Guardian Cryptic 28,860 by Vulcan

by

apologies for the delay this morning – I’ve now uploaded the full blog below. Thanks to Vulcan for a fun puzzle, my favourites were 11ac and 8dn.

[deleted placeholder text]

 

ACROSS
1 SPRUCE
Well-turned-out son right to wear brownish-purple (6)
S (son) + R (right) inside PUCE=”brownish-purple”
4 BEDSIT
Has sex with fashionable sort of girl in a small room (6)
BEDS=”Has sex with” + IT=”fashionable” as in ‘it girl’
9 GARB
Boast about what one is wearing (4)
BRAG=”Boast” reversed/”about”
10 RED NOSE DAY
Rudolph’s charity event? (3,4,3)
an event for the British charity Comic Relief, and a reference to Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
11 VIRTUE
Hope for one to compete, collecting right uniform (6)
Hope is one of three Christian virtues: hope, charity and faith

VIE=”compete” around both: RT (right) + U (uniform, NATO alphabet)
12 EXERCISE
School task carried out in prison yard? (8)
double definition: e.g. a written exercise for school, or physical exercise in the prison yard
13 INOCULATE
Inject copper into misshapen toenail (9)
CU (symbol for copper) inside anagram/”misshapen” of (toenail)*
15 ADAM
A lady with a title shortly gets a man’s name (4)
A DAM-e=”A lady with a title”, shortened to lose the last ‘e’
16 TANK
Where is the fuel for army vehicle? (4)
double definition
17 A RAINY DAY
A diary, any sort, one saves up for (1,5,3)
anagram/”sort” of (A diary any)*
21 NOBODIES
Insignificant people, evidence of their murder missing? (8)
‘no bodies’ could describe missing “evidence of murder”
22 SICILY
Showing very unfriendly manner on small island (6)
ICILY=”Showing very unfriendly manner”, after S (small)
24 YUMMY MUMMY
Attractive young mother‘s crummy rhymes (5,5)
two words that rhyme with ‘crummy’
25 ACRE
One longing aloud for a patch of ground (4)
homophone/”aloud” of ‘acher’, someone who aches =”One longing”
26 HIDING
Not letting anyone see one‘s heavy defeat (6)
double definition
27 YUPPIE
Careerist, yes, with something in the oven (6)
YUP=”yes” + PIE=”something in the oven”
DOWN
1 SEA LION
Big beast is alone, sadly (3,4)
anagram/”sadly” of (is alone)*
2 ROBOT
To steal books is a mindless thing (5)
ROB=”To steal” + OT (Old Testament, “books”)
3 CORNELL
Wow! Little girl makes university (7)
COR=”Wow!” + NELL=short form of Eleanor=”Little girl”
5 ELOPES
’e runs — taking the girl with him? (6)
‘E + LOPES=”runs”
6 SPEECH DAY
School event giving rise to much talk? (6,3)
a SPEECH DAY an annual event at some schools, and the name suggests that there might be speeches/”much talk”
7 TRANSOM
Break matron’s little window (7)
anagram/”Break” of (matron’s)*
8 ADVENTURESOME
Vet’s demeanour strangely enterprising (13)
anagram/”strangely” of (Vet’s demeanour)*
14 CONFORMED
Study put together followed the rules (9)
CON=”Study” as a verb + FORMED=”put together”
16 TOO MUCH
Sacred syllable, in a sense, is more than one can take (3,4)
OM=”Sacred syllable” in Hinduism, inside TOUCH=”a sense”
18 I ASK YOU
Tell me, is that believable? (1,3,3)
an exclamation of surprise – or could be read more literally as a request to “Tell me” something
19 AT LARGE
Glare at criminal evading capture (2,5)
anagram/”criminal” of (Glare at)*
20 WIMMIN
Feminist term used in swimming (6)
a spelling of ‘women’ that omits ‘men’

hidden in s-WIMMIN-g
23 CHAMP
Fellow covering miles is a winner (5)
CHAP=”Fellow” around M (miles)

46 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,860 by Vulcan”

  1. This was most enjoyable. Plenty of smiles. 9a was one of those clues that could go either way (GARB or BRAG). Are virtue and hope synonyms? Or is it that hope is a virtue? The om in 16d was new to me. Hadn’t heard of YUMMY MUMMY. Nor WIMMIN.

  2. Hope is ‘one of the (catholic) virtues’. I was having a bit of trouble justifying virtue as a synonym for hope but ‘hope is one’ works as my lapsed catholic partner pointed out.

  3. All very pleasant but not much of a challenge. Amused to see ‘it’ in BEDSIT not actually the sex bit for a change. I imagine the CHAMPions of WIMMIN wouldn’t be too happy with YUMMY MUMMY. Liked TOO MUCH and I ASK YOU.

    Ta Vulcan & manehi

  4. Thanks CanberraGirl. And thanks manehi. (I entered my comment above before manehi’s fine explanation appeared.)

  5. Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth… “And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.”

    I always write INOCULATE and think there should be an extra “N” or “C”, but no. Nice to see “It’ used in its proper sense in BEDSIT which was my favourite for the day.

  6. Enjoyable and pretty straightforward for me today, with a surprising number of write-ins on the first pass (unlike the so-called quiptic…).

    Amused at WIMMIN, a word I’ve only seen used satirically in Viz a few decades ago, and YUPPIE, of similar vintage. I surprised myself by knowing TRANSOM, one of those very vaguely remembered words lurking in the depths of memory. YUMMY MUMMY was notable for me as that’s the first time I’ve seen rhyming as a clue instruction.

    Great work both, thanks.

  7. Speaking of wimmin and feminism, I was asked today by a girl of tender years why, during Elizabeth’s reign, the kingdom wasn’t a queendom.

  9. Nothing too challenging here but that’s ok because it’s Monday. Some straightforward anagrams provided entries across the Board and then I worked my way around the rest. Not sure that I have an outright favourite today but 4ac come closest. Is Wimmin a feminist term? I had thought it was used in a slightly insulting way – not by me I hasten to add!
    Many thanks Vulcan and manehi.

  10. Thanks to Vulcan for a pleasant start to the day, and thanks to manehi.
    I liked 20d. Of course, I ran through every swimming term I could think of before I realised the ‘Private Eye’ answer was right there before me.
    To borrow another ‘Private Eye’ term, RIP Brenda.

  11. Good question from your young person, GDU @7; why hasn’t the nation been called the UQ for the last 70 years … !?

  14. My paper version gave no indication of who the setter was this morning. Vulcan being a bit coy, perhaps? Reminded me of Marvell’s address to his Coy (in his case) Mistress:
    “Had We World Enough And Time…” it begins.
    Liked SICILY (loi) ELOPER.

  15. Print version has no number or setter.

    Not much to detain us from getting on with our Mondays? At least it’s not A RAINY DAY here.

    Thanks Vulcan and manehi

  16. BillB@12 – I agree. As Oscar Wilde put it, “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing.”

  17. Was confused by BEDSIT, being fixated on “it” being the sex bit and thinking that BEDS was something to do with “debs” = fashionable sort of girl. Thanks for putting me straight. Doh! [Is there an emoji for “doh!”?]

  19. 2d ROB is not a synonym for steal. What you STEAL is the thing you take. What you ROB is the place you take it from.

    Is 6d even barely cryptic?

    I think 8d ADVENTURESOME is a pseudo-word, confusing the two genuine words “adventurous” and “venturesome.”

    I thought Clara Bow was called “the it girl” because she had sex appeal — the usual “it” again.

    Thanks to Vulcan for a puzzle that wasn’t quite a snap, even on a Monday and to manehi for a helpful blog.

  20. I found this a bit harder than usual for one of Vulcan’s. Plenty to smile at though, especially YUMMY MUMMY and WIMMIN, remembered from “Private Eye”, like GourockMark @10. Opted for ELOPES, rather than “eloper” at 5d as it fitted the wordplay better, though wasn’t confident.

    Thanks to Vulcan and to manehi, including for the explanation of the parsing for BEDSIT.

  21. Thanks for the blog, as mentioned by Ronald@14 and Ark Lark@15 there is no name or number in the paper, I do not think I have seen that before. Sometimes I fold my paper carefully to hide the name of the setter and try to guess from the puzzle, surprisingly easy most days. Today was obviously a Vulcan, a decent puzzle filling its role properly.
    I liked TOO MUCH for the use of OM ans SICILY was quite deceptive. Glad to see that COR was not MY for once.

  22. Straightforward I thought. ROBOT and VIRTUE were my favourites, and SICILY LOI. I scratched my head a bit about I ASK YOU being equivalent to ‘tell me’ but I suppose that it works. Thanks for the fun Vulcan. And for the blog manehi.

  23. A lovely Monday puzzle, this one.

    I think “wimmin” is considered feminist because it doesn’t have the word “men” in it.

  24. Valentine @19: the definition of robbery at common law is (to paraphrase) theft by use of force or threat of force. There’s no robbery without theft. This is not to be confused with burglary, which at common law was the breaking and entering of the dwelling of another, at night, for purposes of committing a crime while within. (The “at night” part and the “dwelling” part have been changed by statute almost everywhere.) No theft required for it to be a burglary, and in fact most arsonists are also guilty of burglary.

    Anyway, “rob” is okay as a synonym for “steal” as far as I’m concerned, since if you’ve robbed, perforce you must have stolen. The reverse is not true: a pickpocket is not a robber, for example, nor is an embezzler, but both are thiefs.

  27. Thanks Vulcan and manehi
    Not much to add, except that I tend to agree with Valentine @19. You rob a person or an institution – Peter (to pay Paul), or a bank, for example – but you steal an object – a gold coin or the Mona Lisa, perhaps.

  28. Re WIMMIN. The etymology of woman says it’s from “female person”, so denying the “man” part is denying the person’s humanity, so ironically those who would step out of the kitchen end up with egg on their faces! Someone didn’t think this through.

  30. Dr. WhatsOn @ 28: They weren’t denying anything. They were just not using words with man (or men) in them. “Humanity” is just a word for something that exists anyway – it doesn’t need the word to still be a thing. They’re not denying themselves anything, other than the use of certain words. “Step out of the kitchen” – really?

  33. Rob and steal can be synonyms when used intransitively. Consider the start of Kipling’s obituary of “a politician”: “I would not work; I dared not rob; Therefore I lied to please the mob”. One could use steal instead of rob in that context, and it would make sense, (though obviously it wouldn’t rhyme or scan.)

    Wimmin would certainly have been fine as a feminist term in the 1980s, and I’ve also seen Herstory used perfectly seriously. But a Yuppie is not necessarily a careerist; the term stood for Young Urban Professional, and the point was that they were in jobs that paid good money. Hence they bought up houses in areas that had previously been down-market and cheap, and thereby generated higher house prices, expensive coffee shops, up-market delicatessens, gastropubs etc, and as a result “yuppified” them. But, as individuals, they might have been pretty uninterested in their careers.

    I think that both Wimmin and Yuppies are rarer than they once were; the zeitgeist has changed….

  34. Sagittarius @33
    I take your point about the intransitive usage.
    Kipling could have used “steal” and “weal” (in the sense of the public wellbeing)!

  35. Valentine @19: you spoil my fun (and the fun of Alan C @3 and Tim C @5) by insisting that the “it” was the same-old “it” after all. It was just last Friday that I was complaining in these very threads about that particular “tiresome and all-too-schoolboyish” innuendo. So I celebrated along with the two “C”s that “it” was not sex. At least Clara Bow was “fashionable” — as in the clue — as well as sexy.

  36. Dr. Whatson @31: Good point – I objected to the wrong part of your post. It was the “egg on their faces” thing I meant to object to, which suggested that they shouldn’t “step out of the kitchen”. I’ve no idea if that’s how you meant it to come across, but that’s how it sounded to me, FWIW.

  37. Weird, I finished Picaroon’s prize last Saturday, but couldn’t finish this. Much too hard.
    I find Vulcan on a Monday very difficult.
    Thanks both,.

  39. Thanks both,
    Saggitarius@33 In my mind, yuppie stood for ‘young upwardly-mobile professional’ in which case ‘careerist’ is fine.

  40. Tyngewick@39 – I thought that was a Yumpie – an inelegant development from the original Yuppie, but possibly now a more common phenomenon. Before the 1980s, the stereotype was that professionals were suburban creatures, and the poor and criminal classes lived in the inner cities. And then the yuppies came along, and the rest is history (or, if you prefer, herstory).

  41. I was travelling on the Tube when a young man pointed at me and said to his friends “Look, there’s one, a yuppie”. As a civil servant approaching 50 I was flattered in a way.

  43. Thanks a lot, Vulcan, for the enjoyment I had with this puzzle, and to manehi for the blog. I have also appreciated reading the comments from fellow solvers.

  44. mrpenney@24 Robbery and theft refer to the same event, but from different points of view. If you take my wallet, you’ve stolen it. If you take the money out of it but leave the wallet, you’ve robbed it. In both cases, you’ve robbed me (but not stolen me). muffin, I don’t think it’s a distinction between robbing a person but stealing a thing — you can rob a bank (pretty hard to steal one) or a cashbox, or steal a boyfriend.

  45. 7D and 21AC are probably my favourites in this puzzle.

    Thanks to Vulcan, a great Monday puzzle, and manehi for the blog.

  46. For 20D, was anyone else trying to work out what was feminist about UNDIES (anagram of ‘used in’) for a while there? I was desperately trying to justify it as something to do with bra burning XD

Comments are closed.