The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/30089.
I would characterise this as a good mid-level crossword; if I were to hunt for a criticism, it might have been improved with one less each of one-letter subtractions and envelopes, but apart from those niggles all is well. There seems to be a theme around 2D LION and 26D CATS: we haave DANIEL and DEN, ASLAN, LEO, MILLWALL (The Lions in soccer), DETROIT (Lions in American football and Tigers in baseball), CLARENCE (the cross-eyed lion which I somehow dragged up from some ancient and otherwise very forgettable TV show), NOBLE (for the King of Beasts) and perhaps MAUL and CAGE
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | YOGI BEAR |
Flexible practitioner to support animated character (4,4)
|
| A charade of YOGI (‘flexible practitioner’) plus BEAR (‘support’). | ||
| 9 | ASSET |
Strength from dog shaking off lead (5)
|
| [b]ASSET (hound, ‘dog’) minus its first letter (‘shking off lead’). | ||
| 10 | ANON |
Year in Spanish Main’s ending soon (4)
|
| A charade of AÑO (‘year in Spanish’ – do not forget the tilde) plus N (‘MaiN‘s ending’). | ||
| 11 | EL SALVADOR |
Disney princess left queen over trouble in country (2,8)
|
| An envelope (‘over’) of ADO (‘trouble’) in ELSA (‘Disney princess’ in Frozen) plus L (‘left’) plus VR ( |
||
| 12 | DANIEL |
Book that is set in strange land (6)
|
| An envelope (‘set in’) of I.E. (‘that is’) in DANL, an anagram (‘strange’) of ‘land’. | ||
| 14 | MILLWALL |
Football team crush defensive formation (8)
|
| A charade of MILL (‘crush’) plus WALL (‘defensive formation’). | ||
| 16 | INKPADS |
North Korea’s leader hacking into computer’s digital printing devices (7)
|
| An envelope (‘hacking into’) of N (‘North’) plus K (‘Korea’s leader’) in IPAD’S (‘computer’s’). | ||
| 18 | NOBLEST |
Most generous and good of Poirot to make a comeback in case (7)
|
| A charade of NOB, a reversal (‘to make a comeback’) of BON (‘good of Poirot’ – Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot is Belgian, exidently from the French speaking part) plus LEST (‘in case’). | ||
| 21 | CLARENCE |
Carriage clock’s face cutting clumsy cleaner (8)
|
| An envelope (‘cutting’) of C (‘Clock’s face’) in CLARENE, an anagram (‘clumsy’) of ‘cleaner’. | ||
| 23 | ALEXIA |
Personal assistant admits one form of word blindness (6)
|
| An envelope (‘admits’) of I (‘one’) in ALEXA (‘personal assistant’, Amazon’s virtual assistant). | ||
| 24 | RED ADMIRAL |
Distressed maid in pantry retreating from flying insect (3,7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of ADMI, an anagram (‘distressed’) of ‘maid’ in REDRAL, a reversal (‘retreating’ – maybe ‘from’ should be added here; it’s not much of a link word) of LARDER (‘pantry’). | ||
| 26 | CAGE |
Heartless bum in prison (4)
|
| CA[d]GE (‘bum’) minus its middle letter (‘heartless’). | ||
| 27 | INCAN |
Hotel California charges old person (5)
|
| An envelope (‘charges’) of CA (‘California’) in INN (‘hotel’). | ||
| 28 | IN NO TIME |
I mention getting hammered before you can say Jack Robinson (2,2,4)
|
| An anagram (‘getting hammered’) of ‘I mention’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MOUNTAIN |
Benny Hill? (8)
|
| Cryptic definition; a play on the Scots BEN (as in Nevis). | ||
| 2 | LION |
Hero knocked over nuclear fuel (4)
|
| A reversal (‘knocked over’) of N (‘nuclear’) plus OIL (‘fuel’). | ||
| 3 | RESEAL |
11 stopping Spanish team getting close again (6)
|
| An envelope (‘stopping’) of ES (’11’ EL SALVADOR – IVR) in REAL (Madrid, ‘Spanish team’). | ||
| 4 | PRESUME |
Suppose Big Bird’s turning up to support Trump? (7)
|
| ASSUME does not fit. A charade of PRES (president, ‘Trump’) plus UME, a reversal (‘turning up’ in a down light) of EMU (‘big bird’). | ||
| 5 | MAUL |
Mother starts to upset Lily Savage (4)
|
| A charade of MA (‘mother’) plus UL (‘starts to Upset Lily’). | ||
| 6 | OSCAR WILDE |
Award sounded crazy for playwright (5,5)
|
| A charade of OSCR (‘award’) plus WILDE, ‘sounded’ like WILD (‘crazy’). | ||
| 7 | STROLL |
Bad-tempered types last to get up for walk (6)
|
| TROLLS (‘bad -tempered types’) with the last letter moved to the top (in a down light; ‘last to get up’). | ||
| 13 | IMPORTANCE |
Value of New Romantic EP (10)
|
| An anagram (‘new’) of ‘Romantic EP’. | ||
| 15 | LEO |
Shot regularly dismissed Ollie Pope (3)
|
| An anagram (‘shot’) of OLE (‘regularly dismissed OlLiE‘). | ||
| 17 | DEN |
Study of depression cut short (3)
|
| DEN[t] (‘depression’) minus its last letter (‘cut short’). | ||
| 19 | SKIN GAME |
Swindling trick from man in uniform (4,4)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of KING (‘man’ in chess) in SAME (‘uniform’). | ||
| 20 | DETROIT |
Denis Villeneuve’s right to film movie in US city (7)
|
| An envelope ((‘in’, awkwardly placed) of ET (‘film movie’ – call the Department of Redundancy Department) in DROIT (‘Denis Villeneuve’s right – Brockwell double bluffs: here the name is not used cryptically, but just to indicate that Denis Villeneuve is a French-speaking Canadian film maker). | ||
| 22 | LIEBIG |
Chemist replacing parts of large Whopper (6)
|
| BIG LIE (‘large whopper’) with the two words swapped (‘replacing parts of’). | ||
| 23 | ASLANT |
2 followed by Tesla obliquely (6)
|
| A charade of ASLAN (‘2’ LION – in C S Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia) plus T (Tesla’, unit of magnetic flux density). | ||
| 25 | MANE |
Artist trimmed long hair (4)
|
| MANE[t] (‘artist’) minus the last letter (‘trimmed’). | ||
| 26 | CATS |
Musical Youth finally escaping from Jaws (4)
|
| C[h]ATS (‘jaws’) minus the H (‘youtH finally escaping’). |
Other notable LIONs besides ASLAN and CLARENCE (from Daktari – late 1960s):
ELSA was the lioness in Born Free.
SCAR was Simba’s wicked uncle in The LION (s)KING(ame).
Lions are one of the (Lie)BIG CATS.
There are also (re)SEA(l) LIONs.
Oh, and MOUNTAIN LIONs.
I’ll stop now and go back to bed.
I’m told by their supporter that Exeter City’s mascot (re 23ac) is LEXI the Lion.
I very much enjoyed this clever puzzle from Brockwell, though I wasn’t quite as perceptive as PeterO, Balfour and Trovatore when it came to spotting (!) all the LIONS. A credit to the setter that he could include so many references. My favourites were 8a YOGI BEAR, 24a RED ADMIRAL, 27a INCAN and 23d ASLANT. Thank you to Brockwell and PeterO.
Finished but missed the theme, so thanks for that PeterO. I might suggest an alternate parse of DETROIT that avoids the awkwardly-placed “in”: the Francophone’s “right”, DROIT, “to film” — to form a film around — ET (“movie”). This leaves “in” as a mere connector, not part of the WP. Ta Brockwell.
Your resident Spaniard here with a reminder that ano emphatically isn’t the Spanish word for year 🙂
Thanks Brockwell and PeterO!
A lion-hearted solve from me even if I did totally miss the theme. It does seem pretty obvious in hindsight. Couldn’t parse IN NO TIME (turns out it wasn’t a homophone) and DETROIT.
Liked MOUNTAINS, LION (took a while to see why it was right) and SKIN GAME.
Thanks PeterO and Brockwell
Is it Victoria Regina to provide the V in El Salvador? Nice change if so.
I agree with Coloradan about DETROIT and dougalf about VR. A very enjoyable puzzle.
I too read ‘film’ as a indicating a wrap-around in 20d – but I think it’s a little awkward in that context (to me it implies covering with a layer of something, rather than surrounding etc). ‘Right to screen movie’ would’ve been more conventional, but more obvious of course.
An enjoyable mid-weeker. I had to back-solve 2d from 23d, where the solution jumped out.
Don’t think anyone has mentioned that lions have MANEs. (And maybe inkPADS on their feet?)
Thanks Brockwell and PeterO
Also lion CAGE.
Good challenge. Saw the theme after I finished solving but did not know the football and soccer connections to lions.
PADS can also be added to the theme words.
New for me: CLARENCE – carriage; German chemist Justus von LIEBIG; SKIN GAME = swindle; MILLWALL = football team; ALEXA = personal assistant – I heard of Siri but not this one.
I didn’t parse 15d correctly, and I agree with Coloradan@5’s parsing of DETROIT.
dougalf@8 Re 11ac, yes I parsed it as ELSA + L + ADO in VR = Queen Victoria.
Great puzzle – I really enjoyed it. Very nice surfaces and cluing, I thought. Favourites were INCAN, ALEXIA (took some time to see this) and SKIN GAME (which I didn’t know). Many thanks to B & P.
I’m assured by my stepson that ‘El Salvador’ is a “classic” work by the heavy-metal band White Lion.
michelle @13 – you are clearly an Apple user 🙂
I’m glad we live in an age when SKIN and GAME are not seen as obviously thematic.
SKIN and GAME may not be thematic, but the LION is the sKINGame of beasts.
ALEXIA and CLARENCE were new to me: has anyone yet mentioned ALEX the lion from the Madagascar films?
Good fun and the theme helped a lot. I failed to parse STROLL – I can never do those cycling-letter clues.
Good fun. I agree with Coloradan and dougalf’s parsings. LOI for me was the NHO SKIN GAME – great clue. Many other good clues, requiring more than usual knowledge of foreign languages. As PeterO and Calabar Bean point out, dropping the tilde from AÑO is rather naughty (‘ano’ is Spanish for ‘anus’, of course, which doesn’t fit the word play quite so well).
I suffer from a form of word blindness called athemia….
Thanks to Brockwell and PeterO
Without the tilde ano means anus in Spanish
Having not heard of Clarence the cross-eyed lion, I was interested to discover on Wikipedia that it (he?) was a real lion with a genuine eye condition.
Protase @20 ‘Athemia’ – love it! Fellow sufferer here.
Had to work quite hard for this. Liebig sounds like a genuine hero / lion. Apparently we owe oxtail soup to him.
Alas, I didn’t know the expression SKIN GAME and put “suit” instead. The puzzle is beautifully themed (I think it’s specifically LIONs not CATS in general) I’m surprised no one has yet mentioned MOUNTAIN or WILDe as theme entries. SEAL is, too, somehow related to a sea lion. Thanks Brockwell and PeterO!
Calabar Bean @6, as a very non-native speaker of Spanish, that also irritated me.
Some of us might want to question the description of Millwall as a ‘football’ team.
Spotted the theme early on (unusually for me – I also suffer from athemia) by back-parsing from ASLANT. Clarence the cross-eyed lion brought back happy memories of childhood TV watching for me. Apparently it began as a film of that name, Daktari was the TV spin-off series.
Thought it was going to an Oscar Wilde theme when I saw “importance”. Also Millwall FC play at The Den.
Thanks to S&B
Following my usual practice of tackling the clues in order, I nailed the theme IN NO TIME after I entered IMPORTANCE just two clues after OSCAR WILDE – being only slightly aware that I had garnered a few leonine allusions on the way. Nice one, Brockwell! After that, it was the usual fun all the way.
I agree with Coloradan and dougalf’s amendments to the parsing and I loved Protase’s neologism @20: I hope it catches on. 😉
I can’t see any more theme entries at the moment but I shan’t stop looking yet! My particular favourites were EL SALVADOR, INKPADS, RED ADMIRAL, IN NO TIME, MOUNTAIN, LIEBIG, ALEXIA and ASLANT – those 23s were the last in, by a long way.
Many thanks to Brockwell, as ever and to PeterO.
Top ticks for LEO, DETROIT (agree with C@5) and CATS
RED Lion also a very popular pub name in the UK
It seems to be the Guardian’s house style to ignore diacritics etc. in foreign words
Cheers C&P
DadsLad @27 – I’d already written and posted my comment when I saw yours: ‘Great minds …’
Great blog, thanks, I missed a couple of the easier parsings (eg, cadge).
As an aside, just wondering how many of you are in Australia – as opposed to how many are doing this in the middle of the night, like I do sometimes (sadly!)?
Eilleen @30……..Lank Keith I upset? (5,,5)
[bodycheetah @29: French and Italian crosswords ignore all diacritics, so this is kosher. Other languages certainly don’t, and modified letters have separate tiles in the corresponding Scrabble sets]
To add to the Spanish theme, Spaniards never refer to Real Madrid as Real, they just say ‘Madrid’. There are also Real Betis, Real Sociedad, Real Club Deportivo and probably a load more which English folk have by and large never heard of.
DadsLad @32 – lovely! 🙂
Did anyone try to work out how GEORGIA could be parsed in 20d, given that it does fit crossers (albeit not the answer)? I couldn’t get it out of my mind, as Ray Charles didn’t sing,
Unless I’ve been inattentive, lovely to hear from JinA@4.
I was tickled with the connotation at 1d – so neat.
Thanks to Brockwell for a good puzzle, and PeterO.
Very clever theme, although I can’t forgive the setter for forcing me to write MILLWALL. Roz will get the reference.
Ta Brockwell & PeterO.
nametab @36 – I meant to say how lovely it was to hear from JinA, too.
I haven’t found any more lions – yet. There are other things I ought to be doing but I’ve been searching for Michael Bond’s very friendly Parsley. 😉
Anyone else remember the GONK in the third column, cute furry creatures, but hardly leonine?
Finished, though not sure how as I was pigheadedly following the theme from the wrong end – having got LION and MILLWALL I assumed it was to do with the latter so went looking for COLD BLOW and LANE which is all I know about them. I further took the NHO film director to be one of their NHO players, but pegging him as a francophone that worked anyway. Ah well, at any rate I got there eventually.
Apart from never having heard of ALEXIA, SKIN GAME and LIEBIG before, I found this quite a straightforward solve. Even I noticed the Leo/Lion theme this time…
Mine
It’s also appropriate that this puzzle appears during LEO’s part of the astrological year.
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues and I like an animal theme , CLARENCE gave it away after seeing too many repeats of Daktari in the 70s . Surely sea-lions would be a better name for MILLWALL , AlanC @37 are they one of KPR’s 91 bogey teams ? And gonks were popular in the 1970s , much better than furbies .
How are we expected to know that some film director whose films are in English is a francophone?
Pretty good but rather spoiled by the egregiously wrong ANON, for reasons already explained. It’s one thing to omit diacriticals in loan words (such as ‘pate’ the other day), but this is a direct reference to an actual Spanish word which requires the diacritical in order not to alter the meaning. Also didn’t much like REAL, as simonc@34 points out.
[I once gifted my Spanish girlfriend a book lovingly inscribed: “Happy anniversary and thanks for a delightful year”. Or so I thought….]
Gladys @19, I’m not sure if the lion reference at 23A is intended to be Alex from the Madagascar movies, or one of the greatest female football / soccer players of all time, Alexia Putellas, who recently signed for the London City Lionesses
[ It is IO Wednesday in the FT today for anyone feeling leonine , it is not actually too scary . ]
Brockwell can take pride in this entertaining puzzle. The Spanish team referenced in 3 is an anagram of 24. Coincidence?
Not my favourite. Nho Clarence carriage, skin game or alexia (though easy to work out from dyslexia. And Liebig the chemist is too obscure for me though the clue is neat. Couldn’t parse STROLL or MAUL, and didn’t guess that Denis Villeneuve was a francophone (but the name is a bit of a clue). All quite clever though and nothing unfair. Just not my taste.
Ta Brockwell and PeterO for the excellent blog that enlightened me.
…forgot to mention that the young chap who put my cannula in at The Royal Papworth Hospital for my scan this morning was called LEO. By the by…
Billy Mills @25 – you obviously have not watched us play recently then.
Enjoyable crossword, an obviously favourite for me.
Thanks B.
[The] OED is lurking on Row 9. It was good not to require it.
I don’t think I’m fully athematic but I mostly experience themes subconsciously. Sensory athemia.
[HoofitYouDonkey @53: in fairness you have an excellent team and have practiced penalties obviously in the close season.
Roz @44: I’m sure your students will have already informed you of KPR topping the Championship with incidentally 14ad in 2nd place. My wife’s cousin’s grandson is called Leo and he is celebrating his 6th birthday today. I’m taking him to Loftus Rd along with his brother and mum for their first ever football match on Saturday – it may put them off for life😉]
Roz@44 We had gonk wallpaper in the bedroom I shared with my brother. I used to peel it off from the top bunk. But I fear that may date the gonks back even beyond the 70s! (Though not by much.)
AlanC @55 – good result for the ‘r’s last Saturday.
We are usually absolute rubbish at penalty shoot-outs, so you can count yourselves as very unlucky.
[ AlanC@55 , most of my students not here at the moment , I suspect you have been reading the newspaper across the breakfast table and not accounting for parity . Enjoy your outing on Saturday . ]
I imagine most people have used a LIEBIG condenser at school . I remember it even though I would just read my Physics books in all my lessons for minor subjects .
FU@56 , they were furry toys in the 70s but could have been around earlier .
Without enough time today I had a reveal-fest and still had need of the blog for some parsings – thanks both.
I can report gonks from in or around 1967.
As to the theme (and at the risk of revealing the need for therapy (too many crosswords)), I remark that row 14 is an anagram (bar the first two letters) of ‘I am not canine’….. (I need help!)
To expand a bit on PeterO’s observation: it’s interesting that PRESUME and ASSUME are close in meaning (etymologically), while PRES = ASS (semantically). I too tried to make ASSUME fit.
Alastair @45 to paraphrase the late, great Father Ted – that would be an epistemological matter
AlexinSG@48: unless Brockwell pays a visit to enlighten us (he is one of the setters who might), Alex can be either, or both.
Thanks Brockwell and PeterO. Tad #31, I’m Australian but it still took me all day to do. But my first Wednesday Guardian cryptic! Dare I do a Thursday.
Dadslad@32 Have mercy! We’re not all as clever as Eileen …
The lion is the king of beasts
And husband of the lioness.
Gazelles and things on which he feasts
Address him as “Your Hioness.”
There are those who admire that roar of his
On the African jungles and veldts,
But I think, wherever a lion is
I’d rather be somewhere else!
(Ogden Nash)
Thanks, Brockwell and PeterO
One of my first girlfriends had a collection of Gonks in what must have been 1964.
[Belatedly, Protase@20, et al – I suffer from Dysposteria – meaning I can’t be *rsed]
Lovely puzzle, BTW, TTS&B
Mostly straightforward, and I always enjoy Brockwell’s smooth surfaces. ALEXIA along with the intersecting CLARENCE and LIEBIG were new to me, the latter two holding me up for a while in finishing the SW corner. And as usual, the theme escaped me even though I did notice the mention of more than one lion, which might have helped with CLARENCE.
My one quibble is “old person” as a definition for INCAN.
Many thanks to PeterO for another excellent blog and to everyone else for the comments. Alex from Madagascar was my intention, but I’m delighted to have got the Exeter City mascot in as a bonus lion. All the best, B 🦁
Valentine @64 – just join up the dots …
Valentine @64, I just finished what Eileen started @32. Full phrase pleasingly is (5,5,5,5). Hope that helps
Alastair at 45: I didn’t know the film director but I did know the two F1 champions of that last name, so used them instead.
I was another one who spotted the O. Wilde Importance theme as I solved, though I did see the actual theme after completion.
Not only are Milwall FC known as the Lions, but I believe the Detroit Lions are an NFL team?
As pointed out by PeterO in his preamble.
Very pleased to have solved a Brockwell inside 20 minutes, which for any setter is almost unheard of for me. But I’ve struggled with Brockwell for months, or is it years, and we’ve finally clicked. It took me a seven mile walk interspersed with four pints of beer to get my brain cells working, so I don’t think I’ll be repeating this achievement any time soon. Though I’m going to give it a go. 😜
All the devices that this setter uses, and which habitually baffle me, were suddenly obvious, including TROLL(S) => STROLL, and the very funny and egregious ‘Benny Hill?’. Hilarious. 😀
Thanks to Brockwell /Grecian and PeterO. Let’s do it again sometime.
sheffield hatter @74
Congratulations – welcome to the club!
sh, that’ll be 2 x 4 + 1 as my wife would say😄. Well done.
Roz @44. Some of us in a similar league, sadly, are led by cheetahs… Very best wishes
Sorry that Wallace the Albertophage lion couldn’t be included.
Zoot @78
How could I have forgotten that one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaw-savyK0s
DANIEL in the LION’s DEN?
Shouldn’t “digital” be removed from the clue for INKPADS?
Fine and fun puzzle, except I missed 23a ALEXIA. Apart from that one, I was able to solve several nho’s. Noticed the cat theme
Favourites 12a DANIEL (good surface), 16a INKPADS (ditto), 18a NOBLEST (“in case” = LEST, which we saw recently), 21a CLARENCE (excellent alliteration!), 27a INCAN (“Hotel California”), 1d MOUNTAIN (“Benny Hill”, of course — delightful)
Roz snags the #42 spot with perfect timing, just two minutes after the previous, and three minutes before the next. I’ll have to be faster next time
Tony@80, as implied by PeterO in the preamble
TheFrog@81 re 16a, “digital” refers to the taking of fingerprints
Thanks both
Chargehand@77 do not think I know cheetahs ??
Mig@82 the last briefing clearly stated that comment 42 was only to be used by people with a bright yellow square .
Only just finished. Detroit loi. Needed your help to parse. Thanks.
SH@74 and Eileen @75: which club exactly? The 7 mile club, the 4 pint club or the very elite group who do both and then solve a brockwell in 20mins? (I took a lot longer but that was in the 6 whiskey club…). Enjoyed this but had to reveal the chemist. Missed the theme as usual although was also looking out for an Oscar Wilde theme as I got that and importance fairly early. Thanks not only to the blogger and setter but the other contributors for a very enjoyable blog…especially ricardo@47!
Roz#58 I really don’t think MOST people will have used a Liebig condenser at school.
To Mig@82 Tank you, but inkpads can be used for all sorts of things. So, was it necessary?
Alastair @45, re 20d, Denis Villeneuve is Canadian, and Canada is an officially bilingual (French/English) country; Denis is the French spelling of Dennis; and Villeneuve is obviously a French surname. That’s three clues that French might have something to do with the clue. Seems fair enough to me.
Thanks, B&P, for the enjoyable blog and puzzle.
[Crossbar @86.
I certainly did and I didn’t take Chemistry for O Level. It was a very basic experiment that didn’t require any dangerous chemicals and used Mr Bunsen’s flame to cook the soup. Still in vogue today for those who wish to distill their own spirits at home.
https://www.beer-tap-cooler.co.uk/other/distillation/distillery-alembic-whisky-premium-0-7l-with-spirit-burner-and-thermometer_454118_8155/?ReferrerID=7&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21418864223&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzOqb2dytlgMVIppQBh1USQJCEAQYBiABEgKHHvD_BwE
Essential knowledge for separating the harmful from good alcohol. Strangely these are freely available to purchase but seemingly it’s still illegal to do it without a license. Suspect it’s because you can do serious damage if you don’t have liebig condenser training.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpbkh39/revision/3%5D
Taffy@89 You were obviously lucky in your school. I didn’t as far as I can remember and I did Chemistry A-level pretty competently. My daughter didn’t either, but Mr. C did.
TheFrog@87 Perhaps not, but it does add to the “computer” misdirection, which adds to the fun!
Crossbar@86 , it is very basic and on the National Curriculum KS3 . Our sprogs did it in year 7 , salt water to pure water . Taffy @89 has more complex uses .
Mig and TheFrog@various , I thought the digital was clever deception . Clearly TheFrog is very well-behaved and has never had fingerprints taken .
This was a nice bedtime solve, and probably around Mini Cheddars on the PSRHS (pub snack-related hardness scale. I’m not sure whether Roz’s craving for the full pork scratchings has been met of late?)
Mrs. E spotted YOGI BEAR instantly, which was a great start. I even noticed a theme.
I always thought that some of OSCAR WILDE’s musings resembled those of François de la Rochefoucauld’s earlier ones, and someone more erudite than I will perhaps know whether he was an influence.
Thanks one and all.
[Roz@92 Ah well. No KS anything when “I were a lass”. Daughter would have been in Yr 7 in about ’94. She’d have remembered. I’m hoping this wasn’t because we were both in girls only schools. Mine was definitely poor on the sciences, and she pretty much taught herself Further Maths.]
Crossbar@94 I was the last but one year to do O Levels , pre National Curriculum , but we certainly did it lower down the school . Perhaps there is a complicated and important version of the condenser , ours was just a tube of cold water around another tube , very basic .
Roz, 95:
Ours had a coiled inner tube.
There’s swank for you.
Crossbar 94: I do wonder. Our mixed grammar school which I joined in 1965 was strong on science.
[Etu @96 Mine, joined in 1959 was a girls convent grammar. Hmm. Daughter’s was a girls grammar. We still live in a grammar school area with 11 plus. The grammars are single sex. I have heard it said though that girls do better in a single sex school, and boys in co-ed.]
Crossbar 97:
My eldest went to a grammar school – Halifax – for the same reason.
I think that the hearsay to which you refer probably has a good basis in reason – on a moment’s reflection!
Enjoyable and glad to finish. I was looking for Narnia as a ‘strange land’ in 12, but we got a hint of it in 23D.
I forgot to do the crossword yesterday, which is a shame because Brockwell is by far my favourite setter. I was hoping to find Snagglepuss somewhere in the grid but I suppose I’ll have to make do with Yogi Bear.
Denis Villeneuve’s right to film movie in US city (7)
Denis Villeneuve – Quebecoise filmmaker (French-speaking).
his right = DROIT (“right” in French).
to film – envelope indicator (the mentioned solution got this wrong)
movie – ET (the Spielberg movie)
So we have D(ET)ROIT. Not the way the solution above parses it.
Thanks AC @101. I hadn’t noticed that yesterday. Your parsing is exactly what I intended.