I suppose that if you got the two long anagrams on the top and bottom rows this would have been easier. However, I’m travelling this week and clearly left my anagram hat at home in California. This one took me 18:20, well above my average. I suspect I was just slow today: nothing seems unduly complicated, although NUTRIMENT is not a common word.
Lots of nice smooth surfaces in here from Hurley. How did you all get on?
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Nicer pulp read? Strange line (13) |
| PERPENDICULAR – (NICER PULP READ)* | |
| 8 | Good story about Democrat’s move without hesitations (5) |
| GLIDE – G (Good) + LIE (story) around D for Democrat. | |
| 9 | Laid back English Conservative, first to try Scouse? (7) |
| DIALECT – DIAL [LAID, back] + E (English) and C (Conservative) + the first letter of [first to] T |
|
| 10 | Journal including expert’s case in relation to eating (7) |
| DIETARY – DIARY (journal) including the outside letters [case] of E |
|
| 11 | House way of behaving, they say (5) |
| MANOR – Sounds like [they say] MANNER (way of behaving). | |
| 13 | Spaceman, second from earth, travelling to Saturn (9) |
| ASTRONAUT – A [second letter from |
|
| 17 | Finished before time — obvious (5) |
| OVERT – OVER (finished) before T for Time. | |
| 19 | Divine dog — lie back ultimately relaxed? (7) |
| GODLIKE – (DOG LIE |
|
| 20 | Late, the confused competitor (7) |
| ATHLETE – (LATE THE)*. | |
| 22 | Overly sentimental director’s original material (5) |
| TWEED – TWEE (overly sentimental) + first letter of D |
|
| 23 | Manager modified arms tradition (13) |
| ADMINISTRATOR – (ARMS TRADITION)*. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Pray and give offerings, daily almost, at the outset — here? (6) |
| PAGODA – First letters [at the outset] of the first six words. | |
| 2 | Say again, referring to contents of cited charge (9) |
| REITERATE – RE (referring to) + all but the outside letters [contents of] |
|
| 3 | Some marvel, eg antique, stylish (7) |
| ELEGANT – Hidden in [some] |
|
| 4 | Flier’s parent, not short on stages of journey (5,8) |
| DADDY LONGLEGS – DADDY (parent) + LONG (not short) + LEGS (stages of journey). | |
| 5 | Constant abuse? This might bring luck, some say (5) |
| CHARM – C (constant, as in E=mC2) + HARM (abuse).
I’m not sure what “some say” is doing in this clue. |
|
| 6 | Slippery type coming up? Shelter! (3) |
| LEE – EEL (slippery type), reversed [coming up]. | |
| 7 | Note theatrical act’s second coming (6) |
| RETURN – RE (note) + TURN (theatrical act)
RE as in do re mi fa… |
|
| 12 | Greek character, neat, overseeing part of hospital food (9) |
| NUTRIMENT – NU (Greek letter; character) + TRIM (neat) + ENT (ear, nose and throat; part of hospital).
This fancy word for “food” lurked at the edge of my memory for ages before I had enough crossing letters to bring it to mind. |
|
| 14 | One checking car on hill (7) |
| AUDITOR – AUDI (car) on TOR (hill).
This feels like it should be a chestnut, but I don’t remember seeing it before. |
|
| 15 | Piece of music used by person at assembly (6) |
| SONATA – hidden in [used by] |
|
| 16 | Information on the German grammatical category (6) |
| GENDER – GEN (information) on DER (the, in German). | |
| 18 | Publicity material linked to film that is in metal case (3-2) |
| TIE IN – I.E. (id est; that is) inside TIN (metal). | |
| 21 | Border somehow brought up, in part (3) |
| HEM – Hidden [in part] in |
|
10.19, a tough puzzle which took me a long time to get into the swing of. Some terrific surfaces and some crafty definitions (eg line for my LOI PERPENDICULAR). The several gimmes were helpful for those of us struggling with the trickier clues. Thanks to Hurley and the Doof.
Yes, a few chestnuts here: auditor, tie-in, return, overt, manor. I could make little of the top anagram, but saw the bottom one right away. Since I was mostly solving from the cryptics, I didn’t pay much attention to the literals, but is a daddy longlegs really a flier?
Time: 6:11
It is if it’s a crane fly, one of the several species to which this term is applied. Most of the others are spiders so I guess don’t fly any more than Peter Parker swinging by on a web strand—or any less!
Wikipedia on “ballooning”:
« Ballooning, sometimes called kiting, is a process by which spiders, and some other small invertebrates, move through the air by releasing one or more gossamer threads to catch the wind, causing them to become airborne at the mercy of air currents and electric fields. »