It was a bit of a shock to see Enigmatist on a Friday, after three consecutive Prize puzzles fairly recently.
Perhaps if this had been a Saturday puzzle, I might have made a better job of blogging it, having all week for various pennies to drop. As it is, although I managed to solve all the clues, I have a handful where I need help with the parsing and I am making my usual request for the avoidance of duplication where possible, please. My thanks in advance, as ever.
Although (because?) it was a challenge, I enjoyed teasing out the parsing that I did manage, especially 12ac RACHMANINOFF, 18ac LOCAL DERBY, 26ac ERRATA, 27ac VEHEMENT, 1dn HUGO, 2/14 MALE VOICE CHOIR, 6dn XANTIPPE and 8dn NO LEFT TURN.
As always, I admired and appreciated the placing of 2/14 and 7/22 particularly but also 16ac, 4dn, 10dn and 13dn, where another setter might have had us jumping about all over the grid.
Thanks to Enigmatist for a mostly enjoyable workout – I’m looking forward to the necessary enlightenment.
Definitions are underlined in the clues
Across
1 Ambassador snatches back dossier, second in existence? (4-4)
HOME-LIFE
HE (His/Her Excellency – ambassador) round a reversal (back) of FILE (dossier) + MO (second) – I liked the definition
5 Something to inspire sexy guy between foxtrot and tango (6)
OXYGEN
I can’t make anything of this, I’m afraid
Huge thanks to Dave Ellison @2: (f)OXYGEN(t) (sexy guy)
9 Flower deity adopting mediaeval king? (9)
GOLDENROD
GOD (deity) round OLDEN (mediaeval) + R (king)
11 Recognising no limits in a talk about buttocks (5)
NATAL
[i]NAT AL[k]
12 Source of moving air? A foul, stormy March ahead (12)
RACHMANINOFF
An anagram (stormy) of MARCH + AN IN-OFF (a foul, in billiards, I think)
15 Love idol eagerly taken from behind (4)
EROS
I can’t see this one – I’m sure it must be obvious
16 Somewhat distracted, put Option A (2,2,1,5)
UP TO A POINT
An anagram (distracted) of PUT OPTION A
18 Neighbourhood meeting sculptor held for bishop in centre of hall (5,5)
LOCAL DERBY
After staring at this for ages, in desperation I googled ‘Calder, sculptor’ as a long shot – and found him! – so it’s CALDER instead of B (bishop) in the centre of LOB[b]Y (hall)
19 Hats off to synod, appointing radical figure of authority (4)
TSAR
Initial letters (hats) of To Synod Appointing Radical
21 Several drinks do take out reserves (6,6)
SECOND ELEVEN
Could this be SEVEN (several) round (drinks) CON (do) + DEL[ete] (take out)?
Typo: DELE[te] – thanks KVa @12
24 One or more of Damon Gough’s tapes (5)
AMONG
Hidden in dAMON Gough’s
25 What breakfast waiter brings forward when beat? (5,4)
TOAST RACK
I’m afraid I’m beat on this one
26 In the course of a number of years, singer slips (6)
ERRATA
RAT (singer) in ERA (a number of years)
27 Passionate old soldier subdues macho types (8)
VEHEMENT
VET(eran) (old soldier) round HE-MEN (macho types)
Down
1 Boss, maybe, whom you ring personally at progressive locations (4)
HUGO
Second, third, fourth and fifth letters of wHom yoU rinG persOnally
2, 14 Curious Olivier cameo impresses child performers (4,5,5)
MALE VOICE CHOIR
An anagram (curious) of OLIVIER CAMEO round CH (child)
3 A little latitude given over term of treaty? (6)
LEEWAY
A reversal (over) of A WEE (a little) + L (latitude) + [treat]Y – I wasn’t sure what to underline for the definition
4 Why buy wrapping paper now? (3,3,7)
FOR THE PRESENT
Double / cryptic definition
6 Means to cover boobs – a new cycling trimmer (8)
XANTIPPE
A N (a new) TIPPEX (means to cover boobs) with the letters cycling; I knew the word (I’d spell it Xanthippe) – a nagging woman, from Socrates’ wife, but I was stuck for the definition, until I found ‘a scold’ for ‘trimmer’ in Chambers
7, 22 Possibly make best start round if e.g. batting? (3,2,5,4)
GET TO FIRST BASE
An anagram (batting?) of BEST START O (round) IF EG – again, I wasn’t sure of the definition
8 Sign criminal’s rolled off liquor pot (2,4,4)
NO LEFT TURN
A reversal (rolled) of FELON (criminal) + TT (off liquor) + URN (pot)
10 On set of Twins cameraman might look back in surprise (2,1,6,4)
DO A DOUBLE TAKE
Double / cryptic definition
13 US-owned property addressing the matter of draught beer, say (4,6)
REAL ESTATE
RE (addressing the matter of) + ALE (draught beer) + STATE (say)
17 Lasting until dawn in ships lightermen unloaded (3-5)
ALL-NIGHT
The definition applies to my fruitless staring at this one!
20 Prepare to drive towards green Chesterfield? (6)
SETTEE
SET TEE (prepare to drive towards green?)
23 Parody of Hell’s Kitchen (4)
SKIT
Hidden in hell’S KITchen
This was a surprising Friday offering. Thanks Eileen and Enigmatist.
PS. An in off is OK in billiards but it’s a foul in pool and snooker.
5ac F(oxygen)T
It just came to me
Thankyou for the valiant effort at parsing. I wonder if 15 a is a reversal of sore in the archaic sense of extremely (“sore afraid”). Could this extend to meaning eagerly?
Eagerly would have to = sore for 15ac to work. I’m sure there are heaps of poetic uses of sore, like having a sore need maybe .. hmm.
Dave Ellison @2 – oh my Goodness: never in a month of Sundays!
Dave, brilliant, well done!
25a presumably refers to toast meaning done for or “beat”?
For 17d L(IGHTERME)N unloaded is LN, contained by ALIGHT, in.
Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen
I’m relieved you had parsing troubles, Eileen – I completed the grid but have parsing question marks against 13 clues, a new record for me. My FOI was one of these – TOAST RACK. I guessed it might be something to do with the expression “you’re toast!”, but the rack made no sense.
Anyway, favourite was VEHEMENT.
TOAST RACK – According to Chambers ‘forward’=’to’, ‘when’=’as’ and ‘beat’=’track’
I think LEEWAY is an &lit?
Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen.
ALL-NIGHT
Expanding on what Quisling said:
in ships —>in ship’s —>in ALIGHT is
LN
LEEWAY looks like a CAD
SECOND ELEVEN
Dele: Googled to learn that it’s a printer’s notation for delete.
Not just me struggling with the parsing, then.
I should have known CALDER – amazing mobiles. Parsed TOAST RACK as Alan R @10 and OXYGEN as Dave Ellison @2. And agree with Quisling @8 for ALL-NIGHT.
Thank you to Eileen and Enigmatist.
I think you deserve a lie down with a stiff drink in your hand, Eileen. Far too many “Huh?” moments for this to be enjoyable for me.
PostMark @11 and KVa @12- I did have that thought but I’m always nervous of saying so.
Well I just about got there (without successfully parsing several clues), but was held up by the Grauniad’s error in the placement of the word separators for 2,14. (App version). Once I realised the error the answer became obvious. This was sloppy and annoying.
Other than that I mostly enjoyed this, particularly RACHMANINOFF.
Thanks to Enigmatist and Eileen
KVa @12 – you’re right: I omitted the second e – I’ll amend the blog now.
Well, I managed to finish with a tiny bit of assistance in the NE which proved the hardest quadrant. A much quicker start than usual for an Enigmatist but I was nowhere near spotting (f)OXY GEN(t) as the sexy guy; did not known NATAL meant ‘of the buttocks’; had never heard of XANTIPPE (though Tippex did come to mind. I did not give much thought to possible solutions beginning with X); and I just did not see NO LEFT TURN. Oh, and I never parsed LOCAL DERBY with Calder very much a nho sculptor.
RACHMANINOFF is superb; MALE VOICE CHOIR is a clever anagram with a neat surface; the aforementioned LEEWAY is excellent and SETTEE was a fun take on golf.
Quisling @8: I think I’m being dim but why is alight, in? Is it an angle on fashionable/hot?
Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen
PM @19, yes I guess it must be, as in switched-on, with-it, in …
PostMark@19
ALL-NIGHT
I took (to) ship as ALIGHT and split ships into ship and s.
Maybe there’s a better way.
grantinfreo@20
You mean ALIGHT ships LN?
Quisling@8: Thank you – do you mean that “alight” can mean “ships”? Perhaps “ships” in the sense of ships out – moves onto the land?? I am delighted with your unloaded lightermen but still a bit baffled with the rest of the wordplay.
PM @19, ginf @20 – or, of a fire, alight = in, as opposed to out?
Edit: I’ve just found ‘alight’ under ‘in’ in Chambers.
A few absolute corkers; RACHMANINOFF, VEHEMENT, MALE VOICE CHOIR, NO LEFT TURN, SETTEE.
And elsewhere, a feeling of relief that if you were stumped, Eileen, it wasn’t just me being thick.
Clever, but in places too clever by half. But pretty enjoyable for all that.
Thanks, both.
KVa@21 – sorry – the editing time meant we crossed. Eileen will be rapping my knuckles for duplicating….
Very tough.
I could not parse:
12ac – *march + an in off = ? (I am more familiar with classical music than billiards!)
21ac
25ac – why when beat? Thanks, Alan R @10
13d
New for me: TRIMMER = scold = Xantippe.
Sorry for my brief parsing at #8. I meant that in (ALIGHT, given as a definition in Chambers), ships (carries) LN (L(ighterme)N unloaded, thus AL(LN)IGHT. I hope that’s clearer.
Never attempted an Enigmatist puzzle before, but after a week with all crosswords completed, I thought I would give it a go.
Got three answers, that’s all.
Thanks both.
grantinfreo@4 Your parsing is plausible.
EROS (Chambers app)
adverb
sl. no. 7
Eagerly
Doesn’t qualify it as archaic or rare.
Having read Eileen’s blog (thanks), I was probably defeated by the setter rather than the puzzle, as I got surprisingly close with some of my answers.
Next time…
ICBF so I gave up.
TO (forward) AS (when) TRACK (beat- in the sense of eg policeman’s beat)
I liked HOME-LIFE because it reminded me of the story of the Victorian lady who, after seeing Anthony and Cleopatra exclaimed “How different from the home life of our own dear Queen”
‘In’ = ALIGHT is a bit sneaky but perfectly fair. My parents would say ‘is the fire in?’ ie is it burning, a phrase I’ve continued with, much to the annoyance of my ex.
The FIRST BASE thing has no meaning whatsoever.
A disgrace that the Guardian allowed it. But I suppose that’s the Guardian all over.
GET TO FIRST BASE
(Assuming no one has answered the question raised by the blogger)
I think the def is
Possibly make best start round
(With the whole clue as an extended def)
Great fun. Goldenrod and all-night were the parsings that held out longest for me.
For what it’s worth, in 25a I had “beat?” as an instance of the kind of track you lay down in a recording studio.
Agree that Get To First Base is &lit. I really appreciated it, the sort of weird but brilliant clue that is getting rare. (I blame t’internet.)
Many clues inserted hopefully from the definition, then a retroparse. The fact that there were at least half a dozen phrases as solutions did help a bit. Ultimately defeated, XANTIPPE among those unsolved. A bit too clever for me in places, I’m afraid today…
Enjoyably defeated by this one, and the unparsed entries are too many to list.
Hadn’t heard of trimmer=scold for XANTIPPE – I’m afraid I revealed her, but found the Tippex once I had. Never heard of the sculptor Calder either. Having learned nates=buttocks from Paul (who else?) I guessed it must have a hitherto unknown corresponding adjective NATAL. Like SueB@3, I thought it might be sore=very/eagerly? and parsed TOAST RACK as Alan R@10. Would never have sorted out ALL NIGHT in a month of Sundays, and the device in HUGO was new to me.
Favourites MALE VOICE CHOIR, SETTEE, VEHEMENT, RACHMANINOFF and the fOXY GENt – which took a long time for the penny to drop but was worth waiting for.
I echo the opinion of many. Completed most of it and revealed the rest, but even then the parsing was often a mystery. The phrase ‘too clever by half’ springs to mind.
I fail to see the definition in 1a. Yes, HOME=in and LIFE=existence, but combining the two with a hyphen as ‘in existence’ doesn’t seem to make any sense.
STRACK is Scottish for strike aka beat so I parsed 25a as TO A STRACK
Chambers: SORE adverb – Eagerly
I filled the grid pretty quickly but took a lot longer to fully parse some of these. The foxy gent was brilliant when the penny dropped. Doubling-up unusual words/meanings like trimmer and XANTIPPE seems to be a bit of an Enigmatist trademark
Top marks for HUGO, OXYGEN & RACHMANINOFF
Cheers E&E
Sorry – duped kva@29 🙁
There’s a very minor typo in 18a. It should be LO[b]BY.
hmm, I usually enjoy a tough puzzle, especially one where I learn new things but much of this was just far too obscure for my taste. To take a classical name (usually spelled Xanthippe) and use an alternative spelling and then clue it with a word, “trimmer”, which no-one here would be familiar with as a definition of a scold seems just pointless. It’s not like “trimmer” makes the surface make any sense at all. Equally when multiple people have to pick apart and guess how a clue might be structured (“All-night”, for example) and no single wordplay quite seems to work suggests a poorly structured clue.
Re “get to first base” – in rounders/baseball surely this is the weakest start when batting (apart from getting out). Getting to second, third or home would be better starts. So I do not understand the definition.
I used to have a maxim when I was teaching – if more than half my class got a question wrong in homework or a test, it was clearly my fault not theirs as I set the thing for them.
I used to have a maxim when I was teaching – if more than half my class got a question wrong in homework or a test, it was clearly my fault not theirs as I set the thing for them.
Yup. I just biffed the whole kaboodle and only managed to retro-parse about half of it. A dreary chore.
JoFT@44: (We crossed.) — Absolutely!
Hmmm. “Get to first base” is not the best possible start. The best possible start is to hit a home run.
“Get to first base” and best start is a reference to ‘Moneyball’, a film about how statistics changed baseball. Statistically the team that gets most men on first base over the course of a season will win the most games.
Or something like.
Deep.
One day I will live on Enigmatist’s planet. I got 7 answers on this which is better than I have done on his recent prize puzzles. I will take that as a success.
When you can’t understand half of them even after revealing you know it’s a few levels above you.
Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen. The blog certainly got a good reading today.
Crikey, that was tough. Some very sneaky parsing – had quite forgotten my uncle, when I was little, worrying about keeping the fire in (ie burning) overnight. So I wouldn’t have parsed ALL NIGHT in a month of Sundays, along with several others that have already been mentioned. Thanks very much to Eileen for an extremely valiant effort and to Enigmatist for some exquisite torture.
Sicinius@48 and others
Collins online:
get to first base
in British English
informal, mainly US and Canadian
to accomplish the first step of an undertaking
(Chambers also has this idiom)
If you succeed in the first round of something like setting up a business, you progress to the next round.
I think the clue has a reasonably accurate definition.
Clever but no fun really, although pleased to get the tippex thing and loved RACHMANINOFF. Thanks to all the contributors for parsing the obscurities, especially Dave @2. Can’t believe I’ve wasted half my morning on this but…
Ta Enigmatist & the redoubtable Eileen.
Brava, Eileen.
I, too, enjoyed filling in the grid, but what did all those clues have to do with them?
Paul would probably have clued GET TO FIRST BASE differently, considering its sexual connotation.
I nearly broke my streak on this one but struggled to completion. So many unparsed it was not an enjoyable solve.
Jack of Few Trades @44 I often find that when I fail to solve a complex clue I can’t tell whether my criticism of the clue is just sour grapes. I’m pleased to see that this time it’s not just me.
Did anybody here know that meaning of strimmer? And you can be sure even fewer of the general population do.
I am ashamed to say that having arrived at Xantippe via Tippex, I just assumed she was one of the Fates that snipped the thread, but that seems to be Atropos.
Much too hard for me. Still, you live and learn. Can I get some clarification on XANTIPPE please? So the definition is ‘trimmer’ — new to everyone, but that is hardly the setter’s fault. ‘Tipex’ is clued by ‘means (surely ‘meant’?) to cover boobs’. It cycles to give XTIPE. That is put round ‘a new’ (AN) to give XANTIPPE. Fine, but what on earth tells me to cycle ‘tipex’ or take the final step?
I am sure that I am missing something, but I stare at it and I think that it is telling me to cycle ‘a new’ or ‘trimmer’ but not ‘tipex’. The best I can do for the final step is that ‘cover’ is doing double work in a slightly impossible way so the tipex is meant to cover both boobs and ‘a new’.
Roberto@58: I think you are meant to read it as “means to cover boobs” + “a new” = “tippexan” then cycling the whole thing. I would argue that, if a definition of an obscure word with difficulty wordplay is new to everyone, then it probably is the setter’s fault (or that of the editor).
KVa@51: On that basis, to get to first base is a start, maybe even a decent start. But it’s not the “best start” which is what the clue gives as the definition. I would say that is misleading at the very least.
Just briefly to exercise my knowledge of the works of Sir Walter Scott, this is a piece of dialogue from The Antiquary between the beggar, Edie Ochiltree, and Lord Glenallan’s porter, Francie Macraw, concerning an episode in the life of the late Countess, the present Lord Glenallan’s mother:
““Weel away!” replied Ochiltree:—“it’s e’en queer I neer heard this tale afore.”
“It’s e’en queer that ye heard it now, for deil ane o’ the servants durst hae spoken o’t had the auld Countess been living. Eh, man, Edie! but she was a trimmer—it wad hae taen a skeely man to hae squared wi’ her!—But she’s in her grave, and we may loose our tongues a bit fan we meet a friend.”
R@58 there are two Ps in TIPPEX
I just guessed the scold meaning of trimmer and was delighted to find it was right and I’d learned another new word that I’ll probably never use
Complaining about Enigmatist being difficult feels like ordering a vindaloo and moaning that it’s spicy
While playing pool
with a piano stool
Rachmaninov
ran in off.
An old (almost) clerihew of mine, and I still didn’t get it!
Roberto @ 58 – I’m sorry, I missed your query.
TIPPEX (means* to cover boobs) + A N (a new), then move the XAN to the beginning i.e. cycle the whole thing, as JOFT said at 59.
A long time ago, someone here suggested imagining these ‘cycling’ clues as being on a wheel, which I have found helpful.
*’means’ here is a noun, not a verb, as in ‘a means to an end’.
Apart from 5a and 6d, I thought this was, to borrow from body cheetah, more like a medium hot curry than a vindaloo – definitely friendlier than this setter’s puzzle in another place today
Thanks to Enigmatist and Eileen
Thanks bodycheetah and copland for the smiles. 🙂
bodycheetah @61. While I’m here, I agree with your last sentence. Some solvers seem to get indignant when a crossword does not operate within the compass of their vocabulary, general knowledge and ingenuity. We have had a pretty Goldilocks sequence of puzzles this week, and it was good to be stretched, albeit solving between 4.00 and 5.00 a.m. left my brain over-stimulated and unable to get back to sleep.
Me @63 – I should have said ‘rotating drum’, rather than ‘wheel’.
Wow, that required a few guesses and after-the-fact parsing attempts, not all of which were successful.
Many years ago, when working on my eponymous question-answering system, I was exploring if answers to “”How did Socrates die?” could be found in a modern newspaper corpus (tricky, because it wasn’t exactly breaking news). I found this wonderful passage in a book review: “His chapter on wifely nagging traces nagging back to the late Cretaceous period and notes that one of the all-time nags was Socrates’ spouse, Xanthippe. Hemlock was a pleasure by comparison.” [For those still reading, note that this passage provides the answer but requires many steps of reasoning to connect the dots. Welcome to Computational Linguistics!]
I had a different parsing for GET TO FIRST BASE with “possibly make” as the anagrind and “batting?” as the definition
To me 7/22 works only if the phrase “start round if e.g.” is shared between leading wordplay and trailing definition. Thanks E&E.
Re Getting to the first base
I agree with bodycheetah that the definition is ‘batting’ and the anagram indicator is ‘possibly make’ The definition is nearly always at the start or end of the clue, ‘best start’ is neither.
Getting to first base is the prime objective of a player batting in american baseball as it scores a single which are the most common scores, thereafter the batter can score additional points by moving on to the next base. Until the batter gets to first base he can not score. If another batter hits a home run then all players on bases receive extra points.
Thanks E & E
Btw, how does “tapes” indicate hidden, in 24a? Bit of a stretch, surely, unless I’m missing something obvious.
Cliveinfrance@71 Not to sound rude, but that is not remotely how scoring in baseball works.
A player scores a run (not a point) by making it all the way around and back to home base. Getting to first base scores nothing by itself, but it is a good start towards reaching second, third, and eventually home, where they score a run. The first objective of a batter, therefore, is to “get on base”, usually but not always first base.
Dr. WhatsOn @72: “tapes” = “records” (as a verb) indicates “has stored within it”. But as you say, a somewhat stretchy tape, or perhaps a sticky one.
[copland@62: my own offering:
Sir Edmund Clerihew Bentley,
Managed his scansion quite gently.
Lesser poets of course,
Have to use force.]
[Re yesterday crossword and Hoopoes
I was very late to the crossword as I was out helping to destroy processionary moth nests before they drop their toxic caterpillars which make people ill if touched and kill pets if eaten. Here in Southern France we have increasing numbers of caterpillars partly the result of the movement of Hoopoes northwards, they are the only predator of the moth’s pupae, the beak has developed to dig them out of the ground. The moths are destroying vast areas of pine and oak forests for which the only treatment is overhead spraying of chemicals. This destruction is also happening in Kent but the Hoopoes are not there.
So if you see a Hoopoe in the UK or Ireland please tell it to go home as we need them.]
Cliveinfrance@71 – is this maybe how French people score baseball? In baseball’s home country you get one point if you get all the way around the bases to home plate, no points for intermediate bases.
I’d heard of Xantippe but not of Tippex. I’m guessing it’s the stuff sold in the US as Wite-Out.
How is Rat a singer? Looked it up and found a rock group called Ratt, two t’s.
I’ve never understood why toast racks exist. Who needs a device to help your toast get cold faster?
Calder is well known over here, though I didn’t think of him until Eileen brought him up. There’s a Calder stabile (as distinct from mobile) between the Wadsworth Atheneum (art museum) and the public library right here in Hartford, Connecticut, of all obscure places. Here it is, the stegosaurus. https://calder.org/works/monumental-sculpture/stegosaurus-1972/
Thank you, Enigmatist (I think) and Eileen (yes indeed!)
Thanks Jack of Few Trades @59 and Eileen @65. That makes sense now. I am particularly impressed that I am meant to read ‘means’ as a noun. I thought that when cycling you only moved one letter. Now I know better. These slippery setters.
And thank you Bodycheetah @61, my terrible orthography adds a certain spiciness to doing crosswords.
Valentine @76
SINGER = INFORMANT = RAT
Valentine@76 ‘rat’ is a singer in the sense of someone who ‘sings’ to the police (as in “You dirty rat.”) .
Tough sledding, and not very enjoyable. As so often with Enigmatist, I find several of the clues clumsy in construction, and the vocabulary obscure. I try not to complain about words outside my vocabulary, especially if the clue is well-written to lead the solver to it, but when even the best solvers here are trolling through Chambers looking for possible definitions, then IMO the setter has gone too far into the weeds. “Too clever by half” comes to mind.
In particular, DELE for delete seems unfairly obscure – how many of us know printers’ terms rather than the overwhelmingly more common DEL? The sense of “in” meaning “alight” is also new to me, and I suspect to many whose parents or grandparents did not maintain an open fire.
6D IMO is profoundly obscure, both the eponym itself (in a rare alternative spelling, to boot) and ‘trimmer’ as a synonym for it. One or the other should be familiar to the majority of the intended audience.
[CliveinFrance @75: I have not seen hoopoes in the UK but we would like to keep them if they do come as they are beautiful and also we have OPM in more than just Kent. My local park in Buckinghamshire has also had outbreaks, with trees taped off to keep people safe. I also love the Hoopoe Latin name “upupidae”]
[JOFT @81
There have been bee-eaters nesting in Britain (Norfolk, I think) for the last couple of years, so there is a chance that hoopoes might establish too.]
To me attempting an Enigmatist has more in common with attempting an advanced (barred thematic) crossword than a mainstream daily cryptic. I expect to have to reach for Chambers now and again to check parsings, or in a couple of cases asking the word-finder feature to help me at least narrow down the options until the penny drops. From that point of view this was par for his particular course. Although it was ultimately a DNF for me, I simply could not see RACHMANINOFF.
Many thanks both!
Rob T
Well, I’ve never seen him spelt that way, so that was a help towards the parsing. 😉
Eileen @84
I’ve generally seen Rachmaninov too, but apparently when he moved to the US and dropped the Cyrillic spelling, he used the ..FF version for himself.
Thanks Enigmatist and Eileen
Re ‘tapes’ in 24, I saw it as taping = wrapping a package, hence it works as a containment indicator.
Sorry if somebody else has posted this (i tried to check)
I think make is US slang for pull/get off/have sex with, so ‘Possibly make’ is the definition for ‘get to second base’.
I think you may be right there pcgoingmad @87. Certainly heard the phrase “score a home run” in that context.
Very challenging, but I do find with Enigmatist that the parsings are often so obscure that I have to settle for having a solution that looks vaguely plausible rather than something I am certain of, which all feels a little unsatisfactory. Hey ho, there are worse things happening in the world every day.
I am puzzled by the holes people are trying to pick in the first base clue.
Best and round both qualify start. You have to start by getting to first base, which is on the way round, so of the two starting options when you are on your way round (ie getting to first base or not getting to first base) getting to first base is the best.
The possibility of going on to further bases is irrelevant, as we are only talking about the start. Home runs are irrelevant, as you still need to run round, and if you don’t do it properly you don’t get your run.
For the clue, take it as ‘Possibly make [fodder] batting (fluttering)’. The whole clue gives the meaning, both in its figurative sense, up to ‘… round’, and also by example, with ‘eg batting’.
Like others, I filled it in but it’s still a dnf as so many were unparsed. I like it when the 225 explanation of a clue I can’t parse makes me smile. Most of these just felt too clever by half. When you’ve got this many accomplished solvers who can’t fully parse clues, it’s really not fun for us mortals.
[Clive @75: I didn’t know they eat the processionary caterpillars. Another reason to like hoopoes. We’re in Tarn & Garonne and still see lots of them. Haven’t seen that many of the blasted caterpillars, thankfully]
In the name Ξανθίππη the fourth letter is a theta which is pronounced th. ‘Xantippe’ is simply wrong.
Crossbencher @92 – that’s true, of course but I’m afraid both Collins and Chambers give both.
Wellbeck
[we lived in PO and are being inundated by the lines of processionary caterpillars crossing roads, playing fields and bouledromes, we have to report the nests and the Marie takes action. Very toxic. We have moved to Pau and you can see the damage and nests all along the A64. Climate change has pushed the predators north but left behind the prey. The bee-eaters have also gone north, we had a sandbank nearby which housed over 100 pairs but that has been deserted for three years, the bees have gone but that was down to pesticides. ]
While I was looking up the spelling of Xanthippe in Google, I came across Xanthippe’s shrew. What a coincidence that the original Xanthippe was also (possibly) a shrew!
Crossbencher and Eileen – Anna remarked about yesterday’s answer, SYNEDD, that in Welsh the two Ds would occupy a single unch. The similar issue with the transliteration of names from Greek that contain a theta, is that English has not had a single character to render the ‘th’ sound since the demise of the thorn and the eth in Old English. Therefore in transliterating Ξανθίππη one has either to intrude an additional character, the ‘h’, or approximate the fourth letter as ‘t’. That, I suppose, is why both versions are officially considered as valid, even if the 8-letter version can offend the purist’s ear.
muffin @95 I suspect that there is no coincidence at work here, rather that the naming of the wee beastie was an allusion to Xant(h)ippe’s reputation as passed down from antiquity, whatever the character of the original Mrs Socrates may have been, as a virago, a scold, an untamable shrew – in short, a trimmer.
Balfour @97
My post was tongue-in-cheek!
Google told me that Plato, who knew her, didn’t describe her as a harridan; it was a later writer who didn’t actually name her, but named one of her sons.
I think Enigmatist is just not for me. I came quite close to finishing this one, just having to cheat on XANTIPPE. But there were at least a dozen whose parsings I didn’t understand. After reading the blog and all the comments, I think I get the idea of all of them, and I acknowledge that in many (but not all) cases my failure to understand was my fault.
I still don’t buy “tapes” as an indicator in 24ac, and I don’t think that the definition in 7dn makes sense for the reasons others have indicated.
Thanks for the blog , very few will read this so I can say what I think . I saw the name this morning when I took my paper apart and thought great for my journey home , it did not even last halfway , rats , they say it is the hope that kills you .
[Clive @94: oh that’s so sad.
Our voisin d’a côté has twenty beehives:
I wish I could send some of the bees, plus a few of our local hoopoes, to you…]
I did think, Roz, after your wish on yesterday’s thread for something brain-twisting this morning, that you might be disappointed with this. Enigmatist-lite for a Friday rather than in Prize mode, I felt, although there are several commenters here whose brains were appropriately twisted. Maybe tomorrow … Difficult to please everyone.
Balfour@102 , I thought my wish had come true but this was a slightly yappy Jack Russell pup . 15 week days in a row now of what I call medium puzzles , there should be a wider range , especially for the newer solvers .
I was intrigued by the definition of RACHMANINOFF as ”source of moving air“. Loved the ”misdirection”. Well, I was misdirected initially. The answer went in with two crossers, when I realised the air was musical. Needed Eileen’s and MartinN’s parsing, thank you.
I suppose that, for many, the description of Rachmaninoff’s music as ”moving” is a given. I found this in The New Statesman which I think says it eloquently.
Second Piano Concerto: music of exquisite, all-consuming, passionate and impossible emotion. The opening chords expansive, powerful, and sombre – the piano sweeping like a pendulum through the orchestra.
Rachmaninioff’s works are characterised by luscious orchestrations and memorable melodies that express heartfelt melancholy..
Roz@103 I agree as a moderate solver that there are very few Guardian crosswords I would get very far with if I was just starting. Paddymelon@104 I was more literal… music and other sound is vibrating (moving) air. I feel silly now.
Yes, Dave@105. I was about to add when I saw your post, that I also thought there is the connotation of Rachmaninoff’s virtuosity as a pianist and his ability to reach one and a half octaves because of his large hands. He would certainly have been the source of moving air across the keyboard.
Very many thanks for all the positive input throughout the day, on what I think is one of the most inconclusive blogs I’ve been responsible for – so many ingenious suggestions for a number of clues that it hasn’t been possible to keep up with them.
I’m particularly grateful for the explosion of the myth that we bloggers are infallible, a point that I’ve been making ever since I began blogging: we’re simply some of those prepared to put our heads above the parapet for the day, to share our passion for crosswords with views and explanations on the day’s puzzle, to invite comments and to ask for help when necessary – which is always delightfully forthcoming, as evidenced again today.
paddymelon @104 – thank you so much for the quotation: my go-to music on many an occasion.
I’m calling it a day now – I usually manage to snatch another hour or two of sleep after my wee-small-hours draft blog but not today: it’s been a long stretch! Many thanks again. 🙂
PDM I just thought of Brief Encounter for the moving air .
Dave F , when I started there were usually two very friendly puzzles each week , still very well set . I feel sorry for newer solvers these days , we get lots of good puzzles but the range is so narrow most weeks .
Re: RACH…FF/V.
In Russian (textbook Russian that is – as in most languages there are regional variants) a voiced consonant at the end of a word becomes unvoiced. The musician’s last letter is written V but pronounced F. So either version seems reasonable in English. As far as I can tell, V has been preferred for some time. Don’t think I ever saw a reference to Gorbachoff.
David@109. According to Wiki, “Rachmaninoff” is the way he spelt his own name after emigrating to the USA in 1918.
Roz @100: naughty.
I always think of Araucaria as Mozart, Rufus as Haydn, Paul as Beethoven…and Enigmatist as Hindemith – a great craftsman and a real challenge. As for TOAST RACK, Valentine@76, I use one exactly because I like my toast cold, which it certainly was by the time I finished this (23.45). Thank you E and E🙏
I thought foxy gent and Xantippe were great clues-I had to hunt in Chamber under “trimmer” and there it was.
What do you expect being married to a philosopher
Thanks Eileen and JH
” I see that fire’s got its hat & coat on” because it was “going out” (1950s Lancs) could help to make smiling sense of alight for in …
Doesn’t all this rather tetchy first base nit-picking seem to undervalue by losing sight of the consummately adept (3,2,5,4) anagram, what playful vision – solving these wretched clues is after all itself only a game … or is it though ?
It says something when a Paul puzzle is a welcome relief in a week of unnecessarily convoluted ones
Thanks Eileen, a sterling effort in little time . On my first pass yesterday I managed 6. After a second pass at night I had to reveal 6 and had a further 5 unpassed. Knowing it was Enigmatist I wasn’t too embarrassed and came here this morning for enlightenment.
Can someone help me understand the construction of the answer for 5a? Wouldn’t ‘sexy guy between foxtrot and tango’ yield ffoxygentt (sic)? It would make no sense of course but as the clue stands, there isn’t a sexy guy between the f and the t, there’s just the something to inspire.
Andy@117 OXYGEN [is] foxy gent between f and t. Fair grammar in crosswordland I think?
Wow! I had the top right corner unsolved but came back to it this morning and finished it. Tremendous puzzle. Belated thanks to Enigmatist and to Eileen (I had the same unparsed solutions).
Thanks Hadrian but can’t see it, there isn’t foxy gent between f and t, there’s just oxygen between f and t.
Andy Jones @117 and 120
Try looking at Hadrian’s excellent explanation in a slightly different way: look at fOXYGENt and then think, ‘What is between the f and the t?’
You need a pause .
Sexy guy (pause) = FOXYGENT
Between F and T leaves OXYGEN .
I got off to a good start, ended up getting all but one (albeit with several unparsed), and immediately thought “Boy, is Roz ever going to be disappointed, after seeing Enigmatist’s name on the puzzle.” (See Roz@100 etc.)
Whether a clue is brilliant or too-clever-by-half is a purely subjective assessment. For me, 5a OXYGEN was the former (my clue-of-the-day), while 6d XANTIPPE was the latter (I would have preferred a trimmer clue.)
Thanks E&E for the beating and for the soothing salve.
Cellomaniac@123 I am actually glad you enjoyed it and others , on Friday afternoon I am at my most ratty so not best pleased with this at the time . It will give people confidence to tackle this setter and IO and not be put of by the name , the difficulty level does vary quite a lot . The recent Saturday one was not too bad , the one four weeks previously was so hard , perhaps the hardest normal cryptic I have seen in ten years .
I really enjoyed this (belatedly) and was only defeated by 6d.
I’ve done enough Elgar/Enigmatist puzzles that I think I am at least somewhat on his wavelength, so picking the definition out of convoluted clues has become easier with time.
I think most of us just have to accept that some parsings may elude us with this setter…
Got about halfway, which I suppose isn’t too bad for an Enigmatist. Very tricky to parse even the correct answers. I was on the right track for a few of them, but didn’t enter them because I couldn’t parse them satisfactorily, including EROS (or is it DIVA?), ALL NIGHT (or TIL LIGHT?). Hopefully I’ll know better next time
HUGO and SETTEE were clever
Didn’t know REAL ESTATE is just a North American thing (Canada too). What term is used in the UK?