I’ve said several times that I’ve run out of things to say about Picaroon’s puzzles – I just love them and it was a real treat to see his name this morning.
There’s all you’d expect here – witty cluing, excellent anagrams and great story-telling surfaces throughout. As usual, too many favourites to list. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Many thanks, Picaroon.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Rejected leading ladies with issue for Cats (5)
PUMAS
A reversal [rejected] of UP [leading] + MAS [ladies with issue!]
4 Deal with gender-fluid performer (8)
TRANSACT
TRANS ACT – a gender-fluid performer
8 Bungling subtitles, say, and hurried panning on film (14)
MISTRANSLATING
RAN [hurried] + SLATING [panning] after [on] MIST [film]
10 Try to block high priest’s self-indulgence (3,5)
EGO TRIPS
GO [try] in [to block] an anagram [high] of PRIEST
11 Hot dog with everything added (2,4)
IN TOTO
IN [hot] + TOTO [Dorothy’s dog]
12 Blow off steam during church services, dull affairs (3-6)
NON-EVENTS
VENT [blow off steam] in NONES [church services]
15 Groom accepting love causes depression (5)
COOMB
COMB [groom] round O [love]
17 See circle getting tick for ratio (5)
COSEC
C [see] + O [circle] + SEC [tick – as in ‘Hang on a sec / tick’]
18 Terrible evil associated with super criminal (9)
REPULSIVE
Anagram [criminal] of EVIL and SUPER
19 Female with heart of gold in close embrace (6)
ENFOLD
F [female] + [g]OL[d] in END [close]
21 He’s reserved large seafood sandwiches (4,4)
COLD FISH
CODFISH [seafood] round L [large]
24 Scrap elitist exams in philosophy (14)
EXISTENTIALISM
Anagram [scrap] of ELITIST EXAMS IN
25 Work on stage “flipping twaddle” ? a plus or a minus? (8)
OPERATOR
OPERA [work on stage] + a reversal [flipping] of ROT [twaddle] – in maths, ‘a symbol signifying an operation to be performed’
26 World traveller back from holiday with bad weather (5)
FOGGY
[Phileas] FOGG [‘Around the world in eighty days’ traveller] + [holida]Y
Down
1 Grill US bread, admitting I’m not sure it’s bread (12)
PUMPERNICKEL
PUMP [grill] + NICKEL [US bread – slang for money] round ER [I’m not sure]
2 Girl, nobleman’s accepted, fails to get right figure (9)
MISCOUNTS
MISS [girl] round COUNT [nobleman]
3 Man on board, fellow going to be more confident (5)
SURER
SUR[f]ER [man on board] minus f – fellow going
4 What cook may use with starter of tempura in batter? (3,6)
TIN OPENER
T[empura]+ IN + OPENER [ batter – definition by example, in cricket]
5 Idiot has no wife to join (4)
ALLY
[w]ALLY [idiot] minus w [wife]
6 Honing one’s Catalan? It’s really bad (9)
SATANICAL
Anagram [honing] of I’S CATALAN
7 Politician given party lodgings (5)
CONDO
CON [politician] + DO [party]
9 Sequence of misfortunes would be curiously theatrical (6,6)
DOUBLE WHAMMY
Anagram [curiously] of WOULD BE + HAMMY [theatrical]
13 Singer roughly covered by Elvis, or with Kinks (9)
VOCALISER
CA [circa – roughly] in an anagram [with Kinks] of ELVIS OR
14 Champion consumers of alcohol may do so (9)
SUPPORTER
SUP PORTER
16 1 and 6 doing cartwheels, making elementary combinations (9)
OXIDISING
Anagram [cartwheels] of I and SIX + DOING
20 Provide header for forward with team back on top (3,2)
FIX UP
F[orward] + a reversal [back] of XI [team] + UP [on top]
22 Sleepy, maybe, getting stuck into Cold War fiction (5)
DWARF
Hidden in colD WAR Fiction
23 Explicit message from church employee not on (4)
SEXT
SEXT[on] [church official minus ‘on’]
With NONES at 12ac, we could have had a micro-theme of hours of the Divine Office but Picaroon has chosen a more modern definition – which didn’t make it to my Chambers 12th edition 😉
Very enjoyable, LOI was 23 down…
Fully agree with Eileen – some really clever clues to tie the brain cells in knots. I liked the unusual use of man on board in 3dn (SURER) and also liked 4dn although it probably won’t appeal to our American solvers! LOI was MISTRANSLATING which I also thought very nicely constructed. One very minor whinge – I’m not fond of “see” as a clue for “C” in 17 across. Great puzzle though.
Eileen – me too! But my particular favourites were IN TOTO, EXISTENTIALISM, DOUBLE WHAMMY and OXIDISING. My only quibble is that a double whammy isn’t strictly speaking a series of misfortunes – merely two.
Excellent. For me a far better puzzle than yesterday’s not magical roundabout, because the clues are better! As well as those mentioned i liked transact and non-events
I reckon, and I dont think I am alone, that Picaroon and Arachne are King and Queen of surfaces.Such a pleasure to solve
Thanks Pickers and Eileen.
Hardest of the week so far for me, but I’m another in the Picaroon fan club so I don’t mind that much. It’s the ability to mislead that does it – anyone else try to put a T inside something that means batter at 4d?
Good to see a bit of maths involved too, with OPERATOR and COSEC.
FTC@2: I too dislike this new fashion for C=see with no indication.
Aside from that, some amusing clues (11a made me smile), but am I alone in wondering how Champion becomes SUPPORTER in 14d?
drofle@3
I don’t see why two events can’t constitute a series, albeit a very short one.
Thanks Eileen, I agree with you that Picaroon produced a real treat here. Just the right level of knottiness: challenging and entertaining without resorting to obscurities. I’ll have to add Picaroon to Paul on my list of favourite setters, as I haven’t been massively familiar with him before now.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
Another excellent puzzle, I’m close to sharing copmus’s opinion.
poc @ 7: you can support or champion an idea, policy, author etc, so you would be a champion or supporter of them.
@ poc I think champion is supporter as in “I’ve long been a champion of small businesses”, “the manager championed his new signing”.
Enjoyed this puzzle. NON-EVENTS and DOUBLE WHAMMY were my favourites. For a second I thought gender-fluid was an anagram, with “gender” the fodder and “fluid” the indicator. On that note I’m not sure “trans” and “genderfluid” are necessarily synonyms as much as adjacent or related terms, but I’m not certain on that.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
Thanks to Picaroon for a good, if somewhat tough puzzle, and Eileen for clarifying some of the bits of parsing which eluded me. Personally found this very tough (I often do with this setter). A slow start and in general a slow solve. I found I had to grind it out but got there in the end therefore maybe not as difficult as it felt. Last two in were coomb and cosec both of which needed a dictionary check. Thanks again to Picaroon and Eileen.
Thanks, Eileen. Among the many witty gems, 8a was my favourite. As a linguist with what my friends would say is a twisted mind, I frequently have the subtitles on, partly out of interest and partly because I can’t always catch what is being said and hate to miss the dialogue. Often the translation means the exact opposite of the original, and there are frequent misinterpretations of phrases that have been imperfectly heard and transcribed, with hilarious results. One of the best comes from the Italian subtitles for a Sopranos episode in which Vito is spotted in a leather bar by his cronies, who later describe him as ‘wearing chaps’. In Italian this was rendered as ‘with a naked bottom’. I could only surmise that this was because ‘chiappe'(kee-app-ay) is the not very refined word for ‘buttocks’, and in some northern Italian dialects becomes ‘ciap’, pronounced ‘chap’. One of those roll- off- the – sofa laughing moments.
I’m also in the Picachne fan club and this was a treat. Only two went in on the first pass but then another and another until everything was solved. It felt more like a gradual reveal than a grind and I never felt like giving up. I’d give 1d a special mention which Mrs W got from nowhere and that led to a smile raising parse and PUMAS which I didn’t parse. Loi was COSEC and I’m also not a fan of SEE for C with no indication, but this was my only quibble. Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
I’m a member of the Picaroon Fan Club too
Thanks to him and Eileen
Picachne-should be copyrighted!Love it.
Great stuff as always from Picaroon. Took me a while to find a way into this one, but once a few crossers were in place all became clear, though the NW corner held out longest with PUMAS last in.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen
Really excellent. Looked hard at first read but once I got into it was fun and well-compiled.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen. I agree, a great puzzle. I had only a vague memory of the term COOMB (rejected by my spell-checker) and did not know the math sense of OPERATOR, but the cluing was sufficient. I had no trouble with TIN OPENER as a US solver (see Frankie @2), but I do often run into problems with the many many UK terms for fool-idiot – in this instance [W]ALLY.
Very enjoyable and lots of fun with the excellent MISTRANSLATING as my favourite.
At the risk of flogging a dead horse, C for ‘see’ has been discussed here before. OK, fair enough, just because “it’s in Chambers” doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone will like it as a clue device, but it is at least justifiable, as you will see (repetition-mark this candidate down) if you look at the 3rd meaning of the word: “see, noun, The third letter of the alphabet (C,c)”.
A big thanks to Picaroon and Eileen
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
I found this really difficult, with several going in unparsed (including PUMAS, though I now think it’s a great clue!). My other standout was DWARF.
I’m with drofle on two not being a sequence.
Great puzzle and great surfaces. Foggy was last in as we couldn’t think of the 80 days man. Thanks to everyone
Like everyone else had a wonderful time with this wonderful setter. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen. I agree with drofle that there can’t be only two things in a sequence. Surely implied in the idea of a sequence is the possibility of working out what comes next (even if there are several possibilities).
This was another corker from Picaroon: nothing too hard, but jolly good fun.
Before I gave up listing favourite clues, I had ticked: EGO TRIPS for ‘high priest’; IN TOTO for the Wizard of Oz reference (also we have a Cairn Terrier); ENFOLD for not using gold standards ‘or’ or ‘au’; EXISTENTIALISM for a neat anagram; and DOUBLE WHAMMY (although I agree it’s unusual, I don’t see why two events can’t be a sequence: first one whammy, then a second!).
COOMB was the answer to a question I have never bothered to ask, and COSEC was an uneducated guess as I didn’t pay enough attention in Maths, so today was another learning day.
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
From beginners’ corner: couldn’t finish it, but enjoyed what I could!
Minor aside – I actually parsed 25a as OP (work) ERA (stage) rather than OPERA (work on stage), initially. I guess either works, do people think ERA is acceptable for a stage of time?
I also had similar doubts to meph@11 re trans and gender-fluid not being strictly interchangeable. But I suppose close enough for the purposes of a crossword, providing nobody got offended!
1961Blanchflower @24
How would you know that it’s a sequence if there are only two occurrences? There’s an old saying: “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action”!
Trans is having changed from one gender to another, whilst gender fluidity can mean being at any point in between. One such is Jack Monroe, who successfully sued the homophobe and gobshite Katie Hopkins for a substantial amount of cash, I’m very happy to report. They (that’s right) were living neither as male nor female.
Anyway, nice to see Picaroon in. As someone said, the clues are better than yesterday’s trundling roundabout, and that makes things much easier for the solvers, and that me, so I’m happy.
Many thanks.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
I only got one on the first post-prandial pass but eventually it all came together and I enjoyed the tussle.
As Wordplodder @20 says, the phonetic spelling of ‘C’ has been discussed here before and can be found here. Interestingly, the spelling in the link is given as ‘cee,’ although Chambers gives both cee and see. I hate the use of textspeak in crosswords but the use of the phonetic letter spelling (as well as the NATO phonetic alphabet) is par for the course, I think.
COLD FISH was in the Indy three days ago but clued quite differently. Lots to like in this crossword.
I’m probably being thick but I still don’t understand PUMAS I got this from the crossers alone.
Rather a good puzzle though even though I kept coming to a halt for a rethink but I got there in the end -well sort of! Too many favourites to list but TIN OPENER and IN TOTO gave me a smile.
Thanks Picaroon.
A treat from Pickers – not sure about COSEC being a valid word but everyone else seems to OK it. Should CONDO have had some indication of its Americanism?
Re “C” = “see”, I’m reminded of the old ‘Cockney Alphabet’:
A is for ‘orses/B for mutton/C for miles….. etc. (many variants exist).
Thanks as always to Pickers and Eileen.
Being on strike today. So, had time to look at the crossword. I am a beginner but I am making progress as I found quite a few.
@Peter Aspinwall MAS as in plural of MA (issue = offspring in this case)…and you are not as thick as I am!
I solved 24A and thought I had it made, but ground to a halt soon therefter. Way too hard for me.
Pierre @31
To avoid confusion with the blogger who posts using the name Pierre, would you please use a pseudonym or add something to your current username to make it unique, such as the first letter of your surname.
Welcome to Fifteensquared, Pierre – hope you will continue to let us have a beginner’s perspective.
If you want a suggestion for a pseudonym, then here’s one: Pierre (not that one). There is some history of such usage with Brendan, and it seemed to work for everyone back then.
Thanks for flagging this up, Gaufrid.
I don’t think Picachne is a good suggestion. It will leave you scarred.
What a fun puzzle today! Quality setting as always from Picaroon. Many excellent surfaces and some clever and at times unexpected wordplay in the clues (case in point: 4d, as discussed by Trailman@6). Favorites for me included PUMPERNICKEL, MISTRANSLATING, DOUBLE WHAMMY and ENFOLD, but the clear CotD for me was IN TOTO.
I had no qualms about “sequence” being used to clue “double” whammy. I agree with 1961Blanchflower @24. Of course a sequence can, at times, consist of only two things. The only essential requirement is that one of those things must come after the other. I googled “sequence of two”, and there, on the first page of results (just one example among many other results) was a journal article entitled “When is a sequence of two nouns a compound in English?” (The author sets out to tackle an “… important question: how do we know whether a sequence of two words forms a new lexeme or simply a syntactic construction?”) If you are serving in tennis, you can’t swing the racket with one hand first and then toss up the ball with the other — you need to perform these two actions in the correct sequence.
Whiteking @14, copmus @16 – “Picachne” is clever, but if you say it out loud, it does bring to mind an unpleasant image.
This has been a great crosswording week – I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring.
Many thanks to Picaroon, Eileen, and the other commenters.
Rewolf @35 –
Sorry, your comment about Picachne had not yet posted when I began typing (slowly as per usual) my comment that eventually ended up @36.
Thanks Pierre – or whatever you choose to mutate into. I assume from the”strike” comment that you’re a lecturer- as I was. Hope you are successful!
I had difficulty finishing this one off, struggling with COSEC and MISCOUNTS. With the former, I got the C + O but had a mental block in regards the tick synonym. The answer is an abbreviation, but that’s no excuse, as I always called them that too, when I did maths.
Ben@25 I parsed OPERATOR as you did. It was only when I read your comment that I checked the blog and saw Eileen’s version was different. I think either works but I’m guessing Eileen’s is the intended parsing. Athough it could be argued that you don’t necessarily need a stage to put on an opera 😉 , thus supporting your version!
Good fun.
Thanks, Picaroon and Eileen
For the third day in a row I would like to question an anagram indicator.
Two days ago, Crucible used ‘everywhere’ and in yesterday’s Qaos we had ‘cycling’. Hardly anyone seems to be bothered, though. In my opinion. ‘everywhere’ does not indicate movement (essential to anagram indicators) and ‘cycling’ does make changes but keeps letters rotationally in the ‘same’ order. If you’ll ask advice from a Thesaurus you will easily find ‘synomyms’ that are proper anagram indicators but still I am not convinced.
Today we had a situation similar to ‘cycling’: ‘cartwheels’ in 16d. I’ve seen it used before (as just ‘wheels’) but I am again not sure whether it is a suitable anagram indicator. Just blame it on the nitpicker in me.
Oh, by the way, truly f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c crossword!
Thanks P & E.
I’m with you Sil @40. See my post yesterday re 5ac.
This wasn’t quite the experience I normally have with a Picaroon, who always takes trouble over the construction of his clues (not to mention the surfaces, as Eileen rightly emphasised). There were four clues whose wordplay didn’t help me much in solving them (1a, 12a, 17a and 13d), and I was lucky to get 1d PUMPERNICKEL with just with the two E’s given – I needed that in order to break down the NW corner.
However, there were many clues that lived up to my expectations, and among my favourites were 8a MISTRANSLATING, 26a FOGGY, 1d PUMPERNICKEL (having got it I really appreciated it!), 3d SURER and 9d DOUBLE WHAMMY (in which I too thought at first that ‘sequence’ wasn’t quite right, but DaveMc and others have assured me that it is).
In 4d TIN OPENER, I think ‘opener’ is an example of a batter, not the other way round; so the ‘?’ in the clue appears not to be necessary.
Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
Late back to this – I’ve been out since shortly after posting the blog – so thanks for all the comments.
Alan B @42 – I’m far from an expert on cricket, most of my ‘knowledge’ coming from crosswords [especially leg=on], but I don’t understand your comment: not all batters are openers, as you say, so surely the question mark is justified / necessary?
Eileen, I think Alan B @42’s point is illustrated at 1ac. Pumas are examples of cats and so a ‘?’ is not required. Clueing CATS with Pumas would require it.
Very late to the blog as I only tackled the Picaroon this morning (Australian time). Such a great puzzle. Much to smile over! Many many thanks to Picaroon, Eileen and all who posted! Reading the blog/forum comments really expanded this experience for me. WhiteKing@14, liked your idea – I’m actually happy to be a card-carrying member (or even the founder) of the Picarapau Fan Club…[BTW, WK, great to have you back safely from the “Exotic Marigold Hotel for Blokes” sojourn.]
I won’t go over my favourites (most of which have already been mentioned by others), or tell you about the dry gully TRIPLE WHAMMY took me up! But just to say, apropos of the anagram indicator discussion, I really liked “with Kinks” at 13d (VOCALISER) which in my “kinky” kind of way I linked to “trans”gender in 4a…”Lola” being one of my all-time favourite songs (so risqué back in the day!).
JinA (not Julie@13)
Julie@13 I think the explanation is much simpler. Gay men into leather do in fact wear just chaps, i.e. no pants underneath, so with naked bottoms. (Being female, i don’t visit venues where this is the dress code, but I have several gay male friends who do.)
Eileen @43
My understanding of this is that ‘batter’ (meaning batsman) is the general term, and ‘opener’ is just one example of a batter – another one being ‘tail-ender’, incidentally. According to the cryptic crossword convention, it is when you put the example in the clue and the general term in the answer that a question mark is required.
KLColin @44
I apologise. I always read other relevant comments before I post one myself, but I somehow missed your succinct reply to Eileen. And sorry to Eileen for getting a sort of DOUBLE WHAMMY.
Frankie the cat @2 TIN OPENER puzzled this American solver not because of the tin — I’m used to that — but because I thought a cricketer with a bat was a batsman, so we must be talking baseball or baking. And yes, Trailman @6, I tried to find something meaning batter and put a T in it.
Would someone explain Picachne and Picarapau? Other than the unpleasant idea that the first word sounds like, what is all that about?
Picaroon and Eileen, thank you. Wonderful surfaces and wordplay, great blog.
Hi Valentine @49 – since everyone else seems to have left the building – it went something like this: copmus said @5 ‘Picaroon and Arachne are King and Queen of surfaces’, Whiteking followed up @14 with the portmanteau ‘Picachne’ and Julie in Australia came up with Picarapau, presumably adding Paul as one of her favourites. [I’m not sure she meant he was also a king of surfaces, though. 😉 ]
Thanks, Eileen. That portmantery completely escaped me. But then so do most ghost themes and pangrams.
I wonder if “left the building” is another American phrase like “double whammy” that’s crossed the water. I could swear there was a link in the comments somewhere to a page of American phrases that have gone international — in fact, I have that page open now — but I can’t find the link. Here it is, if you’re interested, but I wonder what happened to it? I can’t have imagined it, because the page is there. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/american-phrases-and-sayings.html
Thanks as ever for an engaging blog. I always feel with yours that you’re in the room chatting with us, and that your non-blog life is a part of the Eileen that comes through. It’s a delight.