Guardian Cryptic 28,862 by Nutmeg

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28862.

With the sprinkling of cryptic and double definitions, I thought this at the easier end of Nutmeg’s offerings.

ACROSS
1 FLAT AS A PANCAKE
A king amid excited fans at palace quite unruffled (4,2,1,7)
An envelope (‘amid’) of ‘a’ plus K (‘king’) in FLATASAPANCE, an anagram (‘excited’) of ‘fans at palace’. Was this clue thought up in the last few days?
9 ROOM TO LET
Fell over can I dropped, getting notice from landlord? (4,2,3)
A charade of ROOM, a reversal (‘over’) of MOOR (”fell’) plus TO[i]LET (‘can’) minus the I (‘I dropped’).
10 NOT ON
Impossible, however you look at it (3,2)
A palindrome.
11 HINDU
Unlikely worshipper in church in Durham? (5)
A hidden answer in ‘churcH IN DUrham, with an extended definition.
12 ONE-HANDED
Earl passed over after working with a single duke? (3-6)
A charade of ON (‘working’) plus E (‘earl’) plus HANDED (‘passed over’).
13 MODESTLY
Chaste lady on vacation avoiding excess (8)
A charade of MODEST (‘chaste’) plus LY (‘LadY on vacation’).
14 TUNDRA
Taking A-road, head west for treeless plain (6)
A reversal (‘taking … west’) of ‘a’ plus RD (‘road’) plus NUT (‘head’).
17 STRESS
Draw attention to lover scratching Nutmeg’s back (6)
A subtraction: [mi]STRESS (‘lover’) minus (‘scratching’) MI, a reversal (‘back’) of I’M (‘Nutmeg’s’).
19 EGG TOOTH
Encourage chopper making extension for hatching birds (3,5)
A charade of EGG (‘encourage’) plus TOOTH (‘chopper’), for the temporary projection which aids a hatchling to break out of its shell.
22 PINOT NOIR
Red iron pot in ground (5,4)
An anagram (‘ground’) of ‘iron pot in’, for the grape varietal generally made into a red wine.
24 ROUTS
Thrashes noisy mobs (5)
Double definition.
25 RELAX
Soothe relative with a kiss (5)
A charade of REL (‘relative’) plus ‘a’ plus X (‘kiss’).
26 ARGENTINA
Country area close to region with granite rocks (9)
An anagram (‘rocks’) of A (‘area’) plus N (‘close to regioN‘) plus ‘granite’.
27 STAND CORRECTED
Vigorously contest red card, but acknowledge one’s error (5,9)
An anagram (‘vigorously’) of ‘contest red card’.
DOWN
1 FOR THE MOST PART
Tips from Tom Hanks in leading role, mainly (3,3,4,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of TH (‘tips from Tom Hanks’) in FOREMOST PART (‘leading role’).
2 ADORNED
New dons loved wearing robes, perhaps (7)
An envelope (‘dons’) of N (‘new’) in ADORED (‘loved’).
3 ALTRUISTS
Mr Gore relies on retaining current benefactors (9)
An envelope (‘retaining’) of I (‘current’) in AL (‘Mr Gore’) plus TRUSTS (‘relies on’).
4 ALL SOULS
Total of fishes caught for late feast (3,5)
Sounds like (‘caught’) ALL SOLES (‘total of fishes’).
5 ANTHER
Part of plant, one more deficient in oxygen (6)
A subtraction: AN[o]THER (‘one more’) minus the O (‘deficient in oxygen’).
6 CONGA
Something to beat line dancing? (5)
Double definition – the drum, and the dance.
7 KATYDID
Susan Coolidge’s girl learned cricket in US (7)
A charade of KATY (‘Susan Coolidge’s girl’; Susan Coolidge was the pen name of the author of a series of books starting with What Katy Did) plus DID (from the book title or, rather loosely, ‘learned’). A katydid is an insect cricket, named for its stridulating call.
8 AN IDEAL HUSBAND
Oscar’s best mate? (2,5,7)
Crypticish definition, for Oscar Wilde’s play.
15 UTTERANCE
Pure daughter leaving disco, it’s said (9)
A charade of UTTER (‘pure’) plus [d]ANCE (‘disco’) minus the D (‘daughter leaving’).
16 AGAR-AGAR
A fish by itself derived nutrient from algae (4-4)
A GAR (‘a fish’) plus the same (‘by itself’), for the jelly-like substance derived from seaweed, used as a nutrient for humans and bacteria.
18 RINGLET
Hairband with minor problem (7)
A charade of RING (‘band’) plus LET (‘minor problem’).
20 OCULIST
Medic examining pupils? (7)
Cryptic definition.
21 MOSAIC
Ancient lawgiver’s work pieced together (6)
Double definition.
23 TOXIN
Metal casing over unknown poison (5)
An envelope (‘casing’) of O (‘over’) plus X (‘unknown’) in TIN (‘metal’).

picture of the completed grid

60 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,862 by Nutmeg”

  3. I agree with PeterO regarding the difficulty, although I was held up for a while trying to add a ‘G’ (Nutmeg’s back) to STRESS, until I worked backwards from the answer. Fave was the anagram in STAND CORRECTED.

    I interpreted DID=learned as in “I did French for O-level”. Not exactly the same, but close enough.

  4. I began today with Aardvark’s in the FT and threw in the towel after solving only four in half an hour. So I turned to this one, and completed it reasonably quickly. I wasn’t aware of Oscar Wilde’s play, nor “duke” for “hand”, and I didn’t think 20d was cryptic. Otherwise plain sailing, with plenty of smiles.

  5. As alluded to by GDU @4, more gentle than Aardvark’s offering in the FT, but there were a few parsings I missed including the wordplay for MISTRESS, the lift and separate for RINGLET and MOSAIC for ‘Ancient lawgiver’s’. Seems as though I should have known it, but ROUTS for ‘noisy mobs’ was new to me too. Yes, the wordplay was topical but FLAT AS A PANCAKE for ‘quite unruffled’? I suppose so, sort of.

    Favourite was the wordplay and ‘with a single duke?’ def for ONE-HANDED.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO

  6. Thanks Nutmeg for another gem. I loved the surface and anagram for STAND CORRECTED as well as the devious UTTERANCE. ROOM TO LET, TUNDRA, ARGENTINA, ALL SOULS, and KATYDID also earned ticks. ROUTS defeated me and I failed to parse 1d. Thanks PeterO for the blog.
    [GDU @4: I’m planning Aardvark for tomorrow’s breakfast. I hope I can solve more than four!]

  7. ‘ROUT’ ia a word that Milton uses on a number of occasions in Paradise Lost to define Satan’s ‘mob’ of fallen angels, as here in Book I:

    … he with this rebellious rout
    Fell long before; nor aught availed him now
    To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did he scape
    By all his engines, but was headlong sent,
    With his industrious crew, to build in Hell.

  8. tim the toffee@1 and 2. Having just looked up a dictionary for a homophone ”noisy” for ”mobs” and finding the Scottish word ”routh”, meaning plenty or abundance (mobs, lots of … ? ), I thought your typo ‘nee’ was a typo for the pronunciation of ‘new’ in Scottish. I thought you were being very clever!
    Instead I see I missed the double definition ROUT. I suppose both are possible, but then I don’t know how the Scottish pronounce ”routh”.

    Another misconception for me was 8D. I thought it referred to the Neil Simon play, movie and sitcom ”The Odd Couple” where Oscar and Felix are the couple.

    Oh well, I had fun going down those rabbit holes.

  11. I think 1a refers to the sea being unruffled by wind and therefore flat. Wasn’t aware of ‘ROUTS’ meaning mobs, but with the crossers and the definition, it had to be the answer. I agree 20d was a fairly obvious play on the double meaning of pupils, but that shouldn’t detract from an inventive crossword, even if it was on Nutmeg’s easy side. Thanks to blogger and setter.

  12. I was convinced 1a was going to be cool as a cucumber, except for the small detail of it not fitting in! But I’m perfectly happy with FLAT AS A PANCAKE. pdmjoker@9 I thought of a calm sea rather than lake, but that’s probably because I’m missing going on cruises which we gave up with lockdown
    As ever with Nutmeg, very enjoyable.
    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.

  14. Ta PnN. Yes, smooth as glass more likely than flat as pancake for unruffled lake, but hey ho. Another gentle potter today. Removing I’m< from mistress, knowing that Katy Did something, and what Oscar wrote, and about the hatchling's tooth were all good. Not sure why Hindus are unlikely worshippers, or is it a trick?

  15. This may not be Nutmeg at her most challenging but it took me a while to get into it with similar unknowns/queries to others. I led myself down my own rabbit hole at one point with 1d when it looked as if I was inserting Tom Hank’s initials into one of his most famous roles, Forrest Gump … I was also trying, like WP earlier, to use Nutmeg’s G somehow, instead of the I’M.

    As well as the timely and nicely constructed 1a, I had big ticks for the hidden HINDU, TUNDRA – neat to have spotted that reversal possibility, the two anagrams in PINOT NOIR and STAND CORRECTED, ALL SOULS, ANTHER and the cleverly misdirecting UTTERANCE. I wonder how many times KATYDID has been clued without a reference to Susan Coolidge?

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

  16. I think I managed to chase myself down everyone’s rabbit holes solving this, which was reasonably straightforward when I stopped being misdirected.

    Thank you to Nutmeg and PeterO.

  18. Ginf@14 & Gdu@17 I thought in 11a a HINDU was more likely to worship in a temple rather than a church, and Durham was only there to provide the DU of the hidden word.

  19. Fairly predictable stuff from Nutmeg but that could be confirmation bias in action. Ticks for ONE HANDED, RINGLET & UTTERANCE
    KATYDID felt a bit pub quizzy and OCULIST could have come from Vulcan’s reject pile

    Bah humbug

  20. The back-scratching lover caused a bit of head-scratching, as did UTTERANCE, where I was looking for ages for a solution that was a synonym of ‘pure’. Otherwise a very pleasant cruise on an unruffled sea/lake.

    Just one quibble: I don’t think STAND CORRECTED does mean to ‘acknowledge one’s error’, whatever the dictionaries say. Surely ‘to stand corrected’ = ‘to be in a state of having been corrected’, and you need the ‘I’ in front to make it into an acknowledgement?

    Similarly, “I am in the wrong” means “I acknowledge my error”, but “to be in the wrong” is just “to be in the wrong”.

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.

  21. The fact that I finished this by 8am suggests it’s on the easier side of Nutmeg. It did take me a while to get beyond Hindu and Altruists but once the long solutions became clear it was largely plain sailing. I agree that 20d is a bit ‘meh’ and I also wondered if I’d missed something. Thanks to those explaining the ‘unlikely’ in 11ac. That now makes sense.
    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.

  22. Lovely puzzle – I really enjoyed Nutmeg’s wit as always, particularly ROOM TO LET, FLAT AS A PANCAKE and STRESS. Many thanks to N & P.

  23. I agree with others that this was Nutmeg in a more gentle mood. Though I’m not complaining. I certainly found the south west less a write- in than the rest of the puzzle. PS With Nutmeg I’m always on the look out for a clue or two with a religious theme e.g. 4D: ALL SOULS. Despite that, I got fixated on Solon with 21D: MOSAIC. The penny finally dropped. With thanks to both.

  25. New to me: DUKE as a ONE-HANDER and EGG-TOOTH as a hatching aid.
    Only got ALL SOULS and STRESS from the crossers.
    But better than yesterday! Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

  28. I did not parse 18d.

    New for me: EGG TOOTH, ROUT = noisy mob.

    Liked ROOM TO LET, ALL SOULS, FLAT AS A PANCAKE, AN IDEAL HUSBAND, TUNDRA.

    Thanks, both.

  29. For some reason I found this the trickiest of the week so far. ROUTS was new to me, EGG TOOTH at the farthest recesses of my knowledge, and UTTERANCE had me looking for a homophone for much too long.

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

  30. Thanks to Nutmeg for a lot of enjoyment today. All favourites mentioned already. Your blog was much appreciated, PeterO, especially for helping me to understand what an EGG TOOTH is (19a) (cf Tim the Toffee@1 et.al. in several posts), as well as how 15d UTTERANCE and 18d RINGLET worked. I still don’t really understand 24a ROUTS (again cf Tim the T@!1). And as already said by several others – I thought OCULIST at 20d was a bit “iffy”: I had a question mark and “Barely cryptic” pencilled in beside the clue. I was with Nuntius@23 for a while in terms of being fixated on Solon for 23d (MOSAIC) – perhaps I have more of a classicist mind-set these days and my Hebrew scripture studies are less front of mind?

  32. Really like(d) PINOT NOIR (slurp, slurp), ADORNED, ANTHER, and clue of the day for me, UTTERANCE. Struggled towards the finish with the interlocking ONE-HANDED and KATYDID. Last two in were the tricky to solve STRESS and MOSAIC, for which I didn’t know the second meaning. Lots to admire, thanks Nutmeg and PeterO…

  33. Yes great fun from Nutmeg, for all that PeterO was needed for the parsing which this lazy brain was unwilling to unpick.

    Are ‘mistress’ and ‘lover’ interchangeable? It passed me by – although it had to be STRESS I couldn’t make the leap to ‘mistress’.

  35. Thanks for the blog, unusually for me with Nutmeg I thought this was really good. Apart from 20D I found the clues very neat and imaginative. The Playtex for RINGLET was well disguised and the “caught” in ALL SOULS was very deceptive. Fell over in ROOM TO LET was well positioned, I could go on.

  37. Thanks PeterO, I didn’t know that sort of rout (thanks Spooner’s Catflap for the reference) and MOSAIC coming from Moses had not occurred to me but now seems very obvious! I liked this too with the same highlights and temporary slip-ups as many. Thanks Nutmeg.
    [Thanks also Roz for DA/Fraser ref late the other day and re: your potential for fallibility, I stand corrected!]

  39. Another smoothie from the spicy lady.

    I didn’t find it too easy. I liked ROOM TO LET (in my brain when I see a ‘To let’ sign, I always think of toilet) and UTTERANCE for the surface.

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.

  40. Thanks for the blog, which I needed to parse a couple.

    Could someone help me out with why LET = minor problem in 18ac?

  42. Mike@40 a LET is an old word really meaning a hindrance , hence a little problem. The only modern use I can think of is in tennis.

  44. 12a I’m not sure I buy 12a. “Duke,” as far as I know, only ever means “fist,” (as in “put up your dukes”), not hand generally.

    No hope of parsing STRESS or RINGLET. Too convoluted for me.

    I have actually read What Katy Did because my childhood bookcase had books from earlier generations in it, but surely it’s an obscure title to expect most people even to have heard of. I certainly didn’t remember the author. And “did” just doesn’t mean “learned.”

    essexboy@20 15d was particularly deceptive when TUNDRA started it with a U, so surely “pure” was “UN-somethingED.”

    Thanks to Nutmeg for an entertaining evening and morning, and to PeterO for the help.

  45. Her usual elegance; I agree with those who found this less challenging than an average Nutmeg.
    Many thanks, Nutmeg and PeterO

  46. Good puzzle. Nice mix of write-ins, gettables and pencil-chewers.

    My only minor eyebrow moment was “quite unruffled” for FLAT AS A PANCAKE. They’re not really the same concepts in my mind, I think there’s a nuance of tone between the two phrases. FLAT AS A PANCAKE veers towards being negative while “quite unruffled” leans positive. To me the clue suggested COOL AS A CUCUMBER which I tried before I ran out of squares 🙂

    A minor spot of personal pedantry though, more thinking out loud than quibbling. I very much enjoyed the puzzle.

    Thanks both!

  47. Valentine @44: I think the book and the cricket have a symbiotic relationship in Crosswordland and a fairly low profile elsewhere. I am only aware of the book because of the cricket – and the cricket because of the book. And only ever in crosswords. 😀

  48. Agree with RobT @46 re FLAT AS A PANCAKE. As usual with Nutmeg, I found today quite a struggle…. until I used Google to see if there really was anyone called Susan Coolidge (!)…. then, armed with KATYDID, the rest slowly fell into place.

  49. Valentine @44 – I’ve also read all the Katy Did books, was given them as a child / and or bought them for myself with pocket money. They were definitely around and in print. That clue I really did think Susan Coolidge – What Katy Did and then wrote the answer in. I’m about to work with teenagers, who no doubt think I’m ancient, but I’m still working, so relatively not that old.

  50. Really good fun with lots to like, and plenty of humour.

    STAND CORRECTED was my fave for the surface.

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

  51. What Ark Lot@50 said.

    I got to 1a FLAT AS A PANCAKE by thinking of ruffled dress material. An unruffled dress or skirt would be ironed flat as a pancake.

    I also loved the several misdirections in 2d ADORNED, with its superb surface.

    Thanks Nutmeg for the fun, and PeterO for help with parsing 1d FOR THE MOST PART (another favourite).

  52. I was unaware until today that katydid, the insect, is an Americanism. It’s not a word I hear a ton–I think most people these days here refer to all noisy little insects as crickets, barring specific knowledge that they’re cicadas or whatever instead. The name, of course, is because that’s what the insects supposedly sounds like they’re saying (Katy did! Katy didn’t! Katy did! Katy didn’t!).

    I agree that this was on the easier side, and I think Nutmeg must have deliberately tried to go in that direction. But recall that she started her Guardian career setting Quiptics, so this isn’t entirely out of left field.

    Like others, I liked the misdirection in UTTERANCE, and I also defaulted into automatically trying to turn “Oscar” into an O in the clue for AN IDEAL HUSBAND.

  53. cellomaniac @51 – that’s an excellent point about taking (un)ruffled in its literal, physical sense! My eyebrow has returned to its normal position. Thanks!

  54. Must have been an easier Nutmeg for this poor excuse for a solver to complete sans reveals.
    Could not parse 24a, 2d, 21d and question marks over 17a, 18d. Looking forward to enlightenment.
    I thought the anagram at 27a and its surface were outstanding.
    Thanks both.

  56. I don’t think that CONGA is a double definition in 6D, since the dance was invented for the rhythms of that particular drum, and is therefore named after it.

  58. A challenge today. Favourite was 9 A. Did not understand how I had arrived at some solutions so as always grateful for the blog Peter O and to Nutmeg.

  59. jeceris@38: indeed — as essexboy noted, as long as the first-person pronoun is the subject of “stand corrected” then it can be read as meaning that the speaker acknowledges their fault. But if it’s in the third person (e.g. ‘she stands corrected’) then that third person may not be acknowledging their fault at all (‘I don’t care what you say, I was right all along!’). The phrase ‘stands corrected’ on its own contains no semantic element of ‘acknowledgment’: that is inherent only in the first-person statement ‘I stand corrected’.

  60. The setter’s problem with ‘stands corrected’ is that the phrase probably only ever occurs with the first-person subject and that interferes with the semantic structure of the verb complex — since we only ever hear “I stand corrected” we treat it as an indivisible lump of meaning; and then in crossword clues (which assume the principle that words are discrete semantic nuggets) the interpersonal, the pragmatic, the performative aspects of meaning awkwardly get in the way.

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