Guardian Cryptic 26,816 by Chifonie

by

Nice and mostly simple – favourites were 24ac and 13dn. Thanks, Chifonie.

Across
8 NOMINATE Mention a weird present (8)
“present” as a verb. (Mention a)*
9 ETHIC Folk lacking new leader’s moral values (5)
ETH[n]IC=”Folk” as an adjective, lacking N[ew]
10 SHUN Avoid getting hot in daylight (4)
H[ot] in SUN=”daylight”
11 ILL-STARRED Doomed traders contrived to be sick beforehand (3-7)
(traders)*, after ILL=”sick beforehand”
12 TRASHY Tree in experiment is worthless (6)
ASH=”Tree” in TRY=”experiment”
14 SARABAND Dance of Bedouin in desert (8)
a slow Spanish dance. ARAB=”Bedouin”, in SAND=”desert”
15 ADJOURN Put off a D-day in France with new leader (7)
“a D”, plus JOUR=”day in France”, plus another N[ew] leader
17 SWEEPER School head keener to get cleaning device (7)
S[chool], plus WEEPER=”keener” as ‘weep’=’keen’
20 FLIPPANT Get overexcited with wheeze that’s saucy (8)
FLIP=”Get overexcited”, plus PANT=”wheeze”
22 INDRIS A piece of one’s mind risks offending the primate (6)
a short-tailed lemur. Hidden in  [m]IND RIS[ks]
23 LABOUR CAMP Punishment for party’s over the top (6,4)
LABOUR=”party” plus CAMP=”over the top”
24 LOST Fate keeps son at sea (4)
LOT=”Fate”, around S[on]
25 URGES Recommends rendering laxatives powerless (5)
[p]urges=”laxatives”, minus P[ower]
26 TACITURN Understood vessel to be reserved (8)
TACIT=”Understood”, plus URN=”vessel”
Down
1 BOTHERED Concerned about alternative plot (8)
OTHER=”alternative”, with BED=”plot” about it
2 LION Tyro charged group for cat (4)
L[earner]=”Tyro”, plus ION=”charged group”
3 PARITY Correspondence from one in association (6)
I=”one”, in PARTY=”association”
4 LEGLESS Member’s not so drunk (7)
a LEG is a “Member”, so LEG LESS=”Member’s not so”
5 DEATH ROW Hated dreadful brawl in last place to live (5,3)
(Hated)* plus ROW=”brawl”
6 SHORTBREAD Little money for something to eat (10)
SHORT=”Little” plus BREAD=slang for “money”
7 SCREEN Riddle of knight found under a pile of loose rock (6)
SCREEN=”Riddle”=a type of sieve. N stands for “knight” in chess, under SCREE=”a pile of loose rock”
13 SNOWPLOUGH Vehicle currently parking in quagmire (10)
NOW=”currently” and P[arking], all inside SLOUGH=”quagmire”
16 REARREST Once more hold back support (8)
REAR=”back” plus REST=”support”
18 EMISSARY Diplomat having bad year without girl (8)
(year)*, outside of MISS=”girl”
19 STEALTH Scattered the salt in a discreet manner (7)
(the salt)*
21 LEAGUE Group getting the French fever (6)
LE=”the [in] French”, plus AGUE=”fever”
22 IMPACT Repercussions make one representative take steps … (6)
I=”one”, plus MP=Member of Parliament=”representative”, plus ACT=”take steps”
24 LATE … and others got up tardily (4)
ET AL=”and others”, reversed/”got up”

38 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,816 by Chifonie”

  1. 22A The problem is that the lemur is an indri, not an indris. Is it reasonable to assume the clue should have been something like “A piece of one’s mind risks offending the primates”?

    Otherwise the xword was reasonably good fun but of almost Rufus-like easiness.

  3. Thanks to Chifonie for an straightforward but enjoyable puzzle,and manehi for the helpful blog.
    realthog@1: Chambers gives indris or indri (in that order) as the singular.

  4. A few slippery definitions meant that this took me slightly longer than some Chifonies, but I can’t find much to enthuse over. INDRIS was new to me (obscure enough for Google to try to change the spelling).

    Thanks to Chifonie and manehi

  5. Yes, all pretty straightforward although I took some time to get FLIPPANT and REARREST. Re INDRIS: this seems a very long string of words (“one’s mind risks offending”) to hide INDRIS in! Favourites were DEATH ROW, ADJOURN, and TRASHY. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

  6. Thanks to Chifonie and Manehi. I sometimes struggle with Chifonie but this was a pleasant outing. 24d was my favourite.

  7. This was going at the expected Chifonie pace until I hit the SW: FLIPPANT and REARREST (as for drofle @5) among those causing delay – though I caused myself some problems, eg tried reversing LAB (‘party’s over’) at the start of 23a when of course Chifonie isn’t generally that complex.

    The hiding of INDRIS in a 22-character string is longish but as nothing compared to the 28 characters (reversed!) of ‘reproductive unit: erythematous’ yesterday.

  8. [Etymology of indris/indri from the OED.

    An erroneous application of the Malagasy exclamation indry! ‘lo! behold!’, or indry izy! ‘there he is!’, mistaken by the French naturalist Sonnerat for the name of the animal, when first seen by him c1780: the only Malagasy name is babakoto.]

  9. Thanks Chifonie and manehi.

    An ejoyable solve, SW quadrant the last to be completed. ILL-STARRED, LABOUR CAMP and DEATH ROW luckily did not spoil my pleasure.

  10. Sorry, “enjoyable” of course @9. I remember what I wanted to ask, 9a ETHIC, is “leader” in the clue superfluous, or is it indicating the “n” in new ?

  11. Trailman @ 7: re hiding words in long strings: with ‘reproductive unit: erythematous’ yesterday, all three words were needed to hide ‘retinue’, but there were two redundant words in Chifonie’s offering, which doesn’t seem very economical.

  15. Thanks Chifonie and manehi

    Pretty gentle … which was welcome with busy day at work and playing catch up with yestetday’s puzzles as well.

    INDRIS was my last in, and didn’t really check on its singular / plural status – just checked the online Oxford, which when I recheck shows it only as the plural meaning. No other real highlights other than the satisfaction of finishing without having to do too much deep thinking !

  17. Thanks Chifonie and manehi.

    Another one with the SW corner last to be completed. Anyone else try ‘whip’ for the punishment? I didn’t know INDRIS/INDRI.

  18. I think I’m with Gasman jack on this – I must admit I thought ions were atoms rather than molecules, but it appears that both are allowed by the definition. It still seems strange to describe an ion as a group though – would you describe a molecule as a group?

  19. beery hiker @18n, and acetic acid, CH3COO- H+. The COED gives

    ion n. an atom, molecule, or group that has lost one or more electrons (=cation) or gained one or more electrons (=anion).

  20. Of course you can argue the technicality, but if an ion is a group, you can use group as a synonym for almost any noun singular or plural – a mathematician would have no problem with a group of one or zero!

  21. beery hiker @20, yes, agreed, but for crosswords dictionaries are usually the main reference. Collins gives

    ion n. electrically charged atom or group of atoms

  22. Thanks Chifonie and manehi
    I too raised an eyebrow at INDRIS, only having heard of INDRI, but if it’s in the dictionary………….

    Many ions are groups – sulphate, nitrate, carbonate, ammonium for example. In fact the majority must be, as there are only 100 or so types of atom, and quite a few of those never form individual ions.

    I’m having trouble matching the parts of speech of STEALTH and “in a discreet manner” – STEALTHILY would seem to be indicated.

  23. Thanks Chifonie and Manehi. I had 9 across as “ethos” as I couldn’t see how “ethic” could be plural (moral values) and so missed 7 down. Had not heard of a “riddle” as a sieve or screen before. Frustrating to miss those last couple but enjoyable nevertheless.

  24. I, too, found SW corner trickier but I blame it on cross-pond spelling (labor/labour & plow/plough). Enjoyable as I’m starting to be able to solve by parsing, so miracles do happen!

  25. Julie @ 23: Re ‘riddle’- It’s so hot down under that you may not need them, but here in the UK we ‘riddle’ a fire by agitating the grate to let the bits fall through. So it’s both a noun and a verb.

  26. Others have suggested that the clue for INDRIS contains unnecessary words. Is it possible that ‘offending’ is to be read cryptically as ‘off-ending’, meaning that you take the ends off ‘mind’ and ‘risks’?
    Probably not, and it would still be unnecessary – but I can’t help feeling that something else is going on.
    Thanks to Manehi and Chifonie. I especially liked the clues for SHORTBREAD and SNOWPLOUGH.

  27. Thanks Chifonie and manehi

    SeanDimly @ 26

    I think that’s probably the intent, but if so there seems to be little requirement for ‘Piece of’. Chofine’s surfaces are always excellent, but I wonder if here the surface has been over-polished?

  29. muffin @22, the definition is “a discreet manner”, perhaps a sentence like “He moved with stealth”, “He moved with a discreet manner”, i.e. “with discretion”, might work ?

  30. I had “ethos” at first for the same reason as Julie@23 but ETHNIC is better. I didn’t know INDRIS but it seems OK to me as does LION. Indeed, I can’t see anything to complain about with this. It was a gentle solve but fitted my mood today- so I enjoyed it!
    Thanks Chifonie.

  32. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi. I had to look up INDRI-INDRIS (the latter was not listed in the sites I checked) and needed help understanding LEGLESS. Last in was LEAGUE (I kept coming up with alternatives that did not work). Lots of fun here.

  34. Thanks Chifonie and Manehi. I found the last two day’s offerings easier. It’s a wavelength thing. I can never complete a Rufus, and know I wouldn’t have when I see the completed grid. It’s not always about the difficulty, it’s something else. I could see that this was not too taxing, but there were certain leaps that just took me a while to make. Not complaining though. I really enjoyed it.

  35. Thanks all
    Although the SE corner took a while, mainly because I did not know he word idris, this was generally easier than my recollection of this setter.

  37. I have exactly the same observation to make as beery hiker @4), and therefore Brendan as well (@36). I noted the following interesting definitions, some of which could be called ‘slippery’ (some of these are words that are part of answers):

    1 nominate = present
    2 ethic = moral values
    3 weep = keen
    4 flippant = saucy
    5 labour camp = punishment
    6 party = association
    7 league = group

    Of these, 1 to 4 are clearly supported by dictionaries. Of these, 2 is an unexpected singular but is perfectly ok, as in ‘work ethic’. Until today I didn’t know 1, 3 or 4 and would not myself use ‘nominate’, ‘keen’ or ‘flippant’ in these ways. Slippery? Strictly no. Strange? Yes. I have learned something here, but sadly may never use what I learned.

    I thought a labour camp was a place for punishment. This was slippery!

    The last two are interesting because I would have inverted the definitions:

    party = group
    league = association

    Slippery? Possibly.

    That’s all, except to say that my overall impresion of this crossword is very positive. I enjoyed completing it without references/aids on a train journey today. Trouble was evidently taken on the clue constructions and surfaces, and I appreciated that. The crossword as a whole was not difficult, but it was entertaining.

    Colin, I haven’t seen you today. Did you try the crossword and if so how did you get on?

    Thank you Chifonie and manehi.

  38. Thanks manehi and Chifonie.

    Zipped through this, only needing to return to NOMINATE and PARITY as my last pair in.

    I thought SNOWPLOUGH was good too – although properly it’s an attachment to a vehicle rather than the vehicle itself surely.

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