Times 26211 – of beautiful youths, maidens, Scottish islands and things in General

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
After struggling with yesterday’s grid I found this a reasonably easy puzzle; I completed it in twenty minutes without aids and I think (hope) I’ve twigged all the parsing. Nuff said.

As usual, D = definition, DD = double definiton, ( )* = anagram fodder, [A] = anagrist where not obvious.

Across
1 COMPOUND – DD. My chemistry brain queries the definition of paraffin as a ‘compound’; like petrol, it’s a mixture of hydrocarbons, so I suppose it could be a compound of compounds. I wonder why the setter chose this as the example?
9 ISABELLA – ABEL = sibling murdered, inside ISLA(Y) where (Y) = ‘not unknown’; D female. Since ISLAY is pronounced ISLA I don’t know why the Y is there anyway, but it’s a source of fine malts.
10 NEVADA – ADVEN(T) = coming back, T deleted; reverse and add A, D western state.
11 MISSIONARY – My CoD; MISS IONA being a possible Scottish beauty queen, add RY = lines; D evangelist.
12 LEVI – LEI is a Hawaiian garland; insert V (against); D Hebrew patriarch.
13 RECUPERATE – REC (park) U (superior) PE (gym) RATE (class, as verb); D get better.
16 PREDICT – PR(iestly), EDICT (decree); D divine, as in forecast the future; I was misdirected for a while.
17 LECTURE – (RULE)* around E CT; D carpeting.
20 OUTGENERAL – (O LEE U GRANT)*; D &lit. perhaps, if outgeneral here has the narrow meaning of being a better general than Messrs Lee and Grant. Or just ‘surpass’ as I see there is a wider dictionary D: ‘get the better of by superior strategy or tactics.’ A new word on me.
22 TIDY – DD; as in ‘a tidy sum’.
23 DREADLOCKS – DEADLOCKS are stand-offs; insert R (initiation of Rastafarian); D (Rastafarian) hairstyle.
25 SUNKEN – SUN newspaper plus KEN, D depressed.
26 CANOODLE – insert O O (rings) into CANDLE; D act amorously. I like this word. We’ve seen it several times before, clued in various ways, in the main puzzle, the quickie and the Jumbo.
27 ROYALIST – ROY has A LIST; D Cavalier, once.

Down
2 OVERHEAR – OVER = (6) deliveries, HEAR sounds like HERE; D accidentally pick up. Today’s cricketing clue and homophone combined, my FOI.
3 PRAIRIE DOG – AIR inserted in (PODGIER)*, [A] ‘foreign’; D rodent. I toyed with PIG type rodents until sorting out the anagram and seeing DOG.
4 UN-AMERICAN – UNA (girl) M, ERICA (another girl), N; D not in Uncle Sam’s interests. Biffable.
5 DISSECT – DI’S = inspector’s, first before SECT = faction; D investigate.
6 MAXI – MAXI(M) = saw, shortened; D garment not shortened, this one isn’t.
7 ALPACA – ALPHA = of highest grade, swap H for AC (Henry for bill); D cloth.
8 GANYMEDE – ‘Ultimately becominG’ = G, A NY MEDE (lawmaker, of old); D beautiful youth. A Trojan lad who was abducted by Zeus to be his wine-pourer and possibly other less innocent roles, as Ganymede has transliterated though Latin to the English word ‘catamite’, q.v. See also Times 24595, 8d, blogged by our esteemed Mr Biddlecombe
14 PEERLESSLY – Cryptic DD.
15 ROTATIONAL – RATIONAL = sensible, insert OT (books); D going round.
16 POOP DECK – OP = works, so PO OP = works head to head; DECK = adorn; D part of vessel.
18 RUDENESS – RUE is a plant; insert D (initially detected); NESS is your loch; D simplicity.
19 CRACKER – CRACKER(S) = bananas, almost all; D crisp biscuit.
21 TWEENY – DD; a Tweeny or Tweenie was a young household maid, and wider meaning is a child between 8 and 14.
24 LIDO – I’D (yours truly would) inserted in LO; D bathing beach.

37 comments on “Times 26211 – of beautiful youths, maidens, Scottish islands and things in General”

  1. 19.03 though tweeny went in on a wing and a prayer. I’d rather have taken an hour and felt I’d witnessed some pyrotechnics, as yesterday. But then, we’re a spoilt lot.
  2. Since I didn’t know the maid meaning of TWEENY, I BIFD, but my def was ‘middle school age’ and I put in ‘tweens’, albeit after dithering. I don’t remember much otherwise, aside from, ironically, looking for a way to get ‘iona’ in 9ac. And didn’t we have wordplay similar to that in 11ac a while back? 27ac struck me as rather too biffable, more appropriate for a Quickie. Liked 20ac.
  3. Knew it must be GANYMEDE but couldn’t see quite why. Is TWEENY something from Downton Abbey. Guessed it was the answer and had to Google for the meaning.
  4. I found this harder than yesterday, clocking 26:39, though it felt like longer.

    As with Kevin I didn’t know TWEENY as a maid so I was quite nervous about submitting it. I also had some small doubt about RUDENESS as I wasn’t entirely sure it meant simplicity and rue as a plant only rang a vague bell.

    My COD to DREADLOCKS for the nice surface.

  5. Just over twenty minutes on the keyboard after the printer gave up the ghost. A bit of a stroll after yesterday’s beauty. Some, like DREADLOCKS, were just too easy but Miss Iona was very good. The inclusion of both generals earns OUTGENERAL my COD.
  6. All very straightforward – just a steady jog down and across the grid. No queries. No stand out clues.
  7. I knew TWEENY, but the only garment I could think of that fit 6d was SARI – eventually decided it could be SA(W)+RI(G)=clothes
    1. Funnily enough when maxi came up in August at least one regular commenter here went with an incorrect sari. Worth bearing in mind as a common trap.
  8. 30 minutes and loved the image of Miss Iona ( I did try Miss Arran, Muck etc.). Then Islay appears in my LOI. 20a is very beautifully constructed.
  9. A very enjoyable solve that for a while I wondered if I would ever get started on but eventually I spotted CANOODLE and built steadily from there to complete the grid in 38 minutes, biffing a few along the way. I wasn’t sure about RUDENESS as simplicity but then remembered meeting it before perhaps with reference to a rude shelter or hut.

    Didn’t know MEDE as lawmaker. TWEENY went in on “of middle school age” whilst I wasted time trying to think of what the servings girls were called in the days of Lyon Corner Houses, but then remembered they were “nippies” so that was of no use. As a fan of the original “Upstairs Downstairs” I should have dredged up the “maid” meaning much earlier in the proceedings.

  10. 16 and small change. Carol singers will know rude/simple, and recall some schoolboy sniggers, from “As with gladness men of old”, where the 3rd verse starts
    “As they offered gifts most rare
    At Thy cradle, rude and bare”
    Add me to those who appreciate Miss Iona.
    1. I am away from home, but aren’t the actors in the ‘play within a play’ in Midummer Night’s Dream known as the Rude Mechanicals? Presumably with this definition in mind.
      1. Indeed, though I rather think Shakespeare thought “Nick Bottom” might raise a muffled titter or two in the Globe.
  11. I found this harder than normal – maybe just couldn’t get on the wavelength but took around the 30 minutes mark. Spent forever trying to ram ‘Iona’ into 9ac but not considering it for 11ac. I thought 20ac, while clever, was so shoehorned as to make it flimsy but really enjoyed 9ac with its excellent misdirection; I was convinced I needed a ‘sis(ter)’ in there somewhere.
  12. I found this mostly very straightforward but became completely stuck in the NE corner. For some unaccountable reason (well, advancing senility) I tried to enter RECOUPERATE and found it didn’t fit, so tried to think of something else rather than question my spelling. Got Maxi fairly quickly, but the rest were very slow to fall. I was cursing the setter for an unbalanced puzzle, but it was just me.
  13. I’d always been under the impression that the term “Tweeny” came from a female servant that was “between” upstairs and downstairs. I see the dictionary says that she jointly helped the housemaid (upstairs) and the cook (downstairs), so that sort of backs up my belief.
    Much better than yesterday’s miserable effort, but I still had difficulty in the NE corner and couldn’t see how to parse 10a.
  14. 17:08 and I never felt in complete control, with fingers crossed on rudeness and tweeny. At 1a I had the enclosure as “pound” and couldn’t justify com/workers’. Now I know why.

    Tick for miss Iona.

    PS, I just got round to tackling yesterday’s which took me three seconds less but gave me at least three times the enjoyment.

    Edited at 2015-09-23 12:13 pm (UTC)

  15. Generally solid MOR puzzle with a sprinkling of the more testing around the grid. I was surprised that the slightly obscure tweeny leapt to mind so readily, but I suspect that comes from reading Agatha Christie, whose work regularly ventures below stairs, especially when the butler done it.

    Speaking of which, I went to see the touring production of The Mousetrap recently, amazingly having managed never to discover the identity of the murderer. I was amazed when it turned out to be the [*suddenly the lights go out and there is the sound of a gunshot*]

    Edited at 2015-09-23 03:07 pm (UTC)

  16. Paraffin is used in common parlance for the stuff you put in lamps, heaters etc., but in chemistry it has a more precise use for any hydrocarbon having no multiple bonds. Thus any specific paraffin is a compound. It comes from the Latin meaning “little affinity”, because paraffins don’t react much with anything except oxygen.

    Edited at 2015-09-23 01:41 pm (UTC)

  17. Add me to the roster of people who had no idea about TWEENY! Biffings aside, this didn’t seem like too difficult a puzzle, which was good as I think I was rather sozzled, post-boardgames night.
  18. Resorted to aids for GANYMEDE after 49 minutes, my recent run of form being jinxed by Ulaca yesterday.

    Another MISSIONARY fan here. Thanks setter and Pip.

  19. 14m, but with SARI. I was perfectly happy with it, on the same basis as phmfantom. It’s a perfectly satisfactory parsing as long as you don’t read the clue properly. This is particularly annoying because when the same clue came up a year ago I commented ‘We had MAXIm very recently: it wasn’t going to catch me out twice in such quick succession!’. Muppet.
    Like others I was unsure about TWEENY. For me there is something slightly unsatisfactory about a DD that relies on an obscurity like this. But MISS IONA is super.
    Quite an ecclesastical feel today (Abel, MISSIONARY, Levi, divine decree, candle, cloth) which leads me to conclude that this almost certainly wasn’t set by Don Manley.

    Edited at 2015-09-23 03:13 pm (UTC)

  21. It was noted in Edgar Wallace’s London Times obit. 1932, that his books were read by errand-boys and tweeny-maids.

    It was popularised between the wars by the Wodehouses, Cowards and Sayers of this world.

    25mins

    COY Thatcherism

    COD Ganymede

    horryd Shanghai

  23. About 20 minutes, ending with COMPOUND, which I still don’t quite get completely as regards how the workers fit in the wordplay. Yes, definitely MISSIONARY is the winner today, and like others I didn’t know of the maid reference for TWEENY, so I suppose it was biffed. Regards.
    1. Hi Kevin. One meaning of the word is an enclosure for workers, specifically mine workers in South Africa. I didn’t know this either, but it’s in all the usual dictionaries.

      Edited at 2015-09-23 04:26 pm (UTC)

      1. I thought of that, but I didn’t think it was conclusive. But thanks for steering me right keriothe, I appreciate it.
  24. 22.31 MAXI and TWEENY no problem but much time spent on OUTGENERAL, a word which the dictionary assures me exists but of which I am not so sure. Like others, loved MISS IONA
  25. 17 mins. Count me as another who entered TWEENY from the latter part of the clue only, although I was reasonably confident about it. I got held up in the top half of the puzzle because I didn’t read 5dn properly and biffed “inspect”. I eventually got the correct DISSECT, which led me to COMPOUND, MISSIONARY, ISABELLA, ALPACA and finally GANYMEDE. I agree that the clue for MISSIONARY is very good, but I prefer the one for OUTGENERAL.
  26. Managed to parse everything – even tweeny – and could have been quicker if I wasn’t listening to the Tottenham/Arsenal match on the radio. Pity that Spurs’ equaliser was on o.g., but I’m not going to complain. Hope it doesn’t go to penalties; need to watch the blood pressure.
  27. After another ghastly day on the house-moving front (seller’s solicitors at last managed to produce the LABC Warranty that we’ve been waiting for for weeks, but it turned out to be the wrong sort and therefore practically worthless), I wasn’t in a good frame of mind for crossword-solving, and made another of my ridiculously slow starts. But then I suddenly found the setter’s wavelength and made short work of the rest of the puzzle, finishing in a not-too-disastrous 8:35.

    So a pleasant break from reality, but sadly the feeling of mild euphoria won’t last as I now have to write some more stroppy e-mails to solicitors and estate agents. (Deep sigh!)

  30. 38 minutes here with, like many others, severe doubts over TWEENY. Not only had I never heard of the maid, but I’d only come across “tween” or the ghastly “tweenager”. But I got there in the end and, as the saying goes, any operation you can walk away from is a success (even more so if the patient survives too).
  31. Late night solve for me after 7 hours in the car today… which may explain my relatively slow time for one that others found on the easier side. Count me in as another fan of MISS IONA and one ignorant of the first meaning of TWEENY. Not convinced by the choice of paraffin as an example of a compund. Alcohol would have been a neat (;) alternative (perhaps an Islay malt – Bruichladdich being my favourite of that ilk). 31:19

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