After that TNT Crack a fortnight ago, today’s puzzle seemed quite benign but not without its own challenges here, there and everywhere. Many lovely surfaces to entertain and amuse
Shortly, I will be travelling to China with my siblings to visit the house where our late father was born. I hope Andy Wallace remembers to appoint someone to serve as locum tenens for Times 25,345
ACROSS
1 ILLUSTRATIONS Ins of US (American) T (last letter of government) RATION (helping) in ILLS (troubles)
9 VISTA Ins of IS in VT A (rev of A TV, television)
10 POLONAISE *(SOLE PIANO) for a stately Polish dance tune, in 3-4 measure, beginning always on the beat with a quaver followed by a crotchet, and closing on the beat after a strong accent on the second beat; also, a dance adapted to such music; a polacca.
11 SPACE CADET Ins of PAC ECA (rev of ACE CAP, top hat) in rev of TED’S (chap’s)
12 CHEF Ins of HE (fellow) in CF (first letters of cooking food)
1 MARLOWEMARLON Brando minus N plus West East (directions) for Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era
16 TEA TREE THEATRE (drama) minus H (husband) plus E (eastern, oriental)
17 NOTICED N (name) OTIC (of the ear, listener) ED (editor)
19 SCANDAL SCAN (read) DAL (rev of LAD, young man)
20 BRIG BRING (transport) minus N (indefinite number) for a two-masted, square-rigged vessel
21 PAPER CHAIN Ins of A PERCH (pole) in PAIN (smart) This clue was so well written that it took me quite a while to see SMART as the embracing fodder
24 NAILS DOWN Ins of AIL (trouble) in North & South plus County DOWN, one of six counties that form Northern Ireland
25 INAPT Cha of I NAP (bet) & T (tee-shirt)
26 GREATER LONDON *(ENLARGED OR NOT) Delightful surface befitting an &lit. My COD
DOWN
1 INVESTMENT BANK IN (among) VEST (top as in attire) MEN (people) + ins of B (billions) in TANK (repository)
2 LASSA LASTS (continues) minus T (temperature) + A for the lassa fever, an infectious tropical virus disease, often fatal, transmitted by rodents.
STAGECOACHQuite self-explanatory wordplay for Stagecoach, a 1939 American Western film directed by John Ford, starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne in his break-through role
4 REPLACE REPLY (comeback) minus Y plus ACE of hearts or diamonds (red card, perhaps)
5 TALLEST Ins of ALL (everyone) in TEST (exam)
6 OINK A tichy way to say “no more ink” (problem for calligrapher) O-INK which reminds me of Peppa Pig, the favourite of my granddaughter who would insist on me playing and replaying episodes of the adventures of the porcine family
7 SWITHERED SWI (London district for Victoria – station, perhaps) + THE + RED (traffic light)
8 BEEF WELLINGTON Ins of F (female) W (with) EL (Spanish definite article) LING (fish) in BEETON for a dish of beef covered in pate and baked in pastry. Isabella Mary Beeton (née Mayson) (1836–1865), universally known a Mrs Beeton, was the English author of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, and is one of the most famous cookery writers.
13 Anagram of CHAIRMAN SO deliberately omitted This liqueur is distilled from fermented juice of bitter wild marasca cherries
15 Anagram of IN GRANITE also deliberately omitted
18 DEAL OUT D (first letter of drugs) E (ecstasy) A LOUT (yoobo)
19 STEINER Ins of IN (trendy) in STEER (guide) fo Rudolf Steiner 1861–1925), Austrian philosopher, educator, and mystic, founder of anthroposophy
22 AWARD A + WARD (rev of DRAW, sweep as in lottery)
23 ISLE rha The Isle of Mull or simply Mull — is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute. While you are at it, have another listen to Paul McCartney’s Mull Of Kintyre (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5626WzsfMw)
++++++++++++++
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(FODDER) = anagram
TNT Crack = tough nut to crack
It seems like a lot of general knowledge would have been required for some of the wordplay. We’ve had Mrs. Beeton before, but the only Steiner I could call to mind was George.
If the literals had been better-concealed, this might have been really tough.
Edited at 2012-11-29 02:29 am (UTC)
One interesting effect of smoking: Steiner’s Waldorf Schools were so named because of a lecture he gave on education principles at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. Maybe the schools should come with a health warning: Anthroposophy can damage your brain.
Another listen to Mull of Kintyre? Never completed the first listen; had to turn it off after a couple of seconds out of sheer embarrassment. Amazing what you can get out of hitting a few of the black notes at random.
Edited at 2012-11-29 02:41 am (UTC)
Same dilemma as vinyl1 at the end and also guessed SWITHERED on similar grounds. I guessed it was northern English but dictionaries seem to point north of the border. Can any Scots confirm that?
Edited at 2012-11-29 11:26 am (UTC)
I had to work SPACE CADET out from wordplay and checkers and still can’t quite reconcile “eccentric” as the definition. Also STEINER although I feel I’ve come across him before but can’t place where. I knew SWITHERED – a classic Mephisto word which is indeed Scots.
There are some good surface readings here, such as 26A highlighted by UY. Like others I really enjoyed OINK
OINK is the most obvious CoD, so it might as well be mine.
SPACE CADET as slang for one high on drugs is probably now so dated it will only turn up in crosswords. I agree with Jim that “eccentric” is a bit of a stretch, and I only put it in once I could make the cryptic work. Took some doing.
Rudolf Steiner was the founder of Anthroposophism, an offshoot of Theosophism. CS Lewis’s great friend Owen Barfield was an adherent from his mid 20s. Lewis always maintained that he could make head nor tail of this particular religio-philosophy.
I also thought “eccentric” was a dodgy definition for SPACE CADET, and I still do, but as it’s in Collins my beef is with them not the setter.
Just after I hit submit it suddenly dawned on me that “Victoria district” was SW and SLITHERED was wrong. Oh well.
Edited at 2012-11-29 01:10 pm (UTC)
I try to do the puzzle every day, very occasionally I finish it. Almost did it today, apart from SPACE CADET. This took most of the day, but I’m getting better, honest!
Anyway, I just wanted to say how invaluable this blog is, many thanks to all involved.
best regards
Adrian
Edited at 2012-11-29 08:42 pm (UTC)
SPACE CADET was my LOI. I thought of it quite quickly, but 7dn about it as I hadn’t come across it meaning “eccentric”.