Vulcan in his customary fortnightly Monday slot
Mostly straightforward, with the usual medley of anagrams and double and cryptic definitions.
I had ticks for 12ac TASTE, 6dn SOLUTIONS, 8dn WESSEX, 10dn LONG TIME NO SEE, 14dn AFORESAID.
Thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Pretty shy hugging me at rear of school (6)
COMELY
COY (shy) round ME + [schoo]L
4 Get over arch, and one may make a bolt for it (8)
CROSSBOW
CROSS (get over) + BOW (arch)
9 Relish oxygen brought by sudden wind (5)
GUSTO
GUST (sudden wind) + O (oxygen)
10 Old Parliamentary radicals who told it to you straight? (9)
LEVELLERS
To level with someone is to be honest with them
11 Deal-maker in pub, one taking a profit (9)
BARGAINER
BAR (pub) + GAINER (one taking a profit)
12 A brief experience of discrimination (5)
TASTE
Double definition
13 Lower tier seats filled first for this film? (4,2,3,3)
ROOM AT THE TOP
Cryptic definition
17 In isle grey tomb crumbling, typically romantic (3-5-4)
BOY-MEETS-GIRL
An anagram (crumbling) of ISLE GREY TOMB
20 Have no argument with an Athenian amputee (5)
AGREE
A GREE[k] (an Athenian ‘amputee’)
21 Missile landing in sniper’s lair: this tightest of squeaks? (9)
NARROWEST
ARROW (missile) in NEST (sniper’s lair)
23 On journey, train isn’t moving (2,7)
IN TRANSIT
An anagram (moving) of TRAIN ISN’T
24 Track down a very tiny amount (5)
TRACE
Double definition
25 Kubrick briefly portrayed Scottish patron (2,6)
ST ANDREW
STAN(ley) (Kubrick) + DREW (portrayed)
26 Not simple, so restive (6)
UNEASY
UN-EASY – not simple
Down
1 Budgie perhaps free in big cedar (4-4)
CAGE-BIRD
An anagram (free) of BIG CEDAR
2 Swell breakfast item (8)
MUSHROOM
Double definition
3 An idiot picked up sponge (5)
LOOFA
A reversal (picked up) of A FOOL
An attempt to forestall the objections that this definition often raises: Collins – ‘loofa: the fibrous interior of the fruit of the dishcloth gourd, which is dried, bleached and used as a bath sponge’; Chambers – ‘a tropical plant of the gourd family, used as a hard rough sponge’
5 Brazen volte-face about poem, ‘Polecat’ (7,6)
REVERSE FERRET
RE VERSE (about poem) + FERRET (‘polecat’ – see here)
and here for the brazen volte-face – two new things in one clue for me today
6 People searching for these here but they lack concentration (9)
SOLUTIONS
Double / cryptic definition
7 Reach the top of chest (6)
BREAST
Double definition
8 Hardy folk lived here in primarily wild county (6)
WESSEX
W[ild] + ESSEX (county) – WESSEX is the setting for most of Thomas Hardy’s novels and also the name of one of the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
10 Hello again, rector: still not made a bishop? (4,4,2,3)
LONG TIME NO SEE
Cryptic definition, a see, as all cruciverbalists know, being a bishopric
14 Ideas for a reform mentioned earlier (9)
AFORESAID
An anagram (reform) of IDEAS FOR A
15 New American widescreen system (8)
CINERAMA
An anagram (new) of AMERICAN
16 Cook breakfast, including coffee, getting insincere praise? (8)
FLATTERY
FRY (cook breakfast) round LATTE (‘coffee’)
18 Spoke of what one has in each arms (6)
RADIUS
Double definition: ‘arms‘ presumably a misprint? – it’s in both online and print version
19 Shrub and vegetable penetrated by decay (6)
PROTEA
ROT (decay) in PEA (vegetable)
22 Many times relent, though not at first (5)
OFTEN
[s]OFTEN (relent)
I would agree the plural in 18d is nothing other than a misprint. Lovely crossword and I have never heard of the REVERSE FERRET but now I have read about it it may well go into my lexicon. Thanks all round.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
Lots to irritate here. I’ll pass over LOOFA (it’s just wrong, though). What is “in” doing in 17a? Why is mushroom defined as “breakfast item” – they are far more commonly used otherwise? Why “lack concentration” for SOLUTIONS? A concentration is a vital measure of any solution. The grammar of 18d doesn’t make sense, but your suggestion of a misprint is probably the explanation.
I had (fortunately?) never heard REVERSE FERRET.
Several good ones, though. COMELY favourite.
I had the same ticks as Eileen, plus ST ANDREW. I wondered about SOLUTION. You can surely have a concentrated solution?
Good Monday fare. LONG TIME NO SEE was also a particular fave of mine, and I’d add AGREE (for the humour) and NARROWEST (for the obliqueness and impenetrable-seeming wordiness) to the list.
I struggled with REVERSE FERRET, having never heard of the term. My first instinct was ferret but I didn’t know why we were being asked for two words. Then REVERSE came along from the checkers, which made me discard it. Next I decided that polecat and reverse ferret must be fistfighting moves or something, which left me trying to make an anagram (brazen) of volte-face around the verse which obviously couldn’t possibly work!. In the end I just bunged and hoped. Which should have saved men but…
…alas I failed on UNEASY. Obvious when you see it, of course – but not all that obvious to construct, and the way I use it “restive” is more than merely UNEASY so it never occurred to me.
Thanks both!
My faves: CROSSBOW, ROOM AT THE TOP, LONG TIME NO SEE and OFTEN.
muffin@2
17a In WP, Def —is the format. I think we have seen it before. Some like it. Some don’t.
I am fine with this format.
MUSHROOM, SOLUTIONS, RADIUS: Agree with your comments.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
LONG TIME NO SEE
I think…
Hello again: Def
The rest WP
REVERSE FERRET was one I had to look up after I realised the answer to 5d couldn’t be anything else. WESSEX made me smile, a lovely smooth clue. And I do remember watching in awe How The West Was Won and also It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on the CINERAMA screen somewhere in London back in the early Sixties when it first appeared.
Many thanks for the entertainment this morning, Vulcan..
muffin@2, haha I had the same fungal conversation with myself, but decided that they’re more identifiable (without being a giveaway) as breakfast items than anything else.
I agree with the quibble (more than a quibble really) regarding SOLUTIONS but I guess common parlance differs from scientific usage again.
The “In” in 17a B-M-G is a link word (for want of a more general term). It makes for a sensible surface, and the cryptic reading is grammatical. 《In {wordplay}, {def}》is equivalent to 《{def} in {wordplay}》and I don’t think anyone would quibble about the latter.
Really enjoyed this, especially LONG TIME NO SEE which raised a chuckle.
Struggled to get past visions of the Venus de Milo for the Athenian amputee.
Agree with Eileen re the typo at 18d.
Many thanks both.
Regarding the discussion of “in”, I thought there did seem to be quite a few examples, but I haven’t gone back to count them. “In” is usually redundant other than making a smoother surface, but I tend to take it as equivalent to “as in” and similar in meaning to “makes” or “giving”
Straightforward Monday fare. Liked REVERSE FERRET.
The misprint was annoying, making me think of weapons!
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
Those who have never heard of REVERSE FERRET are clearly not regular readers of Private Eye!
It’s a term they use regularly for print media who contradict themselves over earlier articles.
I thought a polecat must have been an alternative name for a ferret, but your link, Eileen, takes me to a hybrid that suggests they’re not the same. What am I missing? It took me a while to discover the rather obscure REVERSE FERRET, and LEVELLERS was another British curiosity that was new to me. All else fell into place and was good fun. I only had a vague recollection of ROOM AT THE TOP — a bit before my time.
Great fun from Vulcan but don’t think he is as “easy” as he used to be. I feel the difficulty has upped in the last year or so. This took me longer than the Times today and I had to reveal RADIUS. Atleast I can blame the misprint after trying to get a homophone for a pluralised weapon.
Not heard of REVERSE FERRET which I assumed was wrong but couldn’t think of anything else.
No MUSHROOMs on my fry-ups but they seem to be standard breakfast fare eating out here.
Liked CROSSBOW and LONG TIME NO SEE.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
MUSHROOMs are a standard component of the classic Full English Breakfast as served by caterers, so I suppose the definition is OK even if not many people eat them at home (and I see that in Vulcan’s lexicon, “cook breakfast” = FRY).
Agreed that the misleading “arms” must be a misprint. My quibble with LOOFA isn’t the definition but the spelling: isn’t LOOFAH more usual?
I liked COMELY, ROOM AT THE TOP, LONG TIME NO SEE, AFORESAID, WESSEX. The REVERSE FERRET, like the ICK yesterday, is a term I’ve only recently learned, though I didn’t know its origins.
As a solution is a homogeneous mixture, there is no “concentration” of particles in any particular spot?
Came here for reverse ferret which is completely new to me. Didn’t get RADIUS, the misprint didn’t help. But otherwise enjoyed this , especially LTNS. Agree with others about SOLUTIONS but at this point well used to questionable definitions so write it in and move on…
Ferrets are domesticated animals descended (at some indeterminate time in the past) from wild polecats: they are still closely related enough to interbreed.
I’m not entirely surprised to hear general bewilderment over REVERSE FERRET, but to this old hack it’s an extremely familiar phrase from my days on the backbench of various organs. Usually around 20 minutes before the paper was due to be off stone, the editor would decide to completely change up the front page and the poor old production editor would have to order an instant reverse ferret on the splash. Ah, heady days… Anyway, I digress. Thanks to Vulcan for a fun puzzle and to Eileen for the ever-excellent blogwork.
Thanks for that, moh @18 – it just seemed such a strange / unlikely expression. ‘Off stone’ another TILT! 😉
Good start to the week; it seemed gentler than some of Vulcan’s previous ones. I liked A GREE(k) and LONG TIME NO SEE. I just ignored the arms plural for RADIUS, which otherwise I thought was an entertaining clue. Apart from the strange definition of SOLUTIONS, I don’t understand what ‘People searching’ is doing in the clue.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
I’ve always had a cosier understanding of “nest” than a sniper’s lair. Otherwise mostly enjoyable, so thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.
Very enjoyable; no quibbles from me. I remember thinking what an evocative phrase REVERSE FERRET was when I came across it in Private Eye, so that went in quite easily. Other favourites; IN TRANSIT, TRACE and RADIUS, mainly for the economy of the cluing. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
Muffin@2 has already enumerated most of my objections. I was utterly defeated by 18d but now I see why. Some other points:
The Levellers were radicals, but very few of them were MPs, so ‘Parliamentary’ is surplus to requirements in the clue.
Polecats are not ferrets. The polecat-ferret is a hybrid, as Eileen points out, but that is no excuse.
Pretty much agree with consensus. REVERSE FERRET was so
Implausible it had to be right, and was thrown by arms.
I always thought Room at the top was a book before remembering the film.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
I enjoyed this even though I would never have mushrooms for breakfast… Thanks Eileen and Vulcan.
Robi@20, I take the whole of “people [are] searching for these here” as the wide definition, with “these” as the narrow definition. This kind of thing is common whenever the narrow definition doesn’t fall at the start or end of the clue; the narrow definition is often “this”, “these”, ” – like this?”, and so on, which on their own are insufficient
The “people [are] searching for” is superfluous but not ungrammatical in the cryptic reading, (and the surface would of course be nonsensical without it).
poc@23 I took the speech marks around polecat as the indication of a woolly definition. It works for me.
poc @23 – I think ‘Parliamentarian’ (as opposed to Royalist) would have been more accurate in this case.
gladys @14 – both Collins and Chambers give ‘loofa’, too (‘loofah’ first), without comment – also ‘luffa’.
AP @26 – I agree with your interpretation.
[Eileen @19, newspaper offices are – or were – full of fairly arcane slang, but this particular expression has perhaps received wider recognition owing to its frequent appearance in Private Eye’s Street of Shame column. Wikipedia (as so often) provides a good account of its derivation: “The term originates in the United Kingdom, from Kelvin MacKenzie’s time at The Sun. His preferred description of the role of journalists when it came to public figures was to ‘stick a ferret up their trousers’. This meant making their lives uncomfortable, and the term was based on the Northern England stunt of ferret-legging (where contestants compete to show who can endure a live ferret within their sealed trousers the longest). When it became clear that the tide of public opinion had turned against the paper’s line, MacKenzie would burst from his office shouting ‘Reverse ferret!'”]
Fairly straightforward, but I’m never on Vulcan’s wavelength so he always takes me longer than, say, Anto yesterday (or Qaos or Philistine).
I knew REVERSE FERRET – probably from Private Eye, but it could be from hearing Ian Hislop discussing something, or on Have I Got News for You, or some other news coverage. I can hear it in Ian Hislop’s voice. Saw the clue, thought that’s REVERSE FERRET and took all the crossers to convince myself.
Thank you to Eileen and Vulcan.
…should have mentioned that LONG TIME NO SEE made me smile too. And COMELY I find a very strange word meaning Pretty. I would regard it as quaintly old fashioned these days, though others on here might contradict me politely and say they still use it when admiring someone/something…
moh @28 – that’s the link that I gave for REVERSE FERRET but I confess that, in my haste to get the blog posted, once I’d established that it was ‘a thing’, I didn’t read it carefully enough and didn’t go back to it, as I intended. Actually, my eye had been caught by the reference to the unmentionable one in the following paragraph and I went no further – I’ve read it all now – thanks again! 😉
I thought this was entertaining and inventive, and I don’t agree with any of the quibbles. Surely SOLUTION is as in Sherlock Holmes’s “seven per cent solution” of cocaine, so lacking concentration.
My favourite was LONG TIME NO SEE which was amusing.
Many thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
Comment #33
REVERSE FERRET seems to me like another of those instances where media folk over-estimate other people’s familiarity with their patois, not helped by the fact that ferrets and polecats are related but not identical. Yes, they can interbreed, but so can wolves, dogs, and coyotes.
I enjoyed LONG TIME NO SEE, but feel sure we must have seen it before?
PS Having just seen a production of Henry V in Stratford, I was reminded by BREAST of the Chorus’s lines:
… behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow’d sea,
Breasting the lofty surge
I was slow to get going but enjoyed it very much and was defeated only by RADIUS. As ever, the double and cryptic definitions brought me the most satisfaction – I especially liked ROOM AT THE TOP. I don’t fret over odd spellings of words or whether people have mushrooms for breakfast (they certainly do in the cafes round here) – it’s all good. REVERSE FERRET is a great phrase which I may actually remember.
Radius beat me because ‘in arms’ lead me to ‘babies’, if unsatisfactorily. See what I did there?
Loved LONG TIME NO SEE as well – clever and funny.
AP@26
SOLUTIONS
Agree with you. Had the same thought.
I had to look up my LOI, RADIUS, not knowing the name of the bone. But the typo didn’t help, either, having held me up.
To the defense of some of the entries though: MUSHROOMS are a standard breakfast item in many hotels, along with baked beans, bacon and eggs, toast etc. One of the definitions of FERRET in Chambers is “a small, half-tame, albino type of polecat, used for driving rabbits and rats from their holes”. SOLUTIONS are obtained by watering down (dissolving) something, which is opposite of concentration. Of course every solution has its concentration even if it’s 0.001% but that’s not the point – it’s a playful clue. I liked it a lot by the way.
I also liked LONG TIME NO SEE, CROSSBOW, ST ANDREW and COMELY. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen!
[miserableoldhack@28 – Thanks for that anecdote. As a Private Eye subscriber, I’ve read about so many ferrets reversing that I’d not be surprised if they needed frequent gearbox services. ]
I felt this one was a bit heavy on cryptic definitions, and correspondingly a bit light on anagrams, charades, insertions, etc. – but it made a change and was a pleasant enough solve once I’d got on Vulcan’s wavelength.
I agree with the quibble on SOLUTIONS – some solutions (especially solid solutions) can be very concentrated indeed; but the intent was clear and it went in easily enough.
ROOM AT THE TOP is for me definitely primarily a book, rather than a film; but again: intent clear, went in just fine.
I liked the simple but neat ST ANDREW and AGREE.
Thanks, Vulcan & Eileen.
Lord Jim @32
7% is a concentration. A solution doesn’t need to be concentrated to have a concentration – I think that’s where the misunderstanding arises.
[Eileen @31 – oops, my apologies. That’ll teach me to read the blog properly before sounding off!]
don’t you make a solution from a concentrate?
moh @43 – no problem: that isn’t what I meant at all!
REVERSE FERRET (which I nho) was worth the price of entry.
Completed in one sitting, except the last two, 5d REVERSE FERRET (nho) and 6d SOLUTIONS (“these”? “here”? “they”?) took a while. Favourites 23a IN TRANSIT (“train isn’t moving” — isn’t that often the case?), 10d LONG TIME NO SEE (funny), 15d CINERAMA (one-word anagram — probably done before?). Many others nicely done
4a CROSSBOW reminded me of the joke: We bought a dog from a blacksmith, and as soon as we got it home it made a bolt for the door
Re 17a, we might say “In [wordplay] we see [definition]”
Thanks both
29,991 — only 9 more to 30,000
Me@47, re CINERAMA, Vlad 28,793 for one…
muffin @42: it may well be that I’m misunderstanding the scientific meaning of solution, or of concentration, or possibly of both 🙂 . In everyday terms, if something is not concentrated it can be said to lack concentration, can’t it?
Lord Jim @49
I see what you mean, but “lack concentration” in that sense would be not having had a process (“concentration”) applied to it.
Any solution, however dilute, has a “concentration” (as a noun). Dilute ones have lower concentrations than concentrated ones.
I agree with the quibbles over SOLUTIONS. Maybe rescuable with “they lack complete concentration”, as it is possible to concentrate a solution to dryness to leave only the solute, thereby rendering it no longer a solution. E.g. when road-salt solutions evaporate on your car to leave a solid salt coating. But it didn’t prevent me seeing what Vulcan was getting at.
I thought the TASTE double definition was very neatly done. Tick also for LONG TIME, NO SEE which raised a smile.
Fell at the last – LEVELLERS – so no banana for me.
Thanks, V&E.
Lord Jim @49: No it can’t! ‘Lacking concentration’ is an expression that can be applied to mental processing but not solutions. ‘Less concentrated’ or ‘more dilute’ would be the normal form of words. As muffin has tried to explain, a solution lacking concentration is a solvent and not a solution at all…
This clue apart, I enjoyed the puzzle. NHO REVERSE FERRET (terref?), but the clue led me straight there. COMELY is distinctly old fashioned, even more so than ‘fetching’, which is semantically similar. Good luck if you’re trying to soak anything up with a LOOFA(H)!
Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen
Mig#48, that’s a fascinating clue (6D) in that Vlad puzzle! I’m gobsmacked that it barely raised a comment, and that only one (faintly) queried the cryptic grammar.
It may be the only clue I’ve ever seen (in my admittedly limited experience) in which the wordplay splits the definition without the clue being at least semi-&lit – unless the technique really was only used in America. I can’t find fault with the cryptic grammar though, which just goes to demonstrate the point – that’s coming up a lot recently – that clues don’t have to follow as strict a structure as many people seem to think they do. Provided the they’re both (cryptically) grammatically sound and fair, then it’s fair game.
[me @50
I remember invigilating a particular Chemistry A level practical exam. The instructions for the preparation part included “Reduce to half bulk” – so I watched one of the candidates pour half of his mixture away (rather than concentrating it).]
[muffin@54, seems completely reasonable to me! Or did bulk have an established and tought meaning? I don’t recall it from the 90s A-levels. How did it end for the candidate? I hope not in tears.]
[AP @55
“Reduce to half bulk” did have a specialised meaning (boil half away – cooks might have interpreted it better). Sadly, his product didn’t crystallise out.]
The plural of arm messed me up. I was convinced the definition must be ‘arms’ like munitions. When I realised spoke was radius, I then presumed the clue had just been misprinted. Also, me writing ‘Room At The Tim’ for some unknown reason slowed me down! I must have been thinking of the word ‘room’ as I was filling it in. Doh!
AP@53, this Wikipedia article on CINERAMA shows that only a handful of movies were made with the original 3-strip Cinerama process, all of them American. You could probably make a case that Vlad’s clue is &lit based on that narrow interpretation. Nonetheless, it’s, yes, an unusual clue
The article even deals with the “American” anagram, with one of the originators quoted as saying the anagram was not intentional
[Mig@58, thanks! Very well played by Vlad, then; a solid CAD. Even in that context, it’s highly unusual for the wordplay element of a semi-&lit to appear in the middle. Without even having done that puzzle, I think that clue is premier league and I shall no doubt refer back to it in future!]
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen. Agree with muffin@2 that MUSHROOM = “breakfast item” is a bit dodgy. “Swell travel agent?” might better capture that 2nd defn.
10D cannot but remind me of my all—time favourite Araucaria clue — for the same solution: Entury
Buffytvs @61
,,,but did it include a definition?
Lots of discussion about the ‘in” in 17ac, but none about the one in 1dn. Doesn’t seem to contribute to wordplay, so presumably there just for the surface which is never satisfactory and makes little sense anyway.
jeceris@63, I interpret “free in” as the anagram indicator. I can’t see how “free” on its own can work in the pre-position (though it feels ok in the post-position).
As I’ve been reading quite a few boy-meets-boy romance novels lately, indulging the trashier end of my literary tastes for a spell, I did appreciate having BOY-MEETS-GIRL labeled as merely “typically romantic.” (Fun fact: a surprising percentage of the gay romance novels out there are written by and for straight women. No, I don’t get it either.)
When staying in city hotels, mushrooms are one of the few breakfast buffet items that my entire family always chooses.
Solved it. Parsed it. Enjoyed it. No drama. ST ANDREW and ROOM AT THE TOP were my favourites.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
Surprisingly tough for a Monday’s outing and the first to defeat us for a while. Congratulations Vulcan. Would canon be more appropriate than rector for 10d? How many rectors go straight to a bishopric? But I quibble.
Good Monday puzzle, I tend to agree that Vulcan seems harder this past year. Favourite was WESSEX.
I always find Vulcan tricky. I think it’s a wavelength thing. I struggle through but it never feels quite satisfying even though there were some goodies to like. ST ANDREW was my favourite, and then LEVELLERS. Thanks Vulcan, and Eileen.
Don’t understand mushroom meaning swell
Jen Larner @70
See here under ADDITIONAL SYNONYMS:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-thesaurus/mushroom
I’m late to this puzzle.
If anyone is still around, I’d love to understand 10d LONG TIME NO SEE.
Gibberish to me! 😂
#62– no, just the one word.
Steffen@72, the definition of LONG TIME NO SEE is “Hello again”. The wordplay refers to one of the definitions of SEE — from Chambers: “the office of a bishop of a particular diocese”. So if a Rector still hasn’t been promoted to Bishop, they’ve had NO SEE for a LONG TIME
Hope that makes sense!
Thank you
Bless you my mother ‘s namesake. I had reverse ferret but was convinced it must be wrong as I had never heard of it. Younger solvers used to complain of archaic words known only to an older generation. They are apparently now getting their own back. Must keep up!