Times 25,833 – Mrs T meets Jack T

Author   dorsetjimboPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A fun puzzle with some interesting constructions. I’m guessing there may be several solutions based upon definition without a full parsing. 20 minutes to solve.

Across
1 ACTIVIST – T(I)V-IS in ACT; set=TV; Australian Capital Territory=ACT; James Mawdsley no doubt;
5 ABRADE – A-BRA(D)E; D from (hoar)D; a bank in Buckhaven=BRAE;
9 INSOMNIAC – IN-SO-M(a)NIAC – bats=mad; hint of anxiety=a (Mephisto device); Mrs Thatcher or perhaps Groucho Marx whose insomnia was triggered by the Wall Street Crash of 1929. By coincidence, on this day in 1932, the Dow recorded its record low of 41.22 …..;
11 ISSUE – (t)ISSUE; ….. and the first issue of the Wall Street Journal was today in 1889;
12 HORMONE – HO(RM-O)NE; Jolly=Royal Marine=RM; tune=improve=HONE; natural substances with much to answer for;
13 ROGUERY – ROGER contains U=University then Y=year; in international radio chat ROGER means “I heard you”;
14 SMEAR,CAMPAIGN – (American GP as m)*; m from m(iscreant); Edison on Westinghouse perhaps;
16 PARLIAMENTARY – PAR-ALIMENTARY with A demoted to give LIAMENTARY; diet=Japanese parliament amongst others;
20 SUPREMO – SUP-(more)*; Eisenhower maybe;
21 ASSUAGE – (p)ASS(U)AGE;
23 DWELL – D-WELL;
24 ESSENTIAL – ESSEN-(LAIT reversed);
25 COPPER – two meanings 1=to cop something is slang for to receive something 2=metal;
26 GREENERY – commonly=gener(all)y then remove “all” to give GENERY and insert “re”=about for G(RE)ENERY;
 
Down
1 ALIGHT – A-(p)LIGHT;
2 TASER – RESAT reversed; stun gun used by 25A;
3 VAMOOSE – VA(MOO)SE; split=slang for leave hurredly=VAMOOSE;
4 SLIDE,TROMBONE – (listen boredom)*; never bored listening to say Chris Barber or Jack Teagarden;
6 BRING,UP – B-RING-UP;
7 AUSTERITY – (USA)*-TE(me)RITY; definition of which is a political football;
8 EVERYONE – E(VERY-ON)E; absolutely=VERY; available=ON; EE from (w)EE(k);
10 CURTAIN-RAISER – wings as in side of stage;
14 SCRAP,HEAP – S-C(RAP)HEAP; getting smaller as we recycle more;
15 EPISODIC – EPIC=magnificent surrounds IS-(DO reversed);
17 ICE,FLOE – (I feel co)*; co from co(ld);
18 ABSENCE – ABS-(h)ENCE;
19 REALLY – RE(A-L)LY; on edit: we understand that the Times model answer has an incorrect entry MEDLEY here causing all official entries to be given “one mistake”;
22 ARISE – passage=aisle then remove “l=left” to give AISE and insert R=Regina to give A(R)ISE;

47 comments on “Times 25,833 – Mrs T meets Jack T”

  1. 29.04 I thought this a fine and challenging puzzle, which took time to nestle into. My first one in was TASER, then I abandoned the NW for the SW and made gently accelerating progress from there.
    Special mention for the 4 long ones: two deft anagrammatical &lits, a fine charade with a well disguised dietary definition, and a pleasing (that means really amazingly good from me) cryptic definition.
    I note at the timer of writing that we’re still all one wrong at the club, and Jim would be. Not my turn, I think.

    Edited at 2014-07-08 07:42 am (UTC)

  2. Thanks k for clearing up the “mistake” issue. I was puzzled by z’s comment, checked, but could not find an obvious error
    1. Maybe someone (our editor?) changed both clue and answer to 19dn because of its overlap with the clue to 5ac??
  3. After rapid failure yesterday, it was slow success today, limping home, with SCRAP-HEAP, in an hour and a half. As divined by Jim, I didn’t bother with a goodly number of the parsings till solving was complete, getting all bar 26a, for which thanks would be due to our blogger if I hadn’t already been filled in via the Crossword Club.

    I thought the literals were very well hidden, with a very cunning &lit at 4d. I don’t suppose I have come across such an anagrind (which I take to be ‘Its playing may make you’) before. Kudos to the setter.

  4. 1ac, no need to parse that, bung in CANBERRA and I’m off and running. Didn’t run for long before limping back to my obvious error and was a bit more cautious from then on.

    Another excellent puzzle I thought. I was going to say absolutely no obscurities, forgetting that ACT would be understandably obscure to some. But you didn’t need to know it to solve the clue.

    Held up for a while by writing SCARE CAMPAIGN, which is what political parties do in Australia. They leave the smear campaigns to their friends in radio-land. And Rupert.

  5. A very enjoyable puzzle completed in exactly an hour without ever feeling completely stuck. Several clues went unparsed though, principally the matching pair at 1ac and 26. I should have gone back to it this morning to think those through but I’ve a feeling I’d never have understood 1ac and possibly not the other one either. Anyway life’s too short on a non-blogging day.

    Edited at 2014-07-08 07:31 am (UTC)

  6. A very nice puzzle I thought, all done and parsed in 30 mins except for 26ac (thank you jimbo). I particulary liked the two long anagrams.

    ACT not a problem – I’m going there this weekend as it happens.

    I like Jimbo’s note of the Dow’s low in 1932. I was going to add a comment on the power of compound interest but will desist as this is a crossword forum!

    1. I was going to mention that this was a particularly timely comment, as the Dow hit its all-time high of 17,075 on Thursday.
  7. Last in: GREENERY which had to be the answer but I couldn’t parse it. Thanks to Jim for demiserifying me. GENERY ought to be the eighth deadly sin. I’ll leave its meaning to other commenters.

    The “a” in 5ac is a classic instance of the nugatory-a. It does nought for the clue (which is strangely akin to that for 19dn).

    Is our setter having a go at Peter B. in 4dn?

      1. I was wrong! SImple as that. We need it for the first letter of the answer. Obviously insufficient coffee today. Which I shall make up for on Saturday morning. Apologies.
          1. ‘Piece a Conservative back together again wrongly’, where ‘wrongly’ simply means it’s a naff clue?

            Edited at 2014-07-08 09:05 am (UTC)

    2. 4d immediately made me think of arch trombonist Peter B, too. I’m sure he’ll be having a word with whoever set it! (unless it was him)
    3. What’s the opposite of nugatory? Anyway, that’s what the A in 5ac is.
  8. 12m. This is a very fine puzzle, appreciated most after the event, because as anticipated by Jim a lot went in from definitions alone.
    Having solved this on the iPad app I can confirm (after a process of trial and error) that there is a mistake in the model solution which explains why everyone has one wrong on the club site. The ‘correct’ answer for 19dn is MEDLEY. Obviously something got switched, or didn’t, at some point.
    I’ve managed somehow to go through life without ever having heard of the ACT. I am now much better informed on the matter.
  9. 17 and a half minutes for a puzzle designed to bring you up short if you were feeling over-confident after yesterday. As predicted, I also put in GREENERY without parsing; and I was misled by 10dn for ages, especially when it looked as if it might be SURFACE something, and thus some part of an aircraft I couldn’t quite call to mind.

    So, today the Crossword Club has put an incorrect answer in the Cryptic, and not put a clue in at all for the final answer in the Concise, making it impossible to answer either of them successfully. Still hard to feel that the crossword is a part of the paper which is taken seriously by the Powers That Be at Wapping.

  10. 31:23 .. I wasn’t quite up for this challenge this morning and struggled with all but the NE. ACTIVIST and GREENERY never really parsed.

    Jim, you have an errant E in in your SMEAR CAMPAIGN.

    1. Thank you Sotira – must be the French influence – now corrected
      1. Understandable. I spent Sunday morning strolling round the Tour de France travelling circus in Green Park and I’ve been feeling a bit French ever since.
        1. I read that first as ‘feeling a litle French’, which conjured some interesting images.
          1. I rewrote that line several times and it still felt a little smutty, so I just gave up and left an open goal for anyone who wants to stick it in the back of the net. Trust me, the first iteration was worse.
  11. A few seconds under 29 mins and I struggled with this one, although it was a high quality puzzle and I have no complaints. Count me as another who entered GREENERY on definition alone, and COPPER was my LOI after SCRAP HEAP.
    1. Dear me – why do you post without reading what has gone before. I suggest you read the comment from keriothe timed at 8.50 am

      Also, if you think the answer should be MEDLEY please parse it against the clue “A pound’s deposited in bank? You surprise me!”

      1. Yes, I’d be interested to know how Anonymous got the answer ‘medley’ from that clue!
  13. 40 minutes, twice as long yesterday’s took. I filled most of the top half quickly, then ground to a halt, picking up again when I solved 15 and 20. 16 took ages to get, and like some others I didn’t work out the wordplay to 1ac and 26.
    A very satisfying and enjoyable puzzle.
  15. All correct today. Thanks for deciphering Activist for me Jim. Made things difficult for myself in the SW corner by intially putting in Spasmodic for Episodic. Only corrected that when Supremo popped into my head for 20ac.
    The iPad version of this puzzle marks Really as incorrect too.
    1. If you managed to fit spasmodic in the 8-letter light where episodic belonged these ipads are cleverer than I thought.
      1. Hee hee!
        I meant Sporadic of course and spent ages thinking (unsuccessfully) of any words that fitted R?P?E?O
        before Supremo then Episodic came to mind.
        1. Well you did better than me.
          I had sporadic and ripieno (Lord knows why other than it fitted). I never did get the correct answers.
  16. Took a break from this after struggling through about half in 30 minutes. When I came back to it the rest succumbed in 15 minutes.

    Agree with Jimbo that this had some nice constructions. COD to SLIDE TROMBONE but I also enjoyed PARLIAMENTARY for the use of ‘nutrition’ to help mislead from the type of diet required.

  17. I was surprised that the clock only showed 16:05 when I finished this as it felt a bit tricky in oparts. To be honest I was surprised to find the clock still running as I had to stop n start 3 times to take phone calls.

    Jimbo, I think you have the bit in brackets wrong in your explanation for 12ac – shouldn’t it be RM-O to account for jolly old? I paid particular attention to that one as I was kind to find out what sort of old tune a hoone was.

    I managed to parse greenery for myself but not activist. ACT for me is the Association of Corporate Treasurers, what I am one of.

    Re getting answers from definition and not wordplay, hands up anybody who saw boldness in 7d and thought of temerity?

  18. Very hard but enjoyable – it took me 5 times longer than yesterday’s at just under an hour. Had no idea about the Australian ACT thing, and like others, ‘greenery’ was a guess from the checkers. Thanks for explaining both, Jim.
  19. About 30 minutes, and I did parse GREENERY. But ACTIVIST went in solely on definition, not knowing of the ACT area. A very nice puzzle, I thought. Thanks to Jimbo for the blog, and regards.
  20. Solved this in two quick breaks at work (new challenge is to try to solve a crossword while waiting for my work computer to come up and resynch in the morning). The only one I didn’t see the wordplay for was GREENERY so ta for that.
  21. I was pleased to finish this successfully, and also glad that I wasn’t attempting it at my usual late hour. A good deal of time was spent in unravelling the parsing of ‘greenery’, which I cussedly wouldn’t enter until I understood it, having made an error recently inserting an answer on the basis that I couldn’t think of anything else that would fit. I had a vague recollection of ACT as Australian Capital Territory, which made me pretty confident of ‘activist’, though Canberra and even Adelaide crossed my mind before the crossers made them impossible. (Yes, I know that Adelaide isn’t the National seat of government).
    A very satisfying puzzle, even if it underlined my limitations.
  22. Well, you learn something new every day. 1ac – so Australia now has it’s own government?

    This took me 1hr 10, even sober. LOI was 13ac, and I only got it after 10d (my next-to-LOI) excluded the unlikely “_UGGERY” as an option. Didn’t parse ACTIVIST, GREENERY or ROGUERY – sometimes life is just too short (as I am reminded on a daily basis).

    Spent much of this evening removing a microwave oven door from someone. Admittedly, it was in small pieces which made it easier.

    Edited at 2014-07-08 10:47 pm (UTC)

  23. A sluggish 12:36 for me, feeling exhausted after an extremely tough puzzle from 1946.

    Another very clever crossword – one of Dean’s perhaps? I especially liked 16ac (PARLIAMENTARY) – particularly as it turned out to have nothing to do with food :-). I’m afraid that, like some others, I hadn’t come across ACT as Australian Capital Territory before.

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