Times 26269 – The Lady of the Lake

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 21 minutes

Music: Rimsky-Korsakov, Scherezade, Beecham/RPO

This was an embarrassing time for such an easy puzzle, but I raced through three-quarters of it in about ten minutes only to come to a most thorough halt in the SE. This was frustrating, because I knew it was an easy puzzle and I couldn’t understand how I could get so stuck. The answer was two wrong answers: ‘Costa Rico’ and ‘nostalgic’. It took a while to figure this out, but once the correct replacements were there, the rest of the puzzle was a write-in. The liqueur was the only word someone might not have heard of, but the cryptic makes it quite simple.

Ulaca and I are mixing it up again, and he will be your blogger for the next two Mondays. I hoped I haven’t slipped him any toughies, but Mondays are usually pretty safe.

Across
1 BONANZA, BO(NAN + Z)A, an old TV show.
5 DINGHY, DING(H)Y.
8 OURSELVES, anagram of US + RESOLVE.
9 SPURS, SPUR[n]S, easy even if you don’t know the team.
11 GUISE, sounds like a GUYS, a modern epicene form of address that has come a long way since Mr Fawkes.
12 COSTA RICA, CO[r]S(TAR)ICA.
13 TAHITIAN, T(AH)ITIAN, one of the usual painters.
15 IGNITE, G.I. backwards plus E TIN backwards.
17 OUTLAY, LAYOUT switched around.
19 MARATHON, MA(RAT HO)N.
22 OBSESSION, O.B. + SESSION.
23 ALIAS, AL(I)AS.
24 KOALA, KO(A)LA. The peninsula may be obscure to some, but the answer should certainly be obvious.
25 HORSESHOE, sounds like HOARSE + SHOE. The first element is certainly well-disguised.
26 DEMEAN, D(EM)EAN..
27 DIAMOND, double definition, where a ‘dealer’ is one dealing the cards.
 
Down
1 BROUGHT TO BOOK, double definition, one jocular.
2 NORWICH, RON upside down + W1 CH.
3 NIECE, N[ormality] I[n] E[uropean] C[ommunity’s] E[arly].
4 ADVOCAAT, ADVOCA(A)T[e].
5 DESIST, hidden in [merce]DES IS T[uneful].
6 NOSTALGIA, anagram of AGA LOST IN. Even when the answer is obvious, count off the letters!
7 HOUDINI, H(O (U) DIN)I, an elaborate cryptic for what 99% of solvers will write in from the definition.
10 SHAKE ONE’S HEAD, double definition.
14 TRANSLATE, TRA(I)NS LATE.
16 MANNERED, M(ANN)ERE + D[istrict], another cryptic most solvers won’t need or use.
18 TESTATE, T(h)E STATE.
20 HEIGH HO, sounds like HAY + HOE.
21 LICHEN, LI(CH)EN. The ‘compound’ element may be taken for wordplay, but lichen really is a composite – see the Wikipedia entry.
23 ARENA, A + RE + AN upside-down.

48 comments on “Times 26269 – The Lady of the Lake”

  1. A distinctly pedestrian 16-odd. Warnink’s (other brands may be available) looks buttock-clenchingly awful: I have never been able to face trying even a sip at any time of the day, let alone morninks or eveninks. Didn’t they once try flogging something similar in blue? Must have been for a bet.
  2. 7:27 for me after another ridiculously slow start, including thinking of both BOA and NAN at 1ac but still failing to come up with BONANZA. Sometimes my brain seems to behave like an ancient valve wireless taking its time to warm up. (Sigh!)

    A pleasant straightforward start to the week though.

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