A challenging in places puzzle from Gila to start the week.
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 Person who’s picky, upset and in a bad mood
PEDANT
A most appropriate clue to start with. Cruciverbophiles pedants? No way. An insertion of (AND)* in PET. The anagrind is ‘upset’ and the insertion indicator is ‘in’. PET for ‘bad mood’ is pretty universal; where I live it’s a MARD, which is much better because it allows for the compound noun MARD-ARSE, for someone who’s in a perennially bad mood.
4 Legal meetings cut short and since disbanded
FORENSIC
A charade of FOR[A] and (SINCE)* FORA is one of the plurals of FORUM, for a ‘meeting’. I would always write FORUMS, if only because spellcheckers and autocorrect programs will do everything in their considerable power to turn FORA into FOR A.
9 Underwear that is going to stay on
LINGER
LINGER(IE) The removal of the id est bit is indicated by ‘going’.
10 Copper breaks into a clapped-out car with precision
ACCURATE
An insertion of CU for the chemical symbol for ‘copper’ in A CRATE.
12 It is recalled in essays and a paper
THE TIMES
An insertion of IT reversed in THEMES. The reversal indicator is ‘recalled’ and the insertion indicator is ‘in’.
13 Enemy destroyed island from a peninsula
YEMENI
A charade of (ENEMY)* and I.
15 Almost the final house?
SEMI
A dd.
16 I get bogged down endlessly after I do business, and it’s impractical
IDEALISTIC
A charade of I DEAL and I STIC[K].
19 No RAM was reconfigured as regards demanding programmes?
RANSOMWARE
A charade of (NO RAM WAS)* and RE. If, heaven forfend, I were to be a 1ac, I would point out that for anything to do with computers, in British English you would always write PROGRAM and not PROGRAMME. But there were too many programmes about Prince Philip after his recent death.
20 Some off-colour, dull khaki comes from here
URDU
Hidden in off-coloUR DUll. The word ‘khaki’ is indeed derived from URDU, where it means ‘dust-coloured’. Other borrowings from Urdu (or the closely related Hindi) include bungalow, shampoo, veranda and juggernaut. English is such a magpie language.
23 Small, well-known Austrian bread product
SARNIE
I will fess up to using a search for ‘famous Austrians’ and even when Herr Schwarzenegger came top of the list, I didn’t twig on. However, it is he: a charade of S and ARNIE.
25 Vehicle’s part for which you need to pay, very possibly
FOOTWELL
A charade of FOOT (as in ‘foot the bill’) and WELL (as in ‘Sunderland could very possibly/well miss out on automatic promotion for the third season running’.)
27 Caught speeding? That’s devastating!
CRUSHING
A charade of C and RUSHING.
28 To kick off with, paneer and kofta. Alternatively, a …
PAKORA
A charade of P, A and K for the initial letters of ‘paneer’, ‘and’ and ‘kofta’, OR and A. The definition is a whimsical one: all three foods are of Indian origin, so if you didn’t fancy the first two, you might opt for the third one, which is the solution and might appear after the ellipsis.
29 Butt piercing annoys hipsters
TRENDIES
An insertion of END in TRIES. The insertion indicator is ‘piercing’.
30 Heart medication immediately starts to induce nausea
STATIN
STAT, I learned this morning, is a medical abbreviation for ‘urgent’ or ‘rush’ and is derived from the Latin word statim, meaning ‘immediately’. So you need that and IN for the initial letters (‘starts to’) of ‘induce’ and ‘nausea’.
Down
1 Illustrations describing one exercise programme
PILATES
An insertion of I in PLATES. The insertion indicator is ‘describing’.
2 Karate expert from Berlin threatening opponent
DANGER MAN
A charade of DAN and GERMAN.
3 No quote stands up as purely intellectual
NOETIC
A charade of NO and CITE reversed. Since it’s a down clue, the reversal indicator is ‘stands up’. Regular Indy solvers might have been helped by the fact that a derivative of this word came up in one of the puzzles only late last week.
5 Killer sea creature minutes away from Spanish island
ORCA
[MIN]ORCA
6 Smell said to rival strong spirit
EAU DE VIE
A charade of a homophone of ODOUR and VIE. The homophone indicator is ‘said’. Just imagine your French accent is like Del Boy’s and you’ll be fine.
7 Nothing but sandwiches and white wine
SOAVE
An insertion of O in SAVE. The insertion indicator is ‘sandwiches’.
8 Having stomach issues caused by fizzy cola and ice
COELIAC
(COLA ICE)* with ‘fizzy’ as the anagrind. Coeliacs are intolerant of gluten, and the resulting autoimmune response leads to gastrointestinal problems, hence ‘having stomach issues’.
11 Laid on the floor and prepared to drink
SET DOWN
A charade of SET and DOWN.
14 Blonde perm perhaps somehow initially seems straight to me
FAIR DOS
A charade of FAIR, DO and S for the initial letter or ‘somehow’. DO as in HAIRDO, whence ‘perm’.
17 Got up and went to an event
TURNED OUT
A dd. The first definition is referring to getting dressed up.
18 Professional journalist from Central Europe?
POLISHED
A charade of POLISH and ED.
19 Certain type of gem Sue uncovered
ROSE-CUT
[P]ROSECUT[E]
21 Try to forget about leaving vague information at the end
UNLEARN
A charade of UN[C]LEAR and N for the last letter of ‘information’. The ‘about’ is C for circa.
22 Reference book gets bought, finally. Finally!
AT LAST
A charade of ATLAS and T for the last letter of ‘bought’.
24 Scoundrel downing good Beaujolais?
ROUGE
An insertion of G in ROUÉ. The question mark is there because it’s a definition by example. I know ROUÉ, but was minded to look into its etymology. It comes from the French word for ‘wheel’, une roue. Originally, it literally meant ‘broken on a wheel’, referring to the instrument of torture thought to be deserved by such a person. Slightly harsh.
26 Head bishop ousted? Not again!
ONCE
[B]ONCE
Many thanks to Gila for this morning’s puzzle.
Loved this from start to finish. Yes, the appearance of “noesis” earlier helped with 3d.
I had a different parsing for 24d. I went with ROGUE with G going down (one place).
SARNIE is amazing, unlike Pierre who had cottoned on to “famous Austrians” I fell for the misdirection and now know of about 30 Austrian types of bread – once I’d worked it out though I laughed out loud at it
PAKORA and FAIR-DOS other favourites
Lots of fun today with a nice mix of gentle ones to get me in, some good challenges and the usual final few I needed help on
Thanks to Gila for the fun and to Pierre for the explanations (I honestly have no idea how you manage to parse them all!)
My parsing of ROGUE was the same as Hovis @1 but mainly as I’d never heard of ROUÉ!
Ah, okay … ROGUE with the G moved is most likely what Gila intended. Too much French is a dangerous thing.
I hate to be a 1a, but there are 2 ‘n’s In perennial….
Yes, Noesis the other day helped. Pakora a new one on me. Should get out more, but they’ve been shut.
A nice start to the week. Thanks to S&B.
Don’t know where that plus sign came from. A mystery helper called A
I agree with everything Hovis @1 said with one exception – I loved it from start to finish except for the very last clue. I’m sorry to say that 14d completely ruined my enjoyment of what was otherwise a brilliant puzzle.
The expression is FAIR DO’S (as per Chambers & Collins) and not FAIR DOS. I expect others will disagree with me, but the enumeration therefore must be (4,2’1) and not (4,3). I have come to accept (under sufferance) omitting the possessive apostrophe from crossword enumerations, but this specific example is wrong and very misleading. Bearing in mind the first word was obvious from “blonde”, until I resorted to “phone a friend”, I couldn’t come up with any sensible answer other than FAIR COP especially as a “perm” is a “hairdo” not a “do” (except, I see, in America !!)
SIGH! Tomorrow is another day…
I feel both parsings work for ROUGE though I was with Hovis and Tombsy and I liked the French red definition. I was fortunate to think of Arnie – but only after I’d considered famous Austrians including Hitler which, together with small, did not result in a promising solution so was rapidly ditched. I enjoyed the simplicity of DANGER MAN, the misdirection of YEMENI, the anagram for RANSOMWARE, the device resulting in LINGER and the quirky definition for PAKORA.
That said, I struggled to get on Gila’s wavelength this morning and found this harder than I’m used to this early in the week.
Thanks Gila and Pierre
I started like an express train in the NW corner then gradually slowed to shunter speed as I worked my way towards the SE corner. I thought FAIR DOS was a fair do! Thanks Gila and Pierre.
Thank you, Paul A. Muphry’s Law at work.
Rabbit Dave, sorry to hear your enjoyment was completely ruined by a stray apostrophe. I accept what Collins and Chambers say, but there is no logic to it. Most style guides (and newspaper editors) will insist on dos and dont’s rather than do’s and don’ts, so if you want to write fair-dos then, for me, you can. There are three as in banana, btw.
Thanks both – perfect level of challenge for my Monday brain. Re FAIR DOS – I had seen it as phonetic for fair dues (probably wrongly); in any event, I’m intrigued how the apostrophe would ever be justified?
It is only there in Collins, etc, TFO, because some writers accept it or insist on it: it is not doing the apostrophe’s usual function of indicating possession or contraction. The only time you’ll get in an argument about it is with this expression, fair dos, and dos and dont’s. Some writers will also use it for the plural of letters: mind your p’s and q’s. I wouldn’t, preferring mind your Ps and Qs. And there are three As (or a’s) in ‘banana’.
Pierre @12. I totally agree with you about Ps and Qs and As. I believe the apostrophe is there in DO’S to indicate the removal of the E from DOES as the plural of DO, hence “Do’s and Don’ts”. I found various references to FAIR DO’S, FAIR DOES (and even FAIR DOOS!) but not to FAIR DOS.
TFO @11, I think FAIR DUES has a different meaning.
I still like FAIR COP better with those checking letters.
I parsed ROUGEas did Hovis but didnt like it
Strange puzzle but its Monday.
Fair suck of the sauce stick
Started off well enough but fell at 28a where I bunged in ‘samosa’ for no discernible reason.
No chance of spelling COELIAC correctly so that had to wait for the checkers and I did have to check on well-known Austrians – don’t think I knew that piece of info.
Top two for me were POLISHED and ROSE CUT.
Thanks to Gila and to Pierre for the review – sorry that there were no bird opportunities today!
Two of my children are coeliacs, Jane, so that will do for today.
Alas failed on SARNIE but enjoyed the rest (and that clue, once I came here!). One pedantic point, ACCURATE does not technically mean “with precision”. One can be precisely off-target.
Postmark @8 ‘s small Austrian alternative has just made me laugh out loud 🙂
Well, I got there in the end, and without help, but there were a couple I wasn’t sure of, a couple I couldn’t parse.