Thanks to Brummie for today’s puzzle. Perhaps a touch above the usual Monday difficulty level, but nicely clued as ever.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | CRISIS | Plight of conflicted Republican heads leading double lives (6) First letters of Conflicted Republican + IS (lives) twice |
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| 5 | SOB STORY | Pitiful account of boss turned politician (3,5) BOSS* + TORY (politician) |
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| 9 | FREELOAD | Sponge’s loose weight (8) FREE (loose) + LOAD (weight) |
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| 10 | SLEUTH | Dick playing lute to break silence (6) LUTE* in SH (silence!) |
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| 11 | ANTIMACASSAR | Applying mascara isn’t a protection against greasy hair (12) (MASCARA ISN’T A)*. Antimacassars were (are?) put on chairs to protect them from the macassar oil that men put in their hair |
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| 13 | SCUD | Rocket salad starter with re-processed food (4) S[alad] + CUD (“reprocessed” food in ruminants) |
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| 14 | NUMERACY | Never underestimate Middle Eastern leaders with lively ability to put two and two together (8) First letters of Never Underestimate Middle Eastern + RACY (lively) |
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| 17 | VALENCIA | City’s very bitter new agents? (8) V[ery] + ALE (beer, bitter) + N[ew] + CIA (agents) |
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| 18 | GREW | Team leader changed, became mature (4) CREW (team) with a different first letter |
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| 20 | BIRTHDAY SUIT | A British duty to spread nudity (8,4) (A BRITISH DUTY)* |
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| 23 | INFIRM | Part of company that’s failing (6) If you’re part of a company you’re IN [a] FIRM |
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| 24 | OUTHOUSE | Privy you once dumped in river? (8) THOU (old form of “you”) in OUSE (river) |
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| 25 | FLATPACK | Apartment charge for potential item of furniture? (8) FLAT (apartment) + PACK (to load0 |
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| 26 | DO-SI-DO | Dance figure is switched between two parties (2-2-2) Reverse of IS between DO and DO (parties) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | RARE | Excellent red for the diner? (4) Double definition: rare/red as in steak etc |
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| 3 | SKEDADDLE | Somewhat over-tasked, add lead to make tracks (9) Hidden in over-taSKED ADD LEad |
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| 4 | SNOOTY | Superior toys on high (6) (TOYS ON)* |
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| 5 | SEDIMENTARY ROCK | White Cliffs of Dover composition – morris dance yet to be arranged by Kay (11,4) (MORRIS DANCE YET)* + K |
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| 6 | BASE CAMP | Wretched, mannered start of assault on Everest? (4,4) BASE (wretched) + CAMP (mannered) |
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| 7 | TRESS | Not opening, force lock (5) STRESS (force) without its first letter |
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| 8 | RAT-CATCHER | The Pied Piper of abstract art – baseball player? (3-7) ART* + CATCHER |
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| 12 | OCCASIONAL | Intermittent sort of casino in Ohio state (10) CASINO* in O (Ohio – this one-letter abbreviation is in Chambers) +CAL[ifornia] |
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| 15 | RIGHTEOUS | Just a blend of proper English and ordinary American (9) RIGHT (proper) + E[nglish] + O[rdinary] + US |
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| 16 | ACADEMIA | Uplifted, set sights on getting one around a scholarly environment (8) Reverse of AIMED (set sights on) + A (one) + CA (circa, around) |
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| 19 | GUTTED | Was a fish factory worker disappointed? (6) Double definition |
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| 21 | TAINT | Soil: it isn’t common (5) TAIN’T is a slang form of “it isn’t” |
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| 22 | USED | In-house detective was a druggie (4) Hidden in in-hoUSE Detective. The use of the derogatory term “druggie” has caused some raised eyebrows in the Guardian comments |
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A very nice puzzle! Brummie on top form, I reckon. Loved OUTHOUSE, CRISIS, SOB STORY and SEDIMENTARY ROCK in particular. Many thanks to B & A.
Reading your blog, made me realise not a duff surface anywhere; in fact some excellent ones such as 20ac.
Thanks, Andrew and Brummie
Lovely start to the week. A real lightness of touch from Brummie today. Top ticks for ANTIMACASSAR, SOB STORY and VALENCIA
I think the angst over druggie in the other place tells you everything you need to know about something or other
Cheers A&B
Bunged in RIGHTEOUS with a slight shrug… didn’t know Ohio could be reduced to a single O. Is that the case with all the US states or just some?
Excellent start to the week with not a dud in sight. I liked SLEUTH, NUMERACY, BIRTHDAY SUIT and SEDIMENTARY ROCK. We still use ANTIMACASSARS.
Ta Brummie & Andrew.
What AlanC@5 said.
Excellent puzzle with good constructions and surfaces. I was encouraged by the beautiful CRISIS and the rest lived up to expectation.
Slight change of wording to ‘Dance figure is switchING….’ would make DO-SI-DO an &lit, do you not think?
Many thanks to Brummie and Andrew
Super start to the week! The long anagrams are all brilliant – very satisfying to work out – with excellent surfaces all round.
Same favourites as AlanC @5, with the addition of SOB STORY, RAT-CATCHER and ACADEMIA.
Many thanks to Brummie and Andrew.
5d was an impressive anagram!
New for me: DO-SI-DO (= US alteration aka mangling of dos-à-dos); O = Ohio (I usually see OH).
Some brilliant anagrams – 20A and 5D stand out. Otherwise what AlanC@5 said – except I haven’t seen an antimacassar since my Grandmother died in the 70s. Thanks to B & A.
I was also thrown by O for Ohio – which seems to have been the abbreviation accepted by the US Postal Service from 1831-1874. O well.
Very nice. I don’t understand pack/charge in 25a. I struggle to equate rare with excellent, despite someone assuring me a long time ago that the Chambers bible says it’s OK. Cholera is rare. Today’s weather is excellent.
I too was surprised by O for Ohio.
Agree with all above, Brummie is King of surfaces, a great read as well as a great puzzle. SimoninBxL@10, try travelling Avanti west coast for present day ANTIMACASSARs. We’ll have to see if they survive nationalisation.
William @4: I have seen Oregon similarly reduced to its initial O in “Salem, O”, but I don’t know if it’s legit for every state.
Very enjoyable, thanks Brummie. I liked OUTHOUSE and SOB STORY and BIRTHDAY SUIT, and was forced to address the question of how to spell DO-SI-DO, which I have often heard but never seen written down. Yes, ANTIMACASSARS on chairs long survived any actual need for them – our chairs sported them well into the1980s.
(Geoff Down Under@12 – how about O rare Ben Jonson?)
I agree with DaveE @2 about the surfaces – though I reckon the one for OUTHOUSE is as good as BIRTHDAY SUIT.
I also agree with all those who were thrown by Ohio being just the letter O. Random Initialitis strikes again. However, that one harrumph was outnumbered by the happy ticks and grins…
Thanks Brummie and Andrew
Very smooth and enjoyable, though I couldn’t quite parse OCCASIONAL.
GDU @12 RARE = excellent is current certainly in the Glaswegian patois I grew up with ‘ ‘That’s RERR!’ is an expression commonly heard. On a more – ahem – elevated note, in Antony and Cleopatra, Agrippa interrupts Enobarbus’s famous ‘The barge she sat on, like a burnished throne …’ speech, exclaiming ‘O rare for Antony’. It is not to be supposed that he is giving the palace chef instructions for how to cook Antony’s steak later.
Agree, GDU @12, about pack and charge — you can charge your glass but not your suitcase — but I’m less fussed about rare and excellent. Great puzzle, ta Brum and Andrew.
Very good start to the week. Of course, O = Ohio is in Chambers. I liked the boss’s SOB STORY, the good anagrams for BIRTHDAY SUIT and SEDIMENTARY ROCK, the OUTHOUSE privy in the river, the well-hidden SKEDADDLE, and the OCCASIONAL casino.
Thanks Brummie and Andrew.
It’s all been said, I think, although I had no complaints. I quite liked RAT CATCHER, among others. SEDIMENTARY ROCK was good, I was duly misdirected for a start.
Thank you for the enlightenment, Balfour@17. I shall draw on this next time I’m in Glasgow. 🙂
Lovely start to the week – I liked everything but especially the dumped privy, the high toys and the spread nudity!
Thanks Brummie & Andrew
What is a FLATPACK?
Daniel @23; from Chambers: flatˈpack noun
An item of furniture or equipment sold in a flat pack for the purchaser to assemble
Daniel@23 A flatpack is a kind of large-ish jigsaw puzzle enjoyed by DIY enthusiasts. Like a crossword, the flatpack comes with a set of clues designed to baffle and misdirect.
Daniel@23 You’ve obviously never shopped in Ikea!
Gif@18 – I had parsed ‘charge’ and ‘pack’ in the sense of “charging” or “packing” a firearm, but I agree wasn’t the most immediate sense of “charge”. Also hope the AFL result on Saturday wasn’t too gutting if you’re a Fremantle supporter – superb game!
An enjoyable puzzle and thanks to Brummie and Andrew
Is the definition for outhouse possibly also privy you once dumped in?
Not very often that a hidden word stays that way almost to the very end, but that was the case with SKEDADDLE today. Which meant I could finally insert FREELOAD. An entertaining puzzle this morning, I thought. Many thanks Brummie and Andrew…
I was going to say slightly harder than a usual Monday but looking back afterwards there were only a few clues for which I didn’t think I should have got a lot quicker. ANTIMACASSAR was new to me but seemed the most likely of the unlikely possible order or letters.
Liked a lot of this. SEDIMENTARY ROCK, BIRTHDAY SUIT and BASE CAMP come straight to mind.
Thanks Brummie and Andrew
Lovely puzzle with many great surfaces and ingenious anagrams. Since my sister once lived in Hamelin, I particularly enjoyed 8d. Thanks Brummie and Andrew!
What a fine puzzle! I really enjoyed the excellent anagrams and the clever clues.
Let me set the record straight on US state abbreviations (and Canadian province ones too). In 1969 the post office declared that every state, no exceptions, had a two-letter abbreviation, with both letters capitalized. William@4, California is CA, not Cal. My state, Connecticut is CT, not CN as somebody once put it, which stands for cyanide.
Before 1969 state abbreviations were of variable size. I think I recall both Cal and Calif for California. Tennessee was Tenn, I think, but Kentucky was Ken. Four-letter abbreviations were common, but what do you do when the whole state name is only four letters? Apparently you shorten it to just O because using the whole four letters wouldn’t be an abbreviation, would it? Though I don’t think Utah, our other four-letter state, suffered the same fate.
It may have been my grandmother who told me what an antimacassar was, and I’m sure I haven’t seen one in ages. Do men still use hair oil in your neck of the woods, AlanC?
I think ‘taint for “it isn’t” is dialect, not slang.
Michelle@8 Do-si-do is orally transmitted French, as our square dance tradition is descended from French quadrilles (without lobsters). Other square dance terms from French are promenade, sashay (chasser) and allemand left (a la main gauche).
Thanks, Brummie and Andrew.
Having lived in the US for over 30 years, I have absolutely never, ever seen any US state reduced to a single letter. There are simply too many ambiguities. Without exception they are abbreviated to the official two letter codes accepted by the USPS. Once again “it’s in Chambers” fails to impress me: necessary, perhaps, but not sufficient.
It’s a shame to have a — let’s say it out loud — error like that mar an otherwise excellent Monday puzzle, especially as there are so many other ways to clue O.
Jacob, the letter O once was once the official abbreviation for Ohio, though it hasn’t been since 1969 — longer ago than your 30 years. Read the comments before you post.
Valentine@32: I was also going to bring up “Cal”, which rather compounds the issue with that clue, but felt I might be piling on!
Tennessee was indeed TENN, but Kentucky was always KY.
For those interested in the full and fascinating history of US state postal abbreviations, I recommend https://web.archive.org/web/20120309105923/http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/state-abbreviations.pdf
Valentine@34: That was rather rude. And also incorrect.
The letter O. was only briefly the accepted abbreviation, up until 1874 (*not* 1969) when it became “Ohio”, which it remained until the 1963 (again, not 1969) standardization, alongside the introduction of ZIP codes. See the official US Postal History I linked to @35.
If the clue is going to rely on an abbreviation that was obsolete 150 years ago and would be recognized by, I aver, absolutely no living American, it deserves at least an indication that is a “former” abbreviation.
Furthermore, I didn’t say it wasn’t ever O. I said it has not been O in my 30 years here (and in fact, not even in my lifetime), not even in casual use, which is entirely true. Perhaps you should read the comments more carefully before you post.
The amusing story of state name abbreviations.
Thank you Brummie for a good start to the week. A confidence booster for one who has struggled lately. Some thought-provoking constructions, but gettable. And consistently superb surfaces, as many have mentioned. All the clues were great, so hard to pick favourites. Maybe single out 20a BIRTHDAY SUIT for the humour (you Brits have an odd sense of duty!) and fine anagram
Thanks Andrew for an excellent blog
Can anyone tell me what work the question mark is doing in 24ac?
It’s not ‘definition by example’ because ‘river’ is not an example of OUSE – it’s the other way around.
What am I missing?
. Started off as what seemed like an inscrutable rockface! But as I kept at it, the puzzle fielded its runes! Then on at a steady pace. I loved the deep misdirect in WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER. A cultural reference to an American song that mistreats a British location with love (shades of O for Ohio!) in the past (I was so taken by the poetry, I actually listened to the song) and then aha! An as deep geological one!
What’s the problem with CAL / California? I thought it was a fairly common abbreviation e.g. Socal, Caltech etc
Nice to have a puzzle that allows the solver to parse things before writing them in – rather than guessing by the definition and then figuring out some convoluted solution.
Thanks Brummie. Great balance of solvable clues.
NHO Antimacassar, but the wordplay was clear enough
Did I detect a slight American theme? skedaddle, do-si-do, California etc
Valentine @32 – “Though I don’t think Utah, our other four-letter state, suffered the same fate.”. Is Iowa no longer a state then?
#41 Cal as a shortening of California is reasonable and you make a good point re socal/caltech. Caltrain, calpoly are other examples. O as a standin for Ohio is NOT at least in my book. Don’t care if Chamber’s has it or not. Cal only adds to CA whereas O down from OH makes it more ambiguous.
AS@39 perhaps the question mark is a DBE indicator for privy?
For 4D, why does “high” denote an anagrind?
Bodycheetah@41: Socal came to my mind too (and also Norcal), and m@44 adds a couple more examples.
However, these several examples of Cal being used in a compound aside, I can’t think of an instance where Cal is used standalone as an abbreviation.
Is that a difference, or merely a distinction?
Grizzlebeard@25, you have a future as q crossword setter. Or a Johnsonian dictionary compiler!
Oops — I forgot Iowa. I don’t think it’s been referred to as I either. But I do remember seeing O for Ohio, even though by that time it hadn’t been officially sanctioned for a long time. The official abbreviation for California in mailing addresses, says the USPS is CA. For California anything else, anything goes — see Jacob’s examples above. You can call the state university UCal if you like, though I don’t know whether anyone does. (The state university for Connecticut gets called UConn, which sounds like Yukon, which is why the University’s sports teams are called the Huskies.)
Jacob@47 and bodycheetah@41. The university of Berkely is often just called Cal – instead of the University of Berkeley at California. The state university system (the largest feeders into UC) are collective called the Cal state system. There’s a lot wrong with calling it Frisco, but there’s nothing wrong with calling California Cal.
I was mildly surprised that Eileen@8 didn’t include 3d SKEDADDLE among her favourites, as I thought that would be a word to tickle her fancy.
White Cliffs of Dover is a song that I associate with the less popular form of pop music known as sedimentary rock.
Mig@38, does the British odd sense of duty explain why they do it with a stiff…upper lip?
Cellomaniac @ 51 – I clearly remember doing so in the past! 😉
…and a not very distant past: https://fifteensquared.net/2026/07/17/guardian-30061-vlad/?highlight=skedaddle
Greebo @46 – High as in drunk
A couple of synonyms I wasn’t particularly happy with, but they’ve been clarified in the comments. Thanks to both.
Some outstanding stuff here. Favourites BIRTHDAY SUIT and SOB STORY.
Thanks for the blog , I think I agree with nearly everyone , will just mention SLEUTH because I like the fake capital hidden at the front ,
Cellomaniac in the blog , Mig back on form and 20C on the Lancashire Riviera to spread the nudity , my lucky day .
Crispy @53 – thank you.
To jump on the excellent/rare debate:
GDU@12, if you live in the UK and today’s weather is EXCELLENT, it is also RARE.
In the US, universities typically use abbreviations with a single letter for the state. And, yes, there is a lot of ambiguity, but context typically makes things clear. For example, OU is used for both Ohio University and Oklahoma University. So, Florida could be abbreviated as F as in FSU for Florida State University.
Some years ago some friends and I cycled from home to Berwick on the Pennine Cycleway. We stayed at B&Bs each stop, and our luggage was moved from one to the next by the firm we booked with – Saddle Skedaddle!
Naive_springwater @27, many hours later now, but thanks for commiserating. It was indeed totally gutting. After 32 years, to have fought bravely all year, then to be 17 points up with 4 min to play … just horrible.
The New York Times consistently uses state abbreviations that are not those approved by the US Postal Service. I can’t say that I’ve seen O for Ohio (does anything happening in ever Ohio reach the national news?) but Cal is frequently seen, and many others.
I was stuck for the last two in the NW, with the clue for 2d making me think of wine even after I’d stopped thinking of wine; and the correct synonym for ‘sponge’ remained just out of reach until I had all the crossers, when it slipped very easily into the palm of my hand.
Thanks very much to Brummie and Andrew.
[Savornin@59: … and sometimes a bit of discretion is in order. The regents at the other major state university in Florida, in Gainesville, wisely chose UF.]
Cellomaniac@51 Ouch!
Happy to have contributed to Roz’s lucky day @56, along with all the nudity-spreading. I guess 42 would have been too much happiness
Comment #65
Well, I found this A Different Kind Of Straightforward, which made a nice change for a Monday.
Thanks everyone.
chrisp@28 I’m glad I’m not the only one that noticed that. Helped me solve the clue anyway!