Good morning, and today we have a very nice puzzle by Teazel, which was right on the money for me – excellent clues, some nice deceptions and misleading wordplay, and no archaic words or unusual meanings.
The only standard type of QC wordplay we are missing is a hidden, whether straight or reversed. But that does not detract from a first rate QC, which I completed in 11:40 and much enjoyed. Thank you Teazel!
How did everyone else get on?
PS – for those who do not usually look at the 15×15 blog, the blog last Thursday by Zabadak was a veritable tour de force, being entirely in rhyming couplets. Apologies to all, but I will certainly not be trying to emulate him, as I find constructing a normal blog quite challenging enough. Or, to put it another way:
When asked to write his blog in verse / Cedric’s reply was somewhat terse. / “That’s not happening at all – / It would drive me up the wall!”
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, ~ marks insertion points and strike-through-text shows deletions.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Psychiatrist’s contract (6) |
| SHRINK – A nice DD to start us off.
It is far from clear (well, far from clear to me) why psychiatrists should be colloquially known as shrinks. The internet has any number of theories and explanations, each rather more implausible than the last, so I await enlightenment from the TfTT community. |
|
| 5 | Site contains a magnificent residence (6) |
| PALACE – P~LACE (site) containing A (from the clue), with the containment indicator being, er, “contains”. Not the most obscure indicator we’ve ever seen! | |
| 8 | Extremely clever reviser of text, to whom I’m indebted (8) |
| CREDITOR – CR (“extremely”, ie first and last letter of, CleveR) + EDITOR (reviser of text). | |
| 9 | Prepare to swallow cold cut (4) |
| CHEW – C (cold) + HEW (cut).
It is clues like this that for me, help lift a puzzle from good to excellent. The surface is so smooth, as one of the food items one could be chewing on is indeed a cold cut of meat. |
|
| 10 | Turn on waterworks with very little pressure (4) |
| WEEP – WEE (very little) + P (pressure).
Another surface that reads extremely naturally. |
|
| 11 | Little flower in cold fall (8) |
| SNOWDROP – SNOW (cold) + DROP (fall).
At least, this is how I arrived at the answer, and Teazel’s general intentions are clear enough, even though neither of the component synonyms, Snow = Cold and Drop = Fall, are particularly close. I await comments below on a better (ie tauter) parsing! |
|
| 12 | A maths broadcast is source of inspiring problems (6) |
| ASTHMA – (a maths)*, with the anagram indicator being “broadcast” (not, for once, the indicator of a homophone), and the definition referring to the meaning of Inspire as Breathe in. | |
| 14 | Divides up bulbs for cooking (not the first two) (6) |
| ALLOTS – |
|
| 16 | Messy room used for lengthy sleeper (8) |
| DORMOUSE – (room used)*, with the anagram indicator being “messy”. | |
| 18 | Cloak and headgear, last of range (4) |
| CAPE – CAP (headgear) + E (last letter of rangE). | |
| 20 | Heads turned in shock (4) |
| STUN – NUTS (heads) reversed (“turned”). | |
| 21 | Partly shaved heads of thugs on news somehow upset residents every day (8) |
| TONSURED – First letters (“heads”) of Thugs On News Somehow Upset Residents Every Day.
It is tempting to put Heads into the definition here, as tonsures are indeed a way of shaving the hair on your head. But Heads is part of the wordplay and not needed as part of the definition, which is simply the adjectival phrase Partly shaved. |
|
| 23 | Old, unusually clear prophecy (6) |
| ORACLE – O (old) + (clear)*, the anagram indicator being “unusually”.
An oracle is a person, originally a priestess in ancient Greece, who is believed to be able to deliver divine, wise, or prophetic messages from a god. It also refers to the sacred location of these pronouncements (for example Delphi), and the messages themselves. It is the last of these meanings we need here. |
|
| 24 | Study American country’s energy (6) |
| PERUSE – PERU’S (American country’s) + E (energy).
It is never entirely clear whether in a phrase like country’s, the s is to be included in the answer or not. In 1A it wasn’t, here it has to be and in the very next clue, 2D, it isn’t again. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Large crowd he’s taken round old road (5) |
| HORDE – H~E (he, from the clue) surrounding (“taken round”) O (old) + RD (road). | |
| 3 | Giving full details of home department hotel (2-5) |
| IN-DEPTH – IN (home) + DEPT (abbreviation for department) + H (hotel, in the NATO alphabet). | |
| 4 | Sportswear set for assembly (3) |
| KIT – Our second DD, with the second definition as for example in kit-cars, which were briefly popular in my youth (and extremely dangerous if they were not properly put together, which many of them were not). | |
| 5 | Act almost had to go through (9) |
| PERFORATE – PERFOR |
|
| 6 | Clear openings for lawbreakers upset detectives (5) |
| LUCID – LU (openings for, ie first letters of, Lawbreakers Upset) + CID (detectives). | |
| 7 | Brave guy in bed for a smoke (7) |
| CHEROOT – HERO (brave guy) inserted into C~OT (bed), the insertion indicator being the straightforward “in”.
Cheroot is one of the very few loan words in English which comes from Tamil. Its origin is the Tamil word curuṭṭu (சுருட்டு), meaning “roll” or “roll of tobacco”, which entered English in the 1670s via the Portuguese word charuto. |
|
| 11 | Perhaps Oscar Wilde caught at last, breaking law (9) |
| STATUETTE – ET (WildE caughT “at last”, ie last letters of), inserted into (“breaking”) STATU~TE (law).
A wonderful lift-and-separate, as we are not concerned with Oscar Wilde the person here at all; the reference to Oscar is to the little figurines given to the winners of Hollywood’s Academy Awards, and Wilde is just to give us a final E in the wordplay. |
|
| 13 | Mobility device firm put in store for renovation (7) |
| SCOOTER – CO (company, firm) inside (store)*, the anagram indicator being “for renovation”. | |
| 15 | Caught one without protective coat (7) |
| LACQUER – Sounds like LACKER (ie one who lacks, one without), with the homophone indicator being “caught”. | |
| 17 | Person in charge is frantically busy (5) |
| MANIC – MAN (person) + IC (standard abbreviation for in charge). | |
| 19 | Iron the newspapers (5) |
| PRESS – Another DD. | |
| 22 | Small bite and small drink (3) |
| NIP – And having opened with a DD, we also close with one, the fourth of the puzzle. | |
The QUITCH is high, but I did not find this that difficult. Cheroot, tonsured, and statuette are not words you would expect to find in an easy puzzle, but they’re not obscure, either. As for snowdrop, you have to NOT lift and separate, a snow drop is a cold fall.
Time: 8:36
20 minutes, but nearly half of that was accounted for by my being stuck for ages on my last two answers which as so often intersected – PERFORATE and ALLOTS. No other problems.
I always understood that SHRINK in this sense comes from ‘headshrink/er’ and was originally associated with the traditional practices of South American tribes who physically treated human heads after death in order to preserve them. It’s a cynical reference to the increasing popularity of psychoanalysis in the treatment of anxiety and other human failings in the mid-20th century.
Your (and my) understanding is also what ODE and Collins says re SHRINK; I never doubted it for a moment. I think I can even remember ‘headshrinker’ being used, before it was, er, shrunk.
Yes, I’ve heard headshrinker used in old films. Wiktionary helpfully confirmed my recollection with a quote from West Side Story.
A nice puzzle from Teazel which I eventually finished in 7:54 having gone off like the clappers before being held up by last few in – LACQUER, ALLOT (COD) and LOI PERFORATE.
TONSURED was a word discussed on Countdown yesterday and is increasingly my own look.
Off to the Crystal PALACE beer festival today.
Have a good weekend all and thanks Cedric for detailed write-up.
If one were a pedant (not guilty m’lord) one would say asthma is an expiring problem. The difficulty is with breathing out not breathing in. Hence the wheeze occurs in expiration and you get trapping of air in the lungs. Thanks Teazel and Cedric. Excellent puzzle and blog. I now understand lacquer/lacker……
When my mild asthma kicks in I find it difficult to take air in so I think the clue is fair
Like many of the puzzles this week, I found this to be of a very high quality whilst remaining on the gentler end of things.
I thought ‘cold fall’ was very clever because of the size range it could cover, anything from an SNOWDROP to an avalanche.
Started with SHRINK and finished with STATUETTE in 5.45.
Thanks to Cedric and Teazel
Started off badly by finding a hidden in 5A (Centre) that was not the answer. Struggled to align it with ‘residence’ for good reason.
NHO CHEROOT (himself had) TONSURED or ORACLE in the sense required (only as the person).
Got there in the end and stayed out of SCC, though in our case, it was a bit of a struggle.
FOI HORDE LOI TONSURED
COD CHEW
I agree with Plett that this was a high quality puzzle and on the gentler side of things but only gentler until I met the last few clues. I’m afraid LACQUER (Lacker??), ALLOTS (great PDM) , SNOWDROP, and my LOI STATUETTE (my COD together with CHEW) took me from a good time to a position just inside the SCC.
Nevertheless it was a masterly QC and a fitting end to the week (especially after a pretty awful set of QCs this week with the honourable exception of Wurm yesterday). I am happy to forgive a couple of chestnuts (STUN & PRESS) and to accept a slow solve when there is so much to enjoy from a master setter along the way.
Thanks to Teazel and to Cedric.
Excellent puzzle but I was rather slow this morning on the right. LOI PERFORATE. Other late solves were ALLOTS (good clue), CHEROOT (ditto) and LACQUER.
Also liked DORMOUSE, PERUSE, STATUETTE and SNOWDROP.
Thanks vm, Cedric.
Thanks for explaining LACQUER – it was LOI and I only worked out the word by experimenting with a Q before the U, but still totally failed to parse it.
Also somewhat delayed by PERFORATE, ALLOTS and STATUETTE which is my COD.
Biffed LACQUER but no other problems. Thanks Teazel for great puzzle and Cedric for interesting and amusing blog.
8:13, so by minutes my slowest of the week. In consequence, I thought this was much the hardest of the week. Note Verlaine took more than 5 minutes, so this must have been quite tough!
I didn’t love SNOWDROP (snow doesn’t mean cold and vice versa), but maybe it’s fine together. Other than that one I thought this was a very enjoyable puzzle, albeit definitely on the hard end.
Verlaine’s times can be a good yardstick when estimating the difficulty of the puzzle, but I think he just had a rare off day today.
SNOWDROP had me all ends up as I desperately searched for a small river
A fantastic puzzle, (for me) difficult with multiple PDMs. Siff competition for COD today
17:01 with a typo
TYTBAS
Nice one, had tonsures (shaven heads) which, unsurprisingly I couldnt parse, but evrything else fell into place. Thanks Teazel and Cedric.
From SHRINK to ORACLE in 6:10. PERFORATE took a moment. Thanks Teazel and Cedric.
27.20. A bit of a struggle, not being able to parse quite a few at first: CHEW, LAQUER, PERFORATE for example. Definitely on the harder side.
SCC 20:53
Perforate me with a snowdrop statuette as they say.
Ta CAT
For Pete’s sake, you wait ages for a DPS and then you get them two days in a row. Today’s was TONSURE{s}. No excuse, just lazily not reading the full clue because I’d seen how it worked and was on to the next one. Ruined a perfectly good time (Brer Plett + about 10).
Really fun puzzle to round off a gentle week. COD to STATUETTE – what a belter.
Many thanks Teazel and Cedric.
7.03 STATUETTE, PERCOLATE, ALLOTS and LACQUER were all a bit tricky. Thanks Cedric and Teazel.
13:33 for the solve for the Quitch. That’s a little behind average and while I’m sure there will be others who also tussle with this puzzle, I tend to agree with Cedric that it is an excellent QC. The main issue is coming up with the correct synonyms.
I don’t think snow=cold as synonym but I think a “snow drop” could indeed be a “cold fall”. I’m okay with that.
Thanks to Cedric for the high quality blog / or else we’d all be in a fog. / Thanks also to Teazel who / was a bit of a weasel with the Oscar Wilde clue!
Very nice puzzle that took me a bit longer than usual, courtesy of SNOWDROP. Never did parse ALLOTS – loud groan when I read the blog of course. COD to the superb STATUETTE. Many thanks Cedric. Excellent blog.
But where IS the QC on a Saturday? I can never find one in the paper, although Cedric says there’s one today by Teazel. Can anyone explain?
It is only available online on a Saturday. Today’s is at https://www.thetimes.com/puzzles/crossword/times-quick-cryptic-no-3303-pp0mlr6vq
Thanks Cedric, gottit. Not really my cup of tea, but hey.
It’s only published electronically so doesn’t appear in the printed version of the paper.
A missed opportunity today. I reached six clues to go after just 12 minutes, which is very fast for me (especially given the setter), but those clues conspired to detain me for a further 20+ minutes.
I got off to a great start with SHRINK and PALACE going straight in. My early pace slowed slightly, but only slightly, until I well and truly hit the buffers – Oof!
10+ minutes then passed with no further progress until SNOWDROP appeared and unlocked three more clues (LUCID, CHEW and STATUETTE). Another long, barren spell ensued before ALLOTS sprung to mind and LACQUER followed soon after.
This start-stop-start pattern occurs so frequently that I think my brain randomly goes out of signal for extended periods of time. And when it does there’s no hope of making further progress until a switch is thrown somewhere deep in its workings to reconnect it. So frustrating!
Total time = 32+ minutes
Thanks to Cedric and Teazel.
I didn’t find this great example of a proper QC too difficult, and there were, as usual, some lovely surfaces from Teazel. Thanks to Cedric for his usual informative blog.
FOI SHRINK
LOI STATUETTE
COD SNOWDROP
TIME 3:23
What a delightful puzzle from Teazel.
There were plenty of write in clues but also some real head scratchers with PERFORATE and STATUETTE my last two in.
Hard to choose a COD from a strong field but I’ll opt for STATUETTE.
Thanks Cedric as always and Teazel.
6:05
A quick blast today. Always nice to see my team, PALACE in the mix. Perhaps Teazel could have improved the grid with WIN and LEIPZIG for the perfect nina…
Thanks Cedric
Comfortably within target time but WOE in TONSUREs which should teach me to read the clue properly but probably won’t. LOI PERFORATE was tricky.
Thanks to Cedric for added value like the interesting etymology of CHEROOT. + Teazel of course.
Dnf…
Thought I was in for a reasonable average time, but struggled on 5dn “Perforate” and 14ac “Allots”. I may have got the former if I hadn’t put “Splits” for 14ac, even though I couldn’t parse it.
I can’t complain though – a good puzzle from Teazel.
FOI – 4dn “Kit”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 11dn “Statuette”
Thanks as usual!
Managed to finish this one but it took me almost as long as the cumulative solve time of the rest of you!
Really enjoyed CHEW, ALLOTS, and STATUETTE when I eventually got them. Had never heard of CHEROOT or TONSURED before but put them in based on the wordplay and crosses. SHRINK and ASTHMA were the sort of easy write-ins for me that let me get a foothold so I appreciate them greatly.
Time: 58:48
well done on your solve and being willing to put your time up. I was hitting those sort of times five years ago so keep plugging away and they will improve
A tonsure is the haircut you will see on a stereotypical monk eg Friar Tuck
WOE, WOE (that’s two of them) is me! an easy 7 or 8 minutes, then a long look at PERcOlATE, which didn’t parse but seemed better than “personate”. Then submitted with the obviously wrong TONSURES. Other than that (haha) a smoothly entertaining solving experience. Enjoyed WEEP, especially since I once worked with someone who could turn on the waterworks at will, so annoying. I also loved ASTHMA for the surface, having met a few inspiring math problems in my time. COD to the Oscar Wilde misdirection.
Thanks Teazel and Cedric. Good versifying there. Interesting that “drop” and “fall” are distant for you when to me they are very close in meaning.
Enjoyable puzzle- thanks. Failed to parse STATUETTE, otherwise ok.
Is anyone else finding that the app deletes previous progress when you re- open the grid from the list of today’s puzzles? ( iPad) – most annoying!
Pretty chewy in places but really stumbled with 15d Lacquer – It fitted but I can’t really claim to have fully parsed this one. FOI 1a Shrink
LOI 15d Laquer
COD 11a Snowdrop
16:31
Nice puzzle. My first in a couple of weeks. Took a while to see STATUETTE and SNOWDROP. LOI CHEW.