QC 2771 by Alex

Author   MerlinPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Very slow start, took an age before the FOI, things moved on pretty quick for me then. 10:23.

As AI starts to creep up in many professions, I wonder how setters are using it. For example, I asked it for a seven-letter acrostic for SCUFFLE which was self-defined, it came up with sudden conflict usually featuring frenzied live engagement(7). Not enough to produce a final clue, but maybe AI has a place for idea generation. Like most professionals, setters probably keep their usage of it quiet. Maybe Alex is actually AI-ex, you can never tell with these fonts.

AI still struggles with solving cryptic clues, though.

Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.

Across
1 Surplus vehicle carrying silver by church in excess (12)
EXTRAVAGANCE – EXTRA (surplus) + VAN (vehicle) containing AG (sliver) + CE (Church)

Was a bit tricky to put this together, I got the EXTRA first, but plenty of words for excess start extra-. Was stuck trying to get CAR for my vehicle.
8 Two cats with small  drums (3-4)
TOM-TOMS – TOM (cat) twice +S {small}

Very nice
9 Whip move for dance (5)
TANGO – TAN (whip) + GO (move)

“I’ll tan your hide”, as Dennis’s father or other abusive parents/school teachers apparently said.
10 Stir river with another river (5)
ROUSE – R{iver} + OUSE (a river)
11 Observer of second boy wizard (7)
SPOTTER – S{econd} + POTTER (boy wizard)
12 Warning of Capone with gun (5)
ALARM – AL (Capone) + ARM (gun)

The only famous AL to ever make it in these pages.  Perhaps when Mr Pacino is no longer with us we’ll have a bit of variety in our ALs. Or now that the “live persons” rule is relaxed other ALs could be seen. If it is our setter’s nickname, then could be clued as 

Warning of me briefly with gun (5)
14 U grades changed and sweetened (7)
SUGARED – (U GRADES)* [changed]
15 Fresh voice involving hot reporter (9)
NEWSHOUND – NEW (Fresh) + SOUND (voice) contains H{ot}
17 Try removing odd bits of radium (3)
AIM – {r}a{d}i{u}m
19 Rebel prisoner with criminal record is getting time after French refusal (13)
NONCONFORMIST – CON (prisoner) + FORM (record) + IS + T{ime} all after NON (French Refusal)

There’s a moth called the NONCONFORMIST. Over on the 15×15 it would have been clued as such.
21 Thin lake with a bit of greenery within (6)
MEAGRE – MERE (lake) contains A + G{reenery} [bit of]
22 Girl from French town (5)
NANCY – Double Def

Another Chestnut. It’s not a particularly big town, or common girls name. Though with the current craze for weird names it wouldn’t surprise me if there are girls being named after lots of French towns

In 2021, Nancy ranked 878th in popularity for girls’ names in the United States. And Paris is at 252.
Down
1 Amusing itinerant travelling in England (12)
ENTERTAINING – (ITINERANT)* [travelling] inside ENG{land}
2 Dish produced by office worker and posh artist (7)
TEMPURA – TEMP (office worker) + U (Posh) + RA (artist)
3 Love a bit of Brad or Ethan (5)
ADORE – Hidden [a bit of] in Brad or Ethan
4 Endlessly evaluate idiots (5)
ASSES – ASSES{S} (evaluate)

This is a chestnut.
5 Good facts about natural phenomena (4,2,3)
ACTS OF GOD – (GOOD FACTS)* [about]

That’s a fine anagram.
6 Doctor recants notion causing alarm (13)
CONSTERNATION – (RECANTS NOTION)* [Doctor]

“Doctor” as an anagram indicator is one of the more confusing of the 603 known species. It comes from the verb “to doctor” which means to change something in order to trick somebody. And of course it can be DR or MB as well.
7 Walked past house to find vehicle (3,3)
HOT ROD – HO{use} + TROD (walked)

Yes, HO is the official abbreviation for HOUSE. I have House in the first line of my address, and I have never abbreviated it to HO. It looks too much like What Ho or Tally Ho.

Etymology disputed, but appeared in 1930s California, possible from “hotting up” with “rod” for “roadster”.
13 Game mag John distributed (7)
MAHJONG – (MAG JOHN)* [distributed]
14 Heads of sport come up for final leg ending fight (7)
SCUFFLE – Initial letters of “s{port} c{ome} u{p} f{or} f{inal} l{eg} e{nding}

Seven letter acrostic, that’s a good effort, see preamble.
16 Caught getting into booze, flinch (5)
WINCE – WINE (booze) contains C{aught}
18 Mother still turned up being friendly (5)
MATEY – MA (mother) + YET (friendly) backwards [turned up]
20 Jog  ladder (3)
RUN – Double Def

A ladder/run in a stocking.

111 comments on “QC 2771 by Alex”

  1. Ya, straightforward, no real notes. 10:46

    I would be quicker if I didn’t have to refer to my list of ‘random rivers that appear in crosswords’ 😂

    I look forward to becoming one of those elderly Asian mahjong aunties in my old age, I wonder what that will look like when I get there, maybe some form of VR 🙂

    1. I expect that you’ll play everyone on the planet all at the same time, via a neural interface, with ads interrupting a thousand times per second. It sounds awful. Sorry.

      On the plus side, today you beat me by nine seconds! Bah.

  2. Pretty straightforward. I biffed NEWSHOUND & NONCONFORMIST. Didn’t care much for ACTS OF GOD; ‘acts’ in the anagrist is unchanged in the solution. 5:36.

  3. 6:37. The only query I had was equating ACTS OF GOD with natural phenomena. My first thought was these concepts seemed like opposites. A little research, however, cleared that up.

  4. 4:46. Good point about NANCY Merlin. Was a common name back in the day, but if you meet a Nancy now she’s probably a senior citizen. Even Nancy Sinatra is 84. Perhaps it should have been clued as woman instead of girl!

    Also very interesting point about the use of AI for solving crosswords. You’d think that the Times’ strict adherence to Ximenean rules would leave it open to an algorithmic code-cracker. Perhaps in the near future we’ll have Magoo facing off against ChatGPT, a la Kasparov v Deep Blue.

    Thanks Merlin and Alex.

    1. There used to be an AI solver at the New York Times crossword championships (aka the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament) called Dr. Fill, though it was retired in 2021. In its last appearance, in conjunction with another AI system, it solved the final puzzle in less than a third of the time taken by the human winner. Of course, the NYT puzzle is much closer to straight definitions than the Times cryptic, though arguably you can reduce a cryptic to simply a set of definitions so AIMagoo may not be that far in the future …

      1. I’ve played with crosswordgenius.com on the iphone. It’s stand-out trick is when you point the camera at a printed crossword in the newspaper (grid & clues). It scans it in and starts solving!. It’s cryptic ability is not always great, and it can make mistakes. I believe it learns by reading blogs like ours.

        1. When I can’t understand an answer (and the puzzle isn’t blogged here or elsewhere) I’ll have a look at Crossword Genius, and it’s sometimes helpful. Less so than a year ago, though – I’ve become better than I was, and increasingly I’m finding that if I’m stumped then CG will be too.

  5. 6.04, FOI TOM-TOMS, LOI little RUN which I had completely overlooked. The two big down anagrams were biffable early from crossers but EXTRAVAGANT and NONCONFORMIST (both terrific clues I thought, along with NEWSHOUND) took some winkling out. A fun puzzle, thanks Alex and Merlin.

  6. 9 minutes. I never heard of a female Al so I don’t think our setter would qualify, especially as her real name is Victoria.

  7. There were 759 new Nancys in England and Wales last year to rank 67th, one place ahead of Emma, but only 69 Parises (562). Olivia, Amelia and Isla took the top spots. My run of fast but inaccurate puzzles continued thanks to NANvY (which did not rank, not even matching the four new Giulianas). Not all green in 7.14.

    1. I could only find the NSW data but blow me down, the top three are the same as yours. Isla, Amelia, Olivia.

      Emma was a regular top 10 finisher here in the 80’s and 90’s, slowing down a bit now. Nancy hasn’t cracked the top 100 for at least the last 70 years.

  8. Got off to a flier with both of the 1s going straight in and then it was a sprint to the finish.
    One day I’ll remember not to lift and separate ‘boy wizard’ when it appears in clues as this caused my only minor delay and I needed all the checkers before the penny dropped.
    Finished in 4.51.
    Thanks to Merlin and Alex

  9. I also joined Mendesest’s “Fast but Inaccurate Club”, tripping over the M’s and N’s of LOI NONCONFORMIST after 5:19 of a puzzle that I didn’t much care for. COD to NEWSHOUND.

  10. Another silly DNF at 9mins. Enjoyed it though and would have been quicker if I didn’t have to get the pen&paper out.

    A quick look in the archive suggests that Alex’s 15th QC which is indicated by XV in the unusual grid?

        1. Maybe the XV is pure coincidence – that’s why I ask the question 🤷‍♂️ I just happened to notice it’s not rotationally symmetrical and remember seeing the XV trick used previously on a puzzle involving some rugby clues – possibly one of RR’s.

  11. A second day of lulling us into, no doubt, that false sense of security before an Izetti. But hey, a PB of 12.14 today 😀😀

    Liked tom toms, great mental image of bongoing pussies.

    Thanks Alex and Merlin

    2. Brilliant, congratulations! I too await my forthcoming kicking from the steel toecap of Izetti.

  12. That was beautifully easy! All fell in, and even the long words were exactly what the checkers suggested they ought to be. LOI MEAGRE. Lovely, thank you, Alex.

  13. A confidence builder to finish in a rare sub 15 home run. One day I may break the sub 10 minute barrier. LOI ROUSE. Nice.
    Thanks Merlin and Alex.

    1. Keep going! We had our first ever sub 10 minute solve yesterday, followed by another today. Tomorrow will probably be a disaster, but at least we can bask in the glow of two in a row for the rest of today, even if it has taken several years to get there!

  14. 06:14. nothing particularly noteworthy here other than it was a fun puzzle and that it was a nice way to finish up after I made a meal of the 15×15. thanks both!

  15. Couldn’t get 1a so started with 1d and moved across. Smooth progress after that, taking a moment to see HOT ROD but otherwise only 1a (POI) and TEMPURA (LOI) required two looks. All done in 06:59 for 1.3K and a Respectable Day again.

    NANCY will always be a girlish name to me because of Swallows & Amazons, but it’s true that I don’t know any young ones!

    Many thanks Alex and Merlin.

    1. Yeah, well the other of the girls in Swallows and Amazons has a name that certainly would be banned now.

        1. I can’t figure out how to do a “laughing face” on a Windows PC, so you’ll have to use your imagination, but well done and thank you.

  16. A very (make that very very) rare day as I recorded my second fastest time ever at 4:53 and first ever (to my knowledge) <1K. 1A and 1D pretty much write-ins (though they took a bit longer to parse) and the rest flowed rapidly in a NW to SE solve.

    I suspect after two very approachable puzzles that we will build to some real testers by the end of the week. Just in time for my next blogging duty …

    Many thanks Merlin for the blog
    Cedric

    1. Fantastic time Cedric – the crossword gods rewarding you for the excellent blogs you write on Saturdays 👍

      1. Red letter day is usually a bad one, as that is how the online tool indicates an incorrect letter.

    10. Great time, Cedric – congrats. May I ask for a reminder of what <1K means; I've forgotten 🙂

      1. It’s a measure of how well one does compared to the time – usually a very fast one – set by Kevin Gregg of this parish, as in “that took me 1.7 Kevins today”. A light-hearted attempt I think to allow for the level of difficulty of a puzzle (ie recognising that not all 10 minute solves are equal) before the SNITCH was extended to the QC. Kevin is very gracious in allowing the usage, or at least if he does mind, he has never let on.

  17. 9:30 – a record or close to it. Long anagrams always help (me) to get plenty of crossers in place to speed along more challenging stuff later – not that much held me up apart from trying to make ‘another river’ by anagramming (‘stir’) the word river! Much to enjoy here.
    FOI TOM-TOMS
    LOI ROUSE
    COD SCUFFLE – very clever

  18. I had the same experience as today’s blogger, so I was on the slow side today finishing in 11:08.

  20. I was held up at the end by MEAGRE where I couldn’t think of a suitable lake component, or how a simple L would make it work. Somewhat frustrating after an otherwise steady amble down the grid, although HOT ROD a required all crossers before I saw it.
    The long clues were nice constructions, enjoyable slotting them together, and ROUSE was neat.

  21. 7:04 (Æthelred of Mercia abdicates, and becomes a monk)

    Almost a clean sweep, with all the across clues except TANGO done on first pass.
    LOI was RUN.

    Thanks Merlin and Alex

  22. A second consecutive straightforward puzzle, delayed only by initially putting CANED in 9a, but thanks to an act of God it sooner revealed itself. When I started trying the QC I found it hard to believe those who claimed to have finished in under 5 minutes, but I’ve now joined them on the rare occasion. Thanks to all contributors to these blogs who have greatly improved my solving abilities!

  23. 7 minutes for me-LOI NEWSHOUND.
    I couldn’t have gone much quicker.
    Only NONCOMFORMIST held me up a bit; I waited for the checkers with that one.
    David

  24. Pretty straightforward, but no less diverting. Fast times for most, including me.

    My last 3 in were 3 of the long ones, and the final one was CONSTERNATION.

    3:53

  25. 6:42

    Might have been a second consecutive sub 6’ but for LOI MEAGRE. Bit of greenery for G fooled me even though it was already in position. Is it good form to indicate a single letter that way?
    Apart from that, very enjoyable, thanks Alex and Merlin.

  26. A nice steady 30m solve.
    LOI was ROUSE which I rather liked after discarding RHINE and RHÔNE.
    COD TEMPURA which made me smile.

  27. 4:28. Held up by a careless NONCONFORMANT for 19A for a while, but CONSTERNATION fixed it eventually. No stand-out clues for me today. Thanks Alex and Merlin.

  28. Nice and gentle today, although held up slightly by LOI SPOTTER (tried to separate boy and wizard for too long). Still have some coffee left so I wasn’t too troubled by this morning’s fine QC. Many thanks Alex. Enjoyed ADORE 😄 Thanks for the blog Merlin.

  29. A fastish time for me in 8.28 although the times so far submitted suggest I perhaps should have been faster. Nevertheless it is the eighth consecutive solve under my ten minute target, so I suspect a toughie is just round the corner.
    Nice to be reminded of my nine year old granddaughter NANCY. I remember when my son told us of her chosen name that I thought it was from a bygone era. Apparently there are two others in her school with the name, so seemingly not.

  30. A PB of 11 minutes to make us very happy.
    Enjoyed all of this and nothing dubious. Thanks Merlin and Alex.

  31. 13m
    Some doziness remaining from weekend excesses prevented a fast time.
    Had penciled in ure for 10a which didn’t help.
    LOI rouse. COD newshound.

  33. A fairly straightforward 17mins for me this morning. Might even have been a sub-15, apart from time wasted trying to make a word from Itinerant+In+E ( . . .in England 🙄). Sanity was eventually restored, but it was hardly an ‘entertaining diversion’. CoD to the splendid Nonconformist at 19ac, though perhaps ‘is doing time’, while a harder crytic, would have been a better surface ? Anyway, a really nice puzzle from Alex. Invariant

  34. 5.21

    Congrats to everyone on their fast times. Interesting to hear Cedric saying that 1a and 1d were write ins. They were my last two, as I tend to struggle with the long ones and needed all the checkers.

  36. A PB for me at 6 minutes and counting. Is it a wavelength thing? In several cases I wrote in and then parsed – and they all worked. Enjoyed the cat drummers and the hot reporter – and the recanting doctor (the anagram jumped out). What a good start to the week (I missed yesterday’s). Thanks Alex and Merlin.

  37. A very enjoyable 15 mins fully parsed, with a couple of those spent in a MER at clueing the ‘g’ in MEAGRE as ‘bit of greenery’. Really? I suppose I would also complain if it had been ‘Thin lake with a key within’.
    I also had ‘mates’ instead of MATEY (‘set’ rather then ‘yet’ meaning still) for a while which held me up with NANCY.
    Thanks Merlin and Alex. Prof

  38. Dnf…

    18 mins for everything, but I put “Scouter” for 11ac. For the life of me, I don’t know why I didn’t see Spotter – I even thought of Harry Potter and it still didn’t appear. The rest I enjoyed, even if there were a few chewy big ones to work out.

    FOI – 3dn “Adore”
    LOI – 11ac “Scouter”
    COD – 9ac “Tango”

    Thanks as usual!

  39. A similar start to that experience by our blogger today …. slow! I always give a clue 25-30 seconds before I move on, so there were 3+ minutes on the clock when I finally started with ALARM. SUGARED and AIM then came quickly, but I didn’t really get going until I ventured into the Down clues.

    I enjoyed HOT ROD, SCUFFLE and TOM-TOMS, but I never did fully parse MEAGRE. My LOI led me right back to where I’d tried to start – EXTRAVAGANCE, which took a couple of minutes at the end, even with all of the checkers.

    Time = 19 minutes, so a very nice day out from the SCC.

    Thanks to Alex and Merlin.

    On edit: Mrs Random doesn’t tackle the QC very often during the summer (too much gardening, etc.), but she did today. I thought I’d set her quite a target and had already earmarked a space for the family point amongst my (pathetically small) collection. Alas (for me), she rattled through it in 14 minutes and couldn’t understand why I’d taken so long. She’s now making a Bakewell tart for her dad’s 93rd birthday tomorrow, having previously made a delicious fruit cake for my dad’s 95th on Sunday just gone. Thinking about it, I don’t begrudge Mrs R the family point.

    1. Great choice for a birthday treat! I am actually in Bakewell (the town) for a few days of walking in the Peak District, and it is stuffed full of places selling them. There’s a distinct risk I end up several pounds heavier by the time I go home, for all my strenuous walking.

  40. After trying the QC for the last month or so this was the first one I completed! Time of 26 minutes but delighted to have finished

    1. Bravo! It’s a great feeling and I think the first one I ever completed took about 40 minutes, so you’re well ahead!

    2. Very well done, The Mole! Under half an hour within a month of starting? I’m still pleased to achieve that and I’ve been going at it for over 4 years.

    4. Congratulations! Finishing that first puzzle is a huge milestone. It won’t be long before you spot the same clue constructions coming up time and again and you’ll be solving most of them.

  41. Decided to print off the crossword before I went shopping, but only managed 7 clues. Very depressed. On return felt I must reveal a down clue to progress. Oh, PDM, I had printed the 15×15 by mistake! And yesterday’s at that.
    So now, having bought the paper paper, I have finished the QC in double quick time with no hesitations. Phew.
    Liked many, 1a, 1d and other long ones.
    Many thanks, Merlin.

  43. DNF

    Another very easy one, done in 11 minutes but serves me right for getting carried away. Had LOI _E_G_E meaning thin and possibly starting with a L for lake. Biffed LEGGIE and paid the price with 3 pink squares.

  44. Decided to do this though couldn’t shake my morning jet lag sleepiness. Astoundingly I did it in 10:23 for a PB, a 1.0 Merlin and a Very Good Day 🙂 Must try to learn how to let loose the unconscious processes more often. Though I expect there will be quite a few PBs today.

    Nancy may not be large, but there’s some very beautiful Art Nouveau architecture to see and some significant historical and literary connections (Lucien Leuwen, apparently Stendhal hated the place). I remember the food and wine with fondness too.

    2. A PB for you – many congratulations! It’s huge fun when the solutions come thick and fast. Brava!

  45. 8.49 I was slow on the long ones but pretty quick overall. EXTRAVAGANCE was LOI. Thanks Merlin and Alex.

  47. Unlike many of you I didn’t pull off a PB today, but I’m happy enough with 10:55. Even the long anagrams seemed to come quite readily, which is unusual for me.

    Thank you for the blog!

  48. 10:10 here, so close to 2 sub-10s in a row, but held up by my LOI MEAGRE, where I was trying to find a five-letter word for lake to add G to.

    TOM-TOMS my favourite today. Thanks to Alex and Merlin.

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