Solving time 15 minutes
What one used to call a “Monday Puzzle”. There are some good surfaces and a sprinkling of excellent but hardly difficult clues. Always good to see the Swiss genius and if you haven’t heard of him shame on you!
Across | |
---|---|
1 | PROCLAIM – PRO(CL-AI)M; CL=150 in Ancient Rome; concert=PROM (Henry Wood); definition is broadcast; |
6 | REGIME – RE(GI)ME; REME=Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers; |
9 | ATOMIC – A-(MOT reversed)-IC; |
10 | ROMANTIC – RO(w)-MAN-TIC; is ROMANTIC the same as passionate?; |
11 | TRIO – (s)T(a)R-IO; moon (of Jupiter)=IO; (three) wise men from biblical myth; |
12 | SPECIALIST – (epics)*-A-LIST; reference the so called A LIST of people one would avoid like the plague; |
14 | FLAT,IRON – FLA(TIRO)N; known in London as a weasel to be popped (pawned) to pay for beer at the Eagle Pub; |
16 | REEF – not tied=FREE then move F to give REEF; |
18 | SKYE – sounds like SKY – what a very weak clue!; |
19 | OMELETTE – ‘OME-LETTE(r); maybe I=letter; |
21 | CAMPAIGNER – (american + g + p)*; g from g(et), p from p(ersonal); |
22 | ICED – ICE-D; ICE=diamonds (slang); D=diamonds (cards); |
24 | THICKSET – THICK-SET; reference “as thick as theives”; |
26 | PUDDLE – PU(DD)LE; whimper=PULE; bad drains smell, nothing to do with puddles; |
27 | STARVE – STAR(V)E; nice clue; |
28 | ECTODERM – ECT-ODER-(bal)M; ECT=form of therapy; ODER=river=flower; lower level of skin; |
Down | |
2 | ROTOR – TOR reversed-OR (Ordinary Ranks); |
3 | COMPOST,HEAP – (shop came top)*; “in the back yard” is superfluous; |
4 | ANCESTRY – (d)ANCES-TRY; ball=dance; |
5 | MARIE,ANTOINETTE – (one inert at a time)*; wife of Louis XVI beheaded for thinking peasants could eat cake; nice clue; |
6 | REMAIN – RE(MA)IN; |
7 | GUN – GUN(ged); |
8 | MAINSHEET – MA(I)N-SHEET; a rope attached to a sail; |
13 | LARGE-MINDED – (mild grandee)*; |
15 | LIKE,A,SHOT – two meanings; |
17 | DECREPIT – DECRE(e)-PIT; |
20 | TISSUE – SIT reversed-SUE; upset princess more like; good surface reading; |
23 | EULER – sounds like “oiler”; Leonhard Euler 1707-1783, brilliant mathematician and father of modern notation such as f(x); |
25 | CUR – CUR(t); |
Bad drains may indeed smell, which I think is where we’re being sidetracked, but anywhere not adequately furnished with drains, like the roundabout half way up Epping New Road, will undoubtedly produce puddles even after only moderate rain.
Decent, friendly puzzle, with only EULER and perhaps ECTODERM requiring more than an average knowledge base.
CoD to THICKSET
Edited at 2012-09-18 07:37 am (UTC)
I await scientific correction.
At 7dn, I’d assumed the longer word was GUN/KED. The Mac Oxford has “unpleasantly sticky or messy substance” for GUNK. So I guess it could be a verb??
Surprised there was no comment in Jim’s wonderfully economical blog on the dastardly DBE at 11ac — c/w (horror!) christism. How many trios are/were there in the world?
Took me ages to see the &lit (either feeble or wonderful, depending on your view) at 5dn.
I shall go and eat (nay, enjoy) cake!
Edited at 2012-09-18 08:55 am (UTC)
I’d always thought Euler was prononuned “yule – er” so am pleased to be corrected Jimbo.
Didn’t quite understand the “lette” part of Omelette so thanks for clarifying that too.
Thickset raised a smile.
Edited at 2012-09-18 10:19 am (UTC)
I thought I knew the word “pule” but had, in fact, misremembered Jacques’s speech:
At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
So, if you mewl and puke do you pule?
Edited at 2012-09-18 11:21 am (UTC)
It’s encouraging to see some of the experts found this just a little tough!
I was thinking that this was an exceptionally tough puzzle, but coming here I see the problem lay elsewhere
It took me a long time to see MARIE ANTOINETTE, and I wasn’t much taken with the clue. Like others I find I’ve always pronounced Euler wrong so that one took a while too. And like john_from_lancs I misknew PULE from As You Like It. Strategically placed ignorance can be so helpful sometimes.
Pule was new but I’m happy that bad drains can cause puddling as much as ponging.
> M-A “was inert”, perhaps because she said “let them eat cake” (she didn’t of course)? Or is generally well-known for having been inert? Or was dead? Not sure.
> the French Revolution was a “great reform”. Rather like the bombing of Dresden was a significant architectural adjustment. Of course the clue says “time needing major reform”, so perhaps we should disregard what actually happened.
Unless I’ve missed something (not unlikely, let’s face it) it’s almost a brilliant clue, but as I said before doesn’t quite work for me.
Edited at 2012-09-18 08:26 pm (UTC)
Paris 1789 – loads of unhappy peasants a la Les Mis (even if it’s a different era) demanding change. Clueless nobs at the top, exemplified by M-A with her silly witterings to the proles. Thus, ‘One not wanting to act or think (inert) when she really needed to be attending to the demand for change.’
I don’t know what to make of the fact that so many people either hadn’t heard of EULER or didn’t know how to pronounce him. Utter disbelief just about sums it up.
Surprised and pleased that my last two guesses were right. Puddle and Euler.