Guardian 26,742 – Rufus

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A very quick solve for me, helped by the generous number of anagrams, and a corresponding reduction in the usual cryptic and double defnitions. Tbanks to Rufus.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. COMPRESS Pad or shorten? (8)
Double definition (the pad being one used in first aid etc)
5. PLACID Unruffled college head dressed in tartan (6)
C[ollege] in PLAID
9. EMPHASIS Same ship, different stress (8)
(SAME SHIP)*
10. HAWSER A ship-to-shore cable (6)
Cryptic definition (the clue is trying to suggest a telegram rather than the literal cable used in docking a ship)
12. LANKY Tall and thin and large, awkward Yank (5)
L + YANK*
13. GREATNESS Big-headed celebrity! (9)
GREAT (big) + NESS (head)
14. CASH REGISTER Assortment of cigars there’s to be found in a shop (4,8)
(CIGARS THERES)*
18. MARSEILLAISE The French marche militaire? (12)
Cryptic(ish) definition
21. LIFE CLASS Long-term category for art students? (4,5)
LIFE (long prison term) + CLASS (category)
23. ATONE United to make reparation (5)
United = AT ONE
24. INURED Ruined, becoming used to it (6)
RUINED*
25. MOCCASIN Snakeskin shoe? (8)
There are several types of moccasin snake
26. GIDEON Biblical judge required? Dig one out (6)
(DIG ONE)*
27. LESSENED Cut that could be needless (8)
NEEDLESS*
Down
1. CREOLE American language with new role in church (6)
ROLE* in CE, and two definitions: a creole is a language that is a “mixture” of others, and the word is also used to describe settlers in Louisiana (or possibly the definition is just “American language”, but I think that works less well)
2. MOPING Feeling depressed, give doctor a ring (6)
MO (Medical Officer) + PING
3. READY MADE Previously prepared to study, boy and girl pulled up (5-4)
READ (study) + reverse of ED + AMY
4. SWING THE LEAD Way to avoid duty at sea? (5,3,4)
Cryptic definition – another one with nautical references, this time trying to suggest smugglers, but instead it’s a phrase meaning avoiding work. I think the clue would work better grammatically if it was “How to avoid…”
6. LEAST This said, repair is quickest (5)
Reference to the saying “least said, soonest mended”
7. CASSETTE Recorder involved in test case (8)
(TEST CASE)*
8. DERISORY When Roy rides out, it’s laughable (8)
(ROY RIDES)*
11. GENERAL STORE Ike and Monty rent a shop (7,5)
GENERALS (as Ike and Monty were) + TORE (rent)
15. INSTANCES Examples of incessant change (9)
INCESSANT*
16. IMPLYING The little devil! Telling stories, making insinuations (8)
IMP + LYING
17. PROFOUND With great insight, golf club has filled a key staff vacancy (8)
The club has recruited a professional, so the PRO is FOUND
19. POISON I snoop around to discover cause of death (6)
(I SNOOP)*
20. PENNED Did lines, when kept in (6)
Double definition
22. CREDO Communist firm about belief (5)
RED in CO

37 comments on “Guardian 26,742 – Rufus”

  1. Thanks Rufus and Andrew
    Yes, very easy. I did like the unexpected anagram for EMPHASIS.
    “Swinging the lead” was a method taking soundings for depth in water. I don’t know how it came to mean “shirking duty”; perhaps it was regarded as an easy job?
    Pedants’ corner: at his most famous, Montgomery was a Field-Marshal (outranking a mere General!)

  3. muffin@1
    My understanding is that hauling the lead weight from the sea bottom could be quite strenuous, so sailors wanting an easier time would simply swing the weight over the side of the vessel and call out a fictitious depth without actually taking a sounding. This ‘swinging the lead’ meant avoiding the hard graft.

  6. Thanks Rufus and Andrew. I was stuck on why 17d was PROFOUND Andrew’s explanation makes perfect sense.

    Pleased there were less double definitions and cryptic definitions than usual.

  7. George Clements @3, doubt that was possible, there was usually soft wax on the bottom of the lead weight, and the sailor had to show to the ship’s navigator what had stuck to it from the seabed.

  8. Couldn’t get SWING THE LEAD but I thought it was an excellent Rufus. Favourites included IMPLYING, GENERAL STORE and PROFOUND. Many thanks to Rufus and Andrew.

  11. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

    Reasonably straightforward puzzle with a couple of interesting twists to it. Really liked PROFOUND when the penny dropped – a wordy but very effective cryptic part. Didn’t end up parsing GENERAL STORE fully, although got the gist of the generals.

    Finished with (the finally correctly spelt) MARSEILLAISE, GENERAL STORE and SWING THE LEAD the last ones in.

  12. As often happens with Rufus, 18a was so obvious that I hesitated to fill it in until crosses made it inevitable. On what way is this even slightly cryptic?

  14. Reduction in cds and dds did me no harm at all, leading to a very quick solve. No complaints – the clueing was very neat. IMPLYING my favourite.

  15. Thanks to Andrew for the blog. You cleared up my problem with 17d: I could see what the answer had to be but the parsing eluded me.

    I agree with Poc @12: it was so obvious that I was reluctant to put it in.

    2d has me puzzled: how is PING equal to ring?

  16. Chas: a ping could be the sound made by a bell, as is a ring.

    (Chambers has “A sharp ringing or whistling sound, eg of a bullet”, which sort of covers it..)

  17. Quite a nice Rufus. I liked GENERAL STORE and IMPLYING, and discovered I couldn’t spell MARSEILLAISE- which I thought too obvious to be correct, as someone has already said.
    Thanks Rufus.

  18. Quite enjoyed this one – mostly pretty straightforward but it took me a while to see SWING THE LEAD and GREATNESS

    Thanks to Rufus and Andrew

  19. Andrew thanks for the clarification. I had been trying to imagine “I will ping him” as meaning “I will ring him” and not succeeding.

  20. Thanks to Rufus and Andrew. SWING THE LEAD was new to me and LEAST said etc. was last in, but I enjoyed the quick solve, especially PROFOUND.

  22. It took my internal thesaurus a very long time to come up with 10a even once the crossing lights were in, but I was determined to complete without using reference material since that was the only real struggle. I’d parsed it correctly, I just couldn’t remember the word. (Not wishing to sound like a smartarse I must admit that I hadn’t fully parsed every clue, but had at least arrived at solutions that looked OK and subsequently passed the “check this” test.)

    Like several others, I thought 18a was too good to be true so didn’t put it in until crossing lights made it obvious. (Also like several others I discovered I didn’t know how to spell it!)

    Favourites were MOCCASIN, which I’d like to point out is a “skin shoe”, being made entirely of leather, and PROFOUND.

    Thanks, of course to Rufus and Andrew.

  23. re PING: When computers wish to establish contact with each other, one sends an alert known as a PING. Contact is establish when the responding computer replies with a PONG. Hence computer people have adopted the phrase “ping me” to mean get in touch.

  25. A very easy puzzle even for Rufus. (probably because there were no dodgy clues 😉 )

    Can anybody explain to me why we often see the words “just right for a Monday” (or equivalent) as some kind of praise/excuse for Rufus’s less than challenging offerings?

    Surely all those of you who still work for a living are fully rested and ready for a mental workout after the weekend’s rest.

    I personally would prefer a really challenging puzzle for a Monday as we have been starved of a Guardian cryptic on Sunday. So I hereby found the “That wasn’t hard enough for a Monday” society. (Current membership: 1 person). I won’t post the society’s motto on here each Monday as that would be equally as annoying as the current regular postings of “just right for a Monday …” etc so please take it as being conspicuous by its absence.

    Thanks to Andrew and Rufus

  26. Mostly straightforward, though PROFOUND took me quite a while to parse and I just couldn’t get PENNED at all. Now I’ve seen it, I don’t know why I couldn’t.

    Thanks to Rufus and Andrew.

    B(NTO) @25
    Some of us have busy weeks and relax at weekends, but some of us have busy weekends and like to relax on Mondays. There is no good reason to prioritise one group over the other, and there is the Monday Quiptic, so perhaps Monday’s Cryptics should vary.

  27. Bnto @25, I am a poor solver and find it hard going over the weekend trying to do the Prize puzzle (no help from ‘check’) and the Everyman. Monday I have to shop etc. and there is the temptation of two puzzles to solve, so it is great if they do not take too long. I am elderly, but I have one of my sons living with me and my teenage granddaughter, so am not leisured!

    An interesting thing I found out today was that the Mississippi River pilot Samuel Langhorne Clemens chose the pen name Mark Twain after the leadsman’s cry , “mark twain”, for two fathoms, a safe depth for a steamboat. Probably you knew this.

  30. Cookie @27

    No I hadn’t heard the derivation of “Mark Twain”. That’s interesting! My “society” was only tongue in cheek and I did have several idle moments after the rapid solve 😉

    A teenage granddaughter sounds a joy and a “trial”. Our 2 nieces and nephew (all teenagers) often stay with us to give mum and dad a rest. Although this is a pleasure we do need a long rest afterwards. (However the recent introduction of mobile phones has silenced the 2 girls!)

    Colleen @29

    Don’t worry, the Rufus easy Monday is aparently an institution at the Guardian and is sacrosanct. 🙂 Just keep going and one day you’ll find that Rufus has become easy too! It takes time. (Many years in fact for me!)

  31. I only do Rufus’s Monday puzzles as the others look too hard … But now I can usually nearly finish it I might be ready to try the next level. Any suggestions?

  32. Cheeryword @31 – Chifonie is usually pretty straightforward (if a little dull). Apart from that it is difficult to give a general recommendation because they tend to vary so much, so the best advice would just be to have a go, don’t worry too much about finishing and come here to check anything you are not sure about.

  33. Brendan @25

    I am always happy to find that Monday’s crossword is easy as it gives me confidence for the rest of the week. That said, I wouldn’t complain at the occasional more difficult one for the sake of your tongue in cheek society, as long as I didn’t need to resort to ‘reveal’ for more than, say, a dozen clues.

    Basically, I’m just grateful for the free entertainment and mental workout.

  34. On “swinging the lead”, Latin classes of long ago were enlivened by such tales as that of a doctor certifying that a malingering employee was suffering from “penbum pendens”. How we chortled…

    Monty or Ike would have been a “dux belli”.

  35. Thanks Andrew and Rufus.

    Best Rufus for a while. Really liked PROFOUND.

    But then he always catches me on one. 10ac could also have been MISSHAPE – i.e. As a verb to apply stress. Obviously not as soon as I put the crossers in. That’ll teach me!

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