Picaroon presents a Prize puzzle for your perspicacious pleasure…
…and very Picaroon-esque it is too. (Those outer ‘unches’ hinted at some sort of thematic/perimetrical message, but that was not to be.)
Just a reasonably gentle puzzle with a lot of nice surface reads and little ticks on my working copy indicating ‘that was nice’, etc.
12A ANTICLERICALISM tickled my fancy, not just for the neat juxtaposition of ‘milliner’ and ‘cloth’ in anagram fodder and definition, respectively, but it also invoked childhood memories of being challenged to spell ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM by my grandfather! Strange, you rarely see that word in a cryptic puzzle…I wonder why…
Lots of other gems – the ‘bi toff’ in A BIT OFF at 18D; 5D SALAD CREAM as a close cousin of ‘mayo’; the 7D DENTIST treating a poor canine; the ‘woke’ Grauniad in ‘an’ for AWOKEN at 9A…and a couple of darker themes, with the mistreatment of cats in 8A WHIPPETS; the hair fetishist as a (hyphenated?) LOCKKEEPER; and Germany being INDUCED to follow a fascist leader, albeit an Italian one, at 19D…
Nothing here to scare the horses, I would suggest, but they would be tapping their hooves and giving an appreciative ‘neigh-nonny-no’ to Picaroon…as do I.
(I’m off up to London for a little family get-together on Saturday – maybe not the best day to be in London?! – so may not be in a position to reply to comments until later in the day…hopefully all is clear enough below…)
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 8A | WHIPPETS | Behave cruelly towards e.g. cats and dogs (8)
WHIP (behave cruelly towards) + PETS (e.g. cats) |
| 9A | AWOKEN | Inspired article about how the Mail sees the Guardian? (6)
A_N (indefinite article) around WOKE (how the Daily Mail sees the Guardian!) |
| 10A | INSOMNIA | Current mains supply, with no problem at night (8)
I (electric current, physics) + NSOMNIA (anag, i.e. supply, of MAINS + NO) |
| 11A | ADOPTS | Is a surrogate parent plump, and terribly sad about it? (6)
AD_S (anag, i.e. terribly, of SAD) around OPT (choose, or plump for) |
| 12A | ANTICLERICALISM | Milliner suffering with sciatica dismisses one being critical of the cloth (15)
subtractive anagram, i.e. suffering, of MILLINER + SCIAT( |
| 15A | VIEWS | Sees Victor wisecracking? (5)
V (victor, phonetic alphabet) + IEWS (anag, i.e. cracking, of WISE) [wise-cracking has to be lifted and separated!…] |
| 16A | PEACE | Serenity shown by sport star (5)
PE (Physical Education, sport, at school) + ACE (star) |
| 20A | COUNTRY BUMPKINS | Noble with really vacuous birthday celebrations interrupted by family clodhoppers (7,8)
COUNT (noble) + RY (ReallY, empty, or vacuous) + BUMP_S (birthday celebrations) around (interrupted by) KIN (family) |
| 21A | RUBATO | Game with racket and ball played flexibly (6)
RU (Rugby Union, game) + BAT (racket) + O (round letter, ball) [‘rubato’ being a musical instruction, to play with a ‘flexible tempo’] |
| 23A | TENSED UP | Maybe perfect party in Belfast grew fraught (6,2)
TENSE (perfect, example of a grammatical tense) + D_UP (Democratic Unionist Party, party in Belfast) |
| 25A | CAMPUS | Existentialist inspires head of Princeton University? (6)
CAM_US (Albert Camus, existentialist) around (inspiring) P (first letter, or head, of Princeton) |
| 26A | FORCE-FED | The police agent from America gets stuffed (5-3)
FORCE (the police) + FED (federal agent, from America) |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | WHINING | We hear companion for dining is having a grouse (7)
homophone, i.e. we hear – WHINING (having a grouse, or a moan) can sound like WINING (often paired with ‘dining’) |
| 2D | OPPOSITION | Labour, at this time: work on job (10)
OP (opus, musical, work) + POSITION (job) |
| 3D | TEEN | Youngster driving from here north (4)
TEE (in golf, one drives from here!) + N (north) |
| 4D | ASTAIRE | Dancer picked up one-step? (7)
homophone, i.e. picked up – (Fred) ASTAIRE, dancer, can sound like A STAIR, or one step |
| 5D | SALAD CREAM | Unfortunately rejected wish to hug leader of County Mayo’s close cousin? (5,5)
SALA (alas, unfortunately, rejected) + D_REAM (wish), around (hugging) C (leading letter of County) [mayonnaise and salad cream are close culinary cousins!] |
| 6D | POLO | Sweet kitty raising tail (4)
For a Down clue, if a POOL (kitty, shared collection of cash) raises its tail, or last letter, by one place, you get POLO – a sweet! |
| 7D | DENTIST | One may treat a poor canine in depression? It’s barking (7)
DENT (depression) + IST (anag, i.e. barking, of ITS) |
| 13D | LOWER HOUSE | Jersey, say, and stockings worn by posh MPs here (5,5)
LOWER (Jersey, say – cow, one that lows) + HO_SE (stockings) around (worn by) U (posh, not non-U!) |
| 14D | LOCKKEEPER | Canal worker is a hair fetishist? (10)
punning double defn? – a LOCKKEEPER – one word – is a canal worker; and a LOCK KEEPER might be somebody who collects locks, or hair cuttings, so a hair fetishist! [My e-Chambers has LOCK-KEEPER hyphenated, as does Collins online. My e-Collins app has it as one word…] |
| 17D | POPULAR | Soft wood frames you heard getting mass approval (7)
POP_LAR (tree, presumably yielding soft wood?) around (framing) U (homophone, you, heard) |
| 18D | A BIT OFF | A peer who fancies men and women is not quite right (1,3,3)
A peer, or toff, who swings both ways might be A BI TOFF! |
| 19D | INDUCED | Persuaded Germany to follow elected fascist leader (7)
IN (elected) + DUCE (fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, Il Duce) + D (Deutschland, Germany) |
| 22D | ALPS | Range of artificial products? Just the wrappers (4)
wrappers, or outer letters, of ‘ArtificiaL ProductS’ |
| 24D | NARK | Person shopping hurried up, back in Primark (4)
NAR (ran, or hurried, up) + K (back letter of primarK) [‘shopping’ in the sense of ‘informing on’] |
Loved this; not too difficult but about the right level for me and it took me awhile to get 9A.
Some great misdirection and, as said, lovely surfaces amongst which LOWER HOUSE also deserves a mention
Thank you mc_rapper67.
AWOKEN my pick for the surface. I imagine that Picaroon might be having a chuckle as he stirs the pot on the definition of woke which has become a term of insult and reversed its original meaning. But maybe only Guardian journos know that.? 🙂
No real problems as I recall. Ticks for POLO, NARK, CAMPUS and A BIT OFF.
I accept your challenge, mc_rapper, to work Antidisestablishmentarianism into a 15 x 15 crossword.
Thanks mc_rapper67. An enjoyable diversion that didn’t present too many difficulties. Still not sure about bump= birthday celebration though. Have to confess LOI was TEEN, as a golfer of some experience it should have been obvious to me.
Thanks both. AWOKEN so good.
Biggleswade A
Weren’t you ever given the bumps on your birthday?
Sorry, ignore the ‘wade’ bit
Good puzzle tho’ just realised didn’t finish last three in the NE
Liked: TEEN, AWOKEN, LOCKKEEPER, SALAD CREAM, A BIT OFF
Thanks Picaroon and mc_rapper67
Yes, most enjoyable. I had a lot of ticks on favourite clues in this puzzle – most of which have already been mentioned in Mike’s preamble or by previous posters, though I also had fun with 1d WHINING and 4d ASTAIRE. The only unfamiliar word I encountered was RUBATO at 21a, so I was glad of the crossers and my previous encounters with RU for “game”. Thanks to clever Picaroon for a great Prize crossword and to mc_rapper67 for his usual thorough and upbeat blog.
JiA@9. RUBATO was my LOI.. Did some searches on musical directions, but it didn’t come up. As always, memo to self, wordplay, wordplay, wordplay. I know a bit more, although very little, about Rugby Union.
On looking up RUBATO I can see why it’s a bit contentious, and I don’t feel so bad.
COLLINS: Word origin
[1880–85; ‹ It (tempo) rubato stolen (time), ptp. of rubare to steal ‹ Gmc; see rob]
Wiki:
What are the two types of rubato?
One can distinguish two types of rubato: in one the tempo of the melody is flexible, while the accompaniment is kept in typical regular pulse (yet not rigidly in mechanical fashion; but adjusting to the melody as necessary..
claremont. edu:
Contrametric rubato involves a solo melody moving in subtly or equally redistributed note values (sometimes with added notes) against a steady pulse in the accompaniment. Structural or agogic rubato involves the simultaneous retardation or acceleration of tempo of the entire performing body.
Now I’m going to have to youtube it to see/hear what they’re all talking about.
RUBATO: Here’s a homegrown one from University of Sydney. Not recommended for anyone without a degree in music.
But this one is very lively. Led Zeppelin, Bo Diddley, Devo, Chopin and all.
Thanks for the blog, POPULAR is clued very carefully. Poplar is a Hardwood being an Angiosperm , but the wood is soft so “soft wood” is fine. Thanks to PDM for the extras on RUBATO, Good use of Playtex for VIEWS, quite rare for a short answer .
[Me @ 11. Forget those two links. I’ll leave it to the experts. There are so many others. Having a lovely time. So fortunate in what the Guardian, and particularly, Picaroon, turns you onto. And another beauty today!]
COUNTRY BUMPKINS. Was happy to solve that without knowing about birthday bumps. Now I do, I wish I didn’t. It’s barbaric, and I’m of Irish descent., dropped on my head from birth maybe? That would explain a lot. 🙂
Proud to be woke pdm (which is short for AWOKEN isn’t it?). But a gret clue. One of many, mc rapper has picked out some other good ones.
Thanks both
I was born on 25/12 so was never in school for my birthday. My life has been bumps free and I had forotten all about them until my fellow COUNTRY BUMPKINS turned up last week.
Re 6D in the blog – would the clue still work as an across one? Never thought about the direction of the clue affecting the cluing before.
Many thanks for the super blog and fun puzzle both. Got held up in the NW corner but got there in the end.
Forest Fan@17 No, but kitty could shift her tail,, the surface would lose something.
[nicbach, born on 25/12! Maybe you had a similar experience to my son who was born on 24/12, and people felt sorry for him, about presents and holidays and being able to celebrate on that day. I must admit, I wasn’t sure what was more important to get right, Mum, or Santa. Then one day, on his birthday, I went to a Buddhist lotus flower paper-folding group in a temple, and the nun said, how wonderful it was that he was born on Jesus’ birthday. Just turned it all around.]
pdm@19: My mum wanted to move my birthday celebrations to my name day, but I said no. I was happy to celebrate the two toether. I think my nameday is the 5/12, which is my eldest son’s birthday.
Following on from Roz@12, is there any purpose served by ‘Soft’ in 17d? ‘Wood’ alone would seem to fit the clue.
Tough but enjoyable. Solved the NW corner last.
New for me: for 20ac BUMPS = a birthday torment common in countries such as the UK which involves the friends and family of the person whose birthday it is taking him or her by the arms and legs, and “bumping” him/her up into the air and down onto the floor.
Roz@12 thanks for explaining re 17d because it was a bit confusing to me that a hardwood tree such as poplar actually produces soft wood!
Thanks, both.
[paddymelon @19 as one also born on 25/12, it is highly unlikely that Jesus was born on that date. There probably wouldn’t be shepherds abiding in the fields in the middle of an Israeli winter. I could go on]
This was a very enjoyable puzzle. Pity there aren’t any of James’s puzzles this week.
Tim C@3. A quick search of this site shows that antidisestablishmentarianism has been used as a circumferential nina a couple of times, but it seems no one has actually included it as an answer in the grid.
Good luck!
sjshart@21. The purpose of ‘soft’ in the clue for POPULAR may have been to misdirect. Certainly it led me astray. I was looking for ‘soft’=P, then a wood (maybe OAK?) with ‘you’=U in it and ‘mass’=M at the end. Obviously this didn’t work at all, but it kept me amused for a while.
As our blogger mentions, there was plenty to entertain in this puzzle, despite it being a lot easier than the average Picaroon. Thanks to both.
I remember our Latin teacher writing FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION (one letter longer) on the board and taking us through the etymology. I think it might be slightly easier to clue than the other one. 😉
Thanks for the blog, mc_rapper67. I agree with every one of your favourites, especially SALAD CREAM, for the brilliant lift-and-separate.
I also liked 15ac VIEWS, 23ac TENSED UP, 25ac CAMPUS and 24dn NARK – lovely surfaces all round.
Thanks to Picaroon for another highly enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks for the comments and feedback so far – much appreciated as usual…
TimC and Sheffieldhatter – I realised after posting this that ANTIDIS…ISM would probably work as a 28-letter perimeter…I’ll try and check out those examples…otherwise ANTI, DIS, ESTABLISHMENT and ARIANISM could probably all be fitted in separately…
Re. POP(U)LAR – my eChambers doesn’t mention the Mohs-scale hardness of poplar wood, but eCollins does say that it yields a ‘light soft wood’…as sjshart points out at #21, the soft may be redundant, but I think it helps the surface read scan a bit more naturally…
I doubt whether the bumps would be allowed in school playgrounds any more, due to elf-an-safety, but even in my day I don’t remember them actually involving hitting the floor…
And lastly, for now, on RUBATO – sterling research by paddymelon above. I knew it as a musical term, but had to check – my eChambers only states ‘modified or distorted rhythm’, whereas eCollins has ‘with a flexible tempo’…from the two examples here, I guess Picaroon spends more time with his nose in Collins than in Chambers?!…
Another delight from Picaroon; challenging, ingenious but fair, and with the usual carefully constructed surfaces. Favs were SALAD CREAM, WHIPPETS, INSOMNIA and AWOKEN.
Missed out on TENSED UP and NARK but both were beautifully clued.
Another Picaroon today so a good morning ahead, for which many thanks, and also to mc , as ever, for the excellent blog.
I liked the plump=opt in ADOPTS, the wining and dining in WHINING, the Mayo’s close cousin for SALAD CREAM, and the picture of jersey and stockings being worn in the LOWER HOUSE.
Thanks Picaroon and mcr.
A smooth and ingenious puzzle as I expected from Picaroon. I liked SALAD CREAM, ADOPTS, LOWER HOUSE and NARK in particular. I knew RUBATO already but looked it up in Collins as well as Chambers to check its meaning (as per others above).
Thanks to Picaroon and mc_rapper.
I couldn’t have told you offhand whether poplar wood is soft or hard, but “soft” certainly had me trying to fit DEAL into the answer for some time.
What Eileen said
I do like it when its ‘double Pirate Day
Thanks to Picaroon and mc_rapper
Wonderful puzzle with too many great tricks, definitions and surfaces to list.
The ‘soft’ in the clue for POPULAR does serve to mislead – like our esteemed blogger I first looked for a word beginning P (as in music) or B (as in pencil). As Roz @12 points out, the tree produces a soft timber, but like balsa it is technically a ‘hardwood’ (angiosperm); the very hard timber from the yew is paradoxically a ‘softwood’ like pine or spruce (gymnosperm).
Thanks to S&B
Lots to like in this one – and too many ticks to list them all. My faves were ASTAIRE and POLO for their surfaces & succinctness, LOWER HOUSE for the lovely image (after all, they do all raid the dressing-up box for the State Opening of Parliament), WHINING and AWOKEN for making me grin.
Thank you Picaroon and mc-rapper!
Thanks Picaroon, that was fun despite missing AWOKEN, ASTAIRE, and POLO, the latter an unknown sweet to me. I had many favourites including RUBATO, WHINING, SALAD CREAM, DENTIST, A BIT OFF, ALPS, and NARK. Thanks mc_rapper67 for the blog.
I have nothing much to add regarding the puzzle, but I still have to comment, seeing as this puzzle gave my alma mater a shout-out. Campus legend has it that Princeton was the first university to call its campus a CAMPUS, so the clue is apt. (Harvard is older, but of course has a Yard; most of the universities in Europe are much older still, but were probably too urban to pretentiously call their grounds, in Latin, a field.)
–M.R. Penney. A.B., Princeton ’96.
[To be clear, Princeton is America’s fourth-oldest institution of higher learning; Yale and William & Mary are also older. No idea what they called their grounds back then.]
MrPenney the older UK universities are college based and very decentralized so do not even have a campus , whatever they might call it, Most of our campus universities are pretty modern, Lancaster is 1964. Perhaps the oldest is Aberystwyth ?? not sure but I know it has a Victorian campus.
I was pleasantly surprised that mc’s use of the contentious “homophone” term did not generate a single complaint about 1d WHINING (excellent aural wordplay that earned one of my several ticks today).
I’m embarrassed to admit that 21a RUBATO took me a long time to see. The use of two possible anagrind words as the definition was brilliant misdirection (another tick).
The two types of rubato – altering the length of notes within a fixed tempo, and stretching the tempo itself – are usually interpretive devices adopted by the players, especially early music specialists, and so you seldom see the word as an instruction from the composer. (I could go on at length about how I think it should be used, but I won’t.)
Thanks Picaroon and mc for the excellent puzzle and blog.
Back to back Picaroon prize puzzles! Yay!
mc_rapper67 @29 Yes, I was thinking along those lines of breaking the word up (as opposed to the Nina suggested by sheffield hatter @25) which allows fitting in to a standard grid. No such luck with FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION Eileen @27
[Me @38: there’s a famous portrait of George Washington at the Battle of Princeton. Nassau Hall (the university’s oldest building) can be seen, pretty tiny, in the background across open fields. The battlefield is far enough from the university that today that’d be thought impossible–everything that isn’t developed in between the two is wooded. But I guess it adds credence to the idea that in the 1770s, it was literally in the Latin sense a campus, and the carpet of trees every Princetonian remembers is second-growth forest.]
[Nassau Hall was shelled during a secondary skirmish in the battle. On the campus tour, they point our the place where a cannonball dented it. It was an American shell; the British had taken the place over as their headquarters. ]
POLO new to me, but otherwise a surprisingly successful prize effort.
BUMPS as birthday celebrations also NHO, but figured that must be what was meant. RU = “game” eluded me; I didn’t think of Rugby Union (being an American) and anyway rugby is a sport, not a game.
Amusingly, I had never heard of “salad cream” before last week, but it was fresh in my mind just in time for this puzzle.
AWOKEN was delightful.
I had trouble parsing INSOMNIA because I was stuck on “current” = IN, rather than the abbreviation I for electrical current.
Not too tricky and enjoyable. SALAD CREAM mo COTD. Nothing else to add.
Ta Picaroon & mc.
The usual class puzzle from Pickers. Does he ever produce anything other?
A pleasure from start to finish
21ac. Still having bat = racket?! A racquet (sic) has strings, a bat is solid.
DGC, Collins:
Racket:
a bat consisting of an open network of nylon or other strings stretched in an oval frame with a handle, used to strike the ball in tennis, badminton, etc