Not too much to frighten the horses in this one, though a Czech play and a much-loved (by those of a certain age and disposition) comedian might cause a few scratch marks to appear on furrowed brows. Lots of anagrams, and no sneaky hidden make for a pleasant enough workout. Today’s random girl might have just as well been a random chap, perhaps more so, though the reforming Spice Women (surely, by now?) might have something to say about that. I have to acknowledge that I parsed a couple post solve, partly so that I could squeeze in two seconds short of 20 minutes.
One of those crosswords which stirs pleasant memories by association. Clues are presented in italics, definitions underlined, and solutions captalised in BOLD.
ACROSS
1 See terms reorganised as one (8)
SEMESTER A sweet &lit-ish to start with, this version of one term being a reorganisation (that’ll be an anagram, then) of SEE TERMS
5 Meat product in crate (6)
BANGER And a generous (-ish) pair of definitions to follow, a banger being a sausage in the UK (snag in Oz, I believe) and also a dilapidated car.
10 Kind group almost always billets old dog (6,9)
GOLDEN RETRIEVER I believe this is GENRE for kind plus TRI(o) for group almost, plus EVER for always, with OLD for –um- old inserted towards the front end. Extra points if you took time to work that out.
11 Advocate having second beer brought round (7)
APOSTLE The first (only?) I wasn’t sure of: obviously we have ALE for beer which means second stands for POST. The best I can do is to refer you to post- as a prefix, so war comes first and post-war comes second. Am I missing something obvious? (On edit Indeed I am: if only I’d put the accent on the second syllable, or checked Chambers “to transfer (an officer) to another post or unit; to transfer (an employee) temporarily to another branch or company, usually to undertake some special task”. Thanks to more perceptive minds below.)
12 Club in weapons collection (7)
A***NAL Allegedly a football club, should be called Woolwich, where bits of the former royal armaments store still stand
13 Insane expert better after reversal (8)
CRACKPOT I think this is still an acceptable alternative for insane, expert giving CRACK and better reversed giving POT
15 What may constitute hangover goes without beginning (5)
EAVES Goes is LEAVES. Knock off the beginning as instructed.
18 Alumnus, represented at centre, having much to lose? (5)
OBESE O(ld) B(oy), our alumnus, has the middle of represented tacked on
OBESE O(ld) B(oy), our alumnus, has the middle of represented tacked on
20 Short while back put money into trust (8)
RECENTLY So here back is not a reversal indicator. CENT is money, RELY is trust
23 Let’s not have cold chicken — it’s uncivilised (7)
HEATHEN Look, I don’t make up these definitions or mean anything ungenerous in reporting them. HEAT HEN is given as a charade in the not-definition part of the clue. Any (obviously) civilised heathens please address your pique to the editor, who may tick off the setter if he so chooses.
25 Comedian takes tips from debtors and pays out (7)
UNWINDS “Are you all sitty comftybold two-square on your botty? Then I’ll begin” If you know who that comes from, deep joy! If not, O folly folly! “Professor” Stanley Unwin is the comedian you seek, add both tips from DebtorS. Oh, and here’s a samplode
26 One’s doctrinaire formulation provides review (15)
RECONSIDERATION Ooh, “formulation. An anagram? Indeed, of the first couple of words.
27 Portion to keep dry that remains in pipe (6)
DOTTLE A (small) portion is a direct synonym of DOLE. TT (for teetotal) is dry. Dottle is the (usually disgusting) remains at the bottom of a pipe bowl.
28 Follower died in this place, clutched by worker? (8)
ADHERENT D(ied) and HERE, in this place, are absorbed into the industrious ANT
DOWN
1 Extraordinary gesture (6)
SIGNAL Two definitions one an adjective, the other a noun.
2 Girl carried round university city (9)
MELBOURNE I’ve worked this out now (it’s not hard) MEL is your random girl (Brooks? Smith? Tormé? Gibson? I fear I can’t spell Giedroyc, which would otherwise help) BORNE is carried, and U(niversity) the insertion.
3 One with doubts about contaminated houses (7)
SCEPTIC C for about, a legitimate abbreviation of circa, housed in SEPTIC for contaminated. Septic for me will always be the pilot from Angels One Five
4 Strange passion arising in midweek? (5)
EERIE Midweek is, of course EE, and IRE the passion “arising” (this is a down clue) therein
6 First-rate paper under discussion (2,5)
AT ISSUE Bless you. A is first rate, TISSUE your paper
7 Assuming soldier is on discharge, briefly (5)
GIVEN …the assumption that the two words are interchangeable, GI, our Stateside soldier takes his place on VEN(t), discharge.
8 Play a record for one loving country (8)
RURALIST Rossums Universal Robots (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti) is a 1920 play by Karel Čapek, though the title is as we have it here, RUR. It is the origin of the English “robot” and of the much-hyped fear that AI will supplant humans. Oh, add A LIST for a record or you won’t have the rest of the entry
9 Craft loses wings in space above the pond (8)
ATLANTIC It’s arguable that in order to work the pond needs to be Pond, but who’s counting? ATTIC is the space above, LAN a plane with its wings clipped.
14 Hurried round, one in flat being very suspicious (8)
PARANOID Hurried is RAN, round O, and flat encompassing both is PAD. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you (Joseph Heller)
16 One secretly loved Latin — even in translation (9)
VALENTINE Only 98 days away. An anagram (in translation) of LATIN EVEN
17 Made effort to have more between the sheets? (8)
BOTHERED More translates to OTHER, and between the sheets places it in BED. (Very) mildly risqué?
19 Restructuring the loan makes you solvent (7)
ETHANOL Another anagram (restructuring) THE LOAN
21 Movement from English wives in approach to altar (3,4)
NEW WAVE We had this the last time I was on duty (Artistic movement of green and white horse?). This time it’s E(nglish) plus 2 W(ives) in NAVE, the main body of a church and hence (sort of) the approach to the altar.
22 American clear about Eastern newsgroups system (6)
USENET Precursor to the WWW, still in use though not as much as it was. Cue real IT people telling you how grossly inadequate that definition is. Sorry. Here, it’s US American, NET clear and E(astern) within.
24 Adoptee supposedly lucky to miss first course (5)
ASCOT A slightly lengthy definition of MASCOT which is to lose its first letter to produce the (race, duh) course.
25 Author in guide regularly making stand (5)
UPEND Fortunately, the author is the generic PEN, enclosed in the (even) letters of gUiDe
.
*** RSE, might be censored by LJ’s robot.
Spurs’ new motto should be ‘Build It But They Can’t Come.’
Deep joy indeed to be reminded of Stanley Unwin who drifted into light entertainment and eventually films purely by chance and without design after working for 20 years as a BBC sound engineer. I imagine the age barrier for knowing about him is likely to be around 60 although he was still performing occasionally up to the time of his death in 2002.
DK RUR or USENET but they had to be. My first piece of carelessness was putting PARANOIC at 14dn which works apart from fulfilling the final bit of wordplay. The second was considering ATRAFTIC as my LOI at 9dn, thinking it might be a scientific word connected with pondlife. I got as far as looking it up to see if it existed and was immediately presented with the obvious correct alternative so I never got a second bite at it.
On 11ac, although I see where vinyl1 is going with ‘posted’ and ‘seconded’ I’m not entirely convinced the meanings can be applied to ‘post’ and ‘second’ in the same way, but it’s the best explanation we’ve got so far so it’s probably right. At one time in the UK we had first and second posts (i.e. two postal deliveries each day) but that concept has long since been done away with.
Edited at 2018-11-08 05:37 am (UTC)
Edited at 2018-11-08 06:00 am (UTC)
Well I’m quite pleased with myself for knowing the comedian, the play and the pipe dregs.
I used to like Stanley Unwin: times were different then.
Mostly I liked: Restructuring the loan.
Thanks setter and erudite blog, Z.
PS Massive eyebrow raise at second=post.
Edited at 2018-11-08 08:31 am (UTC)
54 minutes in total. Enjoyed 15a EAVES and the heated chicken at 23a.
Wrote in USENET from the definition while working out the wordplay, but then I was a newsgroup regular back in the day. In fact, it was mostly because the core of uk.misc abandoned USENET for LiveJournal to avoid regular deluges of posts from a PARANOID spammer that I ended up here in the first place…
Edited at 2018-11-08 08:45 am (UTC)
Edited at 2018-11-08 09:19 am (UTC)
to release (a rope) gradually, hand over hand.
Have you considered CRACKPOT as an adjective (a crackpot/insane idea)? It doesn’t seem a stretch to me in that sense.
Edited at 2018-11-08 09:23 am (UTC)
Edited at 2018-11-08 10:11 am (UTC)
But I don’t think it’s confined to US sport as suggested.
Edited at 2018-11-08 01:03 pm (UTC)
Thanks for great blog, z8b8d8c. And thanks, also, to the setter.
In 11ac it is post as in second, eg “I was posted/seconded to the HR department.” “We are going to post/second you to the Washington embassy” etc.
Isn’t DOTTLE a brilliant word? My father was a pipe smoker and I can attest that the word is better than the stuff it represents
DOTTLE has come up before, in November 2017 (puzzle 26882). I didn’t remember it while solving today but when I saw what it meant it rang enough of a bell for me to check. Unlike last time today’s wordplay was unambiguous.
Edited at 2018-11-08 10:44 am (UTC)
Edited at 2018-11-08 10:57 am (UTC)
Alas, I wasn’t at the races, and a DNF today. After 14 minutes I was left with 9/14D, and although I nailed PARANOID after a further two minutes, it was a case of “I wish I could but it’s too late” (thanks for today’s earworm Ozzy) and I remained defeated by ATLANTIC after 20 minutes.
I was one of thousands who didn’t get the “post” this morning (nothing to do with Royal Mail for once), and I biffed USENET.
FOI SEMESTER
LOI PARANOID, but of course I was left with ATLANTIC unsolved.
COD HEATHEN
I didn’t know RUR or USENET and couldn’t work out POST. Having clicked on the link I see that I have unfortunately come across UNWIN before, (I’m 57 but I didn’t know his name), and I would query the definition, “comedian”. I would have gone for “Annoying Garbler”!
I was very slow to see BOTHERED but otherwise no problems although I didn’t know Unwin either. 17.28
Again I’ve been having trouble loading Live Journal – I know it’s not just me because Falooker said she was having the same problem yesterday.
No extra points for GOLDEN RETRIEVER I’m afraid. Nothing controversial, but a COD to OBESE as someone with something here to lose (or at least so my wife says)
Like others, RUR was unknown to me and Stanley Unwin a vague notion at best. Having now seen some of his work, I’m not convinced I’ll be seeking out more.
23a v. amusing. I’m a heathen and not necessarily uncivilised, but if my dictionary chooses to insult me in that particular regard, I’ve had it. 3d 9d 19d too.
Good puzzle, and thoroughly amusing blog from z8 too, for which many thanks.
Edited at 2018-11-08 01:10 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2018-11-08 01:29 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2018-11-08 01:39 pm (UTC)
Well, it wasn’t quick and it wasn’t pretty but I got there in the end.
Slightly raised eyebrow at the inclusion of the random comedian – I can’t imagine too many people under 50 will remember him – but there were sufficient checkers to help the confused.
Since I haven’t signed in here for a while, belated congratulations to all who took part in the Championship – I can only dream …..
Time: 50 minutes.
Thank you to setter and blogger.
Dave.
I never found him remotely funny when he was popular.
My impression was that the (even) older Stanley Unwin was himself not that keen on being wheeled out to do his party piece. “We only keep him on out of cruelty” (ISIRTA). The parallels with Spike are, perhaps, instructive.
I quite enjoyed this slow, steady solve and was pleased to see Prof. Unwin visiting from a gentler age. I can’t, alas, claim the extra points on offer for parsing GOLDEN RETRIEVER, which seems to be far too much trouble to assemble from the kit of parts.
Really enjoyed the solve today, and the blog was rather witty too.