I am filling in for scchua today. Fortunately, the assignment from Gozo was not too taxing.
Gozo often includes some sort of bonus, and I think that today the across solutions have been chosen to feature the sounds of some of the letters of the alphabet, such as BEE, DEE, EFF, etc. I don’t think that this spells out any further message, but I may still be missing something.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EFFETE |
Decadent English s-social function (6)
|
| E (English) + F-FETE (s-social function) | ||
| 4 | HAS-BEENS |
Wild banshees are those who are past it (3-5)
|
| Anagram of (wild) BANSHEES | ||
| 9 | CREWEL |
Basket holding women’s yarn (6)
|
| CREEL (basket) around (holding) W (women) | ||
| 10 | ABERDEEN |
City’s Lincoln Road is even shorter (8)
|
| ABE (Lincoln) + RD (road) + contraction of (shorter) E’EN (even) | ||
| 11 | LOWERS |
Puts down cows, it could be said (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | NEGLIGEE |
Excited seeing leg, not small, in diaphanous garment (8)
|
| Anagram of (excited) {[S]EEING LEG} minus (not) S (small) | ||
| 13 | JAY |
Bird from Germany — yes — with pretty tail (3)
|
| JA (yes, “from Germany,” i.e., in German) + last letter of (tail [of]) [PRETT]Y | ||
| 14 | TARRED |
Blackened the reputation late over the Channel, it’s said (6)
|
| I think this parses as: Homophone of (it’s said) TARD (late, “over the Channel,” i.e., in French), although the “D” is silent | ||
| 17 | DILEMMA |
Difficulty turning cover on Austen’s work (7)
|
| LID (cover) reversed (turning) + EMMA ([Jane] Austen’s work) | ||
| 21 | ANNEXE |
Adjoining building with a new name on river (6)
|
| A + N (new) + N (name) + EXE (river) | ||
| 25 | ELL |
Length of US railroad (3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | LARGESSE |
Munificent gift of wafting eelgrass (8)
|
| Anagram of (wafting) EELGRASS | ||
| 27 | KAYAKS |
Ask Katy about tenor having left canoes (6)
|
| Anagram of (about) {ASK KA[T]Y} minus (having left) T (tenor) | ||
| 28 | APPEARED |
Transpired to have copied bearing fruit (8)
|
| APED (copied) around (bearing) PEAR (fruit) | ||
| 29 | SIENNA |
Reddish-brown pigment from church removed from Chennai’s rebuild (6)
|
| Anagram of (rebuild) [CH]ENNAI’S minus (removed from) CH (church) | ||
| 30 | SURVEYED |
Canvassed — used very crudely (8)
|
| Anagram of (crudely) USED VERY | ||
| 31 | STEELE |
Entertainer removed touch of paint from church spire (6)
|
| STEE[P]LE (church spire) minus (removed . . . from) first letter of (touch of) P[AINT], referring presumably to Tommy Steele(?) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ESCALATE |
Cactus intoxicant initially missing, devoured mushroom (8)
|
| [M]ESCAL (cactus intoxicant) minus first letter (initially missing) + ATE (devoured) | ||
| 2 | FRETWORK |
Ornamental design to worry about and fashion (8)
|
| FRET (to worry about) + WORK (fashion) | ||
| 3 | THE CREED |
Article softened set of principles (3,5)
|
| THE (article) + CREED (softened) | ||
| 5 | AUBREY |
Illustrator Beardsley is a new buyer (6)
|
| A + anagram of (new) BUYER | ||
| 6 | BARELY |
Hardly like a nude! (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | EMERGE |
Say the sappers return and come into view (6)
|
| {E.G. (say) + REME (the sappers)} all inverted (return) | ||
| 8 | SINNED |
Menacing comic character turned up, having broken social bounds (6)
|
| DENNIS (menacing comic character, i.e., Dennis the Menace) inverted (turned up) | ||
| 12 | NACELLE |
Streamlined housing getting energy from sodium battery first (7)
|
| NA (sodium) + CELL (battery) + E (energy), with “first” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 15 | DID |
Made 501 with Durham opener (3)
|
| DI (501, in Roman numerals) + first letter of (opener [of]) D[URHAM] | ||
| 16 | OMA |
German grandma — a woman, at heart (3)
|
| Inside letters of (at heart) [W]OMA[N] | ||
| 18 | ANNALIST |
Chronicler or data specialist, we’re told (8)
|
| Homophone of (we’re told) ANALYST (data specialist) | ||
| 19 | DETAINEE |
Prisoner rearranged date in Spain, twice (8)
|
| Anagram of (rearranged) DATE + IN + {E+ E} (Spain, twice) | ||
| 20 | SEASCAPE |
Marine view with wild escapades without a touch of dignity (8)
|
| Anagram of (wild) ESCAPA[D]ES minus (without) first letter of (a touch of) D[IGNITY] | ||
| 22 | CLEANS |
Freelances — as a char? (6)
|
| &lit and anagram of (free) LANCES | ||
| 23 | PROPER |
Favouring training? Right? Right! (6)
|
| PRO (favouring) + PE (training) + R (right) | ||
| 24 | SEDATE |
Inwardly composed, at ease, calm (6)
|
| Hidden in (inwardly) [COMPO]SED AT E[ASE] | ||
| 25 | ESSENE |
Ancient Jew from German city quarter (6)
|
| ESSEN (German city) + E (quarter, i.e., East) |
Gozo always raises a smile and PROPER is exactly why I enjoy this setter’s puzzles.
I could see something was going on with all those double consonants and Es but do wonder, like Cineraria, if there’s something more.
Besides 23, I ticked CLEANS, DENNIS, ESCALATE, JAY and CREWEL for its surface.
I agree with our blogger that ‘tarred’ and ‘tard’ are not homophones (though it was a nice idea) and also thought of Tommy (STEELE).
SEASCAPE from ‘escapade’ gave away too much but, happily, the parsing of the nho NACELLE was more than fair.
14 and 20 aside, I thank Gozo for his playful style and Cineraria for stepping in with the answers.
Ooh, what’s that strange icon by my name?!
Like NEGLIGEE, JAY, STEELE, SINNED (is ‘having’ required in the def?)
and CLEANS (Looks like a CAD. ‘as a char’ isn’t part of the WP).
HAS-BEENS
Does the cryptical grammar work all right?
(WP are Def)
Thanks Gozo and Cineraria.
TARRED
I didn’t know the pronunciation of tard. Thanks Cineraria.
I liked HAS BEENS.
Overall, there seemed to be a lot of anagrams, and there were definitely far too many obscure terms. We had one unsignalled lift and separate clue – unfortunate – while AUBREY is up there with the worst clues of the year.
As an aside, I put three clues from the NW corner into ChatGPT to see whether it could solve them. It both solved them and explained the clues correctly. Wow!
It may have been me, but sorry Gozo this did not do much for me. Thanks anyway. And thanks to Cineraria too
PS ditto Diane@1 about the odd icons next to our names
KVa, ‘broken’ without some form of the auxiliary verb have sounds strange to me so ‘having’ is a necessary part of the definition. That said, I suppose ‘menacing comic character turned up, broke…’ would have worked, ‘sinned’ and ‘broke’ being the same part of speech.
Yes, Martyn, the icon makes me look a little green around the gills when I feel perfectly healthy!
Thanks for the blog and the coloured grid . HAS BEENS is very neat , KVa@2 it is simply – these are those . TARRED did not know the French bit or how to say it , just thought of links to tardy . CLEANS a nice use of fission . AUBREY seems to be a dead-end in the grid , the definition and wordplay are very fair .
Clearly hackers are getting younger but under-8 does seem a bit young .
@5 was me , no idea what happened to my name .
Perhaps we were supposed to recognise you from your icon
Martyn@7 it does look like me after a student dance night on a Friday .
Well spotted for the theme.
(I’m checking to see if this is now our avatar across everything, because if so, I’m going to find something else. )
(Oh, yes, we’ve been allocated this avatar if we don’t choose one.)
Thank you to Gozo and Cineraria.
Shanne there have been 3 different sorts within the last day , they keep changing so perhaps wait a while .
It is with some trepidation that I disagree with Roz but I’m with KVa on HAS-BEENS. A lovely anagram spot but, at the cryptic grammar level we are trying to find the single word HAS-BEENS from the anagram of the single fodder word, ‘banshees’. Anagrammed [fodder] is definition. The fact that ‘banshees’ is plural and that HAS-BEENS is plural is irrelevant to the cryptic grammar. Had Gozo either avoided a link word altogether or chosen an appropriate ‘…ing’ linker, there would have been no issue.
MrPostMark@11 you do a very good spoof of a mansplainer , would be even better if you referenced the Clue Clinic .
Have said enough now and the sea is calling my name .
I think my gender is irrelevant to the point I was making. I’ve explained why I believe what I do rather than just make the statement that the cryptic grammar is wrong.
A fairly quick solve with one query: why does CREED mean softener?
Thanks Gozo and Cineraria?
Diane@4
SINNED
Thanks for your comment.
SINNED and broken as past participles don’t
have a part of speech mismatch, as I understand.
From a recent puzzle elsewhere:
Identified with a circle, called, spoke (4)
RUNG
Agreed KVa, both SINNED and BROKEN are past participles but the definition without ‘having’ first makes for a strange surface.
What does Ell have to do with railroad?
Thanks
SM @14. It doesn’t. It means ‘softened’. I had to look it up but ‘cree’ is a verb meaning ‘soften’.
Diane@16
SINNED
Agree about the surface reading.
Took ‘having’ as a link word.
Oldham @17. This spelling surprised me. EL is ‘elevated railway’ (in US). Although Chambers didn’t give ELL as an alternative under EL, if I looked at ELL it did give a link to EL as an alternative spelling.
Thanks Hovis@18
Enjoyable enough but like @Oldham and @SM I didn’t understand the Creed and Ell references.
REME = sappers?
Thanks Gozo and Cineraria
7dn: Collins 2023 gives us
p 1685 REME n acronym for Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
p 1765 (under sap²) sapper n 2 (in the British Army) a private of the Royal Engineers.
STEELE as ‘entertainer’? I get the reference, but I wonder how many less ancient than I do? I don’t believe he’s had much profile since the 60s?
How many potential younger crossword solvers are put off by such arcana?
I wonder why the icons changed from creepy cartoon figures to letters?
@25 – are younger crossword solvers put off by Tommy Steele references? In a word, yes.
@24 – REME are not the sappers, the RE are. If you look them up on Wikipedia, it specifically gives a ‘Not to be confused with’ link at the start of the Royal Engineers page.
Quite a few wayward moments already mentioned above, but worth asking what is The Creed? There are plenty of creeds knocking about; I don’t think you can just plop ‘the’ in front of a noun to make a satisfactory answer. I think ELL is the other that is obviously erroneous, ‘L Train’ or ‘El Train’ is fine, ELL seems to have come from thin air.
7dn revisited: I cited the two relevant definitions from Collins 2023 in comment 24, but was careful not to make any claim that they would fit together. Tachi@27 has given us a reason to suppose that they do not, although I would prefer that to be supported by something more reliable than Wikipedia.
Tachi @27. I always thought sappers were RE not REME but didn’t bother to check. As I mentioned @20, if you look up ELL on the Chambers app, it does say it is an alternative spelling for EL.
25ac further to Hovis@29: the printed edition of Chambers 2016 p 499 has ell²same as el¹, and then (p 494) el¹ (US inf) n an elevated railroad. I cannot find similar definitions for ell in either Collins 2023 or ODE 2010, but I hold firmly to the view that, when dictionaries differ, the setter is entitled to the benefit of any possible doubt.
Another one wondering what creed is in relation to softened?
Mark. See @14 & @18
3dn: As well as the definition of the verb cree already cited, I think it is worth noting that Chambers 2016 p 364 has an entry (under creed) “the creed the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed”. That seems to me to make a complete justification for Gozo’s use of the phrase as a grid entry.
This all seemed quite easy until the north west took ages. Mostly for reasons already discussed.
I’m mid 50s and STEELE was already a HAS BEEN when I was tiny. I wrote it in with a feeling of disbelief. Annoyed I didn’t spot the LOWER quicker. Was it a cow or a merely a Little White Bull?
Thanks GOZO and Cineraria.
Comment #35