My third meeting here in a row with Mr. Price, charming as ever, for this tasty treat. I wouldn’t want an ice cream sundae—of whatever color—for lunch every day, but this was a special occasion. (I actually have three flavors of ice cream in my freezer now, just for variety’s sake.)
I indicate (Ars Magna)* like this, and words flagging such rearrangements are italicized in the clues.
| ACROSS | |
| 1 | Irritation seeing ID number not fully entered (7) |
| PINKEYE P(ersonal) I(dentification) N(umber) + KEYE |
|
| 5 | Second best comedian (6) |
| SCREAM S(econd) + CREAM, “best” |
|
| 10 | Inflated spare tyre going down, losing diameter (9) |
| TUMESCENT TUM, “spare tyre” + |
|
| 11 | In mid-August one replaces a dull routine (5) |
| GRIND GRAND, as Peter W. points out in the first comment, is a synonym of “August”; replace A with I, “one.” |
|
| 12 | Wine beginning to taste tolerable (5) |
| TOKAY T |
|
| 13 | One’s not bright, amusing or original (9) |
| IGNORAMUS (amusing or)* |
|
| 14 | Girl working with Steptoe and Son, furniture movers (12) |
| POLTERGEISTS (Girl, Steptoe, S[0n])* “Things that go Bump in the Night” |
|
| 18 | Highlights, including 100 Universal recording artists (12) |
| SCULPTRESSES S(C)(U)(LP)TRESSES |
|
| 21 | Sounding friendly, donkey in straw bedding (9) |
| PALLIASSE “pally” “ass” |
|
| 22 | Speech of many pages some heard in church (5) |
| CHOIR “quire” |
|
| 23 | Act leads to more governors overturning a conviction (5) |
| DOGMA DO, “Act” + M |
|
| 24 | Flag rolling ceremony joined by old salt, perhaps (9) |
| EVAPORITE PAVE<=“rolling” + O(ld) + RITE, “ceremony” “Flag” as in “to PAVE by laying down flagstones,” or flags… Pretty sure this was my LOI, as I’d certainly never heard the term before. I got there by way of the French pavé, but PAVE is not an English noun. |
|
| 25 | Nudes modelled eating a dessert (6) |
| SUNDAE (Nudes)* engulfing A |
|
| 26 | Meals left for bishop in batches (7) |
| LUNCHES LUNCHES with L(eft) replacing B(ishop) …I at first had BUNCHES as the answer, because I wanted there to be a pun on “Sunday brunches.” But “Sunday LUNCHES” are certainly a thing too. |
|
| DOWN | |
| 1 | Notices point up uses for rest areas (3,5) |
| PIT STOPS SPOTS TIP<=“up” |
|
| 2 | Charlie’s insensitive finishing short row on the phone (8) |
| NUMSKULL NUM |
|
| 3 | Eastern state limiting society’s composition (5) |
| ESSAY E(astern) + S(ociety) + SAY, “state” |
|
| 4 | After hours learning, becoming smoother around girls (7,7) |
| EVENING CLASSES EVENING, “becoming smoother” + C(irca), “around” + LASSES, “girls” |
|
| 6 | Smoke fish in Calais and specify boxes (9) |
| CIGARETTE CI(GAR)(ET)TE—with the “fish” GAR and “and” “in Calais” inside CITE, “specify” |
|
| 7 | Imagine not keeping the first cryptic puzzle (6) |
| ENIGMA ( |
|
| 8 | Simple ways to save oxygen (6) |
| MODEST MODES, “ways” + T |
|
| 9 | Final irony, a musician batting at No 11 (5,2,3,4) |
| STING IN THE TAIL STING is “a musician” and “[i]n cricket, ‘batting at No. 11’ refers to being the last player to bat in the order of the team’s line-up”—hence IN THE TAIL. …Thank you, AI! |
|
| 15 | Roughly, a can held about one dish (9) |
| ENCHILADA (a can held)* including somewhere I, “one” |
|
| 16 | Like part of Birmingham? Wow! (8) |
| ASTONISH ASTON-ISH |
|
| 17 | Who advance unlawfully seizing power? (8) |
| USURPERS USUR(P)ERS |
|
| 19 | What candid people call themselves (6) |
| SPADES CD With “themselves” not referring to “people” (of course) but to the answer |
|
| 20 | Jack aboard vessel to serve wine (6) |
| FLAGON FLAG, “Jack” + ON, “aboard” |
|
| 22 | Accessory for the queen or the king to possess (5) |
| CROWN CR, Charles Rex, “the king” + OWN, “to possess” |
|
Thanks for all this. With Paul McKenna doing the Mephisto, it’s puns in both puzzles.
8d. Similarly, got stuck on “to save oxygen”.
9d. Well done on the cricket. Compare “tailender”: “a person at the tail end, esp (in cricket) the batter or batters last in the batting order”.
For 11ac GRIND. I didn’t think it was finding G as one of the middle letters of the word “August”. Rather that august can mean dignified, impressive or “grand”. So “one replaces a” in the middle of that five-letter synonym for august.
Oh, GRAND idea! That does make more sense. Thanks!
As Peter W says for 11A.
24A rather than pave as a noun, “flag” is a verb in Collins – to pave with flagstones.
Yes. I said I thought of pavé to get “Flag,” but then saw that PAVE is not a noun in English. I give the definition of “Flag” as a verb (“to PAVE”).
Not sure whether to admire or decry this one. It took two slightly tough sessions for us.
There were very clever and entertaining aspects: 4d EVENING CLASSES, 9d STING IN THE TAIL, 21ac PALLIASSE, and 16d ASTONISH.
But then: 5ac SCREAM for ‘comedian, 23ac DOGMA for ‘conviction’, 24ac PAVE for ‘flag’, and BUNCHES for ‘batches’ in 26ac.
And one cannot avoid ‘calling a SPADE a spade’ in 19d – pretty questionable.
Thank you setter (on balance) and Guy.
Mostly enjoyable but I needed aids for the NHO EVAPORITE, or rather to get the V and the P, as I had all the other letters. I missed the parsing of MODEST and didn’t understand (and still don’t) SPADES although I knew the expression being referred to. Something of an awkward clue, I feel.
I tend to agree regarding 19d. It felt uncomfortable.
Another great challenge from Robert- I particularly liked POLTERGEISTS but thought 19d was a real clunker.
34.33
Mostly gentle but needed time for EVAPORITE and PINKEYE at the end. Forgot the puns: worth remembering for next time. Loved POLTERGEISTS.
Thanks Robert and Guy
I was never going to finish this, as, with most completed and parsed, I couldn’t fathom out 1a PINKEYE or EVAPORITE, both NHO. I thought of PIN, but don’t associate that with an ID number. The problem with both clues was the lack of consonants, particularly E-A-O-I-E, so guessing the possible missing components was problematic. I was uncomfortable with 19d too, but liked STING IN THE TAIL a lot.
14:11. Tricky one. I found EVAPORITE particularly hard to crack.
I think I understand how the clue SPADES is supposed to work but I don’t think it does.
K…Can you then please explain how it works. The word obviously has very unpleasant connotations in one context and I can’t believe this is any way related to the clue, but it would be helpful to know how it leads to the answer.
I think the idea is that if you ‘call a spade a spade’, then you are calling a spade itself. For me this doesn’t work because to me ‘to call a cat itself’ doesn’t really mean anything, and certainly not ‘to call a cat a cat’. The clue also requires us to transfer this meaning to the plural, which departs completely from the underlying idiom. Candid people don’t ‘call spades spades’, that just isn’t a thing. Perhaps I’m just being excessively literal-minded, it wouldn’t be the first time!
Many thanks. Nothing about the clue works for me and it resulted in a DNF which I rather resent.
I don’t get it. But I have heard the expression “calling a spade a bloody shovel” but that doesn’t advance my understanding. AFAIK the clue only works if “themselves” is black. Maybe Robert Price is black, but if that is the case then that is info not available to your normal solver, only his acquaintances. I am not aware that calling a black person a spade is always an insult, but it might be, depending on the motivation behind it.
The word SPADE when applied to a (black) person is always considered offensive. Although it should really go without saying, I was afraid people would take “themselves” as referring to the “people” in the clue if I didn’t point out that this is not what is meant. But you did anyway.
The racial slur comes from the black suit in a deck of cards. But that’s not what “spade” meant in the original coinage… which is a mistranslation of an even earlier expression. Quite the winding path this expression has taken:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/call_a_spade_a_spade
« A mistaken translation of Ancient Greek τὰ σῦκα σῦκα, τὴν σκάφην δὲ σκάφην ὀνομάσων (tà sûka sûka, tḕn skáphēn dè skáphēn onomásōn, “calling figs figs, and a trough a trough”). The word σκάφη (skáphē, “trough”) was mistranslated by the Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus as σκαφείον (skapheíon, “digging tool”). »
My thanks to Robert Price and Guy du Sable.
Reasonably straightforward apart from 8d Modest that I couldn’t parse at all, biffed, thanks Guy.
24a Evaporite, on the very edge of my vocabulary. Actually I felt the need to cheat and looked it up to be certain.
16d Aston-ish, I love Uxbridge-isms, I was born in Brum but am not a footie fan and until they built the Aston Expressway I wasn’t aware that Aston is in Birmingham. The footie team is Aston Villa, but I have no idea where the villa came from. Nor do I want to know.
Re calling a spade a spade: I’ve just remembered a story.
I worked for an American company and we wanted an expert to talk to Bank Of Scotland (or the other one, RBOS), and he flew into Edinburgh. He was to be picked up by the local sales team. They missed him and he took a cab. In the post mortem it transpired that the locals were looking for a tall man with brown eyes and a blue suit. It turned out that he was the ONLY black person on the plane. DOH!
Let’s not use that word that way, please.
Er… sorry if that offends you. I do have black friends who are OK with the word spade. I accept that some black people will be offended by it and therefore I would only use the word (well I wouldn’t normally) if it was okayed by the person involved.
Er, sorry again, I hadn’t seen your earlier post.
However I am a bit foxed that assuming you are “white” (from your photo) that you know that “spade” is always offensive. It is possible that US & UK usage differs? Anyway you may be certain that I would not use the word thoughtlessly.
So as I see it “calling a spade a spade” is sometimes but not always racially abusive.
Collins, British English: “Offensive.”
Chambers: “a black or other non-white person (offensive)”
You have already used the word thoughtlessly! Ha.
I am rather “foxed” that you think a white guy (or a white Guy) wouldn’t be aware of, and sensitive to the issue. It’s not just that I’ve worked since 1986 for a magazine founded during the Civil War by abolitionists.
Yes you may well say that I used the word thoughtlessly. I did, if you are being picky. I did not mean it offensively. I thought that the story was informative; we have become shy about using racially loaded words to describe people which is why I used that story. I ask you, have you ever decided NOT to use a racial word where it would be useful in case someone thought you might be racist?
I’m sure you are far too smart to have fallen into that trap.
“I did not mean to…” equals “thoughtlessly.”
I don’t know any potentially offensive racial terms that would ever be useful. There are always alternatives.
I can’t imagine how “spade” would ever be useful.
And I don’t know these friends of yours who supposedly call themselves “spades,” but as far as I’m aware the word hasn’t been reclaimed for inner use by the targeted group the way the n-word has. If so, it’s still quite different coming from a white person.
I’m just reporting what the dictionaries say. Dictionary.com, in fact, has it as Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.
Right, point taken, I’ll bear that in mind. Actually I cannot imagine a circumstance in which I would use the word to mean a black person. But it is a part of the language, and maybe that makes it a part of life. I am not in favour of making words illegal. Using them in the wrong circumstances is wrong but writing them out of the language is a different matter.
We’re not talking about removing “Call a spade a spade” from the lexicon.
Racist terms, of course, should be eliminated from practice but remain recorded for historians’ and researchers’ sake
“To call a spade a spade” just means to be frank. Nothing racial implied.
Is it possible that you missed the point of my story? The London office described this man as tall, brown eyes, blue suit but if they had said BLACK that was all that was needed, but they were shy to use that word, let alone spade.
I should hope not!
I got the humo(u)r of the situation, but that’s not what leapt out at me.
Any chance of the setter explaining just how this clue works as I am still none the wiser!
What candid people call [these things] themselves. They call them (spades) themselves (spades).
This clearly doesn’t work for some people, but that is the idea, such as it is.
I’ve certainly never heard the idiom in the plural.
I give up!!
DNF, defeated by PINKEYE – I got the ‘pin’ part, but not ‘keye[d]’.
– NHO PALLIASSE but it sounded plausible, the homophones worked and it fitted the checkers
– Likewise constructed the unknown EVAPORITE from wordplay
Thanks Guy and Robert.
COD Ignoramus
Those two words (PINKEYE and EVAPORITE) were my downfall too. Happy to have ( at last ) finished and only two unknowns ( although PINKEYE rang a vague bell). Can’t say that I parsed all of them, ( I’d put in OMANI quite confidently for 3d – never mind the’i’). But a fun crossword all up – can’t see what all the fuss is about for SPADES! – especially liking SCULPTRESSES ( as it eluded me for a while) and ASTONISH.
If you call “a spade a spade” you are being candid.
Thanks Robert and Guy
Later than usual to this one after being up the country without a printer to get my paper copy. It did take over the hour and a half across three sittings to complete once I did get the copy. Although EVAPORITE was a new term that did require a word finder, I found the entire solve was a one clue at a time experience without ever getting into a rhythm to solve a bunch of them. Still enjoyed the challenge ! I see that the snitch rated it at 126, so don’t feel so bad. Also remembered to look for his play at the top and bottom lines of the grid.
Finished with PINKEYE up the top and then DOGMA and that SPADES down the bottom.