Well, well. Not as difficult as the last two I blogged, though I came in slightly over par at 7 minutes. COD 13d with its lovely definition. However… we seem to have suddenly binned the quaint little Times Cryptic rule against featuring living people (other than HM the King) and I’m not sure I approve. Mess with traditions at your peril…
| Across |
| 1 |
Man contracted female condition (6) |
|
MALADY – MA[N] + LADY |
| 5 |
Bit players unusually small (6) |
|
EXTRAS – Extra S[mall] |
| 8 |
Horse from Conservative hunt set out (8) |
|
CHESTNUT – C for Conservative + anagram (‘out’) of HUNT SET |
| 9 |
MDMA tablets reportedly providing comfort (4) |
|
EASE – MDMA is Ecstasy, tablets of which are known as E’s |
| 10 |
In due time a refusal from Macron? (4) |
|
ANON – A + NON |
| 11 |
See old husband in bar finds way out (8) |
|
LOOPHOLE – LO (see) + O (old), with H (husband) inside POLE (bar) |
| 12 |
Inattentive knight wild beast devours (6) |
|
ABSENT – N for Knight (chess notation) inside an anagram (‘wild’) of BEAST |
| 14 |
Endless joy in swallow — one born to fly (6) |
|
EAGLET – GLE[E] inside EAT |
| 16 |
Wild area kept for little parrot (8) |
|
PARAKEET – anagram (‘wild’) of AREA KEPT |
| 18 |
Cosy home in north-eastern street (4) |
|
NEST – NE + ST |
| 20 |
Obscure band that rivalled Oasis (4) |
|
BLUR – Double definition, the second being those purveyors of inexplicably popular Britpop garbage |
| 21 |
The London Eye? (5,3) |
|
MINCE PIE – cryptic definition. Cockney rhyming slang for ‘eye’ |
| 23 |
Fibrous tissue beginning to decay in joint (6) |
|
TENDON – D for Decay inside TENON, as in mortice and tenon joint |
| 24 |
Deal with Davey finally making pact (6) |
|
TREATY – TREAT + [DAVE]Y |
| Down |
| 2 |
Pale like Scottish female (5) |
|
ASHEN – AS + HEN. Scottish dialectic term of address for woman. |
| 3 |
Secret sharer’s son confessed in A&E (7) |
|
ASSANGE – S + SANG inside A and E. Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks |
| 4 |
That from Yvonne periodically (3) |
|
YON – alternate letters YvOnNe |
| 5 |
Sociable old pirate stops avoiding alcohol (9) |
|
EXTROVERT – O + ROVER inside TT |
| 6 |
Power found in climate ethics (5) |
|
TEETH – hidden word |
| 7 |
Pardon having a crack about bishop (7) |
|
ABSOLVE – A + SOLVE (crack) around B for bishop |
| 11 |
American host, character with servant (9) |
|
LETTERMAN – LETTER + MAN. David Letterman, US talk show host. |
| 13 |
Drunken Liberal’s proud words? (7) |
|
BRAILLE – anagram (‘drunken’) of LIBERAL. Head and shoulders the best clue of the day. |
| 15 |
Italian waterfowl — small number inside (7) |
|
GENOESE – GEESE with NO inside |
| 17 |
Broadcast excellent by socialist (5) |
|
AIRED – A1 + RED |
| 19 |
Prompt singer Taylor? (5) |
|
SWIFT – Double definition. Taylor Swift is a singer you may have heard of. |
| 22 |
Louse egg in upturned container (3) |
|
NIT – TIN backwards |
Well, well, first time for ages that I’m moved to contribute to the QC forum, and look what’s happened.
Last night my wife was watching a TV programme called ‘Celebrity Masterchef’. I commented that I’d never heard of any of the ‘celebrities’. Slippery slope.
9’55”, thanks for the blogging and the work involved in setting.
I’m curious. Would Blur have previously been banned under the living person rule? And what about Genoese?
Not sure, as mentioned in my earlier posting. We’ve definitely had references to The Beatles before, and more recently The Bee Gees whilst some members survive, so I think Blur may have been okay.
DNF – ASSANGE never crossed my mind. Biffed LETTERMAN as the only word I could think of with 6 out of 9 letters (!) in. Knew MINCE PIE Cockney rhyming slang. Also struggled with GENOESE for ages. I had no idea at all about names of living people now being allowed – never knew they weren’t!!
Perfectly happy to have a more up to date QC.
Why is no-one moaning about E? Only been around for 30 years as a tablet albeit MDMA goes back 100 years. Maybe pop an E before solving to help with the grumpiness? I’m a 20 minute man. Does it last that long?
Only clue I didn’t get was Assange but wouldn’t have done even if the CIA had ‘dealt’ with him by now. Johnny
Dnf as I do the puzzle on an android phone and every time I went into another app I had to log back in to the Times and it lost everything I had entered so far. This happened yesterday as well. Still not working today in fact it’s worse . Just about had enough of their updates that do not work.
35 minutes.
Bad week again.
One DNF and just 2 SCC escapes. Target missed (of course) and feeling like a failure.
I am happy to bemoan my own performance, but I have a policy not to comment on what I think of any particular QC. I was sorely tempted to disapply that policy today.
DNF – first time in ages and worst performance ever since I began trying QCs in lockdown (defeated by ASSANGE, GENOESE AND MINCE PIE) and had to reveal EXTRAS to then get EXTROVERT, then EAGLET). This, after a string of 10-15 minute and a few 15×15 finishes lately, has dented my confidence. Must think harder!
I’m with the ‘too difficult/too obscure’ commentators today. Some nice clues, even easy ones, but too many like asking ‘what/who am I thinking of?’ Got no more than halfway before giving up.
25m
No exact time because I decided to cut the grass with a third of the grid blank.
Finished it off with eaglet, genoese, and LOI mince pie.
I think I prefer no living names but these were all very famous, including David Letterman who I used to watch when sky first came out along with Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, Letterman, MTV etc.
16:11, enjoyed it. I’m a fan of the rule change; pop culture largely passes me by, but no more so than 17th-century Spanish poets, weird fish, ecclesiastical arcana, archaic nautical terms, obscure initialisms, heraldic tinctures for god’s sake, or public schoolboy jargon from the 1930s. This hobby, which I have come to enjoy very much, is full of absolute nonsense so I don’t see why modern nonsense should be excluded.
COD ASSANGE, which I got from the wordplay and stared at for a few seconds before a very pleasing PDM. Thank you for the blog!
Yes, why has some of what you mentioned ‘stood the test of time’? Everyone will just have to jot down Letterman into their notebook the way I have noted down ‘ETUI – a small sewing case’ and move on 😂
You have articulated my opinion well!
But also I did think Wurm could have been nicer and just had one reference instead of the three.
Is an etui a small sewing case? I haven’t come across that one but I’m sure you’re right and bloody hell, there’s no end to the nonsense. If someone would like to argue that I should know that an etui is a small sewing case, but they shouldn’t have to know who Taylor Swift is, I would enjoy it enormously.
It is, and a quick search of the blog it’s appeared in the QC a number of times (and the big one many more), but I’m being a bit silly. Every time it comes up the comments are full of ‘word I only know through crosswords’ so it’s not like people are happy about ETUI either. While I’m here ‘TUI’ is a type of nz bird, and the two words are often in the same clue. More knowledge is better than less knowledge I guess!
Managed it all except MINCE PIE. I guessed it was CRS but it’s not one I am familiar with.
Otherwise quite hard in places but some v nice clues. Really liked TENDON.
Started off badly with thinking the lady in 1a was Mary and the setter had forgotten an m… went downhill from there. After 26 min I caved in revealed 21a and couldn’t believe me mince pies guv
Re. Blur…I bet even the NHO and Never want to hear them will recognise Song2 Parklife and Girls and Boys…
If you can arbitrarily abandon a rule without notice doesn’t that mean there are no rules? Will we have anagrams of words that aren’t in the clue now?
22:49 with liberal use of aids, so a technical DNF.
Well, that was interesting. When you include “Macron” from 10ac that makes four living people in the puzzle, so I think we’re being given notice that we’re in a new era.
I don’t mind the change – I knew of all the people mentioned – but I did find that it made things harder, because the universe of possibilities becomes larger. For example, in 15dn I had to wonder whether the answer could be a specific Italian person.
Thanks to Wurm and Curarist.
Having ‘rules’ for crosswords is a bit like having rules of war. Who decides what the rules are and who decides whether to obey them or not. I think Assange is infamous and Taylor Swift has been all over the news but I’ve barely heard of Letterman as most American TV is rubbish.
Defeated today after 23+ minutes not just by the much discussed ASSANGE but also by the crossing 5a and 5d (rover = pirate?). I don’t think we were even thinking about the no living people convention when we did this. We had no problems with LETTERMAN, SWIFT (an easy write in) or BLUR. However, all of those were very or reasonably well flagged as people / bands. I’d agree that Assange is well known enough at present to justify inclusion, our problem was that by the time we went back to 2d we weren’t expecting yet another name and that ‘sang’ for confessed just wasn’t clear enough to enable us to get over that barrier. Good discussion above as to what justifies a personage for inclusion. Thanks to all!
I am useless at crosswords. I want my fails in QC to be because of not getting the word play. That occurs often enough.
If I have to factor in nho US hosts et al, then there is no hope.
This also applies to obscure cricketing terms, but at least these stand the test of time. They are also uncontroversial unlike one of today’s answers.
As a distressing number of well known names have spectacularly fall from grace, it is sporting of setters to include them, given that they may soon regret this.
15 min finish despite discomfort with names of the living.
@ Curarist. Unnecessary swipe at one of Britpops and indeed genre-spanning bands, the excellent Blur.
Finished but didn’t enjoy solving. Liked BRAILLE, really clever. Thanks Curarist.
Very hard, but I did cross the line successfully – on the dot of 40 minutes. My last few in were MALADY, ASSANGE, EAGLET and GENOESE.
Thanks to Wurm and Curarist.
P.S. Strange that some people gave up after so few minutes. One might think that they have lost the ability to graft.
17/30 on big crossword in 2 hours plus.
Face facts Gary, you don’t have the brain for this.
Looked at this a few times during the day. Got there in the end.
Despite considering myself a Londoner, I had never heard of this use of MINCE PIES. Kicked myself when I realised what was going on and am determined to use this new expression with the next person I can engage in conversation.
Once in, I got my LOI the NHO Letterman. I don’t mind the odd word/person/thing I don’t know so long as it’s getatable from the clue and others in the grid. I would find it very dull if I knew all the words.
Being very familiar with BRAILLE and a Liberal that has to be my clue of the year.
Thanks Curarist and Wurm.
Having just taken umbrage at Templar’s blog’s references to Ipswich town I set about today’s offering where my FOI was 19d. Immediately went to today’s blog thinking “that’s not right”. What fun 😁. Thank you all. Will now have to wait until tomorrow to do undertake today’s offering by which time I will have forgotten all I have read and written and can revel in being outraged again 😁😁😁
Well, I failed on the 15×15, so came to this as a challenge, seeing Busman said he’d failed to complete it. I must say I enjoyed it a lot more than the other, but maybe because I did finish. Once I got BRAILLE, my admiration for the clue kept me going with the rest of the puzzle, and LOI ASSANGE was a PDM. Can’t say I dislike the inclusion of living people. I mean, there are frequently answers which are words or expressions I’ve NHO – isn’t that the point of the crossword? – to get the answer from the wordplay, as Vinyl says above? Having made that point, I have definitely heard of Letterman, Blur, Swift and Assange, without having seen or knowingly heard anything they’ve done – it’s just living in the world and reading the news occasionally…
Realised the rule change had been exploited but well and truly beaten this evening. I think there change creates a lot of potential confusion, and today compounded this with non-uk nationals.
FOI 10a Anon
LOI 3d Assange – feels in bad taste to me
COD – has to be 13d Braille.
I try to keep abreast of contemporary events/personages but feel this could become a pseudo-culture fest and then I’m off and out!
Come back RR