Guardian Cryptic N° 26,206 by Philistine

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The crossword may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26206.

Most of the left half fell in fairly readily; after that it was a struggle, culminating with the vicious 9D. The rain today has just got rid of most of the snow, and we are due for only a little more as it cools overnight; but last weekend we went onto daylight savings time. Consequently the crossword appeared an hour later than usual, and I sorely missed the extra time this crossword needed.

 

Across
1. Circuits broken by it, a retrospective in 3-D (7)
SPATIAL A reversal (‘retrospective’) of an envelope (‘broken by’) of ‘it’ plus ‘a’ in LAPS (‘circuits’).
5. Musical greeting included in reservations (7)
CAVEATS An envelope (‘included in’) of AVE (‘greeting’ – we has another Latin hail in Tuesday’s Orlando) in CATS (‘musical’).
10,27. Hector and Bob mixed with water (8)
BROWBEAT An angram (‘mixed’) of ‘Bob’ plus ‘water’.
11. Headgear fashionable to Africans (10)
FASCINATOR An anagram (‘fashionable’) of ‘to Africans’.
12. Indiscrete xenophobia covers reactionary city (6)
EXETER A hidden (‘covers’) reverse (‘reactionary’) answer in ‘indiscRETE XEnophobia’.
13. Loves to sit together in romantic light to do this? (8)
CANOODLE An envelope (‘to sit together in’) of OO (‘loves’) in CANDLE (‘romantic light’), with an extended definition.
14. “Feeling” in a laptop programme (9)
PALPATION An anagram (‘programme’) of ‘in a laptop’.
16. It’s a tyranny of the flesh that describes him (5)
SATYR A hidden answer (‘describes’) in ‘itS A TYRrany’, with an extended definition.
17. That’s what you get from bad diets (2,3)
ID EST An anagram (‘bad’) of ‘diets’.
19. One’s invaded some country or another (9)
INDONESIA An envelope (‘invaded’) of ‘ones’ in INDIA (‘some country’).
23. Line from Pearl Jam covers the lot (8)
PARALLEL An envelope (‘covers’) of ALL (‘the lot’) in PAREL, an anagram (‘jam’) of ‘pearl’.
24. Players and posers can be preposterous (6)
TROUPE TROUPE plus ‘posers’ is an anagram (‘can be’) of ‘preposterous’.
26. Young 6 said to be ending life (10)
EUTHANASIA A homophone (‘said’) of YOUTH IN ASIA (‘Young 6’ – that is ASIANS).
27. See 10
– See 10
28. I, for one, having a record, chicken out (7)
HALOGEN An envelope (‘out’) of ‘a’ plus LOG (‘record’) in HEN (‘chicken’). The definition is I, the chemical symbol for iodine, a halogen.
29. Create an image in blue that is lacking definition (7)
SKETCHY An envelope (‘in’) of ETCH (‘create an image’) in SKY (‘blue’).

Down
2. Sad expiry with a fever (7)
PYREXIA An anagram (‘sad’) of ‘expiry’ plus ‘a’.
3. That is to say, to woo follows naturally (2,3)
TO WIT Definition and owlish allusion.
4,22. Star fiddling with gift weapon, initially (2,5,6)
AT FIRST GLANCE A charade of ATFIRSTG, an anagram (‘fiddling’) of ‘star’ plus ‘gift’; plus LANCE (‘weapon’).
6. The same for an entry for 19 people, say (6)
ASIANS An envelope (‘entry’) of ‘an’ in AS IS (‘the same’).
7. Surface to back talk and disappear (9)
EVAPORATE A charade pf EVAP, a reversal (‘to back’) of PAVE (‘surface’) plus ORATE (‘talk’).
8. Bananas off one’s shopping in here (7)
TROLLEY Definition and allusion again : OFF ONE’S TROLLEY is colloquial for mad.
9. Therapist of the nose? Pay attention to include wise report about that (13)
PSYCHOANALYST Ouch. It took some digging to come up with the wordplay: a double envelope (‘to include’ and ‘about that’) of CHOANAL (not in Chambers, but the root choana is given as a nostril, so that this is ‘of the nose’) in YY (‘wise report’, a homophone) in PSST (‘pay attention’).
15. Perhaps his topic includes a principle for reduced consumption of nuts (9)
PISTACHIO An anagram (‘perhaps’) of ‘his topic’ plus ‘a’. I take it that the rest is the definition (of sorts).
18. Laura and Dick, oddly out for the count (7)
DRACULA An anagram (‘out’) of ‘Laura’ plus DC (‘DiCk oddly’).
20. Bush having gone, returned (7)
OUTBACK A charade of OUT (‘gone’) plus BACK (‘returned’).
21. Compiler’s complexion charge (7)
IMPEACH A charade if I’M (‘compiler’s’) plus PEACH (‘complexion’ – more allusion than definition).
22. See 4
– See 4
25. One has an eye for a revolutionary path (5)
ORBIT Double definition – an orbit is an eye socket.

29 comments on “Guardian Cryptic N° 26,206 by Philistine”

  1. Thanks, PeterO. Great blog of a wonderful puzzle. The first few fell easily but then the bend sharpened dramatically! The only point I would make is that I think the definition of HALOGEN is “I, for one” rather than just “I”.

    CHOANAL and FASCINATOR were new to me but both very fairly clued. Favourites? If pushed to choose, I’d say ID EST and CANOODLE. Oh and, just because it’s my adopted country, INDONESIA! (Shed had something quite similiar a couple of years ago with INDONESIAN: “1?s interrupting one Asian or another”.)

  2. Sorry about the question mark instead of an apostrophe: a cut and paste problem! It should read, “1’s interrupting one Asian or another”.

  3. Lovely stuff. Crunchy wordplays just how I like ’em.

    I think 15d is a triple. The Pistachio Principle is a way for dieters (supposedly) to fool their body into thinking that they’ve eaten more than they actually have. With pistachios themselves I think it only works with the ones you have to shell first – the shelling slows you down and the pile of shells reminds you how much you’ve already eaten. It certainly wouldn’t work on me with the ready-to-eat ones. The principle involved can apply to other foodstuffs.

    Then “nuts” is also a def.

    Many thanks to both.

  4. One wrong this morning because I can’t spell (26a). I got 9d but didn’t parse it. I found it tough: better luck tomorrow perhaps.

  6. Good crossword and nice to see some medical words although I was beaten by CHOANAL.

    Thanks PeterO for a sterling blog. I had never heard of the PISTACHIO Principle.

    I particularly enjoyed TROUPE.

  7. THanks for a great blog, PeterO, especially for parsing PSYCHOANALYST, which I gave up on.

    Another super puzzle from Philistine. My favourites were CANOODLE [best of all, for the lovely surface – although, as usual, they’re all great], TROUPE, HALOGEN, DRACULA and PISTACHIO, now that I see what it means: I hadn’t heard of the principle, either.

    Many thanks to Philistine for so entertainingly brightening up what started off as a rather foggy morning.

  8. Nicely done all round. “Youth in Asia” has been one of my favorite homophones for decades, and I thought “canoodle” was particularly clever. “Halogen” was clever too, though I didn’t get it.

    The other cheat was “trolley,” today’s Not For Americans entry. In the US, we shop using carts, and go off our rockers; a trolley is a type of streetcar or bus, and has no other meaning.

  9. Thanks to Philistine and Jolly for illumination of the Pretensions of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

    3d makes a nice pair with 17a, to wit ID EST.

  10. NeilW @1

    Thanks: yes, that is what I meant for the definition in 28A – now corrected. I have just realized that PeeDee’s excellent utility allows me to put in the underlining as I solve, which should give more accurate results.

    JollySwagman @3

    Thanks for the word about the Pistachio Principle, which is new to me as well. The clue seemed to be nudging me in that general direction (and I did not have the time to investigate further), but knowing that the alliterative Principle has been formally stated improves the clue greatly.

  11. Oh this is nice. Mostly sorted on the train up, the rest (NE corner mostly) falls into place in sunny pub garden with local pint. Thanks Philistine for another great puzzle and petero for helping me with the CHOANAL in the big down clue.

    5a, 8d, 13a provoked merry chuckles.

  12. Thanks, PeterO

    This was not one of my favourite Philistine puzzles: very heavy on the anagrams, and some surfaces aren’t up to his usual high standard. I couldn’t fully parse 15d and 9d was completely mystifying – thanks for the explanations. I didn’t put 21d in until I had all the crossing letters because I wasn’t convinced by ‘complexion’ = PEACH – it needed a question mark, at least.

    But there’s a lot to like here. I especially enjoyed CANOODLE, SATYR, HALOGEN and DRACULA.

  13. I agree that this was entertaining, and up to Philistine’s usual high standards. Last in was HALOGEN (probably my favourite of the day), also enjoyed DRACULA, EUTHANASIA and CANOODLE. I think PYREXIA was the only unfamiliar answer, and I’d never heard of the Pistachio principle, orbit = eye socket or choanal but none of these caused any problems.

    Thanks to Philistine and PeterO

  14. Thanks to Philistine and PeterO. Enjoyed completing this puzzle although I couldn’t parse
    9d. Kudos to those who did. Favorites were CANOODLE and SATYR.

    Cheers…

  15. I’m a bit of a natural Anagramatist, so I’ll never complain if a puzzle is rather overheavy with ’em (gives the poor brain some time off).

    Also enjoyed CANOODLE, loved the clueing concept of TROUPE, and always get great pleasure from the frustration of finally twigging an overlooked ‘Hidden Word’ clue…so SATYR was a particular joy!

    Thanks to all.

  16. Thanks Philistine and PeterO
    In common with some others, I started quickly and finished slowly (the other way round from usual). I didn’t parse 9d or 15d (I hadn’t heard of the Pistachio principle either, but I can see how it works – would globe artichokes work as well?).
    I was a bit thrown by the construction for TROUPE – I saw it eventually, and will look out for this type of clue in future.
    Favourite was the simple TO WIT.

  17. Thanks to PeterO for the blog. You explained a couple I failed to parse.

    I’m with Gervase@9: why should complexion=peach?

    On 19a I immediately thought of Austria/AustrALia but could not make it work. Eventually I found the correct pair of countries.

  18. Re. 29: I got the word, but I got “sketch” from ‘create an image’, and spent a long time trying to link the “y” to ‘blue’! 🙁

  19. Chas @17:

    I think the explanation of complexion = peach would be that you have to read the clue as a whole. “Compiler’s complexion” = I’m peach, which works if the guy who’s doing the setting is of northern European stock.

    Related tangent: In the U.S., the most popular brand of crayons is called Crayola. Crayola has a color that used to be called “flesh,” until non-white Americans objected. They changed the name to “peach.”

    –M.

  20. I found this puzzle very tricky. I completed the LHS first with the exception of 2dn which was my LOI when I decided that PYREXIA was the most likely arrangement of the anagram fodder. I didn’t know CHOANAL in 9dn, but if I had it would have helped me parse the clue properly and would almost certainly have stopped me entering a silly “psychoanalist”. In the RHS the FASCINATOR/EVAPORATE crossers were the last ones to go in.

  21. Unlike Muffin @ 16, I started slowly (in NW corner)and finished not at all. A search through the works of Pearl Jam (who they?) proved totally unilluminating BUT I thought the blog was brilliant (especially 9dn) and, by reflection, the puzzle.

  22. Thanks, Philistine for a good workout and PeterO for the blog.

    I’m with Muffin@16 on TO WIT, which made me smile.

    I like the idea of the pile of nutshells but nearly fell down on PISTACHIO as I am used to seeing it with two Cs.

    There was once a day when the peach complexion was deemed to be highly desirable – well before permatans became the norm.

    Giovanna xx

  23. Thanks all
    Who knows, Gervase, perhaps s/he does have a peachy complexion but never a plum-duff clue (sorry).
    I enjoyed 11,24,28across.

  24. I enjoyed this typical Philistine.

    All very well clued and consequently I completed this without much trouble after a slow start.

    I didn’t manage to parse 9D although it was obviously correct. This was not helped by the fact that I had never heard of CHOANA.

    Thanks to PeterO and Philistine

  25. Thanks PeterO and Philistine

    Finished this difficult one late. An excellent challenge. I had to check ‘fascinator’ and ‘choanal’ and did not know the pistachio principle. I ticked 10,27, 16a, 24a and 3d and also liked ‘canoodle’.

  26. Yes lots to like here: TO WIT probably the fondest for me, but HALOGEN etc. are crackers too.

    Sue and I found this absorbing and challenging in the pub, and it helped, for us there, that no esoteric searching was needed bar CHOANAL.

    Many thanks all.

  27. Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle, though perhaps 9d was better suited to Mephisto or Azed.

    I wrote in pistachio despite remaining baffled by the definition. It might have been fairer (at least to us Brits)if Philistine had left it as “Perhaps his Topic includes a nut”, capping up the ‘T’. (Those of a certain age will remember the chocolate/hazelnut bars . . . maybe they’re still on sale?) The TV advert was a jolly affair, ending with “What has a hazelnut in every bite?”, to which — in my house at least — the reply was an enthusiastic “SQUIRREL S**T” . . .

  28. Thanks Philistine and PeterO

    Similarly to Peter, the LHS fell first before the battle with the RHS loomed!

    Was pleased to parse 9d … firstly spotted the Y’s, then the PSST before having to look up if CHOANAL meant something to do with a nose … and it did!! Having done that, reality check when I couldn’t parse ASIANS 🙁

    TROUPE was the last in … and a bit longer to work out why.

    A couple of other new words with PYREXIA and PALPATION.

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