Times 25483 – Due pittori

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 59:57 – Just squeaked in under the hour.

I felt fairly sluggish while doing this one, and I had to stare at the last three (18/22/25) for ages before the pennies started to drop. There were a few words I didn’t know – CREWEL, MALISON & PINETA, but only the latter of these really held me up at all.

I think 25a gets my COD for the good surface reading and clever wordplay.

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

Across
1 THROW OFF = H (limited height) + ROW (terrace) all in TOFF (rich guy)
5 F(IN)ISH
8 ALP = PAL with the P moved to the end.
9 CARAVAn + G(GI)O
10 TRAVERSE = RAVERS in TerracE
11 IN TURN = “INTERN”
12 ELLA – hidden – My Dad’s always been the hugest Ella Fitzgerald fan, so I’m very familiar with her work.
14 HOUSEMATES – becomes MOUSE + HATES when ‘Spoonered’
17 SACRAMENTO = AMEN in (ACTORS)* – The state capital of California
20 E(DD)A – When I came across this in a previous puzzle, it was a word I didn’t know. This time I remembered it!
23 CREW + tELl – I didn’t know this word.
24 SQUI(R)RE + L
25 CHEESECAKE = ACES rev in CHEEK + tastE
26 AGEnts
27 FEE + DON
28 RED ACTOR
Down
1 TRAITRESS = (STARERS)* about IF
2 RAPHAEL – A painter and an archangel (and a teenage mutant ninja turtle)
3 WICKEt + R
4 FIR(E)ST + ONE
5 F(RAG)ILE
6 NEGOTIATE = (GET INTO sAlE)* – From the SALE you remove the S (first off) and the L (save pounds)
7 S(CO)URGE – This word also turned up in the Jumbo I’ll be blogging tomorrow, albeit clued in quite a different way.
13 ARROWHEAD – a toxophilite being an archery enthusiast
15 SET + SQUARE
16 SMALL BEER = SEER about MB about ALL
18 AURIC + LovE
19 MA + LI(S)ON – I didn’t know the word, but it was easy to work out.
21 DORMANT = DO + ANT about RM
22 PINETA = NET in PI + A

20 comments on “Times 25483 – Due pittori”

  1. Didn’t get off to a good start, with THROW OUT at 1ac. TOUT? Mind must have been elsewhere. So moved on to the bottom half which was only a bit easier. Last in: FIRE STONE of which I knew nought.
  2. 41 minutes for a solid if slightly uninspired offering by the high standards of recent puzzles. I thought the Spoonerism in particular was rather contrived. Last in the unknown PINETA. My other unknowns were the crossing CREWEL and AURICLE (the SW is therefore likely to give a few problems), though the latter was not difficult given the golden Latin stem.

    CARAVAGGIO straight in with a couple of checkers as I rewatched The English Patient last night (not sure why – it was no better the second time round) and a fellow by that name is one of the main characters.

  3. 35 minutes for all but two and then an age to work them out. The problems were 6dn where I couldn’t see my way past ‘nightmare’ and 22dn where the wordplay led me to ‘piseta’ which made no sense. I was particularly annoyed about this last one as I have a close friend living in New York who often mentions the Pinetum in Central Park where she frequently goes to relax, so I should have thought of it sooner.

    Like Dave, EDDA is one that had caught me out before but came easily to mind on this occasion, and CREWEL was unknown. MALISON would have been another unknown but it cropped up within the past month, if not here, then in the Telegraph puzzle. AURIC reminded me of ‘Goldfinger’ who had it for a first name.

    Edited at 2013-05-24 01:41 am (UTC)

  4. The mouse for my new Mac seems to have the ability to delete an entire screen’s worth of stuff if you touch it just the wrong way; not a particularly useful function, which has forced me to retype virtually an entire puzzle on the club site, and which just lost my message here. Anyway, like Ulaca my LOI was PINETA, which took the final 5+ minutes of my time. MALISON we had fairly recently; it’s odd that ‘son’ is in both the clue and the solution. EDDA I knew, but it’s also another NY Times chestnut. Nothing particularly remarkable about today’s puzzle; but I’m glad I broke my 3-day 1-error streak.
  5. Hidden? I suppose it was, but without reading the clue carefully I thought it was some sort of convoluted play on the Austen novel EMMA…could be a devious clue in that.
  6. 21.50 with nothing to comment on in particular. Fitzgerald’s novel a neat distraction. One can hardly open a paper without stumbling upon a puff for the new film. Good to be reminded of the expression for everything that doesn’t matter.
  7. A 20 minute stroll in the park to end the week with another artisan puzzle. I liked the misdirection of “Fitzgerald novel” but “to some extent” is a big give away. Thought 13D hardly a cryptic clue and 14A a bit contrived but enjoyed the rest.
  8. 17m. I thought this was a very good puzzle.
    I didn’t know CREWEL or what a toxophilite loves (poison seemed unlikely). I did vaguely remember FIRESTONE and PINETA from somewhere: previous puzzles presumably.
    I was worried about AURICLE, because I don’t know it, or “auric”. Both looked plausible though.
  9. Not a great end to the week grinding to halt at PINETA – couldn’t break away from AI for very good, and when I found it was PI I was none too happy. PI has a distinctly pejorative sense in my book, not something, even if I was very good, I’d want to be called. Ah well.
    The rest of it decent enough stuff. Thanks to DP for unwinding NEGOTIATE, a spaghetti of a clue. No stand out clue today.

    Edited at 2013-05-24 09:41 am (UTC)

  10. A straightforward puzzle until running aground on PINETA, having not heard of it and with the wordplay having too many combinations of AI/PI, NET/GET/SET, etc to have much chance of a correct guess. I actually discarded PINETA on the grounds that surely the answer couldn’t possibly have a tree actually in the name …
  11. 11:46 and enjoyable, without quite reaching the heights of the last couple of days. Like lots of other people, I ended up staring at _I_E_A, and taking quite a while to be convinced it wasn’t AI at the start. In fact, if we hadn’t had quite a lot of PI talk recently, I might never have done so at all…
  12. 23:52 .. a bit held up by some of the vocab. Remarkable restraint by the setter in not clueing CREWEL as a homophone (I woulda).

    Anyone else watching the Jason/Magoo battle at the top of the leader board with interest and awe? It’s like Federer/Nadal, circa 2007 (minus the prize money and endorsements, I imagine).

    1. Incredible, isn’t it? As with all great duels, it appears to be making them both even faster, which I would have previously thought close to impossible. Thus leaving the rest of us even further behind…
  13. 7 enjoyable minutes – I know of a pinetum so didn’t have trouble with PINETA.
  14. 15 minutes and relieved to find that PINETA is a thing. Ditto ARROWHEAD which went in with a shrug. CREWEL from wordplay and CHEESECAKE without getting wordplay. Scramble of a week!
  15. 15:31 with, surprise, surprise, a delay at the end with pineta. Like others I considered AI?E?A and also VI?EGA but the key to unlocking it was wondering why the setter had chosen “very good” instead of excellent or similar.

    I only figured out the tricky wordplay for cheesecake and negotiate post-solve.

  16. 21 mins post-lunch. I agree with Jimbo that 13dn is barely cryptic. I almost went for Pigeta at 22dn but remembered at the last minute that net can mean land as well as get so I was able to enter the correct PINETA. It wouldn’t have been the first time I had made that error when I wasn’t sure of the answer. I took way too long to see CARAVAGGIO because I was trying to work out an alternative spelling of caravanserai that fitted the wordplay (don’t ask), only then did SCOURGE and NEGOTIATE fall into place, and I didn’t see the anagram for the latter until I had written in the answer.
  17. About 30 minutes, LOI being FEED ON. I didn’t have any real trouble with PINETA or CREWEL, but I had no idea what a toxophilite might be. I needed all the checkers (I knew 27 had to end in ‘DON’) to hazard a guess that I had to look up afterwards. Regards.
  18. Knew my archery, guessed MALISON but stumped by PINETA, 25 minutes that apart.

Comments are closed.