Solving time 7:38
Well, easier than the last couple of days for this solver at least. I got off to a reasonable start, not getting 1A immediately, but deciding to look at the downs for it, and then making smooth though not very quick progress through the rest from top to bottom, except for needing to come back for 8 and 12 at the end. My COD nomination is 16D as I think some of the other gems have appeared before.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | CANDID – The works are Candide (Voltaire) and Candida (Shaw). I knew the first from the Leonard Bernstein version (well worth a go for some entertaining lyrics from Sondheim and others) and the second seemed plausible. |
5 | PAWNS = people used, HOP = dance. “Uncle” is a slang pawnbrowker |
9 | HOUSESIT – arguably hyphenated. Hidden word |
11 | N(A POLE)ON |
12 | R.E.,DEEM=judge (vb.). R.E. = Religious Education, which I think was the term used when I was at school. Watch out for R.I. (Instruction) too. |
13 | GRA(DIE)NT – ref. Ulysses S. Grant, Union general in the Civil War and later President. |
17 | WASH – 2 defs, inc. the colloquial “bear investigation” |
19 | FOLLOWER – 2 defs |
20 | H,(I.D.)DEN |
21 | NEPOTIST – anag & lit. |
22 | VAN,I,SH! |
23 | RE-PROVED |
24 | NORM,ANDY – ref. William the Conqueror |
25 | RUFF(L)E – the ruff(e) is the fish that’s also “pope” |
 | |
Down | |
2 | A,DOR(A.B.,L)Y – a dory is a kind of boat as well as a fish |
3 | D(1’S,L)ODGE |
4 | DE(SPER=reps rev.),AD,O = band, as on a cigar |
5 | POTENTIAL ENERGY – a nicely done clue for the interesting kind of scientific term, exploiting the strict meaning of “work” in physics. Possibly a bit too soon after a clue for KINETIC ENERGY along very similar lines, unless someone’s going to tell me that was in a different paper. |
7 | (w)HY,(i)S,(i)T,(h)ER,(c)IA – this kind of trick with a phrase is a Times xwd classic, though the surface here wasn’t terribly convincing (“her CIA”?) so it fell straightaway. |
8 | P(OLYM(pics))ATH – ‘not half!’ is another standard Times trick, but the “in a way” part was nicely disguised so it took at least two looks. |
14 | N,E,W,S,P.(APE)R. – if the Cardinal / primate link is original, very well done! |
15 | TAX HAVEN – def. and cryptic def. |
16 | PARDONER – one of Chaucer’s pilgrims. To pardon a criminal is to go further than commuting their sentence. |
17 | WRITE OFF = “right off” |
18 | SEASHELL – ref. the tongue-twister |
19 | FREE=familiar=bold,S.(I)A. Semi-&lit – see Jimbo’s comment & my response |
I saw the “Cardinal” in the clue for 14d, and the checked letters for “NEW”, and spent quite a while trying to fit NEWMAN into it, being firmly convinced that all Cardinals in Crosswords must be NEWMAN! A good clue though when I finally sorted it out.
Nice to see General Grant as a change from Lee.
I nominate 14D as COD, and I think that may have been the one Peter meant to pick too?
I agree a much easier puzzle – about 25 minutes to solve working steadily down from top to bottom – but great fun. I’m putting in a bid for 19D to be &lit because the freesia is a South African flower. 16D was my last to go in. I thought I remembered PARDONER from Chaucer and was about to guess that as my answer when the different meaning of commute hit me. Very clever.
I took a little time getting started on the LH side, not helped by the literary reference at 1ac for which I needed the checking letters in place, but again, once I had a foothold, it gradually came together and I finished in about 40 minutes with several outstanding queries which I have since resolved.
Thinking of different types of energy the other day when “kinetic” came up was time well spent as I was able to solve the long answer at 5dn as soon as the checking letter ‘P’ was in place.
I had noted 17ac as my COD but having worked out the logic in 16dn I’m going for that instead.
[I wrote the above before the blog was available for comment and I now see Peter has gone for the same one. It’s very clever, I think]
For COD I was torn between Peter B’s 16 dn and the witty anagram at 21 ac. I had P, the first letter of 16 dn, so it became a matter of dredging up all the names of Chaucerian pilgrims that I could remember until I found one that fitted. Only then did the beautifully disguised alternative definition of “commuter” break through the mental cobwebs. (Grumpy old man “Harrumph!” moment: The Pardoner’s Tale, I seem to recall, was a set book in my O Level English exam back in the 1950s when we still had English exams and set books.) The surface reading at 21 ac was very nice, and a neat description of the answer, but in the end, I felt, the anagram was a shade too easy to spot for a COD. So my nomination goes to 16 dn.
Michael H
Tom B.
[Pilgrim’s Progress is the later (1678) work by John Bunyan, from which we get “the Slough of Despond”.]
I knew that, honestly, my brain wasn’t engaged. My credentials as a leading literary authority have been blown out of the water
Yet, on reflection, I should have been quicker – challenged fairly and squarely and made to work hard to complete it. First answer in was the very easy 15A, a blank until 21 which I knew was an &lit anagram but just couldn’t do the 8-letter shuffle for a long time. Next on the list was 5D which at least offered ENERGY as a very familiar starting point. 6D, nice and easy. 18D almost too easy.
So with only a handful (excluding a finger or two) filled in it was time to concentrate on the open letters, and it all turned into a bit of a slog, enjoyable nonetheless.
In the end there were several ticks, the biggest being next to 11 which I think is terrific – COD for me.
I liked ‘people used’ to indicate ‘pawns’ in 5a, and the clues for 4, 14 an 16. I think I’ll settle for 5 across as COD – nice surface and deceptive wordplay.
A few clues that were almost too easy, and had me looking for some fiendish trick that wasn’t there, but some witty stuff, too, all mentioned above by others. Worth the solving for PARDONER alone. And I really enjoyed the TAX HAVEN (who wouldn’t) and NEWSPAPER.
Well done to 7dp and JPM for engaging warp drive.
I, too, liked 5a and 16d
JohnPMarshall
KE: Capacity for work masses still don’t have (7,6)
PE: Capacity for work masses still have (9,6)
So the difference between the clues is precisely the difference between the terms. Here’s an explanation based on a roller coaster. The only possible issue I can see is with the poetic word order in “masses still”, but that’s common to both.
It was only when writing this that I saw how close the clues are. This suggests that the two puzzles are from the same setter, though it’s the editor’s choice to print them just eight days apart. (And it seems that unless some news story suddenly makes a clue or answer inappropriate, the date of publication is decided several weeks in advance.)
I thought Napoleon and pawnshop were both very good.
I slowed myself up on 9 by having unaccountably entered ADMIRABLY for 2d. This took an extraordinary level of numptiness to achieve given that 1) it doesn’t fit the definition, 2) it doesn’t fit the wordplay and 3) it doesn’t even fit the light having one too many letters. I’d cleverly side-stepped this last problem by omitting the ‘i’. All I’ll say in my defence (or defense for Dorosatt) is that the train was pulling into Kings Cross as I wrote so I was rushed.
1a went in quickly as Candide was one of the set texts when I did French A level (when we still had French exams and set books). “Si c’est le meilleur des mondes possible, que sont donc les autres?”, as my old nan used to say when she was putting her smalls through the mangle.
Well done to John M on the PB and 7dP for beating Peter (for the first time?)
Quite an easy one this yet only 3 omissions from the blog:
10a Omit a line in religious book (6)
MISS A L
15a Produce characters of a certain kind (4)
TYPE
6d Least sophisticated (natives)* transformed (7)
NAIVEST