My apologies for the lateness of this blog. So far as I remember it’s the first time in years of blogging that this has happened — I completely forgot. No excuses, but — yes I know it’s become a bit of a cliché to say this — one day runs into the next nowadays and it’s easy to forget what day it is; and one doesn’t consult the calendar because everything that was written down has been cancelled. Almost.
This is a shame because I had to rush everything and cheat rather a lot. Dill is completely new to me and I would have enjoyed having a closer look at this setter, who so far as I can see on this rushed acquaintance is a pleasant addition to the Indy stable. In March this year Ratkojariku said “This is the first time that I have come across Dill’s work, and a quick search of 15² reveals that this may well be his first appearance in the daily Independent after having several puzzles published in the Independent on Sunday.” So perhaps this is his/her second appearance in The Independent and more from me was deserved.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
I didn’t indulge myself by looking for a Nina. To do so would have delayed things even more. [But there is one, and even I might have seen it if I’d looked. Lots of people in the comments describe it.]
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DUFF | 500 university Fellows not working (4) |
| D [500 in Roman numerals] U f f | ||
| 3 | CALORIFIC | Energy-producing US state alternatively provided Italy with carbon (9) |
| Cal[ifornia] or if I C | ||
| 9 | PANCAKE | Theatrical foundation to criticise piece of soap (7) |
| pan [criticise] cake [piece of soap] — is pancake specifically theatrical? | ||
| 10 | MADEIRA | Admire a developed EU island (7) |
| (Admire a)* | ||
| 11 | TRIFLE | Play with something of little value (6) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 12 | PEDESTAL | Fashion dept sale raised support (8) |
| *(dept sale) | ||
| 13 | DESERT | Wilderness of chopped up dead trees (6) |
| *(d trees) | ||
| 14 | DEMOCRAT | Protest march about renegade politician? (8) |
| demo [protest march] c rat — not quite sure why there’s a question mark: surely there is no doubt that a Democrat is a politician | ||
| 17 | SECONDEE | He’s temporarily assigned support with central fees (8) |
| second [support] {f}ee{s} — does central fees equal the central part of ‘fees’? | ||
| 19 | SCRAPE | Tight spot in drug brawl? On the contrary (6) |
| The drug brawl is an E scrap, and you reverse these to get scrap E | ||
| 21 | ADULATED | Overly praised mature journalist penning article (8) |
| adul(a)t ed. | ||
| 23 | SPONGE | Bum from Home Counties harbouring nasty smell (6) |
| S(pong)E — the Home Counties are the SE | ||
| 26 | COBBLER | Australian mate brings in trainee worker at last (7) |
| cobb(L)er — the worker at last is a worker at the last, a cobbler — maybe a bit of a crossword cliché but quite nice even so | ||
| 27 | OVERSEE | Manage to look after maiden, perhaps (7) |
| over see — cricket, a regular visitor to crosswords but less common in the Indy than football — the person who manages is seeing the maiden over | ||
| 28 | SPEEDWELL | Press on spring flowering plant (9) |
| speed [press] well [spring] | ||
| 29 | TART | Tangy starters of tomato and Roquefort tortellini (4) |
| t{omato} a{nd} R{oquefort} t{ortellini} | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DEPOT | Drank heavily on the way up to warehouse (5) |
| (toped)rev. | ||
| 2 | FANCIES | Imagines cooler cities cut it (7) |
| fan [cooler] c{it}ies | ||
| 3 | CHEF | Head guy sacks one cook (4) |
| ch(1)ef | ||
| 4 | LUMBERER | Feller found by someone sleeping topless (8) |
| {s}lumberer | ||
| 5 | RIDGE | Trip over Grampian’s premier hill-range (5) |
| rid(G{rampian})e | ||
| 6 | FRITTER | Waste from British beer Belgium leaves for France (7) |
| The British beer is bitter, and B leaves to be replaced by Fr | ||
| 7 | CHARLOTTE | Chortle at funny little princess (9) |
| (Chortle at)* — referring to Will and Kate’s daughter | ||
| 8 | CAULDRON | Contacted a Weasley by phone for some Hogwarts equipment (8) |
| “called Ron” | ||
| 13 | DISTANCES | Jihadist ancestors covering miles perhaps (9) |
| Hidden in JihaDIST ANCEStors | ||
| 15 | OCCUPIED | Unavailable because engaged (8) |
| 2 defs I suppose, although the words unavailable and engaged are very similar in meaning | ||
| 16 | REHEARSE | Practise on last means of transport (8) |
| re [on] hearse [last means of transport, literally] | ||
| 18 | CRUMBLE | Fall apart when tummy noise follows onset of colic (7) |
| c{olic} rumble | ||
| 20 | AMNESIA | Incontinent drunken men cause of memory loss (7) |
| Asia round *(men) — we have to read ‘incontinent’ as ‘in continent’, something that some regard as the thin end of the wedge | ||
| 22 | AILED | Suffered from a charcuterie upset? (5) |
| a (deli)rev. | ||
| 24 | EVENT | Meeting seven television hosts (5) |
| Hidden in sEVEN Television — hosts a verb | ||
| 25 | FOOL | Fox film regularly receives 2 Oscars (4) |
| f{i}l{m} round (O O) | ||
John – Don’t worry about forgetting the blog, or for not looking for a nina – these days, I can’t even recall if Amnesia is my favourite brand of rice pudding!
No apologies needed for the lateness or otherwise of the blog. In addition to what TFO has said above, my comment would be, what, no pavlova – my fave. Plenty of others though to expand the abdominal girth, so can’t complain.
Perhaps my only other comment would be that AMNESIA is ‘memory loss’ in itself, not ‘a cause of memory loss’.
Thanks to Dill for such indulgent fare and to John
TFO@1: We like your hint about the theme. 🙂
Actually we spotted it fairly early on. We make it 12 thematic entries (13 if you count one that’s not quite a homophone) plus, at 3dn, an individual who might be responsible for them.
And it was a pretty quick solve, too.
Thanks, Dill and John.
This was a relatively straightforward solve which was great fun. I got off to a very poor start by putting in DUDS for 1a, the DS being DONS without the ON (i.e. not working).
Many thanks to Dill and to John – Dill is a her, by the way.
We’ve only just completed the puzzle over lunch so the lateness made no difference.
We would have said that it was a ‘piece of cake’ but for some reason or other we were ages solving 15d and 19ac. We were hoping that the theme would help us but both were non-thematic.
Many thanks to Dill and John.
Thanks for the blog, John.
I haven’t tried a Dill puzzle before but I shall certainly be looking out for the next one.
Lots of nice clues; my favourites were AMNESIA, CAULDRON and the delightful CHARLOTTE, which did make me chortle.
allan_c @ 3 – I made it twelve, too + the non-homophone, which I thought was perhaps a tongue-in-cheek hint. [And, of course, they’re all 3ac, 😉 ]
Many thanks for the puzzle, Dill – I loved it.
Not sure if it was intentional or not but 22d reversed is a little theme related.
I found 15 theme-related answers: duff, pancake, Madeira, trifle, sponge, cobbler, tart, fancies, crumble, fool, fritter, charlotte, plus chef, calorific and, er, desert – I know! And if ailed in reverse = Delia (as suggested by Hovis at 7) was intentional that makes 16. Great stuff, so thanks Dill and John.
Forgot to look out for a theme but, after completion, I counted 16 (including the associated elements) plus one extra for TFO’s favourite brand of rice pudding!
Don’t worry, John, most of us haven’t got a clue where we’re up to on the calendar these days – although we could probably all quote how many weeks of lockdown we’ve soldiered through. Only things I can really remember are that my younger daughter is expecting her second baby in 5 days time (please let it be a girl!) and that I have a mission planned to relieve one of my neighbours of all of his electrical DIY tools one night…………
Many thanks to Dill, although thankfully I don’t have a sweet tooth, and to John for the review. By the way, I just checked and apparently it’s Tuesday!
I went through this fairly quickly this afternoon and then got stuck on the final two. I went out for a walk and have only just got round to looking at this again. 13dn was one of the hold-outs and when I looked at it again, I wondered why I had missed such an obvious hidden answer. (21ac was the other hold-out, and once I had the first letter I got it.)
No, I never noticed the theme.
Really enjoyed that, and did pretty well, only two away and most parsings spotted. I still can’t see why PANCAKE is THEATRICAL FOUNDATION though, all pointers greatfully received. I was also unsure whether RENEGADE = RAT but Collins put me straight, I had only encountered (or understood it in the context of) the more general outlaw/rebel definition previously. Favourite was 16d REHEARSE. Thanks Dill & John.
@Rabbit Dave – I entered it exactly the same way for same reason, and felt a bit sore changing it, as for my standards DUDS was a parsing to feel internally smug about.
I got it, 9ac PANCAKE, it’s to do with makeup, tucked away in Collins as US usage.
@11El_Gwero Pancake makeup is thicker than “normal” make-up, perhaps not exclusively, but certainly originally, theatrical and I think it is used because the harshness of lighting required in a darkened theatre might otherwise show up some unattractive features of the actors’ physiognomy; also I suppose to make the actor resemble what the character is supposed to look like. “Pancake” I would say because it was jocularly compared to the thickness of a pancake; perhaps not dissimilar in colour as well.
Crossed.
Hi, I stumbled across this blog while looking for an old advertisement on the pancake foundation for my father, who didn’t get the clue. I’m also a puzzler. Max Factor made such a foundation, written Pan-Cake:
I just realised links cannot be posted. I’m sure you can find it. In fact, it appears that they still make it.