Hectence has given us a lot of bra-stretching this morning.
An interesting Quiptic, probably on the hardish side (at least from the parsing point of view), and a pangram to boot. This is where all 26 letters of the alphabet feature at least once. There is one clue that I can’t make work and a serial use of the lift-and-separate device. Happy Mondays. And Happy St Andrew’s Day to our solving friends north of the border.
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 Confused account in newspaper about British Library exhibition’s opening
GARBLE
A charade of RAG reversed, BL and E for the first letter of ‘exhibition’. The reversal indicator is ‘about’. My Collins has this nounal sense of GARBLE, so fair play.
4 Gosh — close to Biden securing victory!
BY JOVE
A charade of BY and V inserted into JOE.
9 Pointless, maybe, when heartily fazed after Question 1
QUIZ
A charade of QU I and Z for the middle letter of ‘fazed’. An excellent choice of answer when a pangram is your objective, I would have thought. Pointless is a popular quiz show on BBC television.
10 Reorganisation of trains by Conservative is short-lived
TRANSITORY
A charade of (TRAINS)* and TORY.
11 Lighter and warmer finally, after a fire is lit
FAIRER
A charade of (A FIRE)* and R for the last letter of ‘warmer’. The anagrind is ‘is lit’, with ‘lit’ in its ‘drunk’ sense.
12 Indeed, writer taking drug became more profound
DEEPENED
An insertion of PEN and E in DEED. You have to lift and separate ‘indeed’ into ‘in deed’, which gives you your insertion instruction. Some folk object to this device, but I’ve never understood why – it’s perfectly clear and logical.
13 Sweet child’s getting cold feeding ducks after bedtime
CHOCOLATE
A charade of CH, C inserted into two Os for the cricketing ‘ducks’ and LATE.
15 Hang around with barista, regularly
WAIT
A charade of W and AIT for the even letters of bArIsTa.
16 Beg to swap sides for fun
PLAY
Hectence is inviting you to swap the R in PRAY for ‘beg’ with L.
17 Puzzled when record on agent is recalled by old journalist
PERPLEXED
A reversal of LP and REP followed by EX ED.
21 Things one wants whilst one’s sick
WISH LIST
(WHILST I’S)*
22 Dog expressed relief, picked up when it’s time to be home
CURFEW
A charade of CUR and a homophone of PHEW! The homophone indicator is ‘picked up’. The word has an interesting etymology. Middle English nicked it from from Old French cuevrefeu, which has hardly changed in modern French, which is le couvre-feu, literally ‘cover fire’. It’s related to regulations which required people to extinguish fires at a fixed hour in the evening, often with the ringing of a bell. In 2020, the word has seen a bit more airtime than it’s used to, which is Hectence’s sense.
24 Staff, embracing new lines, love return of popular pasta dish
CANNELLONI
An insertion of N in CANE followed by two Ls for ‘lines’, O and IN for ‘popular’ reversed.
25 Daughter takes rent for weed
DRIP
A charade of D and RIP. I don’t think this works, because the equivalent of RIP as a verb is ‘rend’, as in ‘What God has put together, let no man rend asunder’. ‘Rent’ is the simple past and past participle of ‘rend’, so you can’t have ‘rent’ as the equivalent of RIP.
Edit: as early commenters have noted, the clue works if you consider RIP and ‘rent’ as nouns rather than verbs.
26 Make certain to head off criticism
ENSURE
[C]ENSURE
27 Lots of people run in underpants
THRONG
An insertion of R in THONG. Are THONG and ‘underpants’ equivalent? I have no experience in this matter.
Down
1 After game, university student remains for stew
GOULASH
A charade of GO for the board ‘game’, U, L and ASH.
2 Discovered in the Alhambra: Zorro’s blade
RAZOR
Hidden in AlhambRA ZORro.
3 Good books are put up online verbatim
LITERAL
A charade of LIT for ‘good books’, ARE reversed and L. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘put up’, and you need to do more lift and separate with ‘online’, to make it read ‘on line’.
5 Country divided by stupid leader’s sycophants
YES-MEN
An insertion of S for the first letter of ‘stupid’ in YEMEN.
6 Hate token punishment for accepting bribes
ON THE TAKE
(HATE TOKEN)*
7 Serious from outset, deserve to be ahead
EARNEST
That 1960s bra is taking a bit of a stretching this morning. Yet more lift and separate: this time ‘outset’ needs to become ‘out set’, which gives you (SET)* and hence EST. Put EARN before that and you’ve got your answer.
8 Concentrated on current within-home care
PAID ATTENTION
An insertion of I for the unit of electrical ‘current’ in PAD and ATTENTION. The rather clever insertion indicator is ‘within-home’, with PAD having its apartment sense.
14 Applaud workers supporting strike
CLAP HANDS
A charade of CLAP and HANDS.
16 Army man‘s retiring
PRIVATE
A dd.
18 In south London area with morning off, one’s getting quite hungry
PECKISH
An insertion of IS for ‘one’s’ in PECKH[AM].
19 Drawing level at close of day?
EVENING
Another dd.
20 Greek character’s climbing entire central Doric column
PILLAR
A charade of the Greek letter PI, ALL reversed and R for the central letter of ‘Doric’. The reversal indicator is ‘climbing’, which works since it’s a down clue.
23 Stick on horse to finish first in old Wild West show
RODEO
A charade of ROD, E for the last letter of ‘horse’ and O for the first letter of ‘old’. A message for those who get red in the face about ‘first in old’ to indicate O: get over yourselves.
Many thanks to Hectence for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks Hentence and Pierre. Agreed that this is towards the challenging end of the Quiptic range. Some neat devices for a newcomer, outset and indeed come to mind.
I had parsed 25 with rent and rip as nouns.
I thought YES MEN was a delightful clue: lovely surface and crystal clear instruction. Does 25a (DRIP) work better if ‘rent’ is taken as a noun (a rent/rip in the fabric). I couldn’t see how weed = drip, until I thought of Molesworth – an utter weed. Thanks, Pierre and Hectence.
Heracles @1 – we crossed.
A very enjoyable solve. I did the same as you Heracles@2 as in ‘a hole in one’s trousers’ for example. Thanks Pierre for the elucidation of curfew and Hectence for the challenge.
Of course, rent and rip as nouns work. Objection overruled and blog amended.
Fun. Thanks Hectence and Pierre. Was unfamiliar with GARBLE as a noun and not quite convinced that DRIP= weed. Liked PAID ATTENTION and YES MEN.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
I found this one of the hardest puzzles I’ve done anywhere for some time. I looked askance at GARBLE and even checked it in my reference, Chambers – not given as a noun there. I didn’t like “one’s” for IS in WISH LIST.
Favourite was EARNEST.
Always things to learn, had no idea that curfew was from couvre-feu, merci Pierre. And always forget to remember about pangrams and ninas. Fun puzzle, tuffometer-wise about on par with the Pan, thanks both.
A very enjoyable Quiptic. YES-MEN, CURFEW and EARNEST all great clues. CLAP HANDS was maybe a bit weak. Hectence seems to capture that pre-Christmas lockdown Zeitgeist – GARBLE, PERPLEXED, YES-MEN, CHOCOLATE, THRONG but hopefully TRANSITORY
Smooth as usual from Hectence, with not a clunky surface in the lot. I needed Collins to confirm the connection of DRIP to weed and the blog to explain the definition of QUIZ, but otherwise straightforward. Thanks to Hectence and Pierre.
Maybe too many lift-and-separates for a beginner puzzle, but otherwise good. The ‘close to Biden’ fooled me as I was looking for the ‘N’.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
Thanks Hectence. I didn’t find this as hard as some people (some on the cryptic blog have said it’s easier than this), but was held up by DRIP (I was ok with rent=RIP, but the defn eluded me – thanks Tassie Tim!) and PAID ATTENTION. Tend to agree with muffin @7 about “one’s” in WISH LIST; but the setter must have liked it as it appears again in PECKISH!
Thanks Pierre and Hectence.
Could someone please explain the “Good” in good books in 3d. I’m assuming LIT is Lit., i.e. an abbreviation for Literature but why good?
Surely there are plenty of bad books out there as well!
Hi TheFSG. I think Hectence is just alluding to the fact that Lit is most commonly used in ‘English Lit’ when referring to academic study, where you’d only presumably look at literature that was considered ‘good’ already. On the same topic, I always smile slightly when I am informed that a book is ‘available in all good bookshops’. It’s presumably available in rubbish ones too.
TheFSG, re “good”: For “literature”, lexico has “Written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit”.
Re DRIP/weed: lexico also does a good job of showing the equivalency (even better than Collins IMO).
Yes, a bit tricky as Quiptics go, but enjoyably so. Though I did think PLAY a tad unfair, as it could be taken the other way too (pray as answer), and no crosser to confirm… fortunately I picked the right one.
Thx to setter, blogger, and commenters!
Re Molesworth; I think it was Fotherington-Tomas who was the weed: “Aktually it is only fotherington-tomas he sa Hullo clouds hullo sky he is a girlie and love the scents and sounds of nature tho the less i smell and hear them the better.”
jamjar @16. Quite right. I wasn’t thinking Molesworth was the weed – rather that he commonly used it: “utterly wet and a weed” etc.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre. This took me a whole week of agonized mumbling and swearing, and was therefore brilliant. I’m with Robi on the “close to Biden” – where was that pesky N??