Hello everyone. We are treated to another puzzle from the stock left by Richard Rogan: always a bittersweet pleasure. I made good time for a QC and then, reminded by Jackkt, looked for something hidden. At first I saw a couple of things that weren’t there (well, they are there, but by coincidence), but then saw something else. For more detail click the “Show More” button below. My Clue of the Day is the underwear finally appearing in the exotic location in 10a. Thanks to Des.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Run meeting jointly with Chirac, nothing getting resolved (2-5) |
| CO-CHAIR — CHIRAC and O (nothing) getting anagrammed (resolved) | |
| 5a | Once more, we turned on a knight (4) |
| ANEW — WE reversed (turned) next to (on) A and N (knight) | |
| 7a | Body involved in Mozambiquan goings-on (6) |
| QUANGO — The answer is hidden in (involved in) MozambiQUAN GOings-on | |
| 8a | Was first to cross a street — and survived (6) |
| LASTED — LED (was first) going around (to cross) A and ST (street) | |
| 9a | Scotsman greeting state intrigue (11) |
| MACHINATION — MAC (Scotsman) + HI (greeting) + NATION (state) | |
| 10a | Underwear you’ll find in Seychelles finally, but not initially (6) |
| SMALLS — At the end of Seychelles you’ll find a SMALL S, whereas initially there is a capital or large S | |
| 12a | Not drinking in story or gossip (6) |
| TATTLE — TT (teetotal: not drinking) in TALE (story) | |
| 14a | A lack of ceremony if Royal Mint is involved (11) |
| INFORMALITY — IF ROYAL MINT is anagrammed (involved) | |
| 17a | Stimulus provided by Marlowe perhaps to audience (6) |
| FILLIP — Sounds like (… to audience) PHILIP (Marlowe perhaps – Raymond Chandler’s fictional detective) | |
| 18a | Suddenly appears as saint, free from blemish, on reflection (6) |
| ERUPTS — In reverse (… on reflection) ST (saint) plus PURE (free from blemish) | |
| 20a | Unpleasant sound pursuing old Norse God (4) |
| ODIN — DIN (unpleasant sound) following (pursuing) O (old) | |
| 21a | Face shocking treatment, in a manner of speaking (7) |
| DIALECT — DIAL (face) + ECT (shocking treatment) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Circus regularly appearing in vineyard (3) |
| CRU — The letters in alternate positions of (… regularly appearing in) CiRcUs | |
| 2d | Awfully laconic description of dunce’s cap (7) |
| CONICAL — An anagram of (awfully) LACONIC | |
| 3d | A pair of islands bordering round lake in Mayo (5) |
| AIOLI — A + I I (pair of islands) around (bordering) O (round) and L (lake) | |
| 4d | Banking quarrel, I anticipate, is much scaled down (7) |
| RELIANT — A hidden answer, but indicated a bit differently: quarREL, I ANTicipate is much scaled down (by having outer letters removed) to give the answer. I am banking/reliant on you understanding me! | |
| 5d | Resembling maestro at heart, first rate and very musical (5) |
| ASSAI — AS (resembling) + the central letter of (… at heart) maeStro + AI (A1: first rate) | |
| 6d | European friend keeping seabird forever (9) |
| ETERNALLY — E (European) and ALLY (friend) containing (keeping) TERN (seabird) | |
| 9d | Turned to parent, possibly, as embalmer did? (9) |
| MUMMIFIED — A whimsical definition – MUMMIFIED might be used to mean turned into a mother – plus a straight one | |
| 11d | As eg Newcastle United shirts quietly removed, undressed (7) |
| STRIPED — With P (quietly) removed, STRI[p]PED (undressed) | |
| 13d | Admiring gift, however has mostly attempted to conceal it (7) |
| TRIBUTE — BUT (however) has mostly TRIEd (attempted) surrounding it (to conceal it) | |
| 15d | Loudly abused lone criminal (5) |
| FELON — F (loudly) + an anagram of (abused) LONE | |
| 16d | Place holding final of competition? (5) |
| ARENA — AREA (place) holding the last letter of (final of) competitioN, &lit | |
| 19d | Add small measure of spirits (3) |
| TOT — Two definitions, verb and noun | |
14 minutes. The underwear at 10ac caused my longest delay along the way. A very good clue.
10:44, but having solved on my phone with no idea who the setter was, I confess I was a little surprised to find that this was yet another from the RR store-chest, as he has used some really interesting tricks I’ve not seen from him before. SMALLS, for one, which I never parsed but which is very neat, and RELIANT, where I saw the hidden but could not identify the definition – I was misled into having “banking” as the hidden indicator, as I suspect I was meant to be.
That was one of two places where the choice of preposition in the definition was I think confusing; had the definition been “banking on” it would have made more immediate sense. The other was “Turned to parent” in 9D, where I felt it was more dubious and having seen Kitty’s parsing I would have expected “Turned into parent”. “Turn to parent” is not the same and does not really match the answer.
Minor quibbles on a nice puzzle. Many thanks Kitty for the blog.
Using another verb by way of example, is there any material difference between ‘petrified’ meaning ‘turned into stone’ and ‘turned to stone’?
You have set me thinking here! I think that does work, but what then about the standard response at an Anglican baptism “Do you turn to Christ?” – “I turn to Christ”. I’m not a theologian but I don’t think it is meant to mean one turns into/becomes Jesus.
But synonyms don’t have to fit every circumstance, one recognisable example would be sufficient, though in this case there are dozens more. Context can also be a factor as to what the intended meaning is.
12.13, nice puzzle, thanks Des and Kitty. I found some of this quite hard and had no idea about ASSAI. Very much liked the Seychelles clue.
12 minutes WOE. I had ERUCTS at 18ac instead of ERUPTS – ST CURE (free from blemish) reversed – and I still think an eruction is pretty much like an eruption. “SMALLS” was one of those clues you just have to marvel at. Thank you Des and Kitty
Found this tricky in places but nothing overly fiendish.
NHO ASSAI but it was very gettable from the wordplay and checkers and the parsing of SMALLS took a bit of figuring out.
Started with CO-CHAIR and finished with TRIBUTE in 9.27.
Thanks to Kitty
16:52 DNK assai meant ‘very’ in music speak, held up by aioli, mummified and smalls. Needed Kitty’s blog to parse the latter and spot the Nina, so many thanks. As it often is with artists, I only learnt more about RR and fully appreciated his genius after he was gone.
Who is Nina, who is RR?
For Nina, see our Glossary (RH under Useful Links, or on the top menu bar under Help). RR refers to Richard Rogan the late editor of Times crosswords who also set QCs under many names, including Des.
Thanks Jack for answering. I only just saw this.
One of those days where we looked at a handful of clues several times but only as the crossers emerged did the answers reveal themselves, 22.39 is about par for us. LOI aioli we had constructed several times but distracted by the capital M was expecting some Irish lake with an unpronounceable spelling!
Smalls became obvious but we couldn’t parse it, thanks Kitty, again in awe at your Nina spotting skills.
Slow but enjoyable. NHO ASSAI, but I’m sure Martinu will weigh in on the term.
Pi ❤️
OK, I’ll rise to the bait! It’s an interesting one, this: Allegro assai is commonly found in Mozart where, yes, it’s similar to (or even more than) Molto allegro. But the big main tune of the Ode to Joy in Beethoven’s Ninth is again Allegro assai, and there it definitely isn’t! There, it’s like the French assez, enough, or quite. And there are other examples of assai in middle/late Beethoven, where it’s again clearly “quite”. The jury is still to some extent out on this one, but my view is that Beethoven started by using assai in the Mozartian sense (e.g. Sonata op.2 no.3), but later changed his thinking. Later composers hardly (or never) used it – can anyone find it after 1830? Lecture over!
Wow – and there we were the other day thinking a chemical element was obscure!
I would disagree and say that it’s quite a common tempo modifier. I’ve found it in Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Mahler, Busoni, Bartok, Schoenberg…
After all it just means ‘very’ in Italian.
Thank you for looking! I’m sure you’re right and I just hadn’t properly looked after 1830. So you reckon all those composers agreed in their usage, and all meant “very”? Well, possibly. No one has really done a study of this. Because in Italian it can mean either “very” or “quite” – rather like our “quite” (e.g. quite extraordinary, or absurd), also German ganz (but not French assez). And if it’s “quite” in late Beethoven (about which there seems no doubt), then its exact meaning later in the century can’t be taken for granted. Maybe I’d better start work ….
I guess ‘rather’ is a better translation.
Well I suppose it depends on context. By the way: if you really have “found” it in all those composers, you would do me a very great service (though this is a terribly presumptuous use of this blog!) if you could be so kind as to give me the references to the actual works by each? That would get me started on what ought to be a proper study of this issue. Thank you – and if the admin would prefer to give you my private e-mail rather than continue here, then that would be fine. Thank you all.
I just opened a few scores: Liszt Sonata “sempre staccato ed energico assai”, Ballade No. 2 “Lento assai”, Mazeppa “il canto espressivo ed appassionato assai”; Beethoven Op. 2 No. 3, fourth movement “Allegro assai”; Brahms Op. 118 No. 1 “Allegro non assai, ma molto appassionato”; Ravel Concerto in G, 2nd mvmt “Adagio assai”; Chopin Prelude in B minor “Lento assai”, Etude Op. 10 No. 10 “Vivace assai”. I can look more later, or you can. These are just scores I had handy. I was wrong about one, I thought the last movement of Schubert Sonata in A minor, D. 784, had “Allegro assai”, but it’s “Allegro vivace”.
I’m fairly certain it’s used frequently in the Bartók string quartets, but I don’t have the score handy. And I think it’s in Mahler 5, last movement. Schoenberg I was thinking of one of the piano suites, or maybe the Concerto. I feel like I can’t remember a page of Busoni that doesn’t have ‘assai’, but I don’t have the scores handy either. Good luck!
EDIT: Just did a Google search — apparently the first movement of the Schubert Drei Klavierstücke is marked “Allegro assai”, as are string quartet movements. Of course, this isn’t after 1830! But maybe Google can be your friend here.
Also, ChatGPT found several markings (because I was too lazy to look) throughout Debussy.
Yes of course there are many other contexts for assai than merely Allegro assai. But I think I’m going to have to restrict myself to that one for the purposes of this investigation. Of course, if one of the other contexts could assist in establishing conclusively that that particular composer meant (or did not mean) “very”, it would help; but can it? After all, “energico assai” or “vivace assai” could mean one or t’other, as could many of the others. Can we interpret any with certainty?
Thank you, I found the Schubert examples, also Bartok (Divertimento, not the quartets I think). Not Mahler 5; not Debussy (always wrote in French); not Schoenberg (Google can be misleading!); yes Liszt uses assai but not to qualify Allegro (so it’s difficult to be certain exactly what his assai means). And so on – won’t bore you any more!
I’ll keep looking, but my impression so far is that for them all it means “very”, which makes Beethoven’s usage in several middle/late works especially surprising. Thank you.
Challenge accepted: I will find more examples when I get home this evening.
I might be willing to admit defeat on Schoenberg — I swear I can see it in my mind’s eye in the Concerto (all of the tempo indications are in Italian — perhaps reflecting his embracing of a more traditional form?) There’s a theme here I suppose with Brahms, Mahler, Beethoven, et al as well: when they were in a more individualistic mood, they used German; but when they were more traditional, they used Italian.
You are half right with Debussy — his works are full of Italian indications, but I wasn’t able to find ‘assai’ anywhere. Everywhere I thought I remembered ‘assai’ was ‘molto’.
Mahler has “Allegro assai” in Symphony No. 9 (I checked). Mahler’s indications are quite the mix between German and Italian. I had remembered more ‘assai’s but again they were ‘molto’s.
Some other examples from Spanish composers: Albéniz has “allegro assai” in Sonata no. 3 (very difficult movement), and Falla has “assai più mosso” in his Fantasía bætica.
I was surprised how many ‘assai’s in my memory were ‘molto’s!
Well done with Mahler 9 – spot on. Albeniz outside my ken but thank you, yes it is.
Tell me about Italian in Schönberg – all P&M, Gurrelieder and Kammersym op.9 are German – only the very early Quartet in D (1897) is Italian, I think? Good: the collection grows, and all mean “very”, so late Beethoven is out on a limb – agreed?
What examples are you thinking of?
OK: the list goes op.57, op.86 (op.95 Allegro assai vivace ma serioso), op.98, op.125 (as said before) and op.130. An article in Musical Times (1950) argues the point persuasively. As for continuing this here: as this page fades into the past, I suppose we become less of an imposition. But we’re running out of column width!
Ironically, I stumbled across it in Martinů’s solo piano works: Polka No 5 ‘Moderato assai’ H101, (and, as plusjeremy says, in Bartok too, though my Schoenberg scores all have the directions in German, so not there…). I do agree though, that being ‘open to interpretation’ to say the least, it is one of the less useful tempo directions. Thank you for initiating this fascinating – if slightly niche – discussion!
That is of course hugely amusing and, as you say, ironic. Yes, totally niche, and I have a conscience (as I intimated before) that we are – or rather I am – guilty of exploitation in using this good crossword blog as a vehicle for these increasingly arcane exchanges. But I suppose the more people who join, the more it is vindicated? Pushing my luck, maybe. I am still working on a (provisional, at least) reply to plusjeremy.
This sort of discussion elevates the blog – we have commenters who are experienced classical conductors! If it was a slanging match, I’d tell you to take it elsewhere.
Thank you for your kind indulgence and hospitality. You should be asking “how come you have so few dates in the diary that you’ve so much time spare to spend on this blog?”
I think it occurs repeatedly in the ever popular song “as time goes by” but perhaps I misheard something?
😂
Haha!
Mendelssohn String Quartet No. 6, 2nd movement: Allegro assai. 😛
So it is – well done! Another for the collection, duly added. And this movement goes along at a real lick, so it’s doubtless the usual meaning of “very” – and presumably more than molto ‘cos the finale of that same quartet is Allegro molto. Thanks!
Yes, this discussion is very interesting – I would vote to hear more!
Schoenberg’s early works use mostly Italian!
19:59 with balls up on machination where I put unparsed machivalian. Always found RR’s puzzles to be a struggle and today was no different. Couldn’t parse smalls or mummified, nho assai. Thought Mondays were getting easier. Oh well. Thanks to Kitty and RIP RR
I too just started writing Machiavellian, but I ran out of space, and it doesn’t parse properly.
Ditto the comments above
24:04.
Held up with a careless ATOLL for AIOLI. NHO ASSAI, and the LASTED clue was LOI. Also tried gamely to get Machiavellian in there, but even with serious misspelling it wasn’t going to work. And I also shrugged RELIANT as “much scaled down”, with “banking” being the constructor.
Didn’t parse SMALLS, very clever.
14 minutes. I enjoyed this and thought that MACHINATION tied together the elements of the Nina very nicely. I won’t pretend I parsed it at the time, but it was satisfying to eventually work out what was going on with SMALLS.
I look forward to the next from the RR repository.
Thanks to Kitty and thanks and RIP to RR/Des
Excellent puzzle. Didn’t know ASSAI but got it from wordplay. Didn’t parse SMALLS, which turned out to be a great clue when I read the explanation above. Nina remained undetected. 9:36.
Didn’t see the Nina but hardly ever do ☹️. Biffed SMALLS – such a clever clue. Thanks Kitty for explaining both.
A good mix of clear and straight forward clues with some challenges. eg NHO ASSAI. AIOLI was a bit of a bif as it was obviously the answer but a bit of a sweat to pick out all the vowels in the correct.
I took 9D to be MUMMIED with (possibly) indicating IF and didn’t think too much more. Struggled to associate MALLS with a direction in the clues, so SMALLS was another part bif.
Enjoyable, 25min on par, missed the Nina although I had a suspicion there might be something despite not seeing the setter name. RIP RR. Thanks Kitty.
5.49 with a typo
Couldn’t work out how to shovel in the letters for MACHIAVELLIAN after MACHI-but the penny did drop for my LOI.
SMALLS was vg but parsed post solve after bunging in from checkers.
Thanks all
Northwest was ok, most of the rest was beyond me….I spent a long time trying to see how 10ac worked.
My run of WOE continues, with a FILLUP at 17a.
My LOI was SMALLS. I had seen this as a possible biff for underwear, but resisted entering it since I could not parse it. Thanks Kitty for explaining how it worked.
ASSAI was constructed from the wordplay – if I ever learned the word when I did Grade 5 Theory half a century ago, it has long been forgotten.
An engaging puzzle. I slowed down after entering the easy ones and lost track of time whilst admiring the inspiration in many of the clues. In the end, the clock showed 23mins (parsed, except for the exceptional SMALLS) but my time really didn’t bother me today. It was a pleasure rather than a mad scrabble.
I join others in thanking Kitty and adding my appreciation of the talent of RR.
Brilliant spot of the Nina. NHO ASSAI, biffed SMALLS and RELIANT. 23.02.
I’ll start by thanking Kitty, both for unravelling the Nina (I knew there’d be one but never got near to spotting it), and for parsing my biffed LOI/COD (now I see how clever it is).
I’m apparently 8th of 126 on the leaderboard, but, since the ridiculously inefficient Times app won’t display it, I don’t know if any of those above are neutrinos (I’m looking at you Dr.Gina Coco).
As Kitty says, a bittersweet reminder of the excellent Richard Rogan – while not a fan of Ninas in general, the ingenuity of this one, and the painstaking work required to construct it, are yet another fine TRIBUTE to a very talented man.
FOI CO-CHAIR
LOI/COD SMALLS
TIME 4:12
The leaderboard is back, and there don’t seem to be any neutrinos. Perhaps something is going on?
Missed the nina as usual, but enjoyed the puzzle. RELIANT was LOI and I just noticed the hidden as I hit submit. CO-CHAIR was FOI. 7:07. Thanks Des and Kitty.
That’s interesting; why did RR have so many different names? Just about managed to complete this – difficult, though, and pretty sure one is wrong. No: how amazing, got away with LOI RELIANT even though had no idea whether or why. Hooray!
Thank you, Kitty, for sorting out Seychelles; and never read Raymond Chandler so both were biffed. SMALLS is amusing, sister to one in a different paper a while ago where the answer was LARGESSE.
NHO LOI ASSAI either, and given the number of others already in the same boat here’s Collins: “Adverb. music (usually preceded by a musical direction) ‘very’ eg allegro assai. Word origin: Italian: enough.” I had no idea whether that was going to produce a pink square as I hit submit, phew.
That and SMALLS were the two hold-ups – those two pretty much doubled my time. I’d never have parsed SMALLS (COD now I understand it) in a million years, well done Kitty! Very relieved that wasn’t on my watch.
All done in 10:19 for an OK Day. Many thanks Kitty; here’s to the shade of RR.
I always thought, when playing keyboard music, that ASSAI meant ‘enough’. I suppose I always saw allegro assai as ‘fast enough’ (i.e. fast but don’t get too carried away!). Given the crossers, it had to be the only possible answer.
Dictionaries describe the origin of the word as ‘Italian, from Vulgar Latin, ad satis’ so that labels me, I suppose….🙄
I have learnt something today.
DNF. NHO of ASSAI and couldn’t work it out from the cluing. Biffed SMALLS.
Beaten by RELIANT today, thinking ‘banking’was telling me something about the edges of the word ‘quarrel’. Enjoyable puzzle nonetheless, COD was definitely DIALECT for me.
Thanks Kitty for parsing of SMALLS.
Prof
A very good puzzle which I was pleased to finish under target at 9.20. Like quite a few others my LOI was SMALLS, and although the crossers dictated it probably couldn’t be anything else, I failed to parse it. I was only barely aware of ASSAI as a possibility for 5dn, but only because it has appeared (probably in the 15×15) before.
Nho ASSAI, SMALLS = brilliant clue – parsed after 10 mins thought , can’t see nina
10a Smalls, agree it is excellent.
POI 5d Assai, I am useless at musical terms but well know to expect them. Assai vaguely remembered from Spike Milligan’s Puckoon; he had quite a vocab. Yggdrasil came up a while ago and I got that from the same source.
Super blog kitty. RIP Des.
15 mins…
A good puzzle, but I will confess I’ve never heard of 5dn “Assai” and had to trust my parsing and the other checkers.
FOI – 1dn “Cru”
LOI – 5dn “Assai”
COD – 10ac “Smalls”
Thanks as usual!
16:43
Nearly went AEOLI, as in Aeolian islands but luckily twigged what Mayo meant before hitting submit. A great puzzle. Struggled with DIALECT and failed to parse LOI SMALLS.
DNF but enjoyed the wit. Was muddled about the Aeolian islands (though knew there were several) and did not think of mayonnaise: doh! DNK ASSAI. DNF DIALECT.
No fuss about Norse god?
FOI CRU. Liked ERUPTS, FILLIP, MACHINATION.
CNP TRIBUTE, SMALLS.
Thanks vm, Kitty. Missed the Nina, of course.
DNF. Pulled stumps at the 30min mark, with Smalls unparsed and rabbit holed to exhaustion by the wrong Marlowe at 17ac (I mean, after all, this is The Times). Quite a few tricky ones along the way, with Arena and Dialect joint CoDs. Invariant
A perfect QC – all done in 6.50. Also NUO ASSAI and thanks Kitty for explaining COD the for me unparsed SMALLS.
The first few fell quite quickly, but I slowed down after about a third of the clues, and I stumbled over the finishing line in 12:48. I didn’t know ASSAI in that sense and couldn’t parse SMALLS at all. Thank goodness Kitty was there to sort that one out – a very clever clue but maybe bordering the biggie? The full parsing of MUMMIFIED passed me by too. Of course, I couldn’t see the nina either, although I knew to look for one – another cracker.
At 17d, I confused Philip Marlowe with Christopher of that ilk (as was undoubtedly intended) and tried to squeeze KIT in there somehow😅 A bit of reverse ninja turtling perhaps. Although I must admit that most of what I know about him comes from Upstart Crow, so perhaps not!
I liked CO-CHAIR and FILLIP.
FOI Co-chair LOI Assai COD Arena
Again thanks to the great RR, and to Kitty too
I wasted time by trying to shoehorn Machiavellian into 9ac and by trying to parse the excellent SMALLS (failed completely). Luckily I didn’t waste any time looking for the Nina because I wouldn’t have seen it – I never do. Anyway I crossed the line in 16 minutes which was a bit disappointing after a fast start.
FOI – 1ac CO-CHAIR
LOI – 10ac SMALLS
COD – it’s got to be SMALLS now I understand it. I also liked ASSAI
Super puzzle from Des and thanks to Kitty for the blog.
10:44. I put SMALLS in quickly but would never have figured out the parsing on my own. Like Merlin I thought the islands in the clue for AIOLI might produce an atoll. MACHINATION, FILLIP, and MUMMIFIED were favourites.
I started well with ANEW, QUANGO and LASTED and made brisk progress (for me) until my last six clues or so. The SCC hadn’t opened its doors at this stage, but I knew I wouldn’t escape its clutches as I had no ideas as to how to proceed with any of them.
Those last six clues (MACHINATION, RELIANT, TRIBUTE, ARENA, ERUPTS and DIALECT) combined to nearly double my time and I crossed the line in around 34 minutes, I think. Both RELIANT and SMALLS remained unparsed until I came here.
Many thanks to Kitty and Des.
Nice puzzle, but I got stuck on the SE corner and had to put it down for work then come back later. It took an age to twig ERUPTS but then ARENA went in straight after that and DIALECT didn’t take too much longer. NHO ASSAI, but was easy enough with the wordplay. Couldn’t parse SMALLS, so thanks for that, Kitty. Also thanks to RR for the puzzle (I never find the hidden gems).
Thanks to Kitty for the parsing of Smalls which I had biffed.
10:21
On the slowish side today – Snitch at 99 currently which might normally take me around 9 minutes. Didn’t know ASSAI, was in two minds over ERUCTS and ERUPTS and took a few moments to see TRIBUTE. No idea about the clever Nina.
Thanks Kitty
11.42 SMALLS was biffed and I also dallied with ATOLL for AIOLI. ANEW and the NHO ASSAI took three minutes at the end. Thanks Kitty.
I was a little slow, even thought I tried to speed things up. Biffed aioli, assai, and smalls. Didn’t get mummified when I first put it in, but then I saw it.
Time: 10:08
Thanks for alerting us to look for the Nina, Kitty. And you’re 100% right: it’s a nice puzzle.
A chewy, pleasurable 17:44. I couldn’t parse SMALLS (thanks Kitty!) and didn’t know if it was underwear. And I was strangely slow to see INFORMALITY.
COD? Can’t choose between AIOLI (yum!), ASSAI, and DIALECT. Would pick SMALLS but it went straight over my head.
HI NATION! (Also CONGO turns the corner from 2d to 7a)
Thanks to the revered shade for leaving us such a rich legacy, and to Kitty for excellent blogging.
12:50 here, with SMALLS and RELIANT unparsed, so thank you Kitty for explaining those. Now I understand it, SMALLS is my COD.
Thanks to Kitty & RIP RR: I wonder how many more of his puzzles there are in the store cupboard.
I found this quite tricky. 17:27, needing Kitty’s help to parse MUMMIFIED and SMALLS. Three decades ago I passed my grade eight piano exam, and to the best of my recollection I was never troubled by the term ASSAI along the way, but no doubt it’s right.
Thank you for the blog!
Not quite three decades ago for me, but not as far away as I would like! I remember assai perfectly well as a musical term, but couldn’t have told you quite what it meant. Fortunately the clue told me and I trusted it. I enjoyed the conversation with Martinů above.
Lovely puzzle. Biffed SMALLS and RELIANT (didn’t spot the hidden at all). Slow to solve DIALECT. Much to like, not least SMALLS. Thanks kitty.
It was fingers successfully crossed at the end for the NHO ASSAI which went in entirely from wordplay. We’d also biffed SMALLS; that at least was a known result but what a great clue now that the parsing has been revealed! An about average 12:41 for us. Thanks, Kitty, and to others as well for the fascinating discussion of ASSAI. I’m with Ham though in finding that this made the recent ASTATINE positively commonplace. Lastly, kudos to those who spotted the Nina; they always go completely over my head.
14 minutes.
Felt much longer and didn’t really enjoy it today (that is not a criticism of the puzzle!).
Failed by two on 15 x 15, again missing two of the more straightforward clues. Sick of these repeated failures when I invest so much time on this. My enthusiasm is waning.
Thanks for the blog.