Times 26056 – was a placeholder, now a holder place

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I’ll put this here just in case. I’m traveling again, and if I had left on time, I would have been home and awake enough to solve and write up (famous last words), but it appears I am delayed in Denver. How long? Well if it’s another hour, there’s a chance I’ll get this written up as there is decent wifi in the Denver airport. If not… then it might be mid-morning UK time, or if I need a few hours shut-eye, early afternoon.

No matter what, don’t tell me what happens in the cricket!

And we’re back!

Solving time : 16:30 and I was having a mighty struggle with this one. There’s some not so obvious definitions, one of which is by example, though it is clearly signposted in the clue it appears to be a strange word to clue in that way.

Away we go…

Across
1 PARTICIPLE: that definition by example comes up immediately, PARTICLE surrounding 1P
6 HUMP: double def
8 NOVE(mber),LIST
9 COBALT: TO,C containing LAB (Labour) all reversed
10 ALLY: PALLY missing the P(olite)
11 FOUNDERING: FLOUNDERING without the L
12 PASTORATE: tricky one – PASTE containing TORA(h)
14 RAVE,L: this form is usually seen in the antonym form, think of the opposite of UNRAVEL
17 EAGRE: reverse the last two letters of EAGER
19 SPEAKEASY: definition is DIVE. PEAK in SEA then S(a)Y
22 MICRONESIA: (INCOMER,IS,A)*
23 ACRE: ACE containing R
24 AGOUTI: A1 containing GOUT
25 UP IN ARMS: double definition
26 LEWD: hidden reversed in stanD WELl
27 OPEN SEASON: cryptic definition
 
Down
1 PINEAPPLE NEAP,P(ushed) in PILE
2 REVILES: S(ever)E, LIVER all reversed
3 COIFFURE: “both bits” are 0 and 1, along with FF in CURE
4 PUT OUT TO PASTURE: since TO PASTURE is an anagram of ROTA SET UP
5 ENCODE: EDE(n) containing NCO
6 HIBERNATE: (BREATHE IN)*
7 MELANGE: ME contaning ELAN and last of (gro)G
13 TURNROUND: TURIN without I, then ROUND(sandwiches). Hesitated a while because I’ve always seen this spelled with an extra A
15 LAYPERSON: P in LAYERS(since STRATA is plural), ON
16 CANARIES: CARIES containing A,N
18 ATINGLE: or AT INGLE
20 A,C-CORD,S(ingle)
21 INDI(e),GO

38 comments on “Times 26056 – was a placeholder, now a holder place”

  1. Hmm, not used to being at this giddy heights of the top of the comments pile. The top half of this went in quite quickly but I struggled a bit on the bottom.. severe trouble with the island groups because I knew the Balearics was one but I couldn’t remember the other one to start with.. 22, not so hard

    Good enjoyable crossword, overall

  2. I don’t really think of a PINEAPPLE as an exotic plant, but that’s what comes of living nearly 30 years out east, I suppose. Stymied myself in the NE by plumping for ‘lump’ over HUMP at first, but most trouble was to be found in the NW, where the barely remembered bore was last in after the 1s.

    Other Couldn’t-remembers were CORD for the measure of wood and TURNROUND in place of ‘turnaround’. A long time was spent on this one…

    Now back to the cricket and my Indian prayer-mat.

    Edited at 2015-03-26 06:23 am (UTC)

  3. didn’t time it and did it between other things. nowhere near as fast as yesterday.

    my understanding of definition by example is when there is no “for example” or similar in the clue. so 1ac is not dbe

    1. It’s still a DBE, Paul, but the general consensus is that if it’s signalled then solvers have no grounds for complaint. Which doesn’t prevent some of us doing so on occasion anyway!
  4. If “mighty struggle” can be used to describe a 16:30 minute solve the language has not yet been invented to describe what I went through with this one! No doubt much later Tony will tell us that he had a bad day having been stretched to 5 minutes 🙂

    I take some consolation that I didn’t need to resort to aids, though towards the end it was becoming tempting to do so as I was stuck in the NW and almost completely out of ideas how to get going again.

    The other area of resistance was 20dn / 23ac, the latter being so obvious once both checkers were in place but ???E had too many possibilities and my brain froze. On 20dn I had never heard of CORD (or anything else for that matter) as a measure of wood, though I realised that was what I was looking for and how the stuttering device worked.

    My other small consolation was that I recognised the IO “bit” thing having learnt it first in the 26000 milestone puzzle which I blogged but missed the Nina. It came up again a few days later and I had already forgotten it.

    On 1dn I agree with ulaca about PINEAPPLE not being particularly exotic, and even if it were I think “exotic sort” is insufficient as a definition.

    Edited at 2015-03-26 08:21 am (UTC)

    1. I was assuming this was used as a noun in the horticultural sense. In which case it’s definitely an exotic if you live on the Frozen Planet, aka UK.
    2. I had to look it up, Jack, but the definition here would be simply ‘exotic’, with NEAP being ‘sort of tide’: ‘EXOTIC (noun) An exotic plant or animal: “he planted exotics in the sheltered garden”‘ (ODO)
      1. Thanks. I wondered about that but my dictionary specified Northern Hemisphere plants grown in NZ. I should have investigated further.

        Edited at 2015-03-26 08:55 am (UTC)

      2. A common distinction for those who cultivate Australian native plants: native vs exotic.
  5. 16.30 and in an airport waiting for a late flight, george – that suggests almost magoo-like powers of concentration. one of these days i’ll get the 10 bits thing the first time but i’m still waiting. another one here who wanted another A in ‘turnround’ – so much so that it got typed in involuntarily and then i wondered why there was such a mess in that corner. toyed with ‘babel’ in 14a for a while but it didn’t make sense. hard fought 28.9
  6. A good puzzle I thought with one or two strange little quirks in it like the missing A in 13D and the “hooked” in 2D

    I have no problem with 1A which for me is how DBE should be presented. I thought 19A excellent with a very well hidden definition

  7. My time of 33.09 was much interrupted, which also rather spoiled the flow of this thing. I couldn’t break ENCODE: I put it down to my lack of horticultural nous and decided the garden was an ENDE(R, or some other letter), which meant my officer could just be the CO.
    I too toyed with BABEL (it means, give or take a hebrew letter, confusion – the wordplay was hardly Ximenean but the Genesis writers liked it). I hazarded that in Raymond Chandler-speak, a certain party might indeed be a babe, but it just didn’t feel right. The real answer, as a result, was a bit disappointing.
    I did wonder (still do a bit) whether PINEAPPLE could have had an adjectival history meaning exotic, as in Pineapple Poll, but I can’t find any justification there or anywhere. My pineapple comes from Tescos.
  8. I made heavy weather of this – almost an hour – but for me the greatest satisfaction is in completing it.
    I’m puzzled by a lot of correspondents wanting TURNAROUND when to me TURNROUND is the more common expression for the time taken between an order and delivery (as in 24-hour turnround). The former I’ve always assumed is the physical act of turning around, though I accept that verbalising “turnround” sounds as if the “a” is intruding. Incidentally, the spellcheck on this blog doesn’t recognise “turnround” – is it a cross-Atlantic thing?
    1. I took “dock” in the clue to refer specifically shipping (Channel ferries, for example) and whilst I’ve no actual knowledge of what’s the most common usage in that context, TURNROUND sounds more likely to my ear.
  9. 26 mins. I started off very slowly and after my first read-through of all the clues I only had two four-letter answers (ALLY and ACRE) to show for it. I then made steady if unspectacular progress and finished with SPEAKEASY after the 1ac/4dn crossers.

    In 13dn the word in the clue is “sandwich”, not “sandwiches”, and one of the definitions of “round” is “a sandwich made with two complete slices of bread”.

  10. 27:10 .. PASTORATE and TURNROUND taking up a good chunk of that. Completely unfamiliar with TURNROUND as a single word and without an ‘a’. Not an easy clue at all, what with the rather curiously worded def. I didn’t feel confident about either of these even after parsing them.

    It’s been just long enough since AGOUTI popped up for me to have forgotten it.

  11. 26m. In stark contrast to Tuesday’s toughie I really enjoyed this: it felt full of originality, with lots of clues where the difficulty wasn’t in the obscurity. I’m probably just in a better mood.
    TURNROUND was my last in: I’ve never come across it without the A either, but then I’ve never come across with an A in this sense.
  12. 27:06 which seems about average looking at the previous three entries! With the unknown crossers EAGRE and TURNROUND I was ready for the ipad to announce I had errors so seeing my time appear instead was a pleasant surprise.

    AGOUTI came to me quickly, having appeared on yesterday’s Countdown which I watched this morning.

  13. I thought this really tough and it didn’t help by someone ignoring my ‘I’m timing myself on the crossword’ and coming in and rummaging through the stationery cupboard while I was fighting away.

    A proper beastly 19:36 worth of severe head-scratching.

    1. Glad to hear it’s not just me who takes their timing seriously. Twice today the doorbell went whilst solving and I found myself frantically trying to turn to another page so as to pause the ipad timer.
      1. Today I was pleased of my interruptions, so I could pretend I didn’t know how long this had really taken me.
      2. That isn’t valid – plenty (all?) of people, me included, confirm that the brain keeps processing and solving clues in the subconscious when you go off to eg answer the door. You can come back after a few minutes and immediately fill in 4 or 5 that had you baffled.
        Beaten today by OPEN SEASON – had the season but couldn’t bring the phrase to mind; and INDIGO – my mind doesn’t have INDIE meaning film company, or INDIGO being blue rather than purple. Heigh Ho.
        Rob
  14. Somewhere between forty and fifty minutes, interrupted by the dog disgracing itself on the rug, which apparently is my fault.

    Good challenging puzzle, where the obscurities (EAGRE, TURNROUND) were de-obscured by fair cluing.

    Thanks setter and blogger. Thanks Steve Smith.

  15. This stretched me out to 35 minutes, ending with LEWD. I had trouble with TURNROUND, never having seen it without the ‘A’, and exotic as a definition for a PINEAPPLE. But a nice challenging puzzle overall. Regards.
  16. When in doubt, reach for the Book of Words. Chambers says of TURNROUND: “the whole process of docking, unloading, taking on cargo, passengers, or both, and setting sail again”. Strangely, TURNAROUND doesn’t appear in there at all (except as “Turn around one’s finger”)!
    Sorry I can’t comment about the OED, and as my copy of Chambers is dated 1972, things may have changed a tad since.
  17. An enjoyable but challenging 40 min solve. I had trouble in the SW with LEWD being my LOI.
  18. i’ve been suffering all day (ear worm) so I thought i’d make the rest of you miserable. There was a song in the 80’s by bonnie tyler called total eclipse of the heart with the word ‘turnaround’ repeated ad nauseam in a dirge-like wail. it’s lately been reprised in the US in a breakfast food commercial and it’s nearly driving me nuts. you’re welcome.
    2. Olivia – I have no words. Bonnie – if you’re reading this, know that at least one member of this community is a big fan of your work (though I preferred “Holding out for a hero” to TEOTH).
      1. Lives a few miles down the road. We’re rather fond of her here. She’s often seen in local eateries. I’d love to think she’s reading this site. But doubt it somehow…
        1. I remember as a child seeing her on “Top of the Pops” back in the mid-70s with one of her first singles “Lost in France “and I just loved her voice. I’m pretty sure she’s made a ton of money over the years so she probably doesn’t need to care much about the public’s opinion of her now, but I would like to think that if she ever did somehow end up on this website then she would be gratified to find a little bit of support.
          1. Yes. Me too. A friend tells a story that when he was younger he met a chap in a local nightclub who was a cousin or something of Gaynor (her real name) and was staying at her house. My friend ended up there. She was quite unfazed and made him welcome – even made them food. And my late husband once talked to her all night when they were at adjacent tables in a local curry house. He had no idea who she was. They talked about Germany – she was learning the language for a tour and he had studied and worked there. A friendly woman who seems to be genuinely interested in people.
  19. I thought this was a handful – took about an hour, in several goes. Never heard of CORD or EAGRE, but the wordplay was clear enough in both cases. SW corner was the last to fall. Chewy, enjoyable puzzle.
  20. 17:48 for me, never properly managing to find the setter’s wavelength. An interesting and enjoyable puzzle nonetheless.

    I don’t think I’ve ever actually tasted HP Sauce (the look of it was always enough to put me off), but I can never see the word MELANGE without being reminded of “Cette sauce de haute qualitĂ© est un mĂ©lange de fruits orientaux, d’épices et de vinaigre.”

    1. You must be the first northerner I’ve ever come across not to be a brown sauce devotee.

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