Guardian Quiptic 1,142/Matilda

32 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,142/Matilda”

1. Small typo in 26a – I think the anagram indicator is “running”

2. Thanks, Shirl.

3. Thanks Matilda and Pierre. Some good clues here – NUMBERED and CLAUSE stood out for me. Didn’t notice the pangram. Nice!

4. Thanks Matilda and Pierre
   I liked 14a when I solved it, but was a bit diaappointed when the same trick was used in 4 and 5 as well (and I thought “article” for CLAUSE was so loose that I checked the answer).
   Not sure SCREAMING by itself means “highly obvious”; “screamingly obvious” or “screaming at you”, yes.
   NUMBERED was one of my last, and another favourite, for the misleading definition and pigment (not red, then!).

5. Thanks Pierre, didn’t spot the pangram but then it’s not something I usually look for. In the blog for 27A I think you meant that the insertion indicator is “about”. That one took me a while, “about” has so many potential uses! Standalone SCREAMING for highly obvious has one common-ish use that I can think of but may be considered offensive, eg “He’s a screaming…”.
   As muffin@4, I struggled with article=clause until I thought about legal contracts where they approximate pretty well I think. Any lawyers out there able to give the official word?
   I really enjoyed this: plenty of misdirection, good and witty clues with many smooth surfaces – my favourite SPIDERS, thanks Matilda.

6. I thought a lot of these clues were both clever and amusing – too many to list – while still being well pitched at the Quiptic level. Excellent crossie, Matilda, and thanks for the blog, Pierre.

7. I think an article can be a standalone statement, as in articles of faith.

8. Gazzh@5: I don’t always look for pangrams, but Matilda produces them so often that it’s worth checking. As muffin@4 says, a lot of subtraction anagrams today.
   I got it fixed in my mind that 23d was going to be the writer O Henry, and once I was sure it wasn’t, couldn’t find the real answer, so that was a dnf.

   Favourites DOLEFULLY, STITCH, SPIDERS, UNISEX.

9. Enjoyable challenge. Slightly more difficult than today’s Cryptic which I think was possibly more suitable for beginners than this Quiptic?

   Favourites: PLOUGH, A PENNY, WINK AT, DOLEFULLY (ironically, I found the reference to fuel quite amusing considering the recent news stories); SPIDERS (for the misdirection); NUMBERED.

   Thanks, both.

10. widdersbel @7
    Yes, but does that make it a clause?

11. muffin @10 – I can confirm that the OED, Collins and Chambers all support this usage.

12. With an X,Q and Z all in the first half dozen solved, I wondered if we’d be on a for a pangram. I’m taking that as equivalent to spotting a theme or nina. Something I’m usually woefully bad at.

    No quibbles for me today, I thought it was all nicely done with SPIDERS and NUMBERED standing out for me.

    Michelle@9 I agree. Definitely harder than the cryptic.

    Thanks Matilda and Pierre.

13. Very nice. Favourites, UNISEX, WINK AT, SPIDERS and MAGAZINES. I always look for a pangram with Matilda, although it didn’t help particularly this morning as the clues were so fair.

    Ta Matilda & Pierre

14. Muffin @4 – I’m convinced that Matilda often uses the same device repeatedly in a Quiptic. I’ve always assumed that it’s done deliberately so that newer solvers spot it once (perhaps after hitting reveal) and then have that “aha!” moment of solving a couple of others. I might be over-interpreting things with that, but it’s not just a tic of Matilda’s as it doesn’t happen as obviously in cryptics on other days.

    Thought the pangram was interesting here as a couple of the letters that usually suggest one (J and X) were used twice, possibly unhelpfully for anyone who had spotted the pangram and already used those letters elsewhere. A playful touch, I thought.

    I also agree with the praise above for the puzzle in general – Matilda’s Quiptics always seem smoothly surfaced whilst pitched at exactly the right level, and this was no exception.

15. I felt pleased I’d spotted the possible pangram after putting in a few answers with “unusual” letters, then was surprised that I’d got one answer wrong. I had UNITED for 21 down, thinking that “how’s your father” referred to the Irish sitcom Father Ted. It sort of fits the definition too.

16. NUMBERED was also my favourite for its cryptic def – ‘web designers’ was SCREAMING arachnids, so barely counted as cryptic for me.

    A PENNY seemed a strange entry, but as Pierre pointed out it does fit in the expression ‘….for your thoughts’.

    One little homophonic quibble: WIN CAT is not pronounced exactly like WINK AT (the former has an alveolar nasal consonant and the latter a velar one 😉 )

    Thanks to S&B

17. Once again I found this didn’t meet the stated aim of being a relatively easy puzzle for less experienced solvers. It took me 6 minutes longer than the normal daily cryptic. A decent puzzle ? Definitely. Easy ? Definitely not.

18. Good puzzle – I also noticed the repetition of some devices but didn’t mind as they were all slightly differently put. I also found it a bit more difficult than the cryptic especially the SW although I got UNISEX straight away – I think the *how’s you father* has been used somewhere recently.

    Liked DOLEFULLY – one of my first ones in.

    Thanks Matilda and Pierre

19. Nice little puzzle and a decent challenge for Monday coffee time. Certainly a little tougher than today’s cryptic.

    Favourites: NUMBERED, SPIDERS and COMPLETE

    Thanks Matilda and Pierre

20. Thanks Matilda and Pierre.

    I thought this was just great, including a major stall in the NE which fell when BLOOM hove into view. NUMBERED was LOI and COTD for me. (I wonder is the “nina” at row 7 a silent plea for managerial help?)

    gladys@8: A pity you didn’t persist with A PENNY as it would have been a perfect PDM.

21. Yes, a little trickier than today’s Cryptic, but enjoyable.

    You will find that some people insist with subtraction anagrams that if the letters to be removed are out of order a second anagrind is required. I don’t think that is true if the anagram comes before the subtraction; thus, the anagram of slandering could be ENGLANDsir. However, if the subtraction comes first, a second anagrind would definitely be needed.

    I liked EXCELLENT because at the beginning I was looking for an anagram of ‘sheet’ with spread as the anagrind. I did realise that this was going the way of a pangram when I saw the Js – that’s sometimes a giveaway.

    Thanks Matilda and Pierre.

22. Completely missed that it was a pangram but thought it bang on the money & with some great surface reads.
    Thanks all.

23. Really enjoyed this although took longer than the Cryptic. Was very pleased to get to practise the subtractive anagrams. Missed the pangram, but wasn’t needed.

    Thanks Matilda and Pierre. Appreciated.

24. I was another ‘united’ instead of ‘unisex’ so a dnf for me but otherwise, a good steady quiptic, thanks Matilda and Pierre

25. I wonder if I accidentally made decaf coffee this morning. I found this extremely hard. I was hoping to come here and find others saying the same thing, but the fact that this opinion doesn’t seem to be widespread suggests it’s just me.

    My only quibble is that “Excel” doesn’t mean “spreadsheet” any more than “Word” means “document”. But the intent was clear, and this was one of the all too few that I solved quickly.

26. While I really like Matilda’s crosswords (and this one was no exception), I do agree with Ted @25.
    I also think that ‘close second’ = L is something she shouldn’t have done, tempting as it is.
    That said, all in all, thumbs up from me.
    And so, many thanks to today’s S & B.

27. I had never heard the expression “how’s your father” before, so Unisex was my last word. Still, a nice clue.

28. I thought this puzzle and the cryptic were both pitched nicely for beginners; is there a rule that the quiptic is supposed to be easier than the Monday cryptic?

    Ben+T@14, I think you make a good point – repeating a device a couple of times makes a good teaching moment.

    Gervase@16, re 22a WINK AT, “we’re told “ doesn’t have to mean a homophone – it can also indicate a homoiophone, in which case the clue is just fine (and a good one at that).

    Gladys@8, I too was fixated on O’Henry at 23d – the 1,5 enumeration was an effective misdirection.

    I was another UNITED @21d, as Father Ted jumped out at me. And you could argue that unisex isn’t for all in today’s LGBTQ2S world.

    Re 23d A PENNY, the phrase that came to my mind was “ten a penny “.

    Thanks Matilda for the 7a puzzle, and Pierre for the unfortunately birdless blog.

29. Thanks both,
    Far too late for anyone to read this, but just for the record, re 5d, in a contract one might refer to its detailed terms as either ‘articles’ or ‘clauses’. In particular, a company is governed by its ‘memorandum and articles of association’.

30. Tyngewick, thanks, that was my thinking: I see contracts containing items called variously articles and/or clauses, assume those terms are broadly interchangeable but am not a lawyer so wondered if there was a technical difference – seems not.

31. Thank you Matilda for a great puzzle and Pierre for a terrific blog. As usual I’m late/slow! Ho hum. I rather liked MAGAZINES and I was a bit baffled about STICKER – maybe it’s just not a usage I see much.

    I can’t agree with Ted @25 about “Excel” “spreadsheet”. The use of the word for the type of program is common and supported by Oxford and Collins. The “Word” “document” comparison doesn’t work for me because there’s no parallel usage to compare. A more useful parallel – I agree that they are difficult to find and that usage in this area is weird! – is that you could say that Access or Oracle are databases. In fact, they are technically database management systems and the database itself is just the actual data and its associated structures and bits and bobs – but usage has slid so that database now also means the program that runs it. Sorry about the wordiness but I honestly feel it’s a fair clue.

    Finally: I asked my wife, who’s neither a crossword freak nor a tech-minded person – what Excel is, at 0622 today. She said “a spreadsheet” and went back to sleep. Authority has spoken.

    Best to all.

32. Sadly a DNF for me as I had fruit rather than PUPIL.

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