Hello! I am honored to be one-half of the new Friday blogging crew. As some of you know, I am currently finishing my Master’s in mathematics here in New York, so it’s been weeks since I’ve attempted a puzzle. Thankfully, this was a gentler affair, as Fridays go. I noticed that my anagram game is not quite where it was, which could have helped my time. But I’m content with 23:37, especially as I notice there are many scores with errors on the leaderboard.
| Across | |
| 1 | Anglican character has idiot getting in stew (9) |
| CASSEROLE – CE + ROLE around ASS | |
| 6 | Glue ear’s picked up and measured (5) |
| PACED – homophone of PASTE | |
| 9 | Beefeater, market trader or squealer heading home? (7) |
| TOOTSIE – reference to This Little Piggy | |
| 10 | Fish around island proving source of energy (7) |
| BIOMASS – BASS around IOM | |
| 11 | Greeting that boy will love (5) |
| HELLO – HE’LL + O | |
| 12 | Dear — a thousand for instrument that’s not the largest (4,5) |
| BABY GRAND – BABY + GRAND | |
| 14 | Lumière’s partner and child (3) |
| SON – son et lumière
I thought perhaps this was a reference to Lumière from Beauty and the Beast. Now I realize I think I was thinking of Mrs. Potts and Chip. In any case, C’est la fête is the official Disney translation of “Be Our Guest”. |
|
| 15 | Way of getting fit name, a nicest variety (11) |
| CALLANETICS – CALL + anagram of A NICEST
I prefer calisthenics, but I highly recommend watching about ten seconds of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3tetm2d6qY |
|
| 17 | Arranged diamonds in elaborate decoration (11) |
| COORDINATED – D in anagram of DECORATION
This anagram took me forever. |
|
| 19 | Singular dad’s resort (3) |
| SPA – S + PA | |
| 20 | Creates spaces to accommodate sexual identity (9) |
| ENGENDERS – ENS around GENDER
No comment from me about the fitness of the definition of GENDER. |
|
| 22 | Backing for official nabbing team’s dodgy dealer? (5) |
| FIXER – REF around XI, reversed | |
| 24 | Charge bloke and partner in restaurant? (7) |
| MANDATE – MAN + DATE | |
| 26 | Gem pedlar emerging from behind pockets (7) |
| EMERALD – hidden reversed (“from behind pockets”) in PEDLAR EMERGING | |
| 27 | Discharge a lot leaving hospital with you and me (5) |
| MUCUS – MUCH – H + US | |
| 28 | Creator of lines, dissolute chap penning bad poem meets resistance (4,5) |
| ROPE MAKER – RAKE around anagram of POEM + R | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Hear of snag in contract (5) |
| CATCH – triple definition | |
| 2 | Sell now after adjustment indicating effect of inflation? (7) |
| SWOLLEN – anagram of SELL NOW | |
| 3 | All sides except West admit defeat, mostly settled (9) |
| ENSCONCED – E + N + S (no W) + CONCED(E) | |
| 4 | Tip exceeding funds available? (11) |
| OVERBALANCE – OVER BALANCE | |
| 5 | Go out live: revolutionary start for broadcast (3) |
| EBB – BE reversed + first letter of BROADCAST | |
| 6 | Second of spoons incorrect — not with fork (5) |
| PRONG – second letter of SPOONS + WRONG – W | |
| 7 | Tea ready — and one gets bread (7) |
| CHAPATI – CHA + PAT + I
PAT as in a easy/ready answer |
|
| 8 | Hurry after some food: a habit in Arab world (9) |
| DISHDASHA – DASH after DISH + A
A long one-piece Arab garment. |
|
| 13 | Peach with skins served up, and rest of refreshment? (6,5) |
| BEAUTY SLEEP – BEAUTY + PEELS reversed | |
| 14 | One hitting on record producer who’s driving force behind Kids in America? (6,3) |
| SOCCER MOM – homophone of SOCKER + MOM?
I guess MOM is a producer because she’s produced kids? |
|
| 16 | Labour’s conclusion — government must call an election now (3,2,4) |
| END OF TERM – double definition
I confess I don’t really know what either of these means, and I can’t really find their meaning online. Help? |
|
| 18 | No cigar processed without chemicals (7) |
| ORGANIC – anagram of NO CIGAR | |
| 19 | Beer / belly after working out? (3-4) |
| SIX-PACK – double definition | |
| 21 | Released by wingers, Arsenal shot comes close (5) |
| NEARS – anagram {a}RSENA{l} | |
| 23 | Easy with this to make movie stars’ demands? (5) |
| RIDER – EASY RIDER | |
| 25 | Slip into Ferrari every so often (3) |
| ERR – {f}E{r}R{a}R{i} | |
I managed to finish this correctly. LOI TOOTSIE after a long search for something better.
I have come across the term SOCCER MOM a number of times and I did not dwell too long on the parsing.
Some good stuff beside the controversial.
David
A 51 minute DNF, since like Bletchley Reject I assumed CALLATENICS would just be perhaps an alternate spelling of calisthenics. But to my great surprise that was my only mistake, despite not having heard of DISHDASHA either. TOOTSIE took ages to understand (and even then I fixed on the squealer going home and not on the market trader or beefeater) but I rather enjoyed it, having recently been exposed to the sheer delight of my 2-year old grandson having the poem performed on his tootsies (and of course when one foot is done, I must do the other one as well). No problems with SOCCER MOM — “in America” refers to the whole expression and not just the sport involved. COD to TOOTSIE.
I think I have the answer to the wole “MOM” thing. The clue’s word “record” translates to “minutes of meeting” (abbreviation MOM) which then leaves “producer who’s driving force behind Kids in America” as the clue’s definition.
44 minutes but with ‘mum’ and ‘callatenics’. Both down to carelessness really.
Done in 29 minutes. Don’t understand TOOTSIE. Beefeater, market trader and squealer are the toes. But TOOTSIE is a foot, not a toe.
33
Imho if a clue generates so much confusion and argument it is a bad clue. End of. I’m sure the masterly Myrtilus would concur (and now seeing his post above suspect he would).
Lots of good stuff but high rating on the Dodgyclueometer for that one
Excellent work Jeremy and thanks Setter
Great blog J, and I enjoyed this crossword although didn’t finish until Sat morning. Must have been almost an hour but got there in the end. I thought TOOTSIE was super.
Am I the only solver who fails to see why “movie stars’ demands” is a definition of “rider”?
No – I think I can see ‘rider’ in terms of addition to contract, but I would have put the full stop after movie.
The definition is not “movie stars’ demands” but “stars’ demands”. “Movie” is part of the first part of the clue. And I suppose a star might demand a rider to his or her contract. But I think it is a bit obscure and I am surprised to be the only solver who failed to spot this.
Thank you Invariant but surely a stop after movie would spoil the surface meaning of the clue.
Picked this up late Friday evening, but still made good progress including a near write-in Soccer Mom. Eventual CoD Tootsie was a different matter, bing fixated for too long on some variation of Trotter. The pdm alone was well worth the admission price. Finished it off this evening with the last three in the NE (Ebb: wrong end of clue, Dishdasha: nho, and Biomass) taking ages. Biomass was particularly annoying, as I had tried I, Is, Iona and Man as plausible for island, but forgot to try IOM. Still happy with the finish though. Invariant
I did 3/4 of this yesterday, but got stuck. Left it until this morning, and it all came together nicely. TOOTSIE was last one in, and it took me an age to twig.
I have no problems with 14, as the two word phrase was well known a few years back as a particular demographic in US elections.
4 out of 5 puzzles all correct for the second week in a row. I still have to get all five in one week.
I agree this wasn’t the hardest Friday offering but the last 4/5 clues have taken several tea breaks to chew over. I thought TOOTSIE when I saw it was fabulous and worth fighting the urge to bung in trotter like Mike Harper. It never ceases to amaze me how many homophones are happily scattered into the English language without any problems for locals but must be hellish for learners: PACED/PASTE marvellous.
Obviously put in MUM because, although I know they say that over there, well…I’m over here. 16d definitely doesn’t work because labour’s conclusion, all being well, is a healthy baby. The conclusion of END OF TERM in an obstetric sense is actually labour. I speak as a grand multip. Put that in your soccer mom pipe and smoke it.
I did not go well overall on this, with the checkers S-C-E-/M-M for 14d I was determined the answer was a secret something, so no gongs there! But I wholly endorse that the clue was generously explained and intended to be a ‘mom’ . Afraid never got close to TOOTSIE, as my childhood interpretation of that word meant ‘foot’, not toes. But very clever, nonetheless. NHO DISHDASHA, but again generously clued, nor CALLANETICS, with only the second half entered.
Lots to like, but wasn’t up to it.