Sunday Times 4864 by Dean Mayer

Author   keriothePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
14:35. This was pretty much the perfect Sunday puzzle: not too easy, not too hard, full of concise and witty clues. Just what I wanted with my coffee on a Sunday morning before a full day of tedious admin I had put off for too long.

I’m not too keen on clues like 1ac: you really have to know the not-exactly-commonplace rock to have a chance of solving the clue. But it’s come up a few times before in these puzzles so it didn’t cause me a problem.

Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, anagram indicators are in italics.

Across
1 Rock that’s good to listen to
GNEISS – sounds like ‘nice’. If I were the editor I would ask setters to reconsider clues like this, but thankfully for all concerned I’m not.
5 Longs to enter place where sailor keeps things
SEA CHEST – SE(ACHES)T. My first thought was that this would be ITCHES contained in a word for ‘put’, and when that didn’t work I moved on. I was closer than I realised.
9 Charm one’s way in?
ENTRANCE – DD.
10 Fainting when wife has nothing on
ASWOON – a straight charade: AS, W, O, ON.
11 Mountain climber grabbing holds
BERG – contained in ‘climber grabbing.’
12 Actually popular business
IN PRACTICE – IN (popular), PRACTICE (the business of a professional: doctor, barrister, accountant etc).
13 Tool one wants to break
TENON SAW – (ONE WANTS)*.
15 American first-class train?
DOPE – or DO PE. A word for ‘excellent’ that might typically be used to describe the rhymes that a notably fresh MC spits.
17 Diplomat’s dismissed over something sinful
ENVY – ENVoY.
19 Tailless animal carried in tired arms
WEAPONRY – WEA(PONy)RY.
20 Do in?
HOUSE PARTY – CD.
21 Smooth, hard track
PATH – PAT, H. PAT for ‘smooth’ seems a bit oblique to me, but certainly I can think of cases where patting would achieve a smoothing effect.
22 No point of view about inventor
EDISON – reversal of NO, SIDE, which is also what they say at the end of a rugby match I believe.
23 He cannot possibly work with tiny things
NANOTECH – (HE CANNOT)*.
24 To see the girl in one place
TOGETHER – TO, GET (understand, see), HER.
25 Dig up old philosopher
EXHUME – or EX HUME.

Down
2 New plan to join old video game maker
NINTENDO – N, INTEND, O. Other brands are available.
3 Dress put in steaming water
IRRIGATE – IR(RIG)ATE.
4 Time to hide one’s feelings?
SENTIENCE – SENT(I)ENCE.
5 One makes money out of it?
SLEEPING PARTNER – CD. ‘Out of it’ as in asleep, obvs.
6 Profitable business needing lower maintenance?
CASH COW – another CD. A ‘cash cow’ is one corner of the old BCG matrix which also features stars, dogs and question marks.
7 One book about hoax email content?
EMOTICON – reversal of I, TOME, CON (hoax).
8 X refuse to accept C being bent
TENDENCY – TEN (X), DEN(C)Y.
14 Anyone can suspect pain
ANNOYANCE – (ANYONE CAN)*.
15 Rickety shed — it is most attractive
DISHIEST – (SHED IT IS)*.
16 Reading through and getting through
PERUSING – PER (through), USING (getting through).
17 Cheap yet fancy part of pirate costume
EYEPATCH – (CHEAP YET)*.
18 Vessel rounding island, one with voyage provisions
VIATICUM – V(I)AT, I, CUM (with). ‘Provisions or a travel allowance for a journey,’ apparently. News to me.
19 Remove small ambiguity in speech
WEED OUT – sounds like ‘wee doubt.’

29 comments on “Sunday Times 4864 by Dean Mayer”

  1. An easy one from Dean–Jason and Magoo both under 4 minutes!–but most enjoyable. I don’t think I knew TENON SAW, but didn’t have to. I definitely didn’t know DOPE, but the checkers were about as helpful as checkers can get. (ODE says it’s ‘black slang’, which might help explain my ignorance.) Again I’m impressed by the economy of Dean’s clues: 5.4 words per clue this time. I have ‘COD’ in the margins by 5d, 16d, 19d, and 20ac, but I think I’ll go with 20; hard to get terser than that. (Although surely it was Dean who gave us “To? (4,3)”.) For what it’s worth, I knew GNEISS (and schist, although I thought it was scheist, through association of ideas no doubt), so I didn’t think anything of this at the time; but I see K’s point, although as always, one man’s GK is another’s esoterica. I’m sure we’ve had a couple of out-of-the-way rocks and metals, although the wordplay may have offered more help for the uninitiated.

    Edited at 2019-08-25 02:58 am (UTC)

    1. As a matter of interest, what was the ans. to “To? (4,3)”.
      We must be getting on Dean’s wavelength, House Party was our FOI.
      Neither of us can remember seeing a non-North American xword with clues that were solved by the cross checkers.

      Thanks to all you bloggers, we’d be in the dark a lot of the time without you.

      Janet and Tom, Toronto.

  2. Took me a bit over an hour, but looking back on it, all was fair and not too difficult and my LOI VIATICUM was the only new word. I parsed CASH COW with just ‘Profitable business’ as the def, but I think the whole clue as def parsing is better. HOUSE PARTY was my favourite, with lots of others I liked.

    Thanks for introducing me to the delights of the BCG Matrix. Sounds like it would be great fun to draw with a felt-tipped pen on a piece of butcher’s paper at a team building session facilitated by a change management consultant. Oh joy.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  3. My notes say “straightforward for Dean”. But it was still enjoyable.
    My two favourites were WEED OUT and HOUSE PARTY with the latter getting the COD award. As Kevin says, you can’t get much terser than that.
    Quite a few anagrams, I thought: 13ac,23ac,14d,15d,17d.
    I’m glad Kevin didn’t know DOPE. I certainly didn’t but Kevin is American.
    I see Dean is resorting to modern jargon in NINTENDO, EMOTICON and NANOTECH.
    My thought for the day: Is VIATICUM some sort of Catholic Viagra?
    Thank you K and thank you, Dean.

    Edited at 2019-08-25 03:50 am (UTC)

  4. 39 minutes. LOI DOPE, the attributed American meaning not having reached my consciousness before. Constructed VIATICUM from its ingredients. I like Martin’s suggestion that it’s a Catholic viagra. Humanae vitae indeed. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. I shared with him the two COD possibilities too, but I plumped for WEED OUT. Another good puzzle. Thank you K and Dean.
  5. at 1ac was my FOI. I do not understand Lord Keriothe’s objection to this, as it is no more specialist to geologists than NANOTECH is to scientists.

    Time 32 mins.

    LOI 18dn VIATICUM which is a word that I would proscribe and banish to the infamous ‘Club’ Monthly.*

    COD 20ac HOUSE PARTY

    WOD 10ac ASWOON

    * If it please this House and I were Ed. In order to make the Club Monthly rather more inclusive, I would invite twelve of our senior bloggers – The Time Lords –

    verlaine, jacktt, keriothe, kevin, zed, pip, ulaca, george, browndog, olivia, jimbo and jerry.

    to each submit a 15×15 puzzle. One per month would be anonymously published in a year. The solution when issued would name the setter. Each setter’s style would be entirely up to them.

    What fun it would be for all members of the Club. I just know it would be far more inclusive and interesting, than what we have presently.

    Edited at 2019-08-25 06:24 am (UTC)

    1. I see your campaign against the Club Monthly continues. You do seem to take it rather personally.
    2. Letting me anywhere near setting a puzzle would be enough to enrage Times readers and kill it off for good, but then perhaps that’s your masterplan?
      1. Jerry you added the Glossary – excellent!

        I don’t take it personally, perhaps it is you who do!

        The TCM is for the few – this idea is for the many.

        horryd

      2. OK Jack we’ll have to count you out. But what masterplan? – to improve upon a puzzle that we know you also do not enjoy!?

        Most other Clubs allow for suggestions etc for progress, do they not?

        Edited at 2019-08-25 09:46 am (UTC)

  6. ….if it had been the dreaded “-o-e”. I thought it was very GNEISS of Dean to use a grid pattern where one didn’t actually need to solve the clue at all.

    NHO NANOTECH or VIATICUM, but both fell readily into place.

    FOI GNEISS
    LOI NANOTECH
    COD CASH COW
    TIME 7:45

  7. Failed on VIATICUM (completely unknown) and also, surprisingly, IRRIGATE, where I was missing the first letter checker for most of the solve and when I finally had it (having dredged GNEISS from somewhere at the back of my brain) I didn’t have the energy to persevere any longer with the rest of the clue. I also didn’t know the required meaning of DOPE.

    Edited at 2019-08-25 05:44 am (UTC)

  8. The usual highly enjoyable clueing from Dean. Gneiss was a write-in for me. and I suspect anyone else who’s ever done any mountain walking or climbing.
  9. No trouble with 1a. I thought it was a GNEISS clue. As others, I wasn’t aware of the required meaning of DOPE, but the wordplay and checkers made it inevitable. Never come across VIATICUM before, but assembled it as instructed. HOUSE PARTY was a Doh! moment. A lovely puzzle which occupied me for 24:53. Thanks Dean and K.
  10. 17:05. The usual entertaining fare from Dean. VIATICUM the only unknown and my LOI, trusting to the wordplay. I had IRON for 21A at first, which didn’t help, but EYEPATCH set me straight on that. PAT for smooth made me think of knowing your lines “off pat” and so delivering them smoothly. Many lovely clues, but I liked SENTIENCE and WEED OUT best. Thanks Dean and K.

    Edited at 2019-08-25 07:08 am (UTC)

  11. If you don’t enjoy the Club Monthly, H, my recommendation is that you don’t do it.
    As for me setting a puzzle… this is really not a good idea!
    1. K, I do not enjoy the Club Monthly Special and neither do many others, from the lack of interest shown.

      I just checked back on Verlaine’s Aug 1 blog which received just 4 comments from 4 people. Previous months are much the same if one allows for retorts.

      There are at least 60 comments per 15×15 weekday, from over 40 people. IMHO that is far healthier.

      ‘The Club Monthly Special’ isn’t quite the special it states of the tin. ‘The Elite Club Monthly’ might be nearer the mark’.

      I spent twelve years as a setter for ‘Sixth Sense’, it was quite rewarding! (No payment was involved.)

      Edited at 2019-08-25 10:20 am (UTC)

      1. Well yes it’s kind of elite: that’s the point. It is a very hard puzzle of very high quality. What’s wrong with that? Inevitably such a puzzle will elicit fewer comments on here but that’s hardly the only or best measure of quality. And if you want easier puzzles you are spoilt for choice.
        1. Fine, Elite it is – but why not spell it out in title!?
          I did not ask for an easier puzzle!! Why do you and Jerry keep insisting on this? I have completed the Club Monthly Special on more than one occasion but it is dull fare.

          I asked specifically for a puzzle set exclusively by our esteemed bloggers! (And please note that does not include me.) A clubbish puzzle for all the Club, every month. Sotira’s ‘Christmas Turkey’ is a joy for all, and rather popular! There was a waiting list last year.

          At my golf club the special events are for all members; the elite players are actually handicapped.
          At my bridge club all members are automatically invited for our three annual tournees.
          Even at the most conservative of clubs, The Bullingdon there are no elites – yes, there’s a committee, but they are elected. The ‘blackballing’ comes before entry.

          As a long standing member of the Chelsea Arts Club, D&AD and these days as an elected Fellow of The Royal Philatelic Society, I find elitism somewhat gauche.

          Edited at 2019-08-25 05:08 pm (UTC)

          1. I’m sure the fact that the solution to the Club Monthly is – well – a month after publication is an additional reason for the low level of responses. The same is generally true of Jumbos, STs and Mephistos: most of us have forgotten what we experienced. I took great joy in blogging the TLS when it used to appear, though the number of responses was often from the enthusiastic few not least because it was a month down the line.
            Besides, I won’t hear a word against the MCS: it’s been worth 100 quid to me this year!
  13. I am abroad at the moment but wanted to say that this was a super crossword and worth it for HOUSE PARTY alone.
  14. The sense of PAT as facile and glib was what sold me.
    DOPE was my LOI. The financial sense of SLEEPING PARTNER was a bit elusive. The rock looks like a chestnut.
    It’s a lovely day and not too hot here today, I’m heading to the park with a book.
    1. I was surprised no one mentioned Hamlet’s “Now might I do it pat.” (Or Tom Stoppard’s “Now might I do it, Pat.”)
      1. I had forgotten that: both the Shakespeare and the Stoppard. I went through a period of thinking Stoppard was really the bee’s knees, so it just confirms once again that my memory is awful.
        I’m still not quite sure about this meaning of PAT and ‘smooth’ but I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
  15. In its more common religious sense “viaticum” (Latin for “with you on the road”) refers to one’s final reception of Holy Communion before death, a source of strength for Christians with Christ himself accompanying us on our last journey. Our spiritual “one for the road”.
  16. Thanks Dean and keriothe
    Found this one more straightforward than I usually do for this setter and was able to finish inside the half hour. Knew GNEISS and it was my second in after seeing NINTENDO at 2d.
    Was able to work out VIATICUM without having seen it before but missed seeing the wordplay of the clever ‘out of it’ = SLEEPING part of 5d. Thought that HOUSE PARTY was outstanding
    Finished in the SW corner with WEED OUT and the cleverly constructed PERUSING.

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