Guardian 28,042 – Nutmeg

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I got off to a promising start, with 1a and 5a going in immediately, but then slowed down somewhat. However, Nutmeg’s elegant and clear clueing gradually led me satisfyingly through to the finish, with the exception of 10/11a, which I can’t parse. No doubt enlightenment will soon be at hand. Thanks to Nutmeg

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. STEALTH Covert behaviour‘s appropriate, though heartless (7)
STEAL (appropriate) + T[houg]H
5. AUDIBLE Bail due for revision in hearing (7)
(BAIL DUE)*
9. IN THE ALTOGETHER Bare minimum of instructional books — effectively treat as one (2,3,10)
I[nstructional] + NT (books) + HEAL TOGETHER
10,11. PEACE OFFERINGS Gifts of pink and yellow roses to make up? (5,9)
I can’t see this, except as a not-very-cryptic definition, perhaps involving the symbolism of rose colours
12. RATIONALE Reason address fails to start? One may be drunk (9)
[O]RATION (speech, address) + ALE (which may be drunk)
14. COTTA Vestment about to be given extravagant lining (5)
OTT (extravagant) in CA (circa, about); a cotta is a kind of surplice
15. CROWD Gathering clamour breaks record (5)
ROW (clamour) in CD
16. LASER BEAM Powerful ray left sea bream floundering (5,4)
L + (SEA BREAM)*
18. SIGHTINGS Glimpses tenor in embrace of lovelorn soprano (9)
T in SIGHING (loverlorn) + S
21. NICAD New acid revitalised battery (5)
N + ACID* – short for Nickel-Cadmium, as in some rechargeable batteries
22. ALIMENTARY CANAL A tyrannical male condemned food processor (10,5)
(A TYRANNICAL MALE)*
23,24. KITCHEN DRESSER Showcase clothing in general (7,7)
DRESS (clothing) in KITCHENER (WW1 general)
Down
1. SLIPPER There’s no end of unstable footwear (7)
SLIPPER[y]
2. EXTRA STRONG MINT Particularly reliable source of cash among sweetshop’s stock? (5,6,4)
EXTRA STRONG (particularly reliable) + MINT (where cash is made)
3. LIEGE LORD Vassal’s superior, grand persona sent up in song (5,4)
G + reverse of ROLE (persona) in LIED (song)
4. HELLO Below-zero greeting? (5)
HELLO (“below”) + 0
5. ALOOFNESS Distance from a kid climbing headland (9)
A + reverse of FOOL (to kid) + NESS (headland)
6. DREAR Bleak start for Doctor Foster (5)
D[octor] + REAR (to foster)
7. BEHIND THE SCENES Like badly-synced dialogue offstage? (6,3,6)
Double definition
8. EURASIA Set up a route regularly crossing one continent or two (7)
Reverse of A + alternate letters or RoUtE “crossing” or contaning I (one) SA (South America – one continent); Eurasia is geologically a single continent but historically regarded as two, so it would be nice to include “one continent or” in the definition, but that would mean the words were doing double duty
13. ARLINGTON Favourite leader’s lost weight where some US VIPs have gained stones (9)
DARLING (favourite) less its “leader” + TON (weight); Arlingont National Cemetery, near Washington DC, is mainly for military personnel (not necessarily VIPs) killed in war, but presidents can also be buried there, as John F Kennedy was
14. CHRONICLE Extremely little basis for appalling narrative (9)
CHRONIC (appaling) + L[ittl]E
15. COSSACK Slavonic firms on fire (7)
COS (companies, forms) + SACK (to fire)
17. MODULAR A rum old collection assembled bit by bit (7)
(A RUM OLD)*
19. TEETH Sufficient power to operate choppers (5)
Double definition
20. SHRED Perceptive wife cleared out grate (5)
SHREWD less W

62 comments on “Guardian 28,042 – Nutmeg”

  3. Peace is a pink and yellow rose
    https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiRkYLju6jnAhVV4O0KHRuFD5gYABAAGgJkZw&ae=1&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESQOD2UJZOOHHFG393d8oisWRSoByIe2MelgB76smB56shw01o6ZcMV0PV19TFJQLK9PjuFxgfK1Tat5U6h02CG54&sig=AOD64_2KoQUOvW-cRQQ_vXRLSPevGRlFUg&q&adurl=https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/?gclid%3DCjwKCAiA98TxBRBtEiwAVRLqu-Ktuku91a3DKYnPzKO_oJ2zf-y2TipjUDrYR9IWQKXa48wwsOukyhoCEEQQAvD_BwE&ved=2ahUKEwiL-vriu6jnAhXjpHEKHZRHCCQQ0Qx6BAgREAE

  6. Fairly easy for Nutmeg, to whom thanks.

    Thanksalso  to Andrew for clearing up some of the parsings for me. My parents were rose enthusiasts, so I knew Peace was a variety. COTTA was new to me and 2d made me smile.

     

     

  8. Thanks Andrew – Peace was my dad’s favourite rose but I only knew it as yellow so I was looking for more in the clue. I didn’t parse 9a or 23/24a – I think I must have been half asleep last night and should have looked again this morning. Thanks also to Nutmeg for her usual elegant clues and a relatively gentle offering.

  9. Nutmeg once again demonstrating that she is one of the very best setters around. 14d took me far longer to see that it should have. Thanks for an enjoyable start to my day.

     

  10. A pleasant solve, with no dodgy clues (IMHO of course). I found that 2d unlocked the LHS, but I needed 1a and 9a first. 22a was a nice anagram.

  11. I wrote a little comment in the margin that said: “I love the gentle unfolding of a good Nutmeg”. And when I came here I realised I was in tune with several other comments, now made before me.

    I gave three ticks to the anagram for 22a ALIMENTARY CANAL, Howard@10. It was my favourite clue but I also liked 9a IN THE ALTOGETHER, 23/24a KITCHEN DRESSER, 4d HELLO, 13d ARLINGTON and 19d TEETH.

    In fact there was a lot to like here.

    I didn’t know that significance of the roses clue for 10,11a PEACE OFFERINGS although I got the answer from the crossers. That is a beautiful thing I learned today.

    With thanks abundant to Nutmeg for the puzzle and to Andrew for the blog.

  12. Enjoyed this despite getting distracted by petty and irrelevant niggles (Peace roses are yellow and pink, a laser beam is not a ray, Arlington is exclusively for military (active or otherwise) personnel and their families (however they die and even if they are better known for other achievements) and also pondering on the rules governing words such as Nicad/NiCad/Ni-Cad.

    Clearly an issue with my state of mind today as none of the above detract from the quality of the setting.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.

  13. Loved this, smooth as silk.

    KITCHEN DRESSER is a belter.

    Helped by the relatively easy long clues and the friendly grid but still a delightful challenge.

    Do love a crossword that just stands on its own merits rather than the now more ubiquitous themed things.

    Failed to properly parse the South America part of EURASIA but the rest went in OK.

    Huge thanks to Nutmeg – more please.

    Nice week, all.

  14. Oh, and one tiny quiblet – perhaps I’m wrong but I thought chronic (I presume from Gr chronos) simply meant “lasting a long time” rather than “appalling”.

  15. Love Nutmeg’s surfaces, so succinct; even the four-part Lego charade 9a is more or less coherent, and its parts are great. Made the SE a bit of a headscratcb by bunging in screen for scenes in 7d, but canal in 22a sorted me out. Much enjoyed, thanks both.

  17. robert @12:  re the rose, not quite sure what point you’re making.  The clue does say pink and yellow roses.  Are you saying it should say yellow and pink?

    Also, a laser is a device for amplifying light into a beam, isn’t it?  We’re perfectly happy to refer to light coming from the sun as either a beam or a ray, so why not from a laser?

    Just a thought.

  19. William @ 17 Firstly I’ll re-iterate the ‘petty and irrelevant’ bit and say that the clues are absolutely fine.

    It could read ‘yellow and pink’ and would be a more correct description of the flower, rays radiate from a light source whereas a laser produces a single directional beam (which is presumably why it’s not called a laser ray but again it’s utterly irrelevant in the context of a cryptic clue).

  20. @William 14

    Indeed it does. However, although Chambers defines “chronic” as being (of an illness) “lasting a long time” as opposed to acute, Collins has the informal usage “very bad”. I’m sure Nutmeg knows this of course. On my personal scale of annoyance, which could be described as a latteometer, it’s quite a high reading, largely because a master at my school was easily roused to ire by a boy saying “I’m coughing something chronic sir” and it has stuck.

  22. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.

    I don’t recall ever coming to 15×15 before with so many solved yet unparsed: STEALTH (d’oh!), IN THE ALTOGETHER, PEACE OFFERINGS, KITCHEN DRESSER, LIEGE LORD, EURASIA (well, I had a sort of parsing for this but well wide of the mark) and TEETH.  All in all a thumbs-up and sorry that I had to rush and jump at it with a busy day ahead – I might have enjoyed it more given a bit more chew time.  COTTA was new to me: apparently it’s a Summer surplice.

  24. baerchen @20:  love your latteometer.  Mine would be a goodometer.  I work with some wonderful Americans but I do get piqued when there response to “How are you?” is “I’m doin’ good“.  I’ve lovingly nagged about adverb respect for so long now that they add -ly to just about everything.  One told me the other day that he was “feeling badly” about something or other.  I explained that this would imply that his capacity to feel was in some way impaired.  The response was predictably, “whatever”.

  25. I see that yesterday’s Brummie cricket theme was continued in today’s Quick Crossword with “Sticky Wicket”. But this had some nice surfaces, and have added COTTA and NICAD to my vocabulary, though both perfectly fairly clued.

  26. I usually get most of my answers by the solve-then-parse (or solve-then-go-to-the-blog) method, so it was a welcome change to be able to solve many of these from the wordplay. Thanks to Nutmeg for her usual clear clueing, and to Andrew for explaining EURASIA, which went in unparsed.

  27. Re. the discussion about Arlington. Some US military personnel will also be US VIPs have so “some US VIPs have gained stones” seems fine.

    It’s not relevant either whether or not ex Presidents buried there are military personnel, but since they are Commander in Chief while in office they would qualify anyway.

  28. Super crossword with a lot of very good clues. I particularly enjoyed KITCHEN DRESSER, EXTRA STRONG MINT, DREAR and ARLINGTON.

    I didn’t know about the peace rose and thanks for the parsing of EURASIA, which I didn’t seem to get with the ‘crossing’ feeling wrong.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

  29. Howard @ 27 Exactly and that’s what niggled me about the clue, once you move away from a military indicator the connection is tenuous and any word could replace VIPs and still be ‘fine’ (some US military personnel interred there will also happen to have been…left-handers, florists, poets, immigrants, addicts, Olympians, musicians, amputees, etc., etc.)

  30. I found this a fine, fun puzzle just like a number of previous posters. I wasn’t going to say anything about LASER BEAM, but since it’s being discussed, I was expecting someone to mention that it is not necessarily powerful – it depends on the energy you put into it and other design features. Maybe everyone’s definitional mental image is from James Bond, in Goldfinger I think, where 007 was nearly sliced in half.

  31. DocWhat @30:  Ah yes, with the immortal lines:

    “Do you expect me to talk?”

    “No Mr Bond, I expect you to die!“

  32. Thanks both,
    My quibble with 16a is not ‘ray’ but ‘powerful’. Many lasers, e.g. screen pointers, are very low power.

  33. Hmmm.. Some really nice clues: EXTRA STRONG MINT and ALIMENTARY CANAL, for example, but some I was less keen on. “steal” for “appropriate” in 1A, and are Cossacks really Slavonic? We call the thing in the kitchen a Welsh Dresser rather than a KITCHEN DRESSER, so that took me a while to get. Anyway, a couple of answers that chimed nicely with me and made me smile. Following Brummie’s theme of the other day: many of my weekend afternoons and evenings as a teenager were spent being scorer for one or other of the works’ cricket teams my dad played for : 12\6 a match, and all the extra strong mints I could eat (they kept me awake!). And NiCad cells (ex-helicopter, we were led to believe) were what in the 1980s we cavers slotted into hollowed-out ex-miners’ lead-acid cells for a (marginally) better light source underground.
    Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.

  34. Thanks to Imogen and Andrew

    I enjoyed this a lot – not too difficult once the long answers went in, and mostly completed while waiting to see the dentist (19dn all OK). And some delightful surfaces, especially 22ac and 13dn.

    Thanks to 9ac I now have a Danny Kaye earworm …

  36. Arlington cemetery is for those who die while on active service, or who retire from the US armed forces.   President Kennedy was a veteran of World War II.

  37. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew

    I wrote in AUDIBLE first – one of my favourites, then spotted that I could get ANCILLARY from the anagram fodder for 22a and spent some time seeing what I could do with the remaining TANME – not a lot! KITCHEN DRESSER was another favourite.

    I couldn’t parse IN THE ALTOGETHER – thanks for that. Did it exist as an expression for “unclothed” before the Hans Christian Andersen film?

    Not all that convinced by the first definition for 7d – why “scenes”? It’s the lip movements that it might be behind, surely?

  38. Duh. A face-palm moment about 1A (see #33) as I set off for an afternoon walk. That’s “appropriate” with the stress on the last syllable, not on the “o”. Fair enough, Nutmeg; devious, but fair enough!

  39. Muffin (#37)  – if you try watching a film with sound through wireless headphones, unless they are running a low-latency codec, the sound lags about 1/4 second “behind the scenes” – enough to make it rather disconcerting, and for me to put the wires back in!

  40. Troglodyte @39

    I know the problem – I’ve fiddled endlessly with the delay to get my SkyBox sound coming through the hifi to synchronise with the pictures. My point was, though, that it’s the lip movements/golf swings etc. that it’s behind (or in front of). “Scenes” seems rather vague.

  41. William@12 Michael Rosen and his guest were discussing the two meanings of “chronic” and other misunderstood medical terms on this week’s Word of Mouth.

  42. muffin@40 I have noticed that when watching TV normally (ie without headphones) the noise sometimes comes before the swing and contact with the ball.

  44. Dave Eliison @42

    Yes, I have too – more commonly in US tournaments. The sound and picture signals must take different times to get to where they are sent from, somehow.

  45. Ronald @25 and Troglodyte @33 – please no gratuitous references to themes of puzzles from earlier in the week. Some of us are not so fortunate to be able to do the crossword every day but like to catch up later.

  46. A quarter-turn symmetrical grid, I notice. Lovely puzzle and excellent blog – I parsed them all except EURASIA, missing that SA is South America. Much better than answer-smashing EURA and ASIA together, which is how I read it.

  48. I assumed the roses were PEACE- I’ve heard of it I think,but can’t remember from where- couldn’t be bothered to look it up though. I liked this as most of you seem to have done.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  49. muffin @ 44

    It’s an artefact of digital broadcasting. The signal (singular) arrives at the receiving device, but then the software has to do a lot more to process the video element that the audio, sometimes leading to them being out of sync.

    Mind you, I have a friend who exploits this to his advantage. He listens to the Test Match Special cricket commentary reading with Sky TV on silently. When he hears “He’s bowled him” he looks up in time to see it happen ‘live’.

  50. I found this to be a medium strength puzzle.  I wasn’t sold on the idea behind BEHIND THE SCENES but liked pretty much all the others.  I’ve just realised how good the surface for DREAR is!  Been a while since I heard the rhyme.

    Thanks, Nutmeg and Andrew.

  51. Like Alphalpa, we were all in but couldn’t parse a few. There were a few we’re still scratching our heads about too…I’m not sure PEACE OFFERINGS is even really that cryptic… I’m ok with BEHIND THE SCENES, although I agree sometimes it’s the sound ahead. ARLINGTON was ok for us too…if only on the basis you have to be pretty ‘important’ to be allowed to lay in rest there. We also parsed EURASIA as ‘rue’ upwards before ‘Asia’. Still enjoyed it though!! Thanks N and A!

  52. Simon S

    Thanks. I’ve noticed then when I’m listening to the same radio programmes on digital and FM (in different rooms, of course), the digital signal plays a second or so behind the FM. There’s the same effect with HD TV and normal, though that may not be the same cause.

  53. Enjoyable solve.  One minor quibble in 3 dn. with “song-lied”: wouldn’t it be “sang-lied” or”song-lie” – what am I missing?

     

  54. Jay @53

    “Lied” (pronounced “leed”) is an art-song form. Lied is German for “song”. Plural “lieder”, as in “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)”, a song cycle by Gustav Mahler.

  55. Classy as ever, Nutmeg. Thanks and to Andrew for parsing.

    This site is such a great resource everybody. Long live 15^2!

  57. Re sound/picture delays

    I seem to remember a letter to Test Match Special, from a Long Wave listener who was also watching the “live” TV broadcast:

    “You TMS commentators are so good, you seem to have this ‘sixth sense’ for when a wicket is going to fall, even before it happens!”

  59. I found this an enormously satisfying solve, with Nutmeg’s habitual elegant clues and one or two delicious anagrams. KITCHEN DRESSER was a beauty.
    As I understand it, peace roses first appeared just after the second world war, hence the name. We have one in our garden, and every year when it’s in full bloom each flower is almost as big as a cabbage: quite stunning! As was this crossword – many thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew

  61. I enjoyed this a lot and managed to parse everything except Eurasia. Also, for some reason, got stuck on ‘sightings’…. Thanks Nutmeg, whose crosswords I always enjoy, and Andrew for the explanations

  62. My favourite was HELLO.

    New for me was COTTA.

    I parsed 8d simply as EUR + ASIA same as Andy Smith @2 mainly because I would never think of SA (South America and NA (North America) as continents on their own.

    Thanks B+S

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