Times 24781: Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Hitler?

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 19:52, with a couple of distractions, but when I hit submit the Times is telling me that I have two wrong. One typo I can see quite clearly, but the other is not obvious, making me think that maybe I have a wrong answer in the grid. Hmmm… there’s one that I was going to criticize as a weak clue, but now I wonder if there is a typo in the online grid? If there is it probably won’t be confirmed until I’ve gone off to the land of insomnia, so if what I have to say about 22 down is wrong, rest assured it will eventually get fixed, but not until mid-afternoon UK time.

There’s some cunning wordplay here, though the literals are going to be enough that some won’t need to work back through it. There’s quite a few I put in and then came back to parse for the blog.

Away we go…

Across
1 INVISIBLE INK: anagram of BIKINI,LINE,V
9 SUNUP: NUS reversed and then UP, as in going up to university
10 STAGE NAME: TA,GEN in SAME
11 PUSSYCAT: S,SYCA(more) in PUT(park). They saw each other and went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.
12 PICK AT: double def
13 DENARUIS: (USED,IN,A,R)* Roman coin (as are ASSES). Cue Life of Brian
15 AENEID: hidden reveresed in cadDIE NEArby
17 G,RAM,MY: the first G coming from the end of promisinG
18 COR,SET,RY: Liked “training route” for RY
20 T,HORNS: the T coming from the start of Tune
21 DA,DS,ARMY: District Attorney and Detective Sargeant. My parents were huge fans of this show
24 Let’s omit this one from the acrossings
25 EN,V,OI: author’s final words
26 DESIGNER DRUG: ES (tablets) in DIG,NERD,RUG
 
Down
1 INSIPID: IN(with it) then DIP IS reversed
2 VENUS AND ADONIS: VENU(e),SAND,ON,IS around AD
3 SOPPY: PP (P’s) in SOY
4 BUST A GUT: BUST(chest),A(area) and then TUG back
5 EXAM: AXE reversed then M
6 NEEDINESS: DINES in SEEN reversed, definition is “wanting state”
7 BACK S,EAT,DRIVER
8 TEXTED: Edward in Dallas would be TEXAS TED
14 REMINISCE: MINIS in REC,E
16 NOT A BEAN: NOTA BEN(e) with A inside
17 GATSBY: GETS BY with A for E
19 YOYOING: (Y,Y,ON,I,GO)*
22 This is a clue that I think might have a misprint in it. The online clue is “Blind using pole with spike”. I put in SPEAR thinking that might work for a pole with a spike and could be another word for blind. However I think maybe “Blind” should be “Bind” and this should be S,W,EAR which fits the wordplay better. Edit: see ulaca’s comment below, SWEAR can mean BLIND as a verb
23 and let’s leave this one out from the downs

41 comments on “Times 24781: Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Hitler?”

  1. I sweated over 22d and came up with SPEAR, too; I only wish I could blame that for my time of 53 minutes, but it was a long slog throughout. And once again I’m tricked by ‘my’. Shouldn’t ‘car’ in 14d be ‘cars’?
    1. you have a point, hadn’t noticed that, count REMINISCE as one that I put in from the definition and came back to the wordplay for the blog.
    1. Hmmm… it’s listed in Chambers as an intransitive verb under blind… obscure but probably right
  4. Over an hour between phone calls. Entered ‘peck at’ at 12 for some reason (did this one on paper, so can’t use the typo excuse, sadly), which made NEEDINESS harder than it should have been. Also got fixated on ‘rum’ = ‘extraordinary’ at 14, which had me chewing my mental cud for a suitable 9-letter word on the ‘rumina-‘ stem. Rather liked STAGE NAME.

    Does ES (‘tablets’) simply stand for ‘extra strength’, or is there something else?

      1. Unfortunately that last link has been blocked in Australia by EMI, George. Pulp, perhaps?
        1. But not blocked in Japan. It’s a (musical) clip from Summer Heights High and refers to a girl who takes Ecstasy (and possibly other drugs… Somehow the humour in that show passes us by…Oh, well!
  5. After an hour’s toil I emerged with one error (SPEAR) and the new-found knowledge that an as was a Roman coin. Hence the English word ace. Some cracking clues here – I liked the parallel pair of CORSETRY and DAD’S ARMY.
  6. Glad I wasn’t alone taking nearly an hour to complete the grid (55 minutes actually). I found it a bit of a slog to be honest and not a very enjoyable solve because I kept putting in answers without understanding the clues and when I stopped the clock I had no fewer than 11 of them to go back to think through. On the second time round I amended SPEAR to SWEAR so I suppose that takes my solving time over the hour.

    I can see it is a very fair and clever puzzle and it’s certainly a lively one, so I’m just sorry I didn’t enjoy it more.

  7. 39 minutes. I found this very tricky.
    DENARIUS was the only unknown but there were lots of devious tricks in the wordplay. I’d have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t had to get up at 4am to catch a flight but a cracking puzzle nonetheless.
  8. Difficult, yes, and totally unsatisfying. More like this and I will be cancelling my subscription.
  9. Rubbish performance today. Felt like I was man-marking Lionel Mesi. Substituted after an hour or so with 3 to get. Failed to lift and separate “sit on” in 5; plumped for SWEAR in 22 but wondered why WEAR was a spike (kevingregg’s My! Is my “with”); in 21 after discarding STAR TREK became convinced that “host” was a contains indicator and before the penny dropped was trying to fit box or set in the middle somewhere. Sick as a parrot.
  10. Don’t have a time: my day to be in many venues with a few minutes to spare in each — today including taking out a mortgage on a ham and cheese croissant in Fremantle. But I’d guess it would be close to the hour all up. Evidence: ending up at home with 12ac and 21ac still missing. The latter had been saying TROY, TROY to me all day!
  11. Hard work at 40 minutes by the calendar. PECK AT/PICK AT were equal options, I thought – one of them made 6d impossible. Otherwise lots of those really dense clues that yield only when you’ve had a decent stab at the answer out of the blue and then backtrack over the wordplay. PUSSYCAT’s a prime example where the wordplay gives you nothing until you’ve made the owl and… connection. SPEAR took me ages, because I didn’t see the w(ith) even after I’d lit on blind (maybe)=swear.
    I thought EXAM was an over-complicated clue: the “is” might be necessary for surface but spoils the wordplay.
    All in all, a struggle rather than a joy, but I liked Texas Ted at 8d.
    1. I thought of PUSSYCAT quite early on with only the A in place but apart from the owl connection which I had spotted I couldn’t justify any of the rest of the clue. Only much later when the other checkers went in and made PUSSYCAT a definite option did I rethink the wordplay trying a bit harder.
    2. “the “is” might be necessary for surface but spoils the wordplay. “

      It isn’t necessary for the wordplay but neither does it spoil it, I’d say.

  13. A 48 minute slog on this hard but fair crossword. Lost time actually looking for a reverse hidden word in 15 Ac but somehow failed to spot Aeneid. Can’t think how! Thought 6 Dn a bit weak but some very decent clues otherwise. No complaints, apart from the need for a sundial rather than a stopwatch.
  14. Are neither legal nor legal. a very difficult south east corner for me. Plus one hour and DNF with 2
    some good clues but v hard. shame about 22 down and 14 down too
    H
    unsatisfying
  15. 25 minutes online with one typo. Took ages to get SWEAR and EXAM which was last in. Getting used to My = Cor.
    A first appearance for DADS ARMY maybe? Look out for HI DE HI next! Rather enjoyed this and plenty challenging clues.
  16. 37:15 .. A real work-out, for sure, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe I’m on the same drugs as the setter.

    My only question mark was for SUNUP where ‘up’ seems to be clued by ‘college’ rather than the expected ‘at college’. Am I missing something?

    SWEAR was last in and required a lot of thought before the penny dropped. Nice misdirection.

    COD – I enjoyed PUSSYCAT for the ‘tree no more’, but SOPPY made me smile (I say!), perhaps because it made me think of the Peter Mandelson/avacado dip story.

  17. After what must have been 45 minutes I was wondering if finishing this was a possibility, so few clues had I solved, so I had a nap instead. It seemed a bit easier when I returned to it. I liked INVISIBLE INK, GATSBY, CORSETRY & TEXTED but COD to NOT A BEAN. Signed challenged, chastened & chuffed.
  18. Don’t know why I found this so difficult, took me over an hour to finish. Knew exactly what I had to do for each clue, even worked out that 11 across had to have SSYCA in it, but couldn’t seem to deliver the answers. Must be senility setting in. It was perhaps a bit Mephisto-ish and solemn for my taste, but I should have got PUSSYCAT straight away; after all, I can still sing the song, which was played regularly on Children’s Favourites in the 1950s. (Such innocent times!)
  19. It’s ages since I took so long to finish. I almost gave up after an hour. Finally laid down the pen at 80 minutes, with 1 wrong – SPEAR for SWEAR. Didn’t enjoy it much but it all seems perfectly fair. I think I was having a bad day.
  20. Over an hour to come to a point where I needed aids to get the last 2: DADS ARMY, which I’d never heard of, and to guess SHEER instead of SWEAR. I couldn’t solve SWEAR even with aids! Yikes! As for the TV show, I wonder why the US networks insist on changing UK shows into Americanized versions. The only originals I recall seeing with some regularity are the Monty Python series, Are You Being Served?, and Keeping Up Appearances. With the zillion channels available to users these days, and the networks creating awful reality shows at breakneck speed, I don’t know why someone doesn’t pick up these UK shows and run them over here. It would surely help me with these puzzles, at the very least. Regards to all.
  21. 19:51 for me – so I beat you by 1 second on time. However, I was all correct, as I took the trouble to check my solution (surely this has to be worth it – competitors in the Championship are always advised to do so!) and I did get SWEAR right, though it was my last answer in and it (and DESIGNER DRUG) took me simply ages.

    A most enjoyable puzzle with a host of ingenious clues. My compliments to the setter.

  22. Took for ever (hence lateness of this post) but thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying. Glad to see that others needed time. Experienced most of the difficulties identified above: but wordplay for PUSSTCAT eluded me until coming here(thank you).
  23. I left the UK a quarter-century ago, Whenever there’s a mention of a TV show in a clue, I start to panic a bit, thinking, what if it’s
    some show that came on since then, because I can’t keep up on all this cultural stuff. And then it invariably turns out to be something like Dad’s Army which surely hasn’t been on in 30 years or more. Okay, I remember it pretty well, but what can it possibly mean to anyone under the age of about 40?

    Does the Times have rules about how old a TV show has to be before it can be used — rather like real people having to be dead? Must all the leading actors have passed on?

    1. Lucky you, then, no? And lucky me, who never saw D’s A and who can name perhaps 4 British TV programs (and ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ and ‘That Was the Week, That Was’ aren’t too likely to show up in a cryptic). TV program, (4,4), say no more, hint, hint, nudge, nudge.
    2. I would have thought that Dad’s Army should be well enough known to most people. It’s still shown on British TV regularly (in fact I watched an episode on BBC 2 only last Saturday)

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