Another beautifully elegant puzzle from Nutmeg. Not a hard one, but somehow even her easier clues are disguised enough to make them interesting.
She sometimes sneaks in a theme or Nina, but I can’t see anything here. Many thanks to Nutmeg.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | MINT SAUCE | Unused neck dressing suitable for some joints (4,5) MINT (unused) + SAUCE (cheek, neck) |
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| 6 | NOTCH | What tallyman might cut, other than church? (5) NOT (other than) CH[urch] – from the practice of keeping a tally by cutting notches in a stick |
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| 9 | LEHAR | Scorer from Harlem briefly in action (5) Anagram of HARLE[m] – “scorer” meaning a composer |
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| 10 | SLENDERER | Shylock in serial increasingly tight (9) LENDER (as Shylock was) in SER. |
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| 11 | SAP | Drain liquid that’s rising in spring (3) Double definition |
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| 12 | PAVING STONE | GP innovates flying flag (6,5) (GP INNOVATES)* |
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| 14 | PORTEND | Herald left, getting wind up (7) PORT (left) + END (to wind up) |
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| 15 | LEAFLET | Small section of plant making publicity material (7) Double definition |
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| 16 | PELISSE | Is son donning legendary footballer’s mantle? (7) IS S in PELE (footballer) |
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| 19 | PRESS ON | What’s possible after media persevere (5,2) PRESS (media) + ON (possible) |
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| 22 | EAGER BEAVER | Willing worker‘s average beer supply (5,6) (AVERAGE BEER)* with “supply” meaning “in a supple way” |
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| 23 | POT | Kitty‘s drug (3) Double definition |
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| 24 | ADORNMENT | Decking put Royal Navy crew in a spot (9) RN MEN in A DOT |
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| 26 | GRAVE | Grand party where we may well end up? (5) G + RAVE |
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| 27 | LEMON | Fruit marmalade primarily filling Christmas turnover (5) M[armalade] in reverse of NOEL |
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| 28 | RELATIONS | Speeches from Congress (9) Double definition – the congress is the sexual kind |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | MILKSOP | Nancy takes advantage of work (7) MILKS (takes advantage of) + OP, nancy and milksop can both mean an effeminate man; both probably regarded as rather offensive these days, especially the former |
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| 2 | NO-HOPER | Dud mobile phone operator cleared out (2-5) Anagram of PHONE + O[perato]R |
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| 3 | STRIPTEASER | Cabaret artist has problem supporting band (11) STRIP (band) + TEASER (problem) |
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| 4 | UNSAVED | Invest in fund, losing capital like many Titanic passengers (7) SAVE (invest) in FUND less its “capital” or first letter |
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| 5 | ETERNAL | Constantly going outside to cast vote (7) EXTERNAL less X (a vote) |
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| 6 | NOD | Daughter running up to give assent (3) Reverse of D + ON (running, working) |
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| 7 | TURMOIL | Rum drunk during work causes uproar (7) RUM* in TOIL |
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| 8 | HARVEST | Gather in rushes around five tons (7) V on HARES (rushes) + T |
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| 13 | STAGE FRIGHT | Arrange contest, admitting Rocky’s initial reluctance to go on (5,6) R[ocky] in STAGE FIGHT |
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| 16 | PREVAIL | Win through before onset of vocal trouble (7) PRE (before) + V[ocal] + AIL (trouble) |
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| 17 | LUGWORM | Bait listener, raising master argument (7) LUG (ear, listener) + reverse of M ROW |
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| 18 | EYEWEAR | It’s said I tolerate my contacts, for instance (7) Homophone of “I” + WEAR (tolerate), with the definition referring to contact lenses |
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| 19 | PIVOTAL | Critical comrade impounding four books (7) IV OT (Old Testament, books) in PAL (friend, comrade) |
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| 20 | SOPRANO | Singer in musical production heartlessly cutting second number (7) OP[E]RA in S NO |
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| 21 | NATTERS | Jack avoids toads and rabbits (7) NATTERJACKS (toads) less JACK; “natter” and “rabbit” are both slangy words for “talk” |
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| 25 | NUN | Stern Unitarian keeping woman in order (3) Hidden in sterN UNitarian |
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I guessed 5dn and 20dn without being able to parse the clues correctly, and was momentarily confused by 9ac, because of course
‘Harlem’ in toto is an anagram of another composer, i.e. Mahler. LOI 21dn. Thanks, Nutmeg and Andrew.
This was a fun puzzle. Thanks Nutmeg. Like maarvarq @1 I guessed 5dn without parsing so thanks for putting me right Andrew.
I also got confused by trying to get SAP from spa as in spring, thinking it might be a clever triple clue.
Favourite today was probably STAGE FRIGHT
Loved all of this apart from three intersecting words – UNSAVED, STRIPTEASERS and SLENDERER which are all fair but all ugly. So that’s just personal prejudice rather than criticism of Nutmeg. I did need Andrew for LEHAR which I parsed as an H for Harlem (briefly) in LEAR which I struggled to define as an action (though it has both acts and action in it)!
Elegant clueing everywhere, even of the words I didn’t like! Particular ticks went to PREVAIL, PIVOTAL, SOPRANO, EAGER BEAVER and PAVING STONE (what a delightful couple of anagrams). A three way tie for favourite with ADORNMENT for a lovely surface, POT which was lol and the winner – I think – ETERNAL for the ‘cast vote’
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
‘Is that what’s possible?’ … ‘Is that on?’ was about the only met in yes another nice Nutmeg. Natterjack the toad now rings a faint bell, i.e. post facto, so natter was a bung. All else pretty clear, tho wondered if cabaret artists might have a thing to say about 3d. Enjoyable, thanks N and A.
.. the only mer (mild eyebrow-raise)…
A lovely puzzle, fun from start to finish. I ticked MINT SAUCE, NATTERS, EAGER BEAVER and SOPRANO, but could have included many more. Many thanks to N & A.
Ser=serial? Oh well, I expect it’s justified somewhere.
Lovely polished puzzle from Nutmeg, one of my favourite setters.
I entered ON for ‘what’s possible’ at 19a without a ginfian mer/meh, but I’m now struggling to think of an equivalence. The best I can come up with is ‘We’re preparing for possible outcomes A, B, C, and D. B now seems unlikely but A, C and D are still on’.
Big tick for the average beer becoming an EAGER BEAVER – has it been done before?
Many thanks N & A
It’s Nutmeg. It’s excellent. She’s just so consistently good.
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
Fun but straightforward up to LOI ETERNAL – I had no idea of the parsing as I was trying to construct it rather than subtract.
Favourite PAVING STONE.
I don’t think I’ve seen STRIPTEASER for the person before – ecdysiast is the more common (humorous) word.
Another (older) meaning of ‘tallyman’ is? “Someone who lives with another person without marriage”. Hence, someone who would have ‘cut church’.
Jay @11 – Interesting – makes the clue even better.
Splendid as ever from Nutmeg.
Most went in fairly straightforwardly but I was held up a while in the NW quadrant until I eventually saw the caesura in the clue for MINT SAUCE – clever surface which decoyed me into thinking about ties. And I spent too long interpreting ‘Nancy’ like the commoner ‘Nice’ as an indicator of a French word in a charade – but I couldn’t do anything with ‘prend’ or ‘profits’. Duh.
Thanks S&B
… ‘profite’
Shouldn’t it be ‘IV’ in 19d?
I found this hard to start and then it suddenly yielded. Nho PELISSE, so LOI.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.
Auriga – it should indeed, thanks. Blog corrected.
George Clements @9 says it all, really, echoing Andrew’s preamble.
I, too, was temporarily bamboozled by Nancy’s double bluff and laughed when light dawned. Other favourites were MINT SAUCE, PAVING STONE, PELISSE, EAGER BEAVER (two ticks), ETERNAL, STAGE FRIGHT, SOPRANO and NATTERS. I loved the surface of NUN, too.
I won’t spoil anyone’s enjoyment of today’s Indy Radian (our Crucible) but there’s a nice little coincidence there.
Many thanks to Nutmeg for a fun puzzle and Andrew for a great blog.
As a Mahler fan I was amused by the short changed anagram-next composer please!
I parsed 5d post entering.
She’s a class act
Thanks
me @10
…there’s the even commoner “stripper”, of course.
For 23, I did give some thought to PET being an acronym for some drug I hadn’t heard of (as well as polyethylene terephthalate, of course).
muffin @19: And I toyed with CAT, thought the more usual spelling is ‘kat’ or ‘khat’ (or more accurately ‘qat’).
Generally enjoyable and not too hard – but “eternal = constantly” ? Eternal means constant, eternally means constantly. The clueing device is excellent, but for me the surface doesn’t work.
Enjoyable puzzle. Solved the NW corner last.
Liked SOPRANO, NATTERS, STAGE FRIGHT, LEHAR, ETERNAL.
New: LUGworm; NECK = sauce/impudence
Held up by the SE – the world of football is lost on me so I was struggling to find a name (yes, I do live that sheltered-a-life).
But this really was a lovely puzzle with fabulous surfaces throughout.
[Fab production of Lehar’s ‘The Merry Widow’ here from Semperoper Dresden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDwaJd0ofno ]
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew!
Times Refugee @21
Nutmeg is noted for the meticulousness of her clues. The definition of ETERNAL, as Andrew made clear in the blog, is ‘constantly going’.
Another high quality crossword from Nutmeg with smooth surfaces.
I thought possible was more like odds-on but essexboy @8 has a stab at it. I particularly liked EAGER BEAVER, HO-HOPER, ETERNAL, EYEWEAR and NATTERS.
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.
I don’t think Nancy is acceptable and as PostMark says STRIPTEASER and UNSAVED are awkward words, with the definition of the latter a bit uncomfortable for me. I liked ETERNAL, though.
Thanks for the blog, not my cup of tea so will say very little.
Linesman yesterday , scorer today, ho hum, going to be a long week.
gladys @7: “ser” for serial is in Chambers though I’m not sure in what context it would be used. STRIPTEASER is not there but it is in Collins.
grantinfreo @4 and essexboy @8: I thought “possible” = ON in 19a was ok, as in “Is the picnic on / possible this weekend?”
Like PostMark I was thinking LEHAR was H in LEAR and was wondering if a play could be an “action” – after all it is acted! And the 4-letter legendary footballer in 16a had to be either Best or Pele. But it seems there is no such a thing as a bissest.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.
Lovely stuff as ever from Nutmeg but with linesman yesterday and scorer today I’m wondering if tomorrow might bring a banker or a winger perhaps?
I was a bit worried there might be some hand-wringing over NANCY=MILKSOP so by way of a contrast to LEHAR and MAHLER here’s Placebo’s NANCY BOY don’t have nightmares 🙂
My slight quibble with 1dn is not with the use of an offensive word – it’s a crossword not the leader column – but that MILKSOP doesn’t imply effeminacy, just weakness and timidity.
For some unknown reason I had stuck in Exeunts (constantly going outside, and beguiled by X somehow representing a vote) instead of ETERNAL for 5d, so was unable to tease out LEAFLET as LOI therefore. With Nutmeg one must always appreciate that the cluing is so precise, and has no truck with muddled, unclear thought processes such as mine this morning. Another fine crossword nevertheless..
Thanks Andrew and Nutmeg. Very enjoyable crossword but like Petert @26 I found the definition of UNSAVED in rather poor taste.
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.
I thought all of this was great – not difficult, but clever and interesting. NHO pelisse, but clue couldn’t be clearer.
I had no problem with on=what’s possible as in the examples given above and although Nancy (in this sense) probably isn’t woke it was worth it for the misdirection – I also spent some time trying to think of a suitable French word for ‘takes advantage of’.
Took a while to get started on this – particularly the top half – then managed to speed up.
MILKSOP was my first one in and then I was helped by remembering Roz saying yesterday that whenever she sees *scorer* she thinks composer – and that got me LEHAR (Roz @ 27 – it was helpful for me)
Can’t quite see why speeches = RELATIONS
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
Fiona Anne @ 34, to relate can me to tell a story.
I should also have told you that to remove x from external is used eternally.
me = mean
I winced a bit at UNSAVED, too. But thanks, Nutmeg, for a footballer that even I have heard of (and I knew PELISSE, too).
Very nice puzzle.
Wasn’t there a discussion here not too long ago about whether “capital” was fair for initial letter (yes it classically means head but otherwise is associated with typography). Was there a consensus?
Andrew mentioned a failed search for a Nina. What I had noticed was an unusual number of letter Vs. I’m sure there’s nothing to it, though.
Gervase @30 – I had the same qualms as you about equating “nancy” and “milksop”, but Chambers defines the former as “”an effeminate young man”, and the latter as “a soft, unadventurous, effeminate man”, which I suppose covers it, though both definitions strike me as being in dire need of a bit of an update. At least “nancy” is flagged as “derogatory slang”.
Despite being stymied in the NW corner I liked this crossword because it’s Nutmeg; clues like ADORNMENT, LEMON, and TURMOIL among others made my partial completion worthwhile. Thanks to both.
[bodycheetah @29: Fabulous band, very dark and nuanced just the way I like it… Their duet with David Bowie was stunning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c14qMbmP9eg ]
Re ‘unsaved’, if you’re working on a computer and leave it for ny reason, if you haven’t saved your work it’s unsaved.
Easier than the usual Nutmeg, but mostly* good fun all the same.
ON for “what’s possible” is familiar from my rubbish attempts to play snooker in my youth.
*Nancy is a homophobic slur and should have been left out.
Times Refugee @21. Constantly and eternally are adverbs. “Constantly going” is an adjectival phrase so would equate to the adjective eternal.
I prefer to think of eternal as never-ending rather than constant but that’s another matter.
Eileen @24 and Andrew are surely right over the definition in 5D, but, even as it stands, I think that the objection of Times Refugee @21 fails in the face of Pope’s “Hope springs eternal in the human breast”.
Andrew @39: I object to the Chambers definition of MILKSOP. Bracketing softness and unadventurousness with effeminacy is unacceptably sexist!
Dr. WhatsOn @38: yes, it was Paul’s prize 28,494 a few weeks ago, where the whole theme depended on “capital” meaning initial letter – for example Rome was defined as “I”, that is, the capital of Italy. Xenopus queried this @46 of that blog, and phitonelly responded @58 saying “since the countries are proper names, then the only letters in the name that are capitals are the first ones”. However that would clearly not work for the first letter of “fund” in today’s 4d.
I don’t think the initial letter of a word is normally called its capital. But then a poet is not normally called a linesman, or a river a flower. I think it’s justified by your suggestion of capital meaning head.
Thank you Nutmeg and Andrew. A dnf for me because I got stuck on 1D, due to the offensive word not being used that way in US English. Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle! Personally I think GRAVE was my favorite, which also played to my morbid sense of humor.
Simon S @42: thanks for that. Excellent point. The word is still ugly – though, oddly, slightly less so in the context you suggest!
Got most of this last night, even though sleepy from and eight-hour drive home from Maine. (Wonderful weekend with a boat outing!)
22a I read “supply” as meaning that the letters of “average beer’ supply the answer. Andrew’s interpretation is prettier, but mine does work.
I couldn’t see how ETERNAL could mean “constantly” — thanks, Andrew, for including “going” in the definition and the rest of the tangled parse
Andrew, you have a typo in 8d — V is in, not on, HARES.
Why does SLENDERER mean “increasingly tight”?
iN 16d, AIL is one of those verbs that never appear in root form, only as “ails” or “ailing” or maybe “ailed.”
Thanks to Nutmeg for a fine return to regular life and to Andrew for the disentanglement.
Valentine @50
There’s a Muriel Spark book called Girls of slender means, for whom money is tight!
39 Andre 45 Gervase it is not the dictionary that needs update but the setter needs to remember it is 2021 and the editor needs to effing do his/her job. Sheesh
I rather think some setters on here get a free pass.
Fulsome praise for mediocre puzzles with boring clues, and yes I do mean fulsome.
Distasteful use of language just brushed aside.
Valentine @50
Never say never!
O, what can ail thee, knight at arms,
Alone and palely loitering;
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
The first verse of Keats’ La Belle Dame Sans Merci.
PeterO I think that in “hope springs eternal,” that”eternal” is an adjective modifying “hope.” Compare “walk tall.”
Anne@54 You’re right, I shouldn’t say never. But I will say that “ail” as a verb comes up in language that often includes such terms as “thee.” It’s either archaic or (as in Keats’s case) pretending to be so.
Inward groan when I saw ‘Nancy’ and UNSAVED as I anticipated the usual self-righteous guff. Bravo Nutmeg for beautiful, concise clueing as ever
[Valentine @55: we get ail sometimes ere in Essex. Urricanes ardly appen though.]
[Roz @36: don’t be too hard on yourself. 😉 ]
Very good MrEssexboy , I did see it afterwards. Perhaps I need that alto-collect.
Super puzzle, elegantly clued throughout & free of obscurities (though I did have to confirm PELISSE) which made for a thoroughly enjoyable solve. Thanks all.
UNSAVED may or may not be an aesthetically ugly word. I don’t find it particularly so, but there are plenty of
others I don’t like: it’s a matter of taste. I don’t question its right to exist and I’m sure it has many valid meanings, as Simon S points out. But in this particular clue we are pointed at the meaning relating to the Titanic victims who drowned UNSAVED: not an offensive or inaccurate definition, just rather sad.
[Possibly not in the best taste in the circumstances, but the Titanic clue reminded me of this Bill Tidy cartoon.]
AlanC @56 – your comment says more about you than it does about those who object to the use of Nancy in this puzzle. All I will say on that is that Nutmeg could have shown more awareness of her audience (Guardian readers!).
Otoh, I didn’t have a problem with the definition for UNSAVED and am surprised at some of the responses on that one.
Valentine @50 “Why does SLENDERER mean “increasingly tight”?”
How about “Since he had lost half his income, his means were slenderer.”
Well I’m happy I’m on Nutmeg’s team, (Guardian readers, what does that mean exactly)?
drofle @63
see mine (unacknowledged) @51!
Lovely. Just lost the plot in the NW corner for no reason.
I particularly enjoyed 1a. I’m sure it’s an oldie, but to plagiarise Back To The Future, “it’s a new one where I come from”.
9a was a new word for me and 1d had long slipped faded from the memory.
All in all, great crossword, big fan of Nutmeg.
Thanks for the blog
AlanC – broadly speaking, left-leaning liberals who balk at outdated gender stereotyping and homophobia. And who believe it is right to call it out when they see it, even in the relatively innocuous context of a crossword. I think Nutmeg and the crossword editor have made a misstep in letting that one through. But there is no “team” to be on. This isn’t personal.
By the way, loudly standing up for the unacceptable is also a form of self-righteousness.
But I’m forgetting my manners… thank you Andrew and Nutmeg, I enjoyed this one despite the misstep. Some very elegant clueing. Needed help with parsing a couple – too fiendish for me (in a good way!)
widdersbel, so things that exist(ed), whether you approve or not, are not fair game for a puzzle? I really don’t understand this thinking. As for your definition of Guardian readers, I hope it appeals to all inquisitive souls
Thanks both,
A bit late in the day but I don’t think this point has been made. I confidently entered ‘sinking’ for 4d. In finance and accounting, a sinking fund is one which returns its capital either gradually or as a lump sum. As such I thought it a brilliant clue. The people who thought unsaved was in poor taste, might not like this answer either.
Tyngewick @70 nice punt
Fascinating that the clear consensus is that this was quite easy. Despite having completed Saturday’s prize puzzle, which I found tough but got there in the end, I could make almost nothing of this one. Looking through the blog, I should have got a few more than I did, but many of the clues were not at all obvious to me.
AlanC – that’s an editorial decision. I would expect the crossword to exclude any terminology that would be considered offensive if used anywhere else in the paper. Let me turn your question back on you: do you believe *nothing* is off-limits for the crossword? (By the way, my “definition” of Guardian readers is not prescriptive or exclusive or exhaustive but reflects my experience of who Guardian readers generally are.)
Fiona @34 I too wondered about RELATIONS=speeches in 28a – I though it deserved a “?” to indicate it was non-standard derivation from “relate=tell a story”
Sorry to keep this going but… to clarify, the offence is using an offensive word for a homosexual man as a synonym for a word meaning weak and ineffectual. That’s an error of judgment on Nutmeg’s part, for the sake of a neat surface.
To be honest, I wouldn’t have thought it worth adding to the comments so late in the day but AlanC’s dismissive “the usual self-righteous guff” irked me. You can’t just brush off legitimate criticism like that. Anyway, I’ll shut up now.
A RELATION can be a narration but it is weak, there are far worse clues here. TURMOIL is absolutely brutal , possibly the worst clue since Rufus retired.
Put a different name on this crossword and it would have got so much criticism.
Roz @76 – You are hard to please. I’m pretty confident I would have guessed that it’s a Nutmeg if I’d solved it without knowing the name of the setter, as a lot of the clues show her customary wit.
Sorry Drofle this is about opinions , not once doing this did I think – that is clever or that is witty or that is original. Clunky wordplay bolted together with the joins showing. At one point there was a run of across clues that nearly made me rip up my paper.
I did resist being too negative while the blog was running with lots of people.
Most of the effeminate men that I know are proud to be so, so I do not see why the fuss about using a word that used to be and maybe still is used for them.
Or is it that the word effeminate is not allowed to be used now as it stereotypes women in some way?
‘She walks like an Egyptian’ maybe not allowed now for fear of stereotyping.
Bottom line is, same old story, people looking for non-pc will always find something to moan about.
essexboy#57 Urricanes ardly appen ere in Artford, where I live (as well as Ereford and Ampshire, the Massachusetts county to the north).
drofle@63 and muffin@51 and 65 Thanks, and not slender ones, for the clearing up. Muffin, I was crosseyed with fatigue after a long drive and dropped a few stitches.
[muffin@61, not sure which came first but Les Barker had a similar idea and put it in a poem. or if you want a version you can read, ]
Try again
[muffin@61, not sure which came first but Les Barker had a similar idea and put it in a poempoem.
If you want a printed version, it is here. https://www.monologues.co.uk/Les_Barker/Any_News_Iceberg.htm ]
Tyngewick @ 70. my NW corner sank on that same parsing of 4d
Took a different route to the same solution on 26a : double definition
Grand = Grave as in mistake, collapse or failure,
“party where we we all wind up” …
.
79 Pedro- the issue is equating effeminate with ineffectual . Why don’t you ask your friend(s) and get back instead of silly analogies.
Belated thanks Andrew, never heard of LEHAR and had to google as it could equally have been LAHER, but no complaints about PELISSE which was also new. My complaint about UNSAVED is that I don’t think of saving and investing as the same thing but that’s hardly major. I loved EYE WEAR which brought a big groan, and enjoyed plenty more, thanks Nutmeg.