Overall, the clues were very good, but I found this entry from Moo quite a struggle, for some reason.
I think that there might be an editing goof in 5A. See Comment from Moo@6.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GLAMOUR |
Girl ignoring Irish lover’s allure (7)
|
| G[IR]L minus (ignoring) IR. (Irish) + AMOUR (lover) | ||
| 5 | IRON AGE |
I’m angry about old Harry for a time (4,3)
|
| I think this parses as: IRE (I’m angry [should be: “anger”?]) around (about) {O (old) + NAG (harry)}, with a capitalization misdirection. I tried to make the first element “I RAGE,” but I cannot make the rest of the clue work from there. It is possible that this clue is a casualty of the editing process. | ||
| 9 | MEDIC |
Bones of Italian family finally laid to rest (5)
|
| MEDIC[I] (Italian family) minus last letter (finally laid to rest), with “Bones” being a cliché nickname for a doctor | ||
| 10 | MEDITATED |
Admitted struggling with boundless Zen thought (9)
|
| Anagram of (struggling) {ADMITTED + inside letter of (boundless) [Z]E[N]} | ||
| 11 | LOOSE ENDS |
Ill-defined purposes, details not yet settled (5,4)
|
| LOOSE (ill-defined) + ENDS (purposes) | ||
| 12 | ETHOS |
Spirit of the people moving east (5)
|
| I think this parses as: THOSE (the people) moving E (east) to the beginning | ||
| 13 | CENT |
Only a little money dispatched, I hear (4)
|
| Homophone of (I hear) SENT (dispatched) | ||
| 15 | STRIPPER |
Performer whose act is taking off? (8)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 18 | LAY AN EGG |
Flop in US, as Kiwi may do (3,2,3)
|
| Double definition, with a capitalization misdirection, “kiwi” here referring to the bird | ||
| 19 | TOOT |
Snort some coke, one way or another (4)
|
| Cryptic (or arguably double) definition, with “one way or another” indicating a palindrome. I am not 100% persuaded that a “toot” and a “snort” are the same sound. “Toot” can mean both to consume cocaine and a dose of cocaine. | ||
| 22 | OBEYS |
Heeds appeal to Turkish governors (5)
|
| If one were making an appeal to Turkish governors, one might say, “O! BEYS!“ | ||
| 24 | DISPARAGE |
Aged Parsi unfortunately run down (9)
|
| Anagram of (unfortunately) AGED PARSI | ||
| 26 | SUPPORTER |
Senior policeman arresting left’s advocate (9)
|
| SUPER (senior policeman) around (arresting) PORT (left) | ||
| 27 | ALIGN |
Coordinate a policy announcement (5)
|
| A + homophone of (announcement) LINE (policy) | ||
| 28 | POTHEAD |
P for puffer on a spliff? (7)
|
| This is sort of a reverse clue and double definition combined. The first part is: the first letter of (head [of]) P[OT] = P | ||
| 29 | RED DEER |
Creatures looking increasingly hot, conserving energy (3,4)
|
| REDDER (looking increasingly hot) around (conserving) E (energy) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GAMBLE |
Bet ‘King of Hollywood’ is pocketing millions (6)
|
| (Clark) GABLE (King of Hollywood) around (is pocketing) M (millions) | ||
| 2 | ANDROMEDA |
Foreign man adored these stars (9)
|
| Anagram of (foreign) MAN ADORED, referring perhaps either to the constellation or to the galaxy | ||
| 3 | ON CUE |
Single copper intervening at just the right time (2,3)
|
| CU (copper) inside (intervening) ONE (single) | ||
| 4 | REMINISCE |
Talk about past crimes in extraordinary end to programme (9)
|
| Anagram of (extraordinary) {CRIMES IN} + last letter of (end to) [PROGRAMM]E | ||
| 5 | INDUS |
Runner in south of France keeling over (5)
|
| IN + SUD (south of France, i.e., in French) inverted (keeling over) | ||
| 6 | ON THE SPOT |
Immediately in a difficult position (2,3,4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | AITCH |
A longing that’s often unexpressed up north (5)
|
| A + ITCH (longing), i.e., the letter “H” is unaspirated in dialect | ||
| 8 | ELDEST |
First-born rescued from cruel destiny (6)
|
| Hidden in (rescued from) [CRU]EL DEST[INY] | ||
| 14 | TRANSPOSE |
Swap one’s parts around (9)
|
| Anagram of (around) ONE’S PARTS, with the whole clue having an &lit quality | ||
| 16 | REGISTRAR |
Hospital doctor who might marry you? (9)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | EVOCATIVE |
Poignant conclusion to remarkable case (9)
|
| Last letter of (conclusion to) [REMARKABL]E + VOCATIVE (case, in grammar) | ||
| 20 | GOSSIP |
Gas is therefore being recalled, GP admits (6)
|
| GP around (admits) {IS + SO (therefore)} both reversed (being recalled) | ||
| 21 | TENNER |
Note return of Leicester constituent (6)
|
| RENNET ([Red] Leicester constituent) inverted (return of) | ||
| 23 | EXPAT |
Some Essex patriarch who lives overseas (5)
|
| Hidden in (some) [ESS]EX PAT[RIARCH] | ||
| 24 | DATED |
Saw theologian embracing unmarried friend (5)
|
| DD (theologian) around (embracing) [M]ATE (friend) minus M (“un-married”) | ||
| 25 | AWARD |
American child looked after allotment (5)
|
| A (American) + WARD (child looked after) |
I guess you can say Dyu fancy a toot (or a snort), or some toot (or some coke) …
Too many head scratchers, too little enjoyment. Sorry, but this one did not do much for me.
I agree with your comment on 5a.
Thanks Moo and Cineraria
I had SATIRIST for 15a.
Haven’t finished yet; finding it less enjoyable than a usual Moo.
I couldn’t satisfactorily parse IRON AGE either. I took I’m angry to clue I RAGE. Then O is old but I don’t see how N could be Harry, which surely is NAG. Curiouser and curiouser.
The FT app has a nice way of listing out the clues so I tried cold solving everything. Got 16! Including IRON AGE with a question mark. After that it wasn’t too bad. I might try that approach again. Tx Moo and Cineraria.
Apologies for 5a. My fault entirely. Don’t know what I was thinking.
Thanks Moo and Cineraria,
My FOI was IRON AGE with a shrug that N = Harry, like GDU @ 4
My LOI was TENNER. Overall I found this straightforward.
I had the same problem as others with 5a, but ended up parsing it as an anagram (‘m angry, that is, am angry) of I (I), RE (about), O (old) and NAG (Harry). This does give IRON AGE (a time).
Same parsing problem on 5 and 12A.
Favourite was 22A.
Thanks to Moo@6 for checking in.
Having grown up in the East Midlands, the ‘Leicester’ component had to be my favourite. MEDITATED was neat.
I found this slow going at first but managed to chip away steadily to the end with the exception of an unparsed OBEYS and IRON AGE both entered on definitions alone.
Thanks Moo and Cineraria.
Thanks for the blog and thanks to Moo@6 for explaining , these things happen and the rest was fine . The ANDROMEDA galaxy is the most distant object we can see with the naked eye , not easy and November is best .
Apart from the problem with 5ac we found this fairly straightforward and enjoyable. There were a few delayed PDMs, notably for GOSSIP and TENNER. Favourites were REGISTRAR and EVOCATIVE.
Thanks, Moo and Cineraria.
Another SATIRIST cured by the REGISTRAR here. I forgot to go back and parse IRON AGE, so I didn’t even notice the problem. I liked EVOCATIVE for reminding me of the delights of Polish grammar.
I was waylaid because instead of EVOCATIVE I found ENDEARING: END (conclusion to) + EARING (case = hearing, remarkable is “spoken out loud” and drops the “h” in a callback to AITCH)
Honestly I think that’s a more fun answer!
Another shortlived satirist here. This puzzle was fitted in around a busy day. Mostly easy enough I thought. I was held up in places but I’d put way too much in quickly to lose heart. [I see that ANDROMEDA’s collision with the Milky Way is considered less like now.] There seem to be a lot of RED DEER about at the moment. I liked lots of clues.
Thanks Moo and Cineraria.
Thanks, Moo, for pointing out the error. For the record, things picked up and I found the puzzle quite enjoyable overall.
Matthew#15, I too had ENDEARING for 17d, parsed exactly as you described, until a snort of coke made me rethink it.
It’s interesting that Moo’s goof at 5a IRON AGE didn’t get in the way of solving the clue. With I rage and nag in your head, you easily arrive at the right answer, even though you can’t fit those components into a parse.
Thanks M&C for hosting today’s show.
Do the Americans really say LAY AN EGG to mean fail? How strange. I would argue that laying an egg is a successful end to a day’s work.