Mangled Mao [June 6 - 11]

Arcane in Oz perhaps, but pretty common down at the local Tesco's.

And welcome back, DA. (Sorry, how rude of me!)

Found today's Times fairly breezy. It took me a while to realise my daughter was helping me with 18ac. It's what she says when she wants to go out to the back garden. Just as I was working on that clue.

I thought this setter was going for some sly definitions, some of which worked beautifully (2dn, 11ac and 22ac) and some that I thought were a bit of a stretch (24ac and 25ac). 1dn was cheeky (sorry) but good.

A nice, confident start to the week for me.

Agree with all that RK, fairly straightforward and enjoyable with nothing too taxing. Luckily knew 20A and struggled for a while trying to fit MO into 8D before looking at the other end of that word for the shortened form. Also, you don't often see simple codes in these I've noticed, so 7D was a surprise. Wonder if 14D could have been Spoonerised?

And my streak makes it to three. The bottom half came easily (touche, RK), and I was pleased to dredge 20ac from the memory bank, but I spent a while trying to fit a variant spelling of a Libyan dictator into 12ac (dur!), and hadn't heard of 13ac (when there's a much more straightforward 6,4 meaning the same thing, why bother?).

So many good clues today. 11ac was the one that made me grin though.

It was an honest puzzle, with a late push needed to close the last corner - NW in my case. (Did like 24dn, despite its Sunday brek iffiness.)

Flukily, two answers will be recurring in my own crosswords before too long, and thankfully both own quite different clues.

No 9023 looks a fun ride as well.

I liked 9023. 17D is good, but I think I've seen it before in an &lit guise. 13A nice as well, so too 23D.

I enjoy clues where the ends of the answer are synonyms of a common word, with a nesting device used to join them. One example I came up with recently is this:

POSTE RESTANTE: For mail service, steer haphazardly between two stakes.

DA, could this be the topic of another Storm, maybe?

Always up for new Storms, Boniface. In fact the one I'm trying to upload this arvo (and struggling for time, to be honest) is APROPOS of a remark you made last week, if I recall.

Re 9023, I've just nibbled the edges, but what a delightful crossword. The work of John Halpern - I'd put my beer money on it.

Really? It seems too easy for Paul. Says I, still with three needed for my Northwest Passage.

Anthony, Paul does have an easier mode. Look no further than his playful Mudd crosswords in the FT. So many of the tricks have a Paul-lite glow - the &lit of 12ac, the deft 17dn anagram, the confidence trick of 14dn...

And the tendency towards liberalism, such as 29ac, with the Times-insisted adverb of 'presumably'.

Of course I could be wrong. This guess-the-compiler is a hazardous science.

I must be doing a different puzzle to you guys. I have nothing in the southwest quadrant. I was trying to do it during a choir rehearsal though. I'll have another go at it.

Aaaaaah. The sigh of relief after stalling for hours on 10ac/9dn. If you can believe it, it was the last part of 10ac that I wasn't getting.

4 on the trot. Bound to come a cropper tomorrow.

@Anthony - you should be OK, today's is on the hard side, but not impossible. A knowledge of literature will help. I quite liked it.

My son is treading the boards tonight, giving the stage father some quality downtime between drop-off and curtain to crack 9024, potentially No 48 in my idle quest to crack the Times Ton.

Bon, talk of things literary is a welcome change from matters musical, I confess.

Thus far two pairs of clues left in the bottom corners. We'll have to see if inspiration can strike twice.

Well, that was a squeaky way to keep the streak. 17dn on checkers and a feel that I could find a defn in there for it somewhere; 27ac on the basis of a false wordplay that involved the Queen being referred to in an overly familiar way; 21dn when the brain finally supplied the detail that I knew was buried in there somewhere (and now I know that my mother shares her name with a dagger - must make a cutting remark sometime); and 28ac without ever thinking of the saboteur. Phew.

Maybe it was wavelength, but I found this puzzle quite genial. While 10ac was a new phrase, the charade was lucid, and I did enjoy the bookish scent of 8dn, 21dn, 25dn, 7dn and 1dn. All downs, I notice.

Not so down with the workings of 27ac, while RAP/A/CITY flirts with cliche. Up there with CAR-NATION.

I enjoyed the literary references too.

Thought Bon would have liked 9dn with its similarities to BENEFACTOR of the previous day.

I had REASONER for a little while for 28ac, but that made the first part of the clue unnecessary. Once I worked out 21dn, all became clear.

5ac in 9024 is just a definition??

Another good one today in 9025, drawing from the range of cryptic devices available.

Yes, PREMIERE is another one in the BENEFACTOR class, RK. Maybe I'll make a list...

DA, I was going to put RAPACITY on the other thread as I'm sure I've seen it at least 3 times over the last six months. CARNATION certainly belongs there!

JPR, I think yesterday's 5A was an attempt at a cryptic definition, not a very good one IMO.

'treading the boards' is a lovely phrase, and along with eg 'walking the plank' seems to suggest a kind of macro-spoonerism ie if one could make cryptic sense of 'boarding the treads' or 'planking the walk' -- what i'm getting at is a quasi-Spoonerism tag for such a riddling switch. just a thought

I like the concept, JPR. Particularly if it also means something the other way round: cooking the books/booking the cooks; passing the time/timing the pass; falling in love/loving in Fall

you are ahead of me RK. yes. perhaps as a ladle is a big spoon these are 'Ladlerisms'?

@DA - TILLER was a triple definition - 'shoot'/'old girls' (Tiller Girls were a dancing troupe franchise, really)/etc

Shame he couldn't work a Hun in there somewhere.

how does TILLER = shoot? I got the 'tiller girls' reference retrospectively
a fairly meh clue whichever way one looks?
so the joiner down is IMPLICIT? = 'unreserved' ??!!!***?
but the red dwarf was fun

JPR - a tiller is a shoot (ie a germinating seedling). I believe it is the result of tilling soil.

As a general question, what are the best triple defs out there?

I quite like my French reds as well

thanks boniface -- oops -- collapse of stout party... !! yes let's seek out those triads

Ouch. I'd vote for 13dn/29ac as a Natick again.

Feel very fortunate to have survived to shoot for lucky 7 tomorrow.

(Was this how you got hooked on the Quest For 100, DA?)

What a great run you're having, Anthony. You've certainly smashed your old 'one in a row' PB. Wish I could say I'm having the same success. I don't know if you're a Seinfeld fan, but it reminds me of the episode where everything starts working out for George, but Elaine's circumstances go from bad to worse. Jerry on the other hand keeps breaking even. (Maybe DA is Jerry in this scenario - just steadily continuing his successful run.)

I'm determined that my fortunes will change with 9026. 26 has always been a good number for me.

I dunno...DA has always struck me as more of a Kramer lookalike ;-)

Don't forget the novelty DA in today's paper - even if we both miss on 26, it's a fine consolation prize.

I'm thinking it's a good thing I got the consolation prize. 8 still to go, in three distinct locations. Even after getting some of the obscurities!

Well, the hurdle was too high. Got suckered with a wrong answer on 13ac, so failed on 14dn as well. I don't know that I would have managed 19dn, and there was never any chance at 22ac (Natick again!). I call this one mean! How many languages does a guy have to speak around here?!

Enough 16ing. I hold my head high for having the confidence to make up a real word at 11ac!

DA...if you make it over this one, you'll go another notch higher in my estimation.

9026 was truly diabolical. But in the end I only missed out by having N and M the wrong way round in 22ac.

I worked out 11ac, 24ac and 23dn on wordplay alone, I figured out what the float was in 13ac and had no problem with Bach's 19dns having played them on the piano. But I didn't know the currency of one of the world's largest economies. How can that be?

There were four clues in particular that I adored: 5dn, 1dn, 9ac and 16ac.

Did DA make it?

Well 9026 a real challenge and I mucked up the lake, taking a punt on the anagram and of course falling the wrong way. A pretty good puzzle I thought, plenty of unusual words.

It would have been improved, though, had the clue for 13ac indicated the hyphen. That might have saved me from STANDSTILL!

25dn was about as lame as a one legged dog, but yes, there were otherwise some good ones.

It could have been 8 on the trot...

A puzzle with no words unknown? Rare indeed!

DA did not make it, alas.

Stumbled on Friday's Freak Show, despite the aid of coincidence. Let me explain -

As I was driving around the Grampians these last few days, I listened to Classic FM (best signal on the dial) and learnt the word PARTITO. First fluke.

Second fluke. I'm reading Blood River by Tim Butcher, a mad travel book from Lake Tanganyika to the Congo's estuary. Second fluke.

Thirdly, I survived TROCHAIC, IMSHI and BATTUE. Only to punt on RENNIMBI being the currency, and not RENMINBI. I'd wager a word that our globetrotter SK has encountered, but not I.

Clunk. What was that? Oh, my leg bail. I'm out for 50. Hangdog slouch back to the pavilion.

Oh, DA. What does one say at a time like this? It was a respectable innings - one that mere mortals can only dream of. But that puzzle was determined to bring you down. The cryptic gods had generously sent some help your way via radio and travel lit. Maybe there was a third sign - perhaps an article on the strength of the renminbi in the Business section of The Age which you foolishly put straight into the recycling bin. It was a mean clue. One of those times when an anagram is definitely not your friend.

Hopefully you've managed to dust yourself off and make a solid restart with the unremarkable 9027. I found little to challenge me in this one, except for my last fill, 6dn. It took me a while to discover the definition.

Yes, 9027 a bit of a breeze compared to the horrid 9026. Thought 1D was OK. Hmm, if only I'd thought to put 14A or 25A on the cliche thread...

Hmm, hearing about 9027 - being 'unremarkable' and a tad clichéd - I think I'll take a rain check and open my new innings today, with Number 9028. Watch for a designated post this arvo.

You don't have to justify listening to ABC fm. Not only is it informative, it has great interviews.