Times 25,932: Critique of Impure (Reason*)

70 comments on “Times 25,932: Critique of Impure (Reason*)”

1. 20 minutes for all but two then another 6 for them. RIMU was unknown, possibly OPUSCULUM too, and ALAR felt unfamiliar. A suitable follow-up to yesterday’s excellent toughie.
2. 
   All done in 30 mins, so a quick one here, too.

   Dnk: RIMU, OPUSCULUM or MARIACHI, but all clearly parsed. Couldn’t work out SANER (corrected from sense once I got ALARMIST), so thanks for working that one out.

   Don’t think I’ve come across SUS for suspicion before, and I thought SWAN was from swan song, until I realised it was probably from swank…

   1. I’ve known it as police slang for years (“he was arrested on sus”) but haven’t met it officially before.
3. Hesitated on SWAN, as I never knew ‘swank’ as a noun. DNK RIMU, but I couldn’t see what else it would be, ‘orim’ and ‘imut’ not likely Maori words.27ac from checkers and definition; I still don’t understand the wordplay–some English soap or something? ‘Alar’ is yet one more of the NYT’s vast hoard of chestnuts, which helped me get 10ac. Definitely a relief after yesterday.
   1. As deezzaa mentions below, the longest continuously running soap in the world is the radio soap The Archers, set in Ambridge in the fictional country of Borsetshire. All together now Dum-di-dum-di-dum-di-dum . . .
4. A shade over the 30 minute mark – a relief after yesterday’s car crash.
   Like Janie, dnk 17a or 14a so had to hit and hope. Dredged up mariachi from somewhere.
   I still don’t understand the cryptic construction for 2d: “shorter” normally means missing letters off the front or rear of the word. What specifically tells you to remove the “o”? Or is it a case of taking each letter out in turn and play around with the rest until you hit on the right combination?
   Is this the first time that the longest continuously running soap in the world has appeared in the crossword?
   1. November 2008: Key Tory puts archers place in the shade – CAMBRIDGE BLUE

      November 2013: Married person from Ambridge who may be protesting – MARCHER

      There may be others.

   2. Think of “short of” as being “O”… either OF but lacking its last letter, or possibly o’ as in jack-o’-lantern.

      So “less O, ordered REASON”. That’s how I parsed it anyway, it took a while to find a route that made sense!

      Edited at 2014-10-31 09:36 am (UTC)

      1. Yup, I’ll buy that.
      2. I understand that taking away [less] ‘o’ [short ‘of’] from REASON leaves you with REASN – but where’s the definition that gives you ‘saner’?
         1. If you were “short of ordered reason” , you would be insane. Thus you are saner if “less short….”
         2. It’s an &Lit so the whole clue serves as both definition and wordplay.
   3. Less(minus) short “of” (o)
5. Just over 15 mins so I am not sure what to do next. I needed the crossers before writing in RIMU and dnk MARIACHI although the cluing was perfectly fair.

   I knew about SUS from the now abolished Sus Law in the UK (aka the Vagrancy Act 1824) that permitted the police to stop and search, and even arrest, anyone found in a public place on the grounds that they suspected that they might intend to commit an offence. Two witnesses were needed to bring a prosecution, which suggests one reason why the police tended to patrol in pairs. Now of course, they simply do not patrol.

   Edited at 2014-10-31 08:57 am (UTC)

   1. Reminds me of the gag that was doing the rounds in Yugoslavia when I travelled there in the ’70’s.
      “Why do the police go round in threes?”
      “One who can read, one who can write, and one to keep an eye on these intellectuals”
6. A rare attempt at a non weekend “big cryptic” (I generally confine myself to the foothills of the Quickie Mon to Fri), and managed to knock it over to my surprise and delight!

   The unknowns (RIMU, OPUSCULUM, MARIACHI) were all – fortunately – achievable from the wordplay / cross checkers.

   CAMBRIDGE BLUE raised a wry smile – I thought I had finally escaped the strangely compulsive tedium of The Archers by moving to Australia, but clearly the ghost of Joe Grundy will continue to intrude into my life at unpredictable moments such as this…

   1. You may be surprised that Joe Grundy is still alive.
      1. Crikey! Thought I was on pretty safe ground there – the old curmudgeon must be about 120…
         1. 93
7. 11:57 .. I suspect the key to getting under 10 minutes on this one was not having BUSINESS CLASS as your Last One In.

   Like Nick, I’m a recovering Archers fan who thought they’d kicked the habit, but smiled at CAMBRIDGE BLUE.

   And MARIACHI bands always make me smile, just because (but I wouldn’t want to live next door to a mariachi rehearsal studio).

   Edited at 2014-10-31 09:13 am (UTC)

   1. Those dirty Cambridge blues, always beating us in boat races! *brandishes old school tie*
      1. Actually the fenland village light blues have only won 5 of the last 15 against us, one of which was a dubious result (when the idiot protester temporarily stopped the race in 2012). But that was 5 too many.
8. 22 minutes, with the SWAN – SANER cross my last ones in, and two put in from wordplay but previously unknown (RIMU and MARIACHI); otherwise a piece de gateau.
   I agree, Verlaine, my Cod is ROOF GARDEN.

   Edited at 2014-10-31 09:36 am (UTC)

9. A shade over 11 minutes for a gentle end to the week. I suspect there may be others here who first encountered MARIACHI thanks to Tom Lehrer.
10. 21.45. Little to say about this: a tidy puzzle. I remember the hush in the house as we all heard that Grace Archer had died in a terrible fire. 5/5/55 – I solemnly wrote it down.
11. Yes, Joe is still alive, though he is on his third actor now I believe.
    And yes, business class was my first one in and helped towards an under 10 time..
    I knew of opusculum/opuscule/opuscle, but not rimu, though it was easy enough to spot
12. A few seconds under 10 mins, and I found this a pleasant enough end to the week. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever listened to an episode of the Archers and Borsetshire meant nothing to me, but once I had a few checkers and saw that Ambridge was going to be in the answer I thought “oh, so that’s the fictional county it’s in”. I got RIMU and OPUSCULUM from the wordplay, and SANER was my LOI after ALARMIST. Although it wasn’t my LOI it took me much longer than it should have done to see BUSINESS CLASS.
13. I thought I was on for a very quick one by my standards with all but three done in under 15 minutes but BEWILDERING, SWAN and SANER pushed it just past 20.

    Thanks for the blog Verlaine, the open mouthed and vacant eyed children sound familiar. I’m guessing mine are somewhat older at 9 and 11 but the desire to be in front of a screen at all times is still strong. Indeed they have friends round at the moment who have brought their own devices so they can all play on separate screens. I despair!

    1. … with mine at 16, 17 and 19. I too despair.
       1. To be fair, there are a lot more screens these days. We only had “Watch with Mother”, 15 minutes a day on the BBC, back in the day when the radio had the better pictures.
       2. Sadly, my mother (aged 89) would probably say the same about her retired son but I do the puzzle on an iPad.
          1. Very true. For all we may tut about the children’s screen addiction, if there’s anyone who’s got a real problem it’s dad… all day at work and then for large parts of the evening as well!
       3. With mine at 26, 42 and 46 I’m way past despair.
          1. It was all so much better when we all sat around together staring at our separate pages while we read our own book/magazine in silence!
14. 14.33, but there were a lot of quicker solvers last time I looked. This entry delayed by the extraordinary (fast becoming normal) TLS, today missing the interactive version and two clues, and a recalcitrant internet – perhaps some sort of DOS attack, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.
    Any way, a stroll in a pleasant park today, though curiously with more GK/arcana needed than yesterday’s clamber up a (pleasant) mountain. There may be some who haven’t heard of Callas, I suppose: I’ve yet to find a recording of hers that I actually warm to. Any suggestions?
15. Twenty minutes. Straightforward after yesterday’s (which took me a couple of sittings and left me too exhausted to comment.)

    Wasn’t it once the convention that there be no more than one hidden clue per puzzle? Perhaps I’m mistaken.

    As Mallcj has suggested above, my only knowledge of MARIACHI bands comes from Tom Lehrer.

    Thought the clue for SANER very ingenious.

    1. Good point John, I wonder if it slipped through the net.
       1. There were four in today’s TLS, but then that’s definitely a law unto itself.
16. …with a 33 minute solve, reasonable for me. I was surprised to see the Victorian ‘shew’ dredged up, but it gave me my FOI.

    I didn’t see a couple of the cryptics, but if I were the blogger I probably could have come up with them.

    1. SHE is a bit of a classic in cryptic crosswords isn’t it – THE three-letter novel!
       1. And of course the source of Horace Rumpole’s ‘She who must be obeyed’.
          1. I’m quite sad that literary characters don’t generally get named awesome things like Umslopogaas anymore…

             Edited at 2014-10-31 12:26 pm (UTC)

17. 34 minutes. Never heard of Borsetshire (Trollope meets Hardy?), Mariachi or Rimu, despite being Kiwi on my mother’s side. I’d take Callas over Mariachi any day. Her Orpheus is rather fine, I think, but then that might just be down to Gluck: http://youtu.be/sNEUdGZutGw
    1. Slightly ashamed to say that I mostly know about mariachis from Robert Rodriguez’s silly action movie El Mariachi (and the even dumber sequel Desperado).
       1. I mostly know about mariachis from Mariachi El Bronx, the mariachi spin-off or alter ego (if you will) of US punk band The Bronx.
          1. Mariachi came easily as they are a well-known horror in Mexican restaurants throughout the US. Large sombreros, loud shouts of “Ole!” and frantic carnival music, they circulate the restaurant and drown out any conversation until they are given some money to go away and annoy other diners……
             Nice puzzle, DNK opusculum which sounded more like a medical instrument than a piece of music, but the checkers made it the only choice. 26 minutes.
18. Finished and all parsed in about 60 minutes, which is a lot better than yesterday. For me, the bottom half went in fairly easily and it was the northern hemisphere that slowed me down. Despite never knowingly hearing a single second of the Archers (a proud achievement for someone who has lived in England for more than 60 years), once I had twigged CLUE for hint, it was easily gettable.

    Very good puzzling, thanks setter and blogger.

19. 13:53 finishing with Saner and Swan, the well-known something or other.

    Opusculum unknown, likewise rimu and, I think, stoma.

    My first thought at 27 was that we were in Thomas Hardy country, even though Mrs Penfold listens to the Archers when she’s doing the 16 across-ing.

20. 8m. I didn’t know OPUSCULUM or RIMU but they were clear from the wordplay.
    Thanks for explaining 2ac: I couldn’t work it out.
    I loathe The Archers. Listening to it induces a strange kind of active boredom in me that makes me want to gouge out my eyes. I have been known to run to turn the radio off when I hear the music. Perhaps I should seek help.

    Edited at 2014-10-31 02:20 pm (UTC)

21. For those who don’t know it but perhaps would like to, here’s part of the lyric referred to above:

    When it’s fiesta time in Guadalajara,
    Then I long to be back once again
    In Old Mexico.
    Where we lived for today, never giving a thought to tomahra.
    To the strumming of guitars,
    In a hundred grubby bars
    I would whisper “Te amo.”

    The mariachis would serenade,
    And they would not shut up till they were paid.
    We ate, we drank, and we were merry,
    And we got typhoid and dysentery.

    Edited at 2014-10-31 02:23 pm (UTC)

22. My pen arced across the page discharging its ink at breakneck speed. In the background the dulcet tones of my favourite marachi band , all in all a delightful morning.
23. Well, I managed to finish this one in the end. Was I the only person to think of “ALARMING” for 10 and spend ages wondering why CLOUD=MING ?!
    1. Not at all – I was there for a while, and I’d be amazed if others weren’t too…
24. 29 minutes for me.

    I am one of those whose first encounter with MARIACHI was thanks to Tom Lehrer. Strangely enough, the last time I heard a mariachi band was in Swiss-themed restaurant inside a hotel in Malaysia, and they were all Filipino. Very, very strange.

    As for RIMU, I do hope this doesn’t mark the start of another phase of “Obscure Trees of the World”. Just because some obscure nation uses a particular set of letters to mean something doesn’t make it a proper word.

    1. I’m guessing the options for words that fit _I_U are quite limited, particularly after you’ve discarded LIEU for whatever reason…
       1. Trieu. But perhaps “Ainu” is a little better known than “rimu”?
    2. Sorry this is so late – we got stuck on a couple of clues. But I think your last sentence is grumpy verging on the offensive. Be glad the All Blacks don’t have your address. You could of course apply it to any set of people: UK politicians often use words that don’t make sense to someone outside their tribe.
       Obscure Trees – well, we’ve had a lot of obscure SF stuff recently – is that better?
       1. My apologies. However, if it is any consolation, I curmudge on a non-discriminatory basis against all peoples equally. I am sure that the nation that produced Rutherford, Wilkins and Edson will have the good sense to brush off any of my aspersions

          As for obscure SF stuff – I hadn’t spotted it, but a definite improvement. Give me cavorite or dilithium over alupags or padauks any day.

          1. Thank you for your reply – we all have our curmudgeonly days. I like your list of DNK (for me) words.
             The last Dean Mayer Sunday referred to Captain Scarlet, I think, and then there was a computer called Hal on a spaceship which I had no idea about.
             Perhaps we have to live up to our usernames
25. I thought that the Times standard was only ONE hidden word? 17 and 25 are both hidden!
    1. Already been mentioned in earlier comments.
26. I wasted time looking for an alternative to the hidden RIMU because I already had the hidden ARC. Moving the goalposts. I was in a rush today so was grateful for a relatively quick solve. 22 Minutes. Ann
27. A rare sub20 at 19.44 today so this was on my easier side. The obscure words were helpfully clued so that helped. Did like the Archers reference but only because I recognised it. Thanks for the blog – couldn’t explain SANER.
28. A rare early attempt at the main puzzle and pleasantly surprised to finish without too much difficulty, although a number of times slower than many here.

    Regularly seem to learn new words while solving and today they were ALAR and OPUSCULUM. Thought 13ac seemed to sum up a politicians lot. Make promises you can’t keep and then reconsider them at a later date when, hopefully, everyone has forgotten what you promised in the first place…

    Edited at 2014-10-31 06:57 pm (UTC)

29. Enjoyable and quick for me too. Got bogged down at airy fairy because I had thought that the whisky/key difference separated all Scot/Irish from all North American distillations. But it seems the ‘ey’ is reserved for Bourbons, and that good old American rye is a ‘ky’. Thanks setter. Thanks Verlaine.

    Edited at 2014-10-31 07:27 pm (UTC)

30. 44:25 despite my quick start, because it took me hours (well, not quite literally, obviously) to get SWAN (I was expecting the bird shortened to yield the impressive display and not vice versa) and then SANER (short “of”, indeed!). Apart from THAT, an easy and enjoyable puzzle. I rather liked IRON, as my COD.

    Edited at 2014-10-31 07:32 pm (UTC)

31. About 15 minutes to get through this offering from the simpler end of the spectrum I ended with SWAN/SANER also. As the other Kevin said earlier, we use ‘swank’ as an adjective over here, so that caused a delay. Regards.
32. 11:00 for me, going through a bad patch at the moment. (Sigh!)

    Thanks for explaining 2dn: I was pretty sure it was an &lit, but my brain simply wouldn’t cope with parsing it.

33. Excellent puzzle; one of the most enjoyable this month.
    Thank you, setter, whoever you are and the blogger, too
34. This belated comment is one for the lexicographers. The sudden popularity of “Yo!” could stem from this film (if I’ve got the right John Wayne – there were an awful lot). It’s sentimental and simplistic, probably because screened during the war. I don’t think indigenous “Indians” would approve of their portrayal, for instance. But it’s centred on a bunch of cavalry recruits, who at roll call are told “Don’t say ‘Yes Sir!’, just say ‘Yo!'” So they all do, with enthusiasm.

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