Another Phi-day or Friday and another puzzle with no complaints, as far as we are concerned, apart from 12d. There were a few obscure words in the completed grid which left us wondering!
With Phi it’s always a good idea to look at the grid afterwards and check for ninas. Sometimes they can be rather obscure like a recent offering of his featuring the names of his four newly-acquired kittens, with others it could be musical references that are not always our strong point. However there were two linked words today that leapt out, and some proper names in the solution which we figured out from the wordplay, but needed to check electronically as we had not come across them before. This strongly suggested a theme and with some more googling we came up with four related names.
If you have not found the theme and want to carry on searching, please don’t read the parsing below!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Italian poet banning King and church in ancient city | |
| PETRA | PETRA |
|
| 4 | Work cheaply in fields: run into poachers, possibly | |
| SHARECROP | R (run) inside or ‘into’ an anagram of POACHERS (anagrind is ‘possibly’) | |
| 9 | Newspaper baron in film amongst sextet backing Greek composer | |
| XENAKIS | SIX (sextet) around KANE (newspaper baron in the film Citizen Kane) reversed or ‘backing’. This is one of the thematic characters. | |
| 10 | British composer spilled retsina | |
| STAINER | An anagram of RETSINA (anagrind is ‘spilled’). Another thematic character. | |
| 11 | Allowed Queen to consume desserts in city | |
| LEICESTER | LET (allowed) + ER (Queen) around ICES (desserts) | |
| 13 | Drawer in loom? | |
| TOWER | Double definition | |
| 14 | Pizzas from US state recalled in Australia | |
| CALZONI | CAL (US Sate) + IN OZ (Australia) reversed or ‘recalled’ | |
| 15 | With limited vision, you’ll be absorbed by love and desire | |
| ONE-EYED | YE (you) inside or ‘absorbed by’ O (love) and NEED (desire). We’re not sure about ‘need’ as a synonym for ‘desire’ though. You may desire something but you don’t necessarily need it! This is the gateway to the theme. | |
| 17 | Secretary’s crucial. Securing special access for building manager? | |
| PASSKEY | PA’S (secretary’s) + KEY (crucial) around or ‘securing’ S (special) | |
| 19 | Eight times used in support behind Commander | |
| OCTETTE | TEE (support) behind OC (Commander) around TT (times) | |
| 21 | Some Londoner’s suggestion about the French access point | |
| INLET | ‘INT perhaps how some Londoners may say HINT (suggestion) around or ‘about’ LE (French for the) | |
| 23 | Subject posed by sidesman? | |
| LAY FIGURE | We think this is a play on the fact that a figure (subject) that is posed (laid) may be a LAY FIGURE | |
| 25 | Mythical creature: head of chap, tail of filly, sounds of hooves | |
| CYCLOPS | C first letter or ‘head’ of Chap + Y last letter or ‘tail’ of fillY + CLOPS (sound of hooves). Another thematic character. | |
| 26 | Weaken policeman’s demand about book | |
| DISABLE | We were not sure about this one and had to check SALE in Chambers. It’s DI (policeman) + SALE (demand) about B (book) | |
| 27 | Month’s work starts to secure your spy film | |
| OCTOPUSSY | OCT (month) + OPUS (work) + initial letters or ‘starts’ to Secure Your | |
| 28 | Unduly sentimental, on getting intertwined with show of sadness | |
| CORNY | O and N (on) ‘intertwined with’ CRY (show of sadness) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Confusion about cross and line content of screen | |
| PIXEL | PIE (confusion) about X (cross) + L (line) | |
| 2 | Illustrator’s big win, securing back of magazine | |
| TENNIEL | TEN NIL (big win!) around E the last letter or ‘back of ‘ magazinE. Another thematic character. | |
| 3 | Vexes US athlete, taking tops off footwear | |
| ANKLE SOCK | ||
| 4 | Girl’s name not implicated in crimes | |
| SIS | SI |
|
| 5 | Archaeological study possibly revealing glory? I say so | |
| ASSYRIOLOGY | An anagram of GLORY I SAY SO (anagrind is ‘possibly revealing’) | |
| 6 | Finished item removed from the statute book? | |
| EXACT | A play on the fact that an ACT (statute) which is removed could be described as an EX ACT | |
| 7 | Part of airport concealing a refugee | |
| RUNAWAY | RUNWAY (part of airport) around or ‘concealing’ A | |
| 8 | Bird not getting maximum elevation? | |
| PARTRIDGE | A play on PART RIDGE – if it’s only a PART it wouldn’t be the maximum and a RIDGE is an elevated position | |
| 12 | Wheeled vehicles used in most of prank contests around Cyprus | |
| TRICYCLISTS | We think there may be an error in this one. If it’s TRIC |
|
| 14 | Strauss opera island company’s taken around Channel Islands | |
| CAPRICCIO | CAPRI (island) + CO (company) around CI (Channel Islands) | |
| 16 | Foreign surplus reduced in upturn in Russian bloc | |
| EXTRINSIC | EXTR |
|
| 18 | Petition in case’s according to law | |
| SOLICIT | SO (in case) + LICIT (according to law) | |
| 20 | US writer, badly hurt, so suffer losing one | |
| THURBER | An anagram of HURT (angrind is ‘badly’) + BE |
|
| 22 | Unfortunate time to pick up herd | |
| TROOP | POOR (unfortunate) + T (time) reversed or ‘picked up’ | |
| 24 | Sad words, say, after investing in bank without leadership | |
| ELEGY | EG (say) inside or ‘invested in’ |
|
| 26 | One’s out of the wagon and off the wagon | |
| DRY | DR |
|
Thanks B&J and Phi. I’m still a bit confused about the thematic characters. Agree with you about 12d. What did others make of 26d – I always thought DRY was “on the wagon”, not off it?
12 & 26 are errors, I agree.
Good morning MikeC! If you google the theme at 15ac and one of the thematic names, hopefully all (or maybe according to the theme – partially!) revealed.
Thanks, B&J – I had just got there for myself! What a wondrous thing is Google 😉
Thanks, both. Well, all very clever with the one-eyed characters (and well done for working that one out) but a bit stodgy for me, I’m afraid. Probably because the theme meant that there were some obscurities to work in. Agree with you about TRICYCLISTS and with MikeC about DRY.
Not my favourite Phi puzzle by a long chalk but I managed to complete it without recourse to aids.
I agree that the clue for TRICYCLISTS and the definition for DRY both look wrong. XENAKIS went in from the wordplay, and THURBER was eventually dragged from some deep recess in my memory bank. I found the SE impenetrable for a while and EXTRINSIC was my LOI after I decided that DISABLE had to be the answer for 26ac even though I didn’t know that meaning of “sale”.
We have checked DRY in Chambers and would agree with everyone else. We just entered it without really thinking too deeply about it. We just knew there was a link with wagon and the intake of alcohol!
Very strange about 26d and 12d, one thing I did spot in the grid were the placings of ONE EYED over OCTETTE and CYCLOPS on top of OCTOPUSSY, in both cases it could be said to be “one over the eight” – definitely off the wagon…. 🙂
Hmm, I would never have spotted that theme so thanks for pointing that out. Of course I knew the Cyclops had one eye, but even though I saw Xenakis at concerts many time in the eighties and nineties, and could see the disfigurement from his war injury, it never occurred to me that he had lost an eye. As to the other two…
And it’s curious that for a long time when doing this, the only Greek composer I could think of was Skalkottas. I don’t suppose either of them are particularly well known outside of modern music specialists.
Must be brief – we’re running a craft stall at a marina this morning. I could claim 12d as a form of metonymy but I think it’s probably my software correcting users to used without me noticing. 26 is just an idea running away with itself – sorry.
The theme actually came from reading a brief bio of Tenniel, and only then discovering he had one eye. I knew of Xenakis and Stainer and also then recalled Thurber, and they all had seven letters, and it sort of snowballed from there (I knew there was a reason for having a three-lettered pseudonym).
Rather hoping the forthcoming Walter Mitty film will spark a resurgence for James T. OK – back to the stall…
One more minor niggle – 14A is clear from the wordplay, but calzoni are trousers – the folded-over pizzas (I remember my first, in Palermo 37 years ago …) are calzone. Even Homer nods – an enjoyable puzzle, and as usual I was beaten by the nina.
Sorry, lurchio, I disagree. ‘Calzoni’ means both trousers and pizzas. (The singular here – ‘calzone’ meaning trouser leg or pizza) Per Collins Italian dictionary.
So no qualms over 14ac. Concerning 12dn and 26dn I agree that Phi has been uncharacteristically sloppy. No bad thing – to err is human and all that. Saddened that he wouldn’t admit to it though; I can’t believe the software excuse as that wouldn’t explain change from ‘vehicle’ to ‘vehicles’ in an auto correction from ‘vehicle user’ to ‘vehicles used’.
Such a shame; Phi had risen (again) in my estimation following the brilliant Britten puzzle (8458), but now fallen by this touch of (arrogant?) disingenuousness. Sad. Sigh.
William F P @12
Re 12 dn I think Phi probably really did just think it was the software. I can’t actually think of a reason why he would actually have written “used” deliberately. If I’d done it I’d have guessed typo – if you type fast you often transpose letters in weird ways. And I think the “idea running away from itself” re 26 is clearly one of his, for which he implicitly takes responsibility. I don’t see any way of reading that part of his post that doesn’t include his admitting to a mistake. So your comment seems a bit…disingenuous?