As the time suggests, a quite easy puzzle today. I was happy to see the clock stopping before double figures clicked over. (A very rare event I should add.) RESTHARROW was the only word I didn’t know but it was easily seen from the cryptic indication and the crossers. There will be chestnut-complainers today. Bring ’em on, I say!
Across | |
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1 | E,C,STATIC. And I surely was as soon as I saw the clue coming off the printer! |
9 | HOME RULE. Homer is the poet; then the extremes of UnusuaL; E for ‘English’. |
10 | T(RA)UM,A. Our old friend ‘corporation’ for the belly, tum; including the standard artist (RA); getting A. |
11 | MINOR CA,NO,N. Minorca is the island; then NO; N for ‘name’. Hands up if you thought this was a musical work. |
12 | I regret having to omit this one. |
13 | PROVEN,AN,CE. The def is ‘Source’. |
16 | ARMOIRE. Anagram of ‘More air’. |
17 | SAMPLER. Take the I from ‘simpler’ and replace it with an A. |
20 | MINESTRONE. Anagram of ‘in Rome sent’. |
22 | LOOM. That is, ‘gloom’ minus its first. |
23 | REST,HARROW. Ononis repens. |
25 | ON HAND. Two defs with a pun-ish intimation. For any Heideggerian ex-banana growers (the set of which I may be the only member): vorhanden or zuhanden? |
26 | LOOKER-ON. Anagram of ‘OK, no role’. |
27 | TAKE|AWAY. Two defs if the word can be split. Also a New Zealand soprano. |
Down | |
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2 | CA,ROLLER. There are several birds to choose from here. These from the Mac (US) Oxford:
• a brightly colored crow-sized bird with predominantly blue plumage, having a characteristic tumbling display flight. Genera Coracias and Eurystomus, family Coraciidae: several species, esp. the widespread European roller (C. garrulus). • a bird of a breed of tumbler pigeon. • a bird of a breed of canary with a trilling song. There’s also this: ‘a broad surcingle, typically padded at the withers’. Go figure … and be grateful the setter didn’t use ‘surcingle’ instead of ‘bird’. |
3 | TOUCH(S)TONE. I guess there’s such a thing as a touch-tone handset? My knowledge of the word comes from philosophy of science where it means just that: a standard for the commensurability or otherwise of competing theories. |
4 | TEAM SPIRIT. Anagram of ‘part-time is’. Smells like that anyway. |
5 | C(H,IN)OOK. Cook is the navigator and he includes H — top of ’hat’ — and IN. A wind experienced by those on the East side of the Rockies as winter ends. [[Thanks to kevingregg for finding my error]] |
6 | E(M)IR. M for ‘male’ inside a truncated EIRE (republic). |
7 | TURN IN. Two defs. Not a million miles from 27ac. |
8 | RE,IN,DEE,R. RE is a headless ‘aRE’; IN (the river) DEE; last letter of (‘close to’) the word ‘bordeR’. |
14 | ENAMELWORK. Anagram of ‘Normal week’. |
15 | APPAL,A,CHIA. The friend is a ‘china’, minus N for ‘North’. |
16 | A(DM)IR,ALS. Song = AIR. First letters of ‘Drum’ and ‘Majors’ are inserted. Then ALSO sans O (‘too short’). |
18 | EGOMANIA. Anagram of ‘I manage’ including O (‘circular letter’). |
19 | T(OR)RENT. Our favourite men (Other Ranks, For The Clueing Of) in the river TRENT. |
21 | Omitted from the downs. It’s nested? |
24 | A-WRY. Sounds like ‘a rye’. |
5d: H for hard, certainly; but here? I would have said H for ‘top of hat’. There’s also a Chinook in the Northwest, evidently; not that I’d ever heard of either. Out of curiosity: does anyone in the known world still use ‘corporation’ to refer to the belly?
Julie is amended.
I wonder if NESTOR has any special significance, it being the pseudonym of Roger Phillips, setter for The Independent.
And let me be Baldrick of the Day by asking, “Why bananas?”
Also held up by MINOR CANON and REINDEER. Hardly anyone in Perth keeps reindeer. Not to mention the fact that it hasn’t reindeer for ages. (Sorry).
I never heard of RESTHARROW before which rather surprises me because I was born in and lived my first 36 years in the borough of Harrow and even went to school on the Hill (though not the one referred to in the puzzle). If I’d come across the plant name I’m sure it would have stuck for those very reasons.
The ROLLER bird in its many and various species has also managed to elude me all my years.
I’m afraid I attributed the “friend” element of 15dn to PAL and that brought the answer to mind.I went back after completeing the grid to work out the correct wordplay.
REINDEER was my last in.
Had never heard of RESTHARROW, or a ROLLER, and took an age on REINDEER, thinking it must have (P)ETS in it somewhere. Got wp for CHINOOK completely wrong, too, but hey ho!
And I couldn’t spell APPALACHIA either, even with the clue.
CoD (though not enthusiastically) to REINDEER, last in.
The REST HARROW has appeared here before, in fact I’m reasonably certain that I’ve blogged it. I was a little thrown by REINDEER as domesticated animals, thinking only Father Christmas kept them but I see that Chambers gives them as both wild and domesticated. Again today no really good clues or indeed real complaints other than ennui.
Phew! Thanks for the confirmation. My paranoia was starting to kick in for a while there.
http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=008203314607712666085%3Ap2lg1kotbqw
Worth a bookmark?
It reveals that RESTHARROW was in a Guardian puzzle 31/12/2010. Is that where you may have seen it, Jim?
Interesting to see that the great man took 13:23 and finished with three answers wrong!!! I expect that hasn’t happened too often since.
Thought MINESTRONE was a splendid clue.
Anyone who watched the recent Bruce Parry “Arctic” series on the BBC will have seen lots of reindeer. I agree with Jimbo – calling them domesticated does seem a stretch. Seeing them herded by skidoo and helicopter was quite a sight!
I very nearly came a cropper in exactly the same way as yesterday, but fortunately didn’t stare at 5dn for too long before questioning MAJOR CANON. Once bitten twice shy.
All the crossword cliches got filled in right away, of course, things like ‘ecstatic’ and the obvious anagrams. But I couldn’t make anything of the whole NE corner, and a few other parts.
But persistence does pay off, my copy is complete and correct without aids.
Only one that I needed to get from wordplay was MINOR CANON
There might be a few chestnuts, but I thought some clues were very neat: ticked 11, 23,25 and 14.
I’ve met RESTHARROW before, and can’t think where else it could have been other than in the Times puzzle; I’m sure I recall a discussion about it in the crossword corner of our common room.
As for “domesticated animals”, excuse me while I take my reindeer for a walk. And in the “you-learn-something-new-everyday” category, there’s restharrow. And yes, my hand is up, mc text, I was thinking minor canon was a piece of music.
Wasn’t there a Jack PARNELL, a racing car driver?
Jack Parnell was a drummer / band leader. The racing driver who became a band leader was Billy Cotton. Not sure if any of this is what you are thinking of.
So here’s a little more for you. Neil Postman in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death cites the example of the Lapplanders postponing their annual reindeer hunt
so they could find out who shot J.R.
No need to explain who J.R. is, is there?
There’s a TV programme coming up this weekend here in Sydney on life in the Arctic so I’ll be doubly interested. Wonder how many folk above the Arctic Circle do The Times Crossword? With this message I’ve used a photo of our two “reindeer” (who masquerade as poodles!)
As for Dallas, I never watched a single episode is my boast! Same with Dynasty and Melrose Place. I believe there is to be a remake of Dallas. As if we didn’t have enough to put up with in respect of all this reality TV nonsense.
Only watched half an episode of Dallas. That was enough. Have performed in a number of TV series and films myself… a journeyman actor…not a star and tend to agree with you on the reality TV stuff.Now back to wrestle with Friday’s puzzle ..a real corker. Best of health, Martin.
Bob in Toronto
p.s. It’s true. The Brit’s can’t spell ‘curb’ correctly.
As the Germans say, “Hals und Beinbruch!”
Martin
Reg competed in seven F1 Grand Prix driving Vandervell, BRM and Alfa Romeo amongst others.