I was wondering recently how many blogs I had done. I had never kept a record and working it out was always going to be quite fiddly, because there was a fair bit of chopping and changing in the roster in the early months of my contributions. Anyway, after a bit of rooting around in LiveJournal I was able to work it out and found that I had done rather more than I had expected: this is my 200th Sunday blog since my first one in May 2014. This is a pretty paltry number compared to many of the other contributors here but there it is, for what it’s worth.
The puzzle, you say? It was fun, of course, being a Dean Mayer. There were a few tricky things: the island/hybrid-cattle combo in 19ac may have caught a few people out, there was a smattering of other words that were new to me at least, and a clue composed entirely in French is a little unusual. On the whole I thought it was reasonably straightforward but I may just have got lucky with where the chips of my particular combination of knowledge and ignorance happened to fall. How did you get on?
Oh yes, 12:23.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | By introducing it, church is vindictive |
| BITCHY – B(IT, CH)Y. | |
| 4 | Weevils struggling to chase a fish |
| ALEWIVES – A, (WEEVILS)*. | |
| 10 | One of the first victims? |
| APRIL FOOL – another good Dean Mayer cryptic definition. | |
| 11 | Fast over slow |
| LENTO – LENT (fast), O. | |
| 12 | Ancient city plot’s on ancient ground |
| CONSTANTINOPLE – (PLOTS ON ANCIENT)*. Now Istanbul. Why did CONSTANTINOPLE get the works? That’s nobody’s business but the Turks’. | |
| 14 | Medium parts fine at Nasa, which is crazy |
| AMOK – A(M)OK. I was a little confused by this, because I don’t think of ‘A-OK’ as a particularly American usage, but Collins says ‘informal, mainly US’. | |
| 15 | Writer’s chair is too high |
| IMMODERATE – I’M, MODERATE (chair). | |
| 17 | Deftly run female into ditch |
| GRACEFULLY – G(RACE, F)ULLY. | |
| 19 | Leave and cross a small island |
| GOZO – GO (leave), ZO (cross). The ZO (also spelled variously ZO, DSO, DZHO or DZO) is a kind of hybrid domestic cattle found in the Himalayas, familiar to solvers of Mephisto or Azed. GOZO is a small island next to Malta. | |
| 22 | Standard of living |
| BREAD AND BUTTER – DD. | |
| 24 | Belief of cardinal who wanted to phone home? |
| TENET – TEN (cardinal), ET (who wanted to phone home). | |
| 25 | Alcohol I bring in around May? |
| INEBRIANT – I, NE(BRIAN)T. A reference to the Queen guitarist. | |
| 26 | Some opera may analogise an epic work |
| RAMAYANA – contained in ‘opera may analogise’. I didn’t know or had forgotten this Sanskrit epic, but the clueing couldn’t have been kinder. People often complain about obscure words indicated by anagrams but it would have been OK here! A Man Ray, a mad masterpiece? | |
| 27 | Endless criticism I get in secret |
|
MYSTIC – MY STIC |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Un chef français consomme le dessert? |
| BLANCMANGE – a cryptic clue entirely in French, which is rather unusual. Not the most demanding of French, and the definition is also English of course, so even if you have managed to miss the culinary output of Raymond BLANC and/or are unable to convert ‘un chef français consomme’ into ‘(Raymond) BLANC MANGE’, you should be able to grope your way to the solution with a few checkers. | |
| 2 | City aware of having hill to the north |
| TORONTO – TOR (hill), ONTO (aware of). | |
| 3 | It melts ice and it’s healthy to drink it |
| HALITE – HAL(IT)E. ‘Sodium chloride as a mineral’, apparently. A substance that melts ice (notably on roads) by a process known as ‘freezing point depression’. | |
| 5 | Young conductors, ideal cast in popular pieces |
| LOLLIPOP LADIES – (IDEAL)* contained in LOLLIPOPS. A LOLLIPOP is a ‘short, entertaining, but undemanding piece of classical music’, which was news to me but the knowledge was unnecessary. | |
| 6 | Indulged wife, OK? |
| WALLOWED – W, ALLOWED. | |
| 7 | Article seen in digs of Roman plain |
| VANILLA – V(AN)ILLA. ‘Plain’ always seems a bit harsh as a reference to VANILLA but it’s a common enough usage. | |
| 8 | Small present that many want for Christmas |
| SNOW – S, NOW. | |
| 9 | Chap turns up in saloon but I’m drunk walking out of it |
| SOMNAMBULATION – reversal of MAN in (SALOON BUT IM)*. Nice definition. | |
| 13 | Popular as arctic winds after March |
| DEMOCRATIC – DEMO, (ARCTIC)*. | |
| 16 | Nit-picking journo in grocery store? |
| PEDANTRY – P(ED)ANTRY. | |
| 18 | Potus is one — a familiar term, ultimately |
|
ACRONYM – A CRONY, |
|
| 20 | Untouchable players who are strikers |
| OUTCAST – my first thought here was that this was a slightly convoluted reference to actors playing baseball but the simpler explanation is that they are members of Equity engaged in industrial action. | |
| 21 | One hunted for minerals here |
| QUARRY – DD. | |
| 23 | Use a spoon to make cooler? |
| STIR – DD. | |
Sir Thomas Beecham produced a whole album of Lollipops, EMI ASD259 – with a great cover picture of the famous maestro relaxing.
Edited at 2022-01-09 02:08 am (UTC)
Well done, Keriothe. I’m not sure we’ll see any double tons from England on the current Ashes tour!
There were some lovely concise Dean Mayer Clues, especially APRIL FOOL (“One of the first victims”) and LOLLIPOP LADIES (“Young conductors). In France their version is a “poisson d’avril”. Talking of France, I don’t think I’ve ever come across an entire clue in French before.
I thought SOMNAMBULATION was very well hidden.
In 19ac I had EXIT at first until I remembered an island is an ait not an eit.
Also I took an age to ‘see’ QUARRY.
Thank you Dean and thank you Keriothe.
It’s the “Poisson d’Avril” blog by the late, great Dorset Jimbo:
https://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1089580.html
Brian Harold May earned a PhD degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007, and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013. He was a “science team collaborator” with NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission. He is also a co-founder of the awareness campaign Asteroid Day.
I was rather surprised on revisiting my printout to find my solving time for this was only 37 minutes although I had needed aids for the last missing letter, the Z of GOZO, never having heard of the island nor the Yak cross thingy. I remember wondering if GOJO might be something.
I also now remember thinking that up to that point this had seemed a little on the easy side for one of Dean’s offerings, and I had been grateful for that after the previous Sunday’s puzzle.
I liked the defs for LOLLIPOP LADIES and SOMNAMBULATION as well as the day trip across the Channel (much further for me) for 1d. Favourite was the surface and working out the parsing for GRACEFULLY.
Thanks to Dean and thanks and congrats to keriothe on the big double ton.
From my paper copy of the puzzle I see I struggled with IMMODERATE and APRIL FOOL. I worked things out in the end finishing with a very doubtful GOZO which I knew was an island.
COD to BLANCMANGE for its originality, but lots of good ones.
David
FOI 1ac and 4ac BITCHY ALEWIVES!
LOI 21dn QUARRY
COD 10ac April Fool
Typical DM economy of words in each clue – bar 9dn SONAMBULATION my WOD.
26dn RAMAYANA sounded like yet another sixties camp-fire song.
Edited at 2022-01-09 10:11 am (UTC)
[Enjoyed the puzzle too, and think I finished it under my own steam.]
Edited at 2022-01-09 02:37 pm (UTC)
Was a little vague on the musical connotation of LOLLIPOP as well. Could the famous Beantown ensemble have just as well been called the Boston Lollipops?
Had never heard of the GOZO. Or even the ZO.
Congrats on the bicentennial, James! At just 26 blogs a year, that takes a while.
Edited at 2022-01-09 07:41 pm (UTC)
Thought 1d was superb as were the young conductors though never heard that meaning of lollipops. And the APRIL FOOL
Many congratulations dear esteemed blogger. Always entertaining and readable as are your daily posts
Thanks Mr M also