Times 25,594 – Of Rastafarian Dreadlocks

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
On the day the US celebrates the birthdays of Bonnie Parker and Jimmy Carter (oh, and also starts to grind to a halt) we have a middle of the road puzzle that shouldn’t cause too many problems. At 16A I have a shortfall in understanding. 20 minutes to solve.

Across
1 GRAPHIC,NOVEL – (r loving cheap)*; r from r(eader); trashy is anagrind; a comic strip book;
8 TELLS,ON – TELL-NOS reversed; shops is slang for dobs-in;
9 TIE,BEAM – TIE=match; BEAM=delighted expression; the base beam of the triangular beams that form a roof;
11 FEEBLER – RE(a)L-BEEF reversed; commentary on Obama’s Presidency?;
12 DISDAIN – A-DD reversed surrounds IS – IN;
13 OUNCE – (b)OUNCE(r); old imperial measure of weight that clings on;
14 REFRESHER – RE-FRESHER;
16 FOR,A,START – FO(RASTA)RT; apart from Rastafarians sporting dreadlocks I’m not quite clear on this one;
19 CABAL – LAB-AC reversed; House of Representatives perhaps?;
21 CANAPES – CAN(PA reversed)ES; food invented by dry cleaning industry;
23 GRAZING – GRA(n)-ZING; eating canapes, no doubt;
24 RUN,TIME – (minute r)*; r=right; IT jargon – note spelling of “program”;
25 BRITONS – BRI(e)-TONS; you can’t get decent brie in the UK these days – all kept too cold;
26 COMMENCEMENT – COMMEN(CE-MEN)T;
 
Down
1 GALLEON – sounds like “galley”-ON;
2 ABSOLVE – A-B-SOLVE(r); addicts? us? – well, perhaps;
3 HONORARIA – NOH reversed-OR-ARIA; NOH=NO=Japanese drama;
4 CITED – CD surrounds ITE(m) where m=married;
5 OVERSEE – hidden reversed (srevl)OVER-SEE(niart);
6 EYEWASH – EYE-WAS-H; reference London Eye; H-hard (pencils); see SOPHISM;
7 STAFF,OFFICER – STAFF-(force if)*;
10 MINERALOGIST – A-LOG-IS in M-INERT;
15 FATIGABLE – FAT-I-GABLE; frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn;
17 RAN,INTO – (on train)*;
18 SOPHISM – SO-P(HIS)M; eyewash that passes for political debate most of the time;
19 CHALICE – CHA-L-ICE;
20 BAIL,OUT – B(AIL)OUT; AIL from (t)AIL=dog; which member of Euro zone is next in line?;
22 STEIN – (i)S-(i)T-(t)E(a)-IN; youthful memories of Munich and frauleins;

27 comments on “Times 25,594 – Of Rastafarian Dreadlocks”

  1. All correct, all parsed ok, and no unknown vocab, so probably should have been quicker than the 45 mins or so it took.

    At 16a, I parsed it as ‘a dread’ = ‘a Rasta’ = ‘a man sporting dreadlocks’. Bit slang, so maybe not in any of the official dictionaries, though…

  2. 17 minutes to negotiate this one, with the same query as Jim on 16: I assumed that in someone’s dictionary, rasta=dread. A quote from Wiki: “Popular slogans, often incorporated within reggae lyrics, include: ‘Not every dread is a Rasta and not every Rasta is a dread'” which might count.
    Otherwise steady stuff: I quite liked 10 for its work-it-out-in-stages approach and, being unable to escape the idea of COMMON as the start of 26, needed all the checkers before the penny dropped. CITED LOI, looking for a soundslike.
    I see we’re being invited to use smilies. Is this going to become compulsory?
  3. The Wik quotes a song:
    “Not every dread is a Rasta and not every Rasta is a dread…”.
    Suggests “dread” as a noun that can (or not) mean “Rasta” (person).
    But someone will come up with something more authoritative.
    1. Oxford Dictionaries Online has the required definition.

      Edited at 2013-10-01 08:49 am (UTC)

      1. Just found it:
        3 informal a person with dreadlocks: the band appeals to dreads and baldheads alike.

        So that explains the slogan/song. Just cos you’re a dread (have dreadlocks) doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a Rasta. And vice versa.

        Hey, I’m getting the hang of this!

        Edited at 2013-10-01 08:53 am (UTC)

  4. A steady grind, nothing unknown although I became fixated on GRANITA which of course has nothing to do with the clue, so GRAZING LOI.

    It is also World Vegetarian Day today so big veggie soup this evening.

  5. No fast time here, I’m afraid to say. Found it hard to even get started … with no excuses … not even a hard night. And pretty much had to fight for each answer. So a minor sense of a achievement as I worked out each one.

    Once I got the reverse hidden in 5dn, things seemed to look up for a while. Then the anagram in 1ac came to light. It was like that for the whole of what I laughingly call “breakfast”.

    1. Well no … I suspect that the argot — of which I know nought — has it that a dread is (or sometimes is not) a Rasta. See comments & quotations above.
  7. 42 minutes. My only query whilst solving was at 16ac but I found the required definitions in Collins as quoted by Mct above + Rasta = Rastafarian.
  8. 20m. I didn’t know “dread” meant “rasta”, but it made sense. I hesitated over TIE BEAM at the end, although I suspect it’s come up before. I almost put in THE TEAM, thinking of it as a sort of toast you might make at the end of a match. Otherwise plain sailing.
    You’re right about Brie, Jimbo. I even have this problem in my own house: people are forever putting cheese in the fridge, thereby rendering it inedible. The same applies to fruit.
    1. I recently went on a cruise to the Baltic and one of the really great pleasures was a cheeseboard kept by somebody who knew what they were doing. A simple lunch of good bread, a selection of matured cheese and a strong quaffing wine was sheer delight.
  9. 15 mins. I found this to be a puzzle in which close attention to the wordplay paid off, and I enjoyed it.

    I didn’t have a problem with dread=rasta, and CITED was my LOI after DISDAIN. I thought the clue for GRAPHIC NOVEL was excellent.

  11. I’d have to list the RASTA one as CoD, but some other good ones here. GRAPHIC NOVEL also titillated, though some are hardly trashy these days. 45 minutes on the Gregory stopwatch.

    Many thanks to compiler and the Dorset chap.

    Chris.

  12. I didn’t find this at all easy and plodded along for 26 minutes. Like others I was convinced that 4d was going to be a soundeelikee, I was looking for a specific book to fit the anagram at 1ac and I spent too long looking for the definition at the wrong end of the clue for 26 (communicants?).

    In fact a lot of clues seemed to misdirect where it came to spotting the def.

    For a while at 10 I had the invented-based-on-spurious-wordplay myeprologist (pro+log+is in m+yet). Why isn’t the word mineralologist? Missing out the ol is just lazy word-making.

  13. I think you ought to know that (at my university at least) we are no longer allowed to refer to Freshers – this week is Welcome Week instead. PC or what!

    Chris

    1. My daughter has just managed to get through Freshers’ Week at Bristol, including the official Freshers’ Fair. No PC down there then.
      1. Yep, Oxford still has a Fresher’s Week. Or so says all the literature that has come through for my first-born, about to start there next week.
  14. 50 minutes but I did nod off a few times, solving after work. At least I have a word now to describe the condition. About the one thing I remember from history lessons at school is learning the plotters’ names of the cabal acronym. I rather liked some of these clues e.g.22.
  15. I didn’t find this very easy, about 40 minutes in all, but including dinner and distractions last night. I ended in the NW, LOI being TELLS ON, not knowing about ‘shops’ in this meaning, but finally assuming it must exist. I took a while to see the rasta also, and was stuck on ‘frailer’ for a while before finally having the wordplay point to FEEBLER. Over here, apparently the stock market is either pleased or uncaring about the government’s latest exhibition of its inability to operate, so I don’t know what to make of this state of affairs. Enough politics, though, thanks to Jimbo and regards to all.
  16. Half of this practically filled itself in and the other half was workmanlike if unexciting. Did we get Monday’s crossword today by mistake? Certainly seemed easier, in an obvious sort of way: it wasn’t elegant or witty or particularly “lateral”. Thanks to dorsetjimbo for injecting some much-needed humour into the commentary.
  17. Did this in two short breaks at work. I live in the dreadlock capital of the US so no problem with the RASTA. Rare time where there were no unknowns at all.
  18. Too much haste again: put in ‘minerologist’ rather than ‘mineralogist’ otherwise solving time would have been 19m 23s. Will try to do better tomorrow.
    George Clements
  19. 10:53 for me, with tiredness slowing me down.

    I’m with crypticsue on this one, finding it an enjoyable puzzle with lots to smile at. Which is to say that I completely disagree with Londiniensis’s rather sour comments.

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