Times 25052 – Somebody pass me the dictionary

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 32:32 – I made rapid progress through the top half, but much slower further down.

Quite a few unusual words here. Several that I was only dimly aware of, if at all, like POTSDAM, SMETANA, PASCHAL, MIOCENE & POETASTER. There are some uncommon elements within the wordplay as well – TEMPI, HEP & RLY. All in all, I was quite pleased to finish in the time I did without resorting to aids.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 PICCOLOS = “PICK” + SOLO rev
5 LATe + VIA
8 TEMPTATION – It took me a while to deconstruct this one. It’s TEMPI (Times = Italian plural of tempo) about TAT (worthless stuff) + ON (about)
9 MOP + wackY
10 DROP A BOMBSHELL – cd – my first one in. It may have helped that I’d just finished watching a documentary on Marilyn Monroe.
11 MIOCENE = (COME IN)* + cagE – The Miocene epoch lasted from about 23 to 5.3 million years ago
13 PARA + PET
15 THE PITS = TITS (birds) about HEP (in, as an alternative to HIP). Pants as in rubbish.
18 SEPTETS = S + EP + STET rev
21 THE WINTER’S TALE = (THEATRE IN WEST London)*
22 EPEE = odd letters removed from pEoPlE gEt
23 EM(PATH)ETIC
24 STAT(U)S
25 SAILORLY = SO + RLY about AIL. You don’t see rly used for railway very often in these crosswords, but it’s listed in my Chambers and so perfectly OK.
Down
1 POTSDAM = D + AM all after STOP rev
2 COMMOD(OR)E
3 OATCAKE = (A + COoK + TEA)*
4 OUTSOLE = (USE TOOL)* – I’ve not come across an outsole before, but it’s a pretty small logical leap from insole.
5 LANDS + CAP + prizE
6 TEMPER + A – An unusual word in everyday conversation perhaps, but quite common in crosswords.
7 IMPULSE = (UP + MI) rev + LSE (London School of Economics)
12 NUTTINESS – cd/dd – a mad person can be described as ‘as nutty as a fruitcake’, so one definition is immediately derived from the other.
14 POETASTER = (OPERETTAS)*
16 HOT(S)POT
17 PR + EVENT – My first thought was PR as an abbreviation for ‘press’ + EVENT = ‘conference’, but I suspect it’s simpler than that, in that a press conference is a public relations exercise, hence a PR event.
18 SMETANA = (TEAM’S)* about (A + N) – A nineteenth century Czech composer
19 P(A + SCH)AL
20 SKETCHY – dd

29 comments on “Times 25052 – Somebody pass me the dictionary”

  1. Relatively pleased with my non-finish in 49 minutes, given that the post-solve check at http://www.crosswordpuzzlehelp which revealed the correct answer to 25ac to be SAILORLY (and not ‘mallarky’, which I could scarcely justify, not least, as it turns out, because this spelling isn’t accepted) convinced me I wouldn’t have got this even if I’d spent another ten minutes on it, in large part owing to ‘rly’. The full parsing of IMPULSE and THE PITS, too, was only worked out after stopping the clock.

    I must be getting better at these things, as it took me only three looks at 18dn before I thought, ‘Ah, yes, “scorer” – must be a composer.’ And SMETANA is to music what MATISSE is to art in the 7-letter crossword world. MIOCENE from the mists.

    Edited at 2012-01-06 02:24 am (UTC)

  2. Like vinyl1 I took ages getting started on this one but once I realised 21 was going to be a play title I found something to focus on and I was able to gain a foothold and then made steady progress through most of the rest of it before becoming stuck with SAILORLY and SKETCHY outstanding the SE and four answers missing in the NW.

    My problems at the top came from having written DRESDEN at 1dn and TEACAKE at3dn (where I made a mental note to point out here later that regardless of past disputes and discussions about what a teacake is, it most definitely is not a biscuit and the European Court of Justice has passed a ruling to this effect – seriously, folks!). It was only after I eventually realised and corrected these errors that I was able to complete the grid in 60 minutes.

    I have no idea what ‘wanting to’ is doing in the clue to 10ac.

    Edited at 2012-01-06 06:19 am (UTC)

    1. I think the clue is wanting something meaning “to jilt attractive female” and the rest. No?
  3. Was in Potsdam on Wednesday so still at the front of my mind. Lovely little city – I can highly recommend it.

    On the other hand my son’s production of The Winter’s Tale toured the US a few years ago and that was my last one in! I find it a dreadful and tedious play; far, far too long.

    1. Given variable standards of production and the tendency for over-zealous cuts, many of Shakespeare’s plays are best read rather than watched. Notwithstanding this, I think you’re being rather harsh on, to my mind, one of his best, if weirdest, comedies.
  4. Got there in the end, after a promising start, but the bottom half slowed me to a crawl. particularly SAILORLY and SKETCHY. I liked TEMPI but COD to THE PITS, which also had me scratching my head for ages.
  5. I take ‘wanting to’ in 10 as reinforcing the sense of an important announcement – the pause before it as it were. I find ‘The Winter’s Tale’ one of the most moving of all the plays, and as visual as any in the breathtaking animation of the “statue” at the end. 30 minutes today, not always with it on the whys and wherefores. (Picture’s gone again I think.) – joekobi
  6. 15 minutes (or a few seconds under) with the SE producing the most significant slowdown. That -RLY version of railway, and SKETCHY, which I still don’t really get – a very short play? Why “very”? I needed the C of EMPATHETIC to convince, and that took a while to get, too, not sure why.
    MIOCENE in because it looked like a geological age and was the only letter mix that did, though not one I’ve been aware of before.
    Commode=box was unexpected: I’m not sure it’s used these days for anything other than the thunder variety. OUTSOLE made sense but was not in my vocab before.
    Bittersweet memories of listening to Smetana in Prague not long after the crushing of Dubček’s spring, the Vltava flowing outside the window.
    CoD to THE PITS – the Times gets down and dirty with the kids of not too long ago.
    1. Having had a child in hospital last year, and you may have spotted this when Mrs Zabadak was under the knife, I can report that a modern day hospital commode is a long way from box-like, being little more than a chair on wheels with a hole in the seat to insert the inverted cardboard trilby.

      Edited at 2012-01-06 01:41 pm (UTC)

  7. Pleasant 25 minute stroll in which I was quite content to potter along to the end – am I getting old?

    POTSDAM should be well known. Think 1945 and the post war meeting of Churchill, Truman and Stalin at which Churchill was replaced by Attlee when the result of the UK election came through.

    RLY was quite common at one time – I don’t know why it has gone out of fashion a bit but always worth considering (like both S and St for saint)

    I was also puzzled by the little bits of padding and particularly by “wanting to” at 10A

  8. Held up at the end by POETASTER (unknown) and SAILORLY (didn’t seem likely and, until seeing Dave’s blog, I couldn’t parse the clue). Both went in on the basis that I couldn’t think of anything better and I was surprised to find that both were correct. Much more like a hard, if satisfying, slog uphill than a pleasant stroll for me: well over 30 minutes. COD to THE PITS: pleasing light relief.
  9. 27:49 so longer than my response to Sotira’s survey would suggest is “normal”. Plus a very, very, silly typo, even after checking. PAPAPET anyone? Sirry iriot.

    I always though the play was “A Winter’s Tale”. Thanks David Essex.

    Good point about the vocabulary Dave. It reminds me of the days before I was bold enough to tackle this puzzle when I’d look at the previous day’s answers and think “I don’t know half these words, I’d never have been able to solve this puzzle.” Precise wordplay is a wonderful thing.

  10. Bit of a fail today, as I needed to resort to solvers for several clues.

    Thanks for explanation of IMPULSE, and EMPATHETIC, Dave.

    COD: THE PITS.

    Better luck next week, eh …

  11. Time unknown, as I was doing other online business at the same time, but not fast. Very much liked this; as Penfold points out, impeccably precise, so I was happy putting in MIOCENE (never knowingly seen before) and SAILORLY (not a common word, but I remember seeing lawyerly here on more than one occasion) without much doubt as to their existence / rightness.
  12. Very enjoyable puzzle of middling difficulty – like some others I started unpromisingly, failing to get a single answer on my first read through the across clues. But then THE WINTER’S TALE fell and after that I made steady progress. Probably just short of an hour in all. I liked LATVIA, TEMPTAtiON, PARAPET, THE PITS and EMPATHETIC.

    I agree with Jack and Jimbo in finding “wanting to” redundant at 10ac, other than perhaps as padding to improve the surface read, which, if that was the setters’s intention, he doesn’t seem to me to have achieved. The clue would have read better and more simply as “jilt attractive female, and announce the bad news” or something along those lines.

  13. 28:34 … I’m another who thought they’d never find a foothold on this one.

    Got POTSDAM fairly easily but PICCOLOS was my last in. Just couldn’t see it.

    You’re not alone, Penfold, in hearing David Essex every time someone mentions The Winter’s Tale. But then I did once own a David Essex album (and I’m not even sorry about it).

  14. 21 minutes, though distracted by watching Australia polish off India (yay).

    IMPULSE from definition, smiled at SKETCHY

  15. 40 minutes on the club timer for this, including a 5 minute or so interruption.
    This is a tricky puzzle but I made unnecessarily heavy weather of it. For instance I wrote the letters of the anagram in 21ac out on a piece of paper but missed out an E. As I already had two checking Es this ruled out “the” as the first word for ages. I also put in MASENET in even though I know it’s not spelled like that and it didn’t fit the anagram. Don’t ask me why.
    All in all I made a bit of a hash of it, which prevented me from properly enjoying an excellent puzzle.
    I’m with ulaca and joekobi on The Winter’s Tale. Even more than most Shakespeare it’s very difficult to do well but I saw a superb production of it many years ago. Can’t remember where!
    1. I had to do “Winter’s Tale” for A level and have always been unhappy with it – all that irrational jealously. Like Othello but even more groundless. And the fact that the wife is resurrected to forgive him!! (Like that idiot Hero in “Much Ado”) Some nice moments with the cavorting shepherds and Autolycus, though. And who could forget “Exit, pursued by a bear”! I’ve also seen a good production – but it can be difficult to pull off.
  16. Well, I guess I was on the wavelength today, since I went from left to right across the top, then the same again across the bottom half in something less that 20 minutes altogether. I even saw all the wordplay, except the ‘tempi’ bit in 8A so thanks, Dave, for that. Last 2 for me, like others, were SKETCHY and SAILORLY. SKETCHY gets a COD nod, as does THE PITS. Regards to all.
  17. I was held up badly in the NW corner. Like Sotira, I struggled with 1a. The PIC bit was obvious and PICCOLO was my very first thought but I didn’t see the plural! I notice I’ve written PICCOLLO in the margin – clutching at straws. It was only when I realised that “woodwind” was one of those irregular plurals that the penny dropped. That cost me 10 minutes. The rest went in quite smoothly after a slowish start. COD EMPATHETIC for its clever surface. I put it in without understanding and had a doh moment when I looked properly at it. 38 minutes.
    1. 10:58 for me after an abominably slow start – I’m relieved to see I wasn’t the only one. Like falooker I thought of PICCOLO more or less straight away but missed the plural – for heaven’s sake!

      A second unfamiliar word this week: OUTSOLE (after Tuesday’s ECCRINE).

      1. Unfamiliar? That surprises me a bit, Tony. I seem to have known ‘insole’ and ‘outsole’ as parts of a shoe for ever. Maybe I was a cobbler in a former life!
        1. I expect it’s just me, Jack (well, just me and z8b8d8k at any rate). Though having said that, I don’t recall OUTSOLE ever coming up in a crossword before, whereas INSOLE seems to turn up regularly.
  18. 46 minutes and only the second puzzle correctly and completely solved this week, but as usual, a few things held me up at the end: PARAPET (my soldiers are usually GIs), POETASTER (I needed the P to see the anagram), SAILORLY (with RLY holding me up, as it did everyone else) and SKETCHY. Otherwise pretty straightforward.
  19. But not like me in that you took 11 minutes for the whole puzzle and I took 10 minutes for the top left corner! I’m always awestruck by your times. Ann
    1. I ascribe the knack to:

      a) starting young (children’s crosswords at around 5, grown-up cryptics at 6 or 7); and

      b) a misspent youth (as an alternative to being good at billiards).

  20. 53′, with a lot of struggle and only a couple, like SKETCHY and NUTTINESS, popping in effortlessly. Thought of THE PITS early on, but couldn’t justify it for the longest time: ‘hep’ is surely not ‘in’ anymore.

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