This Month’s Puzzles Sponsored By The 9D Group

78 comments on “This Month’s Puzzles Sponsored By The 9D Group”

1. 50 minutes. A very enjoyable workout with unknowns found from wordplay. Only last week (or was it earlier this one) I learnt I had been misusing the word ‘rawplug’ for RAWLPLUG all my life, and this newly acquired knowledge has already come in handy! They were not made of plastic when I first used them, they were some sort of fibre.
   1. Jute .. they still make them or at least, you can still buy them

      Edited at 2020-02-21 08:34 am (UTC)

2. The thing that most struck me about this puzzle was the indirect reverse hidden with a deletion – what is the degree of difficulty there? Some biffers may not even have noticed it.

   I had a lot of guessed, which turned out to be right – I-beam, rawlplug, winner. Fortunately, rawlplug seemed vaguely familiar for some reason.

   IOD, arrowhead/eddy, a lot of indirection in that, er, pair.

   1. RAWLPLUG was in last Friday’s puzzle
3. David Nobbs lovely book came to mind – my FOI.

   What RAWLPLUG again more plugs for the RAWLINGS BROS.
   Jack I think everyone knows them as ‘RAWPLUGS’ If you asked 100 people……… my LOI. But we’re advertising on a Friday!

   What’s the SP on generic advertising, please Ed!?

   COD 5ac MICHAEL WINNER – was excellent on dinner’s.

   WOD 20ac DUNG BEETLE ‘Bug’ different schtick-shift! EMBONPOINT was also worthy.

   Jerry – now that Lord V. has tipped his lid to WOD, might it be included in The Glossary, before I succumb to the Old Wuhan Reaper? (OWR)

   Time around an hour – as we had a delivery of milk (Fresh) and Quaker Oats (Old Fashioned) which ‘her outdoors’ needed a lift with.

   Edited at 2020-02-21 05:40 am (UTC)

4. We had RAWLPLUG in quite recent memory, thank goodness. I wasn’t sure about WINNER, having never heard of Michael W. (42 movies, none of which I’ve seen or heard of… OK, on reflection, I must have heard of the Charles Bronson flick Death Wish, and maybe that there was a movie version of the Raymond Chandler detective novel The Big Sleep), and I couldn’t imagine what was going on with EDDY (I’ve always been more of a leg man). But this was certainly a Friday, in the classic, mythic sense.

   EMBONPOINT is a noun, mes amis. Merriam-Webster gives the English definition as “Stoutness.” “Plump” can also be a noun, but not in that sense.

   Edited at 2020-02-21 06:31 am (UTC)

   1. Michael Winner was considered innovative and possibly trendy when he started out as a film director but many would say never fulfilled early promise as his career sidetracked when he made the DEATH WISH film with Charles Bronson (huge at the box-office but disliked by the critics) plus three sequels, each of them considerably worse than the previous one.

      He became something of an eccentric in later life and was admired by some (including our Shanghai correspondent) as a bon viveur and restaurant critic. I wouldn’t know whether his opinions in that field were valid as I could never afford to dine at the places he wrote about, but they certainly made good copy.

      [Ah, having written this I see you have since revised your posting re MW, but I’ll let this stand anyway]

      Edited at 2020-02-21 06:33 am (UTC)

      1. I think I first encountered him in a series of fairly awful adverts (which I now see someone else has mentioned—the perils of swapping my solving into the evenings!)

         Edited at 2020-02-21 08:14 pm (UTC)

      2. Just because I’m an incorrigible nit-picker (hey, it’s a living—really), apparently there was only Death Wish II and Death Wish 3 (sic) after the first instant classic (ha).
         1. In the context of Michael Winner you’re right and since that’s who we were discussing I admit I made an error, however Bronson made 5 of them in all (the last two were by different directors) and that’s where my memory let me down.
   2. Adjective
      embonpoint (comparative more embonpoint, superlative most embonpoint)
      Plump, chubby, buxom.
      Andyf
      1. Yes, we already covered that.
         It’s been used as an adjective by Brits, and usage is everything.

         Edited at 2020-02-21 04:30 pm (UTC)

5. I finally found where Collins gives it as an adjective as well, in British English. I’ve never seen it used as such in French. So it goes.

   Edited at 2020-02-21 07:02 am (UTC)

   1. I was surprised to find it listed as an adjective too – you are not alone!
      1. I think the only time I’ve come across the word was in ‘Ulysses’, where it’s in “The Sweets of Sin”, which Leopold is checking out to see if Molly would like it:
         The beautiful woman threw off her sabletrimmed wrap, displaying her queenly shoulders and heaving embonpoint.
         1. That’s what immediately sprung into my mind. Quite a saucy puzzle, with ample cups and heaving embonpoints and infamy, infamy – and Harry Enfield’s “Young Man.”

            A lot of fun.

6. Very happy with my 36 minutes on this – well inside my target of 6 Verlaines. As Lord V notes, much fun was had and there was a nice overtone of old-fashioned values and usage: YOUNG MAN as a synonym for boyfriend; FORMAL as a noun; and of course EMBONPOINT. The latter is a word I have never used (though it could be unkindly used on me!) and have no idea how to pronounce – is it with a bad English/French accent? It apparently comes from the French for ‘in good form’ from the days when it was fashionable to be plump. Now, not so much.

   Thanks setter for a lovely Friday workout and V for the excellent blog.

7. …I can’t spell BEETLE and I FELL for well!

   26ac: I was a General Apprentice with BEA from 1965-68. I then moved to Gatwick where the unit of BEA i worked for was subsumed into BEA Airtours in 1970. It then became British Airtours in ’73 or ’74 after BEA and BOAC merged.

   5ac: Michael WINNER was a prominent and vocal supporter of a memorial for WPC Yvonne Fletcher who was killed by shots fired from the Libyan Embassy, or whatever the Libyans called it, in 1984.

   6d: INFAMY. Nice touch of the Kenneth Williams!

   9d: As others have said, this is not the first time this piece of product placement has been in the Cryptic.

8. Seemingly futile persistence does have its rewards. I must have spent over half an hour on last week’s RAWLPLUG clue before giving up defeated, but at least it meant today’s version was close to a write-in. I liked the ‘Waste removal expert’ def and EDDY wordplay too. The BEA reference reminded me of the DH Trident, probably now out of service I suppose.

   Enjoyable and just difficult enough. Home in 31 minutes.

9. …And take the wage of shame.
   30 mins with yoghurt, blueberry compote, banana, granola.
   Thanks setter and V.

   Edited at 2020-02-21 08:38 am (UTC)

10. I think Winner might have been generally best known for his ‘calm down dear’ ads for Esure. He used to drive his car in bus lanes because the fines were cheaper than taking a taxi. Or so he said.

    And this one gave me another chance to dance with the guitar man. At least until another tune gets stuck in my head.

11. Is it just a coincidence that ARROWHEAD follows I-BEAM? That’s what the cursor looks like on my Mac…

    Midas

    1. And if we argued privately about that, would that be a TUSSLE ON THE SLY?
       I also like the idea of a product placement alert in the 9/21 column
12. 34 minutes. LOI EDDY. With EMBONPOINT as well, there was plenty of titivation this morning. Or is it the Frankie Howerd reminder with the re-appearance on INFAMY that has put that word into my head? I can only assume that one of the setters has just moved home, has reached the curtain and picture hanging phase and is having nightmares about RAWLPLUGS. I was a bit dubious about SIDE but it did tick all the boxes. I’d never heard of I BEAM in this context. I thought it was something that held the roof up (not the floor obviously). I’m giving COD to EDDY for the frivolity. Thank you V and setter.

    Edited at 2020-02-21 09:02 am (UTC)

    1. As somebody mentioned above the ‘Infamy’ line was said by Kenneth Williams (in Carry On Cleo, iirc). It wasn’t original though as it was written some years previously by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, probably for Jimmy Edwards in Take It From Here. I believe the C/O scriptwriter obtained their permission to use it in the film.
       1. It was used by Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii, and I’d have lost the Titter Ye Not theme if I’d referred to Kenneth Williams. I guess it would be for Jimmy Edwards in Take it from Here. I can’t see it being for Dick Bentley or June Whitfield.
          1. Okay, I now see what you were doing and apologise for misunderstanding. Of course ‘Cleo’ and Frankie’s ‘Up Pompeii’ were both scripted by Talbot Rothwell so there’s an association there. I’ve now confirmed that Norden wrote the ‘Infamy’ line for Jimmy Edwards in ‘Take It From Here’.
13. FELL in with fingers crossed, no real idea of parsing. EMBONPOINT same as others. No idea also re I BEAM – I read this morning that the person who invented the cut and paste feature, developed the use of the mouse, and introduced the scroll, has died. Just imagine life without….

    19’32”, thanks Verlaine and setter.

14. Just (about) under 30 minutes, illustrating the problems caused by not getting 1ac early on.
    Thanks for the elucidation, V, especially as the superabundance in 12ac FELL rather threw me. And thanks for assuming we all know that NEW in anagram fodder just means N (14d)

    EDDY assumes a matter of opinion and/or of fact. DD cups may be regarded as ample enough, but perhaps not if the embonpoint is more substantial.
    Personally, I’ve found a DD works wonders*

    *not strictly true, it was unpleasant stuff.

    1. It was foul. I shudder to recall the horse piss that passed for beer in the 70s: Watney’s Red Barrel, Worthington E, Skol, and here in Scotland such delightful concoctions as Tartan Export
    2. Oops, there’s no W in EMBONPOINT! As Laura Bush was fond of exclaiming.
15. 25’20”

    Biffed FELL as ‘hide’ threw me. I thought I-BEAM was something architectural, but there it is right in front of me…

16. 12a – no “pelt” required – “fell” as in animal skin. Cf Hopkins – “the fell of dark, not day”.
    1. I thought a pelt was basically an animal skin, but I guess it’s hairier than that, then?
17. >
    1. Al – chemical symbol for aluminium.
       Formal- a dance requiring format wear. i.e. A ball
       1. Never heard any kind of dance referred to as ‘a formal’. Web dictionary says ‘formal’ can be a kind of dress worn to such a dance, I note… but not a word for the dance itself.

          Sorry, this is a crap clue.

          1. Well I’ve heard of it. I went to several when I was a student.
          2. I’ve heard it too, and it’s in both ODO and Chambers. Generally speaking I’d suggest checking in one or two proper dictionaries before pronouncing a clue ‘crap’.
          3. Collins and the ODE are the principal source dictionaries for Times crosswords, so that’s where you need to go for confirmation.

             Collins has:

             formal
             3. ADJECTIVE [usually ADJECTIVE noun]
             Formal occasions are special occasions at which people wear smart clothes and behave according to a set of accepted rules.

             Formal is also a noun.
             …a wide array of events, including school formals and speech nights, weddings, and balls.

             The ODE doesn’t have this but the Shorter Oxford has:…an occasion on which evening dress is worn.

             1. What used to be called Oxford Dictionaries Online always had the ODE as its source. That is now called Lexico, which is described as ‘a collaboration between dictionary.com and OUP’. There is now no reference on the OUP website to the ODE, so I wonder if that has been discontinued in favour of this apparently purely online source (which is still ‘written by Oxford Lexicographers’).
                Anyway, Lexico has ‘formal’ as a noun, but categorised as North American. It’s the same in Collins. Chambers marks the dress as a US usage but not the event, curiously.

                Edited at 2020-02-21 10:04 pm (UTC)

                1. The ODE is still listed on the OUP site and is available to buy from there at £39.99, but it’s the Third Edition which has not been revised or superseded since 2010. The history previously was First edition 1998, Second 2003, Second (revised) 2005, so an update would appear to be long overdue unless they have decided to concentrate solely on-line.

                   On ‘formal’, I have the Third Edition ODE printed in 2010 long before Lexico was thought of and I can confirm that the entry is word for word exactly the same as on Lexico.

                   Edited at 2020-02-21 11:12 pm (UTC)

                   1. Ah right, I guess they still sell the book. However if you look here: https://languages.oup.com/
                      where they list their dictionaries it’s not mentioned, which suggested to me that it may have been discontinued.
                      Having said that I see that they don’t mention the abridged versions of the OED either so perhaps I’m reading too much into it.
                      Lexico originated as just a rebranded ODO, which in turn was an online version of the ODE, so it’s not surprising that the definitions are the same at the moment. What is a little unclear to me is what has happened to the ODE as a distinct ongoing project. It appears to have been folded into Lexico.
          4. I assumed it was a bit Oxbridgey, like a formal ball, but maybe I was just thinking of formal hall?
             1. In the US it’s common usage for a tuxedo & gown required dance – usuallly at the high school level
18. I agree with BW in thinking an I-BEAM was a construction piece – it turns up as such quite often in the NY Times puzzles. The only WINNER movie I’ve seen was The Nightcomers which purported to tell the back-story of The Turn Of The Screw. In spite of Marlon Brando it was pretty bad. 15.53
19. 41 mins. Wasn’t sure about oogee but trusted wp. Thanks v.
20. ….FORMAL, but then I didn’t go to university. Also DNK I-BEAM.

    The last three minutes of my time were spent in scrabbling for a foothold in the SW corner. An excellent puzzle – thanks to the setter and to Verlaine.

    FOI SACK RACE
    LOI EMBONPOINT
    COD ON THE SLY
    TIME 13:53

21. If you’ve come across any adaptation of The Big Sleep, it’s likely to be the Bogart/Bacall classic from 1946 rather than Michael Winner’s version from 1978 (that I’d never heard of until now).

    Winner “ploughs step by step through the complicated plot with a curious lack of interest in, among other things, the nature of his hero’s character”. Oof.

    1. My recollection is that they got Wm Faulkner in to help with some script revision toward the end of filming the 1946 version, and that the director and producer went on record as saying, after release, that they still didn’t understand the entire plot – including perhaps who did it.
22. 8m 17s but it would have been a fair bit longer if I’d puzzled out a few of them long enough to be certain I’d got the right answer – EDDY, FELL, OGEE, I-BEAM all went in without 100% confidence.

    For DUNG BEETLE, in fact, I entered based on the checkers before even looking at the clue. The kind of insouciant behaviour I might risk in a championship final but not in a semi.

23. And very happy with that! Last one in was Fell which I biffed. Still don’t understand the clue. Didn’t Winner do Hannibal Thingummy, with Oliver Reid and that funny-faced American who died a few weeks ago? Chaff I got, but was thinking of chiffchaff not chaffinch. No wonder I couldn’t work that one out either!
    1. I had to look that up to check you weren’t talking about Napoleon Dynamite. Michael J Pollard in Hannibal Brooks though! He *does* have an interesting face.
24. Nice puzzle to end the week, even if the setter is clearly in the pay of Big Rawlplug. After plants, my least favourite clues are those four-letter words where the checkers leave dozens of possible words, so I took a while before being sure I had SIDE and FELL right.
25. Quite liked the 1978 version. Didn’t quite make sense, but quirky and interesting. Which most films aren’t. And at least Mitchum matches Marlowe – big and tough – whilst the minuscule Bogart didn’t.
    Edit: Damned autocorrect.

    Edited at 2020-02-21 01:00 pm (UTC)

26. Off the wavelength, very slow, but an excellent puzzle. I’d actaully forgotten rawlplugs since last week, they don’t exist downunder (he says with fingers crossed, having not googled).
27. 21:08. I found this fun too. NHO EMBONPOINT but glad to be enlightened. An exclamation mark on my copy against EDDY. I liked the clever multiple definition FELL, MOTORCYCLE, DUNG BEETLE and ON THE SLY too. Thanks V and setter.
28. Found this easier than last Friday and finished in 22.03. Guessed with eddy – bit naughty but I liked it- and ogee but seemed reasonable solutions. COD embonpoint, such a lovely sounding word. Rawlplug seems to be making regular appearances recently. Is the crossword being sponsored by Screwfix?

29. 26:36 but with a careless RICOCHEYED. I knew it was wrong but forgot to go back to it before submitting. Trusted the wordplay for OGEE, but now understand it, having looked up what it is. I saw how FELL worked, and trusted that it was one of the definitions of an animal skin. Liked DUNG BEETLE. In fact I liked this puzzle a lot. SIDE was my FOI, FOLK MUSIC was a write in, and RAWLPLUG was my LOI despite its recent appearance. Good fun. Thanks setter and V.
    On edit: I’ve just remembered that Fell Monger was one of the titles of the Knacker Man in the James Herriot stories.

    Edited at 2020-02-21 02:48 pm (UTC)

    1. I have to empty the squares of clues that I’m not sure about my answer conscientiously as my doubts emerge, or else I always forget to go back to them before I submit!
30. The book doesn’t quite make sense either, so it may just be a faithful adaptation! I haven’t seen it.
    1. Is this the one where Raymond Chandler forgets to answer the question of what a dead chauffeur was doing in a car at some point? I love the bravado of inserting a dead chauffeur solely to get the plot moving again when things are beginning to stall.
       1. I can’t remember, tbh. I just remember the plot being rather incoherent and not really feeling that it mattered.
31. Grrr. I managed to guess the unknown I-BEAM from a conjecture about the unknown airline, but I couldn’t make head or tail of the wordplay in 12ac (extension? Hide? U wot m8?) so just plumped for the first word in the clue as a definition. OGEE was a bit of a hit-and-hope job too. Frustrating, but other than that a very good puzzle.

    Edited at 2020-02-21 05:36 pm (UTC)

32. Crawled over the line in 45 minutes while watching Pointless yet again. Knew the word EMBONPOINT but had thought it was some kind of embroidery on a cushion. FELL was a ‘must be’ but still don’t get it. FORMAL also merited a blank look but I see it’s in dictionaries so I can’t slag off the clue. Good to see OKRA, one of my favourite veg, but seldom seen fresh in Rutland, sadly.
    Nice blog, V.
33. Two sittings after the first had dried up a bit. Came back and all done within another 10 mins.
34. As usual I left this half done and a bit stuck. Coming back to it just now it was a breeze. What is it with that? FRANC EDDY FELL were my dubious ones, submitted with fingers crossed. Thanks V for the explanations.
35. Like many others, I struggled with “Fell” but pencilled it in. “Raillery” is not a word heard every day – I was trying to make “Roistery” work for some time. Thanks to David Attenborough for “Dung Beetle”!
36. 42 minutes, which puts me back firmly in the middle of my road after a fairly good week. Took an age to construct the unknown 14d EMBONPOINT even though I could see it was an anagram. I also had the wrong end of the stick at 28a, looking for a school rather than a TUSSLE, which didn’t help. Still, as V says, an excellent puzzle with some knockout words, so I didn’t mind taking my time.
37. 32:44 I found this one a bit of a struggle but well worth the effort and got there in the end. I went for fell on the basis of floor but was bamboozled by the rest of 12ac. Wasn’t confident about ogee. Liked the waste removal expert Def. DNK the old airline or the screen symbol so I-beam went in with fingers crossed. DNK collect as a prayer.
38. I am not doing so well these days, and took 47 minutes to end with “well” at 12ac. I had no idea what was going on, and decided that “well” at least meant “fine”.
39. This took a while, the excuse being that I was falling asleep, but finally got finished. Didn’t understand who WINNER could be, but I entered him nonetheless. Also didn’t know of hide as FELL, but in conjunction with the rest of the clue I took it on faith as another definition. RAWLPLUG is in danger of overuse, I think. Regards.
40. It’s kinda ironic that a movie so titled would have so many sequels. Rather like “The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots.”
41. Well I started really well with 1a going straight in but unfortunately nothing much else. As a beginner a really disencouraging (don’t think that’s a word!) day. I didn’t know that CHAFF meant banter and tried to put chats. I don’t understand where DIS comes from for 1d. Why is an ARROWHEAD the winning point of a quarrel? DNK EMBONPOINT and why is ELL an extension? Hugely grateful for this blog otherwise I would just throw in the towel so big thanks.
    1. Dis is another name for the Underworld, Hades, Pluto etc…
       1. Many thanks – added to my store of required knowledge!
42. Can someone help me with Chaff? Thx
43. Thanks for mentioning the Kenneth Williams version. We you-tubed it and were most amused. It’s always eddyficational reading the comments. Learnt the flashing cursor thingy has a name, and had embonpoint embroidered. 25mins with FELL our COD.

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