27562 Thursday, 16 January 2020 Through each perplexing path of life

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Whether it’s because my solving is not currently as regular as I’d like, or because this is a bit demanding will doubtless bee revealed by you, dear readers, but I took 35 minutes to reduce this to its component entries, and even then had two entries I’d not properly worked out. I found, much to my relief, the right side proving more yielding than the left, but our setter threw in plenty of false trails for me to wander down, with some stretchy definitions.
My take on the clues (and some cheerfully offered side commentary) is offered with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS
Across
1 Sauce label revealed, barely (4,5)
JUST ABOUT Three words respaced into two: JUS for sauce, TAB for label, and OUT for revealed
6 Christmas fling? Blonde’s left drink (5)
DECAF I always thought the whole point of coffee was the caffeine hit, in much the same way as skimmed milk is pointless white water. Be that as it may, a Christmas fling would be a DEC(ember) AFFAIR, remove the FAIR blonde (which also seems to render the thing pointless) and you have coffee with its raison d’être extracted
9 Entertainment sees love embraced by a seducer after kiss, originally (7)
KARAOKE Love is the (tennis) 0, the embracing seducer is A RAKE (the A in plain sight) and the whole follows K from the beginning of Kiss
10 Smack boundary, borrowing a little room? (7)
FLAVOUR The first of my post-solve workouts. It is, of course, FOUR as in a cricket stroke to the boundary, with the LAV, little both as in “the smallest room” and perhaps  also as indicating an abbreviation. One “borrows” the other, your inclusion indicator
11 Wash a little toddler in seawater (5)
RINSE neatly hidden in toddleR IN SEawater
12 Impossible to pick up lionesses in camouflage (9)
NOISELESS an anagram (“in camouflage”, nice one) of LIONESSES
13 Old story in something close to sepia? (8)
CHESTNUT Once again (see my last blog) I find it difficult to reconcile the shade of my sepia photos with the deep lustrous brown of a decent  Castanea fruit, but here we have the supposed colour match presaging the figurative use as an old story, joke or crossword clue. It’ll have to do.
14 Head examiner putting last of children in jail (4)
JUNG Karl jocularly defined, here putting the N at the back end of children into JUG, one of many expressions for jail.
17 Moved up a shade (4)
ROSE I think this is just a double definition, the second being rather loosely given
18 Authoritarian figure I transport to the left (8)
MARTINET The (random) figure is TEN, I is I, transport is TRAM. Read ‘en (right) to the left
21 Slow delivery in breeze picking up catch, opener for Middlesex (5,4)
SNAIL MAIL Chambers give one definition of “SAIL” as “to go through or get through effortlessly” which I suppose would be a (to) breeze. Catch provides the NAIL (as in catch a criminal)  and the M comes from the opener for Middlesex. Our setter successfully bamboozled me into thinking cricket for a very long time
22 More generous thief, perhaps, shelling out grand (5)
NICER My Primary school teacher hated the use of nice and chewed me out for it. The deep memory made this hard to solve, but Mr Ellis, nicer could mean “more generous”, so there. It comes here from NICKER (which he would have hated for “thief”, too) with his grand (thousand) K removed.
24 Payment keeping train in gear, once (7)
RAIMENT From hymn writer Phillip Dodderidge:
O God of Bethel, by whose hand…
…Give us each day our daily bread,
And raiment fit provide.
Payment is RENT, which keeps AIM for train (as in a rifle)
25 Care, however, taken at first (7)
THOUGHT However: THOUGH plus the first of Taken
26 I suppose you initially might (5)
WELLY My last in. “Give it some welly” justifies might. I can make WELL and “ I suppose” brush up against each other, then all you need is the Y initially from You
27 Totally gone — as may be ceiling? (9)
PLASTERED Two definitions, the first meaning drunk, so I suppose (well) “totally gone”, the second more literal
Down
1 Comedian is fool somewhat lacking: tolerable cracks (5)
JOKER My second post-solve workout: Fool is JERK, lacking its last letter, and tolerable provides the OK which “cracks” its way in
2 Best friend in back of car, passenger getting lip busted (8,7)
SPRINGER SPANIEL This is an anagram (busted) the bits garnered from IN, back of caR, PASSENGER and LIP. For a long time, I thought the first word was STRANGER as in friend you haven’t met yet – I’m not really a doggy person.
3 Chubby little boy, a tot unfortunately scoffing second helping? (8)
AMORETTO One of those bouncy junior Cupids flying around in renaissance art. Anagram (unfortunately) of A TOT “scoffing” MORE for second helping.
4 An ace out at sea? (8)
OCEANAUT A decent &lit, an anagram (at sea) of AN ACE OUT.
5 Old snack: smell it coming up (6)
TIFFIN Last heard of (I think) in Carry On Up The Khyber, though Cadbury’s have recently resurrected their Tiffin bar from my youth. Smell: NIFF, plus IT, all reversed (coming up)
6 Main charity served up something sparkling (6)
DIADEM  Another up clue, this time MED for main (sea) and AID for charity
7 Not quite reaching Havana? (5,3,2,5)
CLOSE,  BUT NO CIGAR Surprisingly antique phrase simply charaded here
8 Anticipation supporting Oxford rowers perhaps, catching rivals in the end (9)
FORESIGHT If you support Oxford rowers, you might be FOR EIGHT. Insert the end of rivalS where it works
13 Turner, Irish guard? (9)
CORKSCREW Another that resisted my blandishments An Irish (prison) guard might be a CORK SCREW
15 Everyone included in check on outskirts of Tirana, the capital (8)
VALLETTA The capital of Malta. Everyone: ALL in check: VET plus T and A from each end of TiranA
16 Distinctive, with rather large dresses (8)
STANDOUT If I remembered that with sometimes clues AND, it would have been easier to work out what goes into STOUT for rather large. Eventually, I did
19 Cold and wet in general, accommodated like sow? (6)
SLEETY Out general is (as usually in this neighbourhood) LEE. Accommodated like a sow he’s placed in a STY
20 Hack getting to grips with right computer (6)
LAPTOP Hack is LOP, right is APT which is in its grip
23 Art as trendy, every other piece highly valued (5)
RATED Every other letter of aRt As TrEnDy

54 comments on “27562 Thursday, 16 January 2020 Through each perplexing path of life”

  1. I put DRAGEE for 6d (those silver balls that sometimes show up on cakes). I couldn’t understand the wordplay although Rag-week and Charity-week are the same things at some universities. The only other word I could fit was DEALER. AMORETTO took some time too.
  2. Hard work but mostly very rewarding, with the definition of JUNG as my favourite of the day. 53 minutes.
  3. Finished but LOI unknown 6d was a toss up between Diadem, Diaaes, and Diayek!

    Also took a while to get noiseless, tiffin, flavour, and jung.
    Dnk Valletta or oceanaut.

    COD corkscrew.

  4. I was happy to finish this in around my normal time, as it seemed a bit tricky. DNK “niff” as smell, but guessed that TIFFIN made the most sense. Also DNK VALLETTA but the parsing let few other options. Thanks, Z, for the usual enlightening blog.

    BTW, the SNITCH is having some trouble and is currently out of action. My apologies and I will try to fix the issues when I get a chance.

  5. …..I could have sworn I typed RAIMENT but, press submit and what came up was RAIMEMT. I’m thus thoroughly hacked off. As Jack says, this was hard work but I soldiered on ‘sans aids’ and got there in the end.
    The anagram in 2d was very well disguised.
    Thank you, Z, particularly for DECAF, FLAVOUR and NIC(K)ER. I had fixated on LOO instead of LAV.
    I think we may have seen CORKSCREW before but it made me laugh so that’s my COD.
  6. Mr. Snitch looks rather poorly! Flat on his back.

    This was a cracker, slightly over 100 I guess. I finished in just under an hour, but only just!

    FOI 27ac PLASTERED

    LOI 3dn AMORETTO

    COD 26ac WELLY with hon.men. to 13dn CORKSCREW

    WOD 4dn OCEANAUT – new to me, but fairly obvious.

    Always nice to see 5dn TIFFIN and 13ac was a CHESTNUT!

    Edited at 2020-01-16 07:26 am (UTC)

  7. 12:42. This was the exact opposite of yesterday’s for me, when I felt I was making heavy weather of a fairly straightforward puzzle. I felt very much on the wavelength today, twigging quickly to things that might well have held me up on another day. Probably as a consequence I thought this was excellent.
  8. Very good. No time, but a bit over an hour. Hard to pick the best but I liked the ‘Head examiner’ def, the surface for WELLY, the word play for DECAF and the OCEANAUT &lit.

    I’m more of a cocker person myself but 2d just about passed muster.

  9. That took a long time to get started, and then a long time to finish. I did hit a bit of a rhythm for about ten minutes in the middle, I suppose! 50 minutes total, glad to come here and find that VALLETTA was right, among others.

    FOI 1d JOKER (though I tried it because I thought I’d figured out the first word of 1a, at least) LOI 13a CHESTNUT, just after the WELLY and the CORKSCREW hove into view.

    Personally, I think the most stretchy definition here is “entertainment” for KARAOKE!

    Edited at 2020-01-16 07:55 am (UTC)

    1. LOL. Well, I suppose it’s entertaining for the person doing it. As for everyone else ….
      1. Karaoke is excellent entertainment, provided both you and the audience take the precaution of first getting completely rat-arsed. Only ever done it once, it must have gone well as my contribution (“Like a Virgin”) is still talked about by others who were present 🙂

        Edited at 2020-01-16 11:47 am (UTC)

        1. I once blundered into KARAOKE night in a pub on Anglesey. Believe me, it is patently untrue that all Welshmen can sing. These days I religiously avoid any bar where such torture is on offer.
        2. I try to avoid getting “completely rat-arsed,” though I’m afraid it happened during the karaoke session on my birthday. I was pretty far along even before I got to the bar, there having been a holiday party at the office before… I usually pace myself better. I’ve also commented below about KARAOKE (and drinking).
      2. Well, but you’ve never heard me sing.
        I’ve added a comment about this topic, which has evoked a somewhat predictable chorus…
    2. I like the quote from Steve Coogan’s Saxondale character that karaoke was “the last refuge of the creatively bereft”!
    3. Yeah, well, some people I know may take it more as an art. Haha.
      I’ve added a comment about this below.
  10. So, after Karaoke and using the corkscrew on his standout rose followed by an amoretto, our setter ends up plastered. Serves him right. Thought he could have been nicer. A couple of good clues (just about) and a chestnut.
  11. 18:24 … with a lot of smiles as pennies dropped. Thanks, setter.

    Enjoyed JUNG and the Irish guard, but COD to the cunning SLEETY.

    With apologies to Z8’s primary school teacher (and mine, who was much the same), nice

  12. …said the JOKER to the thief. 62 minutes, with LOI SLEETY. COD has to go to Carl Gustav, although WELLY ran him close. The collective unconscious took a long time to manifest itself, so I didn’t find this a friendly introduction to a day which next contains a trip to the dentists, hopefully the last one after a six month programme.The toughest extraction will be this morning, getting the credit card out of the wallet, unless he uses a CORKSCREW as a drill. Never heard of an OCEANAUT, I’m quite pleased to say. KARAOKE should be NOISELESS. And CHESTNUT should be hoary and old, not SEPIA. A difficult puzzle, but a challenge. Thank you Z and setter.
  13. Perhaps I’m being picky but I don’t like 6dn. The “main” is the high seas, Ie open ocean, while the “Med” is a sea, a defined body of water. While both may be “sea” they are not synonymous to my way of thinking.
      1. I wondered if ‘main charity’ was the RNLI. I thought that it was going to be very impressive of the setter to reverse that in an answer.
        1. There is a village near Rochdale called Milnrow which would lend itself to a sadistic setter….
          1. Residents there might like to call it a village but it is a suburban town and no mistake.

    2. I did wonder about that, and among other things looked up the Spanish version, to discover it was either the land claimed by Spain in the Americas or (roughly) the Caribbean Sea. I guess that’s not very helpful, but it does suggest that the Main can be just a body of water. Still doesn’t feel quite right referencing the Mediterranean.

      1. The problem I had was remembering that a Diadem is a laurel wreath – not glittery at all.
  14. Decent puzzle I thought that rewarded application. Liked the beautifully misleading clue to SNAIL MAIL.
  15. I am #teamkeriothe, in that lots of clues seemed to fall into place unexpectedly quickly, even while I was thinking to myself how tricky they were (i.e. the complete opposite of yesterday). In other words, very devious, but (unsurprisingly) equally enjoyable.
  16. 24’38”, felt like hard work. JOKER FOI, but it remained orphaned for a long while. COD to WELLY, a great word. Interesting to me how SNAIL MAIL sounds dated, along with, as noted, CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR. Dnk OCEANAUT as a word.

    Thanks z and setter.

  17. Thanks for that one Z, I’d never heard of it. Glad the vowel choices were limited or I’d have been a DNF but it seemed unlikely to be A, I, O or U. I remembered TIFFIN from Jewel In The Crown. In one of the late scenes a tiresome memsahib in an ill-fated train keeps trying to get the young widow to put her tiffin-box up on the rack until she’s told to shut up because the thing contains the husband’s ashes. CHESTNUT is the unlikely colour many male members of the US Congress seem to dye their hair and it would take years of CIGARs in smoke-filled rooms to turn a sepia photograph that shade. After a wavelengthy week I had to work for this one. 23.57
  19. Done in 2 halves after K___O_E defeated me. On resumption, all became clear and the rest slotted itself in nicely. LOI RAIMENT because I couldn’t quite see how it was ‘gear, once’. Surely it’s in current usage. Or maybe it’s because I’m a scrabble player and I use it all the time, when I’m not using minaret.
    1. I did wonder about the consistency of the “once” indicator, but Chambers and ODE both note RAIMENT as “archaic”, whereas Chambers makes no such distinction for, say, “OCEANAUT”, which I’d assumed was an archaism…
      1. I have long given up on archaisms, the world is so full of them. “Common sense,” for example, or “Politeness” ..
  20. …. although I’m indebted to Z for unravelling three biffs : DECAF (I agree with your sentiments; see also alcohol free beer), JOKER, and LAPTOP. NHO OCEANAUT but it was easy enough to crack.

    CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR raised a smile, but was apt when considering the COD contenders !

    FOI KARAOKE (I’m usually the first one out – of the door)
    LOI LAPTOP (had to be – couldn’t see why !)
    COD JUNG (top clueing)
    TIME 11:07

  21. The fool seemed to me to be a jester, and the ‘somewhat lacking’ an indication that EST was to be dropped, which I thought was a bit feeble, so I was pleased to see how it really worked.
  22. 26:07. I found this quite hard work but rewarding. Completely failed to parse DECAF, so thanks for explaining that, Z. AMORETTO, OCEANAUT and MARTINET all unknown, so I was pleased to get them from the wordplay. COD to SNAIL MAIL.
  23. Way off the wavelength today. Having KAROAKE as my FOI, I was convinced the comedian must be ASKEY for no better reason than AS is almost ASS.
  24. 17:42. Loved oceanaut, really, really, really, really, really struggled to get chestnut, I think because I was wasting effort trying to spot wordplay and trying to figure out what the last for letters could be (when true enlightenment lay in the first three).
  25. What Penfold said. Stared at that for ages looking for wordplay and trying to remember strange sea creatures. Otherwise good fun.
  27. I had most of this done in my usual sort of time, but the last 3, CORKSCREW, CHESTNUT and OCEANAUT took up a good 6 or 7 minutes. JOKER was my FOI, but it still took a while to see JUST ABOUT. I was late seeing man’s best friend and also bowled a googly by SNAIL MAIL. CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR was a big help in opening up the grid. Liked JUNG a lot. Nice puzzle. 39:29. Thanks setter and Z.

    Edited at 2020-01-16 02:35 pm (UTC)

  28. Very enjoyable. OCEANAUT is a new one for me – but a wonderful word nevertheless. LOI CORKSCREW – lovely clue. 33 minutes. Ann
  29. Didn’t know the Welly slang nor the niff nor that word for cherub, and completely failed to spot that we were looking for cryptic definitions at Corkscrew and Springer Spaniel, all of which added up to a long solve. I liked the &lit and Just About. Thanks for the blog, Z, and thanks setter.
  30. My worst effort in quite a while. DNF in 50 minutes, totally defeated by the SW quadrant. At least I understood the answers- more or less- when I saw them but a disappointing day. Hopefully better tomorrow.
  31. My favourite for a very long time. Lots of red herrings, some obscure word usage, but all very clean and tidy. Just under an hour, with LOI Chestnut. COD Springer Spaniel. I knew it was an anagram, but it took me a while to pick out the gobs of anagrist. I tried ‘sparring partner’ a few times, but couldn’t find a ‘t’, so backtracked.
  32. I was about a million miles away from the cigar on this one which took me over an hour and I used aids for chestnut and Oceanaut just to get the job done. Very tough.
  33. …cheated with AMORETTO – NHO.

    LHS seemed quite tough though always obvious once the answer is arrived at.

  34. I smiled when I came across this clue while headed to Wednesday night’s karaoke session.

    Although I joke that I don’t need to drink to sing but only to listen—and although this is occasionally not so much of a joke—it’s a pity that none of you commenting above are acquainted with my talented gang of friends who meet twice a month at Freddy’s Bar in Brooklyn for Humans Against Music (HAM) Karaoke. We focus on music of the previous century, and have no idiotic monitor with a bouncing ball to follow but carefully curated lyric sheets. Songs are regularly added to the collection at the request of participants. I often sing French chansons (the first time I did karaoke was in Bordeaux, many years ago), but my repertoire includes many standards in my native tongue. I typically pick the back-up track and rehearse to it.

    Edited at 2020-01-17 10:05 pm (UTC)

  35. Whereas I attend karaoke almost religiously once or twice a month. But I (and most of my friends) can sing! (I’ve commented further below.)

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