Guardian Quiptic 1,311/Picaroon

41 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,311/Picaroon”

1. Excellent Quiptic – very enjoyable and I think it is perfect for beginners.

2. Thanks Picaroon and Pierre.

   In 9A, why does DIE mean long?

3. Really liked this and was able to complete quickly (for me). In the spirit of my cryptic re-education: a question re 23; I was always taught that black is not in itself a colour but is the absence of colour. Is this not the case in crosswordland? I think “French Artist dealing with darkness in France” would be more accurate (or possibly even “…with a cinematic genre…” better still though possibly a bit tough for Quiptic?).
   Thanks Picaroon and Pierre

4. schizophoenix @2 Think of “longing to” and “dying to” being effectively synonymous. I took it as a back-formation from there. It gave me some pause as well but it probably just scrapes in as acceptable.

5. Thanks, Graham. ‘I’m dying to see Jane again/I’m longing to see Jane again’ covers it, I think. In Crosswordland, ‘mass’ and ‘weight’ are used as synonyms, so I think black definitely qualifies as a colour …

6. A lovely Quiptic. SIESTA and THE SHINING had smooth surfaces with amusing imagery and were my favourites this week. I thought UNDERLINING was a bit jarring and was the least satisfying clue.

   Thank you very much to Pierre and Picaroon.

7. Graham, Pierre. There are often discussions on here concerning the “misuse” of scientific terms such as work, power, energy. More often than not, such words are used differently in everyday language, so Crosswordland gets away with the everyday usage.

8. Loved this week’s quiptic – I felt it was pitched at just the right level as I could get the majority on my first or second pass and then had a couple of chewier bits towards the end for stretching the skillset.

   Thanks to Picaroon and Pierre!

9. Thanks Picaroon and Pierre
   Nice Quiptic, but perhaps a bit too easy? I found yesterday’s Quick Cryptic harder, which is probably not the intention.
   “Is required” in 13a jarred.

10. Really enjoyed this. Had to ponder a few clues but the lightbulb moments were worth the effort. I didn’t immediately see the parsing with some clues, including 10a and 2d, and with 18a I thought at first that ‘adapting’ was the anagrind not ‘cuckoo’. Still, a very satisfying puzzle. Thanks Picaroon and Pierre.

11. 11a – how does BETA = another?

    23a – where does RE come from?

12. muffin @9 – I know I took longer to solve this Quiptic than I did the Quick Crossword. I also thought solving it that it was accessible to the new solvers who’ve just started with Quick Cryptics and the Quiptic puzzles, using tricks that have been taught in those puzzles for the most part, with some new twists – like the French in RENOIR and NAPOLEON.

    Thank you to Pierre and Picaroon (who set 60 puzzles for the Guardian last year, across different formats).

13. 15d – where does OF come from?

14. Steffen @11 – BETA is another Greek letter (in the clue).

    RE is business jargon meaning referring to, on, dealing with – and gets used in that way in crosswordese.

    OF = from – cheeses of/from France

15. Shanne @12
    There was one clue yesterday (25) where I needed all the crossers and still some time staring!

16. Thank you.

    Tricky for me.

17. Wonderful. Some really great clues -the panda, the insect, Napoleon and I even missed the siesta at first.
    Thanks Picaroon , and Pierre

18. I too had slight question marks (if a question mark can be slight) over DIE = long and BETA = another, but both have been dealt with in the comments, so all’s good there as far as I’m concerned.

    I thought this was lovely, for once it was over perhaps a little too quickly for me but I’ll take that over the times when I’ve struggled or even given up with quiptics where they’ve clearly been miscategorised.

19. Consistently accessible and perfectly clued. Don’t know how he does it but I’m glad he does. THE SHINING and LEGISLATION were delightful.

    Ta Picaroon & Pierre.

20. Another lovely quiptic from Picaroon. I was tripped up in a couple of places, not recognizing CUCKOO as an anagrind, and also spent too much time trying to play with Beijing, when I have done enough of these by now that I should pick up what CAPITAL is pointing us to!. Many thanks Pierre.

21. This puzzle marks a fun milestone for my wife and me. We were introduced to the Quiptic a few years ago by some friends. We tried a few, but we didn’t get fully hooked until July 2021 (quiptic 1129). That’s when we made a dedicated effort to work our way back through time, all the way to the beginning of the Quiptics. We reached number 1 in July of this year, and we started moving forwards through time again. Last week we finally caught up to 1310. Today’s puzzle 1311 is the first one we’ve done on the day it was released, with all the rest behind us.

    We averaged approximately a puzzle a day over the last three and a half years. There were some weeks where we didn’t do any, and other stretches where we did several in a day. We relied a lot on the Fifteensquared bloggers and community to help us find our feet. (We’ve particularly enjoyed Pierre’s commentary and bird photos! Hectence has long been our favourite setter, and we always relish an Arachne.)

    Fifteensquared’s coverage of the Quiptic started with puzzle 562 in 2010, so for the earlier ones we were on our own. Fortunately we’d got the hang of them by then, and we didn’t need much extra help. Inspired by Fifteenquared, we briefly entertained the notion of doing a blog of own to back-fill the solutions and parsings, but we were going through the puzzles so quickly that we didn’t have time to keep up.

    Now that we’ve reached a point where we don’t have a backlog of Quiptics to keep us busy, we’ve started to do the Grauniad daily cryptics. The Quiptics — and Fifteenquared — have been a fantastic warmup for us. We managed to get through most of this week’s puzzles, and we’re just three clues short of finishing yesterday’s Prize crossword. This has grown into a beloved hobby for us. Leaving comments on ten-year-old blog posts would be weird, but now that we’re up to date, you might find us in the comments here occasionally.

    Thanks to Pierre for blogging this puzzle, and to Picaroon for setting it!

22. That’s a lovely story about your journey with the Quiptics, Sunpig, and congratulations on finally catching up with yourself going backwards with no. 1,311.

    Thanks for the compliments about Fifteensquared – it’s good to know that we’ve helped you along the way. When I was going through the Quiptic back catalogue, I always used to enjoy an Arachne too – she was one of the setters that Hugh Stephenson ‘recruited’ to start the whole thing back in 1999. Hectence was one of the others who started compiling them back then, too.

23. I add to the praise for this puzzle. Concise clues, with great surfaces throughout – I really enjoyed it. THE SHINING was my standout clue

    Thanks Picaroon and Pierre

24. Thoroughly delightful way to spend a snowy Sunday afternoon. Thanks Picaroon and Pierre. A little sorry there were no birds for a Pierre picture!!

25. Another stellar offering by Picaroon. Exceptional surfaces throughout with enough misleading details for some challenge. Bravo, again.

    [Steffen@16: Please don’t despair! Do try today’s Everyman – it feels quite accessible, and you’re on your own with it, without checks and this blog, until next Sunday.]

    Thank you, Picaroon and Pierre

26. I thought this was a great offering. A good mix of clues. Some I got straight away but had to make a second or third pass to complete. A good mix of clues types with some chewier bits to prep people for the main crossword. Anyone who did well on this and last weeks should definitely give Monday’s crossword a shot

    I thought there were some great surfaces and is great to see that effort is being put into these by the setters. There were two or three really good anagrams.

    As someone who has worked there way through the quick and Quiptic into the main crossword I think these are great stepping stones to that as well as being great puzzles in their own right.

    Very impressed with both as well as the accompanying blog.

27. Pitched perfectly for me although I still needed help here to parse some. Very satisfying on this cold wet weekend ( fortunately no snow here). Lovely to read the cryptic journey from sun pig @21. I only started quiptics when the quick cryptic was published so maybe I’ll work my way backwards. I can usually do Everyman (next up !) but not yet confident with weekly cryptics.
    As always thanks to Picaroon for an excellent crossword and Pierre ( with contributors) on this blog.

28. Have admitted defeat at 69% completion. Some great clues. Now I’m going to check out those I couldn’t work out! Love Picaroon’s crosswords. Something to get teeth into.

29. Now I’ve read Pierre’s analysis, realise how close I came to parsing the remainder. Thanks Pierre!

30. Really enjoyed this Quiptic. Felt it was very accessible for those of us who’ve been learning the arts of crosswordland via the Saturday Quick Cryptics. Liked SunPig@21‘s story, as I’ve been going through the back catalogue of Quiptics but not to the depth they have yet. Too many great clues to mention in this puzzle, Picaroon is tops – thanks. And thanks Pierre for your blog post.

31. Nicely pitched for beginners but also enjoyable by experienced solvers. Picaroon pitches his puzzles nicely for the target ‘audience’; simple here, challenging but accessible as Buccaneer in the FT and rather more challenging as Rodriguez in the Indy. Thanks, Picaroon and Pierre.

32. @ schizophoenix when you’re longing for say a piece of pie, you’re like “dying” to eat it or hunger for it- right?
    So, you long for something or you’re dying for something that’s why “DIE” is part of the clue.

    @ Sunpig what a wonderful story. Love it.

    Was a wonderful easy grid. Loved it! I’m definitely getting much better now.

33. A pleasant start to a Monday. Thanks both.

34. I found this quite difficult. It took me ages to get going and then once they started going in I struggled my way to the point where there were 3 that defeated me: RENOIR (NHO), IMPLICIT (unfamiliar with the word licit) and ADONIS (fair enough, should have got that).

    The only one I got without understanding was DIVINE, but the DIE=LONG issue has already been explained in the comments. Got stuck on 8d for ages because though I had correctly parsed french article, I’d completely forgotten about UN and instead was desperately trying to make LE or LA fit.

    Thanks Pierre and Picaroon.

35. Perfect quiptic, I think. Found the SW a bit trickier, but got there without too much trouble. Everything straightforward to parse (for me), and no ambiguous clueing.

    I think INSECT was my favourite clue — very nice, clean wordplay, with a slightly concealed definition.

    Muffin@9: Personally, I don’t think there’s any such thing as a quiptic that’s “too easy” as long as all the cryptic requirements are being met (not that I think every quiptic should be as easy as possible). There are many places to go for harder crosswords, but nowhere to go that’s easier (you could say that the quick cryptic on Saturday now fills that brief, but I think that’s more explicitly a pedagogical exercise as much as it is a puzzle — I may be wrong!).

36. As a beginner and follower of the quick cryptic series I found this difficult. I regularly solve the quiptic’s and for me this was one of the most difficult to date. Saturdays quick was a breeze compared to this.
    Having said all this, I solved everything but the only record set was probably for the longest solve ever 🙂
    Thanks all for keeping me occupied on a very blustery day.

37. Enjoyed this, and I’d happy to say I’ve improved to where I’m ready to graduate past quiptics and Mondays. I’m not sure how the difficulty changes through the week however, are Tuesdays the easiest of the next 4? I nearly completed and enjoyed Ludwig’s one last Thursday on a recommendation, so I’m not sure which ones I should do next.

38. Glad to hear you enjoyed this one, Eddie. If you are ready to move on to something a little more demanding, then the non-Monday Guardian offerings are the place to go, and of course Everyman if you haven’t tried that already. I don’t think there is a pattern to the rest of the Guardian week – try them all, see what setters you get on with and which you find trickier. And if you can’t finish one, don’t be too disheartened: even experienced solvers will still come across one that they struggle to complete (in a sensible amount of time, anyway).

    Bon voyage et bon courage.

39. Thanks Picaroon and Pierre. I’m really addicted to the Quiptics now and definitely beginning to get the hang of it. This one was great and made me feel very proud of myself, as, apart from the south west corner, I sailed through the rest. I’m going back to some of the earlier ones but incredibly impressed with Sunpig and Mrs Sunpig. What a crossword marathon!

40. 24A could easily have been A DON IS and collapsed to “an academic’s handsome chap” I think. But perhaps i have different priorities to picaroon

41. Excellent Quiptic and blog, thanks both.

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