Solving time 25 minutes
Another puzzle that I found vaguely irritating. There are too few clever wordplay constructions and too many oblique references for my taste such as 2D IMMODEST and 4D CORRIDOR. I had finished this in just under 20 minutes bar 10A and I have stared at ?M?N for some time now. I’ve guessed AMEN as the answer but need my ever erudite audience to explain the rest of it – or correct my guess if I’m wrong
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BIBLICAL – Job is a character in the Christian Bible – awful clue; |
| 9 | ALTHOUGH – A-L-THOUGH(t); “however” is the definition; |
| 10 | AMEN – a pure guess on my part based on a supposed definition “right” – I don’t see the rest of it; on edit – see solution provided by Jack. Another clue I’m not enamoured of; |
| 11 | DARBY,AND,JOAN – (any DJ or a band)*; the folks who live on the hill; |
| 13 | PENNED – two meanings; |
| 14 | ROLL-CALL – demand=CALL; revolutionary movement=ROLL; the start of the school day; |
| 15 | STIR-FRY – prison=STIR (slang); penal reformer=(Elizabeth) FRY; |
| 16 | HARBOUR – H-ARBOUR; |
| 20 | ACID,RAIN – AC-I-DRAIN; (alternating) current=AC; |
| 22 | CELERY – CELER(it)Y; |
| 23 | ABSENT-MINDED – “with fonder heart”=reference to “absence makes the heart grow fonder”; was caring=MINDED; |
| 25 | DASH – three meanings 1=throw=cast 2=mild swear word from yesteryear 3=just a little; |
| 26 | DILUTION – (until I do)*; |
| 27 | TUTORING – TU-TO-RING; TU=Trade Union (people not working collectively?); |
| Down | |
| 2 | IMMODEST – Jonathan Swift wrote not just of Gulliver but also a work entitled “A Modest Proposal”; |
| 3 | LONDON,BRIDGE – cryptic definition + reference to the old song “London Bridge is Falling Down”; |
| 4 | CORRIDOR – reference the phrase “corridors of power” (always said in the plural?); |
| 5 | LAWYERS – LA(W)YERS; |
| 6 | ATONAL – A-TON-A-L(ock); “a ton” is slang for 100mph (160kph); |
| 7 | EURO – hidden (bibl)E (yo)U (refe)R (t)O; the Mark was the German currency (and may soon be again); |
| 8 | CHANDLER – C-HANDLER; clubs=C (playing cards); a second = a HANDLER (boxing); |
| 12 | JACOBS,LADDER – two meanings; |
| 15 | SEAWARDS – S(E-AWARD)S; E is from (pirat)E; SS=steamship so “escorted by vessel”; |
| 17 | ACCIDENT – ACC(I’D)ENT; |
| 18 | UNREASON – (nuns are + o=old)*; |
| 19 | ANCIENT – A-N-C(I)ENT; |
| 21 | ANTRIM – A-N(o)T-RIM; “none the less not”=NT; |
| 24 | SILK – S-ILK; a SILK is an even more expensive barrister (advocate); |
I think 25ac has to be a triple definition to account for ‘just a little’.
Eventually sorted that one out, before running into the same roadblock as everyone else with 10ac. The best I could do was OMAN, on the grounds that it’s on the right as you exit the tube of the Gulf. Desperate stuff, I know. 47 minutes.
I actually thought this was a lot of fun.
Jim and I can now perhaps agree: Lit-stuff must be preferable to god-bothering??
I think 10A is a truely abysmal clue. So far we haven’t had one contributor say that they solved it first off even with ?M?N in place – and that includes my fellow Mephisto blogger George. Jack did very well to finally see the awful truth. The intersection with the crummy 2D is also unhelpful.
Anything is preferable to god-bothering.
Didn’t get the ‘absence makes the heart grow…’ ref, nor had I come across a HANDLER before. And I’d not heard of the DASH=cast meaning. And I didn’t know about the plant called a JL. I could go on…
However, I did think there were some good clues: I particularly liked SEAWARDS and LAWYERS amongst others.
Back to the puzzle, AMEN went in on a wing and, naturally, a prayer, while I managed to miss the Job as Jewish Bible character reference entirely.
I’m wary of upsetting our esteemed blogger any further, but a metric ton was 160kph when I was last nabbed for doing it.
I too noticed the religious overtones and winced – we’ve seen this setter before!!
I’m also not sure that agitation alone is enough to produce a STIR-FRY, though in my kitchen it has sometimes been the sole consequence.
It’s hard to look objectively at the rest of the puzzle after 10a, but I did admire a few clues – CELERY, in particular, is a gem.
I didn’t know this specific meaning of either “handler” or “second” but a quick check in Collins leaves no doubt that the boxing interpretation is correct.
Forty minutes, but a wrong answer for 24d, which I had as SELL, thinking that ELL = EL = the letter L, which could be a piece of type. I admit that the correct answer is obviously better.
Guessed AMEN simply because OMAN, OMEN and AMIN seemed even less likely.
Didn’t know who the penal reformer was but it has to be Mr Fry (turned out to be Ms Fry).
I think the adjacent tube stations bit here is either coincidental or a piece of misdirection. The bank here refers to the bank of a river. A bridge being something that links two banks – hence bank linkage. Bank or banker are used quite a lot for river related issues.
I only thought of IMMODEST after my half-hour was up, and would have chanced it if I’d thought of it earlier, but I’d forgotten Swift’s essay. I’d then have guessed AMEN as the least unlikely solution, but I had to come here to find the explanation.
All good old-fashioned Times clues, but not ones I was expecting in a modern Times puzzle. I wonder if they’ll spring something like that on us in this year’s Championship.
I’m not helped by feeling extremely despondent at the moment. My wife was born and bred in Ealing, and I’ve lived there for the past 40 years, so we’re both horrified at the wanton damage.
Interested to see you didn’t get AMEN. Not one contributor has said they solved this in the normal course of completing the puzzle – which I think says a lot about the clue. I’m by no means certain that it would have been allowed years ago.
I’m in the middle of a bad patch at the moment, and, after pondering over BIBLICAL, IMMODEST and AMEN for several minutes, more or less lost the will to live. I’m kicking myself for not spotting AMEN though, and like to think that I’d have picked it up in my heyday, or even nowadays in other circumstances. With hindsight, the three four-letter words leap out at you. I’m pretty sure this sort of thing came up in the past, though I can’t immediately point to an example.
Second the instruction to take the last two letters of each word in the phrase is not particularly clear.
When nobody solves a clue except after ages of time looking at the checkers it’s often a sign that the clue isn’t very good. In this instance several very experienced solvers failed to see it. But if you like it – that’s great and I’m pleased for you.
“All in one” is a new name for these clues, invented by Tim Moorey in his excellent 2008 book on “How to Master the Times Crossword”. I’m using it here because I think it’s clearer than the old name & lit., which is short for ‘and literally true’. These clues are ones where the whole clue is simultaneously wordplay and a definition of the solution. Does not ‘So be it’ qualify as a definition of ‘Amen’?
Perhaps the Amen clue would have been more acceptable to solvers had the initial ‘It’s’ been omitted – it surely qualifies as an & Lit according to the above criterion.
The clue has no definition so far as I can see. Fair game in the old days but particularly unfair nowadays – at least back then you could expect such devilry!
CELERY v good though
Second, as an Anglican minister who’s fine with god-bothering (as long as it’s done nicely!), I thought this was terrible. 1ac a double definition defining the same term the same way? Ugh. And 10ac has had enough complaints levelled at it, bar one: both LUMEN and RUMEN fit the tube exit description, and the clear absence of a definition led me to guess it wasn’t there because they didn’t want a real word, so UMEN went in.
Third, at least I get a weekend to get over it!