Perhaps the setters are cycling in sync with the bloggers, since I’ve got Moley again. This one seemed just right for a Quiptic, the clues straightforward as they should be and a good variety of devices, and all quite sound give or take a couple of dubious anagram indicators.
Across
1 Speed around US city to find stately home (6)
PALACE
PACE around L.A. (Los Angeles)
4 Extent to which university students have aspirations (6)
DEGREE
Double definition – university students aspire to a DEGREE / Extent = DEGREE
9 Maybe cheaper donation makes no difference (1,4,2,3,5)
A DROP IN THE OCEAN
An anagram (‘maybe’) of CHEAPER DONATION
10 Jacket to take to the cleaners (6)
FLEECE
Double definition – to take someone to the cleaners is to swindle or FLEECE them
11 Almost turn to new crime to get curry ingredient (8)
TURMERIC
TUR (almost TURN) plus an anagram (‘new’) of CRIME
12 Very French: licence for wrongdoing (8)
TRESPASS
TRÈS (‘very’, in French) PASS (a licence)
14 Picked replacement piano for wife: it’s not good (6)
WICKED
PICKED with the replacement of P (musical abbreviation of ‘piano’, quiet) by W (wife). I would call this a replacement of ‘wife for piano’ rather than the other way round, but it takes all sorts.
15 Cupid’s heart and soul? (6)
PSYCHE
Double definition: PSYCHE was the love (‘heart’) of Cupid, and your psyche is your soul (more or less)
18 Notes rewritten about rare elk’s frame (8)
SKELETON
Anagram (‘rewritten’) of NOTES around an anagram (‘rare’) of ELK
21 Pull handle on time (8)
LEVERAGE
Handle = LEVER, time = AGE. Leverage is ‘pull’, as in ‘He has some pull’.
22 Computer nerd and he’s hopeless at golf (6)
HACKER
Double definition – a HACKER is an inept golfer.
24 It’s not essential entertainment (10,5)
INCIDENTAL MUSIC
If it’s incidental, it can’t be essential, can it?
25 Most wise old men are on the square (6)
SAGEST
SAGES (‘old men’) on T (square, as in T-square). The definition is ‘most wise’.
26 Peacekeepers gulp, going back to disconnect the power (6)
UNPLUG
UN (the United Nations, in their role as peacekeepers) plus GULP backwards (‘going back’)
Down
1 Poor leper without minister or dealer (7)
PEDDLER
Anagram (‘poor’) of LEPER, outside (‘without’) D.D., a doctor of divinity or ‘minister’
2 Oslo tour direction’s not fixed (5)
LOOSE
Anagram (‘tour’) of OSLO, plus E (East, a direction)
3 Fanciful image of sweet sound artist (7)
CHIMERA
CHIME (sweet sound) R.A. (an artist who is a member of the Royal Academy)
5 Forehead, I said at first, or another feature (7)
EYEBROW
‘I’, if said (i.e. spoken), is the same as EYE. So we have BROW (forehead), with EYE first, giving EYEBROW, another feature
6 Exquisite woman in a kind of crèche (9)
RECHERCHE
HER (woman) in an anagram (‘kind of’) of CRECHE. ‘Kind of’ is a rather weak anagrind
7 Slippery vase I’ve broken (7)
EVASIVE
Anagram (‘broken’) of VASE I’VE
8 Condition in which thermostat (usually) is set (6)
STATUS
STATUS, or ‘condition’, is hidden in thermoSTAT (USually)
13 Since king changed, the outcome’s revolting (9)
SICKENING
Anagram (‘changed’) of SINCE KING
16 Brown’s in Italian city’s sun (7)
SIENNAS
I suppose the answer is actually SIENNA’S (Brown’s), and is SIENNA (the Italian city, more usually spelt SIENA) plus S (‘sun’).
17 Paints English title on pupil’s satchel, originally (7)
ENAMELS
E (English) NAME (title) L (Learner or ‘pupil’, as in a car L-plates) plus the first letter (‘originally’) of SATCHEL: E-NAME-L-S
18 Flying east after Spanish agreement to rest (6)
SIESTA
Anagram (‘flying’) of EAST after SI, the Spanish word for ‘yes’, giving a type of rest
19 Level, once he adjusted and engaged student (7)
ECHELON
Anagram (‘adjusted’) of ONCE HE, with an included (‘engaged’) L for ‘Learner’, as in 17d.
20 Starting gate (7)
OPENING
Double definition.
23 Unpleasant person has church’s internet address (5)
CHURL
CH (‘church’) plus URL, the internet address of a web page
I was a little unhappy with 16D, which I parsed in the same way as you. I’ve never seen the Italian city spelt with two “N”s, and I feel the possessive form is a bit unsatisfactory for an answer, unless perhaps it’s indicated “with apostrophe” or something after the clue.
I agree with Writinghawk in general, but have reservations about the use of ‘hacker’ to signify a computer ‘nerd’. I would say that, in common usage, hackers are far more malevolent and wording such as ‘computer menace’ would have been more appropriate.
I found 25a a bit dubious – I don’t think you can be a sage without being knowledgable and intelligent, which would mean that “wise” has to do double duty.
George Clements @ 2 – I stumbled on HACKER as well, but I think it’s acceptable. The media tend to use “hacker = DIY programmer” and “hacker = cyber criminal” pretty interchangably, but they are both commonly used (even if the criminal one is the first one most people think of when they hear the term). Interestingly, the online Chambers doesn’t mention the criminal sense at all – for “hacker” it just has “colloq someone skilled in using computers, particularly in programming them.” So much for the “21st Century Dictionary”!
An enjoyable Quiptic with nothing too controversial, except possibly the clues for my last two in, the SIENNAS/SAGEST crossers. The anagram for A DROP IN THE OCEAN was excellent.
Thanks Moley and Writinghawk.
I can’t say that I found this particularly easy – I thought it was more difficult than the Rufus one today.
I didn’t know CHURL although I was familiar with churlish so should have guessed. I don’t see the problem with SIENNAS, which I don’t think needs the apostrophe as the punctuation in the clue can just be ignored. I didn’t much like SAGEST as the ‘old men’ are also wise – it might have been better to clue the SAGE as a herb instead.
This one hit the spot. SIENNAS is a bit clunky, but as Robi says, the ‘rules’ say that you can ignore the punctuation. The A DROP IN THE OCEAN anagram was indeed excellent.
Thanks to S&B.
Personally I don’t think it’s enough to say you can just ignore the punctuation; this is supposed to be the definition, after all. What does BROWNS mean? Is the S just a random letter? Could you use BROWNZWQ as a definition and expect solvers to write in SIENNAZWQ? I think not, so I think we can’t ignore the punctuation and must admit that the definition is a possessive, which isn’t great.
Thanks for the blog, Writinghawk. I have only just done the crossword, so I am rather late to the party.
I think J-Boh is being a little hopeful in expecting an indication of the apostrophe in 16D. By the way:
… bold Iachomo, Sienna’s brother (Cymbeline Act 2 scene 2)
I think the clue is on the weak side, as the color is (I take it) named after the city.
I mainly wonder what the apostrophe is doing in ‘Brown’s’ anyway – the surface would read better without it, and browns seems to me perfectly acceptable for “shades of brown”.