Times 25,187 Elementary My Dear Kuhn

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time 20 minutes

On the easy side without being a total giveaway with a couple of complex wordplays. Good to see some science at 11A but we also have some mythology and some Shakespeare. I can’t see any real niggles.

Across
1 INERT – IN(v)ERT; still or unreactive like the gas at 28A;
4 RICE,PAPER – RI(CEP-A)PER; The Times of India?;
9 CHERRY,PIE – (pricy here)*; too sweet for me;
10 SALON – S(A-L)ON;
11 PARADIGM,SHIFT – PARA-DI(G)M-SHIFT; revolutionary science according to Thomas Kuhn in his book “The Structure of Scientific Revolution” – the discovery by Copernicus that the earth revolved around the sun would be an example;
14 CENT – sounds like “scent”; the pricing of perfume is a fascinating study in marketing;
15 CASSIOPEIA – CASSIO-(sounds like “peer”); in Othello Cassio becomes Governor of Cyprus; a constellation in the northern sky;
18 TRIDENTINE – (internet)* surrounds ID=papers; the Latin mass, now rarely said I’m informed;
19 FLAT – two meanings;
21 GUARDIAN,ANGEL – AUG reversed-R(DIANA)N-GEL; posh (affected) girl=GEL; service=Royal Navy=RN;
24 NONET – one too many=one over the eight=nine; a composition for nine performers; OR TEN-ON reversed;
25 CROSSWAYS – C(a)R-(g)O(e)S-SWAYS; where you need guidance from 21A perhaps;
27 ALTERNATE – ALTER-NATE; if you alter “nate” you get “neat”;
28 NO,END – D-NEON reversed;
 
Down
1 INCAPACITY – INCA-PA-CITY; is a PA a secretary? discuss;
2 EYE – the all seeing one from 21A perhaps;
3 TIRADE – TIR(AD)E; what the ill-advised do on Twitter these days;
4 REPUGNANT – RE(UP reversed)GNANT; Her Majesty is a Queen Regnant as distinct from a Queen Consort;
5 CHEWS – sounds like “choose”;
6 POSEIDON – POSE-I-DON; Greek God of the Sea; they could do with a 21A right now;
7 PULL,THE,PLUG – PULL=influence; PLUG=an advertisement; 21A advice to Greece, perhaps;
8 RINK – R-INK;
12 RUNNING,KNOT – sounds like “running not”; a slip knot or noose;
13 TANTALISED – (stalin date)*; more Greek mythology;
16 SINGAPORE – (gains)*-PORE; one for Uncle Yap;
17 DECANTER – DE-CANTER; those were the days when even quaffing wine had to be decanted to remove the lees;
20 WATSON – W(h)AT’S-ON; esteemed doctor from 221B Baker Street;
22 DACHA – DA-CHA; in the Podmoskovye area of Moscow no doubt;
23 ANNA – ANNA(l); didn’t she date the King of Siam?;
26 AXE – EXA(m) reversed;

26 comments on “Times 25,187 Elementary My Dear Kuhn”

  1. I took NONET to be ten-on backwards – one performer more than the nine in the group. But then I couldn’t parse GUARDIAN ANGEL, for which relief much thanks
  3. 19’52” on the box, which felt like a “could do better”. Oceans of puns and whimsy (DECANTER, indeed – at least it wasn’t “slow a horse?”) and, rather as Jack says, a week’s worth of soundalikes in one grid.
    CoD to ALTERNATE – one of those clues where the answer is as cryptic as the clue.
  4. Having completed most of the top half as fast as I could write the answers in I then lost it completely and finished eventually well over the hour having used aids to look up the name of the star and the arcane religious thing. I didn’t know either of these, nor of CASSIO as ‘ruler of Cyprus’ and although I guessed I might be looking for a ‘peer’ sound-alike I couldn’t work out how to accommodate it. Have we had three homophone elements in a single puzzle before? Quite pleased I knew PARADIGM SHIFT though I hadn’t a clue what it was.

    I think Z8 is right about 24 although if I’d been blogging I’d have explained it as Jimbo did.

    Edited at 2012-06-12 10:38 am (UTC)

  5. 2.5 Jimbos for me, ending with CHEWS. I wonder if I’m alone in inventing a Cypriot called ‘Cassi’. ‘A lord’ = ‘o peer’, anyone, by analogy with o’clock? I’ll give my COD to TRIDENTINE, as the papers had me working around FT and SUN. Cunning. All that fine clueing at 21 is rather wasted, given that 90% of folk will bung the answer in from the literal.

    Jimbo, you’re typo du jour is at 18ac (‘surronds’). NONET as per Zabadak.

    Edited at 2012-06-12 07:57 am (UTC)

  6. A pleasant trot today, 14mins in all. loi Tridentine; count me in the ten-on rev. camp.

    Singapore turned up at the weekend, in one grid or another

    Edited at 2012-06-12 09:07 am (UTC)

  7. About 35 minutes, including a couple of interruptions. I always enjoy a crossword that is humorous or witty, and 12, 17 and 24 each raised a smile.

    Interesting that “gel” is thought of as posh, as you can still hear that pronunciation in South Staffordshire (e.g.” Yo’m a good gel, aar Doreen.”)

    Following on from Jimbo’s comment about decanting wine, I was once told by a knowledgeable fellow that there are two ways to improve the flavour of the wine you serve to your dinner guests. One is to use a decanter to aerate it; the other is to pour it into an expensive-looking bottle!

  8. I was flummoxed by the posh girl some puzzles back and kept trying to shoehorn DEB in. Glad I remembered this time. Nice canter at 22 minutes.
  9. 16:41 .. I’m with John of Lancs in very much liking the flavour of this one, especially the wit of NONET and DECANTER.

    A great uncle of mine was a grandee of some ancient wine guild in Alsace (a great honour for a foreigner back then, apparently). He told a strangely terrifying anecdote about his final initiation, at which he had to decant a bottle from their secret stash in front of the assembled fraternity. One speck of lees in the wine and he’d have been pain grillé. Well, that’s how he told it.

  10. An entertaining 18:34 online. Thought DECANTER and ALTERNATE were very good. Shot myself in the foot by entering PULL THE PKUG, and then spending some time wondering how on earth one could be said to live in a skit, which was the only word I could see that would fit at 19ac. Such are the perils of online solving and the inevitable ty[os whicj subsequentlu ensuw.
  11. 61 minutes and definitely not a canter for me. Held up all over the place, but finally by TRIDENTINE & CASSIOPEIA. Joint COD to DECANTER and ALTERNATE.
  12. 59 minutes, or 29 if you don’t include the interruption to go and fetch my son from nursery.
    I was held up for ages by the unknown TRIDENTINE, the unknown governor of Cyprus in 15ac and DECANTER. I don’t much like the first definition for the latter, a container and a provider being not quite the same thing, but I like the second definition so I’ll call it quits. I also didn’t think much of “scratching from race” for RUNNING KNOT. Generally though a nicely chewy and very enjoyable solve.
  13. Having just been to the dentist this morning, “Does something with tooth” conjures up the possibility of an unwelcome future when I may indeed have just the one left to chew with.
  14. All went in ok, but got stuck in the bottom left.

    Pencilled in NONET without much conviction, and had a blank at RUNNING KNOT. Don’t think much of the ‘scratching from race’ bit. Hmph.

  15. Mostly straightforward but with some devious wordplay and specialist GK required here and there. Personally, I rather liked RUNNING KNOT. I can see that Jimbo’s alternative parsing for 24 ac (NONET) might just work, but I think it has to be TEN+ON reversed, otherwise it’s difficult to explain the function of “over” in the clue. Enjoyable puzzle.
  16. Not too much trouble at 30 minutes or so, ending with POSEIDON. TRIDENTINE from wordplay, GUARDIAN ANGEL from definition and some bits of the wordplay, and a hold-up over how to spell CASSIOPIEA (which upon first read I thought would be ALDEBARON, or however you spell that, but it didn’t fit). I didn’t know the governor of Cyprus, either, but apparently that could all be figured out. Nice puzzle, COD to DECANTER. Regards.
  17. I spent some time trying to justify SINGAPORE. I thought the “opening” would be the GAP. Got the wrong end of the stick there. (Or would that be Malacca?) Anyway, it eventually fell. Good fun puzzle. 33 minutes.
  18. What a super crossword, clever clues, nothing impossible but lots brought a smile, 35 minutes, CoD Cassiopeia or decanter. Personally I still use a decanter once or twice a week when there’s more than two of us, (or when we’re finishing the bottle) definitely makes a positive difference to most reds even the daily basic Bordeaux.
  19. Raced through most of it in well under 10 minutes, but then got stuck for another 10 or so on the last 4 or 5. RUNNING KNOT and the unknown TRIDENTINE were the last couple in.
  20. 10:15 for me – slightly annoyed not to break 10 minutes for a straightforward, pleasant solve.

    I could only think of the “one over the eight” explanation for 24ac while solving, but it clearly wouldn’t do, and on further reflection afterwards I came to the conclusion that it had to be TEN ON reversed.

  21. 22:06, with the last 3 minutes at least spent on 12d. I’m resigned, of course–and perforce–to homophones that aren’t homophones to me, but I sometimes wonder what percentage of the English-speaking world actually rhymes ‘-peia’ and ‘peer’. Thanks, Jimbo, for enlightening me on PARADIGM SHIFT; a lovely clue, now that I understand it. The term, on the other hand, should be banished. The philosopher Margaret Masterman counted something like 21 different meanings of the word ‘paradigm’ in Kuhn’s book, and I believe he came to regret using it.
  23. In case anyone else was puzzled by the use of ‘expedient’ to mean ‘shift’, ODO has as a nominal use of shift ‘(archaic) an ingenious or devious device or stratagem’, while dictionary. Net has under expedient ‘means devised in an exigency; shift’.

    Edited at 2012-06-13 01:04 am (UTC)

    1. Perfect definition as a back-formation from “shifty”, though not one that occurred to me.

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