Times 25411

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 35:10

Not a particularly tricky one today. One or two here had me scratching my head for a bit, but there were plenty that went in very quickly to get a good early foothold. There were a few unusual derivatives of common words – WIMPISH, PUBERTAL & SCAMPISH, and PARADIDDLE I’d not come across before, but all were quite clear from the wordplay.

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

Across
1 S + PECK(Lips)ED
9 EQUIPAGE = QU (queen) + I (single) + PAGE (attendant) all after thE
10 STALe + BANS
11 PUBERTAL = PUB (local) + (ALERT)* – Not a word I’ve come across before, but clearly a derivative of puberty
12 Get + LOS(SPAIN)T
14 MALI – hidden
15 SEAL + wORD
17 WIMPISH = MP (politician) + IS all in WI (women’s group) + speecH
21 ALAS = SALAd rev
22 DELIGHTS IN = DELI + (THINGS)*
23 PACKED UP – dd
25 ARMENIAN = MEN in A + (IRAN)*
26 SWIZZ + LES – I don’t really see what the word ‘Manhattan’ adds to this clue. Is there a Manhattan Swizzle? If there is, I can’t find any reference to it on the net.
27 TEN + D + ER/ER
Down
2 PETER + LEE – a town in Durham. I didn’t know this meaning of ‘peter’ – a safe, till, or cash box
3 COLOSSAL = COLLie (dog, that is straying) about OSSA (mountain in Greece)
4 LOAF – dd – ‘to veg’ being slang for lounging about
5 DESPAIR = (E + SPA) in DIRe
6 SUNBATHING = SUN + A + THING about B
7 PASTRy + AMI
8 WELL + NIGHt
13 PARADIDDLE = PADDLE about RADIo – not a word I knew (although I’ve heard of taradiddle) but I could work it out from the wordplay and checkers
15 SCAMPI’S + H – like a scamp
16 A + NAR(CHI)C
18 PITTA + N + ChEf
19 S + PILLAGE
20 FLY-PAST – The Rev Spooner would have said PLY FAST
24 AMEN (final word when saying grace) = (MEAN)*

36 comments on “Times 25411”

  1. 25 minutes for all but 26ac which gave me considerable grief, and no, I can’t explain the Manhattan reference either. I imagine 9ac is &lit or semi, but I’m not sure which of several meanings of EQUIPAGE it is supposed to be defining*.

    Good puzzle though.

    *On edit: Thanks to vinyl1 for the clarification below. Actually I did know the required meaning but had parsed the clue incorrectly.

    Edited at 2013-03-01 07:08 am (UTC)

  2. 48 minutes, with a guess at LOAF (rather than ‘leaf’) and two wrong, ‘perididdle’ (a drum kit played by a bloke with a wig?) and ‘skiffles’. Found this quite tough but enjoyable.

    If visiting Jerusalem, St James’ Cathedral in the Armenian Quarter is well worth a visit. Since it is a working church rather than a tourist attraction – which makes it something of a jewel among the Christian churches in the city – you need to check when the service is on and attend at that time. A fascinating experience.

  3. 18:58 .. only real hold-up was for that SWIZZLE. I think ‘Manhattan’ is meant as a metonymic device for ‘New York’, which some see as the spiritual home (!) of the Rum Swizzle cocktail … so says Wikipedia, thanks be to Jimmy. AMEN. (I’m crossing myself)

    PARADIDDLE has cropped up once or twice before – eg. Times 25,106.

    COD … WELL-NIGH … or SCAMPISH.

  4. Got into all sorts of trouble here with SWIZZLES last in. I hope Sotira’s metonym reading is right because I always though a Manhattan was scotch and vermouth and that a swizzle was a frothy thing with pretty much any spirit and bitters. ALAS!
  5. Well, 26a was my LOI, and I eventually went for skittles, so that was my habitual one wrong today.

    Didn’t know the town PETERLEE, but have come across the safe in crossword-land, and hadn’t heard of the drum roll or the US cop, but both gettable from wp.

    Lots of these words seem to have cropped up recently: WELL NIGH, ANARCHIC, ALAS, and that seemed to help things along.

  6. 20 minutes,getting stuckon EQUIPAGE, where I was so convinced that it finished with -ATE that I forgot that “on” doesn’t necessarily mean “immediately preceding”. That crossing U rather screamed the presence of a Q, but I couldn’t account for the E before it. Memo to self: if it ain’t working,it’s probably wrong.
    Elsewhere, SPILLAGE unaccountably caught my attention as a gigglesome clue, so I suppose, innocuous as it is, it’ll be my CoD.
    ST ALBANS particularly easy for me as I was hatched there. If you can, visit its fabulous hotch-potch Cathedral, a veritable compendium of historic architectural styles and what used to be the second longest nave on the planet.
  7. 23m, of which nearly ten on SWIZZLES. I didn’t know the cocktail (never mind where it originated) and to me a “swizz” is a rip-off. Short for “swindle”.
    I didn’t know PETERLEE but “peter” for safe is something of a crossword stalwart. One of those words I’ve never seen anywhere else.
    I was a bit puzzled by “word” for “command”. Collins has “an autocratic decree or utterance; order” but interestingly this meaning isn’t in Chambers.
    1. It’s old fashioned criminal slang and a safeblower was a “peterman” which might also crop up here in the future. It possibly comes from “saltpeter” a common name for the constituent of gunpowder
  8. swizzle stick is what one stirs a cocktail with…..sometimes with an umbrella.
  9. 12 minutes – held up by the swizzles – long time since anyone I know used a swizz to mean something disappointing – shades of Just WIlliam?!
  10. I thought this was at the easier end of the spectrum though I didn’t know OSSA, PUBERTAL, or EQUIPAGE (the latter maybe rings a bell). I seem to remember SWIZZ meaning disappointment cropping up in the Anthony Buckeridge Jennings books.
      1. I read the Jennings books when I was a kid and, in my naivety, assumed that all my fellow pupils would speak like that when I went to boarding school. That was a definite swizz. An ozard one, in fact.
        1. I read the Jennings books too but I immediately thought of Molesworth when I eventually got to W in my alphabet trawl.
          1. I got as far as W, too, but then not to Z. Guessed SWIFFLES, having heard of neither SWIZZ nor SWIZZLE. Would (might?) have gone for SWIZZLE if I got there, from the eponymous sticks.
            Rob
      2. Who also reflected on life’s disappointments chiz chiz, as I did too for a time.
  11. Like others completely thrown by Manhattan at 26A. I knew SWIZZ (old fashioned Bunter style slang) but had SWIZZLES as cocktail sticks. Still don’t get the NY reference

    The rest is straightforward enough, even if I don’t think of salad as being particularly healthy

  12. 15:12 with, surprise surprise, swizzles last in.

    I have the same list of “unknowns” as others apart from paradiddle, which I’m doing on my desk now look. If 1 is right hand and 2 is left hand it goes 1211 2122 1211 2122 etc. I’m not a drummer so I have no idea how that peice of knowledge came to be in there. I think it’s taking up the space that should be filled with the order of England’s kings and queens.

    COD to loaf.

    1. What indirect anagram? The letters from IRAN come from IRAN, not country or similar.
  13. Twenty minutes to do all but SWIZZLES, then got as far as putting in SWIZZ-LES, and LOAF, in hope, but still don’t see why it’s Manhattan cocktails…. as mentioned above I thought it was a swizzle stick for stirring or holding the olive. Never heard of veg = loaf about either. Nice puzzle otherwise.
  14. Two missing today – the carriage and the cocktails. No problems with the rest.
    A research colleague of mine was called Peter Lee!
    1. I knew one at college. He became a British chess and bridge champion, uniquely I think.
  15. Almost turned to stone by swizzles but finally there in 43 minutes. Not seeing paradiddle tried to make stingers fit. Rather liked the musty bars.
  16. 33.45 here and like others flummoxed by the cocktails though SWIZZ eventually surfaced and it seemed therefore a good guess. I can’t help wondering if salad isn’t what is healthy down Dorset way?
    1. A pint of local ale with some Dorset Vinney and chunks of proper bread – you can keep the rabbit food!
      1. That sounds very inviting – though I might go for Colston Bassett. And a glass of Wadworth’s 6X, but then I did live in Devises for a few years so a bit of nostalgia creeping in too!
  17. Just under half an hour but had to look up SWIZZLE because I was in a hurry to finish. I had to enrol for St David’s Day duty today – hymns and arias all round. Ann
  18. According to Chambers a cabbage-head is called a loaf, which accounts for the veg in 4dn. Never knew that.
  19. 8:38 for me, slowed at the end by SWIZZLES – I hadn’t come across the Manhattan cocktail before, and had to work through the alphabet in case I was missing something obvious. The (online) OED defines “swizzle” as “the name for various compounded intoxicating drinks; sometimes vaguely used for intoxicating drink in general”, with five citations from 1813 to 1899.

    While SWIZZ was familiar from my schooldays at Dotheboys, I was rather less sure of LOAF = “veg” (dating from some time later), so was a bit nervous about 4dn as well.

    1. “Veg” in this sense is about as familiar to me as it is possible for a word to be. In fact I have a very good friend whose nickname is “Veg” (unfair, really, because he works very hard indeed these days; these things stick). But “swizz” in this sense was completely new to me. I love this ebb and flow of language. Except when I can’t solve the clue. 🙂

      Edited at 2013-03-01 11:58 pm (UTC)

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