26134 Having a great hair day.

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A painstaking 16.12 for this likeable if not terribly demanding number, which contrives to be my second running with no “hidden” clue (other than 9d, of course – see comments below) , no soundalike clue, dodgy or otherwise, and no discernable theme. However, you’ll have to excuse me for a moment while I go off into a brief reverie inspired by one of the great sights of the sixties and its associated sounds…
That’s better! My last 4 were, perhaps surprisingly, the quartet around the central square, whose letters counterclockwise spell out PARAMUNU. Google tells me this is a) part of the title of a song in Telugu and b) means “though”. I don’t think this constitutes a NINA, but who knows? On with the show…

Across

1 DEADBEAT  One too lazy to…
After watching the latest incarnation of the England cricket teams, I’d almost forgotten what a DEAD BAT looked like, but you need one here to absorb E(nergy) and bore the pants off the spectators. Stonewalling in cricket is batting with a preoccupation for not getting out.
2 PRÉCIS  Summary
No points lost for missing the accent, so not very PRECISE on the part of our editor. When you run out of spaces, stop as idicated.
10 CEPHEID VARIABLE  star
One of those entry-as-wordplay variations: the answer suggests looking for the anagram EPIC HE’D. Cepheid Variables are very useful yellow giant stars with a highly regular pulsation pattern, first observed in 1784 (though I suspect the Chinese spotted them much earlier – they usually did)
11 DORMICE  rodents!
Not necessarily named for their sleepy behaviour, pace Rev Dodgson. A combination of DORM/bedroom and (n)ICE/pleasant without its first.
12 DAB HAND  expert
If you barely washed, you might just dab at your hand, causing your mother to reach for the dreaded hanky and spit remedy.
13 FINE-SPUN  (Being) delicate
A non-hyphenated version is also available for delicate fabric or thread. Punishes: FINES, feeble wit: PUN. Since a great deal of our noble exercise relies on wordplay, seems a bit self deprecating, but hay hoe.
15 WIDOW  single woman
I had abbreviates to I’D, bedded into WOW. “There is a French widow in every bedroom, affording delightful propects”
18 BINGO  undemanding entertainment
Not if you’re running a dozen cards at once it isn’t. A precise clue which requires you to leave out one of the I’s in INIGO Jones (architect/general/meteorologist according to preference) once you’ve written B for book.
20 RAMPAGED  Went wild
A straight translation of “force” and “called for”.
23 VIKINGS Sea raiders
One for the Bible scholars: see provides the V(ide), and 1 Kings is the good book sandwiched between 2 Samuel and -um- 2 Kings.
25 MATISSE Artist
“Almost failed” gives you MISSE(d), and all that’s left to do is insert A and the end of (sunse)T
26 ANY PORT IN A STORM  emergency destination
If it looks like an anagram… MANY POOR TRAINS plus (star)T “diverted”
27 LIKELY probably
The odd letters of KnEw thrown into the embrace of the (hopefully) delightful LILY.
28 PENNINES  Range
One for the mathematicians. “Enclosures” provides the PENS into which NINE (3X3) is inserted.

Down

1 DECADE some years
Repeated DEC(ember) the second not complete, with an A included. Credit to the compiler for eschewing the “random notes” ploy
2 ASPERSION slur
Poisoner first, so that’s ASP (cf Cleopatra), then R(uns) into NOISE (rumour) backwards.
3 BEEHIVE  heaps of natural growth
This might go down as a double definition, though I took it as BEE (it swarms) plus HIVE (a place of) industry. For the hairdo (heaps of natural growth), see Helen Schapiro, Dusty Springfield, The Ronettes, the Crystals and Yeoman Janice Rand, who somehow managed to incorporate a chessboard into hers.
4 ADDLE  Get muddled
A propellor is a PADDLE. Lose the P(ower)
6 RAINBOW  A sign from God?
Another one for the Bible scholars, from the Noah story, where the rainbow appears after the flood as a promise that God would never flood the Earth (or at least, not all of it eh, Jim?) again. RAIN from fall, BOW from show submission.
7 COBRA  …that can be deadly in attack
COB is one of the many horses, RA the (Royal) Artillery. Kudos and respect to the compiler for giving up lady’s underwear.
8 STEP DOWN  to resign
A sweet little anagram of SET, plus P for quietly and DOWN for depressed.
9 LAUDANUM  …including this one (scilicet number)
The drug of choice for Victoria when she wasn’t knocking back the cocaine in Elixir Mariani. Praise As I should have said Applaud gives LAUD (and does it very directly, of course), follow it with A NUM(ber). Number (sort of) does double duty with double meanings.
14 PARASITE  …that needs a host
A drop zone for an airbourne soldier would be a PARA SITE, then. No feeble wit (vide supra) in this crossword, dear me, no.
16 DRESS DOWN  Take to task
…or wear jeans on Friday, perhaps. DRESS for get straight caused a certain level of bewilderment a couple of days ago. Don’t say you haven’t been educated. To the floor is DOWN in most circumstances.
17 ABOVE ALL  more than anything
A lovable rogue isn’t Till Eulenspiegel again today, but rather a well disguised anagram and its indicator.
19 OWN GOAL  an expensive mistake
Constructed thus: admit: OWN, delay LAG, reversed and with an O ball inserted.
21 ARTISAN  Skilled worker
Another that looks suspiciously like an anagram and is, of A STRAIN
22 HERMES  messenger
…of the gods. Rather an amusing clue, “the confusion she caused” being HER MES(s), with the last letter dismissed (Hermes couldn’t read the address, perhaps).
24 KAYAK  Canoe
Reads the same either way up. Not aware of any other canoes that do that.
25 MINCE  possible contents of pie
The edge of C(asserole) dig out gives MINE, insert one into the other.

37 comments on “26134 Having a great hair day.”

  1. Surely 9d is, no? (And ‘praise’ isn’t in the clue, on the other hand.)

    Edited at 2015-06-25 02:37 am (UTC)

    1. I’m sure you’re correct, though when I solved I made the applaud=LAUD connection and thought I was being clever. How I then quoted it as “praise” is a question I’ll leave to my gerontologist.
      1. One of the easier puzzles but I did go down the LAUD route for longer than I should until I realised it was part of a hidden word. These are always well hidden until you see them.
  2. By the time I’d got VARIABLE in from checkers and def, I’d forgotten that “epic he’d” was likely anagrist, and spent some time trying to remember the first word; indeed, I remembered it, then noticed the anagrist. 11ac BIFD, worked out later. As Vinyl says, ‘deadbeat’ has a different meaning (someone who doesn’t pay his debts), but we had it recently; I assumed that whatever ‘dead bat’ meant, it was of cricketory origin.

    Edited at 2015-06-25 05:37 am (UTC)

  3. Steady solve until the last few. Didn’t know the star (I’m more of a Magellanic Cloud man these days) or the hidden opiate, which was so well hidden that it managed to avoid detection by the eagle-eyed Z8.

    Enjoyable outing. Thanks setter and blogger.

  4. 28mins, so on the quick side today. Finished with deciding position of the E and the I at 10ac. I thought of DEADBEAT early, but hesitated, not being familiar with the cricketing term. I expect it’s come up here before, but somehow these sporting refs never seem to stick…

  5. Mostly straightforward but I lost time over the variable thing and thinking that 3dn was ‘anthill’ both of which buggered up the NW quarter for a while.

    Edited at 2015-06-25 04:42 am (UTC)

  6. Actually speeded up a bit for this one, finished in 8:17 despite the supremely unbiffable likes of CEPHEID VARIABLE. Right, I really am off to Glastonbury now – see you next week!
  7. For once my obscure interest in Cosmology and Physics helps. From my perspective I screech for more Cepheids and Magellanics – and what about some exotic references to particle physics? Much more fun than all those cricket terms and dull poets. But I suspect I am in a minority! Thanks to those of you that helped me with my Dunn stupidity yesterday.
    1. Minority maybe (which reflects the ignorance of the majority) but not alone
      1. Add me to the more astrophysics and biochemistry in puzzles fans, but I suspect we’re a minority of three!
        1. make that four. And isn’t our esteemed Times Crossword Editor a science graduate? And isn’t/wasn’t the equally esteemed ST Crossword Editor an IT techy?

          Maybe things are heading our way, at last!

          1. I’m all for it, in spite of being an English graduate. It’s good to learn new things.
            I don’t think poets are dull though…
            1. I sense a pressure group forming. We must protest. Watch out Times!. Here we come. Our battle cry – Not Enough Really Difficult Science! Can anyone think of a suitable acronym?
            2. Does an English degree disqualify me from voting? 😉

              Edited at 2015-06-25 09:58 pm (UTC)

    2. One of my singing pals turned up at rehearsal with a t-shirt emblazoned with the name “Heisenberg”, to which I quipped “Are you sure about that?”. Sadly, no-one got the joke.
  8. 11m, ending (of course) with CEPHEID VARIABLE, which looked more likely than CIPHEED, but still not very likely.
    I had exactly the same thought as you in reaction to ‘undemanding entertainment’, z8. I was told years ago by someone who knows about these things that the old ‘two fat ladies’ calls aren’t used any more because hardcore players with a dozen cards and a dabber in each hand regard them as a trivial distraction from the serious business of bingo.
    ‘Canoe’ for KAYAK caused a raised eyebrow here. I spend too much time in Canada, where the two are regarded almost as opposites.
  9. Heavens above! Two astronomic terms in the same week! Plus some other good stuff. I liked “heaps of natural growth” and “a lovable rogue” and thought the hidden answer very well hidden (but did eventually spot it)

    Having thought about it I’ve decided not to disband the local flood prevention, warning and action arrangements in favour of looking at rainbows – which have more to do with light defraction that divine intervention

    Edited at 2015-06-25 09:03 am (UTC)

  10. 14 mins, so back to some sort of form after yesterday’s struggle. Having said that, it wasn’t all plain sailing because after my FOI, DORMICE, I confidently entered “anthill” for 3dn after assuming it was just a poor CD, and I didn’t see my error until I realised 13ac had to be FINE SPUN. It was obviously a much better clue than I originally thought it was. Like Z8 I missed the hidden element of the clue for LAUDANUM, and like others CEPHEID VARIABLE was my LOI after I got the last checker for it from ASPERSION.
  11. I found much of this enjoyable puzzle pretty straightforward and entertained hopes of — by my sluggish standards at least — a fast time of around 25 mins. But then, like quite a few others, I fell foul of the variable star thingy in the NW corner, no doubt, I fear, owing to my share in the majority scientific ignorance to which Jimbo alludes.

    It was fairly clear that the name of a star of the astronomical sort was required and that an anagram of “epic he’d” was likely to be involved, but nothing came to mind. Even resort to Mrs Bradford’s admirable Crossword Solver’s Dictionary did not help as the cepheid whatsit is not included in her list of stars (an omission I have now rectified). By the time I eventually tracked the name of the beast down via other aids a further 15 mins had passed.

    Still, as I say, an enjoyable puzzle. I agree with Jimbo that BEEHIVE was very good, and once solved the wordplay for CEPHEID VARIABLE was also revealed as very clever.

  12. 32 minutes. Rather easier today despite 10a, which I didn’t know. As someone above said, Cepheid looked more likely than Cipheed, so that was my somewhat tentative choice.
  13. Relatively quick here too, with all but three completed on the rattler, and those quickly polished off in a quiet moment at work. It helped that I knew the variable star, although it took longer to remember the first part than to recognise the cleverness of the clue once I had dredged it up.

    An enjoyable and very fair solve I thought, although I admit to biffing 2d.

  14. The ‘stuff’ you have to know for crosswords increases day by day. I’m going to have to start looking into stars and galaxies and the like now.

    My not particular good solving week (not just in the Times) continues with a time of 15:30 for this one.

  15. 13:49. I raised an eyebrow at 23 (vikings) thinking that “a” was being used to clue “i” for one, but then I’d forgotten (or more likely never knew in the first place) that the good book was 1 Kings rather than just Kings.

    For ages I was looking for the wrong sort of star – I’d figured out how the clue worked but was trying to make a first name out of epiched and was trying to think of a hollywood star with a bonkers surname.

    … this week’s special guest stars, James Garner and Depiche Exploded.

  16. My FOI was ANTHILL at 3d which completely buggered up the top half of the grid. Not helped by never having heard of a CEPHEID VARIABLE – though once I saw the cryptic there the BEEHIVE was obvious. Hadn’t thought of the hairstyle – I saw “natural growth” as referring to the aforesaid anthill. About 40 minutes I think – untimed due to frequent interruptions. Ann
  17. 19:42, so pretty quick for me. Count me in among those who thought ANTHILL first for 3d… but do ants swarm? 10a my last one in as I dredged my memory of astronomy for the secind time in a week for a full 2 1/2 minutes to find it. I liked 9d – thinking of an anaesthetic helped me see the hidden word. Parsing 23a foxed me – thanks for explaining 1 Kings.
  19. About 15 minutes, and a return glance at the puzzle leaves me puzzled at which was my LOI. I honestly can’t remember. There weren’t any that really held me up, despite not knowing the CEPHEID … I parsed LAUDANUM as z8 did, and I confess to never seeing the hidden at all. Well hidden indeed. Regards.
  20. Thanks for explaining BEEHIVE. I just couldn’t see it, and wasted much too much time as a result, taking me just over the hour. Among famous beehive wearers let us not forget Marge Simpson.
  21. About an hour for me between bouts of gardening but beaten by the starfish despite having all the checkers. I did consider it could be a starfish (or sun) and I did consider variable as the only word I could fit in second but, alas, the word play was too clever for me. Still, I’m learning all the time, so not too disappointed & something I’ll remember. Thanks to setter and also to blogger for explaining V1Kings.
  22. Interesting to see that there were others who took the “normal” wordplay route to the answer. Once it was pointed out, I had no doubt that it was intended as a hidden word, but I think if you saw the applaud=LAUD, A, NUM(ber) route first you might not ponder further. The word “including” suggests the hidden route, of course, but in both versions, “number” is part of the wordplay and definition. Number=NUM niggled at me all day, not least because it’s the standard abbreviation for the Pentateuch’s Numbers, but Chambers allows both.
    I can’t say I’ve seen such ambiguity before, or maybe the setter was being kind and giving us two bites of the cherry.
  23. 6:56 for me, making a reasonable start for once. It would have been even better if I hadn’t stupidly misread the enumeration of 10ac and bunged in VARIABLE CEPHEID. Fortunately I also had the D from DORMICE by the time I switched to the downs so I was able to correct it pretty quickly – and avoid puzzling over whether there might be a word NOVANO meaning a nine-year period. Provided the astronomy is as straightforward as it has been this week, I’m all in favour of it :-).

    I pondered over BEEHIVE, and failed to twig what was going on until I came here and was reminded of the hairdo (though I’m not sure about “heaps” rather than “heap” – is that just to make the surface reading better?). Anyway I reckon the clue is a double definition.

    Nice puzzle.

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