A Monday morning workout from Longitude
Who, as far as I can see, is a fairly new setter for the Independent, and whose debut last month was very well received. I certainly found this a most enjoyable solve, with some really well-worked surfaces. There are some slightly off-piste definitions in play here (I’m thinking of CYCLING MACHINE, TOWER BRIDGE, TEATIME, NIMBI, to name a few) but they’re done with verve and humour and are supported by clear wordplay. I have a couple of minor quibbles and queries here and there, but absolutely nothing to complain about. My favourites are OARSMAN, PLUTONIUM, STOIC and YOUNGER. Lovely stuff, many thanks to Longitude.
Moh’s unarguably scientific cruciverbal hardness scale rating: Calcite
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SAYONARA |
Farewell remark respecting a Royal Academician (8)
|
| SAY (remark) + ON (respecting) + A RA (a Royal Academician) | ||
| 5 | OPEN A I |
Heading to Oxford with writer – excellent company for a chat? (4,1,1)
|
| O[xford] + PEN + AI (A1) | ||
| 10 | OARSMAN |
Wrestling a Roman over leadership of Senate, he pulls a blade (7)
|
| Anagram (wrestling) of A ROMAN around S[enate] | ||
| 11 | INANEST |
Superlatively silly – like a cuckoo? (7)
|
| You may well find a cuckoo IN A NEST, just not one of its parents’ making. Our poor meadow pipits are very put upon by them | ||
| 12 | CABRIOLET |
Roughly dash with rental car (9)
|
| CA (circa, roughly) + BRIO (style, élan, dash) + LET (rental) | ||
| 13 | TAE-BO |
Moving tongue, get shoe ready for exercise (3-2)
|
| Soundalike (moving tongue) of “tie bow” (get shoe ready) | ||
| 14 | WAR |
Award stripped for opposition to peace (3)
|
| Middle letters (stripped) of [a]WAR[d] | ||
| 15 | TOWER BRIDGE |
Grow tired and be remarkably crosser with tourists in London (5,6)
|
| Anagram (remarkably) of GROW TIRED BE | ||
| 17 | WASHER-DRYER |
Second member of gym gets her drawers in a twist over cycling machine (6-5)
|
| Anagram (in a twist) of [g]Y[m] HER DRAWERS | ||
| 20 | VIP |
Somebody demanding sixpence? (1,1,1)
|
| VI (six) + P | ||
| 21 | AVOID |
Eager to gather round duck (5)
|
| AVID around (to gather) O (round) | ||
| 23 | PLUTONIUM |
Lear’s beginning to enter stage and I’m keeping close to you – powerful stuff (9)
|
| L[ear] inside (to enter) PUT ON (to stage) + I’M (from surface) around (keeping) [yo]U (close to you) | ||
| 26 | TEATIME |
End of bottle – setter’s last in store for drinking session? (7)
|
| TEAT (one end of a baby’s bottle) + I’M (again) + [stor]E | ||
| 27 | GLASSES |
In the end, disbelieving kids – you can see right through them (7)
|
| Last letter (in the end) of [disbelievin]G + LASSES. “Right” as in “properly” rather than “directly”, though either would work | ||
| 28 | RATTLE |
Rodent let out, causing alarm (6)
|
| RAT + anagram (out) of LET | ||
| 29 | CRASHPAD |
Bunk with Bill, welcoming quiet place to sleep (8)
|
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STOIC |
Person staying cool thanks to ice packs (5)
|
| Hidden (packs) in thankS TO ICe | ||
| 2 | YARDBIRDS |
Americans behind bars try bottles right on top of shelf after measure of ale (9)
|
| YARD (measure of ale, a somewhat distant memory from the 70s, if you ask me) + insertion (bottles) of R (right) inside BID (try) + S (top of shelf). One of the things that used to make me extremely miserable in my hacking days was the use of the word “bid” to mean try, attempt, effort. On the rare occasions that I had any power over such things, this usage was streng verboten. I acknowledge now that this was a losing battle | ||
| 3 | NIMBI |
Sky Group withdrawing health measure covered by National Insurance (5)
|
| Reversal (withdrawing) of BMI (body mass index, so health measure) inside (covered by) NI (national insurance). Sky Group is rather cute definition | ||
| 4 | RUNS LOW |
Gets empty urn out steadily (4,3)
|
| Anagram (out) of URN + SLOW (steadily). I’m not sure slow=steadily. Aside from being different parts of speech, steadiness implies nothing about speed, only consistency of pace | ||
| 6 | PLASTERER |
Tradesperson alerts rep after restructure (9)
|
| Anagram (after restructure) of ALERTS REP | ||
| 7 | NIECE |
Earl received by respectable relative (5)
|
| Insertion (received by) of E inside NICE | ||
| 8 | IN TOO DEEP |
Overwhelmed by loving lines, extended play (2,3,4)
|
| INTO (loving) + ODE (lines) + EP | ||
| 9 | GIFTER |
Emergency room supporting soldier with organ donor (6)
|
| ER after (supporting) GI + FT (Financial Times, so organ) | ||
| 14 | WOW FACTOR |
Special effect Oscar accepted by WWF performer (3,6)
|
| O (Oscar in the Nato alphabet) inside (accepted by) WWF + ACTOR | ||
| 15 | TREADMILL |
Tired mall playing Road to Nowhere? (9)
|
| Anagram (playing) of TIRED MALL | ||
| 16 | DIVVIES UP |
Contests settled after recording rising shares (7,2)
|
| VIES (contests) + UP (settled) after reversal (rising) of VID (video, recording). It’s too early in the morning for me to see how up=settled here. Paid up/settled up are fine, but “up” by itself? Suggestions on a postcard, please | ||
| 18 | DAPPER |
Smartly-dressed salesperson home, laid up (6)
|
| Reversal (laid up) of REP + PAD | ||
| 19 | YOUNGER |
Comfy on the bottom, chair for sunbathing topless is comparatively new (7)
|
| [comf]Y + [l]OUNGER (chair for sunbathing topless) | ||
| 22 | OP ART |
Dynamic pieces of trap start to open up (2,3)
|
| Reversal (up) of TRAP + O[pen] | ||
| 24 | OVALS |
Figures out values and leaves Sotheby’s at the opening (5)
|
| Initial letters (at the opening) of Out Values And Leaves Sotheby’s | ||
| 25 | MUSED |
Considered problem raised by editor (5)
|
| Reversal (raised) of SUM (problem) + ED |
Took me some time to get TEATIME and had to check TAE-BO was a thing. I assume you put ‘again’ in 26a as I’M also appears in previous clue. I tend to jump around solving (not literally) so didn’t notice. I agree with most of your quibbles.
Thanks Longitude and moh.
Except one, I agree with all your quibbles/queries.
RUNS LOW
SLOW could be an adverb as in ‘go slow’. Is my understanding correct?
up has a sense of finished/over, but settled might have a similar sense
in some contexts, but not sure these two words are interchangeable.
I was in a bit of a rush when I wrote my comment @1 and KVa has said some of the things I was going to. UP is listed as meaning SETTLED in the sense of ‘over’ in Chambers thesaurus. I guess phrases like ‘the jig is up’ means that it is settled/over. Not sure about SLOW as an adverb. I would say ‘go slowly’ for ‘go steadily’ (although I agree that ‘steadily’ doesn’t really equate). ‘Go slow’ as a phrase has a different connotation with respect to action short of a strike.
Re CRASHPAD, to avoid that ‘same-sideyness’ the “quiet” is the SH rather than the P? Thanks Longitude & moh 🙂
Oh! bunk=CRAP instead of CRASH?
Hovis@3
I find that most dictionaries list ‘slow’ as both adjective and adverb.
‘Drive slow’ is a road sign we come across at many places.
Maybe the adverbial usage of slow has certain restrictions compared
to slowly.
Thanks cranberryfez, that’s much better – blog amended.
KVa, I agree that slow is often used as an adverb (though I don’t much like it), but even so, my other quibble about the equivalence between slow and steady remains.
Thanks for the blog, miserableoldhack – and the quibbles of course!
Glad cranberryfez @4 spotted the alternative parse for CRASHPAD – I can see how the P might lead you down another route.
A lot of very cunning wordplays and misdirection, and an impressive puzzle, but ( like others) I did seem to have a lot of quibbles on precision.
But, based on overall quality, Longitude gets some latitude.
I didn’t like, OPEN A I, at 5(ac), but that’s probably my lack of gk; the TOWER BRIDGE construction was not as good as others.
Overall, good stuff, witty and original.
Big thanks, Longitude and, the very early, moh.
(And cranberryfez…I had that parsing awry, too.)