Times 24495 – Change and decay and smelly fish

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I solved this last night in 35 minutes after an extremely long and tiring day (and a few bevvies) so I’d like to think I would have raced through it if my brain had been a bit sharper. Still, 35 minutes on a blogging day is pretty good for me and may even be a record. The clues seem mostly standard fare with nothing to get too upset or excited about.

Across
1 CO(M,MAN)D – COD here is an adjective meaning “fake” or “sham” as in the expression “cod Latin”. It’s listed in COED as being British slang.
5 REFUSAL – Two meanings, one relating to equestrian events such as show-jumping when a horse refuses to jump a fence. The other refers to sale and purchase where a prospective buyer may be given “first refusal”.
9 TEST PILOT – Cryptic definition.
10 BA(I)RN – A question mark and/or “perhaps” would have been in order here as  “bairn” for “baby” is not confined to Yorkshire.
11 ON AIR – ON = “performing”, AIR = “song”.  “On (the) air” seems to be a reference to broadcasting but I can’t find anything to suggest that it is ever applied solely to “live” programmes. 
12 B.A.’S RELIEF – A term used in sculpture.
14 VENTURE CAPITAL – Anagram of “patent” minus its last letter and “lucrative”. This is money invested at some risk as we are all too aware of following recent events.
17 A,CROSS-THE-BOARD – “A burden” as in the expression “a cross to bear”
21 T(AS,MAN) SEA – The Isle of Man does duty again. Anagram of  “East” provides the letters outside the brackets.
23 FIFTY – L=50 in Roman numerals. Thanks for the reminder of the passing years. Just what I needed to start the day!
24 SMELT – Collins defines it as a “salmonoid food fish”. And we’re reminded of the smell of rotting fish. Another delightful thought for someone feeling a bit delicate this morning!
25 W(HIT,EH)ALL – EH from “he” reversed. This can mean the British government or its central administration. Desperate to get a song in somewhere  I’ll mention that the lyric to “The Whitehall Warrior” is still up on my own journal page from February last year.
26 ANTHRAX – Anagram of “ran” “tax” and “h”. This disease predominantly affects sheep and cattle hence the reference to “stock market”
27 Deliberately omitted. Please ask if muddled.
 
Down
1 COT,TON –  TON = fashion usually manages to catch me out but it turned up very recently so was still fresh in my mind.
2 M,I,STAKE
3 AP(PARA)T,US
4 DELIBE(RATE)S – Leo Delibes is probably best known for his ballets Coppelia and Sylvia.
5 Reign Of Terror  – Just in case we had forgotten the odour at 24ac.  .
6 Deliberately omitted. Please ask if you want the whole story.
7 SKI-LIFT – Cryptic definition.
8 LAND,FALL
13 SECRETARI,AT – Anagram of “careerist” + AT = “engaged in”.
15 PROOFREA,D – Anagram of “for opera” + D = “note”
16 FAN,T,ASIA
18 RESPECT – I remember being taught that one should respect one’s elders and betters but I’m not sure how well that fits with life as we know it today. It’s perhaps a nice thought though. The answer is also defined by “particular”.
19 Deliberately omitted. Please ask if baffled and someone will put you in the picture.
20 EYELET – Sounds like “I let”
22 ALTAR – Sounds like “alter”. And you’ll (probably not) be delighted to know this just reminded me of another song made famous by Gracie Fields: “Walter, Walter, Lead me to the Altar…” http://monologues.co.uk/First_Ladies/Walter_Walter.htm . (Can someone tell me how to post a live link please? It worked when I used IE but doesn’t in Firefox for some reason.)
25 WAX – Double definition, the second as in “wax and wane”

35 comments on “Times 24495 – Change and decay and smelly fish”

  1. a rather unremarkable puzzle other than the fact that i whizzed through it in 19 minutes. so a good start to the day!
  2. I was hoping for a sub-30 minute time as I whizzed through the early stages, but was pleased in the end with a time of 64 minutes, given the sting that this puzzle had in its SE tail. COD down there to REFRAME for a fine charade, even if Jack has relegated this excellent clue to the also-ran category. I am putting this down to overeagerness to show off his excellent wordplay skills, which are eagerly awaited, whenever he blogs, in this corner of south-ish east Asia.

    Wasn’t sure about able = what can be accomplished in 6dn, as the cryptic cues a noun rather than an adjective according to my reading.

    1. I think “What can be” refers to the answer (i.e. FABLE)rather than being part of the wordplay. Like a sort of riddle.
  3. I think we’re invited to read “What can be accomplished” as “Another word for ‘accomplished'”; i.e., “able”.
    1. Thanks – the mist has lifted. While I’m about it, could you explain another of you’re “too obvious to explain” clues, 27ac? I wrote TIDIEST, which I am praying is correct – otherwise my stock will fall more dramatically than a venture capitalist’s – but can’t see the full wordplay.
        1. id est – of course. I was like one of those people who don’t understand a reference to International Business Machines because the abbreviation has become almost distinct from its full form.
  4. 27 minutes; so not too difficult. Too many cryptic/double defs for my taste. Watched “How to Solve a Cryptic Crossword” (BBC4) last night and noticed the cryptic def’s absence. The fewer the merrier I say!
    Queries:
    19. Shouldn’t frame be “bring false evidence” rather than “false charges”?
    22. Surely it’s a bit late for negotiation(s) by the time you get to the altar?
    1. Yes, I had that thought too but it got lost in the moment of joy when I was reminded of Our Gracie.
      1. If I were being my usual cynical self, I’d say it was (which of course it isn’t) negotiate in the sense of:
        transfer (a cheque, bill, or other document) to the legal ownership of another person. (Mac OED).
  5. Agree that this was unremarkable – though a relief after yesterday’s demoralising drubbing – with some pretty weak clues (unless I missed something subtle) such as 9ac TEST PILOT. 18 minutes for me, which is faster than I ever hoped to achieve so I expect there will be some eye-watering times from the regulars.
  6. Many “telegraphed” answers (excuse the pun)so off to a flier but held up a bit in SE corner. Needed Jack for explanation of FIFTY, despite sitting there working on my Roman numerals, and then, given the mystifying CD for TEST PILOT, thought it might have something to do with life beginning at 40 but a decade nearer to death. Worrying how my mind is working coming up to a year of doing cryptics.
    COD – was tempted by the fake (COD) at 1ac but I rather liked the idea of ANTHRAX ruining the stock market.
    1. Cod was a favourite word of CS Lewis, used in varying ways, but with the underlying meaning of a troublesome person (n.) or to hoax someone(vb.).
  7. My first ‘solo finish’ ever, hence the very rare posting! Not in the habit of timing as I don’t usually complete without resorting to aids but very please with sub-30 minutes.

    Thanks for all the helpful postings over the last few months.

  8. I was grateful for this gentle end to a rather tricky week as I have a rather busy day ahead. The only clue I really liked was for deliberates with its Delibes container.

    For smelt, my dictionary has “a fish…related to the salmon family with a cucumber-like smell.” I was not aware that cucumber had a particular smell but this must be why salmon and cucumber sandwiches are so popular at vicarage tea-parties.

  9. 8:17 with no hold-ups except trying to rush something else into 6D – I wrote FEATS but soon crossed it out, and I think something else was tempting me before that. Also failed to see the 14A anag at first look, so needed checkers in the second word.
  10. Needed aids for COMMAND, MISTAKE and the VENTURE part of VENTURE CAPITAL. Plain sailing for the rest with an unusually high number of entries solved on first read. Usually I’m not good with CDs but today’s were all obvious. FANTASIA has appeared recently and opened up the Cornish corner. Liked especially FIFTY and ANTHRAX. Didn’t know BAIRN was a Yorkshire-ism; I’d have associated its use with the Scots.
  11. From one extreme yesterday to the other today. Less than 15 minutes to gallop through this. I agree BAIRN is actually more associated with the Scots than with the North of England but barn=farm building was hardly difficult. I liked VENTURE CAPITAL and the neat stock market.
  12. Back to form this morning. 11 m and liked the anagram and surface of 14. Worked systematically from NW where found some old friends, to SE, last in 23 & 20. Market in 26 felt slightly redundant. Have heard in distant past radio person say “we are on air” meaning live.
    1. Yes, on reflection I think this is fine. I heard a presenter say it this morning, warning a politician who he accosted near the Houses of Parliament that they were going out live.
  13. One of those days when it took me a while to slip out of the fiendish mindset required for yesterday to gentler demands of today. I thought my CoD 14 was a good anagram well concealed in the clue’s surface, and having had a birthday yesterday, felt particularly strongly that 23’s clue for FIFTY hasn’t been true for me for quite a while! Last in 24, as I initially entered SPELT (that well known species of grainy fish) until I could give some time to sussing the real answer – should have been an EPR, I think, or maybe it was and that was the trouble. 20 minutes
  14. For some reason I got stuck on SMELT/RESPECT & REFRAME. Couldn’t get them at first sitting. The rest was on the easy side. COD to the merchant adventurers at 14.
  15. I just wanted to thank all of you for all the help. As a direct result of coming onto this site everyday, my puzzle solving ability had increased tenfold. Was able to get nearly half today without resorting to the internet – a record for me. Was especially chuffed when I got fifty!

    Thanks again.

    1. I second that emotion (or ’emulsion’, as I always used to hear it as). Intelligence, wit, insight – what more can you ask for? And that’s just my contributions …
  16. 7:12 Got a good start and then found checking letters very helpful for some quick entries. Only held up for a bit by REFRAME and FIFTY. Wordplay for 21 and 23 only understood after solving.
    Cheers to the setter for his little ‘memento mori’ to those of us on the wrong side of 23!
  17. That was a relief after yesterday’s unmitigated disaster.

    Just over 22 minutes with quite a long time over the last four or five.

    I had WORKING CAPITAL in for far too long at 14a. Liked ANTHRAX and APPARATUS.

  18. Not much to add to what others have said by this point. About 15 minutes, last entry COMMAND. Everything went in pretty straightforwardly, about half on first reading. I liked FIFTY. Regards to all.
  19. I hate this sort of puzzle where everyone tells me how easy it is, especially when answers I’ve missed are deliberately omitted as being so easy any moron with no brain could solve them. I could take issue with several of these clues, but I’ll just mention TIDIEST. Where’s the superlative in the clue? Also in that L = FIFTY, why is FIFTY towards the end of one’s life? It’s MIDDLE AGED.
  20. 11 mins, last in was 20D EYELET. I thought 23A FIFTY worked very nicely – in answer to the previous comment, I believe it’s a reference to the phrase ‘Life begins at forty’. As for the superlative in 27A, I suppose that’s meant to be ‘extremely’, in its original sense rather than the diluted sense of ‘very’.

    Tom B.

  21. Quite a nice crossword, with 14ac quite excellent I thought. But I had two niggles, neither of which seems to have been mentioned (apologies if they have):
    a) 24ac …’and how it’s detected, sooner or later’. I don’t get this at all. ‘How it’s detected’ isn’t ‘smelt’ (wrong part of speech) and what on earth is the ‘sooner or later’ about? Is it just saying that if a dead fish is left to rot, sooner or later it becomes smelly? If so, hmm…
    b) A very small point and I suppose it’s OK as it stands, but wouldn’t it have been better if in 8dn it had been ‘Arrival after sea journey, …’?

    To the poster who complained about 23ac suggesting that you were elderly if you were 50 (sorry, you’ve disappeared now and I can’t remember your exact words): no it doesn’t: it says that if you’re 50 you’re nearer the end of your life than is someone who is at the beginning.

    1. Since ‘smelt’ is acceptable in British English as both the past tense and the past participle of ‘smell’, I don’t see a problem with ‘smelt’ for ‘how it’s detected’. As for the ‘sooner or later’ bit, ‘later’ I took to be a reference to after it’s been caught, while ‘sooner’, though more difficult to parse, might be a reference to the cucumber-like aroma referred to above.
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