My impression (perhaps I’m wrong, because I haven’t done a proper survey [as James says, Phi and Tees appear about twice as often]) is that Serpent appears more often than any of the Indy setters, and deservedly so. As always he has produced something that is utterly satisfactory, no quibbles so far as I can see, and the whole thing knits together nicely.
Definitions in darkorange, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
Serpent’s Ninas often involve a ring round the grid, one in from the edge; but not this time. ‘Joseph Heller’ appears in the unches at the top and bottom (as his name grew I could see that it was going to be Joseph at the top and ….er at the bottom, so my mind went to Joseph Lister). I’m not quite sure why he is being celebrated today: it isn’t an anniversary of his birth or his death. I can see three of his books, but no doubt there are more. Catch-22 is a book I’ve always meant to read, having been told by many people how good it is. One of these days.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | CRUMPET | True male chauvinist pig’s dodgy term for women (7) |
| (True MCP)* — in these enlightened days people don’t use this word to describe women, but an MCP might — it’s dodgy in two ways, so there is a bit of &.littery here | ||
| 8 | LEEWAY | Wonder about interrupting line in play (6) |
| (awe)rev. in ley, as in ley lines | ||
| 9 | ONION | Bulb in contact with conductor of electricity (5) |
| on [in contact with] ion [conductor of electricity] | ||
| 10 | EAVESDROP | Covertly obtain report of First Lady and doctor blocking concession (9) |
| “Eve” s(Dr)op | ||
| 12 | INTUITION | Innate talent for getting something from home schooling (9) |
| in tuition — I suppose the definition is that long, for otherwise there would be rather a lot of link-words | ||
| 14 | FRANC | Foreign money flowed into football club (5) |
| F(ran)C | ||
| 15 | GET OVER | Recover from damage to vertebrae (3,4) |
| Hidden in damaGE TO VERtebrate | ||
| 17 | PLATEAU | High level power behind American university (7) |
| p late A u | ||
| 18 | IDIOT | Dummy username perhaps leads to insertion of Trojan (5) |
| ID i{nsertion} o{f} T{rojan} | ||
| 19 | CORRELATE | Have some correspondence with my bishop perhaps, but not priest (9) |
| cor {p}relate — cor! = my! | ||
| 21 | ENTERTAIN | Please think about host (9) |
| 3 defs | ||
| 22 | CATCH | This here creates an absurd situation (5) |
| This = CATCH, and here = 22, so This here = Catch-22, a book by Joseph Heller — both a catch and the Catch-22 in the book are absurd situations | ||
| 23 | SCYTHE | Means to make sweeping cuts: that is conclusion of incendiary article (6) |
| sc. {incendiar}y the — sc. is short for scilicet, Latin for “it is permitted to know” | ||
| 24 | ARDUOUS | You and me succeeding a right pair is difficult (7) |
| a r duo us | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | JURIST | Legal expert barely accepts rabbi’s case (6) |
| ju(r{abb}i)st | ||
| 2 | OPEN | Inclusive event about to include games for children (4) |
| o(PE)n — not that something like the Open Golf Championship lets everyone in, but anyone can try to qualify for it I think — certainly that was originally the intention | ||
| 3 | STEELIER | Invention to stop pilot showing fewer nerves (8) |
| stee(lie)r | ||
| 4 | ELEVEN | What is n, given n plus two could be twelve plus one? (6) |
| if n + 2 = 13 [twelve + 1) then n = 11; but it’s a bit more than that: the letters in (ELEVEN + TWO) are the same as those in (TWELVE + ONE) | ||
| 5 | PERSIFLAGE | Gasp with relief, resorting to banter (10) |
| (Gasp relief)* | ||
| 6 | HAIR CARE | Broadcast Mind’s support for hospital providing shock treatment (4,4) |
| H air care — air = broadcast, care = mind — shock treatment in the sense of treatment for shocks of hair | ||
| 7 | CLOSING TIME | Book about being behind revolutionary issue (7,4) |
| c losing (emit)rev. — I knew it was a title of a book, but until the name of the author became clear and I could check his books this was beyond me. I have to admit that I didn’t know it. | ||
| 11 | PICTURE THIS | Imagine the scene in which shot hits suspect (7,4) |
| 13 | INVETERATE | Confirmed spineless creature lacks courage and fibre essentially (10) |
| inve{r}te{b}rate, the r and b being {cou}r{age} and {fi}b{re} | ||
| 16 | TRIPTYCH | Thirty odd pieces of copy evolved into multi-faceted work (8) |
| (Thirty c{o}p{y})* | ||
| 17 | PARENTAL | Annual cost of living perhaps concerning people with children (8) |
| p.a. rental | ||
| 19 | CHAPEL | Place with entrance to hallowed ground (6) |
| (Place h{allowed})*, &lit. | ||
| 20 | AUTHOR | Architect gold-plated exterior of triumphal arch (6) |
| au(th)or, the th being t{riumphal arc}h, all fitting with the theme: Joseph Heller was an author (one of whose novels was ‘Good as Gold’, not that it’s necessary to know this to solve the clue) | ||
| 22 | CEDE | Dictator’s descendants surrender (4) |
| “seed”, the homophone indicated by ‘Dictator’s’ | ||
Thanks, John. Serpent really is very good, isn’t he? I struggled with the top half but the bottom half was easier which gave me HELLER so I could immediately write in the top line leading to a quick finish.
I started out trying to parse PICTURE THIS as you did but there is no R in the fodder. It’s shot = PICTURE + (hits)*
Somehow got on Serpent’s wavelength today and rattled this off. Saw the Nina but didn’t know who he was. I am aware, of course, of the catch 22 book but didn’t know the author and parsing 22a was my last part of the solve. Got 7d from the wordplay and parsed 11d as NeilW.
Fortunately, I have seen the anagram used in 4d several times so this was a write-in for me. Only ever seen PERSIFLAGE in cryptics but at least I knew it. I think 15a is one of the best inclusions I have ever seen.
Thanks to Serpent and John.
I usually have to ferret around for Serpent’s signature but it was writ large today. I must
try Closing Time as I think Yossarian and Milo turn up again.
Great puzzle as usual. Thanks J & J
Thanks Serpent and John
I saw open = inclusive event as more akin to an open mike night at a folk club (remember them?) rather than the not-so-open golf one.
Managed to do it all without looking up; 22a was last in, then joseph heller jumped out very satisfactorily. I failed to be alerted by CLOSING TIME; thought I’d read it but now realise I confused it with Last Orders.
My first thought for 1a was slapper as a double definition; in my defence, I thought it was in pretty poor taste.
Thanks Serpent and John.
John, your impression is wrong. Serpent appears approximately half as often as Tees and Phi, who both appear weekly.
Took me a while to get going. I had “JOS P ” in the top line and just “H” in the bottom line when I solved 7d but didn’t know if it was a book at that point. So I googled it and got the author! Game over. Pity. I was enjoying it up until then.
Another to have been helped by spotting the Nina, though I’m afraid I’ve only ever heard of Catch-22 so didn’t recognise the other Heller works scattered around the grid.
I liked the sneaky non-anagram PICTURE THIS and the ‘Means to make sweeping cuts’ def. Favourite was PERSIFLAGE which I’ve always thought of as being a twin to “badinage”, both words I admire from afar and am unlikely to ever casually drop into conversation.
Thanks to John and Serpent
We saw the nina fairly quickly although we couldn’t remember who JH was, but googling him then revealed all so that 7 and 11 went in without bothering to parse them, and of course 22 was obvious. But as is often the case with us it was non-themed answers that were our favourites – PERSIFLAGE and SCYTHE.
Thanks, Serpent and John.
A proper tricky crossword even with spotting the Nina, as I only know of one of the author’s works. The splendid word PERSIFLAGE has to be my favourite
Thanks to Serpent and John
Great crossword
Many thanks to John for the excellent blog, and to everyone who has been kind enough to take the time to comment.
I’m excited to have recognised the nina at a point where it still provided considerable help towards finishing. The fact I’m a Heller fan helped too, which must explain my atrocious answer-to-parsing ratio today, which didn’t even make double figures. That and lack of sleep, due a momumental thunderstorm that parked itself over my house in the small hours. It’s interesting how physiological and psychological factors differentially affect a range of cognitive abilities.
My favourite Serpent puzzle so far, and thanks to John for explaining nearly everything.
Thanks to John and Serpent
Yes, very good but I can’t quite see the def @ 15a:
“get better” would be “recover”, but surely “get over” is “recover from”.
Dansar @13: you make a fair point about “recover”. Apologies!