Although Philistine has been setting in the Guardian since July 2011, I don’t ever seem to have blogged one of his puzzles, at least not for some time. But better late than never, and this was good fun, with some ingenious clues, including one that’s too ingenious for me to explain at 5d.
There’s a mini-theme of German loan-words – see 4,15a – I don’t know if there’s more to it than I’ve noticed. Vielen Dank, Philistine.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | AFLOAT | A kitty making love in an apartment on a waterbed? (6) Two cryptic indications: A FLOAT (kitty), and O in A FLAT |
||||||
| 4,15. | WANDERLUST | Finally, hospital patient was under treatment for itchy feet (10) Anagram of [hospita]L [treatmen]T WAS UNDER – the first of several German loan-words in the puzzle, the others being ERSATZ, KITSCH, SCHADENFREUDE and ZEITGEIST |
||||||
| 9,21. | AULD LANG SYNE | US and England lay in ruins in days of yore (4,4,4) (US ENGLAND LAY)* – the phrase literally means “old long since”, hence “long ago” or “days gone by” |
||||||
| 10. | TICKLE PINK | Second liaison featuring, at last, one cheap thrill (6,4) TICK (second) + [on]E [chea]P in LINK |
||||||
| 11. | AVENUE | A meeting place in the street (6) A + VENUE |
||||||
| 12. | ALTER EGO | One virtually geocryptic (5,3) “Alter ego” is a cryptic indication of “geo” |
||||||
| 13. | FROZE OVER | Fahrenheit zero perhaps completed what the Earth did in the Ice Age (5,4) F + ZERO* |
||||||
| 17. | AFFLUENCE | Wealth is a barrier restricting disease (9) A + FLU in FENCE |
||||||
| 22. | ERSATZ | Substitute ending for the Four Seasons: a last waltz (6) Last letters of thE fouR seasonZ A lasT waltZ |
||||||
| 24,16. | ENTITLED TO BAIL | On debit, a little freedom? (8,2,4) (ON DEBIT A LITTLE)*, &lit |
||||||
| 25. | SWAP | Hands back in exchange (4) Reverse of PAWS |
||||||
| 26. | KITSCH | A bit of slapstick? It’s cheap and vulgar (6) Hidden in slapsticK IT’S Cheap |
||||||
| 27. | INUITS | One night in Paris with skinhead northerners (6) I + NUIT (French for “night”) + S[kin] |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | AQUIVER | Shaking some projectiles (7) A QUIVER would contain arrows, which are projectiles |
||||||
| 2. | LADEN | Charged terrorist after watching bingo (5) [Osama] BIN LADEN with “bin going” |
||||||
| 3. | ART DECO | Design and build trade with firm following (3,4) TRADE* + CO |
||||||
| 5. | ABLATE | Hairlines with centre parting recede and wear away (6) ABLATE (related to “ablative”, familiar to those who studied Latin) means to wear away, but otherwise I can’t parse this. |
||||||
| 6. | DEPARTURE | Going to put reader off (9) (PUT READER)* |
||||||
| 7. | RINGGIT | Phone with bum coin (7) RING + GIT – the Ringgit is the currency of Malaysia, though 1 Ringgit appears to be a note rather than a coin (so the clue could have said “bum note”!) |
||||||
| 8. | SCHADENFREUDE | Reaction to striker’s own goal from such a defender (13) (SUCH A DEFENDER)* |
||||||
| 14. | ZEITGEIST | Perspective relating to age and size? Get it fixed (9) (SIZE GET IT)* |
||||||
| 16. | BEATNIK | Nonconformist defeated Clegg in speech (7) BEAT + “Nick” (Clegg, former LibDem leader and Deputy Prime Minister) |
||||||
| 18. | LIE DOWN | What might Lady Hillingdon do before considering her country‘s one wild shot? (3,4) (ONE WILD)* – Lady H is reputed to be the originator of the phrase “lie down [or lie back, or close your eyes] and think of England” – see here |
||||||
| 19. | CUTLASS | Injured girl’s arm (7) CUT + LASS |
||||||
| 20. | CYCLIC | Democracy cliches keep coming round (6) Hidden in democraCY CLIChes |
||||||
| 23. | SUSHI | 50% off suit and shirts, of course (5) SU[it] + SHI[rts] |
||||||
Many thanks for the blog. An enjoyable puzzle. I think 5d is L (centre of hairlines) inserted in ABATE (recede). The “with” in the wordplay is a bit misleading!
…and breathe. After a tough week (even Rufus was more challenging than usual), Philistine has come to the rescue. All gettable with a modicum of brain-work, and some smile-inducing elements (ALTER EGO, INUITS, LADEN). I think RINGGIT may originally have referred to a coin – indeed, Wiki informs that it is the Malay word for ‘jagged’, and was used to refer to the serrated edges of silver Spanish dollars. I was certain that the German loan-word mini-theme was a cunning vehicle for a pangram, but alas the J, M and X appear to be missing. Thank you Andrew for the helpful blog, and Philistine for cheering me up 🙂
I may well do this later; sorry to intrude. Meanwhile,
[Sil – many thanks for pointing to the Rosa Klebb/Arachne in FT last week. Good fun.
muffin – ditto re Pan Quiptic (beautifully constructed à la Dac) but first and last for me I’m afraid. Perfect for those new to the habit but devoid of satisfaction for me I’m afraid; two or, at most, three minutes wasted!]
Thank you Andrew, loved this elegant crossword.
Thought SCHADENFREUDE was among my all-time belters, and TICKLE PINK, LADEN & ALTER EGO were up there too.
Failed to parse ABLATE.
Never really understood the words of Auld Lang Syne but rather like the sentiment.
5d, L (centre of hairlines) ABATE (recede), ABLATE ? Still struggling…
Giudice @1, sorry, do not know what happened there, no comments were shown when I brought the blog up a few minutes ago!
Thanks Andrew – and Philistine for a cracking crossword; so many great clues. Loved the ‘A’ clues – A float, A quiver, A venue. Favourite probably 9,21.
Couple of minor points re parsing:
In 4,15 I thought the ‘T’ came from patient & ‘treatment’ was the anagram indicator.
and in 13ac – ‘Completed’ denoted over and was not part of definition.
Cookie @6 Me too – just spent the last 30 minutes researching medical terminology for hairline, etc… But every day is an education 🙂
This was fun! Thanks Philistine and thanks Andrew for the blog, which I sorely needed, having failed to solve 8d. I realised it had to be an anagram of “such a defender” but didn’t find one. Clutched my head in embarrassment when I saw the solution. I’m German, and when I try to think in English my mother tongue simply disappears. I hadn’t even noticed that Zeitgeist, Ersatz and Kitsch are German words. Own goals indeed…
Peter Green – you’re right in both your corrections: thanks.
Thanks to Giudice et al for the explanation of 5d: the “with” is more than “a bit misleading” I think, but otherwise much simpler than the parsings I was trying to find..
We were tickled pink by bingo. An exemplary crossword in my book. It made one think and laugh, and was completely straight.
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
Great fun, though I too failed to parse ABLATE. I thought the expression was “lie back and………….” but the evidence seems to support Philistine.
SCHADENFREUDE was brilliant.
Yes, this was great fun, even though I failed on RINGGIT!
SCHADENFREUDE, TICKLE PINK, ALTER EGO, AQUIVER, LADEN and BEATNIK were super.
Thank you Philistine, and thank you Andrew for a very helpful blog.
FROZE OVER was first in, and with a helpful Z thought it might be a pangram day. Well maybe not that, but ample compensation in the German borrowings theme: it certainly helped when SCHADENFREUDE came along.
Strange then that it was an English word that gave all the trouble, ABLATE. Even with all the crossers, no word that I knew made any sense, and with the cryptic part making no sense (good to see I’m not alone), it was a case of checking combinations until the lock unclicked.
Thanks for blog-great puzzle- thanks Giudice for parsing of ablate- seems s obvious now!
A mixed bag for me. It went smoothly except for the NE corner, which took forever and felt a bit unsatisfactory. Besides ABLATE and the obsolete coin, I thought 8d was a rather unfair definition by example. I really liked 10a though. Thanks, Philistine and Andrew.
I loved this. I suppose the number of A’s might annoy some but I wasn’t bothered. Too many favourites to list but LADEN and BEATNIK were among them.
Thanks Philistine
Did half the comments just disappear? I thought there were way more than 16. Can see my post, anyway I’ll try again.
Very enjoyable, thanks Andrew for pinpointing the definition for me in 1a, and thanks to Giudice@1 for parsing 5d which had eluded me completely though the answer was clear. Nice not to have to pull out the dictionary all the time (except for RINGGIT)
I liked the German loan word theme, and thought the semi&lit 8d (SCHADENFREUDE) was brilliant (I can forgive the element of definition by example @16), great &lit for ENTITLED TO BAIL, and ZEITGEIST was a lovely disguised anagram. I also liked ALTER EGO and LADEN.
INUITS I don’t think is a word; INUIT is already plural as I’m told by Canadian pedants who get repeatedly annoyed at this.
many thanks Andrew and Philistine
Dutch @18.
I looked in here about an hour ago and Post #17 was by hedgehoggy (I think that’s how he spells it) and he absolutely slated the crossword – criticized just about every clue. His post has disappeared; it’s the only one as far as I can tell.
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew. Like others I could not parse ABLATE and had to look up RINGGIT (my last in) but I much enjoyed this puzzle, especially learning about the variations on the Lady Hillingdon story.
Peter Green @19 There is a God!
I see mine has disappeared too, and that one was surely harmless. There is a suspiciously long gap between 11:15 and 14:34.
So, to repeat roughly what I said earlier – I enjoyed it, failed on 5d, liked AULD LANG SYNE, DEPARTURE and LADEN, liked the mini German words theme.
Thanks to Andrew and Philistine
Enjoyed this one, especially the German references.
Thanks to S&B.
Mine is gone.
I don’t see why it was removed, if that’s what has happened to it, this is a poor crossword IN MY OPINION.
And I said WHY I don’t like it. That’s fair I think.
HH@27 Personally, I think it fair and reasonable to have a critical voice from time to time, and I (perhaps in a minority) actually find your input quite entertaining. Surely, people who read the Guardian are champions of diversity, tolerance and inclusiveness? Gremlins, on the other hand, clearly read other titles…
Yes – another terrific crossword from our great Guardian stable. Are we not lucky chaps and chappesses?! The sublime Screw, and this, so far this week – and the consecutive treats of Imogen, Tramp and Arachn last. Almost too good to be true…..can it last I wonder?
(Mike P @ 20 – Indeed! It gets better and better…… And not one mention of that ugly acronym from TftT; I pray it’s crawled back for good – though, sadly, doubt it. I wouldn’t mind giving it a sturdy biff….!)
I ticked five, with two ticks for SCHADENFREUDE though it could have been more – a truly magnificent clue.
Thanks Philistine. Great blog, Andrew, as ever.
Please see my latest announcement for the reason why some comments have been lost.
Gaufrid @30: that explains my disappearing comment on another blog here – I thought I must have forgotten to hit Submit.
I really enjoyed this one. I couldn’t parse ABLATE and, having seen the suggested parsing here, I don’t like it much. I spent a long time looking at T (centre parTing), but couldn’t do anything with the remaining letters. I think the inclusion of “with” in that position is misleading, but not in a good cryptic way. However, that’s just one small quibble, and there are too many good clues to list.
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
Everybody, that explains my posts @5 & 6, 9.18 am! I brought up the blog to check if I was correct in entering ABLATE, and there were no comments at all, that is why I posted.
Like most others I couldn’t parse ABLATE, but this was a great puzzle. LADEN was brilliant, and SCHADENFREUDE, WANDERLUST and AULD LANG SYNE were also very good. Many thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
Witty and elegant (though I share the reservations about 5 dn, which defeated me). Loved 8 dn, which is up with the best of them. Thanks, both.
Hoping to put people out of misery, I suspect that Jessica ALBAs centre parted hairstyle with ET returning may help 😉
Along with most (but not quite all) contributors to this blog, I just wanted to praise an excellent crossword. I found it to be so well crafted and enjoyable, and some humour has returned after a day’s absence. The German words (all of them in use in English) added a bit of spice and were among my first in, whereas the Scottish and Latin entries took a bit more thinking.
Thanks Andrew for the blog, Philistine for a gentlish (by your standards) and to Giudice for rescuing us all on the parsing of 5dn.
I had always thought the expression was ‘lay back and think of England but a quick Google confirmed the right quote – so all’s fair in love and war!
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
Finally got to this one today and did it over a light lunch and coffee. Actually didn’t find it too bad in terms of difficulty although I did have to look up a couple of the German-based words – SCHADENFREUDE and ZEITGEIST which I hadn’t seen before. Still did not twig to the fact that there was enough of these words to form the theme that they did.
Having been married to a Malaysian lady, the RINGGIT clue was a write-in – had the same query about it being a coin (I guess that it might have been at one stage) and had to look up the GIT part to confirm that it was synonymous with ‘bum’.
Thought that LADEN was quite brilliant and the LIE DOWN quote brought a wry smile.
Finished in the NE corner with WANDERLUST, TINKLE PINK and the tricky ABLATE (which I eventually was able to parse after looking at an ABLA hairline for a little while).