Times 26,066

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Clock stopped at 15:41 for an interesting and not entirely straightforward puzzle – there was a lot of “Hmmm, that rings a bell” with some clues, and more than one answer went in without full understanding, only to be fully explained by a trip to the reference books after the event. Meanwhile, 5dn fell on completely the wrong side of my personal definition of general knowledge (see last blog), as did the bird in 18dn.

Across
1 AGNOSTIC – (ACTINGSO)*.
9 LEANNESS – i.e. the girl ANNE is clothed in LESS.
10 COLD – L{eft} in COD.
11 METROPOLITAN – double def., the “capital line” being the part of the London Underground which runs all the way out to leafy Buckinghamshire, and the archbishop being an old rank of the Catholic and Eastern churches.
13 BORNEO – BORNE(=”carried”), O(=”round”); third-largest island in the world. Hands up if you, too, attempted to invent an island called something like BALORE…
14 IDEOGRAM – [O{ld} in MARGE(Simpson)], (Princess) DI, all reversed – those who decry the use of popular culture in crosswords won’t have got past Wallis as Mrs S.
15 BMX BIKE – M{onsieur} inside B X B(the chess notation for one bishop taking another), IKE(General, later President, Eisenhower). I thought it must be BXB as soon as I saw it, but dismissed it because there was no way those letters could be incorporated into an answer in English…
16 CAVEMAN – CAVE(=”hollow”), MAN(=chess piece such as the king).
20 ARRAIGNS – ARRAS(=”hanging”) around vIrGiN.
22 SPOORS – SPO{ns}ORS.
23 RIO DE JANEIRO – (IRONOREJADEI)*; not the Brazilian capital since 1960, of course, but very much so before then, and also still capital of the state of the same name.
25 UNIT – UNI{versity}, {studen}T.
26 CROSS EYE – CROSS(=”angry”), EYE(=”regard”). “Squint” is well down the list of possible meanings of “cast”.
27 ROAD HOGS – (HASDROOG)*, where the estates are cars. If you’re familiar with A Clockwork Orange, this is a tremendous surface (if you aren’t, you’re probably wondering what the hell a droog is meant to be). Horrorshow.
 
Down
2 GLOW-WORM – W{ife} x2, R{un}, inserted into GLOOM, with “apart” indicating that they don’t all go in together.
3 OLD MAN’S BEARD – OLD MAN(=”husband”), S{mall}, BEARD (=”imperial, maybe”; a style of beard popularised by Napoleon III, but probably all the rage in Hoxton right now). The plant is a type of clematis which I’ve learned from multiple appearances in crosswords.
4 TEXTBOOK – TEXT(“somehow communicate with”), BOOK(“reserve”).
5 CLOOTIE – C{aught} LOOT I.E.; well this was a new one, though the wordplay was pretty clear. Apparently it’s a Scots term for a cloven hoof, and by extension, the Devil. The sort of thing I’d expect in a Mephisto (appropriately) rather than the daily puzzle, but as I say, the route to the answer was fairly unambiguous.
6 PAROLE – O.R.(=other ranks=”men”, as opposed to officers)rev. inside PALE, as in the enclosure beyond which one doesn’t want to go.
7 HEFT – H{igh} E{xplosive}, F{inancial} T{imes}.
8 AS ONE MAN – {m}ASON{s}, (NAME)rev.
12 INGLEBOROUGH – (IBELONG)*, ROUGH(=”coarse”); second-highest peak in the Yorkshire Dales.
15 BOAT RACE – double def., being “face” in Cockney rhyming slang, and the actual race from Putney to Mortlake involving Oxford (dark blue) and Cambridge (light blue).
17 ABSCISSA – reverse hidden in clASSICS BAccalaureate; this was one of those “rings a bell” clues, as I vaguely recalled the term from maths lessons many years ago.
18 AGREEING – REE in AGING; more posthumous parsing, as I had to look up the fact that the wading bird the ruff is also known as the ree.
19 ASUNDER – A{nswer}, then [RED(“communist”), NUS(“union”)] rev. National Union of Students or Seamen, take your pick.
21 GI JOES – i.e. Privates in the US Army; [{restles}S, {com}E, {t}O, JIG]rev.
24 OBOE – nOtBrOkEn.

26 comments on “Times 26,066”

  1. Only just scraped home inside an hour on this one with far too much time lost in the SE corner because of misspelling the Brazilian city ‘IE’ instead of ‘EI’ and taking ages to spot the error despite all my instincts telling me that 17dn was a hidden answer. I’d never heard of it, or INGLEBOROUGH.

    Biffed METROPOLITAN and worked out CLOOTIE from wordplay trusting that the resulting word had something to do with “clootie dumpling” which I knew to exist. It now appears they are not connected. REE was another unknown and since it’s an alternative name that is not listed in Collins or the COED I’d say it’s bordering on the unfair. I’ve since found it in Chambers and the SOED but even so…

  2. 13m. Quite a few unknowns in here (the archbishop, the devil, the peak and the bird) but all fairly clued I thought.
    I took 11ac to be a triple definition: I suppose it works either way. I didn’t understand the chess reference in 15ac but once I had BM- B— I didn’t really need the clue any more.
  3. Went offline at 26′, but I think I may have squoze under the half-hour mark. I’m glad to see that my DNKs were not just the result of being a Murcan: CLOOTIE, REE, INGLEBOROUGH; also OLD MAN’S BEARD. But they were all easily enough gettable. On the other hand, I did know METROPOLITAN in both senses, and verbally slapped myself on the forehead when I finally saw it appearing through some checkers. Also didn’t understand BOAT RACE, which went in on enumeration + definition. And I hadn’t a clue what BMX could be, although I felt pretty sure it had to be; so I looked it up. Somehow, the Duchess pre-empted Marge from the start, so I never did parse 14ac.
  4. 13.25, which at the time of writing gives me a place on page 1 of the leaderboard and a lot less than 2 Jasons. Spelt RIO wrong again, but rescued by the X co-ordinate in analytical geometry (apparently) which clearly couldn’t be spelt with an E. Just as well, because Capital blur blur blur (3,2,7) is about as bunginable a clue as can be imagined. (Other suggestions invited.) I’ve only ever heard it pronounced ee-air. Should it be ay-ear?
    I had INGLEBOROUGH confused with something beginning INSEL and ending with an improbable NE before I realised that NE gave the location. Generous (to anyone who knew it).
  5. No problem with this one. CLOOTIE and REE familiar from Mephisto, ABSCISSA from school.

    Nice puzzle which I enjoyed solving looking out at a blue sky and blossom on all the trees – hope thing are looking up across the pond where my old colleagues tell me spring has finally put in an appearance

    1. I understand from Scots speakers that ‘Cluitie’ is the term for the devil and that ‘clootie’ is a cloth such as that used to boil the famous dumpling. On line Scots dictionaries agree. If the setter is to use such arcane terms, it’s best to get them right.
  6. Same unknowns as everyone else (usually I have more).

    ABSCISSA was well hidden but not a very pretty clue. LOI CAVEMAN, COD BORNEO. Not much else to add.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  7. 12 mins. I thought this was a good puzzle. I saw AGNSOTIC straight away and built out from there, with CAVEMAN my LOI. If I’d come across CLOOTIE before I’d forgotten it, but as has been said the wordplay was clear enough. It took me longer than it should have done to get CROSS-EYE.
  8. Liked this one.. didn’t know ree (the OED says it’s a female ruff) – but I don’t think the clue unfair, having solved it anyway.. it’s a long time now since I expected to know all the words in every crossword, or thought it unfair if I didn’t.

    Also does caveman = brutal? They had their artistic side, you know..

    1. I didn’t have in mind my own ignorance when I referred to the possibility of unfairness (several clues per day would qualify if that were the yardstick!) but the fact that REE is not in either of the two dictionaries which at one time were the source references for the daily puzzle. The clue was still solvable so I don’t consider it a big deal either way.

      Edited at 2015-04-07 09:38 am (UTC)

    2. In a figurative sense. From Collins:
      2. (informal, facetious) a man who is primitive or brutal in behaviour, etc
  9. The ree (female of the ruff) makes regular appearances in the NY Times puzzles, otherwise I wouldn’t know it either. Thought this was going to be an easy one, until it wasn’t. I’m no chess player so I dithered over the third letter in the bike clue. Thanks Jim, we’ve actually had a couple of spring days at last in NYC. It’s taken long enough to get here. Still too early for the blossom. 18.16 P.S. Sorry Jerry – you nipped in while I was typing.

    Edited at 2015-04-07 09:28 am (UTC)

  10. Really enjoyed this one, just the sort of puzzle I like with fun stuff like GI JOES and BMX BIKES to enjoy and a fair whack of general knowledge required. It didn’t hurt that I brought home a second puzzle in a row in under 10 minutes – 9:29 this time, must have been in the zone last night!

    I think the last minute plus was spent staring at _E_T and just not seeing HEFT, too – which is silly as H.E. should have been pretty obvious for “explosive” and the rest fell into place immediately upon thinking of that.

    I knew CLOOTIE but like many others I’m sure had to biff in AGREEING without understanding the bird.

    Edited at 2015-04-07 11:50 am (UTC)

  11. 3 Galsrays, so a humiliating disaster. Took ages over the last half dozen, finishing with CAVEMAN. Need a game of smartphone SCRABBLE to restore my confidence.

    Edited at 2015-04-07 11:32 am (UTC)

  12. 17:32 .. I had a few Huh? moments, but all were just satisfying bits of crypticity that I couldn’t initially see.

    And I thought I might be KO’d by the ARRAIGNS, GI JOES and CROSS-EYE combination, but eventually it all fell into place.

    Tricky puzzle, really, but clever and original. Tip o’ the hat to the setter.

  13. Got there in the end with the same problems as most others. Satisfying puzzle in my opinion.
  14. 55m but all correct in the end. Quite devious and demanding but enjoyable. My pick of aripe bunch was BOAT RACE. Thanks setter and blogger for explaining my many biffs.
  15. Doodled on this one in between rounds at pub quiz (where our team came fifth). Had question marks next to CLOOTIE, AS ONE MAN, and METROPOLITAN which were figured out from one part or the other. Also misspelled Rio until I spotted ABSCISSA
  16. 30 mins so found it quite tricky. I am pleased to say that there was nothing outside my GK today – it is just the solving bit I struggled with! Put me down as another who can’t spell RDJ which held me up in the SE for a while.
  17. Biffed AGREEING, as REE unknown,, and had to go and look up CLOOTIE because I had a few possibilities for 9a and not a definite L. Was worried about CAVEMAN as there were other options and is a cave a hollow? Otherwise, a nice puzzle, after dry golf in the sun at last. 25 minutes to finish.
  18. About 35 minutes spent clawing through the same unknowns as everyone else, and also held up by misspelling RIO, needing correction before ABSCISSA would fit. GI JOES and BMX BIKE were enjoyable for being out of the ordinary. Regards.
  19. I wasted far too much time trying – and failing – to achieve a clean sweep (ARRAIGNS was my one failure) taking me to a disappointing 11:26. Almost everything was familiar – CLOOTIE from Burns, REE from Ximenes (and others since), ABSCISSA from school, INGLEBOROUGH also from school (in Yorkshire) and from having climbed it – apart from BOAT RACE for “face”.

    I enjoyed it, but I don’t think it would win any prizes for its surface readings!

  20. Solving time: an embarrassing 45min.
    Drink: a cheap and cheerful Spanish white.

    Once again I find myself a day late but, as they say in Norfolk “it’s a rare sheep that knows west”. No, I have no idea what it means either.

    I spent a while suffering from i-before-e-ism in 23ac, making 17d one of my LOsI. NHO INGLEBOROROUGH, or of the diabolic CLOOTIE (though I’d heard of “clootie dumplings”). Nor, for that matter, the REE of 18d – it seemed implausible but went in for want of a better answer. Failed completely to parse 8ac and 14d.

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