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
Thanks! – I have edited my blog entry appropriately
Having spent years in the Foreign Service, I can elucidate: the Residence (or Residency) is where the Ambassador resides, as opposed to the Embassy, High Commission or Consulate where he/she works. In larger missions the Residence staff can be quite numerous. So I’m not totally convinced that Viceroy’s position is Residency: location maybe, out of working hours. No matter, with crossers the clue was gettable!
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 think 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.
Yes, the gnossienes were written without bar lines or time signatures!
Yes – actually No.5 does have barlines and a time signature, but all the others don’t so essentially you’re right. And arguably No.1 is a second hit (so not quite “only one”).
He was “ahead of his time,” as they say, and evidently still too far-out for some.
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.
Welcome and thanks for the historical note!
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 by 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
There must be a lot of uncertainty in that process…
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.
Needed CC Dictionary to finish. NHO SATIE, but I should have got NOTCH.
Struggled with HIDEOUS too.
Yes, Colonial Officers were called RESIDENTs, so biffed that one.
PDM SKIPPING ROPE. NHO Baidu, but biffed 1d.
Liked COTERIE, ETHOS, and GALLANTRY.
Thanks vm, Mike.
16:06, felt hard.
LOI PRISM where I thought “picked up” would be a homonym, for chap, guy, man etc.
NHO SATIE, but vaguely heard of SATs.
Wanted PINCH for Nick, called to mind since it appeared yesterday. Tried pine, pink, pint etc but couldn’t make them =see.
COD SEARCH ENGINE
Enjoyable puzzle with a bit of meat on the bones and nothing too unfair. My years in the tech industry obviously ended too long ago to have heard of Baidu – Googling it reveals a mass of Chinese script, and a hint it might be internet related ( I don’t consider such a search to be cheating when the word is utterly unknown to me). SEARCH ENGINE also turns up a lot in crosswordland, so there it was. RESIDENCY and APPOINT for settle seem somewhat tenuous, but both clear given crossers. SATIE the only nod to GK ( I think), but not obscure IMHO.
DNK “picked up” meaning reversed, rather than heard ( presumably only in a down clue) – will add it to the toolbox !
Many thanks to setter and blogger – all round enjoyable.
12 minutes. Same experience with ‘Baidu’ as most others and SEARCH ENGINE was my LOI. Thanks for explaining RESIDENCY which I bunged in from wordplay without thinking about too much. I liked SKIPPING ROPE and NUCLEAR FUSION.
Thanks to Mike and Pedro
9.28.
Not sure if it’s me or the puzzles, but so far I have not been able to solve a single puzzle this week. Many of these clues were too obscure for me.
I think you should be able to do better – they’re not that hard. Maybe you are lacking confidence getting started? They sometimes look forbidding to me, but once I get one or two clues I’m off to the races.
I found this quite tricky and started at the bottom of the grid, building up to the 1s, though once the crossers were in, I didn’t have to spend too long to work out ENGINE, so it became obvious. I then wondered about SWIMMING POOL, until PRISM went in. SATIE was a write-in, but HIDEOUS was LOI. Thanks, Pedro.
I was mid grid before I fitted in an answer and thought that once again, I might not be on Pedro’s wavelength. But I persevered and although I biffed a few, was able to parse enough of the crossers’ wordplay to get it done. It felt hard and that it took an age but was a great sense of satisfaction. I’d never heard of Baidu and my last one in was Siamese. Thanks Mike and Pedro.
20:53
Plodded my way through this. But a decent puzzle nonetheless.
Thanks, Mike.
Hadn’t heard of Baidu but once the second word was going to be engine, the penny dropped. From NOTCH to the aforementioned SEARCH ENGINE in 6:53. Thanks Pedro and Mike.
Another challenge, though this one took me 12:15 which suggests that I found it easier than Monday or Tuesday’s. Didn’t feel like it at the time. Couldn’t parse APPOINT.
Thank you for the blog!
Tough, just snuck in under twelve. Had to dot around the grid to get enough crossers for a foothold. LOI the dreaded legalese APPOINT. Enjoyed the long anagrams. Thanks Pedro and Mike.
Another sticky one, I thought I was going to get zero on the first across pass for the first time ever (since QC No 1) but all the last three obliged and then the solve went up like scaffolding. DNK the composer or the search engine, and thought people sit exams so behind = past = sat and guessed satie (sitie didnt quite seem right) Slight MER at 8a, if a matter in debate might be e.g. immigration then a point would be NHS would be in trouble with out them, not immigration itself as a point. However nothng to get too excited about. Thanks Pedro and Mike.
By the way the “too many attempts” problem is back.
16 clues solved in 20 mins. Caught out again by words being substituted for their first letter!
Nho BAIDU or SATIE
Yay! I’ve completed a QC and am allowed back into my usual seat in the SCC. 😁
Yes I looked up Baidu (no idea about that, definitely NHO) but I did know Satie (phew). For me, a nice puzzle. Thanks Pedro.
A steady solve just sneaking in under nine minutes at 8.59. I join the queue of people who’ve never heard of ‘Baidu’, but SATIE would be familiar to most who listen to Classic FM. Not a great fan personally.
06:58 on phone, waiting for ferry home.
I found this hard to get going, but then got motoring. Enjoyed it very much.
8.49 Knowledge of Baidu gave me a quick start but I was slowed down by HIDEOUS, NOTCH and APPOINT at the end. Thanks Mike and Pedro.
20 mins…
Spent a good few minutes on 14ac “Canasta” having never heard of the game, but I couldn’t see what else it could be once all of the other checkers were in place.
Oddly enough, I had heard of Baidu, so that was somewhat more straightforward. According to the endless scroll of the TV in my gym, skipping is supposedly one of the best exercises to burn calories on a per hourly basis.
FOI – 3dn “Prism”
LOI – 14ac “Canasta”
COD – 1ac “Skipping Rope”
Thanks as usual!
Canasta was one of the few clues in yesterday’s main crossword that I answered.
12:49 here. I knew that I had heard of Baidu, but couldn’t define it. But as others have said, once the crossers suggested ENGINE for the second word, it became tractable. My COD goes to NUCLEAR FUSION, very nice.
Thanks to Pedro and Mike.
12:08 with some struggling but no blocks. SKIPPING ROPE in particular took time to unravel as I failed to separate “avoiding work” and spent time running through all the playground equipment I could name and wondering how many of those things were Americanisms. NHO BAIDU, I claim, but that’s probably not true. Seems to me that Joseph in Vanity Fair had been a “resident” in India; accurate or not, that helped me to a precarious RESIDENCY. Agree with Merlin on the homophone trickery in PRISM. I liked GALLANTRY and NOTCH, where I reflexively interpreted “nick” as “steal”, which I suppose was the intent.
Thanks Pedro and Mike.
Some great clues here. PETROL STATION was a nicely disguised anagram and IMPEACH had me looking for a tree starting with CIM. Also like CANASTA.
Had to look up Baidu to unlock 1d and finished in about 45 minutes.
Thanks Pedro and Mike.
22 mins in 2 sittings 20 mins initially at lunch and then did the stubborn last 5 in 2 mins on the commute home. Odd how the brain works.
FOI Geisha
LOI Ampere
COD hideous
thanks Pedro and Mike
I’m another NHO 1d Baidu so had to look that one up. Dragged 9a Satie out of some dark recess in my memory. I thought 8a Appoint opaque – warranting a MER. I was first sure that TUS figured in 19a so well misled there. Generally very slow this afternoon after not getting to bed until 03.40hrs so my struggles are probably all my fault!
FOI 12a Ethos – I did say I was pretty slow on the uptake…
LOI 4d Notch – where I was first thinking of Niche
COD 19a Nuclear Fusion
Residency always reminds me of Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond !!
All done and dusted in about 15
DNF. This one didn’t really grab me and my impatience got the better of me at 15 minutes with RESIDENCY and HIDEOUS outstanding.
Definitely a tough one. Think I managed eight before I resorted to reveals.
20 minutes.
Parsed little and struggled throughout (as usual).
Solved late in the day and slowish time, some of which was spent correcting a biffed HEINOUS to HIDEOUS at 11a, once RESIDENCY fell in. Baidu not known but China reneges yielded ENGINE immediately so SEARCH soon followed. Not my favourite (serious rather than lighthearted) but clues were very fair. Thanks setter and blogger.