Quiptic 1,308 by Carpathian

38 comments on “Quiptic 1,308 by Carpathian”

1. DWELLING and ANAGRAM made me laugh for their fanciful surfaces, the upwardly mobile blue fish, and the horse and the sheep mixing up their words.
   Got the de-crease in PRESS. It’s come up before. But I thought it unfortunate that press was there in pressure

   Thanks S and C.

2. Impressive getting the blog out so quickly!

   I parsed PRESS as explained here (P + RE + SS), but did not make the “de-crease” connection. Also, this has cleared up the “F” in FAIR PLAY, where I tried to convince myself “Loud” was a soundalike for “Fear” being an atmosphere of sorts.

   I liked the DWELLING, NURSERIES, and KNICK KNACK clues.

   Thanks Carpathian and Shanne.

3. I struggled a little bit but finished quickly.
   Every Quiptic should be like that.
   Thanks both.

4. I do like how Carpathian clues words in the vernacular, LIKE MAD (furiously), BELTED (ran), FILL ( satisfy), INTUITION ( gut feeling), FAIR PLAY ( justice).

5. I too struggled to explain PRESS — I thought it couldn’t be this when “press” is part of “pressure” in the clue. I’ve seen the “de-crease” used before, but had forgotten it.

   Nothing else to report — good fun, thanks, Carpathian.

6. Liked ASSERTION, ANAGRAM, AGENTS.

   Calling DESSERT afters is not in my vocabulary but I get it. I did not parse NURSERIES, so thank you Shanne. I wonder what makes Carpathian believe that MANNA is delicious?

   Thanks Carpathian and Shanne

7. Just what I’m looking for in a Quiptic.

8. What’s not to like.

   Ta Carpathian & Shanne.

9. Perfect quiptic that. Got them all but had to come here to parse a few (DWELLING, WRITERS BLOCK, DISARM).
   Very meta putting ANAGRAM as 1a

10. Very enjoyable Quiptic. Neither too hard nor too easy. I parsed a few of my answers after solving.

    I didn’t think of ‘de-crease as in remove creases by ironing’ for PRESS but it seemed to make sense to me anyway! [I forget how to insert a laughing face emoji]

    Favourite: KNICK-KNACK.

    Thanks, both.

11. Thanks Carpathian and Shanne
    Mostly excellent. I did see “de-crease”, but it’s a bit disappointing that the clue includes “pressure”.
    If you put “anagram” in Google, it helpfully asks “Did you mean nag a ram?”

12. Thank you for the blog and answers and explanations.

    I’ll chalk this one up to experience. Not a pleasant one for me.

13. An excellent Quiptic and a blog to match. Thank you C & S.

14. I thought this was difficult for a beginner. I got AFTERWARDS and NURSERIES but lost heart after that. I revealed a few and used the crossers to find some more answers, and then gave up on it. Clues such as 28a, 8d, 16d require so much processing – synonyms, reversals, insertions – that is quite beyond me at this stage.

15. Martyn @7: second def in Chambers for MANNA is Delicious food for body or mind

16. Tricky quiptic this morning in my opinion. The puzzle was definitely enjoyable though and as has already been mentioned I love some of the services (namely ANAGRAM and KNICK-KNACK).

    Thanks to Carpathian for an enjoyable Sunday puzzle and to Shanne for teaching me new things in a way I understand (in this instance the common ling and the clear reason it will come up throughout many cryptics no doubt!)

17. There used to be just two crossword fish – ling and ide – but recently orfe has joined their number! Ling is often “heather” as well.
    “Young fish” sometimes comes up, usually parr or fry.

18. Thank you Shanne for filling in the gaps for what was a most enjoyable quiptic. I struggled with parsing PRESS, so thanks for the explanation. Also a little with DAREDEVIL, don’t think I’ve come across “raised” for reversal before.

19. This took me a while to complete, but whereas sometimes I feel I can justifiably say that a puzzle just wasn’t quiptic, I still thought this one was. Perhaps leaning towards the trickier end, but no complaints from me. It was enjoyable to spend a few minutes away from it then come back and solve a couple more clues, and so on to completion.

20. Jaytee53 @19 – I didn’t say it because I’m blogging the Quiptic, not the Quick Cryptic, but raised works as a reversal indicator in a down clue. Anything that means going up indicates reversal in down clues.

    Steffen @13 – this was trickier than the Quick Cryptics because so many of the clues combined different clue types – which is what happens in the Cryptic crosswords. Don’t forget that we all started somewhere and it’s taken years, if not decades, to build up the grammar and vocabulary of crosswords to get to our current fluency, however stuttering that is.

    Amma @15 – this was tougher than the Quick Cryptics but the only thing I think was entirely new was K for Kelvin (I’ll check in a minute). The complication was the combinations of clue types – so not just a reversal, but a reversal and an insertion, or a reversal as part of a charade. But this was how a lot of standard Cryptic clues work, different cluing added together.

21. Got through it with only 2 reveals, APPEAL and NURSERIES, which my brain just couldn’t make from the crossers.

    Annoyingly I even thought of PA for old man, but the second P threw me off putting it in the correct place.

    Ah well, a good quiptic for me all in all. Thanks Shanne and Carpathian

22. Nice and straightforward, just as a Quiptic should be. FAIR PLAY was my favourite for two musical notations.

23. Nobody knows whether the Biblical MANNA was literally delicious – people can’t even agree on what it might have been – but the word has long been used figuratively to describe wonderful food.

24. Took me awhile to get going but got there in the end. Quite chewy in places with the mix-ins of reversals into charades and insertions but fairly signalled I felt. Loved ANAGRAM for its meta-ness and KNICK KNACK. I felt 26a could equally be read as a double definition as I saw ‘acting role’ being ‘a part’ but not with Acting standing in for A but just being the whole thing itself since I might say as an actor I’ve just got a part in this film. Thanks Shanne for the usual clear explanations and Carpathian for the puzzle.

25. Martin @7 It says in Exodus (OT) that it tasted like wafers made with honey. Can’t be bad!

26. DotinFrance @26 – and the Israelites got fed up with manna, albeit they ate it for 40 years according to Exodus. There’s much moaning about nothing else to eat in Numbers 11, how they missed figs and meat and other foods.

27. Fantastic, thanks Carpathian and Shanne. A fun Quiptic and blog.

28. A rather nice Quiptic, much closer to a fully-fledged Cryptic than a quick one. Two minus points: using pressure to describe PRESS (agree that “power” would have been much, much better), and the totally bonkers DUTIFUL clue. Come on, “the irritable female urology lecturer”? [Perhaps this was the intended cryptic gibberish, but wouldn’t something like “doctor upset truly insistent former union leader” together with “article by new university lecturer” for ANNUL be slightly better?]

    [Interestingly, Collins has “put the creases in” as synonym for “press” in the sense of iron, so actually “EN-crease”, not the other way around.]

    Thank you, Carpathian and Shanne

29. I got PRESS but imagined it being an effort to squeeze something smaller! I don’t do ironing!

30. paddymelon – I also felt ‘PRESS’ was a little tricky with it being in the clue. If PRESS is “DE-CREASE” then I think that’s excellent! ANNUL stumped me for far to long – I was wondering if “ABNUL” was a word. Basically 45 minutes of me guessing and trying to work out what words mean. Really fun start to the week, found this very hard, looking forwards to trying Monday’s Cryptic and seeing if goes any better. Learnt some new abbreviations in this one, enjoyed the misdirection in many of the clues.

    Thanks Carpathian.
    Thanks Shanne.

    I did make a live solve but it’s really not a solve just me being stumped, anyway I’ll share the link but it’s a mess! https://youtu.be/5_bEmFv6ZsY

31. 10a I had manage = NURSE so couldn’t see how RIES came from flipping cycle.

    21a I removed the last letter of ankle (somewhat) and then anagrammed (roll) to get my answer.

    I really liked ANAGRAM and BREAD KNIFE. As always, my thanks to Carpathian and Shanne.

32. Think 26a might be a simple double def – A PART being an acting role. I suppose it works either way though 🙂

    Either I’m getting better or the Quiptic is being nicer to me; only 1d needed multiple tries and I had to google lank to make sure it really did mean limp. Certainly the lack of sports clues today was a welcome relief.

33. I thought this was really hard at first, but then slowly but surely they started going in, and I ended up only having to reveal the last 4. Got NURSERIES without understanding it so had to come here for the explanation.

    Favourites were PRESS and WRITERS BLOCK.

    Thanks Shanne and Carpathian.

    (Interesting to note that I’ve done so many of these that my phone is now suggesting the word “Shanne” as a follow up every time I type “thanks”).

34. I parsed LANK as an anagram (roll) of ANKL (ankle somewhat) but turns out it was much easier.

    Thanks Shanne and Carpathian.

35. As a beginner I found this enjoyable, if a bit tricky- and had to reveal a few. Understood most once revealed – except 20D. I haven’t come across ‘belted’ for run before. Pelted, yes. Have only heard belted in terms of singing.

36. Got there, but thought it was a fairly tricky one. Didn’t parse several (DWELLING, LISTENED, DAREDEVIL, NURSERIES).

    While I saw that we were supposed to think of “lewd” in the clue for DWELLING, I couldn’t see where it was coming from. I naively assumed that ling must be blue. Crosswording — it’s a humbling sport.

    Thanks S&B

37. Great Quiptic and blog. Many thanks to both.

38. I enjoyed this one! It took me several sessions over a couple of days, but I did the whole thing without assistance and I’m feeling pleased with myself. Maybe I’m starting to get the hang of cryptics!

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