A better than average Rufus today.
Normally, I find it hard to blog a Rufus puzzle without being accused of being unfair to him. I’m glad to say that this morning’s puzzle was, in my opinion, much better, with some very good clues (10a, 17a, 18a, 30a, 6d, 13d…).
I didn’t like to cryptic definitions at 25a and 14d, as I felt they weren’t terribly cryptic, and it’s a shame that “church” was used twice in the space of three down clues to indicate CE.
Thanks Rufus.
| Across | ||
| 9 | OPERA | Given time, a small work becomes a major one (5) |
| OP (small work) + ERA (time) | ||
| 10 | ATTENTION | Standing order, rigidly obeyed (9) |
| When told to stand to sttention, one does so rigidly. | ||
| 11 | INANIMATE | Foolishly maintain Spain is without vitality (9) |
| *(maintain) + E (vehicle registration identifier for “Spain”) | ||
| 12 | OFTEN | Many times decimal (5) |
| OF TEN | ||
| 13 | HEARSAY | Two ways to learn languages, it’s rumoured (7) |
| You learn a language by listening and speaking, so HEAR and SAY | ||
| 15 | SCARLET | New cartels in the red? (7) |
| *(cartels) | ||
| 17 | IDEAL | Thought trainee perfect (5) |
| IDEA (thought) + L (learner, so “trainee”) | ||
| 18 | TIC | Sign of nerves in a politician (3) |
| Hidden in “poliTICian” | ||
| 20 | INERT | Nitre treated like nitrogen (5) |
| *(nitre) | ||
| 22 | ARTISTE | Performer tires at appearing in Variety (7) |
| *(tires at) | ||
| 25 | NINEPIN | One of a group knocked down in an alley (7) |
| (Barely) cryptic definition | ||
| 26 | BREAD | Money raised by word of mouth (5) |
| Homophone of BRED (raised), indicated by “by word of mouth” | ||
| 27 | TAP DANCER | One taking steps to make himself heard (3,6) |
| A tap dancer is not only a visual artist, but the noise his tap shoes make are also part of the act. | ||
| 30 | BACKWATER | Support drink that can’t be diluted in remote area (9) |
| BACK (support) + WATER (drink that can’t be diluted) | ||
| 31 | TIARA | Top decoration for a woman (5) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FOCI | Provided encircled commanding officer upset with meeting points (4) |
| <=IF (provided) “encircled” C.O. (commanding officer) | ||
| 2 | DELAWARE | State of being guided upwards with knowledge (8) |
| <=LED (guided) + AWARE (with knowledge) | ||
| 3 | MAGI | Silver wrapped up in note for old priests (4) |
| Ag. (silver) “wrapped up in” MI (note) | ||
| 4 | CATALYST | Agent changes last act around the 4th of July (8) |
| *(last act) “around” (Jul)Y | ||
| 5 | STRESS | Tension disturbed rest on ship (6) |
| *(rest) in SS (“on ship”) | ||
| 6 | INVOCATION | A fashionable career in conjuring (10) |
| IN (fashionable) + VOCATION (career) | ||
| 7 | PISTOL | Mistress Quickly’s husband may be fired (6) |
| Double definition. Mistress Quickly married Pistol in Shakespeare’s Henry V. | ||
| 8 | ANON | Unidentified girl accepts ring (4) |
| ANN (girl) accepts O (ring) | ||
| 13 | HAIFA | Bertha, if asked, provides port (5) |
| Hidden in “bertHA IF Asked” | ||
| 14 | SPLASHDOWN | A drop in the ocean (10) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 16 | TITAN | Small bird and an enormous one (5) |
| TIT (small bird) + AN | ||
| 19 | CONSPIRE | Scheme for church to contain prison outbreak (8) |
| C.E. (church (of England)) “to contain” *(prison) | ||
| 21 | ESPECIAL | Particular mixture of ale and spice (8) |
| *(ale spice) | ||
| 23 | THENCE | From there, one may see the point on church (6) |
| THE + N (north, so “point”) + C.E. (church (of England)) | ||
| 24 | ENTITY | Body essence (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | BABE | Child born before Lincoln (4) |
| B(orn) “before” ABE (Lincoln) | ||
| 28 | ASTI | Wine that sparkles when it is reflected (4) |
| AS (when) + <= IT | ||
| 29 | REAR | Stern breed (4) |
| Double definition | ||
*anagram
Thanks Rufus and loonapick
I wrote in the three down the LHS, then most of the across ones were write-ins too. Unfortunately these included SKITTLE for 25a, which held me up a bit!
Favourites were DELAWARE (lovely clue, I thought) and REAR.
Thank you to Rufus and loonapick.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Interestingly, loonapick, I did like 25a NINEPINS and 14d (my LOI) SPLASHDOWN, both of which I found amusing for their double meanings.
I agree with your objection to the use of the CE for Church twice in the puzzle, loonapick.
I also felt I may have seen that idea for 26a BREAD/Bred clued similarly before.
However I thought clues like 13a HEARSAY, 2d DELAWARE, 6d INVOCATION, and 29d REAR made up for these quibbles.
Sorry muffin, we crossed, or I would have noted those similar “likes”.
Quite straightforward. The 3 edge down clues went in at once. But there were lots of smiles. An enjoyable start to the week. Thanks Rufus and loonapick.
Thank you Rufus and loonapick.
A pleasant start to the week. I, too, liked the clues for DELAWARE, INVOCATION, HEARSAY and REAR, as well as those for ATTENTION, OFTEN, CATALYST and TAP DANCER.
All pretty straightforward but pleasant enough, except that the Mistress Quickly reference went over my head. I am struggling to understand why nitrogen is inert too…
Thanks to Rufus and loonapick
[It’s pretty difficult to get nitrogen gas to react with anything, due to the very strong triple bond between the atoms in the diatomic molecule. I think this justifies “inert”, even though it will react with oxygen at high temperature or if sparked (hence nitrogen oxides in car exhaust gases), and the Haber process reacts it with hydrogen to give ammonia.
It also reacts with burning magnesium to give a nitride, which forms ammonia too when wetted.
Nitrogen is used to give an inert atmosphere in some types of welding – aluminium, for instance. It was also used in filament light bulbs originally, though now argon is used,as it’s even more “inert”.
Even the “inert gases” – helium to radon – aren’t actually inert, and are now called “noble gases”.]
Thanks muffin – my school chemistry is pretty rusty, but I’m sure I’m not the only one whose first reaction was to question it!
Held up a little in the SW until the clever HEARSAY unlocked what remained.
No real Monday grumbles from me either. I might have had a moan about nitrogen being inert, given its presence in compounds from fertilisers to acids, but muffin @7 has cleared that one up.
A pleasant enough start to the week though I’m sure it was far too easy for all the experienced solvers out there. By coincidence ARTISTE(S) also appears in today’s Quick Crossword which i generally use to get my brain in gear before tackling the cryptic. Thanks to Rufus and loonapick and also to muffin @7 for the free chemistry lesson!
Forgive me if this question belongs in another part of the site, but I was curious to see how frequently the word ASTI crops up as an answer (@beeryhiker has answered the question re puzzles in the G). I entered the word in the search facility, and it returns hundreds of results; however, most of these are for puzzles which do not have the word ASTI as a grid entry.
Am I doing something wrong?
baerchen @11 – sadly there is no easy way to search this site for solutions without getting results that contain references in comments, and references to words that contain the search string like elASTIc. The Google whole word search is slightly better, but it can be frustrating persuading Google to show you all results for a search with that many matches. Perhaps somebody should write a program…
@beeryhiker
Thanks for the reply; I suspected as much
Thanks Rufus and loonapick.
Fairly straightforward, although I thought Quickly was ‘fast’ at the beginning.
My favourite was TAP DANCER.
muffin@1: I also put in SKITTLES. Nice surfaces as always from Rufus, and I liked HEARSAY, DELAWARE and FOCI. Thanks to R & l.
Quite a nice puzzle. I agree with pretty much everything that Julie @2 said- and now I expect I’ll have to go and work in the garden despite the sweltering heat! Whinge- grizzle!
Thanks Rufus
Thank you to Rufus and loonapick for a gentle, and as usual witty, start to the week.
Baerchen @ 11 – Asti certainly seems to be the favourite aperitif drink in crosswordland – I have even seen it clued by Azed no less. Otherwise red is more generically consumed to wash down the ide and ling, while the argument rages over whether one is eating lasagna or lasagne …
Rufus had some wonderful innovative clues today. Liked ‘drink that can’t be diluted’ – still needed checkers to sort that one. Was held up by the state, THENCE, and Mistress quickly who I perhaps should have known but didn’t, but got there in the end.
Many thanks Rufus and loonapick
muffin@7- you took the words out of my mouth or should I say “I wish I’d said that” re INERT.
[@Marienkäfer
I generally keep a bottle of Asti in my etui in case I run into any esoteric coteries of chums]
Thanks to Rufus and loonapick. As usual with this setter I paused over several items (TAP DANCER, TIARA, ENTITY) – can this be right? – but much enjoyed the process.
A pleasant diversion. I got them all in last night except the state in my own country — I tried really hard to to jam “Kentucky” in (it does fit), with “ken” = “knowledge.” This morning it was obvious, as so many clues are the next day.
Why does “especial” = “particular”?
Thanks, Rufus and loonapick.
… because they mean the same thing in an especial/particular context.
I put in “estate” for 24 down and was quite surprised to find it should have been “entity”. A senior moment on my part, perhaps. Otherwise, good stuff, thanks.
This was enjoyable. Unlike loonapick I really liked SPLASHDOWN which held me up for a while.
[Baerchen, Marienkaefer: Asti makes me behave like a rake or roue – I’ll take a spin in my Model T Ford hoping to meet a young lady with plenty of SA; you know, an It girl. Sometimes my old china Ian comes with me (he’s a Scot). But when I’m feeling pi, I’m TT. On those occasions I ponder the example of the only priest I know, Eli, and the charitable works of Princess Di (who was of course the daughter in law of ER). Sometimes I think I’ll pack it all in and breed okapi and elands.]
Like Martin, I had ESTATE for 24d and I failed to parse 28d, but otherwise a good enjoyable start to the week. Last in, with a groan, was TAP DANCER. I liked HEARSAY, INSERT, DELAWARE.
Thanks Rufus and Loonapick
Thanks copmus (and also for the mention on the Guardian site).
As a great Rufus fan I found lots to enjoy here – 10a, 14d and 21d, amongst others. My only quibble is with 13a: surely languages are “spoken” rather than “said” (?) Though, having spoken that, earlier this month Qaos defined the disgusting Esperanto as “it’s said” and nobody apart from me seemed to mind very much, so maybe English as I understand it is a-changing.
Thanks to both setter and blogger.
Thanks to Rufus and loonapick (esp for OPERA which set the uvula somewhat a-gaggle) but no throat-clearing otherwise.
Nice to find everyone in such good form – chemistry lessons no less! and an apologetic reverse throat-clear on my part as a result. So much thanks to Muffin@7 and the stalwart back-up offer from copmus@19.
For my own part on this sunny afternoon when I birdied the 10th and my friend birdied nothing, the only cloud on the horizon is ENTITY=essence. Anybody?
Got the one x ? = 1 captha.
Excellent, JimS.
Enjoyable but inexplicably I put omega for the first clie!
I’m the bloke who mentioned freeloaders last week blog about the G. In financial straits.
I notice it’s going tabloid, and all who get the crossword for nout should try and read thec letter by Albert Beale in today’s paper.
Don
Don Morris @31
Re your ongoing rant re “freeloaders” paying “nout” (sic) for the Guardian.
While I was abroad in Germany for ten years the Guardian and Times Crosswords were not available from abroad. I happily paid a Crossword Subscription of about £25 per annum per paper. This amounted to about £1 per puzzle because in those days I only had time to do the weekend puzzles and I was back in England roughly every second weekend.
The Times still maintains this charge in England and I am still a member.
I would happily pay for access to the Guardian Crosswords but I draw the line at contributing to the survival of Guardian “journalism”. It is without doubt the worst load of clickbaiting biassed trash I have ever had the misfortune to read and in my opinion should not be encouraged.