Looks like Fire are taking us to a museum this week…
The preamble states that: “Unclued lights can be arranged to form the first line of a poem and the initials and surname of the poet.”
So maybe not an actual museum, but it still sounds cultural – and will probably be educational for this bear of little poetry knowledge…
As with many such Spectator puzzles with linked unlued entries, the initial tactic is to solve as many clued entries as one can, to try and flesh out some crossers on the unclued ones. Of which there were two 3-letter words; two of 4-letters and three of 5-letters.
In the end it was two longer entries that led to the PDM. 7D looked like it would be SUFFERING, and 28A didn’t seem to be a real word – ?H?UDE? – but with the N of SUFFERING it was probably going to be the initials and surname of W H AUDEN. I expect some more learned solvers than your correspondent might have made the connection straight away, but it took a little e-research to find the following:
“Musée des Beaux Arts”
I wasn’t sure why 32A ‘SNIVELS’ would be associated with a ‘snitch’, or sneak/informer, but Chambers also has ‘snitch’ as slang for the nose, which makes more sense with the snivelling. 43A LINGERED OVER was a little odd in that it had ‘OVER’ in the clue as well, but a minor quibble-ette, no more.
I enjoyed the surface read of 42A, with the pop duo ERASURE ageing very well – their music certainly has, IMHO. Also HARLEY STREET as a concentration of doctors.
And that was just about that – an enjoyable, if not too difficult, solve and an educational end game. My thanks to the Fire ensemble, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 3 | CARAVAN SITES | Places to live are scant with visa changes (7,5)
anag, i.e. changes, of ARE SCANT and VISA |
||
| 10 | EAR BONE | Bank of Scotland returning a hammer? (3,4)
EAR_B (brae, bank, Scottish, returning) + ONE (a) |
||
| 11 | TOUTING | Promoting the Yorkshire excursion? (7)
T (t’, contraction of ‘the’, associated with God’s Own County) + OUTING (excursion) |
||
| 13 | GO TOO FAR | Force Celtic out with own goal about to cross the line (2,3,3)
RAF (Air Force) + OOT (out, Scottish, or Celtic) + OG (own goal) = RAF OOT OG, or GO TOO FAR when all turned about face |
||
| 16 | STOUT | Last of rooibos tea reportedly off giving strong dark brew (5)
S (last of rooiboS) + T (homophone, i.e. reportedly, TEA usually sounds like T) + OUT (off, away) |
||
| 18 | FLORA | Look! Half of France eats margarine (5)
F_RA( |
||
| 19 | WENT AHEAD | He wanted a salad and got to work (4,5)
anag, i.e. letter salad, of HE WANTED A |
||
| 24 | CORDIAL | My face is friendly (7)
COR (interjection, my!) + DIAL (face, e.g. of a clock) |
||
| 25 | AS OF | From start of autumn, mild temperature dropped (2,2)
A (start of Autumn) + S_OF( |
||
| 26 | PRAIRIE | Plain pastry dish has essentially dry character (7)
P_IE (pastry dish) around R (essence, or centre, of dRy) + AIR (character, mien) |
||
| 32 | SNIVELS | Runs from snitch in special new stretchy Levi’s (7)
S (special) + N (new) + IVELS (anag, i.e. stretchy, of LEVIS) |
||
| 33 | GEL | Get on stage backwards (3)
LEG, stage, backwards = GEL – get on (with someone) |
||
| 35 | PETERS OUT | Maybe Gabriel’s gone to get flags (6,3)
PETERS (Peter Gabriel, example of a Peter, plus contracted ‘s) + OUT (gone, as in a candle, gone out) |
||
| 37 | OCHRE | Aggregate retains chestnut colour (5)
O_RE (aggregate) around (retaining) CH (chestnut) |
||
| 40 | PORTENTS | Signs lead to permanent or temporary homes (8)
P (leading letter of Permanent) + OR + TENTS (temporary homes) |
||
| 41 | THIN AIR | Lack of atmosphere or warmth in airport gathering (4,3)
hidden word in, or gathering of letters from, ‘warmTH IN AIRport’ |
||
| 42 | ERASURE | Pop duo age very well (7)
ERA (age) + SURE (very well) [an 80s/90s popular beat combo, m’lud] |
||
| 43 | LINGERED OVER | Spent time on leave, initially in German town over start of Easter (8,4)
L (Leave, initially) + IN + GER German) + E (start of Easter) + D_OVER (town) |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | MENSWEAR SHOP | Clothes store workers skip over promises (8,4)
MEN (workers) + HOP (skip), around (over) SWEAR_S (promises) |
||
| 5 | ANOTHER | A distinct lack of ego in unconventional antihero (7)
subtractive anagram, i.e. unconventional, of ANT( |
||
| 6 | ATOM | Tom Allen initially playing tiny part (4)
anag, i.e. playing, of TOM + A (Allen, initially) |
||
| 8 | ITALY | I might compete in Eurovision (5)
semi-&lit-ish? ITALY (I, in IVR notation) might compete in said contest?! |
||
| 9 | ENTREAT | Sue’s recognised in recent reattribution (7)
hidden word in, i.e. recognised in, ‘recENT REATtribution’ |
||
| 12 | NONTOXIC | In France, no Britney hit is harmless (8)
NON (no, French) + TOXIC (Britney Spears hit?) |
||
| 15 | HARLEY STREET | Motorcycles reportedly spoil doctors’ concentration (6,6)
HARLEY_S (Harley Davidsons, motorbikes) + TREET (homophone, i.e. reportedly – TREET can sound like TREAT, spoil, mollycoddle) |
||
| 17 | BECAUSE | Considering British English around US and Europe (7)
B (British) + E (English) + CA (circa, around, about) + US + E (Europe) |
||
| 20 | ACIDITY | Investigator in a large town displays sharpness (7)
A + CI_TY (large town) around DI (Detective Inspector) |
||
| 21 | WITH LOVE | All the best women adore drinking vermouth at start of holiday (4,4)
W (women) + LOVE (adore), around IT (Italian Vermouth) + H (start of Holiday) |
||
| 23 | EPHEMERAE | Mayflies turn up in record time over Spain (9)
EP (Extended Play, vinyl record) + HEM (sew, turn up a hem) + ERA (time) + E (Espana, Spain) |
||
| 27 | GNOCCHI | Soldier catches fresh conch for something to eat (7)
G_I (GI Joe, US soldier) around (catching) NOCCH (anag, i.e. fresh, of CONCH) |
||
| 29 | ELECTRO | Voted for Romania to produce dance music (7)
ELECT (voted for, elected) + RO (Romania) |
||
| 31 | EQUERRY | Assistant’s blunder knocking out IT in capital (7)
EQU( |
||
| 35 | PIT | Topple over into abyss (3)
TIP, topple, over = PIT! |
||
| 36 | SENSE | Appreciation of teacher diminished (5)
SENSE( |
||