GURNEY kicks off the week….
Greetings from New York! I've spent the day hiking round Central Park and then solved this from the comfort of the hotel bar.
A pretty straightforward puzzle I thought, but very enjoyable nevertheless.
Thanks GURNEY!
ACROSS
1. Dignified mother in charge, there’s fun on board (8)
MAJESTIC
(MA (mother) + IC (in charge)) there's JEST (fun) on board
5. Very old article to bring relief (6)
SOOTHE
SO (very) + O (old) + THE (article)
9. In principle no credit can be arranged (8)
DOCTRINE
(NO CREDIT)* (*can be arranged)
10. Reached maximum, annoyed, it’s said (6)
PEAKED
"piqued" = PEAKED (annoyed, "it's said")
12. Incidental music for 20 (5)
SCORE
13. Contemptible nasty painter interrupted by the Italian (9)
REPTILIAN
(PAINTER)* (*nasty) interrupted by IL (the, Italian)
14. Conservative move by America that could be prickly (6)
CACTUS
C (conservative) + ACT (move) by US (America)
16. Jeans so tailored in capital city (3,4)
SAN JOSE
18. Put aside as false a French poet — nonsense from the start (7)
UNLEARN
UN (a, French) + LEAR (poet) + N[onsense] (from the start)
20. Dish originally prepared at Elche everyone recalled (6)
PAELLA
P[repared] A[t] E[lche] (initially) + (ALL)< (everyone, <recalled)
22. Hill adviser, annoying person (9)
TORMENTOR
TOR (hill) + MENTOR (adviser)
23. Climb range (5)
SCALE
24. Central fraudulent transaction getting millions for female (6)
MIDDLE
[f]IDDLE (fraudulent transaction, getting M (millions) for F (female))
25. Grating move forward, not on the periphery (8)
STRIDENT
STRIDE (move forward) + N[o]T (on the periphery)
26. Referring to class holiday area (6)
RESORT
RE (referring to) + SORT (class)
27. One new opening — limitless work for creative guy (8)
INVENTOR
I (one) + N (new) + VENT (opening) + [w]OR[k] (limitless)
DOWN
1. Decent majority accepting returning editor (6)
MODEST
MOST (majority) accepting (ED)< (editor, <returning)
2. Versatile person calls draft a joke, sadly (4,2,3,6)
JACK OF ALL TRADES
(CALLS DRAFT A JOKE)* (*sadly)
3. Cloth somewhat coarser generally (5)
SERGE
[coar]SER GE[nerally] (somewhat)
4. Bar hayrides on regular basis — these remain inside? (7)
INNARDS
INN (bar) + [h]A[y]R[i]D[e]S (on a regular basis)
6. On one occasion accepting place to sleep — that is following orders (9)
OBEDIENCE
ONCE (on one occasion) accepting (BED (place to sleep) + IE (that is))
7. What are the options for computers? Entirely up to you (4,2,2,5,2)
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
Double (cryptic) definition
IT being Information Technology
8. Imperil outcome leading to rage (8)
ENDANGER
END (outcome) leading to ANGER (rage)
11. Love bringing drink up after work (4)
OPUS
O (love) + (SUP)< (drink, <bringing up)
15. Bank employee welcoming artist, Victor — one on the move (9)
TRAVELLER
TELLER (bank employee) welcoming (RA (artist) + V (Victor))
17. One buys metal on street or takes writer in? (8)
CUSTOMER
CU (metal, copper) on ST (street) + (OR takes ME (writer) in)
19. Observe importance (4)
NOTE
20. Religious adherent rain put off (7)
PURITAN
21. Wise person, home owner’s tips (6)
NESTOR
NEST (home) + O[wne]R (tips)
23. Society note the French sign of friendliness (5)
SMILE
S (society) + MI (note) + LE (the, French)
I stupidly had LIKE IT OR LEAVE IT for 7d, which resulted in an inordinately long time unsuccessfully trying to solve 5a.
Apart from that silly error, this was probably the fastest cryptic I’ve done in a long time (ignore the apparent contradiction), with every other clue being a write-in. That’s not a criticism: it was very enjoyable, and perhaps worth saving for the next time someone says “Can you show me how cryptics work?”
Thanks, Gurney & Teacow.
I enjoyed it too. Favourites were JACK OF ALL TRADES for the super anagram, SERGE for the nice surface with hidden answer, and TRAVELLER for the way the answer presented itself to me
Agree with GDU about the precise clues. Steady progress for me, although I had multiple answers at the ready for all the double definitions which complicated matters a little.
Also, I remember NESTOR as being long-winded rather than wise, although my OED confirms Gurney’s interpretation.
Thanks Gurney for the solid puzzle and Teacow for allowing us to interrupt your cocktails. Enjoy NY!
I agree with Teacow that the puzzle was a quick and straightforward solve on the face of it – nice warm-up at the start of the week.
But I’m wondering if there’s a mini musical theme…with SCALE, SCORE, OPUS, NOTE and PURITAN (I Puritani scored by Bellini)?
I don’t know this work but as I didn’t really get the surface for SCORE, I looked online afterwards and discovered it.
I did enjoy the neat simplicity of SOOTHE and the wordplay for OBEDIENCE.
Thanks to Teacow and Gurney.
I also found it pretty easy apart from 21D as I have never heard of Nestor.
I am sure millions should be abbreviated as MN in this paper. I know I go on about this, so “How AGN makes you feel, very old and fasting, interrupted by millions.” Incidentally I think Nestor is better known as being very old, rather than wise. But otherwise can only agree with previous commenters – Thank you Teacow and Gurney.
AGN: please tell me why “millions should be abbreviated as MN in this paper”. Does your comment relate to a clue in this crossword?
Also, “How AGN makes you feel, very old and fasting, interrupted by millions.” does not appear in today’s crossword.
I am sorry but it seems like your comments relate to a different crossword.
Thanks Gurney and Teacow
24ac (MIDDLE) I assume this is the clue to which AGN was referring in comment 5. The FT may have a house style requiring MN in news reports, but you should not expect that to be applied to crosswords. The abbreviation for “million(s)” is given in both Chambers 2016 and ODE 2010.
21dn: Further to Martyn@2, SOED 2007 tells us that Nestor was “a Homeric hero famous for his age and wisdom”. ODE 2010 says “His wisdom was proverbial.”
And a parrot.
MN for million isn’t in Chambers (I have the app) or Collins (online version of the whole thing). M is there for both lists, with ‘millions’ also allowed in Chambers. There isn’t really a standard list for single-letter indication, and certainly not for two-letters ones.
SOMNOLENT – SO+MN+O+LENT
Further to Paul B @8: Chambers is the only one of the dictionaries I have which gives “the kea parrot genus” under the headword Nestor. The others give the species name Nestor notabilis under the headword kea.
I should perhaps have mentioned @7 that Collins 2023 only gives “million” explicitly, but presumably allows the plural by implication under a general rule. I could not find MN for million in either ODE 2010 or SOED 2007.
I liked this-very unpretentious.
NESTOR took me back to Deasy in Ulysses
And “Do you know the way to SAN JOSE?”
If you are in the Bay Area head south down HY1
‘Ang on a minute-wrong place-but Highway 1 is a great drive.
Especially with the Beachj Boys Holland playing.
Have you not noticed that the FT for the last couple of years has used mn for millions? As in “50mn Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong” I find it very irritating, which is why I go on about it whenever possible, such as in 24a today. And well done FrankieG @10!
https://aboutus.ft.com/press_release/ft-makes-change-to-style-guide
‘FEBRUARY 4, 2022
FT makes change to style guide to benefit text-to-speech software
The Financial Times has made a small but significant change to its style guide. The abbreviation of millions is now ‘mn’ instead of ‘m’. One of the main reasons is to benefit text-to-speech software, which reads out the ‘m’ as metres instead of millions, confusing visually impaired readers. It also comes into line with our style for billion (bn) and trillion (tn).’
AGN@13: As I said earlier, for news reports. Where does it say that it applies to crosswords? Incidentally, I must ask you to believe that I found the wordplay for your clue before Frankie published it, but it does not fit the definition. Politeness prevents me from suggesting what sort of words might fit the definition.
Dnf annoyingly, as I breezed through this but did not know Nestor. Missed the obvious nest equals home, realising that the word must end OR
Grrrrr
Otherwise a very satisfactory start to the week.
Surely the point is that M = Mega = Millions as in MW (megawatts) or MB (megabytes). I know that confusingly M = thousand as well, but that’s life (and crossword-world)
Deezzaa@17: I think you are right that it is at least in part that fact that M- also stands for “mega-” that leads the dictionaries to give M as an abbreviation for million(s). Note that they all give K for thousand and not T. However, the main issue at stake in today’s discussion is whether the FT style guide requiring “mn” for million in news reports and headlines should also be a constraint on crossword setters. I say “no it should not”.
Many thanks for the excellent blog, Teacow, and thanks also to all who commented.
Diane at #3, those musical entries were just coincidence – no theme to the puzzle.
Thanks Gurney@19.
Always appreciated when the setter comments on the blog!
Yes, thanks Gurney. I see I was reading too much into things!
Moly@16 Me too! I put in mentor even though I thought it was wrong. It’s interesting that a person known as wise is one good at giving advice rather than one giving good advice. Thanks Gurney very enjoyable.