Nutmeg on a Monday showing her gentler side.
I don’t remember seeing Nutmeg on a Monday, but she has given us a Monday-strength puzzle here. Not too challenging, and the four long solutions give the Monday solver an in to most of the other clues.
I only had one minor quibble at 19ac, but other than that, this was an enjoyable, solvable challenge – just the ticket after some of the weekend’s toughies.
Thanks, Nutmeg.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TOULOUSE LAUTREC | He drew out clues to lure a criminal (8-7) |
| *(out clues to lure a)
Referring of course to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, (1864-1901), the prolific French post-Impressionist, closely associated with the decadent nightlife of Paris at the end of the nineteenth century. |
||
| 9 | REPTILIAN | Loathsome agent returning to fix it (9) |
| REP (“agent”) + <+NAIL IT (“to fix it”, returning) | ||
| 10 | STEAM | Cook finally serves crew (5) |
| (serve)S + TEAM (“crew”) | ||
| 11 | ENDWISE | Upright sage pursuing objective (7) |
| WISE (“sage”) pursuing END (“objective”) | ||
| 12 | EVIDENT | Nutmeg’s got over depression, that’s clear (7) |
| <=I’VE (“Nutmeg’s”, got over) + DENT (“depression”) | ||
| 13 | RAN | Last of our media men dispersed (3) |
| Last letters of “ouR mediA meN“ | ||
| 14 | EXPANDS | Old vessel, extremely dangerous, blows up (7) |
| EX (“old”) + PAN (“vessel”) + D(angerou)S | ||
| 17 | TAKE OUT | Remove date (4,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | INTEGER | Number, say, coming or going in Bury (7) |
| e.g. (“say”, coming or going) in INTER (“bury”)
Not convinced by “coming or going”, which to my mind would indicate a palindrome, rather than a reversal. |
||
| 22 | SNAFFLE | Horse bit fairy lovers on the way back (7) |
| <= ELF FANS (“fairy lovers”, on the way back) | ||
| 24 | ICE | Dessert on this is ready and waiting (3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | ALL EARS | Eager to gather complete cereal crop? (3,4) |
| ALL (“complete”) + EARS (“cereal crop”) | ||
| 26 | GAVOTTE | Was benefactor hosting immoderate dance? (7) |
| GAVE (“was benefactor”) hosting O.T.T. (over the top, so “immoerate”) | ||
| 28 | OWNED | Admitted wearing dress, topless (5) |
| (g)OWNED (“wearing dress”, topless) | ||
| 29 | THE ARCTIC | Region‘s temperature and ice chart changing (3,6) |
| T(emperature) + *(ice chart) | ||
| 30 | THE END OF THE LINE | Family’s last member is the limit! (3,3,2,3,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | THREE MEN IN A BOAT | Coxed pair booked? (5,3,2,1,4) |
| A coxed pair would be “three men in a boat”.
“Three Men in a Boat” (1889) by Jerome K Jerome is the source of one of my favourite quotes – “I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours” |
||
| 2 | UPPED | Gave birth — all but first raised (5) |
| (p)UPPED (“gave birth”, all but first) | ||
| 3 | OPINION | Bulb obscuring private eye’s view (7) |
| ONION (“bulb”) obscuring P.I. (“private eye”) | ||
| 4 | SPIDERS | Weavers briefly disperse in disarray (7) |
| *(dispers) | ||
| 5 | LENIENT | Liberal leader in news that is breaking fast (7) |
| N(ews) + i.e. (“that is”) breaking LENT (“fast”), so LE(N-I.E.)NT | ||
| 6 | UNSTICK | Free credit granted to global union? (7) |
| TICK (“credit”) granted to U.N. (“global union”) would be UN’S TICK | ||
| 7 | REELED OFF | Ran through and staggered out (6,3) |
| REELED (“staggered”) + OFF (“out”) | ||
| 8 | CAME TO THE RESCUE | Helped EEC cut horsemeat supply (4,2,3,6) |
| *(EEC cut horsemeat) | ||
| 15 | PETULANCE | Favourite uncle hurt about aunt’s initial pique (9) |
| PET (“favourite”) + *(uncle) about A(unt) | ||
| 16 | DUE | Expected sound of early precipitation (3) |
| Homophone of DEW (“early precipitation”) | ||
| 18 | ANN | Girl close to granny’s heart (3) |
| (gr)ANN(y’s) | ||
| 20 | GLADDEN | Info about youth meeting daughter, please (7) |
| GEN (“info”) about LAD (“youth”) meeting D(aughter), so G(LAD-D)EN | ||
| 21 | RISOTTO | Dish in Olympic venue’s very dry (7) |
| In RIO (“Olympic venue), SO T.T. (“very dry”) | ||
| 22 | SEGMENT | Fixed clothing US agents cut up (7) |
| SET (“fixed”) clothing G-MEN (“U.S. agents”) | ||
| 23 | ADVERSE | Unpromising poetry of the last 2000 years (7) |
| A.D. VERSE (i.e. “poetry” since the birth of Christ) | ||
| 27 | TUTTI | Just under half an ice cream for musicians, collectively (5) |
| Just under half of TUTTI-FRUTTI. (an “ice-cream” flavour) | ||
*anagram
In 19a, the ‘coming or going’ refers to the fact that it can be either INT(EG)ER or INTE(GE)R.
Thanks for the parsing of risotto, which I hesitated to enter, bemused by the OTT in gavotte.
Might be more explicit so say “Private Investigator” for opinion.
In @2, “to say”, not “so say”, of course. Muphry’s Law strikes again…
A little more challenging than a RUFUS, but nothing too tricky.
I enjoyed REELED OFF and THE ARCTIC.
Thanks, Nutmeg and loonapick.
This puzzle demonstrates that Nutmeg still has the versatility to set puzzles at a range of difficulties – this one was ideal for the Rufus slot – straightforward but full of lovely well-crafted clues. I particularly liked THREE MEN IN A BOAT.
Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick
What fun to have a Nutmeg on a Monday! Many thanks to her and to loonapick.
I really liked the four long clues around the edges.
1a and 1d went in straight away – always a confidence booster!
A bit of a global warming comment smuggled into THE ARCTIC, I thought.
I liked 19a, with the same parsing as Andrew@1. Not so keen on 28a, which works as a down clue but not so well as an across one. Easy stuff apart from the crossing answers at 9a and 2d. There was a similar clue to REPTILIAN not long ago, by Paul if memory serves. Thanks to all.
Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick
1d and then 1a were write-ins, so making it an easy (though enjoyable) solve. I liked the long ones in particular.
As has been said previously, this was a pleasant and not overly exacting puzzle – perfect for a Monday. There were many clues to enjoy with my personal favourite being GAVOTTE. Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick
Hovis @8: This is the one:
Paul 27230: Contemptible to hammer it through back (9)
Like Hovis, 9a and 2d were last ones in for me. The “n” at the end of 9a foxed me for a while.
This was a very good Monday puzzle. Not too hard but not too simple either. And there were quite a few clues/solutions that brought a smile.
Thank you Nutmeg and loonapick.
A very enjoyable start to the week.
My favourite clue was that for THREE MEN IN A BOAT, I am reading it for the umpteenth time at the moment.
Anyone else have a problem with 16d; couldn’t it equally well be DEW?
Thanks beery hiker@11.
@gasman. D’yew really think so?
@gasmanjack I quite often feel the same for the shorter soundalikes.
In this case I think “(Expected, sound of) early precipitation” is slightly more clumsy than “Expected (sound of early precipitation)” but I wouldn’t be certain.
Can anyone tell me in what context ‘news’ would be abbreviated to ‘n’? I get n=new, but not news, as in 5d.
swatty @ 18
In CNN (Cable News Network) for example?
Thanks Nutmeg; enjoyable puzzle, not that easy I thought.
Thanks loonapick for a good blog. swatty @18, it’s ‘leader in news’ that gives the N, I think.
Unconvinced by ‘reptilian’ to mean ‘loathsome’. Paul’s use a few weeks ago equally tenuous. I mean, I quite like reptiles (I have a pet iguana).
I didn’t find this especially easy -and I couldn’t see ALL EARS despite it being obvious now. I got the rest but they took me longer than the Monday slot usually does. The four long answers went in pretty quickly but I got bogged down on some of the rest e.g. REPTILIAN and LENIENT.
Thanks Nutmeg.
A nice Monday morning (or for me, Sunday night). Thank you, Nutmeg and loonapick.
Blaise @3 thanks for exemplifying the Murphy’s law of this blog — “an entry correcting a typo will contain a typo.” I do it all the time!
Peter@21: I fully agree. But a lovely puz apart from that—one I actually completed
This was a pleasant treat after a busy weekend. Nutmeg at her easier end, but it was none the worse for that. So many good clues with lovely surfaces; liked 1a & 1d particularly.
Thank you Nutmeg & loonapick.
To Swatty/Muffin @18/19: I’m still having problems with these single-letter abbreviations. I agree that in the setting of “CNN” or “ITN” (anyone remember that last?) “N” can represent “News” – but as part of the abbreviation, not as a stand-alone letter.
The sort of single letters that can, uncontroversially, be represented by complete words without an indicator, are things like H[ot], C[old], Y[es], N[o], points of the compass, etc. etc.
However, the broader usage has become so commonplace amongst setters – even the great and good amongst them – that I reckon we have to go with the flow!
I had fun stumbling along with TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (as he did, all his life!). Despite my having seen the movie (the one with Jose Ferrer) and read the book, and, and my recognising that it was a long anagram right from the start, it took me ages to unscramble it. I should have realised the value of the hyphen!
Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick. Nothing to add, though I did take a while before seeing (P)UPPED. Lots of fun.
I agree with FirmlyDirac @26 on the general principle: the fact that N stands for “News” in certain abbreviations such as CNN doesn’t justify using N as an abbreviation for News on its own. If one allows that, then the number of valid one-letter abbreviations becomes absurdly large. But in this case, Nutmeg is innocent, for the reason given by Robi @20: N is indicated by “leader in news,” not by “news” alone.
I’ll also defend 28a from Hovis @8’s criticism. “Top” can mean “beginning”, as in “Let’s take it from the top”, which to me justifies this usage even in an across clue.
Like Gasmanjack @14, I initially wrote in “dew” for 16d, but it definitely parses better as “due”.
FirmlyDirac @26
Very good point. I did have misgivings soon after I had posted. However as Robi and Ted have pointed out, Nutmeg is off the hook on this one.
Where are our resident scientists to advise on whether dew is precipitation?
FirmlyDirac @26, Ted @28
I agree too concerning the the false conclusion you come to if you take a single letter from an abbreviation like ITN [where N = network, incidentally] and say that it stands alone as an abbreviation for that word. It might do, but usually it does not and in principle it does not.
This topic was discussed here some time ago, where BBC was (I think) one example used to illustrate the ‘rule’: ‘B’ stands for ‘broadcasting’ only in that context (or of course in any similar one), but not on its own.
As has been said already, Nutmeg did not fall foul of this because she had ‘leader in news’ for ‘N’.
Hi Van Winkle
No problem with precipitation. Dew is deposited as a result of a change of state from vapour (gas) to liquid. One could argue that it matches the scientific meaning of “precipitation” more closely than rain does!
ACD @ 27. I must sheepishly confess that I thought of ‘tupped’ before I thought of ‘pupped’.
John @33
Another sheepish solver here, with ‘tupped’ as my first thought. However, I stuck doggedly at it, and ‘pupped’ sealed it. (I’m afraid it gets worse before it gets better.)
Many thanks Nutmeg, a delightful solve which raised quite a few smiles. I particularly liked EVIDENT, RAN, SNAFFLE, DUE, and many more.
A pleasure to meet you at the inquisitor meeting in Manchester last Saturday.
Many thanks loonapick for the excellent review which, for once, was not needed at all.
Another one to add to the gentle but enjoyable start to the week contributions. Like others 2d and 9a were LOsI. Many clues are worthy of a mention for their elegant simplicity – SNAFFLE, UPPED and OPINION are the ones I’ll name check. Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick – it’s rare I arrive here having parsed everything, and even rarer to see my parsing matches the bloggers!
John@33, Alan@34: I also thought I was beheading [T]UPPED. But after visiting here and discovering it was [P]UPPED, I looked up ‘tupped’. Apparently it refers to a different stage in the act of producing the lamb… Oops!
Alan@31: ITN = Independent Television News. Not ‘Network’. I checked on Wiki.
FirmlyDirac @37
Thanks for the correction. I should have known.
Thanks for the explanations for N=news. Robi @20 has hit the nail on the head I think. Not sure how I didn’t notice, now that it’s been pointed out.