Solving time : 5m12s – I was pleased with my time here given some difficulties, with 1 across where I immediately entered –MENT for the second half, and not picking off all the long answers quickly, which is normally possible in a relatively easy puzzle.
This was a feast of filth and near-the-knuckle naughtiness, with potties, loos and pooh as well as a concubine, a prostitute and a page-three girl. All of this provides me with a rousing send-off, gentle reader, as I fill my regular Friday slot for the last time before leaving you in the capable hands of dhogg. I wish to record my thanks to Peter Biddlecombe for setting up and administering this excellent forum, which I shall continue to follow and pass comment on (and maybe occasionally contribute to as a substitute) – and much luck to all the setters and my fellow bloggers.
This was a feast of filth and near-the-knuckle naughtiness, with potties, loos and pooh as well as a concubine, a prostitute and a page-three girl. All of this provides me with a rousing send-off, gentle reader, as I fill my regular Friday slot for the last time before leaving you in the capable hands of dhogg. I wish to record my thanks to Peter Biddlecombe for setting up and administering this excellent forum, which I shall continue to follow and pass comment on (and maybe occasionally contribute to as a substitute) – and much luck to all the setters and my fellow bloggers.
Mr Magoo
Across
| 5 | S + POTTY – Both the definition of the answer and, even more so, that of POTTY should raise a smile on most faces. (Perhaps the former requires a “perhaps”.) |
| 9 | U + BELT in STAB, all rev – My last one entered, and I had neither deconstructed the wordplay nor previously known that this word was in the dictionaries now. “Go” for STAB (as in “having a …”) is always deceptive. |
| 11 | O LIVE, pun – If all die, zero live. |
| 14 | FLASH IN THE PAN, pun – A crossword solver or setter who has seen a flambé served cannot see or hear the phrase “flash in the pan” without thinking of this more literal meaning. |
| 20 | (“Eau de”) COLOGNE – the homophone-in-clue device, though regular in the Guardian, is almost unknown elsewhere – I actually quite like this clue as it signposts quite clearly what is going on, but I wouldn’t want to see such devices proliferate. Rhotic non-homophone here, of course. |
| 23 | BRA + IN – ‘Page-three girl’ being a reference to The Sun newspaper in which a topless belle adorns said page almost every day. |
| 24 | NEOLOGISE, anag – ‘coin’ is always involved in the definition for NEOLOGISM etc – once the compiler had seen ‘seeing loo’ as an anagram in the context of this crossword, I’m sure he had to use it. Lovely surface in the end. |
| 25 | EX + (P)ETER – Not sure I really understood this when I wrote it in. |
| 26 | (r)EST in ASBOs – up-to-the-minute subsidiary indication, but a very simple definition for regulars. |
Down
| 1 | BIN in TUG – nicely misleading parts of speech in the surface of the clue |
| 3 | SULTANA, pun – a sultana can be the wife or concubine of a sultan (I just wrote ‘consultant’ which is a bit Freudian!) – ‘concubine’ I suspect historically was a lot less saucy than we think of it now. |
| 4 | RUB OF THE GREEN, cryptic def – this phrase is derived from golf. |
| 10 | SERENDIPITOUS, anag – The anagram fodder is ‘in’ + ‘spouse tired’; it’s always worth suspecting ‘doctor’ as an (imperative) anagram indicator; the definition’s adjectival status is neatly disguised |
| 14 | US + ILL in FADE – ‘feeling funny’ can mean ‘feeling ill’. |
| 17 | IN + U in GENE – ‘source of personal information’ is a surprisingly long and deceptive gene description. |
| 18 | MON in (w)HORE – a slightly unexpected direct association of the (traditionally quite strong) terms ‘whore’ and ‘prostitute’; this reminds me of the old gag “How do you make a hormone?” “Don’t pay her.” |
| 19 | CEP in BIS – Whoops! Corrected after comment – I misread ‘mushroom’ as ‘mushrooms’. |
| 22 | SIX (rev) in E.T. – Every crossword setter’s favourite film appears yet again. |
Sorry to include a correction, but I think the reason for “crushes” in 19 is containment – CEP in BIS = “again” – what the French actually say when we’d expect them to say “encore!”.
6:08 here – didn’t get 1A on first look, but got 5A and its ‘danglers’, then accepted the fairly obvious invitation from this grid to tackle the puzzle one corner at a time. Going anti-clockwise, the first three fell quickly, but the NW not quite so easily.
I got the answer but didn’t know until I looked it up that BIS = AGAIN. Apparently it’s an alternative to the call ENCORE! in the concert hall. Never heard of that before despite having a degree in music!
(Incidentally, I think the third occurrence of “sultana” above should have been “sultan”)
Entirely agree with Magoo’s comments about the inclusion of so many ‘dodgy’ references. I seem to recall ‘potty training’ a week or so ago. I’m not sure what it says about the setter…
Took too long on 6D – POOH BAH – as I was sure the Mikado character’s name was Poo Bah. A little checking, however, confirmed the correctness of ‘Pooh’. I claim my excuse for being ‘of very little brain’ as being that the one of the other main characters is Nanki-Poo. Oh, the joys of a W.S.Gilbert libretto….
BATTLEBUS is curious in that the wordplay element seems, if I’ve understood it, to start with “needing” whereas the definition is the whole clue. Was trying to work out how politicians could be STAB or maybe BATS. It’s all clear now. “Rings” was very clever in TUBING and sent me off in the wrong direction before light dawned.
–ilan
Mr Magoo left out some easies including the 1ac that caused him some problems initially! Mind you – he did the whole X-word, including recovering from the Troument at 1ac probably quicker than I responded to the flambZ.
1ac Garment disturbing people, put on tearaway’s head (8)
T ROUSERS. Wot? No one grumbling about tearaway’s head = T?
12a Certainly awful hot inside baked dish when flipped over (3,4)
N OTH ALF. Jumbled HOT inside FLAN back’rds. This used to be the standard response from both my late parents-in-law to an inquiry as to whether they would like a cup of tea.
13a Engineers certain to recover (7)
RE BOUND
16a Uniquely recognised as illustrious (13)
DISTINGUISHED. Quite a tricky DD in my view – my POI.
21a One’s king returning before one’s countryman (7)
IS RAEL I. One’s = I’S LEAR backwards and one = I. The ‘s after is part of the literal ‘s countryman.
2d Musical group starts to Offend Conductor, Tittering Every Time (5) O C T E T. Hate it when the strings get giggly.
6d Bear only odd parts of BrAsH, pompous official (4-3)
POOH BAH
7d (Curd I spit)* out of some teeth (9)
TRICUSPID. That would be some of the bigger grindy ones I suspect – pre-molars or the full molar?
8d Surrendering as soft (8)
YIELDING
15d (Due)* to work out message so can take in information (8)
EDU CABLE. Barely educable personally but my X-word solving speed has improved from geological to glacial with much help from these pages.