Sunday Times 4909, by David McLean — We are amused

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
This was an enjoyable way to pass a little time, though certainly not one of this setter’s most challenging.

My biggest difficulty when I worked it last Saturday night was occasioned by an Internet outage that lasted well into the next morning, which meant that I was unable to look for the British definition that explained the last part of 17D (which nevertheless seemed obvious), verify the existence of a fatty ester seemingly hidden (in plain sight, once I recognized that the exclamation point wasn’t an “i”) in 11, nail down the sense of the noun in the clue to 14D (my wrong guess about which had not prevented a correct answer), and even ascertain that the two parts of 12 can be joined as one word with full dictionary status (and I still find that clue odd, though the answer is—again—obvious).

I indicate (gasmanar)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Have relations gone over a round hill? (4)
KNOB — BONK<=“gone over” Spruce Knob, elev. 4,863 feet (1,482 m), on Spruce Mountain, is the highest point in my home state of West Virginia.
 4 Western idol with accent needing improvement (10)
OCCIDENTAL — (idol + accent)*
 9 A way in which ads are created abroad? (7,6)
MADISON AVENUE — CD The ad agencies, of course, are famously located on this street, not in it. (But maybe there’s a “Mad Ave. style”? I’m making excuses for the setter; just had my second drink.) Anyway, that’s how we speak over here, but Kevin has informed me that it’s different over there.
10 Always covering key soldier makes you more anxious (6)
EDGIER — E(D)(GI)ER, with “Always” as the archaic, poetic “e’er,” D as the “key” and the “soldier” a(n American!) GI
11 Glyceride discovered in Nepal! MIT investigates! (8)
PALMITIN — Hidden. As y’all know, I very much like finding out new words through wordplay, but this one is rather unexciting.
12 They are all I am, being great intellects (8)
BIGHEADS — BIG, “great” + HEADS, “intellects,” duh… The word means “conceited people,” people who are full of themselves, so I mentally insert quotemarks in the definition: “They are all ‘I am,’” like, it’s always about “me” to them; they think they are all that (and a bag of chips). If there’s a better way to read that, I’m sure someone will let me know. (If the second part were the definition, the answer could be EGGHEADS, but that didn’t fit!)
14 Ring road by Ealing half closed off? Nightmare! (6)
ORDEAL — O, “Ring” + RD, “road” + EAL[-ing]
15 Lady with pen that’s been dropped in one’s bitter (6)
NESBIT — Hidden. (Another!) That must be Edith, who has surely been seen here before, though I had to look her up.
17 Where one might go on lake in Battle (8)
WATERLOO — “Where one might ‘go’” is the LOO, and “lake” is a DBE for WATER
19 Dishes stuffed with bits of allspice chef makes less hot (8)
PLACATES — PL(A)(C)ATES, “bits of” meaning the first letters of…
21 Great meal, but no starter at Queen’s commemorative event (6)
EASTER — [-f]EAST + ER
23 Criminal coward rues lot, being yellow as old grass (5-8)
STRAW-COLOURED — (coward rues lot)*
24 Was undecided, so I called up to gain input ultimately (10)
OSCILLATED — (so I called)* with [-inpu]T inserted 
25 Make ready, as con leaving back of jail (4)
EARN — [-l]EARN… Collins has, for “con,” “archaic | to study attentively or learn (esp in the phrase con by rote)”

DOWN
 2 Fellow reversing around old lady in Rover (5)
NOMAD — MA is the “old lady” in DON<=“reversing”
 3 Fish served up on platter is a bit off (7)
BADDISH — DAB<=“served up” + DISH, “platter”; not a word I expect to ever use
 4 Dutiful man giving support to old bishop (9)
OBSERVANT — SERVANT is “man,” holding up O(ld) B(ishop)
 5 Is it possible that son welcomes primate’s nibbles? (7)
CANAPES — CAN S(on) with APE, “primate,” inside
 6 Dickens supported himself after retirement (5)
DEVIL — LIVED<=-“after retirement” As in, “What the dickens was that about?” For this sense of “live,” Collins has to “maintain life; support oneself.”
 7 Pampered clergyman tours boozer pointing heavenward (7)
NANNIED — NA(NNI)ED<=“pointing heavenward”
 8 Drink in a romance novel set around island (9)
AMERICANO — (a romance)* taking in I(sland)
13 Ladies sit up for romantic types (9)
IDEALISTS — (Ladies sit)* Some setters and editors like to avoid repetitions like the use of the same anagrind more than once in the same puzzle. I must say, though, “up” works very well in both surfaces where it appears here.
14 Where one sees cat’s eyes wandering about? (2,3,4)
ON THE ROAD — CD Wikipedia: “A cat’s eye or road stud is a retroreflective safety device used in road marking.” I was thinking the term was maybe slang for headlights. These road studs, though, wouldn’t be wandering around, though you might see them when you are roving.
16 Tipple linesman downs about lunchtime? (7)
BACARDI — BA(CA)RD(I), with the “linesman,” BARD, swallowing CA, circa, “about,” and then I, or 1, for the hour of the midday meal; I hesitated because this is a brand name, though we know such do appear here on Sundays.
17 Total failure with a job the police go out on (7)
WASHOUT — W(ith) + A, “a” + SHOUT, “job the police go out on”… this last part remained a mystery until I had recourse to Collins, where I found “informal | an occasion on which the members of an emergency service are called out on duty”—I feel compelled to add that in many cases it might be better to call some other agency to intervene besides the police.
18 Ice bank (7)
RESERVE — DD
20 The Queen’s one to load load in spin dryer (5)
TOWEL — Touching to see her doing her own laundry. “The Queen’s one,” her “I,” actually (first person, not third), is (the royal) WE, with which “load” or LOT<=“in spin” is laden. My COD.
22 Senior metalworker must lose weight (5)
ELDER — [-w]ELDER

26 comments on “Sunday Times 4909, by David McLean — We are amused”

    1. Aha! Thanks, I never suspected… though I’ve surely come across the British idiom before.

      Edited at 2020-07-05 12:37 am (UTC)

      1. We’re certainly familiar with ‘on’ in this context – maybe from US culture (the song ‘On The Street Where You live’, for example) – but I don’t know anyone here who says they live ‘on’ such-and-such a street, it’s always ‘in’, at least in my experience.
        1. That’s interesting – my experience is the exact opposite! I would never say I live ‘in’ my street.

          Edited at 2020-07-05 11:31 am (UTC)

            1. Possibly, or geographical. It may be an American import for all I know but if so it’s been here for a long time.
              I was doing the quick cryptic with a couple of my kids the other day and they couldn’t think of a three-letter word meaning ‘crazy’. To them ‘mad’ means ‘angry’. My youngest also says ‘gotten’.
              1. You reminded me of my 7th-grade English teacher, Miss Tonge, who I thought must have come from the East coast; certainly not a San Francisco accent. She insisted that it’s ‘got’ not ‘gotten’, and I was convinced enough that I’ve been using it, in writing at least, since. I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen mad=crazy here from time to time.
                1. I never use mad=angry or gotten: to me they are American usages. But they are clearly becoming much more common here. This bothers me not one jot: in fact I rather like ‘gotten’.
                  Edit: My kids also say ‘smart’ when they mean ‘clever’. Again this is something that nobody would have said in this country when I was growing up.

                  Edited at 2020-07-05 11:00 pm (UTC)

  2. This was going to be a major DNF, as, while I was sure enough of WASHOUT, TOWEL, & BACARDI, I couldn’t figure out how they worked (although I did make the correct inference from SHOUT). And I could make nothing of 15ac, until I took one last look at the puzzle this morning and the scales fell etc. Submitted off leaderboard. I especially liked KNOB and PLACATES.
  3. ….as I initially had “Eggheads” for BIGHEADS until I saw IDEALISTS.

    I’d wondered briefly if “gnab” was a round hill, but luckily I knew that KNOB was. There’s a lot of scope for coarseness with that clue.

    NHO PALMITIN, although if you space it out there’s a goalkeeping error there.

    I was down to 6 clues after 9 minutes, but took half as long again to finish. I only parsed TOWEL and EARN afterwards.

    FOI OCCIDENTAL
    LOI WASHOUT
    COD WATERLOO
    TIME 13:21

  4. I struggled a bit and took 50 minutes. LOI TOWEL, finally spotting the royal ‘We’. It was a wicked hidden in NESBIT without a reference to The Railway Children. Was COD KNOB lifted from Private Eye? On 12a, I can hear my Dad saying about someone in authority who he didn’t rate: “He thinks he’s the great I am.” I‘m still not sure if that was a reference only to egotism or to a comparison with Yahweh as “I am that I am”. I hypothesised the use of SHOUT for a call-out, as I don’t think I knew it. Good puzzle. Thank you Guy and David.
  5. 1 across set the tone for a naff puzzle, with naff words like ‘baddish’ and non-synonyms like ‘oscillated’ (‘vacillated’ didn’t quite fit).11a obligatory (contractual?) boringly obscure word. How 12a works eludes me. A cryptic to make you ask yourself why you bother.
  6. Should I be pleased to say that KNOB was my last in, the purity of my soul eschewing coarseness? That, plus the obligatory reference to scatology in a Sunday puzzle certainly, as spesgregis says, set a certain tone, but on the whole I didn’t not enjoy it, just took rather a time to complete.
    That ! in the PALMITIN clue was a beast for those of us with dodgy eyesight. I can’t be the only one who started with palimiti.
    I took the BIGHEADS clue much as guy did, with mental quotation marks. Works for me.
  7. The top half went in very quickly but the bottom half was much slower.
    Thanks, Guy, for BACARDI, WASHOUT and TOWEL.
    NHO PALMITIN
    No COD.
  8. Brand names: every time a clue uses “paper” to indicate SUN, MAIL, or any of the others, or “Carmen” indicates AA or RAC, a brand name is being used. The only difference seems to be that we allow them occasionally as answers as well as wordplay components.
    1. I’m pretty sure we get brand names as answers in the daily puzzles too. This often-referred-to rule appears to be entirely imaginary.
      1. According to my most recent copy of the guide for Times setters, they are discouraged as answers, though it admits to SOTHEBY’S being allowed.
        1. Now I’m going to have to go back and find an example of a brand name in the answer, aren’t I?!
          Fortunately it didn’t take long: 27195 (a Championship puzzle no less!): CAMPARI and FERRARI in consecutive clues. A rule more honoured in the breach.

          Edited at 2020-07-05 10:00 am (UTC)

  9. I started off with NOMAD, but was unable to get our reversed IT until much later, when it finally allowed me to see the fish and complete 3d. I was another who biffed EGGHEADS at 12a until IDEALISTS made me rethink. MADISON AVENUE needed all the checkers as I was unaware of the Ad industry connection. I also wanted to put VACILLATED at 24a, but couldn’t parse it. Again, IDEALISTS came to the rescue. PALMITIN was my LOI with a lot of squinting and raised eyebrows. A bit of a struggle for me, submitting at 53:11. Thanks Harry and Guy.
  10. 15:45. An excellent puzzle, starting with the entertainingly naughty 1ac and featuring a nice variety of words including some colloquialisms and the obligatory obscure word fairly indicated (always a satisfying category of clue). A cryptic to remind you what you enjoy about these things.
    I didn’t know the ‘I am’ expression so I was a bit puzzled by 12ac but the answer was obvious.
  11. My experience doing the Private Eye puzzle helped at 1a.
    I did struggle on a few. LOI was BIGHEADS. For 17d I had Callout and Wipeout before WASHOUT emerged; DNK the police meaning for Shout.
    Unfortunately I got one wrong: 15a. Always very frustrating to miss a hidden. I thought Lady =Hen which left me with an unlikely HENBIT meaning something bitter. It may indeed have a bitter taste; I’ve never tried it. BACARDI unparsed.
    David
  12. 29:21. This one didn’t cause too many problems, FOI ordeal, but LOI Nesbit remained stubbornly hidden for quite a while (even though I read an article on her not so long ago in the TLS). I liked the royal we in towel and the misdirection of con and back of jail in earn. An enjoyable Sunday solve.
  13. Thanks David and guy

    Found this quite tough when I eventually got to it last weekend and started off quite well with NOMAD and KNOB. Knew of MADISON AVENUE and it was an early entry as well. Went down the WIPEOUT and EGGHEAD dead ends along the way. Don’t know why, but wasn’t expecting there to be a coffee drink at 8d, until there was.
    Finished in the SW corner with IDEALISTS which then helped see the well-hidden NESBIT, showed up the error at 12a and allowed me to eventually find BIGHEAD to finish the puzzle.

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