Apologies for the (extreme) lateness of this blog, which should have appeared yesterday
The regular blogger was unavailable, and had arranged cover. But owing to gremlins things haven’t worked out as expected, so here I am instead. My apologies also for the rather rushed, last-minute nature of it. I think I’ve got everything parsed but do feel free to put me right if need be. A Quince puzzle is always good fun, and this was no exception. I had ticks for many clues, but especially enjoyed AT IT, PUNNET and MARASCHINO for the somewhat alarming mental image it conjured. Many thanks to Quince.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | SILHOUETTE |
Cutting lead, White Lotus recast key figure (10)
|
| Anagram (recast) of [w]HITE LOTUS + E (key) | ||
| 9 | EMUS |
Aussies missing flight found in Science Museum (4)
|
| Hidden (found in) in sciencE MUSeum | ||
| 10 | ETHERNET CABLES |
Number Ten backed old Lib Dem’s links with PC (8,6)
|
| ETHER (number) + reversal (backed) of TEN (from surface) + CABLE’S (old Lib Dem’s, ref Vince Cable) | ||
| 11 | ELECTRONIC MAIL |
Republican plugs rigged election claim in post online (10,4)
|
| R inside (plugs) anagram (rigged) of ELECTION CLAIM | ||
| 14 | SCORCHED EARTH |
Strategy that involves destroying terracotta? (8,5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | SELF-FERTILISES |
I fret less with files organised into spreads individually (4-10)
|
| Anagram (organised) of I FRET LESS FILES | ||
| 19 | OPPOSABLE THUMB |
It may help you with digital security (9,5)
|
| Cryptic definition – hard to turn a key without an opposable thumb | ||
| 22 | HIVE |
The man goes round a square in Rome where it’s busy (4)
|
| HE (the man) around IV (4 – a square – in Roman numerals) | ||
| 23 | ACUTE ANGLE |
Something in Tinder pictures is not quite right? (5,5)
|
| A CUTE ANGLE is perhaps what a Tinder user would aim for in their profile picture | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BIG TOE |
Bridget Jones occasionally shows part of her bottom (3,3)
|
| Alternate letters (occasionally) of BrIdGeT jOnEs | ||
| 2 | CHEESED OFF |
I am having my picture taken before party gets very loud and mad (7,3)
|
| CHEESE (I am having my picture taken) + DO + FF | ||
| 3 | PUNNET |
With which you might catch joke that bears fruit? (6)
|
| You might use a pun net to catch a joke | ||
| 4 | AT IT |
A fool in Congress (2,2)
|
| A + TIT | ||
| 5 | GELATINE |
Setter, say, backed up toilet after wiping away runs (8)
|
| Reversal (backed up) of EG (say) + LAT[r]INE | ||
| 6 | REAL |
Perhaps Clare Balding broadcast could be authentic (4)
|
| Anagram (broadcast) of [c]LARE (minus first letter, so “balding”) | ||
| 7 | GUNSMITH |
Winchester for one night? I’m snuggling over blankets (8)
|
| Hidden reversal (over blankets) in nigHT IM SNUGgling | ||
| 12 | OVERT |
Open requires balls on tee (5)
|
| OVER (balls, in cricket) + T | ||
| 13 | MARASCHINO |
Taking off clothes, Richard Osman stirred drink (10)
|
| Anagram (stirred) of [r]ICHAR[d] (taking off clothes) OSMAN | ||
| 14 | STEP ON IT |
Can old companions set up and go quickly? (4,2,2)
|
| Reversal (set up, in a down clue) of TIN (can) O (old) PETS (companions) | ||
| 15 | CHESSMAN |
Board member taps staff after mess ousting leader (8)
|
| C + H (cold and hot, so taps) + ESS (mess ousting leader) + MAN (staff) | ||
| 17 | LEERED |
Allege friend oddly looked like a creep (6)
|
| Alternate letters (oddly) of aLlEgE fRiEnD | ||
| 18 | SIMILE |
One cracking grin, perhaps as happy as Larry (6)
|
| I inside (cracking) SMILE | ||
| 20 | POEM |
Quince takes job on retirement, stressful work (4)
|
| Reversal (on retirement) of ME + OP. A poem, of course, may use various types of stressed metre | ||
| 21 | BLUB |
Maybe onion on the counter makes you cry (4)
|
| Reversal (on the counter) of BULB (maybe onion) |
I liked most of this but had a few misgivings. An ACUTE ANGLE can be some way off being ‘right’. I thought 5d would work better as a surface with ‘runs away’ rather than ‘away runs’ and would still work. Finally, although not wrong, I’d prefer ‘oddly deficient’ in 17d.
The alternate letter spot from Bridget Jones was nice.
Thanks for filling in, moh. The only minor error in the blog that I spotted was the lack of any mention of TEN being reversed in 10a.
Oops! Thanks Hovis, that’s now corrected. Yes, I thought BIG TOE was a nice spot too.
Lots of novelty, and entertaining surfaces, and no bizarros: I enjoyed this one.
That said, the grid layout was a tough one, and I found all those long across sequences elusive, so my time was much longer than usual.
Misspelling SILHOUETTE did me no favours.
I had reservations about CHEESED OFF, the allusion and the definition ( “fed up” rather than “mad”), but that’s nit-picking.
Thumbs up to Q + MOH
Plenty I enjoyed in this yesterday but I cannot, for the life of me, understand how ‘Allege friend oddly …’ is an instruction to take the evenly appearing letters/drop the odd letters of the fodder. What am I missing?
Hovis@1 Thanks for jogging my memory, re LEERED, 17(d).
I don’t think “oddly” is actually correct/fair, when the even letters are the ones used. “Regularly”, or something similar, perhaps?
Well, better late…
Mad meaning angry is originally American.
17d was my LOI as I was dropping the wrong letters.
Thanks both. Lateness no problem, as I just wanted to check my understanding, though I am still a fraction unconvinced about ELECTRONIC MAIL being ‘post online’ as that has other meanings, and whilst I see the ‘digital’ element in OPPOSABLE, does it actually afford security? (key turning sense acceptable with a fairly huge push). I’ll hasten too say Tinder is not a matter of expertise for me, however what a friend/neighbour (honest!) shared me with me once represented far from ACUTE ANGLE…
PM@4, apologies, we overlapped. “Now and Then”, it happens.
Ew, TMI, TFO! Not a matter of expertise for me either, but I can well imagine the sort of thing… Having done this in a huge rush, I missed many of the quibbles people are pointing out, but I certainly agree with the reservations about “oddly” in 17d, and an acute angle not necessarily being “not quite right” (angled). To which I’ll add “op” for “job” in POEM – of course Quince maybe didn’t want to use “work” as that pops up in the definition, but I can’t quite hear Mrs Moh telling me she’s got a few odd ops for me to do. Unless I start moonlighting as an amateur surgeon, perhaps.
TFO re “digital security”: I badly damaged my right thumb in a bizarre accident, and it is still unreliable. This means I cannot securely grip things like axes and hammers, so that’s my take on “digital security”. I am not to be trusted with hot cups of coffee, either!
We found this quite challenging and in fact couldn’t get the crossing HIVE and POEM. But there was plenty to like, such as PUNNET, GELATINE and MARASCHINO.
Thanks, Quince and especially to moh, our stand-in blogger.
With 22ac, I got the gist of the clue, then tried to work out if HIXE was Latin for busy.
I also took ‘digital security’ in the sense of a ‘secure grip’. I’ve seen ‘oddly’ to reference the even letters before. ‘Oddly’ can mean ‘occasionally’, hence my saying ‘not wrong’ @1, but, as I alluded, I still don’t care for it.
Gosh, a late blog seems to be the way to go, to up the number of posts! Firstly, Moh, great JOB, though no moh scale rating is totally inexcusable, you know.
In my inexpert view, the POEM clue illustrates one of my bug-bears: synonym creep.
OPUS, abbreviated to OP, works as WORK.
Work can reasonably mean JOB.
But, no way does this make OP = JOB.
Then again, I suppose that a “nose job” is a “nose op”.
I think I have just shot myself in the foot.