Apologies for the dealy in getting this blog up – I have had a few days from hell, including a motor accident, and numerous family commitments.
At least it was a Monday, so a straightforward Rufus, so it didn’t take long to solve the puzzle.
It was full of the usual double definitions, and a few cryptic definitions, although i would argue that 13ac and 26ac are barely cryptic.
I did like the simple anagrams at 21ac, 5d and 15dn.
Thanks, Rufus.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DISTANCE | It’s put out in the dance interval (8) |
| *(its) in DANCE | ||
| 5 | PRECIS | Summary is not quite accurate (6) |
| PRECIS(e) | ||
| 9 | STOPGAPS | Makeshift draught excluders? (8) |
| Draught excluders may STOP (ie block) GAPS | ||
| 10 | DOGMAS | Closely follow master’s beliefs (6) |
| DOG + MAs | ||
| 12 | SALON | Girl taking on hairdressing business (5) |
| SAL + ON | ||
| 13 | TITLE ROLE | Name part of Hamlet, say (5,4) |
| TITE + ROLE | ||
| 14 | CURLING TONGS | They were responsible for heat waves (7,5) |
| Cryptic definition – not sure why it’s in the past tense – do curling tongs no longer exist? | ||
| 18 | FREE STANDING | A treat for spectators — no support required (4,8) |
| If the standing area is free, that would be a treat for spectators, especially the likes of me, who prefers to stand at a sporting occasion. | ||
| 21 | ALLOWANCE | Sum granted to repair ocean wall (9) |
| *(ocean wall) | ||
| 23 | EARTH | Current means of escape for a fox? (5) |
| Double definition
EDIT: see comments below, which suggest that the setter overlapped “means of escape”, so “Current means of escape” and “means of escape for a fox”, both leading to EARTH. Excellent! |
||
| 24 | DULCIE | She’s confused Euclid (6) |
| *(euclid) | ||
| 25 | ISLANDER | One to vilify a British resident (8) |
| 1 + SLANDER | ||
| 26 | NEEDLE | Old record player (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 27 | CREEPERS | Plants for sycophants (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DESIST | To stop in Rhodes is tempting (6) |
| Hidden in “RhoDES IS Tempting” | ||
| 2 | SCOWLS | Shows displeasure at seeing the brotherhood on board (6) |
| COWL in S.S. (“on board” a ship)
Are “cowl” and “brotherhood” interchangeable? Edit: see below, where it is pointed out that BROTHER HOOD may equal COWL. |
||
| 3 | ARGONAUTS | Angostura put out for Jason’s crew (9) |
| *(angostura) | ||
| 4 | CAPITAL GAINS | London profits from this form of taxation (7,5) |
| CAPITAL + GAINS | ||
| 6 | RHONE | River heron in distress (5) |
| *(heron) | ||
| 7 | COMPOUND | Enclosure is not at all simple (8) |
| Double definiton | ||
| 8 | SUSPENSE | American quiet in feeling anticipation (8) |
| US + P in SENSE | ||
| 11 | STONE DRESSER | Worker restores ends in new building (5,7) |
| *(restores ends) | ||
| 15 | TENDER AGE | Immaturity arising from great need (6,3) |
| *(great need) | ||
| 16 | OFF AND ON | Occasionally switch positions (3,3,2) |
| Double definitions | ||
| 17 | FEEL BLUE | Have a touch of colour and be miserable (4,4) |
| FEEL + BLUE | ||
| 19 | BRIDGE | Pontoon is a card game (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 20 | CHORUS | Alternative accepted by such poor singers (6) |
| OR in *(such) – would have preferred “alternatively” | ||
| 22 | WHIRL | A trial spin? (5) |
| Double definition – think “Give it a whirl” | ||
*anagram
2dn COWL = Hood as worn by a brother (= a monk), as I’m sure you’ll now see!
Thanks loonapick (hope you weren’t injured in the accident) and Rufus for a gentle start to the week
Thanks Rufus – sorry to hear of your problems, loonapick
I enjoyed this, with OFF AND ON being one of my favourites, in fact, though I agree that TITLE ROLE isn’t cryptic.
Just to add to cholecyst @1, “to take the cowl” means “to join a brotherhood of monks”.
Thanks to the first two commenters – I’m aware of the connection between COWL and BROTHERHOOD, but I haven’t come across cowl meaning brotherhood, even as a a synecdoche.
I’d class 23A as an overlapping double definition. “Current means of escape” and “means of escape for a fox.”
I reckon that COWL = the hood of a brother (monk). Quite clever and typical Rufus. Favourites were ALLOWANCE, STOPGAPS and WHIRL (once I’d got it – LOI for me). Thanks to Rufus and loonapick.
Ah, I see that cholecyst has already pointed this out (the hood of a brother).
Thanks both and thanks to John @4. Is the overlapping DD new to the typology of clues? I rather like it. It’s necessary in this case because an earth on its own isn’t a current.
John Carney@4 – that makes sense, although as Tyngewick@7 points out, it’s an unusual device to use the overlapping DD.
drofle@5 – as I said in my comment@3, I can see that COWL = hood. I’m just pointing out that I’ve never seen COWL being used as a synecdoche for BROTHERHOOD.
Thank you Rufus and loonapick – do hope you are recovering from your ghastly time over the last few days.
I enjoyed this puzzle, Rufus at his best. I treated BROTHERHOOD as a “lift and separate” clue, but got stuck for a while at 14a, wanting to fit in “ninos”, and also at the bottom row.
I like BROTHER HOOD, Cookie!
All pretty straightforward but pleasant enough
Thanks to Rufus and loonapick
Thanks Rufus and loonapick.
I was struggling to fully parse 23ac but seeing John@4’s explanation the scales fell. Also missed the brother hood business, so SCOWLS was more or less guesswork.
Liked DOGMAS, CREEPERS and OFF AND ON
OK, I see it now – BROTHER HOOD rather than BROTHERHOOD.
The penny took a while to drop.
Cookie @9 I read it as BROTHER HOOD too.
Spent ages looking for a dance beginning with D in DISTANCE. Blushed on discovering it was DANCE!
ON AND OFF & EARTH stand out in this typical Rufusian offering.
Many thanks, loonapick, I do hope you weren’t injured in your prang.
Nice week, all.
muffin @10, et al., I am sure this is what cholecyst @1 meant.
Trouble with Rufus is ., what with the CDs DDs and barely cryptic clues, I tend not to take it seriously- so I casually wrote STAGE DRESSER in which produced SUNLIGHT TANKS for the across. Then I pressed check!!Missed an anagram- then the correct solution led to the excellent CURLING TONGS.Rufus is sometimes like a mixture of a cryptic and non cryptic
and I’m usually useless at the latter- I want the definition twice over, underlined in red ink which it often is once you have untied the knots.
Cookie @15 – yes you’re right (as usual) but you put it more succinctly – “What oft was Thought, but ne’er so well Exprest”
cholecyst @17
Sorry I didn’t see hwat you were driving at.
A mostly straightforward Monday Rufus with some nice twists (like EARTH), but I think my favourite was ALLOWANCE for its nice surface.
Thanks, Rufus and loonapick.
Quite a nice Rufus I thought despite some of the criticisms above.
I rather liked COWL and I thought NAME PART was rather good. STONE DRESSER was new to me but the answer couldn’t be anything else.
Loonapick’s nasty experiences put my decorators woes in perspective!
Thanks Rufus.
Thanks loonapick and Rufus.
Nice easy workout, but I agree that 26ac [loonapick: surely neither 16ac (no clue) nor 16dn (nice one)] is barely cryptic. As to 13ac, I have Name=title, part=role and Hamlet=title role, with a “say” to indicate an example – quite an elegant, if straightforward, clue.
Favourite was CURLING TONGS also LOI, although confused by “were” – was there a pre-electric version of the “current” apparatus?
Liked the surface of DOGMAS.
Alphalpha@21.
I meant 26ac, but have fat fingers these days… now edited.
I failed at 14A, convinced it had to be – U – L I N G TANKS. Otherwise fairly swift.
loonapick@22
Sorry to be adding pedantry to your woes…
Thanks loonapick and Rufus,
I was more on Rufus’s wavelength today or he was just being gentle. I agree with loonapick that the past tense in 14a was a bit misleading (fair play, it’s a cryptic after all). Initially I thought it might be an allusion to global warming and entered FUELING TANKS. Funnily, it took a long time for CURLING TONGS to enter my male and mostly bald head!
Thanks to Rufus and loonapick. I’m late to the discussion owing to internet issues. I had trouble seeing both CURLING TONGS and STONE DRESSER and needed help parsing EARTH but as usual enjoyed this Monday exercise.
CURLING TONGS are curling irons here. And I think we call STONE DRESSERS stone cutters. So those two took a bit more thought than the others.
I agree that TITLE ROLE is barely cryptic. The problem, a typical gripe for me with Rufus, is that he’s taken a common phrase, broken it into its two words separately, and clued each word in a straightforward way, with exactly the same meaning it had in the original phrase. In other words, all the clue does is tell you exactly why a title role is called a title role.
Similarly, the NEEDLE as “old record player” is objectionable. I suppose he’s expecting you to think of a Victrola or something, but that’s not a very big conceptual leap there.
Usual fare from Rufus. 🙁
Posters seem to be “overegging” 2D. As Loonapic suggested it’s simple synecdoche or a metonym. (As in town and gown)
SOED has
cowl ka?l ? noun1 & verb. OE.
A noun.
1 A hooded sleeveless garment worn by monks. Also, a full cloak with wide sleeves worn by members of Benedictine orders. OE.
2 The hood of such a garment. l16.
3 Monkhood, monasticism; a monk. m17.
Pope What differ more (you cry) than crown and cowl?
4 A vented covering fitted on top of a chimney or ventilation shaft to improve the draught. (Earlier as cow noun4.) e19.
See def 3.
OED has “brotherhood” as An association or community of people linked by a common interest, religion, or trade.
This seems much more “Rufusian”
The type of clue exemplified by TITLE ROLE and NEEDLE could be called a single entendre.
Just a thought.
A neat puzzle which I enjoyed.
Favourites were 5a PRÉCIS, 10a DOGMAS and 14a CURLING TONGS.
The latter are called curling wands in Australia too, or hair stylers. GHDs or hair straighteners seem to be the go these days too. To me curling tongs sound old fashioned and I would have thought heated over the fire by a maid, in the era of bed warmers and such, so I had no problem with the past tense.
Thanks for the discussion, fellow forum contributors, and of course to Rufus and loonapick. (Sorry to hear of your accident, loonapick.)
Julie @30
I too liked DOGMAS, and I thought 23a EARTH, with its overlapping double definition, was also very neat.
PS Have just spent a fascinating ten minutes exploring the meanings and examples of synecdoches and metonyms via google. Some examples from literature and everyday parlance were very familiar, I just didn’t know the terms for them. Thanks to the forum for new learnings.
I could be wrong, but I believe curling tongs are an item for the antique store ( I remember them appearing in Little Women), whereas curling irons are still sold. I know I put the latter in for 14a, which held me up for a bit.
A 1 second Google search brought up curling tongs for sale at Argos, Amazon and Boots, so it’s still a current term.
… that would certainly explain why Amazon is trying desperately to offload so many sets of curling tongs at the moment.
I realise I’m a bit late to the party, but I thought TITLE ROLE also referred to Hamlet’s being The Prince of Denmark – i.e.his title.