Times 27825 – chestnuts and tough nuts to crack.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This took me well over an hour and I’m still wondering about how 2d works. There is a mix of easy or familiar clues, with some oblique definitions and unusual words – 19a and 15d for example. I am 4d about the answer to 4d, too.
Good luck to those attempting the TCC on Saturday; I’ll take a run at the puzzles at leisure but I can’t be tempted to be in a hurry. It’s a pity we’re covid-struck; I was intending to make it to the George this year. Perhaps 2021 will see us liberated.

Across
1 Driver, say, hit back and forth? (4,4)
GOLF CLUB – FLOG (hit) back, CLUB (hit) not back.
6 Celebrity currently featuring in musical, not finished (6)
RENOWN – Apparently there is a musical called RENT which is loosely based on La Bohème, (which I do like). I hate all musicals so have never heard it, but had vaguely heard of it. Into REN(T) put NOW.
9 Ship ready to be launched possibly in US port (6)
NEWARK – NEW ARK, self explanatory.
10 Light plane that’s inclined to transport dignitary (4,4)
REAR LAMP – RAMP (inclined plane) insert EARL.
11 Bowl over, with very hot ball trapping opener in test (4)
STUN – the SUN in a way is a very hot ball, insert T for test opener.
12 Drinking suffered, last of pubs boarded up (10)
WASSAILING – WAS AILING = suffered, insert S = last of pubs.
14 Composer put line in short song: riff not requiring one (4,4)
CARL ORFF – CARO(L) a short song; insert L (line) add R(I)FF. German chap who wrote Carmina Burana etc.
16 Having taken some hemp as smuggler, search me! (4)
PASS – hidden in HEM(P AS S)MUGGLER. PASS as in e.g. Mastermind questions I don’t know.
18 See spinners spinning (4)
SPOT – TOPS reversed. Chestnutty.
19 Full of goodness, cook tripe (8)
FLUMMERY – Well, it took me a while to decipher why this is what it is. FRY = cook, LUMME! an old expression or exclamation = goodness!. I’d heard the expression lumme! but never seen it spelt (I’d have guessed LUMMY!) Flummery is an oat based dessert but can also mean humbug language.
21 Coarse show embodying extremes of evil (10)
INDELICATE – insert E(vi)L into INDICATE = show.
22 All those on stage thrown off (4)
CAST – chestnutty double definition.
24 Head for Google: previous search one supposedly forgot quickly (8)
GOLDFISH – G(oogle); OLD: FISH (for) = search (for). Goldfish allegedly swim around their bowls not remembering they’ve been round before. I don’t believe it; my little tropical fish knew for sure where the rocks were.
26 Mighty Egyptian, huge deity (6)
OSIRIS – OS (outsize) IRIS (another deity).
27 Grab succeeded, as you’d expect (6)
SNATCH – S(ucceeded), NATCH slang for naturally.
28 Philosophical novel one ends eg with hint of realism (8)
RESIGNED – (I ENDS EG R)*, the I = 1, one, the R from realism.

Down
2 Clearly evident, spectrum lacking in orange and green (5)
OVERT – well, this is not clear to me. I can see O for orange and VERT for green. But ‘spectrum lacking in’ suggests a word losing IN to give the O or OVERT. Something to do with the introvert to extrovert spectrum? Or a visible spectrum ROYGBIV loses its O and G? I’m writing nonsense.
EDIT as pointed out below, orange loses RANGE to leave O, then VERT. I was being too scientific about my spectra, range is a fair synonym in a more general sense.
3 Queen allowed to wear embroidered felt, soft fabric (11)
FLANNELETTE – into (FELT)* you place ANNE (a Queen) and LET (allowed).
4 Cool evangelist, friendly (8)
LUKEWARM – I would debate whether cool means lukewarm, to me that’s warmer than cool, it’s tepid. Cool is below ambient, lukewarm is at or above. But LUKE was an evangelist, and WARM means friendly here.
5 Similar item of furniture introduced to curious father and bride (5,2,1,7)
BIRDS OF A FEATHER – (BRIDE FATHER)* => BIRD … FEATHER, insert SOFA.
6 Shakespearean character inspiring a film actor later taking bigger role (6)
REAGAN – REGAN (King Lear’s middle daughter) has A pt in to get old Ronnie, cowboy film star and 40th President.
7 Duck in long river, dropping tail (3)
NIL – NILE loses E. Nil means zero, as does a duck in sport. There’s also a real duck called a nil, I know not whether that’s a coincidence or the reason we call zero, nil, a duck.
8 Wolf — more experienced packs in country (9)
WOMANISER – I had a long think about nine letter countries before realising it wasn’t. WISER (more experienced) has a country OMAN inside.
13 Tasty punches to the face? (3-8)
LIP-SMACKING – literal cryptic definition.
15 Lengthy item calling to the lower house: planner upset about that (9)
ALPENHORN – Insert HO (house) into (PLANNER)*. Clever definition, of a long instrument for calling to the ‘lower’ i.e. cow.
17 Many use rum on bananas (8)
NUMEROUS – (USE RUM ON)*.
20 By the sound of it, language perfect (6)
FINISH – sounds like FINNISH. Perfect as a verb.
23 Attack winger (5)
SNIPE – double definition, our old friend winger for a bird.
25 Mark Fox turns up (3)
DOT – TOD reversed; tod is an ancient name for a male fox. Another chestnut.

69 comments on “Times 27825 – chestnuts and tough nuts to crack.”

  1. Thanks, Pip. I took 2d to be ORANGE without RANGE (spectrum) to give O, plus the VERT = green

    Edited at 2020-11-18 05:57 am (UTC)

  3. I didn’t get to the bottom of OVERT either, so thanks, folks.
    Nearly last in was FLUMMERY (“lumme” maybe dimly recalled), and LOI ALPENHORN. “Lengthy item,” “lower,” indeed! What a clue!
  4. I’ve no exact time to offer but it was no more than 40 minutes with the REAR part of REAR LAMP as my LOI for some reason. I only got it from wordplay in the end.

    Like our blogger I also first went down the ROY G BIV route at 2dn and tried removing the O and the G, but having got nowhere with that I spotted the answer from the definition and the wordplay followed.

    Few people could name anything by Carl Orff beyond ‘Carmina Burana’. Anyone interested in knowing more might try ‘Der Mond’ which is very accessible, or ‘Die Kluge’, a little less so.

    I never saw RENT but as a once avid theatre-goer it was hard not to know of its existence when it first came out. The range of musicals is so great that I’m a little surprised that anyone could hate them all but as I feel much the same about sport (although even I make an exception for tennis) I have to respect the point of view.

    Edited at 2020-11-18 06:25 am (UTC)

    1. I could almost make an exception for the movie of Evita, which I almost liked. Afraid I am a sports watching junkie though. Tennis golf football rugby F1, even snooker when nothing else on. We’re incompatible!
    2. I generally detest musicals (especially anything involving Andrew Lloyd Webber) with three exceptions: Matilda, Hamilton and The Book of Mormon.
      1. I was singing the praises of Matilda to a friend earlier this week. I’m hoping that Groundhog Day, for which Tim Minchin also did the music, makes it to London at some point. That’s if theatres still exist.

        Edited at 2020-11-18 11:55 am (UTC)

        1. Groundhog Day premiered in London! I tried and failed to get tickets at the time, will definitely try and see it if and when. I’m a big Tim Minchin fan.
  5. I was on the wavelength in places today – ALPENHORN went in from the crossing letters and when I had the F at the start and thought of fry for cook FLUMMERY went in. Elsewhere I was well off it, particularly for RENOWN where I’d got stuck on thinking it had to contain “on” for currently featuring. The definition for REAGAN was cunning so I was glad of the Shakespearean character being from one of the plays I studied at school.

    COD to NEWARK which raised a smile.

  6. I’d actually given up with 23d to do, having done one of my always desultory alphabet trawls, and just as I was about to check my e-mail I thought of SNIPE. About 5 minutes too late. Biffed OVERT, BIRDS, parsed post-submission. I put in POLISH, while thinking ‘Hey, they’re not homophones!’ but not letting that stop me; being stuck at INDELICATE finally made me think. I had no idea what GOLDFISH was about. Liked OVERT, liked FLUMMERY (DNK the dessert), but COD to ALPENHORN.
  7. Another on wavelength solve for me at just 22m. Biffed OVERT with a shrug, loved the brilliant ALPENHORN (definitely my COD) and the rest went in nicely until the complex definition for LOI REAR LAMP slowed me at the end, as I was racking my brains to think of a type of limo that doesn’t exist.

    Are the setters getting into the Christmas spirit a little early? We’ve had a lot of wassailing of late, and we also have a carol in here.

    Thanks for a lovely puzzle setter, and for a fine blog as always PIp.

  8. 44 minutes, which felt like longer, but sadly all for naught, as I’d guessed that the bird might be a SMITE. Well, it sounded plausible to me. Fiddlesticks.
  9. This crossword was not a delight
    Another bird! This isn’t right
    Other letters could be
    Between the S, I, and E
    To make a new word, and that’s shite
  10. …Nature in you stands on the very verge
    Of her confine. You should be rul’d, and led
    By some discretion that discerns your state
    Better than you yourself.

    Exactly 30 mins. LOI was Newark after eventually getting Lukewarm. Doh!
    Was disgruntled by Polish until the Goldfish.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

  11. All went in reasonably quickly except the SW corner where I struggled, particularly with ALPENHORN and GOLDFISH. Are the latter particularly forgetful? I have never heard that before. “Calling to the lower (house)” was very clever so that’s my COD.
    LOI was REAGAN.
    Thanks, Pip!

    Edited at 2020-11-18 08:08 am (UTC)

    1. No evidence that they are worse than any other fish really, but in popular saws (as we would say here but nowhere else) they form the opposite pole to elephants. “I have the memory of a goldfish” is based on the image of the fish circling its bowl and saying, “Oh, there’s a rock” on each circuit. Something I identify with more and more as each year passes.
      1. US TV show Mythbusters looked at goldfish, the two hosts tried – separately – to train them to swim an obstacle course faster and faster. One succeeded, with ever-quicker times; one failed. They decided goldfish could learn, and did remember.
        I used to be able to learn and remember, harder and harder as I get older. Managed to complete this only a little over par, saw the range in orange but not the lumme in flummery, a guess. I actually liked Reagan – the clue, not the president.

        Edited at 2020-11-18 10:09 am (UTC)

  12. 17′ but with a typo 🙁

    Really enjoyed the puzzle, COD to ALPENHORN

    Thanks pip and setter

  13. Thanks very much LUMME which I couldn’t see despite it being a word I used to use a lot. It was a politer expression of surprise than some others used. Never wrote it down though and wouldn’t have spelled it like that if I had. ‘Lord love me’ apparently.
  14. I accidentally (and separately) printed out two grids this morning. My short term memory must be on the blink.
    The first effort took me 54 minutes – the second attempted three hours later, so from memory, just 9 minutes and 15 seconds which seemed desperately slow, as my short term memory is definitely kaputt!

    FOI originally 22ac CAST (then 2dn OVERT misleading lack of punctuation)

    LOI origially 21 ac INDELICATE (then 10ac REAR LAMP)

    COD 18ac FLUMMERY – LUMME! (then 14ac CARL ORFF – I knew his brother)

    WOD 24ac GOLDFISH (after the WWI Chateau in France near Ypres where my grandfather spent time as a junior officer) (then 24ac GOLDFISH!)

        1. Aha. I foolishly Googled Chateau Poisson d’Or, which is not a thing, but Chateau Goldfish I see was not a chateau but a casualties camp near Ypres in WW1. Thanks z8 and horryd. I learn at least one thing a day.
      2. A photograph of the actual Chateau ‘Goldfish’ is on line!
        It was so-called because of the koi carp in the pond at the front (no not that front!)of the Chateau which was smitherened!

        Also in residence was one Rothesay Stuart-Montagu Wortley – ever heard of him? Born Highcliffe January 1892.Wrote a book ‘Letters from a Flying Officer’ – it was actually ‘ghosted by Captain W. E. Johns. He was rather famous in his day. I am writing a book about him.

        Goldfish! – Goldfish! Because after three hours. I had forgotten my first answer!

        Edited at 2020-11-18 09:50 am (UTC)

  15. Gave up just after the hour with unknown ALPENHORN and the non-deduced GOLDFISH. left. Bah. Never did work out 2D either so thanks for the explanation all. FLUMMERY also took a while til the penny dropped with lumme. A word I have not heard for a long time. Thanks pip and setter.
  16. 12:57. Like Jack my LOI was REAR LAMP having tried and failed to make ROAD LAMP work. SNIPE took a while to come too. Otherwise no real problems, though I didn’t know RENT the musical and failed to parse OVERT. COD to FLUMMERY.
  17. 9:48. I worked steadily through this without problems. LOI REAR LAMP, which strikes me as less a thing in itself than a thing plus an indication of its location. The dictionaries all have it though.
  18. 18.38 stretched out by GOLDFISH (trying to think of the reverse of an elephant) and RESIGNED (trying to come up with a Sartre or Camus novel or some German word for such a thing).
    It seems I missed on parsing RENOWN, which may be just as well as I wouldn’t have come up with RENT the musical, a complete hole in my arts knowledge.
    Clues to like: ALPENHORN for an epic definition, and REAGAN for the innocent A dividing the actual definition from complete incomprehension.
    I’ve sung ORFF’s Carmina Piranha, with his vicious top B for the tenors held right to the end when we’re knackered.

    1. The well known bit of Carmina B is one of those bits often on Classic FM which I mute, like Bolero, as it drives me crazy. Especially in the car. But I can imagine it’s fun to sing in a choir.
      1. It is quite fun to sing, particularly when it goes can belto. But breath control in the looooong final chord is an issue, often resolved with the instruction “stagger breathing”. Some of us put a comma in the middle of that.
    2. My late husband, when a student in Munich, was introduced to Professor Orff. He didn’t realised that the Prof was famous outside Munich until years later when I came home from choir practice with the score. His best friend at the time was studying composition – hence the introduction.
  19. Lumme! Slow but fun, no real difficulty. Orff is not a goldfish, get Orfe. I’ve sung Carmina Burana as a bass (not another fish?) that’s easier.
  21. 48 minutes. LOI NEWARK, more an airport in my experience. In my youth, when green buds all were swelling, I bought a Watersons album, where they went a’wassailing (and pace egging too). I trust John Dun is impressed. Back then, I used to prefer FLANNELETTE sheets in what was an unheated house apart from the coal fire in the living room. Toughish puzzle which repaid perseverance. COD to FLUMMERY. Thank you Pip and setter.
  22. Slowed down by mis-anagramming ENORMOUS instead of NUMEROUS and also biffing POLISH instead of FINISH. This made 19 and 21 across hard to get and it took me several minutes to realise what was going on.
  23. Like Pootle I was bang on wavelength in places, with FLUMMERY and some other possibly-not-obvious answers going straight in, but some clues had me chasing shadows:

    – not knowing a musical to fit REN?
    – not remembering ORFF’s given name and having to work it out
    – worrying that 24 was going to be some Greek I hadn’t heard of who drank from the Lethe or summat like that
    – Having GOB-SMACKING for a while
    – trying to shoeHORN MP into 15 as “calling to the lower house”.

    Still, got there in the end in (currently) sub-nitch territory.

    Edited at 2020-11-18 10:37 am (UTC)

  24. Finished in 44 minutes with about half of that (with increasing frustration) spent on REAR LAMP, then REAGAN, my last in. Not all parsed though, so thanks for explaining OVERT, GOLDFISH and RENOWN among a few others. I agree with your reservations about LUKEWARM.

    Best for me was the ‘Lengthy item calling to the lower’ def.

  25. Evidently I had the wavelength for this at 12.54. DNK the GOLDFISH theory of memory. The only goldfish I knew I brought home from a fair once and it didn’t last the night. Speaking of memory and musicals, even if you didn’t know Rent it was hard to avoid the song Seasons Of Love (500 25,000 600 minutes)20 plus years ago. I mostly knew ORFF from the eponymous instruments that children learn music with.
  26. Finally sighted the attack bird at the end however. Found this quite tough. Assumed a Reno musical. Didn’t know about the goldfish (does anyone really?) – anyway, shouldn’t that be ‘forgets’? 34’55.
    1. The phrase “the memory of a goldfish” gets nearly 2 million Google hits and I thought it was a very common phrase, in the UK at least.

      There’s no scientific basis for it mind you.

  27. Although I didn’t know the musical, RENOWN went straight in from definition and “currently featuring in”, as I already had NIL. GOLF CLUB was my FOI followed by OVERT, which I managed to parse after a moment’s thought. Must have been right on the wavelength, as I zipped through the rest, with ALPENHORN my POI, just leaving REAGAN, which I suddenly saw in a blinding flash of light(not the rear one!). 23:45. Thanks setter and Pip.
  28. As usual for this week, rattled through this and then took 7 mins to polish it off. LOI’s REAR LAMP and SNIPE. Didn’t help that I misspelt REAGAN, nor that I was working on the wrong literal.
    Didn’t understand the parsing of RENOWN, FLUMMERY and OVERT, so thanks Pip.
  30. Got stuck a bit in the SW towards the end as I’d entered TOD rather than DOT and couldn’t make anything of the two crossers.

    Nothing unparsed, just took a long time to see some answers.

    Background family noise did not help.

  31. First one this week without silly typos. Also pleasingly on the right wavelength today. 1ac was straight in. BIFFed 5dn and then picked off the others fairly quickly. Was grateful for the wordplay for CARL ORFF. Could easily have come a cropper there…
  32. Quite a decent time for me. I did have to check whether the composer was “Carl Orff” or “Carl Orif”.
    We’ve had “Wassail” twice this week – previously minus W to create “Assail”. We must be coming up to Christmas.
  34. 33.49. Glad to see the blogger didn’t rush through either. A toughie I thought.

    I was fearing the worst when pass was my first one in. Then proceeded to find the crossword was a real game of two halves. Ground through the eastern hemisphere but the western remained stubbornly indecipherable until golf club gave me a new start.

    LOI snipe having resisted putting in smite cos I couldn’t think of anything else up to the point of inspiration. Loads of good clues . Alpenhorn was my favourite but carl orff was pretty good as were snatch snd flannelette. Never worked out why overt was right- thanks blogger- and tod/ dot was a guess which paid off.

  35. I must have been very much on the wavelength of the setter as I cruised to a 7:36 finish, with only OVERT going in with a shrug. I did like GOLF CLUB.
  36. Almost gave up as the second hand reached 12 but the grey cells managed to bring re(a)gan to mind and rear lamp (my LOI) quickly followed.

    Enjoyed the parsing of overt.

    Thanks setter and Pip.

  37. Thought this was a fair puzzle but nothing to make me either smile or groan! I’ve always thought of birds of a feather as plural but am I wrong?
    2. I too thought 5D should have had “items”. Very surprised that no one else seemed to be bothered.
      1. I took ‘item of furniture’ to be SOFA, and the definition simply ‘similar’; they’re similar/they’re birds of a feather.
        1. You are, of course, quite right. It was having “ similar item” as the definition in the blog that fooled me.
  38. Plugged away at this, off and on, for several hours but still fell four short. Having never heard of Rent, and not having the wit to jump from **now* to Renown, 6ac/d proved beyond me. So we’re Alpenhorn and Indelicate, both of which I might have got on a good day. For me, Lukewarm/Cool works, but only when referring to feelings about someone you are not particularly keen on – as a temperature equivalence it certainly doesn’t. Invariant
  39. Late again. I keep forgetting to comment at an appropriate time. Very enjoyable, steady solve. No unknowns. 27 minutes. Ann

Comments are closed.