Guardian Cryptic 27,468 by Picaroon

by

Tricky, fun, and all perfectly fair – favourites were 18ac, 25ac, 27ac, 2dn, and 20dn. Thanks, Picaroon

Across
1 PLACARDS What gambler may do, missing unknown signs (8)
a gambler may PLAY CARDS, minus Y=”unknown”
5 APLOMB Assurance from a doctor about pallor in odd places (6)
A, plus MB=Bachelor of Medicine=”doctor”, around odd letters of PaLlOr
9 WITCH HUNT Is it driver James or MP Jeremy reported persecution? (5-4)
sounds like ‘which Hunt?’ – between racing driver James Hunt and MP Jeremy Hunt
11 ANTIC Religious adversary, not half grotesque (5)
=an adjective meaning bizarre
ANTIC-hrist=”Religious adversary” without the second half
12 PRIMROSE PATH Hedonistic ways of husband, following dainty pair of girls (8,4)
=the pursuit of pleasure
Husband, after PRIM=”dainty” plus ROSE and PAT=”pair of girls”
15 OMEN Warning what a misandrist wants? (4)
a misandrist might want O=zero MEN
16 DJIBOUTIAN African in evening wear and I attack Scot (10)
DJ=dinner jacket=”evening wear”, plus I, plus BOUT=”attack”, plus IAN=”Scot”
18 COLD TURKEY Unfriendly bird’s way to kick horse, say (4,6)
=a way to give up heroin, or ‘kick horse’
COLD=”Unfriendly” plus TURKEY=”bird”
19 ANTE Poet’s lost face, having wagered money (4)
dANTE=”Poet”, losing the first letter or “face”
21 ASPIRATIONAL Hoping to get a small ratio using integers (12)
A, plus Small, plus PI=”ratio” between circumference and diameter, plus RATIONAL=”using integers” or numbers that can be expressed in terms of integer ratios
24 DRAWL Big star back to bowl a slow delivery (5)
DRAW=someone who attracts an audience=”Big star”, plus the back letter to bowL
25 EXECRATES Deplores what top managers are paid? (9)
EXEC-utive RATES=”what top managers are paid?”
26 OVERDO Loves entertaining composer, not one to dramatise (6)
O and O=two zeros=”Loves” in tennis; around VERDI=”composer” minus I=”one”
27 SYMPATHY Fellow feeling inhibited accepts to lightly touch setter’s back (8)
SHY=”inhibited”, around a reversal/”back” of TAP=”lightly touch” and MY=”setters”
Down
1 PAWN Assistant with navy, one of many on board (4)
PA=personal “Assistant”, plus With, plus Navy
2 ALTO Key element of air for singer (4)
ALT=”Key” on a computer keyboard, plus Oxygen=”element of air”
3 ADHERE Stick bill on present (6)
AD=”bill” on HERE=”present”
4 DRUM MAJORETTE Muttered furiously, poked by weighty girl with a stick (4,9)
(Muttered)* around MAJOR=”weighty”
6 PLATEFUL Paul left distraught, making some scoff (8)
=some food
(Paul left)*
7 OUTPATIENT Invalid, incorrect legal document one cuts (10)
OUT=”incorrect” as in ‘these numbers are out by a factor of ten’, plus PATENT=”legal document” with I=”one” cutting in
8 BACKHANDER Shot or pass defender’s stifled (10)
=a backhand shot in e.g. ice hockey
HAND=”pass” inside BACKER=”defender”
10 TROUBLESOMELY Annoyingly, criminal stole my investing money abroad (13)
(stole my)* around ROUBLE=”money abroad”
13 TOUCH AND GO Bird eats hot dog, possibly uncertain (5-3-2)
TOUCAN=”Bird” eating Hot; plus (dog)*
14 CELLOPHANE Fiddle with glass covering hotel — you can see through it (10)
CELLO=”Fiddle”; plus PANE=”glass” around Hotel
17 STARTLED Dawn light caused a shock (8)
START=”Dawn”, plus LED=light emitting diode=”light”
20 SATRAP Ruler and predecessor of Sun King, one with power (6)
SAT-urday=predecessor of Sun-day; plus Rex=”King”; plus A=”one”; plus Power
22 STET Don’t delete this shot’s frame on film (4)
=a proofreader’s instruction to leave a section as it was
the outer letters or frame of ShoT, plus ET the Spielberg film
23 ESPY See tablets pharmacy’s packaging (4)
E=ecstacy tablet, so ES=tablets, plus the outer letters of PharmacY

62 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,468 by Picaroon”

  1. When Insee Picaroon’s byline on the crossword, I know that the day won’t be all bad. Today’s puzzle was a joy, as ever.

  3. Thanks, manehi. I agree with all three  epithets in your preamble and with your choice of favourites. I also had ticks for 1 and 16ac and 4 and 14dn.

    I held myself up a bit over 7dn: having O?T?A?I???, I immediately thought of Vlad’s Prize clue last week [OSTRACISES = cuts] and confidently entered OSTRACISER [one cuts]! Of course, I couldn’t parse it and couldn’t get the answer to 19ac but eventually sorted myself out.

    Many thanks, Picaroon: as George says, a joy, – as ever.

  4. This was a bit of a slog, but everything went in eventually. I’m not a big fan of clues like 19a or 26a, where there are just too many poets and composers to consider; the tend to go in near the end, and it’s a case of “guess the answer, then work out the poet/composer”.

    I had a mental block at 16a, struggling to see how a BOUT could be an attack – I was thinking boxing, but seeing manehi’s blog, it becomes obvious I should have been thinking ‘flu.

    At 11a, I read “grotesque” as a noun.
    And at 21a, I took “INTEGERS” to be a subset of the rational numbers, hence definition by example.

    Thanks to Picaroon for the entertainment, and to manehi for making things clearer than my morning brain could.

  5. Good puzzle with a few traps.

    E.g., a bit perplexed by 8dn, assuming the defender is just a back.

    And had to get 9ac from the literal, befuddled by the driver and the MP.

    Of WHICH I’ve heard of neither.

  6. I’m going to be different today and say I completely agree with George (sorry Eileen)

    Not as tricky as some Picaroon crosswords but a joy to solve.   Too many favourites to list

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  7. Thanks to picaroon for a good workout and to manehi for much needed help with parsing 21a and 8d. Didn’t quite finish. Satrap was new to me.

  8. Is this literally infinitely better than yesterday’s? I suppose it can’t be, but it feels like it!

  9. Is an invalid really an out patient? I thought the opposite I.e. if you can walk you can get to the outpatients? And is a cello a fiddle?
    Otherwise some lovely clues here
    Thanks to Picaroon

  10. crypticsue@6
    As a fully paid-up member of the Eileen Admirers Society, I am touched by the compliment.

  11. I didn’t know SATRAP or STET, though I do like the clues for both. Thanks manehi, I couldn’t parse quite a few of these. A pleasing solve as always, thanks Picaroon.

    Like Eileen @3 PLACARDS and CELLOPHANE were some of my favorites, though at first I thought only a violin was a fiddle until I checked

    I agree with Trismegistus @4 about poet/composer clues, I leave them until I have some crossers!

  12. You can sometimes learn a new word in crosswordland by simply following the instructions (especially with a crosser or two).

    Pickers is one of my faves

     

    And thanks manehi.

  13. A thoroughly good puzzle.

    I have been waiting for months for a crossword with no American references. (One came close a few weeks ago with the answer RANCHER, which is a perfectly good word, but not an entity we have in GB.) While our friends in Oz and the US often say a clue needs special British knowledge, I frequently feel I lack sufficient familiarity with the culture of the USA.

    This is not a rant, just an observation. The US states are useful for two-letter combinations, for instance, but it demonstrates the extent to which American usage affects us here.

    Thanks to the buccaneering setter and to manehi for the blog.

     

  16. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

    Shirley @9: Good question about the fiddle. Basically, it is a violin, particularly when played in a certain style, but if it the word can be extended to the bass fiddle, why not to the violoncello, the little big viol?

    My first thought for 15A was CAVE, which in isolation strikes me as at least as good an answer as the right one.

  18. Most enjoyable. I agreed with favourites suggested by manehi and Eileen, and wanted to add my own, 5a ABLOMB, 9a WITCH-HUNT (I have heard of that Jeremy), 2d ALTO, and 20d SATRAP (the latter recalled from teaching Ancient History some years ago now).
    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.
    [Not ignoring the forum deliberately; just a bit out of touch. Have been in Melbourne, Victoria, celebrating my first same-sex wedding (which I now can as a civil Celebrant, given recent changes to Australian law). Now off to New South Wales to enjoy a Bluesfest (music festival) over Easter. Happy Easter greetings to the Guardian crossword community, from JinQueensland]
    PS Auriga@13, I know many fellow Aussies as well as the Yanks whose post, who really value the Guardian crossword, appreciate the knowledge and appreciation we gain about your part of the world via the crossword and the fifteensquared forum. Please don’t ever hear us complaining!

  19. [Auriga@15 – I did not know DRUM MAJORETTES 4d were not British. We had “marching girls” in my youth in Australia but can’t recall this term being used. Is it only US usage?]

  21. Much of this was too hard for me so DNF but enjoyed it all the same, also the explanations in the blog, so thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

    Julie in Australia@18: You always contribute such interesting posts, it’s a pleasure to read them. I am reminded of a lovely wedding I attended in 2003 in the French Alps near La Plagne, conducted by a civil celebrant -what a gorgeous outdoor setting it was. Happy Easter to you too and to everyone else.

  22. I took 24across as : l = big + award bowling out or removing the “a” reversed or [l (a)ward]< ….totally wrong but led to the correct answer!!

  23. I loved the ‘invalid, incorrect’. misdirection, took me a bit to read invalid in the correct way.

  24. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. When I see Picaroon’s name I feel quite apprehensive. My fears were unfounded this time. I did find this quite tough going but nonetheless enjoyable, and eventually got there. Last ones in were antic (I was unfamiliar with the grotesque meaning until today) and outpatient. I also needed to come here to check some parsing (e.g. drawl). However all fairly clued and thanks again to Picaroon and manehi.

  25. [Thank you Martin@21: it continues to be a pleasure to connect with like-minded people through what would otherwise be a very individualised and isolated hobby. I really appreciate the sharing about crosswords and life that happens in this forum community.]

  26. [PS Martin@21: the wedding was conducted on MV Elizabeth Anne, Royal Barge, built 1946, on the Yarra, the river that runs through Melbourne, Victoria’s capital. It has hosted various members of the British Royal Family and other celebrities. Like your ceremony, a memorable setting.]

  27. Auriga @ 15/Julie @ 19:

    Drum Majorettes do occur in UK. They seem to have arrived with American football.

  28. Not as tough as some of Picaroon’s, but I still found a few of these tricky. ANTIC was last in and least familiar

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  29. I really enjoyed this but I agree with Shirley @9 that ‘outpatient’ is an invalid term for INVALID. The RATIO / ‘ratio’ grated initially but on reflection I think it’s quite clever.

    Didn’t know PRIMROSE PATH and I’ve never come across DJIBOUTIAN in a cryptic before. We’ve had ‘Tuvalu’ for ‘country’ in a couple of puzzles recently so maybe this ‘original’ African will make a reappearance soon.

    I liked the image of the bird eating a hot dog, especially a bird as appealing as a toucan.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  30. Wonderful puzzle. Had to come here for the parsing of SATRAP, but it all was indeed perfectly fair.

    Re Auriga’s comments: I’ll say as I have many times before that when I point out all the varirious Anglo-American differences in spelling, pronunciation, usage, and culture that pop up here, I’m normally not complaining. I’m usually marveling at them. We have an infinitely rich language, we and you, and those differences are part of that. (Only when I’m already in a foul mood is it ever intended as a complaint.)

    [Lastly, onya Julie in Oz! My own same-sex marriage was down at City Hall back in 2014 when it first became legal here; the judge seemed REALLY happy to see so many happy gay couples that day.]

  31. Many thanks to manehi for the customary splendid blog, and to all commenters.

    According to the dictionaries, any member of the viol or violin family is a fiddle, and an invalid is simply a sick(ly) person, not necessarily immobile. That’ll do me.

    (Mind you, while we’re on the subject of trusting dictionaries, I got in a spot of hot water recently by defining Dunstable as an “industrial town”. This is exactly the definition given in Collins, but denizens of the surrounding area felt that industry was conspicuous by its absence! Who’d be a crossword setter?)

  32. [mrpenny@30, Thank you for sharing your experience. The happiness yesterday was palpable. The guests ranged from old conservative uncles to little nieces of the couple, and there was a very special celebratory vibe. There was a round of applause when I said the words “Marriage in Australia is the union of two PEOPLE…” Prior to December 9 2017, I had to say “the union of a man and a woman”…]

  33. Rather a tough one today.  I thought at first of ‘grotesque’ as a noun described a sort of funny dance or ANTIC, but it’s the other way round it seems, ANTIC as an adjective meaning ‘grotesque’ (archaically).

    Not too keen on OUTPATIENT being equated to ‘invalid’.  I’ve been an outpatient enough times, but I wouldn’t call myself an ‘invalid’ – not yet!

    Pretty sneaky there, getting a J in as a crosser, and as the second letter of a word (how many words can anyone think of, with J as the second letter?  EJECT?  DJINN?  FJORD?)

    ASPIRATIONAL would have been excellent but is rather spoilt by RATIO being part of the solution as well as the clue.  Perhaps ‘constant’ would have served instead of ‘ratio’?

    As to COLD TURKEY and ESPY – I have to confess that clueing involving recreational drug slang isn’t much to my liking.  Could it perhaps be limited to just one clue of this type per puzzle, if at all, setters?

    But having said that, excellent work from Pickers – thanks to him and Manehi.

  34. Also came to check parsing of SATRAP and then applied heel of hand to forehead with appropriate force. Thoroughly enjoyed this (the puzzle, not the blow to the bounce.) Thanks to Picaroon and manehi for putting me out of my misery.

  35. Most enjoyable. WITCH HUNT was FOI followed by DRUM MAJORETTE and things went pretty smoothly after them. Some days the puzzles are just right, and sometimes, like yesterday, they don’t.
    Did like DJIBOUTIAN.
    Thanks Picaroon.

  36. Filled 26 across in and looked at it blankly for some time, pronouncing overdo with the stress on the second syllable instead of the third, and just didn’t recognise the word at all for a while, perhaps Verdi being part of the cluing had retuned my ear…

  37. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. After my failure with yesterday’s Boatman puzzle I zipped through this one and much enjoyed it. I did need help parsing DRAWL and SATRAP (though both answers were evident). For a change my own GK came in handy – e.g., for PRIMROSE PATH (part of Ophelia’s rejoinder to her brother in Hamlet 1.3) – and ANTIC (a widely used term in that period).

    antic, antique:  since the meanings are undifferentiated by spelling in the original texts, either word can mean 1) “grotesque, fantastic, incongruous, ludicrous” here spelled antic or 2) “old” here antique; the first is by far the most common as noun/adjective/adverb; sometimes a kind of dance is meant, but few details are given: “dance an Antic” (Messalina, 846 7), “like Fairies, dancing antics” (Honest Lawyer, G2v); see also Devil’s Charter, L2v; English Moor, 67; Landgartha, E4v; the term can also describe a way of dancing: “dance anticly” (Martyred Soldier, 238; see also Thracian Wonder, E4r); several times antic is linked to the supernatural: “Clown, Merlin, and a little antic Spirit” (Birth of Merlin, E4v), “an Antic of little Fairies enter” (MS Humorous Lieutenant, 2329 31), “three antic fairies dancing” (Dead Man’s Fortune, 53 4); antic denotes one or more figures in James IV: “Enter after Oberon, King of Fairies, an Antic, who dance about a Tomb” (2 3, also 1725, 1732); for other figures see John a Kent, 780 1, 798, 819; Old Wives Tale, 0; New Trick, 250; the term can describe a grotesque pageant or entertainment: “the Antic Masque consisting of eight Bacchanalians enter girt with Vine leaves” (Messalina, 2200 2); in Woodstock a bookkeeper wrote “Antic” in the left margin (2093) for the entrance of “country gentlemen” to entertain Woodstock with their “sports”; a masque in Perkin Warbeck has “four Scotch Antics, accordingly habited” (3.2.111) and in Love’s Sacrifice masquers enter “in an Antic fashion” (1845) described as “outlandish feminine Antics”; Ford also uses the term in another context: “a crown of feathers on, anticly rich” (Lover’s Melancholy, 3.3.26); other locutions are interesting if uninformative about specific actions: “Makes Antic curtsies” (Great Duke of Florence, 2.1.53), “carried in Antic state, with Ceremony” and “dances an antic mockway” (Soddered Citizen, 995, 1918), “anticly attired, with bows and quivers” (Sophonisba, 1.2.35), “anticly attired in brave Clothes” (Thracian Wonder, F2v); Henslowe’s inventory lists “antics’ coats” (26, 52); only twice does antique probably mean “old”: “on the top, in an antique Scutcheon, is written Honor” (Four Plays in One, 311), “with a long white hair and beard, in an antique armor” (Picture, 2.1.85).

  38. ACD @37 – thank you for all that very interesting research.

    I immediately thought of Ophelia’s primrose path of dalliance, too, and also Hamlet’s

    ‘(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
    To put an antic disposition on)…’

    As I’ve said so many times before,  it’s amazing how my decades-old A Level stuff is so much more readily called to mind than what someone told me last week. 😉

  39. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    I’m reluctant to say this, but in fact I found this unusually easy for a Picaroon (though just as much fun as the norm!). The only problem I had was with BACKHANDER, as, for me, the shot is a “backhand” and the defender is a “back”, so I couldn’t see where the “er” came from.

  43. “Primrose path” was familiar to me from Macbeth, I thought, rather than Hamlet. But it turns out to be “the primrose way” in the Scottish play. Which means I’ve been misquoting that line for years. Bygones.

  44. muffin @42 – well, yes, the Humpty Dumpty approach must make crossword-solving difficult. 😉

  45. A little unfair, Eileen! My meanings are correct ones, unlike Humpty’s.

    I’m not making myself clear. The backhander and backer meanings are obviously correct; it’s just that I didn’t know them!

  46. It’s all been said. Fair, fun and tricky in places. I liked WITCH HUNT and COLD TURKEY best.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Manehi.

  47. ACD @37

    Your impressive list of quotations for ANTIC leaves out a well-known one: Antic Hay, used by Aldous Huxley as the title of a novel, and acknowledged by him as a quote from Marlowe’s Edward II:

    ‘My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns, shall with their goat feet dance the antic hay’.

    Definitely the grotesque meaning.

  49. Fun, tricky and fair – spot on. I already have a smile on my face when I see Picaroon’s name. My favourites have been mentioned apart from DRAWL which I thought was a brilliant definition (and another vaguely American reference Auriga@13?). I was working on doosra or dolly or some such cricketing reference. As for ANTIC I didn’t know it as archaic grotesque but it came to me because my mum still tells the story to this day (60 years later) that when I was a toddler and learning to talk I called insects “antics”! So that’s another reference that ACD@37 can add to the make the list even more impressive :-).

    Eileen@3&38 – it seems like your memory is still pretty good in both the near and distant past given that you remembered OSTRACISED – I didn’t, so at least I didn’t trip my self up with that one.

    JinA/JinQ – how lovely to hear of your experience as a celebrant. Between us Mrs W and I have 6 next generation people who all see same sex relationships as perfectly normal, and the wedding we went to in Dublin in January that I mentioned here was that of Mrs W’s youngest son who is gay – and it was one of the most joyful occasions I have ever been to. The celebrant at the ceremony was both moving and moved; the speeches at the meal afterwards were heartfelt; and the whole thing was suffused with love. Enjoy the Easter blues :-).

    Thanks to Manehi for help with some of the parsing and to Picaroon for the puzzle and for contributing to the blog.

  50. Well I found this a little trickier than the usual Picaroon.

    I still can’t find a dictionary, and I’ve tried many, which confirms “defender” = “backer”. Not quite the same thing in my opinion.

  51. Only a handful of great clues can already make my day.

    There were plenty of them today, but 13d (TOUCH-AND-GO), 20d (SATRAP) and 1ac (PLACARDS) were so incredibly neat and stylish that nothing could go wrong anymore.

    I have nothing to say about ‘Fiddle’ and the wonderfully misdirecting ‘invalid’ than what the setter said about it himself @31.

    As a mathematician, I found ‘rational’ = ‘using integers’ by far not enough. The cube root of 7 can be written down using two integers (3 and 7) but is certainly not rational. Perhaps, ‘ratio’ did a bit of double duty here but mmm. Forgiven, though.

    Nice crossword, possibly somewhat easier than usual.

    One more point and that is about 19ac and 10d. Some other setters would have written here “Poet lost face …..” and “.… criminal stole my invested money abroad“. But Picaroon left the past tense standing in the cold. Rightly so!

    Thanks manehi & Picaroon.

  52. Sil@51 – great insights into the setter’s craft for this developing solver – thank you. I’ll stick to my conversational contributions for the time being!

  53. lurkio @ 50

    You can defend / support / back a stance / opinion. All seem pretty interchangeable to me.

  54. WhiteKing @49 – just back from celebrating my daughter’s birthday: I can’t believe she’s so old! [I still – honestly – feel little more than  that age myself. Sigh.]

    I think I tend to remember the cluing of OSTRACISE whenever it occurs because I love the word for its derivation: the ancient Athenians used to write the names of unpopular citizens on a tile or potsherd [ostrakon] and toss them into an urn, to secure their banishment.

    I totally defend / back / support Simon S @53.

  55. Loved this but finding it hard to accept cello as fiddle despite what the dictionaries might say. When orchestral players talk about the fiddles they mean the violins and only the violins.

  56. Well, it’s getting near to midnight here, and I’m finally making it here to 15^2 to add my voice (not that there are likely to be any, or many, left to hear it) to those of the others, expressing delight with this puzzle.  My faves were SATRAP, COLD TURKEY and TOUCH-AND-GO.  If I had recognized the names of driver James and MP Jeremy, WITCH HUNT would have been up at the top for me as well.

    Some enjoyable tangential discussions in the comments above!

    Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi and the other commenters.

    I guess I’ll get rolling on the Nutmeg as I get ready for zzzzzs.

  57. Simon S and Eileen 53 & 54

    No. I still believe that “defend” has a quite different more reactive or active  meaning than “back”or “support” and as such is not a good enough definition for either.IMHO

     

  58. lurkio @ 57 (should you see this)

    The equivalence is supported multi-directionally by Chambers eThesaurus, so whether or not one agrees with the meaning the setter can be defended.

  59. I tend to start these crosswords late in the evening, so rarely get here in time to make a comment others might read, but – just in case – I didn’t have the same problem as Sil@51 with 21ac. I read PI-RATIONAL, all in one, as clued by ‘ratio-using-integers’, all in one – the well-known 22/7 – and rather liked it.

    As I liked the rest of the puzzle.

  60. Bernoulli
    I think PI accounts for ‘ratio’ and RATIONAL accounts for ‘using integers’, as blogged. You just have to allow for an abbreviated (or loose, if you insist!) definition of what rational numbers are, namely, ‘expressible in terms of integer ratios’.
    I thought a person with your name would have explained this in a similar way!

  61. I’m way past the time for anyone to see this but, as a retired lawyer (7d) and amateur cellist (14d) I have to thank Picaroon publicly for this puzzle. Although I agree with Shirley@9 Xjpotter@55 that a cello isn’t a fiddle, dictionary notwithstanding that didn’t spoil the clue for me. As always Picaroon’s clues were witty and eminently fair. A challenging and most enjoyable crossword, with too many favourites to list. Thanks also to manehi for the blog, and to all the bloggers for yet another fascinating read.

  62. Another enjoyable offering from Picaroon. 3Very late with this. Just had to add my name to the smile making favourites witch hunt, primrose path and cold turkey.

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