Times 26355 – unpredicted outcome, unfeasible idea, all of the above

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
With 1a, 1d, 12a and 13d flying in, I thought this was going to be a walk in the park, but in the end it was more of a crawl through the undergrowth. There was some fine misdirection which had me mentally off piste several times. Twenty minutes with the morning tea, then a break for the shower, then another ten or fifteen to cross the line.

A sad day, as I read more about Sharapova, one of my heroes, clearly in the wrong; still, as someone observed in a blog yesterday, tennis will be quieter now.

Across
1 COLUMNISTS – CON (scam) around LUM (Scottish word for chimney) IST (first) S(ucceeded); D pressmen.
6 EARN – D take in ‘bread’, allegedly sounds like URN used for tea making.
9 GLOSS PAINT – Insert OS SPA into GLINT: D shiny covering.
10 MEAN – ME (this writer) AN (article); D petty.
12 LITTLE DORRIT – (DETROIT TILL R)*; D work, a Dickens I haven’t yet persuaded myself to read.
15 ERRONEOUS – ER (hesitation), RO (OR, men, returned), NOUS (intelligence) around E; D mistaken./td>
17 MOTOR – D vehicle; MONITOR misses NI.
18 LOSER – LONER = solitary guy, change N for S; D one unsuccessful.
19 THEREFORE – TORE (moved fast) goes around HERE, F; D as (a) result. Is the missing ‘a’ a typo?
20 CHAPEL OF EASE – D church; it took me an age to parse this, it’s an anagram of HOME SAFE PLACE without the letter M(iles).
24 TASK – T(ime) AS (in role of) (K(ing); D job.
25 CREATIVITY – RE (soldiers) AT IV, all inside CITY; D imagination.
26 DORM – D OR M = either end of DURHAM; D rest area.
27 PESTILENCE – Insert STILE (steps) into PENCE; D very bad idea.

Down
1 CAGY – CA (accountant), G(RANN)Y; D cautious.
2 LION – LI (51) r O u N d; D celebrity.
3 MISSION CREEP – MISS (girl) I ON (one performing), C (about) then PEER reversed (look up); D unpredictable outcome.
4 INAPT – Hidden reversed in HO(T PANI)NIS; D unsuitable.
5 TENNESSEE – TEN (figure) N,E,S, (points) SEE (notice): state.
7 ABERRATION – ABER(DEEN), RATION = helping; D departure from normal.
8 NONSTARTER – Anagram of NORTHEASTERN without the letters HE; D unfeasible idea. This had me fooled for a while, although now it seems obvious.
11 BOY MEETS GIRL – (SET GORBLIMEY)*; D romantic. A phrase now replaced by PERSON MEETS PERSON, I expect.
13 REPLICATED – REP (theatre), (DIALECT)*; D copied. My FOI.
14 TRESPASSER – PA’S inside TRESS (lock), then (H)ER(E) = here putting off outside; D intruder.
16 OUTSOURCE – OUT (unpopular), SOUR (sullen) C, E, (initial letters of costs expensive); D to buy in. Is this surface another comment about the UK NHS?
21 EXALT – EX (former) ALT(O); D glorify.
22 FINN – FI (uncertainty, IF, about); N, N (news); D national.
23 TYPE – Double definition.

56 comments on “Times 26355 – unpredicted outcome, unfeasible idea, all of the above”

  1. … steady as she goes until getting becalmed in the SE. Thrown by the def. for PESTILENCE, which required a look-up in Collins. Liked the &lit aspect of 20ac but a bit perplexed (if not thrown) by the “shown” in 2dn.
  2. 30:27. I spent some time at the end trying to suss out the romantic poet _O_ MYERS _I_L. I thought we had another relatively obscure anagram to follow yesterday’s taboulleh debate until finally I saw BOY MEETS GIRL to complete an obscurity free puzzle.
  3. All but three in the SE solved within my target 30 minutes but I’d carelessly biffed CHAPEL OF REST at 20ac and that did for me, requiring another 20 minutes to realise my error and recover from it, 21dn being the sticking point when looking for a word starting with R and no other checkers in place.

    Things weren’t helped by the rather strange definition of PESTILENCE at 27ac which I don’t recall meeting before. In fact I didn’t find it replicated exactly in any of the usual sources though I suppose this one marked ‘figurative’ and ‘rare’ in the SOED covers it: Something morally pernicious; evil conduct, wickedness.

    Edit: on reading mct’s comment above which crossed with mine I revisited Collins and found Pestilence: an evil influence of idea. Missed it the first time!

    Edited at 2016-03-09 09:30 am (UTC)

  4. Didn’t know CHAPEL OF EASE or the bizarre MISSION CREEP, but came home in 35 minutes, with quite a bit of biffing along the way in an ultimately vain attempt to reach my target.
    1. I’m surprised you are not familiar with MISSION CREEP after decades of reporting of western intervention in Middle Eastern affairs and elsewhere.
        2. Ah, you mean the 80-80 rule! 80% of the IT project takes 80% of the time, the remaining 20% takes the other 80% of the time.
        3. And, if I understand correctly, “Mission Creep” is never an acceptable answer to the question: Six weeks ago we had five weeks of work left; three weeks ago we had five weeks of work left; last week we had five weeks of work left; TODAY we have five weeks of work left… What is going on?
      2. My knowledge of IT could be written on a postage stamp, while my interest in current affairs is woefully selective and generally lacking.

        Edited at 2016-03-09 03:31 pm (UTC)

  5. 27 minutes, with a lot of d’oh moments as the setter’s traps were sprung, possibly exacerbated by barmaid induced flu. I suppose we’re lucky 5d wasn’t just “Time points to state”: a similar device sort of irks me in “think of a word, change the middle letter to another unspecified letter” in 18, but I’m not complaining really.
    Pip, I think you’re underestimating the complexity of modern relationship generation. With 63 genders at the last count, even “person meets person” may not be sufficiently inclusive. What an exciting age we live in!

    Edited at 2016-03-09 09:39 am (UTC)

    1. Thank you (I think) for the “63” link. I would love to think that the setter had visited that site and clued the clearly now rare BOY MEETS GIRL purposely as “that’s odd!”
    2. 63 genders? But will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64? (Talking of which, RIP George Martin…)

      Edited at 2016-03-09 10:41 am (UTC)

    3. Never mind 63 genders , I am curious about “Z meets barmaid = flu” – or should a gentleman never ask?

      1. I had her down as ambidextrous/buy-courteous, but the exchange of bodily fluids, I can assure you, was a purely one way process, ably demonstrating the potency/fertility of the unprotected sneeze. Besides, Mrs Z was not far away.

  6. About 45mins for this one, being held up, as Jack, with CHAPEL OF ‘rest’ for the longest time. MISSION CREEP unknown (and, frankly, as ulaca says, bizarre), and PESTILENCE went in with a shrug from w/p. Found some of the shorter ones (EARN, FINN) particularly taxing. Not sure why now…

  7. 40 minutes for this one including several minutes parsing CHAPEL OF EASE after I’d biffed it. Luckily I’d already got EXALT so I wasn’t tempted by Chapel of Rest. I also hadn’t come across this meaning of PESTILENCE but the cryptic was clear enough. Took me a while to see CAGY (CAAN anyone?) and LION. FOI MEAN rapidly followed by EARN and ABERRATION. LOI LION after GLOSS PAINT. No trouble with MISSION CREEP. I enjoyed this one, especially as I got a good night’s sleep. John
    1. I also came up with AN for ‘tips off granny’, and when I finally realised I wanted GY I was annoyed with myself for my usual inability to interpret part of a clue in more than one way. Guess that’s why I’m no Magoo.
      1. Magoo can only interpret parts of clues in one way too! Luckily for him that way is “unerringly the right one”.
        1. I actually remember him saying in The Times that he attributes a large part of his success to being able to quickly discard an idea if it’s not working and look at a clue afresh. Definitely easier said than done as my tunnel vision attests.
          1. Yeah, it’s a good skill. If I have some crossing letters and a word that fits pops into my head, I can’t easily stop revisiting that word a dozen times even when I’m 100% sure it can’t be the right answer…
  8. In a bid to live up to my reputation (as per my guest spot on ulaca‘s Monday blog) I did this after staggering home past midnight from boardgames night (where I played a charming little Viking Ragnarok simulator called “Blood Rage”) with five pints in me. Looking at the leaderboard this morning I see 10 and a half minutes with mercifully no errors, but couldn’t tell you much about how I got there, looks like a nice puzzle though.
  9. 12:07 … I seem to have had one of those days where I strolled blithely through the minefield. In fact, I thought I had made heavy weather of it until I saw the leaderboard.

    COD to BOY MEETS GIRL. Rather an original clue, I thought.

  10. Took ages to get going but eventually came in at 55 mins.

    5dn TENNESSEE had me for ages as I for some reason thought it might be ADDRESSEE – once that was sorted out and 3dn MISSIOBN CREEP wsa in I was home with LOI 2dn LION FOI 10ac MEAN
    COD 12 ac LITTLE DORRIT (Poverty and Riches)

    horryd Shanghai

  11. 23m. I found half of this really easy, and half of it really hard. I like a bit of a challenge, but I also like having my pathetic ego stroked by flatteringly easy clues, so in a way this was the perfect puzzle.
    I biffed CHAPEL OF REST, and I’ve never heard of a CHAPEL OF EASE, so this caused me a bit of a problem, particularly as I was on the train so had nowhere to write down all the letters. This definition of PESTILENCE was unfamiliar too.
    My only small nit is with the definition of MISSION CREEP, which is far from unpredictable, and so unpredicted only by the naive.

    Edited at 2016-03-09 10:59 am (UTC)

    1. Well, wouldn’t that make it unpredictable, so few of us having egos that do not depend on being stroked pathetically easily?

      There was a point in there somewhere before I started to sound like Henry James.

      Edited at 2016-03-09 03:39 pm (UTC)

      1. Whatever the point was it went straight over my head. Much like a lot of Henry James, in fact.
          1. Perhaps. I suppose the question is whether an event can still be said to be unpredicted at the point a single person has predicted it. Deep.
  12. No real obscurities although CHAPEL OF EASE rang only the faintest bell so left it till last to be sure. Otherwise an agreeable if not memorable solve. Liked LITTLE DORRIT for its neat surface.
  13. 41 min, with long hold-up in SE, exacerbated by having biffed EXTOL at 21dn. Checkers at 11dn looked improbable, especially as ‘gorblimey’ had me thinking start was going to be COR until I realised it was an anagram.
    LOI FINN, as ?I? only suggested SIGN which was obviously not right.
  14. Much like some others. I breezed through most in twenty minutes, but biffed CHAPEL OF REST, making 21 impossible, and taking some time to see FINN and the oddly defined PESTILENCE. It took another twenty minutes to sort out the error and the rest of the SE.
  15. I am so chuffed to be 17 seconds quicker than Magoo that I thought I’d share my celebrations.
    2. I am stuck behind a molehill which has obscured the view of the foothills which, in turn, hides the mountain you have just climbed. Congratulations. Please enjoy this selfishly and on behalf of all of us.
    4. Congratulations Sue. I am sure that it will make Magoo a yet better person to be knocked off pole position once in a decade or so !
      1. Well done Sue. I’m chuffed to be only one or two light years behind you and Magoo.
  16. Struggled with COLUMNISTS and EARN otherwise it was straightforward. Had to use the iPad to solve for columnists and although I suspected “urn” was involved somewhere I just never saw its phonym EARN
  17. Tougher today. 26 mins with a lot of time spent in the SE which only fell once I had seen “pestilence”. LOI was “therefore” where I was convinced that flak meant anti-aircraft guns had something to do with it.
  18. 47m of mixed fortunes with some easy biffs, for me anyway, and then some taxing mental gymnastics for others such as PESTILENCE and COLUMNISTS. I should have worked out the Dickens novel much more quickly having identified the anagrist straightaway. But apropos of yesterday’s discussion on foreign words and anagrams this doesn’t feel that much different since if you hadn’t heard of the book – and of course ‘work’ ain’t necessarily a book – you were likely to struggle with those crossing letters, I think. DIRTLE LOTRIT anyone? Overall an enjoyable challenge today and another entertaining blog. Thanks, Pip, I’d not spotted the anagram for 20a so was well bemused.
    1. As ever this is a subjective matter but for my money LITTLE DORRIT is firmly in the ‘solver ought to know this’ category (unlike TABBOULEH).
  19. Wastes time in my case! 50 minutes, including 10 thinking why pestilence was right. Enjoyable puzzle with Boy meets Girl bringing back memories of Marty Wilde on steam telly. Why can’t I be a teenager in love any longer?
  20. Did this at a different time of day than usual and crept through it in 32:18. Massively assisted by a confident FORM for 23dn. Little Dorrit is an OK read but Peter Ackroyd’s spin on it is masterful.

    Edited at 2016-03-09 07:35 pm (UTC)

  21. Pleased with my time of 25:35, managing to avoid the tempting CHAPEL OF REST as I had EXALT already. Held up by FINN, EARN and PESTILENCE but, for once, nothing completely unknown. Good to see the Pink Panther (and county of my upbringing) mentioned at 26ac… Durham, durham, durham durham durham…
  22. Got through this o.k., with no daft errors like yesterday, though it would have:-

    (a) taken me longer if I had tried to parse everything, and,

    (b) been quicker if I had not been listening to Chelsea being knocked out of the Champions’ League while solving.

    Nervous about the Spurs match tomorrow, so I’d better try to tackle the crosssword earlier.

  23. Twenty-nine minutes here.

    I wasn’t at all sure about LION, as I fluffed the parsing; and CAGY is surely an unusual spelling of “cagey”? Or is it just me?

    My only NHO was CHAPEL OF EASE, which I would have guessed was a euphemism for the smallest room, but apparently is not. Having learned that it was a sort of church substation for people who couldn’t make it all the way to church, I will henceforth refer to my drinks cabinet as the “tavern of ease”.

    In any event, I enjoyed this and felt it was £1 well spent by whoever’s newspaper I stole.

  24. Feeling decidedly below par, with sinusitis giving me a hard time, I struggled to a miserable 15:52. In the end I was relieved to come through unscathed, having spent some time pondering whether the answer to 6ac could conceivably be NARN.

    Nice puzzle though.

  25. I finished this before the blog went up so I’m a bit late to the commenting party. CHAPEL OF EASE last in, and I’m glad I had heard of MISSION CREEP. About 15 minutes, trickiest of the week (so far – the one I have to blog should go live in about a minute)
    1. Well, that’s fair enough. But “cagy” is one heck of an uggerly word…
  27. Same here, George and I waited impatiently to point out that the FT had as 12 Across Article describes cattle margins dropping as a result (9)
  28. re 4 down: ‘paninis’ is really the plural of a plural. Such four-dimensionality, so to speak, is otiose. In the country where the beautiful language is spoken, you get one panino and two or more panini. And the ‘s’ isn’t necessary to the word play of the clue!
    1. Ah, well, yes, but in the land of the unnecessary apostrophe’s, vendors of bread based snacks need a word to put on their shop fronts to describe those squished and toasted sandwich things that were a bit like the ones Wayne had in Milan when Chelsea were there. So they named them after those stickers you get, ‘cos it sounded authentic. One panini guv? Coming right up! You want that toasted? That’ll be 2.99. Cheers. Here’s your one pence change.

      Edited at 2016-03-10 09:48 am (UTC)

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