Times 27169 – Monster Monday

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Well, I struggled mightily with this, getting one wrong and needing to cheat on two, while managing to nod off as well. There were certainly some difficult words, including a medical term I’d never heard of, though it was Latiny enough to be able to work out. As often, the hidden eluded me for ages (the fact that it was some chemistry thing didn’t help), while my biggest source of embarrassment – on a particularly embarrassing sort of solve – was my failure to remember what VALETUDINARIAN meant – and to separate it out from the ‘valedictory’ stable of words, even though I’d read an entry (very carefully, I might add) on it not six months ago.

Maybe everyone else will find it a breeze, but I would say that this is definitely not one for the Quickie brigade.

ACROSS

1 Good girl we’re told deciding it’s an unfair obstacle (5,7)
GLASS CEILING – G LASS sounds like ‘sealing’
9 Greek festival inspires king – it’s something in the atmosphere (5)
ARGON – R in AGON; a Greek festival, such as the one at Olympia, at which competitors vied for laurel wreaths et al
10 Musical style it’s rude to sing (9)
BLUEGRASS – BLUE GRASS (rat on someone)
11 The cloth sample on skimpy garments (8)
MINISTRY – TRY on MINIS
12 Leave the neighbouring housing compound (6)
ETHENE – hidden in[leav[E THE NE[eighbouring]; I’d herard of ETHANE but not this stuff
13 Investigator on the booze (8)
REPORTER – RE PORTER (a dark sweet ale brewed from black malt – one of my favourite tipples)
15 Heavy drinks bottles heading for tavern (6)
ROTUND – T[avern] in ROUND (‘drinks bottles heading for tavern’ is crosswordese for chuck the initial letter of tavern in drinks)
17 Reduce by cooking in two months (6)
DECOCT – DEC OCT; if I was being really honest (something I haven’t tried for some time now) I would have to say that I’d never heard of this word. I probably said that last time it came up…
18 Flatter, or fairly flat? (8)
BLANDISH – if something were not that dull, but definitely on the dull side (think Michael MacIntyre doing yet another observational domestic sketch), then you might call it on the bland side, or indeed, ‘blandish’. Oh God, I think I’ve just given him an idea he’ll be able to pad out into a 3-minute item…
20 Prickly Scandinavian hero content to leave Norway (6)
THORNY – THOR N[orwa]Y
21 Sordid party game (8)
BASEBALL – BASE BALL
24 View short camera shot, in which a lot is crooked? (5,4)
CRIME WAVE – anagram* of VIEW CAMER[a]
25 Fiddle one misplaced? There it is! (5)
VOILA – VOILA with the I moving about
26 Christian book favouring giving up almost everything (12)
PROCESSIONAL – PRO CESSION (giving up) AL[l]; a book as well as ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ then

DOWN

1 What may qualify school to provide set of rules (7)
GRAMMAR – one of the words that may premodify school, along with finishing and special needs, is GRAMMAR
2 Front of chest in great pain, so could be this? (6,8)
ANGINA PECTORIS – C[hest] IN GREAT PAIN SO* for the heart-related chest pain that my healthy lifestyle has so far kept me safe from
3 Passage south across the Atlantic (5)
SINUS – S IN US
4 Got on vessel in eastern sea (8)
EMBARKED – BARK in E MED
5 Flamboyant old Law Lord entertains (4)
LOUD – O in LUD; it is a sad indictment of modern times that judges are no longer addressed by barristers with their hands pressed against their chests under the lapels of their gowns as M’Lud. Boring old Milord is now the order of the day in the lego-judicial industry.
6 New wig and thong, kinky bedroom gear (9)
NIGHTGOWN – n[ew] WIG THONG*; shame on anyone who went down the leather, wrist-cuff route…
7 Invalid with a nature that’s sickly? (14)
VALETUDINARIAN – INVALID A NATURE* for the hypochondriac
8 Get promoted in a post broadcasting (6)
ASCEND – A sounds like ‘send’
14 Trained to run race, his performance is telling (9)
RACONTEUR – TO RUN RACE*
16 They could hack off Conservative Brexiteers (8)
CLEAVERS – C LEAVERS (bless ’em – I’d never have joined in the first place)
17 Didn’t like touring Croatia’s capital, back in Split (6)
DETACH – HATED reversed around C[roatia]
19 Item for traveller knocking on mansion walls (7)
HOLDALL – OLD (knocking on – geddit?) in HALL; walls is the containment indicator
22 Brief verse in French mostly useless (5)
ENVOI – EN VOI[d]; a literary entity that is still commonly found in crosswords – along with EPODES, ELEGIES et al – meaning a short stanza concluding a ballade
23 Demonstrate putting away hot alcoholic drink (4)
MARC – MARC[h]

43 comments on “Times 27169 – Monster Monday”

  1. 11:32 – fortunately when I started writing down the letters for the anagram, VALETUDINARIAN jumped out from somewhere in the memory banks. HOLDALL was my last in, and although there were some really tricky anagrams in here, all the wordplay holds up well, so trusting wordplay helped. I really liked the clue for CRIME WAVE
  2. Well, I currently find myself once again on the wrong side of the Atlantic, which at least means that the puzzle comes out at a civilised hour of the evening.

    I did find this one a little tough for a monday, but not unduly so – my 31 minutes is not far over my average. NTLOI was VALETUDINARIAN (a word whose meaning I did not know; nor did I spot the anagram), closely followed by the nicely concealed ETHENE. NHO ‘agon’, but there weren’t any other options. Most people believe the main constituents of air to be nitrogen, oxygen and CO2, but argon is actually about 20 times as abundant as CO2 – it just doesn’t get the press it deserves because of its shy, retiring nature.

  3. I thought this was going to be really difficult when my first run through the across clues only produced ETHENE and ROTUND. LOI was VALETUDINARIAN and I too mixed it up with valedictorian and wondered where the sickness stuff came in. 38′ with a couple of minutes to make a cup of coffee. I had CHOPPERS for CLEAVERS for a time before I thought again.
  4. For some reason, I kept track of the order in which they all went in. First was NIGHTGOWN. Sixth was VALETUDINARIAN, with only the second I as a checker, after ENVOI and then VOILA. It was embarrassing how long it took me to come up with GLASS CEILING, that was #15, and especially REPORTER, #25. My POI was MINISTRY (when I finally saw the definition) and LOI was CRIME WAVE, as it took forever to realize “View” was part of the anagram. HOLDALL (#23), was elusive, going in only when all the checkers were there and parsed only after entering.

    Edited at 2018-10-15 03:27 am (UTC)

    1. Fascinating: your hashtags convert to shortcuts to the further reaches of LJ that none of us usually visit because they’re mostly in Russian. At the time of writing, mind, #25 took me to the Australian Firefighters’ Calendar, which was certainly diverting.

      Edited at 2018-10-15 07:51 am (UTC)

  5. A technical DNF, which would usually mean I cheated on one, maybe two answers, but today I was left with five unsolved, all in the NE quarter, after a mighty struggle lasting an hour through the rest of it, and I simply ran out of fight.

    I had originally intended to use aids for one answer and then return to the fray, but having found VALETUDINARIAN (a word I don’t think I knew) none of the missing words intersecting with it leapt out at me, so I threw in the towel and looked them up too.

    My only slight quibble is the definition ‘heavy’ for ROTUND as I’d say the answer actually refers to shape rather than weight. I had ‘robust’ in mind which seemed a better fit if it were not for wordplay.

    Edited at 2018-10-15 05:29 am (UTC)

  6. I thought this was going to be a DNF for me, as twenty minutes over my hour I finally threw in VALETUDINARIAN without much hope of it being right. I was rather surprised to come here and find that I’d completed successfully.

    A hard struggle, with the entire SE the hardest. DNK “agon”, VALETUDINARIAN, PROCESSIONAL or “bark” (I might’ve guessed it was an alternate of “barque” if I hadn’t thought “ark” was the vessel!)

  7. 30 mins with yoghurt, granola, fresh raspberries, etc.
    I thought this was ok. I got the long downward anagrams quickly.
    Ethene LOI – well hidden.
    Mostly I liked: Invalid with a nature, Detach and COD to Blandish.
    Thanks setter and U.
  8. I was going to add this has come up twice since TftT began, on both occasions passing without comment from me so evidently I must have been okay with it. Firstly it was in 2009, and secondly in 2011 with an almost identical clue to today’s: Invalid with a nature that’s troubled.

    VALETUDINARY came up in October last year.

    1. I see I didn’t know VALETUDINARIAN back in October, either 🙂

      I have since started a list of words to revise, though (as always with my studies) my list is growing but my time spent actually revising is not.

  9. Gave up after nearly an hour, nearly all of the last forty minutes seemed a struggle, BLANDISH, BASEBALL, HOLDALL not done. Oh well.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

  10. 22 minutes for this hard-easy crossword: quite a few clues which Jim, in his regular intro to the Mephisto says “you are unlikely to solve…without using Chambers. The idea is that you use the precise wordplay to derive an answer that you then verify in the dictionary.” But I struggled through, guessing the long anagrams’ most likely sequences and that AGON was a festival (among other arcana).
    I liked the risque but ultimately disappointingly flannelette NIGHTGOWN, and the rude music, and was relieved that the setter decided against continuing the naughty theme with a wince-inducing soundalike clue for DECOCT.
    We had (of course) both a processional and recessional hymn at yesterdays oecumenical World Peace Service, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book of either.
    Many thanks to Ulaca for a blog combining proper solving with exemplary pithy and apposite commentary: I especially appreciated “a literary entity that is still commonly found in crosswords” for ENVOI. Fine writing.
  11. 37 minutes, with LOI ROTUND, after VALETUDINARIAN finally fell into place. I called the first chapter of my novel PROCESSIONAL, on the lines of the characters being introduced like the choir and clergy marching round the Church before things really got going. I hadn’t realised it was a book as well. I’m going to say that I did know now of course, in the unlikely event that anyone ever asks. The last chapter was the Recessional. Before I twigged the ANGINA PECTORIS anagram, I had ACHING PECTORAL, which I did think was a bit literal! But COD to PROCESSIONAL for the validation and valediction I feel I have received. Good puzzle. Thank you U and setter.
  12. 16:24. I thought this was pretty tricky but I didn’t help myself by hastily bunging in NIGHTWEAR.
    Mr Woodhouse is described as a VALETUDINARIAN in the first chapter of Emma and for some reason the word has always stuck with me since reading the novel as a teenager. I wish I knew how to make my memory do that more regularly, and with more useful information.

    Edited at 2018-10-15 07:50 am (UTC)

    1. Ah yes, now that you mention it, I remember reading (under A level duress) Emma and of her valetudinarian papa: I thought back then it meant someone respected in the community and have never changed my opinion since. Until now.
  13. To celebrate finishing this puzzle, I’m about to replicate your breakfast – although it’s lemon yogurt !
  14. 1d a write-in for one whose profession is/was teaching English in grammar schools, but thereafter much less tractable: 40 mins to complete. Progressing generally NW to SE, the clutch of French words held me up a bit (I thought ‘vain’=useless so entertained ENVAI for a while) before seeing PROCESSIONAL. I was hell-bent on finding a presbyterian, pentecostal, christadelphian, protestant, congregational, evangelical, Wesleyan, episcopal Christian that would fit.
    Heavy (semantic field of weight) didn’t work for me as a def for ROTUND (semantic field of shape).
    For CO, I liked the &lit VALETUDINARIAN or the neat BLANDISH.
    My thanks to blogger and setter.
  15. …. but eventually finished in 16:34

    FOI ARGON

    DNK ANGINA PECTORIS, ETHENE, or PROCESSIONAL, despite a GRAMMAR school education.

    I enjoyed Ulaca’s blog almost as much as the puzzle, and thanks for parsing ENVOI.

    LOI CRIME WAVE, which was almost COD, but that accolade goes to GLASS CEILING.

  16. Keriothe and z8, I think we must be of a similar vintage, having done the same A’level curriculum which also included Paradise Lost. I had to look up ‘valetudinarian’ then, and it came back for the first time this morning after trawling the alphabet for the uncrossed letters (LOI). My COD is ‘holdall’.
  17. I think 25’s definition should be ‘There it is!’, with the VIOLA (fiddle) having its I misplaced. Kind regards, Bob K.
  18. I managed this without looking anything up, despite several unknowns. GLASS CEILING was my first entry and my LOI, VALETUDINARIAN, definition unknown, was constructed laboriously from the anagrist when all the checkers were in place. AGON, ENVOI and PROCESSIONAL as a book, I will now try to commit to memory. 36:16. Thanks setter and U. It’s now time to gird my loins and head back from the Scottish Borders, after a long weekend of carousing with fellow folkies at The Grapes Hotel, Newcastleton, a fine venue with friendly locals and full cholesterol breakfasts. Back on the porridge and exercise bike tomorrow!

    Edited at 2018-10-15 02:45 pm (UTC)

  19. Like others I found VALETUDINARIAN tricky… to such an extent that I wrote VALEDUNITARIAN instead. Usual anagram complaints – although this one feels like I probably should have been able to deduce the more plausible word. I’m also not quite convinced by ‘sickly’ as an anagrind, but this could be sour grapes.

    Otherwise, a nice crossword with some fun cryptic approaches. 9m 33s with that error.

  20. Tricky for a Monday, and specialising in impressive anagrams, one of which was quite literally a pain to unravel. I am another who has been through a phase of confusing VALETUDINARIAN and VALEDICTORIAN wherever possible, but they seem to have resolved themselves in my brain so, just DHOBI and DHOTI to get straight now; and possibly OLEASTER and OLEANDER.
  21. I thought I must be having a dim day, as it took me an hour in two sittings either side of Monday’s social coffees in the café. But now I realise it was hard! I had to cheat a bit to find out what VALETUDINARIAN meant once I’d deciphered the anagram, and ETHENE took an age although I know perfectly well it’s the correct UPAC name for ethylene. ASCEND was also slow to get. Well blogged Ulaca.
    Cod for me GLASS CEILING.
  22. 46:50. A stiff test for a Monday, definitely one to put hairs on your pectoris. I was another who suspected that a valetudinarian was the person who stood up and gave a speech at American graduation ceremonies until the clue proved me wrong. Dnk agon but guessable in the context of the clue. Had trouble cracking 15ac, 19dn, the unfamiliar Christian book in 26ac and that sort of passage in 3dn. Thank you setter and well blogged sir!
  23. 32 mins. Everything, easy or hard, seems to be around half an hour at the moment. 7dn took forever, then just jumped out from nowhere: I hadn’t considered an anagram. Basically, finishing the NE corner was the biggest problem. Good blog, cheers.
  24. That’s what this was like for me for a couple of hours before I eventually finished successfully with the guessed VALETUD…. you know what. In fact more of a full blown myocardial infarct than just angina. Not nice for an expected gentle Monday evening solve in front of the TV with a cuppa.

    Emergency stents in order.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  25. DNF with TALC for 23d – a hidden that for once wasn’t a hidden. Must admit that I couldn’t see the literal there anyway unless TALC had another meaning. Note to self. Check anagrams. Might have got ETHENE (which I knew) had I spelt VALETUDINARIAN correctly. COD BLUEGRASS cos I like it.
  26. On sub-4 hours sleep, managed the left half and bits of the right. Haven’t been doing this long enough to have heard of VALETUDINARIAN. DNK PROCESSIONAL. Gave up after 90 minutes with seven unfinished.
  27. A sinus isn’t a passage, it’s a hollow cavity. I should know- I’ve suffered from sinus problems most of my life. The meatus is the passage that drains a sinus. Mr Grumpy
    1. I also wondered about that but Collins is not alone in having this (or similar) under ‘sinus’:

      noun
      1. anatomy
      a. any bodily cavity or hollow space
      b. a large channel for venous blood, esp between the brain and the skull
      c. any of the air cavities in the cranial bones

      2. pathology
      a passage leading to a cavity containing pus

  28. Too much for me, too. Heavens! (I softened my initial reaction substantially) – I feel really thick.
  29. This also took me a while to get through, ending with the VALETUDINARIAN from the anagram, and knowing it was a word if not it’s meaning. I thought the CRIME WAVE clue was a good one. Overall I think it took 40 minutes or so. Regards.
  30. This has a very strong flavour for a Monday I feel, with a somewhat appalling mini-theme of illness. I like quite a few of the clues nonetheless, and OLD in HALL certainly cut the mustard for me, being one of those ‘you only get ’em in The Times’ ones.

    Back to episode 7 of Killing Eve.

    1. “broadcasting” is the homophone indicator. ASCEND sounds like “a” followed by “send” for “post”.
  32. Finished (on Tuesday) bar “valetudinarian” for which I had to resort to aids (and then kicked myself).

    Edited at 2018-10-16 10:00 pm (UTC)

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