Times 24476 – Blogger’s Delight

Author   yfyapPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I found today’s puzzle such a pleasure to solve and do research for. There are some lovely and smooth surfaces and some of the devices employed are quite inventive and entertaining. 

ACROSS
1 ARMAGEDDON Armagh (Ulster town) minus H (hard) + ED & DON (men) By a strange co-incidence, ARMAGEDDON was also the solution to 1Across in the Monday FT Prize Puzzle for which I had blogged ; the great symbolical battlefield of the Apocalypse, scene of the final struggle between the powers of good and evil … Revelation 16.16
6 ABEL After James Buchanan came Abraham Lincoln (16th Presdient) and the parallel wordplay on James B led to Abe L, the second son of Adam and Eve who was murdered by his older brother, Cain. Love this clue
8 BEJABERS Ins of JAB (punch) in BEERS (drinks) an Irish interjection along the lines of Cor, Gracious, Blimey, Goodness, etc
9 WEAVER Ins of E (European) in WAVER (blow hot and cold)
10 RARE Royal Artillery & Royal Engineers
11 MEERSCHAUM What a smooth-reading *(each summer)
12 AT ANY RATE A tichy dd
14 UTTER dd
17 KUKRI Ins of UK (British) in KRI (rev of IRK, to bug) a sharp, curved Gurkha knife or short sword.
19 APPLICANT A P (party leader) + ins of C (Conservative) in PLIANT (flexible) Very smooth and slick surface
22 CINEMAGOER *(I eg romance)
23 OTTO (B)OTTO(M) Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck
24 WIZARD dd besides being an adjective like ripping, it is also a utility that facilitates a particular task, guiding the user step by step to open a computer program … I would go as far as to say that this clue qualifies to be called &lit
25 FANTASIA Ins of T (temperature) in FAN (cooler) & ASIA (part of the world) An animated Walt Disney film made in 1940
26 EYED Sounds like ID or IDE (fish)
27 DILETTANTE Ins of *(title) in DANTE (poet of Inferno fame)

DOWN
1 AMBERJACK Cha of AMBER (honey-yellow) JACK (white ball aimed at in bowls) of) the amber-fish, a large Atlantic game fish having golden markings when young.
2 MAJORCA Reversal of ins of CRO (crow minus w) in A JAM (difficulty)
3 EVERMORE Nice rhythmic cha of EVER (always) MORE (increasing)
4 DESSERTSPOONFUL Lovely cd FOOL can mean a puree of fruit scalded or stewed, mixed with cream or custard and sugar, such as gooseberry fool and scoff is to feed greedily
5 NEWISH N(orth) E(ast) (bridge opponents) & WISH (bidding) P/S Error corrected after community input
6 APATHETIC *(I cheat at P)
7 EXECUTE Cha of EXE (flower or river) CUTE (pretty)
13 NURSEMAID Ins of I in reversal of DAME’S RUN (woman’s career) What a delightful clue
15 RATIONALE *(ARISTOTELIAN minus I ST, one way)
16 CLARINET Ins of IN (trendy) in CLARET (wine)
18 UTILITY dd
20 ARTISAN (p) artisan
21 CANDID Open is candid and doing the can (prison) is like visiting a place of interest as a tourist. “Did you do Madame Tussauds before or after the London Eye?”

Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

36 comments on “Times 24476 – Blogger’s Delight”

  1. Or should that be Inferno? I feel as if I’m in the second circle with Francesca da Rimini, ‘though there was precious little pleasure (sensual or otherwise) for me in this puzzle.

    … which was excellent – only MEERSCHAUM was unknown to me, and excellently blogged.

    The positives to come out of this, as Avram Grant might say, are that I have written down those cryptic indicators which I tend to miss with serious consequences, e.g. pens, tricky and case.

  4. Obviously that should have been third that opinion above. Beaten to the jab by mct. As for puzzle: what ulaca said. I never got going and there was an audible clang in the bucket as each clue was pulled from the recesses of my jaw and beyond. Some fine craftmanship here. I liked many, particularly OTTO and RATIONALE. Well blogged, Uncle Yap. If it had been my day, it wouldn’t have been my day.
  5. Again, completed during a two-hour lecture — not so boring this time (Nanotechnology and Computer Games) — so I’m not sure of the time. But I’d guess this was slightly on the well-done side of medium. Should be some solace to the grumpier contingent.
    Had most trouble in the SW, not seeing through WIZARD and EYED — both perfectly fair after the fact, of course. Loved the well-hidden JACK (“white bowl”) 1dn, but COD to 15dn — my kind of clue.
  6. A puzzle that deserved my full attention but didn’t get it as I was on the move and interrupted by various distractions. I knew I was in for trouble when it took me 9 minutes to find my first answer (AT ANY RATE) but after that the answers came slowly but surely until I had completed about two-thirds of the puzzle including everything on the RH side. Then I hit the wall, no more answers came and I ran out of time. This blogger would not have been delighted to land this one!
  7. 17:57 – quite a struggle. Finished off with the following batches after a rather long pause about 10 minutes in:
    13, 26, 2, 8
    1D as ?????JACK, not yet confident about AMBER, 17, 18, 1A and 1D’s AMBER, 4
    27, 21, 24

    Delayed on 24 by trying to find a link to software for “ripping” tracks from CDs.

    Agree that 5D is NEWISH – NEWEST has three problems: It would be “Most novel” not “Rather Novel”, N/E/W are not all opponents, and most important, there’s no role for “bidding”.

    Also don’t see how a double definition clue (24A) can ever be an &lit as normally understood – i.e.: the whole clue is simultaneously definition and wordplay.

    1. Peter B said “Also don’t see how a double definition clue (24A) can ever be an &lit as normally understood – i.e.: the whole clue is simultaneously definition and wordplay.”

      Let me attempt
      Ripping software guide = def = a guide for opening (ripping) software
      Ripping = superlative = wizard
      Software guide = guide for a software = wizard

      1. Well I don’t agree that opening = ripping, unless we’re talking about the box the software CD came in.

        Even if I did, this isn’t what a wizard is – it’s a guide, but one for completing complex or rarely used actions.

        1. Agreed. But I can see what Uncle Yap is getting at: there are such things as “ripping software”. Some that I know use, for example, MacTheRipper to … ahem … back up their DVD collections.
          1. If “ripping software” is what Uncle Yap meant, I can’t see why he used the word “opening”.
  8. Thank goodness that PB found this a struggle. i did too….but at the end of it and I did finish i felt elated. the white bowl jack is very craftily done. I alos had Newish not newest… Thought Armageddon was lovley! felt very pleased to find Applicant and rationale. wizard was my last in!
    COD Bejabers!
    well done to setter and blogger!
  9. East hemisphere no problem (NEWISH for me also) but hadn’t understood ABEL in solve or UTTER in solve or otherwise. Left hemisphere a different kettle of AMBERJACK. NW corner only finished after cheating on the fish. Alas left with WIZARD (rip and burn thoughts for me too) and CANDID unsolved.
    Still, as Yap says, much to appreciate here, the fool to scoff and the white bowl in particular.
  10. Loved this – and surprised to come in at just under 30 minutes having also got as far as AT ANY RATE before putting anything at all in. DESSERTSPOONFUL only fell into place when I put the six checks I had in the horizontal plane, but a very nice penny dropping moment – one of several in these beautiful clues. Last in WIZARD, and didn’t get ED and DON as two men (duh): thanks to blogger for parsing. I still think they’re a bit short to join the army!
    1. As Tom Leher said, the Army doesn’t discriminate on the grounds of height, sex, creed, colour or ability.
  11. A good day to decide not to time it! Slow progress until 1d clicked, and last in 21 then 24 – am not v. nerdy. Admired the blog. 17 recently in RTC.
  12. As Peter said, quite a struggle, though in my case it took 55 minutes and I still had to check a dictionary at the end to get the last syllable of 1d. I didn’t help myself to get 7 quickly by writing ABLE instead of ABEL for 6a. What a blunder!

    Lots of excellent clues that made the struggle worthwhile. The only one that I thought was below par was 18d. The definitions are too closely related for a dd clue in my view.

    Hats off to the setter.

  13. 49:50 .. this setter is responsible for my bleary eyes this morning. I always seem to start the tough ones around midnight.

    I real battle to finish this, but very satisfying and much enjoyed. COD for me is a tie between DESSERTSPOONFUL – even with all the checkers in place it took me forever to see the light – and ABEL, my last in and another where the penny teetered a long, long time before dropping.

    1. Duh! 29:35, after having two fairly easy ones left after 15 minutes. WIZARD and CANDID are the culprits, and I have no idea why I went blank.
  14. 32 minutes, agree that this was tough but very enjoyable.

    COD clarinet – loved the case of wine device.

    Had most trouble with the jack part of the fish then utility and wizard.

  15. About 35 minutes, ending with with KUKRI and WIZARD. On the latter, the ‘WIZARD’=’ripping’=’very good’ usage was unfamiliar altogether. Fun puzzle all around, though, especially to my COD, DESSERTSPOONFUL, which also required all the checking letters and another 5 minutes until I saw a word that fit the pattern. Very clever and misleading clue for me. Regards.
    1. “wizard” and “ripping” are both very British slang (as well as being fairly dated) – “wizard prang” was a catchphrase in the 1950s Jennings books, and “Ripping Yarns” was a post-Python series satirising various dated literature – Across the Andes by Frog was one title.
      1. Cf. “What a jolly wheeze, a wizard prank, a ripping caper, what?”
        That sort of palaver?
  16. Excellent puzzle. Made life hard for myself by putting “sound” in at 14A and didn’t sort that out until the anagram at 6D exposed the error. Liked all of this but BEJABERS is my favourite.
  17. 24:15. Most problems down the left hand side. Guessed at AMBER—- but was looking for W being white and took ages to get KUKRI which didn’t help.
    Wizard puzzle with a few easyish clues mixed with a lot of good, original and entertaining stuff.
  18. I think this puzzle would have been an ideal one for inclusion at Cheltenham, and that view seems to be supported by the respective solving times.
    Far from impenetrable, but plenty of ponderables along the way. 24A and 25A arguably level the inter-generational playing field, and 5D provides a potential knockout for the slapdash speedster.
    Good stuff.
  19. Finished in 35 min, but had to cheat for 2 (4 dn, and embarrassingly, 24 ac) after getting totally stuck for 10 min. A much meatier, and very enjoyable puzzle. Lots of good clues, but COD to the neatly observed DILETTANTE.
  20. Very fun puzzle, started last night and got most of the right hand side out quickly, was left with the left for the morning. Anyone else trying to think of a lavatorial connection for the last part of 1 down? 24 excellent!
  21. Very clever puzzle, and I liked 24 dn in particular. But I have never heard a real Irishman say BEJABERS, any more than BEGORRAH.
    1. “BEGORRAH” crops up in the lyrics to “Phil the Fluter’s Ball” 🙂
  22. 78 mins over three sessions to finish this ripsnorter! Chuffed to finish at all without aids. On 5 I thought it might be parsed as north 0 (pass) east 0 (pass) west 1, south heart, making for a weird kind of bidding in bridge. I don’t really see that ‘wish’ = ‘bidding’. But I’ve been wrong before of course….

    So many fab clues today. 4 gets my COD though. Regards to all

  23. Andrew K

    Far too tough for me, but having gone through it, I think the clues are wonderfully elegant.

Comments are closed.