Solving time: 7:08
A decently-paced Pedro puzzle which provided sufficient footholds in each sector to build upon. And bravo Pedro for including those two long scientific anagrams, 4d and 14a, around which presumably, the rest of the puzzle was constructed – early solving of each of these certainly helped.
Overall, there was a distinct gustatory note in the air, with 2d and 7d together inducing profuse salivation in the early hours. Could Pedro be Oink in disguise?
What did you make of it?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. The tilde ~ indicates an insertion point in containment clues.
| Across | |
| 1 | Contest involving British sensation (4) |
| VIBE – VI~E (Contest) containing [involving] B (British)
Attested from 1967 as an abbreviated form of vibration in the ’60s slang sense of “instinctive feeling.” |
|
| 3 | Waste crew about to return carrying rear of bin (8) |
| SQUANDER – SQUA~D (crew) RE (about) reversed [to return] containing [carrying] last letter [rear] of {bi}N | |
| 9 | Cheese tart cooked — one army boss tucking in (7) |
| RICOTTA – Anagram [cooked] of TART gives R~TTA – tuck in I (one) CO (army boss i.e. military acronym for Commanding Officer) | |
| 10 | South coast resort last to level poor accommodation (5) |
| HOVEL – HOVE (South coast resort) then last letter of {leve}L
Originally, a HOVEL was a “roofed passage, vent for smoke“. By the mid-15c, it could also mean a “shed for animals“. The meaning of “shed for human habitation; rude or miserable cabin” is from 1620s. |
|
| 11 | Dance company with no good acts at the outset (5) |
| CONGA – CO (company) with first letters [at the outset] of N{o} G{ood} A{cts} | |
| 12 | College turned on music (6) |
| TECHNO – TECH (College i.e. short for TECHnical College) then ON reversed [turned]
TECHNO is a genre of electronic dance music typically featuring drum machines, sequencers and synthesisers, with tempos in the range of 120-150 beats per minute, often characterised by a four to the floor beat. The sounds produced by 1980s drum machines are highly prized. |
|
| 14 | Hypothetical computer retaining much in a complex way (6,7) |
| TURING MACHINE – Anagram [in a complex way] of RETAINING MUCH
Why hypothetical? The TURING MACHINE is considered hypothetical because it is not a physical machine but a mathematical model designed to capture the essence of algorithmic computation. Its power lies in its simplicity and universality, allowing it to solve almost any logical or mathematical problem. Turing’s work was intended to explore the scope and limitations of computing, proving properties of computation in general and in particular, the uncomputability of the Entscheidungsproblem (Decision problem). While it was a theoretical solution to a central problem in logic, Turing never seriously considered building his machine for practical purposes. |
|
| 17 | Observe church welcoming pastor’s opening address (6) |
| SPEECH – S~EE (Observe) CH (church) containing [welcoming] the first letter [opening] of P{astor} | |
| 19 | Understood one engaged in diplomacy (5) |
| TACIT – I (one) inserted into [engaged in] TAC~T (diplomacy)
TACIT comes directly from Latin tacitus “that is passed over in silence, done without words, assumed as a matter of course, silent,” past participle of tacere “be silent, not speak.” |
|
| 22 | Opening of reptile house containing popular African animal (5) |
| RHINO – First letter [Opening] of R{eptile} then H~O (house) containing IN (popular) | |
| 23 | Public session: come in and start to perform in a funny way (4,3) |
| OPEN MIC – Anagram [in a funny way] of COME IN and the first letter [start] of P{erform} | |
| 24 | Second-class servant beginning to exhibit bruising (5,3) |
| BLACK EYE – B (Second-class) LACKEY (servant) then first letter [beginning] of E{xhibit}
LACKEY probably comes from the 15th century French word laquais “foot soldier, footman, servant”. |
|
| 25 | Inept person removing yard boundary (4) |
| WALL – WALL The teen slang term for an “unfashionable person”, possibly as a diminutive of Walter, is attested from 1969. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Urban area appearing after very extended period in truth (8) |
| VERACITY – CITY (Urban area) after V (very) ERA (extended period) | |
| 2 | Arts graduate with scam: an alternative to Shakespeare? (5) |
| BACON – BA (Arts graduate – acronym for Bachelor of Arts) with CON (scam)
Francis BACON (1561-1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as both Attorney General and Lord High Chancellor under James I. What has the answer to do with the definition? The “Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship” was first proposed in the mid-19th century, contending that BACON wrote at least some and possibly all of the plays conventionally attributed to William Shakespeare. I like this BACON quote – “Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested.” |
|
| 4 | Part of physics disposed to human query about time (7,6) |
| QUANTUM THEORY – Anagram [disposed] of TO HUMAN QUERY about T (time)
If QUANTUM THEORY (aka QUANTUM mechanics or QUANTUM physics) really was about ‘time’, then this might be a fine &lit. However, it actually describes the behaviour of matter and energy at the smallest scales, such as atoms and subatomic particles. |
|
| 5 | A medic protecting hearts for a particular purpose (2,3) |
| AD HOC – A D~OC (medic) containing [protecting] H (hearts)
AD HOC is a Latin phrase literally meaning ‘for this’. It typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalised solution adaptable to several instances. In everyday language, AD HOC can be used informally to describe improvised or makeshift solutions, emphasising their temporary nature and specific applicability to particular circumstances. |
|
| 6 | Italian artist incorporated in most of Michelangelo work (2,5) |
| DA VINCI – INC (incorporated – abbreviation) in DAV~I{d} (most of Michelangelo work)
Since 1873, Michelangelo’s sculpture of David has stood in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, which is the second-most-visited art museum in Italy, after the Uffizi. |
|
| 7 | Internet menace erasing first register (4) |
| ROLL – |
|
| 8 | Small transport vehicle to struggle (6) |
| STRAIN – S (Small) TRAIN (transport vehicle) | |
| 13 | Arrangement of Ravel contains fitful movement? Straight up (8) |
| VERTICAL – Anagram [Arrangement] of RAVEL containing TIC (fitful movement)
A TIC is a condition characterised by the twitching of a facial muscle. The word is a shortening of 18th century French tic douloureux “severe facial neuralgia,” or more literally “painful twitch”. Originally, it referred to “a twitching disease of horses”…. |
|
| 15 | Republican left in charge over American reproduction (7) |
| REPLICA – REP (Republican) L (left) IC (in charge) over A (American)
‘over’ is apposite as this is a down clue. |
|
| 16 | Caught retailer offloading old piece of meat (6) |
| CUTLET – C (Caught – cricket abbreviation) |
|
| 18 | Royal honour elevated agreement in electronic text (1-4) |
| E-BOOK – OBE (Royal honour i.e. Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) reversed [elevated], then OK (agreement) | |
| 20 | Stop constant overturning of munitions (5) |
| COMMA – C (constant) then a reversal [overturning] of AMMO (munitions)
Hmm – I balked on seeing COMMA defined by ‘Stop’. In my book (and in many descriptions that I have consulted online), a COMMA is no more than a pause. COMMA comes from the Greek κόμμα (kómma), which originally meant a cut-off piece, specifically in grammar i.e. a short clause. The mark used today is descended from a /, a diagonal slash known as virgula suspensiva, used from the 13th to 17th centuries to represent a pause. |
|
| 21 | Source of gold ingot lifted in snatch (4) |
| GRAB – First letter [Source] of G{old} then BAR (ingot) reversed [lifted] | |
I was on a biffing tear for this puzzle. I wrote in both Turing machine and quantum theory with hardly any checking letters – they just seemed right. When I did use the cryptic, it was only as a slight hint to an obvious answer – vertical, veracity, black eye. I was wall and comma that gave a little trouble, and I had to think for a bit.
Time: 6:42
10 minutes, no problems.
11.49. I thought this was a challenging puzzle but I was helped by taking a successful punt on the two big scientific anagrams. A number of these clues were quite complicated and required a fair bit of figuring out, like SQUADRON and DA VINCI. LOI was TECHNO while COMMA and WALL took their time as well. All up a terrific QC, thanks Mike and Pedro.
15:12
Most of the time spent on the last two 1a/1d.
And my FOI was MACON, thinking that a decent French Red is a good alternative to Shakespeare.
Needed to decrypt DAVID to verify it wasn’t DE VINCI, which is what the French call him.
I expect to see “ Entscheidungsproblem” in the Jumbo Cryptic one day.
Flipping unblemished song crept into Turing Machine (20)
Did you use AI or an anagram app to construct that clue? 🙂 I doubt even Morse could solve that one.
That was from one of the several anagram generators online which are simple algorithms using brute force against a dictionary. no AI
Nice puzzle from Pedro – was surprised it took me 9:47 as were a few bifs on the longer ones to ease things along. LOI CUTLET.
Thanks Mike
That could have been my comment if the time were amended to 9:53! Thanks all.
Found it hard to get started (c5 mins before an answer went in) but once I did I raced through (done in 12, well below my average of 16), the opposite of a breezeblock… is there a term for this? Blockbreeze?
Time flew whilst solving this – I was genuinely surprised to see that I’d passed my average time with a few clues still to complete.
I got a bit freaked out by the two long sciencey clues so left them alone until I had a few checkers, only to then realise that they were anagrams so not quite as frightening as they initially seemed.
Started with VIBE and finished with TECHNO in 9.23 with CsOD to BACON and BLACK EYE.
Thanks to Pedro for the puzzle and Mike for the excellent blog
8:15
My favorite Baconisms are
‘What is truth, said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.’
and
“The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes the middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.”
There’s no reason, of course, to think that he wrote Shakespeare’s works.
I agree the Bacon as Shakespeare conjecture is silly, especially since it’s the Earl of Oxford who deserves the credit.
Enjoyable puzzle that took us 23.10. Didn’t spot the second long anagram for a while which might have helped. Particularly liked open mic. Thanks Pedro and Mike for the extra, interesting info.
12:31, after a slow start: I only had 4 of the across clues on first pass, but the two long anagrams helped open up the grid. LOI was COMMA, and like our blogger I’m not convinced by the definition “stop”.
A very nice puzzle, and the two long anagrams share my COD. Many thanks Mike for the most informative blog.
ODE has it as (Brit) (dated) a punctuation mark, especially a full stop
NB ‘dated’; like, before my time
Ah. Silly me, I repeatedly leave my 17th century solving hat behind and make the gross error of thinking as a modern person. I suppose it is part of the game to include a usage that is marked as “dated”, “archaic”, “obsolete” or similar but I have to say I am not impressed when setters do. Especially when the word has a perfectly good current meaning they could reference.
At the risk of getting caught in the crossfire, I should in fairness to Pedro point out that Collins says the same but without the reference to outdated … “28. British a punctuation mark, esp a full stop”
I’ve long since realised that Collins treats as a quotable reference any usage however rare, unexpected and counterintuitive – I doubt one person in a thousand if you stopped them in the street would consider a comma to be “a punctuation mark, esp a full stop” (my emphasis) – but in this case I am baffled! My online Collins has just three meanings, as below:
comma
in British English
noun
1. the punctuation mark(,) indicating a slight pause in the spoken sentence and used where there is a listing of items or to separate a nonrestrictive clause or phrase from a main clause
2. music – a minute interval
3. short for comma butterfly
Where does one get 28 different meanings for the word?? (And, more philosophical point, if a setter is reduced to using the 28th meaning of a word to justify their clue, are they not stretching just a leetle?)
Your dim view of dictionaries is well-known, Cedric! My own attitude is that if it’s in one of the Big Three, it’s fair game for the setters. There you go.
(I was looking up “stop”, not “comma”, since “stop” is the word in the clue defining the answer “comma”. Is “stop” meaning “comma” supported by the Big Three? Yes it is.)
“Stop” has 39 definitions under British English – but under American English has no fewer than 68 (many of which have sub-definitions) spread over two entries! I have already quoted the relevant British entry. In the American section, we get “15. something that stops; obstruction; obstacle; specifically … e. chiefly British a punctuation mark, esp. a period”.
Finished but thank you for an excellent explanatory blog, Mike. It had to be TURING MACHINE but NHO the actual thing. Also NHO LOI OPEN MIC – what’s that, please?
An Open Mic night is where anyone can take to the stage at a venue and have a go at stand up comedy (or music I think).
It was the word MIC that puzzled me when I first met it. It is short for microphone and is pronounced mike
What a wonderful blog!
This took 33 mins after resorting to alphabet trawls for my last three: TECHNO, CUTLET and EBOOK.
Mike’s linking of Bacon and Shakespeare reminds me of the wonderful BBC comedy (iplayer) series Upstart Crow where this very tenuous link (amongst others) is explored. Have just finished re-rewatching the programmes.
I really enjoyed this QC.
Thanks Mike and Pedro.
33:06 (average: 35, target: 35)
I think this is the first Pedro puzzle that’s come in under my target. It was a close run thing because I had particular difficulty in SE with my LOI being COMMA. I didn’t initially make sense of “stop” for COMMA, but I felt I reconciled it with that class of punctuation marks in the end or with “stop” as a synonym for “pause”.
Maths and programming are central to my job and studies so I’m not sure if I’ve ever got an answer as fast as TURING MACHINE.
Thanks for the interesting write up Mike. I found the origins of TIC and HOVEL particularly interesting. Thanks too Pedro for the puzzle.
DNF. I entered DE VINCI. If only I had paused to work out what Michelangelo work was referenced, my spelling error might have been avoided.
Thanks Mike and Pedro
Wonderful blog and a doable puzzle by Pedro. My solve was steady but there were three answers that occupied quite a lot of time. First of them to fall was E BOOK followed by COMMA and finally TECHNO. 9:10 Thanks Mike.
4:57. An entertaining puzzle. I had to write out the letters of the anagram to get to OPEN MIC, otherwise no problems. Thank-you Pedro for the solving fun and Mike for the educational blog.
No issues in this one for me. Having studied TURING MACHINEs in my Master’s degree, and quantum mechanics in my work more recently (it turns out you need to understand it in order to have the faintest clue about how a quantum computer works and how to program it), both the long anagrams were write-ins for me.
Did anybody else think that 23ac is an &lit waiting to happen? Wouldn’t it also work as, “Come in and start to perform in a funny way? (4,3)”, i.e. just drop the literal at the start?
8:01 for me.
Yes, I thought that too. A very clever surface.
Yes, I read ‘in a funny way’ as a double meaning, ie anagram and comic turn, too.
For once, no writing out the long anagrams – not that they came immediately, but with crossers were easily solvable. LOI TECHNO, once I stopped looking for College as the answer. Nice one, Pedro.
Phew, totally exhausted after solving all that. Slow and sometimes a bit stupid. I did manage the two long ones fairly early on – we have had TURING MACHINE before. Pity I didn’t solve 1a and 1d sooner, and somehow skipped over the easy BACON which would have helped.
Among LOsI were TECHNO (NHO music), COMMA (stop?), OPEN MIC.
Liked TACIT, E BOOK, HOVEL, among others. DA VINCI was a write-in but CNP.
Great blog, Mike.
5:19. Some fabulous clues here. Loved TECHNO and the DA VINCI clue. Liked the non-obvious def of COMMA. And felt that TURING MACHINE would be a write-in to those who had come across it in their studies (computer science, cognitive science, linguistics, possibly maths), and difficult for those who had not.
Thanks for the extended explanations, interesting!
Another very slow start for me followed by rapid acceleration (too late to avoid the SCC – 22 mins). I usually end up around this time with Pedro – I seem to be on a different wavelength with his puzzles and only occasionally manage a time in the teens. A background in Science helped with the two longest answers but only with a few crossers in place. I seem to need crossers with Pedro more than I do for any other setter.
However, I particularly enjoyed VERACITY, DA VINCI, SQUANDER, and BLACK EYE.
I finished with OPEN MIC and COMMA (I suppose it had to be but see comments from others above……..). I am surprised the SNITCH is not higher with this one.
Thanks to both.
I found this very difficult indeed, taking 35:11 to struggle home. TECHNO, TURING MACHINE, EBOOK, OPEN MIC, COMMA (Stop??) all eventually biffed. Thanks for the much needed blog.
A steady solve, pausing only really in the SE corner – missed the anagram for OPEN MIC, hesitated over “stop” for COMMA, needed checkers for WALL{y}.
After sorting that out the clock stopped on 07:17 for a Very Good Day. COD to OPEN MIC – such a good surface and as James says above, working towards an &Lit.
Thanks to Pedro, and to Mike for a really interesting blog.
Slow throughout on this one getting very few on my first run through of the acrosses. The downs were more accommodating and I picked up a bit of speed before coming to a halt again. Having reached my self-appointed cut off time of 30 minutes I used an aid to solve the last remaining clue – TECHNO. NHO OPEN MIC (although I could see it fitted both anagrist and definition) or techno music. Same reservations as others re COMMA defined as stop.
FOI – 17ac SPEECH
LOI – DNF
COD – 24ac BLACK EYE
Thanks to Pedro and Mike
Judging by the times submitted so far, this puzzle seems not quite as difficult as I assessed it to be. My time of 13.38 was well outside target, and I struggled from the off, never really building up any momentum. Perfectly fair however, so it seems it was me just having an off day.
13:22 on the clock but some of that was taken up with work admin, so let’s call it 12 minutes. Great puzzle, with only AD HOC and TECHNO causing me problems at the end. I always enjoy it when my brain supplies the answer as soon as it registers the first words of the clue, as with “hypothetical computer”. Even more so on the occasions where it it turns out to be correct.
Thank you for the blog!
11.33 with a lot of biffing, like for others here Turing machine and quantum theory just jumped out. Thanks to Mike for the explanations!
A well written, clever and enjoyable puzzle but comma irritated me – it was clearly right but so wrong….
Though it is a temporary stop, eg, when reading aloud, or performing in a play, a comma is the indicator that a pause is required.
17 today, failed in the NW. Twigged city but couldn’t parse the rest of the clue. I should have got techno as I used to use that to inspire my high cadence training sessions on the turbo bike with Zwift. The two long ones weren’t quite write-ins but didn’t take long to figure out. Failed on squander despite having all the crossers.
Thanks Pedro and Mike
From VIBE to TECHNO in 8:32, with the NE corner last to succumb. TURING MACHINE came quickly but I was inexplicably slow to see QUANTUM and thus SQUANDER. OPEN MIC was a write in, although I haven’t been to any this week due to my heavy cold. Wouldn’t want to shed all over the Mic! Thanks Pedro and Mike. Great blog!
Right in the goldilocks zone for me, not too easy but with a steady flow of good clues solved. Had a slight MER at time in 4d as Harper did, also didn’t understand where the royal came from in 18d, it seemed to be left over when I had finished parsing. Always taught the three “stops” in english, the comma, just long enough to show the boundary between the phrases, the semi-colon, long enough to breathe, and the full stop long enough to think.
Thanks to Pedro and Harper.
8.28 WOE, a misspelling of DE VINCI. Last time he cropped up I put DI VINCI. Maybe next time. Thanks Mike and Pedro.
Still Do Vinci to go
Let’s not forget Du Vinci
or even D’oh Vinci
Well! That was tricky. I took a while to get my first clue under my belt and progress was very fitful after that. I still had 7-8 unsolved clues as the half-hour loomed, but biffing SQUANDER unleashed a sudden mini-torrent (QUANTUM THEORY, TECHNO, etc) and I was able to finish with VERACITY and VIBE in 32 minutes. An average time for me in the end.
Many thanks to Mike and Pedro.
Delightful. Although a comma is not a stop.
I biffed the two long ones. Not my cup of tea.
FOI HOVEL
LOI STRAIN
COD SQUANDER
TIME 4:49
9:35. I feel like a wiser, or at least better-informed, person after reading your blog- thanks, Mike.
Change of routine today. Used my usual crossword slot to crawl to the kettle for Lemsip. Enjoyed this, all green in 12.22.
Aww. I hope you feel better, soon.
22 mins…
A good puzzle from Pedro which took longer than I thought it had. Perhaps I am one of only a few who saw 12ac “Techno” early on. In reality, Techno has a fairly loose definition and can cover, and merge, into all kinds of different styles: house, rave, trance etc. including the modern, and appallingly named, EDM. BPM speeds do vary, although I’ve yet to encounter a dance track in a jaunty 3/4 waltz type rhythm.
FOI – 2dn “Bacon”
LOI – 25ac “Wall”
COD – 20dn “Comma”
Thanks as usual!
. . .I suspect the translator has popped out for a minute, but I’m sure someone will be along shortly 😉
Challenging and slow to start: BACON was my foi and made me smile (the notion that some arts degrees are a con is gaining alarming currency). The QU in query suggested that QUANTUM might be the 7 letter word so that went in. Turing never far from my thoughts with King’s College displaying more and more of his papers and
artefacts from time to time. 15 minutes passed…four to go. Just avoided the SCC this time. Thanks Pedro and Mike for great blog.
I find myself still struggling with Pedro’s style. With the answer in place, the parsing isn’t too bad, but going the other way, especially without crossers, is proving a touch more difficult.
Having said that, I missed an early sitter at 4d: with just the third letter ‘a’ in place, I thought of Quantum, but Mechanics wouldn’t fit and the Q in 3ac seemed dubious; as did the T for the college, even with a reversed MIT.
The upshot of all this was a sluggish, standing room only solve, which is a pity because there was certainly lots to enjoy once the answers were teased out: my CoD and foi, Veracity, being an example. Invariant
9 mins (but only one on Quintagram)
10:16 here, a fairly orderly solve, starting with VIBE and ending with TECHNO. I enjoyed this one a lot.
Thanks to Pedro and Mike.
We found this difficult and did not finish. Blame this partly to having returned from a holiday abroad, and age!
I enjoyed this even though it was challenging.Thanks Pedro and Mike. Only reservation is Open Mic – a complete nonsense! I expect there is a dictionary of daftness that has ‘Open Mic’, as I’ve seen it before, but Collins has what everyone says – ‘Open Mike’!
I don’t see it as daft, just an abbreviation of microphone.
Thanks for replying ! Mic is indeed an abbreviation of microphone but in everyday speak ‘open mic’ is a nonsense – it’s ‘open mike’ not ‘open mick’.
Well, well, well, finished and timed. Never done that before. A strange urge made me write down the time to start and 35 minutes later the end. A tribute to Pedro for this puzzle. Thank you. And brilliant Blog which I skipped through cheerfully.
8:07. A fun challenge – thought I was on for a really good time but I got very stuck on TECHNO. Otherwise all fairly easy to parse and fill.
9.40.
DNF with CUTLET and TACIT stumping me. Had to think very hard with some of the clues, but for me that just makes the puzzle better when I manage to figure out the answers. COD goes to VERACITY, hadn’t heard of it before, but the wordplay was very kind it helping me figure it out. Thanks for the blog 😁
2 short on 15 x 15 after 2.5 hours! 🤣
Saw Pedro and knew we would be tested, however slowest start ever for us -nearly 7 minutes before BACON saved the day… then plodded along with several flurries – before a word by word dissection of the final clues prior to signing off with all done in just over 27 minutes. Clearly not on wave length today and have been plodding for a good week or more. That said, we thought it a very good puzzle and an excellent blog.
Thank you, Pedro and Mike Harper