A thoughtfully constructed Quiptic from Chandler to ease us into Greenwich Mean Time.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 With time gone, terrible deficit facing European building
EDIFICE
A charade of (DEFICI[T])* and E. The anagrind is ‘terrible’ and ‘with time gone’ tells you to remove the T.
5 Expression of surprise about posh US city offering rich stew
GOULASH
An insertion of U and LA in GOSH. The insertion indicator is ‘about’. U (as opposed to non-U) for ‘posh’ is just crosswordspeak. Nobody ever uses it these days in any serious conversation.
10 Glowing ring with a loft in part
HALO
Hidden in witH A LOft.
11 Muddle with greens in a poor state for couriers
MESSENGERS
A charade of MESS and (GREENS)* with ‘in a poor state’ as the anagrind.
12 Entertainment in a field cancelling opening? It’s not reasonable
UNFAIR
[F]UNFAIR
13 Start to eye opening in good equestrian activity
EVENTING
A charade of E, VENT, IN and G.
14 Increase the risks in haunt Pete constructed
UP THE ANTE
(HAUNT PETE)* with ‘constructed’ as the anagrind.
16 Chaps in audience making appearance
GUISE
A soundalike clue (‘in audience’) for GUYS.
17 Fellow is given direction in banquet
FEAST
A charade of F and EAST.
19 Eccentric sent a bike to get mixed drink
SNAKEBITE
(SENT A BIKE)* with ‘eccentric’ as the anagrind. A mixture of half a pint each of cider and lager. Very 1980s. The internet describes it as a ‘cocktail’. I don’t think so.
23 Inspector has to emphasise extreme sorrow
DISTRESS
A charade of DI and STRESS.
24 Observe warning
NOTICE
A dd.
26 One giving advice is elected local politician, reportedly
COUNSELLOR
A soundalike clue (‘reportedly’) for COUNCILLOR.
27 Dry element in bar identified
ARID
Hidden in bAR IDentified.
28 Figure still in filthy site
SEVENTY
An insertion of EVEN in STY. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
29 Took up commercial work with Edward shortly
ADOPTED
A charade of AD, OP and TED.
Down
2 Attraction with play on words in turn formulated
DRAWN UP
A charade of DRAW and PUN reversed.
3 A number provided in promotion for female
FIONA
A reversal of A, NO and IF. ‘In promotion’ works as a reversal indicator because it’s a down clue.
4 Cold region in Italy, area with many lakes
CUMBRIA
A charade of C and UMBRIA.
6 Item in kitchen drawer in first section?
OPENER
A dd.
7 Delicate bachelor starts to use little burner – it glows?
LIGHT BULB
A charade of LIGHT, B and ULB for the initial letters of ‘use’, ‘little’ and ‘burner’.
8 Section of an orchestra as could be pulled?
STRINGS
A dd.
9 Act confidently in fearless tones possibly
ASSERT ONESELF
(FEARLESS TONES)* with ‘possibly’ as the anagrind.
15 Ambassador with view about India showing indecision
HESITANCE
A charade of HE for His Excellency or ‘Ambassador’ and I inserted into STANCE. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
18 Medical incident in part of a series
EPISODE
A dd.
20 Sort wine of a similar sort
KINDRED
A charade of KIND and RED.
21 Performer wearing hat that is pleasant to touch
TACTILE
An insertion of ACT in TILE. The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’.
22 Modern headquarters having an exchange of parts
RECENT
Chandler is inviting you to swap parts of CENT RE.
25 Vagrant close to last entry to a car park
TRAMP
A charade of T for the final letter of ‘last’ and RAMP.
Many thanks to Chandler for this week’s Quiptic.
Perfect quiptic. Thanks both. GUISE was last in. Not common for I to follow U. (Held up by Guinivere recently.)
I was unsure how to parse 22d, wrongly assuming it was an anagram of centre = headquarters. I wonder if this clue is a bit difficult for beginners?
New for me: snakebite = mixed drink.
Thanks Pierre and Chandler!
Did most of this in a bout of insomnia at 4am and then got to 28A, 16A (Im still no good at homophones!), and 22D for the last ones in when I woke up the second time.
I’m with Michelle @2 on RECENT bring quite a tough clue (need to think of the the synonym *and* wordplay), but the rest of the grid was quite straightforward so ok to have a head scratcher where I had to reverse engineer plausible solutions.
That was a nice start to a windy day. In my youth a snakebite was cider and Guinness (sounds ghastly I agree). Thanks Pierre and Chandler.
Nicely done. My favourite was CUMBRIA for its smooth surface, I was trying to work in COMO.
Ta Chandler & Pierre.
How is hat = TILE?
I didn’t like that sort appeared twice in reference to kind* in both clue and solution (KINDRED) in 20A.
“Nice wine of a similar sort” might have been better.
That’s my only quibble in an excellent quiptic.
I think SEVENTY was my favourite.
Thanks S & B.
I’m with Michelle@2 and Pauly@3 regarding 22D, RECENT, which I couldn’t see even with all the crossers. On seeing the parsing here, I get it, but don’t find it satisfying. I’d say “recent” and “modern” have overlapping meanings but aren’t strong synonyms, and while “centre” and “headquarters” are stronger as synonyms I still wouldn’t call them strong synonyms. (Maybe “clear” or “obvious” rather than “strong” – I’m not sure which adjective is most appropriate for describing the extent to which two words are synonymous).
That said, overall I enjoyed this very much! I loved 16A GUISE. Thank you Chandler, and thank you Pierre.
Very nice. I thought ‘fearless tones’ was a clever spot for ASSERT ONESELF. Is this an &lit or some other term?
I also liked LIGHT BULB for the delicate bachelor.
Thanks Chandler and Pierre.
Is anyone able to explain how for #28 still is synonymous for even? And similarly how for #3 provided is meant to produce IF?
Thanks to Pierre and Chandler!
Kestell@8 “close”, not “strong” – “close synonyms”, “closer as synonyms”.
Hi Sacha@10
For still/even, how about “John was tall, but Julie was even taller” and “John was tall, but Julie was taller still”?
For provided/if, how about
“Given X, then Y”
“Provided X, then Y”
“If X, then Y”?
We were still drinking snakebite (and black = blackcurrant top) in the late 90s at Kent university. It brings back happy memories (although not of the days after!)
Thank you Kestell! Makes sense now.
bibs @6, ’tile’ is a slang word for ‘hat’. Comes up a bit, so worth storing away for future reference.
Didn’t know HAT = TILE. Now I do.
Enjoyed this – cheers Chandler.
Agree with Michelle@2 and others on RECENT.
Kestell@8
Chambers has ‘modern’ for ‘recent.
I think when we say “modern history” or “modern trends”, probably these two
words are synonymous.
Thanks Chandler and Pierre.
No quibbles from me. I also parsed RECENT like Michelle @2. Just right for today, I thought.
Thanks Chandler and Pierre.
Thanks for a smooth Sunday offering and blog! The soundalikes were good training. Opener in a kitchen drawer = can or bottle* was like a slow light bulb for me. Getting the synonyms and homophones seems far more difficult than parsing the clues.
I guess what saves RECENT from being a verboten indirect anagram is that the clue gives you (relatively) specific directions for what to do to CENTRE. But that “relatively” there tells you that I think Chandler is skating rather close to the line, especially for a Quiptic.
But I have no problems with “modern” as a definition for RECENT. Yes, both words have senses that don’t overlap. The Holocene is geologically recent, but also covers all of recorded history and then some, so the vast majority of it is not modern; meanwhile Modernism in most art forms refers to styles that aren’t really all that recent anymore. But we don’t insist on exact synonymy, like, with any word ever in these puzzles, so why would we do so this time? There are sentences where they can mean the same thing, so, good enough.
[Michelle and Martin: it can’t be an anagram because that would be verboten.]
Good fun and tricky in quite a few places. CENTRE didn’t come to mind as a synonym for ‘headquarters’ so I guessed that one based on crossers and definition, but knew there was some letter swapping to be done. 28a was another guess based on crossers and then a reverse parse of the wordplay. No real quibbles as I think it was all precisely clued – even in hindsight for 22d and 28a. Thanks Chandler, a nice challenge; and thanks Pierre for your blog.
mrpenny@20, overbent is an indirect anagram of forbidden, and so it is …
(Paradoxically, it is a direct anagram of …, and so it is not forbidden.)
Kestell@8, you seem to want your synonyms to be clear and obvious. Is that not the antithesis of cryptic?
Thanks C & P for the clues and parsings. In keeping with the spirit of Quiptics, they came with no strings attached (or did they?).
bibs@6, Pierre@15, The Punch@16: I think “hat = tile” goes back (at least) to a music hall song of the 1880s, whose chorus begins “Where did you get that hat/Where did you get that tile?” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Did_You_Get_That_Hat%3F
I’ve also never heard of “tile” for hat! Otherwise I enjoyed this!
I didn’t find this a lot easier than an average weekday puzzle (if there is such a thing), but there were very few clues that took me more than a couple of revisits.
Regarding 22d, I agree with mrpenney @20 on both points, especially the first. I do consider reversals, for example, to be anagrams—so even when indirect they’re legit (at a ‘normal’ difficulty level) because the permutation is specified exactly; likewise for explicit swaps of particular letters (most commonly the first & last). So I guess the question is whether or not “having an exchange of parts” is enough to go on in this context. Assuming it’s understood that the word need be cut in only one place (for a result equivalent to a ‘roll’), there are certainly far fewer possibilities, but I doubt I could have got this one without any crossers.
For 27a I first thought of AR[gon] + ID, but that would make “in bar” superfluous and also ignores the “-ed” in the last word, so I had another think. (For some reason looking for embedded solutions is usually my last resort.)
At 9d it occurred to me that starting with _Speak_ instead of “Act” would have made for a smoother surface WRT the anagrist, while still being an acceptable definition.
Thanks Chandler and Pierre for a great Quiptic and excellent blog.
I particularly liked CUMBRIA, and KINDRED, which took me forever to get!
I’m half tempted to buy a bottle of lager and a bottle of cider just to find out what a snakebite tastes like.
A luxury snakebite was Guinness and champagne – a tradition in my family on Boxing Day (only affordable once a year!).
Everpuzzled @28
That’s a Black Velvet!
SNAKEBITE is definitely a RECENT thing among the youth.
Snakebite and black (lager cider with a bit of blackcurrant) was the way to go in my younger days.
Also agree 22d is verging too much on an indirect anagram.
Still for even is giving the idea of a calm sea or lake IMO.