Quiptic 783 by Moley

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The former English teacher returns to the Quiptic slot with a puzzle that left this poor solver with a couple of self-inflicted wounds.

I’m not sure why, since everything seems pretty clear in retrospect.  Perhaps it was just the brain being particularly slow this Monday morning.

Across
9 IMPASSIVE
I’m tense and unresponsive (9)
IM (I’m) PASSIVE (tense).  I hesitate to take on a former English teacher but I’m not sure that this is accurate.  In grammar, isn’t the passive a ‘voice’ not a ‘tense’?
10 ABETS
Beats criminal and gives assistance to another? (5)
An anagram (criminal) of BEATS
11 EL GRECO
Cretan artist’s Spanish style (2,5)
A cryptic-ish definition, El Greco being the nickname give to the artist Domenikos Theotokopoulos, who was born in Crete
12 TABLEAU
Dramatic spectacle of gold on board (7)
AU (gold) added to (on) TABLE (board)
13 YEAR
Agreement the Queen followed for a time (4)
I assume this is YEA (agreement) followed by R (the Queen)
14 CAPABILITY
Mr Brown’s potential (10)
The reference here is to the landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown
16 OYSTERS
Seafood’s unusual story absorbs egghead at one point (7)
An anagram (unusual) of STORY around (absorbs) E (egghead) next to (at) S (one point, of the compass).  I think
17 ANGLIAN
Old English dialect spoken by Anglican, not Catholic (7)
Not completely sure about this.  The best I can do is to suggest it’s just a subtraction (not) of C (Catholic) from ANGLICAN, with the ‘spoken’ being part of the definition rather than indicating a homophone
19 POSTAL CODE
US zone improvement plan’s correspondent in Britain (6,4)
I had to cheat on this.  I didn’t know that the ZIP in ‘ZIP code’ stood for zone improvement plan
22 EPIC
Each part is carved — initially it’s impressive (4)
The first letters (initially) of each part is carved
24 NESTING
Getting cosy in the Northeast’s smart (7)
NE (the Northeast) plus (‘s = has) STING (smart)
25 CARRIER
Bag a transmitter (7)
A double definition
26 EXILE
Expat abstainers run out of textile (5)
A subtraction (run out of) of TT (abstainers) from TEXTILE
27 AUTHORISE
Writer is English, that’s clear (9)
AUTHOR (writer) IS (is) E (English)
Down
1 LIVERY COMPANIES
Uniform firms’ chartered organisations (6,9)
LIVERY (uniform) COMPANIES (firms).  Straightforward wordplay but this was my first cheat.  I kicked myself when I saw the solution
2 SPYGLASS
Small telescope for agent’s lightweight girl (8)
SPY (agent) plus (‘s = has) G (lightweight = gram) LASS (girl)
3 ASHEN
Pale, like chicken (5)
AS (like) HEN (chicken)
4 BIFOCALS
Old boy embroiled in fiscal trouble producing glasses (8)
An anagram (embroiled) of OB (old boy) contained in (in) another anagram (trouble) of FISCAL
5 BERTHA
Bed aboard, a big one for top gun (6)
Not completely sure about this.  The best I can do is BERTH (bed aboard) A (a).  This leaves ‘big one for top gun’ as the definition.  The reference is to a Big Bertha.  This was another cheat, I regret to say
6 CAMBRIDGE
About Archer’s place in university (9)
C (about) AMBRIDGE (Archer’s place).  The reference is to the long-running radio soap
7 YEMENI
Enemy I converted was born in Aden (6)
An anagram (converted) of ENEMY I
8 A STUDY IN SCARLET
Novel, one to read at home with Miss O’Hara, say (1,5,2,7)
The Sherlock Holmes novel, that is.  A (one) STUDY (to read) IN (at home) SCARLET (a homophone = say of Scarlett).  The reference is to Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind
15 NEGATIVES
Vetoes films that are not positive (9)
A double definition
17 ABDICATE
Hand over sailor to police officer before a large number had dinner (8)
AB (sailor) next to (to) DI (police officer) in front of (before) C (a large number = 100 in Roman numerals) ATE (had dinner).  Phew
18 IMPLICIT
It’s understood that naughty child‘s legitimate (8)
IMP (that naughty child) plus (‘s = has) LICIT (legitimate)
20 SISKIN
Bird‘s skin is broken (6)
An anagram (broken) of SKIN IS
21 COGNAC
Charlie can go up for a drink (6)
C (Charlie, in the phonetic alphabet) and a reversal (up) of CAN and GO
23 BROOD
Issue causing worry (5)
A double definition.  Another cheat, and another bruise on the shin for this solver
*anagram

17 comments on “Quiptic 783 by Moley”

  1. Thanks Moley and newmarketsausage
    Easy enough as 1d was a write-in for me (sorry NMS!). Thanks for explaining ZIP codes – I wrote this answer in without really understanding it, also wondering if we ever use the term postAL code (postcode is surely the term).
    I did have IMPERFECT for 9a for a while – “perfect” IS a tense, I believe, though the definition doesn’t work.

  2. Thanks, newmarketsausage.

    I think you’re being rather hard on yourself. The parsing of ANGLIAN seems to be just as you have it: ANGLICAN minus ‘c’ – just not a very inventive clue! And ‘Big Bertha’ = ‘top gun’, as you say. [This reference always makes me smile – Bertha was my mother’s name. I believe there’s also a golf club with this name.]

    As for 1ac – I’m afraid I was put off the rest of this puzzle when I realised what the answer must be. You are absolutely right and this is decidedly wrong. The mood of a verb is quite distinct from its tense.

  4. I, too, was thinking for a while of IMPERFECT, though the meaning didn’t seem right. Very annoying when it became clear the answer was IMPASSIVE, which is a clear cluing mistake in my book. Rather surprised to find a crossword setter (and therefore assumed philologist) ignorant of basic grammar.

  5. Thank you, nms. I will first of all join the chorus of disapproval about IMPASSIVE. I chuntered on about this a year or so back about a clue in another Grauniad puzzle. PASSIVE is not, absolutely not, and never will be, a ‘tense’. It’s a voice, as others have said. ‘The dog bit the man’ is ACTIVE. ‘The man was bitten by the dog’ is PASSIVE. As for ‘mood’, which is where Eileen wanted to take us … well, let’s not go there, because we’ll end up talking about subjunctives, which is not what improving solvers who are doing the Quiptic want to hear about. And probably not what readers of this blog want to hear about, so I’ll shut up.

    Way too hard for a Quiptic, imho, so don’t beat yourself up, nms. I have enjoyed Moley’s puzzles in this slot over the years, but this one …

  6. Thanks Moley and newmarketsausage.

    So many people seemed grumpy this morning, both here and on the Cryptic, that I went out and did the shopping.

    At least muffin wasn’t grumpy (by the way postcode is a portmanteau word, postal code is used in Canada).

    I enjoyed this crossword. The verb “to be” is a linking verb, neither passive nor active. My grammar is not good, but on the net I found this: ‘Sentences can be active or passive. Therefore tenses have “active forms” and “passive forms”‘.

    The blog was very helpful. I did not know EL GRECO was a nickname, nor the meaning of ZIP code.

    Liked 23d, and it must be quite good as it had nms fooled (don’t BROOD on it).

  7. Sorry. Retired ESL teacher. Can’t help myself. Past and present are tenses. Progressive and perfect are aspects.

    More Truth? No, sirrah! Contrary girl dropped stitch.

  8. Thanks, newmarketsausage.
    I came on here especially to say that passive and active are voices, not tenses, but I see that you make the point yourself and several others have done so, too.

  10. A tricky one, I thought, at least I had to give up with more than the usual number of blanks. Why does abstainers produce TT?

  12. I also don’t understand why it’s ‘postal code’. That’s what is said in Canada, but I’ve only ever heard ‘post code’ in the UK.

  13. The clue for 19a would have better read “US zone improvement plan’s correspondent in Canada.” since in Canada the term that is used is in fact “postal code”, rather than the more British “postcode”.

  14. Just a (rather belated) note to say that the clue for 9 across has been corrected on the Guardian site.

    The clue now reads:

    9 On the motorway, turning back, a voice becomes unresponsive (9)

    The correction was made on 20 November. The Guardian crossword editor, Hugh Stephenson, added an apology to the comments below the puzzle on 21 November.

  15. I enjoyed this puzzle. As I only just solved it, 9a had been revised to “On the motorway, turning back, a voice becomes unresponsive (9)” on the Guardian website. I still needed help to parse the answer as the passive voice simply did not occur to me!

    I also needed help to parse the “g” in 2d.

    My favourites were 27a and 3d.

    Thanks Moley and mms.

  16. michelle @ 15

    Nice to see these blogs are still being read some time after they’ve appeared.

    Just in case you didn’t know, the bloggers get an email when someone posts on their blog. So although you may feel like the only one left at the party after everyone else has gone, at least one person will always read what you have to say.

  17. Nms @ 16

    No kidding? Some of us might be working backwards … who knows what weird time-travelling is going on! 🙂

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