Times 25292

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 62:50

I made very heavy weather over this. This was mostly due to tackling it at night for blogging purposes. Indeed I had to give up and go to bed after about 45 minutes with half of it still undone. Having got up early to finish it, the rest fell into place quite quickly.

There were some particularly nice clues – 4a & 27a were probably my favourites. Oh yes, and 7d was quite good too, if a little obvious. I still don’t understand 12a, so I suspect it’s some sort of weak cd or dd, but I may be missing something clever.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 BE(MO)AN
4 D + RAW BACK – this one raised a smile
10 RUN (ladder) + A + CROSS (burden)
11 MO + USE
12 CONSUMPTION – another name for pulmonary tuberculosis, although I don’t understand the ‘conspicuous’ reference
14 TIE – dd (fixture as in sports)
15 GL(IST)EN
17 DUNLIN = NIL + NUDe all rev
19 IMPART = (ARMPIT)*
21 PION + EER – A pion is a sub-atomic particle
23 tHrOuGh
24 ADMIT DEFEAT = (AM FAT DIETED)*
26 SWAMI = IS about MAW all rev
27 E + STABLISH – another one that made me smile
29 LUT(H)E + RAN
30 F + RIGID
Down
1 BIRDCAGE – dd – Birdcage Walk is a street in Central London.
2 M + ANON
3 A + RC
5 R(ESC)IND
6 WOMEN IN LOVE = WIN + LOVE all about (O + MEN)
7 AQUITAINE = AA (drivers) about QUIT (to leave) + IN (home) + Eleanor. You could argue that ‘Eleanor’ is doing double duty here, but ‘old province’ is strictly the definition, and Eleanor is just a big hint.
8 KEEPER – dd
9 COUP + ON
13 ULTRAMARINE = (MATERIAL RUN)*
16 IM/MI + GRANT
18 W + R(ETCH)ED – That’s ETCH for ‘eat out’ as in ‘eaten away by acid’. ‘Overdrawn’ for in the RED is something of a chestnut.
20 TEMP + ERA
21 PET(I)TEd
22 CHISEL – hidden
25 curtsEYING – the answer was obvious, but it took me a while to come up with the longer word
28 BUR = RUB rev

33 comments on “Times 25292”

  1. conspicuous consumption … spending of money for, and the acquiring of, luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power
  2. ‘Conspicuous consumption’ is quite a common collocation – worthy of its own Wiki entry indeed: ‘the spending of money for and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power’. [On edit – pipped at the post again, but I did cite my source :)]

    Edited at 2012-10-12 06:23 am (UTC)

  3. 33 minutes, with CONSUMPTION and DUNLIN last to fall. Pretty gentle again with only my attempt to invent a new colour named, after a fashion, after Melbourne’s airport (or vice-versa), ‘tulamarine’, causing a bit of a hold-up. The required meanings of ‘etch’ and ‘keeper’ were unknown; likewise, the two 3-letter words in NE and SE – more likely forgotten in the case of ‘arc’ – but the cryptic handed them to you.

    As befits one who has followed the arts, Manon known but the meson at 21ac not. No need for me to say I liked the cryptic clue at 12. Anything to throw a spanner in the works of those Bletchley types!

  4. 28 minutes, so my third jump for joy this week!

    Didn’t know MANON (by Massenet, BTW) or the bird. 27ac is naughty but nice. I suspect there will be dissent in the ranks over the DBE at 29ac and for being expected to know Bach’s particular take on religion.

    COD to 16dn for its unusual device which both Dave in his blog and I in my notes chose to represent as IM/MI. A rare use of solidus in a blog.

    Edited at 2012-10-12 07:08 am (UTC)

    1. Jack, I’d have thought the ‘for instance’ would appease the most staunch anti-DBE solver. As for the religion, it’s pretty big in Germany and the checking letters are verging on the über-generous, nein?
    2. I had no quibble with LUTHERAN. Bach was a well known devotee as is witnessed in his music – much of which is I think best heard in a church or for the big organ pieces, a cathedral
    3. I didn’t feel I was expected to know Bach’s particular take on religion. I didn’t, but the clue caused me no problems.
      1. I didn’t have any problems with it on either count but I thought the combination of DBE and a somewhat arcane piece of knowledge to do with religion might cause some dissent. As has been said above, the answer was pretty obvious but that has never guaranteed an absence of complaints in the past. And it’s still early in the day…
    4. Jack, we’ve had the bird before.
      DUNLIN
      You needed aids to get it at the time. I only remembered it because it was the final answer that almost eluded me in my first stab at the Championships. This time around I only needed the D and in it went.

      Edited at 2012-10-12 12:18 pm (UTC)

      1. This doesn’t surprise me at all. I seem to have been having a bad day then anyway with printing problems.

        I’m a subscriber to the theory that says by a certain (unspecified) age one’s brain is full and in order for something new to go in something less important has to drop out. DUNLIN was evidently not important enough to qualify.

    5. Jack, yes, it(appropriately)does work.

      Sorry, can’t seem to get the reply function to work on the website.

      Regards
      Barry

  5. Made rather hard work of this but got there in 35 minutes. I share the approval for the pinch of salt in 27. But not for DHL’s novel which I’ve always thought weak, not a patch on The Rainbow’. Didn’t know the small drill, hazy on ring, bird and opera (nearly going for Minan). But managed not to 24.
    1. I agree about the book but it made an interesting movie with Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates and Oliver Reed back when. 23 minutes – no big hold-ups.
  7. This site is ponderously slow this morning so perhaps under attack again

    No problems with the puzzle – standard 25 minute job – with no ticks, question marks or workings out. Even the anagrams were obvious.

  8. 27m. I found this difficult, particularly the NE, which was blank for a long time until I guessed WOMEN IN LOVE from checkers and “book”. I generally ignore surfaces so the rather helpful one in 7dn didn’t even register.
    Unknown today: the ring and the bird.
    Anyone else having trouble with livejournal today? I keep getting error messages.
    1. Yes the site is buggy today – it was yesterday too but then I thought it was just me.
    2. I kept getting an error message and a picture of a goat of all things when trying to aceess the comments under Peter’s post.
  9. Hi – there’s a phrase in common usage (I know not its origin) “conspicuous consumption” – hence the reference. HTH somewhat!

    best

    David

    1. There’s also galloping consumption, an extended new definiton for the eagerness that blogs before taking in what’s blogged earlier.
  11. Found this on the easy side for a Friday. FOI Tie. LOI Manon – from wordplay and checking letters.
    No major hold ups but had to build up Aquitaine from the wordplay elements, not knowing the Eleanor reference.
    Birdcage Walk in London was part of the men’s and women’s marathon courses at the Olympics and Paralympics.
  12. Finished in 35 minutes. Thanks to blogger for explaining eying. LoI DUNLIN after looking for a bird that fits the checkers. Stablish, indeed, très droll.
  13. 18:19 having got a bit stuck for a while before figuring out the clever 4 across.

    Pion was my only outright unknown. Thanks Dave for the explanation of 25. Like you I couldn’t see what the long word was.

    Thanks to J of L for the link. I have one of the Uxbridges* but the online version is a welcome discovery.

    * flicking through looking for any of today’s clued words I came across County Down: a Chinese space launch.

  14. Miraculous work there Sue – an astonishingly fast time. I got there in just over double yours, held up by CONSUMPTION and the DUNLIN.

    Extreme thanks for the blog.

    Chris G.

  17. After a slow start with only 5 clues done in 20m I fairly romped through to finish in a steady 34.15. My COD to 7d for the nice surface and use of Eleanor. Lindisfarne’s lady of that ilk always makes me smile. Thanks for blog as ever.
  18. No time to post, as I started this last night, then put it aside to go out to dinner, so finished on my return. Not too hard though, and I thank Dave for parsing RESCIND, my LOI, which I hadn’t figured out. I got a real chuckle out of DRAWBACK, and a little smirk out of ESTABLISH. BIRDCAGE from checking letters alone, betraying the fact that I didn’t watch much of the Olympics. Regards to all.
  19. A miserable 10:28 for me, with tiredness continuing to take its toll. I thought I’d been faster (as I almost certainly would have been in normal circumstances) and I’m still not sure where the time went, though I wasted some of it trying to justify EYING (I couldn’t see CURTSEYING and feared there might be a better answer I was missing).

    Nice puzzle, though.

  20. 12:35 .. nearly everything flying in except DUNLIN, which had to be dredged up from the depths of memory.

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