It’s the end of the week and it’s no surprise we have a Phi puzzle to blog.
There were a few tricky parsings along the way and a couple of long anagrams. It wasn’t until we came to write up the blog that we worked out the parsing for 23ac.
No complaints from us today and no theme from what we can see but that’s no surprise either!
An anagram (‘replaced’) of RHEINGOLd missing last letter (‘mostly’) and N (new)
C (clubs) LIMB (member)
A reversal (‘recalled’) of TUG (draw) around AM (morning)
HUFF (upset) and L (Liberal) in RESEt (new arrangement) missing last letter (‘mostly’)
OTT (over the top – ‘outrageous’) L (Latin) inside (‘penned by’) THREe (trio) missing last letter (‘cutting end’)
A reversal (‘backtracking’) of A (America) IS about ERR (mistake)
A reversal (‘turning’) of I’M and an anagram (randomly) of CRIMSON around (‘clutching’) I (one)
COD (fish) around (‘biting’) L (line)
TO ME (in my opinion)
HEAR (try) BREAK (holiday) after T (last letter or ‘closure’ of resort)
DR (medic) around (‘protecting’) lODGE (society members) missing first letter (‘heading off’)
dISCOUNT (reduced price) with ‘d’ (500 in Roman numerals) reduced by 99% to V (5 in Roman numerals)
A L (large) LEVItATE (rise) ‘ignoring’ the first ‘t’ (time)
SIR (man) around (’embracing’) W (wife) + L (student)
sAMPLE (number in survey) missing first letter (‘not initially’)
THREe TENS (thirty) with one ‘e’ (earl) replaced by A (Australian)
An anagram (‘wild’) of MATERIAL G (first letter or ‘introduction’ to girl) MADE IT. We had to check this in Chambers.
HOME (in) RICh (full) missing last letter (‘not quite’)
OT (Old Testament – ‘religious texts’) in (‘held by’) NATION (country)
RID (free) in an anagram (‘tripping’) of SURREAL. We had to check this – it is a book written in the 1820s by William Cobbett.
O S H (last or ‘final’ letters of intO thiS luncH) after N (noon)
US (American) inside (‘coming into’) COIN (money)
I NO (never) around (‘importing’) FERN (non-flowering plant)
An anagram (‘getting drunk’) of STRIKES TABLE END
A reversal (‘uprising’) of RUM (curious) around (‘keeping’) an anagram (‘unsettled’) of NIGERIA
An anagram (‘manoeuvres’) of BASIC before a reversal (‘up’) of ASS
A Spoonerism of FLOOD MAP – ‘plan for water incursion’. We don’t like spoonerisms usually, but this one was good – in our opinion
E (ecstasy) LIVE (as it happens) around (‘keeping’) US (our group)
EU (Europium) V (vanadium) inside ORE (mineral)
ST (stone) around (‘containing’) AL (aluminium)
Anagrams are often there to help the solver into a puzzle: on this occasion they were responsible for my biggest challenges. nho MIGRAINEUR and am surprised to find the French (presumably) felt it deserved a word of its own; I needed all the crossers to fit that one in. ABSCISSA only vaguely recalled. LEGITIMATE DRAMA was clearly an anagram but I normally do them in my head and got nowhere with it for a long time. Crossers suggested LEGITIMATE but I was hesitant to enter DRAMA and ended up staring and that and the interlinking DODGER for ages.
I thought LOHENGRIN was an excellent clue. Thanks both
A few semi-unknowns for me…the likes of MIGRAINEUR / RURAL RIDES / LEGITIMATE DRAMA, but no complaints, every clue works well.
There have been some dodgy Spoonerisms of late, but not here: MUDFLAP , very crafty.
I get the feeling there’s something afoot, but only
“AND GAS” across the middle seemed a player, and I can’t find any links.
Phi on form, which is great. Thanks, and so too, to B and J
LOHENGRIN very neat and was my first one in! Only two Wagner operas fit the space. Got MIGRAINEUR although nho by getting the M and guessing something to do with migraine. Phi’s clues usually work out in hindsight so that you do know you’ve got the right answer. But couldn’t have got THREATENS so thanks B&J for the explanation. Found this quite difficult in parts. Thanks Phi and B&J
Thanks both. On the basis I dislike opera, object to anagrams for unknowns and campaign for English language answers, I was pleased to get LOHENGRIN eventually. RURAL RIDES seems an odd pick given its year of publication. LOI OEUVRE – AI informs me a mineral is not an ore, but I will leave that to our scientific contributors to adjudicate.
TFO @4: a mineral may not be an ore, but an ore is invariably a mineral (specifically, one from which a particular desired metal can be extracted).
Bert was reading the paper today and noticed that on this day in 1850, Franz Liszt conducted the first performance of Lohengrin. We couldn’t find any other references unfortunately.
No theme today. I am a migraineur, though thankfully much less often than in my twenties, and I have looked into the subject a bit so it went in without too much thought.
There is, of course, a companion clue for Rheingold in the offing sometime.
LOHENGRIN was the first Wagner opera I saw staged, late seventies. I hated it. But over the next few years, I fell in love with Wagner. Last few Saturdays I’ve been going through the Ring cycle again. Siegfried tomorrow.
I knew MIGRAINEUR. I too, suffered from migraines. About once a week. Then, after a heart problem five years ago, I was put on beta blockers which seems to have stopped them.