All good stuff from as we have come to expect, thanks Paul.
I will be away on holiday when this is published so will probably not be able to answer any queries. Any major gaffes from me please point them out and Gaufrid has kindly offered to fix them for me.
PS I liked BOTTOMLESS – is Paul pointing out that there is no toilet humour in this puzzle?
| Across | ||
| 8 | COCA-COLA | Drink in a pub not entirely cold sent back by military commander (4-4) |
| A LOCAl (pub, not entirely) revresed (sent back) and C (cold) all following (by) OC (officer in charge, military commander) | ||
| 9 | AMUSE | Delight in the morning milk (5) |
| AM (in the morning) and USE (milk) | ||
| 10 | EPEE | Weapon observed during the peepshow (4) |
| found inside (observed during) thE PEEpshow | ||
| 11 | BOTTOMLESS | Very deep saying recalled, amid praise (10) |
| MOTTO (saying) reversed (recalled) inside BLESS (praise) | ||
| 12 | OEUVRE | One’s emptied volume into river, the entire works (6) |
| OnE (emptied, no middle letters) then V (volume) in URE (Yorkshire river) | ||
| 14 | CLIMBING | Member, in being welcomed by leaders in Chinese government, on the up (8) |
| LIMB (member) IN inside (being welcomed by) first letters (leaders) of Chinese and Government | ||
| 15 | STUCK ON | Infatuated with food, boy guzzles (5,2) |
| TUCK (food) inside (guzzled by) SON (boy) | ||
| 17 | PADLOCK | Within walls of park, a bitter brought over for one of those on the gate? (7) |
| ParK (outer letters, walls of) contains (with…within) A and COLD (bitter) reversed (brought over) | ||
| 20 | HALF A TON | Drinking stout, the highlight of sainthood Brendan finally put on some weight! (4,1,3) |
| FAT (stout) inside (drunk by) HALO (the highlight of sainthood) with brendoN (final letter of) | ||
| 22 | PROZAC | Drug for case of zoophobia, heading for cage (6) |
| PRO (for) then ZoophobiA (case of, outer letters) and Cage (heading, first letter) | ||
| 23 | METROPOLIS | City, capital city, one becoming nothing in endless chaos (10) |
| TRiPOLI (capital city) with I (one) becoming O (nothing) in MESs (chaos, endless) | ||
| 24 | FOIL | Scotch is a weapon (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 25, 2 | POUND CAKE | It’s rich to serve rum and coke up! (5,4) |
| anagram (to serve rum) AND COKE UP | ||
| 26 | TEENAGER | One beyond twelve brewing green tea (8) |
| anagram (brewing) of GREEN TEA | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SOPPIEST | Alcoholic drinking Pepsi sadly, most sentimental (8) |
| SOT (alcoholic) contains (drinks) PEPSI* anagram=sadly | ||
| 2 | See 25 | |
| 3 | DOUBLE | One drink or two taking effect on blue fluid (6) |
| DO (effect) on BLUE* anagram=fluid | ||
| 4 | LATTICE | Framework I see in coffee (7) |
| I C (see, name of letter) in LATTE (coffee) | ||
| 5 | MAJOLICA | Pottery, a jar cut in isinglass (8) |
| A JOLt (jat, cut short) inside MICA (isinglass) | ||
| 6 | HULLABALOO | A singing bear going after port — uproar! (10) |
| A then BALOO (a singing bear, from Disney’s Jungle Book) following HULL (port) | ||
| 7 | SEASON | Those seven sailed, one short, one of four (6) |
| SEAS (those seven sailed) and ONe (shortened) | ||
| 13 | VOCIFEROUS | Loud, very boisterous of course, one must be restrained (10) |
| V (very) then anagram (boisterous) of OF COURSE containing (with…restrained) I (one) | ||
| 16 | OCTOPODS | In middle of moss, fish eating finest molluscs (8) |
| mOSs (middle of) contains (with…in) COD (fish) containing (eating) TOP (finest) | ||
| 18 | CLARINET | Notes produced by this wine to drink at home (8) |
| CLARET (wine) contains (to drink) IN (at home) | ||
| 19 | INFLATE | Behind the door of condominium, indulgence ultimately swell (7) |
| IN FLAT (behind the door of condominium) then indulgencE (ultimately, last letter of) | ||
| 21 | ALEPPO | Drink fizzy pop in Levantine city (6) |
| ALE (drink) and POP* anagram=fizzy | ||
| 22 | POSSET | Curdled drink, sweetener served up like jelly (6) |
| SOP (bribe, sweetener) reversed (served up) and SET (like jelly) – a spiced drink made with hot milk curdled with ale | ||
| 24 | FLAG | Colours of spectral phenomena fading, each one’s ending (4) |
| ending letters of oF spectraL phenomenA FadinG | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Thanks both. In 8ac it’s CO for Commanding Officer not OC – only the ALOCAC is indicated to be reversed.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. I found this puzzle a challenge but still easier than Screw’s yesterday. I knew POSSET from Macbeth, 2.2 where Lady Macbeth drugged the possets of Duncan’s grooms but got HULLABALOO without knowing the singing bear. Last in was MAJOLICA where even with all the crossers I had to do a lot of experimenting before I fixed on jol(t) for “jar.” Lots of fun.
Thank you Paul for an enjoyable puzzle and PeeDee for a helpful blog – do hope you are having a good holiday.
I failed to get SEASON, could kick myself, and took a while to get CLARINET, claret is Old French for wine, no longer used and not in the Petit Larousse, so it never comes to my mind. Parsing MAJOLICA took some time.
Usual good stuff from Paul. Liked HULLABALOO,VOCIFEROUS and Clarinet. POUND CAKE was new to me though.
Great fun.
Thanks Paul.
A good workout. I got completely stuck in the NE corner last weekend, but I came back to it this lunchtime and completed it. I was going to quibble about defining BLESS as “praise”, but a quick check online showed that it has that meaning in contexts like the biblical “bless the Lord”. Favourites included HULLABALOO, SEASON and VOCIFEROUS.
Thanks, Paul and PeeDee.
Cookie@3
Chambers defines claret as a red wine, originally a light red but now dark red wines from the Bordeaux region. Presumably it was while the earlier definition was current that Jorrocks said, “None of your thin claretty wines for me”.
Pino @6, thank you, so does my COED, but I live in France, and claret never comes to my mind – I would be very interested to know if anyone in “little England” still uses the term, does one order a glass of CLARET at the local?
Thanks Paul and PeeDee
Came to this one battered and bruised by a not yet completed IO (Financial Times) this morning. Found it on the tougher end of Paul’s scale but was eventually able, with help, to winkle it out in the end, using up way too much of ‘what I should be doing’ time in the process.
Lots of his trademark clever cluing throughout and a couple of new words for me in MAJOLICA and POSSET. I parsed 7a as did Gonzo.
Thought that TEENAGER had a clever definition and liked the clue for CLIMBING.
Finished in the SW corner with VOCIFEROUS, OEUVRE and HALF A TON as the last few in.
I left this for the whole week and wasn’t feeling confident after some poor efforts of late, but am glad I came back and decided to try it. Success at last!
Mind you, I filled in 5d MAJOLICA with no knowledge of it as a term for pottery, only completed by looking up “isinglass”, another unfamiliar word, in an online encyclopaedia, and this obtaining MICA; aJOL(t) being logical from the crossers. So I am with others on this one being tough.
17a PADLOCK and 22d POSSET were favourites. Like ACD@2, I only knew POSSET from that Scottish play.
I enjoyed the “drinks” theme, with Coca-Cola, milk, bitter, stout, Scotch, rum and coke, green tea, Pepsi, double (one drink or two), coffee, a jar, port, wine/claret, fizzy pop and posset all contributing to the theme – and maybe at a stretch, bottomless, guzzle and indulgence????
Sorry, meant to thank Paul and PeeDee.
Julie @10, well done, I completely missed the “drinks” theme!
Don’t remember much about this one, but I’m sure it had its moments. Intriguing that Paul has not been seen this week, but he has been very productive the last couple of years.
Thank to Paul and PeeDee
Thanks PeeDee and Paul.
I continue to marvel at Paul’s perennial creativity.
Slow to get going but entertainingly clued throughout with a new word – MAJOLICA – to file for future reference.
HALF A TON took a while to sort out, as did VOCIFEROUS and METROPOLIS.
Good stuff.
Talking of 11a, it did remind me of one of Paul’s famous Dingbats clues:
Paul 25408: Min? (10,3)
Also found this Bunthorne version, which at least has a definition:
Bunthorne 22661: Pi? Look at it this way; its Hell! (10,3)
Cookie@7
Sorry to be so late to reply. I don’t know that claret was ever a term used at the local but Google reveals that Waitrose (slightly upmarket supermrket chain) currently sells a bottle of “Good Ordinary Claret” for £5.19 a bottle. A far cry from the premier grand crus such as Chateaux Lafite, Latour and Margaux, all of which would be wasted on me.
But then Waitrose also provide Tasting Notes for Special Brew!
For any readers unfamiliar with the product, it’s a particular favourite of park-bench drunkards.