Solving time: 24:01
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Minding the shop today for Jackkt, the first thing that struck me on completion was the number of classical references (6a, 22a, 25a, 6d and 20d) in the grid of which 6d held me up the longest until I spotted the reverse hidden. I also learnt things about Dryden, Dutch philosophers, Scottish missionaries, and twentieth century art. Certainly plenty to read up on later today.
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Some answers I had to bung in whilst in flight, and return to post-completion to fully appreciate the wordplay. I very much enjoyed 21a and 25a, though wonder if I am missing something with 15a…
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How did you find it?
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Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. The tilde ~ indicates an insertion point in containment clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Everyone in house married and blessed (8) |
| HALLOWED – ALL (Everyone) inserted into H~O (house) then WED (married) | |
| 6 | What petrified Eugénie finally in Dumas novel (6) |
| MEDUSA – Last letter [finally] of {Eugéni}E in anagram [novel] of DUMAS | |
| 9 | Verb in detailed line rewritten for film (4,3,3,3) |
| LIVE AND LET DIE – V (Verb) inserted into anagram [rewritten] of DETAILED LINE | |
| 10 | Mystic character in Palladium trimmed plants (6) |
| PRUNED – RUNE (Mystic character) in P~D (Palladium – chemical symbol) | |
| 11 | Fancy smithing? It’s hard labour (8) |
| IRONWORK – IRON (It’s hard) WORK (labour) . Hands up if you thought it might be an anagram of ‘smithing’… |
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| 13 | Virgin first to seduce dignitary: interesting (10) |
| NEWSWORTHY – NEW (Virgin) then first letter of S{educe} WORTHY (dignitary) | |
| 15 | Might this be the right attitude? (4) |
| SIDE – I wasn’t really comfortable with attitude and SIDE being synonymous, though the following sentence might work if I squint a bit: “When times are tough, I appreciate your supportive SIDE/attitude.” . The mildly cryptic first part of the clue indicates where the answer appears in the grid. . Feel free to pipe up if you can parse this any more satisfactorily… |
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| 16 | Revolutionary soldiers love fanatical submariner (4) |
| NEMO – MEN (soldiers) reversed [Revolutionary] then O (love) . Why fanatical? I’ve not read either of the two books in which NEMO appears, but a quick Wiki check reveals that “Jules Verne portrays Nemo as a man consumed by grief, vengeance, and hatred of oppression, which drives him to extremes.” |
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| 18 | Small stations reduced in crazy plan (10) |
| MASTERMIND – S (Small) TERMIN{i} (stations) reduced by removing the last letter, stuffed into MA~D (crazy) . ‘MASTERMIND’ and ‘plan’ as verbs here |
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| 21 | With a short, short, short sleep, travel overseas? (5-3) |
| WATER-SKI – W (With) A TERS{e} (short) with the final letter removed [short], then KI{p} (sleep) with the final letter removed [short] . A chucklesome PDM and a marvellous clue. |
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| 22 | Wild god beginning to abandon priest in country (6) |
| PANAMA – PAN (Wild god) then {l}AMA (priest) with its first letter removed [beginning to abandon] . Why wild? Pan is the Greek god of nature, shepherds, flocks, and rustic music, closely tied to the rugged landscapes of Arcadia. |
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| 23 | Crowd by church in troubled US state: this one? (13) |
| MASSACHUSETTS – MASS (Crowd) by CH (church) in anagram [troubled] of US STATE . The definition refers back to ‘US state’. |
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| 25 | Audibly exhale in relief — vital for spirit (6) |
| PSYCHE – Homophone [Audibly] of SIGH (exhale in relief) KEY (vital) . In classical mythology, PSYCHE is the immortal wife of Cupid, Roman god of erotic love and desire. Her name is commonly translated as “soul,” “life,” or “spirit”. Homer’s usage of the word is often translated as “ghost” |
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| 26 | Article backed sightseer shunning old stripper (8) |
| NATURIST – AN (Article) reversed [backed], then T{o}URIST (sightseer) without [shunning] the O (old) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | On the loose, smilodon, say, not caught by mammoth? (2,5) |
| AT LARGE – {c}AT (smilodon, say) without [not] the C (caught – cricket terminology) by LARGE (mammoth?) . Commonly known as the sabre-toothed tiger, the smilodon was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats, having diverged from the ancestor of today’s cats around 20 million years ago. |
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| 3 | Missionary’s surviving pit (11) |
| LIVINGSTONE – LIVING (surviving) STONE (pit) . David Livingstone (1813–1873) was a Scottish doctor, Christian missionary, and an explorer in Africa. |
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| 4 | Join together fencing area in open country (5) |
| WEALD – WE~LD (Join together) containing [fencing] A (area) | |
| 5 | Father in Berlin is entertaining American artist (7) |
| DADAIST – DAD (Father) A (American) IST (German for ‘is’ i.e. in Berlin) . Heavily influenced by WWI, DADAISTs rejected violence, war, nationalism and modern capitalist society, using nonsense and protest in their works. The whole point behind Dadaism was to prove that anything could be art if the artist declared it to be, which in turn proved that if everything could be art, then nothing could be art. This outraged many artists as Dadaism deemed their labour-intensive artworks meaningless. |
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| 6 | Raised some progeny, so men might divine woman (9) |
| MNEMOSYNE – Reverse hidden [Raised some] in progeny, so men might . One of the Titans, MNEMOSYNE was the goddess of memory and the mother of the nine Muses by Zeus. |
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| 7 | Senior cleric devouring Mitford-approved turkey? (3) |
| DUD – DD (Senior cleric i.e. abbreviation for Doctor of Divinity) containing [devouring] U (approval in the Mitford world) | |
| 8 | Drove point home: moved fast to capture attention (7) |
| SPEARED – SP~ED (moved fast) containing [to capture] EAR (attention) | |
| 12 | Witness term disrupted in Dryden’s alma mater (11) |
| WESTMINSTER – Anagram [disrupted] of WITNESS TERM | |
| 14 | Following approved line one’s wise to keep minutes (2-7) |
| ON-MESSAGE – ON~E’S SAGE (wise) containing [to keep] M (minutes) . Often seen in relation to politicians publicly reiterating and supporting official party policy. |
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| 17 | Dutch scholar’s problems are mounting (7) |
| ERASMUS – SUMS (problems) ARE all reversed [mounting] . Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (c. 1466–1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply ERASMUS, was a Dutch humanist, Christian theologian, and philosopher. |
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| 19 | Satan initially possessing popular saint (7) |
| SWITHIN – First letter [initially] of S{atan} WITH (possessing) IN (popular) | |
| 20 | Undoing nurse’s jacket this writer covered in pickle (7) |
| NEMESIS – Outside letters [jacket] of N{urs}E, then I (this writer) covered in MES~S (pickle) | |
| 22 | Penny and Oscar are candidates put forward (5) |
| POSIT – P (Penny) O (Oscar) SIT (are candidates) . “She is sitting for the bar exam” means she is a candidate to earn those qualifications. |
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| 24 | Like certain wines found in these cellars? (3) |
| SEC – Hidden [found in] in these cellars | |
13:11. Collins has (British slang) insolence, arrogance, or pretentiousness; to put on side. Perhaps that’s it? Of course, it also has the action, position, or attitude of one person or faction opposing another. So I think the bases are well-covered. I confess I didn’t give it too much thought while solving!
I took it to be ‘pretentiousness, arrogance’. The one and only time I came across it (I think it’s been here once) was Elizabeth Bowen’s The Death of the Heart (1930s), where one character says in praise of another that he had no side. Which I could make no sense of at the time.
Home thoughts from abroad, about to go on a tour of Marseille, but popped in here while waiting. “There’s no side to him.”, of someone without pretensions. I can still say it myself, but I may have inherited it from my Dad so it could be more than a century old.
SIDE with that meaning also appears in The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe when the Narnian Lion gets excited because Aslan calls him a fellow lion.
All of the above, and FYI here is Wiktionary’s 18th def:
18 (slang, dated, uncountable) An unjustified air of self-importance; a conceited attitude.
And it’s a double definition- might be right or might be left.
I had considerably more difficulty than Jeremy. For one thing, my Greek instructor taught me to pronounce Attic correctly, and I do pronounce the pi and upsilon in psyche. Mnemosyne was interesting, since I was looking for a backwards hidden and rejected mn- as a possible start of word – a mistake I wouldn’t make in Mephisto, where they like words starting with mj- and such. Massachusetts was a write-in, but Swithin and Dadaist were brilliant.
Time: 28:28
But PSYCHE is English, not Greek; it’s correctly pronounced [saiki].
I think it’s not a pi, but a psi: Ψυχή
Hence the pronunciation.
Naturally, I liked the puzzle, but my time of 26 minutes was ruined by a careless IRONWARE,
A very colorful, imaginative puzzle. Nothing unknown, though WEALD was a surprise to see here.
I admit to ignorance of the meaning of Weald, despite having made a specific detour to visit the W and Downland outdoor museum, site of filming The Repair Shop. Contrary to description, there are at least two unoriginal buildings there, but as they are both of prehistoric ones unlikely to be found intact, let alone moved, this is forgivable.
There was an incongruous musical back drop, steam calliopes and other fairground instruments playing various airs, often simultaneously, from an annual display. Serendipity. Exploring a mediaeval physik garden to the tune of the Teddy Bears’ Picnic was so fun.
11:27 for one of my quicker times thus far; just PRUNED held me up for over two minutes as I was looking for a word meaning ‘mystic’. This was a straightforward deficiency on my part though (and thus fixable!), due to not considering Palladium as a chemical symbol. Palladium is a great Weather Report song, by the way. Guy, if WEALD was a surprise due to being a rare word, it does tend to pop up in place names often (at least in the South East of England), which may make it more familiar there.
Thank you setter and Mike.
Yes, as a young member of the Air Training Corps in Essex I remember being taken on at least one trip to North Weald Airfield, formerly RAF North Weald. Presumably a weald in general is a good place to put an airfield!
We go past North Weald regularly, it is on the M11. It played a big part in WWII I believe.
But for a proper Weald you need to come to Kent 🙂
Now plays a big part in fake designer clothing and fake sports tops as part of the pretty huge market they have every week (so my daughter tells me…). Soon to be the home of a huge energy consuming IT service centre I believe.
I agree, naturally!
The Kentish WEALD features in one of Vita Sackville West’s more pretentious poems.
Ha, they all were. I don’t get much beyond Pam Ayres, meself 🙂
Just over 20′ which is quick for me and would have been quicker if, like Vinyl I hadn’t taken so long to see the LOI (and NHO) hidden Mnemosyne.
Livingstone was born not far from where I grew up, so a write-in, as were many to be honest…. perhaps I just don’t write in quickly enough.
I never thought much about SIDE, I hear it a lot for a certain type of attitude. Isn’t it just a DD, “might be on the RHS” plus “attitude”, or is that what you mean?
Thanks Mike and setter.
A few seconds under 20 minutes here, which is a welcome change from recent performances. I think I’ve heard “side” in the “sharp attitude” meaning in the Jeeves and Wooster books, but I may be misremembering.
I assumed a reference to rustic matters including wildlife re Pan.
A very enjoyable solve considering the amount of references I didn’t actually know but took on trust. 40 minutes, but I’d estimate the last 20 of those were spent 5 or 6 stragglers.
Thanks for covering Mike. I have high hopes of being back in the chair next Tuesday.
35 and a bit. Top third went in very quickly, with 1ac and 2ac a very gentle start. Similar to our scribe, I didn’t see the reverse hidden for 6d until later, which assisted with a much lower, an in my view tougher bottom third. Also fooled by pruned.
15’20”
This would be a good biblical studies question: “Distinguish clearly between PSYCHE, zoe, bios and pneuma. What does this tell us about Greek philosophy?”
SIDE is one of those words rarely used in England, but always understood in context. On the other hand ‘no side’ is a now disused rugby term.
I love language.
Thanks mike and setter.
Now that is a tempting challenge! Sadly I’m not up to it. Although I’m sure Peter Hacker has given a lucid explanation/defence of Aristotle’s thoughts on the subject somewhere.
38 mins with LOI PRUNED taking a bit of effort to work out. NHO MNEMOSYNE but luckily I quickly spotted the reverse hidden. Goddess of memory eh! No wonder I’ve forgotten about her.
I liked the book and WATER-SKI.
Thanks Mike for a diligent blog, and setter.
7:07, but with a silly typo which – once again – I failed to spot when checking. I’m doing this a lot at the moment, hence 7 errors on the leaderboard.
No problem with this meaning of SIDE, usually heard in the negative: ‘he has no side on/to him’. Not to be confused with the end of a rugby match.
MER – in which the M stands for ‘massive’ – at ‘overseas’. As a single word it always and necessarily means ‘abroad’. To use it to mean ‘across water’ is simply wrong. This sort of thing is common in the Graun but I will be very disappointed if it becomes the norm here.
Isn’t it the point of a cryptic clue to use words in an unusual manner (particularly where a “?” is included to indicate the abnormality)? I liked WATER-SKI very much for this word-play, and would like to understand your objection to it.
My objection to it is that the word ‘overseas’ simply does not have the meaning required for the wordplay. I don’t mind a bit of creativity but setters need to respect the basic meanings of words.
Joshua and Henri, in their Out of Left Field puzzles, have been up to mischief with compound words like that. For example, half of one might be an anagrind… or the definition! The test solvers are divided…
In a set of puzzles called ‘out of left field’ I would of course accept this sort of thing. I expect it in the Graun and accept it there to the limited extent I do Graun puzzles. But I don’t really like the Graun. I like the Times.
The title, of course, is primarily a reference to their (never hidden) political leaning. Their Patreon site was started after an incoming (and now recently departed) chief editor decided to kill the crossword they furnished to The Nation.
I had exactly the same objection to overseas, though the clue was otherwise excellent.
Me too, irked by that.
32:56 with panic stations when I got nothing in the top half on my first pass. I managed to work my way up from the bottom though and a couple up top I really should have got. Maybe I just needed to warm up or the classical references just made me move on until I got some checking letters.
Some good clues in this with some deceptive wordplay. Many clues where my first thought of how they worked was wrong. Answers like PRUNED and DADAIST.
Last one in PSYCHE where for a long time I was sure it started A (ahh!)
COD NEWSWORTHY
Thanks blogger and setter
20 minutes.
– Didn’t bother working out the anagrist for LIVE AND LET DIE
– Had no idea that palladium is an element, so I didn’t see where the P-D came from in PRUNED
– Trusted that a smilodon was a cat to get AT LARGE
– Was glad that MNEMOSYNE was a hidden, otherwise I’d have had no chance
– Tried to justify STEPHEN for 19d before I figured out SWITHIN
– Wasn’t sure about ‘sit’ meaning ‘are candidates’ in POSIT, so I’m grateful for the explanation
Thanks Mike and setter.
FOI Hallowed
LOI Psyche
COD Ironwork
12:40. Held up at the end by WATER-SKI and SWITHIN having tried, and failed, to justify STEPHEN for 19D. I’m with keriothe in disliking “overseas” for “over the water”, or “over seas”. Thanks Mike and setter.
25 mins hitting brainfog in the SE where LOIs MASTERMIND and SWITHIN resisted. Pleasingly I did not notice the classics count, it used to be more common. PSYCHE may even be COD.
I misread NEMO as fantastical so was blissfully quibble-free there but not so over Smilodon = Cat as our blogger points out. Thanks Mike and setter.
13:57. Two typos identified and corrected before submitting.
COD: LIVINGSTONE
Thanks to Mike and our setter.
Not important perhaps but I’d have thought that ‘could this be right’ works as a mildly cryptic indicator of ‘side’ whichever side of the grid the answer happened to appear on.
Agree I thought the clue was a straightforward double definition
4:21 with a typo of Wwstminster. Should have checked but wanted to submit for a quick time. a fair few biffs here unlike yesterday. I liked the classical references.
18.03, stodged by NEWSWORTHY, ON MESSAGE and MASTERMIND after a speedy upper half. Just couldn’t get into the clues. Took Dryden’s alma mater on trust, and was relieved to avoid IRONWARE. Side as attitude we’ve had before, though I was prepared with an appeal to VAR if it was turned down. Despite classical Greek pronunciation and lack of division, PSYCHE and WATER SKI were my two favourites. I’ll cut setters some slack if they make me smile.
Thanks Mike for stepping up.
I liked this one! It played to my strengths, having swallowed the Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology whole, as a youngster.
Side is quite a common word meaning snootiness, attitude, or the lack of it, eg “He’s got no side on him, despite being a prince.” Surprised at some not knowing it. The clue is a DD since a side can also be left or right. Yes the clue is on the right side of the grid but I wasn’t sure if that was just coincidence or not.
As for “overseas,” who ARE these people, using words in a way not originally intended! Heavens! 🙂
😵💫
I was another who got nothing at first in the top half of the grid and worked my way up. Generally not too bad, but got really stumped by ‘overseas’, not even considering ‘over seas’ as possible. In the end I used aids for PRUNED, which I just couldn’t work out. Did not know Palladium or work out that the definition was ‘trimmed plants’. Otherwise, a very pleasant puzzle. Liked SWITHIN, who is the patron saint of Winchester, where I live, and MNEMOSYNE, which, despite being certain was a reverse hidden, still took some time to unearth! SIDE went in with crossed fingers…
Enjoyed this – just the right flavour of challenging-but-gettable. Didn’t know the goddess, but the wordplay was helpful. The rest of this just gently fell into place, with only PSYCHE and the weird SIDE holding me up.
Good puzzle. 48minues plus. of which 20 or so was lost weaving my way though Charles de Gaulle airport en route to Edinburgh.
I thought MASTERMIND and WATERSKI were excellent.
Always assume that a mystic character is Meg.
Completely missed the lama reference in Panama and assumed that MA somehow referred to a priest.
Thanks to Mike and the setter
I agree that it’s highly questionable to see overseas as over seas, but Collins does have ‘over or across the sea’ under American English, so is this a borderline example? ‘Over the sea’ is, however, ambiguous: it could mean on top of the sea, or past the sea. And in Collins we also have ample justification for side = attitude despite my initial discomfort with this. 35 minutes, the right level of difficulty for me.
Thanks to plusjeremy for an enlightening blog, and to the setter.
It was easy to start with but I bogged down fairly quickly and struggled and cheated a bit.
22a Panama. I had a MER, thinking that lamas are monks rather than priests but wiki has this:
“Recently, the title has wrongly applied to all ordained monks and Bhikshus. Due to misunderstandings by western scholars such as Melvyn Goldstein, the term lama has recently been erroneously applied to Tibetan monks in general. Similarly, Tibetan Buddhism was erroneously referred to as “Lamaism” and “Lamaist” by Goldstein and early western scholars, and by European travellers who did not understand that what they were witnessing was Tibetan Buddhism. The term Lamaism is now considered by some to be derogatory.”
25a Psyche biffed. I never saw the “key” and was foxed.
2d At large biffed. I had forgotten Smilodon=sabre-tooth tiger.
I don’t think PlusJeremy and I have ever been seen in the same place at the same time, so I suppose it is possible that he and I are one and the same blogger 😉
Sorry Mike, not sure why I did that. I usually copy the blogger’s name from the by-line at the top, not sure why I just plumped for plusjeremy instead.
Sorry to plusjeremy too.
It usually bodes well when 1a drops into place as I read the clue, and today was no exception. In fact the top half all appeared quite rapidly apart from the unknown goddess who took a while to emerge from the letter jumble. Really glad she was a reverse hidden! Had to think more down under, but LOI, NEWSWORTHY tipped the scales at 15:44. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Mike.
20 mins, 10 of which spent on WATER SKI and SWITHIN. I’m ok with the overseas, I think it adds to the humour of the clue.
Had to use aids for the final couple, PSYCHE and PRUNED (which were easy enough when found, of course), so a DNF, but a quick (for me) and very enjoyable 23 mins otherwise.
I enjoyed WATER-SKI, it made me chuckle, and I didn’t consider the objections to ‘overseas’ that others have stated.
Thanks Mike and setter
Tough for Tuesday. In the middle of some clever clueing. 15a was very weak, whatever the debate on the meaning of SIDE.
I thought 15a was a double definition “this might be the right”, right being an example of a side and “attitude” working when describing your position on a topic. I misread “fanatical” as “fantastical” in the NEMO clue and didn’t realise I’d made it easier for myself until I read the answer.
I much enjoyed the clever cluing for WATER SKI.
45 minutes. Doing well until becoming mired in the SW corner and environs, with WATER-SKI, SWITHIN and my LOI PSYCHE taking up about half of the solving time.
It’s no criticism of the clue, but ON-MESSAGE is one of those jargon terms that I really don’t like. It’s up there with “going forwards”, “address the issue” and “learnings” (in the plural); probably just me.
So what were your takeaways from today? 🙂
Yes that’s pretty bad too isn’t it. 😊
You need to take a helicopter view…
Only if your thinking is blue-sky.
21.55 with most of that spent on the last few. I did like WATER SKI when I finally twigged and followed it with SWITHIN to finish. SIDE for attitude seems unremarkable. Thanks Mike.
P.S. If we’re being picky, water skiers don’t travel. They go round in circles.
30 mins, excellent for me but could not get Swithin! Had the S and in but forced Stephen in instead! Eejit! Thus water ski became Baden See, astonishing what one can make up in emergencies!! The rest was great fun, esp Mnemosyne! Thanks all! Cx
Off to a roaring start, with 1ac and 6ac written in at first glance. Then it was back to normal, and I limped over the line in 25 minutes, after I had thought I might be in for a PB. The main hold-up was in the W and SW area, where it took a long time to break through WATER-SKI and PRUNED, and to convince myself that there was a suitable Saint apart from Stephen. Enjoyable mix of classical, historical and other GK.
FOI – HALLOWED
LOI – PRUNED
COD – MNEMOSYNE
Thanks to Mike and other contributors.
Around 8 minutes so a pleasant relief after last week’s struggles. Liked all the classical references.
20:20 for me – wish I could claim the same for my eyesight . .
Managed to finish this one – a rare occurrence! Only really held up by NEWSWORTHY. Many thanks Mike for explaining PANAMA and PRUNED.
43 minutes — I was very proud of myself when I finally worked out PRUNED and realized all of “trimmed plants” was the definition, not that other things weren’t similarly hard. Then I ruined it all with IRONWARE (never thinking of IRONWORK, which fit the wordplay much better).
No-one appears to have commented on ERASMUS and the familiar palindrome … sums are not set as a test on Erasmus
Pleased with 18 minutes, no holdups.
Speaking of palindromes: A man, a plan, a canal. Panama! 14’17” all up. I had no problem with SIDE or WATER-SKI. 9 across I biffed without even looking at the clue. Four words — 4,3,3,3 — ending in D-E (which I had by then). What else could it be? I did briefly check that the word FILM was mentioned. Many thanks.
Blow me; first sub 20 min in ages. Okay 19:55. Held my breath with spelling of mass a chew sets and got ir right. Thanks to all.
42 mins. LOI NEWSWORTHY over which I pondered inordinately even with crossers.
10.02
My twin did this in a 12 minute PB so pleased to squeak in front to balance the chess tournament he edged me out of this evening (but please don’t mention the fantasy football).
Like Dr Shred PRUNED held me up at the end and like others thought WATER SKI a cracker.
Thanks Mike and setter
I did this while doing other things but had no real problems. It is interesting that Ian Fleming picked some titles that were so good that they are better known than the orignal: LIVE AND LET DIE is probably better known than the original “live and let live”. Same for “you only live twice” vs “you only live once”. Although that is now YOLO.
YOLO? Please explain: I don’t do mod-speak..
It is on the line above “you only live once”
I managed this in 35 minutes, but had to take a break when I got stuck on MASTERMIND, WATER SKI, and SWITHIN. In the end they were all biffed or pattern-matched, then parsed. Before that, the whole puzzle went in more smoothly than any 15×15 I ever attempted and I thought I saw a personal best in reach. A lot of fun, and only a bit of frustration, so a good learner’s solve.
Thanks setter and Mike.
Took ages to get going with this – NEMESIS was my FOI – and very happy to have cracked all but NEWSWORTHY (not helped by putting DADAISM and not DADAIST..) and PSCHYE so thanks for the explanation.
I loved WATER- SKI – very clever! Thanks again to setter and blogger.
I thought weald meant a forested area, not “open country”. My web search confirmed this.
I’m now glad I’d never looked up weald (as commented above) as I would have not bunged it in. Thank you for your input. The name of the museum makes more sense, as you drive through woodland to get there.
Train journey London to Preston was long enough for me to break the back of this, and while up there I completed it, only the second time I’ve dared to venture into this exalted arena. SW corner held me up longest; PDM WATER-SKI – what a brilliant clue – unlocking SWITHIN – of course Stephen was wrong, and LOI PSYCHE. A few CNPs (could not parse), looking forward to Mike’s blog ….
Ah! of course, priest = lama, vital = key, NHO smilodon (nor of course MNEMOSYNE but that was on a plate, or should we say et alpano), and pickle = mess (had “this writer” = ME, on the wrong track). Thanks, Mike – most enjoyable and (despite everything) triumphant.
Really enjoyed the inventiveness of this puzzle: WATER-SKI ( although I didn’t get it ) I thought a great clue to “travel overseas”, and so many more that eluded me at the time . WEALD I had forgotten, so bunged in WEAVE, which put me on the back foot when it came to PRUNED as I had an E as last letter. Got LIVE AND LET DIE immediately, but now have an ear worm of Shirley Bassey all day, and MASSACHUSETTS, but had trouble with the spelling. I always have a problem equating ‘exhale in relief’ with sigh, as to me a sadness is included in the latter. However, a good ‘sounds-alike’ in this clue. Lovely crossword all round.