Quick Cryptic 533 by Flamande

This is my last QC blog for now because we’re about to embark on our seasonal migration to Rhinebeck NY from NYC at dawn’s crack tomorrow.  We gave up seeking internet  (and cellphone) access there some seasons ago, not out of Luddite sympathies but because our little corner of paradise is also something of a dead zone.  We do a lot of reading!  That thing in the userpic parked on our front lawn and looking like an aircraft carrier or something out of Close Encounters was the tent for our older daughter’s wedding.

I’ve very much enjoyed meeting the contributors and bloggers and getting to know some of the setters, and by the autumn I’m confident I’ll be seeing many of you on the 15×15 blog here or perhaps on the Club Forum.  In the meantime I’ll still have a gig here every third week blogging the weekly TLS in rotation with a posse of others.  So the baton passes, to whom I’m not sure.

Oh yes, the puzzle!  Absolutely first rate one with excellent neat clues.  One WWI battle that isn’t as well-known as some but is certainly not obscure and the knowledge isn’t really needed to get the answer.  And a minor quibble, as usual.  Definitions in italics underlined.  Answers in bold caps.

Across
1,  Unofficially disliking DJ’s choice? (3,3,6)
OFF THE RECORD.  Double definition and a succinctly amusing one.
8.  Dad has German electronic device (5)
PAGER.  PA=dad.  GER=German.  This abbreviation is often seen in cryptics, as with FR for French and GR for Greek.  I’ve never used one but I imagine they’ve long been superseded by phones.
9.  Singer in Smetana’s first opera losing heart? Not so (7)
SOPRANO.  First letter in S[metana].  OP[e]RA – losing the middle letter (heart). NO=not so.
10.  Knocked over by car? Brief report needed (7)
RUNDOWN. Double definition.  And another masterpiece of brevity.
11. Fancy Andrea making sandwiches (5)
DREAM.  Containment clue indicated by “sandwiches”.  [An]DREA M[aking].  Neat.
12.  University trained nurse lacking confidence (6)
UNSURE.  U=university (it’s sometimes UNI in cryptics).  Anagram (trained) of NURSE.
14.  Selected socks and tights placed in empty carton (6)
CHOSEN.  HOSE=socks and tights. In C[arto]N (empty).
17.  To sleep in centre of city is not appropriate (5)
INAPT.  NAP=sleep. In [c]IT[y].
19.  Part of book on farm animal creating storm? (7)
RAMPAGE.  PAGE=part of book on RAM=farm animal.
21.  Castigated upper class sort pinching antique (4,3)
TOLD OFF.  TOFF=upper class sort, containing (pinching) OLD=antique.  Nice one.
22.  After 1915 battle, English set free (5)
LOOSE.  LOOS=battle.  With E[nglish].  In crosswordland we’re more likely to see the Somme or Mons.  In the real world, unfortunately, the English were anything but set free by this battle on the Western Front in Northern France.  The losses were terrible and our side also used poison gas at that time.  My grandfather was in it as a very young officer with the Post Office Rifles.  I’ve read his letters home.
23.  When to take down Christmas decorations and play (7,5)
TWELFTH NIGHT.  Double definition.  The Shakespearean play features my namesake and very tiresome she is.

Down
1.  They’ll take their chance, reorganising top sport in US (12)
OPPORTUNISTS.  Anagram (reorganising) of TOP SPORT IN US.
2.  Dickensian villain with cigarette lit (5)
FAGIN.  From Oliver Twist.  FAG=cigarette.  IN=lit. Here’s the quibble –  I’m not too sure about “in” for “lit” but the answer is clear.
3.  Sixty minutes outside disreputable bar in port (7)
HARBOUR.  HOUR=sixty minutes, outside anagram (disreputable) of BAR.
4. Begrudge money paid to landlord round the South-East (6)
RESENT.  RENT=money paid to landlord. Round SE.
5.  Constant work top journalist managed (5)
COPED.  C=constant (very often in cryptics).  OP=work.  ED[itor]=top journalist.
6.  They enjoy books about snakes on daughter rejected (7)
READERS.  RE=about.  AD[d]ERS=snakes, removing (rejected) one of the Ds=daughter.
7. Almost praise building material for a start (12)
COMMENCEMENT.  COMMEN[d]=praise leaving off the last letter (almost).  CEMENT=building material.  In the US this is the term for high school and university graduation ceremonies – the occasion for the most tedious speeches imaginable.
13. Superficial entertainment captivates everyone (7)
SHALLOW.  SHOW=entertainment. containing (captivates) ALL=everyone.
15.  Hail men transforming rat-infested town (7)
HAMELIN.  Anagram (transforming) of HAIL MEN.  In the Teutonic folk legend (popularised by the Brothers Grimm) the Pied Piper was hired by the burghers of Hamelin to get rid of the rats and he did, They followed him out of town to the tune of his pipe.  But when the burghers stiffed him, he went back and played his pipe again and this time all the children followed him out of town.
16.  Financial gain – university employee needs it (6)
PROFIT.  PROF=university employee.  Plus IT.
18.  Ugly little creature finally bit on some bread (5)
TROLL.  Last letter in [bi]T on ROLL=bread.  I thought they were ugly big creatures from Scandinavian folklore.  But the dictionary says they can also be dwarves which must be the correct way to think of the internet pests.
20. In the middle of Sam’s songs – the middle of each (5)
AMONG.  The middle section of [S]AM[‘s] and [s[ONG[s].

29 comments on “Quick Cryptic 533 by Flamande”

  1. Very nice, indeed. It took me a while to see ‘disreputable’ as anagram indicator, so I wasted time trying to stick something like ‘dive’ into HO UR or H OUR; it doesn’t work. I remember as a kid thinking, Why didn’t the people of Hamelin lock their kids indoors, or break the Piper’s Pipe? I was that kind of kid. On IN: I seem to remember discussion of this here, where “in” was a (perhaps dialectal? dated?) term for “lit” (keep the fire in); somehow, it didn’t bother me this time. Enjoy your time upstate, Olivia. 6:09.
  2. Took about 14 mins which is a near PB time, however it turned out I’d spelled Fagin wrong with a second ‘a’ (“lit” being unparsed), and I thought the word the ordinal of twelve had a ‘v’ in it. Silly me.
  3. Just under the wire at 9 minutes and a few seconds for this one which I agree was an excellent puzzle.

    Kevin is quite right about fires being ‘in’ and it has caused much discussion here over the years.

    Thanks for your excellent blogs over the past few months, Olivia, and I hope you have a great time in paradise!

    As for next week, I have tried to contact Andy to find out if anyone is lined up to take over but the message bounced back as undeliverable because the mailbox is full. I have since sent to his LJ account but the notification message may suffer the same fate as my direct email so he may not be alerted to it. Anyway I have offered to fill any gaps in the QC schedule so something will appear here next Thursday, but if anyone else wants to volunteer now might be a good time to speak up and have a go.

    Edited at 2016-03-24 05:34 am (UTC)

  4. I usually do the QC the old fashioned way, in the newspaper, but for various reasons I won’t bore you with I had to resort to the online version today. I spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out how to print it out before giving up and starting the puzzle. My finishing time of 17.08 is probably a personal best (or very close to it). However I think I’m going to stick with paper and pen in future. There’s something about physically writing out the answers that feels more satisfying to me.
    Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
    Thanks for your blog over the last few months Olivia – it’s always greatly appreciated.
    1. Printing the QC is easy now though not completely satisfactory because the font size is very small, but I’m told one can adjust this if one can be bothered to faff around with it.

      To print: Click on the “hamburger” symbol(RH next to the timer) and select “print”. It then downloads and opens automatically in PDF format and you can print from there as normal by clicking the print icon.

      P.S. I should have said, click the Play button on the front crosswords page to open the Quickie and then proceed as above. There’s no QC Print button on the front page as there is for the main Cryptic and Times Two.

      Edited at 2016-03-24 10:06 am (UTC)

    2. You’re quite right about the physical act of putting pen to paper firing the neurons. That’s probably why such a large percentage of us prefer to do it that way rather than directly online. It really was about time that those running the website picked up on this and gave us the print option.
    3. I have never used paper, use the iPad every time, and today the iPhone. The iPhone has a ‘List’ option where you don’t see the grid at all. Works well, but not seeing the grid filling up makes it less than satisfying.

      Edited at 2016-03-24 09:30 pm (UTC)

  5. Enjoyed this quickie and finished in just over 11 mins- slightly delayed by 19ac due to trying use pig as the farm animal!

    Rita

    1. 12 min, a PB I think; all the clues went more or less straight in today so I’m not sure how much faster I could get! Very encouraging.
  6. Another very enjoyable QC, with 11 and 21ac my particular favourites today. Just north of 30mins, which is still quite quick for me.
    Sorry to hear that you are leaving us Olivia. I have enjoyed your blogs and the helpful advice contained therein. Have a good time. Invariant
  7. Morning all,
    As a newbie,just had to say that today was first time I completed QC!!
    Only started a few months ago, nearly completed on Tues- one left so really chuffed today.
    Really enjoying the blog, and have learnt a lot.
    Keep up the good work.
    Cheers Jagsmansandy
  8. Another enjoyable puzzle finished in five minutes under my 30 min target with everything parsed except for ‘lit” = ‘in’. I checked in my Chambers app and definition 17 of 18 for ‘in’ as an adverb is ‘alight’ so I presume there is justifcation there somewhere, but I don”t really see it.
    Brian
    1. As it seems only to be used with reference to fires and we all know what ‘out’ means in that context, I’ve always assumed ‘in’ is simply the opposite of ‘out’.
  9. Probably a PB for me as well. So much enjoyed. Apart from Gallipoli 1915 is the forgotten year of WW1. 1914 Mons and the Marne. 1916, the Somme. 1917 Passchendaele. 1918 the Spring offensives and the 100 days. In fact 1915 was a year of several very bloody battles on the Western Front, all failures from the allies point of view. Perhaps that is why we hear little about them.

    I shall miss your blogs Olivia. Have a good summer
    PlayupPompey

  10. … apparently. Chap I was working with recently spends a lot of his time rummaging around in the bowels of buildings installing odd things, and insists that a pager is essential kit as phones rarely get a signal in such locations. That said, this bloke did have some fairly strange views on life generally (and the most eccentric wardrobe I have seen for many a year) so I’m uncertain how much credibility he carries…

    Enjoy your break Olivia and thanks for your blogs.

  11. First time completing one of these without any help, so I guess that means a personal best of 14 minutes too! Must be on the same wavelength as Flamande, because I don’t usually find them this easy.

    Also enjoyed discovering that “inapt” is a word! I shall attempt to use it in conversation today…

    1. Welcome, anon, and well done! Hope you will stick around and give yourself a name of sorts so we can get to know you.
  12. I think you’re right, it would fit in with the dictionary definition of ‘alight’
    Brian
  13. Aha! Finished today, no big hold ups. This week: two finished, two disasters. BD
  14. Love how the QC is sometimes easy and sometimes fiendish (Izetti!). Congratulations to first- time finishers. Suspect this blog has more than played its part, so thanks to all, and today especially, Olivia. I shall miss the snippets of US info and linguistic difference. Enjoy your break. Pam
  15. Thanks so much to all and I hope the crossword gods bring our diligent Jack some relief so it’s some play and not all work. Au revoir.
  16. I, like others managed a PB today – I broke the twenty minute barrier which has been my target for ages. Onwards to 15 minutes! My thanks and best wishes also to Olivia.
  17. 20 mins or so, best time for ages. Loos went straight in, and no real problems. Also used the iPhone version which makes it quite a bit slower, anyone else tried it?
  18. Olivia – I wish you all the best for your break and look forward to you returning with your chatty blogs sometime soon.
    I probable personal best for me too. It would have helped if I had checked the spelling of Hamelin. A good week, so far…
  19. I got 1d straightaway and then 1a, so was off to a fast start.The rest went in fairly steadily with a brief pause after inventing a battle at Lens -which I knew seemed incorrect. LOI was 7d -I always struggle if first letter missing. Like others this was a PB for me -16 minutes. Enjoyed the puzzle.
    I always solve on paper and prefer it.
    Many thanks to Olivia for all her help and encouragement to the QC community. David

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