26314 I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
20.07, with quite a lot of time making sure the parsing was right in this tricky little number. Another grid with a bit of a TLS feel to it, what with  vaguely defined stageworks and a few books thrown in. It also contains the most violent insertion indicator I can remember, and a top quality “hidden” clue, categorised as such by managing to be (almost) my last entry. Credit to the setter for some really smooth surfaces, particularly ones like 6 which deftly guide you away from the laconic definition.
As always, my exposition is delivered E&OE (errors and omissions expected). So:

Across

1 ATTACKED  criticised
You have a generous A to start with and you need something that sounds like “sensitivity” for which understand “tact”. TACKED is to be -um- tacked on.
9 ILLUSORY  deceptive
A neat “manouevering” of the letters of OUR SILLY
10 REMOTE  Far
Yup, thet;s the definition, which must be forcibly removed from its frequent neighbour “right” Right is there to donate its first letter, and “give vent to feelings” is EMOTE
11 PROPERTIES  …these
Something of an &lit. Suitable is PROPER, and SITE is “developed” to give TIES
12 PILL some medicine
Accidentally lose is SPILL  – you can let some medicine flow on from there without losing the wordplay. All you present to the grid is the bit of spill that comes after the opening. Rather a decent way of showing an omission, I thought, out of the common run. Apropos of nothing much, I have fond memories of the Baptist Church in the village of Pill, now in the shadow of the M5 Avon bridge, whence pilots for the tidal trip up the Avon to the Float Narbour in Bristle.
13 TANNHAUSER  stage work
By Wagner, with possibly the riskiest piece of Choral singing  ever committed to the staves. The Pilgim’s Chorus has a long, slow stretch for male voices before the orchestra comes majestically in. I have a professional recording in which, at that point, the choir is a little more than a tone flat. Oh yes, the clue. An extraordinary rendition of UNEARTHS AN, with an added umlaut if you so choose (though 15 then looks rather odd).
16 RESPRAY One given new coat
Take off the extremes of dRESs, for they are not, and add PRAY for “may I ask?” My last in.
17 CASSIUS  Conspirator
…with Brutus et al in the Tragedie of Julius Caesar. The college is the wholly anacronistic CAIUS, into which you insert a couple of S(ons). If you’re wondering, and you’re not that familiar with Fenland Poly (sponsored by Microsoft), it’s pronounced keys and has a Gonville on the front.
20 STREAKIEST  the most uneven in quaiity
A definition found in Chambers. the last letter of dineR, “cut” into STEAK (undoubtedly an example of meat), IE for “that is” and ST(reet) for way. Bingo.
22 AURA  Atmosphere
I so couldn’t see the word hidden in restAURAnt that I played for a while with AIRE – those stopover places on French Autoroutes. Doesn’t work.
23 HEMISPHERE  a half of football.
I couldn’t fit in “25 minutes into the match when Spurs, despite ceaseless attacks and 70% possession, have failed to beat Leicester’s defences in the FA Cup replay” so I had to drop “this point in” from the definition and settle for the product of 1’S (ones) P (quiet) on HEM (edge) HERE at  this point and a bit of verbal ikebana. PS. If Spurs can sign a Centre Forward called Head, we could field a front line of Onomah Head Son. A thing of beauty.
25 AMIDST Surrounded by
I quite liked the otherwise redundant “some” poor visibility, which actually points to A MIST, not just MIST. Stick D(ied) therein.
26 MOSQUITO  droning irritant
SQUIT is your wretched person, and MOO answers to low (verb, intransitive, bovine) Exercise for the student: work out which surrounds which.
27 PEER GYNT play
Probably best known for the incidental music Grieg provided to back up Ibsen’s words. Da da da da dada dum, dada dum, dada dum… This arrangement by our setter obliges us to write PEER for “look at”, GY for “extremely G(loom)Y, and N(ew) T(estament) for books.

Down

2 TREE LINE limit of growth
Where the green stops and the grey begins. Point is TINE, which you wrap around REEL, that part of a film.
3 APOCALYPSE  (This) last book
If you were to add “Now”, you’d get the film with the helicopter gunships flying to the “Ride of the Valkyries”. The Apocalypse is an alternative name given to the Revelation to John the Divine, the last of the (undisputed, more or less) bible books.
4 KEEP IT DARK  Don’t tell anyone
..or I don’t want dawn to break. I see a red door….
5 DISOWNS Has nothing to do with
Hills might be DOWNS, insert 1’S
6 FLOE One calving, perhaps
Nothing to do with cows (unless the glaciers revive and reach the Isle of Wight) Calving: when a lump of ice breaks from the main floe. Smooth progress, flow, is a close enough soundalike.
7 TO BITS  so very much loved
TOBIT is one of the books that didn’t make it into the biblical canon for protestants, but did for Orthodo and Roman Catholic churches. Add the ‘S and split to suit.
8 EYESORES  unatractive prospects.
Only the ROSE is “coming up”. The point is E(ast) and certainly YES. Assemble
14 HEARTSEASE  One blooming.
Write in HE for fellow (I think we just ignore the ‘s here), add EASE for comfort, and insert ARTS for comfort (unless you think ignoring the ‘S is just wrong, in which case culture is just ART)
15 UPSTANDING  honest
Best man: “be upstanding for the bride and groom”. Liked this one well.
16 REST HOME an old institution
Slightly Yoda-sh definition, and an anagram (refurbished) of MOST HERE
18 UNREASON  lack of logic
Let those NEURONS decay and insert an A(nswer)
19 DEVELOP  (to) grow
Made up of D(aughter), EVE (our mother), LO (look) going after, and P(ressure)
21 REMISS  Negligent
A R(eligious) E(ducation) MISS, which may by now, for all I know, be a politically incorrect, gender-stereotyping address to your teacher.
24 PAIN  Result…
Another &lit. PAN is, or has been, slang for face, though the etymology appears to be disputed. Smash in that 1 (one). Ouch.

40 comments on “26314 I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

  1. Had to resort to the alphabet run at 6d, and as almost always, I managed to overlook the right letter (had ‘flue’ though). It helped (helped me to miss FLOE) that I didn’t know the requisite meaning. Finally settled on ‘blue’ (whales calve, blue whale, …). I actually flung in ‘revelation’ at 3d, pulled it out almost immediately and only later remembered APOCALYPSE. (If I recall, the book was rather a long time coming as a part of the canon. A pity it ever made it.) Liked TO BITS, hated FLOE, of course.
  2. 63 minutes, with several blind alleys taken – not knowing KEEP IT DARK, as opposed to ‘keep in dark’; not knowing how to spell TANNHAUSER; being certain 15d must begin with ‘un’.

    I vaguely remembered TOBIT – what a superb literal that is – and took a punt on FLOE without knowing how ‘calving’ fitted in.

    By the way, I don’t think we need ignore the ‘s’ at 14d, if ART is in HES + EASE.

    Thanks for the blog, Zed, and a nod to the setter for a very creative offering.

  3. Never heard of Tobit and it’s not currently in contention for my “must read” list. Possibly should have got TO BITS anyway, but I didn’t, so there.

    Also had KEEP IN DARK for a long time, which made TANNHAUSER difficult.

    As a result, I didn’t enjoy this one so much, more a reflection on me than on the setter I’m sure. Thanks for the blog Z.

  4. Just crept home under the hour (58 minutes actually) but with TO BITS and PAIN unparsed. I assumed PAN was slang for face but couldn’t find it in any of the usual sources, though it may be in one or more of them, tucked away. Wasted time thinking VIAL 12ac, though not a medicine in itself it often contains it. Was pleased to remember calves in connection with ice-floes.
  5. Chewy and educative — and that’s just the blog (thanks, Z8). Very satisfying puzzle, too, if you didn’t mess it up.

    19 minutes to solve, but for some reason I decided that the anagram fodder led to Tanthauser, which sounded sort of familiar Oh, well.

    Occultists everywhere will want to point out that Aleister Crowley also wrote a Tannhauser.

    Despite all the meatier offerings, my heart was won by REMISS. That’s so sweet.

  6. Put me down for FLUE and PAID, being finally defeated by 7d. Although familiar with the tale of Tobias and the Angel, the actual book never occurred to me.
    An interesting thing about Grieg’s music for that unlovable anti-hero is that the other big tune “Da, da, da, da, da, da, da; da, da, da, da, diddle-dum-dum” (i.e. Morning) does not represent the dewy tree-clad fjords as popularly thought but is actually set in the desert.

  7. Didn’t get TO BITS, or the unknown TANNHAUSER (which wasn’t helped by not knowing if 4dn should have been ‘in’ or ‘it’). All others ok, if tricky. FLOE was my second one in. Memories of the beautiful Jökulsárlón Glacier that we visited in Iceland last year.
  8. 17m, which didn’t smell like victory at the time but doesn’t look too bad now I see how others fared.
    Nothing unknown today, although the book of Tobit only rang a vague bell, and I had to count the vowels to be sure it wasn’t TANNHEUSER. Even the dreaded plant was familiar, from past crosswords of course. UPSTANDING was my last in, and it took me a few minutes to stop assuming that it started UN-.
    I enjoyed this one a lot, because there was very little biffing involved. So thanks to the setter, and to the blogger for an (as ever) entertaining blog.

    Edited at 2016-01-21 10:32 am (UTC)

  9. A lot of cunning in these clues – very good stuff. Loved the iceberg calving and had to dredge memory for TOBIT. Luckily 13A was an anagram because I can never remember how to spell it either!

    Well blogged as ever z8 – thanks to you and setter

    Edited at 2016-01-21 10:05 am (UTC)

  10. As Z suggests, veterans of the TLS school of crossword solving will have taken this in stride, although I must say there was a fair bit of convoluted parsing (I only fully unravelled EYESORE post submit). I toyed with PHIZ for 24d – ouch indeed. Good one and many thanks to my fellow Thursday blogger.
  11. DNF after 40 minutes (again) with just TO BITS remaining. Should have got it from “so very much loved” alone even if I didn’t know the book. How remiss of me (I’ll look out for remaster next).
    Excellent crossword ….. one of the Greats as Lane Fox might say.
  12. . . . . love it – but aren’t Spurs forwards all a bit lacking in height to warrant high crosses?
        1. Ah yes, quite right. Lots of big hair and, as I recall, quite a bit of flailing elbows when the action hotted up.
    2. One of Our Own is 6’2″ in his socks, and our boys at the back are the same, but yes, we did once have the 9’13” Crouch to call on. Mind you, he usually scored with anything but his head – a sort of random vector generating device that confused everyone.
      1. Crouchy spawned gazillions of photoshopped gags – google “peter crouch meme.”
        Most remembered for scoring the goal that knocked Milan out of CL, after they’d battered Spurs home and away for 180 min but somehow failed to score. Back when Milan were OK.

        20:38, with PAIN and TO BITS total guesses, not knowing PAN or TOBIT (T’HOBBIT?) But thinking icebergs as soon as I saw calving. That’s a pretty good time for me, seeing everyone else’s efforts.
        Rob

  13. Undone by putting in KEEP IN DARK and NANTHAUSER today. The former sounds much more familiar to me than KEEP IT DARK and I didn’t know TANNHAUSER so NANTHAUSER seemed plausible.

    Good blog thanks Z – references to the mighty Spurs always welcome!

  15. After a success with yesterday’s puzzle this proved a challenge. But thank you setter and also excellent blog as I’m sure this will develop my overall skills (crosswords not culinary). As a Notlob supporter we frequently batter the opposition in the last minute being 0-3 down.
    Charlie “don’t surf”
  16. Tricky one this, and I never quite got on the wavelength of the setter, in the end I had question marks next to KEEP IT DARK, FLOE and TO BITS – the first not a phrase I have come across, the second not remembering the icebergy bit, and the third was just a guess from definition.
  17. 21:47. Knew TANNHAUSER from the music, HEARTSEASE as a regular plant in Crosswordland and TOBIT from a suffocatingly over-religious prepschool education. My wife of many years is still called MISS by her pupils and would not have it any other way. (MISSUS?)
    [on edit] Actually, she tells me that they call her what they like as long as it is respectful eg not MISSUS but Mrs Bigtone.

    Edited at 2016-01-21 08:45 pm (UTC)

  18. This has definitely been a tougher week than last, and today I was undone by TO BITS. I may have got it eventually from the definition but I’ve never, ever heard of the book so it was tricky in the extreme and I just left it blank after 20 minutes.

    At 24 I just made an association between face and dead-pan.

  19. Excellent crossword, all completed and parsed in 40 minutes, with one exception. Got TO BITS from the cryptic having never heard of the book. I’m sure I remembered that Icebergs ‘calve’ from a recent Times 15 x 15 (last few months?), so was pleased to get this fairly easily. (Obviously, icebergs don’t ‘calve’ from Times crosswords, but I remembered the connection from there!).

    I liked REMISS, REMOTE and UPSTANDING best of all.

    Please note: as a lifelong supporter of the Foxes through the best and worst of times, I have found the references to Spurs above insensitive, although still highly amusing.

    1. Two draws, one win each this season looks pretty honourable to me, and a more even result than you usually get when foxes play chickens. If we’re not going to win the league this year you’re definitely my second choice: a fine team surprising everybody, including their fans, I suspect. But whisper it quietly, perhaps – wouldn’t want to upset those touchy Gunners hereabouts
  20. Took me 30 minutes, ending with TO BITS as a biff. No prior knowledge of the book in my head, so the parsing never went anywhere. And I don’t care what the dictionaries say, ‘pan’ as US slang for ‘face’ isn’t accurate, at least during my long career living here (which means my entire life). But a good puzzle, thanks to the setter and Z. Regards.
  21. Stared and stared at the end at 24 but had to cease upon the midnight with no pain. Biffed phiz instead. What’s with the football’s hemisphere? About the most unlikely of globes to possess one I’d have thought. A lot of sharp clues – that’s the stuff.

    1. I did think about cracking some sort of witticism on what half a football really looks like, but I just thought it would fall flat.

      Edited at 2016-01-21 08:34 pm (UTC)

  22. Another DNF – undone by FLOE which living so close to Andy Capp’s town is a bit of a disgrace really. Never heard of the book nor the iceberg so happy to get as far as I did. Enjoyed the blog though.
  23. DNF by some way, despite a flying start. Blog makes it clear what a good puzzle it is, thanks to all. Liked 15d, which I got from the second half of the clue.
  24. It was quite a struggle but I got there in the end. TO BITS was last in – I didn’t remember the book so biffed it. I once had to play the piano transcription of the Pilgrims Chorus for a local choir. It’s a nightmare. All those semiquavers (or demisemiquavers). Fortunately it was only for a rehearsal. I’m very late on here tonight but I didn’t have time before I went to choir practice.(Elijah not Tannheuser!) 33 minutes today. Ann
  25. 9:47 for me, going pretty well until held up at the end by PROPERTIES and TO BITS, the latter coming quickly enough once I had the I in place. Apart from the former, there was nothing to cause any significant hold-up to this experienced TLS solver.

    Another interesting and enjoyable puzzle.

  26. The umlaut in Tannhäuser is on the ‘a’ not the ‘u’ so 15 down would not look funny

    1. Ah. Yes. You have to acknowledge it would look even funnier if the umlaut were on the U, then. E&OE. Told you.

  27. After yesterday’s fail, I refused to let this one die on the table and hacked away at it for an inordinate amount of time, hence my late arrival here. Well over the hour, with the top half holding me up.

    I took an inordinate amount of time to unscramble ILLUSORY, and an even inordinater amount to see ATTACKED (which should have been easy) and TREE LINE.

    TO BITS was my LOI, and I had not the faintest whiff an idea of how to parse it. Come to think of it, I didn’t get the biblical reference for APOCALYPSE either – I think I was off sick the day we did religion. No doubt there are umpteen other biblical books that didn’t make the director’s cut, or were published under alternative names.

    Frankly, I’m just glad to have finished this one before the gin ran out.

  28. Took a long time – over 60 minutes – but never got stuck, unlike yesterday’s real horror, obscurity after obscurity defined by obscurities. (So I found it obscure then.)

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