(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) Another Guardian slip today, which as of time of posting has not been rectified. It’s the wrong grid in the inter-active version, but the PDF version has got the right one. Still, neither has a clue to 1 across. I wonder what’s in the paper. Thanks to Boatman, for an otherwise fairly straightforward puzzle, once the theme was identified. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1
_F_O_T : AFLOAT, EFFORT, …..? Like the puzzle, I’m clueless.
5 Bullies exploit what we give to our children (4,4)
COWS’ MILK : COWS(bullies;terrifies) + MILK(to exploit;to take advantage of).
9 Make money by the hour in gambling den with bridge player (4,2,2)
CASH IN ON : H(abbrev. for “hour”) contained in(in) CASINO(a gambling den) + N(abbrev. for “north”, designation for one of the players at bridge).
10 Stick together to make money? Self-centred (6)
CEMENT : CENT(money denomination) containing in its centre(-centred) ME(self).
11 Role of selfishness in this puzzle maybe initially lost for old solver (4)
THEE : “theme”(the role of, in this case, “selfishness” in this puzzle) minus(… lost) the 1st letter of(…initially) “maybe “.
Defn: The old;archaic 2nd person pronoun, as used by the setter to refer to the solver.
12,15 Act selfishly to make fortune, outrageously less sensitive (nothing inside?) after semblance of love (4,3,3,6,3)
LOOK OUT FOR NUMBER ONE : Anagram of(…, outrageously) FORTUNE
containing(… inside) [ NUMBER(less sensitive) + O(letter indicating 0;nothing) ] placed after(after) LOOK(a semblance of;a likeness of) O( letter indicating 0;love in tennis scores).
Answer: I did look, but there is no clue there.
13 Could it be Mohammed said to make a killing? (6)
PROFIT : Homophone of(… said) “prophet”(an example of whom;could it be, was Mohammed).
Defn: …, used in a figurative sense.
14 Redeemed, made amends or converted (8)
RANSOMED : Anagram of(… converted) AMENDS OR.
16 ”Bigoted, snide, perverse” in dictionary (3-5)
ONE-SIDED : Anagram of(…, perverse) SNIDE
contained in(in) OED(abbrev. for the Oxford English Dictionary).
19 Mistakes note on unknown vessels, missing cable’s header (3-3)
MIX-UPS : MI(syllable for one of the notes on the musical scale) plus(on) X(in maths, symbol for an unknown quantity) + “cups”(vessels;containers) minus(missing) the 1st letter of(…’s header) “cable“.
20 Mast’s up with difficulty? Boatman’s apt to take it for granted (10)
ASSUMPTIVE : Anagram of(… with difficulty) MAST’S UP + I’VE(contraction of “I have”;Boatman has;Boatman’s, with setter using the self-referential pronoun).
22 As one might be, following tips resulting in cash hoarding (4)
RICH : The 1st letters, respectively, of(tips) “resulting in cash hoarding “.
23 Self-absorbed, into prophet, an abstemious one (6)
SETTER : SEER(a prophet) containing(absorbed, into …) TT(abbrev. for a “tee-totaller”;one who abstains from alcohol).
24 Try to take too much and exploit selfless act? (4,4)
GOOD DEED : GO(a try;an attempt) + OD(abbrev. for “overdose”;to take too much) plus(and) DEED(an exploit;an act).
25 Was that Elvis’s pelvis? It’s seen moving across the galaxy (8)
STARSHIP : STAR(an example of whom was Elvis, the Pelvis, Presley)‘S + HIP(the lateral part of the pelvis). Elvis lives!
26 Me, me, selfish me, first and foremost? (6)
EGOISM : EGO(the “I”;the self;the me) + I(the objective case of which is “me”) + the 1st letters, respectively, of(…, first) “selfish me“.
Down
2 12 15 achievement – bird seen to fly on soft wings (7,4,4)
FEATHER ONE’S NEST : FEAT(an achievement) + HERON(a wading bird) + anagram of(… to fly) SEEN placed above(on, in a down clue) the 1st and last letters of(… wings) “soft “.
3 Heart moved to take top job and get gold (5)
OCHRE : CHORE(a job;a task) with its central letter(Heart) moved to its beginning(moved to take top, in a down clue).
Answer: A range of colours, including yellow-orange;gold.
4 Rust-proofed with poor quality paint and let down (3-6)
TIN-PLATED : Anagram of(poor quality) [ PAINT plus(and) LET ] + D(abbrev. for “down”) .
5 Outline of your body, comme le dit Spooner? (7)
CONTOUR : Spoonerism(“comme le dit”;French for as stated, by Rev. Spooner) of “ton corps”(“your body” in French).
6 Permitted to crow about being eccentric (5)
WACKO : Reversal of(.. about, in a down clue) [ OK(permitted;approved) CAW(to make the sound of a crow’s cry – though “to crow” is to make the sound of a rooster’s cry)
7 Grommet fails in old car (2,5)
MG METRO : Anagram of(… fails) GROMMET.
8 Policy a psychologist set out to 12 15 (4,4,7)
LINE ONE’S POCKETS : LINE(a prescribed policy, eg. that of a political party) + ONE(a) + SPOCK(Dr. Benjamin, paediatrician who studied psychoanalysis) + anagram of(… out) SET.
15 See 12
17 Conspicuously selfish, utterly blind (7)
SHUTTER : Hidden in(Conspicuously) “selfish, utterly “.
Defn: A blind to block out light coming through, eg. a window.
18 Kill doctor, stabbed with uniform’s fastening (5,2)
DOING UP : DO IN(slang for “to kill”) + G.P.(abbrev. for a General Practitioner, a non-specialist doctor) containing(stabbed with) U(abbrev. for “uniform”).
21 Sit and solve selfless cipher (5)
PERCH : Anagram of(solve) “cipher ” minus(…less) “I”(the self).
22 Stick at nothing to take ultimate prize in western show (5)
RODEO : ROD(a stick) plus(at) O(letter indicating 0;nothing) plus(to take) the last letter of(ultimate) “prize “.
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The following pictures have unidentified links to the puzzle.
(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.)
Sorry scchua – I won’t have time today to give your picture quiz the attention it deserves.
The chap in the second picture is Gary Cooper, I think, but I don’t know the film.
#2 is Gary Cooper with a doe-eyed Jean Arthur – prolly a promo pic for the film The Plainsman – a fictionalised account of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane – real people – but their capture by Indians didn’t really happen. I thought of RANSOMED but the Indians wanted information – not money.
#1 is a US 2-dollar bill – the pic show the declaration of independence – but I can’t make a link.
#3 – I’m assuming the ballet position is what we’re after but I’ve no idea what it’s called – looks like an effacé – that doesn’t get me anywhere.
Sorry scchua – completely stuck.
#1, the presentation to Congress of the draft for the Declaration of Independence painted by John Trumbull. The two dollar bill is rare, and cash drawers don’t have a place set aside for them.
They are sometimes considered to bring bad luck.
That said…
Is the two-dollar bill a reference to Jefferson (drafter of the Declaration of Independence and depicted as well on the other side) STARSHIP?.
If Jean Arthur isn’t a clue to CALAMITY Jane (a reference to today’s woeful crossword screw-ip), then it’s that she was in Public Hero NUMBER ONE (15d).
The ballet picture is from Ballanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 (and NUMBER is again found in 15d) but I don’t see how that is knowable without Googling, and it seems an unlikely explanation.
There is a blank square between the second picture and the last. I don’t know if there’s meant to be another picture there or not.
Does the blank aquare refer to the missing clue?
Was the two-dollar bill ONE-SIDED, at all?
The early two dollar bills often broke in two and had to be put together with CEMENT or stitched.
CONTOUR 360 degrees is a denim material used to make jeans with a powerful performance stretch; this is advertised by a ballerina.
CONTOUR by Getty Images presents a ballet by Henry Leutwyler.
The blank space LOOK OUT FOR NUMBER ONE
and that too can mean AFLOAT, from ‘back teeth AFLOAT’, needing to urinate.
Poor scchua, he’s probably pissed off.
Or are we being too clever with the picture of the banknote: CASH in on, PROFIT, RANSOMer, RICH, or more figurateively, LINE ONE’S POCKETS or FEATHER ONE’S NEST?
Hi all, sorry about the Grauniad with pic3. Rectified now.
Ian SW3, you’re right about Jefferson STARSHIP, born out of Jefferson Airplane.
Pic2 is of Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur
Pic4 is of ballet in general.
Cookie, if you mean pissed off as in “Elvis has left the building”, yes, I was out to dinner.
The newly-arrived picture #3 looks like it’s from Macbeth, the sleepwalking scene. No idea who the actress is. Can only make very tenuous links with the text.
Lady Macbeth and ‘the MILK of human kindness’.
Right, Cookie.
Now 2 more to go.
There is a Richard WACKO who has something to do with ballet in the States…
Lady Macbeth was also WACKO and clearly LOOKing OUT FOR NUMBER ONE. More liekoy it’s to do with Verdi’s adaptation and her aria “PERCH mi sfuggi.”
RODEO is a ballet by Copland, of course.
And Cooper and Arthur were also in Mr. DEEDs Goes to Town.
Pic2: The MG METRO was introduced as an alternative to the Mini COOPER
#4 DOING UPs is ballet-speak for having the foot go from flat on the floor to tip of toe on the floor (ie at the same time as supporting the body weight) – esp when done as part of a practice or warm-up routine.
pic 2) In the movie The Plainsman, Wild Bill Kickok (Gary Cooper) offers the Indians a RANSOME for kidnapped Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur) ?
Hickok, of course
pic 4) Ballet – only for the RICH ?
Ian SW3 @18 and 19 wraps it up with RODEO and Mr. DEEDs Goes To Town.