Times 26080 – look at that slut in the fourth row!

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 14:55 – I think I made a meal of this one near the end, really struggling to get the last two entries (both of which were proper names not close to the front of my mind) while trying to piece together the wordplay. So there was a sigh of relief when the club timer showed me as all correct for the day, and with the third best time so far. Maybe it is on the tricky side?

I suspect the degree of difficulty will rely on knowing the names.

I got a message over the weekend, one of the regular Times setters celebrates 20 years of crossword publishing this week, so happy crossanniversary to John Halpern (aka Paul, Mudd, Punk)!

Away we go…

Across
1 LOOK AFTER: LOOTER(thief) containing an anagram of FAK(e)
6 SWISH: double definition, though in school the cane I remember made a sound like THWAP
9 SCRAP,ER
10 TEA ROOM: TEAR, O, OM
11 TU,M(unicipal)
12 INSPECTIONS: IN SECTIONS contining the second letter of uPsetting – was a little thrown by OFSTED in the clue, it’s the Office of Standards in Education
14 LANDAU: hidden in queensLAND AUstralia
15 CONGREVE: CONGE(permission to depart, with an accent acute over the E), around REV. Tricky wordplay for the playwright William Congreve
17 SULLIVAN: SCULL(row) missing C beside 1,VAN – Gilbert wrote the words, Athur Sullivan provided the tunes
19 WI,SHED: Got this from the definition, but now I look it up, I do recall the film about the WI Calendar Girls
21 ADVANCEMENT: AD(notice), then CEMENT(sticker) after VAN
23 LAB: double def
25 MONARCH: ON in MARCH
27 BALLOON: B then LOON after A,L
28 SOPPY: OP in SPY
29 TEAKETTLE: TEAK then SETTLE missing S
 
Down
1 LISZT: IS,Z in the middle of baLTic
2 OARSMAN: (t)ARS in OMAN
3 APPLICATION: I think this is a double definition, but I may be missing something
4 THRUST: THUS surrounding R near a T junction
5 RATTED ON: (NOT,TRADE)*
6 SE,A
7 IRON ORE: OR in IR,ONE
8 HAMPSTEAD: MP in HASTE, then AD(active duty)
13 TAGLIATELLE TAG(dog) then ATE in LILLE
14 LAS PALMAS: A SPA in (SMALL)*
16 CASE, SHOT
18 LIVEN UP: a delicious reversal of PUN,EVIL
20 HOLD OUT: double definition
21 SERBIA: SERIA(l) containing B
24 BUN,C(ak)E
26 RAY: alternating letters in gReAsY

46 comments on “Times 26080 – look at that slut in the fourth row!”

  1. Didn’t think I’d make it under the half-hour; and indeed, nearly didn’t, but finally the recalcitrant 3 or 4 clues yielded their secrets. DNK BUNCE or CASE-SHOT, and had no idea what WI (Women’s Institute?) had to do with Calendar Girls, but in each case the solution seemed pretty inevitable. I wouldn’t have equated cheesiness with soppiness (in my idiolect one’s shoddiness, the other sentimentality), but again the solution seemed inevitable. I liked 22ac, 4d, 13d, and especially 20d. For what it’s worth, George, I took 3d to be a dd, with ‘attempt’ as a noun.

    Edited at 2015-04-23 04:57 am (UTC)

  2. … of trouble in the SW. Not knowing the Calendar Girls didn’t help. And had a bit of trouble with the def. as well. Not knowing BUNCE also held me up.

    I see that Puck in the G. today also has TEA ROOM, with a slightly naughty ref. to crumpet.

    George: slight numbering problem at 22ac.

  3. 75 minutes but failed to spell, or parse, the Italian food properly. Took me ages to see that WISHED can mean ‘ordered’.

    Like Kevin, my favourite was HOLD OUT. Very good puzzle.

    1. Duke: You were not bid to speak.
      Lucio: No, my good lord, nor wished to hold my peace.
      Duke: I wish you now, then.
      –Measure for Measure
  4. As a somewhat under-70, I’d prefer to think of myself as a middle-aged fart, but in any case I demur at the ephemerality more than the currency.
  5. Like yesterday this was a slowish but steady and enjoyable solve for me most of the way but unlike yesterday I then ground to a halt with 16, 27 and 19 outstanding and remained that way for another 15 minutes or so ending up with one wrong at 19ac where I plumped for the somewhat unsatisfactory DISHED wondering at the same time whether the PC brigade would be up in arms at the reference I had in mind.

    I’m afraid that 19ac is bordering on the sort of modern popular culture reference that I am not very happy to see in a Times weekday puzzle though it’s becoming commonplace in the ST these days. I know this makes me an old fart, but there we are.

    1. Put me down for another old fart who doesn’t like references to current ephemerae in the daily puzzles. There should be some rule for books films etc equivalent to the “only if dead” rule for references to people.

      Dereklam

    2. As long as they don’t start referring to Times solvers as ‘we’, then I’m okay with the odd deviation from the straight and narrow.
    3. If we’re going to rule out pop culture ephemera then that would also eliminate Dorothy LAMOUR.
    4. The WI nude calendar was a news story before it was made into a film so I’m not sure that popular culture is an exact fit. Moreover, ET as a film is a common device and I don’t recall many complaints about that. Rather, we get complaints about non-so-modern popular culture like good old Beobohm, and She.

      Edited at 2015-04-23 12:04 pm (UTC)

      1. To be fair in the ephemera stakes ET and Calendar Girls aren’t really in the same league.
        1. I thought the complaint was that the “culture” in question was popular and modern, not necessarily ephemeral.
          1. I think it depends on the complainant. Mind you ET isn’t even all that modern!

            Edited at 2015-04-23 12:55 pm (UTC)

  6. I like two-word clues and today 20dn was very good and 23ac not. LAB and socialist are hardly synonyms these days. WISHED my COD for the thought of the Women’s Institute pin-ups. A sound and enjoyable crossword.
    I’m a paid-up member of the PC brigade, so I’m glad jackkt kept his or her DISHED reference from us. We might as well be spared references to sluts too.
    I reckon farts of all ages should stop and smell the roses.
    1. Being a non-pom WISHED was my least favourite clue of the day. No matter what the dictionaries might say, ORDER and WISH have very different meanings in my mind. Biffed from WI and SHED, guessing the WI sold calendars to raise a few pence for tea or something. No news stories or films of nude calendars reached these shores.
      A slowish 26:30 for what seemed a mostly straightforward puzzle, though with many of the same unknowns/forgottens as others.
      Rob
  7. Struggled through in 27’20”, with the Kent section a freezing wasteland and CASE SHOT my last in. I had SHOT (sort of), but identified it as the trial, as in a trial run/a go at. this left me wondering what would make your attempt shaky. The true answer known from Sharpe, though it’s usually cannister there.
    BALLOON not the first thing you think of for “bag”, in my case even when the wordplay produces the answer. I got BUNCE twice: once when I was fiddling with the wordplay, and again when the ancient slang peeped out from a dark recess. I’m not complaining about this or any other ephemera: the setter is kind enough to capitalise the Calender Girls, and I for one am delighted to find in one place those pop culture icons SULLIVAN and LISZT with a flash of the delectable Ms Mirren. I’ll bet CONGREVE was all the rage in his time, too.
    I am indebted to the setter for the correct spelling of the pasta, and for the delightful “brewer” misdirection in TEAKETTLE. Chambers has it as two words.
  8. I’ve just thought: surely Jack wasn’t adverting to She whose murder is announced practically daily in the Express? No! Surely not!
  9. 18m, all correct but slowed down at the end by an extreme attack of muppetry as I thought I didn’t know any musicians called SULLIVAN. It’s so easy to get caught out by these unusual Christian names: Gilbertand, Simonand, Sonnyand…
    No problem with Congreve: I rather like all that stuff. At school I even studied him in French.
      1. Very true! At least to the extent that the concept of ‘ephemeron in his day’ isn’t a contradiction in terms…
          1. The phrase ‘ephemeron in his day’ implies that the ephemerality was ephemeral, which is a contradiction in terms but true of Congreve. His work fell out of favour during his lifetime, but three hundred years later it is still performed.
  10. 19 mins. This felt tricky so I was happy with my time. I would have been a minute or so faster if I had seen LOOK AFTER quickly, and it was only once I’d got it that I was able to get the APPLICATION/INSPECTIONS crossers. I needed the help of the wordplay for WISHED and BALLOON because the definitions weren’t exactly obvious, and I confess that I biffed TAGLIATELLE and didn’t bother to try and parse it. Like Z8 CASE-SHOT was my LOI after I finally saw trial=case.
  11. How typical of Times setters that having worked CONGREVE into the grid they choose some old poet over the famous Sir William Congreve who invented a solid fuel rocket that was used by the English in the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. This continued emphasis on old composers and writers is depressing

    Another middle of the road puzzle that presented few problems

    1. They were both Sir William Congreve, the playwright the father of the inventor, so I have just discovered! On edit : sorry it turns out that was a third William Congreve. There’s no connection after all

      Edited at 2015-04-23 01:37 pm (UTC)

    3. Just to give Richard Sharpe his second outing of the day, Congreve’s rockets turn up very effectively in Portugal to help our hero win the day (ref: Sharpe’s Enemy). And yes, I know Sharpe is a literary invention, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t real.
    1. If you say someone was something or other ‘in his day’, doesn’t it imply that he isn’t any more?
      1. In my usage the intended effect of the additional phrase was to clarify/emphasise that he was well known in his own day, rather than being well known today. If I had used a finite clause things might have been different, but I chose to use a non-finite clause to convey more with less. -:)
        1. Your statement was more accurate than you intended!
          I don’t know if Congreve is as well-known as Dorothy Lamour today, but I’m reasonably confident he’s better-known than she will be in three hundred years’ time.
          1. I wouldn’t be so sure. Lamour starred along with Crosby and Hope in The Road films – each one a satire on other Hollywood genre with lots of “in jokes” about other film stars. As such they are iconic of their age and have a permanent position in the history of cinema
            1. That sort of satire dates particularly quickly: within a few years no-one understands any of the jokes. And Congreve wrote plays that are still performed three centuries later, which puts him in an extremely exclusive group. You may be right though: I guess the one thing we can say for certain is that we’ll never know!

              Edited at 2015-04-23 02:07 pm (UTC)

  13. I found this much more difficult than yesterday, with a consequential impact on my solving time. Having spotted that the answer to 1a must be LOOK AFTER, I still couldn’t parse it, which is a poor reflection on my mental powers this morning. Maybe it has something to do with the Californian Cabernet that I consumed last evening.

    Thanks George for shining the light into the darker corners of my mind.

  14. Romped through this in 15 minutes on the train, agree with jumbo. TAG for DOG was not really twigged, after I had sussed the LILLE around ATE part.
  15. 15:20: in a lot of cases I was lucky that my first instinct was correct. I guess that’s what being on wavelength is. Case shot and Congreve were my last two in and I was pleasantly surprised to find that just one was correct, never mind both.

    I couldn’t get further than beer or dictionaries for 29 so had to follow the wordplay carefully to get teakettle

  16. Well, I imagine the Calendar Girls were a bigger thing over on your side of the ocean than here. I just couldn’t unravel anything about that clue, and faced with ?I?H?D, I threw in DISHED just to be done with it. Better luck tomorrow. Regards.
    1. It was a passing thing here about 11 years ago, Kevin, and no big deal anyway hence my comments above. On reflection I think it’s the ephemeral thing that’s the main problem for crossword purposes as suggested by others, rather than “popular culture”. Somebody mentioned Dorothy Lamour, but she had a huge career spanning some 50 years. Calendar Girls was here yesterday and is virtually gone today.
  17. Forty-five minutes here, so back to my usual moderate speed.

    Never heard of CONGREVE the playwright (though I’m familiar with a Congreve, pioneer or military rocketry). Nor had I heard of “conge” – closest I know about is “congee” which is a porridge made from rice – presumably for want of anything more suitable from which to make porridge. So 15ac was put in with hope rather than confidence.

    Nor had I heard of CASE-SHOT. As far as I can tell from my in-depth research (3 minutes on Wikipedia), a case-shot is a projectile fired from a cannon, rather than an explosive of any sort, high or low. Still, got there in the end.

    No real CoD for me, though it was overall a nice puzzle.

    Edited at 2015-04-23 08:00 pm (UTC)

  18. Most of the puzzle went in fairly quickly, but, like others, I struggled with the SE quadrant. ‘Balloon’ for ‘bag’ didn’t come readily to mind, and I was not happy with the double abbreviation at 23a. Otherwise, some very enjoyable clues.
    Thud_n_blunder’s scalpel is awesome.
  19. Was no-one else annoyed about tea-kettle,which SHOULD have a hyphen, because you can’t pronounce it as one word,not having a hyphen in the clue?
    1. It’s two words in Chambers, but a single word in Collins (which used to be the standard reference dictionary for the Times) – neither have them hyphenated.

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