Quick Cryptic 3065 by Jalna

Author   BletchleyRejectPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

A good challenge from Jalna today, especially to parse everything properly.

As usual, my hopes of a speedy (for me) time were dashed by 1a and 1d, both of which brought nothing but a blank response from the grey matter so I retreated to the sanctuary of the SE corner to get started. Worked steadily from then on, before finishing with 1a as my LOI (surprise, surprise, not really that hard after all) in 10:12. No cryptic defs, which was a help.

Thanks to Jalna for a puzzle which I found enjoyable and difficult enough to be satisfying to solve.

Definitions underlined in bold, letter deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.

Across
1 Heart-rending depression ultimately ate into us (7)
PITEOUS – PIT (‘depression’) atE intO (‘ultimately ate into’) US (‘us’)
7 Sound broadcasting organisation (7)
CHANNEL – Double definition

‘Sound’ as in a narrow stretch of water, not the sort of ‘Sound’ that first came to mind, especially with the second def.
9 Finished in the short stuff next to the fairway (7)
THROUGH – THe (‘the short’) ROUGH (‘stuff next to the fairway’)

The wordplay seems not to make sense, but the ‘stuff next to the fairway’ really was ‘short’ at the recent Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, more so than at The Open at Portrush. I bet the Americans were relieved to have a wayward drive not be punished as severely as it would have been on their US courses.
10 Casting starting late is cause of irritation (7)
ITCHING – PITCHING (‘Casting starting late’)
11 Crass, somewhat bacchanalian affair (4)
NAFF – Hidden (‘somewhat’) in ‘bacchanaliaN AFFair‘

I think of NAFF as a very British word.
12 Be successful with computers and such? Don’t be daft! (4,3,2)
COME OFF IT – COME OFF (‘Be successful’) IT (‘computers and such?’)
14 By the way, when agitated, Ann’s a pest! (2,7)
EN PASSANT – Anagram (‘when agitated’) of ANNS A PEST

A term from the French but it is in 2/3 of the standard dictionaries in this sense.
16 Mountain in France and North America (4)
ETNA – ET (‘in France and’) NA (‘North America’)
17 Inform of a competition reward on the radio (7)
APPRISE – A (‘a’) then aural wordplay (‘on the radio’) of PRIZE (‘competition reward’)
20 New route up peak maybe being developed (7)
NASCENT – N (‘New’) ASCENT (‘route up peak maybe’)
21 Good-natured, socialist family (7)
KINDRED – KIND (‘Good-natured’) RED (‘socialist’)
22 Following a strike, senior journalist is humiliated (7)
ABASHED – ED (‘senior journalist’) after (‘Following’) A (‘a’) BASH (‘strike’)

I couldn’t find ‘humiliated’ specifically in the dictionary definition for ABASHED in the usual sources, although it is included as a synonym in eg Oxford Dictionaries.  ‘Humiliated’ just seems a bit strong to me; “embarrassed” would be the first synonym to come to mind.
Down
1 Show of approval from group of animals eating that bone frantically (3,2,3,4)
PAT ON THE BACK – PACK (‘group of animals’) containing (‘eating’) anagram (‘frantically’) of THAT BONE

My second last in and COD for the descriptive surface. Yum!
2 Computer processing speed changed after large operation (8)
TERAFLOP – Anagram (‘changed’) of AFTER then L (‘large’) OP (‘operation’)

Maybe we’re all meant to know such things these days, but to me this qualifies as geek speak. Looking it up, a teraflop is an indication of how powerful a computer is, “representing one trillion (=tera-) floating point operations (mathematical operations with numbers containing decimal points) per second”. I’m not sure if this is correct but AI tells me my laptop can operate at several hundred gigaflops.

I was also misled into thinking ‘after’ was a positional indicator so didn’t spot the anagram immediately.
3 Responsibility of old group of students (4)
ONUS – O (‘old’) NUS (‘group of students’)

NUS for National Union of Students, a crossword stalwart.
4 School is on top of multiplication and division (6)
SCHISM – SCH (‘School’) IS (‘is’) above in a down clue (‘on’) Multiplication (‘top of multiplication’)
5 Be careful how a cut possibly throbs initially (5,3)
WATCH OUT – Anagram (‘possibly’) of HOW A CUT then Throbs (‘throbs initially’)
6 Against books getting fed into AI (4)
ANTI – NT (‘books’) contained in (‘getting fed into’) AI

NT for ‘books’ = New Testament.

The surface is referring to the concerns about the misuse of Artificial Intelligence.

I used my browser’s AI to help explain 2d above and 19d below. As far as I’m aware, no books were harmed in the generation of either explanation.
8 Jovial girl hated the dancing (5-7)
LIGHT-HEARTED – Anagram (‘dancing’) of GIRL HATED THE
12 Dismisses employees who take money? (8)
CASHIERS – Double definition

In the first sense, used as a verb in usually (?exclusively) a military context.
13 Female travelling to their ruby wedding anniversary (8)
FORTIETH – F (‘Female’) then anagram (‘travelling’) of TO THEIR
15 List of information absorbed by a US legal representative (6)
AGENDA – GEN (‘information’) contained in (‘absorbed by’) A (‘a’) DA (‘US legal representative’)

The ever-reliable DA.
18 Lightly-coloured tattoo beneath bottom of hip (4)
PINK – INK (‘tattoo’) below in a down clue (‘beneath’) hiP (‘bottom of hip’)

Shades of pink which are not ‘lightly-coloured’ are often preceded by a modifier, eg hot pink, bubblegum pink.
19 A southern island area where most people live (4)
ASIA – A (‘A’) S (‘southern’) I (‘island’) A (‘area’)

Asia is the most populous continent, containing about 60% (ie ‘most people’) of the world’s population. At least that’s what AI tells me.

86 comments on “Quick Cryptic 3065 by Jalna”

  1. A nice puzzle with some toughies, 9.21 for me. LOI was the tentatively entered TERAFLOP, worked out from WP but otherwise (as someone once said) a complete unknown. I thought NAFF had its origins as an acronym which we probably can’t expand on here. Speaking of acronyms, and the NUS, when they started the Oz version it was the Australian National Union of Students until someone had a pdm and they let the national bit go. Thanks Jalna and BR.

  2. OK, so I did open a new window to see if a TERAFLOP existed, totally new word to me and could have been a tareflop (why not!?!). Slowish start but it all came together nicely to finish all green in 11.04 – surprisingly quick because quite few need careful thought – AGENDA, ABASHED, PITEOUS, FORTIETH and TERAFLOP. Enjoyed THROUGH for maedking me say ‘rough’ wrong so comprehensively.

      1. Well, yes but units of measurement have all sorts of odd names like furlong, knot, tesla or coulomb. A trillion flops was a better bet than a unit put forward by Barry Teraflop – but I’ve tried logic in puzzles before…

  3. 10 minutes. Very slow to start and I didn’t know TERAFLOP and even then I’d have expected it to be ‘terraflop’ if the enumeration and wordplay hadn’t forced the correct spelling on me.

    ‘Humiliated / ABASHED’ seems okay to me. Most of the usual sources mention ‘ashamed’ which appears to cover it, and ODE (P) includes ‘humiliated’ in its list of synonyms.

  4. I thought this was engaging enough to be enjoyable but no so taxing that I got frustrated by the delay to my run (will be far too hot this evening).

    Re: ROUGH, being the “short stuff next to the fairway”, I’d say this makes sense because if you just miss the fairway, you’ll be in the rough, which will be cut quite short relative to grass growing wild. Sometimes, they might say, “in the first cut of rough”. But if you miss the fairway by a longer way (assuming you don’t go so far as to end up on an adjacent fairway), you’ll likely be in the “heavy rough”, which won’t be cut at all (or the bushes, the trees or the water).

    Championship golf courses vary in how much they allow the rough to grow depending on how much they want to penalise a wayward tee shot. Often in the recent past when the Ryder Cup is held in Europe they will grow the rough longer than usual, and let it pinch in to the fairways narrowing them significantly, to counter the US team’s perceived advantage in distance with the driver from the tee.

  5. Managed it all except TERAFLOP. Dreadful word and I don’t feel bad about not knowing it.
    Lots to enjoy and COD to THROUGH.
    Thanks Jalna and BR.

  6. Astonished to get away with LOI TERAFLOP – Mrs M (extremely computer-literate) NHO it and laughed at me for the suggestion. Difficult to get started, FOI LIGHTHEARTED, several CNP, so thank you, BR.

  7. Sluggish going today which I’m blaming on an incoming bout of man flu.
    Started with NAFF and finished with ETNA in 9.22.
    Thanks to BR and Jalna

  8. I know TERAFLOP and biffed it initially, but I agree a little surprised to see it in this context. By contrast, the first def of CASHIERS was new to me.

    Enjoyed this and finished it in 15:00 dead, a good time for me. I think the surface on THROUGH is great, my COD.

    A couple of adjustments I think on the blog. For ETNA, ‘in’ is just a connecting word. for APPRISE, think it is better expressed as a homophone of ‘a prize’.

    Many thanks Jalna and BletchleyReject

    1. Er… No. Our Blogger has got it right on ETNA. The word “in” is a necessary part of the wordplay. ET is clued as “and” “in France” ( just with a different word order). You wouldn’t need the “in” if it said “French and” but it doesn’t. “France and” on its own doesn’t work. I think APPRISE is OK either way

  9. Enjoyed this thanks all. As for Teraflop I’m not sure even IT geeks need to know teraflop 🙂

  10. I spent practically a third of my solving time over my NHO LOI, which I eventually biffed. It ruined an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI THROUGH
    LOI TERAFLOP
    COD COME OFF IT
    TIME 4:54

  11. Quite tough, 6:40, so plenty of time (and need) to make sure everything was parsed. Knew about flops but I agree it’s a stretch to call it general knowledge.

  12. LOI TERAFLOP which was gettable but seems very obscure for a QC. Thought ITCHING was losing the first letter of DITCHING, but same result. Also feel ABASHED is not as strong as humiliated, but can see why it might be in a list of synonyms Biffed 12A – thanks BR for parsing. COD PAT ON THE BACK.

  13. Short stuff next to the fairway is semi or fringe. It is not rough. Rough is knee deep.

    Bit of a grouse today as I found this obscure. I only managed one and that was semi bifd.

  14. 10:52
    Very slow start, with only two across clues on first pass.
    Luckily, I am enough of a geek to know TERAFLOP.
    CASHIERS was my LOI.

    Thanks BR and Jalna

  15. DNF.
    Totally floored by this. Got 4 clues after 20 minutes then gave up.
    I thought that this was far too hard for a ” Quick Cryptic” – am I on my own here ?
    I will write this off to experience.

  16. Had to check the NHO TERAFLOP (what an awful word!) and biffed ABASHED and luckily saw PAT ON THE BACK after struggling with most across clues which helped a lot. Still took a slow 25:32 to struggle home.

  17. Weirdly I biffed TERAFLOP in desperation though definitely NHO, and definitely Geek-speak, not GK. But failed on PINK because I had forgotten tattoo can be Ink. Shd have remembered that slang despite being an old fogie.
    I did also get THROUGH as husband used to spend some time in the rough looking for lost golfballs, but a tricky one for non golfers.
    Anyway, I liked many inc APPRISE, SCHISM, PITEOUS, EN PASSANT. V young grandson read a beginners’ chess book and pronounced it ‘en peasant’.
    Thanks vm, BR.
    I think of CASHIERED as an officer being reduced to the ranks. Reckon we have had this before as I mentioned Dreyfus and the Robert Harris book, An Officer and a Spy.

  18. Another one who had nho teraflop.
    This QC was tricky for me. Took 47 mins including a check on teraflop
    Thanks for the blog BR

  19. COME OFF IT Jalna, is TERAFLOP really material for non geeks in a QC?
    I was very slow to start but managed all except that one in just over 16 mins.
    Some neat clues and nice PDMs but the pleasure largely evaporated during my failed search for my LONI. I had heard of it but only in the context of failed gymnastic floor exercises in the Olympics… 🙄
    Thanks to BR for sorting out a couple of parsings that I had neglected to complete.

  20. I found this to be a little tougher than yesterday’s needing 12.20 to complete it. With only three solved on the first pass of the across clues, I feared it would be even slower. Even though I played a fair bit of chess in my youth, EN PASSANT as an expression was known to me but didn’t immediately spring to mind here. Like quite a few others TERAFLOP was my LOI, although it did ring a bell to persuade me it was correct.

  21. I suppose it speaks to my generation or my particular interests, but “Teraflop” was a write-in for me while “Cashiers” was very hard even with all the checking letters. Never heard of the first meaning, to be dismissed from the military and without that knowledge I didn’t figure out where to split the clue.
    Just squeaked in under 20 mins.

    1. I assumed that when you cash your chips in at the casino (which I never have) it is related i.e. a truncated version of cashier and your time there is ended. But that’s just a guess

  22. I would say mild for a Jalna, but enjoyable, nevertheless. Had some reservations about PINK = light-coloured, but what else could it be? Otherwise, no hold ups until the LOI, which I half-expected not to get, being IT related, until I realised it was easily solvable from wordplay, despite being too geeky for mere mortals to have heard of… So thanks to Jalna for that concession…!

  23. 9:49 with an inconceivable FifTIETH – what was I thinking??! Answer I wasn’t. Didn’t check the anagrist, didn’t check my GK.

    I really enjoyed this despite a slow start with the Acrosses but the Downs went in better and got quicker with checkers Particularly liked ANTI for its surface and while ETNA comes up frequently this was a new twist on an old answer. TERAFLOP biffed and parsed postsolve.

    Thanks to BR and Jalna

  24. Have heard of megaflop and terabyte so not a stretch to get the answer, would have come quicker had my nerdy mind decided on MIP to go with the crossing P.

    Having now looked up the difference between flop and mip of course they are Acronyms MIPS and FLOPS where the PS means per second, so I would pedantically argue that the singular forms shouldn’t exist! I’ll get my coat….

    But, a fun puzzle that we finished in a respectable 20.40 but needed BR’s excellent blog for a couple of parsings, thanks

  25. From NAFF to ITCHING in 7:10. I’m guessing most of us have heard of kilo, mega, giga, tera and peta bytes in regard to disk and memory size, so it shouldn’t have been too big a leap to get to TERAFLOP from an anagram of “after” and LOP barely disguised in the clue, and the fairly generous definition “computer processing speed.” Mind you I spent all my working life in IT. Nice puzzle. Thanks Jalna and BR.

    1. No, I have not heard of anything above Gigabytes. But then I am sometimes surprised by other QCers not knowing stuff that I do. Horses for courses.

  26. 8:55

    If I don’t get any of the first three or four acrosses, I sometimes refocus to the bottom of the grid, which here, I found slightly easier to penetrate. Though I’ve heard of TERAFLOP (worked in IT for nearly forty years now), I couldn’t easily see how to arrive at the answer, initially without 1a nor 9a in place. Once 9a was in, I managed to piece the rest together. Didn’t parse PAT ON THE BACK, approximating that THAT BONE was in there somehow. Finished with PITEOUS, ensuring via wordplay that the fourth letter was an E and not an I.

    Thanks BR and Jalna

  27. As others have said, I don’t think TERAFLOP should be in the QC dictionary. It was my LOI and carefully constructed from the wordplay starting with L OP. I thought it had something to do with the now almost defunct floppy disk. I also hesitated over CASHIERS but it rang a bell and indeed it was clued in a QC in June this year. A slowish day at 9:05. Thanks BR

    1. We all have different vocab. I didn’t think twice about TERAFLOP until I came here and was surprised to find people didn’t know it. But the other day we had HERA, a Greek goddess by all accounts, which completely floored me.

  28. 15 minutes, so a comfortable SCC escape and an excellent day for me. PITEOUS got me started and the solutions just kept coming, although I’m not sure how.

    I only know EN PASSANT from chess and I DNK the ‘dismisses’ definition of CASHIERS (my LOI), although I seem to remember that it has appeared before in the QC.

    Many thanks to BR and JALNA.

  29. 14 minutes.
    At the end I had all the checkers for LOI TERAFLOP but it still took me a while to work it out.
    I’ve probably seen the word before but did not know whether it referred to speed or capacity or whatever.
    A QC with some quite tough clues.
    COD APPRISE.
    David

  30. 12:18 for me, though I did indeed need the blog’s help in parsing a couple of the acrosses. I have an IT background and so TERAFLOP was a write in, which possibly colours my opinion somewhat, but I’m not convinced that it’s any more unreasonable than the obscure GK that we sometimes get.

    Thank you for the blog!

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