Thank you to Pangakupu. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Artist possibly producing proper art – Titian? (8,7)
PORTRAIT PAINTER : Anagram of(producing) PROPER ART – TITIAN.
Answer: An example/possibly of an artist who specialises.
9. Gossips time and time again engaged in lies (7)
TATTLES : [ T(abbrev. for “time”) plus(and … again) T(abbrev. for “time”) ] contained in(engaged in) TALES(lies/fibs).
10. European is not upset by a European country (7)
ESTONIA : E(abbrev. for “European”) + anagram of(… upset) IS NOT plus(by) A.
11. Pub, one with two names (3)
INN : I(Roman numeral for “one”) plus(with) NN(2 x abbrev. for “name”).
12. How NASA may activate rocket for publicity event? (5,6)
PRESS LAUNCH : Double defn: 1st: What NASA may do to activate a rocket – press the launch button.
13. Settle area, moving houses etc. (4,6)
REAL ESTATE : Anagram of(…, moving) SETTLE AREA.
15. Ancient story? I am surprised this is only half complete (4)
MYTH : MY!(an expression for “I am surprised!) + 1st 2 out of 4 letters of(… is only half complete) “this”.
18. Dislike speed, avoiding start of sprint (4)
HATE : “haste”(speed/swiftness) minus(avoiding) 1st letter of(start of) “sprint”.
20. Sentence hurts the head of silly people (10)
BIRDBRAINS : BIRD(a sentence/term in prison, as in “do bird”, from “birdlime”, rhyming slang for “time”) + BRAINS(hurts someone’s head by hitting it with an object).
23. Educational payment? End with total NUS disputed (7,4)
STUDENT LOAN : Anagram of(… disputed) [ END plus(with) TOTAL NUS ].
25. Expat in part of Melbourne, primarily (3)
POM : 1st letters, respectively, of(…, primarily) “part of Melbourne”.
Answer: … or “pommy”, Australian slang for a British person as an expat/an expatriate in Australia. And as the clue says, maybe located in Melbourne.
26. Regret pinching English money for followers (7)
RETINUE : RUE(to regret/feel remorse) containing(pinching) [ E(abbrev. for “English”) + TIN(slang for money) ].
27. Book recalled in embracing love and passion (7)
EMOTION : Reversal of(… recalled) TOME(a large book) + IN containing(embracing) O(letter representing 0, “love” in tennis scores).
28. The trendy dealer, not well treated with kindness (6-9)
TENDER-HEARTEDLY : Anagram of(…, not well treated) THE TRENDY DEALER.
Down
1. Old leader revised Part 1 with support (9)
PATRIARCH : Anagram of(revised) [PART + I(Roman numeral for “1”) ] plus(with) ARCH(a curved structure that supports the weight of, say a bridge across a gap).
2. Staff carrying barrel over a round building (7)
ROTUNDA : [ ROD(a straight bar/a staff) containing(carrying) TUN(a large beer or wine barrel) ] placed above(over, in a down clue) A.
3. Des, increasingly wan, turned up and fell ill again (8)
RELAPSED : Reversal of(…, turned up, in a down clue) [ DES + PALER(increasingly pale/wan) ].
4. Publication is certain, though not right (5)
ISSUE : IS + “sure”(certain/doubtless) minus(though not) “r”(abbrev. for “right”).
5. Macho cider-making guy? One’s a fixer (5,4)
PRESS STUD : How one might describe a STUD(a macho guy, one with a lot of masculinity, especially in the sexual sense) who makes cider, which involves using a PRESS to extract apple juice.
Defn: …/fastener.
6. I try an unusual way of receiving work? (2-4)
IN-TRAY : Anagram of(… unusual) I TRY AN.
7. Rented property in outskirts of the French city (7)
TENANCY : 1st and last letters of(outskirts of) “the” + NANCY(city in north-eastern France).
8. Arrive at some rare achievement (5)
REACH : Hidden in(some) “rare achievement”.
14. Hitter hit out, being some way down the list? (9)
THIRTIETH : Anagram of(… out) HITTER HIT.
16. Hard American male plugging sweetheart for illicit cash (4,5)
HUSH MONEY : H(abbrev. for “hard”) + US(abbrev. for the United States, describing things American) + [ M(abbrev. for “male”) contained in(plugging) HONEY(like “sweetheart”, an endearing term for a loved one) ].
17. Popular salesman supporting public relations computer information (8)
PRINTOUT : [ IN(fashionable/popular) + TOUT(one who solicits customers/a salesman) ] placed below(supporting, in a down clue) PR(abbrev. for “public relations”).
Remember this?
19. Not upset about relative in Somerset town (7)
TAUNTON : Anagram of(… upset) NOT containing(about) AUNT(a relative).
21. Suggested mischievous character didn’t tell the truth (7)
IMPLIED : IMP(a mischievous character/a rascal) + LIED(didn’t tell the truth).
22. Meeting for which some visitors are late? (6)
SEANCE : Cryptic defn: A session that tries to contact the spirits/ghosts of dead/late people to visit.
23. Mild dispute about river fish (5)
SPRAT : SPAT(a mild dispute/a quarrel about an unimportant matter) containing(about) R(abbrev. for “river”).
A food fish:
24. Europe rather suppressing this stage work (5)
OPERA : Hidden in(… suppressing) “Europe rather”.
Good solid clues without many stand-outs. Liked REAL ESTATE. SEANCE LOI
I had no idea how to parse BIRDBRAINS and I can see why now. I must have learned at least 100 UK terms for crime and prison from the crosswords, and doing bird is yet another new one. Otherwise all solved and parsed.
Thanks Pangakupu and scchua
I was one of several (judging by the Guardian comments) to finish on BIRDBRAINS – neither half is the world’s most obvious synonym, but I’m not complaining.
Nice to see Pangakupu in gentler mood.
Thank you scchua for your comprehensive and well-illustrated blog, as always. What do you mean about that old technology in PRINTOUT? I’m only one step removed from roneo machines.
A few too many anagrams for my liking, I like them but not this many in one crossie, but having said that, I got the definition and the fodder wrong in my first attempt for REAL ESTATE, (Letter count and abbreviations don’t always work.) PORTRAIT PAINTER, STUDENT LOAN, TENDER-HEARTEDLY, IN-TRAY were good ‘uns.
SEANCE and HUSH MONEY my picks for the surfaces.
Looking for some hidden maori – unsuccessfully… An enjoyable puzzle with some fun answers. A lot of anagrams, and all the better for that in a quiptic. I suspect 31d is an old chestnut, but I enjoyed it!
TGZ # 4. Pangakupu doesn’t do Māori ninas in the Quick Cryptics or Quiptics, as far as I know. 31d?
Quite a tricky challenge. LOI was 20ac BIRDBRAINS. Makes me wonder if birds are really all that silly – I am mainly thinking of the super intelligent predators and the crow family. Actually, many intelligent bird behaviours come to mind!
Favourites: PRESS LAUNCH, HUSH MONEY, SEANCE, PRINTOUT.
[RIP Tom Stoppard. I will watch the 1990 film of R&G are Dead later today].
Well, that all went smoothly. LOIs were SEANCE, where no amount of hard Paddington staring at crossers would let FUNERAL in (yes, yes, 7 letters, but when a block is in, it does tend to stick), and then BIRDBRAINS. If there’ was a theme or a nina, I couldn’t see it. I liked PRESS STUD, and PRESS LAUNCH raised a smile.
Thanks both!
[michelle@6 I watched it last night, with a glass or two of malt in memoriam. Great stuff. I had forgotten how good Gary Oldman is as R – or is he G?]
Found this very enjoyable throughout, though I was another who only solved BIRDBRAINS with a bit of help.
Nice and relaxing for a sunday morning.
LOI was BIRDBRAINS, only because I came to it last, but I don’t think I would have spotted it without the crossers.
Going by recent crosswords I am beginning to wonder if Estonia is the only country left in Europe.
Most of it, easy, but DNF. I had to reveal both PRESS STUD and BIRDBRAINS – for the latter, I knew neither the whole nor any of the components. I guess, this being a quiptic, it isn’t the No.43?!.. Anyway, thanks Pangakupu and scchua!
Nice crossword, although, as other posters, I needed some help with BIRDBRAINS. Not the fault of the setter. Just my lack of vocabulary.
Lovely solid stuff. This one felt a bit more straight-down-the-middle after the last couple of weeks.
That said, I confess I DNF: BIRDBRAINS did it in for me too, with neither of the constituent parts nor the whole being the most obvious synonyms, as gladys@2 says; I cheated to get the penultimate N to go with the checkers, which was enough to get me there. [I wish the G had a “reveal letter” button like the Indy, so that I didn’t have to cover squares up with my finger while hitting Reveal and Clear!]
I’m not sure if bird and sentence are truly interchangeable though; it would need to be “a sentence” in the phrases I can think of.
Penultimate one in was PRESS STUD, just to confirm the pattern so far!
Thanks both
AP How about. I will spend the rest of my bird/sentence at a Category C prison?
I finished this while on the train to Edinburgh. Like others. I struggled parsing birdbrains, not knowing the intended meaning of the two words. Otherwise enjoyable puzzle, which made the journey pass quicker.
Thanks, Pangakupu and scchua
PRINTOUT last in for me. BIRDBRAINS was penultimate, but not due to any unfamiliarity. I’m surprised at the general reaction. Fair comment from Michelle. Lots of parrots and corvidae perform some impressive mimicry and problem solving, keas being a fine example.
Thanks all.
Enjoyable puzzle for my level. Is it very bad form to refer to Quicksolve as I had to do for Birdbrains and Seance?
Petert@13, nice one. I’ll take that.
Dior@16, not at all! Bad form doesn’t exist when doing any kind of puzzle; they’re not exams! It’s fun just to observe one’s own progress as time goes on… I find I use those tools less and less, though it’s interesting to note that I use them to get the last one in on the Quiptic just as much as I do for the weekday cryptic; there is often one clue which stubbornly refuses to fall, such as BIRDBRAINS here.
Which speaks to Martin@15’s point I think. Sometimes for whatever reason the synonyms don’t come to some people but do to others. Familiarity, tiredness, whatever. I didn’t complain about BB precisely because there’s nothing at all wrong – nor, dare I objectively say, difficult – about it. But it refused to come without more letters in place. But that’s the fun of the thing too, right? It would be boring if things were always a write-in!
Tough for a Quiptic but think in the acceptable range with a few friendlier clues.
Glad to be in the minority it seems and have BIRDBRAINS as the penultimate one in. Something I learnt today is that English has an awful lot of words both for serving time and for stupid people.
Liked TENANCY and PRINTOUT
Thanks Pangakupu and scchua
Would never have figured “birdbrains” from the wordplay, was last in but purely based on crossers and definition
Another BIRDBRAINS loi. Nicely pitched, I liked the intersecting PRESSs plus the sort of opposite, REAL and MYTH on the same line.
Ta Pangakupu & scchua.
Thank you, scchua!
I couldn’t parse BIRD BRAINS, which I worked out from the crosses. Didn’t know the idiom as well as the terms for crime and prison.
But my LOI was SEANCE. For a long time, I kept thinking about funerals and memorial services which didn’t help. 🙂
[Derek@7 – I had never seen the film before although I studied the play at school before the movie was made. Very good film – I thought both Oldman and Roth were great in the title characters, whichever one they were playing LOL]
Similar to many, BIRDBRAINS and PRINTOUT last in – I thought the former was superb once I twigged! A couple of beauties in there and the occasional chewer but otherwise a very fair and manageable quiptic. I think I’ve said before I have struggled with Pangakupu’s puzzles on account of their devilish difficulty – but as a quiptic this ticked every box. Thanks all round!
I felt this was exactly on the money for the Quiptic slot. I made steady progress with no big hold ups. I did need the crossers for BIRDBRAINS but think it was very fairly clued. SEANCE was my last one in. Thanks scchua for the blog, and Pangakupu for another excellent Quiptic.
Didn’t complete this one. BIRDBRAIN and PRESS STUD (unknown term) eluded me.
I spent ages trying to figure out why Nantes wasn’t fitting in the TENANCY clue.
Thanks S&B
Thank you scchua for another set of clear explanations. I also wanted to note that these blogs have some life beyond day 1. I started this Quiptic last week but just came back to finish (almost, another birdbrain fail) today.
Worried after this setter’s Quick Cryptic was tough for me, but actually really enjoyed this one. Tough but possible.
LOI Birdbrains, and that was because I hadn’t heard the term for doing time before.
I’m working my way backwards through previous Quiptics now, and just arrived at this one, which I thought was at a really nice level for a beginner solver (i.e. me), although like others I struggled with BIRDBRAINS and SEANCE.