Guardian 27,161 – Rufus

by

The usual quick solve for a Monday morning. There are fewer of Rufus’s trademark cryptic definitions than usual in this one, but I have quibbles about quite a few of the cues, not to mention the glaring typo in 24a. Thanks to Rufus.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. HEALER Bitter admission to female doctor (6)
ALE (bitter) in HER
4. IGUANA Union leader upset again about a creeper (6)
(U AGAIN)*, though the wording of the clue suggest it should be U + AGAIN*
9. BUNG A bribe for Cork? (4)
Double definition
10. PRESENT DAY Just now — or just Christmas? (7,3)
Double definition
11. TAILOR Others acquire their habits from him (6)
Cryptic definition
12. CANARIES Is able to sign for cage birds (8)
CAN (is able) + ARIES (astrological sign)
13. REPAIRMAN Salesman, flier and maintenance worker (9)
REP (salesman) + AIRMAN
15. LAIR Hide away from the French and American tax service (4)
LA + IR (Internal Revenue? – as far as I know the US tax authority is always known as the IRS)
16. PUMP Well-used footwear? (4)
Double definition – you might pump water out of a well
17. ADHERENTS Followers stand here, confused (9)
(STAND HERE)*
21. MOUSSAKA Doctor is going to ask us about a dish we’ve eaten abroad (8)
MO + (ASK US)* + A – some of us have eaten moussaka at home (and perhaps never abroad)
22. SEDUCE Tempt French duke into a bishop’s domain (6)
DUC in SEE
24. FAMILY TREE It’s branches are of relative importance (6,4)
Cryptic definition, with a wince at the incorrect “it’s”
25. NILE Runner has zero energy (4)
NIL + E
26. CANONS Rules for clergymen (6)
Double definition
27. ADDERS Cold-blooded calculators? (6)
Double/cryptic definition
Down
1. HAULAGE Enter US city in a huge new kind of business (7)
LA (Los Angeles) in (A HUGE)*
2. ANGEL An ugly leg but a heavenly body! (5)
AN + LEG* – do angels have bodies?
3. EMPEROR In pre-Rome constitution he was the ruler (7)
(PRE-ROME)*
5. GREENS Political party on course (6)
Double definition, though surely greens would only ever be part of a course
6. ALTERNATE Showing unusual talent, are to take turns (9)
(TALENT ARE)*
7. AMATEUR He’s not paid when taking a friend over the old city (7)
A MATE + UR
8. FETCH AND CARRY Realise and convey how to act the part of a servant (5,3,5)
FETCH (realise) AND CARRY (convey) – I’m not sure about the first part: Chambers gives reach or attain’ and ‘to be effective’, which might just about cover it, but I’m not convinced
14. ADMISSION Entry to a commercial office (9)
AD + MISSION
16. PROSAIC Boring publicity men I take into account (7)
PROS (public relations officers) + I in AC
18. EAST END Upset at dense part of London (4,3)
(AT DENSE)*
19. TACKLES They are made to lift up or to bring down (7)
Two overlapping definitions – as in block-and-tackle and rugby tackles respectively
20. CANYON Grand study about some in deep depression (6)
ANY (some) in CON (study). ‘Grand’ seems to be redundant
23. DANTE Five hundred bet on a poet (5)
D + ANTE, giving the Italian poet, as well as Rufus’s alter ego in the FT

42 comments on “Guardian 27,161 – Rufus”

  1. Thank you Rufus and Andrew.

    I was pleased to hear Marian Keyes, the Irish novelist, promoting the
    therapeutic value of cryptic crosswords on Desert Island Discs. I’ve often argued
    that fresh air, exercise, mental stimulation and TIME are worthwhile therapies
    for dark periods. I owe my sanity, and perhaps life, to a month in a darkened room
    with a Listener crossword. A modicum of success also encouraged me to try bridge
    again, after a gap of 25 years, having given it up as a game for those less dense than me.
    It all goes to show what can be done by we ‘Bears-of-Little-Brain’ with a healthy
    dose of bloody-mindedness.

  2. I took the GREENS as being on a golf course.

    Second time lately we’ve had “it’s” for “its” — standards are slipping.

  4. Thanks, Andrew. I was also concerned about FETCH at 8D but thought that an item at auction might fetch (or realise) £50, say. And I’d agree with Flavia @2 that the GREENS must be part of a golf course, though I hadn’t seen it myself.

  5. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

    A failure for me as I had, without much thought, entered a semi-parsed DONNE for 23d. I was puzzled by the “grand” in 20d too; I suppose that it’s intended to suggest the “Grand Canyon”, but it’s in the wrong place in the clue.

    I liked REPAIRMAN!

  9. 15 ac LAIR. In Rufus’ defence (not that he needs it) may I offer:
    the French L (L – as in l’amour for example), American = A, tax service = IR?
    A quick solve and all the better for that on a sunny morning in Northumberland.

    Thanks Andrew and Rufus.

  10. We had plenty of smiles in this pleasant start to the week. And apart from the redundant apostrophe, we think your quibbles are a bit harsh, Andrew. Maybe we agree about IR in the US. Favourites include 10 and19. Thanks Rufus and Andrew

  11. I wasn’t convinced by IGUANA as a creeper. In what sense? Just as a lizard? And I’m another who lazily put in DONNE, but couldn’t parse it of course. Liked TACKLES, PUMP and PROSAIC. Thanks to Rufus and Andrew.

  12. Thanks, Andrew and Rufus.

    Apart from the debatable FETCH, surely 8A is barely cryptic? The AND CARRY has exactly the same meaning in the “wordplay” and in the definition.

    On the whole, though, fewer groans than some.

  13. Thanks for the blog, Andrew. This was a typically enjoyable Rufus start to the week. Yes, there were a couple of gremlins – “Grand” needed a question mark and the unforgivable “it’s” – but the rest sparkled as usual. My favourite today was the simple yet elegant PUMP. Thanks, Rufus!

  15. Enjoyable start to the week. Thank you Rufus and Andrew.

    We were unsure about FETCH, but the comments by Flavia @3 and Brian-with-an-eye @4 explain that nicely, thank you both.

    Neither of us noticed the apostrophe in 24a. This is particularly embarrassing as we were listening to the Today programme and an article about a man in Bristol who corrects apostrophes by night.

  16. All pretty straightforward as Rufus usually is, but pleasant enough

    Thanks to Rufus and Andrew

  17. To all those who are clinically allergic to misplaced apostrophes; there is a programme at 20.00 this evening on BBC R4 about a chap in Bristol who has made himself an apostrophe vigilante, stealing out in dead of night to apostrophise and de-apostrophise offending shop-fronts with customised equipment. Sounds unmissable.

  18. New word for me was BUNG =bribe.

    My favourite was IGUANA. (I took it as AGAIN* about/around U)

    Thanks Rufus and blogger.

  19. On the subject of the wayward apostrophe, is anyone as outraged as I am by the change of name (about 13 years ago) by the hospital correctly spelled and always pronounced “St Thomas’s” to “St Thomas'”? Aaaaaarrrgh!

  20. Not one of Rufus’s best, perhaps, but there was still a lot to enjoy here. IGUANA looks okay to me: I agree with michelle’s reading @ 18. It wouldn’t surprise me if the goof in 24a was an addition by the crossword editor. Favourites for the neat surfaces were EMPEROR and EAST END.

    Thanks to Rufus and Andrew.

  22. I agree with every one of Andrew’s quibbles and found the apostrophe error absolutely shocking.

    On the subject of erroneous apostrophes, over here in France there are hundreds of examples of misplaced or unnecessary apostrophes in shop signs. There have been times when Englishness was fashionable and just putting in an apostrophe anywhere added just the necessary English touch.

    To get back to the puzzle, did anyone else think that DEALER was a perfectly acceptable entry for 11a until it became evident that HAULAGE was correct for 1d? I admit that this might be a little too gritty for Rufus’ style (I had to get that apostrophe in).

  24. Thanks to those who have provided better explanations of GREENS and FETCH.

    (The grammar vigilante needs to pay a visit to Cambridge to fix this horror, though strictly speaking it’s not a grammatical error.)

  25. A lot of quibbles today! I thought this was Ok. I must admit I didn’t clock the errant apostrophe so I wasn’t offended. Probably just a typo so my day isn’t spoilt. I never thought of DEALER for 11ac, or DONNE for 23 dn for that matter. Nice start to the week.
    Thanks Rufus.

  26. 13a) not too keen on SalesMAN in clue for RepairMAN. Bit clunky.

    on top of the misplaced ‘Grand’ in 20d), there were a few too many extraneous words in the clues today …

    e.g. 15d) while you could justify making Lair from the whole clue, you could take out ‘and American’ and it would still make sense; and in 12a) also ‘cage birds’ makes the answer a bit obvious – why not just birds?

    8d) would be more elegant if simply ‘Realise and convey a servant’s task’ or ‘job role’

  27. Thanks all
    Finished all but 4ac before lunch, I was sure it was a plant unknown to me.
    Suddenly, after lunch I put the I at the start and realised (not fetched) it was an animal!

  28. Usual undemanding start, held up by thinking HEN not HER for the female at 1a. Oh, and dashed in DONNE at 23d, like the silly boy I am.

  29. Thanks to Rufus and Andrew. Since I just put a check/cheque in the mail, I can confirm that it was addressed to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). P.S.: I enjoyed this puzzle.

  30. Feeling completely indifferent is probably the most rational response to the fate of the wretched apostrophe, which, despite numerous artificially constructed counter-examples, serves no useful purpose whatsoever.

    Now the gerund, on the other hand . . . . .

  31. ACD: you have the jump on me. I usually wait until a late-night run to the Post Office on the 15th to go pay the IRS.

    And yes, no American ever calls it just IR. (The only thing I can think of over here for which IR is an abbreviation is “injured reserve,” a sports doohickey where players nursing long-term injuries can be put so they don’t take up a roster spot.)

    BUNG was entirely new for me in either sense (the word is simply not part of American English); otherwise, this was solved in about fifteen minutes, with all the eyebrow-raising that others raised earlier.

  32. I had RIGEL at 2D until the very last minute. Other than that, plain sailing. Thanks to setter and blogger.

  33. Buddy @ 30 — It is always useful to have written forms that differentiate between homophones in the spoken language. Spoken English abounds in homophones, represented in written English by all manner of spelling variants and punctuation conventions. Cf. the difference between romanized (Pinyin) Chinese, which represents the sounds of a homophone-heavy language, and the traditional Chinese writing system which establishes the different meanings of homophonous words.

  35. Well a quick one today solved over supper. I would have preferred crawler to creeper in 4ac and I too entered Donne without really thinking it through. Shame about “it’s”; though it’s a common enough error there is still little excuse.

  36. Couldn’t fill in SW corner having entered ORDERS for 26ac and then lost interest when it quite clearly didn’t fit.

  38. Mikko @37
    A tailor makes clothing (“habits”) for other people.

    Not the best clue, but fairly typical of Rufus. I had it only pencilled it until I had the crossers.

  39. John E @33

    If each written word had only one meaning, cryptic crosswords would be far less enjoyable. Fortunately, beyond the crossword clue, context (almost) always resolves any ambiguity. So, as an aid to understanding, useful is very precisely what the apostrophe isnt.

  40. If you are fluent in a language and familiar with a subject under discussion, context resolves most ambiguities most of the time. In circumstances where comprehension is more of a challenge, every marker of precise meaning (including the apostrophe) has a useful purpose. The more languages one studies, the more obvious this becomes.

  41. As someone who is (was) prone to bunging in half-parsed clues I’m pleased to say I resisted the Donne trap today. It was an odd solve for me as I looked at it this morning and only got about 8 solutions and thought “but this is Rufus and others say it’s straightforward”. I came back to it this evening and filled the rest of it with ease – other resistance from 1d and 19d which was my LOI and favourite clue. Once again the brain demonstrates its weird magic. Thanks Rufus and Andrew.

Comments are closed.