Goliath is this morning’s setter.
Right up until the last couple of clues, I thought this was on the easier side of the Goliath spectrum, then it took a few minutes to see the parsing of NOSTALGIC, and the parsing of FRIEND defeated me. It has to be the answer, but I don’t see where Dr Evil comes in to it. I’m sure someone will enlighten me, though. EYES RIGHT was my favourite clue, and the aforementioned FRIEND my LOI.
Thanks, Goliath
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MARTINI |
Cocktail skirt full of style (7)
|
| MINI (“skirt”) full of ART (“style”) | ||
| 5 | SILICON |
Colin is building a semiconductor (7)
|
| *(Colin is) [anag:building] | ||
| 9 | DRAMA |
Doctor in the morning facing a crisis (5)
|
| Dr. (doctor) + AM (ante meridiem, so “in the morning”) facing A | ||
| 10 | ERGONOMIC |
So no recording device can be both practical and convenient (9)
|
| ERGO (“so”) + NO + MIC(rophone) (“recording device”) | ||
| 11 | SALT CELLAR |
Last resort vendor said to be one that stores seasoning (4,6)
|
| *(last) [anag:resort] + homophone/pun/aural wordplay [said] of SELLER (“vendor”) | ||
| 12/6 | PLOTLINE |
Story with us making lentil soup (8)
|
| *(lentil soup) is anagram [making] of PLOTLINE US | ||
| 14 | TRANQUILLISE |
Writer outwardly in tears managed to calm down (12)
|
| QUILL (“writer”) with *(in tears) [anag:managed] outwardly | ||
| 18 | QUINTESCE NCE |
Epitome of complex sentences to follow a French question (12)
|
| *(sentences) [anag:complex] to follow QUI (“a question” (who?) in “French”) | ||
| 21 | AWRY |
Wrong to be wary when leaders change (4)
|
| (WA)RY when leaders (first letters) change becomes (AW)RY | ||
| 22 | PASSED OVER |
Ignored antiquated port (6,4)
|
| PASSÉ (“antiquated”) + DOVER (“port”) | ||
| 25 | EYES RIGHT |
Military command making sense about the ides of March (4,5)
|
| EYESIGHT (“sense”) about [the ides of (i.e. the middle of] (ma)R(ch) | ||
| 26 | THREE |
Where to find inaccurate number (5)
|
| The solution to “three” down is INACCURATE, so THREE is “where to find inaccurate” | ||
| 27 | PSYCHIC |
Clairvoyant is occasionally posey and elegant (7)
|
| [occasionally] P(o)S(e)Y + CHIC (“elegant”) | ||
| 28 | REDHEAD |
Ginger Romeo? (7)
|
| The HEAD of R(ED) is R, “Romeo” in the NATO phonetic alphabet | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MEDUSA |
Gorgon alarmed us all, to some extent (6)
|
| Hidden in [to some extent] “alarMED US All” | ||
| 2 | REALLY |
Join again indeed (6)
|
| RE-ALLY (“join again”) | ||
| 3 | INACCURATE |
Wrong home account by clergyman (10)
|
| IN (“home”) + Ac. (account) by CURATE (“clergyman”) | ||
| 4 | IDEAL |
Trader’s declaration is spot on (5)
|
| I DEAL (“trader’s declaration”) | ||
| 5 | SIGNATURE |
Special interest group starts environment subscription (9)
|
| S(pecial) I(nterest) G(roup) [starts] + NATURE (“environment”) | ||
| 7 | COMPLAIN |
Grumble as corrupt policeman misses the last bit of evidence (8)
|
| *(policman) [anag:corrupt] where POLICMAN is POLIC(e)MAN missing the last bit of (evidenc)E | ||
| 8 | NICETIES |
French city connections showing elements of refinement (8)
|
| NICE (“French city”) + TIES (“connections”) | ||
| 13 | ELUCIDATED |
Cryptic clue by Goliath: old-fashioned or enlightened? (10)
|
| *(clue) [anag:cryptic] by I (“Goliath”, the setter) + DATED (“old-fashioned”) | ||
| 15 | NOSTALGIC |
Different age once, still endlessly harking back (9)
|
| *(ag onc stil) [anag:different] where AG ONC STIL is AG(e) ONC(e) STIL(l) [endlessly] | ||
| 16 | SQUARE UP |
Settle with supermodel, as admitted (6,2)
|
| *(super) [anag:model] with QUA (“as”) admitted | ||
| 17 | FIERCELY |
Celery, if cooked with vigour (8)
|
| *(celery if) [anag:cooked] | ||
| 19 | AVERSE |
Hostile lines (6)
|
| A VERSE (a poem, so “lines”) | ||
| 20 | FRIEND |
Mate could be Dr Evil? (6)
|
| Don’t know how to parse this? | ||
| 23 | SITAR |
Artist mostly playing this instrument (5)
|
| *(artis) [anag:playing] where ARTIS is ARTIS(t) [mostly] | ||
| 24 | ARCH |
Marble perhaps used in popular churches (4)
|
| Hidden in [used in] “populAR CHurches” |
FRIEND is R in FIEND (R in DEVIL).
Many amusing clues and interesting devices. Different to loonapick, I thought this was on the difficult side. I wonder what others think.
MEDUSA was a lovely clue that made me smile, REALLY was clever, and I liked the surfaces of PSYCHIC, PASSED OVER, AVERSE (took me a long time to see that one), IDEAL (ditto), & INACCURATE (ditto)
PLOTLINE was a bit remote, but interesting. I too could not parse FRIEND and I think I put it also in the “remote” bucket now I see the explanation of Hovis@1. SQUARE UP was another parsing fail as I did not know qua – apparently an English word as well as Latin.
Thanks Goliath and loonapick
I don’t know enough Latin to have parsed SQUARE UP. And I couldn’t parse FRIEND (and still don’t see it after Hovis’s explanation).
All else fell into place and was enjoyable.
Happy to wake up to a Goliath puzzle on a public holiday. It was a good source of entertainment as we have come to expect from this setter; playful with some very good surfaces.
Favourites included ERGONOMIC, SILICON, COMPLAIN, SQUARE UP and ELUCIDATED.
I liked the conjunction of ‘passé’ and ‘dated’; what with ‘square’ as well, I wondered if something was afoot but if so, it has eluded me.
Thanks Goliath and Loonapick.
I think this is an incredible puzzle—hats off to Goliath! It was challenging, but not ridiculously so. My favorites were EYES RIGHT and FRIEND, but I could easily add lots more. Thanks to Loonapick for a great blog.
Geoff @3. Dr Evil is ‘r’ in ‘D Evil’. Need to ignore space to get ‘Devil’ which equates to ‘Fiend’. Is that clearer?
Philosophers sometimes use qua, but even used aptly it sounds a bit wanky. Here in 16d, it’s a bit clever but very neat. Ergo in 10ac somewhat ditto, but in more general use. Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Goliath and loona.
D(r)EVIL F(r)IEND
A bit of a weird one, I think. I don’t see how the clue indicates how to work it out . . .
Ah, I see, Hovis. Thank you.
A very enjoyable crossword as always from GOLIATH though I couldn’t parse PLOTLINE or FRIEND so thank you to loonapick and Hovis for explaining those. Thank you all for a lovely start to the day.
I’m embarrassed to say that I have to chalk this up as a technical DNF, owing to one INACCURATE piece of parsing. I had been so tickled by Imogen’s ‘I present’ for HERE’S A in yesterday’s Guardian that I took the answer to ‘where to find’ in 26dn as THERE (inaccurately) – rather whimsical, even for Goliath: my apologies to him.
In addition, like Diane @4, I’d smiled at ‘passé’, ‘dated’ and ‘square’, then noted QUILL for ‘writer’, where we’re more used to ‘bic’ (and Imogen gave us FELT TIP PEN yesterday). I confess, too, to having got TRANQUILLISER from RAN (usually ‘managed’) and worked back from there – so not my brightest day.
I enjoyed both of the long entries and also especially liked ELUCIDATED, SIGNATURE, EYES RIGHT and FRIEND, when the penny dropped.
Many thanks to Goliath, as ever, and to loonapick.
Further to Eileen’s comment on THREE, I did initially see this as ‘ether’ (a number) being inaccurate and producing “three’ (a number) but as this didn’t account for the ‘where to ‘find’ part of the clue, I persisted until I got out of that particular pickle!
Looks like I missed a good outing from Imogen yesterday.
Diane @12 – yes, it was a good one: worth a look. 😉
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/30125
Amusing that ‘ether’ provides another red herring!
It’s a great skill to be able to combine multi-element wordplay into a coherent surface, so I liked ELUCIDATED and SIGNATURE. Pride comes before a fall though – having felt very pleased with myself about Io yesterday, I failed to parse FRIEND.
Thanks Goliath for an enjoyable crossword. I had many favourites including TRANQUILLISE, MEDUSA, COMPLAIN, NICETIES, NOSTALGIC, and AVERSE. I failed with PLOTLINE and couldn’t parse SQUARE UP and FRIEND. I thought ‘making’ in EYES RIGHT was a bit off since the definition does not ‘make’ the wordplay. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
In 25 I’m not sure why “ides” should indicate “middle”. The ides were never exactly in the middle of any month, any more than the nones. Is this a usage that I’m unaware of?
25ac: The ides of March (also May, July, October) are/were the 15th of 31 days in the month, which is only one day away from the middle. ODE 2010 p 869 says “roughly in the middle”. I still do not think it is an appropriate way of indicating the letter R in an answer, but this is not the only clue in the puzzle where Goliath does something that I would prefer him not to have done. However, if the FT crossword editor regards it as acceptable, it is not my place to overrule him. I enjoyed the puzzle as a whole despite my misgivings on this clue. Thanks Oriel for the blog.
Correction to 17: Of course, that should be thanks loonapick for the blog. I am so used to Goliath’s puzzles appearing on Wednesday, I forgot that today was Thursday.
Thanks for the blog , great set of clues , neat fission for SQUARE UP and the rarer fusion for FRIEND . I suspect spontaneous combustion at the Clue Clinic .
This was fun. Some quite different clues. I admit that I didn’t parse FRIEND but I didn’t really spend any time on that.
Thanks Goliath and Oriel.
Roz 😀
Babbler and PB: the word “making” was what I found misleading about EYES RIGHT. It is just a fill word with no meaning, but “making sense” could be interpreted as part of the wordplay or, on its own, it could be indicating what follows is the definition for the clue.
[Roz @ 19: As an amateur setter who publishes puzzles on MyCrossword, I find Clue Clinic to be an indispensable resource. When you’re learning anything it’s sometimes necessary to have simple yet strict guidelines.]