Sunday Times 4554 (8 Sep 2013) by Dean Mayer

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Solving time: 56:57

A typical Dean puzzle with lots of slick surfaces and clever wordplay. There were a few words I didn’t know – MAVEN, BAGASSE and MANIFEST DESTINY, but all were gettable from the wordplay and checkers.

The pick of the clues, for me, were 11a & 3d, but 12a has to be my COD for making me laugh. I do have to take issue with 24a though. Sorry Dean, but Blu-rays and DVDs are not the same thing – they are both trade names made by different companies and are in direct competition with each other.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 FLASH MOB – cd
6 BA + BOON
9 M(AV)EN – this wasn’t a word I knew, but the checkers and wordplay left little room for doubt
10 G(LOB)ULES – Unusual to see a heraldic colour other than OR cropping up
11 SAWN-OFF SHOTGUN – a ‘wordplay in solution’ clue as SHOOTER becomes ‘hooter’ when sawn-off. Clever.
12 PEGGY SUE = G + (GUYS)* in PEE (number one) – I solved this at my desk at work one lunchtime, and this one made me laugh out loud.
14 I + SO(B)AR
16 MOSS + AD – Israeli intelligence agency – Sterling Moss is the racing driver.
18 T + RAN + SEPT
20 DOMESTIC CATTLE = (CLOTTED CrEAM ITS)*
22 ON STRIKE – dd
23 ORION = (IN OR)* after O
24 BLU-RAY = BLUR (Britpop band) + AY (always) – Although I’m afraid I have to take issue with the fact that Blu-ray discs are not DVDs
25 TAKE THAT = A + KEiTH all in TAT
Down
2 LI(MEAD)E
3 SEVEN = Six + EVEN (still)
4 MANIFEST DESTINY = (ISN’T DEFEATISM)* + N + Y – ‘Happy’ is the anagrind – Not a phrase I’ve come across before, but I unscrambled it eventually
5 BA(GAS)SE – Another word I didn’t know.
6 BIOLOGICAL CLOCK – cd
7 BO(URGE)O + IS – I’m not convinced that ‘barracking’ and BOO are the same part of speech. I can’t come up with a sentence that passes the substitution test.
8 OCEANIA = O + (A NICE)* + A
12 POM = MOP rev
13 GASOMETER = MorphinE in (STORAGE)*
15 RUT – hidden
17 ORDINAL = OR + aNimals in DIAL
18 TR(ID)ENT
19 POLENTA = (ON PLATE)*
21 TWIST – dd

16 comments on “Sunday Times 4554 (8 Sep 2013) by Dean Mayer”

  1. … a great puzzle from Dean. Well done again.

    To be my usual anti-sexist self, the MOSS at 16ac could well have been Pat. She gets a mention in The Spy Who Loved Me — just reading this having chanced on a first-edition hardback in Denmark. Not your typical Fleming by a long chalk.

    7dn: could “a boo” be the same as “a barracking”? (The latter term has undergone semantic reversal in Australia; so you now barrack for the team you’re supporting.)

    1ac: read this as two definitions, the second (“streakers”) slightly naughty. But that’s what we like about Dean’s puzzles eh?

    1. Talking of semantic reversal, I just encountered a civil servant character in a 1977 novel using the now ubiquitous term “stake-holder” [sic, hyphenated]. After a brief double-take I realised she was using it in the original sense of a disinterested person temporarily entrusted with with something of value. Using it that way now would likely cause utter bewilderment among the political/managerial classes.

      Edited at 2013-09-15 12:38 pm (UTC)

  2. Absolutely top-class crossword.. look at those slick surface readings, about as good as it gets imo.

    Re 24ac, I couldn’t work out if you were saying that blu-rays are, or are not, dvds, Dave? If the latter, I suppose Dean must rest, as I do, on the ODO: “a format of DVD designed for the storage of high-definition video and data.”

    1. I’m afraid the ODO is simply wrong. Blu-ray disks are not DVDs in exactly the same way that DVDs are not CDs.
      1. You will therefore be interested to note that the ODO defines a DVD as “a type of compact disc able to store large amounts of data..”

        At a certain level they are right, as the base technology and optical data storage methods for all three formats are the same.. but obviously they are different in format terms. You might say they are all dogs, but the blu-ray is a Great Dane, dvd a labrador, cd a dachshund

        1. That seems like a fair simile, Jerry. But I agree with the anonymous contributor above that the ODO is quite wrong to suggest that a Blu-ray is a DVD or that a DVD is a CD. You wouldn’t define a poodle as a mastiff.
  3. A little over the hour for me, not understanding all of it and not bothering ot try in a few cases, for example TAKE THAT went in on enumeration, a couple of checkers and “rubbish pop group”.

    Didn’t know BAGASSE, GULES for red, or MANFIST DESTINY. MAVEN has turned up at least twice in fairly recent times and I’m too ignorant of such matters to have looked twice at BLU-RAY for DVD.

    I can’t say I’m keen on 18ac though. I remembered ID, a variation on IDE, learnt only a couple of weeks ago, but the definition is reminiscent of Baldrick’s: CAT – “not a dog”, when attempting to re-write Dr Johnson’s dictionary.

    Edited at 2013-09-15 08:31 am (UTC)

    1. “…for example TAKE THAT went in on enumeration, a couple of checkers and ‘rubbish pop group’.”

      Great comment, even if you did parse it and discover the definition was ‘pop group’ and that rubbish=TAT.

  4. Superb puzzle that made me laugh out loud – especially “number one” for PEE. My only unknown was the pop group but the cryptic was obvious enough. Luckily PEGGY SUE came from the 1950s when I was into pop songs and liked Buddy Holly.Many thanks Dean for first class entertainment.
  6. This one took me over 40 mins too – there have been a few sawn-off shotguns around lately. Are our setters planning a heist?
  8. An enjoyable 90 minutes here. Americans have Manifest Destiny drilled into our heads in one history lesson after another, but we carry Sawed-off Shotguns. Once again, count me in with jackkt when it comes to views on current popular culture, and with dorsetjimbo when it comes to views on ancient popular culture.
  9. Great puzzle from this setter. I love his amusing definitions. 40 minutes of fun. I’d never heard of BAGASSE but it was doable from the cryptic. It helped to get the initial G of GLOBULES, which was my LOI.
  10. Finished it, but didn’t really enjoy it. I find increasingly with this setter that you have to get the answer before you can understand the clue. And too often I don’t like his choice of synonyms.
    Having said that, there were a few clues that I thought were exceptional, 4d being the pick of the crop.
  11. Months later in Toronto, catching up on the ones we missed during the summer.

    I think that the mistake here is capitalizing DVD. All Blu-Rays are digital video disks and compact disks. If someone showed you a Blu-Ray disk track side up, all you could say about it is that it is a compact disk. However, CDs aren’t DVDs and vice-versa. Similarly DVDs aren’t Blu-Rays.

    Thanks for all the good work, Dave. You are much appreciated.

    Tom and Jan

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