Guardian 26,546 – Pasquale

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This started off seeming quite a gentle ride by Pasquale standards, but I got a bit held up on the left-hand side by what I think is a rather unsatisfactory clue for 1d. Apart from that I enjoyed the puzzle: as usual there were a few less-familiar words, but generally very clearly clued, so no complaints from me about those. Thanks to Pasquale

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. NARCOTISE Nasty reactions to drug (9)
REACTIONS*
10. SPOKE Member coming from the centre made a speech? (5)
Double definition – think of the spokes of a wheel for the first
11. ADMIRER A doctor full of filth — potential abuser of patient? (7)
MIRE in A DR – I’m not entirely sure of the meaning of the definition here: is it that a doctor might abuse one of his patients that he fancied? Not a very nice picture if so
12. INHALER With this therapeutic device one’s home and healthy, right? (7)
IN + HALE + R
13. CLIP Extract item from box of ornaments? (4)
Double definition – an extra from a film, say, or a hair clip
14. DISSENTERS East Anglian town records nonconformists (10)
DISS (town in Norfolk) + ENTERS
15. IN HASTE Saint — he suffers with fast (2,5)
(SAINT HE)*
17. PLASTIC Company importing wine is manageable (7)
ASTI in PLC – as Marienkaefer commented yesterday on Nutmeg’s puzzle: “What would setters do without Asti? Does anyone actually drink the stuff?”
19. CARDHOLDER Paid-up member, which vicar definitely is (10)
CARD is “held by” viCAR Definitely
22. POOH Bear has something to go through backwards (4)
Reverse of HOOP
23. REGIMEN This person in African country brought back government system (7)
ME in reverse of NIGER
24. ENAMOUR Entrance of old character holding old mother back (7)
O MA in RUNE, all reversed
26. LEARN Get in the head to teach — not standard! (5)
A sort of double definition – to “get something in your head” is to learn it, and “learn” is a non-standard word for “teach”, as in “that’ll learn you!” I say “sort of” because the two meanings are really of the same word used in two related ways
27. UNDAMAGED A foreign mother piled on the years without a blemish (9)
UN (French “A”) + DAM + AGED
Down
1. ANTARCTIC CIRCLE Ring up the world? Quite the opposite (9,6)
Cryptic definition – I suppose it’s a “a ring down the world”, but the wording doesn’t really work for me.
2. FRUMPISH Fairly drab Friday food? Bring in the meat! (8)
RUMP in FISH (traditionally eaten on Fridays, e.g. by Roman Catholics)
3. POOR Bad men undermining work after revolution (4)
Reverse of OP[us] + O[ther] R[anks]
4. MIGRAINE Russian fighter fell down almost, due to medical condition (8)
MIG (Russian fighter plane) + RAINE[D]
5. HELIOS The man leading Earth’s revolution is a god (6)
HE + SOIL< – Helios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology.
6. ASTHENIA Debility in one half of continent followed by the other (8)
Asia is AS THEN IA – medical term for weakness, perhaps more familiar in compounds such as neurasthenia
7. COLLIE Dog getting caught, one of a funny pair (6)
C + OLLIE (Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy)
8. TETRASACCHARIDE Chemical diet — a character’s transformed (15)
(DIET A CHARACTER’S)*
16. SCHUMANN Society girl embraces friend, a noted fellow (8)
CHUM in S ANN – the “noted fellow” is Robert Schumann, romantic composer
17. PREBENDS See money before crooks (8)
PRE BENDS. Prebend is “the share of the revenues of a cathedral or collegiate church allowed to a clergyman who officiates in it at specified times”, hence money for a See. I didn’t know this, but did know the derived Prebendary, from Prebendary A F Ritchie, aka Afrit
18. THOROUGH Careful nevertheless to hold on to gold (8)
OR in THOUGH
20. RAGLAN Garment of paper set on light removing hem (6)
RAG (slang for newspaper) + (I think) LAND (to [a]light) less D (its “hem” in a down clue)
21. LANGUR Monkey‘s laziness — lowest possible score issued (6)
LANGOUR less O (=zero = lowest possible score). There’s a picture of a rather languid-looking langur at the Wikipedia page
25. ARMY Mob foolish without leader (4)
[B]ARMY

49 comments on “Guardian 26,546 – Pasquale”

  1. Thank you Andrew and The Don.

    Much to like as usual from this setter; SPOKE & CARDHOLDER among them.

    A couple of minor niggles, though:

    In LANGUR perhaps the setter has overlooked the several games where a minus score can result. University Challenge and QI are examples.

    Not sure about the def in ADMIRER. A bit creepy, I thought.

    Didn’t quite see what the ‘box’ was doing in the CLIP clue.

    I suppose the LEARN clue is fair enough but a bit woolly for Pasquale’s normal standard, perhaps.

    Enjoyable crossword, nonetheless. Many thanks, Don.

  2. Thanks for CLIP – if that’s a double def, the second one is pretty vague. ASTHENIA is a great clue for an unusual word, but I’m afraid life’s too short for things like 8d. It was clearly an anagram of obvious fodder for the name of a complex chemical – and once I knew that I also knew I’d never get it, so that was one I cheated once the crossers were in. Favourite clue CARDHOLDER.

    Yes, ADMIRER is pretty creepy, isn’t it. All admirers are potential abusers? Yeuchh!

  3. You can mark me down as another disappointed by an unnecessarily horrid image in the clue for ADMIRER. Perhaps it’s cleverer than I can see but if not I think it’s rather shoddy.

  5. I thought the idea in 11 might be that people have to be patient to put up with fans or admirers, who can be inconsiderate. I also wondered about the book of (the proverbially patient) Job, but I don’t know it well enough. I thought perhaps the “comforters” might also be called admirers.

  6. Herb @5 Nice ideas. Don has been known to drop in from time to time. Hopefully, he will let us know if you’re on the right track.

  7. Thank you Andrew and Pasquale

    I enjoyed this, though like others I puzzled at the definition for 11 across.

    And thank you for my honourable mention in the blog!

  8. Thanks, Andrew.

    Typing is still rather laborious but I just had to say that I very much hope that someone – preferably Pasquale, who does drop in from to time – will soon give a satisfactory [sorry, Herb] parsing for 11ac, which I found most dis-easing. If it’s so clever that we’re all missing something, I think it isn’t very clever at all.

  9. Count me as another who doesn’t understand the definition of ADMIRER. I agree that ASTHENIA was cleverly clued, and despite my lack of scientific expertise I managed to tease out TETRASACCHARIDE from the anagram fodder once all the checkers were in place.

  10. Thanks Pasquale and Andrew.

    Needed help with parsing DISSENTERS and RAGLAN (still thinking about that).

    I did like SPOKE, CARDHOLDER, ASTHENIA and PREBENDS, but not ADMIRER.

    William @1, a CLIP is a piece of jewellery, the box being a jewel box.

  11. Thanks Cookie @10 that was pretty much how I interpreted it. Just seems a slightly weird double def, that’s all.

  12. Probably the name CLIP is dated…from ‘Love in a Cold Climate’ by Nancy Mitford, after a burglary at a house party one of the ladies remarks “I couldn’t care less about the diamond brooch, after all, it’s well insured and now I shall be able to have clips instead, which will be far and away smarter.”

  13. I think an ADMIRER might be an “abuser of the patient” in the sense of being a bore (for instance, at a dinner party), but that’s a rather tenuous leap, and definitely not strong enough to support such an unpleasant image. There seems to be a vague theme of sickness and medicine running through this puzzle (ASTHENIA, INHALER, MIGRAINE, NARCOTISE, plus the aforementioned sick doctor), which is a theme that I think needs to be handled a bit more carefully than was done in this case.

  14. Thanks Pasquale, at least some of the unusual words are scientific.

    Thanks Andrew, typo in 13, extraCT instead of extra, I think. Thanks for the parsing of CARDHOLDER, which I missed.

    Oh dear, despite what it says in Chambers, the ODE has the more modern definition of REGIMEN giving ‘a government system’ as archaic. These days it has been largely replaced by the word ‘regime.’ It used to infuriate me when people referred to drug regimes when they meant regimens, the current meaning of the word.

    Gladys @2; presumably you have heard of a saccharide and the TETRA- is just a Greek suffix as in tetrameter etc. Better than some obscure Shakespearian reference. 🙂

    I guess in 13, ADMIRER means lover, which is clearly unethical in a doctor/patient relationship and thus could be seen as abuse.

    I liked SPOKE and CARDHOLDER, now that is has been explained!

  15. Thanks both
    Overall I thought this was very cleverly clued and a satisfying challenge. The ‘and lit’ element of the answer to 11 seems was a bit unexpected. But perhaps there is more to it as others have suggested.

  16. Not one of his best. ADMIRER is rather horrible for me, and I too cannot make sense of the wording for 1d. I think Herb’s attempt to expalin at #5 is fanciful at best. Pasquale has used two or three unknown words in this one, but this is normal as far as I recall.

  17. Thanks, Andrew.

    Most of the top half was practically write-in for me, but the bottom half proved more of a challenge.

    Some nice clues (though I share the general distaste for 11a) and some nice words. Favourites were ASTHENIA and CARDHOLDER.

    Like Robi @14 I associate REGIMEN with the prescribed intake of food or medicine, rather than ‘government system’, though the latter is certainly valid, and appears in Chambers as the primary def.

    TETRASACCHARIDE, however, does not appear in Chambers (at least, not my edition), though the word is perfectly formed. Although, as a chemist myself, I know what it is, I don’t think I have ever come across the word before. Monosaccharides (e.g. glucose and fructose) and disaccharides (e.g. sucrose and lactose) – and indeed polysaccharides (e.g. starch and cellulose) – are very familiar, but I have never before encountered an oligosaccharide 🙂 with more than three subunits. Of course, chemical nomenclature is like Lego and names can be built up ad infinitum. And considering the endless number of potential substances that could exist, ‘chemical’ is a strong contender for the prize for the vaguest definition in a crossword!

  18. “Chemical” certainly seems very vague. TETRASACCHARIDE came to me very easily purely from anagram fodder, and given that the clue referred to diets, I assumed it might be some sort of sugar substitute – which if so, might have made the clue less vague.

  20. Thanks to Andrew for the blog.

    I patted myself on the back for remembering that ‘see’ can be a noun, in 17d. I have heard of the title prebendary so it was clear what was wanted here but I did not know the origin of the title. ðŸ™

    I’m another baffled by 11a. Let’s hope that Pasquale drops in.

  21. A lot to like here, and a lot to hate. This went very, very slowly for me. I had assumed with ADMIRER that there was some recent news item over your way that was like that–otherwise the definition is not only creepy, but also (worse) too imprecise to really be fair.

    Speaking of imprecision, I had to cheat on ANTARCTIC CIRCLE in order to get any headway on the left-hand side. Also cheated on CARDHOLDER, which I didn’t understand until I came here. And as a foreigner, I used the “comb the map” method to find Diss and thus DISSENTERS. (I don’t count that as cheating, though. Should I?)

    I’m not trying to be a nattering nabob of negativity, though–I thought NARCOTISE, HELIOS, and UNDAMAGED were all wonderfully elegant.

  22. Cookie @19: Yes, I also discovered that stachyose is the only TETRASACCHARIDE to have its own Wiki page. But ‘well known’? Hardly.

  23. PS But its effects are better known: as it is not completely digestible by the human system, but fermentable by bacteria, it is presumably one of the culprits responsible for the flatulent effects of beans and Jerusalem artichokes.

  24. Gervase, I think most people who have studied agricultural botany know it, it is found in many plants including sugar beet and beans…

  25. First time I havve ever commented on a crossword. Surely 11ac Admirer is MIRE (filth) plus the A Dr.
    Guardian No 26546.

  26. 11a – one for those who normally clamour for interesting surfaces to mark down to experience, methinks.

  27. Re 1d: I thought that worked really well and had a small chortle: given that a “ring up the world” would be a meridian of longitude, then “just the opposite” might be something at right angles to it down the world; i.e. a southern parallel of latitude. Letter-count did the rest.

    As for 11a: I’m with everybody else on that. Not nice.

  28. Count us in too for not admiring 11ac…I really hope Pasquale comes and tells us something because right now, it’s just horrible!

  29. Thanks Pasquale and Andrew
    Me too for ADMIRER – I had assumed that I was missing something (perhaps we all still are). Apart from that I enjoyed this, but I needed CARDHOLDER and LEARN explaining.

  30. I got Raglan but did not understand the LAN so thanks to Andrew for the parsing and also for the explanation of CARD in cardholder (again, I got the answer but did not see why). For me UK place names are regularly a problem, but DISS has appeared in previous puzzles and “nonconformists” was clear.

  31. Got TETRASACCHARIDE rather easily with a few crossers (SACCHARIDE jumped out at me) but was stumped by CARDHOLDER and SCHUMANN. I’m yet another who thinks that ADMIRER is pretty weird. But thanks to Don and Andrew.

  32. I disliked this. ADMIRER simply doesn’t work. Indeed it’s one of the worst clues we’ve had. Didn’t like ANTARCTIC CIRCLE either and I had to resort to an anagram solver to get TETRASACCHARIDE of which I’ve never heard. I thought RAGLAN a bit iffy too.
    Disappointing from this setter.

  34. Thanks all
    I agree about admirer, very weird!
    I thought clip was so unsatisfactory I did not enter it.
    I liked 1 down and prebends.

  35. It is illuminating to compare the often outraged and outrageous reactions the harmless schoolboy smut produced by Paul inter alia and today’s quite appalling contribution at 11.

  36. It is illuminating to compare the often outraged and outrageous reactions the harmless schoolboy smut produced by Paul inter alia and today’s quite appalling contribution at 11.!

  37. @robi – I know as much about saccharides as you do about obscure Shakespearean quotations – different folks, different blank spots in our knowledge.

    Actually, I now know a bit more about saccharides than i did this morning.

  38. No idea about admirer but it is likely to be patient as in tolerant, I think.

    I liked 1d myself, it was nicely hidden and a bit different – which is always good in a crossword.

  39. William, whilst the setter has undoubtedly forgotten games with a negative score, surely we should allow the poetic license on the grounds that the solver can also choose to do that given that “minus infinity” is probably not going to form part of the word play?

  40. RCW @ 35-36: What do you mean? Seems to me like pretty much everyone is basically appalled (or at least a little weirded out). Paul’s sophomoric humor, on the other hand, has its defenders—including me—and even those who criticize it usually just indicate that it isn’t their cup of tea.

  41. Agree with all those who demur at 11 ac – but also want to say how much I enjoy the huge intelligence of contributions on this site, always rewarding to read, thanks to all.

  42. I’m going out soon but I am surprised/disappointed that Pasquale has not, so far, called in to explain/defend his extraordinary clue.

    We are entirely familiar with this setter introducing less familiar words with impeccable wordplay, for which he is rightly admired. Here we have the exact opposite: an everyday word, with anagrams MARRIED and MARDIER [more familiar round my home territory, perhaps, but a lovely word], clued with what I thought was pretty weird wordplay, never mind the bizarre definition. Extraordinary.

  44. I finished this very quickly for some reason.

    I even saw TETRASACCHARIDE with only 3 crossers even though I’ve never heard of it.

    As has already been said some of the clues lacked the usual Pasquale rigour.

    I too was confused by the 11A. Perhaps it’s something to do with Cicero? “How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience?” together with a Grauniadism? But surely the editor would have spotted this. 😉

    Thanks to Andrew and Pasquale

  46. This for me was an absolute nightmare. Far too many words that I’d never heard of despite being an English graduate. Well done everyone who got there respect but whilst I’m a fan of the don not today. No favourite clues whatsoever do any lesser mortals at my level agree ? I’m not a novice loved Bunthorpe Aracauria and all the other grandmasters including Pasquale just not today.Thank you Andrew must have been tricky for you and of course thanks to the Don.

  48. William and others, my first time on this site. I’m a great one for seeing the light after it’s been switched on. Surely the box at 13 across is that variety of ornamental hedging. At least that’s what I thought. As for one down, isn’t it that what some people find hard others get almost immediately and vice versa.It was the second answer I got and later had find help with others

  49. re 2d

    I know I’m posting late and that probably no one will read this. I think Andrew should update his thinking on the term Roman Catholic. The correct name for a follower of the church based at the Vatican is Catholic. The only Roman Catholics in Australia (or Britain for that matter) are on holiday from the diocese of Rome.

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