Found this quite tricky after a quick start. My favourites were 18ac, 24/25, 8dn, and 19dn. Thanks to Pasquale.
| ACROSS | ||
| 5 | BALLOT |
British award for democratic process (6)
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B (British) + ALLOT=to give=to "award" |
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| 6 | REMAND |
Fellow clothed in colour put back in custody (6)
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MAN="Fellow" inside RED="colour" |
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| 9 | CLAUSE |
Nameless tribe to employ a few words (6)
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CLA-[N]="tribe" without N for "Name", plus USE="employ" |
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| 10 | EMIGRANT |
Traveller and female relation hiding in shed (8)
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GRAN (grandmother)="female relation"; inside EMIT="shed" e.g. to shed/emit light |
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| 11 | TUPI |
Language, one set right to left (4)
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definition: language of the indigenous Tupi people of Brazil I="one" plus PUT="set", all reversed "right to left" |
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| 12 | PLAGIARISM |
Wandering as a pilgrim, using someone else’s words (10)
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anagram/"Wandering" of (as a pilgrim)* |
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| 13 | ANGLICANISM |
Branch of Christianity sending out manic signal when in trouble (11)
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definition includes a reference to "sending out" which happens at the end of a service as a part of the Anglican liturgy anagram/"in trouble" of (manic signal)* |
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| 18 | CANAANITES |
Construed as ‘ancient’, a biblical people (10)
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anagram/"Construed" of (as ancient a)* |
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| 21 | LOTI |
First item under the hammer making money in Africa (4)
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definition: the currency in Lesotho LOTI = LOT I = Lot number 1 = the first lot "under the hammer" at an auction |
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| 22 | SAN DIEGO |
City somehow in good taste, not OTT (3,5)
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anagram/"somehow" of (in good taste)*, minus the letters OTT |
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| 23 | TENDER |
Romantic present (6)
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double definition: showing affection; or to offer/present/tender a proposal |
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| 24, 25 | DANIEL ORTEGA |
I angered a lot, being revolutionary (joint) president (6,6)
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definition: the current co-president of Nicaragua [wiki] anagram/"revolutionary" of (I angered a lot)* |
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| 25 | DANIEL ORTEGA |
See 24
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ALLUSION |
A fancy thing leader demolished in passing reference (8)
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A (from surface) + [I]-LLUSION="fancy thing" with its leading letter removed/demolished |
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| 2 | BO PEEP |
Country girl in dance drinking water (2,4)
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definition refers to the nursery rhyme Little Bo Peep [wiki] who has lost her sheep BOP="dance" around PEE="water" |
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| 3 | REVISION |
Cleric is one getting on – change needed (8)
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REV (Reverend, "Cleric") + IS (from surface) + I="one" + ON (from surface) |
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| 4 | FAIRER |
More reasonable fliers heading up, suppressing anger (6)
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RAF (Royal Air Force, "fliers") reversed/"heading up"; around IRE="anger" |
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| 5 | BELT UP |
Advice to travellers in car? Say nothing! (4,2)
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double definition: to fasten a seat belt; or to be quiet |
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| 7 | DYNAST |
Period lacking a horrible inadequate ruler (6)
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D-[a]-Y="Period" of time, lacking the "a"; plus NAST-[y]="horrible" with a letter missing/"inadequate" |
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| 8 | DEFALCATION |
Female in business arrangement with what’s charged amounting to a financial crime (11)
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definition: illegally taking or misusing money that one is responsible for F (Female) in DEAL="business arrangement"; plus CATION=a positively "charged" ion in chemistry |
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| 14 | LANCELET |
European article in medical journal shows marine animal (8)
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definition: some species of marine animals [wiki] LE (French for the definite article 'the', "European article"); inside [The] LANCET=name of a "medical journal" …or the European article could be the Spanish EL |
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| 15 | SOLANDER |
Malicious gossip when nothing’s found in that special box (8)
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definition: a SOLANDER box is used for archival purposes [wiki] SLANDER="Malicious gossip", with O="nothing" found inside it |
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| 16 | CANARD |
Tailless bird had, in short, to be a hoax (6)
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CANAR-[y]="bird" without its last/tail letter; plus 'D as a contraction for "had" |
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| 17 | ATHENA |
Goddess at one time protected by road team (6)
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THEN="at one time"; inside AA (Automobile Association, "road team") |
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| 19 | ARDENT |
Piece of land not good over time – too hot, maybe (6)
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[g]-ARDEN="Piece of land" without 'g' for "good"; plus T (time) |
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| 20 | SATORI |
Enlightenment men found in fiery ritual once (6)
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definition: a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment OR (other ranks, military "men"), inside SATI=historical Hindu custom for a widow to burn herself on her husband's funeral pyre="fiery ritual" |
Quite a toughie in places, but no less enjoyable for that. A couple of short NHOs for me (TUPI, LOTI) but clearly clued, and a few where I really had to dredge the ageing memory banks to come up with the solution (DEFALCATION, SATORI, SOLANDER). Thanks to Pasquale for the early morning jumpstart to the brain, and to manehi for the customary excellent blog.
Somewhat startled myself by completing this, although rather too many were entered from the wordplay and then goggled – ‘I suppose LOTI must be a currency’ etc. I see someone in the other place considered ‘back’ to be superfluous in 6a, which I had briefly thought, then rationalised by considering that the detainee had already been arrested once before the REMAND process took place.
Thank you Pasquale for teaching me some new words and manehi for the most helpful blog
I was surprised how quickly I got through this. I was held up at the end while digging in my mind for SATORI, and didn’t TENDER (LOI) until I got it.
Some nice obscurities in there.
Thanks to Pasquale and manehi.
I’d add LANCELET to the same struggles as miserable @1.
Felt emit = shed a tad loose, and CANARD went in unparsed as I missed the shortened had.
A toughie but fairie from The Don this morning.
William@4:
I also wondered about emit=shed, but when I lit a candle it emitted photons and shed some light on the matter.
ANGLICANISM, SAN DIEGO, BO PEEP and CANARD were my top faves.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi.
I also had to check some vocabulary. 14 d also works with El as Spanish for European Article. I suspect that both possibilities are intended.
Thank you Pasquale and Manehi
You know you’re going to get a vocabulary lesson from Pasquale, and today we got it in spades. The jorums were LANCELET, SOLANDER (I had heard of his name, but not his box), LOTI and SATORI (not helped by only knowing the “suttee” spelling of the fiery ritual). I lost patience and revealed TUPI and DEFALCATION: my tiny scientific knowledge does not extend to cations. Very annoyed with myself for trying ma, nan, sis, aunt, and all sorts but failing to spot GRAN lurking in EMIGRANT.
A most enjoyable puzzle from Pasquale this morning, calculated to jumpstart the brain, as miserableoldhack said @1.
Perhaps more unknown / unfamiliar / half- forgotten words than usual today but, as usual, scrupulously fairly clued, with the possible exception of SATORI, where a less familiar word included another in its wordplay. I was fortunate here, as I remembered SATI from school, when we learned about the Indian Mutiny and I recognise the definition as the pseudonym of Albie Fiori in the FT (Taupi in the Guardian and much more – see John Henderson’s obituary, which I cited earlier in the year): https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/aug/18/albie-fiore-obituary
I was always delighted to see either of those names on a puzzle – and rather touched to see TUPI (which was a new one for me) at 11ac
There are some splendid anagrams here: 12ac PLAGIARISM, 13ac ANGLICANISM, 18ac CANAANITES and 24ac DANIEL ORTEGA.
Other favourites were 1dn ALLUSION, 14dn DEFALCATION and 15dn SOLANDER, an entirely new word for me. I pondered its possible derivation – I hadn’t heard of the man, gladys, @8 – and found he was a Swedish botanist – a genuine TILT.
Many thanks to Pasquale for the work-out and to manehi for another fine blog.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi
There seemeed to be a lot of anagrams, but possibly I got this impression from the three consecutive ones in the acrosses.
Several words I hadn’t heard of. 11a could just as easily have been TUPA, so I had to check.
I was a bit confused by the clue for CANARD, as it is of course French for “duck”, so I thought that was the bird in question.
The top half was much easier than the bottom but the obscure words were, as Eileen states, ‘scrupulously fairly clued’. Like gladys, I only knew suttee, and sadly I had CATION but not the DEFAL, so a dnf for me. DANIEL ORTEGA was my favourite anagram, followed closely by ANGLICANISM.
Ta Pasquale & manehi.
I sometimes find it harder to spell in a crossword, than in real life, so I misplaced the double a in Canaanites at first. As Eileen says, some great anagrams.
I thought that all the unknowns (11a, 21a, 15d, 16d, 20d, 8d, 14d) were fairly clued and solved except 20d (for me). I’m not as clever as the rest of you and I had NHO SATORI or SATI which made the solution impossible.
The rest of the puzzle was lovely.
Thanks both.
I know to expect a verbal challenge from Pasquale, which I usually enjoy, but I felt that SATORI was verging on unfair. As Eileen@9 said a less familiar word included another in its wordplay .
I also thought that DEFALCATION in the central column, connecting the quadrants, was a bit much. If you didn’t know the word you’d at least need to know some Latin or science, but then that would be many of our esteemed solvers and bloggers here. I couldn’t crack it from def or wordplay. ARDENT I don’t consider as too hot’, even with the ”maybe”.
“Romantic” aren’t “tender” aren’t necessarily synonymous to me, but I do like 2 word double defs which mean something else in the surface, like this one.
On the plus side for me, happy to solve unknowns such as SOLANDER and LANCELET from wordplay.
DYNAST my pick today.
For 11A I had TUNI (a language variant of Sierra Leone) on the basis of UNIT (one) with the T moved to the front (set right to left).
Showaddydadito @5: Very inventive! Thank you.
8 was almost a write-in for me, but then, as a Tax Inspector, I spent a good portion of my career trying to spot defalcations in traders’ accounts. Not easy, as cash leaves little trace (the bookkeeping being debit sales, credit back pocket).
Challenging but enjoyable; happy to have completed it with limited lookup (wouldn’t have gotten LOTI or BO PEEP without it). Constructed a few jorums: DEFALCATION, SOLANDER, LANCELET. Liked, basically, the lot! I enjoy Pasquale’s rich vocabulary and how he steers one to the answer even when the word is uncommon (as most of his words are). The generous anagrams definitely helped. Needed the blog for the parsing of SATORI. Thanks Pasquale and manehi!
A perfect TGIF challenge, with a few TILTs (TUPI, …CATION and SATI).
Some clever anagrams – I especially liked ‘manic signal’,
and how on earth does anyone think of ‘in good taste, not OTT’ for SAN DIEGO? Genius!
Thanks to Pasquale & manehi.
Beaten by DEFALCATION which is a horribly ugly word and not a combo of letters I’d anticipate being put together. I was undone by assuming ION, rather than CATION, to be ‘what’s charged’. Most of the other unusual words fell into place between WP and crossers. I can’t pretend to be wildly enthusiastic about AA being defined as ‘road team’ though.
Thanks both
Difficult, I got stuck in the NE corner for a while. A smattering of strange words and religious references, as is usual with the Don. I liked BO PEEP, DYNAST and CANARD.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi.
Tough, but all doable, at least from the wordplays. Nho SOLANDER or DEFALCATION. I did know SATORI – first heard it in David Bowie’s Memory of a Free Festival from 1970 – didn’t everyone?
I found this initially fairly straightforward, which is unusual for me with a Pasquale puzzle. But only up to a point. I know that this particular setter always includes a few less familiar words, and it is these that I bumped into ultimately and ground to a halt. Each of DEFALCATION, LOTI, SOLANDER and SATORI required the Reveal button, sadly. But I did enjoy solving several clever anagrams earlier, PLAGIARISM and ANGLICANISM to name but two…
NHO TUPI, SATORI nor the component SATI, LOTI, LANCELET, DEFALCATION, SOLANDER.
While some of those are just vocabulary I haven’t come across, some were very much “I don’t know any Bolivian poets” territory for me.
Don’t know when Dr. Daniel SOLANDER found time to invent his Box – he was the chief botanist on Cook’s first voyage (one of those whose botanising got Botany Bay its name) and thus the first Swede to set foot in Australia and the first Swede to circumnavigate the globe. Much of his later career was spent in England, and he was in charge of the Natural History department of the British Museum until his death at the early age of 49.
Numerous visits to dictionary corner to confirm assorted JORUMS
I knew the various bits of SATORI but didn’t know DEFALCATION or CATION so like PM@20 I was left with a CAT unaccounted for
DrW@22 I first came across SATORI in Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge but Bowie is much cooler
Cheers M&P
I took the European article in LANCELET to be the Spanish EL rather than the French LE. They work equally well, which is perhaps why Pasquale used ‘European’.
Along with Dave@17, as an accountant and tax advisor I also saw defalcations early. That along with spotting a number of the long anagrams made for a very entertaining puzzle.
Just one quibble though Dave the strict double entry should be credit sales/ debit back pocket😉.
Thanks to Pasquale and Manehi
Two short of completion, and needed plenty of help for the NHOs which have been referenced in the thread. Happy with that, what with it being a Friday.
I’ve never heard of Lancelet but got it from wordplay. However, Lanlecet would work equally as well (not right obviously) so slightly unfair in my opinion. I dredged up Satori from having read Kerouac’s Satori in Paris over forty years ago. I agree with other posters that to use an obscure solution with an obscure word in the wordplay is, perhaps, unfair. Having said all that I enjoyed the solve. Thanks Pasquale and Manehi.
Decent puzzle. It does seem unlike Pasquale to clue an obscure term with an obscure spelling of a Hindu word. I tried Sutori, guessing Suti as the alternative to Suttee, so DNF for me. Enjoyed the other Jora (?). I liked the anagrams for PLAGIARISM and ANGLICANISM, although the latter seems to have more anagrinds than necessary.
Good fun. Thanks, Pasquale and manehi.
Like manehi I got off to a good start, but then I got stuck with six remaining. I enjoyed figuring out 22a SAN DIEGO and 3d REVISION
8d was rough. Nho DEFALCATION nor “CATION” in the wordplay. Same with 20d SATORI, with “SATI” = “fiery ritual once”. Others had similar experiences with those two
13a ANGLICANISM, I wonder if “sending out” is just a linking phrase rather than part of the definition. Sending out is very common in other Christian denominations, too, so not really a defining characteristic of Anglicanism
I’m really surprised that several posters haven’t heard of “cation”. Have they managed to avoid doing any chemistry at all? Cations would turn up fairly early in any chemistry course.
Surely Remand has nothing to do with jail – you can be “Remanded in custody” or remanded on bail. Or does “Remanded in custody” mean “put back in jail in jail”? But the answer was clear!
As a fellow Lion @13 HoofItYouDonkey, I try not to think of the others as ‘cleverer’ – they just know different things. The point is, we both enjoy Guardian cryptics and seem to be able to do them, albeit with a bit of help here and there in my case. Lots of words I hadn’t heard of, of course, and thanks to Manehi for the parsing on several clues. I was very pleased that my primary school knowledge of the Old Testament made CANAANITES a write-in.
@33 muffin. Hated chemistry. Tried to blow things up as master was a poor teacher with a lot of lousy students! Still have never heard of cation.It’s amazing what the Don comes up with. He really does push the boundaries. I still enjoy dipping into his book on solving cryptic crosswords. Ta for the blog: needed it!
Thanks manehi and Pasquale
I did better than normal on a Don puzzle. Maybe the big anagrams helped!
@33 muffin I fell into the trap of thinking what’s charged was ion as mentioned by some others.
On 20d Satori clued using Sati hit two GK blind spots for me and I suspect I wasn’t alone!
muffin@33
I didn’t “manage” to avoid doing much chemistry; I wasn’t given the chance and what I did was over 70 years ago. I thought “cat” was “female” as cattiness is normally attributed to women and “ion” was something charged but that meant there were two females. Time to shrug and wait to look here. I knew DEFALCATION was a financial malpractice but not what sort.
Thanks to Pasquale and manehi.
A bit harsh, muffin@33. I did O-level physics-with-chemistry in 1965. I’m fairly sure cations weren’t mentioned, and equally sure that, if they were, I would probably have forgotten about them by now. Whenever I’m surprised by what people say they don’t know or have never heard of, I remind myself that they will certainly know about lots of things unfamiliar to me. Cations, for instance.
Terry@34: I suspect Don had in mind the Chambers definition of REMAND: “to send back (esp. a prisoner into custody or on bail to await further evidence)”. So it doesn’t necessarily mean sending back to jail, but can do so.
Although I know that I did a year’s worth of chemistry lessons over 60 years ago, none of it has stayed in my memory (wouldn’t ions and so on be physics, anyway?) We all have different areas of knowledge and different blank spots, and if I am also sometimes surprised at the ignorance of others, I try not to say so, because my ignorance is just as surprising to them.
The use of cation and anion to describe positively and negatively charged ions – we used the latter terms at school, which are unambiguous – seems to have been popularised later, but you need to know whether they move to or from an anode or cathode to know what charge is meant.
I found this just as the blogger, a quick start and then tricky, not helped by sloppily bunging in Ronald Reagan as the president after a cursory glance at the fodder, and then trying to work out how “joint” related.
Thanks all.
FWIW I did chemistry to A-level, and still don’t remember either cations or anions (I just looked it up) as opposed to just ions. The fact that I wasn’t even sure how to pronounce the former does make me think that those particular terms simply weren’t taught, although perhaps it’s just my memory failing me. It was a fair few years ago, albeit not as many as for some who’ve already commented on it!
Edit: Etu@42 has just said much the same thing I think.
Wiki says: “The terms anion and cation (for ions that respectively travel to the anode and cathode during electrolysis) were introduced by Michael Faraday in 1834 following his consultation with William Whewell.”