Our odyssey through the pleasant terrain of Crosswordland continues with Teazel. Some of us spin through these adventures stately as a galleon while some – the sub 5 minuters – seem to be aboard a 25ac. For everyone it’s all about enjoying the journey. On the subject, I’ll be visiting (very new) family in USA for the next 4 weeks and plan to save all my time and energy for new Grandad duties – so thanks to whoever takes a step backwards later than the rest and so gets landed with the next 4 Tuesday QC blogs.
I found today’s puzzle to be an excellent QC. It was all gettable for me but I had to force several of the answers over the parsing line (which pushed me just over my 10 minutes) as I wasn’t sure enough of the definition to biff. 1ac, as LOI, was a case in point as I took a while to justify local store having that definition but ‘it just had to be’ given the parsing (although ‘cereal’ took a while too).
Good luck to all who choose to boldly go into this QC but take care – splitting ones infinitives (especially in infinity) can be fraught with danger.
Definitions are underlined.
Across | |
1 | Check on cereal in local store (6) |
BRANCH – check (CH) on cereal (BRAN). Well, it took me some time as mentioned above. | |
4 | Ruler gives extremely tacky and intemperate speech (6) |
TYRANT – (T)rick(Y), intemperate speech (RANT). | |
8 | Wine is nastier when drunk (7) |
RETSINA – anagram (when drunk) of nastier. In my early 20s on one of my first trips properly abroad (i.e by plane), I could only afford the cheap stuff – which couldn’t really have been any nastier – it tasted of what I imagine creosote would taste like. | |
10 | Really excellent police officer (5) |
SUPER – double definition, | |
11 | Come across heartless devil (4) |
FIND – heartless devil (FI)e(ND). | |
12 | I’m pink, burning with love (8) |
FLAMINGO – burning (FLAMING) with love (O). It’s a flamingos own fault – they do insist on eating algae and brine shrimps which contain carotonoids (to you and me that’s the stuff which make carrots orange and tomatoes go red). | |
14 | Carpet a church, around cross (9) |
AXMINSTER – a church (A MINSTER) around cross (X). Not ‘to tear a strip off’, then but an actual carpet. | |
18 | No heroes worked in such a small town (3-5) |
ONE-HORSE – anagram (worked) of NO HEROES. | |
20 | Be aware of hearing refusal (4) |
KNOW – honmophone (hearing) of refusal – NO. | |
22 | Arab in USA I’d relocated (5) |
SAUDI – anagram (relocated) of USA ID – very appropriate as I’m going to relocate there temporarily. | |
23 | Barrier at site entrance: parking, indeed with everyone (7) |
PAYWALL – parking (P), indeed (AY) with (W) everyone (ALL). I had AYE for indeed but it looked awful so I looked closer and saw WITH. When I’d got the answer I was imaginging something like a barrier at a car park but, whilst blogging, I saw it was a web site subscription page. | |
24 | What a setter, or anyone antisocial, may drop (6) |
LITTER – Cryptic or double definition? Whatever it is, I liked it. A female setter dog having a litter and the inconsiderate who seem to think that their rubbish is not their problem. | |
25 | Spaceship alien lands on Gibraltar? (6) |
ROCKET – alien (ET) lands on Gibraltar (ROCK). |
Down | |
1 | Deprived female wearing cap (6) |
BEREFT – female (F) in cap (BERET). | |
2 | A new banknote’s to be announced, one feels (7) |
ANTENNA – a (A), new (N) homophone (to be announced) of bank note – TENNER. Having never had one, I can’t personally vouch for the feeling properties of an antenna but I’m sure they fulfil this useful purpose. | |
3 | Short piece of film has Conservative on edge (4) |
CLIP – Conservative (C) on edge (LIP). | |
5 | US park is which some yeti is roaming (8) |
YOSEMITE – anagram (is roaming) of SOME YETI. Should the clue say IN which or IS which? |
|
6 | In a compound, small tree (5) |
ASPEN – inside a (A) and compound (PEN) is small (S). | |
7 | Getting up to dry fish (6) |
TURBOT – all upwards – to (TO), dry (BRUT – as in sparkling wine). | |
9 | Everything finishes convincingly (3,4,2) |
ALL ENDS UP – evrything (ALL), finishes (ENDS UP). Beaten all ends up (which I hope you weren’t today). | |
13 | I’m on the phone still (8) |
IMMOBILE – I’m (IM) on top of phone (MOBILE). Some companies do seem to make it hard work to get through to a human being – I’m recently bruised by being caught in 40 minutes or so of automated options where sometimes you had to answer by voice (and didn’t get understood). | |
15 | Was in charge of big bag for plunder (7) |
RANSACK – was in charge of big bag (RAN SACK). | |
16 | Inspector left a dainty piece of food (6) |
MORSEL – inspector (MORSE), left (L). WOD dainty. | |
17 | Silly person crosses one line in the half-dark (6) |
TWILIT – silly person (TWIT) crosses one (I) and line (L). | |
19 | First of teeth, perfect, coming up, do this? (5) |
ERUPT – all coming upwards – (T)eeth, perfect (PURE). I suppose teeth do this when they first appear out of the gum. | |
21 | One maintaining uprightness in wild orgy (4) |
GYRO – anagram (wild) of ORGY. Marvellous surface to finish off – I suppose gyros do maintain uprightness but only whilst spinning. |
FOI 2dn ANTENNA
LOI 23ac PAYWALL
COD 12ac FLAMINGO
WOD 8ac RETSINA a favourite of mine and few else I imagine. Must be served ice-cold and with food — I would suggest with grilled haloumi — followed by roast spring chicken and a feta salad. A ‘parafino’ and not a ‘creosote’ !
For ‘supertasters’ I would further recommend Lapsang Suchong — which also has notes of creosote!
I was on the 9:00am from Axminster to Yosemite, which does not rhyme with Marmite!
Edited at 2021-11-09 06:15 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-11-09 07:01 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-11-09 06:59 am (UTC)
If you don’t know your dry you probably need more champagne?
It’s most apt that an anagram of RETSINA is ‘nastier’. Pine disinfectant may be a better comparison than creosote which is a smell I have always rather liked though I have never tasted it.
Another here who has never heard of ALL ENDS UP.
Edited at 2021-11-09 06:22 am (UTC)
Beaten all ends up by Teazel. With both TARPON and LETTER. I thought about the (tiresome) canine “setter” but didn’t pursue it.
NHO BRUT=dry
I liked PAYWALL, always of fan of including post 2000 vocab.
On train into London office for first time in 2 years.
Good luck to all the commuters, I’ve been in a couple of times and it seems like much more of a mission than it used to when it was a daily occurrence. I’ll have to start doing 50% in the office from the new year, I think.
FOI: tyrant
LOI: erupt
COD: flamingo
Thanks to Chris and enjoy your granddad duties.
Slightly surprised that “Brut” meaning dry has caused some issues for a few people — I thought that even if people were not familiar with it in real life, it was a fairly standard piece of crosswordese. I certainly recall seeing it … and I hope to be drinking it too at a celebratory birthday lunch a bit later today!
No other real hold-ups, though I took time to see 14A Axminster (who knew that setters could actually mean a real carpet when they write Carpet?), and also a wee while spent on my LOI 24A Litter, a real PDM when I worked out it was a canine setter.
Many thanks to Chris for the blog — enjoy being a grandfather!
Cedric
I did most of the rest quite easily, returning to the NW for BRANCH and BEREFT but ending with SUPER and ASPEN. I enjoyed LITTER, ANTENNA, GYRO, and TURBOT. Well, that includes almost everything!
The number of comments already suggests that this QC was widely appreciated. Thanks to Teazel and to Chris. Enjoy your Grandad duties, Chris, they will bring on a new and satisfying (if exhausting in a year or two) phase of life. John M.
Edited at 2021-11-09 09:53 am (UTC)
https://oenopole.ca/boire-vrai/article/under-the-influence-retsnia/
Edited at 2021-11-09 05:08 pm (UTC)
My big problems were AXMINSTER where I considered every other meaning of carpet; and LOI IMMOBILE- I thought that had to end LINE. Fixed ideas are very damaging and I am slowly learning to ditch them more quickly.
Also I spent ages trying to parse BRANCH only to put it in with a shrug before seeking enlightenment here.
COD to MORSEL as I’m a fan and failed to spot this for too long.
David
Edited at 2021-11-09 10:11 am (UTC)
Got half a dozen then had to give up. Just too hard for me.
I had not heard of PAYWALL , TWILIT, YOSEMITE before so I suppose that I did learn something. But very depressing all the same.
Also enjoyed ONE-HORSE, ANTENNA, RANSACK, BEREFT.
Thanks all, esp Chris. Have a good trip to the USA!
I initially thought 9dn was “All Tied Up”, but it became apparent it wouldn’t fit with 14ac and 18ac. Nice to see “Axminster” as an answer — haven’t seen that in ages. Also liked 12ac “Flamingo”, 23ac “Paywall” and the cheeky 21dn “Gyro”.
FOI — 3dn “Clip”
LOI — 19dn “Erupt” — although nearly put Exult.
COD — 13dn “Immobile” — simple, but great.
Thanks as usual!
A few years back (pre pandemic) I was lucky enough to go to the Design Museum in London to see the Stanley Kubrick exhibition. The drawings and concepts of his futuristic vision were incredible – as was the realisation of HAL9000, voiced by the late Douglas Rain.
Edited at 2021-11-09 12:12 pm (UTC)
This was a lovely puzzle, and the post-solve reread of the clues took longer than actually solving it. Thanks Teazel, and to Grandpa Chris for an excellent blog.
FOI TYRANT
LOI TURBOT
COD FLAMINGO
TIME 3:55
8 ac “Retsina” — the marmite of wines? Takes me back to my student days on vacation in Corfu, where I was so unimpressed that I moved from that beverage to Ouzo (and coke!!). Yeah I was young then! Incidentally, the Greek white Assyrtiko can be an excellent wine and goes particularly well with asparagus and seafood if that’s what rocks your boat.
Plenty of very good clues, COD possibly 2d “antenna”
Thanks to Chris for a fine blog (have a good trip!) and to Teazel for an excellent QC.
I assume that it is not acceptable to name commercial products here. John.
Edited at 2021-11-09 01:36 pm (UTC)
Cedric
I really enjoyed the challenge but did make one mistake — I had pencilled in Payeall — thinking aye for indeed, and didn’t revisit before reading the blog.
LOI Branch
POI Bereft
Took too long on Aspen for no good reason.
Like others I remembered drinking retsina on a Greek beach — which was pretty unpleasant, but got even worse as it warmed up. And then finished off with the cheap bottle of ouzo that was almost as nasty!
Happy memories.
Thanks all
John George
Thanks, Chris, enjoy your trip. Thanks, Teazel for a puzzle that took me into my usual time, and which I enjoyed for a difficulty that seemed just about perfect.
FOI: RETSINA (never tasted a good one)
LOI: TWILIGHT
COD: a few to choose from but we settled on TYRANT.
Thanks Chris — hope you have a fab time in the States.
Actually, it felt as though I was sprinting the whole time, so I just can’t imagine how it must be for those of you who routinely polish off these QCs in a half/third/quarter/fifth/(sixth?) … of the time.
Having recorded such a fast time (for me, at least), it woul be churlish of me to pick holes in the puzzle. Therefore, I will award my CoD to all 26 clues jointly.
Many thanks to Teazel and Chris W.
I didn’t know ALL ENDS UP so that slowed me down quite a bit, and BRANCH took a while too. I liked ONE-HORSE and YOSEMITE.
I’m in the anti-Retsina camp, and think ouzo is equally horrible! I do remember drinking Demestica in the Kolossi grill near Sadler’s Wells back in the day — cheap and cheerful but went well with the afelia. Probably would have been better on a Greek island in the sun though!
FOI Tyrant
LOI Branch
COD Retsina
Thanks Teazel and Chris — have a wonderful time with your family
3 times longer than yesterday. Teazel always but always has me over a barrel, metaphorically speaking of course.
North West was the main problem, but one of those puzzles where I’m always chasing my tail.
Approx 10:20, but I’ve forgotten the exact time.
A fine teaser by Teazel with a gentle relaxing solve over 2h 17 min (!), which framed a very happy family Birthday dinner today.