Times 24,092 – The Bare Necessities

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Easily sub-10 minutes here; shall I tempt fate by saying this looks like it’s going to be one of those easy weeks after some quite testing puzzles in the last fortnight? No, best not.

I reckon this is pretty much perfect for newish solvers. The odd term which isn’t especially common in everyday speech (though very much so in Crossword English) but everything signposted in the clearest possible fashion. Q0-E6-D2

Across
1 NOSE FLUTE – NOSE = “knows”, FLUTE, who, like most of the rude mechanicals, appears regularly here.
6 CLAMP – L in CAMP: it seems to have become traditional that potatoes are piled thus, but some brief horticultural research suggests you can make a pile of any root vegetable you like and call it a clamp.
10 LUMBAGO – (p)LUMBAGO is the ore of lead (from the same root as we get plumbers), LUMBAGO the pain in the back. Also worth noting that there are Plumbago flowers…
11 RHINO – old slang for cash, which I think we had not too long ago, actually.
15 STRAIT LACED – (ARTIST)* + LACED (as in the sense in which Kevin Keegan was described as not fit to lace George Best’s drinks).
17 HONEYSUCKLE – “Honeysuckle Rose” is a standard by Fats Waller, which you don’t need to be certain about when there is an easily spotted anagram (ONESLUCKYHE)*.
20 LATTER DAY – (LADY)* round (TREAT)*.
22 EGRET – (r)EGRET = “rue”.
26 EXOTICA – EX + OTIC + A(rea).
28 STRIDENCY – STRIDE (another little nod to Fats Waller?) + (C)ommon in NY.
 
Down
1 NAMUR – (MAN)rev + UR: not the best-known place in the world, not even the best known place in Belgium, but easy enough to work out.
2 SALTIRE – L in SATIRE: not cross = “angry”, but this sort of cross.
3 FURIOUSLY – F(emale) + (c)URIOUSLY.
6 COMBO – COLOMBO without L(et)O(ut): I don’t think this is actually dated any longer, because it’s the term everyone now uses when they’re trying to sound like an out of touch High Court judge. As heard extensively on Have I Got News For You?
7 ARAMAIC – A + RAM + A1 + C(ondiment).
13 PRICKLY PEAR – PRICKLY + PEAR sounds like pair. I only mention it because it gave me a reason to go and watch the definitive explanation of how to deal with such fruit.
14 UPHOLSTER – UP (in court) + HOLSTER = case.
18 NOTHING – NOTING around H(ours): the quotation alluded to is from Iolanthe, but any observer of the House of Lords might well guess at their perceived function without knowing it…
19 PERSIAN – (REP)rev + SIAN.
21 ELIOT – (TOILE)rev can refer to George or TS.
23 TOADY – TOY round A D(uke).

30 comments on “Times 24,092 – The Bare Necessities”

  1. 17 min. Embarrassingly, had to go to the references for 21 Dn. Possibly an ingrained mental block, as the Clan has been split for centuries by the spelling. Hence the very old rhyme:

    The double L and single T
    Descend from Minto and Wolflee,
    The double T and single L
    Mark the race in Stobs that dwell,
    The single L and single T
    The Eliots of St Germains be,
    But double T and double L
    Who they are no-one can tell.

  2. Yes, another nice straightforward one; 20-odd mins here. Nemesis must be on the way.

    10ac PLUMBAGO is also an old name for graphite which (although carbon) is the “lead” in a pencil.

    1dn NAMUR is memorable for Uncle Toby having received his unmentionable wound at the Siege of Namur (in “Tristram Shandy”).

    18dn I think having grown up with parents who performed in a G&S annually is a great advantage in doing Times crosswords. No sooner had I read the clue than a voice came into my head singing the words…

  4. A 15min stroll all guessable where knowledge is vague. Tend to think Fats Domino strains of ‘Going to New Orelans’ don’t know why. Nor why i am doing it four in morning. If they ever make the cryptic a timed affair i wonder when they’ll post it.
  5. Had all but 1A and 2D in 15 minutes, never having heard of the SALTIRE, and confused about whether NAMUR or Samur was in Belgium. Eventually worked it out, about 25 minutes altogether. Yes, I agree we should see some quick times today. Regards all. What’s a nose-flute, anyone?
    1. Mundanely, a flute played by blowing down the nose. Not a jazz player’s instrument so far as I know
      1. Much beloved of world music bores, as in the dread words “I’ve got this amazing recording of Congolese nose flute playing that you simply must hear.”
  6. Was happy to post a 30 minute solution at 0500 this morning. sub 10 minutes is very very good chaps…COD Underground 5 down-really liked this!
  7. 25 minutes even with all the distractions of the commute, so quite an easy puzzle for me particularly with its two references to one of my musical heroes, Fats Waller. I didn’t know the G&S reference at 18 though. The spelling of STRAIT-LACED made me wonder if I have been spelling it wrong all my life, but I have since confirmed this is an American alternative.
  8. 11:40 for me – nothing really held me up, I was just thinking slowly this morning. Almost put in PROTESTER at 8D without checking wordplay, but managed to stop myself. I’ve always associated “Honeysuckle Rose” with Louis Armstrong myself, probably because it was on an LP my dad used to play a lot.
    1. Yes, Louis Armstrong made a famous recording as did many others, but Fats wrote it (with Andy Razaf).
  9. OK a very easy puzzle but great for having Fats in it. A real musician, not some modern pop group excuse.
  10. It took me 25, minutes, so a touch more difficult than yesterday, but mostly very straightforward. I also got held up by ARAMAIC, and wasted time wondering if STRIDENCY was wrong because it had TRID, not TRAD. I’ve never heard of STRIDE.
  11. 7:10 with a cold and head-ache, so pretty easy. Stride piano is “a jazz piano style where the pianist’s left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a bass note or tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a chord on the second and fourth beats, or an interrupted bass with three single notes and then a chord while the right hand plays melodies, riffs and often contrapuntal lines. The name “stride” comes from the left-hand movement “striding” up and down the keyboard”.

    Like so much of the musical stuff, you’ll know it when you hear (and see) it

  12. Who said this was perfect for a beginner? No. Especially on 28a. Poor beginner thinks he’s cracked it with TRAD as the type of jazz, so he sticks TRAD down, and then attempts to get HARSHNESS out of the rest, when the answer’s STRIDENCY all along. On the other hand, I can’t see any difficulty with NAMUR or SALTIRE or ELIOT…
  13. I learned something last night; when I take a muscle relaxant, I can’t do the crossword. And I don’t want to take one again. Passed out with most of the top half unfinished and came to a few hours later with my pen still in my hand, went to bed, and finished off the last few this morning. Solving time 13.5 hours, several of them in an altered state. Must kill doctor.
  14. 7.46. I also spent some time puzzling why STRIDENCY mysteriously contained TRID rather than TRAD, and didn’t figure out the actual wordplay for some time after stopping the clock.

    glheard: when I had a particularly bad bout of toothache a few weeks ago I learned I do the crossword particularly well on heavy painkillers.

  15. A very slow 24 minutes. Held up by my own idiocy in writing PRICKLY PAIR rather than PEAR (don’t ask – I think I was trying to do what the big players do and look at the next clue whilst writing the previous solution in…). And then looking for A _ O _ _ _ A (which on the face of it _could_ be some sort of medical term for the area around the ear?). Also wasted time on 21D thinking one of two = EITHER and with E _ I _ T trying to take something out of it.

    Last in, and my COD 7D “ARAMAIC”.

    I thought it very good for an easy puzzle, and am kicking myself on failing to make it to – for me – a rare sub-20 solve.

  16. 7.58 which was quickest time for a while.Took a little while to work out ARAMAIC and , believe it or not , was about to write in NOSE SNOUT for 1 ac!!
    JohnMarshall
  17. 7 mins, making this two easy ones in a row – worse to come later in the week, no doubt.

    Like many others, STRIDE was new to me – tried hard to fit in TRAD but it obviously wouldn’t.

  18. All OK except for 1D. What reference books are of help to find a Belgian province? Or would an atlas have had the answer?
    1. Google is your best bet. If you’ve derived NAMUR from wordplay and want to check it, then Google “Namur”; if not Google “Belgian Provonces”
      1. Thanks dorsetjimbo. I really must buck up my ideas and use the web more. I always look to books first. Old fashioned but sweet,as my Mum used to say.
    2. I strongly recommend this. A tiny little book and it is very helpful with this sort of thing. I’m always using it.
        1. Thank you so much for that,wil. I remember Pears Cyclopaedia-I had a copy when I was about 10, a long, long time ago. I will put it on my Amazon Wish List and drop heavy hints to the family for Christmas.

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