Guardian Cryptic 28,698 by Vulcan

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28698.

Short and sweet (and an intro to match), with a couple of well-spotted anagrams.

ACROSS
1 PASSABLE
Reasonably OK, as a slow car may be? (8)
Definition and literal interpretation (or double definition if you prefer).
6 JOSEPH
Judge hopes to reform this man (6)
An anagram (‘to reform’) of J (‘judge’) plus ‘hopes’ (or exclude the J to make a vanilla anagram).
9 PHENOL
Disinfectant is no help in fever (6)
An anagram (‘in fever’) of ‘no help’.
10 CUT NO ICE
Leave freezing block entire? That would make no difference (3,2,3)
Definition and literal interpretation.
11 PROSTRATE
Racing driver’s speed on the ground, flat out (9)
A charade of PROST (Alain Marie Pascal, French former ‘racing driver’) plus RATE (‘speed’).
13 STOUT
Thick stone removed (5)
A charade of ST (‘stone’) plus OUT (‘removed’).
15 SECOND
Almost in the lead for a brief moment (6)
Double definition.
17 WHEEZE
Goes, some say, for wily scheme (6)
Sounds like (‘some say’) WEES (‘goes’).
18 GARTER
Supporting band‘s skill in German (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of ART (‘skill’) in GER (‘German’).
19 CRIMEA
Edge into church at a war zone (6)
An envelope (‘into’) of RIM (‘edge’) in CE (‘Church’ of England) plus (‘at’) ‘a’.
21 WALTZ
Disney and an unknown dance as a couple (5)
A charade of WALT (‘Disney’) plus Z (‘an unknown’).
22 ANDROMEDA
Dead Roman transformed: Greek hero to her rescue (9)
An anagram (‘transformed’) of ‘dead Roman’; Perseus was the hero who saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus.
25 MILKY WAY
Bar for the stars? (5,3)
Double definition.
26 UNISON
Full agreement boy must go to college (6)
A charade of UNI (‘college’) plus SON (‘boy’).
28 IN-TRAY
Matters awaiting attention at home: sounding characteristic (2-4)
A charade of IN (‘at home’) plus TRAY, ‘sounding’ like TRAIT (‘characteristic’; I would pronounce the final T, but there are them as wouldn’t).
29 CREATURE
You are told to enter design for puppet (8)
An envelope (‘to enter’) of U R, sounding like (‘told’) ‘you are’ in CREATE (‘design’, verb).
DOWN
2 ASH
Like hard wood (3)
A charade of AS (‘like’) plus H (‘hard’).
3 SINKS
Swallows singular fluids (5)
A charade of S (‘singular’) plus INKS (‘fluids’).
4 BELL-RINGER
One exerting a lot of pull in the church (4-6)
Cryptic definition.
5 EXCITE
Having almost left, Charlie enters to stir things up (6)
An envelope (‘enters’) of C (‘Charlie’) in EXITE[d] (‘left’) minus its last letter (‘almost’).
6 JUTE
Old invader that’s employed in sacking (4)
Double definition.
7 SHORT-TERM
Expedient appreciated by bored pupils? (5-4)
Definition (as an adjective) and literal interpretation.
8 PICTURE CARD
Visualise limousine with daughter, perhaps the Queen of Hearts (7,4)
A charade of PICTURE (‘visualise’) plus CAR (‘limousine’) plus D (‘daughter’).
12 RESIGNATION
Giving notice eating irons must be replaced (11)
An anagram (‘must be replaced’) of ‘eating irons’.
14 CHARTREUSE
Alcoholic drink cures heart failure (10)
An anagram (‘failure’) of ‘cures heart’.
16 CARETAKER
Custodian who does conscientious work? (9)
CARE TAKER
20 IN SYNC
Matching dishes may be here to wash, we hear (2,4)
Sounds like (‘we hear’) IN SINK (‘dishes may be here to wash’).
23 MOIST
Tom is horribly damp (5)
An anagram (‘horribly’) of ‘Tom is’.
24 SWAY
Influence of rock? (4)
Double definition.
27 OAR
How to start old aeroplane: rotate propeller (3)
First letters (‘how to start’) of ‘Old Aeroplane Rotate’.

picture of the completed grid

59 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,698 by Vulcan”

  1. Well I thought this was a very nice diversion to end the weekend with. I had to Google PROST post-entry because nho, but the rest went in quite smoothly.

    I always find it curious when people use “fluids” (see 3d) when “liquids” will do. It’s never wrong, as liquids are fluids, but so are gases, and it makes me wonder whether the writer understands that. “Drink enough fluids!” – you get the picture.

    It was interesting to see MILKY WAY and ANDROMEDA together. They are supposed to collide in a few billion years, but I read this week that if you take a very liberal view of the extent of a galaxy, it is happening already.

  2. I thought 28 was the only unsatisfactory clue. I’ve never heard TRAIT pronounced without the final T, and anyone using the word would tend to be a careful speaker. Other than that, as PeterO says, there were some clever anagrams here, and Vulcan fulfilled the job requirements for an easy start to Monday admirably. Thanks to P and V.

  3. Thanks PeterO and Vulcan. This was fun. I needed help with the parsing of 28a as I’ve never encountered the pronunciation of “trait” sans final T. Interestingly, the same word also showed up in the Quiptic today.

  5. Conversely, I have always heard the word TRAIT pronounced without the final T.

    My final headache was 17a. The crossers convinced me that it was an anagram of SCHEME, until the penny dropped. Lovely clue.

  6. Another thumbs-down on the “tray” pronunciation of TRAIT. It may be in use somewhere, but I have yet to encounter it.

  7. It’s definitely a Monday!! Thanks Vulcan and PeterO. Like most, I’ve never heard trait pronounced either the t.

  9. That was fun, my last in was PROSTRATE, to my irritation as I knew who Alain Prost was.

    I’ve heard the “tray” pronunciation of TRAIT but when I heard decades ago it was old fashioned then and went with “an ‘otel”, my assumption, just checked to be correct, is that it was another French import being marked in speech.

  10. Not too long ago Serpent had the clue “Characteristic means of conveying something to the audience (5)” which was the first time I encountered this pronunciation.

  11. “Tray” for trait sounds posh, or an affectation, to me, but I have heard it. Otherwise, as others have said, a very good Mondayish crossie. Like Neil97 @5, I was looking for a (scheme)*, but when I got the answer I was irresistably reminded of Molesworth: a wizard wheeze, as any fule kno. Thanks, Vulcan and PeterO.

  13. I’m another one whose never heard ‘tray’ for trait but then I’m originally from Oop North where we pronounce Bus with a z. Here in Oz there is a (sort of) department store called Target which is mockingly referred to as the poshified “Tarzhay”.

    I enjoyed BELL RINGER, but the favourite has to be WHEEZE as I love a good Paulism.

  14. I say trait with a T (not that I say it that often) and it took a while to remember that some don’t. Held up by carelessly trying PUT ON ICE and PLAYING CARD, but that was my fault, and this was a very enjoyable puzzle. Favourites IN SYNC and the dead Roman.

  15. Chambers gives both pronunciations of TRAIT; and as I have observed before, a homophone is a sounds like, not a sounds precisely the same as – if a sizeable number of people pronounce it as TRAY, I think that has to be fine.
    The Winter Paralympics In Which Russia Isn’t Being Allowed To Take Part And In Which For A Glorious Moment Ukraine Topped The Medal Table reminds me of another “alternative pronunciation” – Chambers tells us that SKI was “formerly” also pronounced SHEE. The only person I ever knew who used the affected pronunciation was the late and unlamented Chief Master of my school. Which did prompt the occasional musing from “bored pupils” (sic) that he was really a bit of a skit.
    Like Tim C @13, I liked BELL RINGER, being one, and also appreciated the Pauline WHEEZE. PROSTRATE, RESIGNATION, and the lovely misdirection of CREATURE were good, too.
    Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO

  16. The rhyming triplets IN TRAY, MILKY WAY and SWAY completed the SW corner neatly and finally. A swift solve, but enjoyable…

  17. Like Neil97 @5 I tried to work out an anagram at 17a but when I got WHEEZE it was one of my favourites

    Good puzzle to start the week. My other favourites were the short ones: SWAY, OAR, JUTE, which all made me smile.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO

  18. Many thanks EssexBoy @8. Very witty and had me chuckling on this drab Monday morning. My God what an imbecile he was. How do we manage to elect these morons? The USA has no monopoly to this folly.

    Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Vulcan. Dnk about Jute invaders.

  19. Trait with no t sounds very French (ta-da) Thanks for the disinfectant link essexboy. Another crossword co-incidence today. I think I preferred the Quiptic clue.

  21. A swift and PASSABLE solve.

    I remember an old English teacher insisting the correct pronunciation of trait was without the final T, but that was 50+ years ago.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO

  22. Re ‘vanilla anagram’, as I see it, the ‘anagram (‘to reform’) of J (‘judge’) plus ‘hopes’ ’ could be seen as a ‘complex’ anagram, as it involves two distinct components, whereas the ‘vanilla’ (or plain) anagram is J plus an anagram of ‘hopes’.

  24. Good, pleasant start to the cruciverbal week.

    I’ve always pronounced TRAIT with a T at the end, but both the ODE and Collins seem to give the tray pronunciation, so fair do’s. I liked the WHEEZE and IN SYNC homophones, the BELL-RINGER cd, and the good surface for CHARTREUSE. I couldn’t, however, make much sense of ‘Giving notice eating irons must be replaced’.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO.

  25. Good stuff, except for the aforementioned dodgy homophone. I had ‘UNITED’ in for 26A until the very end, which held me up, as did (inexplicably!) the PASSABLE / SINKS combo. Not sure if PHENOL was new to me, but it was certainly nowhere near front-of-mind.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO.

  26. This had quite the feel of a Rufus to me with the various cryptic definitions scattered about. Rather like meeting an old friend on a Monday morning. With the exception of EXCITE which simply wouldn’t come to mind and was LOI, everything was pretty straightforward. PASSABLE, CHARTREUSE and IN-SYNC were my favourites, along with WHEEZE which, as has already been pointed out, seemed like a Paulian intrusion. (Although what Paul would have made of ‘wily plan’, I dread to think.) The only solution to occasion a slight wince was CRIMEA for obvious reasons.

    Thanks Vulcan and PeterO

  27. Liked IN SYNC, STOUT, WHEEZE (loi).

    I failed to parse TRAY in 28ac as I pronounce the final T in TRAIT but suspected it might be this.

    Thanks, both.

    I have not attempted today’s Quiptic yet, so I did not really appreciate the spoiler @3. Maybe it can be removed by Gaufrid?

  28. Straightforward and beautifully clued puzzle. Robi @24: ‘eating irons’ is a rather dated jocular expression for ‘cutlery’ (US silverware), in which sense the clue reads reasonably well.

    Thanks to essexboy for the contribution on PHENOL – my favourite clue for its elegant simplicity (and I always like a bit of chemistry in a crossword).

    Although I sound the final T myself, I’m familiar with the Frenchified pronunciation of TRAIT [NeilH @15: my grandmother used to pronounce ‘ski’ as ‘she’ on the very rare occasions she uttered it, but she was a Victorian of farming stock, from a time when skiing was the prerogative, in Britain, of the idle rich].

    Thanks to S&B

  29. Yes, when I got PHENOL it reminded me of the impossible to spell indicator during titrations in chemistry practicals at school, Phenolphthalein…

  30. [We got ‘ski’ from Norwegian, together with the original ‘she’ pronunciation. German-speakers always say ‘she’, irrespective of whether it’s spelt Ski or Schi. Perhaps one day bouquet, bidet and cabaret will go the same way as trait, and future generations, listening to recordings of early 21st century English, will be amazed at how posh we all sounded 😉 ]

  32. Elizabeth @31 – When Putin has set up a puppet government in Ukraine, a polite way of describing the “President of Ukraine” will be “Putin’s creature”.

  33. Never heard of M. Prost. News to me that there’s folks that don’t pronounce the second T in “trait”. I bunged it in and scratched my head.

    CREATURE is weak, because it’s derived from “create.”

    But there were many pleasant T-trait moments. Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO.

  34. Read right to the end of the comments before someone else raised the same question I had…. “creature” for “puppet”?? Not convinced by NeilH’s reply above. Hadn’t come across that pronunciation of “trait” before either. Otherwise, yes… short and sweet!

  35. Ian @34 (and Elizabeth @31): one meaning of CREATURE in Chambers is “a person completely under one’s control, a dependant, instrument, or puppet”.

  36. I recall an episode of Rising Damp in which some verbal humour was derived from Miss Jones’s affected ‘tray’ pronunciation of ‘trait’ – and of Rigsby’s misunderstanding her.

  37. I was held up, for a while, by (inexplicably, I now concede) entering ‘short-form’ at 7d. I then wondered, for 17ac, whether ‘throse’ might be an obscure word for a wily scheme.

    The penny dropped eventually.

  41. Like others 17a stumped for a while. We don’t wee when we go here in Texas, so this clue for me is frequently a pisser.

  42. Too easy – I preferred the Quiptic. And why did both puzzles have the solution IN-TRAY in the bottom left corner? When we start to use a French word like TRAIT or HOTEL, they tend to be pronounced as French words until fully assimilated – TRAY, OTEL. Posh / old-fashioned to continue once the words are anglicised.

  43. Thanks for the blog, CHARTREUSE and RESIGNATION were both well done, JOSEPH avoids a frown by having J first and a capital which is appropriate for a name.
    Two galaxies close together, ANDROMEDA is still visible in the evenings but not so clear, will soon be lost until the autumn, you still have a chance to see the furthest naked-eye object.

  48. Tim C@13 – I’m from Oop North (London) and I too have never come across the TRAY pronunciation of TRAIT. Perhaps somebody has said to me, “He has an odd trai[t]” and I just assumed they were talking about an unusual flat board for carrying their dinner or crockery. Always good to learn something new.

    I echo michelle@27 and Cellomaniac@44 and ask people not to give answers to other puzzles please. I too have not attempted the Quiptic yet.

  49. eb@8 thanks for introducing me to Randy Rainbow. That is hilarious. He managed to extract just about every laugh possible out of that press conference.

    BTW, you’ll now be forever essexposhboy; there was me thinking you’d be glottalizing your T’s 😉

    Shockingly, Chambers does not have GLOTTALIZING or GLOTTALIZATION (SOED does).

  50. Still don’t ‘get’ Vulcan. Made very little progress with this.
    I found Picaroon’s prize at the weekend much easier.
    Thanks both.

  51. [pdp11 @49 – you may not have been on 15² a year or so ago, so it’s possible you missed the ‘tine hice’ saga – the following day Penfold (Ur-Penfold, that is) claimed a disturbing level of familiarity with my activities in the shah 😉 ]

  53. Is it just me that thinks the issue with 28 is not the enunciation of the final ‘t’ but the duplication with 24 in the Quiptic? I attempted the latter first today so had a ‘surely not’ moment when seeing the answer again. Should the editor have picked this up or is within-day repetition fair game now?

  54. DTD It certainly isn’t the first time it has happened. I, for one, find it more of a fascinating coincidence than a major problem.

  55. Re Tim C @13 I would love to know where “Oop North” is. I’ve lived all my life what is generally called the north but have yet to hear anyone pronounce up as “oop”. I complained to Ian Hislop about this characterisation which is repeated continually in t’Eye…to no avail.

  56. tim@55: I got comprehensively lost in the Leeds one way system the first time I drove in that city, and have a vivid memory of every local inhabitant I asked for directions telling me to start by going “oop Briggate” (not pedestrianised in those days). Maybe my soft Southern ears are hearing it wrong?

  57. [tim/gladys @55/56: I think the ‘oo’ meant to be understood in ‘Oop North’ is the ‘oo’ in foot, not the ‘oo’ in Typhoo. It’s potentially misleading, because all the words I can think of ending in ‘oop’ (coop, hoop, loop, poop, stoop, troop) have the Typhoo ‘oo’, not the footy ‘oo’.

    To avoid confusion, we could all learn the phonetic symbols: in most of Southern England, ‘up’ is /ʌp/ (and in Australia it’s more like /ap/) while many Northern speakers say /ʊp/. (Bit fiddly using the IPA on 15² though.)

    It all goes back to the 16th/17th century FOOT-STRUT split, which happened down South but not up North (see here for details).]

  59. Never heard trait pronounced as tray, but I thought ‘characteristic’ was very = tres (apologies for the lack of grave, I can’t find it on my keyboard), so I got it that way, and like some others experienced some deja vu (as above).

    Unusually for me my favourite clues were the last few – WHEEZE made me chuckle but my favourite was PROSTRATE.

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