Times 25473 – Clam Dever!

Solving time: 46 minutes

Music: Schubert, Wanderer Fantasy, Richter

I did not have a very swift solve here, falling into a number of subtle traps the setter has provided. While some answers could be written in at sight, others had to be teased out gradually from the cryptics. I thought this was rather tough for a Monday puzzle.

It is especially annoying if you look for a hidden word, don’t find one, and then write in the answer from the literal….only to discover that yes, it was a hidden word. This is why my times are never very good unless the puzzle is unusually difficult.

Across
1 ANALOGY, sounds like ‘an allergy’ in the non-rhotic dialects spoken on some obscure island somewhere.
5 SNIPPET, S(NIP)PET. I saw ‘nip’ at once, but had it misaligned for a while.
9 PAR, PAR[is].
10 DISENTANGLE, DI’S(ENT)ANGLE, where ‘ent’ is an anagram of ‘net’. I needed the cryptic for this.
11 RUMM(AG)ER. Strange is often ‘rum’ in puzzles – I wonder how many non-solvers could identify this bit of underworld Regency slang.
12 DEUCED, DE[d]UCED. Entered by me without seeing the cryptic.
15 TONY, double definition.
16 BY AND LARGE, anagram of REGAN BADLY. It doesn’t look like there are going to be enough vowels, but there are.
18 PROVENANCE, PROVEN(AN)CE.
19 HYMN, H[ol]Y M[a]N.
22 INSULT, [lamebra]INS ULT[imately]. You have have a rather lame one not to see this if you’re looking for it!
23 OCCUPANT, O C(CUP)ANT. Perhaps the clue should read “resident’s”, i.e. “resident is”, to give a better literal.
25 TIME SERVING, double definition, where ‘trimming’ has its 17th-century meaning of bending to the political winds in order to retain political or ecclesiastical office.
27 Omitted!
28 ROOKERY, RO[-c+O]KERY, a letter-replacement clue that proved very tough for me to crack.
27 TENDRIL, TEND + R(I)L. Some beginner always asks why ‘i’ = ‘current’ – it’s a symbol from electronic formulae.
 
Down
1 APPARAT, A P(P)ARA + T[ask], a word from the former Soviet Union.
2 ACRIMONIOUS, anagram of COUSIN MOIRA, my first in, misleading me into thinking this was going to be an easy puzzle.
3 ORDEAL, OR(D,E)AL.
4 YESTERYEAR, Y + ESTER + Y + EAR. The unknowns and the varables do not very often appear at the beginnings of words, but why not?
5 SONG, SON + G[laringly]. Lieder often appear in disguise in these puzzles.
6 ISABELLA, IS + ABEL + LA. Evidently the French wife of Edward II is meant.
7 PUG, G(U)P upside-down. Two distinct dogs, but both words can also refer to human combatants.
8 TREADLE, anagram of ALTERED. I miscounted the number of letters in ‘altered’, and tried to operate on ‘operate’ instead.
13 CURRY FAVOUR, CURRY F[l]AVOUR, very clever, but a little too obvious.
14 UNICYCLIST, UNI + C(Y)C + LIST. A really fine clue with a very deceptive surface requiring lots of careful analysis. My COD.
17 DECLASSE, DEC + anagram of SALES. I had put in ‘recessal’, decided that didn’t exist, and tried again. I saw the answer but was stuck for a minute on ‘Dec’ = ‘present month’, then saw how that works.
18 PAINTER, double definition, where a painter is a rope to tie up your catamaran. I wanted to put ‘Prester’ for a long time before I got the crossing ‘i’. The second painter is Augustus’ sister Gwen.
20 NATURAL, double definition, the first one from music notation.
21 OUTGUN, cryptic definition, where the Maxim gun and the Lewis gun are both weapons from the 1880-1920 era.
24 GREY, sounds like Thomas Gray. There are other possible answers, but this seems to the most likely.
26 MOO, MOO[n].

48 comments on “Times 25473 – Clam Dever!”

  1. 16:27 .. TIME-SERVING went in on faith but what else would fit? OUTGUN only sort of understood at the time (never heard of a Maxim gun).

    DEUCED is excellent, as is DECLASSE, but I’m in awe of any setter who manages to get UNICYCLIST into a puzzle. Bravo.

    1. I thought I should stop being anonymous!

      The Maxim gun was a weapon of late Victorian empire (particularly in S Africa) and WW1. In addition to Hilaire Belloc’s comment:

      “Whatever happens we have got
      The Maxim gun, and they have not.”

      see “Onward Chartered Soldiers” in the attached from Niall Ferguson’s “Empire” (which is an excellent read, by the way).

      http://www.ralphmag.org/CH/empire.html

      1. … “unspammed”.
        Dereklam: including a URL from a free (unpaid) LJ account will tend to send your comment to spam.

        And welcome!

        Edited at 2013-05-13 04:52 am (UTC)

      2. I seem to remember a letter in The Times when the Falklands War was on, which said (reflecting the name of the Defence Secretary at the time):

        Whatever happens they have got
        The Exocet, but we have Nott.

        Edited at 2013-05-13 10:22 pm (UTC)

  2. Add me to the list of those not knowing that meanng of “trimming” (25ac) and to those who think the apostrophe’s misplaced at 23ac.

    APPARAT cropped up only four days ago; but that was still my last corner. Couldn’t believe TONY for “classy” despite “ton”(as fashionable style) cropping up fairly often. Is the adjective in regular use?

    1. I only ever encounter it in American fiction, where it’s common enough (especially in “a tony neighborhood”). I can’t recall ever hearing a Brit say it.
      1. Thanks to both. Just checked NOAD and it says:
        “fashionable among wealthy or stylish people: a tony restaurant“.
        Also says it’s from “tone” rather than “ton”.
        We live and learn eh?
  3. 15:27, but BRAY instead of GREY. I was sure that my one error was PAINTER, which I didn’t understand (I thought of Augustus only), and was angry with myself for rushing to submit, and totally forgot that I didn’t really believe in ‘bray’ when I put it in. I was surprised at the reaction to TONY; here I had thought it was a giveaway. I’d thought that trimmers were more like spin doctors than time-servers, but it worked anyway; and I agree with Jack that the clue still doesn’t quite do the job. The sheep in ‘Through the Looking Glass’ tells an uncomprehending Alice to “Feather! Feather!” lest she catch a crab.

    Edited at 2013-05-13 02:25 am (UTC)

    1. In these times when, living in the UK, never a day goes by without pundits and others banging on about all the Old Etonians in the government and other positions of power and influence including the Mayor of London, perhaps it’s appropriate to refer to the words of the Eton Boating Song:

      Jolly boating weather,
      And a hay harvest breeze,
      Blade on the feather,
      Shade off the trees,
      Swing swing together,
      With your bodies between your knees,
      Swing swing together,
      With your bodies between your knees.

  4. Also 46 minutes, with the last 11 spent on 12ac, 4dn and 1ac. The breakthrough at 4dn came when I looked around the grid and noticed how many Ys were floating around elsewhere and decided to try one as the first letter.

    I think there is a misprint at 23 as s’ would surely indicate a plural yet the solution is singular. Apostrophe ‘s’ short for ‘has’ is clearly better suited.

    I think GREY is the only possible answer at 24. I was tempted by ‘bray’ for a while but that clearly was wrong on a number of counts.

    1dn was helped by having come up within the past few days so it was fresh in my mind.

    I didn’t understand ‘trimming’ at 25ac and still don’t really see it despite the explanation above. I knew the meaning referred to, but how does that equate with TIME-SERVING?

    1. Not sure I see how Bray is incorrect on several counts but Grey isn’t- Surely Bray as both the sound a horse makes and the surname of a famous Australian poet fits better than Grey which is a poet but certainly not a sound?
      1. The main problem with ‘bray’ is that it’s not a sound made by horses. Donkeys, mules and asses bray but horses neigh and whinny.

        I wasn’t aware there were any famous Australian poets but that may be sheer ignorance on my part, however Thomas Gray is VERY famous and much more likely to turn up in a Times crossword and also has the advantage of sounding like GREY, a type of horse that accounts for the straight definition in the clue.

  5. 66 minutes and just pleased to get home in one piece despite not knowing TONY (one meaning), PAINTER (ditto) and TIME-SERVING (ditto – the required meanings are confirmed by M-W http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/timeserving, albeit as one word, and Collins http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/trimmer?showCookiePolicy=true). In a tougher than usual – and most enjoyable – Monday offering, my COD to PROVENANCE.

    Those who don’t know that an oar can be ‘feathered’ may struggle with the omitted 27ac.

    Re OCCUPANT, I reckoned while solving that it must be an adjectival form, ie ‘pertaining to residents’, but there is no evidence for this, so misprint it seems to be.

    Edited at 2013-05-13 02:28 am (UTC)

  6. 29 minutes with a few slight doubts as to setter’s call. The homophone in 1A, the unEnglish (all right, all right) tony, the indigestibly rare intransitive trim. The apostrophe in 23 leaves a decent surface where it is; and maybe as with a comma its placing can be disregarded (though there’s an ouch factor in that for me). Don’t get the second dog in 7, vinyl. Seems straightforward enough with the one. Also – just a preference – for me Augustus is the second John despite his greater fame. Liked deuced and declasse.
    1. I think Vinyl just means that boxers and pugs are distinct breeds of dog.
    2. Re the John siblings: I recently had lunch at a Weatherspoons in Haverfordwest (small town in West Wales). It was in a converted hotel and the place seemed to be dedicated to the Johns, who came from the town. The upstairs loos were very grand affairs and incorporated galleries of their works. The “Ladies” was dedicated to Gwen and the “Gents” to Augustus. Very droll. Worth a visit if you’re ever in the town. I also prefer Gwen.
      1. Fine for you. I would have to resist taking a peek in the Ladies! Or cross-dressing. Droll indeed.
      2. Don’t know if they still do it but the Philharmonic pub in Liverpool used to do occasional ladies’ tours of the Gents loo so that women could also admire the red marble fixtures. Not sure if a marble urinal qualifies as ‘art’ but they were jolly impressive in their way.
      3. There was a time when I too preferred Gwen. I think there was a period in the 1990s (or was it the 1980s?) when she was “discovered”, and I must have visited the National Museum Cardiff not long after that. But I’ve seen more of Augustus’s paintings since, and I’m not sure I don’t prefer him after all.
  7. Hey, Guys – stop knocking Tony! Still do not see DEC as current month though.

    TonyW

  8. How long is it since we had a Monday Easy? 26 minutes for this, though some of that time compromised by having a concurrent phone conversation.
    Good stuff here, though this Small Islander blanched just a bit at the sounzlike at 1ac – the (non rhotic, I suppose, but only just) sound in the middle doesn’t rhyme. Maybe if you aurally squint a bit…
    TIME SERVING was one of those heard of it but don’t quite know what it means phrases, so it might just as well mean “trimming” (sailing analogy, I assume?).
    UNICYCLIST was major league deceptive: I was trying to think of that Contract Law term, and the wordplay wasn’t helping a bit.
    Now I know Provence is on the Med. My education continues.
    Painter my last in after that: with ??I?T?R and John as part of the clue, I was half expecting ST scatology, I was glad PROVIDENCE didn’t start with an S, though I don’t know what I’d have done with the rest of the clue.
    There have been Queens Isabelle in this Small Island, but I can’t find a poet Grey who would justify GRAY at 24.
  9. Was baffled by this – eventually had to resort to an aid to get it from checkers, so thanks for explanation !
    I agree that apostrophe in 23 is in the wrong place.
    I had to read the clue several times to be sure that GREY (not GRAY) was to be entered at 22.
  10. About 20 minutes for all but 18dn, but I couldn’t get anywhere near that one. It seemed likely it was going to be PAINTER or POINTER but I couldn’t in any way justify either. It seemed there could be hundreds of Johns I hadn’t heard of, but it never occurred to me that it was a surname. So I didn’t think of Augustus, but even if I had I didn’t know about his sister so I’m not sure it would have helped. I’m more annoyed about the rope, because I’m sure it’s come up before. Today I didn’t think of it.
    I was feeling thick even before this because I didn’t understand NATURAL or TIME SERVING and it had taken me forever to see the required meaning of “lied”.
    Hey ho, there’s always tomorrow.

    Edited at 2013-05-13 09:13 am (UTC)

  11. Could also be queen as in Ferdinand and Isabella. In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue – on an expedition for them.

    Kevin and Jack may have been thinking of the Vicar of Bray in the poem about a time-serving churchman who was a “trimmer”. Will this get me spammed? http://lit4lib.sky7.us/bray.html.

    20 minutes.

    1. I wrote Isabelle without a second thought – history is not my forte, though I did remember “In fourteen hundred and ninety-three Columbus sailed the deep blue sea.”
      Rob
  12. One missing today (1ac Analogy) but all correct for the rest. Got Tony from definition and Time-Serving and Painter from cryptics. Didn’t understand Deuced or Natural so thanks vinyl1 for parsing those two. Took me an age to spot the hidden Insult. Thought ‘Dec’ for ‘present month’ was very good – I chuckled at that.
  13. 18 mins. CURRY FAVOUR made me smile even though it wasn’t a difficult clue to solve. The apostrophe does indeed seem to be in the wrong place in 23ac, but I confess I didn’t notice it at the time because the wordplay was clear enough. For 6dn I also thought of Ferdinand’s ISABELLA rather than the wife of Edward II, but as the latter was known, among other things, as Isabella of France then I’m pretty sure that she is the queen the setter had in mind.

  14. DNF (ANALOGY, OUTGUN, PAINTER, ROOKERY) and I had ‘mare’ at 24dn. Oh dear.

    On a more positive note, I am back online with the Club site. Yippee!

      1. Didn’t seem to be too much of a stress…just updated my card details through worldpay, and emailed the address you gave! Many thanks.
    1. Another fairly tricky Monday puzzle that filled 40 minutes of my time. Nothing terribly difficult but 12, both 18’s and 25 took me a while to solve. Some nice clues, but in particular I did like “present month” for DEC.
  15. Hmmm, not my morning with a very careless ISABELLE and not having a clue about the PAINTER clue and thinking it could have been POINTER. Better luck next time
    1. Isabelle is not impossible – the wordplay’s fine and at least two English Queen Isabella’s started life as French Isabelles, and occasionally turn up in history with that spelling – depends on who you read. Other, especially French, examples exist. As far as I know, there’s no rule (beyond “the editor has not been wrong in 25 years and isn’t about to start now”) that we have to opt for the more common answer.
      1. The ambiguity of the wordplay struck me while solving. I picked “la” on the basis of “Ferdinand and Isabella” coming readily to mind, feeling unsure but reasonably confident. When I googled “Queen Isabelle” post-solve I got “showing results for Queen Isabella; search instead for Queen Isabelle”. So if Google is the judge…

        Edited at 2013-05-13 11:01 pm (UTC)

        1. Quite. and if you choose to check the Isabelles against Google’s “we know better” sniffiness, it STILL gives you Isabellas, but intersperses them with a few (but they are there) actual Queen Isabelles, usually French, plus some twitterati who self nominate.
          A “not wrong” answer then, unless the clue says go for the more common one.
  16. I also couldn’t fathom the PAINTER clue, and guessed at POINTER, due only to the fact that I have a pair of index fingers. Seeing the correct explanation, I wasn’t going to figure it out either, for I can identify Augustus vaguely but not the sister at all. Everything else was OK, and I assumed that the misplaced apostrophe was a misprint. About 25 minutes for all that. Regards.
  17. 12:45 for me. I seemed to make rather heavy weather of this one, particularly with OUTGUN which I thought of straight away but felt nervous about. No problem with TONY though :-).

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