A delightful romp of a puzzle from Picaroon to end the week.
There were several laugh-out-loud clues, notably 11 and the audacious 26ac. I also particularly liked 14, 15 and 22 ac and 3, 8, 13, 16 and 24dn but, as usual from this setter, there was nothing approaching a dud clue.
It never usually occurs to me to look for pangrams but the appearance of some less common letters led me to look more closely today, since I was blogging, and yes, it is one.
Many thanks to Picaroon for a lot of fun.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
7 One’s phone rings, getting ready for action (8)
MOBILISE
MOBILE (phone) round (rings) I’S (one’s) – ‘ready’ as a verb
9 Like a family with no right to be joyful (6)
ELATED
[r]ELATED (like a family) minus r (right)
10 Respecting minister eschewing the extremes (2,2)
AS TO
[p]ASTO[r] (minister)
11 Déjeuner sur l’herbe in art theft? (10)
PICNICKING
PIC NICKING (art theft?)
12 Hitchcock’s opening shot was with hesitation in Rope (6)
HAWSER
H(itchcock) + an anagram (shot) of WAS + ER (hesitation) – I remember seeing Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’ as a child and learning what suspense was
14 Piano track without least jazzy old instrument (8)
PSALTERY
P (piano) + RY (railway track) round (without) an anagram (jazzy) of LEAST
15 Taking off top the wrong way, hiding Dior pants (7)
PARODIC
A reversal (the wrong way) of CAP (top) round an anagram (pants) of DIOR
17 Spotted entrance to palace that is without locks (7)
PIEBALD
P(alace) + IE (id est – that is) + BALD (without locks)
20 Socially discriminating type, a reader of, say, Homer I see leaving (8)
CLASSIST
CLASS[ic]IST (a reader of, say, Homer) minus ic (I see)
22 According to Henri I, English revolutionary scoffed (6)
JEERED
JE (I in French, so according to Henri) + E (English) + RED (revolutionary)
23 Very busy legal expert initially ditched one doing filing? (10)
MANICURIST
MANIC (very busy) + [j]URIST (legal expert) minus its initial letter
24 Liberal or Republican in charge (4)
FREE
R (Republican) in FEE (charge)
25 Take exception to unwrapped gifts (6)
RESENT
[p]RESENT[s]
26 Successful student saving place to study article or error-strewn paper? (8)
GRAUNIAD
GRAD[uate] (successful student) round UNI (place to study) + A (article)
Down
1 After unfinished sweet, also called for Greek dish (8)
MOUSSAKA
MOUSS[e] (unfinished sweet) + AKA (also known as) for one of my favourite things to cook
2 Perhaps Bordeaux‘s Number 6 goes up front (4)
VINO
VI (six) + NO (number)
3 In America, maybe fly quicker without one (6)
ZIPPER
ZIPP[i]ER (quicker) minus i (one)
4 Japanese dish I nearly tried out, containing rabbit (8)
TERIYAKI
An anagram (out) of I TRIE[d] (nearly) round YAK (rabbit)
5 Startled at berk punching man suitable for flogging (10)
MARKETABLE
An anagram (startled) of AT BERK in (punching) MALE (man)
6 A bit of bread or cheese ingredient brought up (6)
TENNER
A reversal (brought up, in a down clue) of RENNET (cheese ingredient) – ‘bread’ is slang for money
8 Be outstanding, putting away litres and pint in bar (6)
EXCEPT
EXCE[l] (be outstanding) minus l (litres) + PT (pint)
13 Back from morris dances, lubricated and the worse for wear (4-6)
SHOP-SOILED
[morri]S + HOPS (dances) + OILED (lubricated)
16 Brief resignation letter penned by Sidney, regularly wrong (8)
INIQUITY
I QUIT (brief resignation letter) in alternate letters of sIdNeY
18 Vassal fed, swallowing tablet after pork pie (8)
LIEGEMAN
LIE (pork pie) + G-MAN (fed) round E (ecstasy tablet)
19 Scam banking run for one on the fiddle (6)
STRING
R (run) in STING (scam)
21 Singleton picked up person making advances (6)
LOANER
Sounds like (picked up) ‘loner’ (singleton)
22 Drunk let aboard car? It’s a problem for traveller (3,3)
JET LAG
An anagram (drunk) of LET in JAG[uar] (car)
24 eg Gothic novel not following Frankenstein’s lead (4)
FONT
F[rankenstein] + an anagram (novel) of NOT
Lovely puzzle. Always pleased to see Picaroon’s name and this didn’t disappoint. Particularly liked INIQUITY and GRAUNIAD. Slight quibble about required French knowledge (see previous discussions!) in 11a but once my better half came and translated it was OK. I guess some might say it’s on the easy side it was right in the slot for me!
Delightful 🙂 Esp GRAUNIAD 🙂
Is there a themette around food? A picnic with MOUSSAKA, TERIYAKI, VINO, PIEs, CHEESE etc.? I’m in
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
I wondered how “getting” worked in 7a, expecting “mobilising” rather than “mobilise”, but I see that you haven;t included it in the definition.
Wouldn’t “Chianti” have been better than “Bordeaux”, as the French for wine is just “vin”.
My favourite,as were yours, were PICNICKING and GRAUNIAD.
I’m probably not the only one to have stuck Guardian in and then wondering why it didn’t parse or what Gothic novel was called F.D. but I got there in the end with GRAUNIAD and FONT.
I liked PIEBALD for the self referential “without locks”, MANICURIST for “one doing filing” and the favourite PICNICKING for “art theft”.
I wish I’d noticed that the crossword was a potential pangram. Otherwise I wouldn’t have tried NIPP[i]ER, which sort of fitrted, rather than ZIPP[i]ER. And that phrase “resignation letter” never fails to remind me that once when my job was really browning me off I considered sending this piece of Steely Dan to the boss.
khayyam @1
“Dejeuner sur l’herbe” is a famous (and misogynistic!) painting by Manet.
Just great fun as you say Eileen. I got a sniff of GRAUNIAD on my first pass but thought it couldn’t be right. And the surface for SHOP-SOILED conjures a beautiful image of the welcome awaiting at home after the garden fete.
I felt rather guilty when I got to 26a with an initial G; got no further spotting the def at the end before thinking ‘Guardian’! I had the N from FONT so the transposition was a no-brainer – fun clue. I did not know the French expression but I could put together dejuner with what had to be something about outside (I guess it might have been a herb salad).
As always with Picaroon, I could nominate almost any clue as worthy of a tick. Narrowing it down to my top faves, the aforementioned PICNICKING for the pun, PARODIC for the surface, MANICURIST for hiding the def, VINO and MARKETABLE for their constructions and FONT for the lovely connection with Gothic.
As it’s Picaroon I feel guilty again in that I do have one tiny query: would Fed as in G-Man normally be capitalised?
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
Lucky you Eileen. Thank you for the blog, and thank you Picaroon. It was a beauty.
Was a wake-up to GRAUNIAD as an ‘in’ joke here, but funny to see it clued as such.
Overthought PICNICKING. What was the art that was ‘picing’ with ‘nick’ in the middle? (Learned a lot about the work of art.)
I liked MARKETABLE, suitable for flogging, the image of the lubricated morris dancers in SHOP-SOILED, MANICURIST for the very busy legal expert. Favourites were JEERED, for Henri I, and nearly choked on TENNER,
I enjoyed this more than any other I’ve done in a while. Particular favourites INIQUITY, STRING, MOBILISE & JEERED. It took me a while to see why a yak is a rabbit in 4d, but the penny eventually dropped.
I don’t know muffin @6. The women seem to be looking you in the eye and doin’ their thing.
Food, drink and a little violence in the Down clues today.
18 Down is as per muffin spoiled slightly by the dropped cap, which is by convention a no-no as I understand it, but — as is usually the case — a well-written puzzle from this compiler.
Last in were 2down and 7across. With a “Q” and a “K” already I thought “Pangram”. And it helped me get that “V” in 2d, thus the Roman numerals and wine… Great.
The “X” didn’t help with 7 across though.
I missed “except” so many times…
Thanks muffin@6. Exposing yet more of my ignorance!
This was a joy to solve, with so many clues raising a smile. I loved 13d, “Back from morris dances, lubricated and the worse for wear” – brilliant! Also LIEGEMAN with the clever use of “fed”. (PM @8: I think it can be lower-case, as here. In any event personally I’m not too bothered about a bit of de-capitalisation for a good surface.)
Too many other favourites to mention. Many thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Excellent puzzle! I’m another whose favourites were PICKNICKING and GRAUNIAD. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
Did the Bard write “Neither a borrower nor a loaner be”? He did not. Could he have? Grammarians will know.
muffin @3: “Chianti” wouldn’t really have made sense because Chianti, unlike Bordeaux, isn’t a football team (at least not a well-known one). “Vino” is a common informal term in English for wine generally.
Lord Jim @19
Thanks. I didn’t realise that Bordeaux was a football team, or, indeed, that the clue had anything to do with football!
Surely there must be a team and a wine from a country that spells wine as VINO?
VINO is in Chambers as slang for wine so maybe it doesn’t need to be from a country that spells it that way?
I must chip in today to say how much I enjoyed this confection from Picaroon. Loads of lovely clues (most picked out already by commenters above), particularly the cheeky GRAUNIAD solution. Is that paper still riddled with typos, BTW? In this online world of e-journalism maybe The Grauniad no longer stands out as a beacon of typographical carlessness.
bodycheetah@21: I would normally assume vino is referring to an Italian red (rather than French), but as it seems to be used as slang for any wine (indicated by Perhaps..) then this seems acceptable, I think.
Hahaha! I meant, of course, ‘carelessness’.
Apologies, have just spotted comments above on this topic. A pity there is no delete.
Top notch cluing from Picaroon as usual. I did wonder if f/Fed should be capitalised but Chambers has also lower case and Collins shows it as lower case, so no grumbles from here.
I liked MOBILISE, PARODIC, TERIYAKI (I think Paul might have used a punny homophone here) and SHOP-SOILED for the surfaces, HAWSER as I learnt that Rope was a Hitchcock film, GRAUNIAD for the LOL. I spotted the potential pangram when I saw the J, so that helped with ZIPPER, with another humorous clue.
Thanks Picaroon for the entertainment and Eileen for a comprehensive blog.
A very classy creation!
Realising it may well be a pangram helped enormously with VINO, ZIPPER and INIQUITY.
Far too many ticks to name them all, but PICNICKING and GRAUNIAD were glorious!
pserve_p2 at 22: the endearing faults still occur. My online feed this morning included the Opinion cartoon with “Artist Name” next to it. (It’s since been updated, which’ll please Ben Jennings.)
Many thanks to Picaroon, and lucky Eileen for being given this beauty to blog!
Did get there eventually once I had finally sorted out the Rennet, TENNER confusion in my head at 6d and was therefore able to insert loi PSALTERY. Thought there was a lot of “pluck something out of thin air” before getting down to solving of some of these clues. Wasn’t sure of VINO for a French wine. Quite a bit of basic French required today as already mentioned, and another font size appearing in the GRAUNIAD – sorry, Guardian cryptic again. Did like LOANER for the apt surface and also PIEBALD. Only know 2 Japanese dishes, so TERIYAKI took pride of place over Sukiyaki. ELATED and RESENT involved rather similar processes. But very enjoyable throughout…
Excellent clueing and many smiles today!
I was surprised “Dejeuner sur l’herbe” was not fully indicated as a title as it’s one of the most famous paintings and then that would have added to the clue and its humour. Perhaps a GRAUNIAD printing error?
Also liked INIQUITY, JEERED, LIEGEMAN and MOBILISE
Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen
“Rabbit” = YAK puzzled this USAnian, who thinks of them as quite different species, until I remembered that bit of rhyming slang.
To sum up Everyman style; I liked PICNICKING and there was no cause for nitpicking.
I have only been completing cryptics for a few years now but Picaroon is a firm favourite. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen!
Tenner was a great one, reminding me that I have a cheese making kit malingering somewhere in my flat. Also could strongly relate to 20 across as someone from a working class background who studied classics for my undergraduate degree…
What Eileen said! Thank you so much, both, for a most enjoyable romp!
Self @8: several comments have clarified that fed with a lower case is quite normal so query withdrawn. I’m just used to seeing it in the alternative format.
Thanks both,
My initial thought on the parsing of 15a was that it was an anagram of DIO(r) hiding in a reversal of CRAP (pants), but I soon sorted myself out.
No hope of parsing MANICURIST.
6d Surely “bread” used to slang for money. Does anybody say it now? It seems very sixties.
21d I think a LOANER is not a person who makes a loan but the thing that is lent. Some car repair shops will give you a loaner to drive while they’re working on your car.
VinnyD@30 What bit of rhyming slang?
If I’d spotted the pangram (which I never do) I might have got ZIPP(i)ER, but instead I got stuck at NIPPER with no idea how it parsed.
Lovely puzzle. Thanks Picaroon for it and Eileen for your delightedly appreciative (as ever) blog.
Ooops. Used to be slang for money.
Thanks Picaroon for another gem. I always tick clues I like but that’s almost pointless in a Picaroon crossword because the entire list is tick-worthy. Still MOBILISE, HAWSER, JEERED, MOUSSAKA, VINO, and INIQUITY earned special attention. I was surprised but amused to see “error strewn” in 26a because “paper” alone could have been the definition. I missed PSALTERY and couldn’t parse LIEGEMAN so thanks Eileen for your fine blog.
I don’t know what the other passengers on the bus this morning thought when I laughed out loud when I solved 26a but I thought it, and the rest of the crossword, most excellent
Thanks to Picaroon and to the Lucky One!
So…what’s British for zipper then?
My French ain’t great, but I did know that dejeuner was lunch, and I thought of salad first before realizing that it was lunch ON the herbs rather than OF them. Then I googled to confirm and was helpfully reminded of the painting. Loved that clue.
MrP @40
“flies”, though they are usually buttons, or zip, never zipper. Of couse, zip means nothing to you!
Haha. Yes some chuckles after solving some of these: INIQUITY MANICURIST especially and for once seeing the pangram looming helped get JEERED
Thanks both
I had not noticed Henri spelled with i !
Lots of good PDMs. I had the West covered before much appeared in the East, especially the NE. LOI PSALTERY just popped into my head a few minutes ago while vacuuming. Funnily, when I saw “Bordeaux’s number 6”, I thought of the rugby team and started playing with flanker, wing forward, breakaway etc. Soccer never occured to me. We Aussies talk of the fly too (which could be a zip or a zipper) – the Pommy ‘flies’ still strikes me as bizarre. Thanks, Picaroon and Eileen.
Like blaise @5 & Valentine @36 I had NIPPER, thinking it might be an American term for a fast car, but it would be an unfortunate word for what does up your trousers, so I’m glad I was wrong.
I have to disagree with Ark Lark @29: if the title of the painting had been indicated as such, it would surely have kept the volume of the tea-tray clang when solving the clue at a minimum.
I found the surface for HAWSER was particularly misleading because Hitchcock used a continuous shot for the opening scene of his film Rope. (In fact the whole film uses only 11 shots, according to this Wiki article.) The initial reading of the clue for MANICURIST, on the other hand, immediately supplied the answer from the definition, but I had to come back to it twice before I could parse the wordplay.
Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.
Muffin@41: thanks. We do use the word “fly” for the part of your trousers that can be opened; “dude, your fly is open” is more common than “dude, your zipper is undone.” Especially since some flies button.
Interesting though, MrP – over here it is very rarely “fly” – almost always “flies”. Odd, as TassieTim said earlier!
Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen for a splendid end to the week. (Though for once I managed to parse everything.)
Apropos valentine@36, UK solvers may remember the TV series “Bread” by Carla Lane from the late 80’s, so it was current slang then.
I enjoyed this very much. Precision and concision – and entertaining too (entision?).
I especially liked the Hitchcock clue. Years ago, I did a film studies evening class. Someone mentioned that Hitchcock’s Rope looks like one continuous shot. So I watched it. But as sh@45 points out, there are, in fact, 11 shots, necessitated by the roughly 10 minute limit of technology at the time. Those 11 shots are, however, mostly seamless. There are, in fact, only four undisguised cuts in the whole film because the cinema projectionist had to change the reel and it was pointless making the cuts look seamless between the changes.
When you realise that a typical shot nowadays (they’ve got shorter) is a few seconds, you can imagine that a director planning a shot over 10 seconds (never mind 10 minutes) would hesitate, knowing that if everything wasn’t meticulously planned they’d have to reshoot.
Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Did anyone else notice that this is the same grid layout as Brendan’s yesterday?
In 15a, how does “pants” indicate an anagram?
At 8d, I was thrown off by litres, so struggled with how to remove the EN in excellent.
I knew Grauniad from this site, but just wonder if it’s in Chambers. 😉 Though that seems not to be a requirement now.
Anyway, an enjoyable journey, with many interesting detours to Rope (a parish in Cheshire), the controversies of Dejuener sur l’herbe (and the many other paintings with the same name) and the lives of Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart.
Calgal @50
“pants” – “bad” – “anagram”. Not my favourite, but it’s fairly common.
mrpenney@46 One more subtle way of saying “Dude, your fly is open,” is “XYZ,” short for “examine your zipper.”
Managed to parse all of these for a change, but gave up on PSALTERY. Very enjoyable
Nothing to add to all the positive comments above. My first time, I think, to parse all the clues. LOI and my favourite was ZIPPER but I agree with Eileen and others’ selection of excellent clues. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.
Terrific puzzle done well after everyone else, but I just wanted to thank Picaroon for the smiles and a-ha! moments, and Eileen for a super blog. All of my favourites have been well canvassed, but in the end, like PostMark@8 and Tony Santucci@38, I probably could have nominated every clue as a favourite!
Thanks, muffin @51
Tough puzzle. Failed 2d, 3d, 7ac.
I did not parse 18d except for LIE = porky pie; 8d.
Liked GRAUNIAD, JEERED, FONT, PICNICKING.
New YAK = yack, rabbit, talk at length.
Thanks, both.
What a lovely, uplifting puzzle. So many enjoyable clues with enticing surfaces and witty resolutions. FONT was my favourite, closely followed by HAWSER, TENNER, JEERED, PICNICKING and INIQUITY. Many thanks to Picaroon.
Simply wow! James just keeps turning it on. Another superb puzzle. I have it on my bucket list to meet this man and buy him a beer.