Times 27415 – Peanuts and a prize!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 39 minutes
Music: Rawsthorne, Clarinet Concerto, Thea King

I proceeded rapidly through this easy Monday puzzle – for a while.   Then I discovered that after solving most of the clues, I was left with highly unlikely sets of crossing letters that didn’t fit any words that I could think of.  So another 15 or 20 minutes was added to my time as I struggled with the last five or six in.  ‘Kindred’ should not have been so hard, but the ‘broadbrush/unequal/harbinger/strike a light/crackerjacks’ section put up stiff resistance. 

I got most of the parsings as I went along, and I think I recognize the style.   Yes, there’s a lot of clever stuff here, but if you have knowledge and experience you can solve it sooner or later.   I’m sure many of our more skilled solvers did not find it that difficult.

Across
1 Rough outspoken sweeper (10)
BROADBRUSH – BROAD + BRUSH, where the literal nearly collides with the wordplay.
7 Youth pocketing key for the trunk (4)
BODY – BO(D)Y, in the key of D.   The trunk is the body of the body, so to speak.
9 Flare framing convict’s body (8)
FUSELAGE – FUSE(LAG)E.   ‘Fusee’ has both a horological and a pyrotechnic meaning.
10 Serious crime: head denied motive (6)
REASON – [t]REASON.
11 Fewer working class (6)
LESSON – LESS + ON.
13 Yours truly in a French rhyme? Heavens (8)
UNIVERSE – UN (I) VERSE.  The ‘heavens’ are not really the universe, since the spot where you’re standing gaping up at the sky is also included, but the idea is clear enough.
14 Settle on industrial action? Blimey! (6,1,5)
STRIKE A LIGHT – STRIKE + ALIGHT, giving a UK-ism I had a hard time calling to mind.
17 Sailor tucking into biscuits, things of the highest quality (12)
CRACKERJACKS – CRACKER(JACK)S. 
20 Cussed, given life after objections rejected (8)
STUBBORN – BUTS backwards + BORN.
21 Slashes substantial incomes, primarily (6)
SOLIDI – SOLID + I[ncomes].   I believe some solvers were caught out by this word before, so I hope you membered it this time.
22 Naval force heading for Aden — not all there captured by artist (6)
ARMADA – A{den] + R.(MAD)A.   Artists perform a wide number of functions in these puzzles.
23 Film Rhode Island leader in Ohio? Well done! (3,5)
RIO BRAVO – R.I + O[hio] + BRAVO!
25 Endlessly overexcited to find intensive sales promotion (4)
HYPE – HYPE[r].
26 So often dry in resort — and that’s that! (3,2,5)
END OF STORY – Anagram of SO OFTEN DRY.
Down
2 Obstruction blocking avenue? One may bet on it (8)
ROULETTE – ROU(LET)TE.
3 Lacking bit of depth, freshwater fish expert (3)
ACE – [d]ACE, the favorite fish of the NY Times setters.
4 Shrewdness of British government, we hear (5)
BRAIN – B  + RAIN, sounds like REIGN.
5 Not even atypical American dropping out in favour of English queen (7)
UNEQUAL – UN(-us, +EQ)UAL,  a complicated letter-substitution clue.
6 Herald‘s endless worry holding orgy (9)
HARBINGER – HAR(BINGE)R[y].   My LOI, as I couldn’t think of a word that fit – then I saw it.
7 Pioneer in lounge in club bar (5,1,5)
BLAZE A TRAIL – B(LAZE)AT RAIL, biffed by me.
8 Tired of wordy novel about head of state (6)
DROWSY – anagram of WORDY around S[tate]
12 Exchange sword for other weapon (11)
SWITCHBLADE – SWITCH BLADE.
15 Develop complex (9)
ELABORATE – Double definition, take your pick.
16 One participating in a sport — high jumper? (8)
SKYDIVER – Cryptic definition, I would say.
18 Similar type and colour (7)
KINDRED – KIND + RED.
19 Tempestuous tale captivating millions (6)
STORMY – STOR(M)Y.     Rather obvious since STORY was just used in 26 across.
21 Mock small company very loudly (5)
SCOFF – S + CO +| FF, a compendium of stock cryptic elements.
24 Break down in Cairo traffic (3)
ROT – hidden in [cai]RO T[raffic].

49 comments on “Times 27415 – Peanuts and a prize!”

  1. It was fusee I had no idea about, but looking it up post-solve I recognised the dictionary entry, so I’ve looked it up before. Skydiver was my recalcitrant one taking 5 or 6 minutes at the end – I had Rio Grand as the film, and remember the discussion from last time where it was decided the spelling was Rio Grande, but I put in grand anyway. What an idiot!
    Otherwise enjoyable and Mondayish, and I was looking for an X after the early Q,Z,J,K,V,W.

    Edited at 2019-07-29 03:06 am (UTC)

  2. Isla3 you are no idiot – I too fell in the 23 ac RIO GRAND but was saved by the 16dn SKYDIVER! (No ICE to be seen!)

    FOI 24dn ROT

    LOI 23ac RIO BRAVO

    COD 7dn BLAZE A TRAIL if you enjoy a trip round to IKEA!

    WOD 17ac CRACKERJACKS

    Time 36 minutes with much the same experience as Lord Vinyl.

    Edited at 2019-07-29 04:14 am (UTC)

  3. 11 minutes. FUSEE unknown but it had to be FUSELAGE. SOLIDI either unknown or forgotten, but the crossers were kind. All these years later and I still can’t hear CRACKERJACKs without shouting it out again. Nice easy Monday puzzle. I think I’d have broken ten if I’d realised that earlier. Thank you V and setter.
  4. 27 minutes. DNK (OHF) FUSEE but I’d worked out FUSELAGE from the definition and LAG, so it just had to be.

    RIO BRAVO has a claim as the best traditional Western of all time.

    CRACKERJACK in the singular has nostalgia value too as the title of a very long-running children’s TV programme hosted originally (1955-1964) Eamonn Andrews.

    Edited at 2019-07-29 06:02 am (UTC)

  5. During a relaxing week on the Dorset coast I got slower and slower at solving but a return to the commute this morning has got me back up to relative speed.

    I got stuck for a while with my last three SKYDIVER, SOLIDI and RIO BRAVO. I was another tempted by RIO GRAND but I did at least doubt it rather than do my usual of stick it in then forget it’s meant to be tentative. SOLIDI was my LOI which I’ve not heard of and I had serious doubts about so finding I had all correct was a pleasant surprise.

  6. …on train but used an aid for SOLIDI which had NHO though I use them all the time in my IT job. As this word has clearly been usurped by the more modern ‘slash’, perhaps SOLIDI and other similar out-of-use words could/should be consigned to the wall?
    1. Heavens, you will be claiming one can get by without any Latin or Greek at all, next .. 🙂
  7. 10:13 … with SOLIDI taken on trust and SKYDIVER with a ‘yeah, I s’pose’.

    But strike a light! I’ve just found out what BLAZE A TRAIL actually means (blaze is “A mark on a tree made by chipping the bark or otherwise”, for anyone else who didn’t know … or maybe it was just me).

    thanks, both

    1. The things you miss by not being a boy scout! Many of the managed woodland in the US have several dozen hiking trails of different lengths and difficulties laid out, each one marked with a different blaze. 8-10 year olds find these (plus a map) fascinating.
  8. 25 mins with yoghurt, granola, blueberry compote.
    I liked it – very neatly clued – nothing too obscure and only a couple of anagrams. Excellent.
    Fusee rang a vague bell. And I now know ‘cussed’ means stubborn.
    Some nice memories evoked too of Crackerjack and of Elton John saying he likes the sound of a Switchblade. Hilarious.
    Thanks clever setter and Vinyl.

    Edited at 2019-07-29 07:36 am (UTC)

  9. 17:18. SOLIDI LOI from the wordplay- I had to look it up post-solve to find out what it meant. This mostly went in quite quickly, but I needed KINDRED to unlock CRACKERJACKS, SWITCHBLADE and SKYDIVER (I knew it couldn’t be PULLOVER!). Thanks Vinyl and setter.
  10. I’m guessing our setter has been around for a while, what with a 1959 western, a TV programme started in 1955, light striking, solidi and trailblazing ..

    Slight mer at defining universe to mean heavens. Pleasant stroll, otherwise

  11. A gentle start to the week. A warm feeling sort of a crossword like Horlicks in my slippers (no, you know what I meant).
  12. A rare visit to sub 20 minute territory(would’ve been sub 15 if I’d spent 2 seconds less proof reading), with FOI, ACE and LOI BLAZE A TRAIL. SOLIDI vaguely remembered (along with OBELI) and FUSEE ringing a distant bell. Didn’t fall in the Rio Grand. Struck a light quickly and swept in at 1a. SKYDIVER quickly assembled once CRACKERJACKS and BRAVO were in. Anyone still have a Crackerjack pencil? Nice puzzle and a gentle start to the week. 15:01. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  13. …or so it seemed as I found this rather less tractable than the average Monday. I had BROADBRUSH and FUSELAGE resisting to the end – I thought the first had a sounzlike element and didn’t associate flare with FUSEE for the second. Add ARCHANGEL as a biff for the herald, BREAK A TRAIL for the pioneer and (yes, me too) RIO GRAND and you can get the drift. Add a bit more time trying to sort out the non-existent wordplay for the SKYDIVER, and I’m looking at 22.33 on the clock.
    All forgiven for the prize of a Crackerjack propelling pencil!

    And (ps) the prize of £100 (!) for the CMS, so long as I can get the bank to accept that my name is what the cheque says it is.

      1. No, thank goodness, but missed of a couple of letters. I’ve now won three times (two Saturdays) and I’m called something different each time. Perhaps it’s to stop people getting jealous!
        1. Good luck with the bank. I once won the Sunday Times Cluewriting Competition and the bank initially rejected the £25 cheque because it was made out to “my second name and surname” and not because there was a letter missing from the surname. After going into the local branch in person and getting the fiasco sorted out, I immediately switched the 45 year old account to another bank.
          1. When I was CFO of National Grid, after 25 years of service in the Electricity Suppy Industry, I received the normal long service award of £40. I’d asked for the cheque to be made payable to Comet, as I had my eye on a multi-functional music player fashionable back then. It was a printed-named cheque with my name as signatory. A small mistake had been amended and initialled in ink, a not-uncommon occurrence, by whoever had approved the payments that day. The manager of Comet refused to accept this change, despite me pointing out that I knew it would be honoured. He demanded that I had the cheque amended. I said that I was happy to do that, although in which case the Payee would also be amended, to Curry’s. He changed his mind rapidly.
            1. Congratulations and good luck with the bank Z. I never got a cheque (when non-UK-residents were still eligible) but I did get the WH Smith vouchers for the Saturday puzzle a couple of times. The first time I tried using them at the Heathrow branch to the consternation of the staff who’d never seen them before. In the end I did persuade them to accept the things but they wouldn’t give me any change and it was quite a struggle finding anything I wanted to buy (I ended up with several giant Toblerones for my son-in-law). The next time I sent them on to a nephew.
              1. I think I should thank you for preparing the ground at WH Smiths Heathrow, as one of my tokens was accepted without a hitch.
                What’s more, HSBC took my cheque without demur this morning, once I found out where my nearest branch had moved to.
                1. Are you going to apply that fat cheque to your Times subscription? Kind of like doubling down at the casino, but it would be a pleasing balanced.
  14. 38 minutes, so not too tough. FOI 2d ROULETTE, LOI 21a SOLIDI, which I’d come across before, but took a while to spot. (Turns out it was “sulci” that I’d been trying to think of for that one.)

    Nonplussed by some of the vocab along the way, e.g. “broad” for “outspoken”, or the meaning of “cussed”.

    “Fusee” appeared in January and went onto my Big List of Words. Rio Bravo is also on my Big List, otherwise I might’ve gone for RIO BRAVA again!

    Edited at 2019-07-29 08:01 am (UTC)

  16. On the easy side, but with some tricky elements / words which belong on a List for those of us who keep a List (I am obviously not the only one) which meant it was never insultingly so. Perfect for a Monday in that regard.
  17. I remember RIO BRAVO as interminably long, and also that it’s the same river as the RIO GRANDE. Never knew why the programme was called CRACKERJACK. Did not recognise SOLIDI, but now do.

    17’50” thanks z and setter.

  18. ….bound for the Rio Grand(e), which was perhaps as well since SKYDIVER had me scratching my head for a minute or so.

    I zipped through the top half in around three minutes, but found the lower portion more STUBBORN.

    FOI BODY
    LOI SOLIDI
    COD STRIKE A LIGHT
    TIME 8:37

  19. I think Vinyl’s heading may refer to the lyrics of the old baseball song. You know, the one the orchestra plays when Groucho switches the sheet music in Night At The Opera. It goes – Buy me some peanuts and CRACKERJACKS, I don’t care if I never get back. There would be a prize in the box. Nice start to the week. 11.25
  20. Nothing to add. Made all the mistakes listed above, and also was convinced the sport was skiing, so didn’t spot the RIO GRAND error for ages.
  21. Seeing Roulette and Crackerjacks at first glance was offset by thinking the expert was a Pro, and the jumper a Pullover. Sorting that out took a while. I liked many of the whimsical definitions.
  22. I was denied a PB by putting in RIO ERAVO at 23a, despite doing a spellcheck, but was still fairly chuffed with finishing in 21.13. I nearly chucked in SOLIDS from the checkers but couldn’t make it work so relied on the wordplay as I’d not heard of the word before. FUSEE was also new to me but the answer couldn’t have been anything else.
    Thanks for the blog
  23. As pointed out above, STORY used in 26a helps with 19d.

    Even more so, BODY as the answer to 7a then crops up in the very next clue, which must give it away if you haven’t got it already.

  24. Is Obstruction=LET in 2d a tennis reference?

    Found this OK after a bit of a slow start. Scored 7 on my cryptometer.

    FOI 14a
    LOI 21a DNK
    COD 11a for its economy

    Also DNK crackerjacks – probably a generational thing. My knowledge of this word limited to the kids TV programme.

    Thanks Vinyl and setter
    WS

    1. LET can be a legal term too, as in allow the bearer pass with no let or hindrance.
    2. I didn’t give LET much thought at the time but now you mention it I think it must be a squash reference. In tennis a let is given when a server hits the net and goes in, i.e. no obstruction involved. In squash it’s given when a player gets in the other player’s way.
    3. LET is there more in its “without let or hindrance” sense (check your passport).
  25. Being a Yorkshireman, I bunged in RIO GRAND as soon as I saw that RIO GRADELY didn’t fit. Took a while to see the error of my ways. No problem with SOLIDI – slashes to me are confined to the urinal. I made the mistake of consulting the SNITCH, which always puts me under pressure when it is green, so couldn’t understand why I was struggling so much in the NW. Eventually came in around 20 mins.
  26. A slowish start but a relevantly gentle time once I’d got started, finishing on SOLIDI (with fingers slightly crossed) after 7m 27s.

    Stories in 19d and 26a, and a wordy novel in 8d – was our setter in a narrative mood?

  27. 13:55 a rare foray into sub-15 min territory and I can’t help feeling a missed opportunity for a PB. Solving at home today on a tablet in jabby, one-fingered fashion, had I been at work where I use a PC and typing on a proper keyboard, I think I would’ve been somewhat quicker. I found this easy but with enough about it to keep it interesting. Harbinger, strike a light and crackerjacks lent it a quaint old-timey feel. MER at heavens to clue universe. Oooh, I could crush a grape!
  28. Same experience as mauefw above but taking a minute longer.

    Slight, pedantic MER at less/fewer.

    CRACKERJACK!!!

  29. DNF. Rio Grand, leading to skidoner (a new winter sport involving a kebak slalom). I know, I know…

    Edited at 2019-07-29 06:20 pm (UTC)

  30. I have stopped buying the newspaper to solve the times, and have only recently been able to get back to this on account of the trial subscription to the digital package. This one was somewhat gentle for me – unlike many of the other ones that I have tried, and gave up on midway.

    I have tried blogging about it on my own.
    https://cryptathon.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/the-times-27415/

    and then I remembered this site, and came up to have a dekko, Happy to see that I seem to have got it right this time.

    1. Quality blogging, I thought, and welcome back to TftT. I recently switched from the full subscription to the electronic only, which saves a lot of money, and having recently on a compy prize it looks like a bargain. I think you’d be a welcome addition to the team.
      Signing up to Live Journal is free and safe with the pen-name of your choice.

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