ST 4363 (Sun 10 Jan) – Poe faced

Solving time: 6:30

Some strange ones this week, e.g. 22ac (EXPO), 2dn (UNIT), 7dn (GET THE CHOP), 12dn (GRIM REAPER), 14dn (POST-WAR) and 15dn (SOAP OPERAS); corrections and clarifications welcome. I was held up by two clues, 3dn and 1ac (CASE and DUNCE’S CAPS).

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1	DUNCE’S CAPS – I had no idea what ‘millinery’ meant so struggled on this. I wonder if this plural should be ‘dunces’ caps’ rather than ‘dunce’s caps’?
8	EPEE (hidden backwards)
10	INSTRUMENT; (RUN + MITTENS)*
11	BE AT
13	SNARL-UP; (RUN LAPS)* – I didn’t like this anagram indicator when solving, but on looking up ‘thwart’ I see that it can be used intransitively, meaning ‘to cross or conflict’.
15	ST(R)OKE
16	LOCATE; (O CAT) in L[ikeabl]E
17	ARMED TO THE TEETH; (THE TREE TOAD + THEM)* – somewhat weak to have ‘the’ in the answer and the anagram fodder.
18	OCELOT; (LEO)* in (COT)*
20	SAT RAP – again, when solving I wasn’t keen on this because ‘sat’ is equivalent to ‘took’, not ‘took exam’, but the clue works if read as a complete charade (i.e. ‘sat rap’ in the same way as you might have ‘sat history’ or ‘sat maths’.
21	WHISKER; WHISK (= ‘beat’ (11ac)) + rev. of RE (= Royal Engineers = ‘sappers’)
22	EXPO; X in (POE)*? – unless this is an indirect anagram of the American writer [Edgar Allan] Poe, I can’t fathom it.
25	DEPARTMENT; (DEPART + T[ime]) around MEN (= ‘staff’)
26	AG(R)A
27	TEDDY + BEARS – this confused me, but apparently a ‘teddy’ is a ‘one-piece undergarment for a woman, combining panties and chemise’ (Chambers). Perhaps I should get out more?

Down
2	UNIT; rev. of TIN (= ‘can’) after U[prising] – awful (the clue needs to read ‘can gets upset’, not ‘can get upset’, but this would spoil the surface reading).
3	CASE – I think the ‘which’ in the clue refers to the answer, in the sense that the phrase ‘[just] in case’ suggests added safety measures.
4	STRINE; (INSERT)*
5	ADMIRALTY ISLAND; (LADY’S MAID RAN + LIT)* – good anagram.
6	SINFUL (hidden)
7	GET THE CHOP (2 defs) – the first definition here doesn’t make sense to me: to ‘get the chop’ is to get the sack, not to sack [someone].
9	PIED-A-TERRE; (PAD RETIREE)* – decent semi-&lit.
12	GRIM REAPER (cryptic definition) – another one I don’t feel makes sense. The intention is presumably that the Grim Reaper appears when someone dies, i.e. is ‘late’, but I can’t make the ‘to be’ in the clue work. Still, here’s a film clip which might shed some light on matters.
13	SKID ROW; (KID + R[ide]) with SOW around
14	POST-WAR; POST + rev. of (RAW) – this should be (4-3) rather than (7), and ‘after 1918’ needs a question mark (because ‘post-war’ could equally mean e.g. after 1945).
15	SOAP OPERAS; SO (= ‘very’) + POPE (= ‘religious leader’) + RAS (= Royal Academicians = ‘artists’), all around A (= ‘acting’) – very convoluted and I may not have interpreted this correctly. If I have, ‘acting’ for A is an unusually difficult abbreviation.
19	T(H)REAT – ‘dress’ = TREAT as in ‘to dress a wound’.
20	SENT + RY – why ‘message’?
23	MERE (2 defs)
24	STIR (2 defs) – ‘porridge’ as in prison. Nice clue to finish.

4 comments on “ST 4363 (Sun 10 Jan) – Poe faced”

There were some very badly constructed clues here. I think that Talbinho has flagged all the ones that I drew a circle round during solving. I came to similar conclusions. Expo contains an indirect anagram of Poe and Case is an allusion to “just in case”. At 15 I just took “a pope” to mean “religious leader” but I am sure Talbino’s explanation is correct.

….and didn’t have a lot of difficulty with most of the clues.

I understood 22 to mean ‘Poe’ carrying ‘x’, then wrap the whole thing ‘around’, so the back two letters end up at the front.

I didn’t have any problem with ‘grim reaper’, either. Maybe I’m just getting used to the Sunday style?

However, there was one in today’s I cannot fathom.

It’s a comfort when I find the clues I flagged as odd are the ones the expert found unsatisfactory. ‘expo’ seems just hopeless; a=acting is in my dictionary sv ‘a’, but still this seems a bit much.
I notice that in this week’s ST, one clue refers to ‘Arctic penguins’.

I’m pretty sure (pace vinyl) that EXPO is a concealed anagram and therefore unthinkable. Anax has been on here a few times explaining that the ST has its own mob of setters unconnected with the Times as such; and Peter has suggested they may be responsible for the hideous Oz ST. The latter has regular instances of the concealed anagram and appears to be totally without editorial control. At least the London ST hasn’t sunk so low … not quite … or not yet.

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