ParkSolve time = 34:17
Today’s Quickie is brought to you by Jalna and as far as I can see is free of controversy. Not overly easy, not overly hard, no obscurities* to speak of. And many of yesterday’s commenters will be pleased that there’s not a living soul to be seen. (On edit: Well not in the answers at least, but there is one in the clue at 12ac. At the time of solving I didn’t even realise it was a name).
(*I’m assuming that the military significance of the Japanese prefecture at 5dn lifts it out of the obscurity zone, but as always your mileage may vary).
Let us know how you found it, particularly if you’ve noticed a theme or a Nina that I might have overlooked.
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics.
In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
| Across | |
| 1 | Heads of diversity and equity helping to secure company award (10) |
| DECORATION – D+E (heads of Diversity and Equity) + RATION (helping) includes (to secure) CO (company) | |
| 7 | Constant critic needing a change of heart (5) |
| HATER – (HEART)* | |
| 8 | Final parts of school semester in India (7) |
| TERMINI – TERM (school semester) + IN + I (India) | |
| 10 | Group of stars with a day held back going round Italy’s capital (9) |
| ANDROMEDA – AND (with) + DA {[A + D (day)] reversed (held back)} going round ROME (Italy’s capital)
With = and still gets me every time. |
|
| 12 | SZA’s last album — one peaking in Europe? (3) |
| ALP – A (last letter of szA) + LP (album)
Solana Imani Rowe is an American singer-songwriter known professionally as SZA. Bet you didn’t know that. Fortunately we didn’t need to. |
|
| 13 | Notable delay is about to restrict end of procession (6) |
| SIGNAL – SIGAL [LAG (delay) + IS] reversed (about) “to restrict” N (end of processioN) | |
| 15 | Attempted putting publicity material in hotel previously (3,1,2) |
| HAD A GO – AD (publicity material) in H (hotel) + AGO (previously) | |
| 16 | Chairwoman displays something inspired! (3) |
| AIR – Hidden in chAIRwoman | |
| 17 | Sudden influx coming from each naval complex (9) |
| AVALANCHE – (EACH NAVAL)* | |
| 20 | Carries out personal belongings (7) |
| EFFECTS – Double definition
First def as in “effects change”, second one as in “personal effects”. |
|
| 22 | Take steps to eliminate lead troublemaker online (5) |
| TROLL – |
|
| 23 | Came back and collected crops, including fruit (10) |
| REAPPEARED – REAPED (collected crops) including PEAR (fruit) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Took out diamonds, then put away diamonds (5) |
| DATED – D (diamonds) + ATE (put away) + D (diamonds) | |
| 2 | Element initially adding rich aroma for pasta sauce (9) |
| CARBONARA – CARBON (element) + ARA (initials of Adding Rich Aroma) | |
| 3 | Tighten, maybe, using every other bit of green twine (5) |
| RETIE – Alternate letters (every other bit) of gReEn TwInE | |
| 4 | Deteriorate when going up this rocky peak (3) |
| TOR – ROT (deteriorate) reversed (going up) | |
| 5 | Old family on holiday, mostly somewhere in Japan (7) |
| OKINAWA – O (old) + KIN (family) + AWA |
|
| 6 | Mean person’s answer wrapped up in ridiculous techspeak (10) |
| CHEAPSKATE – A (answer) in (TECHSPEAK)* | |
| 9 | Wrongly make suggestions about performer wielding a lasso? (10) |
| IMPROPERLY – IMPLY (make suggestions) about ROPER (performer wielding a lasso?) | |
| 11 | Soft rock in blast area getting destroyed (9) |
| ALABASTER – (BLAST AREA)* | |
| 14 | It’s a mistake trapping one river animal (7) |
| GIRAFFE – GAFFE (mistake) “trapping” I (one) + R (river) | |
| 18 | Section of supermarket is cutting booze (5) |
| AISLE – IS “cutting” ALE (booze) | |
| 19 | Obscure type of modern computing? (5) |
| CLOUD – Double definition | |
| 21 | Some enthusiastic applause is better (3) |
| CAP – Hidden in enthusiastiC APplause | |
Omg I saw the SZA reference and braced myself 😂😂😂😂😂 I do think SZA would be many steps too far as an answer! For those who care to know, it is pronounced ‘sizzah’ so you might find that you have indeed heard of her. She headlined Glasto this year.
I did know her real name incidentally, as she came up as a Who Am I at a work trivia event.
I completed this in under 12 minutes but I still don’t understand how SIGNAL means notable.
SIGNAL as an adjective, as in a signal failure of leadership (quoting ODE)
Thanks Kevin, I’ve never heard signal used as an adjective like that. I will take note!
Thanks Tina. This is why it’s so refreshing to have some non-Boomers on board!
I have noticed there have been an influx of young newbies on the blog – much much younger than myself!
SZA was pretty damn obscure to me, but as you say, no problem. 7:41.
10:19 I thought maybe SZA was part of the Wu-Tang clan, but I realize I must have been thinking of RZA and GZA.
Nice puzzle!
Quite slow for me at 31:65 but not a shocker.
Could not parse 10a or 9d (LOI) which added about 10min to solve. Like you, @galspray, I can never see with = AND.
Like others I also had to check Chambers for signal as an adjective.
Thank you Jaina!
After 8 consecutive sub-10 solves my bubble burst yesterday with a DNF so I needed a confidence restorer today, but alas this wasn’t it as I took 18 minutes to get through this one. The maddening thing is that this morning I am unable to account for my slowness as it contains no unknown words or dodgy clues. Baffling!
My experience exactly Jack. Relatively slow solve, but when preparing the blog I couldn’t really explain why.
My search online for SIGNAL as an adjective found, ‘their signal failure to achieve a satisfactory solution to the problem’, which I thought was appropriate given that I failed to see it.
Pretty tricky for a QC but nothing else was too hard except 20a where I thought I was looking for an anagram of ‘carries’ before GIRAFFE came along .
Thanks G and setter.
A very enjoyable technical DNF. No true time as woke up two broody bantams and fed the cat and then got breakfast for me during the solve. Whole lot was 60 mins.
Needed lots of checks with this. That is not unusual for me.
Was watching out for pop groups – never heard of SZA but that made no difference (wondered if it abbreviation for a South African airport or something similar). That was my second clue solved.
COD: okinawa. Guessed the answer first but then the delight of the word play hit me.
FOI andromeda
LOI giraffe. At the start wanted to put erratum and after that rat stayed in my mind.
Is there a word for when the wrong (part) answer refuses to go from your mind?
Thanks to Jaina and galspray.
Soyo airport Angola is SZA.
I’m not sure what the crosswording equivalent to an earworm is, but if anyone has any ideas about how to get rid of one I’d be delighted to hear it.
I felt as though I made hard work of this one and found myself repeatedly misinterpreting what the particular meaning the setter was looking for was i.e. 1d took out = killed and diamonds can be ice and to ice someone is to kill them so how does ‘diced’ mean took out 🤦♂️.
My other main hold ups were the two long down clues.
Started with TERMINI and finished with IMPROPERLY in 10.59.
Thanks to galspray and well played Jalna
A lot of hopping around the grid picking up low hanging fruit to give a slightly longer than average 25 min finish. After popping in TERM had to wait till near the end (literally) before being sure of INI.
No real challenges, thanks Galspray for the decryption of SZA and to Tina for pronunciation. It reminds me of some roadside hoardings seen in US. EZOFF EZON. No real holdups and fortunately no signal failure on my return train journey last night.
(Another almost ‘paste as a reply’ rather than a new comment. Infuriating. I agree with Invariant.)
Thanks Jaina.
I found parts of this very tricky but, noting Mr Random’s comment yesterday about those that give in to a DNF after only a short while (I for my part am in awe of people who have the patience, perseverance and time to batter away at a crossword for 40, 50, 60 minutes) I stuck at this one and eventually solved it all in 21 minutes, nearly double my par time.
The appearance of SZA left me bemused and wondering what/who was being referred to. Or even if it was a three letter acronym that I ought to know. Fortunately it didn’t matter that I hadn’t heard of her (not a surprise but equally not necessary to have done so to solve the clue), but “SZA’s last” does seem a slightly complicated way to clue the innocent little letter A.
I was rather more held up by HATER (simple enough anagram but does it really mean “constant critic”?), AIR (ditto a simple enough hidden but the link to “something inspired” took some mental gymnastics) and my LOI IMPROPERLY, which I biffed and then groaned inwardly at “performer wielding a lasso” for Roper.
So some chewy clues to go with some really good ones – CODs to ANDROMEDA and SIGNAL, both nice PDMs when I finally worked them out – for a fine Saturday workout.
Many thanks Galspray for the blog and a good weekend to all.
Cedric
As it hasn’t been mentioned yet, I parsed “inspired” to mean something breathed in.
Well done for persevering, Mr S. Your patience and tenacity was rewarded.
My comment yesterday was because I noticed there were a number of ‘gave-up’ DNFs among our faster solvers, some of whom seem to have thrown in the towel when I had only 4-5 solutions written in and only just after I’d started reading the Down clues.
And to think that Gen Z get criticised for having have such short attention spans …..
I think “constant critic” for HATER works in the Tay-Tay sense Cedric, if that helps.
Que?
“Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”.
I ran it past my progeny and they thought that in this context “constant critic” was a perfect synonym.
Tay-Tay is a gap in my GeeKay.
Tay-Tay is how we cool kids refer to Taylor Swift (apparently).
And if you haven’t heard of Taylor Swift, I’d love to be living on your island!
Naturally I have heard of her. Sorry my, I thought, witty response fell flat. Oh well.
Yes, Galspray,
I know Tay-Tay.
Today.
Oh no, my bad! On a day when I couldn’t even get the setter’s name right, your wit was always going to be wasted on me.
Thanks Galspray, and while without doubt someone who is a hater of X can use that hatred to also be a constant critic of X, I still think the linkage is not the strongest the QC has ever seen. But goodness, I may have to resign from the “disgusted old buffers” club, because even I recognise who Tay-Tay is!
Ditch the topper, Cedric, get yer bucket hat on.
Top one!
Alas my other hat is a pith helmet which is probably even more last century …
Just as the typeface makes ‘modern’ look like ‘modem’ in the clue for 21dn CLOUD, so the setter’s name looks like both Jaina and Jalna and opinion about that seems divided on this site. I suspect Galspray probably knows so I will congratulate Jaina on an enjoyable puzzle that took me 9.24, an OK time but I’m not sure why it wasn’t a bit quicker. I too am not in the SZA cohort but Okinawa went straight in from a Ry Cooder song: Well I’m going’ back to Okinawa, sorry baby but I can’t take ya, better stay at home in California (and so on). Tell me Tina, who are these (very welcome) newbie whippersnappers of whom you speak?
Definitely JALNA. He has posted comments here and signed as such. He also signs as Ali, and sets as Gila at The Guardian
Galspray, I have taken the liberty of editing the title and metadata to avoid confusion in the archive search.
Thank you 😃
Thanks Jack. Sorry Jalna!
Regards, Gaispray.
😂
Ah, the good old days of 28.8k modems! I also spent a long time trying to remember the name of an obscure modem! We should petition to have the kerning increased at the Times, or changed to a serif typeface.
In the 70s the major banks all had GPO modems that ran at 1200baud with a 600baud back up circuit to connect their branch terminals to the head office mainframes. Getting GPO/ Post Office Telecommunications to accept they ever developed a fault was another ball game!
I spotted what was happening with ALP, and thanks to Tina I now know that SZA is a lady, rather than another of those interminably boring Korean boy bands. A straightforward puzzle otherwise
FOI DECORATION
LOI HATER
COD TROLL
TIME 4:34
Ahaha BUSMAN every day I learn you and I are very different and every day it’s awesome that we have this same hobby (albeit at different ability levels)
Boy bands are my number one forever love and for the past ten years the best ones have all been Korean 😂
It’s a fascinating community of like unalike minds 😊
It’s an age thing Tina – I might possibly be old enough to be your grandad 🤣
8:52, knew “that” meaning of signal, nho sza
Thanks for the blog
17:36
A lot of time wasted on 20a, where E—-C-S confirmed my belief that I was looking for an anagram of CARRIES. Eventually saw GIRAFFE, which provided the F needed to effect the necessary change of track.
Thanks Jalna and Galspray
Ditto!
A slow and steady 15:21. LOI CARBONARA despite it being in the news in a tin
7.58
Breezeblocked on IMPROPERLY at the end. Just couldn’t see it. CHEAPSKATE needed some checkers first as well. But otherwise no problems
Thanks Galspray and Jaina
A long but enjoyable slog to 34.35 finish. Cedric, not sure if it’s patience or perseverance or just bloody mindedness to keep going 😀
Lots of PDMs and plenty of biff then parse, but I think we got them all in the end.
Thanks Tina for Sizza, that rings a bell from our kids talking about Glastonbury
L2I were hater and cheapskate where we failed miserably to spot the anagrind. Was convinced there would be some word ending age with miser in the middle for some kind of jargon
Thanks Jalna and Galspray
Finished and enjoyed. FOI DECORATION. Quick hopping about, then slower on SIGNAL (PDM), CLOUD and TROLL. Slower still on DATED and HATER.
Needless to say, Amelia Bufton-Tufton has not heard of SZA.
PDMs with CHEAPSKATE (COD) and IMPROPERLY.
After all these years I am beginning to remember to think of KIN when I see family, for example. So improving slowly. Hope not too much of yer modern stuff will be introduced just when I am at last beginning to get the hang of things.
Thanks vm, Galspray.
I had to google Bufton-Tufton yesterday, I love the sound of it, so thank you for that!
😀
Whizzed through that on a train to Lord’s. Maybe my anticipation of the day has sharpened my solving!
CARBONARA isn’t really a “pasta sauce”; it’s a way of preparing pasta. Yes these days you can buy a jar of ultra processed gloop labelled carbonara. It still isn’t a sauce, and anyone wanting to argue the toss can do so with Signora Alboni, who taught me Italian cooking in my gap year in Florence a billion years ago when SZA was just a homophone for a sneeze. She has fierce views about such matters and will beat you about the head with a wooden spoon until you agree with them.
05:54, Red Letter Day. Many thanks Jalna and Gallers.
You can now buy it in a tin.
I like the sound of Signora Alboni, and I bet she would be thoroughly unimpressed by this development.
Probably being dense here, but how does “cap” mean “better” in 21d ?
As in, “that caps my previous achievement”
Wasn’t yesterday’s discussion interesting! So many and varied views. Pleasing all of us is clearly impossible, which is just as well so that we can debate endlessly, and so politely I noticed. Not like some of the olden day blog punch-ups…
Slow solve whilst meandering about, even at full attention I would be well into the SCC. Like Plett11 I was tempted by DICED, “ice” also referencing diamond, but it didn’t parse well enough. Liked DATED once I got it
Like Quadrophenia, wanted an anagram of carries, but there wasn’t one, but then hard to think away from it. Only getting EFFECTS helped me over that hurdle with the helpful F.
Plenty to amuse and bemuse me, for which, thanks. Now eagerly anticipating which band or pop star will appear in Monday’s QC. The Who, or Blue, must have a good chance…
Well, I don’t advise anyone to try it – we have maintained our policy of deleting blog punch-ups if any break out. I do find them amusing sometimes, but for the good of the blog they’ve got to go!
Well, I miss Horryd, even if I’m in a minority.
Sometimes he went too far, but he could be astutely provocative.
I’m with you Phil. I developed quite a fondness for him, despite occasionally not being able to defend his behaviour. Life would be boring if all your friends were perfect.
DNF. Just could not see EFFECTS or IMPROPERLY. Should have put it down and come back to it fresh, they’re not hard ones.
Wasted a lot of time on an anagram of “carries” which fitted nicely in the three checkers. GIRAFFE ( COD) put an end to that. Also delayed by reversing ROT/TOR. And tried DICED, DE-ICE.
CHEAPSKATE great word, along with EL CHEAPO which I saw in a puzzle recently. And an article about Heinz tinned Spaghetti CARBONARA was in the paper this week.
About 28 mins but that includes Oasis ticket chores.
Got stuck on dated and hater. Also fell in the carries anagram trap.
COD hater.
I had to revisit several clues, so this seemed a slower solve despite my coming in under target. DECORATION went straight in. IMPROPERLY took a while. CHEAPSKATE needed a few crossers. EFFECTS was slow to surface. SIGNAL was LOI after GIRAFFE pointed me in the right direction. 8:58. Thanks Jalna and Galspray.
21 mins…
Thought this was going to be a bit chewy, so was surprised when I finished around my average. Never heard of SZA, even though I watched a fair bit of Glastonbury, but it didn’t stop me getting the answer.
FOI – 6dn “Cheapskate”
LOI – 13ac “Signal”
COD – 16ac “Air”
Thanks as usual!
11:07
Hard to see what the hold-ups were but was slow from about the six-minute mark, to finish the last half dozen. None of IMPROPERLY, GIRAFFE, EFFECTS, CHEAPSKATE nor SIGNAL jumped to mind, until I went to make a bacon sandwich… I came back to the laptop and the bacon worked its magic!
I was aware of SZA as she guested on Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” (a number three hit in the UK in 2021) – if you like great production, have a listen (the album from which it came is great from a production viewpoint too, though be aware that the lyrics can be rather saucy).
Thanks Jalna and Galspray
25:41, which is a fair bit slower than my average these days. I think I’m right in saying that I missed every anagram indicator except for that which provided ALABASTER, and upon that realisation I then fixated for a while on “carries” being the anagrist for “personal belongings”. Either Jalna did a marvellous job of smuggling them in or my brain isn’t working. It could well be both, of course.
I did notice a sort of half-Nina, in that all of the answers contain the letter A, except for those which don’t.
Thank you for the blog!
Great spot about the letter A, Wombat!
I spotted that none of the answers contain the letter O … except the ones that do.
I agree that this one felt more difficult than it actually was. I saw the answers readily enough, but had to take some time to parse them – yes, that’s probably troll, but why? You can biff Andromeda – it’s always Andromeda – but the shorter answers require parsing. I could have put diced and moved on, but it didn’t really fit the cryptic so I didn’t put it.
Time: 11 minutes
Well, about an hour shorter than yesterday’s puzzle (a phrase I thought I would never have to use for a QC. . .Obviously a completely different kettle of fish when it comes to the 15×15, Cedric.) Main hold ups were climbing out of the Carries anagram bear trap, and my last pair: the Hater and Dated double act, which of course included the Diced rabbit (hole) stew – how Jalna must have sniggered watching that well used diversion! Still, there were seats available on the Coach, so it looks like I’m well set for the Saturday Mystery Tour. Invariant
I was quoting you on your previous comment regarding inadvertently replying rather than posting new comment.
I have found that if scrolling on my phone down the left side of the comment page I invariably find I have opened a reply box, but less likely if scrolling down the right side which is less ‘natural’. Curious.
Yes, I worked out what you meant later in the day, and so deleted my (tongue in cheek) response. Having the Reply button on the RHS is probably the worst possible position for right handed users who typically use their left thumb to scroll.
10.34 Like curryowen my thoughts turned to the clan. I never did see where the AND in ANDROMEDA came from and LOI IMPROPERLY took a while. Thanks galspray and Jalna.
17:38
No parksolve this week but a gentle enough crossword. Was fooled by change of heart but got there in the end. LOI IMPROPERLY.
“All your life you’ve been playing a part
And nothing’s gonna make you have a change of heart” (Gerry Rafferty)
Well into SCC territory at 23:00. LOI was HATER, where I overcomplicated things by thinking that I needed to switch out the middle letter of HATER, not spotting the anagram indicator at all. Fortunately DATED forced the middle T on me, and then the penny dropped.
Thanks to Galspray and Jalna.
Dear Doofers,
As an SCC stalwart, may I suggest that “well into SCC territory” doesn’t really start until some time after half an hour has passed – maybe 40+ minutes.
Reading the comments above, I think I was in form today. My time of 20 minutes is fast for me, despite still having one foot in the SCC, even on an easy day … and I don’t think today was one of those.
CHEAPSKATE was my FOI and I was able to build from there. As someone said above, there was nothing too easy and nothing too hard or obscure, so an excellent puzzle all round. Nearly held up by my LOI, REAPPEARED, but it came to mind just before I was about to start alphabet trawling.
Thanks to Jalna and Galspray.
DNF as I put DICED (ice = diamond) for DATED and LOGJAM for SIGNAL and therefore couldn’t getCHEAPSKATE either. SZA? NHO, but answer clear. However, not a great day.