Times 25286 – Bloomin’ scorpion again…

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
The Colonel’s feeling neutral about this one. Once again I seemed set fair to finish in well under my 30 minute target but I was delayed by the proverbial sting in the tail as four clues in the NE corner put paid to my chances of achieving this. 8dn was the killer. Other than that this was mostly straightforward stuff with some of it very much at beginner’s level. It’s also the easiest puzzle to blog that I have had on my watch for a while as there’s very little that requires or inspires additional comment.

* = anagram

Across
1 ASPIRANT – ASP, 1 , RANT
6 POODLE – DO reversed inside POLE
9 METEOROLOGIST – LOG IS inside ROOMETTE*
10 SORREL – Hidden answer. One of several types of horse named after its colour.
11 BRANCHED – RANCH inside BED
13 ESCARPMENT – (TEN CAMPERS)*
15 PINK – Double definition. The knock is the noise made by petrol engines that need adjusting or higher grade fuel. I first met this during the 1970s petrol shortage when I tried running my VW Beetle on 2-star.
16 MALI – MALIce
18 ALIENATION – A,LIE,NATION
21 CARELESS – LE (the French) inside CARESS
22 CALIPH – A, LIP (brashness) inside CH
23 CARBON DIOXIDE – (BOXED IN CAR DO I)*
25 MY WORD – Double definition, the second being an exclamation.
26 ROYALIST – LOYALIST with L #1 changed to R
Down
2 SUMMONS – MON (half a day) inside SUMS
3 INTERNALISE – (REAL TENNIS I)*
4 ATOLL – A, TOLL (as in death toll)
5 TROUBLE – T,ROUBLE
6 PROLACTIN – PRO, Life, ACTINg
7 OBI – IBO reversed
8 LETHEAN – THE inside LEAN. I have been caught out before by a reference to the river Lethe in Greek mythology that causes forgetfulness and it’s quite appropriate that I didn’t remember it.
12 CAPITOL HILL – A, PIT, 0, L inside CHILL
14 PLANETOID – (LEONID APT)* I didn’t know this alternative to asteroid.
17 ANARCHY – ARCH inside ANY
19 INSIDER – RED, IS, Northern Ireland all reversed.
20 OPPRESS – OP,PRESS
22 CRONY – ON inside CRY (keen)
24 ROO – kangaROO, sounds like ‘rue’.

36 comments on “Times 25286 – Bloomin’ scorpion again…”

  1. One of the tools required for doing the Times cryptic is undoubtedly GK – often actually bordering on SK (specialised knowledge), as in the case of LETHEAN, which was no problem to me with a classical background. However, another part of the overall tool-set required tends toward the CS (‘cultural knowledge’) side of GK and this is where I fell down today. I suppose I do remember my father saying the Humber was ‘pinking’ (or was it the Maxi? that was always going wrong), but I couldn’t dredge it up despite an alphabet check across PAN-, PEN-, PIN-, PON- and PUN-. Like some others, I rather fancy, I chucked in the plant I did know, ‘pine’, and hoped for the best after 35 minutes. Win on KO to setter. Why one does these things…):

    Edited at 2012-10-05 01:14 am (UTC)

  2. Almost brought down by LETHEAN until a vague memory of Heidegger’s lectures on Parmenides (where he criticises the translation of a-letheia as “truth”) brought it home. But PINK did it for me, despite once co-owning a cat of that name.

    Edited at 2012-10-05 02:24 am (UTC)

    1. Didn’t know the Heidegger stuff but aletheia (‘truth’ in the sense of that which is revealed from a former hidden state) is the word used by an earlier philosopher in one of his best known sayings, as he reflects on the potential benefits of coming to understand such truth.
  3. 16:23, one of the rarer times when I’ve been fast (for me) while actually understanding most of the wordplay as I typed. One I hadn’t parsed when I submitted was LETHEAN; I had AN as the article and naturally couldn’t make sense of the rest. But I had no doubts. CAPITOL HILL was another; went in from checkers. I didn’t much care for ‘US location’ as a definition. DNK 6d, but pretty confident. My LOI was PINK, which I threw in pretty much from desperation after doing as much of an alphabet run as I could stand. In the US, it’s a ping. But I knew the flower, and figured wotthehell.
  4. The easiest puzzle for some time – a real 12-13 minute stroll in the park. Most of it is elementary apart from LETHEAN which, luckily for me, has appeared many times before. Good to see both the long entries have a scientific flavour allbeit with simple wordplays. Anybody who owned a car back in the 1960s will know all about pinking.

    Off now to put on my morning suit and go to see my son prove that hope nearly always triumphs over experience.

  5. Straightforward solve today with ten of the 28 solved over breakfast – probably a record. Finished the rest at work. My only holds ups were the last two: Lethean (guessed from wordplay and the L?T?E?? checkers) and Pink. I knew Pink was a flower but it took a while to make the “faulty combustion” connection. FOI Planetoid.
  6. 17 minutes, a sub-15 but for lethean/pink. A not unsatisfactory plod in a way; but today was more like times for the sub-Times.
  7. Strange isn’t it, how one person’s easy puzzle is another’s stinker? Needless to say, I found this quite difficult, but nonetheless rewarding.

    I thought the hidden was cleverly ..er… hidden, and PINK was very neat. I found out all about pinking when I foolishly filled up my motorbike with “essence normale”: those French Deux Chevaux seemed to be able to run on creosote.

    Just one niggle about the definition in 23. I have an 8-foot-tall cactus that is nearly as old as I am, and this morning it flowered. When I congratulated it on this achievement, it confided to me that it could not have done so without the help of CARBON DIOXIDE; so the gas can’t be so bad, can it?

  8. Remember my mother talking about the car engine pinking years ago and we get wild pinks in the meadow. Lethean popped up thanks to Keats and the nightingale ode (he’s sinking Lethe-wards after taking an opiate or something). 20 minutes after blanking on atoll for a bit, which was stupid because we get the word all the time in the NY Times puzzles.

    Enjoy the wedding Jimbo. I’ll be over for one in London on the day you’ll be in Wapping.

  9. 11:43 .. no problem with LETHEAN but I must have spent 2 or 3 minutes on PINK – a case of working alphabetically through the options until something rang a bell. I hadn’t heard PINK as ‘knock’ since my father was driving a Wolseley.

    Off to finish packing and final preparations for the annual homecoming tour of the UK. Flying tonight, as Kenneth Williams almost said in Carry On Screaming. Talking of screaming, I’m going to be in London for the long weekend of the Champs. Had I known earlier, I might have tried to scrape my way in to show that Magoo what’s what (by cheating, obviously – how hard can it be to get a crossword champion drunk?).

    Cornwall (via Heathrow, if we ever get out of it) awaits …

    1. If you fancy popping in for a mid- or post-championship drinkypoos I suspect that the Town of Ramsgate on Wapping High Street will be the place to head for.
      1. I had really hoped to, Penfold, but I have family congregating from all around that night. I think we’re going to be ‘up west’. But if plans change I’ll try to get along.

        We’re looking into the possibility of moving back over, in which case I’ll be hard to get rid of.

        1. *sad face*

          For the avoidance of doubt, that’s in response to your not being able to make it rather than moving back over.

          Incidentally, I was suggesting more lunchtime (during heat 2) and late afternoon (after the final) but I guess you’ll be riding the Eye or chasing ravens round the Tower.

          1. Thank you for clarifying (though I would have understood).

            I think the family festivities also include lunch, so it looks like Wapping will have to wait for another time (I do wish they would move it somewhere a little more befitting – The Royal Albert Hall would be nice). I am going to try to meet up with PB (haven’t told him yet) for a meal on the Sunday or Monday, if you happened to be staying down. Either way, at some point I am going to make it along to at least a Sloggers and Betters one of these days. It’s very much on the To Do list.

            All plans flexible, though. You’ll be able to reach me at my father’s club (I’ve always wanted to be able to say that! Now I actually can, to my dad’s amazement as much as anyone’s – he sort of stumbled into one. Sadly, it’s not the Diogenes, but atmospherically it’s close). Or by email, or the usual coded mail drops. Use the invisible ink, obviously.

            Edited at 2012-10-05 01:09 pm (UTC)

  10. I still have one more to go but would venture that this is the easiest of all today’s cryptics so far. 10 very enjoyable minutes. I wonder if you have to be a certain age to remember when people talked about ‘pinking’ of car engines 🙂

    Edited at 2012-10-05 12:09 pm (UTC)

  11. And sorrel not just a colour but also the name of the horse William III was riding at Hampton Court when it tripped over a mole-hill & ultimately killed him…
  12. A bad form day resulting in 17:36.

    I had to rely on the wordplay to give me 8 as my knowledge of classics and mythology is limited (I chose German over Latin for ‘O’ Level, one consequence of which being that when the Latin lot went off on a coach trip to see a Roman Villa our imaginative teachers took us German lot to the Imperial War Museum and Greenwich Maritime Musuem).

    7 was pretty much a guess as I didn’t know the people and the witchcraft was only very vaguely remembered. I also made very heavy weather of carbon dioxide and Capitol Hill (but not of meteorologist!)

    COD to branched.

    Edited at 2012-10-05 01:17 pm (UTC)

    1. Very easy today, and nothing to cause trouble. Someone who hasn’t heard of the r. Lethe, (or Styx) will have regular difficulties with the Times cryptic! And a little bitty science, which is nice to see..

      I did have a little trouble with “pink,” because that meaning of knock took time to surface

  13. DNF correctly.

    15 mins to do all but OBI, Lethean and Pink. Eventually made a guess at all 3. Got OBi right but not the other two.

    My guess for Knock plant was Peat. A plant or vegetation to be found in the west of Ireland.

    Edited at 2012-10-05 01:53 pm (UTC)

  14. Easier day, 15 minutes, Loi PINK as soon as I got LETHEAN. MY father was forever talking about the car ‘pinking’ when I was in short trousers.
    Had CALIPE instead of CALIPH until I looked it up to confirm. CoD POODLE.

    Edited at 2012-10-05 01:36 pm (UTC)

  15. I apologise in advance for the lengthy rant that follows, but for anybody bored enough to read it all, there’s a legitimate question towards the end!

    I got stuck on 10ac (SORREL), 13ac (ESCARPMENT), 15ac (PINK) and 8dn (LETHEAN). The only one of those that didn’t frustrate me when I saw the answer here was 13ac. I haven’t heard that word before, so I was rightfully vanquished through my insufficient command of the language!

    But the other three? Come on now. I know the Times crossword is supposed to be a toughie, but an in-depth knowledge of Greek mythology, equestrianism and… whatever “Pink” has to do with (petrochemical mechanics and botany by the looks of it!) is too much for my little brain.

    I know I’m being a sore loser here, but this has totally put me off the Times crossword. I resolved to one day complete it because it was the hardest one out of the UK national newspapers – and once I had done that, I’d be happy! Admittedly, I have finished a couple now, but nine times out of ten I’m stumped by these ridiculously obscure references that only public schoolboys, educated in Greek mythology and riding horses in their spare time, would get. Mere muggles like myself, who spent their youth learning woodwork and riding BMXs don’t stand a chance!

    Ahh, that’s a load off… so now I have a request and a question. Firstly, does anybody know of a similarly difficult crossword in another newspaper that doesn’t rely so heavily on specialist knowledge of subjects like botany, classics etc.?

    Finally, the reason I began writing this epistle was that I saw the blogger had finished this crossword in under half an hour. I was gobsmacked! Is that using help? I never use anagram generators, crossword solvers or Google – the only exception being when I’m very nearly finished and 90% sure of an answer, then I might Google my answer to double-check it.

    When people say they finished it that fast, is that on brain juice alone? If so, hats off! I know there are no “official” rules but what are your thoughts?

    Cheers,

    Eddie

    1. You raise a lot of questions, Eddie, which I’m afraid I don’t have time to consider in depth and unfortunately having posted it late in the day it’s unlikely your message will be seen by many of the regulars, but I hope somebody will take it up and respond in more detail.

      Although I was not explicit in the blog I didn’t quite manage to finish this unaided as LETHEAN stumped me. On another day I may have persevered and solved it eventually unaided but I needed to get on and write the blog.

      Of the solving times recorded for this puzzle by those who compete in the Times Crossword Club stakes, there are currently 69 solvers who completed it in under 30 minutes and the first 19 of these did so in under 10 minutes, a time that I have never achieved.

      On your point about specialist knowledge, who is to say what this is? If you were happy with the clues you solved and only missed out on four others then you must have a pretty broad general knowledge yourself so it sounds as if the ones you consider require “specialist knowledge” were simply the words or meanings you didn’t happen to know and no setter could be expected to foresee and cater for that.

      Although I would have to plead guilty to your charge of having been to a public school I have never particularly studied Greek mythology nor have I ever even attempted to ride a horse.

      Edited at 2012-10-05 09:22 pm (UTC)

      1. I just noticed that people started posting on this just after 1am this morning! Really I was just spouting hot air because PINK and LETHEAN annoyed me – I didn’t expect any measured response at all, and you’re very gracious to indulge my daft rant!

        I see what you mean – it’s only “specialist knowledge” if I don’t get the reference. Most of the point of doing the crossword (for me at least) is to feel smug, so if anybody can solve them, what’s the point?

        I was just stunned how fast you’d done it without cheating – I take about an hour and still have three or four missing. Ho hum! There’s always tomorrow!

        Cheers.

        P.S. The public schoolboy snipe was borne of frustration rather than any sincerely held belief!

        1. For me with no classical schooling, no knowledge of artists/musicians/architects/conductors/poets and all there works, no religion or knowledge of the bible: I finish roughly half the time without any help. Most of the unknowns are repeats from this crossowrd, so after 5 or 6 years I’ve seen most of them. Some are constructable from the cryptic wordplay.

          And sometimes you need to guess – even Tony Sever sounded off about getting a guessed unknown wrong a while back – Renminbi (sp?), Chinese currency.

          Regarding the very early posting – lurkers like me can tell you there are many far-flung inhabitants: Australia, Japan hong Kong where 1 AM UK is local breakfast time; and US and Canada where 1 AM UK is local evening time.

          Rob

    2. Since I’m one of the few really late solvers today (just finished in exactly 30 minutes) I have seen and can comment on Eddie’s post. I think my experience is fairly typical of the solvers who comment on this site. I do this puzzle every day with times usually ranging from 20-40 minutes, and the occasional puzzle which I manage either remarkably quickly (for me) or remarkably slowly. I’ve been attempting the Times crossword since I was in college in the early 60s and have been gradually getting better at them. Many of the really quick solvers are a lot younger than me and I can only admire their erudition. My general knowledge comes from a lot of non-specialist reading – mainly fiction, magazines and newspapers. There is also stuff I remember from my grammar school. I usually do the puzzle in bed over my morning cuppa – well away from the temptation of Google. I only google when I have thrown in the towel. I think wide reading and the experience of life is the equipment needed to get under 30 minute times here. For example in today’s puzzle: LETHEAN came from learning in school about the river and from the Keats poem with the line about opiates and sinking “lethewards” – also learned in school. (Maybe Michael Gove is right and we should go back to grammar svhools, if only to get a handle on the Times crossword) I got PINK from simply hearing people talk about engines – the benefit of a longish life and a good memory. But, Eddie, keep plugging away. You had no problem with most of this puzzle and it’s amazing what you pick up as you go along. This site is a tremendous help.
    3. Well Eddie, I was raised in an attic flat in South London (John Major country) and went to the local grammar school. I started doing this puzzle when 15 (I’m now 70) encouraged by my English master as a means of broadening my very mathematical/science based education. My entire knowledge of mythology for example comes from doing this puzzle. Believe me you have more to gain by sticking with it than looking for an alternative – which I for one have never found
  16. I am usually not clever enough to finish without using my aid. I am not ashamed about this. I derive much pleasure from working out the ones I can, and then seeing how the clue works if I need help from the aid, and finally coming here for the final explanation (where e.g. I can understand half the clue, but not the rest). This is addition to greatly enjoying misleading surfaces, and also valuing the wit, banter and grumbling on this site. So I think, Eddy, you should get an aid and just enjoy the whole joy of word play.

    Finally, one just has to accept that unless one is polymath there will always be obscurities that are obvious to some and not to others. A well devised clue can easily lead to a successful clue (‘Lethean’ anybody ?)

    A Lurker (returning).

  17. I was doing all right with this one (bit of an amateur!) but I had trouble because I’d put ASPIRING in for 1ac – I didn’t see that the “ambitious” went with “type” since it was separated by a word meaning part of the answer, and RING seemed reasonable enough for “sound off”.
    1. And indeed you are correct that ‘type” cannot be part of the definition, not just the separation but also that would require it to be doing double duty.

      I saw “ambitious” and “aspirant” as both being adjectives… just checked the dictionaries and yes, aspirant is an adjective as well as a noun.

      Rob

      1. Hi, Rob, you’re most welcome to comment but is there any particular reason you are doing so on a puzzle that’s now over a month old? Unfortunately it’s very unlikely anyone will see your comments after all this time; I only did so because I originated this blog, so I am notified by email whenever someone adds to it.

        Hope you will join us to discuss the latest day’s puzzles in future.

        Regards
        J

  18. Well I’m an extremely late poster, but just wanted to say I did most if this in 10 minutes, but then ground to a halt on 8 and 15. After another 15m I had managed to decipher LETHEAN from the wordplay but the best I could come up with for 15ac was PUNT. I’d never in a million years have guessed PINK for “knock”. Too young for this one!
    And as others have said, stick at it Eddie. Much of the obscure knowledge becomes quite familiar after a while.

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