Blogging from Melbourne this week. No Parkrun to report as I attended a function this morning before heading off to the “G” for the AFL Grand Final. This year it’s Sydney v Brisbane which is a mind-boggling concept for us older Australians, but enough of that…
For only the fifth time, as far as I can tell, our daily sustenance is provided by Pipsqueak today. It’s a nicely-weighted Quickie which I would judge to be slightly on the challenging side of the spectrum. Always hard to know what constitutes an obscurity, but some solvers may not be familiar with “whack” for “share”, or the physicist, or the nomadic people. In each case however there’s a clear alternative route to the solution.
Nothing more to add other than please let us know how you got on, and go the mighty Swannies.
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics.
In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
.
| Across | |
| 1 | Preparing a vinaigrette? (8) |
| DRESSING – Double definition | |
| 5 | Reportedly make fun of supporters on course (4) |
| TEES – Homophone (reportedly) of TEASE (make fun of)
And tees are used to support the golf ball on a golf course. |
|
| 8 | Seductress about to be caught in sin (5) |
| SIREN – RE (about) in SIN | |
| 9 | Teacher coming back with fish — or meat dish? (7) |
| RISSOLE – RIS [SIR (teacher) “coming back”] + SOLE (fish) | |
| 11 | Go astray in the middle of Derry (3) |
| ERR – The middle letters of dERRy
Ah Derry. The Town That I loved So Well. |
|
| 12 | Being alone, I sadly sat in loo (9) |
| ISOLATION – I + (SAT IN LOO)*
We’ve all been there. |
|
| 13 | One paying out money for nuclear physicist (6) |
| TELLER – Double definition
Edward Teller, Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist. |
|
| 15 | Set about conclusion for fanciful tale (6) |
| LEGEND – LEG [GEL (set) “about”] + END (conclusion) | |
| 18 | At party we embarrassed famous lawman (5,4) |
| WYATT EARP – (AT PARTY WE)*
An itinerant saloonkeeper, gambler, lawman, gunslinger and conman, who worked in Tombstone, Deadwood and Dodge City. In other words, a walking meme. |
|
| 19 | Mike leaving service, the idiot (3) |
| ASS – M (Mike) leaving MASS (service)
Mike from the NATO alphabet |
|
| 20 | Forgive a bishop taking crack (7) |
| ABSOLVE – A + B (bishop) + SOLVE (crack) | |
| 21 | Make amends early in the afternoon? (5) |
| ATONE – AT ONE (ie, at 1pm, early in the afternoon)
Could also be 1am of course, hence the question mark. |
|
| 22 | Joke about northern type (4) |
| KIND – KID (joke) about N (northern) | |
| 23 | Object after criminal deed (8) |
| ARTEFACT – (AFTER)* + ACT (deed)
I think criminal is my favourite anagram indicator. Tends to make for an interesting surface. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Son entering wasteland — a fool? (7) |
| DESSERT – S (son) entering DESERT (wasteland)
I’ll fess up to not really knowing what a fool is in the dessert sense, but it’s pretty popular in Crosswordland. |
|
| 2 | Dread wasting time? That’s a mistake (5) |
| ERROR – Noun form of dread required here. |
|
| 3 | Latin men set out to be romantic (11) |
| SENTIMENTAL – (LATIN MEN SET)* | |
| 4 | Strict new school for Cockneys (6) |
| NARROW – N (new) + ARROW [putative Cockney pronunciation of HARROW (school)] | |
| 6 | European cause becoming controversial (7) |
| EMOTIVE – E (European) + MOTIVE (cause) | |
| 7 | Grim end for the Titanic? (5) |
| STERN – Double definition
As in the rear end of the Titanic. Or any ship, hence the question mark again. |
|
| 10 | Dramatist upsets nobleman in speech (11) |
| SHAKESPEARE -Homophone of SHAKES PEER (upsets nobleman) | |
| 14 | Cooperation in Somalia is ongoing (7) |
| LIAISON – Hidden in somaLIA IS ONgoing
If only it were so. |
|
| 16 | Drop of French perfume (7) |
| DESCENT – DE (French for “of”) + SCENT (perfume) | |
| 17 | Rush job (6) |
| CAREER – Double definition
“Move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way”. |
|
| 18 | Share wife with journalist? (5) |
| WHACK – W (wife) + HACK (journalist)
Whack has a number of slang meanings, not all of which would be at home in a respectable space such as this. In this case we’re talking about a portion. Some references have this as an outdated usage but it’s quite familiar to me. Then again some references have me as outdated as well. |
|
| 19 | Bouquet made by a nomadic people (5) |
| AROMA – A + ROMA (nomadic people)
A term to refer to the Romani people collectively. Wikipedia has it as a colloquial term, but it’s not tagged as such in the dictionaries I checked. |
|
I thought this one was average, although I really wanted the meat fish to end in -ling, but I had to erase that when I saw stern. I was solving at a good pace until my last two, artefact and career. Took nearly two minutes, as I always use artifact.
Interestingly, Wyatt Earp lived until 1929, and apparently gave writers and directors of Hollywood Westerns info about the authentic Old West, which he certainly knew well.
Time: 9:36
No problems, but slow. Somehow knew WHACK, although I waited for the K before putting it in. TELLER was well known back in the day; said to be a source of Dr. Strangelove. [On edit] I was surprised to see how many people had never heard of Teller, the ‘father of the H-bomb’. 8:47.
Do TELLERS actually ‘pay’ or simply give you what is yours? Having looked up PAY, it seems to suggest that it means more like an exchange of money for goods/services, labour, debt settlement, etc.
Knew WHACK from the expression ‘get your fair whack’, meaning fair share.
COD to CAREER.
Thanks galspray and setter.
Bearing in mind the definition is ‘one paying out money’:
SOED teller a) a person employed to receive and pay out money in a bank.
9 minutes for this one. I didn’t know the physicist but didn’t need to, and had no problems with the rest of the puzzle.
Can’t argue with that. Thank you.
Pipsqueak seems to be finding his/her feet as a tough but interesting setter. Things not looking great at halftime for Galspray, but thanks for the blog!
I’ve only heard of a whack when it’s fair.
I found the bulk of this very straightforward then some of it beyond me.
I’m typing this during half time and it’s not looking good for your team Galspray 🙁 it’s never too late though, my team was well behind midway through the third quarter in 2021 then kicked 100-7 to win the game.
7 minutes plus change for this. I was convinced after that pen-portrait of Wyatt Earp you were going to write ‘In other words, your average American.’
Enjoy the footie.
Must have been on that mysterious wavelength today as this was a fairly swift top to bottom solve with only my last two – ARTEFACT and CAREER causing any issues.
Finished in 5.56 with COD to ISOLATION.
Thanks to Galspray and Pipsqueak.
NHO TELLER but what else could it be? Two passes did the trick for this enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Pipsqueak – and I feel your pain Galspray. Sport is a cruel mistress (Boltonwanderer will doubtless concur).
FOI TEES
LOI WHACK
COD ISOLATION
TIME 3:57
Toller – person who pays a toll 🙄 Maybe I shouldn’t have done it at 3:30am when I couldn’t sleep.
Nice puzzle, would have come in close to our normal 20-25 minute mark but breeze blocked by our last two. Resorted to the thesaurus for job which gave career and that unlocked artefact to finish in 26.49. Some delay also due to having to listen to Paw Patrol as we’re looking after our 3 year old GRANDSON.
Lots of clever surfaces but COD to artefact as I get to shout out “da Vinci was a painter” – I’ll get my coat!
Thanks pipsqueak and Galspray. We have no idea what AFL is, but good luck for whatever it is.
Hello RH. Just to say that I was breezeblocked by the same two clues. They took 10 frustrating minutes to get.
What Plett said, but slower (06:47, to be precise).
Many thanks Pip and gallers.
Quicker today than I usually am on a Saturday, at 9:07. It all went in very nicely with a slight hesitation over TELLER, but it had to be. I enjoyed both WHACK and STERN. COD to the splendid word ARTEFACT
11 minutes, held up at the end by the unlikely L2I of TEES and STERN. Short clues are often quite tricky I find. Rest pleasingly getable, though like a few others I got TELLER from one of the two definitions and crossed my fingers that he was a nuclear physicist.
Many thanks Galspray for the blog
Cedric
Last two (ARTEFACT, LEGEND) took a while to unravel, otherwise all seemed fairly straightforward. NHO TELLER, liked WHACK and surface for STERN. Many thanks as usual.
So much for my day out at the G.
It was Lions v Swans and it played out as if it was actual lions v actual swans. Carnage.
Will now focus on drinking heavily so please ignore any subsequent posts.
I was in Melbourne for the Grand Final in 2006, that also featured the Swans. See here. They lost by just one point then.
I recall it only too well John!
That was the last GF to feature two non-Victorian teams until yesterday. But most remarkably, and hence my comment in the blog, yesterday’s match was between teams from the two “non-AFL” states.
Queensland and NSW are still very much dominated by the rugby codes, but there’s a definite shift under way.
They were beaten by my mob, who had lost to them by just four points the year before…Those games were a tad more nerve-racking than yesterday’s 10-goal blow-out
3:23. I didn’t know what Edward Teller was famous for, but I do now. Very gentle from Pipsqueak leading to my fastest time of the month. Thanks Pipsqueak and Gallers
A fool is a sort of fruit custard, sometimes made with rhubarb in our house. Sieved fruit mixed with custard then allowed to set
I want some!
20 mins…
Didn’t know 13ac “Teller” or 18dn “Whack” for portion, but they were generously clued. Nearly put “Risotto” for 9ac, however the parsing didn’t work and I was unsure of the spelling.
I wondered if 7dn “Stern” meant the Titanic went down stern first, hence the “grim end” – but I guess in the grand scale of things the whole thing went down so it’s pretty irrelevant.
FOI – 1ac “Dressing”
LOI – 6dn “Emotive”
COD – 5ac “Tees” – thought I’d exhausted the number of ways this could be clued – obviously not.
Thanks as usual!
6:42
No idea about TELLER, failed to parse ARTEFACT, and took a while to spot the TEES homophone before my L2I STERN and EMOTIVE. Decent puzzle from Pipsqueak
Thanks also to G
I finished in 7:55 which is probably about my average time, but as I was doing it, it felt quite tough for a QC
Despite Teller being a write-in, along with Shakespeare and Wyatt Earp, a long hesitation over Narrow/strict, until I ironically thought of a narrow interpretation, meant I couldn’t avoid the SCC. I then spent several more minutes trying to get loi, 17d Career. Obviously a DD, so I tried the rush option first, but got nowhere with dash/reed variations, so I switched to specific jobs before finally looking at generic terms. Not so much a pdm, more of a (deserved) head slap. CoD to Absolve, for the smile. Invariant
There seemed to be an endless series of clever clues forcing me to think laterally and put aside any assumptions about meanings which made this puzzle a pleasure to attempt.
Reached the 40m cutoff but with only one to go, 17d, gave it another 5m for alphabet trawls (SomeRandomChap please note my lack of will). Finally resorted to looking up ‘job’ in the thesaurus and there was CAREER staring me in the face. So a DNF and 1-0 to Pipsqueak.
Thanks galspray for the amusing blog.
Oh dear! Although, I think you may be excused, given that you had only one clue to get. I wonder whether I will show any more resolve when I’m faced with the same situation.
Both DRESSING and TEES, the first two clues, went in quickly and I used them to make good progress for a while. However, a day out from the SCC required a fast finish, but it was not to be. EMOTIVE, RISSOLE and NARROW (an enjoyable clue) added five minutes to my time before I was well and truly breezeblocked by ARTEFACT and CAREER. They added a further 10 minutes and I crossed the line slightly over target in 32 minutes.
I had NHO the physicist (TELLER), but I had heard of the lawman (WYATT EARP) and even the dramatist (SHAKESPEARE), which is almost a literary first for me.
Thanks to Pipsqueak and Galspray.
11.18 An entertaining puzzle. WHACK and STERN required some thought. Supporters on courses have become a bit of a chestnut but TEES was still last one in. Thanks galspray and Pipsqueak.
Didn’t have time to solve it, it I am continuing to experiment with Crossword Genius. It solved the whole puzzle from a photograph in 3:06. All
Clues parsed with a few guesses (didn’t understand the cockney thing, had not heard of the Roma people, and didn’t understand the cryptic nature of STERN.)
Of course, it gets better each time.
Hey Galspray, next time you’re in Melbourne (or if you’re staying on) let the Melbourne mob know and we can convene. Sorry about the result, I tipped Swannies in a close one so what would I know? My teams start with West Coast then Collingwood by marriage and Sydney because I lived there for ages, then Freo because of family and Richmond because they were my mum’s team a long time ago. Quick for me today, 5.22 which is a near PB. Ta both.
The thought had crossed my mind Lindsay but it’s a bit of a FIFO operation, and a long weekend, so I don’t think it would have worked.
February might be the next opportunity, I’ll touch base closer to that time.
FWIW we had exactly the same time today (I forgot to post it in the blog).
Let’s keep it in mind and see how things work out. Myself and Tina, Bletch and Aphis99 had a nice catch-up with Merlin back in April, it was easy to arrange. If you had the same time as me you must be slipping!
I’m always up for it!
11:11 NARROW took the longest but now I like it best.
DNF
Defeated by AROMA. Once the checkers were in I assumed it was a hidden for the NHO ANOMA tribe. Thought a fast time was on the cards but undone by biffing RISOTTO and then grinding to a halt in the SE corner.
On the plus side, beautiful morning for a parkrun.
After yesterday’s discussion of the QSnitch I found it notable that we positively skipped through today’s puzzle (QS presently 94) in 10:50 (still some 2-3 minutes slower than our PR) compared to yesterday’s (QS now 76) which took us 6 minutes longer and certainly felt much harder. Knew of Teller but wouldn’t have got it quite so quickly without having done 1d first. Wyatt Earp was a biff but might have been faster if I’d recognised ’embarrassed’ as an anagrind in advance – I don’t recall seeing that before. WHACK we kind of knew but the wordplay was straightforward. (A)ROMA well known over in Europe I would have said. Thanks galspray and Pipsqueak!
I’m not sure if the QSnitch is set up for the Saturday puzzles?
I think the 94 and 76 and still the scores for Fri and Thur.
I’d agree with you that today would probably be a little less than yesterday, although I did get caught up today for an annoyingly long time on TEES/EMOTIVE which dragged my time way past my normal.
It’s not often I see so many convincing and amusing surfaces! Bravo! Was the Cockney school a TEES about our Eton complaints? COD ISOLATION with SENTIMENTAL a close second.
17:08, fast-ish by my standards.
Thanks Pipsqueak and galspray!
Around 8 minutes for most of it, and then another five for ARTEFACT and CAREER, ending up at 13:43. Happy enough with that after yesterday’s shambles.
Thank you for the blog!
As per Templar and Plett, just a little quicker.
5:12
Lots of lovely lateral thinking today. Really enjoyable puzzle.
FOI5a Tees
LOI23a Artefact
COD 18a Wyatt Earp – one of those that you instinctively and instantly know is right and then are please to parse – does the mind see the answer before the rest of you catches up?
Nicely pitched puzzle today. LOI 23a ARTEFACT. I forgot again that criminal was an anagrind! grrr!
Thanks Pipsqueak and Galspray
A frustrating one for me where clearly I am from the wrong generation to solve these with some ease. After all the hubbub about Adele a couple days ago, I was shocked to see no-one comment on WYATT EARP. I can say with certainty that I have never heard that name before. Particularly annoying was that I could see the anagram, but it is not a common or guessable name.
Also, an someone not from the UK, I had never come across Harrow for school before.
Also unsure about EMOTIVE = controversial? Sigh. Another day tomorrow.
I don’t know how old you are, Anymouse but I knew of Wyatt Earp through the many many fictional depictions of him. It’s got its own wiki list.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp_in_popular_culture
Most notably the 90s movies Tombstone/Wyatt Earp where Kevin Costner tried to block Kurt Russell from making his movie by renting all of the western costumes so Kurt had to go to Europe to find some (which ended up better and cheaper) and Kurt’s movie ended up far out grossing Kevin’s.
Also Harrow and Eton are the only UK schools I’ve come across in these crosswords. Sometimes they’ll reference specific colleges at Oxford/Cambridge but that’s rare and I haven’t bothered to write them down.
“Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp,
Brave, courageous, and bold
Long live his name
And long live his fame
And long may his story be told”.