Atrica, of whose work I have little experience to date, has provided us with a themed treat to delight us this Tuesday. My apologies for posting the blog so late.
I found this to be an absolute delight to solve, despite being a tad challenging for a mid-week puzzle that I needed to blog 😉 I realised that something was happening around “ps” and “qs”, since the latter in particular were more abundant here than in the average completed grid. It was only later that I twigged the link between the two letters, as explained at 10. On examining the completed grid, I can see that all across entries contain a “q” and all down entries a “p”, with some entries (6, 9,15 …) containing both.
The SE quadrant made me feel at one point that I would need to cheat to finish the puzzle, but I persevered and got there in the end. 17, 21 and 22 were my last ones in. I am not totally convinced of all my parsing and would thus appreciate some input on my explanations of 5, 10 and 19. Incidentally, both the “Mary Jane” part of the wordplay at 19 and the “the present time” part of 23 were new to me.
My favourite clues today were 4, for its surface and unusual take on “liquid lunches”; and 20A, again for surface. However, for me this is definitely a puzzle where the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | QUARTILE | Unconventional requital for one fourth of the population
*(REQUITAL); “unconventional” is anagram indicator |
| 09 | EQUIPS | Provides jokes on the internet?
E(-) (=on the internet, cf. e-commerce, e-banking) + QUIPS (=jokes) |
| 10 | MIND YOUR Ps AND Qs | Pay attention: genius solver’s getting theme
MIND (=genius, intellect) + YOUR (=solver’s) + Ps AND Qs (=theme, e.g. of this puzzle, with a “q” appearing in every across entry and a “p” in each down entry) |
| 11 | COQUET | Flirt with Romeo, leaving game
C<r>OQUET (=game); “with Romeo (=R, in radio telecommunications) leaving” means letter “r” is dropped |
| 12 | SQUIRREL | Animal’s hide when given away
To squirrel away is to hide, hoard something |
| 13 | BEQUEST | Remain and hunt for what’s left
BE (=remain) + QUEST (=hunt); a bequest is “what’s left” by the deceased |
| 15 | QUART POT | Without hesitation, shelter Mary Jane in vessel
QUART<er> (=shelter, accommodate; “without hesitation (=er)” means letters “er” are dropped) + POT (=Mary Jane, i.e. marijuana) |
| 20 | CLIQUE | Set clue needing a measure of intelligence to penetrate
IQ (=measure of intelligence) in CLU |
| 21 | QUASI-CULTIVATED | A diva’s quite confused about group of followers, though seemingly sophisticated
CULT (=group of followers) in *(A DIVA’S QUITE); “confused” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | QUINCE | One of five at the present time can afford fruit
QUIN (=one of five, i.e. babies) + CE (=the present time, i.e. Common Era, used instead of AD) |
| 24 | SQUARISH | HQ Russia built shaped approximately like a block
*(HQ RUSSIA); “built” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 01 | TRADE UP | Extravagantly update car, finally, and exchange Ford for Ferrari, perhaps
*(UPDATE + <ca>R (“finally” means last letter only)); “extravagantly” is anagram indicator |
| 02 | PIG OUT | Animal on the loose in gorge
PIG (=animal) + OUT (=on the loose, i.e. not in prison) |
| 03 | PEAR | Fruit and vegetable recipe
PEA (=vegetable) + R (=recipe, in Latin) |
| 04 | PEA SOUPS | Suppose a drunk makes liquid lunches?
*(SUPPOSE A); “drunk” is anagram indicator; cryptically, pea soups could be described as liquid lunches |
| 05 | PUNNERS | Athletes retreating two steps at the start? They make us groan
RUNNERS (=athletes); “retreating two steps at the start” means that the first letter moves back two places in the alphabet, from “r” to “p” |
| 06 | OPAQUER | Work discussing ten square chains becomes more baffling
OP (=work, i.e. opus) + homophone (“discussing”) of “acre (=ten square chains)” |
| 08 | UNIPOD | A French electronic device gets minimal support
UN (a French, i.e. a French word for a) + iPOD (=electronic device); unlike a tripod, a unipod has only one foot, hence “minimal support” |
| 12 | SPURT | Jet’s prompt, ahead of time
SPUR (=prompt, incentive) + T (=time); a jet of water is a spurt of water |
| 14 | EXPECTED | Spat out everything, but sent back taro, as predicted
EXPECT<orat>ED (=spat out); “everything but sent back taro” means the reversed (“sent back”) letters of “taro” are dropped (“everything but”) |
| 15 | QUEUE UP | Wait ended after Queen rejected continental alliance twice
Q (=queen, in cards and chess) + UE UE (EU=continental alliance; “rejected” indicates reversal; “twice” means x2) + UP (=ended, over) |
| 16 | PRESENT | Pence dispatched again and put on display
P (=pence) + RE-SENT (=dispatched again) |
| 17 | PIZARRO | Man on board meets strange (naked) old adventurer
P (=man on board, i.e. pawn) + <b>IZARR<e> (=strange; “naked” means first and last letters are dropped) + O (=old); the reference is to the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro (1471 (?) – 1541) |
| 18 | RUPEES | India’s ready and preposterously sure about exercise
PE (=exercise, i.e. Physical Education) in *(SURE); “preposterously” is anagram indicator; the “ready” of the definition refers to money, cash |
| 20 | CHIN UP | Be brave, I punch erratically
*(CHIN UP); “erratically” is anagram indicator |
| 22 | LISP | Addendum: I lied at first about how to get thin from gluttony, maybe
PS (=addendum, i.e. postscript) + I + L<ied> (“at first” means first letter only); “about” indicates reversal; a person might pronounce “sin (=gluttony, maybe, i.e. one of the seven deadly sins)” as “thin” |
Yes, this was a really nice crossword.
That said, I must say that finding and understanding the importance of the gateway clue (10ac) did speed things up (a lot, actually).
Unfortunately, it was this clue that I just couldn’t fully parse, not thinking of ‘Ps and Qs’ = ‘theme’ (and nothing more than that).
Apart from 14d which didn’t fully work for me because of the first comma [I know for many punctuation doesn’t matter], a rather delightful exercise.
Good and original puzzle.
Many thanks to Atrica for that, and RatkojaRiku for the blog.
What a tour de force! When we gor the first two acrosses with Q in them we thought there might be a double pangram coming up, but this was so much better. And we got it all without assistance – we were on the point of seeking it with our LOI, 17dn, when we suddenly thought of ‘bizarre’ for strange and we were home and dry.
We were aware of Mary Jane as (American) slang for marijuana, but Mary Jane is also the name of a beer brewed in Ilkley, Yorkshire (a reference to the song On Ilkla Moor bah’t at) so could conceivably be a POT of ale as well.
No nomination for a CoD, it was all so good.
Thanks, Atrica and RatkojaRiku)
Like others, found this an excellent puzzle. My pride is not hugely dented to have needed assistance with two:-
19. I hadn’t realised all across clues had a ‘q’ and was
not familiar with the word – I also still don’t associate quarter with shelter
17, Don’t know the fellow, and single-letter notation for the chess piece was too obtuse for my brain at the hour
Solved 7a, then 9a, then 10a from the def and the letter count, which gave me the theme. Then a down clue confirmed it, and made the solve so much easier. Don’t know what the “genius solver” is all about.
That was good fun. Getting the theme early helped with the speed of solve, especially as you knew that a Q would very likely be accompanied by a U. I don’t think I’d seen CE on its own before though most ancient history books I’ve read in recent years use BCE rather than BC. I suppose that CE, like AD, is often implicit.
Thanks A & R
This was a wonderful puzzle. Very enjoyable; only one I couldn’t work out was LISP, but yet another excellent clue when I see the parsing.
Much thanks to Atrica, look forward to his/her next puzzle; and to RatkojaRiku for the blog.