Guardian Cryptic 27,484 by Nutmeg

by

Thought this would be a quick finish when a few of the long ones went straight in, but it got pretty tricky at the end with some guess-first, parse-after solving required. Favourites were 26/27ac and 1dn.

Across
1, 6 CHRISTMAS LIST Tailor claims T-shirts to be what kids send Santa (9,4)
(claims T-shirts)*
6   See 1
8, 9 INNOCENT ABROAD  Naive type acquitted by foreign court? (8,6)
second, cryptic definition
9   See 8
10, 11 DOUBLE ENTENDRE Comic butler needed no words to tickle audience (6,8)
(butler needed no)*
11   See 10
12 IPECAC Crushed ice pack not quite what the doctor ordered? (6)
=a drug formely used in cough mixtures
(ice pac[k])*; “Crushed” is the anagrind and “not quite” indicates that the last letter [k] is not included
15 TRIFORIA I, for one, pressed into backing art galleries … (8)
a triforium is a gallery above the arches of an aisle in a church – a word I’ve seen before thanks to looking up ‘clerestory’ in another crossword…
I plus FOR plus I=”one”; all inside a reversal/”backing” of ART
16, 19 PERSONAL ESTATE … gallery on its own, ignoring the odds, gets what’s left (8,6)
=property that is left behind after death
TATE=”gallery”, after PERSONAL=”own” plus gEtS ignoring its odd letters
19   See 16
21 FOURTEEN Guardian’s eclipsed by broadsheet — by 3 points, or 2 after lunch (8)
if 12 o’clock is lunch time, 2 after lunch would be FOURTEEN
OUR=”Guardian’s”, inside Financial Times; plus East East North=”3 points” of the compass
22 CREAMY Rich little woman behind rector in church (6)
AMY=character in Little Women; after Rector in Church of England
24, 25 VESTED INTEREST  Sponsors usually have it, dressed to catch the eye (6,8)
VESTED=”dressed” plus INTEREST=”catch the eye”
25   See 24
26, 27 CASH DISPENSER Princesses had mysterious source of funds (4,9)
(Princesses had)*
27   See 26
Down
1 CAN-DO Ready to get stuck in lavatory? Repeat that (3-2)
CAN=”lavatory”, plus DittO=”Repeat that”
2 RHOMBIC Like a lozenge doctor introduced to stricken choir (7)
=shaped like a lozenge
MB=Bachelor of Medicine=”doctor” inside (choir)*
3 SIEGE Retreating, for one European, is offensive in wartime (5)
reversal/”Retreating” of: E.G.=”for one”, plus European plus IS
4 MOT TEST Uplifting piece of text set to music for annual exhibition (1,1,1,4)
Hidden reversed in/”Uplifting piece of”: texT SET TO Music
5 SLANTWISE Discontented social worker knowing one’s inclined to appear thus (9)
SociaL with its contents removed i.e. “Discontented”, plus ANT=”worker” plus WISE=”knowing”
6 LORENZO Magnificent Medici traditions unknown in number (7)
=Florentine statesman known as Lorenzo the Magnificent
LORE=”traditions”, plus Z=”unknown” in NO.=abbreviation for “number”
7 STAIR LIFT A means of getting up tail first, possibly (5,4)
(tail first)*
13 PHENOMENA He turned on blokes breaking dad’s spectacles (9)
HE, plus reversed/”turned” ON, plus MEN=”blokes”, all inside PA=”dad”
14 CONTENDED Alleged Tory dissent finally resolved (9)
CONservative=”Tory”, plus the final letter of dissenT, plus ENDED=”resolved”
17 STRETCH Jail sentence to get longer (7)
double definition
18 LENTILS Plant-based food cooking almost silently (7)
(silentl[y])*, with the final [y] removed because of “almost”
20 THE ARTS Case of teachers embracing core non-scientific subjects (3,4)
the outer letters or “Case” of TeacherS, around HEART=”core”
22 CUTIE Tasty dish that is served with chip topping? (5)
I.E.=”that is”, with CUT=”chip” on top
23 MUSER One ponders on problem while climbing (5)
RE=about, “on”; plus SUM=”problem”, all reversed/”climbing”

47 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,484 by Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

    How un-Nutmeg like – I would have thought that she would have been the last to include CUTIE and define it like that! I had several unparsed. 16a I had an equally unparsed RESIDUAL rather than PERSONAL for some time. Not sure about “dressed” = VESTED – a bit loose (dress perhaps?) “Retreating” doesn’t look right in a down clue at 3d. Who eats lunch at 12?

    Favourites were LORENZO and DOUBLE ENTENDRE (which reminds me of the girl who walks into a bar and asks for a double entendre, so the barman gave her one).

  2. Many thanks Nutmeg and manehi. Enjoyed this. Re 4: Is a test an exhibition? Well, I suppose so, in that the vehicle is shown to the examiner??

  3. Thanks manehi and Nutmeg.

    I have a minor issue with 12a. The answer – IPECAC – would actually be much better defined as “not quite what the doctor ordered”, given current medical advice on its use.

    https://www.poison.org/articles/ipecac

    I get that the “not quite” refers to the word “pack” in the clue, but then the definition is wrong. Quite gettable, but I didn’t like this one.

  4. Yes I agree, manehi – from the outset I thought I was on fire, with a couple of those double word anagrams filled in promptly, but this proved not as easy as I encountered many stumbles. In fact, in the end it was a DNF for me. I couldn’t get 15a TRIFORIA (didn’t understand the wordplay) or 4d M.O.T. TEST (totally missed the hidden in the latter) – hadn’t heard of either – although I reckon M.O.T has been used in previous puzzles. When I didn’t really understand the M.O.T. annual exhibition bit as manehi explained it, I googled it – and I thought “Gee your roadworthy tests are stringent in the UK”. We only have one when we are selling a second-hand car over here, so people drive for years in old bangers that are not roadworthy and don’t have any problems unless the cops pull them over.

    I understand re 16 and 19 across, muffin@1 – I thought impulsively, “It must be DECEASED ESTATE” – how hard it was to unconvince myself when I thought it just had to be right – “what’s left” seems so obviously to point to a dead person’s legacy.

    I did enjoy the 1/6a CHRISTMAS LIST and, like manehi, the 26/27a CASH DISPENSER (although now wondering if I only liked them because they were so gettable?), and I smiled at 17d STRETCH.

    Like muffin@1, I am not sure about CUTIE at 22d, but I guess it might work for some.

    Thanks to you both, Nutmeg and manehi

  5. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi. I also started quickly before realising it wasn’t to be a Rufu-esque Monday after all. Quite a lot of fun though.

    No doubt a coincidence, but I enjoyed almost seeing one of the princesses of the 26/27 clue named in part of the answer – ie Di Spencer. I’ll get me coat…

  6. Another thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from Nutmeg. I suspect that 22d was included very much tongue in cheek.

  8. As Muffin writes lunch clued as 12! And then 2pm as ‘fourteen’. Didn’t work for me on either count. Fourteen hundred hours possibly. And the ‘its’ threw me in 16,19. Apart from these quibbles a lovely challenge to kick off the working week.

  9. Fun and inventive. But I think that anagrams of obscure words (ipecac) are not really playing fair. Obscure answer, OK, but then at least give the solver a chance. I guessed the anagram from the crossers, got the correct answer from googles’ useful suggested alternatives … so technically a DNF for me.

    Thanks for the blog.

  10. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi. My experience like some others. Started off quite quickly then slowed down markedly and then had to grind out the last few. Last one in fourteen, which I struggled to get my head round until the penny dropped. I liked Lorenzo, innocent abroad and the arts. I am sure I have seen ipecac before in the not too distant past (I think that was also a partial anagram). An enjoyable solve and I guess the easy Monday’s are a thing of the past. Thanks again to Nutmeg and manehi.

  11. [Hi copmus. How’s things on Magnetic Island FNQ – or is it only NQ?  (Is that right about your location?) I like your optimism! JinQ aka Julie in Australia]

  12. We finished this, with a few grumbles. Didnt like R for rector. Not too happy with personal estate, which we didnt fully parse. Had to get the dictionary to confirm Ipecac, and definitely hope OUR doctor doesnt order it. But there were some lovely ones like Christmas List. I was VERY unhappy with Cutie.
    Despite these moans, it was quite a fun solve. Thanks Nutmeg and Manehi

  13. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.

    I found this hard and failed to see the nicely hidden MOT TEST, although I think the ‘exhibition’ was needlessly misleading. Strangely (an) INNOCENT ABROAD doesn’t seem to occur in dictionaries, as far as I can tell.

    I got CHRISTMAS LIST immediately but struggled with the other long acrosses. I also didn’t much like lunch = 12.00; noon would have made more sense.

    As ever, the completed grid looks largely fair, although I didn’t know TREFORIA.

  14. Thanks nutmeg and manehi

     

    [Julie @4, vehicle inspections depend on what state you live in. In NSW they are required every year for anything over 5 years old. A real nuisance when it means towing the caravan to an inspection station and then having to reverse it onto the driveway from a busy road.]

  16. I’m another who started off thinking ‘another easy Monday’ before grinding to a halt and slogging through the likes of TRIFORIA and FOURTEEN. Like andysmith @9 and no doubt various others, tried various combinations of ICEPAC* before settling on one which was actually a word. In the olden days I would have trawled a dictionary (well done Apple granny @12!), now it’s online for checking – I don’t think that’s unfair though, on the part of a solver.

  17. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi. I knew IPECAC but struggled with TRIFORIA and FOURTEEN and had trouble parsing CAN-DO. Still, the long across items were fun to work with.

  18. The blog for SLANTWISE gets as far as explaining the cryptic bits and the says “Replace trade with aid” — twice!  But when I search the page for the words TRADE or AID I get nothing.  What gives?

  19. [thanks Valentine – purely an error on my part, it was on my clipboard and I must have ctrl+v’d without noticing. now deleted]

  20. Julie @11 yes its redneck boganland  beautiful FNQ 5m from Townsville. In fact our local medical centre is called Latitude 19 -going there to have a piece sliced out above my knee tomorrow morning.

    Mainland Townsville has good shops and also bad unemployment and they seem to like coal. Probably bows and arrows as well.

    Crossword-TRIFORIA-as someone else said-did what it said on the tin.

  21. FOURTEEN seemed a bit of a weird clue to me – rather incomplete. However, loved DOUBLE ENTENDRE, CASH DISPENSER and MOT TEST. Many thanks to N & m.

  22. Muffin @1 Rather than being loose I think that dressed is an exact meaning of vested.

    Also the clue for 21 doesn’t specify lunch as being 12 and fourteen being 2 hours later, fourteen thirty = 2.30 pm so fourteen = 2 and lunch can be any time up to 13.59 (or just the ‘mid day meal’) for the definition to work.

    Greg @3 I can see where you’re coming from but Ipecac is exactly what the doctor ordered until medical advice changed.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Manehi (but I think you parsed 21 wrongly).

  23. Really slowed up at the end with the unknown TRIFORIA my last in.

    I didn’t have any problems with 21a. I took ‘2 after lunch’ to mean ‘2 o’clock in the afternoon’ (not specifically 2 hours after lunch) = 2 pm = 1400 hours as suggested by Xjpotter@8.

    Doesn’t look very exciting but the def. for 1d fooled me and I was very happy to figure it out near the end.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  24. A few more obscurities than we are used to seeing on a Monday – LORENZO Medici and TRIFORIA were at best distantly familiar and IPECAC was only familiar because Philistine used it last year, but all of those were fairly clued, so no complaints.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi

     

  25. Hmm…a mixture of good and not-so-good for me today.

    CAN-DO and CREAMY are brilliant but less keen on SIEGE & FOURTEEN.

    Someone needs to explain to me how the MOT TEST is an exhibition.  Perhaps it’s a use of the word I don’t know, but it seems just a pointless obfuscation.

    CHRISTMAS LIST & INNOCENT ABROAD went in so quickly, I thought it was to be a romp, but ran into the sand due to unknowns like TRIFORIA and IPECAC.

    As Robi says, the completed grid looks perfectly straightforward and I can’t now justify how long I took over it.

    Many thanks, Nutmeg, nice week, all.

  26. 2 tricky Mondays in a row …albeit I dare say a decent puzzle but too tough for me after a speedy start I ground to a halt only 40% complete. I finished yesterday’s Everyman but miles away on this one…was always going to be a DNF in retrospect as have never heard of triforia and despite understanding 12a completely, the answer would’ve been my 3rd or 4th of the 6 possible guesses with all crossers in place. It seems Monday is only ‘accessible Monday’ now if you are online and do the Quiptic.

  27. Oh yes, and ‘exhibition’ for test fits into my pet hate of some setters’ habit of going for least synonymous synonym they think they can just about get away with !

  28. Linked clues always get my dander up, so I wasn’t too pleased to see so many of them at first.  But it all went in according to plan.  The last one in was TRIFORIA, but the wordplay on that was clear enough to me that it went in just fine.  The MOT TEST was familiar from earlier crosswords where it came up. I personally feel that “exhibition” is fine for this type of test, since you’re demonstrating (exhibiting) that your car is running okay.

    [Here in Illinois, we only give our cars an emissions test–they plug them into a computer (there’s an outlet for this under the dash) and after a few moments it spits out a reading, and they let you go your merry way. Some states have more stringent tests than that; some have less; some, like neighboring Indiana where I grew up, have none at all.]

  29. I found this tricky in places, but I had no quibbles except for the MOT Test being an ‘exhibition’.
    I thought ‘for one’ indicating EG in one clue (SIEGE) and FORI in another (TRIFORIA) was neat.
    Thanks to Nutmeg and Manehi.

  30. I liked that the linked clues were neatly in rows and symmetric in the grid. I didn’t get TRIFORIA, and I missed the rather nice hidden.

    I liked Siege, though perhaps the “in wartime” wasn’t necessary.

    Good puzzle, several clues where I had initially mis-judged the definition.

    Many thanks Nutmeg and manehi

  31. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

    mrpenney@ 28: to some degree I’m with you on linked clues where 6 feeds 14 feeds 9 feeds 21 etc, but all today’s could, technically, have been set using single 13- or 14-light sequences. Would they have been OK for you in that case (it’s a genuine enquiry out of interest, but probably comes across blunter in a post)?

  32. Unlike some others I was delighted to find IPECAC. My father was a pharmacist and his shops splendid Edwardian mahogany fitting had gilt-edged labels in abbreviated Latin, sadly now lost (the shop is an estate agents!) which reminded of the days when all medicines were concocted on the premises rather than bubble packed in a factory.

    Thanks Nutmeg for the crossword and manehi for the blog- I think SLANTWISE underlining might include one’s as the figure 1 would be a marker for italics.

  33. Finally managed to get my internet connection going in France, but a bit intermittent (we’re in the middle of nowhere, internet-speaking).  No paper Guardian, of course, and no printer, so forced to do this online.  And a toughie from Nutmeg to boot!  I succumbed to temptation and used the ‘check’ button several times…

    LOI was FOURTEEN.  Very mis-directing.  After some thinking, I reckon this is 14 as in 14:00 hours, the ‘continental’ way of saying 2pm or “two after lunch”…

    Never heard of TRIFORIA (and haven’t got my Chambers here… 🙁 ) – but fairly clued.  And didn’t parse PERSONAL ESTATE.  And I haven’t read Little Women so Amy was just a girl’s name to me.  Not that that matters.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.  Good work!

  34. Thanks Nutmeg and Manehi.

    I thunk the old tradition of “Easy Monday” is dead and buried. I finished this (only my second in 10 days, the other being Paul’s bingo calls last week) but parts of it were about as enjoyable as root canal treatment. Nevertheless there were some very good a anagrams in there, DOUBLE ENTENDRE probably being the best of them. Also liked CUTIE just because it’s such an un-Guardian word!

  35. This was certainly better than the last Nutmeg we had and I found it much more approachable. I can’t say I got all the parsing though, and I didn’t know EPICAC or TRIFORIA. Mr Google did however. I was a little surprised by CUTIE and I couldn’t see CREAMY until the very end.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  36. I knew IPECAC (mainly from reading H G Wells classic, The Island of Dr Moreau, in which the full name Ipecacuanha occurs).  And it’s definitely regarded as a no-no drug nowadays, though it used to be a component (in small amounts) of such familiar over-the-counter remedies as Benylin, so I believe!  At one time it was administered so as to induce vomiting in suspected poisoning victims – but nowadays they reckon it’s more likely to kill the patient than the original poison!

    I’ve used the word myself in a puzzle, as it happens.  But I think I’ve kept the clueing fairly easy….

  37. Who has lunch at 12?
    Well I work from home, so I do, quite often. I have been known to have a cheese and potato pasty a good two hours before that. And a glass of chilled white to help it down, and lubricate the brain cells for tackling the grid . . .

  38. The MOT is an inspection or an examination, not an exhibition – I suspect it was clued that way to fit the art gallery vibe.

    Did not finish this one but I loved some of the ones I got: CASH DISPENSER for both a nice anagram and a smooth surface, likewise CHRISTMAS LIST.

  39. I think I missed every 15^2 Guardian cryptic blog last week.  Things at work were crazy, and I struggled with making it to each day’s puzzle on the day it was issued, and was on a steady pace of completing each day’s puzzle in the evening of the day after — except for Paul’s bingo puzzle from Friday, which had me stumped all weekend long.  So, I’m happy just to have completed today’s puzzle and made it here while it was still today.

    I really enjoyed this.  My favorite of the linked clues was DOUBLE ENTENDRE — good surface, and I liked the wordplay.

    I’ll never forget that time we had dunnocks nesting in our TRIFORIA.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg and manehi and the other commenters.

  40. Having struggled with this on and off during the day I came here without FOURTEEN or SLANTWISE so a true dnf today. My favourites have been commented on and I believe a male setter would have been pilloried for CUTIE. Interesting where choose to draw our lines of acceptability in the wider world – context matters and frequently left out when making judgements.
    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi – I hope a fare better tomorrow.

  41. Simon S @31:  I suppose so…and it certainly was elegant the way that these were set up symmetrically with all reading properly across.  But the main problem I have with linked clues is that for every linked clue, that’s one fewer entree into the grid.  I rely on short words to get started–long anagrams are rough for me.  And where so many of the “short” words turn out to actually be half of a longer phrase…well, it looked pretty daunting at first.

  42. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi
    Something seemed wrong about 16,19 across so I looked it up and “personal estate” is used to describe moveable property as opposed to “real estate” which is land. It can be owned by someone still alive.
    I too wasn’t happy about exhibition for test at 4d but at least it reminded me of Michael Flanders’ question when they brought the interval down from ten to three years “Why don’t they test them before they leave the factory?” Perhaps it’s the way he told it

  43. DaveMc@39 – good to see you again and to hear about your unforgettable dunnocks in your TRIFORIA 🙂

  44. Thank you all for your comments.

    Re 4dn, MOT Test & ‘exhibition’, this should indeed have been ‘examination’. The first proof I saw had the correct version, and I failed to spot the error which had crept in to the final proof – my apologies. The eye sees what it wants to see – or at least mine does….

     

     

  45. Ipecac is a good example of the well-known phenomenon that what’s obscure to the young is familiar to the old (and vice versa, of course). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bottle of ipecac in person, but I’m old enough to remember people referring to it, so this one was easy for me. On the other hand, I was at a pub quiz earlier in the week in which a question involved identifying popular songs from the last decade — impossible for me but trivial for the young.

    Lord Peter Wimsey challenges Chief Inspector Parker to spell “ipecacuanha”, and when Parker does so, says, “No decent-minded person would know how to spell ‘ipecacuanha’ out of his own head.”

    Since I’m late getting to this puzzle, I can report that the clue for 4d has now been corrected.

  46. Thanks to Nutmeg for yet another brilliant crossword.   Surprised nobody mentioned 20d (The Arts), a great clue!

  47. Came late to this (usually bypass Monday’s puzzles but comments here on Tuesday piqued my curiosity). Unlike others, I’ve no complaints/quibbles even though (in contradiction of Ted@45) the online pdf still has “exhibition” in 4dn. I saw no problem, assuming a little definitional ‘stretching’ since the numeration made it an easy clue, albeit a very neat rha. Also, didn’t think IPECAC particularly abstruse; anyone who’s spent just a few seconds looking at old pharmacy bottles (most of us surely) would know it. TRIFORIA (though unknown to me) was completely clear from word play.
    All in all a very elegant puzzle (as ever with Nutmeg) and, in my opinion, one of her easiest – just right for a Monday I imagine.
    Many thanks to Nutmeg and manehi of course.

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