This week’s Quiptic has now made its belated appearance. Apparently it was locked away in the crossword editor’s drawer, along with a pair of socks, a half-eaten cheese and pickle sandwich, and a bottle of Vladivar vodka.
But now that Pan’s engaging puzzle has been rescued we can enjoy a challenge that seems pitched at just the right level. There were a few head-scratching moments (ENDANGER and ANIMAL for me) but in the main everything seemed reasonably straightforward and there were some nice surface readings. Good fun.
There is one I can’t parse (13d PALATABLE), where I think the definition may be wrong.
Across | ||
1 | HOMEOPATH | Alternative practitioner‘s institution with old approach (9) |
HOME (institution) plus (with) O (old) PATH (approach) | ||
6 | DIVE | Holy man dropping in to grotty nightspot (4) |
DIVINE (holy man) minus the letters IN (dropping in) | ||
8 | ENDANGER | Stop bad feeling, reaching compromise (8) |
END (stop) ANGER (bad feeling) | ||
9 | BEACON | It’s used to warn travellers when pork product contains essence of horsemeat (6) |
BACON (pork product) containing (contains) E (essence of horsemeat, i.e. its middle letter) | ||
10 | REDDEN | Blush about taking date to secret hideaway (6) |
RE (about) plus (taking) D next to (to) DEN (secret hideaway) | ||
11 | PARMESAN | Strike about foreign names for cheese (8) |
A reversal (about) of RAP (strike) followed by an anagram (foreign) of NAMES | ||
12 | SPARSE | Poles taking English in short supply (6) |
SPARS (poles) plus (taking) E (English) | ||
15 | SEALSKIN | Locks up family in hide (8) |
SEALS (locks up) KIN (family) | ||
16 | BLIGHTED | Ruined by insight into plot (8) |
An insertion (into) of LIGHT (insight) in BED (plot) | ||
19 | ERMINE | Monarch has source of fur for ceremonial robes (6) |
ER (monarch) plus (has) MINE (source) | ||
21 | STALWART | Committed in support of last ground offensive by terrorist leader (8) |
An anagram (ground) of LAST, WAR (offensive) next to (by) T (terrorist leader, i.e. first letter of terrorist) | ||
22 | ANIMAL | Piece of bone rejected by a dog, say (6) |
A reversal (rejected) of LAMINA (piece of bone) | ||
24 | OBLONG | Shape of old pipe containing source of lead (6) |
O (old) BONG (pipe) containing L (source of lead, i.e. the first letter of lead). What has Pan been up to? | ||
25 | FRICTION | Tension caused by lie about king (8) |
FICTION (lie) containing (about) R (king) | ||
26 | TEES | What golfers use to help them hit balls into river (4) |
A double definition. What golfers use to help them hit balls = TEES. River = TEES | ||
27 | DALLIANCE | Flirtation shown by every setter during smooch (9) |
An insertion (during) of ALL (every) and I (setter) in DANCE (smooch) | ||
Down | ||
1 | HINGE | Type of joint involved in stretching elbow (5) |
An answer hidden in (involved in) stretcHING Elbow | ||
2 | MEANDER | Renamed new bend in river (7) |
An anagram (new) of RENAMED | ||
3 | ORGAN | Rang old battered thing making a noise in church (5) |
An anagram (battered) of RANG and O (old) | ||
4 | APROPOS | A rugby player turned up very fit (7) |
A (a) PROP (rugby player) plus a reversal (turned up) of SO (very) | ||
5 | HIBERNATE | Bed down for winter when the brain becomes fuzzy around 4th of November (9) |
An anagram (becomes fuzzy) of THE BRAIN containing (around) E (4th of November, i.e. fourth letter of) | ||
6 | DRAWERS | Where to store the work of artists? (7) |
A cryptic definition | ||
7 | VIOLATION | Member of the orchestra getting note regarding abuse (9) |
VIOLA (member of the orchestra) plus (getting) TI (note) ON (regarding) | ||
13 | PALATABLE | Real friend gets restaurant reservation (9) |
I may be being more than usually dense but I can’t parse this. I can see PAL = friend and A TABLE = restaurant reservation. But palatable doesn’t mean real, does it? Perhaps just an error (confusion with palpable, perhaps) | ||
14 | ESTRANGED | Separated in forest, rang Edinburgh (9) |
An answer hidden in (in) forEST RANG EDinburgh | ||
17 | GALLOWS | Governor’s first to get permits for execution site (7) |
G (governor’s first, i.e. first letter) plus (to get) ALLOWS (permits) | ||
18 | DUTIFUL | Recognising responsibility to start off audit, worried over flu outbreak (7) |
Two anagrams here. First an anagram (worried) of AUDIT without its first letter (start off) positioned above (over) an anagram (outbreak) of FLU | ||
20 | MOISTEN | Wet day to tour site redevelopment (7) |
MON (day) containing (to tour) an anagram (redevelopment) of SITE | ||
22 | ALIBI | A Liberal has one excuse (5) |
A (a) LIB (liberal) plus (has) I (one) | ||
23 | AWOKE | Stirred a pan close to fire (5) |
A (a) WOK (pan) E (close to fire, i.e. last letter of fire) |
Re 13dn PALATABLE/real
In defence –
If the masala dosa or fruit juice that I order and consume at a restaurant is particularly good, I might say “I liked it. It was real masala dosa” or “…It was real juice.”
Could 13d be an &lit? A real pal gets you a reservation at a restaurant where the food is palatable, not one where it isn’t? It’s still a big stretch.
Other than that, I enjoyed this, favourites being BEACON and HIBERNATE.
Thanks, Pan and nms.
I’m glad you agree with the comment I made about 13dn on the Brummie blog (before the Quiptic went online). I’m pretty sure that Pan was thinking of PALPABLE. Good attempts at a defence at 1 and 2 above, but I’m not convinced, and certainly not at Quiptic level.
I found this Quiptic quite difficult. I failed to solve 4d, 11a, 15a, 23d and I could not parse 22a.
Thanks nms and Pan
I found this difficult too. Though partly it was my own fault for over-complicating clues. For example, having solved OBLONG I went back to 1d with a completely different sort of joint in mind! Consequently HINGE was my last in despite being one of the easier clues. Thank you Pan and nms.
Thanks Pan and nms
Do I get any credit for never having heard of bong = pipe? I found this overall quite difficult for a Quiptic, with the offbeat clueing that you alluded to, nms,
I suppose there’s no point in insisting that ALIBI does not mean “excuse”,
Thanks, nms.
Put me down as another who found this pretty hard. Could be that because it was another Grauniad cock-up it was tackled on Tuesday evening with a glass of red rather than on Monday morning with a cup of coffee and a cheese-and-pickle sandwich.
I’m with others on PALATABLE/PALPABLE; and muffin, there is absolutely no point whatsoever insisting on that. The ALIBI battle was lost some time ago. Also IDOL. I’m still fighting the good fight on UNINTERESTED/DISINTERESTED and FEWER/LESS, however.
Thank you Pan and newmarketsausage.
An enjoyable puzzle, but rather difficult for me. BONG was a new word. I particularly liked DIVE, HINGE, FRICTION and HIBERNATE.
PALATABLE in this instance means acceptable to the taste, “palatable food”, “real food”, but it is not a good clue for a QUIPTIC.
Cookie @8: I still think that that’s a stretch too far, whether for a Quiptic or not. I cannot see that ‘real food’ is synonymous with ‘palatable food’.
Cookie @8 and Rog @9
I agree with Rog. If “real food” is food that has natural ingredients rather than being highly processed and stuffed with artificial additives, there is a lot of ‘real’ food I find extremely unpalatable and a lot of food I’d hesitate to call ‘real’ which is extremely tasty anyway.
jennyk @10, Rishi @1 gives the other meaning for PALATABLE, which is tasty, enjoyable etc., in contrast to my post@8 where PALATABLE means the food is edible but not special. I think his defence is better than mine.
jennyk @10: thanks for elucidating my own rather foggy thought processes.
Cookie @11 – as above, I wasn’t convinced by Rishi’s defence either. I’d be interested to know Pan’s own thoughts. My suspicion that he was thinking of PALPABLE remains, er, palpable.
Rog @13, perhaps better if Pan had used another term for the friend, “Agreeable friend…”, or something similar.
jennyk @10, food is food, a nutritious substance that maintains life and growth; whether it is PALATABLE or not is another matter.
Cookie @14: yes, that would have done very agreeably.
Cookie @14
I agree too.
“Alibi” is in Chambers with “excuse” among its definitions. I reckon that’s good enough for me.