Solving Time: DNF
A difficult puzzle for me on a Monday. It all became too much after an hour; wines, parts of London, French authors, the Just So Stories… this particular blogger’s bêtes noires. Our American friends should be well pleased to see some familiar names and faces for a change and I even managed to find an Australian connection at 9ac (apart from the rhyme at 11d). There were some difficult constructions hidden in fluent surfaces and the odd laugh along the way. An excellent puzzle all around (apart from the ones I couldn’t get).
Across |
1 |
MIDSHIPMAN = (DIM for vague)reversed + HI for greeting and PM for top politician both inside SAN for sickbay all in a slick surface. |
6 |
CHIC = CHICo. Points awarded for including a Marx brother and stylish in the same sentence. |
9 |
SCRUPULOUS = SCRU sounds like screw, warder or jailer + (UP for “to north”)reversed + (SOUL)* all in another convincing and smooth surface (apologies to our northern solvers). |
10 |
FLAN = Languish inside FAN for cooler. No reference to Li-Lo whatsoever. |
12 |
OFF-OFF-BROADWAY = OFF (bis) for twice cancelled + BROAD for coarse or indecent + WAY for passage. The term is descriptive, hence the “like”. |
14 |
FILTHY, a double definition. |
15 |
MUSSEL for shellfish with the second S replaced by CAT for Tom = MUSCATEL, a wine I’d actually heard of. |
17 |
ROCK for Hudson + ROSE for rebelled = ROCK ROSE. This one defeated me. The only Hudson I thought I knew was Hudson Fish (he’s on page 5) founder of QANTAS. With a misspecified 18, I went for the rush rose Helianthemum scoparium, which is in the same family (Cistaceae) as the rock rose; a family which incidentally includes the genus Hudsonia. My confusion was understandable. |
19 |
CAMPUS = P for page in CAMUS. A French author I had heard of, as it turns out, although the placing of the link word “in” made me think the whole was the author. |
22 |
NOT UP TO SCRATCH, a cryptic definition, unless I’m missing something. But if you were tormented by bedbugs, wouldn’t you be up to scratch?. Ulaca has enlightened me. See his comment below. So it’s a cryptic definition, with an additional straight one alluding to the former. Why do I always miss the subtleties of the clever clues?
|
24 |
Deliberately omitted. Not a smooth one. |
25 |
(RIGID MOTIF)* = DIGITIFORM, a word which seemed to fit. |
26 |
YOKE sounds like yolk to me. |
27 |
HER for female as adjective No, it’s HEN for female as noun (or possibly nounal qualifier as in hen bacchanalia) + AND for with + bOAt all inside SH for quiet = SHENANDOAH, the river with the much courted daughter or was that Clementine? And yet another complicated construction in super smooth surface. |
Down |
1 |
MUSH, a double definition. I didn’t know mush could be a verb, but it can be in America, apparently. |
2 |
DIREFUL = Day + I + REFUeL |
3 |
(TRY PAYPHONE)* around H for hospital = HYPNOTHERAPY. |
4 |
PIFFle containing LA for Los Angeles = PILAFF, a spicy steamed-rice dish. |
5 |
AQUARIUS = A + QU for question + ARIUS, who was indeed both Greek (in the broad sense) and theologian (in the all his known works burnt and his name never mentioned again sense) |
7 |
F for fine + WIT for intelligence in the company of HAL for Prince = HALFWIT or Charlie. Any resemblance to princes living or dead is purely coincidental. My nomination for COD. |
8 |
CaFe adjoining LOSS for cost all covering ANDY = CANDYFLOSS. I had a great deal of difficulty parsing this, even though I was pretty sure it was the correct answer. I thought “cafe regularly” was C AND F. Is any else concerned about the “covers/’s” construction? |
11 |
Back an alien for “endorse a strange” sounds like BACCHANALIAN. |
13 |
EFFRONTERY = FRONT for cover inside E for European FERrY |
16 |
ASTONISH = (HIS)* underneath ASTON Villa. |
18 |
SIT for model + PARK for place (as verb) = the wrong answer. It’s CATWALK, as in an ideal place for a cat to wander and ditto for a model, although sometimes they do it en masse. |
20 |
PICCOLO sounds like “pick a low”. Apocryphally, playing the piccolo is just like playing the flute, only more so. The advice I was given was “Think high.”. It didn’t help. |
21 |
ACTION = I seen in ACTON |
23 |
Deliberately omitted. Up with this you could beat yourself, reportedly. |
P.S. For those who don’t know what a sitpark is, just google it. I did.
My last in was ‘mush’, which I wasn’t sure of, the only face I know being ‘mug’, but it seemed to be the only possible answer.
It is helpful if you’ve heard of Arius, the Shenandoah, Rock Hudson, and Aston Villa.
Having just written in OFF-OFF-BROADWAY which gave me a strong checking letter for 7dn I turned my attention there and immediately thought of Hal Prince, the famous impresario. It was only later that I realised he is still alive (and still in business at 82!) so by convention he could not be the correct reference. But there’s still a theatrical connection with Prince Hall, of course.
With MUSH at 1dn I wonder if I recognise the hand of the setter who included two other Hancockisms a couple of weeks ago.
I lost time at 13dn having written GOT UP TO SCRATCH at 22ac.
Slow start but steady once moving, but stuck at the end with just the wine to get. Had breakfast and thereafter decided that the wine could only be MUSCATEL even though I couldn’t parse (obsessed with ABEL as my second son and somehow removing OLL from mollusc). Thus on to correct the invented HALFWEB (Web being my intelligence) and that well-known Greek scholar AQUARIES (ARIES being my sign after A QU(estion).
Terrific puzzle much enjoyed.
Thanks for explaining everything, it is amazing how this blog has helped me along.
Halfwit was one I didn’t understand, and I still don’t get why Prince=Hal. Can anyone help please?
Tom B.
Rejected HALFWIT at first on the grounds that only Spike Milligan could describe the Prince of Wales as such; but when the word-play became apparent, thought it a very clever clue.
Delighted that the Marx Brothers are still to be found in the rag-and-bone cart of general knowledge expected of solvers. If ever the day’s news gets too depressing, watching Harpo in action in Duck Soup soon puts matters into perspective.
HALFWIT is just outstanding (and very funny). The setter should be taken straight to the Tower.
I’m often surprised by the different GK displayed by the different generations. If ignorance of The Act of Settlement and Quisling caused a raised eyebrow not having heard of SHENANDOAH really shocked me. It’s in an old folk song (made famous by Paul Robeson Jack?) and a film as well as just being a big river.
Since I’m from Connecticut, I can name quite a few Connecticut rivers, but I suspect our UK contingent would be stuck after coming up with the Connecticut River.
If you’d asked me to name a river in Connecticut I wouldn’t even have got the Connecticut.
If it were in the UK, it would not be considered a small river.
Very good puzzle though.
Very difficult to settle upon a COD but I think a toss-up between HALFWIT and SHENANDOAH.
No cricket references again today!
..as well as Norway and Antarctica too, per the classic Bunthorne clue ‘Amundsen’s forwarding address?’