27970 Thursday, 6 May 2021 I prefer frogs.

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I trundled though this in 17.56, with a good three minutes of that wondering what to put in at 11 across and being dense about it. Throughout there is a veritable compendium of standard abbreviations, balancing the rather low anagram count, arguably only two.
Not all the vocab is in the more familiar reaches of the dictionary, and the setter acknowledges two archaisms, one of which I’m not convinced is. But for the most part the wordplay is kind, and doesn’t leave too much by way of ambiguity.
Today is local election day in the UK, with elections also for Scottish and Welsh parliaments and for metropolitan mayors. I’ll be playing my part checking the polling numbers of those voting to see if the party vote is holding up. This means I may not be able to attend much to corrections and comments, though I will try to keep one eye on those more important returns.
Here, for what its worth, are the clues, the definitions and the SOLUTIONS together with my commentary.

Across

1 Instrument that’s initially good for Parisians in foreign capital (8)
TROMBONE You get the T from That’s (originally), and good for Parisians is BON.  Put this latter into ROME, a foreign capital.
6 Do well with riveting? Not entirely (6)
THRIVE Time lost trying to think of something that means riveting (entrancing? Line of Duty?) rather than looking for the hidden word suggested by “not entirely”. There it is, in wiTH RIVEting.
9 Useful gift for doctor having fish in county estate, we’re told (7,6)
BEDSIDE MANNER  The fish is the IDE, the county Bedfordshire, abbreviated to BEDS, and the estate is MANOR, which sounds like (we’re told) our answer.
10 Control deliveries in centre of Bognor (6)
GOVERN Today’s cricket reference: an OVER is 6 legal deliveries of the ball. In Oz it used to be 8. Put the centre of BoGNor round it.
11 Plain individual, but partial (8)
OVERTONE ONE is obviously there for individual, and terribly tempting then to try and find something that means partial giving an answer plain. ONESIDED was almost plausible, until I tried the clue the other way round, saw OVERT for plain and that ONE. Does OVERTONE mean partial? Chambers says it is: “a harmonic or upper partial” in music, where partial is a noun and a component of a musical sound.
13 Son educates parent finally about minute part of engine (5-5)
STEAM-CHEST “A chamber above a steam boiler serving as a reservoir for steam and in which the slide valve works”. There you go. S(on) educates: TEACHES plus parenT (finally) about (surrounding) M(inute)>
15 US state uniform and headgear making comeback (4)
UTAH NATO Uniform and a backwards (making a comeback) HAT for headgear.
16 Princess, one travelling east in Gulf State (4)
RANI  Take your Gulf State, call it IRAN, and sent the I (one) on an eastward journey to the other end of the word.
18 He appears confused at first adapting old crosscountry event (5,5)
PAPER CHASE An anagram (adapting) of HE APPEARS plus Confused at first. I don’t know if such things still happen, but there’s one in The Railway Children when Jenny Agutter’s potential love interest gets stuck in the tunnel.
21 Standards of service right for inclusion by agents (8)
CRITERIA RITE for service plus R(ight) are included in the CIA, a bunch of agents.
22 Maintain a fine business (6)
AFFIRM  Nice and easy. A F(ine) and FIRM for business
23 As loose dogs may be, or doctors driven to patients, do we hear? (7,2,4)
BROUGHT TO HEEL A pleasant charade: a doctor may be brought to heal a patient (ah, the far off days of chauffeur driven GPs making home visits). If you hear it, you hear our answer.
25 Leader of Oxford Group keeping church cat (6)
OCELOT The leader of Oxford is indeed O, the group is (a) LOT, and the inserted church is represented by CE for Church of England.
26 Motor sport competitor’s friend is right outside (8)
RALLYIST Not a wholly familiar word but a deducible one. Friend is ALLY, is is IS, and then put that other abbreviation for right, RT, ouside.

Down

2 Plant without root’s outside under bone (7)
RIBWORT So the random bone is a RIB, WithOut gives you the WO, and root’s outside the RT. Again, a plausible deduction from the wordplay. It’s a weed with (you might guess) strongly ribbed leaves.
3 Historian in press register digesting English verse (11)
MEDIEVALIST I spell it with an extra A, but didn’t have enough room. Press is MEDIA, and register is LIST, into which you insert E(nglish) V(erse)
4 Hunter about to imbibe port (5)
ORION He with the starry belt. The setter’s favourite port, RIO (when it’s not tawny) taken in (imbibed) by ON for about
5 Monstrosity has detective angry (7)
EYESORE Detective give EYE (think “private”) and angry SORE.
6 Old sycophant, one taking courses with demon driver? (9)
TOADEATER Chambers chucks in a hyphen and confirms its archaic status. We get it from the demon driver of the Wind in the Willows, the incorrigible Mr TOAD (poop, poop!) with an EATER, literally one taking courses, tacked on.
7 Game finally given outdoor enclosure (3)
RUN My guinea pigs used to have the relative freedom of a wooden framed run with chicken wire to keep them in and foxes out. R(ugby) U(nion) is the game, with N from the end (finally) of giveN.
8 Gallery about to be erected in museum (7)
VERANDA The museun is the Victoria and Albert, abbreviated to VANDA, with RE for about (this time) “erected” and inserted.
12 Irritable lady gutted about charge, needing physical contact? (6-5)
TOUCHY-FEELY I’ll leave you to decide whether that sort of physical contact is welcome or not. Irritable here is TOUCHY, LadY gutted gives LY, and charge therein is FEE.
14 Unreproducible chit Porgy composed (9)
COPYRIGHT Yes, an anagram (composed) of CHIT PORGY. For the clue to be strictly true, there really needs to be a word unlegallyreproduciblewithoutpermission. I bet there is in German.
17 Like certain exercises with a crashing bore in charge (7)
AEROBIC A is A, “crashing” bore gives EROB, and In Charge gives the IC.
19 Pair consuming coffee and course of meal (7)
PLATTER Pair abbreviates to PR, and coffee adulterates to LATTE, which is “consumed”.
20 Extra place by ancient city in South America (7)
SURPLUS Here place abbreviates to PL, placed beside UR the ancient Chaldean city, within S(outh) and US for America. A lesson in the importance of lifting and separating.
22 Bikini, possibly, demanding a tax (5)
ATOLL Before it was a two piece swimsuit, Bikini was the group of islands used for nuclear testing by the US. A tax is A TOLL.
24 Work hard, sacrificing time for painting (3)
OIL Work hard is TOIL. Knock off the T(ime)

59 comments on “27970 Thursday, 6 May 2021 I prefer frogs.”

  1. Pretty straightforward, although it took me a while to remember Mr. Toad. DNK RIBWORT, but I know of only one 3-letter bone. And I didn’t know that there is a race called a PAPER-CHASE.
  2. RIBWORT was helped by having both seen ‘navelwort’ and ‘ribston’ (type of apple) in a puzzle from last year which I finally got around to doing yesterday. Semi-guessed OVERTONE which I thought must have something to do with ‘partial’ being a musical term; who knows, maybe it’s related to an ‘accidental’.

    I’m not a big fan of the word RALLYIST, but did like TOAD(-)EATER. I have what seem like “just yesterday” memories of the 8-ball over, but I see we stopped using it here over 30 years ago.

    Finished what was a fairly gentle Thursday in 34 minutes.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  3. LOI TOADEATER, after seeing ‘eater’ as one who takes courses and an alphabet trawl for the ‘toad’ penny-drop moment. Not a word I’d heard of, but parsed so well that it had to be.
    Not an advisable thing to do in the north of this country, where the cane-toads are poisonous.
    19’58”
  4. 35 minutes for all but the first two unchecked letters in 6dn, a word I never heard of so I used aids to find it. I recognised the Wind in the Willows reference after the event but it was never going to come to mind unprompted.

    I also didn’t know STEAM-CHEST but the wordplay was kind, so in it went.

    I had no idea what the definition was about re OVERTONE but I vaguely remember hearing mention of ‘upper partials’ in my music studies. It has more to do with the science of acoustics than music so I didn’t pay too much attention.

    Edited at 2021-05-06 04:12 am (UTC)

  5. I started in the NE corner, as per vinyl putting in PEN with a justified doubt over PE for “game”. I also finished in this corner, struggling to come up with OVERTONE, EYESORE and TOADEATER. Typing these now I notice they are all compound words which I always find harder to spot. TOADEATER was the last to fall, with me thinking that “demon driver” was going to be a classical reference to someone such as Charon. Luckily for me the required culture was more on my level.
  6. This was hardly the stinker we are due any time soon.
    18ac was memorialized by ‘PAPERCHASE’ the fabulous stationers of Tottenham Court Road.

    FOI 4dn ORION – owner of Betelgeuse

    LOI 8ac THRIVE as 7dn PEN was in the way – became RUN as per Mr. Pootle and his obols.

    COD 9ac BEDSIDE MANNER as has my American doctor (Bob!) of over 20 years in Gubei.

    WOD 12dn TOUCHY-FEELY This term originated in the USA – an examplar came from Nicholas Von Hoffman in ‘The Charleston Gazette’ March 1972 – talking about Walter Mondale, who was ‘not touchy-feely.’

    Yesterday: two jars of ‘Haloween’ Marmite sent to me in Shanghai have finally arrived back at my daughter’s in Wellingborough undelivered! Problem with her hand-writing or Black magic?

  7. Dnk the noun ‘partial’, although I know about harmonics, so OVERTONE LOI with some trepidation. Liked SURPLUS, vaguely knew TOADEATER, constructed STEAM-CHEST and RIBWORT.

    11′ 47″, thanks z and setter.

  8. ‘Darby and Joan, who used to be Jack and Jill’ — what a great line. 21 minutes with LOI s as others, TOADEATER and RIBWORT, neither of which were known. OVERTONE had a question mark against it also. COD to BROUGHT TO HEEL. Easyish apart from the last two, but a very pleasant puzzle. Thank you Z and setter.
  9. …ere I went to rest,
    Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the West.

    25 mins left T-A-E-T-R. And I thought of Mr.Toad, but not of eater.
    Quite liked Brought to Heel.
    Thanks setter and Z.

  10. I didn’t get cross a lot over OCELOT, or
    Cry tears over CRITERIA, for
    Our settter (thanks to yoU,
    TA) Had a fine clue
    So took a while before I saw EYESORE
  11. Zig-zagged down and up with no problems apart from never having heard of RIBWORT, TOADEATER or RALLYIST.
  12. 11:07 DNK RIBWORT, STEAM CHEST or my LOI TOADEATER, which held me up from getting under 10 minutes. I enjoyed the unlikely looking anagrist for COPYRIGHT. THRIVE was nicely hidden, I thought.
  13. 33m with a hold up on the sycophant and more irritatingly on the hidden THRIVE. Pleasant entertainment today from setter and blogger — thank you.
  14. 16a – Princess, one travelling east in Gulf State (4)
    if Rani is a word of Indian origin, as far as I know, it means Queen and not princess
    2. It hardly matters what it means in Hindi; if it means ‘princess’ in English, that’s enough.
  15. RIBWORT STEAMCHEST, TOADEATER, What fresh hell is this?

    Clear cluing meant that it all fell into place fairly quickly, but I was a bit nervous about OVERTONE.

    We all know how to titillate an ocelot.

    Thanks to z and setter.

  17. An interesting solve, where, as per our blogger, you had to trust the wordplay to end up with some slightly unconventional words…TOADEATER, OVERTONE (in that sense), RIBWORT, STEAM-CHEST, RALLYIST all unfamiliar to a greater or lesser extent. However, no pink squares, so job clearly done by setter and solver.
  18. 10:33 but with AFFORD. This seems a bit loose, I thought, but AFFORD/maintain is the kind of equivalence that looks a bit of a stretch at first but you can probably justify (I can’t afford/maintain the school fees?) with a bit of thought and/or rooting around in dictionaries. And if it’s wrong the checkers will put me right so bung it in and move on.
    Nice puzzle though.
  19. Not too tricky today, though I relied on the wordplay for RIBWORT and TOADEATER and didn’t know the musical meaning of partial for OVERTONE.

    FOI Run
    LOI Overtone
    COD Medievalist

  20. Stumped for a good while on overtone and toadeater, neither of which I knew. Further to vinyl1’s comment, OED has a first reference in 1629 to toadeater’s original meaning: “the attendant of a charlatan, employed to eat or pretend to eat toads (held to be poisonous) to enable his master to exhibit his skill in expelling poison”. A century later it has come to mean “fawning flatterer” or “sycophant” – leading ultimately to toady, which is first referenced in the 1820s. George Eliot uses toad-eater meaning sycophant in Daniel Deronda: “The toad-eater the least liable to nausea must be expected to have his susceptibilities.”
  21. Spent too long at the end over reading the clue for BEDSIDE MANNER. Which left EYESORE where I had forgotten about the private eye.
    Off to vote freedom alliance. Wish me luck!
  22. 18.37 and by no means easy for me. LOI was ribwort which was a NHO but eventually worked out the clue ending. Another NHO was steam chest , the solving of which made ribwort at last accessible.
    Almost made my customary dozy mistake with rallying rather than rallying but belatedly saw the light when surplus was the only sensible option at 20 dn.
    Enjoyed it so thanks setter and blogger.
  23. OVERTONE and EYESORE were the obligatory outliers in an otherwise straightforward solve. Broke off to allow a brief subconscious fermentation which duly produced both answers. I sometimes think my brain is cleverer than I am and I just get in the way. Do the real speedsters actually solve these puzzles as mortals do, or do they just open a mental door and let the answers in? Around 40 mins with half the time on those two.
    1. Good question. I think the answer is: mental door, allied with vast vocabulary and knowledge.
      Have you seen the “Cracking the Cryptic” youtube channel? Mark Goodliffe talking through solving the puzzle in 5 minutes or less? I do what he does(?!?), but when he needs to find a word or synonym it appears instantly, he has the vocabulary and more importantly the ability to recall it. When I need a word or synonym often I sort-of know the exact word I’m looking for, but can’t bring it to mind for a few minutes, or even need a few hours break to reset and suddenly it appears.
      So I suspect you need to get in the zone (brain cleverer) and just let it flow. But to get to that zone takes 8 hours of practice a day for years on end. Golf is another “zone” pastime, and as the best golfers (who practice 8 hours a day) say: “the more you practise, the luckier you get”.
      1. As Isla says I think a lot of it is about mental recall. It’s no surprise that the fastest solvers also polish off the concise so quickly because they can reel off a list of synonyms in the blink of an eye. I can sit for several minutes looking for a synonym that I know but it just won’t come to me.
      2. More importantly I wonder if there’s much fun to be had from solving so quickly? If I were that good I think I’d prefer to occupy my brain with something more challenging.
        1. I could probably go a little bit quicker, but I try to parse every single clue (I often fail). I just love the skill and cleverness of the setters and the clues they produce, the mastery of the language, and the superb penny-drop moments they provide. I’m not sure the best solvers don’t have the same emotions, but so much quicker. Verlaine who is right up there oozes love for the process – how can you read his blogs and not see someone who loves it as much as we do?
      3. for real speed an eidetic memory is essential. SO many posts on TfTT from people saying they did not know things that in fact they had previously come across.
  24. Started off with GOVERN, then roamed hither and thither around the grid, with the SW yielding the princess and the bird fairly quickly, then the SE filling up nicely. Steady progress was helped by BROUGHT TO HEEL, and before long I was left with the unknown RIBWORT and STEAM CHEST, and the vaguely familiar TOADEATER, which I managed to build Ikea fashion. That left 11a, which I finally saw after shoving ONE at the end instead of the beginning. Knew OVERTONE as a musical term, but nor partial, although it seemed very likely. 27:30. Thanks setter and Z.
  25. No problems with this. Knew partial from knowing how tone production works in musical instruments, and steam chest from knowing how steam locomotives work. Ribwort and toadeater were not familiar, but very straightforward.
  26. Same as others with RIBWORT, STEAM CHEST and OVERTONE. A “partial” around here is some sort of false teeth arrangement. I can’t think of a MEDIEVALIST historian without recalling almost word for word the public lecture in Lucky Jim (and the Ian Carmichael version isn’t bad either). After a painfully slow start I was glad to end up with 16.17.
    1. The most un-Merrie period in our history. And one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever read, up there with Catch 22 and The Ginger Man.

      Edited at 2021-05-06 12:08 pm (UTC)

        1. Is it? I read LJ in my teens, but I can’t remember if it was before or after I discovered Larkin. I’ll have to reread it.
          1. I think so. PL was quite heavily involved in LJ, according to Kingers. And if you read Larkin’s Jill you can see a lot of similar turns of phrase and plot devices 🙂
            1. I’ve never actually ready Jill. I think during my Larkin phase I was afraid it would be rubbish and somehow spoil him for me. Silly really, particularly once I had read the Motion biography and the letters: if I still love the poetry after learning how much of a racist and s*** he was a second-rate novel can’t possibly do any harm!
              1. I know: I’m conflicted about Larkin and Amis — some seriously dodgy views. But man, could they sling words around in poetry and prose.
  27. Strange solve, wrote but caught UHAT and NARI even though I know both answers. Like our blogger spent a few minutes at the end trying to justify overtone; unlike our blogger I couldn’t, so it was a lucky guess. NHO toadeater I guessed from just the starting T, but only wrote it in with all the crossers. Steam-chest also took too long, but in retrospect was easy – just not the expected engine. Overall about 85 on my NITCH, but it felt harder.
  28. Another day, another random plant — at least I got the WORT bit right first time through, but with a biffed RAG upfront, the doc’s BEDSIDE MANNER wasn’t going to work. Eventually reverse-engineered with the MANNER going in before deducing the simple bone.

    TOADEATER last in — but needed help for this.

    1. I had to go to the dictionary for TOADEATER. Put in OVERTONE from wordplay, but couldn’t believe it was correct. Otherwise fairly steady.
      Nice to be back looking at this site. Now that I’ve retired from the NHS after 34 years I have time to think about words again.
      Regards
      AndrewK
      1. Welcome back, together with thanks for service in the amazing NHS.

        Edited at 2021-05-06 03:40 pm (UTC)

  29. All done quickly except 2d, 13a and 6d; guessed the -WORT bit and saw -EATER then TOAD seemed reasonable. Never heard of a STEAM-CHEST but made it out of TEACHER and so on, bunged in OVERTONE as the only possible word.
    Not the most fun puzzle ever, but not bad. Liked the doctor brought to heal. Half an hour with interruptions.
  30. Like many others, my L2I were the crossing “Overtone” and “Toadeater”.
    Had “Tailgater” stuck in my mind for ages as a Demon Driver, even when it didn’t fit with the ‘a’ of “Bedside Manner”.
    Enjoyed the puzzle.
  31. Didn’t expect to finish this after starting with OIL. But it became a bottom-up solve after correcting RALLYING.
    My last two were deriving the plant from the clue; DNK RIBWORT. Then a guess for 6d, having got the TOAD part much earlier.
    I thought TOADESTER might work; I’m sure Ester enjoyed courses either at school (in Chemistry) or at lunch.
    David
  32. Yes, of course I agree it’s up to every solver no matter how fast or slow to take enjoyment wherever they find it.
  33. ….and I’d fallen out of love with it halfway through. NHO STEAM-CHEST, or RIBWORT, and the meaning of OVERTONE was new to me. Thanks to Z for parsing CRITERIA.

    FOI GOVERN
    LOI RIBWORT
    COD BROUGHT TO HEEL
    TIME 12:59

    I really can’t be bothered to submit it.

  35. By no means a walk in the park (never thought I would be able to say that about a 15×15) but I made steady progress ending up in the NE corner. Overtone went in with a shrug, but an early Pen for the enclosure (nice to see I am in distinguished company) caused all sorts of problems until I finally saw the hidden Thrive. That just left 6d and the mysterious sycophant. A word ending -eater seemed a reasonable option, but T*a* for the devil driver just didn’t prompt what is now the blindingly obvious Toad. So a DNF for want of two letters. No matter, a very enjoyable journey. Invariant
  36. 52 minutes, of which at least ten were spent looking at the vacant squares which I now know, thanks to our blogger, were intended for TOADEATER and OVERTONE. Glad I threw the towel in when I did: these would never have come to me, RSM Grade VIII musical education notwithstanding. Well done to the many posters who cracked these two, both unknown to me.
  37. 54 minutes, after which I finally dared to put in OVERTONE and TOADEATER since nothing better occurred to me and then waited for the pink squares to appear. Delighted when they didn’t. Otherwise quite a nice puzzle, with no serious difficulties with the other answers.
  38. Too slow to get on yesterday’s SNITCH, an error in Tuesday’s solve, I certainly couldn’t AFFORD to make a mistake today. Oh well, at least I see I’m in good company with Keriothe. I had some misgivings but just about managed to justify it enough to move on. Other than that 19-ish minutes with a pause at the end trying to come up with toadeater, saw the demon driver first and then the eater, don’t think I would have been able to come up with it as a synonym for sycophant on its own.
  39. A very belated message, but just let me say that I greatly enjoy z8b8d8k’s elegant blogging style. Long may it continue.

    For me, I was unaware that OVERTONE=PARTIAL but let it rip anyway. And as one of the speedsters, perhaps, yes we do appreciate the cleverness of the clues as we go along.

  40. Surprised so many knew TOAD meaning demon driver. Never come across it nor TOADEATER. The other obscurities were clear enough from the w/p but that clue gave me a fruitless 5 minute alphatrawl at the end. Glad I didn’t persevere.

    Lots to like but not that clue for me

    Thanks all

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