Times 25,055 Not James Joyce!

Solving time 20 minutes

A normal Times cryptic with a good overall standard of clues, no queries or problems, solved left to right, top to bottom. I seemed to spend a lot of time taking little bits of words and concatenating them with anagrams or other words, which may irritate some. No poets, authors or painters but a little sprinkling of science – how Times have changed.

Across
1 ESSAYIST – ES(SAY-IS)T; EST from (w)E(b)S(i)T(e); George Orwell perhaps;
5 SKI,BUM – SKI(BU)M; BU from BU(tter);
9 DAB – BAD reversed;
10 BETA,BLOCKER – BE-TAB-LOCKER; live=BE; drug=TAB(let); key=LOCKER; James Black’s drug to treat angina;
12 VIDEO,DIARY – (I did a very + o=nothing)*; strange modern phenomenon;
13 RANI – country = IRAN then move the “I” to give RANI, a female queen;
15 STRUNG – ST-RUNG;
16 ISOLATE – IS-O-LATE; O=zero=love (tennis);
18 SMACKER – two slang meanings;
20 WINGER – two non-slang meanings; Stanley Matthews was the best;
23 RANK – two more meanings 1=complete as in “rank outsider”; 2=line (of soldiers);
24 ATROCITIES – AT-R-O-CITIES; AT from (h)A(l)T;
26 SOLAR,SYSTEM – S(hiver)-(are mostly + s=son)*; step forward Copernicus, Galilei, Newton and Kepler;
27 TWO – (aircraf)T-(sto)W-(carg)O; more than one but less than a crowd;
28 ORDEAL – OR-DEAL;
29 GRADIENT – GRA(DIE)NT; reference Hiram Ulysses GRANT 1822-1885, 18th President of the USA;
 
Down
1 ENDIVE – END-(l)IVE; rabbit food;
2 SUBEDIT – SU(BED)IT; clearly an Italian journo;
3 YA-BOO,SUCKS – (as you sock + b=book)*; modern politics;
4 SITTING,PRETTY – group taking meal=SITTING; quite=PRETTY (slang);
6 KOOK – KO-OK; floor=knock down;
7 BAKLAVA – BA(K)LA-VA; K from (san)K; Lake Bala is Welsh beauty spot; Turkish dish containing honey and nuts;
8 MARTINET – TEN-I-TRAM all reversed; number=TEN; one=I; from North Korea perhaps;
11 BERTIE,WOOSTER – B(ER-TIE-W)OOSTER; royal=ER; marry=TIE; wife=W; Jeeve’s mate;
14 HORN,RIMMED – (men + horrid + m=made primarily)*; why old ladies spectacles – Clark Kent say?
17 ESPRESSO – ES-PRESS-O; ES from (f)E(a)S(t); smooth=PRESS: a form of coffee;
19 ANNELID – ANNE-LID; scientific name for the leech;
21 EPISTLE – (concret)E-PI(ST)LE; old fashioned video diary;
22 ESCORT – (sector)*;
25 ORCA – hidden (don)OR CA(rd);

57 comments on “Times 25,055 Not James Joyce!”

  1. I was never on the wavelength of this puzzle, partly because of the large number of clues of the alternate-letter and partial word type and partly because of ongoing office reorganisation. Staggered home in 78 minutes, with a ? against MALI, which has now been amended to a X. (Queen Alim, anyone?)

    Also contributing to my woes were a character I have never read and have assiduously avoided watching on the telly (11), a popular expression I never use and have hardly ever heard (3), a slang term based on a pursuit I’ve never undertaken (5), and a couple of unfamiliar scientific terms (19 and 21). Improve on that lot of excuses if you can!

  2. Came home in 42 minutes after a very slow start. Once I found the wavelength it wasn’t as difficult as I feared. Only unknown was SKI BUM, as opposed to skier’s bum, a condition of numbness brought about by close proximity to ice. COD to SITTING PRETTY from a pretty good bunch, I thought. Strange Bertie making an appearance after I gave him an outing in last Monday’s blog. I must have tuned into something.
  3. I completed this in 18 minutes, thinking that the quirky clues might well be causing problems for the blogger in terms of “if that’s the answer, what’s the question?” So congratulations, Jim, on decoding this lot, and appreciation to setter (from me, at least) for some good, mind-scrambling fun.
    RANK was last in, and I was toying with ring (no more completed line than one which meets its own beginning) as an answer which might just be quirky enough. I’d have put an H in YA-BOO, but apparently it’s optional. Border=end in 1d had a query against it until confirmed.
    Smashing oblique definitions in this one especially “bodies round heater” in 26, my CoD, and the simply true “more than one” for TWO.
    Is presenting 4 three-line (printed edition) clues something of a record?
  4. 34 minutes after unconscionable delay on two or three. A good testing puzzle that I’d have been satisfied to get through in under the half-hour. I like the ‘bodies around heater’ definition but no COD award – just a certain appreciation of the whole.
  5. All but four in 30 minutes, then another 17 to sort out RANK, ANNELID, ESPRESSO and ORDEAL. Many went in on definition alone and I reckon I spent at least another 15 minutes following completion of the grid working out all the wordplay.

    5ac seems to rely heavily on Chambers which is alone amongst the three usual sources in listing SKI BUM and ‘cream’ = SKIM directly, however the definition doesn’t mention hedonism so I don’t know where that has come from.

    Edited at 2012-01-10 11:09 am (UTC)

    1. The hedonism comes from sheer usage. The dictionary’s there to confirm usage but there are times it surely doesn’t need confirmation.
      1. You have a point but it’s not much help if a dictionary doesn’t confirm usage in the case of a comparatively rare word or expression. I’d never heard of SKI BUM before this morning and the fact that it gets only three listings on OneLook (and one of them is to a Wiki article about a novel of that name) and none of the Oxford dictionaries nor Collins have it, suggests to me that I’m not alone in my ignorance. In such a case I would expect a clue to be precise in its definition and for that definition to be supported somewhere.

        Edited at 2012-01-10 12:00 pm (UTC)

        1. I don’t think I’d come across it before but as soon as it occurred to me I “saw” it, and as it were took the setter’s assurance it was in use. I would imagine the dictionaries have yet to catch up with it; but that in certain circles (or on certain slopes) it’s already used a fair amount. (One hopes so anyhow: a succinct term.)
  6. One wrong. I had RING as a line which, in one sense, could be called “complete”. Never heard of SKI BUM but having B?M as the last word was a bit of a giveaway. I had a moment’s worry about 29a, thinking it might be about the book which I’ve never been able to read – in spite of starting it several times. Relieved to find it was the usual General. 28 minutes
  7. Funny you should say that Vinyl. A certain Poskir is fulminating on today’s Forum about the unseemly use of an Americanism such as this. If it had been “in the catbird seat” he probably would have totally flipped. 24 minutes so a gentle re-entry after being sans internet for a week.
    1. The concensus seems to be that he/she meant to refer to 6dn not 4dn.. which is an Americanism indeed.
      1. Ah yes, that would be it. Though kook doesn’t seem so very objectionable really, no worse than ski bum which is a lot better than ski bunny.
  8. 17 minutes for a very modern feeling puzzle, which I enjoyed, despite the fact that I usually think of myself as a bit of a traditionalist in crossword terms. I occasionally wonder if someone is keeping track of when various neologisms make a debut in the puzzle (surely a stamp of some sort of acceptance beyond mere inclusion in reputable dictionaries), though I don’t care enough to do it myself…
  9. Agree with finger-wagging at Ski bum. It has yet to be acknowledged as an overindulgent downhiller in the majority of dictionaries. If a doctor prescribes a beta-blocker it is normally because one is suffering from either hypertension or arrhythmia.

    Enigma

  10. 14 minutes but with ANNALID. Notes to self:
    1) when you don’t know the spelling pay close attention to wordplay
    2) your spelling is terrible so you don’t know the spelling more often than you think
    Absolutely no problem with SKI BUM. A familiar term to me, and if we’re allowed archaic terms we should be allowed new ones, provided in both cases the wordplay is clear, which it is here. The definition seems spot on to me: a ski bum is someone who devotes his or her life to this particular type of pleasure.
  11. Middle-ranking crossword this, 20mins having been held up by several in the SW corner.
    No complaints about ski bum, a familiar term (and I’m a non skier) and its in Chambers which is good enough for me. It was also news to me that “sitting pretty” is an Americanism
    1. As I raised the matter originally I’d like to be clear that I had no problem with its inclusion in the puzzle but wondered a bit about the definition ‘hedonist’ and whether that’s implicit in the Chambers description – the only one I found – of what a ski bum does: a devotee of skiing who travels the world seasonally in search of snowy conditions. I’m not saying it’s wrong, only that I wondered about it and I’m still not really convinced.
  12. 12 minutes, pretty smooth sailing, smiled to find YA BOO SUCKS and BERTIE WOOSTER in the one puzzle. Some very nice surfaces I thought, I enjoyed this.
  13. But the definition is “hedonist on the slippery slope”. A hedonist is a pleaure seeker: it’s got nothing to do with overindulging.
  14. About 25 minutes, ending with RANK and ORDEAL, right after guessing at YA-BOO SUCKS. I agree with Vinyl that the latter is unknown over here, and something of an ugly-looking phrase besides. I don’t know if SITTING PRETTY or KOOK are Americanisms, but they’re very common over here. Perhaps the real Americanism is the SKI BUM, which is also very common here, at least to me. To me it’s a person, usually a young male, who disappears to a mountain resort area for much of they year to ski, and supporting himself with a semi-unskilled, resort-related job (bartender, cook, waiter, ski instructor, etc.). The hedonistic part is that the SKI BUM ignores any really responsible approach to life, to pursue instead the pleasure of the sport, and perhaps the snow bunny. He thus typically has no money. Regards.
    1. Thanks for your full explanation of the term, Kevin. It certainly seems to fit the clue better than the one I found.
      1. No problem Jack. An additional note that I didn’t have time to add earlier surrounds Jimbo’s correct citation of General Grant’s given name as Hiram Ulysses. When young Grant applied to the US Military Academy at West Point, where you still need to be sponsored by a member of Congress, the sponsoring Congressman, who was acquainted with the Grant family’s relatives named Simpson, incorrectly entered his name as Ulysses Simpson Grant. Rather than correcting this, Grant was known by the more recognized name U.S. Grant thereafter, despite it being wrong.
    2. I can understand the Chambers’ definition because it would be pretty difficult to ski year-round in the States, excepting perhaps in Alaska and some glaciers and volcanoes. And the point about a ski bum surely, by analogy with a beach bum, is that he enjoys the trappings of the pursuit as much as the pursuit itself. Part of the hedonism lies in display, and you’re unlikely to be able to attain that if you’re at these places or other remote spots to which you must hoof it through the snow!

      Something at least seems to hinge on an implicit adoption of a time-frame (year-round v. much of the year) by the lexicographer and also on the perspective and provenance of the dictionary (UK v US). Just my 5 cents / 2p.

      Edited at 2012-01-11 02:30 am (UTC)

      1. Yes, hence the inclusion of “seasonally” in the Chambers definition I suppose. It’s great what one can learn here!
  15. 43 minutes here after a sharpish start I was down to four left in SW after 24 minutes but it proved to be a RANK ORDEAL for me. Didn’t have a problem with SKI BUM and enjoyed the cluing for SOLAR SYSTEM, my COD.
  16. 11:24 for me. I thought I was heading for a fast time, but I made extraordinarily heavy weather of some of the more convoluted clues.

Comments are closed.