Time: 22 minutes
Music: Chopin, Polinaises, Pollini
This was a relatively straightforward Monday puzzle that should not present much difficulty, with a number of chestnuts and clues suitable for the Quickie. Some may have to retrieve 'sapodilla' from the cryptic, and 'areca' may be unknown to those who have not solved US puzzles, My main problem was the exact spelling of 'Pleistocene', but that became clear with the checkers.
Some have asked whether I don't find music distracting while solving, but I find it has the opposite effect, and loosens up the old brain. This afternoon, I took a half-solved Mephisto to a concert to work on before the music started, and got a few clues. But in the short interval between the first and second pieces on the program, I filled in nearly the entire top half, erasing several wrong answers. It is amazing how a solver can slip into the groove, and solve large parts of the puzzle as quickly as if he were Mark Goodliffe, only to suddenly fall back to earth and become completely stuck. It is something about the internal rhythms of the brain that allows this to happen, and then un-happen.
On other fronts, we will be having a couple of new bloggers along to handle the puzzles formerly blogged by Nick_the_Novice. I'll let them introduce themselves when they appear, but I have every confidence that they will do a fine job.
| Across | |
| 1 | Hybrid language primarily involving RAF slang, surprisingly (9) |
| FRANGLAIS - Anagram of I[nvolving] + RAF SLANG. | |
| 6 | Tasty juice a princess rejected (5) |
| SAPID - SAP + DI backwards, the only princess we ever get. | |
| 9 | One writing about air in distant planet (7) |
| NEPTUNE - PEN backwards + TUNE. | |
| 10 | Prepare for church, taking two sons (7) |
| PROCESS - PRO + C.E. + S,S. | |
| 11 | Entice politician to visit Vietnamese festival (5) |
| TEMPT - TE(MP)T, the only Vietnamese festival setters use. | |
| 13 | Intended recipient of a frock, we hear — and points (9) |
| ADDRESSEE - sounds like A DRESS + E, E. | |
| 14 | Agreeable set touring part of UK (9) |
| CONGENIAL - CONGE(N.I.)AL, the usual part of the UK. I was thinking 'genial' at first, but of course it didn't fit, so I moved on. | |
| 16 | Item of footwear providing profit once? (4) |
| BOOT - double definition. | |
| 18 | Land conservationists originally owned? (4) |
| CHAD - C + HAD. They didn't, actually. | |
| 19 | Make fewer pronouncements, having no nationality (9) |
| STATELESS - STATE LESS, a chestnut. | |
| 22 | Manufactured instrument mostly used before party (7-2) |
| TRUMPED-UP - TRUMPE[t] + D.U.P. Politics mostly avoided, we hope. | |
| 24 | Costly setting for king displaying dullness in poem (5) |
| DREAR - D(R)EAR, as presumably no one would use 'drear' in prose. | |
| 25 | About-turn protecting Latin here in US city (7) |
| CHICAGO - C(HIC)A + GO, where you have to lift and separate a hyphenated word, which you see mainly in the Guardian puzzles. | |
| 26 | Ossie leader heading off decrease in expenditure in bush (7) |
| OUTBACK - O[ssie] + [c]UTBACK, which most solvers will just biff. | |
| 28 | Old Abraham’s nephew returning for praise (5) |
| EXTOL -EX + LOT backwards, another lift and separate. | |
| 29 | Revised pay and terms covering second intelligence boss (9) |
| SPYMASTER - anagram of PAY + TERMS around S. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Frenzied religious leader leaves to collect a devotee (7) |
| FANATIC - F[-r}AN(+A)TIC, where a letter is dropped and another is picked up, but in a different place. | |
| 2 | A place to climb Mont Blanc, for example (3) |
| ALP - A + PL upside-down. | |
| 3 | Bitten by bug, relative put on large glove (8) |
| GAUNTLET - G(AUNT + L)ET, where both 'bug' and 'get' have the sense of managing to annoy someone. | |
| 4 | A park initially accommodating a tall palm (5) |
| ARECA - A + REC + A[commodating], a palm that grows in US crosswords. | |
| 5 | Everyone is upset about a small school’s tropical tree (9) |
| SAPODILLA - S(A POD)ILLA, where the enclosing letters are ALL IS upside-down. Is a 'pod' necessarily small? | |
| 6 | Dig sand lying principally around coastal resort (6) |
| SHOVEL - S(HOVE)L | |
| 7 | Silence poet developed from an early age (11) |
| PLEISTOCENE - anagram of SILENCE POET, a tricky one if you're not thinking of the right kind of 'age'. | |
| 8 | Difference of opinion when lineage is mentioned? (7) |
| DISSENT - sounds like DESCENT, which would fit, but is clearly not the intended target. | |
| 12 | Car a tripper used, missing old painter (11) |
| MINIATURIST - MINI + A T[o]URIST. | |
| 15 | Stealthy son replacing Victor in arousing resentment (9) |
| INSIDIOUS - IN(-v +S)IDIOUS, a simple letter-substitution clue. | |
| 17 | Feud involving archdeacon, one with obligations, we hear (8) |
| VENDETTA - VEN + sounds like DEBTOR. | |
| 18 | Compilers initially clue it loosely as "dead skin" (7) |
| CUTICLE - C[ompiles} + anagram of CLUE IT. | |
| 20 | One pursuing industrial action, attacking player (7) |
| STRIKER - double definition, and a very simple one. | |
| 21 | Afterthought about green lost at first in urban development (6) |
| SPRAWL -PS upside-down + RAW + L[ost]. | |
| 23 | Lousy environment for king’s representative (5) |
| PROXY - P(R)OXY, with both lousy and poxy looking back to their root meanings. | |
| 27 | Small island rowing crew talked of (3) |
| AIT - sounds like EIGHT. | |