The original puzzle may be found here.
The regular blogger, Loonapick, is unavailable today, so I’ve stepped up to the plate.
I solved this before going to sleep in the early hours but left the blog till this morning. I didn’t have too much trouble with the crossword, though the NW corner was a bit stubborn.
Hopefully everything’s OK but I’m sure you’ll let me know. Thanks to Brummie.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BESPOKE |
Customized bicycle’s hollow wheel feature (7)
|
| B[icycl]E (hollow)+SPOKE (feature of a wheel) | ||
| 5 | DISABLE |
Located outside building’s entrance, Ladies sadly put out of action (7)
|
| B[uilding] (first letter)inside LADIES (anag: sadly) | ||
| 9, 10 | BURNT OFFERINGS |
Fetches round container with sweets (not drugs) as sacrifices (5,9)
|
| BRINGS (fetches) around URN (container)+TOFFE[es] (sweets) minus ES plural of E (drug) | ||
| 10 |
See 9
|
|
| 11 | SEMANTICS |
A meaningful area of study (9)
|
| A cryptic definition. Semantics deals with the meaning of words | ||
| 12 | PALMA |
Use sleight of hand with ace? Capital! (5)
|
| PALM (used by magicians to hide cards)+A
Palma is capital of The Balearics |
||
| 13 | TULIP |
Pull it out to eject large bulb (5)
|
| PUL[l] IT (minus Large; anag: out) | ||
| 15 | TITLEROLE |
Championship register reportedly taken by lead player? (5,4)
|
| TITLE (championship)+ROLE (sounds like ROLL (register)) | ||
| 18 | STREETCAR |
Vehicle gives way, getting around a river (9)
|
| STREET (way)+Circa (around)+A River | ||
| 19 | SATYR |
Was an MP your heartless lecher? (5)
|
| SAT (was an MP)+Y[ou]R (heartless) | ||
| 21 | OXFAM |
Organisation is the essence of paradox, famously (5)
|
| paradOX FAMously (hidden: essence of) | ||
| 23 | BOOKSHELF |
Reserve: quiet little creature’s novel resting place (9)
|
| BOOK (reserve)+SH (quiet)+ELF (little creature) | ||
| 25, 26 | SPECTATOR SPORT |
Carpets, top sort, woven for Rugby? (9,5)
|
| CARPETS TOP SORT (anag: woven) | ||
| 26 |
See 25
|
|
| 27 | REDUCER |
Casanova gets a new top for chemical solution (7)
|
| [s]EDUCER (Casanova) with first letter changed
I couldn’t find reducer in Chambers but a distant memory says I’m right |
||
| 28 | PAINFUL |
Disagreeable one having fun touring in China (7)
|
| PAL (China; Cockney rhyming slang: China plate=mate) around I (one) FUN | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BABYSIT |
Tabby is sickly – mind the mites (4-3)
|
| TABBY IS (anag: sickly)
mite as in small child |
||
| 2 | SCRAMBLER |
Communication made meaningless by this climber (9)
|
| (double def) | ||
| 3 | OFTEN |
A lot of figure (5)
|
| OF+TEN (figure) | ||
| 4 | EGOTISTIC |
Foreign cities limiting energy and temperature in vain (9)
|
| CITIES GO (energy) Temperature (anag: foreign) | ||
| 5 | DAFFS |
Fancy backing with fibrous edges for cut flowers (5)
|
| FAD (fancy; rev: backing)+F[ibrou]S (edges) | ||
| 6 | STRAPLESS |
How disciplinarians show restraint describing a dress? (9)
|
| If a disciplinarian shows restraint, he might STRAP LESS | ||
| 7 | BANAL |
Stock bar with drink – 1/3 off (5)
|
| BAN (bar)+AL[e] (drink; two thirds of) | ||
| 8 | ENSNARE |
Net Tennyson carried regularly (7)
|
| [t]E[n]N[y]S[o]N [c]A[r]R[i]E[d] (regularly) | ||
| 14 | PNEUMATIC |
Blown up – impact spread over northern Brussels (9)
|
| IMPACT (anag: spread} around Northern EU (Brussels)
EU and Brussels are often used interchangeably to indicate European Union |
||
| 16 | TURBOPROP |
Mixed up rotor with BP engine (9)
|
| UP ROTOR BP (anag: mixed) | ||
| 17 | ONTHEHOOF |
Moving position of horseshoe? (2,3,4)
|
| Double (cryptic) definition | ||
| 18 | SCOUSER |
Northwesterner has to rummage around Kent etc (7)
|
| SCOUR (rummage) around SE (southeast; Kent, for example) | ||
| 20 | REFUTAL |
Denial of tearful drunk (7)
|
| TEARFUL (anag: drunk) | ||
| 22 | FREUD |
Dispute about queen’s dream interpreter (5)
|
| FEUD (dispute) around Regina (queen) | ||
| 23 | BITER |
‘Beer time’s off!’ one snaps (5)
|
| BIT[t]ER (beer; minus Time) | ||
| 24 | SUSHI |
Shut your mouth after ejecting hot Italian starter snack? (5)
|
| S[h]USH (shut your mouth; minus Hot)+Italian |
I enjoyed this. I wasn’t sure about REDUCER either and agree Chambers didn’t appear to support it, but an online dictionary gives it unequivocally as a chemical solution; a reducing agent used in photography.
I was mostly on the right wavelength today. I liked EGOTISTIC, OFTEN and BABY SIT. I thought of BURNT OFFERINGS immediately from those daft OT stories but didn’t commit to it for ages. (The new app layout makes it harder to parse full width solutions).
Thanks Brummie and kenmac for stepping in.
Thanks Brummie and Kenmac
Lots to like. Favourites BESPOKE, BABY SIT, OFTEN, and PNEUMATIC.
A couple I didn’t like. REDUCER isn’t the usual word for a reducing agent, and in large scale industrial processes (making iron, for example) it’s a gas rather than a solution.
However, major dislike for REFUTAL defined as “denial”. Refute for deny has become so commonplace that it has even got into Chambers, but it means “disprove”!
Hmmm…got there but had ?s about REDUCER and deffo don’t like REFUTAL for ‘denial’.
Failed to properly parse PAINFUL.
Thanks for stepping up, Kenmac.
As usual, I started well and ran out of steam. Loi was title role where I couldn’t make register work until the penny dropped far too late.
Hampered by putting in semiotics rather than semantics – seemed OK to me.
I don’t like Brussels meaning EU. It just doesn’t. Otherwise smooth and enjoyable. Favourites 19a SATYR for the surface, and STRAPLESS.
Thanks Brummie and kenmac
4D is an anagram (foreign) of CITIES around (limiting) GO (energy) and T (temperature)
Thanks Brummie and kenmac
The energy in the anagram for egotistic is GO not E
PhilB@4: I disagree – let me explain why. “Brussels” for “EU” is a common example of synechdoche, where a part is used to stand for the whole of something. We do it when we call a “worker” a “hand” or an executive a “suit” but some have become so ingrained into our language we do not see them as metaphorical anymore. I think that, so long as metaphors used by setters are commonplace they must be fair game.
A fine puzzle from Brummie but I felt there were a lot of instances of single letter deletions where the letter existed multiple times in the fodder e.g. “e” from “toffee”, “t” from “bitter”, “h” from “shush”. Purists might insist that the clue should indicate that only one should be removed.
Many thanks kenmac for stepping in, and Brummie for the puzzle.
Larry @5
Well spotted. Corrected now
I enjoyed the puzzle. What a pity it was spoiled by the unmarked americanism in 18ac.
I’m pretending I haven’t read kenmac’s introduction. Thanks for standing in, though.
Thanks for stepping in, Kenmac. Slight amendment re PAINFUL, which I had as PAL around (in) an anagram of I FUN (anagr: touring). V nice puzzle, thanks to both.
Yaay! Please excuse a little celebration here as this completes a 100–day winning streak (not counting Sundays of course). Last defeat was by the dastardly Fed on 9 April. Nice puzzle too, thanks Brummie!
As a chemist, I have no problem with REDUCER. It could be solid, liquid or gas in or out of solution, although I’d usually call it a “reducing agent”. The opposite of an oxidant.
An entertaining puzzle. STRAPLESS was very amusing. And “mind the mites” was clever for BABYSIT.
Re REFUTAL: yes we used to hear “I refute that” a lot, but maybe not so much now — has the message perhaps got through?
Many thanks Brummie and kenmac.
Pleasant enough start to the day, with a chuckle about the disciplinarian showing restraint and the infested tabby, and a nod to a nice misdirection with SUSHI not being an Italian starter.
Like muffin @2 and William @3 I detest refute=deny; but it’s one of those abominable modern usages like disinterested=bored that I guess old fogeys like me just have to put up with. And in the context of a crossword puzzle it was pretty clear what was meant.
Thanks to Brummie and especial thanks to kenmac for stepping in so promptly.
Very slight amendment to your slight amendment, miserableoldhack @10: I think it’s one = I plus an anagram (“touring”) of FUN, in PAL. Otherwise someone will complain that it’s an indirect anagram!
Wasn’t convinced by SUSHI as a ‘snack’, but otherwise plenty of good clues. I liked BURNT OFFERINGS, BESPOKE, BABYSIT and PAINFUL.
[kenmac – how do I put a photo next to my name? I’d like folk here to see how good long hair can look on a man in his seventies!]
Sorry to be pedantic (but so many others are here), but I think EGOTISTIC is in insertion of GOT in an anagram of CITIES
William FP @17 you need to visit this site https://gravatar.com/. You may find your image also pops up on other sites you use.
I’ve always thought BESPOKE a rather strange word in the English language, in fact when I first came across it (in the tailoring sense)I bizarrely thought of bicycle wheels, so the cluing for 1ac today I find somehow apt…
Crispy@18 yes.
A bit anagram heavy this I thought. Liked STREETCAR though for the misdirections of ‘gives way’ and ‘about a river’.
JOAT@7. I hear your point, but in my experience Brussels was only ever used to refer to the European Parliament and its associated bureaucracy (usually in a derogatory way). I think the usage of Brussels for EU has now completely gone from speech and writing ie is not commonplace. A matter of opinion I know.
“I refute it thus” Dr Johnson said, kicking the stone, but yes, NeilH @14, it’s pointless to fret (hoNe for “home in on” is one of mine; double past conditionals — I would have liked to have been there — is another). Nice enough puzzle though, ta Brum and Ken.
Thanks Brummie and kenmac! A brilliant puzzle. One “but”: I feel that PALMA as capital is not fair; in crosswords, I’ve only ever seen this referring to national capitals. If we include capitals of provinces, states, counties etc. the list to choose from would be humongous; might as well just say “city” instead. I got it eventually but wasn’t too thrilled. On the other capital, Brussels, I tend to agree with PhilB@4,22 – capitals usually stand for official authorities, not whole countries.
Stymied by putting ‘semiotics’ for 11ac. It’s perfectly valid (except it’s wrong) and I couldn’t see an alternative, so 3D became unsolveable. This is why, were I writing my own Ximinean rulebook, I’d forbid the crossing of CDs!
Thanks for stepping in with the blog , good set of clues , I agree with FU @21 for STREETCAR , multiple deceptions . BOOKSHELF and PNEUMATIC very neat .
The term REDUCER is used in darkrooms . a dying art .
BRUSSELS and EU mean the same thing in Yes (Prime) Minister .
PALMA is the capital of Mallorca , I think we would accept capital for Douglas , Newport , Port Stanley etc .
Although it was my LOI, I agree with Roz@26 and others that PALMA is a legit capital. Otherwise a nice crossword for a Tuesday. Thanks to k for stepping in.
Roz @26
I used to use a darkroom, but I never heard “reducer” as one of the steps – my process was developer (equivalent to reducer?), rinse, fixer, rinse.
[I don’t think it’s a standard step: “used to lessen the density of a negative or print by oxidising some of the blackened silver to soluble silver compounds”.]
REFUTAL was unfamilar, but I guessed it correctly. I just assumed REDUCER was a chemistry term I didn’t know (of which there are many) and revealed it. Favourites BOOKSHELF and BABYSIT for a couple of neatly disguised defs.
muffin @2 et al. much as we may grumble, language continuously evolves (otherwise we would all be speaking like Shakespeare, and Shakespeare would be speaking Old German…). We may regret the passing of a perfectly good distinction, but refute/refutal and rebut/rebuttal are well on their way to merging, and before long I expect that one or the other will be gone entirely. This is a process that happens frequently when two words are close in both sound and meaning.
And while we might also complain about the “incorrectness” of it, by definition correct usage is what large numbers of native speakers say and understand. There are a great many usages that we here on 15sq consider perfectly cromulent that would equally have raised the ire of our grandparents.
Jacob @31
This is the problem with dictionaries being descriptive. OK, they can reflect incorrect usage, but could they not add “incorrect”? I particularly dislike words with different meanings becoming used interchangeably. The classic example is aggravate/irritate.
Muffin@28 that is just for negatives , you often have to then treat these before making prints .
Well done Lockjaw@11 . a good incentive to persevere and be stubborn . I am up to 4 years and 8 months , including Sundays .
Lots of fun, this puzzle. Unlike kenmac, I found the southwest corner the most recalcitrant, had to fill it in this morning.
“Refutal” may have got into a dictionary, but the spellcheck on this site underlines it in red wiggles, and it’s not a word I’ll ever use. In fact, I’m not sure I’ll acknowledge it as a word at all. Give me “cromulent,” it’s a lot less pretentious.
Thanks to Brummie and to kenmac for stepping in.
Roz @33
Same steps for prints: shine enlarger light through negative onto photosensitive paper, then develop, rinse, fix, rinse, dry.
Valentine @34
It was deny as a definiton for refute that was in my Chambers (with no comment!). All the online hits I found, if they give it, do point out that it’s incorrect, though.
Thanks both and I was entertained albeit defeated by OFTEN (no excuses – just lazy-brain).
Lots of SEMANTICS in play in the blog today – how very appropriate. Personally I would sleep tonight if someone could point me towards an explanation of when a differentiation should be made between ‘special/especial’ and ‘specially/especially’. NeilH@14 uses ‘especial’, no doubt correctly, but I would not have blanched at ‘special’.
TILT: ‘cromulent’.
Fine puzzle — thanks Brummie. The SW took some doing (like Valentine@34). Liked 18a STREETCAR (which populate the streets of my native Toronto — great way to get around), 7d BANAL (“Stock” def), 14d PNEUMATIC (tricky!)
kenmac@8 I don’t see the correction yet at 4d…GO and T are contained, not part of the anagrist. Also the tweak from miserableoldhack@10 and Lord Jim@15 for 28a (FUN anagram)
Lockjaw@11 Congrats on the century — impressive! Keep going — maybe you’ll catch up to Roz in few years… 🙂
Thanks kenmac for stepping in
Thanks both,
I can’t see what the problem is with refutal. Refutation is a strong form of denial that disproves what is being denied. The problem comes when the denial falls short of disproof. FWIW, my SOED gives ‘refute’ as a meaning of ‘rebut’ and vv. My feeling is that they have always meant similar things and the distinction is an artefact of C19 grammarians.
Jacob@31…I must admit, having read your comments that I had to look up the meaning of Cromulent. Which you use, but which I have never ever come across before. Many thanks, therefore, for another word added to my lexicon…
Great puzzle. Right on Brummie’s wavelength.
Favourites were BURNT OFFERINGS and BESPOKE.
Some moans about PALMA = CAPITAL, but Douglas would be OK, as Roz points out.
I’m never sure what constitutes a ‘country’, Mallorca clearly isn’t a country in its own right, but are Scotland or England, for that matter, given that the ‘country’ (presumably) is the United Kingdom?
But what do I know?
Thanks both, particularly Kenmac for standing in.
HYD@40 , you know a lot . Pointless defines a country as – a sovereign state that is a member of the UN in its own right – sounds good to me .
And yes our country is the UK and we have UK passports .
Mig@37 , in Canada does STREETCAR mean tram or trolley-bus ? When I visit Manchester I like to use the trams , pretty sure there are no UK trolley-bus networks now .
High school memory. A reducer (gas, flame, chemical) is something that removes oxygen. The opposite of an oxidiser.
Thanks both
[Roz @41. Yet my passport gives my nationality as British (or Bridish if you’re a sports commentator)]
Srivats @42
If Martin @29 is right, it’s actually oxidising silver to silver ions, so it’s not a “reducer” in a chemical sense. Very misleading!
Bridish??
Like a bride?
No – Bridish because so many sports commentators are incapable of pronouncing the letter “t” in British
I’m another not happy with deny= refute. Once we accept the equivalence we are on the way to losing the ability to express the distinction.
Brain not working and / or on a completely different wavelength today so I found a lot of this much harder than many recent offerings. Hey ho, onwards and upwards.
Nigel Farage could “deny” that Brexit has had a deleterious effect on the British economy but he would not have “refuted”/”disproved” the statement.
Roz@41, In my day, Toronto had both trams and trolley-buses. The former were called STREETCARs, that rode on rails and drew power from a single overhead wire (nowadays they might be referred to as “light rail”, with many of them in two parts, articulated), and the latter “electric buses”, which drew power from two overhead wires. I don’t think they have trolley-buses any more, but they still have STREETCARs, unfortunately something of a rarity in NA. In the early 20th century they were much more common, but General Motors, along with petroleum and tire companies, bought many of them in the US, tore them up, and replaced them with buses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
Roz@26 – it was nicely prescient for Yes (Prime) Minister to make an equivalence between BRUSSELS and EU, since the EU did not come into existence until 1993.
Really enjoyed this, particularly some of the cryptic definitions.
Could we say that a REFUTAL is a particular form of denial, namely one involving disproof? They don’t mean the same thing, but definitions in crosswords don’t have to be synonyms. In fact it is commonplace for solutions to be instances of a class specified in the definition – eg “dog” as the solution to “pet reversed deity” (or whatever).
I also think “Brussels” works for “EU” in the same way “Washington” works for “the US Administration”. When somebody shouted, “Goodbye Brussels,” as the referendum result was being announced, I didn’t take him to be announcing his imminent departure from the city, or indeed the city’s imminent disappearance from the face of the Earth.
Mig@50 , same names as here , trolley-buses had wheels and tyres , trams on little rails , often three or four carriages . Trams nearly died out but have made a comeback in many places .
Van Winkle @51 There have been many names but all amount to the same thing “Europe” or “Brussels” , clearly a difficult concept for some people .
Julius Caesar @52
But they simply don’t mean the same thing. Deny is “say it’s not true”; refute is “prove it’s not true”.
I’m posting because you have reminded me of two things:
1 ask a friend to think of a 4 letter word that ends ENY – most struggle!
2 the dyslexic agnostic insomniac who lay awake at night wondering if there was a dog
Muffin @54.
1. Is DENY the only one?
2. 😊
On REFUTAL, doesn’t proving it’s not true INVOLVE saying it’s not true? As the conclusion to the refutation? A denial is not always a refutation, but a refutation is always a denial, that’s my reasoning here. “Pet” and “dog” have different meanings too, but the second is an instance of the first, no?
JC @55
I see your point that refutation involves denial, but I still think it is rather more powerful!
Muffin @56: On that we agree.
Roz@53, sorry I wasn’t clear — in Toronto we didn’t use the terms “tram” or “trolley-bus”. Only STREETCAR and “electric bus”. Yes, there’s a renewal in interest in light rail in cities. It’s not only more energy-efficient, it also provides a much smoother, more pleasant ride, resulting in more people using it
Curious about the definition of SPECTATOR SPORT as ‘rugby’. Surely this is a definition by example? Shouldn’t there be a ‘for example’ in there somewhere? When is that considered required, or not?
I also agree that refutal/denial are okay in the sense that a refutal is a kind of denial. Not to mention that language changes over time. Whine about it all you want, but that’s how language has always worked and until you go back to using Old English, your complaints seem to disprove themselves, no?
Struggled with this one, but got through it with some liberal checking.
Roz@41 – (bad luck, you just missed the target there) – you’re right that there are no working trolley buses in the UK now. The last one was in Bradford in 1972, though there are a few working ones in various museums.
DrG@59: The clue has a question mark after ‘Rugby’, which is usually considered sufficient to indicate a definition by example.
.FWIW, in case anybody reads this, both kinds of public transport are alive and well in San Francisco, as well as diesel buses. I think the kind with tires and an overhead wire (which sometimes got disconnected, and the driver had to stop the bus and reattach the trolley device with a long hook thing) was called a trolley bus, or maybe a trolley. The one on rails was a streetcar, I think, and then they put it underground for the downl/town part of its run, and I think maybe it was a light rail. Or maybe that term was reserved for BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), yet a fourth kind of conveyance, which ran under San Francisco Bay and branched all over the East Bay.
I didn’t think that Yes (Prime) Minister was as funny as Yes Minister, where part of the joke was the sheer triviality of the problems Jim Hacker had to deal with.
Mig@58 , my fault , I did not explain myself well . I meant that the terms you used actually corresponded with what I thought , Streetcar for you = tram for us etc .
Thank you Tamarix@60 , I did not know they lasted so long . I think most tram systems went much earlier but at least they have made a comeback .
Roz@53 – yes, clearly a difficult concept for some people. Recent UK history would have been very different if the various institutions of Europe through time had all amounted to the same thing.
I’m not sure that REFUTAL is always inherently a denial.
When gathering experimental data in impartial scientific investigation, researchers might say “We thought that…..was the case, but the evidence refutes that”
It still works for a crossword, however, because it doesn’t always have to be so.
Thanks all.
As usual with the mansplainers , if I need to explain there is no point me explaining .
Muffin #44, just Googled it:
A reducer, or reducing agent, is a substance that gives away electrons to another substance in a chemical reaction. By giving away electrons, it causes the other substance to be reduced, while the reducer itself becomes oxidized.
Key Ideas: Electron Donor: It loses electrons.Gets Oxidized: Its own positive charge (oxidation number) goes up because it loses those negative electrons.Helps Others: It forces another molecule to gain electrons and decrease its charge.Mnemonic: Remember OIL RIG—Oxidation Is Loss (of electrons), Reduction Is Gain (of electrons).
Fun crossword, really appreciated the effort to make pleasing surfaces.
Dr. Garbage @59
You miss the point. Of course language changes, but if two words with different meanings become interchangeable, that diminishes rather than enriches it.
Srivats @67
I am actually a (retired) chemistry teacher!. Martin was suggesting that a photographic “reducer” reduces excess silver; it can only do this by oxidising it to silver ions.
Muffin #69, seems as if I misread your comment. The photographic reducer may be a different technical term with its own register of valid usage ( I’d forgotten that one in my dim and distant past too!). So much precious debris in the mind!