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A fun solve – I really liked 1ac, 26ac, and 2dn. Thanks to Yank for the puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CASCADE |
Fall of assassin that’s central to Ides (7)
|
| CASCA plus central letters of [i]-DE-[s]
Casca is the name of one of the assassins [wiki] who killed Julius Caesar on the Ides of March |
||
| 5 | PARSEC |
Casper travels a long way (6)
|
| definition: a unit of length used for distances between astronomical objects
anagram/”travels” of (Casper)* |
||
| 9 | FANDANGO |
Dance nut beginning to dance a dance without an introduction (8)
|
| FAN=enthusiast=”nut” + beginning of D-[ance] + [t]-ANGO=”a dance without an introduction” | ||
| 10 | BOOBOO |
‘You’re awful! You’re terrible! Stupid mistake!’ (3-3)
|
| BOO=”You’re awful” + BOO=”You’re terrible” | ||
| 12 | BEVERLY HILLS |
A singing brother by hotel, drowning in expenses in fancy area (7,5)
|
| EVERLY=”A singing brother” + H (hotel); both drowning inside BILLS=”expenses”
The Everly Brothers were a singing duo [wiki] |
||
| 15 | CHENIN BLANC |
Revolutionary diarist with peak wine (6,5)
|
| CHE [Guevara]=”Revolutionary” + NIN=”diarist” + BLANC (Mont Blanc in the Alps)=”peak”
NIN is a reference to The Diary of Anaïs Nin [wiki] |
||
| 17 | TAR |
Besmirch quisling in retreat (3)
|
| RAT=traitor=”quisling” reversed/”in retreat” | ||
| 18 | END |
Barrie heroine stripped off, showing rear (3)
|
| [w]-END-[y] stripped of the outer letters
J. M. Barrie wrote the story of Peter Pan and Wendy Darling [wiki] |
||
| 19 | DONNYBROOKS |
Marie’s singing brother Mel in wild brawls (11)
|
| DONNY Osmond [wiki]=”Marie [Osmond]’s singing brother” + Mel BROOKS [wiki] | ||
| 20 | TELEGRAPHESE |
Rap sheet torn apart with glee in terse language (12)
|
| definition: a way of writing to fit more information into fewer characters/words in a telegram
anagram/”torn apart” of (Rap sheet glee)* |
||
| 24 | SENSEI |
Pick up one teacher (6)
|
| SENSE=”Pick up” + I=”one” | ||
| 25 | NIGHT OWL |
Later, he’s active close to outskirts of Whitehall (5,3)
|
| NIGH TO=”close to” + outer letters of W-[hitehal]-L | ||
| 26 | SHEESH |
Tip reduced by 1/3? Crikey! (6)
|
| [bak]-SHEESH reduced by 1/3 (3 out of 9) of its letters
baksheesh is a term for money given as a tip [or a gift, or a bribe] |
||
| 27 | TOP SPOT |
Great position, any way you look at it (3,4)
|
| Note: I think the enumeration online was previously (7), but this has been changed to (3,4) a palindrome, reading the same “any way you look at it” |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CUFF |
Hit hard and take into custody (4)
|
| double definition: to strike with one’s hand; or to use handcuffs on someone | ||
| 2 | SINK |
Founder of NSYNC vocalised after Justin finally left (4)
|
| definition: founder as a verb e.g. a ship might founder/sink
sounds like (“vocalised”): [n]SYNC, with the final letter of [Justi]-n removed for the surface, Justin Timberlake was a part of the boyband NSYNC [wiki] |
||
| 3 | ACADEMIC DEGREES |
Around start of G7, America seceded? Nonsense, B.S. and more (8,7)
|
| definition: B.S. is an abbreviation (used in the US) for Bachelor of Science
anagram/”Nonsense” of (America seceded)*, around the start of G-[7] |
||
| 4 | EAGLE |
Animal on which Darwin rode, starting out (5)
|
| [B]-EAGLE with the starting letter taken out
Charles Darwin travelled on the HMS Beagle [wiki] |
||
| 6 | APOTHECARY’S SHOP |
Insane psychopath arose where chemist’s seen (11,4)
|
| anagram/”Insane” of (psychopath arose)* | ||
| 7 | SIBILATION |
Stinking initials B.O. elicit sound of disapproval (10)
|
| definition: hissing, which can be used as a sound of disapproval
anagram/”Stinking” of (initials B.O.)* |
||
| 8 | CROSS-DRESS |
A ‘queen’ may do this with snappy ornamentation (5-5)
|
| definition: a drag queen may cross-dress
CROSS=annoyed=”snappy” + DRESS=”ornamentation” |
||
| 11 | BLEARY |
Unclear that king covered in Times (6)
|
| LEAR (King Lear, as in the Shakespeare play), inside BY=”Times” (multiplied by, as in two by six equals three times four) | ||
| 13 | SCIENTISTS |
Yank, engrossed by clue for bloodhound, sits nervously for investigators (10)
|
| I=the setter of this puzzle=”Yank”, inside SCENT=”clue for bloodhound”; plus anagram/”nervously” of (sits)* | ||
| 14 | FER-DE-LANCE |
Freed in error, Pierce is a spewer of venom (3-2-5)
|
| definition: name for a type of venomous snake
anagram/”in error” of (Freed)*, plus LANCE=”Pierce” |
||
| 16 | BANTAM |
Prohibition on headgear for fowl (6)
|
| BAN=”Prohibition” + TAM (as in Tam o’ Shanter, a Scottish type of bonnets) | ||
| 21 | HEIST |
Theft of cuckoo shite (5)
|
| anagram/”cuckoo” of (shite)* | ||
| 22 | HOOP |
Bear’s shown up in circus apparatus (4)
|
| reversal/”shown up” of: Winnie the POOH [wiki] =”Bear” | ||
| 23 | CLOT |
Stick together with fool (4)
|
| double definition: to congeal; or an idiot |
A welcome return from Yank after the excellent debut at the start of the year. I expected another school day and wasn’t disappointed. I didn’t know the assassin in CASCADE, nor PARSEC, the lovely DONNYBROOKS, SIBILATION and FER-DE-LANCE. The fact that I solved them, says everything about the fairness of the wordplay. Lots of ticks but my favourites were SINK and SHEESH. The only quibble was the numeration of TOPSPOT, surely it’s either hyphenated or two separate words? Hope to see more soon.
Ta Yank & manehi.
AlanC – I’ve just checked TOP/SPOT (and edited the blog), it seems that the online version has changed to (3,4)
Solved it fairly quickly – but often through word recognition from crossers rather than parsings – but nho sensei, so a dnf.
thanks to Yank & manehi
Thanks manehi, I needed so many explanations today. Not a fun solve for me!
Ta manehi @2.
An enjoyable solve, with the Transatlantic flavour providing a interesting change. I was temporarily fooled by 2down – my LOI – and even went to the extreme of searching for NSYNC online until I realised that the solution required no knowledge of US boy bands. I noted BOO(BOO) and Hiss (SIBILANT) at top right, but couldn’t find any other similar pairs. Thank you Yank and manehi.
Thanks Yank and manehi
In contrast to AlanC, I knew a lot of the answers, but still felt I had to check them to make sure they were right, indicating some loose clueing. Several in fact entered from definition and crossers only.
Some oddities too. “Animal” is doing double duty in 4d. BLANC isn’t a peak, though Mont Blanc is. (Similarly TAM is short for Tam O’Shanter, though that contraction is in Chambers.) Why “that” in 11d? B.S. is unfair in a British paper – it’s always B.Sc. over here. Why define HOOP as “circus equipment? As a chemist, I don’t like being equated with a pharmacist, though that horse has bolted!
I did like the singing siblings (both), and “clue for bloodhound”.
Tough but quite enjoyable. Not familiar with this setter – welcome!
New for me: DONNYBROOKS = heated argument; PARSEC; sibilation; FER DE LANCE pit viper.
Thanks, both.
FER-DE-LANCE reminded me of Rex Stout’s first novel featuring Nero Wolfe. If you haven;t read any of his, then poor you.
Otherwise not to many problems but (bak)SHEESH took a while.
Thrown by TOP SPOT as I solved this with the original enumeration and had to reveal. SHEESH was tricky – (bak)SHEESH not being the first synonym to come to mind and the exclamation ditto. CASCADE, FANDANGO, TELEGRAPHESE and the amusing HEIST were my (slightly enlarged) podium today.
Thanks Yank and manehi
muffin @7: I took ‘on which Darwin rode’ as cluing (b)EAGLE so saw no double duty.
Thanks manehi, I didn’t know CASCA either, and spent a while over DONNYBROOKS as I didn’t know the word and had thought the Osmond ended in IE – but as AlanC notes it was all very fair once it clicked (and thanks to CHENIN giving the eyebrow-raising BLANC easily). Nice to see the enumeration sorted out too. Liked the mix of US and UK GK and slang required, SHEESH probably the top example, slight dislike of imprecision in SINK (but otherwise great clue) and repetition in BLEARY, but plenty more highlights eg the SCIENTISTS and all that dancing in FANDANGO. Thanks Yank!
I liked the semi-semi &littish quality of CASCADE and both singing brothers. I tried to find a word for tip which included Struth before the penny dropped.
I did struggle at first with, for me anyway, an unfamiliar setter and some answers that were words I was particularly unfamiliar with – SENSEI, PARSEC, DONNYBROOKS and even that white wine. Also thought BOO-BOO and SHEESH on the loose side. First impressions were that there was rather a lot of anagram fodder to identify and muster in the correct order. Final tiny grouse – I know that an EAGLE is an animal rather than a plant, but I’ve always called it a bird, just like my grouse. Whatever the collective term is for grouse(s), I did get a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure on completing this…
Covey… just looked it up
EAGLE
I see it as an &lit.
Starting out: Giving Darwin a kickstart (that Beagle voyage was a significant beginning
to a great story) or Darwin starting out…
The WP involves the whole clue as mentioned by PM@11.
Dnk Cas/ca as distinct from /sius, nor that snake which has such a great name. But nice puzzle, thanks both.
Great! I liked the singing brothers too, Petert@13.
The anagram clueing for APOTHECARY’S SHOP at 6d, “Insane psychopath arose …”, made me smile.
There were other fun moments as the solve unfolded, many of which have already been mentioned by others above.
Thanks to Yank and manehi.
me@15
EAGLE
I think my explanation doesn’t work. The WP involves the whole clue. One tick.
The Def is just animal? No second tick.
Then muff@7 seems to be right about the double-duty thing.
…and I did clearly remember Casca from the play as he’d identified himself as “A Roman”, i.e. a loyalist, when quizzed by Cassius..
I also didn’t know Casca, so I got the answer from crossers and def. Only had to reveal for the first N of Nin, after having tried cheVin and cheMin, but my sketchy GK of plonk sadly let me down. What a boo-boo! Thanks Y and m.
Nice to see Yank again, though it may take a while to get used to (?him). Quite a bit of GK needed: I had forgotten Casca, and didn’t know NIN wrote diaries. It took a long time to (1) work out that ACADEMIC DEGREES fitted 3d and (2) work out how it related to the clue, since the anagram wasn’t obvious and B S isn’t a degree in the UK. Some nice unusual words: FANDANGO and FER-DE-LANCE, TELEGRAPHESE and DONNYBROOKS.
Gazzh@12
SINK
Could you explain what imprecision you were talking about?
The ‘of’ being a link word?
PM@11
EAGLE
Took me so long to understand what you said. The ‘animal’ stays out of the WP. Sorry
I didn’t understand you properly.
Yes, I think PostMark @11 sidesteps the double duty.
Ronald: the expression “animals and birds” always puts my back up!
Funnily enough the only other Mel I’ve heard of, is BLANC, (‘the man of a thousand voices’), sitting just above BROOKS.
KVa@22 it’s just that the letter N appears twice in NSYNC, so if we take it out both times we get “SYC” which sounds more like “Sick”, which is not what we need. Although I think if you just recorded someone saying NSYNC and somehow cut the “N” sounds each time, it might still sound like Sink and thus be OK, because that second N sound is not the same as the first (which I recall is very much a clear “En” to sound similar to “In”, thus making the “In synch” pun). One of the linguistically minded can hopefully explain this better than me, there is probably a technical term for the way that second N isn’t exactly pronounced but rather modifies the sounds either side of it.
Failed on ‘chenin blanc’ and ‘sensei’. Should have got the latter but never heard of the former: I’m no oenophile.
muffin@7. At least you weren’t pigeon-holed in a drugstore.
I didn’t really notice the USisms, possibly because down here we’re exposed to both British and American terms.
But with my British cryptic head on I thought of the queen in the clue for CROSS-DRESS as a chess piece, and confess to googling to find the movements of a queen on a chessboard.
fer-de-lance ? Caribbean French etymologically it seems. Us Aussies have the most venomous snakes in the world, in term of toxicity of the venom (as opposed to aggressive habit of the reptile or number of deaths in highly populated areas.) If an inland taipan gets you, you don’t stand much chance of survival.
I like TELEGRAPHESE in its more modern application to style of communication. Hands up who remembers telegrams. You had to be brief because they were so expensive.
I found this from the US Telegram Service: The service charge for a telegram up to 140 characters (about 20 words) is $14.95. . Relatively so much cheaper these days, but it seems that’s where we got the 140 character limit in early forms of “social” media.
Favourites SIBILATION, SCIENTISTS, and SENSEI. (Just realised they all start with sibilants, just like a snake hissing.)
SINK
Thanks Gazzh@25.
My question is answered. You have given me some homework. I will do it or outsource it to someone.
pdm@27
TELEGRAPHESE
Going by the fact that a large number of commenters here talk about their school days in 50’s or 60’s, you may come across only a few who haven’t heard about telegrams.
Agree with manehi that this was a fun solve, despite feeling like a GK quiz in places. Had to guess at SHEESH my LOI; would never have thought of backsheesh as the word that needed to be reduced by a third. Thanks manehi for parsing that one, and thanks Yank for the enjoyment, especially PARSEC, BLEARY and CHENIN BLANC, as well as the giggle-worthy HEIST.
Interesting puzzle with some ingenious constructions, some great words and several weird surfaces. I didn’t know DONNYBROOKS, the second half of which took me a long time to find, but more or less everything else rang bells, albeit faint in places.
BLANC is a bit iffy, but the CHENIN led this oenophile there without any problem. B S meant nothing to me and I was unsure of the anagrist but the crossers gave the solution. I share muffin’s annoyance at chemist = pharmacist, but the word ‘apothecary’ dates from a time when there was little distinction between the activities.
CASCADE and EAGLE are clever, and I also liked PARSEC and SHEESH.
Anaïs NIN pops up regularly in Italian crosswords, incidentally!
Thanks to S&B
“Justin” Timberlake of 2d NSINK voiced 10a BOO-BOO in Yogi Bear(2010).
Mel 15a BLANC played ‘Grifter Chizzling, Southern Accented Bear in Train, Mugger The Dog (grumbling sounds)’ in Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear!(1964)
a diamond anniversary
My Loi – I had to sleep on it – was 24a SENSEI
Thanks Y&M
[paddymelon @ 27: I remember seeing in the window of a bookshop in Queensland a display of what was probably a new publication: Poisonous Snakes – Australia’s Twenty Most Venomous Species. If the spiders don’t get you….]
Most enjoyable, although to confess, i needed a fair bit of help from external sources.
Being a bit dim re the bloodhound/scent reference. How does that work please?
[KVa@28. Good to know. I don’t feel so alone, or so old, my school years too. Telegrams in those days were usually either really good news, or really bad news, and very expensive, hand delivered to your door.]
William@32
SCIENTISTS
SCENT is a clue for a bloodhound. It will follow the SCENT.
William
Not a crossword clue for the bloodhound! – they follow scents from clothing etc. (allegedly!)
[Gervase@31. I’ve picked up British hitchhikers here and helped tourists whose radiator had boiled. They wouldn’t get out of the car for fear of spiders, mostly. I have death adders and deadly funnel webs around my house, but if you don’t bother them or leave your shoes outside the door you’re pretty safe.]
Thanks for the blog, I thought this was really good and very original in parts.
CHENIN BLANC is neat and perhaps deliberately had me searching for anagrams of diarist+peak . I think CASCA was the first assassin in the play “Speak hands for me “.
Minor quibble , a PARSEC is not really a long way.
TOP SPOT is (7) in the paper, I just took it as a misprint .
Our esteemed essayist MrPostMark has a puzzle in the Independent today as Stamp, it should be easy to find, someone has printed it for me.
Ronald@14 animalia is a huge kingdom , mammals are one of the smallest parts , all the invertebrates are included as well . The plural for grouse should be grice , and the singular for dice should be douse.
Yonks ago a very poisonous looking small snake crawled into my tent when I was camping in Guyana. The locals, once it was safely captured and plonked in a linen bag, referred to it as a FER-DE-LANCE. Funny how dimly remembered experiences in life sometimes come in useful when trying to solve a Guardian Cryptic..
…and many thanks for that off the cuff tutorial, Roz!
Gazzh@25. Re SINK. The way I read the clue, the indication is to remove only one N. I guess it could be ambiguous to others.
Gazzh @25: The second N in NSYNC is pronounced, but as a velar nasal ‘ng’ rather than an alveolar nasal ‘n’. In English we also have the bilabial nasal ‘m’ and the palatal nasal as in ‘onion’ (or the Spanish ‘ñ’). Some languages have other nasal consonants with different points of articulation, and even voiceless nasals, like the Welsh ‘nh’ and ‘ngh’.
When I solve these, I tend to go for short words first. So the first clue I attempted was the “Founder of NSYNC” one, which immediately made me think, “um, Lance BASS? That makes no sense. Better come back to that.” So I was hindered by actually knowing the band. For those here with perhaps better taste, you did get Osmonds and Everlys for your listening pleasure, but as a member of our relatively younger contingent, I was stuck with Bye Bye Bye as my earworm from there on out.
Adding to the above discussion: “Animal” in the clue for EAGLE is definitely not doing double duty. The HMS Beagle was a ship, not a dog, and I doubt Darwin ever rode any animal smaller than a horse!
Pity that BS is not a degree used in Britain; the old joke here is that BS stands for bullshit, MS stands for more of the same, and PhD stands for piled higher and deeper.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the allusive flavor of CASCADE, all that dancing in FANDANGO, and the giggles induced by BOO-BOO and HEIST. Thanks to Yank (who we learned last time is Fred Piscop, a familiar byline on a wide range of puzzles over here).
Yes, a bit of a transatlantic twang in this, but largely enjoyable.
The ODE gives DONNYBROOKS as NA and Aus/NZ usage, but Chambers and Collins do not as it seems to have originated from a Dublin (Ireland) fair. The clue for SINK says remove the final letter of JustiN, so I think that means only one for me. I liked the long anagrams, the wordplay for NIGHT OWL, and the surface for END.
Thanks Yank and manehi.
A fair, if tricky puzzle. Nho of Casca or Baksheesh so couldn’t parse those two. My online version had 7 letters for top spot. Back in the day telegrams were sent to a wedding reception by those who were unable to attend in person. Then the best man read them out. I still have mine. Thanks Yank and Manehi.
Anyone remember the Beverly Sisters?
SENSEI is not found in Crossword dictionary or most word finders.
It would be OK in a barred puzzle
Anyway, This was not for me-although quite liked HEIST
Liked the blog better-very kind
KVa & muffin re bloodhound etc: Der! Many thanks!
In BANTAM, the headgear was prohibited. Were it allowed, you might get a CAPON. Funny, that!
I don’t know whether it’s because I’m on the other side of the pond, but this went in pretty smoothly for me. I noticed that there are two palindromes on the bottom row, but no related theme emerged.
I suppose it’s a sort of phonetic palindrome, but not a surface one. Found this a bit of a trial. Send him bak. Sheesh!
I learned DONNYBROOK from a book of Irish short stories (mostly nineteenth century ones) that lived on our family bookcase in my childhood, so that’s where its origin is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in an English context, so it must have emigrated with its Irish users. (The famously disorderly Donnybrook Fair was abolished in 1859.)
There’s a line in one of my favourite films, The quiet man, when John Wayne and VictorMcLaglen are fighting and a general brawl breaks out. Barry Fitzgerald fires a pistol and shouts “this is a private fight, not a donnybrook?”
Quite right @copland not truly a palindrome! My mistake, it feels like one.
I considered all of the clueing fair (with the exception of the incorrect numeration in 27a). Bachelor of Surgery is abbreviated to BS in UK. I know that this is always combined with Bachelor of Medicine (MB) degree to form the combined MBBS, but I still thought it was gettable for anyone who knows the UK system.
Cosmic cowboy @53
It’s generally B.Chir. – my wife has that qualification!
Roz@37 ‘Minor quibble , a PARSEC is not really a long way.’
Not at that scale, sure, but I think I’d get through more pairs of walking boots than I could possibly afford…
A parsec is about 3 1/4 light years, so is a fair distance. It’s another rather parochial unit though – just as a light year is related to the time the Earth takes to orbit the sun, a parsec is the distance from which the extremes of the Earth’s orbit subtends a second of arc.
muffin@56 – yes, I suppose the parochial aspect of it enables our minds to make some sense of it though in terms of a relatable (but still unimaginably huge) measurement.
A fun work-out, tougher than average in places.
My favourite clue was for SINK, such a great surface. Also thought NIGHT OWL was great.
Thanks Yank and manehi
@41 The sink/sync rhymes works even with NG-coalescence as both sounds are simply a standard ‘n’ in that case, so it works for all accents. The first part of the pun only works for people with a PEN-PIN merger (much of the US) or a more general DRESS-KIT merger (as in New Zealand and Western Ireland) though, as otherwise NSYNC sounds like ‘en sink’ not ‘in sink’.
Sorry to be pedantic Muffin@56 , it is the radius of the orbit 1 AU that is the base of the triangle. Astronomers actually measure the angle of parallax 6 months apart giving 2p .
It comes from when photographic plates had an angular scale in arc sec , find 2p then p and then d=1/p in parsecs so very simple.
The radius of the observable universe is about 14 billion pc , so 1 parsec is rather small.
[My mistake, Roz.
It was 14 billion parsecs when you posted, Roz, but what is it now? 🙂 ]
[me @61
Rather like the museum attendant, on being asked how old an object was, replied “10004 years”. On being asked how he could be so precise, he said “when I started, I was told it was 10000 years old, and I’ve been here four years….”]
Thanks Gervase@41, I knew there would be some enlightenment out there (also Lurker@59). Sue@40 yes it didn’t take long to work out what was required so I’m probably being pedantic but as someone here once said, if you can’t be pedantic on a crossword discussion site… [Also Roz@37 ta for top tip, printed. And muffin@62 that must be the origin of my favourite actuarial joke, thanks too.]
“Shite” coming from an American setter made me smile, for some reason. More like a Cyclops clue.
[Gazzh @63: your favourite actuarial joke … You can’t leave us in suspense …?
Mine, told to me by a friend at NFU, is ‘How can you tell an extroverted actuary from an introverted actuary? The first looks at your shoes when they speak to you, rather than their own’ 😉 ]
[PostMark @65
I’ve heard that one, except with mathematicians!]
LTL @59: What’s the relevance of the NG-coalescence? It applies only to NG and not to NK, where the K is always pronounced after the velar N
[I pronounce ‘panko’ with a velar N but ‘pancake’ with a regular alveolar N, though many people velarise both]
FANDANGO reminded me of the superb Matt Berry in Toast of London. Not to everyone’s taste, I grant you.
https://youtu.be/7NIkFTP12cU?si=13YeaVXlLCz_AF8U
Thanks Yank, I enjoyed this quite a bit with my top picks being BEVERLY HILLS, CHENIN BLANC, APOTHECARYS SHOP, BLEARY, and SCIENTISTS. I failed with SENSEI and could not parse SHEESH. Thanks manehi for the blog.
SINK
Getting enlightened on velar, alveolar, palatal and bilabial… Thanks Gazzh and Gervase!
Not directly connected to the discussion on various sounds of n/m, but obliquely related=>remembered this interesting Azed clue (from the last one blogged):
Alibi broken, dividing cake up? Bob has two of them (9)
I don’t always do the weekday Guardian’s apart from the first few words but this piqued me. into full Azed mode
Thanks Yank and manehi.
Certainly had to delve deep into the recesses of my failing memory (Anais Nin, Chenin Blanc, Casca) and SHEESH I had to guess as my ancient, tattered Chambers doesn’t give it- a fairly blasphemous euphemism obvious when you say it. Certainly worth the time.
Not to omit Donnybrooks an Sensei
Great puzzle. Thanks.
I thought this a very good puzzle, with some lesser seen words inventively clued. Top ticks for SCIENTISTS, FANDANGO and all the musical siblings.
[Alan C @24: the first Mel I thought of was Torme…the Velvet Fog]
[Andrew @78
…though I once saw him described as “the Velvet Frog”!]
I enjoyed this puzzle very much. I seem to be on Yank’s wavelength, perhaps because we’re compatriots. There were two jorums (jora?) for me: SIBILATION and FER-DE-LANCE.
Roz @38 A parsec is a long way for me! 3 light years is farther than I want to drive. You make me think of that silly Star Wars line where Han Solo said that he had flown 20 light years in less than a parsec.
It’s a Paul marmite, except where Paul seems to be 60/40 pro, Yank is an 85/15 pro. I’m in the 40/15 camp, so probably just a misery. I love Brummie so there’s proof I’m not all GOB.
Hermano @75 that was more succinct.
Many thanks to Yank for a fun and fair cryptic, and to Manehi for the blog which explained perfectly.
[Muffin @52, so pleased you included the reference to The Quiet Man, a wonderful film.I knew I’d heard Donnybrook somewhere but trying to pinpoint where was very frustrating. I’ll sleep easy now 😎…]
muffin@52; Pauline@84. We were in Cong – the village where The Quiet Man was shot – with friends years ago, and one of us stuck their head into a bar to ask what time they closed. Quick as a flash came back the answer: September.
[TT
When we were in Mayo we made a special visit to Cong to see the cottage. We also went to Tuam, where the Saw Doctors came from (that may be a bit more obscure!)]
[muffin: All the Way from Tuam!]
Not come across Yank before I think, and this was a toughie, and, alas! a DNF for me. The first one that caught me out was CHENIN BLANC – oenology is not my strong point especially since I gave up the booze – I got the CHE bit and the BLANC bit but couldn’t fill in the rest. Then I missed SENSEI – could have kicked myself since my son, as a karate Black Belt, takes on that role at times. Finally, I had a guess at SHEESH but couldn’t see how to parse it.
The rest went in OK. Liked NIGHT OWL, BEVERLY HILLS (yes I twigged the Everly bros.), CASCADE (the secondary hint in ‘Ides’ was helpful!), SIBILATION, CROSS-DRESS, and FER-DE-LANCE (yes I had heard of the snake thanks to reading Gerald Durrell in my youth – he comes close to being bitten by one).
DONNYBROOKS was new to me but at least Mel gave me BROOKS and I guessed it had to be either DONNY or JIMMY (Osmond – ugh!). The crossers resolved that, confirmed with Chambers.
Thanks to Yank and manehi.
Although I’ve no quibble with the clue for PARSEC, I dislike using that word – for me it’s always ‘Light-years’ when speaking of interstellar or intergalactic distances. It’s so much easier to explain ‘light-year’ to someone not into astronomy – especially when you add that it takes only about 1½ seconds for a beam of light to travel from the Earth to the Moon.
[Re Han Solo’s apparently nonsensical remark “I did the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs” – that was later explained as meaning that he took a short cut (presumably via a wormhole) hence evading the Imperial fighters. Still rather a long hop at nearly 40 light-years.]
Didn’t like this.
My sister once sent a telegram home from China in the 80s, when she was working there. I cannot remember the contents, but she was short of characters, so with the help of telegram operator, she decided to cut the address to Coedwynog, Felindre, Crymych. There is only one Crymych in the World. I think we received a telephone call with the message and the actual telegram came with the post the next day. The adressee was simply Carey, again to save letters.
Wow, nicbach. How do you do Crymych in Chinese characters?
Fred Piscop, aka Yank as mrpenney mentioned @43. The link below from his alma mater, Cornell University, is undated but gives a bit of background. I also saw elsewhere that amongst many of his publications is a book of 10 minute Mensa crossword puzzles. 10 minutes for someone who belongs to Mensa maybe (as does Fred Piscop). I think we might have to cut this brainiac some slack.
https://alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians/piscop-puzzlemaster/
“And for his daily “go-to solve”—a morning ritual alongside coffee and oatmeal—Piscop turns to the Guardian and his old flame: the British cryptic.”
me@93. Article is dated Dec 2022.
Late to this one.
I know surfaces don`t have to make any sense, but have I missed why Yank is hinting about the possibility of the US seceding from the G7?
Welldecidered @95 it’s in there for the G which is missing from the anagram fodder.
Fred Piscop! A name well-known over on the East Coast of the US/West Coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
Maybe it’s my US orientation but I finished this rather smoothly, though I did have to confirm FER DE LANCE and CHENIN BLANC after working out the clues – I’m neither a oenophile nor a herpetologist.
I had an extra I in SCIENTIST I couldn’t figure out until I looked up to the top and saw that it was the setter.
Favorites were the dance, the brawl, and the neighborhood. Good on yer Yank!
Is the use of ‘shite’ really necessary in such a fine crossword? I use it a lot during the day as I forget where I’ve left things, however, I don’t at the market, in the cafe, or at the library.
Great puzzle – perhaps it’s Telegraphese?