27514 Thursday, 21 November 2019 Consuming passions

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
An amiable puzzle with not too much to send you diving to the reference books, which I resolved in a tad under 17 minutes, the top right resisting most. There is, for me, an impression of a lot of inclusion clues, perhaps prompted by two adjacent clues that use “consuming” as the indicator. I did like the long and rather apposite anagram at 10, even if the numeration made it a bit of a write-in
My commentary includes clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS
ACROSS
1 Your band playing as a four, sometimes two more (8)
BOUNDARY A rare sight from England’s opening pair in Mount Maunganui (so far, at least) A ball smitten by the batsman that crosses the boundary is a four, and if it does so without bouncing it’s a six. You need to be “playing” with YOUR BAND to score. It’s an anagram
5 Classic of the Chinese to install bible for church in Washington (6)
IRVING Author of Rip Van Winkle (1819) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820). This is a substitution clue, starting with the I CHING of ancient Chinese philosophy and divination, and replacing the CH of Church with the RV, the now little used Revised Version of the Bible
10 Remarkably unfailing growth that is easy to secure (3-7,5)
LOW-HANGING FRUIT An anagram (remarkably) of UNFAILING GROWTH, an &lit in which the whole clue is the definition
11 Intolerance in art-house, head finding a new position (7)
ALLERGY I see I ignored the wordplay for this one, but it’s GALLERY for art-house, with the head, G, being moved to a new spot.
12 One in the sea grabbed by crazy fool (7)
MISLEAD One in the sea being ISLE “grabbed” by MAD for crazy
13 Perhaps foundation of the universe cracked by alien (8)
COSMETIC Of the universe is COSMIC, ET our alien who cracks his way in
15 The retreat from Moscow? (5)
DACHA A Russian’s country house, this being a cryptic definition playing on “retreat”
18 Tricky part of climb, perhaps, needing some spare tents (5)
ARÊTE “a sharp ridge of rock that is formed between glacially created valleys”, such as on Everest. Today’s hidden, some of spARE TEnts
20 A rule I instilled in fellow African (8)
MALAWIAN A, rule: LAW, I inserted into fellow: MAN
23 Facade awkwardly flat, no rustication initially in it (7)
FRONTAL An anagram (awkwardly) of FLAT NO R(ustication). The words “in it” are only there to enhance the surface, otherwise the NO R would have to go in in that order.
25 Agree artist makes a fabulous creation (7)
CHIMERA Agree is CHIME, and the artist our generic RA, Royal Academician
26 The undoubted leader? (8,7)
DEFINITE ARTICLE A simple charade, leader here being such as found in a newspaper
27 Very funny appeal by a young girl booked (6)
LOLITA “Booked” by Nabukov. LOL for very funny in textspeak plus IT for appeal and A
28 Finally appear with one dropping round security equipment (8)
SHREDDER The last letter of appeaR with SHEDDER for one dropping, surrounding it.

DOWN
1 A couple of lines in dreadful poem (6)
BALLAD A, plus two L(ine)s in BAD for dreadful
2 Almost indisposed to show up, coldly received (9)
UNWELCOME Indisposed gives UNWELL, which you only almost write in, add COME for show up
3 Plan to plunge Indian city into dark (7)
DIAGRAM AGRA is our Indian city, plunged into DIM for dark
4 Finally arriving in Stone, a Midlands town (5)
RUGBY The last letter of arrivinG within RUBY for stone. For what it’s worth, Stone is indeed a Midlands town on the River Trent in Staffs.
6 Wouldn’t agree to be given another meal without our people (7)
REFUSED Given another meal could be REFED, without here means outside as US is “our people”
7 Engaged by English paper, I turned up (2,3)
IN USE E(nglish) plus our beloved sister paper, the SUN, plus I all “turned up” or reversed
8 Be overambitious, sacking Romeo from production of tragedies (3,5)
GET IDEAS Remove NATO Romeo from TRAGEDIES, then make a new production of the remaining letters. I was very slow to spot how to do that.
9 Consuming mineral, I love being hostile (8)
INIMICAL I love gives you I NIL, and the mineral is MICA to be “consumed”
14 Model of Parthenon, say, consuming a ton (8)
TEMPLATE More consuming to the same end: A T(on) inside TEMPLE, of which the Parthenon is an example
16 Integrated student drinking beers at clubs (9)
COALESCED The student is a CO-ED drinking (more consuming) ALES for beers and C for clubs
17 In parliament, stand up to remove one waving a trumpet (8)
DAFFODIL The brand of Parliament you need is the Irish DAIL, then within it “stand up” DOFF for remove
19 Not burning to be incorporated into new text (7)
EXTINCT Incorporated provide the abbreviation INC, (placed) into and anagram (new) of TEXT
21 Vainly seek suit for Londoner (7)
WHISTLE Vainly seek gives WHISTLE as in the phrase “you can whistle for it”. WHISTLE (and flute) is also CRS, Lahndonese for suit
22 Full of energy, social worker makes progress at work (6)
CAREER For once, the social worker is not an ant, but a CARER. Fill with E(nergy)
24 Refuse to kill American, a Liberal (5)
OFFAL Chambers indeed lists OFF for kill as US slang, though I wild goose chased it around Shakespeare believing it might be there too. The AL comes from A Liberal
25 Argument from Conservative whip (5)
CLASH And to preserve political balance, the Conservative donates his C to LASH

75 comments on “27514 Thursday, 21 November 2019 Consuming passions”

  1. This took me a bit longer than it should have, partly because of some DNKs: BOUNDARY, WHISTLE (suit), partly because I just couldn’t see how LOI SHREDDER worked, so I spent 3 minutes looking for an alternative. I also stuck with ANT for too long. Biffed DAFFODIL, having completely forgotten DAIL.

    Edited at 2019-11-21 02:55 am (UTC)

  2. I’d forgotten whistle and flute, so I dithered between whittle and whistle trying to figure out how either one might be related to Dick Whittington. Otherwise I got done quickly, about 35 min, and liked especially Low Hanging Fruit and, for a reason I don’t understand, Chimera. Nice blog, as usual, Z.

    (Horryd will undoubtedly be pleased to learn that W Irving – a true Brother Jonathan – wrote under the pen name Jonathan Oldstyle).

    Edited at 2019-11-21 03:34 am (UTC)

  3. My run of lightning fast times had to come to an end sooner or later, and I was actually pleased to finish this one in 50 minutes.

    As a Manchester United fan, commiserations to Lilywhites for taking the chalice.

    1. Thanks ulaca. Maybe it’ll be different this time (he says hopefully). I wonder if you’ll end up with Pochettino.
    2. Thanks indeed for your sympathy. Things have clearly gone wrong somewhere in the coys’ camp, but it’s difficult to see the special one mending things. Perhaps his long exile to punditry has mellowed/modified his attitudes, but Spurs? Really?
  4. A similar experience to vinyl1 except my problems in the lower half were confined to the SE quarter.

    Re WHISTLE, it’s interesting that the realms of Cockneydom now seem to have expanded to cover the whole of London. I don’t recall that broad a reference before.

    28ac did for me as although I had considered the correct answer I couldn’t see how it worked either from wordplay or definition so I settled for SHIELDER although it obviously failed on both counts. That was my LOI and I think I’d just had enough by that stage and couldn’t be bothered to think it through properly.

    1. In my experience due to the devastation of the East End during WWII, the Cockney diaspora has shifted well beyond Bow and Whitechapel. There is rather fine CRS spoken in new towns such as Peterbrough, Milton Keynes and the Essex Borders etc. etc.

      Edited at 2019-11-21 06:23 am (UTC)

  5. Lord Ulaca – As a Manchester United fan I’m so glad we didn’t get Ponchettino from the Lillywhites and went for The Baby-Faced Assassin.

    Paul of LONDON – you should’ve know WHISTLE! No one ever mentions the ‘flute’ bit. And I am indeed delighted to learn that Washington Irving’s ‘nom’ was Jonathan Oldstyle – as I am presently writing a book on that subject. You’d be amazed at who was who! Sax Rohmer has finally been exposed as…

    Mais je digresse.

    FOI 1ac BOUNDARY

    LOI 16dn COALESCED

    COD 21dn WHISTLE

    WOD 25ac CHIMERA

    I thought 28ac SHREDDER was beyond devious – DNP.

    Time over the limit.

    Edited at 2019-11-21 11:28 am (UTC)

    1. I’ll be keen to read the book. And, if you haven’t done, you should download some of his fiction — he had a flair for putting two humorous fingers up to early Jonathan pomposity in a way I expect you would respect and approve of
  6. Finished in about 45 minutes. Last in was IRVING, which in my literary ignorance I thought must be a town in WA.

    I liked ‘The retreat from Moscow’, the &lit at 10a and SHREDDER.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  7. Very true, but I was thinking of crossword clues where I don’t recall seeing CRS indicated simply by ‘London’ before.
  8. In a reversal of vinyl’s experience a first pass through the top half of the across clues yielded nothing and it was only once I got towards the bottom that things started to flow. Once they did it was something of a biff-fest.

    COD to LOW HANGING FRUIT for the anagram and surface but not for the term itself. I had to sit through a meeting on Monday where it got used at least twice. Ugh! For me it’s not as bad as ‘reach out’ though. My manager frequently asks if I can ‘reach out’ to someone meaning can I speak to them? Double ugh!

        1. A new one I have come across recently is to ‘double click’, which is something you do to a question or issue when you want to examine it more closely. So a bit like a deep dive.
  9. On a definite roll and finished in about 80 mins.

    Dnk whistle for vainly seek. Guessed irving.

    Will be in a dacha in just over a month. Being force fed vodka.

    Last few whistle, shredder, daffodil, and lolita.

    Cod shredder.

      1. I like the soups, especially silyenka, cold is not too bad because its dry, although it was -33 one year.

        Best is the snow for the kids, and the 11 hour sleeper train from moscow to kazan.

  11. 24:59. Like others, I found the SE corner the last bastion, although my NW corner was bare after my first pass through. Even with DACHA, MALAWIAN and CHIMERA I struggled with the downs in that last corner. NHO the CRS at 21D, but couldn’t think of another word that would fit and I took an age to see COALESCED and SHREDDER, my last 2 in. I liked COSMETIC and LOLITA, and now I know what INIMICAL means, so I’ve learnt a couple of things today. Thanks Z and setter.
  12. 18:09 … for me the southwest was the sticky bit.

    COD to the anagram for LOW-HANGING FRUIT — great find by the setter. Pretty successful &lit, too.

    Thanks, Z8

  13. 30 mins for all but Daffodil and gave up.
    One, nil to setter.
    Mostly I liked the low-hangers and the The.
    Thanks setter and Z.
  14. ..it said there’d be some thunder at the well. But there was some LOW-HANGING FRUIT as well. 37 minutes with LOI SHREDDER. COD to DACHA, a beautifully simple clue. Yet another fine puzzle. We’re spoilt. Thank you Z and setter.
    1. Ah, yes, that makes more sense of the full clue. Thanks!
      I was also puzzling over frontal as a noun, since the only use I know as a noun is hanging on an altar. But Chambers specifically gives “the façade of a building”, so that’s fine.
  16. I was there at Mount Maunganui today, Z, and will be there for the rest of the Test, too. It was even nicer to see England bat as if they plan to occupy the crease for a very long time. It’s a belter of a pitch and the one thing Root got right today was winning the toss and batting. The NZ pace bowlers are no slouches either – no LOW-HANGING FRUIT there- so England did well, even if the cricket was a tad soporific at times.
    1. You have my envy, and even more that of Mrs Z, who harbours a deep seated ambition to visit NZ. I fear we won’t make in time for day 5!
      1. Me too, but Mrs K won’t do long haul any more. Looks a nice spot apart from the cement works or whatever it is behind. Google Map pretended to exist it wasn’t there.
        1. Shame as it would be nice to meet!
          It’s a salt works. In about 20-odd years the Pohutakawa trees in front of it will probably have grown sufficiently to mask it!
      2. Just got up to prepare for day 2.
        After the super overs in the CWC Final and recent T20 decider, I’m fully expecting this Test to go to the last ball of the last over on Day 5 and end in a tie!
  17. My apologies, especially to Pip, Jack and horryd, for continuing to display blog results on the SNITCH site yesterday. I thought I had put in a workaround to show only opted-in cases, but that clearly wasn’t working. So I’ve removed the blog-reading function for now.

    My intention is to only collect and store information from those who want me to. Commenters, who generously share their thoughts, should not have to limit their words for fear that the data will be used for some unintended purpose.

    So I will only turn the function back on again when I can properly confirm that it’s working as intended.

    Edited at 2019-11-21 09:09 am (UTC)

  18. 49 minutes. I was among the camp that found the bottom half harder than the top, though I did have to pop back to 1a finally to re-write out the anagram fodder and see BOUNDARY. Mostly, though, my problems were caused by the security device crossing the Conservative whip, and the meeting of LOLITA with a DAFFODIL.

    Glad I managed to dredge DACHA up from somewhere, probably a spy novel; I’ve not read any of the Russian classics yet—I assume they pop up there a lot?

    COD to LOLITA for mixing obsolete and recent vocab in a cunning way.

      2. I thought it a terrific clue. Isn’t it where you flee to from Moscow at the weekend or in summer?

        Edited at 2019-11-21 10:12 am (UTC)

    2. “COD to LOLITA for mixing obsolete and recent vocab in a cunning way.” And for not even hinting at any kind of royal connection. Dear me, no.
  19. I really liked this. Some very nice clues. I particularly liked the use of LOL in LOLITA, the clever retreat from Moscow and the cryptic definition of DAFFODIL.

    But COD to LOW-HANGING FRUIT. Great anagram! Which I didn’t spot until visiting here.

  20. Found this challenging all the way through. As noted, enumeration helped with LOW-HANGING FRUIT. As used correctly in educational circles, this refers to a plethora of qualifications, including some GCSEs, where the candidate only has to do lots of easy things to pass; and where the illusion of improvement is given by grabbing as much as possible.

    COD to DAFFODIL, I was sure for a while it was something to do with fanfare….

    27’05”, thanks z and setter.

  21. Nothing too different: liked the dacha and the low-hanging fruit, used the cryptic for daffodil, and was stuck for a few minutes at the end on whistle/shredder. I’d always though CRS for suit was bag o’ fruit. Maybe Australian RS? Finally twigged whistle from “whistle for it” but never would have guessed the flute part of whistle and flute.
  22. In my literary ignorance I’d never heard of Irving Washington. Except from Catch-22, where he and his near-namesake Washington Irving are Yossarian’s two aliases that he uses to cover his tracks when forced to censor mail while malingering in hospital.
    1. I’ve never heard of Irving Washington, either. The guy who wrote the stories was Washington Irving.
  23. Another in a line of interesting, fun puzzles that don’t overtax

    Liked 10A – completely original I think and the trumpet waving. WHISTLE caused me to ponder. It’s exactly 60 years since my father treated me to my first bespoke one when I started work in the City.

  24. Bag of fruit is an alternative in CRS but doesn’t readily contract down into a single word. WHISTLE far more common and has crept into common everyday usage.
  25. I started off with BALLAD and ARETE, then worked the SW and SE before moving back to the NW. INIMICAL led to MISLEAD, but it took a while before REFUSED led me to DACHA, cunningly simple! I eventually saw how GET IDEAS worked and that left me with _R_I_G. I hadn’t heard of I CHING, but it seemed likely from the instruction to replace CH with RV, and then I remembered WASHINGTON IRVING. A fun puzzle. 30:42. Thanks setter and Z.
  26. ….the LOW-HANGING FRUIT in around 10 minutes, and was left with four to solve. Alpha-trawl went into overdrive before I realised the Bible at 5A wasn’t AV, and that DAFFODIL was a really clever clue. I eventually biffed SHREDDER (thanks Z), but when I finally landed my LOI my time was almost 60% higher.

    I did try very hard to use “ant” or “bee” for the social worker. Another really good clue, in keeping with a first rate puzzle.

    FOI BOUNDARY
    LOI LOLITA
    COD DACHA
    TIME 15:55

  27. DACHA was my undoing – now I’ve seen the answer it does ring a bell, but with nothing cryptic to work with it was just a case of guessing for me, and I plumped for DECIA without any hope.

    8m 18s with that error. Started off very easy and then got trickier… and it turns out that INIMICAL doesn’t mean what I thought it did. Learn something new every day – or two things, today.

  28. 15:20 and a few clues felt a little tricky, but gettable. At 22 it took a while to shake off a conviction that the social worker would be a bee or ant, I took come convincing that INIMICAL was a real word (unamical looked a better bet but wouldn’t parse) and even after deciding that “beers” in 16 was very likely ALES there didn’t seem to be a word that looked plausible.
  30. Bottom left took several minutes at the end, with coalesced, shredder and whistle finally tumbling together. I guessed whistle must mean suit in CRS, but couldn’t work out how. Nothing too hard , but a challenge nonetheless. Many thanks.
  31. 34 mins, so a bit of a slowcoach on this one. SE corner last to fall, of course; LOI shredder. Nice puzzle. Thanks z.
  32. 13:45. A steady solve.
    I don’t read 10ac as &Lit: the definition is just ‘that is easy to secure’. The phrase LOW HANGING FRUIT DOESN’T imply anything like ‘remarkably unfailing growth’.
    NHO or have forgotten I CHING.

    1. These &lit things can be tricky, and I rather took a liberal approach (given that it’s a fine anagram) that the growth in question might just as well be fruit, and that it was unfailing contributed to its generous and easy availability. Admitted it’s not a phrase you’ll meet often in real life, but I did think it had a certain plausibilty.

      1. As indicated by pootle above, if you work in the worlds of business or finance it’s very much an everyday phrase.
        I don’t think the unfailing character of the fruit has anything to do with it: it’s just low!

        1. Like blue sky thinking (and all the other ghastlinesses) low-hanging fruit doesn’t really have a separate existence outside of bizspeak,  though presumably someone once thought it was a telling analogy.
          In the context of a crossword clue, though, I don’t really see why our unfailing growth shouldn’t also be (coincidentally, of course) hanging low to the ground. It’s obviously not a strict (or even particularly close) equivalent or definition, but hey ho.

          1. Well indeed, it doesn’t have an existence outside bizspeak so its meaning in that context is the only one there is.
    1. Though I spent a few years in the Midlands (I went to Warwick Uni) I only know Stone as “that surprisingly nice services off the M6 with a lake with ducks and picnic tables out the back.” Though I think it’s actually called Stafford (North), it’s Stone I look out for when I’m driving that way, for some reason. I wonder if the Services is good enough to stock Joules Ales…

      Edited at 2019-11-21 04:17 pm (UTC)

      1. Joules has gone the way of many breweries gobbled up and closed by a big one in the eighties so they could get their hands on the pubs. However on a recent visit to Chester my heart leapt when I saw the famous red on green Joules sign. As it was early morning I couldn’t investigate. Has it risen from the ashes, I would love to
        know
      2. I’m also a Warwick alumnus – Maths & Stats 1992-95 then Management Science and Operational Research 95-96. I didn’t experience Joules or any other ales while I was there – wasted my time drinking Fosters. What was I thinking?
        1. We overlapped a bit (Comp Sci 91-94) and I don’t remember Joules, but then as a skint undergrad I probably just went with whatever bitter was going for a pound a pint in the Cholo or the Westwood Refectory…
          1. Typically Webster’s as I recall. My wife mentioned Rolf’s Bar just this morning. I wondered if it’s since been renamed following Mr Harris’s convictions.
            1. Given all the changes I saw the last time I was there, I imagine it’s been bulldozed by now! I seem to remember they were building a new SU building, and they’d certainly demolished virtually everywhere I’d ever been familiar with…
  34. Late again, there’s so much to do today in perishing cold Rutland. Took far too long to finish the last few – 16d, 22d and the fiendish 28a, making me nearer 50 minutes than 30. Nice puzzle though and good blog. Liked LOLITA and DACHA but lots of goodies here.
  35. I just squeezed in under the ten hour mark on this one, largely due to opening the browser window, then deciding to go to bed instead and leaving the solvometer running.

    LOW-HANGING FRUIT was ingenious, and would be my CoD if I weren’t in a grumpy, virus-ridden mood. I also enjoyed COSMETIC and DEFINITE ARTICLE, though I’m sure the latter is a chestnut, or at least chestnut-flavoured. INIMICAL was another favourite, if only because I knew it had to be INIMICAL but it still took a while to deconstruct it.

    The Fens are cold in that way that only the Fens can be, as I discovered when the dogs took me out for a walk this afternoon. I think it’s something to do with the lack of hills (in fact, of any kind of geography) which results in the icy wind being brisk enough to chill but not blustery enough to be fun.

    Edited at 2019-11-21 07:09 pm (UTC)

  36. No time, as I stopped and started all evening. No finish either, as I put in Refusal for 6d (refuel around us – yes, I know! Too many u’s and no e’s. Also the definition didn’t lead to a noun, so what was I thinking?). That meant I couldn’t find Dacha; also got Get aside stuck in my brain, instead of Get ideas. Oh well …

    Liked Definite article, Cosmetic and Low-hanging fruit.

    FOI Malawian
    COD Whistle
    DNF

    Thanks Z and setter

    Edited at 2019-11-21 08:48 pm (UTC)

  37. 26:24. Very enjoyable. I liked 1ac, the retreat from Moscow and the young girl booked. I seemed to have trouble at the end with the clash / shredder crossers which held me up for a good few minutes.
  38. Found the north-west surprisingly tough, but was not helped by entering SIMULATE (imagining SIMULE must be another word for Parthenon).

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