Times 25078 – Was I supposed to be watching something on TV?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 54 minutes

Music: Mahler, Symphony #5, Levine/Philadelphia Orchstra

I thought this might be a rather quick solve when I put in nearly half the answers in 10 minutes, but then I slowed down to just one answer every five minutes or so, with a few bursts as whole quadrants fell.

I was held back by a number of wrong ideas that I just could not get out of my head. At the end, I was left with the long one at the bottom, for which I just did not have the requisite
knowledge and had to guess. Fortunately, my guess was correct.

Those with the requisite knowledge who avoided the blind alleys might have been able to solve this very quickly.

Across
1 CURMUDGEONLY, C + UR(MUD)GE + ONLY. I wasted a long time trying to justify ‘contemptible’, which fit the one letter I had plus the initial ‘C’.
8 HALIBUT, HAL + I + BUT. I am glad to be spared the homonym for this one!
9 LIFT-OFF, double definition, one jocular. I tried ‘take-off” and erased it when I couldn’t make sense of the ‘stairs’ part.
11 ELEMENT, double definition, as in ‘in one’s element’. For a long time I thought these were US state abbreviations. They are definitely not members of the Three Stooges!
12 PICASSO, PIC(A)S SO. A ridiculously easy literal hands you the answer.
13 ENTRY, double definition, a straight one this time.
14 RESURRECT, RE + SURRE[y} + CT.
16 OVERLADEN, OVER + LAD + [s]E[e]N. The word-order of this clue provides good deception, making the solver want to apply ‘regularly’ to ‘youth’, rather than ‘seen’, and put ‘deliveries’ at the end. But ‘with’ doesn’t specify any particular location, does it?
19 SABLE, SA(B[ought])LE. Well, ‘at a bargain price’ can mean ‘on sale’, but does ‘on’ mean ‘inside of’? I believe it can, but I thought this clue didn’t quite come off.
21 GRANGES, G(R)ANGES. My first in, nearly a chestnut.
23 HEIRESS, H[aiti] EIRE’S S.
24 RA(PTU)RE, that is, an anagram of ‘put’ inside ‘rare’. Quite a good clue, tricky but fair.
25 ROTUNDA, anagram of AND TOUR. Used before, I believe.
26 WELLINGTONIA, WELLINGTON + I + A. My ignorance of both English botanical nomenclature and London landmarks held me up a bit here, but I think I’ve got it. The Wellingtonia is generally known as the Sequoia in the US, and is certainly a big enough tree. The Duke of Wellington is associated with Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner in Mayfair, which is known as No. 1 London. I believe that is where the ‘I’ comes from. Any other explanations are certainly welcome.My answer is correct, but it’s W(ELLINGTON)1 + A, sorry about that.
 
Down
1 CULVERT, CUL(VER)T, i.e. ‘rev’ upside down. I was entirely convinced that the priest was ‘Eli’, which made this clue difficult to solve. While a rector or a vicar is technically a priest of the Church of England, he is not often referred to as a ‘priest’ in crossword clues.
2 ROBBERY, R(-u[nion] + O)BBERY. I saw this was a letter-substiitution clue right away, but was at a loss for a long time as to the word to perform this operation on.
3 UNTUTORED, anagram of TURNED OUT. I thought this was an anagram of ‘ignorant’ for about 30 minutes, being unable to count.
4 GALOP, GAL + OP. This should be a chestnut, but I have never seen this dance in a puzzle before.
5 OFFICER, OFFICE + R. Very simple, but I didn’t see it for the longest time.
6 LOOK-SEE, LOO(K[ing])SE + [palac]E.
7 CHEESEMONGER, cryptic definition, one that did not fool me, even though I prefer a nice Double Gloucester.
10 FRONTIERSMAN, FR + ON + TIERS + MAN, where ‘tiers’ is an anagram of ‘rites’ and Man is an island.
15 SANDHURST, SAND + HUR(S)T. Most solvers will put this in from the literal, with maybe a bit of help from the novelist.
17 EXAMPLE, EX + AMPLE. The literal is ‘say’, but if it were left off this would be an interesting &lit.
18 LEG-PULL, LEG + PULL in different senses. Here a ‘row’ is not a punch-up but an actual pull on an oar.
19 SMITTEN, S + MITTEN. A mitten is not really a glove, but the answer is obvious enough.
20 BIENNIA, BIEN + NIA, anagram of IN A. I tried to make the whole thing a French phrase, wasting much time.
22 STERN, double definition, a rather weak one. Yes, the sailors may be in the stern of the ship, but they might just as well have slipped off for a round of grog in the local tavern.

33 comments on “Times 25078 – Was I supposed to be watching something on TV?”

  1. More Americana – it’s ELLINGTON in W1 (the postal code for Mayfair) + A.

    Not Old Nosey at all.

  2. 32 minutes, with the last few spent on 11, where my ignorance of Molybdenum led me to put the correct answer in on the basis of the first ‘element’ (of the clue) alone. ‘Al or Mo’ never quite convinced as MEN and as for ELET – well, I really should have stopped thinking and just bunged in ELEMENT as it was far likelier than ‘Everest’.

    RAPTURE was clever, I was misled into ‘cheeseseller’ for a while, but my COD must go to the big tree.

  3. So, ignorant of the afore-mentioned traps. Though I’ll admit to getting 26ac much the same way as Vinyl1. Wondered about a few things such as:
    1ac: boorish = curmudgeonly? The first seems to be rude, and the second bad-tempered. Not quite the same? Though no doubt someone with more dictionaries than I have will put me right.
    22dn: Agree that this is a bit loose. “Serious fiddler” anyone?
  4. 19 minutes. I had, or so I thought, only 20d to do at 15′, but that was because I had put in ‘stole’ at 19ac (a bargain price is a steal, ergo…). Finally twigged to ‘bien’. I didn’t think of our Duke, and didn’t know that WELLINGTONIA was a tree, let alone a big one –thought it was a bush of some sort–but I knew it had to be. Ditto with 1ac and 21ac, which I solved without understanding until afterwards. I share mctext’s doubts about ‘boorish’. I believe the Superbowl will be shown this evening here in Japan, although once the 49ers were eliminated I lost interest. At least I’ll be spared the asinine hoopla and commercials.
  5. B(ought) is in SALE so therefore ‘at bargain price’ (as in ‘I bought it in a sale’). V, you have a stray ‘r’ inside the square brackets.

    Edited at 2012-02-06 05:49 am (UTC)

  6. I raced through most of this hardly stopping for breath but I was delayed at the very finish (quelle surprise!) by four in the NW which took my total time to 21 minutes. The offenders were CURMUDGEONLY, ROBBERY, ELEMENT and CULVERT.

    I can’t find any direct support in the dictionaries for ‘boorish’ = ‘curmudgeonly’, but Collins includes ‘boorish’ = ‘rude’, ‘curmudgeonly’ = ‘surly’ and ‘surly’ = ‘rude’ so I guess that covers it.

    I too was convinced that 1dn contained ELI or ILE for ‘priest’ or ‘priest sent up’ and I needed all the checkers to spot the answer as CULVERT. Incidentally, vinyl1, we were discussing Robert Barnard a few weeks ago and yesterday I finished ‘The Disposal of the Living’ (aka ‘Fete Fatale’) in which the exposure of the murderer turned in part on their use of the word ‘priest’ when referring to the newly-appointed C of E vicar. This proved they were a foreigner, you see, and therefore up to no good. The fact that they had named their precious pooch ‘Gustave’ hadn’t raised the question in anyone’s mind previously of course! It had been a cracking read until this point.

    I was on the right lines immediately at 26ac because ‘Duke in Mayfair standing’ set me thinking of the Wellington arch at Hyde Park Corner in front of Apsley House or No 1 London as it is often known. Of course on reflection it’s not a statue of the Duke himself but by the time I realised this it had served its purpose. I then remembered the tree that came up here in January last year.

    I agree that STERN at 22dn is a bit feeble, which is a shame in an otherwise excellent puzzle.

    Edited at 2012-02-06 06:35 am (UTC)

    1. You’ve just reminded me of an exchange Peter and I had here I don’t know how long ago, over a clue that included ‘priest’, with the solution being RABBI, as I recall. I objected that rabbis are not priests; I had thought that Protestant clergy across the board were not either, but wasn’t sure enough about the C of E. Now, if only you had read Barnard a year earlier!
      1. Well, men and women, according to the CoE ordination service, are ‘ordained to the office of priest in the Church of God’, so it’s a bit of a stretch is this one Jack mentions.

        I think the real shibboleth should be not what a minister is called by a foreign johnnie, but whether he believes in the incarnation and the resurrection. If he does, then you’ve found your man!

  7. 12 minutes for this, then an “invalid status response” and another couple of minutes to put all the answers in again. I was a bit worried I might post a time of 2 minutes.
    Straightforward but enjoyable I thought. I was slowed down by a few half-understood bung-ins. ABALONE, for instance, which fits one part of the clue if no other, and STOLE, which would certainly qualify as cheap if not bought. I was also thinking of Leicester and Derby as some sort of tableware. Fortunately I couldn’t think of anything to bung in.
    I had the same thought about CURMUDGEONLY/boorish as others and I think they’re quite different, although you sort of get there via “surly” as jackkt says, or perhaps “churlish”. It didn’t cause me a problem in any event because the wordplay is entirely clear.
    ELEMENT took me back to my panic right at the end of my championship preliminary.
  8. Count me in the stole group. Also very carelessly putting in Pankhurst which is a very different academy. Oops.

  9. All but…ELEMENT, where I had everest. Not very likely, but it fitted, and was my last in after quite a long time. Come to think of it, I seem to remember ELEMENT cropping up as to be in one’s ELEMENT a little while ago, maybe I’m thinking of the prelim that Kerio mentions. I tried for the longest time to fit in take OFF at 9ac, which meant the top left took quite a while to sort out.

    WELLINGTONIA same route as Vinyl. I first thought that Leicester and Derby were hats…

  10. No time today, interrupted by a long phonecall then taking a while to get going again. I was going to ask where the I came from in WELLINGTONIA, because although I knew the Mayfair Duke was not Iron (it’s Westminster, isn’t it?), I couldn’t break away and think of a different one.
    Otherwise no real issues. I thought “cheese” straight off in 7d which means I’m going to complain the clue was barely cryptic – though I suppose if one of the places had been Cheddar it would have been even less so.
    ELEMENT was he clue that caused much head scratching in the first prelim round last year, with the same “comfort zone” idea.
    CoD to what I saw as the very neat SABLE (B)ought in the SALE
  11. 24.07 for me so a better start to the week. Nothing that stood out today though I share reservations (slight ones) about CURMUDGEONLY. I wasn’t clear on why STERN led to ‘enforcing submission’ either if I am honest. My COD to 26 ac for the misleading duke which took me a while to get beyond. Thanks for blog.
  12. Easiest one for a while, 15 minutes while watching the cricket disaster, (well they’ve almost lost now) – except LOI biennia. Even with all the checkers I had to go for help but crosswordsolver.org didn’t know it,so technically a DNF.CoD the big tree.
  13. 34 minutes with some tricky elements, although not that one in my particular case. Put me down as another who was puzzled by the I in the tree. Some exceedingly well crafted clues here. COD to LOOK-SEE for its liberated goose. My only query is with “curious way” as anagrind in BIENNIA. Am I missing something?
  14. 8 minutes for me (would have been 7 1/2 if I hadn’t had to mutter to myself at 20d. Enjoyed myself too. 19a was my favourite today.
  15. A mostly straightforward solve at 14:27.

    Like Koro I’m puzzled by the last 3 letter of 20d. I could see “in, a curious way” denoting NI or “in a curious” just about denoting NIA but using “curious way” as an anagrind doesn’t work pour moi.

  16. 12 minutes, so fairly breezy though I got WELLINGTONIA from the definition and shrugged at SABLE.
    1. Perfectly kosha, I would have thought. You would expect a capital G only if “general” were attached to a name – e.g. General Montgomery. But not otherwise – e.g. “in WWII American and British generals spent as much time fighting each other as they did engaging the enemy”. And clues are supposed to be misleading aren’t they?
  18. Enjoyable and reasonably straightforward Monday fare, with tricky bits here and there. I agree with Jack that STERN (22dn) is feeble and with Penfold that “curious way” doesn’t work properly as an anagrind in 20dn. (On the other hand I loved “bananas” as the anagrind that supplies the PTU of RAPTURE at 24ac. I suppose it must have been done before but if so I can’t remember it.) I’m also with those who think a BOOR is not quite the same thing as a CURMUDGEON – the former being (according to the COED) “a rough and bad-mannered person” and the latter “a bad-tempered or surly person”, the emphasis in other words being on rudeness in the first case and on grumpiness in the second. But I don’t feel inclined to quibble too much. At any rate, the clue doesn’t seem to have caused any of us great difficulty.
  19. Not too tough, but no real time since I did this while watching what vinyl was avoiding. LOI was STERN, which as mentioned wasn’t particularly satisfying. I also didn’t notice the musical Duke in 26A until reading it here, so that’s a much better clue than I had thought. CURMUDGEONLY is close enough to ‘boorish’ for me, much better than ROTUNDA as ‘building’. I had thought a ROTUNDA is part of a building. Nevertheless, a pretty good puzzle. Regards.
  20. Yes, my fault. Realised it was ok just after I posted. Sorry for spelling ‘kosher’ wrong too!
    1. Welcome, Anon. If you register here for a free account you will be able to edit or delete your postings unless they have a reply attached.
  21. 33 minutes for this today. But I think it would have been at least 20 minutes longer if I’d stopped to work out all the cryptics. The long perimeter words went in by definition alone. I didn’t spot the jazzman and didn’t bother with CURMUDGEONLY once I had the checkers. Ditto FRONTIERSMAN. For some reason, I was thinking “Worcester and Derby” at 7d and wondering if there is a specific name for a purveyor of china plates. Wasted 5 minutes on that one. Memo to self: Read clues carefully.
  22. 14.30 today, first sub-15 for a time, so quietly just a little, a very little chuffed. I have no trouble with a curmudgeonly boor since have had the adjective applied to myself on more than one occasion when being the noun, and it felt right (and good). Surprised by the careless stern: while such a person may be enforcing submission there’s scarcely enough overlap for the clue to “take”. Neat 26: a pity one’s going to get it without seeing it; worthy of more.
  23. Just over an hour and something of a struggle, but I really enjoyed solving this one and even more so reading the comments here to see that other people took all of the same wrong turnings I did (Leicester and Derby hats? TAKE OFF before thinking of LIFT OFF. And so on). I am especially grateful for correct explanations for all of my, well, lucky guesses. COD to WELLINGTONIA and especially the superbly misleading breakdown of it.
  24. Aargh! The hope of finishing in a decent time meant that I was careless checking the last couple of down clues and failed to spot that I’d typed BIEENIA – which of course leapt out at me when I came to check through properly after I’d clicked my stopwatch on 5:31.

    I’ve noticed in the past that my mistakes tend to come in pairs, so I really ought to have been more alert after last week’s blunder over POSADAS. (Deep sigh!)

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