This puzzle, which as things stand will be the final Filbert Sunday Indy, is available to solve online or download here.
Hi all. Three weeks ago in this space I lamented that it would be my last Filbert blog. Well, for reasons that will become apparent, Pierre graciously agreed to swap and I have snaffled this one.
I had advanced notice that something was up, so when I noticed multiple boys and tigers plus two uses of “mom” in the clues, I did not think that the setter had been uncharacteristically sloppy. Instead, I thought of a certain boy and his stuffed tiger and wondered if I had hit upon the theme. Googling my guess together with the first grid entry confirmed it.
Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip by Bill Watterson about six year-old Calvin and his cuddly tiger companion Hobbes. I had enough familiarity with it to discern the theme, but not to identify all the thematic content. Fortunately, Filbert himself was happy to help with the illustrations. I also had a lot of fun researching, and particularly enjoyed Calvin’s snowmen. (My favourite of those is probably number 9 here: 10 Darkest Calvin and Hobbes Comics About Snowmen.)
My last in was SPIFF – ah, that boy doing tiger training! A lovely penny-drop to finish. The clues are all of course extremely clever, and hopefully enjoyable to solve even without knowledge of the theme. I hope the cartoons below will help to enhance your appreciation of the puzzle, as they did mine. I’d intended to prune these to just my favourites with links to the rest, but in the end have just included them all, so I hope you will forgive the extra scrolling.
Thanks to Filbert, for improving so many Sundays and for this final flourish – it’s a magical crossworld!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | See unruly boy initially on cart flipped, streaking round (6,6) |
| TRACER BULLET — Reversed (… flipped), TELL (see), first letters of (… initially) Unruly Boy, RE (on) and CART | |
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| 10a | Make cartoon of endlessly manic couple (7) |
| ANIMATE — Without outer letters (endlessly) mANIc + MATE (couple) | |
| 11a | Comic jump on sleigh ending in catastrophe (3,4) |
| BOB HOPE — HOP (jump) on BOB (sleigh) followed by the last letter of (ending in) catastrophE | |
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| 12a | Twisty sliding on trails around Ohio (9) |
| TORSIONAL — An anagram of (sliding) ON TRAILS around O (Ohio) | |
| 13a | Stupendous Man a little gingerly opposed to cycling (5) |
| GIANT — The first letter of (a little) Gingerly + ANTI (opposed to) with its letters cycling round | |
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| 14a | Imagine pterodactyl eats without finesse (5) |
| INEPT — ImagINE PTerodactyl contains (eats) the answer | |
| 15a | Painful blow from cat, with it left in laundry (8) |
| WHIPLASH — HIP (with it) and L (left) in WASH (laundry) | |
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| 18a | Alien son emptied boxes despite what mom said (8) |
| SPACEMAN — SoN with the central letter removed (emptied) surrounds (boxes) PACE MA (despite what mom said) | |
| 20a | Small boy doing tiger training belted out, “SMARTEN UP” (5) |
| SPIFF — S (small) + PI (boy doing tiger training – from Life of Pi) + FF (belted out) | |
| 23a | Bedlam as snowball stocks accumulate (5) |
| AMASS — BedlAM AS Snowball holds (stocks) the answer | |
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| 25a | It’s A Magical World that can’t be put down (9) |
| NEVERLAND — NEVER (that can’t be) + LAND (put down) | |
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| 27a | Story of prodigious brat produced in America repeatedly (7) |
| AMADEUS — MADE (produced) in A US (America repeatedly) | |
| 28a | Traveller’s time elsewhere interrupted by teacher coming over (7) |
| TOURIST — T (time) + OUT (elsewhere) with the insertion of (interrupted by) SIR (teacher) reversed (coming over) | |
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| 29a | Transmogrify mom to reshape faults (12) |
| METAMORPHOSE — MOM TO RESHAPE is anagrammed (faults) | |
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| Down | |
| 2d | Stuffed article is lifelike (9) |
| REALISTIC — An anagram of (stuffed) ARTICLE IS | |
| 3d | Pristine cold slope (5) |
| CLEAN — C (cold) + LEAN (slope) | |
| 4d | Drew strips with live large cat rising (9) |
| REBELLION — dREw removes its outer letters (strips) with BE (live), L (large) and LION (cat) | |
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| 5d | Revolting bug an extract from paper lunch container? (5) |
| UNBAG — An anagram of (revolting) BUG AN | |
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| 6d | They’re rough in the bath, spreading flash floods centrally (7) |
| LOOFAHS — An anagram of (spreading) FLASH with the middle letters of (… centrally) flOOds | |
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| 7d | Birdsong way up entertains pair on front of Weirdos From Another Planet (6) |
| TWEETS — ST (way) reversed (up) contains (entertains) the first two letters of (pair on front of) WEirdos and ET (From Another Planet) | |
| 8d | Club leader cheers, elected with hat on (7) |
| CAPTAIN — TA (cheers) and IN (elected) with CAP (hat) on top | |
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| 9d | Tigerish second character in silly comedy becoming live regularly (6) |
| FIERCE — The second character in F[a]RCE (silly comedy) changing to (becoming) alternate letters of (… regularly) lIvE | |
| 15d | Sort of snow aimer, one regularly going for people like Susie? (9) |
| WOMANISER — An anagram of (sort of) SNOW AIMER | |
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| 16d | Son wearing close-fitting material raised 18 20’s arms (5,4) |
| LASER GUNS — S (son) in (wearing) SNUG (close-fitting) and REAL (material) going upwards (raised). 18a 20a = SPACEMAN SPIFF | |
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| 17d | Duff toy destroyed at leisure (3-4) |
| OFF-DUTY — DUFF TOY anagrammed (destroyed) | |
| 19d | Rustic green food mushed up, mutant leaving upset stomach (7) |
| PEASANT — PEAS (green food mushed up) + [mut]ANT omitting (leaving) an anagram of (upset) TUM (stomach) | |
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| 21d | Bicipital iceman keeps leaning to the right (6) |
| ITALIC — BicipITAL ICeman holds (keeps) the answer | |
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| 22d | Boy going around with buddy admitted burning gel (6) |
| NAPALM — MAN (boy) reversed (going around) with PAL (buddy) put inside (admitted) | |
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| 24d | Dad’s initial contribution that might be counted in performance assessment? (5) |
| SPERM — A cryptic definition | |
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| 26d | Woman stitching up tiger, perhaps child’s bloomer (5) |
| VETCH — VET (woman stitching up tiger, perhaps) + CH (child) | |
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Wonderful puzzle, what a way to finish! Thanks to Filbert for all the fun and to Kitty of course.
Given the weather today, I’m tempted to say I was blown away by this, but I wouldn’t have appreciated it without blog – certainly worth the scrolling.
Many thanks to Kitty and Filbert.
Great puzzle. Superb blog.
Thanks Filbert and Kitty.
Wasn’t familiar with Calvin and Hobbes, which perhaps made it more difficult for me than for some others. But other than that, it was probably easier than average Filbert. LOI SPIFF, which I couldn’t parse.
Thanks Filbert for an impressive final accord and Kitty for an equally impressive blog, which, if not made me a fan of C+H, at least gave me an idea of it
Brilliant stuff as usual from Filbert. The penny dropped for me on 15D which is a reference to Calvin terrorising little Susie with his snowballs (though to be fair he gets plenty back).
I had to come here to say many thanks to Filbert, who, for me, creates the most accessible puzzles full off cleverness, wit and excellent surfaces. If this is his last one, he will be missed.
Cheers
I’ve heard of Calvin and Hobbes but didn’t know enough for me to be able to twig that that was the theme – Filbert rarely does themes so I wonder if he saved this one deliberately for today knowing that this was going to be his last and he wanted to go out with a bang (or perhaps more fitting to the theme – a roar!)
Nevertheless you didn’t need to know the theme in order to solve the puzzle which was as always from Filbert a delight to solve, and I shall miss my usual Sunday morning cruciverbal challenge with one of his grids
Thanks Filbert and Kitty
The most perfect blog from Kitty, such hard work to get it so right.
If this is not, the finest blog for the finest puzzle, I will stop drinking.
This crossword from Filbert is layered; smart; crafty; and 100% fun.
This should have been the final Indy cryptic, no question. Best of the Best. I have printed the full chain, to remember how superb the Indy cryptics could be.
My cap is so skyward, it’s an aircraft hazard.
Wonderful, Fil & Kitty
Thanks both. I also have no knowledge of the theme so SPIFF was unknown in every sense and therefore LASER GUNS belonging to said SPACEMAN something of a mystery, as is how ‘pace ma’ is derived from ‘despite what mom said’ though I’ll take a guess it’s that dead language again.
Comment #9
TFO – it is indeed that dead language, I’m afraid. Something academics are rather fond of, writing “Pace So-and-so,…” before going on to disagree fundamentally with something So-and-so has written. It means something along the lines of “with all due respect to…”
And so an era ends. I’ve always found Filbert the trickiest of the Indie’s regulars (the other two being Eccles and Phi), I think he is genuinely the hardest but it’s also a wavelength thing that I’ve never quite matched with. Today was his easiest for me for a while (despite C&H sitting alongside the Simpsons as an area of Americana my generation loved, leaving me behind) which doesn’t quite feel fitting. But it’s another solid crossword from a setter replete with them. Hopefully he can find somewhere else to pick them up.
The blog meanwhile is a work of art. Bravo Kitty.
Wow! What a swan song. I’m not aware of the cartoon strip so, whilst I am terribly late to the blog, I am so glad I dropped in as Kitty’s immaculate commentary together with the cartoons associated with the clues make for a brilliant read. And reminder of what we will be missing. I had noticed the repetitions and there was clearly a cat/tiger thing going on but it wasn’t any of the themes I knew. As our blogger says, entirely solvable without knowing the theme which is how it should be.
I don’t believe the Indy have made any kind of announcement. I imagine there might be quite a number of solvers who do not engage with 225 who are going to find themselves very disappointed next Sunday morning.
Thanks so much to Filbert for all the fun and to kitty as always
For those who don’t recognize it, the illustration Kitty has provided for NEVERLAND is, fittingly, the final frame of the final Calvin and Hobbes strip.
Sad for mynSunday Filbert to come to an end. Ruined it as well by putting in METAMORPHISE – a lesson to check the anagram fodder especially if you’re spelling is as bad as mine!
Didn’t know SPACEMAN SPIFF which went in after LASER GUNS.
Thanks Filbert and Kitty as well for the extra fun with the blog!
Thanks Kitty for the blog and all the frames from the strip cartoons. We’d never seen or heard anything about the series of cartoons.
We thought it was a rather strange last Filbert puzzle. The clues seemed peculiar and a number of odd parsings. All was revealed when we read your blog! An absolute triumph of a way to end a run of craftily created crosswords.
The number of references from the cartoon is truly remarkable and we take our hat off to Filbert.
We really hope there is a future for more Filbert puzzles like this.
Oh, wow!! What a tour-de-force indeed! I’d forgotten I hadnt finished the puzzle, so am very late to the feast, but very pleased I did. Not aware of Calvin and Hobbes in any meaningful sense, but I can now see this was an oversight! Made even more poignant by the revelation of mrpenney@13 … capturing perfectly an ending and an unknown future in a few strokes of a pen, and a couple of lines of text… despite lack of theme knowledge, with the excellent cluing, and some decent anagrams, the solve happened as usual, altho obviously I required the truly excellent blog to guide, eg SPIFF… great puzzle, great blog…
Thanks Filbert and Kitty
ave! (in the dead language)
Absolutely brilliant. My favourite cartoon characters. Bought the books for the kids but realised they are for adults. Great stuff from Filbert and terrific blogging. Thanks both
1 across – Why is TELL an answer for SEE?
Chris@18 – how about “from the comments, you can tell/see that Filbert is going to be missed”.
Back again to mention, now that Iook at it, every single entry has a reference, either in clue or answer, to Calvin and Hobbes. The ones Kitty has supplied with panels, obviously. A few of the others are also obvious. (Yes, Calvin is a prodigous brat, repeatedly drawn in the US.) Weirdos From Another Planet! is the title of one of the C&H omnibus books. Calvin’s fondness for sledding accounts for a couple others, and he loves dinosaurs, so I’m sure there’s one somewhere about pterodactyl diets.
I’ve always loved Filberts and my shelves have several C&H collections so this was a joy. Though I will say (22D) how can you sort the Men from the Boys if they’re the same???