Times 25,163 Meet Kelly Fletcher

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time 25 minutes

A reasonably straightforward, middle of the road Times cryptic that shouldn’t over tax seasoned solvers. One usage of an archaic word that’s a bit Mephisto like in the clueing. The Sultan of Swat crops up twice but is never directly referred to – shame.

In case you missed it tomorrow will be your final chance to enter the Times National Crossword Championship

Across
1 BUMPER – two meanings 1=huge 2=front of UK estate, perhaps;
5 ARMCHAIR – cryptic definition, reference “armchair general” and the like;
9 ICONOCLAST – (cant is cool)*; Dawkins rides again;
10 RUTH – A book of the Christian Bible that follows Judges;
11 PRECIOUS – PRECI(O-U)S; love=zero (tennis);
12 HUNGRY – HUNG-RY; “wanting fare” is clever definition;
13 SHAH – (a)S(k)-(w)H(o)-(w)A(s)-(t)H(e); old king of Persia;
15 GOODWILL – GOOD-WILL; you don’t actually need a lawyer to make a will, so a “perhaps” was needed in this clue;
18 IMMODEST – I’M-MODE-ST; way=street=ST; there’s only one Immodesty Blaize
19 STYX – cryptic definition; on edit STY-X (see comments)
21 STRAIT – S(ermon)-TRAIT;
23 IRISHISM – hidden (cha)IR-IS-HIS-M(istake); racial stereotyping;
25 JUST – JU(S)T; succeeded=S;
26 UNDISPUTED – (studied pun)*;
27 CHARISMA – CHAR(I’S)M-A;
28 WEEKLY – sounds like “weakly”; surely The Economist for Times readers;
 
Down
2 ULCER – (clue r=right)*;
3 PINOCCHIO – PIN-O(CC)HIO; he of the elongated nose (no, not Michael Jackson);
4 RECKON – RECK-ON; “reck” is very old word for “pay attention to” – Mephisto style clue;
5 A,PASSAGE,TO,INDIA – (i.e it’s a P and O saga)*; P&O is the famous shipping line;
6 MATCHBOX – MATCH-BOX; striker=match;
7 HERON – HE(R-O)N; rook=R (chess);
8 INTERPLAY – (party line)*; flirtation; Doris Day again in Pillow Talk;
14 HOME,TRUTH – HO-MET-RUTH; house=HO; sorrow=RUTH; what Greece et al desperately need;
16 WASH-HOUSE – WAS-HHO-USE(d); chemical symbols for water are HHO;
17 CENTAURS – CENT(AU-R)S; sovereign=king=R; half man half horse;
20 JIGSAW – JIG-SAW;
22 AFTER – A(rmy)-F(ighting)-T(he)-E(nemy)-R(ight);
24 SWELL – S-WELL;

43 comments on “Times 25,163 Meet Kelly Fletcher”

  1. Someone else will have pointed this out by the time I write, but I think there’s a bit more to 19ac. A STY is not a nice place; and X is a cross. So &lit? Back later with general comments.
    1. Thanks, edited. I just read the clue and put in the answer with S-Y- already in place!
    2. Agree on 19ac. I also thought 5dn was a good spot for another &lit.

      Essex Man

  2. Second easy one in a row for me! All ok, all understanding ok, except for the SHAH cryptic. Seems an awful lot more complicated than the rest of the clues today. (Edit: Actually, must admit, I’d not come across RECK before!)

    LOI: RUTH, once I’d noted the capital ‘J’ (was surprised there was no x-reference with HOME TRUTH).

    Yes, I got STYX from same as McT: STY+X

    Edited at 2012-05-15 07:51 am (UTC)

  3. Enjoyed this a great deal. Especially 10ac which put me in mind of this great album: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Judges_Ruth
    The list of musos is about as impressive as you can get on a cowboy record. Check Edgar Meyer’s work if you don’t know it. His Bach cello suites for double bass is one of my faves. (Vinyl?) Still trying to get my head around his tunings.

    5dn screamed “anagram”, did it not?

    Most time spent in the NW: 1ac, 4dn, 11ac. At 1ac, with the U in place (cruel?), I was looking for a Q-starter for a possible pangram — though how to get V and Z into the rest didn’t look promising.

  4. Enjoyable sub-30 minute solve but with about 10 of those devoted to IMMODEST and RECKON (went in because it fitted and seemed to tally with ‘judge’ – but no real understanding of wordplay until coming here – so thank you, jimbo). COD to RUTH for the pleasure when the penny dropped about ‘Judges’. I’m normally intolerant of overblown sensitivities but even I wondered whether IRISHISM was too much of a racial stereotype/slur.
  5. 15 minutes, and lots of fun with this one after a kind of wavelength shift once GOODWILL went in: before that, only the long one, an obvious but quite apposite anagram, had yielded readily. RECKON and BUMPER went in last only because I worked steadily clockwise from the Tyne.
    The encyclopaedic range of cluing devices added to the attraction: while not a beginners crossword, much of the setter’s armoury is teachable from here.
    STYX an excellent &lit, though I suppose its nastiness depends on what awaits you on the other side.
    Given my background, I suppose I should have got RUTH (also in the Jewish Bible, and they had it first) rather quicker, but my legal side intervened and sent me off in quite the wrong direction.
    CoD to the delightful WASHHOUSE, the watery content encouraging a smile. SHAH was pretty good too, though not many words go ?H?H
  6. 30 minutes exactly for this one. DK RECK. I got STY+X as mct but don’t think much of the &lit.

    The required meaning of IRISHISM is in Chambers but is not the one given in Collins and the Oxfords. It has already drawn comment elsewhere and apparently Ukrainian / Little Russian in yesterday’s puzzle was deemed offensive too.

  7. … so 53 seciond quicker than McT, which’ll do for me! Didn’t see the parsing for SHAH (should have sussed it out by dint of the four consecutive 3-letter words if not by the command ‘endlessly’) or RECKON. Last in (naturally) and COD to the hidden IRISHMAN, to be sure.

    Jimbo, you have a Christian Bilble.

      1. Prefer the Bilble myself. About the same length, but read only by Hobbits.
  8. Another straightforward one today, a tad under 20mins. I didn’t like 19ac at first but I am warking to it, it is quite a neat &lit.

    so far as Irishisms are concerned, Irish = dim is such a cliche that I can’t see how anyone could possibly take it personally or be offended by it. My Irish friend tells me that they themselves refer to the inhabitants of Kerry in exactly the same way. He wasn’t sure who the inhabitants of Kerry use…

    1. This sort of thing occurs all over the world. The French and the Belgians for example. However, I don’t think that makes it acceptable, particularly when the Southern Irish have so many other appealing characteristics that the reference could easily have been modified. In the lilt of Irish laughter you can hear the angels sing>
      1. I’m with Jerry on this. How sad will be the day when we have to say only nice things about groups. It will surely correspond with a time when we are nasty about individuals, who are the people that really matter.
        1. You surprise me Ulaca. Surely any generalisation about a group is by definition inaccurate at the individual level and thus potentially hurtful, or indeed dangerous when taken to extreme lengths.

          The clue would have lost nothing by being say: For example, blarney disguised by flair is his manner.

          Edited at 2012-05-15 11:05 am (UTC)

        2. If it’s OK to say that Irish people are stupid, is it OK to say that Scottish people are all mean? How about jews? Black people are thieves? Where do you draw the line? Who decides whether it’s offensive?
          I’d prefer not to see any of this stuff in the Times crossword.
          1. Surely the thieves are the Welsh. As in:

            “Taffy was a Welshman.
            Taffy was a thief.
            Taffy came to my house.
            And stole a joint of beef.
            I went to Taffy’s house.
            Taffy was not at home.
            Taffy came to my house
            and stole a marrow bone etc”

            I was born and educated in Wales and this rhyme was included in popular books of nursery rhymes available to we small Taffs. The perception of Taffy as a thief probably dates back to the time when there were armed raids over the Welsh/English border. I can’t say that the rhyme, though scurrilous, did my self esteem any lasting damage!

      2. We should do as the Germans and begin with the third verse of our national anthem out of shame . I’m glad that nobody’s going to read this one .

        Jeremy.

  9. 12 minutes: must have been on the wavelength.
    I was very surprised by IRISHISM. We seem to have had a run of rather offensive terms.

  10. 9 minutes and something but my browser crashed as I hit ‘submit’. This quite infuriated me until I realised how little it mattered.

    Anyway, I found this one very easy. Perhaps I should come over all existential more often.

  11. A straightforward ten minutes for me – I frowned at 23a too. I hadn’t done 13a so had to spend a while trying to work out the correct spelling for the dishonest puppet in 3d. So, was this one friendly to lure us into a false sense of security for tomorrow?
  12. As an Irish person who regularly completes and enjoys the Times crossword, I find this mildly irritating, and lazy stereotyping. My jury is still out on cotton-picking from recent days too, but I hope this is not an avenue of regular occurrences. Dorset Jumbo’s alternative is not really any better by the way, if he cared to explore the definition of blarney fully.
    1. A pity you didn’t elaborate anon since you appear to be talking nonsense

      For those not aware Blarney is a town in Cork with a castle. In the wall of that castle is set a stone called the Blarney Stone (put there alegedly by the builders, the MacCarthy Clan, after succesfully pleading a law suit I recall). Kissing the stone is said to give one the ability to sweet talk through wit, charm and articulate use of language. There is no derogatory aspect to it that I’m aware of – but perhaps you know different, anon, and would like to elucidate

  13. Slow to get away on this but picked up eventually for a 25 minutes. Though I got all het up over cotton-picking (= damned) I think the use of Irishism is OK, no more than a bit of fun; I think if I were Irish I might rather treasure it. There’s a level of security with one’s national identity I’d have thought that can resist the odd gentle characterisation. Otherwise, indeed, where are we?

    Edited at 2012-05-15 04:55 pm (UTC)

  14. I like the idea of Charisma Weekly. Perhaps I could enjoy it from the comfort of my bumper armchair.
  15. Just under 30 minutes for me which is quite good as I am a relative newcomer. One missing though was “reckon” as I have never come across reck. COD has to be Washhouse for me simply for water being HHO.
  16. Reading the comments reminded me of a chat with a setter about whether it was OK to include “DAGO” as part of wordplay, followed by a note I sent to Azed saying I was disappointed he used FAG in wordplay (1 down in 2074). Now I think the challenge should be on to create the most offensive crossword ever (could get published in Viz maybe?).

    Raced through this, didn’t time it but couldn’t have been 10 minutes. Questioned RUTH, not knowing the order biblicus, and didn’t get the full wordplay to GOODWILL while solving.

    1. You may be onto something, George. Perhaps Roger Mellie could devise a crossword which manages to offend absolutely everybody.

      Talking of which, my inner feminist (I know I have one somewhere) nearly got offended recently over the clueing of BLACK-EYED SUSAN as, essentially, a battered woman. But I got over myself. It’s a crossword.

      I do agree with you about ‘fag’, however, or the unqualified inclusion of any term of abuse. I was no more impressed with ‘pig’ for a police officer a few years ago, so it’s not just a wet liberal thing.

      On IRISHISM, having taken the day to mull it over, I’m about where Tony is (below). It’s such a subjective thing, but like Tony, I’ve always thought of an Irishism as a reflection of a sort of arcane and sublime genius (as in the celebrated “If I were you, I wouldn’t start from here” direction to a lost motorist).

      Edited at 2012-05-15 10:59 pm (UTC)

  17. I hope that the compiler has the courage to use a racist slight against against a less tolerant people than the Irish. If anyone has a way to contact this individual, please express to him/her the fact that a definition in a dictionary is not a right to use it in what is, basically, an entertainment. I am anglo/Irish, I got the answer while my English chum was struggling with the with the clue. We were both amazed that someone would be brazen or idiotic enough to include such a light with its peurile and racist definition. I am also writing to the editor of the paper to register my disgust.
  18. About 25 minutes, so not as easy an experience as some others, but no real difficulties. I liked the SHAH device, and the clever aspect of RUTH. By the way, all four of my grandparents were Irish, and emigrated to the US during the troublesome 1920’s. Nevertheless, I had no particular reaction to IRISHISM, while I did have a visceral jolt upon seeing ‘cotton-picking’ a few days ago. Perhaps that’s due to not having IRISHISMs over here, and I thought it to be a UK-centric word, and probably quite out of date. Regards to all.
  19. It is only a little bit of fun really, Isn’t it? If I happened to be a smug moron from the Home Counties who has neve been racially stereotyped, I would have the same opinion. I, however, will do all I can to have the idiot who compiled this Xword dismissed and the sub-editor that allowed the racist slur to be printed to follow asap. Just for a laugh. Innit!
    1. If you’re planning to contact the paper in your efforts to get two people fired, would you mind adding a complaint about yourself?

      “a smug moron from the Home Counties” is very much the sort of lazy, generalized assumption you’re complaining about and definitely the sort of ad hominem insult from which this page is normally and blessedly free.

      Edited at 2012-05-15 10:56 pm (UTC)

  20. 7:09 here for a most enjoyable puzzle with some excellent &lits – 5dn so good that I only spotted the anagram after I’d filled in the answer!

    I reacted to IRISHISM in much the same way as kevin_from_ny, in that it didn’t really bother me, whereas I had the same visceral jolt over COTTON-PICKING the other day. I think it’s because the best Irishisms are endearingly (and presumably deliberately) nonsensical. My favourite is:

    1st Irishman: Didn’t I meet you in Cork last week?
    2nd Irishman: It can’t have been me. I’ve never been to Cork.
    1st Irishman: Neither have I. Sure and it must have been another two people!

    Edited at 2012-05-15 11:32 pm (UTC)

  21. Should a Christian minister confess that 10ac was LOI, having worked out that it wasn’t likely to be RITA?

    FWIW, my take is that a word is a word. Its inclusion in a crossword is not an indication that the setter likes the meaning of a word – more the spelling.

    I note, for instance, that I was associated with criminal activity only yesterday, but slept like a baby.

  25. 12:21, a PB. COD to 10ac. I was surprised at IRISHISM (despite the name, I’m not a bit Irish). I might add that the problem with ‘Little Russian’=Ukrainian is not that it implies inferiority in Ukrainians, but that it implies that Ukrainians are Russians.(I’m not Ukrainian either, although my grandmother was born in Odessa; but she was a Jew, so the question of Ukrainian nationality probably didn’t interest her much.)
  26. Anonymous rants such as yours tend to have the opposite effect to that presumably intended.

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