Thanks to Qaos for another fun puzzle. I wonder if there’s any special going on…
Seeing SPINAL TAP and HARRY (Shearer) early on in row 9 made me think the inevitable theme was going to be that film, but not seeing any other references (I was looking in vain for ELEVEN) I investigated further and found that the puzzle is a tribute to the director Rob Reiner (who appears in the puzzle as part of ROBbers, and nearly an anagram of ERNIE). Reiner, who was murdered, allegedly by his son, last December, directed [This is] SPINAL TAP, which starred Harry SHEARER, as well as STAND BY me, The PRINCESS BRIDE and NORTH. He received many AWARDS and TROPHIES. Have I missed anything? I did indeed miss some, as noted in the comments, despite having noted some of them when checking the list of Reiner’s works. I blame the heat!
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | NASALLY | Before 5050, space explorers ultimately pay through the nose (7) NASA (space explorers) + L L (two 50s) + [pa]Y |
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| 5 | STAND-BY | Substitute case of stout with case of brandy (5-2) S[tou]T + AND (with) + B[rand]Y |
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| 10 | OIL RIG | Locale for Derrick’s young lady? ‘I love travelling west’ (3,3) Reverse of GIRL + I O (zero, love) |
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| 11 | ACCURATE | A Catholic member of the clergy is faithful (8) A + C[atholic] + CURATE |
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| 12 | BAR | Prevent Shakespeare forgetting Bottom (3) BARD less its last letter or bottom. Some might argue that this only works as a Down clue but it’s fine by me |
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| 13 | MISERY | Woe is me! Reckless and extremely risky (6) (IS ME)* + R[isk]Y |
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| 14 | TROPHIES | Degenerates wanting Academy Awards (8) ATROPHIES (degenerates) less A[cademy] |
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| 15 | METER | Measure English trout initially found in French sea (5) E[nglish] T[rout] in MER (French for sea) |
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| 16 | MAKE SENSE | Man seeks new drug to hold water (4,5) (MAN SEEKS)* + E (drug) |
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| 19 | SPINAL TAP | Personal number key during father’s rejected US medical procedure (6,3) PIN (personal number) + ALT (computer key) in reverse of PA’S. Spinal Tap is (I see) mostly a US term for Lumbar Puncture |
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| 21 | HARRY | Prince arrived in Hungary on vacation (5) ARR. In H[ungar]Y |
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| 24 | ALLEY CAT | Stray lately wandering around California (5,3) CA in LATELY* |
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| 26 | RHOMBI | Greek character married bachelor, one with diamonds? (6) RHO (Greek letter) + M + B + I |
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| 27 | ICI | British company once part of public infrastructure (3) Hidden in publIC Infrastructure |
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| 28 | PRINCESS | Royal papers describing metal crown missing (8) [z]INC in PRESS (newspapers) |
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| 29 | DEALER | Trader: ‘Expensive coats, Levi’s – 60% off!’ (6) 60% of LEVi’s in DEAR (expensive) |
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| 30 | ASSERTS | American to highlight revolting states (7) A[merican] + reverse of STRESS (highlight) |
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| 31 | ASPERSE | ‘Snake’ – language of slander (7) ASP (snake) + ERSE (language) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | ASININE | Foolish like 1 + 9? (7) AS (like) + 1 + NINE |
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| 3 | A FREE REIN | I earn change importing without charge or latitude (1,4,4) FREE (without charge) in (I EARN)* |
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| 4 | LEG BYE | Extra line to say farewell (3,3) L[ine] + EG (say) + BYE (farewell). A leg bye is an extra in cricket |
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| 6 | TICK OVER | Heart admits nothing against being idle (4,4) O (nothing) + V[ersus] in TICKER (heart) |
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| 7 | NORTH | Point revealed by 14 or 13? (5) Hidden in fourteeN OR THirteen |
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| 8 | BOTHERS | Worries relatives when first king abdicates (7) BROTHERS less the first R (king) |
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| 9 | MARTIAL ARTIST | Dan perhaps mixing art material – it’s missing base (7,6) Anagram of ART MATERIAL IT’S less E (or rather “e”, the base of natural logarithms). It seems a bit of a flaw that ART appears both in the anagram fodder and in ARTIST |
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| 17 | ELABORATE | Add more detail to complex (9) Double definition (though the two meanings are rather close) |
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| 18 | SLICKEST | Celts ski, going downhill with the most smooth manner (8) (CELTS SKI)* |
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| 20 | POLARIS | 7 star submarine (7) Double definition – Polaris is the North Star |
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| 22 | ROBBERS | They steal over 2 billion euros, not even starting with rupees (7) R[upees] + O[ver] + B B (two Billions) + the odd letters of EuRoS |
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| 23 | BRIDES | Second-tier attractions, those with trains? (6) B-RIDES (attractions at a theme park, say, not as good as the A-rides) |
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| 25 | ERNIE | Wise one in Munich on retreat drinking last of beer? (5) [bee]R in reverse of EINE (German “one”) |
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Come on, own up, did anyone else Google “misery trophies” in the vain hope of uncovering something to do with NORTH?
Lovely puzzle, full of wit.
Many thanks, both.
Thankfully the Nigel Farage theme hinted at by NASALLY ASININE MISERY never materialised
I spotted the PRINCESS BRIDE and SPINAL TAP but wasn’t aware of the diversity of Rob Reiner’s work
NORTH my fave today
Cheers Q&A
Also MISERY and When HARRY Met Sally
Enjoyed this – thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
MISERY and When HARRY MET SALLY also directed by Reiner.
oops just beaten to it…
Very enjoyable, no quibbles (apart from possibly the abovementioned art in the clue for MARTIAL ARTIST).
Didn’t spot the theme, but REINER appears in column 4
Apparently, he also directed NORTH
MISERY is also one of his movies. I didn’t know that. As is When HARRY met Sally. (already mentioned above @3 and @4 – I’ve been too slow)
Apart from the theme, the puzzle, while not difficult, is a feast of numerical clues, including my favourite NORTH. Thanks Qaos and Andrew!
The ginf radar must be shrinking … of his 30-something movies I’ve seen none, heard of just two, and knew neither his name nor of his recent untimely demise. Oh well. Nice puzzle tho, deffo an A-ride, thanks Q&A.
Don’t feel bad, grant#9, the theme was lost on me too.
I also thought the theme was going to be SPINAL TAP when that and HARRY were in the grid. I remember quite enjoying MISERY but was unaware it was direct by Reiner.
Liked the misdirection in NORTH. Ticks also for ALLEY CAT and RHOMBI
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
Isn’t 29 40% of Levis?
George23 It’s a minor mistyping in the blog. It should read 60% OFF.
Favourite: MISERY.
New for me: POLARIS = a type of submarine.
I totally missed the theme, not very familiar with this film director.
Rob Reiner also executive producer of Ricky Gervais ALLLEY CATS. ATROPHIES my favourite.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
Nice puzzle, though I’m one who is not so happy about Bottom giving a deletion in an across clue. Favourites POLARIS and PRINCESS.
Posting to add a little fact that probably most people know. When Sally fakes an orgasm in a cafe, the woman who says “I’ll have what she’s having” was Reiner’s mother.
Tx for the parsing of NORTH and for identifying the theme. Having read here that Qaos includes one I did look but still saw nothing.
Theme went totally over my head as did ‘e’ being the base of natural logarithms. No wonder I struggled with the anagram. However did complete with no reveals so feel vindicated
You have missed out 31ac in the blog.
Oops, so I did – now fixed. Thanks for pointing it out. A
Comment #20
Muffin @16 bottom = rear end 🙂
I was fortunate to spot the theme – with SPINAL TAP and PRINCESS BRIDE – very early on. So once I got HARRY, I knew to look out for SALLY, which helped with 1ac.
Missed the theme but enjoyed the clues.
I didn’t look for or spot the theme but no matter. (I’m familiar with the director and all but one of the films mentioned so far.) An accessible puzzle with a mix of clues and decent surfaces.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew.
31ac – ‘Snake’ – language of slander
‘ASP’ (snake) + ERSE (language). As in ‘to cast aspersions’.
From Wikipedia:
Erse or Earse may refer to:
An alternative name for any Goidelic language, especially the Irish language, from Erische
A 16th–19th-century Scots language name for Scottish Gaelic. Also an archaic term for the Scots people, in use at least until the early 20th century.
Aue and Erse, tributaries of the Fuhse
Some lovely clues here.
Thanks Qaos & Andrew
For once I spotted the theme and that helped with PRINCESS and NASALLY. Thought it was more of a Tuesday puzzle in terms of difficulty? Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
I recently watched a documentary about Rob Reiner, whose father was the prolific Carl Reiner, and was staggered by the the breadth of his work. Therefore I guessed it was going to be more than just SPINAL TAP alongside HARRY Shearer (Andrew, you have the capitalised SHEARER rather than HARRY), so continued to find the ones mentioned by others above. All good fun with some nice surfaces such as MARTIAL ARTIST and ELABORATE.
I have watched SPINAL TAP II twice and it is very funny, if not quite hitting the heights of the original. Good cameos from Elton John and Macca.
Ta Qaos & Andrew.
I would never have spotted the theme, but t was fun none the less.
Very enjoyable, lots of attempted mis-directs but saw through them. NORTH very clever. Thx Qaos.
Completed over a very leisurely breakfast – each time I thought I was stuck, maybe leave it and come back later, a bit more of a think and a hard stare got another one in. So for me, just about the right level: not easy by any means, but engaging and with lots of nifty devices used; and all doable in my head without scribbling-on paper or outside look-ups.
NORTH was a neat bit of misdirection; ROBBERS was a very nice build-up. I always struggle with remembering which of L or D is 500 or 50, but I got NASALLY in the end.
I didn’t spot the theme… thanks for all the information about that in various posts above.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew!
The theme was lost on me, not knowing the director, but I enjoyed the puzzle. I did not know leg-bye, as I am not familiar with cricket, but got there in the end (after having all crossers). Very happy I could parse all. I thought this was easier than the Monday puzzle, which I did yesterday. Thanks, Andrew and Qaos.
Thanks for the blog , for once SPINAL TAP gave me the theme , to celebrate this a Bank Holiday has been announced for the end of the month .
Very good set of neat clues , BOTHERS very precise removing first king , ERNIE cleverly hides the capital of Wise at the front , TROPHIES and MAKE SENSE have very smooth wordplay …
Michelle @14 , POLARIS ; submarines not been around for 30 years and will soon no longer be the North Star .
Derek@30 , 500 ends in D .
Missed the theme of course, though I have seen several of the films referred to and know of Rob Reiner. He was he son of Carl Reiner, long-time collaborator with Mel Brooks.
Had to work out LEG BYE as I’ve no knowledge of cricket. I thought ‘going downhill’ rather iffy as an anagrind in 18d.
Another pleasant solve from Qaos, although I didn’t spot the theme. I liked the substituted stout and brandy in STAND-BY, Derrick’s OIL RIG, MAKE SENSE to hold water (the drug to hold water is an antidiuretic), the DEALER with expensive coats and Levi’s, and ERNIE, the wise man.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew.
Roz@32; thanks for that, which might even stick.
Forgot to add that I don’t think ‘dan’=MARTIAL ARTIST works. A dan is a rank (not only in martial arts but also in go and shogi). ‘Fred is a Dan’ doesn’t make sense, whereas ‘Fred is a 5th Dan’ does.
I enjoyed this relatively gentle offering from QAOS. The theme was a bonus. I was hoping the puzzle would include Reiner’s best-known acting role: Michael Stivic the in the groundbreaking U.S. sitcom “All in the Family” (based on “Till Death Do Us Part”). Worth checking out.
Very surprised to find this so easy for a Qaos. However didn’t get the theme. I wondered if there was a theme around the band . Ta to Q and A
I smiled at being reminded of Spinal Tap, and know a couple more of Reiner’s movies, but the theme completely passed me by. Still, it did not detract from the puzzle at all.
The parsing of the cleverly-hidden NORTH escaped me, as did the deletion of e from the anagrind in 9d – I feel like that’s the second time I’ve missed that trick and hope to spot it next time. ERSE was new to me.
Thank you Qaos and Andrew
Derek@35: also L is bottom half of C
I liked STANDBY not being the replacement clue it appeared to be.
Apart from pure tradition, why is it forbidden (to use today’s example) to describe the last letter of an across clue as its “bottom” and so on? I have yet to see a clue where non-adherence to this directional convention would be so misleading as to make the clue unsolvable, but it is enforced with iron rigidity … why?
Spent a bit of time thinking of clever Germans and not Eric’s partner. Fun puzzle. Thanks.
gladys @41
“Bottom” implies that other things are on top, not alongside.
Gladys@41 I agree , think of the bottom of the garden , the far end .
Found this very straightforward for a Qaos puzzle today. Though as usual I completely missed the theme – I don’t tend to look for them, anyway, as a rule. Unless there’s a key word or words that the solution of several clues depends on. Like Paul’s yesterday.
Roz will be disappointed to hear that the only Shearer I know of is an Alan S, soccer centre forward and now TV pundit. However, I do notice that they seem to measuring out the extent of these desperate recent wildfires in the UK in terms of “football pitches” now. The nearest one to us, Dunwich Heath, 210 football pitches, very sadly upstaged by the 220 FP’s in the New Forest, still raging. What was wrong with formerly using the more familiar hectares…?
Saw the theme right after finishing – both good news and bad!
Enjoyed this. Liked TROPHIES and NORTH particularly.
Ronald@45 , I do know about Alan Shearer from Spitting Image , he was the only puppet that did not need a script . The writers decided they could not match his own words for satirising a football “pundit” .
I was really pleased to finish a Thursday (still working on yesterday and Tuesday’s!), only to come here and be told it was too easy. Theme sailed over my head, but some lovely clueing. Thanks both.
Mostly smooth sailing, but I had BYE BYE for 4 at first (BYE: extra + homophone of BY-line = farewell). LOI ASSERTS took a while to see and parse.
I missed the theme, being dumb enough not to look for it. I doubt I would have seen it, but I like Rob Reiner’s work generally. I wonder if there’s a tangential reference to City SLICKers, which apparently was made through Reiner’s production company and starred long-time Reiner collaborator, Billy Crystal.
Fun puzzle. Thanks, Q&A.
Tough but enjoyable. Missed the theme as always, but not a film buff so wouldn’t have heard of it anyway. Polaris is a missile not a submarine.
Loi ERNIE which I couldn’t parse. And why is Ernie wise rather than a dumb machine?
Ta Qaos and Andrew
PhilB @50
The submarines carrying the Polaris missiles were known as Polaris submarines.
I don’t know if your ERNIE comment was serious, but it’s Ernie Wise, not wise Ernie! See Morecambe and Wise.
Enjoyable, and I found it easy. Parsed many, post-parsed the rest and couldn’t get one or two explained though they were right answer.
Thanks both
Really frustrated that NORTH took so long, even after I’d got POLARIS from the crossers. But that’s a me problem, not a Qaos problem 🙂
Thx both
Muffin @51. I said I couldn’t parse ERNIE!
The submarines were Resolution class but I take your point.
PhilB @54
He turned up last Sunday’s Quiptic too:
Wise man spots current in Irish river (5)
muffin @16 What is a little known fact is that Reiner’s mother’s line is not the joke’s first appearance. In Bertrand Tavernier’s film Round Midnight saxophonist Dexter Gordon is standing at the bar of the club where he is playing when the drunk next to him falls backwards to the floor. Dexter turns to the barman and says “I’ll have what he had.” The film precedes Reiner’s by at least ten years . The joke is probably older than both.
Thanks Qaos for a nice gentle puzzle with beautifully smooth-surfaced clues. Theme, as usual passed me by, so thanks for pointing it out. I have to say I’m focussed on solving the clues, so don’t really have a lot of capacity to look for connections, but certainly admire the skill of the compiler in completing a grid with words so well connected.
Thanks Muffin @16 for that lovely bit of trivia. Apart from realising that there were a few film titles I, of course, missed the specific theme. Thanks also to Menander @6. Qaos pulled off a similar trick with the Wes Anderson puzzle 30,023. That’s why I love coming to this blog. You realise that the crossword is even cleverer than you’d thought.
A delightful puzzle, full of wit and clever constructions – too many fine clues to single any out. And a well-executed theme to boot. Thanks Q&A for the Qs and As.
Zoot@56, thanks for the reminder of that great jazz film Round Midnight. Strange that it is a based on the life and times of Bud Powell, and yet the Powell character is changed to a saxophone player (brilliantly acted and played by Dexter Gordon), and the title is a Thelonious Monk composition, when there are plenty of Powell titles Tavernier could have used. (Paris Thoroughfare comes to mind.) Nevertheless, it is one of the best jazz movies ever.
AlanC@27 , I suppose Spinal Tap Eleven had to be the name of the sequel .
Good to see there has been no grade inflation for the bright yellow squares .
Roz@60, with ELEVEN expressed 11, which is a bit like Roman II?
Cellomaniac@59 I think the Dale Turner character is a deliberate composite of Bud and Lester Young. The basis of the film is clearly the relationship between Bud and Francis Paudras, but there are many references to Lester- the Alvin hotel, the mention of Herschel, the Billie Holiday character, and there are parallels in both of their lives. And of course Dexter can play the lead, getting an Oscar nomination. And as you say, a wonderful film.
I hadn’t heard of the film Round Midnight. I’ve just read the synopsis on Wiki, and it all sounds rather depressing. I don’t think I’ll seek it out.
Zoot @62 – Wiki confirms that it’s a composite of those two.
Unless I’ve missed it, there was no allusion in the clue or comments of the American spelling equivalent to UK ‘metre’ for 15a, although English and French happen to make an appearance.
Am I really missing something?
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew
nametab @64
I thought that too, but the wordplay can only give meter.
I think meter here is used as a verb, i.e. to measure something.
Neill97 @66
That makes sense.
[Roz @47: haha. I’m sad to say that I bear a reasonable resemblance to Alan S and over the years, it has been pointed out to me, especially in pubs. The best was a couple of years ago when some young kids in Hounslow asked me for my autograph.
I played golf in Richmond today in 38 degrees so I’m slightly delirious. No undercover activity involved].
Zoot@62, thanks for the Lester Young correction – I did not know that. Just another excuse for me to watch that film again.
Cellomaniac@69 No excuse needed. My wife, no great jazz fan, has watched it more than once – she thinks Dexter’s wonderful.
“Was I good?”
Really fun puzzle. Completed on first pass, so not difficult. Got the Rob Reiner theme, though not all the references. Excellent use of misdirecting word combinations in 13a MISERY (“Woe is me”), 14a TROPHIES (“Academy Awards”), 25d ERNIE (“Wise one”)
I also liked 16a MAKE SENSE (“to hold water”), 21a HARRY (surface), 18d SLICKEST (“going downhill” as anagrind), 23d B-RIDES
26a RHOMBI, I resisted LAMBDA, which didn’t quite parse
Thanks both