Some tricky clueing here, as one would expect, including a couple of rather unconventional structures. Thanks to Vlad for the challenge.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | SHOP TILL YOU DROP | Threat to informer? (4,4,3,4) A play on “shop” meaning to betray, inform one; there’s no definition of the phrase in its usual sense |
||||||
| 9 | LOBSTER | Throw back nameless catch at sea (7) LOB (throw) + STERN (back) less N |
||||||
| 10 | RESCIND | Withdraw having committed a further offence as reported (7) Sounds like “re-sinned” |
||||||
| 11 | DOT | Newton going, ‘You shouldn’t point!’ (3) DON’T (you shouldn’t) less N (newton, SI unit of force) |
||||||
| 12 | ON CLOUD NINE | Previously keeping flashy eroticist very happy (2,5,4) LOUD (flashy) + (Anaïs) NIN in ONCE (previously) |
||||||
| 13 | ABLE SEAMAN | Mainly competent rating (4,6) Cryptic definition, with “mainly” alluding to the main or sea |
||||||
| 15 | AGES | Knocked back the drink (over a gallon) for some considerable time (4) G[allon] in reverse of SEA (the drink) |
||||||
| 18 | SNIP | Coming back discontented, negotiates very low price, a bargain (4) Reverse of N[egotiate]S + 1P (one penny, low price) |
||||||
| 20 | DEGENERATE | US comedian put away for drugs in decline (10) (Ellen) DEGENERES with ES (drugs) replaced by ATE (put away) |
||||||
| 23 | DESSERT WINE | Loudly complain after sailors originally aboard leave port? (7,4) S[ailors] in DESERT (leave) + WINE (sounds like “whine”) |
||||||
| 25 | RIA | Take main road around valley (3) R (short for Latin Recipe, take) + A1 (main road) |
||||||
| 26 | RONDEAU | Neither partner recalled mentioning bread lines (7) Reverse of NOR (partner of neither in “neither … nor …”) + DEAU (sounds like dough = money, bread) |
||||||
| 27 | ANISEED | Flavouring from America is in demand (7) A[merica] + IS in NEED |
||||||
| 28 | CARNAL KNOWLEDGE | What Telford had a lot of to attract Romeo – sex (6,9) R[omeo] in CANAL KNOWLEDGE |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | SALAD DAYS | Youth is speaking about another: ‘Dickhead!’ (5,4) A LAD + D[ick] in SAYS: the phrase comes from Antony and Cleopatra: “My salad days, When I was green in judgment” |
||||||
| 2 | ORBITAL | B-list occasionally spoken about is going round (7) Alternate letters of B[L]I[S]T in ORAL (spoken) |
||||||
| 3 | TITMOUSE | Singer Tom with suite trashed (8) (TOM SUITE)* |
||||||
| 4 | LYRIC | I get emotional about returning to London’s original theatre (5) L[ondon] + I in reverse of CRY |
||||||
| 5 | YARD OF ALE | Long for a drink? (4,2,3) Cryptic definition |
||||||
| 6 | UPSIDE | Turn left, perhaps, after park entrance – positive? (6) U (turn) + P[ark] + SIDE (e.g. left) – “positive” is a noun for the definition |
||||||
| 7 | RAILING | Complaining in bar (7) Double definition |
||||||
| 8 | PADRE | Forces serviceman, might you say? (5) A padre is a military clergyman, who might take services for the forces |
||||||
| 14 | AWESTRUCK | Hit wicket – AUS 1 down (spinner finally bowled over) (9) Anagram of WICKET AUS [spinne]R less I (1) |
||||||
| 16 | SKEDADDLE | Synonyms to begin with: fly, go off, make a run for it (9) S[ynonyms] + KED (fly) + ADDLE (go off) |
||||||
| 17 | REMEDIAL | Call service engineers initially for correction (8) REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) + DIAL (call, on a phone) |
||||||
| 19 | INSANER | Less sensible son gets involved making little difference (7) It’s hard to pinpoint the definition here, but I think the idea is that INANER and IN[S]ANER are close in meaning |
||||||
| 21 | AIRHEAD | Current Republican leading on the surface is a moron (7) I (electric current) + R[epublican) in AHEAD (leading) |
||||||
| 22 | GENERA | A green revolution of sorts (6) (A GREEN)* |
||||||
| 23 | DORIC | Make editor ultimately responsible for such columns (5) DO (make) + [edito]R + IC (in charge, responsible) |
||||||
| 24 | IMAGO | Vlad’s past being ideal (5) I’M + AGO |
||||||
Top marks for CA(R)NAL KNOWLEDGE. LOI was at the other end – the lack of definition for the ‘usual sense’ of SHOP TILL YOU DROP, confusing me. DOT solved very late in the day – cunning disguise for such a simple word. But that gave me SALAD DAYS and thereafter my final entry
There is an amusing anecdote on the G’s own site from someone who asked AI to help parse ON CLOUD NINE.
Thanks both
Thanks for these parsings, 12 especially. I also thought 1a was not a conventional clue. Still, it’s Friday and it’s Vlad, so I was just glad to finish it!
Quite a tough challenge from Vlad – a DNF for me, since I didn’t know the comedian. I, too, was initially confused by SHOP TILL YOU DROP but got there in the end.
Otherwise, all good – ticks for LOBSTER, ON CLOUD NINE, DESSERT WINE, RONDEAU, PADRE, SKEDADDLE (lovely word) and DORIC.
Top of the tree, the wonderful CARNAL KNOWLEDGE: I imagine Telford’s friend, the poet Robert Southey, who dubbed him ‘The Colossus of Roads’ would have appreciated that one.
Thanks, as ever, to Vlad and to Andrew.
I needed a couple of word searches to finish. I echo Eileen’s list of favourites and choice of CARNAL KNOWLEDGE as Cotd. Thanks to Eileen for the Colossus of Roads story.
How does ‘wine’ sound like ‘whine’? They rhyme but are they really homophones? This is another example, in my opinion, with the difficulty of using homophones. Homophones depend on accent etc.
SHOP TILL YOU DROP. took a while even with lots of crossers in place until, well, the penny dropped. Ridiculously wasn’t thinking about the Scottish inventor to begin with, but that town along the A5, so the other long crosser at 28ac took a while. But plenty of good clues to enjoy today. Whenever I see the word TITMOUSE, I’m thinking mouse rather than bird, strangely, and loi was DEGENERATE, all crossers in and definition said it had to be that, but have nho of DEGENERES. Many thanks Vlad and Andrew today…
Failed on RIA as had never heard of that. Otherwise made ok if workmanlike progress. Liked YARD OF ALE. One of the few to raise an actual smile.
Thank you Andrew for numerous parsings and Vlad for the challenge which was, as usual, above my pay grade, but one day…
Also, TIL that a titmouse is not, in fact, a kind of mouse.
A proper Friday puzzle which was quite the head scratcher but very enjoyable. Top marks for CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, SALAD DAYS, ABLE SEAMAN and a load more.
Tough but only needed the blog to understand RIA. Thankfully the R was checked.
I was going to make a corny comment about Ellen Degeneres and comedy but I shall refrain.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
diagacht @5 Therapy helped me cope with the Guardian homophones. I’ve learnt to embrace them.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
Grid filled, but several unparsed. I too raised an eyebrow at the lack of definition in 1a. Missed the NIN in12a. There were others.
I completely missed the cryptic meaning of the PADRE clue, and thought it was just a straight definition.
There would be more raised eyebrows in the circles I dine with if the port were to be served with the dessert – much better with the cheese course!
Favourite CARNAL KNOWLEDGE too.
Quite a lot of less than general knowledge, ca(r)nal and otherwise, required today: the engineer Telford, the comedian Degeneres, the eroticist Nin, the KED fly, the RONDEAU verse form, the RIA drowned valley… Tough but enjoyable going: UPSIDE defeated me and yet again I forgot the obsolete but still legitimate take=R. I liked the CD’s for PADRE and ABLE SEAMAN, and of course the brilliant CARNAL KNOWLEDGE.
Interesting to find that there are people who pronounce the H in words beginning with “wh” strongly enough to make whine a total non-homophone with wine – but then these things are supposed to be puns rather than exact matches.
I’m fairly certain for 19d that ‘Less sensible’ is the definition and the rest of the clue indicates S (son) in (gets involved) INANER (making little difference; pointless), though the grammar feels somewhat fudgy.
For 25ac, it should be noted that A1 is reversed.
Thank you Vlad and Andrew both for your respective work with this puzzle.
Plodded through this quite slowly and was quite pleased to be able to complete it even though there a few I could not parse.
New for me: connection between Thomas Telford and canals (for 28ac); REME = Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers; PADRE = a chaplain in the armed services; RIA = valley.
I could not parse 18ac, 20ac, 16d and also 25ac but guessed it had something to do with main road = A1.
Thanks, Andrew and Vlad.
Glorious. I could happily award one giant tick to the whole thing. Took a while to see past the faux cricket references in AWESTRUCK and RIA managed to combine three things I learned from crosswords
I parsed the threat in 1a as “risk” so the SHOP TILL YOU DROP is something an informer is at risk of
Cheers V&A
Thank you Andrew for parsing 12A & 25A amongst others. Very tricky and needed 1D to crack the last few with 19D as my LOI, and still not convinced by the parsing.
[I forgot to say that by coincidence we had taken a German fried who was visiting to a pub in the Dales last Friday (The Craven Arms in Appletreewick – best pub I’ve been to!) and I had to explain what the long glass hanging on the wall was used for – a YARD OF ALE.]
A slow, but steady, thoroughly enjoyable, solve. I’ll echo the prevailing sentiment of confusion with 1A but otherwise great. Favourites were 12A and 13A. Thanks Vlad, and thank you to Andrew.
[Muffin @17 – Your fried German takes us back to Wednesday’s Paul!]
[Crispy @19 🙂 ]
I had the top half completed last night but apart from DORIC and IMAGO, the bottom remained empty. Therefore, this was a real slog but CARNAL KNOWLEDGE brightened up the endeavour. Other favourites were SHOP TILL YOU DROP, LOBSTER, ON CLOUD NINE (I have read NIN), loi DEGENERATE, ANISEED, YARD OF ALE and PADRE. Toughest puzzle for me in a long time.
Crispy @17: 😊 Agree with Adam on INSANER
Ta Vlad & Andrew for a great blog.
Thanks for the blog , very good set of tough and neat clues . Only got about half cold-solving but the grid was very friendly afterwards . Most first letters checked and many answers more than half checked . 1 Across my last one in which is very rare . AIRHEAD very neat and topical .
Very good attitude Jacob@8 , Bunthorne used to soundly defeat me but I would always vow to get the b…… one day .
It has been an easy week for Guess the Setter , I am 5/5 , one to go .
Many ‘wh’ words (where, what, which etc., and also whine) were originally ‘hw’ words. The switch came about hwen Caxton brought in typesetters from the Continent who changed a lot of English spelling to hwat seemed more natural to them. Some of us, however, do still pronounce the ‘h’. To be clear, ‘wine’ and ‘whine’ are close enough, unlike the frequent non-rhotic efforts I often object to, but hwich are fortunately absent in today’s puzzle.
poc@23 – well I never!
Is it just me, or is Vlad more accessible these days?
Thoroughly enjoyed, though I didn’t spot Generes as a comedian (-enne)…
Spam @24 reported
Still puzzled by 25A RIA. Fine on the backwards A1 being the “main road around” but can anybody clarify why “take” = “r”? Surely “r” being short for “recipe” does not make it also short for “take” even if take is Latin for recipe (not even sure about that). Is this clue solely for pharmacists? Thoroughly foxed.
Thanks, I didn’t fully parse PADRE and found nothing useful when I looked up ‘KED’ earlier, this meant I reluctantly pencilled in ‘skid’ for ‘fly’ and looking for a suitable US-Italian comedian for far too long. Apparently ‘sked’ may be used to refer to a flight schedule, dubious but that had to do in the circumstances.
Alternative but unlikely parsing for RIA: Rai (as in the music) means ‘opinion’ (take) and reversing AI gives RIA.
Ian W @27: you are right-ish about the pharmacists. R as an abbreviation for ‘recipe’ does indeed mean ‘take’, from the Latin, and was used when doctors wrote prescriptions. Whether it still is, I am not sure – I, true to form, cannot read anything my GP writes.
Nearly gave up before I had started- revealed 1a and thought it was unfair, only half a clue. Then the rest was quite pleasing, especially the Telford reference, very funny! Thanks Andrew for your explanations they are a great help
Can someone explain to me how 5D works even as a CD?
A yard is a length, not a long, and “of ” and “for” don’t equate either. And the whole phrase “yard of ale” doesn’t in any way suggest the idea of someone longing for a drink. Am I being thick/missing something obvious, or is it just a very loose clue?
wrows @31
It’s not longing for a drink, it’s long for a drink, which a yard certainly is!
Ahhh, yes, that’s the thing I’d missed. Grr, but thank you for pointing it out to me! I rather like it now I’ve seen what Vlad meant!
So we’re expected to know the names of obscure American comedians
Nice puzzle Vlad with a couple of groans- eg YARD OF ALE. Favourite CARNAL KNOWLEDGE. Stuck on Bridge … on first across pass. Thanks Andrew for pointing out DE GENERES – lovely disguise. Also new for me after 60 years was R for take in RIA. Probably just missed it before.
It’s mostly all been said, but I just have to add to the praise for CA(R)NAL KNOWLEDGE, which produced a huge smile when the penny dropped. The surface is clearly trying to make us think of the town and the perhaps rather surprising reason it might attract a Romeo. Brilliant.
Many thanks Vlad and Andrew.
Glad it was a Vlad crossword so I stayed in the shade to try and solve it, and I’m paler
I had to have R=take explained to me the first time I met it. This bit of ancient medical shorthand continues to flummox me to this day, and has to be explained all over again to new solvers every time it’s used. I doubt if doctors nowadays physically write prescriptions at all, but I seem to recall someone posting a link to a (US?) blank computer prescription form where the R was pre-printed, so maybe it isn’t quite as obsolete elsewhere?
I messed myself up for a while by confidently slapping in IONIC for the column at 23dn. That meant that port was some kind of wine that starts with I. Only when I checked IONIC and was left with —IC did I think of the other sort of column.
KED = fly?
But plenty of fun overall. Thanks to Vlad and Andrew for help where I needed it.
The sheep ked. Nasty things.
I got most of it but had no chance on RIA or 1ac. Nho ked, couldn’t see RAILING, but the rest was fair but tough.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
gladys@38: R for take is certainly not common knowledge for this American! And I think I’m not a new solver at this point, but I needed that explanation, and will probably need it the next time it’s tried.
DNF–revealed 1ac early and then was pretty liberal with the reveal and check after that.
Brilliant and very tricky, with great humour. While I managed to finish this, the parsing of quite a few eluded me, including ON CLOUD NINE, AWESTRUCK, the R in RIA, the ME in REMEDIAL. Thank you Andrew for your blog and explanations.
My favourites were SHOP TILL YOU DROP, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, LOBSTER, PADRE, AIRHEAD.
Thanks to V & A.
A bit puzzled about 17d. ‘correction’ is a noun, ‘remedial’ is an adjective. Happy to be enlightened.
CK definitely the best today. Learned that the town was named for the engineer.
SteveThePirate @44
The definition is ‘for correction’ – as underlined by Andrew in the blog.
Ah, of course. Thank you Eileen (and Andrew!)
Tricky but enjoyable – had to guess at RIA but when I consulted Chambers I realised I’d come across it before as a “normal drowned valley” (Hmmm I wonder if there is a word for an abnormal drowned valley) – anyway Chambers gives definition 2 of “r” as “Recipe (Latin), take” so I’m happy with that – I had heard of DeGeneres and when I typed Ellen into Google she was the first suggestion to come up so she must be reasonably famous – thanks to Vlad and Andrew
DodgyProf @48
I hadn’t come across RIA as “normal”, but I suspect the other sort is a fjord, a drowned glacial valley.
btw the south and west of England is festooned with rias – Chichester, Langstone, and Portsmouth Harbours, Plymouth, Falmouth, Fowey and so on.
Any celebrity can pass one by but to assume on that basis that they are therefore obscure is something of a gamble. At her peak, Ellen Degeneres was one of the most famous people on the planet. It really did DEGENERATE for her though. I think she moved to the UK after that.
A good puzzle I thought. I didn’t have much trouble with 1A, threat being the definition. I really liked a lot of the clues. I didn’t know some little bits like KED, RIA or IMAGO but it was a user friendly grid and I completed it. Despite having heard of the world famous comedian, eponymous sitcom star, chat show host and Oscars compère*, that was still my last one in!
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
*During that evening she was snapped in the most retweeted selfie of all time.
Lovely stuff as usual from Vlad, thanks.
Poc 23, thanks for that. I remember Nixon’s “There will be no hwitewash at the hwitehouse” quite clearly. It does seem to be an American precision in particular.
Many thanks to Andrew for the blog and to others who commented.
Puzzle of two halves — the top generous, the bottom stingy. Completed the N fairly readily, and then the S yielded just a handful.
Lots of great clues, especially 11a DOT and 23d DORIC for excellent surfaces
End of a tough week
Thanks both
Regarding near-homophones, I find those I’ve seen in puzzles (including those complained of recently) tend to be closer than many that would easily pass in a punning “Dad joke”. In the case of W(h)INE, here in N.Am. there’s a cliché response to a complainer, “Do you want some cheese with that whine?”
Many years ago I heard on the CBC a BBC programme (_My Word_?) in which a contestant improvised a long shaggy-dog story culminating in a to-do / shopping list that began “soup, ear, cauliflower, elastic, eggs, pea, …”—unfortunately I don’t remember the rest, and the internets have nothing to offer but recipes.
Speaking of which, IME the joined-Rx symbol is ubiquitous in connection with pharmacies (chemists’), whether or not it still appears on prescription pads. Rexall is a big drugstore chain around here, perhaps most famous for owning the Edmonton Oilers and naming their stadium; I’m sure their name was derived from the symbol. (The x is not really an x, but represents a shorthand like the z in oz.)
Truly great
Odysseus, 54
I can almost hear the late Dennis Norden now.
Odysseus@54: Soup, a cauli(flower), fridge-elastic, eggs, pea – halitosis. (From the late great Frank Muir)
[But I don’t see what that has to do with anything here?…]
Alphalpha @57: thanks for correcting what I’d forgotten. It just came to mind as an illustration of my position that for a pun to work—or for an ‘audible’ clue to be fair play—the sounds need not correspond exactly. (And if it elicits a groan, all the better!)
Too difficult for me though extremely enjoyable to read the solutions. It didn’t help that at the very beginning I convinced myself that 1a was “Don’t tell him Pike” even though I couldn’t parse it”
I saved this one for this week’s holiday with my brother (who lives in Germany) in Belgium, to which I am in the habit of bringing some crosswords that I didn’t have time to attempt myself.
Suitably fortified by strong beer, we finished this Vlad and a Paul and a Tramp this evening. We dropped in here for post-solve amusement – a shame it’s almost a week late.
Favourite was the “hwine” about an inaccurate homophone. Thanks to Gladys@37 and others who have pointed out how wrong that commenter was. The “h before w” sound is similar to the way words like “Rhos” are said in Welsh, I think. And in Icelandic the “h before v” is much stronger and is more like “kv”. The modern remnant of “hwat” or “hwich” seems to be restricted to some Scots, a few Americans and the occasional participant on this forum.
Thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
[ sh@59, just a note to say that late comments are always welcome, and I enjoyed yours. I also thought Ody@57’s comment about aural wordplay was spot on. ]