Times 27,413: Word-Blindness

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I thought this was a thoroughly superior crossword, with sublimely economical clues almost every one of which manages in a tiny space to do something fresh and witty. I enjoyed every moment of it up until hitting the submit button at the 7.5 minute mark, only to freeze as I saw the dreaded pink square. Oh right, MYOPIC not MYOPIA. Given that the first two words of the clue loosely suggest a synonym for MYOPIA, and the next four words also suggest MYOPIA (what’s the matter with [a short sighted] viewer), I definitely think that having MYOPIA on the brain for this one might be a venial sin. Of course “such a viewer” no longer quite makes sense unless the answer is MYOPIC but I’d rather clues didn’t have to be read carefully through several times just to make sure you’ve understood the fine print… really gets in the way of one’s speed-solving, what!

Still Magoo, being named after one of the all-time great myopics, will probably have enjoyed it. And I did love a whole raft of other clues: 9ac, 27ac, 6dn and 17dn being some standouts, so many thanks to the setter for all the fun while it lasted. Was anyone else short-sighted enough to fall at the 22ac hurdle? Please tell me I’m not alone!

ACROSS
1 Mad, sad and moody in World’s End (8)
DOOMSDAY – (SAD + MOODY*) [“mad”]

9 In time, soon over obsessive self-love (8)
EGOMANIA – reverse all of: IN A MO [soon] in AGE [time]

10 Dracula might attack this French wine, after swallowing tablet (4)
VEIN – VIN [French wine], after “swallowing” E [tablet]

11 Run round barrier pursuing terribly aged author (5,7)
EDGAR WALLACE – RACE [run] round WALL [barrier], after (AGED*) [“terribly”].
Had to construct this unknown name from the cryptic, but it seems like a fair clue… given that he penned the script for a movie everyone’s heard of, King Kong!

13 Died having suffered flaying back in seaport (6)
ODESSA – “Flay” {p}ASSED O{n} [died], then reverse it

14 Housemaid reflected light that’s elevated (8)
ENNOBLED – reversed BONNE [housemaid] + L.E.D. [light]

15 Commended as pressure increased (7)
PRAISED – P RAISED [pressure | increased]

16 Fish unlikely to be sole? (7)
GROUPER – a cryptic definition for this presumably gregarious fish

20 Nothing 7 keeps in desert is waterproof (8)
RAINCOAT – RAT [desert] keeps INCA [7d] keeps O [nothing]

22 Sigh, cryptically, what’s the matter with such a viewer? (6)
MYOPIC – If SIGH is “short sight”, then it is the thing that is the matter with a MYOPIC viewer. I wish this had clued “short sight” rather than a word that needs to be convolutedly derived from a cryptic depiction of short sight 😛

23 Settled on region for sporting fixture (7-5)
QUARTER-FINAL – FINAL [settled] on QUARTER [region]

25 Single possible locality evacuated (4)
ONLY – ON [possible] + L{ocalit}Y

26 Barker requires excellent wine and beer (8)
AIREDALE – A1 RED + ALE [excellent | wine + beer]

27 Speech from fool in production of Lear (8)
NONSENSE – double def, Lear being Edward Lear, purveyor of nonsense verse.

DOWN
2 Flower in Germany choking slender shrub (8)
OLEANDER – ODER [flower (as in river) in Germany] “choking” LEAN [slender]

3 Change bowler is highly successful performer (5-7)
MONEY-SPINNER – MONEY can be pocket “change”, a bowler can be a “spinner”.

4 Shame of French importing rotten cigars (8)
DISGRACE – DE [of French] “importing” (CIGARS*) [“rotten”]

5 New queen after twelve months or longer (7)
YEARNER – N ER [new | queen] after YEAR [12 months]. One who longs.

6 Department advocating matricide? (6)
DOMAIN – as in an injunction to “DO MA IN”.

7 Content of metal container is ancient tongue (4)
INCA – indirect hidden in {t}IN CA{n}

8 Perfume and bible wrapped by mortgagee (8)
LAVENDER – A.V. [bible] “wrapped” by LENDER [mortgagee]

12 Unpaid work one shouldn’t hate doing? (6,2,4)
LABOUR OF LOVE – cryptic definition. Love is the very opposite of hate after all.

15 Water found in some pesticide (8)
PARAQUAT – AQUA [water] found in PART [some]

17 European or Asian controlled borders? (8)
ROMANIAN – OMANI [Asian] “bordered” by RAN [controlled]

18 Letters in stone found in English buildings (8)
EPISTLES – ST [stone] found in E PILES [English | buildings]

19 Make firm series of points to clinch argument (7)
STIFFEN – S E N [series of (three) points] to “clinch” TIFF [argument]

21 As some streets, old and modern, indeed (3-3)
ONE-WAY – O + NEW AY [old + modern | indeed]

24 Tailless amphibian beneath a large bush? (4)
AFRO – FRO{g} [“tailless” amphibian] beneath A

76 comments on “Times 27,413: Word-Blindness”

  1. MYOPIC for me, V, although I had no idea how the clue worked. Ditto for ODESSA, which I thought of early on based on D (died); finally biffed it. But at least that D led me to OLEANDER. And I biffed QUARTER-FINAL, solving post-submission, but the Q gave me PARAQUAT, which otherwise would have taken me ages. Wasted time thinking of the wrong Lear and the wrong letters. Are Afros necessarily large?
  2. I was Myopia, and while I’d like to think I’d have gotten it right had I been just a bit more careful, I’m doubtful I really would have. I gave up on Domain (cute, once you’re told) as I couldn’t think of any famous matricides except for Clytemnestra and Agrippina, or of any French regions that matched the crossers. Otherwise, what I liked about this was how tricky it was without using unusual words or unusual definitions. Well done setter.
  3. Was doing alright with this until I was left with only 22ac to solve and was unable to think of a single word that fitted the checkers let alone the wording of the clue. After 10 minutes I used aids and managed to pick the correct answer from the selection offered.

    Failed to parse ODESSA and QUARTER FINAL.

    No problem with EDGAR WALLACE whose name featured above the titles in each of 47 second feature films shown in British cinemas in the 1960s: EDGAR WALLACE PRESENTS… They still get shown on TV now. The theme tune ‘Man of Mystery’ was recorded by The Shadows.

    Edited at 2019-07-26 01:49 am (UTC)

    1. Wallace was as famous as Ian Fleming between the wars. PG Wodehouse ruefully described how he was introduced to a woman next to him at a dinner party who gushed “My husband and sons are all HUGE FANS and I can’t wait to tell them I have actually sat next to Edgar Wallace…”
  4. I opted for MYOPIC, strictly from the definition—it was the only one I didn’t parse, and I’m sorry I missed that!
    DIdn’t have a clue as to who EDGAR WALLACE was.
  5. I had MYOPIC because I couldn’t parse the clue. Now you’ve explained it, V., I think you should lodge a protest! Clearly the definition should be “what’s the matter with …”, and the answer should be MYOPIA.

    You can quote me as an authority. That and five bucks should buy you a cup of coffee!

  6. I thought SIGH(TED) short is SIGH. What’s the matter with a short-sighted viewer? MYOPIA. What’s the matter with that?
    1. I did have a think about whether that would be a legitimate defence, however, I don’t think it’s conventional for “short” to cryptically indicate an arbitrary number of letters of the end. If it had been to reverse-clue something like “more than half sighted”, yes of course.

      On the other hand, this puzzle had enough of a libertarian flavour that I wouldn’t have been exactly surprised at such shenanigans occurring…

  7. A 37 minute DNF. Another ‘myopia’. It’s because I’m getting old and long-sighted. Bunged in ODESSA with no idea whatsoever.

    Loved DO MA IN and AIREDALE, aka ‘carpet face’.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  8. 22:21 … the answer is definitely MYOPIC because that’s what I put. But I’m not even going to pretend to be able to understand the subtleties of the clue or v’s anatomization of it. At some point my brain just says “OK, can we look at the cartoons now?”

    Overall, tough but rather brilliant stuff. I especially like the AFRO clue

  9. 14:40. MYOPIC for me as I focused, as it were, on “…such a viewer”, but I can see how MYOPIA could be “what’s the matter with…”. Seeing as the meta-answer is SHORT-SIGHTED, though, I think it had to be the C. But I C there are plenty with one wrong on the leader board. Lot’s of lovely clues. NHO BONNE as a maid, but otherwise no difficulties. I liked the crossing pair of DO MA IN and IN A MO. Thanks V and setter.

    Edited at 2019-07-26 06:21 am (UTC)

    1. I don’t think the meta-answer is SHORT-SIGHTED, I think it has to be SHORT SIGHT, see comment above. If it was SHORT-SIGHTED we myopians would have a case!
      1. Ah yes. Sorry I failed to read your blog explanation properly. I’m with Sotira. I dunno. As Kitty said the other day.. “I cannot brain today. I has dumb”.

        Edited at 2019-07-26 06:57 pm (UTC)

  10. Hmm, another myopia here. On careful reappraisal I can see how myopic is better. If I screw my eyes up, that is ..
    But the clue is flawed because really it should read “that is” instead of “what’s” and although it improves the surface reading, the latter does not seem an accurate substitute
    Rather a fan of Edgar Wallace, especially his “Four Just Men” series of books
    1. I always forget he wrote ‘The Four Just Men’ but I only know it from the 1959 TV series which I believe was only very loosely based on the book and the stories were all written by others so that poor old Wallace never got a single credit.
      1. All Wallace’s books were best-sellers in their day, so secondhand copies, or library copies, are easy to find. They are of their time, rather, but interesting nevertheless, and carefully plotted. There are six “four Just Men” books in the series.
        Wallace is also known for creating King Kong .. he wrote the script, but died before the film was produced
  11. 20 minutes, with EGOMANIA not parsed and MYOPIC parsed in a fairly desperately off-he-wall way: if one were such a viewer, one might sigh “My (n)o pic!”. And the rest of you thought you were being clever with short sigh(t)!
    I liked this one, though, and felt chuffed at getting ODESSA properly, something which I might otherwise have passed on.
    And the dreaded shrub clued with a German river fell surprisingly easily.
    But CoD and top giggle to the ghoulish DOMAIN.
    Cheers V, and best of luck with the appeal. Probably going to be umpire’s call, I suspect.

    Edited at 2019-07-26 07:47 am (UTC)

    1. Now that you’ve admitted the same thing, I can come clean to having thought “My” might be a sigh, followed by “0 pic.” Athough we myopics do see something sans our specs!
  12. This was for me a good Friday.

    My LOI was 22ac MYOPIC. I parsed this as sigh=MY then OPIC – OPTIC=sighted, short (short-sighted) of one letter (T)! This is goes by the name of Advanced Parkathean IKEA theory, which is a fairly new concept, developed here in Shanghai. Whatever, it got me home in a fairly decent 35 minutes.
    I really enjoyed this splendid puzzle after last Friday’s ‘Bezique’.

    FOI 24dn AFRO

    LOI as above

    COD 17dn ROMANIAN

    WOD 13ac ODESSA (memories of Frederick Forsyth)

    Edited at 2019-07-26 08:05 am (UTC)

  13. Clever with good surfaces. I liked the variety of techniques as well. I won’t rehearse the MYOPIA/MYOPIC debate or why I thought 9a initially was going to be ONANISM (actually they may be connected). Thanks Setter and V.
  14. Another MYOPIA here. I think of this clue as what Val Law would describe, I believe, as a double helix.
    Thank you, Verlaine, particularly for ODESSA and EGOMANIA, neither of which I could parse.
    Definite Clue of the Week, at least, to DOMAIN. That is going in my Little Black Book of Clever Clues.
  15. Did you ever go clear? I didn’t today. 34 minutes, but another MYOPIA man. I have to accept I am wrong, as the answer has to be descriptive of a problem with a viewer. INCA, althought I got it, also seems to offend against a constitution I have never read, possibly because, just like the UK one, it hasn’t been written. I didn’t parse ODESSA. COD to DOMAIN, which I did see. Enjoyable. Thank you V and setter.

    Edited at 2019-07-26 08:12 am (UTC)

    1. Isn’t Odessa guilty of the same sin? With the added complexity that it’s also reversed?
  16. I had all but one letter correct, too, though I perversely chose a different clue to fluff. A tough one all round, this, with the right hand side tougher than the left for my money.

    Much of it was fun, some of it was baffling, but In my case 16a was a guess too far. I finally decided that the unknown fish was a “trouper”. Seems to fit the wordplay, definitely fits the crossers, and had the distinction of being a word I knew existed… Bah! 56 minutes to fail.

    Edited at 2019-07-26 08:35 am (UTC)

  17. Another MYOPIA here. Bah! Not the best clue I’ve ever seen, but then I would say that wouldn’t I. Managed to parse EGOMANIA, INCA and DOMAIN, but biffed ODESSA. NONSENSE was my LOI and took 10 of my 33 minutes, as I wrestled with the wrong Lear. All in vain though as the dreaded pink square was already lurking. 33:01. Thanks setter and V.
  18. ….LABOUR OF LOVE. I biffed four answers, and then spent a quarter as long as it had taken me to solve it in trying to parse them. Even then I was only 50% successful, seeing through the very clever ODESSA, and the beautifully misdirected NONSENSE.

    Not being able to parse MYOPIC definitely helped me get it right. Thanks for that one V, and also for EGOMANIA which I just couldn’t see at all.

    FOI VEIN
    LOI NONSENSE
    COD DOMAIN
    TIME 12:00

  19. Early on I saw I had no hope of parsing everything which turned out to be lucky because I landed on the PIC rather than the PIA on first try – if I’d done any thinking I’d have been another pink’un. Also had to run through all the Edgars (Poe, Burroughs, Hoover?) before the right one turned up. That crossword thing of calling Middle-Easterners (Yemenis, Omanis etc) Asians catches me every time so ROMANIAN was just another unparsed one. 20.44
    1. I did wonder for a while if I’d misremembered and he was actually Edgar Burrows…
  20. I put in MYOPIC after briefly considering MYOPIA and seeing it clearly as ‘such a viewer’ being the def, hence an adjective describing the eye. I thought it was a good clue, sorry.
    My LOI was AFRO which required an alphabet trawl. The meaning of BUSH being hair on one’s head wasn’t the first that sprang to mind.
    Loved GROUPER best. Great puzzle.

  21. The “indirect hidden” of INCA seems unusual. Isn’t that banned under the Ximenes rules, or do they just outlaw indirect anagrams? Either way, seems to be sailing a bit close to the wind.

      1. I took it not so much as “hidden” but “TIN CAN” with the first and last letters removed (“contents of”). Not sure if that makes it more allowable, but it is not a true indirect hidden where you take a few letters out of a much longer multi-word phrase.
        1. I’m sure your parsing is the correct one, Paul, that’s to say it’s how I parsed it myself. Not ‘hidden’ but a double-ended deletion indicated by ‘contents of’.
  22. I went with myopia 🙁
    The clue seems to be looking for a noun, however you read it: what’s the matter with = that which is the matter with – it’s clearly looking for a noun; an adjective would need more unpacking, as it describes the state resulting from the affliction we’re invited to name.

    So, for example, consider this exchange:
    “What’s wrong with him?”
    “Myopia”.
    And now compare it with this one:
    “What’s wrong with him?”
    “He’s myopic”.

    Also, the first part of the clue – sigh, cryptically – implies a noun. And the noun for a person with myopia is myope. I would be most grateful if the setter would let us know what the situation is with this clue.

    1. See my comment below: the way I read it, if ‘sigh’ is reverse-cryptically indicating a noun (short sight) then the answer has to be an adjective. And vice versa, if ‘sigh’ is indicating an adjective (short sighted) then the answer has to be a noun.
  23. 11 minutes dead, with the last 3+ of them spent on GROUPER (never heard of it, so I did an alphabet trawl to see if there was anything better) and MYOPIC.

    I initially entered MYOPIA, then changed to MYOPIC based on ‘such a viewer’, but I had no clue how the cryptic element worked, other than thinking that Sigh = MY was plausible.

    ODESSA was another that went in entirely unparsed, and now I’ve seen the explanation I’m not entirely convinced.

    COD goes to 21d for me.

  24. Managed to back-parse INCA from RAINCOAT. LOI MYOPIC of course. And the correct answer is MYOPIA, of course.
  25. The “sigh cryptically” bit gives short sighted

    If asked what’s wrong with a short sighted viewer? You’d say myopia not myopic.

    I am sticking to my understanding that myopia has to be right but that’s just because that’s what I put as the answer!!

    1. Why do lots of people think it’s definitely SHORT-SIGHTED and not “short” SIGHT? Is it just me that’s being myopic? I think “short” never means “with an arbitrary number of letters removed from the end” in cryptic practice… though why that should be, actually, I’m not sure.
  26. My delight in opting correctly for MYOPIC was short-lived when I saw that QUARTER FINNL had slipped through.
  27. 12:12 without understanding how ODESSA and ENNOBLED worked and with a seemingly lucky MYOPIC. I “got” that SIGH = short SIGHT but thankfully didn’t overthink the thing beyond that or I dare say I’d have changed C to A.

    Like Sotiro I particularly like the clue for AFRO.

    Oleander has given me a welcome Steely Dan earworm.

  29. 22 across could equally be MOONIE

    Moon equates to moan
    Ie equates to eye

    All in all a rotten clue.

    1. I had Myopia but still think it is a good clue. Perhaps beauty is in the eye of the beholder?
  30. A good day today! All correct, inc myopic, in under an hour – is it wavelength or the fact that my brain isn’t melting today? However, I definitely couldn’t parse myopic, or Odessa either, and only got the first half of Nonsense so many thanks for the clarification. Actually, the parsing of Odessa made me shudder but otherwise I thought it was a lovely crossword – everything Verlaine said.

    FOI disgrace (the ear worm is a snatch of Yours is no Disgrace, unfortunately – it’s no to Yes for me)
    LOI of course it’s myopic
    COD domain – if it makes me laugh out loud, it always gets COD 😄

    1. A seasoned witch could call your from the depths of your disgrace… 🙂
      1. Ha ha! My Yes fan had to explain your comment! I was always more of an ELP fan 😊
        1. Well as you might infer from my little picture, which is the album cover of Tarkus, I’m an ELP fan and have been since 1971. Saw them in 74, twice in 98, and in 2010 at their final concert. Now I go to see Carl Palmer’s trio whenever they’re touring. I’m a pianist and have spent many years working to master Emerson’s notoriously difficult compositions. Still got a way to go 🙂
          1. You definitely beat me on the gig attendance – I saw them just the once in 1972! I did see Carl Palmer in Atomic Rooster on one occasion at the 1832 club in Windsor in the very early 70s. It would have been about 30p entrance! Still cheap even in today’s money.

            My musician son taught himself to play Fanfare for the Common Man backwards on our old synthesiser but fortunately he didn’t start chucking knives around!

            Anyway, I feel a trip down musical memory lane coming on, although it may now have to be ‘tomorrow night’ . Thanks for the memories 😊

    2. I’m a long way from being a Yes fan but I absolutely love Yours is no Disgrace. I saw what was left of Yes about 5 years ago at Sheffield City Hall and more recently saw Rick doing one of his excellent piano and joke nights at out local methodist church.

      I haven’t seen any of ELP live although I did have Brain Salad Surgery back in the day. I had a double album called “By Invitation Only” which was Alan Freeman’s pick of what was around in the early to mid seventies and it had Yours is no Disgrace and the full version of Karn Evil 9 on it.

      Having said all that I found prog a bit tame. My gig-going as a schoolboy in the late 70s took in Black Sabbath, Rush, Thin Lizzy, Santana, Led Zeppelin and The Stranglers

      1. That’s a great bunch of bands there, p. As you know from previous posts I’m a Rick stalker. Saw him the week before last at the Stables; he played And You And I and Wondrous Stories. ARW on tour in UK next year, he says – the farewell tour.
      2. Oh what a lucky man you are! Led Zep, Santana and the Stranglers – i never saw any of them (or the Who or Bowie 😥😥) But I did see Pink Floyd and Queen several times – the Floyd at Battersea Power Station on one occasion, two icons for the price of one!

        Mr B was at that Yes concert in Sheffield, having seen them the previous night in Leicester – YES, he is that devoted. He said they were astounding gigs.

        Anyway, I suppose we should return to crossword land – I wonder what interesting things will be lurking in today’s brain benders😊

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