24497 – A straightforward start to the week.

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 35 minutes.

A steady solve with a minimum of specialist knowledge required. Particularly in 20 & 24a. I admit I had to look up the reference in 20, but the Manhattan Project was the first article I went to in Wikipedia, and I wasn’t disappointed. A good working knowledge of the Scottish Play was required for 24a, which thankfully I have, and hats off to the setter for managing to reference three Shakespearean plays in a single clue in 25.

The only word I didn’t know was PRICKET, but that was fairly easily deduced from the wordplay.

I’m quite happy with my 35 minutes, but I expect to see a few under 10 from the usual suspects.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 MARTINi – St Martin is probably a reference to Martin of Tours, a fourth century french bishop.
4 COCKPIT = COCK + TIP rev
9 RIDgES
10 rEVOLUTION
11 I + NEAR + NEST
12 TAlKER – the third example in four clues of a single letter removal from one word to give another.
13 RITE = “WRITE” – could also be considered another single letter removal, although technically of course, it’s clued as a homophone.
14 PRO + GEN + IT + OR
18 SISTERHOOD = (DOES THIS OR)*
20 LOS alamoS – Los Alamos, New Mexico was the main laboratory for the development of the Manhattan Project. The Alamo was a former Spanish mission far more famous for its Battle than anything else.
23 SAVE + Restricted
24 CAESAREAN – For those unfamiliar with Macbeth, it is foretold by the witches that Macbeth cannot be defeated by anyone ‘of woman born’, but during the final battle Macduff announces that he “was from his mother’s womb, untimely ripp’d”, at which point Macbeth realises his defeat is imminent.
25 LE(N + DANE)AR – As well as the obvious references to Hamlet and King Lear, the phrase ‘lend an ear’ originates from Mark Antony’s famous monologue in Julius Caesar – “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears…”
26 YE(A)S + T
28 DAYS + TAR – I’ve not come across the term Daystar before, but the Sun is a star that can be seen during the day, so I guess it’s entirely reasonable.
29 F(R)IEND – The Religious Society of Friends being better known as the Quakers.
 
Down
1 M + AR(DIG)RAS – An arras being a wall hanging, best known probably as what Polonius was hiding behind when he was killed by Hamlet.
2 RED MEAT = RED + “MEET”
3 deliberately omitted, ask if unsure.
4 CROw + FT
5 C + OU(R)TING
6 P(R)ICKET – A pricket is a male deer in his second year.
7 TE + NO + vibRato
8 deliberately omitted, ask if still searching.
15 GE(OM)E + TRY – My! = Gee!
16 RESONATED = (READ NOTES)*
17 NE(AREAS)T
19 S(EVEN)TY
21 O + VERA + WE – Cow being the definition, used as a verb.
22 LA(W)YER
23 SOL(I)D
24 CHEER – being one of hip, hip or even hooray.

43 comments on “24497 – A straightforward start to the week.”

  1. Thanks, Dave, for the early blog, amd very well done. Thanks also to ulaca for the rousing reference and explanation to DAYSTAR. About 30 minutes here, with last in CAESAREAN, it being the only word I could fit into the crossing letters. My intimate knowledge of all things Shakespeare has gaps, although generally OK; I did not remember the allusion here right away. Everything else, as Dave said, was pretty straightforward. Regards to all. I also liked LEND AN EAR.
    1. You can’t beat Charles Wesley for a rousing hymn. Am I the only one who gets distressed when people print “Son of Righteousness” rather than Sun, especially in another Wesleyan favourite, “Hark! The Herald”? I guess I know my Bible better than my Shakespeare.
  2. Unable to finish this one. Not helped by a sketchy Shakespearian knowledge, which enabled me to get the easy LEND AN EAR but led to me having the wrong stab at Macbeth, plumping for CREMATION, as I failed to consider ‘cow’ as a verb at 21.

    Re ‘daystar’ as the sun, choristers and other churchgoers will know the word from Charles Wesley’s hymn ‘Christ, whose glory fills the skies’, which begins:

    Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
    Christ, the true, the only light,
    Sun of Righteousness, arise,
    Triumph o’er the shades of night.
    Dayspring, from on high be near;
    Daystar in my heart appear.

  3. Thanks for the great blog, Dave. Mr K. will have to watch his guernsey. (Don’t worry, he’ll know what I mean!)
    Couldn’t time this as I was doing my medical patients run and did it in the usual waiting rooms in several bursts. But I guess a bit under 20 minutes in all.
    I had no-eye-deer what a pricket might be. Strange coincidence between 11ac and 17dn perhaps? Then I got held up by thinking RIGID and ROVER for the 23s. Didn’t BR (God bless its eternal excuse messages) once offer a cheap ticket called a Rover?
    COD (from me too) to LEND AN EAR.
    1. Railway Rover tickets live on today. London Transport certainly offered “Red Rover” tickets in my youth.
  4. 9:42, with the NE corner filled in last, ending with PRICKET, new to me. Some time wasted trying to find an “ology” to fit 15. 4A and 1D entered without full wordplay understanding.
  5. I’m going to blame changing the clocks, half asleep this morning. 30 m, going well till NE corner. Stalled by programmer not progenitor till pricket arrived in brain – must check wordplay more often before rushing on – and trying to lose a g or a w from something for 4a. All those birds and the Bard, at least we had done those plays at school…..
  6. I made the mistake of trying to solve this before going to bed in the early hours and found it quite difficult. Eventually it came in at exactly an hour with MARDI GRAS and CHEER unexplained when I finally put it aside for the night. CAESAREAN was my last in and I only thought of the reference eventually because it has come up here before and caught me out completely. Didn’t know PRICKET.
  7. Yeah well, would have been straightforward but for woeful misspelling of CAESAR(I)AN which made OVERAWE and the anyway impossible LOSS (ingenious bit of research Dave) a tad difficult until error detected.
    Guesses at PRICKET, DAYSTAR and ARRAS ( 2nd day running I have had a problem with tapestry, yesterday’s remaining to solve).
    On the subject of yesterday’s puzzle, I may be wrong but there seems to be 2 legitimate answers to one of the clues. Last week I stuck in MUNCHENGLADBACH on the basis of a clue suggested erroneously on the Bulletin Board. I then corrected the answer after Peter supplied the correct clue, and then re-submitted. Is this strictly legal or will I get a lifetime ban?
    1. I did try to offer apologies on the bulletin board, but none were accepted. The spelling depends on which decade you live in (and several other things) I clued the one I knew without checking. I also, as you may imagine, posted the u version before Peter supplied the correct one, but refrained to repost mostly through indolence rather than fear of a criminal record!
      1. So it must be that the Bulletin Board/Comments rejects anything that includes the word “apology”. This explains a lot.
        I much preferred your clue anyway.
        1. I think I put the word “sorry” in as well. There’s probably an automated check that rejects any words the board is uncomfortable with. Perhaps they’ll let me win the clue comp this month as a consolation.
  8. An easy puzzle – 20 minutes to solve.

    A strange reflection of something that folk are more familiar with the essentially irrelevant Shakespeare than with the life changing Manhattan Project. I see about a year late we also finally get EVOLUTION but without a nod towards Darwin (probably because he’s not a literary character)

    1. Jimbo, you are so provocative! Deliberately so, one suspects. And being so provoked …
      The Bard had a complete anatomy of the human soul that still stands today; and he wrote it at a time when the “doctors” of the day were still using leeches and blood-letting.
      The Manhattan Project did, I agree, change life. If “to change” means “to all-but end forever”.
      1. I have only ever watched one (1) Shakespeare play in my entire life, a performance of The Tempest that bored me abso-lutely rigid. I could not follow a single word of what was going on, and since it was at the Globe the seat was so uncomfortable I couldn’t even doze. Sorry! Still, I do have a working knowledge of the plot and cast of most of the better known plays, including Macbeth, derived entirely from crossword solving!
      2. Some confused thinking here methinks! The treatment of physical ailment was indeed primitive in Elizabethan times but an understanding of the human psyche pre-dates Shakespeare by hundreds of years and I’m not aware that he added to the knowledge pool.

        The discovery of the bomb changed the lives of most people on the planet. People of my generation are unlikely to forget the Cold War, the threat of four minute warnings; Cuban missiles and so on. The weapon was in fact too powerful to actually use because it would lead to a pyrrhic victory but the posturing and bluffing affected us all. Today it distorts affairs in both the Middle and Far East.

        As to me pulling people’s legs – surely not!

        1. Jimbo would, I’m sure, be greatly disappointed if a few of us didn’t rise to his bait! As it happens (not always the case, by any means), I was able to spot both the Los Alamos reference at 20 ac and the Macduff/Shakespeare one at 24 ac. Time was when it was considered the mark of a well-furnished mind that it found equal “relevance” in the achievements of science and great works of literature, the former telling us how the world of material phenomena works and the latter what it means to be a human being.
          1. I completely agree with those sentiments. But it does seem to be a one way street at times. Those with good knowledge of literature at times seem almost proud of their ignorance of science whilst deriding those of a scientific background who lack their detailed insight into the arts (nobody who blogs here, of course, let me hasten to add!). I think it is as important to know something of the Manhattan Project as it is to recognise a Shakespearean quotation.
            1. We seem, boringly, to be in total agreement! As such, I fear we may be in breach of Biddlecombe Blog Rules or something of the sort. To be proud of one’s ignorance in any field is absurd, and I would have to concede that there is a peculiarly English tradition of parading a lack of scientific knowledge as a virtue and evidence of superior intellect. Odd in a country that has produced so many of the world’s greatest scientists.
  9. struggled through in 50 minutes. took ages to see martini and mardi gras. got all the rest in about 25-30 minutes
    a frustrating start to the week. thought puxxle had too many take away clues
    1. Coming late to this exchange but it is, I suspect, a complete myth that
      (a) generally people’s knowledge of Shakespeare is greater than their knowledge of the Manhattan project
      (b) people who are ignorant of science are proud to be so. I’ve never in my life that I can think of met a single person who was proud of that fact.

      I work with IT people, most of whom seem to be verty clever and with a excellent knowledge of science and yet I am staggered at their ignorance of the arts, geography, current affairs, politics etc etc.
      My favourite memory of the Times 2 crossword is of two colleagues struggling over “City of Yorkshire (5)” L—- (!!!)

      1. I am ( or rather was) an IT person. Got “Lend an ear” easily but I’m sorry to say I’d never heard of LOS ALAMOS in connection with the Manhattan Project so didn’t have a clue why the answer was LOSS.
  10. I found this about average difficulty or even a little bit harder.. almost 25mins when the last one went in.
    I came here expecting a lot of praise for a good puzzle and I’m a bit surprised not to find it.. I thought some of the surface readings were first class, with 1dn, 4dn and 28ac particularly good. COD 28ac.
    1. Me too. I thought this was a very good puzzle indeed and I also found it very difficult, tho’ that was probably just me looking at the other times…
  11. I was worried that I was going to get a black-and-whitewash in this one because I reached 15D before I got my first answer. Fortunately the familiar exclamatory What gave me my first foothold. After that, strangely, I had no trouble and finished quite quickly.

    I echo Jerry in my appreciation of the smooth surfaces and clever wordplay. I particularly enjoyed Mardi Gras, in earnest, croft and overawe. I loved the unobtrusive anagram of sisterhood and lend and ear was just brilliant.

    Further to Jimbo’s strange reflection, my knowledge of Los Alamos came, not from any scientific background, but from hearing John Adam’s superb opera Doctor Atomic. Barry’s comment suggests that this is one opera that he has not yet caught up with.

  12. OR = other ranks = men. So PRO = for + info = GEN + OR are grabbing computer industry or IT
  13. 19 minutes today, with a lot of time spent in the Home Counties trying not to put sawyer – W(ife) in SAYER and confusion about pits and beds – in for 22. My education included all the relevant Shakespeare (lucky me). CoD between SISTERHOOD for the smooth anagram, and LOSS for the ingenuity.
  14. Can you explain ‘men grab’ in 14ac and the final ‘OR’ in PROGENITOR? My guess was ORIGINATOR …
  15. 23 minutes, mostly held up by an inability to spell CAESAREAN. I’m a stones throw from Oak Ridge, so liked the Manhattan project reference. Like Peter, put in 1 down without seeing the wordplay, and PRICKET without knowing the definition.
  16. Well I was just crap today. I had originator instead of progenitor, spelled caesarian (sic) wrong and hence couldn’t get overawe and loss. Didn’t get croft either. What a pricket.
  17. 20 mins for me. LOSS was a guess but a correct one.

    How does CROFT work? Doesn’t CROW with missing foot = CRO? So hasn’t the foot been used up?

    Also I don’t think I have come across N = note before as in 25 across. How does that work? NB Nota Bene?

    2. You have to read “bird with missing” as “bird, with missing”, where “with” is converted to the abbreviation W. Then you add ft. = foot.

      N=note, says the Concise Oxford, is seen in book indexes, pointing the reader to a (foot)note on a page rather than the main text.

  18. 9:28. DAYSTAR was a new one for me but easy enough to guess. However I thought PRICKET (or WRICKET) for 6 right from getting the K-T but left it until last as I’d never come across it before.
    Last in was CROFT which was neatly deceptive with it’s missing foot.
    Liked GEOMETRY (which is probably the first time I’ve ever said that in my whole life!!)

  19. A gentle half hour start to the week, but spoiled by having ORIGINATOR not PROGENITOR at 14.

    For a while tried to justify FATIMA at 1A. MARDI GRAS went in from the enumeration. Was pleased to get OVERAWE without any checkers (cow – set me off straight down the “browbeat” path). PRICKET from wordplay. I know something about Los Alamos and the development of the atomic bomb from reading Richard Feynman’s biography. Shakespeare isn’t my forte but I do remember MA’s “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…” line in JC from English Lit lessons and that got me 25. Thanks for explaining the Macduff part of CAESAREAN.

    As a PhD I can vouch for RESEARCH.

  20. Not too difficult, as most have said, but some tricky wordplay here and there coupled with GK – e.g. LOSS. PRICKET was new to me but reasonably guessable once you’d twigged that you were looking for a word for “fence” surrounding R. I briefly toyed with nonce-word WRICKET before deciding that PRICKET was more likely.

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