Some chewy clues today from Jason . . .
. . . so please comment if I have missed any tricks.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BARONESS |
Checks surrounding only son who sits in the upper house (8)
|
| BARS (checks) around (surrounding) {ONE (only) + S (son)} | ||
| 5 | ACCOST |
Address is a constant expense (6)
|
| A + C (constant) + COST (expense) | ||
| 10 | CAPON |
Restrict playing chicken (5)
|
| CAP (restrict) + ON (playing) | ||
| 11 | RACKETEER |
Blackmailer who serves in court? (9)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring also to racket sports | ||
| 12 | PERFORATE |
A loud lecture’s to bore (9)
|
| PER (a) + F (loud) + ORATE (lecture) | ||
| 13 | TANGO |
Dance beat with oomph (5)
|
| TAN (beat) + GO (oomph) | ||
| 14 | CAMPUS |
College grounds affected by American (6)
|
| CAMP (affected) + US (American) | ||
| 15 | SCRUFFS |
You’re grabbed by by these seedy sorts (7)
|
| Double definition. An extraneous “by” in the definition eluded the editor. | ||
| 18 | OVERSEE |
Disregard old line on Spain (7)
|
| O (old) + VERSE (line) + E (Spain) | ||
| 20 | NECKED |
Miss clutching retro silk is kissed (6)
|
| NEED (miss) around (clutching) KC (silk, i.e., King’s Counsel) reversed (retro) | ||
| 22 | ARISE |
Emerge as a gent about head of Establishment (5)
|
| A + SIR (gent) reversed (about) + first letter of (“head of”) E[STABLISHMENT] | ||
| 24 | ALMA MATER |
Reform must include parent’s term for university? (4,5)
|
| ALTER (reform) around (must include) MAMA (parent) |
||
| 25 | CAFETIÈRE |
Dispenser of drinks in its natural habitat to draw on (9)
|
| CAFÉ (its natural habitat, i.e., a French coffee shop) + TIE (draw) + RE (on) | ||
| 26 | OP ART |
Zero interest for abstract illusions, say (2,3)
|
| O (zero) + PART (interest) | ||
| 27 | DIREST |
Most dreadful senior thief-taker facing furlough (6)
|
| DI (senior thief-taker) + REST (furlough) | ||
| 28 | AS IT WERE |
Kind of sweater I knitted (2,2,4)
|
| Anagram of (knitted) SWEATER I | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BICEPS |
Writer records muscle (6)
|
| BIC (writer) + EPS (records) | ||
| 2 | REPORTAGE |
Gossip’s tantrum about English wine (9)
|
| RAGE (tantrum) around (about) {E (English) + PORT (wine)} | ||
| 3 | NON COMPOS MENTIS |
Rumpole’s potty is unfit to be tried (3,6,6)
|
| Double definition (?) I think this is suggesting that this is a phrase that a barrister might use, referring to Horace Rumpole. | ||
| 4 | SURPASS |
Better gentleman on the radio to go unheeded (7)
|
| Homophone of (on the radio) SIR (gentleman) + PASS (to go unheeded) | ||
| 6 | CREATURE COMFORT |
Material relief from true care with cot being replaced (8,7)
|
| Anagram of (being replaced) [FROM TRUE CARE + COT] | ||
| 7 | OCEAN |
Possibly where canoe struggles? (5)
|
| semi-&lit and anagram of (struggles) CANOE | ||
| 8 | TORTOISE |
Fabulous racer, usually thought slow, to rise to being exchanged (8)
|
| Anagram of (being exchanged) TO RISE TO | ||
| 9 | SCREWS |
Props from special teams who pull together (6)
|
| S (special) + CREWS (teams who pull together) | ||
| 16 | FREE TRADE |
What could be rated? Business without tariffs or the like (4,5)
|
| semi-&lit and anagram: TRADE could be RATED, if allowed to be FREE | ||
| 17 | ROMANCED |
Novel copyright editor courted (8)
|
| ROMAN (novel) + C (copyright) + ED (editor) | ||
| 19 | ERASER |
Sine qua non for unsure writer is an age on series (6)
|
| ERA (age) + SER. (series) | ||
| 20 | NUMBERS |
Painkillers which are not specified to cover colour (7)
|
| N/S (not specified) around (to cover) UMBER (colour) | ||
| 21 | WRITHE |
Twist formal document on high explosive (6)
|
| WRIT (formal document) + HE (high explosive) | ||
| 23 | INFER |
Conclude Hell will exist without drama (5)
|
| INFER[NO] (Hell minus [without] NO [drama]) |
Thanks, Jason and Cineraria!
Enjoyed the puzzle and enjoyed the blog even more. Quite a detailed and neat one.
NON COMPOS MENTIS
My take
potty=eccentric/N C MENTIS (that’s what you meant too in the blog).
Rumpole’s -indicates that the term is British (mainly).
potty (Collins)
British informal
foolish or slightly crazy
The reference is to this, I think.
A good level of difficulty, and quite satisfying. My only head scratch was oversee/disregard — I’d never have thought of them as synonyms.
Thanks Jason & Cineraria.
For ALMA MATER
Couldn’t it be just one MAMA instead of two MAs?
FrankieG@4: Yes, that is a better parsing.
Geoff Down Under@3 OVERSEE- Yes, Jason has deliberately chosen a very old obsolete word for overlook.
‘(obsolete) To fail to see; to overlook, ignore.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene – Thereat the Elfe did blush in priuitee, / And turnd his face away; but she the same / Dissembled faire, and faynd to ouersee.’
FrankieG@4
I agree. Didn’t occur to me.
Cineraria
NO is a TV drama?
No
in British English
or Noh
NOUN
Word forms: plural No or Noh
the stylized classic drama of Japan, developed in the 15th century or earlier, using music, dancing, chanting, elaborate costumes, and themes from religious stories or myths
Thank you FrankieG @6. Indeed, too obsolete for the dictionary I consulted (Collins).
Thanks, ub@8
N C MENTIS works in two ways, I guess.
N C MENTIS is the legal phrase that Horace Rumpole as a lawyer might have used for ‘potty’ (as mentioned in the blog).
Or ‘potty’ is how N C MENTIS will be described in British English (Rumpole being a British representative here).
For 8d, rather than an anagram, it is TO RISE TO with the final TO moved.
Hovis@12
TO +anagram of RISE TO also works. Right?
RISE TO being exchanged: Do we have to read it as R ISE TO being exchanged (ISE and TO swapped)?
Or do you say that TO has to be just moved to another location based on ‘being exchanged’?
I have broken my convention. The above post is in relation to TORTOISE.
Very good one from Jason today. My clue of the day was CAFETIÈRE which took ages to work out; I wondered if the whole clue was the def too, but probably not. The misleading extended def for TORTOISE fooled me as it was meant to and it was my last in. I’m sure it’s obvious, but I still can’t think of an example for which PART could be substituted for ‘interest’.
As icing on the cake, a good puzzle usually has an educational component; today it was REPORTAGE for ‘gossip’.
Thanks to Jason and Cineraria
KVa @13. Indeed. Reading my post @12, I realise I was making it sound more definitive than I meant. I just feel that an anagram misses the cleverness of just exchanging two parts.
WordPlodder @15, I also wondered about ‘part’ and ‘interest’ but didn’t research it any further. I’m sure somebody will clue us in.
OP ART
Found this on dictionary.com
participation, interest, or concern in something; role:
The neighbors must have had some part in planning the surprise party.
Here role and interest are equated. 🙂
KVa@7 & ub@8: For anyone who didn’t know No or Noh – nho, no?
Thanks J&C
😀
For TORTOISE – “to rise to being exchanged”
TO – RISE TO being exchanged (swap RISE and TO) gives the instruction “TO TO RISE”
TO RISE TO -> TO R[TO]ISE – the second TO RISEs to the middle
Does this work?
FrankieG@20
An instruction to create another instruction. Then solve that.
This is not done. 😀
Anyway, TO has to just RISE. ‘To the middle or somewhere else’ is left to the solver.
To be honest, I find your idea very interesting. I am not sure the setter intended the clue
to work this way. Not sure Jason will drop in to clarify a couple of points.
Thanks Jason and Cineraria
‘oversee’ for ‘disregard’ may be archaic, but its derivative OVERSIGHT is a common enough term.
TORTOISE seems simple enough to me. TO/ rise to* would be my note for it, even where ‘being exchanged’ wouldn’t be on my list of preferred anagram indicators.
A very nice puzzle, I thought.
Thanks for the blog, I thought this was really good, TORTOISE seems to work in many ways, a simple anagram of the whole lot is the simplest. Does “Fabulous” mean Aesop and the tortoise and hare story ?
Roz@24: Yes, I took that as the cryptic definition. In the interest of brevity, I tend not to spell out references in the blog (especially those that are readily checked in Chambers), unless I personally find a word or a reference to be particularly obscure, assuming that other solvers’ GK is similar to my own. However, I have seen from the comments (both in the past and on this puzzle) that “GK” is a widely variable commodity, so I have come to rely on the comments to fill in any blanks. Also, I look at the blog as a learning tool, for those who want to develop their solving skills. Certainly, that was true for me. And it’s all new to someone out there.
I think the blog is just right , with around 30 clues you need to be pretty brief. As you say , some clues can be discussed further in the comments.
Thanks Jason. This took some thought but I got there in the end for the most part. I used a word finder to solve CAFETIERE, an unknown word to me and I still couldn’t fully parse it. I also needed the blog to parse NECKED, not knowing KC. DIREST and 3d also went in without full understanding. My top picks were CAPON, AS IT WERE, FREE TRADE, and INFER. Thanks Cineraria for a very useful blog.