Hectence is a long-established and reliable setter of Quiptics. I have one or two niggles in this one, however.
It’s still a puzzle that beginners would enjoy, I have to say. It was a bit chewy in places, but then it’s good to have to chew as an improving solver sometimes – that’s how you get better. The other thing of note is that – as so often with Hectence – it’s a pangram. In other words, all 26 letters of the alphabet appear at least once.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
9 Animals returning earth’s nitrogen content
LIONS
An insertion of N in SOIL reversed. You need to read the apostrophe s as ‘earth has’, then the insertion indicator is ‘has N content’. The reversal indicator is ‘returning’.
10 Connected bogus sick note with first of lawsuits coming in
CLOSE-KNIT
An insertion of L for the initial letter of L in (SICK NOTE)* The insertion indicator is ‘coming in’ and the anagrind is ‘bogus’.
11 Live with students and young fellow hack in terrible dive
BELLY-FLOP
A long charade: of BE, LL for two learners or ‘students’, Y, F and LOP. There is an annual World Belly Flop Diving Competition. It’s held every year in Norway and the current record holder is Ken Stornes with a height of 31m. Truly. And truly painful. That has got to hurt.
12 Crew, not top grade, bring in one sea creature …
SQUID
Hectence is inviting you to replace the A (‘top grade’) in SQUAD with I.
13 … quite a few take off early every now and then
SEVERAL
A charade of SEVER and AL for the even letters of eArLy. The ellipses are there just to make a bit more sense of the surfaces, and can (as almost always) be ignored.
15 Angry when anyone’s nasty with daughter
ANNOYED
(ANYONE)* plus D. The anagrind is ‘nasty’.
17 In favour of wearing an overall
APRON
An insertion of PRO in AN. The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’.
18 Buy a meat loaf stuffed with root vegetable
YAM
Hidden in buY A Meat. Some would consider that since ‘loaf’ is not required for the clue to work, it shouldn’t be there. Since ‘meat loaf’ is one concept, I’m reasonably relaxed about it, particularly since the surface is so engaging.
20 Lounge with book in front of fire
BLAZE
A charade of B and LAZE.
22 Greeting boy in doorway with present
EXHIBIT
An insertion of HI and B in EXIT. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
25 Analysed Mother Earth idea
THEOREM
(MOTHER E)* with ‘analysed’ as the anagrind.
26 Study to comprehend modus operandi in evil spirit
DEMON
An insertion of MO for modus operandi in DEN. The insertion indicator is ‘to comprehend’.
27 An art icon represented a flower
CARNATION
(AN ART ICON)* with ‘represented’ as the anagrind.
30 Cockney eyes little pastries
MINCE PIES
This clue works because cockney rhyming slang for ‘eyes’ is MINCE PIES.
31 Because of tedious play, is leaving
DUE TO
(TED[I]OU[S])* The removal indicator for ‘is’ is ‘leaving’ and the anagrind is ‘play’.
Down
1 Printing libellous piece that’s plausible
GLIB
Hidden in printinG LIBellous.
2 Boyfriend gets nod to go ahead with surprise
BOWL OVER
A charade of BOW and LOVER. The indication of the order of the particles is given by ‘to go ahead’.
3 Detect unknown variable underlying sixth sense
ESPY
A charade of ESP for Extra Sensory Perception and Y for the mathematical ‘variable’. ‘Underlying’ works because it’s a down clue.
4 Frisky collie gets only half of sweet treat
ICE LOLLY
A charade of (COLLIE)* and LY for half the letters of ‘only’. The anagrind is ‘frisky’.
5 Sideshow game‘s hard mountain to climb after two zeroes
HOOPLA
A charade of H, OO and ALP reversed. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue’, is ‘to climb’.
6 Practical detailed study gets boy qualified
REASONABLE
A charade of REA[D], SON and ABLE. You need to read ‘detailed’ as ‘de-tailed’ to give you the instruction to remove the letter D.
7 Wrong of panel supporting tax rise
INJURY
A charade of NI reversed and JURY. The reversal indicator is ‘rise’ and ‘supporting’ gives you the order of the particles. Both work only because it’s a down clue. There’s a bit of that this morning. NI is National Insurance, the ‘tax’ by any other name that we’ll all be paying a bit more of from April 6th.
8 Briefly consider getting earring
STUD
STUD[Y] ‘She briefly studied/considered the options available to her.’
13 Kesha’s style is rock
SHAKE
(KESHA)* The only way I can make sense of the anagrind is to consider the apostrophe s as possessive and read it as ‘style of Kesha’.
14 Call Biden about opening of restricted file
RING BINDER
A charade of RING, (BIDEN)* and R for the initial letter of ‘restricted’. The angrind is ‘about’.
16 Made out with king in fantasy
DREAM
An insertion of R for Rex or ‘king’ in (MADE)* The anagrind is ‘out’ and the insertion indicator is ‘with … in’.
19 Somewhere to sleep in Matlock?
MATTRESS
The setter is suggesting that you could change MAT LOCK into MAT TRESS. More urgently, the town – as I write – is looking like being flooded as the River Derwent bursts its banks.
21 Look! Queues in America for Virgin and EasyJet
AIRLINES
A charade of AIR and LINES. The ‘in America’ bit is there just to suggest that LINES is more AmEng than BrEng.
23 United island to block ambassador for good
HUMANE
An insertion of U and [the Isle of] MAN in HE for His Excellency or ‘ambassador’.
24 Contracted big town dude to come up with scheme
TACTIC
A reversal of CIT[Y] and CAT. The letter removal indicator is ‘contracted’ and the reversal indicator is ‘to come up’, which only works because … well, you’ve got the idea by now. Please let’s not have a fruitless discussion about a ‘scheme’ being a strategy and not a TACTIC. Please.
26 Plonk from French politician
DUMP
A charade of DU and MP. I’m going to call foul on this one, since DU almost always means ‘from the’ in French (when it’s not doing duty as the partitive article and translating ‘some’). Setters are certainly entitled to use ‘from French’ to clue DE, but DU? Hectence’s only get out of jail card would be with masculine countries like le Canada, le Danemark: je viens du Canada/I come from Canada; il vient du Danemark/he comes from Denmark. Easily solved by rewriting the clue as ‘Plonk from the French politician’.
28 Helps domestic staff without money
AIDS
[M]AIDS
29 Niche working in retirement’s fine
NOOK
A charade of NO for ON reversed and OK. The reversal indicator is ‘in retirement’.
Merci beaucoup to Hectence for this week’s Quiptic.
Thanks Pierre & Hectence. I think I agree with you on every point, Pierre (especially 24d). I thought “terrible dive” was a nice definition for BELLY FLOP, worked very well in the surface.
Re 18a, I would usually write meatloaf as a single word, which would get around that (very minor) problem – although Chambers and OED list it as two words. I’m reminded of the quote from the recently departed Michael Lee Aday that heads up the M page on the Guardian’s online style guide:
‘When I see my name spelt with one word, I want to slap and choke people. If you do that, you got to be a moron … It’s on every poster, every album and every ticket as two words. If you spell it as one, you’re an idiot.’ Meat Loaf
https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-m
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
I liked LIONS, DUE TO, and MATTRESS. The “with” in 22a is needed for the surface, but doesn’t make cryptic sense.
As an occasionally “improving solver” I found plenty to chew on here. I liked MATTRESS, INJURY, BELLY-FLOP and APRON
I thought this was a good, enjoyable Quiptic – generally pretty straightforward with a few trickier bits, but nothing outrageous. My only quibble was with the de/du mix up.
Thank you, P and H.
Some chewy bits indeed. It took me far too long to see TACTIC and INJURY. The latter – just me being dense, I guess. The former – I found the clue rather convoluted, especially for a quiptic. And I was a DNF as well, having BOIL OVER at 2d (sounds sort of like boy lover? But where’s the homophone indicator?). Nice to see a flower that isn’t a river. And didn’t get why there was a need to distinguish American lines from British queues – surely the two words are interchangable in both places? Certainly are here. MATTRESS was an unusual type of clue – not sure I can remember anything similar even from the cryptics. Thanks, Hectence and Pierre.
There were many excellent examples of tricks beginners need to learn here. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was grateful for the pangram which helped me with 7D. I think you’ve rather argued yourself out of the call of foul, Pierre. If we only accepted what words usually mean, we would not have some of the witty surfaces many of us enjoy. Thanks to both for the thought provoking entertainment.
Similar thoughts to you, Pierre, about DUMP. I even wondered if there was a kind of cheap wine called DEMP!
Re the ‘get out of jail card’, I also thought of cases where French uses the definite article for nouns used in an abstract/generalised sense, but English doesn’t. ‘Distinguer le bien du mal’ could be translated ‘to tell good from evil/right from wrong’.
Still a bit of a stretch, though, as (pace Norbrewer @6) the equivalent to ‘evil’ spills over from the mal into the du (just as, in Pierre’s example, the translation of ‘Canada’ spills over into the du).
Agree with Norbrewer about ‘thought-provoking’ though – even if, as is now traditional, it continued provoking my thoughts for a bit longer than the Monday cryptic!
Thanks H & P.
Je ne sais rien, mais
quite a tricky puzzle to be labelled “la quiptique”
[re 7d and NI – some of us, retirees with a reasonable pension (me included) won’t be paying any NI, but are big users of the NHS. How strange! Ah, but this age group includes core Tory voters. Rant over. Back to sleep until Countdown.]
essexboy @7: re. DU, yes. I remember at first-year French in school 60 years ago learning ‘les chats aiment le lait’ to illustrate this French use of the definite article where English does not. In this particular instance it was Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal that sprang to mind. But I think that Pierre has a good point that a simple ‘the’ inserted into the clue would have spared us from fretting about it.
I also didn’t parse DUMP. And took longer on a few than I should have being mislead as to the definition.
Enjoyed this with my favourites being BELLY-FLOP, EXHIBIT, HOOPLA, HUMANE
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
Though “the Alps” usually refers to a mountain range, “an Alp” is an upland meadow, not a mountain. Of course, there is alpine mountaineering, but I don’t think I have ever come across an example of someone “climbing an Alp”. This didn’t prevent me from solving HOOPLA, but it did seem a little sloppy.
Definitely on the hard side for a Quiptic, but I liked ESPY, RING BINDER and DUE TO. ICE LOLLY took a while – as a Nottingham lad I’d call it a “sucker”.
… and yes, I know that dictionaries also define alp as mountain …
SC @10 – yes, I agree with you and Pierre – a ‘the’ would have solved the problem. Which leaves me wondering if it was a simple slip on the setter’s part, or a conscious aim to misdirect.
No quibbles apart from doubting whether an APRON is an overall, and the time it took to work out the laborious parsing of BELLY FLOP after getting it from the “terrible dive”.
Quite a good Quiptic, I thought.
Chambers has for line: 41.A queue (N American). Maybe it has been imported over here, but the usage is largely from over the pond. Most of us would think of ‘du’ being ‘of the’ but I did find these: du 1er janvier au 30 juin
from 1 January to 30 June
du matin au soir
from morning to evening.
I ticked ICE LOLLY and BELLY-FLOP.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
Meatloaf is given as an alternative in Collins, and also appears in Wiktionary.
‘Meat loaf’ was minor but sloppy, especially as the compound word is perfectly acceptable. And if it weren’t, there is hardly a shortage of foodstuffs beginning with M, which is all that ‘meat loaf’ contributes.
Apart from that, a fun workout. Thanks Pierre and Hectence.
I didn’t want to labour the du/de thing. Du certainly can, in some circumstances like those quoted above, mean just ‘from’. So the clue is fair. But it could have been improved and avoided potential disagreement with my original suggestion for change. Let’s move on.
[Shirl @9 one of my bugbears too – seems unfair that young people with incomes lower than some pensioners’ incomes should be paying NI when pensioners do not. ]
Quite tough. Was tempted to give up after solving half.
New: MINCE PIES = Cockney for eyes.
Thanks, both.
Help!
21d How is Look! Air?
Learner @22
‘The crossword solver had a look/air of utter bewilderment about him’?
Btw I hope we never stop being learners 🙂
Welcome, Learner, if this is your first comment. Bloggers and contributors are always here to help if you have questions. And what essexboy said …
I thought this one pretty well spot on for the slot & with a decent variety of clue types. I also rather liked the way new solvers would have been on pangram alert early if solving top to bottom. No issues with meat loaf here – cheap & rather tasty if good & not a bad clue either
Thanks all
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
Good, quality quiptic. Enough easy bits to give enough crossers to help tougher parts. Nice.
Bit late to this, but a good crossword, if rather on the tough side for a quiptic.
Given your hesitancy in parsing 13D, Pierre, I’m guessing you’re unfamiliar with Kesha (Ke$ha):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesha
Driving all Monday, so only came to this today. Had a bit of a raised-eyebrow moment when I had to reveal GLIB, and felt that the association with “plausible” was quite weak. The OED definition doesn’t really get as far as plausible; it defines it as (I paraphrase) eloquent but insincere.
I must admit I was with @22 Learner on this, thanks for helping @23 Essexboy.
I think a quiptic should be something that new solvers can get their teeth into.
This isn’t…
I did enjoy it though, but with the proviso above.
1163 isn’t up yet, so I will post the answers I got here. () refers to the the non-hint part.
Across
9 Good place to leave a boat (in Alaska)?
Anchorage – a city in Alaska and the place a boat is anchored.
10 Herb mixture contains a (treatment for addiction)
Rehab – mixing HERB and placing A inside; short for ‘rehabilitation’
11 Some poorLY CRAfted (material)
Lycra – ‘some’ indicates it’s inside the following words.
12 (Surprising success) for nightmare?
Dark Horse – night as dark and mare as horse; refers to an unconventional candidate
13 From the air, glass oddly is a (chemical weapon)
Tear gas – taken from the odd-positioned letters of ‘the air glass’.
14 Each class (function)
Perform – each as per and class as form.
17 (Pub) (diet for slimmers)?
Local – another word for pub, but also short for ‘low-calorie’.
19 (Fatty adipose tissue), primarily
Fat – first letters of the words
20 (Old jail) bird, not quite silver
Gulag – A ‘gul’ is not quite a gull, and Ag is shorthand for silver.
21 (Meet), for example, to cover the international science fiction premieres
Satisfy – for example as SAY enveloping the initials TISM; in this sense, ‘meet’ means ‘pass’ as in ‘meeting the requirements’
22 (As) canaries missing a cuckoo
Arsenic – Scrambling CANRIES, or canaries missing ‘a’.
I haven’t the slightest justification for 24, but it is IDENTIKIT.
26 Rock band’s (joint)
Elbow – the band and the body part.
28 (Ask) softly, then take charge
Plead – softly for p, take charge for lead
13 (Itinerant) composer appearing in Albert Hall performance, popular at last
Traveller – the composer RAVEL is found inside TLER, the last letters of ‘Albert Hall performance popular.
cobl@31 please don’t do that. It’s not fair n those who for any reason haven’t seen it yet. Please just let the blogger do their job. Thank you.