28234 Thursday, 10 March 2022 The chocolates with the less fattening centre

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
My usual blog night slightly slower pace saw nearly 26 minutes pass working out the wrinkles in this one. Some of the wordplay does indeed require more than the seasoned solvers’ knowing glance, and I enjoyed picking the bones out of, for example, 24 and 25 amongst the down (oops): across clues. I’m still not convinced I have the foodie 7d properly dispatched, and I rather expect the majority will pass over the actual wordplay with a blur filter cheerfully applied. All the letters are there…
My only unknown was the cloth at 9 – just lucky, I guess, but the clue left no room for any other order of the available letters. I shall now proceed to pasting my efforts into LJ in the hope it’s still available.
My clues are in italics, definitions underlined, and SOLUTIONS in bold capitals.
ACROSS
! Kinky games are not restricting one in relationship (6,1,5)
MÉNAGE À TROIS (Accents optional)  An anagram suggested by kinky of GAMES ARE NOT to include I (one). The surface of the clue, especially “kinky games” suggests the unconventional nature of the arrangement.
8 Happy to return ring on greeting nobleman (7)
HIDALGO The lowest class of Spanish nobility, equivalent to a British baronet, though baronets of my acquaintance would tend not to have the level pointed out to the rest of us plebs. Happy gives you GLAD, reversed (to return) with O for ring at one end and HI for greeting at the other.
9 Fabric close to crease in sail is coming apart (7)
SILESIA The only arrangement of SAIL IS plus the last letter of creasE (coming apart indicates anagram) that I could come up with. Silesia is a region now mostly in Poland, and for our purpose gives its name to “a thin twilled cotton or linen for lining clothes”.
11 Volume in electronic speech, not constant (7)
EDITION Electronic speech is whimsically E-DICTION. Remove the C(onstant)
12 Scots one flourishing at last in ram tethering (5,2)
TYING UP Scots one is (at least sometimes) YIN – Billy Connolly is “The Big Yin” for example. FlourishinG at last is G, the two to be in TUP for ram.
13  Sombre song for one gaining entry to cathedral city (5)
ELEGY ELY is the preferred cathedral city in crosswords. EG “for one” gains entry.
14 Get hollow pasta? This is different? (9)
SPAGHETTI There’s an &litness about this. GET plus hollowed P(ast)A plus THIS is different, so anagrammed. There is a form of spaghetti which is hollow, which I rather like, called bucatini, but spaghetti is normally solid, so different from hollow pasta.
16 Countries together resolve southern troubles (9)
UNSETTLES Countries together are (is?) of course the UN, resolve is SETTLE, S(outhern) gives you the concluding S
19 Scarcity will have 500 leaving planet (5)
EARTH First decide which end is the definition. Then take the D (500 in Roman) off the front of DEARTH, scarcity.
21 Maybe neon light moving left across city (7)
GLASGOW Rather cutely, a neon light translates to a GAS GLOW. Move the L(eft) across a bit.
23 Leaves drink after wasted meal (4,3)
HIGH TEA A drink made with leaves is TEA, and HIGH is wasted in the sense of intoxicated. Sequence correctly.
24 What might suggest our US causing destruction? (7)
RUINOUS The way this works that if you put RU in OUS your get OUR US, so we have a form of reverse cryptic where you are invited to make up the wordplay.
25 Speaker pretty terse before start of session (7)
TWEETER Pretty is TWEE, and TERSE before the start of SEssion is just TER.
26 Crusader emblem in sweet old ship rounding cape (7,5)
MALTESE CROSS A giveaway from the definition, but for what it’s worth the wordplay is MALTESER (a sweet now sold across most of the planet) plus O(ld) S(team) S(hip), the whole (sur)rounding C(ape)

DOWN

1 One delivers in French south going about with iron (7)
MIDWIFE The MIDI is (honestly) the South of France contrary to appearances. For us, it goes about W(ith) and adds FE for iron.
2 Veto taking over year to satisfy one abroad (7)
NULLIFY Everything is reversed (taking over) here: Y(ear) plus FILL for satisfy plus UN for one in “abroad” which is France for most of us.
3 Weed reduced to powder smells occasionally (9)
GROUNDSEL A favourite of guinea pigs. Reduced to powder GROUND, and the odd letters (occasionally) of SmElL
4 Valuable sort perhaps Texan behind film (5)
ASSET In Texas (and in other States) ones behind is one’s ASS. The fill is the ever useful E.T. Mildly naughty.
5 Explorer, fairly short, drinking beer (7)
RALEIGH Sir Walter. Take fairly to mean RIGHT, and shorten it. Take ALE for beer and let the one “drink” the other.
6 Sound from egg on penetration (7)
INSIGHT Perhaps not the first meaning of penetration that springs to mind, but it’s OK. It’s the sound of egg on, INCITE, and nothing to do with noisy ova.
7 See wriggly insect served up in comfort food (12)
CHEESEBURGER MacD’s would have you believe that a 99p cheeseburger is a fine example of comfort food, but here you need comfort for the wordplay. The wriggly insect (larva) is a GRUB, reversed (served up), as is SEE. CHEER is comfort, and the only way I can make this work is if the two reversed words are place separately therein. CH-EES-E-BURG-ER. Open to offers. [Which of course duly arrived: “wrigglty” turns.SEE into ESE, and all is well!]
10 A member ran into criticism about arena (12)
AMPHITHEATRE A in plain sight. MP member. HIT ran into. HEAT criticism. RE about.
15 Bible book detailed in a movement that’s tasteful (9)
AESTHETIC Your Bible book is ESTHER, the only one which never mentions God. De-tail it, and insert into A TIC for a (n involuntary) movement.
17 Resilience enlivens European taken out in recession (7)
STAMINA It’s ANIMATES for enlivens without E(uropean), backwards (in recession).
18 Craft perfectly capturing upper-class country (7)
TUGBOAT Fun to work out. Perfectly is TO A T. Insert U for upper class and GB for country while it still is one.
19 Having lost identity Coleridge violated painter (2,5)
EL GRECO The numeration gives you a broad hint. Take ID(entity) out of COLERIDGE and then violate (anagram) what’s left.
20 Comes round to upping prices externally (7)
ROTATES TO “upping is OT, and prices are RATES, to surround the same
22 Rugby team is no more, I should add (5)
WASPS I initially thought this might be Wales, but no. Wasps play out of Coventry, wearing kit with variations on black and yellow. Is no more WAS, plus PS I should add.

56 comments on “28234 Thursday, 10 March 2022 The chocolates with the less fattening centre”

  1. For some reason EDITION gave me the most trouble, and I needed to go away and come back to it before the penny dropped. I didn’t know that Midi is the south of France, but otherwise MIDWIFE was clear enough, and I had to trust that SILESIA is a cloth. Didn’t fully parse CHEESEBURGER either, but very enjoyable stuff all the same.

    FOI Earth
    LOI Edition
    COD Tugboat

  2. Biff-baff-boff.

    Never fully parsed:

    SPAGHETTI
    RUINOUS
    STAMINA
    TUGBOAT

    Slow start but picked up with a huge splurge in SE. Worked my way up and across before biffing 17, 18 & 24 in the SW

  3. Done in two sessions (golf in between) so around 50 mins. Got bogged down in the SW like some others, until CHEESEBURGER showed itself. Then it all fell into place. LOI RUINOUS. Very clever. Only knew the geographical meaning of SILESIA, but it had to be. I didn’t find this particularly easy.

    Thanks Z and setter.

  4. 22:07. I started really slowly, but then sped up to the point that I almost pressed submit at 17mins but couldn’t get comfortable with TWEETER. I knew it had something to do with hifis but didn’t know what, and couldn’t parse the rest. After wasting 5 mins I wasn’t any closer to enlightenment so pressed submit and was pleased to get the green lights.
  5. Rattled through this, merrily biffing and semi-parsing.

    Thanks to Zabadak for enlightenment where required!

    21:38.

  6. I enjoyed this, but, to be pedantic – and, if not here, then where? – GB is not a country. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are and, at least for now, so is the UK. Geographically, Great Britain is the largest of the British Isles; politically it’s slightly illogical, being the sum of England, Wales and Scotland – a rather random collection of islands of which the geographic Great Britain is but one, with sundry others included, my most local being the beautiful Isle of Wight and the rather less beautiful Portsea Island, better known perhaps as Portsmouth. So, it’s all rather a dog’s breakfast really, and the description of my homeland in my passport – the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – is all a bit unnecessarily verbose. Still, at least we’ve finally woken up to some degree, with the international designation on car number plates now being UK – thus including our friends in Northern Ireland – rather than GB.
    1. I have learned to be sensitive about these issues, especially when conversing with Scots, but it’s fair to say the confusion is widespread. Just on example, Team GB is currently competing in the Winter Paralympics, and I bet they think they are competing for their country!
      1. Yes: that’s complicated by the fact that Northern Irish athletes are allowed to choose which country they wish to represent – the UK or the Irish Republic. I think ‘Team GB’ was decided upon as a way of recognising that and to avoid giving the world the impression that the status of Northern Ireland remains controversial, even long after the Republic dropped its constitutional claim to the Six Counties. Shall we talk about the nine counties of Ulster now? Or perhaps just leave it there? 🙂
  7. Have never come across these edibles in real life but remember them well from the humorous role they play in the otherwise non-humorous novel (and excellent Nicol Williamson film) The Human Factor by Graham Greene .
  8. Very pleased to work one of these out occasionally. This one proved more amenable than yesterday’s for me. Solved the SE first, then the NE, then the NW, then the SW. Enjoyed the process. Done by trying things on the on-line grid and then correcting mistakes. No reveals – I shy away from them. Thanks, Z, for all the enlightenment, and setter for something doable with help.
  9. 1 hour and 2 minutes. Only completed after returning to it this evening. Lots of good stuff though including the CHEESEBURGER and MALTESERS.
    What else. Oh yes. The NINA spotters must have taken the day off today. Right down the centre of the grid it says E P E E and right across the centre it says B E E T. The significance escapes me
  10. 25.55. Far from being a pushover, this puzzle rewarded the bit of extra effort I needed to solve it. An added word here or there, the odd neat bit of construction there all served to misdirect and bamboozle until finally it was all resolved. Good fun.
  11. Leskoffer here. Live page not letting me send message as me. Hidalgo — I seem to remember — means ‘son of someone’. Here in Paris we have mayor called Anne Hidalgo who is running a forlorn campaign to be the next president. Cod wasps or ruinous.
  12. Lots of nice clues today. For no good reason I had a lot of trouble with NULLIFY. I saw that it had to be the answer but couldn’t explain why, and bunged it in so was 59 minutes. Then it was obvious.
  13. STAMINA is an ASSET alright
    This EDITION sure requiring INSIGHT
    AESTHETIC EL GRECO
    Esoteric HIDALGO
    RUINOUS was my last-in tonight

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