A quick solve overall, with several clues taking much longer to parse. My favourites were 20ac, 21ac, and 6dn. Thanks to Chandler
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | EULOGIZE |
Speak highly of one at a late stage in New York? (8)
|
| not sure if there’s more to the wordplay for this:
a cryptic definition, with “late” as in ‘dead’, so “one at a late stage” as in someone who has died and with “New York” to suggest the US spelling with -IZE instead of ISE |
||
| 9 | ELICIT |
Bring out client I fancy with no end of distinction (6)
|
| anagram/”fancy” of (clie n t I)*, without the n (“no end of distinctio-n“) | ||
| 10 | INUNDATE |
Overwhelm sister among papers at rear of office (8)
|
| NUN=”sister” inside ID (identification “papers”); plus AT (from surface) and rear letter of [offic]-E | ||
| 11 | FORBID |
Refuse to allow car around British institute (6)
|
| FORD=make of “car”, around B (British) + I (institute) | ||
| 12 | TAKE TO YOUR HEELS |
Quickly leave, like a woman fond of party footwear? (4,2,4,5)
|
| to take to something = to become fond of it, so to TAKE TO YOUR HEELS would make you “like a woman fond of party footwear” | ||
| 15 | STALK |
Follow sound of wader (5)
|
| sounds like ‘stork’=wading bird | ||
| 16 | CLOVE |
Bit of garlic learner put in sheltered place (5)
|
| L (learner) inside COVE=”sheltered place” | ||
| 20 | ROYAL COMMISSION |
Claim noisy rooms disrupted major enquiry (5,10)
|
| anagram/”disrupted” of (Claim noisy rooms) | ||
| 21 | HOBART |
Place to get round in sweltering island capital (6)
|
| definition: the state capital of Tasmania in Australia
BAR=”Place to get [a round of drinks]”; inside HOT=”sweltering” |
||
| 23 | HALLOUMI |
Recall current religious teacher grabbing ordinary grilled fare (8)
|
| reversall/”Recall” of I (symbol for electric current in physics) + MULLAH=”religious teacher”; around O (ordinary) | ||
| 25 | PRONTO |
Pair almost in dominant position very quickly (6)
|
| PR (abbreviation for “Pair”), plus almost all off ON TO-[p]=”in dominant position” | ||
| 26 | RECCEING |
Working in Greece shortly around clubs – what scouts have to do? (8)
|
| anagram/”Working” of (in Greec)* with Greec from “Greece shortly”; around C (clubs in playing cards) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BURNHAM |
Politician raising chap with problem about hospital (7)
|
| definition: Andy Burnham the UK Prime Minister
reversal/”raising” of MAN=”chap” + RUB=”problem” as in ‘there’s the rub’; around H (hospital) |
||
| 2 | POINSETTIA |
Plant set in patio awkwardly (10)
|
| anagram/”awkwardly” of (set in patio)* | ||
| 3 | RIGA |
Part of brigade in capital (4)
|
| definition: capital city of Latvia
hidden in [b]-RIGA-[de] |
||
| 4 | DEVELOP |
Day with November gone to hide progress (7)
|
| definition: progress as a verb
D (Day) + E-[N]-VELOP=”hide” with N for “November” gone |
||
| 5 | ZEFFIRELLI |
Last character following passion left detained by priest is director (10)
|
| definition: Franco Zeffirelli the film director
Z=”Last character” of the alphabet; plus all of: F (following) + FIRE=”passion” + L (left) inside ELI=”priest” from the Old Testament |
||
| 6 | LIAR |
Dishonest type in hide-out with switched contents (4)
|
| LAIR=”hide-out”, with its inside letters or “contents” switched around in order | ||
| 7 | RISIBLE |
One dubbed flipping guide missing opening farcical (7)
|
| SIR=someone who has received a knighthood via dubbing with a sword=”One dubbed”, reversed/”flipping”; plus [b]-IBLE=authoritative book on a topic=”guide” without its opening letter | ||
| 13 | ON LOCATION |
See Conservative in old country engaged in filming (2,8)
|
| LO=look, there!=”See” and C (Conservative), both inside: O (old) + NATION=”country” | ||
| 14 | ENVISIONED |
Imagined flying in nosedive (10)
|
| anagram/”flying” of (in nosedive)* | ||
| 17 | SOJOURN |
Stay in this way with diary having deleted a line (7)
|
| SO=”in this way” + JOURN-[AL]=”diary” minus A (from surface) and L (line) | ||
| 18 | AMPHORA |
A person in seat with Henry and Rita, maybe, has jar (7)
|
| A (from surface) + MP (Member of Parliament, “person in seat”) + H (Henry, SI unit of inductance) + ORA (Rita Ora the singer = “Rita, maybe”) | ||
| 19 | COMMENT |
Note words of approval after leaving place on island (7)
|
| COM-[PLI]-MENT=”words of approval”, minus PL (place) + I (island) | ||
| 22 | AUNT |
Family member frequented venue in Tower Hamlets? (4)
|
| H-AUNT=”frequented venue”, minus the starting H, as ‘dropping aitches’ is common in East London e.g. Tower Hamlets | ||
| 24 | LOCK |
First off, observe feature of a canal (4)
|
| to [c]-LOCK=to notice, to “observe”; with its first letter taken off |
My only quibble would be the pronunciation of the Tower Hamlets family member. And good to see our current PM make an appearance. EULOGIZED the loi…
Glad you thought this was quick, Manehi! Needed your help with EULOGIZE and COMMENT.
Did anyone else enter “TAKE TO ONES HEELS” first?
Thankyou. In 12 I thought it was the woman who “took to” her heels.
There was some really enjoyable stuff in here, but I can’t get over my annoyance at 8: the Z isn’t even checked, so why include it; 15: those two words don’t sound the same; 22: you end up with the same letters if you drop the H, but not the same sound; 26: wrong verb form. Add to that the fact that 12a could have been “take to one’s heels” if not for the crossers, and I was a bit grumpy this morning.
I did enjoy quite a lot of the rest. 9, 21, 13 were all very pleasant.
@crispy #2 — yes! Held us up a bit.
The business about the -ize or -ize spellings is quite interesting; there is a Wikipedia article about it here:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling I read quite a lot of old (early 20th and late 19th century) British fiction and regularly come across it. Certainly it has now become accepted as an American variant but it’s more complicated than that and certainly -ize is used in a number of British written contexts. p.s. I just now also came across “connexions” which I hadn’t seen for a good while, in a novel from 1949 written by an Oxford academic. So let’s be kind to the setter, eh?
…yes, the decision about whether it’s Your or One’s in phrases like that are always a bit of a toss of the coin. I had One’s in at first Crispy@2…
Thanks Chandler and manehi
Enjoyable puzzle, though some of the parsings took some working out. Held up by entering the hidden CLEAR for 16a, though a bit puzzled by the definition!
I agree with Tom @4 – there’s no reason to use the Z version rather than the S in 8a.
In Italy, PRONTO, CHI PARLA? is the standard response when you answer a phone. I don’t think it means “very quickly” – “at once” or “ready” is closer (I tried to justify PRESTO first).
Quite tough – this was not a quick solve for me!
I could not parse 19d – I was thinking (wrongly) that it was something to do with commend -> comment.
I was unsure how to parse 21ac BAR = ‘place to get round’ but could see it was BAR in HOT.
Favourite: BURNHAM because it’s the first time I saw him in a cryptic crossword.
Crispy@2 – I entered “TAKE TO ONES HEELS” first.
Re ONES / YOUR. I can’t recall a solution being YOUR beofre this – I’ve only ever seen ONES.
ISE seems to be the rule for British English these days, but at school I was told it should be ISE if the stem was Latin and IZE if it was Greek. A distinction of limited use to me.
Thanks to Chandler and to manehi for the parsing.
Further to travellingran @6:
I’ve published a few minor bits and pieces with OUP where the style sheet required spelling as per the OED and that august source does indeed recognize –IZE endings.
Under “recoginise”, for example, we find “var. of RECOGNIZE”.
Under “eulogise”, “var. of EULOGIZE”.
In this repect, “in Oxford” might be just as suitable as “in New York”.
PS: I am not American!
Muffin – Is it Sunday again?
I thought no more of the Z than that the setter was having a bit of fun pointing to the (mostly) US spelling. AUNT was entered but I came here to see if there was any more to it than the dropped H homophone/not homophone. Otherwise an awful lot to like this morning.
Thanks to Chandler and manehi
I found this a bit joyless and it certainly wasn’t a quick solve for me. I thought ROYAL COMMISSION and ENVISIONED were good anagrams and I enjoyed guessing ZEFFERELLI and then parsing after. I thought that the EULOGIZE spelling was chosen at the top of the grid to misdirect one/you towards looking for a pangram. RECCEING is such a horrible word and I agree with Crispy @10 that ‘your’ AMPHORA’d.
Ta Chandler & manehi.
Is the dropped H convention in HAUNT/AUNT just about spelling? If it needs the pronunciation, it really doesn’t work – they are pronounced quite differently (more or less HAWNT and ANT?).
AlanC @15
How did you parse ZEFFERELLI? I couldn’t until I checked and found it was ZEFFIRELLI!
muffin @16: there is no suggestion of a homophone, so I think it’s just the spelling and therefore worked for me. I had ZEFFERELLI as well to begin with but FIRE put me straight. I see I’ve made the same mistake @15 😊
AlanC @17 I would have said that the very allusion to cockneys is implying a homophone. After all they are noted for their speech, never their spelling.
Doofs @18: you make a very good point and I’m in agreement.
I share others’ views on the pointlessness of insisting on the Z spelling in 8 across, but my main gripe is that this clue hardly merits a place in a cryptic crossword.
Is there a directory of places where Brits drop their Hs? I’m having trouble keeping up.
Didn’t finish. Defeated by a few. Haven’t heard of Rita Ora (but BURNHAM was fine). How does one account for the second letter of ZEFFIRELLI?
Why do we need the US spelling for EULOGIZE? The clue would have worked just as well with an S.
I think the implied suggestion that Cockneys extend the dropping of the “h” to spelling as well as pronunciation is a bit of a stretch. I can only suppose that contriving to have two beds in the first two rows us a tribute to ZZ Top.
Two zeds, not two beds
The choice between YOUR and ONES in phrases like 12a almost always goes to ONES: luckily I had already solved ZEFFIRELLI so I missed the elephant trap.
Could not parse AUNT at all: although a sound-alike isn’t explicitly indicated, the use of “drop the H as they do in Tower Hamlets” strongly suggests one – and it isn’t there. Technically correct, I suppose, but I’m not happy about it.
Isn’t RECCEING an ugly word!
gladys @24: I said the same thing about RECCEING @15.
GDU @21: E comes from the first letter of ELI. The second E comes from FIRE.
muffin@8: PRONTO certainly does mean “quickly” in English – American English, so its origins there are likely to be cowboy Spanish rather than Italian. But in both those languages it also means “ready”, so it’s a good thing to say when answering the phone.
Like Tom@4, I had too many quibbles to find this enjoyable. It just all felt a bit clunky. No idea why it was necessary to use -IZE at 8A rather than the much more common -ISE. And 12A feels uncomfortable with a third person ‘woman’ in the clue leading to a second person adjective in the solution. Overall below expected standard, I’m afraid.
Very much a mixed bag for me. No idea of how to parse AUNT, and I echo Tom@4 regarding the Z, and the “sound-alike” at 15a. I think I’m going to call this sort of thing a homophorne from now on. I even had CLEAR as a hidden answer in 16a until I thought better of it.
Don’t see where the homophone comes into HAUNT. To me it’s simply “drop the H” to get AUNT.
Thanks, AlanC@25. I should’ve seen that.
I share in the general annoyance at 8A (which, even without the totally unnecessary -z-, was a bad example of a cryptic def for mine). Less troubled by some of the other quibbles, including the use of YOUR rather than ONE’S. Last ones in were COMMENT and DEVELOP – both very nice.
It seemed to be straightforward at the beginning but then it wasn’t! I couldn’t parse COMMENT because I thought the words of approval were mm (but I suppose that’s only one word). I liked the party footwear in TAKE TO YOUR HEELS, the noisy rooms for the ROYAL COMMISION, the place to get round in HOBART, the hospital problem for BURNHAM, and the person in seat with an AMPHORA.
Thanks Chandler and manehi.
GDU@21. It’s pretty common. And I guess I am. I’m from ‘arra in norf west lundun and ‘ave always dropped me ‘aitches. Drove me muvver round the bend.
Didn’t really enjoy this for all the reasons already mentioned. Which is why a daily fix of the Indy is mportant for me when I fail on the G. Did like AMPHORA.
Interesting to read all the gripes about 12a. I too started with “ones” heels, as I have come to realise that is more common than “your” in such expressions on this site
I don’t mind – I long ago accepted that the vast majority of posters here are far better educated than i am
But I cannot recall a similar outburst when “ones” reigned supreme over “your”
Enjoyed the whole thing regardless, so many thanks to both Chandler and (the much needed) Manehi
My old copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1936 edition) doesn’t even offer the -ise option for ‘eulogize’.
If you say “haunt” with a dropped H you get something like “awnt”. I can imagine King Charles saying that for “aunt”, but I doubt that any Cockney ever would!
I can’t help feeling that non-rhotic English is a speech defect.
Like Robi @32, I found this didn’t start like it meant to go on. Like Menander @31, my last two were COMMENT and DEVELOP; unlike Menander @31, I didn’t love the syntax, especially for DEVELOP. This didn’t feel as rewarding as some.
Thanks Chandler and manehi, I needed your expertise on a couple of these.
Crispy@10 Exactly my thoughts. I’ve only just taught myself to remember to always put ONES, and now this happens. 🤷
I didn’t really like this for all the reasons in the above comments. Nevertheless there were some nice clues in there. I liked 12a TTYH and I put in YOUR first time.
Thanks Chandlers and manehi
Re 22d. I have yet to hear anyone in the East End of London say I’m going to see my ornt.
The definitions were much easier than the parsing, which in my view was often rather contrived, the worst being EULOGIZE where Z is not even a crosser, but maybe this is just sour grapes from my failing to parse quite a few and not getting the Z spelling. Anyway, thanks Chandler and manehi
I still don’t understand”eulogize” whether spelt with a z or an s. Please explain more directly.
Thanks for the blog , easy parts but not overall , a good mix of clues .
Clive@43 it refers to the eulogy at a funeral , late stage means dead . I always use the -IZE ending when I can .
HOBART was very deceptive in the use of round .
I found this quite tough. And another pair of words that are homophones for maybe 1% of English speakers.
AUNT was a good clue with no problems at all . The defintion is family member and the rest is wordplay . Frequented venue is HAUNT but in Tower Hamlets this is ‘AUNT , how it is pronounced does not matter , it is just putting the right letters in the grid .
It is the same as having – frequented venue but not initially – again the pronunciation does not matter . Anyway AUNT is pronounced ANT .
BigNorm @27: “No idea why it was necessary to use -IZE at 8A rather than the much more common -ISE.” While I agree that specifying the North American spelling didn’t seem to serve a purpose, I do have to take issue with “much more common.” The -ize spelling is universal in the US and Canada, and there are more of us than there are of you by a factor of like five or six, so. (Yes, I know that most speakers of English as a second language use British English, but still. Much more common?)
Maybe the setter wanted the Z for variety, or to keep us on our toes.
Billy Mills#45 the most frequent place for a eulogy is at a funeral.
Pronto means quickly in the Lone Ranger’s remark “Onto Toronto pronto Tonto”
Had to take two stabs at this since it took me longer than the usual 30 minute train ride. Finished in my lunch break. Some parsings eluded me, so thanks to the blogger. I don’t think I would have got COMMENT, HALLOUMI or RISIBLE from the wordplay alone.
I got AUNT from crossers and echo the confusion in the comments on the homophone.
DNF technically because I spelt EULOGISE the UK way.
Roz@46 I think the question is whether the Cockney indicator can fairly extend to the spelling of the word rather than just the sound.
My approach is the same as @Roz 46 and others – I treat Cockney references as a form of initial letter deletion indicator, not as suggesting a homophone.
@mrpenney 47 – I feel that the -z- was essentially a red herring, padding out a clue that had a non-cryptic definition very much in the foreground (to eulogise being ‘to speak highly of’, albeit that the term is most commonly used of funeral speeches).
Oboist@35. The old OED having EULOGIZE fits with my comment @11, as the word has Greek roots.
Perhaps I should change my moniker to “Dinosaur”.
I’m not sure when Chandler was last in Tower Hamlets but I lived there about 40 years ago and it was a predominantly Asian population. Agree with Roz et al that it’s just a deletion indicator
Cheers C&M
I think 12a should have been expressed as a command: “Leave, quickly!”, where YOUR would be more natural than ONES in the answer. It didn’t make any difference to me as I still couldn’t solve 4d. 🤔
AUNT had a tacit suggestion of a soundalike, but I bunged it in and shrugged.
The setter was trying to make the very straightforward definition for 8a trickier by referring to American spelling, but there are surely better ways to improve the clue – making it worse is not a good idea.🙄
Is the soundalike clue for STALK deliberately provocative? Perhaps Chandler never reads comments on crossword blogs, and who could blame him.😂
Thanks to setter and blogger as ever.
Peter@50 , if you read Orwell etc , when they reproduce Cockney speech , they just write ‘AUNT . I cannot see any reason at all here to change the spelling .
Thanks to S & B. I enjoyed this mostly but I think 8a was a very weak clue. Even if I had picked up on the NY indication to use the Z spelling (which I didn’t), I think the “cryptic” definition is inadequate. Sorry! Sheffield hatter has it exactly.
Agree with those complaining about the redundancy of New York in 8a, only to add that one should criticize the editor as much as the setter.
Also agree with those who found this a lot harder than manehi did! I needed the blog to parse EULOGIZE, which is very clever in hindsight (apart from the Z); AMPHORA, never having heard of Rita Ora; and COMMEND where I flapped around trying to do something with COMMENT.
HOBART was a favorite.
travellingran @6: as a former Brit now entrenched in the US, the S/Z business routinely trips me up. To make things worse, there are some US words that have retained the S (such as “advize”).
Thank you to manehi for the blog and Chandler for the challenge
All done, except for the pesky Z in 8a EULOGIZE. Yes, Roz, yet again I should have trusted the wordplay!
Anyway, this was mostly straightforward, with many satisfyingly solved from the wordplay. The NW and SE, though, were more challenging, with most entered from definitions and parsed after. Not convinced by many of the surfaces. 14d ENVISIONED was good, though
15a STALK, I’m not going to mention how annoying the non-rhotic soundalike was 🙂
DonRogers@48 Loved the Lone Ranger quote!
[Roz, base 14]
Thanks both
The dropped H is a quirk of speech, not writing, so the sounds should match rather than just the spellings. Would someone actually write ‘aunt unless they were trying to indicate the dropped letter in a crossword?
Thanks both,
My sympathies are with the setter in 8a. As the last but one letter was not checked, something was needed to determine whether it should be an ess or a zed. The setter’s solution was as good as any.
Mr Penney @47 – Fair point. I should have said ‘much more common in the UK’. The -ise/-ize thing is not just geographic though: it’s temporal as well. As another poster has mentioned, ‘eulogize’ is the spelling mentioned in the 1936 edition of the SOED, and I dare say there will be many other verbs in that edition with an -ize ending. I don’t know when -ise became more common on this side of the pond: it could be in my lifetime (I’m 65); I’m sure it would have been in my father’s. One for the lexicographers amongst us to advise on, perhaps. I’d say, as a Brit, that EULOGIZE isnt wrong, and it’s not exclusively American either; but it is unusual for Brits in the modern era.
-ise or -ize came up on Sunday (as Crispy suggested earlier). See my post @26 here.
Jacob @57. Advise doesn’t even have the Z option, in Chambers since it’s origins aren’t Greek.
Thank you Chandler for the puzzle.
In the excellent blog, manehi explains the clue for EULOGIZE very well. The cryptic definition could end in –ISE or –IZE, but the “New York” points us towards an American spelling.
Though, as many contributors have suggested, that is arguable.
If there is “more to the wordplay”, as manehi perhaps wonders, it may be that Chandler has chosen New York – as opposed to Sheboygan or Kalamazoo – simply to throw us off-track for a second, wondering how to include the letters NY.
But hold your horses! Wiki tells us there are several New Yorks. Most are in the USA, but three are in England – one in Lincolnshire, one in Yorkshire and one on Tyneside.
On a headcount, though, I think -IZE still wins.
If I’m honest, I still can’t see how 12 works. I can see that “a woman fond of party footwear” would “take to heels” – but then so would “a woman fond of footwear” since “heels” can be worn at places other than parties. So is the word “party” significant – Robi@32 liked “party footwear” but doesn’t elaborate. Is it that “party” is being used to indicate a person such as in “third party”? So is the “party” in this case the solver in which case “a woman fond of party footwear” would (from the perspective of the setter talking to the solver) “take to your heels”? (Of course, I always wear heels when solving the Guardian cryptic!)
Muffin@59 , Orwell certainly would and Angus Wilson . Try Down and Out …..
or Anglo-Saxon Attitudes .
Roz @66
But only in reported speech, surely?
Which is exactly what the setter is doing . I have said too much already and if I need to explain there is no point me explaining . Screen off .
I think you are missing the point, Roz. If the writer writes ‘aunt, he is expecting you to hear it as “awnt”, not “ant”.
Jacob@57 Presumably you’ve got COMMEND and COMMENT in the wrong order?
Tyngewick@60 Or the setter just takes as a given that, in a UK puzzle, it’s going to be ‘ise’. And tough on our American friends if they get a technical DNF. I spent ages trying to get something out of the wordplay to justify EULOGISE and didn’t really enjoy the PDM. Felt rather anticlimactic.
I think the setter could have bolstered his argument with 22 as “Family member frequented venue in Tower ‘Amlets?”.
Pretty good puzzle but DNF for me with AMPHORA, DEVELOP and COMMENT going begging. I never did figure out the parsing of the latter but no complaints after seeing manehi’s explanation. Grilled fare for HALLOUMI seemed a bit arbitrary since it’s often fried. I enjoyed HOBART (hope TassieTim liked it too).
Sympathis/ze with the quibbles about 8. It’s just clunkier as written. Better IMHO to lose the last 3 words and use the S.
Quite gentle until it wasn’t, but good fun overall.
Thanks, S&B.
Thanks Chandler for a satisfying challenge. I found this fairly straightforward until it wasn’t. I ended up revealing DEVELOP and COMMENT and there were scattered bits of parsing that eluded me. Favourites included FORBID, TAKE TO YOUR HEELS (has ‘ones’ originally but 5d fixed that), ROYAL COMMISSION, POINSETTIA, ON LOCATION, and ENVISIONED. Thanks manehi for the blog.
Putting aside all the wrangling about ‘aunt, where I can accept it’s at least debatable, I’m amazed that I’m the only one pedantic enough to be upset that 26 is a gerund and not an infinitive!
Too many clunky, ponderous clues for me. And the parsing of Zeffirelli is just painful. Very much a curate’s egg. Sorry, Raymond.
Thanks Chandler and Manehi. Much harder than it should have been after a week off the cryptic. Thanks also to Sheffield Hatter #54 for the much improved clue for TAKE TO YOUR HEELS – by convention I think it should have been ONES. Also don’t like EULOGIZE – not for the Z, but for the lack of cryptic construct. In the absence of that, the reference to NY is the only way of indicating that the solution has Z rather than S. On the Z, I have always been told that the -IZE ending is the Oxford spelling – known to me as the “Oxford Zed”. As such, also agree with those above that something like “traditionally in Oxford” to replace “in NY” would be better.
I’ll have one go at picking up the baton from Roz.
Muffin@69 – the wordplay leads to the letters you enter in the grid, not how you pronounce them. The family member is irrelevant to that part of the clue
DuncT @76
At least you surely must agree that it would have been a far better clue if the pronunciations had matched?
Mixed review.
I’d never have thought of “envelop” for “hide.” Surely there are simpler synonyms?
Jacob#57 Commend is certainly a word of approval, but there’s no such word as “complimend,” so the answer has to be COMMENT.
Thanks Chandler and manehi.
DuncT @76
I think I can get on board with that general idea and agree that it’s not necessarily _wrong_, but I (and it seems many others) feel that it’s quite jarring to be taken to sounds-like territory and suddenly need to find our way back at the last step.
Late to the game, but it may be of interest to some to note that in “New” England, the sister of a parent is quite frequently pronounced something like “ahnt” or even “awnt.” At least that’s the way I heard it from my relatives who dwelt there.
I was a bit flummoxed by a number of the clues and parsings as previously mentioned, but while noting the Z/S trigger in 8a, was completely okay with using “New York” as a basis for throwing in the otherwise arbitrary Zed. Liked ROYAL COMMISSION, HOBART, INUNDATE and ZEFFIRELLI, but was done for with DEVELOP, AMPHORA and COMMENT. Thanks to manehi for sorting these out and to Chandler for an enjoyable head bang.
[muffin @8 – “pronto” as in “pronto chi parla” does indeed mean “ready”. It’s a uniquely Italian hangover from the days when calls were connected by an operator who would then inform the participants that “la collagimento e pronto” – “the line is ready” – and both parties would then also say “pronto” to confirm the connection. Long distance calls in Italy were still operator connected into the 1970s which may explain the persistence of it. I like the directness of it.]
I thought of ‘kick up your heels’ to begin with
i think that”pronto” in American English means not so much “quickly” as “right now.”
It didn’t even vaguely cross my mind to look for a homophone at 22D. It was a write in. I’m not surprised there is chuntering today, but some of it feels like wasted energy.
with ise/ize endings, I may be in the minority as an english speaker of english, but I think ‘z’ is underemployed, & that its use in these words keeps it busy.
but the clue itself…. where was it? that was just a definition with a note to spell it the US way if you felt like it- it made no difference anyway.
dunno.
halloumi wanted to go in early doors too, but I kept hearing this voice in my head, “what are you on about? it’s cheese”, so it stayed on the spare paper at the side.
Not a solver-friendly grid. Unchecked letters outnumber checked by a substantial margin, and only 8 of 26 answers have a checked first letter. For me that added to the challenge but not to the enjoyment.
My homophone issue was with stork.