Times 25,959

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
My last Tuesday blog, which I am using as a template, said that on that occasion I took 16:22 for a puzzle which was trickier than average, and quite enjoyable. Very little tweaking is required to announce that this one took me 16:30, and I thought it was trickier than average, and quite enjoyable.

That said, I’m pretty sure this one involved more unpicking (before and after solving), and my last one in was a very nasty word which I had to come up with after thinking I must have something else wrong, so unlikely did the checking letters look. Also, I have raised eyebrows at a couple of things, though others may help me lower them again.

Across
1 MODEM – So, if you began with Plan A, then moved on to Plan B and so on, your thirteenth option would be Plan M; likewise, your 13th MODE would be MODE M.
4 GRAPHICAL – (CHAPGRAIL)*.
9 DUMBFOUND – M{illions} in DUB(=name), FOUND(=institute).
10 RAT ON – NO TAR, all reversed.
11 SATELLITE TOWN – (NOLITTLEWASTE)*; the wikipedia article suggests (to my reading, anyway) that the point of a satellite town is that it has its own identity independent of its larger neighbour, and may even have its own commuter belt, but we probably don’t need to introduce that level of accuracy to the urban geography of Crosswordland when working this one out.
14 OOPS – {TR}OOPS.
15 WORKING MAN – [R{egina},KING] in WOMAN. The “giving” here is to indicate that the first bit “gives” a word meaning “hand”, but it successfully convinced me I needed a phrase ending “ing” which meant “giving a hand”. Presumably intentional, and rather cunning.
18 COMPENSATE – [N{orth},S{outh}, the bridge partners, and A{chieve}] found inside COMPETE
19 RULE – RU{FF}LE minus two F{emale}s.
21 ANYBODYS GUESS – A N.Y. BODY’S GUESS, where the stabbing is metaphorical, possibly in the dark.
24 HOURI – establisH OUR Ideals. Originally a beguiling spiritual form, now any alluring woman, real or unreal.
25 ERADICATE – ERA, then [1 C{entury}] in DATE
27 GREEN PARK – GREEN(=fresh), PAR(=standard) K{yoto}. Tube station on Piccadilly, very handy if you’re having tea at the Ritz.
28 MUTED – MU{TA}TED minus the T{erritorial} A{rmy}.
 
Down
1 MIDAS TOUCH – D.A., the American lawyer, in MIST(=film), OUCH!
2 DIM – Buddy, can you spare a DIM{E}?
3 MUFFLE – FF(=fortissimo, very loud) inside the cross-breed MULE
4 GLUTINOUS – GLUT(=excess), I NOUS(=[common] sense)
5 ADDLE – {S}ADDLE minus S{tage}. Raised eyebrow #1, as I wondered (still do, in fact) if there was a slight misprint here, as “addle” would normally be the verb meaning “make rotten” or “become rotten”, not just “rotten”; however, the dictionaries tell me the archaic form can just mean “rotten” on its own. Fair enough, of course, though I would have thought the obscure archaisms belong in harder puzzles than the daily cryptic.
6 HARPOONS – ({champio}N,HASPOOR)*.
7 CAT AND MOUSE – (CONSUMEDATA)*
8 LUNG – L{eft}, {H}UNG, the idea being that parks, with their green spaces and fresh air, are regularly described as “the lungs of the city”. The phrase appears to go back to the early 19th century, when the general air quality was pretty dreadful in industrial urban landscapes.
12 TAPE MEASURE – TAPE(=record), SURE(=certain), broken into by ME,A.
13 UNDERSPEND – {F}UNDERS, PEND(=wait). Something that seems certain to be one of the words featuring heavily in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement tomorrow, as he explains where he’s found some money. Personally, I’m more concerned that he thinks December is “autumn”.
16 KITTY HAWK – KITTY(=fund), HAWK(=try to sell); site of the Wright Brothers’ historic flight.
17 PEPYSIAN – I don’t know if it’s just me, but _E_Y_I_N looked very unlikely, especially when I had already had to disabuse myself of the notion I was looking for an anagram of (GOISAY,N), mostly because there weren’t enough letters for a start. I was trying to think of all the things you find regularly in diaries – Bank Holidays, phases of the moon, doctor’s appointments – when I realised how specific a diary it was, and the wordplay is PEP(=go), (ISAY)*, N{ote}.
20 AGEISM – i.e. when you’re getting on a bit, this is the sort of discrimination you might get.
22 OPERA – (PO)rev., (ARE)rev. This was my other raised eyebrow, as I didn’t see how PO could just be “chamber” without the “pot” but it appears it can (prompted by Derek, see below, I went back and looked more carefully, and there it is – definition #9 in Collins, and #8 in Chambers, appropriately). A bit obscure, but obviously necessary to get “chamber music” into the clue, so I’ll forgive it.
23 THUG – H{earts} in TUG.
26 ANT – ANT{I}.

39 comments on “Times 25,959”

  1. So a good solid par for me. Sorry I can’t help with the eyebrow-lowering Tim. I actually raised a third eyebrow (?) with RAT ON meaning desert. I thought it meant to betray. Not that it mattered, pretty easy clue.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

    Edited at 2014-12-02 02:38 am (UTC)

  2. A steady solve until I was left with 8dn; the wordply suggested LUNG but I couldn’t reconcile it with the definition.

    At 22dn a CHAMBER is apparently a euphemism for a chamber pot (OED).

  3. 41 minutes, but done in by LUNG, where I couldn’t get past ‘hang’ and couldn’t – until just now – see that it is ‘in suspense’ rather than just ‘suspense’ that needs to be dealt with. I put in ‘lane’, just in case there are any other takers. Also wondered about the part of speech at 5dn.
  4. ‘Po’ and ‘chamber’ were both in common usage in this part of the world when the item in question was in common usage.
    rednim
  5. Back after a while without a net connection.
    Liked this puzzle, though (with others) puzzled by the def for LUNG. How I got it is 21ac.
  6. A really lively and enjoyable solve that’s quite tricky and inventive in a few places. Eyebrows were raised in all quarters mentioned so far but on reflection the clues turned out to be fine. If I have one slight quibble outstanding it’s at 12dn where “long roll” seems a bit too cryptic and vague to be the actual defintion – unless I’m missing something, of course.

    Edited at 2014-12-02 06:16 am (UTC)

      1. We used to have one of those as well. It was allegedly intended for measuring out tennis courts, but it was certainly never put to that use in my day.
  7. vefatica
    Dec. 2nd, 2014 02:12 am (UTC)
    According to Collins, “chamber” and “po” are both short for chamberpot. But I’m not convinced.
    – Vince

    Edited at 2014-12-02 07:18 am (UTC)

  8. Wavered on OPERA until the last, although I couldn’t think of anything to replace the P. Having done some research as an undergraduate on housing reform in NY, I remembered the lungs-of-the-city idea (a misconception) at long last. Like Tim, I was rather taken aback by the checkers in 17d, but ‘diary’ suggested Pepys, and the parsing followed as the night the other thing. Same doubts as everyone else about ADDLE and ‘chamber’.
  9. Very similar experience to others. A lively, interesting puzzle that took 20 interesting minutes and produced the same queries over ADDLE etc

    I knew the PO spelling because I’ve had to blog it in a Mephisto – which perhaps says it all. The word diary triggers a Pavlovian response of Pepys in me so no problem there

        1. My understanding of Einstein is that even if I have my limits I’m a genius. Am I on the right lines?
          1. I think what the great man said was along the lines –
            “the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits” – only you can say to what extent you fit that picture
  10. 21:06 … A very classy puzzle, I thought, and I was pleased to get it all solved and understood. I do like the surface for GREEN PARK.

    *** Still a few spots up for grabs in the Christmas Turkey “Community Set”. Clues should be going out late today or some time tomorrow, I hope.

  11. 27 minutes. I felt very slow this morning, and slowed myself further by putting in CALIGRAPH (no I don’t know either) and POWER as the second word in 1dn.
    I also had another raised eyebrow at 21, where it seems to me ‘stab’ requires the addition of ‘in the dark’ to mean ‘guess’ as opposed to ‘try’.
  12. 36.15. ‘Rotten’ is probably an old form of the verb. In 21 I’d say the foregoing ‘conjecture’ (= guess) allows one to imagine ‘in the dark’ as the kind of stabbing needed for the whole thing. Found Kitty Hawk and Pepysian tough but liked them esp. the latter. 15 my favourite with the neat class divide.
  13. Fun solve with nothing especially devious. The ADDLE question has come up before, either here or on 225 – my (not current) Chambers doesn’t say it’s archaic, though I’ve never heard it used in “real life” except as addled. Got to PEPYSIAN via a fluke, assuming it would start with a homophone of a word meaning “go” – though the one I thought of wasn’t particularly Timesian, it gave me enough of a prod to see the answer and then the correct parsing.
  14. During the teenage years, if I was in a sulk my mother would call me po-faced – which never failed to annoy. I always thought it was a reference to the article-in-question (which made it all the more insulting) but now having looked it up after all this time I see it has to do with the game of poker. Same as others on “addle”. 18.12 with a double typo in the Pepysian corner – phooey.
  15. Rattled through this in no time (well, about 12 minutes) helped perhaps by having Sam Pepys as a hero of mine. My only complaint being addle, which I see as just plain wrong.
    Tim, highly esteemed blogger, I would respectfully disagree over commuter belt, which I would expect must include a number of towns, or it wouldn’t be a “belt,” and which will be satellites by definition. So the clue seems 100% accurate to me. Amused by your idea that we don’t need to be too accurate, there is no point so abstruse or trivial that we here can’t pick it apart!

  16. It seems silly with hindsight, but I thought 19A was something to do with MISRULE minus the MSes (females), which didn’t quite work. But after a while pondering it I just bunged it in anyway as it looked a good bet. Jason
  17. Off to a confident start with 1ac MOUSE and only when the same word popped up later did I reconsider. A good puzzle but many that I could not parse so thank you setter and Tim.
  18. Slow for me at 25.53, with some of the hold ups being the eyebrow raisers hereinbefore highlighted, but a MOUSE (sure: M=13, USE=operate, the O must come from somewhere) at 1ac was also an obstacle, as any wrong, semi-confident answer at 1ac tends to be.
    No problem with PO. Ref the inimitable Flanders and Swann Watch for, towards the end a timeless entry for Prince Philip, in case you need reassurance on the unchanging nature of the universe.

    Edited at 2014-12-02 12:47 pm (UTC)

    1. Thanks for sharing that – had never come across it before, I was immediately put in mind of Atkinson and some of his sketches, notably the ‘Orifice’ one.
  19. 14:13 so no problems here. At 17 I fashioned the -ysian ending from some letters I found lying around and the pep popped itself in more or less.

    The guess, the harpoon, the measure and the underspned not parsed at the time.

  20. 25 minutes, with notable hold up at 11A believing I was looking for a specific location and wondering if LITTLESEA TOWN existed.

    Despite never having come across a chamberpot I’ve often referred to the toilet as a po so was familiar enough with that. It’s frustatingly not in the Word With Friends dictionary.

  21. My problem with the CHAMBER is the same as everyone else’s, in that I had a snowball’s chance. LUNG too a bit hard to get. I chucked ’em in anyway though, and completed in 22 minutes.

    Cheers Tim, and all.

  22. As of 5pm on Tue 2nd we have as many volunteers as clues for the Christmas Turkey community setting challenge. Do drop me a line if you want to be on the subs’ bench – we needed a few subs last year for various reasons.

    Jerry will be doing the Down clues, I’ll be doing the Acrosses. You’ll be hearing from one or other of us as soon as we’ve got the allocation sorted out.

    Thank you for a great response.

    By the way, last year’s puzzle did top 1,000 unique visitors in the end. Whether they all solved it or not I don’t know.

  23. Classy effort, at first I struggled and thought not enough time exists between back from (freezing) golf and food / drink time, but then got going and finished in 35 minutes with a few raised eyebrows. As noted, ‘addle’ among them. My Grandma used to talk about the Po under the bed so not a bother there. I liked the vague ‘planning’ theme, with green park, lung, satellite town, but my Cod is MODE M.
  24. This one took me for ever, with probably the last 45 mins devoted to PEPYSIAN. I parsed 8d as (S)LUNG, which I think works just as well, and wasted a lot of time convinced the backers at 13d were ANGELS.
  25. Isn’t this “opus number” of chamber music, always abbreviated to “Op” – here reversed?
  26. …..or not reversed actually! It’s late and I’m tired! Very tricky puzzle for me today!
  27. 12:06 for me – perhaps not too disastrous, given that once again I was feeling exhausted after a busy Tuesday.

    No problem with PO for “chamber”, though I prefer the word “jerry” (short for “jeroboam”) since it features in a favourite joke from my post-war childhood: “Did you know that Winston Churchill always used to sleep with a rifle beside him? – in case he found a Jerry under the bed.”

    With the Y, A and K in place, I wasted time trying to fit PIGGY BANK (= “fund”) into 16dn. At least 27ac didn’t give me too much trouble as I returned to Ealing from Green Park underground station earlier today.

    Another interesting and enjoyable puzzle.

  28. Spent an inordinate amount of time on ‘Pepysian’ after rattling through the rest pretty briskly. I had exactly the same parsing as keithdoyle for ‘lung’ and likewise attempted to fit ‘angels’ in 13d.
  29. Quite an enjoyable puzzle, which looked very easy until I approached the end — it took me ages to think of PEPYSIAN (of course) and so just over an hour to finish. But I’m glad I finished at all. And I also had MOUSE at 1 ac until I realised that the checkers wouldn’t fit. PO, which ordinarily would not be in my vocabulary, was not a problem because I once used it myself in the Clue Competition for IMPOSING some years ago. And I’m glad to see other people sometimes misspell things — yesterday I didn’t finish because of EPHIMERA — need more sleep, obviously.

Comments are closed.