Guardian Cryptic 27,079 by Picaroon

by

Very nice…

…with a bit of a theme in the clues and answers around the long solution MAKE A SONG AND DANCE ABOUT. Initially tried TIE RACK for 7dn. Favourites were 10ac, 11ac, 5dn and 3dn. Thanks, Picaroon.

Across
1 CATTLE They ruminate about ex-PM not reaching a conclusion (6)
  C[irca]=”about”, plus ATTLE[e]=”ex-PM not reaching a conclusion”
4 LAMENT Bemoan period of doing without cakes before noon (6)
  LENT=”period of doing without”, around AM=”before noon”
9 ALBI Magridal Bizet’s penned in city by the Tarn (4)
  Albi is a city on the river Tarn in France. Hidden inside [Madrig]AL BI[zet]
10 PINSTRIPED Longed to receive team’s kit with lined motif (10)
  PINED=”Longed”, around STRIP=”team’s kit”
11 SPOT ON Exactly what the bare-bosomed have rejected (4,2)
  NO TOPS=”what the bare-bosomed have”, reversed or “rejected”
12 DIES IRAE Perish, then arise miraculously in this hymn? (4,4)
  a Latin hymn. DIE=”Perish”, plus (arise)*
13 BOOM TOWNS Head of municipality to pull in favours for thriving areas (4,5)
  M[unicipality], plus TOW=”pull”, all inside BOONS=”favours”
15   See 16
 
16, 15 CAKEWALK  It’s easy to rouse Irish port, according to Spooner (8)
  Spoonerism of ‘wake Cork’=”rouse Irish port”
17 GERM CELLS Bacterium gets bought, we’re told, or gametes (4,5)
  GERM=”Bacterium”, plus CELLS which sounds like ‘sells’=”gets bought, we’re told”
21 HECATOMB Sacrifice no time in playing Bach motet (8)
  a sacrifice of 100 cattle in Ancient Greece. (Bach motet) minus t[ime]… it still has another ‘t’, which makes “no time” a little awkward
22 SICKLE Symbol of peasant‘s morbid and empty life (6)
  SICK=”morbid”, plus an empty L[if]E
24 STRONG SUIT Tenor disheartened in melody fit to be forte (6,4)
  T[eno]R, in SONG=”melody” plus SUIT=”fit”
25 REAR Stern king with sensitivity for music (4)
  =the REAR of a ship. R[ex] plus EAR=”sensitivity for music”
26 RAGMEN They collect scraps of some early jazz pieces (6)
  RAG=”some early jazz”, plus MEN=”pieces” e.g. in chess
27 MEDLEY Tinker half-heartedly with perfumery’s ultimate potpourri (6)
  MED[d]LE=”Tinker” with half of its heart remaining, plus [perfumer]Y’s ultimate letter
Down
1 CALYPSO Seductress‘s lacy pants with edging of pearls round (7)
  =the nymph who enchanted Odysseus. (lacy)*, plus P[earl]S, plus O=”round”
2 TWIST Son tucked into goose; he sought seconds (5)
  Oliver TWIST asked for more gruel. S[on] inside TWIT=”goose”=a fool
3 LEPANTO The French show attack on Turks (7)
  =the site of a naval battle between a Catholic coalition and the Ottoman Empire. LE=”The [in] French”, plus PANTO=”show”
5 ANTHEM Patriotic work, extremely American, but not US? (6)
  A[merica]N, plus THEM=”not US”=’not us’
6 ELIMINATE Strike off priest I meant to reform (9)
  ELI=a “priest” in the book of Samuel, plus (I meant)*
7 TIE-BACK Fixture to support curtain feature (3-4)
  TIE=”Fixture”, plus BACK=”to support”
8   See 14
 
14, 8 MAKE A SONG AND DANCE ABOUT Fuss over Madonna, due back on a stage to be choreographed (4,1,4,3,5,5)
  (Madonna due back on a stage)*
16 CREATOR Composer‘s moving tear, captivated by French horn (7)
  (tear)*, inside COR=”French [for] horn”
18 MUSETTE Speechless about group’s bagpipe (7)
  MUTE=”Speechless” around SET=”group”
19 LULLABY What may soothe infant with head dropping (7)
  LULL=”soothe”, plus [b]ABY=”infant” with the head letter dropping away
20 BOOGIE Hum and turn round — that is rhythmic music (6)
  B[ody] O[dour]=”Hum”=stink; plus GO=”turn” e.g. in a board game, reversed/”round”; plus I.E.=”that is”
23 CAROL Motor lubricant but not one for a girl (5)
  CAR O[I]L=”Motor lubricant”, but without a I=”one”

43 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,079 by Picaroon”

  1. Lovely puzzle, this. My two favourites were the long one and LULLABY, both of which had an &littish quality to them. I’m not convinced that ‘half heartedly’ clearly enough indicates the removal of a ‘d’ in meddle for MEDLEY (it could also refer to ‘ed’ or ‘le’) but the enumeration and crossers made it simple enough so perhaps I shouldn’t quibble…

    Thanks for the blog, manehi and grateful thanks to Picaroon.

  4. With a partner who is forever asking me to hang and rehang curtains, TIE BACK was first in! Clearly more DIY practice required by manehi and copmus @2!

    A really enjoyable crossword from Picaroon whose puzzles I always enjoy. I did have to use electronic assistance for HECATOMB which is new to me: I’d solved the wordplay but several permutations fitted the cross checkers and I had no way of knowing which was right. I also had to check that MUSETTE was a bagpipe. Otherwise, everything solved sweetly and there were many clues to savour. The long one was neatly clued and a real help to making speedy progress elsewhere. Favourites include LEPANTO (no idea how I remembered that!), ANTHEM, LULLABY but top prize is shared between the equally excellent PIN STRIPED and STRONG SUIT.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  5. Thanks, manehi.

    Many excellent clues, as always – my favourites today were CALYPSO, PINSTRIPED, ANTHEM and the long one.

    LEPANTO made me look up G K Chesterton’s stirring poem, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47917 which I remember enjoying reading aloud at school.

    I don’t understand the objection to the clue for MEDLEY: the ‘heart’ of ‘meddle’ is ‘dd’.

    Many thanks, Picaroon – I thoroughly enjoyed it.

  6. Another fine crossword as we have come to expect from Picaroon. The bar for the rest of the week has been set pretty high.
    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

  7. Thank you Picaroon and manehi.

    A fun puzzle with its theme of MAKE A SONG AND DANCE ABOUT, but I searched “Magridal” in the dictionary just to make sure! I had no problem with MEDDLE “half-heartedly”, but the “no time” in “motet” was rather puzzling, incidentally if you take the middle “t” out you get champagne, but if you take the end “t” off you get a speck of dust…

  9. Much lighter of touch than Vlad yesterday, which is probably why I enjoyed it far more – that, and my ability to solve it with barely a quibble in something like a reasonable time.

    The DIES IRAE clue needs its question mark for ‘hymn’, as surely it’s part of the Requiem Mass, often set to music – a rather different thing.

    Surprised no-one’s picked up in the typo for 9a, which has Bizet penning a ‘magridal’! Thankfully, does not affect the envelope.

  10. Oops a typo in my comment on a typo. Most embarrassing. Surprised no-one’s picked up on the typo in the clue for 9a … etc

  11. Sorry about 9ac (“all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order”). I must have read the clue at least ten times and failed to spot the obvious. I hope it didn’t detain anyone for too long.

  13. Thank you Manehi and Picaroon. Like most I wondered if “madrigal” was misspelt for a reason and so looked up DALB as a potential town on a river Tarn somewhere but no joy and of course ALBI came up instead. I notice that Manehi even ‘corrected’ the spelling in his description of the wordplay. Glad it wasn’t a trickier clue. But that certainly did not detract from an enjoyable puzzle that was quick without being easy, if that makes sense. I think my favourite was 4ac with ‘cakes’ as the amusing envelope indicator.

  15. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    Really fun, as ever with this setter, but I found it also surprisingly easy, though I was lucky enough to be familiar with all the less common words – HECATOMB from previous crosswords, I’m sure! My only quibble was with the Spooner clue – not my favourite type – in which WALK and CORK are a bit different in pronunciation for me.

    Favourites were SPOT ON and CALYPSO.

    Thanks Trailman for confirming the rule that any post pointing out a typo will contain one ):

  17. A pleasure from start to finish. It was enough of a challenge to make it enjoyable to solve, and there was a lot to admire in the imaginative and elegant clues (contrasting with the more laboured creations of the past two days if I may so so, or even if I may not).

    The only query I have is the presence of ‘cakes’ in 4a LAMENT. The clue was readily solved, but this containment indicator, if it is that, came as a surprise to me.

    Lepanto is one of a number of narrative poems that I remember well from my school days, making 3d one of the easier ones for me today.

    In my rush to the finishing line I bunged in TIE-RACK at 7d (as others did, I see). It was an easy mistake to make, but the clue is clearly fair.

    As beery hiker says (@6), this crossword sets the bar for the rest of the week – and perhaps beyond, I might add.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

  21. Easier than some of Picaroon’s puzzles but quite entertaining nonetheless. The long answer leapt off the page and set the tone for the rest. I liked CAKE WALK and MEDLEY (LOI) and quite a lot more. This is shaping up for another good week.
    Thanks Picaroon.

  22. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. For me the long clue did not jump off the page but did surface eventually – and I too started with TIE-RACK and did not know ALBI. Still, a very enjoyable puzzle.

  23. The containment indicator in 4a is indeed ‘cakes’ – if mud cakes your leg, it could just about be said that the mud contains the leg.

  24. More thumbs up from me for a lovely puzzle, with a little bit of learning thrown in. I had not appreciated that Calypso was anything but a West Indian song and I had no previous knowledge of “Dies Irae”. Neither did I know that “Cor” is French for French horn. Thankfully the clueing and/or cross letters made all three solutions reasonably obvious so I didn’t have to resort to this page prior to completion. I especially liked PINSTRIPED and BOOM TOWNS. Thanks to Picarron and Manehi. PS Is it “clueing” or “cluing”

  25. Robert @23
    Thanks. For some reason I didn’t see it despite knowing it. ‘Cakes’ means ‘covers’, more or less, and I can’t quibble with that.

  26. lancsolver @24
    Re ‘clueing’ vs. ‘cluing’.
    The two dictionaries I have to hand don’t give complete information. Collins says only ‘cluing’, but it gives ‘cueing’ from ‘cue’, which seems inconsistent. Chambers says nothing about ‘clue’ but allows both ‘cueing’ and ‘cuing’ from ‘cue’.
    My preference is for ‘clueing’, consistent with ‘cueing’ which I also prefer.

  27. I liked this, and it didn’t take too long. The long clue is interesting, because you can either read it with “fuss over” as the definition and “to be choreographed” as the anagrind, or vice versa!

    Of course, I did raise my eyebrows at the clue for CAKEWALK, since I (and most Irishmen, I warrant) fully pronounce the R in Cork, and also the L in walk, making them sound not a bit alike.

    The cakewalk is, of course, among the many songs and dances here.

  30. PeeJay @29, gametes are GERM CELLS – the COED gives “germ cell n. 1 a cell containing half the number of chromosomes of a somatic cell and able to unite with one from the opposite sex to form a new individual; a gamete. 2 any embryonic cell with the potential of developing into a gamete.”

  31. Hi lancsolver @24 and Alan B @26 re cluing / clueing

    This caused some lively discussion some time ago and, since dictionaries are, as Alan says, ambivalent, to say the least, we seemed to have settled into an easy truce, each commenter using whichever spelling looked / felt right to him / herself.

    I would never write ‘clueing’, any more than I would write ‘pursueing’ [or ‘dineing’]. The usual practice is to drop the final ‘e’ in verbs before adding ‘ing’ [apart from when it’s needed as a guide to pronunciation, as in ‘singeing’ – and I know I’m oversimplifying here].

    It seems to be purely a matter of choice. I shall continue to use ‘cluing’ and respect fellow-commenters’ ‘clueing’ – I think they’re in the majority! I suspect ‘clue’ as a verb exists only in Crosswordland, anyway. 😉

  32. Eileen @31
    That’s a good summary of what has been discussed here before on this particular aspect of English spelling.
    But now consider hoe/hoeing and vie/vying. Or perhaps not!

  33. Thanks manehi and Piracoon.

    Enyojed this today much more so than yesdertays, especially the comment about “all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order”.

    Mist the the me ofcourse.

  34. Alan B @32

    ‘Or perhaps not’, indeed!

    As I said, pedant though I am, in this case, I’m quite happy to settle for whatever each commenter feels comfortable with – and to continue to delight in the idiosyncrasies of our English language. 😉

  37. Cookie @ 36

    Compare

    “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding”

    with

    “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”

    Same author, about two years apart. English is, as you say, a mish-mash (or mishmash) 🙂

  43. Alan B @25

    Thanks for your thanks. It was ungracious of me not to congratulate Picaroon on the nifty bit of misdirection – Lent is certainly a ‘period of doing without’, but for a lot of people it’s a ‘period of doing without cakes’. In the way that skillful setters do, Picaroon has given ‘cakes’ two roles.

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