I rather enjoyed this quirky number over 18.44, as a break from the drawn-our tension fest that is the American election process. At the time of writing, the BBC is still rather coy about predicting the result, clearly trying not to raise our hopes unduly lest a late surge in Arizona put the kybosh on a Biden White House. CNN is almost, but not quite, breathing a sigh of relief that the House of Orange looks like losing.
It might be just my impression, but there appear to be more multi-word and hyphenated entries that usual, which can be helpful, and a decent smattering of NATO letters to help things along. Only one entry (at 24) was outside my normal ken, but the wordplay left little doubt. Others might be less sure of the spiny character in 1d or the gentleman at 16, but I hope they don’t detract too much from the pleasure of the chase.
My expositions show the clues in italics, the definition also underlined, and the SOLUTIONS just so.
Across
1 Ready to toy with carelessly, my one and only old mop (8,5)
MONOPOLY MONEY The definition suggests play money, and it’d dealt by a mixture (carelessly) of MY, ONE, ONLY O(ld) and MOP. Trust me, it works.
9 Channel, small, across the pond (5)
SINUS Perhaps not the most immediate synonym for channel, but it is a passage through which liquid passes. S(mall) IN U(nited) S(tates), which is across the pond/Atlantic if you’re on this side of it. American solvers, please pretend.
10 Model, short type, with one child of five (9)
MANNEQUIN I think the shortened type is MANNER (what manner of word do you call that?) and the (one) child of five is a QUIN
11 Where there are no trees, having abandoned home — good being out of the woods! (2,3,5)
IN THE CLEAR My LOI, wondering whether IN THE PLAIN made any sense. In my local forest, there are no trees in the clearing, and if you abandon the IN home and the G(ood) you end up with a version of our definition
12 Visiting Europe, sought change from S America (4)
PESO Our hidden for today, “visiting” EuroPE SOught. Currency in several S American countries (and the Philippines ), originally piece of eight.
14 Degenerate acquired drug to carry round (2,2,3)
GO TO POT The definition is in verbal form, and the rest of the clue needs to be rejigged. Acquired: GOT and drug: POT carry round: O. Respace.
16 Cheers to the left and right in this country for old statesman (7)
Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK (the umlaut is optional) pretty much the creator of the modern Turkish state. TATA for cheers runs to the left, then R(ight) is inserted into UK, this country as the home of the crossword
17 Source, I heard, honestly come by (4-3)
WELL WON Source gives the WELL and I gives the sound of WON, either as an affected version of the personal pronoun, or as a roman one.
19 Asian island, a place tucked away (7)
MALAYAN The Island you seek is MAN, into which A place: LAY is inserted
20 Failure to see case for amateurish boat-builder (4)
NOAH Failure to see provides NO (I think) and the case of AmateurisH the rest of the Arkitect.
21 Fix that’s welcome? (3-2-3-2)
HOW-DO-YOU-DO Another fine mess you got me into, or as WS Gilbert had it in aphetic form in the Mikado:
“Here’s a how-de-do!
If I marry you
When your time has come to perish
Then the maiden whom you cherish
Must be slaughtered, too!”
Two leads to the same phrase.
24 People after area in abandoned section of plant (4,5)
LEAF TRACE Not that I knew the term, but it’s “a branch from the vascular system of the stem destined to enter a leaf.” I believe the equivalence of people an RACE is still ok, and it follows A(rea) in abandoned: LEFT. Respace.
25 Sounded thrilled to have escaped, gradually having change of heart (5)
OOHED I think this is escaped gradually OOZED with a random change of its middle letter
26 Picture tango, with fellow getting closer (3,10)
THE TERMINATOR Tango is NATO for T, add HE for fellow, and closer (something that effects a close, not “nearer”) gives the rest.
Down
1 My twin girls, eg, excited about king character in Potter book (3,5-6)
MRS TIGGY-WINKLE Beatrix Potter’s endearing washerwoman hedgehog. Equally endearingly, St Tiggywinkle’s is a justly celebrated wildlife hospital charity in Buckinghamshire. Mess about excited-ly with MY TWIN GIRLS EG and K(ing)
2 Group that’s got part of the joint jumping? (5)
NONET Nine musicians, the reverse (jumping) of TENON, half of a mortise and- joint
3 Man with fair promotion prospects given hand by Pole (6,4)
PASSED PAWN Chess is our jeu de jour, a pawn (man) that has made it beyond the line of opposing pawns is in line for promotion to a major piece. Given: PASSED, hand: PAW pole (one of two) N. A propos of nothing much, it is reported that our soon to be ex (I hope so, I do, I do) Tweeter in Chief really did write “Votes cannot be cast after the Poles are closed!”
4 Punch landed: so able to be seen by an old nurse? (7)
LAMPLIT A straight charade of punch: LAMP and landed: LIT and a reference to the “the Lady with the Lamp”
5 Grumble after collecting books in a state (7)
MONTANA After grumble: MOAN collects the N(ew) T(estament) books it adds an A for one of the states actually won by the Orange Moaner in Chief. The “in” is a bit misleading, there just for the surface, I think.
6 Victor leaves work, making time for a holiday (4)
NOEL NATO Victor is removed from work: NOVEL for a holiday probably after a brief respite from lockdown this year
7 Condemned a buyout, yet mostly getting expression of approval (3,6)
YOU BEAUTY An antipodean (and apparently Scottish) expression, here a reworking of (condemned) A BUYOUT and most of YET
8 Royal command following, popular with men fit for service (2,7,5)
IN WORKING ORDER Royal command is KING ORDER, made to follow popular: IN, W(ith) and OR men (Other Ranks)
13 Rely on crab moving a fraction of an inch (10)
BARLEYCORN Another anagram (moving) of RELY ON CRAB for an old measurement equivalent to a third of an inch.
15 Don’t report everything subject to discrimination (4,5)
TELL APART If you don’t report everything, you only tell a part. Respace.
18 One recently arrived dined under gaslight (7)
NEONATE I half feared I was going to have to find out what “gaslighting” really meant, but no, it’s just NEON followed by ATE for dined.
19 Halfway through Hilary maybe tried crudely interrupting Mark and Mike (7)
MIDTERM So is this a play on Mrs Clinton and Mr Pence and someone called Mark during the halfway-through elections? Anyway, for us it’s an anagram (crudely) of TRIED set between Deutsche M(ark) and NATO Mike
22 Every so often, turns head to uncover it (5)
UNHAT The even letters (every so often) of tUrNs HeAd To in an &littish sort of clue, head being the thing that is uncovered
23 Blessed fellow dated you — a sore point! (4)
STYE Blessed fellow being ST, and a dated or antique version of you being YE
There were some clever and deceiving clues here, but I was able to parse them all.
My main hold-up was a lot of long anagrams that I just couldn’t crack. Especially difficult was the Potter character. I haven’t read any Beatrix Potter or Harry Potter, so when I finally saw MRS and put the rest of the letters in a coherent order, I assumed it was in fact a character from the Rowling books.
In any case, getting 1 Down was the key to finishing the rest of the puzzle.
I didn’t enjoy this puzzle at all as there were far too many definitions, answers or shades of meaning I didn’t know, or bits of wordplay I was unable to resolve until after I’d completed the grid and consulted various dictionaries and other sources of information.
UNHAT FGS! OOHED. NO OH = ‘failure to see case for amateurish’. BARLEYCORN as fraction of an inch. WELL WON as ‘honestly come by’. SINUS as ‘channel’ instead of the more usual ‘cavity’. LAMPLIT, LEAF TRACE etc etc etc. I’m not disputing any of them, just saying that all these plus more all together in one puzzle did not make for a pleasant solving experience.
Edited at 2020-11-05 12:12 pm (UTC)
Rather too many clunky surfaces and groanworthy clues, I’d have said. And I am a little surprised that more people have not commented on 1D Mrs T-W. I have seldom seen a clue in the 15×15 (indeed not often even in the QC) where the anagram is so blatantly signposted and then in addition the solver is so forcefully directed at the books to find the answer in. Almost the only challenge in the clue is to guess which Potter author is being referred to!
Cedric
Like Z I was unsure about the parsing of MONTANA but having just considered it I think that moan is “collecting books in”.
MONOPOLY MONEY has a figurative as well as a literal meaning.
UNHAT POI, and OOHED, unparsed, LOI.
Is it just me who gets innumerable ads re earwax?
22′ 30″ thanks z and setter.
.. they have passed me by completely, which is strange given that I do in fact benefit from syringing every year or two. Earwax advertisers should not take this as encouragement however, the nurse at my local GP surgery is is more than competent…
Never heard of PASSED PAWN but it was gettable from the wordplay. Never heard of LEAF TRACE either.
Thanks for IN THE CLEAR, Z.
Where I live in NZ, by the coast, sadly, MRS TIGGY-WINKLEs are not popular because they predate on the nests of ground nesting shore birds such as the Dotterels.
No problem with that clue nor with ATATURK, with or without an umlaut, because of the ANZAC connection with Turkey.
I thought OOHED and UNHAT made an ungainly pairing.
COD: LAMPLIT
LOI: THE TERMINATOR.
Edited at 2020-11-05 08:05 am (UTC)
It’s possible you will have heard
The mathematical tale
Of Flo Nightingale
Aw shucks, i just mentioned a bird!
I thought ‘toy’ in 1ac was a bit odd: you play with MONOPOLY MONEY, but you don’t really toy with it. Well you might, I suppose, but no more than you might toy with anything else.
Too much seemed strained and there were a few betes noires: round=O, One doesn’t sound like Won, the ‘tucked away’ indicator (19ac) really indicates the ‘place’ is tucking away the ‘island’.
And there is no real excuse for having to include words like Leaf Trace, Oohed and Unhat.
Thanks setter and great blog Z.
Edited at 2020-11-05 08:42 am (UTC)
Edited at 2020-11-05 01:02 pm (UTC)
COD: HOW-DO-YOU-DO, neat.
Previous answer: the third most populous of the British Isles is Portsea Island, where Portsmouth is – more than the Isle of Wight and not often thought of as an island.
Today’s question: who was Noah’s grandfather?
I didn’t know PASSED PAWN but I know enough about chess to know that a pawn can be promoted, although the passed / given equivalence wasn’t close enough to give me full confidence.
Thanks setter & Z
Had to guess Barleycorn but it looked like it could be nothing else. Memories of Traffic and the John Barleycorn Must Die album. Ah me! Otherwise everything was straightfoward but agreeably tough.
I knew barleycorn was an old unit of length but not how long it was. Thanks to Wiki, I now know that it is used as the basis for shoe sizes (they go up in barleycorn units).
Of course, was wishing I had paid more attention to Harry Potter, before getting the MRS part and Beatrix coming to mind (which I did read seven decades ago).
it looks as though the Orange One will be ousted, thankfully IMO, although I hear a rumour of him running for a second term in 2024! We can rule nothing out.
FOI MANNEQUIN
LOI PASSED PAWN
COD NONET
TIME 13:50
3d had to be POSTER something (as John surmised); and 17a WELL something. A final look gave me the breakthrough I needed. I do know how to play chess (badly) and a passed pawn is normally described as promoted. I thought that was rather a good clue. WELL WON LOI; not a phrase I knew. Surprised to be all correct after another mistake on the QC this morning.
Had to work out LEAF TRACE.
As a Traffic fan I will now go and listen to John Barleycorn and then try to understand how Preston beat Reading away. Maybe it’s our new Danish striker?
David
Plenty of personal challenges here, monopoly money took a time largely due to spending too much time trying to find an answer containing reference to a hairstyle- mop. Not my finest moment.
Other clues I enjoyed ataturk, noel, passed pawn and well won which I took a punt on and The Terminator.
Thanks particularly setter and ,of course, blogger.
Only enjoyed in parts.
FOI 21ac HOW DO YOU DO?
(LOI) 24ac LEAF TRACE? 25ac OOHED! 17ac (WELL) WON 3dn POSTER PETE!!
COD 1ac MONOPOLY MONEY
WOD and SOI 1dn MRS TIGGY-WINKLE
IKEA KL special 19ac MALAYAN
How do our American cousins explain the incumbent at ‘The House of Orange’ to their off-spring? I will never forget him walking in front of H.M. and shoving the Montenegran PM out of the way at the NATO. Uneffin’believable! Madge, Hillary and Dusko should have handbagged him! Maggie would have!
Edited at 2020-11-05 05:52 pm (UTC)