Solving time – not recorded for some reason. I normally note it on my printout, but forgot to do so last week. It was a fairly quick time though, maybe around 12 minutes.
| Across |
| 1 |
COCHLEA – CO(a)CH + LEA. Labyrinth is part of the ear, nothing to do with a maze. |
| 5 |
PERTURB – BRUT + REP, all reversed. BRUT is French for dry (as in wine). |
| 9 |
SHRINKAGE – H + RINK inside SAGE |
| 10 |
CITED – sounds like “sighted”. |
| 11 |
EGRET – E(nergy) + GRE(w) + T(ime) |
| 12 |
CONSTRAIN – CONS (arguments against) + TRAIN |
| 13 |
DISSIMULATING – DISS 1 + (LATIN inside MUG). Last one I put in, with only 90% confidence that it was a word. |
| 17 |
STEP OUT OF LINE – EP inside STOUT + (on file)*. |
| 21 |
ONOMASTIC – (man is too)* + C(hapter). Another word I guessed, confirming it later in the dictionary. |
| 24 |
ATRIA – (sweethear)T inside ARIA. Roman courtyards, which have been quite popular in crosswords lately – the same word has appeared in Azed, Mephisto and one of the Magpie puzzles in the last month or so. |
| 25 |
INTRO – T(ons) inside INRO. An inro is a small Japanese pill-box. |
| 26 |
PUSHINESS – SHINE inside PUSS. |
| 27 |
HONEYED – NOH (Japanese traditional drama) reversed + EYED. |
| 28 |
DEMOTIC – DEMO + TIC. |
| Down |
| 1 |
COSSET – COS + SET. |
| 2 |
CARTRIDGE – CART + RIDGE. |
| 3 |
LINCTUS – CT inside LINUS. A fairly obscure man’s name, but I can think of three famous LINUSes – Linus Pauling, the Nobel prizewinner; Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system; and Linus van Pelt, blanket-sucking kid in the Peanuts comic strip! |
| 4 |
ANARCHIST – (in rash act)* |
| 5 |
PAEAN – PA + (A inside EN). EN is a space in printing terminology, the width of an n. You can also have an em-space, a bit wider. |
| 6 |
RICOTTA – CO (firm) + TT (dry, i.e. teetotal), inside AIR reversed. |
| 7 |
ULTRA – hidden inside “deadfUL TRAde”. |
| 8 |
BADINAGE – BAD IN AGE. This answer appeared in the Quick Crossword too a couple of days ago, defined as “witty conversation”. Cost me some time in Race-the-Clock, as I put REPARTEE instead at first. |
| 14 |
UNFOCUSED – N(orth) in UFO + C (speed of light) + USED. |
| 15 |
IN EARNEST – I + NEAR + NEST. |
| 16 |
ASTONISH – TON (fashionable style) + IS, all inside ASH. |
| 18 |
ORATORY – A(rea) inside OR + TORY. |
| 19 |
IMAGISM – GIS(t) inside IMAM. |
| 20 |
PARSEC – (capers)*. A parsec is defined as the distance at which half the major axis of the earth’s orbit subtends an angle of one second (about 3.26 light years). |
| 22 |
OFTEN – (s)OFTEN |
| 23 |
TEPID – P inside DIET (assembly) reversed. |
Several really nice clues, especially LINCTUS (made me think of Peanuts, too) and the political double at 22d and 23d.
COCHLEA is very neat, too.
LINCTUS was easy enough but I couldn’t think of anybody called Linus when doing the puzzle and then kicked myself over Charlie Brown’s best friend. I agree ATRIA is becoming boring, keeps cropping up all over the place.
On the subject of Mephisto I thought 13A was that style with an unknown word as the answer derived solely from wordplay and then verified in the dictionary.
‘Demotic’ made me think of ‘imagism’, because it’s in The Wasteland, and Eliot was a friend of Pound who was briefly associated with Amy whatshername before he thought better of the whole thing and took up Chinese. Strange how we make these mental leaps.
Now ‘cochlea’ was quite witty, and the labyrinth in the ear really is a series of complex passages and is named after the Minotaur’s place.
The only answer I never heard of was ‘linctus’. I’m glad the cryptic was easy, or I never would have got it.
Greek onoma = Latin nomen – both third declension.
At 13a – DISSIMULATING – one of the ones I did not know the meaning of – I thought the language was MULATI until I got 8d BADINAGE and LATIN appeared surrounded by MUG (attack). Phew. Must try to remember it means hypocritical – or does it really?