18ac would probably have been more of a poser if we hadn’t had THIMBLERIGGER at least a couple of times in recent memory: how do words this odd just keep on turning up? The down clues were notable for brevity (this being the soul of wit, of course), with 8dn surely close to constituting some kind of record, though we’ll always have bloody “Gegs?” of course. I always think that 3dns can’t fly though of course this is pretty racist of me, just because they look a bit like penguins doesn’t mean they can’t exceed 50mph in the air “the wings moving so fast as to become a blur”. Some good classical education morsels to be found in Gad and dear old Lydia, plus a bit of the right sort of literature, Robert Louis and Dean Swift. I shall studiously avoid putting the rear-viewed underwear anywhere near my COD: honourable mention to 11ac with its lovely surface, but I think 20dn takes it for me with its marvellous marriage of cleverness and concision.
Round of applause to the setter. It’s been a pretty good crossword week, hasn’t it?
ACROSS
1 Flag lowered finally, miserable in retreat (5)
DROOP – {lowere}D + POOR reversed [miserable “in retreat”]
4 Son of Jacob nursing swelling, he is lumbered (9)
GALUMPHED – GAD [son of Jacob] “nursing” LUMP HE [swelling | he]
9 Was substituted? Strange! (4-5)
LEFT-FIELD – If you were substituted, you might have LEFT FIELD (punctuated differently)
10 Romeo in bunk becoming surly (5)
GRUFF – R [Romeo] in GUFF [bunk]
11 Sweet thing, remarkably genial wife filling in puzzle (7,6)
BELGIAN WAFFLE – (GENIAL*) [“remarkably”] + W [wife] “filling in” BAFFLE [puzzle]
14 Anger, with one enjoying a carefree life cut short (4)
RILE – RILE{y} [one (proverbially) enjoying a carefree life, “cut short”]
15 Stop company cutting funds for home protection (10)
DAMPCOURSE – DAM [stop] + CO [company] “cutting” PURSE [funds]
18 Sneaky blighter, I’m a con (10)
THIMBLERIG – (BLIGHTER I’M*) [“sneaky”]
19 Reportedly cross, whimper (4)
MEWL – homophone of MULE [“reportedly”, cross]
21 Unexpected U-turn with date and deal complete (13)
UNADULTERATED – (U-TURN + DATE + DEAL*) [“unexpected”]
24 Fighter starts to box intelligently, presenting defence (5)
ALIBI – ALI [fighter] + B{ox} I{ntelligently}
25 He wrote in earnest, even so, needlessly (9)
STEVENSON – hidden in {earne}ST EVEN SO N{eedlessly}
27 Proscribe different tokens for cash (9)
BANKNOTES – BAN [proscribe] + (TOKENS*) [“different”]
25 Skimpy briefs a possible source of irritation when viewed from behind (5)
TANGA – A GNAT reversed [a possible source of irritation, “when viewed from behind”]
DOWN
1 Planned debate (10)
DELIBERATE – double def
2 Festering cricket side (3)
OFF – double def
3 Excessively complimentary review in flier (6)
PUFFIN – PUFF IN [excessively complimentary review | in]
4 Fruit garden’s odd parts fascinate (9)
GREENGAGE – G{a}R{d}E{n} + ENGAGE [fascinate]
5 Ancient region largely evacuated before help turned up (5)
LYDIA – L{argel}Y + AID reversed [help “turned up”]
6 Huge disappointment? That’s the measure of computing (8)
MEGAFLOP – more or less another double def
7 One must stay in under this (5,6)
HOUSE ARREST – cryptic def
8 Bad pud (4)
DUFF – double duff, sorry def
12 Very small place, one secured by girl (11)
LILLIPUTIAN – PUT I [place | one] “secured by” LILLIAN [girl]
13 Siren trouble girl raised as blooming deadly thing? (10)
BELLADONNA – BELL ADO [siren | trouble] + ANN reversed [girl “raised”]
16 Futile, to be blunt? (10)
POINTLESS – more or less yet another double def
17 Offering nothing in classical language, alumnus going first (8)
OBLATION – O [nothing] in LATIN [classical language], O.B. [alumnus] going first
20 Pirates at sea without a prayer? (6)
PRIEST – (PIR{a}TES*) [“at sea”] – prayer as in “one who prays” here, of course…
22 Happy band, distressed (5)
UPSET – UP SET [happy | band]
23 Post or stick, did you say? (4)
JAMB – homophone of JAM [stick, “did you say?”]
26 Beginning to seem cool, crime (3)
SIN – S{eem} + IN [cool]
(Nevertheless, thank you, setter & V!)
Edited at 2017-09-29 07:00 am (UTC)
… and that One Error today was at 19ac, where I had a hastily thrown in ‘meul’, so excited was I to finish a Friday crossie in (well) under 30mins… Yep, I too tried to make ‘mail’ fit 23dn, and was helped by the recent appearance of THIMBLERIG.
cod: GALUMPHED. Good word.
Charles Lutwig Dodgson’s wonderful coinage was a treat: he was so good a creating words that betrayed instant meaning. I know exactly what GALLUMPHING looks like, which is more than can be said for a lot of other words that crop up in this space.
My last in was MEWL, and needed the alphabet soup strainer. Even then, I nearly missed it on the way through.
Like V, I wasn’t sure of the airworthiness of the PUFFIN, thinking it got by primarily by looking cute, but apparently its an epithet used by a surprising number of aircraft, which must say something.
I didn’t know, or at least remember, DAMPCOURSE, my LOI, had all the checkers and still had to look it up, and Google says, “Do you mean DAMP COURSE?” Collins seems to be odd man out in running the two parts together.
I don’t see “Strange” as synonymous with “LEFT-FIELD”(and when are those words ever hyphenated?). The expression “out of left field” would refer to something strange, but you can’t, uh, substitute “LEFT FIELD” for “strange” in any locution I can think of.
Nor do I think of a “siren” as involving a BELL.
We have Lewis Carroll to thank, of course, for GALUMPH, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
Thanks to verlaine for your mention of Dean Swift. I never knew the name of that fine London boozer referred to Jonathan Swift.
I didn’t know MEGAFLOP as a computing term (only as a theatrical disaster) and this appears to be its first appearance although ‘gigaflop’ has come up a couple of times, or TANGA which I also didnt know on its last appearance in 2010.
Edited at 2017-09-29 07:54 am (UTC)
Last in PUFFIN, where I had the feeling I was walking into a trap until finally seeing the hidden-in-plain-sight “in”.
COD to the hopeless pirates
The north was easier than the south where I had a few problems on a simultaneous basis.
LOI 28ac TANGA!!?? never arrived! So it was a DNF! a NIT was my source of irritation!
I had 17dn as LIBATION for OBLATION. Fortunately the much chewed THIMBLERIG finally turned up and the correction made! 22dn JAMB was a long time in the making, until them BANKNOTES arrived at 27ac.
Didn’t manage to parse 14ac RILE (Doh!)
COD 19ac MEWL – that sort of four-legged cross!
This week has been most challenging throughout and it was good to see our Jack back on track!
Next week is ‘Golden Week’ in China may the powers that be shine brightly upon the Goths and Meldrewites!
Edited at 2017-09-29 09:16 am (UTC)
A dissenting voice re priest, as I’m not overly keen on these banker-for-river type clues. My COD goes to mewl, for being a good word and my last one in. Sorry, Janie…
27 mins.
“Wadham Sutton always tells of how he waited years for Irving Berlin to pop off before he could use ‘A call to arms from Berlin’ for ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. And we were of course sorry to see the likes of George Best and Muhammad Ali depart though there was an upside… But I swear I don’t have a shortlist. I actually thought Christian Dior was still alive for ages and never used him”
Breakfast had to be a Costa muffin. No greengage jamb in sight.
Eyebrow twitch at dampcourse as one word. Most time alphabet trawling for MEWL even though I should know by now that ‘cross’ is often a hybrid.
Thanks setter and V.
Just off to pop my tanga speedos on. See you next week. Waiter!
Edited at 2017-09-29 11:19 am (UTC)
Here’s another pet peeve. People say “did you know your mobile phone has more compute power than NASA had to get to the moon?” NASA had a total of about 1 MIPS. If you run the numbers, the only correct response to this is “yes, and did you know that at the highest speed in the middle of the return trajectory from the moon that the spacecraft went faster than…a tortoise (I so wanted it to be snail, but the numbers came out at tortoise).
Edited at 2017-09-29 01:42 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2017-09-29 12:51 pm (UTC)
Jim
replace (a sports player) with a substitute during a match.
“he was substituted eleven minutes from time”
So if it’s a terminological error it’s not really the compiler’s, it would seem…
USAGE
Substitute is sometimes wrongly used where replace is meant: he replaced (not substituted) the worn tyre with a new one
Jim
Jim
No problems with the airworthiness of a PUFFIN, although of course it would be slower than an unladen swallow.
Given their stocky build and fearsome beaks, this makes puffins quite fearsome.
This, of course, explains why stupid-fast hatchbacks are always driven by young people.
Thursday Regular: spelling mistake
Thursday Quick: typo
Today: foiled by ‘tanga’ which apparently is a word in the peculiar dialect that they speak on the other side of the world. Chucked in ‘tinea’ when I had only the N and decided to review it when it disagreed with one of the crossers…bugger
Otherwise fun
How do we get from SIREN to BELL?
a device that makes a loud prolonged signal or warning sound.
“ambulance sirens”
synonyms: alarm, alarm bell, warning bell, danger signal; More
Obviously there’s a noticeable difference between the siren that makes a wailing noise on the top of a police car and the bell that makes a clanging noise from the church belfry, and perhaps it’s a bit naughty of the setter to elide these, but it seems clear at least that they are two things in the same category… if the fire alarm went off in your building you wouldn’t be completely confused if someone referred to it as either a “siren” or a “bell”, right?