Pan has the Quiptic for us this week. Carefully clued, but towards the harder end of the spectrum would be my analyis, but I’m just the humble blogger.
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 Mean parents finally going to hospital with sick baby
SHABBY
A charade of S for the final letter of ‘parents’, H and (BABY)* with ‘sick’ as the anagrind.
4 ‘Momentum‘ politician visiting Europe wearing scruffy suit
IMPETUS
An insertion of MP and E in (SUIT)* The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’ and the anagrind is ‘scruffy’.
9 Rail chaos disturbed cattle
CHAROLAIS
(RAIL CHAOS)* gives you the French breed of cattle.
10 Unnatural movement caused by sulphur in processed meat
SPASM
An insertion (‘in’) of S for element number 16 in SPAM. Introduced in 1937, still going strong, allegedly derived from ‘spiced ham’ and nutritionally questionable. Made famous by the Pythons in their sketch, where its name is repeated ad nauseam. And that’s why we call the stuff that clogs our inboxes ‘spam’. I never knew that till ten minutes ago.
11 Robes expanding to disguise fat
OBESE
Hidden in rOBES Expanding.
12 Lager and bubbly is brewed outside university
BUDWEISER
An insertion of U in (IS BREWED)* The anagrind is ‘bubbly’ and the insertion indicator is ‘outside’.
13 Exclusive European register includes Italian
ELITIST
A charade of E and an insertion of IT in LIST. The insertion indicator is ‘includes’.
15 Decorative strip in knitting pattern starts to bulge on needles
RIBBON
A charade of RIB for the ‘strip in knitting pattern’ and BON for the initial letters of the last three words in the clue. If you go with this parsing, you’d have to accept an overlap between the wordplay and the definition.
17 Criminal losing old female guard
FENDER
[OF]FENDER
19 Busybody cleric left in lake
MEDDLER
An insertion of DD for Doctor of Divinity or more broadly ‘cleric’ and L in MEER. MEER is given in my dictionaries as an alternative spelling of MERE.
22 Man after fish with handle of weapon
PIKESTAFF
A charade of PIKE and STAFF.
24 Hospital leaving injured protected?
ARMED
[H]ARMED
26 Actor in next Rambo?
EXTRA
Hidden in nEXT RAmbo. The most popular solution in crosswords, allegedly, because of its unusual combination of letters. ERATO is a close second, I think.
27 Graduate in absurd situation using language like a native
IDIOMATIC
An insertion of MA in IDIOTIC. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
28 Foreign character records dancing lion
EPSILON
A charade of EPS for [Extended Play] ‘records’ and (LION)* The anagrind is ‘dancing’.
29 Gold found by source of river
ORWELL
A charade of OR and WELL gives you the river in Suffolk.
Down
1 Crusoe cast adrift without source of soap and sugar …
SUCROSE
An insertion of S for the initial letter of ‘soap’ in (CRUSOE)* with ‘cast adrift’ as the anagrind.
2 … alert after a wash
AWAKE
A charade of A and WAKE for the ‘wash’ that a boat creates. The ellipses – as is the case most of the time – are there just to improve the surface reading of the two clues. Usual advice for newer solvers: ignore them.
3 British capital laid out for plant
BROMELIAD
A charade of B, ROME and (LAID)* with ‘out’ as the anagrind. Plants are an empty room in my mind palace, so I was happy enough with BROMELIDA before the crossing letters put me right.
4 Popular revolutionary is, on reflection, one of us
INSIDER
A charade of IN and RED IS reversed.
5 Gang of Nazis protected by American author
POSSE
An insertion of SS in POE. The insertion indicator is ‘protected by’.
6 Despicable individuals raised money to grow poisonous plant
TOADSTOOL
A charade of TOADS and TOOL for LOOT reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘raised’, which works since it’s a down clue.
7 Rose rambling over doctor’s grave
SOMBRE
An insertion of MB in (ROSE)* with ‘rambling’ as the anagrind and ‘over’ as the insertion indicator.
8 Animal artist with scrapbook in wrong order?
RABBIT
A charade of RA for ‘artist’, B and BIT. You have to perform the famous ‘lift and separate’ manoeuvre on ‘scrapbook’ to give yourself ‘scrap’ and ‘book’. That translates to BIT and B and ‘in the wrong order’ tells you to reverse the particles.
14 Cook ties cakes to footwear
ICE SKATES
(TIES CAKES)* with ‘cook’ as the anagrind.
16 Mixed dram containing whiskey put into drink that’s a comfort at night
BED WARMER
A double insertion: of W in (DRAM)* and all of that in BEER. The two insertion indicators are ‘containing’ and ‘put into’ and the anagrind is ‘mixed’. ‘Whiskey’ (so spelt) comes from the phonetic alphabet. I was regretting not having one of these last night. It’s chuffing May.
18 A Liberal in government put straight again
REALIGN
An insertion of A and L in REIGN. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
19 Make a mistake with popular bun for toasting
MUFFIN
A charade of MUFF and IN. This use of MUFF is most common in sporting contexts, I fancy: ‘Great chance at the back post, but he’s muffed it’.
20 Militant is awful cad and liar
RADICAL
(CAD LIAR)* with ‘awful’ as the anagrind.
21 Each dish wrapped by expert
APIECE
An insertion of PIE in ACE. The insertion indicator is ‘wrapped by’.
23 Little American leaving animals standing
SMALL
Pan is inviting you to reverse LLAMAS (‘standing’, since it’s a down clue) and then remove one of the As for ‘American’.
25 Child carrying king’s headgear
MITRE
And one last insertion: of R for Rex in MITE. The insertion indicator is ‘carrying’.
Many thanks to Pan for the Bank Holiday entertainment. Brollies at the ready if you’re venturing out.
Thanks Pan and Pierre
Very enjoyable. I loved the surface for OBESE.
I haven’t seen that spelling of “mere” in English – it looks Dutch.
[Surprisingly, perhaps, it is a bit contentious to define TOADSTOOL as “plant”. It’s a fungus, and it has been suggested that the fungal kingdom is more closely related to animals than plants.]
Thanks as always, Pierre. I am interested that, in 27A: IDIOMATIC, you underline ‘situation’ as being part of the definition. I have to say that I was, and remain, rather perplexed about the status of ‘situation’ in the clue, although I will not allow it to ruin my day. Could it be, alternatively, that IDIOTIC is the designated ‘situation’ (in the sense of place or site) into which ‘MA’ has to be introduced? While ‘situation’ is needed for the surface, I wonder if perhaps the carefulness of the cluing was momentarily sacrificed here to accommodate it.
muffin@1. I remember visiting Windermere in the lake district, England. There are more such meres probably?
I found this nicely challenging and very enjoyable – I particularly liked the story-telling surfaces in 1, 4, 9*, 11ac and 1, 7 and 20dn. (* This one reminded me of our Croatian tour guide on a holiday in Italy warning us that she’d heard of ‘cows on the motorway’ – turned out she meant ‘chaos’).
Re RIBBON – there’s no overlap: RIB is a pattern in knitting.
Many thanks to Pan for the fun and Pierre for the blog.
VDS Prasad
Yes, lots of “meres”, but no “meers” that I know of in England.
Luverly
Thanks for explaining RIBBON properly, Eileen. The other empty room in my mind palace is labelled ‘knitting’. Although I do remember our mam, who was an accomplished knitter, following the glossy printed patterns with crowded instructions to ‘knit one, purl one’.
… and that’s exactly what RIB is, Pierre. 😉 (Or it could be ‘knit two, purl two’ – or any number of stitches.)
Does anyone know why the Quiptic hasn’t worked on the Guardian iPadOS app for the last few weeks?
muffin @ 5. I re-read your first comment and see what you meant. I stand corrected.
Pierre: “towards the harder end if the spectrum”. My first pass through yielded twelve quick answers, but things then slowed down considerably, so overall I don’t think I disagree.
BROMELIAD is not the sort of word which tends to spring into my mind, and I’m not very familiar with BED WARMERs (apart from myself).
I don’t know why I was held up by PIKESTAFF. It was as plain as a ……. Congratulation to muffin on the namecheck and I agree that a TOADSTOOL is not, strictly speaking, a plant.
Muffin @1:”meer” is, indeed, the Dutch for lake. I don’t know of any in the UK. As an aside, in Dutch “meer” is, as said, “lake”, and “zee” is “sea”; in German “meer” is “sea”, and “see” is “lake”.
Very encouraging to find that I thought this was pretty straightforward and then to see Pierre describe it as “towards the harder end”! Thanks for the fun, Pan, and for clarifying a couple of the parses, Pierre.
Thanks Pan for a proper Quiptic, and Pierre for the blog, especially for parsing SMALL which escaped me.
I have seen plenty of meres but never a MEER in English, but heigh ho, I expect it’s in Chambers. I liked lots of the surfaces – I wonder who the Momentum politician in the scruffy suit was?
[In my computing days I used to explain what I did to my aunties by pointing out that the K1, P2, S1, PSSO and K2Tog in a knitting pattern were in effect a program, and I wrote instructions like that, but for computers.]
SC @2: I read IDIOMATIC like you. I thought ‘Graduate in absurd situation’ was another way of saying ‘Graduate situated in (a word meaning absurd)’, making ‘in… situation’ the insertion indicator, and leaving ‘using language like a native’ as the def. This would then make the def and the solution pretty much interchangeable: ‘When she spoke Finnish, she was very impressively… ‘
Thanks Pan & Pierre
Enjoyable, thank you. Favourite was Epsilon, perfectly clued without any old nonsense thrown in.
Deadhead @9: I solve the Quiptic every week in the Guardian app on my iPad and haven’t had any problems, other than a few unexpectedly tough clues.
In 1d, I noticed that “source” is an anagram of “Crusoe”, and tried to ferret out some significance from that fact, before recognizing that both were, almost, anagrams for SUCROSE.
Pretty straightforward and enjoyable, with a couple of new words including RIB.
Ta Pan & Pierre
Deadhead@9 Seems okay on my iPad, I suppose you’ll have to ‘keep on trucking’, assuming you are that sort of Deadhead.
As for the puzzle, I finished in record time (for me) with minimal assistance (checking a couple of spellings) so I’d guess it as relatively easy but we are all different
Thanks Pan & Pierre
In 1932 the Dutch built a dyke across the Zuider Zee (Southern Sea), an arm of the North Sea, to create IJsselmIeer, or IJssel Lake. I have a blanket that my mother used to call the Zuider Zee blanket because that’s what it fell into on a trip to the Netherlands when she was a child.
Thank you, Pan and Pierre.
Deadhead@9 the Quiptic almost never loads on either my iPhone nor iPad. I have to solve it on the website.
Enjoyed the puzzle, thanks Pan, but for the life of me couldn’t parse SMALL – so thanks to Pierre for the assistance.
A very enjoyable puzzle. Pan’s clues are always succinct and elegant with good surface readings and a nice assortment of cryptic devices. Lovely stuff. Thanks Pan and Pierre.
New: CHAROLAIS, BROMELIAD, MEER (I knew of MERE for lake but not MEER), ORWELL river
Favourite: TOADSTOOL (loi)
[ Muffin@1 and Petert@12, would you then assert that mushrooms are not suitable fare for vegetarians? ]
What a lovely crossword. Thank you both!
Nobody has commented on BUDWEISER — is the Guardian using brand names now?
The Guardian has never outlawed trade names, as far as I know, Valentine. The Indy allows them too. I think it’s only the Times and Telegraph where they are a no-no.