Times 25075 – dat wabbit!

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : didn’t record one, did this during short snatches in a very long tech rehearsal for a new show (we open Friday, if you’re in the Asheville area over the next few weeks, come check out Rise of the ‘Stache).

Mostly a breeze, but that upper left corner had me scratching for a while, and I still don’t get all of the wordplay at 1 across, though I’m pretty sure I have the answer that matches the definition and part of the wordplay. I’ll be passing out shortly after putting this up, so check the comments to see if I’ve fluffed anything here.

Away we go!

Across
1 HEPATIC: Well it means “of the liver” and the second bit sounds like ATTIC. Is the whole meant to sound like HEAP ATTIC? See comments – it’s HEP = in then sounds like ATTIC
5 SUBSIDE: SUBS(dues) then IDE(a)
9 EASTERNER: STERNE in EAR
10 RAVED: AV(authorised version) in RED
11 DISCOLORATION: L(abour), ORATION after DISCO(party)
13 our across omission
15 CO,HERE
17 LOCATE: OC(officer – in charge) in LATE(has gone)
19 CONS,TRUE: I think the first RIGHT is CONS as in to right a ship? Edit: Nope, right as in the conservatives
22 TIMON OF ATHENS: OMIT reversed then NO FAT HENS
25 RHINO: R, then IN(home) in HO(house)
26 A,GI,NCO,(h)URT – I had accidentally left this off when I wrote the blog
27 (b)LIGHTER
28 ELDERLY: LD, and ER in ELY
 
Down
1 HIED: “HI, ED”
2 POSADAS: AD in (SOAPS)*. I knew this from the Portuguese, its a standard name for a hotel in Brazil
3 TI(m)ERS
4 CANOODLE: OO(loves) in CANDLE
5 SOR(e),ROW
6 BARBAROUS: BAR,BAR(places to drink) O(ff-putting),US
7 INVOICE: odd lettersin IsN’t, then VOICE(vote)
8 ENDANGERED: ANGER(bug) in ENDED
12 TRILATERAL: LATER in TRIAL
14 ACTING OUT: TIN,GO(work) in A CUT(part)
16 VOLTAIRE: VOL (small book), then (I,RATE)*
18 CAM(river),PI(good),NG(not good): accidental omission when I wrote the blog
20 RESCUER: (SECURE)*, then R
21 our downly omission
23 EL CID: L in DICE reversed
24 S,TAY

35 comments on “Times 25075 – dat wabbit!”

  3. Thank you, mctext, for the HEP; I had the same worry as George. This took me 27′, with 1ac and 3d my LOIs.A number of clever clues, several of which I only appreciated the cleverness of after I’d put them in and thought about them. I enjoyed this; I especially liked 19ac, 22ac, 26ac, 18d, with 22 and 18 tied for my COD.
    George, you overlooked 26ac: A+GI+NCO+HURT sans H, no? Also a typo at 2d.
  4. Thanks for the quick editing – you’re right on all the things I fluffed, and sorry for leaving out AGINCOURT
  6. Surprised to find the US spelling at 11ac. What’s going on?
    But the other long one with its NO FAT HENS was great and has to be my COD.
    (Said enough already!)
    1. All three usual sources agree that DISCOLORATION is the normal spelling with the U added as an alternative, unlike DISCOLOUR itself where the omitted U is American.
      1. Should have checked. As usual, I went to Chambers where the minus-U version of the -ation form isn’t mentioned. So I assumed …
        1. It’s in my Chambers 2003 edition. All my other dictionaries are a lot newer than that.
    2. Good puzzle, good blog, 40 mins, for me TIMON.. is CotY so far.Had to have ‘lighter’ explained by the blog.
  7. 36 minutes, so another reasonably quick solve for me without actually achieving my personal target of 30 minutes. But I managed today’s Guardian in 20 minutes from which I take some encouragement.

    I enjoyed this and spotted most of the wordplay without difficulty.’Blighter’ for ‘pain’ is not given directly in any of the usual sources but I think it makes sense if one thinks ‘annoying person’ or similar. There’s also no reference in any of them to an ‘attic’ being used for storage but undoubtedly that’s the single most usual function one serves. I had to think a while to justify ‘voice’/’vote’ but it’s in Chambers.

  8. 68 minutes with the last 15 spent on CONSTRUE. I thought this was a good puzzle but that 27 was a little Paxmanesque – rather too clever for its own good. COD to ELDERLY.
  9. By the way, I believe POSADA is Spanish and pousada Portuguese. The Pousada de Mong Ha is well worth a visit if you’re ever in Macau and want to stay in a place a million miles away from the tackiness of the strip.
  10. 42 minutes, but I find I have PASADOS rather than the correct answer. It was an even money chance. I found the bottom half much trickier than the top, but enjoyed the whole. COD to TIMON
  11. I also ended up with pasados, coming to grief in NW after whistling through the rest. I like the simplicity of 1 down, that defeated me for a time; also the attachment to the past in 27 (interesting that Paxman can typify it, the preposterous quizzical of the new Blimp). A neat puzzle with nifty touches.
  12. I’m with Koro and Joe, having put in pasados. I also had hipatic, convincing myself it was something to do with horses and their livery (now the Greek scholars will tell me that would need double p …).

    Found this tough, but never felt I was going to give up on this. CONSTRUE and LIGHTER written in with ?s, so thanks for the clarification of those two.

  13. Allowing for no less than 4 interruptions, probably about 15 minutes. But then, interruptions sometimes give the hindbrain time to unscrew stuff.
    Lots to like in a quiet, unassuming way – RESCUER was a model &lit, HIED a neat chuckle clue, HEPATIC very smooth and misleading – I was looking for irritable or some-such, AGINCOURT, while entered on definition, was nonetheless a very tidy narrative.
    But stand-out CoD for me is the one for TIMON.
  14. Just over 9 minutes, so I found this very easy but also enjoyable, mostly. Spoiled a bit by 2dn for me though: I got it right by sheer luck but there’s nothing to tell you where to put the O if you don’t know the word. I would prefer it if they limited this sort of thing to English words!
    Some very good and slightly cheeky stuff though. I liked HEPATIC and TIMON OF ATHENS. And RASCALLY is a very good hidden word. I bunged it in quickly but it took me an embarrassingly long time to understand it.
  15. 25 minutes for an enjoyable, sound puzzle. HEPATIC is very good with its misleading use of “livery”. Luckily 1D is easy which gives you the leading H.

    Lots of good clues here in a quality offering. Thank you setter.

    1. Strangely enough I put in HEPATIC straight off – but had never heard of HIE, which was LOI in as a complete guess. Easy if you know it, not at all if you don’t!
      1. HIED was my first one in as I was immediately reminded of a Steeleye Span song on the album Parcel of Rougues called One Misty Moisty Morning where the singer met with “an old man as on his way he hied”
        I was totally misled by the change of tone on 11a and spent ages trying to fit some form of D–MODULATION into it. I also got PASADOS instead of POSADAS. Totally failed to get CONSTRUE despite it having been in a recent puzzle. Apart from that got the rest and understood the wordplay. I particularly liked NO FAT HENS.
        We’ve had HEP in a recent puzzle too so I didn’t have any touble with 1a that once I’d stopped trying to work round a horse or engine’s colours. Thanks to glheard for the blog which put me out of my misery on 11a and 19a

        Edited at 2012-02-05 12:43 pm (UTC)

  16. Hi this is Tringmardo frantically trying not to be anonymous but the ‘From’ options on the comment form have become inactive. Was it something I said?
    Help!
  17. Enjoyable puzzle with many clever clues. I thought BLIGHTER, HEPATIC and TIMON OF ATHENS were particularly good. The word play for the latter was both ingenious and funny as, I hope, even those solvers who are not big fans of literary allusions would surely agree. My LOI was POSADAS. It was pretty clear that the solution was a Spanish word for inn or tavern and that it had to be supplied by an anagram of AD and SOAPS. My difficulty was that these letters could be rearranged into several words that sounded plausibly Spanish. Even with all the checkers in place i was still left with a choice between POSADAS and PASADOS, and that I plumped for the right one was sheer good luck.
  20. What’s solution to 18 down? CAMPING looks like it should be. CAM = river. But how is PING explained?
    2. CAM PI NG. Pi is a common crossword thing for good, ng a common crossword thing for no good.
  21. About 30 minutes, ending with CONSTRUE. I didn’t know what explained the ‘cons’=right, so thanks all for that, which I should have seen. I wouldn’t have known HEPATIC except I believe its appeared here before. I liked both the fat hens and the Hi, ed jokes, but COD to RESCUER. Nice puzzle, thanks setter. Regards.
  22. I had a LOL moment with TIMON OF ATHENS – a lovely bit of clueing. I put too many answers in from definition alone, especially in the SW corner with 17a and 27a and 14d. All quite easily gettable but unsatisfying when you can’t see the cryptic. Today I really appreciated this blog. Thanks George. 43 minutes
  23. Aargh! Total disaster. I had a brainstorm with 2dn and initially bunged in PASSADO, for no obvious reason that I can think of in retrospect. Then when I eventually spotted RASCALLY, I changed it hurriedly to PASADOS without really thinking. It was only when I came to check over the clues after I’d finished that I thought of POSADAS as a possiblity. It’s a word I’ve definitely come across before, but sadly I’ve forgotten almost all the Spanish I mugged up for my one trip to Spain a few years ago.

    An excellent crossword, but once again I made heavy weather of some easy clues (I seem to be going through one of my periodic bad patches at the moment).

    I should add that I have absolutely no complaints about 2dn.

  24. An enjoyable 47.40 for me – slow but on this occasion I trusted that I would get there. So thanks to setter. Had no trouble with POSADA as often frequent the Crown Posada in Newcastle on Tyne but never considered the derivation of pub name before today! My COD to TIMON OF ATHENS; clever clue and all things Shakespeare please me by default. Thanks for blog and comments which clarified some doubts I had on American spellings for example and on HEP …

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