Guardian Quiptic 1,234/Pasquale

by

Well, as easy as one-two-three [four], I would aver. But I said that last time I blogged Pasquale, and most folk differed. So over to you …

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 Conservative peers, exceptionally awful people
CREEPS
A charade of C and (PEERS)* with ‘exceptionally’ as the anagrind.

4 Improvement in respect of shape
REFORM
A charade of RE and FORM.

9 Anything sad, idea to be worked on now
IN THIS DAY AND AGE
(ANYTHING SAD IDEA)* with ‘to be worked on’ as the anagrind.

10 To be left in Paris is awkward
GAUCHE
A dd. Left-handers are an oppressed minority.

11 Wow, a drunk in sojourn — illegal traveller!
STOWAWAY
An insertion of (WOW A)* in STAY. The insertion indicator is ‘in’ and the anagrind is ‘drunk’.

12 Poison in conflict well towards the centre?
WARFARIN
A charade of WAR and FAR IN.

14 Rubbish had to spin around
ROTATE
A charade of ROT and ATE.

15 Account, something that binds agreement
ACCORD
A charade of AC and CORD.

18 Nurse Pam is fantastic, no ordinary mortal!
SUPERMAN
(NURSE PAM)* with ‘is fantastic’ as the anagrind.

21 Soft yellow item of furniture that can be easily moved
PORTABLE
A charade of P for the musically ‘soft’, OR for ‘yellow’ in heraldry, and TABLE.

22 Getting round the last bit, go in
TRENDY
An insertion of END in TRY. The insertion indicator is ‘getting round’.

24 Feeling unwell with a cloud hanging over one?
UNDER THE WEATHER
A cd.

25 Live with team led by soldiers
RESIDE
A charade of RE for Royal Engineers and SIDE.

26 Begins to bring food aboard ship
STARTS
An insertion of TART in SS. If you are new to all this, ‘aboard ship’ is an instruction to insert fodder inside SS for ‘steamship’.

Down

1 Preserve farewell piece of music
CANTATA
A charade of CAN and TATA.

2 Set of principles and so on — hard one to get installed
ETHIC
An insertion of H and I in ETC. The insertion indicator is ‘to get installed’.

3 Stick with old city microbiologist
PASTEUR
A charade of PASTE and UR for the crossword setters’ fave ‘old city’.

5 Our name misspelt in entrance
ENAMOUR
(OUR NAME)* with ‘misspelt’ as the anagrind.

6 Painter who was born long before his pupils?
OLD MASTER
A cd.

7 Traveller needing motorway to get permit
MIGRANT
A charade of MI for the Leeds-London motorway and GRANT.

8 Mother and boy to get fruit
DAMSON
A charade of DAM and SON.

13 Boundaries one first organised to include river
FRONTIERS
An insertion of R in (ONE FIRST)* The insertion indicator is ‘to include’ and the anagrind is ‘organised’.

16 Singer — cor, awful one, right?
CROONER
A charade of (COR)*, ONE and R. The anagrind is ‘awful’.

17 Argued with old socialite who’s taken on an old rocker
DEBATED
A charade of DEB, A and TED (you need to be of a certain age to remember Teddy Boys, I guess).

18 Start of summer and we will get retreat in country
SWEDEN
A charade of S for the initial letter of ‘summer’, WE and DEN.

19 One in doctor’s surgery happy to wait?
PATIENT
A dd cum cd.

20 Direct attention to where someone lives?
ADDRESS
A dd.

23 Go in some part of alien territory
ENTER
Hidden in aliEN TERritory.

Many thanks to Pasquale for this morning’s Quiptic and a brownie point to me for not calling him Quixote.

32 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,234/Pasquale”

  1. Thanks Pasquale and Pierre
    On first pass of the across clues I only got GAUCHE and SUPERMAN, but when I started on the downs it all went very quickly. Favourites ENAMOUR for the misleading definition, and TRENDY for the well concealed one.

  3. Pierre the crows, that was an easy one. I’m looking forward to Steffan saying he’s finished one.

  4. I was able to use this to show my granddaughter how a cryptic crossword works, so it fits the Quiptic bill perfectly.

  5. Easy or not, it was worth the entry fee for 1a alone. Lovely stuff, thanks, Pasquale and Pierre.

  6. A pleasant experience, with only a couple of head scratchers for me. I thought OR related to gold, and the ted in DEBATED was quite unknown, although I now vaguely remember encountering the Teddy boys in a puzzle months ago.

  8. GeoffDownUnder @ 6: Oddly enough, I was doing an old Pasquale puzzle dating from January 2022 recently, and I found:

    “An old rocker and a similar rocker placed in an earlier time (9)” to give AN-TED-A-TED. Maybe Pasquale was a Ted in his youth?

    Nice Quiptic, as Pasquale ‘s always are. The Nurse Pam anagram made me laugh, and goes well with all those Super-NHS memes that appeared during the pandemic.

  9. Yes, pretty straightforward. The long clues were pretty much write-ins and that helped a lot.
    I wasn’t aware that WARFARIN was a poison, as I’m fairly sure my father was on it.

  10. Indeed, WhiteDevil. Warfarin was originally developed as a rodenticide, but is now used medically as an anticoagulant.

  14. All very straightforward and parseable, although I guessed that DAM meant mother (turns out, in animals rather than humans); and I didn’t know WARFARIN so I didn’t figure that one out, even from the wordplay. Good stuff though!

  15. I was slightly worried when I only got one solution in the whole top half (GAUCHE) on the first pass but the entire bottom half was one big write-in for me, very unusually! Then filling in the top half was a nice steady solve on the second pass. An excellent quiptic overall.

    Thanks P & P.

  18. Like WhiteDevil @9, I thought of warfarin as a medication, not a poison, but as the saying goes, “the dose makes the poison”, so I didn’t worry too much about it. I didn’t know its rodenticidal origins.

    This was an excellent Quiptic, which I also found to be toward the easier end.

  19. I know WARFARIN as rat poison as well as an anticoagulant, it’s how it poisons rats and why it’s sucb an issue if eaten by children or pets.

    Very straightforward Quiptic, fitting the bill nicely.

    Thank you to Pasquale and Pierre.

  20. I’m with Ragged @ 11 . Thanks for the explanaion Cats Whiskers, that TRY is a synonym for GO, but how do you derive Go from the clue

  21. I’m with Ragged @ 11 . Thanks for the explanaion Cats Whiskers, that TRY is a synonym for GO, but how do you derive Go from the clue?

  23. Got PORTABLE but didn’t know that OR meant yellow. Didn’t know WARFARIN was a poison and I don’t know if I’ll ever get my head around DAM being Mother as was trying to think of a fruit starting MA. Not sure about GO meaning TRY.

  24. Or is the heraldic name for yellow, though it’s classed as a “metal” rather than a colour (along with argent for silver).

    Go=try reminds me of the Australian who, on being asked if he could play the piano, replied
    “I don’t know, mate – I’ll give it a go”
    He could have said “give it a try”.

  25. 3. nicbach

    Unfortunately not. I got close, though.

    1d, 7d, 13d escaped me.

    10a, 12a escaped me.

    I would never have guessed “M 1” for migrant.

    I’m going to attempt today’s cryptic tonight after work.

    I had a similarly successful attempt at yesterday’s EVERYMAN: I was 10 clues away from completing it before I had to use google.

  32. Speaking as someone else who’s been on warfarin for many decades I was chuffed with the clue. I feel that the toxicity is quite well-known – well it certainly is to us patients! Doctors’ folklore has sometimes in the past stated that the WARF in the name stands for “Wisconsin Anti-Rat Federation” … but despite its initial development as a rodent poison, it’s really “Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation”, which is admittedly less fun.

    As with so many drugs the toxicity *is* the therapeutic effect – in me the idea is to stop me from clotting to death by anticoagulating me; with Ratty the idea is to kill it by *extreme* anticoagulation! That’s why we’re quite careful with our doses and our little monitoring machines …

Comments are closed.