Independent 10,541 by Klingsor

12 comments on “Independent 10,541 by Klingsor”

1. Thanks, beermagnet. I think you are spot on for 1dn. An earphone plug, for instance, is also known as a JACK plug because it fits into the jack socket, so right again!

2. I really enjoyed this and spotting the pangram wrapped it up nicely. Thanks to Smetana I only knew the Czech river by it’s more familiar (apparently German) name the Moldau, but managed to figure out the wordplay. I parsed SQUASH as you did and put in JACK just assuming it referred to the socket of an eg earplug connection; looking it up now, Chambers does have that meaning and refers to the plug as a “jack plug”, as NeilW says.

   Thanks to beermagnet and Klingsor

3. Thanks, beermagnet, for a great blog.

   I had a similar experience to you: I eventually teased out the Czech river from the wordplay but had never heard of it. When I followed your link, I discovered that, like WordPlodder, I knew that piece of music as The Moldau – I bought the record when I was at university and it was played a lot, as I didn’t have many! Thank you very much indeed for that.

   Like you, I really enjoyed TOUCH AND GO, for the same reason – but I also really liked DALI: I thought the ‘half of El’ was very clever and gave a lovely surface. ATTEMPTS was my last one in, too, for no apparent reason.

   My other favourites were ULTRAMARINE, ALL IN GOOD TIME, TINTORETTO, ORIFICE and WINDERMERE (cleverer than the too-short-anyway Constance and Katrine, which immediately sprang to mind.

   I  didn’t notice the pangram but then I never do.

   Many thanks to Klingsor, as always, for a highly enjoyable puzzle.

4. Everything fell in nicely until 25D, with which I struggled, but spotting the potential pangram guided me towards Jack, which I should have thought of sooner as a member of a family of lawn bowlers. As a classical music fan Vltva sprang to mind quickly; its pronunciation is challenging until you learn that ‘L’ can be a vowel in Slav languages, pronounced ‘url’.  Thanks Klingsor and Beermagnet.

5. Always appreciate Klingsor surfaces. The pangram gave me JACK as loi.

   How about W(oman) in der mere for 24a? Maybe not. 🙂

   Don’t know how that W crept into the blog for 19d.

   Thanks to Klingsor and beermagnet.

6. Thanks Hovis for pointing out the rogue W in 19D wordplay – fixed.
   It is because I use a proforma blog where I have “WORDPLAY” under each clue then overtype with the wordplay and chat – I obviously overtyped incorrectly this time

7. Not only knew the Smetana piece for 5ac, but last year I was in Prague and visited the Smetana museum, which is next to the Charles Bridge.  They have speakers set up playing Smetana’s greatest hits so there I was listening to Vltava whilst the river itself was lapping outside the window.  (Also, on my first trip to Prague many years ago, I was visiting the Smetana memorial in the National cemetery and the bells on the nearby cathedral started playing the Vltava theme.)

   Went in fairly quickly with 6dn my last one in.  Kept on thinking either “ale” or “gin” was involved and I don’t know how the answer actually did come to me.

8. Very satisfying.  VLTVA was our first one in, quickly followed by ULTRAMARINE from the definition, though it took a few seconds to see the parsing.  We thought we were on track for a pangram and with only one or two clues left were short of J and K – and 25dn just waiting!

   We liked PHILATELIST for the misleading surface and ALL IN GOOD TIME for the ‘reverse engineering’ in the clue.

   Thanks, Klingsor and beermagnet

9. Many thanks, Dormouse @7. What a lovely story – I really  envy you! Prague has been on my bucket list for ages – left it too late (like so many other things, I think).

10. Wow, Dormouse, you’ve really taken me back in time.
    I have been to Prague about fifteen times as part of a school trip to Czechoslovakia and what was to become the Czech Republic.

    On one occasion (don’t know the year anymore) we were there when Princess Di and Prince Charles visited Prague Castle. I clearly remember one of my pupils being very excited because she shook hands with Princess Di!
    Despite being to Prague so many times and knowing the city better than I knew Amsterdam, I had not heard of the Smetana Museum – or I must have forgotten about it.
    Bedrich Smetana was born in a small town called Litomysl. I am lucky to have been there too, enchanting place with a lovely little theatre – you’ll only believe it when you see it.
    Smetana died, if I am right, in Prague and was buried at the surprisingly quiet Vysehrad Cemetery, just outside the city centre.
    A place where he was joined by the country’s other great composer Antonin Dvorak.
    Vysehrad, a sort of rock above the Moldau, is like Vltava part of his orchestral masterpiece Ma Vlast.
    Yes, Eileen, Prague is great – well, it always was when I was there (last time: 2007).
    Don’t forget to visit the small but lovely Alphonse Mucha museum.
    And the Strahov Library, and places that are connected to Mozart – I saw his Requiem performed in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House – impressive!
    And, who knows, you can arrange a meeting with today’s compiler?
    (that is, when the world has come to terms with Covid-19).

11. Yes, Vysehrad  is well worth a visit.  For word enthusiasts, also buried there is Karel Capek, who gave the world the word “robot”.  And also wrote a play that was the basis of one of Janacek’s operas, The Makropolous Case.

    I also went to the Franz Kafka museum on what turned out to be his birthday, although nowhere in the museum did it actually mention his date of birth.

    But mostly I was there for the beer and the food.

    Oh, and another connection to Ma Vlast.  The receptionist at my hotel was called Sarka, another movement in the work.

12. I had OWEN for 13ac, instead of DALI. It works too, apart from that pesky Salvador flapping around at the end of the clue.

    Hopeless today, probably my worst for months. Well under half. I just couldn’t penetrate the surfaces at all. Thanks Klingsor and beermagnet.

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