Times Cryptic 26602 – December 22, 2016. Ni!

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Not at my most fluent, so it took 37.14. There are three words that might only ever appear in crosswords at 4ac, 20 ac and 7d, but in each case there’s  pretty much  generous wordplay to help you through. I took this to be a good, honest set of clues with  no observable gimmicks or hidden extras, not allowing for many chuck ‘em in answers.
My musings provide clue definition SOLUTION

Across

1. Escapade that may be seen in the shrubbery (5)
CAPER  As well as being one of those funny-tasting peas you find in artistic cooking, it’s also the shrub it comes from. And an escapade, of course.
4. Article put out by Gulf port board open to suspicion (9)
DUBITABLE  The Gulf port is DUBAI, strike the article A and add TABLE for board. A word more often seen with IN in front, a back formation, perhaps?
9. Boy leading everyone in film may be a winner (9)
MEDALLIST  The boy is ED, “boy” often indicating a shortened man’s name. Give him ALL for everyone, and stick both in MIST for film. I was playing with all in film being CAST, and looking at something like FORECAST for a winning bet. Just wrong, then.
10. Existentialist is cold, with charm in short supply (5)
CAMUS, plays in goal for the philosopher’s XI (sic). C(old) plus AMUS(e) for a short charm.
11. I would hang around without hesitation, doing nothing (6)
IDLING  I’D LINGER without the hesitant ER.
12. Hesitation about stated aims and objectives in modified document (8)
REVISION  Hesitation, as above ER, “about” and equipped with a VISION for those aims and objectives you have to make up if you want to qualify for “Investors in People” status
14. Water-dwelling creature exhausted, taking in rest by river (3,7)
SEA SERPENT Built up from SPENT, exhausted packed with EASE for rest, and R for river
16. Victory that may point to the future? (4)
PALM  think leafy thing waved in a victory celebration for one definition, and the liny bits on your hand for the other one.
19. Gun female fired in anger (4)
RILE Your gun here is a RIFLE. Dismiss the F(emale)
20. Most vulgar outfits I stored in box (10)
KITSCHIEST  I think I would always say “most kitsch” if I ever needed to (possibly if I ever visit Disney, for example). But here it’s KITS for outfits, and I stored in CHEST for box. The clue doesn’t say vulgarest, does it? I wonder why.
22. Two notes and small coin withdrawn (8)
RETICENT A drop of golden sun, a drink with jam and bread and 1c.
23. Drink before party with good person tagging along (6)
LAPDOG Drink is LAP, party DO, and good is G. Concatenate
26. Noise of powerful car or very small saloon? (5)
VROOM. From which I deduce that after V for very, I have ROOM to translate a small saloon. OK, I suppose
27. Allowance for protecting superior home falling into disrepair (9)
RUINATION  Allowance provides RATION, which in turn provide U for superior (Mitfords again) and IN for home.
28. It’s irritating being confined: steps inside (9)
PESTILENT  Being confined is PENT, inside which put STILE for steps
29. Note generating a good feeling (5)
TONIC Among other things the tonic is the first note of a scale, in the solfa system a deer, a female deer. And it’s a health-promoting drink.

Down

1. Official in firm facing ruin, admitting failure (9)
COMMISSAR  The ingredients are CO, firm; MAR ruin; and MISS failure (now there’s an alternative beauty contest) follow the assembly instructions
2. Lever in gym boy pulled up (5)
PEDAL  Obviously a lever when you think about it, but only then. Gym is P.E., and the boy is LAD, which you “pull up”
3. Eased up from time of discipline, lying in grass (8)
RELENTED Place LENT for that 40 day discipline period, into REED, grass.
4. Dublin house cleaner neglecting the basement (4)
DAIL  House as in “of Parliament”. A daily is a cleaning person capable of rearranging the house dust in such a way as to necessitate coming in again tomorrow.
5. Bird being deprived of tail and spleen (10)
BITTERNESS  The BITTERN appears in its full booming glory, and only the ESSE, being, loses its tail.
6. Plan exploit, perhaps, twitching on the outside (6)
TACTIC  exploit could be ACT, and TIC is “twitching”
7. Weapon favoured leads to troubled buzz (9)
BOMBINATE  Weapon is BOMB, then favoured is IN, and leads to does not indicate first letters of, but just a sort of direction. Troubled gives you ATE. Today’s best candidate for “never ‘eard of it, mate”
8. Dye is one to get fixed (5)
EOSIN  First anagram of the day using IS ONE as the fodder, get fixes as the indicator. Second…
13. Pert novice surprisingly provides something bringing vision (5,5)
OPTC NERVE  Anfd the second anagram, of PERT NOVICE (well, it sure looks like and anagram, one hardly needs “surprisingly” to give the game away).
15. Operations of Taliban, so devious (9)
ABLATIONS,  one definition being surgical removal of an organ or body tissue. You go 23 clues without an anagram, then three turn up at once, thias one of TALIBAN SO.
17. Like some chemical agents upsetting stomach over time, not completely pleasant (9)
MUTAGENIC  First shot an unparsable INORGANIC, but it’s TUM for stomach “upset”, the AGE for time, and most of NICe from pleasant.
18. Bird hiding initially in plants to get insect (8)
PHEASANT  The bird, the plant and the insect are all ones you’ve heard of, our answer, PEAS and ANT respectively. You need the H from Hiding “initially” to complete.
21. Fish dish served with pickle on island (6)
SCAMPI SCAMP for pickle (was for me in my childhood, at least) and I for Island.
22. Prepare to start show briefly with piano (3,2)
REV UP  That’ll be gunning the throttle then. Show briefly is REVUe and piano contributes the P
24. Consent given by e.g. Hamlet audibly (5)
DEIGN  Well he was a prince of Denmark.  Deign means “ to condescend to give” which can be squeezed into consent
25. Sweet strike: perfect! (4)
MINT  A satisfying triple definition to finish with.

55 comments on “Times Cryptic 26602 – December 22, 2016. Ni!”

  1. … the half hour today. Proceeded thusly: the western half was pretty swift; then got stuck moving east. SE went in gradually. All I had in the NE was CAMUS — who really was a goalkeeper* and, unless there’s something I don’t know about Churchill or Dylan, the only one also to win the Nobel prize for literature. So that quadrant was a bit of a prob.

    Might have been quicker had my basic chemistry (8dn, 17dn) been up to scratch.
    Of the latter, Zab, you have an errant F.

    * Perhaps not a very distinguished one:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6941924/Albert-Camus-thinker-goalkeeper.html

    Edited at 2016-12-22 04:47 am (UTC)

    1. Thank for the correction (and to Jack). I have terminated its existence with extreme prejudice.
  2. as so often I do, I forgot to go back to a dubious ‘solve’ and see whether it actually works. In this case, 4ac ‘debatable’, and you know, it doesn’t! I put in SCAMPI on faith (the evidence of things unseen) either that scamp was a type of pickle, or ‘pickle’ another word for scamp. Z, do you say ‘most itchy’? ‘most bitchy’? (assuming you ever use such a word in the first place) ‘titchy’? I took V in VROOM to be ‘very small’, i.e. a short version of ‘very’. Knew EOSIN, no doubt, as Vinyl suggests, from the NYT; ABLATIONS somehow vaguely familiar; BOMBINATE, not so much.
    1. Although Chambers has it, I don’t think I’d use kitschy in the first place, just kitsch as the (also) adjective, despite that affinity with bitch and itch. There’s something about that intruding S that defies the normal progression of forms.”That’s the most kitsch thing I’ve ever seen” somehow feels more natural than “that’s the kitschiest…”, whereas I have no issue with the itchiest fleabite or the bitchiest comment.
      I feel George Dubya passing on some advice he once received: “Mr President, I think you’ll find it’s pronounced keesh”.
    2. And on PICKLE, that really is a ghost from my past, where “you’re a pickle” would mean I had done something wrong, but my parents were so amused by it they couldn’t really be cross. So scamp is the perfect synonym (which also conjures up the shade of my uncle). Don’t think I’ve heard or used it since then, though Chambers has it as a troublesome child (informal)
  3. There’s been a slip of the finger in your answer at 17dn, z.

    RH was much harder than LH, I thought, and I used aids on two answers in order to finish as the hour approached.

    The sense of ATE required at 7dn caused problems for some in the QC earlier this week. And the troublemaker of that name also turned up within the past few days; there’s no connection I imagine but it’s a useful way of remembering one or other or both.

    KITSCHIEST is not to be found in any of the usual sources, nor even in more than a handful of less than usual ones. I’d have thought the superlative would have been “kitschest” but I can’t find support for that anywhere at all. However, it would be allowed as a 9-letter word on Countdown since they have a rule (established by their pet Oxford lexicographer and etymologist, Susie Dent) that -er and -est endings are permissible for single syllable adjectives even when not specified in the dictionary.

    One of the words that caught me out was at 12ac where I was looking for an answer more specific to the clue which, as it turned out, only contained an example.

    Edited at 2016-12-22 06:17 am (UTC)

    1. But ‘kitsch’ is a noun, the adjectival form of which is ‘kitschy’; so say I, and–perhaps more to the point–so says ODE, which gives ‘kitschiness’ and ‘kitschy/kitschier/kitschiest’ as derivatives of the noun.
      1. SOED has kitsch as:
        B: adjective. Of the nature of or pertaining to kitsch; garish, sentimental, tasteless. M20.

        I missed the “kitchiest” entry in ODE, and it’s in COED too, on the false assumption that everything that appears in them would also be in the much larger SOED that I have access to on my computer, so if I looked there I would find it. It was also worth discovering today that the very useful OneLook site doesn’t seem to reference the contents of the smaller Oxfords. Maybe they have made the same assumption I did.

        On the Countdown thing, since it turns out that KITSCHIEST is in the ODE and that is the reference the game-show uses it follows that “kitchest” would not be valid under the rule as stated above. Part of the rule is “unless otherwise stated” and in this case “kitchiest” is given as the superlative.

        Edited at 2016-12-22 08:34 am (UTC)

        1. Kitschiest isn’t the superlative of kitsch though.

          kitsch is a noun and adjective – kitscher, kitschest
          kitschy is a separate word, albeit derived from the above – kitschier, kitschiest

          Anyhoo, notwithstanding the arcane words, a relatively doable crossword.

      1. Thanks for your input, anon, but following Adrian’s correction above (that “kitchiest” is not the superlative of “kitsch” but of “kitschy”) my original point re Countdown stands. The rule is that -er and -est can be applied to any single syllable adjective even when not specified in the ODE, so KITSCHEST ought to be valid.
  4. 20:55. As others have said the right was much harder than the left. I was a bit irritated by some of this, notably EOSIN, which is a pure toss-up if you happen not to know the word (I looked it up), and BOMBINATE, which is just a silly word. Bah humbug.
    I would say KITSCHEST if I said anything of the kind, but the wordplay was sufficiently clear that it didn’t bother me.
  5. 21:21 … one for the aficionado, let’s say, but I did enjoy the challenge of carefully assembling the wordplay for some strange words. No faking it with this one. You figured it out or perished.

    Held up by EOSIN, mainly by having to stop and ponder how annoyed, on a scale of 1 to 10, keriothe would be about it. I guessed a 6 and that looks about right.

      1. Well, I too would have been annoyed if I parsed it correctly, but saw it as a slightly inferior &lit, with EOSIN “fixed” in “dyE IS ONe.” Did I mention I do a fine line in dyslexia? I typed it in the grid correctly!
        Otherwise mostly straightforward but a few tricky ones, and a second DNF in a row after I bypassed PALM and forgot to come back to it. Might not have got it anyway – palm as a prize, sure, but not as a win.
        Slowish 30 min DNF.
        1. Oh, good spot, and well done for cleverly not following the wordplay you’d spotted! Not sure if that makes the clue fiendish or, er, something else.
          1. There must be an acronym in there somewhere. As a dog owner getting all excited: TAIL WAGS – totally, absolutely ignore legitimate wordplay after good spot? No, not great. I ascribe it to advancing age and approaching senility. Though I am familiar enough with chemistry that an organic compound has to end in IN, so wrote it in without referring to the clue – BIFD?
  6. Held up considerably by BOMBINATE and PALM. A bit annoying that I came up with BOMBIN__E quite quickly then couldn’t get the worried bit. ‘Ate’ for worried has appeared often enough recently that I should recognise it by now.
  7. One of these middle of the road puzzles made harder by the inclusion of obscure vocab. These days I derive the words and then look them up to check them. Knew EOSIN but not DUBITABLE and wondered about KITSCHIEST.Like others not a word I would ever use.
  8. It had to be CAMUS since Sartre didn’t fit. 35 minutes with two biffed unknowns, BOMBINATE and MUTAGENIC. Kitschiest COD KITSCHIEST. Wasted time on DUBITABLE thinking the port had to be ADEN until the DAIL hit me. I wanted SEA SERPENT to have one fewer letter so I could crack my favourite childhood riddle. Why did the razor bill raise her bill? So that the sea urchin could see ‘er chin. I hope your Christmas crackers are that good. LOI PALM. Nearly needed a lifeline for that. OK, that’s not so good.
    1. Sitting here laughing my nose off because I went through the same Camus / Sartre loop and thought I was alone. Petronella
  9. Like others the LHS was uncomplicatedest for a while. But the RHS proved difficultest with much vocabulary unknown. Couldn’t think of a word that matched 20a checkers and 7d unheard of (mental note to split the clue into parts). May all your Christmases be Christmasest. Thanks Z for the excellent blog. Alan
  10. I guess your reaction to this sort of puzzle may depend on how cheerful a mood you’re already in: either a) well, I’ve learned some new words today, and really put my brain through a good work-out, or b) EOSIN? WTF? etc etc.
  11. sub 27, a walk in the park compared to the competition fare. Got lucky with my 50/50 guess for Eosin and could not parse the second part of 16a at all.
  12. Well, I’m Angry from Purley on the Keriothe Scale, having put in ‘eison’. Why this puzzle had to go all Mephisto on us in the NE, I just don’t know.

    By the way, Zabbers, you have a bit of “eye” trouble with your optic nerve.

  13. All done in 25 minutes except 16a, *A*M, went through the alphabet as you do, but still not convinced how palm can mean victory, as opposed to prize or symbol of.
    All chemists will write in EOSIN, one of those dyes or indicators it’s hard to wash away.
    Liked VROOM and REV UP togetherness but can’t tell you why really.
    1. From wiki The palm became so closely associated with victory in ancient Roman culture that the Latin word palma could be used as a metonym for “victory”, and was a sign of any kind of victory.
  14. Yep, NE def the trickiest quartile…. Finished with PALM, a lucky guess of which I was not totally convinced, since both BOMBINATE and MUTAGENIC were got through wp. About an hour (or maybe more…)
  15. Totally hacked off from Bletchingley.Lost the plot at 7 and 16 resorted to aids and then gave myself a good kicking for being so dumb. Now going Christmas shopping.Bah Humbug
  16. Like everyone, much troubled by the NE. Dnk BOMBINATE and didn’t parse it properly. Dnk EOSIN. PALM went in with a shrug. Dnk ABLATIONS, kept thinking of oblation. Learned a few things, thanks z and setter. 31′.
  17. I gave up after an hour and a quarter with a few still left in the NE. On balance, I think I’m glad I did, as I doubt I would have got to the end of BOMBINATE and PALM. Ah well. I did at least recall EOSIN from a little microscope kit I had as a boy, and DAIL from previous crosswords…
  18. Another DNF today, abandoning ship after 65 minutes, with _A_M for 16a and unable to think of anything for D_I_N at 24d(metaphorically slapped forehead after reading the blog). Also fell into the bear trap at 4a with DEBATABLE, which was indubitably unparsed. I think I’ll go and do some shopping for Christmas dinner. Thanks Z for filling in my blanks.
  19. Have remembered username so can post from my tablet today – yesterday I had postrted anonymously signed phantomxwd, a name I use elseewhere.
    Time was nearly an hour because I find I have to keep adjusting display size to make keyboard big enough to be able to hit right keys after making grid smaller to see next entry. The only actual delay was having carelessly put OBLATIONS, though LOI was. PALM, where I was ok with victory, but future was dubitable.
  20. About 40 mins but with a biffed and unparsed DEBATABLE. One wonders why the compiler would use such a dubitable word when there is a perfectly good one that fits. Esp with other dubitable words (or least DNK’s) in the same region. Gripe over.
  22. I’ve been reading the solver’s notes on this forum for years, so many thanks for everyone who has provided them. Thought I’d now join!
  23. 15:21. EISON certainly looked more like a word than EOSIN but the latter looked more sciency (a bit like resin) so luckily I went with the latter.

    As I wrote in DUBITABLE I guessed that there would be a few solvers falling into the DEBATABLE trap. It made a nice change for old Albert not to be a backwards tree.

  24. So I have (say I, taking my glasses off and peering closely at the screen through my incipient cataracts) Think I’ll leave it and see if anyone else notices and betrays their scant attention to the posts by pointing it out again.
  25. I’m ineffably disgruntled after committing an indubitable mutant typo, so my 22plus minutes were wasted.
  26. Somewhat surprised to have finished this in under 10 minutes (but not quite under 1 Jason). EOSIN was no problem but I had BILATIONS (?) in at 15dn until it became clear that this wouldn’t wash for multiple reasons, and also spent way too long thinking “it must be BOMBIN-something, but what”? Overall rather enjoyable I thought, I like Mephisto-y bits.

  27. Oh, the hours we spent back in the Sixties discussing whether Camus really was/wasn’t an existentialist.

    The goalkeeper himself said on more than one occasion that he wasn’t, but if you went in the same cafes and smoked the same fags, you tended to be lumped together with Sartre and the rest of the boys/girls in the band whether you liked it or not.

    Anyway, I was motoring along just fine today until I hit the SE corner. After about 20 mins trying to sort it out I lost the will to live and came here for some help.

    Time: DNF

    Thank you, as usual, to esteemed setter and blogger.

  28. About 25 minutes, ending with an alphabet tour for PALM. I agree this was a relief after yesterday’s stunning competition puzzle. DNK BOMBINATE, but everything else was OK. Regards.
  30. I’d like to blame working an hour later than I’d planned to but I can’t really because I didn’t drift during the solve. It was a technical DNF because I had complete brain freeze in the NE with 7dn and 16ac unsolved after half an hour. I was quite sure 7dn started with BOMBIN, but like a novice solver I didn’t see troubled=ate, which is acutely embarrassing. I went to my Chambers, saw BOMBINATE, and then got PALM after another couple of minutes. At least I wasn’t alone in finding those two clues troublesome. On the other hand I’d come across EOSIN before so I had no problem with arranging the anagram fodder in the right order. And everything was going so swimmingly after yesterday …….
  31. Beaten by PALM. I considered it in my alphabet trawl, and could half-believe it meant “victory”, but didn’t get the future bit at all.
  32. Did this at odd moments during the Christmas shopping, but failed to get BOMBINATE and PALM.

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