24890 – The New Monday?

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This took me 35 minutes with the last 5 spent on 22dn and 29ac. It felt more like a Monday puzzle (until recently) rather than a typical Friday and the setter kindly provided four easy 3-letter answers to give me a foothold in all four quarters. Working out the wordplay at 1dn, 24ac and 21dn gave me a few problems but the answers themselves came easily from the definitions alone. I don’t think there’s anything particularly obscure here although I didn’t know the alcoholic drink (always a surprise when that happens!) and some may not know the composer(s). Otherwise it was a gentle end to the week which went down particularly well with me after yesterday’s ordeal.

* = anagram

Across
1 DE(TA)C,H – DECember encloses Territorial Army, then Hard.
4 VAN,I,SHED
10 LANC(A,ST)ER
11 CUR,I,O – I and O indicate the On and Off positions on electrical switches. I remember a discussion here on whether the I represents current (a common abbreviation in these puzzles) but I can’t remember what the outcome was.
12 VICE-(CAP)TAIN – INACTIVE* encloses CAP
14 Deliberately omitted
15 REST,ART
17 ECART,E – TRACE reversed followed by East. This is a card game for two players.
19 BEE,PERk
21 GRIM,ACE
23 A,YeaR
24 N(fIGHTING)ALE – ‘Dash back’ = ELAN reversed. I imagine most solvers would have written in the answer from the first two words of the clue and swiftly moved on to the next one.
26 TEM,P1 – MET reversed followed by P1
27 INFECTION – (NOT NICE IF)*
29 SUN,DRIES
30 Shortages,PRE AD
 
Down
1 DELI,saVE,RY – with thanks to mctext.  DELIVER,rY – Having solved the clue, thinking DELI = ‘shop’ and L = ‘line’ presented problems  but then I realised  ‘shop’ = DELIVER meaning ‘inform on’ and ‘line’ = RY short for ‘railway’ which then needs 50% removed. 
2 TU(NI)C – CUT encloses IN, all reversed
3 Deliberately omitted
5 A1,R(FAR)asonablE
6 INCA N(These)ATION
7 HE,RBAL TEA – HE followed by (ALBERT A)*
8 DO OVER – Double definition. To decorate a room / to attack and rob someone.
9 S(TOP) IT
13 Consider,HARP,ENT(1)ER – Two unrelated composers share this name. Gustave (1860-1956) and Marc-Antoine (1643-1704).
16 STEERSMAN – (TENSE ARMS)*
18 DE(MEAN)ED – NAME* inside the legal document.
20 RAG,TIME – A red-top daily newspaper might be described as a RAG, then EMIT reversed.
21 GO,T OFF – This one gave me pause for thought. I suppose a journey has two ends one of which is its beginning and GO can mean ‘beginning’ as in “from the word go”, but it all seems a bit convoluted to me. Perhaps I’m missing something simpler. On edit; Thanks to mctext for pointing out the bleedin’ obvious that somehow I managed not to see i.e. GO (vb) = ‘journey’ and ‘at end of’ is an instruction where to place TOFF.
22 PAST,1’S – I don’t think I have heard of this drink flavoured with aniseed.
25 A(B)IDE
28 Crime,OP

49 comments on “24890 – The New Monday?”

  1. 22 minutes; so back to more normal times for me. Also wanted to get it done and have a squiz at the Club Monthly. NIGHTINGALE: just the opposite of Jim’s favourite — obvious answer, then … the parsing. Not helped in my case by thinking the dash was just EN.
    Today’s interesting facts:
    I once went to a “University” graduation where the program advertised Charpentier’s “Tedium”.
    The Greek for steersman is kubernetes; whence “cybernetics”.
    COD to INFECTION by a long chalk.

    Jack, at 1dn, you need 50% of “saVE”. (Then the deli and RY bits fit).
    21. GO=journey (verb).

    1. Charpentier’s tedium ! Thanks for that McT . This blog is often more fun than the crossword . Jeremy
  2. 21 minutes, anything but normal for me, especially on Friday.I did think for a second that the nurse might be Cavell (+ something, of course; I can count), but a checker or two soon disabused me of that idea. I also didn’t know the ‘mug’ meaning of ‘do over’, and wondered whether ‘doover’ might be a British slang term for face. An ego-stroking end to a difficult week, but no standouts among the clues.
  3. A remarkably quick solve – I can’t prove it because the website would not let me submit nor save. Having got bored with retyping the whole thing twice I gave up but this must have been under 20 minutes which makes it VERY quick for me at least.
    It might have been the head start I had this morning – I have blogged last Saturday’s DT prize puzzle, solved today’s DT back page and the Toughie then knocked this off, all three taking less than an hour. Perhaps I’ll get up at 5 a.m. more often….
      1. Oops, sorry Jack. Failed to read all of MC’s post. Sacrilege.
        Felt like a Morris Minor owner test driving a Porsche with today’s offering.
  5. Under 30 minutes and I’m with mctext on parsing of 1dn. Didn’t know CHARPENTIER as a composer but knew of the boxer so presumed there was a namesake. A gentle end to the week, the sun is shining outside….
    1. One of them contributed a bit of his Te Deum to the Eurovision theme tune: the one that goes “ta TUM ta-ta ta ta taaaa ta”
      1. That would be the earlier one. Thanks for this. I knew he wrote something used as a theme tune but couldn’t think what it was or who used it.
        1. I think I’ve sung a “Midnight Mass” of his. Haven’t got time to check but can visualise Messe de Minuit on the cover (or maybe it’s a “minute mass”, very little or very quick (cf Chopin “Minute Walse))
    2. If you’re thinking about Georges the boxer, surely he’s normally spelled without an H.
      1. Patrick; 23 of 27 victories by KO. Last fight lost by KO 1998 when fighting Oscar de la Hoya for WBC welterweight title.
  6. 12:15 today. Thanks for the explanation of I/O which I didn’t twig.
  7. 11 minutes, no real hold-ups except getting GOT OFF right and ECARTE, which is probably only played in crosswords these days.
    Of the beverages available today, HERBAL TEA makes it as my CoD, though the two &lits (I thought they were, anyway) INFECTION and COP were pretty neat too.
  8. 11 minutes. I was heading comfortably for a very rare sub-ten but got just slightly held up in the SW with PASTIS/AYR/TEMPI/SUNDRIES. I see from the club leaderboard that our estimable founder managed sub-five, so congratulations Peter if you’re reading!
    I didn’t know ECARTE, CHARPENTIER or STEERSMAN but the wordplay was pretty straightforward. I agree with mctext on INFECTION: super clue.
    I forgot to mention yesterday that we had a clue in which SO was clued by “so”. I realise that it’s not quite as blatant as the controversial DATE clue the other day but still I was surprised no-one mentioned it.

      1. No, not quite. And perhaps there’s a rule that says it’s allowed for shorter words. Still.
  9. …on both points, except it took me a little bit longer!

    Best wishes to all for a lovely sunny weekend!

  10. One of the easiest Friday puzzles in a while.Thanks, Jack, for parsing NIGHTINGALE, which eluded me though, as you say, that didn’t really matter as the solution was eminently accessible from definition alone. I would certainly add my voice to the INFECTION for COD vote. I also liked the way that the “bee” in BEEPER could be made to do double service as both part of the cryptic parsing and (if you wished) part of the definition.
  12. 20 minutes for all but ECARTE, but then unable to derive an obviously unknown card game (to me) from the wordplay. Thanks for the CURIO lowdown, Jack.
  13. ….how the IO came to be, and inquisitive about NIGHTINGALE, so thank you, jackkt and mctext! And it was only reading this blog that I realised that the bridge player was at the end of ECARTE not at the beginning. “D’oh!” 46mins for me, so it MUST have been easy! I stand in awe of the times posted by solvers such as Peter B and Magoo
  14. We need tougher ones on the working from home day than this. I had half of it before the toast popped up. I like very lightly grilled toast.
  15. May I also ask for assistance…in my case a glossary of electrical abbreviations. I/O I now know; I believe V for Volts is another, but, from memory, there are others. Jackkt mentions I possibly representing current.
    Any help greatly appreciated.
  16. I took me a while to get going with only the two 3-letter words going in on first run through the acrosses.

    Once I got some checkers in it became much easier.

    Thanks to Jack for the explanations of curio and Nightingale whose wprdplay eluded me.

    I’m surprised you’re not aware of pastis Jack – it’s the generic name for the likes of Pernod and Ricard. If you’ve never had Pernod then I can only conclude that you’ve never been to France and never been to a teenage party where, in my day at least (before the invention of alcopops), it used to get koncked back (and brought up again) with blackcurrant. I always have a bottle of Ricard in the drinks cabinet.

    COD to airfare

      1. Not far off. Probably the third one I’ve bought in the last 20 years. The price sticker will be in FF no doubt. I do like a drop with iced water on a hot day.
    2. Thanks Penfold! You just brought up, or possibly back, some great memories as a 16 y.o. in the South of France!
    3. I know both Pernod and Ricard but not the generic name. I have been to France but I rarely went to teenage parties even when I was a teenager.
  17. On machine tools having multiple speeds, the controls are numbered O, I, II, III (not sure what happens after this), so I suspect these are Roman-style numbers, even though the Romans didn’t have a zero.
    1. Hi Keith,
      the | represents closed circuit (on) and the O is derived from the open circuit (off) symbol which normally has a broken circle with a line going from the circle centre upwards through the break but sometimes is just a circle . Jeremy
  18. I was quite glad of an easy one after yesterday’s toughie, finishing in 25 minutes, though I did need to spend a few more minutes working out the wordplay to a few.

    I thought may of the clues very good, particularly 24 and 30.

  19. … to ask this estimable forum for help with parsing a clue from an alien crossword (in this case the Observer from a week or two back)? A friend does it, and he got the right answer but could not for the life of him figure out why – and nor could I when he asked me. The clue is ‘Ring gossip about note’ and the answer is ‘arena’, which presumably explains ‘ring’ – but the rest? Many thanks, if anyone can elucidate.
    1. Ana (gossip)around the note re.

      Ana has come up before a few times. See dictionary for full explanation.

  20. I believe this comes from computers where the very basic component is a switch which can be on or off so the “on” position corresponds to a binary “1” and “off” corresponds to a binary “0”

    so four switches together with settings 1010 (on, off,on off)would correspond to decimal 10 and 1011 would be decimal 11 because the last switch can be 1 or 0 the next one along represents 2 or 0 the next 4 or 0 and the first 8 or 0. Plausible I think?

  21. Much needed gentle stroll in the park after exhausting round of golf in the heat. Quite correct for 24A Jack, nurse 11 letters starting with N – read no further.

    Pastis is one of the most civilized of drinks. Taken with water sitting at a pavement cafe under an umbrella watching all the girls go by – heaven

  22. 19 minutes today which is fast for me, so it must have been easy. I didn’t understand CURIO until coming here. I just asked my son what he understands by I and O and he said “On and Off”. (But he wouldn’t have got Charpentier so the GK honours are even)
  23. My only gripe today was regarding 23 d. ‘Ayr’ – the clue used ‘in’ to indicate ‘about/meaning’ which is slightly unfair as I was spending a while trying to think of time amounts in the most common Scottish cities…This was definitely the gentlest of the week however and I am thankful!
  24. About 20 minutes, but several from definition alone where I didn’t get the wordplay at all: GOT OFF, SPREAD, NIGHTINGALE, DELIVERY. Thanks for the explanations, jack and everyone else. A long holiday weekend coming up here in the US, celebrating our independence from …..well, you guys. Regards to all.
  25. 9:47 for me – not particularly fast for an easy puzzle, but I was glad to break 10 minutes at the end of a sticky week. With “hint about” in 17ac, I desperately wanted the answer to be EUCHRE, even though I already had the T in place.
  26. don’t care, as this is my first ever completed Times without aids; I’m just so pleased with myself! (after over a month of trying and having to resort to you guys, without whom this wouldn’t have been possible – so thanks)
    But surely 29 should be WITHOUT heater (if something’s being sun-dried?)

    Jab

    1. Well done

      29A parses as “with heater airs”=cryptic; heater=SUN; then plus (with it) airs=DRIES. Then “various items”=definition=SUNDRIES

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