Times 26,027: Much To My Arrondissement

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A perforce abbreviated blog from me this morning: I’m about to head off to the second day of a two day PHP conference (not to be confused with a PCP conference) and time is in short supply.

After nine hours of pumping one part information, five parts complimentary coffee and bad calories into my body, after hitting the free bar at the subsequent social event until it ceased to be free, after then heading off to an FKA Twigs show courtesy work and being belaboured by post-apocalyptic soundscapes interpreted by muscular male contortionists for another 2 hours, I was somewhat surprised through the haze to pull this puzzle off in under 12 minutes. What the booze gave me in confidence it took away in other departments: I must have spent the last 25% of that time on just 3 clues, 8D, 17A and 18D, shamefully not being able to see a word for “clearance” in HEAD_O__ for the longest time through the fug.

Anyway my logorrhea is going to make me write three more paragraphs if I’m not careful and I’m already running late, so I’ll love you and leave you, but I’ll be around during the day to chew the fat (and no doubt way too many more conference cakes and nibbles, argh)…

Across
1 SCENARIO – situation: SO [SO{ciety} “leaders”] securing (A NICER*) [“what could be…”]
9 NEARSIDE – “left in the UK”: NEAR SIDE [tight-fisted | players]
10 APPRAISE – survey: APPRISE [tip off] about A
11 REJIGGED – equipped for new work: RE-JIGGED [“danced energetically again”]
12 HOUSE MOUSE – rodent: M [male] “blocking” H OUSE OUSE [“source of” H{is} | river repeatedly]
14 FARO – game: homophone of PHARAOH [Egyptian ruler once “mentioned in speech”]
15 DEFIANT – rebellious: ANT [worker], with “rejected” IF ED [condition | press chief] put first
17 TIE-BEAM – connecting timber: TEAM [gang] with I.E. B [that is | busy “primarily”] installed
21 BUOY – marker: BOY [young chap] placed outside U [university]
22 MANAGERIAL – executive: (MALI + REAGAN*) [“…involved with…”]
23 HEDGEROW – border: HEDGE ROW [evade | dispute]
25 CONSOMME – liquid food: C ON SOMME [“originally” C{ooked} | on | battlefield]
26 CRITERIA – standards: E [English] + AIR [broadcast “brought back”] after CRIT [review]
27 PARMESAN – hard cheese: ARMIES minus I [“I must leave” hosts] dividing PAN [roast]

Down
2 CAPRIOLE – horse jump: (POLICE CAR minus C [caught “escaping”]*) [“crashed”]
3 NARCISSI – plants: IS SIC RAN [dishearted I{slander}S | thus | smuggled] “climbing”
4 RUIN – financial disaster: RUIN{g} [“endlessly” bemoaning]
5 ONEROUS – demanding: ONE R O US [single | Republican | old | American]
6 DARJEELING – tea: JE E [in Paris I | “ultimately” invit{E}] with DARLING [sweetheart] “round”
7 DISGRACE – bring shame upon: DI [girl] + S G [“initially” S{eeking} G{ainful} + RACE [career]
8 HEADROOM – clearance: HEAD GROOM [senior stable employee] minus G [“forks out” grand]
13 MONTMARTRE – where artists met: (ROMAN TERM*) [“roughly”] “describing” T [sort of square]
15 DABCHICK – waterbird: DAB [fish] deposited on C HICK [“head of” C{ountry} | bumpkin]
16 FLOODLIT – given strong illumination: LIT [landed] with FOOD [provisions] “across” L [lake]
18 BARITONE – IT [just what’s needed] in BAR ONE [opening of song], semi &lit
19 ACADEMIA – the scholastic world: A CA [an accountant] + AIMED [trained] “to rise”
20 SNOWCAP – feature of mountaintop: NOW C [currently | caught] in SAP [deep ditch]
24 KNAR – knot: “turning up in” {a}RAN K{nitwear}

37 comments on “Times 26,027: Much To My Arrondissement”

  1. At 26 minutes a veritable stroll in the park for me. Just what was needed after the past couple of days.
  2. A rare sub-30 minute sojourn for me and a pleasant surprise to the end of the week. I was a little concerned that I was left with 3 disconnected clues (18, 26 & 7 in that order) and struggled with parsing 3d, so thanks for sorting that out.
    I’d only come across CAPRIOLE as a suite composed by Percy Warlock, so I’ve learned something today.
    I’m just intrigued by a PHP conference – is Verlaine really a Past High Priest? Or involved in Project Honey Pot? Not that I’d ever get them confused with the Peruvian Communist Party though.

    Edited at 2015-02-20 08:22 am (UTC)

    2. I bunged in NARCISSI without full parsing myself, I must admit. I’d spotted the reversed SIC in the middle, and assumed the rest would fall into place during the post mortem…
    3. I knew Capriol(e) from the same source Deezzaa, but I think you must be confusing the composer with Peter Grainger 😉
        1. Thanks for the mention, anyway. Have enjoyed listening to Capriol and will check out his other work.
          1. If you haven’t come across The Curlew (setting poems by Yeats) before, then you might like to try it. There’s a superb recording on YouTube with Ian Partridge. It’s on the shortlist for my Desert Island.
  3. 13:28 .. breezy, entertaining crossword. I did wonder if the past tense “where artists met” wasn’t a bit harsh on the pavement crowd that still gathers there. Who knows if there isn’t another Picasso or Renoir among the cartoonists?
  4. 16:42 so on the quicker side for me. It seems to be becoming compulsory to include a dodgy homophone these days; to me, the ‘far’ in faro, the card game (and indeed, faro the cardshuffling method) rhymes with ‘tar’, rather than ‘fair’. A pleasant crossword though so thanks setter and verlaine.
    1. I’d have said FAR-O too but I couldn’t swear I’ve ever heard or used the word in a card game context, and only knew it from seeing it listed in Hoyle, and of course in previous crosswords.

      The only on-line guidance I’ve found this morning pronounces it FAIR-O, but that’s at Dictionary.com where they speak American.

    2. My Chambers app shows FARO as rhyming with ‘day roe’, but it shows the same pronounciation for ‘pharaoh’. I’m not sure this leaves me any the wiser but as I’ve never used the word the accuracy or otherwise of the homophone didn’t bother me!
      1. My first reaction was the same as bigtone’s and I was thoroughly confused by the app too, but my treeware 12th edition shows that the same symbol is used in, for example, mate, wary and fairy, and the notes on pronunciation state that it changes when it precedes the letter r. I’m not sure my life has been greatly enriched by discovering this. Collins at least uses the ‘correct’ phonetic symbol.
        1. Thanks. How strange to have a phonetic indication where the sound changes according to context. Rather defeats the object!
  5. 18m. I spent over half of this staring at 10ac and 2dn. I realised quite quickly that solving 2dn was going to be impossible, but I’m not sure why it took me so long to see APPRAISE.
    The nicest thing I can say about 2dn is that I’m glad this sort of thing doesn’t happen very often.
  6. …which seems quick, but not when you look at what Brendon McCullum can achieve in that time. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself).

    Didn’t know CAPRIOLE or NARCISSI. And DAB seemed only marginally more likely than DEB, DIB, DOB or DUB, but I managed to pull the right rein on this occasion.

    Good finish to the week. Thanks setter and blogger.

  7. Solved while trying to look as if I was working (have a lunch date today) but managed to solve all in about 7 mins, although I did think the anagram in 2d was going to defeat me, but eventually I did sort of remember the horse jump.
  8. 31 minutes but with an embarrassing mistake for the second day running: yesterday’s ‘chipmonk’ matched by today’s ‘mouse mouse’.

    Can console myself with the thought that I would be feeling more wretched if I was an England cricketer.

  9. Had to Google to find out what a PHP conference might be about; after seeing the lists of speakers and topics, I am not much the wiser. Except that it’s clear that these are IT people and they like their coffee and buns.
    This took me 30 minutes, of which the last 10 was spent on the NE corner, until APPRAISE fell in and the rest reluctantly followed, 2d not really parsed.
  10. Perfectly enjoyable puzzle, though it was one of those where the question is not so much “What’s the solution to this clue?” as “There’s the solution, now, why is it right?”. I spent a particularly long time trying to identify how NARSI could be disheartened islanders, so thanks to V. for elucidation.

    Cricket footnote. On the plus side of today’s game, England were worried that James Anderson being wrongly given out in the last match may have adversely affected their net run rate. That’s no longer something they have to worry about. I am sure this is something they’ll bear in mind as they learn the lesson, take the positives, move forward and all the other things they invariably say after being absolutely trampled.

  11. A very enjoyable 22 minutes. LOI was 10. I didn’t manage to parse 3 apart from SIC<, thinking ‘smuggled’ was a container indication.
  12. 21 mins. I struggled to get on this setter’s wavelength and like a few of you I had the most trouble in the NE. My time would have been a bit better had I seen the SCENARIO/RUIN crossers as quickly as I should have done. Once I had them NARCISSI went in unparsed, and that left me with 10ac & 2dn. I knew what the anagram fodder for 2dn was, but because four of the letters could have been arranged as “rail” or “pole” I was convinced I was looking for the name of an obstacle. After I finally got APPRAISE the anagram fodder for 2dn fell into place, and I know I’ve heard of a CAPRIOLE before but it obviously hadn’t stuck.
  13. 29 mins. V G for me. Spotted the answer to 2d within seconds as a word hidden at the back of my mind, but dismissed it instantly because it ‘must’ have something to do with goats, not horses. It was, therefore, my LOI and looked up afterwards. Enjoyable puzzle, a challenge but not so hard as to affect my self esteem.
    1. I think it’s one of those most easily “defined” by example:
      “That’s it!”
      “You’ve got it!”

      Edited at 2015-02-20 07:19 pm (UTC)

      1. 28 minutes here – a little less than my average. Never heard of CAPRIOLE or KNAR, but both were fairly clear from the wordplay. All in all, quite enjoyable.
  15. About 30 minutes, ending with both DABCHICK and CAPRIOLE from wordplay. I didn’t parse NARCISSI all the way so thanks to Verlaine. NEARSIDE was new to me altogether, which I find a bit unusual. Most other common UK-isms are known if not in use over here. As you all probably know, we say ‘passenger side’ and ‘driver’s side’ over here. Regards to all.
  16. … up again. 8:53 for me, on the setter’s wavelength once again after being way off it on Tuesday and Thursday. Another enjoyable solve.
  17. Managed to struggle home around the hour mark, which is speedy stuff for me (may even have been faster had I not got stuck into it after an evening of sailing on Sydney harbour with copious amounts of red to compensate for the lack of a decent breeze).

    NW held me up, not least because I had MICKY MOUSE for a long while – having convinced my optimistic self there must be a River Icky somewhere (with the male M doing double duty…).

    All in all, a most satisfactory end to the week provided one discounts the cricket.

    Edited at 2015-02-21 12:20 am (UTC)

  18. Grateful to be educated as to use of “near” as synonym for “tight fisted”
    Not a use I have ever encountered here in Oz
    2. I would definitely class it as antiquated, maybe even archaic, over here. I’m trying to think if I could imagine my (deceased) grandfather saying it and it’s close, but not quite there.

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