Times 24824

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 36:29, according to the club times, but I must have lost 10 minutes when my computer died when I was three-quarters done. So comfortably inside half an hour in real terms. That’s two straightforward Friday blogs on the trot – I could get used to this!

A few nice semi-&lit clues at 20, 23 & 24, with 23 being my favourite. I can’t see anything to quibble about, but no doubt there will be others who will.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 BEEF + WELL + IN + G + TONe
9 EAVES DROP – cd
10 MAT + CH – An Axminster is a type of carpet, so a little Axminster would be a MAT.
11 H + mOODY – Is this a UK-centric term? A ‘hoody’ is a generic term for an adolescent ne’er-do-well with penchant for wearing hooded tops with the hood up
12 KISS + A + GRAM
13 INSERTED = (pRESIDENT)*
15 TIVOLI = I LOVe IT all rev – Tivoli is an ancient Italian town, 30km inland from Rome. I only knew the Gardens in Copenhagen, so I waited until all the checkers were in place before putting it in.
17 P + RA(V)DA – The leading Russian newspaper, and voice of the Communist Party, between 1912 and 1991. The name is an English pronunciation of Правда, which means Truth.
19 CROMWELL = Caught + ME about W in ROLL
22 LOHENGRIN = (RHEINGOLd)* + N – the wordplay is a little cumbersome, but the opera is such a crossword stalwart that it doesn’t take much untangling.
23 SEPIA = APES rev about Irregularities
24 COAT + I – a semi-&lit clue. The coati is a member of the raccoon family, also known as the Brazilian aardvark.
25 A + L + D + EdinBURGH – There is an annual arts festival in the Suffolk coastal town which was started in 1948 by local resident Benjamin Britten.
26 STANDARD-BEARER – I think ‘Head’ is the definition, ‘stock’ = STANDARD, ‘fewer blooms’ = BARER, ‘announced’ indicates a homophone.
Down
1 BLENHEIM + PAL + ACE – The ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill. The Battle of Blenheim was a major battle of the War of Spanish Succession, in 1704.
2 ENVIOUS = SUE rev about VI in NO
3 W + I SPY
4 L(OR)IKE + ET – OR is the heraldic term for the yellowy-gold colour found on coats of arms.
5 I + M + PO(smokerS)T
6 GYMNASIUM – 2 definitions, one of them cryptic. The Gymnasium is a type of German secondary school. A horse can also be a piece of gymnastic equipment for vaulting over, as in the classic 1950 war movie The Wooden Horse.
7 O + NT + A + RIO – Rio is the port, NT is a standard abbreviation for Northwest Territories.
8 CHAMOIS LEATHER = (SO THE CAMEL HAIR)*
14 REDE(N)SIGN
16 TRINIDAD = (AIR DIDN’T)* = (TRAIN DID)* – ‘swimming’ is the anagrind for both, hence ‘those’ & ‘repeatedly’
18 AT HEART = A THREAT with the R moved down a couple of places.
20 EMPEROR = REP in ROME all rev – another semi-&lit
21 ERRATA = A + TAR rev after ER
23 SABRE = (BEARS)* – yet another semi-&lit, and probably the best of the lot.

43 comments on “Times 24824”

  1. 23’ and, I figured, not too difficult — at least after yesterday! I can foresee complaints about the unsignalled (apart from the “?”) DBE at 10ac and the assumption that “jealous” = ENVIOUS (at 2dn). The Bible Brigade will no doubt point out that “the Lord, thy God” was not at all envious. Not a great fan of the single-word def in 26ac — and there will surely be history buffs who will tell us just where standard bearers were positioned.
  2. 37′, one wrong–HOODY, of course. I threw in ‘hooky’, faute de mieux, or at least faute d’anything else I could think of. Like vinyl, I say ‘chamois cloth’, or just ‘chamois’. Since a gymnasium is a school in Germany, ‘School in Germany’ struck me as lacking that touch of crypticity so desirable in a clue. I’d never heard of a kissagram, but I thought I could guess; but is it farcical? A COD to WISPY, my last (correct) one in.
  3. Bit of a disaster, with three wrong: each by one letter, which I thought was rather clever (‘hooly’ [wooly = of uncertain temperament – geddit? no, neither did I, really], ‘coapi’ [I’ve invented this animal before – I must now make him extinct] and ‘sable’ for ‘sabre’). 19 minutes for all bar 3, 11, 16, 23dn and 25,. and another 21 for those five. Not helped by getting the [first] anagrist at 16 but failing to make a word with three checkers in place.
  4. And of course, I’d be wrong. Other than that, not a bad effort. HOODY was a bit of a guess. Over here it means the garment (as worn in my photo), not the individual.
    Didn’t know COATI or ALDEBURGH, but they were nicely gettable. A 32-minute solve, and that was after allowing my work to interrupt me for two or three minutes. Don’t they know it’s Friday?
  5. One wrong in 59 minutes. Failed to see Sabre and had Sable…in royal trimming…so well blogged and well solved!
    Medium in my thinking!
  6. WISPY very fine indeed. No problems for once. Unlike the American interviewer reducing his Britten expert interviewee to hysteria in a link from The NY Met (during the interval of a live transmission of Peter Grimes) to somewhere called Aldiberg.
  7. …also ‘hoodie’ is not UK-centric according to Chamber’s dictionary of slang. It has its origins in the US and is particularly associated with followers of rap music who wear the garment as a semi-uniform. As to the word’s association with delinquents, this is the perception of others and hoody/hoodie is not defined in any of the usual places as such. I wonder if this is the same setter who thinks that all Teddy boys were hooligans.
    1. Well (my very new!) Collins — bought it an hour ago — says of “hoodie”: “… regarded by some as a potential hooligan”. Perhaps “hood-lum” might be lurking here?
      1. Yes, my 2007 Collins has that too but that is not the same as “delinquent” = “hoody” as the clue has it (or vice versa). You may be right that its similarity to the word “hoodlum” plays a part in the perception of its meaning.
    2. Galspray’s comment that went up whilst I was writing reminds me I meant also to say that the same dictionary also cites the US as the origin for the individual who wears the garment.
  8. And now to the puzzle. I finished all bar two in 30 minutes and these were 11ac and 3dn. I thought of HOODY at 11ac thus showing worrying prejudices (see above) but my better nature won the day and I decided I couldn’t justify it so it didn’t go in. 3dn fooled me completely and I eventually resorted to a thesaurus to arrive at fine = WISPY and with the arrival of the Y checker HOODY became inevitable to complete the grid.

    I found one error on arrival here as my poor knowledge of Italian geography hadn’t prevented me writing RIVOLI at 13ac. I knew I couldn’t justify the RI so I should have had another think about it before checking the answer.

    The lower half, where I made my start, seemed very easy.

  9. I found this one incredibly easy, which is a pleasant surprise after the ones earlier on this week. Some went in on def alone (the dish), and others from cryptic (the bird). TRINIDAD was my LOI as I couldn’t fathom how the clue worked for the longest time…quite liked the double anagram once I saw it. Other than this, I felt most of the clues were very ‘clunky’ and I could see how they fitted together clearly, so although I finished it quickly and correctly, I somehow didn’t get the same satisfaction of ‘cleverer’ (?) puzzles.

    Nevertheless a fine way to start the weekend! See you all next week. Janie

  10. 23 minutes, so on par with yesterday’s, but much more fun. HOODY (I thought it was -IE) and especially WISPY held me up at the end. E L Wisty made a brief appearance during alphabetting, as did wishy and washy. I was only saved from SHAMMIE LEATHER by insisting it had to be -Y and rechecking the anagrist. CONEY initially went in at 24 (you can get “one” from it – I was going to complain a bit) until checkers made it impossible.
    KISSAGRAM was my laugh out loud clue, though I don’t really get “farcical” as a modifier for cable. Still makes it as my CoD.
    I though SABRE and EMPEROR were fine examples of all-in-ones.
    1. The Concise Oxford has HOODY first and HOODIE second but everywhere else I have looked, including the Shorter Oxford, has them the other way round. I don’t know about the standard Chambers because my copy is too old to include it.
      1. Chambers has “hoodie – a hoodie crow; also hoody – a hooded jacket, a young person especially a member of a gang who wears one”
        1. I wonder if ‘gang’ is intended to carry sinister overtones. It didn’t necessarily in the days of Ralph Reader!
  11. Refused to accept hoody till I had to. It’s not a helpful usage. About 45 minutes all told – found some of the easy ones hard going for some reason. A lot of proper nouns today – maybe the setter was indulging some favourites. Liked 23 down.
  12. 15 mins on the button. Literally, as my wife bought me a stopwatch for Christmas. How good is that! Standard fare today I thought; liked chamois leather as ‘cleaning skin’; 3D and 16D appealed.
    1. My father would let nothing else touch his car windows – especially our hands on a fuggy day!
  13. An essentially easy puzzle because the long entries at 1A and 1D are so straightforward and that opens up the grid. 20 reasonably pleasant minutes to solve.

    Like others I don’t approve of this association of hoody with delinquent. It’s a prejudice (as Jack says rather like branding all Teddy Boys as tearaways)

  14. 36 minutes, so a bit of a struggle, but a large proportion of this was spent staring at three clues in the SE. I had put a line in 20dn based on the enumeration for 18dn, so where the answer was a single word I was looking for two. Duh. Once I’d spotted this I got EMPEROR, ALDEBURGH (unknown to me) and SABRE (very nice clue) quickly.
    To my mind there is no doubt that HOODY (or more commonly I think, “hoodie”) is synonymous with “delinquent” in modern usage, whether we approve of the association or not. The infamous phrase “hug a hoodie” doesn’t refer to the garment and most people in England at least will understand what is meant by it. The dictionaries may not reflect this but they are of course always behind the development of the language so this isn’t entirely surprising.

    1. If the dictionaries are behind the development of the language I think it is incumbent upon setters to be there with them too as far as usage is concerned.
      1. I’m happy to cut them a bit of slack: by definition words always enter general usage before they make it into the dictionaries. I may be wrong but from the comments above I don’t get the impression that most people are unfamiliar with the use of the word “hoodie” to mean something like “delinquent”, so taking a pragmatic approach is seems like fair game to me.
        Whether one likes the usage or not (and it’s certainly not pleasant) is a different question.
        1. My wife often berates me for wearing a hoodie, but it’s more on the grounds that I’m “too old”, not that it makes me “delinquent”. I like my hoodie, it’s comfy and convenient. And I’m hardly a delinquent, parking fines and overdue library books notwithstanding.
          1. I’ve got absolutely nothing against hoodies: I wear them myself, as do my kids – and I certainly hope they’re not delinquents!
            1. I wasn’t aware of the usage in either case, but is there anything different in (un-)acceptability between ‘hoody’ and ‘anorak’?
              1. Good question. I’d say “hoody” is a bit more offensive, with its implications that wearing a certain type of garment makes you a criminal. However I don’t feel that unpleasantness necessarily disqualifies it from featuring here: after all we had “bastard” only the other day!
  15. With 1 across and 1 down coming very easily I thought this would be a quick solve. I was wrong!! It took me ages to get Eavesdrop which seems obvious once you have it. I wasn’t familiar with Lohengrin or Aldeburgh.
    Louise
  16. Whatever is going on? Like janie_l_b, I found this incredibly easy and finished in under 15 minutes. I hope she won’t take offence but neither of us is usually found amongst the leaders of the pack either in solving times or success. Is this a case where our relatively limited expertise for some reason helped us? I was expecting to see some superfast times from the true experts.

    Thanks for the blog, Dave. Not only was I all correct, I seem to have seen full wordplays as well. A Friday to remember.

    1. That’s a terrific time. Savour it, and when it becomes habitual, you’ll be able to enter any train compartment and sit down (or stand, I suppose, if it’s rush hour) with a newly bought copy of the Thunderer confident that you’re going to reel it off before you finish the hop.
    2. None taken whatsoever! I feel that as ‘also-rans’ we are in very good company!
  17. I seemed to be struggling with this for ages but finished in 30 minutes, which is par for the course. It speeded up a lot after I got the long answers at 1a and 1d. I expected EDINBURGH at 25a and was pleased to see ALDEBURGH instead. (That made 2 opera-related answers in this puzzle – a bonus for some of us) Admired the elegant brevity of SABRE.
  18. 7:08, ending with WISPY (3dn).  Unknown: COATI (24ac), ALDEBURGH (25ac); unfamiliar: LORIKEET (4dn), RED ENSIGN (14dn).

    I’ve just started solving regularly again, but only over lunch, having limited time these days.  I came here because (like Martin) I thought there’d be some pretty fast times – I put the baguette down early on when I thought I might be on for a blinder, but then I got held up by the clues listed above and by 17ac (PRAVDA), 26ac (STANDARD BEARER), and 16dn (TRINIDAD).  I’m pleased to see that LOHENGRIN (22ac) has finally embedded itself in my consciousness.

  19. 11:11 for me, which was a pleasant surprise as I just stared at it in complete befuddlement for the first couple of minutes, until eventually I got started with INSERTED, and never looked back.
  20. This has to be my least favourite grid; I always seem to struggle when it occurs and today was no exception. Also dozed off in the middle of it, which doesn’t help my time. RHS completely impenetrable for what seemed ages, even with nap time subtracted. WISPY was good, but SABRE was better
  21. 11:07 with one mistake, HOOKY for HOODY. I went with Hoody at first, but couldn’t find Moody and was unsure of the Y ending, so decided that Kooky could mean of uncertain temperament. I still don’t like the clue, and it’s only partly sour grapes. Also held up by Rivoli/Tivoli, and putting Kissogram without thinking to scupper my Gymnasium, incidentally my COD. Doubtless the sorts of mistake I would always make in a contest against the clock!
  22. About 20 minutes, but I’m with ulaca on HOOLY (short for hooligan?). I’ve never heard HOODY used to mean the person, only the garment, and almost always as HOODIE. I acknowledge the exchanges above re Chambers, etc., and that if it’s in the dictionary, it’s fair game, but I for one think that the good book is stretched pretty thin there in citing ‘orig US’. Other than that, I found it on the easier side, COD to the excellent WISPY, and regards to everyone, including the folks at Chambers.
  23. 9:36 for me. Once again I started horribly slowly, missing the easy 1ac and 1dn first time through, but at least I picked up speed rather sooner than I did yesterday.
  24. About an hour, but the clock says 4 hours — I printed out the puzzle after 49 minutes and then filled in the missing bits (WISPY, TRINIDAD, ALDEBURGH and SABRE) after recovering from my stupor, well, 3 hours later. Considering the number of words I had never heard of which I managed to solve from wordplay (LORIKEET, ALDEBURGH for example) and the amount of wordplay I didn’t and couldn’t understand (like the horse jumping in the GYMNASIUM and the battle at BLENHEIM), I’m surprised I got it all right. TRINIDAD is not just the COD but the COY for me, but “Cavalier bears this?” is also very good. A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle.

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