Klingsor is one of the less frequent setters in the Independent daily series. I blogged his last puzzle in June where I see I commented on his penchant for classical musical references
Those references are present again to day with Norwegian and Austrian composers clued or mentioned in the clues. At 26 across we got two for the price of one where two members of the Second Viennese School were involved.
Today there were quite a few informal or slang words in both the clues and the grid. I noticed Abe, bread, do, screw, tum, anorak and john in the clues as well as DOSH and NERD in the entries.
I thought the clue for SEMIFINALIST at 17 across was excellent.
As is often the case, it took me a while to realise that ‘I’ was the definition at 19 down even though I have seen IODINE defined in a similar way before.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 1 | Answer after president’s given short shrift (10) |
AB AB SOLUTION |
ABSOLUTION (shrift) |
| 7 | Cook with mum, making bread (4) |
DO (cook) + SH (be quiet; be mum) DO SH |
DOSH (slang term for money; as is bread) |
| 9 | I’ll go into lounge with champagne and sweet (8) |
I contained in (will go into) (LOLL [lounge] + POP [champagne is an effervescent drink as is pop]) LOLL (I) POP |
LOLLIPOP (sweet) |
| 10 | Some furores ultimately ensue (8) |
RESULT (hidden word in [some] FURORES ULTIMATELY) RESULT |
RESULT (ensue) |
| 11 | After university, English girl somehow is more unattractive (6) |
U (university) + an anagram of (somehow) E [English] and GIRL U GLIER* |
UGLIER (more unattractive) |
| 13 | Starts to regret eating stuffing coloured like a kebab? (8) |
RE (first letters of each of [starts to] REGRET and EATING) contained in (stuffing) SKEWED (biased; influence {by}; coloured {by}) SKEWE (R E) D |
SKEWERED (kebabs are cooked on a skewer) |
| 14 | Punishment constrains everyone in revolutionary group to conform (4,4,4) |
FINE (punishment) contains (constrains) (ALL [everyone] + IN + LOT [group] reversed [revolutionary]) F (ALL IN TOL<) INE |
FALL INTO LINE (conform) |
| 17 | As I’m left in penultimate part of contest, I could be this (12) |
Anagram of (could be) AS I’M LEFT IN and S (second last letter of [penultimate part of] CONTEST) and I SEMIFINALIST* |
SEMI-FINALIST (someone playing the penultimate round of a competition) |
| 20 | Italian town that’s no resort? Wrong! (8) |
Anagram of (wrong) NO RESORT SORRENTO* |
SORRENTO (Italian town) |
| 21 | Screw around and do sketch again? (6) |
WARDER (prison guard,a person for whom screw is a slang term) reversed (around) REDRAW< |
REDRAW (sketch again) |
| 22 | Police returned, requiring corporation to make formal statement (6) |
CID (Criminal Investigation Department; police) reversed (returned) + TUM (stomach; belly; corporation) DIC< TUM |
DICTUM (authoritative saying) |
| 23 | Hint pub needs to open around middle of September (8) |
INN (public house; pub) + (UNDO [open] containing [around] E [central letter of {middle of} SEPTEMBER) INN U (E) NDO |
INNUENDO (hint, usually suggesting disapproval or maliciousness) |
| 25 | Runs, wearing Edward’s anorak (4) |
R (runs in cricket scoring notation) contained in (wearing) NED (a form of the name EDWARD) NE (R) D |
NERD (clumsy, foolish, socially inept, feeble, unathletic, irritating or unprepossessing person, although often [eg in computers] knowledgeable. Anorak is a similar term) |
| 26 | Randomly chosen composer – this one? (10) |
Anagram of (randomly) CHOSEN + BERG (reference Alban BERG [1885 – 1935], Austrian composer and member of the Second Viennese School) SCHOEN BERG |
SCHOENBERG (reference Arnold SCHOENBERG [1874 -1951], Austrian composer described as the leader of the Second Viennese School and teacher of Alban BERG) Some critics might describe SCHOENBERG‘s music as a series of ‘randomly chosen’ notes. |
| Down | |||
| 2 | Carriage fetched almost a million (8) |
BROUGH BROUGH A M |
BROUGHAM (a one-horse closed carriage) |
| 3 | Regularly jovial and crude? (3) |
OIL (letters 2, 4 and 6 [regularly] of JOVIAL) OIL |
OIL (reference crude OIL) |
| 4 | Superior meal, but no starter (5) |
UPPER |
UPPER (superior) |
| 5 | What batsman off the mark might say is an art form (7) |
I’M (I am) PAST (beyond) O (character representing the value zero) I have got off the mark IM PAST O |
IMPASTO (in painting, paint or pigment applied thickly, especially when used to achieve surface texture; an art form) |
| 6 | One breaks new organ playing Grieg? (9) |
I (Roman numeral for one) contained in (breaks) an anagram of (playing) NEW ORGAN NORWEG (I) AN* |
NORWEGIAN (Edvard Grieg [1843 to 1907] was a NORWEGIAN composer) |
| 7 | Unkempt beauty partied topless (11) |
DISH (informal term for a good looking person, usually applied to someone of the opposite sex) + DISH EVELLED |
DISHEVELLED (unkempt) |
| 8 | Maybe private bar one gets to join (6) |
SOLD SOLDER |
SOLDER (join) |
| 12 | Embellished being badly treated outside restaurant (11) |
ILL USED (badly treated) containing (outside) TRAT (TRATtoria; restaurant) ILL US (TRAT) ED |
ILLUSTRATED (adorned; made beautiful; embellished) |
| 15 | Small English bloke twice turns up to identify culprits (4,5) |
(S [small] + E [English] + MAN [bloke] + [again; twice] [E {English} + MAN {bloke}]) all reversed (turns up; down clue) (NAM E NAM E S)< |
NAME NAMES (identify culprits) |
| 16 | Cuban perhaps lends air to dance (8) |
Anagram of (to dance) LENDS AIR ISLANDER* |
ISLANDER (Cuba is an island; so a Cuban can be an islander) |
| 18 | Silly John gets upset in school? (7) |
LOO (toilet; john is American slang for toilet) reversed (gets upset) contained in (in) FISH (school is another collective noun for a shoal of fish) F (OOL<) ISH |
FOOLISH (silly|) |
| 19 | I eat after ten (6) |
IO (characters that together can represent the number 10) + DINE (eat) IO DINE |
IODINE (I is the chemical symbol for iodine) |
| 21 | Consumed by fury, nanny’s heading for a row (5) |
N (first letter of [heading of] NANNY) contained in (consumed by) RAGE (fury) RA (N) GE |
RANGE (row or rank) |
| 24 | Be upset – boat’s beginning to sink (3) |
BE reversed (upset) + B (first letter of [beginning] BOAT) EB< B |
EBB (sink) |
Relatively easy for Klingsor, I thought, but nonetheless enjoyable for that. I’ve got wise to the sneaky use of chemical symbols now (at least I think I have) so I for iodine came to mind quite soon. I do wish people would stop using ‘anorak’ for nerd, geek etc – it’s a time-honoured and essential garment that few serious leisure walkers would be without. But thanks anyway Klingsor and Duncan.
Thanks for the blog, Duncan – you’re right, we don’t see Klingsor often enough but he’s in the FT today as Alberich – double delight.
A most enjoyable puzzle, as expected. My favourites were 1ac ABSOLUTION (for the ‘short shrift’) 17ac SEMIFINALIST, 22ac DICTUM, 25ac NERD (sorry, Tatrasman), 6dn NORWEGIAN and 19dn IODINE.
Many thanks, Klingsor, for the fun.
I don’t think I’ve attempted a Klingsor puzzle before, but I did enjoy this one with its accurate wordplay and lovely smooth surfaces. I will be looking forward very much to his next appearance.
My top three were SEMI-FINALIST [although I would have thought this should have been enumerated (4-8) not (12)], NORWEGIAN and IODINE.
Many thanks to Klingsor and to Duncan.
I thought this was superb. My long list of favourites is largely the same (as so often) as Eilleen’s, especially SEMIFINALLIST and ABSOLUTION.
Thanks, Klingsor and Duncan.
Another newbie to Klingsor’s puzzles. Something of a mixed bag for me but I did rather like BROUGHAM and DISHEVELLED.
Thanks to Klingsor and to Duncan for the review.
We were obviously on Klingsor’s wavelength today as we finished quite quickly and parsed everything, although one or two parsings took a while to see.
We liked ABSOLUTION for the need to lift and separate ‘short shrift’ and SEMIFINALIST for its &lit-ish ness. Favourite, though, was SCHOENBERG.
Thanks, Klingsor and Duincan.
Took forever to separate ‘short’ and ‘shrift’ but got there eventually. Shoenberg was a treat.
Thanks to both.
I though the clue for SEMIFINALIST was one of the best clue-as-definitions that I’ve seen for a long time, but there were some other gems as well – bravo, Klingsor.
I have been doing crosswords for long enough to know that I can sometimes be iodine, but it always takes me ages to see it. Probably because ‘I’ as a personal pronoun is so deeply embedded as such in everyday usage that it’s difficult to disassociate it from that.
Thanks too to Duncan for blogging.
Plenty to like in this one today. The clue for SOLDER was a favourite of mine. It took me far too long to work it out even after I’d guessed at how the clue was formed. The surface just did me as I was still looking for something that is, or means private rather than a Private.
Is it just me who doesn’t like the use of 1 and 0 as clues for I and O? I just don’t get it. OK, I understand they look the same but there must be more to it than that?
FOI – OIL
Unparsed – ABSOLUTION, LOLLIPOP, FALL INTO LINE, REDRAW, ILLUSTRATED
New to me – BROUGHAM, IMPASTO (There’s that 0=O again)
Thanks to Klingsor and Duncan.
rocket @9. The use of I for 1 is usually explained via the Roman numeral. Ok, it implies the use of upper case but I don’t have any issue with that. I have commented before about O for 0. It is more suspect. We just have to accept that setters can (and do) use anything that is vaguely circular to represent the letter O.
I wonder if the O/0 thing is left over from the old days of cheap typewriters which often didn’t have a 0 key and you did use an upper case O. I have occasionally noticed an O for a 0 turning up in newspapers items and I’ve wondered if this is a story typed by a journalist of the old school, not used to having a separate key.
Incidentally, it is not that unusual to use lower case for Roman numerals. Page numbering in the introductory section of some books use lower case Roman numerals.
True that, just didn’t think of it. Did the ancient Romans ever use lower case?
Zero and O are different characters, but similar enough that I think that it would be a shame to ditch the opportunities the similarity offers setters for misdirection on a point of pedantry. In any case the two are often hard, if not impossible, to distinguish in handwritten texts, which is why some people put a slash through their zeros. Even some typefaces make them look similar – the licence key for my Chambers CD contains both and it usually takes me several attempts to enter it correctly!