An enjoyable and fairly gentle offering from Masakarade
My apologies for a rather later than usual and now rather rushed blog: I had it all ready to post when I had a phone call re a minor family emergency and managed to delete it all!
As usual from this setter, we have a good variety of clue types with some neat constructions and one or two clever anagrams to help things along, with some misdirection, to keep us on our toes.
I had ticks for 10ac KHMER ROUGE, 13ac ALMSHOUSE, 26ac LIEDER, 7dn SUGGEST and 23dn KAZOO.
Thanks to Maskarade for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Crazy French soul, this woman (6)
MADAME
MAD (crazy) + ÂME (French for soul)
4 Takes over present-day stop-over (6)
ADOPTS
AD (present-day) + an anagram (over) of STOP
9 Tin and silver catch (4)
SNAG
SN (tin) + AG (silver) – a deft use of two chemical symbols for a literal and metaphorical catch
10 Ill-advised Greek ‘humor’ showing Asian guerrilla movement (5,5)
KHMER ROUGE
An anagram (ill-advised?) of GREEK HUMOR
11 Fixed time around rugged ridges (6)
ARÊTES
A reversal (around) of SET (fixed) + ERA (time) – I remember these from O Level Geography
12 Got plastered? (8)
RENDERED
Double definition
13 Saul’s home rebuilt as one for the poor (9)
ALMSHOUSE
An anagram (rebuilt) of SAUL’S HOME
15 Verse omitted from cover song (4)
DUET
DU[v]ET (cover) minus v (verse)
16 It’s seen amongst beta, lambda and others (2,2)
ET AL
Contained in bET A Lambda
17 With windows sealed, say, in hut (9)
SHUTTERED
UTTER (say) in SHED (hut)
21 Unrivalled, as the House of Lords in recess (8)
PEERLESS
The House of Lords in recess has no peers
22 Cost of maintenance all the way to fortification (6)
UPKEEP
UP (all the way) + KEEP (fortification)
24 Dessert Azed rejects, served in a globe (10)
ZABAGLIONE
A reversal (rejects)of A-Z + an anagram (served?) of IN A GLOBE
25 Enthusiasm at heart of Maoris’ home (4)
ZEAL
The middle letters (heart) of new ZEALand (Maoris’ home
26 Songs by Schubert suggested by violinist (6)
LIEDER
Sounds like (suggested by) ‘leader’- first violinist, leader of the orchestra
27 Old England, Peru – new continent (6)
EUROPE
An anagram (new) of O + E + PERU; OE is an abbreviation for Old English but I can’t find it for Old England, nor E for England
Down
1 Ore obtained by worker underground, a trainee (7)
MINERAL
MINER (worker underground) + A L (a trainee)
2 Green finger, perhaps, and what the gardener will do in bed (5)
DIGIT
DIG IT – what the gardener will do
3 Arranges party – with what’s available (5,2)
MAKES DO
A sort of double definition
5 Fearless Bobby that’ll open the Guardian (6)
DARING
(Bobby) DARIN + G[uardian]
6 Action completely adopting inverted interior design (9)
PROCEDURE
PURE (completely?) round a reversal (inverted) of DECOR (interior design)
7 Recommend guests get changed around midnight (7)
SUGGEST
An anagram (get changed) of GUESTS round niGht
8 Frantically text Posh about test result of where’s it at (1,5,3,4)
X MARKS THE SPOT
An anagram (frantically) of TEXT POSH round MARKS (test result)
14 Domestic flight (9)
STAIRCASE
Cryptic definition
16 Closely examine as I weep noisily (7)
EYEBALL
Sounds like (noisily) I bawl (I weep) – I’m always rather puzzled by ‘noisily’ as an indicator for a soundalike
18 Letter about impolite PM (7)
TRUDEAU
TAU (letter) round RUDE (impolite) for either of two Canadian Prime Ministers
19 Most of team gathering at lift (7)
ELEVATE
ELEVE[n] (most of team) round AT
20 Great effort making boot (6)
WELLIE
Double definition
23 Tibetan priest leaves US city for instrument (5)
KAZOO
KA[lama]ZOO (US city) minus lama (Tibetan priest)
Very enjoyable with ticks for ZABAGLIONE, ZEAL, DARING and X MARKS THE SPOT. ARETES was new and couldn’t parse KAZOO.
Ta Maskarade & Eileen.
Thank you, Eileen, I hope the family thing was minor.
I can’t recall where I saw this, so apologies for the repetition if it was here, but 23d brought it to mind…
The 1-L lama, he’s a priest,
The 2-L llama, he’s a beast
But I’ll bet my best pyjamas
There never have been 3-L lllamas
(Easier to learn the spellings than remember the mnemonic!)
In 4a, over seems to be an anagrind rather than reversal indicator. An error? I don’t think it should serve as an anagrind.
Never heard of wellie for “great effort”.
Only had a vague recollection of ARÊTES. [See, Eileen, I found the little hat too!]
Good fun, nothing too taxing.
ADOPTS is AD + an anagram (over) of STOP.
GDU and AlanC – thanks: I knew there would be some casualties! – will amend now.
Geoff, I remember blogging WELLIE not too long ago: the expression (which I love) is ‘Give it some wellie!’
Mostly quite easy but I got completely bogged down in the NE corner. I ended up needing a word search for PROCEDURE which is actually a great clue so I kick myself for that. Also nho ARÊTES (autocorrect put the circumflex in) so that was a struggle.
Fascinating that a small city called Kalamazoo in Michigan achieved worldwide fame. Useless fact: it was the original home of Gibson the guitar makers.
Liked PEERLESS, ZABAGLIONE and the neat DUET.
Ta Maskarade and Eileen
Bobby Darin is one for the kids! But then, I suppose, Schubert is older.
(Not that Paul, btw)
Quite tough for a Tuesday and not convinced by 26A LIEDER as a homophone for Leader, and 5D DARING is tough for anyone under the age of 70?
Thanks to Eileen for the blog and Maskarade for the challenge.
Certainly a tougher Maskarade than I have experienced previously. Had to scrape my brain for a few words.
Ticks for ALMSHOUSE and KAZOO
Thanks Eileen and Maskarade
Very enjoyable puzzle.
Favourites: SUGGEST, STAIRCASE, KAZOO, ZEAL, SHUTTERED, MADAME, DUET (loi).
New for me: ARETES.
Thanks Eileen and Maskarade.
Struggled with ZABAGLIONE. Who knew there was a place called KALAMAZOO!
I mightn’t have explained myself clearly, above. I’m disappointed that over can be used as an anagrind. I thought perhaps the setter used it as a reversal indicator by mistake, not realising the letters are not in fact reversed.
Sadly, it would appear that almost anything can be used as an anagrind these days. I blame the government …
Can’t say I’ve ever come across the French for soul before, and I’m not a fan of using foreign words in clues anyway.
Thanks, Eileen – hope minor emergency has been sorted.
@Eileen re. ‘noisily’ as soundalike: I think it’s a play on an adverbial — so we might say that letter O is similar to zero “visually” (= in a way pertaining to vision) so ‘bawl’ is similar to ‘ball’ “noisily” (= in a way pertaining to noise).
I worked in a lab for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals*, who also had their HQ in Kalamazoo. With that, AME and ARÊTES, I felt the required knowledge was falling my way today. I’m just old enough to remember my mum talking about Bobby Darin as a figure from the already distant past when I was very young. The only thing I checked was LIEDER.
I see GDU’s point about over. It is a little misleading in crossword context.
A good puzzle. Quicker than yesterday’s I think, but it’s not a race.
Thanks Maskarade and Eileen.
[*Inadvertent discoverers of hair restoring shampoo.]
Fuddleduddy@11: Glen Miller and His Orchestra had a hit in 1942 with ‘(I’ve got a gal in) Kalamazoo’. Way before my time, but I had still heard of it.
GDU@3
“Gie it soom wellie” was an oft heard command in my childhood, so came pretty easily to me, unlike some of the rest
Though did know arete from reading tales of Himalayan climbing adventures
Thanks Maskarade and Eileen
Very entertaining. I found it easier than yesterday’s – only real holdup was waiting for a second crosser before deciding between LIEDER and LEADER for 26a – either fits the clue. I didn’t know AME for soul, but it had to be right.
I remember Bobby Darin, but I imagine he will be unfamilar to lots of solvers.
Favourite SUGGEST.
Andy in Durham @16 – Yes, that is how knew of it. Somewhere on YouTube there is an enjoyable version with Tex Beneke and Marion Hutton (sister of the more famous Betty) leading the vocals.
pserve_p2 @14 – thank you, that works for me: I wish I’d mentioned it before. 😉
I have quibbles for too many clues to mention. That reduced the pleasure.