Friday, the 13th… I have to wake up at an unearthly hour – 5.45 AM to be precise on weekdays, and the first thing I did today was to skim over the headlines. Got strangely depressed, did not really know how to digest the outcome – it could be alright in the end, but on the other hand, it may not be alright. To avoid thinking about something I have no control over I went to the crossword, and was rewarded by an excellent themed offering that happened to be well within my scope. Not only was I able to identify the theme straightaway, but also I happened to be familiar with the theme, and could set about filling the grid without the aid of Ms Google.
Rudyard Kipling was today’s theme.
The highlights show all the Kipling references I could find.
Across
8 Post that supports article probing loud and aggressive speech (8)
Loud and aggressive speech – BLUSTER
Article – A
Post – BALUSTER
9 Something eaten by 26, at first reluctantly imitating another rodent (6)
Had to solve 26ac first, and it was easy to figure out that something eaten by it is NUT
At first indicates to take the first letters of the three succeeding words – Relcutantly, Imitating and Another
NUTRIA is another rodent. I must confess this word was not known to me, but it could clearly be nothing else from the word play, and Google confirmed the rest. This is a NUTRIA
10 A better man than I am, nudging cryptically about 1st April (5,3)
Before even starting to solve this clue, the first thing that came to mind was a line from a poem, by Kipling
You are a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
While I have never read the actual poem in full, characters in P G Wodehouse, of whose profuse output I have read deeply, are constantly quoting this poem.
A brief look at the wordplay confirmed this
An anagram of “NUDGING” (indicated by “cryptically”) about the first of A(pril)
Answer GUNGA DIN.
11 Wife initially trimmed plain bit of sister’s outfit (6)
Wife – W
Initially trimmed plain – I read this as get a word for plain (SIMPLE) and trim it initially – so IMPLE.
Answer WIMPLE, this picture shows an example of it
12 A strange pursuit involved getting soaked more than is normal? (15)
An anagram of “A STRANGE PURSUIT”. Indicated by “involved”
Answer – SUPERSATURATING or getting soaked more than is normal.
15 Theme: books and some poetry by male (5)
Books – OT (The Old Testament is a collection of books, if OT doesn’t fit, one can always try NT for New testament)
Some poetry – having sussed out the theme in a later clue, this could only be one of the most famous poems by Kipling – IF
Male – M
Theme = MOTIF
16 One out of the 2 just starting baked potato (5)
Just starting baked – B – indicating the first letter of this word
Potato – ALOO – looks like this is increasingly appearing in British crosswords as a word for potato, of course Indians are very familiar with this word.
2 down has been solved later on, and BALOO is a well loved character from this book.
20 Me, foolish? OK, with LP mistaken for a book (4,2,5,4)
Me – references the setter of this crossword – PUCK
Then an anagram of ” Foolish OK and LP”
Giving yet another book by our themed author
21 Tastelessly loud and insolent supporters, extremely surly (6)
Supporters – BRAS
Extremely surly – SY – in this case a cryptic instruction to take the extreme letters of the word.
Tastelessly loud and insolent – BRASSY
23 Old PM touring a land, drunk on the road hither? (8)
Old PM – (Theresa) MAY anagrammed along with ALAND
MANDALAY is another well known work of Kipling, although for some reason, it is always associated with the words “The Road to Mandalay”
25 Jazz style shows lack of clarity, with fiddle missing (6)
Lack of clarity – CONFUSION, with fiddle or “CON” missing.
FUSION is a style of Jazz music.
26 English country gent bites tail off rather large rodent (8)
English country gent – SQUIRE
Tail of rather – R (indicating the last letter of the word
Large – L
SQUIRREL is a well known rodent.
I was expecting riki tiki tavi to make an appearance somewhere, but it didn’t.
Down
1 Bland stuff a pub’s cooked — left with little hesitation (7)
Anagram of A PUB along with L for left and UM for a little hesitation
Gives PABULUM – a new word for me, and it means “bland or insipid intellectual matter, entertainment, etc.”
2 Film article dropped by little woman ingesting fluff when cycling? All right (6,4)
Little woman – JO (one of he characters from the book by Louisa May Alcott
Fluff – BUNGLE . Cycling indicates to move a letter around so ot becomes UNGLEB
Knowing the theme, it was easy to think of “THE JUNGLE BOOK” easily the best known work of Kipling familiar to even those who have never heard of him, because the movies. The clue advises us to drop the article “THE”.
Answer – JUNGLE BOOK
3 Sort of poker 10 removed from drawing room? (4)
This is a 4 letter word, and two of them were available, it was easy to deduce the answer because I knew STUD was a kind of poker.
Parsing the clue turned out to be problematic. STUDY is not synonymous with Drawing room, but going with that, removing Y gives me STUD. Not exactly sure how Y relates to 10. Any comments are welcome.
4 Stone from a ring, replaced before the centre’s fallen out (7)
Anagram of “A RING” placed before THE because the centre letter has fallen out
Answer GRANITE for stone.
5 Reply rudely? It’s in shrew’s nature (6,4)
Its in shREWS Nature The word ANSWER is contained backwards in this clue, So ANSWER BACK could mean “Reply rudely”
6 Check if baseball team turned up (4)
A well known baseball team is the METS, which if turned up or reversed gives us STEM for Check.
7 Linesman having a little nap? (7)
Having solved several of the Themed clues already, this one was fairly easy, once the first word that popped into mind for nap was KIP.
A little nap could be KIP LING (like a little duck is a duckling)
And Linesmane could be crosswordese for a poet , as KIPLING certainly wrote more than a few lines in his time.
13 Cooking fish in prison — one with new governor at its head (4-6)
Prison – STIR
Fish – FRY ( as in small fry)
One – I
New – N
Governor at its head – G (indicating the first letter
Cooking = STIR FRYING
14 Cocaine and heroin? Me? I’m a mythical creature (5,5)
Cocaine – one can only guess the slang for this drug is TOOT
Heroin – H
Me? A self referencing again – PUCK is the setter, and it is the name of a FAIRY in the Midsummer Night’s Dream.
TOOTH FAIRY is a mythical creature
17 Quick! Hot spicy food going cold — out of bed! (5,2)
Hot – H
Spicy food CURRY but without the C for cold, which is going
Out of bed – UP
Quick!! Means HURRY UP.
18 Sailor sitting in first class in Taiwan once (7)
Sailor – OS (Ordinary Seaman)
First class could be FORM A
Taiwan was once called FORMOSA.
19 Fish consumed in Belvoir regularly (7)
Belvoir – regularly – B L O R (the odd letters)
Consumed – ATE
Fish – BLOATER
22 Quickly read second novel (4)
Second – S
Novel KIM- another novel by our themed author
Quickly read – SKIM
24 Playing 25? Not if you’ve common sense (4)
The answer to 25 was fusion, but if, is not there, that leaves “uson” Playing is an anagram indicator, so
Common sense = NOUS
cryptathon 