Times 26055 – “At least you’ll get your blogging done!”

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 28 minutes

Music: Thelonius Monk Quartet, Misterioso

Yes, I’m back again after only two days. Pip Kirby is tied up this week, so I have taken on a little extra work. I seem to have gotten another rather easy one; any time I finish in under 30 minutes, it can’t be that tough. On the other hand, I might be improving, as I seem to be getting that competing puzzle completed more often.

This was a fairly vanilla offering, with quite a few answers put in from the literals. I will now have to parse some of them for the blog, but I’m quite sure I am all correct. Absolutely no obscure words, so no excuses.

Across
1 CORNET, double definition. The military rank may be a little obscure, as it was largely abolished in the Army Reform Act of 1871
4 ICE CREAM, ICE (as in slang for diamonds) + CREAM (as a colour).
10 ASININE, A(SIN + IN)E. But what about venial sins?
11 TUNE OUT, TUNE + OUT, in different senses.
12 MASH, MA[r]SH.
13 PERIWINKLE, double definition, both a mollusc and a flower – and, for that matter, a colour.
15 BRAINWASH, B + RAIN + WAS H, a nice change from the usual chestnut clue.
16 ASSET, A S(S)ET, as in a radio set.
18 LEECH, LEE + C[ounty] H[ospital].
19 COUNTDOWN, COUNT[y] DOWN.
21 BIRD STRIKE, BIRD’S TRIKE. I was just reading Capt. Sullenberger’s commentary on today’s air disaster, so the idea was fresh in my mind. The famous landing in the Hudson was nearly visible from the windows of my workplace, but I was a little too far south.
23 ABET, A + BET.
26 ASPHALT, anagram of ATLAS around P[ublic] H[ouse].
27 EXECUTE, EXECUT[iv]E.
28 DILATORY, anagram of IDOLATRY.
29 SORDID, SO(RD I)D. A surprising number of characters in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama were named ‘Sordido’.
 
Down
1 CHARM, C + HARM.
2 REINSTATE, REINS + TATE, my FOI.
3 EXIT, EXI[s]T.
5 CATFISH, CA(anagram of FIT)SH.
6 CONFIDANTE, CON + F (1) DANTE.
7 E-BOOK, OBE upside-down + OK.
8 MOTH-EATEN, M.O.T + HEAT + [th]E [fa]N. A bit UK-centric, but we’re catching on.
9 GENERA, GEN + ERA.
14 ENTHUSIAST, anagram of SUSTAIN THE, a fine surface that may be a little difficult to penetrate.
15 BILLBOARD, BILL BOARD in a completely different sense.
17 SNOWBOUND, anagram of DOWN ON SUB.
19 CURATOR, CUR + TA upside-down + OR.
20 UPKEEP, UP + PEEK upside-down, my LOI as I played around with ‘recce’ and ‘dekko’ before seeing the obvious.
22 REPEL, RE(P)EL.
23 TREAD, T + READ.
25 DEMO, DEMO[s]. Not etymologically related, as ‘demos’ is from Greek and ‘demonstrate’ is from Latin.

57 comments on “Times 26055 – “At least you’ll get your blogging done!””

  1. 27 minutes, which might have been trimmed if I hadn’t struggled with the BRAIN**** clue, knowing it wasn’t ‘brainwave’ and knowing it was the theme of ‘The Manchurian Candidate’, but being unable to pluck it from the addled recesses.

    As noted, the eeriness of BIRD STRIKE occurring on this of all days was the outstanding moment in this very serviceable puzzle.

    Edited at 2015-03-25 02:25 am (UTC)

  2. Vanilla, indeed. I got 8d backwards, though, i.e. getting the answer from checkers before parsing the wordplay. And I was slowed down by 14d, trying to decide what was the anagrind and what the anagrist. Online, 26ac had what I thought was an unnecessary ‘on maps?’ at the end; was this edited out?
  3. Back to the uncanny run of simpler puzzles after yesterday’s slightly more difficult offering (which I abode for all that). With an O and a final D in 29ac, it was looking like SOILED, but the parsing didn’t work. And 17dn sorted that out — good anagram!

    Isn’t there a story about someone being holed up and ear-bashed by C.P. Snow who sent an apologetic telegram simply reading SNOWBOUND? Probably apocryphal.

    1. . . . as is Napier’s supposed telegram to his superiors having conquered the Indian province of Sindh – “peccavi” – I have sinned.
      1. Though I heard of a shorter one. On delivery of twin boys, a father in France sent a telegram to all and sundry which simply read: NÉS.
      2. Sorry to be pedantic, but Napier didn’t himself telegraph this. If I remember correctly, someone wrote into the Times to suggest that it would have been amusing if he had.
        1. . . . which is why I said supposed and tagged it to mctext’s apocryphal comment. However, as a fellow pedant, I am sure that you would want me to point out that the letter suggesting ‘peccavi’ was to Punch, rather than to The Times.
          1. 🙂
            I stand corrected regarding Punch.
            I’m not sure “supposed” is the right word.
            1. Accepted. Meanwhile, yer man Nash was so concerned about dust etc when travelling between London and Bath that he paid for pumps to be installed at regular intervals and for locals to water the road in their area before he travelled through. A number of these pumps still survive, at least in my area (old A4, East Berks)
    2. I believe Oscar Wilde cabled his publisher to see how his new book was doing. His message was “?” and the reply was “!”
  5. It does serve a purpose as PH is the abbreviation for pubs on Ordnance Survey maps.
  6. 28mins so on the easy side… CORNET was my only query (dnk the military rank). Spent a good few minutes at the end firstly realising that 14dn was an anagram, and secondly working it out.
  7. 14 mins for me so a rare under 15 and maybe a PB. Never really got held up by anything although I wasted a minute on trying to make an anagram of THE CYCLING that meant sustain.

    I do think that the public house clue would have been better as either plain “public house” or “pub on maps”. It seems overkill to put in both.

  8. 28 mins with the military meaning of CORNET unknown and I’m not sure I have met LEECH as an actual doctor before.
  9. Must have been an easy one. Didn’t need to use the laptop for the first time ever.
  10. I submitted on 9.57 having just thrown in ENTHUSIAST (good clue in a less distinguished sea) and without checking the rest of the entries for typos. Result? Ecstasy – my first sub-10 for a long time and a mere 1.04 Jasons, who must have had a slow day.
  11. Under the half-hour for me so I’m happy.
    There’s an uncanny and curious coincidence with the Quickie today: the same answer, in exactly the same place with a very similar clue.
  12. All is forgiven, I love crosswords again. My third-best weekday time, if my erratic record-keeping can be trusted.

    COD to 14dn. I’m not a fanatic, barely even an enthusiast, but I do cycle quite a bit. Saves on parking and train fares.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  13. One of those anodyne puzzles that lead to a mechanical solving process that is effective but lacks any great pleasure. Absolutely nothing of note.
  15. 8:47 … so I’m happy.

    Vinyl – I think your S in 2d has slipped from REIN to TATE. I’m assuming “power to control” is REINS and “Restore” is the def.

    Edited at 2015-03-25 09:11 am (UTC)

    1. Interesting – I parsed it as ‘restore power to’ being the definition, and reins beings control, which I think also works.

      Also liked Vinyl’s almost adjacent sentences: “Absolutely no obscure words…” and “The military rank may be a little obscure…”

      Cornet certainly obscure for me, needed a post-solve check. Demos also obscure (i.e. unknown by me) as a modern English word for the common people.

      Still, both easy to guess so a quick 16:45
      Rob

  16. i hope i’m not the only one having trouble accessing the club this morning. it seems to be down on both firefox and google chrome. thanks for the blog vinyl.
    1. Yes, there’s definitely something amiss at the moment though it was fine earlier.
      1. I am still unable to sign in to TCC on IE, Firefox or Chrome via Times Online, bookmark or typing directly into the address bar. A “chat” session informed me that the problem is known and should be resolved this afternoon.
        1. let’s hope so. good to hear from you! On edit – news flash – just got logged. Finally.

          Edited at 2015-03-25 12:35 pm (UTC)

    2. On chrome, I’m still only getting a blank page for the crossword, though logging in to the paper did give me the puzzle, which I could complete but not submit. Solving time was pretty quick, though a couple of hours elapsed because of repeated unsuccessful attempts at getting into the club pages.
  18. 14:13. As others have said, a vanilla offering but I’m quite happy with vanilla once in a while particularly having found yesterday’s tutti frutti. My only hesitation was for CORNET, not knowing the military term and worrying I was missing something.

  19. 12 mins. As others have noted it was a straightforward puzzle, although I almost biffed “moss” into 12ac until I saw the correct MASH. The UPKEEP/EXECUTE crossers were my last ones in.
  20. Made very heavy weather of this and DNF, due in combination to a couple of dud entries and a couple I just could not see.

    Thanks for the blog vinyl – helped to straighten me out. Back to the nets …

  21. This must have been an easy one – it’s the first I’ve done in less than an hour (58 minutes to be precise).
    Was held up because I initially thought 11a was “THIN out” – which delayed me getting 6d.
    I would have got 6d quicker if it been “one woman WHO holds” rather than “one woman THAT holds” – “THAT” made me think the answer must be an object rather than a person.
  22. Also got held up by 19a – which I first thought was “CONNAUGHT” (con as in defcon, not – naught).
  23. I put in BOOT first, which also fits the clue if you accept an archaic meaning of BOOT and a superfluous ‘a’. But I knew it must be wrong when SNOWBOUND came along. GRADESE
  25. 10:08, slightly disappointed not to have dipped below 10 minutes.

    Just me then who has never heard of demos as common people? I wasn’t totally unconvinced that the clue had something to do with dem being a common way of saying them.

    Didn’t know the cavalry ossifer either.

  26. back in the day you purchased your commission (a cornetcy was the starter one) if you had the money – they were very expensive. I know this from you-know-who, GH. then there was the association of ideas with ice cream. no reliable time because although i tried not to peek i did register a couple of answers while scrolling down the comments to see if anyone else was having log-in problems.
    1. Good to see that you are back to capitals again, Olivia (apart from the heroic blog)
  27. Pleased to finish in 35 minutes. 1a was my FOI, helped by Spooner’s (probably apocryphal) “He’s a hornet, of course”.
  29. 13:32 which I believe is a PB. Generally an anti-clockwise solve with MOTH EATEN being LOI.
  30. 35 but held up by having BIFD for 11a TAKE OUT and then spent a while with C?K..etc for 6d but eventually I twigged summat was up, actually worked out 11a and completed in a flurry, though only after 12m had evaporated in fruitless head scratching! Thanks for the blog.
  31. No problem with the military gent. Like Olivia, I owe a lot to Georgette Heyer. A stroll in the park today. 20 minutes. Would have been 15 mins but I had to make frequent stops and starts to accommodate fits of coughing. (Very annoying since I want to be able to sing with the choir on Saturday. Handel – “Dixit Dominus” and a Bach cantata, the title of which I can’t manage in German in my current state of health, but it’s got “todesbande” in it. The experts here will know.)
    1. Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4), I assume. Splendid stuff. I hope your voice recovers in time.
      1. Yes, that’s the one. I might have known you’d know it. After almost 30 years with a conductor who was happier with 19th and 20th century works, it’s a great joy to get back to Bach with our shiny new musical director. And the Handel! I didn’t realise until we started rehearsal that I’d never actually sung it. A new era dawns and I want to be there for it – especially at my age when my years with the group are likely to be few. Such a change from Vaughan Williams.
  32. 7:08 for me – so a dead heat with crypticsue despite making heavy weather of some clues which I ought to have filled in on sight. A pleasant straightforward solve.
  34. This was the first weekday 15×15 I have ever completed. So I’m feeling very pleased with myself. Still a long way to go, I suspect…

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