A delightful Quiptic from Carpathian, just right for new and improving solvers, in my opinion. To that end, I have tried to give full explanations of all the clues, but if you are that lurker who is still puzzled, then just ask. The Fifteensquared bloggers write the reviews mainly with the motivation to help others take up, understand and enjoy cryptics.
There was a little mini-theme of food dishes today, with MINESTRONE for first course, SHEPHERD’S PIE for mains and MASH as a side dish (not ideal in the real world to go with shepherd’s pie, obviously). CHERRY TOMATOES form the side salad. All that, and a (non-edible) bird with an interesting side story.
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 Explosive and endlessly powerful European dish
MINESTRONE
A charade of MINE, STRON[G] and E.
6 Studied colour on the radio
READ
A homophone (‘on the radio’) of RED.
9 Stock image of kind of record player?
STEREOTYPE
A charade of STEREO and TYPE, whimsically suggesting that a record player might be an example of such.
10 Chooses towpaths regularly
OPTS
The even letters of tOwPaThS.
12 Fruit is unusual archery motto
CHERRY TOMATO
(ARCHERY MOTTO)* A tomato, botanically, is a fruit, so the setter is on firm ground.
15 Rule a girl breaks for freedom fighter
GUERRILLA
(RULE A GIRL)*
17 Write directions for pasta
PENNE
A charade of PEN and NE for one of the compass ‘directions’.
18 Whistleblower holding back accessories
BELTS
Hidden reversed in whiSTLEBlower.
19 Firm, therefore, accepts emergency regulations, initially in agreement
COHERENCE
A charade of CO and ER for the first letters of ’emergency’ and ‘regulations’ inserted into (‘accepts’) HENCE.
20 Meetings in revolutionary health resort involving pressure and lotion
APPOINTMENTS
An insertion (‘involving’) of P and OINTMENT in SPA reversed.
24 Deer have small black sinuous tails
ELKS
The last letters (‘tails’) of the middle four words of the clue.
25 In favour of US soldier getting very fit — it’s easily excused
FORGIVABLE
A charade of FOR, GI, V and ABLE.
26 Daughter after special educational needs post
SEND
A charade of SEN and D. SEN is a common abbreviation in educational circles. You can even get a post as a SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator).
27 Agree to cover up unfortunate mess in appraisal
ASSESSMENT
An insertion of (MESS)* in ASSENT. The anagrind is ‘unfortunate’ and the insertion indicator is ‘to cover up’.
Down
1 Side dish found in Christmas hampers
MASH
Hidden in ChristMAS Hampers. Don’t skimp on the butter, please.
2 Want number associated with topless act
NEED
A charade of N and [D]EED.
3 Prep dishes he’s cooking for meal
SHEPHERDS PIE
(PREP DISHES HE)* Don’t skimp on the 1dn.
4 Rubbish old Republican is part of machine
ROTOR
A charade of ROT, O and R, whichever way you look at it.
5 Sleep party ends with impetuous infant’s complaint
NAPPY RASH
A charade of NAP, PY for the outside letters of ‘party’ and RASH.
7 Accounting for former level in government
EXPLAINING
A charade of EX, PLAIN, IN and G.
8 Found out detectives get protected
DISCOVERED
A charade of DIS and COVERED. The ‘detectives’ are Detective Inspectors, or DIS.
11 Pivots camera around, getting luckier, happier better, perhaps
COMPARATIVES
(PIVOTS CAMERA)* ‘Luckier’, ‘happier’ and ‘better’ are examples of comparative adjectives. In English, comparatives and superlatives are usually made by adding -er and -est: big, bigger, biggest. But you often have to double the consonant, and you can’t really do it for adjectives of more than two syllables. You can have clever, cleverer, cleverest, but not intelligent, intelligenter and intelligentest. And there are completely irregular ones like the last of the ones Carpathian has chosen – good, better, best. French is easier.
13 European horse consumers adopting British kitchen utensils
EGGBEATERS
A charade of E, then B inserted into GG (crosswordspeak for ‘horse’) and EATERS. Fair enough clue, but it’s just called a whisk in our house ‘cos we’re common.
14 Spooner’s time aroused is expressed articulately
WELL SPOKEN
A spoonerism of SPELL WOKEN.
16 Left profession lacking very special positions
LOCATIONS
A charade of L and [V]OCATION followed by S for ‘special’.
21 Bird Sean ogles endlessly
EAGLE
Ooh, a bird. The middle letters of the second and third words of the clue: so [S]EA[N] [O]GLE[S]. The Golden Eagle is the UK’s main species, but for the obligatory Pierre bird link I am going for the White-Tailed Eagle. They were hunted to extinction in the early 20th century but were reintroduced to Scotland from Norway in the 1970s and over 100 breeding pairs are now established there. In autumn last year, six eaglets were introduced to the Isle of Wight (from Scotland) in an attempt to reintroduce the species along the south coast of England. According to a report in the local paper last month, they are doing well.
22 Instrument is gong with hole in
OBOE
An insertion of O in OBE. ‘Gong’ is an informal word for the type of medal Her Maj gives you.
23 Lift paper found under man
HEFT
A charade of HE and FT for the pink organ.
Many thanks to Carpathian for this morning’s Quiptic. A pleasure to solve and blog as always.
Always nice to hear about re-introduced species doing well, merci Pierre. Downunder, our extinction record is pretty terrible, sad to say, although there are efforts at repair. Nice breezy puzzle to start the day. Apart from being more used to guerrilla with one r, no quibbles. Thanks both.
Thanks Carpathian and Pierre
Excellent Quiptic. I loved EGGBEATERS.
I too ran out of letters before I came to the end of the spaces for GUERILLA!
Yes, I liked it too.
(We make a distinction between an eggbeater, which has a turny-handle-thingy, and a whisk, which doesn’t.)
Thanks Pierre, that was the bestest explanation of comparatives and superlatives I’ve seen in years. Thanks to Carpathian too.
Thanks Carpathian and Pierre, nice breezy fun. Loved the piccie of the eagle; endangered birds are a familiar story here in NZ with some progress being made thankfully. I’m with muffin re the difference between a whisk and an eggbeater. Loved the surface of 1ac and also enjoyed EGGBEATER.
Another who ran out of space for the freedom fighter (or another person’s terrorist). I put in BELLS for BELTS (missing the backwards inclusion). Bells and whistles, I was thinking. Lots to like here, though I have spent a career (teacher and father) trying to get kids to see that wants are not needs! COMPARATIVES was neat (though it needs bolding in your excellent blog, Pierre). Nice one, Carpathian.
Pretty much spot-on for the Quiptic spot, and no less fun to solve for a reasonably experienced solver either. Bravo Carpathian – wit, elegance of cluing and fair. I was pleased to see Pierre blogging once “eagle” appeared! To me “egg beaters” are a particular shape of whisk you get in food mixers or with a geared handle, often used for cream, cake batters. Talking of which, I’d best go see how many eggs my chickens have laid, so I can beat a few for breakfast omelettes.
On the comparative/superlative front and French being easier – I had not thought about it but in English we need e.g. “cheaper” and “costlier” where French can use “plus chère que” and “moins chère que”. One of the reasons we end up with a vocabulary twice as big as French’s! Not that French doesn’t have irregularities too (“meilleur”, “pire”, “moindre” leap to mind). All part of the richness of languages! Merci Pierre.
As has already been said, this looked like the perfect quiptic. Well done and thanks to Carpathian, and to Pierre for the interesting blog. TheZed is absolutely correct about the irregular formations in French, but at least you don’t have to work out how many syllables the adjective has before making the comparative! Incicidentally, SEN has now largely been replaced by SEND (and disabilities), which would have made the daughter redundant before getting the post.
Thanks both. I was a bit thrown by ELKS, thinking that the plural might be ELK (like deer, or moose)
Shirl @10
Like “fish” – one elk, some elks, lots of elk.
After I posted @2, it did occur to me that if we think of using the eggbeater, we actually use the “electric whisk” instead….
Thanks muffin @11
I did this online with my Mum and Dad during lockdown, as a way to keep in touch, between Isleworth and Long Melford. My Dad, who’s a pedantic, retired pharmacist says that an ointment is not the same as a lotion. But, other than that ‘glaring error’, we loved it and solved it in record time. Thanks Carpathian and Pierre.
Perfect Quiptic I thought with accurate cluing.
I enjoyed this more than today’s Cryptic (and it was easier, at least for me.)
Oh, those European horse consumers … I seem to remember some of our frozen beefburgers had some horse meat in them …
Thanks Carpathian and Pierre.
PS, Chambers, Collins and Oxford all have the double R spelling of GUERRILLA first, with guerilla as an alternative.
Carpathian’s Quiptics always seem to be easy, entertaining and flawlessly clued. I agree with Tassie Tim @7 that needs and wants are not synonymous, but close enough for crosswordland. Thanks also to Pierre for the informative blog, the bird, and the explanation of “gong.” I’ve been doing cryptics for about 18 months now, and every puzzle still seems to include at least one unfamiliar British-ism.
Excellent quiptic and a wonderful blog.
Thank you both
I grumbled a lot about last week’s Quiptic (and some of last weeks Guardian cryptic). So I’m relieved to say that this one was fantastic. Perfect level for a quiptic. Scrupulously fair and accurate cluing. Good surfaces. And fun – I suspect – regardless of the solver’s level of experience (though I can’t claim to speak on behalf of expert solvers).
TassieTim @7 – I agree that “wants” in the sense of “desires” are different from “needs”. But would you agree that “wants” in the sense of “lacks” are synonymous with at least one meaning of “needs”?
Hmmm… David @18. In the clue, ‘want’ is singular. ‘For the want of a nail…’ could be ‘for the lack of a nail…’ – but wouldn’t it be different to say ‘for the need of a nail…’? The first two are about an absence, while the third is about a requirement, it seems to me. Something to think about.
I thought this was really good as a quiptic, lots of different types of clue, a few old chestnuts that are essential to have in the toolbox (eg FT for paper), some write-ins to help along the way, and a few headscratchers. Something for everyone really. Plus of course a very helpful blog for the beginner/improver.
Thanks Carpathian and Pierre.
TassieTim @ 19 – I still don’t see the problem. Both “want” and “need” can be used in the sense I mean as a verb. “That fence wants a coat of paint”. And it might do so, even though it already has one (and thus doesn’t lack one).
Like Shirl @10, I would definitely have written the plural of “elk” as “elk”, but dictionaries list both.
There is an organization called the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, whose chapters are generally referred to as Elks Clubs. I don’t know if this is just a US thing. It’s the sort of social / charitable organization often also referred to as a “lodge”. It has a bit of an old-fashioned feel to me (e.g., Fred Flintstone belonged to one, and I think Archie Bunker did too), but they do still exist.
(By the way, when I say “old-fashioned” and refer to Fred Flintstone I meant that I associate them with the time when The Flintstones was being made, not when Fred supposedly lived. Since The Flintstones was a ripoff of The Honeymooners, I’m guessing that the guys there probably also belonged to a lodge.)
Ted @22
When, as a youth, I was a member of Barnstaple Camera Club, we used to meet in the Moose Hall, the lodge of Loyal Order of the Moose.
This was very entertaining – and so was your blog, Pierre. I enjoyed the eagle info, and have never really considered the difference between a beater and a whisk before. Or, for that matter, how to refer to more than elk or moose. Up till now I haven’t needed to, having never seen either in the flesh (them, not me – I never go on safari naked: I’m too prone to insect bites). Thanks to Pierre and Carpathian for the fun.
Very VERY new to cryptic crosswords. Question: does the tense of a verb, or the word used matter? for example, studied rather than study (aka, the noun and not the verb)?
Welcome, J. Very new is fine.
In general, yes, tense does matter – the surface reading of the clue (what the compiler has written) has to be grammatically right, both in the sense of a proper sentence and what people refer to as the ‘cryptic grammar’. The latter is the set of instructions to get you to the answer.
If you are talking about 6ac here, then ‘studied’ has to equate grammatically to ‘read’ (both past tenses, though confusingly ‘read’ is also the present tense). But sometimes setters will use words that can be either nouns or verbs to mislead you.
Is that any help?
Welcome J.
To add to Pierre’s comment, 6ac couldn’t have been written ‘Study colour on the radio’ because this would imply the answer was Read pronounced ‘reed’ which does not sound like the colour.
Thanks, pavement – you’ve explained that clue a bit more clearly than I did. One of the reasons that English is a good language for cryptics, J, is that it’s not phonetic, so setters can play around with things like the read/red confusion. ‘Lead’ can be a synonym for escort or usher, but also (pronounced differently) a metal. And much more …
Thank you Pierre and others for the great explanations. A treat for a fairly practised (by now) beginner like me.
You’re welcome, Devon housewife. Glad you are enjoying the Quiptics and the blogs.
muffin@4 I’m with you on eggbeaters and whisks. I have one of each, as well as an electric mixer. (I’ve never heard “electric whisk.” Must be British.) I don’t think I ever saw a whisk as a child, eggbeaters were the thing. Maybe whisks were introduced to the US in some later decade?
TassieTim @7 I agree that wants and needs aren’t the same, but I think some people say, or used tosay perhaps, “The omelette wants salt.” I think I remember somebody fictional (on Upstairs, Donwstairs, perhaps?) correcting somebody else for it to saying “needs” instead, so perhaps it was a non-U usage.
TheZed @8 French for cheap is “bon marché.”
Robi @15 It makes sense to have two r’s in GUERRILLA, since “guerra” has two. Originally a guerilla was a “little war” in Spanish, explained in English as “guerrilla warfare.” Then (in English) “guerrilla” became the person rather than the activity.
And thanks to Carpathian for the very pleasant puzzle and to Pierre for the welcoming and friendly blog. (Glad you got your bird!)
I’m also with muffin re:eggbeaters and whisks. (Though tbh, I usually use a fork.) Mm, I suppose my instincts say to use ‘elk’ to pluralize members of a single species but ‘elks’ to refer to several species – i.e., a park ranger might say “The elks that live in this area are known to bother bird feeders”, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. I think ‘want’ is close enough to ‘need’ to be an acceptable cluer, though I will say it did throw me off the track and 2d ended up being my penultimate answer.
Britishisms:
5d: I’d heard the term before, but not commonly, so it didn’t come to mind until very late. Also, for the longest time I had ____Y _A__, so I couldn’t get my brain off track of ‘slumber party’ for a while.
22d: OBE in general, and also gong. I had the B from the crosser, figured hole meant O, and got OBOE from there. Had to google to figure out what OBE was.
23d: I’ll also throw in FT as ‘paper’. I had to get a subscription for an International Affairs class, but other than that, I don’t hear much about the Financial Times in the US.
I thankfully remembered GG from an earlier quiptic!
Words: 2
Characters: 8
26a was interesting given that for a while the government had used the initialism SEND for special educational needs and disabilities.
Could someone explain why horse is crosswordspeak for GG. Thanks for the blog and of course for the crossword.
@pilcrow/34 I’d never heard of it before these Guardian crosswords. From a quick google, I found it’s a homophone of ‘gee-gee’, which is a children’s slang for ‘horse’. It apparently comes from the mayor of Chester, England, Henry Gee, who replaced football with horse racing in 1539.
Words: 6
Characters: 26
Thanks for explaining, Khitty Hawk. I should remember that not everyone is familiar with crosswordspeak, and have given more detail in the blog. I wouldn’t quite say it was ‘slang’, but GEE-GEE is a word that very young children use for ‘horse’. I suppose a bit like MOO-COW and BAA-LAMB, although those two do have an onomatoepoeic element which GEE-GEE doesn’t. I didn’t know its origin.
Valentine @32
I don’t suppose that you will see this, but an “electric whick” is a hand-held beater, rather than a counter-top one, such as a Kenwood Chef.
@Pierre – Yeah, the dictionary I found described it as ‘children’s slang’, so that’s what I went with, not being familiar with the word in context. ‘Slang’ does indeed conjure up a different picture than KITTY-CAT or MOO-COW!
Words: 1
Characters: 7