Guardian 26,354 by Otterden

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All fairly straightforward today, though I’m not a huge fan of the grid with six 3-letter solutions. Favourite clue was 22dn.

Across
8 PROPOUND Put forward case in favour of keeping sterling (8)
=”Put forward case”. PRO=”in favour of”, plus POUND=”sterling”
9 SORROW Basis for wholesaling line creates grief (6)
=”grief”. S[ale] O[r] R[eturn] is a type of contract that =”Basis for wholesaling”, plus ROW=”line”
10 PATRON Paying customer to make severe criticism about rotten first half performance (6)
=”Paying customer”. PAN=”make severe criticism”, about (rot[ten])*
12 PORPOISE Sociable swimmer ex­pressed sympathy for sick cat (8)
=”Sociable swimmer”. Sounds like ‘poor puss’=”expressed sympathy for sick cat”
13 EGO Even let go of one’s own identity (3)
=”one’s own identity”. The “Even” letters of “[l]E[t] G[o]”
14 MIRROR Newspaper copy (6)
=”Newspaper”; =”copy”
16 SAN DIEGO Agonised about site of US naval base (3,5)
=”site of US naval base”. (Agonised)*
17 MANAGUA Maverick Guatemalan let out of nearby capital (7)
=”nearby [Nicaraguan] capital”. (Gua[te]ma[l]an)*, with the letters of “let” out
20 DEFTEST Fed up with exam for the most skilful (7)
=”most skilful”. reversal of “Fed”, plus TEST=”exam”
23 DISSEVER Dish is served, cut into pieces (8)
=”cut into pieces”. (is served)* – “Dish”=distribute indicates the anagram
24 ON EDGE Anxious concerning the border (2,4)
=”Anxious”. ON=”concerning” plus EDGE=”the border”
26 ASP This queen applied for release, as originally predicted (3)
=”This queen applied for release” – Cleopatra supposedly killed herself using an asp. AS, plus P[redicted]
27 PHISHING Reported trying to catch a computer scam (8)
=”computer scam”. Sounds like ‘fishing”=”Reported trying to catch”
28 TOOK IN Defrauded over relationship (4,2)
=”Defrauded”. TOO=”over” plus KIN=”relationship”
31 RACEME Flower arrangement for relaxed cream tea? No thanks! (6)
=”Flower arrangement”. (cream [t]e[a])*, without ta=”thanks”
32 LAUREATE Honour vehicle crew verbally (8)
=”Honour”. Sounds like ‘lorry’=”vehicle” and ‘eight’=”crew” of rowers
Down
1 AREA Region much fresher as broadcast (4)
=”Region”. Sounds like ‘airier’=”fresher as broadcast”
2 SPAR Dispute is only half on an equal basis (4)
=”Dispute”. [i]S, plus PAR=”equal basis”
3 TURNER An artist on the lathe? (6)
=”An artist”, and =[someone who uses a] “lathe”
4 ADIPOSE Fatty requires active duty shortly, I suggest (7)
=”Fatty”. A[ctive] D[uty] plus I plus POSE=”suggest”
5 ESTRANGE Alienate sergeant, terribly (8)
=”Alienate”. (sergeant)*
6 DR DOLITTLE Film musical found a way to come back with old title restored (2,8)
=”Film musical”. DR=rev(r[oa]d)=”a way to come back” plus (old title)*
7 CONSIGNS Party endorses transfers (8)
=”transfers”. CON[servative]=”Party” plus SIGNS=”endorses”
11 TOR Historically imprisoned one of many on Dartmoor (3)
=”one of many [hills] on Dartmoor”. Hidden/imprisoned in “[His]TOR[ically]”
14 MIM Overmodest up north at the end of the last century (3)
=”Overmodest up north”, a Scottish word meaning demure. MIM in roman numerals would be 1999, the end of the last century
15 REASSESSED Thought once again about beasts getting distressed ending (10)
=”Thought once again”. RE=”about” plus ASSES=”beasts” plus the ending of [distres]SED
18 ACID HEAD One who gets off with a detective chief superintendent? (4,4)
=”One who gets off”, A C[riminal] I[nvestigation] D[epartment] HEAD=”a detective chief superintendent”
19 UNVOICED Like P, T, K and S, conducive to change without a leader (8)
=”Like P, T, K, and S” – UNVOICED consonants in English [wiki link]. ([c]onducive)*
21 THE Article penned by another (3)
=”Article”. Hidden in/penned by “[ano]THE[r]”
22 FRAGILE Bring matter to court about tabloid newspaper slight (7)
=”slight”. FILE=”Bring matter to court”, around RAG=”tabloid newspaper”
24 OPT OUT Central European solicitor not to participate (3,3)
=”not to participate”. [Eur]OP[ean], plus TOUT=”solicitor”
25 DAK Old Indian postal system had beginnings in Delhi and Karachi (3)
=”Old Indian postal system”. D[elhi] A[nd] K[arachi]
29 OMEN Forewarning of submarine captain being sent back (4)
=”Forewarning”. Reversal (“sent back”) of NEMO=”submarine captain” in Jules Verne’s books
30 IOTA Scrap part of audiotape (4)
=”Scrap”. Part of “[aud]IOTA[pe]”

40 comments on “Guardian 26,354 by Otterden”

  2. Will I seriously be the first to say that 1999 is MCMXCIX, not MIM? Have we decided not to care?

    Also, the dialects in which “area” sounds like “airier” are stupid ones. Learn to talk, England!

  4. As manehi says, fairly straightforward (I had to double-check that this was not Rufus on Monday!), but enjoyable nonetheless. Thanks to setter and blogger!

    mrpenney@2: Of course you are right about the Roman numerals for 1999, and it did make me pause before filling in the answer, but I think it is alright as wordplay – it doesn’t need to be literal (IMO, of course) but needs to do enough to suggest the answer. (Had it been the definition, it would have been a different story.) I think Otterden is being a bit mischievous here…as I hope you are in the second part of your post!

  5. Enjoyed this except a few of the homophones. Felt 26a and 28a rather loosely defined. Does kin not equal relation(s) or related rather than relationship? Thank you Otterden and Menehi. Off cycling now in a good frame of mind!

    Some of the simple sum checks are getting hard for first thing. Had to think about this one!

  6. That was quick. Just what a dentist’s queue is for. Rather a lot of homophones though. Some imprecision eg ‘distressed ending’ = SED – by extension this device could be any word-ending string. But took my mind off things which is pretty much the point.

  10. almw3 @2: if someone’s accusing the English of mispronouncing English, he’s probably angling for a laugh. I’m sorry you chose to take me seriously.

    In the majority of North American dialects, there’s an R sound at the end of “airier”, and not on the end of “area.” And the final vowel is not the same.

  11. @MrPenney, it’s not just North America. In many parts of the UK and Ireland area and airier are not homophones. One just has to live with this when it comes to crosswords.

    I was going to mention MM but others have jumped the gun.

    Which part of 26ac was the definition? The answer seemed obvious but it took me ages to fill in because the clue simply doesn’t work.

  13. Thanks Otterden for a largely straightforward solve.

    Thanks manehi – I guess Poc @11’s query can be resolved by a comma in: ‘This, queen applied for release…’ Might have been better as ‘Queen applied this for release………’

    I forgot RACEME, which has been used before by Orlando. For a (not an) heretical view of the Twentieth Century, see here.

    I liked the PORPOISE and the ACID HEAD.

  14. I always refer to RP/Queen’s English/BBC Standard or whatever you want to call it for homophones; my northern accent not always suiting the task. I find “area”/”airier” perfectly suitable, but “poor puss”/”porpoise” and “laureate”/”lorry ate” don’t pass muster for me – both solutions have schwas that don’t appear in the “heard” version in normal speech.

  15. I figured there were rhotic dialects in Britain–we wouldn’t have invented that on our own! (But note that Standard American is a rhotic dialect; not true of the Queen’s English.) And I wasn’t kvetching about the clue, which is fair dinkum. This was just another iteration of my usual “huh–crosswords sure are culture-dependent” point, which I find interesting every time it comes up.

    I actually do like homophone clues where I have to try on someone else’s accent for size. (Even better are the ones where the setter also tells me what part of Britain the dialect comes from, where they’re using non-standard pronunciation or idioms. There I’m also learning something, which is half the fun.)

  18. Not only regional accents: I’m one of the plebs who know it’s a poor-puss and a tortoise who taught us, but I notice that upmarket speech rhymes both of them with voice…But it’s fun. Heaven help us if the day arrives when all proposed puns or homophones have to be vetted in advance by the Received Pronunciation Committee. And post Scottish independence, they’ll need an RP Committee of their own to weed out those ghastly Sassenach clues and insert more MIMs and STRAVAIGs instead.

  20. A bit of a curate’s egg – too many write-ins, but the last few were a bit tricky, and RACEME (my last in) was unfamiliar, which made it difficult to know which permutation of the consonants to look up. FRAGILE and LAUREATE also took me a while, as did SPAR.

    Thanks to manehi and Otterden

  21. But note that Standard American is a rhotic dialect

    This is always a source of amusement. The “Standard American Dialect”, if such a thing existed, seems incapable of pronouncing the letter r at all in words like ‘warrior’ or ‘terrorist’. Try listening to a Scot pronouncing them.

    Isn’t the usual rule for homophone acceptability the pronunciation guide in the preferred dictionary of the publication the puzzle in question?

  22. We all seem a bit nitpicky today! I thought this was alright and rather easier than yesterday’s RUFUS- and I’m not being disparaging about either puzzle.
    Thanks OTTERDEN

  23. Valentine @19: Chambers does give LAUREATE as a verb meaning “to crown with laurel”, and therefore (to) honour.

  24. Late to this. I failed on MIM as I have never heard the word, and agree that the Roman numeral is not correct for 1999. I also raised an eyebrow as some of the so-called homophones – particularly “porpoise” – doesn’t sound very close to “poor puss” at all when I say it!

  25. I’m one for whom porpoise isn’t even close to poor puss – so much so that when I realised what the answer was, I understood that por was how some people say poor, but hadn’t a clue where the poise was from.
    I enjoyed finding a crossword where could actually make significant progress, but still needed this blog to understand some answers. Thanks to setter and blogger alike.

  27. Robert Byron @26
    Great clips! We have a German lady friend (ex English-as-foreign-language teacher – well, of course it WAS a foreign language to her) who was able to highlight different accents for us. She is particularly good on Lancashire and Yorkshire variants.

  29. Valentine@19 – nearly got away with a mischievous American spelling! Ought to have put the poor puss among the pigeons with that.

  30. I enjoyed this puzzle, and I have to say that I didn’t think it had too many similarities to a Rufus puzzle. I didn’t have a problem with the homophones because they were close enough in certain regional accents. SORROW was my LOI after CONSIGNS. I didn’t know DAK or MIM and got them both from the wordplay, the incorrect representation of the date notwithstanding.

  31. Thanks Manehi and Otterden. I thought this lacked the vital spark.

    And thanks Robert Byron @26 for the entertaining tour of regional accents, even if the second clip was pretty inaccurate, conflating Georgie with Northumbrian (completely different) and Rabbie Burns (Ayrshire) with Inverness.

  33. Warrior @21

    The name of the dialect appears to be “General American”; sorry about the mistake. There’s no official sense in which it’s standard–it’s just the version they use on the news. (It’s, basically, the dialect of Iowa and Illinois, and is chosen because it’s middle-of-the-road.)

    And we do definitely say two R sounds in “warrior” and “terrorist.” We don’t roll them like a Scot, ’tis true. We say them, though. “Rhotic” merely means we don’t drop them altogether.

    There are exceptions. Non-rhoticity can be heard in certain speech patterns in New England, New Orleans, the tidewater Carolinas, New York (the stereotypical Brooklyn accent is non-rhotic), and (oddest of all) St. Louis).

  34. Didn’t really enjoy this mainly for the reasons Rhotician stated @1

    Do we still have a crossword editor? Perhaps he’s on his “holliers”. 😉

    Thanks to manehi and Otterden

  35. Thanks, Otterden.

    I enjoyed this. Ignore the pedants. I thought MIM was a bit rubbishy until I read the blog – so thanks, Manehi, as well. I hadn’t appreciated the significance of the end of the century. Great clue!

    And thanks to Robert Byron – the clips were brilliant!

  36. I cannot agree with Robi@13. It is the precise wording of 26ac which makes it so delightful. The ‘corrections’ would, indeed, make it easier to solve. But would remove the inherent misdirection – and deprive me of a smile!
    Great puzzle, many thanks to Otterden.

  37. Thanks Otterden and manehi

    Enjoyed this … the last two from him have been very good.

    Agree with William@36 on 26a, it took me a while to see what was going on with the clue, but when I paused after “This”, it all made sense and became one of my favourite clues.

    Found the homophones quite amusing … and had to do a ‘take-two’ with 32a, replacing ATE with EIGHT (as the crew).

    Good variety of devices and several new words – MIM, SOR and UNVOICED.

  39. Sorry, I meant to write that as a verb laureate IS pronounced lorry/eight (cf noun lorry/et). Bedtime.

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