Times 25410 – smile, you’re on candid camera!

Solving time : 21 minutes – there’s a lot of craftiness in these clues, and a quick scan of acrosses and downs only yielded about eight answers, so I thought I might be in for a long haul, but answers came one or two at a time, and I managed to get there, with the Florida corner being the one putting up the most resistance.

Might have done better if I’d known the long anagram at 9 down, a very very vaguely familiar name (maybe from reading some of his obituary?) that was my second last entry.

Lots of excellent and sneaky clues, it’s going to be tricky to decide what to omit.

Away we go…

Across
1 EXHALE: or EX HALE
4 AT RANDOM: A TRANSOM with the S(small) replaced by D(diameter). Probably my favorite clue
10 CARD SHARP: A,RD,SH in CARP
11 Let’s omit this one, whereforever he art
12 PLAUDIT: LAUD in PIT. Got this from definition, didn’t know the archbishop
13 FREESIA: F(following), (EASIER)*
14 SPELT: double def – it’s popular in muffins here
15 ETHERNET: ETHER(number), then TEN reversed
18 ALPHABET: ref ALPHABET soup
20 F,ABLE
23 MICROBE: very fun clue – the MICE would be the players if the cat was away, and they’re surrounding ROB
25 NEEDIER: DIE in NE’ER
26 LO,USE
27 SLUSH PILE: double definition – I’m responsible for the contents of a few of these – it’s unsolicited manuscripts
28 STRIDENT: RID in STENT
29 BRIGHT: got this from definition – there’s some activity in the comments as to whom the economist was, but I can’t seem to find an obvious reference, so I’ll just say it was Australian spin bowler Ray Bright who is from the same town as me
 
Down
1 ESCAPISM: C in (IMPASSE)*
2 HER,BAG,E
3 LAST(survive),D(died),ITCH(long)
5 TIP OF THE TONGUE
6 A, GREE(n)
7 DEMESNE: I’ve always wondered about the pronunciation of this word, does it sound the same as DEMEAN?
8 MOOLAH: MOO(low), L(a pound) then alternating letters in eAcH
9 CARTIER-BRESSON: (ENTIRE,CROSSBAR)*
16 RE,FRESHER: didn’t know the definition (a fee paid to extend counsel) the FRESHER part comes from a new University student
17 BEERIEST: ERIE(a lot of water) in BEST
19 let’s omit this one from the downs
21 BEIJING: I and J in BEING
22 SMALLS: Shop had a big S
24 OREAD: hidden

38 comments on “Times 25410 – smile, you’re on candid camera!”

  1. A slow but very steady solve taking me 51 minutes, or 46 if I take my time from entry of my first answer.

    I didn’t know the beauty at 24, the cereal at 14, the photographer at 9 or the expression at 27, although the first three of those I worked out without too many problems.

    I knew the somewhat unusual word at 7dn from years of reading legal documents in a former paid employment but I didn’t know it could be pronounced in order to fit the other part of the clue, indeed this appears to be a less common alternative according to the sources I have consulted.

    Plenty of good stuff here though, and I particularly liked 22 for its clever device and as a change from the standard range of underwear on offer at this stall.

    Edited at 2013-02-28 07:09 am (UTC)

  2. No problems with this, nothing unknown or untoward, but some clever clues. Momentary panic over 4ac, but the enumeration and checkers only permits the one alternative.
  3. 20 minutes, and what fun! Virtually all the LH across clues had a sublime sense of humour attached: I particularly liked the venerable (and surely impeccable) Archbishop descending into the pit- my CoD
    22d had me a little bemused, as I was looking for something to do with the two Ls, which didn’t quite work. As it is, I agree it’s a very cute device. And when we have a 5 letter slot, LONGS would answer the clue almost as well.
    SLUSH PILE had me guessing as to the ?I?E bit, and I put in PILE thinking it was just a variation on “fund”, a secret stash that’s also won’t appear in print. Education,then, for me today.
    CARTIER BRESSON needed all the crossers and some nifty letter sorting before I remembered the happy snapper and what sort of shot were being called.
  4. Like Jack a steady top to bottom solve in 25 minutes. I also didn’t know the photographer or the nymph but I had met SLUSH PILE before

    I thought “fluke” could be an alternative answer to LOUSE at 26A but did enjoy the SMALL-S at 22D and 15A ETHERNET with the clever use of “number” with “ten” – two excellent clues

    1. Oh gosh, so that’s what’s going on there – I missed the parse completely although it couldn’t have been anything else. I quite agree about “ethernet” – very nice.
      At 30 minutes I made rather heavy weather and now can’t really see why, especially since I knew the photographer. His one-time assistant was Inge Morath who lived in our apartment building, was married to Arthur Miller and the mother-in-law of a certain 3time Oscar winner. Six degrees of separation.
  5. About 25 mins for three-quarters of the puzzle, then becalmed in the SMALL-S corner for the rest of the time. All I had was the L from ALPHABET and the N from BRESSON. Then I was convinced that “in the absence of cat, players” (23ac) was just S (cast minus cat). Finally spotting the inclusive at 24dn helped crack it.

    Equally amazed as Jack to find that 7dn could be so pronounced. The word has always baffled me since encountering it every Wednesday in primary school when we went to the local baths and had to queue up next to the street sign for Demesne Street. We all decided (in good scouse fashion) to call it “Dem Knees Street”.

  6. Loved the CARTIER-BRESSON clue. Hadn’t heard of SLUSH PILE and had too many alternatives to choose from (LINE, PILE, SITE, etc) – I don’t tend to think of slush as having a pileable quality so I went for LINE, thinking that would tie in with the “in print” bit. Also hadn’t heard of the economist, unless there’s (no doubt) more to that clue than I can see.
  7. 20m. I was on the wavelength for this one, but had a bit of trouble putting the right answers in the right places. I starting to put BOOZIEST in at 21dn, for instance: the wrong answer in the wrong place, and once letters are in the grid I find it quite hard to ignore them. I also dismissed ALPHABET as the answer to 18ac at first because it didn’t fit with the H I already had… in 15ac.
    I rather liked most of this, but wasn’t very keen on 27ac. SLUSH PILE seems like a rather arcane term, and there are an awful lot of words that fit ?I?E. I happen to have picked the right one but I was at least half expecting it to be wrong and I think it’s a bit unfair.
    I had BRIGHT for 29ac but I can’t find an economist by that name. What am I missing? On edit: perhaps John Bright? “Associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League” according to Wikipedia.

    Edited at 2013-02-28 10:45 am (UTC)

      1. Your post crossed with my edit!
        I agree, a bit loose. I wonder when the term “economist” was first used.
        1. The Other Side seems to regard him as such:
          http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/06/john-bright-bill-cash-review
          For scholarly matters on the term “economy” and how and when it moved from meaning “economising” to a “thing” underpinning social life, see:
          http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:267216

          Just checked the big OED, and the first use of “economist” (as “an expert in or student of economics” — though the meaning of “economics” may be at variance with our own at that time) was 1776:

          “1776 I. de Pinto tr. M. de Pinto Lett. on Amer. Troubles 62 The principles of the œconomists [Fr. des Économistes] are erroneous”.

          Nothing much has changed eh?

          Edited at 2013-02-28 11:01 am (UTC)

          1. Thanks. I asked the right person then!
            On the subject of erroneous economists, we have one on a retainer at work who visits every few months to give us his views. He has been doing so for nearly fifteen years, for the first ten of which he predicted imminent doom. Eventually of course he was right.

            Edited at 2013-02-28 11:34 am (UTC)

            1. You must be aware of the old joke about economics – it’s the only exam paper in which they always set the same questions but change the answers every year!
              1. Yes. And on a related note, the one about how Wall Street has predicted nine out of the last five recessions!
        2. I think Adam Smith was probably the first – so late 1700s

          I must confess I just stuck BRIGHT in without thinking about it too much even if many economists aren’t!

          1. I just stuck him in on the basis that he has come up before. I’ve no idea who he was or what he achieved, if anything, but to me he’s just a bit of crossword knowledge acquired over the years.
  8. 30:00 … made slow going of this but didn’t mind – there was a lot to enjoy along the way. Very original stuff.

    COD .. to the MICROBE or the SMALLS. Can’t decide.

  9. 27 mins but a double fail, slush line and domeste at 7 which I decided could be derived from domestic and hence for one’s own benefit and sounding like do messed. No, I wasn’t at all convinced.

    I’m still a bit shellshocked from spotting ()ignora[nt] in yesterday’s puzzle and wondering for some time which particular married woman BIG NORA might be. She sounds like someone from Sense and Sensibility or The Tempest if you ask me.

    COD to 23 for the MICE part.

  10. In answer to your query, George, it’s more usually pronounced “de-MAIN”.

    Edited at 2013-02-28 03:33 pm (UTC)

  11. Came up one short after an hor, with slush line instead of slush pile. I await the day when all BBC reporters will pronounce the Chinese capital properly and not as it it were French. Think jing as in Jingle Bells, folks.
  12. All but DEMESNE and the second bit of the SLUSH one (I too had ‘line’).

    Thought this was one of the most enjoyable puzzles for ages, with lots of doh! moments as the penny dropped… Liked BEIJING and ETHERNET. Didn’t understand SMALLS. Assumed it was something to do with shopping malls. Barking completely up the wrong tree…

    Edited at 2013-02-28 07:19 pm (UTC)

  13. Solved this in drips and drabs throughout the day. Very enjoyable from first clue (Tip Of The Tongue) to last (Smalls). Hadn’t heard of the photographer, the economist or Slush Pile.
  14. 11:53 for me, going quite well until I stalled on SMALLS for no good reason. SLUSH PILE was just about familiar enough for me to be reasonable confident of it, but I had no problem with CARTIER-BRESSON or BRIGHT.

    All in all a most enjoyable puzzle.

  15. Came to it late, got away quite a lot later but all done and all enjoyed. Didn’t know ethernet but it hovered as likely. Brilliant microbe, luminous smalls. An A* product.
  16. Some great stuff here. Too late for any meaningful comment. Just got in from a post-choir-practice pub night so not in a contemplative or analytical mood. 42 very enjoyable minutes.
  17. I would have been quicker if I had not written in ‘single-t’ instead of ‘small-s’, which also seemed quite logical!
  18. I don’t believe this is in ANY dictionary! Not at all up to the Times’ standard of clue, more like a Telegraph one…
  19. Impressed by a Times clue where the definition is in the middle, not at start or finish – only the second one ever I can remember. So well done that no-one picked up on it, let alone complained.

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