Sunday Times Cryptic 4843, 24 March 2019, by Dean Mayer — Is it just me?

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
This seemed harder than any Dean Mayer I’d heretofore had the honor of blogging. But maybe I was just a bit trepidatious after the previous week’s debut performance of our new Sunday blogger (with whose witty wordplay as a commenter on the blog we are all already familiar)—whose next effort may fall on my watch. As often, in retrospect, nothing seems very obscure, and there were even a few really easy ones here (13, 18…). No anagrams that make up the totality of the clue. Did anyone else find this a little tougher than usual, or did I just have too many other things on my mind?

I am just back from the Warhol show at the Whitney (barely made it, next to last day!), which is wonderful, but, unfortunately, did not inspire a more clever title for this entry.

I do (garnasam)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 About to beat an old racehorse (3,3)
RED RUM — RE, “about” + DRUM, “to beat.” This is a real historical figure, a “steeplechase horse who won the Grand National at Aintree, England, an unprecedented three times, in 1973, 1974, and 1977”—and not just a creation of Stephen King.
 5 Corrupt way to meet fighter (8)
WARPLANE — WARP (“Corrupt”) + LANE (“way”)
 9 Real card tricks are what I do (9,5)
PRACTICAL JOKER — ”Real” is PRACTICAL, and a JOKER is a “card” (in a couple senses)
10 Marry, so love wears out (8)
FORSOOTH — A rather pessimistic view of matrimony? SO + O (“love”) donning FORTH, or “out.” One obsolete word clued by an obsolete sense of another, quite fair.
12 US poet rejecting wife’s offer? (6)
HITMAN — [-w]HITMAN, with a jocular definition
13 Bullets held back by commando (4)
AMMO — Reversed hidden word
14 “Mutant spider turned on English”—German magazine (3,7)
DER SPIEGEL — (spider)* + LEG (“on” in cricketspeak) + E for “English” <— “turned”
16 Restaurant offering overeater chicken? Heads will roll! (10)
FINGERBOWL — ”Binger fowl” with the first letters (“heads”) switched (and a space removed). I was thinking this was a clue for a Spoonerism that avoids mentioning the eponymous “reverend,” but Jackkt points out, below, that there may be a good reason for not bringing him up. The rolling heads is (are?) still a nice device. I think this was my LOI.
18 An island’s edge (4)
INCH — DD
20 Expert runs into trouble with applied science (6)
ADROIT — AD(R)O + IT (“information technology”)
22 City name outside walls of old outer part (8)
ECTODERM — EC is “city” in specific reference to the Eastern Central postcode of London (“The City,” containing the central business district) + TERM “name” outside “walls of old” or OD. (EC also means “European Community,” of course, a poignant coincidence at this juncture…)
23 Write to singer about one after a drug (14)
PENTOBARBITONE — PEN (“write”) TO (“to”!) BAR(B)ITONE (“singer”)—B being “one after [A]”! I think when I parsed this last part, I must have given audible vent to my joy. Also known as “pentobarbital,” this substance has been used for executions in my enlightened home country. (And now I see looming before me Andy’s various renditions of the electric chair…)
25 Horse box with crank attached (8)
CHESTNUT — CHEST (“box”) + NUT (“crank”)
26 Imagine former lover kissed on the ear (6)
EXPECT — EX is the “former lover” + PECT sounds like “pecked”

DOWN
 2 Repetitive strain injury for mare holding column up (7)
EARWORM — (mare)* holding ROW<—  Took me a while to “lift and separate” the first two from the third word.
 3 Fantastic bird taking crumbs aloft? (3)
ROC —  COR <— So the exclamation “Crumbs!” is also one meaning of “Cor!” OK, if you say so!
 4 Newly married guards see what brides may be (4-5)
MAIL-ORDER — (married)* surrounding LO, “see”
 5 Met expectations? (7,8)
WEATHER FORECAST — CD, “Met” being UK parlance for meteorologic, and not a reference to the opera, my first, unhelpful thought
 6 Indian prince almost had drink knocked over (5)
RAJAH — HA[-d] + JAR <—
 7 Fleet happily accept doctor? (4,3,4)
LIKE THE WIND — I saw what the answer must be before I knew quite what was going on with “doctor,” but that is indeed one name for a certain dry trade wind that blows on the West African coast when it is winter in our hemisphere—another name of which is taken by one of the largest French publishers, L’Harmattan, with whose stores on Rue des écoles in Paris (near the Sorbonne) I am familiar.
 8 Managed to return judge’s report (7)
NARRATE — RAN (“Managed”) <— (“to return”) + RATE (“judge”)
11 Justify locations for outdoor events (11)
SHOWGROUNDS — To “show grounds,” two words, being to prove or “Justify”
15 Pleasant friend one put forward (9)
PALATABLE — PAL is “friend,” A is “one” and TABLE is “put forward”
17 Full hotel after cool office? (2-5)
IN-DEPTH — IN is “cool,” DEPT is “office” (department), with our old stand-by H for “hotel”
19 Republican appearing in stylish pants (7)
CHRONIC — They’re not really known for their sartorial flair… Roger Stone? ”Republican” = R, “appearing” = ON, inside CHIC = “stylish.” To Brits, CHRONIC can mean (Oxford) “Of a very poor quality,” which is synonymous with “pants” in Britslang. (To me, “the chronic” also means a certain substance not at all objectionable… And right after I wrote that, I came across a reference to Dr. Dre’s album The Chronic in the Friday New York Times crossword.)
21 Spike Milligan finally supports God (5)
THORN — THOR (a [g]od) stands on N, the last letter in “Mulligan”
24 Record without knowledge, ultimately (3)
TAP — TAP[-e]. This is only a semi-&lit, as “ultimately” isn’t necessary for the definition, only the wordplay. (But it sure looks lonely there without the underline.)

29 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4843, 24 March 2019, by Dean Mayer — Is it just me?”

    1. I was wrong!
      The last three I’d done were by McLean.
      Been quite a while since I’d had a Dean.

      Edited at 2019-03-31 12:02 am (UTC)

  2. I agree this was harder than we have seen from Dean for a while but I had thought his puzzles were becoming a bit easier of late, so perhaps it’s just a return to usual form for him. Not being on blogging duty, I didn’t pursue a couple of parsings, just being content to have arrived at the correct answers.

    Does 16ac count as a Spoonerism with its second word pronounced differently after it has taken the initial letter of the first word?

    Edited at 2019-03-31 12:12 am (UTC)

    1. Good question. One definition is an error transposing “sounds or letters,” but others say “a verbal mistake,” and it seems most expressly involve sounds. I’ve amended my remark above.

      Edited at 2019-03-31 12:24 am (UTC)

  3. If I had thought that Dean was getting easier–I didn’t think I was getting better–this one disabused me of that belief. I helped to make things more difficult–biffing PHENOBARBITONE, forgetting about the Met Office and concentrating on Scotland Yard–but mainly I was just slow. A number of neat clues, of course, but I think my COD goes to FINGERBOWL.
  4. 35:31 which is probably at the quicker end of the scale for me for a puzzle by this setter. However, I am not the most consistent of solvers in terms of times and I had fingers crossed for a couple unparsed in this one. At 10ac for some reason I was convinced that ‘wears’ was the bit going round rather than ‘out’. Don’t know why I couldn’t see it the other way round. Didn’t quite work out fingerbowl. Had no idea why ‘wind’ equalled doctor at 7dn. I’m happy to have been enlightened by the blog. And 19dn I mis-parsed with my republican being Ron (as in Reagan) with ‘appearing’ merely a positional indicator supporting ‘in’. Lots to like as usual, my favourite was perhaps the repetitive strain / injury at 2dn.
  5. Nice puzzle. I liked Earworm and Hitman. Didn’t know that use of Chronic or the Doctor wind. I also liked the blog, and while I’d never thought of it before, I like jackkt’s view of the pronounced distinction between a Spoonerism and a letter-switch ( and also the setter and editor’s attention to detail on that point )
    1. I’m not actually sure the point is valid which was why I phrased it as a question. Having since read the Wiki entry on the subject and the examples given there I am even more doubtful about it.

      Edited at 2019-03-31 05:37 am (UTC)

      1. The wiki entry describes a spoonerism as ‘an error in speech’, and the dictionary definitions generally bear this out, so it seems to me clear that 16ac is not one.
        1. What would a writing Spoonerism be if it didn’t reflect the pronunciation of the transposed letters? ‘A phine farmacy’, say, is hardly worth producing. Or, in American English, ‘a medal petal’ for ‘a metal pedal’. One of the points of interest in Spoonerisms, incidentally, is that they don’t violate the phonological rules of the language: ‘brain science’ might become ‘sain brience’, but not ‘srain bience’, say.
          1. 16ac is a ‘writing spoonerism’ that doesn’t reflect the pronunciation of the untransposed letters.

            Edited at 2019-03-31 08:18 am (UTC)

  6. Nice puzzle. I liked Earworm and Hitman. Didn’t know that use of Chronic or the Doctor wind. I also liked the blog, and while I’d never thought of it before, I like jackkt’s view of the pronounced distinction between a Spoonerism and a letter-switch ( and also the setter and editor’s attention to detail on that point )
  7. Very enjoyable, and for me a return to the expected level of difficulty for this setter whose last few puzzles I’ve found a bit easier than this one.

    Not too many crossword 25a’s here, with some interesting touches, including that for FINGERBOWL (though missed the Spoonerism v. first letter-switch subtlety) and the PENTO instead of expected ‘pheno’ for 23a. I thought of the ‘Fremantle doctor’ wind, as is so often mentioned on the cricket telecasts from Perth, for 7d, but ‘Harmattan’ sounds much more exotic.

    An excellent clue, but my unfavourite word of the day: EARWORM. Don’t know why but I can’t stand it. Probably because of the picture and sensation it conjures up. The MAIL ORDER bride and (something) CHRONIC were my picks.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

    1. As a resident of a Perth suburb only a few kilometres East of Fremantle, I had intended to rise the Fremantle Doctor which is a saviour in Summer. I was also going to point out that anyone who had listened to Ashes Tests from the WACA, or in future from the Perth Stadium, would have heard innumerable references over the years.
      Unfortunately, the Doctor (sometimes more appropriately know locally as the “Fremantle gale”) doesn’t always arrive.
      PS. Why do non-US websites insist on using US English spell checkers?
      Warren
  8. Thanks, Guy, for explaining my noted queries, FORSOOTH, FINGERBOWL, LIKE THE WIND and TAP.
    Cricket lovers will be familiar with the Fremantle Doctor in Western Australia which blows onshore in the afternoon into Perth from the direction of Fremantle and cools the city, including the old cricket ground, the WACA.
    COD for me was MET EXPECTATIONS.
  9. Ooof. I’m glad people thought this was tricky, because it took me the best part of two hours over three sessions. Good job I didn’t have much to do last Sunday!

    Enjoyed many, especially “repetitive strain” for 2d EARWORM. FOI 1a RED RUM, LOI 12a HITMAN, not least because I didn’t know Whitman.

  10. 45 minutes with one biff, LIKE THE WIND. I knew about the Fremantle Doctor if not the West African one, but didn’t bring it to mind even on review last Sunday evening. I think I’ve heard of MAIL-ORDER brides but I went to the trouble and expense of a more traditional courtship. I didn’t twig the FINGERBOWL explanation my evening review, so under my self-imposed rules I can’t make that COD. I’ll give that honour to the Met Office WEATHER FORECAST, no longer heard on the BBC. A very good puzzle. Thank you Guy and Dean.

    Edited at 2019-03-31 07:17 am (UTC)

  11. ….CHESTNUT-free, and an absolute delight. I didn’t biff anything, and was delighted to finish in a decent time. There were so many that could have been COD, so honourable mentions for FORSOOTH, HITMAN, PENTOBARBITONE, EARWORM, and TAP.

    FOI RED RUM
    LOI HITMAN
    COD WEATHER FORECAST
    TIME 12:19

  12. At the Madejski stadium yesterday, the announcer asked who wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The crowd went Wilde.
    Sadly that is not true but it is true that Reading scored two goals before half time and Preston’s goose was cooked. Very poor performance. As was my attempt at this crossword. I got WEATHER FORECAST and DER SPIEGEL straightaway and thought that the softer Dean had turned up but there were lots which defeated me in the end. I would rate this very hard.
    It was good to be reminded of Red Rum. I went to see him at his stables in Southport after one of his victories -the best ever Grand National horse I think. David

    1. Bad luck with the football, David. At least you’ll still be in business next year. Rummy used to open supermarkets and one year I think he turned Blackpool Illuminations on. That’s the ultimate celebrity accolade.
    2. Many think Red Rum the greatest horse of modern times, full stop .. according to opinion polls, to this day he is the best known horse in Britain
  13. 20:02. Hard, but not outrageously so, and great fun.
    I remembered the ‘doctor’ from previous puzzles. I don’t know if was the Fremantle one or some other.
    I had the most trouble with 5ac, for some reason.
    It’s only a matter of time before someone complains (wrongly) about this use of CHRONIC. Dr Dre’s album was also the launchpad for Snoop Dogg’s career. A quarter of a century later they’re both still going strong, which I don’t think I’d have predicted at the time.

    Edited at 2019-03-31 07:53 am (UTC)

  14. My print out scrawl says 16 minutes fun and no problems although nearly went wrong with PHENO not PENTO for the drug. Am surprised it was seen as quite difficult.
  16. Thanks Dean and guy
    Good challenging puzzle that took just over the hour to get out over a number of sittings – one of those ones without a dud clue. RED RUM was an early entry although I’d parsed it differently – had gone with the more common flip of MURDER but this time meaning when a sports team were able to comprehensibly ‘beat’ their opponent. Like the official way better.
    Found a number of clues where the word came from definition easily enough, but then had difficulty justifying the cryptic side – RAJAH (till I remembered the Brit term for a beer), LIKE THE WIND (until the Fremantle ‘doctor’ penny dropped), TAP (until the semi &lit penny dropped) and my last one in HITMAN (where the misdirection of it being the poet that I was looking for and realising that ‘offer’ was a very well disguised but obscure term for the killer definition). Lovely crossword.

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