Times 25354 – All that work at the gym pays off!

Solving time: 35 minutes

Music: Brahms, Symphony #1, Horenstein/LSO

This one was a little more challenging for me, since I both had a hard time getting started and got stuck in the NW corner for quite a while at the end. The answer to 1 down, in particular, proved quite elusive, and I have just seen how the clue works.

At least the middle part of my solve was not too stressful. I put in more than half the answers from the literals alone, since they were quite out in the open. The same cannot be said of the cryptics, many of which had to be teased out as I composed the blog.

With this blog, I complete my three in row. Our regular rotation will resume with Ulaca’s blog next Monday.

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Across
1 PLAYBACK, PLAY + BACK, which is what records are for, right? I should have known that.
5 MAILER, M(A)ILER. This can also mean the specialized envelope or box that he has used to pack his merchandise.
8 DRAMA QUEEN, anagram of QUA’AN, MADE E[uropean]. My first in, easy once you see it’s an anagram and has a ‘q’.
9 TUBE, TU(B)E, the London underground network.
10 CLOAK AND DAGGER. CLO(AKA + N + ADD backwards)GGER. Hardly worth figuring out the cryptic, which I didn’t bother to do.
11 BRISTLY, BRI(ghS)TLY. I labored under the misapprehension that I should substitute an ‘s’ for an ‘h’, but it suddenly became clear that ‘heart’ refers to the centre of the word.
13 YOU’RE ON, YO(anagram of EURO)N, where ‘no longer’ refers to the obsolence of ‘yon’ as a demonstrative.
15 Omitted.
18 CYNICAL, anagram of CL[e]AN, ICY.
21 RENAISSANCE MAN, NAME + C[irca] + [par]NASSIAN + ER, all backwards. Another overly clever cryptic that no one will bother with.
22 INCH, IN + C[astlereag]H. Here ‘favoured’ rather than ‘fashionable’ is used to clue our old friend.
23 ILLITERATE, I + [a]LLITERATE.
24 VESTRY, VE(ST)RY. I had doubts about this; ‘actual’ = ‘very’ is archaic, although widely known from the King James Bible, and a saint is that last person you would expect to find in a vestry.
25 REPRISED, DESIR(P)ER backwards.
 
Down
1 PEDICAB. PE(D[rive] I)C + AB. A brilliant &lit. I only realized after solving that ‘torso muscles’ are not pecs or abs, but one of each. Those who didn’t get the answer may not be so thrilled.
2 AMAZONIAN, A + M(A ZON[e] + I)AN. Another tricky clue that had me guessing for a while, both before and after getting the answer.
3 Omitted.
4 CHUTNEY, C(himHUT)NEY. Another difficult substitution, but gettable from the literal..
5 MANDATORY, M AND A TORY. I believe we have seen this one before.
6 INTEGER, INT(EG)ER. Easy once you spot the literal.
7 EMBARGO, E(MBA)RGO. Another one that went in from the literal.
12 LIABILITY, [p]LIABILITY. I was very obtuse with this my LOI, and finally put it in from the literal.
14 ENCOMPASS, anagram of ONCE + [doo]M + PASS. A nicely themed LOTR clue which, of course, has nothing to do with LOTR.
16 ARRANGE, ARRAN + GE[t].
17 GUNSHOT, anagram of NOUGHT’S.
18 CHALICE, CH + ALICE, our old friend the Companion of Honour, such a useful abbreviation.
19 NUCLEAR, alteration of UNCLEAR. A standard typo joke, along with uninformed guards, scheduled outrages, and management sing-off.
20 LINSEED, LIN(S[ton]E)ED. Yes, you guessed it, I didn’t bother with the cryptic.

20 comments on “Times 25354 – All that work at the gym pays off!”

  1. Not yer standard Monday then! Like Vinyl, had to reverse engineer a whole pile of the cryptics; an interesting exercise in itself. Add the fact that a lot of the literals don’t stand out a mile, and we have a pretty difficult number. Perhaps because it’s a holiday?

    COD (by a short head from 1dn) to 14dn, ENCOMPASS.

    Today’s coincidence: just finished reading a B.S. Johnson short story (on the origins of the name “Balls Pond Road”) which features one Reverend Vinyl. URL available should anyone be vaguely interested.

    BTW Vinyl: you have an extra H in 4dn. And “favorable” for “favoured” at 22ac.

    Edited at 2012-12-24 02:16 am (UTC)

  2. 47 minutes with a good 10 of those stuck on the 1s at the very end. I thought CHUTNEY/chimney was brilliant. Well done fathoming the precise workings of 21ac, vinyl1; I was grateful not to be blogging and therefore not obliged to bother with it.

    Edited at 2012-12-24 02:14 am (UTC)

  3. With a lot of anagrams, straightforward wordplay, and easy-to-guess literals, this puzzle continued last week’s easy streak. Still there was a lot of nice stuff here, like “depleted” to indicate losing energy = E.

    How is ‘some rain’ = INCH?

    Also, can anyone explain how the Sunday puzzle differs from the weekly puzzles? (It seems that there are different conventions, like ‘one’ = A.)

    1. I took 22ac as a DBE that’s not mitigated by a ‘?’ or ‘perhaps’. Weather reports constantly refer to ‘inch’ or ‘inches’ as a measure of rainfall.

      I doubt anyone will offer up a list of differences between ST and Daily puzzles as I don’t think anything is set in stone. The only ‘rule’ I’m aware of that’s generally true is that living people other than HMQ turn up occasionally in the ST but not in the Daily. But if memory serves correctly I believe the Daily has had at least one since I started solving it regularly about 6 years ago.

      Edited at 2012-12-24 09:39 am (UTC)

  4. I didn’t find it that easy. Renaissance man? A made up term?
    Don’t know what ‘champion’ has to do with the clue/answer at 1ac and have never heard of a ‘pedicab’ at 1dwn either.
    Don’t know what ‘mandaNtory’ (5 dwn) is – didn’t even manage to get ‘mandatory’ but I did like this clue.

    Many, many thanks to the bloggers over the past year for helping me see sense of the more obscure crossword clues and may I take the opportunity of wishing you all a very merry Xmas and happy and prosperous new year.

    May you all keep up the good work.

    1. According to OED ‘Renaissance man’ dates from 1906. It’s ‘made up’ only in the sense that all words and expressions are. It’s in all the usual dictionaries so perfectly eligible for inclusion.

      ‘Champion’ is in common usage meaning to back or support a cause etc.

      ‘Pedicab’ was new to me too but none of us can know every word in the dictionaries.

      I assume you don’t think that ‘mandaNtory’ is the answer at 5dn as it wouldn’t fit anyway.

      Edited at 2012-12-24 09:59 am (UTC)

      1. Saw the ‘champion’ connection as soon as I pressed the enter key.
        I knew there was a surplus ‘n’ in ‘mandatory’ (hence the capitalisation) – as I said I thought this was a good clue – I understood it! My strange humour there!

        Re the difference between weekday and Sunday puzzles, I can empathise with that as I always find the Sunday puzzle (and Saturday’s for that matter) more on my wavelength and always do better with them.

        1. P.S. If I caused any offence with my clumsy attempt at humour in pointing out the ‘mandaNtory’ typo please accept my sincere apologies – that was certainly not my intention.
  5. As a lurker who has gradually improved so that it is poor day when less than half the clues are solved unaided but once in a blue moon when all are, this was my worst effort for a long time. Must be a wavelength thing -but pedicab, mandantory and renaissance man were unknown. For 6d I was convinced that bogof “buy one get one free” was in play somehow. Ah well it’s only a pastime.
  6. Made heavy weather of this but still enjoyed the going if slow. 54 minutes. A typo in 5 dn., vinyl; pointed out above (first anon.) in an unfortunate manner; and thanks for the Christmas Eve shift.

    Edited at 2012-12-24 10:03 am (UTC)

  7. I always feel a little sorry for the setter of puzzles like these. Some of the cryptic composition is very good indeed. Unfortunately it’s largely wasted because one solves huge chunks of the puzzle, and often the most convaluted clues, from the very easy literals. Like Jack I’m pleased I wasn’t blogging it and could ignore the Parnassian Queen and all her mates. Well done Vinyl.

    Compliments of the season to everybody.

  8. A laboured 28 minutes after fixating on “stubbly” in 11a. Good blog, many thanks Vinyl, and a Happy Christmas and New Year to all. P.S. I think you meant to bracket the [E] not the first [C] in 18a.
  9. I always have a go at the puzzle and always enjoy reading this blog. Usually manage to finish after several efforts and usually enjoy it. Season’s greetings to you all and thank you for the blog.

    From Nairobi, Kenya

  10. 12:58 for me, slowed by rashly bunging in PLAYABLE for 1ac, despite feeling doubtful about whether the Yorkshire use of “champion” as an adjective could really be stretched to mean ABLE.

    A nice mixture of fairly convoluted clues (but not too many of them) and easier ones, but all of them interesting. Thank you, setter.

  11. Didn’t get to this until pretty late in the day. Rather enjoyed it, didn’t get it all in one sitting but rattled off the rest over afternoon coffee. Last in was CHUTNEY from definition, thanks for explaining the cryptic, which is fun!
  12. Finished in just over the hour. Thanks and festive felicity toons to all our bloggers. I know that a year ago I would not have finished this puzzle so all your blogging efforts have helped to make me a better solver and so a happier man. Nadolig llawen!!
  13. First time ever I finished the puzzle without aids! Many thanks to all the bloggers and others from whom I’ve learned so much. Belated Happy New Year to all.

    Margaret from Sydney

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