Guardian Cryptic 27,623 by Nutmeg

by

A slightly easier than normal Nutmeg this morning…

…which nonetheless held me up a little with some of the parsing.

Short blog, as I am in a bit of a rush today (our boiler is playing up, and an engineer is due soon, so the IMMERSION HEATER has come in handy this morning. 

Thanks, Nutmeg.

Across
1 BLISTER Bubble that irritates second-rate movie star? (7)
  B-LISTER (“second-rate movie star” as opposed to an A- lister)
5 SORT OUT Deal with vexed solicitor on the phone (4,3)
  Homophone of SORE TOUT (“vexed solicitor”) indicated by on the phone.  

Not a homophone for me, as, probably as I’m Scottish, I would pronounce sort and sore with different vowel sounds, but I’ve ground that axe often enough before…
9 RUMBA Suspicious sailor retraced Cuban’s steps (5)
  RUM (“suspicious”) + <=AB (“sailor”, retraced)
10 SUPERHERO Man from our sphere transformed? (9)
  *(our sphere)
11 CROCODILE TEARS Children paired for walking races feigned distress (9,5)
  CROCODILE (“children paired for walking”) + TEARS (“races”)
13 UNIX 7 academics and students cross (4)
  UNI(versity) (“academics and students”) + X (“cross”)

Unix is a computer operatingsystem (see 7dn)
14 SEVERITY Cruelty always preceding sex, in skivvy’s case (8)
  EVER (“always”) preceding IT (“sex”) in S(kivv)Y
17 HANDICAP Useful headgear, they say, for a horse race (8)
  Homophone of HANDY CAP, (“useful headgear”) indicated by they say.
18 AGES Prophet taking his son back is looking older (4)
  SAGE (“prophet”) with S(on) taken to the back.
21 ONE OF THOSE DAYS When nothing went right — nothing! — he’d often say so, angrily (3,2,5,4)
  O (“nothing”) + *(hed often say so)
23 MOTORCADE String of cars transported Democrat round Ohio, principally (9)
  *(democrat) round O(hio)
24 TUTOR Considering the odds, trust your coach (5)
  Odd letters of T(r)U(s)T(y)O(u)R
25 DARKENS Clouds over rescue vessel impeding retreats (7)
  ARK (“rescue vehicle”) impeding DENS (“retreats”)
26 PYRAMID Virgin placed in lower recessed tomb, historically (7)
  <=MARY in <=DIP (“virgin” placed in “lower”, recessed)
Down
1 BIRD Flyer‘s attempt to cross river (4)
  BID (“attempt”) to cross R(iver)
2 IMMERSION HEATER Going under gangster’s arm, it’ll raise the temperature (9,6)
  IMMERSION (“going under”) + HEATER (“gangster’s arm”)
3 THATCH Shock as pioneering PM ditches Queen (6)
  THATCH(er) (“PM”) ditching ER (“queen”)
4 RESIDE Those left without uniform to hang out (6)
  RESID(u)E (“those left”, without U(niform))
5 SUPPLIER Trader moving comparatively freely round island (8)
  SUPPLER (“moving comparatively freely”) round I(sland)
6 RARITIES Artist, prig at heart, secures collector’s items (8)
  RA (“artist”) + (p)RI(g) + TIES (“secures”)
7 OPERATING SYSTEM Android perhaps showing how things are done in theatre? (9,6)
  An OPERATING SYSTEM may be used in an operating theatre.
8 TROTSKYIST Red sky is beginning to turn with brisk pace to the north (10)
  SKY IS + T(urn) with TROT (“brisk pace”) to the north
12 MUSHROOMED Space needed in Slough after Mothers’ Union expanded (10)
  ROOM (“space”) needed in SHED (“slough”) after M(others’) U(nion)
15 AIR FORCE One particular service a strain for Anglicans (3,5)
  AIR (“strain”, as in song) + FOR + C.E. (Church of England, so “Anglicans”)
16 PATHWAYS What travels within France’s country tracks? (8)
  *(what) within PAYS (French for “country”)
19 ASLEEP Like to strip off when retiring or having a snooze (6)
  AS (“like”) + <=PEEL (“strip off”, when retiring)
20 EDITOR Journalist re-stocked it, ordering pens (6)
  Hidden in “restockED IT ORdering”
22 GRID Good clear network (4)
  G(ood) + RID (“clear”)

*anagram

51 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,623 by Nutmeg”

  1. A superhero isn’t necessarily a man – has Nutmeg not heard of Batgirl, Wonderwoman, Wasp, Black Widow etc. Also “is looking older” seems a loose definition of AGES.  I thought it a bit lazy that “SKY IS” was included in the clue for TROTSKYIST.

  2. Sorry to hear about your boiler problems, loonapick.  It’s going to be ONE OF THOSE DAYS.

    And thanks to Nutmeg.

  3. Yes, not quite as difficult as the usual Nutmeg. However, I couldn’t work out the ‘Prophet’ (I was looking for a specific name) and the parsing of 2d also defeated me. Last in was PYRAMID, which led in nicely to a clue in another fifteen squared puzzle today – I won’t give the game away . The homophone in 5a was fine by me, unlike a couple of other marginal ones in the last few days.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick (and good luck with your recalcitrant boiler)

  4. How satisfying to complete a puzzle with no need to look up anything obscure, or indeed anything at all, because the wordplay could be relied upon to lead logically to each solution. I can see what you are saying with those couple of criticisms, Frankie the Cat@1, as I thought each of those thoughts fleetingly while I was solving. but I actually found it a pretty delightful puzzle from beginning (CROCODILE TEARS 11a FOI) to end (DARKENS 25a LOI). Favourite was the clever anagram for 21a ONE OF THOSE DAYS, as so cleverly woven in to the comment by slipstream@2.
    [Hope you haven’t burst your boiler to complete both the solve and getting your heater fixed, loonapick!] Many thanks to you, loonapick, and to Nutmeg.

  5. Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick

    Yes, quite quick, though still enjoyable. Though I agree that SUPERHEROs aren’t necessarily male, it was my favourite clue.

    I got OPERATING SYSTEM from UNIX, rather than the intended way round!

  6. As muffin@5 says, quick (-ish, in my case) but enjoyable. Favourites were DARKENS, PYRAMID and MUSHROOMED. Many thanks to N & l.

  8. Many thanks to loonapick and Nutmeg.

    I agree with all that JinA has said @4.

    loonapick, re sore / sort: a number of years ago, after a series of comments here grinding that particular axe, Shed came up with this clue: Tenor in drunken choir fought for fort? – not in this accent! (6)

     

  9. Apart from bunging in resist at 4d, until the crocodile snapped, and failing to see Mary reversed in pyramid (d’oh), yes a pleasant stroll with nothing obscure, as JinA notes. Ticks for mushroomed, Air Force and the travelling ‘what’ en pays.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Loonapick.

  10. I agree with JinA@4 that it’s nice to have a puzzle where no checking is needed, and also that ONE OF THOSE DAYS was a favourite. Like WordPlodder @3 I did worry for a while that the prophet might be some obscure religious figure, and I struggled with PYRAMID until the ‘D’ was in place. Gender considerations aside, it’s not clear to me how the clue at 10a defines SUPERHERO, though the anagram was obvious. But all in all, enjoyable.

    Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick.

  11. When 1ac is a write-in, it always gives me a boost. By a certain symmetry 26ac was my last. A straightforward and enjoyable solve. I agree with loonapic, the vowels are different, but I always allow for a bit of slack in homophones.

    My thanks to setter and blogger.

  12. I struggled also with 5a. Perhaps English Setters (groan!) Should bear in mind that we Scots do tend to pronounce words more phonetically, with exceptions I’m sure.

  15. Excellent stuff – pyramid, mushroomed et al. But oh dear Nutters calling Thatcher pioneering in the Guardian! Unless it’s her gender, nothing she did could be described as that – only right to buy survives and what a disaster that has proved to be. Divisive would be the least offensive term I could think of.

  16. Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick. Hope you don’t need the IMMERSION HEATER for too long.

    BC @15; I think the pioneering does refer to the first woman PM.

    Homophones are always an issue with different regional accents but it sounds fine to me and see: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sort-out

    I particularly liked PATHWAYS and the gangster’s arm.

     

  20. Thank you Nutmeg for an enjoyable puzzle and loonapick for managing to blog at a busy time.

    The “gangster’s arm” was new for me so I failed to parse IMMERSION HEATER – ours “is looking older”/AGES each day as the leak of water rusts its outer case.

    So many fun clues, I especially liked those for SORT OUT, CROCODILE TEARS, PATHWAYS and ONE OF THOSE DAYS.

     

  22. Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick. As others have said a relatively gentle solve for a Nutmeg. However, got held up in the NE by putting in Trotskyite without bothering to fully parse it, before ages put me right. Air Force last one and now one of my favourites along with the two long clues already mentioned. Thanks again to Nutmeg and loonapick.

  24. Thanks Nutmeg and Loonapick.Certainly is one of those days! Glorious harvest moon. I missed yram the backward virgin too. Otherwise a clear run. Does severity mean cruelty?

  25. Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick. Great fun as usual from this setter. I took a while spotting IMMERSION after getting HEATER and my LOI was PATHWAYS because I had trouble getting pays.

  27. Very sour grapes.
    On being told that seven of her carefully chosen discs had
    been washed away, Lauren Bacall said “That’s a dirty trick.” and
    ended the interview.
    After being sold software for teaching, it and my work were wrecked by
    an unasked-for update to an operating system. I cannot buy something
    with a cheque in the post, my student’s won’t, or cannot, think,
    and I cannot walk into a bank and speak to a bank clerk.

    When these incompetent buffoons are not busy making my life unpleasant,
    they are busy hijacking words like ANDROID or polluting my language with
    their poisonous little acronyms like UNIX.
    I’m going back to my celestial navigation; they think their precious GPS
    might get hacked but they’ll probably just wreck it under their own steam.

    I just wish they’d leave me, my language and my crossword alone.
    Thanks Nutmeg for an otherwise fine crossword, but no thanks.

  29. Yes, JinA nailed it for me as well. I found this a much easier solve than yesterday which would have been a dnf if MrsW hadn’t come to the rescue late last night. I also ticked SORT OUT and was happy with the homophone. I take the view that if I can get the solution from the clue then whether it’s a homophone in my dialect or not is irrelevant. I didn’t parse the HEATER (arm) in 2d and lois were UNIX and AGES – so often it’s short solutions that hold me up – the pawnbroker’s wife from yesterday being another example. Like Cookie I also thought PATHWAYS was a neat clue. Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick.

  30. Nice work. Not sure I’ve seen CROCODILE as “children paired for walking” before. Must be British.

    For once, the Scots complain about a homophone that works basically fine in Standard American. (But when I say “sort out” I elide the T down to almost a D in a way that I don’t when I say “sore tout,” but close enough.) I guess not all rhotic accents are created equal.

    I thought SUPERHERO and ONE OF THOSE DAYS were brilliant.

  31. I liked PATHWAYS and MUSHROOMED. I did the whole puzzle last night sitting up in bed.  It was a kind I liked, where I can write in only a few at the start, and then can slowly watch the fill-ins spread.

    Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick.

     

  32. [I see the Italian Prince of Darkness up there is quite the Luddite. But if he’s so opposed to operating systems, how did he post these comments? And anyway, UNIX is older than I am–and I no longer qualify as young–so surely fair game.]

  33. mrpenney@30 — you probably haven’t read Madeline, a children’s book by Ludwig Bemelmans.

    In an old house in Paris, all covered with vines,

    Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.

    In two straight lines they broke their bread

    And said their prayers and went to bed.

    There are charming illustrations of the little schoolgirls walking in a double line.  The word “crocodile” doesn’t occur in the book, but with that picture in my mind I knew what it meant when I met it in context.

    (I wish the software didn’t force me to double space after every carriage return, it makes the verse look silly,)

     

     

  35. hmm – I too, like Valentine @33, have trouble posting verse – how come the prince of darkness @27 & 34 manages to avoid the double spacing?

  37. I fully agree with ‘Frankie the Cat’. A superhero isn’t necessarily a man! Also agree with the criticism of ‘aged’ as an answer to the clue However, I enjoyed the crossword and generally appreciate Nutmeg’s ‘offerings’. Thank you, Nutmeg.

  38. Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick.

    Dropped in to get the parsing for MOTORCADE – I know! How can the brain be so clever(-ish) and yet so thick at the same time. Also needed help to connect strain with AIR Force.

    For what it’s worth, and that would not be much I think, I can see SOAP, BOX, TIP, OWL, NAN and SHE scattered around the grid – what could it possibly mean? In any event, an unusually large harvest of, shall we say, “gradients” (but by this I mean the small particles remaining after a sorting process has removed the larger target items. An example would be the crumbs at the bottom of a bag of crisps – I can’t find an online dictionary definition that matches this definition although the word was used in this context by my parents’ generation.). Perhaps there is already a word in currency among the esteemed contributors for these, oh dear, periphera?

  40. Never heard of UNIX but I liked the rest of this. Liked HANDICAP,IMMERSION HEATER and PATHWAYS.Took quite a time to see RESIDUE( LOI) despite it being well clued. BLISTER was good too.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  41. Thanks to Nutmeg and Loonapick. For me, a better offering than yesterday – my brain seems to function better when I have to think about the parsing rather than make random guesses a la Vulcan. After a working life spent entirely with computers UNIX et. al. are fine with me so long as I’m not responsible for supporting them !

  42. Another US solver here who didn’t know this usage of CROCODILE, but that’s OK. With a few crossers in place, it wasn’t hard to guess the answer and hence work out that there must be such a usage.

    I thought that this was a fairly easy puzzle, with precise and elegant cluing.

    I love the Shed clue that Eileen @8 mentions. I hadn’t seen that before. Personally, my enjoyment of homophone clues has gone up since I started thinking of them as “homophones in any reasonably widespread form of English” rather than as “homophones in my particular dialect”.

  44. Re the superhero debate:
    Far be it from me to appear to be politically incorrect (I pride myself on being just as woke as the next man/woman/person/sentient being of no particular species), I do regret somewhat the demise of the word ‘heroine’.

  45. I too (ilippu @43) love my Ubuntu.

    I also confirmed (mrpenny @30) that the concept of esp young schoolchildren walking two by two in line is, not surprisingly, very familiar in the USA – but the association of this activity with the word CROCODILE is unknown.

  47. VERY nice Nutmeg, joy from start to finish. Particularly liked the Android clue. Many thanks. And thanks also to loonapick

  48. Thanks Cookie. I guess I might interchange cruel and severe if I was discussing the weather! Otherwise not exactly a go-to synonym for me.

  49. Valentine and Cookie

    This is probably too late for you, but I may have half an answer for you (!) concerning the typing of iines of a poem.  For me, it comes down to which device (and which infernal operating system) I’m using.

    On my laptop and desktop (both with proper keyboards and with Windows), if I press Return I get a new paragraph with a space after the previous one.  If, however, I hold Shift and press Return I get a new line in the same paragraph, so the lines follow each other without that extra space – ideal for verses.

    On my Android devices (phone and tablet), when I press Return I get just a new line, not a new paragraph, so all my lines just run on contiguously without the extra spacing – ideal for verses but not really for anything else.  (If I want spacing I have to press Return twice.)

    Hope this helps.

  50. Late solve so late comment.  Excellent puzzle and interesting blog and comments.  Thanks Nutmeg, Loonapick and everyone else.

  51. Later solve due to limited internet on travels in Egypt. But serendipitous to pick this crossword to solve on the very day i visited the great PYRAMID of Khufu!

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