Hello everybody. It’s Monday again. This wasn’t a complete 14a for me: I started apace, but some trickier ones slowed me down to finish in average QC time, with last one in 7d. Sometimes the right words just don’t come to you. I enjoyed the food for a violinist in 9a among other pleasant fare. Thanks Orpheus!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | More benevolent general framing painting in young kids’ school (12) |
| KINDERGARTEN — KINDER (more benevolent) + GEN (general) surrounding (framing) ART (painting) | |
| 8a | Restriction illuminated across motorway (5) |
| LIMIT — LIT (illuminated) across MI (motorway) | |
| 9a | Food for a violinist? Only partly (7) |
| RAVIOLI — The answer is embedded in (… only partly) foR A VIOLInist?) | |
| 10a | Live in, dressed like a monk (7) |
| INHABIT — IN HABIT (dressed like a monk) | |
| 11a | See soldiers crossing island in French river (5) |
| LOIRE — LO (see) and RE (soldiers) around (crossing) I (island) | |
| 12a | Mollusc primarily encountered in fanciful story (6) |
| OYSTER — The first letter of (primarily) Encountered in an anagram of (fanciful) STORY | |
| 14a | Portion of aspic, nice to eat outside (6) |
| PICNIC — A portion of asPIC, NICe | |
| 17a | Tease husband in popular eating-place (5) |
| CHAFF — H (husband) in CAFF (popular eating-place, “popular” because it’s slang) | |
| 19a | Liqueur drunk at a fair (7) |
| RATAFIA — An anagram of (drunk) AT A FAIR | |
| I think even if you don’t know this word, there’s only one place the vowels are really likely to go | |
| 21a | Kitchen wizard introducing a supposed cure-all (7) |
| PANACEA — Presumably a PAN ACE would be a wizard in the kitchen; this is preceding (introducing) A | |
| 22a | Good entertainer, one who writes for others (5) |
| GHOST — G (good) + HOST (entertainer) | |
| 23a | A French writer is newspaper boss? That’s not permitted (12) |
| UNAUTHORISED — UN (a, French) + AUTHOR (writer) + IS + ED (newspaper boss) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Optical toy from space I looked around (12) |
| KALEIDOSCOPE — SPACE I LOOKED anagrammed (around) | |
| 2d | Politician in New York initially hugging a beautiful maiden (5) |
| NYMPH — MP (politician) in NY (New York) and initially Hugging | |
| 3d | Cheese finally placed on a board, suitable for a meal (7) |
| EATABLE — The last letter of (… finally) cheesE placed on A + TABLE (board) | |
| 4d | Extremely giddy speed to revolve! (6) |
| GYRATE — Outside letters of (extremely) GiddY + RATE (speed) | |
| 5d | Merrymaking in which bar gets overturned (5) |
| REVEL — In which LEVER (bar) gets reversed (overturned) | |
| 6d | Key topic for debate, producing strong feeling (7) |
| EMOTION — E (key) + MOTION (topic for debate) | |
| 7d | Fed up, as the Sleeping Beauty was, eventually? (12) |
| DISENCHANTED — DIS–ENCHANTED (as the Sleeping Beauty was, eventually) | |
| These days, the prince’s actions would not be condoned, however handsome he was, magic spell or no | |
| 13d | Quiet girl on Irish river (7) |
| SHANNON — SH (quiet) + ANN (girl) + ON | |
| 15d | A number, for example, visiting Bury? (7) |
| INTEGER — EG (for example) going inside (visiting) INTER (bury) | |
| 16d | German composer ringing about opening (6) |
| BREACH — BACH (German composer) surrounding (ringing) RE (about) | |
| 18d | Woman’s shawl originally found in centre of Manchuria (5) |
| FICHU — The initial letters of (originally) Found In + the centre of ManCHUria | |
| A triangular piece of light fabric worn around the neck or shoulders, from the 18th or 19th century. The word may or may not have rung a bell, but in wordplay I trust | |
| 20d | Dental silk sometimes used after candy (5) |
| FLOSS — You can put the answer after candy to make candyFLOSS | |
I did this in just over 8 minutes.
I did indeed not know RATAFIA but with all of the checkers there was only one option.
Also FICHU, I did try FICOM but the checkers didn’t work so I landed on FICHU.
I never would spell Caf with two fs – I tried CHAFE at first and I’m always surprised that eatable is a word.
In Australia we call candy floss ‘fairy floss’. It’s always magical here in this country.
Great performance Tina 👏👏👏
We seem to be going in opposite directions given my time today.
My solve seemed like a PICNIC too, but like one suddenly disrupted by an unwelcome wasp. The sting in the tail came at 18dn after 9 minutes. FICHU is a word I couldn’t remember and was unable to construct from wordplay. A quick search of the archive reveals I had the same problem once before and only found it last time it appeared because the wordplay consisted of first letters of words in the clue.
I seem not to have parsed OYSTER. I ‘knew’ RATAFIA in the way one knows so many words; I knew it was a word. If pressed, I probably would have guessed that it was a fabric of some sort (dressed in her ratafia fichu, …). 4:58.
I forgot to say I knew RATAFIA as a type of biscuit, a type of macaroon. If I knew it was also a liqueur I had forgotten it.
I suspect you’re thinking of ‘taffeta’, Kevin, a dress material I only know from crossword puzzles.
Don’t know what happened there – karma probably. Having got to RATAFIA from checkers and all thse vowels left over I had to check a FICHU was a thing and then typed in ‘fincu’ anyway. So two pink squares and a fairly pedestrian time despite zooming away with KINDERGARTEN and KALEIDOSCOPE getting me off to a lifer. Also made trouble for myself thinking ‘raves’ would go where REVEL ended up and as a result trying to justify ‘Seine’. Enjoyed LOIRE once I saw it. Trickiness from definitions not cryptic for me today.
All done in 6.43, held up in the SW by doing a Tina on CHAFF, putting chafe and struggling until I remembered FICHU. Maybe chafe isn’t a word for tease but it sounds like it might be, especially in crosswordland. Thanks Orpheus and Kitty.
The 1s went straight in (although I had to very carefully check the spelling of 1d) which got me off to a good start but there was some trickier stuff towards the end.
Like Tina I initially put ‘chafe’ in at 17a which made the difficult FINCHU even harder, I thought I was looking for a composer for BREACH and stared blankly at LOI DISENCHANTED for way to long.
Finished in 7.28.
Thanks to Kitty
A thing sub 20 for us is a result so pleased with 19.06 today.
Mrs RH also thought ratafia was a biscuit so was pleased to see others hear thought the same. The sleeping beauty clue is clever but needed all to crossers as LOI.
Liked the pan ace in the kitchen, but COD to ravioli, nice.
Oyster seemed obvious as a mollusc starting with but we couldn’t parse until the penny dropped on the anagram, rather than looking for some synonym to go around an e!
Thanks Orpheus, and Kitty.
The closest I’ve come for some time to a straight top to bottom solve, with only PANACEA and my LOI left over. Like Jack I knew RATAFIA as a biscuit, while I’ve seen FICHU before. Thanks Kitty and Orpheus.
FOI KINDERGARTEN
LOI DISENCHANTED
COD LOIRE
TIME 2:59
Wow. I think I was looking at my fourth or fifth clue in about that time and thinking I might be on a quick day….
Scorchio!
NHO FICHU but was clearly clued and sounded plausible. Spent a while wondering where the DIS was clued with ENCHANTED and went through the CHAFE/CHAFF crossroad to finish in a leisurely 25 minutes with a few interruptions from Monday morning messages.
Thanks Kitty and Orpheus.
I was very happy with my sub four minutes 30 seconds, then I saw Busmans time! Respect, I know my place. Like KG, I knew the word ratafia but could not have told you what it was. COD to disenchanted.
11:05, with KINDERGARTEN and KALEIDOSCOPE (spelt right first time!) going in straight away.
But the two NHOs at the end slowed me down: FICHU and RATAFIA (thought he was the monkey in The Lion King). Knew PANACEA via Asterix the Legionary book, crushee of Obelix, but betrothed to Tragicomix.
Didn’t see what was going on with FLOSS, just thought it was a weak clue, but it’s quite clever.
COD DISENCHANTED
DNF – NHO FICHU and couldn’t see CHAFF, only seeing CHAFE as a possibility, so no chance of getting FICHU anyway. Gloom. No problems at all with the rest.
I’m another chafer, which meant a lot of head scratching until I saw how (NHO) FICHU worked. Frustrating because the 1s went straight in and I had been fast through most of it. (Lucky that, as Kitty observes, the vowels could only fit one way in RATAFIA!)
So that ended up in reggo 08:03 for 1.6K and a CuddaWuddaShudda Day.
Many thanks Orpheus and Kitty.
Finished and enjoyed. Fairly fast. NE last ones in, but needed all the checkers for DISENCHANTED. Good clue. Also liked GHOST, INTEGER, SHANNON, LOIRE and FLOSS.
Yes, RATAFIA must be a biscuit too, as many of us agree. Vaguely knew FICHU.
Thanks vm, Kitty.
Not heard of the drink or the scarf, so needed all checkers for those. Tried to include Raves, Seine and Chafe so some back-pedalling, although the top half went in much faster than the bottom, and floundered around BREACH. However, eventually finished inside 20 mins so a rough but readily accepted start to the week.
Lovely friendly one – thanks, Orpheus. NHO RATAFIA (neither has this computer), nor FICHU, but looked them up and there they are. Couldn’t see the soldiers (11) or the bar (5), so thanks, Kitty, for your excellent blog; my LOI same as yours so it’s nice to be in such good company!
Drat. No wonder I couldn’t see the soldiers or the bar; RAVES and SEINE annoyingly fit both together and with all the crossers, but of course they don’t parse so that’s the lesson ……
I also had RAVES and SEINE for a while before trying again. RHINE was another option but calling it a French river could cause an international incident.
so did i
I thought I was on for a quick time with most of the across clues going straight in, but slowed right down with one or two tricky ones. I didn’t help myself by misspelling KALEIDOSCOPE with a middle A, and inserting CAFE as others have done. Eventually all was corrected, and I finished disappointingly over target at 10.24.
For a change, this was a quick write-in for me, especially helped by getting 1A and 1D straight away. I suspect my teenage love of Georgette Heyer novels meant I knew RATAFIA & FICHU. I was the opposite of disenchanted when I was given a kaleidoscope as a present.
11 minutes. I’d heard of RATAFIA as a ‘Liqueur’ but didn’t know anything else about it. I recognised FICHU, which has occurred before as mentioned by Jack, but an initial CHAFE at 17a – seems I’m not alone – meant it held out till near the end. I liked RAVIOLI.
Thanks to Orpheus and Kitty
16:24
Yet another who went for CHAFE, causing a long delay at the end before FICHU eventually worked out.
Definitely not on the wavelength. My WITCH is very red, at 169, the third highest on the board.
Thanks Kitty and Orpheus
6:18
Very quick until the last five or so: LOIRE (I can only name a couple of French rivers so just had to be sure of the wordplay) + REVEL (once I’d got the L from LOIRE); then down at the bottom, FICHU (heard of the word but didn’t know what it is), UNAUTHORISED and finally BREACH.
As with others, had heard of RATAFIA biscuits, so as with amaretti biscuits, it’s not a big jump to suspect there might be a liqueur lurking nearby….
Thanks Orpheus and Kitty
Straightforward, but with interesting wordplay. A few bifs before reading the whole clue eg 1d, 3d, but some requiring extra thought, such as the German not-composer! No unknowns, all parsed. Thanks, Orpheus.
Exactly as so many others – fast start, with both 1A and 1D write-ins. Serene progress until CHAFE for CHAFF. NHO FICHU, couldn’t begin to guess it given my wrong E checker, so DNF. As Jack said, a nice puzzle with a nasty sting in the tail.
I’m not sure that I’d have finished this even if I had had Chaff and so the correct letters for Fichu. I know people often say “trust the wordplay”, but I confess I’m not entirely comfortable with putting in vaguely plausible words I have simply never heard of – it seems an unsatisfactory way to claim a completion.
No doubt in a competition it is more important to complete the grid, but when one is doing these puzzles merely for one’s own enjoyment, a random guess to “finish” a puzzle which the setter has by and large already beaten one on seems rather odd.
I suspect a minority view though …
Many thanks Kitty for the blog
Cedric
10 minutes to get to LOI 16d, which I had looked at en route to no avail.
An alpha trawl revealed lots of possible words but no composers. Once Bach ( I assumed he was German) occurred to me, I saw BREACH -tricky- to finish in 13 minutes.
Some nice clues including RAVIOLI and INTEGER.
David
8:18
Back after a week without the paper, I thought for while that the rest had done me good, racing from NW clockwise without much thought, but the CHAFF/FICHU (double NHO) held me up for minutes.
A very nice puzzle to come back to, thanks Orpheus and Kitty.
Yup. Got chafe and so didn’t finish. Also couldn’t get Fichu. Knew it t must end CHU but that didn’t help me. Probably a bit stupidly now I have read the blog. Otherwise quite quick for me. Thought Disenchanted was very good.
Thanks Kitty.
Started off quickly with what looked like a possible sub-15 minute finish. However, 18d and 19a held me up.
25:28 – would have been longer if not for Pumpa.
My verdict: 👍
Pumpa’s verdict: 🐈
After the two 1s going straight in, had the same issues with Seine, Chafe and the non-composer in 16d as others. Eventually got FICHU by following the instructions (‘NHO but has to be’), but the same approach led to the ‘nampy’ for 2d (NHO but has to be, on the basis of MP “in” New York initially [NY], all “hugging” ‘a’ = N A MP Y. It even fitted my two available crossers.) So I share Mr Statherby’s issues with just trusting the wordplay, if for a different reason today.
Eventually unpicked it all for a not-entirely enjoyable completion in 26 min. At times the fool, but I’ll have another go tomorrow!
Thanks Kitty… OK, and Orpheus.
NAMPY- What a great new word!
NAMPY- best momble for quite some time!
Looked at 1ac and wasn’t sure about which end to focus on, so switched to 1d, wrote in Kaleidoscope, and Kindergarten followed a second later. After that, I managed all the across clues apart from Unauthorised and the nho Ratafia. With all those crossers the downs then went in pretty quickly bar the nho Fichu and Breach (wrong end 🙄). Sorting out Chafe/Chaff/Fichu and Ratafia gave me a sub-20, but a feeling that this was one that got away. CoD to 7d Disenchanted for the smile. Invariant
I agree 7d Disenchanted was excellent.
Went for 17a Chafe, but the never used but oft seen Fichu put me straight.
Saw Ratafia mentioned in the 15*15 blog, didn’t know what it was doing, looked it up as had forgotten it again (like many Xword-only words,) and then it shot in like rat up drainpipe when I read the clue at 19a.
Started well then slowed down by same clues as others. Dimly remembered FICHU from previous crosswords but NHO RATAFIA in any form. Took a while to see hidden in RAVIOLI 🙄 Favourite clue also DISENCHANTED. Thanks kitty.
From KINDERGARTEN to BREACH in 7:49. FICHU unknown and RATAFIA only known from biscuits.
Finished correctly in 60 minutes.
I thought this was tough.
At least I learnt a new word : FICHU. Difficult word to work into a converation, though.
I suppose that if your wife was searching her handbag you could always say to her:
” What are you fishing around in your bag for – is it your fichu ?”.
Mrs Random and I are in Rye (East Sussex) today and we had breakfast this morning in a coffee shop that was originally built in 1787 (The Apothecary). It’s fittings and clientele helped us feel we were back in the 18th/19th century and I’m sure I overheard your FICHU sentence on at least a couple of occasions whilst we were there.
😊
Many thanks Orpheus for a relatively gentle and certainly fun start to the week, all done in 10 minutes. Like so many I saw café at 17a but the additional word popular gave me ‘caff’ immediately so CHAFF went in, confirmed by FICHU at 18d. KINDERGARTEN and KALEIDOSCOPE were incredibly helpful start points, though I started to write EDIBLE at 3d before counting again and parsing! This one was pitched at a decent level for me, and thanks Kitty for helpful blog. I might now go and look for an Italian biscuit for elevenses!
Much the same experience as others. Started well enough but the last 5 or so (5 & 7dn and 11ac and then 16dn and 23ac) must have accounted for at least 5 minutes and possibly more of my 22 minute time. I was another in the ‘chfe’ club but as I had heard of FICHU (and also RATAFIA) that was soon resolved.
FOI – 1ac KINDERGARTEN
LOI – 16dn BREACH (I was originally looking for a composer as the answer but then decided to try the other end of the clue for the definition. Unfortunately I completely overlooked Bach in my trawl through composers)
CODs – lots to like. My favorites were INHABIT, PANACEA and DISENCHANTED
Thanks to Orpheus and Kitty
22:26 I started very quickly, got bogged down at the bottom and finally spent ten minutes trying to come up with a six-letter German composer for 16d. RATAFIA was new and FICHU was dimly remembered. Thanks Kitty and Orpheus.
9 minutes having been very carefully with the spelling of the optical toy. Like many others I had to work through the chafe/chafe/fichu clues to finish up (appropriately) with the liqueur. Thanks all.
SEINE didn’t work, neither did RHINE, forgot about the LOIRE, neither have I ever worn a FICHU, straightforward apart from them
From KINDERGARTEN to BREACH in 6:31. Thanks Orpheus and Kitty.
Best time for quite a while! The last couple of weeks have seen me breezeblock around 15- 16 minutes on my LOI on pretty much every crossword, but today my luck seemed to change. Some of the clues almost wrote themselves in, probably helped by the fact that I knew all the vocab Lots to eat and drink today – however neither aspic nor ratafia will be on my shopping list at any time!
6:36 FOI Kindergarten LOI Breach COD and Toy of the Day Kaleidoscope – I still find them quite magical and it was a cracking anagram.
Thanks Orpheus for the ego boost (and to think that I used to find O one of the trickiest setters!) and thanks to Kitty too.
Oh, and I thought the 15×15 was quite user-friendly today – always a bit dangerous to comment but I did it in just under 25 minutes.
22 mins…
This felt like a slow time compared to the rapid start I had, but I got stuck with the 17ac “Chaff” and 18dn “Fichu” combo, the latter of which I’d never heard of. Like a few above, I originally had “Chafe”, however it obviously wouldn’t fit once I’d sorted out the wordplay of 18dn.
Quite a few good clues though and enjoyable in the end.
FOI – 1ac “Kindergarten”
LOI – 17ac “Chaff”
COD – 7dn “Disenchanted”
Thanks as usual!
Crumbs! Definitely a breezeblock experience today. Same delay at the end as many others have found – the CHAFF/FICHU pairing. I got there in the end, but thought it was rather nasty of Orpheus to interlink two very difficult clues in a QC.
Time = 36 minutes, but could have been in the low 20s.
Many thanks to Orpheus and Kitty.
I suppose you could always open a shop selling exclusive designer scarves and call it:
” Fichu-Like”.
5:04. I was going along quite quickly until I got stuck in the SW corner. Another CHAFE here, which left FICHU impossible until I thought again. UNAUTHORISED and BREACH also took a while to come. I liked the fiddler’s fare. Thanks Orpheus and Kitty.
7:28
Pretty similar experience to everyone else today, had a lot of clues fly in and then bogged down by the shawl. In the spirit of trusting the wordplay I had another look at my crossers and realised that I could equally swap CHAFE for CHAFF and that would lead to a consistent solution, albeit one I’d never heard of. I agree with Cedric that it’s less satisfying to end on a DNK, but quite nice to know that you’re following cryptic instructions correctly.
9:42. Eventually sorted out FICHU and CHAFF. I liked the PAN ACE.
Greetings from Dallas, where I find myself for work visiting our US tentacle, so it’s bright and early here.
FFS though – I wish my fat fingers would get slimmer. KINGERGARTEN ruined today’s effort. I also thought I was on for a Busman bothering time, but got held up a little down at the bottom. LOI was BREACH.
4:05 but typo.
DNF due to FICHU. As many others flew through this until Disenchanted and Ratafia (🙏 checkers). Thanks Orpheus and Kitty
A number of clues went in very quickly, but held up like others with fichu and chaff. Very slow to sort out 7d disenchanted, resuscitated fitted!
Like many it seems, unable to make sense of E_C_U for the scarf (which I thought I’d recognise once seen) until the difficulty of the endeavour forced us to go back and look at CHAFE. Caff just doesn’t look right though, even as slang. Needed all the checkers for 7d but at least that produced a smile once seen. 10:18 all in. Thanks Orpheus and Kitty.