27:18. Blimey, that was a tough one! But a highly enjoyable challenge with some superb clues. There are a couple of wordplay elements that I’m not quite sure I understand so any suggestions gratefully received.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Sound — rumble? |
| FATHOM – DD. | |
| 5 | Crow, say, represented in dreams |
| AMERINDS – (IN DREAMS)*. | |
| 9 | Guerrilla group’s prohibited |
| CONTRABAND – CONTRA (member of the CIA-funded Nicaraguan guerrilla group), BAND. | |
| 10 | This month, in an abbreviated way |
| INST – IN, ST (abbreviation for street). You can also read the whole clue as the definition. Neat! | |
| 11 | Suddenly slowing ceremony, maniac takes over |
| RITENUTO – RITE, NUT, O. | |
| 12 | Cut by aluminium, blood everywhere |
| GALORE – G(AL)ORE. | |
| 13 | Small, sweet vegetable |
| SPUD – S, PUD. | |
| 15 | Team bagging rubbish over in newspaper office |
| EDITORSHIP – SIDE containing ROT, all reversed, then HIP (in). | |
| 16 | The main available period for tourism |
| HIGH SEASON – HIGH SEAS (the main), ON. | |
| 18 | Appeal to counsel |
| URGE – I think this is a DD but I don’t really see how counsel = URGE. | |
| 19 | One in factory making plastic |
| PLIANT – PL(I)ANT. | |
| 20 | Appearing in Times, say, is Times writer |
| ESSAYIST – contained in ‘Times say is Times’. | |
| 22 | Body in water dissolved in seconds? |
| ISLE – |
|
| 23 | Job announcement |
| PROFESSION – DD. | |
| 24 | Contacted dining room with silver |
| MESSAGED – MESS, AGED. As in ‘silver surfer’. The presence of AG in the answer is irrelevant! | |
| 25 | Stone left in position to finish |
| LASTLY – LA(ST, L)Y. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Clay pots I love for dressing |
| AIOLI – A(I, O)LI. Cassius of that ilk of course. The stuff my kids refer to as ‘alioli sauce’ to wind me up. | |
| 3 | One rash he had to get treated |
| HOTHEAD – (HE HAD TO)*. A very neat clue. | |
| 4 | A tape recording? |
| MEASUREMENT – CD, a reference to what you might use a tape measure to ‘record’. | |
| 5 | Drug dose adjusted with calibration |
| ANABOLIC STEROID – (DOSE CALIBRATION)*. Another very tidy anagram. | |
| 6 | Aim of those ahead of foe? |
| END – because the letters preceding F, O and E are… An original and clever device. | |
| 7 | Suspenders falling as temperature rises |
| ICICLES – CD. | |
| 8 | Winning act of demilitarisation |
| DISARMING – DD. | |
| 12 | Prepares properly for rising tide |
| GROUNDSWELL – GROUNDS, WELL. | |
| 14 | Training to get upset girl in bed |
| PAILLASSE – P(AIL, LASS)E. A word that rang a vague bell. | |
| 17 | My struggle to raise partners |
| HEAVENS – HEAVE (struggle to raise), NS (partners in Bridge). | |
| 18 | Greek hero deviously sly in exploits |
| ULYSSES – USES containing (SLY)*. | |
| 21 | Cylinder turns over |
| SPOOL – reversal of LOOPS. | |
| 23 | Something difficult to scoff |
| PIG – DD. | |
45:23
Tough one. I couldn’t see what was cryptic about INST, I didn’t see how END or PIG worked. Now that I get it, COD to END.
Both “counsel” and “urge” mean can mean “recommend” (definition 2 for each of them in Collins). Admittedly, the latter has the modifiers “earnestly and persistently,” while “counsel” sounds more phlegmatic.
“In seconds” seemed fine to me.
I never got to the bottom of END, though.
Yeah the ‘earnestly and persistently’ seems pretty fundamental to me.
PS can you explain how ‘in seconds’ is ‘fine’? I just can’t see how it has the required meaning.
Re SECONDS. The only thing I can think of is musical intervals. If you have a sequence of notes like CDEF, then you’re ascending in seconds. But does that really work, if ISLE etc are not notes?
Presumably E to F isn’t ‘in seconds’? In any case I think the answer to your second question is no!
E to F is a minor second. (C to D is a major second, i.e. two semitones, whereas E to F and B to C are minor seconds, being only one semitone.) As for the second question, I think you’re right. I was clutching at straws.
Got it, thanks. I ought to know that really!
I said it seemed fine when I solved it—meaning I hadn’t thought much about it!
But “second” can mean “alternate.”
In that sense it’s equivalent to ‘deputy’, so doesn’t work here.
Chambers has “other, alternate,” so it seems the same as def. 3 in Collins, “ 3. alternate |
every second Thursday.”
Every second letter, every other letter
Ah yes I suppose so. But even then ‘in seconds’ or ‘in alternates’ doesn’t mean ‘every second/alternate letter of’.
Not sure that it can’t!
Does “essentially” ever mean “central(ly)” in English, and does “the French” ever mean the same as “French (for) ‘the’”? No both times, I would say, but they’re accepted by solvers because they are familiar.
I don’t think ‘it may be nonsense but we do it all the time’ is a particularly good justification!
‘Essentially’ is certainly questionable but ODE for instance defines ‘essential’ as ‘central to the nature of something’ so there is at least some dictionary support.
I always think of ‘the French’ as a case of ignoring punctuation, or in this case its absence. ‘The, French’ or even ‘the (French)’ seem valid ways of indicating ‘le’ to me.
I didn’t actually say that it was a good justification, but the whole point of cryptic clues is using language in a way that works for the creator of the clue rather than what people in general would naturally understand. And as you can see from other people in this discussion, not every solver will agree about which new tricks are OK.
As far as “essentially” is concerned, the actual wording in ODE is “fundamental or central to …”, which I think confirms that “central” in this case means “of the greatest importance” among its ODE defs — something’s nature simply doesn’t have a middle.
Yes I tend to agree that ‘essentially’ is a bit dubious. More broadly I don’t think that expecting cryptic devices to retain some connection to the way language is generally used is too much to ask. Nobody has come up with an explanation that convinces me that this device does that.
Chambers Thesaurus gives “counsel” as
“verb
advise, warn, caution, suggest, recommend, advocate, urge, exhort, guide, give guidance, direct, teach, instruct, give your opinion
old aread, rede
formal admonish”
When I went to army cadet camp at the end of 1954 we slept four to a tent on palliases, hessian mattresses filled with straw, sitting on wooden bases which were like paling fences on their side.
DNF as I knew this spelling only. My old COED has paillasse and palliasse, the former from French paille (straw) but no explanation of the latter.
80 minutes, which is a long time, but my print-out shows no workings other than a couple of anagram circles, and I had no queries. ‘Crow /AMERIND’ and the parsing of MESSAGED took some thinking through howver I got there with both in the end, so I’d put this down as tough but very enjoyable overall.
“in seconds” in 22A and “before” in 6D: both indications that I don’t think I’ve seen before. My honest expectation was that comments like “I’m not sure …” and “original and clever” were more likely to be the other way (i.e. Guy’s) round. At least sometimes in Dean’s puzzles, there are unexpected indications that I decide should not be used, so we don’t find out what the reaction would have been.
For me, ‘in seconds?’ (necessary ? mark is present) works if you consider a word as built from adjacent pairs of letters and take the second letter of each pair. It works whether there is an exact number of pairs or an extra letter over (as in di-ss-ol-ve-d).
Could this device become the new ‘on vacation’?!
I still can’t see it. To me ‘those [those letters] ahead of foe [F, O, E]’ plainly means what it needs to mean. ‘In seconds’ just doesn’t, in any way that I can think of, have the required meaning in English.
My comment apples to 22A and is just a way of visualising how ‘in seconds’ can indicate ‘every second letter”.
Yes that’s what I’m referring to. As far as I can’t see ‘in seconds’ doesn’t mean that!
Good morning, k! Having slept on this, I’ll give it one more try.
Presumably you will accept that ‘in second’ can mean ‘in second place/position’ as in a competitor coming in second. So, for crossword purposes, ‘dissolved in second’ would indicate I. The setter (Dean, who as we know has a very fertile mind) has used the plural ‘in seconds’ and has thus challenged the solver to think creatively and find four second positions within ‘dissolved’. For me, this is logically possible if the word is split into pairs of letters and you take what’s in second position in each pair. I don’t find this stretching credibility any more than such accepted crossword chestnuts as ‘lower’ for cattle or ‘butter’ for goat.
Perhaps I still haven’t convinced you … or have I? Best regards, either way.
I’m still not convinced I’m afraid. You can say that a competitor ‘came in second’ but that doesn’t mean that ‘came in second’ is a valid indication for A. Beyond that the sequence of manoeuvres you’re expecting the solver to infer from these two little words rather stretches credulity!
Sorry, on the off chance there’s any misunderstanding, I presume you mean “ahead” rather than “before” in 6D.
Tough and WOE. After originally wondering about finish = LUSTRE I plumped for position = Lie (as in golf) and submitted LISTLE.
I would have spelt the bed PALLIASSE but I wonder if I’ve heard that as military slang. Sounds like it from KensoGhost.
Didn’t feel the need for an extra helping of Mephisto last week.
DNF. I thought that I’d solved this v. enjoyable toughie in 70 minutes when I tapped the Submit button, only to be greeted by the sight of three pink squares for my DESERVING answer for 8d. DE SERVING seemed a pretty good whimsical def for ‘demilitarisation’ but it’s obviously not as good as the correct answer and doesn’t mean ‘winning’, even if “deserve” and “win” are often used together.
Lots of good clues as pointed out in the blog and comments. I couldn’t parse END; never seen that ‘those ahead’ trick before. I also liked the conventional cryptic / non-cryptic INST.
Thanks to Dean and keriothe
I also had DESERVING for DISARMING, and looking at it now the correct answer does fit better. Bah!
This was way beyond my capabilities, and I came here to find out how the clues worked. In the end there were several that I should have got, but sometimes the brain assumes defeat and doesn’t apply the necessary rigour. The double definitions were a case in point. Had I got the long anagram, which I did recognise, things might have opened up enough to finish, though NHO AMERINDS, and doubt if that would have occurred, even with crossers, as I was thinking birds, naturally.
The definition for 22a is surely ‘body in water’ rather than ‘body’, K. Anyway, I’m left with humble admiration for those who completed this one and for our esteemed setter and blogger.
My thanks to Dean Mayer and keriothe.
DNF, but not far off.
11a Ritenuto NHO, checked by lookup.
16a High season, I biffed Open Season which destroyed the SW. Bother!
18a Urge. I queried this too. As pointed out by Guy et al I suppose the consigliori might urge/counsel caution to the capo.
24a Messaged, the AG/silver confused me and I put a ? next to it.
2d Aioli, Cassius Clay is going back a bit, so not very fair to the under 70s, but I enjoyed it. He changed his name in 1964, 62YA.
4d Measurement, I needed lots of crossers for this. A bit vague.
Loved this! Solved today, enticed by keriothe’s intro, just the thing to soften a sore head. And pleased to come in a notch under forty minutes in total, having paused around the half-hour with six to go. Relished all the tour de force clues that Dean pulls out of the bag with improbable frequency.
I did feel quite pleased with myself briefly, on entering PROGNOSTIC for the “Job” announcement, thinking he might be known for that along with his patience. And if you’re in the business of prognosticating, advocating patience is going to be an effective counter to unwanted scepticism.
The subtlety of the “in seconds” issue is hurting my addled head, but the OED defines, say, THIRD as “The last of each successive group of three; one in every three”. And we’ve had “in prime locations” to mean the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th characters. I think that’s enough for me to hand-wave away! Would never have parsed END – very neat indeed. Super stuff – thanks Dean and K.
Completely defeated by this one: didn’t get FATHOM, ISLE, ICICLES, AMERINDS or PAILLASSE (I’d never heard of the last two).
– Only vaguely remembered INST meaning this month, and otherwise relied on the wordplay
– Didn’t see how exactly the ‘aged’ part of MESSAGED worked
– Hadn’t the foggiest how END worked (my best guess was that it referred to ‘Friend or foe’)
Thanks keriothe and Dean.
COD Hothead
I too was completely kerfuffled with this one, even after starting off relatively quickly with CONTRABAND, INST, SPUD and GALORE (ie the low hanging fruit), and then a lot of head-scratching for most of the rest . AIOLI helped a lot with 1a, and with what to look for in 11a (musical: one which I NHO). I don’t like the interchange of “My!” with “HEAVENS!” as I don’t think anyone under 60 would have heard that usage – feel free to disagree. But I think Dean was in a rather playful mood here, and was ‘stretching the envelope’ to test us. Had more look-ups for this than any this year, so hope I’m not losing it! ( liked GALORE and HIGH SEASON).
I’m under 60 and it’s perfectly familiar to me!
Glad to read others found this difficult, as I indeed did. I got there in the end, with some help to confirm paillasse, of which I had never heard.
I think it’s a bit much to criticise the use of ‘in seconds’ as referring to every second letter in 22A. Cryptic logic surely allows for such fuzziness, and, within limits, that is really part of the challenge?
I couldn’t parse END, so interested to read the clever explanation. I, too, thought it might have something to do with friEND or foe.
Lots of tough clues – thanks to Dean for the challenge, and to keriothe and commenters for the informative blog. Love to read everyone’s thought processes in solving.
Thanks Dean and keriothe
Was only able to get to this one this weekend after being away in the country for the past fortnight. Found it pretty difficult, taking just under the hour and a half to complete and with a parsing error with MESSAGED (fixated on the Ag for ‘silver’) and no idea at all with the brilliant END. Had no issues with the ISLE clue when justifying my written in answer initially from the definition.
Always admire the clever misdirection that this setter uses – ‘Clay pots’, ‘Crows say’, etc. and even with some of the surface readings, such as 7d. Have now got used to clues that look like just straight / cryptic definitions (15a, 16a) and then find the word play in amongst it.
Didn’t know the meaning of the British term ‘rumble’ and had to go looking in the dictionary for it.
Finished with FATHOM (after finally tracking down that ‘rumble’), that MESSAGED and PIG the last one in.