Time 25048 – Those were the days

Author   kororarekaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving Time: DNF

And a Happy New Year to all from me and welcome back to reality. I knew I’d be a little rusty (boom! boom!) on my first blog back but didn’t expect to have as much trouble as I did, especially as I started with elan (not an actual answer). So, anyway…

Across
1 POMPOM = MOP twice reversed. Mop seems to have become the new char.
5 R for river in BIGHT + ON for “close to” = BRIGHTON
9 Deliberately omitted. The old maid might do this for soaks.
10 M for medium inside GILET = GIMLET, as in eyed. A gilet is faux fur apparel for the fashion conscious completely outside my ken. I might have got there in time, but gave up, not assisted by a certain uncertainty in the spelling of obeisant (see 8d).
11 VENEER = VEN for venerable, as in Bede, + E’ER for always, poetically.
12 NOSE holding TEC and A = NOTECASE. Tec is archaic informal for detective, whereas a notecase is where Bertie Wooster may have kept his folding money.
14 PROFITEERING sounds like “prophet earing”, allegedly.
17 M + (PET THEORY IS)* = MORE’S THE PITY, and my favourite today, also.
20 CONSIDER = ONSIDE inside CR
22 ECARTE = Eaten placed behind European CART. Écarté is a card game, similar to Euchre apparently, now rarely played.
23 M1’S HAP = MISHAP. To hap is archaic for to befall, which makes the whole thing a bit incestuous. It doesn’t work for me, but that may be me own fault. On Edit: Indeed, the fault is entirely mine. Why does this not surprise me? Shap Fell is a place (see comments below), so it’s M1 + SHAP. Thanks to jackkt and paulmcl.
25 E for English M.P. inside TORy + A for area by L for lake = TEMPORAL as opposed to spiritual.
26 (BRAVE)* + M.I.T. reversed = VERBATIM
27 FAX placed after CAR = CARFAX. Another one which completely eluded me, although it occurred to me that it may be some derivative of carrefour. If only I had remembered the golden rule: If the clue makes no sense whatsoever, it probably has something to do with Oxford.

Down
2 SO reversed on PREY = OSPREY, a swimming bird, or at least it is when the fish it catches is too heavy to carry off. A friend visiting from the UK witnessed just such an occurrence on Rottnest Island. The osprey in question literally swam about 20 metres to shore, using a modified butterfly stroke, refusing to relinquish its grip on a gigantic fish. Apparently birds have been known to drown attempting such feats. This one just collapsed panting on the sand, alongside the fish in a similar condition.
3 EXPRESS for state under PONY for £25 = PONY EXPRESS. Bertie Wooster may have kept a pony in his notecase, but probably preferred telegraph to pony express.
4 Inside MO TORT for “second wrongful act” place BOA for stole = MOTORBOAT. Another nice clue.
5 RUB reversed for “problem over” on UN + DI is BURUNDI. On Edit: Thanks to jackkt again for the correct parsing.
6 Deliberately omitted. An emBARgo has been placed on it.
7 HEM, a double definition.
8 OBEISANT = O.B. + (IN SEAT)*. I don’t know why I thought obiesant was a possibility, but I did. If I had ever heard anybody actually say the word, I might have known the “I before E” rule didn’t apply because the sound is not “EE”. Incidentally, that rule has been abandoned in UK schools (according to QI), because of the many exceptions. Except that the rule didn’t apply to pretty much all the quoted exceptions, like hacienda. Stephen, the sound has to be “EE”! Not, “EEYEAH”! The rule was invented so that ceiling and receipt would be spelt correctly and seige (sic) always incorrectly because it’s confused with seize as the one true exception.
13 CURRY FAVOUR = CURRY FLAVOUR with stricken L
15 EPIDEMIC around R for right = EPIDERMIC, “of” being part of the definition. Rash as in a series of things occurring in a short space of time.
16 OMIT in DOLE = DOLOMITE, a sedimentary rock, as opposed to dolerite, with which I have had recent experience (see reference to large boulders). That was before the contretemps with the luggage trolley which left me largely immobile.
18 (A TRUE)* + OM = EURATOM, a body which actually exists, to my surprise.
19 OTTAWA = OTT for over the top + AWA or away in Islay or Isla. I’m presuming that’s Pierre, although his son Justin was born in Ottawa.
21 DEPOT = EP for record (remember them?) in the year DOT
24 HOB = HOBbit. A hob is a male ferret. A female ferret is a jill, in case you ever need to know, although this could also be a female hobbit. As for the role of Out, it may have been played by J.K.Rowling.

46 comments on “Time 25048 – Those were the days”

  1. Welcome back to TfT, Koro. We’ve missed the dry humour.

    Not too difficult I thought, until I got to the bottom right. Not getting my head around EPIDE(R)MIC (and also trying “epidermAL”) didn’t help at all. Couldn’t see the “rash” for ages. A good clue in the end.

    But COD also to 17ac (MORES THE PITY). My mores and my scruples have always been in the pityzone.

    OSPREY: great info here. I was recently watching a nest at Kilcarnup; but nothing so dramatic as your story. Did you know that they can voluntarily close their own nostrils when diving?

    [[Hmm … no mention of J.W. Howard in the blog for 18dn? Lazarus trips over his OBEisance to the monarchy yet again. Obsequious, brown-nosing sycophant that he is.]]

    Edited at 2012-01-02 04:47 am (UTC)

    1. Presumably pinching your beak with a talon put you at an evolutionary disadvantage.
  2. 42 minutes for this after hold-ups in the SW (DOLOMITE), NE (GIMLET) and especially the SE (ECARTE and CARFAX), where I wasn’t helped by bunging in ‘Ottowa’ yet again and hazarding ‘epidermis’ and ‘epidermal’ before seeing the wordplay. Some tricky vocab prevented this from being a gimme like yesterday’s gentle year opener.
  3. Chambers: carfax is a place where four roads meet;
    an intersection of main roads in the center of a town.
    Barbara
    1. Collins says the same thing, almost verbatim. I suspect collusion or plagiarism. Does any town habitually use the terminology apart from Oxford? Which leads to today’s theme tune: (Altogether!) I went down to the carfax…
  4. 23ac is MI,SHAP. Shap Fell is a notorious high spot in Cumbria.

    In 5dn I think the problem is RUB rather than BUR, with ‘over’ as a reversal indicator.

    Edited at 2012-01-02 07:03 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for correcting those two howlers, Jack. You can see I wasn’t up to the mark today. I was so convinced shap couldn’t possibly be a word that I didn’t Google it.
      1. Not sure either is a howler nor yet that your version of BURUNDI isn’t entirely valid as an alternative.
        1. Bur for problem isn’t out of the question, via bur = burr = thorn, but not as direct as the rub line, I think.

          As for Shap, my version just didn’t make any sense, and I was foolish enough to say so. If you’ve grabbed the short end of the stick, the best option is to wave it around shouting “I’ve grabbed the short end of the stick!”. It seems to work for many in public life.

  5. shap summit is the highest point on the M6 (maybe any motorway in britain?) so yes, pretty well known.
  6. This was a sting-in-the-tail job for me. Having completed all but four clues in 30 minutes I spent another 20 on EURATOM, GIMLET, EPIDERMIC and CARFAX.

    I didn’t know the nuclear community nor the sleeveless jacket, and at 15 I rashly wrote EPIDERMIS assuming (without analysing the clue properly) that ‘one side’ probably clinched the -IS ending rather than -IC or -AL. It was only the failure to solve S?R?A? at 27ac that forced a rethink here eventually.

    I used to stay quite regularly at the CARFAX hotel in Great Pulteney Street in Bath many years ago and when I met the word again on a visit to Oxford I looked it up. Unfortunately the definition I remember didn’t say anything about four roads meeting so that part of the clue didn’t ring any bells.

    Edited at 2012-01-02 07:32 am (UTC)

  7. 12 minutes mostly cheap ‘n’ cheerful solving, with the same -IS -AL -IC issues that everyone else seems to have had. The -AL ending sounds (to me) so much more “right” and it has a L(eft) at the end, but the absence of a short enough vehicle beginning with L raised the worries. CARFAX as a dimly-heard-of duly went in with note to self to check it post solve.
    I thought all the long ones had their merits, but giggled most at PROFITEERING, my CoD. It could only be Isaiah, I think: 3.18 In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings… Must have made a fair few bob on that lot.
  8. I found this quite hard, and was stuck in the NE with ingot and gimlet last in. 46 minutes. I don’t know who J.W.Howard is (presumably recently honoured) but find the comment on him a little off: a forum like this takes all sorts and not all are of the nudge nudge variety. I’ve never seen carfax without the capital C for the Oxford reference.

    Edited at 2012-01-02 10:08 am (UTC)

    1. John Winston Howard was the Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007, the second longest term after Sir Robert Menzies (a seminal influence on him). You can be forgiven for not knowing of him, but anybody who lived in Australia through Howard and/or Menzies find it difficult to forget them and their legacy; but then, one gets the politicians one deserves.

      I believe Meryl Streep has been approached to play Howard in a forthcoming biopic.

      1. Ah, that Howard. Still, some of his constituents may yet admire him. Or family. Or someone. I’m not sure we should feel it OK to speak ill of living or recently departed public figures in this sort of space. It brings up the whole virtual public-private debate: e.g. a chat-room sounds private and has the accompanying license I guess; but isn’t there a slight but significant difference between a chat-room and here? (Sorry to sound stuffy.)
        1. There are certainly many in Australia who lament Howard’s End. Depressingly, compared to the current state of Australian politics, the words Golden Age spring to mind. None of which need concern us here, as you rightly point out.
        2. I duly retract my comment. Can’t edit it out as it’s been replied to. For the record, he was recently given the Order of Merit (18dn), an honour personally bestowed by Her Majesty and, for that reason, an affront to the republicans among us.
  9. 15 minutes, loved ‘profiteering’. although I was familiar with the Oxford version, carfax is a real word derived from Latin quadri-furcus = four forks, via French quatre furcs hence now carrefour. Being in France I own a gilet. Don’t quite get the parsing of 6 dn ‘ingot’?
    1. Sorry about 6d. It’s a hidden word clue. servING OThers. Note four letters on either side; hence “in the centre”. The Times is very particular about the use of “centre” in this circumstance. Such clues are the hardest to spot sometimes and the source of much consternation when the penny finally drops.
  10. GILET (as fishing vest) is probably fairly well known to non-fashion-conscious anglers: strangely I struggled with rendering ‘medium’ as M. Entered HEM without confidence, thinking it was probably a weak homophone for h’m or hmm: only post-solve did I find that OED has this as the principal spelling and my versions as variants. Too many interruptions for a real time. COD to MORE’S THE PITY.
    1. I was going to say in the blog that the occurrence of M for medium was much less common than either S for small or L for large. In fact, I don’t recall seeing it before, but that usually means in the last week or so. These abbreviations were not allowed in The Times until fairly recently, despite OS having long standing imprimatur. For one of my generation, M is for mens.

      I suspected gilet described other garments, but none which I had ever encountered. Strange that the faux fur version hasn’t taken off amongst anglers. At a pinch, it could come in handy to construct flies.

  11. Straightforward 20 minute solve with no problems along the way. Like others thought 17A the best of a good bunch.

    Staggered anybody is surprised to learn thar Euratom is a body that really exists. The European Atomic Energy Community has been in existence since the mid 1950s and was the subject of a key European Treaty about 10 years after that.

    1. Well, there you go. I can’t say anything in my defence.

      I once owned an Atom brand cycling helmet, complete with the circling electron logo, which had a decided 1950’s feel about it both in style and sentiment. Did it really protect me from Strontium 90 as well as car bonnets? I can attest to the latter, but the former remains uncertain.

      1. I don’t think there’s any need to put up a defence, koro. It’s just another boring portmanteau word/acronym or whatever it is amongst a billion others. No art, no poetry to it, just functional jargon for those in the know.
  12. A nice ‘n’ easy 12:27 here, which was a bit of a relief as I also finally got round to solving Friday’s puzzle (25046) this morning, and thought I’d completely lost my touch until reading the blog!

    Like others I also hesitated over EPIDERM??, but only put the first 7 letters in until I’d worked out 27.

  13. You’re quite right but I got lucky because of:
    1. Misspent youth in Oxford.
    2. Withnail and I.
    3. Got my British mother what I called a quilted vest for a recent Christmas and she thanked me for the “gilet”.
    4. Hanging on a hook in my husband’s closet is a dreadful object called a Lester Lanin (US bandleader of yore) beanie. It sports a red pompom.
    So clocked in at 26 minutes.
  14. About 15 minutes for me. only real hold up was checking that 18d was what it was.
  15. Crept in under two hours with a look at the dictionary for CARFAX. I’m thinking of changing my user image to a tortoise.

    With regard to SEIZE, there are a couple of other exceptions to the rule – KEITH & SHEILA (my sister). I can’t count the number of times we have been addressed as Kieth and Shiela.

    Edited at 2012-01-02 06:18 pm (UTC)

  16. 20:38 .. same sticking points as many others. CARFAX a total unknown – I clearly didn’t pay enough attention while watching Inspector Morse, but wouldn’t it be nice if it happened to crop up in tonight’s Endeavour?

    Never really thought about the meaning of GIMLET, other than as one of those cocktails which sounds ineffably cool when ordered by Humphrey Bogart but probably tastes pretty awful.

  17. Happy New Year everyone.
    Just over 23 minutes for this one, held up by a number of unknowns: Shap Fell, EURATOM, ECARTE. I also fell into the EPIDERMIS/AL trap, which didn’t help. My last in was CARFAX, which took me ages in spite of going to the requisite university. At least I didn’t put in OTTOWA for once.
  18. I was far from the wavelength of the setter and crawled to the finish gasping and choking in 28 minutes. GIMLET, NOTECASE, MISHAP from definition, HOB and CARFAX from wordplay alone.

    With everything else being discussed – just want to pop in that I really liked the clue for CURRY FAVOUR.

  19. I am new to this site and am in awe at the speed in which some of the contributors can complete the puzzle – really enjoyed 23 across and am able to confirm that the highest motorway point in England is the M62 on the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire

    Regards,

    G.C.

  20. Not much to add.. I found this easy to start, hard to finish. c25mins in all.
    I did think there were several really slick clues though, eg 13dn, 17ac, 25ac etc, lovely surfaces.
    Played ecarte, years ago. Piquet is better.
  21. I didn’t have time to come to this blog earlier and now I’m already supposed to be at my local for the pub quiz. So just time for a quick gloat. This was my quickest time for ages. 16 minutes. I’ve only beaten that speed a couple of times in the last 50 years. Must have been on the wavelength. Tomorrow will probably be a DNF!
  22. 7:21 for me – helped by being a member of the Oxford Mafia – making a nice straightforward start to the year.
  23. A surprisingly swift 24′ for me, although I didn’t get EURATOM; all I could come up with with the checkers was ‘erratum’, which didn’t much make sense, but then neither did MISHAP. I knew CARFAX–and never until today noticed the homophony with the US one–and was under the impression that it was a corruption of ‘carrefour’. When I was a schoolboy, the mantra was “I before E except after a C, or when sounded as AY, as in ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh’.”
  24. I have indeed a lot of catching up to do, but I’m making good progress and should be up to date by mid-March. Speed was never my forte.
  25. I just remembered that this had bothered me for a second while solving: For me (was it only me?), the thing on the hat, or in the cheerleader’s hand, is a pompoN. Just checked the SOED and it cross-refers from ‘pompom’ to ‘pompon’; I guess that’s good enough?
      1. Good Lord, so we did. I hope I kept out of the discussion in 24946, at least; 3 out of 3 would be too much. New resolution for 2012 (having broken two already): Never say anything again about pompons.

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