Times 26671 - Well, "crossword" didn't fit....

Solving time: 34 minutes

Music: Gene Ammons, Boss Tenor






I have to admit, this puzzle was a bit on the strange side. While most of the clues were routine, and a few were even chestnuts, there were a couple that really forced you to think, and one that will probably cause a lot of complaining from its lack of a clear literal.

I like a challenge, provided I can overcome it. I thought I had, but I had to go back and type in my completed answers to make sure. The time of 1 hour 4 minutes on the leaderboard included the 30 minutes I left the crossword sitting in the printer after printing it, but the 0 wrong is what I was really looking for.

Across
1	ACTION, double definition, the first one referring to shooting a film: "lights, camera, action!".
5	COMEDIAN, CO + MEDIAN, where the instructions are unusually literal.
9	PLAYGROUND, PLAY (G) ROUND, i.e. at your local golf course. I had seen that 'playground' would fit, but was looking at the wrong clue so didn't put it in.
10	MEAN, double definition.
11	FORECAST, cryptic definition, as the Met Office provides the weather prediction in the UK. In NYC, however, the Met is much higher class, offering opera and fine art instead of a chance of rain.
12	SUBSET, the one everyone will be talking about. This is apparently an kind of &lit double definition, where the officers are 'subset' of the crew, and the whole lot of them is a 'sub set' on a particular type of warship. You'll either love it or hate it.
13	BLOG, B[ana]L O[fferin]g.
15	RELEVANT, RE + LEVANT. The verb 'levant' means 'to leave secretly or hurriedly to avoid paying debts'.
18	INFERIOR, INFE(RIO)R.
19	VINO, V(I)NO. More popular in the eighteenth century than it is today.
21	CANNES, cryptic definition, and a good one, as 'by the audience' evokes a 'sounds like' clue.
23	PRINCESS, PR(INC)ESS.
25	ITCH, [w]ITCH.
26	EISENHOWER, anagram of WHERE ON IS. Excellent misdirection from this unlikely anagram fodder.
27	CRIMINAL, hidden in [pacifi]C RIM, IN AL[aska].
29	YESMEN, YE(S[tate]MEN, a chestnut.
Down
2	CELLO, CELL + O, another chestnut.
3	IVY LEAGUE, cryptic definition, referring to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and not the university in the UK.
4	NORWAY, NO(R)WAY.
5	COUNTERPROPOSAL, anagram of O + PLAN PROSECUTOR.
6	MODESTLY, MO(D[ebat]E)STLY.
7	DEMOB, DEMO + B.
8	AGAMEMNON, A(GAME M)NON. The temptation to parse 'Greek Leader' as 'G' is strong.
14	LANCASTER, anagram of ANCESTRAL.
16	VIVACIOUS, VI([sa]VA[ge])CIOUS. A very novel clue construction, that had me guessing for a while until I finally saw it.
17	EINSTEIN, EIN(ST)EIN.
20	KIDNEY, K(I'D [pai]N)EY.
22	NAHUM, anagram of HUMAN.
24	SCENE, sounds like 'seen', my FOI.