Times 24710: 14 in 17 13

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 10 minutes, slow start but a very fast finish for one of my better times. There’s some long answers that can be confidently entered from the definition alone, which is a help. 18 was my last one in, then I kicked myself since some of the wordplay has appeared just a few days ago. Nothing too obscure, and some of the answers appealed to the arrested development adult in me, so enjoy the links. I suspect then that there will be some lightning times. Zap. Away we go…

Across
1 FOOLPROOF: rather nice clue, pudding being a fool (slow person), and “the proof is in the pudding”
6 BAIRN: I in BAR, N
9 let’s leave this one for the acrosses
10 HARDIHOOD: Thomas Hardy I was familiar with, but I didn’t know Thomas Hood
11 SUN,DIAL: the second half is LAID reversed
12 AILMENT: AIN’T around L(from cLues),ME
13 D,IS IN FORMATION Edit: as ulaca pointed out, I had misplaced a comma in the blog originally
17 CHARACTERISTIC: (TEA,CRITICS,RATE)* Edit: one of the dangers of putting the answer in from definition and not properly revisiting wordplay – it is CHA,(CRITICS,RATE)* – thanks to commenters
21 SHORTEN: S then E in (NORTH)*
23 COEXIST: EX,I in COST
25 BRIGADIER: BRIG(vessel) then DIE(stop running) in A,R. One of the entries that went in without thinking much of the cryptic
26 T,EACH
27 EIGHT: GI in THE all reversed, 2 to the power of 3 (added after the question in comments)
28 AFTERWORD: (OR,DRAFT,WE)
 
Down
1 F,I,RESIDE
2 ONION: I in ON, ON
3 PENSIONER: (PERSON,IN,E)*, the last E coming from lifE, &lit
4 OTHELLO: The opera is OTELLO
5 FORE,ARM
6 BRILL: double def – didn’t know the fish but it checks out, it’s like a turbot
7 IRONED OUT: IRON(club) then (DUE TO)*
8 NUDITY: (UNTIDY)* – “Carry on camping” anybody?
14 SCHOOLING: CHOO(without the other CHOO) in SLING
15 TRIMESTER: (TERM,IS) then TER(m)
16 SCOTCH,ED
18 CANT,IN,A: CANT as specialised jargon I believe has appeared recently
19 EXCERPT: R in EXCEPT
20 let’s omit this one from the downs
22 TRACT: double definition, princess lucky has huge ones of land
24 I’D,A,HO: Idaho borders Washington state (it’s just to the NW)

65 comments on “Times 24710: 14 in 17 13”

  2. 28 minutes and no major hold-ups. Thought the PENSIONER clue was rather weak and don’t understand why EIGHT (last in) should be the power of two.

    Nice to North and South back. Is this an attempt by the editor to break the record for number of comments, I wonder?

  3. Another slowish 48 minutes hitting the doldrums between a fast start and finish. I thought PENSIONER was one of the better clues – perhaps because I didn’t see the anagram until after finishing – although the “quarter of life” reference seems to imply an earlier retirement than most of us will ever enjoy.
    1. Never spotted the anagram – thought it was just a rather weak all-in-one. My (relatively) fast time clearly came at the cost of understanding how the clues worked.
  4. I think we say “The proof of the pudding is in the eating”; though it seems the way you (George) have it has become common. One of my grandma’s favourite phrases.
    33 minutes; and top marks to the anagram in 3dn giving a semi-&lit. Semi because there are all sorts of pensions apart from the old-age variety. (Yes, I’m aware of the “possibly” — but that’s the anagind.)
  5. I’d love to think that the three bridge players in 21 were planted deliberately by the editor. Very mischievous!

    Some of the early criticism strikes me as a bit harsh. I thought 3 was excellent – sorry ulaca – and NUDITY was fun, of course, although ‘barely’ seems superfluous and rather gives the game away. 50 minutes to finish.

  6. I have recently posted anonymously a few times but after Tuesday’s blog (to which I didn’t contribute!) I thought I should step out from the anonymous posters. Now I find I can’t log in!

    I thought this was nice and straightforward, with lots of standard stuff it would be a good puzzle for a beginner.

    I took the “fool” in 1ac to be the creamy pudding, rather than a synonym for “pudding” as a slow person, but I guess they both work.

    Pieman

    1. Hi Pieman, welcome to the world of the knownish. I didn’t know that meaning of fool, but my father used to call me “Pudding George” when I did something daft (which was often).
    2. Welcome Pieman. Is that “pie” as in “confused” or as in “chatterer”? I also thought of “fool” as a type of pudding as in gooseberry fool, a type of purée
    3. Good to hear from you, assuming you’re this Pieman.

      As long as you can still use the same e-mail account as you had when you created the LJ account, you should be able to get your password e-mailed to it.

  7. Under 15 minutes, but held up briefly in the NE corner. My last entry was HARDIHOOD (not familiar with Mr. Hood), preceded by IRONED OUT, NUDITY and BAIRN, which I didn’t know, but the wordplay was precise. I also expect some very fast times from the speedsters. I think it an offering well on the easier side of things. Regards to all.
  8. My times not relevant as I combine solving with more prosaic early morning activities but certainly under the hour for the second time this week, so feeling good after last week’s disappointments. The only unknown word was HARDIHOOD but oddly it was my first in even before getting the perhaps too obvious OTHELLO and thus the H starting letter. Other than obfuscation not sure what European is doing in 6d in what otherwise, at least I thought, was much fluid clueing eg FOOLPROOF and CANTINA.
    Welcome to Pieman. Not sure this is exactly a beginner’s puzzle. As a relative newcomer to cryptics (something under 2 years??) I find I can dazzle non-cruciverbal friends with my Telegraph solving.
    1. It does sound a bit odd to attribute national identity (or whatever the word “European” is) to a deep-sea fish.
    2. I’m not great shakes on fish, Barry, but ‘brill’ is defined in Oxford Online as ‘a European flatfish that resembles a turbot’.
      1. No doubt. However, a splendidly alliterative clue Fish that’s fab would have had me drooling.

        Odd Oxford definition seems to assume one would readily be able to recognise a turbot other than on one’s plate.

  9. Nice concise and informative blog as usual, but surely 17a is Tea = CHA,(CRITICS RATE)*?
  10. Similar to yesterday for me. 6:37 with one wrong. This time I managed to type IHADO at 24D. It occurs to me that when I solved on paper I was probably unaware of many mistakes.

    Liked “half train” for CHOO in 14D, though I can’t see a very good surface meaning for that clue.

  11. I enjoyed this one a lot and think any harsh criticisms are a but unfair to the setter. It’s what I would call a ‘lively’ puzzle as opposed to some that are very dry and academic that turn into a hard slog.

    I started and finished well but was slowed down by the two long Across clues. At 17 I convinced myself that it was an anagram of ‘Tea critics rate’ instead of being CHA+(CRITICS RATE)*. At 13 I was hampered by having hastily written FORTIFY at 5dn without fully justifying it and I took a while to convince myself that the Y checker must be incorrect.

    45 minutes in the end. I think I should have managed it in under 30.

  12. Under 30 minutes (one of my fastest times) between printing and completion. Minor pause over SCOTCHED (16dn) because of use of ‘Scotch’ in wordplay for 6ac.
  13. Didn’t find this that easy. 23 minutes. A lot of one-two-clunk clues and little or no humour. The whole thing’s merely a two-dimensional pun.
  14. Didn’t find this too easy. 23 minutes. A lot of one-two-clunk clues and little or no humour. The whole thing’s like a two-dimensional pun.
    1. You may like to know that as you have an account you can delete your own postings that haven’t been replied to.
  16. Zipped through the whole thing without aids for a change in record quick time (but, like Barry, the time’s spent multitasking over breakfast, so actual time not really that relevant), thanks to some lucky guesswork and some recently aired crossword vocab (eg CANT). Unfortunately had one wrong (stupidly put in HARDIFORD, convinced that T FORD was must have written a novel or two).

    Re PENSIONER, I hadn’t seen the anagram, but thought that the last quarter somehow referred to an old person’s last home, ie his PENSION, in the French sense of lodging. Tenuous, I know…

    Thanks for explanation of SCHOOLING, hadn’t got the CHOO bit, but will now store it away for future use!

  17. A disrupted solve, with only a handful done in the first 15 minutes and then a further 25 minutes when I returned to it; so no walk in the park for me. I thought PENSIONER was worth the price of admission on its own. And I’m another one who anagrammed tea with two critics to get CHARACTERISTIC; I obviously wasn’t paying too much attention.
  18. Nice to see the editor nailing his colours firmly to the mast with the statement “south and north confused”. Seems that I’m the one who makes him jump.
    Incidently, it’s been reported that N and S Korea are experiencing a thaw in relations after tuesday’s revelation that they are, in fact, partners.

    Twelve minutes.

  19. amazing number of posts so early!
    must be the snow keeping people at home.
    liked the puzzle and my vote for clue of the day goes to 1 across
    Rather liked Othello Otello…lots of opera clues recently including at lest 3 in the prize Jumbo at the week end!
  20. As per most others, a quick solve that was not particularly taxing but was reasonably entertaining. I also didn’t really see the need for “European” at 6D and take Barry’s point that removing it improves the clue whilst its inclusion is of no real help. The “near Washington” at 24D is also a bit superfluous. Overall a decent enough puzzle at the easy end of the spectrum.
  21. 6:39 – the Scots kid and “European” fish last in.

    Can’t offer you my favourite Otello clip without uploading to it to Youtube first – the storm chorus on a CD of the Black Sea Fleet ensemble. Mostly purveyors of Soviet kitsch, but they can’t half sing – well enough in this case for it not to matter that they’re accompanied by the same stage band as in the linked clip, with accordions well to the fore, and almost certainly a balalaika too.

    It’s nice to think that 21 is a comment on recent puzzles, but it’s about 99% certain to be simple coincidence – the word from setters is that Times puzzles are published several weeks or months after they are written.

    1. In my slow journey through “75 years of The Times Crossword” I’ve just come across the note “A Visit from MI5”, an account of how the delay between setting and publication perhaps saved Edmund Akenhead from interrogation somewhere less comfortable than his study.

      For those who don’t know the tale, two days before the spy George Blake was sprung from the ‘Scrubs a puzzle set by Mr.Akenhead appeared in the Times and appeared to contain a string of references to the escape, naturally arousing the interest of the spooks. The fact that he had demonstrably set the puzzle weeks before the event seems largely to have allayed their suspicions (though you can bet there’s still a file with his name on it).

  22. 15 minutes today on the amazingly still functioning Central Line. Three of the first five clues (1, 10, 11) put me in a good mood, so I thought this was a pleasant enough journey. Add me to those who queried PENSIONER having failed to spot the anagram. I liked two clues which looked as if they were whole anagrams (7, 17) but weren’t, possibly demonstrating a strong ability to count the number of letters in the setter!
    North and South in 21 would be delightful mischief if intended.
    CoD to FOOLPROOF
  23. 39 minutes. I thought this was rather a good puzzle. I don’t suppose Thomas Hood is read as much as he once was. I well remember the teacher at primary school reading us November, which I still recite to myself. Hood also enjoyed playing with words, as in this example from Faithless Sally Brown.

    His death, which happen’d in his berth,
    At forty-odd befell:
    They went and told the sexton, and
    The sexton toll’d the bell.

  24. 12:46 today. Surprised how many were unaware of Thomas Hood – who can ever forget “The song of a shirt”?

    Stitch, stitch, stitch,
    Through poverty, hunger and dirt
    And still in a voice of dolorous pitch
    She sang the song of a shirt

    England’s answer to McGonagle?

    1. Sorry Val, but no! Hood’s humour was intentional. McGonagall seems to have been the only person who didn’t think his poetry was a joke.
      1. McGonagall’s poetry and particularly his acting were indeed a joke, but there is a lot to suggest that he was in on it and it is at our expense. I read his autobiography many years ago. It remains one of the funniest things I have ever read and I have no doubt it was all entirely intentional.
  25. Thanks for your insight, dorsalfinjim. You have a problem with the inclusion of “European” in a certain clue, feeling it superfluous to the problem which needs to be solved. I can see where you’re coming from, but I like it. It’s what a forward thinking cruciverbalist would call a “red herring”.
  26. A bit of light relief at last! I was beginning to think I’d lost the ability to do these. Probably about half an hour, while trying to keep peace between two toddlers, so I claim a handicap. 🙂

    Only 25ac and 15d went in without understanding the wordplay, and only one real hold up along the way, where I was convinced 13ac must be DIS…..ACTION.

    COD 1ac.

  27. About two weeks ago it appears that a part of my brain suddenly died, changing me overnight from someone who finishes the Times crossword consistently with the occasional failure to someone who fails to finish it consistently with the occasional success. I was travelling yesterday so didn’t get the opportunity to comment here until too late but PRIMROSE PATH did for me making it 8 failures out of 9.
    So it was nice to get an easy one. I did this in 20 minutes in spite of a snow-delayed and very overcrowded train (the chap in front of me didn’t seem to mind me writing on his back) and my trepidation on checking here proved unjustified as I don’t appear to have made any mistakes.
    Hallelujah.
  28. HARDIHOOD is a word I only knew because it appeared here a few months ago. Another one of those things I only know because they appear in the Times crossword.
    In a similar vein, I’ve never played Bridge, but have no problem with the convention… actually no, forget I said that.

  29. This took a few minutes to get started but then seemed to fall into place very quickly. Usually I get more answers on the wordplay than by the straight clues but the opposite was true today.
    Louise

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