Time: 09:23. Another Jalna on my watch and no complaints from me. I found this to be a medium level difficulty puzzle with perhaps more than the usual number of clues needing some checked letters to help. A few minor uncertainties as indicated below.
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
Thanks again to Jalna
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sinister reason to attend an auction? (10) |
| FORBIDDING – Cryptic hint. The reason you may attend an auction is to bid on certain items = FOR BIDDING. Like most 1a’s, I had to come back to this. | |
| 8 | Lightweight, extremely glossy doodah (6) |
| THINGY – THIN (‘Lightweight’) G |
|
| 9 | Fall for a New Yorker? (6) |
| AUTUMN – Cryptic definition
We’ve had this the other way round: ‘Autumn for a New Yorker?’ = FALL, but if a New Yorker were to say ‘Fall’, he or she would mean what is referred to as AUTUMN in many other parts of the world, so it does work. |
|
| 10 | Sea creature netted in major catch (4) |
| ORCA – Hidden (‘netted’) in |
|
| 11 | A-list celeb from Ramsgate, unusually (8) |
| MEGASTAR – Anagram (‘unusually’) of RAMSGATE
I don’t know much about English seaside resorts but I presume from the wordplay that ‘Ramsgate’ isn’t exactly Antibes. |
|
| 12 | Get to the bottom of six feet of water? (6) |
| FATHOM – Double definition
I wondered about the question mark here but according to Collins a fathom can also be used as a measure of the volume of ore bodies in mining and the volume (six cubic feet) of timber in forestry. |
|
| 14 | Casual comment about work on exam papers? (6) |
| REMARK – RE (‘about’) MARK (‘work on exam papers?’)
I wouldn’t have thought of a REMARK as necessarily a ‘Casual comment’ but this sense is given in Collins. Not the sort of ‘work on exam papers?’ I was thinking of initially. |
|
| 16 | For example, one red-coloured finch (8) |
| CARDINAL – Double definition
‘One’ is an example of a CARDINAL number. CARDINAL has many other potential meanings, apart from the brightly coloured North and Central American bird and frequently appears in crossword land. Help appreciated from any ornithologists out there. Looking it up for the blog, I am told that cardinals, family Cardinalidae (14 genera, 53 species of which the red Northern cardinal is probably both the best known and the one being referred to here) are not the same as finches, family Fringillidae (50 genera, 235 species) although they were initially grouped with finches as seed-eating songbirds with large bills. |
|
| 18 | Went by bike, or maybe went by dinghy, by the sounds of it? (4) |
| RODE – Aural wordplay (‘by the sounds of it?’) of ROWED (‘or maybe went by dinghy’) | |
| 20 | Family member heads for Bologna, an Italian city (6) |
| MUMBAI – MUM (‘Family member’) B No, not an Italian city (surprise, surprise). |
|
| 21 | Day with close pal (6) |
| FRIEND – FRI (‘Day’) END (‘close’) | |
| 22 | Fork prongs picking up passion fruit (10) |
| TANGERINES – TINES (‘Fork prongs’) containing (‘picking up’) ANGER (‘passion’) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Additional fuss when leader is ousted (5) |
| OTHER – |
|
| 3 | Lower attendance ultimately seen in the NBA, strangely (7) |
| BENEATH – Hands up if you thought of a bovine creature first? |
|
| 4 | Finally relapsed after years not drinking (3) |
| DRY – |
|
| 5 | Opening new urinal around first half of month (9) |
| INAUGURAL – Anagram (‘new’) of URINAL containing (‘around’) AUG ‘Opening’ in an adjectival sense. |
|
| 6 | Elaborate stage entrances (5) |
| GATES – Anagram (‘Elaborate’) of STAGE
Two different sorts of opening in consecutive clues, this time as a noun. |
|
| 7 | Spoil one politician with caviar every so often (6) |
| IMPAIR – I (‘one’) MP (‘politician’) |
|
| 11 | Crooked con man is stealing millions to get large, modern house (9) |
| MCMANSION – Anagram (‘crooked’) of CON MAN IS containing (‘stealing’) M (‘millions’)
Great surface and my COD. A bit of understated humour in the Collins def, which is marked as informal, derogatory: “a large modern house considered to look mass-produced, lacking in distinguishing characteristics, and at variance with established local architecture”. The first quotation in the OED is from 1990. |
|
| 13 | Second-rate aircon in Australia is something you can count on (6) |
| ABACUS – B (‘second-rate’) AC (‘aircon’) both contained in (‘in’) AUS (‘Australia’)
I like the surface, even if it isn’t strictly accurate, probably not even in the UK these days. |
|
| 15 | Drink from market in India (7) |
| MARTINI – MART (‘market’) IN (‘in’) I (‘India’)
Combine with 4d for a more specific example. Same trick in the surface reading as for 20a. |
|
| 17 | Launch of university beset by financial liability (5) |
| DEBUT – U (‘university’) contained in (‘beset by’) DEBT (‘financial liability’) | |
| 19 | Compact earth at the base of animal hideouts (5) |
| DENSE – E (‘earth’) below in a down clue (‘at the base of’) DENS (‘animal hideouts’) | |
| 21 | Price offered regularly (3) |
| FEE – |
|
A breezeblock solve starting with DRY and finishing with McMANSION ….ugh! COD to ABACUS. Thanks BR. 6:45
14:41. No issues with McMansion, having seen what has been built around Silicon Valley in the last 20 years or so. Liked the Ramsgate anagram.
Thanks to Jalna and BR.
Good fun. Done after a pile of garden clearance and over a cup of coffee, though it’s tea time, now. I saw many CARDINALs in Georgia, US and though they may not be finches, they look enough like them for the answer to be obvious. Saw a tanager in the Georgia State Park also, which I was delighted with as my sister-in-law, a resident, had never seen one. Liked FORBIDDING, FOI and MCMANSION.
Stuck on BENEATH I’m afraid, if I’m lower maybe I’m beneath or maybe not, if I lower my teacup I won’t be beneath either, any advance?
Gave up on 20 minutes with MCMANSION outstanding. I had the parsing correctly but there didn’t seem to be enough vowels in the anagrist. I therefore decided I had a mistake somewhere but couldn’t see where (unsurprisingly as there wasn’t one). I never thought to put the C as the second letter. Otherwise all good in probably about 18 minutes.
FOI – 9ac AUTUMN
LOI – DNF
CODs – liked FORBIDDING and MARTINI.
Thanks to Jalna and BR
It’s not the setter’s fault that MCMANSION is a horrible word!!
Great QC !
Interesting conversation about MCMANSION. I’ve seen it before in the 15×15 so that helped. There is a lot of building going on round here, and there seem to be rather more 5 bedroomed ‘executive’ houses with tiny gardens going up than the 3 bed semis that are actually needed! Those are what I would classify as McMansions.
Apart from that, no major problems, but as usual I forgot to look at the last letters of all the relevant words at 3d, so, although I got the D of relapsed, I couldn’t parse it and held off until I was sure 😂
10:08 FOI Thingy LOI Dry COD Megastar
Thanks Jalna and BR
I was going to point people towards the biggie today, as it only took me 20 minutes, but having read the blog, I think perhaps I won’t!
24 minutes with a couple not parsed but upon checking this blog all fair and reasonable.
Agree -McMansion is a horrible word and though never heard of, at least it had to be.
I know Tines from hollow tining the greens at the golf club (used to de done with a fork to get air to the roots when I was a youngster working at the club) but now they have machines. COD Forbidding.
Thanks Jalna and BR
Not many Maccy D’s fans around here then, eh!?
FWIW, I agree with the earlier comment that MCMANSION is an example of punching up, and differs from the similar MCJOB (a word I would never personally put in a grid).
As always, I slightly despair at instances of solvers not liking a given word and then dismissing the whole clue as a result. Guilty by association I suppose. Hey ho, we’ve been here before, and we’ll be here again.
Many thanks to BR for the write-up and to all for the comments.
Thanks for popping by, Jalna, and for making a very fair point! It’s still possible to enjoy a clue even if you don’t love the actual word, and FWIW, I thoroughly enjoyed the clue for McMansion 😊 Many thanks
Very fair point, Jalna, although the reason I don’t like MCMANSION and other pejorative McWords (other than those directly relating to the specific fast-food chain) is that they’re patently anti-Scottish. In a similar vein, I don’t think you’d ever clue GAY as “naff” or “inferior”, despite this offensive meaning of the word being in the dictionary.
Thanks for a great puzzle and BR for the blog.
Around 18 mins -Not sure why we plodded as we did. late in the day for us perhaps we are more alert in the morning.
McM held us up. ..despite having spent many years ‘down under’ and despite having seen (and ignored) the ‘con man’ anagram content..(yes, there’s the ‘c’ said we).
Fell for the Italian city, smiled at RODE, FORBIDDING and THINGY… slow on MARTINI quick on AUTUMN, IMPAIR.
Thank you all.
47 minutes 😱
I am at my wits end with this. Indifferent progress until my last three. FATHOM took ages as didn’t know it was 6 feet of water and then over 20 mins on MCMANSION and CARDINAL. NHO of either.
When I look at the brilliant times of solvers who began at the same time as me, I just want to give up. I wouldn’t mind so much if this was the only puzzle I ever did, but I spend hours on 15 x 15 and still make no progress. All that effort and for what? To come here and record yet another humiliating performance.
Why do I persist in the delusional belief that I will ever achieve any basic competence in this when I am so clearly incapable? ☹️
PS Only 15 on 15 x 15. B****y awful end to a nightmare day on the cryptic front.
Put on your big boy pants and stop whining.
Well said!
I’ve been trying to coin an appropriate response, for ages, but you nailed it.
Don’t fret,cryptic crosswords are generally GARBAGE, if you solve the most logical of clues even if they’re less than 30% of total, that is an achievement.
Anyone in the US would know McMansion. Unfortunately.
For once,lots of good stuff with minimal GARBAGE!