Bob was in great form with this outing, giving us no less than three well-crafted &lits (some puzzles don’t even give us a slightly clumsy one), and some diabolically devious cluing (21 and 2D stand out). Starting with 9, I was off to a flying start, solving several without checkers. Two of the most biffable were also the hardest to parse, which can also be fun. I didn’t know the expression at 23, and 4D may be a bit obscure. Overall, though, I didn’t think this was very hard, though, as always when working these, I wasn’t watching the clock.
I indicate (aragnasm)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.
| ACROSS | |
| 1 | Chippy’s board left off fish (4) |
| CARP — CARP[-enter, “board”] ”Chippy” is one of the constantly increasing number of slang terms that I’ve learned by working these things, and whose sole utility to me has been to enable me to more quickly nail things down here. | |
| 4 | Where, finally, to join wild cat safari (4,6) |
| EAST AFRICA — [-wher]E + (cat safari)* An &lit, with what might be considered an unflagged definition by example (since you might do other things in East Africa, which is also not the only place you might find such an excursion), which Pete Biddlecombe has been considering allowing… The definition does not require “finally,” but I’m in a good mood (defying all circumstances) and am not going to complain. | |
| 9 | Trifles, possibly about love? (5,8) |
| SWEET NOTHINGS — Another &lit, which I thought at first was just a somewhat transparent CD, until I remembered that a “trifle” is a British dessert (which sounds slightly disgusting), so here we have SWEET(NOTHING)S. ”Possibly,” indicating that ”Trifles” defines SWEETS by example, is not necessary to the definition, unless SWEET NOTHINGS can be about anything else… But maybe they can; it’s just a figure of speech! | |
| 10 | Make attractive finish to a queen’s clothing (6) |
| ENDEAR — END, “finish” + E(A)R | |
| 11 | Clubs and pubs adopting a bright red colour (8) |
| CINNABAR — C(lubs) + INN (A) BAR | |
| 12 | Cards holding an art patron’s old records (8) |
| ACETATES — ACE(TATE)S | |
| 14 | Chain, one that’s six feet, keeping large mammals back (6) |
| ANKLET — AN(ELK<=”back”)T | |
| 15 | Couples decided wearing uniform is retrograde (6) |
| UNITES — SET IN U<=“retrograde” | |
| 17 | Noble site bombed first (8) |
| EARLIEST — EARL, “Noble” + (site)* | |
| 19 | Part of a cathedral made over to relics (8) |
| CLOISTER — (to relics)* | |
| 21 | Desperate rebel in southern desert (6) |
| URGENT — [-ins]URGENT My Last One Parsed! | |
| 23 | Counteract pressure: go by rail, saving seconds (4,3,6) |
| TAKE THE STRAIN — TAKE THE (S[-econds]) TRAIN The S train in Manhattan is the Times Square shuttle, which runs under 42nd Street between just two stations, Times Square and Grand Central, “about 2,402 feet (732 m) in 90 seconds” (Wikipedia). From Times Square, you can “Take the ‘A’ Train”—on which Duke Ellington (or Billy Strayhorn) would have headed uptown, as it’s “the quickest way to Harlem.” | |
| 24 | Broken nose bandaged by top medic (10) |
| BONESETTER — I hope you have good insurance! BETTER, “top” wrapping (nose)* | |
| 25 | Cheese turned out on the counter (4) |
|
EDAM — |
|
| DOWN | |
| 2 | One being short of training is a firing offence (5) |
| ARSON — A [-pe]RSON, “One,” sans P(hysical) E(ducation)… Sudden panic as I wrote the blog, as I couldn’t remember how I parsed this last Sunday (as I surely must have). I even “called a friend” (emailed Keriothe, though it was rather late in London at the time), but, as almost always happens right after I admit defeat, I saw the answer five minutes later. As most of us probably did, I thought of PE right away for “training,” so it was just a matter of knowing where to put it. | |
| 3 | Feel aggrieved that map ultimately leads here (7) |
| PRESENT — [-ma]P + RESENT | |
| 4 | One charging setter in criminal complaint (9) |
| ENTERITIS — I, “one” inside (“charging”) (setter in)* | |
| 5 | Cakes filled with a hundred wicked things seen here (7) |
| SCONCES — SCON(C)ES, things with wicks | |
| 6 | Pale nut found under tree (5) |
| ASHEN — ASH, “tree” + EN, a space-occupying slug from the distant days preceding my own time as a typographical professional | |
| 7 | Rifle fire by a parting force (7) |
| RANSACK — R(A)N, A inside R(oyal) N(avy), “force” + SACK, “fire” | |
| 8 | Pairs sometimes used to click while dancing (9) |
| CASTANETS — CD | |
| 13 | He painted lines without a permit (9) |
| CANALETTO — Banksy? CAN(A)(LET)TO I remember him for his depictions of (as his name would seem to wink to) Venice, but he did other cities too! | |
| 14 | Mimed playing song? It’s caught by screen, briefly (3,6) |
| AIR GUITAR — AIR, “song” + GU(IT)AR[-d] ”Mimed playing” is a noun here. | |
| 16 | Fool left before the end of Satie’s slow movement (7) |
| TRICKLE — What an idiot, that’s the best part! TRICK, “Fool” + L + [-Sati]E | |
| 17 | Serious art making money? (7) |
| EARNEST — Doest thou make a good living? | |
| 18 | One Regan typifies, primarily, in play (7) |
| INGRATE — Yet another &lit, and “primarily” can certainly be deemed part, if not a necessary one, of the definition, as the answer is a most salient trait of this particular daughter of Lear. | |
| 20 | Course support needed by tense university student (5) |
| TUTEE — T(ense) + U(niversity) + TEE, “support”; Collins gives T as an abbreviation for “tense,” though it is not as common as U for “university.” | |
| 22 | Killer allergen in jam sandwiches (5) |
| NINJA — Hidden | |
(I accidentally posted this too early, before 7 NY time, instead of 8), and an earlier draft, losing my latest in the process. I’m glad you didn’t show up before I reconstructed it.)
Edited at 2020-03-15 01:08 am (UTC)
Unfortunately, you do need ‘finally’, because there is no ‘E’ in CAT SAFARI. So it’s [wher]E + an anagram of CAT SAFARI.
Edited at 2020-03-15 02:59 am (UTC)
GdS, you need the final e in where to complete the anagram at 4a.
Nice blog; nice puzzle. Thx ed, too
Edited at 2020-03-15 02:45 am (UTC)
Trifle is delicious, and I think the ‘rule’ about DBE’s applies only to definitions (as the acronym implies) as I doubt the cryptic puzzle has ever been compiled that didn’t use them in wordplay.
“Let the train TAKE THE STRAIN” was a slogan used by British Rail to promote rail travel in the 1970s.
Edited at 2020-03-15 07:16 am (UTC)
A definition for ALPS such as (to simplify) “Where people ski” might end in a question mark, while “Where one might ski” could be taken to indicate that there are other places one might do that or other things one might do there, so no quirk is needed. “Natural habitat of whales” could clue OCEANS, but “Where people waterski” would seem to need a quirk, or something, since you can do that in lakes, etc., as well as that just being one thing you could do at or say about OCEANS.
Jack has just saved me from explaining TAKE THE STRAIN. It was a well-known slogan in the 70s.
I was into the SE corner in around 9 minutes, and finally biffed URGENT and INGRATE. Both were parsed later. “How like a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child” is one of my go-to quotes from the Bard, so I should have seen it quicker.
I initially biffed “thickie” at 16D, which was quite apposite I suppose. Thanks Guy for the parsing of ARSON, my only remaining query.
FOI CARP
LOI URGENT
COD CINNABAR
TIME 12:33
Edited at 2020-03-15 07:35 pm (UTC)
But TAKE THE STRAIN did actually take the strain and I got into this most enjoyable puzzle. LOI was ANKLET after RANSACK (which helped later in the week). Struggled to parse URGENT and AIR GUITAR. Thanks for those.
I also considered VENEER at 10a and my first thought at 18d was a detective until Lear jetted into view. David
‘On the counter’ is an expression I’ve heard in a football context where it’s short for ‘counter-attack’. I’m not sure if that’s what intended here. The clue is a classic of the cheese joke genre:
What cheese is made backwards? EDAM
What did the cheese say when it looked in the mirror? Halloumi.
What cheese do you use to attract a bear? Camembert.
What cheese do you use to hide a horse? Mascarpone.
I’ll get my coat.
Time 31 minutes and very enjoyable.
FOI 6dn Ashen (One of Tony Hancock’s words)
LOI 1ac CARP at last managed to parse. Doh!
COD 4ac EAST AFRICA (one does require finally – viny-ally!)
WOD 14dn AIR GUITAR
Mr. Price is getting up to speed.
Edited at 2020-03-15 03:55 pm (UTC)
Having been caught up on an urgent COVID project down here, there is not much spare time … and found this one too tough to do without aids. Still took over an hour in a couple of sittings.
A couple of new terms were ACETATES (for records) and ‘nut’ for EN (the printer’s measure). Had no idea with the parsing of ARSON but was able to work out everything else.
EAST AFRICA was the first in and finished in the SE corner with BONESETTER and TUTEE.