I felt this was a little tougher than your average Monday. My impression is that it suits the mathematically-inclined more than the GK/vocab folks. The work of a more technical setter, perhaps?
Anyway, enough hypothesising (though it’s fun, and definitely beats the ‘facts’).
22:40 for me. How did you get on?
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Foreign money originally only put in cash machine arbitrarily (2,6) |
| AT RANDOM – RAND O~ in ATM | |
| 5 | Charm of American drinking vermouth cocktail (6) |
| MOJITO – IT (vermouth) in MOJO (charm or amulet) | |
| 9 | Leave, or keep being swamped by inflexible hours (3,5) |
| SET FORTH – FORT (keep) in SET (inflexible) H | |
| 10 | Courage of outspoken copper? (6) |
| METTLE – sounds like metal | |
| 12 | Making remarks about place, one is flattering (13) |
| COMPLIMENTING – PL I in COMMENTING | |
| 15 | Key, fateful day for White House staffers? (5) |
| AIDES – A IDES | |
| 16 | Neat, and with a bow? (9) |
| SHIPSHAPE – the shape of a ship will typically contain a bow (as well as a stern) | |
| 17 | Instruct employees to start late and become more cheerful (9) |
| ENLIGHTEN – |
|
| 19 | Completely gave up booze in the end (5) |
| QUITE – QUIT ~E | |
| 20 | Northern police upset with conman refusing to be arrested, say (3-10) |
| NON-COMPLIANCE – anagram* of N POLICE CONMAN | |
| 22 | Discover the truth about fight in West Side Story? (6) |
| RUMBLE – rumble in two colloquial senses: ‘I tried to pretend I didn’t know her, but he rumbled me’ and ‘there was a rumble in the hood’ | |
| 23 | League sport needing no introduction (8) |
| ALLIANCE – |
|
| 25 | Monetary fine is mostly collected (6) |
| FISCAL – F IS CAL |
|
| 26 | Answer appeal to get hold of superlative building material (8) |
| ASBESTOS – BEST in A SOS | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Connected ideas with a cost to be refined (10) |
| ASSOCIATED – IDEAS A COST* | |
| 2 | Go off rhubarb (3) |
| ROT – double definition – the latter as in ‘rhubarb, rhubarb’ spoken sotto voce in the theatre | |
| 3 | Ramen ingredients possibly in new bags (7) |
| NOODLES – N OODLES | |
| 4 | Best change work on bogus imitations (12) |
| OPTIMISATION – OP IMITATIONS* | |
| 6 | When taken up, a piece of plissé is enough for items of loungewear (7) |
| ONESIES – reverse hidden; when you have a long clue, or a clue with bizarre words, chances are a hidden is involved | |
| 7 | Head of innovation weirdly not great in bringing elements together (11) |
| INTEGRATION – I~ NOT GREAT IN* | |
| 8 | Somewhat momentous sign of things to come (4) |
| OMEN – this time the hidden is generously marked by ‘somewhat’ | |
| 11 | The eastern side of Suwałki in Poland is a crumbling urban area (12) |
| INDIANAPOLIS – ~I IN POLAND IS A*; that’s the third clue of a similar type in five down clues | |
| 13 | Designations held by Anna and Bonnie? (6,5) |
| MIDDLE NAMES – NN occurs in the middle of both names; so not ‘maiden names’ then | |
| 14 | Serious nature of cut close to the head (10) |
| SEVERENESS – SEVER ~E NESS | |
| 18 | Nerve centres in trouble over supporting group of criminals (7) |
| GANGLIA – AIL reversed after GANG | |
| 19 | Analgesic substance — one of five in recreational drug (7) |
| QUININE – QUIN IN E | |
| 21 | Ace female academic (4) |
| PROF – PRO F | |
| 24 | What lepidopterist may use in depth every so often (3) |
| NET – |
|
11’47” but with a typo…no issues. Severity?
Thanks ulaca and setter.
About 20′. Unlike Ulaca I found this pretty straightforward ending with a good time for me. (I was an engineer, and then an accountant, so I suppose I do fit U’s theory).
I did look at SHIPSHAPE for a while, the crossing vowels not helping much. Is asbestos still a building material?
Thanks Ulaca and setter
50 minutes hampered by solving online, lack of practice and slow brain. Pleased to finish though. Only clue unparsed was SET FORTH.
Welcome back, Jackkt.
24.37 so not too bad though the last half dozen clues took about ten minutes.
FOI ROT
LOI RUMBLE (West Side Story reference a clever twist)
COD SHIPSHAPE
Thanks U and setter.
A perfect Monday puzzle for me with no great hold-ups. The only one I failed to parse was FISCAL where I couldn’t see ‘calm’ for collected, which made me wonder about the phrase ‘cool, calm and collected’ if calm and collected mean the same thing. I found the long anagrams almost wrote themselves in, especially OPTIMISATION and COMPLIMENTING. Bit of a mer with ASBESTOS, maybe should have been ‘building material once’ but probably still in use in third-world countries, unfortunately.
Liked SHIPSHAPE for ‘neat’. My favourite and COD is RUMBLE for the West Side Story fight, still an album I play on a regular basis with the brilliant Leonard Bernstein’s music.
Thanks U and setter.
Asbestos still in use, amazingly, in the USA ..
Couldn’t agree with you more, Q, re Bernstein’s music, and WWS being such a delight: each ‘piece’ was fresh and memorable.
Just under 20 minutes, with GANGLIA the only unknown where I relied on the wordplay.
Thanks ulaca and setter.
FOI Rot
LOI Set forth
COD Quite
11:59. It seems like just a few weeks ago that I frustratingly put DOMINO for MOJITO, so I wasn’t going to let that happen again. Don’t get IT = VERMOUTH.
‘It’ is just a word for vermouth – simple as that! As in ‘gin and it’. I think it’s an abbreviation of ‘Italian’.
You got in while I was typing 🙂
😀 I checked in the dictionaries and they confirm that it’s an abbreviation of ‘Italian’ but they all have it without a capital letter. ODE says it’s dated.
I used to work on the College Bar when I was a student back in the early 70s and used to run it during vacations when we had events such as Hunt Balls. It was common to be asked for a gin and it or a gin and french at those events. They usually complained if we tried to give them Cianzano instead of Martini!
Because Cinzano is sweet, and Martini dry .. although both companies do both, as it were..
But gin and it is made with sweet vermouth! Apparently Italian vermouth used to be more commonly/traditionally sweet, and French dry, hence the names. These days they all make everything as you say: even Noilly Prat make a sweet red version.
Gin and It(alian) or Gin and French, are cocktails of gin with sweet or dry Martini. I can never remember which is which.
Thanks all! Never had it.
Let down by the finger once again. I do know that the city is not Indianopolis, so I can only blame the rogue digit. Otherwise nothing much struck me, I share the reservations about ASBESTOS being clued simply as building material. The connection between ALLIANCE and sport only occurred to me after biffing. Not aware of the American nature of a MOJO. Also somewhat exercised by SEVERENESS. While picking nits, QUININE as an analgesic?
So really I was quite stricken, on reflection.
Thanks to setter and ulaca.
Collins says: “…the salts of which are used as a tonic, antipyretic, analgesic, etc, and in malaria therapy.”
Nothing about analgesia in the Wikipedia entry though. Collins, god’s gift to setters 🙂
7:40. A gentle start to the week for me. I am both an English literature graduate and a chartered accountant, make of that what you will.
This English Language graduate, who is certainly not an accountant, found it straightforward as well.
Ah well nobody’s perfect 😁
😁
I’m a chartered accountant but not an English graduate, presumably therefore also falling short of perfection as defined. 😢 15 minutes exactly for me today and pretty much a top to bottom solve. Quite a relief after a long run of DNFs (though I did manage both Saturday’s and Sunday’s offerings this week).
Ha! I attended Yale graduate school in English Literature, even though I never finished my PhD thesis, and then became a computer programmer without any prior experience.
From ROT to QUININE in 27:35. My mind wasn’t quite on this puzzle as the workmen arrived in the middle of it to rip out my bathroom. Will be heading to my daughter’s in York soon to avoid the disruption! NON COMPLIANCE was held up by a biffed INTEGRATING, and INTEGRATING had been held up by a biffed COMPLIMENTARY. RUMBLE was held up by a biffed ODA at the end of GANGLIA until I realised I needed a different trouble. All in all if there was a wrong way to do it, I did it! Thanks setter and U.
18 minutes. I didn’t find this too hard and most went in without much trouble. The ‘and with a bow?’ hint for SHIPSHAPE had me tricked though and it was my LOI. I liked ASBESTOS for the misleading (not so) ‘superlative building material’.
QUININE as an ‘analgesic’ struck me as strange too until I recalled it used to be prescribed for leg cramps. I’ve never heard of it being used for pain relief in other situations.
It still is prescribed for chronic cramp, at least in the UK. My solution is to add more salt, but that is generally frowned upon.
35 minutes with LOI GANGLIA. First degree -Physics, main job -accountant, second degree -Divinity, retirement hobby -writing novels nobody reads. Not sure how I fit into your theory, U, apart from having a fairly wide knowledge base. Thank you to you and setter.
28:26 but WOE. It is always a shock when you are half expecting a pink square and then it appears somewhere else. MIDDLE NAMES went in with a baffled shrug, but I was brought down by INDIANoPOLIS. All a bit of a struggle this morning
11.15, not trying to race to the finish. A Theology graduate, here. “The Queen of Sciences” possibly gives an advantage in unscrewing the inscrutable, but sometimes it’s just the cloud of unknowing.
Accepted ASBESTOS is frowned on these days, but like wattle and daub it’s still a building material, just not a current one, hopefully.
Theology, the “Queen of the Sciences”…?!
Heaven help us!
(A medieval epithet, I see…)
Similarly shocked, GdS! I thought that fairy tales were the opposite of science. (Also, haven’t included ONESIES in my vocabulary yet, so my last one not in.)
I got through this one quite quicky (former mathematician :)) but DNF defeated by ONESIES which I learn are worn by adults too. Thanks for the blog!
12:18. A natural sciences graduate and later an IT professional, but I’m not sure either helped with the puzzle. A bit slow to start but then got into the swing of it. COD to the neat QUITE. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
17:48. Another techie but not sure it helped. Nice to get a sub-20.
COD SHIPSHAPE, neat indeed. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
22:08 but with one pink square, where I had typed MOHITO for MOJITO.
COD SHIPSHAPE.
Thanks Ulaca and Setter
The only reason I didn’t do the same is that I have made that very error at least once before.
14.52
Strangely delayed by SET FORTH at the end which I just couldn’t see. Otherwise excellent Monday fare. Liked INDIANAPOLIS. Thanks Ulaca/setter.
My thanks to ulaca and setter.
Took quite a long time especially for a Monday.
9a Set forth biffed.
15a Aides. Beware the ides of March. Fateful.
19a LOI Quite. Slap forehead.
3d COD Noodles.
Quite quick today. Mech. Eng. graduate, so …
Startled to see that there is no ban on the use of asbestos in the USA, according to Wikipedia. Apparently they decided it was not cost-effective enough.
No nho’s, but failed to fully parse the middle names.
19:42 but DOMINO instead of MOJITO in a ‘well it fits’ answer. One of those of course moments when I hit reveal. IT=Vermouth just not coming to me.
Didn’t find this too unlike other Mondays (can i say that if I fail?).
Liked the NON-COMPLIANCE anagram
Thanks blogger and setter. I am a maths and economics graduate if that adds any weight to your theories.
18:09
Pretty gentle Monday – all parsed, no passes.
Thanks U and setter
I’m a physics graduate and worked in IT my whole career but saw nothing techie in this at all. Ho-hum. Though I filled it in after getting RUMBLE I still don’t quite get the parsing of MIDDLE NAMES. Yes, both names have a double N, so that would give MIDDLE Ns, but what about the AME? And how does that lead to ‘designations’? What am I missing? Is it some kind of play on ‘née’?
N is an abbreviation for NAME
Oh, it’s as simple as that! Thank you.
N is an abbreviation for NAME? This is what threw me. I decided that’s how it must parse, but is it really? Where would we find N as an abbreviation of NAME?
I don’t know of its origin – the best guess seems to be something to do with the Book of Common Prayer! – but it’s quite commonly used in crosswords, and appears in Chambers under N.
Thanks, but really? I think Merlin has a list of abbreviations he refuses to recognise. I’ll start my own list with N for NAME
The catechism starts “what is your name? Answer N or M”. Agatha Christie used it as a title for one of her novels.
N for name is used throughout crossword land but I can’t think of where it is used in the real world.
Thanks everyone. You are all right, of course, that N as an abbreviation of NAME is very common in Crosswordland. A Google search throws up loads of examples including lots that I must have tackled myself without batting an eyelid. I guess it has always just been something that I “knew” without ever focusing on it the way I did today to try to make sense of the clue.
Now that I have focused on it, I am astonished – no disrespect to those familiar with the Catechism – I am astonished how obscure it is for the rest of us. It is firmly embedded now in my head. I will still never ask anyone for their n and address
Incidentally (on the subject of vermouths), for the cooks amongst you a slug of Noilly Prat when preparing a sauce for fish works wonders, especially when cream is involved. A trick I learnt from Rick Stein (on TV, not in person!). It just makes the sauce taste like you get in a restaurant.
And probably well worth putting some in the sauce, too… 🙂
The Keith Floyd style of cooking…!
38 mins and pretty straightforward I thought. LOI GANGLIA. NHO but gettable from the wp. Took a while to figure out that sport= DALLIANCE!
I enjoyed some of the longer clues and the anagrams, and SHIPSHAPE.
Thanks ulaca and setter.
A pleasant introduction to the week, all done in 25 minutes, a bit quicker than average for me. The long central anagrams were certainly helpful. I enjoyed the irony of the superlative building material. I thought the clue to 13dn was a bit clunky, but it did not delay me too long. For what it is worth, when I was working as a barman in the 1960s, a gin and it (Italian) was made with sweet Martini and a gin and French with Noilly Prat. I was also asked once for beer with a dash of blackcurrant cordial. There is no accounting for taste.
FOI – ROT
LOI – SHIPSHAPE
COD – SHIPSHAPE
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
30 minutes, no real problems. A bit slow with those long anagrams: it took a while to see exactly what letters were to be anagrammed. My LOI, SET FORTH, was entered and only parsed afterwards because at the time it wasn’t immediately obvious, as it should have been.
A fairly straightforward solve at a steady pace in 27.20. The only clue I failed to parse was MIDDLE NAMES where I spent a little while fruitlessly searching for celebrities with the middle names Annie and Bonnie. I would have preferred to see ‘former’ being incorporated into ASBESTOS being defined as a building material. It’s probably a conscience thing in my case, as I, along with just about every other architect used to routinely specify it as insulating and fire proofing material. If we only knew …….
15:30 – unscathed, though I also thought ASBESTOS could have done with a “former” before its status as a building material, the justification presumably being that it is a material you still find in plenty of buildings. The analgesic properties of quinine were also new to me, unlike the well-known qualities of the usually accompanying gin and tonic.
Very enjoyable solve which never quite got held up. Several clues put on the too difficult pile suddenly became apparent with an extra checker. LOI was RUMBLE but only because I’d written in RE at the beginning for ‘about’ before seeing the answer.
Im relatively new to the big ones and have probably successfully finished fewer than 5 without aides. This was one of them coming in at a near PB of 24 mins. I’m an accountant and physics grad so seems like I fit the description. An interesting theory that I’ve not heard before. What cluing elements are considered “mathsy”?
My understanding of Ulaca’s comment was that as the vocabulary of this puzzle is not in any way arcane, literary, or Arts reliant (possibly excepting 22a) it would appeal to those whose solving method tends more towards instruction-based solving rather than a combination of that with biffing from a wide GK knowledge base. But others may disagree. I am always particularly fascinated by the comments of those who regularly claim not to know a series of answers that I wouldn’t have got without GK, who nevertheless get them right anyway. That to me speaks of a mathematical turn of mind.
PS I am an Arts graduate…
Absolutely spot on. I should get you to write my blogs for me under an alias. Would ‘ulaca’ do?!
🙂
Having moved smoothly down the top half of the puzzle, except for 9a, I was ready to recommend this for Quickie solvers to have a go at, but then I got much more bogged down in the lower part, particularly with the QUININE/QUITE crossing and SHIPSHAPE, which held me up for ages, as I tried to think of different types of ‘bow’, but the ship meaning only occurred after I’d bifd it. LOI the aforementioned 9a. I nearly put SET ROSTA for inflexible hours, but then remembered it was ‘roster’ and tried OR, which gave me the answer and the parsing. Either that or SHIPSHAPE gets my COD.
I had SET ROSTA too, alto_ego, but failed to change it. (Arts graduate only, I’m afraid.)
About 8 minutes, most of it went straight in, though SHIPSHAPE a needed a couple of looks. Bit anagram heavy I thought. Degree in Italian and career as a linguist, not at all mathematical.
Not too hard and finished quite quickly after lunch.
LOI MOJITO where I wanted to put Mohito for some reason-was the brain giving me the pronunciation?
Putting MAIDEN NAMES at 13a held me up quite a lot; corrected eventually.
Nice puzzle.
David
Electrical Engineering and Modern Lit undergrad, Economics at the grad level.
Which is why I immediately saw 19a was TOTAL = Completely; then gave up booze was clearly TeeTotal, and at the end….
My building (circa 1925) is doing facade work – inspection and repointing – and as I write two workers on a hanging scaffold are drilling away one floor down. Over the summer the first thing they needed to do was inspect everything, especially the fixings around the windows, for asbestos, and when they found it remove it safely. I was told it’s no longer allowed, but as late as year 2000 was an important component in window caulking. I was also told “perfectly safe in situ, but if you have to remove it it powders, and hazmat suits are order of the day”.
A rare unaided finish for me, helped by not having words I’ve not heard of, either in the clues or the answers. Around 45 mins.
Retired programmer by the way.
I spent a bit less than half an hour on this but I needed a break before I saw INDIANAPOLIS, SHIPSHAPE, ALLIANCE and SET FORTH. I did like SHIPSHAPE. Thanks ulaca.
12 and a half mins – but WOE. Mohito – again! I made the same error quite recently.
Thanks U and setter.
It’s not often that I finish the 15×15 and today was no exception, requiring assistance with MOJITO and RUMBLE, and needing the blog’s help to parse SET FORTH. Aside from those, all done in 31:34.
Thank you for the blog!
Failed because of ONESIES- what a silly word. Also, would wonder when you would ever say SEVERENESS instead of severity?
One does wonder.
34:46 but with two errors, MOHITO and COMPLEMENTING.
Maths Graduate.
Another CA here, and it suited me.
FOI AT RANDOM
LOI RUMBLE
I was slow today – nearly 1 hour – and I have an engineering background.
Wasn’t helped by initially entering Complimentary rather than Complimenting (I believe both work) until I finally saw Onesies.
Also, thought it might be Middle Notes until I saw Rumble.
Pleased to finish at all, 40:04 to do it. SHIPSHAPE haha. Thanks setter and ulaca.
Adding a strong recommendation for Pale Fire which seems well-pitched for the puzzling mind.
And further commenting that this American would like to know if there were any MERs at “completely” = QUITE. As I will probably never understand the British meaning of the word.
It’s common (or was among a certain generation) among slightly twee middle-class speakers, especially in gushing mode.
“Oh, Meryl?! She was quite marvellous again!”
18’29” but should have been quicker, from this Arabist (which helps not at all, ever).
As above