As you read this (unless you’re time zones ahead) I am on my way to a foreign land, as Scotland seems to be becoming these days. So anything that needs a response will have to wait, at least until bedtime. I didn’t like or dislike this puzzle, it just got done in about half an hour, with 15a giving me the most trouble. German is not my thing, although I’ve been obliged to try to grasp it twice and failed; and I spent too long trying to get OR into the answer, not AU.
Across | |
1 | Like soldier from America clutching good spears (9) |
ASPARAGUS – AS (like) PARA (soldier) G (good) US (from America). | |
6 | Make a stink about showbiz magazine’s twaddle (5) |
HOKUM – HUM (make a stink) about OK a weekly celeb photos mag which apparently has 30 million “readers” in 20 countries. I am not one of them. | |
9 | Periodically parroted European writer’s style (3,4) |
ART DECO – alternate letters as above, then ECO as in Umberto the writer. | |
10 | After tax returns, collapse several times (7) |
TENFOLD – NET (after tax) returned, then FOLD = collapse. | |
11 | The Spanish drinking your old kind of alcohol (5) |
ETHYL – EL (the in Spanish) has THY (your) inside. The quaffable sort of alcohol, when diluted. | |
12 | Two different gulls or a woodpecker (9) |
SAPSUCKER – SAP and SUCKER both meaning gull, con, deceive. | |
13 | Musing male in area covered by tiny bit of litter? (8) |
RUMINANT – M IN A (male in area) inside RUNT = tiny bit of litter. So that’s what those ruminant cows are doing all day, musing? | |
14 | Opposing appeal North America backs (4) |
ANTI – All reversed, IT (appeal) NA (North America). | |
17 | Part of foot to squeeze, but not softly! (4) |
INCH – PINCH loses P (softly). | |
18 | Travelling requirement in France not fun (8) |
PASSPORT – Well, a French person might say “pas sport” meaning “not fun”. More likely he’d say “pas sportif”, methinks. But we see what is intended. | |
21 | Speed of ships west of promontory (9) |
FLEETNESS – FLEET (ships) NESS (promontory). | |
22 | Truly wanting both hands to fix paper in bunches (5) |
TUFTY – Take TRULY and remove L and R, (both hands) to get TUY, then insert FT the pink paper. | |
24 | Observe phantom, about to move forwards (7) |
RESPECT – SPECTRE our phantom, has RE moved forwards. | |
25 | Model car running around rubbish pile (7) |
REPLICA – this seems to be an anagram of PILE inside an anagram of CAR. Unusual, but clearly clued. | |
26 | Dropping back, strayed around Irish town (5) |
ENNIS – SINNED (strayed) loses its back D, then is reversed. Ennis in County Clare is a pleasant town, noteworthy in 1997 for being the first “Information Age” town, whereby every resident and classroom was given a free computer and access to a (then!) fast ISDN internet connection. I remember the fuss in Ireland at the time. | |
27 | Taste endless meal, but no starter, in club (9) |
TRUNCHEON – TR(Y) = taste endless, (L)UNCHEON = meal but no starter. Join the bits. |
Down | |
1 | A revolutionary green energy that’s switched-on (5) |
AWARE – A, RAW (green) reversed, E. Not WOKE just aware. | |
2 | Curse those doing satire in the middle of stage (3,3,7,2) |
PUT THE MOCKERS ON – Double definition, one prosaic. | |
3 | White queen that is given support (8) |
RIESLING – R (queen, regina), I.E. (that is), SLING (support). White as in Alsace wine. | |
4 | Bringing up a beef gravy initially in need of stirring (8) |
GROUSING – G(ravy), ROUSING = stirring. | |
5 | Way to get a six-pack of drinks with vermouth in (3-3) |
SIT-UPS – IT (Italian vermouth) inside SUPS (drinks). | |
6 | Complex way to end a call (4-2) |
HANG-UP – double definition, the second without a hyphen. | |
7 | What convicts do after stealing, when job’s done (8-3,4) |
KNOCKING-OFF TIME – stealing = knocking off, TIME is what convicts do. | |
8 | Person in movement stormed in furiously (9) |
MODERNIST – (STORMED IN)*. | |
13 | Troops operational? Send in more of them (9) |
REINFORCE – RE (Royal Engineers) IN FORCE = operational. | |
15 | Homemaker has fur tailored with lining of gold (8) |
HAUSFRAU – (HAS FUR)* with AU either inside or at the end. I think inside best matches the wordplay. | |
16 | One’s issue about oxygen, or about its forms? (8) |
ISOTOPIC – I’S (one’s) TOPIC (issue), insert O(xygen). Oxygen is indeed an element with allotropes, probably six of them, of which O2 and O3 (ozone) are the prevalent ones. | |
19 | Tension from opening of secure lock (6) |
STRESS – S(ecure) TRESS = lock of hair. | |
20 | Get lost with PC’s routine using computers (4,2) |
BEAT IT – Bobby on the BEAT, IT = computers. | |
23 | Long period before November (5) |
YEARN – year (period) before N for November. |
The jury seems still to be out on the origin of PUT THE MOCKERS ON. Some say it’s an Australian saying possible adapted from ‘put a mock on’. Others suggest it’s from the Yiddish ‘makkes’ and ultimately the Hebrew ‘makot’ meaning ‘plagues’ as adapted by English market traders.
Edited at 2021-08-11 05:10 am (UTC)
https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/sport
Edited at 2021-08-11 05:49 am (UTC)
The French word sport is said to come from the English… who took it from the French.
https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/sport/74327
anglais sport, de l’ancien français desport, amusement
Edited at 2021-08-11 06:56 am (UTC)
Reporter to Ringo: Are you a mod or a rocker?
Ringo: Um, no, I’m a MOCKER.
Edited at 2021-08-11 05:39 am (UTC)
Mockers reminds me of about 1980s cricket, commentator saying “Well I’ve really put the mockers on him” after a batsman was caught the ball after being praised. Played over and over 100s of times over summer: the catch featured in the ‘Classic catches’ competition.
But it’s just as you say… I worked this in a desultory fashion while watching Stephen Colbert.
I have had personal experience with TRUNCHEONs, as it’s what the cops in trenchcoats were wielding when they threw me and my pals out of the Philly squat in the early ’80s. Nevertheless, 27 was my POI, and following it, appropriately enough, was BEAT IT. PASSPORT would be my COD… partly for sentimental reasons…
Edited at 2021-08-11 05:42 am (UTC)
Doh!
Alternatively, as this thread began with Kevin G, “Assegai that started it”!
Stuff I learned today:
GULL can mean “deceive”
“vermouth” can decode as IT due to its Italian origins
Anyway, despite the not-so-brilliant ET, happy with a solid completion for this – thanks to Pip and setter
“The Americans have colonized our subconscious” – Wim Wenders
The choice of gin is of course absolutely paramount.
Edited at 2021-08-11 10:29 am (UTC)
‘I would like to observe the vermouth from across the room, while I drink my martini.’ Winston Churchill
You guys!
I like to have a Martini, t-two at the very most; three, I’m under the table, four I’m under my host! Dorothy Parker at the Algonquin
‘Take one bottle of gin and one of Martini: remove the corks from both. Then wave the Martini cork over the open gin bottle. Discard Martini bottle and cork; drink said bottle of gin.’
”Twas a woman who drove me to drink; much remiss of me I never wrote to thank her’ — W.C. Fields (with variations)
Edited at 2021-08-11 09:14 am (UTC)
Supposedly the best Martinis in London are served at Duke’s hotel where they actually pour vermouth (their own recipe) directly into the glass and then top up with frozen gin. No ice, stirring or shaking involved.
Edited at 2021-08-11 10:21 am (UTC)
I only drink Loire white wine every day and Gin Martinis if I am allowed out in public.
The rest …
25 mins pre-brekker with the last five spent getting to Faushrau. I’m not kidding. So I showed it to Mrs M and she put me right.
Thanks setter and Pip.
But birds PUT THE MOCKERS ON wit
I’m ANTI-SAPSUCKERs
And all quackers and cluckers
Might the setter today BE A TIT?
Pip, I think you have possibly confused isotopes and allotropes. Oxygen does have three stable isotopes (16O, 17O, 18O) — these are the forms of the element.
I seem to have a memory of being in the TUFTY club, this is my COD.
15′ 56″ thanks pip and setter.
Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.
End of the chemistry lesson.
Didn’t know SAPSUCKER and wasn’t sure about the ‘it’ in SIT-UPS, but otherwise this wasn’t too tricky.
FOI Tufty
LOI Riesling
COD Grousing
FOI 6dn HANG-UP – I have a few – too few to mention
LOI RIESLING! White Queen to 3dn checkmate!
COD 26ac ENNIS – (9ac ART DECO was too cunning!)
WOD 2dn PUT THE MOCKERS ON – ‘Well that’s well and truly put the mockers on it, Sid! Miss Pew! Where’s Bill?’ Hancock’s Half-Hour, 1954-1961 The Lad Himself.
Edited at 2021-08-11 12:10 pm (UTC)
Thanks for the decode for ART DECO and PASSPORT, Pip.
FOI: ETHYL
COD: HAUSFRAU because it reminded me of my Austrian mother who was one.
Travelling requirement = PASSPORT
In France not = PAS
fun = SPORT
Edited at 2021-08-11 10:34 am (UTC)
(And incidentally I am very much a francophone – I went to a French Lycee in France and did a French baccalaureat so that is not the issue!)
Edited at 2021-08-11 02:14 pm (UTC)
Not sure clueing a foreign word Hausfrau as an anagram is entirely fair either. It’s obviously a word that has passed into English, but it’s still foreign. My dictionary states ‘German for housewife’. In which case we may as well conduct the whole crossword in German, since by that logic every German word should have an entry in the English dictionary. A bit like Schnell appearing as 1a in the championships a few years ago. (Mr Grumpy)
Edited at 2021-08-11 10:48 pm (UTC)
Liked PASSPORT ASPARAGUS (another who was convinced assegai was in there somewhere) and HAUSFRAU again, once I’d finally seen it.
Thanks pip and setter.
I was tempted by ASSEGAIS but fortunately didn’t put it in. If I had I’d probably have added an extra G like horryd. I’d like to say I hesitated on the basis that it can also be ASSAGAI so I’d have needed the wordplay, but my thought process didn’t go that far.
SAPSUCKER rang a vague bell, but I might have been thinking of seersucker, which is rather different.
I had PUT THE ??????? ON for a while, I couldn’t remember the expression.
Edited at 2021-08-11 09:28 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-08-11 09:30 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-08-11 11:28 am (UTC)
Thanks to Pip and the setter.
Though that might not apply in major metropolises.
NHO sapsucker but flying very generous.
COD Riesling
Thanks Pip and setter
FOI ETHYL (actually “assega…” but then it wouldn’t fit)
LOI YEARN (easy, but I’d lost the will to live by then)
COD RUMINANT (no other candidate)
TIME 14:43