A good puzzle for those that like an easy Monday, with quite a few write-ins, but all nicely clued. There’s an error in one clue that may be updated at some point (and has been). Thanks to Alia.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | ACADEMIC | Teacher of no practical use (8) Double definition |
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| 6 | BLURBS | Obscure, extremely bumptious words on book jackets (6) BLUR (to obscure) + B[umptiou]S |
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| 9 | ASSASSINATION | Two idiots initiating one state shooting, perhaps (13) ASS ASS (idiots) + 1 NATION |
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| 10 | SCRAPE | Dispose of the last bit of homemade pickle (6) SCRAP (dispose of) + [homemad]E – scrape and pickle can both mean a difficult situation |
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| 11 | EYESIGHT | Perception absolutely possessed by rowing crew (8) YES (absolutely) in EIGHT |
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| 13 | GLITTERATI | International clothing label about to bring on board rubbish celebrities (10) LITTER (rubbish) in reverse of I[nternational] TAG (clothing label) |
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| 15 | CODE | System of rules requiring constant, dedicated work? (4) C + ODE |
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| 16 | NAFF | Trashy, somewhat lumpen affair (4) Hidden in lumpeN AFFair |
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| 18 | MANAGERIAL | Wild animal rage coming from the top dogs? (10) (ANIMAL RAGE)* |
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| 21 | CALLISTO | Satellite phone? It’s crazily old (8) CALL (to phone) + ITS* + O; Callisto is the second-largest moon of Jupiter |
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| 22 | CRAYON | Drawer primarily containing fabric (6) C[ontaining] + RAYON |
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| 23 | AUTHORITARIAN | Domineering writer from Rome, maybe changing sides? (13) AUTHOR (writer) + ITALIAN (e.g. from Rome) with L changed to R |
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| 25 | AT EASE | A kid taking it easy (2,4) A TEASE (to kid) |
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| 26 | HEDONIST | Fun-loving sort of mafia boss involved in robbery (8) DON in HEIST |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | CHANCEL | Opening above large part of church (7) CHANCE (an opening) + L[arge] |
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| 3 | DISTASTEFUL | Unpleasant fluid dilutes fast (11) (DILUTES FAST)* |
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| 4 | MASSÉ | Bulk energy shot (5) MASS (bulk) + E – it’s a type of shot in billiards etc |
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| 5 | CHIMERA | Fancy that guy being put into care, possibly (7) HIM (that guy) in CARE* |
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| 6 | BEAVERING | Person providing protection for country is working very hard (9) AVER in BEING (person) – the clue doesn’t work as written: I suspect “aver” (state) was replaced by “country” at some point in the editing process. Edit: “Country” was changed to “state” a couple of minutes after I published the blog |
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| 7 | UNI | Learning institution’s subdivision reduced in size by 25% (3) Three-quarters of UNIT (subdivision) |
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| 8 | BUNCHED | Gathered together and had late-morning meal right away (7) BRUNCHED (had a mid-morning meal) less R[ight] |
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| 12 | INCARNATION | Popular pink avatar (11) IN (popular) + CARNATION |
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| 14 | EMMA STONE | She acts single, following couple of males in certain direction (4,5) M M (males) in EAST + ONE (single) |
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| 17 | ADAMANT | Determined 80s pop star (7) The pop star is ADAM ANT |
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| 19 | NEOLITH | Frost ultimately breaks hole in crumbling relic (7) [fros]T in (HOLE IN)* |
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| 20 | AMOUNTS | Supplies of first-class horses (7) A (first-class) + MOUNTS |
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| 22 | CHARD | Head of cabbage with tough green leaves (5) C[abbage] + HARD |
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| 24 | TEA | Drink in the bar periodically (3) Alternate letters of ThE bAr |
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Very Monday. Liked EMMA STONE. Presume BEAVERING is either an error or a very sly bit of indirection. ADAM ANT made me chuckle as I like to belt out a chorus of Prince Charming whenever I hear the word 🙂
Cheers A&A
Alia leaves me slightly unhappy – I feel there are weakness but at the end of the puzzle there are no clues I can really disagree with. Apart from beavering which I came here to complain about but now see what happened.
Maybe I just need to fully acclimatise to Alia’s cluing to properly enjoy
Thanks blogger and setter
I wonder whether the intent was to change the ‘state’ in ASSASSINATION to ‘country’ to avoid having ‘state’ in the puzzle twice? And then the wrong one was changed?
A gentle Monday puzzle/quiptic; INCARNATION and AUTHORITARIAN were both very nice spots. ‘Taking it easy’ to define AT EASE is rather weak.
Thanks both
Yes, PostMark probably nails the BEAVERING glitch.
On the easier side, perhaps, but some nice clues. Felt AMOUNTS for supplies a tad loose.
Thanks, both.
Very Mondayish but thought on the tougher side for Alia with a few trickier clues. Not the usual write-in for this setter with a few needing a second, third and sometimes more visits.
I was a victim of the aver/country problem. Having working with editors myself I do sympathise having had pupil changed to student before when talking about the eye. Lesson to always be the last person to edit anything you put your name to. Shame as BEAVERING was my favourite today (revised version).
Thanks Alia and Andrew
I always enjoy reading Alia’s clues.
Favourites: EMMA STONE, AUTHORITARIAN, CRAYON (loi) and BEAVERING – when I did the puzzle the clue had already been edited.
New for me: massé = billiards shot/stroke.
Thanks for the puzzle.
Anyone else see ERIN and wonder what the hell BEAVG was?
nho EMMA STONE, but that’s on me as a quick check shows she’s pretty well known: and very fairly clued. A TILT to start the week.
I was a bit baffled by the AVER in BEAVERING, but the discussions above give me a good idea of how that clueing wobble might have arisen.
INCARNATION was neat.
This ex-ACADEMIC hopes that his work was of some practical use…
Thanks Alia and Andrew.
Postmark @3 – that, eerily, is exactly what happened! This was – despite many people on the Guardian site seemingly wanting it to be some kind of AI slop glitch – an entirely human error. Apologies all
I liked CHANCEL for the ‘opening’ and CALLISTO. Thanks.
Alia @10: easily done (if you’ll forgive the reference to ‘ease’ 😉) – though the editor should pick these things up. Thanks for popping in to clarify.
I could see the BEING in 6d, but the only country visible was ERIN: the identifiable pieces didn’t fit and there were other bits unaccounted for, so the correction was welcome.
I didn’t find this a particularly gentle Monday: the leaves of CHARD, the satellite CALLISTO, the NEOLITH relic and whoever EMMA STONE is caused me some headscratching. But no complaints. All problems apart from the corrected one were down to my own inadequacies.
Oh, and how do supplies=AMOUNTS?
Thanks to Alia and Andrew, a good start to the week.
I liked the ‘rubbish celebrities’, the ‘fun-loving’ DON,
and I enjoyed seeing ADAMANT, HARD STONE and NEOLITH bunched together.
There have been a lot of snooker-related clues recently, which suits me fine. I knew Massé, but it is really quite niche. Here’s a link to Jimmy White playing such a shot in a match (it’s a little grainy).
It amazes me that people haven’t heard of double OSCAR winner and all-round good egg, EMMA STONE. The last time I asked “are we really supposed to know” it was a chess champion from 1960 and I was immediately lambasted. Nobody’s claiming she’s obscure, though, so fair enough.
I enjoyed the puzzle. The issue at 6D had been fixed before I arrived (PostMark @3, that was an impressive hypothesis!)
I liked AUTHORITARIAN, I’m with Bodycheetah @1 on ADAM ANT. Other picks include ASSASSINATION, CRAYON and CALLISTO.
Thanks Alia and Andrew
The clue for 6d was not changed in my newspaper.
I am waiting for the editor to pop round and do that.
Last one in was EMMA STONE, as I hadn’t heard of her before either. AUTHORITARIAN took a while too, even with multiple crossers in place. Personally I thought this was pitched just right for a Monday, with the bottom half slightly more chewy than the top…
Pleased to have tried this after the BEAVERING error. Liked INCARNATION, AT EASE and HEDONIST.
Ta Alia & Andrew
Unusually for me I’ve finished this enjoyable puzzle before the day’s end. Like Gladys @13 however I was a bit stumped by supplies/amounts .. is there anything better than ‘I have large supplies/amounts of beans’ ?
Chambers – “supply”: noun: “an amount provided or in hand”
William@4 and gladys@13
AMOUNTS
Could not find a sentence where supplies and AMOUNTS are
interchangeable.
Dictionaries give ‘amount available/provided’ as a
meaning of ‘supply’.
Martin@15
PostMark has the ‘advantage’ of being a setter himself!
Thanks Alia and Andrew.
Fine, but didn’t like ‘easy’ in the clue for 25a when the answer is AT EASE. Not an error in the strictest sense, but clunky.
I have been a fan of Alia’s puzzles since they first appeared and I have said on each occasion that I’ve commented, ‘this one didn’t disappoint’, or words to that effect.
Today’s did fall a bit short, I’m afraid. – not for the error in 6dn, very promptly corrected and explained (although, like Andrew Sceats @16, I’m waiting for the editor to call 😉 ) but for the ‘at ease’ / ‘taking it easy’ in 25ac, which lacked the elegance that I’ve come to expect (although I agree with PostMark @12 regarding an editorial oversight).
Those disappointments aside, this was by no means a16ac: I smiled wryly at 1ac ACADEMIC and also liked EYESIGHT, CODE, AUTHORITARIAN, HEDONIST and ADAMANT.
I had no problem with SUPPLIES / amounts and found this:https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/supply to add to bodycheetah’s comment @20
I look forward to Alia’s next appearance, when I trust normal service will be resumed. Thanks, both.
First time I’d seen a puzzle by this setter. Very much enjoyed it. Massé was new to me. Interesting that they go to real trouble with the editing and still get it wrong!
EMMA STONE was unknown to me, but readily solved on the assumption that the first name had to be EMMA. Perusing her long list of credits and award nominations, I find that she is certainly not obscure, but I have not seen anything she has been in.
And apparently I am a bit slow this morning as it took me a while to get started, with CRAYON my LOI.
My favourite story about wayward editing is how “someone raging like a tigress deprived of her whelps” got turned into “someone raging like a tiger deprived of his whelks”; editor 1 having decided that “tigress” in the original was sexist, and altered it to” tiger”, and editor 2 never having heard of “whelps” and deciding it was a misprint.
Very pleasant puzzle. GLITTERATI was clever with a good surface.
“She acts” for EMMA STONE was a nice way to get around the actor / actress issue!
Thanks to Alia and Andrew.
Very straightforward.
Didn’t parse some of them. Really can’t be bothered
I liked this. I was late enough that 6dn had been changed. I also thought AT EASE very weak but the rest were excellent. Nho masse but had to be right so went to look. In modern snooker it’s a swerve. Also chard comes in other colours than green.
Thanks A & A
Nice and straightforward, as a Monday should be. I originally had ‘Twitterati’ but the clueing was fair.
Thanks for the blog , really good set of clues and just right for Monday , should be two of these every week to give newer solvers a chance . GLITTERAI , CALLISTO , AUTHORITARIAN very neat indeed .
Thanks for the correction for BEAVERING , MrPostMark@3 wearing the deerstalker today , initially a very severe frown for indirect synonyms . I see beavers at swimming most mornings , nowhere near as furry as in the past , must be global heating .
CALLISTO a very special moon , probably has an ocean , JUICE is on the way to investigate .
Is there a way to remove these coloured squares ? My screen is very loud .
PhilB @29 The massé is an extreme variant of a swerve where the cue is held vertically and the cue ball can actually double back on itself. It warrants its own word.
That was good fun, and seemed very fitting for a Monday. CALLISTO was my favourite. I spent way too much time thinking about how ‘state’ worked in 6d because I was thinking of the wrong kind of state – US states 😂. Thanks Andrew for the blog, and Alia for the puzzle.
I DNK MASSÉ but it couldn’t have been much else. I liked the rubbish celebrities with their international clothing brand for GLITTERATI, the old satellite phone for CALLISTO, the good anagram for DISTASTEFUL, the corrected BEAVERING away, and EMMA STONE acting single and following two males.
Thanks Alia and Andrew.
Martin@33. I followed your link in @15 to Jimmy White. Stupendous. How can anyone be that good and never be world champion?
Fun puzzle. Scratched my head for a moment with BEAVERING then guessed what was going on.
Although I’d heard the name Adam Ant (once you do, you can’t really forget it), I have to admit I couldn’t pick him out of a one-person line-up! Good thing that wasn’t necessary.
I failed to parse CODE, which is pretty remiss on my side. I failed to pass BEAVERING, which was complete reasonable! I found the explanation quite amusing.
I like the coloured name squares.
Roz @32 I’m gobsmacked that you don’t use a black and white screen 🙂
Nice Monday puzzle.
Andrew, you haven’t accounted for the final
I in GLITTERATI.
I hadn;t heard of EMMA STONE, ADAM ANT or MASSE — snooker clues always defeat me, it’s worse than cricket, though maybe not UK television.
Crispy@8 Me too for ERIN, what could I possibly make of the scramble left over?
There is a local band in the Albany NY area called Annie and the Hedonists.
Thanks, Alia and Andrew.
Very good puzzle, with many enjoyable misdirections. NW most challenging
Favourites 10a SCRAPE (delicious!), 18a MANAGERIAL (anagram), 22a CRAYON (good surface, and not MAGNET for a change!), 2d CHANCEL (“Opening” = CHANCE misdirection), 5d CHIMERA (loi, “Fancy that” double bluff. I found there’s no such word as CRIBERA), 14d EMMA STONE (Great actor. Poor Things required viewing), 22d CHARD (surface)
13a GLITTERATI, I was lucky to get the G when I was thinking GAP
Thanks both
NHO Emma Stone (and I see I’m far from alone in that), and felt AMOUNTS was rather weak, but otherwise no big issues. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I did not find this as straightforward as others. An enjoyable challenge, but I certainly did have an eyebrow raise with ‘at ease’. Thanks Alia and Andrew
This setter is flexing their muscle! Some complicated switcheroos for a Monday. E.g., AUTHORITARIAN. Enjoyed it, but I also share some of the quibbles about the clues.
Thanks both
.
Feeling my age a bit – never heard of Emma Stone, but knew Adam Ant from the late *1970’s*!!
I got SCRAPE (10a) before parsing it, because I had an image of scraping out the last bit of pickle from the jar, so I was pleased to see that it did parse, as well 🙂
Thanks to Alia and Andrew
Bodycheetah@39 it is not my Chromebook and I also use it for JWST and Euclid sites which have many falsely coloured images . I like the white and blue on here , it is very calm . I will see if my butler can do anything .
Comment #47
Comment #48
Well I could do little of that, much harder than Saturday’s prize.
Thanks both.
Chambers’ first definition of “product” is “thing produced”, but I shan’t be happy if I ever get a clue where “product” is the definition and THING is the answer. So although “supplies” is defined as “amounts available” etc. (bodycheetah @20 and KVa@22) I’m not happy that “supplies” defines AMOUNTS.
I think that in both cases the essence of the dictionary definition is the adjectival part – produced and available – but the dictionary writers are forced to include a noun with vague meaning when they’re defining a noun. AMOUNTS is such a noun.
Of course, “thing” is the ultimate in vague nouns and “amounts” carries a bit more meaning so you can still argue both ways. But I don’t think dictionary entries of that form close the discussion.
( I note the thesaurus referenced by Eileen@23. I can only say that I’m surprised that it lists amounts as a strongest synonym of supplies).
I’m not so keen on the squares as mine could be taken to be rather unfriendly!
[Valentine @40: I was on a football/soccer tour in NY State for 3 weeks with Queens Uni Belfast in 1982 and one of our venues was Albany. I met a girl called Rachel Haitko who lived on Easy St and I decided, as a love struck 22 yr old, to spend the last few days with her instead of the team, much to the fury of my manager. I remember going to see the English band, The Beat, with her in a local pub and there were only about 20 people in the audience much to my surprise. Sorry for the digression it but I haven’t heard Albany mentioned since then].
KIngsley @50 – just saying … no personal axe to grind.
Albany has an interesting history. When the Dutch had New Amsterdam, they located the capital of the state where Albany now is and called it Renesslaar. It was located inland to encourage development to go inland.
When the British took New Amsterdam, the King? was Prince of York and Albany. Hence New York and Albany…
Fuddleduddy @51 (thought it best to use your full name) – nice one!
AS@16, Eileen@23: I expect Corrections and clarifications will come up with an apology for the BEAVERING error in due course. Those of us who do the puzzle in the paper just have to be patient.
Hector @56 🙂
A real Monday crossword, COD AUTHORITARIAN.
Crispy@55 😀.
John@54 The county across the Hudson from Albany is Rensselaer County. Why was the King Prince of York and Albany?
Before succeeding his elder brother Charles II, James II & VII had held the English title of Duke of York and the Scottish title of Duke of Albany, each being traditionally given to a younger son of the respective country’s monarch. Duke of York & Albany is a later title, in the peerage of Great Britain, and has not been granted since the creation of the UK.
This was a nice bedtime solve, the print version however still showing “country” rather than “state”.
[Wordpress’s email-related automatic abstract avatars are quite jolly, and safe now that they’ve found put how to stop them making variations of swastikas…]