Fed rounds off the run of weekday puzzles with another enjoyable challenge.
There are a number of very straightforward clues (9ac, 12ac, 4dn, 19dn, 20d) to ensure a steady solve, with some more intricate and ingenious constructions to maintain the interest. Some very neat anagrams and a deft and witty use of real people’s names, which I always admire and enjoy, with fine surfaces throughout. There were a few head-scratching moments in the parsing department but I managed to tease them all out, satisfyingly, with no cries for help today. (I puzzled over 22ac and 8dn for too long before realising that they were both simple charades.)
I had ticks for 10ac TARANTULA, 14ac BILLIE EILISH, 1dn BYLAWS, 2dn NUDITY, 5dn CORPOREAL, 7dn TSUNAMIS, 13dn DISAPPOINTMENT, 15dn LAUGH LINE and 17dn NARCOTIC – and there could have been more.
Thanks to Fed for a most enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Advantage of computerised identikit picture when pursuing crook virtually (7)
BENEFIT
BEN[d] (crook, virtually) + E-FIT (computerised identikit picture)
5 Spotted predator β shark is caught (7)
CHEETAH
Sounds like (caught) ‘cheater’ shark
9 Young male nurse is loaded (5)
LADEN
LAD (young male) + EN (Enrolled Nurse)
10 Tea, cream β not full fat β oddly itβs a Cambodian delicacy (9)
TARANTULA
Odd letters of TeA cReAm NoT fUlL fAt
11 Call Musk with Washington opening that ought to bear fruit (10)
WATERMELON
WA (Washington) + TERM (call) + ELON (Musk)
12 Two Americans holding back on driving range (3)
AGA
A A (two Americans) round [drivin]G
14 Pop singerβs ill β lie about swallowing pill in trashed Ibis hotel (6,6)
BILLIE EILISH
An anagramΒ (about) ofΒ ILL, from the clue, + LIE round (swallowing) E (pill) in an anagram (trashed) of IBIS + H (hotel)
18 TV star barking cruelly at crew (6.6)
TRACEY ULLMAN
An anagram (barking) of CRUELLY AT + MAN (crew)
21 Bow and scrape while retreating to some extent (3)
ARC
Hidden reversal (retreating) in sCRApe
22 Hunk needing reason to start op-ed? (5,5)
THINK PIECE
THINK (to reason) + PIECE (hunk) – a new term for me (and it’s not long since I learned ‘op-ed’, through crosswords)
25 Corrupt state maybe does if cutting back (9)
PUTREFIED
PUT (state) + a reversal (back) of IF in DEER (maybe ‘does’ – it seems a long time since I‘ve seen this trick)
26 Initially in sonatas, Liszt enjoyed this minor key (5)
ISLET
Initial letters of In Sonatas Liszt Enjoyed This – great definition and surface
27 Expensive β taking 150 Euros, say (7)
DECLARE
DEAR (expensive) round CL (150) + E (Euros)
28 In bed, weary, drinking wine β quite the opposite (7)
RETIRED
RED (wine) round (drinking) TIRE (weary)
Down
1 On vacation Bradley Walsh ultimately ignored resortβs in-house rules? (6)
BYLAWS
B[radle]Y + an anagram (resort) of WALS[h]
2 Finally β given you identified graffiti artist β Banksyβs in exposed state (6)
NUDITY
Last letters of giveN yoU identifieD graffitI artisT banksY
3 In France and in Germany, shaver sounded 1 across? (4-6)
FUND-RAISER
F (France) + UND (and in Germany) + RAISER (sounds like – sounded – ‘razor’ (shaver)
4 Tax article without it (5)
TITHE
THE (article) round IT
5 My friend entertains men with essentially new material (9)
CORPOREAL
COR (my) + PAL (friend) round OR (men) + [n]E[w]
6 Ages in prisonβs manure shed (4)
EONS
[dung]EONS (prisons) minus dung (manure shed)
7 A film star cycles and waves (8)
TSUNAMIS
A MIST (film) + SUN (star) with the letters ‘cycled’
8 Pine nutβs beginning to be problem (8)
HEADACHE
HEAD (nut) + ACHE (pine)
13 School paid to spin results in mock (10)
DISAPPOINT
An anagram (school) of PAID TO SPIN
15 Conducted lessons in English, with students covering tenses β one might appear with a smile (5,4)
LAUGH LINE
[t]AUGH[t] (conducted lessons) IN E (English) with the t t (tenses) replaced by l l (students)
16 Leaves power drills on the counter, securely fastened (8)
STRAPPED
A reversal (on the counter) of DEPARTS (leaves) round P (power)
17 Sedative not applicable on piercing in the middle of the ear (8)
NARCOTIC
NA (not applicable) + the middle letters of [pie]RC[ing] + OTIC (of the ear
19 Stock of wine merchant delivered (6)
CELLAR
Sounds like (delivered) ‘seller’ (merchant)
20 Gossipy magazine journalist is excited (6)
HEATED
HEAT (gossipy magazine) + ED (journalist)
23 Lowest point of brain drain with regular emigration climbing (5)
NADIR
Hidden reversal (climbing) of alternate letters (with regular emigration) of bRaIn DrAiN – rather devillishly complicated, since NADIR is an anagram of DRAIN
24 Excellent, for example, to be Morocco-bound (4)
MEGA
EG (for example) in (bound by) MA (Morocco – domain name)
Thanks Fed and Eileen
I hadn’t heard of THINK PIECE (and op-ed only recently – possibly from the same puzzle, Eileen!) and couldn’t see the parsing. I don’t see how “mock” means DISAPPOINT.
Favourite ISLET.
I was not on the setterβs wavelength. Could not finish – managed to complete the top half but failed to solve 18 (never heard of Tracey Ullman),22,25,27ac and 15,16,17,23,24d.
Of the ones I solved, I could not parse 1ac, 6d.
New for me: TARANTULA = Cambodian delicacy; HEAT magazine.
Muffin @1 – At the risk of winding you up, I just looked up “mock” in a well known and widely available red book. Guess what I found?
Thanks Eileen. Didn’t get anywhere near parsing several of these, but, as you say, they were quite clever once you’d explained them.
muffin @1 – Crispy’s right, of course! It made me think of ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans’.
Comment #5
Think Piece and tarantula as a delicacy anywhere new for me too, plus several others that I could not parse, so thank you very kindly Eilleen. I did know of op-ed, but like others only in crosswordspeak
And thanks of course to Fed for stretching my brain cells with the ones I did parse
Apologies Eileen. Being as bad at spelling as i am is not a useful trait around here
OK, it’s under “mock”, but I really can’t see how it equates. “Disappoint” doesn’t include mock as a meaning!
Minor point, but in 14a ILL has to be part of the anagram – “ill lie about”. It could also work if ILL and LIE are both reversed separately, but I don’t think there is anything to indicate that.
Thanks to Fed and Eileen
DISAPPOINT
Google AI:
Here are examples of “mock” used in the sense of disappointing, deceiving, or defeating someone’s hopes or expectations.
Examples in Sentences”The persistent rain mocked their hopes for a sunny wedding day.”
“His sudden illness mocked all his months of intense training.”
“The mirage mocked the thirsty travelers in the desert.”
DuncT @ 9 – thanks: that was careless – amended now.
I always expect Fed to be fun and I wasn’t mocked today.
Thanks for the excellent blog Eileen. Very welcome reminder of the wonderfully talented Tracey Ullman. Though yesterday’s predicted, and actual, earworm Montego Bay likely to be replaced with They Don’t Know today. Ah well.
Fantastic fun as always from Fed.
I won’t share a link, but google “canned tarantula” if you’re not too squeamish (which I actually am). I remember seeing this on a BBC documentary once.
It took a while to unpick LAUGH LINE, DECLARE and TSUNAMIS and to work out whether 6D was EONS, ERAS or EMIT (shed). All very satisfying once I got them.
This wasn’t easy, but I didn’t need to look anything up and there was humour in abundance. It struck the perfect balance for me.
I won’t pick out any further clues as favourites because it could be all but the simplest ones – and there was nothing wrong with those either.
Thanks Eileen and Fed.
Fried spiders, who knew! And took a minute to remember virtually as “nearly all of”, and disappoint for mock was a que? But all good in the end, thx Fed and Eileen.
Oh dear, I have been calling her Billy Irish having only having heard her name on the radio.
I thought this was a lot tougher in the south than the north.
A few I needed the blog to fully parse.
BENEFIT my favourite today.
Thanks Fed and Eileen
NADIR
Liked “regular emigration”.
Also liked BENEFIT, EONS and LAUGH LINE.
Thanks Fed and Eileen.
Another class act from Fed and I know Eileen and I share a fondness for his clever use of real names. My favourites were the linked BENEFIT and FUND-RAISER plus the clever LAUGH LINE and TSUNAMIS. As you stated, a mixture of straightforward and tricky, I also learnt about op-ed in recent puzzles; Brendan has used it twice this year and Brummie once.
Ta Fed & Eileen.
Staticman#16 Probably Andy Burnham’s influence.
Bit surprised about the op-ed comments; standard journo-speak for the page with the editorial leader plus letters to the ed, a feature of papers for, like, ever!
Did indeed find this a steady solve. Found myself reading the clues slowly and then engaging some actual thought processes. As opposed to the usual approach which is to glance at the clue, frown at the crossers and wait for inspiration. Strangely the new approach seemed to help! At least until I got tired. Liked just about all of this. Tx to Fed and Eileen for the blog. I admit I had thought Ben was some villain on the internet that I didn’t know!
Spotted the ‘oddly’ trick of TARANTULA straight away, but couldn’t work out what it had to do with ‘Cambodian delicacy’ until I googled it. Yuck – I’m glad I’d finished my breakfast before doing that one.
Fabulous Friday fun from Fed
Top ticks for THINK PIECE, TSUNAMIS & CHEETAH which is probably as close as Iβll ever get to a name-check π
Not loving the DISAPPOINT examples but like Joan Armatrading, Iβm open to persuasion
Cheers E&F
Thank you very much indeed for the blog, Eileen: it was enormously helpful!
I agree with muffin @8: mock may be used to imply disappoint, but disappoint doesnβt mean mock.
I also found it difficult to think of mega as a synonym for excellent.
Like Fuddleduddy, I didnβt understand why Ben was a baddie.
Much of this puzzle was guess-first, parse-second – which generally is fine by me. Some of todayβs parsing was, howeverβ¦.well, letβs just say esoteric and convoluted.
I appreciate Fed is very popular with this group, but nevertheless I didnβt enjoy this one much.
Which, coming so soon after that recent Omnibus, was a disappointment. (And I really donβt think the word βmockβ would work in this instance.)
Phew, took a while but got there.
Thanks for the mock/DISAPPOINT examples, kVa, but I still find it a stretch.
Nho the singer of the tv star but fairly clued with a little gentle Googling.
Best thing today? Bodycheetah’s reminder of the excellent Joan Armourplating song.
Many thanks.
I can see the theme:
It’s DISAPPOINTing that we have to wait EONS for the MEGA BENEFIT of a TRACEY ULLMAN show to ARC around again, I thought maybe she’d RETIRED. Perhaps we should have a FUND RAISER to bring her back. She certainly gives me LAUGH LINEs!
I’m pretty sure I was aware of THINK PIECE a long time before I learned OP ED, though a quick search tells me they both originated in the 1930s.
Thanks Fed and Eileen
Didn’t know how TARANTULA related to Cambodia, but hey ho. 24d reminded me of the old Hope and Crosby line from the eponymous Road film “Like Webster’s dictionary, we’re Morocco bound”.
GinF @20
Yes, they have existed for ages, but they were always known as “Leaders” to my knowledge. It’s the terms op-ed and think piece that were new to me, though Aye-Aye @27 says they originated in the 1930s.
Muffin an OP-ED is very much not a leader column / editorial , they are written by outsiders , not the usual staff and often on the opposite page to the editorial . Very common in the Guardian and in crosswords .
So Cambodian delicacies join Bolivian poets on the endless list of things we have to know about…
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues with many nice touches . TSUNAMIS is very neat cycling , STRAPPED is flowing and concise … many more .
Stared at (6.6) for 18Ac before deciding it was just a misprint .
Do not like to see the staple men=OR , use soldiers or troops instead .
Officers and men is so demeaning and women do actually exist .
I was unsure whether TARANTULA is a Cambodian delicacy. I didn’t dare look it up in case I encountered a picture. My phobia really is that severe (even typing the word gives me the creeps). So, I got my wife to look it up.
Like muffin, I am unconvinced by mock=DISAPPOINT. The examples that KVa supplies (for which, thank you) imply ‘laughs at’ rather than disappoints – to my ear, at any rate.
Some very clever stuff here. The play on “reason” in THINK PIECE, “A film star” for A MIST SUN in TSUNAMIS. And of course in CORPOREAL I loved “my” = COR!
I’m very familiar with the name of BILLIE EILISH but sadly could not name a single song by her. This seems to say something about modern pop culture, as suggested here.
Many thanks Fed and Eileen.
I don’t understand how “school” is an anagrind. Never seen that before
Quick work on the NE and then much harder in other quadrants but I just about made it.
As a note, I’m surprised at people using AI search as a justification. It’s quite likely to spew out inaccuracies and made-up facts.
I guess Iβm the right age to appreciate both Tracey Ullman and Billie Eilish. This was relatively straightforward, though NHO of e-FIT (is it a European thing?), so the parsing of 1A eluded me. Thanks Eileen and Fed.
mock= DISAPPOINT in Chambers93 with many other terms , the clue was fair and has full cover . It may be older usage that has changed . We need Balfour or his twin Flatcap to give us a suitable quotation .
E-FIT just the modern version of photofit which used to be done by hand using eyes , noses etc . Very common on old cop shows .
I enjoyed this puzzle. The Cambodian delicacy led me to a website that listed a number of βexoticβ foods that may be found in Cambodia (from a Europeanβs perspective anyway), Apparently, itβs important for the tarantula to be fried so it is crisp or you experience the taste of various unappetising fluids. (Yuk..); but still preferable in my humble view to pong tea khon. Donβt ask..Thanks Fed and Eileen.
Took me a while, and even then I didnβt finish – defeated by the NHO THINK PIECE. Iβm off to Cambodia in a month or so. Iβll think about the arachnid delicacy, maybe.
I really dislike DEAR being used to mean EXPENSIVE.
Really enjoyed this. Lot of smiles when the parsing clicked into place. Held up by putting BALLACHE for HEADACHE.
@staticman #16 “Billy Irish” is an amusing concept.
Thanks Fed and Eileen.
Lord Jim @34 not knowing Billie Eilish songs doesn’t make you a Bad Guy
Roz @30
Yes. I had assumed OP-ED was short for “opinion of the editor”, but AI tells me it’s “opposite the editorial page”!
Not an easy one. The upper half struggled in, the lower took a lot of check button.
I’ve never heard of TRACEY ULLMAN, which would seem to be my loss. Never heard of THINK PIECE either, though op-ed is familiar. I was beginning to think it was American till some others chimed in.
What’s with the Morocco domain name? I don’t understand that at all.
Thanks, Fed and Eileen.
V@44 Moroccan internet domains are .MA
Itβs also the IVR code. Take your pick π
DISAPPOINT
mock
(Chambers app)
6. To defy, tantalize, disappoint, deceive, disparage or make a fool of as if in mockery (figurative)
(Collins online)
mock
(transitive)
to deceive, disappoint, or delude
M-W (This dictionary may not count here in general, but the example given seems to serve our purposes)
mock
to disappoint the hopes of
β¦ for any government to mock men’s hopes with mere words and promises and gestures.
βDwight D. Eisenhower
Lobsterdarts@35
Yes. I agree with you about the AI thing. I forgot to mention that I looked up ‘mock’ in all
recognised dictionaries before copying and pasting the AI-generated examples.
School: To my understanding, it’s used as an anagrind in the sense of ‘train/prepare’.
Morocco is MAROC in French, hence MA?
In 5d is COR equated with MY because of the shared mild expletive ? Quite a stretchβ¦β¦
KVA @46 – many thanks for all your work on DISAPPOINT / mock. I think there is more than ample support for it and I had let it rest.
Re ‘school’ as anagrind: admittedly, it’s less familiar than ‘train’, which both Collins and Chambers list under ‘school’. I didn’t think twice about it.
MartinD @48 – we haven’t seen it quite so much recently but it’s become very popular in crosswords. It’s a favourite with Lord Jim and me – I left him to comment this time (see comment 34 π ).
“Morocco-bound” reminded me of the line in the Hope/Crosby film The road to Morocco – “like Webster’s Dictionary we’re Morocco bound”.
Muffin @51 – poc beat you to it @28. π
[Thanks Eileen. I was probably typing mine @29 when that must have appeared.]
After the triumph of nearly finishing a Paul yesterday, alas most of this was beyond me, always next week..
Muffin@43 , the Guardian journal section has Leader columns on page 2 . Page 3 is headed “Opinion” , usually Guardian writers but quite often an OP-ED , it gives a bit of breadth and sometimes specialists from various fields plus a wider range of opinion . Last week the Daily Heil had an OP-ED from someone who did not wish Hitler had won WW2 .
I usually read Fed’s name with trepidation and assume I will be congratulating others on finishing what I could not. But this time, the top half was practically a write-in, and the lower half didn’t require much more. Yay, me!
TARANTULA as a food was new to me, but the construction was clearly clued and a quick internet search confirmed. I was pleased with myself for remembering COR and also key as an alternative to cay. The parsing of PUTREFIED escaped me — once again I fell for the “does” trick — so thank you Eileen.
Muffin @51 – that’s precisely where my mind went, disappointed it wasn’t helpful in the solution.
COD tsunamis – one of the best of the year.
In my memory, Tracy is an actress and comedian who also released a few records, like many others at the time, and before and since (David Soul, Telly Savalas, …).
I got stuck on 25 because I was spelling it putrIfied, until I saw the does=deer and looked up the correct spelling.
I am one who doesn’t agree with mock=disappoint.
Many thanks to Fed and Eileen.
P.S. yes I know the editors prefer actor.
Tracey Ullman was first seen on TV (as far as I know) in Three of a kind, also starring a debuting Lenny Henry.
bodycheetah@44 I get it! I’d been thinking “What’s that A doing there? Isn’t MA Massachusetts?” And I just remembered that Morocco’s name in French is spelled “Maroc.”
muffin @58 I assume you mean Lenny Henry’s debut in a TV series. He had been a regular before that on ATV’s Saturday morning magazine show, Tiswas, as those of us of a certain age will remember.
Thanks Joseph @60. I was too old to watch that when it was on!
Valentine @59
….as I said @47 π
muffin@61 So you did. I was so excited to think of “Maroc” that I didn’t follow my usual practice of reading all the comments before making one, and then there you were making the same point!
After a very tough solving week, I completed the Friday puzzle! I do seem to be on the same wavelength as Fed a lot of the time, which really helps, but a welcome pick-me-up.
That said, a couple I couldn’t parse that had to be right, e.g.
Eons (finding a synonym then modifying it is something I find very hard);
Narcotic (nho ‘otic’);
Corporeal (not the first time I’ve missed ‘my’ having this sort of meaning – probably as it’s not a term I’d ever use.
[No problem, Valentine]
Tough especially in the SW corner. Made it in the end, in 2 sittings, after a lunch break in Ghent.
Roz@32, thatβs quite a spot as I had completely missed the 6.6 numeration in 18A, which is present in the App and online versions.
MOCK.
Well, we can all think of a sentence where replacing MOCKED with DISAPPOINTED doesn’t much change the meaning of the sentence. I suggest that that does not imply that MOCKED = DISAPPOINTED. It just shows that there’s more than one way to convey that meaning.
haha. never come across the “does” trick. very good.
am i missing something, or isn’t it “laughter line”?
jon @67 – LAUGH LINE seemed fine to me. I’ve just looked it up – Collins has it as one word (‘US’) but no ‘laughter line’; surprisingly, I can’t find either in my Chambers (13th edition).
“Laughter lines” is definitely a thing, but it refers to lines on your face (generally around the eyes) rather than jokes.
Thanks KVa @47 for the explainer