Independent 8905 / Hob

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An intriguing puzzle from Hob today.

 

 

It was only when writing up the blog that we realised there was a theme…. But the thematic references are in the clues, not the solutions!!

We were puzzled by the strangely worded ‘titles’ in the clues to 5D, 17D and 19D, which were fundamental to either the wordplay or the definition. When we googled one of these, we realised that they are works by the same very famous surrealist artist (whose name appears in anagram form at 23D), and works that we instantly recognised, despite not remembering their titles. All very surreal!

Across
9   Repeats “No bad language”
ESPERANTO An anagram of REPEATS NO – anagrind is ‘bad’
10   Swimmers that fly with a small number on board
SWANS W (with) A N (‘small number’) in SS (steamship), or ‘on board’
11   Hob needs help in getting prepared for burial
LAID OUT LOUT (hob – a new one on us!) with AID (help) inside
12   Topless show, with boobs endlessly out – it shows some neck
GIRAFFE aIR (show) without the first letter or ‘topless’ with GAFFEs (boobs) missing the last letter or ‘endlessly’ outside
13   Surrealistic? He’s totally in that box
CHEST Hidden in ‘surrealistiC HE’S Totally’
14   Gets involved in complications if folk-jazz band’s dropping piano intro
ENTANGLES pENTANGLE’S (folk-jazz band’s) without or ‘dropping ‘p’ (piano).
16   Treats with element of suspicion, essentially
IODISES We puzzled over the parsing of this one for some time, but think it must be that ‘I’ is the middle letter or ‘essence’ of ‘suspIcion’, and is also the symbol for the element Iodine
18   Mental nurse in state about Churchill?
INSURER An anagram of NURSE (anagrind is ‘mental’) in RI (Rhode Island – US state) reversed or ‘about’ – Oh, yes!!
20   Moving fast as Lassie, bounding along
GALLOPING GAL (Lassie) + LOPING (bounding along)
22   Surround source of sugar, surrounded by source of sugar
BESET S (first letter or ‘source’ of Sugar) in or ‘surrounded by’ BEET (a source of sugar)
23   Happy, perhaps, before party leader’s made to look small
DWARFED DWARF (Happy was one of the seven in the Snow White story) + ED (Miliband – Labour Party leader)
24   Hot food that’s eaten at home round about noon
BURNING GRUB (food) round or ‘eating’ IN (at home) reversed or ‘round’ about N (noon)
25   Stroke some gigantic tusks
ICTUS Hidden in, or ‘some’ of ‘gigantIC TUSks’
26   Lethe? Snap out of it, maybe they’ll never be 5
ELEPHANTS An anagram of LETHE SNAP – anagrind is ‘out of it’. Elephants are supposed not to forget – hence the reference to 5D
Down
1   Thinking the French court needs to get flipping finger out
REFLECTING LE (French for ‘the’) CT (court) with an anagram of FINGER (anagrind is ‘flipping’) outside
2   Bit of a shock, damaged lips getting treated by nurse
SPLIT END An anagram of LIPS (anagrind is ‘getting treated’) + TEND (nurse)
3   Put fork into fish sample
TRY OUT Y (fork, as in a diagram for a junction, say) in TROUT (fish)
4   Newspaper in topless tabloid model’s hand?
UNIT I (newspaper) in sUN (tabloid) with the first letter omitted, or ‘topless’ T (model – as in the Ford model T)
5   Fake that initially can lead to gallery not showing “The Persistence of Memory”
FORGETTING FORGE (fake) + T (first or ‘initial’ letter of ‘that’) + TIN (can) + G (first letter or ‘lead’ of ‘gallery’)
6   Leaders of gang sporting top jewellery? One of them must be on the fiddle
G STRINGS G S T(first letters or ‘leaders’ of ‘gang sporting top’) + RINGS (jewellery)
7   Crying? No time for reprimand
EARFUL tEARFUL (crying) with no ‘t’ (time)
8   Frenchwoman’s S & M set-up
ESME ES (the letter S) + EM (the letter M) reversed or ‘set up’
14   Starting exile in Saint-Denis, desperately missing one northern part of Asia
EAST INDIES E (first eltter or ‘start’ of ‘exile’) + an anagram of SAINT DEnIS with one ‘n’ (northern) omitted or ‘missing’ – anagrind is ‘desperately’
15   Call girl up, one into herself not love – after a bit of sex, in general?
STRATEGIST TART (call girl) reversed or ‘up’ + EGoIST (one into herself) without the ‘o’ (‘not love’) after S (first letter or ‘bit of’ Sex)
17   “Soft Construction with Boiled Beans”? Not adult enough for gathering of stuck-up people
SNOB FEST An anagram of SOFT and BEaNS without the ‘a’ (adult)– anagrinds are ‘construction’ and ‘boiled’. We’d not come across this phrase before, and at first were puzzled by the strange wording of the clue. However, we now realise that this is a thematic reference!
19   “Metamorphosis of Narcissus”, lacking a bit of colour in what once were reds?
RUSSIANS An anagram of NARcISSUS without or ‘lacking’ the ‘c’, or a ‘bit of colour’ – anagrind is ‘Metamorphosis of’ – another thematic reference
21   Advanced in slowly, or fast, with nothing shed
LEAN-TO A (advanced) in LENTO (slowly, in music) or in LENT (fast) with O (nothing) – two stabs at this one!
22   Girl drunk in the bar
BERTHA An anagram of THE BAR – anagrind is ‘drunk’
23   11 in Dublin house
DAIL An anagram of LAID (from 11AC) – anagrind is ‘out’, also from 11AC. This is also an anagram of the thematic Artist
24   Second letter – second part of official complaint
BEEF BEE (‘B’ – second letter of the alphabet) + F (second letter of ‘official’)

 

22 comments on “Independent 8905 / Hob”

  1. I’m not convinced about the parsing of 8. EM backwards would be ME, which doesn’t seem much like a phonetic version of the letter M.

  2. I found this easier than other HOBs I’ve done, but still had to puzzle for a long time over clues like 16. I liked 21 with its multiple ways of getting at the answer.

  3. @1
    I don’t see the relevance. Why would ME need to be “like a phonetic version of the letter M”? The parsing (Es forwards, Em backwards – as in the blog) seems straightforward.

  4. Well, I’m glad somebody understood this, because I certainly didn’t! Congratulations and much thanks, PETO.

    I did complete the puzzle except for the first letter of 4D. I didn’t understand the clue at all, and still don’t. Why is a hand synonymous with a unit? I guessed at “knit”, as though the clue was asking if something was hand-knit.

    For 8D Esme, why is Esme peculiarly French? It is not uncommon in English names. But ME backwards is EM, “m”, which is set up in the answer, so, NealH, I think you have the wrong end of the stick at comment 1 above.

    For 16A iodises, I’m still puzzled. PETO correctly points out that the essence of suspicion is I, iodine, but why should “of iodine” imply “iodises”?

    For 21D lean-to I initially wrote “lent to”, thinking the definition “advanced” and that “or fast” implied “lent, too” and that “nothing shed” meant I had to drop the terminal “o”. I wrote that in entirely confidently only to have to correct it.

    In total, I didn’t fully understand 11 clues in this puzzle, despite managing to complete it bar one letter.

    Thanks very much, PETO, for explaining 15D strategist, which I stared at for ages. My first guess at an answer which fitted the crossing letters I had at the time was “smuttininess”, which I thought might have something to do with sex in a general, General Smuts. I had to tear that out too.

    Hob, thanks very much for a diversion too clever for me by half!

  5. Emrys,

    A hand is a unit of measure (clued with a question mark to imply it’s an example rather than a definition).

    For iodises, the definition is “treats with element” i.e. change something by applying the element Iodine to it.

  6. Ah! Thank you, NealH, it’s a hand! I’m looking out of the window at the horse in the distance and still not understanding the clue!

    But on 16A iodises, yes, I realised that the definition is “treats with element”, so I wrote in “iodises” from the crossing letters. The remainder of the clue is “of suspicion, essentially”. PETO points out that I, iodine, is suspicion essentially. But I still don’t see why “of iodine”, “of suspicion essentially”, should imply “iodises”. Is this some sort of CD? No, it’s not a CD, because it has an explicit and exact definition, “treats with element”, in the clue. Perhaps I’m meant to ignore that definition and treat the whole clue as a CD? But, anyway, it’s the only possible word that fits the crossing letters, so I’m not going to quibble further.

  7. I think 16A does work as a CD – “treats with element of suspicion essentially” = “treats with the element that is found in the middle of suspicion” = treats with Iodine.

  8. A good mental workout from Hob. I think the clue for IODISES is pretty clever and Emrys is overthinking it, IMHO of course. UNIT and BEEF were my last two in. I like Dali’s work but don’t know the titles of his paintings so the theme was lost on me.

  10. Well, I got most of it out, merely finding the endings of words in clues a bit tricky (14, 18, 1d) and enjoyed it otherwise . Thanks to both.

  12. Emrys: I have some of the same reservations about some of the clues, but I think you’ve read Peto, setter of today’s FT puzzle as the blogger for this puzzle. Actually it’s the duo of Bertandjoyce.

  14. No worries Emrys – we’ve been out all morning but did wonder what was happening when we checked the comments. Thanks allan_c for explaining it.

    Thanks also to Cyborg for the extra thematic entries.

  15. Bertandjoyce, could I make a tiny request please? In future don’t mention that there’s a theme in a puzzle in the bit of your blog that’s visible before selecting it. It’s rather easy to notice if you come here to view another puzzle before solving. Thank you.

  16. Humble apologies sidey. We are normally very careful about that but we both failed to notice it. Blog now amended.

  17. The theme passed me by (what’s new?) but mostly I liked this one. IODISE is a bit convoluted, and I’m not entirely sure that ESME is a particularly French name. But there were some good clues elsewhere.

    Getting a mention for THE PENTANGLE was a plus, since they’re one of my favourite groups. I had a wee next to Bert Jansch in 1976.

    Thanks all three.

  20. Well, I found this quite tough, although in the end I only need to do a word search for 16ac, which I couldn’t parse. Actually, there were a lot I couldn’t parse, so thanks for the explanations.

    No, I didn’t see the theme. Keep the Giraffe Burning was a collection of short stories by the SF author John Sladek, by the way, which incidentally had a story in it called Elephant with a Wooden Leg.

  21. I thought this was a faultless puzzle (and not too tricky IMO). Thank you, Hob, you lout!
    As for blog – I think it’s tremendous, definitely worth at least 10 out of 10! (a little surprised by one or two comments – I thought your explanation of ESME extremely clear)
    Many thanks to Bs and S.

  22. The last row reads “L O T S F A S T”.

    Is that connected to the Dali theme? Or I’m one who is excluded by inference (Lots fast, Others are Slow).

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