Well. That was exciting! There are some Mephisto-ish words around, mostly workoutable from the wordplay, and quite a few places where the setter tries to bamboozle you into thinking you need some specialist knowledge to understand the clues or produce the building blocks of the answers. I’ve done the research on at least some of those so you don’t have to, but it helps to try not to panic because you have no idea who Zamenhof is or what happens is the second book of Kings (the hapless king Ahaziah dies, along with quite a few of his soldiers, on the word of Elijah). I spent 41 minutes plus (only just over 3 Verlaines, so not too bad) doing the solving, and a lot more digging out the mostly unnecessary detail.
I take this to be a proper, if rather bruising contest, and I expect to see it registering on the hard side. Lots of clues that would be CoD in lesser grids. Does it help that it’s a pangram? I saw the likelihood early on, but don’t think it helped me to any of the answers.
Here’s my stuff. Clues are in italics, definitions therein also underlined, and solutions look nice in bold capitals
Across
1 One not thinking to take from Scripture (5)
ROBOT The definition works at least until AI develops still further. The wordplay? Take from: ROB, Scripture O(ld) T(estament)
4 Hill walker in fog could, say, wrongly (8)
MISSPEAK After trying for way too long to find a hill walker to fit into MIST, you realise it’s a pun: in fog, a hill walker might miss peak. Well, he might. I’ll stick with the definition being say, wrongly
8 Most unheard of! (6,8)
SILENT MAJORITY A cute cryptic definition
10 Bad weather expected to occur mostly in spring month, returning (9)
RAINSTORM Somewhat topical in the UK. Expected to occur (mostly) is IN STOR(e), thrown into a backward version of MAR standing in as a spring month
11 American’s game and, without question, profligate (5)
ROQUE …“is an American variant of croquet played on a hard, smooth surface. Popular in the first quarter of the 20th century and billed ‘the Game of the Century’ by its enthusiasts, it was an Olympic sport in the 1904 Summer Games, replacing croquet from the previous games.” Cheers Wiki. If you take the Q(uestion) out of the sport you get ROUÉ, “a profligate, rake, debauched man, esp an old man.” Cheers Chambers
12 Slowing down after abnormal power and vigour (6)
ESPRIT Slowing down, known to musicians as ritardando, is conventionally abbreviated to RIT. Your abnormal power is ESP. Combine.
14 You texted and tweeted about indication of inflation taking over (8)
USURPING You, texted, is U, though in these days of autocorrect it seems unnecessary. Tweeted is SUNG. The indication of inflation (one of them) is the Retail Price Index, or RPI. Assemble.
17 Bear with immature, backward and belligerent cry (3,5)
WAR WHOOP which Chambers assures me is a thing. The bear (of little brain) is POOH, with provides the W, and immature is RAW. Put them together and reverse the lot
18 Dope runs across grass becoming increasingly active (6)
SPRYER Right. SP is dope, from racing jargon (it’s short for Starting Price, the odds on a horse when the race begins, and by extension information about its capabilities). Runs gives you the (second) R, and grass the RYE. Assemble
20 Scandinavian drunk as a lord? (5)
ROALD The best known two being Amundsen and Dahl, though the latter was born in Wales. “Drunk as” is your anagram indicator, and the fodder is A LORD.
22 Something quotable from champ appearing on channel (5,4)
SOUND BITE Champ is BITE (one of its other meanings) and channel is SOUND, the seagoing version
24 Which story unfolds in 2 Kings I, 2 Kings II? Trivia time! (5-5-4)
RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI Kipling’s tale of a belligerent and feisty mongoose. You don’t need to know your Old Testament, you just need to read the code and sort out the anagram (unfolds) fodder. So you have two Kings: KK. I: I. Two Kings: KK. II: II, TRIVIA and T(ime). I’m willing to bet you biffed this and only worked out the wordplay to see how clever it was.
25 Attack article penned by surrogate NCO (8)
PAROXYSM That sort of attack. The article is A, “penned” or enclosed by PROXY, standing in for surrogate. The NCO is a S(ergeant) M(ajor)
26 What Mayerhof and Zamenhof do that’s final (3,2)
END OF I believe this to be a vulgar expression use by the lower classes. Again you don’t need to know who Mayerhof (Otto Fritz, German physician and biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1922) or Zamenhof (Ludwik Lejzer, Polish ophthalmologist, linguist and the inventor of the international language Esperanto) are, just that what they do is end (in) OF
Down
1 Kept promise, while being an example in Java, say (8,4)
RESERVED WORD The wordplay is just kept: RESERVED, promise: WORD. The definition is “a word in a programming language which has a fixed meaning and cannot be redefined by the programmer” (cheers Wiki) and might just as well be in Java. The programming language, not the place Krakatoa is east of
2 Italian left party after serving up hot food (5)
BALTI This really got to me. It had to be, but that “left” was one L too many. Except LAB is (in the UK) a party of the left, until it re-forms itself to become electable, as under Tony Blair. So IT(alian) plus left party LAB for the Brummie take on Indian cuisine (probably)
3 Composer minus the lyricist ultimately useless (9)
TUNESMITH So again, no obscure composer needed, though I lost time trying to think of one. The thing is an anagram (“useless”) of MINUS THE plus the last letter (ultimately) of lyricist. Which is a T
4 Staff acquiring millions: instant wealth (6)
MAMMON We have staff, the verb, for MAN, bringing in M(illions) and MO for (an) instant. It’s what you can’t serve as well as the Deity (Matthew 6:24, KJV)
5 Judge getting in way disarranged royal court (2,6)
ST JAMES’S Where monarchs meet Their Excellencies. J for Judge finding its way into way: ST(reet) and disarranged: A MESS. It looks odd without the apostrophe.
6 Sound of matchmaker’s cutting tool? (5)
PARER Oh, gosh, an easy one! Except I didn’t see it for thinking of what the Yiddish word for matchmaker was. It’s not actually Yenta or Yente, but she’s the matchmaker if Fiddler. It’s actually Shadchan. Squeeze that into five squares! Anyway, the easy version is that a matchmaker is a PAIRER, of which the sound is our answer
7 Times long ago opposing Leave? Yes, at first (9)
ANTIQUITY Maybe it just seems long ago that one could oppose Leave (the setter’s capital) without being trashed, but hey, we’ve Left! Whoop di do! Enough politics: here it’s ANTI QUIT for opposing leave, plus “at first” Y(es)
9 Pulling leg, eg a fibber cannot be credible (6,6)
BEGGAR BELIEF Looking a bit awkward without the S, I think. It’s an anagram (pulling) of LEG EG A FIBBER
13 A head start for police with, in time, better IT (3,6)
PER CAPITA Head of Police P, then in time: ERA, both better: CAP, and IT in plain sight
15 Tick off papers put out and delivered fast (5-4)
RAPID FIRE I think it’s tick off: RAP (as in reprove, censure) plus ID paper, plus put out for FIRE, which seems a bit soft.
16 Stays on track, gracious and firm (8)
CORSETRY Clever misdirection. The track, separated from the stays, is RY (railway), the gracious is the similar exclamation COR! And the firm bit is SET
19 Rubbish I must think should be placed under bed (6)
BUNKUM UM is the noise we make while pretending to think, the bed’s a BUNK. That’s history.
21 Butcher’s cleared up, packing last of pork (5)
DEKKO (can be DECKO, but not here) Butchers is CRS for look (-hook). Cleared is OKED, a variant spelling of okayed, and in this down clue it’s reversed “up”. Throw in the last letter of porK. The word is of Hindi origin.
23 Monitor possibly not needing large chamois (5)
IZARD Monitor is LIZARD. It doesn’t need L(arge). A Pyrenean chamois (cheers Chambers)
“while” being an example in Java. So you can say ‘int x = 0; while (x < 100) {System.out.println(“The setter is a nerd!!”);x++’}, and Java will kindly print out “The setter is a nerd!!” 100 times to the output device. I have to admit, I was a bit startled to see such specialized knowledge appearing in a puzzle; although many solvers are indeed programmers, not all of them are.
The rest of the puzzle was more of the same, although not as specialized. I did completely misunderstand ‘spryer’, believing a grass was a spy, and you put an R in it, and dope must be E, and then you need another R. Well, in golf there are no pictures on scorecards, and in solving there is no parsing in the completed grid.
I wisely biffed Rikki Tikki Tavi, but I still struggled with esprit, per capital, and paroxysm. Fortunately, I suspected all along that stays must be 19th-century ladies undergarments. On the other hand, I never heard of izard or roque, but the crytpics are very explicit. Time: 53 minutes.
Edited at 2020-02-27 03:59 am (UTC)
Otherwise this was most enjoyable. My thanks to the setter, who sadly has to remain nameless.
FOI 26ac END OF
(LOI) 25ac PAROXYSM
COD 24ac RIKKI TIKKI TAVI but fairly straightforward.
WOD 20ac ROALD Dahl and his impeachment (Colbert)
An excellent puzzle. Liked dekko, bunkum and corsetry, spryer, paroxysm lots of others.
Thanks, Z, for the usual illuminating commentary.
Will try to make the update this weekend.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the SNITCH and for all your blogs.
It might well be, but as the 1969 movie makes clear, west of Java doesn’t sound exotic enough.
Edited at 2020-02-27 07:41 am (UTC)
What an excellent puzzle!
In school in about 1975 my English teacher gave me the best advice ever: for a possessive, write the word, add an apostrophe, and if you would pronounce it with another s, add another s. That covers simple things like (plural) sheep’s, and also more nuanced things like St James. I pronounce it St James Court, so I’d spell it St James’ court. But counter-intuitively I’d say Jesuses 12 disciples, so I’d spell it Jesus’s disciples.
For ‘s I’d say there’s no right or wrong; but if you, say, work for a newpaper there might be rigid style guides.
So thanks very much setter and well done z8 for unravelling it all.
Tough but fair, with some great clues and obscure words (war whoop??). Not sure if ‘useless’ is a great anagrind in 3d, though.
8a is a rare example of a very good cryptic definition. Lovely work.
I knew it would be tough when I didn’t put pen to paper until 22A. Overshot my 20 minute target, but plugged on. A rewarding solve.
FOI SOUND BITE
LOI PAROXYSM
COD CORSETRY
TIME 24:02
Took me 45 brain taxing minutes but very satisfying to get there in the end. No idea why Java was reserved or how USURPING worked. The rest I think I understood. Thanks Z for the explications. If Friday is tougher, we’re in for a half day job.
I’ve never programmed in Java, but knew WHILE as a 1d from other languages, and ROQUE had coincidentally occurred in a recent game of Scrabble.
Google translate, when asked, said my heading was Esperanto for “don’t we have fun”, in honour of the otherwise irrelevant Ludwik Zamenhof in 26 across. Didn’t we, though!
Edited at 2020-02-27 09:40 pm (UTC)
The chance of my knowing that “while” is a reserved word in Java is therefore vanishingly small. For all I know, putting inverted commas around while in this post will induce a redo from start error.
10 PRINT “what do I know?”
20 GOTO 10
For an altogether, IMHO, fairer challenge, albeit of the Guardianesque variety, Paul’s offering today is great fun.
[Just realised that may all be nonsense if you don’t have the experience or specialist knowledge].
I thought this was a brilliant puzzle, but then I did manage to finish it, in 37’05”.
Many thanks z and setter.
It does look as if that inclusion might be intentional, in which case, my admiration for the setter and the erudite bunch who inhabit this space has gone up another notch.
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/j/java_reserved_words.htm
No problem with Rikki Tikki Tavi – I didn’t biff it but could actually see (more or less) what was going on. I remember having it read to us in junior school way back when.
Anyway, I am more than grateful, Z8, for sorting this all out with your usual clarity and good humour, but am now going to have a lie-down in a darkened room 😄 Or maybe just a cup of tea and some shortbread while watching Father Brown.
The SNITCH says this one was the hardest for more than a year, so nil illegitimos and all that. I’d opt for Father Brown.
COD SILENT MAJORITY
Oh well tomorrow is another day.
NOUN
3. British slang
latest information
Delighted to see a reference to a concept in programming making its way in at 1d (now you know how I feel when some obscure biblical thing comes up…) Sadly I wasn’t expecting it so it took a while to see. It was one of my last in, not long before LOI 12 ESPRIT, where I never quite figured out the parsing.
I might not’ve finished but for us analysing RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI in an English lesson at some point in the 1980s (thank you, Mr. Vine!) Not sure I’ve come across it since.
Great puzzle, I thought, though I despaired of finishing several times during the battle.
I went to bed here in NZ with something of a headache after finishing this!
“END OF I believe this to be a vulgar expression use by the lower classes”
I was thinking more in terms of the more genteel meaning as lacking sophistication or good taste, rather than @*#*!!! And I’m delighted to see I have managed to conceal my frightfully Plebeian status. As far as further discussion might be required, leave i’ aht Tracy, it’s no’ werff i’!