Times 25481: Once a Jolly Drifter … Always a Jolly Drifter

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 22:23

I was fearing a stinker after a couple of easy days. And a brief look at the clues seemed to confirm my suspicion. But once started (with the simple 9ac), all went well, ending in the SW. The slight antipodean theme helped.

Across

1 BESPOKE. Two meanings. ‘Indicated’ as in ‘The Bentley in the driveway bespoke money’.
5 BOSCH. Sounds like ‘bosh’.
9 AMIGO. A, MIG (fighter plane), O{ld}.
10 TASMAN SEA. Anagram #1: as Smetana. Separates the rest of New Zealand from its West Island.
11 LETHEAN. Le, The, An. (Articles in Englench.) Got this hot on the heels of a discussion of the Greek word a-letheia (roughly ‘truth’) which some take to be connected to un-forgetting. Forgetting via Lethe: the river of Hades which, when its waters are drunk, causes souls to forget their earthly existence.
12 NANNIED. Annie is our little orphan. Inside {lo}ND{on}.
13 PHLEGMATIC. Anagram #2: place might.
15 SEES. A palindrome.
18 NOSE. Enough said? (Though POSY was my first guess.)
20 SCALE MODEL. Anagram #3: some called. Chuckled at the def for this one.
23 B,LADDER.
24 SIGNORE. Move the S from IGNORES (passes over) to the front.
25 CAMEL HAIR. Anagram #4: like a charm; minus the K.
26 LEASE. Included in the clue. (Must be Newcastle NSW?)
27 SYNOD. S (second), Y (year) + DON reversed.
28 NIGERIA. NIGER + I{r}A{q}.

Down
1 BRISTOL. BRIL{l} (fish) inc S{ailor} and TO.
2 STONE-AGE. ONE (cardinal number) inside STAGE (step).
3 OFTEN. Delete the S from SOFTEN (moderate, verb).
4 ESSENTIAL. Two meanings.
5 BRAWNY. BRAW (Scots for ‘fine’) + NY (a city).
6 SISTINE. SISTE{r} inc IN (home). Of the popes called Sixtus.
7 HOAR,D.
8 TAILSPIN. TAILS (dogs, verb), P (from P{ell-mell}) + IN.
14 ASCERTAIN. A, S, CERTAIN (firm).
16 SOLDERER. L inside reversal of REREDOS (screen).
17 SMUGG(L)ER.
19 SWAGMEN. Reverse NEWS, insert AGM (meeting).
21 DIORAMA. DIOR (Christian from 19ac in 25476), then M (mass) inside AA (areas).
22 ADD,LED. (Light-emitting diode).
23 BACKS. Sounds like ‘Bax’ (Arnold).
24 SPRIG. =‘Shoot’; delete the N from ‘spriNg’ (well).

25 comments on “Times 25481: Once a Jolly Drifter … Always a Jolly Drifter”

  1. 40 minutes, but with ‘gets’ for SEES after 5 minutes of heavy brain work. Nice puzzle – my COD to BOSCH, with a nod to SCALE MODEL and SOLDERER.
  2. 44 minutes. A steady-ish and mostly tidy solve working in order around the grid but I had blank spots for a while re BESPOKE, OFTEN and particularly SWAGMEN, my LOI. However I was very pleased to remember the spirit of forgetfulness at 11ac as this has come up before and caught me out more than once.

    It’s not often we get two straight sound-alike answers, one composer and one painter. I had BOSCH in mind having recently watched the superb BBC4 documentary series “The High Art of the Low Countries”.

    Edited at 2013-05-22 05:16 am (UTC)

  3. All but 16 minutes, with SEES left to last as I wasn’t sure it was that simple. “Christian” for DIOR isn’t going to be a stumbling block much longer.
    As, no doubt,the setter intended, wasted time trying to remember who the Two Gentlemen were. Nice clue, but yields CoD status to SCALE MODEL for the PR definition.
  4. yet again an error, the sort of thing I do when I’m doing this online: ‘sets’ at 15ac. (Somehow ‘stet’ came to mind [put back?], and I didn’t know the relevant meaning of ‘clock’.) I read 23d wrong, so while I knew of Bax, I was wondering needlessly if there was also a Backs. No harm there, at least. Liked SCALE MODEL.
  5. 26 minutes, last in bespoke. For 16 I rejected reredos as impossible and came back to it later somewhat surprised. I find Christian worship as in 21 a tad wearisome.
    1. Attempts to be contemporary often backfire. Commenting on George Herbert’s poems in the shape of altars and crosses of which he was no fan, CS Lewis wrote, ‘A man is likely to become “dated” in this way precisely because he is anxious not to be dated, to be “contemporary”: for to move with the times is, of course, to go where all times go.’
      1. I like ‘to go where all times go’. Very CSL. Personally I forgive Herbert the slight indulgence of his poem-shapes in the context of a beautifully expressive offering as in ‘The Temple’ overall.
        1. Lewis, who rated Herbert highly and credited him with helping him return to the faith, used the first five lines of ‘The collar’ (from The Temple) as his epigraph to chapter 4 of his spiritual autobiography Surprised by Joy. The lines were not reproduced in their original ‘hieroglyphic form’, although that was likely to have been a decision taken by the publisher, given that the entire poem could not be reproduced, and only that can give the full effect of the device.

          ‘I struck the board, and cry’d, No more.
          I will abroad.
          What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
          My lines and life are free; free as the rode,
          Loose as the winde, as large as store.’

          Edited at 2013-05-22 10:03 am (UTC)

          1. And what a stunning piece of work this is too – it’s long been a personal favourite since stumbling across it as an undergrad working on the equally (but differently) impressive John Donne.
  6. I found this easier than yesterday and progressed steadily through from top to bottom. The anagrams were very helpful. As for yesterday nothing really stood out, it’s a thoroughly workman like middle of the road puzzle.
  7. 16m.
    There were a few things in here that I half knew – LETHEAN, SISTINE, REREDOS, BAX, the nationality of Hieronymus BOSCH – where I think the absence of that half-knowledge would have slowed me down a lot. Of course this half-knowledge all comes from doing crosswords.
    Not for the first time, my knowledge of Waltzing Matilda was helpful. No half-measures there.
  8. 11:45 makes me think I was bang on the wavelength today. As with others, all the required knowledge was already in there somewhere, whether learned in real life or crosswords, so it was a question of sorting out some entertaining wordplay. Nice puzzle.
  9. Not my best solving day. Five missing (Tailspin, Lethean, Sees, Solderer, Signore) and a wrong Posy for Nose at 18ac. Much to enjoy in the rest. Scale Model was excellent. Thanks to mctext for explaining the ones that stumped me.
  10. Easier than yesterday but still with that pause in the middle where you think you aren’t going to get the rest sorted before the end of lunch time. Luckily for me I did, in a time of 13 minutes.
    1. I found this much harder than yesterday – DNF without the blog (thanks!)
      1. No port but a hot curry and a glass of wine – feed a cold etc.
        The jury is still out – I will send you a text message
  11. 21 mins. I felt that I made heavy weather of this, although that could have been because it was a slightly sleepy post-lunch solve for the second day running, and this time I wasn’t entirely on the setter’s wavelength even though some of the answers were write-ins.

    Some of the answers took me far longer than they should have done. I did the same as joekobi at 16dn when I thought of reredos immediately but discounted it and I didn’t go back to the clue until much later. I also thought of SWAGMEN straight away at 19dn from the definition but thought the information referred to in the clue was ‘gen’ so I didn’t enter the answer until I saw the obvious much later. PHLEGMATIC took me too long to unpick and I didn’t see it until I had the P checker from TAILSPIN, and only then did BRISTOL, BESPOKE and ESSENTIAL fall into place.

    I thought the clue for SCALE MODEL was very good.

    Finally, as jackkt said, “The High Art of the Low Countries” was indeed a superb documentary series.

  12. 37.15 today so easier than yesterday and a very enjoyable challenge. Took 6 minutes to get my first – LEASE – and had a 7minute blank spot in media res but generally a steady solve. Add me to the COD for 20a band, though I also enjoyed 13a as the anagrist seemed most unlikely and the neat construction of 23a. Thanks to setter and blogger today.
  13. Oh great – two in a row and it is my turn tomorrow. Considered SEES but didn’t think that was the best answer and put in BENS thinking there’s a big one that is a clock and maybe SNEB means invariably. Pass the dunce cap
  14. 21:22 but I got in a lather over 11 and picked le wrong article francais.

    Agree that the definition for scale model is brilliant.

  15. I liked mctext’s reference to N.Z.’s West Island. Very funny, bro! SEES caused me about 8 mins of brow-furrowing until I realised it had to be that. Much amused at SCALE MODEL and SIGNORE. Like jackkt, I thoroughly enjoyed “The High Art of the Low Countries” but I think there is a tendency these days to see too much of the presenter. Incidentally, there is another good series on 20th century art on BBC4 at the moment. It’s on Saturday night, called “British Masters” and presented by Dr James Fox.
  16. no record today, 25 minutes with the SW corner undone then had to go out for 5 hours, a proper lunch, then sorted the rest in 5 minutes once the tea was to hand. Cod SCALE MODEL.
  17. I didn’t see SEES, and tried sETS, based on ‘stet’ backwards, which, as you all can see, is wrong anyhow. I didn’t know that meaning of ‘clocks’. Otherwise about 30 minutes, with holdups over LETHEAN, TAILSPIN and the NW in general. Thanks for the blog, and regards.
  18. Both Kevins put in ‘sets’ thinking of ‘stet’. Coincidence? Well, yes, probably.

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