Times 24318 – If I only had the Latin

Author   kororarekaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 33mins

Apart from the Latin, and a few things which I didn’t know but sounded as if they had to be right, this was a gentle beginning to the week, befitting the holiday mood. It doesn’t pay to upset those lucky enough to have the day off.

Across
1 MALIC(e). Malic or dicarboxylic acid is a colourless, crystalline compound, that occurs naturally in a wide variety of unripe fruit, including apples, cherries and grapes. It is the oenologist’s friend and often added to the very best of wines to get the perfect acid/sugar balance, if the grapes themselves haven’t got it quite right.
4 P[O.M.]ANDER, typically an orange spiked with cloves found in wardrobes. Pander is a variant of panderer, apparently, meaning a pimp.
8 SOCIAL + SECURITY, a welfare system
10 WINTER VIE with the W(ife) going to the end to make INTERVIEW, to ask questions
11 Deliberately withheld. Ask if unsure.
12 NE[M.C.]ON for NEM CON (Nemine Contradicente), usually appearing in the minutes of a meeting indicating a motion was passed unanimously. M.C. from 20ac.
14 T + EATABLE for TEA-TABLE, where one should be if the food is on time.
17 RELI[SH]ES. I would have said more than satisfaction, but that’s a question of degree.
18 S[PEE(r)]CH(ool) for a SPEECH.
20 EMCEE sounds exactly like M.C. (Military Cross) because it’s from M.C., Master of Ceremonies. Strange to see it written out, but if OKAY is OK, then EMCEE is tickety-boo.
22 HEX + A C(onservative) + HORD(e) for a HEXACHORD, not as you might have thought a fistful of notes in no particular key, but one of Guido d’Arezzo’s (remember him?) creations and a forerunner of our tetrachord system. The hexachord in C is CDEFGA, the first six notes of the major scale (eliminating the troublesome seventh). Put together with that in G and F, you get all the notes a medieval chorister needs in life.
24 (I DO ALL THE MATCH)* for OLDHAM ATHLETIC Football Club. Come on you owls!
25 TRUCK[L]ER for an obsequious person.
26 (MELODY – M(ark))* for YODEL, a little old lady who…

Down
1 MISSION + ARIES for converters.
2 (e)LICIT for what is permitted.
3 (MACHO SORT)* for CHAT ROOMS
4 PASS + I’M for PASSIM which means here and there or scattered throughout. Used in bibliographic citations to indicate plagiarism on a grand scale, it seems. This guess sounded more plausible than PUSHIM, as in “axe you pull’im push’im”, reputedly once New Guinea pidgin for a saw.
5 (I R(un) WEBCAM)* for Wilkins MICAWBER, a character from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, fond of saying “something will turn up” possibly in reference to his knee breeches.
6 NORMA(l) an opera by Vincenzo Bellini.
7 E(ast) + S[TIM]ABLE for ESTIMABLE, worthy of respect
9 (COULD THE MAN I)* for UNMETHODICAL or sloppy.
13 MOL[ECU + L(eft)]AR for MOLECULAR, dealing with small particles. Some countries minted ECU (European Currency Unit) in gold prior to the introduction of the euro, apparently, but an ecu can also be an old French gold or silver coin with a shield (ecu) stamped on it.
15 T[O(ld) PIC]ALLY for TOPICALLY, in current fashion.
16 BE + C[H(ump)]AMEL for BECHAMEL or white sauce, principle ingredients being butter, milk and flour.
19 EX + (RETE)< for EXETER. A rete is a network of fibres, blood vessels or nerves, it says here. It had to be thus, and it sounded plausible at the time. It’s also a gladiator’s net, amongst other things.
21 Ask if you can’t see it.
23 O.[PT]E.D. for OPTED or decided on. O.E.D. for the Oxford English Dictionary, of course.

18 comments on “Times 24318 – If I only had the Latin”

  1. Had to do this online (“Play”?) as the printer’s on the blink — literally: the red light blinks when it’s out of bl{ack} ink. So I don’t have a time, but under 10 mins for sure. No complaints except for the nugatory apostrophe-S in the clue for 11ac; and the fact that Oldham Athletic isn’t a team’s bootlace. 1895-2009 are known there as “the wilderness years”. The owl is neat but.
    And as to “nugatory” (ANAX?): it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done/used; it just means it’s powerless, stuffed in for effect, doing no particular work.
    No COD: they were all pretty boring.
    1. Isn’t it the “has” apostrophe again, in the cryptic at least. On the surface it’s a matter of debate what it is, but it’s necessary to get some surface meaning isn’t it?

      And fresh from their 1-1 draw with Brentford, who knows what Oldham can achieve against Hartlepool United this Friday?

  2. 43 minutes with far too many not understood until after I stopped the clock.

    4ac was my first in and the appearance of PANDER for “pimp” in my last blog (Friday) meant I didn’t need to check it here. Before that I would not have known it.

    I never heard of NEM CON, TRUCKLER or RETE.

    HEXACHORD I worked out but had only the vaguest idea what it actually was.

    Not sure I’m happy with EMCEE as “show director”.

  3. If only I had the Latin – Indeed.

    Easy for you lot maybe. I used to think I had a decent enough vocabulary before starting these things but: passim, nem con, rete, sable (black), truckler, bechamel, hexachord, pander (pimp), all new to me, so much use of dictionary to finish in about 2 hours which seems to have become the norm over the recent days. (Saturday’s relatively quick but with several wild guesses in NE corner, Sunday’s in about 20 mins thank heaven).
    Remind me never to invite this setter to dinner.

  4. Why is the Times unable to match the puzzle to the occasion? Last Friday with most solvers at work we had a tough puzzle. Today with most solvers on holiday and able to devote a little extra time we have a 25 minute doddle. If you’re at a loose end yesterday’s Mephisto is a nice puzzle and even has a mathematical and a scientific entry!

    I don’t think there’s a notable clue in this one, it’s very ordinary fare with some (SOCIAL SECURITY for example) very easy. I presume the setter is an Owls fan (how else do you explain their inclusion?). My only real pause was TRUCKLER where I knew “truckle” to be a cheese but from the wordplay it had to be the answer.

    1. Jimbo, there is a BH Jumbo today and I assume this is the Times acknowledgment of the holiday. Also there could be a some people who don’t regularly attempt the daily puzzle but have the time to look at it today, so maybe it’s not fair to publish a stinker that puts them off for life, especially as there’s a new Mephisto to cater for more expert minds.
  5. after last weeks horrors it was good to finish without recourse to aids. some new words rete hexachord and truckler but all easy enough to work out. i thought 9d, although an obvious anagram, a good one.
  6. A gentle 18 min. Everything out of the usual was so strongly keyed and defined that there was no need for aids.
  7. I was not the intended audience for this crossword, but I snuck through thanks to clear wordplay. An amazing number that were gotten through wordplay alone – POMANDER, NEM CON, TRUCKLER, PASSIM, and MICAWBER (waiting to wake up and find it was MACIWBER).

    It doesn’t bother me that there’s not much science/mathematics in here, but there’s a little bit of chemistry/biology at 1 across (probably my COD).

    And another reminder that there’s a Bank Holiday Jumbo Today – they’re helpful and put it at the top of the list this time! These are usually worth doing, I haven’t started it (haven’t finished Saturday’s jumbo yet).

  9. Fairly easy (25 minutes) with no long head-scratching pauses, though I didn’t get 24 until I had enough letters for ATHLETIC. I still had to look at the remaining letters of the anagram fodder since the only team I’ve heard of with ATHLETIC in the title is CHARLTON ATHLETIC.
    TRUCKLER was a very tentative entry, but the wp seemed to dictate it. I found it hard to believe there was such a word.
  10. 7.18. Pretty quick solve considering there were a few unknown/unfamiliar – NEM CON , TRUCKLER, HEXACHORD. Wordplay and checking letters were more than usually helpful today. Noted the crossing of MICAWBER with SOCIAL SECURITY which I am sure he would have been pleased to have had to alleviate the misery of the sixpenny deficit
  11. This was a one cup of coffee solve for me too, with only Truckler being unfamiliar. I suppose having O-Level Latin does help on a day like today. My Latin teacher said “In 40 years time you will have forgotten everything I taught you except the ablative absolute”. He was wrong on both counts. I find the Latin quite useful for crosswords but I’m blowed if I can remember what the ablative absolute is.
  12. Sorry for the late entry. About 20-25 minutes last night, no real hold-ups. Didn’t know NEM COM, rete, M.C. as military cross, but the wordplay was enough on those, as was the anagram fodder for OLDHAM ATHLETIC, another one I of course didn’t know. Not much stood out, I’ll agree, but I will nominate CHAT ROOMS as being amusing. Regards, and I hope you all enjoyed your holiday.
  13. 6:49 for this one on a train today – despite an initial hasty try of “SOCIAL CONTRACT” at 8.
  14. “Emcee” is often used as a spelled-out word here in the States, as in “Billy Crystal will be the emcee of the Academy Awards ceremony this year.”

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