Times 27805 – Seeing Double

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Pretty standard Monday fare, with the odd unusual word (SAKI, the American with the bizarre name) being clued very accessibly.

I am currently immersed in Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s work (when not dipping into Zola – enough of the literary posturing already Ed.). For the record, I wasn’t that taken with A Hundred Years of Solitude (not a fan of flying carpets etc.), loved Love in The Time of Cholera (who else could write about a man having sex with a ten-year-old and get away with it? Nabakov?) and learned much from his affectionate portrayal of the last days of Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte-Andrade y Blanco (note to certain American authors: if you’re going to go to town on your name, don’t repeat bits) – better known as Simón Bolívar (or Simon Bolivar in English), The General in his Labyrinth. If only I good enough reading Spanish! Even in translation, his work is wonderfully limpid and witty.

18:04 for the puzzle.

ACROSS

1 Key area, watering hole (5,3)
SPACE BAR – SPACE BAR
6 Worn out, quiet cat dropping head (6)
SHABBY – SH [t]ABBY
9 Cloth cutter, reportedly, for a beginner? (7,6)
CURTAIN RAISER – CURTAIN sounds like ‘razor’
10 Total when innings complete? (3-3)
ALL-OUT – the first of our cricketing clues: a side is all out when all its batsmen bar one have been dismissed; TOTAL as in ‘all-out war’
11 Philanderer’s limitless charm embraced by group I love (8)
LOTHARIO -[c]HAR[m] in LOT I O; Byron’s Don Juan remains one of the funniest pieces of extended writing I have ever read.
13 Utopian novel italicised (10)
IDEALISTIC – anagram of ITALICISED
15 Nation marked for deletion? (4)
TOGO – if something is tagged TO GO, it may be marked for deletion (though an American would get a bit browned off, I would imagine, if you got rid of his takeaway order. And an American feminist – of either or indeed any sex – would get even more browned off if I used the masculine possessive pronoun.)
16 Primate mentioned briefly, dressing king (4)
SAKI -K in SAI[d]; I am so darned literary that I knew this only as the name of a Scottish short story writer I have never read rather than as a monkey
18 Adjustment made in time, spring back (4,6)
LEAP SECOND – LEAP SECOND; ‘A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), to accommodate the difference between precise time (as measured by atomic clocks) and imprecise observed solar time (known as UT1 and which varies due to irregularities and long-term slowdown in the Earth’s rotation).’ Maybe, with all this climate change, we’ll soon have two- or three-second adjustments…
21 File in woodland getting lost (8)
DOWNLOAD – WOODLAND*
22 Leave on Christmas morning, possibly with papa (6)
DECAMP – DEC AM P (code word for the letter P)
23 Novelist and critic cross, furious with English city (4,5,4)
FORD MADOX FORD – FORD (cross – a river..if it’s shallow enough) MAD (furious) OXFORD (um, I don’t want to be snobbist and elitist, so let’s just say a conurbation between Didcot and Banbury once famous for building cars no one wanted to buy)
25 Case of Welshman bagging very wild dragon (6)
WYVERN – VERY* in W[elshma]N
26 Show on television initially in the money (8)
PRETENCE – RE T[elevision] in PENCE (the English shrapnel not the American VP)

DOWN

2 Cream shown in one’s cups (7)
PICKLED – PICK LED (as in ‘shown the way’); one of the countless words British English has for ‘drunk’
3 Fat tummy, big concern (11)
CORPORATION – the setter is just settling into double definition (DD) mode
4 Condemn explosion (5)
BLAST – …as I said
5 Lock phone, given licence (7)
RINGLET – …taking a break: RING LET (as far as I can see, there’s a bit of acrobatics with voice involved here, as the active LET is represented by the passive GIVEN LICENCE. Anyway, the idea is clear: ‘She was given licence to go’ / ‘They let her go’. Or am I missing something?)
6 Film role in bag with support of American (9)
SPARTACUS – PART in SAC US; one wonders if the rebellion would have been successful had it not been led by Kirk Douglas
7 Muscles stopping system (3)
ABS – …back to DD mode: ABS stands for ANTI-LOCK BRAKING SYSTEM (which I always think is very tough on ‘lock’, which is after all the most important word in the whole caboosh)
8 Cuckoo making beastly noise (7)
BARKING – …another you know what: my favourite Playfair Football Annual entry – ‘Bobby Moore, born Barking.’ Whatever did his mum think?
12 Soldier very bitter over identical issue getting high (11)
ANTICYCLONE – ANT ICY (very bitter) [over – on top of] CLONE (identical issue)
14 Sad if solemn, a British dependency (4,2,3)
ISLE OF MAN – IF SOLEMN A*
17 So distant, a buzzer in private chamber? (7)
ALOOFLY – A LOO FLY (ha!); ‘so distant’ here operating as an adverbial phrase, hence ALOOFLY
19 Ready to bat after opener dismissed? Seemed likely (5,2)
ADDED UP – [p]ADDED UP; our second cricket clue – batsmen wear pads to protect their legs if they know what’s good for them
20 Loco caught by travelling icon, always on the move (7)
NOMADIC – MAD in ICON*
22 French figure that is from New Orleans, say? (5)
DIXIE – DIX (French number 10) IE (that is)
24 Grain in granary, evidently! (3)
RYE – nice easy hidden to conclude proceedings

49 comments on “Times 27805 – Seeing Double”

  1. A really good time on most of it, about 29 minutes. I suspected PICKLED but thought it might have been ‘pickled cream’ or something like that. I was never getting the author, never being sure whether MAD was ‘furious’ or ‘cross’, or whether X was ‘cross’, etc. And never having heard of him. Easy name to remember, though. Once I’d looked up the author, ANTICYCLONE was immediately apparent, even without having heard of the word. Only then did it dawn on me that ‘identical issue’ was CLONE and not QUIN or something similar. I thought ‘very bitter’ = ICY was wonderfully misleading, but am not sure I feel fully convinced that CLONE is an ‘issue’.
    1. Sorry – generally figure people do the QC first. I kind of gave away a QC entry by saying what my typo was for.

      An odd day where it took less time to do the daily than the QC. 5:28.

  4. POI ANTICYCLONE, trying for too long to shoe-horn an AIRCOMMODORE or similar military type, somehow involving a twin… until the penny dropped. A high in the great Australian bight produces our typical summer weather- got one today.
  5. DNF, and not just technical because even having resorted to aids for my LOI I got it wrong, selecting VARI as the primate from the options presented to me. I never heard of it of course, but then I didn’t know SAKI as a primate either. I think K for ‘king’ instead of R had occurred to me at some point but I had dismissed it from my mind as being unlikely on this occasion.

    My other cheat was ALOOFLY. I had considered FLY as the buzzer (fixated on BLOWFLY, although it made no sense) and I was misled by ‘in’, thinking it indicated enclosure, so I might have got there if the clue had been ‘private chamber in a buzzer’!

    Before coming unstuck on these two clues I had taken 32 minutes to solve all the rest of the puzzle. It was a shame they intersected.

    Edited at 2020-10-26 03:46 am (UTC)

  6. Nice start to the week. Took too long to see ALOOFLY. Now is an ANTI-LOCK BREAKING SYSTEM one where the whole car explodes when you put your foot down hard. As opposed to a BRAKING SYSTEM that actually stops!
  7. Clearly on the wavelength today, finishing in 19 minutes. It helped that I read a Saki collection last year that included some introductory notes, including speculation on the origin of his pseudonym. I’d also at least heard of FORD MADOX FORD, though I’d assumed until today that he was American, possibly just because of his name. The Good Soldier sounds interesting, but I may need to leave heavier reading fare until lighter times…

    FOI 1a SPACE BAR LOI 12 ANTICYCLONE, with no particular stand-outs.

    1. The four books in the tetralogy were made into a lavish TV series called ‘Parade’s End’ broadcast in 2012 starring Benedict Cumberbatch before he became famous, and on the strength of seeing the first couple of episodes I bought the books newly published in one volume. After the TV series had concluded (and I had quite enjoyed it) I started reading the books but found them dull and impenetrable despite by then knowing the story, so I abandoned them part way through the second book.
  8. …For both, for both my love is so immense,
    (What a rubbish pair of lines! And that’s Keats. He must have had an off morning.)

    Re the crossword, 15 mins pre-brekker. No MERs, no crosses, no ticks.
    The surface readings seemed perfunctory.
    Thanks setter and U.

  9. Very enjoyable crossword. Very concise – the clues barely take up 60% of the space available in my paper copy. COD to WOODLAND.
  10. I finished with the unknown SAKI which could easily have been SARI if I hadn’t dismissed it as being an item of clothing rather than a monkey. I was still not confident as sari could well have been a type of monkey as well as a garment for all I knew. The devil in me kind of hoped there was a sari monkey and we were in for a repeat of Friday!
  11. SAKI dredged up from somewhere. ANTICYCLONE unaccountably POI, agree that clone is not an issue. COD to ALOOFLY.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

  12. Apparently space stations stink
    It’s the recycled air, so I think
    And they’ll need a SPACE BAR
    Cos up where they are
    It’s a long way to go for a drink

    So lovely to start a crossword with the word space!

    Panicked a bit when i saw “cuckoo”, but it was ok.

    Wyvern’s may have wings and be able to fly but they are NOT BIRDS!

  13. I thought some of the clues were QC material, especially 3d.
    LOI: ALOOFLY and SAKI.
    COD: ANTICYCLONE.
    I remember Vauxhall made a Wyvern model.
    If we’re talking reading material, I’m currently reading a biography of the late Captain Charlie Upham a Kiwi soldier who is one of only three people who have been awarded the VC twice. Fascinating read. The author tackles the issue head-on in the first chapter as to whether Upham was a psychopath or not and decides he most definitely wasn’t.

    Edited at 2020-10-26 08:12 am (UTC)

  14. Bah. I steamed through most of this in 30mins then got stuck on the last two ANTICYCLONE and LEAP SECOND. Couldn’t see the first and didn’t know the second. After an hour I looked them up.

    Several nice clues though. I liked the surface for WYVERN in particular. Thank you U and setter.

  15. 15.18. Nice starter for the week. SW corner posed a few problems so LOI download swiftly after aloofly and saki. Would have been more troublesome if I hadn’t remembered aloofly as an answer earlier this year. But to follow the logic ,shouldn’t the answer( nonsense though it would be) comprise loaflyo?!

    DNK leap second but was well clued. Almost missed the critic too, thought there were two Ds in his name.

      1. Being too thick, could you explain it to me, because I thought exactly the same thing.
  16. 14:29. Threw a huge spanner in the works by confidently writing in HOUR CHANGE for 18A, which made a right mess to untangle. It made my grid look all a bit 6A. I think we had SAKI the primate and FORD MADOX FORD recently, which helped. COD to WYVERN.
  17. 14 minutes with LOI LEAP SECOND. I was unsure between SARI and SAKI bur decided on the Spectator columnist rather than the Indian dress. I read The Good Soldier about fifty years and I remember is that I liked it and that it was written by FORD MADOX FORD. COD to ALOOFLY. Thank you and setter for a puzzle that played to my strengths.
    1. You’re thinking of Taki (something I try to avoid doing).

      Edited at 2020-10-26 09:03 am (UTC)

      1. I’m getting old. I think I must have been reading Taki since Joseph Addison owned the magazine, without understanding why. He was better accompanied by Jeffrey Bernard. I’ve never read any Saki.
    1. I had forgotten his involvement, and perhaps that was why the TV series worked. Mind you, Stoppard can be impenetrable too when the mood takes him!
  19. 10:30, taken over the ten-minute mark by ANTICYCLONE and LEAP SECOND, for some reason.
    The primate is sufficiently obscure to merit unambiguous wordplay if you ask me. SAKI rang a vague bell and I thought that if SARI had two meanings I’d know about it somehow, but I still checked before submission.
    1. Indeed, 15th October, when the clue was “Leading character in 21 can do what it does remotely (7)” which only makes any kind of sense if you know that 21d was AIRSHIP.
  21. 15.24, with 1ac and 2d proving tricky. It seems I often fall for that key thing, and might contend that the SPACE BAR is not a key, it’s a -um- bar. I thought it might be a clever reference to something like a piano bar (key space, of course).
    IDEALISTIC is fortunate to have such a complete anagram, which took me much less time to resolve than when it turned up a few brief hours ago in Another Place.
    SAKI the writer turned up recently as part of a clue (SALUKI) in Verlaine’s birthday present Friday brute, which is where I knew the monkey from, other wise I might have panicked.
    Today’s paired clues provided ALL-OUT LOTHARIO, presumably Casanova.

    Edited at 2020-10-26 09:53 am (UTC)

  23. Had to guess the monkey at the end; seemed likely. 22’32. Many years ago I chanced upon a secondhand paperback copy of one of the F.M.Ford tetralogy, read it and resolved to pick up the rest as and when I might light upon them and read in whatever order they turned up. It took years of peering around secondhand stalls and shops (which I’ve always done a bit of anyhow) but the satisfaction on lighting upon the last was considerable. The strange postwar reflection of the whole is little appreciated these days and perhaps always was but it’s finely drawn.
    1. I went with Sari when I should have thought twice. Otherwise a good time. 11:31 with one error.
  24. Held up most near the top where PICKLED took ages to come without the C checker – CURTAIN RAISER only went in after that, giving BARKING, SHABBY and ABS in that order.
  25. 18’27’ for me, with the last seven minutes on leap second and anticyclone. For some reason I convinced myself that the answer for 12 down was an obscure Italian mediaeval solider like an Autocaccore.
  26. It was easy for 32 mins but I got badly stuck in the South West at 21ac DOWNLOAD, 16ac SAKI (SARI!) and 17dn ALOOFLY which was my LOI.

    FOI 24dn RYE

    COD 21ac DOWNLOAD I didn’t see it for ages

    WOD 22ac FORD MADOX FORD d. Deauville 26 June 1939. His uncle was the painter Ford Madox Brown

    From Harry Graham’s More Heartless Rhymes for Heartless Homes.

    Bishop Prout.

    In Burma, once, while Bishop Prout
    Was preaching on Predestination,
    There came a sudden waterspout
    And drowned the congregation.
    “O Heav’n!” he cried, “Why can’t you wait
    Until they’ve handed round the plate?”

    It is the illustration (which is on line) which more than the poem itself, is so redolent of ‘Old Cotton Socks’.
    mainly ankles and water and Prout.

    Bless!

  27. ….any SAKI comments. At least I biffed it correctly.

    FOI ALL-OUT
    LOI ALOOFLY
    COD ADDED UP
    TIME 9:56

  28. I thought I’d give my brain a rest after struggling with the QC and am really glad I tackled this one.
    Only a few struggles – PICKLED, ANTICYCLONE and WYVERN.
    Some laughs along the way – TOGO and ALOOFLY – and my favourite was LEAP SECOND for being so logical.
    Thanks to the setter for 25 minutes of enjoyment and to Ulaca for the helpful blog.
  29. A very relaxing Monday, 31:40 including proofreading, and no problems with anything, really (except perhaps SAKI, which I didn’t know but which looked vaguely familiar). My high school English teacher (in the US, of course) used to have us look up obscure words in the dictionary and I remember that WYVERN was one of them, so it is a word I rather cherish.
  31. 11:10 quick for me even for a Monday. I went for saki over sari with fingers crossed. Had heard of Ford Madox Ford, I think I have The Good Soldier lying around somewhere. I liked the woodland / download anagram don’t think I’ve seen it before.

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