Solving time: 7:24
Heavy on the single letter removals (7?) in today’s offering from Pedro.
Not expecting too many to have heard of the word in the clue for 1d, but 15a may be familiar if you have been busy with the 152 lately.
I particularly enjoyed both my last entry, which was 11a, and the clever 19a.
Let me know how you found it…
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. The caret ^ indicates an insertion point in containment clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Avoiding work during scripture lesson — source of fun in playground? (8,4) |
| SKIPPING ROPE – SKIPPING (Avoiding), then OP (work i.e. abbreviation for opus, a musical work) inserted into R^E (scripture lesson i.e. abbreviation for Religious Education) | |
| 8 | Settle a quiet matter in debate (7) |
| APPOINT – A P (quiet i.e. abbreviation for piano, a musical instruction meaning “softly”) POINT (matter in debate)
Settle and APPOINT are synonymous in older or more formal legal or administrative language e.g. “The board settled/appointed a new treasurer to oversee the accounts.“ |
|
| 9 | French composer that is behind school test (5) |
| SATIE – I.E. (abbreviation for id est = “that is” in Latin) behind SAT (school test)
The SAT is a standardised test widely used for college admissions in the USA. Introduced in 1926, SAT originally stood for “Scholastic Aptitude Test,” but this was changed to “Scholastic Assessment Test” in 1994 to reduce the perception that the test measured innate talent, focusing instead on assessing students’ potential and reasoning skills. This is different from SATs, which stands for “Standard Assessment Tasks,” and which are still used at Key Stages 1 and 2 in English primary schools. |
|
| 10 | Assert shellfish may be found around island (5) |
| CLAIM – CLA^M (shellfish) around I (island) | |
| 11 | Dreadful refuges — time to depart (7) |
| HIDEOUS – HIDEOU Very good. This was my LOI. |
|
| 12 | Belief system those will get back to front (5) |
| ETHOS – THOSE –> ETHOS i.e. the last letter [back] E is moved to the front
From the Greek ēthos “habitual character and disposition; moral character; habit, custom; an accustomed place.” |
|
| 14 | Opening of Condé Nast article about a card game (7) |
| CANASTA – First letter [Opening] of C{ondé} then ^NAST A (article) about A
The name CANASTA (Spanish for “basket”) refers to the tray originally placed in the centre of the table for the stacks of undealt cards and discards. Condé Nast is an American company founded in 1909, when Condé Montrose Nast, a New York City-born publisher, purchased Vogue, a printed magazine launched in 1892 as a New York weekly journal of society and fashion news. |
|
| 15 | Everyone occupying tower on launch pad shows bravery (9) |
| GALLANTRY – ALL (Everyone) inserted into [occupying] G^ANTRY (tower on launch pad)
Very topical given the recent Artemis II lunar flyby mission. |
|
| 17 | Fine to abandon reasonable attitude (3) |
| AIR – |
|
| 19 | Careful unions could generate this source of power (7,6) |
| NUCLEAR FUSION – Anagram [could generate] of CAREFUL UNIONS – a very nice &lit clue
With an &lit clue, the entire clue consists of the wordplay and is designed to be read literally to give the definition. NUCLEAR FUSION is the process where two light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing vast amounts of energy. |
|
| 21 | Politician, European, blocking live current measure (6) |
| AMPERE – MP (Politician) and E (European) inserted [blocking] into A^RE (live) | |
| 22 | Fool siting tavern in New York (5) |
| NINNY – INN (tavern) placed [siting] in N^Y (New York)
A NINNY was defined as a “simpleton, fool,” in the late 16th century, perhaps a misdivision of an innocent. There may be some influence in the word of Italian ninno “baby, child” (cognate with Spanish niño). |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | China reneges after rebuilding Baidu? (6,6) |
| SEARCH ENGINE – Anagram [after rebuilding] of CHINA RENEGES
Never heard of it (as I suspect many here will not have), but once I saw that the second word might be ENGINE, the remaining letters were easier to remould. Turns out that Baidu, Inc. holds a dominant position in China’s search engine market (via Baidu Search), so the use of ‘China’ in the clue was a nice tie-in. |
|
| 2 | Charge one male on top of fruit tree (7) |
| IMPEACH – I (one) M (male) PEACH (fruit tree)
‘on top of’ is apposite as this is a down clue |
|
| 3 | Optical device gentleman picked up during afternoon (5) |
| PRISM – SIR (gentleman) reversed [picked up] during P^M (afternoon i.e. abbreviation for ‘post meridiem’) | |
| 4 | Nick to observe reduced Church (5) |
| NOTCH – NOT |
|
| 5 | Viceroy’s position? High office, but not leadership (9) |
| RESIDENCY – Certainly, Wikipedia doesn’t mention the word RESIDENCY in its lengthy Viceroy entry. However, as a Viceroy (from the Latin vice “in place of”, and the Old French roi “king”) reigns over a territory as a representative of the monarch, and is presumably resident there, I guess it works? Alternative explanations welcome… Thanks to Vinyl1 for the following: One of the meanings of resident, as given in Chambers, is a diplomat ranking below ambassador, who can be called a consul or viceroy. Such an office, therefore, might be called a residency. |
|
| 6 | Roadside establishment, sort with potential for development (6,7) |
| PETROL STATION – Anagram [for development] of SORT with POTENTIAL | |
| 7 | Japanese figure seen in montage is happy (6) |
| GEISHA – Hidden [seen in] in montaGE IS HAppy | |
| 13 | Cat seems active around one area (7) |
| SIAMESE – Anagram [active] of SEEMS gives S^MESE – insert I (one) A (area) | |
| 14 | Exclusive group’s bed on lake (7) |
| COTERIE – COT (bed) on ERIE (lake)
Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake (by surface area) of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. |
|
| 16 | Behold copper metal’s initial substitute (5) |
| LOCUM – LO (Behold) CU (copper – chemical symbol) then initial letter of M{etal} | |
| 18 | River — peculiar, not at first behaving like water (5) |
| RUNNY – R (River) |
|
| 20 | Pot for tea to feel very hot with lid off (3) |
| URN – |
|
I didn’t find this too hard. The cryptics were simple, as evidence by the inclusion of the actual literal Nast in the clue for canasta – how easy is that. I didn’t know Baidu either, but once you have engine, the rest is obvious.
One of the meanings of resident, as given in Chambers, is a diplomat ranking below ambassador, who can be called a consul or viceroy. Such an office, therefore, might be called a residency. How I knew this, I cannot say – probably from reading a lot of colonial history.
Time: 7:50
14 minutes. NHO the SEARCH ENGINE but was familiar with the required meaning of RESIDENCY.
This took a while for me, 11.48. I was stumped by Baidu for too long and struggled with the arcane equivalence of APPOINT and settle. I only know RESIDENCY because in every tinpot post-colonial territory I’ve visited there always is one. Thanks Pedro and Mike.
Three NHOs today, Baidu, the composer and the exam. So SATIE was hard to get – I was at least certain of the ‘ie’ for ‘that is’ though and I didn’t know I hadn’t heard of the American exam – I’d just assumed it was a singular SATs. I asked Alexa to play me some Satie and out came Gymnopedie No 3 – I’ve definitely heard that before. Quite good music to breakfast by, interested to see if I know more of this stuff or if that is his greatest hit. All green in 13.52.
I that piece was popularised back in the 1960s when it featured in a string of commercials for some sort of beauty product. Hair shampoo perhaps.
Sounds reasonable, that’s about my level!
Yes he’s pretty much a one-hit wonder – most of his stuff is pretty wacky.
I took one look at 1d and decided to leave it to later but was pleased to dredge SATIE from the depths as my FOI – evidence I can remember things learnt from crosswords!
In general I found this quite fiddly and I finished in 8.17 with LOI SIAMESE.
Thanks to Mike and Pedro
I’ve recently started doing the quick cryptic and find this blog *very* useful for working out why my guesses were right (and more often wrong…) – thank you!
I had a vague memory of residencies and viceroys being connected, and when I looked it up in the OED found:
“The official residence of a representative of the Governor General or Viceroy (or formerly of the East India Company) at the court of an Indian state. Frequently attributive. Now historical.”
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/residency_n?tab=meaning_and_use#25947539
Thanks again!
Welcome David! Do keep posting, the more the merrier.
Slow to start with the early Across clues, so I tackled this from the bottom up and found it much quicker going for a 10:45 finish. All parsed (I had even heard of Baidu) except APPOINT, where I needed the blog to associate it with Settle. Some very smooth surfaces, that for NUCLEAR FUSION in particular.
Many thanks Mike for the blog.
A slow start followed my usual hopping around the grid. It all took shape slowly but accelerated given a build-up of (essential) crossers. FOI was Satie.
I finished up in the NW; never heard of Baidu but the crossers solved it for me. My last in were NOTCH and APPOINT.
There were some very good clues but I will need to go through the blog to re-acquaint myself with them. (On later reflection, I particularly liked NUCLEAR FUSION and PRISM.)
Overall, this was my usual Pedro tussle – I never get below the mid/high teens with him but at least I stayed out of the SCC today which is quite often my destination with this setter. 17.52 for me.
Thanks to both.
Like Cedric I had to solve that from the bottom up – the lower half flew in, but the top half was another story. Slow to get the 1s, and struggled with most of the danglers from 1a. I’m having a sticky week.
Got home in 08:47 for a Sluggish Day. COD NUCLEAR FUSION. Many thanks Pedro and Mike.
This felt slow, with only four across clues entered in first pass, so I was surprised to finish in a below average 9:47.
FOI SATIE, LOI HIDEOUS.
Thanks Mike and Pedro
Not the easiest QC but getting SKIPPING ROPE early was a great help. NHO BAIDU but checkers eventually led to the obvious answer. Thanks for great blog Mike.
A battle but got there in the end. NHO Baidu of course, so confess I looked that up and then it was easy. Hardest were L2I APPOINT (guessed with shrug) and NOTCH. Thanks Mike.
11:48
Two on the first across pass and seven on the downs – further evidence that maybe you should start on the last down and work backwards?
NHO ‘Baidu’ but being heavily reliant on anagrams for cryptic checkers the answer appeared quite quickly.
Also NHO of SATIE and CANASTA but they were very well signposted.
Loved the clue, but I’m not sure NUCLEAR FUSION is ‘careful unions’ – two hydrogen atoms travelling at 1,000 to 1,300 kilometres pers second at 100 million degrees Celsius ‘bumping into each other’.
FOI: ETHOS
LOI: CANASTA
COD: NUCLEAR FUSION
Thanks to Pedro and Mike
17:42 – quite a good time for me. Vaguely heard of BAIDU and with some crossers in the penny dropped. Know Satie well – the Gymnopedies are great. Solved it steadily, top to bottom with just the occasional biff.