Times 26,303: My Interrobang Won’t Come Back

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I don’t know what the record is for number of question marks in the clues of a Times crossword, but double figures of them seemed quite a lot, and was probably a good sign that we were in for something a bit more oblique and wavelengthy than the average. In the event I finished under the 10 minute mark, which I was happy enough with, having hesitated only over the relatively unknown but lucidly clued COCKLOFT and PAIR-OAR. I *almost* committed a classic Verlaine off-by-one as my perverse impish fingers initially entered LEFT-HANDER at 3dn, but even my post-pub brain couldn’t let that one slip past the wordplay in question.

Some fun semi-&lits to enjoy here at 1dn, 9ac, perhaps even 8dn, but my COD is probably 14dn whose “on-line clip” afforded me a good chortle when the penny dropped. Many thanks to the setter: that was a lot of fun!

Across
1 COCKLOFT – room at the top: C [chapter] with reverse of FOLK [people “turning”] in COT [bed]
5 WRAP UP – finish off: WRAP [sandwich] wanting [“seconds of”] {s}U{mptuous} {s}P{read}
9 WAR – something fought: W [with] + AR{ms} [weapons? “not half”]
10 FREE SPIRITS – uninhibited types: double def with “drinks on the house”
12 OFF THE HOOK – no longer under threat: double def with “close to Dutch cape, perhaps” (i.e. the Hook of Holland)
13 SOLO – fly aircraft: homophone of SO LOW [very | near to the ground, “it’s said”]
15 ELANDS – wild beasts: E LANDS (as in eastern lands) are suggested by “China, etc?”
16 MALARIA – fever: reverse of LAM [“comeback of” hit] + ARIA [song]
18 ANISEED – spice: A [of top quality] + IS in NEED [demand]
20 WETTED – sprayed water on: WEED [plant], TT [dry] inside
23 LIEN – right: LIE [don’t get up] before N [noon]
24 PICARESQUE – telling of rogue: P.I. [private investigator] + RE [note] protected by CASQUE [helmet]
26 CHARITY SHOP – fund-raising outlet: CHAR IT’S HOP [daily | it’s | bound] to collect Y [variable amount]
27 INN – watering hole: I [current] + N N [names]
28 RUDISH – rather vulgar: R.U. DISH [rugby players’ | pin-up?]
29 PROGRESS – passage: PROG RE SS [short TV broadcast | about | ship]

Down
1 COWPOX – disease: C OW P OX [C{attle} “principally” | that hurt | quiet | bovine]
2 CAREFUL – meticulous: REF [judge] wearing CAUL [head cover]
3 LEFT-HANDED – awkward: HAND [assistant] brought in by LEFT ED [New Statesman editor?]
4 FRESH AS A DAISY – energetic: suggested by “so blooming cheeky”, fresh being cheeky, and a daisy being something blooming
6 RUIN – financial crash: {b}RUIN [bear “losing capital”]
7 PAIR-OAR – racing boat: PAI{n} [“endless” nuisance] with ROAR [engine noise]
8 PASTORAL – picture of countryside: PAST O R.A. [by | old | artist] overlooking L [lake]
11 STORMY WEATHER – number (1933 song, performed by Lena Horne, Billie Holiday et al) : in STORE [shop], MY W [my | wife] will get A THE [two articles] + R [right]
14 CLOTHES PEG – on-line clip: C{a}L{l}O{w} [“oddly”] + THESP E.G. [actor | say]
17 CABLE CAR – carriage: CAB [compartment] taking L [fifty] + reverse of RACE [people “up”]
19 IRELAND – republic: (A LINER*) [“at sea”] + D [“heading for” D{ominican}]
21 ESQUIRE – man’s address: (QUERIES*) [“doctor”]
22 DENNIS – fellow: reverse of SINNED [strayed “to the north”]
25 PILS – beer: P{up}ILS [students “who’ve not kept up”]

57 comments on “Times 26,303: My Interrobang Won’t Come Back”

  1. 30:20. I spent a lot of time at the end on ELANDS, and still didn’t get the parsing when I entered it, so thanks for clarifying that for me.

    Agreed that “on-line clip” was a great definition which had me trying to think of something to do with You Tube and the like. Well misdirected by the setter.

  2. Well, it may have taken me an eternity but I finished (81 minutes). Thanks to Verlaine for the parsing of WRAP UP and CABLE CAR. Oh, yes, and CHARITY SHOP.

    Lots of animals and geography: not desperately keen on the Chinese and Dutch clues; I liked the literary PICARESQUE the best.

  3. 9m. No problems today, even with the unknown COCKLOFT and PAIR-OAR and wondering why I had never heard of Cape HOOK (doh!). I remembered the verb ‘to SOLO’ and the specific rogue element of PICARESQUE from past puzzles.
  4. Well, ELAND is not so obscure although I keep reading through my list of antelopes ready for the next one.
    Great puzzle I thought, hardly a poor clue in it, 25 minutes ending with the splendid CLOTHES PEG. Thanks V for explaining how WRAP UP worked.
    Query ANISEED it’s a herb not a spice?
    CoD 12a for good use of geography.
    3d As a Sinister person I also query why we are supposedly clumsy?
    2. I must say I thought that as I was filling it in too, but a very quick Google does seem to confirm aniseed as a spice…
  5. 40 minutes despite some unusual words and with all parsed apart from 11d where the song never ever occurred to me.
    As a cack-hander, cuddy-wifter or corry-fister myself, I do take something of an exception to being described as “awkward” though. Just ‘cos we’re in the minority, this is definitely a “rightist” view.
    Nevertheless, a satisfying puzzle to end the week.
      1. I will also admit to being maladroit, but sinister? Not due to which hand I prefer at any rate.
        1. I must rise to the bait… seems to me we lefties are LESS maladroit than the other 90% or so of you, being generally MORE ambidextrous than right handers… we have been cursed by history and Christianity but we’re leaders of men. Five of the seven most recent U.S Presidents have been left handed – Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and current leader Barack Obama. (I’m not sure that’s a statistic I like!)
          1. I’m behind you Pip.
            These righteous Righties just don’t understand how life is biased against us: from scissors to playing cards, power tools to cheque books, can openers to computer keyboards and mice. Why aren’t we protected by law from discrimination like other minorities?
    2. The expression must come from the fact that a person who is right-handed, as the majority of persons are, would be somewhat less dexterous with the left.
  6. I so nearly made it home without resorting to aids but as the hour passed I’d had enough and looked up PAIR-OAR – I’d got the ROAR bit but had no idea what might go before it. Needless to say I didn’t have the first word at 5ac so I was missing the P checker.

    Also in that corner I’d got off to a bad start by having LUMP as my first one in at 6dn and it stayed there for a long time before I realised it had to be wronq to allow 10ac. My thinking was SLUMP (financial crash) losing its first letter (capital) to give LUMP (bear, as in like it or lump it). I know the word order would be a bit dodgy but I’d cite yesterday’s flanker/franker clue in my defence.

    Never ‘eard of COCKLOFT.

    65 minutes with one look-up.

  7. 40mins, all correct, but a couple of unknowns from wp (COCKLOFT, PAIR-OAR), and a couple from def but unparsed (WAR, OFF THE HOOK). Surely to ‘SOLO’ is ‘to fly an aircraft unaccompanied’ and not just ‘to fly an aircraft’? Thought that was a bit misleading. I had ‘slap’ UP at 5ac for some time, which I only corrected when I couldn’t fit a word into 5d. RUIN was then my LOI. Thanks for clearing up the ‘by’ = ‘PAST’ bit of 8dn. I was going to quibble that ‘old’ was doing double-duty…

    Cod: CLOTHES PEG

  8. Nothing too dramatic today, just a steady solve of a pleasant puzzle

    3D revived memories of early school days and south paws being made to write right-handed. What a dreadful thing to have done.

        1. Where was that George? Certainly wasn’t the case in the regional schools I attended in the 60’s and 70’s, none of which were known for being particularly progressive!
  10. Just over the 30 mins, with almost half of the time in the NE corner, where getting a toehold on 5/13A and 6/7d was troublesome. Sorry lefties but Chambers supports the setter. I got this via cack-handed, which means both awkward and sinisterly-inclined..
  11. Made it in 47 minutes but with some struggling, particularly in the NE, where FREE SPIRITS, WRAP, RUIN and the unknown PAIR-OAR eluded me for some time. Managed to parse everything apart from 17.
    A tricky and interesting puzzle, but not so demanding that it became a pain.
  12. I knew it as old-fashioned slang for someone’s head. Where I got bogged down was with PAIR-OAR and got as far as creating a regatta event called the “Prix d’Or”. Which left the unappetising *d*o at 13a. Took some sorting. 20.50
  13. Liked 11d very much, but …
    Hated 6d – I had LUMP (as in “lump it” – bear and SLUMP losing the S).
    Worse still, the L made me think 5a must be “SLAP UP” (slap up meal for sumptuous spread) – even though I couldn’t parse the rest.
    Fortunately, the crosser from 10a ‘free spirits’ rescued me and I was able to unravel the error.
    Even so …
    Was the setter deliberately leading me down a blind path with 6d, I wonder. If so, I think that was a bit below the belt.

    Edited at 2016-01-08 12:22 pm (UTC)

    1. Ref my earlier posting, I’m pleased to find I wasn’t the only one lured into the trap!

      Edited at 2016-01-08 02:12 pm (UTC)

  14. I think you need C for “with” to fully parse 1a. I still remember being told at primary school not to eat left-handed because when I was a big man, and met the Queen, I wouldn’t be able to eat left-handed then !

    Jim, near Cambridge

  15. 23;12 … but I’m claiming a few minutes for a call from a chap who told me he was from “the Microsoft Technical Centre”. Actually, the call took 20 seconds but the next few minutes were spent composing better ripostes than the dismal “No, you’re not” which had been all I could muster.

    Very entertaining puzzle, I thought. All my favourite things have already been praised. Thanks setter and v.

  16. Realised my comment about C for “with” is complete drivel. Apologies.

    Jim, near Cambridge

    1. Jim, One of the advantages of signing up with LiveJournal (top of page with no discernible downsides) is that you get to correct previously written errors, as long as you can get in before someone comments!
  17. I had this all but done in 10 minutes but had a complete mental block on CABLE CAR and WRAP UP with the latter meaning I was unable to get RUIN.

    I eventually had something in all the pesky little squares in 19:32 but unfortunately some of the letters spelled PIRATESQUE (P.I. + te in rasque. Well pirates are roguish aren’t they? A quick subsequent Googlage of the term threw up “Comment parler comme un pirate… en français! Nous avons ici quelques suggestions pour améliorer votre parlure piratesque et votre vocabulaire”. Voilà!

    Never mind that a casque is a helmet and a rasque ain’t.

    Add me to the list of fans of the def for clothes peg.

  18. 36 minutes here, which is back to my usual winter speed. COD was definitely CLOTHES PEG. NHO COCKLOFT, and PICARESQUE was only to be found on the bottom shelf of a dusty old memory cell that I haven’t used for years, but I got there.

    I too am a southpaw, but occasionally try working right-handed just for fun (much to the annoyance of the next of kin).

  19. Neat puzzle, though it took a little longer than maybe it should have. A bit shocked by ‘left-handed’. And just a touch surprised by ‘stormy weather’ finding sufficient identity as a phrase to creep in. Also wondered about the def. of ‘picaresque’. But the online clip makes up for everything.
    2. I remember being puzzled by a similar definition of PICARESQUE in a past puzzle, but both Collins (‘fiction in which the hero, a rogue, goes through a series of episodic adventures’) and Chambers (‘relating the episodic adventures of a likeable rogue or vagabond’) support it. ODO doesn’t use the word ‘rogue’ but it does specify that the hero is ‘rough and dishonest’!
      1. Yes, I accept the general idea. But ‘telling of rogue’ doesn’t quite get there in my view. The Wind in the Willows tells of a rogue. (Nor does the first person ‘telling’ if indicated really clear the bar.) But the general idea’s close enough I suppose.
  20. Another one who confidently put in LUMP early on, and eventually realizing the error.

    Another leftie here too (as is my daughter). Interestingly, my mother found that the older she got the more she used her left hand. She thinks probably she was a leftie but forced in school to learn to write etc right handed. She was born in 1930 so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were still doing that back then.

    Several don’t knows like everyone else but fairly clued and completely gettable.

    Don’t really have a time since I did it in 3 sessions, but not fast.

  21. 48m here. My heart sank when I saw all of the question marks with good reason as it turned out. Not my sort of puzzle overall but enjoyed the peg at least. Thanks for the blog.
  22. Yep——I had “lump” as well. Leading me to put in “slap up” without thinking. Teaching me not to be so cocky.
  23. 14 mins, ending with SOLO after PAIR-OAR. My dad always used to call our attic the COCKLOFT so I had no problem with that one. Count me as another who thinks the “on-line clip” definition for CLOTHES PEG is a gem, and it definitely merits a tip of the hat to the setter.
  24. Slogged through this last night trying to fight off a head-cold, lots of tricky stuff – I had to come back to it in the morning to get WRAP UP and PAIR-OAR (what a fiendish crossing).
  25. Bamboozled by sticking in AMEN at 23 meaning right – it has the advantage of having two noon references in it, and the disadvantage of not otherwise parsing at all. Clothes pegs are know hereabouts as clothes pins, which caused some more trouble. And FOU(L)R OAR caused more distress. That’s one in almost every corner, and my time reflects that.
    Thanks for the blog, and I agree, a nice off-the-wavelength puzzle.
    Paul-in-London
  26. About 30 minutes ending with CABLE CAR, since ‘cab’ as ‘compartment’ doesn’t fit in my world. As Paul says above, our 14D’s are clothespins, and are all one word besides, but the definition, as others have pointed out, is quite neat. PAIR-OAR was unknown too. Nice puzzle altogether. Regards.
  27. Count me another one that dislikes discriminatory 3dn. The fact that the given meaning is in the dictionary is no excuse; there are many dictionary definitions and words The Times would never dream of using.. and this should be one of them.
    1. My left-handed sister was described (up in Yorkshire) as “golly-handed”. I’ve no idea of its derivation (neither the OED nor Partridge are any help), but it sounds suspicious.
      1. I remember golly-handed from my childhood in Sheffield. It has also been used
        in Parliament.

        Actually, googling that brings up some interesting websites…

  28. 12:18 here for this interesting and enjoyable puzzle. I agree with you about “on-line clip” – good stuff.
  29. Bet Jimbo would have liked the room at the top clued as “atom smasher changing direction”
    Chrispy

  30. Took me over 20 minutes, but I did want to comment on the surface readings of the clues, all of them excellent. When solving in spot the wordplay mode you barely notice, but revisiting reveals a high quality which is a credit to this setter.

Comments are closed.