I am away for the next two weeks floating around the Caribbean with Mrs Z and suspect a lack of reliable communications, so George has kindly swapped dates with me, which means you get both of us, sequentially, for two weeks running.
This was a not-difficult puzzle, at least for me, because I breezed through in a time of 14.16, quite a bit of it trying various combinations to complete 15d. There is a fair bit of parochial culture knocking around which may not be wholly familiar to all of our diaspora of solvers, though I believe the Society at 6d is internationally known. I had to peer closely at 9a before deciding, regretfully, that it was not some jarring misprint.
I have endeavoured to shed light on what I have guessed might be seen as obscurities, and have decorated my exposition variously with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS Press the appropriattely marked button below:
ACROSS
1 Dined out, having photo taken? (9)
PICNICKED For which read “dined outdoors”. Picture abbreviates to PIC, and NICKED is taken either as purloined or, if you happen to be chummy up to no good on my manor, arrested.
6 US agent without hesitation vented anger (5)
FUMED Two stock pieces of clue combine: our FED agent, and –um- UM
9 Yr nose’s constructed to be this? (7)
SENSORY I’ve never seen your abbreviated to yr in a Times crossword, and can only hope it’s not the thin end of the wedge leading to ur. Please don’t. Just don’t. Anyway, the ugly opening part of the clue, and “constructed” suggest an anagram in what I suppose we must call an &lit.
10 Painters given copper coins outside front of shop (7)
CUBISTS Copper is CU (Cu if purists insist) coins are BITS, which you place outside front of Shop. I never knew until today that the US bit is 12½ cents, two bits therefore being a quarter.
11 Devon swimmer cheers when rescue vessel comes in (5)
TARKA the Otter is a highly influential book about the eponymous inhabitant of the Taw and Torridge rivers, not to be confused with Ring of Bright Water, which happens in Scotland and has an otter called Mijbil. You may say thank you, cheers, or as necessary here, TA and insert the ARK from a completely different animal rescue story.
12 Child brought before head, one to get child removed? (9)
KIDNAPPER Child is easily KID, and the head bit leads to NAPPER via 18th century thieves’ slang, or more likely for some of us from “Any Old Iron” by Peter Sellers: “you look dapper from your napper to your feet”.
13 Getting to the heart of money people engaged in illegal activity? (8)
CENTRING Money CENT and the following section just RING.
14 Wadi may be this little river needing help to get across (4)
ARID Little river is just R, and when the clue says get across it means the word (in this case AID for help) should embrace it.
17 Learner, fool — what one isn’t using? (4)
LOAF Use your loaf means “think” in Cockney (loaf of bread, head). OAF is variously interpreted in Chambers as a lout, an idiot, a dolt, a changeling, so I suppose fool will do. Learner contributes its L to this almost &lit
18 At end of month engineers coming to mine ruined by neglect (8)
DECREPIT I wondered if the “end of month” was supposed somehow to point explicitly to DECember, but I can’t make the grammar work. So at the end of DEC, place R(oyal) E(ngineers) and mine: PIT.
21 Feature of eastern churches making one in mood change (5,4)
ONION DOME An anagram (change) of ONE IN MOOD
22 Climbers struggle with first sign of snow on island (5)
IVIES Struggle is VIE, add the first letter of Snow, and attach both to I(sland)
24 Hospital not functioning in seaside town (7)
SANDOWN The one I know is on the Isle of Wight: there may be others. Hospital is SANatorium (sanitarium in US) and if it’s not functioning it’s DOWN
25 An extreme part of the world penetrated by saint and missionary (7)
APOSTLE A POLE is about as extreme as this world affords (go any further and you fall off the edge). Insert the standard abbreviation for Saint, ST.
26 Witty comment succeeded, with person cooperating (5)
SALLY Might not be familiar as a witty remark, but S(ucceeded) plus ALLY for person co-operating gives it easily enough.
27 Attending party in NI, doctor by nature smart (7,2)
DRESSED UP Sometimes “attending” is an inclusion indicator, but not here. The DUP are currently keeping Theresa May’s mutinous ship afloat in Parliament, at a cost of £1b. Tag them onto your DR and ESSE, approximately “nature” via essence or existence.
DOWN
1 Optimistic, I have to go out, advance (5)
POSIT as in advance an idea. Optimistic translates to positive, from which I’(ha)VE is to go out.
2 I control a fan, not somehow wanting to encourage hostility (15)
CONFRONTATIONAL A nice, meaty anagram (somehow) of I CONTROL A FAN NOT
3 Unusual language with which the French attempt to convey adulation (8)
IDOLATRY You may or may not know that IDO is a development of Esperanto, and about as successful. Add LA for “the” in French and TRY for attempt
4 Monarch bags a hairy beast in sport (8)
KAYAKING A hairy beast is A YAK, “bagged” by a KING, this clue’s monarch
5 Explain sea fish being found in fresh water (6)
DECODE Sea fish might well be COD, and the River DEE, of which there are many, is the unlikely fresh water habitat
6 Great guy who belongs to a left-wing society (6)
FABIAN Left wing, but not militantly so, and named for Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, an advocate of gradual and persuasive change. Great: FAB, guy: IAN, today’s random chap
7 Stolen data — I promise, when grilled, to keep very quiet, right? (15)
MISAPPROPRIATED An anagram+ using the letters DATA I PROMISE “when grilled”, ie cooked, plus PP very quiet and R(ight)
8 Resistance in party with nothing to lose to change? Shame! (9)
DISCREDIT Take DISCO for party, lose the nothing 0, add EDIT for change and insert R(esistance)
13 They are hard to name, having zero applications (9)
CALLOUSES Separate hard and to name. To name gives CALL, which then has 0 USES, standing in for zero applications
15 Influence of guy in bank (8)
LEVERAGE My last in: the crossing letters offer a very large number of possibilities. Eventually LEVEE for bank and RAG for guy (not another random bloke but a verb this time) gave a plausible solution.
16 Bad eggs showing certain characteristics, stealing gold (8)
TRAITORS Certain characteristics are TRAITS, purloining OR, one of the abbreviations for gold.
19 Curious type like Bond trapping his adversary with love (6)
SNOOPY My avatar’s friend’s dog, of course but also someone who’s curious or downright nosy. Type like Bond is of course SPY, love accounts for one of the Os. The NO is presumably Dr No, the villain in the book of the same name.
20 Rocker’s enemy, imprisoned individual, languished (6)
MOONED MODs wore smart clothes, parkas when riding their richly modified Lambrettas, and listened to The Who. Rockers wore Brando-style leather, rode proper motorcycles and preferred rock ‘n’roll as exemplified by Eddie Cochran. For obvious reasons, these differences led to violent clashes in Clacton and Hastings in 1964, and everyone got terribly worried. But we were happy. Anyway, put ONE in a MOD
23 Victorian child labourer? Little son to cry (5)
SWEEP Thanks to Charles Kingsley’s Waterbabies, the chimney sweep is the epitome of Victorian child industrial abuse. Here, it’s thanks to S(on) obligingly qualified by ”little” plus WEEP for cry
I missed ‘Tarka’ in a puzzle I blogged long ago, so I’ll never forget that one – the same thing with Pooh sticks. Everyone should know ‘Fabian’ – they had GBS, H G Wells, the Webbs, etc, etc.
A really rapid time was on the cards but I stumbled for over 5 minutes on CENTRING.
Thank you, Z, for IDO and ESSE.
I wonder if Column 11, FABIAN TRAITORS is just a coincidence or a comment on recent parliamentary defections?!
FOI 2d, the helpfully long CONFRONTATIONAL; LOI 16d TRAITORS. A pretty steady top-to-bottom solve, with nothing giving me too much problem.
Have a good time in the Caribbean, Z!
Edited at 2019-02-21 06:33 am (UTC)
The otter is a fine creature which I gather is making a comeback in Britain. It’s quite easy to see wild otters in Singapore, surprisingly enough.
Enjoy the Caribbean, Z, I hope you get permission to see some cricket, as good as last night’s, if that is your kind of thing.
FOI 9ac SENSORY – but not a great clue IMO
LOI 17ac LOAF
COD there just weren’t any real crackers, but 22ac IVIES I suppose.
WOD again nothing too memorable so 18ac DECREPIT
fyi- Tarka the Otter (1927) was written by ‘Ruralist’ Henry Williamson. In 1928 he won the Hawthornden Prize for literature. However his career was marred by his enduring admiration for Adolph Hitler, even after WWII.
Yes, enjoy the Caribbean Z, where are you cruising to?
Edited at 2019-02-21 09:11 am (UTC)
Lucky enough to have otters outside my kitchen window in the Tetbury Avon (mostly late at night). I have two wildlife cameras and capture them on film.
20 minutes for the crossword. COD to CALLOUSES.
COD: CALLOUSES.
MODS and ROCKERS came soon after TEDS so I was able to join the “tut-tutting” adults when discussing their behaviour
Otters are indeed making a comeback. We now have some in the Dorset Stour
Yr is nothing to do with textspeak .. it is more obsolete than modern. Pepys used it all the time, as in yr obdt servt..
I quite enjoyed this one, though there was nothing outstanding in it that I could see. My only NHO was “napper” for “head” – I clearly didn’t pay enough attention to Peter Sellers.
I made heavy weather of this, carelessly biffing “misapprehension” early on, and also “kidnapped”.
“End of month” was a great misdirection. Knew Tarka from GK crosswords, where it’s a setter’s staple.
FOI SENSORY – an absolute gimme
LOI LEVERAGE
COD SNOOPY – was the love from Russia ?
TIME 15:10
As a devotee of Indian food, I regularly point out to my wife that I’m making tarka dal, which means adding extra chillies to the lentils to make them a little ‘otter. The long winter nights just fly by…
On top of that I got stuck with the ridiculous notion that TEDS were the enemies of rockers so MOONED took a while as well. Quadrophenia could have been such a different film and would probably have starred members of Mud and Showaddy-Waddy rather than Sting and yer man Daniels.
49:34 with the last 20 minutes or so on the final half dozen clues in SE and SW, CALLOUSES and TRAITORS being the keys to the completion of the respective quarters.
My last two were LEVERAGE and TRAITORS. I was not trying too hard and Michael Portillo helped yet again. He was with the Fabians yesterday at LSE; and recently he was in Dumfries which I think also featured in a puzzle.
David
The FABIAN TRAITORS thing is quite strikingly topical, and in a broad enough context (i.e. not reliant on the most recent shenanigans) that it could have been intended. A coincidence no doubt.
Finished near my average time at 51 min and found it a good mix of reasonably hard clues with some easier ones mixed. Got MISAPPROPRIATED early on which opened up the right hand side. Had to look up the FABIAN Society and where SANDOWN may have been. Had heard of TARKA the Otter, although hadn’t read it.
Had originally written in KIDNAPPED at 12a and had to get DISCREDIT to correct the error a bit later. Finished in the SW corner with CALLOUSES and SANDOWN the last couple in.