Times 26,075: Column By Column In A Cloud Of Dust

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Thirteen minutes on the nose to solve this puzzle: unlucky for some, but not for me, as being an inveterate classicist I was as happy as an Ithacan pig earmarked for a homecoming feast. Guest appearances from Homeric heroes, their mothers, and assorted pre-Christian gods, locations and generals all contributed to helping me feel that the store of arcane information in my brain was not accumulated entirely for naught, and that perhaps is the Times Crossword’s great service to the likes of me.

Puzzle-wise it was a grid of two halves. I completed the RHS in short order but then had much more trouble/fun with the left, with some quite devious definition parts (23A, 26A…) and 20A which I found very hard to properly parse, and please do correct me if I haven’t. Despite all my raving about matters ancient Greek above I do like a spot of low culture too, so 3D may have to be my Clue of the Day. Though you could probably get away with arguing that Star Trek is a modern retelling of the Odyssey, I reckon…

In other news I didn’t know Aneurin except as Mr Bevan, so really enjoyed the political skulduggery conjured up by 9A’s surface. A timely reminder of the value to our nation of the NHS with just a few weeks to go till the election, by the way? Or am I thinking too much like a Guardian reader again? Kudos to the setter for another epic Friday puzzle in any case.

Across
1 DOUBLE UP – to share room: P [pressure] on (i.e. after) U [University] + (BLUE*) [“drunk”] after DO [party]
9 THIAMINE – aneurin: HI AMIN [greeting | African dictator] in TE [“vacant” T{ownhous}E]
10 ISLE – “land surrounded”: sounds like AISLE [“discussed” division of the church]
11 ACHILLES HEEL – flaw: A CHILL EEL [a | cold | fish] admitting SHE [female]
13 PINTER – playwright: PIT [set] “to collect” N [new] + E.R. [royalty]
14 MODERATE – liberal: MATE [friend] “crosses” ODER [river]
15 INSTEAD – as alternative: IN S [stylish | son] + D [departs] after TEA [meal]
16 HABITAT – living space: A BIT [somewhat] “limited by” HAT [Derby]
20 OPPONENT – one to challenge: O [over] + E NT [e-|books] after PP ON [pages | added]
22 ROUBLE – money: {t}ROUBLE [problems “checked at the outset”]
23 ANAESTHETIST – number, i.e. one who numbs: SEA [ocean “returned”] by THETIS [nymph] “collected by” ANT [worker]
25 USER – addict: “taken in” {beca}USE R{relapsed}
26 EYELINER – “looks more powerful with this”, i.e. something that augments one’s looks: EYE LINER [survey | ship]
27 TOTTERED – almost fell: TED [little man] “catching” OTTER [river creature]

Down
2 OBSIDIAN – glass: IS “raised” by DI [detected] in OBAN [Scots town]
3 BREASTSTROKE – event: (BE SO + STAR TREK*) [“excited”]
4 EUPHORIA – bliss: UP HO [happy | house] that “elevated” AIRE [river] “devours”
5 PTOLEMY – ancient general: (EMPLOYMENT – MEN [“staff dismissed”]*) [“insane”]
6 GILEAD – Biblical land: G.I. LEAD [soldier | to be at forefront]
7 FINE – double def: a fine is a punishment, and something ground up may become fine particles
8 HELL-BENT – very determined: HE’LL BE [that man will become] + N T [knight (with) time]
12 HORTICULTURE – gardening: homophone of HAUGHTY [“reportedly” imperious] + CULT URE [fashion (by) river]
15 ISOLATED – in lonely place: I SOLD, “there lurks” ATE [mischievous goddess]
17 AIRTIGHT – having no weak point: AI RIGHT [excellent | fitting] holds T [tons]
18 ALL THERE – right in the head: L [learner driver] in (LEATHER*) [“lamped”]
19 AT HEART – essentially: (THAT*) [“worked”] “to grab” EAR [attention]
21 EXTEND – offer: EX TEN D [former partner | an amount – five hundred]
23 APEX – top: APE X [copy (with) illiterate signature]

41 comments on “Times 26,075: Column By Column In A Cloud Of Dust”

  1. 21:51 … struggled a little with this. Several minutes at the end going through the alphabet until FINE clicked. I was fixated on LINE but knew it didn’t really make sense as ‘ground’.

    Re your closing question, verlaine, I vote to keep this an election-free oasis if at all possible. There has to be some escape from the madness.


  2. Thought this a great puzzle, just the right level of difficulty for me with unknowns being clearly parsed (THIAMINE, OBSIDIAN), and knowns being left unparsed (OPPONENT, ANAESTHETIST). 40mins or so, with my four-letter time thief at the end being ISLE…
  3. After a 12 minute PB in Wednesday’s qualifier (!) these last two days have brought me down to earth with a bump. Yesterday took just over the hour and it was a good 50 minutes-worth today. But at least I get the satisfaction of completing them.
    Interesting that the nymph in 23a was the mother of the hero in 11a. Not a coincidence methinks.
  4. 18:31 with no real hold-ups. I have been caught out many times over the years with ‘number’ indicating ‘ether’ so I was in the right area from the start with 23ac. COD THIAMINE which I did not know but jumped out from the wordplay. Thank you setter and verlaine.
    1. Yes, I must confess that once I had a few letters in place, a hoary old “number of the beast = elephant tranquilizer” gag swam into my recollection and I was able to biff in ANAESTHETIST saving the need to parse for later…

      Edited at 2015-04-17 08:14 am (UTC)

  5. Not overjoyed with all the classical stuff but quite a few names and other references have stuck in my brain from constant repetition in schooldays, though I’d be hard pushed to explain them. I was pleased enough to get through this in a steady and sedate solve completing the grid in about 45 minutes.

    Several biffed answers and several unknown words worked out from wordplay proving the advantage of cryptics over word-for-word and GK puzzles.

  6. I like a puzzle like this; middling difficulty (for me), got it done just within my 24 minute train commute but it felt (twice) like I was going to make no progress at all; firstly on starting and secondly when the RHS had capitulated.
  7. 20 mins. The INSTEAD/ISOLATED crossers were my last in. It was only after I decided that 9ac didn’t contain “Nye” or “Bevan”, and that the African dicator wasn’t “Idi”, that the wordplay fell into place and I vaguely remembered having come across that meaning of “aneurin” before. It also took me longer than it should have done to see ACHILLES HEEL and BREASTSTROKE. Some would also argue that the indirect compound anagram for PTOLEMY borders on the unfair, but because I saw it fairly quickly I won’t be one of them today.
  8. 11:50. I seem to have been on the wavelength for this, but it was another very enjoyable one. THIAMINE was my favourite clue today: I didn’t know this meaning of ‘aneurin’ so using it at the beginning of the clue was a cunning piece of deception.
    Can I second sotira’s request about that which must not be mentioned? This place is blessedly politics-free.
    PINTER was my last in. Can someone explain how ‘set’ means PIT?
      1. Doh! Thanks. Chambers has ‘to set (e.g. cocks in a cockpit)’ which struck me as rather obscure, and the equivalent in Collins is ‘match in opposition’, but I failed to make the connection. Note to self: check ODO too before asking questions that risk making you look silly.
    2. Totally on board, though I hope it’s acceptable to mention the Labour party while talking about a clue containing a well-known Labour luminary – even for the next few weeks!
    1. As I am given to understand the kids like to put it, at 3:30 I LOL’d.

      Edited at 2015-04-17 09:54 am (UTC)

          1. Yes indeed! After being criticised for my last pic not being Verlainesque enough, I wanted to be above reproach this time. Though I must admit I was slightly hoping someone would mistake it for Dean Mayer.
            1. I’d like to take credit for encyclopaedic knowledge of 1970s proto-punk, but actually I had never heard of him or them either. I cheated, using the internet.
                1. Marquee Moon is a seminal piece of work in the rock’n’roll oeuvre, I assure you!
  10. Throughly enjoyable, not a particularly quick solve for me but a lot of nice moments on the way. As someone who is not a classicist by any stretch I was happy to finish and thought everything fairly clued. COD to Thiamine which I got from wordplay but had to be right, a quick wiki has it as ThiaminE? Also could someone enlighten me on cult=fashion, are you in a cult, as in, we are in an agreed collected group, such as “mods”? Thanks
    1. CULT for fashion did give me pause, but there are so many synonyms in the vein of “craze”, “rage”, “mania” that I just assumed this was along similar lines?

      Edited at 2015-04-17 09:56 am (UTC)

  11. …..thinking that “I sold” being in the clue in letter order at 15d for ‘Isolated” was almost too straight forward to be in the cryptic?
  12. I also thought ‘in’ as stylish rather than trendy was a bit out, a LOT of in trends are not stylish (well to my eyes anyway) but I guess if you can solve it enough has been provided to do so
  13. Rapid progress made on what was a pretty enjoyable crossword. I thought EYELINER good and EXTEND better. At 7dn, ?i?e took a while to work out but otherwise all straightforward. Thanks for the blog.
  14. An enjoyable 9:49, although there was a while at the start when I thought I’d be much longer.

    Would thud’n blunder like to comment on something I was once told by a very drunk anaesthetist ‘if you can still say anaesthetist, you definitely aren’t drunk’ 🙂

  15. On solve the clearly wrong ‘watertight’ jumped into my head for 17D – “Having no weak point”. I confess I don’t use ‘airtight’ in this way at all (but plan to now). Is this the same for any others?

    Looking up defs (collins), I see airtight=having no weak points, watertight=without loopholes. Another example of the beautiful way our language gives us word power from clearly functional original descriptions.

    Enjoyable all-rounder of a crossword.

    1. The Google search results numbers suggest there are way more watertight cases, and way more airtight alibis, than the other way around. But what happens when a watertight case meets an airtight alibi?
      1. Cracking research, great post. You’ve delivered a far subtler version of the immovable/irresistable collision.
  16. I forgot to time today but it was definitely a few multiples of the PB (my first sub-10) that I achieved on Wed’s Qualifier (assuming I got the answers right!). Never got into a rhythm and had to resort to pen and paper for the anagram at 3dn for which strangely Basingstoke kept coming to mind. After that things began to speed up.
  17. Around 20 minutes, ending with an alphabet search to find FINE. I had considered ‘TIME’ but happily persisted until the right ?I?E cam to mind. I had no idea who or what ‘aneurin’ was so I followed the wordplay quickly to THIAMINE, without being distracted by the name of the apparent politician who’s unknown to me. Overall, it was pretty entertaining, although I never could figure out the ‘culture’ part of HORTICULTURE, as ‘fashion by river’. Not compelling, IMO. Regards to all.
  18. 12:26 for me, held up by stupidly bunging in GIBEON at 6dn despite being a bit nervous about ON = “at forefront of” – and forgetting that GIBEON is a city rather than a land.

    I suspect I’ve seen the THIAMINE clue (or some variation of it) before, at any rate the answer went straight in as an easy win. (I’ve just checked: 12ac in Jumbo 941 (3 Sept. 2011) was “Thiamine for Bevan (7)”.)

    Nice puzzle.

  19. A pleasant enough puzzle, despite the classical references (not my strong point, but guessable) and the dodgy (to my Scottish ears) homophone.
  20. Perhaps I should get out more, but could somebody please explain why this indicates an anagram?
    Couldn’t find a dictionary definition to help
    1. To lamp someone is to hit them. I didn’t think twice about this, so I’m a bit surprised to find it’s not in any of my ‘go to’ dictionaries (Collins, Oxford, Chambers).

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