One of the editor’s best decisions since he took over the role a few years ago now was to give Pasquale a regular Quiptic slot. He always hits the mark, I find.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Outward appearance of a cad eccentric? Not entirely
FACADE
Hidden in oF A CAD Eccentric. It has a cedilla in French – façade – but common usage and style guides in English spell it without the mark.
4 Did Caesar, being a calculating type, count on one?
ABACUS
A cd. Julius probably had people that did that for him, but we know what Pasquale means. Good surface.
9 Member of family showing rancour to some extent
GRAN
Hidden in showinG RANcour.
10 Iciest Alps to be dealt with? Expert needed
SPECIALIST
(ICIEST ALPS)* with ‘to be dealt with’ as the anagrind.
11 Alter money handed back to customer?
CHANGE
A dd.
12 Shrub, one confused with alder
OLEANDER
(ONE ALDER)* with ‘confused’ as the anagrind.
13 Most intelligent, supreme? That’s about right
BRIGHTEST
An insertion of RIGHT in BEST. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
15 Good-natured type
KIND
A dd.
16 Island’s second rescue vessel
SARK
A charade of S and ARK.
17 Time to meet odd disciple, a musician
TRUMPETER
A charade of T, RUM and PETER.
21 Witches and social worker establishing agreement
COVENANT
A charade of COVEN and ANT.
22 Georgia dying initially to obtain useful device
GADGET
A charade of GA, D for the first letter of ‘dying’ and GET.
24 Unchanged after setback, madam is one such
PALINDROME
Not sure quite how to categorise this one, but it’s not important: the clue leads you to the answer. ‘Madam’ is an example of a PALINDROME, a word that is unchanged if you set it back the other way.
25 Perch across a highway
ROAD
An insertion of A in ROD. The insertion indicator is ‘across’. A British imperial measure, the perch is defined as 16½ feet, equal to exactly 1⁄320 of a mile, or 5½ yards. It is also called a rod or a pole. Unlikely to make a comeback, luckily.
26 Superior charter, we hear
HIGHER
Aural wordplay (‘we hear’) for HIRE. For newer solvers, perhaps a good time to point out that in crosswordland, such aural wordplay or ‘soundalike’ clues simply mean that some people, from some parts of the English-speaking world, will pronounce the two words similarly. Most bloggers don’t use the word ‘homophone’ any more, since it led in the past to the blogs being clogged up with long, not very interesting and ultimately fruitless debates among folk who insisted ‘I don’t say it like that’.
27 Decent little house, comfy home
HONEST
A charade of HO and NEST.
Down
1 More distant male relation, right to be included
FARTHER
An insertion of R in FATHER. The insertion indicator is ‘to be included’.
2 Priest’s collection of holy books
CANON
A dd.
3 Some foreign currency in fall?
DESCENT
A charade of DES for one of the French words for ‘some’ and CENT. Du pain, de la confiture, des croissants …
5 Be ill in bed – get released on condition
BAILED
An insertion of AIL in BED. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
6 Plant cleaned, repositioned outside home
CELANDINE
An insertion of IN in (CLEANED)* The insertion indicator is ‘outside’ and the anagrind is ‘repositioned’.
7 Temporarily stop American writer entering borders of Scotland
SUSPEND
An insertion of US and PEN in SD for the outside letters of ‘Scotland’. The insertion indicator is ‘entering’.
8 Led by devil, I start out on protest march maybe
DEMONSTRATION
A charade of DEMON, (I START)* and ON. The anagrind is ‘out’.
14 Digger Ann working, doing this?
GARDENING
(DIGGER ANN)* with ‘working’ as the anagrind and an extended definition.
16 Bear’s belly
STOMACH
A dd.
18 Generator a gent repaired in next to no time
MAGNETO
An insertion of (A GENT)* in MO. The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the anagrind is ‘repaired’.
19 A gentle drunk being refined
ELEGANT
(A GENTLE)* with ‘drunk’ as the anagrind.
20 Item of clothing that is hidden under spade?
CARDIE
A charade of CARD and IE for id est or ‘that is’. ‘Under’ works in the surface because it’s a down clue.
23 Gloomy music awful – little good in it
DIRGE
An insertion of G in DIRE. The insertion indicator is ‘in it’.
Many thanks to Pasquale for this week’s Quiptic.
It was a “cardi” in Pangakupu’s puzzle last week: I wish people would make up their minds about how to spell slang! Only joking: Pasquale knows just how to do a proper Quiptic. Favourites DIRGE, GARDENING and PALINDROME, which made a dent in the tea tray when I got it.
I feel your opening comment is somewhat misleading. I think the current crossword editor has been in place for about 16 months and not a few years. I can remember Pasquale being a regular Quiptic setter from well before that so credit for his introduction to the slot should go to Hugh Stephenson instead
Bottom half was definitely more difficult.
Liked GARDENING, DIRGE and GADGET
Although Pierre says we know what the setter means, I am afraid I do not see how Caesar is relevant to ABACUS. I also had a couple of UK-knowledge gaps. CARDIE is not English I know and I did not know SARK, so LOI
I have been mauled by several cryptics this week, so I enjoyed this Quiptic, skilfully pitched by Pasquale.
gladys@1…yes, I too recall “cardi”, because it looked a bit odd to me. Apparently all 3 versions are legit: cardi/cardy/cardie. Who knew?
I must compliment the setter, on the economy of clue length, yet some winning surfaces; good range of devices, too.
Grand stuff, Pasquale et Pierre
Martyn@3 The association of Caesar with “ABACUS”, (4ac), rather threw me, too; in fact I stalled at entering the answer until the crossers went into place. A bit of whimsy by the setter, but I read that the dates work for the use of abaci in Rome.
Fits the bill of a quiptic, though I found the southwest corner a bit chewy.Completely fooled by 24A,didn’t expect a solving method as an answer!
Just right for a Quiptic – thanks to Pasquale and Pierre. I assume that Pierre was having a French petit dejeuner when writing up 3 (DESCENT).
Very enjoyable, nicely pitched. A relief to actually complete a puzzle (well, except for revealing SARK) after a very difficult few days with the cryptics.
Can someone please explain ABACUS? The reference to Caesar escapes me entirely.
Remus @9 – I just took it to be a historical reference, that in the time of Caesar an abacus would be the means to count/calculate. I was puzzled by it too, not my favourite clue in an otherwise perfectly good crossword.
Tedrick@2, you are right – Alan has been the Everyman setter for a number of years but Editor of the Quiptic, daily Cryptic and Everyman for less than two years. Pasquale did occasionally set a Quiptic before Alan’s time, but has featured much more regularly since he took over, which is welcome. If you read the comments on Quiptic blogs for the last couple of years of Hugh Stephenson’s editorship you will find that people – including me – did not give him credit for much, because editing of any sort was not much to the fore and the consistency and quality of the puzzles suffered as a result.
Very Quiptic with little to complain about. Fun. I made the right reasoning with the ABACUS clue, apparently, but I was wondering if there wasn’t something more “Caesarish”, something a bit more “veni vidi vici” in it that I was missing.
ABACUS. I just took Caesar as a pointer to look for a Latin word. While it derived from Ancient Greek, English took the word from the Latin.
Also an indication that the calculator was from ancient times (although from many other regions)
Rod is still being used – my allotment is 10 rods.
Excellent Quiptic and blog: thanks Pasquale and Pierre.
Too bad there isn’t an Obligatory Pierre Plant Link. We had two today, one of which (CELANDINE) I was unfamiliar with.
And Pierre @11: I believe Alan has set his last Everyman for the foreseeable future, as he’s stayed with the Guardian after the Guardian/Observer divorce. I expect we’ll be seeing more of him in his guise as Ludwig.
Oh well, here’s a non-obligatory Gladys plant link for the Lesser Celandine . It’s pretty in spring, but ineradicable, and my garden is full of it.
(There’s a Greater Celandine too, but the Lesser is the one most people know).
Thanks Pasquale and Pierre
Mostly very Quiptic, but I too didn’t like the ABACUS clue, and the PALINDROME one seemed wordier than it needed to be.
What vogel421 said.
The right puzzle for my level. I enjoyed it very much.
Thanks to Pasquale and Pierre.
Excellently diverting Quiptic for a sunny Sunday afternoon.
The relevance of Caesar in the clue, for those who’ve been questioning it, is, as I see it, partly down to the abacus being a counting tool relegated to history and found in ancient Rome – like Caesar. And partly a play on Caesar’s character: a calculating type. Not in terms of him enjoying arithmetic, but as a conniving dictator. There’s also word play in what it means to count on something.
That’s exactly what I meant, Bexi, when I said that we knew where Pasquale was coming from. Obviously some folk didn’t. We all see and interpret clues in different ways, I guess. I just took it as a whimsical cd with a good surface and moved on.
Good to see that newer solvers found it at the right level. That’s who the Quiptic is aimed at and why I enjoy blogging it.
Agree with the general sentiment that this was, on the whole, and excellent example of the genre with a few minor quibbles.
I was very pleased that it was salvaged by the Guardian, given that it was Monday fare until the recent arrival of the Quick Cryptic on a Saturday meant it was moved to the Sunday as a perfect weekend follow on for the new solvers, plus the gentle Monday.
It would seem that Everyman is a lost cause as that’s been Sunday fare for eons. I’ll miss it, although it has been a little erratic in terms of the ‘strength’ for a few months now. Looks like AZED has gone the same way too, which will infuriate Roz although I know she’s a ‘paper’ solver. Whether the Observer remains in that format I can’t recall.
Many thanks to Pasquale and Pierre.
annoyed i gave up on PALINDROME now 🙁 i was starting to get the sense but it was nearing midnight.
I parsed “perch” as a bird’s perch, being a rod of wood.
Going to be controversial and say that ABACUS was one of my faves, but I like a cryptic definition that makes me go 😐 (like any good pun should). Perhaps a Greek mathematician would have made it more obvious, but then it’s a Latin word so maybe we’d all be complaining about that. At least it wasn’t ABACI, because then we’d also be having an argument about plural forms 😛
Can anyone assist on how the MO is determined in 18d?
J Stanford@26 – a ‘mo’ is a short period of time (short for moment) – hence the ‘next to no time’ in the clue. An example would be « See you in a mo’ »
Very enjoyable Quiptic, felt like the right level. Lots of nice clues. I decided that ABACUS was a quirky cryptic def as I couldn’t see any wordplay that worked for Caesar. Thanks Pasquale and Pierre.
I was wondering if I am too late to ask for help in this puzzle?
Can I ask for some hints please?
15a
22a
24a
These are pickling my brain cells, amongst many others.
Steffen@29 – I’m still here. When you say hint do you mean you are avoiding the answers and would like a hint to try to get the answer, or that you need further explanation for the answers above? I was gonna just type up the latter but I didn’t want to inadvertently spoil it for you if you were after the former.
For me – I managed all but one of these (27a, forgot about HO being an acceptable abbreviation for “house”; I do wish that the online version of chambers would list abbreviations), but I had to google the two types of plants as I’d never heard of either, and I had to come here for explanations to 4a, 2d and 3d. I have the same reservations about the spelling of CARDIE and the ABACUS clue as those above (I figured it was a cryptic but it didn’t really feel cryptic enough). I’ve seen it before but I dislike clues like 10a where the definition isn’t right at the beginning or end, they feel unfair. Unless “needed” is intended to be part of the definition but it feels superfluous.
So as not to be completely negative about this, I did enjoy 17a and 24a.
Thanks Pierre and Pasquale.
Thanks…I’m trying to avoid the answers to be honest!
Loved PALINDROME and ABACUS – thought they were the cleverest clues.
Annoyed with self for perch, but would never have got cardie. Perfectly pitched I thought!
Steffan@31 hopefully this will help without spoiling anything…
15a – think type/class of thing
22a – Georgia the American state rather than the country. US states have two letter abbreviations
24a – this confused me a bit at first. You may have seen “setback” and thought “reversal” which is the right line of thinking but you dont have to reverse anything, it’s something that is the same after being reversed.
Thank you @33.
Bev @25 I did the same. Would never have got ROD/PERCH from the old unit of measurement. Just assumed they were equivalents because they’re both words for what pet parrots stand on.
16 across stalled me. I was convinced that “Island’s second” would be ‘s’, and so the answer would be ‘vessel’.