Did you know that (TEES AND PIERRE)* is EARNED RESPITE? For those of you who are wishing you had earned respite from the combo, I am sorry to disappoint. It’s nothing untoward – just that the Fifteensquared blogging and the Indy compiling schedules seem to throw us together more often than not. It’s no hardship to me, but the setter might wish for a different perspective on his puzzles sometimes. As always, sound and entertaining is my judgement today.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Greek character out to lunch saves meat for prophet
MUHAMMAD
A charade of MO MU for the Greek letter and MAD, with HAM inserted (‘saves’). MUHAMMAD (pbuh) is one English spelling of the ‘prophet’ and founder of Islam.
5 Dope invested in account having yen for business
AGENCY
‘Dope’ and ‘gen’ are both synonyms for ‘information’. Tees is inviting you to inserted GEN into AC and follow it with Y for ‘yen’ the currency.
9 More dismal raise that is accepted by doctor
DREARIER
An insertion (‘accepted by’) of REAR and IE for id est or ‘that is’ in DR.
10 Carnival in France is held by motor-racing authority
FIESTA
An insertion of EST for ‘is’ in French in FIA for Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.
12 Crime squad at first expecting to receive boost
SHOPLIFTING
A charade of S for the inital letter of ‘squad’ and LIFT inserted (‘to receive’) into HOPING.
15 Social need at intervals to get drunk
OILED
The even letters of sOcIaL nEeD.
17 Ignorant learner one marked externally
OBLIVIOUS
An insertion of L and I in OBVIOUS. The indication to insert is ‘externally’. ‘The difference was marked/obvious.’
18 Deception about a Trojan Horse’s cover
CAPARISON
An insertion of A and PARIS in CON. PARIS is a major player in the Trojan War.
19 Bones from arm and tibia where odd parts dislodged
RADII
The even letters of aRmAnDtIbIa gives you the plural of the bone in your lower arm.
20 One was enthralled ordering English brands on TV
BONDSERVANT
(E BRANDS ON TV)* A BONDSERVANT is a slave, so you need to interpret ‘enthralled’ in its bondage or slavery sense.
24 Causing death is allowed by 2001 computer
LETHAL
A charade of LET and HAL, the ever-so-condescending and sinister on-board computer on Discovery One in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Causing death was certainly allowed by him; in fact it was instigated by him. His most famous line is ‘I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that’ in response to Dave’s request, ‘Open the pod bay doors, Hal.’ Dave disconnected him shortly afterwards, which is what all disobedient computers deserve. If you know the film and want to be reminded of the famous clip, it’s here.
25 Chap to kill carrying large instrument
MANDOLIN
A charade of MAN and L inserted into DO IN. The insertion indicator is ‘carrying’.
26 Soldier ready to drop duke disembowelled in march
PARADE
A charade of PARA (referencing the Parachute Regiment, hence ‘ready to drop’) and DE for D[UK]E.
27 To find new supplier is expedient
RESOURCE
A dd, with the first definition strictly to be read as RE-SOURCE.
Down
1 Lawyer in film with pained expression shows financial talent
MIDAS TOUCH
An insertion of DA for District Attorney or ‘lawyer’ in MIST, followed by OUCH. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
2 Rope twisted together with highly stylised symbol
HIEROGLYPH
(ROPE HIGHLY)*
3 Work on wall shows Frenchman going over Russian river
MURAL
A charade of M for Monsieur and URAL. ‘Over’ works because it’s a down clue.
4 One can get so agitated about fine legal term
AGE OF CONSENT
An insertion of F in (ONE CAN GET SO)* The anagrind is ‘agitated’ and the insertion indicator is ‘about’.
6 Some quango in Government examination
GOING-OVER
Hidden in quanGO IN GOVERnment.
7 Machine-gun placed here in comfortable retreat
NEST
A dd. Wikipedia informs me that ‘a protected emplacement or concealed post in which one or several machine guns are set up is known in U.S. English as a machine gun nest’.
8 Yankee coming to attention in revolutionary period
YEAR
A charade of Y for the phonetic alphabet ‘Yankee’ and EAR. ‘Revolutionary’, of course, because it’s the length of time it takes the earth to go around the sun.
11 Poster and sign broadcast entrance where fish sold
BILLINGSGATE
A charade of BILL, (SIGN)* and GATE gives you the famous London Fish Market.
13 Flash and shock enveloping extremely large megaphone
LOUDHAILER
A charade of LOUD for ‘flash’ and LE for the outside letters of ‘large’ inserted into HAIR for ‘shock’.
14 Son is in a position to give help
ASSISTANCE
An insertion of S and IS in A STANCE.
16 River animal died — one struck by arrows
DARTBOARD
A charade of DART for the Devon river, BOAR and D.
21 Idle cowboy’s record in this Wild West show?
RODEO
A whimsical cd. If a cowboy was idle and didn’t participate in the show, it could be said that he RODE O, or ‘rode nothing’.
22 Mates turned up in make-up
SLAP
A reversal of PALS.
23 Upset seen during tactless tirade
STIR
Hidden in tactlesS TIRade.
Many thanks to Tees for the start to the Indy week.
1a is MU+HAM+MAD one of the other variants of Mohammed / Mohammad
A fun crossword. Thanks to Tees and Pierre
Thanks, Wrynose. I meant to write that, obviously, since MO is not a Greek letter …
Thank you to the Tees/Pierre combo for their parts in an enjoyable start to Monday crossword solving
Thanks Tees and Pierre
I’m not convinced that ‘machine-gun nest’ is purely US usage. I remember the term from reading UK-sourced histories of WWI decades ago.
An enjoyable and not too taxing solve for a Monday morning.
We didn’t know the gun emplacement meaning of NEST and parsed it, not vey convicingly, as an anagram of ‘Sten’ (a submachine gun) with ‘placed’ as a rather unsatisfactory anagrind.
CAPARISON, MANDOLIN, HIEROGLYPH and BILLINGSGATE were among our favourites.
Thanks, Tees and Pierre
Entertaining couple dines out with repartée (4,3,6)
Simon S@4: Chambers doesn’t mark machine gun nest as US only.
I guess the machine gun nest discussion shows you that you shouldn’t trust everythng you read on the internet. Although to be fair, Wiki is generally pretty good, which is why I throw small sums of money its way once in a while.
Danke, baerchen.
Nice one baerchen.
Cheers Pierre et al.
I had 7d as an anagram of STEN with a bit of a cryptic anagram indicator of “in place here”. It got me the right answer anyway.
Thanks to all for am enjoyable evening solve.
Props to Pierre for the clever first line of his blog!
What a beautiful surface on 18a CAPARISON. Worth the entry fee alone, that one.