This was definitely a solid diversion from the humdrum business of life, and I ploughed through it with cheerful determination for 71’12”. Blogging it, I am conscious of how much careful tiptoeing I was doing through language that may (or may not) have become taboo since I last used it. There’s potential for unconscious racism, anti (or pro-) Semitism, Imperialism, lunacy (sorry, is that now mental health issues?) (sorry again, is mental ok?) even body shaming/fattism/sizeism, classism, and howwasisupposedtoknowthatism, the feeling that you’ve left something really important off the list that someone is going to feel deeply hurt by.
Especially amongst the down clues, I still feel I’m missing stuff, including what may be a name not particularly famous for anything except being in this crossword.
Another curious feature of this one is that the solution was published a fortnight ago, and 1170, which Olivia blogged last week, has still not had its secrets revealed.
This much I know, embazoned with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS
This much I know, embazoned with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS
Across
1. Downright victory for a noted native son (7)
BALDWIN James Baldwin wrote “Notes of a Native Son”, a series of autobiographical and polemical essays on being black in America. Downright: BALD, victory: WIN
5. Just a bit of a sequel? (4,3)
FAIR DO’S is the follow up to “A Bit of a Do”, David Nobbs’ observations on Yorkshire social life. Nobbs also wrote “The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin”.
9. Maybe Montgomery’s happy in a Buchan tale … (6,3)
CASTLE GAY Labouring under the half memory of the dog (actually Montmorency) cost a lot of time. Montgomery is “one of the ruins that Cromwell knocked about a bit”, though it survived Owain Glyndŵr’s earlier efforts. GAY used to mean happy. The resulting book is a John Buchan “tale of kidnapping, politics, suspense – and rugby”, which sounds suitably Buchanesque.
10. … and this poet madly turned out a form of calendar (5)
CLARE The very fine poet John Clare, much of whose greatest poetry was written while confined to Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, also produced as his third volume The Shepherd’s Calendar, 1827. Not much of a success in his own day, but the volume is still in print. And here’s the clever bit. CALENDAR, minus AND, is an anagram of CLARE.
11. Fun play’s something to read (4,3)
RIOT ACT Fun: RIOT and play: ACT, together referencing the Act of 1715, the reading of a specific part of which required all right-thinking English people to cease from rioting and return peaceably to their homes. Yeah, right. Cf the Peterloo massacre.
12. China’s possible location, we hear, for working together (2,5)
IN SYNCH A wonderfully groanworthy soundalike of in sink, which those of you with dishwashers are reminded used to be the place where you washed your Minton ware.
13. Lady meeting Bush, embracing together with lovers (4,3,7)
HERO AND LEANDER Lady HER, Bush OLEANDER, with AND, “together with” inserted where it does most good. The affair went swimmingly, up to a point.
16. The light that may allow Jessica to see her lover? (8,6)
VENETIAN WINDOW Jessica is Shylock’s daughter and Lorenzo’s love interest in The Merchant of Venice
20. Comedy version of this is now Harold Pinter drama (7)
THEATRE The (Royal) Comedy Theatre became the Harold (laugh a minute) Pinter in 2011.
22. A note on a story is kindly (7)
AFFABLE A. Then the pick-any-one-from-7 note is F, and the story is a FABLE
23. One’s on a long river – it could be a statement about a journey in which someone was … (5)
OBIIT Quid Caesar in gradibus fori fecit. The OB is 3,360 miles (5069 versts) of Russian river, one is 1 (and all alone) and it is IT.
24. … — us (5,4)
TAKEN FROM. Fill in the blank to find one of the many euphemisms for being dead. Cf Norwegian Blue
25. A pirate on the rampage? One who was expecting to get jewellery treacherously (7)
TARPEIA An anagram (our second, indicated by “on the rampage”) of A PIRATE. I knew about the rock that bears her name, but not the story. Daughter of Roman commander Spurius Tarpeius, she offered besieging Sabine King Titus Tatius a way into Rome in exchange for the jewellery they wore on their left arms. They somehow managed to misunderstand, and threw their shields (also worn on the left) at her instead. Obiit.
26. Repeats performance of last act about rogues (7)
REHEELS A wondersome misdirection. “Last” acts are those carried out by (a load of) cobblers. Reheels sometimes end up with the shoes being resold. The wordplay is cobbled together from about: RE and rogues: HEELS.
Down
1. Chemical protective covering around wheels (6)
BICARB as in -onate of soda, NaHCO3. Protective covering: BIB, wheels: CAR.
2. Lily’s a bit nimble (7)
LISSOME Lily as in fleur de LIS, a bit: SOME.
3. The children’s book, originally about Peter and Mary, from America (9)
WALKABOUT Originally “The Children”, a book by James Vance Marshall, in which American children Paul and Mary crash land in the Australian outback. It became a most wonderful and disturbing film by Nicholas Roeg, which probably couldn’t be made today.
4. See 21 (11)
NIGHTINGALE Vide infra.
5. I could be small but as an actor I’m not (3)
FRY Can properly be prefaced by “small”. Actor Stephen Fry, on the other hand, is not noted for being small. Which I assume is this clue’s conceit.
6. Old South Americans concealed by Joaquin Castillo (5)
INCAS Hidden in JoaquIN CAStillo to whose name I couldn’t attach any significance.
7. Dull working-class laddie in a Masefield story (4,3)
DEAD NED A novel by John Masefield, published 1938. DEAD for dull, of course, and NED is (Chambers) a young hooligan, a disruptive adolescent. Working class? I’m not going there. Back formation has it as an acronym, Non-Educated Delinquent.
8. Owner of 10’s calendar (8)
SHEPHERD. See 10
12. Lying trickster’s malicious, and devious with hackery (11)
ILLYWHACKER From a novel by Peter Cary, and an old and rare Aussie slang word for a conman. Malicious: ILL(-willed) and YWHACKER an anagram (devious) of W(ith) HACKERY
14. A born lawyer is also a poet (4,5)
ANNE FINCH You need to substitute An for A, and NÉ for born (and to hell with gender!). Atticus FINCH (Mockingbird) is your lawyer. Anne Finch ploughed a pretty lonely furrow as a female poet in the 18th century, leavened, perhaps, by also being the Countess of Winchilsea
15. A girl with a fish is one who lived by a lake (3,5)
EVA TROUT From the Elizabeth Bowen novel of the same name. It’s ok to say she lived by a lake, but with the novel subtitle being “Changing Scenes”, you can be forgiven for believing that was no permanent state of affairs. I’ll let you work out the wordplay.
17. Joint, darling, in speech more necessary in Shakespeare (7)
NEEDIER A homophone (in speech) of knee dear. I’ve no idea why Shakespeare pokes his head in. The word doesn’t appear in the entire canon, and is not especially dated.
18. Borneo’s exotic playwright (7)
OSBORNE John, “Look Back in Anger”. A unexpected anagram (exotic) of BORNEO
19. Sign of doubt a man has about Persephone’s driver (6)
HERMES A man has: HE’S and an interpolated sign of doubt: ERM
The only reference I can find to anyone driving Persephone around is Hades, so I admit defeat of this one.
21. & 4: Florence possibly follows child, male, in this poem by 14 [three words] (2,3)
TO THE (NIGHTINGALE Anne Finch is our poet living at no 14, and wrote the poem
24. “— is like the East he grows in, / A great yellow Mandarin” (G. K. Chesterton) (3)
TEA Not an obvious guess, but with T?A and an oriental reference, couldn’t be much else.
Technical note. LJ is currently appearing on my screen both in Chrome and Edge in minuscule, and I have needed to increase screen size to 150% to read comfortably. Not related to font size, which is normal
I didn’t question NEEDIER = more necessary because it seemed to work. Until your question sowed it doesn’t, that is. Thanks!
1) And joy comes well in such a needy time [i.e. a time when some joy is needed]
2) And in his needy shop a tortoise hung [where ‘needy’ pretty clearly means ‘poor’]
My work here is done.
And these our ships, you happily may think
Are like the Trojan horse was stuff’d within
With bloody veins, expecting overthrow,
Are stored with corn to make your needy bread,
And give them life whom hunger starved half dead.
Seems to meet the requirement, though why he didn’t put needful, who can tell.
Our revels here are ended?
Edited at 2017-05-05 07:49 am (UTC)
Does Chambers ever visit?
With you on the Persephone story right up to the point where Zeus dispatches Hermes to go fetch. I can’t find any version of the story where Hermes borrows the family 2CV to provide Percy with a ride home. Those wings on his feet aren’t just decoration, you know. There is a bit of the story where Hades is seen taking Percy for a ride in his black open top two seater, but that’s the only bit of chauffeuring anyone does. Unless, of course, Broteus knows otherwise. Do tell…
The immortal horses were harnessed to the golden chariot
By Hades, the one who makes many Semata.
She got up on the chariot, and next to her was the powerful Argos-killer,
Who took reins and whip into his philai hands
And shot out of the palace [of Hades]. And the horses sped away eagerly.
I assume Hermes must have had a reputation for going bananas in budget catalogue stores (those tiny biros are infuriating).
I look forward to reading the story of how the Argos Killer was tracked down when I can find it in my stack of in “True Detective”.