Quiptic 1,206 by Pasquale

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Quiptic fun from Pasquale for Boxing Day.

Mostly straightforward, as a Quiptic should be, though I’m not quite convinced by the definition in 22a and definitely unconvinced by the homophone in 15a. I liked the surface of 23d and the conjunction of the French thinker / French thoughts in 13a / 8d, but the winner by a long way is the delightful 10a.

Thanks Pasquale for an enjoyable puzzle as always – and compliments of the season to Fifteensquared readers.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 REDACT
Edit traced out (6)
Anagram (out) of TRACED.

Redact = edit a document to hide sensitive information.
4 MITRES
Special hats making mister daft (6)
Anagram (daft) of MISTER.

Hats worn by bishops and archbishops.
9 EMIL
German boy taking green fruit around (4)
LIME (a green fruit) reversed (taking . . . around).

German boy’s name, as in the book Emil and the Detectives.
10 SEERSUCKER
Material produced by two people: one wise, the other foolish (10)
SEER (a prophet or “wise man”) + SUCKER (a foolish person who is easily deceived).

Cotton fabric with a puckered texture, used for hot-weather clothing.
11 BRUNEI
British character of old coming to one sultanate (6)
B (abbreviation for British) + RUNE (character in an old form of writing) + I (one in Roman numerals).
12 INCENSED
Nice dens made special with perfume (8)
Anagram (made special) of NICE DENS. Or perhaps “made” is the anagram indicator and “special with perfume” is the definition.
13 DESCARTES
French thinker upsetting sacred set (9)
Anagram (upsetting . . .) of SACRED SET.

René Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician: “I think, therefore I am”.
15 BERN
Sound of stream in foreign capital (4)
I think this is intended as a homophone (sound) of BURN (Scottish dialect for a stream). But the Swiss capital BERN only sounds like that in a very Anglicised pronunciation: the Swiss would pronounce it more like “bairn”.
16 CUTE
Quaint fashion, latest in Vogue (4)
CUT (as a noun = fashion, in the sense of how a garment is shaped) + last letter of [vogu]E.

Quaint = cute = “nice if you like that sort of thing”: rather a put-down.
17 CASSEROLE
Type of dish — cereal’s so different (9)
Anagram (different) of CEREAL’S SO.

A cooking vessel, or the food cooked in it: either sense of “dish” will work here.
21 APRES-SKI
Party with a group of journalists — kids, not half! (5-3)
A + PRESS (journalists as a group) + KI[ds] without the second half of the letters.

Evening entertainment at a winter sports resort.
22 RADIAL
Artist with face somehow beaming? (6)
RA (Royal Academician = artist) + DIAL (face of a clock).

A slightly odd definition, unless I’m missing something. Radial = radiating = arranged like the spokes of a wheel; and beaming = radiating = emitting radiation. But I’m not sure that “radial” and “beaming” are interchangeable in either of these senses.
24 CHARDONNAY
Fish starter for Spanish gent with no wine (10)
CHAR (a fish) (before (starter for) DON (Spanish title for a gentleman) + NAY (archaic form of “no”).

A grape variety or the white wine made from it.
25 ANNA
Girl making money in India once (4)
Double definition. A female given name; or an old pre-decimal Indian coin, one-sixteenth of a rupee.
26 PELMET
Soft protection for the ’ead, a decorative piece (6)
P (p = musical notation for soft in the sense of quiet, from Italian piano) + [h]ELMET (protection for the head) dropping the initial H.

A structure above a window, hiding the curtain rail. Not just decorative: it’s supposed to keep the room warmer, by stopping downward air flow past the cold window and out into the room.
27 FRIEND
Chum got very hot around end of afternoon (6)
FRIED (fry = become over-heated, especially in strong sunshine) around the end letter of [afternoo]N.
DOWN
1 REMORSE
Regret some tremors eventually (7)
Hidden answer (some . . .) in [t]REMORS E[ventually].
2 DYLAN
Singer revealed by body language to some extent (5)
Another hidden answer (to some extent) in [bo]DY LAN[guage].

The singer Bob Dylan, originally Robert Allen Zimmerman, occasionally known by other names.
3 CASHIER
Get rid of money — that is right (7)
CASH (money) + IE (i.e. from Latin id est = that is) + R (right).

Cashier, as a verb = to discharge someone dishonourably from military service.
5 INSECT
Six-footer in religious group? (6)
IN + SECT (religious group).

A creature with six legs.
6 RACONTEUR
Recount a bit of rigmarole funnily? I may! (9)
Anagram (funnily) of RECOUNT A + first letter (a bit) of R[igmarole].

Extended definition: raconteur = one who tells amusing stories.
7 SHEBEEN
The female has been a boozer! (7)
SHE (a specific female) + BEEN.

Boozer = slang for a drinking establishment; shebeen = an unlicensed drinking establishment, especially one supplying home-made liquor.
8 DELIBERATIONS
Thoughts of the French about being made free (13)
DES (plural “of the” in French) around LIBERATION (being made free).
14 CATHEDRAL
See building (9)
Cryptic definition: see = the geographical area associated with a cathedral and presided over by its bishop.
16 COP SHOP
Firm dad keeping quiet in officers’ HQ (3,4)
CO (abbreviation for company = firm) + POP (dad = father), containing (keeping) SH (sh! = quiet, as a command).

Slang for a police station = headquarters for police officers.
18 SPRAYER
Second request for watering device? (7)
S (abbreviation for second) + PRAYER (request).
19 LEARNED
Erudite king meeting Scottish lout? (7)
LEAR (Shakespearean king) + NED (Scottish word for a lout or hooligan).
20 ASHORE
Report of a certain coming to land (6)
Homophone (report) of A SURE (a certain).
23 DRAKE
Daughter meeting dissolute fellow — a flighty male (5)
D (abbreviation for daughter) + RAKE (the sort of man you wouldn’t want your daughter to meet).

A male duck; most species are capable of flight.

23 comments on “Quiptic 1,206 by Pasquale”

  3. I too was less than convinced by 22. Maybe replacing ‘beaming’ by ‘beamy’ (‘of or pertaining to a beam’ in this case) would have made it work.
    Thanks, Quirister, for taking the time.

  4. I thought “somehow” in 22a was an anagrind so was trying to use the letters of “face”. Does “somehow” serve any purpose?

    An enjoyable puzzle, with nothing too obscure. I learned that a ned is a Scottish lout.

  5. You know where you are with a Pasquale Quiptic – this filled the bill perfectly for me.

    I did raise an eyebrow at RADIAL but I think it’s OK – beaming is emitting rays and radial is emitting rays from a hub, which is beaming “somehow”.

    Being anglicised myself, I didn’t have any issues with the Bern/burn homophone.

    Thanks for the blog, Quirister.

  6. Enjoyable puzzle.

    Liked CHARDONNAY.

    New for me: NED = lout (19d); ANNA = a former monetary unit of India and Pakistan.

    Thanks, both.

    I am fine with the homophone in 1a. I suspect that most English speakers pronounce Bern as burn not bairn.

  8. What Widdersbel @5 said. (I think his way of explaining RADIAL also covers GDU’s query @4 – the “somehow” is a hint that we are to interpret the “beaming” whimsically).

    I’m sure I’ve heard BBC correspondents in BERN say ‘Bern’ the anglicised way, and in fact Collins online gives that as the first pronunciation.

    But, interestingly, there’s another justification (although probably not intended by Pasquale). ‘Bern’ does indeed sound rather like ‘bairn’ in French and in standard German – but not in Bärndütsch (the Bern variety of Swiss German, which is what the local Swiss actually speak). Have a listen to Bärn i ha di gärn (= Bern, ich habe dich gern = Bern, I like you), an appreciative anthem for Schlittschuh Club Bern, one of the top Swiss ice hockey teams. To my ears, at least, it sounds closer to ‘burn/barn’ than it does to ‘bairn’.

    lin @7 – you can’t be serious! 🙂 But yes, I’d agree there’s more of a problem for many English speakers with shore/sure, although in RP they are pronounced the same.

    Thanks Pasquale (even if his name hadn’t been on top, I’d have guessed it was him from the CATHEDRAL and the MITRES!) and to Quirister for going beyond the call of duty and blogging on Boxing Day.

    [Btw, greetings in particular to our US and Canadian contributors – hope they’re OK despite the ‘bomb cyclone’.]

  10. Good gentle hangover cure from Pasquale.

    Like Quirister my favourite was SEERSUCKER (ultimately from the Persian shir o shakkar – milk and sugar, from the varied textures of the fabric).

    I seem to recall that in English we used to favour the French spelling Berne, and certainly to pronounce it as the RP ‘burn’. The spelling BERN points me towards the Standard German pronunciation, but I’m just being pernickety 🙂

    Thanks to S&B

  11. SEERSUCKER, APRES SKI, CHARDONNAY & PELMET the standouts for me in a lovely Quiptic that was nicely clued throughout & not too difficult for the slot.
    Thanks both

  12. Thanks Pasquale and Quirister
    I wondered about RADIAL too. Chambers gives one meaning as “referring to rays” (or similar – I haven’t got the book open), so I suppose it’s OK, but I expect everyone would say “radiant” to give that meaning.

  13. A day late to this (what day even is it?) and thought it was perfect quiptic fare. I wasn’t remotely bothered by either homophone but I never am, having accepted a while ago that homophones are not intended to be perfect soundalikes globally, and should be approached with a built-in margin of tolerance.

    I did however raise an eyebrow at the clue for SHEBEEN containing the whole word BEEN in plain sight; I’m a tad disappointed that both setter and editor let that duplication through unquestioned.

    Good puzzle though, thanks both

  14. I was surprised there wasn’t more protesting of the SHORE/sure homophone! I suppose it’s much less jarring with non-rhotic dialects. To my southern US ears, it seems completely wrong, probably because pronouncing ‘sure’ like ‘shore’ marks one as a hick (yokel).

  15. I liked this one very much, and enjoyed the blog and comments. Thanks evryone. My favourite is 26a.

    I am a novice, though, and still don’t get 6d. Why is “I may” a definition for raconteur? Does Pasquale tell amusing stories?

  16. Aicul @15: welcome to Fifteensquared if this is your first post, and I’m glad you enjoyed it.
    In 6d, the definition is really “I”, but it needs the rest of the clue to make sense: if I’m a raconteur then I may recount a bit of rigmarole funnily. That’s what I mean by “extended definition”. I hope that helps!

  18. I’m generally toward the more tolerant end when it comes to dodgy homophones, but I admit that ASHORE raised my hackles. It didn’t occur to me to be bothered by BERN, though.

    Once again, I’m impressed by Pasquale’s ability to set puzzles at different levels of difficulty. His non-Quiptic puzzles generally strike me as very difficult (but fair), but when he’s in the Quiptic slot he fits the bill perfectly.

  19. Thanks for the blog! I don’t know if this is generational or what, but the vocabulary in this seemed more difficult than the average Quiptic for me. SEERSUCKER, ANNA as a currency, SHEBEEN, and COP SHOP were all new to me. What’s more, as a beginner, BEEN being in plaintext in 7d threw me off completely – I was certain I had to find something else for the answer.

  20. Thanks both Pasquale and Quirister. Definitely on the harder end of a quiptic for me – ANNA, SEERSUCKER weren’t in my general knowledge bank, and I’m not entirely happy about BERN (possibly because I’m half Swiss, possibly just sour grapes as I didn’t get it!). And just couldn’t get LEARNED for some reason despite having all the letters. Ho hum, another week, another try at a new quiptic.
    Thanks for an enjoyable grid and great blogging

  21. For a while commenters seemed to have accepted that puns are not homophones in the purest sense, but I guess it was just a lull in the action and now the objections are back in full force. For what it’s worth, the clues don’t use the word ‘homophone’; I would argue that the words ‘report’ and ‘sound of’ do not necessarily mean ‘sounds exactly the same as to all English speakers’, and punny wordplay is what these clues feature.

    Like others, I thought 10a SEERSUCKER was the best of an excellent set of clues.

    Thanks Pasquale for the pun-fun, and quirister for the blog.

  22. …and in the same vein I wouldn’t dream of objecting to Pasquale’s whimsical use of the word ‘singer’ in 2d DYLAN. 🙂

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