Solving Time: 22 minutes on the club timer, but that does include printing the crossword off, pouring a nice glass of wine, settling down in an armchair, solving on paper, entering all the answers later etc etc. Perhaps 15 minutes of actual solving, this was not a terribly hard crossword. I enjoyed it, and have no real complaints. It is one letter short of being a pangram; it has an unusually large number of two-word answers (8); and for a change, it makes no reference to the game of cricket.. I haven’t much else to say.
cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”
ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online
Across | |
---|---|
1 | scream – S + CREAM |
5 |
tide over – D( |
9 | jumpsuit – spring = JUMP, clubs say = SUIT. it may be put on, though not by me in any circumstances that I can imagine |
10 | Red Rum – MURDER, rev. To my mind Red Rum is the most remarkable racehorse of all time. He ran 100 races over fences, including five Grand Nationals, and never fell once. Unique |
11 | edge tool – *(EG TOLEDO) |
12 |
wah-wah – W( |
13 | sheathed – articles = A + THE, in cast = SHED |
15 | info – home = IN + belonging to = OF, rev. |
17 | Elbe – hidden.. you could define a crossword enthusiast as someone who sees “banker” and automatically thinks “river.” |
19 | smarting – memory = RAM rev. in do = con = STING |
20 | taught – “TAUT” |
21 |
aquatint – A + T( |
22 | endure – dd |
23 |
intimate – A( |
24 | marjoram – MAR + gold = OR in JAM = spot |
25 |
earned – ( |
Down | |
2 |
cauldron – AULD (as in Lang Syne) in CRON( |
3 | expresso – ODO says: “The spelling expresso is not used in the original Italian and is incorrect, although it is common.” I am very surprised to see it – and not for the first time – in a Times crossword. Time was, when you would be penalised for such a mistake |
4 | mausoleum – gold, this time AU, + only = SOLE in silent = MUM |
5 | totalitarianism – *(A STALIN IMITATOR) .. neat anagram! |
6 |
emerald – ME in ( |
7 | very well – dd |
8 |
romp home – RO( |
14 |
etiquette – *(QUITE) + ( |
15 | isotherm – extra = OTHER in ISM, “…a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology or an artistic movement” (ODO) |
16 |
flounder – L( |
17 |
egg timer – *(MIGHT AGREE), without the A or the H( |
18 |
brunette – stretch = RUN (as in run/stretch to, I suppose) in BETTE( |
19 | scherzo – unknown = Z in *(H + SCORE) |
With three easy puzzles in a row I am now wondering whether Uncle Yap or I will (or both of us perhaps) will get a stinker to blog.
Didn’t know WAH-WAH, didn’t automaitcfally think of river for banker, and didn’t mind EXPRESSO. If loads of people say it and spell it this way, then dictionaries of the English language, if they pay more than lip service to the descriptive principle in lexicography, must at least consider it. Thus, language changes – if not, indeed, progresses…
Don’t think, pace Ulaca, that there’s much excuse for EXPRESSO. But a WAH-WAH is certainly such. Couldn’t imagine Hendrix saying “band pass filter”.
The dreaded double-E grid nearly did me in at 10ac and 8dn where DES RES and REST HOME pleaded to be entered. Glad I didn’t have to blog this Wednesday.
Edited at 2013-09-04 04:22 am (UTC)
True confession time: I used to pronounce it ‘expresso’, but then a lady in Chicago was kind enough to correct me, even to the point of spelling it for me. Lovely woman.
The more sophisticated coffee-drinking nations should really take pity on us Brits. Until quite recent times an ‘expresso’ meant an extra teaspoon of instant in the mug. And you don’t want to know how we made ‘frothy coffee’.
Was held up by a carless typo of TOTALITARIANISM, but not by much.
Didn’t like EXPRESSO, didn’t know WAH WAH, or that spot=JAM.
I did see banker and immediately thought ‘river’. I’m making progress…
COED and Collins list it as a variant of ‘Espresso’, Chambers says ‘same as’ and OED has ‘Espresso , also Expresso’. So of the usual sources, only ODE, which nevertheless gives it its own entry with a cross reference to ‘Espresso’, makes any reference to incorrectness (as mentioned by the blogger) while admitting the spelling and usage is common.
Whatever the original Italian term for the coffee, it is derived from the Latin “expressus” so it and the English variant are clearly linked etymologically. ‘Febuary’ for ‘February’ is in no way comparable.
I fail to see that a mortal sin has been committed, the required spelling is clear and unambiguous from the wordplay so any complaints should be addressed to the dictionary publishers and not to the setter.
Edited at 2013-09-04 06:08 am (UTC)
The NOAD says:
USAGE The often-occurring variant spelling expresso — and its pronunciation |ikˈspresō| — is incorrect and was probably formed by analogy with express.
Incorrect is incorrect. “There are no surprises in logic”!
Edited at 2013-09-04 06:25 am (UTC)
In a role-reversal that didn’t bother racegoers much at the time – as the legend that was to become Red Rum was not established till he won back-to-back Nationals as an 11/12-year-old – Rummie himself was runner-up the next two years, as he in turn struggled at the hands of the handicapper.
Earlier in his racing career, Red Rum was ridden by Lester Piggott.
I have to admit that it never occurred to me to write in Espresso
My cousin by marriage missed out on riding the 1971 National winner after a particularly bad fall. He ended up with just the Gold Cup on his resume, even if he was one of the greatest horsemen of his, arguably any, day. And he rode at almost 12st, being 5’10”!
What does bother me is when a slight change in the spelling of a foreign word alters the meaning completely. The one that has come to my attention recently (aptly, since the discussion has a horsey theme this morning) is the word “manege”, which I often see spelt “menage”. Only yesterday, I drove past a riding school advertising an “outdoor menage”; there was no sign of hanky-panky in the hedgerows, though.
Oh yes, a very enjoyable half-hour puzzle, I thought, though it took me a while parse ISOTHERM.
Thinking about it I wonder if the French are to blame for this. They tend to say “café express”.
I doubt “ménage” for “manège”* will catch on, but in the meantime it’s rather funny.
*I’m not smug about my ability to key ALT 130 and ALT 138, I promise.
Googling [“riding school” menage] returns 367,000 hits, [“riding school“ manege] 41,900. I notice that Chambers gives menage as an obsolete form of manage (which is related to manège) but I nonetheless continue to be intrigued by “private lessons in the menage”, “make your own menage” and “a menage with semi-permanent jumps”.
Edited at 2013-09-04 01:50 pm (UTC)
All this stuff about EXPRESSO is a load of nonsense I’m afraid. So the English language has slightly mangled a foreign word when adopting it: this is incredibly common. In fact it probably happens more often than not. In any case notions of correct and incorrect, right and wrong, are utterly meaningless when it comes to language, and any dictionary purporting to be an authority on these meaningless notions is strictly ultra vires. We can talk about not liking a certain usage, or convention (which is just lots of people not liking a certain usage) but there is no intellectual basis for anything beyond that.
Rant over.
Edited at 2013-09-04 08:17 am (UTC)
Edited at 2013-09-04 10:00 am (UTC)
This one?
Metropolitan Police – The People Who Arrest People
I still don’t know for the life of me why police forces need slogans.
Edited at 2013-09-04 03:43 pm (UTC)
I agree that Jack’s theory of the failed pangram attempt is the likely reason for the X – the wordplay made it clear immediately.
Like others, I was not keen on the clue fot ‘brunette’ (loi) and I thought that 22a ‘endure’ only just made it as a double definition.
George Clements
legacy of last year’s Norwegian holiday was that the “banker” that leapt out at me was the hEIDElberg (river then fjord), so wasted time trying to find a (e.g. Latin) 7D 4.4 ending with I, till I finally twigged 18D, and got the correct river.
Surprised to find another fairly easy puzzle that I could complete in 30 minutes again. I thought the anagram for 5d was terrific. I was less keen on “streets ahead” for BETTER for the reason given in jerry’s blog. The clue for 11 is faulty; either “from” or “is’ needs removing for the cryptic to work. As it stands, the only logical way to read it is as an anagram of EG TOLEDO IS.
I have no strong views on the espresso/expresso debate (although I wonder how Sotira’s lady in Chicago would respond if you asked for a cup o’ chino) and have no amusing anecdotes to offer on Red Rum, riding stables or horses generally so I’ll leave it at that.
Doesn’t seem long ago that we last had this grid with the two Es and the two fully checked answers.
I’m speechless that somebody hadn’t heard of Red Rum!
1. Aren’t that old
2. Live elsewhere and have never been to England
3. Don’t like or follow horse-racing
Over 20 years ago one of my clients, who supplied those moisture retaining mats you see in public buildings, insisted on correcting my copy to: ‘your offices and corridoors will be dryer than ever before’.
I won the case on ‘corridors’ (my client thought it should have a double o because it contained doors) but failed to convince her over ‘drier’ because she eventually found ‘dryer’ as an alternative in one dictionary. We printed 5000 brochures, only to have her boss complain that the agency’s copywriter couldn’t spell ‘drier’.
Happy days.
The Listener crossword regularly has clues with additional letters or words which collectively mean something and assist in solving the grid. Perhaps the unnecessary words ‘seaside’ and ‘odd’ this week are part of a wider story to be revealed later. Haven’t picked today’s oddball yet though.
:-))