We have a puzzle from Bard today.
Tuesday is theme day in the Independent, but it took me a while to track down the theme. I could see a few musical references. Mendelssohn wrote an oratorio, ELIJAH; NOCTURNES are musical compositions (Mendelssohn wrote one of those too, for A Midsummer Night’s Dream); an OBOE is a musical instrument, and there are Musicals entitled CHICAGO and SIX. Finally, TANGO and POP are musical genres. However, I didn’t think those words formed a cohesive theme.
It was pure chance when looking at the content of the musical CHICAGO in a bit more detail that I discovered that “POP!, SIX!, SQUISH!, UH-UH!, CICERO!, LIPSCHITZ!” are the spoken word sound effects and names uttered by the six murderesses at the start of the song CELL BLOCK TANGO. This seems to me to be a real joined-up theme.
When trying to parse TRUNCHEON, I got a bit bogged down trying to work in LUNCH or LUNCHEON, before I finally hit on BRUNCH as the important wordplay component.
The puzzle is a pangram.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Trendy adult board game place in the USA (7)
CHICAGO (city [place] in the USA) CHIC (elegant and fashionable; trendy) + A (adult) + GO (a board game) CHIC A GO |
| 5 | Posh snack not available in wrap (6)
CANAPÉ (a small biscuit or piece of pastry or bread, etc., with a savoury filling or spread, usually served with drinks; posh snack) NA (not available) contained in (in) CAPE (covering for the shoulders; wrap) CA (NA) PE |
| 8 | Examined origins of surveillance culture with subjective article (6)
SCOPED (examined) SC (first letters of [origins of] each of Surveillance and Culture) + OP–ED (a newspaper article printed opposite the editorial column, usually expressing the personal opinions of the writer) S C OPED |
| 9 | Reference facsimile fooling Yard initially, ensnaring corrupt police (4,4)
FILE COPY (a COPY [facsimile] FILEd for reference) FY (first letters of [initially] each of Fooling and Yard) containing (ensnaring) an anagram of (corrupt) POLICE F (ILE COP*) Y |
| 10 | Proportion and flair backing up the basis of one’s argument (9)
RATIONALE (underlying principle; basis for one’s argument) RATIO (proportion) + ELAN (dash; flair) reversed (backing up) RATIO NALE< |
| 11 | Hush hush letters periodically redacted? No! (2-2)
UH-UH (a sound used in place of ‘no’ or to express disagreement) UHUH (letters remaining visible in hUsH hUsH when letters 1, 3, 5 and 7 are censored [redacted]) U H–U H |
| 13 | Dust and mineral aggregate on the beach (6)
ASHORE (on the beach above the tide line) ASH (dust) + ORE (mineral) ASH ORE |
| 15 | Old volunteers with Oxfam, say, getting letter from NATO (5)
TANGO (TANGO is one of the code words in the NATO alphabet, referring to the letter T; T [TANGO] is also just a letter from the acronym NATO) TA (Territorial Army, the former [old] name for volunteer army personnel) + NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation. At its highest level, Oxfam is a federation of international NGOs) TA NGO |
| 17 | Prevent fellow in congregation giving way to Bishop (5)
BLOCK (prevent) FLOCK (congregation) with F (fellow) being replaced by (giving way to) B (Bishop) to form BLOCK BLOCK |
| 18 | Crush something quickly underfoot it smells horrible at first (6)
SQUISH (crush) SQUISH (initial letters of [at first] each of Something, Quickly, Underfoot, It, Smells and Horrible) S Q U I S H |
| 20 | Via telephone, flog basic accommodation (4)
CELL (an example of basic accommodation) CELL (sounds like [via telephone] SELL [flog]) CELL |
| 21 | German mathematician’s slip up with constant affected variable (9)
LIPSCHITZ (reference Rudolf LIPSCHITZ [1832 – 1903], German mathematician) Anagram of (up) SLIP + C (a constant) + HIT (affected) + Z (a letter frequently used to denote a variable in mathematics) LIPS* C HIT Z |
| 23 | Moulding composite of agar and salt (8)
ASTRAGAL (a small semicircular moulding) Anagram of (composite of) AGAR and SALT ASTRAGAL* |
| 25 | Prophetic chap discovering relic with consent in Berlin hotel (6)
ELIJAH (a prophet; prophetic chap) ELI (letters remaining in rELIc after the outer letters R and C are removed [dis-covering]) + JA (German word for yes; consent in Berlin) + H (hotel is the international radio communication codeword for the letter H) ELI JA H |
| 26 | One unfairly judging women s cycling prevails (6)
EXISTS (continues; prevails) SEXIST (one unfairly judging women) with all the letters cycled one place left and round to the end to form EXISTS EXISTS |
| 27 | Animal biting worker sent back and tagged again (7)
RENAMED (tagged again) (DEER [animal] containing [biting] MAN [worker]) and reversed (sent back) (RE (NAM) ED)< |
| Down | |
| 1 | Old statesman‘s company importing wild rice (6)
CICERO (CICERO [106BC – 4BC] was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, and writer) CO (company) containing (importing) an anagram of (wild) RICE C (ICER*) O |
| 2 | Enter home quietly removing contents of unit (5)
INPUT (enter [data]) IN (home) + P (piano; quietly) + UniT excluding the central characters [content] N and I IN P UT |
| 3 | Novel, we hear, about university detective and bespectacled bachelor not bad! (5,4)
AUDIO BOOK (a novel that is listened to rather than read in print form) A (about) + U (university) + DI [Detective Inspector] + (B [bachelor] contained in the letters OO representing a pair of glasses [bespectacled]) + OK (not bad) A U DI O(B)O K |
| 4 | Rotten, worthless and wrong in 1A (3,4)
OFF BASE (North American [CHICAGO {entry at 1 across}} term for ‘wrong’) OFF (rotten) + BASE (worthless) OFF BASE |
| 5 | Output a little lower? (5)
CALVE (produce a calf [a small animal that moos or lows; a little lower) CALVE – this is a cryptic definition referencing a cow giving birth to [producing] a calf CALVE |
| 6 | Night airs destabilised vessels, we gather (9)
NOCTURNES (dreamy, romantic or pensive musical pieces [airs], generally for the piano, especially associated with the name of its inventor John Field (1782\sm1837) and Chopin, who developed it; moonlight or night scenes; night airs) NOCT (sounds like [we gather] KNOCKED [destabilised]) + URNES (sounds like [we gather] URNS (vessels)) NOCT URNES |
| 7 | Regularly prompt old man (3)
POP (father; old man) POP (letters 1, 3 and 5 [regularly] of PrOmPt) P O P |
| 12 | Ingredient served up in yakimono dumplings? (4)
UDON (in Japanese cookery, a thick noodle made from wheat flour; ingredient) UDON (reversed [served up; down entry] hidden word in [in] yakimoNO DUmplings) UDON< |
| 14 | Will Ross love aroused primate? (4,5)
SLOW LORIS (small primate of South Asia) Anagram of (aroused) WILL ROSS and O (character representing zero, the love score in tennis) SLOW LORIS* |
| 15 | Staff mid-morning meal starting late unfortunately, one behind time (9)
TRUNCHEON (a staff of authority) T (time) + bRUNCH (mid-morning meal) excluding the first letter B (starting late) + an anagram of (unfortunately) ONE T RUNCH EON* |
| 16 | Old boy with old English instrument (4)
OBOE (musical instrument) OB (old boy) + OE (Old English) OB OE |
| 18 | More plastic goods provided by this company? Not one! (7)
SUPPLER (more flexible; more plastic) SUPPLiER (company that provides goods and/or services) excluding (not) I (Roman numeral for one) SUPPLER |
| 19 | Comedian taking topping off quattro formaggi, perhaps – oddly rude (6)
IZZARD (reference Suzy Eddie IZZARD [born 1962], British comedian, actress and activist) pIZZA (quatro formaggi [four seasons] is a popular pizza purchase) excluding the first letter P (taking topping off) + RD (letters 1 and 3 [oddly] of RuDe) IZZA RD |
| 21 | Poor shots caught, making marks on players’ shirts (5)
LOGOS (sponsorship symbols or marks on players’ clothing) LOGOS (sounds like [caught] LOW [poor] GOES [shots]) LOGOS |
| 22 | Bard would and Bard is accepting hug – that’s a specific way to put it (5)
IDIOM (mode of expression peculiar to a language; that’s a specific way of putting it) I’D (I [Bard is the setter] would) +(I ‘M [Bard is, I am] containing [accepting] O [a symbol often used to represent a hug]) ID I (O) M |
| 24 | Number 9 supporting Sunderland originally (3)
SIX (a number) S (first letter of [initially] Sunderland) + IX (Roman numeral for 9) S IX – as this is a down entry, the letters IX ‘support’ the letter S) |
I didn’t spot it but that is a really good theme. Like the best themes in this type of crossword, you don’t need to spot it to have an enjoyable time.
I progressed until I stopped. nho the German and was left wondering which three letter ‘affected’ would fit. Also, OFF BASE is a phrase I have heard and seen but I wouldn’t particularly associate it with the US. Those two aside, a pleasant puzzle with RATIONALE being my favourite.
Thanks both
I thought this was fairly ordinary and went in too quickly apart from the mathematician which was a google once I could hold out no longer. And ‘hit’ for ‘affected’ beat me so I’m a sore loser today. Now I have been alerted to a theme I acknowledge that Bard has put a lot of work into the puzzle and that it was clearly signposted at 1a. But musicals aren’t my cuppa tea. I remember going to Hair in 1971. Towards the end of the run we found we could sneak into the Opera House on Manners Street near the end and get up on stage and cavort with the cast for the finale. That was fun. Thanks to Duncan and Bard.