Times 26,201: Sipping Napoleon Brandy With The Jet Set

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This was a pretty tough puzzle if the current state of the Club Leaderboard is anything to go by – can’t say I didn’t make heavy weather of it myself, sailing past the 20 minute mark with three clues stubbornly holding out in the SE corner, but managing to sort it all out before 25.

Now I apologise to the setter in advance because when I wax effusive it always provokes a backlash, but I basically loved this, didn’t mind at all that it was on the hard side when it all seemed eminently fair and there were so many examples of clever surfaces and cunning wordplay to treasure. The hidden definitions at 27ac, 28ac, 6dn are all brilliant in my book; witness the likes of 8dn and 17dn where the sentences need to be completely re-resolved from their superficial reading to make an entirely new cryptic sense; and a welter of splendidly lucid surfaces that of course have nothing to do with the ultimate answer (2dn, 21dn, 14ac). I liked the mislead in 1ac which initially looks certain to by a homophone, and despite being mostly vegan loved 18ac’s use of Hamburger – I’ll declare that to be my COD, though frankly I feel spoilt for choice.

As I say the SE held me up in the end: 20ac remained mysterious to me, despite it being obvious how the clue needed to work, until I looked up the opera afterwards (if you’d asked me yesterday, I probably would have confidently identified NABUCCO as the company who make Shredded Wheat), and likewise 17dn took forever because, while again having a good idea of what was being asked of me, I’d mentally pencilled in an E between the final two D’s. But then the 21dn penny finally dropped, 20ac couldn’t really be anything else and I finally made it home with a groan probably audible on the other side of the Thames.

Thanks again setter for a masterclass in leading me up numerous garden paths in pursuit of elusive wild geese… I just hope my fellow solvers won’t be too compensatorily unimpressed!

Across
1 ORALLY – from speech: O [nothing] + RALLY [pick up]
4 ST MORITZ – resort: RITZ [hotel] by (MOST*) [“after refurbishment”]
10 A MUGS GAME – it’s futile: MUG [rob], AS GAME [when | willing] “to go without”
11 THORN – old letter: THO [however] + reverse of NR [near, “sent back”]
12 GIRASOL – colourful gemstone: GIRL [lass] “holds” A SO [a | very]
13 ABDOMEN – corporation: AB [rating (as in seaman)] + DO MEN [satisfy | people]
14 STAIR – rung: STAR [celebrity] “has ringed” I [one]
15 NON-EVENT – great disappointment: N [{rejectio}N “at last”] + ONE VENT [I | express]
18 CHOW MEIN – sort of food: H [hard] “to cut” COW [beef] + MEIN [Hamburger’s my (i.e. “my” in German)]
20 CUBAN – national: reverse of NABUC{co} [opera “company’s ignored” “on return”]
23 PAN LOAF – Scottish sandwich maker: (PAL OF AN*) [“eccentric”]
25 PRUSSIA – country, once: “submerged in” {propagand}A IS SURP{risingly} “backward”
26 RUSES – dodges: USES [customs] after R [“tip from” {office}R]
27 ACIDIFIED – made tart: reverse of DEIF{y} I’D I CA [turn to God “briefly” | I had | one | about] “to turn”
28 WINE LIST – Graves could be on this: WIN ST [land | stone] where ELI [prophet] “is buried”
29 AGE-OLD – antique: E [key] “to open” A GOLD [a | precious metal]

Down
1 ORANGISH – turning amber: OR [men] by H [hospital] “holding up” SIGNA{l} [signal… “almost”]
2 AQUARIA – tanks: A QUA R.A. [answer | as | artillery] “surrounds” I [one]
3 LAST STRAW – back-breaking stress (for a camel?): LASTS [carries on] over T RAW [time | untreated]
5 THE RAIN IN SPAIN – cryptic def based around the phrase “raining cats and dogs”
6 OPTED – did plump: O ED [round | boy] “set about” P.T. [training]
7 IRONMAN – endurance event: IRON MAN [press | staff]
8 ZONING – dividing into regions: ZING [energy] “saving” ON [paid for by (as in “dinner’s on me”)]
9 FALL ON DEAF EARS – be ignored: (OFFER N{ew} DEAL ALAS*) [“rashly”]
16 VACUUMING – cleaning: VAC [break] + U U [“more than once”, posh] + MING [sort of vase]
17 UNCANDID – not open: UNDID [opened] “sandwiches” CAN [container]
19 HANDS-ON – a variety of training: HAND SON [offer | youth]
21 BUSHIDO – code: BUS{t} [“nearly” broken] + HID O [revealed the lot, as in “hid nothing”]
22 UPGROW – get higher: U PG [certificates for films] + ROW [series]
24 OUSEL – diver: {h}OUSE [“topless”, put up] + L [L{ooks} “at first”]

50 comments on “Times 26,201: Sipping Napoleon Brandy With The Jet Set”

  1. Glad it wasn’t my turn: I threw in OUSEL and WINE LIST, both on definition, without a clue how either worked, after 42 minutes.
    I claim foul on WINE LIST: Eli was not a prophet but a high priest, notorious for living in a time when prophecy was unknown, but bringing up the boy, and later prophet, Samuel in the temple. Maybe no-one else will notice (he’s in the Bible, after all) but I discounted the wordplay as a result and couldn’t figure anything else out. I knew GIRASOL as yesterday’s HELIOTROPE, which didn’t help.
    That aside, a challenging crossword, visiting too many garden paths to be counted, great if you like such things, which I do once completed. CUBAN for me the best of a ferocious set, with the brilliant “national opera company” as misleading as it gets.
      1. Yeah, but I still think it’s an error, if not one of biblical proportions. As Bigtone notes, in crosswordland he’s always (until today) a priest. It threw me. Stellar time, by the way!

        Edited at 2015-09-11 09:00 am (UTC)

        1. If anything I’d say the fact that Eli is always a priest makes it less likely that this is an error. But for me these references might as well all be ‘bloke out of the bible’ so I can’t claim any expertise. Thanks, by the way!

          Edited at 2015-09-11 09:08 am (UTC)

          1. Hm. So our setter, needing to indicate ELI, and wanting to be as misleading as possible, deliberately eschews convention and changes the job title to one which is, at very, very best, marginality correct, like cluing Thatcher as “the chemist” or Pope John Paul 1 as “the goalkeeper”.
            Or maybe it’s just a tiny, tiny slip in a highly creditable set of clues. Whichever (guess which side I’m staying on!), I’m off to get grumpy about something in the TLS.
            On edit, responding to the unedited version of your second comment. This could get complicated.

            Edited at 2015-09-11 09:18 am (UTC)

            1. As I said, I’m no expert, but I don’t really see why this title is ‘at very, very best, marginally correct’, unless the Times favours one religion and its books over others. The fact that Eli is always a priest makes it unlikely in my view that neither the setter nor the editor would have questioned this definition, particularly as ‘priest’ would have worked fine for the purposes of the clue (albeit not as well).
              1. The Times DOES favour one religion over all the others. Plus one region: UK & Ireland (occasionally straying across La Manche); and one pronunciation: SE English.
                Strangely, I didn’t find this so hard, things like acidified went in with no crossers present.
                Rob
                1. I don’t think it does, at least not in the sense that I mean. Of course Christian culture and religion tends to turn up more often than others, because it’s local, in the same way cricket turns up more often than baseball. But I don’t think the puzzles take a stance on the truth value of any one religion over another. So if Eli is a prophet in the Torah, that’s fair game in the same way that AHURA MAZDA (Jumbo 1152) or ISIS (Times 25944) might feature as gods.
            2. Cluing Pope John Paul 1 as ‘the goalkeeper’ would be seriously misleading as it was John Paul 2 who stood in the net.

              1. D’oh. Still, not a mistake on my part. The young Luciano played in goal for Forno di Canale under-11s on at least two occasions*.
                Perhaps I should have stayed safe with Albert Camus.

                *This assertion is almost entirely without foundation, though it could be true.

    3. Anyone who invests themselves heavily in crosswords should be aware that actual prophets are not guaranteed: quite often one will end up at a loss.
  2. Well, I crept in just under the half-hour mark on a most enjoyable puzzle, so thank you setter. One small niggle though – was ELI a prophet? Usually in crosswordland, he is a priest. Thanks also to verlaine.
  3. 20:55 … another day, another tip of the hat to the setter. Great stuff, with the highlights already picked out. Like Z8, I loved the opera company.

    Wasted a few minutes at the ned trying to squeeze rose or rosy into 12a before realizing that colourful might be part of the definition and that I knew the word, anyway.

    Thanks setter, and verlaine.

  4. Very tough, but I was pleased to finish and without resorting to aids despite needing the best part of two hours. The RH seemed easier than the LH apart from 27ac with its 3xI checkers and I needed the A (which arrived late in the process) before I cracked it.

    Unknowns were IRONMAN (though the elementary wordplay got me over that hurdle), BUSHIDO (again helpful wordplay), GIRASOL, PAN LOAF (we had tin loaves where I come from) and rather strangely UPGROW. Best clue was for CHOW MEIN at 18ac.

        1. Check Penfold’s times against your own.

          Then have a go at fixing your botched clue, Mr Anonymous.

  7. DNF after an hour. Great crossword and thanks to Verlaine. DNK GIRASOL, THORN, PAN LOAF or UPGROW. CODs to 18a and 20a.
    Hard to beef today.
  8. Very heavy going. Chambers Word Wizard was much used in order to finish. Some obscure clues. I rated BUSHIDO the worst. Good job the grass was too wet to cut and the golf course was closed otherwise I would have given up.
    1. Bushido may be a little obscure as a term, though I’d have thought not overly so. The clue’s straightforward enough surely.
      1. Mm, it definitely took a fair old while for the penny to drop, but I would say Bushido can fairly be clued as a (warrior’s) code.

        Edited at 2015-09-11 11:35 am (UTC)

      2. Hardly straightforward Joe. Getting from “revealed the lot” to “hid 0” isn’t exactly nursery slopes stuff.
        1. That’s a good point, though I feel as though we old hands have been primed for something like this on multiple occasions by a certain Carthaginian queen oft-maligned for having been idle.
  9. Enjoyable. Relieved to find 39 minutes isn’t as grim as I thought it might be. A mite surprised by the spelling of orangish, and by its appearance, as that of upgrow. But words is words.
  10. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain – a bit further south maybe although it doesn’t rain as much there as Galicia.

    Upgrow not good- rest hard and clever. Chow Mein esp

    1. I did like the U PG part of UPGROW, but agreed that it’s a bit of a “word you would only ever find in a crossword puzzle”…
  11. 6h10m23s according to the ipad. Not all of that was spent solving, but I reckon it took about an hour. I invariably enjoy a toughie, and as verlaine says there were some surfaces to be admired today. The one which stood out for me was WINE LIST.

    This was my first week all complete with no errors for a while which probably presages complacency and silly mistakes next week.

  12. Pleased to find is wasn’t just me who (that?) found this tough. 27:01.

    My first stab at 12 was GA(ROSY)L but it didn’t look like a word and on closer inspection didn’t account for the A in the clue.

    I though “paid for by” for “on” was very clever but I’ll join Verlaine in giving COD to chow mein, a great clue all round.

  13. Ruined my run of sub-30’s for the week, but I was happy to finish inside two Verlaines. Nice challenging crossword, cod to WINE LIST.

    Thanks setter and V.

  14. Hard one today, but enjoyable for the most part. About 35 minutes to claw my way through. I never parsed WINE LIST, and had no idea of the old letter THORN, or the opera Nabucco. The latter I surmised must exist upon finally seeing BUSHIDO (nice clue, but agree with Penfold that ‘revealed the lot’=’hid o’ is Advanced Placement Crosswordese). I did look up the opera and indeed, there it was, having happily existed for 150 years without my knowledge. Apparently I’m not an opera guy. But the best thing here by far was the “Hamburger’s my”. Splendid. Regards.
  15. Two Verlaines for me, in two sessions either side of a long lunch in Agen. LH side went in well but SE corner took forever and I had to use an aid to check BUSHIDO was a word. Also not keen on UPGROW or UNCANDID but the rest was brill.
  16. 31 mins. Count me as another who finished in the SE after a struggle. The CUBAN/BUSHIDO crossers were my last ones in after I finally saw UNCANDID. There was indeed some top notch cluing here.
  17. 23:04 for me, relieved to finish within the half-hour in my present state.

    More first-class stuff today, couched in very economically worded clues: I raise my hat to the setter. And I join others in praise of “Hamburger’s my”.

    With keriothe posting a very respectable time and sotira having another good day, I feel my chances of reaching the Championship Final this year are dwindling rapidly.

    1. I assure you, Tony, my target remains as it was last year — to finish three puzzles correctly within the hour. Last year I just managed the “finish”, came up short on the “correctly”. I would need the luck of the devil with the grids to have a hope of getting anywhere near the final!
  18. For once I tackled this very late in the day and just failed to crack 30 minutes. Cracking stuff. Compliments to setter and blogger.
  19. Sorry this is late, but 1/ we don’t race and 2/ it was a hard one.
    But why is ousel a diver? I assume we are talking about the bird? It’s (a) a blackbird, in dialect. It has a cousin called the (b) ring ousel. There is a totally unrelated bird (c) called a dipper, which used, pre-war, in distant parts of the country, to be called a water-ousel because it looks a bit like (b). This name has not been in use for generations. Anyway, because it spends some of its time feeding under the surface of streams doesn’t make it a diver (see gaviidae if you want to be literal, though I know crosswords delight in not doing so). But ousel to mean dipper is completely misleading, and years out of date. Time this one was binned. Harrumph
    1. Ooh, well researched! I must confess I saw the name of a bird where clearly nothing else was going to fit, and didn’t even bother to consider whether it was really a diving bird or not – in it went, done!
      1. Thanks for your reply. Not researched, all in my little head. Glad to find myself backed up by garden mole.
        I defy the massed ranks of UK lexicographers to go forth into the highways and byways and find anyone now using this word in that sense. Archaic if not obsolete. They’ll be allowing ‘mavis’ or ‘laverock’ next. Yet bet you a whole fiver that no setter would dare put in ‘bonxie’, which falls readily from the lips of birders. (Shall probably find it in the Club Special now) 😉
        1. Pre-searched, not re-searched, then!

          Isn’t Bonxie actually the pseudonym of a setter for the Guardian? Which probably means it might get through. I’ve definitely seen mavis before, too, though admittedly I can’t recall laverock…

          1. A bonxie is a great skua. Shetland/Orkney name,which has unaccountably found favour with birders in the comfortable south. As to laverock, in primary school we all warbled “Will ye no’ come back again?’, which is the only place I can remember it. We used to listen to BBC “Singing Together” as well. (This for any museum of ephemera that wants to know, no doubt)
              1. Thank you – I enjoyed that. I once heard a Shetland fiddler on Radio 3 playing a tune called The Bonxie which was appropriately vigorous, but it was many years ago and I can’t now trace it. Shame
      2. I meant to question this and forgot. Thank you, especially for the further ‘presearch’ on the water-ousel. I would say “Who knew?” but clearly you did!

        I rather chucked the bird in at the time of solving, perhaps because this was, strangely, the second OUSEL of the week (the first defined simply as “bird” in 26,197).

        Edited at 2015-09-12 04:14 pm (UTC)

  20. I agree with odbof. Thought the setter must want ‘ousel’ but was reluctant to put it in because an ousel is definitely not a ‘diver’, so was somewhat puzzled.

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