Anto has the Quiptic for us this morning. I fancy we might be hearing ‘too hard for a Quiptic’, which I wouldn’t disagree with; but I thought it was also let down by some characteristically imprecise and clunky clueing.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Cost of maintaining high stock
UPKEEP
A charade of UP for ‘high’ and STOCK for ‘keep’.
5 Opera performance concealing adult point
TURANDOT
A charade of A inserted into TURN and DOT gives you Puccini’s opera.
9 It requires assembly to make timely return amidst criticism
FLAT PACK
An insertion of APT reversed in FLACK.
10 Plant found in the middle of resown barren fields
SORREL
The middle letters of the last three words of the clue.
11 Venue satisfying audience
MEETING HOUSE
A charade of MEETING and HOUSE gives you the Quaker venue.
13 Poor duke regularly does turn for money
EURO
Hidden reversed in pOoR dUkE.
14 Become agitated, if husband leaves? Get stuffed
OVERHEAT
An insertion of H in OVEREAT, with a kind of reverse insertion indicator.
17 Hand over before agreement
DONE DEAL
A charade of DONE and DEAL.
18 Run behind float
RAFT
A charade of R and AFT.
20 Sign on embassy for those taking standard position in congress
MISSIONARIES
A charade of MISSION and ARIES for the ‘sign’ of the zodiac. The missionary position could be considered ‘standard’ (other positions are available) but I don’t think you can really describe two people copulating in this fashion as MISSIONARIES. And the idea that it came from 19th century missionaries’ disgust with finding ‘primitive’ people engaging in retrocopulation is an urban myth. It first appears in dictionaries in the mid-1960s.
23 Japanese hottie lived with a Guys and Dolls fan
WASABI
More sensitive solvers might find this offensive on more than one level, but I’ll leave it at that. WASABI is made from Japanese horseradish, hence ‘Japanese hottie’. The parsing is WAS for ‘lived’ and A BI for ‘Guys and Dolls fan’, or more precisely the ‘B’ bit of LGBT.
24 On the way, carrying chicken starter in pastry
EN CROÛTE
An insertion of C for the first letter of ‘chicken’ in EN ROUTE
25 Pitch tent here — it provides data link
ETHERNET
(TENT HERE)*
26 Some talk of one inspiring shelter to provide breakfast
MUESLI
A homophone (‘some talk of’) MUSE and LEE. MUESLI is a commonly eaten for breakfast, but to clue it as such shows a bit of imprecision, I fancy.
Down
2 Handy guide to the future provides a lifeline
PALM
A whimsical cd cum dd. The setter is referencing the fact that you have your palm read to tell your future, and that it also features a ‘lifeline’.
3 Unprepared former agency worker starts out running errands
EX TEMPORE
A charade of EX, TEMP and the initial letters of the last three words of the clue. Broken down into its Latin roots, it would be written EX TEMPORE, but every dictionary I’ve consulted gives only EXTEMPORE as the spelling; so I think the enumeration given here is wrong.
4 Pip has Estella concealing periods
PHASES
Hidden in PiP HAS EStella.
5 Basic choice for a burglar?
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
A rather unconvincing cd, unless you can persuade the audience that ‘basic’ somehow means TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.
6 Quit when Dolce (or Gabbana) swapped ends
RESIGNED
DESIGNER with the first and last letters swapped.
7 Drug runner is part of ring in New Orleans, initially
NARCO
An insertion of ARC in NO.
8 Employs too many with ludicrous vast offers
OVERSTAFFS
(VAST OFFERS)*
12 Car’s accomplished performance for one that teaches itself
AUTODIDACT
A charade of AUTO, DID and ACT.
15 Prediction revealed by American chap in dream
HOROSCOPE
An insertion of ROSCO in HOPE. Is ROSCO a quintessentially American male name? You tell me.
16 Dead feeling is going down
DEMOTION
A charade of D and EMOTION.
19 Millions following model company producing amusing programme
SITCOM
A charade of SIT, CO and M.
21 In this way, salute Italian produce
SOAVE
A charade of SO and AVE, the Latin word that most will have heard of in AVE MARIA.
22 Technical script for part of film that’s coming up
HTML
Hidden reversed in fiLM THat. Don’t bother complaining that it should be (1,1,1,1). It’s Guardian style to enumerate abbreviations like this as (4).
Many thanks to Anto for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks (?) Anto and Pierre
Yes, very loose in places. I didn’t parse RESIGNED and still don’t understand DONE DEAL. HOROSCOPE was very weak, as was MUESLI. FLACK for criticism is a mis-spelling of FLAK. MISSIONARIES and WASABI were unfortunate.
I will complain about HTML. It is pronounced as 4 separate words, so cannot be (4).
I did like the rather whimsical PALM.
Thanks both. Maybe 15d refers to DJ Emperor Rosco, but you have to be very old to remember him
FLACK is given in dictionaries as an alternative spelling of FLAK, muffin, so you are wrong in your criticism of that clue.
Pierre @3
I didn’t say that the mis-spelling doesn’t exist. It was however, originally a mistake. See here, for instance.
Thanks for the parsing of RESIGNED, I was struggling with that.
Also, now I understand DONE DEAL (hand = DEAL over = DONE before swaps the words)
Oh, and can I be the first to say “Too hard for a Quiptic”?
And for 17ac, DONE = ‘over’ and DEAL = ‘hand’ in card games. Put one ‘before’ the other and you’ve got your answer. hth.
Shirl: I’ve just discovered that the DJ spelt his name with a K: I do remember him, even though I don’t consider myself very old. I think it’s just supposed to be a typical American name.
Muffin: 17a is DEAL (a hand, as in card games) with DONE (over) before it.
I don’t mind HTML enumerated as (4) – we’ve seen this before and no doubt had similar discussions. However I think FLACK is inexcusable, even though it’s quite a common misspelling. Actually FLAK is itself a (kind of) acronym, from FLugAbwehrKanone.
Thanks Andrew @ 8 – I only heard him (fading in and out) on Radio Luxembourg, so didn’t know the spelling.
….although, reading your linked article, he doesn’t seem to have broadcast in English from Radio Luxembourg. Must have been Caroline then.
Thanks for the explanations for DONE DEAL.
Some very nice clues but, like muffin, I will moan about html being clued as a four letter word. It may be the Grauniad style, but if people don’t like it and don’t complain then the editor will feel that everyone is happy. I can accept acronyms like ‘radar’ that are pronounceable and have become established as words in their own right, but not examples such as this one.
I would also never spell ‘flak’ with a ‘c’ in the given context; it may have crept into usage, but, to me, it is a misspelling.
Yes this was hard for a Quiptic, but I thought there were some great clues. Perhaps I have a childish sense of humour, but I really liked the ones that maybe others found a bit offensive – 23a WASABI actually made me laugh out loud when the penny dropped. I was also amused by the surfaces of 4d PHASES and 14a OVERHEAT (though the latter seemed to me to lead more naturally to “overeat” which it couldn’t be because of the numbering).
I agree with muffin about the spelling of “flak”, but if dictionaries include the incorrect “flack” then Anto is ok.
Many thanks Anto and Pierre.
I agree with all of Pierre’s quibbles, although none of the looseness hindered the solving. Never saw flak spelled with a c, but Collins confirmed that it’s an “alternate spelling,” so I think Anto is on solid ground there. I suspect that many alternate spellings of words were originally misspellings.
For what it’s worth, I’ve lived in the US for all of my 75 years and have never met a Rosco.
Thanks to Anto and Pierre.
I’m another who found this a peculiar mix of fun and awful. Clever surfaces, like “pip has estrella” (both of whom have appeared in recent puzzles) and eminently Quiptic clues like “sorrel” were spoiled by things like “flack” for “flak” (even if it is in one dictionary, I think it takes more justification to include such an odd spelling in a Quiptic), “missionaries” (just…weak) and the burglar (makes no sense).
I’ve said it before but I’ll make the point again…”html” has no place in a crossword as it is not a word. “radar” is an acronym, a word made from initial letters, like “laser” and many others. “html” is an initialism, like CIA or LED – it is not pronounced as a word but as the separate initials. It doesn’t matter if Guardian style rules say “html” is (4) not (1,1,1,1) because you don’t write “H.T.M.L.”, it’s still not a word.
I was not offended by “wasabi” – like Lord Jim I found it funny. But “rosco” for “American chap” just left me bewildered.
Many thanks Pierre for disentangling this.
Yes, harder than the Cryptic, for me. Had to come back to it, when the last few dropped right in (WASABI, which did make me laugh, SOAVE), and made me wonder why I had thought them so hard. I’m not going to complain about the quality of the cluing, though. Seemed fine to me. Thanks, Anto, and Pierre.
We’ve had this “it’s in the dicitonary” discussion many times before. I do wish that if dictionaries are going to be descriptive rather than prescriptive, they would be more prepared to add (incorrect) or somesuch to the entry.
Incidentally my edition of Chambers (last century) only has the “publicity agent” meaning of “flack”.
Pierre – i had no problems with 5d, the basic decision for a burglar is “is it worth stealing?” or in other words “do I take it or do I leave it?”.
Also had no issues with Rosco as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, Fatty Arbuckle and Roscoe Tanner immediately sprang to mind but I couldn’t think of any others.
Thought this was good so thanks to Anto and Pierre.
Flack is also in the Oxford dictionaries, so I think it is fair game.
Well, we’ve had the abbreviation discussion many times. If you say it’s an HTML file, I would say that HTML is a word, and I for one am quite happy to see it enumerated as 4, but obviously others disagree (does it really matter?)
Wiki gives ROSCOE/ROSCO as a Cornish name.
I enjoyed MOP UP and the stock Guardian. I, too, thought this was too difficult for a Quiptic. As has been said before, it is quite difficult to compile an ‘easy’ cryptic crossword.
Thanks Anto and Pierre.
Thanks for the blog.
rosco is old US slang for a gun – see e.g. Damon Runyon – so maybe revealed by an American chap? Dunno, ask Anto.
Thought that take it or leave it was a perfectly acceptable cd.
Too hard for a quiptic IMO – took much longer than Vulcan. But some nice and entertaining clues, thought Pierre was being a bit harsh.
[A bit more on ROSCOE/ROSCO:
The name Roscoe is a boy’s name of Norse origin meaning “deer forest”.
Fairly popular a hundred years ago but out of sight now, the quirky Roscoe deserves a place on every adventurous baby-namer’s long list. It joins Rufus, Roman, Remy, Romulus, and Ray as one of the R names that sound fresh again after too many years of Robert, Richard, and Ronald.
Originally a place and surname, Roscoe had its glory days in the 1880s, when it reached as high as Number 138, then gradually declined, possibly damaged by the scandals surrounding silent star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, and then the hillbilly image it acquired thanks to Sheriff Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard. Roscoe has been out of the Top 1000 since 1978.
Trivia tidbit: The R in Edward R. Murrow stands for Roscoe; the distinguished newsman’s first name was really Egbert.]
ROSCO is in the OED as:
Rosco n.
Brit. /?r?sk??/
,
U.S. /?r?sko?/
(also ROSCO, rosco) British rolling stock (leasing) company.
Rosco is the name of the family pet dog in Pickles, Brian Crane’s comic strip which I follow regularly.
Yes, this was tough, but on reviewing it, I didn’t find too much to complain about. I agree the MISSIONARIES definition doesn’t really work. I liked WASABI (didn’t seem offensive to me). I think “basic” works well enough for TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, because it’s the bottom line offer in any deal. I thought of ROSCO P COLTRANE as well, so I guess ANTO’s a Dukes of Hazzard fan.
In what context is D used for dead? I thought it was “died”, as used in genealogy.
Quite a range of clue types, so not completely out of place for a quiptic. Just a bit too WASABI in strength!
Thanks, Anto and Pierre.
phitonelly @ 24 You’ve reminded me that I meant to query Pierre’s criticism of missionaries. Why does it have to be referencing just a single couple? I read it as referring generally to any/every individual adopting that position and it works fine.
Missionary does work fine, robert. Not my all-time favourite, but vanilla ice-cream is okay too in moderation. You’ve lived in a different universe to me if you think MISSIONARY can describe the person, rather than the position. When this is all over, you will no doubt be going down the pub with your mates and telling them: ‘Totally hot evening with my date at the weekend, boys. We were missionaries all night.’ Because they’ll probably be thinking you expended your passion on converting the godless.
Pierre @26
I think if you said it with a twinkle in your eye, they would get the message. The closest thing to a twinkle in Crosswordland is a question mark, so perhaps 20a should have had one of those?
Many thanks to you for the blog, including several parsings I didn’t get, and to Anto for the fun.
Pierre @ 26 Tad aggressive and if the (mis) perception is that it is called the missionary position because that is how missionaries do it then why shouldn’t it work in reverse?
I stand with muffin in considering “flak” to be the correct spelling. To me, a flack is a PR person. But speaking from a gay man’s perspective, I found nothing offensive about the clue for WASABI. In fact, that and the MISSIONARIES clue were the only ones I really liked but I think I laughed out loud at both.
Straw poll … how many people saw HTML in the clue and thought “No, it can’t be that because that would be (1,1,1,1)”? Answers on a postcard (disinfected) to the usual address
Bleudot @29
It was the “hottie” in the WASABI clue I objected to. I know that it was misdirection, but I still think it an inappropriate word, to be eschewed in a quality paper (and elsewhere, for that matter!)
I was happier with HTML as one word than extempore as two.
Bodycheetah @30 I was not happy with it however it was enumerated as it is an initialism not a word. And yes it did mean I only got it after dismissing everything else possible, a la Sherlock Holmes.
<rant> Would any of the following also be acceptable answers (standalone, not as part of wordplay): MOT, UKTI, DSC, FBI, BRB or even ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC (A US Naval term apparently…I googled a really silly example)? If not, why HTML? </rant>
I actually did enjoy this, although it was quite tough. I found the cluing trickier than usual but think it’s a little unfair to call it imprecise. I didn’t get WASABI, and should have, but the others I failed on were simply outside of my knowledge.
TheZed@33 Got any problems with SNAFU (5) as an answer?
blaise @35
I think TheZed thinks (as I do) that it’s more or less OK if it is pronounced as a word, so SNAFU would be all right.
I too object to HTML. Indeed, I’d object even if it was described as (1,1,1,1) because I believe that sets of initials are not words and therefore not fit to be answers in an ordinary crossword.
As for describing it as (4), that’s just the Guardian‘s annoying little fetish of wanting to write every pronounceable abbreviation as a word (eg, Nato). Small caps would be a better way of indicating such abbreviations, if full size caps were thought to be too overbearing visually.
14a and 26a baffled me, 23a and 22d took a while, never heard of EN CROUTE or SOAVE. For 15d… as far as this American is concerned ROSCO(E) is a dog’s name (and it’s spelled with an E!)
I personally thought TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, MISSIONARIES, and PALM were cute.
Words: 1
Characters: 2
It suddenly occurred to me that I consider “Roscoe” a dog’s name because Roscoe and DeSoto are the dobermans in Disney’s Oliver and Company, which I watched all the time as a kid! Must have made an impression on me…
Words: 9
Characters: 39
I enjoyed this more than the Vulcan Cryptic (which I failed to complete).
I looked up FLACK and found that it is a variant spelling of flak.
All this discussion of whether HTML should be clued as (4) or (1,1,1,1) is missing a point that bothered me more: HTML is not script. Script is used to describe programming language, whereas HTML is a data format. Perhaps we could be kind to Anto and say he intended script in the more general sense of a written text, but I think that would overly generous.
Found this frustrating but more because a handful of words were beyond my knowledge (extempore, autodidact, sorrel and turandot – altho an opera-loving friend saw it immediately.) than imprecise clueing. That said, Anto does tend towards wordy/clunky surfaces that just feel awkward to solve and this was a classic example.
Had no problem with HTML mind you. If it was (1,1,1,1) it would be far too obvious.