Guardian 28,926 – Carpathian

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Carpathian is originally, and still more often seen as, a setter of the Quiptic, and this could easily have fitted in that slot. Still, a nicely-constructed puzzle, suitable for those that like a gentle Monday. Thanks to Carpathian.

 
Across
1 WANDERLUST Adult wrens exercised urge to move (10)
(ADULT WRENS)*
6 SPAM Junk plans rejected (4)
Reverse of MAPS (plans) – spam as in junk mail
9 INEPTITUDE Awkwardness of one getting undressed holding record and bird (10)
EP (record) + TIT (bird) in I NUDE
10 AGOG Eager to move into silver (4)
GO (move) in AG (silver)
12 PREPOSTEROUS Ridiculous poseur, dancing clutching Bill (12)
POSTER (bill) in POSEUR*
15 VENTRICLE Let out grass around end of April, showing some heart (9)
VENT (to let out) + [apri]L in RICE (plant of the grass family)
17 ROTOR Rubbish outside of our bit of machinery (5)
ROT + outer letters of OuR
18 REINS Checks showers for auditor (5)
Homophone of “rains”
19 ABSORBENT Spongy muscle needs at first to be covered in ice (9)
AB (abdominal muscle) + N[eeds] in SORBET
20 INCANDESCENT Old Peruvian slope is glowing (12)
INCAN DESCENT
24 IRIS Plant is found across Rhode Island (4)
RI in IS
25 DEMOLITION Protest ignited by institute concerned with ruin (10)
DEMO (protest) + LIT + I[nstitute] + ON (concerned with)
26 GAGS Silences heartless criminal groups (4)
GANGS less its middle letter
27 INVEIGLING Enticing gin mixed with vile gin (10)
(GIN VILE GIN)*
Down
1 WAIF Almost hold on to fine stray (4)
WAI[t] (hold on) + F[ine]
2 NEED Miss Norway enjoyed exhibition dance, initially (4)
First letters of Norway Enjoyed Exhibition Dance
3 ENTERPRISING Adventurous recording includes quiet knight returning (12)
P (quiet) + reverse of SIR (knight’s title) in ENTERING (recording)
4 LET-UP Reduction in previous tension, happy to follow premier of long film (3-2)
L[ong] + ET + UP (happy)
5 SIDESTEPS Avoids angle on staircase (9)
SIDE (angle) + STEPS
7 PIGEON-TOED Swine taking age to evacuate ground finally, having misdirected supporters (6-4)
PIG + EON + TO + [evacuat]E [groun]D
8 MAGISTRATE Sorcerer arrests first traitor getting justice (10)
1ST RAT in MAGE
11 HEART‑RENDING Trying to embrace fashion is very upsetting (5-7)
TREND (fashion) in HEARING (trying, as in a law court)
13 OVERRIDING Dominant across old part of Yorkshire (10)
OVER (across) + RIDING (on of three former administrative divisions of Yorkshire, from the Old English þriðing, meaning one third)
14 UNHITCHING Taking off with a Parisian, travelling for free (10)
UN (French “a”) + HITCHING
16 CHAMELEON Clean home out for reptile (9)
(CLEAN HOME)*
21 CHOKE Smother husband in drug (5)
H in COKE
22 KIWI Bird winning the hearts of rakish showbiz elite (4)
Middle letters of raKIsh shoWbiz elIte
23 SNAG Catch small horse (4)
S + NAG

56 comments on “Guardian 28,926 – Carpathian”

  1. Very nice! Looked a little tricky initially, but went in smoothly. Favourite was PIGEON-TOED, and I liked the WANDERLUST anagram. Many thanks to C & A.

  2. This was good fun, with no obscurities and plenty of smiles. Nothing to quibble about.

    Good one, Carpathian. And ta for the blog, Andrew.

  3. Don’t know why but I made heavy weather of this – all looks quite straightforward in retrospect but some clues had me scratching my head for ages. Overall, it took me about twice as long as today’s Quiptic, so no complaints about relative difficulty level from me.

    PIGEON-TOED was my favourite for the amusing definition.

    Thanks, Carpathian and Andrew.

  5. For once, I has no problem with the four letter words, all nicely clued. INVEIGLING was neat. I wondered about “bestriding” before settling on OVERRIDING. Nothing PREPOSTEROUS in this puzzle.

  6. When I solved the PDF version of the puzzle then the clue for PIGEON-TOED didn’t have ‘taking age’ in its wordplay. I assumed the setter must be less than happy with their energy supplier, to group PIG and E-ON together as ‘Swine’ like that ?. Thanks for the puzzle Carpathian! And to Andrew.

  7. Like drofle @1, it seemed trickier at the start than it proved to be. I liked HEART-RENDING, PREPOSTEROUS, ENTERPRISING and INVEIGLING. Thanks, Carpathian and Andrew.

  8. Managed this before breakfast! Good fun and some nice misdirections. Why Unhitching was my last one is anybody’s guess. Thanks C and A

  9. Widdersbel@3 Completely opposite experience for me 🙂 Cryptic went in easily and enjoyably, but Quiptic proved more difficult. I nearly always find that to be the case.

    Thanks Carpathian & Andrew.

  10. Good fun today. I had a lousy week last week and thought my ageing brain had forgotten how to do cryptic crosswords. Saturday restored my faith and so did today’s. 7dn, as previously mentioned was my favourite and also LOI thanks to the clever definition.
    Thanks Carpathian and Andrew.

  11. Another one who had PIGEON-TOED as a last one in, with a clunk as I realised how the definition worked.

    I found this slower to solve than the Quiptic, but on the easy end for a Cryptic.

    Thank you to Andrew and Carpathian.

  12. Do love a nice tangy sorbet, but it’s been a few years, so I missed it and absorbent was a bung. Anyone else get a flyin’ purple earworm from 7d? Funny what bubbles up. All fun, ta AnC.

  13. Widdersbel @3 and Crossbar @9. I’m with Crossbar today. On another day, it might have been different. Thanks for the parsing of HEART RENDING. It had to be that, just couldn’t see why. Thanks to Carpathian.

  14. I was expecting to find J and Q and X and Z, since Carpathian’s last three cryptics have all, I think, been pangrams. But no disappointment – this was all really neat and witty. So, thanks to her, and please set more often!

  15. Thanks Carpathian and Andrew
    Good Monday puzzle. Favourite was LOI HEART RENDING.
    One minor quibble: CHOKE and smother might have the same outcome, but by different methods.

  18. Wasn’t a pangram but it struck me there were loads of g’s ! Timely to see CHAMELEON in 16 dn after it being one of the most used words in the recent “I’m a celebrity …”.

    Ta C & A

  19. Yes, not too taxing; but it is Monday. That said, there were a few chewier clues here: not least 7D PIGEON -TOED, which I really like. I do think it’s important that we have a range of puzzles in terms of how challenging they are so that those who are less experienced can gain some confidence. Long may the tradition of a gentle start to the week continue. Paul: please keep away! With thanks to both.

  20. Crossbar @9/Crispy @13 – of course, solving is always a very individual experience. This is why I get slightly irritated when people say the Quiptic is harder than the Cryptic as if it’s an objective fact – it’s rarely that definitive. YMMV, as the kids say.

    Anyway, I only mentioned it because of Andrew’s comment in the preamble – he’s right, of course, this would have been a perfectly good Quiptic, but is just as good in the Cryptic slot. Carpathian is a very reliable setter who is always fair to solvers and rarely gives cause to quibble. I just struggled slightly to tune in to her wavelength this morning.

  21. Noticed that the grid today is the same as yesterday’s Everyman which I did (eventually) complete and greatly enjoyed.

  22. Good start to the week with Carpathian’s trademark smooth clues.

    I liked the surface of ABSORBENT and the good definition for PIGEON-TOED.

    Thanks Carpathian and Andrew.

  23. This was enjoyable — quite light but with some chewiness. I caught a toe on ‘abs’ in ABSORBENT because I thought abs was like biceps (i.e. one muscle) but the ice=sorbet absorbs the ‘s’ so an ab must be a single muscle. I’d never really considered that abs are not abbreviations of latinate anatomical terminology but just short for ‘abdominal’ (er… which is, I suppose, a bit of latinate anatomical terminology). Well, you know, it’s not ‘abstractor lateralis’ or ‘abscissae ventriculi’.

  24. muffin @15. Thinking of someone laughing inappropriately, they might stifle/smother/choke off their laughter? Not quite interchangeable but close enough.

    I misled myself from the start by spotting a possible WELT in the fodder at 1a, which sent me looking for the wrong German loan word, and then being sure that ‘grass’ in 15a would give SING. Those pennies dropped before too long, so this was an enjoyable and fairly smooth solve for me.

    I liked the surface of 9a, with the person undressing getting a record stuck in one leg of their trousers and a bird in the other.

    Thanks to Carpathian and Andrew

  25. An entertaining Monday puzzle, but can any of you ingenious people justify “side” for “angle”? Chambers doesn’t support this, unless I have missed something in the long list of possibilities.

  27. As over half the clues were 9 letters or more in length, there were plenty of help from the crossers today. Enjoyable, thanks Carpathian and Andrew…

  28. Tim @25. I found side and angle as synonyms in my Oxford Thesaurus, and either can be synonymous with “edge”.

    Chambers has “angle”: a way of looking at something, and “side”: any… opinion opposed to another.

  30. Nice puzzle, my only quibble was the same as muffin@15 regarding CHOKE, also addressed by sh@24. My feeling is: close, but not close enough.

  31. Monday fare, enjoyable and none too taxing.

    I liked HEART-RENDING for the elegantly simple clue.

    Thanks Carpathian and Andrew

  33. An easy but enjoyable puzzle. Thanks. I admire the construction requiring one word answers for 4 twelve-letter, 8 ten-letter and 2 nine-letter solutions. One of the principle reasons this American regularly does British cryptics is their use of of longer words than American crosswords.

  34. Thanks for the blog, neat set of clues and perfect for the slot. Good point from Bill@33 , ignoring hyphens every entry is a single word.
    I would have loved this when I was learning cryptics , I agree with Nuntius @19 that it is a great tradition.

  35. 13d Interesting that the old spelling of riding/thrithing uses both eth and thorn, though I can never remember which is which. When did they go away and why, anybody know? (Essexboy, are you there?)

    I loved the surface of 17a INVEIGLING — “Enticing gin mixed with vile gin.”

    ginf@12 Is your earworm one-eyed and one-horned? If so (or if not) how does it relate to 7d?

    Lots of fun, this puzzle. Thanks to Carpathian and Andrew for good jobs well done. And I agree with Roz about the Monday tradition.

  36. The dreaded Chambers, CHOKE – to stop or interfere with the breathing of ( whether by compression,blocking, fumes , emotion or OTHERWISE . )

    For SIDE and ANGLE there is some overlap in the various definitions.

    A problem may yield if approached from the other SIDE/ANGLE .

  37. Thanks Carpathian for a pleasant start to the week. Despite finding this easy I was not disappointed because the clueing was top drawer. I particularly liked SPAM, VENTRICLE, ABSORBENT, INCANDESCENT, IRIS, GAGS, INVEIGLING, and MAGISTRATE.
    I couldn’t parse PIGEON-TOED — my pdf printout did not have “taking age” in the clue so I couldn’t account for EON. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

  38. Dr. WhatsOn @30. “…close, but not close enough” – Close enough for what? Surely CHOKE was close enough in meaning to have solved the clue and to be sure it was the right answer. That’s why I posted “not quite interchangeable but close enough” @24.

    If it was a quick, non-cryptic crossword, with just ‘suffocate’ as a clue, I would think you would have a stronger argument. But the clue here requires a) a four letter word meaning drug into which b) an H can be inserted to give c) a five letter word that’s d) close in meaning to suffocate, and e) fits the crossers C_O_E.

    Good enough for me, anyway. 🙂

  39. It’s always worth turning to the OED in these cases – tends to be more expansive than Chambers. It has a couple of relevant senses, with several supporting citations for each to provide evidence that this is how the word is* used in English:

    II.
    8. To smother (a fire) by stopping the free circulation of air.
    9. To suppress or smother any feeling, or aspiration.

    Seems uncontroversial to me.

    *I suppose was, strictly speaking, rather than is, since dictionaries are records of historical use and the citations given are not recent, but it’s not indicated as obsolete or archaic.

  40. Myself @38. Realised after posting that I had substituted ‘suffocate’ for ‘smother’, but this doesn’t affect my point, which is that with so much else to help solve the clue, a little looseness in the definition is neither here nor there. And anyway, Chambers defines smother as suffocate, and suffocate as choke!

  41. Thanks to trishincharente@26, sheffield hatter@28 and Roz@36 – I knew I could rely on you. I originally found the “viewpoint” overlap a bit tenuous but I’m coming round to it. In general, stretchy definitions worry me more in the wordplay, which should be the solver’s route to the entry, than as the definition, which should be just the check.
    Thanks too, to Carpathian and Andrew, for brightening a gloomy Monday.

  42. Our earliest ever finish and top ranking in the fifteensquared blog (42nd! if I can type quickly enough). Perfect for us newbies who love having something we can have a chance of completing in a day on a Monday. Lots of initial letters round the edge of the grid and clear clues with some witty surfaces. And “agog” is a great word and much underused. Thanks Carpathian and Andrew.

  43. I have nothing to say about this that hasn’t been said already. The solve took me less than 15 minutes; I wasn’t actually timing it, so it may have been much less. I too liked PIGEON-TOED, as well as the ridiculous poseur.

    I think choke/smother works, just barely, at least well enough for crosswordland. Ditto for side/angle. In both cases, you have to use the less literal meanings of the words.

  44. Sh@38 fair enough. I was just thinking of my own usage – in situations where I’d use smother I wouldn’t use choke, and vice versa, because each gives a (different) bit of extra information on how the action was carried out.

  45. [Valentine @35 – in a sense, ð and þ are still with us – both are used in Icelandic, and /ð/ is the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for a voiced dental fricative, eg “the” is represented as /ðə/.

    Unlike in the IPA (where /ð/ is voiced but /θ/ is voiceless, eg in “thin”), and Icelandic (where ð and þ are voiced and voiceless respectively), there is no consistent phonetic difference between eth and thorn in Old English. Eth was more popular in the 8th century; thorn began to overtake it in the 9th; by the time we get to Middle English eth has been eclipsed by thorn.

    The digraph ‘th’ was increasingly used instead of thorn from the 14th century, and the advent of the printing press hastened thorn’s demise – printer’s types were imported from Belgium and the Netherlands where the letter didn’t exist. But capital thorn Þ, confused with Y, survives in Ye Olde Tea Shoppe!]

    Nice one Carpathian; I agree with Roz, Nuntius, Kandy et al about the value of having a more accessible puzzle on Mondays. Thanks to Andrew too, who I hope is feeling better today.

  49. Completed in a couple of hours after work, including cooking time. Must be a record for me.

    20A elicited a groan when I deduced the answer. 27A was first in, an absolute gem of a clue.

    Thanks to Carpathian for the puzzle, and Andrew for throwing some light in corners still dark, even after the lights are all in!

  53. PIGEON TOED my fav in a typically well clued & delightful puzzle from this consistently reliable setter.
    Thanks both

  55. Essex Boy @52: Fair enough. Gin is mother’s demolition. On the road to wrack and demolition. The demolition of many a poor boy. They may be correct but they are also clumsy. Thank you Muffin @54

  56. Recent results from the MicroBooNE experiments at FermiLab led to the DEMOLITION of the sterile neutrino theory . Ha ha , I won so many bets.

    MrEssexboy@45 if someone tries to hand you a slip of paper containing runic symbols do not take it.

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