Times 25087 – do you have something to say, Prince William?

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 14:40, but over five minutes of that was spent agonizing possibilities for 20 down, before cottoning on to it as a straight out anagram clue. So up until that point I was making pretty roaring progress. I suspect the reference that was completely unknown to me will be immediately familiar to UK-based solvers, so I expect some lightning fast times.

Unless 7 down has slipped from memory…

Away we go!

Across
1 GEOGRAPHY: I got this from checking letters originally, but the wordplay is intricate it’s EOG (odd letters from EnOuGh) in GRAPH, Y(unknown)
6 BOSOM: S in BOOM
9 INDIANS: alternating letters of aDmIrAl in INNS
10 NIB(point of a pen), LICK(defeat): old-style golf wedge
11 GRAFT: double definition
12 AMENITIES: MEN in A1, TIES
13 BOHEMIAN: strange clue – MI(half of MIMI) in BOHEA(tea), N. Edit for clarity: the definition is “Mimi, say” referring to the character in “La Boheme” – my “strange clue” meaning that a part of the definition reappears in the wordplay – referenced of course, so it isn’t doing double duty
14 YOGI: cartoon bear and spiritual leader
17 CUR,L: lock of hair
18 QUICK(live),SET(established): got this from wordplay, it’s a living barrier, hence a hedge
21 BEHEADING: HE in BEADING
22 let’s omit this from the acrosses
24 N,A,MASTE(r). Edit: if you’re in the spirituality-obsessed US, and particuarly my part of the world, you’ll hear this at least once a day, usually from an overly-tanned person in a kaftan, or a guy with dreadlocks and 0-gauge ear jewelery
25 IMPOUND: or I’M POUND
26 (c)HASTE
27 THEORISER: HE in (RIOTERS)*
 
Down
1 GRIEG: RE separately in GIG
2 OLD FATHER THAMES: cryptic definition? Edit: and a reference to an old song, see comments
3 our down omission
4 PASS AWAY: WASSA(il) reversed in PAY
5 YANKEE: one who is yanked
6 BOBBIN(g): a shuttle for wool
7 SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS: (I,SPOIL,TOURIST’S,F)* – plane used in Lindbergh’s solo flight from New York to Paris. It’s on display at the National Air And Space Museum in Washington DC. When I saw it a few years ago I was surprised by how small it is
8 MAKESHIFT: MAKES HIT with F(ollowing) inside
13 BACK,BENCH
15 QUAGMIRE: AGM (Annual General Meeting) in QUIRE. Giggity, giggity
16 SCRAPPER: CR in SAPPER
19 LASSI,E
20 SILENT: (LISTEN)*, reference to William of Orange
23 WADER: WARDER without the first R

53 comments on “Times 25087 – do you have something to say, Prince William?”

  2. 35 minutes, with 6d my LOI. I wasted a good deal of time, putting in ‘Sufi’ for some reason (are they ascetics, even?) when YOGI was staring me in the face, trying to figure out 3d instead of noticing the hidden, assuming that the 3d word in 7d had to be ‘so’, etc. I threw in 1ac and 15d without having worked them out; thanks, George, for the explanations. Since we have ‘banker’ in 2d, is ‘rolling’ serving any purpose?
    1. Thank you. I began listening and for a horrible moment thought that Oscar Hammerstein had nicked the idea for Ol’ Man River from this, but am relieved to see from the dates that it’s the other way around.
      1. I hadn’t checked the dates, and that’s interesting but the personification and celebration of a rolling river in song was not new at the time of Showboat, for example there’s this one from the 19th century:

        Oh Shenandoah,
        I long to see you,
        Away you rolling river.
        Oh Shenandoah,
        I long to see you,
        Away, I’m bound away,
        ‘cross the wide Missouri.

  4. Which is about how long LJ took to open this morning.

    And yes, I too spent far too long on 20dn before seeing the obvious. Had no idea how to parse 13ac (though the answer was obvious), so thanks for that. Anyone here ever hear of a NAMASTE? Not this one!

  5. 35 minutes. I began with the long Downs and being a fan of the late Peter Dawson (ref my earlier posting) 2dn went straight in on first reading so I got off to a very good start.

    This was mostly straightforward but there were several unknowns: GRAFT (make money from corruption), QUICKSET and NAMASTE. The explanation I had for SILENT that I went to sleep on last night did not stand up to scrutiny this morning; I had been thinking of the Prince in the Oscar Wide story, but of course he was ‘happy’ and not ‘silent’. On 13ac, perhaps we need to mention Mimi in ‘La Boheme’ by Puccini.

    1. Whereas I didn’t know the ‘hard work’ meaning of GRAFT, which kept me from putting it in for a while. Come to think of it, ‘graft’ is a noun (=corruption, or money from corruption); so was the ‘Make’ needed?
      1. It’s also a verb, meaning “to engage in graft or corrupt practices”. The making money bit is implied I suppose: why else would you do it?
  6. Enjoyable, quirky puzzle with an old-fashioned, slightly imperial feel (quick, niblick, namaste, quire, lassi, yogi). Stymied myself in the SE by carelessly putting in ‘theorises’, but the warder got me out of jail there. The silent Prince of Orange was the only total unknown. COD to WADER for the smooth surface. 55 minutes.

    GRAFT is very well known out east.

  7. COD to SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS for “first right across the pond”, appreciation not doubt increased as I had wasted some time on Wiki looking at the wording of The First Amendment. About an hour this morning but I had PISS AWAY as something one tended to do with one’s Christmas bonus.
    1. Hello Barry – your ears must have burning. I suggested yesterday that you would have been the man to talk about Jack Hobbs. Good to hear from you. PISS AWAY in the Times?!?!
  8. A good 40 minute challenge. Nothing went in on first pass but once I’d made a breakthrough, things fell steadily into place. NAMASTE on wordplay; BOHEMIAN on the basis it couldn’t be anything else – no idea how to parse so particular thanks, George, for the explanation of this and for the blog in general. COD to elegant deception of SILENT.
  9. 12 minutes, with 2 at the end pondering 20dn. I didn’t know the William thing. QUICKSET was also new to me but by pure coincidence I came across NAMASTE yesterday. And thanks to Jack for explaining the Thames reference.
  10. 15 and a bit this morning, with SILENT almost last in for the same reason as everyone else – looked anything but an anagram, I thought.
    NAMASTE is both a gracious and easily performed greeting, a delightful contributions from the Subcontinent. Working in multicultural Hackney, I encountered it quite a bit, and found that answering the courtesy in kind was itself welcome.
    I too spent a while wondering what the first US “right” was, but couldn’t find a way of fitting in Freedom of Whatever.
    QUICKSET from wordplay, otherwise unknown. Quick=live might prove tricky to those outside the 1662 prayerbook community. Perhaps the days are passing when “There are only two types of pedestrians: the quick and the dead” would be a recognisable witticism.
    “Rolling” is there in 2d to be generous to the slowing recall capability of those of us old enough to remember the song.
    CoD to YANKEE for the delicious reimagining of the word is true Yankee fashion.
      1. Ok here in the US.
        George is quite right to comment on the awesomely small size of the plane. Another awesome aircraft in the same museum is John Glenn’s space capsule Friendship7 – 50th anniversary coming up. 22 minutes today. Would have been faster but I always get the composer’s vowels muddled.
  12. Gazed at virtually empty NE for quite some time after rest was done. Finally got there in 38. I find 6 ac. a bit teeth-gritting somehow; but a fair enough clue. Namaste is a common pan-Indian greeting and word of respect. One day the Times crossword will venture further into the east than the barest touch of table and temple it allows itself at present. Nevertheless, enjoyed the background to this one: enriched, if not 22.

  13. Same as Joe, in that I managed all but NE in pretty good time.

    Defeated by (the unknown) NIBLICK. Didn’t think of LICK for ‘defeat’. QUICKSET another unknown, but managed that one. Was a bit unsure of INDIANS for people, but I guess it’s as opposed to ‘chiefs’ (who are also people, no?).

    Thanks to George for blog, needed a couple explained (SOSL, BOHEMIAN, SILENT).

    2. Store this away in your personal Dictionary of Words You Know Because They Appear in the Times Crossword. In the same section (“Old Names for Golf Clubs”) you should have entries for MASHIE, BRASSIE and SPOON.
      1. Or, of course, from P.G. Wodehouse’s brilliant golfing stories. In fact my early reading of Wodehouse has helped me many times with the Times crossword, and elsewhere.

        Paul S.

    1. I wasn’t sure if that show would translate to the UK well. For a few years it was close to the funniest animated shows, certainly the best on network TV in the US. I still watch it, but there’s usually only two or three good laughs per episode.

      1. My teenage boys watch it ad nauseam and guffaw with laughter. Must admit, I just don’t ‘get’ it… I’d like to think it was a gender thing rather than an age thing!

  15. 12 minutes, my last in being 20a but like everyone else I didn’t see what Prince William had to do with it. Very enjoyable lunchtime diversion.
  16. 26:23 but I’m not too sure what slowed me down.

    The bloomin’ hidden answer was my last in. Like others I first thought that 7 was going to be something rom the Bill of Rights or whatever but I guess that was the setter’s intention.

    George, I think you’ve had a case of fat finger syndrome at 10. I doubt that even Tiger Woods has golden clubs.

  17. Bohemian was relatively simple once one had the down checks, it was the only word that fit. A drink? Feel the average mixacologist would be scratching his head when asked for a Bohemian unless, of course, he was Czech and the answer would be “down the road and over the hills.” My respect for the blogger’s knowledge of tea and for his parsing, but surely absinthe is the Bohemian Drink?

    Enigma

    1. I probably should be more clear in the answer – the definition is “Mimi, say” referring to the character from La Boheme. The only drink in there is the BOHEA tea
  18. It’s rather fun when I come to and see what has happened with the comments. Whatever I seem to think needs the most explaining appears to be obvious and what I think should be obvious turns out to be stumping people.

    Thanks for all the comments, I’ll add in a few edits. Also seems most people liked this, so I should add in a congrats to the setter.

  19. Struggled a bit with this after tiring round of golf and some trouble with my niblick and putter. Had to guess SILENT, not connecting with the orange one at all and NAMASTE although I must have seen it before. Good puzzle I thought.
  20. Struggled, and needed Bradford. Can someone explain how the dropping of ‘il’ from WASSAil is indicated?
    I liked 1ac.
    BW
    Andrew Kitching
  21. About 30 minutes, ending with BOHEMIAN and the INDIANS. I knew NAMASTE, but not Mimi the character, lassi or that a QUICKSET is a hedge. Or that Prince William was SILENT. Happy to have got through, given all that. Regards.
  22. 7:11 for me, finishing reasonably briskly after a slow start.

    No problems with anything apart from “shuttle” = BOBBIN. Since no-one else has mentioned it, I suspect I’m missing something obvious, but I’ve never come across this before and can’t find any dictionary to support it. A shuttle can have a bobbin in it, but that’s as far as it goes.

    1. COED has ‘Shuttle – a bobbin carrying the lower thread in a sewing machine’. Collins has two definitions starting ‘a bobbin-like device…’
      1. Thanks, Jack. I think the COED definition nails it. (I’m less convinced by Collins’s “bobbin-like”.)

        The OED’s definitions of “shuttle” include

        A reciprocating thread-holder in a sewing-machine, which carries the lower thread through the loop of the upper one to make a lock-stitch.

        and its definitions of “bobbin” include

        A small spool for receiving the thread, placed within the shuttle, in some sewing machines.

        I’m more familiar with the sort of shuttle you find in weaving, about which the OED offers the following gloss:

        The normal form of the shuttle resembles that of a boat, whence its name in various langs. (Latin navicula, French navette, German Weberschiff). Along the middle is an axis or ‘spindle’, on which revolves the ‘quill’ or ‘bobbin’, a cylinder carrying the thread of the weft.

        Edited at 2012-02-17 12:21 am (UTC)

        1. Good job it only takes you 7 minutes so you can spend the 2+ hours it takes the rest of us looking up etymologies of sewing paraphernalia…
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