Times 25485 – A tough way to travel

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: About two hours

Music: None available

I suspected that maybe it was not a good idea to attempt a Bank Holiday puzzle from Connecticut. A blogger can always cheat if necessary, just to get the puzzle done, but not when your reference books are 120 miles away. I had to do this all out of my own head, so please don’t bring up 8 down.

Unfortunately, there is one answer that is not quite complete. It looks like 12 down should be “shank’s pony” but the first word is seven letters. Since that answer fits both the cryptic and the literal quite well, I suspect I am very warm and an early poster will set me straight. I was, in any case, quite proud to have gotten this far without book. It was an excellent puzzle where the clues were completely fair, and I was kicking myself after struggling for hours and then seeing the obvious. But that’s why we enjoy solving, right?

Somehow, I don’t think we’ll be omitting any tonight. And away we go….

Across
1 BULLDOZED, BULL + DOZED, where presumably The Bull is the sign of a pub.
6 PIZZA, PI[a]ZZA.
9 FAT CAMP, a cryptic definition, I think, although you can never be sure with a puzzle like this.
10 SETTLER, SETT(L)ER. I don’t see why ‘L’ is ‘letter on plate’, but surely someone does. At least the answer is clear enough. Once again, I had forgotten the learner plate with the ‘L’ on it. That one often gets me.
11 LOSER, sounds like LOOS ARE. A very clever homonym clue; I played around with ‘loo’ for a long time before I finally saw it.
13 YORKSHIRE, Y(OR)KS + HIRE, i.e. ‘sky’ backwards. A brilliant clue, where I got the answer long before I figured out the cryptic.
14 STARBOARD, STAR + BOARD. A starter clue, otherwise I would never have gotten started.
16 ENID, hidden backwards in [mai]D INE[vitably]. I spent several minutes looking for a backwards hidden without seeing it.
18 JOKE, J(OK)E, where ‘Napoleon I’ means ‘je’. You would think he would have referred to himself as ‘nous’ if he wanted to be truly regal. Just to clarify, the ‘je’ comes from “…for Napoleon, ‘I'”. As for the literal, in slang the noun ‘a funny’ means a joke.
19 ARTHURIAN, AR(THUR I)AN, where an ‘Aran’ is presumably a sort of woolly sweater.
22 EASTER EGG E(ASTER EG)G. It took me a long time to parse this, but if you ogle that ‘as’ = ‘e.g.’, then you can see how one ‘e.g.’ is wrapped inside another.
24 CLEAN, C + LEAN, where ‘blue’ should be taken in the sense of a night-club act unsuitable for children.
25 EMOTIVE, [clearanc]E + MOTIVE. The literal is tricky, but ‘able to get going’ is a fair definition of one meaning of ’emotive’.
26 OLD BILL, double definition. Presumably, the phrase ‘old Bill’ refers to the police force collectively, so it can be defined by the plural ‘coppers’.
28 STYLI, STY + L + I. As vinyl1, I would usually use ‘stylus’ to refer to the polished diamond tip glued to the end of a boron cantilever, but the word at least came readily to mind.
29 TEMPTRESS, TEMP + TRESS, the only clue that is even close to a chestnut.
 
Down
1 BEFALLS, B(EF)ALLS, the chemical symbol for iron, FE, upside down. I thought ‘spheres’ might be invoking a more abstract meaning, but in the end it was just a globule.
2 LOT, double definition, first one in, and a very lonely answer for a while.
3 DIATRIBE, anagram of A BIT DIRE.
4 ZIPPY, Z + [h]IPPY. This is a great clue, so simple yet with so many possibilities. If I hadn’t got the ‘z’ from 1 across, I never would have seen it.
5 DISCREDIT, anagram of ETC, SIR DID. I thought for a long time that ‘teased’ was the literal, and the answer would end in ‘ed’. But instead, it is ‘explode’ in its metaphorical sense of render intellectually obsolete.
6 POTASH, POT + ASH. Both ‘pot’ and ‘bag’ are verbs, meaning to manage to shoot a game bird or animal.
7 ZILLIONAIRE, Z(anagram of IN L OIL)AIRE. A brilliant and diabolical clue. I had only vaguely realized that Zaire is now called something else.
8 AIRHEAD, A(IR)HEAD, where IR = ‘Inland Revenue’. I suppose they call themselves something else nowadays, which fools nobody.
12 SHANK’S PONY, S(H)ANK + S + PONY. There’s only one problem – it doesn’t fit the space. The mysterious 6th letter will have to be supplied by our chorus of experts. I did consider the monstrous possibility that the apostrophe might be allocated its own square, but that would be really unprecedented. So, it’s audience participation time! The correct answer turns out to be SHANKS’S PONY, which I had actually considered but which does not make sense without punctuation. So it’s S(H)ANK + SS + PONY.
15 ABASEMENT, anagram of BEES, A N MAT. Again, the literal and the surface are brilliant.
17 MUSCADET, M + US CADET. The top clue in the puzzle, I think, with a totally misleading surface and well-concealed literal.
18 JEEPERS, JEE(PE)RS. I saw early on that ‘gym’ must = ‘PE’, but I had it in the wrong place, using the ‘e’ of ‘Easter egg’.
20 NONPLUS, SU(PL)N + ON, all upside down. Fortunately, the cricket part of the clue was not too esoteric.
21 GEMINI, IN + I + MEG upside down. The use of ‘house’ for an astological sign will keep many guessing. Many solvers seem to have had difficulty with this. I just wrote it in blindly from the cryptic, and then realized ‘Gemini’ is a word, and the intended answer
23 GROOM, double definition, where ‘coach’ is a verb.
27 ICE, [r]ICE, a well-designed &lit. Some solvers fancy the ‘top’ = ‘kill’ = ‘ice’ interpretation, but for me the meaning of ‘apply sugary topping’ is sufficient

36 comments on “Times 25485 – A tough way to travel”

  2. Owner of said pony was Shanks — hence “Shanks’s”. And that fits the cryptic. Shetland for the pony and H (heroin) in SANK (scuttled) vessel (SS).

    And 1ac: the Bull is the sign of Taurus.
    10ac: “letter on plate” = L-plate (as displayed by learner drivers).

    Edited at 2013-05-27 03:23 am (UTC)

    1. For me, it doesn’t work; it has to be shanks’ pony, or shank’s pony.
      I pronounce shanks’ and shank’s as shanks.
      Shanks’s is a valid spelling, but you must pronounce both Ss separately, so it’s pronounced shankses.
      For me the phrase is pronounced with only the single S, so shanks’ or shank’s, but not shanks’s.
      Does that make sense?
      Rob
  3. I found this a bit of a struggle to finish, especially the NE corner.

    Thanks to vinyl for explaining “eg + eg” in 22 which I didn’t get. I thought “inevitably’s” in 16 was so odd it had to be a misprint, but I suppose it’s “is” for the surface reading and possessive for the wordplay. It seems a bit clumsy though.

    “House” not a problem for aged hippies who remember Hair “When the moon is is the seventh house…”

    Edited at 2013-05-27 04:06 am (UTC)

  4. Didn’t know it was a hol puzzle, but yeh it was quite hard. Many enjoyable moments, but especially working out YORKSHIRE and trying not to believe YARDstick.

    Though not terribly convinced by “magnate” as the def in 7dn.

    And … here’s a pic every cruciverbalist should have on their walls.

    Edited at 2013-05-27 04:43 am (UTC)

  5. Coming the day after Anax’s latest effort in the ST, this was not what I needed to restore my confidence and I came very near to abandoning my solve with only a handful of answers in place after 30 minutes and returning to it another time. However I suddenly hit a purple patch and solved most of the rest quite steadily before hitting a wall with 4dn, 9ac, 12dn,the 18s and 25 still outstanding. In the end I completed in 75 minutes having looked up the second word in 9ac which gave me the much needed final checker at 4dn.

    I never heard of FAT CAMP and 4dn was never going to come to me from Z???Y whilst I was thinking of ‘smart’ in terms of cleverness or tidiness instead of speed as in ‘look smart’.

    I had also been reluctant to put in ICE at 27dn until I had both checkers as I had forgotten, yet again, that ICE can mean ‘kill’ in the US.

    Edited at 2013-05-27 04:47 am (UTC)

    1. I like your reading of the clue. I got there another way. “Top off” = ICE as in to ice a cake. Wonder which was meant??
        1. I had it as pure &lit:
          Top off a sort of pudding = ICE, as in ICE a cake, which may be pudding.
          and ICE = top off (rICE), rice being a sort of pudding.
          Rob
  6. A long time and a win by KO to the setter. I needed to go to aids in the NE (the two I missed – POTASH and AIRHEAD – are both very good), as well as getting two wrong down below – ‘joky’ and ‘medici’. I still don’t see how 18ac works – why ‘for Napoleon I’? And how does funny = joke? A joke, yes…

    Another who had ‘top off’ = ICE. Thanks to vinyl1 for the parsing of EMOTIVE and mct for the L-plate. (Always gets me, that one does.)

    1. I’ve puzzled over this too, but not succeeded to my satisfaction. Funny = joke either as an adjective or a noun. JE is “for Napoleon, I”. Presumably “it” has to refer to the preceding O(ld) K(ing), but then “having” has no subject.

      Edited at 2013-05-27 07:37 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks, Derek – I had forgotten about a joke as a funny, and the addition of punctuation makes the ‘je’ clear. Actually, I think the clue is fine; the cryptic grammar (despite ‘lacking’ a subject for having and having the dispreferred, if not incorrect, punctuation) conforms to its own rules, and the surface grammar is of course beyond reproach.
  7. Bits of this put up quite a fight – joke = funny? being one I pondered on for quite a while. Lots to smile at too including the ZIPPY hippy. Are there many zillionaires? All sorted in 19 minutes so now out to enjoy the rare bank holiday sun while it lasts.
  8. 29 minutes, with JOKY preferred without any significant justification for the real answer. Just couldn’t latch on to “joke” as an adjective, and bemused by the nasty little trick of 1 and I, which you can get away with in Roman.
    Couldn’t remember the important half of the March girls, but remembered just in time that houses can be Zodiacal.
    I wonder if authentic hippies are still hairy? My betting was on some variation of Esau as the iconic hirsute chappie, but it was not to be.
    Just an impression, but a lot of the crossing letters today (Z and J notwithstanding) seemed to be very unhelpful, especially in the bottom half – all vowels and commonplaces.
    CoD to MUSCADET. Neat juxtaposition of white and male, and US cadet was the nearest thing to amusing in this puzzle.
    1. “Joke” is of course a noun, as is “funny”.
      I tried to reply to your comment below, but it’s been “frozen”. Odd. Anyway, I read the clue the same way, and I think it’s fine. “[OK], having it in [JE]” is a perhaps a little bit clumsy but it works as a construction. The same as “[OK], when it’s put in [JE]”.

      Edited at 2013-05-27 09:11 pm (UTC)

      1. I had in mind joke as in joke flower – the kind that squirts water in your face, which of course may or may not be regarded as funny but is (quasi?) adjectival. I acknowledge the noun form of funny, especially (in the States and plural) relating to the cartoon section of the paper.
  9. The answer is actually shanksspony. Odd without the apostrophe but, nevertheless right!
  10. Painful. Hadn’t heard of SHANKS’S PONY though I’m now looking forward to dropping it into an appropriate conversation.
  11. Very difficult puzzle but great fun. At 19A you’re assumption is correct Vinyl, an ARAN is a type of sweater from the isle of Aran. Very well solved and blogged. I would have wanted to look up the pony if I was blogging it!

    The only clue I can’t really reconcile is 18A. JE is surely Napoleonic I or Napoleon’s I? And “it in for” makes no sense. My last in.

    Other than that thank you setter for a great puzzle

    1. I think there has to be a separation between the in and the for. “For Napoleon, I” gives Je (as noted), O(ld) (K)ing, “having it (OK) in” gives the insertion. Didn’t like it, didn’t even get it, and trying to explain it looks as tortuous as the clue seems to be.
  12. I started the puzzle as the clock struck nine and it chimed ten about five minutes after I finished; it was a real brainteaser and well worth the effort.

    While this was no stroll in the park, older solvers might remember Flanagan & Allen’s “Strolling” at 12:

    Strolling, just strolling,
    In the cool of the evening air,
    I don’t envy the rich in their automobiles,
    For a motorcar is phoney.
    I’d rather have SHANKS’S PONY

    1. Thanks for the memory. I used to play that down the pub on a Saturday night.
  13. 40 mins but I’d have failed in competition conditions because I had to resort to aids to get GEMINI, having totally forgotten the House/Zodiac connection. I was fixated on Medici but obviously couldn’t see how it would work. Once I saw it I could have kicked myself.

    I spent by far the longest time trying to unlock the NE. There was some very clever setting in this one, and I should have realised I was in for a toughie when there wasn’t a Bank Holiday Jumbo.

  15. 29:10 .. really not my cup of tea, this one, but each to their own. I was quite surprised when it came back “oll korrect” as I had given up trying to unscramble the wordplay of several.

    Putting PIZZA so close to a FAT CAMP just seems cruel.

  16. Thoroughly confused by 7d. An African country that is not Mali? Had forgotten there was one (!). Entered Reside/Style for Gemini/Styli, but had a strong feeling when putting them in that all was not quite right.
  17. 16 minutes looks like I may have twigged to the setters wavelength for once. Needed the wordplay for SHANK’S PONY (for a while I had SHELVES in there) didn’t see the wordplay for ZILLIONAIRE or ARTHURIAN
  18. I apologise for digressing from the crossword but I find these little things interesting.

    “Shanks” in Shanks’s Pony of course refers to (one’s own) legs. In the Lao language the word for foot/feet is “tin”, and the Lao have an expression for walking which translates as “going by Austin car” in which “(Aus)tin” refers to the feet and I suppose the car is the modern equivalent of the pony.

    It’s funny how similar ideas arise independently.

  19. I suspect with this crossword, the longer you’ve been doing them, the easier you will have found it.. lots of cunning clues that are all totally correct.
    Though I did struggle rather with 7dn, for the forgivable reason that I didn’t realise it is now a type of Congo. Africa!
  20. I gave up after 43 minutes with 18a/18d still blank. I had thought of JOKE for 18a but couldn’t justify it. Of course, once the initial J was there 18d was simple. Many thanks for the blog – I’m glad Vinyl persevered so I didn’t have to.
  21. 35m. I enjoyed this a lot, but it required real concentration. Like others my last in was JOKE. I came very close to bunging in JOKY but fortunately persevered, remembered that “funny” can be a noun, and saw the wordplay.
    Nice to see NONPLUS in its correct sense. More often than not “nonplussed” is used to mean “not bothered” these days. Including by the leader of the free world.

    Edited at 2013-05-27 04:01 pm (UTC)

  22. Just for the sake of completion – did anyone notice that 6ac could give PL(AN)ATE?

Comments are closed.