Solving time: 7:50
Something between gentle and medium-paced, I felt. There were a few answers which required some extra consideration e.g. not getting the 1a anagram off the bat meant building from checkers; not initially equating FOLK with family also slowed me down a little.
I enjoyed the misdirection at 23a, and the mildly cryptic 14d, and the resulting searches into the origins of 11a, 20a and 15d produced a few interesting nuggets. On the whole, the usual measure of quality from Joker, fitting the QC remit to a T.
How did you find it?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Inoculant worked non-stop (9) |
| CONTINUAL – Anagram [worked] of INOCULANT | |
| 6 | Image most choose (3) |
| PIC – Most of PIC{k} (choose) | |
| 8 | Tea’s temperature affected flavour (5) |
| TASTE – Anagram [affected] of TEA‘S plus T (temperature) | |
| 9 | Introduce power to remove exhaust (7) |
| DEPLETE – Insert [Introduce] P (power) into DELETE (remove) | |
| 10 | Traditional belief family role is changing (8) |
| FOLKLORE – FOLK (family) then anagram [is changing] of ROLE | |
| 11 | Amphibian beginning to wriggle in trap (4) |
| NEWT – First letter [beginning to] of W{riggle} in NET (trap)
NEWT is considered to be a fifteenth century misdivision of ‘an ewte‘ (i.e. ‘a newte‘), a variation of the Middle English evete, from which the modern EFT also derives. |
|
| 13 | Religious education’s pressing being born again (9) |
| RESURGENT – RE‘S (Religious education’s abbreviated) URGENT (pressing) | |
| 16 | Insolence about male’s lameness (4) |
| LIMP – LIP (Insolence) about M (male) | |
| 17 | Throw one’s weight behind Scottish barrister (8) |
| ADVOCATE – Double definition | |
| 20 | US breakfast loaf endlessly cooked by nan (7) |
| GRANOLA – Anagram [cooked] of LOA{f} without its last letter [endlessly] by GRAN (nan)
GRANOLA is a proprietary name for the similarly spelt GRANULA, which was invented in 1863 by Dr James Caleb Jackson in Dansville, New York, and sold by his Our Home Granula Company. The W.K. Kellogg version was also initially known as Granula, but the name was changed to GRANOLA and legally registered in 1886 to avoid legal problems with Jackson. |
|
| 21 | Shower reportedly sit on the throne (5) |
| REIGN – Homophone [reportedly] of RAIN (Shower) | |
| 22 | Fanatic beheaded king once (3) |
| NUT – CNUT, son of the brilliantly-named Sweyn Forkbeard, was King of England from 1016-1035. |
|
| 23 | Conductor’s chosen baton perhaps used with energy (9) |
| ELECTRODE – ELECT (chosen) ROD (baton perhaps) used with E (energy)
Oh, that sort of conductor… |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Stop talking to leader of union supporting Conservative grandee (3,3) |
| CUT OFF – First letter [leader] of U{nion} supporting C (Conservative) then TOFF (grandee)
‘supporting’ is apposite as this is a down clue, and the C is ‘supported’ by (i.e. is sitting on top of) the U |
|
| 2 | Nosy neighbours always saw a lot at first (5) |
| NASAL – Initial letters [at first] of neighbours always saw a lot | |
| 3 | Wishful thinker that is accepting Muhammad, say (8) |
| IDEALIST – ID EST (“that is” in Latin) containing [accepting] ALI (Muhammad, say)
‘that is’ here appears in its longer Latin form – ID EST – rather than its more-commonly-seen abbreviation I.E. |
|
| 4 | Aunt regarded university bad for student (13) |
| UNDERGRADUATE – Anagram [bad] of AUNT REGARDED U (university) | |
| 5 | Circuits fail to maintain standard we’re told (4) |
| LAPS – Homophone [we’re told] of LAPSE (fail to maintain standard) | |
| 6 | Gift despatched in advance (7) |
| PRESENT – Something despatched in advance might be PRE–SENT | |
| 7 | Produce echo within wooden box (6) |
| CREATE – E (echo – NATO phonetic alphabet) in CRATE (wooden box) | |
| 12 | Protest about one traitorous US politician (8) |
| DEMOCRAT – DEMO (Protest) C (about i.e. circa) RAT (one traitorous) | |
| 13 | Unrestrained harangue involving a member of parliament (7) |
| RAMPANT – RANT (harangue) containing [involving] A MP (member of parliament) | |
| 14 | Continue to feel tired? This may be about alcohol (6) |
| FLAGON – If you continue to feel tired, you FLAG ON. The mildly cryptic definition indicates that a FLAGON would be ‘about’ alcohol i.e. surround or contain it. | |
| 15 | Can see about spiritualist’s meeting (6) |
| SEANCE – Anagram [about] of CAN SEE
In French, the meaning of SÉANCE is quite general and mundane. One may, for example, speak of “une séance de cinéma” (literally ‘a movie session‘). In English, and recorded by 1845, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from ghosts or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits. |
|
| 18 | Friend since penning note (5) |
| AMIGO – AGO (since) containing [penning] MI (note in the do-re-mi scale) | |
| 19 | Part of shoe pinched, losing time (4) |
| SOLE – S |
|
LOI IDEALIST: I couldn’t see how it worked until finally I saw it was that Muhammad. 7:40.
Same problems with FOLKLORE, thinking it was an anagram containing ‘role is’ with ‘fa’, but it was never going to be. Everything else in the top half was a write-in but the bottom half was a bit trickier. Couldn’t see FLAGON and thought it would end in ‘gin’. NHO Cnut but it had to be NUT. Saw what was going on with ELECTRODE straight away from ‘chosen/elect’ and ‘baton/rod’. Liked IDEALIST parsed after, ‘id est’ fooled me again. COD to RESURGENT.
Thanks Mike and setter.
At 11.42 I found this considerably more challenging than recent days. A surge of bone-headedness (ADVOCATE held me up for a couple of minutes at the end) didn’t help but there were some crafty clues here. I biffed IDEALIST early so missed its cleverness completely, and like others was looking for a musician instead of an ELECTRODE. An enjoyable puzzle, thanks Mike and Joker.
I agree the puzzle was on the medium side. I was annoyed at not being able to see the anagram of continual immediately, but OTOH I biffed undergraduate without a second thought. Being an old hand, I just knew electrode was going to be a completely different sort of conductor. My LOI was flagon, which I biffed and then parsed.
Time: 8:35
11 minutes with FLAGON as my LOI as the definition was unclear and I needed all checkers to spot the wordplay element. My last attempt at a puzzle by Joker was a DNF so this was a definite improvement on that.
King Cnut didn’t even exist for schoolchildren of my generation.
Was he Canute in those days? That’s how I first saw it, naturally in relation to the fable of holding back the sea (or not).
He certainly was!
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who found it difficult to unravel the anagram for CONTINUAL which I needed most of the checkers for. Other than that I made decent progress until left with my LOI where I eventually I had a very satisfying PDM.
Started with PIC and finished with COD ELECTRODE in 6.54.
Thanks to Mike and Joker
7.19
Ditto CONTINUAL – strange, you would have thought it would be a write-in. Also ditto Kevin regarding IDEALIST. Even then I needed to think about who the “that” Mohammad was.
Maybe a chestnut but UNDERGRADUATE was good.
Interesting and enjoyable blog – thanks Mike.
A par solve in 11:57, but that hides quite a bit of biffing and head-scratching. Did not parse IDEALIST until post entry (was confident that ‘that is’ gave just IE not the full Latin version) or RESURGENT at all (had just RE for Religious Education and that left me trying to parse SURGENT – for all I knew it could be a word meaning surging, pressing). Groaned at the definition for FLAGON; no doubt very clever but not my favourite sort of clue!
OTOH much enjoyed the blog, an unalloyed pleasure. Many thanks Mike
I had the same problem with RESURGENT!
5:13 so about an average solve for me too. I liked the ‘nosy neighbours’ and ‘conductor’s chosen baton’. Thanks Joker and Mike.
Biffed IDEALIST which is a pity as it is a great clue. My heart sinks whenever I see ‘note’ in a clue. ‘Mi’ Duh.
I don’t think Pssed as an EFt works so well, which raises the question whether newts can’t walk in a straight line or tend to fall backwards off a chair.
Thanks Joker and Mike. 25 minutes with a bit of scrabbling around.
14:39
Held myself up by entering RAMPAGE in 13d, rendering 22a impossible. Finally spotted that I needed to rant rather than rage, leading to NUT as my LOI, though alas for a time in Henry VI’s reign rather than Cnut’s.
Thanks Mike and Joker
As expected, my return to quick solves this week could not last. This one took me more than double my two previous times.
Good puzzle, though. My LOsI were FLAGON, ELECTRODE (I needed the ‘O’ to see AMIGO), and IDEALIST (my COD). All neat clues.
Thanks to both.
Note, this needed two re-writes and re-submissions before it was accepted. The flakiness of the TfT site has not yet been sorted fully. I have learned to copy my thoughts before hitting ‘save’.
I always compose my comment on notepad as I go, otherwise by the time I reach the bottom I have forgotten what I was going to say. Then cut and paste into the blog. The cut can be reversed with controlZ if the site goes dodgey.
Andy’s suggestion is a good one but an even simpler alternative is just to highlight what you have written and copy it to the clipboard before clicking Post Comment. Then if it fails you can paste and have another go.
That is what I was suggesting, Jack.
I do it with lots of sites when I have written more than the odd few words, especially the sites where I have had problems.
Ah, sorry for misreading.
I was another who biffed IDEALIST and parsed it later. After two passes I was left with three clues in the SW corner, but FLAGON eventually proved to be the key.
FOI PIC
LOI NUT
COD CUT OFF
TIME 4:21
17.29 having spent some minutes (yes, too long …) on LOI FOLKLORE and IDEALIST…
A most enjoyable start to the day.
Thanks to Joker and to Mr Harper. : )
10:50, for me this is slightly over average for the QC, but I enjoyed this puzzle.
A quick biff-fest. Feel lucky to have finished all correct. CNP IDEALIST . Of course, Ali.
Liked NEWT, CUT OFF, FOLKLORE.
GRANOLA is on my shopping list today.
Many thanks, Mike.
Some very good clues, but not too happy about the definitions for GRANOLA (not my idea of a US breakfast despite our blogger’s research) or FLAGON (agree with Jackkt and Cedric). 12:54.
A foolish and unparsed RESURRECT for 13a resulted in a DNF after 33 minutes.
Otherwise a very nice stretching puzzle.
COD ELECTRODE
Thanks to Joker and Mike.
11:09 for the solve. well .. hmm … flashes of the old Joker whose puzzles I used to enjoy with simple clueing like SEANCE, NEWT, RAMPANT; a bit of wit in FLAGON but then less comprehensible stuff like “one’s traiterous” and chosen=elect (rather than elected) along with IDEALIST one of those rare occasions where I couldn’t parse a clue even post-solve.
Thanks to Joker and Mike
I thought of the “daughter-in-law elect” in a G&S operetta, so OK with me.
I guess I could see in a political context e.g. “president elect” and while I never doubted it is correct, it’s the lesser used language I expect to encounter in the 15×15 – not the QC.
Fair enough, I think I agree with you about the QC.
My LOI FLAGON – took a while to see past SLOGAN which I knew was wrong. Sometimes wonder how many Latin phrases are understood by Gen Z. A great puzzle from Joker, and thanks Mike for your usual informative blog.
I needed CUT OFF and NASAL before managing to unravel CONTINUAL. No problems from there on until I reached LOI, ELECTRODE where I briefly wasted time looking in a musical direction. 6:00. A gentler Joker than usual! Thanks Joker and Mike.
SW corner the hardest. And as for LOI FLAGON, thought this was a “sounds like” flagging, NHO FLAG ON, but bunged it in, hoped for the best, and got away with it! Liked the clever UNDERGRADUATE at university. Thank you, Mike.
So that’s how IDEALIST worked! Was nowhere near.
For the third time this week a race through then an eventual DNF, I couldn’t parse 3d, briefly had Grandma for 20a, but otherwise pretty much all write – ins. Finally failed on Flagon despite an alphabet trawl.
It is my impression (perhaps wrong) that Conductor is always either Maestro or the electrical sort. I am sure the more knowledgeable will remind us of exceptions to that.
Very enjoyable though thanks to Joker and Mike.
Like many here I biffed IDEALIST and failed to parse it. FLAGON was also my LOI. I could have been quicker if I hadn’t dithered over the anagram fodder at 1 across and had to resort to checkers to solve it. COD to ELECTRODE. 7:03 Thanks Mike, I particularly enjoyed reading about GRANOLA.
Wasn’t he Knut? Although he obviously predates the OED. Definitely on the easier side for me. I got hung up on Tory for conservative. Our cottage is in close proximity to great crested newts and a certain ex PM.
Thanks setter and blogger…
Thanks to Mike Harper and Joker.
1a Continual took a while; didn’t know what I was looking for until I had most of the crossers, then it was a cinch.
3d Idealist took a while; I was trying to incorporate a prophet or profit and didn’t think of Id Est for a long time. Nor did I notice that the spelling implied the boxer rather than the prophet. Not that the prophet is consistently spelled in any particular way, but Ali is.
22a Nut; the king was spelt Canute when I was at school, possibly to avoid embarrassing typos. Knut appeared once or twice as well. I remain uncertain if the K/C was silent or not in his day; moderns like the Kon Tiki man seem to half-pronounce the K.
On edit, he was a Thor, but Knut Haugland was a crew member. I claim that I remembered that.
Stupidly put in RESURRECT instead of RESURGENT. Apart from that a very satisfying solve in 20 minutes! Thanks Mike and Joker.
On reflection, and from others comments, “Flag on” is a green paint. Googling it produces 10 pages (I couldn’t be bothered to go further) without a single mention of those two words in conjunction.
If FLAG ON was the answer it would be green paint, but it’s just a pun on the way to the answer so it’s fine.
If Flag and on were clued separately than that would be so, but they are not. Where is the wordplay for “on”?
The interpretation of the wordplay must be that “Continue to feel tired?” is a clue to a meaningful phrase.
Otherwise the original objection to “green paint” is invalid. You can put any two words together and say they are a meaningful phrase.
Quite a lot of this was straightforward, but an unparsed Cut Out at 1d, left me struggling with Folklore and Idealist. In the end I took a break, and finally saw Cut Off as soon as I returned. The Folklore and Idealist hold outs then became write-ins, though parsing the latter was a bit more challenging. CoD to Electrode, one I did spot more or less straight away, though I suspect probably nowhere near as quick as Templar with Advocate. Invariant
No big delays but not all parsed (IDEALIST); finished in 11 minutes.
LOI CUT OFF after FOLKLORE.
An enjoyable QC from Joker.
COD to CONTINUAL for the surface and anagram.
David
18 minutes but with resurrect at 13ac. I couldn’t parse it of course but then neither could I parse idealist. Other than that no problems.
FOI – 6ac PIC
LOI – 18dn AMIGO
COD – 2dn NASAL
Thanks to Joker and Mike
14:57
Struggled to parse GRANOLA. No, that’s not true. Completely failed to parse it. Same with LOI AMIGO. Wasn’t entirely convinced by FLAGON either but took a bit of a leap of faith with those 3 and pressed submit anyway. Fortunately correct.
9.35. I found this a bit tricky and was surprised to find so many quicker solves – I put it down to having had a recent birthday and, hence, showing my age.
At 26 minutes, I should be very happy today, but several clues (e.g. IDEALIST, DEMOCRAT, ELECTRODE) had to go in un- or only part-parsed.
I started well with CONTINUAL and PIC going pretty much straight in, but FOLKLORE, FLAGON, AMIGO (my LOI) and my unparsed trio above all combined to make the finishing straight really quite hard.
Many thanks to Mike and Joker.
Back to normal after yesterday’s unusual experience!
As a tea drinker, I completely agree with the surface at 8a. I also liked CONTINUAL, UNDERGRADUATE and RAMPANT – a very accurate surface there too 😅 But count me in as another who didn’t see which Ali was required, and I didn’t see ADVOCATE as a DD either – both obvious now.
10:41 FOI Pic LOI Deplete COD Taste
Thanks Joker and Mike
That prompted me to check your post yesterday – scorcher! Well played!
Thank you T – how kind of you 😊
9.07 Quite a steady solve but ADVOCATE, DEMOCRAT, ELECTRODE and the unparsed AMIGO took a while at the end. Apparently GRANOLA is muesli baked with oil and sugar to make it unhealthy. Thanks Mike and Joker.
FLAGON and IDEALIST proved tricky FOLKLORE biffed, then comprehended after quite a while- fool!
17:12. Thinking GROGGY for too long instead of FLAGON made that section very slow!
14.47 which felt slow despite there being nothing too tricky.
Couple not fully parsed in real time so thanks Mike.
Joker has kicked me squarely to the cheap seats of the SCC at 26:48. A good five minutes of that was spent staring blankly at what would eventually become ELECTRODE and DEMOCRAT. Not sure why they took me so long, I was just groping down one blind alley after the other.
Thank you for the blog!
Spent a while trying and failing to parse ADVOCATE, only to come to the blog and find it was of course a DD (dearie me 😆). Really liked FLAG ON and ELECTRODE. Cnut was Canute in my school days. Thanks Mike (especially info about NEWT) and Joker.
14:18 I definitely wasn’t on the wavelength today. All very fair, nothing too extreme (FLAGON and ELECTRODE maybe more 15×15 worthy?) . now why couldn’t I just see CONTINUAL straight off the bat? thanks!
21 mins…
Another solve in one of my post bike ride brain fogs. Nothing too difficult, although I needed a few checkers before I saw 23ac “Electrode”. Only other hold up was an internal debate whether something can be “pre” sent. It’s either sent or it isn’t regardless of whether it was before the due date.
FOI – 8ac “Taste”
LOI – 3dn “Idealise”
COD – 14dn “Flagon” – think I need one.
Thanks as usual!
Maybe I’m missing something but ‘Shower reportedly sit on the throne’ doesn’t work as a sentence, does it? I’m just talking about the surface. Anyway, good puzzle, thanks all.
Now that you mention it, it doesn’t make sense to me either. The only way I can make it even grammatical is to think of (Collins) “British slang
a derogatory term applied to a person or group, esp to a group considered as being slack, untidy, etc”, so a “shower of good-for-nothings” or the like. But it still makes no sense.
A thoroughly enjoyable QC today solved in 8:01 (I could have sworn the timer said 7:59 when I hit “submit” – where did the extra seconds come from?) I’m another who needed the explanation for 3dn and can’t believe I’ve reached my age without knowing the Latin for “that is”. To be fair, I can’t remember the last time I spoke to an ancient Roman! Many thanks to Mike for the explanation and to Joker.
Those extra seconds seem to get swallowed up by the Club’s internal ruminations as it accepts your entry … jolly annoying!
Joker usually gives me a lot to chew on, and today was typical, with many “oh you dummy” moments to keep me entertained, but no big big frustrations. 17:36 to do it all.
My anagrammer is on the fritz again so CONTINUAL didn’t go in at once. And I could see TASTE but mysteriously thought it didn’t fit with NASAL until the second time around. Argh! DEPLETE was neat and NEWT was cute but the cunning IDEALIST and the ranting MP tied for my COD.
Thanks to Joker for the puzzle and to Mike for the etymology.
A bit tougher than the last couple of days, but quite enjoyable. RAMPAGE in place of RAMPANT slowed me down, as did IDEALIST (having never heard of id est). As an electrical engineer I should have seen the ELECTRODE sooner! Got there in around 25 minutes.
Very enjoyable puzzle and the right level of difficulty. Thanks Joker.
Now back in my usual spot in the SCC.
A good work out with this puzzle from The Joker had me finishing over target at 11.42. A slow but steady flow of answers, but held up at the end by trying to solve 22ac with the letters N-E, as I had confidently put RAMPAGE not RAMPANT for 13dn. Got there in the end though.
Speaking as the board’s resident semi-Scottish barrister, I wasn’t sure about ADVOCATE as I typed it in on first pass since English barristers are advocates too!
Anyway, it didn’t hold me up much – today’s delays were on DEPLETE, FOLKLORE, RESURGENT and LOI IDEALIST. Ah, that Mo. Since three of them overlapped that pushed me out to 09:14 for a Sluggish Day.
Cracking puzzle; COD to the excellent FLAGON. Many thanks Joker and Mike.
PS whatever its origins there’s no way you can call GRANOLA an American breakfast now – Waitrose produces 105 hits for the word, and I had some for brekker only this morning!