27778 Thursday, 24 September 2020 It’s time to crack open the Bolly

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Not much more demanding than yesterday’s, and as far as I can tell lacking the extraordinary NINA in the first letters of the across clues. I polished this off in 13.37. It helps if you have a list of British Prime Ministers to hand, are familiar with British children’s TV and sitcoms, and have some familiarity with bits of London. The film is (or should be) pretty well known, as is the songwriter, who even has an award named after him. In all these instances, the wordplay is pretty generous, and I would venture that those who took tentative steps from the Quickie yesterday will not find this demoralising.
For what it’s worth, I have provided my commentary on the clues and their answers below, and have stuck to my normal practice of formatting the clues in italics, in addition underlining the definitions, and providing the answers in BOLD CAPITALS.

Across

1 PM, previously to resign, remains around (7)
ASQUITH To resign is QUIT, and remains are ASH. Plonk one into t’other. Herbert Henry Asquith served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916.
5 Pepper pot: mine needs to be shaken (7)
PIMENTO Needs to be shaken is the giveaway anagram indicator: apply to POT MINE
9 Husband bearing heavy item of furniture is one giving you a wave? (11)
HAIRDRESSER Husband conventionally round here is represented by H, bearing is AIR and unless you are in possession of a lightweight one, a DRESSER is a heavy item of furniture. The definition is mildly cryptic
10 Deckhands finally got out of sweeping vessel (3)
VAT The last letter of deckhandS (finally) is removed from VAST answering to sweeping
11 Peg, getting stuck into beer, on the slippery slope? (6)
ALPINE Peg is PIN and beer is ALE. Once again plonk one into t’other.
12 Runner reflecting on the subject of large clogs (8)
SMUGGLER Quite tricky to reverse engineer the wordplay from the obvious answer. On the subject of: RE, large LG (not just the expected L) and clogs GUMS as in up the works. Reverse the whole lot (reflecting)
14 Director, in extremis, fought to secure financial backer for film (2,11)
DR STRANGELOVE In which Peter Sellers plays almost everybody. In extremis (ie, both ends) DirectoR  gives the DR bit. Fought is STROVE and a financial backer is an ANGEL. Correctly assemble.
17 Be reconciled, after brush with assembly (4,3,4,2)
KISS AND MAKE UP After brush: KISS, place with: AND, and assembly: MAKE UP
21 Touched, as doctor, friend and parent meet with young delinquent (8)
PALPATED Friend is PAL, parent is PA (avoid MA, gives a an inappropriate solution)  and the young delinquent (sorry Jimbo) is TED
23 Race the eccentric run in mostly (6)
ETHNIC What appears to be an adjective clued by a noun. “The” eccentric provides the ETH, and run in is NICK (as in episodes of the Sweeney) from which you dock the last letter
25 Light headed? (3)
LED I’m going to say the definition is headed, because the light is an L.E.D. though sources have it without the dots
26 Hiker settles by forestry worker (11)
FOOTSLOGGER Simple enough: settles is FOOTS (the bill) and the forestry worker is a LUMBERJACK LOGGER
27 Subject of treaty dubious at best, note (4,3)
TEST BAN The Comprehensive version, passed by the UN in 1996, still awaits complete ratification and is not yet in force. Here it’s an anagram (“dubious”) of AT BEST and N(ote)
28 Long to be back on stage in the London area (7)
STEPNEY Stage is STEP, and long: YEN is reversed (back) onto it. Stepney is either a tiddly bit of Tower Hamlets with no really defined borders, or it’s (currently) an Episcopal area of the Diocese of London covering Tower Hamlets, Islington and Hackney. Arguably it’s your actual East End

Down
1 From memory, after a quiet retreat (6)
ASHRAM Memory is RAM, as A and SH for quiet makes up the rest. I’m not sure what “From” is doing.  Perhaps the most famous ashram was Gandhi’s at Ahmedabad.
2 Heading off armed, made a sally (7)
QUIPPED Armed is equipped. Knock its head off
3 Daughters entering singly at first, in a state (9)
INDONESIA You only need one of the D(aughters). I think then singly is IN ONES, into which the D enters, and the at first In A gives the rest
4 Reclusive industrialist, speaking for the Greens, perhaps (4)
HUES My last in, because although I thought of Howard Hughes I couldn’t make him fit. Speaking, however, tells you this is a homophone, and Greens (preferably without the capital) are just one variety of our answer
5 Job on staff, just right for animated deliveryman (7,3)
POSTMAN PAT A cartoon character who does his rounds in Greendale with his black and white cat Jess. Job: POST, staff: MAN , and just right: PAT
6 Second charity event the Scottish miss (5)
MORAG Second is MO, and charity event is RAG, as practised by Universities over a week (still?)
7 Unusual request to look for songwriter (7)
NOVELLO Unusual is NOVEL, and I think LO is pretty well defined as a request to look.
8 Accurate, but somehow not great (2,6)
ON TARGET Another simple anagram (somehow) of NOT GREAT
13 Right in attempt to obtain private capital (10)
BRIDGETOWN Capital of Barbados. Place R(ight) into attempt: BID. Add obtain GET and private: OWN.
15 Conductor when chosen went up (9)
ELECTRODE Chosen obviously gives the ELECT bit. RODE is less obvious, but if you went “up” you rode a horse
16 Chaplain to put up with holy bunch! (3,5)
SKY PILOT Put up is SKY, as a batsman might do, and the holy bunch are the PI LOT. Dated (?) military slang.
18 Slash cover to access petty cash (7)
SOLIDUS The proper name for the forward slash /, Cover is LID, which “accesses” SOUS for just about the pettiest of cashes.
19 Drink quietly, repeatedly, at home, gaining weight (4,3)
PINK GIN mmmmmmm. Quietly P, at home IN, which is repeated around KG foe weight.
20 What sailors caught, close to divers with the bends? (6)
SCURVY The effect of lack of vitamin C brought on by the poor diet of, eg, sailors. Close to (end of) diverS and CURVY, with (the) bends
22 Old sitcom initially featuring in ratings (2,3)
AB FAB Not that old – it ran from 1992 to 2012, and a feature film version was released in 2016.  The F of Featured (initially) finds itself between two AB ratings
24 What only child might want unaltered (2,2)
AS IS A single child might want A SIS. Redistribute.

61 comments on “27778 Thursday, 24 September 2020 It’s time to crack open the Bolly”

  1. I was a fan AB FAB, but I’m surprised to see the Times allow the nickname for the show in the grid. 8:49 with no real holdups, FOOTSLOGGER my last in.
  2. A bit harder than yesterday’s, for me anyway. ‘From’ was there to make me try to come up with a word meaning ‘from memory’, thus making 1d my LOI. Pity about PALPATED; the setters seem incorrigible. Does one ‘catch’ a vitamin deficiency disease?
  3. Not too hard today. PINK GIN and AB FAB. Time for a Stoli Bolli. The “old” in 22D had me trying to remember sitcoms from my parents’ generation when I was a kid. I don’t remember coming across SKY PILOT before, although I’m sure it will turn out it’s been in the crossword almost annually and I say that every time.
  4. 34 minutes but with a wrong letter in my LOI (21ac) where I had never heard of PALPATED and followed the wordplay to come up with PAL,MA,TED as I had at least vaguely heard of this. It turns out to mean something different although still associated with hands and I had thought possibly by extension ‘touch’.

    Ivor NOVELLO (born David Ivor Davis) perhaps deserves more credit than ‘songwriter’ might suggest as composer of lavish West End musicals, more in the style of operetta. He had major roles in these although curiously for that type of work they were non-singing parts. Probably his most famous song survives as ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’ written in 1914 which shot him to fame during the Great War.

    Edited at 2020-09-24 04:45 am (UTC)

  5. Continuing with my theme of this week I thought this felt harder than the SNITCH rating yet again. I didn’t help myself by putting in an unparsed PINK ZIN and not questioning it for some time. One of these days I might learn that just because something fits and meets the definition that doesn’t make it right. Probably not though.
  6. Not very hard, but satisfying to have to stretch a bit for some barely or quite unknowns (NOVELLO). LOI FOOTSLOGGER.

    SKY PILOT I know from Eric Burdon and the Animals.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw7nbl1el8s
    First verse:
    He blesses the boys as they stand in line
    The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
    He’s there to help them all that he can
    To make them feel wanted he’s a good holy man
    Sky pilot…..sky pilot
    How high can you fly
    You’ll never, never, never reach the sky

    And of course I know STEPNEY from the Rolling Stones’ “Play With Fire”…

    Edited at 2020-09-24 06:43 am (UTC)

  7. I also found this much harder going than yesterday’s. Strange, given that I was actually drinking DR STRANGELOVE while solving it, but several things I didn’t know—SKY PILOT, FOOTSLOGGER, BRIDGETOWN to name a few—slowed me down along the way.

    43m. FOI 1d ASHRAM, LOI 2d QUIPPED COD 20d SCURVY.

  8. I mentioned 3dn INDONESIA in yesterday’s notes – I swear I had no prior knowledge.

    FOI 5ac PIMENTO

    LOI 18dn SOLIDUS

    COD 25ac LED simples

    WOD 16dn SKY PILOT – usually reserved for radical Methodists.

    The IKEAN 14ac DR. STRAGELOVE is a great film of its time
    much like Ab Fab can you imagine Patsy and Edina in ‘Ab Fab Lockdown’? A masqued tragedy!

    6dn MORAG – Robbie Coltrane’s favourite gal.

    This took me close to an hour of sheer enjoyment.

    If Trump refuses to let go of power, will he invite a few of Putin’s boys in to help keep his inner cities in order?

    Edited at 2020-09-24 06:09 am (UTC)

    1. LOI also SOLIDUS at 21 minutes – one minute quicker than yesterday – although this one felt harder somehow.
  9. Under the half hour again with no particular peaks or troughs. With the SNITCH all green so far this week, I reckon tomorrow Verlaine is in for a treat and we for a serious workout.

    COD to the small but perfectly formed HUES. I once attended a party in the dome of the Spruce Goose in LA. Very impressive, and so huge that it was hard to believe it could get airborne.

    Thanks setter and Z.

  11. It enters the dark hole of the head…
    (Ted Hues)

    30 mins pre-brekker. No dramas. Mostly I liked Bridgetown and Scurvy.
    Thanks setter and Z.

    1. Gotta say scurvy is one of my favourite diseases, too. Thanks to a brilliant satirical novel “Roderick” by John Sladek.
  12. Somewhat harder than yesterday, requiring quite a lot of British knowledge (AB FAB, STEPNEY, ASQUITH).

    COD: STEPNEY, kind of appropriate in the circumstances.

    Yesterday’s answer: Hippocrates was born in Kos, he of the eponymous oath.

    Today’s question: H H Asquith, born in Yorkshire and first Earl of Oxford, represented which constituency for 32 years?

    2. He very much wasn’t the first Earl of Oxford: there were many before him, of whom the 17th is perhaps the best-known, partly as the most popular candidate as the author of Shakespeare’s plays in the ridiculous authorship conspiracy theory. I see from Wiki that he wanted the title but had to settle for ‘Oxford and Asquith’ after the descendants of the old line complained.

      Edited at 2020-09-24 09:38 am (UTC)

      1. What is ridiculous is the dismissive attitude to a great deal of careful scholarship regarding the possibility of Oxford’s authorship.
        1. No, sorry. It is not ‘careful scholarship’. It’s laughable nonsense.

          Edited at 2020-09-24 11:35 am (UTC)

          1. I don’t know if you know of the MA at Brunel University in Shakespeare Authorship studies. The question does bear serious examination. But the language used again and again when the subject comes up in conversation is unfortunately more sneering than thoughtful, on the Stratfordian side. It’s as if a nerve had been touched. I’ve been interested in the question for many years and am a serious student of Shakespeare, with a book out on the Sonnets and another on ‘Hamlet’. The authorship q. is by no means as cut-and-dried as may at first appear.
            1. It is entirely cut and dried. There is loads (far more than in the case of say Marlowe or Webster) of direct documentary evidence that that the Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays (with collaboration in some cases as Kevin mentions). The idea that he didn’t relies on belief in an enormous cover-up involving thousands of people – including some of the most prominent of the time – for which there is somehow not a *single* shred of concrete evidence, and which nobody even mentioned until over a century after Shakespeare’s death. It is wholly preposterous.
              1. I could answer directly but this isn’t the place. But do you really think the people at Brunel – and countless others, including many of note – are merely tumbling inside a hamster-wheel for their own enjoyment? While the fact the writing was done is infinitely more important than who wrote it, the latter question is an uncannily interesting one, once one is prepared to admit it’s worth a serious look at.
          2. The Baconites are even further out there. So… the often elaborate and fine-spun tropes of the Bard not only contain multiple levels of meaning, not only resonate on several harmonic planes in relation to the story they tell or emotions they express but are also replete with coded messages, pried out by convoluted methods known only to initiates, that have nothing whatsoever to do with the play or poem’s surface meaning? (Well, some people like that kind of thing.)
            1. It’s all nonsense. A guy called Stephen Marche put it best: ‘among Shakespeare scholars, the idea has roughly the same currency as the faked moon landing does among astronauts.’
              1. I was very disappointed in Lewis Lapham for devoting a Harper’s Magazine folio to the so-called “controversy” and the Oxfordians. I may have even mentioned this to him, in a passing meeting in the elevator, when his post-Harper’s quarterly shared the floor where my office was.

                Not a little bit of class prejudice in the origin of the notion, I dare say.

                1. That is *100%* the origin of the notion. This part of why it makes me so cross. The other reasons being 1) an instinctive inclination to defend the bard against people who would take the credit from him (a bit silly really, I mean it’s not like he needs my help) and 2) how utterly daft it all is.

                  Edited at 2020-09-24 09:51 pm (UTC)

  13. Well, I’m glad Z thought it was as easy as yesterday’s. I most certainly did NOT, although I did enjoy it. I felt very pleased with myself at getting SOLIDUS but then put PALMATED. What Jack said about that.
    In 22d, I did think of FR TED before AB FAB occurred to me. I watched AB FAB for the first time in 1993 or thereabouts so that counts as old. Together with my wife we wondered what the fuss was about. Neither of us thought it was that funny.
    CODs to LED and HUES.

    Edited at 2020-09-24 08:42 am (UTC)

    1. I suppose for me there was a bit of Slumdog Millionaire about this. Very Scottish Morag I worked with in a charity supported in part by the Bishop of Stepney, then John Sentamu. I was in Bridgetown a couple of years ago. Asquith Mrs Z and I picked out in a gameshow within the last week. Postman Pat is an instant earworm. I’ve been described as a sky pilot (though not recently). And so on. Made it easy for me, but I can see how others might no have the same helpful triggers.
    2. I couldn’t believe it lasted that long, what with the same scenes of whatshername drunk and her daughter rightly irritated by it.
  14. A bit harder than yesterday’s. Wondered about the tense in chosen/elect and the ‘the’ London area.
    1. Adjective, perhaps? Without seeing complete equivalence, the president-elect is the chosen president.
  15. Steady solve in 17m; very enjoyable. MER at ‘daughters’ being abbreviated to D in Indonesia and LG for large in 12ac. Otherwise no problems. Thanks to setter and Z.

    Edited at 2020-09-24 08:56 am (UTC)

  16. .. still socially distanced. 39 minutes, and I thought I’d done well, so quite a bit harder than yesterday’s for me. LOI was HUES which I should have seen earlier, so I’ll give it COD. PALPATED took a while as I recalled Frankie Lymon protesting that he wasn’t a juvenile delinquent? A decent puzzle, I thought. Thank you Z and setter.
  17. Top half went in very quickly, bottom half was a bit trickier, although I caused my own problems with a mombled LANDSLOGGER.

    Had to toss a virtual coin to choose between PALPATE and PALMATE and was surprised that there was no indication that we were looking for the abbreviated version of Absolutely Fabulous (which I don’t consider to be an “old” sitcom in the same way as Dad’s Army or Steptoe & Son).

  18. 16.13 but unfortunately opted for the wrong parent in palpated. Got tricked by palm as having a sense of touch. Never mind won’t get fooled again.

    Aside from that disappointment, enjoyed the challenge. Liked ashram- becoming a regular in the cluing- sky pilot, strangelove, one of my faves and quipped.

  20. Found this as easy as yesterday although the SNITCH suggests it was 30 plus points harder (yesterday’s 55 was lowest since a 52 Monday in July).
    Had all done in 10 minutes, heading for a PB, but took another 2 minutes to get PALPATED and SOLIDUS (which I knew but didn’t twig slash was the def at first).
  21. 14:24. I found this a lot harder than yesterday’s. I really enjoyed it though: not too much biffing.
    I got a bit lucky with PALPATE: I thought I knew the word but I suspect I was thinking of ‘palpitation’. Sometimes being in a hurry and not really paying attention can help.
  22. A bit embarrassed. I’m knowing (after being reminded) that solidus was a slash – I’d thought it the “(petty) cash” at the other end of the clue and wondered how slash could be sous. Also couldn’t parse smuggler, lg for large is not the usual. Palpated from palpable, able to be felt? Worked for me. As others have said, top half easy, bottom not so much, and quite British in its GK.
    1. same reasoning here for solidus, but realised what the definition was belatedly. It was last one in , for a time of 21:13. Liked HUES best.
      1. Of course he (O) didn’t, and of course he (S) wrote (almost) all of it (there is evidence of co-authorship in a couple of plays, and there is some evident borrowing, e.g. the Hecate lines in ‘Macbeth’). And of course there is no serious doubt about this. I do hope you didn’t misunderstand me; my point was that it really doesn’t matter (to us) if Moishe Kapoor wrote them all. (My brother recently forwarded to me an article (from the Atlantic?) arguing that the author of Shakespeare’s plays was actually a woman, saying (my brother) that it actually was well reasoned, etc. I trashed it unopened.)
        1. Yes of course on the co-authorship front and no I didn’t misunderstand you. I just find Shakespeare trutherism extremely annoying.
  24. Not quite as simpatico as yesterday’s, but very pleasant, with all the required knowledge checked and officially agreed to be “general”. Finished with a pleasing penny-drop as I remembered the SOLIDUS.
  26. No problems today – I didn’t know the meaning of “Solidus” but worked it out nevertheless.
    I do enjoy a puzzle with no obscure playwrights/poets/composers/artists/authors.
  28. ……I thought, but held up, once again, by the last few clues that I just could not see. This is annoying as it happens too often. PALPATED, SOLIDUS, and BRIDGETOWN the last three in. Had to look up B’TOWN so technically a DNF. Bah. Thanks setter and Z for the explanations of several unparsed answers.
  29. I’m in the ‘easily as easy as yesterday’ camp. I had all the GK, excepting only Morag, where I had to Assemble And Pray. I thought As Is was cute, and, after I saw the intended misdirection at Solidus, kind of liked that, too. Thanks, z.
  30. I liked this and managed to finish it in under an hour on my return from Richmond. LOI HUES. Was pleased to work out SOLIDUS. Knew Palpate. My kind of GK, so this was an enjoyable and successful outing after a rough ride on the QC this morning.
    David
  31. Having missed out on finishing by two clues yesterday, (the inexcusably forgotten Smetana, and the unknown Italian poet who wasn’t Dante) I became increasingly keen on finishing this one as I slowly worked my way through the last few outstanding clues. Ashram from wordplay, Stepney from a pdm, and Palpated from God only knows but probably something like Doctor in the House. That just left the almost unknown Solidus, which took several pauses and tea breaks to dredge up. Took most of the afternoon, but very satisfying to complete. Invariant
  32. 32:37 not exactly the same sprint for the line as yesterday’s. I got bogged down in a couple of spots, got tunnel vision on a couple of clues and had trouble refocusing.
  33. I solved this on paper in 45:00 while waiting in the garage while my car had a slow puncture fixed and a Health Check carried out. The puncture repair was good value at £12.60, but sadly the Health Check revealed a hole in the exhaust which will set me back £400. Back at home I copied my entries into the Club Site and submitted off Leaderboard to find I was all correct. Thanks setter and Z.

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