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 – |
|
You guys… 8:33.
It took me 3 minutes to get three clues in and then it just flowed… I didn’t get held up by the double definitions/cryptic hints like I normally would, and the anagrams slotted in because I had the checkers in place.
🥳
Not too bad; I picked off some easy ones like orca, fathom, and thingy, and was off to the races. Getting McMansion and inaugural from the definitions was a big help. We do have cardinals around here, and their song is very distinct in the summer.
Time: 7:58
Mucked around a bit, especially in the top left (my LOI was 1ac), and ambled home in 11.03. All good, thanks Jalna and BR.
Kentish man here.
Ramsgate has one of the best Wetherspoons in the country. Take that how you wish!
I guess we can Deal with the Sandwich. I used to play golf at the Cinque Ports.
Started well enough but a few at the bottom caused me problems. Couldn’t really parse CARDINAL or ABACUS (thanks Bletchers) – and had NHO a MCMANSION – and that made me less wary of whacking in Friday for ‘close pal’. That made DENSE very hard indeed. Untangled it eventually to finish all green in 15.22. Almost two Tinas.
9:45, but with no idea what a MCMANSION is (my LOI, needing all the checkers) and some doubt that BENEATH is actually a usable synonym for Lower – I struggle to concoct a sentence where they are interchangeable. Otherwise I thought this was quite a friendly puzzle from Jalna.
Many thanks BR for the blog. On your ornithology question, I only know about the bird (and that it is red) from the St Louis Cardinals baseball team – I have never seen a cardinal in real life, and I have no idea if it is a finch or not.
Modern ornithological thought has it that Cardinals are more closely related to tanagers than finches. They are birds of the US, any seen in the U.K. are aviary escapees.
Slow quick slow to 20.03. Breezeblocked at the end by NH McMansion, had several goes as crossers appeared but still dint quite believe the answer.
Liked Megastar, Ramsgate is becoming more fashionable again, Pete’s Fish and Chips are amazing if you’re prepared to queue and there’s the great Turner Art Gallery too. All that said, my best memories of it are the Only Fools and Horses Christmas special “The Jolly Boys Outing” – absolute gold😀😀
Turner gallery is in Margate
Oops you’re right, I’m getting my gates mixed up!!
Stared at the apparently inevitable MCMANSION for ages but couldn’t bring myself to actually write it in, its existence looked so ridiculously improbable. So it was invented in 1990; thanks, BR*. That bizarre one to the bad, then; otherwise all fine. Liked CARDINAL though NHO the finch.
*Humph: it’s not in any dictionary in this house (Collins 2000, Chambers 2003). Obscure seems like an understatement. It appears to be (exclusively?) US. Amazed all you wizards got it.
We’ve had it before in crosswords, though possibly not in the Quickie. The first iteration I saw was NHO, but this time it went in smoothly. As a description of a certain type of vulgar modern property, it hits the spot!
Yes, I’m sure I’ll remember it next time, too. At least it won’t be NHO!
14:34 with LOI REMARK, replacing RETORT.
Spent too long on McMansion, a mean, snobbish word.
See also McJob. I totally concur with your view.
I found this fairly gentle until a stupid mistake breezeblocked me. For some strange reason at 21d I took the alternate letters or price to give me pie which made FRIEND a challenge.
Started with THINGY and finished with FRIEND in 7.13 with CsOD to FORBIDDING and MCMANSION.
Thanks to BR and Jalna
8:42
A quick start in the NW quadrant (the neat 1a came quickly) and then a steady solve until my last three. All unblocked when MCMANSION came into my head (I needed crossers, of course). My last two then dropped into place – FATHOM (d’oh) and CARDINAL. Last one delayed because I didn’t think of a cardinal as a finch but I’m no birder.
18.50 on the clock.
Thanks to both.
12:03 but technical DNF with the NHO mansioney mcmansioneyface defeating me although where else could the c go? I’m guessing there’s a Scottish fake castle thing going on here?
Ta BRAJ
In Australia at least, McMansions are huge square houses – built to be large but not necessarily beautiful, more.. Bang for buck. It’s not Scottish, more.. Fast food. 🍟
My parents have one, it’s 400 metres squared! They are only two people lol.
With all respect to your mum and dad, it’s weird how these days people desire huge houses that leave no room on the block for trees and a back yard, cost a fortune to heat, whose construction’s carbon footprint is enormous and which require a ride-on vacuum to clean. I keep hearing there’s a housing-construction crisis in Oz but can’t help thinking that if we reduced the size of houses there would be more materials to build more homes. Crazy I know…
Oh in Australia it’s also propped up by the fact that everyone’s wealth is tied to property. So when my parents bought a parcel of land to build on, they didn’t want to undercapatalise. And to be fair on them, we were a family of four then, and my parents have had other boarders since.
Dad also has a wonderfully ethnic grandpa backyard of every fruit known to mankind lol. But yes it is funny that it’s just the two of them now in this huge ugly home.
Four tenths of a kilometre on each side? That is bigger than Buckingham Palace. Shome mistake, shurely? Did you mean 400 square metres, ie 20×20?
Yeah I meant 400 square metres lol
Still big!
MCMANSION? Well it had to be and what a horrible word! It won’t be entering my lexicon and I hope never to hear it again. A sad ending to an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
If MCMANSION is a word at present it should be struck from the setter’s lexicon and never referred to again -ugh… My LOI with a shrug and a shudder: at least the clueing made the horrible outcome inevitable. Otherwise a pleasant puzzle.
I think cardinals are finchy enough for crossword purposes.
Off for a strong coffee in the SCC.
10 mins – nho Mcmansion so it’s a pity that you give clue of the day to something obscure in my opinion. Also had no idea why tangerines was right, nho tines – another obscure word – so would never have got it had it not been obvious from the letters. Otherwise all fair – thanks setter and blogger
If you haven’t heard of “tines” what do you call them – prongs? I’ve grown up with the word ‘tines’ in England.
Yes prongs – must be a regional thing – we are both English too!!
If you haven’t heard of “tines” what do you call them – prongs? I’ve grown up with the word ‘tines’ in England.
But ‘mcmansion’ was horrible.
NHO MCMANSION and needed all crossers and a guess to get it. Otherwise no major problems and finished in 19:54.
Thank goodness that the NHO and LOI MCMANSION was an anagram, or I’d have given up. Once I’d finally seen “mansion”, though, there was only one blank and only one letter to fill it, so the C went in and the fingers were crossed. Phew.
Always good to learn a new word and that’s an amusing one; must engineer it into conversation! [On edit – I see this is currently a minority opinion! 😁]
Otherwise plain enough sailing, pausing only at MUMBAI and CARDINAL on my way to 06:52 and a Very Good Day. COD to THINGY. Many thanks Jalna and Bletchers.
Eight after 20
Sixteen after 30.
CoD Mumbai
I did get to 20 eventually. Missing NHO McMansion, surprised that it predates McDonald’s. Cardinal escaped me possibly because it’s not a finch. I’ll have to refresh on ordinal aswell.
NHO MCMANSION and hope not to do so again. Fortunately the anagrist was was easy to assemble by the time I needed to do so.
FOI AUTUMN
LOI MCMANSION
COD MEGASTAR
TIME 4:41
We’ve definitely had it in the 15×15 in the last few months. I find it amusing and a succinct way of describing a horrible pile…
I had to pause for about 5 minutes to check something at work and then got completely stuck with my LOI 19d. Eventually, after about 5 minutes and an unsuccessful alphabet trawl I finally worked out that 21ac was FRIEND, not FRIDAY. I see that at least one other solver on here fell into the same trap.
RE the discussion on Cardinal / Finch, I’m constantly surprised, when doing crosswords, that certain types of birds that I thought were distinct turn out to be the same bird with different names or sub-species or whatever. I’ve long since given up trying to learn which is related to / synonymous with / the same thing as other birds so whenever I see a bird name in a clue, I think of “random bird name”, not (e.g.) Finch, and then if it fits the cryptic, as it did in this case, I assume it is probably correct.
Nice crossword, I enjoyed seeing McMansion for (I think, or at least that I remember) the first time. It feels like I only heard of it as a word a few weeks ago! (I’m sure it was more like years obviously).
Enjoyed this. Had heard of McMansion because of Andy and Fergie’s Sunninghill one.
The only cardinals I know have red robes on.
Airplane time today: 7.07
6:38 for the solve with last couple of mins spent in the SE. LOI DENSE – is E=earth in electrical wiring?
Biffed the McMansion because I watched this video … https://youtu.be/3oIeLGkSCMA … a while back. The invention of the gang nail plate. Sometimes it’s good to just go off down a rabbit hole and learn something new.
Very much enjoyed that. Some excellent surfaces in there and COD to THINGY=doodah 🤣
Thanks to BR and Jalna.
I found the YouTube video very interesting. Thanks.
As Blighter said, thanks for the video link – fascinating.
From DRY to CARDINAL in 10:50. I found this a bit tricky. Had the 2 Ms in place for 11d and saw MANSION in the anagrist. Put the C in the last remaining spot. Have come across the device before. Thanks Jalna and BR.
NHO MCMANSION – AI says it’s a portmanteau of McDonald’s and mansion, referencing the generic, fast-food-like nature of these oversized and disproportionate homes.
Otherwise a quick enjoyable solve. Thanks BR and Jalna
My AI is unusually dismissive of McMansions – I asked it what their defining features were and got back a veritable tirade of looking-down-one’s-nosery (if AIs have noses). The answer it gave was: “A McMansion is a large, mass-produced suburban house often criticized for its poor design, low-quality materials, and lack of architectural uniqueness. The term is a portmanteau of “McDonald’s” and “mansion,” referencing the generic, fast-food-like nature of these oversized and disproportionate homes. These houses are frequently built without a specific architect’s guidance and feature a jumble of mismatched styles and features.”
One can almost hear the AI saying harrumph!
🙂
21 mins. Needed lots of checkers to complete, especially top right and reluctantly entered the ‘c’ into the gap in McMansion as it was the only letter left from the anagrist. NHO but now makes sense. Thanks all
DNF
Decided a C couldn’t go between 2 Ms so failed to get MCMANSION. Also failed on THINGY. Had the checkers but couldn’t make sense of it and tried phoney. So a double failure.
11:40, but I couldn’t parse DRY for the life of me. Possibly too fixated on “after” being a positional indicator.
Thank you for the blog!
Just into the SCC for me on 20:09. Nothing in particular held me up, just not on the wavelength. COD to THINGY. Thanks Jalna and BR
Very fast and enjoyable but had to sort out SW with LOsI MUMBAI, CARDINAL and, eventually, MCMANSION (NHO).
FOI FORBIDDING, fortunately.
Liked INAUGURAL urinal, THINGY, DEBUT, and TANGERINES, among others.
Thanks vm, BR.
Comfortably under 20 minutes until MCMANSION created a rather long breeze block. Not a word I’ve come across before.
COD THINGY.
Thanks BR and Jalna.
DNF stuck on 19d DENSE. That was because I had biffed FRIDAY at 21a thinking of Man Friday- I had a MER when I wrote it in but did not review things sufficiently.
Overall an excellent QC with some very clever clues- COD perhaps to TANGERINES.
David
An enjoyable although at times testing QC. 25 mins but 1 pink square.
I particularly enjoyed THINGY and FORBIDDING.
Thanks Jalna and BR
Just about beat my target but not by much, finishing in 9.42. I would have been a good deal quicker if I hadn’t spent so much time on my LOI MCMANSION. I designed many houses in my career, but nobody commissioned me to design a MCMANSION. Never come across the expression, and hope to never again; a ridiculous word!
6:56
Fairly evenly-paced. Liked MUMBAI and INAUGURAL. Had problem for a while seeing the anagram fodder for BENEATH – needed that for 1a. Failed to fully parse RODE, thinking of that and ROAD, but didn’t think of ROWED – funny how the brain works (or doesn’t, as the case may be).
Thanks BR and Jalna
I enjoyed this crossword apart from. McMansion which I have never hear and my dictionary says is an Australianism. Still I know a lot of clues are very much Englishisms so must be the same for solvers overseas.
Never heard of a MCMANSION but the clue meant that had to be the answer. It added several minutes to what had otherwise been a rapid solve. Liked THINGY and CARDINAL
Thanks Jalna and BR
I would probably have been a lot quicker if 1ac Forbidding had come to mind without needing crossers, but then that was true of quite a few of Jalna’s teasers today, including my loi the dreadful McMansion 🙄. Instead I was left scrambling for a seat, and Martinů’s generous Wizard rating can only be a small consolation for a sluggish performance. CoD to Abacus for the amusing surface. Invariant
Over 11.
Almost as long as the main fare, caused by doing it on my computer which felt very unusual and clunky, plus putting in a totally wrong RATES which made me stare at incorrect checkers in 1a for an age at the end. There were quite a few others which I stuck in and took out, not able to parse them. Right I will now go and organise a search party for the wavelength.
COD RAMSGATE as I was born there (though moved to the NE quite soon thereafter) and now settled in the SW.
Thanks BR and Jalna.
A relatively fast 8:18 for us though it felt slower than that as we went through it. I was bamboozled at first by the anagrist for MCMANSION but then a light bulb went on as I had VHO of it. Agree that it sounds snobby. CARDINAL was our biggest hold up (our LOI and COD) as I spent too long trying to construct a finch improbably beginning with SAY. Thanks, BR and Jalna.
6.53 I knew MCMANSION. LOI INAUGURAL. Thanks BR and Jalna.
My thanks to Jalna and BletchleyReject.
Some tricky bits but only 11d McMansion had departed my memory. I’ve only ever seen one of these in a crossword. The mansion seemed obvious, it was known to start M and a C was left over from the anagrist, so it had to be… DOH!
I join Templar in liking neologisms enough to accept this one happily. It is a joke of course and I choose to see the funny side.
9.35. Never heard of Mcmansion, and would be quite happy not to hear of it again.
Gave up with just mcmansion left, because the anagram appeared unsolvable, so I thought there must be something different going on. Probably should’ve stuck at it as putting the c second was the only other option, but didn’t occur to me. Excellent anagram and surface.
10 mins. If you ever drive through the footballer belt in Cheshire you will see where MCMANSION is appropriate. Unlike McJob this is punching up. Still a horrible word but I remembered being stumped by it before.
Amazing how the majority thought this gentle. I thought this was a stinker and could not make head or tails of the clues. Therefore no fun for me and clearly I am way out of tune with the majority. Roll on tomorrow
14:59, one of my better times ever. I saw MCMANSION right away, which helped a lot, although knowing 20a ended in I made me think it really was an Italian city this time, so MUMBAI was LOI.
Fun puzzle, thanks!
Dnf…
After 20 mins still had 16ac “Cardinal” and 11dn “McMansion”. Although I didn’t know the bird for the former, I probably should have got it with a bit more reasoning. However, I’ve never heard of a “McMansion”, I’ve never heard anyone ever use it or ever seen it written down. Awful clue – didn’t like it one bit.
FOI – 4dn “Dry”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 1ac “Forbidding” – a bit of a classic, but always draws a smile.
Thanks as usual!
All but two clues in first 18 minutes (very fast for me), but then a further 18 minutes spent on MCMANSION (clearly not a real word) and the NHO finch. Two impossible (for me) crossing clues. What a horrible finish to an otherwise enjoyable QC.
Many thanks to BR.
The emotions around MCMANSION! COD just for that!
I’ve seen enough of them, alas, to fully justify the word, which fits the referent to a T.
Otherwise, a terrible, terrible day after a terrible, terrible night. Good puzzle though. FORBIDDING a good Dad joke.
Thanks Jalna and BR.
😳 hope next 24 hours somewhat reduced in terribles : (
We’ll get over it. Thanks!