15:43, took me a long time to get going, I needed checkers to make progress. Nice puzzle with no unknown vocab, and some smooth surfaces.
1A CARGO CULT is an interesting phenomenon. In WW2 Pacific Islanders built bamboo control towers hoping for supply planes. They tried to copy the behavioural by-products of the advanced societies that visited them instead of what made those societies advanced in the first place.
After a long career in the Tech sector, I’d argue that many corporations practice “Innovation Cargo Cult” – mimicking tech startup aesthetics such as Job Titles, dress, footwear and office layouts; then hoping that innovation will magically arrive.
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | Freight reduced outside Lima for religious movement (5,4) |
| CARGO CULT -CARGO (freight) + CUT (reduced) contains L (pounds) | |
| 6 | Escape from insect (3) |
| FLY – Double def
As in “fly the nest” |
|
| 8 | All of us staff helpful (7) |
| MANKIND – MAN (staff) + KIND (helpful) | |
| 9 | Gathering to celebrate, not all year (5) |
| PARTY – PART (not all) + Y {ear} | |
| 10 | Gradually manoeuvre large frame (5) |
| EASEL – EASE (Gradually Manoeuvre) + L{arge} | |
| 12 | Nuclear plant lacking a priest (6) |
| RECTOR – REACTOR (Nuclear plant) – A | |
| 14 | Applauded, having trained a reluctant dog (13) |
| CONGRATULATED – (A RELUCTANT DOG)* [trained] | |
| 16 | Fine sort of key dropped (6) |
| FALLEN – F {ine} + ALLEN (sort of key)
William G. Allen patented a method of forming screw heads around a hexagonal die in 1910, and as is often the case with simple inventions, many others claim to have also invented it. |
|
| 17 | Awful pain, caught in flap (5) |
| PANIC – (PAIN)* + C {aught} | |
| 19 | Fool almost married in characteristic style (5) |
| IDIOM – IDIO{t} (fool) [almost=truncated] + M{arried} | |
| 20 | Second cousins tantalised nurses (7) |
| INSTANT – Hidden in “cousins tantalised” | |
| 22 | Aficionado of quiche losing pounds (3) |
| FAN – FLAN (quiche) – L (pounds) | |
| 23 | Obstinate swine with such personalised notepaper (3-6) |
| PIG-HEADED – PIG (swine) + HEADED (personalised notepaper)
Whenever Piggy clues appear, I glance up to see if the setter is Oink. Not today. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Arrive to collect luxury car for trading (8) |
| COMMERCE – COME (arrive) contains MERC (luxury car) | |
| 2 | Manage to flee (3) |
| RUN – Double def | |
| 3 | Window, circular shape, that is held in both hands briefly (5) |
| ORIEL – O (circular shape) [i.e.=that is] inside R{ight} + L{eft}[both hands]
The “circular shape” is needed to get the O, not because that is the shape of an Oriel window, which is a type of bay window that protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach the ground. |
|
| 4 | Informal agreement from sitting for too long, presumably (13) |
| UNDERSTANDING – Cryptic Definition
The prefix of UNDER as in Undercooked, which means not cooked for long enough. By analogy, Understanding means not standing enough, hence “sitting for too long”. |
|
| 5 | Collapsed coalpit is in the news (7) |
| TOPICAL – (COALPIT)* [Collapsed] | |
| 6 | Try to enter stronghold with number left behind (9) |
| FORGOTTEN – GO (try) inside FORT (stronghold) + TEN (number) | |
| 7 | Toy — minus its head, twice tipped over (2-2) |
| YO-YO – Take Toy, then remove the T (minus its head) for OY, double it for OY OY, then reverse for YO YO. | |
| 11 | General feeling as tension is released (9) |
| SENSATION – (AS TENSION)* [is released] | |
| 13 | Sort of guess one’s like this after school? (8) |
| EDUCATED – Double def | |
| 15 | With bread, soak up seafood (7) |
| ROLLMOP – ROLL (bread) + MOP (soak up)
Not easy if you’ve never heard of a RollMop Herring. Interesting derivation, the Mop comes from the German for a Pug Dog (mops) which the food is supposed to resemble. It was first “rollmops”, and only later was the s assumed to be a plural indicator. |
|
| 17 | Adhesive tapes coming unstuck (5) |
| PASTE – (TAPES)*
Very smooth surface, and my COD. |
|
| 18 | Quarrel: it turns very loud (4) |
| TIFF – TI [IT reversed] + FF (very loud) | |
| 21 | Assistance said not to have succeeded (3) |
| AID – s{AID} [s=succeeded, as in genealogy lists]
I thought this was some kind of homophone (“said”), but whoever I said it I couldn’t come up with an equivalent for “to have succeeded”
|
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in what sense is an EASEL a frame?
Chambers defines “easel” as “a frame for supporting a blackboard, a picture during painting etc”
Done in three sessions today, with lawn tennis intervening (had to cut, roll and mark as well as play). So no idea of time, but longish. SCC for sure.
Biffed CARGO CULT and learned something new. Misdirected by 3d and toyed with OVIAL, OGIAL, before realising that it had to include R and L and tried ORIEL (thinking of the Oxford College) without knowing why. Hah! My cod was 16a – F plus ALLEN (key) to give dropped made me laugh! And RECTOR without the A was fun! Thanks Teazel and Merlin.
22A FAN – This doesn’t really work – L is an abbreviation for “pound”, not “pounds”, according to both Chambers and Collins
1A CARGO CULT There is an slip in your explanation – the L is from Lima.
I’m a bit surprised that the dictionaries don’t specify L as ‘pounds’ but I’d argue that usage trumps that. For many years UK currency was written as £.s.d. and referred to as LSD or ‘pounds, shillings and pence’.
LOI Cargo Suit. 😭