Mog’s latest offering has been provided for our entertainment this Thursday in late July.
I found this to be towards the harder end of the Indy spectrum in terms of difficulty, and it took me quite a long time to get into the puzzle. I kept chipping away at it, but in the end I needed to cheat to reveal the solution at 20, which then gave me an idea for 21. However, I knew neither word with the meaning given, and I am still not sure why “Americans” are mentioned in 21.
My favourite clues today were 2, for including so many musical references; 11, for the “Turner” wordplay; 16, for sheer flair; and 18, for the “rock album” part of the wordplay.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are underlined; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
|
||
| 1 | ROBUST |
Hold up, crossworders, the first of these is tough (6)
|
| ROB (=hold up, e.g. a bank) + US (=crossworders) + T<hese> (“the first of” means first letter only) | ||
| 4 | AFFLUENT |
Loaded footballers turned voluble (8)
|
| AF (FA=footballers, i.e. Football Association; “turned” indicates reversal) + FLUENT (=voluble, glib); colloquially, “loaded” means rich, hence “affluent” | ||
| 9 | TOURISM |
Travel business to ancient city is minute (7)
|
| TO + UR (=ancient city, in OT) + IS + M (=minute, i.e. 60 seconds) | ||
| 11 | ROTATOR |
Rubbish art mixed up with old Turner (7)
|
| ROT (=rubbish, tat) + *(ART + O (=old, as in OT)); “mixed up” is anagram indicator; the “turner” of the definition is not the English painter but a turning device, rotor | ||
| 12 | LIGHT |
Weak understanding (5)
|
| Double definition: e.g. weak pressure is light pressure AND understanding is enlightenment, light, as in to see the light | ||
| 13 | THESAURUS |
So keeps bloke from Genesis at front of record book (9)
|
| [ESAU (=bloke from Genesis, i.e. character from OT) + R<ecord> (“front of” means first letter only)] in THUS (=so) | ||
| 14 | SCANDALMONGER |
Scrutinise modern gal spreading gossip (13)
|
| SCAN (=scrutinise, examine) + *(MODERN GAL); “spreading” is anagram indicator; a scandalmonger is someone who spreads or relishes scandal, a “gossip” | ||
| 18 | SCROOGE MCDUCK |
Disney toon to inspire about half of crooner’s rock album (7,6)
|
| [CROO<ner’s> (“half of” means four of eight letters are used) + GEM (=rock, gemstone) + CD (=album, i.e. compact disc)] in SUCK (=to inspire) | ||
| 20 | PAPETERIE |
Case favoured Pennsylvania city beyond its state (9)
|
| PA (=Pennsylvania) + PET (=favourite, preferred) + ERIE (=Pennsylvania city); a papeterie is a stationery-case | ||
| 22 | TWILL |
Material desire follows lust in the end (5)
|
| <lus>T (“in the end” means last letter only) + WILL (=desire) | ||
| 23 | OIL LAMP |
Light reflected through strip mall I operate (3,4)
|
| Hidden (“through”) and reversed (“reflected”) in “striP MALL I Operate” | ||
| 24 | FITNESS |
Fine to watch stripping with good health (7)
|
| F (=fine- + <w>ITNESS (=to watch, observe; “stripping with (=W)” means letter “w” is dropped) | ||
| 25 | BROOKLYN |
Bear left at backwards New York borough (8)
|
| BROOK (=bear, tolerate) + L (=left) + YN (NY=New York; “backwards” indicates reversal) | ||
| 26 | PLAY AT |
Casually try produce coated in bit of butter (4,2)
|
| LAY (=to produce, i.e. eggs) in PAT (=bit of butter) | ||
| DOWN
|
||
| 1 | RUTHLESS |
Savage without one book? (8)
|
| RUTH (=one book, of the Old Testament) + -LESS (=without) | ||
| 2 | BLUEGRASS |
Arranged rags in one music genre, and another (9)
|
| *(RAGS) in BLUES (=music genre); “arranged” is anagram indicator; the “another” of the definition refers to another music genre | ||
| 3 | SHIFT |
Key change (5)
|
| Double definition: “Shift” is a key on a computer keyboard AND a shift is a change, a move | ||
| 5 | FORGET ONESELF |
Puck perhaps tacked on to make characters behave improperly (6,7)
|
| FORGE (=make, produce) + TONES (=characters, of sound) + ELF (=Puck perhaps, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; sprite) | ||
| 6 | LETHARGIC |
Low on energy, pureed the garlic (9)
|
| *(THE GARLIC); “pureed” is anagram indicator | ||
| 7 | ENTER |
Go in, letting person cut in front (5)
|
| <r>ENTER (=letting person, i.e. person letting (=renting) a property); “cut in front” means first letter is dropped | ||
| 8 | THRUSH |
Singer starts to truly hate prog band (6)
|
| T<ruly> H<ate> (“start to” means first letters only) + RUSH (=prog band, i.e. Canadian group formed in 1968); the thrush is a song bird, hence “singer” | ||
| 10 | METALLOGRAPHY |
In which data plotter probes gathered material like steel? (13)
|
| GRAPH (=data plotter) in [MET (=gathered, assembled) + ALLOY (=material like steel)]; & lit. | ||
| 15 | DIRT TRACK |
Cleared up stretch with races on? (4,5)
|
| DIR (RID=cleared (of), freed (of); “up” indicates vertical reversal) + TT (=races, i.e. Tourist Trophy) + RACK (=stretch, extend); semi- & lit. | ||
| 16 | ROUTINELY |
Regularly see defeat? (9)
|
| Cryptically, a rout in Ely (=a see, in Cambridgeshire) could be described as a “see defeat”! | ||
| 17 | SKILL SET |
Catching show’s opening, pan range of talent (5,3)
|
| S<how> (“opening” means first letter only) in SKILLET (=pan, i.e. with a long handle) | ||
| 19 | APLOMB |
Cool doctor under retro dad look (6)
|
| AP (PA=dad; “retro” indicates reversal) + LO (=look) + MB (=doctor); cool is self-possession, coolness, as in to keep one’s cool | ||
| 21 | PALEO |
Pasty and doughnut diet for Americans? (5)
|
| PALE (=pasty, wan) + O (=doughnut, i.e. pictorially, with a hole in the middle); the Paleo (or Stone Age) Diet was pioneered by American scientist Loren Cordain | ||
| 22 | TOTAL |
Absolute child verges on animal (5)
|
| TOT (=child) + A<nima>L (“verges (=edges) on” means first and last letters only) |
PALEO
palaeo is British and PALEO is American?
Tough in places. Failed to get SCROOGE MCDUCK & PALEO (never heard of the latter) and cheated to get PAPETERIE (also unknown to me). Like ROUTINELY.
Some stretchy clues, which I still found unsatisfactory after completing this grid.
12(ac) is WEAK.
5(d) , tough enough, without ” characters” = TONES.
21(d) sticking ” Americans” into the clue seems just loose and off-key.
All that said , some very clever clues; but a puzzle which is marred by being too clever (sic) in a lot of places.
Well-blogged, RR
Got PAPETERIE from the WP – allowing myself to check whether nho ERIE was somewhere in Pennsylvania – and then did look it up. Beaten by the nho cartoon character, even with all the crossers in place. Certainly never occurred to me to put an M in front of the C in the second word.
I have vaguely heard of the PALEO diet. Not sure whether the ‘Americans’ insertion was helpful or not. It is the US spelling of ‘palaeo’ as a prefix but ‘The Paleo Diet’ has been trademarked by an American and only exists as PALEO so whether it needs a qualifier or not, I am not sure. Where is Rabbit Dave when we need him.
The setter is American which might explain the slight US flavour of this puzzle. Thanks both.
Persevered and got through, albeit without parsing FORGET ONESELF or parts of some other clues, and with some jorums (PAPETERIE, PALEO, TWILL). I liked SCROOGE MCDUCK (who I knew well from Duck Tales), THESAURUS and ROBUST, which set the tone for the whole puzzle 🙂 I quite liked the clueing style. Thanks Mog and RR!
PostMark@4
PALEO
So it’s not the spelling. Thanks for explaining that.
Thanks both. Difficult, but enjoyable in the main with a few quibbles, some self-induced including wondering how Puck as a fairy fitted FORGET ONESELF, added to the unconvincing ‘lay’ for ‘produce’ in PLAY AT, Erie in PAPETERIE as a city, when surely lake would give UK solvers half a chance, and finally AFFLUENT for which FA as ‘footballers’ is routine in crosswords, but strictly inaccurate.