ACROSS
8 - Surprising but true to give a false impression of voter into a mess (7,2,2,3) - {BELIE}{VE IT OR NOT*}
9 - Put things in order in a careless way without new points initially (4,2) - {TIDY U(-n)*}{P}
10 - Comes up from behind to catch you unawares (8) - ATTACKER [CD]
11 - Insect on a woman in prison (8) - LADYBIRD [CD]
13 - Vertical measure for one? (6) - HEIGHT [CD]
14 - Escapes to feel hundreds alternately (6) - {E}{L}{U}{D}{E}{S}
16 - Short time managed by the Church of England in a stunned condition (6) - {T}{RAN}{CE}
19 - Defect in the reproductive structure (6) - STIGMA [CD]
21 - Provided the westbound American tightly lipped (8) - {SU<-}{PPLIED*}
23 - I too rest somehow with the slow mover (8) - TORTOISE*
24 - Isolated pal at last on the Spanish end of the bay (6) - {L}{ON}{EL}{Y}
26 - Islander checks the character of the writer (7,7) - CHARLES DICKENS*
DOWN
1 - Bind the round, tangible form dropping an unknown number (8) - {O}{BLIGATE(-n)*}
2 - Drama exercise (4) - PLAY [DD]
3 - Capital city covering the park in the Greek town (6) - DEL{P}HI
4 - Standard way to end a letter (7) - REGARDS [CD]
5 - Garment maker is on the way with a torn chit for the queen (8) - {ST}{ITCH*}{ER}
6 - Very small French performance for one countable every second (10) - {FR}{ACT}{I}{O}{N}{A}{L} For a change I liked this clue
7 - American soldier captures his local carpenter (6) - JOSEPH Anno pending
12 - Minors you name gets around the Rajya Sabha (10) - {YOU}{N}{GSTE*}{RS}
15 - Probes the eleven seamen thoroughly (8) - E{X}AM{I}NES*
17 - See gays left the lens (8) - EYEG{L}ASS*
18 - Comes up when caught in the last bits (7) - {AS}{C}{ENDS}
20 - Oh! try hard to hold the copper medal (6) - TRO{P}HY* 'Hard' - anagrind !!
22 - Poll endlessly for one caught by the English force (6) - {POL(-l)}{I}{C}{E}
25 - Name the point to measure the plant (4) - {N}{E}{EM}
As you know an American soldier is known as GI Joe.
ReplyDeleteJoe is short for Joseph. How a soldier came to be known as Joe I don't know but Joe is prob. taken as a common name like, say, Rama in illustratice sentences that we give.
The name of the Saint Joseph is from a Greek word that is taken to mean 'carpenter'.
All these nuggets are behind that clue - on which I have no comment.
There is no doubt on the JOE part of the clue. where do the rest of the elements SPH come from
ReplyDelete11 - Insect on a woman in prison (8) - LADYBIRD
ReplyDeleteHow does the anno work? Woman = LADY, but Prison? Maybe NJ had Jailbird in mind, but it still does not add up. How is it a CD?
7 - American soldier captures his local carpenter (6) - JOSEPH,
For all you know this was meant to be a DD clue [not in the exact sense DD clues are]. Joseph, father of Jesus Christ was a carpenter and NJ would have expected us to extrapolate from GI Joe to JOE to JOSEPH!
Bird also means prison in slang.
ReplyDeleteBird could mean 'time', the period one is sentenced, OR the prsison itself.
Cockneys use rhyming slang to denote some terms. If they say 'bird-lime' they mean 'time', taht is, prison.
In due course 'bird' itself came to mean prison.
Just a piece of info w/o any comment on the clue itself.