Solving time: 51 minutes
As you can see, this one gave me a little trouble. I had most of it filled in after 25 minutes, but two of the corners proved a bit stubborn. Eventually, I was left contemplating 1 across for about 15 minutes before seeing the obvious.
Music: Chopin, Ballades, Arrau
Across | |
---|---|
1 | A BON MARCHE, A BON(MARCH)E. Simple, eh? I contemplated every possible meaning of ‘rib’ before finally considering that it might be a bone. |
6 | ITEM, concealed backwards in [beca]ME TI[red]. I put this in from the literal; it’s becoming a bit of a puzzle cliche. |
9 | IMPASTO, IM(PAST)O, where IMO is the texter’s In My Opinion. |
10 | DISDAIN, D(I’S D.A.)IN. The obvious answer, but I didn’t understand the clue while solving. Subsequent research shows that D.A. = Duck’s Arse, a formerly popular haircut. Makes a bit of a change from the District Attorney. |
12 | BENEFICENT, BEN + E + IF backwards + CENT. |
13 | ELM, [r]E[c]L[i]M[b]. |
15 | NASEBY, BE + SAN backwards + Y. The key battle of the Civil War. |
16 | CORNMEAL, CO + R(N[ottingha]M)EAL. Not much of a food, but easy enough. |
18 | HYACINTH, anagram of H + IN YACHT. I was afraid this was going to be some dreadfully obscure plant, but not so. |
20 | SHUCKS, SH + [d]UCKS. |
23 | RID, RID[e]. |
24 | DEBRIEFING, DEB + anagram of GRIEF IN, another one that went in from the literal. |
26 | EMBARGO, E(MBA)RGO, not the sort of degree that is often seen in puzzles. |
27 | BANQUET, BAN + QU[i]ET, with a useless cross-reference that did not help with 26 at all. |
28 | SEED, DEE’S backwards. |
29 | ANTECEDENT, [d]ANTE + CEDE + NT. |
Down | |
1 | AXIS, A + SIX upside down. I wanted to put in ‘amir’ until I realized this was a cricket clue put in to deceive American solvers. |
2 | ORPHEUS, OR(P[ublic]H[ouse])E + US. My first in, from the literal. |
3 | MASTER BUILDER, M(ASTER BU[lb])ILDER. Also a play by Ibsen, one of the few I’ve heard of. |
4 | ROOKIE, RO(OK I)E, my last in. As used in the US, a rookie is not really a recruit, but my chief problem was my belief that ‘eggs’ = ‘ova’, and that the last four letters must therefore be ‘ovia’. |
5 | HEDGEROW, HE’D G([th]E)ROW. This one gave me a lot of trouble until I thought of ‘grow’, and then it was obvious. |
7 | TRAPEZE, ART upside down + P.E. + Z[on]E, very easy to put in from the literal – what else would they use at the circus?. |
8 | MINIMALIST, MINIM + A-LIST. This is bound to fall into place once you see A-List, right? |
11 | SAT ON THE FENCE, double definition, where the first one should be interpreted as ‘Sat, On the Fence’, like an accusation in Clue. |
14 | ANCHORLESS, ANCHOR(L)ESS. I started to put in ‘anchoress’ from the literal, realized I was a letter short, and made a quick adjustment. |
17 | STUBBORN, BUTS upside down + BORN, sounds like borne. They should sound alike, they’re the same word, a strong Germanic verb of Class IV; the original past participle was ‘boren’. |
19 | AUDIBLE, anagram of [co]U[rt] + BAILED. In US football, this can be a noun. |
21 | CONSUME, CON(SUM)E, a write-in. |
22 | TIMBRE, TIM(B[ecome] R[esonant])E, where ‘eventually’ = ‘in time’. |
25 | STET, S(T[rainee])ET, the third person imperative singular of Latin ‘sto’. |
Strange how “mild”/”milder” can change with latitude (3dn). Right now, right here, “milder” means “cooler”. (Or it would, if it were.)
Thought this was pretty tough and was pleased to get the totally unknown A BON MARCHE.
Had exactly the same thought as McText regarding the use of “milder”, but then I believe we live in the same hellhole.
Edited at 2014-01-20 03:39 am (UTC)
Today shot myself in the foot – having had “Murphy’s Law” recently, I dug my own grave trying to make it a food “A -O- Murphy” – perhaps something like the disgusting potato “scollop” that chip shops sell.
Enjoyed the rest.
Edited at 2014-01-20 08:48 am (UTC)
Those who do the ST Codeword puzzle might also like to know (if they are not already aware) that when I tried to send in my solution by text message yesterday in the usual way, I got back a message from the ST saying “sorry this service is closed”. The reason for this, apparently, is that prizes are no longer being offered for the Codeword. If and when Mr Murdoch feels able to afford prizes again, the service will be resumed, or so I understand.
Oh, to live in a climate where milder might mean cooler!
Like the blogger, also considered amir (and apil) for 1D before seeing the light (the surface was more helpful than I initially realised). Unlike the blogger, 27A gave me 26A straight away. D.A. was in a Guardian puzzle a few months ago. I’d always thought milder was a relative term, i.e. warmer after a cold patch or cooler after a hot spell.
COD to STUBBORN
At one point, I gave up altogether on the hard frost of the northern latitudes for the milder south, where TIMBRE was my CoD for that in time device.
Good stuff, much more challenging than any of last week’s gentle series.
Still waiting for Peter to fix the ST scores!
Edited at 2014-01-20 10:13 pm (UTC)
Nice puzzle with ANTECEDENT, AUDIBLE and TIMBRE all top class
There’s an interesting little history at the link below, jimbo. Turns out your Bon Marché was owned by Selfridge’s and classed as a “provincial store”.
http://www.bonmarchebusinesscentre.co.uk/History.aspx
[on edit: I had thought the Gloucester and Brixton stores were part of the same enterprise but have just been reminded that the family who founded and ran the Gloucester store before selling to Debenhams used to live down the road from us. Same name, different business]
Edited at 2014-01-20 01:07 pm (UTC)
Mind you, central Brixton looks quite afluent in the pictures – just shows how the fortunes of areas changes over time
Enjoyed the clues; some of the anagrams were very well disguised.
My last pair were Naseby and anchorless, with “out of” being a tad misleading in the former and anchoress being totally unfamiliar.
I considered rookie for 4 early on but thinking that the eggs were the Os I couldn’t justify the rest.
Good challenge.
Edited at 2014-01-21 04:34 am (UTC)
TIMBRE an excellent clue – my COD. One of the AMIR brigade, so I suppose one wrong – well an Amir is a power, isn’t he? It was one of the first ones I got, but didn’t fill it in till the end, as I was unhappy with it. But I like the subtlety of AXIS. Also enjoyed CORNMEAL and ROOKIE, though the latter only when the lightbulb suddenly, and eventually, lit up!
Like others, I found the DISDAIN=slight link slight, to say the least, but agree it’s there nevertheless. Sort of.
Never heard of a duck’s a—. Finding out what one is, I’m glad this bit of “yoof cultcha” passed me by. Duck’s bottom now, entirely different – the sort of pouty face children sometimes pull.
LOI AMIR and A BON MARCHE.
I had most of it done in about ten minutes, with a lot of answers bunged in from definition. I then spent ages staring at my last three: ANCHORLESS, NASEBY and DISDAIN. The battle isn’t surprising, because I never studied the English Civil War at school so I’m pretty ignorant on the subject, but I can’t see what held me up in the other two. I even considered DA, which I’m familiar with because my dad had one (although I’m too young ever to have seen it). A case could be made that this is hopelessly obscure these days but it seems to crop up fairly regularly.
Hopefully tomorrow’s will be just right.
Thanks for the link sotira. I do not remember any trams but the trolley-buses in Teddington were a fascination for a young BT.
Had never heard of impasto, and hadn’t come across “IMO” as an abbreviation (I’m used to seeing “IMHO”), but got there in the end.
My LOI was MINIMALIST, because I was hung up on “memo” until I had got…
…my NTLOI, which was DISDAIN. I had always thought that “disdain” was an opinion (as in “to hold someone in disdain”), rather than an insult (“slight”). Well, live and learn.
And my JBNTLOI was SHUCKS, which I failed to parse (along with TIMBRE).
Today’s award for Most Creative Accident goes to a young gentleman who (and at this point, I fail to follow the reasoning) was trying to impress his friends by demonstrating how many chopsticks he could insert into his nostrils. All would have gone well had he not then fallen over and met a kitchen worktop on his way down. That’s the problem with working in A&E in East Anglia: the truth is generally so much stranger than fiction that it wouldn’t even make good fiction. Fortunately, the chopsticks missed his brain by about two and half feet.
And the award for Most Creative Explanation for an Embarrassing Injury goes to a young lady who had been bitten. Where*, and by what, are not suitable topics for this forum.
(*OK – I can tell that you’re itching to know. It was in the Histon area.)