Phi in his regular Friday slot.
An enjoyable challenge; 23a was new to me but guessable, and I think I’ve worked out everything else except the parsing of 24a (which may be obvious when someone points it out to me). I liked the extended definitions of 9a, 8d and especially 17d, and the long anagram at 15a.
Phi’s puzzles don’t include themes as often as they used to; I imagine that rather than starting with a theme today, he may simply have started with the three very long answers. There’s a link between 15a and 7d; I’d like to think 8d is related somehow but I haven’t been able to find any evidence for that. Thanks Phi as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | BAROQUE |
Bold, vigorous and exuberant old queen coming in naked (7)
|
| O (abbreviation for old) + QU (abbreviation for queen) inserted into BARE (naked). For once, “old queen” isn’t ER and “naked” doesn’t mean dropping the first and last letters of something.
Descriptive of a particular style in art and architecture. |
||
| 9 | LOUTISH |
Uncouth, mostly noisy? This should be corrected (7)
|
| LOU[d] (noisy) without the last letter (mostly), then an anagram (should be corrected) of THIS.
Extended definition perhaps, referring to antisocial behaviour. |
||
| 10 | REMAINDER |
Significant article in Bild to follow about the other material? (9)
|
| MAIN (significant, as in “the main thing”) + DER (a form of the definite article in German, so for example in the German tabloid newspaper Bild), all following RE (about = on the subject of). | ||
| 11 | ENSUE |
Succeed in recalling number in European employment (5)
|
| N (abbreviation for number), inserted into E (abbreviation for European) + USE (as a noun = employment), all reversed (recalling . . .).
Succeed = ensue = follow. |
||
| 12 | ODIUM |
Nothing stupid about university’s reproach (5)
|
| O (zero = nothing) + DIM (stupid), around U (abbreviation for university). | ||
| 13 | INTRINSIC |
Essential in reduced scheme involving insurance (9)
|
| IN + TRIC[k] (scheme, in the sense of something deceptive or underhand) without the last letter (reduced), containing (involving) INS (abbreviation for insurance). | ||
| 15 | PRESTIDIGITATOR |
“God is tripartite” confused one trying to mislead his audience (15)
|
| Anagram (confused) of GOD IS TRIPARTITE.
A performer who uses sleight of hand, especially to do card or coin tricks. |
||
| 18 | RESONANCE |
Rely almost entirely on a new church for sympathetic response (9)
|
| RES[t] (rely) without the last letter (almost entirely), then ON A + N (abbreviation for new) + CE (abbreviation for Church of England).
Sound or vibration in response to something else nearby vibrating at the same frequency. |
||
| 20 | TAROT |
Child comprehending Arabic form of divination (5)
|
| TOT (small child), containing (comprehending) AR (abbreviation for Arabic). | ||
| 21 | DELFT |
Clever when going round large Dutch town (5)
|
| DEFT (clever or skilful), around L (abbreviation for large).
City in the Netherlands, perhaps best known for its history of making pottery. |
||
| 23 | MANICOTTI |
Pasta tubes, wild, outrageous, Italian in origin (9)
|
| MANIC (wild) + OTT (abbreviation for “over the top” = outrageous) + first letter (origin) of I[talian].
Not a variety of pasta I’d heard of, but guessable; there are so many types that I’m quite prepared to believe there are some I’ve never come across. Wikipedia tells me that they’re an Italian-American thing, a bit like cannelloni; the name means “little sleeves”. |
||
| 24 | SEVERAL |
A few always blocking cut in demand (7)
|
| EVER (always), inserted into (blocking) . . . something? Perhaps SAL[e] with the last letter cut, but I can’t see how sale = demand. I also wondered about SEVER = cut, but the rest doesn’t make sense round that. Any better ideas? | ||
| 25 | CHINOOK |
Wind round and round filling small opening (7)
|
| O + O (round and round), filling CHINK (a small opening or crack).
A warm westerly wind in western North America: wet near the coast, drier inland after it’s gone over mountains. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GRUMPINESS |
Pressing awkwardly about sign of hesitation produces ill-temper (10)
|
| Anagram (awkwardly) of PRESSING, around UM (a sound expressing hesitation). | ||
| 2 | SQUIRM |
Question penned by schoolmaster, perhaps: mark making you look embarrassed (6)
|
| QU (abbreviation for question) contained in (penned by) SIR (traditional address to a male teacher), then M (abbreviation for mark, as in the old German currency Deutsche Mark or DM). | ||
| 3 | HEADWIND |
First turn finds something impeding progress? (8)
|
| HEAD (first = most important, as in “head teacher”) + WIND (as a verb, to rhyme with find = turn in a curved path). | ||
| 4 | FLORET |
Part of plant left among trees after spades stolen (6)
|
| L (abbreviation for left), inserted into FORE[s]T (trees) without the S (abbreviation for spades, in playing cards).
An individual flower as part of a larger composite flower. |
||
| 5 | QUIETIST |
Contemplative believer to leave after touring uphill location (8)
|
| QUIT (to leave), around (touring) SITE (location) reversed (uphill = upwards in a down clue). | ||
| 6 | MISS |
Feel nostalgia for half of US state (4)
|
| Half of the US state MISS[ouri]. | ||
| 7 | THREE-CARD TRICK |
Sport for 15 requiring hardly any of the deck? (5-4,5)
|
| Definition and cryptic definition.
Three-card trick = a deception performed by a prestidigitator (15 across). Trick = a group of playing cards taken together during a game; three cards is a small part of a full deck of 52. |
||
| 8 | BIRD OF PARADISE |
Pacific resident initially displayed in a bid for praise, possibly (4,2,8)
|
| First letter (initially) of D[isplayed], in an anagram (possibly) of A BID FOR PRAISE.
Extended definition: male birds of paradise generally have brightly-coloured feathers to attract a mate. |
||
| 14 | SATURATION |
Summer’s initial ripening not at first covering everywhere? (10)
|
| Initial letter of S[ummer], then [m]ATURATION (ripening) without its first letter. | ||
| 16 | TINCTURE |
Medicine, money and time involved in treatment (8)
|
| TIN (slang for money), then T (abbreviation for time) inserted into CURE (a successful treatment).
Medicine in which the active ingredient is dissolved in alcohol. |
||
| 17 | GUERNICA |
Famous painting representing e.g. a primarily calamitous ruin (8)
|
| Anagram (re-presenting = rearranging) of EG + A + first letter (primarily) of C[alamitous] + RUIN.
Extended definition: a painting by Picasso in response to the 1937 bombing of the town of Guernica. |
||
| 19 | NIMBLE |
Active doctor diving into river (6)
|
| MB (abbreviation for doctor, from the Latin name for a “Bachelor of Medicine” degree) inserted into NILE (river in north-east Africa). | ||
| 20 | TOCSIN |
Warning not taken up about feature of several US TV series? (6)
|
| NOT reversed (taken up = upwards in a down clue), around CSI (abbreviation for Crime Scene Investigation: there have been several TV series with this title set in different locations).
An alarm signal, especially one made by ringing a bell. |
||
| 22 | LAVA |
Volcanic material I dropped from use after reflection (4)
|
| AVA[i]L (use, as in “no avail” = no use), reversed (after reflection), with the letter I dropped. |
Crikey, that was chewy! Not the almost-a-Monday Phiday that I was lazily hoping for, but certainly a nice workout to start the day.
The theme for today was having considered lots of correct answers but only mentally pencilling them in, not immediately seeing the parsing or fixating on unfruitful different potential parsing: BAROQUE (slippery def!), ENSUE (convinced that succeeded would be the ‘s’, not the def), RESONANCE (didn’t spot ‘rest on’ for a while), SEVERAL (imagined ‘cut’ referred to SEVER, and still can’t really parse it), CHINOOK (fixated on ‘nook’ being the small opening, and couldn’t quite remember the wind name). Add to that the nho QUIETIST, MANICOTTI, TOCSIN and of course the marvellous PRESTIDIGITATOR, it all made for slow progress.
I had prestidigitator right from the first ‘e’ checker and assuming the final ‘r’, assuming correctly from the surface of THREE/seven/eight-CARD TRICK that we were looking for a table magician. The anagram fodder – all those ‘i’s – left few possibilities for the overall rhythm of the word (which I think reflects well on setters’ choices for anagrams, in general), and I decided that ‘hey presto’ and fingers (digits) was sufficient justification! I confess to having checked it after a while, just to make sure. Consequently, BIRD OF PARADISE came straight afterwards, from the first four checkers. And indeed thank goodness for those three long entries; I’m not sure how much further progress I’d have made without them!
I only got DELFT because it came up the other day here on in the G. LOI was the jorum TOCSIN, after going through the whole alphabet looking for that ‘s’.
No particular favourites today, though GUERNICA would be one for the lovely &lit. I’m just relieved to have made it out alive!
[I’ve had the good fortune to see the Guernica in the Reina Sofía and its mural representation in the town of Guernica in the Basque Country (their historic cultural centre and hence target of Franco’s gruesome invitation to Hitler and Mussolini). A hugely poignant work of art.]
Thanks to Phi for the challenge, and to Quirister for the blog.
Enjoyed this puzzle. Liked 15a which I vaguely knew and Tocsin rang a bell too. think ‘sale’ is correct as in ‘cut price sale’. Thanks Quirister and Phi.
24a SEVERAL – SAL[e] – “It’s in Chambers“: ‘sale …; demand, volume of selling ;…’ (I can’t quite see it, either.)
That meaning of demand is marketing speak. Comes up a lot in the reports I work on. Ugh. I generally try to change it to plain English.
My favourite entry in the CSI series is CSI: Ambleside. Not strictly canonical though.
Ha! I learn from the blog that I had misparsed LOUTISH which I took to be ‘mostly noisy’ = LOUDISH which needs a (minor) correction to get to the solution! It was nice to get the nho QUIETIST and MANICOTTI from the WP and I agree GUERNICA is a lovely construction (for such a poignant word). My only error during the entry of solutions was to put THREE CARD TWIST as a hopeful answer before CHINOOK put me straight.
Thanks Phi and Quirister
Liked the long anagrams which I got quite quickly and gave lots of useful letters. Had to Google a list of pasta to get nho MANICOTTI – is there no end of them. Managed to work out ENSUE from wordplay but had to just bung in SEVERAL without parsing. A typical Phi – quite difficult but always fair. Thanks Phi and Quirister
If there’s a theme I won’t see it as the old brain is exhausted from just completing the puzzle. I only had LOUTISH and MISS until a vague memory sent me in search of synonyms for a conjuror.
A fine collection of words. I especially like the BIRD OF PARADISE. If there’s a Charlie Parker theme it’s got me beaten.
Thanks Phi and Quirister.
This was one where I simply raided my list of interesting-looking words to seed the grid. No overarching theme, therefore.
I have noted before that I have no sense of the difficulty of individual puzzles and no ability to control that, except perhaps by restricting the incidence of anagrams. Perhaps the vocabulary here? (I’ve spent far too much time in the vicinity of economists not to have SALE = DEMAND imprinted in my brain, however odd the usage is in real life.)