Times 25794 – Mincing Clues Not Words

Hello solvers, and thank you for this opportunity to fill out the ranks of such an august blog. As an old 7D with occasional 12A delusions usually thwarted by a tendency towards 10A, I was pleased to be allocated, for my maiden outing, a puzzle of considerable 4D, but without anything too abstruse that would have provoked 1A, or even worse, a 11A. As a trained classicist I had all the necessary 14D to recall Claudius’s wife and Nero’s mother 22A, but despite since then becoming a web developer by trade, I found 15A the obscurest term to summon from its definition (though fortunately the route to the solution was unambiguous).

1D is not what I called it as a lad, though I wish I had as, it is a considerably more evocative name for the pastime! 26A brought to mind images of the late lamented Jack Duckworth fancying his pigeons in a grubby string vest, which I am happy now to share with you.

I’m afraid to say I didn’t time myself on this occasion but I believe it was comfortably solvable in the space of commuting between Norwood Junction and Wandsworth, i.e. my ideal length for a crossword puzzle. With a few good gags and requiring just a very light smattering of astrological-historical-technological knowledge for completion, it was for me a wholly reassuring and enjoyable puzzle. How about yourselves?

Across
1 DISORIENTATION – confusion: punningly, to dis-“orientate” could be to occidentalise…
9 CLING FILM – something to wrap it [cold fish] in: C [cold] LING [fish] FILM [picture]
10 SLOTH – sin: LOT [fate] in SH [don’t talk]
11 SCOWL – dirty look: S [“initiation” of Small-time] COWL [hood]
12 EGOMANIAC – [a person] who’s full of himself: OMANI [Arabian resident] in CAGE [prison] reversed [about]
13 NASCENCY – birth: S [singular] CE [civil engineer] in NANCY [Lorraine city]
15 BOTNET – computers that are infected: some of ofTEN TO Boot, in reverse [backed up]
17 DIE OUT – vanish: OahU [margins] in DIET [usual food]
19 CURLICUE – twisty tail: CUR [dog] with LICE [parasites] around [retains] U [classy]
22 AGRIPPINA – Roman emperor’s wife: A [area] twice around [divided by] GRIPPINg [compulsive, endlessly]
23 GLINT – flash: G [Gordon’s beginning] plus LINT [padding]
24 EMCEE – presenter: sEeMs ClEvEr [alternate letters only]
25 CHINAWARE – service (perhaps): CHIN [face feature] plus AWARE [on the ball]
26 VESTED INTEREST – stake: punningly, a “vested interest” could be a hobby carried out while wearing a vest

Down
1 DUCKS AND DRAKES – double definition
2 SLIP-ONS – [footwear] easily kicked off: LIP [backchat] in SONS [children]
3 RIGEL – star in Orion: RIG [fix] on bELt [middle of]
4 EMINENCE – Cardinal: MINE [dig up] N [new] CE [Anglicans] supporting E [English]
5 TOMBOY – cryptic definition, playing on “a miss is as good as a mile”
6 TESLA COIL – transformer: I [one] in LOCAL SET [group of neighbours] reversed [upstanding]
7 OXONIAN – member of university: (NIXON + MAO – M [male])* [surprisingly]
8 SHOCK TREATMENT – cryptic definition
14 EQUIPMENT – tackle: QUIP [crack] in cEMENT [concrete “with top removed”]
16 MUTATION – change: TI [titanium] in AMOUNT* [variable]
18 EARACHE – pain: EA [each] plus RACHEl [wife of Jacob “reduced”]
20 COINAGE – fresh term: CO [company] IN AGE [during later years]
21 MINCED – toned down for politeness: M [compendiuM “finally”] INC [including] ED [edition]
23 GLADE – wood’s open space: GLAD [content] resting on E [energy]

45 comments on “Times 25794 – Mincing Clues Not Words”

  1. Not as much of a puzzle as trying to imagine who verlaine might be. Wasn’t entirely sure about BOTNET but, as blogged, the inclusive was blatant.

    Main thing to note was a rather giveaway CD at 8dn which at least had the merit of not referring to perms, mullets and 1dn bottoms.

  2. . . . of steady stuff. I liked 1ac and hated (as I always do) 24ac. I would not have got 15ac if the clueing was not so precise. Nice blog verlaine
  3. Welcome to the alternate Friday slot, verlaine! It was good to have a week off blogging.

    Nothing much to frighten the horses here though I needed wordplay to come up with 6dn and I might have struggled with 15ac if it hadn’t been so clearly signalled as a hidden reversal. Having said that, I believe I have met both answers here in previous puzzles but neither stuck. 38 minutes with the last 5 spent on 21dn having immediately thought of MINCED but with no idea how it could be the answer until I suddenly thought of ‘mincing one’s words’.

    Edited at 2014-05-23 06:07 am (UTC)


  4. Managed all ok, but took some time at the end alphabet-running for TOMBOY. Still don’t really get the ‘as good as’ bit…is it just to make it sound like ‘a miss is as good as a mile’? Not sure I like it that much.

    BOTNET, RIGEL and TESLA COIL from vague memory and wordplay.

    Great that Verlaine has volunteered… can’t begin to imagine the extra stress that would put on solving quickly to have the blog up so early…! Many thanks.

    1. Mm, I seem to recall that my first thoughts for “a miss as good as a male” were VIRAGO and/or AMAZON!
  5. Welcome, verlaine, and thank you for an entertaining blog.

    15:12 … solved on paper again and somewhat hampered by having tried to cram MONOMANIAC into 9 spaces. I’ll have to ask crypticsue where she gets her Tippex (or start actually parsing clues properly).

    Much delayed at the end by COINAGE and CURLICUE (which gets my COD vote; lovely word, lovely clue).

    1. My daughter has been taught by her (maternal) grandmother to eat her bits of bread crust with the persuasion of a little extra dab of butter on each, and these morsels are called “curlicues”… not sure if the practice is widespread, or just a family invention, but that’s what I think of now when the word comes up!
  6. Rats, no time because I forgot to start the stopwatch. The grid filled rapidly across the top and down the left and I thought the holy grail of 10 minutes was a possibility but, as so often, got a bit bogged down, so possibly twice that. Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog by what would seem a kindred spirit (slothful, egomaniacal Oxonian – not to mention old). Didn’t notice ea for each at 18dn because I parsed it as (l)EA(h) and RACHE(l), the two wives of Jacob, but that’s probably just a happy coincidence.
  7. 17m, but back to my slapdash ways having thrown NASCENCE in 13A. Fiddlesticks!

    I thought this might be quick when DUCKS AND DRAKES went straight in. I loved playing it as a child and I remember my best throw as achieving 14 hops. Admittedly this number may have grown with the passing of time.

    Having switched to solving on treeware today I thought it ironic to get CHINAWARE in 25A. Presuming the tablet on which I usually solve is manufactured in the Far East mightn’t that be dubbed Chinaware?

    1. 14 hops! Maybe the fact that I rarely exceeded 2 or 3 was the reason I never had a name for it.

      Is there any compelling reason for it to have been known as “ducks and drakes”? Doing it with real ducks and drakes would probably be cruel.

  8. All fairly straightforward, although I’m no sure I fully understand SHOCK TREATMENT.

    A bit red-faced at not seeing OXONIAN at the first attempt at the anagram, even though I am one (slothful, yes, but not egomaniacal).

    1. I quite liked the double sense of “encountering resistance in people’s heads” – both the literal one, i.e. the brain’s natural ohmage, and the fact that civilised types now seem to find this therapy quite brutal and barbarous.

      Never did me any harm that I can tell though, etc etc.

  9. Your intro gave me as much pleasure as this puzzle, thanks to you and setter
  10. A second 11 minute run for the week, Add me to the list of those who would not have got BOTNET without the clue helpfully spelling it out.
    Having engaged sprint mode, I started to put in DAVID AND GOLIATH at 1d, being a stone’s throw apart (how witty!) before realising it had nothing else going for it.
    NASCENCY looked like another of those words Shakespeare would have cobbled together when he needed a couple of extra syllables at the end of a line to mean “birth”. Again the wordplay was kind, with Nancy being one of the more crossword friendly (and familiar) French cities. It was never going to be Metz.
    Has anyone tried picturing a singlet on a stake? Only in Crosswordland.
    And, of course, my welcome to Verlaine, especially for the fine preamble which cheerfully demanded decoding.

    Edited at 2014-05-23 08:22 am (UTC)

  11. Welcome, verlaine, and thank you for a tour de force of a blog. Not much trouble with this puzzle, although putting in ‘cling-wrap’ at 9ac didn’t help. But my LOI was 4d; I somehow settled on ‘dig up’ as the definition, and wasted lots of time thinking of a 4-letter cardinal to go where MINE actually does.
  12. I enjoyed both the puzzle and the blog. I shall never be able to see the term ‘vested interest’ without visualising Jack Duckworth in his yard after Verlaine’s 13A.
  13. Welcome to blogging, Verlaine..

    Very quick this, under ten minutes, greatly helped by 1ac and 1dn going straight in.. about as close as I ever get to solving each clue in sequence

    Not noticed botnet before but remembered Agrippina, she was married to Derek Jacobi..

  14. Welcome Verlaine. We appear to have virtually nothing in common.

    A reasonably gentle offering for your first venture but with some interesting and some not so interesting clues. I also don’t like 5D. I knew BOTNET and the COIL and have been doing these puzzles long enough to know dear old AGGY and Jacob’s wife. Middle of the road 20 minute solve.

  15. 11m. Gentle but nice puzzle. The only thing I didn’t like was 5dn, where I’m with janie_l_b. I think the connection to ‘as good as a mile’ is a bit corny and certainly not good enough to justify the sexism.
    Thanks for the entertaining blog, Verlaine. Welcome from yet another slothful Oxonian. I’m not an EGOMANIAC though: that would be beneath me.

    1. K, I didn’t perceive any sexism, just taking “as good as” in its “other” sense i.e. essentially/more or less etc.

      That’s not to say I approve of the punniness.

      1. I considered that, but try as I might I can’t read it that way. Perhaps I’m oversensitive, being the father of a female tweenager.
  16. Welcome, new blogger; I am yet another slothful Oxonian classicist (somehow I get the feeling we are over-represented in the field of cryptic crosswords…) who enjoyed this puzzle at the easier end of the spectrum. I think EMCEE came up for discussion in a recent Jumbo which featured the similarly unattractive DEEJAY. Meanwhile, BOTNET seems to have appeared in Mephisto but is making a debut in the daily cryptic; if every appearance of a new word like this means the disappearance of something that’s become a bit too familiar, that’s all to the good.
  17. Sprinted away with 1ac and 1dn and had all but a few in the the SE sector in ten minutes, then had a case of solver’s block before CHINAWARE clicked, followed by MINCED and the rest, 28 minutes of fun.

    Vest wise I was more in mind of Onslow in KUA (Geoffrey Hughes, who was also in Corrie of course). Not a pretty sight. Fine amusing clue though. Nice blog, Verlaine, especially when commuting at 6 a.m., not a pleasant concept. My debut on Monday will be at a more civilised hour.

  18. Two missing today (Curlicue and Agrippina) continues my run of near misses.
    Thanks verlaine for your entertaiing blog. Who’s the chap wearing the stovepipe?
    1. I am sure that verlaine can expand on it but the chap in the hat is the poet . . . . Verlaine.
  19. I got off to a flying start solving almost all of the first five across and down clues straight away and thought I’d finish in under fifteen minutes, but was slowed down by some of the trickier ones and took thirty in the end. I thought it was a nice balance of easy and middling clues. I needed the C to get Jacob’ wife, which gave me the R to help me recall AGRIPPINA.
    Best clue for deceptive wording was 23d.
  20. 11:26 with MINCED and the TOMBOY being the last to fall. I seem to learn more about Mr Tesla with every crossword solved.

    Excellent debut blog.

  21. 20 mins. I thought I was going to be a lot quicker because I entered 1ac and 1dn almost as quickly as I read the clues, but then I got a phone call that gave me something else to think about and it knocked me off my stride a little. I was another one who was trying to think of a cardinal ?I?E that would lead to a definition for “dig up” until the penny finally dropped, and BOTNET would also have presented problems had it not been so clearly clued. However, I had the most trouble in the SE for some reason and GLADE was my LOI after the Jack Duckworth clue.

    Verlaine’s preamble was indeed excellent, so thanks for that.

  22. 16:54 but I went all out on Kevin G’s interpretation of 4d and sandwiched his eminence Cardinal Vide (not the comfy chair!) between English and NCE to give me evidence, in a sort of “as evidenced by = as dug up by” sort of way. In my defence, m’lud, I did have a QM against it so I’m not completely stupid although the fact I wend to Leeds Poly and not Oxford hardly helps my case.

    Coinage held me up for ages at the end (I wanted there to be a Y in there for “term of company”) and I needed the wordplay to get Tesla coil and Agrippina (she didn’t come up much in Business Studies with French).

  23. I also was held up by EMINENCE, thinking it had to be EVIDENCE, but to my credit I never wrote it in before the truth shone through and I read the clue as intended. LOI was MINCED, overall about 20-25 minutes. BOTNET from the precise wordplay, not because I previously knew what it means. I applaud the entry of Verlaine onto the blogging roster, with his fine avatar and sartorial excellence. Raises our classiness level a few notches, I’d say. Regards to all.
    1. Raises our classiness level a few notches, I’d say.

      Soon fix that. I’m blogging on Sunday.

      1. In any case you should, as Dorothy Parker said, stay away from Verlaine: he was always chasing Rimbauds.
        1. Tony, you and I are on a roll with les puns français. I’m groaning, but I’m laughing inside.
          1. Don’t get me started. (Hang on a minute: you already have done!) I expect you’re familiar with the putative motto of the French navy, but in case you’re not, it’s

            À l’eau, c’est l’heure.

                1. Got it in one. (Actually, I heard it as “Parce qu’on risque d’en faire un nain gras”, but wotthehell.)
  24. Well a 33m DNF as I never got near the COIL and would not have thought of local set for a group of neighbours how ever long I had stared at the puzzle. Excellent and entertaining blog! Thanks!
  25. Thank you verlaine for your most entertaining intro.
    I was always encouraged by my Grandmother to eat my crusts which would make my hair grow curly. It never did, thank goodness and the toughness of post war bread crusts.
    Mike and Fay
  26. 9:54 for me, another slothful Oxonian, though one with small Latin and less Greek. A pleasant, straightforward puzzle – and a nice debut blog entry.
  27. Most of this went in quite neatly on my Balham-Wembley tube ride this morning, although the MINCED CHINAWARE crosser proved obdurate and the penny finally droppped once I’d got back home this evening. I’d spent most of my professional life round computers, but had not come across a BOTNET – what a difference a few years away makes!

    FOI RIGEL, LOI the aforesaid crosser. Now just think how neat the clue would have been had RIGEL been anywhere near Orion’s belt – it actually marks his left foot (or left knee, or right foot, depending on which drawing you look at). Still, no crossword’s perfect …

  28. Never heard of Jack Duckworth, but George Duckworth, that’s a different matter entirely. Excellent wicketkeeper for Lancs and England between the wars.
  29. Bravo to the setter for the slightly geeky-techie-nerdy TESLA COIL, BOTNET, MUTATION and RIGEL. Let’s have more of that, along with the AGRIPPINAs, obscure cricket terms and philosophers.

    About half an hour for me, with RIGEL my FOI and CHINAWARE my LOI. I too deplore the use of EMCEE, which is an ugly import from the yewessay. ECCLE would have fitted just as well.

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