A very pleasant puzzle from one of our less frequent setters – by my records this is only Lupa’s second QC crossword for us, though I believe the Saturday O Tempora puzzle is also a Lupa creation – and all done in 12:12, BUT with one error that I think might catch a few others too and may well be the subject of some debate. See 22A below!
That apart, I needed my Double Definition hat on for this puzzle, and a couple of the clues stretched my sense of what is a reasonable synonym, but otherwise there was little that was unclear or not straightforward. In particular, and unlike some recent puzzles where almost any word seems to have been pressed into service as indicators for anagrams, reversals and hiddens, Lupa has stuck to very direct and transparent indicators, which certainly helps the puzzle’s addressability.
By an increasingly strange quirk, for the third time in a row the puzzle I am blogging contains an answer identical to one earlier in the week. This time the word is ASSENT, which is the answer to 14A below and was also an answer as recently as 3 days ago in QC 2724 by Jalna. Is management trying to tell me something?
I look forward to hearing how everyone else got on with the puzzle!
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Book parts in plays (4) |
| ACTS – A straightforward DD to start us off, the book being the Book of Acts, a book in the Bible. | |
| 4 | Invalids limit wearing underwear (8) |
| PATIENTS – TIE (limit) inserted into (“wearing”) PANTS (underwear). I biffed this and only parsed it later, as I was unclear how to make “limit” into “tie”. The best I can do is the sense of “I am limited by your timetable / I am tied to your timetable”, but perhaps others will find a neater connection. | |
| 8 | One placed in cabinet and one in church (8) |
| MINISTER – A second DD, with the first cabinet being the political one not the item of furniture, and quite topical here in the UK with our election only just over a week ago. | |
| 9 | Beg agreement on public relations (4) |
| PRAY – AY (agreement) following PR (public relations). This being an across clue, it is legitimate for “on” to signify “after” – if it was a down clue, the usual interpretation of “on” is “on top of”, ie before the second component. See also clue 7D. | |
| 10 | Run across flood on the way back (4) |
| MEET – TEEM (flood) reversed (“on the way back”). | |
| 11 | Stimulating call after fuss (8) |
| STIRRING – RING (call) after STIR (fuss, as in commotion). | |
| 12 | Lot of Catholics in return of Spring (6) |
| PARCEL – RC (Catholics, specifically Roman Catholics) inserted into PAEL (leap, ie spring, reversed, the reversal indicator being “return of”). | |
| 14 | A singular sense about withdrawn approval (6) |
| ASSENT – A (from the clue) + S (singular) + SENT (scent with the C, for “about”, deleted, ie “withdrawn”).
This was another one I biffed and then spent some time parsing; the use of scent to be one of the five senses is perhaps a bit loose, as a scent is what the nose detects using the sense of smell, and not usually considered one of the senses per se. One would not normally for example consider “sound” to be one of the five senses; it is what the ear detects using the sense of hearing but not a sense itself. |
|
| 16 | Huntress mostly in race glowing (8) |
| RADIANCE – DIAN (most of Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting) inserted into RACE (from the clue).
The attributes of the various Greek and Roman gods and goddesses – Diana was also the goddess of the Moon, wild beasts and childbirth (an interesting case of multi-tasking if ever there was one) – may not be so commonly known these days, but some may remember Earl Spencer’s eulogy for his sister Princess Diana at her funeral, where he said that “of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this – a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age”. |
|
| 18 | Bachelor crowd returning a large sum of money (4) |
| BOMB – B (bachelor) + MOB (crowd) all reversed (“returning”), the sense being as in “that cost a bomb”. | |
| 19 | Atmosphere detected in restaurant (4) |
| AURA – A hidden, in restAURAnt, the indicator being “detected in”. | |
| 20 | Congenial expense (8) |
| OUTGOING – Another fairly simple DD. I say “fairly simple”, but DDs fall into the category of clues where “if you see it you see it”; if you don’t see the answer, they can be anything but simple, as there is very little wordplay to help you. | |
| 22 | Core user adapted source of help (8) |
| RECOURSE – (core user)*, with the anagram indicator being the straightforward “adapted”.
But the clue itself is anything but straightforward, and earned me two pink squares for the answer RESOURCE. With the S and the C in unchecked squares, and the link “resource = source of help” given by eg “Treat me as a resource if you need some help”, I think one can argue that it is a valid answer – it may not be quite as elegant, with the word source in both clue and answer, but I would suggest it is not wrong. Crosswordland does not have an equivalent to cricket’s DRS, but if it did this would be going straight to the third umpire! |
|
| 23 | Ass or donkey only likes thistle first of all (4) |
| DOLT – Given by the first letters (“first of all”) of Donkey Only Likes Thistle, and a nice piece of misdirection by Lupa in associating Ass and Donkey in our minds. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Mythical creature to agree with sun god (7) |
| CHIMERA – CHIME (agree with) + RA (Egyptian sun god). | |
| 3 | Poverty-stricken holy man welcomes in family (5) |
| SKINT – ST (saint, holy man) containing (“welcomes in”) KIN (family). | |
| 4 | Favourite part of Cape Town (3) |
| PET – Another hidden, in caPE Town, with the indicator being “part of”. I did say that Lupa’s indicator words are very straightforward and honest! | |
| 5 | Finish session in a tie, losing heart (9) |
| TERMINATE – TERM (session) + IN A (from the clue) + TE (tie “losing heart”, ie with the I, the middle letter or heart, deleted). | |
| 6 | Husband succumbing to pressure, urges foreign shipments (7) |
| EXPORTS – EXHORTS (urges), with the H (for husband) replaced by (“succumbing to”) a P (for pressure). The word order in the clue is a little confusing, with urges coming some way from the start of it, but Lupa’s intentions are clear enough. | |
| 7 | Two take time to go on wagon (5) |
| TWAIN – T (time) + WAIN (wagon). And unlike clue 9A, here the positional word “on” implies that the T comes before the wain, this being a down clue. Which if you like crosswords is part of the charm of them, but if you don’t is probably baffling. | |
| 11 | Magnificence of recycled old prunes (9) |
| SPLENDOUR – (old prunes)*, with the anagram indicator being “recycled”. I rather like the idea of the splendour of old prunes, “wrinkled old prune” being one of the occasional terms of endearment Mrs S has been known to use for me. | |
| 13 | Fashionable before Windy City (7) |
| CHICAGO – CHIC (fashionable) + AGO (before).
Contrary to popular belief, Chicago is not the windiest city in the United States, or even in the top ten. Instead, the nickname seems to have come from a newspaper reporter named Charles A Dana, who commented in 1893 that the city’s politicians were “full of wind, full of hot air”. |
|
| 15 | No mail distribution around November, in theory (7) |
| NOMINAL – (no mail)*, with the anagram indicator being “distribution”, around N (for November). | |
| 17 | Entertain a goddess (5) |
| AMUSE – A (from the clue) + MUSE (goddess). In classical mythology the nine Muses were daughters of Zeus/Jupiter, and so considered goddesses. | |
| 18 | Offspring feel depressed, maybe (5) |
| BROOD – Our fourth and final DD, with the “maybe” necessary because not everyone who broods is necessarily depressed. | |
| 21 | Tip to note (3) |
| TOE – TO (from the clue) + E (a note). | |
I’m another RESOURCE, never crossed my mind it was wrong. STIRRING took longer that it should have done. BOMB was myl LOI. Not time since I had to book some flights in the middle of solving.
Not as hard as yesterday’s but I still DNF
Count me in the RESOURCE gang, I even raised an eyebrow at ‘source’ being in the clue before I confidently put it in.
I didn’t know wain was a wagon, or how a tie is a limit, or bomb is a lot of money.
EXPORTS was a biff then parse situation, never would have gotten that from the wordplay.
But I did manage most of it!
There is a famous painting called The Hay Wain by John Constable – that’s how I know the word.
So far it would appear nobody got 22ac right, I’m another who put in RESOURCE and actually think it fits the definition better than the correct answer. Otherwise a nice crossword from Luca, done in 11 and a bit. I really liked the old prunes anagram and SPLENDOUR is such a wonderful word. Thanks to Cedric for the assiduous blog, especially for explaining EXPORT which I biffed but would have struggled to get from wordplay.
Recourse went in for me as I had written out the letters of the anagram and with the R from splendour and the E from toe decided the S should go in between. But had I thought of resource I probably would have put that in. Liked Exports for its clever letter swap.
Thanks Lupa and Cedric.
Aphis99, error, Kevin Gregg, error…..and me, not nearly as good a solver, no error. Why? Because I thought of recourse first, that’s why. It was actually stirring that gave me the most trouble, as I had S _ _ _ RING and still couldn’t think of it for a long time. I never did get assent, either, but that had to be it.
Time: 13:36
You’re a better solver than I am, just not as fast, usually.
20:16. Luckily RECOURSE came to me first but now that I see RESOURCE I think it might actually be closer to the definition. Thanks, Cedric, for parsing ASSENT for me and for the entertaining blog.
Ah, so that was it. I wondered why my 6:09 had me further up the leaderboard than it should have, then saw a list of highly-accomplished solvers with a one in the “incorrect” column. As suggested by others it was probably just a matter of which word came to mind first. RESOURCE would have made it an ugly clue, but not enough to invalidate the solution. An injustice has been inflicted on our fellow solvers!
Interesting research on Chicago Cedric. I’m sure Calamity Jane “just blew in from the windy city” well before 1893 so I’m now wondering if the whole production was a less-than-accurate historical account. Surely not!
Thanks as always to Lupa, and to Cedric for the excellent blog.
As you suggest, Hollywood films are not noted for their historical accuracy but there’s a possibility that the ‘Windy City’ reference is not so wide of the mark. My AI assistant has this to say about the nickname:
There are mixed theories about the origin of “Windy City” for Chicago with both weather and boisterous talk playing a role.
Blustery Politicians: The most popular theory points to the 19th century, when journalists, particularly those from rival cities like New York, used “windy” to describe Chicago’s politicians as full of hot air and excessive talk.
Lake Effect: Chicago does experience wind due to its location on Lake Michigan. So, while the weather wasn’t the initial reason for the nickname, it likely added another layer of meaning as the city grew.
There’s some debate about the exact first use, but it likely goes back to the 1870s . Interestingly, Chicago itself didn’t coin the nickname. Instead, they embraced it over time, seeing it reflect the city’s energy and spirit.
Calamity Jane was set in the early 1870s, easily datable as it deals with her relationship with Wild Bill Hickok who died in Deadwood in 1876.
On the other hand kudos to Doris Day. I can barely say “whip crack away” three times fast, let alone sing it!!
Wow. Thank you for that, I just watched it on Youtube and an enormous cultural void has been filled. 🤣
This thread is kind of weird because we chanced upon Calamity Jane on TV somewhere last night and watched the last two thirds of it: The Windy City is mighty pretty, but they ain’t got we got (in Deadwood). So it is slightly discombobulating to find everyone here talking about it as though the same thing had happened to them!
Uncanny!
“Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:”
Alas, no mention of windiness in the opening stanza of Carl Sandburg’s 1914 poem, Chicago.
13 minutes. Another RESOURCE here. Alarm bells should have rung immediately because, as Tina has pointed out, ‘source’ is in the clue. Not impossible in a QC perhaps but unusual enough to make one look at it again.
I had another mistake as I inexplicably wrote TRAIN at 7dn. I’ve no idea why other than perhaps I saw the checkers and ‘wagon’ and just biffed TRAIN. Come to think of it that would have been ‘wagons’ anyway.
8.32
As Rabbitoh said but two and a half minutes slower. I put in RESCUER to begin with but there was a stray O.
Liked the husband succumbing to pressure device.
Thanks Lupa and Cedric
Another ‘resource’ – enough said by others on that front already.
I found this quite tricky in places and it felt like a bitty solve with answers having to be ground out.
Crossed the line in a sluggish 10.28.
Thanks to Cedric for the excellent blog.
I found this a lot harder than yesterday and struggled my way through I also had RESOURCE which I thought was correct until I came here.
TEEM for ‘flood’ took a while as did SCENT for ‘sense’. I too nearly went for TRAIN but couldn’t parse so I wrote it to one side until TWAIN came to mind.
My LOI TOE went in but I was not confident for some reason.
I parsed MINISTER as ‘one’ in ‘church’ MIN(I)STER but see the bloggers parsing too.
I had the blogger’s parsing of minister and looked no further, but having read yours I’m sure it’s what the setter had in mind as it’s a crossword chestnut.
Yes I agree. Better than my parsing (though I didn’t know it was a chestnut).
5:14. But another RESOURCE here. I saw it immediately from the anagram and it fitted the definition so I put it in and moved on. Thanks Lupa and Cedric.
30.29 with resource here too, but a leisurely solve over breakfast in a lovely pub in deepest Dorset as Mrs RH at a sewing course up the road today.
Thanks Luca, enjoyed this a lot and COD to the old prunes, which I would not describe our blogger as, having met him last month😉
Thanks Cedric for the comprehensive blog, we were with you on the double def for Minister.
14:06 but WOE. As Blogger, Tina and others have said, “source” is in the clue. Alarm bells should have rung. But if they had, and I’d looked deeper, and found “recourse”, it would have left me with a difficult choice. I do think “resource” is a better answer, despite the duplication.
Otherwise very nice, a bit tricky in places. I liked OUTGOING
8:15
Another here who thankfully thought of RECOURSE first, but I feel your pain and think RESOURCE is a justifiable answer as well, if a little inelegant having already had SOURCE in the clue. It is noted that of the 73 submissions so far in the Times Crossword Club, 54 have at least one error…
Where I nearly fell down was wondering if 12a would be PASCAL (as in Easter which Catholics (and others?) would celebrate in Spring) but couldn’t justify it enough to commit, and besides, it’s probably got an H in there as well.
I liked the letter exchange at 6d, and the notion that some may have bunged in TRAIN at 7d.
Thanks to Cedric for another masterful blog, and to Lupa for some clever stuff in this puzzle
Asp and now Lupa, what is going on in Crossword towers?
Please bring back some sense of normality. If we want this difficult we can do the main crossword.
Anyway finished but with same as Jackkt, train and resource.
Another RESOURCE, with a MER at the use of ‘source’ in the clue, so double checked the anagrist. I liked the elegance of MINISTER with I in minster, but also one in a church. Also 6d, which I bifd first, then saw the substitution. As Cedric says, no obscurities and clear clueing other than 22a.
Also dubiously resourced, but I am in illustrious company…. Otherwise an entertaining puzzle. COD to the exotic old fruit.
I also did the RESOURCE thing
I‘m not completely convinced it doesn‘t fit the clue.
12 minutes apart from that
Given the number of people who joined me in this, I am becoming completely convinced it does ..
Pretty slow but enjoyed. DNF x 2. I was so pleased to have solved CHIMERA and PARCEL that I forgot to try to figure out MEET – a curiously difficult clue. I was trying earlier to fit in R for run in that one.
Luckily I settled on TOE for 21d, but fell into the Resource trap.
Liked BROOD, NOMINAL, TWAIN, MINISTER, SKINT.
Some of us reckon we are meeting old chestnuts for the first time and enjoy them. FOI the write-in CHICAGO – good discussion above.
Thanks vm, Cedric.
Ended a poor week with another poor effort. Managed to type CHIgAGO and then had ‘tee’ for TOE. All that carelessness in 20m.
35:20
Crikey, that was tough. Only when I finally saw the wordplay for EXPORTS was the top left unlocked but that still left me with 3 isolated clues which added another 10 minutes: MEET, PARCEL and LOI RADIANCE.
QCPR double well over the hour today.
Yep, RESOURCE here too. Pitched outside leg, struck outside the line, missing the stumps, review retained.
🤣
9:41
Thankfully I thought of RECOURSE first, and was very surprised to finish 15th on the leaderboard in early afternoon.
COD to PARCEL.
Not convinced that PATIENT is a synonym of invalid, although some invalids might be receiving medical care.
Thanks Cedric and Lupa
12:57, a fast time for me, so very accessible, a big change from yesterday. Thank goodness I didn’t think of REsOURce! I would have felt like a DOLT. Although it’s a good answer in my opinion. It must be hard for setters to see and avoid these traps. NHO BOMB for large sum of money, one for the crosswordland lexicon. I could not parse ASSENT and agree that “scent” is a stretch (there were several stretchy synonyms in this puzzle); I kept trying to see how the clue was telling me to remove an E from “sense” and add a T. Loved “exhort” –> EXPORT, COD, with the splendid old prunes hot on its heels. I considered “train” for 7D TWAIN but decided to read the whole clue haha.
Thanks Cedric for the entertaining blog! Chicago may not have the most wind, but it has the bitterest wind I ever endured. And thanks to Lupa for the gentle amusements.
I’m off for a super busy working vacation in beautiful West Virginia and will miss you all, probably you more than the QC itself.
I’m sure you’re right that it is hard for setters to avoid ambiguities: it is difficult enough for us as solvers not to look for a second answer if we’ve found one we think works, so it must be even more challenging for a setter who knows what the intended answer is. But isn’t this where the checking process and the puzzle editor could come in?
Of course you’re right!
21:20
For me lightning has struck twice, as I found this even harder than yesterday’s which was already a brute. COD for me probably CHIMERA, as it was a nice word with an equally nice surface. I had RESOURCE like many others, and was almost glad when it was wrong as the double ‘source’ would have been very unpleasant, though the clue still left a bad taste as the answer arguably was not unique, something which I’ve noticed seems to be happening more of late. On the subject of anagrams that are very close to words in the clue, I didn’t love NO MAIL –> NOMINAL. Perhaps my carping can be put down to simply being on poor form – I’m looking forward to atoning on Monday.
Gentler than yesterday but still one or two that caused problems. LOI MEET took a very long time for the penny to drop. TOE wasn’t ever parsed but tentatively went in once I’d got the E from RECOURSE (didn’t think of resource at all!). Biffed then parsed BOMB, such an old-fashioned term and one much-used by my late mother (‘he made a bomb’). Liked PARCEL and for a while thought it was the collective noun for a group of catholics 😆 COD to EXPORTS for the dastardly wordplay. Thanks Cedric and Luca.
14.21 DNF with the usual error. I thought it wasn’t a great answer but I’d felt the same about NOMINAL so I put it in with a shrug. TWAIN and the parsing of LOI EXPORTS took a while. In 14a scent isn’t being conflated with one of the five senses. They share a meaning as verbs, not nouns. Thanks Cedric and Lupa.
Ah, good point about “scent”.
RESOURCE – Collins sense 3: “a supply or source of aid or support; something resorted to in time of need”.
Which, when you’re looking for something meaning “source of help” which is an anagram of “core user”, is obviously an acceptable answer.
Fuming!
Thanks Cedric. 07:52 but WOE.
PS on edit, 60 of the top 100 solvers on the club leaderboard have an error. Ridiculous. Still fuming!
I found this really accessible puzzle, just about right level for QC. After a couple of troublesome days it was a refreshing change. Maybe I was lucky as RECOURSE came straightaway and also thought of the famous painting to get TWAIN. I also parsed MINISTER as I in minster (church).
Thanks Cedric and Lupa.
I wasted several minutes checking for a typo . Revealed just about every word was correct so gave up. Came to this blog to see what was wrong and found out it was RECOURSE. Hmmmmmmmmmmm!! I wonder if the setters might roadtest with each other??? I’m sure that a lot of potential controversies might be avoided.
Another Resource here…stumped by 10a Meet/Teem and I found 12a ‘Parcel’ difficult too. Had nothing until halfway through the Across and then the south went in ok and had to tackle the N – not so hard after all once I had the wavelength.
FOI16a Radiance
LOI 12a Parcel
DNF on 10a Meet
COD 2d Chimera
Dnf…
Struggled with 4ac “Patients” (which raised a very small eyebrow), 10ac “Meet”, 7dn “Twain” and, of course, I also got 22ac “Resource”.
I thought this was pretty hard, and still had a number to complete after 30 mins.
FOI – 1ac “Acts”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 12ac “Parcel”
Thanks as usual!
Either this was another tricky one, or it’s not a good idea to watch rugby at the same time. . . Either way, a very slow solve. Worse still, having carelessly started to write in Rescuer at 22ac, and then confidently revised it to Resource when I found the missing letter, I was surprised to see the reference in Cedric’s blog to an issue with 22ac. Hmm, really not sure about that, but on a hopefully less controversial note, CoD to 6d, Exports, for the parsing. Invariant
Oh my. Two DNFs in a row. Never managed to parse MEET, despite having the crossers: I really wanted there to be an R in there. Also add me to the RESOURCE crowd and the TIE group and to the set of people who never parsed EXPORTS (I was ready to be annoyed about “husband” being defined as “ex” 😞), for a day from which we move on.
Can I ask for an easier one for next Wednesday, when I’m on blog duty?
Thanks to Cedric (nice job!) and Lupa.
It’s hard to comment on the difficulty of this QC because I was staying with my parents and we did it among us, whereas normally I do it on my own. We completed it in short order, with my dad avoiding the Recourse trap. He also got Twain, which I think was the hardest clue. On the other hand, I not only got Exports but was able to explain it. Good, wholesome family fun. Thanks Lupa and Cedric.
After weighing up all of the evidence and a day and a bit’s consideration the the third umpire has issued her decision: RECOURSE and RESOURCE are both equally valid solutions to 22a. The third umpire is, of course, Mrs Random, as she has the casting vote in all non-trivial decisions in the Random household.
My CoD was SPLENDOUR for its wonderful surface, and my time was 33 minutes.
Many of hanks to Lupa and Cedric.
8.54 but with RESOURCE. Poor clue in my opinion. Thanks Lupa and Cedric.