I have to admit to a slight case of blogger’s nerves when filling for Bruce on Saturdays. These puzzles are often on the tough side and can leave me prone to what Ulaca once called my “high level gaffes”. (I’m still not over it!)
Not so today. This was a comparative breeze. Finished it just following the first coffee of the day — and a single ristretto at that! So well within the 20 minute mark. I give thanks for my good fortune on this occasion.
Hope Bruce (who gets a mention at 2dn in the guise of the prototypical Australian bloke) is enjoying his sojourn. He’ll be back next week and normal service will be resumed.
Definitions are underlined. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, followed by the parsing. (Ragaman*) means “anagram of ‘Ragaman’”. Deletions are in {braces}.
Across
1. International line adopted by news missing the target (9)
WORLDWIDE: WORD (news), insert L (line), WIDE (missing the target).
6. What student may obtain — so simple! (5)
BASIC: BA (degree), SIC (Latin, “so”, “thus”, etc.)
9. Figure letter from Ephesus is by doctor and American (7)
RHOMBUS: RHO (Greek letter; Ephesus being an ancient Greek city), MB (doctor), US (American).
10. See feller who posts online (7)
VLOGGER: V (vide, see), LOGGER (feller). Short for “video-blogger”.
11. Pale and bird-like? (5)
ASHEN: As, hen.
“Bird-like” has a fine literary precedent. Beowulf’s ship rides “over the waves … most like [likest] a bird” (ll. 217-218). The Anglo-Saxon expression is “fugle gelīcost”. I feel sad at our loss of comparative and superlative variations of prepositions such as “like”. How fine it would be to be able to say “liker” and “likest”.
13. Go for experimental spin in shot at end of match (4,5)
TEST DRIVE: DRIVE (shot) following TEST (match).
14. One’s amazing desire to tour Madrid periodically (9)
HUMDINGER: HUNGER (desire); insert MDI from MaDrId
16. Fellow feeling yen to pursue quarry (4)
PITY: Y (¥en) after PIT (quarry).
18. Band‘s covers of salsa songsmith (4)
SASH: S{als}A, S{ongsmit}H.
19. Sweet stuff from a box, not dangerous (9)
ASPARTAME: A, SPAR (box), TAME (not dangerous).
C14H18N2O5. “A derivative of aspartic acid and phenylalanine” (ODO). Or (from the Wik): “E951 … a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide”. Yeeeerk!
22. Acclaimed feature of iPhone extolled (9)
APPLAUDED: App (feature of iPhone), LAUDED (extolled).
24. What secret admirer has admitted about seeker of romance (5)
DATER: Included reversed in {sec}RET AD{mirer}.
25. Speaker’s one sending short message (7)
TWEETER: Two literals/definitions.
Is it not time we had an anti-social media platform called WOOF?
26. Divine Christian expelling an entertaining European (7)
ANGELIC: ANGLIC{an}; insert E (European).
28. Sport’s tricky in the extreme, requiring practice (5)
RUSTY: RU (sport, rugger) {i}S, T{rick}Y.
29. Axes cut perfect instrument (9)
XYLOPHONE: X,Y (axes), LOP (cut), HONE (perfect).
If you got 15dn, its terminal X and mention of an instrument ought to considerably narrow the field of possibility for this answer.
Down
1. What rap represented is an approach to confrontation (7)
WARPATH: (What rap*).
2. Old men to lift Bruce’s jumper (3)
ROO: Invert (“to lift”), O (old), OR (army men, Other Ranks — all but the officers).
A classic pommy-bastard idea that all Australian men are called Bruce (and women Sheila). In fact I’ve only encountered two Bruces in this wide brown land. One is our esteemed Saturday blogger; the other a visiting Canadian, unwilling heir to a tyre-manufacturing empire and a totally reliable left back.
3. Charming newcomer making a broadcast (8)
DEBONAIR: DEB (newcomer), ON AIR (making a broadcast).
4. Compiler’s confession, penning new piece added to paper (5)
INSET: I SET (Compiler’s confession); insert N (new).
5. Dope raves when silly buggers do this! (9)
EAVESDROP: (Dope raves*). “Bugger” as in one who bugs (e.g., conceals a microphone so as to eavesdrop on conversations).
6. Wishing for issue of Times, cross at heart (6)
BROODY: BY (times, as in multiplication; 4 x 2 = “4 by 2”, etc.). Insert ROOD (cross,crucifix).
Our Christian readers might like to read this little number from the 8th century.
7. Crucial pointer, should my ability prove insufficient (11)
SIGNIFICANT: SIGN (pointer), IF I CAN’T.
8. Place to eat hugely? Rolls for one to begin with (7)
CARVERY: VERY (hugely); preceded by CAR (Rolls [Royce] for one).
12. Emphasis on love worked for us (4,7)
HOMO SAPIENS: (Emphasis on O [love]*).
The species name is due for a rethink, I suspect, given recent voting trends. Homo stultus?
15. Race two monkeys run captured in images (5,4)
GRAND PRIX: A monkey is £500, so two monkeys make a GRAND; then R (run) inside PIX (images).
Race? When you’ve seen one car whizzing around a track, you’ve seen them both.
17. Deficit in selling jazz, say, with a piano (5,3)
TRADE GAP: TRAD (jazz), EG (say), A, P{iano}.
18. Sulphur and more acid in dish (7)
STARTER: S (Sulphur), TARTER (more acid).
20. Rowdy cheer doubled a listener’s discomfort (7)
EARACHE: (cheer A, A*).
21. Secretaries go for sweet food (6)
PASTRY: PAs (Secretaries); TRY (go).
While some pastry-based foods are savoury, this use of the word seems kosher given that a pastry (count noun) is usually “an item of food consisting of sweet pastry with a cream, jam, or fruit filling” (ODO). Cf. “Danish” — which isn’t Danish!
23. Child comes up, beginning to launch a slow delivery (5)
DRAWL: WARD (child, inverted), L{aunch}.
“Ward” as in Burt whose character Robin was ward/protégé of a certain non-Australian Bruce.
27. Briefly plunder throne room (3)
LOO: LOO{t}.
Yes, the Bruce stereotype is one of the sillier ones perpetuated in the Mother Country. I mean as far as I know the suggestion of “Bruciness” only exists within the confines of a single (admittedly brilliant) comedy sketch from half a century ago. Still, no harm in it I suppose.
Thanks setter and great blog McT. Not a gaffe of any level to be found!
Thanks to setter and blogger, especially for the parsing of GRAND PRIX, which was beyond me.
Yeeeerk! is the word. Aspartame is horrible, bitter stuff which is the main reason why diet drinks (which is pretty much all my local Tesco now sells) are out of bounds for me.
And a word on Bruce:
“This here’s the wattle
The emblem of our land
You can stick it in a bottle
You can hold it in your hand. Amen!”
Which all sounds better than Advance Australia Fair. But I agree it’s astonishing how one sketch has cemented in the perception of Bruceness.
Two eyes, two hands, two swollen glands,
A sprig of wattle in my hand,
A symbol of my native land.
Australia, Australia, Australia,
You bloody beauty!
Perhaps the inspiration for those Pythons?
Of course I had BLOGGER at first for 10a until 5d came in so I just shrugged my shoulders, having heard the term but not knowing the meaning or where the V came from until your excellent blog. Thanks! And to setter too.
If you want to know what comes after Homo Sapiens, I can recommend the thrilling but chilling book by Yuval Noah Harari: Homo Deus (subtitled A brief History of Tomorrow). If you think it can’t happen, as he so brilliantly makes the case for, it already has/is. Oh dear!
Edited at 2017-07-29 11:18 am (UTC)
WOD RISTRETTO