A nice straightforward set of clues to ease us into 2023. Thanks to Vulcan.
(I’m going to be out all day so will be unable to respond to comments or correct errors till the evening.)
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | SAMPLER | Needlework more than enough to occupy sister (7) AMPLE in S[iste]R |
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| 5 | DEBATER | Berated crazy speaker (7) BERATED* |
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| 9 | RT REV | Title of Sir Trevor not used in full (2,3) Hidden in siR TREVor |
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| 10 | MENDACITY | Deceit to get a financial centre working again (9) To “get a financial centre working again” is to MEND A CITY |
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| 11 | WESTERNER | Maybe American partners at table less easy-going (9) W E (west and east, bridge players) + STERNER |
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| 12 | BAGEL | Seeing roll, one jokingly pulled sailor back (5) Reverse of LEG (“you’re pulling my leg”) + AB (sailor) |
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| 13 | PRANK | Parking where taxis do for a lark (5) P + RANK |
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| 15 | SENTIENCE | Feeling dreadfully intense before church (9) INTENSE* + CE |
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| 18 | MILLICENT | Girl worth €0.00001? (9) €0.00001 is 1/1000 of a cent or a MILLI-CENT |
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| 19 | GATES | Billionaire has these guarding his entrance? (5) Double definition |
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| 21 | NUDGE | A little reminder, for example, to ask repeatedly for money back (5) Reverse of EG (for example) + DUN (to pester for money, e.g. repayment of a debt) |
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| 23 | SMELL A RAT | Have a nose for trouble? (5,1,3) Cryptic definition |
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| 25 | KERB DRILL | A contribution to road safety, one digging up part of the pavement? (4,5) Double definition – the Kerb Drill was a rather militaristic ritual (“At the kerb, halt!”) to teach children to cross roads safely, later replaced by the Green Cross Code and other systems |
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| 26 | GAFFE | Mistake supplying energy to house (5) GAFF (slang for a house) + E |
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| 27 | RESPECT | Considerately treat muscle during inactivity (7) PEC (muscle) in REST |
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| 28 | YANGTZE | Zany, get splashing in river (7) (ZANY GET)* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | SCREW UP | Working men in drink get tight (5,2) CREW in SUP |
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| 2 | MARE’S TAIL | Materials processed in plant (5,4) MATERIALS* – another name for the Horsetail, a very persistent weed |
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| 3 | LIVRE | Old French coin laid very oddly on top of escritoire (5) Odd letters of LaId VeRy + E[scritoire] |
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| 4 | REMINISCE | Look back on cars: extremely comfortable (9) RE (about, on) + MINIS (cars) + C[omfortabl]E |
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| 5 | DONOR | One offering free kebab, say? (5) Homophone of “Doner”, though in my experience the kebab is more usually pronounced with a short O |
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| 6 | BRAMBLING | Bird (black) wandering about (9) B + RAMBLING |
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| 7 | THING | Feeble golf is an obsession (5) THIN + G |
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| 8 | ROYAL WE | Lawyer confused about old special plural (5,2) O in LAWYER* |
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| 14 | KNIFE-EDGE | One’s precariously balanced here on side of cutter (5-4) Double definition |
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| 16 | NOT REALLY | Our French colleague? Hardly (3,6) NOTRE (French “our”) + ALLY |
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| 17 | NET PROFIT | Deductions come to this positive result: catch academic at it (3,6) NET (catch) + PROF[essor] + IT |
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| 18 | MONIKER | More ink spilled fixing name (7) (MORE INK)* |
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| 20 | SO THERE | Defiant remark, angry about article (2,5) THE (definite article) in SORE |
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| 22 | DARTS | Shoots game (5) Double definition |
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| 23 | SKINT | Just over half moulded to the body? That’s very poor (5) Just over half of SKIN Tight |
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| 24 | LOG ON | Gain access using emblem and name (3,2) LOGO + N |
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Thanks for this. I just couldn’t get the parsing of SKINT – now I’m wondering how I missed it.
I rushed a bit and had Log In instead of LOG ON and couldn’t work out how a Logi was an emblem. Doh. I guess the fact that Logies are TV awards in Australia aided in confusing me.
Some nice clues. ROYAL WE was good, but the best for me was MILLICENT.
I would have commented earlier but I got sidetracked reading about Sir Trevor Huddleston, who I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t heard of. What a great man he was, and what a great TILT this was for me. That was my favourite clue, but I also liked the whimsical 18a MILLICENT and the deceptive 10a MENDACITY.
Thanks Vulcan for the educational fun, and Andrew for the excellent blog.
And a happy new year to all those who make this site such a pleasure to enjoy.
Thanks for the blog.
Nothing too tricky, though I did wonder what SEEING was doing jn 12a? Confused me, though that’s not hard.
Thanks to V too.
Mostly clear sailing, and enjoyable. I wasn’t amiliar with “dun”, so was unable to parse NUDGE. Also failed to parse SKINT, and was unaware of “gaff” as a house (Collins says archaic British slang, so no surprise). And never heard of bramblings.
Plenty of smiles, my favourite was probably MENDACITY.
Thanks Andrew and Vulcan.
I thought I was on for a PB, but after about 3/4 of the clues, I slowed down considerably.
As others have remarked, MENDACITY and MILLICENT were fine clues, but I do query the “Seeing” in the BAGEL clue – I realise it is there for the surface, but does it play any other part?
Surely doner is pronounced ‘dern’-er because the o has an umlaut in Turkish? Definitely not like ‘donor’ anyway!
MILLICENT magnificent. Ditto MENDACITY. Lots else to like. Thanks, Vulcan and Andrew.
A lovely gentle stroll for a Monday with my usual numerical order completely thrown by spotting the clue for MILLICENT which just had to be done first. What a fun concept.
I’m OK with ‘Seeing’: it’s used in the same way as ‘In’ or even ‘It’s’ can be . If the two parts if the clue were transposed, it would be the link word in the middle but it’s come at the front end due to the phrasing. I don’t really consider it to be a digression from the ‘definition at one end or the other’ protocol – but then I’m notoriously stretchy so what do I know? 😉
Hawa @7: there were not enough Turkish grammarians around when I was at uni as a doner-rhyming-with-boner kebab was certainly available as an unwise post-carousal pick-me-up.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Postmark @9 – thanks. I’m pretty rubbish at all this so I am happy to bow to your greater knowledge.
I had always seen words like ‘it’, ‘to’ ‘for’ etc. to be ‘link words’ to make the wordplay more readable. SEEING seems a bit of a stretch to add sense to the wordplay. It had me thinking the definition was SEEING!
Thanks again.
Did anyone else see a possible theme with MENDACITY, NOT REALLY, PRANK, NUDGE (nudge, nudge, wink, wink),jokingIy, leg-pulling in BAGEL, GAFFE, and SCREW-UP?
Bagels have a hole in them so maybe SEEING ROLL is just a whimsical definition?
I was familiar with Dunning Letters but had always assumed it must be someone’s name. Every day’s a school day 🙂
Cheers V&A
I rest my case – Cincinnati’s Mr Bagel
When I started this,this morning, it felt hard for a monday and then I had to go to a Ngày Gi? (the first anniversary of a Vietnamese death, which involves a lot of eating and drinking). When I came home, I fairly sailed through it despite my slightly addled state.
I chuckled more than once, so thanks Vulcan and Andrew and a belated New Year’s greeting.
Hawa@7. Yes, that’s how I remember the pronunciation of [dœ?næ? ce?bap] but haven’t heard that for a long time.
I think the pronunciation has become Anglicisized.
[me@15n. Can’t do the phonetics, need essexboy.]
Nobody used to complain about a doner kebab not sounding like a donor kebab when I was on the way home from the Rissole. I just paid the money and they gave me one.
[TimC @17. Along with a double entendre?]
[Crispy @18: A rissole – double entendre? Not a homophone then?]
[Tim C@17. Have you become Ozicisized? Who else would know what a Rissole was? For anyone else wondering, it’s the Australian slang for the RSL, Returned and Services Leagues (Club} ]
[PostMark@19. They gave him one. As in “I asked the barman for a double entendre, so he gave me one”]
[Ozicized, although Ozicisized might have more connotations. Let’s not go there.]
[Ha ha Crispy@21.]
paddymelon@20 thanks for the explanation of Rissole. Even after 30 years in Australia I had never heard it!
18a A 1/1000 of a cent or MILLIcet would be written €0.001 wouldn’t it? So imho V has too many zeroes. Sorry to nitpick because I loved the entire puzzle. Maybe it’s a secret extra test 😉 Thanks V and A
[cellomaniac@3. I didn’t look up Sir Trevor Huddleston as I didn’t need to for the solve. But your comment prompted me to. It seems there may be more to him than his good works. Scotland Yard and Private Eye apparently had different ideas.]
Oh behave you lot. As paddymelon says a Rissole is local slang for an RSL (glad to provide some education Hawa @24) which is a club where they steal a lot of money from you using a deception called “the pokies” (no double entendre intended)
What’s a double entendre anyway? Can somebody fill me in?
[Tim C @27: I’m not so sure an RSL is any better than a rissole …]
Morello@25 €0,001 would be a thousandth of a Euro; the other zeroes are there to make it a fraction of a cent.
Paddy melon@11- good spot, I’d add MENDACITY and SMELL A RAT to your list.
Happy New Year everyone and thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Sorry Paddymelon, just realised you already had MENDACITY.
[PostMark @28… a Donor Kebab is much better than a Rissole]
Thanks, Vulcan & Andrew. A lovely fun puzzle to start the week – I sometimes have trouble getting on Vulcan’s wavelength but I breezed through this one and smiled often as I did. Smashing.
Very gentle even for a Monday. Easing us into 2023?
NOT REALLY and MILLICENT were good. The homophone was iffy at best.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
I like Bodycheetah’s idea of a “seeing roll”. [Tim C @31 I am very fond of a rissole myself, standard Tuesday fare, when I was growing up, using the last bits of the Sunday dinner with lots of tomato sauce]
I had vague memory of DUN but missed the SKINT parsing.
Pleasant start to year. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Some very good clues have already been mentioned; however I though “where taxis do” in 13a was a bit clumsy.
Held up by entering LIONS for 19a – it nearly works!
Good fun and echo the applause for MILLICENT and MENDACITY. Maybe some of the commenters above have overdosed on the ‘Carry On’ films over the festive period! Nho of dun.
Ta Vulcan & Andrew.
I’ve seen Paul do it, now I’m seeing Vulcan do it.
bc @12 – wasn’t Lord Dunning Master of the Bagels?
pdm @16 – Wiktionary has /dɒnə(ɹ) kəbæb/ for UK pronunciation, and /doʊnɚ kɪ’bɑb/ for USA (another ‘broad’ American ‘a’ for Gervase’s pasta/latte collection) – neither of which, I suspect, would delight the Turkish. The Germans say Döner, but then they have a ready-made ö, which also comes in handy for ökologisch. German Doner Kebab makes a point, in fact a couple of points, of the umlaut in its lögö. (Reminds me of muffin’s Høst story.)
Nice to see the BRAMBLING again – could it be clued as ‘Stoker choker chirper?’
Thank yöu V & A.
DONOR KEBAB is a scary concept- I’ve often wondered what kind of meat they’re made of 🙂
Enjoyable puzzle, nice and easy for a Monday.
New for me: MARE’S TAIL plant; GAFF = house or flat as in home.
Liked: ROYAL WE, NOT REALLY, LOG ON.
I did not parse 23d.
Thanks, both.
25 has reminded me that I was a member of the Tufty Club way back when. It must have been worthwhile, because I have never been run over, and apparently it’s still going. I found the Green Cross Man a bit scary, to be frank.
[essexboy@38. ”Stoker choker chirper”. Brilliant clue for BRAMBLING! Loved your pun on the Turkish delight.
If and when you leave your day job, and I live long enough, hope to see you here.
Bodycheetah@39 Doner kebabs are the best nutrition, taste and cost value of any ‘take-away’ food I know.
I’ve asked my family, that when they lock me up in the dementia unit, to please bring me kebabs. ]
Relatively painless start to the week.
MENDACITY, NOT REALLY and MILLICENT stood out for me.
I have heard the kebab pronounced to rhyme with either ‘boner’ or ‘honour’ so I wasn’t too discomfited by the homophone (the Turkish döner kebap means ‘spinning kebab’. The word ‘kebab’ itself is Arabic, from a Semitic root meaning either ‘rolled over’ or ‘roasted’ – there’s apparently some debate about this).
I was a bit more unsure about a BAGEL being a roll, but I suppose the latter term lox up a wide variety of baked goods.
Thanks to S&B
A nice start to the new year. I’m old enough to REMINISCE about the KERB DRILL, MILLICENT Martin and PRANKs on /Candid Camera/Game for a Laugh/Beadle’s About/.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
This was a gentle start to the week/year and much appreciated. About 80% went in first pass and then I had to work at the last few. The good ones/questionable ones have already been mentioned so I won’t repeat.
(Jorge Ramon @41, was that because Dave Prowse who was the Green Cross man was also inside the Darth Vader costume in Star Wars?)
Larry @29 thanks for the clarification 🙂
[Jorge @41 your instincts were sound – the green cross code man was in fact Darth Vader
I’m also a surviving member of the tufty club but I suppose we’re unlikely to hear from anyone for whom the advice didn’t work ]
Good Monday puzzle, took me a bit longer than the quiptic so all is well with the world. Loved NOT RE/ALLY but I am a sucker for French wordplay. Also loved REMINISCE.
Cheers both.
Thanks for the blog, perfect for the Monday tradition , I liked some of the shorter words, RT REV , BAGEL, SKINT plus MILLICENT which is quite original. We have four new SI prefixes for setters to play with.
BRAMBLINGS are beautiful birds , like a cross between a bullfinch and chaffinch , only see them during harsh weather .
DUN is used by Orwell a lot in Down and Out …..
Always duns at the restaurant where he has arranged a job but never seems likely to open.
[AlanC@37 , you are already 1-0 down this year , see the Cyclops . You need to up your game or perhaps change your manager]
[Bodycheetah@39. My Dad was a butcher in the days when they still had sawdust on the floor to stop them slipping over on greasy fat. People used to wonder about what was in sausages then, long before the days of doner kebabs.
Larry@29. Thank you. Anyone else for a theme?]
Lovely gentle start to the year. MILLICENT was great and I enjoyed the definition for NET PROFIT. Thanks V&A.
Gentle start to the week, I learned a bird and a plant today.
Just don’t ask for the Donner kebab…
[paddymelon @51: I fear these days, the sawdust would be swept up and reprocessed as value burgers or similar. Probably not in a ‘proper’ butchers.
In similar vein, I recall my horror on learning that some 40% of a value fishfinger is actually called sawdust. It is what you get when the huge blocks of frozen fish have been sawn into the appropriate chunks. Yummy.]
Nice puzzle to start the year, and HNY to everybody.
Bagel as a roll is what you find in dictionaries, but rarely in conversation. Fine in a clue.
Thanks V&A (didn’t Victoria say “We are not a museum?”)
Very nice indeed. We had an 18thC SAMPLER in the family for a while, but it disappeared without apparent trace about fifty years ago. Had wondered about Lions on top of and guarding the millionaire’s GATES for a brief while with the singular version appearing in the word itself. As did Muffin@36, I see. Thanks Vulcan and Peter…
…oh, sorry, Andrew of course!
Nice gentle one (with a few that I found trickier) today.
DUN was new to me, and apparently I only just learned today what MENDACITY means in the dictionary.
Many thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle, and to Andrew for the blog.
~Matt
KERB DRILL, BRAMBLINGS and GAFF for house were new to me. BRAMBLING was a jorum, and I found it’s a charming-looking little bird with impressive migratory patterns.
Nowadays, or at least in the 80’s when I was living in France, a “livre” is (informally, I think) a unit of weight or half a kilo, or approximately a pound. You can ask the person behind the counter for a livre of cheese.
muffin@36 I’m guessing that “where taxis do” is a mis-typing of “where taxis go,” which makes the clue make sense. The New York Public Library main branch has lions guarding its entrance, whose names are Patience and Fortitude.
AlanC@37 Never having seen a Carry On film, I’m baffled at your reference. Can you explain a bit?
eb@38 what is this oekologisch thing? And what was muffin’s story with the letter I can’t produce?
I enjoyed the milli-cent and the lions. Thanks, Vulcan and Andrew.
Enjoyable romp – thanks both. I had trouble with WESTERNER (d’oh) and the eyebrows wiggle somewhat at SKINT (I don’t see how it’s possible to get from the clue to the answer without crossers – it’s asking a lot to subtract four letters from an answer-in-law).
Valentine@59: ‘Carry On’ films – I shouldn’t trouble myself if I were you. Much admired though they be they are of their time and place and these days seem, well, a bit stilted and over-wrought. They were notorious for double-entendres e.g. a doctor is applying a stethoscope to a buxom Barbara Windsor and asking for ‘Big breaths’ receives the reply ‘Yeth, and I’m only thixteen’. Outrageous in its day of course.
[Valentine @59
My story was about a Dane called Høst trying to register at a French hotel. The concierge said “Welcome Monsieur…”, then was baffled, as he wouldn’t pronounce the initial H or the trailing ST, which only left him the O, and that was crossed out…]
Happy New Year all. This blog is largely responsible for my entry into the world of cryptics and now I don’t need quite as much help as before, the friendliness keeps me coming back – the last place on the internet where people can still disagree agreeably?
Thanks setters, bloggers and all.
muffin@61 The Dane joke doesn’t quite work really, because while a final S or T wouldn’t be pronounced in French, ST together would be. The Norman port of Brest isnt’s called “Brehh..” (And Captain Haddock in Tintin wouldn’t say “Tonnerre de Breh either.”)
Muffin@36, Valentine @59, I read 13A as meaning “Parking where taxis park …”, which seemed OK to me.
[The De Witt bagelry in upstate NY used to advertise with “they can’t keep their hands off our buns” – but the Americans have no word for double entendre.]
V@63: It works fine as a joke though and is clearly memorable (to eb@least).
Pretty fun and not too tricky for a total novice! Nice distraction from essay writing.
Thought NOT REALLY was great, never heard of MENDACITY or DUN before though…
In 12a, is AB = Sailor a recurring crossword ‘thing’? Any explanations would be great. Not sure I’ve ever come across it before.
The aha moments through this were great, thanks everyone!! 🙂
poppym@: AB = Sailor (AB means able-bodied seaman) is indeed what is generally called a ‘chestnut’ (something that is used over and over?); you will also meet ‘Tar’ = Sailor.
Poppy also look out for OS , ordinary seaman, Jack ans Salt. Another set for soldiers. We all had to go through this at one time.
Alphalpha@ 60 when I see almost half for (5) I think 9 letters, moulded to the body has to be skintight.
…also “very poor” is an obvious definition.
I enjoyed this, with “where taxis do” a particular favourite.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
Good start to the year for us! Solved in under an hour for the first time ever …. so does this mean we’re no longer beginners?
Favourites were MILLICENT, RT REV and ROYAL WE.
Thanks Alphalpha + Roz, super helpful! Learned a few tricks from my Dad through the years, so it’s nice to keep that going now.
Congrats to Kandy @72; poppym @66 you might also meet RN (Royal Navy) = ‘sailors’.
[Valentine @63, how about est? ( = is, not east)
Our word ecology is a ‘calque’ (loan translation) of German Ökologie, coined in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel. (One of his happier legacies – he’s also remembered for his ideas on eugenics, ‘scientific’ racism and Social Darwinism. Not an antisemite though, and his influence on later Nazi thought is disputed.) He derived it from Greek οίκος (= house). We also get economy, and more distantly ecumenical, from the same root – German Ökonomie, ökumenisch. The German ö, and the older English spellings oecology, oeconomy, oecumenical reflect the fact that the omicron-iota diphthong in Greek was rendered ‘oe’ in Latin. In English we’ve lost the initial o in many of these words, and you Yanks have done a more thorough job of it than we have!]
Paddymelon @51 and Post Mark @ 54 – during tough times sawdust was used to fill half of the sausages because it was hard to make both ends meat.
Mnay thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
😀
Didn’t fully parse SKINT or NUDGE. I can see how they work now, but I’ve never heard of the word DUN to mean to pester for money, presumably modern British slang (I’ve lived away from the UK for nearly forty years)
John M: actually I think of DUN as being rather old-fashioned!
nho Dun either – but I have read down and out, I suppose I’m a dunce. Don’t like screw up = get tight. Maybe gets instead of get might have worked, but then tight would have had to be tighten.
Dun isn’t slang, UK or otherwise. It’s a standard accountancy term.
Anything to do with Dun & Bradstreet?