This is no spur-of-the-moment thing, though, as I have been coming to the realisation recently (not least through the good offices of a number of contributors to this blog, plus lurkers) that I have, not to put too fine a point on it, passed my sell-by date. Yes, CS Lewis, in response to a question about his politics, said that, if he could, he would belong to the Stagnancy party, but my inability (unwillingness?) to move with the times has clearly upset a lot of people and the best thing, I feel, would be to pass the mantle onto a new Elisha.
I have also become aware of my failing intellectual powers: in just my last blog alone, I made an embarrassing blunder about Lady Caroline Lamb and misparsed a clue that I feel sure I would have sailed through when I started out as a blogger. The crossword community (not excepting the setters) simply deserves better.
But, I suppose the single most important reason that I have made my decision is the offence my attempts at humour have caused to a number of people – predominantly, though not exclusively, from the comments I have received both on this blog and through PMs, Australians. When I started blogging in April 2012, I had a vision – to take the stuffiness out of the crossword business: to make it the kind of pursuit that could be enjoyed my everyone, not just bearded male CAMRA members dissecting clues at a Betters and Sloggers convention.
But now I acknowledge I went too far in my desire to be different, which took on something of a life of its own, as I sought ever new ways of making an impression, as the firmament of crossword bloggers was adorned by those I had to acknowledge to possess a superiority both in technical and entertainment value.
Anyway, enough of all this mea culpa. The puzzle’s the thing! And so for the final time I offer up my reflections on this, as I have said many times, most Mondayesque of offerings.
ACROSS
1 It might even do this to a Low Churchman! (7)
INCENSE – A sort of double-layered cryptic definition, INCENSE being the kind of thing that might make a low churchperson very angry
5 Go off service provided by firm making cinema fare (7)
POPCORN – POP (go off) CO (firm) RN (Royal Navy – service)
9 Dash back for form of identification (3)
PIN – NIP reversed
10 Part of speech delivered by agent plugging point of view (11)
PREPOSITION – REP in POSITION
11 Old record unspecified people must keep in Pusey’s study (8)
THEOLOGY – O LOG in THEY; Pusey, along with Keble, Newman and others, was a leading figure in the decidedly non-low church Oxford Movement
12 Group of three taking air around centre of Uxbridge (6)
TRIUNE – [uxb]RI[dge] in TUNE (air)
15 Wood, writer of plays and critical commentaries (4)
SHAW – a SHAW is a copse and GB SHAW a playwright, who a former girlfriend of mine called April wrote a PhD thesis on
16 Society woman linked to wise men — JPs generally (10)
MAGISTRACY – S[ociety] TRACY (woman) following MAGI
18 Criminal netted hare potentially facing extinction (10)
THREATENED – anagram* of NETTED HARE
19 Part of church where downloads are picked up? (4)
APSE – sounds like APPS
22 Cloud identified by press employee a short time back (6)
NIMBUS – reversal of SUB (sub-editor) MIN (abbreviation for minute)
23 Cheap accommodation always offered in coach (8)
STEERAGE – EER in STAGE
25 Place spy outside English royal house (11)
PLANTAGENET – PLANT (place, as in ‘plant evidence’) E in AGENT
27 Language used by some Africans in Djibouti? (3)
IBO – hidden in [dj]IBO[outi]
28 Girl and boy in Spanish warship (7)
GALLEON – GAL LEON (Spanish boy’s name, meaning ‘lion’)
29 Poem European leaders wrote at last, overcoming block (7)
ECLOGUE – CLOG (block) in EU (the first two letters of EU[ropean]) E (last letter of [wrot]E); thge most famoud ECLOGUES were written by Publius Virgilius Maro, one of which in particular, by appearing to refer to the coming birth of Jesus, elevated the author of the Aeneid to a kind of Righteous Among the Nations status and landed him a job showing Dante around the nether regions in arguably the greatest poem ever written.
DOWN
1 Force this person to go about quietly in new suit (7)
IMPETUS – SUIT* around P in ME
2 Lamp-holder made by mad uncle involved with bar (11)
CANDELABRUM – MAD UNCLE BAR*
3 Asian friend in centre of Newcastle (6)
NEPALI – PAL in NE1 (the postcode for Newcastle city centre)
4 Eternally happy European beginning to survey marshy regions (10)
EVERGLADES – EVER GLAD E S[urvey]
5 Stomp lumberingly at first into school (4)
PLOD – L[umberingly] in POD
6 In a religious house it’s of the greatest importance (8)
PRIORITY – IT in PRIORY
7 Broad sash 27 rejected (3)
OBI – reversal of the answer to 27d
8 Artilleryman loses head visiting city convent (7)
NUNNERY – [g]UNNER in NY
13 Repellent university batsman finally seeking umpire’s decision? (11)
UNAPPEALING – U (university) [batsma]N APPEALING
14 Amateur detective permitted to meet aunt in Paris (10)
DILETTANTE – DI LET TANTE (French word for aunt, immortalised in the phrase ‘la plume de ma tante’)
17 French loaf son snatched from visitor in temper (8)
BAGUETTE – GUE[s]T in BATE (temper)
18 Device for securing wine — a small drink? (4-3)
TENT-PEG – TENT (wine – red from Spain) PEG (a small drink of wine or spirits, esp of brandy or whisky and soda)
20 Cavity in the old house in the Spanish quarter (7)
EYEHOLE – YE (‘the’ old, as in Ye Olde Cake Shoppe) HO (house) in EL (‘the’ in Spanish) E (quarter)
21 Unendingly sick, with fast pulse (6)
LENTIL – LENT (fast) IL[l]; the other day I was playing a game in which I had to say whether, if I was having my last meal on earth, I would choose lentils or a gooseberry fool. No contest, really!
24 Opposed to introduction of animal trap (4)
AGIN – A[nimal] GIN (trap)
26 A boring thing everyone talked of (3)
AWL – sounds like ‘all’
And that’s it. It’s been a lot of fun, and I look forward to continuing to comment from the sidelines.
As for today’s crossword. Mondayish. DNK PEG for small drink, but it had to be. COD to POPCORN. 14:30
*Fewer
🙂
My first thought on seeing ulaca’s post was “What offence?” My second, as Olivia’s, was to note the date (especially given the ‘poissons’ reference). I’d already fallen for one April Fool this morning before being alerted by helpful comments below the line, so I was slightly on my guard.
Frankly, I feel ulaca isn’t causing nearly enough offence. Especially to Australians.
https://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1089580.html
I’m a bit surprised Jimbo didn’t pick up, or maybe he’s another prankster trying to keep a straight face.
It was convincing enough that I had to email our pseudonymous blogger and ask.
I ought to feel really bad about all the gracious comments I elicited – rather like someone faking his own death and turning up for the eulogy at his funeral – but somehow I don’t. Dreadful, I know.
Did you recruit these commenters in advance?
And, re blogging in perpetuity, I very much look forward to June 2022, I believe it is, when we will have put on ten years as a blogging team. Surely some sort of record.
R
It’s a shame I didn’t, as by startling coincidence I had to look it up later on in the day. Today’s crossword-inspired reading was Agatha Christie’s N or M (which came up a while back), which contains this exchange:
Edited at 2019-04-01 07:52 pm (UTC)
I was well and truly sucked in by the blog, very glad on reading through the comments to find that it was all just an Avril Poisson!
🙂
Quick time of 33 min for me to fill the grid … probably just as long to go back and parse all the ones that I’d skipped and actually correct ECLOGUE (yes, from EULOGUE). Knew IBO from reading the sad story of Biafra a couple of years ago … it lingers on in the memory, nearly as indelibly as the photos of those poor children.
New terms today were ‘peg’ (the drink), NE1 (the Newcastle postcode), TRIUNE and TANTE (French aunt, although it sorta sounded familiar).
Finished in the SE corner with STEERAGE and EYEHOLE.