Guardian 28,282 – Maskarade

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

As the US election hangs scarily in the balance, a welcome diversion from Maskarade. A few bits of general knowledge required, and there are a couple of answers that are perhaps a bit obscure for a daily crossword. Thanks to Maskarade.

There’s a Nina around the perimeter with the names of characters from Nielsen’s opera Maskarade (from which the setter takes his name): JERONIMUS, LEANDER, MAGDELONE and the rather implausible ARV.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
8. VERY NEAR Close to end of May, seabird seen about in part of France around Toulon (4,4)
A complicated one to start with: [ma]Y in ERNE (seabird), all in VAR: the French Département which has Toulon as its capital
9. IN LIEU At the gent’s, we’re told, instead (2,4)
Homophone of “in loo”. “Gent’s” looks like a greengrocer’s apostrophe to me: surely it should be gents’ or just gents
10. REDS Balls first Reardon and then Selby hold — these, perhaps (4)
ED (Ed Balls, former Labour politician) in R[eardon] + S[elby]. Ray Reardon and Mark Selby are snooker players (of very different generations), giving us a lead to the red balls in the game
11. INTERRUPTS Breaks in Turin — rest and quiet disturbed (10)
Anagram of TURIN REST P (piano, quiet)
12. ALASKA State that Alabama’s like the borders of Korea (6)
AL[abama] + AS (like) + K[ore]A
14. NOT AT ALL No farewell to learners — in no way! (3,2,3)
NO + TA-TA (goodbye) + L L
15. ERINYES Megaera is one from Ireland in the past? Certainly! (7)
ERIN (old or poetic name for Ireland) + YES (certainly). The Erinyes are the Furies of Greek mythology, and Megaera is one of them
17. ASKANCE Invite to tango, perhaps, bumping daughter sideways (7)
ASK + DANCE less D
20. NEXT PAGE Clothing and home design com­pany (Gap, perhaps) — first to emerge overleaf (4,4)
NEXT (company as descibed) + GAP* + E[merge]
22. SIENNA Queen is overthrown and might be burnt (6)
Reverse of ANNE IS – Burnt Sienna is a pigment used in paints
23. OUT OF SORTS Feeling unwell, having no more classes (3,2,5)
Double definition – if you have no more classes (i.e. types) you might be said to be “out of sorts”
24. GLEN Leading Grampian location, especially Nevis! (4)
First letters of Grampian Location Especially Nevis, &lit – Glen Nevis is overlooked by Ben Nevis, which is at the western end of the Grampian mountain range. I can recommend the walk to Steall Falls if you’re in the vicinity and don’t fancy climbing the Ben
25. LIVE IN As an au pair would at No 54 with a German (4,2)
LIV (54 in Roman numerals) + EIN (German “a”)
26. ITERATED Repeated time and time again in new diet (8)
T + ERA (another “time”) in DIET*
Down
1. JEWELLER In France I joined Sam, a dealer in diamonds (8)
JE (French “I”) + WELLER (Sam W, Mr Pickwick’s servant)
2. EYAS Young hawk and first eaglet, for example, soaring (4)
E[aglet] + reverse of SAY (for example)
3. RETINA How one might see there’s no sulphur in wine (6)
RETSINA (wine) less S
4. OROTUND Round and round and round! (7)
O + ROTUND
5. NITRITES Salts suggesting chivalrous legal claims (8)
Homophone of “Knight Rights”
6. ILLUSTRATE Add the artwork — all is utter rubbish (10)
(ALL IS UTTER)*
7. MENTAL Fellows chat endlessly — it’s all in the mind (6)
MEN + TAL[K]
13. SANCTIONED Gave permission and reportedly went under, was ignored (10)
Homophone of “sank” + “shunned” – the “was” spoils the cryptic reading as “shunned” means “ignored”, not “was ignored”
16. ELAPSING Passing wind, single dad goes back inside (8)
Reverse of PA in SINGLE* (with “wind” to rhyme with “kind”)
18. CONFEREE One awarded a degree put heads together mid-week (8)
CONFER + the middle letters of wEEk
19. GEORGIA State of wild exaggeration after Texan left (7)
Anagram of EXAGGERATION less TEXAN – exactly repeating the definition of 12a
21. ECURIE English and French scientist joining F1 team (6)
E + CURIE (probably Pierre, who was born in Paris, rather than Marie, who was born in Warsaw, although she took French nationality). Ecurie is French for a stable, so by extension (I learn) a motor-racing team
22. SYSTEM Ends of branches regularly block the way (6)
[branche]S [regularl]Y STEM (to block)
24. GEAR Clothes which can be changed (4)
Double definition

54 comments on “Guardian 28,282 – Maskarade”

  1. Well done for spotting the Nina but not familiar to me at all. I smiled at ELAPSING and liked SIENNA and GEORGIA. Ta Andrew and Maskarade for a steady slog and diversion from the election.

  2. Ecurie Ecosse was a successful motor racing team in the 1950s but not in F1. I was pleased to be reminded of them.

  4. I really disliked this. Are uncommon foreign words now acceptable? OK, general knowledge lets us all down sometimes and it’s fine if the clueing is clear, but having to Google several times due to real obscurities just sucks all the fun out of the challenge.

    Sorry, this is very grumpy. I’m not a cultured francophile, just a rough northerner facing lockdown and the prospect of four more grim years.

  5. Getting tougher as the week goes on – more use of the dictionaries.

    Liked GEORGIA, IN LIEU, LIVE IN, GEAR, NOT AT ALL.

    Didn’t know CONFEREE was a word and hadn’t heard of ERINYES or EYAS and couldn’t parse the latter along with some others.

    So thanks to Andrew and Maskarade – yes a welcome distraction – couldn’t bear to have the radio on this morning.

  7. I liked the self-referent nina. Couldn’t parse 8a. Mostly write-ins but NHO 2 and 21.

    Oofyprosser @4: I sympathise. There seems to be more French required these days.

    Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.

  8. Found this an uneven solve. Foundered rather with the EYAS, REDS, VERY NEAR top NW corner, even though JEWELLER came easily to mind…and as for not knowing ERINYES being a suitable solution for Megaera until I looked it up…

  9. In 21D the French scientist could also be their daughter Irène Curie, a Nobel laureate in her own right.  Personally I don’t consider 9A as a homophone as I pronounce the “I” in LIEU even when speaking English.

  10. Did this at 00:01 whilst listening to the US debacle on R4.  I found that as MasterBela often tells me, men are not capable of doing two things at once…

    Not easy at all despite having seen Maskarade in my youth and being a Francophile.  21d was a complete mystery to me and remains so not being one iota interested in any sport (except the much-needed sport of Olympic Orange Squeezing – come on AZ; hang-on in there).

    Thanks Maskarade and Andrew for the mental challenge!

  11. Lots beyond me here, eg Erinyes and eyas, needing a bit of guess and check, not to mention the unseen and unknown ninas. Vaguely remembered Reardon (and that hush-toned compere, dubbed The Sepulchre by Mrs ginf), but forgot about the much more recent Ed, so I got that reds were snooker balls, but not quite why, hey ho. Orotund, too, was a bung-and-pray, but enjoyed learning about its sonorousness (or[ally][r]otund?). Ecurie was another, as per on the tin but blank about F1 (rather watch paint dry). So, lots of hit-and-miss, but quite fun nwst; happy to see more of this setter in weekday cryptic mode, just for the challenge. Thanks M and A.

  12. EYAS, ERNE and CONFEREE were all new to me, but other than that a welcome distraction, apart from the insertion of American states which brought it all back. If “gent” is an abbreviation of “gentlemen” then I think “gent’s” is acceptable.

  14. [As for the politics, the best news, even for a crusty old atheist, is the latest Encyclical, Fratelli Tutti… go Frank!!]

  15. Petert@12

    I agree with Andrew, It should be ‘gents’. That is the sign on the door of the loo for men, even if they are rough. [G]ent’s or gents’ is not well-thought-out, I am afraid. That’s my two naye paise worth..

  16. A slow solve for me today and several unfamiliar words, but I was able to piece them together from the wordplay then Google to check. I don’t often enjoy Maskarade puzzles but this was up my street. Needless to say I completely missed the Nina!

    pedro@3 Chambers has orotund as an adjective describing full, loud round voices.

  17. ..oh yes, and had no idea about 8ac very near; nothing to be got from Cote D’azur, so a bung and Gallic shrug..

  18. Écurie is used in French to describe F1 teams but not in English, as far as I am aware. I suppose if the French scientist joined an F1 team, it might be allowable.

    Good crossword overall I thought. As usual, I didn’t like the firsts and leading but they are allowed here.

    I missed the NINA, not surprisingly – which wouldn’t have been any use to me anyway, although good setting to use it without too many obscurities (I didn’t know ERINYES and couldn’t remember EYAS).

    I liked ASKANCE among others.

    Thanks Maskarade and Andrew.

    [Georgia’s on my mind]

  19. TimW: Thanks for confirmation (I had got that far but I was looking for something other than the voice connection as no mention of voice in the clue)

    Seems to be like saying ‘Square’ to define (eg) grantinfreo’s post @14 because it in square brackets.

     

  21. Not my cup of blood but no serious complaints.  There will always be lacunae in the old GK and a good few were ILLUSTRATEd here.

    But is “perhaps” the anagrind for the “gap” element of NEXT PAGE? Seems a bit weak or am I off-beam?

     

  22. I enjoyed this puzzle.  Even though the nina passed me by and I didn’t know that particular use of écurie.

    Thanks Maskarade and Andrew.

  23. Thanks Andrew, i needed lots of help to understand this fully – eg ERNE = seabird,really???

    A mixed bag not helped by confidently entering RATS instead of REDS early on, still think this is a clumsy construction and anyone bridling at “first approach = a” should be up in arms at “ED R and S hold”. Corrected this when I got JEWELLER from twigging the JE for 1D and googling to find that there is another Weller than Paul, which let me know I was in for a struggle. [When I reach this point I allow myself to google at will otherwise I would have to give up, and just treat it as a next step on the learning curve.]

    Concur with the few gripes above (and could add more eg Retina = how one might see: Would we allow Anvil = how one might hear?) but also enjoyed several, especially SIENNA and LIVE IN, and and got some self-esteem back by solving some that are above my usual level, so thanks Maskerade.

  24. Hmmm…ended up being a bit unsatisfied with this.

    The clue for REDS is pretty sloppy – first Reardon is not R.  First of Reardon is R.  …and then Selby for S is even worse.

    Defeated by ERINYES and Var without access to the internet and entered NITRATES unparsed as I’d become a bit fed up with looking at it.

    The homophone of LIEU/LOO doesn’t work for me.

    Plenty of good stuff as well, of course, perhaps just having an off day.

    Many thanks, both.

  25. I’ve never seen Ecurie used but Ferrari are often referred to as “The Scuderia”, with the same meaning.

  26. Not my favourite crossword of late with the tortuous 8A setting the mood and far too many gaps in my GK.  I knew ERNE but 8A had to be a guess first.  Never heard of EYAS, VAR nor ERINYES  and not being up on the snooker, 10A was a very unimpressive clue. I baulked at RETINA  as “How one might see…”.  In 1D, the French JE was sufficient to solve without the SAM reference which I didn’t now either.  Quite a few did go in easily e.g. NITRITES, IN LIEU, GLEN…  and I liked ASKANCE and SIENNA for their cogent surfaces of which there weren’t many I thought.

    William @24  I am quite critical of pseudo-homophones but for once I thought the LIEU/LOO and NITRITES worked.

    Too tricky for me this time.

     

  27. I know squat about snooker and only remembered Ed Balls on reading the blog, so I had no chance with REDS. (For the curious, I took B as the first of ‘balls’, noted that Reardon and Selby each contain the letter E, crossed my fingers and entered BEES. Of course there was no definition, but after yesterday …) Also good to know I wasn’t the only one to enter a half-parsed NITRATES at 5d (thanks, William @24). All in all, it was a fitting slog for the gloomy wee hours of the morning. Not Maskarade’s fault, so thanks to him and Andrew.

  28. I failed at the end–EYAS and ERINYES were unfamiliar. Also didn’t see the Nina, something I never remember to look for–thanks for pointing it out.

    [The clue for RETINA (making it from RETSINA) was easy for me for the following reason: if you play much Scrabble, sooner or later you’ll learn the rule of RETAINS: when in doubt of what letters to keep on your rack, retain the letters in RETAINS, since they make it easiest to Bingo (i.e., play all seven tiles on a turn). Those letters themselves form eight valid bingos, which is the record: RETAINS, RETINAS, RETSINA, ANTSIER, NASTIER, STAINER, ANESTRI (plural of anestrus, a period of low sexual activity), and RATINES (ratine is a fabric).]

  31. I struggled today and couldn’t parse 10ac so thanks Andrew. I thought 13dn very witty. I had to google ECURIE, not my sport (But nor is snooker). What a clever Nina. Thanks Maskarade.

  32. Straightforward cluing but challenging vocabulary, I’d say. Always nice to see a diversion from the Guardian’s regular line-up. SIENNA was my favourite, along with a well-crafted GEORGIA.

    Thanks Maskerade and Andrew.

  34. [The Guardian Newspaper has a Correction and Clarification for the clue from the other day: “Nine is the most popular time for broadcasters”, saying the “nine” should have been “11” as nine is not a prime. This is surely out of the frying pan into the fire, as then the rest of the clue is screwed up: the nine was interpreted by many as 9pm being the prime time for TV programs – 11 ruins that]

  37. Didn’t know ECURIE or ERINYES. Had to look up Toulon to find out about Var for 1a. I thought ernes were eagles in general, and are often clued as such, but on looking it up I find it is specifically the sea eagle, so technically a “seabird” though not one you would ordinarily think of. Such a lot of GK required for such a short clue! Didn’t know a CONFEREE was a thing either, though not a tough clue.
    Thanks for explaining REDS and GEORGIA.

  38. Not a big fan of this one, although I did like SIENNA and ASKANCE.  The problem I had with REDS (although I did get it) was that it was so structurally contrived AND required you to know (or benefitted from you knowing) some somewhat obscure things (which I would not call general knowledge, since GK is what “everybody knows”).

    I really had mixed feelings about Sam=Weller in JEWELLER.  On the one hand I got it right away, on the other Sam is a common name, and could refer to a fictional character from anywhere, or a real character from Arts and Entertainment, Sports, Politics, in fact anywhere in the public eye.  So by that logic it’s terribly unfair – I can’t quite resolve this one.

    On the “homophone didn’t work for me” point, I think that by now we should expect that to happen a fair portion of the time for some of the readership, and it isn’t disqualifying.  By analogy, if you look at yes=certainly in 15a, chosen randomly from many pairs in this puzzle, we don’t have a problem with the fact that these words aren’t universally interchangeable, as long as there are some reasonable circumstances when they are.

  39. The last time I saw a Maskarade crossword I read through the clues, folded the puzzle in half, and put it in the recycle bag. I had a much better time with this one despite my failures in the NW corner. REDS, EYAS, and RETINA were never going to fall for me. Still I found a lot to like with NOT AT ALL, ASKANCE, ITERATED, NITRITES, and GEORGIA among my favorites. Thanks to both.

  40. Dr WhatsOn@38:

    I have just placed a comment in General Discussion, hoping to prompt a discussion of “general”, and it crossed with your comment above. I agree with you, and am proposing that GK be replaced by EK (Esoteric Knowledge). If you and I start using EK, do you think it might catch on?

    I agree with your comment about homophones, too. If you take homophone to mean “sounds similar to”, in addition to “sounds exactly the same as”, then there should be no more arguments or complaints from the rhotic/non-rhotic disputants.

    I had no problem with Sam=Weller in 1d JEWELLER. If you first think of JE for “In France I”, then, given the not very cryptic definition, WELLER pops up almost automatically (assuming that Dickens is within your range of EK).

  41. Gazzh, an erne is a sea eagle (white tailed eagle).

    I wasn’t very happy about VERY NEAR as “near” means “close” in itself, so the lack of anything to indicate “very” grated.

  42. Dr. WhatsOn@38 and cellomaniac@40 – I wouldn’t describe general knowledge as things that are generally known. The reference is more to knowledge that isn’t restricted to a particular discipline. A collection of facts can be wholly obscure, provided that these facts would not all be known by an expert in a particular subject.

  43. My problem with ERINYES is that it’s a plural, and Megaera is singular.  Maybe there’s a way to read the clue to make this work, but I couldn’t find it.

  44. [Thanks Monkey@41, I looked up Erne when Andrew explained the parsing, and got as far as Wikipedia’s description of white tailed eagles and their breeding grounds – while water is clearly crucial, these are fairly extensive including “very broadly everywhere in Russia from European Russia in the west to the Bering Sea in the east”, which generated two of my three question marks as I’m not sure it really counts as a seabird any more, if it ever was, whatever its name is. Off topic further, at home I have a very interesting bird book, over 100 years old, which relates how the first seagull (as they clearly were then) had the temerity to meander up the Thames into London some time in the late 19th/early 20th century, whereupon it was immediately shot by someone standing on Tower Bridge. Nowadays of course gulls are found at rubbish tips all over the country. I’d probably still call them seabirds but only just.]

  45. Like Gazzh, I put RATS, thinking it was an alternative to the expletive in the clue. I knew EYAS as we have peregrines here in Sheffield. I have no serious objection to approximate homophones, although mileage may vary. This wasn’t too many miles away in my opinion. I had to look up the Fury and the département. And I confused the salt with time-and-a-half for policemen. I thang yow.

    Thanks to Andrew and Maskarade. I’ll go and listen to the opera now.

  46. Valentine @ 43

    As per the blog, he definition is ‘Megaera is one’, ie one of the Furies. That resolves the singular/plural difference.

  47. I only commented to get into this page, as I can see OofyProsser is already on here.

     

    As far as the Crossword is concerned, I managed to do it over the working day, I too was not happy with the obscure words and references, but managed to get there with Google. I spotted two names for the NINA, but I couldn’t make out that MAGDELONE and ARV were actual names.

  48. I don’t care about obscure general knowledge but I do care about using ‘was ignored’ for ‘shunned’ which is so basically wrong as cryptic grammar it almost beggars belief that Maskarade thinks it’s fine but even more so that his editor does. Until you remember that the Guardian editor doesn’t even bother to solve the puzzles in his own paper. Ludicrous.

  49. I remember Ray Reardon, but the Reardon who came to mind was another Ed, the fictional keeper of Ed Reardon’s Diary, the long-running programme on Radio 4. Very funny and highly recommended – it’s often repeated on R4 Extra and then available as a catch-up. Mind you, we are now getting to the point where it is difficult for satire to keep ahead of the mad reality.

    As with his holiday specials, I always find Maskarade’s efforts very rewarding, despite (or even because of) his disinterment of obscure words.

  50. VanWinke@42: I put “everyone knows” in quotes for more-or-less the reasons you said.  I think there’s actually a third category, between GK and EK (cellomaniac@40), and that is precisely the set of obscure facts that you don’t need to be a subject expert to know.  Some people might call this trivia.

  51. @g larsen @49 – I love Ed Reardon’s Diary, i came to it via 4 Extra, and have it on at the home office. Top-notch stuff.

  52. I agree that this seemed heavy on the GK.  My TILTs were ECURIE, VAR, MEGAERA and the ERINYES (sounds like a good punk band) and EYAS.  I enjoyed GEORGIA.

    The “was” in 13 not only tarnishes the cryptic reading, it also makes the surface worse.  So, not too successful in its role, all in all.

    Thanks, Maskarade and Andrew, for pointing out the Nina and its significance.

  53. Solved both EYAS and REDS without too much trouble, but remember thinking there’d be complaints about those. Similar thoughts about ERNE and VAR in 8a – I am familiar with both, though I associate the former with eagles and herons (plenty of Heron Crags in the Lake District that have nothing to do with herons) rather than sea birds.

    Never heard of ERINYES and didn’t manage to get there from the word play, so a dnf for me. Tend to agree with the comments about esoteric rather than general knowledge, and if Maskarade had been in a more generous mood he could have used BRONTES (or even GRUNTED) instead of ERINYES without feeling that he was letting us off too lightly, surely. (Would have spoiled the circumferal nina, though – which passed me by, too.)

    I don’t normally complain (much) about homophones, and I thought IN LIEU was fine, as was NITRITES (though I left the I/A undecided until I had understood the whole of the clue – which I thought was a good one). SANCTIONED, though (my loi) requires the vowel sound in the second syllable, which is surely a shwa, to be equated with that in shunned, which is surely not. This is nothing to do with north/south, rhotic/not, it’s basic English: shunned is a single syllable, with inevitable stress on the only vowel sound, whereas ‘tioned is the second syllable in a word with two, hence there is stress on sank (as the clue says), but not on ‘tioned.

    These little grumbles aside, I enjoyed this crossword as long as I was on Maskarade’s wavelength, which was most of the time. SYSTEM was a particular favourite, and I happily forgive two clues defined as state because the wordplay in GEORGIA was so good – even though it reminded me too much of the five hours I spent watching the election on the BBC last night.

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