Solving time: 8:39
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Compliments of the season to you all. Even at this time of the morning, there were a few distractions for me, so I’d say I was a couple of minutes slower than I might have been and would expect some reasonably quick times from others today.
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Nothing particularly tricky in my view, though some of the wordplay might test you. I really liked 20a once I’d figured it out post-solve.
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How did you find it?
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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 | Relay team perhaps leading silver medallists? (7-2) |
| RUNNERS-UP – RUNNERS (Relay team perhaps) UP (leading) | |
| 6 | Threaten animal (3) |
| COW – Double definition . Why does cow = threaten? OED reckons it is probably from Old Norse kuga “oppress,” which, taken with Scandinavian words for the bovine animal, perhaps has something to do with the notion of “easily herded.” |
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| 8 | A bit behind leader in Madrid, or Spanish fighter (7) |
| MATADOR – First letter [leader in] of M{adrid}, then [behind] A TAD (bit), then OR | |
| 9 | I see vessel brought back food from Mexico (5) |
| NACHO – OH (I see) CAN (vessel) all reversed [brought back] . According to The Dallas Morning News and other sources, this foodstuff was named after restaurant cook Ignacio Anaya, who invented the dish in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras in 1943. |
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| 10 | A characterful dish? (8,4) |
| ALPHABET SOUP – Mildly cryptic all-in definition referring to the soup containing small pieces of pasta shaped as letters of the alphabet . As early as 1877, some Paris restaurants served “…delicious soups made of macaroni or vermicelli cut up into the shape of letters of the alphabet…” No one knows who invented it…… or why! |
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| 12 | Adult horse covers half of turf (6) |
| MATURE – MA~RE containing [covers] half of TU{rf} | |
| 13 | Second wine, dark (6) |
| MOROSE – MO (second) ROSÉ (wine) . MOROSE is a 16th century word, meaning “gloomy, of a sour temper, sullen and austere,” from the Latin morosus “peevish, hypercritical, fastidious.” |
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| 16 | Caring visitor to house perhaps worries a lock has been broken (6,6) |
| SOCIAL WORKER – Anagram [has been broken] of WORRIES A LOCK | |
| 19 | Short month on cold island (5) |
| CAPRI – C (cold) APRI{l} (month) without its last letter [short] . The origin of the name CAPRI is uncertain. It may derive either from the Ancient Greek κάπρος (kápros), meaning ‘wild boar’, fossils of which have been found on the island. Or, the name could come from the Latin capreae, meaning ‘goats’. |
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| 20 | Let down note after note after note! (7) |
| DEFLATE – D (note) E FLAT (note i.e. E♭) E (note) . Super wordplay! Chapeau. |
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| 22 | Boy snubbed woman (3) |
| LAD – LAD . Why ‘snubbed’? Snub-nosed revolvers have short barrels, snub-nosed monkeys have short noses, so in this sense, ‘snubbed’ means shortened. |
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| 23 | State name: it’s no different (9) |
| MINNESOTA – Anagram [different] of NAME IT’S NO | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Capital city, reminder of massive empire originally (4) |
| ROME – First letters [originally] of R{eminder} O{f} M{assive} E{mpire} | |
| 2 | Pay attention to permit card (7) |
| NOTELET – NOTE (Pay attention to) LET (permit) | |
| 3 | Tip pocketed by doormen daily (3) |
| END – Hidden [pocketed by] in doormen daily | |
| 4 | Flasher, saint put on dress! (6) |
| STROBE – ST (saint) put on ROBE (dress) . A STROBE light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a STROBE, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. The word originated from the Ancient Greek στρόβος (stróbos), meaning “act of whirling”. . The origin of STROBE lighting dates to 1931, when Harold Eugene “Doc” Edgerton employed a flashing lamp for the study of moving objects, eventually resulting in dramatic photographs of objects such as bullets in flight. |
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| 5 | Wine, terribly poor, innit! (5,4) |
| PINOT NOIR – Anagram [terribly] of POOR INNIT | |
| 6 | Plant initially seen in Central America, Colombia and others (5) |
| CACAO – First letters [initially seen in] of C{entral} A{merica} C{olombia} A{nd} O{thers} | |
| 7 | Ring found in minute? Hooray! (7) |
| WHOOPEE – HOOP (Ring) found in W~EE (minute) | |
| 11 | Natural collection with an element of that woman? (9) |
| HERBARIUM – HER (that woman) BARIUM (an element) | |
| 12 | Show US claim in a different way (7) |
| MUSICAL – Anagram [in a different way] of US CLAIM | |
| 14 | Finally, mango and orange changed for plant (7) |
| OREGANO – Anagram [changed] of last letter [Finally] of {mang}O and ORANGE | |
| 15 | Root with new country (6) |
| SWEDEN – SWEDE (Root) N (new) . SWEDE is a shortening of Swedish Turnip – also known as a rutabaga in North America |
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| 17 | Prize credentials for matchmaker (5) |
| CUPID – CUP (Prize) ID (credentials) . Why is Cupid considered to be a matchmaker? Greek myths personified Eros with the raw potency of love and attraction, and involved him in riveting stories of desire and passion. As these legends were embraced by Roman culture, Eros underwent a transformation, becoming the more familiar CUPID, his image shifting to a more whimsical and palatable, cherubic representation. . The Renaissance period, brimming with artistic and poetic revival, strengthened societal perceptions of romance and matchmaking. CUPID’s chubby appearance made him non-threatening and universally endearing, ensuring that the symbol of love at first sight and the sudden spark between potential lovers became more relatable. |
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| 18 | Fine Greek character’s cheese (4) |
| FETA – F (Fine) ETA (Greek character) . From Modern Greek (tyri) pheta, from tyri “cheese” + pheta, from Italian fetta “a slice.” The pasta known as Fettucine (little ribbons) is the diminuitive plural of fetta. |
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| 21 | Payment walkers cut? (3) |
| FEE – FEE |
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Ah, so that’s how the parsing of Deflate goes! Thanks Mike. It is a nasty one for a QC no matter how much I love music. Definition is also not smooth for “let down”.
10 minutes
I had DEFLATE as 5 notes (D,E,F,LA & TE) which I knew was too many but couldn’t be bothered to spend more time on it.
Same here!
Biffed DEFLATE, as I had LA and TE but couldn’t work out DEF. Many thanks, Mike, for the explanation. Took a long time to see LOI NOTELET even with the checkers.
Joining the commentary on deflate we also had la and te and convinced ourselves that def was maybe a reference to definition/note, which now I write it down is utter tosh! Eflat is good.
Liked the surfaces of Rome and strobe. All in all a very quick solve in these parts at 12.08 with some marital banter in between.
Thanks Mara and Mike for the great blog
Merry Christmas, one and all 🎄
I must have been doing a different puzzle to our blogger, as I found this tough, especially the NE corner. Oh for I see in NACHO didn’t come to mind, I took to long to see WHOOPEE, trying at first to fit just the letter O into something not a hoop, and I associate MOROSE more with sad than dark. I also biffed DEFLATE exactly as Jack did – too clever a clue for me – and as the final hit to my time, took an age over my LOI HERBARIUM.
I can’t complain that any of the clues were unfair, but it all led to a very slow 17:02 finish. Many thanks Mike for the blog
I’m with Cedric in not finding this one particularly straightforward. WHOOPEE, HERBARIUM (struggled with the definition) and SOCIAL WORKER (missed the anagram) being particular hold outs.
I never did parse DEFLATE but just assumed that the seemingly endless list of words and letters that can be clued by ‘note’ combined in some random order. It turns out to have been a bit of very clever clueing.
Started with RUNNERS UP and finished with HERBARIUM in 8.14.
Thanks to Mike and Mara
Tackled in bed after dealing with all the excitement caused by visiting dogs! I thought it was just morning fuzziness that meant I couldn’t parse DEFLATE, since I’m another who had LA and TE and was then wondering why DEF was a note. Now Mike has explained it, COD from me, very good!
Otherwise a steady but chewy solve. I really enjoyed it – lots of clues where the penny dropped just as I was about to give up and move to the next one. LTI were RUNNERS UP and NOTELET.
Got there in 09:04 for a Slowish Day. Many thanks Mara and Mike, and Merry Christmas everyone!
3:44. Unlike some here, I managed to breeze through this. I liked DEFLATE with its chromatic scale sequence and CACAO. Thanks Mara and Mike.
Chromatic scale sequence, very nice.
17:23 Morose herbarium deflate social worker’s the root (a Swede whoopee!) of my difficulty this morning.
Good fun! Seasons to all!
TaMAM
Forget that rose was a wine and so had to write out the gaps and checkers with both MO ans S to start – and then there it was. Big gr0an. Well played Mara. And no typos for the first time in over a week. Hurrah! Got DEFLATE the wrong way, couldn’t explain the ‘late’ and now see why – avoided WHOOPiE by parsing properly! Enjoyed HERBARIUM. Good one. All green in 12.16.
12 mins…
Like many, I struggled with the 20ac “Deflate” parsing – adopting the D,E,F, LA, TE approach which seemed like there were too many notes. The inclusion of the E Flat instead was clever.
FOI – 1ac “Runners Up”
LOI – 15dn “Sweden”
COD – 9ac “Nacho”
Thanks as usual – and a Merry Christmas to everyone!
21:50, so rather slow although a steady solve with only DEFLATE unparsed, at least the DEF bit, as others obviously found as well. Merry Christmas to all QCers.
5.57
With D_F_A_E the parsing for DEFLATE rather passed me by. Clever anagram for SOCIAL WORKER.
The very best compliments of the season to everyone. This blog is my little ray of sunshine every morning. Whatever else is going on in the world I know I can come here and find out how many typos Busman’s made in his 2 minute solve; some piece of random knowledge from Dr Shred and of course from the eminent Templar what sort of Day it is. Very comforting!
And thanks of course to Mike and Mara.
‘Little ray of sunshine’, that’s rather nice and I concur.
8:12
COD to DEFLATE. HERBARIUM a close second. Thanks very much Mara and Mike.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
11 minutes. No complaints though I was generally slow to get most of the answers. I did manage to work out DEFLATE which I liked and ALPHABET SOUP was a good one to finish with.
Thanks to Mike and Mara and compliments of the season to everyone
I didn’t parse the excellent DEFLATE either but was clearly in good company.
I thought this was going well (hope springs eternal) until the NE corner. When I finally saw WHOOPEE, the final O led me to biff TACHO (silly me) and I just couldn’t see 5 down (not helped by seeing it as a 9 letter clue instead of 5,4 – way beyond silly). When I finally got and parsed NACHO, PINOT NOIR was too obvious for words……. but I tipped into the SCC by a minute. I think I was rushing because I have to finish packing cases and car for a drive south for a family Christmas.
My annoyance largely eclipsed my pleasure at many of the other fine clues. I really liked HERBARIUM and MOROSE, though.
Thanks to Mara and Mike. M&M, mmmm
P.S. I echo the thoughts of dvynys above. Yes, the QC is an essential and (usually) enjoyable start to the day.
Merry Christmas to all.
Pleased I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t parse DEFLATE, and now appreciate the clever clue. Biffed RUNNERS- UP, and the rest came slowly but surely. Thanks Mara for the work-out and Mike for the very interesting blog.
Enjoyable puzzle, mostly straight forward. Biffed DEFLATE but cnp. WHOOPEE was clever. Also liked HERBARIUM, MOROSE, CAPRI, & MATURE, among others.
Thanks vm, Mike. Happy Christmas to all and thanks for your companionable comments!
13:08 but it wasn’t a herRADIUM. In fairness I have heard of herbarium before but once I’d gone through the first few elements I accepted it might be one of the obscure ones and went with Radium. When I got the Unlucky message I did then make the effort to alphatrawl using the bottom row of my keyboard and and after trying hervalium (which I now realise isn’t an element) finally reached the B!
Think this is a puzzle I would have struggled with in my early days and I wasn’t helped by mistyping OREGANO which held up DEFLATE (couldn’t parse where the first E comes from) or see FEE. The NE of COW, WHOOPEE, MOROSE also tough.
Thanks to Mike and Mara
I found this tough and struggled to parse a few.
LOI WHOOPEE, unparsed. POI COW with a frown, but it seemed close enough.
I stopped after 16 minutes knowing that I had not fully parsed 11d; and HERBALISM is wrong. Could not think of anything approximating a natural collection and chemistry is not my strong point. So one error.
No matter, Merry Christmas to all who come here, and the setters and bloggers.
David
Nice Christmas present of a puzzle, thank you Mara. LOI NOTELET. Just one MER: I suggest COW doesn’t mean threaten, but intimidate or subdue. But mustn’t be cur- [might “cur” mean threaten, I wondered?] – mudgeonly today. Thanks and Happy Christmas to Mike and to all.
Drat! One letter wrong in HERBARIUM ….
Enjoyed this and despite fuzzy head managed 7:30 which judging by comments should be a decent WITCH. Like many others didn’t really get to the bottom of DEFLATE so thanks Mike.
At last managed to access the site after getting ‘too many requests’ statement, so the problem seems to have returned!
I found todays puzzle a bit like yesterdays, that is to say tougher than average, as my time of 11.13 would suggest. I invented a new element called borium for 11dn (I now see it has an additional h in it), and this delayed me in solving SOCIAL WORKER. Got there in the end though. I managed to parse DEFLATE only after I’d stopped the clock.
I didn’t bother to parse DEFLATE, since, by the time I hit it again on the second pass, I had all the checkers and the definition sufficed. A gentle stroll otherwise.
FOI RUNNERS UP
LOI CUPID
COD ALPHABET SOUP
TIME 3:40
I struggled to get started today, MATADOR and SOCIAL WORKER being my only two solutions on the board after 4-5 minutes or so, but the Down clues were a little more yielding and I proceeded at a more satisfying pace – for a while, at least.
Fortunately, of the four long clues only HERBARIUM posed any real difficulty, so I had several useful checkers upon which to build. ALPHABET SOUP made me smile and gets my CoD award.
As is too often the case with me, I ground to a halt for several minutes with 5-6 clues to solve, but OREGANO suddenly popped into my head and I was up and running again. SWEDEN and WHOOPEE were my last two in and I crossed the line in 32 minutes – just the wrong side of average for me.
Many thanks to Mike and Mara. And a merry Christmas to all setters, bloggers, posters and lurkers who make this site so weird, infuriating and wonderful.
18 minutes.
Best wishes to everyone for Christmas.
From RUNNERS UP to HERBARIUM in 7:29. Didn’t stop to parse DEFLATE as I had the crossers and put it in from definition. Clever though! Thanks Mara and Mike.
My thanks to Mara and Mike Harper.
Jolly Xword. Excellent blog.
10a Alphabet soup wouldn’t come to me, no idea why not, I HHO.
16a Social worker ditto, especially as I had decided it was going to be a district nurse and wrote the N without realising it was a pre-biff. This stopped me solving until I suddenly realised there was no N in the anagrist, and that is (8,5) anyway. Doh!
Merry Christmas one and all.
Thanks for the interesting stuff about Cupid Mike, and also for the of parsing DEFLATE. On the whole I found this much easier than yesterday. COD WHOOPEE. A lovely lunchtime diversion. Many thanks Mara. Happy Christmas all.
From RUNNERS UP to HERBARIUM in 9:44.
My first solve under ten minutes for a good while. I liked ALPHABET SOUP but CoD was definitely DEFLATE.
Thanks to Mara for a fun puzzle and to Mike for his informative blog.
Festive greetings to all 🎄
11:03. I stopped to wonder why there were so many notes in DEFLATE, so I did see E FLAT. Very good, and even a sequence. WOD WHOOPEE. Thanks Mara and Mike and a Merry Christmas to all
12.41 Which is exactly the average time for this puzzle, but it felt slow. Even CACAO took a while because I was sure I was looking for a three letter word. COW and WHOOPEE were the last two. Thanks Mike and Mara.
I was already primed for Deflate from solving 8 D in today’s grown up cryptic.
I don’t know why I struggled with this (20 minutes), since in retrospect it seems quite straightforward. Took me a long time to see PINOT NOIR. Never did parse DEFLATE but what a brilliant clue! Now back to making the stuffing for Christmas dinner.
Just not at the races today. .. and for that matter I see the duck soup was off as well (😉)
Suffice to say that a second sitting was needed to finally understand why loi Herbalism stubbornly refused to parse.
CoD to Deflate, now that Mike has explained the parsing. Invariant
And a Merry Christmas to our Setters, Bloggers and fellow contributors.
But what about A Night at the Opera? 😉
8:59 today though didn’t / couldn’t parse DEFLATE so thanks for that, Mike. Clever but tricky! Thanks also to Mara and season’s greetings to all.
12:01
Could not see the SOCIAL WORKER anagram, until I finally cracked SWEDEN, afternoon worrying there might be a root called Jorda for Jordan.
RUNNERS UP didn’t quite work for me.
CNP DEFLATE
COD WHOOPEE
18:01 to do this actually-not-so-hard puzzle. I think I was intimidated by seeing the setter’s name and was overthinking many of the clues. The chromatic 20a DEFLATE was a super-good clue, and although it was a write-in, ROME was a classic example of a beautiful surface.
Thanks to Mara and Mike, and holiday greetings to all you rays of sunshine! It was generous of Mara to bring some wine to the party.
Similar problems as others with DEFLATE, but I didn’t feel too let down despite just biffing it 😅 A clever clue.
At the time, it felt like I was making quite slow progress, so I was surprised to stop the clock at 8:26 – I definitely prefer that to the other way round.
FOI Rome LOI Notelet AOD Social worker COD Alphabet soup
Thanks Mara and Mike – another illuminating blog 😊
Merry Christmas everyone – see you all on the other side 🎄🎁🎅
A nice QC with some clues that took a second visit and a bit of hard thinking: MOROSE, NOTELET, CUPID and, for no good reason, MUSICAL.
34 minutes to cross the line.
Thanks Mara and Mike and a Happy Christmas to all solvers and bloggers.
Thought I’d finished the 15 x 15, only to find a silly spelling mistake (not a typo). So it’s another fail and the Snitch is just 69!
Personally, I think they reversed the numbers !
🤣🤣🤣
A nice puzzle for the day before Christmas. We found this on the easier side, thanks to Mara and compliments of the season to all who blog, which we invariably enjoy.
Happy Christmas to Mara and Mike Harper and All. I found this an easy one, though poor thinking to fail to see Chromatic Scale being a long ago piano learner, I just saw the ‘Flat’.
I saw Mara and was cowed, but actually it all went in very easily. After a long day preparing for tomorrow’s lunch and baking mince pies etc I was keen to sit and recover. However, no excuse now for getting on with more baking! FOI 1d rome
LOI 20a deflate – so clever
COD 23a Minnesota – for the reminder of a formative decade working for a Corporation based there.
Season’s Greetings to all!
DNF
Spelt WHOOPEE with an I instead of the penultimate E.
A gentle pre Christmas work 0ut.
Have a good Christmas and thanks to all involved with the QC
🌲🌲🌲
12:03 held up for an unbelievably long time by SOCIAL WORKER and SWEDEN. for some reason I was completely convinced that the long anagram would have a CK in it. On the basis that it ‘got’ me, great puzzle. Happy Christmas y’all.
A slow 27:41 here, distracted by the view in Queenstown, NZ. DEFLATE was too clever for me, but becomes my COD now I understand it.
Thanks to Mike and Mara and happy Christmas to all.
We wish you a …. we wish you a…. and we will postpone the punch line until the end of the month.
Have no idea what held us up, but we can be found hanging around the SCC entrance. Good grief.
Perhaps it was the running around looking for a couple of last minute gifts – or the very tasty meal that followed – preceded by a rare cocktail… washed down with a tasty red.
Anyway – happy we were and merry we be.
Seasons warmth to all – setters, bloggers and the likes of the rest of us. What fun we all have.
Am not a fan of some things IT and fear much of where some of it will take us – but aspects like this make us hum. Take care – and enjoy the festive season.