Guardian Quiptic 1,351/Anto

by

Anto has the Quiptic for us this weekend.

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 Academic carrying so many papers? That won’t happen
DREAM ON
An insertion of REAM in DON. The insertion indicator is ‘carrying’.

5 Boss put off at small transport hub
BUS STOP
(BOSS PUT)* with ‘off’ as the anagrind.

9 Work can provide way to participate
OPT IN
A charade of OP for ‘work’ and TIN.

10 Pole making current safe – it was touch and go
NEAR THING
A charade of N for one of the ‘poles’ and EARTHING.

11 Underwear, piles of it, is fundamental stuff
BRASS TACKS
A charade of BRAS and STACKS.

12 It’s like being a family member
AKIN
A charade of A and KIN.

14 Tough calls upset Sandra inside
HARD AS NAILS
An insertion of (SANDRA)* in HAILS. The insertion indicator is ‘inside’ and the anagrind is ‘upset’.

18 Plain merlot mixed up with another red
TEMPRANILLO
(PLAIN MERLOT)* with ‘mixed up’ as the anagrind.

21 Expose rear of satellite?
MOON
A dd.

22 Dessert wine gets another shake
AFTERSHOCK
A charade of AFTERS and HOCK.

25 Unresponsive pet perhaps needs a pick-me-up
CATATONIC
A charade of CAT, A and TONIC.

26 Poem about film theatre
ODEON
A charade of ODE and ON.

27 Scottish extremists call quietly for it?
SILENCE
The ‘Scottish extremists’ are the outside letters of the word – S and H. Put them together and you’ve got SH!

28 Young Adult fiction collects money in a very reliable way
LOYALLY
An insertion of YA in LOLLY. The insertion indicator is ‘collects’.

Down

1 Visit to fall through
DROP BY
A dd.

2 Entice hospital department to take blame
ENTRAP
A charade of ENT for Ear, Nose and Throat, the setters’ favourite ‘hospital department’ and RAP.

3 Unusual shop near me promoting unsophisticated stuff for lads
MANOSPHERE
(SHOP NEAR ME)* with ‘unusual’ as the anagrind. The MANOSPHERE is a varied collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism, according to Wiki. Which is a bit beyond ‘unsophisticated’, you might say.

4 Assassin employed by henchman in Japan
NINJA
Hidden in henchmaN IN JApan.

5 Threaten to boycott post?
BLACKMAIL
A charade of BLACK and MAIL.

6 Star Trek occasionally will meet expectations
SATE
The odd letters of StAr TrEk.

7 Display ambition to make weak king great
THINK BIG
A charade of THIN, K and BIG.

8 Main gaps teased out in naturalistic religion
PAGANISM
(MAIN GAPS)* with ‘teased out’ as the anagrind.

13 There’s nothing more to read – and that’s that
END OF STORY
A dd cum cd.

15 Contact dealer in illegal stuff to isolate funds
RINGFENCE
A charade of RING and FENCE.

16 Big pots made from sticks?
STOMACHS
A kind of dd. The ‘pots’ are referring to beer bellies and the second part has equivalence in a sentence like ‘she can’t stick/stomach it any more’.

17 Tension in bad housing is never ending
IMMORTAL
An insertion of T in IMMORAL. The insertion indicator is ‘in … housing’.

19 Spill the beans on party matter
DO TELL
A charade of DO and TELL.

20 Lean place to stay in channel
SKINNY
An insertion of INN in SKY. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.

23 Do well calling out extra large letters
EXCEL
Clothing sizes have XL for ‘extra large’. If you say that out loud, you’ll end up with EXCEL.

24 Surprise at temperature within star
STUN
An insertion of T in SUN. The insertion indicator is ‘within’.

Many thanks to Anto for this week’s Quiptic.

29 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,351/Anto”

  1. I’m not sure why ‘matter’ is ‘tell’ in 19d. Otherwise an enjoyable Quiptic. Thank you Anto and Pierre

  2. Anto back in his trickier Quiptic mode, I thought, with a number of clues that would be perfectly at home in the weekly puzzles. (Indeed wasn’t AFTERSHOCK in a recent puzzle there?) Faves were SILENCE (very clever), CATATONIC and NEAR THING.

    LOI was BLACKMAIL; I’m not convinced it fits the definition “threaten” all that well.

    Thanks both!

  3. I could not parse 27ac – I had a feeling SH came into it but could not work it out. Thanks for explaining it, Pierre.

    New for me : TEMPRANILLO wine; MANOSPHERE – had vaguely heard of it but did not know it was a collection of websites and blogs etc.

  4. A slow death for me this one.I literally lapsed into somnolence attempting this.Too many phrasal verbs for definition put me off.Waiting for next week’s edition.

  5. I finally completed an Anto quiptic, unaided (apart from the dictionary)! Though there were quite a few unknowns to me (MANOSPHERE, BRASS TACKS, HOCK as wine, BLACK as boycott), the clueing was helpful enough to enable solutions. LOI was DO TELL as I’ve struggled with “tell” = “matter” (still am, but put it in anyway as I couldn’t think of anything else).

    Liked THINK BIG and CATATONIC for great surfaces, and of course SILENCE. Thanks Anto and Pierre!

  6. Thanks Pierre and Anto! Needed that explanation for SILENCE – that and T for tension are ones to lock away.

    I read DO TELL as a dd cum cd – as in spilling the beans on/about a “do”

  7. I found this tricky for a Quiptic.

    For “tell” = “matter” think of the more old-fashioned use of “but will it tell/matter in the end?”

    I don’t get why “young adult fiction collects money” is an insertion of YA into Lolly – should it not be the other way round? And “fiction” is de trop as isn’t the genre YA fiction/YA fantasy/YA romance etc i.e. YA means “young adult” not “young adult fiction”. Likewise the clue for “stomachs” confused by having the unnecessary “big” which threw me.

    Interestingly there was a discussion on “T”= “tension” on one of the FT blogs a few weeks ago. Although commonly used in maths and physics texts there seemed to be no dictionary support for it formally.

    Many thanks Anto and Pierre.

  8. Pauly @6:, JOFT@7: thanks, both make sense; don’t know what to think now 😉

    JOFT: agree that there are many unnecessary words, which I think the setter included to make life easier for newer solvers

  9. I agree with AP’s opening comment@2: I’m not at all sure this fits in a Quiptic slot.
    Or at least, it certainly didn’t for me.
    I enjoy doing these during Sunday breakfasts – but brekkie was over, cleared away, washed up, and the washing-machine’s contents were out on the line before I finally finished (with TEMPRANILLO: the anagram was obvious but, not knowing the wine, I had to wait till I had all the crossers then fanny about with the remaining letters).
    I’m with Pierre on “unsophisticated” in 3D: that adjective falls far short of the truth.
    On the other hand, AFTERSHOCK had a pleasing surface, SILENCE was neat, MOON was sweet – and BRASSTACKS conjured up a pleasing mental picture…
    (a Marks & Sparks stockroom?)
    Thank you Anto and Pierre

  11. AP @2 to blackmail someone is literally to threaten them
    “blackmail verb 1 to extort money, etc illegally from someone by threatening to reveal harmful information about them.”
    so I don’t feel your objection to this is justified.

  12. gwd80@11 sure, but “threaten” is very broad while “blackmail” is very specific. But hey I suppose that’s the nature of many definitions. Didn’t come to mind easily, though! Certainly not a quibble – unlike the ones raised by JOFT@7 which I too blinked at (though didn’t pause long enough on LOYALLY to see that it really is flawed).

  13. A fairly typical Anto puzzle, some good clues and some clunkers. LOYALLY simply doesn’t work. BRASS TACKS, on the other hand, was excellent.

  14. Agree with those who commented that 28A doesn’t work. Collects would imply to me at least that a word for money is to be inserted in YA. Otherwise very enjoyable. Thanks Anto and Pierre (no birds?)

  15. Hard for a quiptic, I thought.
    I found the SW corner particularly so.
    I agree with a comment on the G. site that this is now missing the brief somewhat.
    Thanks both

  16. I had 1D as a charade, drop-fall and through-by (loosely I went by the lane/through the lane).
    I also struggled with the insertion in 28A feeling that the indicator suggested YA was the container.
    Overall a nice chewy Sunday workout, thanks Anto and Pierre.

  17. For what it’s worth, I agree with the general discontent expressed above.

    MrsSandgrounder @10, try this for the equivalence between ‘tell’ and ‘matter’. ‘Her efforts will really tell/matter when the final result is announced.’ That use of ‘tell’ is more commonly found in ‘telling’ – ‘her criticism of the Anto puzzle was telling’.

  21. If something collects dust, say, it becomes covered in dust. Or if I collect friends I surround myself with them. Seems reasonable.

  22. I enjoyed this, but agree that it was on the difficult side for a Quiptic. But my experience in recent weeks has been to have found them more difficult than others have generally reported, so today I was actually quite surprised to see others saying the same.

    I don’t understand where the FENCE in RINGFENCE comes from. Any answers appreciated…

  24. @455 – Thank you, that’s a new one for me which I’ll try (and probably fail) to commit to memory.

  25. Almost got there. Put down “drop in” instead of DROP BY, and that stopped me getting BRASS TACKS.

    I saw that STOMACHS = sticks, but didn’t see the connection with pot, so, as usual, the blog was very helpful for parsing.

    Thanks S&B.

  26. I have to agree LOYALLY didn’t work for me, surplus fiction. Sorry, I try to be a positive voice around here, but this comment numbering system doesn’t work either. It works logically, but is a disaster in terms of user experience.

    I was ok with tension for T which I found as part of the abbreviation for “surface tension” – which feels quite appropriate today.

    Thanks Anto, Pierre and everyone else @XYZ.

  27. That “black” means “boycott” was new despite having stayed a year in Scotland.

    The new comment reference scheme is ill-considered, at best.

  29. Thanks Pierre. Thought that was at a perfect level for me – exactly what I hope for from a quiptic with three I couldn’t parse fully.

    BTW how often has Ninja appeared this year in the Grauniad?

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