A good Quiptic from Moley this morning, but a bit tough in places. Or perhaps that’s just me suffering brain fade after hearing Frosty the fricking Snowman in my local Sainsbury’s just too many times.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Inflame family that’s led astray
KINDLE
A charade of KIN and (LED)*
5 Lecture when spirit is trapped inside
MORALISE
Moley is asking you to put IS inside MORALE.
9 Received account for sheets of paper, 500
ACQUIRED
A charade of AC, QUIRE and D.
10 Short sailor Rex put out
ABRUPT
A charade of AB, R and (PUT)*
11 Had rights and changed a challenging criterion
HIGH STANDARD
(HAD RIGHTS AND)* Good anagram.
13 Iron Lawrence found at the fair
FETE
A charade of FE for ‘iron’ and TE for Mr Lawrence (of Arabia). I prefer DH, but he’s not as helpful to setters.
14 Model, one playing musical instrument
MELODEON
(MODEL ONE)*
17 Pull the French king from fighter
WRESTLER
A charade of WREST, LE for one of the French words for ‘the’ and R for Rex or ‘king’.
18 Parent, one new to Head
MAIN
A charade of MA, I and N.
20 Welsh ferries set out for fairground rides
FERRIS WHEELS
(WELSH FERRIES)*
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way
That just popped up into my head, so I felt the need to include it as a bit of catharsis. Blame Frosty the Snowman.
23 Initially no improvement made by accepting student quickly
NIMBLY
A charade of NIM for the initial letters of the first three words of the clue, and L in BY.
24 Branch our journalist protected
ARMOURED
A charade of ARM, OUR and ED.
25 Poke fun at cruel idiot, mostly drunk
RIDICULE
(CRUEL IDI[OT])* Can you tell us exactly which letters (‘mostly’) of IDIOT you’d like us to leave out, Ms Setter?
26 Commoner boy‘s mixed up with don
NOBODY
(BOY DON)*
Down
2 Villain cheated a bit to make slow progress
INCH
Hidden in villaIN CHeated.
3 Issues of a feminine nature
DAUGHTERS
A cd, and nothing to do with monthly cycles.
4 Anger near criminal, for example, being upset
ENRAGE
A charade of (NEAR)* and a reversal of EG.
5 Behaving very oddly — furious, like a demo over hair, reportedly
MAD AS A MARCH HARE
A charade of MAD, AS, A MARCH and a homophone of ‘hair’. And a chance for the obligatory Pierre hare link.
6 Study can make something legible
READABLE
A charade of READ and ABLE.
7 Look up racy image, displayed initially for to be shocking
LURID
The initial letters of the first five words of the clue.
8 Excellent boy in charge, when moving at very high speed
SUPERSONIC
A charade of SUPER for ‘excellent’, SON and IC. No hedgehogs were harmed in the creation of this clue.
12 Ruling is in trouble, but it’s not absolute
DECREE NISI
Yep, got one of these. A charade of DECREE for ‘ruling’ and (IS IN)* I’ve also got a DECREE ABSOLUTE.
15 Failed attempt at bad, bad quips about Mike
DAMP SQUIB
I think this is an insertion of M for ‘Mike’ in the phonetic alphabet in BAD reversed including (QUIPS)* But if it’s not that, some kind soul will explain it.
16 Benediction not to be sneezed at!
BLESSYOU
A ‘benediction’ is a blessing, and this is what you say when someone sneezes. Is this one word? A dd, I think.
19 Hesitation married son deviously hides in discourse
SERMON
An insertion of ER for ‘hesitation’ and M for ‘married’ in SON.
21 Barbie almost cooked for Jewish scholar
RABBI
(BARBI[E])*
22 Minister to nurse
TEND
A dd.
Thanks Moley and Pierre
Mostly very good – I loved DAUGHTERS – but some oddities. BLESS YOU as (8) is cloearly a mistake; I don’t like clues (as it appears you don’t Pierre) where you have to leave some unspecified letters out of the anagram fodder, as in RABBI and RIDICULE; and I don’t see a “double definition” for TEND, as it just seems to be the same definition twice.
Merry Christmas to all Quiptickers!
25a seems a bit off, this is close to unfair taking random letter out, rabbi less so however. Anyway thanks to our very own Christmas Grinch, Pierre.
Sorry to spoil the party but I don’t object to 25a. I took mostly to mean (since the answer was given as 7 letters) use 7 letters of cruel idiot and anagram it.
Hope that hasn’t cheered you up too much Pierre. Having something to hate will be the making of you.
Thanks both. Didn’t like 25a, and cannot see that 22d works (“minister to” and “nurse” seem to have the same meaning to me) otherwise a nice puzzle at this level.
Have a good Christmas all, if possible!
Enjoyable Quiptic.
I was wrongfooted by the enumeration of 16d which held me up in the SW.
Even more so since I did not know the expression ‘decree nisi’.
And RIDICULE (25ac)?
Well, Conrad has a point.
Still, I think, ‘mostly’ indicates usually the deletion of the last letter – well, um, mostly …
I wasn’t very happy with the use of ‘for’ in 9ac but it’s probably acceptable/alright.
In 6d: ABLE = can make (something)? Bit imprecise in my book.
Why does the clue for 19d (SERMON) contain the word ‘deviously’?
Finally, 15d is just (BAD QUIPS)* around M.
Thanks Pierre and Moley.
Well, I enjoyed this, and solved it quickly enough, even with the misleading enumeration of BLESS YOU. Favourites were KINDLE and DAUGHTERS.
I don’t see the problem with 25a and 21d. Don’t “mostly” and “almost” in clues usually involve starting at the beginning of the possible fodder and counting the required number of letters? RABBI was quite obvious from the definition, though combining “Barbie” and “Jewish” in a clue does have an unfortunate resonance, and it wasn’t much harder to pick out the fodder for RIDICULE.
Thanks to Moley and Pierre.
Thanks Moley and Pierre,
This was quite hard for me, but enjoyable, especially ACQUIRED, HIGH STANDARD, DAUGHTERS, MAD AS A MARCH HARE and SUPERSONIC.
Season’s greetings to all.
Thanks Moley and Pierre.
Pierre, why does your comment at 20A prompt me to quote another quatrain? Here is Dorothy Parker’s take:
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea,
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
And I am Marie of Roumania.
I found this to be a hard slog, having the same difficulties as others have mentioned. But my last in was DAUGHTERS which I had wrestled with for so long and then, when I saw how simple it was, made me smile. Thanks to you both, Moley and Pierre.
Took the precaution of leaving this till today as there is nothing published. Seemed OK to me.
Today the sky is just solid grey, which rather prevents looking at the other side of the clouds!