Carpathian provides another classic example of a Quiptic on this somewhat non-standard Bank Holiday.
Concise clues with some good surfaces; I liked the port-swilling uncle in 14a, the cleverly-misleading old drawing in 5d, and the dog in 12d with a bite just as bad as his bark. The whole puzzle contains frequent reminders of a world where we could go to eat with friends, amuse ourselves on the seafront, take children to play in the park and watch cricket. We’ll meet again, one sunny day . . . . Keep well, everybody, and thanks to Carpathian.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PALATABLE | Agreeable friend with a place to eat (9) |
| PAL (friend) + A TABLE (a place to eat). | ||
| 6 | COBRA | Snake artist follows horse (5) |
| RA (Royal Academician = artist) following COB (a short, stocky horse). | ||
| 9 | AMUSEMENT ARCADE | Cremated seaman scattered round posh place with slot machines (9,6) |
| Anagram (scattered) of CREMATED SEAMAN, around (containing) U (posh, as in “U and Non-U“). | ||
| 10 | LADY | Place holding dead woman (4) |
| LAY (place, as a verb = put into position) containing D (d = abbreviation for dead / died). | ||
| 11 | WATER BED | Give drink to upper-class young woman returning to sleep here? (5,3) |
| WATER (as a verb, give drink to; perhaps in the context of a horse or a plant rather than a person), then DEB (debutante = upper-class young woman) reversed (returning). | ||
| 14 | CORPULENT | Port uncle drunk getting fat (9) |
| Anagram (drunk) of PORT UNCLE. The grammar of the surface is a little odd – “drunk” works for the wordplay, “drank” would make a better sentence – but the image is unmistakable. | ||
| 15 | SCENT | Smell small American coin (5) |
| S (small) + CENT (small US coin). | ||
| 16 | EGG ON | Encourage, for example, ‘good’ touching (3,2) |
| EG (e.g. = for example) + G (good) + ON (touching = adjacent to). | ||
| 18 | PROBOSCIS | Trunk for leader taking in Channel Islands (9) |
| PRO (for = in favour of) + BOSS (leader), containing CI (Channel Islands). | ||
| 20 | TRENCHES | Ditches new child in forest? (8) |
| N (new) + CH (child), in TREES (which may or may not constitute a forest, hence the question mark). | ||
| 21 | WREN | New rental housing bird (4) |
| Hidden answer (. . . housing) in [ne]W REN[tal]. My fellow blogger Pierre always looks for an opportunity to include a bird link in his blogs, so this one’s for him. |
||
| 25 | UNSPORTSMANLIKE | Random insolent mark-ups? It’s just not cricket (15) |
| Anagram (random) of INSOLENT MARK-UPS. “Just not cricket” = slang used to describe behaviour perceived to be against the spirit of the game, or (metaphorically) unreasonable behaviour in any area of life. |
||
| 26 | SIDES | Edges left out of playground features (5) |
| SLIDES (which may feature in a children’s playground), with the L (left) taken out. | ||
| 27 | DIGITALIS | Numbers swallowing a lithium drug (9) |
| DIGITS (numbers), swallowing A LI (Li = chemical symbol for lithium). Medicine derived from the foxglove plant (Latin name digitalis) and used to treat heart problems. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PEARL | Quiet noble paragon (5) |
| P (p = piano = musical notation for quiet) + EARL (a nobleman). Paragon = pearl = a perfect example of something. |
||
| 2 | LAUNDER | Wash and clean regularly beneath (7) |
| Alternate letters (regularly) of [c]L[e]A[n], then UNDER (beneath). | ||
| 3 | THEM | Article meant, initially, for the others (4) |
| THE (definite article, grammatically) + initial letter of M[eant]. | ||
| 4 | BEEF | Food served up in coffee breaks (4) |
| Hidden answer, reversed (served up in; “up” = upwards in a down clue) in [cof]FEE B[reaks]. | ||
| 5 | EXTRACTION | Origin of old drawing (10) |
| EX (old = former, as in ex-Army) + TRACTION (drawing = pulling). Extraction = nationality of one’s parents or ancestors, different from one’s own; for example “a Londoner of Italian extraction”. |
||
| 6 | CORNER SHOP | Convenience store monopolises spring (6,4) |
| CORNERS (monopolises; as in “to corner the market”, or to back someone into a corner so they can’t avoid you) + HOP (spring = jump). | ||
| 7 | BRAMBLE | Black rabbit on bush (7) |
| B (black) + RAMBLE (rabbit on = talk at length without much substance). | ||
| 8 | ANECDOTES | Stories are sadly second-rate, without a hint of realism (9) |
| Anagram (sadly) of SECOND-[r]ATE, without the R (a hint = a very small piece = first letter) of Realism. A hint of an extended definition too, suggesting somewhat unconvincing anecdotes. |
||
| 12 | PUGNACIOUS | Aggressive dog is able to back up promises (10) |
| PUG (breed of small dog) + CAN (is able to) reversed (back up) + IOUS (IOUs = promises to pay a debt later). | ||
| 13 | DEEP-SEATED | Race over to upset journalist getting entrenched (4-6) |
| SPEED (race, as a verb = move fast) reversed (over), then EAT (worry, as a verb = upset? Slightly loose) + ED (editor = journalist). | ||
| 14 | CHESTNUTS | Heads below box trees (9) |
| NUTS (slang for heads) below CHEST (wooden box). Trees of the genus Castanea. |
||
| 17 | GUESSED | On the radio, visitor conjectured (7) |
| Homophone (on the radio = heard) of GUEST (visitor). | ||
| 19 | CORDIAL | Friendly face seen beside choir regularly (7) |
| Alternate letters (regularly) of C[h]O[i]R + DIAL (clock face). Cordial = friendly as in “a cordial welcome”. |
||
| 22 | NEEDS | Requires dense brew (5) |
| Anagram (brew) of DENSE. | ||
| 23 | SMUG | Heads of some military units get complacent (4) |
| Initial letters (heads) of Some Military Units Get. | ||
| 24 | GNAT | Smack climbing insect (4) |
| TANG (smack = taste), reversed (climbing = upwards in a down clue). | ||
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister
Near perfect Quiptic – my only tiny problem was that my first (equally valid) entry of TANG for 24d (FOI in fact – I “solved” it as the puzzle was printing) delayed my completion of the SE.
Favourite was CORNER SHOP.
Thanks to Carpathian for the Mary Poppins puzzle, and to Quirister for the bird link. Had I been blogging, I would only have added that the name of the wren family is Troglodytidae, derived from troglodyte for ‘cave dweller’, because some members of the family are known to look for food in dark crevices.
Stay well, all.
[Technical question, Quirister. Your foxglove link replaces this page (as most links seem to). However your wren link opens in a new tab. What’s the difference, and how do you achieve the latter effect?]
[Muffin @3: entirely accidental. The software I was using to write the blog automatically includes target=”_blank” as part of the HTML coding for links, which means “open in a new blank window”. However, I added the foxglove link later, while checking the blog on the Fifteensquared site before publishing, and the Fifteensquared setup doesn’t automatically do this. I think you’d need to edit the HTML directly to specify it, but someone else may know more.]
[Thanks Quirister]
For a while I couldn’t work out which was the anagrind in 9a, “cremated” or “scattered”, and had fun trying various combos of words and individual letters, until U for “posh” occurred to me. I also enjoyed CORNER SHOP, BRAMBLE and PROBOSCIS.
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister!
I agree with muffin @1 that TANG and GNAT are equally valid in the absence of crossers. It’s something that occasionally happens with reversals and homophones, and ideally the clue should be worded to avoid the ambiguity. No complaints in this case, though, as the crossers were easy enough to get and the rest of the puzzle was so elegantly clued. All parsed before coming here, but thanks to Quirister for the bird and thanks also to Carpathian.
Thank you Carpathian and Quirister for a pleasant solve. And also thank you, Quirister, for the wonderful wren link. Who knew that almost all wrens are in the Americas — I’d always thought they were a European bird. Or that the house wren is the most widely distributed bird in the Americas, from Canada to the tip of South America? Or that they were so varied — I loved all the wren pictures.
DIGITALIS recalls Agatha Christie-era mysteries where somebody puts foxglove leaves from the garden in a salad to give someone a heart attack.
Quirister, I think you need to capitalize HOP, not SPRING in the notes for 6d.
That last post was from me. Don’t know how I became “well.” Wish everybody was.
Valentine (well) @8: thanks, blog now corrected.
19A. A comma after ‘uncle’ would probably make the clue read better?
Good Quiptic, did exactly what it said on the tin.
Smooth surfaces with my favourite being EXTRACTION.
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister.
I did this a day late so I don’t know if anyone will see this, but I thought this was a great Quiptic. I particularly liked 7d BRAMBLE, and the cremated seaman being scattered at 9a.
I had the same slight doubt as you, Quirister, about EAT = upset in 13d. If something eats away at you, it upsets you, but I’m not sure how “eat” on its own would work. However Chambers has, for “eat”, “to upset, irritate or worry (inf)“, so fair enough. (Though I would like to see an example in practice.)
Many thanks Carpathian and Quirister.
Isn’t EAT in 13d produced by TAE (Scots “to”) reversed (upset)?
13d EAT confused me too until I remembered the film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and the saying What’s eating them?
Beating Lord Jim, we did this 3 weeks late (we usually catch up on a Quiptic if we finish a Prize by Sunday)
Anyway, as no-one else has done so, I’d like to commend Quirister on the preamble.
Quite poetic – even emotional.
Thank you
Also thanks to Carpathian for an enjoyable solve.