I found this a difficult Quiptic, and when I’d finished solving and blogging it, I discovered why.
Quiptics with a theme are about as rare as hens’ teeth, but there’s one here. It’s February 29th, so 2016 is a Leap Year. So you’ve got LEAPS AND BOUNDS, A LEAP IN THE DARK, CALENDAR, FOUR YEARS, DAYS, as well as PROPOSALS (women are allowed to propose to men on February 29th, apparently) and UNION, which is what would happen if the PROPOSAL were to be accepted, and WILDLY, which is how love would be made if such a thing happened. I might have made those last bits up.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Student from Arab country in conflict returned Justinian’s code
ROMAN LAW
I always like to get 1ac as my first clue in, but in fact this was my last, because I had no idea who Justinian was. It’s an insertion of OMAN L for ‘student in Arab country’ in WAR reversed.
6 Go silent as one very quietly interrupts, becoming overemotional
DRIPPY
I personally would never use DRIPPY to mean ‘overemotional’, but it’s I and PP for the musical ‘very quiet’ in DRY.
9 Fresh way to add salts?
MODERN
A charade of MODE and RN for Royal Navy or ‘salts’.
10 Starter kits
LAYETTES
A cd. LAYETTES are as far as I know an American invention, where people take round to expectant mums clothing for the soon to be born baby.
11 Suggestions also in confusion among supporters
PROPOSALS
An insertion of (ALSO)* in PROPS
13 Unreliable hearsay a hospital dismissed for ages
YEARS
Beale is asking you to take A and H out of ‘hearsay’ and make an anagram. This Quiptic clue is not helped by being rather devious and having only two crossing letters, both of which are common ones.
15 Army headmaster has diary problem
MYRIAD
M for the first letter or ‘head’ of Master and (DIARY)* You don’t like M for ‘headmaster’? Get over yourself, because setters use it all the time.
17 Bug detected when spies captured scoundrel
CICADA
An insertion of CAD in CIA.
18 Back half of the Bull established as kind of brown
RUSSET
Hmm, are we in Quiptic territory here? ‘The Bull’ is TAURUS, so it’s [TAU]RUS plus SET to give you a word mostly used for autumn colours.
19 Consider repairing knocker missing its front
RECKON
([K]NOCKER)*
21 Having banned uploads incorrectly, point to major increases
LEAPS AND BOUNDS
(BANNED UPLOADS)* plus S for a ‘point’ of the compass
25 Tremendous bottle shown by tedious chap turning up with nothing in tight spot
JEROBOAM
A reversal of BORE plus O in JAM. ‘Turning up’ as a reversal indicator only works in a down clue, I fancy.
26 At the same time as beginner disrupts card game
WHILST
An insertion of L for ‘beginner’ (again) in WHIST.
28 Request a fork’s put out
ASK FOR
(A FORKS)*
29 It helps to plan, when getting vehicle without a loan
CALENDAR
An insertion of A LEND in CAR.
Down
2 Stock in trade
OXO
Well, OXO is a stock cube, but beyond that, I have no idea. Is it just a cd?
3/7 Gamble on having a pint to drink with man before night-time
A LEAP IN THE DARK
I’m not sure about this: it seems to be a charade of ALE, A PINT, HE and DARK, but if some kind soul could parse it properly, I’d be grateful.
4 He may make the earth move
LANDSCAPER
An (extremely whimsical) cd, although it’s a good surface. ‘Did the earth move for you, darling?’
5 Passionately desire to seize day at start of year
WILDLY
An insertion of D for ‘day’ in WILL, followed by Y.
6 Sound of confusion some time in the week
DAYS
A homophone of DAZE.
8 Unhappy acceptance of original order, as decided in advance
PREORDAINED
An insertion of (ORDER)* in PAINED.
12 Hard for engineers to follow code? Not so much
REMORSELESS
A charade of RE for ‘Royal Engineers’, MORSE for the ‘code’ and LESS for ‘not so much’.
14 Draw woman’s dislocated elbow up to me
DISEMBOWEL
A rather unusual definition for ‘draw’. I think that this is DI’S for ‘woman’s’, EM for ‘me’ reversed, and (ELBOW)*, but to be honest, I can’t see how it really parses and I have to go out to work soon.
16 Get Proust for novel free from corruption
RUSTPROOF
(PROUST FOR)*
20 Coming out is difficult to understand
GNOMIC
(COMING)* Think Zurich.
23 Agreement that there’s no alternative to higher education
UNION
I think this is UNI plus a reversal, or even anagram, of NO.
24 Quartet finds nothing in hair
FOUR
An insertion of O in FUR.
27 House above offers glimpse of what’s at Land’s End
SEA
Hidden in houSE Above.
Many thanks to Beale for the Leap Day puzzle.
Sadly wasted on a Quiptic-someone after a first team gig.
Thanks Beale and Pierre
Yes, very tricky. I thought I was going to have to cheat in the NW, (although ROMAN LAW was my FOI!), but MODERN eventually occurred to me, and I guessed OXO.
To be honest, I didn’t enjoy it enough to struggle through some on the more obscure parsings, so I can’t help you on those, Pierre. For example, for 3/7 I saw the ALE, wrote in the complete answer, and thought “the rest is probably there somewhere”.
Not a good example of a Quiptic, I think.
OXO is a brand name, hence ‘stock in trade’. That’s how I took it anyway.
Draw = disembowel in “hang, draw and quarter” -though apparently this is disputed : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered
Thanks both. Tricky, and I agree with copmus@1 about the ambitions of the setter. Shame about 3/7d, unless someone can parse it sensibly (I can’t!)
I read 3/7d as “A PINT” next TO “ALE” (drink), then “HE” and “THE DARK”. You could justify it, but I don’t think it’s a quiptic clue – especially when something like “drink a pint with man before night-time” would work just as well without the convolution.
(oops, ignore the extra “the”)
Thanks Beale and Pierre.
Enjoyable, but not really a Quiptic. I suppose you could say that the LEAP YEAR was introduced as a ROMAN LAW by Julius Caesar and that the LEAP DAY is PREORDAINED.
Thanks for the blog. I mostly agree with all your comments, some rather loose clueing and in spots too hard for the quixotic slot. I think that one “draws” game (pheasants, rabbits, deer etc) to prepare them for cooking. Didn’t get either modern or oxo.
Spell checker inserting quixotic for quiptic….
Glad it wasn’t just me finding this puzzle head-scratchingly un-Quiptic. Calibrated closer to a Cryptic, I’d say.
There’s a “leap year bug” (for example: Mrs J’s phone insists that today is March 1) so the cicada in 7 also fits the theme.
I too found this way too difficult for a Quiptic. RUSSET was the worst example of the difficulty level issue, but there are also some rather strange clues for any cryptic. I missed the theme, as usual.
LAYETTES are not specifically American – the term goes back to at least the 1930s in the UK. Like swatty @3, I took “in trade” as referring to it being ‘commercially available’ stock, and so a cd, but it’s an odd clue. DRIPPY could refer to dripping tears (or noses, I suppose), but it certainly is not a term I’d usually use for “overemotional”. I agree with Schroduck @6 about 3/7d.
Thanks, Beale and Pierre.
Very glad to come here and find it wasn’t just me who struggled here. I cheated on OXO and had to use a wordfinder for LAYETTES. I also didn’t help myself by entering A SHOT IN THE DARK, instead of LEAP.
A question – how does DRY = go quietly?
If an actor “dries”, he forgets his lines, thus “goes silent”.
Thank you for the DRY definition Muffin. Memories of a school play coming back to me now!
I found this quite unfathomable!
So much so that I ended up so befuddled I couldn’t even do the easier ones.
Although, oddly, I got 3/7d with the word play… Eventually!
Drippy for overemotional sounds like one of PG Wodehouse’s females. “she thinks the stars are God’s daisy chains” ?