I usually recommend the Monday Indy to anyone who’s getting into the Dark Arts, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this one. If I hadn’t been blogging this, I might have given up and come here for help; but since I’m the one who’s supposed to be giving help, I kept going and have – I think – just about nailed it down apart from one clue where I am lost when it comes to the parsing.
The Monday Indy puzzle is supposed to be ‘the easy one’, but there is no written constitution that confirms that. I’ve blogged a few of Kairos’ puzzles in the IoS, and generally in that slot they have fulfilled the brief of being reasonably accessible. But this one I just found really tricky. The grid was unfriendly to the solver, with very few checked starting letters and effectively four puzzles for the price of one. There were a couple of unusual words. Some of the cluing was rather involved and some of the definitions a bit of a stretch. This would normally suggest a nina, and to begin with I couldn’t see one. However, with a bit of divine intervention, I now see that around the perimeter we have A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL TEST SOLVERS. Nice gesture, but giving regular solvers a difficult Monday puzzle might not be well appreciated everywhere.
There were a couple of clues that engaged me, so as usual I have wittered on a bit.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
8 Accomplish the removal of rights without revolutionary communist
ATTAIN
‘Revolutionary communist’ is usually DER, but beyond that I have absolutely no idea how this works, so help appreciated. In fact, hold your horses: on writing up the blog I decided to see if there was such a word as ATTAINDER. There is. Not quite the kind of word I would expect to have to know for a Monday Indy, but hey ho.
9 Fool describing endless lust in a manner of speaking
IDIOLECT
An insertion of LEC[H] in IDIOT. A word I did know, but I had to check the exact definition: ‘the variety or form of a language used by an individual’ (Collins).
10 Vulgar party game
BASEBALL
A charade of BASE and BALL.
11 Legal reasons for numberless allowances
RATIOS
RATIO[N]S. Ratio decidendi is a legal Latin phrase meaning ‘the reason’. I so knew that. However, since Kairos has chosen to take us into arcane territory, I will point out that the plural would be Rationes decidendi, so I’m not sure that RATIOS really works. A lawyer may tell me otherwise.
12 Ego’s endless turmoil resulting in lethargy
IDLENESS
A charade of I and (ENDLESS)*
13 Disorder revealed by septum bleeding
TUMBLE
Sounds painful. Might not be the first synonym of ‘disorder’ that I’d think of, but Collins has ‘to disturb, rumple or toss around’. Hidden in sepTUM BLEeding.
14 Happy to welcome Basque separatists’ women – I don’t believe you!
GET AWAY!
An insertion of ETA and W in GAY in its original meaning. ‘But the child that is born on the Sabbath day, is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.’
17 Immoral bishop’s high during function
CORRUPT
There is a bit of parsing to do in this puzzle. An insertion of RR for ‘Right Reverend’ or ‘bishop’ and UP for ‘high’ in COT for ‘cotangent’, which is a mathematical ‘function’. The length of the adjacent side of a triangle divided by the length of the opposite side, since you ask. Brilliant surface. Although I’m certain no actual bishop has ever found himself in that situation. They’re all much too pious to do drugs.
20 Flier for Cambridge University describing the origin of time
TOMTIT
Somebody will tell me that ‘for’ and TO are interchangeable, so then that’s followed by an insertion of T for the first letter of ‘time’ in MIT for Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which unlike Fen Polytechnic is based in Cambridge, MA. More importantly, it enables me, for the first time in a long time, to give you the obligatory Pierre bird link. It’s a robin-sized bird and a native of New Zealand. Not much of him, is there? Tomtit is also a shortened version of ‘Tom Titmouse’, which is an old English folk name for the blue tit.
22 Encourages magazine to get rid of old type of paper
EGGSHELL
A charade of EGGS and HELL[O]. For those unfamiliar with Hello!, it is filled with mind-numbingly boring crap about Z-list slebs and Wills ‘n’ Kate. And their inbred baby, whatever it’s called.
25 Football pundit biting the head off listener?
HEARER
Another removal required here: [S]HEARER. This clue is faulty. Alan SHEARER could by no stretch of the imagination be called a ‘football pundit’. Spouting monotonal, monotonous and monochromal platitudes is not punditry. Good grief, I’m grumpy this morning.
26 Lesson of Irish rock group heard to be in hardship
TUTORIAL
U2 is the ‘Irish rock group’ (Bono and his mates). A homophone of that (U TO) in TRIAL gives you your answer.
27 Relative velocity of a Perseid shower
AIRSPEED
(A PERSEID)* with ‘shower’ as the anagrind. Another good surface.
28 A Roman goddess in sacred texts
AVESTA
A charade of A and VESTA for the Roman goddess of hearth and home, whom you’ve more likely heard of from the VESTAL VIRGINS. AVESTA is a collection of the sacred writings of Zoroastrianism.
Down
1 Adopt a noncommittal attitude to burden engulfing trustee
STRADDLE
I assume that this is TR in SADDLE. TR for ‘trustee’ isn’t in any of my dictionaries (and no, I don’t have Chambers). This definition of STRADDLE, ‘to be in favour of both sides of something’ is marked in Collins as US and Canadian informal. I’d certainly never use it in this sense.
2 Flowers in competition provided by yours truly
RACEME
A charade of RACE and ME.
3 Bug – one seen in green soup!
ENRAGE
Kairos is asking you to insert A in (GREEN)* I’m not mad keen on this puzzle, but there are some good surfaces, for sure.
4 6 on a roll collects nothing for player
VIOLIST
Nothing to do with 6dn. It’s VI for the Roman numeral and LIST, with O inserted (‘collects’).
5 After liberation, Fisher rises to give some words
LIBRETTO
A charade of LIB and RETTO, which is a reversal of OTTER, our freshwater mammal who is certainly very good at catching fish. LIB for ‘liberation’? Think WOMEN’S LIB.
6 Merlot I’d decanted into Methuselah?
OLD-TIMER
(MERLOT ID)* with ‘decanted’ as the anagrind.
7 Prime self-contained house on the outskirts of Oakhill
SCHOOL
I guess it’s ‘prime’ in its sense of ‘prepare’. SC for self-contained? Not one I’ve heard of. Then it’s HO, and OL for the outside letters of ‘Oakhill’.
15 One may contribute coyly to a four-letter word
ASTERISK
Well, strictly it would need four of them to make that particular ****ing contribution; but I think we know where the setter is coming from.
16 Advocate attending unfashionable game in America
ATTORNEY
A charade of AT and TO[U]RNEY. TOURNEY for me is a medieval joust; but someone will tell me that it’s American English as well. The removal of the U refers to U and NON-U.
18 Allot OAP accommodation in Californian city
PALO ALTO
(ALLOT OAP)* ‘Accommodation’ can mean ‘arrangement’. ‘We can come to an accommodation/arrangement.’ So it’s fine as an anagrind.
19 Key involved in opening up protective cover
TESTUDO
Since it’s a down clue, you need to insert the key that has two sharps in its signature in OUTSET for ‘opening’, and then reverse (‘up’) all that.
21 Oilmen regularly discover short form of hydrocarbon
OLEFIN
A charade of OLE for the odd letters of OiLmEn and FIN[D]. An OLEFIN is indeed a hydrocarbon, and is the petrochemical industry’s usual name for an alkene, so the surface is apposite. The most basic ones are ethylene and propylene (nowadays, more strictly, ethene and propene). If you polymerise them and break the double bonds to form long chains, a polymer, you have polyethylene (polythene) and polypropylene. The former is used to produce plastic bags and the latter is used to make those containers you brought home from your last Tupperware party.
23 Those present get a bit of upside-down cake
GATEAU
A charade of GATE, A and U for the first letter of ‘upside-down’.
24 Old comic‘s tip on film
HORNET
A charade of HORN for ‘tip’ and ET for the setters’ favourite film. The Hornet was a British boys’ comic in the 1960s published by D C Thompson.
Many thanks to Kairos for today’s puzzle.
Wow! That was difficult for me. I had to look up 9ac, 21d and 28ac to make sure they were words. My Latin helped with 19d and 28ac. Guessed ATTAIN must be 1ac but not why. LOI 24d but never heard of the comic.
Not one for the faint-hearted!
Gosh, that was tricky largely caused by the Nina methinks.
Gloriously grumpy blog Pierre 🙂
You could grump for England Pierre. Nonpareil thou art.
I took to and for to be interchangeable in the sense that itemised invoices begin each line with ‘to’. Could be wrong.
B (asterisks) difficult.
Thanks S&B
Well, I think you’ve every reason to be grumpy – but at least you made me smile. 😉
You’re quite right about RATIOS [I’m not a lawyer, but …] and that’s not the only instance where Kairos seems to have gone for the most obscure definition: I know EGGSHELL as a type of paint, not paper, and I don’t know STRADDLE in that sense, either.
I did know ATTAINDER, from my A Level History. A Bill of Attainder was used to execute Archbishop Laud and Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford but, as you say, you wouldn’t really expect to find it in a Monday puzzle.
Thanks for the blog – and Kairos for the puzzle.
SC is of course well known as the “self-contained” in Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, but I don’t know that I’ve seen it in isolation. I agree this was more challenging than usual for a Monday, but all attainable — but then, I am an American lawyer. I got TESTUDO from the definition but was at a loss to parse it, so thank you for that in particular, and thanks to Kairos.
I forgot to say that SC is often seen in advertisements for self-contained flats.
Good morning, Ian SW3. Since you’ve outed yourself, do you want to talk us through RATIOS? Correct or not?
This seems to have been composed for fans of “smooth surfaces” rather than solvers. Plenty ti grump about but enough good stuff to make it enjoyable. I’m still in a good mood from the race yesterday so I’ll enjoy most things.
Ratio is given as an abbreviation in the OED so I don’t see why it can’t be pluralised.
Pierre @7, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen ratio decidendi pluralised, as it is conceptually singular. I suspect Kairos merely took ratio as a legal term for reason and rendered it in the plural as we do in English with the other common meaning of ratio. I have to say I didn’t ponder too long in solving it.
I agree that this was more difficult than Monday puzzles usually are, but I got there in the end. I’d say it was a good mental challenge rather than fun, and I won’t list my quibbles because Pierre covered them all. I had the most trouble in the SW and ended with TOMTIT after ASTERISK.
I forgot to say that the final two only fell into place when I saw the nina.
Just got back and had time to read all your blog through, Pierre. Superb job!
Btw I took ‘straddle’ to be similar to ‘sitting on the fence’. So didn’t bother to look it up.
Footnote on straddle. It used to be said, during the days of Robert Runcie, that the staff of Lambeth Palace were woken up daily by the sound of the archbishop nailing his colours to the fence.
I was doing this on a train journey from Germany (including a delayed Eurostar) and no wi-fi, but I did complete it without aids. However, several times I entered guesses and then used the check button, and I found being told which letters were actually right in my guesses were helpful.
I finally got 8ac but couldn’t parse it, even though I knew the word “attainder”. Thanks for that explanation.
We started this very late (as usual) and solved only one clue before we gave up as we couldn’t keep our eyes open! Nothing to do with the puzzle we hasten to add!
Woke up early this morning and finished it but only thanks to the nina. Definitely a difficult Monday solve so no wonder Kairos was thanking his test solvers. Some lovely surfaces to enjoy though! Thanks Kairos.
Thanks also to Pierre for the amusing blog as well as the parsing for 8ac. Thankfully, we had the option of coming here for help!
Many thanks to Pierre for his blog – I enjoy a good grouch but I will not be grumpy! I set out to make this one trickier with the NINA available to provide potential checkers but apologies to those who were hoping for a gentler start to the week! The day on which puzzles appear is in the gift of the editor not the setter.
A few comments:
“For/To” can be used interchangeably as in “Are to going to/for lunch”, etc.
As a lawyer, I can say with some certainty that “ratios” is used as the anglicised plural of the Latin. “The ratios in these two cases cannot be reconciled.”
Given the regularity of Alan Shearer’s appearance on TV at the moment, it is not unfair to describe him as a pundit, even if you don’t agree with what he says!
Our test solvers are a wonderful bunch of people whose work in the vetting the setting of the daily cryptic crosswords often goes unacknowledged. Many thanks to all of them and particularly in my case to Sue and Gary for their unfailing enthusiasm when a new puzzle arrives to be test solved.
An absolute waste of time & ink, why publish these type of puzzles when only a small number of elite solvers can get anywhere near completing them. I chunter on with the hope of the 2018 editorial staff of the “i” will get the message and publish crosswords that are suitable to the GENERAL readership. From VM mr disgruntled.
I read the I and loved it. And don’t think I’m an elite solver!
@18 VM: Looks like broadsheet crosswords aren’t really your thing, old bean. Have you tried the Sun puzzle? Definitely no catering for elite solvers there.