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A double bill today for Pangakupu here and his alter ego Phi in the Independent. I haven’t tried the latter yet, but this one was fairly gentle, I thought. Thanks to Pangakupu.
As usual we have to look out for Maori words in the grid: today in rows 9 and 13 we have APIHA (an official) and MANIANIA (various meanings) – whether they have any significance as a pair I cannot say.
The first two clues could perhaps be seen as referring to the vandalism of the Sycamore Gap tree. I don’t know if this is intentional: maybe the culprits wore BALACLAVA HELMETS, and were investigated by NEW SCOTLAND YARD.
| Across | ||||||||
| 9 | AILANTHUS | Beautiful tree: feel bad with any being cut down in such a manner (9) AIL (feel bad) + AN[y] + THUS (in such a manner). The Ailanthus or Tree of Heaven is indeed a beautiful tree, but is also considered a “noxious weed” because of its fast growth |
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| 10 | WHOLE | Wide gap, though with nothing removed (5) W + HOLE |
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| 11 | ALCOHOL | Trendy to inject heroin after a litre drink (7) A L[itre] + H[eroin] in COOL (trendy) |
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| 12 | THESEUS | The American author eliminating last hero from Greece (7) THE + (Dr) SEUS[s] |
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| 13,22 | LIMA BEAN | I’m a Bishop, tucking into meagre vegetarian food (4,4) I’M A B in LEAN |
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| 14 | PROSCIUTTO | Uncooked meat? Experts brutally cut it open at first (10) PROS (experts) + (CUT IT)* + O[pen] |
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| 15 | VENISON | Is ‘zero’ accepted by English logician? Meaty stuff (7) IS O in VENN (John Venn, famous for his Diagram) |
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| 17 | MAGICAL | Publication I term running short regarding glamour (7) MAG[azine] I CAL[L] |
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| 19 | HYPERSCALE | Offering easy growth in computing? Clear hype’s misplaced (10) (CLEAR HYPE’S)* – hyperscale (not in Chambers) is “the ability of an architecture to scale appropriately as increased demand is added to the system” |
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| 23 | LITHIUM | Something described as metallic burning smell surrounding one … (7) LIT (burning) + I in HUM (smell) |
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| 24 | MOISTLY | … largely swamping one with some water? (7) I (another “one”) in MOSTLY |
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| 26 | EAGLE | Keen to abandon Right, adopting Left as standard (5) L in EAGER less R |
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| 27 | THICKENER | Roux perhaps about to backtrack after redesign of kitchen (9) KITCHEN* + reverse of RE (about) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | BALACLAVA HELMET | Artefact of old battle? Bet Valhalla came alive (9,6) (BET VALHALLA CAME)* |
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| 2 | PLACEMAN | Government official, large, appearing in bowler? (8) L in PACEMAN (fast bowler, in cricket) |
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| 3 | INCH | Easy thing to miss top edge (4) [c]INCH – edge/inch both mean to move slowly |
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| 4 | CHILDREN | Drive through South American country with Northern seed (8) DR[ive] in CHILE + N |
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| 5 | AS IT IS | Position occupying excellent section in the current circumstances (2,2,2) SIT (to position) in A1 S[ection] |
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| 6 | SWEEPING | Top of sluice losing liquid on a big scale (8) S[luicing] + WEEPING |
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| 7 | COGENT | Convincing information secured in crib (6) GEN (information) in COT |
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| 8 | NEW SCOTLAND YARD | Police operation – dastardly con, apparently (3,8,4) Reverse anagram – SCOTLAND YARD is an anagram (“NEW”) of DASTARDLY CON |
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| 16 | SPRAINED | Showed precipitation without precipitation? That’s twisted (8) RAIN (precipitation) in SPED (was fast, showed precipitation) |
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| 17 | MILKMAID | Exploit making no sense, kidnapping one farmworker (8) MILK (to exploit) + I (one – again!) in MAD (making no sense) |
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| 18 | CHEATING | Beguiling warmth after cold (8) C + HEATING |
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| 20 | POTAGE | Servant carrying some Londoner’s scalding soup (6) OT (cockney pronunciation of HOT, scalding) in PAGE |
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| 21 | COMITY | Refined behaviour inclined to take a back seat around Cambridge University (6) MIT (University in Cambridge, Mass.) in COY (inclined to take a back seat) |
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| 25 | INKY | Dark and perverted, though not at first (4) [k]INKY |
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Thanks Pangakupu and Andrew
Three words I didn’t know – AILANTHUS, HYPERSCALE, and COMITY, and the parsings for the first and last of those evaded me too. The parsing of HYPERSCALE made it a weak clue, as HYPE is unchanged.
Otherwise fairly straightforward, helped by seeing 1d immediately.
Thanks Pangakupu and Andrew.
Top faves: WHOLE, HYPERSCALE, B HELMET, INCH, N S YARD, SPRAINED and COMITY.
Pangakupu intervened on the G comments thread to explain today’s Maori nina, I quote:
‘The hidden phrase is apiha maniania (first a in each should have a macron) – nearest I could get to ‘officer problem’, which was what I dug up for 36 (there is a thing called Euler’s officer problem about arranging 36 officers in a 6×6 square).’
Some lovely clues – I particularly enjoyed the double use of “precipitation”, the Roux brothers in their kitchen and the misleading Cambridge University. For once I saw the reverse anagram clue and somehow picked “helmet” out of the 15 characters in the other long down clue, which unlocked the grid a bit.
However, I can’t help but think that a few words crept in because they had to – KVa has made the same point I would’ve about “hyperscale” and it is a horrible neologism as it appears to be an adjective from the definition but looks more like a verb. I guess “hyperscalable” would be even worse? And is ailanthus beautiful? It seems to be a very nasty invasive species and does not look especially attractive. Heavenly, perhaps (it is called the “tree of heaven”) was intended?
Thanks to Pangakupu and Andrew.
Ailanthus doesn’t seem to have a lot going for it!
Me @3 I maybe should have added for those who don’t follow these things closely that Pangakupu sometimes uses the nina to allude to the order of the puzzles he has submitted to the G. This one, I therefore assume, is his 36th.
I haven’t met HYPERSCALE or COMITY before, but the ones that held me up longest were PROSCIUTTO and sorting out the kitchen anagram in THICKENER. Liked LIMA BEAN, WHOLE, INKY and the reverse anagram in NEW SCOTLAND YARD.
Thanks Pangakupu, and Andrew for explaining ‘OT in POTAGE (kicks self). I’m afraid I didn’t find it “gentle” – maybe it is by Pangakupu’s standards.
For those who might not have come across a roux, it’s flour cooked in butter, used to thicken sauces.
The surface hints at the Roux brothers and son Michael, well known chefs, of course.
A couple of nice anagram spots in here – NEW SCOTLAND YARD was fun: if it’s been done before, I haven’t seen it. And BALACLAVA HELMET. And I enjoyed the MILK MAID construction. There are a heckuva lot of American authors so SEUS(s) did not come immediately to mind.
A tiny error in the blog, Andrew, where you have THIS instead of THUS for the last syllable of the tree.
Thanks both
Pleased to discover that AILANTHUS is a real tree unlike hurtanala. THICKENER and NEW SCOTLAND YARD were my favourites.
[me @8 – Michel Roux. Autocorrect!]
A dnf here, as I had to reveal PLACEMAN which is new to me and I failed to spot the bowler reference.
Although the answer came readily enough, I can’t quite equate regarding glamour with MAGICAL. No doubt someone will have an example.
Andrew – I think you need to extend your underline in 2down.
A placeman was a civil servant who was “placed” in the government by the king as a reward for his services.
Of course this practice is now outlawed!!
A thin slice of prosciutto round a ripe half-fig is one of life’s gifts. But yes, the same 3 nhos as others, although comity has a faintly seemly echo. As far as neologisms go, I don’t find hyperscale too horrible (cf greedflation, advergames, workation …). Enjoyable puzzle, ta Panga and Andrew.
[muffin @11… autocorrect… turn it the f*** off 🙂 ]
I’m never on this setter’s wavelength – so I was pleased when, like Muffin, I spotted BALACLAVA HELMET immediately. HYPERSCALE was a guess based on the obvious anagram – I simply assumed it’s some IT thing…
I also enjoyed POTAGE & ALCOHOL. (Not just the clues – I often add the latter when making the former.)
As for 9A: I’m guessing the adjective “beautiful” is meant as sarcastically as “of heaven”. I planted a blasted Ailanthus in our garden once, and have regretted it ever since. Steer clear of them, folks – they’re utter basstuds!
Thanks Andrew and Pangakupu
I don’t think the clues have anything to do with the Sycamore Gap tree. Yes the offenders wore balaclavas, but it was investigated by Northumberland Constabulary, not New Scotland Yard.
The long anagrams at 1d, 8d were a huge help to start filling the grid. And there were several words I wasn’t familiar with – HYPERSCALE (O.K it had to be that from the anagram fodder), AILANTHUS, PLACEMAN and COMITY. Thought CHILDREN very clever, and the loi in that took an age to see, MILKMAID. Found this challenging but ultimately a very satisfying solve this morning…
…the owner of our local Italian restaurant has recently bought himself a beautiful shiny red machine that cuts PROSCIUTTO into such thin slices that they almost melt on your tongue. Displayed proudly in the window of his establishment. He says he spent a lorra lira on it, and it’s a devil to clean…
Steady solve and nice to see NSY, my old workplace, although it is the name of the building, and I’m not sure how that equates to ‘operation’? Like William @12, I also struggled to equate MAGICAL with ‘glamour’. I had to work out AILANTHUS, HYPERSCALE and COMITY from the wordplay, which were all fair. BALACLAVA HELMET was top of the tree.
Ta Pangakupu & Andrew
[Happy belated birthday Roz, exact date?]
Never realised Pangakupu and Phi were the same setter. The puzzles are very different. I guess that’s a sign of a good setter.
Helped a lot with this by being on the ball with the neat anagrams.
Not heard of AILANTHUS which went in with a shrug but my post solve Googling confirmed it is indeed a beautiful tree.
Slowed down on LITHIUM by trying to think of that word for a burning metal smell which still hasn’t come to me.
Liked the simple but cleverly misleading WHOLE.
CHILDREN gave me a chuckle partly as I had been trying to shoehorn Peru into a word for ages.
Great stuff Pangakupu and Andrew
I thought this was a really good week in the Guardian so credit to all setters and the editor.
“Glam” is used for beings that can do magic in some fiction I’ve read, but I’ struggling to pin it down.
Not the first time I’ve been delayed by a reverse anagram. Tricky things to spot. Also spent too long on LITHIUM with its longwinded, misleading definition. Something descibed as a thing implies it is not really that thing.
I liked the wordplay for PROSCIUTTO, the LITHIUM burning smell, Roux in the kitchen for THICKENER, the anagrams for BALACLAVE HELMET and NEW SCOTLAND YARD, the PLACEMAN with his bowler, and the MIT University in the DNK COMITY.
Thanks Pangakupu and Andrew.
What hard work, with little enjoyment. It seems others are far keener than I am on the rather convoluted clues. Oh well, can’t win all the time.
Good fun. Top ticks for LITHIUM, NSY, and COMITY for the vocab expansion and misdirection
Cheers P&A
Like muffin@23, I’m struggling to find an example, but in Celtic folk-tales the “glamour” is the magic used by the elves and fairies to disguise themselves and their surroundings from mortals, often by making them appear better than they really are (the modern meaning of “glamour” has some relationship to this!) This story doesn’t actually contain the word, but the idea is there.
This was right in my sweet spot of difficult enough to be challenging, not so difficult as to be frustrating.
Yet again I fell for the Cambridge University ruse, so I failed to parse COMITY. NEW SCOTLAND YARD is a great spot, and one of my favorite clues in a long time.
Aha. Here’s “glamour” in its magical sense.
I’ve also seen glamour meaning magic in the Laundry Files books by Charles Stross. And it’s in CHambers as witchcraft (archaic)
Glamour is also used in the magic sense in Ben Aaronovitch’e Rivers of London series, which are recent: the latest has just been released. I’ve read quite a few, so that went in fine.
Fun puzzle, thank you for to Pangakupu and Andrew.
Thank you gladys@30 for the link about glamour as fairy magic. I’d wondered about that connection.
Glamour=magic seems to be archaic according to Collins and the ODE, viz: Archaic enchantment; magic: that maiden, made by glamour out of flowers.
A very enjoyable puzzle.
Same three nho words for me, but I thought COMITY a splendid clue.
I liked the two long ones, anagram BALACLAVA HELMET and reverse anagram NEW SCOTLAND YARD, which opened the grid nicely.
Lots of other fun clues, including the misdirection in PLACEMAN, the almost hidden definition of ‘seed’ in CHILDREN and Roux in the kitchen with THICKENER.
Thanks to Pangakupu and Andrew.
This was very parse-before-solve, my favourite type of puzzle, and I love the integrity of a theme irrespective of whether or not I even realise it’s there. Thank you Panga and Andrew!
Well this was a minor achievement for me. For the first time, I spotted a partial Maori nina, completed it, and that in turn helped with one of the outstanding clues (MILKMAID). Might not ever happen again, but I’m happy.
A lot of fun. As usual, came up short on the NHO’s, ALIANTHUS and COMITY.
The Cambridge University floored me again.
Thanks both.
[I think the novels I referred to earlier in which glamour and magic were related might have been the Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman.]
NEW SCOTLAND YARD
I took ‘police operation’ as ‘police agency/department’.
Does it work?
If not, please correct me.
Thanks for the blog , I would say steady rather than gentle , good set of clues , SPRAINED and MILKMAID very neat . Guess the setter week , I am 5/5 so a lot of pressure tomorrow .
Euler’s Officer problem one of the rare times he was wrong , correct for 6×6 but he conjectured no solution for ALL oddly even numbers which is wrong .
Carnival week for the nits again .
[ AlanC@21 , I will give you a big clue . I was born In The Wake of Poseidon . ]
KVa @40: NSY hosts all sorts of departments undergoing multiple operations. I just don’t see how it works.
[Roz, I’ll work it out later on my last evening at KPR before the season ends.]
[Got it, nice one.]
I knew I’d seen it somewhere… the magic of the elves in Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (nasty beasts) involves glamour: ‘Elves are capricious and amoral creatures that enter the minds of animals and sentient beings in a more destructive way than witches do, using “glamour” to alter human’s perceptions of them’ says wikipedia.
Blaise @45
Thanks for that. I knew I had come across “glamour” in that sense somewhere!
My pen made trouble for me by writing HYPERSPACE in 19a while I wasn’t paying attention. Luckily I have others that are less mischievous.
For 9a I was wondering if achanthus might be an alternative spelling, with both ache and any curtailed, but it failed to convince – mostly because of not being a tree – and in fact ail had been the synonym that came to mind for ‘feel bad’ on my first read through, but this time my pen didn’t think to write it in for me.
Yes, I had fun with this one. Especially enjoyed WHOLE and MOISTLY, though some with better memories for clues will probably say they’ve seen them both before.
Thanks to Pangakupu and Andrew.
Feeling pretty smug, not just at having finished, but because for the first time ever I wasn’t fooled by the ‘Cambridge University’. Next hurdle is to detect whenever ‘nice’ is used to trail a French translation…
Sheffield@47 I searched up ACHANTHUS too, great minds..
Cryptic at it,s best, kapai ehoa!
Nothing to do with the cryptic but does anybody else think the quick crosswords are getting more and more unfathomable?
Tony@51. They’re certainly getting to be a bit tricky!
Example the other day. Clue: Of note. Answer: ON THE MAP.
No doubt it’s in Chambers!
Thanks Pangakapu and Andrew. A failure on my past due to a few words I didn’t know plus 8d.
Can I ask for some help – how the &£@* am I supposed to spot 8d as a reverse anagram? I find I have a complete blind spot to them and I nearly always miss them, unless there is a super obvious indicator eg “Cryptic”. Thanks anyone
Stuart @53 , only one answer , lots and lots of practice . You develop a sense for this sort of thing and the giveaway clues – cryptically , apparently , suggesting , leads to , could be is quite common . Also a clue with an obvious anagram indicator but counting the letters does not seem to work .
Congratulations to those who found this gentle! i definitely didn’t. For one thing, there were three jorums (jora?) for me: AILANTHUS, HYPERSCALE, PLACEMAN. And in the latter case, I wasn’t familiar with the cricket term, so it’s a wonder I managed to guess it.
I thought that NEW SCOTLAND YARD was a cracking clue. If that anagram has been done before, I don’t remember seeing it. And the double precipitation in the clue for SPRAINED made me laugh when the penny finally dropped.
I thought this was an excellent puzzle, but if I were to complain, I’d concur with the view that the anagram for HYPERSCALE was weak (leaving HYPE unchanged) and that “though” in 10ac isn’t the best link word.
I wonder in what context “drive” is abbreviated DR, although I’m quite prepared to believe that there is such a context, and I’m not complaining about the clue.
Ted @ 55 , it is for addresses , Mulholland Dr for short , same for Fleet St and Abbey Rd .
Oh, of course, Roz @56. How absurd that I didn’t realize that. Thanks!
DavidT @48: Regarding the next hurdle: to trail a French translation, “nice” would not be nice, but “Nice” would be.
[ Roz@42 (and AlanC@44) I think I’ve got it too. Do we now know your age as well? Another belated birthday greeting. ]
Good Friday challenge. Only solved a bit over half, though — too many, for me, obscurities to get that final foothold
My victory with this one was getting MIT for “Cambridge University”, having been fooled many times before! From there I dredged COMITY from the recesses somewhere