Solving time: 90 minutes give or take
I foolishly volunteered to swap with Peter so that Monday’s anniversary blog would be worthy of worldwide gaze and now I find I must pay the price. I had a great deal of difficulty with this one, to say the least. What with football teams, Morse, the Hebrides (I must do that list!) and meat, I was not in my element. The only thing missing was Retsina. An almost overwhelming feeling of despair crept over me and I had to fight the temptation to “resort to aids” with about 5 clues done. The only thing stopping me was finding a crossword solver that could deal with ?????????????? or even ?????. There’s a number of competing themes in this one, with food being predominant.
| Across |
| 1 |
PUFFINESS = female puffin, hence the question mark. Penguiness would have been more appropriate but it didn’t fit. This was the clue that finally unlocked the NW. |
| 6 |
Deliberately omitted. |
| 9 |
SHELL = SHELLey, “the old” being “ye”. The only poet I could think of ending in “o” of 6 letters was Sappho, but Sapph is a brand of lingerie, which is a long stretch for a case. |
| 10 |
LOWLANDER = LOW[LAND]ER. That wasn’t so difficult after all. I was thinking some endearing term for a Glaswegian, like Auchtermuchtyer or weebeastier. |
| 11 |
LADYBUG = LAD + Y for unknown + BUG. Another one which was easier than it looked. A “lad” is a stable worker, regardless of age or sex, according to the ODE. |
| 12 |
U for posh + PAGE for “Winsor gentleman” containing ST for way = UPSTAGE. Mister George Page is a character in the Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. I thought they called the pages at Windsor castle “gentleman”, which they may well do. |
| 13 |
DI’S + ORIENT + (INTO A)* = DISORIENTATION, a one word summary of today’s state of mind. |
| 17 |
CHILLI (“Chile”) [CON (lag or prisoner) + C for cold] ARNE for the good doctor = CHILLI CON CARNE a hot bean stew with meat. |
| 21 |
C.H. for Companion of Honour + IN (popular) + WAG = CHINWAG or gossip. |
| 23 |
TRIPPER = The RIPPER, no jolly jack tar, he. “Being” as in “a person”. One of my last in. Too many houses to go round. |
| 25 |
MEZZO + TIN + commenT = MEZZOTINT. The standard mezzo would be soprano; I’m thinking Tina Turner, or perhaps Angela Gheorghiu. This was one of my first in, even though I had no idea what it was. All those z’s led me to think we were headed for a pangram. |
| 26 |
IS[This]LE = ISTLE, a favourite fibre. An easy one for old hands. “Man” = “Isle” is a conditioned response. |
| 27 |
I SLAY for the Isle of Islay, connecting nicely with 23ac. But why “written”? |
| 28 |
GREENS + A + N for northern + D for duke = GREENSAND, a kind of coloured sandstone. I’d never heard of it, but walk on something similar every day, as my living room is floored with it, as indeed I was by this clue for some time. |
| Down |
| 1 |
POSTLUDE = POST + “lewd”. A postlude is a concluding piece, needless to say. Perhaps this one?. I couldn’t get past “Pawn” for some time. |
| 2 |
FIELD, as in “field a question” and John Field’s Nocturne. I have to admit not knowing the piece. |
| 3 |
ILLIBERAL = IL[LIBERIA]L. My list of states ending in “a” obviously needs upgrading. Now, let’s see Victoria, Florida, porphyria, … |
| 4 |
ECLOGUE = E.C. for East Central (London) + “log”. An eclogue is a short poem, it says here, especially a pastoral dialogue. “Cup of tea, vicar?”. Like many, I presume, I though I had dealt with the “lines” in the L or perhaps LL. |
| 5 |
SAWDUST. Saved by a straight cryptic! “Deal” is another word old hands should immediately associate with “cheap wood”. Hmm, why didn’t that work at 2dn? |
| 6 |
CRASS = CRASSus. One of my first in, having swiftly rejected Clutzus. |
| 7 |
ENDEAVOUR, a triple definition, I think, although only one suggested itself at the time. Endeavour was Captain Cook’s vessel, Inspector Morse’s long concealed first name and a trial, as in “an attempt to achieve a goal” (I’m thinking trial run). |
| 8 |
I’m not entering into this debate. |
| 14 |
SCHNITZEL = (THIN SLICE – I)* around Zoo. An unlikely anagram with the I already in the middle and the E almost certainly near the end, where were all those consonants going? |
| 15 |
TACTICIAN = “tack Titian”. One of our favourite painters (Well, he’s one of mine) to go with our favourite composer (aside from Ives) at 17ac. |
| 16 |
BE FRIE[N for knight in chess]D = BEFRIEND. I queried “care for” as a precise definition here, but the ODE has the codicil “especially when they are in need of help or support” as in the role of mentor. The char in question is a fish, and not some Faustian chambermaid. |
| 18 |
INIGO + (GIN)* = INGOING. Inigo Jones brought Renaissance architecture to England and bad puns to crosswords. |
| 19 |
OCTETTE = O(ETC. rev)TTER. Bananarama meets the Ronettes and the Andrews Sisters? No, wait, that’s nine. The ODE & COED don’t have this spelling, but Chambers and Collins do. As some regulars here would know, the otter is an animal close to my heart. |
| 20 |
SCAMPI = S[CAM]PIN. Does anybody go for spins anymore? Driving seems to have become a serious business. |
| 22 |
WOO + ZanY = WOOZY |
| 24 |
P.[IT]T.A. = PITTA, my last in. I had thought of pitta bread very early on, but couldn’t see the construction. We don’t have PTAs in Australia, only P&Cs (Parents and Citizens; the teachers wouldn’t have a bar of it). “Just the thing” for “it” makes a welcome change from Italian and sex appeal. |
(pronounced /ˈaɪlə/; Scottish Gaelic: Ìle, pronounced [ˈiːlə])
You have a typo in 17ac since the country is “chile” that chilli soundsd like.
I take issue with 24d since pitta bread is not unleavened, it has yeast in. If you see it come out of the oven it is a spherical ball.
Never heard ot Grensand or Istle or Crassus but they couldn’t be anything else.
I also put together the stuff for schnitzel and then thought “not enough vowels” the clue must work some other way. Only after I’d filled in schnitzel did I realize I’d been right all along.
Crassus occurs often enough that I recognised him, but if you asked me to list ten Roman generals, he probably wouldn’t make the cut. Now that I think about it, I probably wouldn’t get past three.
Your experience with schnitzel sounds very similar to mine.
The SW came next and fell into place quite easily having guessed MEZZOTINT. But then I hit a wall. In the SE I had only TACTICIAN and CON CARNE and in the NW only DISORIENTATION, LADYBUG and ILLIBERAL and that was the way things stayed until I arrived at the office and got things moving again by using a solver on POSTLUDE and ECLOGUE, GREENSAND and OCTETTE (never knew there was an alternative spelling).
Having at last completed it I didn’t have time to work out all the wordplay so I missed the fish reference at 16dn and the Ripper at 23ac. I had assumed the Jack in question was the one who fell down and broke his crown.
Not a good day for me.
not the speed of light as in yesetrdays puzzle for me but relieved to finish it!
H
“Greensand” will bring back schoolroom geography memories for anyone educated in the south-east of England – you probably saw a diagram like this. And there is also now a Greensand Way footpath.
Mezzo-soprano is a strange term. It’s really just the middle female voice, between soprano and alto, as baritone is between tenor and bass. Many singers are really mezzos or baritones but when singing choral music for SATB (as much of it is), have to choose one end of the range to push a bit further. Hence the insulting description “pushed-up mezzo” for a soprano who struggles with top As and Bs.
PITTA, as has been said, is not unleavened. Chambers calls it “slightly leavened” and if you happen to know that it causes you problems. I think we’ve argued before over “Orient” as a football team. The correct name is Leyton Orient known to their followers as “the Os” I believe or “The Orient” but not just “Orient”. The obscurities (words and references) have been mentioned. I’ll throw the definition by example at 10A into the melting pot.
The good parts are really good and difficult. This took me 40 minutes but at least some of that was caused by the irritating problems getting in the way.
I’ve passed the glad tidings about pitta bread to the crossword editor who I’m sure will be eating a small humble kebab for lunch today.
Edited at 2010-02-03 10:53 am (UTC)
I guess 26 is supposed to be an all-in-one/&lit, though “securing this primarily” is verging on crossword cliché for “contains T” in an &lit context.
But in amongst the trench warfare i enjoyed Jack the TRIPPER and also the doh! moment with SAWDUST. Was also interested to see the reference at 16dn to char. I lived for a long time at Windermere, where it’s something of a local delicacy – it’s caught on long lines running from rowing boats, a technique known locally as trolling. It’s a trout-like fish with delicate pink flesh.
At the end of that time I was missing 16 down, so I took an hour break, came back, and saw it right away, although I didn’t know the fish.
I was for a long time thinking that 1 down was ‘postcard’, where ‘character’ = ‘card’, a kind of bizarre &lit, so I was slowed a bit there. I just banged in ‘disorientation’ without understanding it – once you see ‘woman’s’ = ‘Di’s’, it really can’t be anything else. Fortunately, I had heard of Mr Field and his nocturnes.
I thought it was a good puzzle, and there was quite a bit I didn’t understand until reading the blog – Koro is very clever to pick up the triple definition in 7.
I’ve lived in N.America long enough to have been thrown by the Chile/chilli equivalence (it’s “Chill-ay” here, too).
Challenging clues, for sure, though the enjoyment tempered for me by a lot of “only in a crossword” surfaces (14d, for example, though kudos for getting ‘schnitzel’ into the puzzle at all).
Last in POSTLUDE. COD 5d SAWDUST for the penny-drop moment.
No one will be surprised that I needed some help with this but I did finish in about my normal time. As a lower division football fan (Millwall) in my youth I had no problem with Orient, common usage (or just The Os), nor with John Field. I know the nocturnes well and all the concertos. Not quite Chopin but much which is lovely and well worth investigating – doubt whether available in plastic Vinyl1.
COD to SAWDUST; what is it with Morse?
As dorsetjimbo says, there were some excellent clues (9,5, being the best examples in my opinion), some obscurities (such as Field, greensand, which I didn’t mind), some liberties and a sprinkling of superfluous words, which annoyed me in varying degrees.
“But’ in 3 is a poor link word; I couldn’t see “creating difficulty for Cocneys” as being equivalent to ‘arder; and in 18, ‘perhaps’ is not a very satisfactory anagrind – the previous judge in the monthly clue-writing competition, Roger Phillips, always criticised clues that used it. Lastly, “into a state of confusion” for ATION is just awful.
Still, despite the gripes, it was a good challenge and I enjoyed the steady ploughing through it.
Thanks for the correction, and apologies to the setter.
I think it’s testament to the setter that the (for me) unknowns were eminently gettable from the wordplay, viz, to wit and ergo: mezzotint, istle, Friend, eclogue and greensand, likewise the spelling of octette.
I was taught geography in the S.E. and almost certainly went on a field trip to the North and/or South downs but would have been too busy keeping my cigarette concealed from Sir to take much notice of what I was standing on.
I see very few of us have heard of Mr Field but when I looked nocturne up in Chambers I discovered that it credits him directly as the inventor of the form. I’m now wondering how I hadn’t come across him before!
Hadn’t heard of GREENSAND but got it from the wordplay. 16 was tough and raised a smile. Last in was 1d which was not a familiar term. However COD goes to PUFFINESS (if she can swallow it!)
My only query was on 16, my last in. “be fried” for “suffer the fate of char” was rather tenuous as was befriend for “care for” although, as someone has noted, it does have dictionary justification.
John Field was so far as I know the originator of the nocturne. Chopin took the form and developed it into quite something. Without Chopin I suspect John Field would be forgotten.
Edited at 2010-02-04 03:44 pm (UTC)
“And now, ‘possibly’ and ‘perhaps’, as anagram indicators. I’m grateful to the solver who identified the slip for No. 508 (January 1982), where I first gave my views on this. This is what I wrote then: ‘… “perhaps” and “maybe” can in context be synonymous with “possibly” but this does not in my view entitle the clue-writer to use them as equivalents of “possibly” to indicate an anagram. “Possibly” suggests to me “having the potential of becoming”; “perhaps” and “maybe” do not, being altogether more static in connotation.’ My views on this have not really changed. The whole area of what does and does not constitute a fair anagram indicator is a broad one. I tend to be conservative in requiring something that clearly indicates a disturbance or rearrangement of the letters or words in question, and resist attempts to push the bounds of normal language too far, which some of you do occasionally. It is difficult to be more prescriptive than that. As always, the best advice I can give is that you be your own severest critic, asking yourself whether in its cryptic reading your clue really means what you intend it to mean.”