QC 1645 by Breadman

Author   astartedonPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
This was another straightforward crossword which, unusually for a quickie, employed no full anagrams as far as I can see. In fact by my counting there were only two clues that involved an anagram at all which is pretty unusual by any standards. All the rest were mostly varieties of charades and insertions with a couple of very obvious double definitions and a hidden word. But of course, here we are on a Monday, and this is just the sort of fare we need to get us warmed up for the rest of the week. Many thanks to Breadman for doing that job admirably.

Everything went in more or less as it should with 1A being the FOI, although I think the LOI was 22A as I was expecting the whole clue to be involved until the last minute when I decided that ‘personal’ wasn’t pulling its weight. COD? Good question. Nothing stands out for difficulty so this is really a pretty arbitrary decision. I’ll go with 12A with no great conviction. It is simply the clue whose surface reads most naturally to me.

Last time out we all had a most enjoyable discussion about avatars. The conversation was still going strong at the end of the day but as I said earlier there is not much point in picking up on comments then as everybody has moved on or gone to bed. So I’ll just say here thank you very much to steakcity whose final comment on the day’s proceedings was that my “avatar will no longer be scary, although it is beyond my imagination to see her as sexy”, which I thought was brilliant. Although in her defence as an older woman (variously reckoned at somehwere between 2,200 and 2,600 years old) she shouldn’t give up on her potential. Certainly there is one professional footballer (close to retirement but who did score a penalty at the weekend) who is notoriously renowned for his preference for older women and would probably find her very desirable.

Are there any more loose ends here? I would love to know the mysterious origin of oldblighter‘s hands for instance, and I did have a go at invariant_tft‘s initials and failed miserably. If it wouldn’t try his patience too much I would love an extra clue for that to try and get closer.

    Definitions are underlined as usual and everything else is explained just as I see it in the plainest language I can manage.

    Across
    1 Expenditure revealed by non-professional (6)
    OUTLAY – OUT (revealed) + LAY (non-professional).
    4 Association of actors depart during emergency externally (6)
    EQUITY – QUIT ‘during’ EmergencY ‘externally.
    8 Father’s outside toilet, a levelled area (5)
    FLOOR – FR (father) ‘outside’ LOO (toilet).
    9 Knife European left on part of loaf (7)
    SCALPEL – SCALP (part of loaf, as in head) + EL (European Left).
    10 Pretend leather (3)
    KID – double definition.
    11 Italian sculptor to give to charity fifty pound ring (9)
    DONATELLO – DONATE (give to charity) + L (Roman numeral for fifty) + L (pound) + O (ring).
    12 Grandma set to retire somewhere in NW France (6)
    NANTES – NAN (grandma) + TES (SET ‘to retire’).
    13 Key informant is free (6)
    GRATIS – G (key) + RAT (informant) + IS.
    16 Companion, a pilot, chewed a sausage (9)
    CHIPOLATA – CH (Companion of Honour) + IPOLATA (anagram (‘chewed’) of A PILOT) + A. (Amended following anonymous comment below).
    18 Heard local sound of sheep (3)
    BAA – sounds like (‘heard’) BAR (local).
    19 Insect on soft cheese for a short time (7)
    BRIEFLY – BRIE (soft cheese) + FLY (insect).
    20 Coach tour arranged around Turkey’s capital (5)
    TUTOR – anagram of TOUR (‘arranged’) around T (Turkey’s capital).
    22 Personal vessel among smarter yachts (6)
    ARTERY – hidden word: ‘among’ smARTER Yachts. As far as I can see, PERSONAL doesn’t do anything here except fill out the surface a bit. I suppose it diverts the attention for a fraction of a second from the answer but I feel it does that unreasonably as it is not integral to the structure of the clue.
    23 Alcoholic drink‘s trademark unknown (6)
    BRANDY – BRAND (trademark) + Y (algebraic unknown).
    Down
    1 Old pair of females absent (3)
    OFF – O (old) + FF (pair of females).
    2 Daughter, with rodent moving around, walked on (7)
    TRODDEN – anagram (‘moving around’) of D (daughter) + RODENT.
    3 Shorten overly remote war film (1,6,3,3)
    A BRIDGE TOO FAR – A BRIDGE put closer together gives ABRIDGE (shorten) + TOO FAR (overly remote).
    5 Fifteen minutes to gain control over military officer (13)
    QUARTERMASTER – QUARTER (fifteen minutes) + MASTER (to gain control over).
    6 Troublemaker the Spanish urge forward (5)
    IMPEL – IMP (troublemaker) + EL (Spanish definite article).
    7 Fearful, Stefan regularly avoided Oriental waters (6,3)
    YELLOW SEA – YELLOW (fearful) + SEA (StEfAn ‘regularly avoided).
    9 Star guest primarily vocalised (4)
    SUNG – SUN (star) + G (Guest ‘primarily’).
    10 Family company in GB meeting artist, a slithery creature (4,5)
    KING COBRA – KIN (family) + CO (company) ‘in’ GB + RA (Royal Academician, artist).
    14 Asian and Greek character cutting through metal (7)
    TIBETAN – BETA (Greek character) ‘cutting through’ TIN (metal).
    15 Cautious passage around river (4)
    WARY – WAY (passage) ‘around’ R (river).
    17 Private documents one returned to Charlie (5)
    IDIOT – ID (private documents) + I (one) + OT (TO ‘returned’).
    21 Some light, flat-bodied fish (3)
    RAY – double definition.

    56 comments on “QC 1645 by Breadman”

    1. Sorry everybody. I forgot to post this until now. I was reminded by a message from Kevin saying he had had to search for the blog. It is interesting that he found it as until then it was only in my personal pages as far as I know.
    2. A quick start to the week. It didn’t all go in first time, as proved by my LOI 9ac. Kindly clued including the Italian sculptor. As for avatars, I always enjoyed the humour of Peanuts and feel like a bird-brain, at times, when crunching through some 15x15s. Just under 8 minutes,

      Edited at 2020-06-29 08:25 am (UTC)

    3. All green in 13 and a bit, so fast for me. Even so only five on the first run through of acrosses but lots passed over that looked solvable and so it proved once the checkers from the downs dropped in. LOI was SUNG ahead of IDIOT. Once again stumbled over TUTOR – must be the crossword word I most regularly fail to bring to mind.

      Edited at 2020-06-29 08:26 am (UTC)

    4. A very gentle start to the week and I made my way down the left hand side before crossing to the right, only failing to fill in IDIOT and SUNG along the way. Fortunately the sculptor was kindly clued as my knowledge of the arts is distinctly lacking, but most of the rest were write ins. Finished in 6.24 with the aforementioned SUNG and IDIOT.
      Thanks to astartedon
    5. No excuses, but I just couldn’t get going on this today. Struggled until my LOI BRANDY after 19:22- there should be a committee meeting.
      FOI was OFF. Then I tried to rush things without stopping to parse eg KING COBRA, I tried Snake for the second word. And it took me ages to get the sausage and I needed all the checkers.
      Well done to Breadman for setting a perfectly fair QC. David
    6. Not bad for me, but again spent several minutes on the last clue: IDIOT, leaving me wondering if there was a hidden message for me there… In any case, I missed that Charlie=idiot, which I think I found out for the first time about a month ago (so probably should have remembered). Anyway, 15:20 in total today.

      FOI: scalpel
      LOI: idiot
      COD: quartermaster

      Edited at 2020-06-29 09:26 am (UTC)

    7. 7 minutes, so on the easier side for me at least. I assumed ‘personal’ in 22ac was intended as a helpful pointer towards the vessel in question being unique to a person i.e. a part of their body. I have been caught out many a time by ‘vessel’ referring to something in the circulatory system, and perhaps the setter felt that, this being a QC, he needed to add something more to the definition.

      Edited at 2020-06-29 08:36 am (UTC)

    8. 14 minutes for me, with no particular difficulties, but a slightly thick head after my birthday yesterday. LOI BRIEFLY for no particular reason. No doubt I shall be out laying some equity later as Mrs Rotter is determined to visit a shop! Thanks all.
    9. As mentioned aready, a nice gentle start to the week, which I began with OUTLAY and OFF. I then worked steadily southwards, finishing with TIBETAN, then GRATIS. 7:08. Thanks Breadman and Don.
    10. A quick start to the week. It didn’t all go in first time, as proved by my LOI 9ac. Kindly clued including the Italian sculptor.
    11. Thought this was going to be a tough one at first as it took until 12a to get my FOI, but after that it was a fairly steady solve, just missing out on a sub-30 (30:36) because of a slight delay to get my LOI 1a. I did wonder what “Personal” was doing in 22a so I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. COD to 19a
    13. Lots of nice clueing going on here. With so few anagrams, there were, instead, some fun synonyms to work with instead. I belong to a little daily crossword group, all of whom, apart from me, are new to crosswords. I have listed for them the chestnutty words here today and there really are quite a few, eg, loaf, pound, companion, local, vessel (this has meant aorta a few times, too) star, etc. I suppose Charlie could go on this list, too, except that it can indicate other things, as well, like C, Chaplin, cocaine, etc. Anyway, all good fun even though it took me 19 minutes to complete. I’m not sure I’ll ever get much quicker than this. I think I take too long musing over clues I don’t immediately get, rather than moving on to easier ones and also I spend ages admiring cleverness and parsing rather than zipping around the grid. And, if I’m honest, I probably just don’t have the mental agility to read, solve and write in sub-10 minutes. But I still have the most tremendous fun doing the QC and that, I know, is the most important thing. Particular clues today which made me smile were CHIPOLATA mainly because the mental image it creates is so comic, and DONATELLO, because I like the surface and parsing. Thanks so much, Don, for your lovely blog, and thanks, too, to Breadman.
    14. Really enjoyed this, and took a little extra time to enjoy the parsing along the way. The two long downs were write-ins (possibly a little harder for younger solvers?), and in fact my only significant hold up was loi 13ac, which I’d visited several times in determined attempts to shoehorn Grass into the answer. All done and dusted in 20mins with CoD to 19ac, Briefly. My thanks to Breadman for a gentle start to the week, and apologies to Astartedon for the torment (but do check your inbox, 😉). Invariant
    15. 12 mins, I found the blog by googling 1645 xwd and commented but it has been deleted.

      Last few sung, outlay, scalpel, and idiot.

      COD nantes.

    16. Nothing too difficult here but I biffed a few – GRATIS, KING COBRA, TIBETAN and IDIOT (which I was sure must include a ‘C’).
      I thought BRIEFLY was very clever and deserves to be my COD.
      All in all, an enjoyable 16 minutes.
      Thanks to Breadman and Don.
    17. Over 11 minutes which is over par for me and then two typos so not even all green

      Must have had the 8 hours of Zoom meetings today on my mind!

      Mind went blank on the film and didn’t even see the hidden

      Still enjoyable to get (sort of) to the end though

      Thanks for the puzzle and the blog

    18. A Bridge Too Far was the first war film to spring to mind. Made me smile and helped. Lots of other instant guesses helped too.
      Was slow on some of SE corner, don’t know why because they were easy clues. Liked the parsing of Chipolata.
      Thanks to all.

      Just realised I failed to get IDIOT, appropriately

      Edited at 2020-06-29 10:53 am (UTC)

    19. Disappointingly DNF as I got 19ac wrong and then struggled with 17dn as a result. The rest were all completed in 30 mins.

      For some reason I thought it was a “Bluefly – “blue” being the soft cheese and “fly” being a short time. However, as is often the case, I think I just invented it.

      The rest had me thinking of Christmas, especially with the Autumnal weather we are currently experiencing: Outlay, Chipololatas, Brandy….

      FOI- 10ac “Kid”
      LOI – DNF
      COD – 5dn “Quartermaster”- simple but effective.

      Thanks as usual.

        1. I just watched James T remove a necklace from the Dolman and give the stones in it to Scottie to repair the warp drive, seconds before the Klingons wiped out the Enterprise! Turns out that the worthless baubles were dilithium 🙂
    21. Took father as “pa” then letters from toilet to give answer “patio” definately a levelled area. Bit confusing I think.
    22. ….with a BRANDY. Time was I would have enjoyed a panatella with it, but not a DONATELLO ! Nice gentle start to the week, and some lovely surfaces from Breadman. Thanks for the entertaining blog Don.

      FOI OUTLAY
      LOI BRANDY
      COD SCALPEL
      TIME 3:44

    23. Was 3 dn an &lit? Went to see it aged 12. Yawn. 176 mins according to Wiki.

      Nantes is nice. Lots of call centres apparently due to very neutral French accent. A bientot. Johnny

    25. Straightforward start to the week. My FOI was 4ac and I basically worked my way down the right hand side from there before similarly working my way down the left. Didn’t parse 13ac or 17dn so thanks to the blog for the explanations.

      FOI – 4ac equity
      LOI – 17dn idiot
      COD – either 19ac briefly or 17dn idiot

    26. under 7 mins, so just under par. Some fun clues I thought.

      Finished with SUNG having thought I’d finished with a BRANDY, but didn’t get a congrats or unlucky message, so had to scootch about the screen for the missing clue.

    27. Late to post but happy to report a solve in a little over 6 minutes. FOI OUTLAY, LOI SUNG. Thanks for the blog.
    28. A late start after having to diagnose a vehicle fault and locate a replacement direct ignition coil for a 20-year-old Saab before a 140 mile journey home. Having done that, my brain was a bit slow and The puzzle took nearly 20 mins. Good puzzle, though. Thanks to Breadman and to Astartedon for his blog.
      In reply to your question re the hands. They belonged to the greatest pianist of (at least) the twentieth century, Sergei Rachmaninoff. One of my two ‘can’t live without’ composers – Bach and Rach. John M.

      Edited at 2020-06-29 04:20 pm (UTC)

      1. Great idea. I’m right with you on the Bach but Rach I never actually got into although I realise I probably should. Are you a pianist yourself?
        1. Indeed! 12 or 13 notes depending who you believe. It is widely thought that he had Marfan’s Syndrome. The Concerti are great, yes, especially in his own live recordings. The second Symphony was my first of his Symphonies to really appreciate but I now think that The Bells and his Symphonic Dances are his greatest symphonic works. I never tire of them. Ditto the Preludes and his wonderful songs. His religious works are underrated too, especially his All Night Vigil (Vespers) which is stunning, given a Russian choir (and Russian basses!).
          Sorry. I get carried away once I start. I posted a reply to astartedon yesterday but removed it because it was too long and personal. Enjoy SVR. John M.

          Edited at 2020-06-30 08:47 am (UTC)

          1. Hi oldblighter, you have immediately convinced me to immerse myself in those works. I’m going to hook up to IDAGIO straight away!

            I am very sad that you deleted your ‘long and personal’ comment but given the narrow-mindedness of certain commenters here (very much in the minority I must say) I can understand why you did. If you would like to PM it to me I’d love to read it. Alternatively email me on: dcl ‘at’ lyons hyphen lines dot co dot uk.

            My own span is actually 12 notes but sadly I never had the musical ability to take advantage of the bounty of Providence.

            1. Enjoying the Vespers through IDAGIO now. All I could find was a King’s College version though. Is there a particular Russian recording you can recommend?
              1. All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Op. 37 (1915)
The State Academic Russian Choir/Alexander Sveshnikov (Rec. 1965). There is no other recording that comes close.
                My previous reply was treated as spam because I included a web link to a review on music web international. It is an excellent review.
              2. All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Op. 37 (1915)
The State Academic Russian Choir/Alexander Sveshnikov (Rec. 1965). There is no other recording that comes close.
                My previous reply was treated as spam because I included a web link to a review on music web international. It is an excellent review.
    30. A gentle start to the week. No time, as I did it on paper over lunch but probably under 30 mins. No need for aids and nothing I couldn’t see and parse for myself – so a very good day!

      Thanks to Breadman and Don for the blog

      Edited at 2020-06-29 05:23 pm (UTC)

    31. 29 minutes..plenty of neat clues..
      liked the rather graphic 19A “Insect on soft cheese for a short time (7)” Thanks for the puzzle and the blog.

      Edited at 2020-06-29 05:47 pm (UTC)

    32. … and I suspected when I finished in 9 minutes that others would find it so too. But a very fair and well constructed puzzle. Donatello is one of the few Italian sculptors I know!

      COD 16A Chipolata, a nicely put together clue and exactly what I am having for my supper, along with some home cured bacon.

      Thank you to Don for the blog and the Ongoing discussion on avatars.

      Cedric

    33. Difficult for a Monday, but very enjoyable.
      COD’s DONATELLO and BRIEFLY.
      Aren’t we lucky to have such a fascinating language with which to play.
      Thanks all.
      Diana
    34. finishing in 58 minutes which puts it on the harder end of a Monday QC for me. Enjoyed 11A Donatello and 5D Quartermaster for the lovely surfaces but got stuck on 9A/9D Scalpel/Sung and on 17D/22A Idiot/Artery. Sung and Artery should have been easy had I been more awake but Idiot to mean Charlie is a new one for me, as is scalp as part of a loaf.

      Thanks for the blog which was much needed to explain many of these! And thanks for the puzzle.

      1. I am familiar with the phrase – ‘use your loaf (stupid)’ meaning ‘engage brain’! rather than scalp
    35. 56 minutes, but I have come to cryptics late in life. And those minutes were located around 4 a.m. and midnight, the day being full of admin, chores and setting questions for the family zoom quiz. Anyway, I found the long down clues the easiest and the shorties more troubling. I need to get used to the tricks which resolve several words into a very few letters. And this engaging and supportive blog is always helpful and a pleasure to read. Thanks to Breadman and astartedon. KevinS
          1. Yes I did thank you! I don’t know if you saw my earlier comment on the original entry about my earlier attempt which was wide of the mark but I was thinking of rest mass, intrinsic mass etc but the answer obviously lies in symmetry considerations. Haven’t really got round to thinking about it yet but I will let you know when I have. Many thanks for the extra puzzle. I do love this sort of thing.
          2. By the way, I didn’t understand your comment about realigning the crystals. Was that meant for me? I didn’t think it was because you seemed to be replying to someone else but I couldn’t see the connection.
            1. I congratulated Jamesed46 (who’s avatar is Star Trek’s James Kirk) on his PB the other week. He replied that he felt he was on ‘warp speed’, so I kept the joke going by asking if his (dilithium) crystals now needed realigning… All meaningless babble if you are not a Star Trek fan.
    36. Another late post as finished before shut-eye last night, but this was a lovely puzzle bringing in some lesser used devices eg CH=companion, but mainly so enjoyable because of the consistent quality and imagination of the clues. very enjoyable although was rather alarmed to find I had completed the E and had virtually nothing to go on to break into the W. However, that was soon remedied. Loved the puzzle and the blog! Just for a change, instead of printing off the on-line version I have the printed copy to complete this evening. Just like old times…
    37. Really great blog Astartedon and we love reading your comments on the postings. Too busy to get to the QC yesterday but we just finished it a moment ago – thanks to Breadman for some lovely clues.

      FOI: outlay
      LOI: idiot
      COD: briefly

    38. Wow
      So impressed with everyone who completed this.
      Several days later I still had to look here for the answers to 20a & 14d. 🙁

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