Guardian 29,349 – Imogen

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You have a double dose of me this week as sschua is away. In contrast to Monday’s April Fool fun I found this quite tough, but soundly clued so it was all gettable in the end. Thanks to Imogen.

 
Across
1 FILE COPY Send in a column, keeping this for the record? (4,4)
Double definition – a journalist might “file copy” for a column
5 SPRANG Moved suddenly – small accident (6)
S + PRANG
9 RITENUTO Ceremonial procedure by enthusiast, nothing held back (8)
RITE + NUT (enthusiast) + 0. Ritenuto is an instruction that music should slow down or be held back
10 DIVEST Take off before temperature plunges (6)
DIVES (plunges) + T
12 THUCYDIDEAN Without source’s origin, do hack job on duchy instead of historian (11)
Anagram of DUCHY IN[s]TEAD, giving an adjectival form of the Athenian historian Thucydides
15 ISTLE Fibre obtained from mistletoe (5)
Hidden in mISTLEtoe
17 ARGENTINO One American rubbishes ignorant English (9)
(IGNORANT E)*
18 HESITATER Chap has one potato he is about to lose? (9)
HE’S (chap has) + 1 TATER, referring to the proverb “he who hesitates is lost”
19 YAHOO Barbarian cut grass back, round and round (5)
Reverse of HAY (dried cut grass) + O O
20 BOOK OF HOURS Devotional work, one we possess, read aloud (4,2,5)
Homophone of “book of ours”
24 HOODIE Crow adopted by some youths (6)
Double definition – another name for the hooded crow, and a hooded garment
25 BETJEMAN Predict judge is to recall celebrity would-be Slough bomber (8)
BET (predict) + J[udge] + reverse of NAME (celebrity) – a reference to Sir John Betjeman’s lines “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!/It isn’t fit for humans now”
26 DINGHY An inflatable horse, dirty-looking all round (6)
H[orse] in DINGY
27 JAMBOREE Rally postmen, everyone having lost heart (8)
JAMB (post) + OR (other ranks, men) + E[veryon]E
Down
1 FIRST NIGHT When play opens see trees close together across edge of curtain (5,5)
FIRS + [curtai]N in TIGHT (close together)
2 LITMUS TEST Decisive check that may produce basic result? (6,4)
Cryptic definition: a litmus test distinguishes between acids and alkalis or bases
3 CANDY “Charlie,” to his younger brother, is cocaine (5)
C for Charlie + ANDY (version of Andrew, as in King Charles’s younger brother). Cocaine is sometimes called “nose candy”, or just plain candy
4 PETRIFACTION Sort of dish rebellious group, becoming fossils (12)
PETRI [dish] + FACTION (a rebellious group)
6 POIGNANCY Sharp emotion as glutton tours old French city (9)
O[ld] in PIG + NANCY
7 A FEW Some expressing a sigh of relief (1,3)
Homophone of A + “phew!”
8 GUTS Tough character to pull up stallion at the start (4)
Reverse of TUG + S[tallion]
11 BEGGAR’S OPERA Gay piece has garbage prose needing a rewrite (7,5)
(GARBAGE PROSE)* The Beggar’s Opera was written by John Gay
13 HIGH SUMMER Saying hello to adder in August perhaps (4,6)
Homophone of “hi” + SUMMER (one who sums or adds)
14 NO-NONSENSE Impossibility: tin thrown up seen flying down to earth (2-8)
NO-NO (an impossibility) + reverse of SN (chemical symbol for Tin) + SEEN*
16 ESTABLISH Found herbalists’ missing recipe, fancy! (9)
Anagram of HERBALISTS less R[ecipe]
21 HIJAB Cover-up involves some consecutive letters, then some more (5)
The consecutive letters are HIJ and AB
22 CHAD Country cousin initially tricked (4)
C[ousin] + HAD (tricked, as in “you’ve been had”)
23 GOON Shout of encouragement for thug (4)
GO ON!

78 comments on “Guardian 29,349 – Imogen”

  1. Working my way through the across clues first before going down, I was worried this would be a DNF. The down clues slotted in easier, though. I found this tough, but fairly clued. I really liked BETJEMAN and HESITATER. Nothing really caused too much of an issue. Even THUCYDIDEAN wasn’t too hard to get.

    Thanks Imogen and Andrew. Happy Friday everyone.

  2. Thanks Imogen and Andrew
    I enjoyed this one, with favourites RITENUTO, DIVEST, and BEGGARS OPERA. I needed your parsings for CANDY and JAMBOREE.
    Generous to make 12 an obvious anagram, or I would have had no chance!
    Not impressed by “edge of curtain” for N in 1d.
    “Inflatable” is a bit loose for DINGHY. Some dinghies are; lots aren’t – similarly most inflatables aren’t dinghies, even if you restrict it to boats! “Tender” might have been better?

  3. Didn’t think I’d be able to do any of this based on the G comments, but very enjoyable. Only knew of Betjeman from ‘The Office’

  4. I too feared the worst when the first pass through the across clues only yielded 3 answers. The down clues helped, but it was still slow but satisfying progress. Liked 25 when I remembered the reference and 11 when I spotted what Gay was referring to. Pleased to parse 27. The short clues 7 and 23 were my last ones in. Thanks to Andrew for your second very clear exposition this week and to Imogen for the challenge.

  5. Thanks both, this was tough and some of the obscurities were beyond me. Not sure with basic meaning bases or base for 2D (I think base result or even base(line) result would work better). Then again I might be coloured by having bunged in stress test initially.

  6. Oddly enough I found this easier than yesterday’s offering, pace comments in Guardian online, helped by a basic knowledge of music and poetry. ISTLE was a new one, but very clearly clued. Thank you to Imogen for a good workout.
    Failed to work out the connection between Charlie and Andy, I’m afraid, as I could think only of Charlie Brown – who had a sister? Also, and very embarrasingly, failed to parse THUCYDIDEAN and only got it from the crossers. Thanks for the explanations, Andrew.

  7. SimpleS @4
    “Basic” in 2d is fine. If the litmus turns blue, the solution is basic – i.e. contains a base/alkali.

  8. I raised my eyebrows at HESITATER – which is only given as HESITATOR in Chanbers – but no doubt there are other dictionaries which give the alternative spelling, and TATER required the E. But overall a splendid puzzle with much to admire. Thanks to both.

  9. Thanks Muffin @6, I only remembered the term base ever being used, should have checked a bit more.

  10. Enjoyable puzzle and quite tough, so happy I could complete this one.

    New for me: Slough – poem by John Betjeman.

    Favourites: JAMBOREE, ESTABLISH, A FEW, CANDY, RITENUTO.

    New for me: HOODIE = hooded crow (Scottish); ISTLE.

    I could not fully parse 1ac or 12ac apart from anagram of DUCHY in TIDEAN – ah, very clever!

    Thanks, both.

  11. As above I thought this was going to be a long haul – with no across clues in first sweep. But came together very nicely due to good fair cluing. I did like Betjeman.

    Thanks Imogen and Andrew

  12. muffin@2: agreed. I have sailed many dinghies – none of them inflatable. I have been on a number of inflatables (boats) – none of them dinghies. I have slept with a few inflatable pillows, though. So can we clue PILLOW with inflatable? Good thing the word play was so clear. Didn’t know cocaine as CANDY – perhaps I should get out more. I too had very little from the acrosses (DINGHY was one of two, I have to admit): thank goodness for FIRST NIGHT. Thanks, Imogen and Andrew.

  15. I expect Imogen to be chewy, so was pleased when this came together as steadily as this did.

    I’ve seen HOODIEs in Scotland, but it still went in late. BETJEMAN was my first in as that verse came to mind as I read the clue.

    Shirley@14, I didn’t get GUTS either for the same reason, it was my last one in.

    Thank you to Andrew and Imogen.

  16. My bro-in-law’s sister’s very happy in now-suburban Slough, so no bombs please Sir John. Was thinking Brecht for the Opera, but no his people at least had thruppence. And the ancient historian took a bit of lego-ing, but otherwise cruisy, thanks Im and A.

  17. Phew – a grown-up puzzle! Splendidly constructed, with real homophones!

    Many good clues. I’ll second muffin’s selection @2 – the anagram for BEGGARS OPERA is masterful.

    Many thanks to S&B

  18. GUTS
    As in ‘show some GUTS’ or ‘Have the GUTS’, GUTS=tough character seems fine to me.

    COTD: CANDY. Charlie and Andy. Also, To Andy, Charlie doesn’t mean Charles. 🙂
    Loved FIRST NIGHT and HIJAB as well.

    FILE COPY
    Wondering if there is something that we are missing. the second half of the clue seems
    verbose otherwise. File has the meaning of column in another sense. Dunnom if that is
    also in play.

    Thanks Imogen and Andrew!

  19. Delightful to be reminded of that mischievous soul John Betjeman. Who, as well as Slough (1937) came up with the equally acid In Westminster Abbey (1940). If anyone dared to write such stuff nowadays, no doubt they’d get banged up for Glorifying Terrorism or some such nonsense.
    While I love the modern usage of gay (which some say is an acronym for Good As You), it offers a delightful little misdirection for BEGGAR’S OPERA.
    Favourite the immaculate lift-and-separate of JAMBOREE.
    Thanks, both.

  20. Shanne @15: For GUTS, read ‘tough character’ as ‘tough quality’ rather then ‘tough person’.

    Sorry, KVa – you got there first!

  21. No problems except 9 and 12 which I had to solve from the wordplay. Like Neil@19, I thought that the clue for ‘jamboree’ was a corker.

  22. Lovely stuff, except the previously mentioned inflatable which was a bit of a let-down [geddit?]

    Failed on the historian, mainly through missing the anagram.

    Don’t see any problem with FILE COPY. It’s just what a correspondent does, isn’t it?

    Toughie but goodie from Imogen this morning. Many thanks, both.

  23. Very enjoyable and got some words I didn’t know, ISTLE and THUCYDIDEAN, because the clues were very fair. Thank you Imogen. Andrew, thank you so much for going above and beyond this week. I needed your help with some of the parsing. Hard to choose a favourite but will go with JAMBOREE because it’s such a lovely word. Happy weekend everyone 😎🎇🎆

  24. An excellent workout with top marks for DIVEST, BEGGARS OPERA, BETJEMAN, JAMBOREE, HIJAB and the poignant CANDY. Also chuffed to have worked out RITENUTO and THUCYDIDEAN from the generous wordplay. Always guaranteed to educate.

    Ta Imogen & Candrew.

  25. Had the same Eh? as muffin@2 and TT@12 re dinghy, which to me means a small craft, traditionally clinker-built, with rowlocks and oars, whereas inflatable, although nicknamed rubber ducky, means power-driven rapid response boat, often quite big.

  26. ‘A grown-up puzzle’ (Gervase @19) – I like it! Fortunately all the necessary GK was well within my various comfort zones and I really enjoyed the wit and erudition on display. And, like others, I thought JAMBOREE was brilliant.

    It was nice to see Nancy clued as a French town for once, rather than an indicator of a French usage (although I always like to see that, too) and I grinned at the ‘Gay piece’ in 11dn – reminiscent of the more familiar ‘More work’ for Utopia. I was also amused by the neatly hidden definitions for NO-NONSENSE and ESTABLISH – lovely surfaces for both – lovely surfaces all round, in fact.

    A really absorbing and satisfying puzzle – many thanks to Imogen and to Andrew for a super blog (you were lucky with this swap, I think. 😉

  27. A careful journalist would type up his column on carbon paper, then file – ‘2. (transitive) To submit (a story) to a newspaper or similar publication.’…
    …his copy – ‘3 (journalism) The text that is to be typeset.’ in time to be printed,..

  29. Unlike Eileen @26 much of the GK was firmly outside my comfort zone but the wordplay was good enough to get me through. Admittedly with a bit of trial and error for the historian!

    Top ticks for RITENUTO, JAMBOREE & NO NONSENSE

    Solid if unspectacular?

    Cheers A&I

  31. My “comment is awaiting moderation.” @27, so @28 doesn’t make sense, Here it is again without links
    A careful journalist would type up his column on carbon paper, then file – ‘2. (transitive) To submit (a story) to a newspaper or similar publication.’…
    …his copy – ‘3 (journalism) The text that is to be typeset.’ in time to be printed,..
    …and keep the carbon as a file copy. in his filing cabinet, in case the original gets lost. (All very old-fashioned) Thanks I&A
    [When this happens the @numbers go wrong]

  33. I missed the ”obvious” anagram THUCYDIDEAN as I missed the novel anagrind ”do hack job” , which I like now I’ve seen it. Perhaps if I had an inkling of the answer I might have seen the anagrist more clearly and worked back.
    Favourites BEGGAR’S OPERA and NO-NONSENSE.

  34. me@18
    FILE COPY
    Wondering if there is something that we are missing. the second half of the clue seems
    verbose otherwise. File has the meaning of column in another sense. Dunno if that is
    also in play.

    The def is clear and good. The rest of the clue seems to be made up for achieving a better surface.
    record=FILE COPY. No? The ‘keeping this for the record’ part of the clue seems to add more plasticity to the clue.
    (a file as a column of soldiers: Now I think this sense is just not considered by the setter & I was imagining things!).
    [Read your post @30 FrankieG]

  35. Much praise for JAMBOREE but I have never heard anyone referring to a door jamb as a door post.
    Loved the poet and the potato.
    Thanks AI

  36. A satisfying solve, with some real stumpers. Particularly enjoyed THUCYDIDEAN and RITENUTO.

    Thanks Imogen!

  37. Classy & fun – as Gervase@17 put it, “a grown-up puzzle” – with lots of wit, some beautifully succinct clues & delicious anagrams. (Beggars’ Opera = garbage prose? Poor old Gay!)
    Thanks also to Andrew for a fine blog.
    BETJEMAN & THUCYDIDEAN in a non-prize crossword? Go, Imogen!!

  38. 6 down brought back some poignant memories of when we used to visit Mrs B’s friend and colleague NANCY in the house she had in Lumigny-Nesles-Ormeaux. It was in the days before satnav, but navigation from Paris was a doddle — we just followed the signs to NANCY until we reached the turnoff…

  39. Thanks for the blog, tough and very enjoyable, hard going to cold solve but once I put the Downs in , the letters were very helpful . The Playtex for postmen is a very good spot, I know RITENUTO from RIT which often turns up in wordplay. Some impressive anagrams today and the lack of a theme is very welcome, like Tuesday.

  42. “Hoodie” my last one in, and only as a guess, since I had never heard of either usage. But this was easier for me than yesterday’s from Paul. Slow and steady with words that I don’t drop into casual conversation. I found my self humming songs from The Beggar’s Opera, which for some reason my high school staged a million years ago.

  43. Gates have posts, doors have jambs, but I’m sure there’s a long and possibly varied nomenclature history of such.

  44. From the Cambridge Online Dictionary
    “doorpost
    noun [ C ] mainly UK
    UK /ˈdɔː.pəʊst/ US /ˈdɔːr.poʊst/
    (US usually doorjamb)
    one of the two vertical posts on either side of an opening into which a door fits”

  45. Compared with yesterday, this was quite dour, but I suppose there is no requirement that the setter make us laugh.

    In JAMBOREE, the “heart of everyone” was “veryon”. Well, that’s everything but the skin, but it just feels like heart should be more inner, like “ry”.

  46. Dr WhatsOn @44: Speak for yourself. I find Gay’s work anagrammatised as ‘garbage prose’ far more amusing than Paul’s crude slapstick of yesterday 🙂

  47. [Thucydides is best remembered for the Siege of Melos and The Melian Dialogue (dramatisation of the negotiations).
    ‘The treatment of the Melians is sometimes considered an example of genocide in the ancient world.’]

  48. A tough work-out but very satisfying to solve and unpick the various and varied knots.

    BETJEMAN was great as were JAMBOREE and HESITATER.

    Thanks Imogen and Andrew

  49. Found this very tough too. Thought I’d done quite well to complete all but the NW corner, even though I didn’t know that BETJEMAN reference. However I had rather impetuously inserted FIRST Scene instead of NIGHT at 1d, so that rather clouded things. Not sure whether I would have got RITENUTO or THUCYDIDEAN even with a clearer run at things, so a DNF, though I enjoyed the struggle up till then. Thought JAMBOREE excellent, suddenly came to me while in the small room during a brief break in proceedings…

  50. As I recall, even by the 1880s Slough was considered unattractive: Jerome K. Jerome dismisses it rapidly in Three Men in a Boat, and passes quickly on to more attractive Thames-side towns.

  51. A grown up crossword is a good description: seriously difficult in places but fairly clued and free of silliness, themes and assorted clever-dickery. I liked it, even if I couldn’t for the life of me think of A FEW. ISTLE was new but couldn’t be much else. Loved the definitions for the man about to lose, the would-be Slough bomber and the Gay piece. And two unimpeachable homophones in HIGH SUMMER and BOOK OF HOURS. A nice finish to the week.

  52. Thanks Andrew, like many above I was initially despairing of making much progress (not unlike yesterday) but here the solid wordplay was a big help on the several unfamiliar or well-disguised definitions – i think Imogen has misdirection down to a fine art eg the “he is about” in 18a – luckily I don’t know a particular word to describe a man with one potato, so that didn’t delay me too long, but others did. Thanks Imogen, special mention for the small but perfectly formed (hanging but not hanging!) CHAD.

  54. Went steadily through this, didn’t get HOODIE, so DNF, but got all the homophones, which after yesterday’s disaster was good. ISTLE was a new word I learnt.
    Thank you to Imogen and Andrew

  55. Tough. Totally stymied by NW corner. Had File TYPE instead of COPY, meaning CANDY was impossible for me. No chance with RITENUDO either. And for bonus points, A FEW also eluded me. Thanks Imogen and Andrew.

  56. Thanks Imogen and Andrew. I found this puzzle a challenge, but very satisfying to solve such elegant clues. I hadn’t been able to parse THUCYDIDEAN or JAMBOREE, and had forgotten school chemistry (basic), so thank you Andrew for the explanations. Among others, I liked RITENUTO, BETJEMAN, NO NONSENSE, POIGNANCY, HIJAB, CANDY.

  57. Me too Nudge@54. Pretty much what I was about to say. Unfortunately my knowledge of Athenian historians is absolutely zip, even though I could see the anagram.
    Thanks to Imogen for some fun solving and to Andrew for sorting out my head scratchers.

  58. Excellent puzzle.
    12ac made me smile; I remember slogging through Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War for ‘O’ level Greek Lit.

  59. All is fair in crosswords for me, but sometimes using a word to signify its first letter looks far fetched. Here I’d never have guessed that “recipe “ clues “r”.

  62. Dellers @58: As Roz says. ‘Recipe’ is the Latin imperative: take! – it was once the opening word of an apothecary’s instructions, before the list of ingredients

  63. “R” is occasionally just clued by “take” without further explanation. You are expected to know all about old-fashioned prescriptions in Latin. Baffled me (and many others) the first time I encountered it. Is the Rx convention commoner in other parts of the world than it is in the UK, as I have never seen it here in real life?

  65. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who ground to halt in the top left, eventually revealing all three of THUCYDIDEAN, RITENUTO and CANDY…. two words and a definition that were new to me there. Thanks for the parsing of JAMBOREE, but shouldn’t there have been a space, or perhaps a hyphen, between “Post” and “Men” in the clue? As JAMBOR certainly does not mean postmen!

  66. Thucydides is often called ‘the father of history’ – suitably patriarchal for his heavy style: Herodotus is far more interesting (gives many voices in a text – cf Bakhtin – where T just has the one ponderous intonation).

  67. HoagyM @64
    It’s called “lift and separate”. Look out for this trick. I didn’t see this one!

  68. I’ve never heard of BETJEMAN but I loved the poem! HOODIE had me totally flummoxed and I thought the cluing was a bit unfair: I’m 60 years old and love my raspberry hoodie. It keeps my old bald head nice and warm.

  69. Gladys@62: R with a dash through the “right foot” is still used for “Recipe” in handwritten prescriptions in the UK, as far as I know, but Rx is easier to type.

  71. BlueDot @67
    I’ve never heard of BETJEMAN but I loved the poem!

    I’m guessing that you’re not a UK solver.
    From his Wiki entry:
    “Sir John Betjeman, CBE (/ˈbɛtʃəmən/; 28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, helping to save St Pancras railway station from demolition. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television.”

    I’m a great admirer – I enjoyed a brief span of teaching his poetry for O Level English Literature and always look forward to a reading, somewhere or other, of his “Christmas” https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493411-Christmas-by-Sir-John-Betjeman

    One of the delights of my visits to London is revisiting his statue
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_John_Betjeman
    on my arrival at the wonderful St Pancras station and having a drink or two before departure home in the Betjeman Arms, where I can almost imagine him walking in.

  72. I had a look online: the Rx symbol seems to be a feature of US prescriptions, but the standard NHS form here doesn’t use it at all.

  73. 8d. I’ve only ever heard of a GUTS as meaning a greedy person, though obviously a tough character has guts.
    Thanks to Imogen for a well-crafted puzzle and to Andrew for the blog.

  75. Canberra Girl@74
    I think there’s a difference between a tough character and a tough characteristic but reluctantly accept KVa suggestion at 18a that “have the tough character” could be a substitute for “have the guts” (to).

  76. Several comments favourably compared today’s homophones to yesterday’s puns. As the cliché goes, personally I like a good pun, and I like a bad pun better.

    Thanks Petert@53 and Eileen@71 for the Auden and Betjeman poetry links. They added immensely to my enjoyment of this puzzle.

    And thanks of course to Imogen and Andrew for the excellent crossword and very helpful blog.

  77. Well, a lot of DNF for me, but that’s why I love the deuce-and-a-quarter*, all is clear now. I think if I had connected the “of” in “of historian” I might have been better off in the northwest, but I didn’t so I wasn’t.

    What I did get was a lot of fun, though. The shorties like GOON HIJAB AFEW and YAHOO so concise and clever. I am a Yank so Betjeman is news to me but I did guess and check him correctly since the wordplay resolved so clearly.

    I had no idea how to parse the lift ‘n separate in JAMBOREE but I couldn’t see what else it could be once HIJAB locked it in.

    Thanks to better & slogger for yeoman service. Onward & upward!

    * car nut slang for the Buick Electra 225 here across the pond. I can recommend the two rocking versions of “Deuce and a Quarter Ain’t no Cadillac” by Keith Richards and friends, and Kevin Gordon.

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