Solving time: 8:35
Until my most recent blog two weeks ago (QC2427), I had blogged Orpheus only once, back in December (QC2287) and now I’ve blogged them twice running… such are the mysteries of the QC setters’ rota. My own time was marred slightly by misreading 24a and spending time later hunting down the incorrect unch (unchecked letter).
I’d say this was a step-up from last time round. While none of the vocab was out of reach, I did have to wedge my thinking-cap on a little more firmly. I didn’t immediately see the hidden at 11a, and if you are from over the pond, you may not have heard of the town at 19a.
How did you all get on?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Army entertainer (4) |
| HOST – Double definition | |
| 7 | Heavenly bodies a hormone finally produces (9) |
| ASTEROIDS – A STEROID (hormone) S [finally i.e. last letter of {produce}S] | |
| 9 | Garment originally seen around Rajasthan institutions (4) |
| SARI – First letters of [originally] Seen Around Rajasthan Institutions | |
| 10 | Crazy reason for building a railway engine (10) |
| LOCOMOTIVE – LOCO (Crazy) MOTIVE (reason) | |
| 11 | Basil, possibly, taken in by another boy (4) |
| HERB – taken in by i.e. hidden in another boy
Only parsed post-solve. |
|
| 12 | Youth given rise restricting state benefit (10) |
| ADOLESCENT – ASCENT (rise) restricting i.e. surrounding DOLE (state benefit) | |
| 16 | Promote smoked ham, perhaps, or game (10) |
| BACKGAMMON – BACK (promote) GAMMON (smoked ham, perhaps)
‘Perhaps’ is presumably because GAMMON isn’t always smoked… |
|
| 19 | Auction in Greater Manchester town (4) |
| SALE – Double definition
According to the 2011 census, the ‘town’ of SALE (which is in the Trafford area of Manchester) had a population of 134,000 (more than twice that of the ‘city’ of Lancaster where I live!) |
|
| 21 | Valet in minister’s residence initially vilified in tirade (10) |
| MANSERVANT – MANSE (minister’s residence) then stuff V [initially i.e. initial letter of V{ilified}] into RANT (tirade) | |
| 23 | A container that’s slightly open (4) |
| AJAR – A JAR – a chestnut | |
| 24 | Effusion a girl talked of before race (9) |
| EMANATION – EMA (a girl talked of – homophone of EMMA) before NATION (race)
Initially I’d bunged in the made-up word EVANATION and had to re-check all of my answers before correcting this. |
|
| 25 | Big fish aunt cooked (4) |
| TUNA – Anagram [cooked] of AUNT | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Make a speech, initially outlining charge (5) |
| ORATE – O [initially i.e. initial letter of O{utlining}) RATE (charge) | |
| 3 | Traffic problem a blind mouse would have welcomed? (8) |
| TAILBACK – The second part of the clue refers to the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice, the titular characters of which each have their tail removed by the farmer’s wife’s carving knife.
Any mouse (blind or not) relies on its tail for locomotion, defence, stabilisation and balance. In the case of the harvest mouse, it is also semi-prehensile and is used for grasping onto grass stalks. A TAILBACK is perhaps a euphemism used by rush-hour radio announcers to avoid the dreaded words ‘traffic jam’. |
|
| 4 | Old Conservative carves up wall-coating (6) |
| STUCCO – O (Old) C (Conservative) CUTS (carves) all reversed [up – apposite as this is a Down clue] | |
| 5 | Marge spread round top of muffin, a very small amount (6) |
| GRAMME – Anagram [spread] of MARGE round top of i.e. first letter of M{uffin}
Apparently, this is a UK spelling of gram… |
|
| 6 | Skirt-like garment Liberal leader included in gear (4) |
| KILT – L (Liberal leader i.e. first letter of L{iberal}) included in KIT (gear) | |
| 8 | Learned man rested outside commercial vehicle (6) |
| SAVANT – SAT (rested) outside VAN (commercial vehicle) | |
| 13 | Thrash young farm animal endlessly (3) |
| LAM – LAM{b} (young farm animal) [endlessly i.e. remove last letter] | |
| 14 | Unvarying way worker supports scam (8) |
| CONSTANT – CON (scam) supported by ST (way i.e. street) ANT (worker) | |
| 15 | Location accommodating a royal residence (6) |
| PALACE – PLACE (location) “accommodating” A | |
| 17 | An American woman overseas (6) |
| ABROAD – A BROAD (An American woman)
I looked up what makes a woman ‘a broad’ and found this: “A woman who can hang with the guys when necessary but is still the best friend her girlfriends could ever wish for. A broad likes to eat and drink and laugh out loud. A broad is not offended by ribald or salty humor.” Comments welcome (particularly from any broads)… |
|
| 18 | Chap that is conserving energy, a small-minded type (6) |
| MEANIE – MAN (Chap) I.E. (that is – ‘i.e.’ is short for id est in Latin) containing [conserving] E (energy) | |
| 20 | Study Latin at first and make money (5) |
| LEARN – L (Latin at first i.e. first letter of L{atin}) and EARN (make money) | |
| 22 | Behaved disgustingly in minor quarrel (4) |
| SPAT – Double definition | |
11:30 fully parsed and a record time for me. It just flowed in top to bottom.
Lots of clues seen before, really seemed a bit too easy compared to the last few months of QCs. Made me wonder how the editor decides whether a puzzle is too easy / hard. There must be a process and some sort of benchmark. Does anyone know how that is done?
Prof
I assume setters are independent contractors paid by the puzzle and for the most part, the editor has a rotation of 5-6 regulars producing two per month (Hurley, Izetti, Orpheus, Teazel, Trelawney spring to mind) and then some others who contribute one per month (e.g. Felix) and then the Editor himself fills in with the occasional puzzle under various pseudonyms.
So the benchmark is to get in the rotation. Once you’ve proved yourself capable of setting a decent puzzle, you’re in the rotation and unlikely to get kicked out. I reckon the Editor probably has too much else to do beyond micromanaging the actual clues/answers.
That said, I assume the Editor will push back on anything that is considered offensive, inappropriate or non-PC in the clues/answer – but as per broad today – not always. Otherwise they just trust the setters to get it right. Perhaps the occasional word of feedback that they’ve been too hard recently.
I’m not convinced anyone ever genuinely complains about a puzzle being too easy. After all, we all like the shot at a PB and if it’s listed as quick and you get it done in 3mins (as I occasionally did on another paper’s Quick Concise) it’s a nice feeling. You’re unlikely to lose customers because it’s too easy.
The role of puzzles editor surely includes maintaining a standard for a particular puzzle. My question was about how that standard is benchmarked. I suspect it rests in the experience of the editor (who I believe does look at every puzzle prior to publication. There have been discussions previously about clues being edited by the puzzles editor).
I agree the Editor looks over all the puzzles – last thing they need to be doing is publishing inappropriate content but otherwise they trust their rotation of setters.
There have been occasions of editing clues but that seems to occur due to a publishing or transposition error than reworking clues because they’re sub-standard.
You only need to look at today’s Izetti and the number of us who struggled with two particular clues to conclude there is no general editing being done.
14:57
My first QC for a month after returning home from travels. Held up by MANSERVANT but otherwise not too tricky.
Welcome back! I’ve missed your comments as we usually post at around the same time of day.
Thought I’d done well on this one with 13:05 (27th fastest ever), but from the look of the comments on here, I’m still way down the rankings. Oh well, I enjoyed it. Thanks Orpheus and Mike