This week’s Spectator blog covers Obit VIII by Pabulum.
This puzzle continues a series of puzzles celebrating the life of someone who has recently died, or the life of someone whose death was a significant number of years previously.
The preamble told us that “In February, a noted 1A, 6A and 36A left us. His name (two words) is an anagram of 23A/7D (both real words). 39A and 21D/17D cryptically suggest the titles (one of six words, the other of two words) of two of his best known works.”
I solved this puzzle fairly steadily with the unclued lights of 1a – COMPOSER, 6a – SINGER and 36a – PIANIST being deducible about halfway through. The remaining unclued lights took a bit longer to fall, but finally resolved themselves as 23a – LEEK, 39a – DHOOTIS, 7d – NAIADS, 21d – ABOUT and 17d – YOU. I had to look up DHOOTIS to check that it was a valid word and found that it means ‘Hindu loincloths’.
Plugging these words back into the preamble, it now reads: “In February, a noted COMPOSER, SINGER and PIANIST left us. His name (two words) is an anagram of LEEK / NAIADS (both real words). DHOOTIS and ABOUT / YOU cryptically suggest the titles (one of six words, the other of two words) of two of his best known works.”
The puzzle therefore is a tribute to the American singer / songwiriter NEIL SEDAKA* – (LEEK NAIADS). SEDAKA was born on 13th March 1939 and died on 27th February 2026.
SEDAKA wrote many songs, one of which I can relate to DHOOTIS, which is an anagram of IS H [hard] TO and DO. Using Breaking as an Anagram indicator, we can see that ‘Breaking up is hard to do‘ is one of the referenced well-known works.
I am not sure how ‘ABOUT YOU relates to any of SEDAKA’s best-known two-word titles. I have found The Diary, Little Devil, Calendar Girl, Oh! Carol and Bad Blood but I can’t really see how ABOUT YOU describes any of them. SEDAKA also wrote for other singers, and possible two-word titles in this category are Puppet Man and Stupid Cupid. I will be interested to see what title the setter, Pabulum, had in mind.
There is an eclectic mix of people mentioned in the clues and the answers. I noted Coco [Chanel or ‘the Clown’?], Abraham Lincoln, Boris Yeltsin, Dean Martin, the Venerable Bede, Keir Starmer and Molly Malone. That group of people would make an entertaining dinner party.
There is a Carol also in the clues, but I note Carole King, who worked with SEDAKA, spells her forename differently
There are a couple of entries that I could not find in dictionaries but I managed to track them down online. STERNINAE are terns and TUSILE is a very new communication and social networking application.
The reference to Starmer as PM highlights the potential problems that can result from using the names of living people in the clues. It won’t be long before he becomes a former PM.
I enjoyed this, so thanks to Pabulum.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | COMPOSER |
| 6 | SINGER |
| 12 | Archly Coco revels in mob rule (10)
OCHLOCRACY (mob rule) Anagram of (revels) ARCHLY COCO OCHLOCRACY* |
| 13 | Turbulent poet’s hurt, needled by Isaiah (5)
NOISY (turbulent) NOY (Spenserian [poet’s] word for ‘to hurt’) containing (needled by) IS (Isaiah) NO (IS) Y |
| 14 | Melanesian capital backing American and Algerian music theatre (7)
HONIARA (capital city of the Solomon Islands which form part of Melanesia) (A [American] + RAI [a modern, North African {Algerian} form of popular music] + NOH [a form of Japanese theatre]) all reversed (backing) (HON IAR A)< |
| 15 | Illiterate soldier crosses sacred river beside Lincoln (10)
ANALPHABET (ignorant of the alphabet; illiterate) ANT (reference a soldier ANT) containing (crosses) (ALPH [the mythical sacred river described in the poem Kubla Khan by the English poet Samuel Coleridge Taylor [1772 – 1834] + ABE (reference Abraham [ABE] Lincoln [1809 – 1865], the sixteenth American President) AN (ALPH ABE) T) |
| 16 | Old president breeds young pigs in principle (7)
YELTSIN (reference Boris YELTSIN [1931 – 2007], Russian President from 1991 to 1999) ELTS (young sows [pigs]) contained in (in) YIN (one of the two opposing and complementary principles of Chinese philosophy, religion, medicine, etc.) – I think the word ‘breeds’ is included in the clue to make the surface sensible. Y (ELTS) IN |
| 20 | Martin that sang in small valley (4)
DEAN (a small valley) DEAN (reference DEAN Martin [1919 – 1995], American singer) double definition DEAN |
| 22 | Painted lots with red and grey (7)
OLDSTER (a senior; a grey person) Anagram of (painted) LOTS and [with] RED OLDSTER* |
| 23 | LEEK |
| 24 | Theologian breaking laws rouges coarsely (7)
RUDDLES (rouges coarsely) DD (Doctor of Divinity [theologian]) contained in (breaking) RULES (laws) RU (DD) LES |
| 26 | Tell what happens after close election (7)
RECOUNT (narrate or relate a story; tell) RECOUNT (a RECOUNT of votes occurs after a close election result, to check the result is accurate) double definition RECOUNT |
| 30 | Grand curry for eats (4)
GRUB (food; eats) G (grand) + RUB (CURRY is an equestrian term meaning to RUB down and groom a horse) G RUB |
| 31 | A silent interchange (7)
PERMUTE (to interchnae or change the order of) PER (a) + MUTE (silent) PER MUTE |
| 34 | Unusual caribou spit when caught (4)
REIN (a rare [unusual] term for the North American caribou, which is a variety of REINdeer) REIN (sounds like [when caught] RAIN [to spit]) REIN |
| 36 | PIANIST |
| 38 | Britons enmeshing large lax (10)
ENGLISHMEN (Britons) Anagram of (lax) ENMESHING and L (large) ENGLISHMEN* |
| 39 | DHOOTIS |
| 40 | Art museum in favour of framing poster? (5)
PRADO (Art museum in Madrid, Spain) PRO (in favour of) containing (framing) AD (ADvertisement [poster]) PR (AD) O |
| 41 | Female top celebs I see like Bede (10)
ANNALISTIC (the Venerable Bede [born 735] was a noted author and annalist [he compiled historical annals to help him write an Ecclesiastical History of the English people) ANN (name for a female) + A-LIST (the current ‘list’ of top celebrities that everyone wants a piece of) + I + C (see) ANN ALIST I C |
| 42 | Immediately overwhelmed by very Scottish goddess (6)
ATHENE (Greek goddess of wisdom) THEN (immediately) contained in (overwhelmed by) AE (Scottish term for ‘very’) A (THEN) E |
| 43 | Drugs from dime stores leaving me zonked (8)
STEROIDS (drugs) Anagram of (zonked) DIme STORES excluding (leaving) ME STEROIDS* |
| Down | |
| 2 | Came across old dynamo outside: it’s in the car (8)
ODOMETER (an instrument for measuring the distance travelled by a wheeled vehicle; it’s in the car) (O [old] + DOER [someone who does things could be considered to be a dynamo]) containing (outside) MET (came across) O DO (MET) ER |
| 3 | Huge stone walls set in place (5)
POSIT (set in place) PIT (stone in a fruit) containing (walls) OS (outside; huge) P (OS) IT |
| 4 | Radiant Carol guzzles about twelve pints (7)
SHINING (radiant) SING (to carol) containing (guzzles) HIN (a Hebrew liquid measure containing about four or six English quarts [twelve pints]) S (HIN) ING |
| 5 | Low grade men led by English lady (7)
ELEANOR (name of a lady) E (English) + LEAN (low-graded item) + OR (other ranks; men) E LEAN OR |
| 6 | Chum supporting Scot short of linguistic range (6)
SCOPAL (linguistic term referring to scope; of linguistic range) SCOt excluding the final letter (short) T + PAL (friend; chum) – as this is a down entry, the letters PAL are positioned below and therefore ‘support’ the letters SCO SCO PAL |
| 7 | NAIADS |
| 8 | Historical journeys take in sights (5)
EYRES (historical term, for a journey or a circuit of judges) R (recipe, Latin for take) contained in (in) EYES (sights) EY (R) ES |
| 9 | New assignment involved traitor in Bute (13)
REATTRIBUTION (new assignment) Anagram of (involving) TRAITOR IN BUTE REATTRIBUTION* |
| 10 | Liberal ecole and I pay $100 for reference book (13)
ENCYCLOPAEDIA (reference book) Anagram of (liberal) ECOLE AND I PAY and C ($100 in North American slang) ENCYCLOPAEDIA* |
| 11 | Derek’s troubled about sickly plovers (9)
KILLDEERS (large American ring-necked plovers) Anagram of (troubled) DEREKS containing (about) ILL K (ILL) DEERS* |
| 17 | YOU |
| 18 | Small bat needing a little push to go off (5)
ADDLE (become rotten; go off) pADDLE (small bat) excluding (needing … to go off) P (first letter of [a little bit of] Push) ADDLE |
| 19 | Seabirds back in Aden now and then (9)
STERNINAE (terns; seabirds) STERN (back [of a ship]) + IN + AE (letters 1 and 3 [now and then] of AdEn) STERN IN AE |
| 21 | ABOUT |
| 25 | Special buddies swimming sank (8)
SUBSIDED (sank) S (special) + an anagram of (swimming) BUDDIES S UBSIDED* |
| 27 | Rarely tidy hair barrister cut off (3)
NET (rare word for trim, neat, tidy) barNET (a hairstyle) excluding (cut off) BAR (barrister) NET |
| 28 | Pole (tall) and Starmer in brown (7)
TOPMAST (the second mast, or that immediately above the lower mast; tall pole) PM (Keir Starmer is still filling the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when this blog is published) contained in (in) TOAST (to brown) TO (PM) AST |
| 29 | Port sorrowful earl imbibed (7)
TRIESTE (port city in North Eastern Italy) TRISTE (archaic word meaning sorrowful) containing (imbibed) E (Earl) TRI (E) STE |
| 32 | Chap keeps close to sweet barrow girl (6)
MALONE (reference Sweet Molly MALONE who wheeled her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow, crying Cockles and Mussels alive, alive- oh) MALE (chap) containing (keeps) ON (close to) MAL (ON) E |
| 33 | Ugliest drunk deleting good communication app (6)
TUSILE (a very new communication and social networking app, officially launched in May 2026) Anagram of (drunk) UgLIEST excluding (deleting ) G (good) TUSILE* |
| 35 | Haunt Barking, show respect (5)
UNHAT (take one’s HAT off; show respect) Anagram of (barking) HAUNT UNHAT* |
| 37 | Maybe sergeant arrests Arabian agent (5)
NARCO (US slang for a narcotics agent) NCO (Non-commissioned Officer. A Sergeant is an example of an NCO) containing (arrests) AR (Arabian) N (AR) CO |