Time: 20 minutes
Music: Holst, The Planets, Previn/LSO
We’re back to a typical Monday, as I trotted through in 20 minutes with scarcely a pause….except to erase answers I had put in the completely wrong place: this sort of thing can really mess up your solve. I also managed to misspell the WWII battle, despite it being a hidden. But in the end, I was all good in this pretty easy puzzle. There were some rather feeble attempts to obfuscate the literal, which might puzzle the inexperienced solver, but the crew we have here will merely use the cryptic and the crossers without breaking stride. Without any obscure vocabulary or esoteric knowledge, I think we can expect some pretty fast times on this one.
OK, now for a word from TftT Management. Some of the commenters have been posting pictures in their comments, which takes up a lot of space on the page and may be distracting to others. Live Journal is not consistent in their treatment of these posts, and you may get just a picture URL on the platform you are on, but that doesn’t mean that the whole picture won’t show up for those using actual computers. I am therefore requesting that you, our honored and honorable commenters, not do this. Thanks for your cooperation!
Now, on to the puzzle.
| Across | |
| 1 | Bachelor, say, crazy to put down fruit (9,6) |
| BUTTERNUT SQUASH – B+ UTTER + NUTS + QUASH. | |
| 9 | Singer to surround source of beer, Spooner says (3,6) |
| BOB MARLEY – A perfect spoonerism of MOB BARLEY. | |
| 10 | A fight ending in gold medal, perhaps (5) |
| AWARD – A WAR + [gol]D | |
| 11 | Area is overrun by flipping tiny creatures! (6) |
| LLAMAS – SMALL backwards containing A. | |
| 12 | Toes tilt awkwardly in this? (8) |
| STILETTO – Anagram of TOES TILT. | |
| 13 | Northern European that was close relative? (6) |
| NEPHEW – N + E + PHEW! | |
| 15 | Survey the view (8) |
| PROSPECT – Double definition, hardly cryptic. | |
| 18 | Document banks called crazy (8) |
| DERANGED – DE(RANG)ED. | |
| 19 | Plan start of play set in Titanic’s hull? (6) |
| TACTIC – T(ACT I)C, where the hull is T[itani]C. | |
| 21 | Naval agreement, we hear, with ship producing make-up (3,5) |
| EYE LINER – Sounds like AYE + LINER. | |
| 23 | Not oddly worried after controversial coat causes uproar (6) |
| FURORE – FUR + [w]O[r]R[i]E[d] | |
| 26 | Antelope I caught leaving the country (5) |
| ELAND – [ic]ELAND, every setter’s favorite antelope. | |
| 27 | A kid on medication, powerless and uncomfortable (3,2,4) |
| ILL AT EASE – [p]ILL + A TEASE. | |
| 28 | Study hesitatingly prepared for oral examiner? (6,9) |
| DENTAL HYGIENIST – DEN + anagram of HESITATINGLY. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Youngster to yearn endlessly for ruined city (7) |
| BABYLON – BABY + LON[g], torn down by Bob Marley, perhaps. | |
| 2 | Bone idle at first during a little uprising (5) |
| TIBIA – A(I)BIT, all upside-down. | |
| 3 | Site of a battle in Basel — a lame insurrection (2,7) |
| EL ALAMEIN – hidden in [Bas]EL A LAME IN[surrection]. | |
| 4 | River‘s inlet almost diverted (4) |
| NILE – Anagram of INLE[t]. | |
| 5 | Plays conservative film (3,5) |
| TOY STORY – TOYS + TORY. | |
| 6 | Old writer briefly covers a game (5) |
| QUAIL – QU(A)IL[l]. | |
| 7 | Paintings by men put in suitable studio, maybe (9) |
| APARTMENT – AP(ART, MEN)T, like my former residence in Manhattan. | |
| 8 | Most of repulsive regiment finally retreat (7) |
| HIDEOUT – HIDEOU[s] + [regimen]T. | |
| 14 | Beer batch served up in delicate containers (9) |
| PORCELAIN – ALE CROP upside-down + IN | |
| 16 | Sand layer from ancient city covered by modern one? (3,6) |
| SEA TURTLE – SEAT(UR)TLE, one that lays its eggs in the sand, that is. | |
| 17 | Hot swimmer is accommodating at any time (8) |
| FEVERISH – F(EVER)ISH. | |
| 18 | Part of pool table ultimately breaks bank (4,3) |
| DEEP END – DE([tabl]E)PEND. | |
| 20 | Merciful post-war prime minister, say? (7) |
| CLEMENT – CLEMENT Attlee, that is. | |
| 22 | I help Northern Island from the south (5) |
| INDIA – AID N.I. upside down. | |
| 24 | Middle Eastern country without borders (5) |
| OMANI – [r]OMANI[a]. | |
| 25 | Game’s up for hawk (4) |
| FLOG – GOLF upside-down, a chestnut. | |
David
Must be Monday.
LOI was DERANGED, which I then parsed 10 seconds later..
Liked LLAMAS!
17:06
Edited at 2020-12-14 03:40 pm (UTC)
FOI STILETTO
LOI BOB MARLEY
COD HIDEOUT
TIME 11:52
Overall enjoyed the puzzle, nothing too devious and I had everything else by 16 minutes in. FOI stiletto, COD sea turtle. Must do better the rest of the week.