Times 25389 – The Doorman’s Tale

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 47 minutes

Music: Mozart, Sinfonia Concertante, Davis/LSO

A bit of a more difficult Monday puzzle, as I made slow but steady progress around the grid. There were a couple of big easy ones in the middle that allowed me to get started, but there were also a lot of little hangups and things I was afraid I wouldn’t know. But in the end, it turned out I did know, or could guess, the answers. I had to think quite hard at the intersection of ‘flummery’ and ‘cyclostyle’, but in the end it came down to ‘rosette’ and ‘seed’, my last two in.

I usually have an allusive blog title, but today’s requires a bit of an explanation. In my building, the owners of little dogs sometimes allow them to exercise unsupervised in the corridors. This is of course strictly forbidden, but it does happen. One day, a little dog vanished suddenly and completely. The owner at once called the doorman to report her loss. He knew that the only recent visitor to that floor had been a deliveryman from a Chinese restaurant, so he called the restaurant and asked if they knew anything about the matter……and the dog was duly returned to its owner.

Across
1 BALUSTRADE, B(AL)US TRADE.
6 EROS, SORE backwards. This is one of the ones I was afraid I wouldn’t know, but it refers to the world-famous statue in Piccadilly Circus, placed in honor of Lord Shaftesbury. The statue is actually Anteros, not Eros.
9 HOWEVER, HO(WE)VER. The trick is in the literal – i was looking for something like ‘simultaneously’.
10 UNCIVIL, UN + C + I + V + I + L, i.e. five random Roman numerals. Not anyone’s favorite style of clue.
12 REPORTABLE, RE-PORTABLE No really accurate, since something that is ‘portable’ can already be carried repeatedly.
13 KOS, KO + S[ightseeing].
15 YES MEN, YE(S)MEN. Amusing surface, as noted.
16 INFRARED, IN F(RA)RED, where Burlington House is the home of the Royal Academy…a useful thing for solvers to know.
18 HORNBILL, HORN BILL in a jocular sense. I was afraid this was going to be some dreadfully obscure bird, but the answer is quite simple once you think of it.
20 SHADOW, S(H[uskies]AD + OW!
23 Omitted, look for it!
24 COMMANDANT, COMMAN (sounds like COMMON) + D + ANT. I tried a few specific generals before seeing the obvious.
26 RETINUE, R(ET IN)UE. Another well-hidden literal.
27 DUCTILE, CUD backwards + TI(L)E.
28 SEED, double definition, as in the ‘seed of Abraham’. I understood how the second definition worked early on, but it was still my last in because I didn’t interpret ‘race’ properly.
29 CYCLOSTYLE CYC(LOST Y[outh])LE. Here is one I had not heard of, and I didn’t help myself by assuming it must end in ‘type’. I had to rethink after I solved ‘flummery’. This is also an architectural term, so watch out for that.
 
Down
1 BAHT, BA(H)T. I knew the word, but could not recall where the ‘h’ went, so I had to wait for 9 across.
2 LAWLESS, L + (A(W)LES) + S. An elaborate cryptic that had me fooled for a while, thinking I was looking for a specific type of criminal, or a named individual.
3 SAVE ONE’S BACON, double definition, one jocular.
4 RARITY RA + RIT[z]Y. I saw the answer readily enough, but the cryptic puzzled me for a bit.
5 DRUBBING, D([directo]R)UBBING.
7 REVOKER, REV OK-ER.
8 SPLASHDOWN, cryptic definition.
11 CLEAR THE DECKS, another jocular double definition.
14 PYTHAGORAS, anagram of TOYS and A GRAPH. I was looking for a modern mathematician, and needed a few crossing letters.
17 FLUMMERY, F(LUMME)RY. A brilliant clue that fooled me for a long time.
19 ROSETTE, RO(SET)TE. The Penguin Guide to Classical Music used to give out rosettes to what they considered especially good performances.
21 DANDIFY, sounds like DAMNED IF I, presumably, it you are plagued with especially poor reception. The competing interpretation is anagram of AND + sounds like DEFY. Probably more correct, but mine more amusing.
22 VANDAL, VAN + LAD upside down.
25 BEDE, BE(D)E, a rather famous monk who is fond of appearing in puzzles.

36 comments on “Times 25389 – The Doorman’s Tale”

  1. RA twice in the same puzzle seems a bit lazy; in context at 4dn it stands for Royal Academician this time.

    A very similar solving experience to our blogger with hold-ups and pauses for thought in all the same places. I scraped home in 42 minutes with the RH giving more trouble than the LH. That spelling of the island at 13 caught me out a few months ago so I was ready for it today. I was all set to point out the common error re 6ac but you beat me to it, vinyl1!

    Edited at 2013-02-04 02:55 am (UTC)

  2. Figured this must be an anagram of AND + DIFY (sounds like DEFY). Lift and separate “broadcast” and “challenge”.
  4. 43 minutes, with similar experiences to my eminent co-bloggers. Held myself up by wanting 12 to be ‘recoverage’. Last in and COD to SEED.
  5. Also noted the RA x 2; plus the fact that Burlington House is in Picadilly. Not quite a theme. Micro-themette?

    My probs came in the top right. Forgot the K-spelling of the isand and thought the terrible OK-er at 7dn could be the even worse U-er (as some kind of homophone), but REV,IEWER didn’t fit! Besides, there were already enough homophones in by then.

    I think we’ve had (re 15ac) the debate on YEMEN as part of Asia. And expect we’ll have it again today. Then there’ll be a question of the DBE in 11dn and speculation on which card games can involve multiple decks.

    1. A DBE I hadn’t noticed! I think canasta is always played with two decks. Certainly it was in the cut-throat version I used to play (two players, 15 cards,two canastas minimum).

      Continuing with your micro-themette, the Ritz referenced at 4dn is also in Piccadilly.

      Edited at 2013-02-04 03:20 am (UTC)

  8. Same problem as Vinyl with 1d and 18ac.I’d forgotten what’s in Burlington House, but it didn’t matter, fortunately. At 17d, I threw in ‘flattery’, which fits the definition; thought of FLUMMERY, but for me flummery is piffle not empty compliment, so it wasn’t until I recalled ‘lumme’ that it went in. If we’re going to cite DBEs, isn’t 10ac one? Curtness is but one of many forms incivility can take. Not that I object to DBEs, mind you.
  10. 16 minutes, thought I was in for a quick solve, but really held up at the bottom. DANDIFY and FLUMMERY from the definition after finally sorting out CYCLOSTYLE (which involved many implausible anagrams of MISLAID,BY,Y)
  11. I think the argument about Yemen might be even older and even more widespread than crosswordland. When I was in the RAF, Aden (part of Yemen) was originally in the Middle East Air Force and then in the Near East Air Force but never, as far as I know, in the Far East Air Force.
  12. 23 minutes,getting progressively slower the further south I ventured. Particularly slow on COMMANDANT, DANDIFY and the known-by-another-name CYCLOSTYLE (looks like what we used to call a Gestetner* in the early days of church magazine printing). SEED last in through the alphabet soup strainer, and with sympathy for Sotira, glad I didn’t get as far as L. DUCTILE took awhile to unravel the cryptic, and one of those you don’t put in until the cryptic makes sense.
    There are times, given the antique printer, that I can believe the crossword regards PYTHAGORAS as a dangerously modern mathematician.
    *Other printing machines are available
  13. 17m.
    I started very slowly on this: my first in was SHADOW. But the downs yielded more easily than the acrosses and then I found the wavelength. It was a puzzle that rewarded a methodical approach. I rather enjoyed it.
    CYCLOSTYLE took a bit of constructing from wordplay but my last in was VANDAL. I’d been on the right track earlier but DALVAN isn’t a word so I moved on.
  14. Held up in SW, had entered DOGS (as in ‘going to the…’) as nearly FOI, so didn’t think of correct sort of ‘race’ till much later.
  16. 24 minutes, after leading myself down all sorts of blind alleys by entering DRUMBEAT and FLATTERY without thinking them through properly, and thinking REVOKER must be some variation on REVIEWER (REV + “U”er). Lots of clever stuff, anyway, once I’d untangled myself and looked again.
  17. Don’t follow that.. my daughter’s house in Qatar is indisputably in Asia, but not in the Far East. As is Yemen.
    Asia is big, and stretches both near, middle and far..
    1. Not in today’s politically correct world…
      East Asia, North-East Asia (Korea/Japan), South-East Asia, West Asia, South-West Asia (the old middle-east), South Asia (India).
      As an Australian, it’s all just the far north-west.
      Rob
  18. I thought this a fine crossword, and really enjoyed solving it. Like others I started at the top in fine style and got progressively slower as I went down.. and toying with flattery and dignify didn’t help.
    The big joke about Eros/Anteros is using a naked boy as a memorial to the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury., as worthy, well meaning, stern and humourless a Victorian as there ever was.

    Still, if your biographer can write “No man has in fact ever done more to lessen the extent of human misery or to add to the sum total of human happiness,” then a memorial of some kind seems only fair

  19. All ok, despite poor London GK (EROS, Burlington House). Took an age to try and justify UNCIVIL before giving up and finding I’d overlooked the obvious. I had a ! by DANDIFY, as I, like Vinyl, had assumed it was merely a dreadful homonym.
  20. 25 pleasant minutes, of which 10 spent on FLUMMERY, finding CYCLOSTYLE existed and then DANDIFY to finish.
  22. DBE is definition by example. At 22D “camper” is a type of van so by strict Ximenes rules the clue should say “camper, for example” or some such wording.

    All a bit of a slog after 18 holes in a howling gale but desperstely needed to get some exercise – ground very boggy as well – bit like some of my work on the crossword. I agree canasta would be better than rummy. 25 minutes to solve and all a bit like hard work.

  23. Came up one short today with Cyclostyle missing. I’d be interested in knowing how one of those works. Can’t make much of the definition I’ve found online: “a writing implement with a small toothed wheel that cuts small holes in a stencil”.

    Seed was a bit of a guess so am pleased that was right. Commandant, Flummery and Dandify all held me up for a long time.

    Have been in London for the past fortnight with work (hence my absence from this forum) and on the Saturday before last walked past the Eros statute.

    1. Hi Daniel

      Before Mr Xerox invented photocopying if we wanted to produce say 24 copies of something we would produce a stencil that would be wrapped around an inked cylinder and used to run off copies (called Roneo machines). Latterly they used to use manual typewriters to cut out the letters in the stencil but I recall some of the work required a cutting tool, which I presume was a cyclostyle.

      1. Jim, thanks for these details. I should think there might be a cyclostyle in Manchester’s Museum of Science & Industry (perhaps near my father-in-law’s betamax video – he really did donate it to them!!). It’s impossible to imagine an office these days without a photocopier or the all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax that we have where I work.
  24. Very similar experience to that of Vinyl1, with the FLUMMERY/CYCLOSTYLE intersection causing most problems. Like him I also read 21 d (DANDIFY) as an outrageous homonym – “Damned if I” – and, bad and wrong as it obviously is, I too find it a lot more fun than the correct answer.
  26. No time to post due to interruptions, but it would have been somewhere in the middle of the scale, I think. LOI’s were the unknown CYCLOSTYLE from wordplay, and FLUMMERY, from a vague recollection of the definition, because ‘lumme’ isn’t in my vocabulary. Also, my understanding of DUCTILE had (formerly) been limited to its metallic sense. Held up a ta as well up in the NW because I went first with BHAT instead of BAHT. My COD to SPLASHDOWN. Regards.
    1. I think the only American likely to have ‘lumme’ in his lexicon was Dick van Dyke. ‘onest, guv!

      Next up, lubber duck?

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