If memory serves, this wasn’t heavy lifting. But we were reminded (at least twice) of a topical matter so weighty it might make one want to resort to OPIUM or at least pay a visit to a SOMMELIER, and which has surely created more than one INSOMNIAC. (It’s now Thursday and I have to copy-edit an article about this headache.) There are other echoes of the CORRIDORs of power. I’ve been playing the abovementioned album now, but only in my head. “Last time to make plans!” sings the “Government Man.” “Facts all come with points of view / Facts don’t do what I want them to /… / Facts go out and slam the door…”
My only quibble is that I can’t quite make 17 strictly… match the definition. The substitution test seems to fail here.
I do (amnasarg)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.
| ACROSS | |
| 1 | My soldiers must restrict free passage (8) |
| CORRIDOR — You and what army? COR(RID)OR | |
| 5 | A female in dress on which animals may be seen (6) |
| SAFARI — S(A)(F)ARI | |
| 9 | Term of high esteem Spanish dude embraces (8) |
| SEMESTER — S (esteem)* R | |
| 10 | Leave, as a drag queen might do after a gig? (6) |
| DECAMP — CD. Ha ha. | |
| 12 | A number of poppies? (5) |
| OPIUM — CD. Makes you numb… A sense you only see in crosswords. | |
| 13 | Insist upon head showing precision (9) |
| EXACTNESS — “Insist upon” is EXACT + NESS is “head” | |
| 14 | Pianist done playing without soprano’s permission (12) |
| DISPENSATION — (pianist done + S)* | |
| 18 | Royal once tangled up in printer cable (6,6) |
| PRINCE ALBERT — (printer cable)* The anagrind is a bit unusual, when looked at closely. “Printer cable,” untangled, gives you the answer. So to say the answer is tangled up in “printer cable” tells you that “printer cable” is an anagram. | |
| 21 | Smile more after tickling a steward of Burgundy? (9) |
| SOMMELIER — (Smile more)*, amusing anagrind | |
| 23 | Cream cake finally containing few calories (5) |
| ELITE — [-cak]E + LITE | |
| 24 | Like flipping large paintings of stars (6) |
| ASTRAL — AS + L(arge) ART<= | |
| 25 | Snooty boss (8) |
| SUPERIOR — DD | |
| 26 | Reminders for key tasks Republican leader ignored (6) |
| ECHOES — E is the “key,” + CHO[-r]ES | |
| 27 | Time one devises a plot to snare politician (8) |
| THATCHER — T + HATCHER (“one devises a plot”—“to snare” being just connective tissue) | |
| DOWN | |
| 1 | Curse abrupt chap’s way of behaving (6) |
| CUSTOM — CUS[-s] + a fellow named TOM | |
| 2 | What almost half of us wanted to do on the ocean (6) |
| REMAIN — RE + MAIN. Almost half of those of you who bothered to vote, that is. | |
| 3 | I often can’t go out when I want (9) |
| INSOMNIAC — CD | |
| 4 | Poem the vicar reworked is too forceful (12) |
| OVEREMPHATIC — (poem the vicar)* | |
| 6 | Actor in rep (5) |
| AGENT — DD | |
| 7 | Fellow about to be saved by a trained medic (8) |
| ACADEMIC — CA, circa or “about,” held by A + (medic)* | |
| 8 | What model says he’s doing at work in August (8) |
| IMPOSING — CD, I’M POSING | |
| 11 | Royal Academy member wins MP’s constituency (12) |
| GAINSBOROUGH — GAINS, “wins” + BOROUGH | |
| 15 | A chap carrying on with English male in Deal (9) |
| AGREEMENT — A G(RE)(E)(M)ENT (“on” being RE). Easier to imagine two guys “carrying on” in a town by that name than in a “deal” in the sense of the answer… though there has certainly been a lot of carrying on lately about a certain hypothetical deal… | |
| 16 | Had to go after a Pole, one walking away from party? (8) |
| APOSTATE — “Had” is ATE, coming after A POST. A quirk at the end because it’s a DBE. | |
| 17 | Don’t go and overlook marriage, they said (8) |
| MISMATCH — “miss match.” Yawn…. But if things “don’t go” (together) they “mismatch”? You’d more normally hear that they “are mismatched” or simply “don’t match.” | |
| 19 | Stop at home, having got in some Bass (6) |
| FINISH — F(IN)ISH. Deceptive capitalization, for the third time here—are we meant to think of the brand of ale?—and unflagged DBE. | |
| 20 | Artist about to put on brew for one holding cup? (6) |
| BEARER — BE(RA<=)ER | |
| 22 | Use a rubber with Times puzzle ultimately (5) |
| ERASE — ERAS[-puzzl]E | |
FOI SAFARI
LOI BEARER
COD OPIUM
TIME 10:26
FOI 4dn OVEREMPHATIC
LOI 2dn REMAIN REMAIN REMAIN!!
COD 5ac SAFARI (KISS)
WOD 21ac SOMMELIER (memories of Fitzrovia and L’Etoile)
Play music ‘Those were the days my friend……..’
The three long anagrams were rather splendid, with very natural looking anagrists. Compliments to Guy!
I enjoyed today’s, too, thinking it was so easy it might be a collection of favourite clues from the past. Slightly disappointed because my sub-10 doesn’t really count because I was sub-15 on it three weeks ago.
The worrying thing is that I had no clue I was doing it again.
mismatch verb trans. L16.
Match badly, unsuitably, or incorrectly.
“I mismatched the hat and the shoes.”
“Don’t go,” “The hat and belt don’t go with the shoes.”
I’ve never heard anyone say something like “the hat and belt mismatch the shoes,” and the dictionary says it would be wrong, if “mismatch” is intransitive. On the other hand, Cambridge has mismatch as transitive; the example given is “I always thought Chris and Monique were mismatched, so I wasn’t surprised when they got divorced.” So try “I always though Chris and Monique didn’t go.” “Together” is missing then.
“This chair and table don’t go with the décor.”
“This chair and table mismatch the déor.”
The first example is transitive, the second isn’t.
Edited at 2019-09-01 08:30 pm (UTC)
Obviously, my own citation was transitive, whereas “don’t go” or “doesn’t go” with wouldn’t be. I don’t know why I typed “intransitive.” But then again, in my last line, I mixed up the first and second examples. “…doesn’t go with…” is obviously INtransitive. What a mess.
(The Chambers example seemed a bit odd, for what it attempts to show.)
Edited at 2019-09-01 09:36 pm (UTC)
The Editor and Mrs. Snitch have been on holiday together perhaps? A Little Sunday Snitch in the offing?
Naughty chair!!
Peter Biddlecombe, Sunday Times crossword editor
This one took a number of sittings to get out, so didn’t find it as straightforward as some. Nothing particularly daunting in retrospect though – must’ve been not on the proper wavelength.
Was mainly in the SE corner where the holdup was, where FINISH, SUPERIOR and BEARER were the last few in.