Hmm… Not much very obscure here—I didn’t know the idiom or the fish or another interesting word (it’s always great to discover a novel nugget of crystallized meaning)—so I don’t know why this seemed to take longer than my last blogged Sunday. Maybe I needed another anagram or two?
I indicate (Ars Magna)* like this, and words flagging such rearrangements are italicized in the clues.
| ACROSS | |
| 1 | Band’s sound causes fury (6) |
| CHOLER “collar” |
|
| 4 | Bid to catch complete miscreant (8) |
| OFFENDER OFF(END)ER |
|
| 10 | Island’s gold seized by returning vessel (5) |
| NAURU URN<=“returning” filled with AU, “gold” Nauru is the third-smallest and the most obese nation in the world — with 94.5% of its citizens overweight and 71.7% of those age 27–49 obese (WHO statistics) — thanks to a sedentary lifestyle and an unhealthy diet. Wikipedia: “The traditional Nauruan diet was primarily composed of marine fish, fruits, root vegetables, and coconuts.” But now? “Approximately 90% of the land area of Nauru is covered with phosphate deposits, with the majority strip-mined and non-arable. This has led to Nauruan reliance on processed food, high in both sugar and fat, imported from large Oceanian countries such as Australia and New Zealand. University of Queensland professor and South Pacific researcher Clive Moore stated that obesity is mistakenly seen as a sign of wealth in Nauru.” …The day after I wrote that, a video about the place (a tragic story, in many ways) suddenly appeared in my YouTube recommendations. That must be just a coincidence… |
|
| 11 | Jelly can now be drunk? (9) |
| ISINGLASS IS IN GLASS |
|
| 12 | God can shut up minister (4,5,4) Hallelujah! |
| LORD PRIVY SEAL LORD, “God” + PRIVY, “can” + SEAL, “shut up” |
|
| 14 | Group of women with similar habits (10) |
| SISTERHOOD CD, playing on “habits” |
|
| 15 | No cap on pay for a long time (4) |
| AGES |
|
| 17 | Order parts for old wind instrument (4) |
| OBOE OB(O)E Order of the British Empire |
|
| 19 | Who delivers curtains for you? (4,6) |
| GRIM REAPER CD, playing on “curtains” …Not as GRIM if they’re for the other fellow? |
|
| 22 | Folds towel, heats log, spreads out (4,2,3,4) |
| GOES TO THE WALL (towel, heats log)* “To be ruined; collapse financially” in Collins, with a broader meaning in American English of yielding in a conflict …Not an expression I was familiar with! |
|
| 24 | Large working farm’s future (4-5) |
| LONG-RANGE L(arge) + ON, “working” + GRANGE, “farm” |
|
| 25 | Scarce good deed? (5) |
| THING THIN, “Scarce” + G(ood) |
|
| 26 | Rats eating dead fish (8) |
| DRAGONET DRA(GONE)T Wikipedia: “These ‘little dragons’ are generally very colorful and possess cryptic patterns.” Intriguing! |
|
| 27 | Victim put back in railway vehicle (6) |
| MARTYR RY (“railway”) + TRAM (“vehicle”) <=“put back” |
|
| DOWN | |
| 1 | Close decision (10) |
| CONCLUSION DD |
|
| 2 | Man missing from plots in French opera (7) |
| OEUVRES |
|
| 3 | We finally came back prepared (8) |
| EQUIPPED |
|
| 5 | She who isn’t really a good speller? (5,9) |
| FAIRY GODMOTHER CD …Not sure I get this. FAIRY GODMOTHERS — who are not figures of folklore (says Wikipedia) but were invented by the writers of literary fairy tales, particularly those in the 17th-century French movement known as the Précieuses (French: la préciosité, “preciousness”) and those influenced by them, such as Charles Perrault — “are traditionally portrayed as kind, gentle, and loving,” though “there are exceptions.” Does our setter remember only those exceptions? But maybe this is meant to be a roundabout way of saying “fictional (unreal) female character who casts spells.” |
|
| 6 | Young flier, say, without a permit (6) |
| EAGLET E(A)G + LET, “permit” |
|
| 7 | PIN number? (4,3) |
| DEAD LEG CD “temporary loss of sensation in the leg, caused by a blow to a muscle” (Collins) |
|
| 8 | Busy bee’s missed chance (4) |
| RISK |
|
| 9 | Cutting off inner cities had to be silly (14) |
| DISINHERITANCE (inner cities had)* |
|
| 13 | On surveying house, one may see problems (10) |
| ASTROLOGER CD, playing on “house” …and one will play on a client’s credulity… In the New Age early 1980s of my lingering adolescence, my lover, the late Judith Rosenblum, was an (amateur) astrologer, and I adopted a (Jung-influenced) positive view of the ancient pseudoscience as part of my temporary conversion to Judyism. (She fully deserved my devotion.) |
|
| 16 | Retreat in fear, swinging light (8) |
| FENESTRA “Retreat,” NEST, nestled inside (fear)* Definition 9 of “light” in Collins: “anything that allows the entrance of light, such as a window or compartment of a window” This word is from Latin, and besides “a window or window-like opening in the outside wall of a building” (Collins), also means a small opening in anatomical structures like the bones in the inner ear or “a transparent marking or spot, as on the wings of moths.” The plural is fenestrae. …I knew the English defenestrate, as well as fenêtre in French and Fenster in German. |
|
| 18 | Fabric made from skin, eg — skin of zebra? (7) |
| ORGANZA ORGAN (the skin is our largest!) + Z |
|
| 20 | Performer, thes{pian, is t}errible in part (7) |
| PIANIST Hidden |
|
| 21 | Odd fish to study south of dam (6) |
| WEIRDO WEIR, “dam” + DO, “study” |
|
| 23 | Tramp left in school (4) |
| PLOD P(L)OD |
|
24 across is L + ON + GRANGE
And, now you’ve discussed it, I see 5 down is just saying “fictional, good fairy”. Didn’t get that at the time!
Thanks!
AHa, yeah, right! I totally forgot!!
Thanks!
Can’t remember having any problems with this, pretty standard Sunday fare and enjoyable. DEAD LEG remembered from school days. I always thought that knowing the lyrics from classic shows like Oklahoma would reward me someday:
With ISINGLASS curtains you can roll right down, in case there’s a change in the weather.
Thanks Guy and setter.
This took me forever, and I can’t remember why. DNK DEAD LEG, GOES TO THE WALL. A MER at came back=QUIPPED. I liked LORD PRIVY SEAL. I did not like study=DO.
I didn’t get it either at the time but then I thought of ‘up at Oxford studying/doing science’.
FAIRY GODMOTHER is just outstanding. I actually made a note to commend it, so I wouldn’t forget.
Study for do is so common (‘She did linguistics at uni’) that I can see nothing to object to.
I had all but 3 answers in 25 minutes which seemed easy for a Sunday especially a puzzle by Dean. But the remaining clues, intersecting of course, did for me, and eventually I gave up on them and resorted to aids. CHOLER, OEUVRES and NAURU were the ones. Elsewhere there had been much to enjoy, FAIRY GODMOITHR, ISINGLASS reminding me of The Surrey with the Fringe On Top and GRIM REAPER, for example.
This took me ages and I gave up in the end and cheated to get CHOLER and OEUVRES. Being expected to translate Latin into French in an English crossword seems a bit much!
And French “opera” is opéra!
If it’s OK to talk about a “French stick” or “French toast”, without translating any words into French, why on earth does it matter, in an English sentence, how the French spell and pronounce their word for “opera”?
Ha. I was joking, a bit. “French” seems superfluous in the cryptic reading, as the Latin word for “works” is ultimately the source in any language.
Maybe “French”could help some solvers to see that “oeuvres” is a recognisably French word, even though we have borrowed that version as well as the Latin one.
I think you meant (Latin word for “works”) by the way
The thing I dislike a bit about this clue is that we haven’t borrowed the Latin word. ‘Opera’ does not mean ‘works’ in anything approaching everyday English.
Yes, nothing clearly indicates that the Latin source is meant, though it’s hinted that some translation is required.
You “think”?
Ha
I’m at karaoke. Typo corrected.
My problems were mostly in the SE, with ASTROLOGER, FENESTRA, THING and MARTYR causing a lot of white spaces. No problem with NAURU. ISINGLASS went in from wordplay – I would never have thought of the word. LOI was CHOLER. I did this all in one sitting over coffees, so didn’t find it too difficult, though hadn’t heard of DRAGONET. I thought I was missing something with FAIRY GODMOTHER, but now I see the explanation from Guy, it makes sense. Very Dean, I feel. I liked WEIRD and the excellent GRIM REAPER.
Multiple goes needed.
– NHO CHOLER but got there from wordplay and it sounded plausible
– Also trusted the wordplay for the unknown ISINGLASS, DRAGONET and FENESTRA
– Took far longer than I should have done to get CONCLUSION
Thanks Guy and Dean.
FOI Plod
LOI Choler
COD Lord Privy Seal
Thanks Guy. Can you just explain how we get POD from school?
A pod is a group of whales, as a school is of fish.
From Collins:
POD: a small group of animals, esp seals, whales, or birds
SCHOOL: a group of porpoises or similar aquatic animals that swim together
‘Pretty standard Sunday fare’ ? Not for me it wasn’t . CHOLER, OEUVRES and FENESTRA all familiar in other contexts but not as used here.
The usual enjoyable crossword from Dean, but hasn’t he rather overdone it with the CDs? As far as I’m concerned one is bad enough, but I accept that setters use them. But five such clues out of 28!
I’m not sure who I’m agreeing with here, but I found it tough getting started , and then tough going…
I confidently wrote in ANNOYS for 1a (def: “causes fury”) which stuffed me up for the danglers. VHO ISINGLASS, but no idea what it was, and wrote in NOVITIATES (fairly confidently) for 14a! So, I should have been more cautious, especially since the definitions were often well hidden (eg 12a, 22a, 13d, 9d, etc.). So, a few lookups, but nevertheless a pleasant breakfast ‘solve’.
COD FAIRY GODMOTHER.
Thanks Dean and Guy
This one spilled over from Saturday to Sunday and took just over the hour and a half to complete. NAURU was my first entry – very familiar with that island as the supplier of superphosphate which my dad used on his farm when I was a boy. My last three in – FENESTRA ( a new term), MARTYR and CHOLER probably took as long as the rest of the puzzle. DRAGONET was another that was unknown or perhaps just forgotten from another crossword at some time.
ISINGLASS and LORD PRIVY SEAL were my two favourites with both bringing a grin when the penny dropped.