Solving time: 6:40
Some fascinating etymology supports the answers in this latest puzzle from Joker. I thoroughly enjoy digging deeper into words such as 6d or 13a which can provide some interesting links to other well-known words and phrases.
10a always reminds me of the word puzzle using the same seven letters in the same order to fill each of the gaps, “The _______ (7) surgeon was ___ ____ (3,4) to operate because he had __ _____ (2,5)”.
Let me know how you all got on…
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Disorder of parliamentarian in club? O, yes! (12) |
| DISCOMPOSURE – MP (parliamentarian) between DISCO (club) and O SURE (yes) | |
| 9 | Sampling of spores inside amber, perhaps (5) |
| RESIN – Hidden [Sampling of] in spores inside | |
| 10 | Considerable reason for eating on one’s lap? (7) |
| NOTABLE – One reason for eating on one’s lap would be if one had NO TABLE | |
| 11 | Philosopher dealing with the subject of soldiers (7) |
| PLATOON – PLATO (Philosopher) ON (dealing with the subject of)
As Nicholas Parsons might once have said while presenting the radio show (and short-lived TV show) ‘Just a Minute’, “Now, Gyles Brandreth, you have thirty-seven seconds left ON ‘Geisha Girls’, and your time starts now“. PLATOON is a 17th century word meaning “a small body of soldiers acting together but separate from the main body of troops”. It derives from French peloton “group of people,” or more literally, as the diminutive “little ball”, from Old French pelote “ball” – the English word ‘pellet’ derives from the same source. |
|
| 12 | Roots all around trunk (5) |
| TORSO – Anagram [all around] of ROOTS | |
| 13 | Refined US poet penning literature (6) |
| POLITE – POE (US poet i.e. Edgar Allan Poe) surrounding [penning] LIT (literature)
POLITE meaning “polished” is a late 14th century word, from the Latin politus “refined, elegant, accomplished,” the past participle of polire “to polish, make smooth”. The sense of “elegant, cultured” (of literature, arts, etc.) is from around 1500; and, of persons, “refined or cultivated in speech, manner, or behavior,” is by 1620s. The meaning “behaving courteously, showing consideration for others” is by 1748. |
|
| 14 | Hunt’s cruel when skinning takes place? Not so (6) |
| UNTRUE – ‘Skin’ the outside letters from {h}UNT{‘s} {c}RUE{l} | |
| 17 | Dance round on single leg? (5) |
| LIMBO – O (round) on LIMB (single leg)
The limbo dates back to the mid to late 1800s in Tobago. It was popularised during the 1950s, by Trinidadian dancer and choreographer, Julia Edwards (1933-2017). |
|
| 19 | Money obtained from company in time (7) |
| COINAGE – CO (company) IN AGE (time) | |
| 21 | What involves travel? Rio must when flying? (7) |
| TOURISM – Anagram [when flying] of RIO MUST | |
| 22 | Running medal — Italy’s first in that (5) |
| GOING – Enter I{taly’s} first letter into GONG (medal)
As in, “We’ve finally got that old Hillman Avenger going/running. Should be worth at least £100“ |
|
| 23 | What’s being done to with railways is very exciting (12) |
| ELECTRIFYING – The first half of the clue is mildly cryptic and has been taking place for more than 140 years…
The first permanent railway electrification in the world was that of the Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway in Berlin, Germany in 1881. |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Fit in everybody around street (7) |
| INSTALL – IN ALL (everybody) around ST (street) | |
| 3 | One who’ll bend over backwards to please people? (13) |
| CONTORTIONIST – A mildly cryptic definition
The “act of twisting or wrenching,” comes from Old French contorsion and directly from Latin contortionem (nominative contortio), noun of action from past-participle stem of contorquere. You can see torque “rotating force” from Latin torquere “to twist, turn, distort, torture” is also related. And since 1834, the word is also used by antiquarians and others for the twisted circular metal ornament (also as torc or torq) forming a necklace or collar worn by ancient Gauls, Britons, Germans and other barbarians. CONTORTIONIST as “one who practices gymnastic feats involving contorted or unnatural poses” is attested from 1841. |
|
| 4 | Heartlessly making money digging things up (6) |
| MINING – Remove middle letter [Heartlessly] from MIN{t}ING (making money) | |
| 5 | Amazingly revealed bear lying around (13) |
| OUTSTANDINGLY – OUT (revealed) STAND (bear) then anagram [around] of LYING | |
| 6 | Brown river at Hull (not beginning in Hull) (5) |
| UMBER – The river at Hull is The brown earthy pigment comes from the 1560s, from French ombre, or Italian ombra, both from Latin umbra “shade, shadow”. The central Italian region Umbria is from the same source, as is the English word for a hand-held, portable canopy which opens and folds – umbrella. The phrase take umbrage at, attested by 1670s, and which originally meant “throw shade, subtly insult (something or someone)” is also related. |
|
| 7 | Ugly building went up, erected in middle of a storm (7) |
| EYESORE – ROSE (went up) reversed [erected] in EYE (middle of a storm) | |
| 8 | Doctor upset irrational ineffectual person (4) |
| DRIP – DR (Doctor) then reversal [upset] of PI (irrational number) | |
| 13 | Range of colours permitted in meat paste (7) |
| PALETTE – LET (permitted) in PÂTÉ (meat paste) | |
| 15 | Change orientation of existing rigging regularly (7) |
| REALIGN – REAL (existing) then alternate letters [regularly] of rigging | |
| 16 | Crustaceans close to beaches affected island (6) |
| SCAMPI – Final letter [close to] of {beache}S followed by CAMP (affected) then I (island)
SCAMPI is the plural of scampo, the Italian name for the langoustine (Nephrops norvegicus, also called the Norwegian lobster). The Italian word may be derived from the Greek καμπή kampē (“bending” or “winding”). |
|
| 18 | Second employment for person lacking confidence (5) |
| MOUSE – MO (second i.e. short for moment) USE (employment) | |
| 20 | Irritable and being touchy, ultimately (4) |
| EDGY – Final letters [ultimately] of Irritable and being touchy.
I have this marked as a semi-&lit as while the whole clue is the wordplay, the final word ‘ultimately’ does not appear to belong in the definition. Feel free to disagree… |
|
So, 1a isn’t an anagram of MP IN CLUB O YES! Slowed me down considerably. CONTORTIONIST came easily from the surface. I didn’t think LIMBO was a dance but it had to be, I suppose. RESIN was well hidden but came easily after INSTALL went in. Liked ELECTRIFYING. Again, quite a few 15×15 type clues today I thought, especially 5d OUTSTANDINGLY.
Thanks MH.
We stared at those letters for a long time too. Do you think Joker deliberately misdirected, even to the point that all of the crossers are in there😄
Perhaps. I’d like to think so as it lets me off the hook for being slow!
Some 15×15 are easier:-)
Zero on my first pass. My ADHD kicked in with the frustration so I didn’t attempt a second pass. Went for the reveal to then attempt to decode the clues with about a 50 percent success rate. I thought some were a bit tenuous but I guess that’s the setter’s skill.
18:20. DISCOMPOSURE and OUTSTANDINGLY each took me a very long time to solve and parse. I don’t really understand ” being done to with” in the clue for ELECTRIFYING. Thanks for all the fascinating etymological research, Mike!
I assumed there was a misprint re ELECTRIFYING. Either ‘to’ or ‘with’, but not both.
19 minutes. I found this very hard with so many clues passed over unsolved in the hope that I would find them easier when I returned with some checkers in place.
I had a more relaxing time with today’s 15×15.
I didn’t really understand the “to with” either 🤷♂️ – hopefully as Jackkt states, just a misprint
I’m glad to see I was not the only one who found the grammar in the surface of the clue for 23a to be very clumsy and confusing. I also wondered if it was a misprint. I would even go as far as to say that it contributed to it being my LOI (by some distance) as I repeatedly mulled over exactly what “…being done to with…” means.
Me neither, and it took me a good few minutes to put it in with a shrug anyway.
Cracker of a puzzle but well on the tough side of the ledger, 11.26 for me and I’ll take that. I was getting nowhere as I went through the top half but things got moving once I crossed the equator. It still took some time to go back and fill in the gaps at the top, with 1ac my LOI. Like curryowen, I remain flummoxed by ‘being done to with’ at 23ac. Thanks Joker and Mike.
Only four on the first pass of the acrosses. Spotted ‘disco’ for club quite early but when ‘discombobulate’ wouldn’t fit I had to leave it to come back to it much later. As a railwayman I enjoyed ELECTRIFYING but did expect it to be ‘electrification’ – didn’t notice the extra word. Ended up with UNTRUE – undone by an apostrophe yet again. All green in 17.26.
Another one that was hard to get into. Wrote out the “obvious” anagrist for 1a and spent half a minute before moving on. Had no luck for about 3 minutes before resin finally got us started.
Loved torso, classic elegant Joker clue, oh not a suitcase!
After playing with all the crossers for 1a finally decided to plump for discombobule then saw the error of our ways for a DNF in 32 mins
Thanks Joker, and Mike for all the extra info
Horrible!!!
Mike calls this thought-provoking, and the main thought it provoked in me was that it was far too hard for me. A very bad DNF, with at least 4 clues left blank after 25 minutes (twice my par time and these days my cut-off).
I shall store away that Pi can be clued as irrational – not met that before, and it is at least a change from it being clued as “very good”. So the puzzle did have at least one positive for me. But some of the other clues – DISCOMPOSURE, OUTSTANDINGLY, MINING especially (I’m not good at “think of a synonym and then do something to it”) – were simply too chewy for me. I move on …
Many thanks Mike for the blog; quite excellent, and much more entertaining than the puzzle itself.
But isn’t ‘think of a synonym and then do something to it’ part of the art of a cryptic clue?
Most certainly. But doesn’t stop me struggling with them. In this case I just failed to see minting – perfectly fair clue, my incompetence.
I BIFD MINING, to begin with until I spotted the parsing. It’s a type of clue I like.
Tricky and I think it’s probably one of those puzzles where getting 1a early would have had a significant impact on my time. Instead I carefully wrote out the supposed anagrist and then stared blankly at it for an age. Glad to see I wasn’t alone in that.
Top quality offering from Joker which I eventually finished in 10.52.
Thanks to Mike
Pleasantly surprised to finish after only solving only two across clues on the first pass.
After ‘sampling’ in 9a I’m beginning to think there are as many hidden indicators as anagrinds.
COD to UMBER
Thanks Mike for the most interesting blog. Now off to tackle your surgeon challenge.
Cracked it within about 20secs once I focused on why Mike was reminded of it!
Oh, well spotted!
8.04. Started at a trot but finished at a canter.
16:41. some chewy stuff. I enjoyed constructing OUTSTANDINGLY and particularly liked the way the three parts of 19ac- CO IN AGE – suddenly leaped out as a word. LOI DISCOMPOSURE
48.55 for me, but finally finished, I also spent ages trying to get the anagram of MP IN CLUB O YES and trying to get grizzly into 5d. LOI was SCAMPI biffed from the checkers. NOTABLE made me smile. It took a long time but very satisfying to finally finish it.
Thanks Joker and Mike for parsing scampi and drip for me!
Needed the blog to parse DRIP but good to see PI being used in a different sense from a couple of previous QCs. Otherwise I was on Joker’s wavelength.
One of the pleasures of doing this crossword is the extra info from the blogs. Thanks Mike for your interesting comments today.
16:28 for the solve. Having seen the struggles above of some our esteemed solvers, I feel happy enough with that.
Reached the last 4-5 at around 11-12mins which is usually where I feel comfortable that it’s a QC and while UMBER/EYESORE were fairly quick I was left with the DISCOMPOSURE/MINING pairing to struggle through. Probably a good 30+ sec at the end checking whether I wanted DIS- or MIS- for the starter until I parsed DISCO=club as it’s dated which I’m not particularly keen on as seems like they only really existed for about 20yrs and will become increasingly antiquated as a piece of language.
Very good!
The Disco=Club thing always tends to catch me out as well. Was a Disco an actual club in the past or just a type of music? Why can’t we have “Rave” or “Soul Night”?
Fairly sure in the 70s patrons would have been going to the Discotheque. Not sure about the spelling and I have always assumed it is a word from France which they use to keep their language from becoming anglicised. I could be wrong on all this. But I’m assuming that, as you say, it’s where a particular type of music got played just like rave music is from going to a rave.
I think French has a lot of words with the suffix “theque”, the most well -known would be bibliotheque (library). Apparently theque comes from an Ancient Greek word for a storage container. Oh, and well done on your time!
Thanks CO 👍
Took ages to get going and was convinced it would be a DNF. Definitely needed to be on Joker’s wavelength and did manage to tune in and complete, but this was not a quickie by any stretch of the imagination. Thanks though!
29 minutes to finish this difficult puzzle. Only 2 across clues solved on first pass, but the down clues provided a foothold and with some crossers in the solutions presented themselves even if a couple defied parsing. A very helpful blog from Mike.
Wow! That was difficult. First three very slow, probably only those (FOI GOING plus PALETTE and UMBER) by Cedric’s cut-off time of 25 minutes, but after a determined effort (hour and a half, maybe) did finish it, with LOI LIMBO. CNP EDGY (doh!), so thank you, Mike. Yes, COINAGE is neat.
What does CNP mean?
Thanks.
David50
Sorry, confess it’s not a recognised acronym but hoped it was obvious, evidently not. Could Not Parse. Forgive me.
Well looking at some of the lengthy times posted so far, this must be tougher than I found it to be. When I saw The Joker as the named setter, I thought it unlikely that I’d break the ten minute barrier, but I made it comfortably in 8.32. ELECTRIFYING held me up, while I tried to get to grips with the strange way in which the clue was worded, but fortunately there were enough crossers to get the answer. A well set crossword as always from The Joker, who for once didn’t have the last laugh as far as I was concerned.
From RESIN to ELECTRIFYING in 7:44. Needed all the crossers for DISCOMPOSURE and LOI. Liked NOTABLE. Although I seemed to be on the wavelength this was not an easy puzzle. Thanks Joker and Mike.
I know that Joker can produce excellent QCs. This was not one.
This was over half way to a 15×15 standard. Clever but not in the right place.
I finished with ELECTRIFYING and would pick out DISCOMPOSURE and OUTSTANDINGLY as being a bit desperate.
I wonder if Joker started off with the some of the longer words just to show us what’s what. Or, did he choose an unfriendly grid and box himself into a position where some of the answers were all he could muster?
Thanks to Mike for dealing so well with it.
First time commenter – been using these blogs as a way of learning how to solve the cryptic puzzles as part of a new year’s resolution, thank you to everyone who has written an entry as I am slowly beginning to make progress!
However, with MARTIAL confidently entered as a DD in 11a, this was the worst puzzle for me in a long time…
Martial was a good attempt, very unlucky.
Ooh, the price of having too much obscure knowledge. Excellent guess, glad I was too ignorant to think of it.
As you can see it was the hardest in a while for a lot of us so you fit right in already, welcome.
Welcome Thorners. I was a long time lurker – the daily discipline of reading the explanations from the erudite folk on here truly is the way to progress – its a cool club crossword club.
Thanks all for the replies – thankfully today was much better!
I made a New Year’s resolution not to do crosswords by this setter, and I must stick to that. So inaccessible and demotivating.
To my astonishment, I found this relatively straightforward, finishing in 24 mins. Some clues were biffed but for once I was on the setter’s wavelength.
FOI eyesore
LOI coinage.
COD electrifying
Thanks to joker and Mike.
A tip of the hat to anyone who started with 1ac, though I’m pretty sure it will stay firmly in place today. I took a break after my first 30min session, with none of long answers in place and a few other gaps for good measure. The second stint was more successful, and I did eventually finish.
GR really doesn’t come close. Invariant
GR?
. . .a Golden Raspberry – used when a MER seems hopelessly inadequate. © louiseajaney
This was average at 20 minutes for us too – though we do find checking and building up some clues useful and may be unacceptable to some. Makes this a very enjoyable daily post retirement activity though. And the blog is always great!
Nicely fooled by Joker’s fake anagram on 1a. As I crossed off the letters I grew increasingly puzzled as to what disorder was required. Eventually, when nothing else remained, I had to consider other possibilities! Finally bifd and post-parsed. Well done, Joker!
DNF. Bit of a disaster. Had to reveal DISCOMPOSURE when I was stuck towards the end. Haven’t had to ‘reveal’ for ages so somewhat discomposing. After that, the rest fell into place. Liked NOTABLE (COD), TORSO, COINAGE, POLITE, PLATOON, UMBER.
As for 5d, had been trying to get Bear into an anagram.
Not my day. Blog much needed so thanks, Mike.
18 mins…
Surprised at my time (feels like my first sub-20 in an age), as this wasn’t a straight forward puzzle, and for the first 5 mins I hardly had anything. However, it’s strange how getting one answer can create a domino effect that unravels everything else. In my case, this was 3dn “Contortionist”. I could see that a lot of the large answers seemed fairly cryptic, so for once applied this logic at the outset and the answer popped into my head. This opened up the SW corner and the rest gradually fell into place. My only query was “Pi” being irrational, which upon reflection now makes sense.
FOI – 12ac “Torso”
LOI – 14ac “Untrue”
COD – 5dn “Outstandingly”
Thanks as usual!
These so-called quick cryptics have become so hard now that I have given up trying to solve them and just go straight to the answers. Best way really. Saves me a lot of time and pain.
To be fair, though, this blog with analysis of the answers and parsing is entertaining (and amusing).
So good luck to the experts and other masochists with their struggles to make sense of what I usually find nonsensical. I am sure the art of solving these monsters cannot just be learnt (god knows I
have tried) but lies in some inherent way of thinking which some people possess and others do not –
regardless of how clever or skilled they are.
I think it all comes down to practice. I’m a fair few years in now but what seemed unfathomable when I started is now very slowly becoming doable. I doubt I’ll ever be ‘expert’ (I haven’t got enough years left!) but as long as I enjoy the process that’s enough for me.
There are days I feel just the same. I’ll probably have another go though. Try for 30 minutes then give up on what’s left.
Heavy weather and gave up after a much interrupted hour with 1A still to solve.
Thanks Mike for the Classics insightful blog, and Joker for the verbal contortion.
Super puzzle, very much enjoyed. This is what a QC is all about – not easy, but just needs a little thought. 11 mins well spent.
The fact that two consecutive posts can say “Heavy weather and gave up” and “This is what a QC is all about” shows how difficult it must be for our setters. The truth is that the solving community for the QC is hugely diverse, both in ability but also in willingness to worry at a harder puzzle.
One challenge is that the Quick in QC can be because the puzzle is easier than the full 15×15, but can also be because it is merely smaller than it. As someone who regularly does the QC but only irregularly tries the 15×15, I do sense that QC clues are on average simpler – less moving parts in the wordplay – and this combined with the smaller size of the puzzle fully justifies the Q in QC. But it is far from the case that all QC clues are simpler than any 15×15 clue. And so the occasional very stiff test – like today’s – can occur without breaking the implied promise to solvers that the QC is “quick” (ie quicker) than the main cryptic puzzle.
I didn’t solve this puzzle. But I didn’t dislike it, nor did I think it unfair.
Your wise words will be useful, to those feeling daunted, Cedric. Nice!
Done like a kipper by the false anagram at 1a. Well bowled sir!
Wasted a bit of time on the “with railway” thing, assuming that it meant “add RY”. Also spent a while trying to make an anagram of “US poet” at 13a.
So well beaten today at 10:20, thoroughly enjoyed the tussle. Many thanks Joker and Mike (cracking blog). COD to LOI UNTRUE.
Nothing like a QC. Not even close.
Only five clues entered during my first full pass – UNTRUE, GOING, UMBER, PALETTE and SCAMPI – and still well short of halfway as the SCC opened its doors to me.
The top half seemed impenetrable, but I did eventually cross the line …. in a little over an hour and a quarter, with my LOI being DISCOMPOSURE.
Who was this aimed at, I wonder? Or was it viewed as an opportunity to exhibit one’s ability to completely baffle any ordinary mortals wishing to engage in some gentle mental gymnastics over a cup of coffee? What is the brief, here?
Many thanks to Mike for the blog and respect to Joker for his mastery of crosswords.
I completely agree and wish I could have expressed my opinion so eloquently
Lovely writing there, I love this blog and its commenters.
Tomorrow’s another day and I wish you a more affirming experience.
Thank you, SC. Tomorrow is indeed another day. I have nothing against Joker, other than he misjudged and forgot his target audience today. From my (lowly) perspective, his clueing is invariably high quality, so I should really just knuckle down and do better next time. Mrs Random would have no time for the guff I sometimes write.
24:20, hello SCC. Wow, that was hard.
Irrational=PI makes a lot more sense than “pious”. Well done, Joker.
LOI COINAGE
I so agree about PI. Thank you Joker.
Yes, far too chewy for me today. One of those where, even after liberal use of the reveal button, I’m still staring blankly at some of the answers and wondering how on earth they relate to the questions!
Many thanks for the excellent blog to clear those mysteries up.
Many a 15×15 has been easier than this. If Joker can’t recognise what makes a QC quick by now one might think an editor could.
I ground to a halt with 5D and 23A remaining – which was in no small part to having biffed “discomfiture” without parsing it. My stupidity was only revealed once ELECTRIFYING hit me between the eyes.
As a native of Kingston upon Hull, it behoves me to point out that the Humber is an estuary – not a river.
FOI NOTABLE
LOI OUTSTANDINGLY
COD REALIGN
TIME 7:14*
* Mohn and Verlaine were sub 3 minutes. Aphis and Magoo took only seconds longer. Granted it was quite tough for a QC, but there was simply no excuse for missing my target.
Interesting, I had never noticed the Humber wasn’t a river. Odd too that it is Kingston upon Hull, so I know nothing; where does the Hull come from? – ON EDIT: Don’t answer that, it is a river that joins the Humber estuary at K.
Wiki on the other hand has this:
“The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank and North Lincolnshire on the south bank. Also known as the River Humber, it is tidal its entire length.”
14 minutes. A tough one for me, particularly the three long answers already mentioned by many commenters. I was happy to finish after doubting that I would for much of the time. Easy to say now, but I overall did enjoy this despite the level of difficulty (as long as things are a bit gentler tomorrow).
Thanks to Joker and to Mike for his usual informative blog
17m
Similar to Invariant, long answers held out.
COD discomposure.
Into the double SCC by a whisker with 40:02, but it was mainly 1a that did the damage. Not that MINING (which I never parsed) and OUTSTANDINGLY helped. Oddly, I only got those last two because of checkers in 1a, but 1a was still my LOI because even with DISCOMPO_U_E it took an alphabet trawl to get the last bit. I never parsed DRIP either. Definitely a good workout, and a lot less painful than the gym, which I’ve still got to do. Thanks Joker and Mike.
Going to the hop? That was the image I had at 17d, so LIMBO got a tick and a smile. Otherwise there were lots of ticks all over the grid, which shows how much I enjoyed this – TOURISM, CONTORTIONIST and EYESORE were particular favourites. But it was a slow start, and most of the bottom half went in much more smoothly than the top.
Interesting how different our experience was today – it was about average for me, whereas I am really struggling with the 15×15!
11:04 FOI Polite (thanks heavens for the only US poet in crosswordland – even better, his name is a big help!) LOI Electrifying COD Notable (it’s a variation on a theme, for sure, but no less enjoyable for that).
Thanks Joker and Mike – another fascinating romp through the English language (and at 1 am too!)
9.12
Vg time from Mike I’d say as I certainly found this on the chewy side with many clues needing attention. I was never held up anywhere for too long though ELECTRIFYING was quite tough to get before the Y appeared.
Thanks Mike/Joker
Once again, not what I would class as a QC. Unfortunately, a very frustrating DNF for me
Uf! That was our slowest, that wasn’t a DNF for some reason, for quite some time. 22:07. 1a did most of the damage but EYESORE was the last one in. I’d considered SURE for O, yes quite early on but the checkers were supporting a full anagram and I was hung up on disorder being some medical condition. Quite a bit of tricky stuff though and we were glad to get through, if somewhat bloodied. Thanks to Mike and Joker.
20.30 This was going OK until I spent well over five minutes stuck on the last four: SCAMPI, COINAGE, ELECTRIFYING and EDGY. Then I speculatively put in the S from “close to beaches” and they all went straight in. There’s probably a lesson there. Thanks Mike and Joker.
P.S. I did the 15×15 yesterday. By all accounts it was a fairly easy one but it took me nearly an hour. These puzzles, even the tricky ones, are nowhere near as hard.
DNF
Defeated by 1a, where I was stuck in the belief that I needed an anagram of MP IN CLUB O YES.
(Mrs Wade) I too was trying to make a word from MP IN CLUB O YES. Finally had to use word solver to see how I’d been duped! I could then biff OUTSTANDINGLY: fixated on the wrong sort of bear! Altogether a tough day: my first clue in didn’t come until 14A.
8d Drip. MER in that of all the numbers the overwhelming majority are irrational, and of them only one is Pi, and also that Pi is an outstandingly useful number of which its irrationality is not a very significant factor.
To explain. There is an infinite number of rational numbers, and if they are sorted then between each pair of them there is an infinite number of irrational ones. So quite a lot really, although TBH infinity times infinity is still just infinity. Ho ho, lecture over.
15d Realign. Is existing=real? Not often IMHO. But imaginary things are unreal in some way I suppose.
Like a lot of informed professional opinion, this is true and interesting but not so relevant to puzzle making I think, where the setter is looking for associations that work in common parlance. Pi is the only irrational number that gets frequent mention in popular culture, as well as having notable historical importance.
Yes you are right, but I enjoyed the moan.
TBH the only other one I can think of offhand is “e,” base of natural logarithms.
‘Twas a good moan.
23:13. very slow to get the last few. and overall quite hard! UNTRUE was my LOI… very clever!
Fell into same trap as everyone else with 1a and wondered whether I would actually get to the end – I did, eventually! Very few write-ins for me so had to work methodically through much of the wordplay. I thought it was a great puzzle with some excellent clues that really got me thinking – what’s not to like! Loved NOTABLE, GOING (great surface), PALETTE and SCAMPI. Thanks for the excellent blog and to Joker for a very diverting puzzle.