Times 26,078

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Clock stopped at 12:20 for a puzzle where the wordplay was very accurate, and the required knowledge fell comfortably within my compass – some religious studies, a bit of classics, the usual sport, and no pesky plant life.

Across
1 AVAILABLE – [EL(i.e in Majorca, “the”), BALI, AVA]all rev.
6 SABLE – B{achelor} in SALE, part of Greater Manchester, and known to me almost entirely for its rugby team. Normally just a synonym for “black”, although the fur of the animal from which the name comes is actually dark brown; but Collins certainly supports the more general “gloomy” or “dark”.
9 ALMONER – M{illions} in ALONE, R{epublican}.
10 EPHESUS – HE’S inside [EP, US]. Ionian Greek city found in what is now mainland Turkey, and home to the Temple of Artemis.
11 HADES – sucH A DEScent.
12 SUN LOUNGE =”SON” LOUNGE.
13 DELTA – D{esirabl}E, LTA (the Lawn Tennis Association, who run the game in the UK) gives the wide river mouth.
14 FALSE DAWN – (DALES)* in FAWN(=”crawl”).
17 SPOKEN FOR – S{ons}; [KEN(=”know”), F{emale}] in POOR.
18 TAMAR – TAMAR{in} loses the IN to give the river between Devon and Cornwall. The tamarin (monkey) is easily confused with the tamarind (tree), as I think I’ve proved in past puzzles.
19 MELODRAMA – MELOD{y}, RAM, A{nimals}. As the setter no doubt intended, I am now earwormed by “House of the Rising Sun”.
22 RETCH – {w}RETCH minus the W{ife}.
24 ANTIOCH – (IT)rev. in AN O{ld} CH{urch}.
25 GLAMOUR – G{rand}, (Dorothy) Lamour. You don’t see the Road to… films much these days, but she still sprang to mind pretty quickly.
26 KORAN – K.O.(a punchy finish, indeed); not so sure about “ran=featured”, though. Possibly as in “the Sunday newspaper ran the story about the cabinet minister”? Or even “ginger hair ran in the family”? Unless I’m missing a more obvious one…
27 RE-EMERGED – [G{allons} in MERE(=lake)] in REED(=cane strip).
 
Down
1 AWASH – AWA{C}S minus the C{aught}, plus H{amas}. AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) are those early-warning / command aircraft with the giant radars on top.
2 ARMADILLO – I(current in scientific notation) in (MALLARD)*, 0. Protected by its armour, I’m thinking, rather than having any special ecological status.
3 LANDSCAPE – i.e. LANDS CAPE.
4 BIRDS OF A FEATHER – (EATFISHBREADFOR)*.
5 ETERNAL TRIANGLE – (LINGERALTERNATE)*.
6 SCHMO – from the Yiddish, and as in “Joe Schmo”, Mr Average. Reverse alternate letters in fOrMcHeCkS. On its previous appearances, some have detected offensiveness in the word, though you really have to go back through its family line via “schmuck” to get that, I think; certainly crossword editors don’t seem to think it unsuitable for a family puzzle.
7 BASIN – B.A.s, IN, as cricketers would be when batting (or even baseball players, though that doesn’t chime as well with the surface).
8 EASTERNER – (Lawrence) STERNE in EAR.
13 DISEMBARK – (BIRDMAKES)*.
15 EXTIRPATE – EX(=former partner), T(junction), [P{arking} in IRATE]. From the Latin meaning “to utterly uproot”: war-mongers in the classical world were always threatening to extirpate their enemies.
16 ARMSTRONG – ARM(weapon), STRONG(powerful), and between them, the first man to set foot on the Moon.
20 LATER – L{otus-e}ATER drops the O{ld} T{estament} books and USE(=enjoy). The original lotus-eaters first appear in the Odyssey; unsurprisingly, Odysseus has to work hard to persuade his crew to return to wandering the Mediterranean instead of living a life of drug-fuelled indolence.
21 DROWN – R{iver} in DOWN.
23 HEROD – 0 in HERD gives the man responsible for the Massacre of the Innocents.

34 comments on “Times 26,078”

  1. 27+ minutes in what turned out to be a biffing bonanza with most of the GK right up my alley. All parsed post-solve apart from LATER, and another vote of thanks to Tim for making it unnecessary to complete the final task on my To Do list and check the difference between tamarin and tamarind.

    In the Acts of the Apostles, it is recorded of Antioch that this was the place where followers of Jesus were first called Christians. COD to AVAILABLE, where I started by working around Elba.

  2. 34 minutes with sights set on achieving my 30-minute target most of the way only to have my hopes dashed eventually in the NE corner. I didn’t know SABLE as ‘gloomy’ and at 8dn I wasted time trying to remember who wrote ‘The Bostonians’ (it was Henry James) thinking it would be the answer or part of it.

    I’d be surprised if anyone under the age of about 60 has ever heard of Dorothy Lamour but it’s good to know she’s not completely forgotten.

    I was unable to come up with the word requiring deletions at 20dn. I wonder if this is the first time we’ve been required to delete two separately clued unconnected sets of letters {OT USE}.

    Edited at 2015-04-21 03:41 am (UTC)

  3. A hard morning’s solve. With Ulaca, stuck on the ELBA thing at 1ac. Then a bit upset to find AVA is a palindrome. Also didn’t know about AWACS (1dn). Born just a bit too late for that. (Though I did once have a rather “intimate” connection with radar. It didn’t last.)

    Thanks to Tim for the parsing of 20dn. Obvious answer — but (at the time) why?

    Now I have visions of Daleks screaming EX!TIRPATE! EX!TIRPATE!

  4. No idea how to parse LATER, so thanks Tim. EXTIRPATE, ALMONER and EPHESUS from (very fair) wordplay.

    Was surprised that Tassie’s TAMAR river got a guernsey in the Times, but assumed it’s another one of those names you’ve pinched from us.

    Enjoyable crossword. Thank you linesmen, thank you ballboys.

  5. 26:41 … I was due a slow go, and this proved to be it. I became well and truly becalmed in the NW, with AVAILABLE, AWASH and LANDSCAPE all remaining resolutely unsolved to the point where I nearly threw in the towel.

    Nice puzzle, though. Really enjoyed the “protected species”, but COD to the ETERNAL TRIANGLE for a ripping good surface and anagram (unfortunately, this clue has left me with a Barry Manilow ear-worm … how did that happen?).

  6. 18:16 celebrating the return of the ‘proper’ iPad keyboard. Didn’t have the House of the Rising Sun earworm until it was mentioned so thanks for that tim (and for the blog). Knew Miss Lamour from Webster’s Dictionary.

    Edited at 2015-04-21 06:45 am (UTC)

  7. Much too much biffery on my part to take pleasure in the time; thanks to Tim for I’m embarrassed to say how many explanations. What’s Dorothy Lamour doing in Webster’s?
    1. ‘Like Webster’s Dictionary, I’m Morocco bound’, another earworm for those of a certain age. Road to Morocco was one of her films.
  8. The two long lights went in quickly from definition and it was a game of two halves after that, both pretty straightforward. The ARMADILLO as a ‘protected species’ was very good, likewise the clue for MELODRAMA. ‘Dimples’ my Animals song of the day.
  9. 14:02. At times this felt like doing the concise crossword with so much going in by definition. I was just slowed slightly at the end by ARMSTRONG, GLAMOUR and TAMAR.

    My COD to ARMADILLO for the droll ‘protected species’.

  10. Interesting puzzle made easier by the two long lights both going straight in from definition and a glance at the anagrist. The GK also well within my scope and of my generation (Dorothy in particular and I guess Neil to some extent). Nice blog Tim.

  11. … and that One Error was ‘sobre’ for SABLE. How was I to know there’s not a northern town called Sore?

    As others have said, lots of biffing without understanding the wp (LATER, TAMAR, GLAMOUR, AVAILABLE – sneaky that Elba’s in there, eh?).

    The Awacs are a familiar sight overhead, as we live not far from RAF Waddington. I’m always amazed they stay up, they’re massive and move so slowly…

  12. 14′ dead, with LATER solved but unresolved. Today was very much a biffing day, a glance at the wordplay making sure that something eligible was there. I might have worked out LATER if it had been my blogging day, but I’m glad it wasn’t. SABLE as gloomy misremembered from Hamlet. Protected species – favourite definition of the day. Crunchy on the outside, smooth on the inside
  13. 18m. I felt I was making heavy weather of this. I think I forgot to limit my hypothesis space.
    Never heard of Ms Lamour, but no problem with ARMSTRONG, on account of the fact that he’s still famous.
    I had no idea what was going on with LATER, so thanks for the explanation. As Jack points out, it’s unusual to be instructed to remove two cryptically indicated parts from a word like this. It has a whiff of the indirect anagram about it. To adapt Ximines own words quoted by a wise blogger the other day, the wordplay is supposed to help the solver, but in this case it doesn’t: after he has got the answer by other means, he will stare at the wordplay scratching his head and thinking ‘I’ve no idea what’s going on here, but what else can it be?’
    I knew ANTIOCH principally as the birthplace of the Holy Hand Grenade.
    2. I’m filing “forgot to limit my hypothesis space” for later reference.

      Bless you, Brother Keriothe, for the reminder of the Holy Hand Grenade. Mention of it surely warrants the full benediction:

      … And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, “O LORD, bless this Thy hand grenade that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy.” And the LORD did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu… [At this point, the friar is urged by Brother Maynard to “skip a bit, brother”]… And the LORD spake, saying, “First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.

      Edited at 2015-04-21 08:51 am (UTC)

      1. Ah, the memories of first seeing this with my mates as a fifteen-year-old at a school film night. Possibly not cool to admit it now, but nothing before or since has made me laugh as much as this movie did at the time.
  14. 13 mins. I’m glad so many of you couldn’t parse LATER either. Well done Tim for untangling it, and I agree that it almost borders on the unfair. I also confess to not bothering to double-check the anagram fodder for 4dn and 5dn. AVAILABLE (biffed) was my LOI after the ALMONER/AWASH crossers, and I’m another who was fixated on a reversal of Elba, couldn’t make it work, and decided to enter the answer and come here for the explanantion. Having said that, I’m sure I could have worked it out for myself if I’d had the inclination but I’m getting very lazy.
  15. Another one who left it til “later”. I was trying to do something with slattern without much conviction. I also shoved in flash lamp which had to be fixed pronto. 15.11
  16. Went down a blind alley being convinced that 18a was TIBER since a forest gives TIMBER less M for monkey.
  19. I found this mostly easy and thought I was heading for a time close to 20 minutes, but a desperate entry of SOBER for 6a screwed my chances for 8. I was also slow to get TAMAR from T_M_ _, think the monkey might be IMP.
    I didn’t understand LATER but didn’t waste time trying to fathom it.
    30 minutes in the end.
  20. I would be depressed about my time if I had not been interrupted by lots of distractions as I solved the puzzle in my favourite library (Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society for the record).
    Like many others, I completely failed to parse ‘later’, but many clues to enjoy.
  22. 17:17, slowed by not looking at the two long downs early enough, falling for misdirection here and there and the odd brain failure (forgetting the “name” for AWACS for instance).

    I’ve heard of Dorothy Lamour but as I won’t be 54 until next week I hope I don’t count as “about 60” just yet.

    Monty P to the rescue for Antioch, Later unparsed, Almoner from wp and an assumed connection with alms.

    I needed to parse available to get it and that gave me the A for my LOI awash.

  23. This was one of those puzzles where I read all the clues without anything coming to mind except EPHESUS. I was surprised, then, to find that I wrote in the last answers (SABLE and EASTERNER) well within the half hour.Thanks for the explanation of LATER, which like others I had not a clue about. Enjoyable puzzle
  24. What an odd puzzle – two short looks finished it off, but I ended up putting a lot in without figuring out the wordplay – AVAILABLE, AWASH, LATER and SPOKEN FOR all in from definition alone.
  25. One of those puzzles where the answers fell from the pen. Sometimes happens when I’m tired after work—-anyone else get that? Sable was a bit odd but the only answer that would fit.
  26. About 25 minutes, and I’m another who didn’t parse LATER. Didn’t come close, and wouldn’t have if I’d kept wracking my brain, so thanks Tim. Very pleased with MELODRAMA. SABLE took quite a while also, since I didn’t know the place whatsoever, so it was more of picking what seemed most like ‘gloomy’ from among the few possibilities. Lucky for me I could only think of a few which didn’t work at all. Regards to everyone.

    Edited at 2015-04-21 05:23 pm (UTC)

  28. 35 minutes here.

    Regarding our bloggers confusion between “tamarin” and “tamarind”, the distinction is that one is edible, whereas the other produces an unpalatable fruit.

    I too failed to parse LATER, and I would suggest that a clue that everyone solves but (almost) nobody can parse is a dud. On the other hand, if I’d parsed it I’d be dead chuffed.

    My COD was ETERNAL TRIANGLE. EPHESUS and ANTIOCH were both touch and go for me, as I was off sick from school the day we did culture. Otherwise, a nice puzzle.

  29. Disagree with parsing of 20d. Clue reads “subsequently hands round a note” L and R around “a Te” Maybe the clue changed in the book?

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