26110 The tale of the fretful porpentine

46 comments on “26110 The tale of the fretful porpentine”

1. of which the last 10 minutes or so were spent agonizing (within moderation; I mean, it’s a crossword puzzle) over 6d and 10ac, playing with the alphabet in both cases until I finally remembered Cobbett, and later parsed the clue. This meant 10ac had to be BLUER, and I remembered ‘blue’ coming up in a cryptic. I knew 4d had to be SUBALTERN, or at least thought I knew, even though I didn’t have the slightest idea of who Miss H-D was. Waiting to hear from Jimbo on this one. Lots of good clues, I thought, maybe COD to 8d?
2. I thought this was a varied and interesting puzzle, apart from the silly allusion to Betjeman’s private life. BOTANY BAY is all class.

   Good to see Cobbett get a mention. His ‘Rural Rides’ – a paean to rural England – has remained in print for nearly 200 years. A great fan of turnips and the black locust tree (which he brought back with him from exile in the States – it was either that or another spell in clink), he was an unremitting opponent of almost every 19th century PM and pay levels for army and ex-army (at the expense of farm labourers), and thought Waterloo – and Wellington – both unneccesary and over-rated.

3. … but a lot to enjoy. Those with tight clueing (e.g., 3dn) — and there are plenty — were much appreciated. Having written in quite a few Bs, kept looking for them all over the place … to no avail. For example, I was sure 5ac would start with a B (Busy opening).

   15dn was a reminder of the riddle: if you’re on a high roof with only a coke bottle, an umbrella and a duck, how do you get down?

   A bit thrown by EYRIE. Always thought Jane was the governess; and Alice Fairfax the housekeeper. But it’s been four decades since I opened the book, so don’t trust me on this one.

   Edited at 2015-05-28 06:23 am (UTC)

   1. That was my understanding too – Jane was the governess. Not my field of expertise of course so await to hear from the literary endsemble
      1. End-semble? Wishful thinking?
         1. Just a typo – fingers not as nimble as they once were
   2. Didn’t think of it at the time – I was just content to have remembered who Rochester was. But it does look like a solecism. Jane may have “kept” a house or two in her time, but she was not Rochester’s housekeeper. I don’t think I ever read the book, but I did see the film, so (apart from Google) that’s the full extent of my authority.
4. Got there just within the hour without resort to aids, though it was a close thing at 6dn until I realised it was an anagram and it became simply a matter of the most likely distribution of the unchecked remainder. Never heard of COBBETT.

   I knew JHD was Betjeman and thought for a while the poet’s name was the required answer, writing it in with a double-N despite knowing full well it takes a single.

   Lost more time at 13ac by marking its place in the grid 2,3,4,4 instead of 2,4,4,3. Didn’t know ZEBU so 22ac was biffed.

5. Massive fail today, found it really tough. Needed to use a solver for last few (after well over the hour), and even then, didn’t really get the last two (COBBETT and BLUER). Many thanks for unravelling all the tricky word play!
6. 47.50. Quite a toughie. Several unexpected but fair twists. But drive = send? While the Betjeman poem’s well known (of) I don’t think the title is; at least not enough for assumed OK GK (unlike oread). Shows how difficult and dodgy the red line is though. Overall a high A to setter; not quite a distinction.
   1. Drive, say, into the wilderness. As per the hapless prof in 2dn?
      1. Fair enough – though I wondered about the ‘from’ in 2 dn. (slight wobble of pushee).
   2. And that’s why this is a better clue than the OREAD one. It’s solvable (though harder) without knowing the subject matter, thereby circumventing arbitrary assertions about what is or isn’t “assumed OK GK”.
      1. If it’s mentioned in the clue it’s presumably to be recognised rather than to instruct.
7. A bit of a dog’s dinner this one – a real mix of good and debatable plus I suspect a wrong reference to Jane Eyre and a rather obscure piece of poetry featuring Hunter-Dunn who I knew had something to do with Betjamin

   I liked “sound” to clue BAY but thought 10A “more vulnerable to cuts” a real throwback to the 1950s and not relevant in today’s environment. 13A is very clever but “keeping slippers away” is slightly odd. And so on.

   All in all I had the feeling the setter was trying just a bit too hard to be clever and not always succeeding

8. Just over 20 mins with no real hold-ups. I am a fan of Cobbett, especially his Cottage Economy. His comparison of the costs and benefits of drinking beer v tea is uninintentionally hilarious and he manages to insert his politics into unlikely settings. An example, almost at random, in a section dealing with the making of rush candles
   “You may do any sort of work by this light; and, if reading be your taste, you may read the foul libels, the lies and abuse, which are circulated gratis about me by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, as well as by rush-light as you could by taxed candles; and at any rate you would have one less evil; for to be deceived and to pay a tax for the deception are a little too much for even modern loyalty openly to demand”
9. Stuck for ages in the Cape York corner before realising that 6dn was a cleverly-disguised anagram, then it all fell into place.

   Another excellent puzzle. Thanks setter and blogger.

   1. 42:46 …and relieved to finish without aids. I got stuck in the same corner as I struggled to parse COP for busy, PER for ‘A’ and BLUER. I’d never heard of COBBETT, and it took me a while to recognise the clue was an anagram. Some good clues today, though. 15dn made me groan. I wonder how many of those we’ll get a Headingly over the next few days?
10. Another really enjoyable puzzle that I felt lucky to finish around the 12 minute mark, with young ‘uns pestering me to do jigsaw puzzles with them halfway through. I would never have gotten COBBETT without the wordplay, and then I entered BLUER as a leap of faith, never having heard of “blue” meaning extravagant, and not having thought of cuts in the sense of censorship… perhaps a blue (sad) person would be extra sensitive to criticism, or perhaps a blue (uncooked) steak is easier for a chef to dice, how would I know when I’m a vegetarian? Anyway it all worked out more or less.

    Obviously I really enjoyed the literary stuff, especially the reference to the Subaltern’s Love Song. I do appreciate when the Times takes the line, be it on this or indeed OREAD earlier this week, of just expecting the solver to have a goodly breadth of cultural knowledge, and not apologising for it by ensuring the wordplay is trivially easy. Of course, sometimes this means that you don’t solve the clue. But then you get to go away and learn something new. Win/win!

    1. The clue to OREAD contained no wordplay, easy or otherwise, so if you didn’t know the word not solving the clue was 100% guaranteed.
       1. Was Ximenes (or another of that lofty ilk) dead set against cryptic definitions? I can see the argument for requiring every clue to have two viable routes to the solution.
          1. I don’t know. I don’t mind cryptic definitions but I think OREAD is a bit obscure for the clue type. Similarly a CD that required knowledge of the link between Joan Hunter-Dunn and the SUBALTERN would be a bit off.
11. Was a good 10 minutes before I could enter anything in the grid! Kicked off with ‘Beelzebub’, then SW corner slipped in easily, then SE, then NW. Then NE took me ages, particularly ‘Alcopop’ (never knew a cop could be busy, as it were!) and Bluer.
    Nikki.
12. A rather Anaxian flavour to parts of this and it’s a pity the housekeeper/governess error spoiled the literary touches. I must admit I enjoyed it, but then I also enjoy the weekly and often losing struggle with the TLS. 17.27 so I was in the zone.

    Off topic but I’m curious. Is anyone your end surprised that it’s the US Justice Dept and IRS pursuing FIFA? Not all that many of us stateside follow football/soccer (in my case, husband is an angler and the rest of us are baseball nuts) but I found this a puzzle.

    1. Football/soccer is not my thing either but my guess would be that the surprise is that anyone is pursuing FIFA corruption, not the identity of the pursuers. It does make me smile though that if FIFA had been meeting in almost any other European country, the extradition process could have taken years but the Swiss do not hang around. I see that Putin has already said that this is a blatant attempt by the US to strip Russia of its upcoming World Cup.

       Edited at 2015-05-28 10:51 am (UTC)

    2. No great surprise. The USA is one of the very few countries which doesn’t quail at the thought of incurring FIFA’s displeasure. It is a delicious irony, though. For many years Sepp has been brazenly trailing his coat before the USA, desperate to catch America’s eye. Well, now he has.

       Very nice piece by Matt Slater here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32909649

    3. When the US lost its bid to host the world cup allotted to Qatar there was widespread rumour of corruption and I heard back then that an investigation had started.

       The US is also not obligated to FIFA in the way some other nations are

       1. Thanks all – I begin to get the picture. On a global scale it’s a bit like the scandal that is college football (the other kind of football) over here where the coach gets paid more than than the University president and many multiples of what the profs get. The broadcast and advertising money sloshing around and pressure from powerful alumni keep the whole thing dishonest. Vlad’s characteristic solipsism would be funny if only… I loved Matt Slater’s article Sotira – especially the bit about the Fifa spin doctor and Casablanca.
          1. That bit made me grin, too, Olivia. It was quite the press conference. I think at one point the chap declared it a “good day for FIFA” and attempted to claim the credit for the investigation. “Brass neck” doesn’t begin to describe it.
             1. I heard , I think on CBS News, that the prosecution began in the US because the transactions in question were in $USD.
    4. I don’t know if I’m surprised, given how cravenly everyone else in the world toadies to these people, but I’m certainly very glad they’re doing it. More power to their elbow, I say.
13. A technical DNF because after about 40 mins of struggling to get on the setter’s wavelength in the top half of the puzzle I decided to use aids to get SUBALTERN, the B checker helped me see BOTANY BAY and how it worked, and my LOI, TANGELO, was biffed. I also struggled with the BLUER/PLUMB crossers, so not my finest piece of solving. Everything was there in the clues as others have already said, so maybe I just had an off morning.
14. 29:19 .. like Olivia I thought it might be an Anax puzzle for a while (not certain it isn’t). Really struggled with the long acrosses, BEELZEBUB and LAST TRUMP.

    I spent a long time barking up the wrong sticky wicket on EIDER DUCK. I was looking for something along the lines of “I don’t walk” for a batsman’s confession.

    I thought the def. and misleading surface for BOTANY BAY were terrific. And very much enjoyed the BATH CHAIR.

15. One of those days where I wonder why I’d bothered to send off my cheque for £25… 25:15 with Cobbett the last to fall. I didn’t think of looking for an anagram, just spent quite a long time muttering the alphabet.
16. Not sure of time since I tackled it in several bursts with lengthy interruptions. I certainly found chunks of it tough after filling the SW corner with ease. I agree with dj that it’s a bit of a mixture, with good definitions for 9 and 19, for example, and a rather weak one for 28 that doesn’t really work; a non-skid surface doesn’t keep slippers away, it just stops them slipping. 24 is a rare literary faux pas for the Times.
    Still, plenty of ingenuity to make for an interesting puzzle.
17. I finished finally in 40 minutes but with lots of question marks. Very grateful for the excellent blog. Didn’t see the cryptic in “vulnerable to cuts”(10a), the DD in 7d, the “larva” in 9a and the entire cryptic in 17a. Whew! Ann
18. No time today due to various disruptions but certainly well over 30 mins. At one point I thought I was heading for a DNF but made it in the end. I have never read Jane Eyre but knowing Rochester was in it made it an easy clue without my having to fret over her actual household position. Happy with both meanings of BLUER though it was my LOI.
19. Glad it wasn’t my turn this week as it took me ages and a couple of solving sessions before SUBALTERN went in with a shrug. Knew absolutely zero of the literary references, so was stuck with a lot of question marks around the outside of the grid.

    For what it’s worth, not seen it in scripts, but “blue” for language in stand-up and improv is very much alive. Got asked yesterday by a potential host how blue my set was (usually an indication I’m not right for the gig).

20. Beaten today, a DNF due to the crossing COBBETT and BLUER, both missing when I finally gave up. I did get BOTANY BAY and SUBALTERN, but without any idea of their parsings. Never heard of Mr. Cobbett, Miss Hunter-Dunn, the poem, or the larva. But regards to all, and a tip of the hat to the setter. A lot of everything else was quite clever.
21. What does the editor do if he doesn’t spot that Jane Eyre was Rochester’s governess. Shoddy.
    1. Maybe the editor is more Betjeman than Bronte

       Fgbp

22. 37:02. In my defence I was supervising several small children and making roast potatoes at the same time, but nonetheless I found this a very stiff challenge.
    I vaguely remembered the Betjeman poem but not the SUBALTERN part, so that had to be constructed from the wordplay. I have no objection to this sort of thing – in fact I rather welcome it – but the presence of wordplay makes a significant difference.
    I knew the ‘waste’ meaning of ‘blue’ from past crosswords (I’ve never encountered it in real life) but I didn’t have a clue about the ‘vulnerable to cuts’ part. I assumed some sort of political reference.
    I had forgotten COBBETT but remember Rural Rides from somewhere.
23. Late in the evening after a day of meetings, all tedious, was surprised and pleased to find myself on the setter’s wavelength; steady solve in 23 minutes and quite enjoyable. A couple biffed – didn’t know the Betjeman – but did know Mr Cobbett and that Jane was not the housekeeper.
    I started to add a lecture on peroxides – but I found it boring so you would have found it even more so. If I had hair, /i certainly wouldn’t put H2O2 on it.
24. 15:03 for me, having difficulty finding the setter’s wavelength.

    Try as I may, I can’t find any justification for “housekeeper” in 24ac, but it seems quite extraordinary that both setter and editor should miss this apparent howler. Apart from that, I thought this was an extremely fine puzzle.

25. New to this blog and most impressed by solving times etc. Re 10 ac., wondered if ‘bluer’ in fact refers to the blue blooded royal families of Europe who suffered from haemophilia and were therefore vulnerable to cuts?
26. New to this blog and most impressed by solving times etc. Re 10 ac., wondered if ‘bluer’ in fact refers to the blue blooded royal families of Europe who suffered from haemophilia and were therefore vulnerable to cuts?

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