The original puzzle may be found here.
The regular blogger, Loonapick, is unavailable today, so I’ve stepped up to the plate.
I solved this before going to sleep in the early hours but left the blog till this morning. I didn’t have too much trouble with the crossword, though the NW corner was a bit stubborn.
Hopefully everything’s OK but I’m sure you’ll let me know. Thanks to Brummie.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BESPOKE |
Customized bicycle’s hollow wheel feature (7)
|
| B[icycl]E (hollow)+SPOKE (feature of a wheel) | ||
| 5 | DISABLE |
Located outside building’s entrance, Ladies sadly put out of action (7)
|
| B[uilding] (first letter)inside LADIES (anag: sadly) | ||
| 9, 10 | BURNT OFFERINGS |
Fetches round container with sweets (not drugs) as sacrifices (5,9)
|
| BRINGS (fetches) around URN (container)+TOFFE[es] (sweets) minus ES plural of E (drug) | ||
| 10 |
See 9
|
|
| 11 | SEMANTICS |
A meaningful area of study (9)
|
| A cryptic definition. Semantics deals with the meaning of words | ||
| 12 | PALMA |
Use sleight of hand with ace? Capital! (5)
|
| PALM (used by magicians to hide cards)+A
Palma is capital of The Balearics |
||
| 13 | TULIP |
Pull it out to eject large bulb (5)
|
| PUL[l] IT (minus Large; anag: out) | ||
| 15 | TITLEROLE |
Championship register reportedly taken by lead player? (5,4)
|
| TITLE (championship)+ROLE (sounds like ROLL (register)) | ||
| 18 | STREETCAR |
Vehicle gives way, getting around a river (9)
|
| STREET (way)+Circa (around)+A River | ||
| 19 | SATYR |
Was an MP your heartless lecher? (5)
|
| SAT (was an MP)+Y[ou]R (heartless) | ||
| 21 | OXFAM |
Organisation is the essence of paradox, famously (5)
|
| paradOX FAMously (hidden: essence of) | ||
| 23 | BOOKSHELF |
Reserve: quiet little creature’s novel resting place (9)
|
| BOOK (reserve)+SH (quiet)+ELF (little creature) | ||
| 25, 26 | SPECTATOR SPORT |
Carpets, top sort, woven for Rugby? (9,5)
|
| CARPETS TOP SORT (anag: woven) | ||
| 26 |
See 25
|
|
| 27 | REDUCER |
Casanova gets a new top for chemical solution (7)
|
| [s]EDUCER (Casanova) with first letter changed
I couldn’t find reducer in Chambers but a distant memory says I’m right |
||
| 28 | PAINFUL |
Disagreeable one having fun touring in China (7)
|
| PAL (China; Cockney rhyming slang: China plate=mate) around I (one) FUN | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BABYSIT |
Tabby is sickly – mind the mites (4-3)
|
| TABBY IS (anag: sickly)
mite as in small child |
||
| 2 | SCRAMBLER |
Communication made meaningless by this climber (9)
|
| (double def) | ||
| 3 | OFTEN |
A lot of figure (5)
|
| OF+TEN (figure) | ||
| 4 | EGOTISTIC |
Foreign cities limiting energy and temperature in vain (9)
|
| CITIES GO (energy) Temperature (anag: foreign) | ||
| 5 | DAFFS |
Fancy backing with fibrous edges for cut flowers (5)
|
| FAD (fancy; rev: backing)+F[ibrou]S (edges) | ||
| 6 | STRAPLESS |
How disciplinarians show restraint describing a dress? (9)
|
| If a disciplinarian shows restraint, he might STRAP LESS | ||
| 7 | BANAL |
Stock bar with drink – 1/3 off (5)
|
| BAN (bar)+AL[e] (drink; two thirds of) | ||
| 8 | ENSNARE |
Net Tennyson carried regularly (7)
|
| [t]E[n]N[y]S[o]N [c]A[r]R[i]E[d] (regularly) | ||
| 14 | PNEUMATIC |
Blown up – impact spread over northern Brussels (9)
|
| IMPACT (anag: spread} around Northern EU (Brussels)
EU and Brussels are often used interchangeably to indicate European Union |
||
| 16 | TURBOPROP |
Mixed up rotor with BP engine (9)
|
| UP ROTOR BP (anag: mixed) | ||
| 17 | ONTHEHOOF |
Moving position of horseshoe? (2,3,4)
|
| Double (cryptic) definition | ||
| 18 | SCOUSER |
Northwesterner has to rummage around Kent etc (7)
|
| SCOUR (rummage) around SE (southeast; Kent, for example) | ||
| 20 | REFUTAL |
Denial of tearful drunk (7)
|
| TEARFUL (anag: drunk) | ||
| 22 | FREUD |
Dispute about queen’s dream interpreter (5)
|
| FEUD (dispute) around Regina (queen) | ||
| 23 | BITER |
‘Beer time’s off!’ one snaps (5)
|
| BIT[t]ER (beer; minus Time) | ||
| 24 | SUSHI |
Shut your mouth after ejecting hot Italian starter snack? (5)
|
| S[h]USH (shut your mouth; minus Hot)+Italian |
I enjoyed this. I wasn’t sure about REDUCER either and agree Chambers didn’t appear to support it, but an online dictionary gives it unequivocally as a chemical solution; a reducing agent used in photography.
I was mostly on the right wavelength today. I liked EGOTISTIC, OFTEN and BABY SIT. I thought of BURNT OFFERINGS immediately from those daft OT stories but didn’t commit to it for ages. (The new app layout makes it harder to parse full width solutions).
Thanks Brummie and kenmac for stepping in.
Thanks Brummie and Kenmac
Lots to like. Favourites BESPOKE, BABY SIT, OFTEN, and PNEUMATIC.
A couple I didn’t like. REDUCER isn’t the usual word for a reducing agent, and in large scale industrial processes (making iron, for example) it’s a gas rather than a solution.
However, major dislike for REFUTAL defined as “denial”. Refute for deny has become so commonplace that it has even got into Chambers, but it means “disprove”!
Hmmm…got there but had ?s about REDUCER and deffo don’t like REFUTAL for ‘denial’.
Failed to properly parse PAINFUL.
Thanks for stepping up, Kenmac.
As usual, I started well and ran out of steam. Loi was title role where I couldn’t make register work until the penny dropped far too late.
Hampered by putting in semiotics rather than semantics – seemed OK to me.
I don’t like Brussels meaning EU. It just doesn’t. Otherwise smooth and enjoyable. Favourites 19a SATYR for the surface, and STRAPLESS.
Thanks Brummie and kenmac
4D is an anagram (foreign) of CITIES around (limiting) GO (energy) and T (temperature)
Thanks Brummie and kenmac
The energy in the anagram for egotistic is GO not E
PhilB@4: I disagree – let me explain why. “Brussels” for “EU” is a common example of synechdoche, where a part is used to stand for the whole of something. We do it when we call a “worker” a “hand” or an executive a “suit” but some have become so ingrained into our language we do not see them as metaphorical anymore. I think that, so long as metaphors used by setters are commonplace they must be fair game.
A fine puzzle from Brummie but I felt there were a lot of instances of single letter deletions where the letter existed multiple times in the fodder e.g. “e” from “toffee”, “t” from “bitter”, “h” from “shush”. Purists might insist that the clue should indicate that only one should be removed.
Many thanks kenmac for stepping in, and Brummie for the puzzle.
Larry @5
Well spotted. Corrected now
I enjoyed the puzzle. What a pity it was spoiled by the unmarked americanism in 18ac.
I’m pretending I haven’t read kenmac’s introduction. Thanks for standing in, though.
Thanks for stepping in, Kenmac. Slight amendment re PAINFUL, which I had as PAL around (in) an anagram of I FUN (anagr: touring). V nice puzzle, thanks to both.
Yaay! Please excuse a little celebration here as this completes a 100–day winning streak (not counting Sundays of course). Last defeat was by the dastardly Fed on 9 April. Nice puzzle too, thanks Brummie!
As a chemist, I have no problem with REDUCER. It could be solid, liquid or gas in or out of solution, although I’d usually call it a “reducing agent”. The opposite of an oxidant.
An entertaining puzzle. STRAPLESS was very amusing. And “mind the mites” was clever for BABYSIT.
Re REFUTAL: yes we used to hear “I refute that” a lot, but maybe not so much now — has the message perhaps got through?
Many thanks Brummie and kenmac.
Pleasant enough start to the day, with a chuckle about the disciplinarian showing restraint and the infested tabby, and a nod to a nice misdirection with SUSHI not being an Italian starter.
Like muffin @2 and William @3 I detest refute=deny; but it’s one of those abominable modern usages like disinterested=bored that I guess old fogeys like me just have to put up with. And in the context of a crossword puzzle it was pretty clear what was meant.
Thanks to Brummie and especial thanks to kenmac for stepping in so promptly.
Very slight amendment to your slight amendment, miserableoldhack @10: I think it’s one = I plus an anagram (“touring”) of FUN, in PAL. Otherwise someone will complain that it’s an indirect anagram!
Wasn’t convinced by SUSHI as a ‘snack’, but otherwise plenty of good clues. I liked BURNT OFFERINGS, BESPOKE, BABYSIT and PAINFUL.
[kenmac – how do I put a photo next to my name? I’d like folk here to see how good long hair can look on a man in his seventies!]
Sorry to be pedantic (but so many others are here), but I think EGOTISTIC is in insertion of GOT in an anagram of CITIES
William FP @17 you need to visit this site https://gravatar.com/. You may find your image also pops up on other sites you use.
I’ve always thought BESPOKE a rather strange word in the English language, in fact when I first came across it (in the tailoring sense)I bizarrely thought of bicycle wheels, so the cluing for 1ac today I find somehow apt…
Crispy@18 yes.
A bit anagram heavy this I thought. Liked STREETCAR though for the misdirections of ‘gives way’ and ‘about a river’.
JOAT@7. I hear your point, but in my experience Brussels was only ever used to refer to the European Parliament and its associated bureaucracy (usually in a derogatory way). I think the usage of Brussels for EU has now completely gone from speech and writing ie is not commonplace. A matter of opinion I know.
“I refute it thus” Dr Johnson said, kicking the stone, but yes, NeilH @14, it’s pointless to fret (hoNe for “home in on” is one of mine; double past conditionals — I would have liked to have been there — is another). Nice enough puzzle though, ta Brum and Ken.
Thanks Brummie and kenmac! A brilliant puzzle. One “but”: I feel that PALMA as capital is not fair; in crosswords, I’ve only ever seen this referring to national capitals. If we include capitals of provinces, states, counties etc. the list to choose from would be humongous; might as well just say “city” instead. I got it eventually but wasn’t too thrilled. On the other capital, Brussels, I tend to agree with PhilB@4,22 – capitals usually stand for official authorities, not whole countries.
Stymied by putting ‘semiotics’ for 11ac. It’s perfectly valid (except it’s wrong) and I couldn’t see an alternative, so 3D became unsolveable. This is why, were I writing my own Ximinean rulebook, I’d forbid the crossing of CDs!
Thanks for stepping in with the blog , good set of clues , I agree with FU @21 for STREETCAR , multiple deceptions . BOOKSHELF and PNEUMATIC very neat .
The term REDUCER is used in darkrooms . a dying art .
BRUSSELS and EU mean the same thing in Yes (Prime) Minister .
PALMA is the capital of Mallorca , I think we would accept capital for Douglas , Newport , Port Stanley etc .
Although it was my LOI, I agree with Roz@26 and others that PALMA is a legit capital. Otherwise a nice crossword for a Tuesday. Thanks to k for stepping in.
Roz @26
I used to use a darkroom, but I never heard “reducer” as one of the steps – my process was developer (equivalent to reducer?), rinse, fixer, rinse.
[I don’t think it’s a standard step: “used to lessen the density of a negative or print by oxidising some of the blackened silver to soluble silver compounds”.]
REFUTAL was unfamilar, but I guessed it correctly. I just assumed REDUCER was a chemistry term I didn’t know (of which there are many) and revealed it. Favourites BOOKSHELF and BABYSIT for a couple of neatly disguised defs.
muffin @2 et al. much as we may grumble, language continuously evolves (otherwise we would all be speaking like Shakespeare, and Shakespeare would be speaking Old German…). We may regret the passing of a perfectly good distinction, but refute/refutal and rebut/rebuttal are well on their way to merging, and before long I expect that one or the other will be gone entirely. This is a process that happens frequently when two words are close in both sound and meaning.
And while we might also complain about the “incorrectness” of it, by definition correct usage is what large numbers of native speakers say and understand. There are a great many usages that we here on 15sq consider perfectly cromulent that would equally have raised the ire of our grandparents.
Jacob @31
This is the problem with dictionaries being descriptive. OK, they can reflect incorrect usage, but could they not add “incorrect”? I particularly dislike words with different meanings becoming used interchangeably. The classic example is aggravate/irritate.