The usual Jumbo rubric: as the solution is available alongside (or indeed before) the blog, comment is confined only to references that might remain obscure to overseas / inexperienced solvers even with the answer visible, or anything I thought notably good or deserving a question mark; other clues happily discussed by request, please comment if required.
I think my only unknown was, as is traditional for me, drawn from the world of plants, as I was unfamiliar with AUBRIETIA. As is also, fortunately, traditional, wordplay made it apparent that it could scarcely be anything else.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 16 | OUT OF COURT – the frequently used meaning of “without” in the sense of “on the outside”, though I don’t think anyone in real life would actually refer to a “without hearing” to mean one held outside. |
| 18 |
HYING – HY( |
| 19 | LOS ANGELES – not sure how to describe this, where the adjacent clue after the ellipsis is not only linked on the surface, but in content, as the ANGEL referenced in 21 across appears here inside LOSES… |
| 21 | ANGELA – …and then again here, with a simple +A to make the name. |
| 23 | ARGENTINE – double def., one of which is this fish. |
| 25 | LODGE – another connected pair of clues; here the DODGE from 7 down becomes LODGE when the D (500 in Roman numerals) is divided by ten to make L (50 in Roman numerals). |
| 35 | FRESH AS A DAISY – (SERF)rev HAS A DAIS + (factor)Y. |
| 38 | SWELL – double def., “that’s just swell” and the less obvious usage of “mushroom” as a verb. |
| 42 | INTERN – more referencing of other clues, which means 22 down – IMPRISON – is the def., and the wordplay comes from 29 down – INTER – + N(ame). |
| 44 |
DIPSOMANIA – lift and separate to get the def. “problem for lush”, made up of DIPS + ( |
| 52 | AUIBRIETIA – as mentioned above, I’d never heard of this, but AU + (BARITIE)* was hardly difficult to unravel. |
| 55 | STEEL GREY – which might temporarily inconvenience anyone in a part of the world where they’d expect this to be STEEL GRAY. |
| Down | |
| 1 |
AMBO – = ( |
| 8 | APPEASEMENT – A + PP + EASEMENT; “easement” is the legal term for such legal rights as a right-of-way, or ancient lights. |
| 24 | ICEFIELD – ICED around (LEIF)rev; Leif Eriksson may or may not have beaten Columbus to the New World by around five centuries. |
| 29 |
INTER – ( |
| 30 | WAFTERS – W(ith) AFTERS. |
| 32 | GLYPHIC – not a terribly common word, but as soon as you see “at the front” or “initially” you start looking at the first letters of Granite Like Your Popular Heroes Immensely Courageous. |
| 37 | MAINBRACE – what the MAIN(critical)BRACE(couple) is, and why splicing it came to mean having a drink is explained here. |
| 45 |
APHELIA – A + ( |
| 47 | PHOTOS – = “FOE TOES”. |
Apparently “bag” = BOOK, but I don’t see why. I’m not sure their meanings as noun or verb actually overlap.
John in USA