Anto in the Quiptic slot for us this week.
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 Animal bound on stake
ANTELOPE
A charade of ANTE and LOPE.
5 Unfortunately, Kenya borders very cold terrain
ALASKA
A charade of ALAS and KA for the outside letters of ‘Kenya’.
9 Politicians cared most after reshuffle
DEMOCRATS
(CARED MOST)* with ‘after reshuffle’ as the anagrind.
11 Manage intake files at centre dealing with birth
NATAL
The central letters of maNAge inTAke and fiLes.
12 Boring language about heritage leaders keep repeating claptrap
BLAH BLAH BLAH
A triple repeat of the initial letters of the first four words of the clue.
15 Cheese made from 50% of used spam
EDAM
A charade of [US]ED [SP]AM.
16 One taking advantage of available heavy machinery
FREELOADER
A charade of FREE and LOADER.
18 Don’t go overboard when reporting to nation
UNDERSTATE
A charade of UNDER and STATE. ‘Mark reports to/is under Susan in the accounts department.’
19 Get a bit of stick
TWIG
A dd.
21 Military group extremely lively – depending on conditions
CONTINGENTLY
A charade of CONTINGENT and LY for the outside letters of ‘lively’.
24 Regular characters in gang war meet to exhibit best performance
A-GAME
The even letters in gAnG wAr MeEt.
25 Seek money from club – and hope for good fortune
TOUCH WOOD
A charade of TOUCH and WOOD for the golf ‘club’. ‘Susan touched/sought money from Mark for her new project.’
26 Part of Sheffield estate that’s been around the longest
ELDEST
Hidden in SheffiELD ESTate.
27 Removes text suited to getting misspelt
EDITS OUT
(SUITED TO)* with ‘misspelt’ as the anagrind.
Down
1 Opera is a concept lacking energy
AIDA
A charade of A and ID[E]A.
2 Book is closed up as far as I’m concerned
TOME
If you add UP to TO ME, you get UP TO ME. I’m not sure what ‘closed’ is doing here.
3 Position that sounds more healthy?
LOCALE
Aural wordplay (‘that sounds) of LO-CAL.
4 Rare drama showing approach to attracting lover
PLAY HARD TO GET
‘Rare drama’ is a whimsical definition of the solution.
6 Food fight shows one’s masculine quality perhaps
LUNCHBOX
A charade of LUNCH and BOX. LUNCHBOX is a slang word for the collection of organs that make up the male genitalia. Such a container usually contains a sausage and two boiled eggs. Linford Christie and the judge come to mind.
7 Pay low? Try to be calm about it
SETTLE DOWN
A charade of SETTLE and DOWN.
8 Sensible to acquire silver – it’s quite fashionable
ALL THE RAGE
An insertion of AG in ALL THERE. The insertion indicator is ‘to acquire’.
10 Posh cutlery licked? That’s charming!
SILVER-TONGUED
A charade of SILVER and TONGUED.
13 Condemn deceit a nun disseminated
DENUNCIATE
(DECEIT A NUN)* with ‘disseminated’ as the anagrind.
14 Two workers around home being co-operative
HAND IN HAND
An insertion of IN in HAND and HAND. The insertion indicator is ‘around’.
17 Do they get dragged into showing what’s in store?
TRAILERS
A dd.
20 Hot lad running amok – it’s somewhat passé
OLD HAT
(HOT LAD)* with ‘running amok’ as the anagrind.
22 Strange facilities storing carbon
LOCO
An insertion of C in LOO. The insertion indicator is ‘storing’.
23 Passage in financial review union dismissed
ADIT
A[U]DIT.
Many thanks to Anto for this Sunday’s Quiptic.
Thanks Pierre & Anto.
I couldn’t parse the UNDER in UNDERSTATE, but now it’s obvious. Wasn’t familiar with that use of TOUCH either.
In TOME does ‘closed up’ just mean removing the gap between TO and ME…?
This was really a tough one for a quiptic,imo.But seeing the solutions makes it seem so easy.Thanks Guardian for the titular mislead i.e “for beginners or those in a hurry”.
Comment #3
I’ll start the “homophone” discussion. I’ve only ever heard LOCALE pronounced as low-carl, never lo-cal. Over to you.
PS can somebody delete comment 3
I used the check button more often than usual at first because I lacked confidence in my solutions, but once I had some crossers in, I romped home. The parsing of UNDER threw me but otherwise all fine. Now on the Everyman…
Crispy@4 I would always pronounce it lo-cal so no problem for me. I enjoy Anto’s Quiptics and had fun with this one. I didn’t know ADIT but it was easy enough to work out.
Comment #7
CLOSED = TO as in “Push the door closed … push the door to”
But even knowing that I can’t get the exact parsing. It seems rather messy. Might even be a triple def of sorts.
(Incidentally similar clue came up in The Times QC yesterday “Closed one large book”)
Comment #9
Comment #10
Comment #11
Comment #12
I found this a very accessible Anto other than I couldn’t parse LOCALE either as I pronounce it lo-carl too.
[Crispy – only ken and Pierre can delete posts from this blog]
Thank you to Pierre and Anto.
Comment #14
Comment #15
Maybe I just wasn’t on the right wavelength, but this seemed a bit harder than yer average Quiptic. So a steady solve, progressively filling in bits and pieces all over the grid, with crossers giving useful hints, rather than a top-to-bottom romp. But all good stuff.
I especially liked ALL THE RAGE, a neat use of that old friend Ag for silver, the picture induced by SILVER TONGUED, and the jokey PLAY HARD TO GET.
Thanks Anto for my breakfast entertainment, and Pierre for the blog.
Comment #17
[Shanne @13 – It looks like Ken and Pierre are having a busy morning. Seem to remember you had the same issue last Sunday?]
Is it the number of charades that made starting off a bit trickier than usual, especially for a quiptic? I kept looking for anagrams which weren’t there.
I agree with the quibble about the pronunciation of locale. A bit unfortunate for a soundalike! However, it was easy enough to get and didn’t detract from a very enjoyable puzzle.
So that’s why I had so much trouble parsing LUNCHEON… Thanks, Anto and Pierre.
@HG at #8. I read 2d TOME as being “To me…” (“As far as I’m concerned…”) being closed up, i.e. having the space removed. That would explain the inclusion of ‘closed’.
If you close up – ie. remove the space from – the expression “to me” you get TOME
MrsS @20 and others – I’m not getting this quibble about LOCALE. Are people pronouncing it with the stress on the first syllable, as in ‘local’ without the final-e? For me, the stress has to be on the second syllable, so I had no problem with the clue.
Many deletions recently. Is our previously safe word playground becoming a trollfield?
In 2d, does “closed up” mean you take “up” from “up to me” and end up with “tome”??
I thought this was a robust, harder-level Quiptic, with some nice artistry. Lots of clues acting as good examples of standard cryptic concepts, and I felt there were several which were Quiptic-accessible but daily-cryptic-elegance, such as UNDERSTATE.
I think Holypeanut@1 has nailed TOME (which I didn’t fully parse). I assumed it was a triple def with “closed up” being the def which I failed to figure out, but now it seems clear that it’s TOME (book) and also a “closed up” TO ME (i.e. the space is deleted). Good clue!
I really wanted ANTELOPE to be anteater, and TOUCH WOOD to be tough love, so it was a nice exercise in being forced to discard my initial ideas based on partial checkers.
I thought the surface for EDAM was a bit weak, but at least it was a change from the MADE-backwards trope.
Balfour@24, my dictionary has LOCALE as lo-KARL, i.e. long A, and that’s how I’ve always pronounced it, so I needed to give a moment’s thought to the parsing.
BLAH BLAH BLAH looks like an honest attempt at extended definition (wannabe &lit), but I don’t think it quite works because the surface isn’t fully grammatical (“keep”?). Which is a pity because the idea was nice. If we want to keep the “boring language” bit, which would be nice, I’d drop “claptrap” altogether and go with something like “Boring language Arts & Humanities leaders keep repeating?”
Thanks Anto for the enjoyment and Pierre for the blog.
AP@27 Thank for responding. I think that my ‘long A’ is slightly higher in pitch than yours and others’. That may be down to the remnants of Scots pronunciation lurking around in my accent.
I thought this was a quite typical Anto; a bit loose in places and slightly obscure in others. I struggled initially until I spotted and solved some of the anagram based clues but then made good progress with crossers coming in handy. I’m in the long second syllable camp for locale so this was very weak as a sound-alike IMO. Thanks Anto and Pierre for the wordplay explanations.
I believe Anto’s got the hang of it. Favourites BLAH BLAH BLAH, ALASKA, ALL THE RAGE. Stella Heath #23 – thanks, this makes perfect sense! Not sure about UNDERSTATE – it’s not the same as “don’t overstate”. Thanks Anto and Pierre!
This felt tougher than usual. “Rare drama” for play hard to get is nice is amusing in hindsight I suppose…
“Touch” for “seek money” I don’t get even with the explanation. Can’t say I’ve ever heard that used before.
Blah Blah Blah was nice I thought.
Re the long-A pronunciation of locale, I’ve tracked down this bit of the Fawlty Towers The Hotel Inspector episode, which may well be the only place where I’ve heard the word said out loud!
Comment #33
Balfour @28 – I’d already mentioned the low-Carl pronunciation @4
I too found this tougher than usual, at least in places, which may have been a wavelength thing for me this morning. I got there though, and had fun along the way.
Are you miffed that I didn’t name check you specifically, Crispy @34? I had read your and indeed all comments about this, which is why I included the phrase ‘and others’ both in my initial reply @22 and again @28.. My suspicion is that the lowered longer-A with the implicit ‘r’ as in ‘carl’ is characteristic of southern English speech or RP (I know the two do not always coincide), and I would be interested to know how LOCALE is pronounced in Yorkshire, Lancashire or Tyne & Wear. I have Scotland covered, I think.
I thought “closed up” in TOME just meant that the space between TO and ME should be closed up – though it’s rare for a setter to tell us this so explicitly.