Times 25296: L.O.L.A, Lola

Author   mctextPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 37:44

Didn’t find this very easy at all; or perhaps just out of practice after a few days off? There are quite a few parsings I don’t understand but will try to work them out in the course of the blog. Otherwise, it’s over to my colleagues for help. Talking of which: just filling in for Jerry today who’s taking a well-earned break.

Across
 1 APPOSITE. Anagram of I STOP inside APE (mirror).
 5 DALLAS. ALL (everyone) inside SAD reversed.
10 HANSEATIC LEAGUE. Anagram of CHILEAN including SEAT (position); AGUE (shaking). An association of German cities formed in the 13th century. Dredged up from O-level history … just!
11 ABEL TASMAN. This is BELT (safety harness) inside AA’s MAN.
13 QUIP. QUI (Fr. for ‘who’); P{lastered}.
15 THEOREM. ROE reversed inside THE,M (for male).
17 BOLIVAR. OLIV{e} inside BAR. Monetary unit of Venezuela; ‘foreign brass’.
18 CUTLASS. CUTL{et},A,S,S (a couple of Seconds). Hands up if you ever chopped meat with a cutlass.
19 ERRATIC. {canb}ERRA,TIC (jerk).
21 RAIL. Two meanings. And one to match 8dn.
22 MALEFICENT. Anagram of FLAME; 1 CENT.
25 MARLENE DIETRICH. Anagram of LEARNED and TIME; RICH (with money).
27 LAYMEN. A double entendre.
28 PENCIL IN. PEN{i}CI{l}LIN.
Down
 1 AT HEART. And, indeed, it’s at the heart of ‘ideA THE ARTist’.
 2 PEN. Two meanings, the first as in ‘prison’.
 3 STENTORIAN. TENOR (singer) including T (for time), all inside SIAN.
 4 TITUS. T (for temperature) inside SUIT reversed.
 6 APEX. A (music, key); PEX sounds like ‘pecs’.
 7 LIGNUM VITAE. UM for hesitation, in an anagram of LEAVING IT.
 8 SLEEPER. Two meanings. A sleeper across the pond is called a railroad tie.
 9 SCRAMBLE. AM (morning, before noon), reversal of LB (leg-bye; extra; sundry), all inside SCRE{e} (rocks).
12 ELECTRIC RAY. ELECT (chosen), anagram of I CARRY.
14 ALTRUISTIC. ALT (‘old’ in German), RU(1)STIC.
16 MUSCADET. MUSE (ponder) inc CAD (rogue); T{rader}.
18 CARAMEL. CAR (vehicle) and EL (outside letters of ‘L{imousin}E’ reversed); insert A,M for ‘a Motorway’.
20 CATCH ON. AT CH (at church) inside CON (criminal). Only just now seen the parsing of this one.
23 E-ZINE. E (English) twice, inc Z (unknown) and IN. Got this right off by the good fortune of having just discussed zines with a PhD student in Canada via a Google hangout thingy.
24 FETE. {cu}T inside FEE.
26 ILL. =I’ll, I will.

18 comments on “Times 25296: L.O.L.A, Lola”

  1. 39 minutes with E-ZINE and LIGNUM VITAE unknown, and I’m also not sure I have met MALEFICENT or ABEL as the first name of Tasman before.

    Wasted time on ELECTRIC EEL having looked at little more than “shocking” and the enumeration at 12dn.

    Nice to see Marlene mentioned; it’s 20 years since she died but October is not the anniversary.

    An enjoyable puzzle at the easier end of the scale which was not unwelcome after yesterday’s excellent but exhausting adventure.

    Edited at 2012-10-17 01:07 am (UTC)

  2. I found it easy enough, evidently: 19:57. But I threw in ‘Muscatel’ at 16d without bothering to check; more fool me. Like jackkt, I also wasted time with the eel until the checkers proved me wrong; had it been like 16d, I’d have had two errors. DNK SCRAMBLE. Knew LIGNUM VITAE from ‘Bleak House’, where it’s the nickname of a minor character, whose actual name I can’t remember.
  3. 44 seconds quicker than McT, which is some sort of first. Lignum vitae familiar from crosswords only and the League from the dim recesses. Last in, and my favourite, the ‘kipper’.

    Would I stagger the science crowd if I admitted I needed the wordplay to dismiss ‘theorum’ at 15?

  4. 18:37 .. I liked it. Most went in easily, but HANSEATIC LEAGUE, SCRAMBLE and MALEFICENT all slowed the pace to a crawl.

    Slicing meat with a CUTLASS is very Lord Flashheart.

    Edited at 2012-10-17 07:46 am (UTC)

  5. A decent middle of the road puzzle that required steady application rather than inspiration. 20 minutes to solve with no hiccups.

    Struggled to remember the German league and had to sweat it out from checkers and wordplay. Didn’t know E-ZINE but the cryptic was obvious and the link to “magazine” settled it.

    Luckily knew how to spell THEOREM

  6. 29+ minutes, no particular hold-ups except the common EEL. Needed a lot of checkers for both the long ones, in both cases looking for some financial terms rather than the League and the actress.
    Back to the UK today, hopefully back up to speed ready for Saturday. I’d like not to be 26th for the third year running.
    Fave clue (though horrid term) E-ZINE for the double English device ILL, for quite a while, was a “what the….?!” clue.
  7. After two bad DNFs on Monday and Tuesday, at last I managed to stumble over the line in a little more than 30 minutes. A steady solve with no real head scratching.

    How odd that I can either be on the right wavelength (and beat the blogger) or so way off beam that my solve has more holes than a worn out string vest.

    What a lovely start to the day!

  8. I see I’m in good company with the eel. And I too spent time trying to shoehorn the wrong wine in. 26 minutes feeling a bit sluggish after staying up past my bedtime to watch the presidential debate.
  9. Found this a much more gentle workout than yesterday’s humdinger (which kept me entertained all day and most of the night – I was very pleased to complete it without recourse to aids – LOI Knock Off).
    Slow to spot the hidden 1dn which delayed filling in the NW corner. FOI Pen, LOI Lignum Vitae.
    1. So good to hear of someone else who DOESN’T do these in sub 20 minutes! I did all but NW in 35 mins which I’m chuffed about but ended up DNF as I needed the blog for Hanseatic league and Abel Tasman.
  11. 15:37, the only real problem deciding whether SEAT or REST was the best fit for “position” to give Hanseatic or Hanrestic.

    Like Jack I wouldn’t have known Tasman’s first name even under interrogation from Herr Flick so the wordplay came to my rescue.

  12. Another EEL victim here, but no reason at all why, though I seemed to struggle today to find a good (wave)length. Slow bowling as a result, with 46 minutes.

    Thanks as ever for your work on the blog, and to others for the entertaining remarks.

    Have a good day,
    Chris Gregory.

  13. 20m, but with MUSCATEL, bunged in on the basis of “mull” for ponder and no further attention to wordplay. Must remember not to do that on Saturday.
    Lots of unknowns today: the league, Abel, MALEFICENT, Lignum Wotsit, SLEEPER.
  14. 10:02 for me. I wasted time trying to make 10ac out of an anagram of CHILEAN surrounding an anagram of POSITION (galling, as I’d spotted that HANSEATIC LEAGUE would fit!), and I didn’t know TASMAN’s first name, but pretty much plain sailing otherwise.

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