Solving time: 65 minutes
I knew this would happen – three weeks of easy Monday puzzles, and then when I return to blogging, a more difficult offering. Not, however, as difficult as I made it, struggling with relatively straightforward clues and rejecting ideas that turned out to be quite correct. I don’t think this setter was quite on my wavelenghth, since I had less trouble with Sunday’s rather witty offering.
Music: Bizet, L’Arlesienne Suites, Martinon/CSO
Across | |
---|---|
1 | PULL ROUND, PULL + ROUND. I got so stuck on the ecclesiastical meaning of ‘canon’, I quite forgot my music. |
6 | AWARD, A + WARD. A well-concealed literal, but for a while I thought this was a substitute ‘i’ for ‘s’ type of clue. |
9 | LIKENED, LIKE + NED. My first in, had to start somewhere. |
10 | RECLUSE, RU(E[x]C[e]L[s])SE. Another relatively easy one. |
11 | TABOO, BAT backwards + O + O. |
13 | RUMP STEAK, RUM + anagram of KEPT AS. I got stuck thinking ‘tea’ was the drink part. |
14 | SEALPOINT, SEA + L + POINT. Another crafty literal, I’m always forgetting the cats. |
16 | Omitted. |
18 | SIKH, sounds like SEEK. Yes, I had ‘seek’ for a long time, the clue reads equally well either way. I was thinking ‘Sikh’ had five letters or something, and didn’t remember how to spell it until I got the German wood. |
19 | HARSHNESS, HAR([S]crum]H[alf])NESS. |
22 | FOOLHARDY, FOOL + HARDY. How ‘kisser asked for’ works, I cannot say. One of the early commenters will know. See the first comment – thanks, McT! |
24 | CUT IN, CU + TIN. a very metallic clue. |
25 | TREMOLO, anagram of LOT MORE. |
26 | ANISEED, A + N (I SEE) D[inner]. |
28 | PUT ON, NOT UP backwards. A missed chance for a tennis clue. |
26 | DENIGRATE, anagram of T[ime] REGAINED. I was not helped by not remembering how this word is spelt. |
Down | |
1 | PILATES, P(I)LATES. It’s hard not to go with ‘mate’ when you see ‘China’, but here we have the genuine article. |
2 | Omitted. |
3 | RANDOLPH, RAN + PLOD backwards + H[ospital]. |
4 | UNDER, [s]UNDER, where ‘s’ = ‘beginning to spread’. A very clever letter-removal clue that had me stumped for a long time. |
5 | DURA MATER, D(anagram of AMATEUR)R. Laboriously worked out from the cryptic by me, since I am only vaguely familiar with the target answer. |
6 | ACCOST, sounds like A COST. A soundalike where you can’t go wrong. |
7 | ACUTE ACCENT, A CUTE ACCENT, another one that had me fooled for a bit. |
8 | DOESKIN, anagram of KID? ONE’S in an &lit that is not hard to spot. |
12 | BLACK FOREST, B + LACK + F[lying]O[fficer] + REST. Not very difficult if you have the correct crossing letters. |
15 | ISHERWOOD, IS + HER(WOO)D. I saw this right away from the ‘is’, but failed to parse it and so rejected it. |
17 | SHOCKING, S(HOCK)ING. I saw the ‘sing’ right away, but was very slow with the wine. |
18 | SOFT TOP, S(OFT)TOP. Another one where I was on the right track, recognizing ‘saloon’ as a car and ‘oft’ as a probably component, but still couldn’t get it. |
20 | SINE DIE, DENIS backwards + I.E. A quite deceptive clue with a very smooth surface. |
21 | Omitted. |
23 | YEARN, YEAR + N[apoleon]. |
27 | ETA, double definition. |
Rather odd to have the same answer to the same number clue in the same place in the grid on two consecutive days, although yesterday being Sunday the puzzles had different editors. I won’t name the clue as the ST puzzle is currently off limits for discussion.
FOOLHARDY made me laugh.
Edited at 2012-12-10 03:33 am (UTC)
I thought I must be going mad when I saw the same answer in the same place as yesterday.
I had SHAKEN (a valid alternative?) for 21d until TREMOLO made it impossible. DURA MATER on the most likely vowel distribution and plausible Latin, SEALPOINT a d’oh moment, as Siamese can only really point to twins or cats. PILATES last in, snookered by the plates being just plates – a real setter’s sucker punch for the seasoned solver.
Some very good clues esp. 22ac, but also some quite clunky ones like 4dn.. if every word is supposed to be doing something, what are the last three doing?
A very enjoyable puzzle with witty, succinct clues, though I wasted time trying to remember the opening lines of Prufrock for 4 down.
I half remember reading the rather sad story that Winston Churchill’s son, Randolph, said something to the effect that the public would be aware of him only on the day of his death. This was not to be, as he suffered his fatal heart attack on the day Robert Kennedy was assassinated. (I cannot find the exact quotation; perhaps someone here knows it.)
“When the evening is spread out against the sky”
Randolph S certainly felt the burden of his name. Time magazine’s obit claims: “When you are living under the shadow of a great oak tree,” he once reflected, “the small sapling does not perhaps receive enough sunshine.”
I see in his Wikipedia article that Randolph had been commission by that same Robert Kennedy you mention to write a biography – never written – of John F. There’s a weird circularity at work there.
Edited at 2012-12-10 11:12 am (UTC)
The link below is even earlier: the first time the poem was ever published. This seems conclusive: it was originally a z.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/6/3#20570428
Edited at 2012-12-10 02:17 pm (UTC)
For anyone interested all back issues of Poetry magazine are available online: Google “poetry foundation”. Prufrock was first published in the June 1915 edition and the patient was definitely etherized.
Edited at 2012-12-10 01:29 pm (UTC)
Didn’t like 18A – don’t like particularly “sounds like” clues that can lead to two different answers – can’t be solved without checkers. Enjoyed the rest – 20 minutes after another heavy slog round a still very wet golf course.
Golf down here in Wimbledon either ankle-deep in water or ice hard, with pitches to the greens leaping 20ft into the air and disappearing into the bushes beyond.
Perhaps the French have got the right idea and it’s us who are mad to even try and play at the moment.
Was my reading, where ‘sound’ is a verb.
The correct reading is:
‘Try to get’ sound: one in gurdwara
I had to stop myself from wasting time trying to remember bits of Prufrock in response to 4dn. I think that particular simile must be the least convincing I’ve ever come across.