Times 28237 – Sin No More

The references to Jesus were particularly welcome at a time when much of what I had taken for granted in terms of the lid being kept on human lunacy for the rest of my lifetime has been shown by recent events to be chimerical indeed. Which I guess I knew anyway, but was happy to live in blissful ignorance of.

ACROSS

1 Mountain-dweller starts to circulate, having a month in Paris (7)
CHAMOIS – initial letters of C[irculate] and H[aving] A MOIS (French for month)
5 Calendar girl returning container (7)
ALMANAC – ALMA CAN reversed
9 Crazy person’s rich teatime fare (9)
FRUITCAKE – double definition (DD)
10 Game played in pub where ski jumpers may be (5)
INRUN – RU (rugby union – a game I used to play, recognise and enjoy before it was overrun by ‘protocols’) in INN; the INRUN is the steep part of the ramp where chiselled Nordic ski jumpers and Eddie the Eagle reach scary speeds before disappearing into the unknown
11 Change types of character involved in later art set (13)
TRANSLITERATE – anagram* of IN LATER ART SET
13 Guarantee wife complete autonomy in the end (8)
WARRANTY – W ARRANT (as in ‘arrant nonsense’) [autonom]Y
15 Surrealist painter touring India, initially watching Hindu festival (6)
DIWALI – I (India) W[atching] in DALI; Crosswordland’s only Hindu festival
17 Creature Geordie’s mother is going to, as we hear (6)
MAMMAL – if you were living up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, you might hear a man say that ‘Mam’ll clip you round the ear, man, if you do that’
19 Woman attorney receiving directions in chapel (8)
BETHESDA – ES (directions) in BETH DA (district attorney); originally, a pool in Jerusalem at which Jesus, according to John, told a paralysed man to take up his bed and walk; used here to reference various meeting houses named after it
22 He dances madly round psychoanalyst showing delight in others’ woes (13)
SCHADENFREUDE – FREUD in HE DANCES*; easy but neat
25 Bishop leaves overcome, having dined (5)
EATEN – [b]EATEN
26 Wonderful person, married woman, gripped by desire (9)
HUMDINGER – M (married) DI (random woman) in HUNGER; more commonly used of a thing, but also used of a person
27 Way Republican party plugs American’s celebrity status (7)
STARDOM – ST followed by R DO in AM
28 Like Arthur’s men, disowning king at regular intervals (7)
NIGHTLY – [k]NIGHTLY

DOWN

1 A 9 originally served in church tea room (4)
CAFE – A F[ruitcake] (Guardianesque cross-reference to 9 across – the editor pops these kinds of clue in occasionally so we can all say how much we hate them here at the Thunderer) in CE (church)
2 Owner of house next door? And a goat, possibly (7)
ABUTTER – oh, gosh! this is really bad. If a person has the semi next to you, he or she might be called an ABUTTER. And a goat in Crosswordland exists to be a BUTTER. Poor old thing! So reductionist.
3 Son in Holy Writ originally inhabiting a Roman port (5)
OSTIA – S (son) in OT (holy writ) I (initial letter of inhabiting) A
4 Shortage of nautical gear unknown outside Italy (8)
SPARSITY – a SPAR is ‘any piece of nautical gear resembling a pole and used as a mast, boom, gaff, etc’, so IT (Italy) in SPARS Y (unknown)
5 Sort of acid fighter pilot given time in charge (6)
ACETIC – ACE (fighter pilot) T (time) IC
6 Coy perhaps over one’s husband? (9)
MAIDENISH – MAIDEN (a string of 6 deliveries in cricket that yields no runs off the bat, with no Wides or No Balls thrown in for good measure) IS (one’s) H (husband)
7 Northern man digesting Bible, reaching a state of bliss (7)
NIRVANA – RV (revised version) in N (northern) IAN (random man) A; pretty bunginable, to be honest
8 Adult finally in agreeable surroundings existing at birth (10)
CONGENITAL – [adul]T in CONGENIAL
12 Vessels no man can serve, the Good Book says? (3-7)
TWO-MASTERS – this time we are in Matthew: ‘No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon’. Plenty have tried…Two-masters are also boats, of course.
14 Gave up being dissolute (9)
ABANDONED – DD
16 He transfers his charges from one bank to another (8)
FERRYMAN – rather nice cryptic definition
18 Hindu sage’s headgear adopted by graduate twice (7)
MAHATMA – HAT in MA MA
20 Dexterity of Liberal in southern rowing crew (7)
SLEIGHT – L (Liberal) in S EIGHT
21 A new article on Mendelssohn’s first choral work (6)
ANTHEM – A N THE M[endelssohn]
23 Giving employment to American in centre of Zhangzhou (5)
USING – US IN [zhan]G[zhou]; Zhangzhou is in Fujian Province
24 Play about conclusion of war in ancient city (4)
TROY – [wa]R in TOY