Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 8, 2020
Another nice puzzle from Mudd. My favourites are 27ac (NEEDED) and 9dn (PARSEC).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | STRESSED | Tense as tempting confections wheeled over (8) |
| DESSERTS (tempting confections) reversed (wheeled over).
Technically speaking ‘tense’ is the diametric opposite of ‘stressed’. But for everyday purposes I think the definition is okay. |
||
| 5 | OBJECT | Goal that’s material (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | RICIN | Poisonous stuff in turmeric, I noted (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 11 | SWAZILAND | Enclosed by desert, western country snubbing British nation (9) |
| W (western) + [br]AZIL (country snubbing British) in (enclosed by) SAND (desert) | ||
| 12 | PENNILESS | Unable to write about end of destitution, one broke (9) |
| [destitutio]N + I (one) together in PENLESS (unable to write) | ||
| 13 | KYOTO | Eastern city right about fiddle backfiring (5) |
| TOY (fiddle) in (about) OK (right) all backwards (backfiring) | ||
| 14 | WEIGHT | By one’s ear, hang on heavy load (6) |
| Homophone (by one’s ear) of “wait” (hang on) | ||
| 15 | CHARADE | Arguably dirtier exhibitionist starts after cleaner act (7) |
| CHAR (cleaner) + A[rguably] D[irtier] E[xhibitionist] | ||
| 18 | ABRIDGE | A part of the nose, cut (7) |
| A (a) + BRIDGE (part of the nose) | ||
| 20 | REDRAW | Once more depict turning of screw (6) |
| WARDER (screw) backwards (turning of) | ||
| 22 | CIVIC | Metropolitan running both ways? (5) |
| Palindrome (running both ways) | ||
| 24 | TALL ORDER | Coffee requested in twelve- ounce cup? That’s unlikely to happen (4,5) |
| Double definition
It is common in my experience to see a 12-ounce coffee sized as ‘tall’ but I never thought of this as ubiquitous. Is it? |
||
| 25 | PRIMITIVE | Proper computer lessons I have, simple (9) |
| PRIM (proper) + IT (computer lessons) + IVE (I have) | ||
| 26 | TENON | Figure running joint (5) |
| TEN (figure) + ON (running) | ||
| 27 | NEEDED | Nice gutless journalists required (6) |
| N[ic]E + ED ED (journalists) | ||
| 28 | BEGRUDGE | Envy what vagrant might do with Dickensian simpleton (8) |
| BEG (what vagrant might do) + RUDGE (Dickensian simpleton). Barnaby Rudge is a simpleton in Charles Dickens’ book of that name. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCRAPE | Grate pickle (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | RACONTEUR | A current novel inspiring old storyteller (9) |
| O (old) in (inspiring) anagram (novel) of A CURRENT | ||
| 3 | SANTIAGO DE CHILE | Capital opposed to a deity, eastern church feeds spreading of lies (8,2,5) |
| ANTI GOD (opposed to a deity) + E (eastern) + CH (church) all in (feeds) anagram (spreading of) LIES | ||
| 4 | EASIEST | Point about that is: last of clues the first to be solved, perhaps? (7) |
| IE (that is) + [clue]S together in (about) EAST (point) | ||
| 6 | BRICKS AND MORTAR | Punk rock star brand I’m building (6,3,6) |
| Anagram (punk) of ROCK STAR BRAND IM | ||
| 7 | ERATO | Two times oxygen required for inspiration (5) |
| ERA (time) + T (time) + O (oxygen) | ||
| 8 | TADPOLES | Little sticks for pond life (8) |
| TAD (little) + POLES (sticks) | ||
| 9 | PARSEC | Space rocket initially travelling an astronomically long way? (6) |
| Anagram (travelling) of SPACE R[ocket] with a very playful definition.
A parsec is a measure of distance in astronomy equivalent to 3,262 light years. And, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, “If you think it’s a long walk down the road to the chemist’s, that’s nothing compared to a parsec.” |
||
| 16 | ABANDONED | Collected by cab, and one duly left (9) |
| Hidden word — and very good one. | ||
| 17 | SAUCEPAN | Lip on short piece of glass vessel (8) |
| SAUCE (lip) + PAN[e] (short piece of glass) | ||
| 19 | ENTAIL | Require English with translation of Latin (6) |
| E (English) + anagram (translation of) LATIN | ||
| 20 | RELIEVE | Free from responsibility, again experience overwhelming pleasure, finally (7) |
| [pleasur]E in (overwhelming) RELIVE (again experience) | ||
| 21 | ORANGE | A shade hot, stripped off over mountains (6) |
| [h]O[t] + RANGE (mountains) | ||
| 23 | VOICE | Express love in wicked behaviour (5) |
| O (love) in (in) VICE (wicked behaviour) | ||
Happy to have snaffled PARSEC on this occasion but I didn’t know ERATO.
Really liked SCRAPE,RACONTEUR,TADPOLES and BRICKS AND MORTAR. And ABANDONED was well disguised.
I believe those 12oz cups (24a) widely seen are usually a dribble of actual coffee and a bucket of milk!
For me, ORANGE (21d) is a colour (secondary) of which peach, say, is a shade though the answer was clear enough.
Thanks, Pete, for your clear guidance – really struggled to parse SWAZILAND. And to Mudd for another satisfying weekender.
Mudd always makes my weekend — he sees obscure but fair angles. 24ac was my LOI, but deliciously witty once I’d fathomed it. Thanks for another good one, Mudd, and Pete for the sturdy presentation
I found this on the easier side of Mudd. On a personal note I waited for your explanation of 24a as I had been 10 years in the coffee business 30 odd years ago and did not know the term. I just Googled it and found that Starbucks who came to the UK in 1998 coined the expression for their own use. Perhaps it has spread.
Many thanks to you both.
Diane, I had intended to comment further on ABANDONED but then forgot. Thanks for bringing it back to my attention. It was indeed very well disguised and I have added a commendation.
trenodia, Thanks for the tip about Starbucks. I remember thinking in the early days that it was typical of American marketing to call the smallest size of something ‘tall’. Nowadays I am so used to it that it seems normal.
Thanks to Mudd for the exercise and Pete for the explanations. A good crossword with much to smile about although the 12-ounce size reference defeated me. I did get the answer though. Maybe I do not get out enough but it is not common usage in this part of the world.
More fun from Mudd — BRICKS AND MORTAR, RELIEVE, and VOICE were favourites — but I needed a word finder for 13a, 15a, 28a, and 17d. I understood TALL ORDER, unfortunately, since I’m not a fan of Starbucks; whenever there’s no other option for coffee (e.g. traveling on the interstate) I just use small, medium, and large when ordering instead of their pretentious terms. Thanks Pete for the blog.
Never met “tall” for a coffee of any size, but then I’ve stopped ordering whilst travelling as one can only get strong or very strong, or milky.
Never met “parsec” so missed that and “charade” ,
11ac (br)AZIL is bracketed the wrong way round (sorry to pull you up Pete)
Maicolm, Thank you for this correction. I have added a little more text about ‘parsec’.
Thank you Pete and Mudd.
May I ask a question about 25ac, and use of “computer lessons” to stand for IT.
Doesn’t “computer”, by itself, stand for IT? Given IT stands for “info technology”, I am finding it difficult to see how a lesson can be described that way. I am probably missing something obvious, and would appreciate it if someone put me right …..
Martyn, Thank you for asking. I think it is a good question because, when I solved that clue, it struck me that the IT part was not well clued. And since I work in IT, I think I have a very good sense of the term. I do not quite see how “computer” by itself could clue IT although, at a stretch, “computers” might. I think the best way to justify the clue is to consider that one could say that someone who is studying IT is getting computer lessons. I cannot think of a context where the two would be interchangeable but this is close.
I agree about IT in 25 – I believe that lessons in English schools are called ICT (the C standing for “Communication”) so IT isn’t really very good for “computer lessons.
Also agree that 16 was a very good hidden word – difficult to see, largely because of its length!
Thanks Mudd and Pete
Started off quite quickly by seeing the hidden RICIN but it took nearly the rest of the solve to find the other hidden ABANDONED. Spent over 40 minutes in the first session which broke the back of the puzzle and took another couple of shorter sessions to finish it off.
Had read Barnaby Rudge quite a while ago so am quite familiar with him in crosswords, along with his pet raven, GRIP.
Some good geographical clues, such as SWAZILAND, KYOTO and SANTIAGO DE CHILE (which I hadn’t seen in its full form before) to keep the solve interesting.
Finished with that well-hidden ABANDONED and CHARADE as the last couple in.
I had no problem with considering IT as adequate for ‘computer lessons’: my brother-in-law used to teach IT A’level, before its current iteration as ICT. This might be a generational thing!