The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29776.
A little different from the usual Monday fare, I thought. Harder? Perhaps, but it is more a matter of style, and Brummie has one all to himself.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BATHOS |
Comical descent of creatures that fly around house (6)
|
| An envelope (‘around’) of HO (‘house’) in BATS (‘creatures that fly’). | ||
| 5 | INSOLENT |
Defiant, having capsized off England’s south coast? (8)
|
| ‘Having capsized’ indicating not a reversal, but literally: IN SOLENT. | ||
| 9 | SLIPPERS |
People who fall for footwear (8)
|
| Double definition (but some slippers manage to save themselvers from falling). | ||
| 10 | ARCANE |
Beggar can expose housing secret (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘housing’) in ‘beggAR CAN Expose’. | ||
| 11 | CHERRY TOMATO |
Carrot and thyme salad with round fruit? (6,6)
|
| An anagram (‘salad’) of ‘carrot’ plus ‘thyme’ plus O (’round’). | ||
| 13 | SLAT |
Part of blind alley, perhaps, outside city (4)
|
| An envelope (‘outside’) of LA (Los Angeles, ‘city’) in ST (street, ‘alley, perhaps’). | ||
| 14 | MISCHIEF |
‘Funny business’ as sad colleagues of sacked police commissioner are heard to say? (8)
|
| Sounds like (‘heard to say’) MISS CHIEF. | ||
| 17 | PATHOGEN |
Way one’s stricken with primarily genetic cause of disease (8)
|
| A charade of PATH (‘way’) plus OGEN, an anagram (‘stricken’) of ‘one’ plus G (‘primarily Genetic’). | ||
| 18 | NUTS |
Bananas turning bowl over (4)
|
| A reversal (‘turning’) of STUN (‘bowl over’). | ||
| 20 | JULIUS CAESAR |
As usual, ice cracks and splits vessel – not a tragedy (6,6)
|
| An envelope (‘splits’) of ULIUS CAES, an anagram (‘cracks’) of ‘as usual ice’ minus an A (‘not a’) in JAR (‘vessel’). | ||
| 23 | AVENUE |
Passage from A Meeting Place (6)
|
| A VENUE (‘a meeting place’). | ||
| 24 | INTERCOM |
Engrave council official’s initials on mountain top device (8)
|
| A charade of INTER (‘engrave’, in the antique meaning of bury) plus C o (‘Council Official’s initials’) plus M (‘Mountain top’). | ||
| 25 | BRACELET |
Famous person’s not finished wearing kid’s jewellery (8)
|
| An envelope (‘wearing’) of CELE[b] (‘famous person’) minus its last letter (‘not finished’) in BRAT (‘kid’). | ||
| 26 | KRAKEN |
Sea-monster, Komodo dragon outwardly, swallowing playboy (6)
|
| An envelope (‘swallowing’) of RAKE (‘playboy’) in KN (‘Komodo dragoN outwardly’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | AXLE |
Cross borne by bitter Rod? (4)
|
| An envelope (‘borne by’) of X (‘cross’) in ALE (‘bitter’). | ||
| 3 | HOPSCOTCH |
Child’s play, so bound to be on the booze (9)
|
| A charade of HOP (‘bound’) plus SCOTCH (‘booze’). | ||
| 4 | SKEWER |
Spike senior snatching week off (6)
|
| An envelope (‘snatching’) of KEWE, an anagram (‘off’) of ‘week’, in SR (‘senior’). | ||
| 5 | INSTRUMENTALIST |
Player’s agent having celebrity status (15)
|
| A charade of INSTRUMENT (‘agent’) plus A-LIST (‘celebrity status’). | ||
| 6 | SMARTASS |
Pain getting dimwit to be a wiseacre (8)
|
| A charade of SMART (‘pain’) plus ASS (‘dimwit’). | ||
| 7 | LOCUM |
Almost mad Greek character stood up for deputy (5)
|
| A charade of LOC[o] (‘mad’) minus its last letter (‘almost’) plus UM, a reversal (‘stood up’ in a down light) of MU (‘Greek character’). | ||
| 8, 22 | NINETEENTH HOLE |
Clubhouse extension of course? (10,4)
|
| Not very cryptic definition. | ||
| 12 | ALL AQUIVER |
Everyone needs a means of holding flights when quite trembly (3,7)
|
| A charae of ALL (‘everyone’) plus ‘a’ plus QUIVER (‘means of holding flights’ – flights as arrows) | ||
| 15 | HONORARIA |
Voluntary fees from ‘Little Darling’ (gold vocal number) (9)
|
| A charae of HON (honey, ‘little darling’) plus OR (‘gold’) plus ARIA (‘number’). | ||
| 16 | EGGSHELL |
Say Green Sapphire tops Fire and Brimstone as a paint option (8)
|
| A charade of E.G. (‘say’) plus G S (‘Green Sapphire tops’) plus HELL (‘fire and brimstone’). | ||
| 19 | TSK TSK |
Two jobs and one’s left both – dearie, dearie me! (3,3)
|
| T[a]SK T[a]SK (‘two jobs’) minus both As (‘one’s left both’). | ||
| 21 | IONIC |
In desperation I curse like the Greeks of old (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘in’) in ‘desperatION I Curse’ | ||
| 22 |
See 8
|
|
Thanks PeterO. I couldn’t make heads nor tail of BRACELET. 2d took far longer than it should have.
I liked INSOLENT and MISCHIEF.
INTER is still used for bury, I thought.
Thanks Brummie, too
25a) didn’t work for me. Guessed it from crossers and jewelry in the clue. Still enjoyed it all!
Thanks PeterO. I also was a little underwhelmed by NINETEENTH HOLE. Disappointed to have 14 squares so readily filled. The clue for PATHOGEN containing “genetic” material was also unfortunate.
But lots to enjoy, particularly the images Brummie painted in EGGSHELL, CHERRY TOMATO mixed salads, bananas turning the bowl over, and what is it we all need to hold flights when we’re quite trembly?
Unless in America, I’d have said smartarse. Couldn’t parse INSOLENT, and suspected — correctly, as it turns out — that some UK knowledge was required. 18a was ambiguous, but I happened to choose the right one first up. I thought the setter had coined an ultra-literal use of inter/engrave, unaware that it might have been an anachronism (which is not in my dictionary).
Not as challenging as Brummie’s sometimes are, and quite enjoyable.
I agree with PeterO; the puzzle was a little more difficult than normal for Brummie, and a little tough for a Monday. That said, I enjoyed it a lot with my favorites being INTERCOM and MISCHIEF. Thanks Brummie and thanks to PeterO for a great blog.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO.
NINETEENTH HOLE: Agree with the blog and paddymelon@3.
Liked MISCHIEF, NUTS and ALL AQUIVER.
I thought NINETEENTH HOLE was cryptic enough for a Monday. Enjoyed the slightly tougher, or, as Andrew suggests, slightly different crossword for a Monday. Liked INSTRUMENTALISTS and BRACELET. Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.
SLAT was my LOI and the app told me it was wrong, which deprived me of a mini endorphin hit.
I solved in typical Pareto style with 80% of the puzzle taking 20% (or less) of the time. Some of what went in quickly now looks harder than what didn’t.
Anyway, it’s good to have some work to do on a Monday. I liked (was pleased with myself about) ALL AQUIVER, INSTRUMENTALIST, HONORARIA and CHERRY TOMATO. I was disappointed with my extended blindness to JULIUS CAESAR.
(I agree 19th was a bit simple. Luckily Solent is quite local to me.)
Thanks Brummie and PeterO
Try again – page became unavailable last time.
Dave @1 – I think PeterO is saying that engrave is being used in its antique sense.
Thanks, Crispy – sorry, I misread PeterO’s remark.
An AXLE is a rod, the “?” is included to indicate that ‘bitter’ is an example of an ‘ale’.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO
I seem to be unlucky with the ambiguous ones – I read 18a carefully and entered STUN. I didn’t parse BRACELET (along with others, it seems), and agree that a US indication is needed for SMARTASS.
Favourites INTERCOM (I took “engrave” to mean “put into a grave”), and ALL AQUIVER.
Me @12
I wondered if the US indication for SMARTASS was that “wiseacre” is itself a US expression, but Chambers doesn’t say so, and gives the derivation as “MDu” (middle dutch?).
muffin@13
My Chambers app has:
smartass or smartarse noun (derog sl)
A smarty (also adjective)
ass noun
2. A dull, stupid person, a fool (informal)
No mention of ‘American’
KVa, the stupid person is universal. Arse/ass for one’s derriere is the issue.
muffin @12, I thought the American indication for SMARTASS was the hint given by “wiseacre”, But the big C tells me that “wiseacre” is from old Dutch (wijssegger) and old High German (wīzago a prophet). Then again the big C tells me that “ass” is “A dull, stupid person, a fool (informal)” (the old English assa from Latin asinus), so no American indicators needed.
Too slow as usual.
GDU@15
For which word, should there be an American indicator?
Smartass or ass?
Chambers doesn’t indicate either of them as American.
Bathos/Pathos. It’s all too deep and meaningful for me. But you gotta laugh. 🙂
Who do you think is being bathetic/pathetic paddymelon? 🙂
I thought this was great (although 8,22 was a bit rubbish), and I loved 5d – not totally sure why, it just appealed.
Tough puzzle. I could not parse 25ac.
New for me: SOLENT = a channel between the north-western coast of the Isle of Wight and the mainland of southern England (for 5ac).
I agree with geoff@4 and muffin@12 that 6d could have had an indicator for US spelling. My Collins online describes smartass as ‘a US word for smartarse’.
KVa, an American sits on his ass. We on our arse. I didn’t need to consult any references.
I too found this tougher than Brummie’s recent Monday fare, but that’s not a complaint either – having to use a bit more of the grey matter was enjoyable enough.
GDU@22
I get your point, but …
the clue under discussion asks us to look for a synonym for dimwit (not for arse).
For me the ‘ass’ is a donkey (dimwit). Wiseacre is an American term and also indicator. That’s how I parsed it. I think an ‘arse’ is also a stupid person but more usually nasty and contemptible. My take.
I thought with X, J and Q in the grid it would be a pangram but no Z appeared. Interestingly there is also no D, and I suspect that is very rare.
🏳🏳Literally sums up my attempt at this.Managed to fill in 6 clues.
I liked INSOLENT, CHERRY TOMATO, MISCHIEF, JULIUS CAESAR, BRACELET and INSTRUMENTALIST. Not too difficult for a Monday but certainly a challenge.
Ta Brummie and PeterO.
This didn’t seem like a Monday puzzle although I may have a post-holiday hangover but as always with Brummie much fun with some great humour.
Enjoyed BRACELET, MISCHIEF, JULIUS CAESAR (One day I will learn the A is before the E) and SMARTASS.
Thanks PeterO and Brummie
I’ll just add INTERCOM to AlanC’s favourites @28.
A mostly enjoyable puzzle. I don’t much like ‘smartarse’ but SMARTASS is a step too far for me.
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO.
Heavy going but got there in the end. Would never have worked out Julius Caesar from the clue, just got it from the crossers. Why is there a capital letter for Rod in 2D? Is it just there to confuse? As a beginner, it confused me as I assumed it would have something to do with someone called Rod.
MrsSandgrounder@31
AXLE
The surface requires a capital R for Rod as it’s a person’s name.
The cryptical reading requires ‘r’ and yes, you are right that it works as a misdirection.
Once I had finally decided INSTRUMENTALIST fitted the bill, this all fell finally into place. MISCHIEF and INSOLENT both made me chuckle. Thought the Roman geezer who fell foul of the lemon squeezer at 20ac was my pick of the day. Many thanks Brummie and PeterO…
I thought this was slap bang in the middle of the appropriate difficulty bandwidth for a Monday. Favourite was the delightful CHERRY TOMATO.
This was the sort of battle I’d expect to have on a Friday. I needed quite a bit of cheating and when I look at the parsing above I think, for quite a few of the clues, “I would never have got that” (for example LA for city). I like puzzles where I *could* have got the solutions if I had sent my mind in the right direction. But I guess it is a matter of mindset and GK.
I also thought this was about par for the course on a Monday. It took me my normal solving time for a Monday puzzle, so neither excessively easy nor hard. My favourite was the tragic Roman.
MrsSandgrounder@31, note that while it is ok to misdirect with the capitalisation of Rod when “rod” is needed as the definition, it would generally be unacceptable to work it the other way round i.e. to use a lower case “rod” when the name of a person called Rod is the intended meaning.
I cheated on JUILIUS CAESAR quite early on, as I couldn’t make head nor tail of it, was in a hurry, and wanted its checkers for other things that were tantalisingly just out of my grasp. With that, the slow start became a fairly brisk solve, though not as easy as many Mondays I thought.
I too raised an eyebrow at the Americanism SMARTASS, and like David@26 was convinced the puzzle would be a pangram and was somewhat surprised it turned out not to be.
I didn’t notice the NUTS/STUN ambiguity and fortunately entered the right one as an early one in.
Favourite was the simple but fun TSK TSK.
Thanks both
I made somewhat heavy weather of this and got a bit stuck in the NW corner.
I liked the Anglocentric IN SOLENT, PATHOGEN, JULIUS CAESAR (well-disguised definition), and SKEWER.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO.
I’m glad I’m not the only one to have found this harder than usual for a Monday, but I also felt (like Robi@39, I think) that I made a meal of it unnecessarily. For example I was convinced for ages that the ‘split vessel’ in 20a was going to be SS and the definition was ‘not a tragedy’ and I misconstrued 10a as an insertion of a word for ‘secret’ in a word for ‘show’ to mean ‘beggar’ – needed a pdm to get it right.
All good fun, though, and got there in the end.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO.
My initial way into JULIUS CEASAR (before parsing with the a ) was “..not a tragedy”, as I’ve never been clear why it is classed as a tragedy rather than as a history and had them the wrong way around. The fall of a central character might just as well apply to Richard II, which is most definitely a history. Anyway, yes, a little harder than a traditional Monday puzzle, but all gettable with a bit of thought, and a lot of fun. With thanks to Brummie and PeterO.
Explain to me as if I was 5 years old why 5a is INSOLENT
If I find examples of a word being used by a British author, does that settle the American indicator debate? “The law is a ass” – Charles Dickens. “… the one thing they really couldn’t stand is a smart-ass” – Douglas Adams
Ed@42: In (the) Solent i.e. in the strait between south coast of England and the Isle of Wight.
… or does that just get me disliked by a group of respectable physicists?
Nuntius @41. Tragedies and Histories are not categorically distinct. Re 1597 Quarto edition of Richard II titles it:, ‘The Tragedie of King Richard the second’, and the category of History plays, as established by the first Folio in 1623, denoted plays dealing only with English history from the late 14th century, not with Roman (or Scottish!) historical subjects. The generic waters are further confused by the fact that, at the time, ‘history’ could mean just a story without there being any historiographical connotations: so the first Quarto of Hamlet, for example, titles it ‘THE Tragicall Historie of HAMLET Prince of Denmarke’.
I need help seeing ‘agent’ (doer) and ‘instrument’ (tool) as synonymous (INSTRUMENTALIST clue, 5d), please could someone provide a sentence in which either would make interchangeably good sense? Otherwise much enjoyed this Wednesdayish puzzle
Wagon was the instrument/agent of Othello’s doom?
… or even Iago!
Balfour@46: Thanks. Interesting… So I wasn’t so off the path after all. Though not exactly on it either (!)
Nuntius @41 and Balfour @46, my memory from doing JC for my English Lit O Level is that Brutus is a much more central character to the play than Caesar, who, SPOILER ALERT, is dead before the play is halfway through. It is then a tragedy from viewpoint of Brutus, the noblest Roman of them all, who meets a sticky end through having tried to carry out what he believed to be an honourable act for the general good of all. Or something. But my memory is that it can indeed be seen as a tragedy from that perspective.
Fiery Jack@51: I think you may be right; and clearly a far more conflicted character. Not unlike Hamlet in that respect.
Criceto@48-, the dagger was the instrument, Othello himself the agent, Iago the orchestrator?
Hadrian @ 47 An agent can also be a “thing that does”, for instance “The invention of the smartphone was the agent / instrument of change in the way we access the internet”.
Thanks both,
A quiblet. The Isle of Wight is part of England so the Solent is interior to the country rather than off its coast. But we knew what the clue meant.
I enjoyed this crossword because it made me laugh.
In particular INSOLENT was funny.
Then INTERCOM had me foxed for a while, until I saw it as the delightful “en-grave” (so I was disappointed to find that “engrave” really does mean inter!). JULIUS CAESAR also made me laugh, because I’d got all the crossers and kept thinking “this is going to be a Latin phrase” … when I suddenly realised what the answer was!
Jay@27 Don’t get out the white flags yet. My success with Brummie recently has been 7 solved, eight solved and, today, 11 solved. I choose to view that as steady progress rather than abject failure.
The day I solve even a single Paul clue will go down in legend and song.
Harder than the usual Monday I thought. Thanks.
Relieved to find others also feeling this a bit harder than usual for Mondays. But I enjoyed it and finished it. Only needed the blog for parsing of BRACELET.
My fave was INSTRUMENTALIST partly because, alongside NINETEENTH HOLE it helped unzip what was quite a blank grid up to that point.
Nice to see a setter who is not too posh to call an ass an ass. Perfectly normal pronunciation and spelling here in West Cornwall.
I was held up by the footwear and the fallers at 9a, and needed the crossers for 2d and 1a. TIPPERS? Not footwear. FLIPPERS? Not really falling. SLIPPERS! Doh.
And BATHOS had to wait for the crossing A from AXLE because the final S with a singular definition didn’t immediately bring the solution to mind. No doubt those who thought this was right in the middle of the expected level for Mondays got it straight away, but not me!
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO.
Tyngewick@55 The presence of islands doesn’t stop the place where the land meets the sea being referred to as the coast. Would you consider the phrase “the west coast of Scotland” to refer to the western edges of the most westerly islands? It would be an unusual interpretation.
Delightful puzzle. A bit tricky for a Monday, but I did complete it. Favourites perhaps 5a INSOLENT, 13a SLAT, 20a JULIUS CAESAR
Like sheffield hatter @61, 9a SLIPPERS took an embarrassingly long time to figure out. TRIPPERS? FLIPPERS? FLOPPERS?
I didn’t fill 18a NUTS until I had crossers
I was charmed by NINETEENTH HOLE which I assumed was a golfer‘s whimsical reference to the Clubhouse (hole as in drinking hole) and as such surely not a cryptic def at all?
Much enjoyed, thank you Brummie and PeterO.
Judge@62 – different phrase. If something was described as ‘off the Scottish coast’ I’d assume it was outside the islands. Would you expect an offshore wind farm to be in among the islands?
The wordplay for MISCHIEF is pretty far-fetched. Even here in the land of police chiefs. I can’t imagine saying “Miss chief” about one of them.
Nice to see “bananas” as a definition rather than an anagrind. Nice misdirection.
I think HON=”little darling” because it’s a shortened word for “darling.”
If “wiseacre” comes from Dutch, it can still be an Americanism. American English has plenty of words of Dutch origin — “cookie,” for example, from “kookje,” little cake — dating from the time when New York was a Dutch colony and the city at the mouth of the Hudson was called “Nieuw Amsterdam.” You would think that the English army that took the city away from Pieter Stuyvesant would have named it after their own capital, but they named it after York instead. There is a New London farther up the coast on Long Island Sound, and its river is called the Thames, pronounced with a soft th and rhyming with “games.”
Thanks, Brummie and PeterO.
I think I’ll stop attempting these now, if this was meant as a Monday standard. Reading how easy people find them doesn’t help!
Finished this recently, took a long time but not too much cheating. Not sure why everyone is pretending to not know what an ass is…