Pan is one of our longest-standing Quiptic setters, and she has given us a pleasing Quiptic this morning that generally does what it’s supposed to, but is marred by a couple of editing errors.
According to 22ac, the editor’s gone off with someone’s wife. She should bring him back to sort out the blatant errors in two of the clues. Probably by the end of the day they will have been ‘updated’ online, but that’s no consolation to those in the first section of the Quiptic target audience – beginners – who will have looked at the clues and been thoroughly confused.
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 What may be said to photographer about insect larva turned into fast food
CHEESEBURGER
A charade of CHEESE and RE for ‘about’ plus GRUB reversed (‘turned’).
9 Drug mule’s relative?
HORSE
A dd. HORSE is a slang word for heroin.
10 New arrival concealing cocaine dependence
ADDICTION
A second dose of drugs, and we’re only on the third clue. An insertion of C for ‘cocaine’ in ADDITION.
11 Compete to trap unpleasant child in swing
VIBRATE
An insertion of BRAT in VIE.
12 One who votes for the ultimate reader
ELECTOR
A charade of E for the last letter of ‘the’ and LECTOR.
13 Last dances arranged in temporary beach construction
SANDCASTLE
(LAST DANCES)*
15 Half-finished rudimentary accommodation
SHED
[FINI]SHED
18 God returning to cross
SORE
A reversal of EROS. ‘She was really sore/cross about having to struggle with the Quiptic because of those editing errors.’
19 Tool for nailing shellfish containing white meat on either ends
CLAW HAMMER
An insertion of W for ‘white’ and HAM in CLAM, followed by ER for the ‘ends’ of ‘either’. The surface reading is grammatical pants, though, because you can’t have a singular plural noun after ‘either’.
22 Permitted to indulge without constraint after wife’s gone off with editor
ALLOWED
A charade of [W]ALLOW and ED.
24 Debris scattered around a possible casualty of oil slick
SEABIRD
An insertion of A in (DEBRIS)* The insertion indicator is around’ and the anagrind is ‘scattered’. You know I can’t: minimum requirement for a bird link is specific designation to at least genus level.
25 See through empty promise to catch judge
PENETRATE
A charade of PE (‘promise’ with the inner letters emptied out), NET and RATE.
26 Choose to get most of ice for drink dispenser
OPTIC
A charade of OPT and IC[E].
27 Managed to get gold box valued
ORCHESTRATED
A charade of OR for ‘gold’ (in heraldry), CHEST and RATED.
Down
1 Artist in hut upset about climbing equipment
CARABINER
A charade of RA for ‘artist’ inserted into CABIN, followed by RE for ‘about’ reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘upset’.
2 Polish dermatologist’s second-stage acne treatment
ELEGANCE
A charade of E for the second letter of ‘dermatologist’, LEG and (ACNE)*
3 Uninspired by Dickens’ last work of fiction?
STALE
A charade of S for the last letter of ‘Dickens’ and TALE.
4 Shout to provide blanket for extremely deaf earl’s sleeping partner
BED FELLOW
An insertion of DF for the outside letters of ‘deaf’ and E for ‘earl’ in BELLOW. The insertion indicator is ‘to provide blanket for’.
5 Terrible noise made by alien undergoing torture
RACKET
You have to read ‘undergoing’ as ‘going under’, since it’s a down clue. Then you’ve got RACK and ET.
6 Live with son during retirement
EXIST
An insertion of S in EXIT.
7 Cold places where bees make honey with herb
CHIVES
A charade of C and HIVES.
8 Popular food said to be from a limited gene pool
INBRED
A charade of IN and a homophone (‘said’) of BREAD.
14 Carefree youth with a woman trapping American lawyer on board a ship
SALAD DAYS
Two insertions: of DA for District Attorney in LADY; then the whole thing in SS for ‘ship’. The two insertion indicators are ‘trapping’ and ‘on board’. The latter is very common in crosswordland, telling you to insert something in SS.
16 Clumsy fish mated strangely
HAM-FISTED
(FISH MATED)*
17 Disease claiming a flipping unpleasant pleasure-seeker
GADABOUT
An insertion of A and BAD reversed in GOUT. The insertion indicator is ‘claiming’ and the reversal indicator is ‘flipping’.
18 Scouts’ camp is pinching pinching seafood
SCAMPI
Hidden in scoutS CAMP Is. There is no need for the second ‘pinching’, so it looks like another Grauniad lack of editing balls-up.
20 Edit evolutionary legislation
REDACT
Balls normally come in pairs, and so do balls-ups this morning. This should clearly read ‘revolutionary’ and not ‘evolutionary’. Then it’s a charade of RED and ACT.
21 Jerky movement made by tense sorceress
TWITCH
A charade of T and WITCH.
23 Ship with a protective inner layer
LINER
A dd.
24 Pierce top of skin on fruit
SPEAR
A charade of S for the first letter of ‘skin’ and PEAR.
Many thanks to Pan for this week’s Quiptic.
Thanks both. I completed this without noticing either of the glaring errors. I must be half asleep.
Spotted the errors but this was fun anyway. The double pinching did make me pause, but the missing r just made me think I would need to have a look at the comments on line. However, since the blog is so early there is no need. Otherwise this was most enjoyable though the NE corner held me up for quite a while. Many thanks to Pan and Pierre.
Enjoyed this, even with the errors. ELEGANCE and SALAD DAYS my favourites.
CLAW HAMMER was a weird one, as I managed to fill it using some ridiculous internal logic about crab claws and then had to backwards-parse it to make sure it was correct.
I thought the second pinching was deliberate as scampi is meat from a prawn, so a bit of light-hearted fun maybe? I was thrown by “carabiner” which I have always seen spelled “karabiner” from the German origin of the word. Spelled with a “c” it looks very odd but it’s in the dictionary. I guess the term is not familiar enough to most people to need an indicator that the spelling is the American/unusual one!
Anyhow, that aside and the missing length indicator and the “revolution not evolution” error pretty good fun, so thank you Pan and Pierre.
Finished this pretty quickly for me – probably too quickly, because I realise reading Pierre’s blog (for which, thanks) that I didn’t do all the parsing as thoroughly as I usually (try to) do. I noticed and ignores the doubled ‘pinching’ and saw but must have glided over the missing ‘r’. Nothing really outstanding in the clues, but nothing bad either (editing lapses aside) – just pleasant throughout. Thanks, Pan.
TheZed @4. Throughout my caving/climbing days, carabiner was never spelt with a ‘k’ – and I’m no Septic.
That’s an interesting thought about two ‘pinchings’, TheZed, which I was minded to immediately move into the Dominic Cummings Outrageous Justifications file; but scampi is, strictly, the Norway Lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, so you could just be right. If so, I’d be looking for a comma between the repetitions, though.
Thanks to both Pan and Pierre
I really enjoyed this, not least for the “errors”. I hoped that “evolutionary” in 20D was correct, but I couldn’t make it work (CHE, RED, TROT etc are a bit tired?). 19A is a bit of a bump if you read right to the end of the clue, I suppose – how about “on either or both ends”?
Easier but far more entertaining than the main puzzle today. Without those two errors (which are a shame – especially the missing r on evolutionary as revolutionary=RED is a real crossword-solving lesson to be used again and again by new solvers learning the tricks of the trade) it would be a pretty perfect Quiptic puzzle with nothing that could be called obscure in the solutions or wordplay, hitting all the major clue-types, using plenty of common-in-crossword-land substitutions and asking the solver to think in exactly the same lateral way that a well-compiled harder puzzle does. Thanks Pan and Pierre.
I had the same thought as TheZed @4 regarding the second pinching, so SCAMPI went in right away, while REDACT had to wait for the crossing R and D before I was sure it was correct. So far no one has complained that the errors caused significant difficulties. I’d be interested to hear from any newer solvers about their experiences with this.
It’s a shame that the focus this morning has been on two flaws that are not the fault of the setter, who has produced an excellent puzzle at just the right level for a Quiptic. Thanks to Pan for that, and thanks to Pierre for his usual thorough and entertaining blog.
Anyone else originally have REDRAW? As in the law of evolution is red and raw? A bit far fetched, but it was the rest I could do until the crossed pointed me to the error.
Bolb @11. Yes, I was thinking of REDRAW too, with the same rationale. But it’s ‘red in tooth and claw’, not ‘…and raw’, so I held back.
Surprisingly easy puzzle today! Finished it in about, hmm, I’ll highball it and say less than an hour. Pretty good for me!
19A – You mean plural noun (“ends“) or am I misinterpreting?
Knew “hammer” had to be in there somewhere and hazarded CRAB HAMMER might’ve been something they give you to break the shell like those lobster crackers they give you in seafood eateries. Almost right!
18D – Wasn’t sure if the second pinching was a typo or a riff on shrimp pinching people.
20D – Had R-D-C- and was able to get REDACT, reread the clue, and figured there must be a typo on revolutionary=communist=red, as ‘revolutionary law’ makes a better surface than ‘evolutionary law’
Only unknown answer was OPTIC for 26A. Dunno if it’s chiefly British or not. I actually got it fairly early on by parsing the clue even if I didn’t grok what the answer meant until googling.
Kudos to Pan for the 1A surface. Exactly what I want to read during breakfast.
Words:
Characters:
Some beautifully precise clueing here – personal faves were ADDICTION, CLAW HAMMER & SHED. I got from ACT for legislation and jumped straight to REDACT not noticing the missing R 🙂
Pretty good Quiptic, I thought. Despite the attempt at justification, I feel the second pinching is one too many. I didn’t notice it though: Paris in the the Spring’ for those that are familiar with repetitions.
I thought: “RED = evolutionary, what is that?” … and moved on. I liked the deaf earl’s sleeping partner.
Thanks Pan and Pierre.
The problem with mistakes is that you start imagining others that aren’t there.
17, 18 and 20 in a row look like three editing errors.
17 has no letter count.
18 is clearly wrong, with evolutionary instead of revolutionary.
So then when 20 comes along straight away with an apparent extra ‘pinching’ it looks wrong, but I don’t think it is, I think it’s extra info about the seafood.
I’ve deliberately done the numbering wrongly to see if anyone notices!
Thanks, Khitty Hawk. You have rumbled me: I put ‘singular’ instead of ‘plural’ deliberately, like Jeremy, to see if anyone noticed the mistake, and it took until 1414 BST before someone twigged. I will send you an I Spotted the Error on Fifteensquared sticker that you can show off to your friends.
Blog amended.
Good to see positive comments about the puzzle as a whole. Pan is a consistently good setter.
I had not heard of “septic” as used in comment 6 before. I looked it up, and it is an insult against Americans. You learn something new here every day, but not always something good.
Thanks Pan and Pierre
Good quiptic. I didn’t notice the errors!
Khitty Hawk @13
An OPTIC is the name given to the measuring dispenser on an upside-down spirits bottle in a bar. The barman presses a glass on two “lifters” on either side and a measured amount of liquid is dispenesed. Do you not have these in the US?
Tim @19 I assumed TassieTim was using it ironically to refer to the different UK and US spellings of “sceptic” vs “skeptic” on the K/c-arabiner debate. Maybe I was being too clever!
This was a good Quiptic.
I come here to note that I can now add SCAMPI to my list of words that mean different things on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Here, it’s not a specific seafood, but a style of preparing said seafood (specifically the way the Italians do, with tons of butter and cheese and wine, usually also breadcrumbs, often but not always over pasta). Turns out that the origin of this is that actual scampi (Norway lobster) is unavailable here; Italian immigrants took the shrimp they found here and prepared it the way they did scampi back home, and the result was called shrimp scampi. And it’s now popular enough that it’s branched out beyond shrimp; you see scallop scampi or even chicken scampi or whatever.
mrpenney @22
It’s as well not to enquire to closely into what’s in scampi served over here. It’s supposed to be Dublin Bay prawns (more or less the same as langoustines”, but…..
Pierre @18 Aha, I wasn’t sure. (~_~;) I had half a second of “But in my dialect it’s…” before wondering if parsing the cryptic grammar had borked up my ability to understand normal English. (I’m picturing the hypothetical sticker as the comic sans ‘you tried’ gold star, so thanks for that mental image, heh)
muffin @20 Dunno. I don’t go to bars that often. I know I’ve seen those dispensers, but never what they’re called.
mrpenny @22 I always hear scampi in the context of “shrimp scampi”, so that’s where my brain went. Didn’t know there was an actual animal with the name.
TheZed @21 That’s how I read it, too *shrug*
Words:
Characters:
Tim @19
Septic is not an insult about Americans, it’s just cockney rhyming slang.
Septic tank = Yank
Shortened to Septic.
Very enjoyable. Thanks Pan and Pierre.