Mev is a setter of Independent cryptics who is not seen very often.
All but one of Mev’s previous crosswords have had a theme or a Nina. When we get words like UPANISHADS in the grid, I reckon there must be something hidden in the grid that forces setters to use such a word as an entry. However, I can’t see any theme or message.
Not surprisingly UPANISHADS was my last entry, along with its crosser, PUNJAB. I had to do a bit of research to track down those two entries.
I still continue to learn new facts from crosswords and it’s always interesting to come across new words or geographical facts. I never knew that PUNJAB was known as the land of five rivers.
The grid is a Q short of a pangram.
I liked the quirkiness of the clue for EXPELLER.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 7 | Troubled by pitch of note and fade-out (4- 4)
TONE-DEAF (unable to appreciate or distinguish differences in musical pitch; troubled by pitch) Anagram of (out) NOTE and FADE TONE-DEAF* – is it just coincidence that the first half of the answer is an anagram of NOTE and the second half is an anagram of FADE? I can only see one anagram indicator, so I reckon it is a coincidence. |
| 9 | Short rocker shot in land of five rivers (6)
PUNJAB (an historic region, spanning both India and Pakistan, known as the ‘land of five rivers’) PUNk (reference punk rock; rocker) excluding the final letter (short) K + JAB (injection; a shot of medicine) PUN JAB |
| 10 | Dame from down under embraced by returning wanderer (4)
EDNA (reference the fictional Australian, Dame EDNA Everage, a character created by Barry Humphries (1934 – 2023), Australian comedian and actor) EDNA (reversed [returning] hidden word in [embraced by] wANDErer) EDNA< |
| 11 | See 19
[THE MAN] WHO KNEW TOO [MUCH] |
| 12 |
Recollections of Amber Moon raised so regularly (8) MEMORIES (recollections) MEMORIES (letters 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 [regularly] of aMbEr MoOn RaIsEd So) MEMORIES |
| 14 |
Cabbage stuffed with right herb (6) SAVORY (a flowering herb) SAVOY (type of cabbage) containing (stuffed with) R (right) SAVO (R) Y |
| 16 | Lecturer punches excellent boxer (3)
ALI (reference Muhammad ALI [1942 – 2016], American professional heavyweight boxer and activist) L (lecturer) contained in (punches) AI (A one; excellent) A (L) I |
| 17 | Schumann who scored with Charlie Croft? (5)
CLARA (reference CLARA Schumann [1819 – 1896], German pianist and composer) [someone who scored music] C (cocaine; Charlie) + LARA (reference the video game character LARA Croft) C LARA |
| 18 | Light was at the front (3)
LED (Light-Emitting Diode; a type of light) LED (was the leader; was at the front) double definition LED |
| 19/11/23D | Film of how hunk came to own meth supply (3,3,3,4,3,4)
THE MAN [WHO KNEW TOO MUCH] (1956 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock [1899 – 1980]) Anagram of (suppy, derived from supple) HOW HUNK CAME TO OWN METH THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH |
| 20 | Came back with plans we redrafted somewhat (8)
ANSWERED (responded; came back with) ANSWERED (hidden word in [somewhat] plANS WE REDrafted) ANSWERED |
| 22 | Giving the nod to hairdo: “appropriate, but not feminine” (10)
PERMITTING (giving the nod to) PERM (PERManent wave; hairdo) + fITTING (appropriate) excluding (but not) F (feminine) PERM ITTING |
| 25 | First, play the part of Simon Templar? (4)
BEST (first) BE (play the part of) + ST (Saint; The Saint is the nickname of the fictional character Simon Templar, featured in a series of novels and short stories by Leslie Charteris [1907 – 1993], published between 1928 and 1963) BE ST |
| 26 | Mineral in climate control system that’s initially adjusted to opposite extreme (6)
ZIRCON (a mineral) AIRCON (air-conditioner, a climate control system) with the first letter (initially) A changed to (adjusted to] Z (the last letter of the alphabet, the opposite extreme of the alphabet to the first letter A) to form ZIRCON ZIRCON |
| 27 | One ejecting vocal person now saying “t-w-i-t-t-e-r” seven times faster? (8)
EXPELLER (one ejecting something) The social media platform TWITTER (seven letters) has been renamed X (one letter) so an ‘ex speller’ (homophone of EXPELLER) would now spell the name of the platform seven times faster EXPELLER |
| Down | |
| 1 | Bit of fennel on outstanding dish (6)
FONDUE (I’m aware of two types of FONDUE – firstly, a Swiss dish, consisting of cheese melted in white wine or cider, into which small pieces of bread are dipped and then eaten. Alternatively, it can be a dish consisting of small cubes of meat cooked at the table on forks in hot oil and served with piquant sauces) F (first letter of [bit of] Fennel) + ON + DUE (of a bill, outstanding) F ON DUE |
| 2 | Police force briefly ban Miles’ organic processes (10)
METABOLISM (The sum total of the chemical processes that occur in living organisms, resulting in growth, production of energy, elimination of waste material, etc) MET (abbreviated reference to the METropolitan police force in London) + ABOLISh (ban) excluding the final letter H (briefly) + M (miles) MET ABOLIS M |
| 3 | Overtures of moggy’s emission of wailing call (4)
MEOW (one of the spellings of a word describing the call of a cat) MEOW (first letter of [overtures of] each of Moggy’s, Emission Of and Wailing) – the clue could also be interpreted as n & Lit. M E O W |
| 4 | Sacred texts in animated movie promos cut by Kapoor (10)
UPANISHADS (Sanskrit theosophic or philosophical treatises) (UP [an animated movie released in 2009] + ADS [ADvertisements; promotions; promos]) containing (cut by) ANISH (reference ANISH Kapoor [born 1954], British sculptor) UP (ANISH) ADS |
| 5 | Worry comedian Phil’s doing a headstand (4)
GNAW (worry) WANG (reference Phil WANG [born 1990], Malaysian-British comedian and regular panelist on many TV shows) reversed (doing a headstand; down entry) GNAW< |
| 6 | Preferred Basset to ring a very old university (8)
FAVOURED (preferred) FRED (reference the cartoon strip FRED Basset which was originally published in The Daily Mail from 1963. After the death of the creator Alex Graham in 1993, the strip was taken over by Arran Keith and Michael Martin in 1993. The strip appears today in The Mail on Sunday) containing (to ring) (A + V [very] + O [old] + U [university]) F (A V O U) RED |
| 8 | Ridiculous poser dials oaf in happy state of ignorance (5,8)
FOOLS PARADISE (a state of happiness based on fictitious hopes or expectations; a happy state of ignorance) Anagram of (ridiculous) POSER DIALS OAF FOOL‘S PARADISE* |
| 13 | Wayward prisoner locked up by Mo (10)
INCONSTANT (erratic; wayward) CON (prisoner) contained in (locked up by) INSTANT (moment; mo) IN (CON) STANT |
| 15 | Lovely twirling dance competition, on the beach perhaps (10)
VOLLEYBALL (a game [competition] that can be played on the beach. Beach volleyball is an Olympic sport) Anagram of (twisting) LOVELY + BALL (dance) VOLLEY* BALL |
| 16 | By empty hall, reference backflipping Sporty (8)
ATHLETIC (sporty) AT (beside; by) + HL (letters remaining in HalL when the central letters AL are removed [empty]) + CITE (reference) reversed (backflipping) AT HL ETIC< |
| 21 | European flower festival (6)
EASTER (religious festival) E (European) + ASTER ( a flower) E ASTER |
| 23 | See 19 Across 24
[THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO] MUCH |
| 24 |
Wondrous stare from good monkey (4) GAPE (a wondrous open-mouthed stare) G (good) + APE (monkey) – I expect there will be solvers with better knowledge than me saying that monkeys are not apes, as there seem to be significant differences between the species G APE |
Liked TONE-DEAF (took it as ‘note out and fade out’ though not sure that was intended), ZIRCON, EXPELLER (Agree with the blogger’s comment), FOOLS PARADISE and INCONSTANT.
UPANISHADS
Read a few of them (translations) and heard several lectures on them. However, did not know Anish Kapoor.
PUNJAB
The word is a combination of Panj (five) and Aab (water).
Thanks Mev and duncan!
Wouldn’t have parsed EXPELLER in a month of Sundays and still don’t really get it. With Simon Templar, Fred Bassett and The Man Who Knew Too Much, Mev is certainly testing our contemporary knowledge! Then again, Up and Phil Wang do balance things out a bit. ZIRCON is a neat idea and was a nice spot by the compiler.
Thanks both
A very crafty puzzle from Mev, and a blog to match its quality, from duncan.
It was a case of “The Man Who Knew Too Little”, from me, when it came to UPANISHADS and PUNJAB, not helped by me mentally confusing Nish Kumar with Anish Kapoor. Doh!
There’s a cracking variety of devices, and arch definitions, plus impressive originality: I loved it.
ZIRCON vs AIRCON ! genius.
Hats off and both thumbs up, Mev & duncan
Postmark@2
EXPELLER
Your post has made me rethink …
Is it ‘X Speller’ rather than ‘Ex Speller’?
Vocal is the soundalike indicator.
Person saying t-w-i…(an indication that the word is spelt and not just said): SPELLER
twitter seven times faster —>X (the ‘now’ is to be attached to twitter rather
than to the speller).
X SPELLER
I liked EXPELLER as parsed in the blog and elucidated by KVa. New and old technology on the bottom row with the Aircon and the Excelsior.
Re the TWITTER clue, here’s a thing that always confuses me, viz, “seven times faster”.
If I drive at 10mph, then speed up to 70mph, I’m going faster by 60mph, ( 6 x 10mph). So, isn’t that ” six times faster” ?
When I twigged expeller I suspected the blog might have comments about it, nice puzzle that I found much easier than most MEV crosswords for some reason.
Thanks DS and MEV
ENB I think you are confusing a 7-fold increase with a straight ratio. If I travel at 70 mph, I am going 7 times faster than someone travelling at 10 mph. If, however, I increase my speed from 10 mph to 70mph, I only increase it by 600 per cent.
Sussex Swimmer.
This grid was seeded with EDNA CLARA BEST, who was in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, but there’s no other theme. (There’s a web site dedicated to her at https://www.ednabest.co.uk ). I thought about making it a pangram by changing the 3-letter lights in the middle row to QADI and LADY, but with the probably lesser-known UPANISHADS (and maybe PUNJAB and ZIRCON) already there, it was perhaps kinder not to.
Yes “X”, not “Ex” for the homophone, as per KVa@4.
Yes the note>TONE and fade>DEAF separation was coincidental.
Underlined definitions in 2d & 17a should be “organic processes” and “Schumann who scored”.
Re the surface of 17a, I wondered if there were sportspeople called Schumann and Charlie Croft who might have scored together. I found Charlie Croft and Georg Schumann, whose careers *might just* have crossed over, and without further details to check, I’m going to choose to think that they did. 😉
Thank you to Duncan for the blog, and everyone who’s solved/commented so far.
Thought Upanishads immediately, but had absy no idea how. Kapoor? Hmm, cricketer maybe? And didn’t remember the movie (not a Hitch fan, saw The Birds …boring). So a bit of bung and whatev, but thx Mev and duncan.
Petert@8 aha, but that’s my point(ish)…at 70mph you are going (seven times the speed) of someone at 10mph; it is an increase of 600%, so plus 6 times of the original speed, which is the quantum of “faster”.
I do get it, and I do appreciate your reply, and you are doubtlessly correct.
I just have my doubts when it comes to advertising…… “3 times more chocolate than our rival”. So is that , their chocolate x 3, or their chocolate x 4?
[ENB: your tribulations remind me of Robert F Kennedy’s recent miscalculations of percentage increases and decreases! Apparently, it is the New Math favoured in the White House these days]
A very enjoyable puzzle from Mev – I particularly liked the bottom row of ZIRCON and EXPELLER
NHO UPANISHADS but knew it had Anish in it somewhere and the checking letters I had helped me position it, so I just had to think of a 2-letter animated film (I thought of ET first as that’s the crossword setter’s favourite film but obviously that’s not animated) and a synonym of ‘promos’ to put around it
I got stuck on PUNJAB as I was thinking of a country rather than a region – I did think of ‘punk’ without the last letter but I dismissed it which I shouldn’t have done
Last thing – the clue for EASTER should be banned as I must’ve seen it several times in the last month or so!
Thanks Mev and Duncan
Thanks both. Lacking quite a bit of the GK I’m afraid, so ultimately took to researching Kapoors for the nho UPANISHADS. THE MAN WHO….was before my time and also unknown, though guessable if a 20-letter anagram is ever so. To add to the EXPELLER debate, as the clue uses ‘saying’ does the three-syllable’w’ render the maths inaccurate?
Me@5 I have just noticed that the dreaded spell checker has converted Expelair to Excelsior making my already whimsical comment meaningless.
Peter @15: productive text.
Great stuff. Enjoyed EXPELLER, ZIRCON and TMWKTM. There are an awful lot of films beginning ‘the man’ which didn’t help with my deliberations once the first two words were obvious.
Thanks MeV and Duncan
Thanks Mev and duncanshiell. Got to this late, missed a couple, but I just wanted to say I enjoyed this crossword, especially THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.