Times 24,333

Author   richardvgPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 9:24

I don’t feel I whooshed through this, but I went through pretty steadily with no long hold-ups. Some of the constructions or allusions were tricky, but there is nothing obscure in this. I suppose overseas solvers might not know that OFSTED is the brand that Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools now trade under.

All the surfaces are excellent, and many of the clues are very clever. I especially liked the &lit at 3D (CELLPHONE), and there were two other good phone-y clues at 1A and 14A. 4D (LANDING STRIP) is funniest. But for the idea that a library’s charge for use of the Internet might be an “e-rate”, my clue of the day is 25A.

Across

1 ME + DI(C)ALS
5 NOSH + (f)OW(l)
10 H + AIRDO, being (RADIO)*
12 A + ESO(r)P, being (P(r)OSE)(rev)
13 IN QUIR(I)ES
14 LONG DISTANCE – (C.I. TO ENGLANDS)*
18 IN S(P)ECTOR + ATE
21 TREAD(M)ILL, the container being (ALL TIRED)*
23 HEM IN – hidden
24 EX (T) ANT
25 LIB E-RATE
26 SURVEY – that’s (YE + V(ide) + R.U.’S)(all rev)
27 A (G.I. TATE) D

Down

1 MAG + YAR(n)
2 DETEST – that’s (T(SET)ED)(all rev) – When did any real person last use “ted” in the sense of “delinquent”?
3 CELLPHONE – (HELP ONCE L)* &lit – very clever
4 LANDING STRIP – ho-ho
6 O.M. A N.I.
7 HERMI(t) ONE
8 W HOO(SHE)D
11 S(on) QU(1)RRELLING, that’s QUARRELLING with “one for A”
15 TIT + CH(I)EST – “noticed” is one of those gratuitous words that makes the surface much better. Cryptically this could have started “Bird I squeezed…”
16 LISTLESS – two meanings – I have tried to read the first one as a verb (LIST LESS), but I think it is just intended as an adjective meaning “without an inclination”
17 ASSENTOR – (SENATOR’S)*
19 IMP ACT – that’s IMP used as a nounal adjective
20 1 N(o) T(rump) + END
22 D + ANTE, being ETNA(rev)

32 comments on “Times 24,333”

  1. 11:31 for this – I enjoyed many of the clues here, but 4 is my favourite – the same kind of humour as corny old support=bra, but much more original. The lib. e-rate at 25 maybe gets second prize.
  2. Kevin will feel at home here with 3dn and 13ac but might struggle with 18ac.
    No obscure words, no specialist knowledge, but still took me 90 minutes. After 6 months I seem to have absorbed many of the tricks eg 11dn would have been impossible a couple of months ago, but I don’t seem to be getting quicker. (On the other hand I don’t think I would enjoy it as much if I was as quick as some).
    I await full explanations for 18ac and 20dn.
    1. 18A:
      OFSTED = a definition by example.
      in = IN
      department = SECTOR
      Principal’s first = P
      to enter = insertion instruction
      worried = ATE (dated slang – according to sporting legend, Luz Long used it when talking to Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics – see this recent news story)

      (Wordplay entered before noticing that the full report is now up)

      Edited at 2009-09-17 08:19 am (UTC)

    2. 20dn was the one I was stuck on but I just realised it’s 1 N(o) T(rumps) + END. Bridge reference.

      The other one is just IMP+ACT, I think.

  3. 18 mins, so better than the PBx2 target. I found this a game of two halves: the rather obvious and the much less so. OFSTED’s a bit obscure for those who don’t know the UK bureaucracy but, having got it, I had visions of a scene from Teachers. Is there a telephonic semi-theme in this puzzle: 1ac, 14ac and 3dn?
    A certain person we know is probably going to complain about 12ac and 22dn + no science; but at least 7dn didn’t resort to the Bard. If the latter were published in “another place” (as koro would have it), the clue would no doubt be cross-referenced with 23 across.
    “Living statue constructed from ore and 23 (8)” — or something like that, if I were a setter’s bootlace.
    My COD is going to 8dn just because it’s a nice word and must have been a bugger to clue.
      1. The Wiki article and links explain the concept, which is about connectivity by way of joint authorship. Erdős has an Erdős number of 0. Your Erdős number is 1 plus the smallest Erdős number of anybody you have ever collaborated with. Anybody who has ever published anything, anywhere with somebody else in all probability has a finite Erdős number, pronounced to rhyme with slumber and not dumber, although if you read the Wiki article, Erdős was reportedly a heavy user of amphetamines. (I can’t tell you how Erdős is pronounced although Airdish might be close). My Erdős number is 4, thanks to a prolific supervisor; a number which I proudly share with Noam Chomsky and one of Pavlov’s dogs. My PBI = (My time/ PB’s time) is somewhat greater than that.
  4. 30 minutes. This mostly flowed along smoothly. 26 was the last one in. I still have one clue not fully understood but I shall not invite assistance for the moment.

    At 2dn I wonder whether it’s correct to equate Teddy boys with deliquency. They started as a fashion movement so I’m not sure this is fair.

    1. I think ‘delinquent’ for TED is reasonable. They were associated with delinquency since many carried flick-knives, as I well remember from the odd encounter in my teenage years.
      1. As an ex-teddy boy I also object to “delinquent”. Very, very few caused any problems and as Jack says it was the first real teenage rebellion expressed in a fashion statement

        1. SOED has Teddy Boy: A youth, esp. of the 1950s, affecting an Edwardian style of dress and appearance, usu. a long jacket and drainpipe trousers. More widely (arch.), any rowdy young man.

          At least the delinquent element is noted as “archaic” and COED doesn’t mention it at all. But as usual Collins comes to the Setter’s rescue with definition 2: Any tough or delinquent youth.

  5. I was very pleaed to finish this in 37 minutes with a slightly muzzy head… liked Squirreling at 11 down and 1 across and 1 down!
    good puzzle -an easier thursday than last week!
  6. About 50 distracted minutes but enjoyed it thoroughly. Some very neat clueing here, not to mention the humour. I was clueless about OFSTED but not much else. COD to SQUIRRELING, but there were many other contenders.

    Seeing MAGYAR at 1d was a shock, since mctext’s introduction of the PBI (Peter Biddlecombe Index) yesterday had set me thinking of the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős and the legendary Erdős numbers. Thanks to Wiki’s handy calculator I found my Erdős number is less than my PBI.

  7. a lengthy solve but finished clean with the rather obvious listless last in. like others thought 4d exceptional with 8 11 and 25 all worthy of praise.
    1. Not quite – “… on this” is not part of the wordplay, so it’s not a pure &lit. Still one of many good clues here though.
  10. Enjoyed the puzzle. Not too hard, not too easy (for me)

    COD 8dn, not a word that you expect to see. Also 11dn just because I like the word.

    Should the wordplay for 1dn be Mag yar(n) for short story? Unless I am missing something.

    W

  11. 33:50 and the first one solved this week without resorting to aids. Like everyone else, I thought there were some excellent clues – 3, 4, 11, 21, and several others no doubt.

    Started with 1d & 1a, then down, across, and up – finishing with 8d & 5a. The longest hold-ups were probably at 11 & then 7 towards the end.

    COD I think 3 just edges it over 4.

  12. 16:39 .. enjoyable stuff. Nothing to add to the above. Favourite clue HAIRDO.

    Thanks to those who raised the splendid idea of the Erdős number, although I’m now going to spend all day trying to figure out how I can get me one.

      1. I was going to be offended until I Googled that. I daren’t try to measure it. If it comes out as a 2 or something I shall be mortified.
  13. This was the easiest of the week for me. A leisurely stroll, enjoying the clues and accompanying drink, taking 25 minutes. 4 was witty, 10 and 21 were neat and all the surfaces were good. The only slight doubt I had was the placing of ‘so’ in 16. If the breakdown is LIST LESS shouldn’t ‘so’ go between ‘Not’ and ‘inclined’? The surface wouldn’t suffer particularly.
    1. Yes. I couldn’t get a LIST LESS reading to work. I think you would need to move more than “so”. For the definition to be a verb, I think the “to be” has to come earlier (eg “Not to be so inclined” works), and that messes up the surface.

      1. In the cryptic I parsed it as: not inclined to be so / apathetic where so is synonymous with thus rather than as.
  14. Enjoyed this one, partly due to an absence of obscure vocab. and non-general knowledge. Why aren’t more puzzles like this ?
  15. 18:30, easier than most puzzles of late but more enjoyable nevertheless, crammed full of wit and clever or quirky constructions. Oh, and ample evidence that you don’t need to stuff a puzzle full of obscurities to appear clever.

    To those clues already singled out for particular praise I’d like to add hairdo (nice word and clever use of radio broadcast), hem in (nice containicator) and 19 (simple but a great surface). Tough to pick a COD but I’ll go for whooshed.

    Thanks to the setter.

  16. Much the same experience as everybody else, not particularly difficult but mainly enjoyable. 25 minutes. LANDING… and LIBERATE are very good. You wouldn’t expect me to cheer the definitions by example and for me “noticed” in 15D is padding.
  17. About 25-30 minutes today, and felt easier than many recent offerings. First in MAGYAR, last INSPECTORATE, where I thought for the longest time the def. would be ‘worried’, and OFSTED was anagram fodder. I didn’t know ‘titchy’, OFSTED, or ‘ted’ as a delinquent. I saw comments above referring to ‘teddy boys’, but I don’t know what or who they were. My COD picks are SQUIRRELLING and HAIRDO, and I admit I did giggle at the landing strip. Regards.
  18. Another late in the day solve over a few interruptions and coffee, nice crossword, some tricky clues, and a lot of reliance on wordplay.
  19. I don’t have the official dictionaries, but all these years I’ve been pronouncing Magyar as ‘mahdyar’, which is, I believe, closer to the native pronunciation [I’d hate to think I made it up!]. Is that pronunciation not also given?
    And to another anonymous poster, if I recall: ‘short story’ hence yarn less the n.

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