Guardian Cryptic 28,968 by Vulcan

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28968.

Vulcan at his best, I thought; nothing too convoluted, but inventive and enjoyable.

ACROSS
1 GARBAGE
Bentley originally in workshop that is put out for collection (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of B (‘Bentley originally’) in GARAGE (‘workshop’).
5 ABSOLVE
Free, maybe regularly do crossword (7)
A charade of AB (‘mAyBe regularly’) plus SOLVE (‘do crossword’).
10 SMUG
Sticks around, complacent (4)
A reversal (‘around’) of GUMS (‘sticks’).
11 ARMAGEDDON
Dragon made terrible battle (10)
An anagram (‘terrible’) of ‘dragon made’.
12 UNDYED
Came to life again, we hear, with natural colour (6)
Sounds like (‘we hear’) UN-DIED (‘came to life again’).
13 ROTARIAN
Club member managed to keep one on schedule (8)
A charade of ROTA (‘schedule’) plus RIAN, an envelope (‘to keep’) of I (‘one’) in RAN (‘]managed’).
14 PAST TENSE
As an example, was beyond nervous (4,5)
Definition and literal interpretation.
16 WOWED
Bowled over, wicket being due (5)
A charade of W (‘wicket’, cricket summary) plus OWED (‘being due’).
17 CLOUT
Heavy blow caught oaf (5)
A charade of C (‘caught’, cricket summary) plus LOUT (‘oaf’).
19 CHECKMATE
Spy on partner as one’s final move (9)
A charade of CHECK (‘spy on’) plus MATE (‘partner’).
23 MOONLESS
Don’t loaf around so much, it being dark (8)
Definition and literal interpretation.
24 AUBURN
Reddish scorch mark on a uniform (6)
A charade of ‘a’ plus U (‘uniform’) plus BURN (‘scorch mark’).
26 POWDER ROOM
Magazine in the loo (6,4)
Double definition.
27 DROP
A small whisky be hanged! (4)
Double definition.
28 ATISHOO
Minor explosion — after a time, I go away (7)
A charade of ‘a’ plus T (‘time’) plus ‘I’ plus SHOO (‘go away’ as an imperative).
29 BRIEFLY
Summarily shot by rifle (7)
An anagram (‘shot’) of ‘by rifle’.
DOWN
2 ARMENIA
American not cold initially travelling the country (7)
An anagram (‘travelling’) of ‘Ameri[c]an’ minus the C (‘not cold initially’).
3 BUGGY
Pushchair filled with tiny crawlers (5)
Double definition.
4 GLADDIE
Happy to pass on what Dame Edna throws to her audience (7)
A charade of GLAD (‘happy’) plus DIE (‘pass on’); if you do not know Barry Humphries’ character, here she is.
6 BIGOTS
Important scriptures make people opinionated (6)
A charade of BIG (‘important’) plus OTS (an improbable plural, or ‘scripture’- plus -‘s’)
7 ORDER FORM
What I want delivered here: good behaviour by pupils (5,4)
Definition and literal interpretation.
8 VIOLATE
Break instrument, going to terrible extremes (7)
A charade of VIOLA (‘instrument’ – a reference to the crime wave of drive-by viola recitals) plus TE (‘TerriblE extremes’).
9 X MARKS THE SPOT
Unknown treasure guide? (1,5,3,4)
Cryptic definition.
15 TOURNEDOS
Ron used to cook steak (9)
An anagram (‘cook’) of ‘ron used to’.
18 LOOK OUT
Be careful, like Wenceslas (4,3)
“Good King Wenceslas looked out …”.
20 CHARMER
Snake-handler who removes warts? (7)
According to some, both snakes and warts may be charmed.
21 TURMOIL
Commotion as quorum regularly absent during work (7)
.An envelope (‘during’) of URM (‘qUoRuM regularly absent’) in TOIL (‘work’).
22 WEIRDO
Married love captivates Irish eccentric (6)
An envelope (‘captivates’) of IR (‘Irish’) in WED (‘married’) plus O (‘love’).
25 BADGE
Endlessly pester for membership token? (5)
A subtraction: BADGE[r] (‘pester’) minus its last letter (‘endlessly’).

picture of the completed grid

57 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,968 by Vulcan”

  1. Pretty straightforward, with plenty of smiles. I didn’t know warts could be charmed. I knew Dame Edna was into gladioli, but unaware she called them gladdies. Nothing else to report. My favourite was probably ATISHOO.

  2. ORDER FORM:
    I took ‘good behaviour’ as ORDER and ‘pupils’ as FORM.
    Def-the same as what is shown in the blog (like a purchase order form/delivery order form).

    Thanks, Vulcan and PeterO!

  3. By literal interpretation, PeterO meant the same thing, I think. Sorry. I didn’t understand it properly.

    When I read the explanation for MOONLESS again, it occurred to me. 🙂

  4. Have a vague memory of wart-removal hocus pocus somewhere, Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn maybe … ? Fun Monday puzzle, thanks V and P. Did wonder how to substitute ‘drop’ for ‘be hanged’.

  5. Thanks Peter O, and for the link to wart charming. I like the pork fat idea, although I would rather eat it than whack it on and have a dog lick it off. Maybe there’s something in the dog’s saliva. But still better than the current treatment for warts, painful freezing or acid. Pawpaw and pineapple are both supposed to be good for warts because of the enzymes. My grandmother successfully treated a deep wound I got from standing on a rusty nail in the chook shed, both high risk, with poultices of pawpaw.

    Fun clues UNDYED, MOONLESS, PAST TENSE, AUBURN

  6. I was slow to get a few towards the end like PAST TENSE and WOWED and had no idea about a ‘wart’ CHARMER. Thanks for the link; an example of how the Internet can take us down a few odd, but interesting, by-ways.

    Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO

  7. What a lovely start to the week! Inventive, with nice surfaces. PAST TENSE a particular favourite. Thanks both.

  8. Lovely straightforward crossword, with some grins along the way. Dame Edna and her gladdies were well known when Barry Humphries was on the chat show circuit a few years back. Linda Snell (The Archers) went to one of the shows. I also remember wart charming from a novel, but can’t remember which book.

    Thank you PeterO and Vulcan.

  9. A very nice ‘classic’ Monday Vulcan giving us a smooth start to the week. Favourites include ABSOLVE, WOWED, AUBURN, DROP, LOOK OUT and WEIRDO. Which collection, looked at as a storyline, is slightly perturbing…

    ‘Came to life again’ and ‘scriptures’ both made me smile.

    Thanks

  10. Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
    Good puzzle, for once much harder than the Quiptic.
    I was puzzled by LOI DROP. Why “whisky”?

  12. Took me a while to get going (Mondayitis?) but this was a pleasant and enjoyable puzzle. I solved the NW corner last.

    Liked CHECKMATE, ATISHOO (mainly because this time I solved it, having seen this word in a puzzle before); MOONLESS; PAST TENSE.

    Thanks, both.

    Failed POWDER ROOM – somehow it revealed itself online before I had a chance to try solving it!

    muffin@10 – it reminded me of people asking for a wee drop of whisky. Does that work?

  13. For 20d, CHARMER I was thinking along the lines of a witch or wizard ala Harry Potter stories etc in that witches can remove warts?

  15. The discussion about charming warts occurs in Chapter 6 of Tom Sawyer, where Huck Finn advocates the following method:

    ” … You got to go all by yourself, to the middle of the woods, where you know there’s a spunk-water stump, and just as it’s midnight you back up against the stump and jam your hand in and say:

    ‘Barley-corn, barley-corn, injun-meal shorts, Spunk-water, spunk-water, swaller these warts,’

    and then walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody. Because if you speak the charm’s busted.”

  16. Very much what PeterO said – clever (I particularly liked PAST TENSE) but not too clever for a Monday morning.
    I’m with those who aren’t entirely convinced by a small whisky being a DROP – surely it would be a dram? Something to do with curtains would have been better, perhaps.
    But overall, a professional job from Vulcan which hit the sweet spot for the start of the week,.
    Thanks, both.

  17. My mother took my to a wart-charmer when I was a child. The wart slowly went, but of course it might have anyway!

  19. muffin and NeilH@16
    I am probably mistaken about the wee drop of whisky – maybe I heard that phrase in Hollywood movies? As I don’t drink whisky, I’m not sure how I would order a small one or a large one LOL (and I forget how to add emojis on this site too)

  20. A fun puzzle with a few NHOs but all very fair from the wordplay. Some nice misdirection e.g. BRIEFLY where I assumed “by” was positional. LOI ATISHOO which took some puzzling out! Thanks V&P.

  22. Nice gentle one, this morning. Here’s a verse re whisky

    A wee drap o’ whisky I tak’ when I’m weary
    My blood for to warm and my spirits to cheer
    And when I sit doon I intend to be merry
    So fill up a bumper and bring it round here.”
    -Traditional Scottish Song, “Wee Drop o’ Whisky”

    Building on Scottishness and going further, it feels like an Australian day to me. First day of the open tennis and Brit #1 Cameron Norrie ( Scottish father ) has just won as I type this.

    We had an extensive discussion re Dame Edna / Barry Humphries over 2 dn on 23 December last ; answer was POSSUM.

    SMUG is probably how those Chappells felt when they had bowled their ‘UNDERARMS’ and seen them have their desired affect ( extensive discussion yesterday on 15^2 not Grauniad but about associate: Everyman, 8 Jan ).

    … and with tennis and current solutions on my mind, I couldn’t help but think about the famous Athena Tennis Girl poster – perspective from ‘behind’ and performing ‘up to scratch’. I went on to muse : “There’s someone who should MOONLESS”.

    Loved UNDYED.

    Thank you Vulcan and PeterO.

  23. Thanks Vulcan and PeterO. Loved PAST TENSE.
    grantinfreo @ 4, there’s a pub in Lancashire called The Last Drop and the sign over the door shows a man hanging from a gibbet.

  24. Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO. Lovely puzzle, just right for Monday. I too thought of dram Neil@16. And I’m not keen on drop for whisky. It wasn’t actually wee drop, which would work. A minor quibble in an otherwise super crossword.

  25. Good start to the week with some fine clues.

    I couldn’t fit boomerang into 4 but then pieced together GLADDIE, although I had to look it up. I liked UNDYED, the PAST TENSE being ‘was’, the definition of ATISHOO, and the clever wordplay to get ARMENIA.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO.

  26. Feeling rather pleased with myself today. One of the very rare occasions where I not only filled the grid but parsed everything, and did so in under one cup of coffee! Lots of favorites, including 12A UNDYED.

    Like several offers I thought of DRAM but could not make it fit the second half. However, if you do ever ask for a “wee drop” of whisky in Scotland, you will find that it is not so “wee”, so all’s good.

  27. In Ireland, common terms for a tot of whiskey are “a drop of the hard stuff or “a drop of the craythur”. In the song Fiinegan’s Wake, Tim is said to have a drop of the craythur every morning.

  28. Held up by the NE corner, taking a while for the penny to drop with ROTARIAN, BIGOTS and ORDER FORM. Finally had never heard of the Dame Edna GLADDIE thing, so wondered whether the only other word that fitted, Grandee, would do. It didn’t, of course.
    Re 28 ac, my excellent dentist has the the surname of Atchu. She prefers her patients to refer to her in conversation by her forename…

  30. ATISHOO took me a while to remember, since the American version is “achoo.” (The French version, I think, is “atchoum,” and the Hungarian is “hab-tzé”, spelled phonetically.)

    Filled it all in last night, as is usual for a Monday. Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO.

  31. Thanks both,

    Gave up on 14a.

    Fairly happy with ‘drop’. ‘He will be hanged’ and ‘He will drop’ are equivalent and if, of an evening, someone asked me. ‘Would you like a drop (of something)’ and I assented, I’d expect a whisky to arrive, perhaps the only qualification being a discussion of just which single malt I’d prefer. At this time of year, I suppose, a port might be in the running. [My father’s definition of a gentleman: someone who, on a cold evening, takes a bottle of port, draws the cork, sniffs it and throws it on the fire.]

  32. Valentine @30
    I’m English, but when I sneeze I’m pretty sure the noise is “achoo”. Does anyone sneeze “atishoo”?

  34. Simon @ 33
    So they do, but those aren’t actual sneezes. I wonder if any real sneezes make the “atishoo” sound?

  36. Thanks for the blog , good set of clues for a Monday . I did not know the GLADDIES reference although I call them that myself, the clue was clear.
    Also wart CHARMER is new for me and fascinating to read S’sC @15 .

    [ AlanC I have taken the lead again after a stunning entry at Number 1 for the Cyclops, you need another late equaliser like the Cheerios Derby ]

  37. Better and easier than the Quiptic (and with fewer flaws/quibbles). Another DRAM here but soon realised the error. PAST TENSE is my clue of the day.

    And I suppose the discussion on the spelling and sound of sneezes in different parts of the world makes a nice change from endless homophone debates! 🙂

    Thanks both.

  38. Nothing to say on this straightforward top-to-bottom solve beyond thanks to our setter for a gentle start to the week and to our blogger as usual.

  39. Thanks, Vulcan & PeterO. I agree this was Vulcan at his best. Very enjoyable puzzle and just right for a Monday. I also picked out PAST TENSE as my fave but it was good fun throughout.

  42. There’s a macabre aspect to DROP as in “hang”. A hangman needs to calculate how long the noose needs to be to avoid either strangulation or decapitation. The calculation involves both the height and weight of the victim. Britain’s last hangman Albert Pierrepoint memorably explained all this on his retirement.

  43. [Roz @36: Oh how I did the hula! I’ve decided to take up a holding midfield role and congrats. I’ve never tried Cyclops, worth a go?]

  47. [AlanC@43 it is set by Brummie , always funny and often outrageous. Once every two weeks in Private Eye , I am sure you could find it on line quite easily . The blogs always on a Monday ]

  48. Muffin@12, I had a whisky-loving friend who, when I offered him a dram, would say “0 aye, I’ll have a wee drop”, and hold up his thumb and forefinger about two inches apart. Kind of like Tyngewick’s father’s gentleman.

    Another excellent Monday puzzle from Vulcan – I especially liked 12, 14 and 16, UNDYED, PAST TENSE and WOWED, each of which made me laugh. Thanks V&PO for the fun.

  51. Fairly straightforward and enjoyable, though as others have mentioned CLOUT was not the only possibility at 17a, but this was easy enough to confirm with the crossing clue.

    Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO (loved the crime wave of drive-by viola recitals 🙂 ).

  52. sh@51, thanks for highlighting PeterO’s crime wave – the best line of the day came in his blog. I have used it already at a carthorse rehearsal.

  53. As a child I remember a little bottle in the medicine cabinet labelled ‘Wart Charmer’ and it always made me think of snakes coming up out of baskets, so that’s one I got easily.

  54. I’ve never heard of Powder Room, the magazine, but surely it’s named after the phrase synonymous with the same meaning of “loo”? Very unsatisfactory if so.

  56. PH @54
    Chambers: magazine a ship’s powder room. That kind of magazine, that kind of (gun)powder.

    PH @55
    X as a mathematical ‘unknown’. Still not the greatest cryptic definition, but perhaps you missed that bit.

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