Thanks Brendan for a tricky and very enjoyable solve.
There is a theme around PORTMANTEAU: there are many examples of ‘portmanteau’ words in the solutions including DOCUSOAP, INFOTECH, LABRADOODLE… and in ORWELL’s 1984, NEWSPEAK contains many portmanteau words.
| ACROSS | ||
| 4 | NEWBIE |
Pay attention about opposing points, namely for novice (6)
|
| NB (Nota Bene, “Pay attention”) around EW (East and West, “opposing points” of the compass); plus IE (id est = that is = “namely”) | ||
| 6 | DOCUSOAP |
Medic and aged Brit traversing America for TV series (8)
|
| DOC (Doctor, “Medic”), plus OAP (Old Age Pensioner in Britain, “aged Brit”); both around US=”America” | ||
| 9 | WEIRDO |
Current controller leading party is eccentric (6)
|
| a WEIR is a “Current controller” as it helps control a river’s current; plus DO=”party” | ||
| 10 | INFOTECH |
Foci then shifted to computer applications etc` (8)
|
| anagram/”shifted” of (Foci then)* | ||
| 11 | PORTMANTEAU |
Piece of luggage left on board by guy you heard consuming drink (11)
|
| PORT=”left” when “on board” a ship, plus MAN=”guy” + U (sounds like ‘you’ i.e. “you heard”) around TEA=”drink” | ||
| 15 | ASSEGAI |
Weapon, for instance, deployed in unending attack (7)
|
| definition: a type of spear or javelin
EG (e.g. = “for instance”), inside ASSAI-[L]=”unending attack” |
||
| 17 | TUSSORE |
Coarse fabric making us hurt after short time (7)
|
| definition: a type of silk with a coarse texture
US (from surface) + SORE=”hurt”; both after T short for “time” |
||
| 18 | LABRADOODLE |
Awfully adorable old pet (11)
|
| anagram/”Awfully” of (adorable old)* | ||
| 22 | TEAMMATE |
Fellow in squad raving at me in first half, otherwise in second (8)
|
| anagram/”raving” of (at me)* for the first half TEAM, and the second half MATE is an anagram of the same letters but in a different way (“otherwise”) | ||
| 23 | ORWELL |
One English author or another abridged (6)
|
| OR (from surface) + WELL-[s], as in H. G. Wells = “another [English author] abridged” | ||
| 24 | ELEPHANT |
Owner of trunk that must be repacked for the plane (8)
|
| anagram of (the plane)*
“that must be repacked for” = ‘these letters, if rearranged, would make…’ to indicate the anagram |
||
| 25 | KNOTTY |
Like bad deal, difficult to undo? (6)
|
| “Like bad deal” – reference wood that has too many knots in it, as “deal” can mean wood material
“difficult to undo” – reference to knots that are difficult to untie |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LIB-DEM |
Line from the same source about British political type (3-3)
|
| L (Line), plus IDEM=”from the same source”; around B (British) | ||
| 2 | POINSETTIA |
Popular houseplant I set in a pot adapted (10)
|
| anagram/”adapted” of (I set in a pot)* | ||
| 3 | AUTOCUES |
They help people with deliveries after car gets in line, we hear (8)
|
| definition referring to the delivery of spoken lines
AUTO=”car”, after which goes CUES which sounds like ‘queues’ as a verb=”gets in line, we hear” |
||
| 4 | NEWSPEAK |
Quartet playing best performance? That’s made-up propaganda (8)
|
| definition: Newspeak as a form of propaganda in the fictional 1984
NEWS (North East West South, the four players in a game of bridge = “Quartet playing”) + PEAK=”best performance” |
||
| 5 | WAITRESS |
Female serving as half of ward sister’s replacement (8)
|
edit thanks to comments from Layman and KVa |
||
| 7 | OP-ED |
Newspaper article began in old-fashioned way (2-2)
|
| ‘ope’ is an old-fashioned version of ‘open’=’to begin’
so OPED can be “began” in an old-fashioned way |
||
| 8 | PAHS |
Negative reactions from pedant and his sort, primarily (4)
|
| starting/primary letters from P-[edant] A-[nd] H-[is] S-[ort] | ||
| 12 | NAIL-BITING |
Suspenseful part in capture (4-6)
|
| BIT=”part” in NAILING=”capture” | ||
| 13 | WORDFEST |
Concluding pieces from head of state in last literary event (8)
|
| final letters (Concluding pieces) from [hea]-D [o]-F [stat]-E; inside WORST=”last” | ||
| 14 | TELEPLAY |
Drama as seen from the box (8)
|
| cryptic definition: can mislead if read as describing e.g. a play watched from box seats in a theatre | ||
| 16 | GALUMPHS |
Proceeds clumsily with talk about growth and height (8)
|
| GAS=”talk” around: LUMP=”growth” + H (height) | ||
| 19 | OARING |
Bellowing, losing head, and having a row (6)
|
| [R]-OARING=”Bellowing” losing its first/head letter | ||
| 20 | STYE |
Pound’s gone out of fashion – that could affect one’s view of things (4)
|
| definition: a stye on one’s eye could affect vision
L (Libra, “Pound”), taken out of STY-[L]-E=”fashion” |
||
| 21 | CASE |
Legal action that may be taken on by boarder (4)
|
| double definition: a legal case; or a case of luggage taken on by a passenger boarding a ship/plane |
No knowledge problems today*, although I did check WORDFEST and found two near me.
I spent the most time in the North West. AUTOCUES held out the longest though.
I was surprised that we haven’t seen an ASSEGAI in a while. WEIRDO was mentioned in a clue last week. It’s over a year since TEAMMATE last arose with a similarish clue from Imogen.
Faves today include ORWELL, OARING and GALUMPHS.
Thanks Brendan and manehi.
*OK, maybe TUSSORE, well clued though.
I find portmanteau words a bit craptacular, I’m afraid. I did enjoy the solve, though. I think it’s the second time I’ve seen ASSEGAI in the last few days (I think the other instance was in Private Eye). Thanks to Brendan and Manehi.
Very tough – my foi was 7d which I could not even parse as I solved it from the letter count. Never heard of OPED = “began”.
New for me: WORDFEST, DOCUSOAP, TUSSORE.
It wasn’t Private Eye – maybe The i.
Another great themed puzzle from Brendan, although it was only at the end that the penny dropped with PORTMANTEAU. I had spotted ORWELL’s NEWSPEAK earlier though. Liked the anagrams LABRADOODLE and POINSETTIA.
Ta Brendan & manehi.
A few of those portmanteaux a tad groanworthy, but I enjoyed this, my only unknown being TUSSORE.
Found this a ploddy solve. Liked TEAMMATE. Not come across that before. But it’s not quite chuckle worthy. GALUMPHS and PAHS brightened the grid for me.
A finely worked theme, with a few jorums (ASSEGAI, TUSSORE). Thanks Brendan and manehi!
A slight correction: in WAITRESS, “‘s” is not part of the anagram fodder.
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog.
Both of high quality.
Thanks Brendan and manehi.
Top ones: WEIRDO (current controller & my professional connection with dams for decades), TUSSORE,
KNOTTY, AUTOCUES, OP-ED and TELEPLAY.
A minor point:
WAITRESS
WA stays outside the anagram fodder.
Always a pleasure to see Brendan’s name. One of his more obvious themes today. Nice to see ORWELL and Wells together — I believe they had a falling out. Speaking of Wells, and sleepers awaking, 7d recalled Prospero in The Tempest:
… graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, OPED, and let ’em forth
Many thanks Brendan and manehi.
Another very enjoyable puzzle from Brendan – ticks for DOCUSOAP (‘aged Brit’ – Ouch!), WEIRDO (current controller), PORTMANTEAU (super construction and surface), ELEPHANT, for the smile, AUTOCUES, ditto, NEWSPEAK / ORWELL combination and GALUMPHS, a favourite word of mine. TUSSORE a jorum for me, too but very neatly clued.
Many thanks to Brendan, for the fun and to manehi for a fine blog.
Another excellent puzzle from Brendan, though I rather felt that he might have painted himself into a (NE) corner today, with my last two in PAHS and OP-ED. Thought TEAMMATE a wonderful construction, amongst several others…
Loved this frabjous nod to Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty (with the Jabberwocky’s galumphing vanquisher in ‘Through the Looking-Glass’), and George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’.
A Wednesday-wordfest, for which thanks to Brendan and manehi
I thought this was fun, and for once spotted the theme and found it helpful, though in a rather roundabout way – I still hadn’t solved PORTMANTEAU when I got DOCUSOAP and muttered to myself that there were a lots of portmanteau words here – Aha! my brain then told me rather belatedly…
Enjoyed the puzzle, somehow missed the theme. Duh.
Thanks Brendan and manehi
An entertaining puzzle. I spotted what I thought was a luggage portmanteau theme before noticing the ‘portmanteau’ words.
Thanks Brendan and manehi.
We had a portmanteau-themed crossword by Bard not long ago in the Independent. I am not sure I would have got DOCUSOAP without the theme, as I am in denial about my “aged Brit” status.
I’m familiar with tussar silk, but never heard of “tussore” before.
I seemed on wavelength for this apart from the SE corner which was a little KNOTTY (not helped by an incorrect ‘untidy’ in that spot). Liked ORWELL but should have got it quicker since NEWSPEAK was already solved and I am a huge fan of Wells.
Glad to have spotted the theme.
Needed the blog to fully understand a few OP-ED for example and to confirm there was nothing more going on with TELEPLAY.
Thanks Manehi and Brendan
Some splendid words in today’s grid: GALUMPHS, PORTMANTEAU, ASSEGAI… and an interesting theme, but all too often I could only get half of the portmanteau: TELEsomething, somethingFEST, and had to scratch around for the rest. Favourites ELEPHANT for the def, and TEAMMATE: if it has been done before I didn’t see it.
Anyone else start out by thinking that AUTOCUES might be something to do with midwives?
gladys @20 – yes! 😉
Lots of fun today.
Never heard of a wordfest, though there were two near Martin — are they common? The most well-known one seems to be the one in Calgary, though it wasn’t there when I lived there.
I remembered that Tussore was some kind of fabric, but on looking it up found it has a very interesting story. Who knew you could make silk from wild silkworms?
I looked up docusoap too, and found it hard to believe such a thing exists.
Thanks, Brendan and manehi.
As always the theme eluded me, but fortunately was necessary. TUSSORE was new to me, and I have a hard time imagining any silk as “coarse”. Coarser than other silks, I suppose?
DOCUSOAP was also new to me, and I very much hope never to see one.
Gladys@20 yes, I spent a long time trying to think of synonyms for midwives.
Got the theme too late for it to help, but nice to see how it tied all the instances together. Apparently we owe this use of the word to Lewis Carroll (not sure if that was covered by wynsum@13).
Guessed the older meaning of OPED, glad to confirm it here. Tx!
Beautiful puzzle, as always from Brendan. In the SE I had 23a AT(T)WELL, and 19d OUTING (= (SH)OUTING — somehow I didn’t notice I was subtracting two letters), so dnf
Favourite was 18a LABRADOODLE (concise, good surface), 22a TEAMMATE (though we’ve seen similar treatment before), 24a ELEPHANT (obvious, but excellent surface), 16d GALUMPHS (fun word)
For 7d OPED, I thought of the archaic version of “Good Christian men, rejoice”:
He hath ope’d the heav’nly door,
And man is blessed evermore.
I wonder if it needs the apostrophe to work?
Thanks both
We too thought midder and gyny for the AUTOCUE at first, but my efforts to get something like accoucheurs in failed. And for 25 across, with the N and the Y, we started with GNARLY.
As always with Brendan, elegant, witty and clever. Thanks B and m.
Tough and couldn’t finish the SE corner. Didn’t spot the portmanteau theme so didn’t get docusoap, teleplay, or wordfest.
OARING is a horrid word that only exists in crosswords but I suppose is fine.
Nho TUSSORE and was looking at tusache for the fabric.
Not quite enjoyable. Favourites AUTOCUES and GALUMPHS.
Thanks Brendan and manehi.
Thanks to manehi for parsing 7d OP-ED as that was beyond my pay grade. A fun puzzle even if 19D OARING is a bit dubious as the online Collins shows Oar as a noun. I see that the online Chambers does show Oar as a verb as well.
Completed the crossword, and was in the middle of a furious rant about one of my pet hates on here, compilers using words that (despite what a modern dictionary might say) are not “real words”… and then realised there was a theme going on here! So grudgingly will save my rant for next time. Even so, that was probably my least enjoyable crossword in recent times, for the above reason. Plus a few of the made-up (aka Portmanteau) words I had never heard of, which of course didn’t help matters. [Exits stage left, grumbling to himself]
Thanks to wynsum@13 and Dr. WhatsOn@25 for enlightening me on the coinage of “portmanteau”. I had always thought the connection was simply that the latter was a capacious item of luggage, missing Humpty’s specific allusion to its two compartments. Of course the term now comprehends forms like “turducken” (more properly, a portmanthree).
Splendid stuff, though we were flummoxed by op-ed. thanks to all.
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues , KNOTTY is very knotty , WORDFEST a clever construction , many more ……
For a while I had in mind CULOTUSE ( the Peruvian midwife toad ) crossing with TWESORE ( from Aristotle ) , stupid Roslyn .
I finally found the right sort of car in the right place .
[ We have just passed full moon , very visible tonight from around 9.30 pm in the UK . Even better a spectacular moonset around 6.00 am tomorrow UK , best viewed when swimming in the sea . ]
Mig@26 , great example for OP-ED , ope’d does not need the apostrophe , it is just the wordplay not the answer , only needs the right letters in the right place .
Roz@34 Yes, I just meant the apostrophe in the wordplay, i.e. the blog. Whether OPE’D as a short form of OPENED needs an apostrophe (as in the hymn), or can stand on its own. I see OPE in Chambers, so presumably the apostrophe can be omitted. Probably originated with the apostrophe, though. Like ‘phone…
Too many of the answers were little known terms, such as PAHS. It was very unlike a good Brendan crossword.
Thanks, Manehi and all. When I started this, I was very surprised to find how many portmanteau words there are. Come to think of it, does “crossword” count as one?
There was a portmanteau-themed puzzle some years ago, maybe one of our clever archivists knows how to find it? I think it had more portmanteaux than this one.
Valentine@38 , try Brummie 18/7/2023 , I can’t put a link , the internet is too primitive to interface with my diary .
Valentine@38: Guardian 29,125. I’m using antiquated technology so am able to provide the link.
When I was beginning to solve crosswords, I enjoyed meeting new words. I always remember “eleemosynary” (Azed, or was it Ximenes?). With respect to words like “OARING”, which may be useful for gridfill, there are several factors I take into account. Is it in at least some dictionaries (the lack of consistency among which is surprising and annoying)? Is the meaning obvious (“any noun can be verbed”)? Will my editor pass it? Then I write a clue that should be straightforward enough (IMHO).
I ticked NAIL BITING, LABRADOODLE and KNOTTY. I found it difficult and felt similar to Ian W@30 at times. I like concise clues, and I thought this rather longwinded in places, and so I am afraid I did not enjoy it as much as some other commenters.
Thanks Brendan for the puzzle, and thanks manehi for the blog.
All solved and parsed but, for me, a little underwhelming compared to most Brendan puzzles. I can’t remember hearing anyone say TELEPLAY, and the clue is only slightly cryptic. BOOKFEST seems more likely than WORDFEST, perhaps because we have one locally each autumn. OP-ED was also in the Quick crossword today.
Isn’t the abridged Orwell a reference to the Suffolk river?
I don’t think NEWSPEAK can be described as propaganda. It was a simplification of language and a reduction of vocabulary designed to eliminate the capacity for abstract thought. It’s an idea touched on in Orwell’s earlier writing, such as his essay Politics and the English Language.
Strange one, this. Found it tough going at first, then all of a sudden I noticed I’d completed it! Thanks for the parsing of KNOTTY and OP-ED. And yes, I was another one thinking midwives were involved in 3D.
Needless to say, I missed the theme, even though I was looking for one, it being Brendan.
Agree with Ian W #30 and Brian #40. A cross link in to the Portmanteau with some may have helped. Until I read this blog I fumed at the many, too many new word combos. Clearly not done enough puzzles to realise Poramteau as a scheme for compilers – a bit too cliquey for me and I don’t want to have to drop into such a group so will handle Brendan accordingly in future as I generally enjoy his puzzles
Loved this allusive collection of baggage. My only disappointment was, given the Orwell references, that the houseplant wasn’t an aspidistra.
I get why some are sniffy about portmanteaux, but in his delightful book The Story of English in 100 Words, David Crystal included a beauty (“bagonise”) which in turn inspired me to eulogise it, thusly:
Disembark, find my flight’s carousel.
Watch the bags ride around. They look swell!
But where’s my portmanteau?
Packed up in this canto,
It’s “bagonise” (lost luggage hell).
Note: When esteemed linguist, author, broadcaster and word-nut David Crystal ran a competition on his BBC program English Now, a listener coined and submitted this portmanteau term, which combines bag with agonise and means “to anxiously wait for your suitcase to appear on the baggage claim carousel at an airport”.
Thanks Brendan, and thanks Manehi!
Really enjoyable puzzle. I was a bit unsure about the KNOTTY/TELEPLAY pairing at the end. I quite like the “bad deal” side now that the blog has explained it to me, so thanks for that. The TELEPLAY CD is a tad weak imo, though obviously fitting with the (lovely) portmanteau theme helps somewhat.
rusty@48 – love ‘bagonise’ – been there, do that … .
Thanks Brendan and Manehi. I especially like portmanteau. You can always tell if an Aussie is from Queensland because we call a piece of luggage a port.
Queenslander @51: Like us Irish with e.g. gobshite, the Aussies have so enriched the English language — anklebiter and technicoloured yawn are the examples that first come to mind.
Tricky but ultimately personally satisfying as I managed to work my way through the whole thing, including NHO words and a few where I had to figure out the parsing after entering the word.
As should be, getting tougher through the week. I had to come back today for the SE corner. Thanks both. Obviously missed the theme.
decent and satisfying, especially as my LOI was the lovely ELEPHANT. glad that the IMO slightlier uglier solutions (PAHS, OARING, INFOTECH) generally had straightforward clues. I also liked PORTMANTEAU and the nice anagrams
but i don’t think i agree that WORST means ‘last’, it means like ‘coming last’? only substitutable in the imprecise “to be worst/last in a race”. i may be missing something of course.
thanks manehi and Brendan
I had to give up on this last night, suffering with brain cell depletion. Took it up again after lunch and struggled for a while. Everything I wrote in was with reluctance. It looks like WORDFEST but is that a word and what is the wordplay? It looks like TELEPLAY but that would make it a cryptic definition and it’s incredibly loose. It looks like GNARLY but, of course, that was wrong; I didn’t really trust KNOTTY until I’d got all the crossers.
I did like WEIRDO and OPED though, and ORWELL helped me with a crosser for 14d, so that was another favourite.
Thanks to Brendan/Brian and of course to Manehi too.