Aha. And there I was fully expecting a “Friday the Thirteenth”-themed Virgilius. Instead we have an Eimi puzzle themed around 1ac 10c, today being the one hundredth anniversary of her death. I found this a fairly quick solve, though harder towards the SE corner. A lot of the clues are very nice, I thought, with many weaving the theme in very smoothly.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FLORENCE – (LORE + NC) in FE. |
| 5 | PATHOS – 0 in PATHS. |
| 10 | NIGHTINGALE – (HANGING TILE)*. |
| 11 | TEN – [gradua]TE N[urses]. |
| 12 | TUSCANY – TUS + CAN[n]NY. |
| 13 | SCUTARI – CUT in SARI. This is where 1ac 10ac was based during the 14ac. It corresponds with the modern-day Üsküdar suburb of Istanbul. |
| 14 | CRIMEAN WAR – (NAM AIRCREW)*. |
| 17 | LADY – [ma]LADY. |
| 20 | LAMP – dd. |
| 21 | LAKE GENEVA – (LEEK A VEGAN)*. |
| 23 | NURSING – RUN< + SING. I'm not sure how "peach" = SING, but this could hardly be anything else. |
| 24 | HERBERT – HERB [rob]ERT. I think the poet must be George Herbert. |
| 26 | CHI – dd. |
| 27 | SELF SERVICE – (REF LESS)* + VICE. |
| 28 | MANTLE – NT in MALE. |
| 29 | HOSPITAL – (OS + PIT) in HAL[e]. |
| Down | |
| 1 | FANATICAL – (TAN + FACIAL)*. |
| 2 | OFGAS – F in SAGO<. |
| 3 | EXTRA SEC – TRAS[h] in EXEC. |
| 4 | CANNY – ANN in CY. |
| 6 | AVENUE – A + VENU[s] + E. |
| 7 | HIT PARADE – APARTHEID*. |
| 8 | SINAI – (IAN IS)<. |
| 9 | RAMSGATE – MSG in RATE. |
| 15 | IMMERSION – (IN MEMOIRS)*. |
| 16 | NEAR GALE – NEAR + G[inger] + ALE. This is NEAR in the less-familiar sense of “thrifty or stingy”. |
| 18 | YEAST CELL – (ELY CASTLE)*. |
| 19 | TEARDROP – TEAR + DR + OP. |
| 22 | DIESEL – I in LEEDS*. |
| 23 | NICAM – [vero]NI CAM[ars]. |
| 24 | HAS TO – A ST in HO. |
| 25 | EXIST – E + XI’S + T[v]. |
Re 23 ac. Peach and sing can both mean inform. A very pleasant puzzle, and personally prefer this theme to a Friday 13th one.
Good puzzle which I found not too hard, thank goodness, after yesterday’s toughie. Interesting theme, which I picked up on only near the end. Made me go and look some stuff up on her to see what the connections were – one I didn’t know was Sidney HERBERT, a life-long friend and supporter.
HIT PARADE and YEAST CELL were very cleverly constructed anagrams, and it would be unlike eimi to leave us without a footie reference, with Leyton Orient making an appearance in the last down clue.
Thanks for the blog, Simon.
Thanks Simon.
To ‘peach’ is to inform against someone, and therefore to ‘sing’. I remembered it from somewhere. (Polly Peacham??)
I’ve been to Uskudar a couple of times, but only when my companion pointed the fact out, did I realize the place was Scutari.
HIT PARADE is strangely apt for apartheid.
I started this in the early hours while watching a programme on BBC4. It was Florence Nightingale.
Thanks Simon.
Comparatively easy after yesterday’s, except, for me, 20A.
Pardon my ignorance but could someone en-light-en me on the use of “strike” to signify “lamp.”
Aside from the theme which points to “lamp” (the Lady of the Lamp), I was misled by “lam” (strike) + “a” to give lama, who could be a light of sorts.
Re 5: lamp = “British to hit, beat up or attack. A now dated usage perhaps combining elements of ‘lam’, in the sense of beat, and lump. The word was frequently used with this meaning in the 1950s.”
(Slang-dictionary.com).
I have come across the usage more recently.
scchua
From Chambers: lamp³ (slang) To punch or thump.
LAMP. I took LAM to be strike and then found another letter to fit the clue.
I think I’ve heard of to LAMP = to hit e.g. a child. But I can’t find it.
Ah! found it in the OED. Chiefly northern and slang.
Must be newish in Chambers. It’s not in mine.
So are the theme clues only across, or does Ramsgate, for instance, have anything to do?
I hadn’t caught on anyway, so thanks, Simon, for pointing it out.
As has been said, this was welcomely accessible after yesterday’s offering.
First 2 clues I looked at and got straight away were florence and nightingale, not much of a clue there then.
I think in Herbert it’s Herb + (Rob)ert Plant the lead singer.
You might well be right, Phil. That said, I suppose it could be a reference to Herb Robert. Either works for me, I think.
Thanks to Simon and all for the comments. I did intend Herb robert, but I like Phil’s take on it too, which almost works.
Quite by chance I needed to finish the clues to this while I was in Florence recently, which gives it a certain authenticity. It wasn’t until I researched this puzzle that I realised that Florence Nightingale was so called because she was born there, thus faring better than her older sister Parthenope, whose name hasn’t caught on in the same way 🙂
Lucky she wasn’t born in Ramsgate and no, I don’t know if there is any Florence Nightingale connection there, as all the (intentional) thematic material was in the acrosses. I had heard the word lamp meaning to strike (as in “someone tried to lamp Lampard”) – although it may not be that well known, it was irresistible in combination with light.
And (re: 25D) I’ve just realised that Orient are live on Sky Sports tonight (I bet that doesn’t happen very often) – both halves, though.
Shot down in flames by Eimi, bah. Like the put down “nearly works”! Of course all setters are scrupulously fair in the indy aren’t they? Wierd that I was on a train in ramsgate when I got ramsgate. At least I finished quickly today if even for the wrong reasons.
flashling. I have issues with your comment and have emailed you privately.
Thanks Simon.
I found this pretty easy and a bit of a disappointment after yesterdays tour de force from Nimrod.
Nothing wrong with the puzzle and I do understand that editors need to include puzzles of various degrees of difficulty.
A worthy theme I thought and I now know far more about Florence Nightingale tnan I did previously,having been spurred by this puzzle to add to my scanty knowledge of her.
Favoutite clues 24 across and two cracking anagrams 21 across and 18 down.
Watch out for the 2010 £2 coin commemorating the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s death and the 150th of “Notes on Nursing”. Don’t hold your breath, though – it was only last month I received the 2009 one featuring Darwin in change. Still waiting for the other 2009 £2 coin commemorating the 250th anniversary of Burns’ birth.
Thanks Gaufrid et al.
Just wondering…What do you call a word whose meaning remains the same (essentially) even after you add a letter at the end?
Sorry if my jokey reply was misinterpreted. I meant no offence. That’s the problem with purely text based conversations I suppose.
Flashling
Odd experience with this puzzle. I must have been tired or something because I got about half of it complete and was about to give up – not the sort of thing that happens to me with an eimi. Then I suddenly remembered hearing earlier in the day what anniversary was being commemorated, and finished the rest in about 2 minutes flat!
So … which one of you is ‘Phil’? Flashling?
Nuvva soopah Indy theme, right on the money, and some great clues. It reminded me, too, that I spent night in gale once. Good job I ‘ad me jumper on.
Yes I’m really a Phil as well as my pseudonym, don’t mind which you use.
As a side note I just graduated from Cambridge 25 years after I left, a minor administrative cock-up…
So: how come someone else here actually knows you? You haven’t been brave enough to turn up at a meet, shurely?
Actually I did attend the last sloggers and betters where I spent a while chatting to Eimi and a couple of others but couldn’t stay long.
Started very well and did half quite quickly then a brick wall.Didnt get 13a or 24a or 19d.Enjoyed it as I love anagrams!