Guardian Cryptic N° 26,153 by Arachne

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26153.

Arachne in fine form, including one clue (18D) that beats me.

Across
1. Advancing or retreating, it is in bad odour (8)
POSITING An envelope (‘in’) of SITI, a reversal (‘retreating’) of ‘it is’ in PONG (‘bad odour’).
5. Prince in the East End is full of posh charm (6)
AMULET An envelope of U (‘posh’) in ‘AMLET (‘prince’ of Denmark, dropping the aspirate ‘in the East End’).
9. Solver’s touching acceptance of challenge (5,2)
YOU’RE ON A charade of YOU’RE (‘solver’s’) plus ON (‘touching’).
10. Tipped hat to a lady, causing a problem (7)
DILEMMA A charade of DIL, a reversal (‘tipped’) of LID (tile, ‘hat’) plus EMMA (‘a lady’).
11,23. So are these! (5,7)
PRIME NUMBERS … such as 11, 23, 5 and 7. Very clever.
12. Overuses a hot tumble drier (4,5)
OAST HOUSE A charare of O (‘over’) plus ASTHOUSE, an anagram (‘tumble’) of ‘uses a hot’.
13. Capes, which are exactly the same (6,6)
CARBON COPIES A charade of CARBON (the clue’s initial ‘C’, chemical symbol) plus COPIES (‘apes’).
17. Normal 19 (6-6)
TWENTY-TWENTY !9 is SCORES, and TWENTY-TWENTY is ‘normal’ vision.
20. They say Anglicans are articulate(9)
PRONOUNCE A charade of PRONOUN (‘they, say’) plus CE (‘Anglican’).
22. Central elements of witches’ flawed moral system (5)
ETHIC An anagram (‘flawed’) of ITCHE, the ‘central elements’ of ‘[w]ITCHE[s]’.
23. See 11
– See 11
24. Dog–soldier (7)
TERRIER Double definition.
25. Bird is ready to use, without stuffing (6)
TURKEY A subtraction: TUR[n]KEY (‘ready to use’) without its middle letter (‘stuffing’).
26. Newspaper boss resisted changes (8)
EDITRESS An anagram (‘changes’) of ‘resisted’.
…
Down
1. Stylish Korean works in propaganda (6)
PSYOPS A charade of PSY (‘stylish Korean’) plus OPS (‘works’). This harks back to a Paul crossword of a while ago (26,106 of November 15 last) which introduced me to the video “Gangnam style”, by the Korean rapper Park Jae-sang, whose stage name is Psy.
2. Jordan’s neighbours endlessly saw exhibitionist, stripped (6)
SAUDIS A charade of SA (‘endlessly sa[w]’) plus [n]UDIS[t] (‘exhibitionist’) without its outer letters (‘stripped’).
3. Tense males demand (and get) it (3,3,3)
THE SEX ACT A charade of T (‘tense’) plus HES (‘males’) plus EXACT (‘demand’).
4. Mob cannot brawl with workers who don’t fight (3-10)
NON-COMBATANTS A charade of NONCOMBAT, an anagram (‘brawl’) of ‘mob cannot’ plus ANTS (‘workers’).
6. Push hand into a load of manure? (5)
MULCH An envelope (‘push … into’) of L (left ‘hand’) in MUCH (‘a load’).
7. Perhaps steer contract car? (8)
LIMOUSIN A subtraction: LIMOUSIN[e] (‘car’) cut short (‘contract’), for a breed of cattle (‘perhaps steer’).
8. Cross note about partygoers (8)
TRAVERSE An envelope (‘about’) of RAVERS (‘partygoers’) in TE (‘note’ of solfège).
10. Involved in edits, was still impartial (13)
DISINTERESTED A charade of DISINTE, an anagram (‘involved’) of ‘in edits’ plus RESTED (‘was still’).
14. May perhaps head off, having upset tart in a row (2,3,4)
ON THE TROT A charade of [m]ONTH (‘May perhaps’) without its first letter (‘head off’) plus ETROT, a reversal (‘upset’) of TORTE (‘tart’).
15. Nepotist’s dubious career (4,2,2)
STEP ON IT An anagram (‘dubious’) of ‘nepotist’.
16. Concerning ex-Liberal (8)
REFORMER A charade of RE (‘concerning’) plus FORMER (‘ex’).
18. Variety of whisky Jock downed neat? (6)
CHOICE I need help here: O ICE is ‘neat’, but I cannot place the CH.
19. Son takes heart from grades (6)
SCORES A charade of S (‘son’) plus CORES (‘takes heart’).
21. Orders leader to engage with huge corporation (5)
OBESE A charade of OBES (‘orders’ of the British Empire) plus E (‘leader to Engage’).

51 comments on “Guardian Cryptic N° 26,153 by Arachne”

  1. Thanks PeterO and Arachne,

    I needed your explanation for the first 3 letters of PSYOPS.

    Re 18d:

    (scot)CH plus O ICE

    PRIME NUMBERS, TWENTY-TWENTY and CARBON COPIES all very nice.

  2. Thanks Peter. This setter is brilliant but sometimes OTT. I got 25a but am unhappy with turnkey=ready to use. In desperation I switched from CHOICE to ‘chaise’ which is a synonym for whisky meaning gig – but obviously couldn’t parse it. What role does CH play in that clue? Full marks for 11,23, and for 1D which took a while to dredge up, gangnam-style.

  3. Re 3dn

    A simple question: In what context would we use “Hes” for males?

    Would it be in a list of persons classified by gender?: Hes – Shes

    Should I opt for this, I think I will have the heads as He’s – She’s (on the analogy of p’s and q’s or i’s and t’s, for that matter)

  4. Brilliant puzzle as usual from this fine setter.

    @Rishi #3

    Most dictionaries give “he” as a noun as well as a pronoun.

    Eg “my cat had three kittens – two hes and a she” should be possible.

    If you don’t buy that just splits MALES into MALE S. This is the G – not überximville.

    I always think an apostrophe would help the reading in things like that, but we’re all so terrified of being labelled ignorant greengrocer’s that we don’t. 🙂

    Thanks for the blog PO.

  6. Rishi @ 3:
    “I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he” – Rainsford in the Putney debates.

    Cannot understand 18 at all

  7. I popped here for clarification of 18D too… a tough clue! But raised a smile when the explanation arrived, which is what counts.

  9. Brilliant Arachne as ever, a joy to solve! (even if I couldn’t parse the nice CHOICE.)

    Thanks PeterO; so many great clues but I particularly enjoyed OAST HOUSE, OBESE, CARBON COPIES and THE SEX ACT (snigger, snigger!)

    I guess DILEMMA is often going to be clued thus. This one close to Gordius’s ‘Raising a hat to a lady could be a problem.’

    Great that I didn’t have to consult Google once about some obscure Greek deity or some such. 🙂

  10. A frisson when I saw that Arachne was the setter today, and the puzzle did not disappoint.
    I had to guess ‘psyops’ as the word was unknown to me, as was the stage name of the Korean rapper, and I even sank to checking that ‘psyops’ was listed in the dictionary before committing to it.
    At 2 & 3 down, Arachne gives an object lesson in how to deal with slightly saucy clues/solutions with wit and taste; to me she is undoubtedly one of the very top setters, and so clever that I just hope I haven’t missed another of her brilliant Ninas today.

  11. Thanks PeterO and Arachne

    Clever and very enjoyable in parts. Defeated by 1d (knew neither the Korean nor the word) and by the parsing of 18d.

  12. 18d continues to baffle. I was looking for n-i-c-e for ‘neat’ . . .?
    maybe OCH for ‘downed Jock’? Perhaps not.
    scot(ch) is Muffyword’s suggestion. So be it, I guess.

    11,23 brilliant, and liked 20: 3 very clever, also.

    Guessed 17 (a ‘w’ and a ‘y’ thus placed) before parsing 19, therefore originally went for ‘vision’. Soon realised not feasible,
    but what’s the connection between ‘scores’ and ‘normal vision’?

  13. Thanks, PeterO.

    Characteristically splendid puzzle from Arachne, full of humour, good surfaces and clever constructions.

    PSYOPS was unfamiliar to me, but the wordplay led inexorably to the answer.

    Favourites, largely for the ingenuity of their constructions combined with smooth surface readings, were CARBON COPIES, PRONOUNCE, TURKEY, THE SEX ACT, ON THE TROT and CHOICE (I was particularly pleased to have been able to parse this last one!)

    Bravissima.

  15. I don’t see how the clue to 18d could work as Muffyword suggested – although Jock gives Scotch, there’s nothing to suggest that only the last two letters were to be used.
    1dn defeated me completely – Korean only gave me Kim, which doesn’t make anything with OPS, so had to cheat on the NW corner,
    umpire46: score=20

  17. Thanks PeterM – never fails to amaze me how I can overlook the most obvious
    while searching for nefarious obscurity that sometimes simply doesn’t exist!

  18. It was clever, but very little came easily to me. Sad to say, I headed for the computer when I ran out of patience after solving about half the clues. Result: rather disappointed – with myself and the setter.

  19. Good job I had a slow day at work today, because this took a long time. I did eventually manage it all apart from PSYOPS – a step too far for this solver (PSY for ‘stylish Korean’? Give me a seventies rock group, s’il te plaît …) Several others I put in on a wing and prayer and guessed right, so thanks to Peter for parsing them.

    My favourites today were CARBON COPIES and PRIME NUMBERS. Overall verdict: tough but good fun.

  21. All good stuff, although defeated by 1d, 3 and 18, which misled me into trailing my memory for varieties of whisky, of which there were too many!

    Thanks to Peter O for the blog, not forgetting Gervase’s contribution.

    One small correction: the underlined definition in 1d should be “propaganda”.

  22. I also meant to say I am with Kathryn’s Dad on Korean rap being a step too far, but please no seventies rock groups!

  23. Not Arachne’s best, I thought. Although there were many good clues, such as 5a, PSY for the tubby (oops, “stylish” Korean) was rather outlandish, and I didn’t go a bundle on the sex act for reasons already mentioned.

    An Arachne wouldn’t be an Arachne without the reverse-sexist clue, the ugly EDITRESS taking up the cudgels on this occasion.

  24. Editress, and other -ess words, are rightly disparaged in the Guardian style guide, but I am sure we can forgive the wonderful spiderwoman. I have the same quibbles about 25 and 18 as others, but with the brilliant NW corner as recompense who cares.

    PSYOPS took some getting. I ran through my extensive knowledge of famous Koreans, North and South, and having exhausted various Kims, Parks and Ban-Ki Moon, there was only one place left to go.

  25. Thanks PeterO and Arachne. Very witty stuff here but still don’t get 18dn, though I am sure the explanations offered here are correct. Neat = O ice? Only a barbarian would put ice in whisky, especially choice whisky. I’ve always thought neat whisky was whisky without water.

  26. I thought this was fairly easy by Arachne’s standards, and as inventive as ever. I liked CARBON COPIES, AMULET and PSYOPS (I would normally side with the dissenters on recent hits but Gangnam Style has become so ubiquitous (even on Radio 4) that PSY was the first stylish Korean that occurred to me). Last in was CHOICE, and I had the CH before I undestood the O ICE part.

    Thanks to Arachne and PeterO

  27. Thanks to Muffyword @1 for the parsing of 18D. The blog had been published for 20 minutes. What kept you? And to Mac Ruaraidh Ghais for the correction to 1D, now done.

    Trailman @24 – You did not mention Lee; with Kim and Park, the family names cover nearly half of all Koreans. The phone book must be very difficult to use.

  28. For those still grappling with 18dn, it’s

    (Whisky =) SCOTCH,
    but with SCOT (= Jock) “downed” (i.e. removed)
    …which gives CH

    I too get excited when the Arachne name comes round again…but it is always a hard struggle – and I don’t know if I will ever spot devices like “Capes”, which are her trademark.

    I do love her though!

  29. Trailman @24: I also winced, but smiled, at EDITRESS. Curiously, the most frequently used -ess word eschewed by the Guardian is ‘actress’, though we shall be hearing plenty of it in the rapidly approaching cinematic awards season. It is perhaps the one example where there is some justification for its use, in that there is a division of labour: male thespians play male characters and females female ones, except for particular dramatic effects. But it is interesting how putatively sexist terminology has decreased markedly during the reign of King Elizabeth II.

  30. cholecyst @25

    You make a nice point about ‘neat’. Ice is more for chilling than dilution.

    On your other point though I can’t agree. All the spirituous liquors we owe to hardy barbarians. Ice comes from more advanced civilization. Some condemn the use of water with whisky but that’s just macho. A well-made hot one is hard to beat. On the rocks manages to suggest both toughness and sophistication.

  32. And ‘propaganda ‘ in 1d, please.

    Kathryn’s Dad @19. Old and French, eh? Beware the wrath of Brendan…

  33. MartinD @31 – according to Wikipedia “A turnkey or a turnkey project (also spelled turn-key) is a type of project that is constructed so that it could be sold to any buyer as a completed product. This is contrasted with build to order, where the constructor builds an item to the buyer’s exact specifications, or when an incomplete product is sold with the assumption that the buyer would complete it.”

  34. MartinD: A ‘turnkey’ project is one in which the contractor completes the job to the point at which the thing is ready to go without any further work or adjustment: the client just has to ‘turn the key’ to start it up.

  40. Martin D @ 32. Old, yes; French, non. Are you talking about Brendan (that one) or Brendan (not that one)?

  41. Kathryn’s Dad @40
    Not that one. See yesterday @21, although I have to say he has been very graceful about my Fogeyism re Racquets.
    I just saw you as a possible ally.

  42. I see now, MartinD. Didn’t do Paul’s puzzle yesterday so wasn’t really following the blog. But I’m absolument with you: RACQUET is the tightly strung implement with a wooden frame with which one plays a stunning backhand down the line to frustrate one’s opponent while wearing Dunlop Green Flash pumps; RACKET is the noise adolescents make outside one’s front door. Don’t know what BNTO is going on about, frankly.

  43. I found this to be another excellent Arachne puzzle. She has definitely become one the setters that I look forward to the most.

    The use of “Jock” for “Scot” is common in my part of the world but it still took me a while to parse 18dn, which was my second to last entry. My LOI was PSYOPS as an educated guess from “propaganda”, but I needed to check afterwards that PSY was indeed a Korean of note. I solved the “Gangnam Style” clue of Paul’s back in November because it was well-clued and I was vaguely aware of it, but I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in finding out who it was by.

  44. K D @42
    Indeed. Ken Rosewall played with a racquet. Maria Sharapova makes a racket. QED.

    ( enough racket, ed. )

  45. Thanks, PeterO.

    Very late to the party today, after a very busy day, but I don’t think I’ve ever not commented on an Arachne puzzle, so, although it’s all been said, I have to add my plaudits for another cracking puzzle.

    Totally mystified by TUR[n]KEY – I’m archaic enough to know it only in its archaic meaning of jailer – but it couldn’t be anything else and I didn’t have time to look it up.

    Brilliant stuff, as ever – huge thanks, Arachne! 🙂

  46. I set a puzzle for a few friends years ago with “Cape” for “Carbon Copy” – quite exciting to have someone of Arachne’s quality arrive at essentially the same clue!

    Great stuff as ever.

  47. Thanks Arachne and PeterO

    As others gave said, a brilliant crossword. Was another who couldn’t extract jock from the whiskey (brave is the man who tried methinks!)

    I had parsed PRONOUNCE as a homophone of PRONOUNS – defining Anglican as English rather than the church – but accept the PRONOUN CE as the better option.

    Last one in was THE SEX ACT which brought a wry smile – was one of the rarer times when I had to construct the answer from the cryptic bits and then try to find the definition – IT, quite cleverly disguised.

  48. Another entertaining puzzle from the Spiderwoman.

    I got there in the end although I failed to parse CARBON COPIES and CHOICE. I was distracted by the irresistible darts on the telly though! (I know I’m a pleb. Hence my acceptance of rackets 😉 )

    Thanks to PeterO and Arachne

  49. Brendan (not that one) says:
    “I was distracted by the irresistible darts on the telly though! (I know I’m a pleb. Hence my acceptance of rackets)”

    ==

    Far from it- game of royals: don’t you recall the prince’s beery attendance at Lakeside a few years back? On second thoughts…

  50. A lovely puzzle, thanks Arachne, and PeterO for the blog.

    No one seems to have mentioned the “theme” of sorts, which aids in cementing 18.

    A run of twos – DILEMMA, CARBON COPY, CHOICE, PRIME NUMBERS and to be gentle and add some love, TWENTY-TWENTY and SCORES.

    17 is both an &lit and a DD, if you accept “normal” as a definition for 20/20. By the way, it’s not “perfect vision”, it’s normal. One’s vision can be better as well as worse.

    At 25, I wonder if turnkey is more of an American bit of jargon? As soon as I saw TURKEY, I had no qualms with it. A business is the best example of its usage – one could buy a “turnkey business” from its current owner, or perhaps one could buy a new McDonald’s franchise, which will be a turnkey operation – the cookie cutter premises built by builders who only do that “product”, ready-to-wear advertising and a generally automatic customer base.

    At 20 I used pencil because I missed the parsing, I was bent on it being PRO “nownce” or some such strange thing that Anglicans might be for.

    At 1D I didn’t worry so much about the Korean once I got PRIME, placing OPS, giving me PSYchological OPerationS = propaganda.

    Thanks again!

    PS, has anybody tried writing out the numbers in the captcha?

  51. I made a mistake with 15d. Ended up with STEP IN TO on a vague argument that someone who benefits from nepotism steps into a job (i.e. a career). Did no one else do the same? This meant I spent hours struggling with the 25a bird. Was so relieved to suddenly see an option allowing TURKEY as a stuffed variant that I ceased to worry about the N in turnkey. As an engineer, I was somewhat surprised at this not being everyday parlance – Gervase (34) sums it up clearly. Like many, failed with CHOICE. Had to cheat on PSYOPS, clearly need to rethink my interpretation of stylish! Loved Prime Numbers and Carbon Copies. As many have said, found this a really enjoyable puzzle with lots of smiles.

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