Times 26229: One for the arts crowd

Author   mctextPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

As Jimi used to say, a “slight return”, as I fill in for Pip this morning. Nothing here to frighten the horses. Though a smattering of music and literature — with a little bit of film and painting — helps.

Across

1. BACHELORHOOD. BACH (composer), ELOR (ROLE reversal), HOOD (cover). Def: single arrangement.

8. INHERIT. IN (home), H (husband), ERIT (reversal of TIRE — weary).  Def: take over.

9. HARPIES. Anagram: Paris he.

11. DE MILLE. DEE (river) surrounding MILL (factory). Def: director.

12. EMIRATE . E (European), MI{g}RATE. Def: foreign government.

13. ELAND. E{ng}LAND. Def: bounder.

14. INCOGNITO. Anagram: noticing + O. Def: as compilers perhaps, since they remain unnamed in the daily Times.

16. TOM SAWYER. Anagram: most weary. The def. is from the title, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain, 1876).

19. CHANT. CANT (insincere talk) inc. H (hospital). Def: refrain.

21. CURATOR. CUR (dog), ATOR (reversal of ROTA, schedule).

23. MOLIÈRE. LIE (opposite of ‘truth’) inside MORE (opposite of ‘less’). Def: he wrote — pseudonym of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, French dramatist (1622-73). Had to suffer his Tartuffe for A-Level Frog.

24. SUITORS. OR (soldiers, Other Ranks) inside SUITS (outfits). Def: who pursued Penelope.

25. TESSERA. ERA (long time) after TESS (whose surname was Durbeyfield in the Hardy novel). Def: die (as in dice).

26. FISH AND CHIPS. FISH (hunt), AND (with), CHIPS (Mr Chips, the Brookfield schoolmaster in the James Hilton novel).

Down

1. BOHEMIA. BOA (crusher), containing HEMI (half). Def: the territory.

2. CURDLED. CU (copper), RD (road), LED (took van). Def: separated.

3. EXTREMITY. EX (old), then TRY (attempt) containing EMIT (give out). Def: member.

4. OCHRE. R (runs, cricket) in OCHE (groove, on the floor from which darts are thrown).

5. HERRING. H (first letter of ‘Humber’), ERRING (losing way).

6. ORIGAMI. Cryptic def., punning on ‘folders’.

7. FIDDLESTICKS. FIDDLE (tinker), STICKS (tolerates). Def: tripe.

10. STEP ON THE GAS. Two defs, one referring to excessive talk.

15. CHROMATIC. Anagram: catch Miro. Def: using colour.

17. MARTINI. MARTIN (swallow, bird), I (one).

18. ANTIOCH. Reverse IT inside AN, O (old), CH (church). Def: sacred place.

19. COLOSSI. C (conservative), then reverse IS SOLO (lives alone). Def: major figures.

20. AGELESS. Two defs: ‘eternal’ and ‘age less’ which is presumably what face-cream is supposed to bring about.

22. ROSIN. R (right), SIN (wrong), containing O (from the first letter of ‘Orff’).
          I say Car-meena, you say Car-miner.
          I say Bur-ahna, you say Bur-ayna.
          Let’s Carl the whole thing Orff.

72 comments on “Times 26229: One for the arts crowd”

  1. My horses certainly weren’t scared, but nervous at times: For one, I had no idea that an oche was a groove, which had me desperately trying to think of paints–a rather pointless effort, because I don’t know of more than two or three, and OCHRE wasn’t one of them; thought it was just a color. I also took a disturbingly long time to remember another H fish besides halibut. I hadn’t thought of ELANDs as bounders–they’re big and slow–but Wikipedia says they can jump 2 meters from a standing start. Liked EXTREMITY.
  2. I was unsure about this too. The only ones I’ve seen are brass(?) inlays. But the ODO tells me the word “oche” is from the Old French verb “ocher”, to cut a deep notch in. (Though it’s not in either Harrap or Larousse … hence very Old?) Still … there are other theories:
    http://www.patrickchaplin.com/Oche.htm

    Edited at 2015-10-14 04:16 am (UTC)

  3. Just snuck under 19 minutes for this pleasant offering. I had always thought of Mr DeMille (as he was professionally – he used de Mille in private life) as a producer, but of course he was both. I have seen most of his epics but don’t particularly care for any. Give me a gritty noir such as Detour or the peerless Leave Her to Heaven any day.
  4. Jack, Thanks.
    Yep … a deliberate helpmate for the long-sighted. My contribution to those disabled as I am when the glasses are elsewhere. Kevin, I see now, confirms the idea.

    Edited at 2015-10-14 05:34 am (UTC)

  5. Held up by a phone call, but that was the interruption that prompted me to spot my misspelt COLLOSI, which in turn enabled me to get TESSERA, after convincing myself that the Durbeyfields must have been related to the D’Urbervilles.

    Possibly made it harder than it needed to be, but I’m still impressed by the sub-20 posted by our first commenter.

    COD to MOLIERE. Thanks setter and welcome back McT. We need to do a Saturday coffee / solve again soon!

    1. Yes we do. I always have so many probs with Sat. puzzles. The coffee’s usually good but! Could do this Saturday, but it’s my daughter’s 40th. OLD eh?
      1. I’m tied up with a pool renovation project this weekend (what could possibly go wrong?), and I’m in Byron Bay the following weekend. Can we lock it in for the 31st?

        Meanwhile, enjoy your daughter’s celebrations. Presumably they’ll sit you in a corner with a cup of cocoa and a shawl over your knees?

        1. Literature, Classics…I thought if ever England is going to beat Australia again, it must be today.
          1. Yeah, we don’t really go in for that book-learnin’ stuff down here.

            Meanwhile, do you mind if we borrow Twickers for the next few weeks? I gather your boys won’t be using it?

            1. By all means – just make sure you deal with the noisy neighbours in the final – if they get past their nemesis in Cardiff. I hope Barnes gets the whistle in a final nod to 2007.
              1. Thank goodness they won’t be singing that song. I might even watch.

                First two verses: 8 lines of interrogatives to which the answer must be “No!”
                Third verse: 4 lines of impossible imperatives.
                Last verse: go figure what happens when the Poms get mystical.

                At least someone wrote a good piano part as the middle-8.
                Who was that?

                1. I’m going to Twickers on Sunday for Australia v Scotland. I want them both to lose. Any suggestions for making it “interesting”?
  6. I did find this a bit scary for the first few moments until I had written in a couple of hard fought for answers, but then things started to fall nicely into place and I completed in exactly 30 minutes so achieving my target.

    I thought I had at least a working knowledge of most of the main Greek legends but Penelope and her suitors has completely passed me by somehow until now.I hope I wasn’t alone in immediately thinking of Brookfield Farm at 26ac until spotting that CHIPS fitted the checkers of the third word and then remembering the name of the school in the Hilton novel.

    Welcome back to blogging, mct, your font setting seems to have expanded in the interim!

    Edited at 2015-10-14 05:11 am (UTC)

    1. You remember Mrs. Odysseus, who kept undoing the progress she had made on her tapestry to put off the day she’d have to say yes to one of the suitors. ‘Pursuing’ put me off the trail at first, as the suitors were just hanging around the house consuming comestibles.
      I had meant to say that it was nice to see serifs again. And a font size my eyes are comfortable with.
    2. Meant to add I’m a great fan of Moliere seen on stage – especially Tartuffe. I was never forced to read any of it.
  7. 25mins here, with DE MILLE the only unknown. Not much else to add, bar the fact that, like Jack, I’ll fess up to being more familiar with the inhabitants of Brookfield Farm than Brookfield School…
  8. 11m. Nice puzzle, with not too much biffing in spite of a lack of unknowns for me.
    Never mind Greek legend, my first thought at 24ac was The Hooded Claw.
    1. I too immediately envisaged the lovely Miss Pitstop. I found this tough at 30 mins+ with barely known references to Durbeyfield, Brookfield and Penelope plus a blind spot to the large clues in N,E and W causing more problems than it should have. COD for Moliere – very nice.
      1. I liked the Durbeyfield, Brookfield and Penelope clues because they were all references to books that most of us surely know, but sufficiently obscure ones as not to make the whole thing obvious… as you say, “barely known”, but still comprehensible with hindsight.
        1. ‘Barely known’ is definitely the relevant phrase for 26ac: I would never have got the answer from ‘Brookfield’ but ‘schoolmaster’ was enough for a character I know exists but little more than that. I didn’t have a clue about Penelope, so the clue would have been equally solvable from ‘who pursued Doris’ for me. But solvable it was.
          1. It’s like, I could never in a million years have told you where Mr Chips was a schoolmaster if you’d asked me, but upon wondering “could the last word be CHIPS”, there’s more than enough clear information there to confirm the suspicion, if you’ve ever heard of Chips the teacher. Likewise I would hope that even for non-classicists there might have been some glimmer of recollection of Penelope having had a suitors problem…
            1. In my day P Pitstop was a bit part player in Wacky races so I was thinking Dick Dastardly & Muttley etc, then moved on to thinking if Lady P from Thunderbirds had any enemies other than the Hood. Like K, it may as well have been Doris for all the difference it made.
              2. I see from Wiki that D&M were originally going to play a supporting role in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, but in the end were given their own dedicated spin-off from Wacky Races. Deservedly so, I’m sure we’d all agree.
            2. Sorry, my mind was a blank slate where Penelope and suitors were concerned. Not even the hint of a glimmer.
              1. I didn’t even have a sniff of a hint of a glimmer. I’m sure I must have been off school the day they taught Ancient Greece.
                  1. …but twigged early about Penelope, have heard that story somewhere. It was in the NE my classics lacuna let me down: the horrible woman (I misread the clue) was obviously the ancient Greek Hespira; harpies is the sort of ugly, misogynistic word that would never appear in the Times (I thought, until looking it up and finding it is Ancient Greek).
                    So beaten by ignorance, and an inability to get the simple herring.
                    Rob DNF
            3. I’m not sure I could have told you immediately where Mr Chips was a schoolmaster, but on the other hand I could remember straight away who was a schoolmaster at Brookfield. In fact all three clues were easy wins. (I’m vaguely aware who Lady Penelope was, but she was after my time.)
    2. Googling ‘Penelope’s Shroud Bedford’ will reveal an odd piece of music commemorating Penelope’s Shroud (not tapestry) by David Bedford. Just as the Shroud was never finished, the music ascends note by note but effectively never ends.
  9. Just a smidge under 20 mins, but after a disconcerting start when I could not see any answers. Eventually did this from the bottom up. Smiled at ORIGAMI. Thanks setter and McT.
  10. Easy one this, particularly as 1A was a write in from single=bach-elor and also 7D from tinker=FIDDLE. Too many literary references in one puzzle really but all known. No real stand out clues.
  11. It seems I found this harder than most, finishing in 26:13. I had a blank grid for some time until I got to FISH AND CHIPS and the rest started to flow.

    LOI COLOSSI delayed by putting TEMPERA in 25A. I think that die became dye in my mind leading me to paint, though it does sound rather ridiculous with hindsight.

  12. Much simpler than yesterdays offering. Just about my level. Probably too easy for some.
  13. The south was also the first to succumb for me. After reading through all the across and then the downs, I had the sum total of two answers to work on, one of which I wasn’t entirely happy with (INCOGNITO, and the crossing CHROMATIC). However, after a shaky start, things fell into place slowly, with DE MILLE LOI. 40 minutes all in.
  15. Jimbo must be right… 11:24 and a new PB for me by over a minute. I was pleased to get 24a easily – recently acquired knowledge from my current bedtime read : ‘Eureka! Everything you ever wanted to know about the Ancient Greeks but were afraid to ask’. Nice to see OCHE again so soon.
  16. The ‘deduction’ referred to in 23ac is, of course, that it is ‘more about lie’
  17. 30 mins and very enjoyable. On a walking safari I once disturbed an eland concealed behind an impossibly small bush. I can confirm that it jumped 2 metres – I jumped considerably more. COD to ORIGAMI.
  18. The weekly battle with the TLS certainly helped out here. (It’s much better since PB took charge). I agree with Jack re Tartuffe – I enjoyed it. It helped that there was a pretty good old b&w film of the Comedie Francaise version, and I believe there’s been a recent remake. Good to see you McT and the font is friendly. 14.20
  19. Either they’re trying to lull us into a false sense of security or I really have ‘peaked far too soon’.

    5:17 which is probably the only occasion I’m going to get within 8 seconds of our Champion, not just this week but for the foreseeable future.

  20. Mostly straightforward fare, but with a number of clues to relish (1a, 8, 3d amongst others) I would have finished in around 30 minutes if it hadn’t been for a power cut, plunging me into darkness.
    I’m glad to see that others found yesterday’s tough; I got three-quarters of the way through and had to cease operations because of a dinner invitation. Perhaps I’ll get time to go back to it later today or tomorrow.

  21. 14:02. A slow start (I think the birthplace of the holy hand grenade was first in) but all went steadily from there. Like others I had to rely on little more than a vague awareness of the fictional Tesses and Mr. Chipses of this world.
  22. After yesterday, when all my confidence about Monday/Tuesday being the ‘easy’ days, this restored my faith in my failing abilities!

    25 mins, 20d my LOI, spent too much time thinking of classical themes after 24a!

    (Long time lurker, first time poster!)

      1. Many thanks. I thought I would ‘declare’ as am hoping to join the party in December!
  23. A relief after yesterday’s 60 minute slog. 20 minutes. Btw, I loved the blogger’s lines re Carmina Burana. I may have mentioned here before that my late husband was introduced to Carl Orff when he (husband not Orff) was a student in Munich in the 1950s. My tone-deaf husband had never heard of the composer so the experience was totally wasted on him!) Ann
  24. 12:59 … I started out thinking this was going to be another monster, but it revealed itself rather pleasingly, unfolding clockwise from the northeast (or one o’clock all the way round to eleven, I suppose).

    I’ll echo Falooker’s appreciation for McT’s Gershwin tribute (given some of Ira’s cheekier lyrics, I think he would have approved. Orff, indeed!). Seems like more than enough reason to give Fred and Ginger an outing … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ3fjQa5Hls

  25. I’m the opposite of Sotira, starting in the NW and proceeding counterclockwise to finish in the NE with EMIRATE, not because it was difficult, but because it was the last one I came to. Overall between 15 and 20 minutes, obviously not timing with any attempt at precision. Not much to say, though the ORIGAMI clue was nice and the MARTINI clue, though not difficult, was succinctly clued. Regards.
    1. Heh, you say “po-tay-to” and I say “po-tah-to”!

      Edited at 2015-10-14 05:20 pm (UTC)

      1. After the Japanese video game/anime series Pokemon came out, I spent a while swanning around telling people “You say po-tay-to, I say Pik-ah-chu”. I may be a bit weird.
  26. 10 mins. I’m another who started slowly and then picked up pace quickly. I had the bottom half completed way before the top half. It took me a while to see BACHELORHOOD because I thought the clue was pointing me towards a composer. EXTREMITY was my LOI after INHERIT.
  27. I managed to spin this one out for almost 40 minutes, somehow. In my defence, I should mention that I’d have finished in under 15 minutes if I’d taken 25 minutes less to think of the answers.

    My COD was definitely MOLIERE. LOI was OCHRE, after I’d finally realised I was reading 1ac all wrong and got the (retrospectively obvious) BACHELORHOOD.

    1. I admire your eloquent defence: given your profession, it’s reassuring to know that you have been able to make a swift diagnosis of the problem. Any chance of successful treatment? If so, I could do with some of it.
      1. Thank you! I am pretty sure the solution to this problem is to be found in physics, rather than medicine. Basically, quantum superposition effects brought about by ethanol molecules (such as those found in, say, gin) lead to a local waveform collapse. This, in turn, leads of course to an Einstein-Bösendorfer time dilation effect, such that the external universe experiences a greater length of time than that experienced by the solver. In extreme cases, this can lead to the apparent loss of entire evenings or, if one is particularly lucky, years. An international team at CERN is researching this phenomenon, using the Large Pina Colada.

        Some theoretical physicists have suggested that this effect could be avoided by not drinking gin. However, as far as I know, nobody has yet discovered a practical way to test this.

  28. Very late getting to this one and the pleasant surprise of seeing mctext on as a substitute. Klopp’s influence, perhaps. Liked the font, and the crossword.
  29. An enjoyable puzzle, and a solving time that was o.k. for me.
    As on many previous occasions, I have really appreciated the blog for the entertainment, even if I did not need help with any parsing (which doesn’t happen very often).
    I’ve studied ‘Tess’ a couple of times at different levels, and should really have tackled the Homer too, but managed to sidestep that one, though the Penelope reference was known to me, and the answer went in quite quickly once I had cleared my mind of D & M (cue canine snigger).
  30. 9:20 for me, finishing briskly after another ridiculously slow start.

    I made the same mistake as Andy B in thinking that the answer to 1ac was going to be a composer, and since the probability of the Times coming up with a composer whose name I didn’t know was negligible, I wasted an inordinate amount of time on it. Even when I had the B and C in place, it was still some time before light eventually dawned.

    Basically a nice straightforward puzzle though.

    (I might have taken some encouragement from the fact that crypticsue’s time today was slower than her time on Monday if she hadn’t been so damnably fast on both days!)

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