A surprisingly approachable offering from Gemelo this week.
See Matthew@1 regarding the theme, which I missed completely.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PRINCESS |
Slate size of incorporated jam sandwiches (8)
|
| PRESS (jam) around (sandwiches) INC. (incorporated) | ||
| 7 | BOFF |
Slug born into freedom (4)
|
| B (born) + OFF (into freedom) | ||
| 10 | PENNON |
Founder of US state directed towards flag (6)
|
| [William] PENN (founder of US state) + ON (directed towards) | ||
| 11 | STRIPE |
Bar succeeded with moonshine (6)
|
| S (succeeded) + TRIPE (moonshine) | ||
| 12 | ACCRETE |
Join network, needing preliminary acceptance (7)
|
| ACC. (acceptance) + RETE (network), with “needing preliminary” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 14 | ILIA |
Long story short, they’re found in skeletons (4)
|
| ILIA[D] (long story) minus last letter (short) | ||
| 16 | RUNDLES |
Rotten scoundrel not taking care of discs (7)
|
| Anagram of (rotten) S[CO]UNDREL minus (not taking) C/O (care of) | ||
| 17 | MISER |
Scrooge? It’s boring (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 21 | AFFRONTED |
Did insult offend tar at sea? (9)
|
| Anagram of (at sea) OFFEND TAR | ||
| 22 | EEL-SPEARS |
Tools for catching fish; else fresh fruit (9)
|
| Anagram of (fresh) ELSE + PEARS (fruit) | ||
| 26 | NERDY |
Socially inept mass losing head in big city (5)
|
| [H]ERD (mass) minus first letter (losing head) inside (in) NY (big city) | ||
| 28 | SPRAINT |
Otter’s dropping fish; keeping cool (7)
|
| SPRAT (fish) around (keeping) IN (cool) | ||
| 30 | A FEW |
Some restrained by safe word (4, 2 words)
|
| Hidden in (restrained by) [S]AFE W[ORD] | ||
| 31 | GOODMEN |
Husbands no longer extend warning about daughter (7)
|
| GO (extend) + {OMEN (warning) around (about) D (daughter)}, listed in Chambers as “archaic,” thus “no longer” | ||
| 32 | NUTLET |
New means of expression, having lost first stone (6)
|
| N (new) + [O]UTLET (means of expression) minus first letter (having lost first) | ||
| 33 | RAVINE |
Engineers welcoming – after changing bit – Avon Gorge (6)
|
| RE (engineers) around (welcoming) {AV[O]N changing O to I (after changing bit)}, the reference being to the binary digit of computers, which switches between 0 (O) and 1 (I) | ||
| 34 | DISS |
Mock Constantine’s grass (4)
|
| Double definition, the latter referring to the third-largest city in Algeria, after Algiers and Oran | ||
| 35 | RISPETTO |
11 converted to Italian folk song (8)
|
| Anagram of (converted) STRIPE ([solution to] 11[A]) + TO | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | RECLINER |
Take ship’s chair (8)
|
| REC. (take) + LINER (ship) | ||
| 3 | INCUS |
One group of students burying canine’s bone (5)
|
| I + {NUS (group of students) around (burying) C (canine)} | ||
| 4 | COED |
School of fish preserving energy (4)
|
| COD (fish) around (preserving) E (energy) | ||
| 5 | ENTRY FEE |
Watch faceless fairy, ready to come in? (8, 2 words)
|
| [S]ENTRY (watch) minus first letter (faceless) + FÉE (fairy), with “ready” in the sense of “money” | ||
| 6 | STINKO |
Right idiots, rolling drunk (6)
|
| {OK (right) + NITS (idiots)} all inverted (rolling) | ||
| 7 | BRIDE |
Wait outside possibly reading The Woman in White? (5)
|
| BIDE (wait) around (outside) R (possibly reading, in the sense of “the three R’s”) | ||
| 8 | OILLETS |
Painting suffers small holes out of use (7)
|
| OIL (painting) + LETS (suffers), listed in Chambers as “an obsolete form of eyelet,” thus “out of use” | ||
| 9 | FEAST-DAYS |
Primarily faith-based dates, say, to make merry (9)
|
| &lit and anagram of (to make merry) {first letter of (primarily) F[AITH-BASED] + DATES + SAY} | ||
| 13 | RHEA |
Birdbrain lacking help from wings? (4)
|
| &lit and [AI]RHEA[D] (birdbrain) minus (lacking) AID (help) from around the outside (from wings). A very tight clue. | ||
| 15 | AMPERSAND |
What connects, briefly, French physicist & French novelist? (9)
|
| &lit and [André-Marie] AMPÈR[E] (French physicist) minus last letter (briefly) + [George] SAND (French novelist), with the two parts of the wordplay also literally connected by the symbol “&” | ||
| 18 | TRAITORS |
Stroke, roughly, tailless rats (8)
|
| TRAIT (stroke) + OR S[O] (roughly) minus last letter (tailless) | ||
| 19 | HEAD RENT |
Disciple dropping ad revenue for property owner (8, 2 words)
|
| ADHERENT (disciple) moving the letters AD down two places (dropping ad) | ||
| 20 | FLORETS |
Leftovers scrambled without skin from vegetable, maybe some broccoli (7)
|
| Anagram of (scrambled) LEFTO[VE]RS minus (without) outside letters of (skin from) V[EGETABL]E | ||
| 23 | PRIMER |
E.g. 101, right? (6)
|
| &lit and PRIME (e.g. 101, i.e., a prime number) + R (right), “101” also being the customary designation for an introductory-level university course | ||
| 24 | SEED |
Understood non-standard first principle (4)
|
| Double definition, the first listed in Chambers as “non-standard or dialect” for the past tense of “see” | ||
| 25 | BAWLS |
Screechers dropping resistance with no loud cries (5)
|
| BA[RN O]WLS (screechers) minus (dropping) {R (resistance) + NO} | ||
| 27 | REMIT |
What might happen when sleeping with Italian, in brief (5)
|
| REM (what might happen when sleeping) + IT. (Italian) | ||
| 29 | SOAP |
Nothing found in drain cleaner (4)
|
| O (nothing) inside (found in) SAP (drain) |
I didn’t notice until after I had finished solving that this puzzle is a tribute to the recently deceased director ROB REINER who appears in the eighth row and the grid also contains the titles three of his films: (The) PRINCESS BRIDE, MISERY and A FEW GOOD MEN. There is a backwards THE abutting the end of BRIDE which I didn’t count, but I hope I didn’t miss anything else.
It took me a while to understand the clue to RHEA and I didn’t fully appreciate the clues to FEAST-DAYS and AMPERSAND until I was checking I had understood everything at the end . I thought for a while that 25d must be HOWLS which meant I had trouble working out 28a. I suppose if I had spotted the theme earlier it would have been obvious that 25d had to start with a B.
Thanks, Cineraria and Gemelo.
Thanks for the blog , RAVINE was clever with the switch of letters and FEASTDAYS was very neat . Not sure that RHEA works , the wordplay is good but I do not see a definiton . PRIMER was obvious but I have never seen this use of 101 , is it US ?
So we have tributes and Ninas , I really hope this series is not going to get like the Guardian crossword . Just write some hard clues .
Roz@2: A RHEA being a flightless bird, I thought this clue was very good, as I noted. 101 in the sense of “an introduction to . . .” is a common usage in the US. The Wikipedia article on 101 reports that this usage is listed in the OED.
Thanks Cineraria but the clue says Birdbrain which in my Chambers93 does not mean a bird .
Special mention to RAVINE, FEAST-DAYS, AMPERSAND and PRIMER.
RHEA would have been my fave if the ‘birdbrain’ bit had properly fitted
the def (as pointed out by Roz@2).
Great blog. Thanks Cineraria.
I also thought BAWLS was very good and accurate , the barn owls are screechers , the tawny are hooters .
In the end, I got stuck on the bottom left on Sunday night and didn’t get back to it.
I thought Birdbrain was ok; it’s not in my Chambers ’98 (only bird-brained), so I’m happy to accept that a bird is a birdbrain. I also liked the clue for AMPERSAND. Generally, I found this pretty accessible.
Roz@2 – what are Ninas?
From the FAQ:
What is a Nina?
A Nina is a message (or theme words etc) hidden in the grid, sometimes round the perimeter, sometimes along a diagonal or sometimes in the unchecked squares in a particular row or column (or more than one of each). Its name is derived from the American cartoonist Al Hirschfeld’s habit of hiding his daughter’s name, Nina, in his cartoons.
Thanks, Andrew. I’d heard of the cartoonist, though I couldn’t have named him and I certainly couldn’t have named his daughter!
This puzzle was fine, although I didn’t spot the Nina. Today’s is simply annoying. As Roz says above, just good hard clues, and fewer gimmicks, please.
I completely missed the hidden theme! It was entertaining to solve as usual but PRIMER was a bit unfair given that the definition of 101 is US only (and not in Chambers).
Just a personal observation, I’m finding that Gemelo and Everyman often have the same type of clues. Azed was always distinctly different.