Times 24171

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I put up a placeholder when it was clear that someone had forgotten about a swapped blogging slot today. The rest of this is from richardvg – glheard is absolved of any blame that might have been implied by my previous statement about what was happening.

Solving time: 21:38

I am sorry that this slipped my mind until late. I do wonder if I would have been any faster if I had solved it during my morning commute as usual, instead of after visiting the pub at lunchtime.

Lots of good clues, including many tricky definitions. The main holdups for me were 23 and especially 26. In my young day, the middle name of the author of the little red book was TSE.

Across

1 1 M.P. ED ED – I do like “paper runners” for ED x 2
5 JUMP + JET
9 AN + TI-NOVEL – the latter part being VIOLENT* – We have had this word in the last year or so. I remember casually dropping the fact that I once read an anti-novel.
11 UNA(R)M, UNAM being Man U(rev)
12 RUSTY NAIL – hard to classify, two meanings, the first one being cryptic
13 DOCTOR FA(U)ST + U.S. – I don’t think I will confess that with the early checking letters, I seriously considered DOCTOR FINDLAY as an old drama
17 GEORGIE PORG+ I.E. – the first part being (EG POOR GRIEG)*
21 I.C. (LAUD) I. + US – referencing a company that was once one of the UK’s most important, but doesn’t really exist any more. I think the interesting bits became AstraZeneca
24 DR + EAR, DR being R(oa)D(rev)
26 MA(O) ZE + DONG – Easy if you are familiar with this spelling, which I was not.
27 RO(I)STER – surprisingly tricky. The first word (one) is the object of “is gripping”. And the definition is “large it”, I think
26 LADDERS – two meanings

Down

1 ICARUS – cryptic def
2 PUT(PAID)TO – I was familiar with “cashier” meaning “dismiss”, but it seems it can also mean discard, put away, annul. Which I guess works
3 D(YMAN)IC, ie (MANY in C.I.D.) (all rev)
4 DO(VER SO)LE – entered on the basis of the first letter, letter count and definition. A relief when I worked it out.
5 J. + (r)ULES
6 M(INDY)O + U – needed all the checking letters, because I didn’t think of indy racing
7 JUN + T.A.
8 T(REEL)ESS, TESS being (SETS)* – defined by “out of planes” as discussed in comments “planes” or even “of planes” is a slightly odd definition of this adjective
14 FOOTS + TOOL – LOOT(rev)
15 THE(RE FOR)E – neat, though it took me a while to accept that “behind” can mean “for” – in the sense of “supporting”
16 AG + LITTER
18 GLUE-(P)OT – the container being (LEG OUT)*
19 GO(l)D + HEAD
20 B(RUG)ES(t)
22 LA + THI(s) – a word I know only from crosswords
23 IZMIR (= “is mere”)

31 comments on “Times 24171”

  1. 17:25, one mistake – ISMIR for IZMIR at 23. I could grumble about the clue possibly indicating IS+”mere” as well as “is mere”, but I’ve made competitive hay from other folk’s misspellings many times, so better not. 27 seemed a bit weird but that was my modern colloquial language not being up to scratch – COED has “large it”=to go out and have a good time. Which might be a nice reminder that we haven’t had a “Sloggers and Betters” pub session for a long time…

    Elsewhere, 26 was a long time coming but a good penny-drop moment. 15 and 20 also have very clever wordplay – or a clever combination of wordplay and how to express it.

    Edited at 2009-03-12 02:16 pm (UTC)

  2. 45 minutes with two missing. 23 I just didn’t know, and 15 eluded me even with all the checking letters in place. At that point I ran out of time and cheated. I still haven’t been able to explain “special” in 10, but maybe it’s covered in one of the dictionaries that I don’t have to hand at the moment.
    1. Ah, yes, 27! That was another unexplained answer that I meant to revisit but now I don’t need to.
    2. I had to look it up Jack. Chambers gives two meanings of NONCE the first of which is “for a special occasion”. It’s a bit olde worlde.
  3. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle although at 35 minutes found it decidedly tricky. There are 3 down clues I don’t understand the wordplay for so I’ll check back later for the blog.

    Peter, I’d underlined “large it” as a terrific disguised definition, likewise “out of planes” and “one’s content to stick”. The other device I really enjoyed was “student driving away from” to denote the subtraction of a letter l.

    Q-0, E-9, D-8.5, COD – so many to choose from but I’ll go for 6d for the clever use of American racing and qualification as the unlikely-looking definition.

    1 across rock: 1970s punk pioneers from Glasgow Impeded Glue Pot, whose bid for stardom was derailed when the lead singer’s mum made them give back all her safety pins and bin bags on the eve of their big gig at the Empire.

  4. An odd mixture of very easy and extremely hard clues for me. I filled in the NW corner in no time at all, and thought I was in for a record time, before grinding to a standstill. I’ve still got a couple blank, which I’ll have a shot at this evening. Failing that, I look forward to the blog!
  5. The trouble with the “move on if you can’t get it immediately” strategy is that eventually you are supposed to get one or two. 23 defeated me totally, and I see that I have not fully understood the handful of clues that have been so far discussed. They are even better than I thought. Never encountered “large it” but probably have encountered some large itisers in my time. Spoilt for choice on COD but will go for 26.

    I have a book of Lear works translated into French. I bought it to see what Moppsikon Floppiskon translated as, but they didn’t attempt it: “C’est un lourdaud d’ourson de la ville d’Hirson” isn’t quite the same thing. And for those wondering, runcible is grincible.

    The Online Etymology Dictionary has “for the nonce” as “for a special occasion, for a particular purpose,”. No doubt Chambers or COED has it thus also.

    As for the Glue Pots, is it true that the bass player, Claudius “Georgie Porgie” Faustus turned up to the first rehearsal with a large fish and pair of marimba mallets?

  6. 23:16 .. terrific, mind-stretching, content-rich puzzle

    There may be one or two quibbles, but they would be as nothing alongside the welter of stand-out clues.

    COD .. I just love 3d for that interpretation of “a lot of detectives”. A memorable puzzle.

  7. Solved in two sessions so say 35 minutes. I agree several good and some strange or very easy (like 1D for example). Not sure I like CI-MANY-D for “a lot of detectives” but perhaps it will grow on me.
  8. I was a bit disheartened after yesterday but, now I know what neo-lamarckism means, I decided to persevere in the hope that the crossword solving skills that I develop will be inherited by my children and grandchildren.
    A better effort today with all the necessary bits of general knowledge coming to mind. I did struggle with Icarus because I was under the impression that he was the father and Daedalus was the son.
    Like Peter I hovered between Ismir and Izmir but plumped for Izmir on the grounds that it made more sense of the homophone clue.
    I remember Mao Tse-tung from the days before he had the posthumous name change. Fortunately the wordplay made the modern spelling fairly clear although I would quibble with the (3,2,4) letter pattern. The accepted spelling seems to be Mao Zedong. If the setter was looking for the Pinyin alternative máo zé dōng there should have been some indication in the clue.
    Last in: Therefore. My fault, I should have remembered that this crossword is fond of clueing adverbs.
    Time: ages
    1. Is/zmir: If I’d hovered, I think I’d have remembered the right spelling. I’ve been to Turkey a couple of times and know that Turkish spelling is consistent.

      But I just saw one cryptic reading out of two and plumped – or misplumped.

      Mao Zedong – you’re right, but I suspect others remembered the three words of ‘Mao Tse Tung’ first, like me, and didn’t notice an issue when they remembered the ZE possibility.

      Edited at 2009-03-12 05:32 pm (UTC)

  9. This should have carried a “Not to be taken with alcohol” warning. Managed to finish after a sleep, and with some outrageous cheating.I personally feel that this has a selection of the most disjointed surfaces that I have ever encountered, but that could be hangover engendered grumpiness.
  10. 8D – my reading was that the anagrind for ‘sets’ was just “thrown”, leaving “out of planes”. Imagine your local garden centre telling you they’re “fresh out of planes guv”.

    17A – a small Meldrewish snarl at the fact that even the printed version starts off “Eg poor Grieg” – my impression was that e.g. (and i.e.) always came with dots, and were never capitalised.

    Ross’s comment about surfaces: some don’t make as much sense as we normally expect. But I think there was enough good stuff on other counts to compensate.

    1. 8D – Thanks, you are obviously right. I will not confess that I had misread planes as “plains”, which are often treeless, but not in a way that they could define the word. I will shamefacedly edit.
  11. Not quite as easy as yesterday’s, but I still finished it in about 12-13 minutes this morning. 12A is a favourite tipple of mine – it’s a cocktail of Scotch whisky with Drambuie (or Glayva) liqueur – so that’s my COD 🙂
  12. 13 Ac. Your Doctor Findlay pales before my Doctor Kildare! and the good Russian Zhivago had a fleeting look in as well.

    “Large it” I am completely unfamiliar with. Is it in general use in Blighty?

    1. Not general enough for this old fogey to know it, but general enough to be in my shiny new COED (dated 2008), and not the 1999 version.
  13. 15d TREELESS – I think this refers to “out of trees”

    Is 10A NONCE? This was missed out.

    1. 10A: Yes it is – hidden word, def. already covered by other comments. Follow the “about this blog” link at the top if you don’t know why we leave out a few of the clues.
  14. Like another solver I completed the NE corner plus several others in 4 minutes, making me think I might possibly solve it in under 15 minutes. Then I ground to a standstill. After 50 minutes I was left with 14, 15, 19, 23, 26 (which I did think ended in DONG for the Lear character). I was stymied by the fact that I’d entered FLIGHTS for 28, leading me to think 14 ended in SHELF.
  15. With DOCTOR F in place I also immediately thought of the medicine man from Tannochbrae, but it was easy enough to rule him out as his name was Finlay. No “D”, so insufficient letters.
  17. Thought this was very difficult, but clever. Still have no idea about where naked boy comes into play in 2 d, and also verso in 3d. Surely profitable is not paid. I’m afraid I still dont understand 26a.
    Better tomorrow perhaps.Mike and Fay
    1. 4 Dn. When you open a book, the left hand page is the verso, the right the recto. To dole out is to dish out, so:
      the fish is do(ver so)le.

      26 Ac. Ma(o)ze – confusing passage about o(ld). And Edward Lear’s “the Dong with the Luminous Nose.” thinks.com/words/nonsense/dong.htm

  18. I didn’t understand the reference to a Normandy beach in 19D until I Googled it: “Gold Beach was one of five designated beaches that were used during the D-Day landings in June 1944. Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha and Utah beaches”. Useful for quiz shows, perhaps.
    1. Remember them for xwds too – they go back a long way. Google for telegraph crossword d-day if you don’t know the story already.
  19. This was a cracker. There were a number of lightbulb moments after perseverance with clues that seemed that they would never reveal their secrets. Aha!

    There are 2 “easies” not in the blog:

    10a Design on cent piece coined for special occasion (5)
    NONCE. Hidden answer in first 3 words. I had no idea about the “special occasion” use of this word. I got it because it was a HA. My only encounter with NONCE is the prison slang acronym for inmates who might be in danger from fellow prisoners (see title). Too many crime dramas on TV I might add – not from personal experience.

    25a Reckon infant’s bedtime over? (3,2)
    TOT UP

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