Sunday Times Cryptic 4847, April 21 2019, by David McLean — Seeing double

Author   Guy du SablePosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
Greetings from the heart of the Cévennes region of France. I wrote most of this before my trip began, fortunately. It’s rather late here and I just realized that it’s already dimanche. And I have to get up early!

The last time I blogged, we had MIXED DOUBLES, and this time DOUBLE CROSSER, with a pair of short-phrase answers beginning IN-A, two appearances of both “American” and Russia, plus twenty-first-century geopolitical fun couple Putin and… Sigh. (If setters are going to explicitly mention a certain person who is already constantly imposing himself on our consciousness, why does it always have to be on my watch?)

I do (sargnaam)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues.

ACROSS
 1 Women’s little ways? (6)
BROADS — ”B-roads” being secondary roads, I guess, so being “little.” No one uses this term in earnest in the twenty-first century.
 5 Kind of hot on holiday (2,1,3)
IN A WAY — IN (“hot”) + AWAY (“on holiday”)
 9 Star in decline eggs on wicked knight (9)
SUPERNOVA — Stars go out with a bang. This is OVA (“eggs”) “on” (most properly, following what is there before it) SUPER (“wicked,” as a superlative) N (“knight,” in chess notation—because the king has first dibs on the K).
10 State party joiner leader shunned (4)
AVER — [-r]AVER
11 Very good fee for copy (6)
PIRATE — PI (“Very good” being “pious,” in the sense of sanctimonious) + RATE (“fee”)
12 American street full of houses? (8)
BROADWAY — CD, alluding to theatrical houses
14 Case of acne isn’t terrible (8)
INSTANCE — (acne isnt)*
16 Famous fiddler never covers Queen (4)
NERO — N(ER)O  I bet he wasn’t very good at it, either.
18 Flipping staff hanging around old entrance (4)
DOOR — DO(O)R <—
19 Citizen taking the pee out of Trump? (8)
RESIDENT — [-p]RESIDENT. DBE. Hmm. Another reference to the real-estate mogul alluded to in a Sunday Times cryptic last month. Apparently, he’s also the president of something. A story linking him to an unusual use of urine has not been established as fact. On a more serious note, “citizen,” besides the strict legal definition, can also mean merely an inhabitant of a certain conurbation, so this is okay.
21 Flowery types of knickers (8)
BLOOMERS — Self-evident, no?
22 One charging power of Putin in hearing (6)
RUSHER — Joke on the surface meaning deleted. Might sound like “Russia” to someone.
24 When to be visited by flash old prophet (4)
AMOS — A(MO)S, AS being “when” and a “flash” a MOment.
26 American detective in force (9)
OPERATIVE — DD. What, you Brits don’t call a “detective” an “operative”? Never?
27 Pure charlie and speed (6)
CHASTE — C(harlie) + HASTE (“speed”)
28 European female: fair, but decadent (6)
EFFETE — E(uropean) + F(emale) + FETE (a “fair”). I’m sure I first became acquainted with this word when Nixon’s veep Agnew pronounced his famous condemnation of those who opposed the Vietnam War as “an effete corps of impudent snobs,” a catchy phrase that actually was—like “nattering nabobs of negativism”—the creation of his speechwriter, William Safire.

DOWN
 2 This exotic model’s full of herself! (7,4)
RUSSIAN DOLL — CD. Another ref to the Russkies. This is beginning to look suspicious.
 3 A record held by a hotel close to Gaza (5)
ALPHA — COD! A(LP)HA. The “record” (LP) being “held by” (between) A + H(otel), and then you have [-Gaz)A.
 4 Officer gets near criminal … (8)
SERGEANT — (gets near)*
 5 … continuously having an argument (2,1,3)
IN A ROW — A DD, though the first sense is more common for the phrase, I think, than the second.
 6 Wild graduate upset with single daughter (9)
ABANDONED — BA <—, AND (“with”), ONE (“single”), D(aughter)
 7 Time to grow up? (3)
AGE — DD
 8 Cheat who signs off with two kisses? (6-7)
DOUBLE-CROSSER — (Too obvious to explain.)
13 Organisation great men ran badly (11)
ARRANGEMENT — (great men ran)*
15 They’re shelled stores I, over time, rebuilt (9)
TORTOISES — (stores I + O, “over” + T, “time”)*
17 Electronic tag? (8)
USERNAME — CD. I kept trying to think of something beginning E-. This was my LOI!
20 In sight of fine men, one buzzing about (6)
BEFORE — BE(F+OR)E
23 One dead tough (5)
STIFF — DD
25 Who cares what comes after 1000? (3)
MEH — M being 1000 and EH being “what[?]”

21 comments on “Sunday Times Cryptic 4847, April 21 2019, by David McLean — Seeing double”

  1. I figured 17d for E-signage, which has the disadvantage of being plausible and also properly crossing everything except Rusher. So no rusher in my almost complete grid. Thanks GdS, and enjoy France
  2. I have ‘meh’ written in the margin by 21ac; this was before I got 25d, but I felt the whole puzzle had something of a meh flavor to it. I did like 3d and, in fact, 25d. I hate to break it to you, Guy, and indeed I hate to acknowledge it to myself, but we’re in the twenty-first century; though I can’t say I ever came across BROAD in real life in the previous century either. Maybe that’s why it was my LOI.
  3. ….EFFETE worse than death, and whipped through this without any problems. Nothing more to say really.

    FOI SUPERNOVA
    LOI MEH
    COD RUSSIAN DOLL
    TIME 8:36

  4. I was 32 minutes on this. It took me a while to twig that my biff of BROADWAY was correct, with theatres called houses, as in ‘not a dry eye in the house’. There was a distinctly 1930’s America feel to this, with the women called BROADS and detectives OPERATIVEs, my COD. Paul Drake would always have an operative or two on the case when assisting Perry Mason. Damn, I’ll have the theme music as an earworm all day now. I liked RUSSIAN DOLL too, and for once the homophone worked for me. I’d feel a prat if I ever said MEH though. I enjoyed this, but then I’ve only just joined the twentieth century, not the twenty-first. Enjoy the Cévennes, Guy. I thought they were a food delicacy so I’ve just looked up where they are. Thank you to you and David.
  5. My notes from last Sunday ask “Does anyone still say BROADS?” You and Kevin have just answered that, Guy.
    I question the crypticity (?) of USERNAME.
    COD = MEH.
    Otherwise my notes say “straightforward”.
    Enjoy the Cévennes!
  6. I found this puzzle quite straightforward, starting with ALPHA and finishing with TORTOISES. I was a bit quicker than the said reptiles, coming in at 21:32. Liked RUSSIAN DOLL. Had a mer at MEH. Strange word. Enjoyed the puzzle though. Thanks Harry and Guy. Just looked at some pictures of the Cévennes. Looks lovely. Enjoy!
  7. I thought I’d got this done in 42 minutes, but when I came to transcribe it for competition entry, I noticed I still hadn’t filled in 1a, so took an extra minute or two to finish. (Still, that’s less dopey than I’m feeling today, having already failed on this morning’s puzzle…)

    Up until that point, my LOI was 26a OPERATIVE, and my FOI 4d SERGEANT. Enjoyed 19a RESIDENT and 8d DOUBLE CROSSER. My notes say “lots of ‘oh, of course it is’ moments”.

  8. 7:07. Very easy this one, I found.
    I had never even heard of the Cévennes. Is it nice?
    I have been coming across Spiro Agnew a lot recently, which is curious. He was so afraid of creasing his trousers that he never crossed his legs, thereby creating the one and only unelected president of the United States. There’s a lesson in that for all of us.

    Edited at 2019-04-28 08:25 am (UTC)

    1. It’s lovely! Scattered with little villages dating from medieval times. The Chauvet caves are here, of which you can now only visit a replica (and I feel like I’ve already been there, having seen Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams—in 3-D), but we’re going to pay a visit tomorrow.

      I’m still trying to fathom your Spiro Agnew joke.

      1. The Cevennes are wonderful. Keep an eye out for the Beast of Gevaudan. Also the RL Stevenson Trail, now one of the most popular long distance footpaths in all France
        1. Some years ago, I stayed in a little gîte pour les randonneurs in a village on the RLS Trail, called Prévenchères, in Lozère.
        1. Ah, well, my friend Delphine says it’s quite realistic and insists that it’s worth it, and there are other attractions on the site. Something to do, a nice drive. If the line is too long, we won’t bother.
          1. Fair enough. I visited the Luray caves last year, just because I was in the area. If you ever happen to be passing that way, don’t bother.
  9. 27:12 I found this fairly straightforward but for some reason username and russian doll took ages to drop. I also had to turn operative over in my mind a couple of times to convince myself that it was the right answer.
  10. I remember enjoying this and wondering if DM was auditioning for Private Eye.
    I was not quick and hold-ups were BROADS, RUSSIAN DOLL and USERNAME which I think was LOI.
    David
  12. Not at all happy with MEH as the answer. Why not MOH? What = OH, and Ministry of Health, they care don’t they?
    Otherwise a good workout, thanks to setter and blogger.
  13. Thanks David and guy
    Did this one travelling into work on Monday and was able to get it all out except for USERNAME during the trip. There did seem to be a lot of charade type clues throughout which may have brought on the ‘meh’ factor with some of the above commenters.
    I did like BROADWAY when it finally dropped and MEH also raised a grin.

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