Guardian 26,127 by Pasquale

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Quixote’s harder brother, struggled a bit with this to be honest, some rare words and some of the wordplay has me less than convinced.

Thanks Pasquale.

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Across
1 ON FIRE Tree-hugging individual is very excited (2,4)
  FIR hugged by ONE
4 ICONIC One ellipse, maybe, as a defining shape (6)
  1 & CONIC (like an ellipse)
9 JEER Derisive remark from joker, not a good man (4)
  SainT removed from JE(st)ER
10 BLUSTERING Swaggering crooner, one with passionate desires hidden (10)
  LUSTER (i.e. one who LUSTs) in BING (crosby)
11 GALENA Girl with a particular name provides the lead (6)
  GAL (girl) & ENA (specific girl). Lead ore
12 EDACIOUS Keen to eat, I do sauce specially (8)
  [I DO SAUCE]* Not a word in my everyday vocab.
13 DOUBLETON For dress rehearsal Shakespearean actor may well have this pair (9)
  The actor would have his DOUBLET ON
15 PSST Demand for attention with lips stuck partially? (4)
  Hidden answer
16 HUCK Pitch not primarily prepared for Finn (4)
  (c)HUCK, not sure what prepared is doing here
17 ATOMISTIC A cat is twitching, completely broken down? (9)
  A TOM(cat) IS TIC (twitching), I’d have thought a TIC was a twitch not twitching.
21 IN A WHILE Soon I turned pale, going with speed across lake (2,1,5)
  I & WAN rev & L(ake) in HIE
22 RIBOSE One bee penetrating flower for something sugary (6)
  (1 & B(ee)) in ROSE
24 HOMOEOPATH Two ducks separately sitting in track by house making quack — yes or no? (10)
  2×0 separately in HOME & PATH, variant spelling,
25 ONYX Stone cross east of old American city (4)
  O(ld) & New York & X (cross). I guess east means reversed but why then is NY the right way around?
26 KISLEV “King” Elvis in action for a month (6)
  K(ing) & ELVIS*, Hebrew month.
27 MANCHU Listen to fellow grind on old language (6)
  MAN & sounds like CHEW
Down
1 OREGANO Herb and eggs king’s daughter’s consumed (7)
  REGAN (King Lear’s daughter) in 2 x 0 (eggs)
2 FURZE Shrub becomes coated, so they say (5)
  Sounds like FURS
3 RIB CAGE Anger about one born roughly — unnatural early “birth” started here! (3,4)
  1 B(orn) C(irca) all in RAGE, Eve being a spare rib…
5 COTTAR Peasant‘s vehicle, extravagant inside (6)
  Over The Top in CAR, a Scottish peasant
6 NARCISSUS Cuss rains, bad for flowering plant (9)
  [CUSS RAINS]*
7 CONDUCT Look at part of plumbing system, find lead (7)
  CON (study) & DUCT
8 QUEEN OF THE MAY Girl at festival sees group with frequently explosive member of it (5,2,3,3)
  QUEEN & (brian) MAY who gets quite heated about, say, badgers, see Herb at #2 for a bit more
14 BACKWOODS Tiger enthusiasts may do this in forest areas (9)
  Cryptic def to TIGER WOODS supporters
16 HANCOCK Funny man provides wine, holding party in Africa (7)
  A.N.C. in HOCK
18 MORPHIA Drug bringing change — the reverse of “excellent” (7)
  MORPH (change) & A1 rev
19 I ASK YOU Pasquale making demands of solver? It hardly seems believable! (1,3,3)
  I (the setter) ASK YOU
20 PINOLE Tiny little gap for Cockney meal (6)
  PIN (h)OLE
23 BRONC Possible cause of coughing, not half, in wild American horse (5)
  half of BRONC(hitis)

39 comments on “Guardian 26,127 by Pasquale”

  1. Thanks flashling and Pasquale
    You have mentioned two of the things I wasn’t happy with – HUCK was my last, as I interpreted “prepared” to mean anagram. (TIC = twitching was another.) Also “in a while” to me is the opposite of “soon”!
    An ellipse is on of the curves known as “conic sections” as they can be made by slicing through a cone (others include circle and parabola).
    I think “east” in 25ac just means “at the right hand side”.
    EDACIOUS was a new word to me.
    I liked GALENA and PINOLE for their misleading definitions.

  3. Oh, and it took me some time to identify “Finn” with “Huckleberry”.

    P.S. my last “captcha” involved multiplication – I hope that I won’t need to resort to a calculator in future!

  4. Thanks flashling and Pasquale,

    I think “east” is referring to the position of the X in ONYX.

    DOUBLETON was very nice.

  5. PS. Re 17a A tic is “a convulsive twitching of certain muscles” (Chambers). (Pasquale is misleading us by making it look like an adjective in the surface.)

  7. Thanks flashling. The recondite words did take a bit of nutting out, especially in the SW. Didn’t help that I’d forgotten the third O in 24a and only got back on track there just before the end. EDACIOUS however is one that I might now use on a daily basis.

  8. Thanks, flashing.

    This was fun. Pasquale is often a bit light on the humour but constructs a good clue and usually provides opportunities to extend one’s vocabulary. This puzzle has rather a lot of unusual words but I managed to get through it with the wordplay. Fortunately I knew KISLEV.

    I had no difficulty (for once) with the parsing of the clues; I agree with previous posters about TIC, ‘east’ (in 25a) and the construction of 8d.

    GALENA was the last in – nice misdirection, as I spent a while trying to convince myself that the solution was PAMELA.

    EDACIOUS is a rather good Sunday (lunch) word for ‘hungry’, but I prefer ‘esurient’.

  9. Surprised I got only one wrong – not being familiar with the Hebrew calendar, I opted for ‘kisvel’ rather than ‘Kislev’. Can’t sat that I really enjoyed the puzzle very much, though I thought that the clue for Queen of the May’ was a cracker.
    Would have got the solution all correct if I had consulted the dictionary where I was forced to guess, but what fun is that?
    I am sure that ‘bronc’ must be in the dictionary for the Don to have used it, but I have only ever seen ‘bronco’ myself.

  10. At least when you see Pasquale’s name appear you are ready for a bunch of words you don’t know. A mere half-dozen this time, maybe he’s getting soft.

    HANCOCK was very nice, especially with the ANC reference at this sad time. On looking up PINOLE, found it’s a type of meal ie flour rather than dinner or some such, not that I particularly fancy cooking it but maybe I can look wise if it comes up on Masterchef. And I can now spell HOMOEOPATH, which I couldn’t before.

  11. Thanks Pasquale for the puzzle and flashling for the blog. I agree with earlier comments about 25ac – “east of” just means “after” in an across clue.

    Possibly KISLEV was chosen for 25ac to complete the pangram, although I do not usually associate pangrams with this setter, so maybe it was just coincidence.

  13. Thanks flashling and Pasquale: most enjoyable. I took ‘twitching’ to be a gerund, which I think is consistent with Herb’s explanation and quote.

    I knew ‘edacious’ but it is one of the words I’ve only ever met in crosswords. Agree with Gervase that this is Pasquale with a bit more humour than usual. Worked for me.

  16. 25a I want to register an objection to the use of “NY” as “American city.” It isn’t. It’s an American state. While people do say “I live in LA” for Los Angeles, nobody ever says or writes “I live in NY.” The letters NY by themselves are never used to mean the city, only the state (and that only in writing, never in speech).

  17. Valentine Doyle @ 16

    You might want to check out the photo on the latest blog on the Guardian website. I doubt those young ladies are talking about the state.

  18. Thanks scchua and Pasquale.

    Hard (in fact would have been impossible, for me, without aids) but fun and rewarding. And I really like the new mobile version of fifteensquared!

  20. I always used to struggle with Pasquale, but recently I’ve managed him a bit better. Today was a tough one, and I ran out of time with a couple to solve (PINOLE was one of them). But I liked ON FIRE and DOUBLETON. Maybe one or two unusual words too far, but still an enjoyable tussle.

    Thanks to S&B.

  21. Odd really, when blogging a tricky crossword i just want to get it done and i missed the humour and pangram entirely. A very different experience to a Quixote blog. At least i think i didn’t miss a Nina.

  22. I solved 9 & 25 early on, so was alert to the possible pangram. That helped with 3 and 8 as I was on the look out for a Z and a Q. Vocabulary extended, but the cryptic definitions were fair. Still thought this was a Friday or Prize crossword though.

  23. An enjoyable solve that both entertained and educated me. The PINOLE/KISLEV crossers were my last ones in with fingers crossed, the first from the wordplay and the second after I decided that it sounded more likely than “Kisvel”. Count me as another who now knows how to spell HOMOEOPATH correctly, although my spellchecker uses US English and is telling me it is wrong.

    DOUBLETON and BACKWOODS both made me smile.

  24. Seriously tough for the class dummy. Lots of gadgeting needed.

    George @9, re Bronc, me too, so I used the online Websters as it is an American term. It does turn up as short for Bronco.

  25. 21ac, how does hie mean going with speed?

    Can I ask again, what is a Nina? I asked before and was told to see FAQs but I couldn’t find any FAQs.
    John.

  26. Thanks to Pasquale and flashling.

    JohnM @25: If you’re on this blog, scroll to the top of the page. Click on FAQ. Scroll down.

    Learned new words today so it was a good day.

    Cheers…

  28. Well whoopy doo! A pangram! (Or perhaps it was just an accident. Who cares?)

    A normal Pasquale with too many high vocabulary words.

    A bit dull really! (Although the tedium was relieved by DOUBLETON)

    Thanks to Flashling who seems to have been as bored as I was 🙂

  29. Well, B(nto), your sarcasm suggests that you “care” in some sense. Silence is the best expression of true indifference.

    Could it be that, following so soon after Nutmeg’s pangram, you actually spotted this one?

  30. Couldn’t finish the SW as I took 14d to be a reference to “Tiger tiger burning bright / In the forests of the night” and so with a “w” in the middle I filled in “firewatch”. ðŸ™

  31. Not being familiar with the works of Mr Clemens, 16a threw me after I persuaded myself to enter Tich, but without prepared the cricketing surface would not work (and Steve Finn is only a tich in the Little John sense). So I failed to see Hancock, kislev and more annoyingly pinole and homoeopath (which I considered but rejected because I wasn’t familiar with that spelling).
    Thanks to Pasquale for an enjoyable and educational challenge.

  32. No Rhotician Pelham Barton@11 mentioned it.

    The fact that people notice this never ceases to amaze me.

    I will try to contain my amazement in the future. 😉

  33. I too needed a crossings checker to give me HOMOEOPATH, after being misled by the “yes or no” into thinking the solution was a quack’s “diagnostic” gadget, perhaps ending in “GRAPH”.

    What is the purpose of the “yes or no”? Was the setter afraid of offending the odd fruitcake by ending at “quack”? Dearie me.

    Thanks one and all.

  34. The added yes or no was my repsonse to a suggestion made to me that quack? on its own might have caused unnecessary offence. My addition allows solvers to make up their own mind, which is fair enough, I think. Well surmised, Martin P! And thanks for brickbats and bouquets, as ever!

  35. Thanks for dropping by Pasquale!

    I trust it wasn’t Prince Charles’ possible sensitivities you had in mind 🙂

  36. @Pasquale surely with homoeopath the more you try to water down the offence, the more offended they’ll be? 🙂

  38. At HOMOEOPATH (what a strange spelling!) they are quacks, there was no need to worry about offense. The “yes or no” just made it harder to solve. Flashling @36 lovely!

    A mostly fine puzzle, but misplaced in the week I think?

    Thanks to everyone who participated! Now I must perform multiplication – still awaiting the differential equations!

  39. Huw @38: The spelling of “homoeopath” reflects the etymology. There are two slightly different prefixes, both derived from Ancient Greek: “homo-” means “same” and “homoeo-” means “like” or “similar”. In the latter, the “oe” is the standard representation of the Greek omicron followed by iota, through its Latin equivalent, just as “ae” represents alpha followed by iota. There is a tendency, more pronounced in US English than in UK English, to reduce both “oe” and “ae” to plain “e”.

    Can I add my name to those who enjoyed the comment from flashling @36?

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