The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28130.
There are some good clues here, but some inadequate, which gives me the feeling that I am not missing too much even in the clues that I do not fully understand, or, in the case of 25A, do not get altogether.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RUDYARD KIPLING | If writer runs during play, kid gets excited (7,7) |
| An anagram (‘gets excited’) of R (‘runs’) plus ‘during play kid’. ‘If’ is the title of a poem by Kipling. | ||
| 8 | NAOMI | Girl is initially nervous about old man’s intentions (5) |
| First letters (‘initially’) of ‘Nervous About Old Man’s Intentions’. | ||
| 9 | BASERATE | Interest Spooner expressed in career inducement (4,4) |
| A Spoonerism of RAISE BAIT (‘career inducement’). Before getting the crossing letter from 5D, I plumped for BANK RATE. | ||
| 11 | FANATIC | Encourage a jerk to become extremist (7) |
| A charade of FAN (‘encourage’) plus ‘a’ plus TIC (‘jerk’). | ||
| 12 | LADDISH | Woman drops young hunk for being somewhat rowdy (7) |
| A charade of LAD[y] (‘woman’) minus the Y (‘drops young’) plus DISH (‘hunk’). | ||
| 13 | HURST | Son in pain? He made sure it was all over! (5) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of S (‘son’) in HURT (‘pain’). The definition refers to William Randolph HURST, the American newspaper mogul and inspiration for Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane. | ||
| 15 | EARTHLING | Land fish, one that’s out of this world? (9) |
| A charade of EARTH (‘land’) plus LING (‘fish’). The definition cryptically uses ‘out of’ in the sense of ‘belonging to’. | ||
| 17 | MUSKETEER | One of three getting name checked in Great Hosannah (9) |
| A hidden reference – not answer – in ‘GreAT HOSannah’; in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, the title trio are Athos, Porthos, and Aramis | ||
| 20 | MENSA | Group for the clever chaps observed losing weight (5) |
| A charade of MEN (‘chaps’) plus SA[w] (‘observed’) minus the W (‘losing weight’). | ||
| 21 | LARGEST | There’s nothing bigger in case containing plastic rag (7) |
| An envelope (‘containing’) of ARG, an anagram (‘plastic’) of ‘rag’ in LEST (‘in case’ – close, but are they synonymous?). | ||
| 23 | IMPOUND | Appropriate for poet to admit who he is (7) |
| I’M POUND (‘poet to admit who he is’). The definition has ‘appropriate’ as a verb. | ||
| 25 | EINSTEIN | He proved drug is the same; host agreed (8) |
| I am at a loss. The answer came from the crossers, but the definition is inadequate, and I cannot see any viable wordplay. | ||
| 26 | OUTDO | United involved in nil-nil draw? That’s better (5) |
| This seems to me to be an envelope (‘involved in’) of UTD (”united’) in O O (‘nil-nil draw’). ‘Draw’ seems a bit of an orphan. | ||
| 27 | STANDARD-BEARER | Champion branded Sartre a drunk (8-6) |
| An anagram (‘drunk’) of ‘branded Sartre a’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RUN-OF-THE-MILL | Hunt film role in production that’s basic (3-2-3-4) |
| An anagram (‘in production’) of ‘hunt film role’. | ||
| 2 | DROWN | In central Madrid, crowds stunned to find swamp (5) |
| ‘Central’ letters of ‘MaDRid crOWds stuNned’. | ||
| 3 | ARISTOTLE | Happen to come across sum left for old teacher (9) |
| An envelope (‘across’) of TOT (‘sum’) plus L (‘left’) in ARISE (happen to come’). | ||
| 4 | DEBACLE | One coming out with lace undone — it’s a fiasco (7) |
| A charade of DEB (debutante, ‘one coming out’) plus ACLE, an anagram (‘undone’) of ‘lace’. | ||
| 5 | INSULAR | Urinals at sea are somewhat narrow, perhaps (7) |
| An anagram (‘at sea’) of ‘urinals’. | ||
| 6 | LURED | Enticed by reports of miraculous site (5) |
| Sounds somewhat like (‘reports of’) LOURDES (‘miraculous site’). | ||
| 7 | NUTRITION | Food I turn into stew … (9) |
| An anagram (‘stew’) of ‘I turn into’. | ||
| 10 | THE GRAND TOUR | … giving rich, full taste of Europe (3,5,4) |
| All I can see here is a slightly cryptic definition, with ‘giving rich’ to be interpreted as “giving for the rich”. | ||
| 14 | RESERVIST | One standing by as church abandons service during break … (9) |
| An envelope (‘during’) of ‘servi[ce]’ less CE (‘church abandons’) in REST (‘break’). | ||
| 16 | HOMOPHONE | … which may not be what it sounds like (9) |
| Another cryptic definition, but this time with no purpose that I can see for the ellipses. | ||
| 18 | EXTREMA | Partial text remains source for mathematical values (7) |
| A hidden answer (‘partial … source’) in ‘tEXT REMAins’. | ||
| 19 | REIGNED | Ruled measure government introduced must be reversed (7) |
| A reversal (‘must be reversed’) of DENGIWER, an envelope (‘introduced’) of G (‘government’) in DENIER (‘measure’ of yarn weight). | ||
| 22 | ESSEN | Poles sounding out German city (5) |
| Sounds like (‘sounding out’) S N (‘poles’). | ||
| 24 | UTTER | Aunt’s theory is occasionally thorough (5) |
| Alternate letters (‘occasionally’) of ‘aUnTs ThEoRy’. | ||
The Hurst is surely Geoff Hurst. Who scored the goal as in “they think it’s all over…it is now”
13 across perhaps also reference to Geoff Hurst? Thanks to Anto and PeterO
Great minds and all that!
25a. E= drug equals = is the same host = mc. agreed = squared
E is the same as= emcee squared =agreed
Thanks, PeterO and Anto. Was there a problem with the site for several hours today? I’m sad, although a little validated, that the two which baffled me, 25ac and 10dn, were opaque to Peter too.
Yeah, Hurst is Geoff Hurst, England hat trick hero of the 1966 Football World Cup Final and Kenneth Wolstenholme’s famous “They think it’s all over” commentary.
25a is the equation proved by Einstein: E (drug) = (is the same) MC (host) squared (agreed)
Well done Shirl and steve, that makes sense.
Rest from previous clue is possible homophone
Fast solve. Patchy clues. Some too clever by far. Little fun.
I enjoyed this a lot – very smooth surfaces – although I was also completely stumped by EINSTEIN. Favourites were RUDYARD KIPLING anagram, IMPOUND, and I thought OUTDO was very clever indeed. Many thanks to Anto and PeterO.
Another pleasing encounter with Anto. A bit tougher than our usual Monday fare but nothing too difficult. My only real quibble is with LURED if it’s meant to be a homophone of ‘Lourdes’. I’m probably pronouncing Lourdes wrong! Quite a number of ticks from me: DEBACLE had a nice surface, EARTHLING has a clever definition, LARGEST for the unusual anagram indicator, REIGNED for use of a reasonably uncommon ‘measure’ and RUDYARD KIPLING, again for a lovely, easily missable, definition.
COTD is a toss up between the delightful HURST (sorry PeterO but I’m convinced this is Geoff Hurst as others have already suggested) and the brilliant OUTDO. Top marks for both. (Ha! Wrote this at 08.30 UK time and, at 09.15 the penny just dropped on EINSTEIN which is very clever. I was on the wrong track, having got the ‘E’ and, of course, ‘inst’ sort of means ‘the same’ when applied to the current month so I was trying to make sense of ‘ein’.)
A couple of observations: I wonder how many folk still read poetry by Ezra Pound? Is he kept alive primarily for cruciverbalists? At the time of writing, I’m missing something in the parsing of MUSKETEER. (Ah, made clear by the blog). I think the Spoonerism is ‘race’ = career rather than ‘raise’. And we’re visiting ESSEN again!
Many thanks to Anto and PeterO
Thanks both. I looked at 10d for ages thinking “there must be more to it than that”. But there isn’t.
Thanks Anto and PeterO
Another Geoff Hurst here – I suppose it indicates the typical age of solvers that Kenneth Wolstenholme’s commentary is still familiar to so many when it was over 50 years ago.
I didn’t understand EINSTEIN or THE GRAND TOUR either.
I made the point in the Guardian comments, but I’d be grateful for a view here, too. I don’t think that Lourdes/Lured works at all: shouldn’t the two sounds be pretty much identical (and these aren’t)?
I thought the same as PeterO about Hurst and Einstein, and had dismissed the crossword as fairly mediocre. However, having seen the above comments, it has risen considerably in my esteem.
Thanks PeterO and Anto
George Vest @16 I’ve just listened to a few “how to pronounce Lourdes” clips – and I think the problem, for me, is how I pronounce ‘lured”! I am unfamiliar with the phonetic alphabet but I tend to pronounce the word ‘Lyured’ – or, at least, that’s as close as I can get.
A quick one to finish, but with some pretty poor clues. I enjoyed RUDYARD KIPLING, MENSA and HURST, though they were not too hard, but felt LURED sounds as though one cannot pronounce French, while THE GRAND TOUR and HOMOPHONE were hardly cryptic at all. Neither of the pairs joined by ellipses were justified. PeterO, you are generous in your treatment of EARTHLING – I objected that one is NOT out of this world. I was baffled by EINSTEIN (no doubt we all are), so thanks to Shirl and steve for enlightening me.
Yes, marvaaq, there has been a problem with the 15^2 site, so all contributions are since 3.00 pm, and few in number. Perhaps our US and OZ friends will join us later?
@Mark #18, yes, quite. Even if some people wouldn’t add the ‘y’ sound to lured (I would), then it’s still not really the same as the French, which is more like Lord, but with a guttural ‘r’, of course.
Although I thought the clue for EINSTEIN was a good one, my understanding was that Einstein himself never proved that famous equation. In fact there is some doubt over whether he actually was the first to come up with the mass/energy equivalence. But I’m sure that that the experts who frequent this site will correct me if I’m wrong.
Thanks PeterO and Anto.
The 15A Hurst is former England centre forward Geoff, rather than Citizen Kane inspiration William Randolph Hurst, but the current England centre forward is called Kane.
Sorry, 13A.
I spent most of my dog walk trying to figure out EINSTEIN and eventually the penny dropped and I think it’s a superb clue. There was some real wit and inventiveness on display here – the hidden Athos – the earthling and OUTDO. Lourdes just needs to pronounced the French way which seems reasonable as it’s in France. Glad to see the site back on its feet. Thanks to all involved ?
Also, Peter O, the William Randolph you alluded to is actually spelled Hearst not Hurst; so definitely Geoff and Ken Wolstenholme’s great commentary from 1966
Oops. My smile emoji turned into a question mark
cholecyst @21
About 50 years ago I was shown the derivation in first year uni physics. I can’t remember it, but I do remember that it was surprisingly easy and short! It derives from the assumptions of Special Relativity, so I expect that the original was Einstein’s.
maarvarq @6
Yes, there was a problem with the network serving fifteensquared, which is why I was unable to post this blog for a while.
Phil Wolstenholme @1
Yes, I latched on to the wrong Hurst, but WR is not a bad alternative.
shirl @4 etc
Thanks for putting me out of my misery.Out of the way and very clever, but I am tempted to say, with apologies to Guarini and Monteverdi
Ohime se Anto tomato
Phil Wolstenholme @1 – any relation to Ken who coined the phrase?
Unusually for a Monday I struggled to parse 10d, 17ac, and 25ac, but see I am in good company. I could kick myself for not seeing the musketeer named in 17 and I can see that the Einstein clue is very neat. But I am still baffled at 10d which doesn’t feel right as a cryptic definition or, indeed, as a definition at all. Just very vague. Ironic that I should need this site more than ever on the day when it was out of action for several hours. It makes my appreciation of it all the stronger. Thank you!
break and brake are HOMPHONEs hence, presumably the ellipsis in 16d?
BTW PeterO, Hurst was the footballer, Hearst the press magnate.
Sorry Atlanta Dave @25 The blog refreshed when I posted and several comments have popped up including yours so we crossed.
Mark @ 33 – no problem. Let’s hope we have put William Randolph to rest
Yes, the yellow journalist is William Randolph HEARST. I got the answer, which was plainly clued, but didn\’t \”get\” the answer, knowing of your Geoffs and such.
As for EINSTEIN, all I could think was E INST. E, as in \”yours of the 7th inst. [the same month] received and contents noted,\” although \”inst.\” doesn\’t really mean the \”same\” month). But then what to do with IN? passerby\’s construction is admirable. Bravo! Or brava, as the case may be.
sjshart @19 Re EARTHLING, ‘out of’ is a phrase recognised in horse (and dog?) breeding to refer to the mother: “X out of mother by father”. Given that ‘ling’ is also a bit of a diminutive, the Earth being the Mother of the Earthling rather appealed to me and surely means the clue is technically satisfactory, though I was inclined to be as forgiving as PeterO.
Gave up on the site and watched a show…it must have come live soon after. Took an age to get the great man’s equation, very clever. And disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be a clever parsing for the grand tour. Quite fun; the Quiptic took longer. Thanks Anto and PeterO.
I thought that you would only refer to a person from Earth as an “Earthling” if he wasn’t on Earth – hence “out of this world”.
Thanks PeterO for explanations especially pointing out the hidden musketeer that I completely missed.
I would have been happier if the otherwise neat 25A had read “…drug is the same, as host agreed” to more clearly signify the equality, which I don’t think a semicolon suffices to indicate (maybe a colon would also work).
I am another solver relieved that 10d was correct as I could find no parsing-related justification to support it. Maybe would have preferred “outliers” for “values” in 18d given the vagueness of the definition but hidden answers are about the friendliest type of clue in that respect.
When I first moved on from a Cyclops-only diet I recall Anto coming in for a lot of stick in these parts during his “Quiptic” period, so am very happy to say that I enjoyed this overall and especially 1A, 13A, 19D – thanks Anto.
re Bayleaf @ 30 “Ironic that I should need this site more than ever on the day when it was out of action for several hours. It makes my appreciation of it all the stronger“. I agree completely. You don’t appreciate something until it (thankfully briefly) disappears. Like going to pubs and restaurants. (Roll on July!)
I think Anto has been given rather a hard time by some commenters here, including Peter O. For instance, EARTHLING, which was defined by the expression “out of this world”. I think this is quite a clever clue, because the term earthling is usually employed (in hackneyed science fiction) by an alien encountering someone “from” Earth. People “of” Earth would not self-describe as earthlings. We are human beings, are we not?
In OUTDO, I don’t see “draw” being orphaned in the clue; plenty of other compilers are allowed to get away with extra words “for the surface” – why is Anto not? I thought this was a well constructed clue, though easy enough to solve.
I do, however, tend to agree with the majority when it comes to the alleged homophone of LURED with Lourdes. Not even close.
Sorry, Muffin @38. You must have posted while I was typing! Glad we agree about EARTHLING.
Thanks both,
I couldn’t parse “Einstein ” either, but now think it a grand clue. The clues attracting the most critical comment, e.g. 10d seemed to me rather fresh and original. The ellipses for 10d make the surface of the pair of clues a smooth whole and mean 10 doesn’t need to be made into a complete sentence which might have made it too easy.
All in all a welcome change from the usual Monday fare.
Loved the Hurst answer but easy for me (and my generation) as I was standing just behind the goal when it went in! Struggled with Einstein. Just could not see where mc fitted but thanks for the enlightenment!
Even though I completed this crossword, there were many answers I got from the definitions along with the crossings so the “fun factor” was on the low side. Thanks to PeterO (and Phil @1,Shirl @2, and Bodycheetah @31) for the elucidation. There were some clues I liked e.g. MENSA, LARGEST, DROWN, and RESERVIST. Thanks Anto.
Tyngewick – you’re here and, once again, it hasn’t all been said! And you’re still in time for the gin…!
I thought this was a mix of brilliant (RUDYARD KIPLING, IMPOUND) and questionable (THE GRAND TOUR, HOMOPHONE). I missed the parsing of MUSKETEER and EINSTEIN, both of which I’ll add to the brilliant category now that I see them. As a mathematician, however, I feel compelled to nitpick about the clue for the latter. What is being squared in the famous equation is not MC, but only C. End of quibble.
By the way, isn’t this the third appearance of ESSEN in the last two weeks or so?
Thanks to Anto and PeterO.
I didn’t do especially well here. EINSTEIN came from the crossers. HURST from S in HURT and I thought of the footballer but I didn’t get the “all over” bit. EARTHLING had to be the answer but I didn’t understand “out of this world” I stared at THE GRAND TOUR for a long time without seeing it and when I did it was something of a let down. I did see ATHOS so I got 17ac.
I can’t say I enjoyed this much!
Exactly what DaveinNC said @47, except for the quibble – the squared bit is just an adjacent word, not an operator.
I think the thing with Anto is that there are always several quite delightful clues (including the Einstein, which I neither got nor parsed) and a number of head-scratchers that seem fair, but only on reflection … . I think he’s a great addition to the superset of setters. Chapeau! And thanks for the fine blog.
William Randolph Hearst is spelt like that, not “Hurst”.
However, one of the original (i think) team captains on the quiz show They Think it’s All Over was Lee Hurst. So Geoff or Lee, take your pick. But not William Randolph.
I think the clue refers to Geoff rather than Lee, by the way. Lee is not a particularly well-remembered public figure. But pays your money…
I am with Drofle @ 12 and Mark @ 13, and enjoyed this very much.
10down was my LOI, and I failed to see that “rich” needed to be read as a noun. In the light of that, it seems to me fine as a CD. I don’t see why Peter O and sjshart @19 suggest that it is “slightly” or “hardly” cryptic. The surface particularly in the context of the previous clue clearly refers to food. And “giving (the) rich (a) full taste of Europe” sounds like a pretty good definition of the Grand Tour to me.
DaveinNCarolina @47 – my OJ drinking friend! muffin informed me that Beery Hiker is the keeper of statistics and I asked him – in appropriately non-spoilerish way – on the Guardian site about ESSEN. His reply read “That one has been used as a wordplay component in at least two other recent puzzles, most recently “European city church centre (7)” in Brummie 28126, but as a solution it only has 13 appearances, and this was the first this year.” Which surprised me as I, too, thought I’d seen it several times in recent past.
And here was me thinking HURST referred to Lee Hurst from the “They Think It’s All Over” tv show! How could I forget Geoff Hurst.
I’m with those who found plenty to appreciate in this puzzle – especially now EINSTEIN has been explained. Any setter on any day would have to be chuffed with that one. If writer was clever and I liked the way “in case” was used for LEST and the neat OUTDO was my loi. Yes, 10d was weak but the rest were fine. Thank you Anto and PeterO.
DaveinNC I don’t think 25 aspires to be mathematically accurate, it just constructs a ‘sounds like’, a sort of reverse homophone.
muffin@15 “They think it’s all over” is replayed often enough (in the UK) that “younger” solvers (under 60s?) might be familiar with it, but it was definitely given a new lease of life by the BBC TV comedy quiz of the same name. There must now be some “much younger” solvers who don’t even remember that!
Enjoyed this. The very odd-looking surface for EINSTEIN made me laugh when the penny finally dropped, as did IMPOUND. Other favourites EARTHLING (great misdirection) and MUSKETEER. Thanks Anto and PeterO.
With all the EINSTEIN brouhaha I forgot that I completely nutmegged myself with LARGEST as I took one look at plastic and though CAPITALS ie there being nothing bigger than upper case. Luckily the crossers saved me from myself. Is there perhaps a scintilla of sour grapes over a “Quiptic” setter bamboozling us with some of these clues?
LOURDES/lured – at last we have a homophone for those with rhotic accents!
[At least I think so – it would be interesting to hear the views of our Scots/Irish/American friends – bearing in mind also that the ‘r’ is not pronounced uniformly in France, varying from the ‘r’ grasseyé/uvulaire of Paris to the ‘r’ roulé/dental further south]
Gazzh @39: I agree, the insertion of ‘as’ into the clue for EINSTEIN would have made it even better; Dave in NC @47 I was intrigued by the maths point, but surely it’s OK as the cryptic surface grammar doesn’t have to match the mathematical grammar of the equation – we’re not saying that (host) is acted on by the operation ‘squared’ – I think? (have just seen Dr W and g in f made similar points)
Having said all that I didn’t see the parsing for EINSTEIN till I came here – so I was glad to see I was in good company with PeterO!
Very glad to see 15² is up and running again, thanks Anto and PeterO
Mark @53, Brummie’s ESSENCE clue was less than a week ago.
… and Picaroon used it in reverse to clue NESSIE the previous week.
Could someone please explain in very simple words why the answer to 25a is EINSTEIN. I have looked at the explanations here and am completely lost. Please do not use coded crossword language. Explain in words please. I am baffled, confused, perplexed by this one. Seriously, someone needs to elucidate in very simple language. I get the reference to “e” but where does “mc” come into it? Yours, Frustrated.
MC = master of ceremonies = host
MC (“emcee”) is Master of Ceremonies, or “host” of proceedings. “Squared” could mean “agreed” – “that squared with my previous opinion”…
Beery Hiker @61 and 62 Hope you didn’t think I was treading on your toes! I was careful to fully attribute. As you saw, a couple of commenters on the other site had mentioned it too. And then DaveinNC here. I thought you might have missed the window to drop in with the gremlin attack earlier. I think you have pointed me in the right direction referring to the Picaroon. I’m sure that’s the bell that’s faintly ringing. Or tolling…
To beery hiker. What on earth are you talking about? Please please please explain in simple language. I absolutely do not get this clue. I am seriously frustrated by my inability to understand this one.
I don’t have a problem with LURED. I think the ellipsis into 10d misdirects you into expecting food for the answer so it didn’t particularly bother me. EINSTEIN was brilliant and probably out of place on the scale of difficulty compared with the other clues in this crossword. I’m annoyed with myself for also failing to parse REIGNED. Thanks Anto, PeterO and Shirl.
Mark @66 – no problem. I don’t always read later comments here but I didn’t see this blog until a few minutes ago because I gave up trying earlier.
I am with the naysayers on LURED/LOURDES – there is no accent in which they sound identical.
Mark @53 and beery @61, thanks for following up on my comment about ESSEN.
Dr W @49, ginf @56, and essexboy @ 60, I bow to your superior wisdom regarding EINSTEIN. I just read the clue again and see your point.
Sam @67 – if you can’t follow muffin’s explanation I suggest looking up MC or emcee in a dictionary. The host of a TV quiz or chat show is arguably an MC…
Sam @67 I hear your pain. I believe it is: He proved drug = E; is the same = EQUALS; host = MC; agreed = SQUARED. He proved E=MC². EINSTEIN. I know you asked for no crossword language – but I think it’s either an &lit or at least &littish!
Sam@67. I assume you know Einstein came up with E = mc^2. So
E(drug) =(is the same as) mc(host) ^2(squared(agreed))
Atlanta Dave @25 and Mark @32
Whoops. Memo to self: it is as well to check things before posting, even if you think you know them.
To beery hiker. You obviously do crosswords a lot. I do crosswords sometimes for enjoyment. I asked for an explanation of why the answer was einstein. To refer to mc or emcee was not helpful. I asked for a simple straightforward explanation. But don’t worry other more sympathetic people have helped. I now understand why the answer is einstein.
Changed my mind about 10d, quirkily clever segue. I’ve only done his quiptics a couple of times, but I think Anto’s starting to flex a bit of muscle. Look out!
Sam @75
Sorry, you’ve just been a bit rude to one of the most consistently helpful and positive posters here. A little apology, perhaps?
Sorry, ‘Lourdes’ pronunciation is totally unacceptable anywhere in France!
I’ll let someone else have a go – I was only trying to help and you did specifically ask about mc…
OH LOURDES! My wife’s from Sheffield and we’ve been living in France for 46 years now so of course she says it the French way. But we took her mum there once and she definitely said it the way the clue reports.
What? Is Anto heading for the century?
Who would have thought that, say, 5 years ago?
This was generally a good crossword.
I didn’t (fully) understand 25ac and 10d but now I do – and it’s fine.
I missed the ‘If’ bit at the start of the puzzle which was indeed cleverly [don’t worry, lower case!] done.
I am not a great fan of Y = ‘young’ nor ‘central’ being a multiple fodder indicator.
But setters do it and I got used to it.
After (?) the homophone discussion ‘Lourdes’/’lured’ (which was fine by me), I think the ESSEN clue was more interesting.
Because the name of the city doesn’t sound like S/N at all.
But ESS = ‘S’ and EN = ‘N’ and so it’s two homophonic parts assembled that gives us the solution.
Which is probably what Peter O meant.
Many thanks to him & Anto for an interesting crossword.
I’ll copy what I put on the Guardian site:
Anto has certainly improved a lot since his debut in the Quiptic.
This was an enjoyable solve, with 17A and 15A being the ones I particularly liked. For those who doubt the pronunciation of 6D, please go to the Lexico site and listen to the Oxford Dictionary (UK) suggestion of pronunciation.
Thanks Anto and PeterO.
beery hiker @79 and muffin @77 Just took a last look at the Guardian site before logging off for the day. Interesting to see someone just as confused by 25a over there and having several patient – fully spoilered – explanations delivered to them. All about 2 hours before it arose on here. Clearly a truly challenging clue…..
Yes blaise, translingual homophones play on the approximations. Here in Oz I say lured like lewered but with no actual w-sound, which is pretty close to how I’d say Lourdes.
Fun crossword. I just checked and found this on youtube. Sounded pretty close to me for LURED. Loved EINSTEIN now it’s been explained. “Out of” meaning “from” is very common this side of the pond, e.g. in phrases like “the running back out of Penn State”, so I’ve no problem with 15. INSULAR also a fave.
Thanks, Anto and PeterO. A cut above the usual Monday fare.
Phitonelly @85
Like Straight outta Compton, perhaps?
Thanks for the video. On watching it I couldn’t stop myself thinking of René in Allo Allo saying ‘Ee lured eem eento ze café!’
Hmm, similar point Sil. Reminds me of the Yiddish joke about Sean Fergusen…another time.
At least one person has said I have been rude on here. I have not been rude to anyone. I asked for a straightforward explanation. The explanations were not straightforward. I did not understand them so I asked again for someone to explain. I was genuinely frustrated by a clue in this crossword and no-one could explain it satisfactorily.
essexboy @86 congrats – quite possibly the first NWA reference ever on this forum
Spoonerism of
Base Rate becomes
Race Bait
The Bait is the inducement
To race can be to career.
essexboy@86
Agreed, Straight outta Compton is a good example of the usage.
I hope the youtube clip was of an actual French person, but who knows!
I would like to add that the 25a einsein clue is one of the cleverest, baffling but clever clues I have seen. I don’t do crosswords very often now but I will look out for the next Anto one.
Sam @88 as someone who is frequently rude without intending to be (a side-effect of ASD) I’ve learned that, if a lot of other people tell me something was rude and I thought it was OK then they are right more often than I am because (a) I know I don’t get these things and (b) rudeness is about social perceptions and so it is explicitly one of those things where other people’s opinions actually count. On points of fact (especially scientific ones) I am happy to argue here until I am blue in the face when others are wrong and I am right 🙂
Beery Hiker’s reply was perfectly helpful – if you still did not get it you could have typed “mc host” into a search engine. I just tried that and the first hit was a Wiki page telling me exactly what others have put above. Not exactly leaving you to do the heavy lifting was it?
That was an exceptionally good crossword. So many clues leading quite easily to their answers, which is just as it should be for a Monday in the Guardian. But then a number of extraordinarily difficult parsings for words which simply had to fit – which then gives the solver something to chew over – “it fits, but I don´t get it”. And when the penny finally does drop (tea-tray moments as they oft used to call them in the comments section) you have that feeling of elation.
I missed it for Einstein and Musketeer, the words fitted and there was no apparent reason why. But The Grand Tour – the great taste of Europe for those rich enough to afford it – it was all in the definition. And “If writer” and poet admits his name – Hi there I´m Pound. – lovely word play.
Anto deserves a great amount of praise. This is excellent.
(Except for Lured and Lourdes. Is this like Reims and Rince? – I have a feeling that we are all still missing something in the parsing of this clue, and “Lord” I hope that it is not in the nuances of French regional accent – but it might be. : ) )
To zed. beery hikers response was not “perfectly helpful”. I am sorry that you think pointing this out is rude. Your comment, “Not exactly leaving you to do the heavy lifting was it?” is condescending. I was genuinely frustrated by a clue that no-one could explain.
I’m a bit puzzled by the comments on LURED/LOURDES. For me they are quite similar (a very slight difference in the first syllable). Are people thinking that the S in LOURDES is pronounced?
[It reminds me of the story of the Danish man called Høst checking in to a French hotel. The concierge started to say “Welcome, Monsieur…”, and then paused; he wouldn’t pronounce the leading H or the trailing ST, leaving only the O, and that was crossed out….]
In any event, the newspaper mogul was HEARST.
I daresay Ximenes would have a few things to say about this, but I thought it was a lot of fun. OUTDO, RUDYARD KIPLING and the outrageous EINSTEIN were all great.
Sam passim
You have failed to understand the parsing, and explanation here, of a clue. Fair enough.
You have asked for help. Fair enough.
People have responded in ways that they thought helpful. Good on them. [MC = host has been in the vernacular for at least 50 years].
But you still haven’t got it. OK.
It was then spelled out in even simpler terms, and you got it. Fine.
But then to attack people personally when they have done their best to help is at best churlish, if not downright offensive.
A spot of reflection rather than aggression may be in order?
[muffin @96 – I like the Høst story – would that have been Geoff Høst or William Randolph Høst?]
🙂 essexboy
Well, I nearly finished – which is good for me. I never did calculus so didn’t get extrema and couldn’t parse reigned. Thanks for the explanation re Einstein – I wouldn’t have got that word play in a million years. Muaketeer was my first one in and Rudyard came late – so obvious when you see it. I’ll need to wait a week for my next chance to complete. –
To simon99 and everyone posting here.
I apologise to anyone who has been offended by my comments. If anyone can point out where I have “attack(ed) people personally”, I will apologise. If you can point out any aggressive comments I have made I will apologise to that person. If you can show me where I have been “downright offensive”, I will apologise.
This was an excellent crossword. I have been doing the Guardian crossword on and off for 40 years. I have never come across a clue as sophisticated as the einstein clue. I think this is the first time I have not been able to understand a clue when given the answer. The clue was difficult and unusual. I was honest in my request for an explanation. But I will repeat, no-one here was able to explain the answer. People just repeating mc and emcee and look up mc or emcee online is not an explanation of why it is the answer. All I did was ask for very simple words and not coded crossword language.
Some curiously nightly comments here, hardly helped by a negative initial starter from PeterO.
I pronounce LURED and LOURDES in exactly the same way as I’m lazy with the correct pronunciation of r in French – perhaps it’s the Yorkshire way of saying things.
HURST, OUTDO and EINSTEIN are great clues and the crossword is pretty enjoyable – too many pedants on this site, methinks
*niggly (not nightly)
Hypotenuse @105 I think you got it right the first time!
At which point we all took a chillaxitive and got a goo night’s sleep
Sam, while many repeated MC expecting that it would be familiar, it was, in fact, beery hiker @64 who spelled out that the reason MC = host was because MC stands for Master of Ceremonies, in the very comment you took umbrage at.
You’ve been mostly patient, but your “don’t worry other more sympathetic people have helped” came across as rude, to me at least, and clearly to others. I’m sure we all cross the line from time to time in the grip of frustration.
Not sure if some clues were unfair or brilliant – c’est la vie.
Just wanted to add re 16d
“which” may be
not what it may sound like
On the whole I thought this was very good. To above points, I’m 42 and would wager that certainly any football fan in this country would know the Ken Wolstenholme commentary quote
EINSTEIN defeated me too but I can see it’s clever. 10d I’ve only just managed to locate the reference, I hadn’t heard of The Grand Tour. Took a lot of trawling past search results referencing Jeremy Clarkson and his two almost as annoying sidekicks. For any others still baffled: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour
Sam @103
I too was baffled by EINSTEIN and I came to this blog very late on Monday night hoping to find an explanation and I was also confused by all the mc and/or emcee references. Thanks to your persistence, I now understand it. Unlike others, I still don’t like it very much.
Ha! I guessed HURST from the construction, then looked up the name in a dictionary. The only Hurst I found was Cecil James Barrington Hurst, who served on the International Criminal Court. I figured the definition meant he distributed pain all over the world.
Gazzh @39, I agree that “mathematical values” is insufficient as a definition, but extrema of a function are not outliers. Outliers are distant from the rest of the data, whereas extrema are typically part of a continuous function.
I could not parse MUSKETEER, HURST, EINSTEIN.
I had thought of William Randolph Hearst, but not of any Hurst who could fit that clue. Geoff Hurst? Never heard of him! It seems to be a very niche reference.
Favourites were EARTHLING + FANATIC.
Thanks B+S
To SAM @103. I feel your pain. I’ve been there. Hope it doesn’t seem so important the morning after.
Michelle @113. Hardly niche in England (and the rest of the UK are fed up with it) where the clip of England’s 4th goal in the 1966 World Cup final gets repeated ad nauseam. Still don’t really understand THE GRAND TOUR apart from being a barely cryptic definition. Didn’t see the hidden ATHOS, and LURED/LOURDES homophone defies me – one is LYURD the others LOORDZ.
Philip!115
wow, I had no idea it is such a big thing! You can probably tell that I know zilch about football or soccer…
I prononojnce LURED as LOORD not LYURD, and LOURDES as LOORD with a silent S
Sam,
I am very sorry if I offended you – I can assure you that it was not intentional or malicious in any way.
One of few I’ve completed without the odd check or reveal.
10D, I think ‘rich’ = the grand + ‘taste of’ = tour in the sense of a quick look around.
I thought Einstein was good though it did take a while for the penny to drop.
Surely 9a is a Spoonerism for RACE BAIT, not RAISE BAIT.
oh, whoops, what a typo @ 116 above!
I pronounce LURED as LOORD not LYURD, and LOURDES as LOORD with a silent S
I agree with Neil Masson. A Spoonerism of RAISE BAIT would be BAYS RATE. I can’t understand all the fuss about Lourdes and Lured. I know how Lourdes should be pronounced in French, but how many of us pronounce French words or names the French way when we speak English? Most people keep the final S in LOURDES silent, as in French, but pronounce the name with an English accent, i.e. exactly the same as LURED, which I’ve never heard pronounced “LYURED” anyway.
The pronunciation of “lure” is given as /l??(r)/ in some dictionaries, and with the alternative /lj??(r)/ in others.
Oh dear, it seems that IPA symbols aren’t transcribed on fifteensquared, which makes my last comment meaningless.
A late response to you, Anne-Marie@112, to thank you for your consideration and for correcting my rusty maths/stats – I tried to argue to myself that, while extrema are not necessarily outliers, the converse is more acceptable (as statistical outliers must surely be at the extreme ends of any set of sampled values, mustn’t they?), but maybe better to switch to “mathematical points of inflection, perhaps” even if this renders the clue a little too niche!
As a West Ham fan who’s worked with Sir Geoff many times, it was great to see HURST as an answer.
I think it’s race bait, not raise bait.
And thanks to Beery Hiker for the additional explanation of EINSTEIN.
13 ac has the makings of a clue for a future puzzle. William Randolph Hearst ran a newspaper empire and would want his products read ‘all over–as in the riddle ‘What’s black and white and red all over?’
Having really liked this crossword, and then heard about negative comments here, I feel it’s only fair to comment.
The clues were clever, original and refreshing, if not genius (eg E = m c squared) and it was absolutely clear when you had the right answer.
I very much hope to see more of Anto please Crossword Editor!
I usually don’t bother with Mondays. But times are different and I’ve just solved this – the following Saturday! What a delightful surprise….and, for me, not a quibble in sight.
I shall now be keeping my eye out for Anto.
Many thanks, both and all.
I also saved this for Saturday and very much enjoyed it. I did not parse EINSTEIN but once I understood the clue (and like Sam it took me a while: thank you to all those who tried to explain!).
So now we know hedgehoggy’s first name
I do not like the \’sounds like\’ clues in crosswords at the best of times because people can have different accents. Clearly, some setters and, judging by the comments here, many solvers, have no understanding of phonetics nor any ear for distinguishing different phonemes. They may \’sound the same\’ to some people but they are not.