Guardian Cryptic 27,616 by Chifonie

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A short blog for a short solve…

…a tidy enough puzzle with nothing terribly exciting.

I think there’s an error in the clue to 22ac, as not all of the elements are present to get to an answer.

That aside, a straightforward, if uninspiring solve.

Thanks, Chifonie.

Across
1 TRANSIENT Nurse enters passage that’s short (9)
  EN (enrolled “nurse”) enters TRANSIT (“passage”)
6 PASSE Wally goes through gym on the way out (5)
  ASS (“wally”) goes through P.E. (“gym”)
9 CHIME Strike that man in church (5)
  HIM (“that man”) in C.E. (“church”)
10 PLATITUDE Penny has licence to provide bromide (9)
  P(enny) has LATITUDE (“licence”)
11 TOUCH-AND-GO It’s risky to brush with vigour (5-3-2)
  TOUCH (“brush”) + AND (“with”) + GO (“vigour”)
12 FLAG Colours fade (4)
  Double definition
14 TROUNCE Thrash counter-revolutionary? (7)
  *(counter)
15 STATION Post shabby clothes in Israel (7)
  TAT (“shabby clothes”) in SION (“Israel”)
17 LISSOME Pupil is rather pliant (7)
  L(earner, so “pupil”) + IS + SOME (“rather”)
19 MATISSE Painter is special to be embraced by comrade (7)
  IS + S(pecial) to be embraced by MATE (“comrade”)
20 RATE Betray European judge (4)
  RAT (“betray”) + E(uropean)
22 FIRST OF ALL Chief ought to tumble before anything else (5,2,3)
  Think there’s an error here as there is no indication of the O.

I can see FIRST (“chief”) and FALL (“tumble”).

The clue would work if it read “Conifers to tumble before anything else” (FIRS TO FALL)
25 TRAGEDIES Tory leader’s fury fades after misfortunes (9)
  T(ory) + RAGE (“fury”) with DIES (“fades”) after
26 RULES Regrets adopting liberal laws (5)
  RUES (“regrets”) adopting L(iberal)
27 DEALT Traded in wood tar, initially (5)
  DEAL (“wood”) + T(ar)
28 EAST ENDER Cockney in ecstasy since getting offer (4,5)
  E(cstasy) + AS (“since”) getting TENDER (“offer”)
Down
1 TACIT Diplomacy surrounding Indian leader is understood (5)
  TACIT (“diplomacy”) surrounding I(ndian)
2 ACIDULOUS Claudius prepared to eat duck and tart (9)
  *(claudius) to eat O (“duck”)
3 STEPHENSON Engineer‘s relative keeps fowl (10)
  STEPSON (“relative”) keeps HEN (“fowl”)

Could relate to George Stephenson or his son Robert, famous for the Rocket steam locomotive.
4 EXPENSE Cost of swans in the river (7)
  PENS (female “swans”) in (the river) EXE
5 TEAR GAS Disarming agent hurries to embrace Georgia (4,3)
  TEARS (“hurries”) to embrace Ga. (“Georgia)
6 PAID Parking subsidy is spent (4)
  P(arking) + AID (“subsidy”)
7 SCULL Row makes society slaughter (5)
  S(ociety) + CULL (“slaughter”)
8 EMERGENCE Development of endless crisis with Spain (9)
  EMERGENC(y) (endless “crisis”) with E (“Spain)
13 EASTBOURNE Ensure boat is ordered for resort (10)
  *(ensure boat)
14 TOLERATED Lead otter about? That’ll be endured! (9)
  *(lead otter)
16 INSTALLED This month every edition is set up (9)
  INST. (“this month) + ALL (“every”) + ED(ition)
18 EDIFICE Earl to risk concealing condition of building (7)
  E(arl) + DICE (“risk”) concealing IF (“condition”)
19 MISUSES Badly treats girls wrapping uniform (7)
  MISSES (“girls”) wrapping U(niform)
21 TIARA Portia rarely bears headgear (5)
  Hidden in “porTIA RArely”
23 LOSER No-hoper with dreadful roles (5)
  *(loser)
24 JEST Ridicule first person in French street (4)
  JE (“first person” in French) + ST(reet)

*anagram

42 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,616 by Chifonie”

  1. Thanks loonapick. I agree regarding 22a where I had a ?. I didn’t know 13d EASTBOURNE as a resort (local knowledge) so luckily I sported the anagram by using crossers. All good with ticks for 3d STEPHENSON, 5d TEAR GAS, 7d SCULL, and my LOI, 15a STATION.
    Thanks to Chifonie,

  3. Thanks Chifonie and loonapik. I took rather longer over the NW corner than the rest. I struggled to see 8d for a long while. In 22a I think the ‘o’ is from ‘ought’, as in ‘nothing’.

  7. Agree wholly with Norbrewer – “ought” is variant for nought (as in “for ought I care) therefore = O.  Thanks Blogger and Setter.

     

  8. This sent me on a very confusing trail seeking ought or nought, but otherwise an enjoyable start to the day.
    I liked that there was no temptation at all to ‘check’ as the clueing was so precise.
    Thanks, Chifonie and Loonapick.

  9. I thought like Norbrewer re 22a; I’m more familiar with ought as ‘anything’ (If tha does owt for nowt, do it for tha sen), but it’s in my Collins as ‘a less commom form of nought’. So, yes, a mundane Monday, but pleasant enough. I can’t think how rather is some in 17a (that is some nice…?), but I’m probably being dim. Not sure what the ‘of’ is doing in 17d [Earl to gamble about providing building]?…, and I’ve never used ‘jest’ as transitive but, yes, there it is in my old Collins, so a lesson from the setter.

    Thanks Chifonie and Loonapick.

  10. Thanks Chifonie and loonapick

    This was mostly rather easier than the Quiptic, though I missed “EN” for “nurse” in 1a. I also had a question mark against 22a, but Norbrewer has explained it.

    I rather liked EXPENSE and EASTBOURNE.

  12. By a very odd confidence Mr and Mrs Paddington bear (occasionally of this parish) and I are heading to Eastbourne today for the funeral of our nonagenarian uncle.

  13. Norbrewer@3:  Good spot, many thanks.  I’ve removed my ? at 22a.

    Didn’t know bromide for PLATITUDE and that’s about the only thing that interested me today.

    Couldn’t see FLAG for ages so was held up in SE but the rest was a little bland for my taste.

    Thanks, both, nice week, all.

  14. A relatively easy solve for Monday morning.  Plenty of answers could be written straight in – 26ac, 16dn, 18dn for example.

    But there was also something to get my teeth into.  LOI was PLATITUDE, I didn’t know bromide in that sense.  My father used to joke with his army friends about putting bromide in the tea ….

    The NE corner held me up a bit.

    Thanks to Chifonie and to loonapick.

  15. Thank you Chifonie and loonapick.

    A pleasant Monday solve – the commenters seem rather disorientated this morning (like grantinfreo @9 I am still trying to find a sentence where SOME can replace ‘rather’, only ‘somewhat’ would fit here).

    The PLATITUDE meaning of ‘bromide’ was new to me, as it was for William @13 and Anna @14.

  16. Thanks Chifonie, good start to the week.

    Thanks loonapick; LOI was STATION where I thought Israel must be I, doh! I’ve seen ought=O before in crosswords.

    I found this in Wiki about bromide: American humorist Gelett Burgess is credited for coining the usage of bromide as a personification of a sedate, dull person who said boring things.

  17. Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick. I was familiar with bromide = PLATITUDE but had trouble with SCULL, my LOI (I took a while before spotting cull = slaughter).

  18. Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick. As others have said a relatively gentle Monday solve which largely fell readily. However the last few took much longer than perhaps they should. Like a couple of others the NE in particular held me up along with transient (in terms of parsing). Last ones were flag (which I now like a lot) emergence and station. I also quite liked first of all ( no problem with ought for me). Thanks again to Chifonie and loonapick.

  19. Thanks both,

    I was some held up by putting in ‘skill’ some than ‘scull’ for 7d and not checking the definition. Nope, ‘some’ for ‘rather’ doesn’t work.

  20. Thanks Chifonie and loonapick

    17: “Do you have enough food?”

    “I’d like some more” / “I’d like rather more” just about makes it.

  21. Good send-up Tyngewick, and great try Simon S; yes, almost makes it. Some [rather a] species the English language innit!

  22. Thanks Chifonie, loonapick

    Some for rather as an adverb is ok: I missed her some/I missed her rather.  It’s in the dictionary, too.

    I liked PASSE and FLAG.

  24. Easy enough but I got stuck on the NE. Both PASSE and SCULL took an age to see. Why I found the latter difficult sItuation can’t think because it’s now so obvious. I must admit to thinking that FIRST OF ALL had to be right that I bunged it in without thinking- shame on me! PLATITUDE= bromide was new to me.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  25. Add me to the list of people for whom PLATITUDE = bromide was a TILT. FLAG was also my loi and I thought it was a lovely concise clue. Nice start to the week – thanks Chifonie and loonapick

  26. Bingo just completed now after a busy day at work.  Top right corner was the last to be completed, but fell into placed once 8d went in.  Thanks Chifonie for an enjoyable Monday ramble.

  27. Like many others I also took an age to get NE corner completed. I’ve only ever encountered SION in crosswords, but I’m learning (all too slowly!) to expect obscurities in Cruciverbalist City. And also all sorts of smokescreens: I was particularly impressed by 5D, thinking originally that “disarming” was an anagrind. My faves were MATISSE (although I did try and get somewhere with Millais for a bit) EAST ENDER, and my L.O.I – FLAG, which is a beautifully concise clue. Many thanks Chifonie and Loonapick – and also Norbrewer for the interpretation of 22A.

  28. I agree this was straightforward – that is the best way for me to describe it.
    I always thought ‘bromide’ was a strange word for a platitude, but I have known it for many years.
    I needed a dictionary only for ‘ought’ in FIRST OF ALL. Collins calls it a less common word for nought, as pointed out by grantinfreo, and shows its derivation from the 19th century as a mistaken division of ‘a nought’ as ‘an ought’.
    Thanks to Chifonie and Loonapick.

  30. muffin @29

    It must be that – I can’t think of any other way to connect a trite remark (platitude) with a sedative (bromide).

  31. I enjoyed this.  Chifonie has a nice, concise clueing style: on the “Print” version of the online puzzle, not a single clue runs over into a second line of text.  FLAG was the most concise of all, as others have noted above, and that clue also seemed rather (but not “some”, ha ha) Rufusian to me.  CotD for me was PASSE, which I thought had a nice misdirection (literally! — “on the way out”) leading to a satisfying PDM.  [“Wally” as a word for a stupid person is not used here in the U.S. I think.  I don’t recall seeing or hearing it anywhere other than in the Guardian cryptics.  Here, Wally is just a name.]  Other favorites today for me included TOUCH AND GO, STEPHENSON, TROUNCE, and of course EXPENSE for providing the latest appearance of one of The Three Most Important Rivers.

    Many thanks to Chifonie and loonapick and the other commenters.

  32. Picked this one up in the cafe. Collins may have ‘ought’ as a less common form of nought, but in 1986, Chambers described it as an illiterate corruption of nought! I didn’t get it when solving, thinking, a bit like loonapick, that there must be a ‘first letter of’ indicator missing, but twigged it while reading the blog (before getting to comments).

    Got stuck with TROUNCE (hung up on thinking “counter” must indicate a reversal) and STEPHENSON still to go, so resorted to Word Wizard and was non-plussed to find only ‘shepherd boy’ returned for the long one, then realised it must be a person and got STEPHENSON almost straight away. My revenge is to get picky and say ‘stepson’ is not really a relative (“one who is related by blood or marriage”).

    Finally worked out what TILT stands for, so that’s the TILT! (Thanks, WhiteKing)

  33. “A nought” becoming “an ought” is rather like “a napron” and “a norange” becoming “an apron” and “an orange”. Not sure about “apron”, but “norange” is more closely related to romance languages – for instance “naranja” in Spanish.

  37. @muffin,

    Yes, you’re right about orange; I looked into it once. An ewt (formerly and dialect also eft, I think) is another one.

    @SimonS,

    Only if you’re married to him, perhaps? Maybe you’re right. Are in-laws relatives? Surely they’re just relatives-in-law (in law, not kin)? Anyway, I got it in the end…

  38. @DuncT, I think aught is the more common spelling. I always think of ‘naught’ as meaning ‘nothing’, and ‘nought’ as the symbol 0.

  39. I wonder if bromide as platitude is more American ? That’s the first meaning this America man thought of, anyway. I must say I enjoyed cockney in a clue as definition rather than a signal for slang!
    Thanks loonapick and Chifonie.

  41. “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”

    And to build on Muffin’s post, a ‘napperon’ came from the French nappe, for tablecloth (apparently).  I am leaning a lot today, which compensates me somewhat for my spectacular failure with lots of these clues (as it so often does).

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