A rare appearance from Quaiteaux – an unfamiliar setter to me and, judging by a trawl through this site, a first Indy puzzle since November 2015..so welcome back!
An enjoyable, eclectic(?) mix – a Greek letter, modern-day ‘SEXTING’, some grammatical specifics and an obscure counting rhyme – with maybe a slight preponderance of anagrams (and partial anagrams).
1A induced an immediate laugh-out-loud moment, and one was amused for the rest of the puzzle!
My LOP – last one parsed – was 9D – COUNTING SHEEP…it had to be that from the definition and crossers, but it took a while before I was brave/desperate enough to Go-ogle ‘sheep’ with ‘pimp’! I also took a while to see ‘across’ as ‘a’ and ‘x’ (cross) in 18D – very devious…
And those of a certain generation might understand why, all throughout, I couldn’t help thinking back to Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau – ‘not tonight, Quaiteaux’! Like the Inspector’s indestructible batman, the late-great Burt Kwok, Quaiteaux certainly keeps us on our toes and puts up a good, but fair, fight!…
I couldn’t see any theme or Nina – please comment below if you did!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | WE ARE NOT AMUSED | Mate saw our need to change for the Victoria Line (2,3,3,6) | (much quoted, Queen) Victoria line / anag, i.e. to change, of MATE SAW OUR NEED |
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| 9A | CASTE | When admitted into court, start to exude class (5) | class / C_T (court) around (admitting) AS (when), plue E (starting letter of Exude) |
|
| 10A | GUARDIANS | In Asia, drug distributed after I left by those in charge (9) | those in charge / anag, i.e. distributed, of IN AS( |
|
| 11A | UGLIEST | Its glue dissolved, becoming most hideous (7) | most hideous / anag, i.e. dissolved, of ITS GLUE |
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| 12A | SALTIER | What might be volatile row becomes even more piquant (7) | even more piquant / SAL (sal volatile, ammonium carbonate) + TIER (row) |
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| 13A | TANGO | Dance beat with scat (5) | dance / TAN (beat) + GO (scat!) |
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| 15A | ADDRESSEE | Supplement extremely rare supplies; exclude the one dispatches were meant for (9) | the one dispatches were meant for / ADD (supplement) + RE SS EE (extreme letters of RarE SupplieS ExcludE) |
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| 17A | NET ASSETS | When unable to move screens outside you’ve got these resources available (3,6) | resources available / NET_S (screens) around AS (when) + SET (unable to move) |
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| 19A | BRACT | BT tower’s hidden within foliage (5) | foliage / B_T around (hiding) RAC (car recovery service, ‘tower’!) |
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| 21A | SEXTING | Exchanging dodgy messages with former partner in crime (7) | exchanging dodgy messages / S_TING (crime) around EX (former partner) |
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| 23A | IMAGIST | Admission I dislike old fogeys like Pound and Lowell (7) | like (Ezra) Pound and (Amy) Lowell (both IMAGIST poets) / I’M AGIST (admission that I dislike old fogeys!) |
|
| 25A | EMBRACING | Displaying affection wildly can be grim (9) | displaying affection / anag, i.e. wildly, of CAN BE GRIM |
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| 26A | OUTED | Exposed old vehicle to Australian desert initiation (5) | exposed / O (old) + UTE (vehicle, Australian, utility truck) + D (initial letter of Desert) |
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| 27A | PRESENT PERFECT | Ideal gift given before he’s apologised or she’s reconsidered, say (7,7) | (grammatically,) ‘he’s apologised’ or ‘she’s reconsidered’, say / PRESENT (gift) before PERFECT (ideal) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | EPSILON | Euripides’ first character makes one slip (7) | Euripedes’ first character (Greek E) / anag, i.e. makes, of ONE SLIP |
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| 3D | REEVE | Always rising to welcome English official (5) | official / RE_VE (ever, always, rising) around (welcoming) E (English) |
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| 4D | NIGHTMARE | Right name assigned to nocturnal terror (9) | nocturnal terror / anag, i.e. assigned, of RIGHT NAME |
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| 5D | TEARS | Drops rents (5) | double defn. / TEARS can be both drops (crying) or rents (openings, fissures) |
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| 6D | MODAL VERB | May could (and should) have provided examples – bad move to switch around Left and Right (5,4) | (grammatically, again,) ‘may’, ‘could’ and ‘should’ have provided examples (of MODAL VERBS) / MODA_ VE_B (‘anag, i.e. to switch, of BAD MOVE) around L (left) and R (right), respectively |
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| 7D | SCABIES | Disease starts to spread – cases are being ignored, everyone’s scared (7) | disease / initial letters, or starts, of ‘Spread – Cases Are Being Ignored, Everyone’s Scared’ |
|
| 8D | DISORIENTATED | At sea, it’s dead wrong going round east (13) | at sea (/lost) / DIS_ATED (anag, i.e wrong, of ITS DEAD), going round ORIENT (east) |
|
| 9D | COUNTING SHEEP | Unable to sleep, pimp might be involved in this (8,5) | unable to sleep / From a traditional North of England sheep-counting rhyme – ‘yan, tan, tethera, methera, PIMP’! |
|
| 14D | OBSTINATE | Turn into beast, being stubborn (9) | stubborn / anag, i.e. turn, of INTO BEAST |
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| 16D | DISTINGUE | Striking diet, using bananas (9) | striking / anag, i.e. bananas, of DIET USING |
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| 18D | TAXABLE | Across-the-board hugs providing revenue for the government (7) | providing revenue for the government / T_ABLE (board) around A+X (across, i.e. a + cross) |
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| 20D | ABIOTIC | Inanimate cat I transported about – story of my life! (7) | inanimate / A_TIC (anag, i.e. transported, of CAT I), around BIO (biography, story of my life) |
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| 22D | GRIST | What’s ground for girls to be unhappy, dropping Latin at beginning of term (5) | what’s ground (grist to the mill!) / anag, i.e. unhappy, of GIR( |
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| 24D | ALOOF | Distant admiration initially when trick is turned on its head (5) | distant / A (initial letter of Admiration) + LOOF (fool, trick, turned on its head) |
|
Liked this. As a new solver for the independent, this was my first Quaiteaux. My, she does like her anagrams and what a great one to start of with. She also seems to like good grammar so apologies for ending my previous sentence with a preposition. Never met MODAL VERB before but guessed it from the clue. Didn’t understand the sal/volatile bit of 12a nor the pimp reference in 9d, so thanks to the 67th in the line of mc_rappers for the explanation.
I do like ‘lift and separate’ clues so 18d was a favourite. BRACT and DISORIENTATED took some teasing out.
Thanks to the cat twitterer for an enjoyable solve.
I had to do this one from a fellow fan of @thecatreviewer!
For me it started off gentle and enjoyable and then got rather tough, but still enjoyable.
I must confess to a couple of cheeky reveals to get me over the line. I also needed to look up the sal in 12a to understand it. I didn’t parse the sheepish one at all (but having seen the answer, am not at all sheepish about it) so thanks to mc_rapper67 for that – and for the rest, of course.
Lots of possible favourites (I did enjoy the Victoria Line), but 20d seems to be the appropriate one to pick today.
Thanks to Quaiteaux for the puzzle. Happy Quaturday!
Mixed bag for me and first experience of this setter.1a very fine. Then a load of write-ins/obvious anagrams-followed by downright obscure things like 6d.Which totally prevented me from any chance of getting 19 which is a neat clue with an obscure answer(for me anyway).
I speak as one who thoroughly enjoyed Enigmatist, Tramp and Picaroon in this past week.
Chacun….
Welcome back Quaiteaux – and thanks for the blog mc_rapper67. (Note to Eimi: let’s see her more often.)
What a joy to solve. And as has been commented, the lady seems interested in grammar, so if Kathryn’s Dad is around (he’s a real stickler for it) he will be as happy as me.
I had no idea about the counting sheep answer except that it had to be that. Thanks for the enlightenment.
Sal volatile (pronounced voll -a – tilly)is what used to be called smelling salts, and I was unfortunate enough at primary school to have the stuff shoved under my nosed on the not infrequent occasions when I became faint.
Thanks to Quaiteaux for a very interesting puzzle and to mc_r for the blog.
I used the Clouseau ref myself earlier when discussing this pseudonym with a chum so you were not alone.
I rattled through this thanks largely to some extremely friendly anagrams but any early gloating came to grief in the SE corner where BRACT, IMAGIST and ABIOTIC were all too good for me even with the crossers.
Enjoyable and engaging stuff. I had a similar experience to baerchen @5 in that I got beat by the ones he did, though there was less rattling for me, just a steady and fun progression over the solving hour. Fave clue was 20d for the amusing surface. Many thanks to The Rater of the Cats for a nice puzzle and to The Man on The Mike for the enlightenment.
I had a similar experience as Kitty (@2), gentle start, tough to finish.
1ac is indeed a priceless clue.
But the ‘pimp’ thing in 9d went beyond me (got the answer, though).
I see the fun of the “BT / tower” combination but the answer is pretty obscure, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, I am still not sure whether 23ac should have ‘Pound and Lowell’ or ‘Pound or Lowell’.
Good, enjoyable crossword.
Forgot to say mc_rapper67, that I am entirely with you as regards the much missed Burt Kwok.
A mixture of write-ins and real head-scratchers for us but we got there in the end. Couldn’t parse COUNTING SHEEP though we should have recognised ‘pimp’ from its similarity to the Welsh ‘pump’, pronounced ‘pimp’, for ‘five’. LOI was IMAGIST; we guessed it was something to do with Ezra Pound and were going to google him but found our internet connection down so were reduced to trawling the dictionary for words matching the crossers and found Collins actually refers to Pound in the definition. A real facepalm moment when the penny dropped.
Thanks, Quaiteaux and mc_rapper67
Thanks for the various comments and feedback – I had forgotten to mention that I would be incommunicado in a field in the New Forest all weekend, so unable to respond with any punctuality…I have temporarily found an oasis of mobile signal!
Looks like this was fairly well received – with some head-scratching as to why Ms Quaiteaux doesn’t appear more often…
I’m glad to see people were more amused than the dear old Queen claimed to be, and certainly hope to continue to entertain in future. Thanks to mc_rapper67 for blogging, and to everyone who commented. I’d have replied sooner, but the sudden demise of both computers has left me dependent on my phone till now, and I don’t know how people find the patience to write more than a sentence on one.