Solving time: 41 minutes
I spent most of the day, on and off, trying to solve Saturday’s rather difficult offering. So I was hoping for a nice easy Monday puzzle, but this one presented a few challenges. Even after solving it, I am not all that happy with some of the answers. I’m sure they’re correct, but the setter has taken a few too many liberties for me.
Music: Schubert, Piano Sonatas, Kempff
Across | |
---|---|
1 | RABBIT, double definition, but not the first ‘meat’ that comes to mind….I hope. |
4 | POTBELLY, POT(BELL)Y, where ‘potty’ is close in meaning to ‘dope’, but not an exact synonym. |
10 | INJUSTICE, I[effectual] + N(JUST)ICE. |
11 | LABEL, L + ABEL, where both ‘mark’ and ‘label’ should be taken as verbs. |
12 | FOUR-LETTER WORD, overlapping double definition, looking at both the number of letters and the slang meaning of ‘blue’. |
14 | ROWER, double definition. |
16 | EGLANTINE, E + anagram of GENTIAN around L[ilies]. |
18 |
|
20 | CHEEP, sounds like CHEAP, as in a ‘cheap shot’. |
21 | BEEF WELLINGTON, cryptic definition, when presumably the boots as well as the beef are among the ingredients. |
25 | HEAVE, H(E)AVE. |
26 | TASK FORCE, hidden in [conflic]T ASK FOR CE[asefire]. I didn’t see the hidden and just biffed it. |
27 | TALISMAN, [juggernau]T + anagram of ANIMALS. |
28 | ARDENT, AR(DEN)T. |
 | |
Down | |
1 | RAIN FOREST, RA(INFO)REST, a bit of a chestnut. |
2 | BIJOU, JIB upside-down + O[r] U[ndisirable]. The literal is a bit loose. |
3 | INSULAR, anagram of URINALS, with another loose literal. |
5 | OBESE, O.B.E. + S[ublim]E. |
6 | BALDWIN, BALD + WIN. |
7 | LIBERTINE, LI(anagram of TRIBE)NE. |
8 | YELL, double definition. I had ‘Mull’ for quite a while, thinking it must be some obscure word for a loud noise. Yell is in the Shetlands, not the Hebrides. |
9 | MISTRESS, MIST + [d]RESS, very straightforward. |
13 | DESPONDENT, [livlihoo]D + anagram of NO END, STEP, another biff for me. |
15 | WHITEHALL, W(HIT, EH?)ALL. |
17 | LISTLESS, double definition, a definite chestnut. |
19 | COFFERS, C + OFFERS. |
20 | CONIFERS, CON(I)FERS. |
22 | EXTRA, E.(X)T. + R.A., a compendium of crosswordland cliches. |
23 | THREE, last letters of [conten]T [wit]H [thei]R [nic]E [flexibl]E. |
24 | CHAT, double definition, my FOI. |
Also, 18ac is SUITCASES (the other word that fits): ‘Those taken away’
Edited at 2015-11-09 02:31 am (UTC)
Edited at 2015-11-09 02:57 am (UTC)
And SUITCASES of course.
I found this reasonably straightforward and only exceeded my half-hour target by a couple of minutes. I thought 12 and 21 were excellent.
Liberties taken? You ain’t seen nothing yet! More on this anon.
Edited at 2015-11-09 06:57 am (UTC)
Otherwise not too hard today, and some nice surfaces. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
Nice PDM on the 4-letter word. I’m warming to the definition of SUITCASES.
Surprised that SUITCASES was a DK for our blogger, do you call them VALISES or something else in NYC?
Nov. 9th, 2015 10:31 am (UTC)
18 ac
18 may be suit(case)s. As in taken away on holidays. ?
Edited at 2015-11-09 10:50 am (UTC)
I was helped by there being no real obscurities today. EGLANTINE is fairly new to me but I remembered seeing it in crossword land not too long ago. I didn’t know the island YELL but being in the Shetlands I’m guessing it’s not as loud as its name suggests.
Definitely a bit trickier than a normal Monday.
On the other hand, I was qute original when it came to creating INELEGANT from the anagram fodder at 16 across, and had to come back to it when I suddenly remembered that it also helps in these stuations to create an answer which corresponds with a possible definition.
I too got bogged down with razor and raper before realising what sort of blade it was, and biffed DESPONDENT.
To avoid despondency, if you are looking for a blade may I suggest that you choose those that are dashing and young?
Edited at 2015-11-09 03:17 pm (UTC)
I like the fun elements like belly and beef W.
COD was TASK FORCE, simply because I thought it was nicely done.
Never did manage to parse EXTRA, which was a bit of an Ikea clue, and therefore my LOI.
No problem with my SUITCASE – YELL was distant memory
and I couldn’t shake off MOWER until ROWER turned up.
34 minutes in all
Living so long away from Blighty I have become ignorant of what a
FOUR LETTER WORD is – can any one give me some of the more common
examples?
horryd Shanghai
Edited at 2015-11-09 06:58 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2015-11-09 07:19 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2015-11-09 07:25 pm (UTC)
I’d heard of YELL because of the tune Nan frae Yell composed by folkie Pat Shaw when he retreated to Shetland for a while. I’ve no idea who Nan was though.
A pleasant, straightforward solve.
Goodnight all.