Times 25886 – The pulse of the conversation….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 39 minutes

Music: John Coltrane, Giant Steps

This should have been a very easy puzzle, but I was not on the wavelength at all. I wrote in a bunch of obvious answers at the outset, and then had a long period with nothing. Even after I got the central 15-letter answer, I continued to struggle. Most of the clues ended up turning out to be much simpler than I expected.I expect the usual crew to have very fast times, since they are much better at doing these simple puzzles than I am.

Across
1 FOOTLING, FOOT(L)ING, not a word that everyone will know, but the cryptic should give it to you.
6 SCRIBE, S(CRIB)E. I considered both the momble ‘Strote’ and ‘Sartre’, but wisely rejected both.
9 CEREAL, sounds like ‘serial’.
10 TAHITIAN, TA + HIT + IAN, my first in.
11 ANTE, A([joa]N)TE, presumably Joan of Arc in this rather feeble surface that will fool no one.
12 SONGSTRESS, SONG + STRESS.
14 SCABIOUS, SCAB(I.O.U)S, a plant that sounds like an adjective, and one I had never heard of. The cryptic makes it quite simple.
16 SPAT, double definition.
18 URDU, [g]UR(D[utch])U.
19 KENTUCKY, KE(N TUCK)Y, my last in, not what I was expecting at all, but very obvious once you see it.
21 PEASHOOTER, cryptic definition, and a good one.
22 CASK, hidden in [Moni]CA’S K[itchen].
24 FIRMNESS, FIRM + NESS in different senses.
26 OXFORD, OX (FOR) D. When you hear that I did not automatically substitute ‘ox’ for ‘neat’, you will know why my time was poor.
27 ATTEST, AT TEST, one from the Quickie.
28 NESTLING, anagram of IN GLENS + T[omintoul], which see.
Down
2 OCEAN, [m]O(CE)AN, a clue with good indirection.
3 THEREABOUTS, anagram of BUT THOSE ARE.
4 ILLUSION, I + [a]LLUSION.
5 GET ONE’S SKATES ON, GET ON E SS + KATE + SON. I had put ‘get your skates on’, but it didn’t fit the cryptic so I had to revise.
6 SCHISM, S + CH + IS + M. Since a ‘schism’ frequently refers to the result of a theological dispute, there is little deceit in this clue.
7 RAT, TAR upside down, another one from the Quickie.
8 BEANSTALK, B(E)ANS TALK.
13 RESOURCEFUL, anagram of CLUE, FOR SURE.
15 CAREERIST, CAREER + I ST.
17 ENORMOUS, E(NOR)MOUS, where ‘mouse’ is wrapped around.
20 COVERT, C(OVER)T.
23 SIREN, SIRE + [brow]N.
25 MAE, first letters of M[any] A[reas], E[ast].

37 comments on “Times 25886 – The pulse of the conversation….”

  1. A good, but easy, puzzle. Liked the clues for the 4-letter answers. Especially 18ac. If in doubt between YOUR and ONES, always take the latter (5dn). The crossing letters are so much more useful to the setter.

    And the parsing is: GET ON E SS KATE SON.

    Edited at 2014-09-08 02:26 am (UTC)

  2. Flirting dangerously with PB territory for me today. Not sure why it flowed so easily, but I refuse to use the ‘w’ word.

    Is 7dn the easiest clue that’s ever appeared in a Times crossword?

    1. Think of it as the kind of overdrive the All Blacks get into when playing the Green and Yellows.
        1. Used to love it when I think it was Ed Morrison insisted on calling then ‘Yellow’. Looked suspiciously yellowish the strip they were wearing on Saturday.
    2. I think the honour of the easiest clue ever goes to this from 25865:

      Belonging to those people in that place, say (5)

      Edited at 2014-09-08 11:49 am (UTC)

  3. I stymied myself by putting the long down in first, wrong in two place ‘put your skates on’. Teach me to ignore the wordplay. Thus, the NW was last in, which may make me unique. But, probably not.
      1. Unspammed.

        Sorry Icarus, but bloggers do this in their own time and are not paid for it. Do you really need assistance using an on-line dictionary?

  4. I thought I was in for a very quick solve with so many easy answers going in on first reading but I struggled to complete each quarter and moved on to the next leaving a handful of unsolved clues dotted around the grid. These accounted for 10 minutes or so in excess of my 30 minute target.

    Those with time on their hands after this may care to visit today’s Quickie by Don which seems to be at the harder end of the Quickie spectrum, and certainly there are clues that are harder than some on offer here.

        1. Obliged as ever. I tried 268 on the basis that Friday’s was 267 but I never was much of a mathematician.
  5. 11.38, so for me on the easy end, but still very much a proper Times, with precision and wit. 21a should be in the form guide as an example of how to do a cryptic definition without annoying anyone.
    Anyone else trying to solve 8d in Goldilocks rather than Jack mode?
    I don’t think I can remember an example of “your” instead of “one’s”, even though it’s nearly always the way one thinks of the phrase.
    1. I had the momble BEARSHACK before thinking about it – bars around english, hack for tolerate… even though I knew it wasn’t the answer. Surprisingly, it fits the crossers, if not the clue.
      25 min, so average not fast. Rob

  6. Easy for me too today. Not much else to say really. Except that I wanted 6ac to be Sartre until BEANSTALK scuppered that. And that I think the word FOOTLING should be used more. Good word, that.
  7. 15.30 and much the same experience here with several write-ins to start with and some that required a bit more thought later on. Good stuff though. ‘Footing’ came to me too slowly as part of 1ac given that I had thought of it while searching for a type of ‘early course’ in 9ac.
  8. 12m. I thought for a while I was going to be even quicker, because a lot of these wrote themselves in, but then I got a bit stuck on a few at the end. I liked the cryptic definition.
  9. 12 minutes for me too, a nice witty straightforward puzzle, liked PEASHOOTER, last one in was 15dn.
  10. A few seconds under 9 mins. Even though it wasn’t a difficult puzzle I agree that it was a good one with some excellently succinct surface readings. I wasted a little time at 3dn trying to justify “illusory” before I saw what should have been the obvious ILLUSION, and its final checker gave me SCABIOUS (another than should have been a write-in on first pass), which in turn gave me CAREERIST, my LOI.
  11. 21.02, felt should have been faster. Held up by seeing ‘current’ as ‘in’. Neat enough but all a bit too much like the Quick Cryptic, I’d have thought.
  12. Not difficult. RAT at 7D might have been thought too easy even for the Quickie. And SCHISM (6D) wasn’t much harder. None the less an enjoyable puzzle, even if, I suspect, the regular speedsters will barely have raised a sweat. URDU and PEASHOOTER were both good, I thought. The long down clue was my FOI but like one or two others I got it subtly wrong carelessly writing PUT ON rather than GET ON one’s skates, which remained that way until I realised that 1A, my LOI, couldn’t be made to work ending in P.
  13. Not as fast as the real speedos but it all went in steadily. I have hardened myself over the years against the use of YOUR as opposed to ONES and usually, I am right. It helped here that I had the S already
  14. Yes, very easy, but nice clues. Most done in 20 minutes, but I needed a couple more to get 12 and 14, as I was another who entered YOUR without thinking for 5. It was a stupid error, because I know it’s always ONES. I liked 20, a simple but neat clue.
  15. A very easy start to the week (7:06) Like Z8 my first fairy tale thought, especially with BxAx, was bear-related but once I had the K at the other end, it was soon obvious which story I needed. Lots to smile at today but I think the peashooter was the best.
  16. 12 minutes, so as with penfold, one of my fastest ever. When the 3-letter words and the long one went straight in I thought this could be quick but sometimes I’ve had similar only to run out of steam. In this case the answers just kept coming.

    It’s not often I’ve give my COD to a cryptic definition, but as others have acknowledged PEASHOOTER is a great example of this type of clue.

  17. 7:30 which makes it one of my two or three fastest solves in the world, ever.

    I was lucky that footling came to mind quite quickly.

    COD to the excellent peashooter CD.

    Edited at 2014-09-08 11:32 am (UTC)

  18. Wow I must have been tired when I tackled this – the SCABOIUS/CAREERIST/PEASHOOTER crossing held me up for quite a while though I think it was FOOTLING that was the last in from wordplay alone. Everything else made sense.
  19. A real pleasure today as a) I could do it without aids and b) there were lots of happy references in the clues. SCABIOUS was an early one for me as I love these flowers and have lots in the garden. The misdirection at 4 down fooled me and mad that my last one in. Really enjoyable hour in the afternoon sunshine. thanks.
  20. Plain sailing today. The only significant delays were with Footling, Kentucky and the Careerist/Attest pair in the SW corner.
    FOI Thereabouts, LOI Careerist. I liked the Peashooter and Beanstalk.
    Time not recorded (as usual) but much faster than the 5 hours that my iPad said when I’d finished!
  21. I got through in 15 minutes, ending with BEANSTALK. FOOTLING and SCABIOUS went in on wordplay, but, boy, was that wordplay clear. When it resulted in word forms I was unfamiliar with, I just shrugged and put them in. I guess I’ve been trained to follow directions. Regards.
  22. As with other contributors, one of my fastest times at 11 min. However, I also agree with other comments, that it was a pleasant solve as well as a straightforward one. Like others, I thought PEASHOOTER was a very good cryptic, but my COD goes to KENTUCKY – I liked the Derby misdirection.
  23. As with other contributors, one of my fastest times at 11 min. However, I also agree with other comments, that it was a pleasant solve as well as a straightforward one. Like others, I thought PEASHOOTER was a very good cryptic, but my COD goes to KENTUCKY – I liked the Derby misdirection.
  24. 6:39 for me after another depressingly slow start – just another sign of ageing I suppose. (Sigh!)

    A nice easy start to the week.

    1. 22 minutes exactly, or 3.3 Severs.

      Even I could tell this one was easy, although CAREERIST held me up a little. COD for me was PEASHOOTER, although it’s a little cutesy.

  25. 24 across I think is not two definitions of head but is
    Company)=firm & head=ness.
    Probably too late for anyone to see this, but thanks anyway to setter and blogger. Gentle start to week.

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