Times 25,534 – It Takes Two To Get One In Trouble

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time 15 minutes

An easy puzzle on the day we celebrate the birth of a new royal baby – congratulations to Kate and William.

Across
1 BOFFIN – B-OFF-IN; Q perhaps;
4 MALARKEY – MA(LARK)E-Y(orkshire); reference filmstar Mary Jane West who thought censorship made her rich;
10 FLAGSTAFF – F(L)AG-STAFF; bore=FAG (old fashioned slang); much in use today to celebrate a new prince;
11 TROOP – POOR-T all reversed; The Light Brigade, no doubt;
12 CITABLE – (ex)CITABLE;
13 ENSLAVE – E-N(SLAV)E; what a new baby does to its parents;
14 LICIT – (so)LICIT;
15 NUTSHELL – two definitions, the second a reference to the phrase “in a nutshell”;
18 LADY-LOVE – LAD-Y-LOVE; Mrs Jimbo, who has a birthday today;
20 RADIX – hidden (prefe)R-A-DIX(ieland); in the decimal system the RADIX is 10;
23 AGROUND – A-GROUND; a trader is a ship;
25 REIGNED – RE(s)IGNED;
26 SAHIB – (i=one + b=book + has)*; colonial form of address;
27 ANALOGOUS – AN-(A-LOG)-O-US;
28 ASPIRATE – AS-PIRATE; reference H(ook);
29 TEASER – two meanings, one of which means little to me;
 
Down
1 BIFOCALS – (FIB reversed)-(L)OCALS;
2 FRANTIC – FR-AN-TIC; what a new baby makes parents;
3 ITSY-BITSY – both parts rhyme with ritzy; spider or polka dot bikini – whatever floats your boat;
5 ALFRED,THE,GREAT – (father let Edgar)*; King of Wessex 874-899 and burner of cakes;
6 ANTIS – (m)ANTIS; m=mass=3.8 kilo today;
7 KNOW-ALL – K-NO-WALL; any teenager before they learn what life is really about;
8 YIPPEE – Y-I(PPE)E; a good summary of the national mood today;
9 TAKE,IN,GOOD,PART – assimilate=TAKE IN; appealing role=GOOD PART; be a good sport;
16 HERBIVORE – HER-B-IVOR-E(at); Albert Einstein perhaps;
17 OXIDISER – OX-I-(is red)*; rust is iron oxide produced by the action of oxygen and water on iron;
19 AIRSHIP – sounds like “heirship”; it’s that new baby again;
21 DINGOES – D-IN-GOES;
22 NAUSEA – N(A)U-SEA;
24 UMBER – (h)UMBER; Bow is in the East End of London – a long way from the Humber;

40 comments on “Times 25,534 – It Takes Two To Get One In Trouble”


  1. Quite straightforward for me today, finished in my average (now) 35-40mins, with two last minute changes: on => IN at 9dn, and baby => LADY at 18ac (Many happy returns, Mrs Jimbo!)

    Didn’t know RADIX, but all others went in fine.

  2. This was, for me, by far the easiest crossword for some time taking me 15 minutes and most solved on sight without reference to the cryptic aspect. COD was 4ac, guessed from NONSENSE and SINGER; but it took me a few minutes longer to recognise the actress who saved so many airmen’s lives.
  3. 22 minutes. Tiring of the East End characterisation. As for the name, as a poker player I’d like to think the future holds a King Jack.
  4. Thought this was on the easy side, with a lot of write-ins. Though Einstein supported vegetarianism for many years, he only became a vegetarian himself at the very end of his life.
  5. A very welcome easier puzzle this morning that I completed in 22 minutes. DK RADIX nor that BOFFIN has particular military associations as confirmed by Collins.
  6. 43 minutes – liked BIFOCALS especially.

    I wonder if they’ll call the baby Charles just to make sure someone of that name finally gets on the throne.

    Edited at 2013-07-23 07:36 am (UTC)

    1. Er, there have been two so far Ulaca, one of whom rather lost his head!!
      1. I was making a mischievous allusion to the possibility of the present Chas being passed over in favour of his son.

        Hopefully, they will neither of them be as hapless as the Stuarts.

        1. I’m kind of hoping Chas will do what others have done before him, and take a different regnal name. If only we could persuade him to honour the memory of his favourite uncle, we could end up with King “I’ve reached the top and had to stop” Louis
            1. Well weird, that would be. He’s been known all his life as Charles by everyone and then he goes round expecting to be known as Bert or something. Not the best way of keeping the monarchy up-to-date …
        2. On a personal note: I heard someone in the pub last night talking about rugby and a friend of his who sings in the HKWMVC. That’s your lot, isn’t it?
          1. I’ve actually left now, since the opportunity to sing in the Phil Chorus came up. There are precious few Cambrians in the choir – my guess it’s one of the senior members!
  7. 9 mins, and it would have been a PB if I had seen ALFRED THE GREAT a little quicker than I did. RADIX went in from the wordplay once I had the crosser from OXIDISER, and my LOI was LADY LOVE.
  8. Thought there were a few liberties in here; and surprised Jim didn’t pick up all the padding. Are DINGOES predators any more than other dogs? Not in my experience. But I’ll pay the MAE West thing — which always fools me.

    Has there been some kind of important birth? As if youse Poms weren’t short of princes already eh?

  9. 8m. This was very easy, but all perfectly elegant and enjoyable.
    See jackkt’s comment above for the stuff I didn’t know. I was also a bit puzzled by 28ac, but figured ASPIRATE must exist as a noun, which it does.
    I didn’t know that the famous spider – always incy-wincy in my experience – could also assume the form of a teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini. You live and learn.
    Happy birthday to Mrs Jimbo.

    Edited at 2013-07-23 08:30 am (UTC)

    1. The spider was always Incy-Wincy in my part of Yorkshire, but I have a hard time convincing my wife (a native Ealonian) that it can be anything other than Itsy-Bitsy.

      (PS: Thanks for the Private Eye cover 🙂

  10. Another enjoyable half-hour solve.

    LADY-LOVE That’s an old fashioned term, isn’t it? I have been singing the chorus of Lily of Laguna quietly to myself since I filled in the answer to that one. At least it’s driven out Brian Hyland’s novelty song (3 down), which would have been far more irritating.

  11. 15 minutes mid-morning, nice gentle stuff which would have been easier still if I’d taken notice of endings. I had OXIDISES at 17 until I couldn’t see anything for 29, but the goof of the day was having FLAGPOLES at 10 where I was wondering about the chutzpah of characterising Poles as the workforce. Might have been amusing in a Daily Mail kind of way.
    Didn’t think 8d quite worked (though it wasn’t difficult) since the wordplay seemed to give MMANTIS.
    Not a stand-out CoD, but NUTSHELL was about as good as this one got.
  12. 20 minutes – that is, I didn’t exactly go into labour, unlike someone else who apparently has done recently. I’m not really one for all this Royal boloney. God knows why I read The Times: hurray! Another posh babby to bleed the coffers, well, goodness, what a waste (cont. p. 94).

    Thought NUTSHELL quite good, but many write-ins.

    Thanks all,
    Chris G.

  13. I know it was pretty easy by Times’ standards, but I was very pleased with my correct solution, without aids, in 15m 30s. Certainly fastest for a long time.
    George Clements
  14. 15:17 .. and no passes.

    Lovely blog – thanks, jimbo. You do have a sense of occasion. Speaking of which, many happy returns to your lady love.

    By the way, it’s going to be Philip. You heard it here first (and can still get 20/1 at Ladbrokes).

  15. 9.22 and like Penfold, the herbivore was my last one in.

    Happy birthday to Mrs DJ.

    1. Apparently Barrie states in the novel that “Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze”, and relates that Peter Pan began their rivalry by feeding the pirate’s hand to the crocodile. It is implied that he attended Eton College and Balliol in the play; Hook’s final words are “Floreat Etona”, the College’s motto. Barrie confirmed this in a 1927 speech entitled “Captain Hook at Eton”.

      So … who could it be?

      (Thanks to Wiki for enlightenment)

      Good easy puzzle today 15 minutes in spite of 36 degrees overheating the grey cells.

      Edited at 2013-07-23 05:25 pm (UTC)

  16. 8:56 so almost as easy as they come. Same unknowns as Jack and Keriothe. LOI herbivore, not because it was hard but because that was where I finished up.

    My only stumble was an initial fanatic at 2 where I took “uncontrollable” to be an anagrind for an (yes really) which meant FA was an alternative to FR and fanatic meant the same as overwrought in a sort of no it doesn’t way (I must have assumed there was a nounal usage of overwrought).

    Ref 28, what was Captian Hook called before he got his hook?

  17. Fast for me today – about 30 minutes. FOI Boffin, LOI Nutshell.
    Radix, Take In Good Part and Lady-Love all from wordplay.
    Jimbo, thanks for explaining Licit – I didn’t understand the wordplay there – and many happy returns to your wife.
  18. 22d pretty well sums up my reaction to the media coverage of the celebrated birth.
    1. It’s a little unfair to tar the all the media with the same brush.

      Edited at 2013-07-23 11:04 pm (UTC)

  19. Pretty easy, about 15 minutes, with some pondering needed at the end for HERBIVORE. I saw the parsing easily enough, but picking out the right man’s name took a while. (IVOR? Really? That’s far down the list, is it not?) Other that that, no real problems. Congratulations to Mrs. Jimbo and the new prince on the birthdays, and regards.
  20. I think it’s all about been said – half a sandwich at lunch, though I didn’t know RADIX as anything other than a pseudonym.
  22. I eventually got going after another ridiculously slow start (wasting ages trying to make 4ac out of an anagram of “singer” inside WY for example), but could only manage a disappointing 8:39.

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