Times 26299 – The emperor will continue to sleep without a sign!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 26 minutes

Music: Beethoven, Kreutzer and Spring Sonatas, Rubinstein/Szerying

I thought I was in for a quick solve when I put in the first five at sight, starting at 1 across. While I completed the top half relatively quickly, I slowed in the bottom half, and came to a complete halt for a while in the SE. Eventually I saw the obvious ‘petrol’, and was able to finish with ‘beachhead’ and ‘rummage’.

For the blog title, I offer an alternate clue for ‘Napoleon’, which I entered in a clue-writing competition many years ago. It did not win any prizes, but I still rather like it.

Across
1 FISHERMAN, F[ill] + I + SHERMAN.
6 ALOOF, AL(O,O)F.
9 NARWHAL, RAN backwards + W + HAL. ‘Initially’ refers to the placement of the first two elements, not the first letter of ‘west’.
10 PATELLA, PATEL + LA, one of the hotelier Indians.
11 IDE, ‘IDE, of course, as said in an allegedly Cockney area, although it’s probably full of Russian oligarchs by now.
12 SADDLE HORSE, SADDLE + sounds like HOARSE. ‘Saddle’ in the sense of stick you with something or someone undesirable.
14 DETOUR, anagram of ROUTED.
15 COGNOMEN, CO(GNOME)N, the kind of financier found in Zurich, not the one in gardens.
17 FLOODLIT, F(L)OOD + LIT.
19 PETROL, P[-a, +E]TROL, a simple letter-substitution clue that stumped me for a while. I consider a ‘patrol’ to consist of more than one man, so the literal is questionable.
22 INTERREGNUM, anagram of TRUE MEN GRIN. I was delayed by crossing out the wrong letters.
23 MUD, a simple double definition.
25 EMBARGO E(M.B.)AR + GO….and not an anagram of ‘organ’ at all!
27 UNREADY, UNREAD + Y[outh].
28 TORSO, ROT backwards + SO.
29 BEACHHEAD, B(E)ACH + HEAD. I was taken aback, because Mrs. Amy Beach was an American composer, but then I saw how the clue worked. However, a beachhead is not really part of a fortification, but a temporary line of incursion from the sea into an enemy-held country.
 
Down
1 FUNGI, sounds like FUN GUY, a chestnut.
2 SERPENT, S(E,R)PENT – it wouldn’t do to cross the Queen!
3 ECHO SOUNDER, E.C. HO + SOUNDER.
4 MELODY, M(DOLE upside-down)Y. I wasted some time trying to use ‘me’.
5 NAPOLEON, NAP + O + NOEL upside-down.
6 AIT, A + IT, in the crossword-puzzle sense.
7 OIL DRUM, [d]O(I)LDRUM[s].
8 FRATERNAL, anagram of LEFT ARRAN, and a very easy one.
13 HUNGER MARCH, HUN(GERMA[n] + R)CH. I had to parse the cryptic for the blog, since this was an obvious write-in.
14 DIFFIDENT, DIFF(-er,+ID)ENT, a more venturesome substitution clue.
16 FIRE BOMB, FIRE + BOMB in different senses. It is not exactly clear to me why ‘mine host’ would say ‘fire’ – maybe there’s some trick? In any case, the answer is correct. TIME BOMB, TIME + BOMB, where the landlord of the pub calls for the last round, plus a failure.
18 OCTOBER, [d]OCTO(B[e]E[f])R.
20 RUMMAGE, RUM (M) AGE, one I should have seen much more quickly than I did.
21 UNGULA, A(U[sefu]L)GNU, with the exterior, but not the interior, upside-down.
24 DRYAD, D(RY)AD. Those looking for L or LL will be disappointed.
26 RIO, [dinne]R + I + O, a compendium of cryptic cliches.

49 comments on “Times 26299 – The emperor will continue to sleep without a sign!”

  1. 20 minutes without too many problems. Parsed PATELLA in the end but had trouble with it because I always associate PATEL with Pakistanis rather than Indians. There are more Muslims in Pakistan and it’s a Muslim name I think. I was trying to fit PATNA in somewhere.
    1. Once upon a time I worked in a bank branch that had 23,000 of them in account. Virtually all of Indian extraction, and (I think) Sikh and Hindu

  2. Today’s QC blog suggested this was at the easier end for the QC crowd to test their progress. So I did. It wasn’t.
    I found this too difficult; managed ten and a half clues (that is progress of a sort) but did get Time Bomb as I recall the daily refrain in English pubs at 1030 pm. David
    1. Sorry to hear that, David. I base my recommendations on the average solving times as shown on the Crossword Club leaderboard, as well as my own assessment, but it’s an imperfect gauge – in this case, it seemed like people were finding the puzzle to be a relatively gentle offering, but there’s always that pesky wavelength thing to take into consideration too. Hope you weren’t disheartened by the experience – just remember that the more you try harder puzzles, the better you will get in general.
    2. I’ve been doing crosswords for yonks, but I think I’m still improving.
      I’ll never be among the quickest solvers, but that doesn’t bother me. As others have said, don’t despair and don’t give up: if you are like me, every improvement will increase the pleasure, and enjoyment is what crossword solving should always be about. By all means, keep going with the Quick (I still do it), but, if time allows, give the main puzzle a go too.
    3. David, I’m in your ball park, perhaps a year or two more experienced – I can generally finish the QC and very occasionally complete the main one. Today I was about 3 short, being defeated by TIME BOMB, BEACHHEAD and UNGULA. But I do enjoy trying, and broadly speaking, I find this blog educational, but it’s hard to stomach those on this blog who describe a crossword including words like NARWHAL, COGNOMEN and RUMMAGE as far too easy!
  3. 10 mins with PETROL my LOI after RUMMAGE. I didn’t consider “fire bomb” at all because I saw how TIME BOMB was parsed straight away, although I confess to being another who biffed PATELLA.
  4. Happy New Year to everyone.
    I’m late to the party, as usual, and a bit out of practice due to family duties taking up valuable crossword time.
    Count me as another who failed to parse the obvious ‘patella’, but, otherwise, I found it an approachable crossword.
    I echo the sound advice and encouragement to David.
  5. 11m. Lots of biffing today, including TIME BOMB, which is lucky because if I’d thought of FIRE BOMB first I’d probably have bunged it in.
  6. Sooo close! I’m a QCer, but tackle a Monday or Tuesday main puzzle now and then. Defeated by cognomen, but will remember “Swiss financier” for next time.

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