Times 24128 – Jimbo might be 9A …

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time 13:38, Q-1 E-7 D-7

This seems a good example of a puzzle on the hard side of average, with hardly anything needed in the general knowledge line. One very fussy quibble point for a couple of mild stretches of meaning, without bothering to look them up to check. There are lots of good wordings. As so often, the NW corner was trickiest for me.

Across
1 ST(IF,L)ING – do=swindle=sting, if=provided, ‘cases’ as containicator, ‘close’ as def – all good tricky stuff.
9 E.C.,STATIC – “united” as a “join ’em together” indicator is a nice variation to slow down understanding of the wordplay.
10 POINT=argument,OUT=inaccurate
11 LIAR DICE – (card I)* in LIE
12 KEY=vital,HOLE=flaw,SAW=rev. of was = “has been”
14 SPIT = tips rev. – maybe slaver=drool=spit is a bit of a stretch. Later thought: COED’s slaver (noun) = “spit running from the mouth” seems close enough
15 WOE IS ME from We OpEn InSuMmEr
22 SQUEEZE BOX – B=British in milk=SQUEEZE, one of the cattle=OX
23 OBSTACLE – B in locates*
25 ABERRANT – BER(ate) in A RANT = a tirade
26 EGGSHELL – GarageS in (e.g.,HELL)
27 LOMBARDY – M in broadly*
 
Down
2 T(OODLE(s))OO – too = “as well”
3 FENG SHUI = (geish(a), fun) – if you’v e heard this said right (“furng shway”), watch out for the Pinyin E here, which sounds roughly like the UR in burp. Memorable to me from a stay in Beijing’s Peace Hotel = Heping Binguan = “hurping bingwahn”. (Also the UI=way as in Guilin = “gwaylin”.). If you think it’s “feng shooey”, there’s no trouble!
6 OSCAR WILDE – (is (No)el Coward)*
7 STRIPPER – trip=mistake (slight stretch?) in rev. of reps
8 S(CREW)TOP – to scotch something is to stop it.
13 LUMP=some sugar,SUCKER=mug – very nice clue.
15 WALK(O,V)ER
16 ENVISAGE – N=new in rev. of I’ve, + SAGE=master
18 AVE.,(M)ARIA – way = Ave., M=maiden
19 UNOPENED – resent = re-sent. Or for those who stopped long enough to notice, “resent” is an unopened (i.e. not started) “present”
20 CURE-ALL – real=genuine in rev. of luc(k)
24 BE=live=21’s solution,A.M. = before noon

42 comments on “Times 24128 – Jimbo might be 9A …”

  1. I’m pleased to learn that you rate this puzzle as ‘on the hard side of average’. It took me about an hour to finish all but two. I had not met the comely lumpsucker before now, and ‘squeeze box was just a silly miss. I liked the misleading yet smooth surface reading of ‘stifling’ even if I needed most of the checked letters to solve it. A little curious about the use of the word ‘press’ in 4ac. Is it another bonus definition for ‘iron’ or does it refer to ‘iron’ being pressed by ‘Mi….ty’?
    1. Sorry, I should probably have included this clue with wordplay and two defs – to press is to flatten/smooth, esp. by ironing.
  2. About 40 minutes today in several short sessions, but it took me longer to get started than yesterday’s.

    Lots of very nice clues. I particularly liked 22 which by using up three of the less common letters alerted me to the possibility of a pangram but alas there is no J, unless I have something wrong.

    I also liked the Coward/Wilde clue at 6. It’s unusual to see Mr C without his diaeresis. Was it in the printed edition I wonder?

    Did anyone have any problems with the Club site? At home I found a strange user-id in the field instead of my e-mail address (I’m the sole user of my home PC), and later at work I was unable to open the log-in screen for a while, though it’s okay now.

    1. I had a phantom user name a couple of weeks ago, and a few days ago couldn’t get to the log-in screen, but no problems at present.

      I did this in breaks between doing chores for “she who must be obeyed”. As noted by others I thought it was quite hard (esp the NW corner) with some very good clues, but (perhaps as a result of the lack of any need for general knowledge pointed out by Peter) rather sterile (if that makes any sense as applied to a crossword!)

      1. I’ve seen the phantom email address a few times. I used to worry about it, thinking my account or PC had been hacked, but it seems to be just another of the many ways the Times has found to ‘surprise’ users with its website.
  4. Superb puzzle, right up my street. Great constructions and misleading wordplays. No arcane bits of knowledge. About 35 minutes of real pleasure.

    Peter, at 19D I think we should make clear that “resent” is an unopened “present”!

    I’ve got ticks all over the place but must mention: the hidden word at 15A where on first sight the phrase looks too long to do what it does; the construction of 1A; the misleading use of “united” at 9A; 25A for “this hasn’t worried”; 6D and 13D for great construction.

    We agree for once Peter, I am 9A

    1. 19D: when us careless speed merchants understand the clue, yes! I thought a present that wasn’t opened because of some resentment might be re-sent to someone else, like one of those permanent raffle prizes – or something like that. Later on it occurs to me that the giver might resent his present remaining unopened. So it can work in many ways …
  5. Better today: 22 mins.

    Those like me who like to start with 1 across may well have had a disheartening experience this morning. Despite spotting the correct definition – once you have the -ing ending it pretty well had to be – it was eventually my second-to-last in. But comforting when the construction finally clicked.

    Excellent puzzle.

    Neil

  6. I was undone by the NW corner. 3D doesn’t work for me; I don’t see how ‘Geisha’s endless fun’ can provide the anagram material GEISHFUN.

    Tom B.

      1. If I’m guessing right that “Tom B” is Tom Borland, the Times Crossowrd Club’s “overall Clue Challenge champion” for 2008, I’m sure he’s this far ahead, and wondering whether “Geisha’s endless fun upset” can really mean “endless Geisha and fun are upset”. It worked for me, but I can see that it’s a bit ugly, and “Endless Geisha fun upset” might be clearer.
        1. My apologies Tom B. I agree with Peter’s comment (we’ve got to stop this, Peter) – it worked OK for me but was a little contrived.
        2. That’s an elegant re-write which removes (what I may be alone in seeing as) the problem. I even think it improves the surface. I thought 6D was witty – I don’t know if the similarity between these two names has been used before.

          Tom B.

          1. Now that your secret is out, Tom, or at least not strenuously denied, and whilst not wishing to place you in an embarassing position, may I just say Chapeaux! Your clueing of Camouflage( = A mark of a good clue, possibly) ranks amongst my all time favourites. Credit where credit is due.
  7. Not happy with 1a at all.
    11a – never heard of LIAR DICE – who has?
    10a – POINT isn’t argument in my book….
    1. 11a: Yes – sold commercially as “Perudo” but playable with Poker dice too.
      10a: Point is “an argument or idea” in the Concise Oxford.
    2. What did you find disagreeable about 1? Looks OK (actually much better than OK) to me. Sting (do) cases (encloses) provided with locks at the front (if + l) = close (stifling).
  8. 33:10 with one goof. .. It seems I’m the Joker to jimbo’s Batman, the Moriarty to his Holmes, the Vader to his Skywalker. Because I hated this.

    Some great wordplay and ingenious treatments, for sure, but mostly wrapped up in clues that reminded me of essays by students of English as a second language. I’ll never really enjoy a puzzle where many clues, even printed out of context, could only be cryptic crossword clues, the kind of thing I recall Not the Nine O’Clock News spoofing in their annual.

    I went awry with SPIT, which I threw in as SPOT (having pretty much lost the will to live). Definite quibble on the def. there. And is “point out” really equivalent to “make clear”?

    COD .. (P)RESENT which I would have really enjoyed in a different puzzle.

    1. To point out the meaning of something is to make something (previously unclear or obscure) clear.
      1. .. which would be fine if the solution was “point out the meaning of”. Point out, alone, seems to mean “draw attention to”.
    2. The only one of those I can relate to Sotira is Holmes and I refuse to think of you as the awful Moriarty. How about Lucille Ball, shrewdness and acumen hidden behind a camouflage of pretend dizziness? You must beware turning into Judith Holder just yet. Enjoying not enjoying is not something that young folk can relate to.
      1. I always rather warmed to Moriarty. I had to Google Judith Holder – you’re right, she’s got a few years on me. As for enjoyment, it’s definitely overrated. Almost as much as the ghastly concept of ‘fun’. Okay, so I’m a grumpy middle-aged woman.
  9. 19:40 which for me suggests average difficulty although it felt harder at the time. I thought 3 was going to be some world-famous Tibetan temple I should have heard of but hadn’t and the slightly messy wordplay pointed out by Tom made it hard to suss out what letters I needed to play with. Eventually I rearranged all my office furniture into an East/West alignment and the penny dropped on feng shui which then made 1, my last entry, gettable.

    Unlike Sotira I enjoyed the challenge, particularly 1 & 15.

    Q-0, E-8, D-6

  10. This was quite tricky, I thought, especially the NE corner where I was stuck for a long long time. After 50 minutes I had all but 11ac, and running out of time guessed, wrongly, never having heard of the game, and my clue parsing skills (ha!) having temporarily deserted me. COD? 5d I thought was quite funny, though no doubt old hat.
  11. Reasonably quick for me until totally flummoxed by my last 3, stifling, toodle-oo and liar dice. bc
  12. I thought it was a cracking good crossword, although my attempt at it fell short of the mark. Put ENVISION in at 14, playing word association with master (Master of Sion. Is that from the Da Vinci code? Ahhh! It’s implanted a worm in my brain.) and so couldn’t get eggshell and by extension lumpsucker & keyhole for far too long. Best clue for me was toodle-oo, for it’s retro quaintness and for having four o’s and none of them clued by a duck or an egg.

    Re-reading some of the clues I can see Sotira’s point, but I was too engrossed at the time to notice.

  13. I was at a show last night and the show was dull and the venue was pretty well-lit, so I fished out the crossword and dibbled away on it, and ended up with two mistakes. I had the wordplay for LIAR DICE and convinced myself somehow this wasn’t a real game and opted for LOAD DICE. I also had SPOT hoping that it was another definition of slaver.

    So I ended up with an incorrect crossword and some performers annoyed that I wasn’t paying full attention to the show (everyone has off nights, and improv groups probably have more of them than anybody). I was bemused by the kid who brought what appeared to be a sword to the show, if he hadn’t kept it sheathed/scabbarded it would have been a different experience.

  14. Three days away at the seaside has done nothing for my brainpower. I struggled with this and after 2 hours only had SE corner. I gave up at that point. Life’s too short. Enjoyed reading the blog though. Having seen the answers I would never have finished anyway, so good decision to cut and run.
    1. A fairly brief look found that there’s at least one hidden word clue in the 1960 puzzle, and a slightly indirect one in the 1947. I’m pretty sure that chestnuts like “Capital city in Czechoslovakia” date back to the 30s or earlier, possibly outside crosswords, but have no easily locatable solid evidence that I can think of.
  15. Regards all, sorry to have been missing for a few days. This took me 20-25 minutes altogether, like others finishing in the NW. However, I find I have a mistake due to my inability to spell ‘feng shui’, where I knew what I was trying to spell, but was sure the first word was ‘fung’, so I strung the rest together as ‘shei’. Oops. I don’t see overly great difficulty with the anagram fodder here, by the way, but I defer to the veteran solvers. See you tomorrow.
  16. Excellent puzzle, I thought. Certainly well to the hard side of average difficulty. I was pleased merely to complete the puzzle in the end, though I had to come here to get a full explanation of STIFLING at 1ac. I too, along with Peter B and Jimbo, can’t see anything wrong with “geisha’s endless fun” as the anagram fodder at 3ac. I was initially minded to quibble that “united” was redundant padding at 9ac, but now accept Jimbo’s defence of it as a brilliant deceptive device. It certainly worked in my case as I wasted much time trying to find an answer that was a synonym for “united”.

    Michael H

  17. I really liked this puzzle. Hard but not overly so, and very fair cluing except for one or two.
    I seldom make errors (just because not in any hurry) but carelessly put spot for spit, having missed completely the required pronunciation and meaning of “slaver”..
    It sometimes seems to me that ALL of the harder puzzles attract some criticism, ostensibly for other reasons but in reality, just for being hard…
  18. I managed to make little impression on Monday and Tuesday’s puzzles, partly due to lack of time — as a relative novice it takes me quite a long time to make serious in roads and I’ve just been a bit busy.

    Today I resorted to early use of a crossword solver, which I don’t really like doing but I think is preferable to giving up altogether. That allowed me to almost complete the puzzle. LIAR DICE and IRON defeated me, and I didn’t really understand STIFLING until coming here.

    IRON was certainly a new structure for me. I’ve seen the occasional triple definition, but not a double definition with wordplay.

  19. Now that I think about it, in addition to the clues just mentioned, I now realise that I hadn’t fully appreciated all that was going on in 19D. I was just thinking of a play on resent = re-sent, but the whole thing is very clever now I see it!

    Also, I’m still not entirely sure about 9ac. Would anyone care to explain ‘city = EC’? Thanks!

    1. Thanks, sotira! That sounds like one of those abbreviations I should keep in mind for future puzzles.
      1. You’re welcome. And yes, it does pop up quite a lot so worth keeping in the “useless but essential knowledge” file.

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