Times 25665 – Little competition for the Turkey

Solving time: 23 minutes

Music: Carol of Harvest

Now here’s a real Monday puzzle; this is about as fast as it gets for me. I just had a little trouble getting a started, but once I had a few words it was just filling in the blanks. I’ll have to figure out the cryptics for the blog, but I expect nothing terribly esoteric.

Tonight’s music is a bit of a change, but I like to keep things mixed up. This weekend I’ve played some Robert Johnson, the Prokofiev violin concertos with Milstein, an Emmylou Harris album, some Tannhauser and Lohengrin highlights, and Wheels of Fire, so you can’t say I’m stuck in a rut. In the world of puzzles, it is rather surprising there are few jazz or rock clues or answers; it must be the taste of the setters.

Across
1 STARS AND STRIPES, double definition, the flag and a simple paraphrase.
9 LYONNAISE, anagram of IS ANYONE + L[amb]. I didn’t know this, but the cryptic hands it to you.
10 CATER, CAT + RE backwards. The setter missed a chance to indulge the whims of two queens.
11 MALAGA, M + A LAG + A. A port I didn’t know, but the cryptic was very helpful.
12 STEP DOWN, double definition.
13 STINGY, STING + Y.
15 CUTPURSE, anagram of PUT in CURSE. Knowledge of 16-century criminals might help here.
18 MACKEREL, anagram of CREEK MA[y] + L[ake]. Holy mackerel!
19 TROIKA, T + RO(I [par]K)A[d]. My last in, relatively tough for this puzzle, where I was forced to analyse the cryptic carefully.
21 SINISTER, RETSIN[a] IS backwards.
23 AFFECT, double definition.
26 THETA, T(HE)T A. I wanted ‘omega’ for a bit, then got the crossing letters.
27 FREELANCE, FR(EEL)ANCE.
28 PUT IN A WORD OR TWO, double definition, one referring to the process of solving this puzzle. I rather suspect you got more than one or two!
 
Down
1 SALAMIS, M + ALAS upside down on IS.
2 ATOLL, A + TOLL, in the sense of the bell tolling.
3 SYNAGOGUE, sounds like SIN + AGOG, if not a chestnut it should be.
4 NAIL, [s]NAIL.
5 SPECTRUM, anagram of CRUMPETS. I thought that if this was an anagram, the paucity of vowels demanded ‘str’ somewhere, but not so.
6 RECAP, PACE + R upside down, a definite chestnut, but a novel surface.
7 POTPOURRI, anagram of TIP OR POUR.
8 SYRINGE, S(YR)INGE.
14 IN CONCERT, double definition.
16 PORTFOLIO, PORT + F + OLIO. ‘Portfolio’ is often used to mean the vast wealth you have at your stockbroker, but here the literal is a bit more literal.
17 FEVERFEW, F + EVER + FEW. A plant I didn’t know, but the cryptic just hands it to you.
18 MISSTEP, MISS + PET upside down.
20 ART DECO, anagram of TRACED.
22 SPAWN, S + PAW + N.
24 ERNST, hidden in [postmod]ERN ST[yle] – a most appropriate place for him to be hiding!
25 WEAR, double definition.

33 comments on “Times 25665 – Little competition for the Turkey”

  1. 30 minutes, so a little off the pace, not helped by wanting the long across at the bottom to be first ‘put in a good word for’ and then something ending in ‘too’. FEVERFEW sounds as unlike a word as anything I’ve come across recently. Last in for me MACKEREL followed by SPAWN.

    I’d imagine SALAMIS may hold one or two up.

    I’m ‘agogue’ for the Turkey to emerge from the oven later today…

    1. FEVERFEW has cropped up from time to time over the years – it’s a sort of daisy that they used to crush in hot water and drink as a supposed cure for “fever”
  2. Very straightforward and, as Vinyl says, no match for the Turkey (which remains unfinished). Best of the lot was the clue for WEAR. Simple. Elegant.

    24dn: I’d rather say that Dada was the peak of modernism??

  3. Also 23 minutes but fully parsed as I solved. No unknowns but CUTPURSE took a bit of dredging up. Wasn’t sure what OLIO was so I looked it up and found it defined as ‘potpourri’!

    Edited at 2013-12-23 02:11 am (UTC)

  4. I was hoping for a while to get in under 10′, but something held me up, I already forget what. ‘Olio’, Jack, is yet one more NY Times chestnut (as is ‘elemi’, which I meant to mention the other day); the NYT seems increasingly to contain naught but chestnuts and names of entertainers I’ve never heard of.
  5. 15:29 .. I found a couple of areas quite tricky.

    CUTPURSE / PORTFOLIO / TROIKA didn’t exactly fly in. And SINISTER / SPAWN took almost as long.

    COD .. SPAWN, for the penny-dropping moment.

  6. Like vinyl, when I read the first few clues I thought we were in for a toughie but once I got going it was plain sailing. CUTPURSE was FOI on definition, FEVERFEW I found lurking in the memory bank. SALAMIS evoked schoolboy memories of the Greeks and Persians fighting with batons of processed meat.

    COD for me was TROIKA from the way it sprang from the cryptic – always nice!


  7. Yep, all quite straightforward today, with the only unknown, CUTPURSE, being clearly signalled by the cryptic.
  8. Moll Cutpurse (Wikipedia her) was a well-known figure Jacobean times. I only knew Salamis as a battle, didn’t realise it was an island too. Familiar with feverfew, though not so as to be able to recognise it.
    No other problems, just can’t wait for the turkey blog 🙂
    Yesterday’s ST cryptic also top class stuff
  9. No real holdups here. SALAMIS I knew, FEVERFEW had to be although I had never heard of it and CUTPURSE just went straight in.

    I agree Jerry that yesterday’s ST Jumbo cryptic was most enjoyable and having finally (after 3 days) cooked my Turkey to my satisfaction,I look forward to the distinguished blogger.

    Edited at 2013-12-23 08:15 am (UTC)

  10. 4:45 for me. Just right for a busy pre-Christmas Monday. Still struggling with the LH side of the Turkey but I cogitate on!

    Now to see if our team can win the annual Christmas quiz.

    1. My team came second of 25 on a tie-break. That’s the second tie-break I’ve lost in just over a week. I’m a bit like England and penalties.
  11. Under ten minutes for this, but I put in EFFECT for some reason. So I’m feeling quite clever and very stupid at the same time.
    Looking forward to the Turkey blog, but I’m about to embark on a seven-hour car journey so it will have to wait until this evening.
    1. Safe travel keriothe. The Times says that the extreme winds etc are expected to cover the width of the country. Quote “Stretching in a band from the tip of Cornwall to the far South East as high as Swansea .. .” Work that one out.
  12. 30/30 today with FOI Stars And Stripes and LOI Cutpurse (from wordplay). Got through the top half and left hand side quite quickly but was held up for a long time at the end with Troika, Portfolio and Affect.
  13. 12 minutes of pleasant unravelling. I particularly liked 28 with the setter’s estimation of our progress to date. I’m not sure whether we were being congratulated or insulted!
  14. 8 mins and it was a top-to-bottom solve with the excellent SPAWN my LOI after SINISTER. However, I did the same as keriothe and carelessly entered “effect” at 23ac, and it was only when I checked my Chambers post-solve that I realised how much better AFFECT fitted the clue.
  15. Slowish here, 26.23, not helped by first, being convinced the plant was feverdew (a mix-up I guess with sundew, alluding to which Swinburne wrote a memorable poem); and after that was sorted out, staring at all the checkers for sinister and still taking five minutes to see it. What with yesterday and today maybe too much of crosswords. Am I allowed to say that? Anyhow, roll on 29th and the p.b.- promised treats.
  16. 15 minutes to zip through this one. When 1A is so obvious on this grid it makes for a quick time. No complaints but no real stand out offerings either.
  17. A quick 20-minute solve, with no hold-ups anywhere. Any Listener solvers would have seen the anagram in 5dn immediately, as it was a key part of a tough puzzle a few weeks back.
    I thought ‘step’ in 6 across was a rather careless give-away, considering STEP is part of the answer to 12ac, which crosses it.
  18. Pretty quick solve late last night – FEVERFEW was the only one that went in from wordplay alone.
  19. When I came to stop the clock I discovered that I’d forgotten to start it but I’d guess about 15 minutes.

    I got bogged down in the SE where Cutpurse was unknown, Troika was known only in the context of Eurozone financial shennanigans, affect could have been pretty much anything with just ???e?t (accent, indent..) and portfolio didn’t have enough checkers for me to spot the wine or which end of the clue held the definition.

  20. 26m so glad to be under half an hour for once. 10m of that on the same three that Daniel wrestled with. I also had a ‘doh’ moment with SPAWN after seeing the answer but not the wordplay – ironic I should be held up by a ‘flexible punctuation’ clue after Peter’s comment on my clue in the Turkey! Thanks for the blog!
  21. No problems, just a bit slow as always nowadays. Love your choice of the Prokofiev for background.
  22. Well, this was the easiest Times crossword I can remember ever having seen. Just under 24 minutes (of which the last minute was devoted to checking for possible typos), which is my BTE. My longest holdup was convincing myself that 23 ac really was AFFECT and not EFFECT, and although some clues required care, there was nothing really challenging. I rather liked the surface on STARS AND STRIPES and I agree that SPAWN and WEAR have quite nice clues.

    Edited at 2013-12-23 06:04 pm (UTC)

  23. 25 minutes. Nice puzzle, but not as much fun as our turkey.

    Only three more sleeps until Boxing Day!

  24. Rattled through this without really enjoying much of it. Possibly fagged out after a day of working round the house, culminating in setting up the Christmas Tree. Decorating it happens tomorrow. Didn’t know FEVERFEW, but clear enough from the cryptic and the checkers. SPAWN, a nice one, my LOI. Did enjoy the toasted crumpets, lovely surface, and the improbable TROIKA. Good old Max ERNST, mainstay of student room posters in my time, nicely hidden.

    Best Wishes for a Happy Christmas to all!

  25. Swept through this in 10 minutes, ending with TROIKA, which I’d forgotten was a vehicle, so relying on wordplay only. I don’t recall ‘T’=’junction’ appearing before, but when I saw it, I was convinced. Not much else to say about today’s, so have a great day and regards to all.
  26. 7:12 for me – a slow time for such an easy puzzle, but I suffered a typical mixture of senior moments and dull-wittedness. (Sigh!)

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