This crossword was not uploaded in time so I could not write my blog earlier.

The top left quadrant proved a little difficult in that it contains two unusual words from the world of flora and fauna. Scattered throughout the grid there are other plants and animals.

Across

1 POLECAT - two def. - I was able to get this only after some crossings were in. The animal def.

poses no difficulty, but the other does. I know of pole dancing itself (there is one in the recent Tamil

film Dasavatharam) but the fact that a person who does it is called polecat is new to me.

5 OPEN-AIR - anag. of “opera ‘in’” - An easy clue that is a starter for the solver - Enclosing the word

in in quotation marks is useful but is not strictly necessary in my opinion.

9 WEARY - w(E)ary

10 CHINKAPIN -  chink, a, pin (v. from ‘trap’ as a verb) - the dwarf chestnut of the U.S. (one of

some U.S. connections in this puzzle) - chincapin and chinqapin are variant spellings

11 AFFLUENCE - a f(flu)ence - all very well. but is the surface reading plausible?

12 OBESE - O B, e, s, e - Excellent surface reading so forget any strict rules as to indications for

starters. “starts to” go only to ‘enjoy’ and ’sugar-free’. The final e is derived from “cake finally”. Be

thankful that the British honour is left alone or ‘bees’ are not subject to any maltreatment. 

13 GONG - go(-i)ng - a slang term for ‘medal’

15 CANONISE - C,anon, is,E - ’saint’, v., is the def.

18 ASSAILER - hom. of ‘a sailor’

19 SURF - two def. - When we surf, we browse and we may do it, I suppose, with certain aims. In my opinion, “aimlessly” in the def. part of the clue is gratuitous.  As for surf resembling ‘white horses’, references exist in Tamil poetry of more than 2,000 years ago.

22 TOADY - to(ad)y - in ‘trailer’ we have a good def. for ‘ad’ (departing from ‘bill’, ‘plug’, ‘poster’, ‘publicity’ and so on.)

24 GLISSANDO - anag. of ‘load’ and ’signs’

26 DIALOGUES - I solved this from the def. “conversations from two”.  I don’t understand the first part - the reference to British exchanges.

27 CROCI - croc. (”little snapper”), I (1)

28 EXALTED - …..ed? - ….Ted? - I didn’t solve this in early stages. What is the ‘guitar’ that is ‘thrown back’?

28 SCEPTRE - anag. of ‘respect’ - good surface reading in a clue that employs a wellknown anagram.

Down

1 PAWPAW - P.A.,w.,pa,w. - I solved this from the easily accessible wordplay while the fruit itself is new to me.

2 LEAPFROGS - leap, frogs - I have my own reservations about the definition ‘bypasses’, though.

3 COYPU - coy, pu(-p) - One gets the word from parsing even if one does know it already - Surface reading is not quite satisfactory (if my interpretation is correct) - For one, one is young or not young; one cannot be “mostly young”. I am not sure if the tail-off that I have indicated is right.

4 TECHNICAL - anag. of ‘catch line’ - This word reminds me of a friend of mine who was my colleague. He was (and, at 60plus, is still) a bachelor. Decades ago when the idle talk at the office inevitably changed to women and sex, he would detach himself from the swirling conversation saying these matters were “technical” for him.

5 OLIVE - o,l, I’ve

6 ELKHOUNDS - anag. of ’should Ken’ - The question mark is in its own right.

7 APPLE - a(pp)le

8 RENNET - rev. of ‘tenner’ - Till now I knew only of the enzyme for cheesemaking.

14 GRAVY BOAT - I see this as a straightforward def. with some cryptic elements about it and I think that ‘coaster’ has nothing to do with vessel but only means ‘mat’

15 NARCISSUS - straightforward def.

17 STRUNG OUT - st(rung)out - I solved this from wordplay - A person who is ’strung out’ is a person who is an addict, who can’t say ‘no’ to something

20 STODGE - anag. of ‘gets do’ - In the surface reading, does the word ‘do’ mean ‘party’?

21 MOBILE - This answer suggested itself to me by the crossings and given ‘cell phone industry’ in the clue. I don’t get the drift, though.

22 ANANA - (-b)anana

24 GOURD - O in ‘gurd’, rev. of ‘drug’

25 SUCRE - With my little knowledge of French I solved this, with all that lengthy def. helping me along. The second part … just a minute… is it a ref. to sugar being drug, prob. from Columbia famous or notorious for that stuff?

Phi on a Tuesday: what’s going on? Must be something special. All I can see is that he has been incredibly clever and managed to get T’s into all the unches around the outside, all four squares round the middle of the grid, and all six ‘elbows’. As can only be expected one or two words are a bit rare, which may explain why I took a little longer than usual for a Phi, despite getting some help from the Nina. But no complaints - the usual high standard of clueing.

Araucaria as the setter for my first blog was a bit intimidating, but once the long clues around the edge were solved the middle opened up. Getting 1A in particular fairly quickly was a morale booster.

Key:
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
* = anagram
< = reverse

From FT Monday 14 July 2008 Prize Puzzle Common abbreviations used
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

One of the most entertaining puzzles that I get to blog here. Some of Mudd’s devices got me rolling on the floor. If you have not attempted this, read no further; go to FT, download and solve … you will not regret it.

Aross
1 SAWN-OFF SHOTGUN What a cheeky way of clueing it as Ar? or cutting off a bit of one’s weapon.
10 THONG What a thuperb dd clue! To the uninitiated, the lisper is saying “Something sung” for a song and a strip is a thong, whether worn round the ankle or the loin. Mudd, here is a big bow from a very appreciative blogger. My clue of the week.
11 WORLD VIEW *(devil worship minus ship) W (western)
12 MAESTRI *(are mist)
13 BRAILLE Ins of ILL (bad) BRAE (hill slope in Scotland)
14 CHEER Guevara + Elizabeth Regina
16 GLAMORISE *(a girl some)
19 RATEPAYER Ins of AT (a ton) in *(per year)
20 TRAMP Ins of M in trap
22 COMPETE Ins of PET (precious) in COME. Mudd was extremely naughty to join the invocation “in come” to form one word. Some indeed left (8) is of the same genre
25 NEW TOWN Cha of newt + own
27 TENDEREST Like 22 above, ins of END in terest
28 REALM real (natural) M (motorway)
29 LIMITED EDITION Like 1Across, this is just as mischievous, cutting off the last letter of ISSUE

Down
2 ATONEMENT at one + men + t
3 NIGHT nigh (near or approaching) T (end of sunset) &lit?
4 FAWNINGLY Ins of awning in fly
5 SCRUB dd
6 ODD MAN OUT Obvious play on opposites
7 GRILL dd
8 NOWHERE now + here
9 ATOMIC Ins of OM (order of merit) in A TIC (k)
15 REPRESENT RE (Royal Engineers) present (attending)
17 AYR UNITED A + *(rude tiny)
18 INAMORATO IN + AMORA TO (rev OT - Old Testament + aroma - character)
19 RECITAL Ins of I in RECTAL
21 PANAMA I was momentarily stunned by this clue. The definition was so obvious but  “dragged on” ? It wasn’t until later when a very knowledgeable friend in Canada pointed me to (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Red) that I understood Panama was also a reference to a marijuana joint that must be dragged on to be enjoyed. BTW, do you know that the Malaysian Government banned Peter, Paul and Mary’s hit “Puff the magic dragon” due to its drug connotation?
23 MINIM Obvious palindrome
24 EMEND (y) emen D (Deutschland or Germany)
26 WORST I wonder what you would call such a clue? dd?
That’s the fun with Mudd … some of his clues are even unclassifiable!