Not blogged a Kairos for ages, so was pleased to see him in my Sunday slot. You always learn stuff from one of his puzzles, and there were a few things new to me this morning.
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 Literally resign as number one
SECOND-IN-COMMAND
This is essentially a cd, I think. You need to take SECOND in its military sense of transferring an officer to another, often less important, post. Someone may have a better explanation.
Edit: KVa and Hovis have the correct explanation at comments 1 and 2. Thank you.
9 Complaint with food soldiers returned
AILMENT
You need to know (or in my case, discover) that LI stands for Light Infantry. Then Kairos is inviting you to reverse those letters in ALIMENT for ‘food’ to get your solution.
10 Refuse to get benefit cut
BAGASSE
A charade of BAG and ASSE[T]. ‘She’s hoping to bag/get tickets to Glasto this year.’ And, from my Collins:
bagasse (n) the pulp remaining after the extraction of juice from sugar cane or similar plants [C19 from Spanish bagazo, dregs or refuse]
11 Tax officer goes round church without leading chaplain
SURCHARGE
An insertion of [CH]URCH in SARGE. The insertion indicator is ‘goes round’.
13 Giant ship docked by you and me
ARGUS
A charade of ARG[O] and US. ARGUS was a giant in Greek mythology with a hundred eyes who was made guardian of the heifer Io; after he was killed by Hermes, his eyes were transferred to the peacock’s tail.
14 Might this provide relief from piles?!
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
A cd. You need to take ‘piles’ to be the cockney’s Nobby Stiles or Chalfonts, as well as nuclear piles, a somewhat outdated term now.
15 It may cause you to swallow your words
SLIP OF THE TONGUE
Another cd.
18 Heard Greek character briefly rushed to make revolutionary device
ROTOR
Aural wordplay (‘heard’) for RHO followed by TOR[E].
19 Keener row about modern artist
THIRSTIER
An insertion of [Damien] HIRST in TIER. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
20 Ritual refusal to swallow a fish
POMPANO
An insertion of A in POMP and NO. The insertion indicator is ‘to swallow’.
21 Some like banal form of art
IKEBANA
Hidden in lIKE BANAL.
23 Discontented spy stops meeting shrinks and other experts
SYSTEMS ANALYSTS
A charade of S[P]Y, STEMS and ANALYSTS.
Down
1 Sun attempts to keep quiet about beach’s standard
STARS AND STRIPES
An insertion of SANDS for ‘beach’s’ in STAR and TRIPES, itself an insertion of P in TRIES. The two insertion indicators are ‘to keep’ and ‘about’.
2 Gas company in charge of heat
CALORIC
A charade of CALOR and IC.
3 Born and raised in Greenwich
NÉE
Hidden reversed in GrEENwich.
4 Senses petitioner’s rant is ill-made
INTERPRETATIONS
(PETITIONERS RANT)* with ‘is ill-made’ as the anagrind. ‘What’s your sense/interpretation of the situation?’
5 Guy’s stress when Jacob’s son acts for new media outlet
CABLE TELEVISION
A charade of CABLE and LEVI replacing N in TENSION.
6 Generous national publication’s first intention to embrace love
MAGNANIMOUS
A charade of MAG, N and an insertion of O for ‘love’ in ANIMUS. The insertion indicator is ‘to embrace’. I had only ever come across ANIMUS as meaning ‘hatred’; but it has the meaning of ‘intention’ as well, I learn.
7 When insurer originally insured weapon
ASSAGAI
A charade of AS, SAGA and I for the initial letter of ‘insured’. SAGA insures mainly elderly people. Well, over 50s, which is hardly elderly any more.
8 Don’s tackling tries in team practices
DRESS REHEARSALS
This is getting a bit complicated. It’s a double insertion: of HEARS for ‘tries’ in REAL [Madrid] for the football ‘team’, all inserted into DRESS and S. The two insertion indicators are ‘tackling’ and ‘in’ and you have to ignore the apostrophe and treat ‘Don’s’ as ‘don’ and ‘s’.
12 Claret flows from this
HAEMORRHAGE
Another cd.
16 Island accordingly accommodates motorway in narrow strip of land
ISTHMUS
An insertion of M in IS and THUS. The insertion indicator is ‘accommodates’.
17 Graphical user interface on sailor’s instruments
GUITARS
A charade of GUI and TARS.
22 Mack maybe comes back for fish
EEL
A reversal of LEE Mack, the comedian.
Many thanks to Kairos for the Sunday work-out.
SECOND-IN-COMMAND
resign=s (SECOND) in Reign (COMMAND)?
(Also the Star Trek ref for the ‘number one’)
Had 1a as KVa.
I found this a satisfying challenge which was a mixture of straightforward and very challenging (particularly with some of the parsing), and everything in between. As always with this setter, there were a few new things to be learnt.
Many thanks to Kairos and to Pierre.
Yeah, needed to know light infantry. Do now. And Calor. Held me up in the top left. I knew the answers but couldn’t parse them. Impressive grid fill with all the long entries though. Some of them came quite quickly but the cryptic definitions took a while. Liked SURCHARGE, HAEMORRHAGE, the apostrophe trick you mentioned which I always fall for and loi NUCLEAR MEDICINE which I thought very droll because it’s a thing and because of the piles/reactors connection. Thanks Pierre and Kairos.
I did not find this one at all easy – but then I generally find 15 letter answers a challenge and today I faced eight of them. And CD’s can be hard to crack if you’re not on the wavelength and there were several of those, too. I agree with KVa and Hovis ref 1a.
I am somewhat less well-versed in matters biblical than our compiler so did turn to Google to find the name of Jacob’s son. Only to find he had a dozen of them! I felt fairly confident in eliminating Naphtali, Issachar and Zebulun but there were three or four plausible candidates remaining …
It is almost embarrassing, with the aforementioned eight long un’s to choose between, that NEE was my favourite clue today – what a delightful surface.
Thanks Kairos and Pierre
Like Sofamore @4, I found most of the long answers slipped in nicely, for me just from the rhythm of the words, but parsing them was another matter. Bagasse and pompano were new to me. Thanks Kairos and Pierre.
I don’t remember a harder puzzle in the Independent. I revealed a few after spending ages on it, and still don’t understand some clues:
1a – my only idea was similar to Pierre’s, taking the solution literally to mean move to another post while in command, except that second in that sense is transitive. Perhaps S in REIGN is right, but there’s still no definition in sight.
NUCLEAR MEDICINE: revealed this, even with NUCLEAR + all the other crossing letters. What’s the definition, if the answer to the clue’s question is ‘no’ in both the medicinal and nuclear sense?
SLIP OF THE TONGUE: don’t understand the joke or the definition
DRESS REHEARSALS: don means put [something] on, dress means put something on. Surely different?
Plus a generous sprinkling of nho words and abbreviations, and the full gamut of ‘s types including the nothing ‘has’ version.
Thanks both
That was tough!
I made it through without revealing any, but only by resorting to a couple of inspired guesses, and a couple of word searches at the end.
Looking over the completed grid, there are a lot of things I wasn’t familiar with beforehand!
In the acrosses I didn’t know Light Infantry=LI, BAGASSE, nuclear piles or POMPANO, while in the downs I didn’t know CALOR, claret=blood or SAGA.
Thanks to Kairos for the challenge, and to Pierre for explaining everything
James @7: there is a definition in 1a – it always seems paradoxical but a number one is, indeed, a number two. A first officer supporting a commander. The ‘Literally resign’ is WP and parsed as per KVa/Hovis with the def being number one.
Oh heck, yet another abbrev for soldiers! Nho LI for light infantry but it’s bound to start occurring more now. That’s explained AILMENT anyway.
Otherwise, nho BAGASSE so failed on that and the crossing ASSAGAI as I only knew the assEgai version. Thanks K and P
With a whole string of NHOs at the start (BAGASSES, ASSAGAI, ARGUS, POMPANO, CALORIC) I was ready to throw in the towel on this one. But actually really enjoyed the rest of the puzzle – even though I had to come here to understand how I got there! Thanks K and P
Crikey, that was tough and, to be honest, not a lot of fun. Finished eventually courtesy of a great deal of guesswork but even after reading our blogger’s hint, I still don’t understand NUCLEAR MEDICINE.
Ah well, thanks anyway to Kairos for the brain mangling and well done, Pierre, for making sense of it all!
Hello, Jane. Nuclear Medicine is a branch of medicine, so an actual speciality area. For me, it’s just a play on words type of cd, with the pun being on the word piles to mean haemorrhoids, or the type of old nuclear reactors built like a pile of bricks.
I found it quite tough in places too, but did enjoy it.
Agree with Jane @12. We got it all but so many NHOs that it all felt like guesswork without parsing. And I still don’t really see how nuclear medicine works as a definition even after Pierre’s extra explanation (and his reference to Chalfont is a step too far though I think I see it). I think I’ll file this one under “too clever by half” (but I guess that just means “too clever for me”).
Bohemian@10, I feel your pain.
AILMENT, is not a tough conversion, of COMPLAINT, but the only way I could justify my answer was (food=meal) plus (soldiers = tin) , and an unannounced anagram.
But, no, it uses LI . The curse of the unknown abbreviation, in reverse.
Too many, “too clever”, clues for me.
I have no idea how “as number one” works in 1(across).
Which spoils a great idea…..”literally resign”, is, indeed, SECOND-IN-COMMAND”.
Why not something like “Literally resign as Deputy”?
BAGASSE: tough word to know, I think.
Is “benefit” a fair reference for “asset”? Not for me.
5(down) “Guy’s stress”? How does that even work?
Surely ” Guy with stress” makes more sense?
6(down : surely National publication = N MAG, not MAG N, if it’s a charade?
8 (down) , I find pretty dire, but found it only by treating “don’s” as “dress’s”.
I sort of feel, that cryptic clues should be able to stand on their own merits, and be solvable, from the words that the setter provides, without the need for letters that cross.
So, 12(down), ” claret flows from this “, (11) = HAEMORRHAGE, taken at face value, has no value, as I see it.
Apologies, Kairos, but we’re not going out.
Salut,Pierre
Thanks to Kairos, and to Pierre for demystifying BAGASSE and ASSAGAI.
E.N.Boll& @15: I had the same quandary about the charade element order for 6D, but I believe “publication’s first” resolves it.
My only error was AssEgai for assagai .
E.N.Boll&@15
my understanding…
CABLE TELEVISION
Guy’s stress=Guy has stress or CABLE has TENSION
MAGNANIMOUS
national publication’s first=national, publication is first (Coloradan@16 says the same thing)=N, MAG comes before.
SECOND-IN-COMMAND
See PostMark@9. You may think of Star Trek’s Number One.
I loved Ericw@14’s verdict of too clever by half which is to say too clever for me. Count me in.
I’m just repeating others with this comment, I think… but here goes:
Kudos to KVa and Hovis for their parsing of SECOND-IN-COMMAND, and I agree with E.N.Boll&@15’s suggestion of using “deputy” instead; “number one” is a needlessly difficult misdirection which mars a great idea IMO. I also share the feeling about the desirability of parsing without needing checkers; I was heavily reliant on these today.
Like for James@7, NUCLEAR MEDICINE doesn’t quite work for me, since there’s no definition; if that were really a treatment for hemorrhoids then it would be a great clue.
Though I’m sure it just reflects my relative inexperience, I would prefer it if harder constructions or more obscure words were tempered with tighter definitions. As others have said, dress is not don (and we needed to guess Real for team); and in order to get the obscure BAGASSE we needed to think of asset for benefit, which I’m sure are synonyms in Chambers but they’re not in day-to-day usage, an asset referring to value and a benefit referring to assistance.
Additionally, a SURCHARGE isn’t a tax, although we might choose to mentalize it as one; and we needed to come up with the slang word sarge for officer. And is pomp really ritual, for POMPANO? That would have been a jorum if I’d actually come up with it instead of revealing it.
I think I agree with PostMark that NÉE was the nicest clue overall.
Anyway, thanks for the mental workout!
AP @19
The trouble is, the S in REIGN gag is becoming a chestnut, first used (visibly) by Anax in ST4476 (2012) (“As deputy. resign”), and occasionally since — including by Kairos (as Prolixic) in BigDave’s MPP104 (“Deputy who gives clue to resign”). So I thought upping the difficulty with the misdirection quite a fun fresh take on the idea.
I agree with most of the other criticisms above though.