27862 Thursday, 31 December 2020 And so, the end is near…

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I went to 18.27 with this one, hampered at the last by a misplaced letter in a crossing clue which made the author at 10 cross impossible to work out. Once sorted, the guy was familiar enough. There’s a decent balance of lightweight arts and sciences stuff, though some of the geography might give pause for solvers.
We’re gearing up to celebrate the passing of the old year embraced in a version of tier 4 that has got some extra bits included, such that locally kids will not be returning to school next week. Epping Forest district rarely manages to be top of anyone’s league, but apart from Basildon it has achieved that unwanted greatness, and the stay indoors advice does at least seem to be both necessary and heeded. From behind closed doors I wish you as fine a hogmanay as can be managed, and the very sincere wish that 2021 will bring early liberation and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, here’s my analysis of a decent enough gentle stroll of a puzzle, with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS

Across

1 Can’t hope to change something in Whitehall (8)
CENOTAPH The Whitehall example of an “empty tomb” is the focus for the annual Remembrance Parade, with wreath laying by the great, good and ordinary.  It was briefly under threat of vandalism by the iconoclasts of anti-slavery and anti-empire movements. It’s designed by Edward Lutyens and built of Portland stone, but for our purposes the setter asks us to construct one by change-ing CAN’T HOPE
9 Naive, taking no coin to pub (8)
INNOCENT The pub is an INN, to which you take 0 (no) CENT (coin).
10 Author’s appeal to remain (8)
SALINGER JD of that family, responsible for Catcher in the Rye. Appeal is S(ex) A(ppeal) and remain LINGER
11 Stop-go manoeuvre in snow (4,4)
STEM TURN “A turn performed by stemming one ski and bringing the other ski down parallel with it”. Obviously. Anyway, stop gives STEM , and go gives TURN, as in it’s your go to roll the dice.
12 St Paul’s type, perhaps, man racked with tension (10)
MINNESOTAN It helps if you know where St Paul is (it’s actually the capital of Minnesota), and ignore the apparent reference to the “least of the Apostles”. Take racked as the anagram indicator, and apply to the letters of MAN and TENSION.
14 Passing mention had effect on nothing (4)
OBIT Cute definition. Had effect BIT attached to 0 (nothing) in the appropriate order
15 Plainly written name in iced cake (2,5)
EN CLAIR N(ame) turns up in the confectionary fashioned from choux pastry, cream and a (usually) chocolate flavoured icing. That’ll be an ECLAIR
17 Poet in turn welcomed by fat cat (7)
LEOPARD The poet you need is Edgar Allen POE, “quoth the raven” and all that. Turn (reverse) him and smother him in LARD for fat.
21 Verse with a line to alter (4)
VARY Simple. Just V(erse) with A R(ailwa)Y line
22 Innovators recycling DNA at grave (5-5)
AVANT GARDE recycling prompts an anagram effort, this time using the letters of DNA AT GRAVE
23 Member of drug squad? No, another branch (5,3)
SPEED COP Well I suppose a policeman detecting drugs might be a speed cop, but a traffic policeman going after motorists going a mile or more PH over the limit certainly would be.
25 Behind this door, books are essential (8)
INHERENT If you are behind this door, you are IN HERE. NT for New Testament is common in these parts for “books”.
26 Shape up to buy a suitcase (3,1,4)
GET A GRIP Wondering if “get a (6?) pack” might be a thing slowed me at this point, but while the GET A is right for “buy a” the suitcase is a GRIP.
27 Avoided players given cards at ground (8)
ESCHEWED Players for our purposes are opponents at bridge, E(ast) and S(outh), then ground provides CHEWED

Down

2 Forcing payment without a fight (8)
EXACTION I think this is the version of EX that means without (as in ex dividend) plus ACTION for fight
3 Unusual exam conceals one trap (8)
ORIGINAL  An exam might be an ORAL, here “concealing” I (one) GIN (trap)
4 Old ship’s slow movement leaving loch (4)
ARGO We had L for Loch a couple of days ago, and here it I again instead of the more common Lake. It leaves LARGO, a musical slow movement to leave Jason’s ship in Greek myth. The golden fleece gig.
5 Woman’s clothes said to be shaggy (7)
HIRSUTE  Sounds very much like HER SUIT and means hairy.
6 Detention of gunman finally in act of disposing of body (10)
INTERNMENT Just take the last letter of gunman, and introduce it to INTERMENT for burial, disposing (neatly) of a body
7 In shadow, exercise without feeling the power in the sun? (8)
PENUMBRA You could pass Geography exams by drawing an illustration of the moon producing a partial eclipse shadow, which is what this is. PE is execise, NUMB is without feeling, and the (Egyptian) power in the sun is RA.
8 Off on holiday here, stuck originally between two short men? (8)
STANSTED For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the M11, in Essex (UK) Stansted is London’s third, fourth or possibly 5th airport mostly used by such as Ryanair, Easyjet and such on holiday flights. S(tuck) (originally) is caught between two random men STAN and TED, both (short) abbreviations.
13 Part of vital passage where island crop is transported (6,4)
SPINAL CORD “Transported” signals an anagram, here of ISLAND CROP. Not wholly convinced by the “vital passage” definition, which is more suggestive of the spinal canal through which the cord passes, but it will have to do. Took ages to stop looking for a trachea or windpipe.
15 Imagine no end of malice against one guru (8)
ENVISAGE Just realised I biffed this. The malice in question is ENVY with no Y end, and one guru is I SAGE
16 Brother briefly security-checked in ship (8)
CORVETTE Setters  take a bit of a liberty in their selection fo exclamations to lead to COR. Here its (o) brother. Sevcurity checked is VETTED, again without its end (briefly)
18 Possible source of Conference’s sparkling repartee (4,4)
PEAR TREE It helps if you know that a Conference (with capital) is a type of pear. Then the sparkling (anagram) of REPARTEE is easy to work out.
19 At a certain angle, church is gleaming (8)
RADIANCE It helped me to remember that a RADIAN is pretty much the same as a degree when measuring angles. Add C(hurch of) E(ngland).
20 Record one bogey at the start holding golfers up — in play, one’s squeezed (7)
BAGPIPE. So, record is EP (extended play), one is I and bogey at the start is B. The golfers are the P(rofessional) G(olfers’) Association. Assemble as instructed and turn the whole lot upside down (“up”)
24 Sweet, part of lunch occasionally? (4)
CHOC Today’s hidden (part of) is in the last clue. Not hard to spot.

60 comments on “27862 Thursday, 31 December 2020 And so, the end is near…”

  1. Just scraped in under 30 mins.

    Not sure I’ve heard of a STEM TURN even though I was quite an avid skier in the last millennium.

    SPEED COP was also an oddity – maybe that’s what they’re called in the USA?

    PENUMBRA – vaguely heard of but no idea what it meant.

    ESCHEWED took a while to fall.

  2. ….even thinking about skiing is dangerous, and I was not alone in not knowing STEM TURN. I do, however, seem to be in splendid isolation in my invention of a “slew turn”. At least it didn’t destroy a reasonably good time, since it took me almost twice as long as yesterday.

    Didn’t like “brother” at 16D, and only parsed BAGPIPE afterwards.

    COD SPEED COP, also enjoyed STANSTED. Must avoid an unwanted hat trick tomorrow !

  4. 17:48. I found this quite tricky, with particular problems on:
    > ESCHEWED (wanted the second letter to X)
    > STEM TURN: never heard of it, and I considered the more likely-looking STEP TURN. In the end I decided to go with the wordplay and was ready to complain about the expected pink square.
    > SPEED COP: not an expression I’m familiar with. Collins says it’s American, Lexico doesn’t have it at all.
    No problem with MINNESOTAN though: I’ve been to Minneapolis-St Paul, home of the excellent Manny’s Steakhouse.
    Happy New Year everyone!

    Edited at 2020-12-31 01:38 pm (UTC)

    1. I’ve never heard or seen SPEED COP, nor does it sound like a real category; there are traffic cops, but they’re not likely to go after speeders.
      1. Strange, as SPEED COP is certainly within my knowledge of US slang that could only have been gathered from American TV shows & films and I don’t follow either avidly, though I watched more US TV in my childhood than ever since. Chambers Dictionary of Slang says it’s from the 1920’s and they were specifically charged with enforcing speed limits.

        Edited at 2020-12-31 02:05 pm (UTC)

      2. Maybe in the country Kevin. When you go North out of Rhinebeck and get past the houses the old post road becomes straight right by the hospital and the local police lie in wait there because there’s no sign to say it’s still 30mph. The locals all know not to go even so much as 35mph there because it’s a nice little earner for the town. SPEED COPs is all they do, there’s not much else except the occasional DUI.
        1. It occurred to me after posting that of course there are cops hiding behind billboards and such, or indeed just patrolling the roads, and that there are ‘speed traps’ such as Olivia mentions. But I repeat that I’ve never come across the term SPEED COP.
    2. The only time I was caught for speeding (hell, that’s tempting providence) was in 1969 at 7am on a beautifully sunny Saturday morning on a dead straight road with nobody about apart from this speed cop who leapt out from behind a hedge. To add insult to the injury, I was going to work to conduct a stock check for which I was not being paid. But at every telling of this story at the time and since, I have called him a speed cop. I wonder if it was more a phrase in currency then than later, perhaps courtesy of Highway Patrol, a big show from the US in the early years of ITV.
      1. I remember some years ago that I was thrashing my taxi along the A56 through Sale to reach a booking we were late on. I saw the blue light in my mirror, and looked at the speedo. 48 in a 30 zone. Bang to rights. The motorcycle cop pulled alongside at the traffic lights, and I dropped the window, expecting I would be asked to pull over once we’d gone through.

        He glared at me, and said “I’m on my to another call. I haven’t seen you. But I f******g well will next time !” and then roared away.

  5. Just over the hour today for this enjoyable challenge, particularly the curiously knotty anagrams, usually the clues I manage to solve quickly. I have been, to quote an end of term report comment made about one of my school fellows, ‘pleasingly absent’ from the TFTT blog in 2020 so I will hope to do better next year. But I have lurked regularly so thank you to all our bloggers who have shed light where only darkness prevailed. I hope all setters, bloggers and solvers have a pleasant New Year celebration and are soon celebrating Vday in 2021.
  6. I was off to the races with the first two across clues going in immediately, then slowed down dramatically trying to think of St Paul’s epistles.
    If I remember correctly from my skiing days, there was a turn called a “Stem Christie” – or am I making that up?
    (Just checked on Wikipedia – Stem Christie from “Christiania” in Norway, apparently).
    Good puzzle to finish the year and many thanks to all the bloggers for this website which has helped keep me mostly Compos Mentis (remember that?) in 2020.

    Edited at 2020-12-31 02:48 pm (UTC)

  7. Held up by my more exciting KICK TURN for a while. I used to like doing those down the black runs, not sure I’ll ever go again…
    Only DNK EN CLAIR, but easy from cryptic. I liked Olivia’s description, seems to describe the whole of the local North Wales police. Be warned if you travel hereabouts
  8. 15A reminded me that Chambers has a delightfully quirky definition of “éclair” as “a cake, long in shape but short in duration”.
    1. I just confirmed that in my Chambers. I didn’t know dictionaries were allowed to be humorous!
      1. Dr. Johnson’s definition of ‘oat’: ‘a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.’
      2. They have a few: MIDDLE-AGED is another. Amusing, as long as the joke doesn’t obscure the meaning to some extent, the search for which, I guess, is the reason for looking in a dictionary.
  9. I found this hard going and had to grind the first dozen or so clues out one by one, without getting much help from the crossing letters provided. Eventually LEOPARD and PEAR TREE got me into a sort of rhythm, and II started to make progress. STEM TURN and ESCHEWED held me up at the end. 44:43, but at least no pink squares. Thanks setter and Z. Happy New Year to all.

  10. That makes three on the trot where I’ve been a couple short of a finish – consistent, but no cigar. Today, having successfully negotiated the unknown Stem Turn, Exaction (who/what/where?) was a step too far, even after looking up Minnesotan. Invariant
  11. DNF with 12a 27a & 2d all proving too much for my addled brain. I was also yet another non-skiing STEP-TURNer.

    Z thanks for the v helpful blog. BTW my newsprint-version gives the X-word number as 27,862 not 27,682.

  12. Under half an hour, but hastily fixing 11ac at last before submitting gave SREM TURN. Grr.

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