Times 26431 – A sermon from a sailor

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 27 minutes

Music: Falla, Three-Cornered Hat, Argenta/Orchestra Nacional de Espana

This offering was a little on the meaty side for a Monday, with some tricky wordplay and some obscure words. Fortunately, these never both occurred in the same clue, enabling me to finish in a reasonalbe time, and to be pretty sure I had the right answers. The four long ones were useful, although only one was a quick write-in for me.

I had been away, so did the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday puzzles after the fact, and found them quite hard. Not as hard as Mephisto, however – I haven’t been having much success for the past two weeks, but I feel I may have a chance with this week’s. At least they give you seven days to solve it, which I find useful.

And away we go!

Across
1 TOPONYMIC, TO PONY + M + I/C, a write-in for classicists.
6 SAMOA, S + A MOA.
9 LOCH NESS MONSTER, anagram of CLOSEST MEN + HORNS. This should have been a write-in from the enumeration, but I needed a few letters to see the last word was ‘monster’.
10 EQUITY, E + QUIT + Y[en], a bit of a chestnut.
11 NOT A PEEP, NO TAPE + E.P. The Extended Play single does not bulk large in the history of recorded music, but it is mighty handy for puzzle constructors!
13 ANTIBIOTIC, A + N + TIBI[a] + OTIC, very straightforward.
14 FOIL, triple definition, and a fine one.
16 OXEN, O + NEX[t] backwards.
17 TREASONOUS, T(REASON)O + U.S. I had bunged in ‘traitorous’, but then I read the clue.
19 OMITTING, O + M(-a,+I)TTING.
20 LARIAT, L[a] + ARIA + T[raviata].
23 INCOMPATIBILITY, anagram of IMPLY + ANTIBIOTIC. I had to put this off until I managed 13, but otherwise not difficult. These very long words fall into a number of simple patterns.
24 TASTE, TA(S)TE. I don’t know what the compilers would do without The Tate.
25 DOMINANCE, D([c]OMIN[g])ANCE.
 
Down
1 TILDE, TI(L)DE. Not hard if you’ve heard of it.
2 PICK UP THE PIECES, PICK-UP(THE PIECE)S. I thought this just was a jocular cryptic definition, but there is a genuine cryptic here as well. Maybe a bit of an &lit?
3 NANOTUBE, NO[w] in an anagram of BUTANE. Fortunately, the word was vaguely
familiar.
4 MUSE, EMUS with the first letter moved to the end.
5 COMPOSITAE, COMPOS(I TA)E, with a very clear cryptic to help those who had never heard of the family, also known as Asteraceae.
6 SINBAD, SIN + BAD, apparently, unless I’m missing something.
7 MATTER OF OPINION, anagram of PAIR OFTEN + MOTION, a write-in for me.
8 ACROPOLIS, anagram of CAR POOL IS, which I believe has appeared before.
12 FOUR-IN_HAND, double definition, the second jocular.
13 APOLOGIST, A + POLO + GIST, my LOI, so not as obvious as you might think.
15 DONATION, DO + NATION.
18 STYMIE, STY[-l,+M,I)E. The literal doesn’t reflect the original golf meaning very well, but I wouldn’t expect it to.
21 THYME, hidden in [homeopa]THY ME[decines], just the sort of ingredient they would use.
22 FIRM, FIR + M, pine cones, that is!

50 comments on “Times 26431 – A sermon from a sailor”

  1. after a month in London sorting out my latest book.

    I wonder how much longer we will be able to put pen to paper as I now note that The Independent is already gone and W.H.Smith is surely turning into a Thornton’s Chocolate Cabin.

    The Times offerings for May were reasonably hard but DNF today’s as I baulked at 5dn. I nearly came a cropper with 12n FOUR IN HAND as I originally put FOUR BY FOUR – a tad too modern mayhap!

    FOI 11ac NOT A PEEP
    COD 22dn FIRM – well it brightened up my jet lag!

    horryd Shanghai

  2. 23 minutes, with the scientific stuff nicely accessible. NOT A PEEP last in, as I could see the record but not the cassette.
    1. Clues, entries or both? If a computer can now do the former, then maybe I can get mine to solve the things without having the bother of pushing electrons though the laggard synapses of the neural net. If I find a way, you’ll know because my time will be around the 0’01” mark.
      At present it seems the dam’ things can’t even be relied on to spelllcheck.

      Edited at 2016-06-06 06:54 am (UTC)

  4. …a dopy TOPONOMIC. (Big shout-out to the PONOs of Exmoor).

    Nice Monday-ish puzzle, thanks setter and Vinyl.

    1. PONO looks like one of those acronyms like MAMIL and NIMBY. Maybe down in the West Country it’s someone who isn’t a tourist, weekender or migrant, i.e. a Person Of Native Origin.
  5. 42 minutes, delayed by the obscure words and the cross-reference where, unlike our blogger, I got the longer answer first, deducted IMPLY and treated the remaining letters as anagrist to arrive at 13ac. The unknown 3dn and 5dn were gettable from wordplay and checkers.

    Edited at 2016-06-06 04:40 am (UTC)

  6. 40mins here, ending with NOT A PEEP. For a long time I wanted the last word to be ‘help’, so that didn’t, er, help things along… Unknowns fairly clued.
  7. 15.32 with TRAITOROUS nearly stealing the show, only spotted in my final run through when I spotted I’d lost the A from the carefully spelt out daisy clan. I thought this was one where, if I could think the words onto the page instead of using the clumsy medium of a keyboard, I might have made a sub five. I can’t, I didn’t, but maybe I’ve hit on the way some do.

    On edit: I seem to have mombled INCOMBATIBILITY, for which I have no excuse but perhaps a conscientious objection.

    Edited at 2016-06-06 01:58 pm (UTC)

  8. My sluggy morning brain struggled for an unconscionable amount of time with the daisy and couldn’t parse 25 at all (was looking for a word for coming minus B and L… could have been a long time).

    I’m intrigued by mctext describing this as “like a computer-generated puzzle” above – I’m trying to set a crossword right now (hard going because I’m not a natural at that side of things), how do you avoid such roboticness?

    2. More seriously, that’s why I wanted to know whether McT meant clues or entries. When I’ve constructed a crossword, I’ve unapologetically used computer aids to suggest fillers for the spaces I’ve got left once the words I want are in place. But as for the clues, I think the subtlety of the language we use for cryptic crosswords may well defy the capabilities of computers: beyond sorting anagrams and suggesting synonyms, the building of clues with their differently-logical quirks is more a matter of intuition and inspiration.
      I’ve (occasionally, when completely baffled, of course) tried those sites which offer to solve clues for you, but beyond filling the gaps, solving the anagrams and searching databases for close (very) copies, their chocolate teapottiness is readily apparent. If that’s true then the initial creation must surely be a step too far for the time being.
      1. Mm, I’ve been happily letting a computer generate gridfuls of words for me, to get sone cluing practice in, but I can see that just randomly throwing a puzzle together like that leads to little real interestingness on the surface…
  9. 14:06 .. I must have been solving a different puzzle to some. I found this quite tricky and really satisfying. Not exactly the easiest selection of vocab, and some very sweet constructions, of which TREASONOUS probably tops the list for me.

    Thanks, setter. Thanks vinyl.

    1. I would agree, I definitely didn’t have any issues with the puzzle’s quality or enjoyability while I was solving it! And would happily buy the setter a drink etc etc (any excuse for a drink really…)
  10. After last week’s struggles, I was relieved to complete this in 30 minutes. Like V I was trying to get B and L out of 25ac, and eventually biffed it without parsing, so thanks to Vinyl for the proper word play. I enjoyed this puzzle as it took a bit of thought without bringing me to a grinding halt. I managed to compose the unknown daisy family. I also had TRAITOROUS for a brief moment, but reading the clue saved the day. FOI FOIL, LOI TILDE, after finally dragging the TO from the wordplay of 1ac to go with the ..PONYMIC I’d had since early in the solve.
  11. Completed in 15 mins. Could this be the lull before the storm. Thoroughly enjoyed this one though.
  12. Personally, I enjoyed this one, perhaps helped by the fact that I finished it off comfortably within my hour — I can hear it still ticking away, in fact, on the kitchen timer across the room.

    DNK COMPOSITAE, even though I’ve bought a couple recently; perhaps they were labelled as Asteraceae. Nevertheless, managed to work it out from the wordplay, along with the unknown FOUR-IN-HAND. TOPONYMIC got from the wordplay helped along a lot by my smattering of Greek, coming together in an “oh, of course that must be it” way.

    Happy to have remembered LARIAT from previous crosswords. 13d’s APOLOGIST has definitely come up very similarly clued somewhere recently for me.

    A welcome confidence-booster to start the week for this beginner, anyway.

  13. I now have a new earworm (or is that lugworm?) – Average White Band. About 40 minutes and enjoyed it. Thanks setter and v1.
  14. 30:25. Back from solving on the sunbed to solving in a commuter train which I think has helped me focus. I’ve still not found a good way of sorting anagrams electronically so working out an anagram of INCOMPATIBILITY – IMPLY in my head was a good work out.
  15. Very much enjoyed this one .. not too taxing and it is always nice to pull unknown words out of the wordplay and be happy they are right, as with 5dn. Ta setter and blogger
  16. 12m. Some of this was very easy (24ac for instance), some of it was made a bit trickier by obscure vocabulary, but none of it was very hard. I do find it satisfying to construct a word like COMPOSITAE from wordplay though.
    Like sawbill I now have an Average White Band earworm, but as it has displaced a progeny-induced One Direction earworm I am not complaining.
    Can an ingredient that is no longer present still be said to be ‘used’?
  17. All done in 10 minutes, heading for a PB, except had _A_M for 22d, having spelt 23a wrongly. Once I’d realised it was -IBILITY another 3 minutes had passed and no PB. Otherwise easy Monday, except for a ? over the NANOTUBE definition!
  18. Didn’t cover nanotubes in the sixties, but I don’t think they have to be carbon. What a Whopper was a lousy film about the Loch Ness Monster made as a vehicle for Adam Faith to show his acting talents, redeemed as I remember it by a cameo for Freddie Frinton. Mind you I was only 15 at the time. Easyish today, 35 pleasant minutes.
    1. I watched it within the past year (on TP-TV) so can’t claim the innocence of youth as my excuse. I was mildly entertained by it though, with lots of familiar faces in small roles, many of them uncredited at the time. Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks was responsible for the screenplay.
  19. LARIAT always featured in Westerns, NB stock/steers 16/20. COD NOT A PEEP, memories of using a biro to repair/unjam cassettes, plug for ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ as best EP. NANOTUBE is an allotrope of carbon, like diamond, graphite, soot and fullerenes (on which I once wrote a dissertation). I parsed 12d as def + ‘in hand’ + ‘four’ (a square number), rather than a double definition. A hugely enjoyable puzzle, with lots to learn, discuss and think about. Many thanks to setter and Vinyl. 19’15”.

    Edited at 2016-06-06 10:16 am (UTC)

    1. According to Chambers a NANOTUBE is ‘a molecule of a fullerene’. Is that wrong?
      I constructed this from wordplay, and the clue could have said ‘unicorn’ instead of ‘carbon molecule’ without hindering my solve!
      1. Possibly just wrong, but more likely reflecting how fast things move. My Chambers (1994) doesn’t have nanotube, and defines fullerene as a ball-shaped carbon molecule. Nanotubes are tubular in structure. My work was on mathematical fullerenes, graphs representing 3D solids consisting of pentagons and hexagons only, of which the molecule Carbon 60, aka BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE is the best known example in nature.
        1. BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE came up in a Jumbo a few months back. What a great word!

          Edited at 2016-06-06 12:18 pm (UTC)

          1. Named after Buckminster Fuller who designed Geodesic domes, which would look like Buckeyminsterfullerene (aka Buckey balls) if they were an awful lot smaller.
      2. A nanotube is a specific fullerene, one with a tubular form. Fullerens also form flat sheets (Graphene), and hollow spheres (Buckeyballs). In all cases they are made entirely of carbon, so clue is correct and so is chambers.
  20. 21 min: wasted a few minutes trying to make something of DOONE at 1ac, and being sidetracked by GRATUITOUS at 17ac which doesn’t parse at all.(so that was LOI) 5dn was a write-in from the definition, as botany was my main hobby at schooL.
    I was another who needed to work back from 23ac (got from definition & checkers) to 13ac, and looked for HELP at 11ac.
  21. Started this one at a great pace until I discovered that I had pulled up the Quick Cryptic on the iPad. Much slower with the real one (30:26) which suggests that either it was a tougher Monday or that I am older then I was yesterday. Anyway, this gives me the time to try again at wrapping up Saturday’s one, a serious DNF at present.
    1. Glad to hear I’m not the only one struggling with Saturday’s. The right hand side finally fell into place last night but I’ve still got a way to go to finish.
  22. In my young days I came across this: “As the man with the wooden leg said, it’s all a matter of opinion.” I could see it was meant to be a witticism, but it was only decades later I got it.
  23. 12:40, pretty good puzzle I thought and I agree with FIRM as COD. I also agree that four in hand is four as a square plus “in hand” equating to “being prepared”, i.e. more than just a DD.

    Put me down as another who was tempted by traitorous.

  24. A bit of a dustcart after Friday’s though not bad in the general run. Saturday’s indeed a scorcher. One in it to go for me, 24. Yet something about Fri.’s – the humour the economy – raises it above Sat.’s cussed cleverness, I should think. The goal of the cryptic puzzle – a brilliant blasted wit.
  25. 25 mins but felt slower. Just today finished a book by Belinda Bauer set on Exmoor but still spent ages trying to fit Lorna or Doone into 1ac. Though a former classicist, I pride myself on my crosswordland science knowledge but must admit to never having heard of NANOTUBE though I do remember watching an episode of Horizon many years ago featuring the magnificently named Buckminster Fuller. My LOI was DOMINANCE.
  26. 18 mins. I finished with COMPOSITAE after the TREASONOUS/FOUR-IN-HAND crossers. I made heavy weather of some of the clues, particularly that for LOCH NESS MONSTER which should have been a write-in. Somewhat strangely I got INCOMPATIBILITY before ANTIBIOTIC. I honestly don’t have a clue what McText was griping about.
  27. Returning after an enforced break, and feeling a bit rusty, so I’m pretty satisfied with my solving time, and enjoyed the puzzle. I found that I have been logged out, and, for the moment can’t remember my correct password. Apologies.
    George Clements
  28. About 30 minutes, using wordplay to get the unknowns COMPOSITAE and NANOTUBE, and ignoring it to biff in TOPONYMIC. I trust Exmoor is the site of some racecourse, and my ignorance meant I wasn’t tempted to deal with Lorna Doone in that context. I take it she’s from there. Ditto here on getting INCOMPATIBILITY first which led me back to ANTIBIOTIC. Regards.
    1. According to Wiki… The Exmoor pony is a horse breed native to the British Isles, where some still roam as semi-feral livestock on Exmoor, a large area of moorland in Devon and Somerset in southwest England.
    2. The Exmoor pony is one the oldest native breeds, and roam freely on the hills I can see from my Exmoor lounge window!
  29. Nothing too tricky here, though I did not understand all of the wordplay to TOPONYMIC and needed the wordplay to get COMPOSITAE. I used the reverse engineering of INCOMPATIBILITY (mostly from wordplay) to get ANTIBIOTIC, when I’m sure the setter intended it to be the other way around.
  30. 9:44 for me, held up at the end by a handful of clues – for no good reason, when viewed with hindsight.

    Like others, I wasted time trying to fit one of the Doones (or their enemies) – who used to crop up pretty regularly in the old days – into 1ac, but, when I couldn’t come up with a suitable one, switched to deer. I tend to associate ponies with Dartmoor rather than Exmoor, but then I’m a lot more familiar with the former than the latter.

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