Guardian 25163 Chifonie – Light & Easy
Posted by Uncle Yap on November 9th, 2010
After a string of masterly and challenging puzzles, today I had a very light sentence, very much like chiffon, light and easy. Should be a breeze for most regulars here.
ACROSS
1,5 LETTER OF CREDIT Cha of LETTER (of properties, a landlord) OF CREDIT (deserving)
9 AILMENTS Ins of MEN in *(tails)
10 KOPECK KO (knock-out) Gregory PECK (film star) for a Russian coin
12 HAIKU Acrostic (first letters)
13 ELEVATION Ins of EV (English victory) in ELATION (joy)
14 MATTER OF FACT MATTER (material) OFF (rotten as in food) ACT (play)
18 GO BY THE BOARD dd (to go over the side of a ship; to be discarded or ignored; to meet disaster … Chambers)
21 ENTERITIS *(interest I)
23 SPILL S (son) PILL (medication)
24 ITALIC I (one) + ins of I (iodine) in TALC (talcum powder, toiletry)
25 ROUGHAGE Ins of HAG (old woman) in ROUGE (cosmetic)
26 GUTTER G (golf) UTTER (say) Tuck away in Chambers are vi (of a candle) to run down in a stream or channel of drops; (of a flame) to be blown downwards, or threaten to go out; to become hollowed; to trickle or stream. I must admit I did not know this definition until now.
27 HEATHENS HEAT (cook) HENS (fowl)
DOWN
1 LOATHE Ins of OATH (promise) in LE (French definite article)
2 TALLIN TALL (lofty) IN (popular) Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. A form Tallin deriving from the Romanization of Russian spelling of the name was also used internationally during the era Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union.
3 EXECUTANT EX (former) E (first letter of employer) CUT (axed) ANT (worker)
4 ON THE STREETS *(honest setter)
6 RIOJA RIO (Rio de Janeiro, commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil) JA (German for yes) for a Spanish table wine
7 DIES IRAE DIES (passes on) + ins of A (Academy) in IRE (fury) the day of judgement (from a Latin hymn); the hymn itself, used in the Mass for the dead.
8 TAKE NOTE TAKEN (suffered) *(toe)
11 HEART OF STONE *(to one’s father)
15 FORESIGHT Ins of ORES (minerals) in FIGHT (battle)
16 AGREEING Ins of RE (Royal Engineer, soldier) in AGEING (growing old)
17 ABSTRACT AB’S (sailor’s from AB = able-bodied (seaman) TRACT (essay or disquisition)
19 TIRADE Ins of I (one) in TRADE *(traffic)
20 PLIERS Ins of L (left) in PIERS (supports)
22 RAISE (P) raise is approval
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
November 9th, 2010 at 2:04 am
Thanks, Uncle Yap: a nice offering from an “honest setter” indeed. I like your delving into the meanings of “gutter”, but since when did “G” represent “golf”?
November 9th, 2010 at 2:26 am
Golf is g in the Nato Alphabet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICAO_spelling_alphabet Often referenced in clues.
November 9th, 2010 at 6:53 am
Many thanks Uncle Yap this was another gentle stroll.
However, I’d never heard of DIES IRAE which sounds suspiciously like a 15th Century hymn and probably Latin, too. Wherevever did Chifonie find that?
November 9th, 2010 at 8:12 am
Thanks UY,
Agree with comments so far although unlike Bryan I was familiar with Dies Irae from various classical requiems and don’t think it is that obscure. Gutter on the other hand……
November 9th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Thanks Uncle Yap. As Dad’sLad says, the Dies Irae is pretty well known as part of the requiem mass, Verdi’s setting of it being a famous and spectacular example. On a less highbrow note, I knew GUTTER from the song “Memory” from the musical “Cats”:
Every street lamp seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters, the street lamp gutters
And soon it will be morning.
(words by Trevor Nunn, the rest of the “Cats” lyrics being by T S Eliot)
November 9th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Thank you, Uncle Yap – entertaining blog as always.
Enjoyed this one, with only a few clues holding me up for long. I thought HEART OF STONE and MATTER OF FACT were both clever. I raised an eyebrow when I solved TIRADE, because I always thought ‘harangue’ could only be a verb, but it’s also a noun, I discovered.
I knew GUTTER, but only from crosswords, I think. I’ll take us highbrow again with a quote I found:
‘The porter halted on the stairs to settle his guttering candle.’ (James Joyce, Dubliners – The Dead)
November 9th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Thanks Uncle Yap and Chifonie
Pretty straightforward on the whole. The odd nice anagram and surface.
The only puzzle, and last to go in, was gutter which I vaguely knew. I had thought of it as onomatopoeic (like splutter) but I wonder if there may be something more technically descriptive of the process involved when a candle burns downwards.
The link to golf was unclear.
I suspect G + utter is right. I knew old golfballs were made of gutta-percha and Chambers in fact gives ‘gutta’ as the word for such a ball so I stopped there. Possible then but perhaps that bit less likely.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Ps
OED seems to support the idea of candle guttering’s involving the formation of a channel or channels. It also gives gutta (and gutty) as a standard word in older golf literature for a gutta-percha ball.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Thanks to Uncle Yap & Chifonie.
Failed on one clue i.e. Gutter. Otherwise a puzzle I rather liked with two clever surfaces.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Thanks Uncle Yap for an entertaining blog. While this was at the lightweight end of the scale I found it very enjoyable. A wide range of clue types, varied references and amusing surfaces.
I was familiar with GUTTER and DIES IRAE so had no real holdups. Last in was PLlERS but only because I finished in that quadrant. I seem to be convincing myself that it was a mere trifle but I found it a tasty morsel.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Thanks, UY, needed you to explain 3d and to supply 20d PLIERS which I just couldn’t get for some reason; so obvious now.
7d I knew, but only since yesterday, since it appeared in the BBC4 program “Only Connect”.
For 26a, I was toying with GATHER for a while – as in gathering storm clouds.
November 9th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Thanks for the blog Uncle Yap. This was really quite easy, with another version of an old chestnut at 6dn.
Bryan, you may recognise the music of this famous Dies Irae:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDFFHaz9GsY
(I went to hear it performed last week!)
I was toying with ‘gather’ for 26ac, too, until I realised that ‘threaten to go out’ was the definition, not simply ‘threaten’. I probably read too much historical fiction, but I’m very familiar with ‘guttering candles’
November 9th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Thanks Uncle Yap and Chifonie.
That’s the second day in a row I’ve learnt an unusual meaning for a very common word – yesterday, it was ‘cat’ in the quiptic.
November 9th, 2010 at 11:40 am
7d seems likely to be mainly accessible to a relatively small constituency of sacred music lovers and/or older Catholics, or those like myself with some knowledge of Latin.
Although ‘dies irae’ is often translated as ‘day of judgment’ it literally means ‘day of wrath’ (cf Eng. ‘ire’). Its role in Catholic liturgy was seriously curtailed in 1969-70 reforms when there was an attempt to move away from medieval ‘negative spirituality’. cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_Irae
November 9th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Why is it that whenever I am struggling with a puzzle, I seem to be surrounded by people. This one I romped as fast as I could write and no one was there to say how clever I must be.
Is this a mere demonstration of a cruciverbalist’s version of Murphy’s Law, I wonder? Who’s law, do you suppose?
Answers on a postcard please.
November 9th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
William, you could always print off another pdf version of the crossword and solve it even faster in front of your mates tonight. I won’t tell if you do.
November 9th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Very nice puzzle, I liked 14ac a lot.
For me, GUTTER is familiar from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ wonderful “Straight To You”:
The light in our window is fading / and the candle gutters on the ledge / well now sorrow, it comes a-stealing…
Everyone here seems to know it from a different source!
Never heard GO BY THE BOARD either but guessed from the checking letters.
November 9th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
To William and K’s D @ 15, 16 – why stop there? Print out last week’s Pasquale monster again and impress ‘em even more.
November 9th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
William:
The law you refer to (which states that you can get through lots of it in a short time when you’re on your own, but in company you can hardly start it) is Cole’s Law.
November 9th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to fail to get to “GUTTER”!
November 9th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
If you liked this one, try the puzzle by Chifonie’s alter ego Armonie in the FT today – it’s at a similar level of difficulty.
http://www.ft.com/arts/crossword
November 9th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Re Gutter-
Not as cool as joeplus’s reference (17 above), but it also features in “Memory” from the less than wonderful Cats (words by T.S.Eliot, mind you):”Someone mutters and a street lamp gutters / And soon it will be morning…”
November 9th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Thanks Uncle Yap for the blog. GUTTER was new to me also. I knew DIES IRAE from US Crosswords where it is in common usage because of the letter combination.
Cheers…
November 9th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Had trouble with GUTTER too! Quite annoyes as well, I thought I was on for a record solving time. Bit odd to find something like that in an otherwise pretty straight puzzle!
November 9th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Anyone notice the coincidence between a couple of comments here – Andrew@5 and Thomas@22 – and today’s great Indy?
November 9th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
This comes to you from The Queen Elizabeth as she wends her way across the Bay of Biscay at a blistering 12 Knots because of heavy weather. Chiffiknickers has provided a nice, gentle start to our cruise, with only a couple of very small bones to pick. I always thought (being Godless) that I was a HEATHEN, but now, it seems, I am a SAVAGE as well. And I don`t really think TAKEN=SUFFERED…it would have to be qualified by ILL, wouldn`t it?
However, small bones in a big world. We and our fellow Slver-Tops are bouncing off the floor and walls at the moment, so I will sign off.
November 9th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Stella – thanks for the tip about the Indy puzzle. I don’t usually do them because I don’t like the interactive-only interface, but this one was good fun, especially with the coincidental connection…
November 9th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Carrots at no 26, I’m jealous. I can only offer you the following: if because of the stormy weather you are bouncing off the walls and ceilings at the minute, then you might have TAKEN a blow to the head, or you might have SUFFERED a blow to the head.
Bon voyage!
November 9th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I enjoyed this. I liked ‘gutter’ and knew the term, but perhaps it only sprang to mind because it was mentioned by Tim Wonnacott on Bargain Hunt when he was describing some candlesticks!
November 9th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Thanks Uncle Yap,
An enjoyable puzzle from Chifonie today with a good set of well-structured clues of which HEART OF STONE was a great answer to a marvellous surface. GUTTER was the last to go in although it was just a guess and I didn’t appreciate the candle aspect. I was thinking of gutter as a synonym for bunker. I’d never heard of DIES IRAE but it fitted the wordplay perfectly so I just wrote it in and couldn’t be bothered checking. Thanks Chifonie.
Today’s was a breeze after having a titanic struggle with Saturday’s Paul and still one to get. Can’t wait to see rightback’s solve time this coming Saturday.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Hi Uncle Yap et al
According to my Guardian hard copy this is puzzle number 25,163! (not25,157)
November 9th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
K’sD @16 & Tokyocolin @18…Thank you, but I couldn’t, I simply couldn’t.
Noel @19, thank you for the suggestion, but isn’t Cole’s Law a chopped vegetable salad in mayonnaise?
November 10th, 2010 at 12:43 am
tupu @ 31, today’s deliberate error well spotted
When I blog, I use a template in my mail program and overlooked changing last Tuesday’s number to this Tuesday.
Now amended so that future searches will yield the correct result. Thanks, tupu.
November 11th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
I enjoyed this puzzle, mostly straightforward, with a few unusual words. I ended up completely foxed by three: 19d – simply couldn’t think of the correct synonym for ‘traffic’ even though the relevant meaning crossed my mind; 24a – very nice definition; and 26a – I know of ‘to gutter’ of a flame, but never considered ‘threaten to go out’ as the definition – I was stuck on ‘threaten’ as the definition. However, all three clues were perfectly fair and I only have myself to blame.
Tupu: ’7d seems likely to be mainly accessible to a relatively small constituency of sacred music lovers and/or older Catholics, or those like myself with some knowledge of Latin.’
I think it’s familiar to people who enjoy classical music in general: as someone pointed out about, it is part of the requiem mass, and some Requiems, e.g. Verdi’s, are frequently performed in the secular (concert) as well as sacred (church) setting. Also widely available on CD. I know the term, and I’m in none of the categories you list above.