Guardian Cryptic 27,333 by Arachne

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Arachne is always a pleasure, with some truly excellent surfaces. Favourites were both 1s, 14ac, 22ac, 27ac, 2dn and 16dn.

Across
1 MASCARA Bit of slap and tickle starts to arouse my sus­picions about artist (7)
“slap” meaning make-up
“tickle” is an anagrind for the starting letters of ‘A[rouse] M[y] S[uspicions]’; plus CA=circa=”about”; plus R[oyal] A[cademician]=”artist”
5 IN STOCK Battered tins of cake regularly disappearing off the shelf (2,5)
(tins)*; plus O[f] C[a]K[e] with regular letters disappearing
9 NARKS Partially unmask rancidly repellent police spies (5)
=an informer
Hidden and reversed/”Partially… repellent” in [unma]SK RAN[cidly]
10 STAIRHEAD Vacuously self-important ass in top-flight location (9)
=the level space at the top of a flight of stairs
Vacuous or emptied of contents S[elf-importan]T; plus AIRHEAD=”ass”
11 TRADE UNION Rudely intrude on a group of workers (5,5)
(intrude on a)*
12 MARL Clay (Muhammad Ali) routed Liston to begin with (4)
=a type of clay
fist letters of M[uhammad] A[li] R[outed] L[iston]
14 HIGHFALUTING Pretentious reporting of theft in Israeli port (12)
sounds like/”reporting of”: ‘Haifa looting’=”theft in Israeli port”
18 COMMUNICABLE Catching Tommy, Eunice bounds away into lead (12)
=as in infectious
[T]OMM[y] and [E]UNIC[E] with their “bounds” or outer letters taken away; all inside CABLE=”lead”
21 LURE Tempt government to swap sides (4)
RULE=”government” with R[ight] and L[eft] as “sides” with their positions swapped
22 DISCONCERT Throw dance party close to Oban? Sure thing! (10)
DISCO=”dance party”; plus [Oba]N; plus CERT=a “Sure thing”
25 SUPERHERO Perhaps Wonder Woman cured our herpes (9)
(our herpes)*
26 OVINE Sheepish old climber (5)
O[ld] VINE=”climber”
27 SHROOMS They offer trips and the ultimate in luxurious hotel accommodation (7)
=magic mushrooms can offer hallucinatory trips
the ultimate letter of [luxuriou]S; plus H[otel]; plus ROOMS=”accommodation”
28 SO THERE Cry of defiance from drunkard at this point (2,5)
SOT HERE=”drunkard at this point”
Down
1 MINUTE Very small, quiet nursing home (6)
MUTE=”quiet” around IN=”home”
2 SCREAM English dons get lost and cry (6)
E[nglish], which “dons”=puts clothes on=goes inside SCRAM=”get lost”
3 ABSTEMIOUS I mess about, struggling to be self-disciplined (10)
(I mess about)*
4 ARSON Reckless lighting of gas rings upset head of Npower (5)
AR=argon=”gas”; plus O’S=more than one O=”rings” reversed/”upset”; plus N[power]
5 INAMORATA Sailor, one from the Gulf, picked up a lover (9)
TAR=”Sailor” plus OMANI=”one from the gulf” all reversed/”picked up”; then plus A
6 SIRE Father and husband leaving county (4)
H[usband] leaving ShIRE=”county”
7 OPERATIC Not very proactive, dithering like Norma? (8)
=like Norma, an opera by Bellini
(proactive)* without the v[ery]
8 KIDOLOGY Art of teasing youngster over diary entry’s conclusion (8)
KID=”youngster”; plus O[ver]; plus LOG=”diary”; plus [entr]Y
13 PULLING OUT Quitting position, adopting extremely uncivil language (7,3)
PUT=”position”; around the extremes of U[ncivi]L plus LINGO=”language”
15 HAIRINESS Dangerous quality of much air in Essex (9)
=as in a ‘hairy’ or risky situation
hidden in [muc]H AIR IN ESS[ex]
16 OCULISTS Last of ascetic and devout desert mystics seeing doctors (8)
=specialists in eyes or seeing
The last letters of [Asceti]c and [devou]t, leaving/deserting OcCULtISTS=”mystics”
17 IMPROPER Rude little devil runs after guy? (8)
IMP=”little devil”; plus R[uns] after ROPE=”guy”, a rope used to hold e.g. a tent in place
19 VENICE Allen losing everything in Sin City (6)
[All]EN losing all=”everything”, inside VICE=”Sin”
20 ATHENE Wise Olympian subsequently enters races alternately (6)
=Greek goddess of wisdom; Olympian as in Mount Olympus
THEN=”subsequently”, entering AE = alternate letters of [r]A[c]E[s]
23 CROSS Hybrid vehicle not a huge success at first (5)
C[a]R=”vehicle” without “a“; plus OS=oversize=”huge”; plus S[uccess]
24 TRIO Small group of patriots (4)
Hidden in [pa]TRIO[ts]

31 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,333 by Arachne”

  1. Thanks Arachne and manehi

    I found this a lot harder than recent Arachne puzzles, with several I didn’t parse and wordsearches needed for SHROOMS (which Chambers Word Wizard didn’t know!) and OCULISTS. Not as much fun as usual either, though I did like HIGHFALUTING (usually spelled without the final G?) and HAIRINESS.

    Characteristic of Arachne that her SUPERHERO is female!

  2. Arachne’s puzzles are indeed always a pleasure. I’ve been finding that they have been getting easier for me (whereas Paul’s seem to be getting harder), but the great surfaces and wit are ever-present. I made a mess of DISCONCERT (had DISCONNECT and therefore couldn’t parse it). Loved MASCARA, MINUTE, SCREAM, INAMORATA, OCULISTS . . . Many thanks to Arachne and manehi.

  3. Thanks manehi, and all hail the wondrous Spider Woman.

    I wonder if 27 indicates some sort of misspent youth?

    As for 14, Ronnie Barker used the same pun in his hilarious parody of ‘Ragtime Cowboy Joe’. If the powers that be will indulge an old man a little, here it is:

    And finally, the public are warned to be on the lookout for Joseph Gomez, a Spaniard, last heard of living in Tooting, whose mother was a nun in Barcelona. A one-time flautist with a symphony orchestra, he is wanted for looting in Haifa, where he worked on a farm. The police urge people to look out for a Haifa-looting fluting Tooting son of a nun from Barcelona, part-time ploughboy Joe

  4. Thanks for a great blog, manehi – as usual, I share all your favourites, with the addition of PROACTIVE.

    A super puzzle, brimming with wit and cleverness, as always, with many a sigh of satisfaction or chortle as the pennies dropped.

    Huge thanks to Arachne for brightening up an exceedingly dull morning. [And many thanks to the old man for the reminder – I knew that clue rang a bell. 😉 ]

  5. I really enjoyed this, as per usual with Arachne’s puzzles. Lovely way to start the morning, challenging but not impossible. LOI was DISCONCERT, probably because that meaning of throw threw me.

    My favourite was 14ac, though I usually think of it as ” hifalootin’ ” as in
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KjNQNHYWUs
    which always comes to mind when I hear the word. Other versions are available.

    Many thanks to Arachne for the puzzle, and manehi for the blog.

  6. crossbar, thanks (I think) for the link. At the risk of going off-topic even further than I already did, the wonderful Max Geldray did the song solo on The Goon Show, and made his harmonica sound like an accordion, so the effect was a bit like tha Chipmunks in a non-vocal version. (All Chipmunk records can be improved by removing the vocals.)

  7. Thank you Arachne and manehi (and Conrad Cork!).

    A real pleasure for me after yesterday, I found Paul’s puzzle too hard. Did anyone else rush in at first with STANSTEAD at 10a? I failed to parse OCULISTS and SHROOMS was new.

    So many lovely clues, among my favourites were those for MASCARA, STAIRHEAD, HIGHFALUTING, DISCONCERT, SO THERE and OCULUISTS.

  11. A true joy – and not just because a couple of other crosswords today had made me wonder whether my cryptic grey matter had gone on its holidays 🙁

    Splendid penny dropping moments, great clues and now I’m smiling again

    Thanks to Arachne and Manehi too

  12. Great puzzle and blog. She is on top form and interesting when something like 27 defies the average word wizard. Held me up a bit, use of check button, then back to the clue-read carefully and follow the instructions-then check in Chambers (or urban dictionary).
    Satisfied customer.

  14. Thanks to Arachne and manehi. Very enjoyable (as usual). I needed help parsing OCULISTS and took a while spotting KIDOLOGY (I did not initially match up “log” and “diary”) and CROSS (my LOI). MARL is not part of my working vocabulary, but I did learn it when I first encountered Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing where Beatrice rejects marriage: “Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?”

  15. Another excellent puzzle from one of my favourite setters, a little trickier than some of her recent puzzles, but very entertaining. Too many favourites to list.

    Thanks to Arachne and manehi

  16. Something else occurs to me for 5d. There is a brilliant rhyme for this in the Hippotomamus song penned by wonderful and badly missed Flanders and Swann:
    ” His inamorata adjusted her garter
    And lifted her voice in duet.
    Mud, mud etc “

  19. My experience was the opposite of cookie@7 and in line with BloggintheBlog@9. There were too many that I didn’t get or couldn’t parse for it to be fun for me – and I’m an Arachne fan. Unlike others I didn’t see the surfaces as small smooth or have many pdms – but I’m sure I would have if I’d solved them and would be saying what a great puzzle it was. That said I did have smileys by 22,25a and 17d.
    Thanks for bringing me back to earth Arachne and to manehi for enlightening me.

  21. Great fun from Arachne today (as usual). Excellent, witty surfaces and clever clueing throughout. My list of favorites would probably include most of the clues in the puzzle, but I have marked stars next to MINUTE, MASCARA (my LOI), IN STOCK, OPERATIC, COMMUNICABLE, SUPERHERO, SHROOMS, and my CotD, HIGHFALUTING. Many thanks to Arachne and manehi and the other commenters. This is what I call ending the week on a high note!

  24. Wonderful stuff as ever from Spider Woman – perhaps a little more tricky than usual, although I only needed help with the parsing of 16d (silly now that I look back on it!).

    Top three for me were 14&26a plus 19d.

    Many thanks to Arachne and to manehi for the blog.

  25. The slang meaning of slap was new to me. Drag queens refer to applying makeup as beating one’s face. I wonder if slap has a similar origin?

    Stairhead and Athena with an ‘e’ were also both new to me. Shrooms I was already familiar with but I’ve always been too chicken to try them – for in that sleep of shrooms what dreams may come do give me pause.

    Favorites: PULLING OUT and SCREAM.

  26. To paraphrase Jane, spiderful stuff from the Wonder Woman.
    We all know that Arachne’s crosswords are always very good but the difference this time – for me/us – was that it was a bit more challenging than recently.
    While I feel for BlogginTheBlog @9 [I’ve always thought Arachne the best, but she seems to be getting a little bit too clever for me], you won’t hear me complain today!

    Favourites? Dunno.
    Arachne is a setter who cares about the quality of every single clue, always allowing herself some easy ones too (like 11ac, 12ac or 24d).
    But if you want some: MASCARA, DISCONCERT, SHROOMS, OPERATIC, PULLING OUT, HAIRINESS (etc etc).

    Together with Puck’s and Radian’s by far the best puzzle of the week (in all papers).
    [I thought]

  29. Quality!
    I’m with sil – I enjoyed this even more than A’s recent offerings as she’s a little more at her tricksiest best.
    Favourites were HIGHFALUTING and SHROOMS, of course!
    Huge thanks, Arachne.

  31. Had problems with bottom right corner because I had Jacob for 26a (thinking of climbing his ladder) and another word for sheep!

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