Times 24,869 – What ho! I have seen the fnords!

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Timed at 10:45, which sugggests a straightforward solve, especially as it was done late at night after returning from a long day out. I had a big rush of answers at the beginning and then, after a pause for head-scratching where I thought I’d ground to a halt, found the rest of the answers tumbling in very quickly in another splurge, which suggests that the checking letters were quite helpful, and all I needed was a little push.

Some nice touches to be found in what was a pleasant, if unexceptional, mid-week puzzle.

Across
1 LATH – LATHe.
3 HAMMER BEAM – HAMMER (athletics event) + BEAM (broad smile); as seen by looking up at the roof of an appropriate Gothic building.
9 SLAMMER – double def. (assuming he noisily leaves a room with a door, of course).
11 LITERAL – LITER + A Line. This sort of literal is the noun usage meaning a typographical error, and crops up fairly regularly.
12 MOUNT RUSHMORE – MOUNT(horse) + RUSH MORE(speed up further). Another reference for the transatlantic community today.
14 NONCE – i.e NON C.E.; in the scurrilous Private Eye puzzle this might have been clued rather differently, but here we have the non-insulting meaning; a nonce-word is a one-off which is coined for a special need.
15 TRUMPETER – double def.; also worth noting the trumpeter swan which I feel sure has appeared in similar circumstances.
17 TROUSERED – Time + ROUSE + RED.
19 CERES =”SERIES”, at least in the modern pronunciation of her name, from which we get “cereals”.
21 TRIGGER FINGER – TRIGGER(set off) + FINGER (measure of whisky); I recall drinking games from my mis-spent youth where the standard forfeit was “one finger”.
24 WOOSTER – WOOS + yeT eligiblE bacheloR. Also an &lit., since young Bertram was forever managing to avoid actual matrimony, often with hilarious consequences.
25 HANG OUT – HAN + GOUT.
26 GREEN PARTY – (TRAPENERGY)*.
27 SPUD – Small PUD.
 
Down
1 LAST MINUTE – LAST(stay) MINUTE(small).
2 TO A TURN – [A in TOT] + URN.
4 AIR GUITAR – AIR(song) + GUITAR(Spanish instrument), leaving the cunning definition “Just imagine playing this”.
5 MULCH – L in MUCH. I started out wondering if an ALLOT was something you’d find on an allotment before realising I was just being stupid.
6 RETROSPECTION – (NOTICESREPORT)*.
7 EARNEST – EAch R.N. EST (“is” en Francais).
8 MULL – double def.
10 MOTHER SHIPTON – MOTHER SHIP + (NOT)rev. Americans who enjoyed MOUNT RUSHMORE are, however, presumably less likely to have visited Mother Shipton’s Cave, and so might find this reference a little more obscure…
13 PROSTRATED – PROfessionalS + TReATED without carE.
16 UNDERSHOT – (HUNTERSDO)*.
18 OUTCOME – OUT(striking + COME(advance).
20 REGROUP – RE: GROwUP without the Wife.
22 GARDA – (DRAG)rev. + A gives the Irish policeman.
23 SWAG – double def., “hot” in the sense of stolen.

36 comments on “Times 24,869 – What ho! I have seen the fnords!”

  1. 29 minutes: with the longer answers (9-, 10- and 13-letters) in quickly, then struggling for the shorter ones. (And that’s why I’d never do anything in the Championships … it’s always the way!)

    A few minor quibbles only:
    “Going to” as the link in 12ac.
    “At the end” in 24ac to signal several ends.
    The “this” in 8dn which points to nought — unlike that in 4dn which does do something.
    16dn: “err” as anagind.

  2. A distinctly under-par post-Dragon Boat holiday solve, finally making landfall at the wrong port in 59 minutes, with ‘Mother Stilton’ not only in a different county but clued by a different cryptic.
  3. 29 minutes, too; after this weekend — I’ve still got 4 words left in the jumbo, and another 4 (well, it would be another 4, wouldn’t it?) in the ST — it was good to get through a puzzle under a half-hour. I’m OK with mctext’s quibbles, I think — at least, I’m happy with 24ac and 16d; the other two are awkward, I suppose. I would like to know how the hell I knew of Mother Shipton; well, ‘know’ is hardly the term, since I couldn’t have told you who she was to save my life. But how did the name ever enter my, for want of a better word, mind? This is what one calls ‘general knowledge’, of course: I’ve never read Proust but I ‘know’ about the madeleine; I couldn’t tell you what exactly James Clerk Maxwell did, but I know the name, etc. COD to 14ac and 24ac.
    1. Like you I had no idea who Mother Shipton was but still managed to dredge up the name from the depths of my subconscious. On the other hand I needed all the checking letters for MOUNT RUSHMORE which I suspect may have occurred to you a bit quicker.
      1. Actually, I started off by trying to come up with a UK memorial other than the Albert; and Mt. Rushmore was in a recent puzzle.
    2. I always – well, often enough – have a wobbly moment with five clues to go. Always five, never four or six.. the thing to do is to treat this as a positive sign that the end is in sight.. just get on and finish! So although it still happens and I still notice it, it doesn’t hold me up any longer
      Also like you, my brain is full of utterly useless information gathered who knows where? Hopefully you at least can still remember what you did yesterday 🙂
  4. You‘re right. I shouldn’t have said “quibbles” perhaps. More matters of taste.
  6. 30 minutes for all but the national memorial, the sorceress’s first word and 14ac and 1dn.

    Given the alternative meaning and the unspeakable behaviour of clergymen of a particular faith I must say I find the clue to 14ac in rather poor taste and quite suitable for inclusion in a Private Eye puzzle as it stands. I shall not, however, be cancelling my subscription.

    You may be pleased to know that my problems with LJ have been resolved (not quite sure how) so I can shut up wittering on about them.

    1. I’d come across ‘nance’ before, but not ‘nonce’ in this other sense (just looked it up in Wikipedia). I have no idea how many of us (including the setter) would have thought of the possible double meaning, but certainly ‘dissenter’ would have worked just as well.
    2. I too had a number of words for “catholics” that would not fit the space provided. Hopefully the human race will grow out of religion one day.
      Glad you have the site working OK again..
    3. Glad to see you’ve solved your problems with LJ, Jack. And thanks for your kind comment to me in The Times Forum the other day. I do like this blog, but I sometimes find I do the crosswords (cryptic and concise) then spend an absolute age reading the various comments and commenting myself when I could be….er…? Incidentally,if you want scurrilous, the traditional expansion of QANTAS is Queers and xxxxxx Taken As Stewards.
  7. Slow to get going, then it all crept into place, except Ceres who took a little time at the end. 27 minutes. Unfamiliar with swag as loop. Liked 14 for its straightness and subtlety. Somehow I expect a trousered Ceres to stay somewhere by me today, just out of view.
  8. On the road again today, so solved online. 12.29 on the timer, so another straightforward one to add to quite a long series. Enjoyable though.
    I didn’t know what a HAMMER BEAM was, or these meanings of LITERAL and SWAG. Or that CERES had anything to do with agriculture. And I’ve definitely never heard of MOTHER SHIPTON. All eminently gettable from wordplay though.
    Nice to see old Bertram make an appearance, what?

  9. …I put in NONNE (sounds like NUN?), having discounted NONCE.

    I got a little held up by putting RETROSPECTION in at 10dn (I had two correct crossing letters early on), but other than that, I found this one relatively straightforward. Hadn’t heard of the MOTHER SHIPTON, nor the architectural beam, but they somehow sounded right.

  10. No time today, as I took phone calls during solve, but felt like about 16 minutes, or more or less average time.
    I didn’t remember the alternative meaning of NONCE – if it was intended, then it is indeed in poor taste. Otherwise, some likeable stuff here. CERES excellent when I saw it, but had me head scratching for a while and was last in: “head of agriculture” is a cute definition. HAN GOUT shades it to CoD in my book.
    Once again, thanks to all for kind wishes for my wife’s recovery: Monica is doing well after a mid-calf amputation, with pain control being the prime consideration for the nonce.
  11. As an admirer of the respectful and restrained tone of this blog, I’ve decided to contain my outrage, so I’ll say no more about 14a. Except that I think we’re being very generous to the setter in accepting the cluing as an unfortunate coincidence.
    1. I’d be happier with the non-coinicidentalist reading if the clue had read: “Like Catholic priests …”.
      1. Perhaps you’re right McText. I admire your trusting nature.
        But I’d be happier with the coincidentalist reading if it wasn’t quite so glaring.
        1. Actually, on further reflection, I’m going with the “unfortunate coincidence” interpretation. Far better to look for good intentions in people, especially in the gentle world of crossword setting and solving.

          Apologies to the setter.

    2. What’s the problem? The “rougher” meaning of nonce is delicately alluded to. No good pretending it doesn’t, or shouldn’t, exist.
      1. The problem, Joe, would be if the setter had deliberately used “Catholic” to clue the slang meaning of NONCE. Surprised that you’d be comfortable with that. Would you be equally comfortable with using “Moslem” to clue TERRORIST? Or “Anglican” to clue….well, let’s not go there.
        1. To see ‘Catholic’ as equalling ‘nonce’ in this clue is a heck of a fetch, if that’s what the trouble is; rather, the distance is pronounced. Time for a little common sense I’d say.
          1. I may have misinterpreted your previous comment. Thought you were suggesting that the allusion was fair game. But yes, agree that it’s unlikely that any such allusion was intended.
  12. I enjoyed this one, despite not knowing who MOTHER SHIPTON was, what a SWAG was in the context of drapery (except perhaps an exceptionally fancy bedroll), what a HAMMER BEAM could be (apart from one which was too low) or what a NONCE might be (apart from the meaning not intended). AIR GUITAR was good but COD to TROUSERED.
  13. Nice to have a steady solve for a change. 29 minutes – and no misgivings about 14a. It would be such an obviously unworthy sneer if deliberate (and, as mctext points out, rather wide of the mark) that the setter would surely have dismissed the possibility of it being interpreted as such.
  14. Nope… couldn’t get CERES. Got fixated on looking for something agricultural that sounded like COURSE, and invented CORIS, a breed of cow that is genetically engineered to produce lactose-free milk.
  15. I really liked this crossword, I thought it one of the best this year and worry that I seem to be the only one that thinks that. Look at 26 across, is that not a thing of real and lasting beauty? Almost every clue has a plausible, elegant surface.
    Having seen Mother Shipton’s cave (apparently we are happy complaining about a world religion, but not about eccentric medieval charlatans 🙂 and the larger US equivalent site helped, maybe.
    Thank you kindly, setter.
  16. The NHS kept interrupting my crossword this morning, so I couldn’t keep time, but likely about an hour (lightening fast for me, and I have to say, the hospital).
    COD 24a. Like the books themselves, made me laugh out loud.
  18. I very rarely manage a 15 minute solve but I succeeded this morning with this. It must have been relatively easy or else I was completely on the setter’s wavelength. A smooth solve with no unknown or difficult vocabulary. It can’t last – I expect the usual struggle tomorrow!
  19. Snookered by EARNEST and CERES in what would otherwise have been an under-20 solve.
  20. 6:16 here for an straightforward, enjoyable puzzle. I lived in Harrogate for a while, not far from Knaresborough and Mother Shipton’s cave, so 10dn was as an easy win. I agree with jerrywh about 26ac – very elegant.
  21. Didn’t manage to get round to this on a busy day until about 30 minutes ago. Enjoyable and straightforward. Lots of easy anagrams made the task easier.

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