Carpathian is back her usual Quiptic spot after a long spell of setting Quick Cryptics. The crossword can be found here.
I found this at Quiptic level, although one word was new to me and worked out from the parsing (known as a jorum on this site), but I’ll be interested to know how newer solvers get on, because I don’t always have to get Chambers out to blog the Quiptic.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TALL ORDER |
Difficult assignment from High Command (4,5)
|
| charade of TALL (high) + ORDER (command) | ||
| 6 | AFAR |
Endless animal hunting expedition from a distance (4)
|
| double deletion (endless) from sAFARi (animal hunting expedition) – endless can be either end or in this case, both ends. | ||
| 10 | PIVOT |
Turn trophy around four (5)
|
| insertion of (around) IV (four in Roman numerals) in POT (trophy) | ||
| 11 | CATHEDRAL |
Artist trapped in latched, damaged place of worship (9)
|
| insertion (trapped in) of RA (artist – Royal Academician) in an anagram of (LATCHED)* (indicated by “damaged”) to give CATHED RA L | ||
| 12 | FALL FOR |
Be taken in by fellow in favour of embracing everyone (4,3)
|
| F (fellow) FOR (in favour of) around (embracing) ALL (everyone) to give F ALL FOR | ||
| 13 | ELEGIES |
Laments of the French in unruly siege (7)
|
| LE (the in French) inserted in (in) an anagram of (SIEGE)* with anagrind of “unruly” to give E LE GIES | ||
| 14 | CUT THE MUSTARD |
Time those people start to understand getting covered in sweet sauce to make a favourable impression (3,3,7)
|
| T (time) THEM (those people) U (start to Understand) inserted in (getting covered in) CUSTARD (sweet sauce) – CU T THE M U STARD – for a phrase that probably came from the US and was popularised by O Henry in his short stories. | ||
| 17 | INSPIRATIONAL |
Spin around with one sound that’s motivating (13)
|
| charade of anagram (around) of (SPIN)* + I (one) + RATIONAL (sound – as in of sound mind) | ||
| 21 | TAKE OFF |
Remove fly (4,3)
|
| double definition | ||
| 22 | BLABBED |
Revealed black labrador base (7)
|
| charade of B (black – as in pencil gradations) + LAB (short for labrador) + BED (base – as in rock formations) | ||
| 24 | BRILLIANT |
Train Bill to become scintillating (9)
|
| anagram of (TRAIN BILL) with anagrind of “to become” | ||
| 25 | INFRA |
Below part of certain fragment (5)
|
| hidden in (part of) certaIN FRAgment – as in infra dig – below notice | ||
| 26 | YOGA |
Exercise cyborg regularly accepted (4)
|
| cYbOrG (regularly) + A (accepted – it’s in Chambers, I checked, under the third list of meanings for a) | ||
| 27 | ERRONEOUS |
Wrong individual unfortunately sourer outside (9)
|
| insertion of (outside) ONE (individual) in an anagram (unfortunately) of (SOURER)* – ERR ONE OUS | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TYPEFACE |
Georgia perhaps is kind and brave (8)
|
| charade of TYPE (kind) + FACE (brave – as in to face/brave the wrath of the headmaster) to give one of the standard typefaces, Perhaps as this is a definition by example. | ||
| 2 | LEVEL |
Left the day before with latitude to get even (5)
|
| charade of L (left) + EVE (the day before) + L (latitude) | ||
| 3 | OUT OF THIS WORLD |
Fantastic Four withstood upset involving lasers initially (3,2,4,5)
|
| anagram of (FOUR WITHSTOOD + L)* with the L coming from Lasers initially and the anagrind of “upset” | ||
| 4 | DECORUM |
Strange code, strange protocol (7)
|
| anagram of (strange) (CODE)* to give DECO + RUM (strange) | ||
| 5 | ROTTERS |
Bad people trim tip off pig’s feet (7)
|
| decapitation of (trim tip off) tROTTERS (pig’s feet) | ||
| 7 | FORBIDDEN |
Wanting to have recent US president accepting Democrat is unlawful (9)
|
| charade of FOR (wanting to have) + BIDEN (recent US president) around (accepting) D (Democrat) | ||
| 8 | RELISH |
Enjoy flavour (6)
|
| double definition | ||
| 9 | GENERALISATION |
Sweeping statement sadly alienating Rose (14)
|
| anagram of (ALIENATING ROSE)* with anagrind of “sadly” | ||
| 15 | TWINKLING |
Sparkling double sovereign covering pound (9)
|
| insertion into a charade of TWIN KING (double sovereign) around (covering) L (pound) | ||
| 16 | GLAD RAGS |
Laggard’s fancy, fancy clothing (4,4)
|
| anagram of (LAGGARD)* with anagrind of “fancy” | ||
| 18 | INFLAME |
Annoy popular celebrity crossing line (7)
|
| charade of IN (popular) + FAME (celebrity) around (crossing) L (line) | ||
| 19 | ARBITER |
Judge cooked rarebit (7)
|
| anagram of (RAREBIT)* with anagrind of “cooked” | ||
| 20 | STUBBY |
Small, fat, short, thick and strong (6)
|
| charade of S (small – from clothing sizes) + TUBBY (fat) | ||
| 23 | BOFFO |
Highly successful bachelor away with love (5)
|
| charade of B (bachelor) + OFF (away) + O (love – from tennis scores) for a jorum for me, and not in my copy of Chambers. From checking, the OED identify Boffo as coming from the 1940s |
Enjoyed this. Never heard of boffo and failed to get typeface but otherwise all good with some nice clues. Thanks Carpathian and Shanne
BOFFI seems familiar from somewhere, but I don’t know where. I didn’t know Georgia was a typeface, but the wordplay gave it up. How many typefaces are there?
I found this on the easier side of Quiptics and should suit newbies.
Thanks both.
My first quiptic I was able to 100% without revealing or using 15 squared!
“Boffo” is common in Hollywood reporting (e.g., “Boffo box office” for a movie with successful ticket sales).
Glad Rags is new to me, but I’m american
Nice Quiptic and excellent (quite detailed and neat) blog.
Didn’t know BOFFO. Fairly clued tho.
A couple of very minor points:
I had ‘motivating’ as the def for INSPIRATIONAL.
O O T WORLD: L in FOURWITHSTOOD*
TYPEFACE
nicbach@2
Assuming your question isn’t a rhetorical one…
Thousands of typefaces are there. New typefaces/fonts are designed and released every day.
I find handwritten fonts fascinating nowadays.
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne!
“For”/”wanting to have” I thought a bit odd. And, never having heard of BOFFO, I found through the internet that it’s more common in the US.
I use Georgia font occasionally. I’d give an example here, but I don’t think the website would let me.
All else was straigtforward and enjoyable, and about right for a quiptic.
“BOFFO yocks” – the kind of thing you’d see in Variety‘s review of a comedy. Oed.com has two different entries: [Join your local (not just UK) library and get free access to oed.com]
“1943– boffo, adj.¹ & n.² Originally and chiefly in the entertainment industry: excellent, outstanding; hugely successful or popular. Cf. boff, adj.” and
“1934– boffo, n.¹ & adj.² In the entertainment industry: a joke, punch-line, or piece of comic business, esp. one that elicits uproarious or unrestrained laughter.”
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne. I was lucky enough to have heard Boffo previously. Not sure where but vague memories of a book or film where it made regular appearances.
I thought perfectly placed between quick and regular
[Looks like scchua might be going to blog this too]
Excellent Quiptic – I would definitely recommend this to a beginner.
Favourite: BLABBED.
New for me: BOFFO.
Great Quiptic, thanks to Carpathian and Shanne.
I thought this was spot on for a Quiptic. The less commonly used words or more left field definitions (BOFFO, ELEGIES, DECORUM) had fair clueing with some more difficult word play for more common words.
Liked STUBBY (the long definition had me fooled for a while), ROTTERS, BLABBED and many others.
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne
Perfect start to my Sunday. Thanks to both.
Really enjoyed this, thank you. As someone struggling a bit to graduate to the cryptics during the week this was a good confidence boost. Thanks, Carpathian and Shanne.
Loved STUBBY.
Ta Carpathian & Shanne for the great blog.
Think I must be on Carpathian’s wavelength as I striped this in 20 minutes flat, which is well and truly a record. Boffo came from a long way back in the brain though, wondering if it might originate from Wodehouse & the Jeeves books?
Thanks to C & S.
I thought this was a lovely quiptic and would be great first dip into the category for anyone who’s confined themselves to the quick cryptics so far, given the number of anagrams, double definitions etc. in this. Only got BOFFO from the crossers, had heard the word before but unsure of the meaning. Thank you Carpathian, and Shanne for the detailed blog.
Am in accord with the general thrust of the comments here, in that this was a really good, well-pitched quiptic. Equally, NHO BOFFO, but the clueing and the crossers pointed the way clearly enough.
“FrankieG
January 26, 2025 at 08:14
[Looks like scchua might be going to blog this too]”
For the record, I am the scheduled blogger, but unfortunately, and unbeknown to me, Shanne had a lapse (“a brainfart” as she put it) and she blogged it. Hence the duplicity.
Matthew Newell@7: Are you by any chance a Terry Pratchett reader? The Boffo joke shop, from which some of his witches buy their “stage props,” like dribbly candles, creepy skulls and impressive bubbling green cauldrons, features in several books. That’s where I have met the word, but didn’t know its US meaning.
Really enjoyed this one and as a Quiptic I felt it really CUT THE MUSTARD 😂
Like others, BOFFO was a new word for me but I got to it from the wordplay and crossers and did find it in an online thesaurus, so all good. Thanks Carpathian and to Shanne (and Scchua).
Liked RELISH, TWINKLING (nice ambiguity in the clue), and DECORUM (nice clue)
I agree this was very approachable, with the exception of a good sprinkling of unusual words or phrases
Thanks Carpathian, Shanne and scchua
Dictionary.com gives a second (perhaps original?) definition of BOFFO: “(of a laugh) deep and unrestrained.
“I’m not going for the big boffo laughs”
boisterously funny.” And then suggests its origin as “Perhaps alteration of buffo or bouffe”
Yeah really liked this. Started learning when the quick cryptic came out and this is the closest I’ve come to completing a quiptic. Boffo was the only one I didn’t get so glad to see it was new for a few.
Very glad to see the progress.
Thanks Shanne and Carpathian.