Guardian Quiptic 1,313/Chandler

38 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,313/Chandler”

1. The right level for me! With a few write ins for encouragement and some that needed considerable headscratching. Lassitude and leanest were the last in. Never heard the word anecdotage. Thank you chandler and Pierre.

2. I found this week’s quiptic enjoyable and a bit stretching in places, so I would agree with your thoughts above Pierre. I had trouble in particular with the SW corner but found some of the answers very enjoyable.

   Thanks to Chandler and Pierre for the fun start to my Sunday 🙂

3. Also, can’t believe I am the first commenter, after 9. Has something happened?

4. Excellent Quiptic, very enjoyable.

   Favourite: AT HEART.

   I wasn’t sure how to parse 3d – the bone-shaped biscuit bit of it.

   Thanks, both.

5. Enjoyable Quiptic, thanks Chandler & Pierre. Liked 2d, also found 3d a bit odd.

6. That took longer than today’s Everyman puzzle. Agree that 3d was a bit strange. Thanks to both.

7. Thank you Pierre for the blog and the dunnock link – my favourite bird. They are regularly in our garden, and as you say secretive, quiet and totally unostentatious. House SPARROWs are so noisy and gregarious in comparison.
   Thanks to Chandler too.

8. This was fun with a couple of juicier pieces such as BUTLER. I want TREAT to be something to do with “[I wont] stand for [it]” and “T-[bone (steak)]” but I can’t make it work.

   I didn’t like CUSTODY so much because I think the two definitions are basically the same; “in custody” in the sense of “in detention” is the same meaning essentially as (e.g. a child) being “in one’s charge/custody”.

   I do have to comment on LEANEST; I’m afraid I’m one of those who’ll have no truck with it. Pierre says that “‘Very …’ as a marker for the superlative is common in crosswords […]”, but happily I don’t see it very often. There’s no justifiable way that it works. We’ve had discussion on here a couple of times in the last few months about “extremely”, which does just about work if we interpret “extremely lean” cryptically as “at the extreme of things which are lean; leanest”. But “very” lends itself to no such cryptic interpretation and of course fails the substitution test in that there’s no phrase in which “very lean” and “leanest” can be interchanged preserving meaning without needing to otherwise modify the phrase.

   But aside from that it was a fair and enjoyable puzzle. Thanks both!

9. As others have said, that was a meatier Quiptic, but all fair. I thought the south half of this week’s Everyman was a bit tougher too.

   I was also dubious about 3d and needed a check to ensure I had it correct. When I checked thesaurus.com, it does give “stand” as a strong match for “treat”, so that’s tucked away now in case it comes up in the future. Favourites were BUTLER and DIALECT.

   Thanks both for a nice weekend diversion.

10. 3d lots of dog treats are bone-shaped biscuits

11. I thought it was at the tougher end of the category, but a decent puzzle. The SE corner went in quite rapidly, much of the rest was more resistant. I think now Picaroon has gone/is going, then I’m bracing myself for some variance in terms of what we get from the setters for this slot.

12. I think that in ordinary speech you can substitute “most” for “very”, so it is most acceptable in crosswordese, and grammatically justifiable. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it – it still grates on me for no particular reason.

    We did like this puzzle, however, so thanks Chandler and Pierre for the fun and feathers.

13. I thought that this was at the tougher end of quiptic range, the lower part was plain sailing but I needed a nights sleep and a fresh head to crack to top half with the help of crossers and a few checks. Thanks Pierre.

14. Cellomaniac@12, setters must clue definitions using semantic equivalence, and so cannot employ transitivity in that way (very lean – most lean – leanest). Dog means phone, and phone means ring, but setters cannot clue dog as ring nor vice versa!

15. Enjoyable and very approachable. I most liked CUSTODY, and RIDER, whilst GET IN ON THE ACT was special – a great anagram and good surface.

    I also feel very slim is not the same as LEANEST.

    Thanks Chandler and Pierre

16. A nice Quiptic except for 13a. I dislike the convention of bunging in any old women’s/scotsmen’s/boys’ names as fodder.
    [P.S. I spotted the spoonerism in today’s Everyman , pleasedest😁]

17. Interesting that the two clues I struggled with most (and ended-up having to reveal) were clues that came in for some criticism: CUSTODY and LEANEST. I was still baffled by TREAT even when I had the answer! Otherwise there was much to enjoy here and I felt well-chuffed to have completed this in one day.

18. I had to reveal CUSTODY but got all the rest. Agree that it’s a little questionable, but that might be sour grapes, and I might have felt differently if we had the C rather than the U as the first checked letter.

    The SW was meaty but I feel a sense of satisfaction for completing them. BUGLER is the sort of thing I know I need to improve on to step up a level, but gave a lot of avenues to puzzle through before the penny dropped.

    Some very nice charades in here, especially DIALECT and I DARE SAY.

    Thanks, everyone!

19. Quick start, slow finish. LASSITUDE and BUTLER gave me particular trouble. Certainly on the tough side for a quiptic.

    I had TREAT as a cryptic definition, picturing a dog standing on its hind legs for a biscuit. Good to be corrected. Didn’t put it in until I had the crossers though.

    Liked SWATHE, DIALECT, ADULATION and REPUBLICAN.

    Enjoyable puzzle. Both this and Everyman were a good mix of simple(r) and brain melting clues today. Thanks Pierre and Chandler.

20. ADULATION needed crossers, as LAUDATION, though less common, also fits the definition.

21. [Pierre re birds
    It’s very odd. We have several dunnocks in our garden, but we very rarely see sparrows, despite them being common 100yds down the road and also up the road. Most of the time our commonest birds are goldfinches, though for a few months last winter, siskins were commonest.]

22. Bottom half was very well pitched I felt, but the top half less so, although 10a was my first one in. Didn’t like CUSTODY, that was my last one in. I had it from crossers and ‘in detention’ but couldn’t make ‘charge’ fit but from the blog can now see where it was coming from. Although Dictionary.com has ANECDOTAGE it’s not a word I’ve seen used before but the word play was fine for it so perhaps no quibble. I’ve no beef with the ‘very’ in 18d but my personal peeve is clueing ‘no good’ for NG in 8d.
    Thanks Chandler and Pierre.

23. I’m glad people had the same issues as me. I got CUSTODY from the crossers and because I could see it meant detention. Couldn’t really see what it had to do with charge, though.
    Similarly, it had to be TREAT with those crossers and I could see the Bonios but not the stand. DDs are my least favourite clues after Spoonerisms
    I figured out LEANEST too but I think it was my LOI. I’m not overly upset about the equivalence between very and the superlative but I understand others’ gripes.
    So, a fun Quiptic but not without its chewy bits.

24. Like most I commenters so far found this on the hard side for a Quiptic, way tougher then the Everyman, and I think a true beginner would struggle with it. But maybe having had Picaroon in the slot so much we’ve all just got too used to his style. I also agree with others’ comments about 1,3 & 18, all of them a bit of a stretch. All that said I enjoyed the solve so thanks to Chandler & Pierre.

25. I didn’t get any of the double definitions, so I guess I need to look out for that type of clue in future. I didn’t get LEANEST either, so I’m relieved that others struggled with that one.

    For 20d, isn’t the “WN” the first letters of “wander nervously”, not just “wander”? Nb I got this one from the crossers but needed Pierre’s explanation to understand the clue.

26. I had to reveal SWATHE and LEANEST – I forgot that “coat” can indicate to take the outer letters. This was a fun and fair Quiptic, and IMO very well-done for the slot. Enough anagrams to help with crossers and no particularly difficult tricks.

    I’m also not a big dog fan, Pierre – there are dozens of us! I also like the dunnock – they’re regular visitors at my allotment and I’ve been very fond of them ever since reading a description calling them a “rather drab bird” – no they’re not, they’re charming!

    Thanks to Chandler for the puzzle and Pierre the blog.

27. Dave@20 re 20d: that’s what I said in the blog.

28. Two quibbles besides CUSTODY. A MILITIA can just as easily be on the
    side of the government in power as against it, and I have only heard ANECDOTAGE as a jocular term for old age/dotage, the age at which one tends to repeat anecdotes.

29. I didn’t parse 3dn (TREAT): like others, I was trying to make “bone-shaped” be one of the Ts as in T-bone, and I didn’t see the definition “Stand”, although it makes perfect sense in hindsight.

    I’m in the camp of those who don’t like “very” to indicate a superlative: I’ve been the youngest person at a number of gatherings recently (e.g., concerts of classical music), but I assure you that I’m not very young. But I accept it as a crossword convention.

30. Way too hard for me. Struggled with SW and NE corners. Only about 60% complete. So many clues I had no idea, 18D, 28A, 17A, 7D, 13A, 1A. Not enough answers to give me crossers. Cryptics are a tough ride. You think you’re getting somewhere just to get kicked in the teeth and dragged back down again like today. But I never give up!!

31. Most enjoyable, crossword and blog alike, thank you Chandler and Pierre (despite the cynophobia). I’m also confused when it comes to using ‘very’ as a superlative indicator in crossword clues; a superlative serves a lovely poetic purpose when it denotes ‘very’ rather than ‘most’, eg “They’ve got the leanest figure, I don’t know how they stay upright in the wind!” But you couldn’t substitute ‘very lean’ for ‘leanest’ without changing ‘the’ to ‘a’.

32. Way above my level of ability I’m afraid. I got absolutely nowhere with this, a measly 9 clues, 3 of which I got without understanding. Lots of words I’d either never heard of or with meanings I’d never heard of.

    Thanks Pierre and Chandler.

33. Finally completed with no reveals which I am pleased with, although alot unparsed or new words like LASSITUDE. I’m curious if anyone knows the origin of the SP abbreviation for special. Thanks for the blog.

34. [Eddie @33
    My wife’s godfather was delighted when the suit he bought was labelled “SP”, for “special”, he thought. He was less pleased when he was told that it actually stood for “Short, Portly”.]

35. Peter@30 and oh no computer@32, never give up and keep coming here for help from our bloggers like Pierre here and the community. Such a good resource for learning the crossword solving art.

36. [muffin@34, loved that little anecdote 😂]

37. Finally finished it after my third day going back to it. Most of it was the right level though I had to check TREAT. But the SW was just impossible. I’ve never heard of LASSITUDE and although I got the fodder I needed the crossers for 17 and 28 so revealed it in the end. The definition of FLUSH was a bit too cryptic for me and I was looking for even letters and patches and couldn’t make it work. AT HEART was hard too; man for he? And worst of all LEANEST. Until I got the L I had no chance; not ‘very slim’ and A NEST isn’t a comfortable place.

38. Ted’s example of why “very” is not a superlative is, in fact, superlative. I was very confused at first by “custody “, but I’m sure I wasn’t the “most confused”. And perhaps the problem with Treat is that the use of “stand for” to mean to pay for something is not very common.

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