A fairly typical Rufus puzzle, with a number of neat anagrams and double definitions – though rather fewer cryptic definitions today. A couple of the double definitions are rather close in meaning but there are some nice clues at 1ac, 5ac, 23ac, 4dn, 18dn and 21dn – and a pretty poor one, I’m afraid, at 22dn. The surfaces, as always, are elegant throughout. Thank you, Rufus – I enjoyed it.
Definitions are underlined and italicised.
Across
1 Needle for decoration on artificial silk (7)
OBELISK
OBE [Order of the British Empire – decoration] + anagram [artificial] of SILK
5 Relatives get a quarter — sighs of relief! (7)
NEPHEWS
NE [North East – a quarter] + PHEWS [sighs of relief]
10 Agreed, but not about being old (4)
AGED
AG[re]ED [not about]
11 Where publicans are locked up? (6,4)
BEHIND BARS
Double definition
12 The old soldiers before one are Arabians (6)
YEMENI
Ye [‘the’ old] + MEN [soldiers] + I [one]
13 Slash the price of flimsy material (8)
LACERATE
LACE [flimsy material] + RATE [price]
14 Delayed entering aisle, distressed, being nervous (3,2,4)
ILL AT EASE
LATE [delayed] in anagram [distressed] of AISLE – a nice picture of a panicked bride
16 The Irish Bill? (5)
GARDA
Cryptic definition: the GARDA are the Irish Police and The Bill is slang for the police force – but there’s a cryptic reference to the several Irish Home Rule Bills of the late 19th / early 20th centuries
17 Dock, where a sailor may sleep (5)
BERTH
Double definition
19 Describing insects with wings of short span (9)
EPHEMERAL
Doubl[ish] /cryptic definition, describing ephemeroptera, eg mayflies, winged insects, with a short life span; of course, they get their name from the derivation of the word, ‘lasting only a day’, but I think the use of ‘wings of short span’ makes this a good clue
23 The intelligentsia left going over the same thing again? It’s not on (8)
LITERATI
L [left] + ITERATI[on] [going over the same thing again, minus ‘on’]
24 Right sort of stock (6)
EQUITY
Double / cryptic definition
26 Rival to study before exam — an exemplary worker (10)
CONTESTANT
Con [study] + TEST [exam] + ANT [an example of a worker]
27 In a way, it may mean this month (4)
INST
IN ST [a way] – short for INSTant [this month] in formal correspondence
28 Every setback about it is instructive (7)
TEACHES
A ‘lift and separate’ in a Rufus puzzle! – a reversal [back] of SET round EACH [every]
29 Naval jail and potential inmate (7)
BRIGAND
BRIG [naval jail] + AND
Down
2 Important contract gets scornful response (3,4)
BIG DEAL
Double definition
3 House deposit (5)
LODGE
Double definition
4 Glorious rendering of “Under the Linden Tree” (7)
SUBLIME
SUB [under] + LIME [linden tree] – here’s a rendering
6 She can turn out to be an upper-class niece (6)
EUNICE
Anagram [can turn out] of U [upper class] + NIECE
7 Breathe in, when gone to sleep in winter (9)
HIBERNATE
Anagram [gone] of BREATHE IN
8 Wiped the floor with woollen fabric (7)
WORSTED
Double definition
9 Being wise, resigned (13)
PHILOSOPHICAL
Double definition
15 Teach unit members to become trustworthy (9)
AUTHENTIC
Anagram [to become] of TEACH UNIT
18 The embodiment of a mince pie, in my opinion (7)
EPITOME
Anagram [mince] of PIE + TO ME [in my opinion]
20 Sort of seat for a high-flyer (7)
EJECTOR
Cryptic definition
21 Sinatra, swinging expert (7)
ARTISAN
Anagram [swinging] of SINATRA – a nice surface: I had a very well-worn LP of his ‘Songs for swinging lovers’
22 A girl that is under another (6)
LASSIE
IE [that’s] under LASS
25 Availing oneself of an American gin sling (5)
USING
US [American] + anagram [sling] of GIN
Thank you, both. Rufus on decent form here: I liked BRIGAND and ILL AT EASE in particular. Did you really mean 22dn was the one you didn’t like, Eileen? I thought it passed muster, despite its sexual overtones.
Hi K’s D
Yes, I did! LASS and LASSIE mean exactly the same thing, surely? [And I wasn’t looking for any overtones. 😉 ]
Thanks Rufus and Eileen
Several I liked very much – OBELISK, SUBLIME, HIBERNATE and EPITOME in particular. GARDA was my last (after a “check” showed that the dubious “Paddy” was wrong!
EPHEMERAL was better than I thought at first look – Ephemeroptera is, as you say, the order of insects that include the mayflies, but the mayfly Genus is Ephemera.
I agree about LASSIE, and thought that EJECTOR was a bit weak as well.
Though it’s not enough to spoil the clue, I think an ARTISAN is a “skilled” rather than necessarily “expert” worker.
Thanks as always to both.
‘paddy’ was something we also tried for 16a!
I wonder whether ‘Describing’ in the clue for 19a is a strong enough indication of an adjective to rule out ‘ephemerae’ or even ‘ephemeras’ as alternatives for EPHEMERAL.
I found this a bit more meaty than the usual Monday offering (now I’m an old hand), so I enjoyed it more. I had to leave it half done to finish this morning.
Agree with Eileen about 22d. Thought 18d must start with EYE for mince pie at first! I liked 19ac, 23ac and 4d particularly.
Hi ChrisS @4
I think ‘describing’ is exactly the right word. [We used to learn in primary school that adjectives were ‘describing words’.] For me, if ephemerae or ephemeras were the answer, we’d need ‘defining’ [or, rather, nothing at all!].
I enjoyed this as always: thanks to Rufus and Eileen both. I’m convinced I’ve seen the same clue for ‘ephemeral’ elsewhere? Probably in a past Rufus puzzle.
Not a complaint, however! I was couldn’t decide whether to be pleased or disappointed that I had totally forgotten the answer.
I also am can’t type ^^
Another who failed to see ‘Garda’ and hoped that Paddy might somehow serve as a diminutive for William as well as Patrick (though I know really that that would be Liam).
Good to see Rufus on better form after last week, though I agree with Eileen, as usual, about 22d.
I thought this was more enjoyable than some of Rufus’s puzzles. I saw GARDA right away so was never tempted by an alternative. I also agree about the weakness of 22dn, but that’s a minor quibble. TEACHES was my LOI after AUTHENTIC, where I had initially misread the clue and was looking for a synonym of “untrustworthy”. Must get new reading glasses.
Thanks Rufus & Eileen.
Rufus obviously didn’t like ‘Dog that is under a girl’ 😉
SUBLIME was, well, sublime.
Thanks, Robi: I meant to include 4dn in my ‘nice clues’ list – done now!
Me too, I found this quite good for a Rufus. Needed PHILOSOPHICAL to come to me before four or five in the bottom half would “go”, though EPHEMERAL was not one of them; I had written in EPHEMERAE, thinking literally that ‘describing’ meant ‘naming’ – sort of right and sort of wrong, assuming the plural isn’t EPHEMERAS.
Thanks to Eileen for the blog. I had EPHEMERAL from ‘short span’ and the crossing letters but had not known about the insect side of things.
I also felt that expert and ARTISAN are not the same thing.
For 22d I originally had ‘Bessie’ but thought that too weak. I then postulated ‘Lassie’ but remembered that the dog was in fact male, forgetting the Scots term. Not very satisfactory clue.
For some reason I found it harder than usual to get onto Rufus’s wavelength today, but in the end it all dropped out fairly easily. Agree that LASSIE was weak and too ambiguous to fill in without the crossers. Last in was PHILOSOPHICAL.
Thanks to Eileen and Rufus
Thanks to Rufus and Eileen. Also had Bessie at 22d then changed it to Cassie after I solved 23a.
Didn’t verify with check button.
Cheers…
Haha..every week with Rufus seems to throw up the exact same experience! I start solving and almost immediately think “I really must go on fifteensquared and say that actually I think Rufus writes some very effective clues, and doesn’t deserve the criticism he gets“. And then I run into a patch of those trademark “single entendre” Double Definition clues that he seems to have made his own, and am left scratching my head in bewilderment.
The fact that LASSIE is just a diminutive of LASS has been mentioned. But isn’t a BERTH a space for a ship to spend the night, and so used by sailors as where they ‘dock’ themselves for the night? If you’re PHILOSOPHICAL your “resignedness” is just a feature of your “wise” philosophical outlook, so that’s the same too, surely. And presumably a BRIG is called that because of BRIGANDS.
So strange, when there are some lovely clues surrounding them.
Limeni @ 18
I agree with nearly all of what you. I have tried to find out the origin of “brig”. The sources I have found (in dictionaries and online) aren’t confident, but they tentatively suggest that “brigantine” was contracted to give “brig” as a type of ship, and also the detention facility that apparently they often were used for.
Anyone got any firmer idea?
me @19
….”you say”, of course!
btw, according to QI, “Ye” (as in “Ye olde”) is actually just “The”, but using an old character (called “thorn”) for the “Th”.
Still works for “the old” to be “ye”, though.
Hi muffin @21
I wrote “‘the’ old”, not ‘the old’ in the blog. 😉
Thanks Eileen. A mixed bag I thought, but SUBLIME more than made up for any shortcomings elsewhere. As robi @11 says it was just sublime.
Eileen @ 22
Indeed – substandard punctuation (or should I say “punk chew Asian”?) on my part.
Thanks a;;
Just about par for a Monday.
KD don’t ever read five and the magic castle (by EB) it will make you swoon!
Not bad for a Rufus.
Not too many DDs and CDs and a particularly nice clue in 4D.
I personally saw nothing wrong with 20D. The fact that LASS and LASSIE are very closely related is surely indicated by the “another”. It’s not a DD so why shouldn’t the two words be almost synonymous anyway?
Thanks to Eileen and Rufus
muffin @ 19, my sources for “brig” agree with yours. I also learned that “brigantine” comes from the Italian word for pirate ship, which itself came from the Italian word for “brigand,” which latter can be traced back to a Celtic word meaning “strife.”
By the way, all three words saw their peak frequencies of use in English occur between about 1830 and 1901, which makes it quite interesting that we are still discussing them today!
Thanks, dagnabit @ 27
So limeni was correct, then – if you trace it back the word derives from “brigand”.