Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve encountered Trelawney on a blogging day and I was happy to see him. Solving was nice and smooth, with a big smile at the unusual first aid item in 13d. Thanks Trelawney!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, I generally italicise indicators unless it seems clearer not to. Where the removed letter is specified, [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. I sometimes omit link words and juxtaposition indicators if it doesn’t feel necessary to explain them. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section.
| Across | |
| 1a | Cuban’s heedlessly concealing wailing spirit (7) |
| BANSHEE — CuBAN’S HEedlessly concealing the answer | |
| 5a | Art gallery in North Dakota, say, not South (4) |
| TATE — [s]TATE (North Dakota, say), not S (south) | |
| 7a | Fling with head of navy is paradise (6) |
| HEAVEN — HEAVE (fling) + the first letter of (head of) Navy | |
| 8a | Give naughty child paintings, perhaps (6) |
| IMPART — IMP (naughty child) + ART (paintings, perhaps) | |
| 9a | Old lady and two friends cropped arresting picture showing ancient site (5,6) |
| MACHU PICCHU — MA (old lady) and CHUm CHUm (two friends) both short of the last letter (cropped) taking in (arresting) PIC (picture) | |
| 10a | Team returns, working for inventor (6) |
| EDISON — SIDE (team) goes backwards (returns) + ON (working) | |
| 12a | Sleep next to family’s serviette (6) |
| NAPKIN — NAP (sleep) next to KIN (family) | |
| 14a | Desirable partner reportedly unravels slogan (11) |
| CATCHPHRASE — CATCH (desirable partner) + PHRASE, which sounds like (reportedly) FRAYS (unravels) | |
| 17a | Catch Eminem song about otorhinolaryngology? (6) |
| ENTRAP — An ENT RAP could be an Eminem song about otorhinolaryngology | |
| 18a | Outlaw grabs cash machine for superhero (6) |
| BATMAN — BAN (outlaw) takes in (grabs) ATM (cash machine) | |
| 20a | Singer heading east within Scotland (4) |
| ALTO — The answer is reversed inside (heading east within) ScOTLAnd | |
| 21a | Engineers tried out not working any more (7) |
| RETIRED — RE (engineers) + TRIED anagrammed (out) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Farewell purchase for the audience (3) |
| BYE — Sounds like (… for the audience) BUY (purchase) | |
| 2d | No gambling and drinking, say, for beginners (7) |
| NOVICES — NO + VICES (gambling and drinking, say) | |
| 3d | Religious adherent back with uniform (5) |
| HINDU — HIND (back) + U (uniform) | |
| 4d | Volume of rabble-rousing cut at first (7) |
| EDITION — With the first letter removed (… cut at first), sEDITION (rabble-rousing) | |
| 5d | Subject to incomplete selection (5) |
| TOPIC — TO + PICk (selection) without its last letter (incomplete …) | |
| 6d | Squire out to change order for precious stone (9) |
| TURQUOISE — SQUIRE OUT anagrammed (to change order) | |
| 9d | Italian family ultimately ban nausea pill having therapeutic properties (9) |
| MEDICINAL — MEDICI (Italian family) + last letters of (ultimately) baN nauseA pilL | |
| 11d | Redesign phone or one has no chance of succeeding? (2-5) |
| NO-HOPER — Make an anagram of (redesign) PHONE OR | |
| 13d | Stapler is unusual first aid item! (7) |
| PLASTER — STAPLER is anagrammed (unusual) | |
| 15d | Where one can find core temperature approximately (5) |
| TORSO — T (temperature) + OR SO (approximately) | |
| 16d | Nun’s garment beginning to harden slightly (5) |
| HABIT — The first letter of (beginning to) Harden + A BIT (slightly) | |
| 19d | Help Matilda regularly (3) |
| AID — Every other letter of (… regularly) mAtIlDa | |
8 minutes, but I needed to look up the long word at 17ac before I could get a handle on the clue, especially with the other bit of wordplay referring to Eminem of whom I know nothing.
Isn’t ALTO heading West within Scotland, rather than East? I assumed this was a typo in the clue.
Pi ❤️
definitely looks that way
Good point!
Came on here to say the exact same thing.
Yes, I thought that too.
I thought that at first, but … no, surely it’s this: looking at “Scotland” in the clue, the heading [of the answer] – which is A – is east, i.e. is the easternmost letter. Isn’t that how it works?
Well spotted, Pi. I seldom know which way is up, let alone east and west! Just trusted that the setter was taking me in the right (left) direction …
My thoughts entirely. Clue confused me at first.
That’s what I thought, too.
7:58 for this gentle start to the week. No real issues except that I had no idea of what otorhinolaryngology is and could only guess it was something to do with Ear Nose and Throat. I also biffed TATE (the only art gallery there is in Crosswordland, it seems) and then overlooked parsing it.
I agree with Pi on the confusion on the direction of ALTO. It is perhaps though “from the east”, ie start at the east and going east to west, as in the standard usage that an East wind comes from the East. Whatever, it isn’t totally clear, so it was as well that the hidden was not difficult to find.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog.
Yes, if it said something different it would indeed mean something different! 😄
…. but an offshore wind doesn’t come from offshore. Weird!
It is indeed otos + rhinos + larynx, which are ear, nose, and throat. These roots should be known to solvers, as we often see derivatives like otoscope, rhinoceros, and laryngitis.
6:39
I’ve always (i.e., sometimes, like today) wondered why Machu has 1 C but Picchu 2. I checked my spelling before submitting.
According to Wiktionary:
“From Quechua machu (“old, ancient”) + pikchu (“mountain, peak”).”
So I guess there is a K in front of the Ch. Didn’t notice the K when I was there but then there weren’t many Quechua speakers left.
I had it twice in Cheating Machine, once incorrectly (Pichu.)
A nice gentle puzzle for a Monday.
Started with BANSHEE and finished with EDITION IN 4.12 but forgot to go back and parse MACHU PICCHU.
Thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.
🚀
15:30 – quicker than average with just two biffs: ENTRAP and TATE (seemingly the only gallery in crossword land).
I thought I was going to achieve “all the acrosses and then all the downs”, but Eminem got in the way. That was the only obstacle though! Fortunately the word leapt out from the checkers when I returned to it, though I didn’t understand it and was hoping that the blog would tell me what “otorhinolaryngology” is.
For anyone as baffled as I was, Collins helpfully says “another name for otolaryngology” … 🙄 … which in turn is “the branch of medicine concerned with the ear, nose, and throat and their diseases”. Aha! And there was I wondering how Tolkien came into this.
All done in 05:47 for an Excellent Day. COD PLASTER. Many thanks Kitty and the Squire.
Sorry Templar, I had intended to expand upon the ENT – that was totally a first draft explanation which I was going to come back to but forgot about.
No worries K – I seem to be the only person thick enough not to have been able to work it out!
You still worked out in a much shorter time than I’ve been on their waiting list.
10:45
COD to ENTRAP.
LOI TORSO, which needed an alphabet trawl, since my mind was stuck on cores being in fruit and computers.
Thanks Kitty and Trelawney
No problems apart from early morning brain struggling to parse TATE. Could not name an Eminem song but worked out ENT from the Ikea components of the NHO 19 letter word. Surely not many of them outside the medical world. Thanks Kitty and Trelawney.
At last I’ve managed to complete a puzzle without a typo! From BANSHEE to CATCHPHRASE in 6:42. Liked ENTRAP. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
10.28 Yay! PB or close. A fleeting taste of childhood delight, a flavour often lost as we travel through the years.
What fun we had.
Am to be found humming my way through the day.
Thank you Trelawney and Kitty.
Jolly well done!
We don’t time ourselves as I think panicking about the time would stop me concentrating on solving (Mr SR is a cooler piece of work) but it must be a lovely feeling getting a PB 🔥
How nice you are, we thank you.
..and not quite so much to hum happily about these days – so simple pleasures and all that…
There’s a lot to be said for simple pleasures 😊
Hurray! 🎉
Trelawney does it again! Good puzzle with plenty of twists. Knowing that this setter is always fair but interesting I relaxed, enjoyed this, and finished in 12.50 which is fine for me.
I liked 17a and only parsed it as I was writing it in when ENT clicked to precede RAP.
Like others, I wondered about the spelling of 9a but recalled it from S. American visits. I needed the crossers for CATCHPHRASE and smiled as it clicked.
An enjoyable start to the week, especially after some recent horrors.
Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.
10 minutes. Steadily worked through this one. ALTO went in from the def without problems despite the directional uncertainty in the wordplay. I’m glad the ENT RAP didn’t refer to the title of a specific’Eminem song’ – come back here in a few years’ time and it probably will. Combining clues, I liked the ‘Stapler’ ‘having therapeutic properties’.
Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty
Straightforward start to the week all green in 6:12. Spotted the “ENT” straight off on reading that clue. Slowed a bit on thinking about the spelling of the ancient site. Last one in was EDITION which For some reason I had but discounted the first time around
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty
I went west on ALTO without really considering the flaw in the clue, and was left with only MACHU PICCHU after the first pass (simply because I wasn’t sure of the spelling).
Thanks Kitty and Trelawney.
FOI BANSHEE
LOI MACHU PICCHU
COD. CATCHPHRASE
TIME 2:22
Sub-Verlaine!
omg
For once, I’ve done this one on the day after dropping my car off at the dealer and sitting in a coffee shop while I wait for it to be done. No time, I never bother, but probably less than 20 mins, just happy to finish without aids. No particular problems once I had a few crossers in. 9a became obvious, once I had the final U but I had to check the spelling of the second word. 15a was LOI but, as I do Pilates, I should have got it sooner.
This PM is the local U3A cryptic crossword group, so this warm up might be helpful.
Thanks for QC and blog.
Cryptic crossword group? Sounds fun, what happens at these meetings?
Yes, there is a Cryptic Crossword group via our local U3A (University of the 3rd Age playgroup), but I wasn’t sure it wd be as much fun as this one.
Ours is Malvern. Where’s yours?
U3A playgroup with pre-school children, must be fun. sorry..
Yes, ours is U3A as well. We do the Guardian quiptic. We work individually for a while and then share a few answers. Repeat for abt 40 mins, until it’s complete. Then we have tea and everyone gets a copy of the solution for a tougher crossword, each with an answer highlighted. Each then explains their solution – often with a bit of sharing. Then we do a FT crossword in a similar way to the first.
A good time is had by all, it’s a popular group.
U3A Cryptic Crossword Group? I run one for my local U3A in Bury St. Edmunds. We have a lot of fun. Our material (including tutorial material) is all available online. If anyone reading this wants access to it, drop me a message to [email protected] .
8 after 20 and 16 after 35
I am just about to complete a course on Digital Marketing which basically means advertising on social media. I have a presentation tomorrow which I’ll do remotely. My product is an ebook “Aero testing in the real world”. This is aero testing for cycling enthusiast. This is a long way round to explaining Nutshell…
Nut as in head, shell as in protective layer, hence my strap line “Getting aero in a Nutshell” as in getting aero in a cycling helmet. My trading name is FloatAero. There is another explanation for the acronym FLOAT…
Fastest ? Of All Time
Hoping for a nice friendly Trelawney … but completely stumped by the desirable partner, NHO any Eminem song, and no idea what core temperature is all about. Thank you, Kitty, for revealing the secrets – relieved to see no need to RAP myself over the knuckles, would never have got any of those. So that’s what rabble-rousing is … though did biff EDITION.
15:32
I have to confess to looking up ‘otorhinolaryngology’ and, as others, pleased the answer wasn’t an actual Eminem song.
A very nice work out from Trelawney.
FOI: TATE
LOI: EDITION
COD: ENTRAP (the PDM raised a smile)
Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty
Enjoyable, encouraging QC. A boost to the morale. Biffed ENTRAP without parsing. LOI EDITION, only other one needing much pause for thought.
FOI BANSHEE.
Liked H A BIT, TO PIC, TORSO, CATCHPHRASE, among others.
Thanks vm, Kitty.
All but 3 on the across, all but two on the down passes, two more acrosses and then juddering halt. DNK any Eminem songs or what o….y meant but finally managed to guess it from “catch” with the N & the P. Had Turbo and Torso written down as the only things that fitted 15d but couldn’t even vaguely fit either to the clue so didn’t put either in. I know apples and nuclear power stations have cores, but do human beings? Apparently so. I am guessing that it means that “temperature” is doing double duty. In which case definition is “where one can find core temperature” which does make sense. Just didnt get 4d although it is not hard in retrospect, I was thinking litres and loudspeakers, and overlooked books. Didnt notice the east/west thing but I agree it should be west; as soon as I see a direction I assume a reverse inclusion, even north would have done. Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.
Regards Ham
(For some reason I cant log in, I get “incorrect password”, on my first try, even though my username and password are filled in by Windows, and “too many login attempts” on my second.)
I’ll send you a reset password link.
A decent time to start the week at 6.22, but would have been faster if I’d worked out what was going on with my LOI ENTRAP. In the end I trusted to luck it was right, but at least had the foresight to check the parsing of MACHU PICCHU before submitting, where I had misspelt it with a T instead of the first C in PICCHU. So all correct in the end, although in my haste I failed to notice the parsing anomaly of the east/west error in the clueing of 20ac.
Enjoyable puzzle, 9:05 for me. I’d have not guessed at how to spell MACHU PICCHU but nice cluing made the correct answer obvious. ENTRAP raised a smile when I paused to figure out how to break down the word at the end. Agree with @Pi-Curious that the ALTO is heading West in Scotland now that I look at it, but I didn’t notice whilst solving.
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
The first 14 answers went in at a furious rate of knots leading me to think I’d breeze this one. However, I struggled with some of the clues. I knew what otorhinolaryngology was, but the only Eminem song I know is STAN, which didn’t help me here. The “about” in the clue threw me as I thought it meant “around”, as in an Eminem song went around ENT.
Nice start to the week though.
1st lap: 14
Aided: 4
Answered correctly: All
24:20
To be fair – I was trying to stick Stan in as well.
14.42
A lovely straightforward QC.
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
I found this more difficult than the average Trelawney puzzle and was subject to numerous interruptions during the solve but still came in at 17 mins, so it can’t have been that bad. I couldn’t parse TATE or MACHU PICCHU but managed to understand what was going on at 17ac without having much knowledge of either Eminem or medical matters.
FOI – 10ac EDISON
LOI – 4dn EDITION
CODs – 9dn MEDICINAL and 15dn TORSO.
Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty
11:09, but I looked up otorhinowhateveritwas, which presumably consigns me to the outer darkness.
Thank you for the blog!
Very little signal where I am ATM but 2 wombats in the tree above me!
8:16 a Rare Sub Ten
7:41, time wasted correcting typos costing me a spot in the top 100
4:15
Apart from the long word in 17a which fortunately derailed me only for a short while, no real issues with this very-Mondayish puzzle, easing us into the week.
Thanks Kitty and Trelawney
Whizzed through this friendly offering from Trelawney. Cuppa still on the hot side of warm when my LOI EDITION went in.
COD:TORSO made me smile, as did MEDICINAL
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty
TORSO and EDITION made me smile which is always a good thing on a dark Monday morning.
The rest of the puzzle was very pleasant and today I learned how to spell PICCHU despite seeing it written down dozens of times. Two Cs really? And no T.
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
My thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.
A nice Xword and a good blog, all fine apart from a loooong pause at the crossing 17a Entrap and 15d Torso. I felt that they were both a bit tricky as core=torso isn’t blindingly obvious, and no-one uses THAT word when ENT will do fine. As it is a long way from “something to do with a throat” to ENT, I thought that hard. Also I HHO but know nothing about Eminem, didn’t know them as rappers. So I had to biff it from “Catch” with only 2 crossers. Then 15d “T or so” occurred to me and off we went.
Still all’s well and all that.
6.47 Uneventful. LOI EDITION. Kitty, there’s a typo (Tines) in the blog title. Thanks for the blog and thanks Trelawney.
Oops! Fixed now, thank you.
An enjoyable crossword. I was held up by TORSO and – more especially – by Eminem: my brain goes into panic mode when it knows nothing about the subject (similarly when the clue has anything to do with computing). Finally all completed – even the spelling (though not the parsing) of MACHU PICCHU – in 16.52.
10:22
Knew the 19 letter monster, and it makes a change from “hospital department”.
COD NOVICES, although I had NEWBIES at first.
A pretty swift 8:33 here with the major headscratching being our LOI TORSO, a nice clue once the penny dropped and feeling grateful to have taken time over it rather than bunging in turbo out of frustration. Could never have told you that the oto.. word existed but its various bits led reasonably swiftly to ENT and thence to ENTRAP, with more gratitude that all we needed to know of Eminem was that he is a rap artist. A MER at the equivalence of heave and fling, the latter for me implying substantially greater rapidity of action than the former, but the answer was clear. Thanks, Kitty and Trelawney.
A nice start to the week. No problem in finding the hidden ALTO and moved on. 6d looked as if Squire out might lead me back to a self-referencing Trelawney, but not the case! Another QC with answers used in recent puzzles – do some setters reckon they can outdo others with ‘better’ cluing? Solved much earlier in the day than usual – last week it sometimes had to await completion until the televised snooker had finished!
FOI 1a banshee
LOI 17a entrap
COD 14a catchphrase
My only MER was Batman being described as a superhero. He doesn’t have any superpowers, he’s just an ultra fit man with plenty of gadgets.🙂
Worked through nicely, must be Monday. About 25 mins. Needed crossers to spell Machu Picchu correctly.
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty
Thanks Kitty for parsing ENTRAP. Other than that I breezed through from BANSHEE to EDITION in 5:20. Happy Monday!
Got there in 24 minutes today, which is a decent time for me.
I found CATCHPHRASE and ENTRAP quite difficult and had to wait for 4d before deciding on the spelling of MACHU PICCHU. Trouble was that 4d (EDITION) was my LOI and it’s not a synonym of volume in my book. Each edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica came in many different volumes, I think …. or am I being a dimwit, as usual.
Many thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.
7:49 to do this typically smooth puzzle from Trelawney. A significant chunk of time was spent marveling at the word “otorhinolaryngology”. I felt rather stupid and was surprised to be under 8 minutes, so expect there may be some blazing times.
I loved MACHU PICCHU, with its clear wordplay that got me there in spite of my unsureness about the spelling. Always a sucker for an amusing surface, I paused to enjoy HEAVEN. I agree with other commenters about the misdirection (not in a good way) at my LOI 20a ALTO. Trying to find a justification, I can only think of “the heading is at the east end”, not very convincing.
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
15 mins…
Oddly, it took me quite a while to get going on this, especially as Trelawney tends to be one of the easier setters. Thankfully, 9ac “Machu Picchu” had enough checkers and clueing so I avoided misspelling it.
FOI – 5dn “Topic”
LOI – 15dn “Torso”
COD – 5ac “Tate”
Thanks as usual!
PS. I know this has been mentioned before, but my avatar no longer appears when I post – even though it is still there as part of my account profile. Was there an easy solution?
Not for the first time I’ve found I can’t spell MACHU PICCHU and was slow on ENTRAP and TORSO at the end. Lots of effort in the SW squandered by using what I thought was the spelling without pausing to parse. Oops.
20 mins. Words went in quicker once I got on the wavelength e.g. or so for approximately.
Also had to look up otor……. What’s wrong with usual def of ENT ‘hospital dept. ‘ * shakes fist at Trelawney*.
Thanks all
A very enjoyable solve today. Like others, I had to look up the long word (although I had that the rhino bit was something to do with noses) as I couldn’t squeeze Stan in either.
11:13. I managed to convince myself that “heading east” worked OK to give ALTO, in the same way as Martinů, much earlier in this blog, and Steel City, despite her reservations. The heading (A) is at the east.
I particularly liked T OR SO and H A BIT.
Thank you Trelawney and Kitty
Fun Monday.
Can you imagine the NHS having to put up signs saying OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY DEPT in all the hospitals?
🤯
6.56. I presume that ‘core’ in the clue for ‘torso’ has something to do with fitness, but I’m not at all sure.
I was so busy with my blog puzzle and Jason’s contribution that I didn’t get around to doing this one until now. I found it really quite easy, with edition giving me the correct spelling of Machu Picchu. I had the pic in the wrong place until then.
Time: 7:18