26278, in which much is owed to Billy Joe, Gollum, J. R. Hartley, and Shakespeare

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
….not to mention Herman Melville, Jill Mansell, Michael Crichton and Harriet Beecher Stowe. And the man who wrote “any time not spent on love is wasted.” Which rather puts us logophiles firmly in our place, as I’m sure our significant others would confirm. So book-infested is this puzzle that, with a bit of clue treatment and a couple of misprints, this could easily turn up again as a TLS puzzle, and might well. There are a few scraps thrown to the more scientifically-minded, I suppose, with some meteorology, geometry and pre-LED lighting technology, but you can tell the setter’s heart’s not in it. I took 17.36, trying, but not quite succeeding, to parse everyrhing on the way though and checking carefully to ensure nul points in the error column. Here’s what I thunk:

Across

1 ARC-LAMP   light
A CLAMP (that sort of brace) cuddles the front of Reading
5 FATIGUE  exhaustion
Decide destiny is FATE, initially in is I, and 50% of men is GUys, and assemble.
9 PROFUSELY  in great abundance
Most crossword sees are ELY. Academics, or PROFS, surround U(niversity) and are placed ahead of the Ship of the Fens
10 SHEAF  bundle
Take bosS ultimately, and HE man, with A F(ollowing)
11 CATER Provide
Hidden in musiC AT ERfurt. This time you don’t need to know anything about Erfurt to get the entry, but as it happens, music at Erfurt was almost certainly Pachelbel’s greatest hit.
12 INAMORATO  lover
Very shortly provides IN A MO, and an O(ld) TAR rebuffed or reversed provides the rest, and makes sure you put an O on the end, not an A
14 A WALK IN THE PARK  A piece of cake
…or something a Setter might enjoy if he were a dog rather than a crossword compiler, though what do I know?
17 UNCLE TOM’S CABIN  novel
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s pioneering anti-slavery tract/loathsome racist stereotyping (take your pick). Here’s how our version is created: Cat is TOM, pawnbroker’s car is UNCLE’S CAB, and “in” is – um – IN. Insert part 1 into part 2, and attach part 3 to the rear.
21 APPETISER  hors-d’ouvre
The letters of PRAISE are redistributed around your favourite PET
23 ALIEN Extraterrestrial
Brings together two of the greatest space pioneers of all time (so far). If not Yuri G(agarin) then NEIL A(rmstrong) the latter being “brought back”. My favourite of the day. Gagarin’s incredibly courageous flight was 54 years ago. Arrrgh!
24 SCANT Inadequate
Two standards: container is CAN, street, ST. Assemble
25 KITTIWAKE  Seabird
A “said” KITTY or pool (think poker) and a ship’s track to provide the WAKE. A migratory visitor from a very recent ST grid.
26 CONCERN  business
Or indeed, “have something to do with”
27 SEGMENT  Part of circle
Ecstatic gives SENT, English E, and variety of crop is the genetically modified version, GM. Assemble.

Down

1 ASPECT Outlook
Poisonous type is ASP, City (the postcode) is EC plus T(rader) “originally”
2 CHOCTAW native of SE USA
H(ot) OCT(ober) in CA(lifornia) plus W(ith). And yes, you have heard the word (earworm alert). Choctaw Ridge is the location of the Talahatchie Bridge, from which Billy Joe leapt to his doom in Bobby Gentry’s song.
3 AQUARELLE  [watercolour] painting
A row is A QUARREL, in which you are invited to ignore one R(ight) before placing the mutilated collection over the French for “the”. That’ll be LE, then.
4 PRECIPITOUS  very steep
Treasured indicates PRECIOUS, Gollum’s epithet for “his” One Ring. A mine is a PIT. Surround one with the other.
5 FLY  Canny
Or a fisherman’s fly. I’ll risk saying that a doctor is a type of fly as used by J R Hartley. The only time I went fishing, I caught my own top lip, and vowed never to do that to a fish.
6 TASSO  Poet
Two S(ons) are taken by TAO, Chinese philosophy. Torquato Tasso is, it turns out, not Latin but 15th century Italian. Thought highly of love, as his quote above indicates
7 GRENADA  Caribbean Island
Our politician is a GREEN, with the central E taken out. Add AD for publicity and the remaining A.
8 ELFLOCKS  Tangled hair
Turns up in the Queen Mab verses in Romeo and Juliet. Probably easier to get from the wordplay. The Spanish congregations are (slightly ungrammatically) el flocks.
13 ALTOSTRATUS  cloud
Working girls are TARTS (not necessarily my opinion), here inverted in a confusion of LOUTS and tagged onto the remaining A in the clue.
15 EMANATING  proceeding
Put the letters of GENT and MANIA together and stir (“misguided”).
16 JURASSIC  of a certain age
Scottish island JURA and SIC (thus) accomodate the S(outh) pole
18 CAPTAIN  Ahab was one
Liable provides APT, and Adam’s loins produce CAIN with a bit of help from Eve. Insert one into the other.
19 IMITATE  copy
Fellow, for no particular reason, gives TIM. Add I and invert, and add A note TE.
20 INGEST  Do this to food…
… and think “goodness, that sounds a lot like in jest”
22 TITHE  tax
Article is THE, and wine is IT, short for Italial Vermouth, as in gin and it
25 KIN  family
Peel is sKIN, lose the S, the last letter of Whigs, as instructed

56 comments on “26278, in which much is owed to Billy Joe, Gollum, J. R. Hartley, and Shakespeare”

  2. When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws/They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws./T’was the women not the warriors made those stout enthusiasts pale/ For – all together now ….
  4. Did you know that Robert Peel actually dismissed the last of the Whigs (UK political group) in 1868, so the entire clue makes sense too!
    25D Last of the Whigs dismissed by Peel’s family?

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