Quite a gentle offering today from Harpo (aka Monk in other places) – thanks to him for the entertainment.
There are Ninas in the outer edges of the grid, with DEL BOY, NEW AGE, COD WAR and THE THE. I can’t see any obvious connection between these, but perhaps others will be able to.
| Across | ||||||||
| 7 | CALAMARI | Squid Game uncovered racial manoeuvring (8) Anagram of [g]AM[e] RACIAL |
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| 9 | ORPHAN | Harpo dealt with new undesirable counterpart of widow? (6) HARPO* + N[ew] – “widows and orphans” are stereotypical examples of the needy |
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| 10 | OAKY | Firm’s fine when internally upset (4) OKAY with the middle letters swapped |
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| 11 | BALUSTRADE | Coping with much support, adults bear struggles (10) (ADULTS BEAR)* – a balustrade can be the support of an architectural coping. Surprisingly, Chambers only lists the form “baluster”, though it gives “balustrade” as one of its definitions, marked “archaic”, so perhaps experts will query the details here |
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| 12 | DAHLIA | Trouble held back plant (6) Reverse of AIL HAD |
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| 14 | WHAT’S NEW | Update me – he wants different wife? (5,3) (HE WANTS)* + W |
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| 15 | EUNUCH | Ineffectual sort of check on unopened list of options around university (6) U[niversity] in [m]ENU + CH[eck] |
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| 17 | VANISH | Disappear à la goods vehicle? (6) The goods vehicle could be VAN-ISH |
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| 20 | WARRANTY | Bombastic outburst breaks cautious guarantee (8) RANT in WARY. Guarantee and warranty are actually versions of the same original word that entered English at different times |
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| 22 | BANANA | Fruit bar, 50% pineapple (6) BAN (bar) + half on ANA[nas] |
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| 23 | AUTONOMOUS | Self-governing modus operandi in car intelligence (10) MO in AUTO NOUS (intelligence) |
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| 24 | SLOG | Small piece of timber hit with heavy blows (4) S + LOG |
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| 25 | RENTAL | Payment contributing to current allowance (6) Hidden in curRENT ALlowance |
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| 26 | EXERCISE | Work out tax spanning years, off and on (8) Alternate letters of yEaRs in EXCISE (tax) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | DATABASE | Information store starts to defrag and thus degrade (8) First letters of Defrag And Thus + ABASE |
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| 2 | EASY | Simple Minds ultimately stops cycling old agreement (4) [mind]S in YEA with the letters cycled |
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| 3 | LAMBDA | Second adult to abandon Latin dance character overseas (6) LAMBADA less its second A |
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| 4 | BOTSWANA | Tense aquatic bird crushed by snake somewhere in South Africa (8) T[ense] SWAN in BOA. “South Africa” in the sense of the southern part of the continent, rather than the country of that name |
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| 5 | OPPRESSION | Breaking in, proposes tyranny (10) (IN PROPOSES)* |
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| 6 | YARDIE | Gangster that is holding up police HQ? (6) YARD (Scotland Yard, HQ of the Metropolitan Police) + I.E. |
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| 8 | IN-LAWS | Relations slain violently around west (2-4) W in SLAIN* |
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| 13 | LUNAR MONTH | Time taken for nearest neighbour to come round again? (5,5) Cryptic definition |
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| 16 | CANOODLE | Pet food not wrapped in something waxy (8) [f]OO[d] in CANDLE |
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| 18 | HENHOUSE | Shelter with presumably one or more layers under roof (8) Cryptic definition, with the chickens being the “layers” |
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| 19 | BYGONE | Former farewell involves lifting drink (6) Reverse of NOG in BYE |
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| 21 | AMULET | Charm a beast, given time (6) A + MULE + T[ime] |
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| 22 | BASKET | Hamper opinion about demand (6) ASK in BET (opinion) |
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| 24 | SUCH | Setter and solvers upset church so much (4) Reverse of US (setter & solvers) + CH |
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Only the SW corner caused me problems and the rest was gentler as you say. I did see the stand alone Ninas which helped me with a few outside letters, but I can’t see any connection, nor do I think there is one. BALUSTRADE, BOTSWANA and AUTONOMOUS were my favourites.
Ta Harpo & Andrew.
Very tough puzzle. I gave up on several clues.
Of the ones I solved, I couldn’t parse 2d, 3d, 6d.
New for me: YARDIE=gangster.
Recollect from my days working for a warranty company that there’s a technical (legal?) difference between a warranty and a guarantee, but the mists of time have erased that difference from my mind.
Thanks Andrew and Harpo.
Lots of anagrams to get things started which was generous, but I am not a fan of cryptic definitions (I often find Vulcan one of the hardest setters to get into) as often I can see what is going on (as with henhouse – I immediately thought of my chickens and their coop and run) but still not get the answer. I have a similar mental block with Spoonerisms.
If I were really as pedantic as Muffin suggested last week (thanks for the compliement!) then I would point out that a lunar month is the time between full moons (a synodic month) which is the time for the moon to come round the earth once (a sidereal month) and then a little more in order to line up with the sun as well, the earth having moved on a little in its orbit in that time. But that would be nitpicking of the highest order, so I shall not point it out at all.
thanks Harpo and Andrew.
I knew the word BALUSTRADE pretty well, but baluster is a NHO for me. OAKY held out the longest, even though I had the right idea about how it would work. Even now oaky = firm seems a stretch to me (oak is a hardwood -> hard woods are firm??? maybe). I baulked a little at the idea that Botswana is in South Africa too – southern Africa, sure. CANOODLE I only know from remembering our Headmaster warning us against canoodliing before a school dance back in the day, and the derision it caused amongst us kids. Thanks, Harpo and Andrew.
Enjoyed this for the most part, but felt ‘had’ for held in DAHLIA a tad loose.
Loved VANISH & LUNAR MONTH.
Many thanks, both.
Crispy @3: I’ll happily bow to your superior knowledge, but I’ve always thought a guarantee to be a general statement, while a warranty is a more formal, written undertaking with specific terms of coverage etc.
Thanks Harpo and Andrew
From memory, as it’s a long time since I was involved in commerce, a warranty is an assertion about a product / service, whereas a guarantee is legally enforceable.
Hence warranties are offered more often than guarantees.
I didn’t find this gentle as it took me a while to get on the right wavelength. OAKY was my LOI and I’m not impressed, though I can see where the ‘firm’ definition comes from. Liked CANOODLE once I saw the misdirection. Thanks to Harpo and Andrew
William @8. Sadly, these days my forgetfulness is far superior to my knowledge. I suspect it was something I was told in my induction then promptly decided I didn’t need to remember it in my role.
Happy to be in the first dozen for this pleasant puzzle. Felt that EUNUCH was anachronistically hard but otherwise no real trouble. Thanks HARPO.
Not as easy as perhaps the blog suggests (for me at least) but far from brain melting.
A rare occasion where I not only spotted the Nina but also used it to solve YARDIE and HENHOUSE. I did a quick Google but didn’t find any obvious connection between them. Although the Delboy and The The references for some reason evoked memories of the Only Fools and Horses Episode where Rodney formed a band.
Like CANOODLE.
Thanks Harpo and Andrew
Thanks Harpo and Andrew
I found the bottom far harder than the top, and it was quite a slow finish.
I wondered by OAKY was defined as “firm” too, and I can’t see why BET = opinion.
Favourites HENHOUSE and CANOODLE.
Quite doable, apart from a struggle with OAKY, but got there in the end.
Not sure about the unnecessary ‘undesirable’ in 9a. It adds nothing to the clue and leaves rather a bad taste in the mouth I feel.
TassieTim@6. Loved your quote about canoodling. It reminded me of the first time we took our kids to a swimming pool in England. They grew up in France with French as their first language and one of them came up to us and said ‘That “No Petting” sign… Sometimes I just can’t help farting…’
This went in relatively smoothly until I had the NW corner left to fill in. Defeated by OAKY, EUNUCH and DATABASE. Not too convinced by “character overseas” to indicate yet another letter of the Greek alphabet appearing in a cryptic crossword, though I did manage that one…
If I finish before 10.00 then it does have to be one of the gentler puzzles. Thanks
Poc@15: I thought undesirable was the anagrind? This was a DNF for me with OAKY and EASY both defeating me. Found it a hard struggle unlike most here!
Perhaps the undesirable widows and orphans are those in a typesetting context.
Chambers defines oaky as ‘like oak, firm’, but it was mystifying on solving.
I have most frequently heard “oaky” as a description of wine!
JOFT@4: I read “come round again” in 13d as a reference to the shape becoming a full circle.
Nearly 10.30 and still no suggestions as to what the ninas refer to. Beats me, for sure.
My favourite was WHAT’S NEW for the amusing surface. VANISH is maybe a bit of a chestnut but usually brings a smile.
muffin @14: I wondered about 22d, but Chambers includes for BET, “opinion, guess”. I suppose you might say for example “My bet is that such-and-such will happen”.
Re BALUSTRADE, yes sometimes the format in Chambers can be a bit confusing and counter-intuitive. Under the entry for “baluster” it includes as one definition “a balustrade (archaic)”, but then further on (but still under the same main heading) it has “balustrade (noun) – a row of balusters joined by a rail or coping”.
Many thanks Harpo and Andrew.
OAKY = firm. I suppose this might refer to the idiom ‘as sturdy as an oak’.
It’s David Jason’s 86th birthday for Del Boy
I think the NINAs might just be things that occurred in the 1970s. I started well in the top half but then ground to a temporary halt. I liked the surface of EXERCISE, the EASY Simple Minds agreement, the CANOODLE pet food, and the HENHOUSE with multiple layers.
Thanks Harpo and Andrew.
Petert @26; close, but it was yesterday.
Robi @ 27 – OFAH began in 1981….
I think James @20 is correct to say that the widow and orphan of 9 across relate to typsetting. If I have a sentence of 10 words and put the first nine words at the bottom of one page and then put the remaining one word at the top of the next page, it would be awkward to read, and hence undesirable.
The nine-word segment is known as a widow (it has lost something) and the word left alone is known as an orphan. I hope that allays the reasonable concern of poc @15.
@Crispy3
Warranties are often paid for, Guarantees are usually free. Warranties are mostly written, Guarantees can be verbal
Lots of fun even after a 4am start
W@7 I had/held a contract to write LAMBDA functions for the DATABASE?
Cheers A&H
I found this hard. I revealed OAKY ( I too would associate this with wine not firmness), SLOG and SUCH. I often find the four-letter answers most difficult; there are too many possibilities for, say, -A-Y if you can’t parse it and are looking to guess or find synonyms. I saw the parsing once I’d revealed it though I thought of ‘aye’ rather than ‘yea’ for the letters. I’m confused by 22a, BANANA. I know that ‘ananas’ is French for pineapple but what in the clue tells me to use a French word? Am I missing something?
If there are 4 areas of knowledge or interest more completely unrelated to each other than the 4 ninas then I can’t think of them! Harpo must’ve been having quite an odd day if he was reading some Adrian Welch whilst listening to Soul Mining with an incense stick burning, followed by watching an episode of Only Fools and Horses…
Bingy @29; thanks, I stand corrected. ’70s or ’80s?
Great puzzle, which came together in a couple of sittings. LOI 6d I was going to settle for the unparsed BADDIE, but a trip through the alphabet yielded YARDIE (nho) at the last moment, for a completion. Lots of great clues, including 7a CALAMARI (“Squid Game”), 17a VAN-ISH, 25a RENTAL (well hidden), 2d EASY (nice construction), 18d HENHOUSE (funny)
Thanks both
I had most difficulty with NW and SE corners. The four letter ones were simply out of my language zone.
Thanks for the labour of love!
Canoodle is a Cane Corso crossed with a Poodle, makes a good Pet, highly intelligent, loyal and happy to please its owner.
Amma@33
Ananas comosus is the scientific name for what we call in English a pineapple. In the Spanish speaking world it is Annas, as it is in French, German, Polish, Greek, Czech and many other languages apart from English.
[There is a sketch from Blackadder regarding the naming of the pineapple, when presented to QE1 and told that this fruit is called Annas everywhere QE1 said we shall call it a pineapple ]
Re the ninas and probably going nowhere. Yesterday was groundhog day. There is an Del Boy connection (watching Groundhog Day 12); a ‘The The’ connection (lyrics of ‘This is the Day’) and a marginal ‘new age’ connection – can’t work out how the cod wars might fit though.
… oh yes – the cod wars have been described as a series of repetitive encounters: “The Cod Wars (1958–1976) resembled Groundhog Day because Iceland repeatedly and unilaterally expanded its fishing limits, triggering identical, repetitive cycles of conflict with the UK. Iceland would extend its zone, Britain would send warships to protect its trawlers, and Iceland would use its coast guard to cut nets and ram ships, forcing a similar, cyclical showdown three times. “
[@CliveinFrance – I probably bow to no-one when it comes to how many times I have watched Blackadder and in particular the second series and I cannot recall any sketch about the naming of a pineapple…It’s entirely possible my memory is failing me but which episode are you referring to?]
me@44 … cf the groundhog day puzzle in the Independent.
Thank you Clyde @30. I came here to say the same thing, but could not have put it as succinctly!
Cliveinfrance@40 thanks for that. I wouldn’t have thought of looking up the scientific name for pineapple. I got the answer from the French though.
Maybe the Nina’s are to do with anniversaries
David Jason – 86
The The’s album Infected – 1986
Cod Wars ended 1976
New Age ?
“Ananas” for pineapple occurs in English too. It’s in the Chambers dictionary.
Thanks Andrew et al. The uninspiring Nina was driven by no more than the geometry of the grid, whose dual-symmetric perimeter unches are all enumerated (3,3). I thought I’d have a DAY OFF from anything more complex, OLD BOY. THE END 😉.
Unusually for me, I spotted the Nina and it helped me with the last few words in (just like AlanC#1). It’s funny to me that I know about Del Boy, or Only Fools And Horses for that matter, strictly from crosswordland.
A great crossword, thank you Harpo & Andrew! Or BIG THX?
Thanks Harpo for a well-crafted crossword. I needed a word finder for OAKY and BYGONE but all else fell into place with my favourites being WHATS NEW, WARRANTY, DATABASE, BOTSWANA, and IN-LAWS. I spotted the Nina(s) forming but I was uncertain how they related to each other. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
Like Amma@33, I found that the four-letter words were the obstacles to finishing; I eventually got there. OAKY for “hard”? Well, I guess so, at a push.
A BALUSTRADE is what I’d call it, not having heard of a Baluster as a component thereof; Lord Jim@24 ‘s search into what Chambers says tallies (as it should!) with the OED, which for BALUSTRADE gives: “A row of balusters, surmounted by a rail or coping, forming an ornamental parapet or barrier along the edge of a terrace or balcony” (first usage in 1644, by J, Evelyn, should you wish to know…). Anyway, a nice clue, with a devious definition.
Thanks, Blaise@16, for the “No Petting” story. Our children, when taken to Paris, aged about 10 and 8, were highly amused by those delicate little pastries mischievously called “Pets de Nonne”. Giggle, giggle.
Did not spot the Ninas, but that’s par for the course for me; nor would they have meant that much if I had!
Thank you Harpo, for a slightly chewy (but enjoyable) one for a Tuesday, and to Andrew for the blog.
Barretta @50
But nobody uses Ananas in English speaking countries, try ordering home delivery from Tesco and asking for an Ananas, they will probably send you Bananas, in most of Europe they are called Ananas.
[Bingay @45, guess my memory is faulty, but definitely remember a sketch but obs not Blackadder, It is typical of the English need to rename things that have a perfectly good name elsewhere.]
I think I first came across “ananas” in Swiss Family Robinson. I thought the author couldn’t spell “bananas”!
CliveInFrance @55. You could use that argument about a lot of words that come up in Guardian crosswords
Another toughie. NHO Lambda and I’m hoping the day comes when I have the NOUS to insert my MO into AUTO pain free. Thanks to all.
Drums_are_not_noise@58: the Greek alphabet is another one of those sets of general knowledge that is standard crossword fodder. Add it to the cricket fielding positions, British prime ministers, medium-sized country towns, US state abbreviations, common and less-common birds, antelopes and fish, rivers with short names that can conveniently form bits of other words and…
Eeeeh , it’s great to be alive in crosswordland.
DTS#59
Indeed. What a time to be alive. On to tomorrow.
Drums_are_not_noise@58 Which would be AUTONOMOUS.
In 2d, where does YEA come from?
Steffan @62 YEA is an archaic form of yes, so ‘old agreement’.
Like Amma @33 I parsed it as AYE cycling and the S ‘stops’/blocks between A&Y.
Steffen@62 good to see you’re still around! I sat down to answer your question but Rich@63 beat me to it! Like the blogger, I parsed it as YEA (old agreement, i.e. archaic form of “yes”), with the letters “cycling” (front to back, so EAY), with “Minds ultimately” (=S) “stopping” (blocking) it, so EASY
Steffen#62
I think the parsing should use “aye” which is an old form of “yes” (agreement) rather than “yea” which is current.
Pino@65 I would have thought that both AYE and YEA are archaic, but Chambers only has an “(archaic)” indicator for the latter
poc@15, inclined to agree about ‘undesirable’ in 9a. I think ‘unfortunate’ would have been a better alternative.
MuddyThinking@19: The anagrind for harpo is ‘dealt’.
Mig@66: They still use ‘aye’ in parliament on a daily basis – “Ayes to the left”, “Nos to the right” when declaring the voting results.
DerekTheSheep@59…and let’s add and not forget the word See being often represented by Ely. Which conveniently provides a useful ending to a multitude of words/answers to clues. But not recently, I believe…
iStan@69 Exactly, which makes YEA a better parsing for 2d. However, neither AYE nor YEA are used in informal conversation — only in formal settings where “archaic” language may still be used, like parliament, church, ships, or theatre
Further, I believe in the Canadian parliament, they vote “yea” or “nay”, probably because the rhyme gives them equal heft
Thankyou Harpo#51 for dropping in, and letting me out of my conundrum (I think). Now you’ve just posed another.
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Thank you Rich, Mig and Pino
[ I assume that those who believe that aye meaning yes is archaic have never been north of the Humber.]
Ah, Zoot@75, good point! Apologies to the Northerners! 🙂
I’m new here & new to cryptics – having long been convinced that they were impossibly complicated, it turns out I can get my head around it, given time & letting my mind get into the groove. One question – is it common to correctly figure out the answer to a clue but not be entirely sure how you got there? I ask because this is often the position I find myself in (albeit I’m doing the cryptic online & using the ‘check word’ button).
Mig@66
I’m sure you’re right. I was confusing ” yea” with “yeah” which is current.
Pino@79 yeah, I thought that might be the case! 🙂
Sam@77 in a word, yes. We come by solutions however we can, either by definition, wordplay, crossers, guesses, or any combination of those. Getting the answer from the definition, and parsing the wordplay afterward is a great way to start, so you’re on the right track. Fifteensquared is very helpful when you can’t quite figure the parsing!
Failed on LAMBDA and DAHLIA, both gettable but I didn’t see ‘held’ =HAD for one and had never heard of (or neglected to remember) the dance. I find Harpo’s surfaces impenetrable at first, but once I have identified a definition I can usually get fairly close.
“Cycling” a three letter word which could be either AYE or YEA and ends up as EA_Y seems awfully like an indirect anagram to me. Where are the Ximeneans?
Chapeau to Polyphone @43&44 for the stunning research to dig up the connections between the four Ninas, which the setter was unaware of, apparently. 😁
Thanks to Harpo’s and Andrew.
Sam @77
To quote Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka, “What difference does it where he got it? Point is, he got it.”
You’ll often hear seasoned solvers say things like, “15 down must be SARDINE cos it fits. But I can’t see how it works.”
Funnily enough, once you confirm that the answer is right, it suddenly gets easier.
I’ve seen this crossword before. A reprint from February?
Not sure what I was doing on 3 February, but it wasn’t this crossword. I’ve just completed it in the print issue (erroneous reprint) on March 3rd and was one of several bemused print subscribers there. Thanks Harpo and Andrew. Several enjoyable clues, particularly enjoyed WHATSNEW.