Times 25276

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

This was the latest in a run of easy Monday puzzles – at least on my blogging days. My time could have been down there in Severland but for the SE corner, which stretched things out to 23 minutes. I’m expecting some seriously pacy times.

Across

1 PASSER-BY – PASSÉ(R)BY; accent-deletophobes will be up in arms. Technically, a passer-by needs to attend to what happens before (s)he becomes a witness. 
5 CASH IN – C[hristmas]+A+SHIN.
9 DOWN+TOWN – Newry is in Ceinty Dein, Nrn Irn.
10 DOMAIN – DO+MAIN
12 ALARM – A+L+ARM
13 ILL AT EASE – ILL (as in ‘Arsenal could ill afford to gift City a goal from a set-piece’)+A+TEASE(guy).
14 STAGE+COACHES
18 LADYS SLIPPER – apostrophe-deletophobes will be clogging the Times hotline; I knew lady’s finger and mother-in-law’s tongue, and this one was pretty easy to guess once the checking letter had ruled out my first choice dame’s slipper. (Must be the proximity of panto season – or just the way my mind works.) 
21 omitted; ask if this is giving you a 7dn.
23 DRAKE – D+RAKE – ah, the days when a gay was as red-blooded as they come!
24 AVERSE – A+VERSE; quite a few of these ‘A+’ type clues.
25 AIREDALE – A[sk]+I+RE+lead*; le chien du jour.
26 ON SONG – hidden.
27 AGITATED – [cl]A[ss]+G(IT)ATED; I’m sure Stephen Fry must have been gated (confined to college) when at Uppingham – a very public-school sort of punishment, the opposite of rusticated; ‘over’ is a containment indicator here rather than a ‘goes on top of’ direction as it can be in a Down clue.

Down

1 PEDLAR – padre* round L.
2 SO WHAT – wa[s]+shot*.
3 ESTIMATES – E[fficaciou]S+TIM(AT)ES, ‘railing’ being the containicator.
4 omitted – I thought I’d ‘spare’ you this. Boom! Boom!
6 ABOUT – A+BOUT; yet another ‘A+’.
7 HEADACHE – HEAD+A+CHE. That’s the fifth by my reckoning…Does anyone else have no time for Sr. Guevara or is it only me?
8 NONSENSE – (N+O+N)+SENSE; N is the abbreviation for knight in chess, I believe.
11 BLACK PUDDING – yes, it is a sausage, even if it sometimes looks more like a doughnut.
15 AMENDMENT – A+MEND+MEN+T; number 6.
16 EL DORADO – loaded or*.
17 EDITRESS – E in strides*; the setter’s trying to catch out the chauvinists among us. Well, I’m a chauvinist and it didn’t catch me out … for long.
19 SAVANT – S(AV)ANT[A).
20 LEGEND – LEG+END; beautiful clue; ‘motto’ is the literal, ‘on’ is LEG (cricket) and ‘one side of court’ is END, as in ‘the part of a court defended by one team or player’ (ODO). 
22 ESSEN – [L]ESSEN[ED];  just worked this out: it’s ‘lessened’ without the ‘led’ around it.     

41 comments on “Times 25276”

  1. Good to get an easy one after recent offerings, especially those from the weekend just past.

    4dn: grist to the mill of the AC-DC (Anti Cryptic-Definition Campaign). No?

    Jackkt predicted Father Christmas last week … and speak of the Devil: 19dn — with another Yuletide mention at 5ac. Maybe it’s like the shops: bloody thing appears towards the end of September, if not earlier.

  2. I liked the “strides” at 17dn; a very Australian word for trousers. (Now we know who’s wearing them, eh, ulaca!) Tarquin, of course, sported the ravishing variety.
  3. 8:07, the first time that I’ve been under 10 minutes. And, pleasing as it was to get this pb, I wouldn’t mind if it’s the last time, at least if they’re going to be like this. Even not knowing Newry wasn’t a problem, although my heart briefly sunk when I saw it. ESSEN from the checkers; thanks, Ulaca, for the explanation. And I, too, wouldn’t mind a week or two without Che.
    1. In case it be thought I’m having a go at the setter, I was actually giving my opinion on Castro’s medical mate – ‘though I sympathise with your sentiment too.

      Edited at 2012-09-24 03:39 am (UTC)

  4. 18 minutes for this rather easy but enjoyable puzzle. Shame about “Che” but otherwise I thought it was pretty good stuff. My prediction would only have come true if we’d had “parent really” or similar at 19dn.

    I’ve been busy deleting Russian spam from the latest Mephisto blog and I see the pests have latched on to this thread already so the blogging team need to be vigilant today.

      1. I’ve deleted four of the same. Anyone know how the Russian(?) spams are getting in. LJ is now hosted in Russia??

        Edited at 2012-09-24 06:31 am (UTC)

        1. I recall Sotira explaining the situation last year, or the year before; are you out there, Sotira?
      1. I’ve just deleted a whole load.

        Went to check on my Mephisto blog yesterday and saw 24 entries. Thought “wow” a world record – then discovered 23 of them were in Russian!

  6. 20 minutes, so not quite a breeze for me. A little flat I thought. Maybe best not to be 27 about it.
  7. Very easy as most others have said with quite a high cli-che count and a very weak CD. The puzzle is so vanilla flavoured its hasrd to find anything to say about it
  8. 8 minutes and a bit, so a nicely time sub-10 limbering up for October. But this was a Monday Easy (there being no such thing). Best bit was the SE, with the antique version of a gay dog, the not-magi Christmas wise man and the best of the bunch LEGEND. What’s afoot?
    Is “BY” for “times” coming up fast in the cliché stakes? I blame that Mrs Gilbert on Countdown.
    1. I remember “by” used as an alternative to “x” in arithmetic books nearly 60 years ago so it’s certainly not a new thing, but it has come up a couple of times within a few puzzles.
      1. …and in 4X2 and such like, Mrs Gilbert has been giving credence to the wonderful “times it by 2” since long before she was Mrs Gilbert. That’s what Sahfend does for you.
        1. Well she’s not wrong to do so according to the Countdown dictionary (ODE): times -> verb (timeses, timesing, timesed) [with obj.] informal: multiply (a number): e.g. you times the six by four to get twenty-four.
  9. 14m. Straightforward but I slowed myself down by putting in BOWLING GREEN and therefore wasting ages trying to figure out the orchid. DRAKE and LEGEND, my last in, also took me a while.
  10. Yes, quick quick quick.. would have been under 10 minutes but for the need to get a second cup of coffee do deal with the SE corner.
    Ernesto Lynch was a brutal, violent criminal, responsible for many innocent deaths, some just on a whim. Amazing, what a whitewash job a racy new name and a winsome poster image can do!
  11. Straightforward 13 minute solve. One small quibble. A pedlar carries his goods and knocks at your door, a hawker calls out from a cart or vehicle and hopes you will go out to him. Shown as distinct in Chambers, not sure about other dictionaries.
    1. COED gives a definition that fits either. Collins has it directly: Pedlar = Hawker. The etymology of ‘hawker’ is ML German ‘hoeker’ from ‘hoeken’ = ‘to peddle’ so it seems Chambers are splitting very fine hairs!
      1. Thanks Jack. I was aware of the clear (and ancient) distinction between the two in English Law, and Chambers seemed to confirm this for general use. If they are shown equivalent elsewhere that’s certainly good enough for crosswords.
  12. Verging on a Jimboesque stroll in the park. Just under 30 mins. As others have noted, not much to be said about this puzzle, though I thought ILL AT EASE was clever. As Ulaca suggests, no one would refer to a female editor as an “editress” these days (if they ever did), and no doubt there will be some who frown on equating fat persons with puddings, but no complaints here. I’m in favour of the Cryptic’s being a PC-free zone.
  14. Probably, at 12 minutes, as fast as I’m ever going to get. Longest hold up was 1a where I was trying to justify LOOKER ON. I think of a PASSER BY as someone who ignores rather than witnesses. (Coincidentally I was watching my recording of “Parade’s End” last night and heard the old song,”Passing By”. Very sentimental – but effective)
    1. Yes, a passer-by may or may not be a witness, a dodgy clue indeed. While I’m grumbling, editress is a ridiculous word (these days at least). That it’s in the dictionary and the meaning is apparent scarcely ticks the box for a a self-respecting puzzle.
  15. 9:45 – as Zabadak says it’s encouraging to dip under 10 minutes with less than a month to go.

    I slowed myself by somehow contriving to write in NONSENCE at 8 (nonsense indeed) which made 14’s ***g*c*a*h*c a bit tricky until I got the T.

  16. 11 minutes, probably would have been under 10 if I’d written LEGEND straight in but saw the clue and wondered if I was missing something.
  17. About 20 minutes, but that long only due to needing 10 to come up with LEGEND. Not much else to say, really. Regards to all.
  18. Am away visiting friends so had to do it online, which I always find harder (no doodling) but managed 23 minutes so it must be a Monday job. Liked LEGEND and DOWN TOWN (having been there a few times on way to play Newcastle County Down, one of the best.
  19. I couldn’t believe it. Did this in under 25 minutes – not very good as far as you experienced and quick-thinking solvers are concerned but very good for me!
    I know the Monday crossword tends to be easier but I’ll let that pass and pour a glass…..
  20. 26 min 33 secs

    Thought I was heading for a fast time. At 9 mins I thought I only had the orchid and the SE to conquer. But a hasty entry of “Bowling Green” put me off the scent of the orchid. Once I corrected this I worked out the orchid but took the rest of the time finding Drake, Savant and Legend.

  21. A disappointing 8:28 for me. I never really found the setter’s wavelength, and made particularly heavy weather of the NE corner – though I’d have been a little quicker if I hadn’t persistently read the enumeration of 11dn as (7,5).
  22. A very sub 20 at 17.16 for me with some 6 of them on 3 clues in the SE so might have been even quicker. Nothing to add to previous gripes about some of the clues.
  23. I solved this after driving 200 miles in appalling weather and polishing off a bottle of rough Italian wine whllst half watching BBC 1’s “New Tricks”; so it must have been straightforward. Which doesn’t mean it was a bad puzzle: I certainly enjoyed it in my obfuscated state.

    Agree with ulaca’s comment regarding Che Guano; I have similar feelings regarding dear old Uncle Mass Murderer, Mao Ze Dung.

    And joekobi makes a valid point about EDITRESS: these feminine forms (TESTATRIX is another one) are now preserved only in crossword-land, along with numerous species of antelope that would otherwise have become extinct.

    If you ever come to Lancashire, do visit Bury Market, where you will be able to sample the finest BLACK PUDDINGs in the land.

    Edited at 2012-09-24 10:47 pm (UTC)

    1. 9:45 for me, quickest for quite a while, and quite pleased with myself, until I saw a few other people’s times! Then again, around this time year before last I managed a whole week of consecutive sub-10-minute times, but it made no difference to my usual dismal Championship performance. 🙁
  24. I also found this easier than usual, but still enjoyable. Romped home in (for me a very quick) 35 minutes.
  25. I completed it in two train rides Southampton-Waterloo and back and was really pleased with myself, particularly Domain and Legend, the latter a bit obscure, I thought. 10 minutes? I couldn’t even write the answers that fast.

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