Spectator N0 2621 - Faux By Mr Magoo

[Matakari]

Good morning, Mr Magoo gives us a real teaser this week. The end game promises to be a treat, but I need to crack the mystery of the following clues first and your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

14a Not so sure judge needs latitude to be good (6) : ?AG?C?
26a Weather problem has troubled swimmer (6) : ?O????
37a Muse about answer in a game (6) : ????I?

8d Soldier in amusing ceremony, like ‘death cap’ (9) : ??N????RT
13d Euros converted by France’s law codes (6) : ??ERO?
24d Salad cheers British parliament’s hearts (9) : ?ABR?U???
25d Complaint mentioned bad back (9) : ??AR?????
34d Pedlar accepting shilling for king’s cable (6) : ???SE?

[JJ109]

26a Fog ash (has anagram)
37a Urania = a in a RU reversed
8d Fun GI form
13d Fueros - anagram f euros
25 Diarrhoea (sounds like dire rear)
34d Hawser = hawker change the king to a shilling

[JJ109]

14 Vaguer = valuer (judge) change the L(atitude) to G(ood)

[JJ109]

24d Tabbouleh (salad) = Ta B(ritish) boule (parliament in Ancient Greece) = H(earts)

[Neveracrossword]

JJ, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I (and others ) did?
Matakari, hope the nine answers give you a big kickstart!

[JJ109]

Hi NAC it was a lot better than the recent ones, and I did enjoy it. I got one of the authors and the quote very very early, and that certainly helped with answering the normal clues!

[Neveracrossword]

JJ, that's what I did - worked backwards in places. It was a satisfying one to finish, it all came together very well.

[Matakari]

Many thanks, JJ109 and NACW, I believe I'm led inevitably to the quotation. And I had a good feeling all along about the title, "faux", of the puzzle, right up my alley as the authors happen to be two of my favourites. I'm about to wrap this up now, and really satisfying!

[Neveracrossword]

Matakari, great - and I had to work hard to stop myself from giving you any sort of tip-off re the title and the thematic people!

PS There was a similar... nuance in the EV that you 'parked'...

[Matakari]

By no means a walk in the park, but very pleasing and enjoyable end game, indeed! Happy to have discovered the quotes and the authors without any prompting! For a long time now I’ve been expecting something à la française, but was thinking of titles of some works.

Confirmation and parsing would be appreciated for the following, thank you!

3 Frenchman in republic snubbed ruler (4) EMIR
4 27 judged, raising irritated reaction (5) NEESE
( What is the role of the 27? )

P.S. Hoping tomorrow’s EV will be Matakari-friendly, though !

[Toorak]

M (Frenchman) in eir(e)

E (east) (solution to 27) seen (judged) reversed

[Neveracrossword]

3 Eire would be the republic, snubbed = lose the last letter, Frenchman is the (often used )M, monsieur.

I'm not sure of the other one, sorry.

[Matakari]

Many thanks, NACW and Toorak!

[Cloverjo]

Can I have a hint for 15d please?

Break Republicans’ building? (2,4)
GO ?H?T

[Neveracrossword]

Cloverjo, three letters form the initials often used for the party, followed by a three letter building (you have most of that). The answer means break, break down etc.

[Cloverjo]

Thank you NAC. I’d never heard of that before

[Neveracrossword]

Cloverji, glad I could help. It's in Chambers, I remember having to check!

[wrd456]

Hi everyone :)


7D: Take one into aesthetic curio (6)
R A R _ T _
Can only be rarity. Are we adding '1 / I' to RARTY? Not that I know what RARTY is!

39D: Special charm attributed to the capital of Italy (5)
A R _ M A
Aroma, Roma being the capital of Italy, but I've not been able to confirm 'A' is an acceptable abbreviation of attributed.

Did everyone else use "NOT THE" for 32D, the part of the unclued quotation? I couldn't find a reference for the quote which had part of it as 'not the' - lost in translation, perhaps?

[Neveracrossword]

Wrd... Arty is the 'aesthetic', I is one and R is take, recipe, Latin (in Chambers) R ar i ty.

[Neveracrossword]

Wrd... I went off to check. The first reference I got online included the 'Not the' phrase.

[wrd456]

Ah, thank you Neveracrossword.

I tried searching what I had for the second quotation in full (in speech marks) but the search engines wouldn't return an exact result for this.