AM RITA” (educated girl), 5d MUSiC TO ONE’S EARS (FOI), 7d HUMERUS and 8d SORGHUM. A difficult one. Appreciated the explanations by manehi.
I parsed SIMPSON the same way as manehi.
I was unable to parse 5a, 12, 11a (LOI) and 19d – my online dictionary defined ONAGER as “an animal of a race of the Asian wild ass native to northern Iran” so I was a bit confused. I guess I should have looked in another dictionary or gone to google it.
New words for me were ONAGERS, NARCOS (I know of NARC but never heard of NARCO before), AMRITA and the TV character Carmela Soprano – I have never seen that show.
My favourites were RAMP, OUT OF DOORS, MARITIMES, WOMEN, WASHPOT, RESCUES & STOUTLY. I appreciated the humour in today’s puzzle – Pasquale is usually a real chore for me but today I thought his sense of humour was very good!
Thanks manehi and Pasquale.
I confess that I misspelt WALLIS. I was trying initially to link the clue to WALLACE (the lion teased by Albert) but the American indication put paid to that and I should have rethought completely. Confession has been made to the Guardian. Of course you can check your clues again angain and still miss steh obvious. Sorry fro teh confusion.
For 9a I took the “times” to be a sign of multiplication eg 4 times 2 is the same as 4 by 2.
OOPs! I meant I took “by” as a sign of multiplication. Cart before the horse!
Same as Kevin for “by” in 9a and “simp” + “son” in 27a though the Bart explanation works too. This was hard going – never watched the Sopranos so I guessed Carmela to be some operatic heroine, didn’t know AMRITA (did anyone?) never heard of PUSAN though the clue was obvious enough, and only knew the asinine meaning of ONAGERS. Thanks for parsing OPOSSUM – and I did like OUT OF DOORS.
Thank you, manehi and The Don for the puzzle and the mea culpa.
Enjoyed a lot of this (always do with this setter) but found some of it a little frustrating.
Not at all keen on RAMP – &lit or not. How on earth one is supposed to think of ‘pram’ and then shift the first letter to the end beats me.
Never heard of PUSAN but it’s getable so fair enough.
Can’t understand HENCEFORTH I’m afraid. Don’t see what unhappy is doing.
No idea what The Sopranos is but, again, perfectly getable.
Nice things to learn included PUTTO & AMRITA and I’m fascinated how such an obscure word as ONAGER can mean such disparate things as an ass and a stone-throwing engine. English, eh?
Thanks again, Don.
Nice week all.
I agree with gladys that both parsings work for 27a. I took it as “simp” +”son”. Bart Simpson did not occur to me as I have never been a fan of the show. Not because I don’t like it but because there are lots of other shows I’d rather watch. (there are only 168 hours in a week and the proportion of those hours that can be spent in front of the box is limited)
Pasquale #@5
I originally entered grommet for 27a despite not being a fan and not being able to parse it. This held me up for some time.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi
I confess I had thought that 27 contained a (slightly woolly) cryptic homophone, an idea supported by the question mark.
Being a fan of The Sopranos made that clue a write-in but impossible without crossers for a non-fan, I would have thought.
I have just checked and I can’t even spell GROMIT. Perhaps I’ll sop posting before I make a bigger foolf myself.
Thanks Pasquale & manehi.
You have to expect some obscurities from the Don. Carmela SOPRANO might be unknown to many, I think, although one can always check on Google. I didn’t even notice the misspelling of Wallis – thanks to Don for popping by with his admission of guilt.
I liked the OUT OF DOORS among others.
P.S. Are ONAGERS anything to do with Onan? 😉
Oh well, OK I suppose. I just don’t often get enthused by Pasquale. I did like how AMRITA was clued (with RINDERPEST, the one unknown word for me this time, though as for many ONAGERS was only known for the animal) and was pleased to see Carmela SOPRANO make an entrance – classy drama, the Sopranos, a shame more solvers have no knowledge of it.
Could “unhappy to have just missed podium” be as simple as taking “u” (for “unhappy) out of “fourth”? I have seen setters use this device, taking the initial letter of a word. On the other hand I took the “just missed” to indicate fourth place (because the podium is for 1 to 3). I’m not sure if “just missed” can be used twice. But at least this would explain why “unhappy” is there.
Anyway I thought it was a great puzzle. I got 27 from the television show but I accept that I could have been completely wrong. What was that Latin phrase –“If you had remained silent, we should have thought that you were clever”?
Defeated by this one. Missed out on AMRITA and RINDERPEST which were potentially gettable and a few others entered from the def. Tricky parsing for HENCEFORTH and OPOSSUM which I would never have worked out. Didn’t know exactly how ‘a wild ass of Central Asia’ could hurl stones, but I’ve heard of stranger things (maybe).
Thanks to Pasquale and manehi.
WordPlodder says: “Didn’t know exactly how ‘a wild ass of Central Asia’ could hurl stones, but I’ve heard of stranger things (maybe)”
Couldn’t that wild ass could just have been a reckless fool?
Sorry for the careless mistake in the above Comment. Please delete ‘could’ between ‘ass’ and ‘just’.
Oh dear, just when I thought I was getting the hang of this lark, along comes Pasquale to make me feel like a beginner. UKASE, AMRITA and RINDERPEST were new to me, as were putto, Carmela S. and ONAGERS as weapons (fortunately I had heard of the Stephen Fry book), and it took far too long to see RUSHDIE. A few others went in without being fully parsed. Couldn’t find much entertainment to compensate for the pain this time either – sorry if this sounds negative…
Thanks to manehi and Pasquale
Thanks to Pasquale and manehi. Like others I struggled a bit with RINDERPEST and AMRITA (though I have seen the play twice) and the military version of ONAGERS and needed help parsing PRAM and OPOSSUM, but getting the longer answers early on helped me finish. Lots of fun.
Did anybody else get sidetracked with Mother of all bombs (massive ordnance air blast) for Moab? I know it should have been in caps but I still went there. Seen similar to 8 down before but still amusing. And I wish my soil would have 25.
Enjoyed this a lot. Thanks to all.
Thank you Pasquale and manehi.
WASHPOT was the first in, which led to PUTT, but I wasted time trying to get rid of the “i” in PUTTi before realising that the singular, PUTTo, was called for. SIMPSON went in without a second thought. AMRITA was a new word, and Carmela SOPRANO unknown.
I’m always pleased to see the setter popping in, so thanks Pasquale for your post @5. (It was obvious Wallis was intended.)
This was a good work-out for me, and as I have experienced before with Pasquale I learned a few things. I vaguely knew AMRITA, UKASE, ‘putto’ (in 3D) and PUSAN (or ‘Busan’), but ONAGERS meaning catapults and Carmela SOPRANO were new to me. No complaints – I come here to learn!
I didn’t quite understand the use of the word ‘unhappy’ in 12A (HENCEFORTH). I also didn’t at first understand how ‘times’ came into 9A (MARITIME), but I saw it just as I had decided to finish and peruse today’s blog. Very neat!
I go along with blaise @1 concerning 27A (SIMPSON): ‘simp’ + ‘son’.
I enjoyed this puzzle, with its inventive clueing and some entertainment thrown in.
Many thanks, Pasquale and manehi.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi
MOAB (from Stephen Fry, rather than Psalms) and WOMEN went straight in, then not much for some time. Eventually it gave, though I needed a wordfinder for AMRITA (nice clue, though).
Did anyone else try to work ELI(o)T into 15a? It would go, of course!
A first for us – a Pasquale finished the same day! Normally, his are given up in frustration half-done…
Actually, not quite done – I’d guessed 14a was AMDIBA (I am Di, BA), a made-up word, but just as plausible as the actual answer if you don’t know it.
I still don’t feel the TIMES of 9a is properly clued, surely ‘When St David is celebrated’ is just MAR1 ?
Just a minor niggle though, no complaints about the rest of it 🙂
sorry, “his are usually given up in frustration half-done”
Thanks Pasquale and manehi.
Mr Beaver @ 27: ‘times’ is clued by ‘by’, as in ‘two by two is four’.
hth
me @26
I meant WASHPOT rather than MOAB, of course.
I really didn’t like this. Indeed, this is the poorest puzzle by this setter that I’ve tried to solve. I got ONAGERS because it was the only anagram I could get to fit with the crossers. Never heard of the war machine. Last two in were NETT and PUTT. Liked the latter but didn’t understand the former until coming here. The rest of it was-I don’t know- bitty and I didn’t enjoy it!
Tomorrow is another day.
me again
ELI(o)T wouldn’t go, of course – it’s amazing how many times I manage to leave out a “n’t”; I sometimes wonder if the site filters them!
I didn’t know ONAGERS as war machines, but it was the only sensible anagram.
I also thought it should be Wallis – took me a while to realise I was on the right track!
Muffin. Yes I tried to shoehorn Eliot into 15a too. In the end the only one I didn’t get was Rushdie. Kicking myself now.
The first few clues I tried came out quickly, but then I was stuck for quite a while. The left side was completed with the right side almost bare. Even so, I found this relatively easy for a Pasquale.
I couldn’t parse OPOSSUM, but now I’m kicking myself for not seeing it as I love “Old Possum”. ONAGERS puzzled me until I googled it as, like others here, I only knew the animal. I took the clue for HENCEFORTH as “unhappy to have just missed podium” indicating FOURTH, and “not seen as superior” instructing us to remove the U for “superior”. I thought WALLACE/Wallis was intentional, with “makes you think of” indicating the homophone.
Thanks, Pasquale and manehi.
Thanks Pasquale and manihi
This one took the elapsed second half of the day to complete with the customary new learning of obscure words and lesser known definitions of common words.
The good thing with this setter is that the obscure words are generally clued clearly enough to at least generate an answer that can be verified with references.
Didn’t parse 12a properly – couldn’t understand the purpose of ‘unhappy’ but think that it does supply the U now. RAMP was one of the rare times that I actually used the ‘Check’ facility, thankfully with the right answer ! Took the easy option of making it a anagram rather than shifting the first letter though.
Finished mainly in the NW corner with MARITIMES (clever word play for a previously unknown region of Canada), AMRITA (even cleverer word play on an even less known Hindu word) and then back down to the SE with RAMP last in.
21a “beginning to move” is used in 2 ways – as part of the definition and an instruction to move the P. This threw me.
I don’t see game and tie as equivalents. You can say “the game was a tie,” but then you can also say “the game was a bore”, which doesn’t make bore and tie equivalents either. You can’t say “we played a tie”. Can somebody come up with a sentence that works for both?
What does “podium” have to do with “fourth”?
“Did you ever hark to the jackass wild, which scientists call the onager? It sounds like the laugh of an idiot child, or a hepcat on a harmoniger.” (Ogden Nash)
Valentine @38 – tie as a game in a cup competition – straightforward equivalence in that context. And podium places in medal award ceremonies are usually for first, second and third, with fourth standing sadly by.
Simon @29 – Ah yes, makes sense now. Cunning use of an apparently insignificant word. Belated thanks…
Agree with you on all that you said.
So nice of you to comment on here. I starting learning how to do crytic crosswords only last year but I’m still pretty amateur and further compounded by the fact that I’m not English by birth most times when I see your crosswords I start to sweat. Thanks for the new words to add to my vocabulary. Any tips on how to get better at solving crytic crosswords by chance?
Ironically SIMPSON was the 1st one I got because of “Wallis”. If Pasquale didn’t advise the Guardian of this then I would have been still figuring a way to start the grid!
Thanks Pasquale and manehi.
So one needed to be familiar with The Simpsons, The Sopranos, the film educating Rita and the Stephen Fry autobiography to complete this without aids? I wasn’t so needed to use them.
I also got one wrong! At 21ac I went for TARP which I can see was completely wrong but being used to construction where you don’t let a tipper truck start it’s journey unless it is properly “tarped” then it did make sense.
I had 12ac as an all in one – so (thus) unhappy to have missed podium (fourth) not seen as superior (take out the U) looking ahead (HENCEFORTH).
All in all OK but not my favourite by a long chalk.