Times 25869 – Jimbo Woz ’Ere!

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Okay – a nice easy one and a joint blogging effort between Z8, Olivia (making her debut, I think) on the acrosses and me on the downs. Hopefully, our mystery alternative Tuesday blogger will be with us by 2 September.

ACROSS

1. POSTLUDE – piece common in recession; mail gives POST, LUDE sounds like lewd or “obscene” I was looking for the clue to behave very differently, with reverses and such: the definition is longer than it strictly needs to be.
5. GAUCHE – Inelegant; dressing gives GAUzE, from which the Z (unknown, maths) is removed and replaced by CH (companion of Honour). Another affront to our sinister friends.
9. CEREBELLA – parts of upper storey; for which read parts of the head/brain. Hidden (rather well I thought) in FierCE REBEL LAird’s.
11. AMAZE – AMA(I)ZE; remove the i from “a maize” and you have “cause surprise”.
12. IDYLLIC – charming; this one caused me most head scratching: it’s ChILLY with the H(usband), stolen reversed (as per contrary) and then ID for papers at the beginning.
13. CANTEEN – mess; that sort of mess. CAN and nick are both slang terms for prison, TEEN an adolescent.
14. TOASTMISTRESS – MC; AT MOST* “dances”, SISTERS* are “arranged”.
16 POLICE STATIONS – Busy workplace; a cryptic definition. Busy for policeman/detective has come up a few times recently.
20 COINAGE – Money; made up of CO(mpany) and IN AGE getting older, so towards the end.
21 INCOMER – No native; created by adding R(esistance) to the end of INCOME for “means”.
23 LEGAL – Allowed; “AGE”= “time” reversed between 2 Ls (lines).
24 SWINBURNE – British poet; BURN[s] – Scots poet briefly without the S contained in “swine” = “rotter”.
25. DROWSY – dropping off; disputes can be ROWS. Place them between the two sides of D(erb)y. No, not Spurs/Arsenal. Not enough spaces.
26. EGGSHELL Hard cover; do they still make eggshell gloss paint? EG from “say”, GS from G(las)S casing, HE’LL from “man will”.

DOWN

1 PECTIN – sounds like ‘pecked’ + IN; pectin (‘setter’) is used in jam making.
2 SPRAY – S[ection] + PRAY for the flowery thing
3. LOBELIA – LOB (shy as in throw) + ELIA (Charles Lamb’s pen name); another flowery thing.
4. DELICATESSENS – ASSETS DECLINE* (anagram); only one specialist shop in Crosswordville.
6. AGAINST – NS (poles) in A + GAIT (carriage as in how you walk); ‘standing beside’.
7. CHAMELEON – CAME (appeared) around H (horse = heroin) + NOEL reversed.
8. EVENNESS – EVE + [inspection]N + NESS; ‘calm’ (as of temperament).
10. ACCLIMATISING – CI + ISNT + MAGICAL* (sadly) ; ‘settling in’. (on edit – thanks to Anon)
14. TALKING-TO – KING in TOTAL*.
15. SPECKLED – [Gregory] PECK (for To Kill a Mockingbird, I imagine) in SLED; Speckled Jim, RIP.
17. CHABLIS – CHA + B-LIS[t].
18. INCUBUS – IN CUB[a] + US; nasty nightmarey thing.
19. ORDEAL – OR (Ordinary Ranks) + DEAL; ‘trial’.
22. MAR[i]NE

46 comments on “Times 25869 – Jimbo Woz ’Ere!”

  1. How about a joint enterprise? There’s probably enough of us to do a clue or two each: head up as I have and they’ll all be easy to find. Ulaca, please feel free to ignore!

    1 POSTLUDE piece common in recession
    Mail gives POST, LUDE sounds like lewd or “obscene” I was looking for the clue to behave very differently, with reverses and such: the definition is longer than it strictly needs to be.
    5 GAUCHE Inelegant
    Dressing gives GAUzE, from which the Z (unknown, maths) is removed and replaced by CH (companion of Honour). Another affront to our sinister friends
    9 CEREBELLA parts of upper storey
    For which read parts of the head/brain. Hidden (rather well I thought) in FierCE REBEL LAird’s

    Edited at 2014-08-19 08:41 am (UTC)

    1. You take the acrosses – I’ll do the downs.

      Keep posting in a comment as now, and I’ll whip it into shape as a main entry.

  2. IDYLLIC charming
    This one caused me most head scratching: it’s ChILLY with the H(usband), stolen reversed (as per contrary) and then ID for papers at the beginning
    CANTEEN mess
    That sort of mess. CAN and nick are both slang terms for prison, TEEN an adolescent
    14 TOASTMISTRESS MC
    AT MOST “dances” SISTERS are “arranged”
  3. 16 POLICE STATIONS Busy workplace
    A cryptic definition. Busy for policeman/detective has come up a few times recently.
    20 COINAGE Money
    Made up of CO(mpany) and IN AGE getting older, so towards the end
    21 INCOMER No native
    Created by adding R(esistance) to the end of INCOME for “means”
  4. 25 DROWSY dropping off
    Disputes can be ROWS. Place them between the two sides of D(erb)y. No, not Spurs/Arsenal. Not enough spaces.
    26 EGGSHELL Hard cover
    Do they still make eggshell gloss paint? EG from “say”, GS from G(las)S casing, HE’LL from “man will”
  5. Thanks to both for taking up the blogging reins. I now see why my guess at SWINBORNE was wrong – I was looking for another rotter in SWINE and couldn’t work out how BORN or BURN fitted and plumped for the former. I almost went with BURN on the justification that Mr Burns from The Simpsons is a rotter!

    Other than that a fairly gentle 27 minutes. I was held up in the NW until I spotted the well hidden CEREBELLA and my hope that POSTLUDE was a word given you can have an interlude proved well placed.

  6. 3 hours 21 minutes this morning, on and off.
    FOI Amaze, LOI Idyllic.
    Postlude, Swinburne and Marne from wordplay and Idyllic from definition.
    Re Pectin: I made three jars of homegrown Victoria plum jam on Sunday afternoon (it’s not set particularly well but will be a nice syrup on pancakes) and so pectin was in my mind from the recipe.
    1. Thanks, that reminds me to remain vigilant. I have a young damson tree in my garden, and the fruit is approaching ripeness. Once it gets to a certain point it attracts the attention of our local gangs of green parakeets, and they strip the tree. My aim is to pick it all just before this moment.
      I won’t need pectin though: if I can save them mine are going into gin!
  7. Pootle – there was a triumvirate! Olivia & Z8 across, Ulaca down. A superb example of transoceanic cooperation!
  8. I’ll take up the challenge Z – ditto from me on ignoring them Ulaca.

    11 AMAZE. AMA(I)ZE. Remove the i from “a maize” and you have “cause surprise”.
    23 LEGAL Allowed. “AGE”= “time” reversed between 2 Lines.
    24 SWINBURNE British poet. Burn(s) – Scots poet briefly without the S contained in “swine”=”rotter”.

    Apologies – I’m not much good at this. It’s harder than it looks! Sorry, our comments crossed.

    Edited at 2014-08-19 08:58 am (UTC)

  9. 21.23. Thanks team; and thanks keriothe for the information on postlude. And while I’m at it to the setter for ‘toastmistress’: a useful word for a kitchen sexist.
  10. 14 mins. At first I thought it was going to be a difficult one because I didn’t see an across answer on first read until I got to POLICE STATION, but once I got started the rest fell into place easily enough. I didn’t know POSTLUDE or that meaning of INCUBUS but they were both clearly clued. ACCLIMATISING was my LOI.
  11. Thanks to the emergency-response blogging team!
    12m for this. Straightforward but enjoyable I thought.
    I was puzzled by 1ac, even if the answer was clear. It turns out you need to know two churchy things that I didn’t:
    > A POSTLUDE is ‘a voluntary played at the end of a Church service’.
    > ‘Recession’ is ‘the withdrawal of the clergy and choir in procession from the chancel at the conclusion of a church service’.

    Edited at 2014-08-19 09:48 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for the additional on POSTLUDE: it’s an odd word even amongst Church organists where “voluntary” would be much more common. The French use “sortie”, at least sometimes, including this rather jaunty number from Lefebre-Wely. Always amuses me to watch clergy and choir trying not to dance their way through the recessional.

      Edited at 2014-08-19 10:04 am (UTC)

      1. My thanks too to Z8 for explaining the definition of POSTLUDE, which, I suspect, will have been been unfamiliar to many. Clever puzzle. The hidden word CEREBELLA was brilliantly camouflaged.

        Thanks also to the emergency blogging team.

        1. Apologies to Keriothe who I see should also have been thanked for the definition of POSTLUDE.
  12. I was quite happy with this until I saw it rated as “a nice easy one”! It was a very slow but steady solve for me, never quite getting stuck but it still occupied me for a good hour. The hidden answer was my last one in, solved from what fitted the checkers. Massive “D’oh” moment when I spotted what was going on.
  13. I deliberately kept away from the blog this morning, fearful that there might be a cock-up and determined not to get guilt tripped into filling in. So well done the emergency team – but where is the new blogger?

    Middle of the road puzzle I suspect rather than easy. There’s some clever stuff here and a 1A where the definition went right over my head (and many others too I suspect). Brilliant hidden word at 9A.

    25 minutes and pleased to be able to solve it in a relaxed way.

    1. Nah, you Dorsetshire folk are the epitome of calm, battered hat and straw between the teeth and all.
  14. Wearing my commenter cap, this took 31 minutes. I completely missed the recessional aspect at 1a, so imagined this was the antithesis of a foreword in a book while solving. Lamb’s essay on New Year’s Eve is full of charm, while CS Lewis once referred to PhDs done in the social sciences ‘just to fill a gap’ as ‘the incubus of research’.
  15. Finished after many interruptions in about 50′ actual solving time, although I was unable to parse 12a properly, but the answer was clear. Nice puzzle, and made me feel like I am getting better and more on the wavelength (or was it just easier?).

    TOASTMISTRESS and DELICATESSENS my FOIs, which gave me a good start – didn’t we have another DELI anagram the other day?

  16. …I had LOBELLA, obviously thinking of that famous essayist and part-time rugby player Mark Ella.

    Agree with others that the hidden was brilliantly deceptive.

  17. An enjoyable 11 mins spent on this one, with lots of anagram letters round the edge of the sheet of paper. My favourite has to be the ‘busy workplace’.

    Thanks to the bloggers and the setter too.

  18. Around the 45 minute mark – I got held up in the SE corner by going through all the naval battles I knew – from Salamis to Midway via Lepanto and Aboukir Bay until light dawned.
    Thanks Olivia/Z8 or whoever it was for parsing 5a for me(I lost track whose it was). Brilliant piece of collaboration today – an entertainment in itself – so I award you my star picture.
    1. From COD

      noun(also bizzy) (pl.busies or bizzies) Brit. informal
      a police officer. I was picked up by the busies for possession.

    2. There are a variety of responses to your query. I always assumed it was Victorian criminal slang: I think it turns up in “The First Great Train Robbery” which had a think about “authentic” slang. Other sources cite it no later than early 20th century, and others describe it as Lincolnshire/Geordie/Liverpool slang. The last of those is 1980’s but rather fun: “Common Liverpool slang term for the police, it was invented as the police were always too ‘busy’ to help. Also that the police are seen as ‘busy-bodies’ i.e. that they ask too many questions”.
      Not sure it’s much in contemporary use, except in this great corner of the Times.
  22. On the mild side of average: got the long ones first, in perfect rotational symmetry – then a bit embarrassed to find I’d made a swastika.
  23. Bizzies, as I would spell it, is still used among my contemporaries here on Merseyside, but I don’t know if it is in general use.
  24. 40 minutes and happy to complete. Hadn’t heard of chameleon as a fickle fellow (just a very changeable animal) but made the leap. Postlude was a ‘just has to be’ from the checkers and parsing as was police station and thanks for the busy=police explanation. Particularly enjoyed pectin and Chablis.
  25. I knew that this would be classified as easy when I finished without aids in just over the hour. I had never heard of POSTLUDE but it had to be from the word play and checkers and I did Google it to be sure so I suppose that counts as an aid really. Like others I got off to a good start with the longish ones and filled in slowly but steadily and with enjoyment from there. I did not see the hidden at 9 across until I had already decided that it could be nothing else although I could not see the word play! I real Doh!
    2. I would imagine a number of us got the hidden that way too. And looking up a word after you enter it is merely an aide-memoire for the next time. Highly recommended. It sometimes works… 🙂
  26. Many thanks to the SWAT blogging team, and well done. About 30 minutes for me, held up by ORDEAL and the clever PECTIN at the end. The NW corner was pretty clever all through. Regards.
  27. Did all but the NW corner when my proud ignorance of church matters such as recessions let me down; was looking for something sounding ‘blue’ in 1ac not lewd / lude. Must remember setter = pectin, sure that’ll arise again as a nice change from setter = me. Am thoroughtly confused as to who was blogging and who was commenting. Regret am not available early enough on Tuesdays to be any help.
  28. A very enjoyable puzzle. Like others I solved ‘postlude’ from the wordplay without the least idea how the clue worked otherwise, so many thanks for the explanation, and thanks to the blogging team.
  29. 9:48 for me – about the same time as I took for today’s archive puzzle from 1966 (a much easier solve than yesterday’s stinker from 20 years earlier).

    Nice puzzle – but once again I took far too long to get started: I completely failed to solve any of the first six acrosses (even the easy 11ac, despite parsing it correctly), but then switched to the downs and solved the first seven of those straight off without a hitch!

    Edited at 2014-08-19 09:51 pm (UTC)

Comments are closed.