Times 24792 – Good stuff

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 59:19, and this put me second on the leaderboard at the time, so it must have been a tough one.

Having got a couple of tricky ones to blog on my last couple of Fridays, I was hoping for a more straightforward one on a Wednesday, standing in as I am for mctext. I may not have got that, but I’ll settle for one as thoroughly enjoyable as this one was. It was a slow but steady solve for me, only really getting stuck for any length of time on the last three (7/10/20).

There were many excellent clues that made me smile – 3 & 13 were excellently constructed and the wordplay in 17 & 22 was wonderfully imaginative. I also liked the hidden word at 28, the elegant anagram at 22 and the misdirection at 12. Any of these could be my COD on another day, but today I’ll give it to semi-&lit at 4. Full marks to the setter!

There are a couple of answers that I put in without understanding the wordplay, namely 7 & 9, and I’ve still not been able to fathom it. If the rest of the puzzle is anything to go by, it’ll be because the wordplay is too devious for me! Once some kind person points out my ignorance I will amend the blog accordingly.

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

Across
1 FLAG-WAVER = FLAG + “WAIVER” – I wasn’t sure about this one. I felt weary was the wrong part of speech for FLAG, also surrender was more WAIVE than WAIVER.
6 HARE + M – once I’d realised that married & women needed separating it became a lot clearer
9 MORNING – it’s a greeting, but I can’t see why it’s non-U. Apparently, greeting can be a Scottish word for weeping, so it’s MOURNING without the U.
10 NIELSEN = (LINES)* + EN – Carl Nielsen was probably Denmark’s finest composer.
11 DO + E – a female deer, of course (or rabbit)
12 SPIN + BOWLERS – Some excellent misdirection here
14 deliberately omitted
15 QUE(NELL)En – some tricky vocab here – a QUENELLE is a type of fish dumpling (although it doesn’t have to be fish), and a QUEEN is an adult female cat, not a term heard very often. Little Nell, at least, is well-known as a character from Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop
17 LA + CRIMinAL – ‘not enjoying popularity’ = not IN, just one of many imaginative bits of wordplay today
19 CLASSY = LASS in CitY
22 LOIRE VALLEY = (I REALLY LOVE)* – a very neat anagram
23 AI + M – That’s wicked as in slang for brilliant, i.e. A1
25 GRANDEE – more excellent wordplay – For GREEK you need GR AND EE (and k)
27 PIANIST = ‘Key player’ = PI (v. good) + AT about SIN (anger, perhaps) rev
28 hidden
29 A + PP + RE(HEN)D
Down
1 F(AM)ED – Had to stop myself diving in with FUSED
2 AIRHEAD = (RAID)* about HE + A – ‘explosive’ = HE (for High Explosive) is quite a common piece of wordplay. I hadn’t heard of the word meaning anything other than an idiot, but it sounded very plausible as a type of military airfield
3 WHITSUNTIDE = Woodstock + HITS + “UNTIED”
4 V(EGG)IE – A lovely little semi-&lit clue.
5 RUN(AB)OUT
6 HOE = HOSE without the weedS
7 RUSSELL – My last one in, entered without understanding the wordplay, and after much pondering I’m afraid I still don’t. I’m sure someone will explain it for me. It’s R + US + SELL – u/s is an abbreviation for unserviceable, and SELL = disappointment, see ulaca’s comment below
8 M(ON)ASTERY
13 WENSLEYDALE = LADY in EELS + NEW all rev, another great clue.
14 HALt + FLIGHT
16 PA + S(ADEN)A
18 CHICAGO – CA (roughly) in CHIG (centre of MICHIGAN) + Old
20 STATIC + grEen – I’d not heard of this plant, but it couldn’t really be anything else
21 SLAP-UP – SLAP ‘up’ being PALS
24 M(UTE)D – A ‘ute’ is a (mainly Australian) slang term for a utility vehicle
26 delberately omitted

58 comments on “Times 24792 – Good stuff”

  1. 7 – ‘sell’ is a disappointment (especially if one feels swindled), so R + US + SELL

    9 – ‘greeting’ meaning ‘mourning’ without the ‘u’

    1. I’ve not come across sell meaning disappointment before, but it is certainly listed as such in Chambers, so it must be fine.

      I considered mourning without the U for 9, but I couldn’t see what it had to do with the clue. Why mourning?

      1. Ah, the penny drops! I’ve just discovered the other meaning of greet – to weep (chiefly Scottish). Yes, very clever.
          1. As Dave writes in his blog, u/s or U/S (‘us’ in crossword-land) is an abbreviation for unserviceable, especially with regard to machines. ‘Sell’, according to Oxford Online, a good resource to bookmark, can be used in British English as a noun meaning ‘a disappointment, typically one arising from being deceived as to the merits of something’.

            So, the whole clue works like this: R [right] + US [useless/unserviceable] + SELL [a disappointment].

  2. Unlike Dave, I found this easy, even though I got the fish dumpling wrong, hazarding ‘funnelle’ (ball=fun + Nel + le[o]). Certainly a much harder cryptic than that for the other unknown word, STATICE. As always, held up on the cricketing clue. COD to MORNING. 29 minutes.
  3. 42 slow minutes, but worth it. Realizing early on that this was going to take time, I allowed myself to enjoy the clues rather than push on to solve faster. Like Dave, I’d never heard of statice, and didn’t know the ‘disappointment’ meaning of ‘sell’. Finally remembered ‘greet’ from a recent puzzle, which enabled me to get 9ac. A plethora of CODs: 8, 24, 3, 16,… 13 was lovely, too, but the Y (+ ‘cheese’) was enough to solve it.
    One query and one semi-complaint: Q: Is anyone bothered (27) by ‘recurrent’ to indicate reversal? S-C: I could do without variant spellings, as in 17. I may have lived a sheltered life, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen lachrymal/lachrymose, etc. spelled lacrimal/… (I’m getting red underlines as I type). Or does Chambers spell it ‘lacrimal’?
    1. C gives three acceptable forms (lachrymal – the headword – lacrymal and lacrimal). Interestingly, it notes that the ‘y’ in the words based on the Latin word ‘lacrima’ (‘tear’) was probably the result of influence from the Greek word ‘dakryma’ (also meaning ‘tear’). So, for purists/pedants, the “i’s” have it.
    2. Collins has recurrent as an anatomical term meaning turning back on itself. Not the meaning which first springs to mind, but you can’t argue with Collins.
  4. Well, I assumed that ‘lacrimal’ was a possible spelling; it was the correct answer, after all. My gripe was based on the assumption –correct, as it turns out — that ‘lachrymal’ would be the headword in Chambers, as well as in my head, and that ‘lacrimal’ would be a variant. And I’m not keen on variants being used. (We assume, for instance, that UK spelling is used –‘favour’, say — and expect that if the solution calls for ‘favor’, there will be something in the clue to tell us that.)
  5. Most slipped in in 35 minutes. Got stuck on 3 but they were 9ac where took ages to see wordplay; Pasadena and quenelle
    All done in 50 mins
  6. Bang on the half-hour, after being held up on quenelle (new to me) and Wensleydale, my COD. One of my favourite places too.
  7. I raced through most of this but had a few problems finishing it off. In the end it took me 35 minutes with at least 5 of them spent on QUENELLE. I got it from the cryptic eventually and then I knew the word. Those who follows Masterchef or any of dozens of other TV cookery programmes will know of quenelles with reference to ice-cream, mashed potato, sorbet etc, but I’m sure I have never before heard of its origin as a fish or meat dish.

    Other than that my main problems were in the SE where I thought PIANIST early but couldn’t justify it so it stayed out until I could. Surprisingly AIM was one of the last to go in. STATICE was new to me but I got it from the wordplay once all the checkers were in place.

    A very entertaining puzzle. I’d say we’ve had three fairly easy ones so far this week and I am getting nervous about Friday so I hope we get a beast tomorrow. (Sorry, whoever’s turn it is to blog!)

  8. ‘morning!
    (COD tied with the ingeniuos GRANDEE).
    Cheat for QUENELLE and confident guesses for RUSSELL, LACRIMAL (the weird spelling), AIRHEAD and STATICE. Well over the hour, great time ulaca.
    Good stuff indeed.
  9. 33 min plus a tad on-line, with the one obligatory typo. A good workout. I agree that GRANDEE was cute, but COD has to be 9 ac: MORNING is the best &lit we have had for many a day.
  10. 19 hugely enjoyable minutes, with a lot of them spent trying to work out the plant at 20. Since I’m convinced that “plants” can be almost any combination of letters, I put in STATICE to satisfy the cryptic and was delighted to find it was true.
    As a choral singer, I put in LACRIMAL without hesitation – the Lacrimosa is part of a decent Requiem. Lachrymal appears to derive from later Latin
    CoD MORNING was a clue of the highest class which actually made me gasp with astonishment. The cheeky THONG was one of the best hiddens I’ve seen in a long time. Respect to the setter, and congratulations to Dave for unscrewing the inscrutable.
  11. My time was precisely yours, Dave, give or take the odd second. I dawdled around and then came to a complete standstill in the SE, even though I’ve known about statice since a child (it’s very common in dried flower arrangements). Sell as a disappointment was new to me, however, despite my experience on the stock market. As for the rest, truly inspiring stuff. COD to MORNING, but only by a nose from GRANDEE and WENSLEYDALE with the rest of the field not far behind. Sign that setter up!
  12. Fantastic puzzle, and the first one I’ve completed correctly and unaided for ages! Knew QUENELLE from time spent au pairing in Lyons (think they were a speciality of the region, the family there certainly seemed to eat a lot of them, fish and otherwise!), but had to take punts on STATICE (had to be from wordplay), QUEEN = cat, SELL = disappointment.

    Got 9a by thinking ‘Good Morning!’ would be the ‘U’ greeting – doh! My LOI, and I was very much grasping at straws! Hadn’t seen the clever wordplay at 4d.

    CODs to GRANDEE for PDM, and also to SLAP UP.

    Thanks for clear blog, and thanks to setter for a fab start to the day!

  13. Enjoyed this, though like several recently it didn’t seem difficult bar a few – had a lot of trouble finding statice, which was new to me. COD to Grandee, I think. Even Jimbo might like this one..!
  14. 23min 29sec.

    Some lovely clues. I couldn’t work out Morning, so was glad to have it explained here.

    COD Veggie. Very good.

  15. I thought this was great fun and fairly easy. Almost made a PB, being just on 18 mins before getting tangled in STATICE which I had never heard of before. 21 increasingly excited mins.
  16. An excellent puzzle helped by being back to form for a 20 minute solve.

    I think 9A should have an indicator, say “…greeting in Glasgow” because to greet as to cry is rather obscure outside Scotland. The 15A and 22A combination is interesting. The Loire is a pike river and quennel de brochet is absolutely delicious with a cold chablis.

    There are some very good clues in this puzzle and from a good bunch I really liked 21D SLAP UP and of course 25A GRANDEE which I don’t recall seeing before. Good stuff setter!

    1. “Greet” as to cry is of course a bit obscure, but it’s quite common in Timescrosswordland as well as Scotland. I’ve been fooled by it at least twice before and the word now provokes a Pavlovian response.
  17. I’m abroad so I didn’t have the paper this morning, so I logged onto the club site. When I clicked on today’s cryptic I got a completely different puzzle, which I solved in under ten minutes: only the third time this has happened. Feeling very pleased with myself, I went to click on “submit” to find that there was no “submit” button. So I closed the puzzle, reopened it and got this one. So two for one for me today. My time may reflect the fact that the interloper puzzle was an old one, because it had in it a clue in exactly the same form as 21dn that I’ve definitely seen before.
    As for this puzzle, I did it in 16 minutes, albeit with an hour-long meeting between the 15 minute mark and the last two clues. Like others I thought it an absolutely first-rate puzzle.
    AIRHEAD and STATICE were my unknown vocabulary for today. I’m still a bit puzzled by “sell”. Can anyone construct a sentence in which it means “disappointment”?
    COD to the marvellous MORNING.
    1. A bit of googling reveals that my suspicion was correct. The first puzzle I got this morning was this one. See 19dn in particular. I did it in 14 minutes the first time, so either subconscious memory helped or I’m on good form this morning.
    2. The OED online gives one with the definition.

      2 British a disappointment, typically one arising from being deceived as to the merits of something:
      actually, Hawaii’s a bit of a sell — not a patch on Corfu

      Personally I find the sentiment of the example as odd as the usage it demonstrates, but there you are.

      1. Thank you. I’ve never heard the word used like that but if there were nothing in these puzzles I’d never heard before I’d be solving them a lot quicker.
        1. I had never heard it used that way either – but I wonder if it has something to do with the phrase “sell down the river” – to disappoint or betray someone.
          1. Do you folk never read the rest of the papers? e.g. the market news and comment? Every disappointing company is called a ‘sell’!
            1. Of course! Thank you for providing the light bulb moment. For my sins I am professionally obligated to read the financial pages every day, but rather like the gates yesterday I didn’t make the connection. Pretty dim of me, although in my defence the equivalent term in financial market argot these days (and for the last twenty years) would be a “short”.
            2. I spent most of my career writing for that part of the newspapers. Sell in that context means get rid of your shares – a sell rather than a buy.
              1. As I said before I’ve never heard it, but I can see how this financial term might make its way into everyday speech as a term meaning “disappointment”, probably in the 80s. I bought a filofax but it’s a bit of a sell.
                1. I doubt any trader or financial journalist ever used it in that sense but I can see how it might have transferred from the dealing rooms as a general term of disapproval/disappointment. It sounds a bit Middle English though. I’m curious enough to want to find out. Let me know if you track its origins down.
                  1. Me too, and in all seriousness (or at least as much seriousness as is permissible in this forum) I’m with you in doubting that my Loadsamoney etymology is the real answer. Oh for a copy of the full fat OED…
                    1. According to my googling, sell can mean a hoax or a cheat or, separately, a disappointment. The first recorded use of the first is given as mid-16th century and the origin of the latter is, not very helpfully, just “Irish”. My guess is that as a noun it has meant “something dodgy” for a long time. There’s a second hand shop with a full set of the OED that I saw a couple of months ago. I may go and see if it is still there…
                    2. Well it predates Wall Street by a couple of decades:

                      Swinburne describes climbing to the top of the Culver Cliff in 1917 – and promptly fainting:

                      “I lay on my right side helpless, and just had time to think what a sell (and what an inevitable one) it would be if I were to roll back over the edge after all, when I became unconscious”.

                      1. Thanks for that.
                        You can subscribe to the OED for £246 a year. A bit steep for something to explain crossword clues but I’m tempted…
  18. 22 minutes. A real cracker, I thought, with lots of ticks and two double ticks (MORNING and GRANDEE).

    For those not familiar with QUENELLE, I’d like to relate an incident in Frank Muir’s autobiography, A Kentish Lad. He describes how, when dining with colleagues at Mario and Franco’s in Soho, Patrick Campbell chose quenelles.

    … those bits of fish mucked about with in a frying pan. It was an expensive item on the menu in those days, £15.

    When the food was served Paddy saw, sadly, that he was only given four bits of the very expensive mucked-about-with fish. I said, “Well really! Four quenelles for fifteen quid?” Then imitating Paddy’s Irish accent, “Four quenelles!”

    Paddy always said it was the best pun he had ever heard. As he lived in the South of France where quenelles were often on the menu, he tried to appropriate my pun and dazzle his friends, but, alas, life is not as compliant as that. Whenever Paddy entertained in a Nice restaurant he would hopefully order quenelles and they were duly laid in front of him; sometimes there were three quenelles on the plate, frequently there was a more generous helping of five, six, or seven quenelles, but never, ever, was Paddy served four quenelles.

    1. We nominate this for COD – comment of the day. A new feature for the blog?
    2. That’s hilarious! Note to self: remember to order quenelles at any opportunity in the hope of being served the requisite number!
  19. I was a complete 2d on 2d – it stalled me for ages. Lucky Janie for sampling quenelles in their city of origin. You can only get them in 4star French restaurants here in NYC, and as for the amateur chef it’s a case of “do not try this at home”. Arrived at Wensleydale by spooling the Monty Python cheese shop through my head. Vinyl is right, it sells for a small fortune for a tiny sliver here. Very good puzzle indeed and many thanks to the bloggers who unraveled the ones I couldn’t parse.
  20. 20:46 .. classy puzzle. You can see the time the setter put into this. Much appreciated

    Not wild about Wensleydale, but Jimbo’s lunch in the Loire Valley sounds wonderful (okay, I’m angling for an invitation).

    Last in: QUENELLE (once the ‘space before U, think Q’ thing kicked in). Thank you to John of Lancs for the Frank Muir story which I’m duly filing away for future plagiarism.

    COD: many candidates, but the THONG made me smile.

    1. If you’re desperate you can resort to version of the gag I was once subjected to, which required a somewhat convoluted preamble about how the quenelles were not authentic: faux quenelles.
      Yes, it’s a bit lame, but you could wait forever to be served four.
  21. What a lovely puzzle! Too many possibilities for COD. Congrats to the setter and thanks as always to the blogger.
  22. 20:31 (but recorded as 23:01 thanks to the stupid non-pause function in the online version).

    As others have said a truly brilliant puzzle, loved just about every clue, not just for the wit and orifinality of the pwrdplay but also for some cracking surfaces especially at 6ac which suggests Leslie Phillips in a Carry On role.

  23. All the vocabulary here was familiar but it still took me ages to work out the cryptics. Some very clever clueing – I especially liked MORNING and GRANDEE. Guessed RUSSELL straight away but wasted time trying to carve an anagram out of R + USELESS. My problem was I didn’t know US for “unserviceable” and UTE as a vehicle (24d). Must revise abbreviations! Crawled to a finish in 51 minutes.
  24. Wonderful story. Frank Muir was peerless. Re ‘sell’, I am familiar with it, but only in the rather dated ‘What a sell!’, which Bertie Wooster or a girl in an Angela Brazil school story might possibly have said.
  25. Very good and tough puzzle. About 45 minutes, last few in were QUENELLE and STATICE. Most challenging in a while for me. Regards.
  26. 17:46 for me. I worked out QUENELLE from the wordplay then vaguely remembered it as some sort of food. I knew STATICE as a plant but it was my last in as I took ages to see still = STATIC!

    By the way, sorry I haven’t been around much lately. Work’s been a bit hectic these last fee weeks, and I haven’t had much time to make or respond to comments.

    1. And right on cue, this evening’s Masterchef featured QUENELLE of squirrel liver!
  27. 9:23 here for what seemed to me a strange mixture of easy and quite tricky clues. I was relieved when I finally thought of PASADENA, as -A-A-E-A is the sort of thing that scares the daylights out of vocalophobes like me.
    1. An excellent coinage. That (broken) string (‘chain’?) of vowels gave me my one panicky moment too.
  28. STATICE, ALM, MO(U)RNING and ALM threw me. It took me on and off 6 or 7 hours with constant but very welcome interruptions from various medical people checking on my welfare following highly successful pacemaker replacement surgery. Thanks to my well-wishers here and especially to the doctors, nurses and
    techs who gave me such excellent care.
    1. That’s good to know, colonialboy.

      Glad to hear that our Canadian health service has successfully rebooted you (presumably with updated software and bug fixes).

      Well done.

      1. Thanks Sotira. Nice computer analogy. The care and kindness of the Toronto General Hospital staff made for an absolutely brilliant day.

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