This was the New Years puzzle. Haven’t done a Jumbo in some time… the solving experience seemed an eternity (over an hour). Had to search for both the lit refs (Shelley and Eliot) and was thwarted by 16A until some hidden memory magically surfaced in the shower of all places.
Across
| 7 |
BACK,BENCHER – I guess someone sitting on a bench (judge=senior lawyer) is a BENCHER. |
| 13 |
CIGARETTE – a very smoothly surfaced CD, i.e. nicely misleading. |
| 14 |
PODS,NAP – ref. “Our Mutual Friend” (had to check). |
| 16 |
FA([skir]T)TED – my last clue: ref. the biblical FATTED calf I guess. |
| 20 |
NOTHING BESIDE REMAINS – the clue clearly indicated Ozymandias which I had to reread to find the quoted fragment. |
| 23 |
BR(OWN)IE – “have” is OWN and our cheese is French. |
| 26 |
LESOTHO – nicely hidden in “miLE SO THOroughly” |
| 28 |
RARE – two meanings I suppose: his epitaph reads “O RARE Ben Jonson” (had to look this up). |
| 35 |
AR(BORE,T)UM – ARUM is a kind of flower that shows up relatively often in cryptics. |
| 36 |
HUG(U)E,NOT – NOT as the colloquial negation as in: “So I really look like Tom Cruise today don’t I?…. NOT” |
| 39 |
KEE=”ki”,NEST – where ki is Chinese spiritual energy, lifeforce. |
| 44 |
BLE(SS)ED – Liked this because French wounded is blesse. |
| 45 |
A COLD COMING WE HAD OF IT – by TS Eliot — took crossing letters and guessing and some scouring to work this out. |
| 50 |
L(A,C,R)OSS,E – rather awkward wordplay and def: “in game”. |
| 51 |
M(ER)CIA – CIA are our perennial spies — another def of the form “in noun” |
| 53 |
AS,LAN[d] – ref. Narnia. |
| 56 |
D(OWN,TO)EARTH – OWN crops up again as “have”. |
| 57 |
C,A,MARA[u]DER,I.E. – three cryptic idioms here: C for “about”, U for “posh” and I.E. for “that’s”. |
Down
| 1 |
PAC(IF)Y – took me a while to equate PACY with “fast”. |
| 5 |
THE,HOB,BIT – A HOB’s a “ferret” and THE HOBBIT is one of the better fantasies for children (and adults). |
| 6 |
C[raz]Y,PRESS – a tree commonly found in cemeteries. Alive. Unlike many other inhabitants. |
| 8 |
CO(N)TE – COTE as in dovecote and CONTE is a short story. Why was In Shelter capitalized? |
| 11 |
HIDE,O,US – to reveal all is the same as hide nothing=O. |
| 12 |
ROCKER – two meanings: easy if you remember James Dean and Marlon Brando in the 50s. |
| 22 |
GOATHERD – a negative CD if that makes sense! |
| 23 |
BAR(RAC)KS – BARKS are boats (alt. barques) and “people with wheels” is a somewhat sly way to define the RAC (sort of a Brit AAA). |
| 30 |
PI[ous],MEN,TO – |
| 33 |
SHO(W,BOA)T – V. misleading sufrace: our “stole” is a BOA and SHOWBOAT is the Jerome Kern musical (and not who I assumed, namely Jerome K. Jerome who also wrote about a boat). |
| 38 |
B[rav]E,FOREHAND |
| 42 |
SLIP COACH – I think the def is ref the last coach of a train that may be removed and stopped. Not sure about the rest: “One’s free to stop, but does one take more chances with his help?” except for a COACH providing help? |
| 46 |
GNOS=rev(song),T,I,C – “wItCh regularly found” yields IC and the def is “occult”. |
| 47 |
A,FRAI=”fray”,D |
| 52 |
A,PER=rev(rep) – where rep=repertory which is a kind of theatre company. |
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