Solving time: 35 minutes
This one was a little more challenging for me, since I both had a hard time getting started and got stuck in the NW corner for quite a while at the end. The answer to 1 down, in particular, proved quite elusive, and I have just seen how the clue works.
Music: Brahms, Symphony #1, Horenstein/LSO
Across | |
---|---|
1 | PLAYBACK, PLAY + BACK, which is what records are for, right? I should have known that. |
5 | MAILER, M(A)ILER. This can also mean the specialized envelope or box that he has used to pack his merchandise. |
8 | DRAMA QUEEN, anagram of QUA’AN, MADE E[uropean]. My first in, easy once you see it’s an anagram and has a ‘q’. |
9 | TUBE, TU(B)E, the London underground network. |
10 | CLOAK AND DAGGER. CLO(AKA + N + ADD backwards)GGER. Hardly worth figuring out the cryptic, which I didn’t bother to do. |
11 | BRISTLY, BRI( |
13 | YOU’RE ON, YO(anagram of EURO)N, where ‘no longer’ refers to the obsolence of ‘yon’ as a demonstrative. |
15 | Omitted. |
18 | CYNICAL, anagram of CL[e]AN, ICY. |
21 | RENAISSANCE MAN, NAME + C[irca] + [par]NASSIAN + ER, all backwards. Another overly clever cryptic that no one will bother with. |
22 | INCH, IN + C[astlereag]H. Here ‘favoured’ rather than ‘fashionable’ is used to clue our old friend. |
23 | ILLITERATE, I + [a]LLITERATE. |
24 | VESTRY, VE(ST)RY. I had doubts about this; ‘actual’ = ‘very’ is archaic, although widely known from the King James Bible, and a saint is that last person you would expect to find in a vestry. |
25 | REPRISED, DESIR(P)ER backwards. |
Down | |
1 | PEDICAB. PE(D[rive] I)C + AB. A brilliant &lit. I only realized after solving that ‘torso muscles’ are not pecs or abs, but one of each. Those who didn’t get the answer may not be so thrilled. |
2 | AMAZONIAN, A + M(A ZON[e] + I)AN. Another tricky clue that had me guessing for a while, both before and after getting the answer. |
3 | Omitted. |
4 | CHUTNEY, C( |
5 | MANDATORY, M AND A TORY. I believe we have seen this one before. |
6 | INTEGER, INT(EG)ER. Easy once you spot the literal. |
7 | EMBARGO, E(MBA)RGO. Another one that went in from the literal. |
12 | LIABILITY, [p]LIABILITY. I was very obtuse with this my LOI, and finally put it in from the literal. |
14 | ENCOMPASS, anagram of ONCE + [doo]M + PASS. A nicely themed LOTR clue which, of course, has nothing to do with LOTR. |
16 | ARRANGE, ARRAN + GE[t]. |
17 | GUNSHOT, anagram of NOUGHT’S. |
18 | CHALICE, CH + ALICE, our old friend the Companion of Honour, such a useful abbreviation. |
19 | NUCLEAR, alteration of UNCLEAR. A standard typo joke, along with uninformed guards, scheduled outrages, and management sing-off. |
20 | LINSEED, LIN(S[ton]E)ED. Yes, you guessed it, I didn’t bother with the cryptic. |
COD (by a short head from 1dn) to 14dn, ENCOMPASS.
Today’s coincidence: just finished reading a B.S. Johnson short story (on the origins of the name “Balls Pond Road”) which features one Reverend Vinyl. URL available should anyone be vaguely interested.
BTW Vinyl: you have an extra H in 4dn. And “favorable” for “favoured” at 22ac.
Edited at 2012-12-24 02:16 am (UTC)
Edited at 2012-12-24 02:14 am (UTC)
How is ‘some rain’ = INCH?
Also, can anyone explain how the Sunday puzzle differs from the weekly puzzles? (It seems that there are different conventions, like ‘one’ = A.)
I doubt anyone will offer up a list of differences between ST and Daily puzzles as I don’t think anything is set in stone. The only ‘rule’ I’m aware of that’s generally true is that living people other than HMQ turn up occasionally in the ST but not in the Daily. But if memory serves correctly I believe the Daily has had at least one since I started solving it regularly about 6 years ago.
Edited at 2012-12-24 09:39 am (UTC)
Don’t know what ‘champion’ has to do with the clue/answer at 1ac and have never heard of a ‘pedicab’ at 1dwn either.
Don’t know what ‘mandaNtory’ (5 dwn) is – didn’t even manage to get ‘mandatory’ but I did like this clue.
Many, many thanks to the bloggers over the past year for helping me see sense of the more obscure crossword clues and may I take the opportunity of wishing you all a very merry Xmas and happy and prosperous new year.
May you all keep up the good work.
‘Champion’ is in common usage meaning to back or support a cause etc.
‘Pedicab’ was new to me too but none of us can know every word in the dictionaries.
I assume you don’t think that ‘mandaNtory’ is the answer at 5dn as it wouldn’t fit anyway.
Edited at 2012-12-24 09:59 am (UTC)
I knew there was a surplus ‘n’ in ‘mandatory’ (hence the capitalisation) – as I said I thought this was a good clue – I understood it! My strange humour there!
Re the difference between weekday and Sunday puzzles, I can empathise with that as I always find the Sunday puzzle (and Saturday’s for that matter) more on my wavelength and always do better with them.
Edited at 2012-12-24 10:03 am (UTC)
Compliments of the season to everybody.
From Nairobi, Kenya
A nice mixture of fairly convoluted clues (but not too many of them) and easier ones, but all of them interesting. Thank you, setter.
Margaret from Sydney