Toughie No 3389 by Dada
Hints and tips by ALP
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty * – Enjoyment ***/****
Very Tuesday-appropriate, I felt. A little trickery, of course, but nothing too spooky. As usual with Dada, it took me a moment to get stuck in but, after a couple fell, they all came in a flurry. I did briefly flirt with bunging on an extra half to try and sit on the fence for a change. But no, I’ve stuck to my one-star guns. Publish and be damned, I say. And I usually am! All yours.
Across
7a Boat having dispensed with ballast? (7)
LIGHTER: Definition plus definition by example.
8a Title I think originally applied to pub (7)
BARONET: The Roman I + T[hink] applied to/after one of the usual “pub”(s).
10a Put on fit striker? (10)
MATCHSTICK: Put/place on/after (a good) fit.
11a Really, extremely unimpressive (2-2)
SO-SO: “Really” and “extremely” effectively mean the same thing, as this clue shows. The same synonym is simply repeated twice.
12a Very dark when plane returned, fifty on board (3-5)
JET-BLACK: Plane/aircraft + a synonym of “returned”, containing the usual “fifty”.
14a A drink in the empty African dish (6)
TAGINE: A + (type of) alcoholic drink, inside T[H]E.
15a Eatery ultimately gross, open a different diner! (6,5)
GREASY SPOON: ~Y+GROSS+OPEN+A, different. Bar for the “open” this would happily read like an all-in-one. It sort of is, really. I just refuse to underline the word “gross” as I’m very fond of them!
19a Passionate gardener finally filling a hole (6)
ARDENT: [Gardene]R inside ‘A’ from the clue + hole/depression.
20a Clear off, Tories! (8)
OUTRIGHT: Off/away + (the politics of, etc) Tories.
22a Almost entirely disorientated touring a country in Asia (4)
LAOS: Disorientated/missing (minus its last letter/almost entirely) contains ‘A’ from the clue.
23a Republican supporter playing a part, you may count on me! (5,5)
COSTA RICAN: Fellow actor/actress (supporter playing, etc) + how one might say “you may count on me” expressed as (1,3). That use of “may” instead of the more obvious three-letter word is helpful.
25a Setter welcomed into family was prosperous (7)
BLOOMED: Put the usual-ish “setter” (not ‘I’, the other one) inside the synonym for “family” that’s not “clan” or “kin”.
26a Out-of-this-world heavy metal singer? (7)
MERCURY: Triple or double definition, take your pick. This parsing did cause me some pause as there are a couple of “out-of-this-world” possibilities, but I think the most likely explanation is the more straightforward double definition (ie, with no third whimsical planetary allusion) for a heavy metal found in the Earth’s crust (out of this world) and/or a famous, late singer. You could, of course, read “out-of-this-world” as helpful galactic whimsy and parse this as a DD+. You could even, I suppose, infer “heavy” (“anything large”, Chambers) as a noun governed by the first hyphenated adjective (OOTW just ain’t a noun, but this is Dada, so who knows?!) and read the (heavy) metal as just a metal. But that all seems unnecessarily complicated. Ordinarily, I’d have just bunged this in and marched on!
Down
1d Staple I adapted, strengthening system (7)
PILATES: STAPLE+I, adapted.
2d Second wing cut from baby fly (4)
CHIC: “Second wing” here would appear to be the second “wing” you read, ie the last letter. Dock a baby (bird) thus to find an oddly dated US expression for stylish or fashionable. Rabbit Dave is just going to love this one!
3d Old country covered in skyscrapers, I assumed (6)
PERSIA: A lurker hidden in the last three words.
4d Catcher stands behind jumper, for example (8)
BACKSTOP: Stands behind/supports + a jumper, say, or a shirt, etc.
5d Clergy in battle, origin called into question (10)
MONSIGNORI: WWI battle + ORIGIN, called into question.
6d Tongue-in-cheek tweet after something brewing? (7)
TEASING: Tweet (like a bird) after summat brewed. Not beer.
9d Second-rate audio device with two items for computer user (6,5)
MICKEY MOUSE: (A singer’s) audio device and, erm, two (basic) items intrinsic to a computer. I always love to see this expression clued as I say it all the time!
13d Noted performance in high street premises? (10)
BARBERSHOP: Chestnutty double definition. Noted performance = music, etc.
16d Direction taken in change of rate, forward (8)
ATTACKER: (Sailing, say) direction inside RATE, changed.
17d Sticky food, honey (7)
TREACLE: Another double. Honey, here, is a term of endearment.
18d Conflict’s ending with intensity on battlefield (7)
THEATRE: [Conflic]T + intensity/ardour + the usual-ish “on”.
21d Fluid has met water flowing through capital (6)
THAMES: HATMET, fluid.
24d Short distance, walk in the park, heading off (4)
INCH: Walk in the park/doddle, minus its first letter.
We’ve got five anagrams, a raft of double definitions and just one lurker. I particularly enjoyed 5d, 9d and 24d. 18d is elegant and the brass neck of 2d tickled me too (I may be alone!) but I think I’ve got to go with 23a‘s misdirection. How did you get on?
Just knew it would only get just the * star & as per I made far harder work of it than that & especially so down south. Got there in the end albeit with a sneaky press of the check function when stalled with 4 to go. I had ticks against all of our reviewer’s highlights together with one or two more incl 26a, which I had as triple def.
You can’t beat a high quality 15a either particularly if in need of a hangover cure.
Thanks to Dada & to ALP for the review/music selections – wasn’t familiar with & love the risqué Bull Moose Jackson number (like the Dana Gillespie cover too). Will need to properly check out Langhorne Slim as well.
Yes, I spent way too much time debating whether 26a was a DD or a TD and I’m still not sure! Glad you liked old Bull. I’ll probably get tutted at but he got away with it in 1952, so why not?!
I definately think it’s a triple, after all Freddie was not “heavy metal”. All nice misdirection.
But as usual I am late in the day!
Thanks as always to Alp and of course to Dada for the entertainment.
I didn’t go a bundle on 2d, but everything else was fine and thoughtfully clued. It was typically Dadaesque, quirky and whimsical, but rewarding and enjoyable to complete. 5d was my favourite.
Many thanks to both Dada and ALP.
Enjoyable and not too tricky – thanks to Dada and ALP.
I needed to check the required meaning of fly (2d) in the BRB – it’s a North American usage apparently.
My ticks went to 8a, 23a, 26a (my vote is for a triple definition), 4d and 18d.
I too made harder work of this than the rating because some of it was a bit obscure to say the least but it’s a toughie. I’d only heard of 17d because it popped up in a clue recently. I enjoyed the challenge and managed to parse everything so happy days. Thanks to Dada and ALP.
Some of the slang that I needed to check and I wasn’t partial to the ‘fit’ synonym in 10a but our setter does seem to let caution fly to the wind when he’s in the Toughie slot!
Ticked clues here were 23&25a plus 4,5&13d.
Thanks to Dada and to ALP for the review – a bit of 13d singing would perhaps have been appropriate?
Ha, I did suspect you’d think that! I did consider it … for about a second. I imagine octogenarian 23a calypso wasn’t a happy substitute?
Found it more tricky than *, though enjoyable when every thing clicked. Needed most of a mug of tea to get started. Maybe start earlier in the day. Thanks to Dada and ALP
One of these days I’m going to agree with you ALP, but yet again, not today. I made much harder work of it than you obviously did. For some reason 16D took an age for the penny to drop which held up my finish. Once in, I was able to complete.
Favourite of many 9D.
Many thanks ALP and Dada.
I live in hope PJ!
You weren’t alone with 16d
First – the crossword. Great google moogly ALP one star?? This took me a lot longer than last Friday’s or the Friday’s before that. I really couldn’t get into it. OK it had to be solved in a lot of interrupted short sessions but that’s life. Each quadrant had a gimme or two but that’s yer lot. Votes go to the ones that gave me most grief – 8a, 10a and 23a [tho I think the definition is a tad naughty]. Re 26a [one of my first in] – could you perhaps be over-thinking? It’s triple def, obvs. And 17d? treacle is a term of endearment?
Now the music. Well you have excelled yourself here mate – hugely enjoyable memories and a couple of newies:- Is Lightnin Hopkins the Great Grandfather of Funk? And CVB are better than Quo here. I think Bull Moose J was an inspiration for Huey Smith, who is also worth a listen. Walter Ferguson was a revelation. Didn’t even know they did Caiso in Costa Rica. Thanks again, oh and thanks to Dada for the struggle.
Yes, I’m in a mad island of one re 26a. Sorry about that. Adjective for noun just stuck in my craw but I’m sure it’s just Dada being Dada and there is a QM to be fair. I was just being a tad prim, I think. So glad you liked Walter. You’ve got to love a bloke who released his first CD when he was 82!
I too found this merited more than your one star ALP! Your hints came into play to keep me going to the end. I did parse 26a as a simple triple definition: Mercury the planet (out-of-this-world) + the metal + the singer.
Thanks to Dada for the mind-stretching and you ALP for the needed hints