My run of moderate times continues with a 26.26 for this assemblage of all 26 letters of the alphabet. If you add the number of Es and the number of Us, it's 26, as is the simple numerical total (5+21) of E and U. Doo doo doo doo. And true but nonsense, of course. During solving, I was also seized by a powerful sense of déjà vu, though I can't quite work out if it's justified: I know 6d was in 26,030, but even with the help of LJ's search, I can't track down 2d, 9a or 22a in recent puzzles However they too also rang fairly insistant bells to the extent that I began to wonder whether this was one of those puzzles where the setter was cleverly recycling stuff.
All that synchronicity, real or imagined, aside this was a proper crossword in my book, with a few words from the more secluded stretches of the dictionary, all fairly enough clued, some decidedly elusive definitions and a couple of entries where biffing the wrong answer was positively encouraged. Unusually, there's no "hidden", and no homophone, dodgy or not. I think I have it all, so here's where I lay myself open to ridicule.
Across
1 BUFFET Pound...
...or fare for travellers here, having in mind perhaps the travelling buffet on trains, which used to occupy an entire "car".
5 SIT TIGHT Take no action
Which is what you get when (to) model, SIT, is given TIGHT, or drunk.
9 LIKE A CHARM successfully
I wanted this to be something like "hold a torch", interpreting the wrong definition, "care for". Care for, however, gives LIKE, the retired old lady gives MA backwards, and she holds on to the CHAR, or cleaner.
10 PUJA What Indian may observe
Puja is Sanskrit for worship, and can be either a festival or a particular religious duty. Backed up: PU; German agreement JA
11 NEW DELHI city
New: unfamiliar, shop: DELI(catessen) and an inserted H(usband).
12 RELICT Survivor
I know it as an antiquated/legal (same thing, in my book) term for for a widow, but aparently it has more contemporary ecological and geological meanings. The construction needs work: L(eft) is befind RE (on), I(sland) follows, then the two extremes of C(onfiden)T
13 MEGA Huge
The setter is clearly keen to get in the "game of two halves" cliché, but the gist of the clue is that the two halves of GAME get switched
15 HYSTERIA fit of madness
Your dodgy lawyer is a SHYSTER. Do what the clue says, decapitate ("the first thing we do" KHVI2) and add I (Roman) with A
18 TELEGRAM message
One form of public transport is a TRAM: insert a E(uropean) LEG, member in its "limb" sense.
19 URGE Egg on
A fast food item served endlessly is a (b)URGE(r)
21 GRAMPS Old relation
One of many affectionate terms for a grandparent. GPS, your (usually inaccessible) doctors, surround RAM (computer) memory.
23 LAST POST notes we hear on Armistice Day
Officer gives LT, and surrounds TO PASS "out"
25 ABUT Touch
A simple reversal of TUBA
26 INTERWEAVE blend
You have to gather in the material for an anagram: TEA + N(ame) + REVIEW
27 VERONESE Italian
Lines: VERSE, include a single, for once ONE.
28 DOTING Loving
One of many slang terms for money, TIN, is encased in DOG (to) trouble.
Down
2 UNITE Bring together
A in French is UN, a couple is an ITEM, knock off the M(arried). I took (not married) to be the definition and biffed a rather unsatisfactory UNWED, enough to stymie me in the NW until revisited.
3FIELDFARE singer
Wordplay components on approximate terms: range for FIELD, and FAR for decidedly (perhaps as in "It is a far, far better thing...".). Add E(nglish)
4 TACKLE Deal with
I was convinced that this was going to begin with an S, given the reversed anmals, but the animals are actually the unlikely combination of ELK and CAT. It can happen
5 SPANISH OMELETTE dish
"Milanese" pushes you in the direction of pasta/pizza, but it's really anagram fodder, along with THE TOP. S(ucceeded) at the beginning completes the entry, otherwise known as a tortilla.
6 TAMARISK Tree
Last time this came up I essayed TAMARIND, which I duly did again on the basis of the MAR 1 (St David's Day) ploy. But TASK (verb) is a better option for Commission than TIND. Every time.
7 IMPEL drive
"This writer's" can variously give me, my, and this time I'm. 3/4 of PEL(T) follows.
8 HIJACKING Seizure
Separate off "unlawful access" and translate it to HACKING, insert the otherwise unlikely looking 1 J(udge)
14 EXECRABLE Appalling
Times on this occasion doesn't provide Ts but X, as in multiply. Place it in a re-collection of ERA CELEB.
16 EQUIPMENT 4 (as in TACKLE at 4d)
Ignore the comma in "say, funnily" and you get QUIP. fellows, MEN, follow and ET is once again the film that provides the setting.
17 PRISTINE in perfect condition
I thought the bottom half had the seasier clues, and this is a case in point: a straighforward anagram of PIER ISN'T
20 ASTRID girl abroad
The setter indicates we must look for a foreign female, saints preserve us. AS interprets "when" DIRT "scandal" which is "upset". There, that wasn't too difficult.
22 MATZO bread
One of many spellings, Jewish rather overzealously unleavened bread. Aussie does for the OZ bit, flat gives TAME, which is cut off in its prime, and both are reversed or "rising".
24 SEVEN Cardinal (number)
Pick any one from erm... many. Lots. The last letter of virtues is S, then make "believe it or not" mean EVEN. I made the two expressions wave at each other briefly across the room, and then pressed the submit button.
All that synchronicity, real or imagined, aside this was a proper crossword in my book, with a few words from the more secluded stretches of the dictionary, all fairly enough clued, some decidedly elusive definitions and a couple of entries where biffing the wrong answer was positively encouraged. Unusually, there's no "hidden", and no homophone, dodgy or not. I think I have it all, so here's where I lay myself open to ridicule.
Across
1 BUFFET Pound...
...or fare for travellers here, having in mind perhaps the travelling buffet on trains, which used to occupy an entire "car".
5 SIT TIGHT Take no action
Which is what you get when (to) model, SIT, is given TIGHT, or drunk.
9 LIKE A CHARM successfully
I wanted this to be something like "hold a torch", interpreting the wrong definition, "care for". Care for, however, gives LIKE, the retired old lady gives MA backwards, and she holds on to the CHAR, or cleaner.
10 PUJA What Indian may observe
Puja is Sanskrit for worship, and can be either a festival or a particular religious duty. Backed up: PU; German agreement JA
11 NEW DELHI city
New: unfamiliar, shop: DELI(catessen) and an inserted H(usband).
12 RELICT Survivor
I know it as an antiquated/legal (same thing, in my book) term for for a widow, but aparently it has more contemporary ecological and geological meanings. The construction needs work: L(eft) is befind RE (on), I(sland) follows, then the two extremes of C(onfiden)T
13 MEGA Huge
The setter is clearly keen to get in the "game of two halves" cliché, but the gist of the clue is that the two halves of GAME get switched
15 HYSTERIA fit of madness
Your dodgy lawyer is a SHYSTER. Do what the clue says, decapitate ("the first thing we do" KHVI2) and add I (Roman) with A
18 TELEGRAM message
One form of public transport is a TRAM: insert a E(uropean) LEG, member in its "limb" sense.
19 URGE Egg on
A fast food item served endlessly is a (b)URGE(r)
21 GRAMPS Old relation
One of many affectionate terms for a grandparent. GPS, your (usually inaccessible) doctors, surround RAM (computer) memory.
23 LAST POST notes we hear on Armistice Day
Officer gives LT, and surrounds TO PASS "out"
25 ABUT Touch
A simple reversal of TUBA
26 INTERWEAVE blend
You have to gather in the material for an anagram: TEA + N(ame) + REVIEW
27 VERONESE Italian
Lines: VERSE, include a single, for once ONE.
28 DOTING Loving
One of many slang terms for money, TIN, is encased in DOG (to) trouble.
Down
2 UNITE Bring together
A in French is UN, a couple is an ITEM, knock off the M(arried). I took (not married) to be the definition and biffed a rather unsatisfactory UNWED, enough to stymie me in the NW until revisited.
3FIELDFARE singer
Wordplay components on approximate terms: range for FIELD, and FAR for decidedly (perhaps as in "It is a far, far better thing...".). Add E(nglish)
4 TACKLE Deal with
I was convinced that this was going to begin with an S, given the reversed anmals, but the animals are actually the unlikely combination of ELK and CAT. It can happen
5 SPANISH OMELETTE dish
"Milanese" pushes you in the direction of pasta/pizza, but it's really anagram fodder, along with THE TOP. S(ucceeded) at the beginning completes the entry, otherwise known as a tortilla.
6 TAMARISK Tree
Last time this came up I essayed TAMARIND, which I duly did again on the basis of the MAR 1 (St David's Day) ploy. But TASK (verb) is a better option for Commission than TIND. Every time.
7 IMPEL drive
"This writer's" can variously give me, my, and this time I'm. 3/4 of PEL(T) follows.
8 HIJACKING Seizure
Separate off "unlawful access" and translate it to HACKING, insert the otherwise unlikely looking 1 J(udge)
14 EXECRABLE Appalling
Times on this occasion doesn't provide Ts but X, as in multiply. Place it in a re-collection of ERA CELEB.
16 EQUIPMENT 4 (as in TACKLE at 4d)
Ignore the comma in "say, funnily" and you get QUIP. fellows, MEN, follow and ET is once again the film that provides the setting.
17 PRISTINE in perfect condition
I thought the bottom half had the seasier clues, and this is a case in point: a straighforward anagram of PIER ISN'T
20 ASTRID girl abroad
The setter indicates we must look for a foreign female, saints preserve us. AS interprets "when" DIRT "scandal" which is "upset". There, that wasn't too difficult.
22 MATZO bread
One of many spellings, Jewish rather overzealously unleavened bread. Aussie does for the OZ bit, flat gives TAME, which is cut off in its prime, and both are reversed or "rising".
24 SEVEN Cardinal (number)
Pick any one from erm... many. Lots. The last letter of virtues is S, then make "believe it or not" mean EVEN. I made the two expressions wave at each other briefly across the room, and then pressed the submit button.