Time: 19 Minutes
Music: Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, Joselson
Well, this was an easy Monday for me, but lurking at the back of my mind was a suspicion that not everyone will agree. Long-time solvers will have seen 'buckram', 'Chateaubriand', and 'thimblerigger' before, but that may not be the case with everyone - we shall see. I am not sure how helpful the wordplay might have been, since I mostly just plugged in the evident answers. The only thing I had never heard of was 'scabious', but in this case the wordplay is perfectly obvious, and the checkers confirm what the answer must be.
Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with our Friday blogger Verlaine in New York City. In the blog for that day, I didn't have the pictures that Paul's friend David took available, but now I do. The light was not very suitable for photography, but I have made a few basic adjustments in the color and contrast to one of the pictures: http://home.earthlink.net/~vinyl1/gingerman.jpg. From left to right around the table: me, Verlaine holding a copy of the Times, Paul_in_london, Jon88, and Guy_du_sable.
Music: Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, Joselson
Well, this was an easy Monday for me, but lurking at the back of my mind was a suspicion that not everyone will agree. Long-time solvers will have seen 'buckram', 'Chateaubriand', and 'thimblerigger' before, but that may not be the case with everyone - we shall see. I am not sure how helpful the wordplay might have been, since I mostly just plugged in the evident answers. The only thing I had never heard of was 'scabious', but in this case the wordplay is perfectly obvious, and the checkers confirm what the answer must be.
Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with our Friday blogger Verlaine in New York City. In the blog for that day, I didn't have the pictures that Paul's friend David took available, but now I do. The light was not very suitable for photography, but I have made a few basic adjustments in the color and contrast to one of the pictures: http://home.earthlink.net/~vinyl1/gingerman.jpg. From left to right around the table: me, Verlaine holding a copy of the Times, Paul_in_london, Jon88, and Guy_du_sable.
| Across | |
| 1 | Gradual assimilation of silicon in universe, not carbon (7) |
| OSMOSIS - [c]OSMO(SI)S, where the definition is a bit loose from the technical scientific point of view. | |
| 5 | Dollar horny male laid out for coarse material (7) |
| BUCKRAM - BUCK + RAM, in very clever aliases. | |
| 9 | Old preacher touring north finally offered beer and cheese (11) |
| WENSLEYDALE - WE(N)SLEY + [offere]D + ALE, a fine cheese. | |
| 10 | Hanger-on recognised in most of Lancaster (3) |
| BUR - BUR(t). | |
| 11 | Disreputable thug wasting time and energy casing church (6) |
| LOUCHE - LOU[t] (CH) E | |
| 12 | Shifting him risks a minor set-to (8) |
| SKIRMISH - anagram of HIM RISKS. | |
| 14 | Briefly meet bright girl reforming cheat (13) |
| THIMBLERIGGER - anagram of MEET BRIGHT GIRL, one we had a couple of times about six months ago. | |
| 17 | French statesman talked heartlessly about a university man (13) |
| CHATEAUBRIAND - CHA[t]TE(U BRIAN)D, who is perhaps better known nowadays as an author.of rather lush prose. | |
| 21 | German opposed to music that’s sung in bar (8) |
| BAVARIAN - BA(V ARIA)N. | |
| 23 | Part of brief is calculation of public revenues (6) |
| FISCAL - Hidden in [brie]F IS CAL[culation]. | |
| 25 | Admit wife into cricket side (3) |
| OWN - O(W)N, one from the Quickie. | |
| 26 | Gardening aid scoundrel concealed in West Cumbrian town (11) |
| WHEELBARROW - W (HEEL) BARROW. | |
| 27 | Relentlessly back Liberal youth leader (7) |
| STERNLY - STERN + L +Y[outh]. | |
| 28 | Circumnavigating America, be at helm of ocean greyhound? (7) |
| STEAMER - STE(AM)ER, with a rather fanciful literal. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | His literary works a gold mine? (6) |
| ORWELL - OR + WELL. I don't know why I wanted to put 'Oswald', which didn't make any sense. | |
| 2 | Vandal caught by male worker in police operation (7) |
| MANHUNT - M AN(HUN)T. | |
| 3 | Slim hips Kelly developed (9) |
| SYLPHLIKE - Anagram of HIPS KELLY, not the first word I tried, but gettable. | |
| 4 | Underworld river remains audible (4) |
| STYX - sounds like STICKS. | |
| 5 | Fruit shortage in B&B initially explained on right lines (10) |
| BLACKBERRY - B(LACK)B + E + R + RRY, a rather convoluted cryptic. | |
| 6 | Festive fare honoured companion always provides (5) |
| CHEER - CH + EER, Companion of Honour. | |
| 7 | Making fun of knitting pattern? (7) |
| RIBBING - double definition, another easy one. | |
| 8 | They may demonstrate gear ultimately in the borders (8) |
| MARCHERS - MARCHE([gea]R)S. | |
| 13 | Old boy properly restricting speed in stubborn way (10) |
| OBDURATELY - OB + DU(RATE)LY. | |
| 15 | Lifeless? It’s where one finds friendship around part of UK (9) |
| INANIMATE - IN A (N.I.) MATE, as part of the UK is nearly always Northern Ireland. | |
| 16 | Strikebreaker promises to pay for plant (8) |
| SCABIOUS - SCAB + I.O.U.S, which is indeed a plant. | |
| 18 | Counsel sacrifices one for an early payment (7) |
| ADVANCE - ADV(-i,+AN)CE, a simple substitution clue. | |
| 19 | Good form and spirit underpinning a style of art (7) |
| DECORUM - DECO + RUM. | |
| 20 | Phone bishop north of Hereford, perhaps (6) |
| BLOWER - B + LOWER, i.e. a Hereford cow. | |
| 22 | Tree Reagan planted outside Washington (5) |
| ROWAN - RO(WA)N, the correct abbreviation for the state of Washington | |
| 24 | A city boss’s conclusion, sad to say (4) |
| ALAS - A + L.A. + [bos]S | |