Times 25517: ‘I never a-touch dem’

Author   mctextPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 32:37

Got through three-quarters of this quite quickly, then ground to a complete halt in the NE corner (aka the Beta Quadrant). Had to guess a few answers then (FIREWOOD in particular) and put them on hold for a post-solve parsing. Finally, I thought 19ac had me done for. In fact, I’m still not sure it’s right.

Across

1 SPLASH. LPs (reversed) + ASH.
5 PIFFLING. PI (Greek character*), F (female), FLING (cast). Hope I’m not the only one who thought of turning to their Euripides in desperation.
* On edit: Jack suggests {euri}PI{des} as a much better possibility here.
9 DOG HANDLER. ROD (staff) reversed, including G (good) + HANDLE (name). One of several sly literals.
10 GAMY. GAM (school of whales etc.), Y (year). (And here I spare you the relevant lines of dialogue from Yellow Submarine).
11 THANK-YOU. HANKY (one that’s blown in) inside TOU{r}.
12 WESSEX. SEW reversed + SEX (knowledge, in the Biblical sense).
13 ARIA. Starting letters of April Running Into August. Ref to ‘Summertime’ from Porgy and Bess.
15 SNOWDROP. Move the S (singular) in NOW DROPS (experiences current reduction).
18 OFFSHOOT. O from {br}O{ke}, FF (very loud), SHOOT (snap, as in photography).
19 AWED. If not ‘a single’, then A WED? The literal is ‘mouth open’ … I think.
21 NEWARK. NEW (not used) + {p}ARK. Held up here because a glitch in the printer made the ‘not’ look like ‘riot’.
23 RUSTLE UP. RUSTLE (take stock) + UP (before the beak).
25 THRU. THRU{st}. Informal for ‘through’ (by way of).
26 HIT THE SACK. HIT (triumph) + THE SACK. I assume ‘being dismissed’ stands for ‘getting THE SACK’; or we shall have complaints about parts of speech.
27 BRAKE PAD. Anagram of ‘a kerb + P’; AD (trailer).
28 WANDER. WAN (weak) + DER{v}.

Down

2 POOCH. Included reversed in ‘coacH CO-OPts’.
3 ATHENIANS. Anagram: inn has tea.
4 HENRY V. V{arsit}Y, R{reru}N, E{ac}H, all reversed.
5 POLYUNSATURATED. Anagram: adult you parents.
6 FIREWOOD. IRE (heat), W (wife); all inside FOOD (board). The def is given as a semi-&lit.
7 LAGOS. LAG (prisoner), OS (outsize).
8 NUMBER ONE. NUMB; ERE (before) including ON (leg, cricket). The def is ‘old-fashioned arch’ — main, chief, principal. I’ll say it again: there are far too many meanings of the word ‘arch’; and they always fool me.
14 REFRESHER. RE (comes after DO in sol-fa), FRESHER (student). The literal is ‘course’.
16 DEADLY SIN. Anagram: send lady 1. The indicator is the always-wonderful ‘pants’.
17 BOOKS,HOP. Where works are stored.
20 ESCHEW. ESC (top left on the keyboard), HEW (cut).
22 AMUCK. {I} AM ’UCK (Finn).
24 UNCLE{an}. Slang word for a pawnbroker.

47 comments on “Times 25517: ‘I never a-touch dem’”

  1. 18:59 (COK)

    Brilliant puzzle. Again. Love all the misdirection and crafty definitions. COD WESSEX.

    I have a fond memory of Newark airport from my first transit through there. I popped outside for a smoke and heard sirens and what sounded awfully like gunfire. I asked a chap next to me what was happening and he shrugged and said “Cops are shooting it out with some dopes in the parking lot. Morons.” Nobody else was taking much notice at all. Jersey, huh? Watcha gonna do?

    (Cat On Keyboard)

    1. When asked if he believed in God, Woody Allen said he believed in a supreme being that created the entire universe … with the exception of certain parts of New Jersey. Now I know roughly what he meant.
  2. DNF. Had no idea about AWED. It could have been any of about 40 words none of which seemed to have much to do with the clue. Otherwise a fantastic puzzle, about an hour for everything else.
    1. The good and great Crossword Assistant allows all of these:

      ABED ABEL ABET ACED ACER ACES ADEN AGED AGEE AGEN AGER AGES AHEM AJEE AKED AKEE AKES ALEC ALEE ALEF ALES ALEW ALEX AMEN AMER AMES AMEX ANES ANEW APED APER APES APEX AREA ARED AREG ARES ARET AREW ASEA ATEN ATES AVEC AVER AVES AWED AWES AXED AXEL AXES AYER AYES

      I make that 52 (a very good year) and I’m accordingly peeved to have been overlooked.

      Edited at 2013-07-03 06:11 am (UTC)

  3. Couldn’t get AWED, couldn’t parse SNOWDROP, put ‘workshop’ instead of BOOKSHOP, took an absolute age.

    (Done like an absolute kipper)

    Edited at 2013-07-03 03:43 am (UTC)

    1. In the interests of full disclosure, I should add that I got GAMY wrong too – ‘game’ this time…
  4. Excellent puzzle. At 20 mins, with only a smattering of squares filled in, I thought I was doomed to a DNF. However, the light slowly dawned, and eventually stopped the clock just under the hour. Re 5ac, many minutes wasted checking Euripides casts lists (isn’t that what Wikipedia was invented for?), just to prove that I was barking up the wrong tree. Given the checkers in place at the time, ‘Polyxena’ would have fitted but luckily didn’t parse.
  5. I think the wordplay is specifically “character from EuriPIdes” rather than generally a Greek character that happens to be PI.

    Edited at 2013-07-03 05:17 am (UTC)

    1. That’s a great idea Jack! Wish I’d seen it. But all Australian minds are now on their tax returns and that tends to blur the subleties somewhat.
  6. Knew I’d forgotten something. Should have signed at the bottom. Oops.

    Andrew R

  7. I was surprised to find that 48 minutes had passed when I was left with one answer outstanding, as I had never felt even remotely stuck up to that point. But without doubt I was well and truly stuck then with the two unchecked letters of 19ac missing and stayed that way for something like another 15 minutes. I even went as far as looking up my most likely option ANEP (AN,EP = not a single, geddit?) thinking it might be an obscure word similar to “agape” in meaning, but alas, it doesn’t exist. After further extensive attempts at cheating I suddenly thought of AWED and experience a massive “D’oh” moment.

    An excellent puzzle but I still don’t understand why ATHENIANS are “foreign guests” or exactly how 28 works. I see “weak” = WAN, “fuel very deficient” = DER(v) and “travel” = WANDER, but what is “endless” doing?

    1. I did think to question this one. But I think it’s just possible to read “endless travel” as a noun = (a) WANDER. Sort of? Perhaps?
      1. Thanks, and you may be right. No doubt we’ll see if anyone comes up with anything else.

        Forgot to say I’m sure I would have been much slower to understand 14ac but for last Friday’s puzzle (which I blogged) having a clue that relied on thinking tonic sol-fa backwards.

          1. Indeed, but alas it must remain 14ac for ever now!

            I’ve now found this in SOED which I think covers “endless travel”:

            Go about from place to place without any fixed course, purpose, or destination.

            Edited at 2013-07-03 08:09 am (UTC)

  8. c50 mins for me. DNF since I was overawed by 19ac and still think it’s a bit contrived. POLYUNSATURATED immediately sprang to mind as for some reason I remembered it appeared in this crossword a few years ago. I also didn’t get the ‘guests’ element of 3d, but the anagram was pretty obvious. I was amused with the wild west meaning of ‘taking stock’ in 23ac and generally thought this was a great crossword.
  9. Tough going and slightly surprised to come here and find that everything is correct (assuming AWED is right) for more or less the right reasons. But detailed grasp of parsing sometimes lacking (e.g. explanation of RE in REFRESHER); so many thanks mctext for a fine blog.
  10. 20 minutes for everything except 19A and then another 5 before deciding that at least AWED meant “mouth open”. Good spot McT to see the (somewhat contrived) answer

    I’m another who has no idea why ATHENIANS are “foreign guests”. The use of “after do” and “after me” and “after so” is clearly back in fashion – cropping up all over the place at the moment

    1. I did wonder if it had something to do with the old Greek ξένος and its celebrated dual meanings of both ‘stranger’ and ‘guest’.
      1. A bit classical for me Sotira – I wish I knew what you are talking about! Today I’m celebrating the classic loco Mallard which, 75 years ago on 3rd July 1938, broke the world record for a steam engine – 126 mph (a record it still holds)
      2. I think you’ve got it – after all, xenophobia is scarcely the fear of guests. Guest workers, maybe…
    2. Apologies, coming to this late. It’s been a long day.
      Isn’t the definition “foreign guests, perhaps“? This signals a DBE (not all Athenians are guests) but helps the surface.

      Edited at 2013-07-03 10:08 pm (UTC)

  11. 65 mins mid-morning so I have absolutely no excuses.

    I had the LHS finished reasonably quickly but ground to a complete halt in the SE. I couldn’t see DEADLY SIN or HIT THE SACK for ages, even though both of them aren’t that difficult in retrospect, and I made much too hard work of WANDER and UNCLE. The FIREWOOD/SNOWDROP crossers also took me a while. AWED was my LOI, as it seems to have been for most of you.

  12. I think “being dismissed” passes the substitution test for “the sack”, as in “My colleagues are afraid of the sack”. (Sadly true at the moment, but that’s another story).

    Thanks for parsing AWED, WANDER and SNOWDROP, all of which I got through good luck rather than good management. And thanks for the tax reminder, I’ll get around to it eventually.

  14. Quite tough, though I thought there were some weak clues (e.g. AWED and AMUCK). I think in 8D the definition is just “arch”, with the old-fashioned referring to the “before” (i.e. ERE). Can’t help with the foreign guests.
  15. 15.21 – luckily Mr CS and I had only been discussing DERV the other day (what an exciting life we lead!) so that helped get WANDER. Working through the alphabet with 19a, I decided AWED had to be the only possible solution.
  16. I must acknowledge that Magoo was right to slap me down last week when I suggested he never strayed into double figures. He took nearly as long as I did today, though he may have had a parenthetical distraction we don’t know about. Jason seems to have the best legit time with 10:34 so this was apparently a tough puzzle for the quicks.

    Edited at 2013-07-03 12:43 pm (UTC)

  17. An enjoyable 22 minute wrestle. Nothing very interesting to add, since my main observation was that 19 across was my last in, and struck me as an glaringly shaky clue in the midst of some very fine deception everywhere else.
  18. Tough, this one, and ULTIMATE*. Of all obvious clues, I couldn’t parse OFFSHOOT, specifically the shoot=photo bit
    AWED last in, an unfeasibly long time after NEWARK because W is at the wrong end of the alphabet.
    *Unavoidably Long Time In Middle At Tasks Elsewhere – is the acronym idea likely to turn into a WOMBAT**?
    **Waste Of Money Brains And Time
  19. 24:56 (TOBACCO*) for a tricky but mostly very enjoyable puzzle finishing with AWED after several abortive endless travels through the alphabet.

    Refresher and snowdrop not fully understood so thanks for the parsing.

    * Troubled once by a colleague coming over

  20. In 8d I think ‘old-fashioned’ refers to ‘before’ rather than to ‘arch’
  21. I agree that ‘old-fashioned’ refers to ‘before’, not ‘arch’, but I read ‘pi’ as the blogger did i.e. as a Greek letter though the fact that it happened to be in Euripides (which I did not notice) gives double confirmation so maybe both are right. Rather liked AWED and also SPLASH, THRU, HIT THE SACK, NUMBER ONE.

  22. Same troubles as everyone else in the NE corner. A DNF for me today…
  23. Solved in 2 sittings, so no real time, but the entire left hand side went in first, and I struggled with everything else. Eventually got home though, but without parsing either FIREWOOD (now I see it, thanks) or WANDER (what’s a derv?). I got AWED after the checking letters appeared and thought it was pretty good. Overall a very good challenging puzzle. Regards.
  24. Hi Kevin,

    Diesel Engined Road Vehicle, the diesel fuel has been abbreviated as DERV. I’ve often about the secret chat room potential that is old comment submissions after you have commented.! Hope all is well.

    1. Thanks for that anonymous. I had no idea. We simply call it diesel. Thanks for the good wishes, and regards to you.
      1. I had WANKEL, thinking kel(p) was a fuel, and ‘for endless travel’ a cryptic def for a rotary engine.
        Greg
  25. 30 minutes for all but 19ac, and another ten before throwing in the towel.
    I didn’t get to this until the end of a very long day and a couple of G&Ts so I’m going to cut myself some slack. I don’t have an acronym for that.

    Edited at 2013-07-03 07:53 pm (UTC)

  26. That was a meaty one – took a few sessions during the day with AWED being the last one in and a nice clue it was as well. Nice job setter!
  27. Well over the hour so glad I was on a train. LOI like others was AWED but glad to finish and needed help from my son today as well! Still don’t see why ATHENIANS are foreign guests? But a really good challenge and enjoyable!
  28. 27:54 for me. Despite being desperately tired, I was plodding steadily through until a bunch of noisy youngsters outside in the street broke my concentration and I went to pieces for the last five clues.

    I desperately wanted 12ac (WESSEX) to be GOSHEN (probably not actually a kingdom when it comes down to it) which wasted a couple of minutes, but the real killer was AWED which took me over 10 minutes, and in the end I was relieved to finish all correct in under the half-hour.

    I didn’t enjoy this as much as I would have done if I’d been less tired, but I have to admit that it was a very fine puzzle.

  29. Eventually managed a correct completion (untimed but pretty slow), but, unlike most crosswords which I find hard but ultimately capable of solution, I didn’t really enjoy this one. I regret that corruptions such as ‘thru’ have become acceptable, but then I am an ‘old git’ which I am sure will appear sometime if it has not done so already.
    George Clements

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