Solving Time: I breezed through this comfortably in 22 minutes, but on blithely typing and submitting it, was taken aback to be told I had two errors. I do hate it when that happens. What is the point of relaxing with a glass of wine, printing it out, taking the time to parse everything, if you still can’t get it right? Hmff. On investigation, I messed up 12ac, so that’s one, not a great clue perhaps but still, my mistake. As for the other one, unless I have overlooked something, it must be 7dn, a clue that may well cause widespread 21ac. It’s a shame, because there are some nice clues otherwise, like 8dn or 22dn
cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”
ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | buckle down – BUCK (dollar) + LED (light) + OWN (to have) |
6 | spiv – VIPs, rev. |
9 |
grogram – develop = GRO( |
10 | ticking – jocular cd, ticking being what bombs are wont to do, as well as being a cloth used to make mattresses |
12 | tip up – I stupidly put top up, but it is, I think, tip up, ie more being left when paying the bill in a restaurant, and to overturn. Not my favourite clue of the day, though I might be somewhat biased |
13 |
inebriate – AT in ( |
14 | leading question – “Who’s to be captain?” is a question about leading… the rest of the clue being the def. |
17 | early retirement – Another cd, although surely an F1 driver would normally have either a retirement OR an accident? Certainly I would normally tend to think of retirements being caused by mechanical problems rather than collisions, though I concede a collision can indeed cause a retirement |
20 | rare earth – military groups, RA + RE, gunners and engineers, + ground = EARTH, for a rare appearance of a scientific word |
21 | anger – stove = RANGE, with the R sent to the back. |
23 | modulus – simple game = LUDO in total = SUM, all rev. Modulus is defined by Collins as “the absolute value of a complex number.” Not my field really. |
24 | all hail – A reference to the witches in Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 3. |
25 | owed – = “ODE,” a poem |
26 | call it a day – phone = CALL, + volunteers = TA in I’d always = I’D AY. The def. being “Don’t work on.” A bit of a clumsy surface |
Down |
|
1 | bagatelle – stone = AGATE + LL in BE |
2 | croup – it is GROUP, with one stroke missing, the one that turns a C into a G.. Croup is an unpleasant illness affecting children, much more common once upon a time, but apparently still fairly common |
3 | lord privy seal – my = good heavens = LORD, + little room = PRIVY, + make sure of = SEAL (eg, a victory) |
4 |
dumping – DUMP( |
5 | Watteau – pardon = “what” = WATT + letter = “O” = EAU,” Watteau being a French painter I believe |
7 | privatize/ise – sounds like “private eye’s,” yes, but how shall we spell the answer? Take your pick, I chose a Z and I suspect the setter chose a S. The OED has only Z (Ha! You see?). Collins, ODO and Chambers each have both, though all three of them put the Z version first. Either way, highly unsatisfactory and an editing blunder, it seems to me, not that I care, oh no… |
8 | vague – Very + AGUE, a fever of which fits are a symptom. |
11 |
corps de ballet – posh girl = DEB + entirely = ALL, in stiff = CORPSE + T( |
15 | air bridge – *(BRIGADIER) |
16 |
naturally – Friend of the earth = NATUR( |
18 |
Eurasia – is a herb = IS A RUE rev., + A( |
19 | Ishmael – hidden in hellISH MAELstrom. Easy clue, especially if like me you have read and enjoyed Moby Dick, one of the very great novels of the world, both strange and wonderful. Required reading, not to mention being a good source of esoteric cruciverbal vocabulary. |
20 | Romeo – Vatican = ROME, + O. That makes Shakespeare 2, science 2.. so a score draw |
22 | guard – in other words blackguard, vanguard, bodyguard.. another neat clue |
Re 7dn: I think we can assume the -ise spelling for most things Times, OED’s convention notwithstanding. But, as in the past, the pronunciation of Jean Antoine’s name (5dn) may be controversial. (What ho!) My lecturer in French Art insisted on “Vat—”, though he did speak French with a Scots accent.
LOI: MODULUS. The wordplay gives it. But the obscurity (which will be popular in the county of the River Piddle) of the literal nearly done me in. What was wrong with MUDDLES or MIDDLES? (Guess they were excluded.)
Edited at 2014-01-22 03:38 am (UTC)
‘Canvasser’ seems a bit of a stretch (sorry) for ‘painter’ but I guess all’s fair in love, war and crosswords.
I did a double-take at the PRIVAT-IZE/ISE clue. Bound to end in tears.
I also had doubts about 12ac but settled for TIP UP as the most likely, having missed the gratuity reference.
I’ve still no idea what the setter was trying to achieve at 17ac.
I didn’t understand how 2dn worked or know RARE EARTH or MODULUS but worked them out from wordplay.
Like Kevin G my default spelling of endings as in 7dn is -ISE rather than -IZE, so no problems on that front assuming -ISE is correct.
In agreement with Jerry about 7d and 12a (surely ‘more left on plate’ is a much better definition for ‘tip’ than ‘tip up’?) but not about Moby Dick. (Anyone intereted in my review can read it here.) Now, Hawthorne’s Mosses from an Old Manse, on the other hand – magnificent stuff.
This setter did not make any mistakes; we are just not fully appreciating the clues.
(And yes, before you go checking, I may have posted that one before)
Act 1, Scene 1 : Enter Godot.
Curtain
Edited at 2014-01-22 11:38 am (UTC)
The irony of modulus, of course, is that its polar co-ordinate companion is called the argument. I wonder if this is the setter’s little joke on us.
I put in ‘privatise’ without even thinking; in a UK puzzle, all such verbs end in -ise. I didn’t understand the ‘guard’ clue very well, but the answer seemed likely enough. Everything else was laboriously worked out from the cryptics and literals. I was expecting the typographical trick for 2, but even then couldn’t see the answer.
Some brilliant cluing, including ‘Eurasia’, ‘privatise’, and ‘Watteau’. Only the ‘spiv’ clue was anything like a chestnut.
Didn’t like WATTEAU (don’t mind Watto) because I’m not sure you could get to it with any certainty from the wordplay. I considered WATREAU (as in rho) before resorting to Google. The other reason I didn’t like it is the more familiar one, that I failed to get it.
On edit: Oh … and … we had Watteau here:
http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/728135.html
Edited at 2014-01-22 06:34 am (UTC)
Gallers commented on each!
Edited at 2014-01-22 06:45 am (UTC)
As for the memory leak of the commenter, we’ve probably all forgotten more than we know now. It’s amazing we remember anything.
Not to beat about the bush 12A is rubbish “more left on plate” – eh? What is 17A all about? 26A should say “stop work” not “don’t work”. At 2D how does “not one stroke” make G into C – two strokes surely? 5D can really only be reverse engineered – tough if you don’t know the “canvasser”. And 7D has absolutely nothing going for it.
Agree on your other points.
I enjoy 17A, not because of the brilliance or otherwise of the clueing but because I do not have to go to work.
Edited at 2014-01-22 12:17 pm (UTC)
Where would we be without foreign artists with funny sounding names, eh?
The “strokes” thing went right over my head. I write my capital Gs in one fluid motion. CROUP went in with a shrug.
The Z/S thing is all about the OED’s “I know Greek, me” snobbery, isn’t it? Words like baptize are direct from Greek versions with a Zeta. As far as I know, the Greeks didn’t have ΠΡΙΒΑΤΙΖΕΙΝ (apart from anything else, no V and no ΘΑΤΧΕΡ) so it can only really be argued from analogy. I put in the S spelling while thinking “there will be letters”. I suppose it could be the first signs of infection with Litsups disease, where there’s always one clue with alternative spellings, or sometimes bogus answers, to act as tie-breakers. It’s already spread to the ST, with an interesting new spelling introduced this week with no lexicographical or wordplay back-up which you had to guess to get an all-correct. Or just misspell.
There were bits I liked in this one: Veronese (another canvasser?) to clue Romeo, and the one which had me scratching my head longest, RANGE (couldn’t work out how to fit in Aga). A rather friendly, if a bit loose sort of crossword, I thought.
Here we have two very obvious alternatives and the setter should in the wordplay make it clear which is required. Not only does the clue not do that it also relies on an at best debatable homophone – not good enough in my book
Having said that, if I had entered “IZE” at 7dn in a competition I would expect it to be accepted because the clue doesn’t specify which of the alternatives is required.
Glad to have it all finished correctly today, but it did take quite a while. Didn’t really get TIP UP, so thanks for that.
Some unknowns: GROGRAM, RUE=herb, LPS (my LOI), but I did like canvasser=painter.
Although I normally use ize in preference to ise, I went with the latter as that is what I usually see printed in the paper.
I didn’t ponder too long about 17 and (perhaps mistakenly) assumed it was something to do with having to change the (US) tyres.
I wonder if there’s such a thing as late-onset dyslexia: I regularly reverse the order of letters as I write them into the grid. Usually, it holds me up for no longer than a minute or so, but today it took me a while to spot my error. Add that one to the list of our excuses you’re compiling, Sotira.
And the rain in Spain is falling on me today, not on the plain.
Edited at 2014-01-22 11:30 am (UTC)
I have worked in the city for the best part of twenty years and I don’t think I have ever seen the word PRIVATISE spelled with a Z in a UK context. The S version also appears to be the preferred spelling in the FT, Times, Guardian, Independent and Telegraph. Just saying…
Oxford spelling ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling
No reason other than the fact that everyone else is doing it… looks like the OED is the only one marching in step, which for a dictionary is not a good look.
Edited at 2014-01-22 01:14 pm (UTC)
That said, I thought this an excellent puzzle otherwise and don’t agree with the criticisms of other clues.
On the other hand 11 and 22 were very good clues.
If the dictionaries have not kept up with this then they are wrong. But who uses a paper dictionary when they have access to the internet? I was going to suggest throwing them out since it is unwise to keep a guide that could mislead you, but I suppose they might be useful in he event of a power failure: you could burn them to keep warm.
First, when I do a google UK search for privatize I get 713,000 results. When I do one for privatise I get 323,000 – and the first three results are spelt with a z!
Second, who is talking about paper dictionaries? OED online, ODO online, Collins online and Chambers, each use the z spelling as their primary entry and then say “or -ise”
I am not saying that privatise is not a normal UK preference. I am saying that both are valid..
Jerrywh, did you filter your search for results from the UK?
I agree that the American spelling is common over here, and is therefore an acceptable variant. Since we often get answers to crossword clues that require us to use a minority variant spelling then I do agree that this clue is questionable, and that the parsing should have made clear that an S was required.
Tip Up, Croup, Watteau and All Hail all went in without any/full understanding of wordplay or definition so thanks Jerry for explaining those.
I enjoyed Moby Dick when I read it a few years ago. I’d chosen it for my ‘cruise holiday’ read and being surrounded by sea and waves put me in the right frame of mind.
3d reminded me irresistibly of an item from The Frost Report. (Please unspam)
Many thanks for providing the link.. I thought of that too, but couldn’t find it on youtube
COD to BAGATELLE
-ise ending). I didn’t know Ludo as a game and I never parsed CROUP either. And I assumed that there must have been some retired F1 driver from the UK named Early. Otherwise, a lot of fun, about 20 minutes. Regards.
Some very audacious and enjoyable clues, CORPS DE BALLET being my favourite (you see I am good at foreign languages), but CROUP with the stroke removed from the G, GUARD with the various complements and “leaving more on the plate” all also very good. You simply had to read the clues very carefully and I found it quite a lot of fun (especially after several days not even being able to finish).
Incidentally, as I am writing this I have decided to preview my comment with the spelling checker on — it objects to GROGRAM (no wonder) but also to “ize”, for which it suggests IE, Ice, ice, size, Ike, Ive, ire and I’ve as alternatives.
Time today would have been 15m 30s, but, once again, taking time to check the grid was worthwhile as I nearly missed out 2d.
Thank You, keithdoyle for the Frost Report link. I still smile at this one, nearly 50 years on!
Those who drew a blank at WATTEAU have obviously never seen the heart-breakingly unforgettable “Gilles” at the Louvre. (They irritatingly now call the work just “Pierrot”.) There are also fine examples of his “fêtes galantes” paintings in the Wallace. I just regretted that the opportunity for a Wodehousian reference was not pursued … What Ho!
I don’t see how the distinction between “ise” and “ize” matters – either is correct, and both fit the grid. I agree it’s sloppy clueing, but I was happy with my “ize” and equally happy with anyone else’s “ise”.
12ac, though…. I settled for “TOP UP”, on the very underadequate reasoning that a “top up” is a refill (more), and if you read it leftwards it’s “PUT” (“left”) around (“on”) PO (“plate”). Now, quite how I figured that a PO was in any sense a plate I am not sure, except that they are both ceramic (unless one of them is a river). I seem to have confounded a “left” and an “overturned” as well. Being slightly Pinoted probably didn’t help (those long coffee breaks can be killers).
WATTEAU held me up for a while, but it’s a lovely name that was gathering dust in a bottom drawer of my memory. If he wasn’t a short, plump person with a walrus moustache then I shall be very disillusioned.
GROGRAM… I’m not even going to discuss that. I don’t believe any such thing exists.
Most embarrassingly, though, I failed to get 1ac. Whichever neuron was responsible for storing the word “BUCK” in my brain had obviously gone off on a little TIA of its own.
So, all in all, this was a bit of a surgical blunder. Or, as we prefer to call it, a valiant attempt against insuperable odds which, regrettably, had a non-optimal outcome.
*If you are bored and find yourself in a hospital, just write “DNR” on a few post-it notes and leave them on the wall above the bedheads of sleeping patients. The doctors will take no notice, but it scares the willies out of visiting relatives.
No problem with WATTEAU, though whether I pronounce him in the French (Vat) or English (What) way depends on whom I’m talking to. I suspect the former will become the norm sometime in the next 50 years.
Edit: a little further investigation reveals that Watteau was from Valenciennes, which is very close to Waterloo in Wallonia. This may be relevant!
Another Edit: sorry to keep on about this, but it was bugging me. I’ve consulted with some bona fide Frenchies who would all say “Vatteau” but also knew that “Watteau” is the regional pronounciation. For a Parisian to say “Watteau” would be regarded as a bit of an affection akin to a southerner pronouncing Newcastle “Newcassel”, or an English person pronouncing Paris “Paree”. The people who taught me arts subjects at school were all extremely affected so this is consistent with my own experience!
No doubt you knew all this…
Edited at 2014-01-23 10:09 am (UTC)
My own strategy of just speaking louder still works fine, however 🙂