26290 Not a creature was stirring…the crossword grid as mantlepiece

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
In truth, when I did this puzzle, it wasn’t the night befpre Christmas, but for some of you doing it later in the 24 hour spread it may be, and we certainly have an appropriate attachment at the top of the grid, at least a nod in the general direction of the season. I thought at first I must have been good this year, because it looked for all the world like a quick solve until I began to get to the lower half of the grid, when progress slowed considerably to end with a time of 23.55. It may just be that I’m out of practice: I’ve not been able to get to a grid for the earlier part of this week, mostly due to the great pile up of Christmas Things to Do. That, and the seasonally obligatory cold which struck yesterday.
Here’s how the thing eventually succumbed to my blurry approaches

Across

1 EMBOSS  Stamp
Verb version. “This person” is ME which is reversed and attached to BOSS, substituting for “head”.
5 STOCKING  footware.
Not my favourite definition, as although feet are involved, I don’t associate stockings particularly strongly with footwear even if they clearly are. At this time of year, they’re present receptacles attached to the top of mantlepiece for the fat man in the chimney to fill. Be that as it may, the wordplay gives you the archetypal JOCK scotsman with his head off taking a rest in the cluches of STING doing duty for smart (ouch, that smarts!)
10 HERBARIUM  collection of plants
The construction is pretty straighforward. A woman is HER, a graduate BA, curious is RUM into which 1 is dropped.
11 ROTOR  one turns round
Men are OR (other ranks). ROT, like history, is bunk.
12 IN THE FAMILY WAY  Expecting
One of many euphemisms for pregnant from more delicate times. “Complex” indicates an anagram in the offing, and E(xam) WHY MANY FAIL IT provides the fodder.
14 ASCOT  horses here
At the races, of course, but an Ascot is also a tie “with broad ends that are tied to lie one across the other.”
16 INDONESIA another (country)
When one speaks formally, one says one. I’m translates directly into “one’s”. The shorter country into which ONE’S bores is, of course, INDIA
18 LAUNDRESS  “her” unemployed
Nudity in California might be L(os) A(ngeles) UNDRESS. A little touch of the &lit about this one. In a clothes free society, the laundress has a limited role. My favourite clue
20 BUTCH  Macho
An assassin is a BUTCHER, from whom “dispatch” Lizzie Windsor, ‘ER in the castle.
21 REGISTERED MAIL, guaranteed delivery
Even if it never arrived, registered post is still guaranteed, even here when a DIRE TELEGRAM IS “scrambled”.
25 LAIRD  landowner
Particularly a Scottish one. Set out gives LAID, and instructions get you to insert an R(iver).
26 PREDICTED  Likely
Unless it’s a weather forecast on hurricane day.  One voting system is PR, proportional representation, which forces you to vote for the party not the person. Tack EDITED for “modified” on the end, and then throw into the mix C(onservative).
27 PREBENDS  clergy
One of those nouns that can equally be a plural. The wordplay is simple again, Prior to bow is pre-bend in some whimsical corner of the British language. ODO allows prebend to stand on its own as a clergyman, though in earlier times prebendary would be the preferred word.
28 DEFRAY  settle
Most of FEE is FE. Place it in YARD (for Court), then carefully reverse the lot.

Down

1 ETHNICALLY   According to his custom
An anagram of “HIT CLEANLY”
2 BURNT Subjected to fire
Navy is RN which is placed into a poor boat, or TUB which has capsized.
3 STALEST  Most hackneyed
Stories are TALES, and the way, here, is  a ST(reet). Assemble
5 TEMPI  Rates
I think the casual employment is TEMPING: remove the N(o) G(ood)
6 CARRY ON  racket
It’s wage as in wage war. Something of a double  definition
7 IN TRANSIT  On the way
A simple anagram of “train isn’t”
8 GIRT Bound
In the sense of surrounded by. A saddle strap is a GIRTh, knock off the H(orse)
9 FIXATIVE means of stabilising
The vehicle is a TAXI, which is reversed inside FIVE standing for late afternoon.
13 TAX HOLIDAY  When official concessions are made
Leave is a synonym for holiday, (“the caretaker is on leave”) Tax for test, as in “he tries/tests/taxes my patience”
15 CAUTERISE move to stop infection
First remove one of the T(mes) from tRIES ACUTE, then doctor it.
17 DISARMED  demobbed
Apparently you don’t get to keep your gun when you leave the marines. S(outh) A(frican) R(oyal) M(arine) is inside DIED, stopped
19 DWINDLE  contract
Lost a lot of time on this one not seeing that it’s just a “hidden”: WooDWIND LEader.
20 BEDTIME  when one’s due for retirement
Establish gives rise to BED (think “bed in”) and TIME is something that can be served
22 TEPID  Half hearted
Again one of those where you can drain away time looking for the double letter word which, when the centre is halved, gives rise to another word.  Not this time: council is DIET (as that of Worms, 1521) into which you insert P(ower) and stand the assembly on its head
23 ASTIR  Moving
A holy man, ST Nick, perhaps, is penned by AIR or melody, not the possible other way round.
24 SLIP error
Simply PILS, allegedly beer. In my house, St Nick prfers a nice G&T, thank you very much, at the foot of the mantlepiece.

27 comments on “26290 Not a creature was stirring…the crossword grid as mantlepiece”

  1. I stopped at the half-hour, having wasted 6 or 7 minutes staring at 9d, finally deciding that I had better things to do. I don’t, but I have tests to grade and a horrible paper to review, but anyway I wasn’t about to solve 9d. Largely, I suppose, because I couldn’t get past car/cab/van as vehicles. Slowed down also thinking of TAX; and by the hyphen in the enumeration of 6d. I’ll join Z in picking 18ac as my fave.
  2. A very enjoyable solve that took me only 7 minutes short of an hour with the top half presenting more problems than the lower.

    I agree the clue to LAUNDRESS was the best, and having been reminded only two days ago in the Quickie that LA can be clued with reference to a US state rather than the usual city, it occurred to me that 16 might have been more fun if it had referred to “Nudity in California or Louisiana…”.

    I originally parsed as 26 as: EF (most of fee – reversed) inside DRAY, thinking there was a misprint in the clue ‘court’ instead of ‘cart’, but on further inspection I spotted my own error of taking the reversal indicator to apply only to one element of the clue instead of both.

    The clue to TEPID gave up its secrets quite readily since I blogged “Unenthusiastic in assembly bringing over piano” in a Quickie only last Thursday.

  4. 24:47 with an interruption and a lot of thinking about 9d. REGISTERED MAIL is slightly below the belt as with Royal Mail at least, it no longer exists. There are various alternatives, the closest of which is now Recorded Delivery. I go with the consensus on 18ac as COD
    1. My query about REGISTERED MAIL was that as far as I can recall it was never called that in the UK but ‘Registered Post’ and indeed Collins confirms this with specific reference to the Post Office. Chambers doesn’t acknowledge the existence of any such phrase but COED says REGISTERED MAIL is North American which sounds about right to me. I’m not sure the demise of any particular service has any bearing as I’d have thought the principle involved remains the same whatever it’s called and once established it probably became a generic term.

      Edited at 2015-12-24 10:12 am (UTC)

      1. I am sure that you are correct. It is just that this released unfond memories of trying to send something Registered Mail last week and spending what seemed like forever trying to understand what the alternatives actually meant and what they cost.
  5. ‘In the family way’, ‘in transit’, ‘predicted’.

    Surely not a coincidence?!!

    Oofyprosser

  6. Another satisfying puzzle that was an enjoyable solve with 18A giving rise to a chuckle

    I see we’ve followed “unmentionables” with another Victorian euphamism. They had a lot of them so where next I wonder – blanket hornpipe?

  7. Quite right Z – Trollope’s Barchester has prebendaries. I’ve notice a phrase come into use since I last lived in the UK (a long time ago now) – when someone’s “in the family way” she’s said to “fall” pregnant. It always sounds odd to me. Must have been in the zone today at 15.18. Merry Christmas to bloggers, solvers, setters and editors.
    1. Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes, a joy of my youth –
      Mrs Gorm, Aunt Eloise, was stung to death by savage bees. Her husband, Prebendary Gorm, put on his veil & took the swarm.
      1. A joy of my youth as well. (I was all set to quote the same lines, but found you’d got there first, though you’ve omitted the final couplet: “He’s publishing a book next May / On ‘How to Make Bee-keeping Pay’.”)

        Edited at 2015-12-24 11:07 pm (UTC)

  8. 27:57. I quite enjoyed this. I took a while to see the anagram at 12a and hidden word at 19d. I also dithered with 13d thrown by ‘at end of test’, and even though I put in TAX, still couldn’t see it. doh. 18a my favourite too.
  9. 20m. The top half a lot easier than the bottom, but I made life difficult for myself by carelessly biffing REGISTERED POST. Once I’d sorted that out I agonised over DEFRAY for several minutes. I couldn’t see any other word that would fit but neither did I think that DRAY meant ‘court’. Doh!
    A very enjoyable puzzle in spite of these self-inflicted problems, especially 18ac.
    Merry Christmas everyone!
    1. I wondered briefly if “court” might be a misprint for “cart” until I realised that the whole thing was reversed.

      Dereklam

  10. iPad timer stopped at a pleasing 2h 3m 4s when I entered the last two (Fixative and Indonesia) after reading the blog. Was stumped by those two. Thanks z8 for explaining them and also Disarmed and Defray. Those two went in as best guesses.

    Pleased to see there is a tablet edition of the paper tomorrow incl crosswords.

    Season’s greetings everybody!

  11. Detaching myself from lurking to offer thanks to the intrepid team for their amusing and informative postings over the past year and to wish everybody a Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year!
  12. Enjoyed this greatly, not least because of the LAIRD at 25a, which reminded me of the nice but dim Laird of Dumbiedikes in Scott’s Heart of Midlothian, and of course the CARRY ON at 6d, which reminded me of, well, let’s pick my favourite, Carry On Abroad. 44 minutes.
    1. Matter of choice but mine would be Carry On Up The Khyber, with Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond v the Khasi and the dreaded Burpers. The dining scene is perfect.
      1. The dining scene in Khyber is probably the best extended scene in any Carry-On but taking films as a whole I’d have to go for one of the early ones with Sergeant (the very first one) being ground-breaking – and it was based on a story by R.F. Delderfield who wrote many excellent novels, some of which were later adapted for major TV series – so the film had a really good plot. Another favourite from that era is Teacher which had great characterisation and an excellent performance from Ted Ray making his first and last appearance in the series.

        Edited at 2015-12-24 03:27 pm (UTC)

      2. There are a number I haven’t seen (but how does one know when they’re so similar?!), and until a few weeks ago I hadn’t seen any fir probably 40 years, but based on the dozen I’ve seen recently (mostly middle and later periods), I’d have to say they are typically best when set either in hospitals or on holiday. Of course, it’s a personal choice but I don’t think the films work so well when they end in fight scenes (eg Khyber, Head and the dreadful Camel).
  13. 19 mins. I lost concentration a few times mid-solve, so based on what the others have written it wasn’t a bad time. DEFRAY was my LOI after TAX HOLIDAY, and I’m another who wondered how on earth “dray” could be synonymous with “court”. I even went so far as to look in my Chambers post-solve to see if there was an obscure meaning of “court” I’d never come across before. Then the penny dropped. Muppet.

    Happy Xmas to all of you.

  14. My disappointing week continues with a miserable 15:59, during which I made heavy weather of several straightforward clues, and took a ridiculous amount of time to justify TAX HOLIDAY.

    Like you, I’m not terribly keen on STOCKING = “footwear”, though I have to admit (grudgingly) that it’s sound enough.

Comments are closed.