From where I am sitting this was slightly more difficult than my last puzzle two weeks ago and quite a bit less difficult than my puzzle four weeks ago. But looking through it after the event maybe it only seemed slightly more difficult than the last one because I was distracted quite a lot by importunate pings and rings from my phone as I was trying to nail the second half. I think this is two in a row from Orpheus for me so thank you for this one which as I say felt like a slightly tougher test than the last one.
FOI was 8A and LOI 22A (I originally had GRAND-NIECE as a more likely entry but also had GREAT-NIECE in my mind for when I came to review final entries and when the crossers were there it was an obvious change to make).
COD goes to 1A not because of difficulty but because of the associative memories it brings. As many of you know I used to work in Advertising. I used to do quite a lot of work with a particular film director who had started working in the field back in the sixties. He told me that he had once worked at Grey Advertising (as I remember it) with a typographer (which is different from a typesetter but sets off the same associations in my mind) who had one day announced that he was leaving the agency to join a band. His name was Charlie Watts and looking back on it you could probably say it was a decent career move. RIP Charlie. I liked the Stones but was never what you would call a great fan (I liked a lot of their music but not obsessively and always found Jagger a bit annoying whilst acknowledging his undoubted skill at self-promotion). I was always a Charlie Watts fan though.
Funnily enough in the context of the clue in one of my later agencies the Creative Director used to bring his dog into work (back then this was quite unusual) and she used to spend many long and happy advertising lunches with us in the local pub. I don’t suppose such things happen any more. I believe even ‘brainstorming’ sessions have been outlawed as being offensive to people who have epilepsy. If I ever used that term back in the day and offended anyone then I apologise unreservedly.
Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.
Across | |
1 | Press employee, sort with dog in tow (10) |
TYPESETTER – TYPE (sort) + SETTER (dog) ‘in tow’. | |
8 | Irritate a small number in US city (5) |
ANNOY – A + NO (small number) ‘in’ NY (US city). | |
9 | Consume refreshments initially in the Criterion, perhaps (7) |
THEATRE – EAT (consume) + R (Refreshments ‘initially’) ‘in’ THE. Criterion being the name of a theatre. | |
10 | Vertically challenged worker’s system of writing? (9) |
SHORTHAND – SHORT (vertically challenged) + HAND (worker). | |
12 | A second husband’s remains (3) |
ASH – A + S (second) + H (husband). | |
13 | Horrify a namesake of Revere when speaking (5) |
APPAL – sounds like A + PAUL. Referring to Paul Revere, the American patriot who made a famous midnight ride to warn of the advance of the British forces prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord, as immortalised in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem which I’m sure we all no from skool. | |
15 | Person singing some forgotten oratorio (5) |
TENOR – hidden word: ‘some’ forgotTEN ORatorio. | |
17 | Film about female amphibian (3) |
EFT – ET (the Extra-Terrestrial, famous Spielberg film, which is about the only one that seems to play at the cinemas in Crossworld) ‘about’ F (female). An EFT is a type of newt that sometimes inhabits the ponds of Crossworld. | |
18 | Don’t accept note with sweet I consumed (9) |
REPUDIATE – RE (note, as in Doh-Re-Mi) + PUD (sweet) + I ATE (I consumed). | |
20 | Small talk primarily concerning manufacturer of headgear (7) |
CHATTER – C (‘primarily’ Concerning) + HATTER (manufacturer of headgear). | |
21 | Get rid of stunted vegetation (5) |
SCRUB – double definition. | |
22 | Large French resort visited by European relative (5-5) |
GREAT-NIECE – GREAT (large) + NICE (French resort) ‘visited by’ E (European). |
Down | |
1 | Openness of projectable photo? (12) |
TRANSPARENCY – double definition. | |
2 | Horse having drink by entrance to orchard? (5) |
PINTO – PINT (drink) + O (‘entrance’ to Orchard). | |
3 | Utter anarchy at first in outskirts of Sydney (3) |
SAY – A (Anarchy ‘at first’) ‘in’ SY (the outskirts of SydneY). | |
4 | He painted innocents originally gobbled up by giant (6) |
TITIAN – I (Innocents ‘originally’) ‘gobbled up by’ TITAN (giant). | |
5 | Corrected English males, old-fashioned (9) |
EMENDATED – E (English) + MEN (males) + DATED (old-fashioned). | |
6 | Way wet weather produces stress (6) |
STRAIN – ST (street, way) + RAIN (wet weather). | |
7 | What criminal offences may not be, but some batteries are? (12) |
RECHARGEABLE – double definition, first one slightly cryptic although I have underlined it as I guess you could just about use the term in that context in real legal life. The clue refers to the doctrine of double jeopardy whereby a defendant cannot be charged for the same offence twice. | |
11 | One putting up with moving to art role (9) |
TOLERATOR – straight anagram (‘moving’) of TO ART ROLE. | |
14 | Cutting tool one of two PMs reportedly observed (6) |
PITSAW – PIT (sounds like PITT, so ‘one of two PMs reportedly’, the two PMs in question being Pitt the Elder and Pitt the Younger) + SAW (observed). | |
16 | Austere city state once, not all in South Africa (6) |
SPARTA – PART (not all) ‘in’ SA (South Africa). | |
19 | In maturity some soldiers see eye to eye (5) |
AGREE – RE (Royal Engineers, ‘some soldiers’) ‘in’ AGE (maturity). | |
21 | Young relative — one that shines, we hear (3) |
SON – pretty obvious: sounds like SUN. |
FOI TYPESETTER
LOI THEATRE
COD PITSAW
TIME 3:39
Nice start to the week.
Thank you for the blog and the puzzle
BW
Andrew
I thought this was tricky to start with, my FOI was 12A, but the down clues we’re much smoother and gave me the foothold I needed. NHO eft or pitsaw but they were clearly signposted. I liked 4D where the clue reminded me of the Goya painting of Saturn eating his children. My LOI was 1D where I needed all the crossers.
2 annoying typos for me but all done in under 15.
FOI TYPESETTER, LOI STRAIN, COD TITIAN, time 05:17 for 0.87K and a Red Letter Day.
Many thanks Orpheus and Don.
Templar
Thank you Don for the blog
Cedric
22a. I put Grand-Niece. This stopped me getting 16d which I left unanswered. 14d was also an unanswered clue.
5d EMENDATED, I have never heard of, but I managed to work it out and so in it went. Likewise 4d. I have never heard of Titian, but it seemed the only logical answer.
So, a disappointing start to the week, but not a disaster.
Thanks to astartedon
I always understood that an EFT was a young newt. Must go and look it up.
I guess it was all done in about 20 mins over toast and orange juice.
Thanks to Orpheus for being kind and to Don for the blog.
Edited at 2021-10-04 07:51 am (UTC)
I put in GRAND NIECE which ruined 16dn. Also UNCHARGEABLE for 7dn which made THEATRE impossible.
Other than that, I couldn’t work out a few of the down clues. PITSAW, EMANDATED and PINTO (which in hindsight is obvious).
Rest of the puzzle was enjoyable.
Edited at 2021-10-04 07:58 am (UTC)
TOLERATOR looks like a made up word, can’t imagine it ever being used.
LOI THEATRE as I thought the Criterion was a London Club.
COD TITIAN, though we’ve had it before
Although, it does follow the rule that multi-syllable words ending in -ate take the -or suffix, excellent article on this: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Commonly-Confused-Suffixes-er-or-ar.htm
Some nice clues — mainly straightforward. EMENDATED and PITSAW were unknown words to me but were clearly clued. I must confess that ANNOY and AGREE took longer than they should have done.
Don’s excellent and fascinating blog covers the other neat clues succinctly so thanks to him and to Orpheus. John M.
Edited at 2021-10-04 08:09 am (UTC)
Regarding “double jeopardy”, I always thought this referred to not being able to be recharged with an offence once if you’d been cleared or found not guilty, although I guess if new evidence is found this does happen. However, I will defer to my learned friends on that.
I also DNK 5dn “Emendated” nor 4dn”Pitsaw” but they were fairly clued.
FOI — 3dn “Say”
LOI — 22ac “Grand Niece”
COD — 19ac “Agree”
Thanks as usual!
I had GRAND NIECE, like others, having assumed the French word for Large was required. Should have paused for parsing.
That led me to have SPARIN (I’d thought of Sparta early).
But I also had PITMAY as an unknown cutting tool; PITSAW also unknown.
With more care and less speed I might have got there.
Well played Orpheus.
David
FOI: TRANSPARENCY
LOI: GREAT-NIECE
I had refrained from opting for GREAT or GRAND until I had all of the checkers for my LOI.
Thank you to astartedon and Orpheus
Luckily someone mentioned EFT the other day as a Crossword word, a bit like ASH but more obscure.
Smiled at REPUDIATE, SHORTHAND.
Are there still typesetters, I wonder? I somehow imagine the layout being set by a graphic designer, or even the subs. (Now checked – there are still typesetter jobs advertised)
Thanks as ever, Don.
Edited at 2021-10-04 01:07 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2021-10-04 01:09 pm (UTC)
NHO EMENDATED, but clueing was straightforward.
I enjoyed the pud I ate yesterday – pineapple upside down cake with a spot of cream, so REPUDIATE is my COD today – in fact I might go and get a slice for elevenses. I also liked SPARTA – the film 300 being a somewhat guilty secret favourite of mine.
Thanks to astartedon for the interesting anecdote & excellent blog, and to Orpheus for a gentle start to the QC week.
3:48, a smidge behind Phil again.
Edited at 2021-10-04 09:24 am (UTC)
I found this one tough and not enjoyable with obscure and vague clues.
As John Mcenroe might have said :
The Pitts!
I did wonder if TITIAN had ever painted a picture of Chronos or similar in his Greek works, but it would seem not – what a clue that would have been though 😅
FOI Typesetter – like Don, this brings back memories for me, as did SHORTHAND, which I was hopeless at! In fact, I’m just about to start working on the newsletter I produce – not typesetting any more, all done on Publisher!
LOI Scrub – just because it was
COD Say – among many ticks, this one got a smile
Many thanks Orpheus for the fun (and the morale boost) and Don for the blog (and memories)
An interesting shaped grid (well the black parts!) and all in all a good crossword except for Emendated — not a word that I liked…but it had to be…
Thanks all
John George
FOI – 10ac SHORTHAND
LOI – 14dn PITSAW
COD – 10ac SHORTHAND
Thanks to Orpheus and Astartedon and congratulations to all who have recorded a PB.
A bit of Monday rustiness perhaps, with what I felt was a straightforward Monday QC. Even so, I only missed my target by entering “great niece” for 22 ac. A real “doh” moment, while trying to disentangle 16 d “Sparta”. And then I come to this site and realise I was far from the only one — fascinating!
NHO 14 d “pitsaw”, but the wordplay was kind especially with “one of two PMs” as the homophone.
9 ac “theatre” —in my University days, one of our locals was the Criterion Bar and that association seems to have persisted ever since, as opposed to that of a more cultural establishment! Still it didn’t hold me up for long.
5 d “emendated” is a word I have to say I don’t think I’ve ever used but the wordplay was re-assuring.
Thanks to Don for a fascinating blog and to Orpheus.
Edited at 2021-10-04 01:45 pm (UTC)
I also fell into the GRAND NIECE trap for a while, which made getting SPARTA a real struggle. So, 52 minutes for me – not good, but not a DNF (and my records still show more DNFs than completions for Orpheus QCs).
Mrs Random has been out all day, so I can’t report on her attempt as yet. Fortunately though, before she left she alerted me to some left-over home-made apple scones which, along with a cup of tea, helped keep what’s left of my brain ticking over until the end of today’s puzzle.
Many thanks to Orpheus and astartedon.
Edited at 2021-10-04 03:53 pm (UTC)
No problems with EFT and PITSAW which went straight in but 1ac and 1d are exactly the sorts of clues I struggle with and they were my LOIs after working upwards and backwards from the SW.
Suspect I must have been a bit sluggish on some of the others as well — PINTO for example needed some effort
Well done to everyone who had a quick time and/or close to a PB
Thanks all
A pit saw goves the name top dog as opposed to the poor chap underneath
Edited at 2021-10-04 05:10 pm (UTC)
known as ‘The raspberry, cherry!’ She only had three working legs! Jeremy Clark had a black Lab that had a bit of a name for foul behaviour. But then we all did! horryd.
FOI 1ac TYPESETTER — Roger Baker! Len cheeseman!
LOI 14dn PITSAW and COD
WOD 5dn EMENDATED
Time seven minutes on the nose.i
But a very neat definition is often just a chestnut you’ve never seen before.
FOI: ASH
LOI: PITSAW
COD: REPUDIATE
Thanks Astartedon and Orpheus.