Times 25,971

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Much simpler than many recent offerings, with an appropriately zippy time of 12 minutes; no major stumbling blocks, though there are uncommon words at 1dn and 8dn, and not for the first time, a bit of Greek and Latin proved to be more than a little helpful. Anyway, overall I thought this was perfectly enjoyable without being a classic – though after my annual stab at clue-writing, I am well aware that writing classics on a daily basis is no easy matter, and “enjoyable” is a pretty good mark to aim for.

Across
1 PERU – PERU{sing} minus the seasonally appropriate vocals.
3 ASSOCIATES – A S.S.(steam ship), and C.I.(Channel Islands) inside OATES – Captain Oates was Scott’s companion who went for a walk outside and was indeed some time.
10 SEVENTEEN – EVENT(=meeting) in SEEN.
11 HAREM – HAR{L}EM minus the L{eft}.
12 ILLEGAL – ILL(=bad), E{nglish}, GAL.
13 RIBBON – RIB(=tease), BON(=French for good).
15 LIGHTNING STRIKE – double def.
18 OLD FATHER THAMES – (ATHLETESHADFORM)*. “Runner” is a less common variant on the cryptic convention of “flower” to indicate river.
21 HANG UP – double def.
23 NUMBEST – N.U.M., the National Union of Mineworkers, BEST(=superior to all others).
26 ETHEL – take LETHE, the river of the Greek underworld which caused a state of forgetfulness in the souls of the dead, and – by extension – that state of amnesia, and move the first letter to the end.
27 STIMULATE – T{ime} in SIMULATE.
28 ATROCITIES – [1 TIE] in (ACTSOR)*.
29 LESS – LES{SON}S minus SON.
 
Down
1 POSTILLION – OST(German for East) in PILLION. If you’ve ever heard this term, I imagine it’s almost certainly in connection with 15ac. See also Monty Python’s Hungarian phrase book: “my hovercraft is full of eels” etc.
2 RAVEL – double def., one being the name of the Bolero composer.
4 SHELLFISH – i.e. this is how the stereotypical drunk found in Crosswordland would pronounce “selfish”; crabby as in “like a crab”, which is as good a shellfish as any.
5 OWNER – reverse hidden in childREN WOrried.
6 INHABIT – H{ospital} inside IN A BIT.
7 TERRORISM – hidden in significanT ERROR IS Made.
8 SOMA – (AMOS)rev.
9 KNIGHT which sounds like “NIGHT”, which is when many of us are tucked up in bed, though not all, as I am demonstrating now.
14 BEDSITTERS – ED{itor}’S in BITTERS; how familiar you are with this variety of alcohol may depend on how partial you are to pouring yourself a Campari, or a Fernet Branca or a pink gin.
16 GODFATHER – composed sequentially of GO(=escape), D{aughter}, FAT(=big), HER(=that girl).
17 GERUNDIVE – (GIVENRUDE)*. Anyone called Miranda or Amanda is a gerundive, probably without realising it.
19 ANGELIC – ANGELIC{A} when cut short.
20 HUMOUR – double def., melancholy being one of the four humours of early medical theory, whereby everybody was classed as sanguine, choleric, melancholic or phlegmatic, or some combination thereof.
22 POSIT – I in POST(=letters etc.).
24 ELATE – RELATE being the modern name for the Marriage Guidance Council, minus the R{ight}.
25 HERA – HERALD without the L{or}D gives the Queen of the Greek pantheon.

42 comments on “Times 25,971”

  1. 27 minutes, but the sort of puzzle that plays to my strengths so I need to cash in here. Hadn’t a clue about last in ASSOCIATES, so thanks for taking the Bolero out of that. Thanks too for the BEDSITTERS – never touch spirits so that’s my excuse here (although Angostura bitters pops up quite frequently in the F&B rounds of quizzes).

    The magnificent Nicolai Gedda makes a very nice postillon de Lonjumeau: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUBNwORdR9E

    1. I was editing even before I saw your post! Was thinking Scott, wrote Cook, for no obvious reason other than that all those exploring captains start to blur into each other after a certain age (mine, not theirs). Cook of the Antarctic, great man. Killed by natives while singeing the King of Spain’s beard.I believe.
  5. Quite entertaining but too many went in from definition.

    Still, I learned a couple of things, for which I am grateful. Where to go for marriage guidance for one.

    And that crustaceans are shellfish – if asked I would have said that the word applied only to the testaceous, and not the crustaceous, denizens of the deep.

  6. I could think only of Cook for the longest time, but couldn’t imagine a K in the word; also thought of ‘mates’ and ‘oppos’, to no avail. Finally remembered Oates. Sort of ho-hummy puzzle.
  7. Several unknowns, including SOMA, GERUNDIVE and the marriage guidance mob. OLD FATHER THAMES seemed vaguely familiar, but I may have been thinking of Old Man River.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

    1. Old Father TIME got stuck in my head – what with Greenwich – and took ages to get it out again.
  8. 15m. As dereklam says, quite entertaining but too many went in from definition. Nothing unknown, but several things that were only vaguely familiar, and then only from crosswords.
    Tim you have written HAREM before your explanation of RIBBON.

    Edited at 2014-12-16 05:49 am (UTC)

  9. I missed my half-hour target by 1 minute, which was disappointing, but this was a very enjoyable and lively solve. My only unknown (or forgotten) was SOMA.

    After yesterday’s excruciating musical offering here’s a stirring ballad “Old Father Thames” sung by the Australian baritone Peter Dawson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxZCzA4UndY

    Edited at 2014-12-16 07:37 am (UTC)

  10. A flat white but that’s OK too. Some decent wordplay let down by a few obvious definitions. 7 is just a little too topical here.
    Luckily my computer doesn’t have a sound card.
  11. 11:38 … at one point I managed to fit Old Father Time into 18a, but otherwise a straightforward solve.
  12. Last two in were PERU, where I too thought it was from perusal, and then POSTILLION, which I don’t think I knew. Other dnk: SOMA; other dnp: ASSOCIATES.

    Many thanks.

  13. Pleasant enough puzzle that I strolled through in 15 minutes with, as others have found, some obvious definitions (15A and 18A say) meaning parsing need only be cursory.
  15. 15.41, with two interruptions which, on the plus side, stopped me from thinking this might be tricky after drawing a blank on the opening few. Rolled round easily from OWNER and finished with ASSOCIATE (unparsed, a classic reverse-engineering clue).
    “Rider on the near side” didn’t suggest POSTILLION to me, though it did briefly suggest undertaker in honour of those intrepid cyclists who believe they are all any driver ever thinks about.
    I liked INHABIT for its down home version of “soon”.
  16. I guess technically a DNF as I couldn’t think of the goddess or the messenger at 25D so I’d thrown in VEGA after 33 mins. However, HERA came to me before I looked here so I feel somewhat redeemed.

    LIGHTNING STRIKE was my FOI which helped but I then had THE ______ THAMES at 18A for a while which hampered me.

    I think LETHE was used in a recent crossword which was the first time I’d heard it. However it did clarify a Radiohead lyric for me, where previously I wondered why they’d sung “I float down the Liffey”!

  17. 9 mins, but in my haste I entered a stupid HUMBUG at 20dn without thinking it through. Bah ………
  18. Fairly straightforward puzzle with some obvious answers such as 15a and 2d, taking me half an hour. It took me a while to see 3, 14 and 28, so didn’t make the 25-minute target I was hoping for. Soma was a tentative entry until I confirmed S because I associate Soma with a plant or with the drug in Brave New World.
  19. Another PERUsal-ist here, not sure why this was easy. Perhaps if one’s mind is numb enough!
  20. Two consecutive defeats. Today’s boo-boo was humbug at 20. Must have been the Christmas music emanating from the boardroom that gave me the thought.
  21. 34 minutes here, with my LOIs being ASSOCIATES and the cleverly buried TERRORISM. I failed to parse ASSOCIATES, as I was trying to see how Scot fitted in (he didn’t).

    I liked the 1ac/15ac coupling, and enjoyed the puzzle overall although KNIGHT and RAVEL seemed a little feeble. Like some others, I [mis?]parsed 1ac as PERUsal.

  22. 5D and 7D both have hidden answers, albeit one is reversed.
    Is this not one too many?
    I thought there was an unwritten rule that only one was allowed.
    1. I don’t know that there’s supposed to be any strict rule, but I definitely remember one standard and one reversed hidden appearing in many previous Times cryptics.
  23. Enjoyable, middle-of-the-road puzzle. As others have said, one or two clues solved perhaps too easily from definition alone. SOMA was a guess, as I’d not met the word before, but the reversal of Amos was fairly clearly indicated.
  24. About 20 minutes, but I’m another with a careless HUMBUG at 20D. Oops. I should remember to enter answers only when they have something to do with the wordplay. Regards.
  25. 7:53 here for a pleasant, Mondayish sort of puzzle. I made a slow start and was held up at the end by BEDSITTERS, but in between things went reasonably smoothly.

    I like the pairing 1dn and 15ac.

  26. Enjoyable enough, but, like others, I entered several answers without parsing them fully.
    I’m not sure whether everyone will understand Tony’s reference to the pairing of 1d and 15a: Dirk Bogarde fans will recognise the title of the first volume of his autobiography.

    Edited at 2014-12-17 12:08 am (UTC)

    1. There’s a lot more information in wikipedia under “My postillion has been struck by lightning”.
  27. I am baffled. I did not get Postillion, which according to my OED, as a rather, well, extreme sexual practice, which I did not expect to find in the Times! have I missed a more mundane definition?
    1. I’m assuming this isn’t some sort of elaborate joke which I don’t understand? Or perhaps it is.

      Anyway, from the on-line Oxford Dictionary:

      noun
      “A person who rides the leading nearside (left-hand side) horse of a team or pair drawing a coach or carriage, especially when there is no coachman.”

    2. The OED spells it “postilion”, and only gives the “two-L” spelling under “Forms”.
  28. I finished this and put SOMA in last. The Amos bit was easy but I couldn’t find a reference to Soma anywhere. What does it mean?

    Thanks

    1. Once more from the on-line Oxford:

      noun
      1 Biology The parts of an organism other than the reproductive cells.

      2 The body as distinct from the soul, mind, or psyche.

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