Times Quick Cryptic 3070 by Trelawney – when life gives you lemons, juggle them

Author   KittyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Hi everyone.  I don’t have anything new or unexpected to say about this puzzle, for the good reason that Trelawney is very consistent.  Nothing really held me up, so I put in one of my faster times.  I really liked the rocket booster in 19a, which is my standout favourite.  16d also warrants a mention for its surface.  (Which is a good occasion to say that if you need help sorting your green paint from your Ninja Turtles, you can consult this site’s glossary.)  Finally, I was also amused by the serious business of juggling lemons (22a).  Thanks Trelawney!

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

Across
1a Swindle Greek character for seafood (6)
SCAMPI — SCAM (swindle) + PI (Greek character)
4a Prepares orthodontic device (6)
BRACES — A double definition
8a Nurse pocketing certain revolutionary’s box of goodies (8,5)
TREASURE CHEST — TREAT (nurse) taking in (pocketing) SURE (certain) and CHE’S (revolutionary’s)
10a Lift up and tear down, reportedly (5)
RAISE — Sounds like (… reportedly) RAZE (tear down)
11a Fortress let acid out (7)
CITADEL — LET ACID anagrammed (out)
13a Quietly permitted to split separate dessert (5,4)
APPLE TART — P (quietly) and LET (permitted) dividing (to split) APART (separate)
17a Cut off one very behind schedule (7)
ISOLATE — I (one) + SO (very) + LATE (behind schedule)
18a Immature insect right inside molten rock (5)
LARVA — R (right) inside LAVA (molten rock)
19a Heads of secret aerospace lab dealing with rocket booster? (5,8)
SALAD DRESSING — The first letters of (heads of) Secret Aerospace Lab + ADDRESSING (dealing with)
21a Anger about European flower arrangement (6)
WREATH — WRATH (anger) around (about) E (European)
22a Juggling lemons is serious (6)
SOLEMN — An anagram of (juggling) LEMONS IS
Down
1d Ridicule South African flag (6)
SATIRE — SA (South African) + TIRE (flag)
2d On camera, I stirred coffee (9)
AMERICANO — ON CAMERA, I anagrammed (stirred)
3d Model entertains small gang (5)
POSSE — POSE (model) holds (entertains) S (small)
5d Italian cheese — cook it with actor (7)
RICOTTA — Make an anagram of (cook) IT with ACTOR
6d Signal is crude in every other place (3)
CUE — Alternate letters of (… in every other place) CrUdE
7d Sort out US city ignoring amendment initially (6)
SETTLE — SE[a]TTLE (US city) omitting (ignoring) the first letter of (… initially) Amendment
9d Loud noise and revelry periodically criminal (9)
RACKETEER — RACKET (loud noise) and rEvElRy taking every other letter (periodically)
12d Decide to put off something explosive (9)
DETERMINE — DETER (to put off) + MINE (something explosive)
14d Acclaim extremely practical inspection (7)
PLAUDIT — The outer letters of (extremely) PracticaL + AUDIT (inspection)
15d Puzzle observed after merry dance (6)
JIGSAW — SAW (observed) after JIG (merry dance)
16d Technical language primarily just gas (6)
JARGON — The initial letter of (primarily) Just + ARGON (gas)
18d Young woman at first orders cowboy’s accessory (5)
LASSO — LASS (young woman) + the beginning of (at first) Orders
20d Part of client’s falsehood (3)
LIE — The answer is part of cLIEnt

100 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 3070 by Trelawney – when life gives you lemons, juggle them”

  1. 7 minutes. Nice and easy. My only query was plural BRACES for the singular orthodontic device, but I see Chambers has this covered by ‘brace – often in plural’.

    1. Yes, I remember when I was a child that my brother had “a brace”. But now I am a grown up with teenage daughters, my younger daughter has “braces” despite it being only on her top teeth. I can see why it is called braces though – there are a number of different things pulling various teeth in different direction, I can see why one would call the whole construction “braces”.

  2. I felt I should have been quicker than 8.22 but I was held up by the retrospectively obvious and non-threatening BRACES, JARGON and WREATH. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.

    1. Pretty straightforward but was held up by having DRILLS for 4a which gave me lots of problems with 6d till I gave it another think

  3. 3:09. Usually start my day with an americano; today is a rare exception! Also liked the lemons surface and thought ‘rocket booster’ was a fairly good cryptic definition, but surface of the day for me was ‘immature insect right inside molten rock’, which conjured up an interesting image. Thank you Kitty and Trelawney.

  4. Trelawney never seems to miss and this one was no exception.

    Started with BRACES and finished with COD SALAD DRESSING, where I briefly wondered if I needed to know something about solid forms of propellent before the penny dropped, in 4.27.

    Thanks to Kitty and Trelawney

  5. A rare sub ten 8:10 this morning. Delayed by the posse then fetching the wreath. BIFD treasure chest and apple tart.
    Thanks Kitty and Trelawney

  6. 17.30 for a quick (for me) start to the week.
    COD SALAD DRESSING. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty. Not sure about your Ninja Turtling reference, an indulgence I occasionally enjoy.

    1. Ninja Turtling only used as a reference for some crosswording JARGON, as an excuse to link to the glossary. It’s one of my favourite crosswordy terms.

  7. 7:49 for the solve … my 2nd slowest Trelawney of the year 🤣 As always very doable and very enjoyable. Was held up for 1+min by RACKETEER at the end and the SW corner was a small tussle.

    I was also held up by RICOTTA where Italian cheeses are definitely part of my GK blackhole for food&drink. On reflection that was being tested by a puzzle which also contains SCAMPI, AMERICANO, SALAD-DRESSING and APPLE-TART.

    Thanks to Kitty and Trelawney

  8. I was not quick at 16.50 but I parsed them all before completion. My recent Trelawney times have varied greatly – from under 10 to ca. 20
    I enjoyed this QC a lot. Some very good clues (I agree with Kitty: SALAD DRESSING was my COD, too).
    Thanks to both.

  9. 6 mins – I prefer them a bit chewier but enjoyable nonetheless. SALAD DRESSING made me smile. Thanks T&K

  10. 8:19. A very tasty offering as pointed out by New Driver. Like Kitty, the standout clue for me was SALAD DRESSING which is an early candidate for clue of the week.

    Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty

  11. Biffed SALAD DRESSING without reading the clue. I don’t recall anything about this puzzle, but it evidently was pretty easy: I even got in under my target time for once. 5:10.

  12. It had to be TREASURE CHEST but just couldn’t piece it together, so thank you, Kitty. All good in another friendly, enjoyable Trelawney, to whom thanks. LOI WREATH.

  13. 8:16 for a gentle start to the week. According to the invaluable QC SNITCH, Trelawney is regularly the least challenging of the QC setters, but as this puzzle shows, it is not at the expense of some really excellent clues and surfaces. A most enjoyable puzzle.

    Many thanks Kitty for the blog.

  14. What a delicious way to start the week. Truly enjoyed this – around 10 minutes which for us is great. Held up by screen suddenly magnifying all…who knows why (not me)..IT and I have a touchy relationship.
    17a ISOLATE brought a chuckle – found all clues and solves very satisfying.
    COD – can we have two? SALAD DRESSING and TREASURE CHEST.
    Thank you Trelawney and Kitty!

  15. 4:06. I was held up at the end by WRAITH and JIGSAW from posting a rare sub 4-minute time. Nice gentle Monday fare. I also liked SALAD DRESSING. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.

      1. Ah yes. I had it right in the crossword. Not sure where I got that from in the comment!

  17. Enjoyable solve today. Just what a QC should be. COD SALAD DRESSING. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty

  18. Did anyone else put in CONCHI for 1A or was it just me who convinced themselves that was a legit plural for Conch…

  19. A fast one, 7:53.

    Would have been better if I hadn’t stuck in DETONATOR, where I had D-T, its nine letters and “something explosive”.

    LOI SALAD DRESSING, I was sure it started with SOLID, and was the technical name for those rockets they strapped to the Space Shuttle.

    Trelawney persistently shows that a Qc can be pleasing and challenging without resorting to obscure vocab.

  20. Arrgh, very fast then needed hint for JIGSAW which gave me WREATH.
    SALAD DRESSING COD made me smile. Also liked JARGON, POSSE, SETTLE, ISOLATE, SCAMPI and DETERMINE, among others.
    Thanks vm, Kitty.

  22. 12:01
    A slow solve for me, not quite sure why. Last two in were JIGSAW and WREATH.
    COD to SALAD DRESSING.

    Thanks Kitty and Trelawney

  23. Excellent clues, good start to the week. Offsets the Bank Holiday week weather – wet and blowing hard in Devon.

  24. Excellent puzzle – we have had a few more sensible ones lately 🙂 . Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.

  25. 5:00

    Gentle opener for the week. 19a gets my COD as well. I was a little slow with both APPLE TART and RACKETEER, but otherwise, no issues. LOI WREATH.

    Thanks Kitty and Trelawney

  26. “Rocket booster”, arf arf! Very good indeed.

    A thoroughly enjoyable romp, despite 1a reminding me that yesterday I pulled up my langoustine pots to find them full of dogfish, which were in turn full of langoustines 🙁

    All done in 04:34, for my second fastest time on the QUITCH and a Red Letter Day. Many thanks Kitty and the Squire.

  27. As Kitty said…nothing really held me up. My LOI and COD goes to SALAD DRESSING. Home in 4:56. Thanks Kitty.

  28. Finished correctly in 38 minutes. Quite a good time for me.
    This was a true QC.
    Well done Trelawney.

  29. A rare visit to sub 5 territory! From SATIRE to SALAD DRESSING in 4:44. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.

  30. I was quick (for me) until two at the end held me up.
    I was very slow finding SEATTLE as the city.
    And LOI was WREATH where I fell into the (no doubt intended) trap of looking for a European river or flower . Excellent clue among many.
    COD, of course, to SALAD DRESSING.
    13 minutes in the end.
    David

  31. 7:54

    Might I venture to suggest this was perhaps too easy? Only my second sub-8 time (my target is 20 minutes) and nothing here needed much deliberation. LOI ISOLATE.

  32. A lovely puzzle to start my day, managed just under 30 minutes. Really liked JARGON and APPLE TART. Thank you for the blog 😁

  33. Our PB at 10.45 and very enjoyable.
    Thanks for link to glossary as hadn’t really engaged with what was meant by surface before.
    Also liked the rocket booster!

  34. My thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.
    POI 19a Raise. The only example of what a friend of mine called an Antiphone, where it is a homophone of an antomym, raze. As there is only one of them it doesn’t have a real word.

    1. Very interesting. I asked ChatGPT about this, and he/she/it/they told me that RAZE/RAISE is the only true pair in English. Although it cited (sorry) PEER/PIER, SOUL/SOLE and CITE/SITE as “near” auto-antiphones (sometimes called “antagonymic homophones”).

      Interestingly, French has many more examples, the reason being, according to our un-learned friend:
      “Because spoken French reduced many endings (-s, -t, -x, -ent, etc.) to silence, you often get 4–5 different spellings/pronunciations converging into one sound, and literary culture has loved to exploit that with wordplay. That makes it much easier to construct antonymic homophones, even if they’re not always “pure” dictionary antonyms like raze/raise in English.”

      1. The fact that ChatGPT idiotically ‘cited PEER/PIER, SOUL/SOLE and CITE/SITE as “near” auto-antiphones’ when asked about RAZE/RAISE suggests the end of the world is closer than many of us thought.

        1. I didn’t include the detail, which pointed out that the other examples weren’t very strong and were context dependent. Speaking as one who uses ChatGPT frequently as a search aggregator / optimiser, and definitely not as an authoritative source of opinion or insight, I am well used to not trusting statements it makes (I always ask for primary sources).

          I’ve seen it spew some proper rubbish, but I don’t think this is one of those times.

      2. This shows that ChatGPT is a typical Anglophone! My French sister-in-law insists that there is a difference in the sound of the three words jouer, jouait and joué, and she can distinguish between them. Though even she confesses that she can’t tell jouait from jouaient except by context.

        1. All serious students of French should be able to distinguish between the pronunciation of “jouer” and “jouait”, “tu” and “tout”, but I think it reasonable to leave the jouer/joué distinction to native speakers.

          Enjoyable crossword, polished off well within the duration of a retiree’s breakfast.

    2. Nice – I can imagine someone (me) making a bad pun on ‘his wills and his wonts’.

  35. 6.44 Like a few others, JIGSAW and WREATH delayed me at the end. Thanks Kitty and Trelawney.

  36. Well, I go along with everybody else. Nicely-pitched puzzle for the start of the week
    COD most definitely SALAD DRESSING

    Thanks Trelawney and Kitty

  37. Pretty straightforward start to the week thanks to the squire, and my fairly nippy time of 6.52 confirms that.

  39. Flew through the first six acrosses and then couldn’t instantly get APPLE TART so switched to downs rather than finishing the sweep. Answers kept coming until I had to think quite hard about WREATH and then very hard for RACKETEER to emerge. All green in 5.29 – a new pb!

    1. Great job – PB is always a great moment. Cherish them, they get harder and harder, thus rarer and rarer, to achieve!

  40. Extremely fast until about two-thirds of the way through, when one of my all-too-frequent brain freezes intervened to scupper any thoughts of a PB. In fact, a possible first ever sub-10 became just another SCC day. Time = 22 minutes, which is very good for me, but it might have been so much better.

    Many thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.

  41. I was going like a train until I fell into the bear pit at 19ac. With S*l*d for the first word, I hardly paused before writing in Solid and then struggled to think of another word for Booster. . . To confirm my stupidity, I’m pretty sure I’ve come across Rocket Booster/Salad Dressing (cream) once before. Hopefully third time’s a charm. 18mins before everything was sorted, with CoD to Apple Tart for the parsing. Invariant

    1. Same for me with solid stuck in my brain even though ‘Heads of’ clearly indicated SAL.

  42. 18 – par for the course or near enough these days. I’d lay odds a Trelawney will be the first one that I can complete. Let’s say before the end of this year….

    Thanks Kitty and Mr T.

  43. 14:54
    Very happy to be outside the SCC for the day 😊
    FOI: TREASURE CHEST
    LOI: RACKETEER
    COD: (as others) SALAD DRESSING
    Thanks to Kitty and Trelawney

  44. Biffed TREASURE CHEST, parsed quickly afterwards. The “rocket booster” was top drawer clueing, although I have to confess to removing rocket from anything to which it is added. Thanks Trelawney, and, of course, Kitty.

    FOI SCAMPI
    LOI WREATH
    COD SALAD DRESSING
    TIME 3:50

  45. I feel like I let a really quick time, rather than just a top 10 time (this sneaked in at joint number 10 on my all time list at 5:23), slip through my fingers here. The first few across clues, down to APPLE TART went in with barely a thought but then I got stuck on the rocket booster. I also failed to see ISOLATE, WREATH and SOLEMN on that first pass. Then I got every down clue in sequence, with barely a thought, and returned to the remainder, now of course with all the crossers. The three shorter clues went in pretty much instantly but then, inexplicably, I pencilled in SOLID (thinking solid fuel) for the first word of our rocket booster, despite also thinking “heads of secret aerospace lab = SAL”. Not sure how much time that cost, but I’d say it certainly cost me a sub 5 minute solve.

    Very nice puzzle, thanks as ever for the blog and the chat.

  48. A fairly gentle offering to start the week. Solved steadily in 16:11 (quite quick for me) with no real holdups.

  49. This went pleasantly fast for me. Just a note to say about the interesting news about new words added to the Cambridge dictionary. Like skibidi and tradwife. Perhaps we will soon see these clued here?

  50. The first quick cryptic I’ve ever finished without checking or revealing an answer! It took me long enough, c30 min, but it can only improve from here.

    Enjoyable all the way. COD was SALAD DRESSING

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