Times 25874 – Classical Cruising

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A little chewier than your average Monday. I’m a little pressed for time this morning, so this one will be done without recourse to the Internet (including dictionaries) and so may be a tad errant in places. 41 minutes with the two crossing longies (4 and 17) last in.

ACROSS

1 FREIGHT– FR + EIGHT.
5 SICK PAY – cryptic definition.
9. TOP BANANA TOP (‘pot’ reversed – ‘going west’) + BANANA (hand = bunch) .
10. RUMBA – R + U + MBA.
11. MAORI – MAI[n] around OR (Ordinary Ranks).
12. CORPOREAL – E[nergy] in CORPORAL.
14. BEAT GENERATION – never read a word by these three ‘50s’ authors (Jack, Allen and William not Edgar Rice) but they crop up in Gore Vidal’s essays, which I have read.
17. INTERMITTENTLY – the letter I appears intermittently in bIkInI and rImInI. My last in.
21. TROUSSEAU – T[his] + ROUSSEAU for the bride-to-be’s goodies.
23. TITAN – TIT[i]AN; Titian is currently jostling with Matisse for ‘top drawer’.
24. EXTOL – EX + T[ime] + OL (LO[rd] reversed, where ‘rd’ becomes ‘dr’).
25. TOLERATED – literal ‘okay’; TO + DART EEL* (anagram) .
26. SURGEON – URGE in SON; if ‘egg on’ = ‘urge on’, I suppose ‘egg’ can equal ‘urge’.
27. RELEASE – a double definition that has been in the Top 40 for some time now.

DOWN

1. FATIMA – FAT (think ‘profit’) + IMA[m]; better than my original (highly original) ‘Hotemi’.
2. EXPLODE – PLOD (slang for policeman in Britain) in EXE; the ‘blood vessel’ is needed for the grammar, without which we would be needing past tense ‘exploded’. [on edit: thanks to evanimonx and Anon, who point out that the idiom burst a blood vessel means explode; my excuse is that I’m more familiar with that well known character Buster Bloodvessel]
3. GLADIATOR – (LAD + I) in GATOR.
4. THATCHERITE – HERETIC* after (‘supporting’) THAT (‘some particular’, for which I’m sure someone can find a good example that passes the substitution test).
5. SEA – if I’m right, ‘spot’ here just means place. I am only partially right – thanks to galspray for the parsing: literal ‘fish in this’; wordplay a homophone of spot (see), with ‘caught’ the homophonicator.
6. CARGO – C[olchis] + ARGO; Colchis is in Greece, and Jason was from those parts, so I’m putting two and two together and assuming that the ‘relevant’ points us to the home port of the Argo.
7. POMPEII – O + M[ass] in (PIPE + I)* (on edit: ‘lit’ meaning ‘drunk’ is the anagram indicator) for Frankie Howard’s part of the Med.
8. YEARLING – a nice anagram of IN + ARGYLE.
13. RHETT BUTLER – the outside letters of R[as]H + (BUT in LETTER*).
15. AU NATUREL – NATURE (‘disposition’) in [p]AUL (from TARSUS to keep the Med theme); literal ‘plain’.
16. DISTRESS – D + IS + TRESS; ‘trouble’.
18. TROTTER – R[uns] in TOTTER; they may not run fast, but a lot of dough is wagered on them in Australasia and elsewhere.
19. LETITIA – yes, I had to check this – a TITI is a small monkey with a long tail, living in S America; inside the crossword meadow LEA he, or she, gives us LETITIA (‘female’).
20. ON EDGE – a double definition.
22. SALVE – V[ery] in SALE; can ‘market’ mean ‘sale’, I wondered?
25. TEN – think about it…

50 comments on “Times 25874 – Classical Cruising”

  1. Yes indeed … chewier than an average Monday. Same LOI too: couldn’t spot “Is” as the plural of “I”. But I did know that Jason sailed to Colchis (Kolkhis) which helped get 1ac in reverse. (I’d assumed that “boxes” was … erm … a container indicator.)

    24ac was topical in the light of recent TV excitement. The episode screened here at 2:50am and die-hards set their alarms. Probably not worth it in retrospect.

    No idea about TITIs (19dn) and had to reach for Chambers. And thought a “here” might be missing from 20dn.

    Edited at 2014-08-25 01:53 am (UTC)

    1. 11ac was also topical here on Saturday. Die-hards tuned in to see the Maori and their mates perform a ritual disembowelling of our national rugby team.

      If only it was at 2.50am we could have pretended it never happened.

    2. Die hards loved it. Newbies might not have. I’m not sure 13D could be described as the protagonist – bit of a sexist reading of the book if so! But then, I’m barely getting to grips with the real crossword and I’m mainly using the blog to help me understand – I got about half the answers today which was good for me (interestingly I find the real crossword in the Graun much easier, I’ve completely solved several of them in the last week or so). Onwards and upwards I suppose.
  2. A typical good start to the week for me, just watch it go pear-shaped from here.

    Not too many unknowns, other than TITI. Needed the wordplay to spell AU NATUREL correctly. Enjoyed INTERMITTENTLY and SEA for the clever devices.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

    1. Wait a minute. SEA is just a homophone for SEE, as in spot. I originally thought it was to do with ‘c’ = caught.

      So not such a clever device. Not such a clever solver either.

  3. Didn’t care much for this. For a Murcan of my age–never you mind–BEAT GENERATION was hardly cryptic (and I’ve never read a word of any of them either –no, I tell a lie: I did come across an obscene verse of Ginsberg’s once). We’ve had something similar to CORPOREAL and TITAN recently. I actually had heard of the titi–not that that knowledge came into play here–but as Vinyl says, there had to be one. Etc. I’m grateful for the explanation of SEA, but a) given the checkers, it’s either SEA or SPA, b) I still don’t think much of the clue.
  4. About 40 minutes with much the same experience as others above. Like mct I wonder if something is missing from 20dn.

    At 2dn I assume the anagrind is “lit” and I couldn’t understand how that worked so I checked to see if it’s in the Chambers’ list of anagram indicators. It isn’t but they have “light” and now I’m in the dark about that one too.

    Edited at 2014-08-25 04:54 am (UTC)

  5. I made a response to a comment regarding these words, but the comment had been deleted by the time my repsonse was published. Here’s my take on things (I will delete my contribution above in due course):

    To clarify, what I meant was that, since we need only one policeman (the target word being EXPLODE rather than EXPLODSE), the setter needs either the past tense or the imperative. Discounting the latter, the setter needs to use ‘burst’ transitively (discounting the intransitive, as that would suggest an inflatable toy, say, or a policeman pumped full of helium a la Clouseau), and that by definition means s/he needs a nominal phrase in object position. That’s how I see it, anyway.

  6. Thanks. Yes, I should have thought of that, and indeed I have met it as an anagram indicator before now. I still don’t understand how “light” qualifies though – not that it’s an issue in today’s puzzle.

  7. Didn’t see FAT for handsome, and dnk the monkey at 19dn.

    Like others, I thought SEA was from the homophone C(aught), and like others I finished with INTERMITTENTLY. Liked that one once I’d seen how it worked.

    Am I missing something at 25dn? Ok, we have TEN fingers and thumbs, but is that it? (and yes, Ulaca, I have thought about it…)

  8. Not a difficult puzzle in terms of putting in the answers, but spent a while at the end trying to parse both SEA and INTERMITTENTLY. Have read Kerouac’s “On the road” several times over the years and it’s been underwhelming every time, to the point where after the most recent (re-)reading my copy made its way to a local charity shop.
  9. . . . with many unparsed,so thanks ulaca. DNK TITI but it had to be. COD INTERMITTENTLY
  10. Funny old mixture of the good and the bad. 17A is clever, although all those “i” split by other letters is a bit of a giveaway. 5D and 25D are rubbish. TITI is a bit close to the bar crosswords me thinks. Like others have not read the 14A trio but had heard the phrase and just assumed they were connected.

    25 slightly dreary minutes to solve

  11. 21:15 for this pleasant offering. Like others, I couldn’t work out why (y) it was sea (c) but I get it now. Yes, 25d is a bit feeble, but original I think, and there were plenty of nice clues to make this a most enjoyable crossword.
  12. And surely there must be. “Standing” cannot mean “on edge”. It’d be interesting to hear from the powers that be.
    1. I didn’t have a problem with this. You would stand something on its edge, or lie it on its face.
      1. Is it not that if you are standing on the edge then you would be nervous? This was a write in for me, using that logic. But perhaps I was just lucky.
  13. Like Jimbo, I thought it seemed a mixture of good (e.g. 5a, 8a & 4d)and bad clues (3d, 20d, 25) – but at least I managed to complete it in around 45 minutes. Nevertheless I had to come here to find out the explanations for 15 & 17, so thanks for that.
    And, joy of joys, we have a Bank Holiday Jumbo as well! I’ll just have to get on and finish Saturday’s first.
  14. 21 mins. INTERMITTENTLY was also my LOI, and it took me too long to see BEAT GENERATION and RHETT BUTLER. I didn’t think 5dn and 25dn were anywhere near as bad as Jimbo did. TITI came up in a puzzle elsewhere very recently so that helped me with 19dn. Finally, I didn’t have a problem with the standing=on edge half of the DD in 20dn.
  15. Dear oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear. Just under twenty minutes, but with two errors. MISTRESS at 16dn (note to self: the definition is an integral part of the clue) and AU NATURAL at 15dn. I knew it was AU NATUREL but managed to 1) type a non-existent phrase I would never use and 2) fail to spot the error when I checked my answers.
    In light of which I don’t feel qualified to comment on the rest of the puzzle this morning.
    Edit: and a typo in the jumbo too! Perhaps I should just go back to bed.

    Edited at 2014-08-25 09:44 am (UTC)

    1. I too wondered about MISTRESS for 16d but decided against it as I thought the clue couldn’t be that ‘naughty’.
  16. Complete block in NW and finally got round in 54′. I find 2 a good clue and 5 dn and 25 dn perfectly acceptable as a touch of whimsy; and the comments that dismiss them as “rubbish” a touch depressing in their loud highhandedness.
  17. What a grumpy lot this morning! Perhaps it’s because of the lousy weather – certainly here near Reading. I’m with Andy on Jim’s comments re 5d and 25d – I’ve seen a lot worse – and would have thought titi was relatively well known. Overall, I found this quite chewy, especially for a Monday (are Bank Holiday ones usually tougher?)but very enjoyable and crept in just under the half hour. I, too, did not spot “is” in 17a as meaning the plural of “i” – clever clue I think. Thought 13d was particularly tough -is “protagonist” not a bit general for the definition? Thanks for a clear and concise blog.
  18. 15 mins – with INTERMITTENTLY taking up about the last five before the penny dropped. It is pouring with rain here so I have the perfect excuse to sit down with the Jumbo.
  19. 25 min, without succeeding in parsing 2dn or really getting 5dn – I hardly ever think of ‘caught’ as a homophone flag, and couldn’t make “c” work. (Took a couple of minutes trying to see if SPA was possible)
    ALTERNATINGLY looked like a write-in at 17ac, but is too short, so needed a few checkers to get actual (less precise) answer.
    I also worked back from 6dn to 1ac, eventually seeing that ‘ON’ wasn’t to be found inside anything, with the “boxes” being actual shipping containers.
  20. A bit of a curate’s egg of a puzzle, with 25d (TEN) the feeblest clue. On the other hand, unlike Jimbo, I thought SEA (5D) was quite crafty in that you (or at least I) hesitated to enter such an obvious answer if you (which again, alas, included me) failed to spot “caught” as the homophonicator (thanks for adding that word to my vocabulary, Ulaca!) But 17A (INTERMITTENTLY) was clever, and the linking of 1A (FREIGHT) and 6D (CARGO) was neat.

    Didn’t CORPOREAL come up very recently in another cryptic, indicted by a similarly worded clue, or is my memory playing me false?

    1. It came up in ST 4603 (blogged yesterday) clued as “NCO conserving last of explosive material”.
  21. So we don’t get the quick cryptic in Ireland. We don’t get the Jumbo. Why are the Irish discriminated against in this way? Why do we have to have a different edition of The Times, when all the other British papers are available as they appear in the UK? Seriously considering giving up buying this paper after 30 years. I only buy it for the puzzles – the news coverage and opinion has mostly rubbish for some years.
    1. I’ve been reading it for fifty years, and while I find several of the opinion column writers grate somewhat, it’s good to have a number of vociferous writers who don’t simply cater to my kind of person. The news coverage I think has always been and remains good. But why don’t you complain to the no doubt mostly rubbish Times staff?
      1. Sorry my comment was a little unfair – after all, the paper has kept me occupied for a fair part of those thirty years. But the Irish edition doesn’t have the same depth of news or features. It doesn’t focus on Irish affairs any more than the British edition – it’s just a slimmed down version. So I wonder why we have to put up with an inferior product. I have written to the paper on several occasions complaining about this, seemingly to no avail. But I hesitate to describe their staff as rubbish – Ireland is by no means a major market for the paper, and they no doubt have more important things to consider.
        1. Basically what you have there sounds like the usual overseas edition. The French edition is the same, or similar. That will teach you to adopt the Euro… and of course you are overseas 😉
          The Times is an English newspaper. Sorry!
  22. I got this from the wordplay but how does ‘protagonist’ lead to this?
    Blogs and comments very helpful, so thanks to all.
      1. Exactly, but I can’t help feeling that a more satisfying clue would have had some sort of hint in the surface reading of the area in mind. And before I came up with the answer I thought at least I was looking for an eponymous character.
  23. I don’t much like 13d. It’s a bit of a hike from ‘protagonist’ to Rhett Butler, even though you can get there from here through wordplay. Does that make this clue an &lit? I never know about these things. Didn’t think much of ‘lit’ as an anagram indicator, though. However I DID like 25d. I thought it was clever. Kicking myself for not seeing ‘hand’ = ‘banana’ sooner. So much for knowing something like the back of your hand. I kept looking at mine and thinking: “I’m missing something here”. Wonder if I was alone in chucking in ‘Putin’ for ‘strong man’ without thinking, until 15d made no sense and I couldn’t find a painter that fitted? the nearest I got was Poussin. ‘Intermittently’ is definitely my COD. That is so clever. Took me ages to see past IZ to EYES. Thank you, ulaca for 1d!

    Edited at 2014-08-25 01:32 pm (UTC)

  24. I solved this late at night with a head cold but didn’t find anything too taxing about it – had little question marks next to TEN and SEA, and originally CARGO since I hadn’t solved 1 across but it looked like a good bet. I thought TITI had popped up before.
  25. I wasn’t able to time my solving today due to an insistent Border Terrier demanding a walk, but I enjoyed the puzzle and thought that the cluing was entertaining. It took me ages to see the parsing of ‘sea’.
    I hope that everyone who has had a Bank Holiday today has enjoyed it.
  26. Alas, a DNF for me due to EXPLODE. I just couldn’t parse it, due to not knowing about ‘plod’ and not being clear that ‘burst a blood vessel’ equates to EXPLODE. So I left it blank. I thought it might actually be cluing a burst blood vessel, and there’s probably a name for that, but I don’t know that either. I also couldn’t see from ‘hand’ to BANANA, but I put it in from the def. Better luck tomorrow, I hope. Regards.
  27. Move to Cairn terriers.. my parents could never get theirs on their feet. Carried them everywhere
  28. 16:27 for me, spending simply ages making sure that I understood SEA (for fear the answer might be SPA) and INTERMITTENTLY (for fear the answer might be …?). The annoying thing is that I’ve come across both “caught” and “Is” used that way in the past. (Sigh!)

    A delightful start to the week nonetheless.

  29. Another one who enjoyed this slightly tougher puzzle, I’m actually glad it was beefed up a bit for the holiday (which I’m sure it was).

    Why is 25D ‘rubbish’? It’s a funny CD as I see it, and the SEA clue is also nice, among many inventive clues.

    Thanks setter, thanks all.

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