Times 25585 – Sting in the Head

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I raced out of the starting blocks with this one but very soon began to realise that it was not going to be as easy as I originally thought. An hour later with much of the bottom half incomplete – mainly in the SW – I wondered if I would ever get through it. I never heard of 2dn, 15ac, 15dn or the archaism in 21ac. I knew the nymph at 18ac but simply couldn’t bring her to mind and that blasted French pot thing at 14dn has caught me out before and immediately slipped from memory. I can’t say I enjoyed this much, unlike yesterday’s which took roughly the same time and was a pleasure to solve from start to finish.

* = anagram, dd=double definition

Across
1 PLAGUE – PRAGUE -R+L. I hope I am right in thinking that ‘this’ in the clue makes it clear which way round the substitution is supposed to work.
4 BOUFFANT – NAFF (common) reversed inside BOUT (attack)
10 PASTIME – The definition is ‘activity’ and it has the word ‘past’ in it. Beyond that is beyond me. On edit, please see the discussion re Pa’s time below. I think joe’s comment towards the end of the thread makes sense of it.
11 PRUSSIA – Hidden and reversed. The state ceased to exist in 1947.
12 TWIN – TWINe
13 BREAK SWEAT – With reference to beads of sweat.
15 SASSAFRAS – FAR* inside SAS, SAS. This tree is a source of oil used in medicine and perfumery.
16 ULTRA – dd, one with reference to ultra-sound treatment in medicine, dentistry etc.
18 OREAD – O (please), READ (look at), a mountain nymph that eluded me until the very end yet I had heard of her. My very first thought here was Heidi.
19 PAPERBACK – PAPER (Sun) is reversed in the clue. For those that may not know, NUS is the National Union of Students or of Seamen.
21 TRAIN WRECK – TRAIN (prepare), W (with), RECK (care). The last word is an archaism and this was indicated which was helpful.
23 LEAP – dd
26 MACHETE – ACHE (pain) + Torment, all inside ME
27 FARRAGO – FAR (long way), officeR, AGO (in the past)
28 PLACENTA – ChEw inside PLANT (vegetable, say), A
29 WEAKLY – Sounds like “weekly” (regularly)

Down
1 PIPIT – PI (good), PIT (hole)
2 ABSCISSAE – Anagram of CASES AS I Bow
3 UNIT – UNITe. I’m not sure if ‘military’ alone can define this, so ‘team’ would appear to be doing double duty. On edit, Mct points out that UNITy (one) is a better fit, leaving ‘military team’ available as the definition of ‘unit’. Ta.
5 ORPHANS – (HAS PORN)*
6 FOUR-SQUARE
7 AISLE – Sounds like “I’ll”, apart from anything else.
8 TOAST RACK – TO (shut), A, S (small), TRACK (path)
9 BEARER
14 JARDINIERE – JAR (container), then I inside DINER (café), tablE
15 SHOOT-EM-UP** – Anagram of POSE MOUTH. A violent film or video-game apparently. **On edit, I mistyped this originally as SHOOT-ME-UP leading to the correspondence below.
17 TRADEMARK – ART reversed, DEnMARK. I’m not keen on ‘are’ clueing ART without an indication of it being old-fashioned, but apart from that ‘are you’ would surely clue ‘art thou’ rather than ‘art’ alone?
19 PERTEST – PER (for each), TEST (exam)
20 PACIFY – IF (condition) inside PACY (fast)
22 ACCRA – CC (small volume) + R (runs) all inside AA (Automobile Association – what drivers may need). It’s the capital of Ghana.
24 PEONY – PE (exercise) ONlY (just)
25 ERIE – EyRIE (nest)

47 comments on “Times 25585 – Sting in the Head”

      1. I’m not really convinced either! But, sad as it may be, I think this is the only way to get there. Let’s see what others think.
        1. Seems to me it would need ‘time’ to be some sort of activity. The closest I can think of is a prison sentence!
          1. A somewhat over-tortuous clue, but I think Mctext’s “pa’s time” is the most plausible explanation. PASTIME – which I guess literally means something you do to pass the time – is the “activity”, and “pa’s time”, I suppose, is not something the younger generation would wish to pass. Not terribly convincing, but I can’t think of anything better.
  2. Don’t have my copy of the finished puzzle with me right now. As for 3dn, I read it such that “one” = UNIT(y); so “military team” is the def.

    RECK: yes nicely indicated as archaic. But it does survive in RECK-less, don’t you reck?

    26ac: Are we dealing with the first or the last T from “torment”? I’d assumed the first.

    19dn: I took PER as “for each”.

    29ac reminded me of the witticism that involves “tri-weekly, try weekly and try weakly”.

    And I agree, more of a struggle and less of a pleasure than yesterday’s. But the economy of the clues has to be admired. And … will Jim declare 21ac to be self-referential?

    Edited at 2013-09-20 03:36 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for this. I have edited to reflect your comment on 3dn which I agree is more satisfactory and have amended the two slips miscopied from my notes. My brain was done in by this puzzle on a blogging day so I’m surprised there weren’t more.
  3. Too hard for me today, with several in the left hand side left blank. The NW proved impossible, after I put in ‘eagle’ at 1dn, but should have tried harder with the cross clues. ABSCISSAE a total unknown, but had the right letters…

    Thanks for all the explanations, Jack. There are several here I don’t think I’d have got if I’d spent all day looking at it!

    Edited at 2013-09-20 07:36 am (UTC)

    2. Sorry, I’ve been at cross purposes over this and only just realised it. Indeed it is SHOOT-EM-UP and that’s what I had in my solving notes, so this was another typing error on my part. I thought you were querying the missing apostrophe. Just to be clear, Collins has both SHOOT-EM-UP and SHOOT-‘EM-UP.

      Edited at 2013-09-20 09:11 am (UTC)

  5. Can someone enlighten me on 8a. How does “shut” translate to TO? Sounds like one I should know for the future but I am missing something.
  6. I seem to have enjoyed this rather more than some others and was home in 20 minutes. I was very pleased to see ABSCISSAE included as we see far too little from the world of maths. They are x-axis Cartesian coordinates which I’ll leave those interested to google.

    SASSAFRAS has been seen before, perhaps in a bar crossword and clued in a very similar way because I knew it immediately from SAS… The video nasty is I think common currency among the younger generations. The only one I don’t get is PASTIME. If PA’S-TIME is the answer then it’s weak to say the least

  7. I’ve never heard “shoot-me-up” but in any case the checkers mean it has to be SHOOT-EM-UP. It’s also in Chambers.

    Edited at 2013-09-20 07:58 am (UTC)

    1. Not heard of shoot-me-up either, though I suppose if one isn’t very good at a shoot-’em-up video game then that’s what will happen. There’s a (semi-amusing) Clive Owen film called “Shoot ‘Em Up”.
  8. Why does O=please? Seems a very obscure bit of crossword jargon(?)with a very uncommon answer to produce a horrible clue.
    1. It’s a form of supplication, a humble petition usually to a deity. I don’t know that it translates exactly to ‘please’ but one might start a prayer “O God…” or “Please God…” so I didn’t query it in the blog.
    2. I’m not sure that O in isolation would be fair but taken as a phrase, please look at and O read are just about synonymous.

      Edited at 2013-09-20 11:57 am (UTC)

  9. Finished in exactly 2 x Magoo, which is my unofficial benchmark for a quick solve, and much enjoyed. I was led down a blind alley with ABSCISSES, going with the word I half-remembered than the one in the actual wordplay; and another with MACHINE instead of MACHETE (should have remembered that when I think a clue is a bit weak, the reason is often that I’ve got it wrong…) but working out my errors was part of the fun.
  10. No time today, as I seemed to be solving during intermittent periods of consciousness.
    In the heady days of the Commodore 64, there was a rather excellent programme called the Shoot ’em up Construction kit, which allowed people with no computer language training to create their own, quite impressive games. It took ages, but was a pleasant pastime.
  11. 30 mins and I never felt like I was completely on the setter’s wavelength.

    I saw 10ac as “Pa’s time”. I remembered ABSCISSAE from an old Guardian puzzle, which was fortunate because I probably wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise. The SW was where I had the most trouble, and JARDINIERE was my LOI after I had finally cracked TRAIN WRECK.

    I must confess that I didn’t bother to fully parse TOAST RACK because I saw the definition quickly. When I was a child and I was told to “put the door to on your way out” I always thought I was being told to close it and did. Nobody ever complained, but maybe they did and I just didn’t hear them because the door was shut ……………

      1. I agree that “to” is almost, but not quite, shut. I can recall asking if folk wanted the door closing to be told “no, just leave it to”.
  12. Well, I managed it in one sitting, but now have a very numb posterior: took me getting on for an hour and a half.

    A first-rate puzzle, all very fair, and it was only my carelessness (writing in ABSCISSAS and SHOOT ME UP) that caused the problems. I’m afraid my old Physics teacher will be looking down on me with dismay: he used to get irritated if pupils referred to “x-axes”. “They are not x-axes,” he would intone, “You are plotting distance against time. They are ABSCISSAE”. It was an even worse offence to refer to “horizontal axes”; that solecism usually caused him to turn off his hearing aid.

    I was at a performance of The Pirates of Penzance last night, so I should have got ORPHAN and LEAP (year) quicker than I did.

    Don’t think I’ve met SASSAFRAS before, but that didn’t spoil the enjoyment: it’s quite rewarding to work out an unknown every now and then.

  13. 15 minutes didn’t see one definition for ULTRA and I figured AISLE and PASTIME to be cryptic definitions – loved the clue for BOUFFANT
  14. Every once in a while, something comes out of reading Maths at university many decades ago so ABSCISSAE went in without a second thought. I can only think that PA’S TIME is the older generational version of, say, personal time, although this is perhaps more a US employment concept. Poor clue.
  15. 29m. Another toughie as far as I’m concerned. Not many out-and-out unknowns but lots of only vaguely familiar words.
    I struggled with the spelling of ABSCISSAE, and like Tim I initially put in ABSCISSES without paying attention to the wordplay. I only know the word from being partially educated in France, where what I had known as the X and Y axes became the axe des abscisses and the axe des ordonnées. The maths also got a lot harder.
    My last in was 14dn, where I initially put in CANDINIERE, on wordplay autopilot. Fortuately it looked wrong so I thought again.
    I didn’t understand PASTIME, and still don’t, really.

    Edited at 2013-09-20 11:13 am (UTC)

  17. Another tough one that took me 10 minutes over the hour. However, I found less to admire compared to yesterday’s. I saw PASTIME as PA’s TIME, but wasn’t impressed. ‘Toast’ = breakfast? Bit of breakfast, maybe, but toast alone’s that’s a pretty pathetic breakfast. And, as Jack says in the blog, how does ‘are you’, (equivalent to ‘art thou’) reduce to ART?. That and ULTRA were my last entries.
    Some nice clues elsewhere, but a flawed puzzle for me, compared to the faultless examples on Tuesday and Thursday.

  18. Yesterday’s was quite jolly and also evil, while this was a bit of a serial killer. Some rather difficult words too that someone of my standard might not be sure about from wordplay only, but it is Friday.

    As I’ve said, I like the easier, more decorative crosswords, and this was certainly not one of those, but after this I did rip through the Guardian Nutmeg puzzle (not too great on technique) in just over 5 minutes!

    Truly, I am the Magoo of a lesser god.

    1. I did the Nutmeg (never heard of him) after getting gingerly off the rack that was this puzzle and restored my confidence with a 28-minute time. Only for you to go and shatter it once more. A trip to the shrink beckons tomorrow…
  19. Phew.

    39 minutes with the NW corner proving toughest. I wasn’t totally convinced by either pastime or twin so only entered them lightly. That meant careful piecing together of 2, my LOI, relying on a vague supposition that given a definition in the plural the ending had to be -AE, unless, of course, Oread was wrong and I was’t totally sure of that either.

    On the other hand jardiniere was one of my first in with no checkers and sassafras didn’t hold me up.

    Tough stuff but an enjoyable challenge on the whole apart from placenta which made me feel slightly queasy, no doubt partly due to having pimped up this morning’s bacon butty with a bit of black pudding from Chadwick’s of Bury Market.

  20. DNF .. again, the setter was broadcasting on Digital FM and I was tuned into Hilversum.

    Never once saw the anagram for SHOOT-EM-UP, had never heard of ABSCISSAE, wouldn’t know a JARDINIERE if I tripped over one (and I probably have after too many sherries), had quite forgotten SASSAFRAS and couldn’t see past ‘machine’ for 26a.

    Apart from that, I did great. I’m going to blame my dismal performance on a head cold and on last minute panic before flying off to Blighty tomorrow night for a 3 weeks recce with a view to repatriation (voluntary, honest).

  22. Another one where the answers didn’t just enter themselves. Finally something to do on my return journey as well!
    ABSCISSAE dredged up some long-forgotten Maths – that one got the synapses firing, and just couldn’t parse FARRAGO until I read the blog, and then kicked myself. After JARDINIERE finally clicked, the delightful OREAD was my LOI (I was looking for a non-existent mountain range O-E–, cf Ozark).
  23. I struggled with this one, eventually completing successfully, but with the same problems as others. I also dredged up ‘abscissae’ from some dark place related to ancient maths lessons that my conscious mind has considerately transferred to its subconscious counterpart. My excuse for a slow time is that I solved the puzzle in the middle of a quilt show while my wife and eldest daughter were in a workshop session, but, to be truthful, I don’t think that I would have been a lot quicker in ideal conditions.
    Congratulations to the rapid solvers – respect.
    George Clements
    1. George,

      As someone who is “blessed” with a wife, two daughters and a female dog (not to mention the hens) I feel your pain. I feel lucky that I haven’t been exposed to the joys of a quilt show.

  24. Would just like to put in a word for ‘pastime’. The activity is felt to take place in Pa’s time; in a sense it is Pa’s time, what he does with it. Simple yet neat; an acceptable clue. – joekobi
  25. 10:55 for me. I found this much easier – and much more enjoyable – than yesterday’s since the clues were much less convoluted. The only one that really held me up was 21ac, where I found it hard to get TRAIN CRASH out of my mind.
    1. Interesting idea. It would be good to know what others think but I doubt anyone else will come this way now. I only saw your posting as the initiator of the blog I am notified by email whenever new comments are added.

      Thanks for the suggestion.

    2. Is this really the case? My ancient recollection is that the expression ‘short’ in this context was around long before the concept of alcoholic units.
  27. The definition part of this clue is totally unacceptable. A placenta per se is not “a baby food” – “a baby feeder”, yes, of course.

Comments are closed.