Times 26049 – not too beastly after all

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I had an extra little frisson this morning as I knew I had to solve and blog the puzzle before leaving early for a long drive and an all-day meeting, but I hate rising at an unsocial hour. The clock was ticking. When 1a and 1d sprang immediately to mind, I felt a surge of optimism, perhaps this would be like yesterday’s, “duck soup”, as we learnt recently from our American friends. After making the breakfast and 20 minutes pencil work I was well on track; only 4a and 8d remained; I decided to start this anyway and hope inspiration arrived. Fortunately 8d did arrive and 4a followed although I did have to check it was an ‘animal treatise’.

Across
1 BORDER – BO(A)RDER = pupil at Eton possibly without A; def. bed.
4 BESTIARY – BEST = most inspired, RY = lines, around AI = fine reversed; def. animal treatise. The wordplay is easier than I expected, once you’ve realised the definition is ‘animal treatise’ not just ‘treatise’ and stopped reversing fine animals.
10 LONG RANGE – L = originally launched, ON, GRANGE = country farmstead; def. sort of missile.
11 INTRO – Hidden in BERL(IN TRO)MBONE; def. part of piece; one from the quickie.
12 EXPLANATORY – EX TORY = former politician, around PLAN A = first proposal; def. illustrative of.
14 NEE – NEE(D) = be compelled, abandoning the D; def. born, née, feminine.
15 REQUEST – RE = concerning, QUEST = expedition; def. application.
17 ECLAIR – EC = city, AIR = character, insert L; def. cake.
19 NOTION – NOT IN = out, insert O = old; def. concept.
21 ALBANIA – A, LA = city, insert BAN = bar, I = one; def. state.
23 NIL – NIL(E) shortened.
24 REVERBERATE – R = king, E’ER = always, around VERB = part of speech, ATE = worried; def. echo.
26 HABIT – H = husband, A BIT as in ‘a bit on the side’; def. tendency.
27 LEVIATHAN – (THE NAVAL I)*, the I from institute at first; def. sea monster.
29 WITHDRAW – WIT = comic, DRAW = sketch, insert H = hospital; def. cancel.
30 MOUSER – MO USER = medical officer user, def. rodent catcher.

Down
1 BILBERRY – BIL = LIB politician, raised; ERR = mistake, inside BY; def. fruitful outcome.
2 RUN UP – NUR UP = old rail union, reversed; def. approach, as in cricket.
3 EAR – initial letters of Employed At Rehearsals; def. organ. Is it my imagination, or have we had a deluge of ‘ear’ clues recently?
5 EYESORE – EYE sounds like I, ninth letter; SORE = angry; def. ugly building.
6 TRISYLLABLE – (BILLY’S ALERT)*, def. grudgingly being one. Obviously an anagram but a tricky definition to see.
7 ATTENTION – Double definition.
8 YEOMEN – YE = the, old, OMEN = prognostication; def. small farmers once.
9 INFANT – three-quarters of INFANT(RY); def. tot.
13 AMELIORATED – AMELIA and TED around OR = fighting men; def. got better.
16 QUODLIBET – (QUITE BOLD)*; def. arrangement of popular tunes. Literally, ‘what pleases’.
18 TAVERNER – TAR = jack, sailor, around (Jules) VERNE; def. a publican once.
20 NOVELLA – NOV = 30 days, ELLA = a woman; def. literary effort.
21 ARRIVE – R, R = republicans, inside A = area, I’VE; def. show up.
22 ANYHOW – A NY (New York) HO (house) W (wife); def. in haphazard manner.
25 ATHOS – SOH = note, TA = soldiers, all reversed; def. mountain, site of a Greek monastery or two.
28 ADO – A, O (circular letter), around D = initially described; def. trouble.

42 comments on “Times 26049 – not too beastly after all”

  1. 36 minutes, with the simply deceptive NOTION the pick for me. I had no idea that ‘quodlibet’ could be used musically, although I was vaguely aware of the theological usage. Was as mad as an Aussie to hold myself up by biffing ‘ail’ at 28.
  2. I enjoyed this – a bit harder than the last two days but not too taxing. TRISYLLABLE was hard to spot even with some checkers in place.

    I held myself up for a while by putting BARBERRY at 1dn although it did occur to me at the time that RAB only lives on in Mephistos these days.

  3. 11:18, so definitely a PB using the annoying iPad and would have been quicker on paper. However, many BIFD so thanks pip for the explanations. No standout clues though, at least to me.
  4. With lots of interruptions, so the (relatively) easy week continues.

    The unknown QUODLIBET seemed more likely than QUODLEBIT, and BILBERRY more likely than BALBERRY. RECUPERATED was BIFD at 13dn, which also slowed things down a bit, but pretty straightforward overall.

    Thanks setter and blogger.


  5. About 40 mins, with NOTION being the only one BIFD, and QUODLIBET and BESTIARY being the only unknowns. Found it easier than yesterday’s, but yes, this week’s have definitely been a lot more straightforward than last week’s.

  6. Another straightforward one: you wait a week, and then three come along all at once…

    Bilberries are what Amurcans call blueberries, as increasingly so do we.

    Jerry

    1. According to Wikipedia (and what greater authority could you ask for?) Bilberries are distinct from blueberries but closely related to them.
        1. Yes indeed. My job as a child was to go up the mountain with a tin can and collect enough for a whinberry tart. Backbreaking work. Ann
      2. Semantics… Blueberries and bilberries (and whinberries, blaeberries etc etc) are all members of the vaccilium genus. Both names are used to refer to half a dozen or more species. The US call their native ones blueberries and the European natives are called bilberries (or should be). It so happens that cultivation has been a US initiative in the main so that even UK cultivated berries tend to originate from US species. But they are all, every one, vacciliums (vaccilia?) and essentially the same fruit
        1. I claim no expertise in the area but I have always thought that bilberries were what the French call myrtilles which are quite distinct from blueberries. I don’t think I ever even saw a blueberry in the UK when I was growing up. Edit: having googled some pictures of myrtilles I take it back: they look exactly the same as blueberries. I remember them being much smaller, which may be because I am remembering wild ones, or just because of faulty memory.
          To confuse matters further, apparently the genus also includes cranberries.

          Edited at 2015-03-18 07:30 pm (UTC)

          1. blueberries are usually bigger than bilberries because they are usually cultivated varieties.
            I think of bilberries and myrtilles as being the same.. how identical they are technically is perhaps another matter. Like mushrooms, they are what you want them to be
  7. 14m. Quite straightforward but enough to chew on. I was helped by vaguely remembering some obscurities from past puzzles (QUODLIBET, ATHOS) and spotting the trick in 6dn reasonably quickly, but held up for quite a while at the end by failing to see that ‘up’ wasn’t a reversicator in 22dn.
  8. No time to offer as I missed one of my blocks of sleep earlier in the day and promptly fell asleep mid-solve around 1AM after a late start (printer problems – don’t ask!). Usually I’m straight onto these at midnight prompt.

    Yet another EAR clue didn’t go down well (can’t blame the setter for that unless it was the same one as yesterday) but other than that this was an excellent puzzle.

    I also didn’t know QUODLIBET as a medley but what else could it be? I was nearly tempted to spell 13dn AMELIA,RA,TED thinking the military contingent was the Royal Artillery rather than Other Ranks.

  9. 14 mins. I thought this one was slightly more taxing than the previous couple, but not overly so. I saw QUODLIBET from the anagram fodder but didn’t realise it had been defined differently in some previous puzzles. My LOI was TRISYLLABLE.
  10. 18:57 to continue a week in stark contrast to the last one. I was pleased to avoid such biffing as mentioned above as I’m normally a sucker for it. AIL tempted me several times right up until ADO went in at the last.
  11. 8:11 – would have been a smidge quicker if I’d only concentrated when writing in a solution in the wrong place, requiring once again the use of the Tippex bottle.

    Edited at 2015-03-18 01:03 pm (UTC)

  12. 16:30 with a bit of time at the end getting the vowels in all the right places in quedlobit then teasing out the tricky NOTION.

    I’m pretty sure I’ve got a Hilaire Belloc bestiary at home.

    1. I seem to remember a book of cautionary tales in the smallest room when growing up. More interesting than Horse and Hound.
    2. There’s a Flanders and Swann Bestiary too, and album of all their animal songs.
  13. 15:55 .. quite a satisfying one, I thought. The clue for TRISYLLABLE makes no sense whatsoever but I like it.

    Nice to see the Greeks, true to tradition, listened politely to an EU Parliamentary resolution in 2003 asking them to lift the ban on women being allowed onto Mount Athos, probably nodded a lot then completely ignored it. That’s how I remember Greece.

    1. James Lees-Milne’s diaries contain a number of interesting and rather amusing accounts of trips to Mount Athos with David Hill. The total tonnage of what Mt Athos has not got defies belief.. not just women, but electricity, running water, etc etc. Not even wifi.. sounds hideous
      1. Just to make it clear, I lived in Greece for a few years and hold the place in huge affection, contrariness most certainly included. And I hope Mount Athos doesn’t change … ever.
  14. 32m here and all correct though I BIFD quite a few with fingers crossed – 22d and 29a for example so thanks for the blog. I thought that NOTION was the pick of well. Ragged set of clues. Hats off to the setter.
  15. Like others, I found this relatively straightforward, with all but four answers completed by the time the rattler rolled into Waterloo. I even got the unknown Quodlithingy without knowing it. Total time about 36 minutes which is good for me. I did start to look for a J, K and Z towards the end imagining a pangram, but was disappointed. LOI was ATHOS. Thanks all.
  16. About 35 minutes, ending with the MOUSER/ATHOS pair. TRISYLLABLE was clever and the wordplay for NOTION was well disguised. But to me, not as simple all around as the last couple have been. Regards to all.
  17. 22 mins which would have been somewhat quicker if I had not biffed ALABAMA at 21ac. The NE went in quickly once I had realised the error of my ways.
  18. No problem; about 25 mins. An enjoyable puzzle. Sort of recognised from the checkers that 16 had to be a bit of Latin, but couldn’t have defined it.
  19. Does anyone else remember Richard Halliburton’s “Book of Marvels”? That’s where I learned about Mt Athos, where, I was informed, they ban not only women but all females: hens, she-cats, etc. It still took me a while to write 25d in, because I’m forever forgetting the -h spellings of musical notes. I thought 29ac was a particularly nice surface.

    Edited at 2015-03-18 05:28 pm (UTC)

  20. One of my better days. 17 minutes. Had a minor delay with MOUSER which I didn’t think was a word. But then I remembered “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser”. Anyone else read Fritz Leiber? Ann
  21. Held up for ages by entering EIGER at 25d. E + (RE and GI reversed). Fits wordplay perfectly.

    Geebs

    1. I think solvers would have grounds for complaint if ‘soldiers’ on its own was used to clue two different abbreviations.

      Edited at 2015-03-18 11:40 pm (UTC)

  22. An embarrassing 50min for me, though I’m sure I took time out at some point. Still, at least I finished this one on the day it was set, which is an improvement.

    LOI was BORDER, which I couldn’t see for love nor money. I was convinced that the answer involved some obscure nickname for a public schoolboy. NHO ATHOS, but figured it had to be either that or ARHOS. QUODLIBET was only vaguely remembered, and I’d have written it as two words, but nothing else worked so in it went.

    COD for me was TRISYLLABLE – not a great anagram, but it was well crafted, I thought.

  23. Considering how tired I was feeling, I’m actually not too disappointed with my 9:39, particularly as I’d just had a truly horrific senior moment with “City of Florida (7)” in T2 Concise which had cost me three or four minutes – even though I was almost certain that it was a) the site of Disney World, and b) the title of that book by Virginia Woolf!

    I debated on whether to leave this puzzle until tomorrow, but thought I’d give it a go and managed to bumble through it somehow or other.

    Edited at 2015-03-19 12:05 am (UTC)

Comments are closed.