What a mixed bag of easy and dastardly from DA today. A few new words and phrases for me to chew over. I peeked into the D.A. Trippers but they were pretty quiet today and many comments about how easy this puzzle was - not for me! One person mentioned it only them 28 minutes to finish. For me it was six hours. It may have been faster if I'd paid closer attention to the down clues and noticed many of them are read backwards to make sense.
Here's my pic, please ignore the dinner smears of pizza and drink, I'm a slaister:
1A - Social movement on Webmail's a lapsed fashion (6,3)
"Social movement" is our definition and "on webmail's, A lapsed" means to remove the letter A from the word "webm(-a)il" leaving "ON WEBMIL'S fashion" as our fodder and anagrind which makes WOMEN'S LIB.
6A - Bizarrely know a party leader suppressed November report (5)
"Report" is our definition and this one was tricky. "KNOW A party" is fodder and anagrind but those letters weren't working so I started again. Trying "bizarrely KNOW A" plus "Party leader" = P and "suppressed November" says we want the letter P from Party and we need to ditch the Letter N from "K(-n)OW" making our new fodder KOWAP which becomes KAPOW!
9A - 59 shredded sheets? (5)
"Sheets" is our definition and this is a quick and sweet clue. Break up 59 in to "50" = L and "9 shredded" = NINE mixed up to make LINEN.
10A - A few light crackers in a bid to end war (5,4)
"A bid to end war" is our definition and "A FEW LIGHT crackers" is fodder and anagrind to create WHITE FLAG.
11A - Summer rhetoric stirred one, though tons left 40 out (3,6,3,3)
I got this with cross letters and definition "Summer rhetoric." I see "stirred ONE THOUGH" is partial fodder but I don't know how "tons left 40 out" works to give us the quote "HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?"
Ah! Thank you Celia Fate for clueing me in; we spell out FORTY OUT and remove the "Tons left" = TT which gives us the correct fodder. Also didn't help I kept making "though" into "through."
12A - Pay for carbon-free spot on pavement (8)
I got this with cross letters and the definition "pavement" but my first thought was sidewalk or something like bitumen. To "pay for" something is to FOOT the bill and "Carbon-free spot" = PATCH -C to make a FOOTPATH.
13A - Calm a kid (2,4)
This is a double definition and I found it much easier to get if we remove the "A" and then we can get AT EASE and A TEASE. I do see the A is necessary for the "A tease" bit as "kid" could just be tease on its own.
16A - Present model occupying unit (2-4)
"Present" is our definition and often "model" = T for the classic car and that letter will be "occupying unit" = ONE but then that doesn't quite work as "unit" would have to become ONSIE. So I think this time "model" = SIT as in to sit for a portrait and "unit" = ONE to make ON-(SIT)E.
18A - For drink of it, I repaid round in part (8)
"Drink" is our definition and looking for signposts we see "round, in part" as two signposts, first is a reversal the second tells us there's a hidden word and look within "oF IT I REPAd" to see APERITIF.
21A - Pole star flaunted her charms, at first removing raunchy top (6,9)
"Pole star" is our definition and having a friend who's a pole dancer sent me in the wrong direction temporarily. Very wrong direction. This is simple, thankfully, for a 15 letter clue as "flaunted HER CHARMS AT FI(-r)ST - removing Raunchy top" gives us our anagrind (flaunted), fodder and an instruction to remove an R from that mix. Scramble the rest to get the North Pole resident FATHER CHRISTMAS. This was interesting as I had tried to fit "christmas" into 2D but that was not working at all so I'd doubted this was right. Now wondering if I'd had some subconscious solve going on.
24A - Aussie birds enter absolute Aussie 'carroboree' (3,6)
This is a mean clue to put upon us foreigners. Worse as Dictionary.com spelled the last word Corroboree. That made me think the quotes and misspelling were important - I'm still not sure. Was that done to make me think Ocker accents? Are we Bogan shaming? After a few cross letters I put in something that sounded German to me but fit the clue. "Aussie birds" = EMUS and they "enter" a word for "absolute" = UTTER (DA's used this before) to make UT(E MUS)TER, which I was saying as "Yoota Myooster" (I don't know German, that's probably Swedish as I do speak Swedish Chef). After googling Ute Muster I found out it's like a tractor pull/rodeo event but with Utes. Go on, laugh at the Yank.
Side note, have you ever thought about the number of words that exist for low class, common or uneducated people across English speaking countries? Redneck, hick, trailer trash, bumpkin, chav, ned, schemie, bogan, yobbo, derro and on and on. (I don't know any Canadian/NZ ones)
25A - Free sack (3,2)
Thank you for the straight forward double definition after the confusing 24A. LET GO is our answer using "sack" to mean fire from a job.
26A - Keyed up grammar topic (5)
Another double definition; thank you! Keyed up /grammar topic = TENSE.
27A - Her brain calm after detailing of Jewish speech (9)
"Jewish speech" is our definition and here our key signpost is "detailing" meaning to remove the last letter from a word. What took me a long time was that we're to "de-tail" more than one word. "HE(r) BRAI(n) CAL(m) = HEBRAICAL. So it's saying the phrase "her brain calm" will be our answer "after detailing" all the words.
1D - British people close to anguish after overkill (5)
"British people" is our definition and the "close to anguisH" = H as we want the closing letter. This comes after a one-word instruction "over-kill" = SLEW. This took me a while because I wasn't interpreting the "over" part to be a reversal signpost to make WELS(H) I was just looking for something meaning overkill. Not sure if that's right.
2D - Day Stosur turned fiendish (9)
"Fiendish" is our definition and I'd honed in one "Stosur" to mean the tennis player SAM Stosur, and I thought "Day" was a person like Doris Day but that combination left me short of letters and looking for other famous Days. Not until cross letters came in I realised this was "day" = MON for Monday plus "STOSUR turned" as partial fodder and anagrind (not a reversal as I'd tried mixes of MAS or MA( )S etc. even thinking Christmas which can be fiendish in its buying responsibility) to make MON(STROUS)
3D - Review to blast a bread - and the rest (4,3)
"Rest" is our definition and "Review" is a reversal signpost to used on the phrase "blast a bread" to become PAN A NAN as in the Indian flat bread which I spell naan. Reverse that to get a NANA NAP.
4D - Teller's knowledge of exec's trials (8)
"Trials" is our definition and here I'm missing the first part. I know "execs" = SUITS but how does "Teller's knowledge" = LAW to make LAWSUITS? I was thinking bank teller, psychics, Penn and Teller's Teller who is only known as Teller (I adore him), but I've got bupkis.
5D - Curse captain at wits' end (6)
"Curse" is our definition and if I hadn't been playing Dragon Age recently this may have been harder for me. Here the apostrophe is misleading. I tend to follow an "ignore all punctuation" rule when it's in a clue but here it seems so cruelly used to cause confusion. The "captain" we want is BLIGH of "Mutiny On The Bounty" fame and "wiT's end" = T for a BILGH(T) - now you see why that apostrophe was mean? If it had read "wit's end" it would be simpler but no, can't have that. We have to wonder if it's BLIGHS which makes less sense. Even now I'm double checking the solution in the paper in case I'm making an arse of myself. Yes I'm right. Having more confidence in my ability to know a synonym over what a stupid apostrophe is telling me is important.
6D - Eavesdropping legend brood in bar (4,3)
"Bar" is our definition and "eavesdropping" meaning to listen in is being used a homophone signpost here for the word "legend" = KEY as we'd find on a map. "Brood" = POUT to make "KEE"(P OUT)
7D - Pertaining primarily to friend?! (5)
An &lit clue - I'm getting better at recognising clue types. "Pertaining primarily" = P as "primarily" is asking for the first letter. A "friend" = ALLY together to make PALLY. It's very clever and sweet.
8D - Avoid charge with purchase, picking up gourmet meat (5,4)
"Gourmet meat" is our definition and "avoid" = WAG which is Aussie slang for bunk off or play hooky (that's UK and USA versions - see I'm trilingual!) then "charge" = FEE and "purchase" = BUY so "FEE with BUY picking up" in a down clue means to reverse those two words to create WAG(YU B)(EEF)
12D - Corn typically costing a tennis player (4,5)
This is a double definition and a very clever one, too. I got it with a few cross letters in place. Marvel at the thinking of a "corn typically" and "costing a tennis player" are both FOOT FAULTS.
14D - Sort of car routine (9)
Another double definition "sort of car" and "routine" are both AUTOMATIC.
15D - Bro, perhaps, grabs cutter for pork cut (5,3)
"Pork cut" is our definition and "Bro" = SIB as in sibling - very misleading again as "perhaps" is often an anagrind. "Grabs" is a container signpost for "cutter" = PARER to create S(PARE R)IB. I had "short" in there for a while lightly pencilled.
17D - 80's UK band far from being Placebo (3,4)
My first clue in and a gift for Gen Xers who should know the "80's UK band" and true, they are a different music style from the 90's UK band Placebo. Answer is THE CURE and it's a nice play on placebo being a decoy medicine and a cure being an actual remedy and making a comment of their different music styles.
19D - Parrot climbed completely upside-down (7)
"Parrot" is our definition and "climbed" = ROSE and "completely" = ALL that is "upside-down" or reversed to make ROSE(LLA)
20D - Put the lid on whisky (6)
"Whisky" is the definition and I got our answer SCOTCH from that. How we get this from parsing I cannot say.
22D - Vacuous tuition engrossed little sixth-grader (5)
"Sixth-grader" is our sorta-kinda definition we get from "vacuous TuitioN" = TN as "vacuous" means empty, hollow, air-headed so we want to remove the middle letters from the word "tuition". "engrossed little" where "engrossed" is a container signpost and "little" = WEE we then get T(WEE)N. A person of double digits who's not overly childlike but not yet a teenager.
23D - School song leading opening audio (5)
"School" is our definition and "Song leading" = S and "opening audio" where "audio" is a homophone signpost, we want a word for "opening" = HOLE that with an S will make a word for "school" becomes SHOAL.
There we go. A mix of easy and brainache. As always please leave hints and alternate solutions in the comments. I'm always interested to hear how others came to the same answer in different ways. I'm sure everyone's personal experiences influence their solving and want to know how aspects of their own lives trickle into their solutions.
I get a weekend of sweet FA and will be moseying around doing whatever I please. I hope your weekend is just as free and fulfilling.
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