Times 25,654

Pleasant enough puzzle, perhaps on the easy side of average – 20 minutes to solve on blogging day. One rather obscure botanical term but clued properly today. Some historical references and I’m usually surprised by younger solvers not being aware of what to me are common knowledge so we shall see if Russian and US history causes any difficulties.

Across
1 COOT – COO-T(arn); pigeons coo; apparently bald bird or Victor Meldrew;
3 SPELLBOUND – S(PE-LLB)OUND; PE from PE(arls); Hitchcock film with spellbinding Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck;
10 ATTRACT – A-T-T-CAR reversed-T; T=time; magnetic ability;
11 LARGISH – L(ARG(o)-IS)H; UK national debt;
12 SUB-POSTMISTRESS – BUS reversed-POST-MI-STRESS; second-in-command in a Post Office;
13 SHINDY – SHIN(D)Y; D from (feature)D; Irish wake or German rapper;
14 COVERAGE – COVE-RAGE; common solvency ratio of debt interest to cash available;
17 DETOXIFY – (fixed toy)*; field day for alternative medicine;
18 CAMPER – CAMP-E(urodolla)R; always for me the 1950s Volswagen campervan;
21 SEE,ONES,WAY,CLEAR – two meanings; if you clear your path and the postman falls, are you liable?;
23 OCARINA – O(rchestra)-CARIN(g)-A; a small wind instrument;
24 PREVAIL – (real VIP)*;
25 DISSEVERED – DISS(EVER)ED; not a word one meets every day;
26 OKAY – OK=OKAY;
 
Down
1 CHASSIS – C-HAS-S-IS; “estate” is type of car; a chassis is more associated with trucks and TVs I suspect;
2 OCTOBRIST – OC-TOURIST with U changed to B; October 1905 Russian doves;
4 POTATO – POT(A)TO; a POTTO is a loris; a King Edward is a spud; POTATO(e) was Dan Quayle’s nemesis;
5 LOLLIPOP – LO(ILL reversed)P-OP; pop song from my 1950s youth;
6 BURY,THE,HATCHET – two meanings; an Iroquois custom to mark the end of hostilities;
7 UNITE – U-(E-TIN reversed); neanderthal trade union;
8 DEHISCE – hidden (belgra)DE-HIS-CE(ll); botanical reference to torture for hayfever sufferers;
9 MASON,DIXON,LINE – MASON-D-XI reversed-ON-LINE; D from (score)D; symbol of cultural differences between North and South US based upon a real “line” proposed by Mr Mason and Mr Dixon in 1700s to resolve a border dispute in Northern US; ;
15 APPLEJACK – APPLE-JACK; Jonothan is an APPLE; more US culture, distilled cider known as Jersey Lightening;
16 OFF-STAGE – OFF(STAG)E(r); house=audience in theatre;
17 DESPOND – reference “the slough of despond” from Pilgrim’s Progress;
19 RURALLY – RU-RALLY; RU=Rugby Union;
20 MAGPIE – MA(GP-I)E; reference Mae West (yet more US culture); an outer part of a rifle target;
22 EVANS – E(VAN)S; son of Ifan;

50 comments on “Times 25,654”

  1. 15 minutes for all bar six clues, and 26 minutes for all bar OCARINA, which took me another five. Got too cute in the SW by wanting the Taff to be Emrys, which didn’t help.

  2. Thanks for this, Jim, all complete today, but several from wp: DEHISCE, MAGPIE, and yes OCTOBRIST and M-D LINE, too. Not sure if that indicates that I’m a ‘younger solver’ or just that I’m hopelessly ill-informed when it comes to historical references…
  3. 14 minutes, with all the GK in place. I wonder how much longer quotes from John Bunyan will be considered to be within that assumed frame?
    My LOI was EVANS, even though it was the obvious answer. I couldn’t work out where the V came from, since I was counting the N in the set of directions, and vaguely wondered whether EWANS would count to complete the set. A decent little double deception for the trigger happy seasoned solver who would also expects “leaders” to produce first letters.
    CoD to CHASSIS with its wee hint towards duck houses and such, with a side helping of speculation on whether any estate cars have a chassis these days.
  4. 7,3,12 and 25 took me past my 30-minute target.

    Never heard of POTTO or MAGPIE in the required context but DEHISCE is one of those words that once met and struggled over in a crossword is engraved on my brain forever. MASON-DIXON LINE I learnt of and remember from Tom Lehrer’s song “I Wanna Go Back to Dixie”

    Edited at 2013-12-10 09:58 am (UTC)

  5. Familiar with magpies from Bisley and knew dehisce, though I would not want to have to define it.. loi was dissevered, which has a faintly cumbersome, tautological feel to it.

    I remember a fine Gary Larson Far Side cartoon where Mrs Dixon is berating her son: “Why is it always *Mason*-Dixon, never Dixon-Mason.. you always did come second…” etc etc.

  6. 13min – 20 LOI – would have been even better if hadn’t had a typo in 25. In 9, having D-X-N from checkers seemed unlikely, so had to have another look to be sure, but this was really quick for me.
  7. 9m, so very much on the wavelength today.
    I had most of the necessary GK, the exceptions being MAGPIE, POTTO and APPLEJACK.
    On the matter of historical references being common knowledge or otherwise, it obviously depends what you learned at school. I suspect that British history was proportionately much less prominent in what I was taught than was the case in previous generations (or will be the case in future if Mr Gove has his way). So I sometimes struggle with British historical references but have no problem at all with OCTOBRISTs or the MASON-DIXON LINE.
  8. Is the OCARINA a toy?
    Two reversing vehicles in one puzzle.

    25ac (last in) was good: “endlessly” not signalling a final deletion.
    Only DNK was MAGPIE. ODO has:
    “the division of a circular target next to the outer one, or a shot which strikes this”.
    A picture would help.

    Re 9dn: Pynchon’s Mason and Dixon is a must read for the scientifically inclined novel reader. If there are any left.

    1. None of the usual sources describes it as such, so it’s maybe a bit naughty, however this from Grove’s dictionary may shed some light:

      The ocarina is interesting scientifically because the sizes of the uncovered holes and their number, and the total internal volume of the instrument, alone determine the rate of vibration of the note sounded. Because this note is a pure tone it lacks definition and this is one reason why no composers take the instrument seriously.

      Edited at 2013-12-10 11:16 am (UTC)

  9. Completed while bumping around SW17 on various buses, with and without encumbrances, in under half an hour. Had to infer DEHISCE and DISSEVERED, neither of which had bumped my way before. Others pretty straightforward, though King Edwards more than Jonathans, with the four long ones a bit too straightforward, 6dn especially so – when I invariably fall into the trap of thinking it can’t be that simple and get lost down various rabbit-holes. Liked the deceptive simplicity of OFF-STAGE. FOI COOT, LOI the aforementioned DISSEVERED.
  10. Brief pause to figure out the right month for 2d. Didn’t know the target so I learned something. Thanks Jimbo for the sympathetic reference to hay fever sufferers, and to Jack for the Lehrer – unfortunately how true the latter’s lyrics remain. 16.36.

    Edited at 2013-12-10 12:47 pm (UTC)

  11. Pretty straightforward puzzle, taking 28 minutes. I was fortunate in being familiar with ‘dehisce’. A minor hold-up in the SW corner was caused by carelessly entering DESPAIR istead of DESPOND, only corrected when I saw OCARINA.
    Decent set of clues apart from 14, which did not appeal – ‘aggression at seaside’, ‘cove rage’? Oh dear!
      1. Mine, too. But a lot of people are ‘corn intolerant’. Me, I actually like the jokes in Christmas crackers.
        1. Me too. Did you see the results of the cracker joke competition today? The winner:
          What does Miley Cyrus have at Christmas? Twerky.
          1. I’m still enjoying Uncle Y’s Sherpa joke from 2 Christmases ago. I recited it to delighted groans at the dinner table. Thank you for the twerky one, it’s going into the repertoire.
            1. I don’t remember that one: remind me.
              There are more on the Grauniad website if you’re interested. My favourite:
              How do you know if Santa’s been in your garden shed? You’ve got three extra hoes.
                1. Can I share one of my topical faves? Was in a letter to the Times last month as we learnt that ‘selfie’ had been chosen as ‘word of the year’ by Oxford Dictionaries:

                  “When the Queen takes a photo of herself on her phone, does she call it a onesie?”
                  (or summat like that…)

                  Edited at 2013-12-10 01:27 pm (UTC)

                    1. I used to run a Christmas quiz for parents at my kids’ primary school and every year did a round on Christmas cracker jokes. I used to award points for incorrect answers that were as good as the real thing. My favourite of those (which will mean little to overseas solvers and avoiders of crap telly) was:

                      Q. What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?

                      “Real” answer: a carrot

                      “Better” answer: David Dickinson.

            2. At base camp on Everest group of Sherpas meets group of climbers. Head sherpa says to lead climber, you can have any of them except Hessie. Climber says, why not Hessie? Sherpa, because he who Hessie takes is lost.
  12. Around 24 minutes but spoilt by my first putting in a long engrained solecism of ‘Mason-Dixie Line’, then failing to notice the clash while typing in SEE ONE’S WAY .. so it ended up as MASON-DIXIN.

    I found the last few in the SW distinctly tricky, with EVANS, DISSEVERED and MAGPIE taking nearly as long as the rest of the puzzle.

  13. LOI, DISSEVERED. Horrible word.

    Having grown up on the Lower Clarence, I love magpies (don’t worry, I don’t expect anyone to understand that). But I’d never heard the word in this context. Still, very gettable via the wordplay.

  14. 18:05 with dissevered LOI. I liked cove rage too.

    Little else to say except that potto reminded me of the yellow Preston’s of Potto lorries I see going up and down the A1 which I always think should be Potto’s of Preston.

  15. I rather liked OKAY and, I’ll admit it, COVERAGE. Didn’t know MAGPIE or DEHISCE. I find it more difficult when American words show up in the puzzle – then I’m not sure whether to think about an American or a British nuance or reference.
    Thank you for the commentary, Jim.
  16. Re the orange parroter I’ve always had my reservations, not that that’s another joke, in terms of his rather obvious charade.

    Still, never mind. 24 minutes for today’s run-out, in which, yes, COVE RAGE was… a clue.

  17. 16 mins. I could have shaved a couple of minutes off my time but I decided to be sure about the parsing of the EVANS/DISSEVERED crossers even though I couldn’t see any alternatives. I had the necessary GK for the historical clues so they were pretty much write-ins.

  18. Can’t get the song out of my head after the whimsical word from Dorset. I applaud the coverage er coverage – worth a series of seaside picture postcards in itself. 23.13.

  19. Do please check the blog first thing tomorrow (or late tonight in some time zones) for a Festive Announcement.
  20. About 25 minutes, ending with MAGPIE, which came from wordplay only, didn’t know the target meaning. Nor POTTO, nor SHINDY. I did know all the historical stuff, and I even knew DEHISCE, so I managed to shuffle through. Thanks to Jimbo, regards, and I await the Festive Announcement with bated breath.
  21. Surely the proper definition has nothing to do with finance but is “extent of media.” “The Nation’s coverage of the outcry against drone warfare has been exemplary,” for example.
      1. I’m pretty sure Jimbo didn’t intend to suggest that the definition was related to finance any more than he’d pretend that the definition to 3a relates to the film. The definition is taken as read, the finance bit is Jimbo’s (now trademark) aside on the etymology or usage of the word or a related “factoid”.

        I was actually minded to comment on Jimbo’s note on coverage myself but only to say that it’s the ratio of available cash to interest rather than the other way round.

        1. I figured as much, especially since I couldn’t find any way to get the financial definition out of the clue. It might be confusing to (other) newbies when he doesn’t include the real definition, though this one was pretty obvious.
  22. A really satisfying time by my standards, so for me the puzzle was ‘sweeter than apple pie’. Bigtone will understand.
  23. I started reasonably well, but lost the plot in the bottom half and finished in a miserable 12:39. I made particularly heavy weather of EVANS and DISSEVERED (my LOI), a word which always makes me feel rather uncomfortable!

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