Oh Dear! Not many days left but we are fortunate that we have two puzzles to blog before the demise of the Independent cryptic. We were more than pleased to have this offering from Kairos.
Funnily enough, it wasn’t until the very end that we noticed the theme. We have ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ featuring Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect plus ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’.
Lots of fun throughout too.
Thanks Kairos for this puzzle and all the others in the Indy.
HOP (dance) in a reversal (‘revolutionary’) of EON (period)
We guessed this from ‘Legendary King’ and once we had the theme we realised we were correct. We think that it is a double definition with ‘picture’ referring to the film ‘Arthur’ starring Dudley Moore.
A sort of clue as definition – DENT (result of accident) which is half of acciDENT
EG (say) around VERY (pretty) THIN (light)
Hidden (‘contained by’) in chilLI CHEEseburger
FILMS (covers) + a reversal (‘revolutionary’) of RAT (‘singer’)
E (European) + ANT (worker) inside (‘probing’) LINE (row) around G (German)
Double definition
FORwarD (brazen) ‘losing’ ‘war’ (series of battles)
An anagram (‘turned into’) of DAMP LAWNS
UNI (place to study) VERSE (poetry) – we had to check the definition
A play on the fact that the pieces of toast for dipping into a boiled egg are often called ‘soldiers’
MICRO (small) LIGHT (lamp)
MITE (small child) with the first letter moved to the back (‘cycling’)
GAY (happy) around (‘eating’) LAX (soft)
bIKERS (motorcyclists) missing initial letter (‘heading off’) after H (hours)
DING (mark) underneath (‘underpinning’) a homophone (‘articulated’) of KNEE (joint). We checked that DING and MARK were synonyms – apparently they are when they are nouns describing small physical damage or a negative penalty.
Double definition
PERFECT (totally right) with the first ‘e’ (east – ‘point) ‘dropping’
A reversal (‘upset’) of LAY (amateur) OR (other ranks – ‘soldiers’)
HA (area of land – hectare) HAS (holds)
RUN (work) and a reversal (‘arising’) of ET AL (other things)
An anagram (‘translated’) of FOLK LEGENDS WE
hAIR (shock) but as it is a Cockney word we drop the ‘h’
Double definition – the second being Illinois
FoUNDING (establishing) missing ‘o’ (nothing)
MAlES (men) missing middle letter (‘heartless’) and alternate (‘regular’) letters in TuRn In
An anagram (‘broken’) of TUREENS
VI (Roman numeral for sex – six in Latin) RA (god) L (last letter or ‘close’ to brothel)
REX (king) around (‘touring’) LA (American city)
A homophone (‘loudly’) of GUYED (made fun of)
A gentle pre-penultimate Indy puzzle this morning and it’s always nice to be reminded of Douglas Adams’ splendid work. As I may have posted when the theme has arisen previously, I have fond memories of listening to the series on the radio when it was first broadcast. How lucky I was to have caught the first episode by chance, after which I was hooked. The theme was useful in solving GUIDE which was one of the last ones in.
Thanks both
Spotting the theme (eventually) helped me get the last two, in my case FORD, giving me FUNDING. I found this to be mostly in my Goldilocks zone and very enjoyable.
I needed to come here to see what the bloggers thought of ARTHUR having struggled with the idea that picture = ART and trying to make HUR = king for a sort of cad. Ben Hur may have been a prince in some stories but not a king so I’m glad to be set straight!
Thank you Kairos and B&J
Took an age to get micro for small, thinking What are those motorised kite thingies that people fly around hanging from. Brain not in gear, so no theme, despite being a casual fan of Dent, Beeblebrox et al. Mourning the Indy, sorry for our loss.
This was quite light but very good fun with a nice theme.
I needed to check that “mark” and “ding” could be synonymous but, other than that, there were no hold-ups.
Many thanks to Kairos and to B&J.
Another bittersweet solve in the final week of Indy puzzles. I especially liked DENT, EVERYTHING, SWAMPLAND, GALAXY, ILL and VIRAL.
I’ve never seen, heard or read the series but I know the names and titles due to it coming up in quizzes and crosswords a lot. I wondered if RELAX was defined by “Don’t panic” at any point?
Thanks B&J for the blog, and to Kairos, so long and thanks for all the grids
How could I miss the theme! I would add HA HAS to the list of great clues.
I half expected with the theme appearing to see So long and thanks for all…