Times Quick Cryptic No 959 by Izetti – Pretentious? Moi?

Author   JohninterredPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Hello fellow Friday QC solvers. I think you will like this. It has a great mix of fairly easy clues and some that need a bit of thought. It is as concise and precise as is usual from our setter, with every word earning its place in its clue.  I was pleased to be able to emulate this at one point by explaining an answer with a single word. There are some great examples of the art of cluing, but if I were to single one out for giving the most fun, it would have to be the capricious 20a. What’s your favourite? Thanks to Izetti for another great puzzle. I hope you all enjoyed it too.

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Mid-ocean, it rarely brings destruction (10)
DECIMATION – Not the most cheerful thing to start. (Mid-ocean it)* [rarely] giving us the destruction of a large proportion of a group or species. In its original usage, though, this word was used to mean reduction by a tenth (and NOT by a factor of ten). Sorry. Pedantic gripe over.
8 Excellent place like London (7)
CAPITAL – Double definition. Which capital do you find the most excellent? Don’t say Sao Tome, whatever you do. Oops. That’s a comment that has strayed from Wednesday’s 15×15 land and last Saturday’s jamboree at HQ.
9 Meat that could come from shelf (5)
FLESH – A sneaky anagrind here – [could come from] (shelf)*. Well I didn’t spot it at first anyway. Did you?
10 Pretentious political group lacking leader (4)
ARTY – The poilitical group is a {p}ARTY, and you remove the first letter [lacking leader], giving “a pretentious display of being artistic or interested in the arts“. Pretentious? Moi?
11 Disappearing, being a rotter? (5,3)
GOING OFF – Double definition. What happens to things if you leave them too long in our fridge… they disappear if the kids like them or go rotten if they don’t. I told you it was a double definition!
13 Looking less well, maybe friend has hesitation (5)
PALER – PAL (friend) + ER (hesitation) going all pasty-faced as the dreaded lurgy got him..
14 Lord with yen to be in good time (5)
EARLY – EARL (Lord) + Y (as the japanese currency is abbreviated). I hope I get this blog posted early enough for you to find it when you need it.
16 Changing triangle into new configuration (8)
ALTERING – (triangle)*.
17 Sticks around, being self-satisfied (4)
SMUG – That’s GUMS (sticks) going backwards [around]. How you might be after completing this crossword?
20 Terribly hot? No good — strip! (5)
THONG – This is a neat. [Terribly] (hot + NG)* giving us “a narrow strip of leather or other material“…… not “a skimpy bathing garment or pair of knickers like a G-string” – how could you be terribly hot in one of those? Oh, wait a minute…. THAT meaning of hot!
21 A certain Thomas, say, as one performing, but troubled within (7)
DOUBTER – You find what the ApostleThomas was by taking DOER (one performing) and putting (but)* [troubled] in it [within].
22 Container from different place, Crete (10)
RECEPTACLE – (place, Crete)* [different] gives us something to put your meat in before putting it on the shelf to find in 9a (q.v.).
Down
1 Some dismissed a charwoman in this country house (5)
DACHA – Hidden word [Some] {dismisse}D A CHA{rwoman}.- a second home you might have in the Russian countryside. Not me, but I wonder if there are some native LJ members who have one?
2 Fee levied for each person? University learner is trapped, giving up (12)
CAPITULATION – Slightly tricky. You need to know that “a payment arrangement for health care service providers such as physicians or nurse practitioners. It pays a physician or group of physicians a set amount for each enrolled person assigned to them, per period of time, whether or not that person seeks care”  is called a CAPITATION and put U (university) + L (learner) in it. Or give up and check this blog for the answer.
3 Friend and Monsieur dined (4)
MATE – A beautifully concise clue. M (Monsieur) + ATE (dined). En France, j’espère.
4 Grease everything, pull on the outside (6)
TALLOW – ALL (everything) inside TOW (pull) giving the grease that was used to make the sputtering candles that light my room as I write this blog. Or would if I didn’t have electricity. But then my computer wouldn’t work either. No. That was just 10a nonsense. Pretentious? Moi?
5 Criminal volunteer gets to finish inside (8)
OFFENDER – This is OFFER (volunteer) outside END (finish). If you are one of these you might get your collar felt by the Old Bill.
6 Dilemma: actor terribly OTT on stage? (12)
MELODRAMATIC – (Dliemma actor)* [terribly]. I think I’m safe in saying here that this is a characteristic that runs in the women on my wife’s side of the family, ‘cos none of them will read this. Unfortunately my daughters have inherited it too leading to regular tantrums at the dinner table.
7 Devious attempt to get hold of one newspaper (6)
SHIFTY – No not TRY, but SHY (attempt) getting hold of I (one) FT (paper – the pink one). A 5d may be like this.
12 Temporarily suspend professional baddie (8)
PROROGUE – PRO (professional) + ROGUE (baddy) should be enough to get you this word even if, like me, you didn’t know it means “to discontinue a session of (a parliament or other legislative assembly) without dissolving it“.
13 Small place with insects in vegetation (6)
PLANTS – PL (small place) + ANTS (insects) give us what you might find them on when they are not in their hill.
15 Nervous, looking over a cliff? (2,4)
ON EDGE – Double definition, second cryptic, related to the lip of a…
18 Stuff in deep narrow valley (5)
GORGE – Another double definition. A bit of a cheesy one, perhaps? Come on now, you are supposed to be crossword solvers!
19 Target of ridicule, however correct, ultimately (4)
BUTT – BUT (however) + {correct}T [ultimately] giving us what Baldrick was to many of Blackadder’s jokes, for example. Or I might be of some of your comments? Don’t hold back. I won’t mind. “Better to be ridiculed than to be ignored.”, as Brian Helgeland said in collecting a Razzie.

20 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 959 by Izetti – Pretentious? Moi?”

  1. My favourite one-word joke is: polysyllabophobia

    I found the long anagrams tricky, but mostly just relieved to get everything correct….to anyone who reads this before attempting today’s 15×15, beware: 21d has two equally plausible solutions. The correct answer is also the answer to “Cry about son’s final enemy”

  2. Excellent blog. My 23:12 rounds off a good week, with just wed’s 1a stopping a total of well under two hours for the five puzzles.

    Agree on the tight clueing.

    My favourite capital city is Rome.

    ‘Decimation’ is catnip to pedants who refuse to acknowledge that words can change over time. I’m in the camp of Oliver Kamm, who writes here on Saturdays.

    Rotter appears in the clues today, maybe Izetti thought it was his turn on the blog.

    DnK 12d PROROGUE.

    COD 6d

    I bunged ‘relating’ in for the anagram at 16a, one of the first anagrams I ever learnt. Along with carthorse/orchestra.

  3. I didn’t know CAPITATION, so BIFD, after getting some checkers. I also needed some checkers for 22ac. My fastest time in a long, long time. 3:37.
    1. … well done Kevin. The horses remained totally unafraid today. My only real pause for thought being 16a, was the anagrind ‘changing’ or ‘new configuration’? Either way, the answer could only be ‘altering’.
      4’30”
        1. Yes. Well done Kevin and Meadvale. I neglected to mention this took a minute over average with 7:30. But maybe double-checking so as not to embarrass myself here and doing it online slowed me down a bit compared to usual. It seemed like a well-positioned middle-of-the-road difficulty to me. So well Done!
  4. 12 minutes for this one, so my second missed target this week and on consecutive days. Didn’t actually know CAPITATION but it seemed a fair bet. I don’t see ARTY as a derogatory term; if I wanted to imply that I’d say ‘arty-farty’.

    Edited at 2017-11-10 08:00 am (UTC)

  5. Enjoyable crossword and fun blog – double pleasure, so thank you. Fairly straightforward.
  6. No problems with this one. Started with MATE and finished with RECEPTACLE in 7:55. Knew CAPITULATION and PROROGUE. FLESH held me up longest. Liked ON EDGE. A fun puzzle. Thanks Izetti and John.
  7. Just under 6 min – a clean sweep, solving each clue in sequence.
    Knew CAPITATION, as it described the fee for entering me on the roll of voters for the University seat. (Couldn’t use it as was underage for the election that abolished the seats, though it did eventually enable me to vote in the election of Chancellor.)

    Edited at 2017-11-10 11:35 am (UTC)

    1. Congratulations. I’ve only ever managed a clean sweep of the Downs after doing most of the acrosses.
  8. I thought this was a good challenge, with some helpful clues to give a start, and some seemingly impossible ones that promptly became obvious once solved (3d). Nearly biffd dirty rat for 11ac, which would have caused chaos, but fortunately thought better of it. 12d was my loi, not an everyday word but the cryptic was helpful. No exact time, due to an interruption, but somewhere around 35 mins. Invariant
  9. A good puzzle to finish the week with – as others have pointed out there was a nice mix of write ins and those requiring a bit of thought. I couldn’t fully parse 2d and initially had it ending in ‘ing’ which made 20a tricky. Didn’t know 12d (LOI) but it was kindly clued.
    Completed in 19 minutes.
    Thanks for the very enjoyable blog
  10. I had 10 minutes on this before going out and didn’t get very far. FOI was 9a.
    Once on the train I got going and finished in about 20 minutes in total. LOI was 10a.
    Agree with others, a good puzzle. COD to 13d but lots of good ones. Prorogue one to remember. David
  11. Well I enjoyed completing this on the tube last night having been to see Big Fish the musical. (a good show).
    Just checking the blog to understand 2d.
    Had to leave comment because I needed to let John know that his effort was appreciated and entertaining.
    I don’t know if you can see stats of the number of people that dip into the blog, but I was one more! 45 minutes of rewarding brain time.
    1. Thanks for the kind words. I’ve no idea how many actually read this, but is comments like this that keep me motivated to keep blogging.
  12. 20 mins. Completed as usual at work on Sunday.

    Nice puzzle, didn’t know capitation or prorogue.

    COD 20a, thong…matron!

  14. 7 completions in a row ends a good week! Probably about an hour. Tallow loi – kept looking for “tug”.

    Mighty

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