9:23. Another delightful puzzle from Robert, with a bit of a literary theme in the top and bottom rows, plus a couple of poets in the clues.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Villain in novel underwear, liver coloured |
| LONG JOHN SILVER – LONG JOHNS, (LIVER)*. | |
| 10 | Arriviste jerk going on to Oxford |
| UPSTART – UP (to Oxford), START (jerk). Other universities are available. | |
| 11 | Traveller’s bundle, mostly depressing |
| PILGRIM – PIL |
|
| 12 | Policy expert backed by one lofty US wise guy |
| KNOW IT ALL – reversal of WONK, I, TALL. ‘Wise guy’ is the American expression here, the answer is very much British. | |
| 13 | Lines from Pindar performing classical theatre |
| ODEON – ODE, ON (performing). If you didn’t know that Pindar wrote odes before solving this clue, you did afterwards. | |
| 14 | When out at midday, lassies take sandwiches |
| SIESTA – contained in ‘lassies take’. Not really an accurate definition: a SIESTA is taken after lunch, which if you’re Spanish begins no earlier than 2pm. | |
| 15 | Note put on 100 formerly rare compositions |
| CONCERTI – C (100), ONCE (formerly), R (rare), TI (note). | |
| 18 | Act without role being set out |
| DEPARTED – DE(PART)ED. | |
| 20 | Magazine covers start off short of space |
| COSMIC – CO(S |
|
| 23 | Crazy place to go on vacation, Paraguay |
| LOOPY – LOO (place to go), P |
|
| 25 | Position berth facing west in posh cabin |
| STATEROOM – STATE (position), reversal of MOOR. | |
| 26 | End of détente after island drops a bomb |
| GRENADE – GRENAD |
|
| 27 | Drunk badly beaten leaving hotel |
| TRASHED – T |
|
| 28 | Book prize vacuous idiots win |
| TREASURE ISLAND – TREASURE (prize), I |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Maybe riding with son moving up from the sea |
| ONSHORE – ON HORSE with the S moved up three places. | |
| 3 | Fighter pleased a riot spread |
| GLADIATOR – GLAD, (A RIOT)*. | |
| 4 | Bar in France where Whitman retired |
| OUTLAW – OU (in France where), reversal of WALT. Familiar to people of my generation from Dead Poets Society. | |
| 5 | New staff about to hold a card game |
| NAPOLEON – N(A), POLE, ON. | |
| 6 | Cool home some cool girls set up |
| IGLOO – contained reversed in ‘cool girls’. | |
| 7 | An artist’s shift I’m hesitant to interrupt |
| VERMEER – V(ERM)EER. | |
| 8 | Film city commander raving about nothing |
| ROMANTIC COMEDY – (CITY COMMANDER)* containing O. | |
| 9 | Sweet kid hurt his leg running back from cricket |
| TURKISH DELIGHT – (KID HURT HIS LEG)*, |
|
| 16 | Friendly visit narrowly avoided disaster |
| CLOSE CALL – CLOSE, CALL. | |
| 17 | Sort of clothing workers curse |
| MENSWEAR – MEN, SWEAR. | |
| 19 | Ward training nurses got ER prepared |
| PROTEGE – PE containing (GOT ER)*. | |
| 21 | Bird’s bare bottom (one lacking tail parts) |
| MOORHEN – MOO(RHE |
|
| 22 | We hear this setter’s game for a cocktail |
| MAI TAI – sounds like ‘my tie’. | |
| 24 | A poet still penning a start to something |
| YEATS – YE(A)T, S |
|
33:24
I biffed several including LONG JOHN–never read the book, dnk he was a villain; never did parse MOORHEN. It’s ironic that Whitman should be introduced by a conventional and atypical poem of his. KNOW-IT-ALL is very much American, too; in fact, I thought you folks used ‘know-all’ (definitely not US). (ODE marks ‘know-all’ as (Brit.), and cross-references from ‘know-it-all’ as a variant.)
But worth it for the power of K’s pun!
25:27 for this stylish offering
Yes I didn’t mean that it wasn’t American (I am familiar with Stevie Wonder), just that it’s also British. Although it seems I was wrong! I hear both but now that I think about it ‘know-all’ probably is still more common on this side of the pond.
44 minutes. I missed the parsing of VERMEER as I was too busy thinking ER for ‘I’m hesitant’ and not noticing ERM as a possibility which I’m not sure we’ve had before.
Excellent crossword from Robert. Took a while to work out MOORHEN, but laughed when I finally got it. R for rare in 15a seems to be another example of a random abbreviation ( although no doubt I will be given chapter and verse ) but overall, most enjoyable.
R is in the ODE as ‘rare’ but with no info as to context. I can’t find it in Collins or Chambers, surely the natural home for single-letter abbreviations, so that’s a surprise. Gemini offers book-collecting for context. I know Peter B has views on single-letter abbreviations although I’m not sure of his current policy. Perhaps we shall hear from him later.
FWIW, I think this one has come up before and someone said it’s used in restaurants when waiters take orders to indicate on their pad how customers want their steaks cooked.
Thanks for taking the time to research ( r ?!) this, but I continue to struggle with these.
It is very important, that crosswords make you continue to struggle. If you didn’t, how much fun would they be?
Their taking you out of what nowadays folk are pleased to call your “comfort zone” is a vital ingredient. Amazing, how many don’t get this.
I (still) don’t mind ST setters using abbreviations which are in only one of Collins ED or the Oxford D of E, though I might ask for a change if I noticed that for both dictionaries in the same puzzle. Much less keen on Chambers-only ones. R = rare as of steak is my understanding, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen MR in a dictionary as “medium rare”, which I’m sure would be used too.
28 minutes. The usual pleasant puzzle from Robert with the expected link between the top and bottom rows helping make TREASURE ISLAND easier than it otherwise would have been. ‘Pindar’ recognised as a name but I knew nothing about what he was famous for or even when he lived. Everything else made sense including the R for ‘rare’ abbreviation which has come up before as Jack points out. The wordplay for MOORHEN was my favourite bit.
Thanks to Robert and keriothe
As you’ll appreciate, MOORHEN was my least favourite bit.
Somewhat consoled by COSMIC
25 minutes.
– Had no idea who Pindar was in the clue for ODEON
– Agree that the definition for SIESTA was off
– Wasn’t sure about the spelling of MAI TAI, and fortunately chose I rather than Y in the first word
Thanks keriothe and setter.
FOI Long John Silver
LOI Moorhen
COD Treasure Island
Excellent crossword and blog. Keriothe, you have a typo at 26a. This is a coincidence for me as I finished The Persian by David Mc Closkey last night and his editors missed that a character had gone to Grenada in Andalousia.
Ah yes, thanks. As you say I must have been mentally at the Alhambra!
My first in was LOOPY, which amused me, and I got the two long crossers with only 2 letters each, though I never thought to look for a connection. The card game was barely heard of and my LOI, the P of PILGRIM being the clincher for both clues. Those I had problems with were COSMIC, GRENADE, being unable to think of the island, and MOORHEN, which I liked a lot when I finally parsed it.
14A: I don’t think midday has to mean 12:00. Noël Coward’s “midday sun” clearly lasts for at least an hour or so, and his lyrics include “detest a siesta”. And in Spain, where summer time is two hours ahead of GMT and they’re further west, true noon must be around 2:30 anyway.
You’re right in that, in the height of summer, ‘midday’ in Madrid is about 2.15. But again this is when Spanish people would start lunch. By the time they’re having a SIESTA it’s definitely the afternoon!
Well, the name comes from the old idea of a “sixth hour”, which would be noon, but word origins aren’t the standard. Here’s content from the wiki “siesta” article:
“In many countries that practice the siesta, the summer heat can be unbearable in the early afternoon, making a midday break at home welcome.”
(And once a word becomes part of English, the nation it was borrowed from doesn’t own the whole possible meaning – as a more dramatic example, our chocolate would probably be unrecognisable to long-ago South Americans)
17.26
I thought TURKISH DELIGHT was a magnificent clue in the usual top-notch offering from Robert. I also liked COSMIC for some reason.
Thanks for the parsing of MOORHEN and a few others Lord K – chores to do today so was rushing to finish but can now savour the elegance of so many of the clues.
Another very enjoyable one. Partly because I’m partial to VERMEER and TURKISH DELIGHT. And the odd SIESTA, too…
Don’t understand the Hyman Kaplan reference in the blog’s heading
It’s a rather tenuous reference to Treasure Island. The opening passage says that Billy Bones’s voice ‘seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars’.
(And ‘oh captain my captain’ a bit of Whitman made famous by the movie)
I had to Google Hyman Kaplan!
Those are the kind of blog titles I like! Some of mine are similar, but nobody ever asks.
I appreciate that explication, as I haven’t read the book since childhood.
I found this very easy for a Price production. The two long across answers were obvious and supplied lots of usable letters. I think I even parsed moorhen as I was solving; the Friday puzzles have stepped up my ability to see wordplay.
Time: 20:15
My thanks to Robert Price and keriothe.
Enjoyed this but was beaten all ways up by 21d Moorhen which I biffed.
As to be expected, didn’t notice the link between 1a and 28a until too late to be helpful.
I love Robert’s puzzles. Usually not too hard but beautiful constructions. I only discovered that the top and bottom rows were related (despite successfully solving them) when I came here. Doh.
Re 15A
Could formerly rare be “oncer” to better explain the “r”
A week late as an Oz paper based solver
I think 100 formerly really has to be c “once”, good thought though as oncer seemed to be a 1 pond note.
The bigger puzzle is how you get the weekend oZ on Friday night 🙂
P.S. Now I realise the post time is minus 11 hours it’s not a puzzle any more.
I got about seven clues (very good for me) before giving up and coming here for the rest of the answers.
I love how Robert Price has connected the top and bottom horizontal clues. I remain in awe of all you people who solve these cryptic crosswords without resorting to cheating.
As I get the puzzle two weeks after it appears in the London Sunday Times, it is much later when I view these pages.