Guardian 27,736 – Pasquale

by

This was very much a puzzle of two halves for me: I filled in all the right-hand side quite quickly, but the left took much longer. As usual with Pasquale we have a few less-familiar words, though (with one possible exception) clearly clued. Thanks to Pasquale

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
8. AI WEIWEI A fivefold representation of the first person to become an artist (2,6)
A + five first-person pronouns: I WE I WE I, for this Chinese artist. Hard to get if you don’t know the name, even after understanding the cryptic structure, with ME and US as possible components as well as I and WE
9. RHYMED Short song embraced by revolutionary had poetic quality? (6)
HYM[N] in RED
10,24. BOIL DOWN Condense message about effectiveness of skin treatment? (4,4)
Double definition: a skin treatment might encourage a boil to subside
11. REVIVALIST Minister, one very celebrity-oriented type of preacher (10)
REV (minister) + I + V + A-LIST
12. TITCHY Tiny tot’s back needing a scratch? (6)
[to]T + ITCHY
14. REDUCING Losing weight using nice drug freely (8)
(NICE DRUG)*
15. SEA MICE Marine creatures in line by rocks (3,4)
SEAM (line) + ICE (diamonds, rocks). Despite its name, the Sea Mouse is actually a type of worm
17. TRAIPSE Unexpected spare time — yours truly is out for a walk (7)
Anagram of SPARE TIME less ME
20. FALLIBLE Story about bad back inclined to go wrong (8)
Reverse of ILL in FABLE
22. BANTRY Outlaw put a strain on Irish town (6)
BAN (to outlaw) + TRY (put a strain on). Bantry is a town in County Cork
23. LIBRETTIST In literature, playwright Simon is one sort of writer (10)
BRETT IS in LIT. Simon Brett is probably best known as a writer of crime fiction, but he has also written some plays
25. RULING Umpire’s decision in game — a catch in the deep? (6)
R[ugby] U[nion] + LING (fish)
26. HOLINESS Sanctity of Hindu festival by Scottish water (8)
HOLI (Hindu spring festical) + [Loch] NESS
Down
1. NICOTINE Poison making one number — one going to bed, confined (8)
I + COT in NINE
2,24. WELL DONE Words of commendation by no means rare (4,4)
Double definition, with “rare” referring to the cooking of meat
3. QWERTY Leading characters in key operation (6)
Cryptic definition
4. SIEVERT Amount of radiation that could make one restive (7)
RESTIVE*
5. PROVIDER Demonstrator concealing identity or one giving something away? (8)
ID in PROVER (one who demonstrates)
6. BY-ELECTION Candidate wants success in this, taking so long reading (2-8)
BYE (goodbye, so long) + LECTION (reading)
7. GETS ON Boards succeed when limiting costs ultimately (4,2)
[cost]S in GET ON (success)
13. CAMEL TRAIN Caravan about to disappear before wet weather (5,5)
CA (circa, about) + MELT + TRAIN
16. CABOTAGE Naval right established by sailing father or son over time (8)
CABOT (John Cabot, 15th century explorer, or his son Sebastian) + AGE (time).
18. SHREWISH Scrap not ending with desire to be harridan-like (8)
SHRE[D] + WISH
19. JERICHO Place wrecked by heroic Joshua, originally (7)
Anagram of HEROIC + J[oshua], &lit, referring to Joshua’s conquest of the city of Jericho by marching round the walls blowing trumpets. (“And the walls came a-tumbling down”)
21. ADIEUX Like a couple crossing island vales (6)
I in A DEUX, with “vales” as the plural of “vale” = Latin “farewell”
22. BOTTLE Courage in conflict — that’s nothing for ace (6)
BATTLE (conflict) with O (nothing) replacing A

48 comments on “Guardian 27,736 – Pasquale”

  2. A DNF today courtesy of 8 across, and I failed to fully parse BY-ELECTION not knowing LECTION. In hindsight though the clueing was very fair and the DNF was due to my lack of GK rather than the setting.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew.

  3. Either I’m on fire or this was one of Pasquale’s more straightforward puzzles as I finished before the blog went up – something I’ve never managed before.
    I agree with Andrew about 8a – I played with me and us before getting to the Chinese artist. Tilts were CABOTAGE and SIEVERT. Plenty of good clues but nothing was outstanding to me – I’m sure others will highlight what I’ve missed.
    Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew.

  4. Thanks to Andrew and Pasquale

    I thought 8a was fair as he has been in the news for political reasons as well as being a famous artist.

    I took WE to be the royal usage as there is no indication of “first person plural”

    I know Pasquale isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I quite enjoyed this, except for 10,24, which found a little strained

    Perhaps “Condense message about a spot of bother?”

     

  5. A dnf for me, as I had ‘outing’ for RULING – which I parsed as ‘out in g’, assuming G was a valid abbreviation for game, but of course I couldn’t understand how the definition worked. Also carelessly had ‘adieus’ for 21d, though I did know the correct spelling, and my version didn’t parse properly. CABOTAGE was new for me, but clued clearly. I’m not sure if the parsing of JERICHO quite works, as ‘by’ seems superfluous, but needed for the surface.
    Overall I enjoyed it.
    Thanks Andrew and Pasquale.

  6. Thanks Andrew and Pasquale.

    8ac was last in and I liked it when I got it. I smiled at 13dn.

    CABOTAGE was a new word but I managed to construct it from happy memories of my University days in the shadow of the Cabot Tower. SIEVERT was new, too, but, given the crossers, couldn’t be anything else.

    I winced at the plural ‘vales’,  since vale is a Latin imperative but, of course, so is the English equivalent and we talk of ‘fond farewells’. I did like the construction of the clue.

  7. Managed to finish though had to check sievert. The ONE is a bit awkward in this clue.
    Not the greatest puzzle though. please i was able to get through it

  8. Enjoyed this. 8a jumped out, boil down was a groan-chuckle, ice for rocks made a dnk easy, ditto try in Bantry and the wordplay in 23a where Brett was a dnk and ness in 26a where dnk the Hindu festival. Vaguely remembered sievert (probly from 225) and ditto Cabot jnr but not the father so a part biff. Vales for adieux was pretty neat, took a minute or two to wake up.

    Thanks for the fun Pasquale and thanks for the blog Andrew.

  9. For some time I played with the thought that “fold” in  “fivefold” was an anagram indicator in 8a, but, of course, it lead nowhere.

    Simon Brett will be familiar to many Radio 4 listeners.

    I didn’t like the spare “one” in 4d. Otherwise a fairly enjoyable offering.

     

    Thanks Andrew and Pasquale

  10. My favourites were ADIEUX + AI WEI WEI – which I was going to pass on, but then I saw it at the last moment before giving up!

    I was unable to fully parse 25a. I always forget about rugby – it is not on my radar! New for me were CABOTAGE, SIEVERT and BANTRY.

    Thank you Pasquale and blogger

  13. Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

    DNF for me too – I revealed RULING, which then gave me ADIEUX. Several words I didn’t know, but mostly fairly clued (though the CABOT father and son were a bit obscure). Is there a connection between HOLI and “holiday”?

    Favourites were TITCHY, CAMEL TRAIN and the lovely JERICHO.

    I was a bit thrown by the “one” in 4d (though I knew the unit). What is it doing there?

  15. I enjoyed this. yes, a struggle in  places but after Enigmatist’s genius, its all relative.

    I liked the brevity (soul of wit) in  10/24. It had to be a Chinese artist and one that an on-line word search would be unlikely to  trap. So good old Google-and as I saw it as an entry-bingo.

    3 and 4d were tea trays but  fun..

    My main  beef is the playwright. NEIL SIMON is a writer of plays and screenplays. Simon BRETT seems to be a detective story writer. Never heard of him.

    Didnt stop most of us getting it but a slight flaw in an otherwise fine puzzle.(I did like A D(I)EUX)

    Thanks Don and Andrew.

  17. Thanks for the blog. AI WEIWEI had me foxed, dnf.

    Muffin@13 – I am sure that the English holiday derives from holy day. Holi is Sanskrit, but given the linguistic connections of Indo-European languages I guess there probably is a common root some 4000 years ago.

  18. A puzzle of two halves for me too, with the LHS empty for quite some time before TITCHY slowly opened it up. I was pleased with myself for getting/guessing the unheard of Chinese artist, but I give credit to the setter for the wordplay and helpful crossers. Ended up missing RULING.

    I had the same thoughts as copmus @15 about ‘playwright Simon’ and had only dimly heard of Simon Brett.

    Favourites were QWERTY, JERICHO and the ‘vales’ def.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew.

  19. Thank you, Andrew, an unenviable task.

    Dnf here, too, with the difficult AI WEIWEI among others.

    Thought message in the BOIL DOWN clue a bit of a red herring.  Also, what is the 2nd one doing in the NICOTINE clue?  I see the need for I + COT but what’s the other one doing?

    I thought SEAM = line a bit too vague in the difficult SEA MICE clue.

    Enjoyed looking up CABOTAGE and REVIVALIST was quite a nice surface.

    Thank you, Don, nice week, all.

  23. Thanks Pasquale; did what it said on the tin.

    Thanks Andrew; I did know SIEVERT (although wanted to spell it Seivert) but not Simon Brett. As others have said, not a very good indication as playwright, IMHO.

    I got stuck in the SE corner, but enjoyed RULING after the PDM.

  24. I usually struggle to get on Pasquale’s wavelength but this all dropped into place nicely. Do we tend to regard anything we don’t know as somehow unfair? And can a clue be truly great if it relies on obscure or specialist knowledge? Hmmm

  25. Geoff @ 22. The surface was good though.

    8A Did anyone else try to count the number of folds in the letters W W?

    Never heard of SEA MICE, but we have SEA LICE down under so BIFD and couldn’t parse.

    Why are QWERTY leading characters? Get the key operation but …..

  26. SimonS @21:  Yes, I tried to get the numb-ing gag into it as well, but you need number = NINE so it doesn’t really work except for the surface.

  27. Bodycheetah @24:  Griping that something’s unfair simply because I failed to solve it, is something I have to keep myself in check over.  And sometimes, a clue that frustrated shows itself to be very clever once the answer is revealed.  As to your second question, that of course depends on how obscure or esoteric the required knowledge is.  I think most setters try to avoid reliance on too much GK.

  30. Most of the trickiest stuff was in the NW corner, but once I remembered the right artist, QWERTY became a lot more apparent. Apart from that SEA MICE were the only unfamiliar solution.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew

  31. Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew. Doh, a DNF for me but not with 8a, I am another who put outing at 25a. That said, some of this was beyond my GK and a lot of dictionary, work and some internet checking required (e.g.8a). Last one was 7d, though I do not really know why now. I convinced myself it was a pangram and the desperate search for the missing k and z meant the last few took ages until I gave up on it, and put in the incorrect outing. Lots of good clues here but I did like revivalist (the good old A list again). Thanks again to Pasquale and Andrew.

  32. Am I being too generous in thinking the one in 4 down was an indicator of the singular unit for an amount of radiation (otherwise plural)?

  34. Andrew: 13d is CA + MELT + RAIN, not TRAIN

    Biffed BY-ELECTION, forgot that LECTION is a word.

    I knew Simon BRETT as an author of detective stories (often with a theatrical setting) but not as a playwright.  I’ll have to check that link.

    Got stuck in the NW corner last night with ATROPINE stuck in as the drug (anybody else try that?).  This morning I thought of cots, in went NICOTINE and the rest slowly creaked in.

  35. Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew. Like Ronald@33 too many unknowns for me that included Holi as festival, SEA MICE, SIEVERT, CABOTAGE, BANTRY, and AI WEIWEI, so much use of Google.

  36. I always gain a few new words when battling with Pasquale, and today was no different. AI WEIWEI was an early one for me, as I’ve heard of him – and I rather enjoyed that clue. I also liked TITCHY and QWERTY. As for playwrights called Simon: my first choices were Neil Simon and Simon Gray. I can see how Mr Brett, having written a play or two, can technically be described as a playwright but, by the same token, Eric Morecambe once wrote a fine novel: would it therefore be acceptable to call him novelist Eric? Still, this is merely a quibblet – thanks to Pasquale for giving my brain a thorough workout, and to Andrew for the explanations.

  37. Simon Brett created the middle-aged actor/amateur sleuth Charles Paris in a series of comical short stories; that’s all I know him for. He also wrote a screenplay and a radio series. Playwright is not his main claim to fame. He also wrote ‘How to Be a Little Sod’! Anyway I had the same east/ west divide as Andrew with query and cabotage defeating me. Thought 8 ac was great. 21 down too. Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

  38. I found this difficult, and only finished after some mild cheating (use of word finder), but in retrospect I thought it was all fair.

    muffin @13 and others: I initially wondered about the “one” in 4d, but decided it was ok, It is of course needed for the surface, but it also works cryptically as it just means “for one” or “for you”; that is, the letters of SIEVERT could make “restive” for you.

  39. Fernando said today, “We have a word in Italian for this: ‘eclettico’. ”
    I should have replied that it describes what the interests of someone
    who wishes to complete the Don’s crosswords need to be.
    My experience was similar to yours, PetHay, in that I tried and failed
    to think of a fish with both a K and a Z before RULING came to mind.
    What saved me was a vague recollection that the Don has teased us
    with near-pangrams before now (?).
    Thank you to him and Andrew.

  40. CABOTAGE and BY ELECTION biffed in without parsing and I was another ADIEUS and one who tried to make NUMB-ER work. Have we had SEA MICE before? I knew it and I’m sure it was as a result of a crossword. I agree with those who found the E side easier than the W. Simon Brett was on Quote unquote yesterday so 23 ac was easier than it might have been. A I WEIWEI and QWERTY were LOI.
    Thanks Pasquale.

  42. Post script re ‘playwright Simon’.

    I had no problem at all with this, my only acquaintance with him being the charming ‘After Henry‘ playlet series, which I absolutely loved.

    It seems that, between us, we know different aspects of his work. I look forward to investigating his detective novels!

  43. Yaffle @37 Simon Brett also wrote a fair number of novels about Charles Paris, which as detective stories were fairly ho-hum but I enjoyed them for the picture of the unglamorous life of those far from the top of show biz.

    I got to the dentist an hour early by mistake today, so crossed the street to the library, not finding an outdoor place to enjoy the unseasonably delicious day we’re having between cold snaps or arctic vortices.  There I bumped into a shelf of far more Simon Brett novels than I knew existed, noticed them because of this conversation, but resisted taking one out remembering their medium-ness.  He’s gone off Charles Paris and now writes about Mrs. Polifax and a duo of women in a retirement community.

  44. Having had some involvement in shipping policy in a previous life, I had no difficulty in spotting CABOTAGE. But it is wrong to define it as a ‘naval right’, as it has nothing to do with navies. It is the right to convey goods or passengers between two ports in the same country, essentially a commercial matter. Some countries reserve this right to ships of their own nationality – eg Greece, which has resisted the opening up of services to its islands to non-Greek operators. And the US, that supposed enthusiast for open competition, similarly reserves its domestic traffic to its own operators.

    I found this easier than the Don’s puzzles usually are, but like others I failed in the NE with the Chinese artist, persuading myself that there must have been a Renaissance master called Di Medici.

  45. Another typical Pasquale puzzle in need of a functioning editor.

    A fiasco.

    That really the last time I waste time on one of his offerings. The man is insufferable.

  47. Wow, a tough one today.  I managed to get almost everything solved — with the occasional Google-confirm, such as with CABOTAGE, LECTION, BANTRY, BRETT SIMON (which was thus “confirmed” to me to be Simon Brett), and SEA MICE — but then I ground to a halt in the NW.  QWERTY took me at least two hours to see, picking it back up every once in a while through the work morning.  And as for AI WEIWEI … all I can say is AYE-YAI-YAI!!  [Or perhaps more descriptively of my solving plight: “Ai! Ai! A Balrog! A Balrog is come!”]  Favorites today included BOIL DOWN (I got a chuckle from the second definition) and REVIVALIST.

    Many thanks to Pasquale (for providing more TILTs than usual, even for you) and Andrew and the other commenters.

  48. Well said, Sil. Does comment 45 not contravene site rules? Not only are there no reasons for his criticism, it appears to be an attack on the setter himself.

Comments are closed.