Another cracker from Dean, awash with wit, some terrific clues, amusing surfaces and a splash of sauce.
Particular standouts for me were the excellent clue at 17dn, the tricky 1ac, the ingenious definition at 26ac and, of course, the highly amusing (and cunningly constructed) 3dn. But the whole thing was hugely enjoyable, so thanks – as ever – to our setter.
Across |
1 |
Both taps drip – see variable pressure (6) |
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CHIVVY – C+H (both taps – cold & hot) + IV (drip – of the intravenous sort) + V (see – Latin vide) + Y (variable). If you chivvy someone along, you apply pressure to them |
4 |
Dog meat 50% part of take-away food (4,4) |
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CHOW MEIN – CHOW (dog) with MEAT (meat 50%) + IN (part of) |
10 |
Old man’s shop beginning to go forward (4,5) |
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PASS ALONG – PA’S SALON (Old man’s shop) + G (beginning to GO) |
11 |
Fleet‘s power in attack (5) |
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RAPID – P (power) inside RAID (attack) |
12 |
Scholars notice earth is round? (13) |
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THEORETICIANS – *(NOTICE EARTH IS) with “round” as the anagrind |
14 |
Cat left in part of hotel (4) |
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LASH – L (left) + AS (in) + HOTEL (part of hotel). The lament of the forgetful dominatrix, no doubt… |
16 |
Dressmaker keeps touching fabulous swimmer (3-7) |
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SEA-MONSTER – SEAM[ON]STER. ON (as in “regarding”, hence touching) retained (keeps) by an alternative word for seamstress. Amusing surface |
18 |
Unique, troubled genius rejected father (3,7) |
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SUI GENERIS – *(GENIUS) with “troubled” as the anagrind, and SIRE reversed (rejected father) |
19 |
Tailless bird caught small reptile (4) |
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CROC – CROW (tailless bird) + C (caught), giving the short form (small) rendition of Captain Hook’s nemesis |
21 |
Fully open, as any lock can be picked (2-5-6) |
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NO-HOLDS-BARRED – DD, the second somewhat cryptic |
24 |
Destination Kentucky’s old capital (5) |
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TOKYO – TO (destination) + KY (abbrev. of the state) + O (old) |
25 |
More stale works of writers (9) |
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FROWSTIER – *(OF WRITERS) with “works” as the anagrind. Not a word I knew, but the anagram indicator was clear and the cross checkers gave a sporting chance of plumping for the right answer |
26 |
Makes textbook for a following – weird sect (8) |
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PERFECTS – PER (for) + F (abbrev. of following, as used in citations in reference works) + *(SECT) with “weird” as the anagrind. Ingenious definition, I thought |
27 |
Ordinary bag of bones (6) |
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OSTEAL – O (abbrev. of ordinary – as in O Levels) + STEAL (bag) giving a word meaning of or pertaining to bones. Another unknown, but relatively easy to work out from a combination of the wordplay and dim recollections of Latin classes at school |
Down |
1 |
Beat it with very famous investor (10) |
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CAPITALIST – CAP IT (beat it) with A LIST (very famous) |
2 |
Edition is, of course, not right (5) |
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ISSUE – IS + SURE (of course without the R for right) |
3 |
Promoter of the other version of Sex & The City? (6) |
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VIAGRA – A classic. Witty, slightly risqué and very elegant clueing – what more could you want? Brilliant definition (a spot of “the other” is a somewhat old fashioned term for that which us modernists tend to refer to as horizontal folk dancing). The “version of sex” is the Roman version, viz. VI (Roman numeral with sex being Latin for six) + AGRA (city in India) |
5 |
Embassy‘s expensive fee (4,10) |
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HIGH COMMISSION – A generous DD giving an entry point extending down the spine of the puzzle – and much appreciated! |
6 |
Make-up – defect is not commonly seen (3,5) |
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WAR PAINT – WARP (defect) + AINT (is not “commonly”). Always liked war paint as a term for make-up: as a very young kid steeped in Cowboys & Indians stuff, I was most intrigued when I used to hear The Mother saying she was “off to put her war paint on” prior to a big night out |
7 |
One explains old model with skimpy clothing (9) |
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EXPOSITOR – EX + PO[SIT]OR. EX (old) with SIT (model) “clothed by” POOR (skimpy). Yet another great surface suggesting a careworn artist fielding questions regarding his reclining semi-nude septuagenarian |
8 |
To be a jogger’s no good without kit (8) |
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NUDE – NUDGE (jog without G for good) giving us the result of getting one’s kit off |
9 |
Not to be justified on earth? How appropriate (3,3,4,2,2) |
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FOR THE HELL OF IT – One of those clues where the answer went in pretty much straight away based on definition, but the parsing was more challenging. I think the following is correct, but apologies if I have this wrong: FORTH (on – “go forth” = “go on”) + E (abbrev. Earth) + HELLO (how – greeting used by North American Indians) + FIT (appropriate). Phew! |
13 |
Education through acquisition, of course (10) |
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PROCEDURAL – PROC[ED}URAL. Have to say this went in with fingers crossed, as I did not know Procural (although from the wordplay it seemed a likely candidate) and I was not fully confident I’d understood the definition – which I think is based on a process being a course of steps to be followed |
15 |
Tack into wind and run this sail (9) |
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SPINNAKER – S[PIN]NAKE + R. Small nail (PIN / tack) inside SNAKE (as in wind around) with R (run – cricket abbrev.) |
17 |
Queen needs him to carry the odd crown? No (8) |
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DETHRONE – Tricky, beautifully crafted clue in my view. DRONE (Queen bee needs him) carrying *(THE) with odd as the anagrind, giving the opposite of crowning (crown? No) |
20 |
Arrangement of bones makes us look bad? (6) |
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TARSUS – Collection of bones in the ankle also derived from TARS_US (makes us look bad) |
22 |
Put up and knock down, reportedly (5) |
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RAISE – Homophone (signalled by reportedly) of RAZE (knock down) |
23 |
Extremely short work break (4) |
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STOP – SHORT (extremes of short) + OP (work) |
Edited at 2015-05-17 06:19 am (UTC)
By the way, isn’t the second “V” in 1a the “Holy See of Rome”, the Vatican,i.e. “V” in the list of international vehicle registrations?
Well blogged, Nick, and thanks for explaining 9dn, which I had taken to be some kind of cryptic definition. A couple of small points:
> In 14ac I think ‘in part of’ is a theatrical definition for AS and H is the usual abbreviation for ‘hotel’.
> In 21ac I think the second half is a wrestling reference, a ‘lock’ being a type of wrestling hold: if no hold is barred then a wrestler can pick any of them. Not sure if this is what you meant, but it was far from obvious to me and took a while to work out!
Edited at 2015-05-17 08:18 am (UTC)
The wrestling reference was a level of subtlety beyond me – I just saw it as a cryptic regarding the inherent pickability of any lock (which did go in with a bit of a shrug – should have known better with Dean!)
Just in case anyone thinks I’m being discourteous, I would usually edit the blog at this point and refer to Keriothe’s amendments but last time I tried to do that, I somehow managed to make the whole blog disappear and I’m not game at this stage to try it again!