Solving time: 6:49
A big welcome back to Beck with their first puzzle since August last year. It is more than three years since I last blogged a Beck, who today presents my favourite kind of puzzle, containing many interesting words worthy of further investigation.
Failed to fully parse both 10a and 15a whilst in flight, but both understood as I filled out this blog. COD today goes to 18a for both device and definition.
How did you find 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 | |
|---|---|
| 7 | Would like to have wife and queen, perhaps (4) |
| WANT – W (wife) and ANT (queen, perhaps) | |
| 8 | Back of damp rathole shifted a large amount (8) |
| PLETHORA – Anagram [shifted] of last letter [Back] of {dam}P and RATHOLE A 16th century medical word for “excess of body fluid, overfullness of blood,” from Greek plēthōrē “fullness.” The figurative meaning “too-muchness, overfullness” in any respect is recorded by 1700. |
|
| 9 | Evidence of impact from sun? (6) |
| SHINER – The second half of the clue is very mildly cryptic – the sun is of course, something that shines i.e. a SHINER.
According to the website etymonline, SHINER, as a word for “black eye” (Evidence of impact) is attested by 1903, American English, somewhat specifically, in the East Side immigrant dialect of Manhattan. |
|
| 10 | Take away key electronic channel (6) |
| DEDUCT – D (key – as in music) E (electronic – as in email and ecommerce) DUCT (channel) | |
| 11 | Drug addict sure confused (4) |
| USER – Anagram [confused] of SURE | |
| 12 | One who kills two idiots at home (8) |
| ASSASSIN – ASS ASS (two idiots) IN (at home)
ASSASSIN is derived from the twelfth century Arabic hashīshīn, a nickname during the Crusades, for the Middle Eastern Nizari Ismaili sect. In Western European minds, the sect had a reputation for murdering opposing leaders after intoxicating themselves through eating hashish (though there is no actual evidence of this), hence the nickname. Hmmm – chestnutty… |
|
| 15 | Name on publication is something unimportant (8) |
| NONISSUE – N (Name) ON ISSUE (publication)
Wasn’t sure whether this word should be hyphenated. OED suggests it should be, while many other dictionaries appear to list it without a hyphen. |
|
| 17 | The married people over there (4) |
| THEM – THE M (married) | |
| 18 | Number ones for Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, Suede, and The Killers? (6) |
| NINJAS – First letters [Number ones] for N{ine} I{nch} N{ails} J{ane’s} A{ddiction} S{uede}
Right up my alley as far as musical interest is concerned, but so far, no actual UK or US number one singles achieved by any of these acts. |
|
| 21 | Hot number’s pinnacle (6) |
| HEIGHT – H (Hot – as in the letters that appear on your taps/faucets) EIGHT (number) | |
| 22 | Most important performer deserts, going round bend (4,4) |
| STAR TURN – RATS (deserts) reversed [going round], then TURN (bend)
STAR TURN can be traced back to the late 19th century when theatres were becoming popular entertainment venues. Actors who could draw large crowds were often referred to as “stars.” These performers would often have a specific moment during a play or musical where they would shine above all others. This moment was known as their “turn,” which eventually became known as a “STAR TURN.” |
|
| 23 | Gang leader abandoning prison officer (4) |
| CREW – First letter [leader] removal [abandoning] from |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Trait of tough guy moving his comma (8) |
| MACHISMO – Anagram (moving) of HIS COMMA
MACHISMO is a 1940s American Spanish word meaning “male virility, masculine pride.” The first part comes from Spanish macho “male”; the ‘ismo’ part is ultimately from Greek -ismos, a noun ending signifying the practice or teaching of a thing. |
|
| 2 | Pothead beginning to smoke printer’s powder (6) |
| STONER – First letter [beginning to] of S{moke}, then TONER (printer’s powder)
I was looking at this the wrong way around initially with the first letter of Pothead and another word for ‘to smoke’, with printer’s powder as the definition. |
|
| 3 | Fighters in the Peloponnesian War skill in bridges (8) |
| SPARTANS – ART (skill) in SP^ANS (bridges)
Not sure I would have known off the bat, who were the fighters in the Peloponnesian War, but the cryptic, with the help of a few checkers, was very clear. |
|
| 4 | Feat of skill, the same either way (4) |
| DEED – The gentle cryptic indicates that the answer is a palindrome
Most dictionaries appear to concur that a DEED is not necessarily simply something that is done, but usually something that is either very good or very bad. Noted that the word ‘skill’ appears in consecutive clues. |
|
| 5 | Express highways for Greek island (6) |
| RHODES – Homophone [Express] of ROADS (highways) | |
| 6 | Man’s contribution to America (4) |
| ERIC – Hidden [contribution to] in America | |
| 13 | Perceive object in an agitated state (8) |
| SEETHING – SEE (Perceive) THING (object) | |
| 14 | Huge cold area with runny cheese in it (3,5) |
| ICE SHEET – Anagram [runny] of CHEESE inserted into I^T | |
| 16 | Harm popular group of twelve people? (6) |
| INJURY – IN (popular) JURY (group of twelve people?)
Ultimately from Latin iniuria “wrong, an injustice, insult, unlawful violence, assault, damage, harm.” |
|
| 17 | Jerk last to trust charming woman? (6) |
| TWITCH – Last letter of {trus}T, then WITCH (charming woman?) | |
| 19 | Minute bit of audiotape (4) |
| IOTA – Hidden [bit of] in audiotape
‘bit’ appears to be doing double duty here. I don’t think Minute and IOTA are synonymous, so the definition here is ‘Minute bit’. Comments welcome, etc… |
|
| 20 | Self-satisfied fool has succeeded before (4) |
| SMUG – MUG (fool) with S (succeeded) in front [before]
Back in the 16th century, SMUG meant “trim, neat, spruce, smart,” possibly an alteration of Low German smuk “trim, neat,” from the Middle Low German smücken “to adorn.” The meaning “having a self-satisfied air, satisfied with one’s appearance,” is from 1701, an extension of the 1580s sense of “smooth, sleek,” which was commonly used of attractive women and girls. |
|
If you put in machoism, or stoker, you were on the wrong track right away. Fortunately, I quickly erased these. Plethora was a tough anagram, but the word was in common usage among my literary college friends – were there any good looking girls at the Delts’ beer blast? Yes, a veritable plethora!
Time: 11:30
6:53
I didn’t notice the IOTA problem at the time, but Mike’s right. Biffed SPARTANS, parsed post-submission. I wasted a lot of time getting CREW by taking ‘gang leader’ to be G.
I became stuck for ages on the last two intersecting answers, SHINER and STONE. I took a break to clear my head and lost track of my solving time. It would have been well in excess of my 15 minute target though because I had not been solving under ideal conditions from the start. Anyway on resumption I needed only a couple of moments to spot what I had been missing.
Re IOTA, ‘of’ is the containment indicator.
SHINER for ‘black eye’ is or was in common parlance and is to be found aplenty in schoolboy literature popular in my childhood and comic strips. In crosswords also look out for ‘mouse’.
The citation of the origin of STAR TURN may well be correct, but if so, the expression came also to refer to a performer’s entire performance and by extension the performer him/herself, and that’s the interpretation required in today’s clue.
I was super fast until HEIGHT (hot number, what’s the problem!?!), SEETHING, ICE SHEET and finally NONISSUE arrived to leave me with a still fast 10.09. I remember lots of Jane’s Addiction T-Shirts during my university years but now I can only recall “Been Caught Stealing” – thanks to streaming I’ll try some now – less relaxing than the Eric Satie (still getting a listen!) of a few weeks ago I expect. Good one!
14:33 Found this quite punchy. Dispatched ninjas and assassin without sustaining much damage then got shiner from Eric’s crew.
Ta MAB
Slow to get started, then Mrs RH knew Spartans and we were off. 14.40 after an enjoyable solve finishing up in the NW with shiner and stoner.
It might be chestnutty but we liked assassin
Thanks Beck and Mike
On Beck’s wavelength today, all done and parsed in 8:47. NINJAS made me smile, because on first read I had literally no idea what the clue was talking about. But I find that long clues which make no sense to me are often “take the initial letters of …” clues, and so it was this time. As for NONISSUE, I think I would usually put a hyphen in if writing it too.
Many thanks Mike for the blog.
A top quality puzzle which didn’t put up too much resistance. I was slightly surprised by the lack of hyphen in NONISSUE but the wordplay was clear.
Started with WANT and finished with NONISSUE in 5.58. COD to NINJAS.
Thanks to Mike and Beck
Straightforward 8:41 for the solve today. Echo many of the comments from above re IOTA, MACHOISM etc.
Thanks for detailed blog Mike.
9.20, rather inexplicably held up by RHODES at the end. But all good, thanks Mike and Beck.
Slightest of MERs at IOTA, but only on a technicality. There’s no doubt about the answer when you see it.
I had more of an issue with summit = HEIGHT. They definitely have adjacent meanings, but I can’t think of a specific context in which they are interchangeable. The summit of fashion? Reaching the height of a hill?
I see what you mean but it’s a solid dictionary definition.
Collins:
height
in British English
noun
4. the topmost point; summit
Hail to the holiest in the heights
And in the depths be praise
Only two acrosses missing after first pass, then all the downs, then mopped up STAR TURN (which I’d thought of at first pass but couldn’t parse so hadn’t inserted – I often forget that “round” or “around” can indicate reversal as well as containment) and LOI SHINER.
All done in 06:04, pipped by Brer Plett on a Very Good Day.
I really liked the “charming woman” so TWITCH gets my COD. Many thanks Beck and Mike.
5:26. LOI WANT being slow to see the type of queen. Nice puzzle. I liked the runny cheese best. Thanks Beck and Mike.
20:32 – an average time for me. Needed crossers to solve a couple and toiled to see NONISSUE (LOI), never having seen it without a hyphen. Otherwise a well pitched puzzle.
From WANT to STAR TURN in 6:58. No dramas. Thanks Beck and Mike.
A bit dim this morning but got there in the end. Good puzzle though. Among LOsI were STONER, SHINER and NON-ISSUE (good clue)
Also liked SPARTANS, PLETHORA, TWITCH and CREW.
(Note Poem)
Thanks vm, Mike.
6:20. Agreed this was a great puzzle, lots of misdirection adding the additional layer of difficulty which made it an entertaining workout, whilst well within QC bounds.
Unfortunately I misspelled RHODoS, which is annoying! But a genuine typo.
COD to SHINER, but also liked RHODES, NINJAS and many others.
Rhodos is not a typo, that’s Greek!
Slow all the way through this one and eventually limped over the line in 14:12. It’s no excuse but I was put off by the hyphenless NONISSUE and the SHINER / STONER crossing pair held me up at the end as well. NINJAS was my pick today.
Thanks to Mike and Beck
Not my “favourite kind of puzzle”, but we are of course all different. I abhor all this “so cool” use of drugs everyone is so pleased with themselves about, as if naughty but nice. NHO POTHEAD and it’s not in Chambers but found it in Collins. All doable, though.
I’m with you. The amount of drug slang in these puzzles is a bit disturbing.
Agree, occasionally mildly taken aback by narcotics slang and also, as I said, laddish jokes about women’s underwear.
We Are (sometimes) Not Amused.
Outside of a crossword, nobody would ever use “witch” to describe a charming woman. It would help my enjoyment of these puzzles if there was some concession to reality when thinking of synonyms.
Yes, Witch took a long time for me, too, but I saw it as a woman who casts spells/charms.
Sneaky but just about OK?
Yes exactly, I agree. It’s a clever play on the meaning of “charming”.
All sorts of weird synonyms occur in crosswords. I guess I am used to them now after all these years. ( IMP is another popular QC word that no one uses IRL.) It’s like learning a new language so good for the ageing brain.🙂
With a 3 year old grandson I use the word imp (usually preceded by little) quite often. Along with rascal …
A challenge. I got there in the end and parsed everything but took too long. Just a bit too clever for a QC but there was plenty to chew on. I took quite a while to complete the NW quadrant and found SHINER and STONER tough to see. Only when I thought I had finished did I realise that I had gaps in the grid (T_I_C_) and pulled out TWITCH in desperation. I thought NON-ISSUE was even worse. I liked MACHISMO and PLETHORA.
Now I will explore Mike’s blog and try to work out why I found it so difficult.
Note added later: I think today’s responses just emphasise the gap between the ‘super-solvers’ who whip through a puzzle like this and the rest (like me) who are anything but ‘super’.
Incidentally, I no longer bother with the SNITCH. It is inevitable (because of the way it is calculated) that it is heavily weighted towards early, fast solvers (who complete on the ‘official’ site that many of us don’t use) and who, as today, find a QC easy. I think 85 (easier) is, frankly, daft for this one.
As a middle-level solver, I did find this hard, and I did my best do bring the QUITCH up to where it belongs. Even some of the top solvers like Simon Anthony and Phil Jordan were over their average time.
If you are pretty good, you may get stuck on one or two clues, and that will add 50% to your time. Or you may see them at once, and finish quickly.
Anyone can become a better solver through systematic study – making lists of Greek gods, military abbreviations, common French and German words, etc, etc. There are several solvers in this blog who are like that, and they have improved.
15:14. Happy enough with that. I needed a lot of the checkers to see some of the answers, before I could parse them.
Pi ❤️
A shocking start in the NW, with the obvious Machoism, ‘confirmed’ by Want only to then be kiboshed by User. I jumped to the SE corner instead, only returning to where I started after 20mins of steady (Nonissue excepted) solving therapy. Even then, and with a corrected Machismo in place, the Shiner/Stoner pairing made doubly sure the window seats were long gone. One to forget.
CoD to Twitch for the smile. Invariant
I was pleased to solve plethora without any crossers. All bar five in 40 minutes. I’ll bank “runny” as an anagrind. I’ve not come across ice sheet but I have come across a sheet of ice. I slipped up on that one.
I’ll get my coat…
Thanks to Mike and Becks
9:52. Felt slower, but no problems.
LOI STONER
No real problems with this one finishing in 8.18. It took three visits to get WANT and it was only then that I got the connection between ant and queen. I was held up for thirty seconds or so on my LOI TWITCH looking for a different type of charming woman.
DNF. Despite reaching my last clue in 24 minutes, which is quite fast for me, a further 10 minutes or more was spent staring (unsuccessfully) at T_I_C_ and this rather ruined an otherwise enjoyable experience.
My extensive (?) alphabet trawling failed to find either TWITCH for jerk or WITCH for charming woman. And so, for the second time recently – I never found OUTWIT (O_T_I_) last week – I crashed because my brain skipped past W each time I came to it (both forwards and backwards).
_hat’s _rong _ith it?
Thanks to Mike and Becks.
For what it’s worth, if anything, I recently imposed a rule upon myself that I won’t spend more than a couple of minutes on an alphabet trawl. I find that the unpleasantness of the trawl is greater than the satisfaction of a successful result, and of course success is never guaranteed anyway, so on balance I’d much rather chalk up a quick DNF.
If you do a lot of puzzles, you will think of charming woman as a chestnut – you can probably find a dozen instances of that exact clue if you search our archives.
There was some advice on here a while back to always start the trawl from the letter ‘M’, presumably so that you are still alert when you get to the more obscure end of the dictionary?
I enjoyed this, despite NON-ISSUE and IOTA, and had to rack my brains for the crossing pair in the NW corner. I only parsed STAR TURN afterwards.
FOI PLETHORA
LOI STONER
COD RHODES
TIME 4:45
A steady solve of all bar 17dn in 13 minutes. It then took me another 2 minutes to solve (the really quite straightforward) TWITCH. All parsed while solving.
FOI – 7ac WANT
LOI – 17dn TWITCH
COD – 10ac DEDUCT. I also liked RHODES (another chestnut but still raised a smile).
Thanks to Beck and Mike
My thanks to Beck and Mike Harper.
I paused quite a lot here.
Interesting blog, thanks Mike.
15a Nonissue. Cheating machine only had this as one word, so I added the hyphenated version. Thanks for the tip.
2d Stoner, I doubted this def but Wiktionary has:
def 3 (slang) A habitual user of cannabis.
3d Spartans. Sparta is the only place on the Peloponnese I can name, so that was a gimme.
5d Rhodes. Thomas Telford was nicknamed “Colossus of Roads.” by Robert Southey, later Poet Laureate. Ho-ho.
15d Injury. Nearly wrote InjurE, phew!
All parsed and correct in a normal time. Liked RHODES, TWITCH and SHINER. Didn’t like NONISSUE without a hyphen. It strikes me as an ugly word.
LOI: STAR TURN because I knew it was correct but didn’t immediately cotton on to the parsing.
Thanks Beck and Mike
7:41, which is quick for me, despite the cursed grid and a slow start. I think I got all of the downs in sequence, which was very pleasing.
Thank you for the blog!
Fully agree with the comments about drug slang – particularly as I think they are very local terms, which change rapidly. I had never heard of Pothead or Stoner despite there being plenty of usage of such substances at London U when I went there in the 70s. Maybe they were 60s or 80s terms, or maybe they just never got to London from wherever they originated. (Probably Oxford where all the dictionary writers live!) If you have a word you don’t know in the clue (I never use aids of any sort), and its synonym, which you have also never heard of as the answer then the clue is pretty much impossible. I saw the S, but most printer toner has been liquid for a decade or so (and more usually now called ink), so the powder bit didn’t click. and I had to reveal. That gave me LOI shiner.
Rest was all fine though with the four pop groups and the charming woman particularly appreciated.
I also paused at Non-Issue, but NonSense doesn’t get hyphenated so I was not surprised that it was valid without.
Thanks Beck and Mike.
Laser printers use toner, not liquid. These days laser printers are very affordable and worth considering if you need to buy a new printer.
I did say most. I agree with you about affordability for basic entry level B&W and even colour, and the laser will be more robust and probably faster because of the differences in the inherent technology. But at entry level the colour is poor and the resolution low. As soon as you move to photo quality at any sensible resolution the laser with be 4 or 5 times as expensive and the vibrancy and accuracy of the colours will be poor.
I started with PLETHORA and finished with DEED, the latter constructed from the wordplay and not fully understood. I wasn’t sure about RATS = desert either but STAR TURN was the only logical answer that fitted the checkers. NINJAS made me smile and I was reminded of seeing Suede in concert last year here in Mallorca. 7:31 for an OK day. Thanks Mike
6.41 I’ve never heard of machoism (and neither has my spellchecker) so I avoided that trap. The SE was a bit slow and I finished with TWITCH. Thanks Mike and Beck.
Headed down the LHS without much problem, then round the bottom and back to the top to finish sub 20 mins. liked TWITCH for double duty of charming, guessed there is a Queen ANT. Enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks Beck and Mike
Tricky but enjoyable, though I didn’t like the clue at 3a; I just stared at it with no inkling of what the setter was trying to say. It was just a nonsense to me.
Liked ant = queen. I don’t think I’ve seen queen meaning ant in a cryptic before, but it was nice to see and nice that I got it quickly.
On completion I pressed submit without bothering to check my answers. I wish I had as it seems I think WITCH is spelt WIICH. Oh well.
First lap: 14
Answered (no help): 21
Answered (with help): 3
Incorrect: 1 (3a typo)
Time: 24:03
There is no 3 across and your whiich typo was in 17 down.
Enjoyable, mildly challenging and loi SMUG which was my feeling after 14m. Share the mild aversion of others to druggy slang but STONER was very gettable. We’ve had ASSASSIN quite recently but I don’t remember the setter and the clue was slightly different. Perceive object to give SEETHING made me smile: beautifully economical. I took a while to remember those SPARTANS and a further while to decide that NONISSUE was indeed a word (though preferably with a hyphen). Thanks Beck and Mike for helpful blog.
Great puzzle, lots of smiles and the odd LOL. Taken over my ten min target by WANT, STONER and SHINER.
COD to NINJAS for the music refs. I’ve seen JA and Suede live and wondered if we had to get “Hurt” in there at first. I’m also partial to a bit of STONER rock.
The use of Object = Thing always makes me think of the Viz “Things”.
Thanks to Beck & Mike.
Lovely. Completed and parsed in 9.
Thanks Beck and Mike.
11 minutes
Super crossword – 7 mins of fun – and an equally splendid blog. Thanks Beck and Mike!
10:09
Most of my knowledge of drugs slang has been gained from doing crosswords.
LOI was SMUG.
Thanks Beck and Mike
10:35 for me, all parsed. My COD award goes to TWITCH, where I initially had the T at the wrong end. I found “charming woman” for “witch” to be, well, charming.
Thanks to Beck and Mike.
Interestingly, given some of the comments, this resident of the SCC liked this crossword. Thanks Beck.
Hoped it was SPARTANS (it was) because they’re the only ones I knew from long ago. Feared it was some sort of obscure printer’s powder and then realised the common (but expensive) TONER was being referenced. Equally feared some obscure runny French cheese was being referenced and then realised I needed to anagram cheese 😀.
But why do I fear obsure words? Well, we had peri for fairies . . .
Very dull head today, and my solve took 24:14. I had somehow got the idea that “screw” was British for inmate, not prison officer, so CREW took an age. But that’s not much excuse for failing to see the homophone indicator “express” or the hidden indicator “contribution to”, or my inability to think of “duct” without an alphabet trawl, despite seeing the parsing immediately . So many write-ins, but. Onward to tomorrow.
Good puzzle, failed to appreciate NINJAS clue due to different musical taste, liked SEETHING best.
Thanks Beck and Mike.
Bad day on 15 x 15.
12 short after 75 minutes of toil. Totally out of my depth as usual. I can’t see how I will ever achieve any measure of competence on the big puzzle.
About my average time for this, with LOI NONISSUE requiring a second or third look.
I wasn’t sure about DEED as a feat of skill but it had to be.
COD to ERIC- made me smile.
Nice puzzle.
David
Have heard the word ‘Stoned’ didn’t know STONER, sad not to see SHINER it’s rather good, and silly to fail on CREW.
Just been back to see Blog, don’t get Rats=Deserts I’m afraid, yes Desert Rats, but anyone help, please …
From rats deserting the sinking ship – it’s become a verb meaning to desert, as opposed to to rat on, meaning to give someone away – neither particularly complimentary to the poor rodents…
Yes, kind of you, I wasn’t looking that way at all, I actually read ‘Desserts’ at the beginning which was even worse!
I accidentally clicked on the 15 x 15 and now need a lie down.