Chuffing Nora. This puzzle took me the longest time both to solve, and then to parse, so I wouldn’t call it a treat. But it was certainly tricky.
I appreciate that the editor is at complete liberty to juggle puzzles around to fit dates, but those expecting a typical (ie tractable, easy-end) IoS cryptic this morning will, I think, have had a rude awakening. Having completely missed a Vigo theme on Monday, I will call out this one: it’s 31st October, it’s Halloween, and many of the clues and answers are to do with either the day itself or the forces of evil. I’m not going to list them all (confession: I hate Halloween) but the very first clue is perhaps setting the tone, by suggesting that something can be alive and dead at the same time.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1/2 Vocalist to improvise around unusual chord – it’s a must-see
SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT
An insertion of (CHORD)* in SINGER and SCAT. The insertion indicator is ‘around’ and the anagrind is ‘unusual’. I’m a scientist by education so I know perfectly well what the physicist’s feline is all about, but the definition took a long time to twig. It’s to do with a famous thought experiment involving a cat in a closed box, where – given a property of quantum systems called superposition – the cat can be simultaneously alive and dead, until it is observed, when the superposition collapses and the cat is either alive or dead. So I am surmising that the ‘must-see’ element of the definition refers to this change of state only occurring when the cat is seen. Which would be an ask even for an averagely scientifically literate solver.
10 Methuselah had to complete a course his boss thought up
IDEATED
A charade of I’D for ‘Methuselah had’, EAT and ED, who is his boss, in the crossword world at least.
11 Naked man possibly relieves 28 older women
AUNTIES
A charade of [M]A[N] and UNTIES. The solution to 28 across is GREMLIN, but how that fits into the definition, I know not.
12 With lead characters lost, hob must cast spells
BOUTS
([H]OB [M]UST)* The anagrind is ‘cast’.
14/4 Stirring cauldron, cut a sinister figure
COUNT DRACULA
(CAULDRON CUT A)* with ‘stirring’ as the anagrind.
17 One sent down for good over unsuccessful coup, originally
LUCIFER
An insertion of U and C for the initial letters of ‘unsuccessful’ and ‘coup’ in LIFER, which is someone who would have been ‘sent down for good’. A cad, where the whole clue defines the solution: in the Judeo-Christian tradition, LUCIFER is a fallen angel who desired himself to become God and was cast out of heaven by the same. The account is in Ezekiel, but is reiterated in Luke 10:18: He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
18 Endangered bat’s taken to have wings clipped
AT STAKE
[B]ATS TAKE[N]
20 A-list brought on board to create comedies
SCREAMS
An insertion of CREAM in SS for ‘steamship’. ‘On board’ is crossword-speak for ‘put something inside SS’.
22 Old devil‘s got a couple of old stars forgetting their lines
SO-AND-SO
SO[L] AND SO[L]
23 Tolkien has him following a ring of gold around
FRODO
Another cad, and a charade of F for ‘following’ and O D’OR reversed (‘around’). There’s no indication that you need the French version of ‘of gold’, and it’s not really that fully engrained in English. Great surface reading, though. The reference is, of course, to a character in JRR Tolkien’s work, The Lord of the Rings.
24 Part of a Halloween tradition where a sucker is made to welcome a little rascal
TREAT
An insertion of R for the initial letter of ‘rascal’ in TEAT. Referencing TRICK OR TREAT, a comparatively recent and entirely unwelcome American invasion to these shores.
27 Fancy gadget shown in Bond film’s teaser?
TIE CLIP
A charade of TIE for ‘bond’ and CLIP.
28 Troublemaker finally blowing entrance off Vlad’s castle
GREMLIN
A charade of G for the final letter of ‘blowing’ and [K]REMLIN, which although it’s not Mr Putin’s private ‘castle’, might as well be given his autocratic rule.
30 Pole gives attack dog the slip and joins two Italians who escaped long ago
HARRY HOUDINI
Attack dog gives you HARRY HOUND. The setter is asking you to take the N for North (Pole) out of that, insert it between I and I for ‘Italians’ and then join it on to the end. I know, I know, it’s Sunday and we’re not wired up for this sort of stuff.
Down
3 Slasher presumably showing vamp with a different origin
REDUCER
Methuselah is inviting you to take the S from the beginning of SEDUCER and replace it, somewhat randomly, with an R.
5 Downing Street figure working to upset some players
NONET
A reversal of TEN and ON.
6 Wickedness to be sent from below
EVIL
A reversal of LIVE for ‘to be’. Since it’s a down clue, ‘sent from below’ is the reversal indicator.
7 Part of window showing star now and then – shut it!
SASH
A charade of SA for the odd letters of StAr and SH.
8 Dom’s alibi when travelling is fiendish practice
DIABOLISM
(DOMS ALIBI)* and surely a nod to Mr Cummings’ lockdown jaunt to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight.
9 Priest cracking hints about contents of early cardinal’s tomb
SEPULCHRE
An insertion of P in CLUES reversed followed by [T]HRE[E], which is indeed an early cardinal number. The insertion indicator is ‘cracking’ and the reversal indicator is ‘about’.
13 Letters regularly dispatched from US to African capital
SOFIA
The odd letters of uS tO aFrIcAn.
15 Little attention seekers in hotel with things available at reception
HANDBELLS
A charade of H for the phonetic alphabet ‘hotel’, AND for ‘with’ and BELLS, which can often be found on reception desks in places like Fawlty Towers.
16 Initiating another session about action on pitch
REBOOTING
A charade of RE and BOOTING.
19 Sharp, stinging pain
SMART
A dd. I was doubtful that SMART was a noun in this sense, but my Chambers confirms it.
21 Sign of cross almost knocked European character over
SCORPIO
A charade of (CROS[S])*, PI for the Greek letter, and O. The anagrind is ‘knocked’.
22 A portion of scrambled egg on salmon’s picked up and necked
SNOGGED
Hidden reversed in scrambleD EGG ON Salmon.
23 Gothic building in which there’s a lack of reflection
FOLLY
A dd.
25 Sorceress wants women to tickle
ITCH
[W]ITCH. You have to read ‘wants’ as ‘lacking’.
26 Dress like a folk-tale wolf we’ve heard about
WEAR
First up, I’m not sure WEAR and ‘dress’ are interchangeable in a verbal sense without the addition of a preposition to the latter; you could argue that they are synonymous as nouns. ‘We’ve heard about’ is a homophone indicator for WERE, as in WEREWOLF. Second up, I’m not convinced that the clue really works with ‘like a’ indicating only the first element of the word. The homophone is fine, though: dictionaries give both this pronunciation as well as the one which pronounces the first element the same as the north-east river which snakes round The Stadium of Light.
29 Ultimately obsolete little contraction which we still use occasionally today
EEN
The final letters of the second, third and fourth words of the clue, and another cad. EEN is short for ‘evening’, and is most often heard in today’s theme, HALLOWEEN, which is derived from ALL HALLOWS’ EVE and was a reverse-engineered Christian creation from November 1st, ALL HALLOWS’ DAY, or ALL SAINTS’ DAY. Originally it was a pagan tradition, based on Samhain.
I am going for a little lie-down now.
Your intro needs to be hidden, babes.
Eek.. sorry! The cross-reference in 11 should be to 30, HARRY HOUDINI (d. 31st Oct 1926, btw). I think 1,2’s definition was meant to have been changed to the more generous(?) ‘might you catch it live?’ – technical GREMLINs, maybe?
Just to be clear, 24 was intended as a cryptic Schrödinger’s cat. The answer could just as easily be TRICK if you parsed ‘sucker’ as a blood-sucking TICK. The alternative crossing solutions would fit if parsed as follows:
15. Little attention seekers in hotel with things available at reception (9) HANDBILLS
H + AND + BILLS (you might ask for the bill at reception) – def referring to small promotional materials
16. Initiating another session about action on pitch (9)
REBOOKING
RE + BOOKING (as in a football referee booking a player) – def referring to a new session on a computer
Ideally, a solver could resolve the ambiguity whichever way they liked by writing in either TRICK or TREAT, like the hypothetical observer who forces Schrodinger’s cat to be either dead or alive. The Indy website requires an official answer, though, so we made it TREAT and hoped anyone who went the other way wouldn’t mind being TRICKed for Halloween.
Many thanks for persevering, Pierre, and sorry about the unintended errors.
Thanks, Methuselah and Pierre!
Loved solving this puzzle.
FRODO: Didn’t remember d’Or, while parsing. Was looking at OD (outer diameter) for ‘a ring of’ half-heartedly.
26D: I agree that this is somewhat a lesser clue.
The setter’s comment is quite interesting! Trick or treat!!! With Piere’s explanation regarding Schrodinger’s cat, many could appreciate this comment, I feel.
Thanks for dropping in, Methuselah. Gremlins indeed at Halloween. I’m afraid the TRICK or TREAT gag is way beyond my pay grade … I could have looked at that till 31st October next year and not seen what was going on. But thanks for the entertainment. Hopefully others will have twigged what was going on.
[And I have hidden the introduction, for those who are confused.]
A DNF for me with several unparsed, I did have REBOOKING, so was never going to get the tick.
Schrodinger’s cat was a lovely clue but I couldn’t parse the cat having forgotten scat as improvisation.
I too was very confused by the reference to gremlins in 11A, and must admit I’m still none the wiser after Methuselahs reveal that it should have been to Houdini?
Definitely a trick but also a treat with some lovely misdirected defs. Vlad’s castle was brilliant.
Thanks Methuselath and Pierre!
Wish I could have made a better effort at this but failed to complete. Absolutely loved it though. I had TRICK etc.
If I kept a book of wonderful clues, the one for LUCIFER would go in it. I felt that D’OR is well-known from “Palme D’or”. Guessed 2d might be CAT and then 1a leapt out at me, which helped a lot.
Well I finished this crossword with a theme that even I couldn’t miss, but it was definitely both tricky and a treat.
Thanks to Methuselah and Pierre
Blah, for 11ac, if Harry Houdini is the person being ‘relieved’, then because he was often tied up with ropes, UNTIES is what you’d have to do.
DOH thanks Pierre, I was only thinking aunties not unties. All cleared up now!
While I’m on I must also echo Hovis’ admiration for Lucifer (the clue that is not the prince of darkness of course)!
Hovis@6
I agree that d’Or is a well-known expression. I just didn’t remember it when needed.
Like Pierre, I went for HANDBELLS and I think it’s another clue with two valid answers, if unintentionally.
Funnily enough, as I try to solve clues in order, I encountered and solved AUNTIES (btw, you can be an aunt without being particularly elderly) and wondered if 28 might be HOUDINI at that point, especially as I noted it had the right number of letters. Only when I got to the clue in question was it clear that it couldn’t be and then I encountered 30 ac – and suspected the GREMLIN in the works noted by our setter.
Nice puzzle and, as Pierre says, quite challenging. I didn’t get the definition of SCHRODINGER’S CAT, I agree with all the praise already heaped upon LUCIFER and would put forward COUNT DRACULA and FRODO as very worthy runners up.
Thanks Methusela and Pierre
Thanks Methuselah, Pierre
Halloween yuk, puzzle great.
I didn’t understand the must-see, but I like it and should have tried a bit harder. I didn’t understand scat either but that’s because I was reading improve rather than improvise.
LUCIFER v good, and the Vlad’s castle/gremlin combo, and many others.
I put TREAT HANDBELLS and REBOOTING and of course never gave it another thought, except that the clue for rebooting seemed like it might have a few possible answers. I hope someone saw both.
Halloween is becoming more like Christmas. My neighbours have had plastic spider webs covering their front garden for literally literally 3 weeks.
Meant to ask, how is TIE CLIP ‘fancy gadget’?
James @13 Indeed!
A very offbeat cluing style here
But quite Goethic (yep new word)
Good grief! And thanks also, of course, to Methuselah for being so fiendishly clever. Even more thanks to Pierre – the blog made me laugh and restored my equilibrium.
Enjoyed this one a lot, and agree LUCIFER is superb.
I was very happy to have completed this, but alas I missed the alternative solution. I did vaguely wonder about TRICK and TREAT but went for TREAT. SCHRODINGER’s CAT was my last in. It would never have occurred to me that TRICK or TREAT was a quantum mystery, but now that it’s been explained (thanks, Methuselah!) I think it’s quite brilliant. The Indy had an equally wonderful set-up for April Fool’s day.
Thanks too to Pierre for the blog – not an easy one.
I thought this was fantastic, even with the GREMLINS. LUCIFER, SCHRODINGERS CAT, DIABOLISM are all great. I saw HANDBI/ELLS and TRICK and TREAT, and was all ready to complain until Methuselah’s explanation. To go completely American, a Halloween treat worth a thanksgiving to both Methuselah and Pierre.
It’s a real shame about the technical issues, since this is a very clever crossword (with one or two minor quibbles). The TRICK and TREAT thing is very smart, even if it held me up for ages because I confidently put in HANDBELLS and REBOOKING so fell between two stools. And I agree LUCIFER is a great clue.
Petert @18, well done for spotting the conceit! I did too, but in a presubmission version where I had the benefit of a signposting clue (since removed in some of Methuselah’s reengineering). I was really hoping that removing that extra hint wasn’t a step too far, so I’m particularly glad you didn’t need it.
It is a shame about the glitch though.
Wow we’re really impressed about Schrodinger’s Hallowe’en themed clue (on reading about it here)! We spotted the two possibilities but were guided by the online puzzles correct answer.
An enjoyable solve and good fun for this Samhain evening.
Thanks to Methuselah and Pierre!
Yuk! I didn’t like that much, all a bit obscure for me with some strange definitions, like tie clip and aunties. But I’m sure Halloween lovers will have enjoyed it.
I don’t chuff.
So, having got stuck on Azed, I put it to one side and thought I’d do something easier. Alas this was not it and did even worse. I blame the clock change.
We have only just finished the puzzle – took us quite a while.
We had TRICK and REBOOKING but were not totally sure so decided to check on the interactive version. Joyce was quite dis-‘chuffed’ when she realised the answer she had entered – TRICK was wrong as she thought it was just as valid as TREAT. Once the crossword was complete she was intending to tell Methuselah (who we met at York) that it was unfair to have two valid alternative answers to a clue. Bert felt the same way about his answer REBOOKING which he changed to REBOOTING.
We now have to apologise to Methuselah! A very cunning device.
Thanks to Methuselah for the workout and we hope that Pierre has now recovered.