Guardian 26,664 by Rufus

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26664.

The usual mix from Rufus, with what I thought a particularly weak bunch of cryptic definitions, and several clues of the kind I call “definition and literal interpretation”.

Across
1 CATERPILLAR
Grub to provide food and support (11)

A charade of CATER (‘to provide food’) plus PILLAR (‘support’).
9 ERRATUM
Mistake by deserter trapped by signs of hesitation (7)

An envelope (‘trapped by’) of RAT (‘deserter’) in ER UM (‘signs of hesitation’).
10 DEVOLVE
A number work out how to delegate (7)

A charade of D (Roman numeral 500, ‘a number’) plus EVOLVE (‘work out’).
11 TRIPPED UP
Ran lightly towards the top — and stumbled (7,2)

Definition and literal interpretation.
12 ANTRE
Possibly rent a poet’s cave (5)

An anagram (‘possibly’) of ‘rent a’.
13 HIGH
Going off in great spirits (4)

Double definition.
14 ON THE LEVEL
No tipping? Honestly! (2,3,5)

Definition and literal interpretation.
16 BRAINWAVES
Capital ideas (10)

Cryptic definition.
19 EDGY
Extremely nervous (4)

Double definition. An edge is an extreme, so ‘extremely’ is used to indicate EDGY, even if the latter word is not used in that way.
20 UNDER
Commanded by  junior (5)

Double definition.
21 REARRANGE
Back stove put in new order (9)

A charade of REAR (‘back’) plus RANGE (‘stove’).
23 DIARIES
Journals I’d taken back to sign (7)

A charade of DI, a reversal (‘taken back’) of ‘I’d’ plus ARIES (‘sign’).
24 ON SHIFT
No turning back with change in working (2,5)

A charade of ON, a reversal (‘turning back’) of ‘no’ plus SHIFT (‘change’).
25 REGULAR ARMY
Even in peacetime its members are prepared to fight (7,4)

Cryptic-ish definition.
Down
1 CARRIAGE AND PAIR
All that is required for the honeymoon departure? (8,3,4)

Cryptic definition.
2 TOT UP
Infant raised to do simple arithmetic (3,2)

Definition and literal interpretation.
3 RAMADAN
Managed to hold the first man coming up fast (7)

An envelope (‘to hold’) of MADA, a reversal (‘coming up’ in a down light) of ADAM (‘the first man’) in RAN (‘managed’). The month of RAMADAN is of course a fast in the daylight hours.
4 IN DEPTH
Sort of investigation made by bathyscape? (2,5)

Definition and literal interpretation.
5 LOVEABLE
Greatly enjoy being skilful and winning (8)

A charade of LOVE (‘greatly enjoy’) plus ABLE (‘skillful’).
6 RELATIVE DENSITY
Specifically, what makes blood thicker than water? (8,7)

Cryptic definition. RELATIVE DENSITY is also known as specific gravity.
7 BEAT THE BOUNDS
Go over the limits? (4,3,6)

Cryptic definition.An old custom still observed in some UK parishes.
8 REDEPLOYMENTS
Desperate employer tends to repeated and extensive use of manpower (13)

An anagram (‘desperate’) of ’employer tends’.
15 SNORTING
Expressing contempt for cocaine taking? (8)

Double definition.
17 AEROSOL
It supplies one’s needs at the press of a button (7)

Cryptic definition.
18 ENAMOUR
Delight from being in love with the French language (7)

EN AMOUR being the French for ‘in love’.
22 RISER
One out of bed seen going upstairs (5)

Double definition.
completed grid

56 comments on “Guardian 26,664 by Rufus”

  1. Perhaps for the reasons you mention it looked impenetrable at first with Diaries as FOI. Needed parsing for 24a. Liked 14a. Thanks PeterO and Rufus.

  3. Thanks, PeterO.

    I liked the playfulness of “specifically” at 6d. Otherwise very dull.

    ANTRE is a new word to me. Chambers says its poetic, but I don’t recall meeting it in a poem. Larousse tells me it’s French for cave, cavern, lair, den.

  4. Thanks Rufus and PeterO

    Some I liked (RAMADAN, RELATIVE DENSITY and LOI SNORTING), but one of Rufus’s weaker efforts, I thought. I particularly disliked AEROSOL, as the cryptic definition is very loose (why “supplies one’s needs”?), and anyway the aerosol is what comes out when you press the button, not the can with the button on it.

    ANTRE was new to me.

  5. Thank you, PeterO and happy Bank Holiday if you’re having one.

    I mostly enjoy this setter’s regular offerings but this was a return to that aspect of Rufus’s style that appeals to me the least. PeterO has given it a name, “definition and literal interpretation”, and they are the sort of clues where I write down the answer and stare at it for a few minutes before grudgingly saying, “spose so”.

    These included BRAINWAVES, AEROSOL, UNDER, CARRIAGE AND PAIR, ON THE LEVEL, & REGULAR ARMY but others may disagree.

    Can’t help thinking we’ve seen REARRANGE clued this way before.

    Nice week, all.

  7. Thanks PeterO and Rufus. I enjoyed reading about ‘beat the bounds’, so thanks for the link PeterO, but the clue hardly edges one towards the literal meaning of the phrase. I can’t quite fathom the inclusion of ‘capital’ with ‘ideas’ in 16a – it could simply be ‘ideas’, or am I missing something? I liked RAMADAN simply for its biblical connection. I was hoping for a longer diversion from the rain…

  9. Muffin @6 That goes back a bit – still raises a chuckle!

    MikeP @7 I agree with you that it’s a bit tenuous, but equating ‘capital’ with ‘head’ has become almost as standard in crossword-ese as ‘tar’ = ‘sailor’.

  11. Thanks Rufus and PeterO

    A benign offering today but I wasn’t as against it as others seem to have been. BEAT THE BOUNDS and ANTRE (my last in) were both new to me.

    Thought that in 25a, there was a little more going on REGULAR (even) and ARM (member), but it doesn’t quite finish off.

  13. Yes, there were some pretty dodgy Rufusian clues today, but all in all I enjoyed it. CATERPILLAR and ON THE LEVEL were good. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  15. We usually avoid the crossword on Mondays, but it’s a wet Bank Holiday…
    So I’m not going to complain about Rufus being Rufus-like, and 3d and 15d did raise a faint smile, but I did think the anagram in 8d was a bit lazy as the fodder and answer are so similar.

  16. Nothing to delay one here. Never seen a 13-letter anagram as obvious as REDEPLOYMENTS, perhaps because four successive letters in the clue – PLOY – appear in the solution. And as you say PeterO, REGULAR ARMY is only cryptic-ish. I did though have a bit of fun with 21a where for a while I assumed I had to find a four-letter word for ‘stove’ and put it inside order* to make ‘back’. Then I remembered it was Rufus.

    It’s a bank holiday and it’s raining so I suppose I’ll have to find something constructive to do instead.

  18. Thanks Rufus and PeterO,

    As usual, I enjoyed the Monday crossword, although AEROSOL was rather hazy. RELATIVE DENSITY was fun, and I also liked CATERPILLAR, REARRANGE, DIARIES, BEAT THE BOUNDS and TOT UP!

    Further re “antre”, lines from A Grave, Edith Wharton, “Illuminates grief’s antre swart and vast”, and Endymion II, John Keats, “Through a vast antre; then the metal woof”.

  20. A bit dodgy this one. I usually defend Rufus but I thought this was rather weak. BRAINWAVES really doesn’t work and there are some others that are a bit iffy as others have said. Not the most enjoyable.
    Anyway thanks Rufus.

  21. I usually enjoy Rufus but didn’t much like this. I had lots of answers as maybes. I had reserve army for 25 which, I think, is a better answer, hence a lot of the bottom down clues were missed.

  22. Found this a bit of a struggle – certainly tough for a Rufus. CARRIAGE AND PAIR was not an immediately obvious phrase (and I wasn’t certain it was right), ANTRE obscure and unfamiliar but at least clearly clued. Still quite enjoyable.

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO

  23. Another “TEST THE BOUNDS” here. I can’t say I really see why BEAT THE BOUNDS is a better answer than that…

  24. ‘Beating the bounds’ (an ancient ceremony widely observed today) seems a perfectly straightforward term to me (unlike the obscure and archaic ‘antre’). Some beaten boundaries mark the limits within which freemen’s rights (e.g. the right to graze livestock on a common) may be exercised.

  25. Verlaine @23
    “Beating the bounds” is a well-known practice in some areas – see PeterO’s link. The next parish to where we live does it every 10 years. It’s a surprisingly long walk for a smallish parish – about 40 miles.

  27. Andy@19 and Verlaine@23 — I think “beat the bounds” works better than “test the bounds” cryptically because the cryptic clue read “go over the limits.” “Beat” can mean “exceed,” perhaps?

  28. Thanks to Rufus and PeterO. I had the same problems with BEAT THE BOUNDS and AEROSOL and also puzzled over ON SHIFT but finally got through.

    I just came across an obituary for Merl Reagle who, starting in the 1980s, was one of the first US crossword setters to provide witty, inventive clues (and was featured, along with Will Shortz [nd Bill Clinton], in the 2006 documentary “Wordplay”). Some of the items cited: “Least popular cookbook ever” (TO GRILL A MOCKINGBIRD”); “Anagrammy-winning backing song” (YOU OUGHT TO BE IN PIECRUST); for a puzzle with punny surnames, “Golfer who invented the all-plastic club” (ARNOLD POLYMER); and for a puzzle with the theme of movie titles with missing letters, “Empire of the Ants co-feature” (LICE IN WONDERLAND); “Of Human Bondage” (UNTIE MAME).

  31. [Sometimes known as “the hole with the mint in it”, Cookie – though I have to be careful what I say, as I have relations there!]

  32. Cookie@29. — The full list of names is on the website if you really want to spend this wet bank holiday counting them! Only men can become freemen, but the daughters of freemen can have their husbands and sons enrolled as freemen, which has greatly diversified the surname pool over the years. I am indeed an Evans with a direct entitlement to belong, whereas my brother-is-law is a ‘petticoat freeman’ through marriage to my sister. (P.S. — my sister and I have always lived in England!)

  33. John E @32, here the weather is too hot to go outside, so I searched the site that deals with beating the bounds, and checked the name Evans, not frequent at all, in fact the common Welsh surnames are relatively rare.

  34. CATERPILLAR and SNORTING raised a smile but otherwise it was a dull trudge.

    ANTRE was completely unfamiliar and I was going to moan about it so thanks, Frank, @ 10.

    AEROSOL seemed particularly weak and I was held up for a while by entering Raynaud’s Disease for 8dn – I suppose “specifically” is a keyword here. In my limited knowledge of physics I think specific density and relative density are interchangeable and in Raynaud’s Disease the blood vessels contract but the blood doesn’t actually clot. And of course blood = relative.

    Sorry, time to stop wittering…

  35. Cookie@33 — I have just done a quick count and come up with 157 Evanses in the 2011 cumulative Freemans Roll on that website. There must have been many more people entitled to enrol than actually made the effort (and paid the fee) to do so.

  36. Cookie@33 — Looking through that list yet again (it is very wet here) I see that my great great great great grandfather is listed under the surname Evan rather than Evans. Definitely my last digression about this!

  37. I agree with the general grumpiness about this puzzle.

    Do you really need a carriage to leave for your honeymoon? And why must it be a carriage and pair? I initially had carriage and four–maybe my bride and groom are richer? In any case, that isn’t a tradition here.

    REGULAR ARMY also was a dreadful clue–not cryptic in any sense of the word. Also BRAINWAVE: all ideas come from one’s head, so what ideas aren’t “capital” in the sense implied here?

    Cookie @18: I was unfamiliar with Edith Wharton poetry–of course I know her three “big” novels (Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, and The Age of Innocence). Would be happy for a link to the poem.

    Incidentally–the other day on my commute I wrote some theme clues that you just reminded me of. The relevant one is listed first.

    Consuming heroin blemish on novelist (7)
    Novelist better than whore (9)
    I want zany humorist (5)
    Poet with assassin (7)
    A sick playwright (6)
    Old lady became acquainted with playwright (5)
    Howl author (6)
    Howl author reworks bigger son, omitting nothing (8)
    Novelist rumored to be tweakin’ (7)

  39. mrpenney @37

    I think the PAIR in CARRIAGE AND PAIR refers to the bride and groom and the only other element needed for a honeymoon is some form of transport, so CARRIAGE in a general sense. Four going off on honeymoon together would be unusual, though not unknown. Having said that, I agree that it isn’t a strong clue.

    I didn’t feel this puzzle was as bad as some other posters did, but definitely not one of Rufus’s best. I quite liked DIARIES and RELATIVE DENSITY.

    Thanks to Rufus and PeterO.

  44. [John E @35 &36, that was from 1724 I presume. I should have been more specific, I was looking at the Evanses since 1915 – 2014, 52/2,700 (norm 25/1000), but taking just 1983 – 2014 only 13/1000.]

  47. [Cookie@44 — As far as my forebears are concerned, my father had two sisters (= loss of the surname on the freemans roll) and both of his brothers emigrated to Australia (a long trip to make for the enrolment ceremony). You make a valid point about the under-representation of the most common Welsh surnames.]

  48. All are American, all canonical. 5 and 7 are both Nobel laureates. As for the ninth, it’s Thomas PYNCHON, who might not be as well known. The others you got.

  49. Thank you for your comments. May I comment on some.
    Muffin says the word “aerosol” does not refer to the container. Chambers Dictionary finishes its entry on page 22 with its last definition: “…the container”. Collins Dictionary ends “3. such a substance together with its container”.

    Regarding BEAT THE BOUNDS. When I was flying with the Fleet Air Arm in the 1950s I happened to be Duty Officer for my Squadron, 849 Gannet AEW Squadron, when the local parish council, Helston in Cornwall, had to be escorted around Culdrose airfield when they BEAT THE BOUNDS of the parish. Periodically parts of the bounds were “beaten” with sticks, apparently to instil newcomers to remembering where the boundaries were. Hence the term BEAT THE BOUNDS.
    A “Carriage and pair” is a carriage drawn by two horses.

  50. mrpenney @48
    I should have got 7 much sooner as I’ve read a few of his books. The letter count for 5 fooled me for a long time. I needed google to get 8 as I couldn’t fully resolve the wordplay and lacked an important piece of knowledge in the definition. The conjunction of 7 and 8 misdirected me for a while, too. Although I’ve heard of Pynchon, I don’t think I’d have got him.

    Thank you for an interesting diversion.

  52. This is for Rufus. I didn’t realise until today that you read the comments on here. I, for one, would like to offer my thanks to you for providing me and my wife with many hours of pleasure over the years attempting your largely accessible and often fun crosswords. I’ve never heard of ‘antre’ until now (unless it’s passed over me when I’ve seen Othello) – fine – I’ve learnt a new word. I vaguely knew the expression ‘beat the bounds’ but am enlightened to now know its origin. Thanks to Rufus & others on this site who’ve explained it. I’m glad 15 squared exists as it’s a wonderful working tool for self-improvement in the field of crossword solving & enjoyment. However, I never cease to be amazed by the curmudgeons and show-offs who bother to complain at the slightest inconsistency (and are not always right then) and tell us how they found no problems at all and finished in 15 and a half minutes. Well, whoop-de-doo for you (parse that) but you strike me as a bit (actually a lot) sad if you need to go to the trouble of letting us all know. As for the curmudgeons – if you have some constructive comment to make – good. If not, go elsewhere – it’s like turning the TV off if you don’t like a programme – that’s all you need to do. A closing repeated thanks to Rufus – it’s all about mental stimulation and enjoyment – long may you continue to provide it.

  53. petertheg @52

    I don’t see a lot of showing off here (at least in the Guardian sections) about speed of solving. What I do see is a lot of comments about relative difficulty of various crosswords. If someone is saying they found a crossword easy, another day they may post that they found the puzzle unusually difficult. They may be comparing it with that particular setter’s usual difficulty level or the level expected for a Quiptic (easier) or a Prize (usually harder, though perhaps it’s just that some people think they should be).

    I actually like most of those comments. I find it reassuring when I’ve struggled with a puzzle and someone who I think is a good solver (on the basis of their previous comments) has also found it difficult, but I don’t feel annoyed or threatened if some posters say that they found it easy. We all come to crosswords with different ranges of knowledge and different levels of experience, and I don’t see it as a competitive sport.

    As for the grumblers, I admit to being mystified as to why anyone who clearly doesn’t like the Guardian house style or a particular setter continues doing puzzles which seem to irritate them far more often than please them, but that’s their choice. Those people aside, most posters here are mixing praise with criticism. If setters choose to read these blogs, they should expect to see both.

    I would think it should be helpful for setters to see which of their clues generally go down well and which cause unexpected problems. I assume that most cryptic setters want to please their solvers by providing challenging but fair clues, and without feedback how could they know whether they are doing that successfully? If they read these blogs regularly, they’ll know that some people are rarely satisfied or just don’t like their style, but if posters who usually enjoy their puzzles are saying they have issues with particular clues that may be worth noting.

  54. Thanks to Rufus for dropping in, and in hope that you see this.

    I’m afraid that “aerosol” = “the can it’s found in” is another example of dictionaries following incorrect usage. We’ve spent ages on here arguing about this sort of thing (“epicentre” for example). In fact an aerosol is a form of colloid – see this Wikipedia article.

    However the incorrect dictionary entry does justify your inclusion of it is this puzzle – and you could argue that it is in fact the aerosol rather than the can that is supplying your needs.

  55. muffin @55 – surely dictionaries are there at least partly to reflect popular usage, whether “correct” or not, and what is “correct” has always evolved, though I do agree that it is frustrating to see precise technical terminology devalued. Thanks to Rufus for popping in too.

  56. muffin @54 and beery hiker @55

    The task of a dictionary is to describe, not to prescribe. There are other types of books to do that.

    Although according Ambrose Bierce’s “The Devil’s Dictionary”, a dictionary is “a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.”

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