Times 24,863 I’m From Head Office – I’m Here To Help You

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time 20 minutes

A little harder than yesterday but within one standard deviation of the mean. Some mathematics and some more foreign words hwyl! Overall, this shouldn’t present too many intractable problems.

Across
1 LOCALE – (COL=colonel reversed)-ALE;
4 ARRANGER – A-R-RANGER; he knows people who wear 19D;
10 MUNDANE – MU-N-DANE;
11 COLLECT – two meanings;
12 AUTO – A-(pl=place)UTO;
13 BRUSCHETTA – (at butcher’s)*; an Italian word for toasted bread liked by people who wear 19D;
15 DANGEROUS – D(ANGER)O-US; people who wear 19D perhaps;
16 BERET – BERE(f)T; French headgear, not as chic as 19D;
18 CHELA – hidden (su)CH ELA(tion); from the Hindi, a novice Buddhist;
19 FACE,SAVER – FACE’S-AVER; important when dealing with the Japanese;
21 MUSTARD,GAS – (drama + gusts)*; sulphur mustard first used by the Germans at Ypres in 1917;
23 SCAT – SCAT(hing);
26 TERRIER – T(ERR)IER; a member of the Territorial Army;
27 SHOEBOX – two meanings 1=reference to Oxford type of shoe 2=box room;
28 DIMINISH – DI(MINI)SH;
29 EMBERS – (m)EMBERS;
 
Down
1 LEMMA – (reve)L-EMMA; mathematics today! A Greek word for a proven mathematical proposition such as Gauss’ lemmas;
2 CONSTANCE – CON-STANCE; well done setter for avoiding literary references;
3 LEAN – two meanings;
5 RACISTS – RA(C-IS)TS: KKK perhaps (who don’t wear 19D);
6 ALL,THE,BEST – two meanings again; but is it a greeting? more a farewell?;
7 GREAT – sounds like “grate” = jar;
8 RETRACTOR – RE-TRACTOR;
9 WEIRDO – (rowdies without s=saint)*;
14 RELAXATION – REL(A-X)ATION;
15 DECIMATED – DECI(MATE)D(e); the result of usage of 21A;
17 REVOCABLE – (OVER reversed)-CABLE; does anybody still send cables?;
19 FEDORAS – (f=female + adores)*; hats worn by men from Head Office with violin cases who make you an offer you can’t refuse;
20 CLAUSE – sounds like Santa;
22 SCRUM – SC(R)UM;
24 TEXAS – TE(X)AS; where they wear ten gallon hats rather than 19D;
25 FORM – and another two meanings, FORM is slang for a criminal record “Chummy has form”;

30 comments on “Times 24,863 I’m From Head Office – I’m Here To Help You”

  1. Shoebox? We used to dream of a shoebox!

    29’ for this one. So I can feel a build-up to Wednesday going on.
    Liked nearly all of these clues; though none was outstanding. No one else bothered by ‘kisser’ for FACE. Surely it’s the gob?

    1. I think in the old Jimmy Cagney films it was used for both mouth and face but I agree more for mouth. As there are so many slang words for face the setter could have avoided the confusion – mug for example would do
  2. Must learn the Greek alphabet which would have helped get the 4 in the NW corner that were missing before going for help (MUNDANE). Only problems today in that corner despite enteriing LOCALE and CONSTANCE on sight. Thought AUTO a wonderfully deceptive clue especially if you have never heard of LEMMA.
    1. I’d imagine alpha, beta, eta, iota, mu, nu, pi, tau, phi and chi are the key cruciverbalist ones.
      1. I wish. Recall Lambda and Epsilon not too long ago. Have the Greek alphabet written down as well as the Nato, but when I write things down my brain refuses to commit to memory, so I have to cheat.
  3. 17 minutes today, working steadily from top to bottom on each side in turn. A slightly old-fashioned feel to this one, perfectly encapsulated by Jim’s “Chummy has form” – great blog by the way, loving the millinery. This could have appeared in the sixties, and been eminently solvable, with BRUSCHETTA and RACIST the only vaguely avant-garde references. Oxford shoes, memories of WW1, a snatch of the Book of Common Prayer, the most basic of US references in AUTO and TEXAS (do Americans still call cars autos?) and WEIRDO for eccentric, all d’un certain age.
    I got LEMMA by filing the front off DI-, CHELA from vague memory and was grateful for the anagram to get BRUSCHETTA spelt right.
    No particular CoD today, though I quite liked the 19d hat.
    1. Still? I can’t recall ever hearing the word, or seeing it, for that matter, except in some signs (‘Auto Repair’, ‘Auto Parts’). It’s cars all the way. (Although I do remember from 50+ years ago Mrs. Jones next door warning her son Bobby, in what I took to be an Irish accent, to watch out for the machines.)
  4. I wondered for a long time whether or not there was a distant planet (that we havent heard of) called YUTEPL until I remembered to add the A and then remembered LEMMA. I wasn’t too fussed on the CLAUSE as we dont ever call him that (nor CHRISTMAS for that matter). I did like both the hat clues though.
  5. Good heavens! I beat jimbo’s time, albeit both CHELA and LEMMA went in on a wing and a prayer based on the wordplay. As I shall probably never do this again, unless it’s been a particularly arduous day for him on the golf course, it’s time for me to think about retiring.

  6. LEMMA, which I had considered and discounted, along with LAMIE and LEMMY, and, much more irritatingly, AUTO. I too, was thinking along the YUTE/UTE lines, and had even considered (p)LUTO. Can’t believe I didn’t get it!

    Otherwise, I found this much easier than yesterday’s. CHELA on wordplay alone, all others fine.

  7. Relatively straightforward solve completed in 50 minutes with the two 4-letter words SCAT and AUTO last in. Struggled to make SANTA with a ‘c’ fit at 20dn, as one never abbreviates him to Claus. CHELA unknown (apart from Juan Ignacio, the tennis player), as was TERRIER in the given sense, but both easily gettable from the wordplay. Didn’t twig the fact that ‘couple’ referred to a pair of shoes until I came here, even though I had the shoes themselves. Amazing what one is capable of missing!
  8. 45 minutes. Mostly straightforward but had a bit of a hold-up at the end with LEMMA which I didn’t know but guessed from the wordplay, and, of all things, AUTO where I had confused myself thinking of UTE as the American vehicle and wondering which letter could go in front of it to make sense of the clue. I had to check CHELA after completing the grid but I’m sure I have met it in a previous puzzle.

    A more encouraging solve for me than of late.

  9. 46 minutes, held up by slinging in HAMSTRING on sight for the muscle (my father used to refer to the Royal Engineers as “Hams” but I can’t find any supporting usage, so perhaps he had some personal beef with them)
  11. A bit over 20 minutes. I also didn’t think people sent cables any more, until the wikileaks affair suggested that the American diplomatic service, at least, still sends plenty…
  12. 22:16, the last four minutes spent staring at A_T_. One of those ones that looked so easy after I got it.
    And for what it’s worth Jimbo, I never wear fedoras but I LOVE bruschetta!
    Thanks for the blog.
  13. Pretty easy I thought.

    I don’t know why but you remind me of Matin Gardner somehow Jimbo.

    1. I’m flattered. I certainly share his skeptical view all the rubbish that is put about these days about food and similar pseudo scientific nonsense.
  14. I’d never heard of LEMMA which I had to get from the cryptic. Together with AUTO, my last in. (Btw,I’ve come to think that yesterday’s foreign word, HWYL, was a homage to our successful attempt at the Premier League. Not my game but the hwyl in the pub last night was infectious. It’s a useful word if you can pronounce it.) Other than that this puzzle seemed quite straightforward and not very exciting. Finished in 23 minutes.
  15. You are all to clever for me – even tried to cheat but the anagram solver had not heard of BRUSCHETTA :
  16. A steady and enjoyable solve after yesterday’s hurtle into a brick wall. LEMMA crossing with MU was a mathematician’s delight. COD to FEDORAS but; a worthy theme for today, Jimbo.
  17. I found this just right – not too easy, not too hard, and witty with it, and some good surfaces eg both 1ac and dn.

    However 6dn is surely just a mistake? Goodbye, not hello?? And I will gloss over Pluto = world, when the poor thing is not longer allowed even to be a proper planet.

    Lemma is familiar as the lowest level of definition in, eg, the OED, as well as its mathematical meaning

  18. 26 minutes. Fairly steady going, although I mis-parsed 2d at first and wasted time looking for a lake to add to CON-, and I assumed that ‘bowl’ in 28ac was the day’s cricket reference. CHELA must have appeared in an earlier puzzle, or I wouldn’t have known it. I wasn’t bothered by kisser=face; in fact, if asked, I’d probably have given that meaning. But Jimbo’s right that e.g. ‘mug’ would have been better; it would also have made sense of the clue (kisser declares?). COD to AUTO; I liked 23ac, too, but was ‘being’ necessary?
  19. Done in around 15 minutes, so to me certainly not on the hard side of things. ‘Kisser’ isn’t current any longer, but still immediately familiar, either from Jimbo’s reference to old Jimmy Cagney movies, or else Three Stooges episodes. I don’t know if the latter ever made it to foreign lands, but each usually included at least one threat of “Pow! Right in the kisser!” Yes, AUTO still means ‘car’ over here, but usually as part of compound nouns such as ‘auto dealers’, or ‘the big auto makers’, not on its own. LEMMA and CHELA from wordplay only. Regards to all. COD to Jimbo’s themed blog.
  20. Hi community folk, was there a blog for Saturday’s (24861)? Can’t seem to locate this entry? Many thanks in advance.
    1. Weekend puzzles, being prize competitions, are blogged a week after they appear. You’ll find 24861 this coming Saturday.
      1. Ah, of course, a prize competition, should have realised that, silly question really! Many thanks Sotira! 🙂
  21. Late post today as I’ve been travelling and only just got to it. Very easy for me, 11 minutes and would have been sub-10 without the unknown LEMMA crossing with AUTO, which I wanted to be LUTO. Welcome after last week!
    CHELA caused me no problems because this evening was one of those unusual occasions when my memory was working.
    Thanks to the setter and Jimbo for a gentle puzzle and an entertaining blog at the end of a tough day. Now I need a drink…

  22. 9:49 here, for a straightforward, pleasant solve.

    I wasn’t too convinced about “kisser” = FACE, but it seems to be sanctioned by Collins (1986) and the (online) OED, which describes this meaning as “orig. boxing slang“.

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