Times Cryptic 27992

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 30 minutes. I thought I was heading for a very rare sub-20 minute solve but my last two in, 8dn and 12ac, put paid to that.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Distraught leaders of trade union split trophy (3,2)
CUT UP
T{rade} U{nion} [leaders] contained by [split] CUP (trophy)
4 Wife devoured judge in bottom section of course (5,4)
WATER JUMP
W (wife), ATE (devoured), then J (judge) contained by [in] RUMP (bottom). The surface reading paints a gruesome picture!
9 Management give short broadcast, making error (9)
OVERSIGHT
Anagram [broadcast] of GIVE SHORT. We seem to have a definition at each end of the clue!
10 View workers abandoning block of flats (5)
TENET
TENE{men}T (block of flats) [workers – men – abandoning]
11 Deny litter producer’s implicated in racket (6)
DISOWN
SOW (litter producer – Oink territory) contained by [implicated in] DIN (racket)
12 Screen translation‘s just what’s needed in Nice (8)
SUBTITLE
IT (just what’s needed) contained by [in] SUBTLE (nice – fine). “That’s it!!”, I thought when I eventually spotted the wordplay.
14 What windbags do best? (9)
UTTERMOST
UTTER MOST – a cryptic hint relying on alternative spacing precedes the literal.
16 They support members and volunteers with typing complaint? (5)
TARSI
TA (volunteers – Territorial Army), RSI (typing complaint – Repetitive Strain Injury). Bones of the foot (member).
17 Jack‘s last in York church body (5)
KNAVE
{Yor}K (last), NAVE (church body – central aisle)
19 Sense brief opening — sign on staff (5,4)
TENOR CLEF
TENOR (sense), CLEF{t} [brief]. In musical notation clefs are signs placed at the beginning of every stave or staff (the sets of 5 lines on which notes are written) to indicate the pitch of a particular note, and hence of the other notes. They are like the key to a code, ‘clef’ being the French for ‘key’. The treble clef indicates the position of G above middle C, and the bass clef the F below middle C. The other two clefs in common use (tenor and alto) both indicate the position of middle C. The tenor clef is often used in music for cello, and the alto clef for viola. Other instruments are available.
21 Old boy’s story involves Conservative block (8)
OBSTACLE
OB’S (old boy’s), then TALE (story) contains [involves] C (Conservative)
22 Drop stock complaint during trouble (6)
ABSEIL
BSE (stock – cattle – complaint) contained by [during] AIL (trouble). ‘Bovine spongiform encephalopathy’, also known as ‘mad cow disease’.
25 Excuse individual after jumping bail (5)
ALIBI
Anagram [jumping] of BAIL, then 1 (individual – one)
26 Elected party chum in Asian peninsula (9)
INDOCHINA
IN (elected), DO (party), CHINA (chum – CRS china plate = mate)
27 Assembly standards waiving hospital study of intake (9)
DIETETICS
DIET (assembly – e.g. of worms), ET{h}ICS (standards) [waiving hospital – h]
28 Now and then carpet empty library as befits it? (5)
APTLY
{c}A{r}P{e}T [now and then], L{ibrar}Y [empty]
Down
1 Could displaced migrant settle in such a dream world? (5-6-4)
CLOUD-CUCKOO-LAND
Anagram [displaced] of COULD, then CUCKOO (migrant), LAND (settle). I understand cuckoos don’t all migrate but some of them do to justify the description in the wordplay.
2 Hardy girl grabbing Romeo’s hair (5)
TRESS
TESS (Thomas Hardy girl – of the d’Urbervilles) containing [grabbing] R (Romeo – NATO alphabet)
3 Mail was reduced regularly, primarily from late ’40s? (4-3)
POST-WAR
POST (mail), WA{s}[reduced], R{egularly} [primarily]
4 Carry on with period (4)
WAGE
W (with), AGE (period). As in ‘wage war’.
5 Old king repeatedly can start to grouch, showing pique (3-7)
TUT-TUTTING
TUT (old king – Tutankhamun) + TUT [repeatedly], TIN (can), G{rouch} [start]
6 Knock vale swathed in grass (3-1-3)
RAT-A-TAT
TA-TA (vale – Latin for farewell) contained by [swathed in] RAT (grass – informer)
7 Weird flat, perhaps, for musician? (9)
UNNATURAL
A straight definition and a cryptic hint. More musical notation! The notes A-G are said to be ‘natural’ when not otherwise indicated as sharp or flat for example. The cryptic reading suggests that a flat is therefore ‘unnatural’.
8 Feeble female friend absorbing current feature of lyric poetry (8,7)
PATHETIC FALLACY
PATHETIC (feeble), F (female), ALLY (friend) containing [absorbing] AC (alternating current). I’d heard of this but had no idea what it means. SOED: the attribution of human emotion or responses to inanimate things or animals, esp. in art and literature.
13 Wrong starter missing from film director’s pasta dish (10)
TORTELLINI
TORT (wrong – legal), {f}ELLINI (film director) [starter missing]. La Dolce Vita is perhaps his most famous.
15 New paintings up on top of steeple come to light (9)
TRANSPIRE
N (new) + ART (paintings) reversed [up], then SPIRE (steeple)
18 A short time in river Test (7)
EXAMINE
A + MIN (short time) contained by [in] EXE (river). The Test is also a river but not the one needed here.
20 Novel about airline carrying English cricket club (7)
REBECCA
RE (about), then BA (airline – British Airways) containing [carrying] E (English) + CC (cricket club)
23 Bull kept by oppressive dictator (5)
EDICT
Hidden in [kept by] {oppressiv}E DICT{ator}. As in ‘papal bull’.
24 Plans to exclude a date in Italy, once (4)
IDES
IDE{a}S (plans) [exclude ‘a’]

54 comments on “Times Cryptic 27992”

  1. I biffed 1d from the C + enumeration, and never did parse it past CLOUD; had no idea that there were migrant cuckoos. Also biffed 8d once I saw the enumeration fit. It helped to have the two long downs in early. My LOI, like Jack’s, was SUBTITLE; it was nice to see Nice mean ‘nice’ for once. I couldn’t think of a single CLEF–‘sign on staff’ gave me that much–but a checker or two jogged my memory. Liked ABSEIL & SUBTITLE.
  2. 25 minutes, with the NHO 8d (? the same as anthropomorphism) entered unparsed from wordplay and like Kevin, 1d went in from the enumeration. I was too lazy to parse KNAVE properly, getting the wrong ‘last K’. Thanks for the explanations of the musical terms, which I’d only ever come across before in previous cryptics.

    Favourites were UTTERMOST and SUBTITLE (yes, good to see ‘nice’ being used in the SUBTLE sense), my LOI as well.

    Thanks to Jack and setter

  3. It seems I’m in good company today having made a flying start on this then slowed considerably. The left hand side went in at QC pace but the right hand side gave me pause for thought. I also finished with SUBTITLE, but I biffed it and was left wondering where the French came into it. I think it is one the nice (or is that Nice?) things about these puzzles, that the setters can tend to use something one way then occasionally change it to throw you.

    Elsewhere I was glad of the crossing letter for TORTELLINI which I otherwise might have thought was tortelloni. I’d like to say knowing the film director I’d have been OK anyway except I thought he was Bellini — a case of mixing my drinks and my film directors.

  4. Went rapidly north-west and south-west
    Then south-east, but not quite my best
    Took a long time to see
    PATHETIC FALLACY
    But then i disposed of the rest
  5. 16 minutes, a quarter of the time yesterday’s took. I thought I was on for a sub-ten but the RHS contained bones and music to slow me up. COD to UTTERMOST. I often attribute feelings to objects, feeling sorry yesterday for a chair which has served us well being moved into the garage as a pre-cursor to a worse fate. Neither pathetic nor a fallacy in my mind, living here in CLOUD-CUCKOO-LAND. Thank you Jack and setter.
  6. …Had half impaired the nameless grace
    Which waves in every raven Tress,
    Or softly lightens o’er her face;

    25 mins pre-brekker, held up by the Clef, the Fallacy and Subtitle.
    Lord Horryd, brekker will be Croissant with Cherry&Amaretto preserve. Hoorah.
    Thanks setter and J.

    1. Please….Mr. Myrtilus you are the Breakfast Tsar – Lord of the Marmalades and Duke of Dundee! Yesterday I ventured to make mango chutney from an old Good-jerati recipe – poetry!
      1. ‘Dalidel’ wouldn’t be able to edit the comment now you’ve replied to it! But it’s clearly just spam, as it just copies and pastes previous comments. Delete the lot!
  7. 14′ 04″, is it Monday?

    Nho PATHETIC FALLACY, and wrongly guessed it was to do with the countryside.

    REBECCA is a fine novel, and an excellent film, the Best Picture of 1940.

    Thanks jack and setter.

  9. 99 mins, good time for me. NHO PATHETIC FALLACY, vaguely recalled it as Pathetic Fantasy which fitted all my checkers. Had to look this one up.

    Confused by OVERSIGHT as did not see the anagram, and tried Oversign as a way of making an error, with Oversee (management) and Signal(broadcast) in there somehow.

    For INDOCHINA, I was looking at anagrams of ‘party chum’ which looked just like anagram fodder. Kamchatka has 9 letters, and there are many other peninsulas in Arctic Russia which could have been it.

    LOI TUT-TUTTING, an excellent word.

  10. Similar story to others, finishing with DIETETICS, (odd word) and SUBTITLE. These last two holding me up for over 5 mins. Still not sure that I like subtle=nice. I was fooled by the capital though so maybe that’s why! NHO PATHETIC FALLACY but managed to work it out. COD ABSEIL.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

  11. 12:53 Stuck at the end on WATER JUMP thinking of the wrong sort of course, which when solved led to PATHETIC FALLACY and ABSEIL. I liked the triple OVERSIGHT best.
  12. I would say PATHETIC FALLACY is synonymous with anthropomorphism, a word I am more familiar with.
    I did like vale as ‘goodbye’ in 6d as distinct from, say the Vale of Glamorgan. Clever.

    Edited at 2021-06-01 09:17 am (UTC)

  13. Possibly I was not the only person to see 28ac as a bit CREEPY to start with ..
    I’m with BW on 8dn, clearly a term derived before we knew what we now know about the animal world. And my lawn tractor is far from inanimate. More like vindictive, I’d say ..
  14. 29m and, like Jack, I was hoping for a rare sub-20 as the LHS went in very easily. Stumbled over the usual suspects, including PATHETIC FALLACY, though the term is very familiar to me. It is not though a required attribute of lyric poetry and it might feature in any writing so perhaps a question mark might have been added at the end to signal this. I am also reminded of the A level candidate who, referring to the thunder storm that split the tree just before their first attempted wedding, usefully informed me that ‘Bronte made it clear that Rochester and Jane were doomed because of his pathetic phallus’.
  15. A shameful DNF today. The xword seemed very mixed with an oh-so-easy start but then I got completely lost… oh woe is me… on my 8th wedding anniversary too… is it a sign??
  16. 7:25. Plain sailing today, helped by knowing PATHETIC FALLACY, which I think of as when people are sad in movies and it starts raining.
  17. I interpreted “migrant” as meaning ” moving into another place” -i.e. another’s nest?

  18. FOI: 1a. CUT-UP
    LOI: 14a. UTTERMOST

    Time to Complete: DNF

    In the one hour I give myself for the 15×15, I managed to answer 15 of the clues, 7 without aid, 7 with aids, and one wrong answer.

    My favourite clue was 14a (UTTERMOST).

    1. Good effort, and good to see you over here on the Big Board. I usually try it on Mondays, when it is reputably a bit easier.
      1. Hi merlin_55

        Thank you for your encouragement. I wanted to come here to see if six months experience with the QC had given me a better chance at the 15×15. I am pleased to say that it has, though I still woefully struggle here. Saying that, though, there are times when I have performed worse on the QC than I have here.

        1. There’s nothing woeful about trying. Count the successes, don’t worry about the clues that get past you and sooner or later you’ll be cracking these. It takes time to understand the setters’ ways of thinking: I doubt anyone here was solving whole puzzles right from the start.
  19. Thought I was on for a fast time following a good start — more than 60% in sub-10 minutes — however the wheels came off somewhat with ABSEIL/EDICT (could see the hidden for the EDICT but didn’t know the meaning), then spent a good few mins wondering what might go if trouble = A___IL.

    I also had a fixation trying to shoehorn a director — FELLINI maybe — somehow into FETTUCCINE which held up the difficult DIETETICS — not really aware of a diet’s relation to worms.

    I had never heard of PATHETIC FALLACY until a few weeks ago when my daughter was studying for her GCSEs — PATHETIC came easily, but FALLACY took a few moments longer.

  21. Nice and easy after yesterday’s toughie, which took me 10 hours as I left it unpaused overnight.
    Was tempted by TENOR CLUB until I noticed the female in 8d which let everything fall into place.
  22. 1d went in instantly on seeing the enumeration and the rest fell without too much headscratching, though, as others say, progressively more slowly. Couldn’t make sense of SUBTITLE so thanks for the explanation. I thought the definition of PATHETIC FALLACY as “a feature of lyric poetry” was a trifle odd as Grestyman says. 20 mins.

    Edited at 2021-06-01 05:08 pm (UTC)

  23. Livejournal died as I tried to post this earlier:
    – I thought I would have a quick look at this as a warm-up for the QC. I did, but kept going and finished in about 40 minutes. My last two were SUBTITLE and RAT A RAT which I had noted but couldn’t parse -so thanks for that. Somehow Pathetic Fallacy came to mind very easily.
    An enjoyable puzzle. Now for the QC.
    David
    1. Yes, LJ suffered a DDOS (denial-of-service) attack this morning. Seems to have been dealt with efficiently as the site was not down for long.
  24. Thought I was going to crash the 10 minute barrier but took a swerve at the WATER JUMP – thinking of a golf course rather than a race course. PATHETIC FALLACY is one of those terms I know (like semiotics) without knowing what it is. So that’s what Disney does. 12.03
    1. You’re not alone: no one knows what it is, including its practitioners. As Sperber and Wilson put it, “The recent history of semiotics has been one of simultaneous institutional success and intellectual bankruptcy.”

      Edited at 2021-06-01 11:55 am (UTC)

  25. Another who set off like a rocket but came to grief in the NE corner. I had 80% of this done in just over 10 minutes, but those last few clues took me to 23:39. I’d had WATER at 4a from early in the solve, but JUMP took much longer. It did however finally open up the NE, with UNNATURAL then dropping into place, with TENET and SUBTITLE following and confirming PATHETIC, and I finally wrote out the checkers for the second word and spotted AC instead of the I I’d been trying to shoehorn into the answer. Thanks setter and Jack.
  26. I missed the subtlety of nice, and took the Nice for allusion to the famous Film Festival where one might expect the English and American films in subtitles in French. Perhaps we were nicely provided with both methods of resolution. Most enjoyable puzzle for me.
  27. First deposition after keeping an eye the QC for the last year and the 15×15. I notice other QCers are chancing their arms here. Well, I finished in just under 17 minutes using tree-ware. COD Pathetic Fallacy @ 8dn.
  28. … as beaten by the NHO 8D. Thanks to our blogger for explaining the cryptic clueing, but I was only ever going to get there with a large slice of luck. Pretty sure I’ll have forgotten the expression and its meaning by tomorrow.
  29. Quicker than yesterday but oddly less satisfying in some way. Perhaps because one could biff the long ones on each side – and a couple of others – so had less to ponder. Liked WATER JUMP, and 1dn had excellent wordplay that I ignored entirely. Thanks to setter and blogger.

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