Sunday Times 4806 by Dean Mayer

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
23:36. A classic Dean Mayer puzzle this, with lots of clever and witty clues and some nice original touches. Also quite tough, for me at least, which is by no means unusual for this setter.

There were a few unfamiliar or perhaps slightly oblique meanings in here to slow me down: HIP MEASUREMENT isn’t a term you (or at least I) hear very often, and the synonyms for words like ‘myriad’ or ‘hover’ are not the first you’re going to think of. And of course words like BARCAROLE, COTILLION, CHIMER or RES PUBLICA aren’t exactly everyday fare either, but once you’ve been doing these things for a while they become at least vaguely familiar, like different types of carriage, or plants, or books of the bible. And I think in all these cases there was another way into the clue if you didn’t have the requisite vocabulary, and working this sort of thing out from wordplay is part of what doing these things is all about.

My last in was 1dn. I saw RACK for the second definition quite quickly, but it took me forever to see the first. When I did I wasn’t particularly impressed, I must say. I don’t mind a bit of naughtiness but to me this word is inherently demeaning and therefore offensive, and I would prefer not to see words like that in these puzzles. From similar incidents in the past I expect many will consider me a terrible prude, but there it is.

I will be in a canoe or carrying it between lakes in Canada on Sunday so forgive me if I don’t respond to any queries immediately. I will pop in if there is a decent mobile signal. At least I don’t have the challenge of trying to watch the World Cup Final.

And finally, I will be in New York in the week beginning 1 October, so it would be great to meet up with some of the local TfTT crowd. My plans are a little fluid at the moment but I will certainly be there on the evenings of the 2nd and 3rd.

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (THIS)*, anagram indicators like this.

Across
1 Sending orders, head off for position
REMITTANCE – REMIT (orders), sTANCE.
6 Long start for hole in one
ACHE – AC(Hole)E. To ACHE, pine, yearn, long is an equivalence seen a lot in crosswords.
9 Dance company into dancing without injury
COTILLION – CO, (INTO)* containing ILL (injury).
10 Be small, go outside
EXIST – EXI(S)T.
11 In statistical form?
HIP MEASUREMENT – slightly tenuous CD based on HIP meaning ‘in’ (fashionable).
13 By feeding alien, painter will produce more
EXTRA – E(X)T, RA. X is ‘by’ in the multiplication sense, RA is a crossword staple abbreviation for Royal Academician.
14 Farm worker rejected flood relief
DAIRYMAID – reversal of MYRIAD (flood), AID (relief). ‘Flood’ is a slightly oblique indication for MYRIAD, so it took me a while to see.
15 Say it, say this in French
PRONOUNCE – PRONOUN (it, say), CE.
17 It’s awkward to sleep in it
INAPT – I(NAP)T.
19 Be a fan of hovering?
BLOW HOT AND COLD – CD. To hover is to ‘be in a state of indecision’, apparently. News to me.
22 Reason fire’s not turned on
INFER – INFERNO missing the reversal of ON.
23 Chorus in simple boating song
BARCAROLE – BAR(CAROL)E.
24 What a shame – lines are wrong
AWRY – AW (what a shame), RY (lines).
25 Bearing right, soldiers enter arsenal
DEPORTMENT – DEPO(RT, MEN)T.

Down
1 Chest pain
RACK – DD. See above.
2 Poet dealt with teacher’s raised temperature
METRIST – MET (dealt with), reversal (raised) of SIR, T.
3 Nonsense! Lines mean nothing – rope binds
TELL ME ANOTHER – TE(LL, MEAN, O)THER.
4 The spirit of Jungian imagery
ANIMA – contained in ‘Jungian imagery’.
5 Mistress caught at the right moment covering chest?
CONCUBINE – C, ON CU(BIN)E.
7 Robe, one that’s fancy
CHIMERA – CHIMER, A. A CHIMER is ‘a sleeveless red or black gown, part of a bishop’s formal dress though not a vestment.’ I’m glad to say that I vaguely remembered this. Glad because it came up a couple of years ago in a clue for the same word (albeit with a different spelling) in a puzzle that I blogged.
8 Old tax declared in Union, they’ll be gutted
ESTATE DUTY – E(STATED)U, TheY. The modern equivalent in the UK is inheritance tax.
10 Bandit shot mercenary, keeping one behind
ENEMY AIRCRAFT – (MERCENARY)* containing I, then AFT. This took me ages to see, partly because I was expecting a person (the outlaw EMERY something or other?) and partly because ENEMY AIRCRAFT strikes me as not quite a lexical unit. We’ve had this debate before: BLUE STOCKING is a recognisable phrase, BLUE CAR is not. For me this one is marginal.
12 The country club rep is a criminal
RES PUBLICA – (CLUB REP IS A)*. Not a term I knew but it was reasonably easy to construct from the anagram fodder once I had all the checkers. In these circumstances I have no real objections to anagrams for obscure and/or foreign terms.
14 Out to lunch after day in market town
DUNSTABLE – D (day), UNSTABLE (out to lunch).
16 Erratic monarch available
ON OFFER – ON-OFF (erratic), ER.
18 Finished without help, carrying empty load
ALL DONE – AL(LoaD)ONE.
20 Drug dealer bowed, given new start
NARCO – N, ARCO. ARCO is a musical notation to a violinist meaning ‘bowed’, as opposed to ‘plucked’ (pizzicato). Spiccato is also available. I think of a NARCO as a narcotics agent, but this alternative is in Collins.
21 Spades in black? I’m kidding
JEST – JE(S)T.

44 comments on “Sunday Times 4806 by Dean Mayer”

  1. I was held up on ENEMY AIRCRAFT too, even though I had the right anagrist. I didn’t think of all that “bandits at 2-o-clock” stuff from old war movies. But HIP MEASUREMENT was my LOI. I find I either get cryptic definitions immediately or they can take an age to click.

    I will be in New York around then…but leaving on 1st to return to California so we will just miss it seems.

  2. Hard work and I was unable quite to finish without reference to aids, but it was enjoyable enough. Glad to see DUNSTABLE defined correctly as ‘market town’ this time rather than ‘industrial town’ as it appeared in March.

    I believe we have faulty anagrist in one clue in today’s puzzle.

    Edited at 2018-07-15 06:20 am (UTC)

    1. I didn’t notice at the time, but having double-checked I agree. Hopefully it won’t cause anyone too many problems.
    2. As usual my memory doesn’t stretch back 7 days and I had enough trouble with this puzzle without a “faulty anagrist”. Which clue was it Jack – if you have a spare moment?
      1. Sorry not to be clear, Olivia, but I was referring to today’s puzzle by David McLean.
        1. My fault Jack – you were clear enough. Haven’t done today’s yet.
        2. I thought there was too (I have to blog this one), but as far as I can see, the anagrams all check out.
  3. Never did figure out what MEASUREMENT; which was just as well, as I didn’t know the rude meaning of RACK, and put in the recently (and imperfectly) learned ‘rick’. I agree with K about the use of the word here. Wasn’t bothered by ENEMY AIRCRAFT, although I see it doesn’t have an entry in ODE; it seems pretty fixed (we wouldn’t say ‘enemy airplanes’, say). DNK CHIMER, LOI EXIST. Lots of great clues, as always, but COD to DAIRYMAID.
  4. Like Kevin, I didn’t know the coarse definition of RACK and like keriothe, I would prefer not to see smut in the puzzle.
    Thanks for the explanation of DAIRYMAID, keriothe. I wouldnt have thought of myriad as a synonym. Still don’t like BLOW HOT AND COLD much.
    Never heard of (N)arco, METRIST or CHIMER. RES PUBLICA rang a distant bell.
    Whoever said in the blog for last week’s ST cryptic that this was very difficult was about right, at least as far as I am concerned.
  5. I loved this, though like others, having lived a lexically sheltered life, I didn’t know the naughty meaning of RACK which I thought (wrongly) might have something to do with a rack of eg lamb being the ‘chest’.

    The ‘Bandit’ def and HIP MEASUREMENT – I can’t really explain exactly how the clue works (a bit like analysing humour) – were two of my favourites.

    Never heard of a CHIMER (good word) or of the ARCO musical notation term.

    Close to a couple of hours, but finally completed and worth the effort. Look forward to another tussle with this setter here in (now) 2 weeks and ? elsewhere (Anax, where art thou?) in the meantime.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  6. in terms such as ‘rack of lamb’ rack clearly is a frontal thoracic chest cut of meat, and chest and thorax in medical parlance are practically synonyms. It doesn’t need to be viewed as smutty. Perhaps Mr Mayer will tell us if he meant to be smutty.
      1. I note (see also Bletchleyreject above) that ODE lists the two RACKs as separate entries, with the comment on the meat one that its origin is unknown.
      2. Forgive me for quoting that dreadful misogynist Paul of Tarsus (don’t often do it) “To the pure, all things are pure.” ;>) ;>)

        Jan and Tom Toronto

  7. Perhaps being of a generation older than our esteemed blogger, as noted by anonymous above, I’d taken RACK in its chesty sense to mean a RACK of lamb or ribs or the like. I was dimly aware of its other slang meaning, but hadn’t even thought of it until coming here. I think this usage could be a more recent import from North America. I agree with the general point being made about avoiding overt crudity, but I don’t think this would have crossed any lines with me if I’d seen what was going on. The Blackpool side of my family gave me a liking for Donald McGill postcards and George Formby humour.
    What a stinker of a puzzle, taking 71 minutes and using an aid for BARCAROLE to finish! Did not parse DAIRYMAID either. I can’t make any jokes about Mary from the dairy now having become all prim and proper, can I? COD to HIP MEASUREMENT, which I think was used more back in the days of Marilyn Monroe, when curvaceousness was the name of the game and what was in was hip. Thank you K and Dean.
    1. What Keriothe was complaining about was not the crudity of the term but what he called its inherently demeaning hence offensive nature.
      1. Is it demeaning? Following a good telling-off by a feminist friend, I’ve avoided all use of female body parts as swear words for about forty years now, including the one once openly used by our previous prime minister. This ordinance may have not always been extended to male body parts in the heat of the moment. But robust words that describe body parts, male and female, surely enrich our vocabulary?
        1. I think it is demeaning: at least I can’t imagine it used in a context where it isn’t. In this respect it’s different from some other rude words for body parts in that intention is inherent in its meaning. A similarly loaded word that has come up here in the past is ‘slag’.
          1. I’ve never used the expression myself as I made clear, scarcely knowing it, but a couple of remarks below from people more your age, K, suggests they haven’t taken offence. I assume that Dean also thought it OK. Precisely how rack comes from breasts isn’t immediately that obvious anyway, and perhaps isn’t what I would have assumed. The leap from antlers to breasts I’ve just read about on the internet certainly eludes me. What I would hope for is that the bar for taking offence is high when no offence is intended, and similarly for feeling demeaned by an expression.
  8. I stuck with this one over three sessions to finish in an unknown time that must’ve been close on three hours. I must, therefore, have been enjoying it quite a lot, despite its difficulty!

    All very fair, with a few unknowns that could be teased out from the wordplay. FOI 4d ANIMA (I didn’t leave the hidden to last for once!), LOI 24a BARCAROLE. Plenty to like along the way, especially 15a’s “say this” for “pronoun” and 16d’s erratic monarch.

    We had “arco” back in May, when I seemed convinced I wouldn’t remember it, but I happily proved myself wrong.

    I was okay with “rack”, possibly because I’ve heard it used by both men and women, and not necessarily in a demeaning way. Maybe that’s just the kind of subculture I inhabit…

  9. Enjoyed this and found it well on the harder side.
    Was blissfully unaware of any smutty meaning re 1dn, evidently I have not been moving in the wrong circles, until now at any rate. I am now outraged, since it seems to be yet another unsignalled Americanism.
    No problem with the bandits

    1. ODE doesn’t specify region, although the two corpus examples it gives are from US and Canadian English; the New Oxford American Dictionary marks it as ‘vulgar slang’, again not specifying region.
      1. From the limited sample of my own observation, I’d say it started in the US and spread via film and TV, especially comedy, to the UK, where it would now be at least recognisable to the large majority of my friends. I’m 45, if that helps pin it down generationally.

        It’s one of those ones where you have to be quite familiar with someone to use it in an inoffensive, jokey fashion, but it can be done, and often is, almost exclusively in combination with “nice”…

        Edited at 2018-07-15 08:32 am (UTC)

      2. The OED says: “slang (orig. U.S.). A woman’s breasts.” and gives four quotes, all American. Collins says: ” vulgar, slang, mainly US…” – rest my case, M’lud
  10. I have no idea how but I’d come across chimere before so assumed that was what was wanted at 7d -but dairymaid also had to be correct .
    I’ve never heard the so called rude version of rack -rack of lamb sprang to mind immediately.
    Gave up with huge gaps. Too hard for me.
  11. As someone who has suffered in the past, I am disappointed that people get worked up about rack yet seem quite content with Out to Lunch
    1. This is a fair point, anon. I wouldn’t say I’m content with it but in their usual colloquial use these terms don’t really have anything to do with real mental illness. There is undoubtedly a crossover in the usage though so we should be more sensitive to such things. I suspect in a generation or two we will be.
  12. A mighty struggle, time unknown but certainly not quick. HIP MEASUREMENT held out for the longest time.
    I saw the three meanings of rack and gave Dean the benefit of the doubt.
  13. I took the rare step of setting a reminder to check the blog for this puzzle, simply because I thought it was brilliant. I solved it on paper, which I’ve now lost, but I know it was way outside my normal solving targets.

    I chuckled over RACK. Like Gothick Matt, my experience of the word really isn’t of it being necessarily or even usually perjorative, and it’s often used by women with a self-deprecating eye-roll. Anon’s point (8:51) is also well-taken. I like the now traditional bit of end-of-the-pier stuff in the Sunday puzzle, and for me this one’s well within bounds.

    HIP MEASUREMENT was definitely my last in, after a lot of brow-furrowing, but once I got it I loved it, even if I’m not sure I could explain it! Same for BLOW HOT AND COLD.

    Great stuff again from DM — the reason why every third Sunday I sit down to tackle the puzzle with a real sense of anticipation.

  14. Strewth this was a tough one! I needed about an hour and a half to get through it. Even then I only half grasped 11ac and 19ac. I certainly think 11ac is brilliant not sure I can quite explain it though. I didn’t crack the wordplay for 22ac or 5ac and so entered on the basis of reason and mistress. Didn’t know the vestment but fancy strongly pointed to chimera. Arco was also a bit of a half-known. I put 1dn in on the basis of pain and checkers and later thinking possibly of a rack of lamb. Surprisingly I entirely missed that other meaning although I have heard it before. Must be getting more innocent in my old age.
  15. This one took me 42:40, but for reasons I can’t explain I put LES REPUBLICA at 12d. I’d never heard of the expression and I’m not sure how I mixed up the anagram fodder. Ah well. The rest of the puzzle was fairly tricky to sort out. I struggled with BARCAROLE as I was convinced the musical piece was a BACAROLE and wondered how it acquired the extra R. One lives and learns! I smiled at 1d. Having become accustomed to Hoskins and Eccles puzzles in the Indy, this was mild stuff indeed. As an amateur fiddler, the ARCO definition for bowed stuck with me from its last outing, so 20d was a write in. HIP MEASURMENT and COTILLION took longer to summon up. An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Dean and K.
  16. Polished off in around 6 . . . Hours! LOI RACK for which I did not see or know the first definition. Mrs BT knew straightaway what was meant here when I mentioned the word and wanted to know what I was doing. Now that I am informed, I think that this is typical Sunday Deano fare.

    Edited at 2018-07-15 03:53 pm (UTC)

  17. Morning all. The middle of nowhere in Canada turns out to have pretty good mobile signal.
    I’m not convinced by the lamb-related meaning of RACK. Anatomically it’s more like the back!

    Edited at 2018-07-15 12:30 pm (UTC)

  18. Like Sotira, I treat Dean’s puzzles as a slightly different test.
    I got 9 clues in my first session including Res Publica, Pronounce and Deportment so I had a fair bit to work with. My average is probably six so this was a good start.
    Session two yielded three more and some notes -e.g. Estate Duty for 8d but I could not parse it.
    In session three I drew a blank and gave up so I am now here to take the positives from the experience, or whatever sports stars say after a defeat.
    David
  19. I did have some pause over this but then it reminded me of an unlamented recent period in US political history in which former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, addressing a “conservative” conference and referring to her husband, said “I’ve got the rack and Todd’s got the rifle”. Don’t ask. A real struggle at 38 minutes and change. Hope to see you in October Keriothe.
  20. I came late to this but enjoyed it immensely. COD to RACK, and that’s even before reading the comments. Stands out from the rest.
  21. I hope to be around in October, James, when you swing through town.
    My only problem with this one was not being able to find CHIMER at that hour of the night, and the fact that “chimere” came up immediately as “a garment worn by Anglican bishops” and this is the French spelling (sans the diacritical) of our answer word made me suspect a mistake. But we already talked about this.
  22. The expression “Nice rack” was used by Elaine in a pretty well known Seinfeld scene in which the characters are sunbathing on holiday (it’s on youtube). It’s vulgar, albeit jokey, but not really taboo. I agree with others here that Dean Mayer probably had that non-lamb meaning in mind.
    On the subject of the apparent error in David McLean’s current puzzle, the newspaper clue is fine but the online Club version has been recast, possibly because of a contentious word that some may take offence to (and which relates to earlier comments in this thread about “out to lunch” etc), although I’m just guessing.
    I’ve raised the point in the General forum on the Club site, just out of interest.

    – Nila Palin

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