Times Quick Cryptic No 1533 by Felix

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Well, there is plenty of meat on the bones of this fine offering from Felix, where he has made good use of an unusual grid to tax us this morning.  My time was close on 20 minutes to complete this puzzle, although, unusually for me, some of the parsing and craft of the setter needed the time spent in writing the blog to be fully appreciated.

It seemed to take an age to get a meaningful foothold, with odd isolated answers being entered all over the grid before they started to link up and reveal further secrets as I solved.  I also noted a plethora of letters I and V around the grid (21% and 6% of squares to be filled respectively, versus 7% and 1% expected in random written English).

FOI was IDIOT, LOI was VISION, COD for me is 16a for the unwanted image of small boys being punished (#METOO), and WOD is REFLEXIVE.  Thanks Felix, and good luck to the rest of you!

Across

1  Fool on street is landing (9)
STAIRHEAD – ST (street) and AIRHEAD (fool).  Nice to see that the chestnut of using ‘flight’ to clue STAIR has been avoided.
6  Simpleton’s one point taking one in (5)
IDIOT – I (one) DOT (point) containing (taking in) I (one, again).
8 A Conservative I defied verbally’s become sour (9)
ACIDIFIED – A (a) C{onservative) and I (I), finishing with DIFIED (sounds like defied, verbally).  To acidify is to become acidic or sour.
9 What’s hard and highly valued about the jumbo? (5)
IVORY – Cryptic definition with misdirection, pointing the solver towards the aeroplane.
10  Brave Pole’s broadcast that can be shown (9)
PROVEABLE – Anagram (broadcast) of [BRAVE POLE].  Often spelled without the first E in my experience.
12  National Insurance in tax year is something worthless (6)
VANITY – N{ational} I{nsurance} inside VAT (tax – Value Added Tax) and followed by Y{ear}.  I was initially unsure why VANITY is considered worthless – my vanity licence plate certainly has a value associated with it.  The nearest I can find is oblique references to an alternative definition of vanity as meaning worthless, but this isn’t in my Chambers under vanity (it does appear as an alternative definition for vain), although I did find it in an old Penguin Dictionary on my shelf.
13  Image of German holding most of 6 down (6)
VISION – The answer to 6 down is ISIS, and most of this is ISI.  Put this inside VON (holding) and one gets VISION.  VON is a common term in German language surnames, meaning ‘from’ or ‘of’, or less commonly, indicating a noble patrilineality.
16  Unfairly punish small boys: one’s contrite, finally (9)
VICTIMISE – VIC and TIM are shortened names for (small) boys, followed by IS (one’s) and {contrite}E (finally = last letter).
19  Once in the middle of kiss, hugged by imbecile (5)
TWIXT – TWIT (imbecile) containing (hugging) X (kiss).  ‘TWIXT is an abbreviation for BETWIXT, an archaic preposition and adverb meaning ‘between’, therefore the ‘once’ in the definition – it used to mean in the middle of.
20  Referring back to subject of Felix, ever cryptic! (9)
REFLEXIVE – Cleverly signalled anagram (cryptic) of [FELIX EVER].  REFLEXIVE is a grammatical term indicating that the action turns back upon the subject, as in ‘he shot himself!’.  OK – I’m expecting someone to quibble with this example!
22  Cancelling hair removal treatment after losing weight (5)
AXING – {w}AXING (losing W{eight}).
23  An unknown obligation’s around that is causing concerns (9)
ANXIETIES – AN (an) X (unknown, as in algebra) with TIE’S (obligation’s) and IE (that is) between them (around).

Down

1  Don’t split up tasty fragments! (4,3)
STAY PUT – Anagram (fragments) of [UP TASTY] after one has lifted and separated split and up.
2  Stasi moved to hold famous author (6)
ASIMOV – Hidden (to hold) inside {st}ASI MOV{ed}.
3  Lift light beams that can be picked up (5)
RAISE – Homophone clue (that can be picked up, or heard).  Sounds like rays.
4  Old priest the Spanish idolised originally (3)
ELI – EL (the in Spanish) and I{dolised} (originally).  It has been said many times before – ELI is worth remembering as the most common priest in Crosswordland.
5  Resentment once of failure, gone bad (7)
DUDGEON – DUD (failure) and an anagram (bad) of [GONE].  I wondered if the ‘once’ was an indicator that the word DUDGEON was considered archaic, but that isn’t supported by Chambers, so I assume it is just considered a bit old-fashioned.
6  Goddess: I’m Swiss, oddly (4)
ISIS – Alternate letters (oddly) of I{‘m} S{w}I{s}S.
7  Like sports drink, one drunk on ice, briefly (8)
ISOTONIC – I (one) SOT (drunk) ON (on) and IC{e} (briefly – drop the last letter).  To be ISOTONIC as a drink is to contain the same concentration of salts and minerals as the human body.
11  Bird is flying around in Italian port (8)
BRINDISI – Anagram (flying) of [BIRD IS] containing (around) IN (in).
12  Oral examination initially routine in all animal enclosures (7)
VIVARIA – VIVA (oral examination) and first letters of (initially) R{outine} I{n} A{ll}.  A VIVARIUM (singular) is an artificial enclosure for keeping living animals.
14  Refreshing drinks cat, I see, has upset (3,4)
ICE TEAS – Anagram (has upset) of [CAT, I SEE].  One of today’s easier clues for a concoction that I personally consider to be an abomination, but that is just my opinion.
15  Black ones containing family’s swimwear (6)
BIKINI – B{lack} and II (ones) containing KIN (family).  Another easier one if you aren’t distracted by a bikini being labelled as swimwear (most are anything but), although I have absolutely no objection to any of them.
17  Passion displayed by north eastern girl (5)
IRENE – IRE (passion) and N{orth} E{astern}.  Three easy ones in a row – was Felix running out of steam?
18  Lass finally catching game, unaccompanied male (4)
STAG – {las}S (finally) and TAG (catching game)
21  Message that’s loud a mark of error (3)
FAX – F (loud, musical notation) A (a) and X (mark of error, as in a cross).

57 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1533 by Felix”

  1. 30 minutes but brindisi is a lottery if you don’t know the town.
    Correct difficulty not achieved here.
    Vision also not great.

    Cod irene.

  2. 13 minutes. This was hard for a QC with several answers answers I would not have expected to see, such as VIVARIA, BRINDISI (NHO) and even STAIRHEAD which is surely not in common use – my spellcheck, for one, doesn’t like it.

    I think there may be something going on here that has forced the setter into this but I haven’t been able to identify what it is. To expand on what Rotter has already mentioned we have 20 letter I’s, 11 A’s and even more unusually 6 V’s and 4 X’s in addition to the unusual grid.

    Edited at 2020-01-23 06:24 am (UTC)

        1. Yes, I wondered if that had any bearing so I had already checked and found it’s 44. That two out of his previous five QCs were NINAs was another factor in my mind, plus of course he’s the Times Crossword Editor.

          Edited at 2020-01-23 07:09 am (UTC)

  3. Took us twice as long as usual to solve (and twice as long as you experts 😀). However, we enjoyed the early morning brain callisthenics
  4. Fun from Felix today and if there is a Nina I didn’t spot it.
    FOI was VANITY and I was definitely on Felix’s wavelength but that did not lead to a fast time. The clues were too difficult for that.
    I managed to deduce Vivaria quite easily and knew it was a word. Also I have been to Brindisi and caught a ferry from there. My last two were ACIDIFIED and ASIMOV. I spent too long thinking that the letters of STASI had to be part of an anagram.
    Lots of excellent clues and a tough test at this level which took me 17:31 with a minute or more on Asimov.
    David

    Edited at 2020-01-23 08:19 am (UTC)

  6. Tricky. Just shy of the hour mark and I have been edging toward 20 min. Any relevance to the V words only appearing in top and X words in the bottom of the grid. I sensed vexation with a hint of a battle of the sexes…?
    1. It’s a consequence of the Roman numerals getting larger towards the bottom of the grid, I think – see my attempt at explaining it at 10:01 below.
  7. Wow! I really enjoyed this tough workout but it was not a QC. I won’t list my likes (there were many great clues) and dislikes (there were a few, some already mentioned above). Like rotter, I was intrigued by the repeated Vs, and Is plus many Xs but haven’t made anything of them yet, apart from thinking along the lines of Roman numerals…… I appreciated rotter’s excellent blog to confirm (and improve on) my parsing. A thoroughly immersed half hour for me. John M.

    Edited at 2020-01-23 08:58 am (UTC)

  8. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, even though it was at the tougher end of the scale. I came here expecting to find that there was a Nina which I couldn’t spot – mainly due to the number of Xs. Too many good clues to have a COD but a tip of the cap to STAIRHEAD, TWIXT and REFLEXIVE which was my LOI. Finished in 16.50.
    Thanks to Rotter
  9. More thoughts about Nina or Not.
    The letters from Felix appear very frequently: obviously in Reflexive and also ELI and TWIXT. But why?
    BRINDISI is also the name of the drinking song in Traviata (the best 4 minutes of the whole thing IMHO) which is sung partly by a diva; these four letters appear together in the grid but not in the right order.
    And fans of VVD, the mighty Liverpool defender, might be able to spot a message which I can’t.
    So it’s a Not from me.
    1. Yes, I looked hard for a NINA when writing the blog, and most of these thoughts went through my mind (not VVD and Liverpool), along with many others – bikini waxing anyone? If there is a NINA here, it is too subtle for me to spot, but I can’t rid myself of the notion that there is something lurking!
      1. I did try adding all the Roman numerals together to see if they came to 1533, but the total is actually (I think) 3890. Probably not a theme there !
  10. I gave up at my customary self imposed time limit of half an hour. I was expecting a difficult one today because there has been a string of fairly easy ones. And, goodness, was I right! I was caused 23 across because I DNK “stairhead ” nor “vivara “. I could not see the 2 small lads being beaten, the imbecile in the middle of a kiss was clearly me, and I was pulling my own hair out over 22 across. Nothing unfair here – just much much too hard for this 6 across. Ah, me….never mind, tomorrow is another day. Thanks so much, Rotter, for your super blog and, thanks, too, to Felix.
  11. Definitely not a qc -I agree with Vinyl 1 . I suppose if you get annoyed you can be passionate but for me Ire is Anger not Passion. On its own it would be a minor quibble but Monday’s 15 x 15 was easier than this for me nuf sed
  12. The Nina has been nagging away at me. This feels near to an answer but I can’t quite square it off. Anyway: if you look for Roman numbers, and ignore Rows 6 and 8, then starting from Row 1 and moving down you get:

    i
    ii
    iii
    iv
    v
    vi, vii
    viii
    ix
    xiv (so that doesn’t fit)
    xi (but there’s a stray i at the start of the row)
    xii

    So it kind of nearly works … but doesn’t quite … so it’s probably all in my head.

    Oh yes, the puzzle. Didn’t think it was great to be honest, COD ASIMOV because it had me so convinced there was an anagram and I usually post hiddens quickly, 18:47, OK Day.

    Templar

    Edited at 2020-01-23 10:02 am (UTC)

    1. Well done, templar and jerry (below).
      As I said (above), I could only think in terms of roman numerals but I couldn’t follow it through. John.
      1. Thank you! I don’t normally spot Ninas so I was pleased with that. But I’m still bothered by the minor imperfections. Maybe Felix will pop by later and explain what I missed.
  13. Definitely a tougher offering today. Nice to see that most of you enjoyed it regardless. I started with ELI and finished with VICTIMISE, VIVARIA being my penultimate entry. However, a quick proof read took me back to 19a where I changed TWIST to TWIXT, as I finally saw what was required. Nice puzzle. I can’t see a nina either. 13:53. Thanks Felix and Rotter.
  14. Hmm, tricky one this. The Nina looks to be connected with Roman numerals as suggested above. If you take row eleven as just X you get the numbers I to XII in order..
    1. Yes, well spotted! I think you and Templeredux have spotted it where I failed. Not perfect (row 6 provides both VI and VII and there is an occasional additional roman number) but I think that it fits well enough. Thank you.
      1. It might be a far fetch, but…

        Fe (iron, atomic number 26) + LIX (59) = 85

        Sum of I to XII (78) + the extras in rows 6 and 8 (II and V) = 85

        2. Nice, but what about the stray I at the beginning of row 12 (as noted in my original post at 10:01)?
  15. Tricky one for me, but rewarding nonetheless.

    DNF, courtesy of STAIRHEAD, VIVARIA, DUDGEON and PROVABLE (which I really should have seen, on reflection…)

    Some rewarding wordplay from Felix, I enjoyed 23ac ANXIETIES, 19ac TWIXT, 16ac VICTIMISE and 4dn ELI, which is a new one for me – I will try and keep this in the back of my head for the future.

    FOI 6ac IDIOT
    COD 23ac ANXIETIES

    Thanks for the blog Rotter, although I will politely disagree with you about Ice Tea – one of my summer faves!

  16. DNF. Gave up five short after half an hour. DNK STAIRHEAD and VIVARIA but figured them out (guessed). Thanks, Rotter, for the explanations.
  17. Sunk by not knowing STAIRHEAD and not seeing ASIMOV hidden. Guessed VIVARIA DUDGEON and STAG without getting the clue. A hard one.
  18. Thanks Felix for the clever nina.

    Is the 15 x 15 also by “Felix” today? In row 6 of it is our editor being self deprecating?

  19. 8’30” for me today, exactly the same time as for Tuesday’s 15×15 – says it all, really.

    That said, I completely enjoyed this one, some very clever wordplay and a Nina thrown in for good measure (although I’m not convinced the whole story has emerged yet).

    Thank you Felix and Rotter.

  20. Tough going today.
    I thought Iron for ‘something hard’ at 9a and therefore couldn’t see past IRONY (which also describes the clue!)
  21. I was a bit slow getting started and held up at the end by DUDGEON and STAIRHEAD. Lovely Nina. And COD to the clue that maybe hints at it being there… REFLEXIVE. 6:54.

    Edited at 2020-01-23 01:15 pm (UTC)

  22. I thought I had finished this (after a great struggle) but two were wrong. For 19a I had middle of kiss (ish) as s hugged by twit (imbecile) giving the answer twist, a dance which was ‘once in!’
  23. A very rewarding challenge that took me 3 sessions to complete, and well worth it it was. Plenty of unusual vocabulary, with VIVARIA a totally new one to me. Couldn’t get ‘fiscal’ out of my head for ‘tax year’.
    Good challenge, excellent blog. Thanks guys.
    PlayUpPompey
  24. Just to confirm that the Nina is simply Roman numerals I-XII, and I’m sorry it led to a harder than usual puzzle.
    This one, I am hoping, marks a bit of a watershed moment as I decided after that that the difficulty level of Nina puzzles really needed to be contained, regardless of bells and whistles

    F

  26. Many thanks to Felix for confirming our suspicions, and for an excellent (if challenging) puzzle.
  27. Ploughed on with this and was well over an hour before I gave up on 11dn “Brindisi”. Have to hold my hands up and say I’d never heard of it and had to look it up on Google Maps. Maybe there is some form of historical significance, but it does seem slightly obscure for a QC even if it was kind of solvable with the anagram.

    Other than that, obviously on the difficult side. I noticed lots of V’s and X’s but didn’t spot the Nina. I knew “Viva” so managed to get 12dn “Vivaria” and 19ac “Twixt” I’d seen before. But Stairhead is not an expression I’ve heard and I also wondered about “Vanity” being worthless.

    FOI – 6ac “Idiot”
    COD – 16ac “Victimise” as I felt that I had been 🙂

    Thanks as usual

    1. Brindisi has indeed been a port since Roman times, when it was known as Brundisium. Still a major port today.
      1. Thanks for the insight.

        Odd thing is that I recognise Brundisium – as it was included in a recent Robert Harris novel I read about Cicero – but I didn’t make the connection. I guess I was expecting it to be something more obvious like Genoa…

  28. As others have already mentioned, this was definitely on the tricky side for a QC – partially excused by the Nina. I finally crawled over the line just short of 40mins, with at least 5 of those spent on the 5d/8ac combination. I could see 8ac began with Acidi, but I struggled to make the jump (small step, really) from defied to -dified. Such is life. Enjoyed Stairhead, but CoD to Twixt – the pdm only came when I gave up trying to include ‘is’ (middle of kiss). Invariant
  29. …take it to a new level of sleuthery!

    I noticed the I’s, V’s and X’s, then came here for enlightenment.

    Super setting!

    I enjoyed this, 11 mins and 5 seconds of head down solving. I knew BRINDISI, biffing from a vague notion of an anagram and two of the 3 I’s, which gave me my LOI and COD of TWIXT. ASIMOV came late, so a well hidden hidden.

    Thanks to all.

  30. I sort of solved the puzzle and sort of recognised a Roman Numeral themed NINA. My solving time was relatively quick compared with others (sub 13 mins) but technically I submitted a DNF as I cheated with my LOI BRINDISI. There were too many possibilities involving the placement of the D,N and S that I gave in and looked the Italian port up online. My penultimate solve was VISION as I struggled to recall the German translation for ‘of’. Re the NINA I noticed the skewed distribution of the Roman Numerals and came to the blog for enlightenment. Thanks Rotter and Felix.
      1. Felix, we have had some slightly more accessible puzzles very recently so please don’t try to make things too easy. I think we benefit from a puzzle to chew on now and again (as long as we don’t have them every day). This was an excellent puzzle and enjoyed by many of us. John M.
      2. Don’t worry, the Ninas will keep coming, and I fear one or two may still lead to tricker puzzles, but I did feel at the time that this one was pushing things a bit
  32. A chewy puzzle that took me just over 15 minutes, well above my recent average. But definitely fair – I found that several of the clues could be worked out even if I was not familiar with the resulting answer: for example DNK 12d Vivaria (but it could not be anything else) and worried that Ire and Passion are not really the same thing in 17d – why passion when one could easily have had “Anger displayed by north eastern girl”. Ah well.

    FOI 6a Idiot
    LOI 9a Ivory – a straight definition clue which I took a long time to see that it was not more devious!

  33. Much fun with the Roman numerals. Rotters example of reflexive is spot on, it means that the subject and the object of the verb are the same, indicated by the addition of “self” to the object.
    A bugbear of mine is the use of the “self” suffix incorrectly such as “replies to myself please” NOOOOO only you can reply to youself
  34. …I finished, albeit with much pencil chewing and head scratching. About an hour, in and out, but it never felt unfair and many thanks to all for the comments on the numerals: I couldn’t work out quite what was going on altho clearly something was! Good blog, Rotter, thank you.
    Plymouthian
    1. I have no way of knowing Jack, but it is very gratifying to the blogger, even if the credit is all due to Felix for such an excellent puzzle – and a NINA always helps in my opinion.
  36. … but enjoyed it all the same. The Nina completely passed me by, far too subtle, and I was most impressed by those who worked it out. Never heard of vivaria. Thanks Felix and Rotter.
    Diana
  37. What a struggle! I gave up timing myself but it must have taken at least an hour. My husband (not a cryptic fan sadly) helped me out with 3 clues and I still failed to finish because of TWIXT. I knew it wasn’t TWIST but I couldn’t work out what it was. All is forgiven though because Felix managed to include a wonderful NINA. It made me think of a joke I was told the other day:

    “I can’t remember how to write 1, 1000, 51, 6 and 500 in Roman numerals.
    I’M LIVID.”

    I thought that was brilliant… perhaps it’s just me! MM

    FOI: ISIS
    COD: VIVARIA
    WOD: (HIGH) DUDGEON (one of my Dad’s favourite expressions!)

  38. Too busy with work, prospect of new work, wife carpal tunnel op and rewiring in progress to settle down so DNF but delighted to write in Brindisi after a glimpse at the clue. (Interrail 1975 down from leaving Milan at midnight through Italy (13 hours from bad memory?) and – “you want ferry come this way” – to find a choice of what seemed like 13 ocean-going vessels – across to Greece)
    Happy memories but I digress.
    Gave up with a few left – vivaria, anxieties, Irene, Victimise and Stairhead (dnk)
    Well done to Felix for showing the other (human) side to this. I just wished with hindsight that I could have really sat down and concentrated knowing it was tough and enjoy the ride.
    How about setters giving a difficulty rating once in a while?!!
    Anyway, thanks all, great blog
    John George

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