Times Cryptic 27644

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 35 minutes. A much clearer run than yesterday with no unknown words or meanings, nor any other problems.

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 Your health the worst: drink! (7,2)
BOTTOMS UP : BOTTOM (the worst), SUP (drink). “Cheers!”
6 Confirmation is academic, being empty? (5)
PROOF : PROF (academic) containing 0 [being empty]
9 Patron supposed to be heard? (5)
GUEST : Sounds like [to be heard] “guessed” (supposed)
10 Good, fertile housing market initially in brief dip (9)
ADMIRABLE : ARABLE (fertile) containing [housing] M{arket} [initially] which is itself contained by [in] DI{p} [brief]
11 An imperative in confidentiality agreement? Who knows? (3,5,3,4)
YOU NEVER CAN TELL : The alternative reading is a command or  imperative. An expression that’s been used as the title of a play by Bernard Shaw and a song by Chuck Berry.
13 Cult said to be in pieces (8)
SECTORAL : SECT (cult), ORAL (said)
14 Driving aid positioned in front of reversing vehicle (6)
SATNAV : SAT (positioned), VAN (vehicle) reversing
16 Fruit is getting watered, presumably? (6)
RAISIN : IS in RAIN (so getting watered, presumably)
18 Comedian absolutely right to defend further comment (8)
QUIPSTER : QUITE (absolutely) contains [to defend] PS (further comment – post script), then R (right)
21 After gallivanting, in with flush, high card too much to expect? (7,8)
WISHFUL THINKING : Anagram [gallivanting] of IN WITH FLUSH, then KING (high card)
23 Put out sepulchre that’s cut in stone (9)
AGGRAVATE : GRAV{e} (sepulchre) [cut] contained by [in] AGATE (stone). It was helpful that the stone came up only yesterday.
25 Star featuring in musical is terrific (1-4)
A-LIST : Hidden [featuring] in {music}AL IS T{errific}
26 Skirt on back of horizontal shelf (5)
LEDGE : {horizonta}L [back], EDGE (skirt)
27 State failed doctor in Irish country (4,5)
EAST TIMOR : Anagram [failed] of STATE, then MO (doctor) contained by [in] IR (Irish)
Down
1 Vehicle experiencing programming malfunction? (5)
BUGGY : A straight definition and a cryptic hint
2 Hunger matters around mealtime, starter polished off before one (3,8)
THE MUNCHIES : THEMES (matters) containing [around] {l}UNCH (mealtime) [starter polished off] + I (one)
3 In action working, he got to work (2,3,2)
ON THE GO : ON (working), anagram [to work] of HE GOT
4 Key establishment selling out-of-this-world drinks? (5,3)
SPACE BAR : A straight definition and a cryptic hint
5 Englishman abroad, one remains reduced to a pulp (6)
POMACE : POM (Englishman abroad), ACE (one). Collins: The pulpy residue of apples or similar fruit after crushing and pressing, as in cider-making.
6 Predator managed to gatecrash a joint from the basement? (7)
PIRANHA : RAN (managed) contained by [to gatecrash] A HIP (joint) reversed [from the basement]
7 Eye relative up (3)
ORB : BRO (relative) reversed [up]. Somewhat poetic, I think.
8 Fling in cash for sybarite (4-5)
FREE-LIVER : REEL (fling – dance) contained by [in] FIVER (cash). I understand the dances are subtly different but for crossword purposes are probably close enough.
12 Radioactive element beginning to escape in minutes, I suspect (11)
EINSTEINIUM : E{scape} [beginning], anagram [suspect] of IN MINUTES I
13 Cheat on bouncer, odd character (9)
SCREWBALL : SCREW (cheat), BALL (bouncer)
15 Savage not to be trusted after a scalping? (8)
RUTHLESS : {t}RUTHLESS (not to be trusted) [after a scalping]
17 Swell occupying fifth apartment? (7)
INFLATE : IN (occupying), FLAT E (fifth apartment)
19 Writer and poet ultimately wanting jewellery (7)
PENDANT : PEN (writer), DANT{e} (poet) [ultimately wanting]
20 Beer bottles container for French region (6)
ALSACE : ALE (beer) contains [bottles] SAC (container)
22 Snapper dropping camera went to mender, finally (5)
GATOR : {droppin}G, {camer}A, {wen}T, {t}O, {mende}R [finally]
24 Being worshipped, boxer, say, lifted up (3)
GOD : DOG (boxer, say) reversed [lifted up]

66 comments on “Times Cryptic 27644”

  1. Another one worked online. (My printer should be here tomorrow.)
    No problems. Never heard of POMACE, that I can recall.
    I thought MUNCHIES was a term known mainly by potheads like myself, but it doesn’t seem to have given Jackkt any trouble!
    1. And it is 4/20 today (in the US) and it is the big day for potheads (except everyone is stuck at home). That seems a stretch for The Times to have done deliberately though. Especially as it is 4/21 in UK.

      Edited at 2020-04-21 04:12 am (UTC)

  2. Like Guy,I didn’t know POMACE, and like him I thought THE MUNCHIES were a specifically pot-related phenomenon. Biffed a few, including, embarrassingly enough, GATOR, where I never picked up on the ‘finally’. FOI BOTTOMS UP, POI POMACE, LOI ADMIRABLE.
  3. Not too much trouble though I needed the crossers to spell PIRANHA correctly and didn’t know POMACE, which I thought incorrectly may be an alternative spelling of ‘pumice’. Finished in 32 minutes.
  4. With the Yanks arriving first on site, as per usual, their self-proclaimed ignorance of our culture is to the fore. THE MUNCHIES is in the UK a sudden desire to eat. This is not America! And ‘pot’ is not used (as a word) in the ‘hood’ hereabouts, innit! Further, POMACE is also olive pulp served in the fashionable tapas bars of London prior to the present restrictions.

    FOI 1ac BOTTOMS-UP – A daffodil! No! Matron! nothing to do with all that! Or Jimmy Edwards and Mr. Dimwiddy!

    LOI 10ac ADMIRABLE – a la Crichton: Kenneth Moore, Diane Cliente, Cecil Parker don’t’ya know! Terribly, terribly nice.

    COD 21ac WISHFUL THINKING

    WOD 18ac QUIPSTER – talking of which:-

    Two American ladies descending in a lift at the Carlyle Hotel, New York 1943, recognise a fellow passenger.
    ‘Oh! Mr. Coward! We saw the show last night! Please, please say some thing funny!’
    The Master’s one word reply as he strolled off, ‘Ah-merica!’ (Ned Sherrin)

    1. Your definition for “munchies” is the same as mine, David; I wouldn’t be surprised if the word has been used by cannabis users over there too. National borders are rather porous to the drug culture. “Pot” is a somewhat antiquated term for marijuana in any form that has actually been used on both sides of the pond. Collins, FWIW, supports that assertion—no, wait, this is just silly. I know it has. Here’s a randomly selected article from the Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-beatles-help-album-anniversary-john-lennon-marijuana-a9344936.html

      But I honestly do not understand your blustering about “ignorance” just because I, an American, use American phrases in expressing myself, especially about a puzzle in which baseball references may pop up as well as yer own quaint cricket terms.

      1. Guy I am happy to confirm both your assertions from a British perspective. Pot may be old school but was still current as a Mary Jane euphemism here in the 70s; the moment I solved 2d, some rather hazy memories from that decade floated back, all of them involving much giggling and late night fridge raids. The munchies may have existed before the herb, but the phrase was in my experience well and truly appropriated by weed lovers and will always be so associated.
      2. I can second what pleasuredome8 says, both on British use of the word ‘pot’ and the association of the term THE MUNCHIES.
      3. Guy, I am always amazed by you guys and kevins listing things you didn’t know! It’s axiomatic! Read an old friend of mine Bill Bryson on the ‘Irony Bypass’- from ‘A Walk in the Woods’.
        1. I have plenty to read already, thanks, but I presume the recommended volume has an exhaustive disquisition on the derivation and usage of POMACE, a word evidently unknown to many residents of the UK as well. (And when are they going to let you back in?)
        2. At my age memory is a problem, but I can’t think of an occasion when I’ve listed things I don’t know (the list would be endless); could you help me out there? Nor can I think of one thing that I mentioned not knowing in relation to the specific clue here. Nor–I’m having trouble thinking of things–can I figure out what it is that you think is axiomatic.
    2. There is a connection with Professor Edwards’ Chiselbury School (for the sons of Gentlefolk) as “Bottoms Up!” was the title chosen for the 1960 film spin-off from the TV series “Whacko!”. It’s not too bad as such things go but I much prefer the original b/w episodes, some of which are available on-line at YouTube. Mr Dinwiddie didn’t have much to do iirc but my favourite was always the put-upon Mr Pettigrew, Deputy Head Master, as played by Arthur Howard, Leslie’s brother. Apparently the series was revived for 13 episodes in colour in the 1970s but I have no recollection of that, having grown up by then and not yet reverted to second childhood.

      On Munchies, I first came across the word as a rather delicious brand of chocolate sweet made by Nestles (still pronounced ‘nestles’ in those days). It had soft toffee or caramel inside its chocolate shell and a crunchy biscuit centre. It seems to be still available today.

      1. That is the only context in which I have ever heard the term munchies, Jack .. clearly I should get out more. If only ..
      2. I can confirm that Munchies are still available – my daughter bought me some recently, as I’d been reminiscing about them. Unfortunately they weren’t as nice as I remembered, unless the recipe has changed? They were originally made by Mackintosh’s. Rolos (also Mackintosh’s then Nestle), on the other hand? Still delicious!
  5. I found this quite a curious puzzle in that I thought several clues quite clever as I solved them yet none of them held me up for long. I’m thinking in particular of INFLATE, RAISIN and PROOF. I guess it helped that other clues were on the straightforward side meaning I had plenty of crossing letters before I solved these ones. I definitely felt on the wavelength and the SNITCH confirms this where I have a WITCH of 64.

    Edited at 2020-04-21 05:46 am (UTC)

  7. Nho POMACE, so have learned something.THE MUNCHIES LOI, I remember the sweets too. FREE-LIVER is a strange expression.

    20’49” thanks jack and setter.

  8. Another sub-30 for me. FOI was a biffed WISHFUL THINKING, so the bottom half followed with the unknown POMACE LOI – not helped by taking ages trying to think of a synonym for dip to shorten in 10a before I saw the thing was staring me in the face.

    Thanks setter and Jack. I greatly appreciate these diversions as I (still) await an answer from the bank on a CBILS loan application to keep my business alive.

  9. Apparently WISHFUL THINKIIG isn’t a valid phrase, oh well. Put in EINSTEINIUM and EAST TIMOR without really parsing them. Does AGGRAVATE really mean put out? I thought it meant ‘worsen’.

    VHO (vaguely heard of) POMACE
    COD THE MUNCHIES just for the surprise value, will vicars be spluttering over their boiled eggs?

    Yesterday’s answer: I think Quebec hotel are the only two NATO codes to hid a third, echo.

    Today’s question: can you think of a ten-letter word that only uses the top row of letters on a typewriter?

    1. Yep, it means ‘irritate, put out’, as well as ‘worsen’. It’s meant that for a couple of centuries now.
      1. Found a second word first, not the one (I suspect) we were expected to find – which was suggested by someone else.
  10. I don’t think I was quite in the mood for crosswords this morning, as this seems to be a perfectly fine crossword that had some nice moments—18a QUIPSTER and 4d SPACE BAR my highlights—but I just didn’t enjoy much of my 39 minutes. I think this says more about me than about the puzzle; perhaps I need to take a week off!
  11. 25 mins with yoghurt, granola and blueberry naked bar (chopped up). Yes, we have no bananas.
    Last 5 mins spent on -u-pster, until Mrs. M helpfully said, “Don’t you sometimes say something about Us and trying Qs?”. Harrumph.
    Mostly I liked Sectoral and Raisins.
    Thanks setter and J.
  12. 26 minutes with LOI QUIPSTER. As ever, it took me a while to get the joke. POMACE was constructed and I wasn’t that confident about it. COD to YOU NEVER CAN TELL, today’s ear-worm, from Chuck Berry rather than GBS. THE MUNCHIES came via the caramel sweet while playing around with the letters. They were made by Mackintosh when they were rotting my teeth. I liked INFLATE too, which was also COD material. Thank you Jack and setter.

    Edited at 2020-04-21 07:56 am (UTC)

    1. Mackintosh! Of course it was. Merged in 1969 with Rowntree and with Nestles in 1988 long after Munchies ceased to be on my shopping lists. I recall they also marketed a rather strange chocolate bar called Caramac with a flavour that was neither one thing or another.

      Edited at 2020-04-21 08:59 am (UTC)

        1. Thanks Jerry, but from what I remember of it I’m happy to let it fade into history. Munchies could still tempt me though!
          1. Munchies are widely available .. not cheap though! If the last time you bought them was with pocket money, you are in for a shock. These days I find them far too sugary and sweet.
            That website, incidentally, is a real Aladdin’s Cave of old fashioned sweeties ..

            Edited at 2020-04-21 12:14 pm (UTC)

  13. 14:06. I relate THE MUNCHIES to the desire for a takeaway kebab after an evening of too much BOTTOMS UPping, but I remember the confectionery too. Not had any for many years, though. LOI RUTHLESS. I liked the fifth apartment in INFLATE.

    Edited at 2020-04-21 07:36 am (UTC)

  14. I’ve never heard of THE MUNCHIES so I won’t join in that conversation.
    Nor have I ever heard of sectoral but I’m glad you mentioned the Chuck Berry song, Jack, as I have heard of YOU NEVER CAN TELL. Here is the superlative Emmylou Harris with her Hot Band, including the almost equally superlative Albert Lee.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv6fdib3GBI

    COD to RAISIN. I always find it difficult to spot that type of clue.
    We’ve seen AGATE in the last couple of days.
    Lastly, your times and mine often seem to me to be quite close, Jack

    1. Thanks, Martin. Emmylou gets everything spot on. And Chuck Berry’s lyrics were works of genius.
      1. Martin & John – Emmylou & Albert Lee divine. Will be doing a Caramac and listening to ‘Luxury Liner’later. Does my head!
      2. Thanks, but with my tastes expanding to include a lot of classical music I now think that Chuck Berry got it wrong! It shouldn’t be “Roll Over Beethoven!” It’s more a case of “Roll Over Chuck Berry”. Beethoven was the real riffmeister!
      1. That whole Old Grey Whistle Test concert is on YouTube. It includes the lovely “Pancho & Lefty”. There’s also an interview on YouTube with Townes Van Zandt, who wrote it. In the interview he describes how he was pulled over once by two cops for speeding. When he told them who he was, the two cops were amazed because they said that down at the police station they were known as Pancho & Lefty!
  15. Another ramble by the river (I should be so lucky). No problems in a straightforward solve

    EINSTEINIUM is interesting for having nothing to do with Einstein. A synthetic substance, it was discovered in the residue of the first hydrogen bomb explosion and some wag decided it would be funny to name it after Albert – who was a pacifist and deeply opposed to the bomb

    1. Lots of pitfalls for the careless quizzer when questions arise on that part of the periodic table (in a quiz last week we were asked “who discovered and named curium?”, to which the answer is, of course, Glenn Seaborg). To be fair, it was in a round called “Trick Questions”, so you started with a pretty good idea of who it wasn’t…

      Edited at 2020-04-21 12:24 pm (UTC)

  17. POMACE on a wing and a prayer, GATOR wondering whether the speed camera abomination was involved somehow, THE MUNCHIES more my daughter’s generation than mine in my household, though I remember the sweeties, without the THE.
    17 minutes (again) and enjoyed, though it followed solving another Listener (I’m working my way backwards to fill in time, and have got as far as 4597 which was a beast) so I initially over-complicated everything.
  18. 13:57, with time spent at the end playing with the wordplay elements of 8d to come up with something that might equate to a sybarite. FEET LOVER? I didn’t hesitate on POMACE but I’d struggle to tell you if it was closer to PUMICE or POMADE.

    I have a not unwelcome Uma Thurman eye-worm to go the with Chuck Berry ear-worm.

  19. 9:03. No problems this morning, I even knew the word POMACE.
    YOU NEVER CAN TELL definitely a Chuck Berry reference for me, and forever associated with Pulp Fiction as Penfold mentions.
    I almost got myself stuck by being sure that 8dn would be something-LOVER but fortunately managed to reconsider.
  20. I’d heard of pomace having worked for a famous cider company in the early 70s, it’s the stuff left after you press the apples (or grapes, olives, etc.).
    I whizzed through this and proudly declared a near PB of 16 minutes, only to find in haste I had plumped for FREE LOVER instead of the liver option which parses rather better. Doh.
    Einsteinium was one of those obscure artificial transuranic elements, existing only briefly in minute amounts, until people began swotting up on obscure elements before appearing on the Pointless quiz show. Now it’s nearly famous (in Britain anyway) as are Nihonium, Tennessine, Organesson and the rest of elements 99 to 118.
  21. ….I may one day qualify for a FREE LIVER.

    SECTORAL and QUIPSTER were DNK, ADMIRABLE, EAST TIMOR, THE MUNCHIES, and FREE-LIVER were all parsed afterwards.

    I was left with 18A/19D after 9 minutes, and it was almost one and a half minutes before I “saw” QUIPSTER.

    FOI BOTTOMS UP
    LOI PENDANT
    COD POMACE
    TIME 10:22

  24. Another who immediately started thinking of Pulp Fiction here. Otherwise entertained, but not long detained, even while spotting an elephant trap for the unwary biffer, and carefully checking whether we were in the realms of free love or free living.
    1. Are we in fact in the realm of free living? Most of us can’t afford to live the life of a sybarite, but does that make him a free-liver? I changed my original HIGH-LIVER because, well, duh; but FREE was only forced on me.
      1. I see your point. Not for the first time I was helped here by having only a vague notion of what a Sybarite is.
  25. BOTTOMS UP went straight in followed by ON THE GO. I then made average progress and was held up by the unknown POMACE, QUIPSTER, SECTORAL and THE MUNCHIES, extending me to 36:55, which put me 111 on the Leaderboard and thus unable to see my NITCH or WITCH. Liked YOU NEVER CAN TELL and WISHFUL THINKING. Thanks setter and Jack.
  26. Pretty much a top to bottom solve, and most all of the comments above apply – Pomace dredged up from who knows where, tried Fast Liver off of the F, never parsed Gator, and stared at the crossers for Quipster for long enough to put paid to any chance of a good personal time. Thanks, jack.
  27. I think this got lost in the post – if I might expand:- have you seen a video doing the rounds, which explains to Americans ‘The Humour of Monty Python’?!
    A female v/o has been added to various Python (mispronounced) sketches in order to expalin the gags for Stateside audiences. I could barely watch, but remember ‘The Cheese Shop’ sketch where Cleese is trying to buy various cheeses from Palin, a bespoke cheesemonger, who is out of stock. To the ordinary American it must be most enlightening. To the ordinary Brit it is dizzying that anyone should even attempt this contortion!
    My guess is that it was done by Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam for a bit of a laugh! In the UK it is utterly unwatchable.
    Imagine adding an English explanatory v/o to an episode M*A*S*H*!

    Edited at 2020-04-21 01:47 pm (UTC)

    1. That’s quite bizarre. I and my munchies-munching friends had no trouble digging Python when it first came Stateside. It was on PBS, the public broadcasting system (educational).
      1. Guy is right – generations of Americans had no trouble seeing the jokes and understanding the lingo. When I was in my 20s there was a teenage messenger in my law firm who used to come by my office to chat about the latest episode (he became a successful opera singer) and decades later my son-in-law bought the boxed set of videos when he was a college student.
  28. 19.21 . Made reasonable progress with a few stodgy bits before completion. Got the right answer for gator but still kicking myself for missing the reason why! FOI bottoms up , last one orb but the reason for that was it took me a while to crack admirable.

    Some very teasing clues today my favourites being quipster, inflate and pomace. Thought east timor was a bit convoluted but maybe I’m being too grumpy.

  29. Yesterday I was talking about how to remember stuff that was forgotten, and I said from my crossword experience, leave it an hour and it will appear. Today it was very much like that, with my morning effort being fairly minimal, but this afternoon it just wrote itself in, even the clues which I hadn’t even looked at yet. Maybe I’m reading them subliminally.
    Good to have a clever crossword without the usual unknown word. COD INFLATE, WOD THE MUNCHIES
  30. I must must remember Q before random U! As a result DNF today, in just under an hour. I couldn’t be bothered to try for a time today – too much of it to fill.

    No problems with the vocab – even POMACE was known, but I didn’t get QUIPSTER and I think it’s quite an ugly word anyway. Sorry – maybe I’m being grumpy too.

    Otherwise I thought this was enjoyable – with some nice bits of misdirection here and there. I convinced myself that both 13a and 23a were anagrams for a while which slowed things down. Although I got RAISIN and PENDANT, I couldn’t quite see how they worked, and I too never parsed GATOR.

    As others have confimed, Munchies are still available – my daughter bought me some recently, as I’d been reminiscing about them. Unfortunately they weren’t as nice as I remembered, unless the recipe has changed? Rolos on the other hand? Still delicious!

    FOI Bottoms up
    COD Space bar – it passed the wry smile test

    Thanks setter and Jack

  31. Unlike yesterday, all the words I made up today were real, POMACE in particular (although I’m still not sure whether QUIPSTER might not live, or perhaps be a FREE-LIVER, only in crossword land).
  32. 32:05 probably a little sluggish. Bottoms up went straight in rather promisingly but I then failed to get the two long acrosses until late on and also engaged in a fair bit of distracted grabbing of sticks wrong-endedly. Pendant for example where I wanted to put a piece of jewellery after the letter T (poeT ultimately) to get a writer. I struggled to see ruthless. The munchies also took forever as did quipster. Pomace was unknown. I liked the novelty of the empty academic and the occupant of Flat 5.
  33. NHO POMACE and forgot what a SYBARITE was though have seen the word here somewhere before.

    Mostly enjoyable but a slightly tricky NE corner.

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