Times 26481 – Saucepangram

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Feeling sluggish this morning, probably from too much sun yesterday golfing in mid 30’s heat, I was not optimistic, putting it off until after my first coffee instead of the solve-with-tea-in-bed routine. However, the little grey cells seemed to be tickety-boo and I had it done and nearly dusted in 18 minutes. There’s one I’m not 100% happy with (25a). I especially liked 20a, and 1d may not be familiar outside of Blighty. And yes, it’s a pangram, the first I can remember on my watch.

Across
1 STAR WARS – STARTS = kicks off, replace (‘for’) T (time) with WAR (conflict); D film.
5 ST PAUL – ST = stumped, in cricket, PAL = China, insert U; D old letter-writer.
10 UNQUESTIONINGLY – Insert QUEST (goal) into UNION (marriage), then (LYING)*; D without doubt.
11 TWITTER – W(eight) inside TITTER = giggle; D a lot of birds do it.
12 HEIRESS – EIRE = country, inside HS’S = High School’s: D a girl who’s succeeded.
13 ET CETERA – ET = alien, CETE = whale, RA = Royal Artillery; D and other things.
15 NOSED – NOSEDIVE = plunge, abandon the IVE, D went in slowly.
18 ALLOT – BALLOT = vote, exclude leader = delete B: D share.
20 OXYMORON – OX = steer, Y = variable, MORON = idiot; D contradiction. Or a dumbo who somehow got into Oxford, I knew a few.
23 CANDIDA – CANDID = open, A = front of attic; D fungus, nasty little organism which can cause thrush in thrushy places.
25 HIGH TEA – D meal. I can only think this supposed to be a homophone for HAITI but I’ve always thought it was pronounced HAY-TEE. And only very posh people would call the meal HEIGH TEA, which they wouldn’t be eating anyway. Comments please.
26 PUNCTUATION MARK – (UP MOUNTAIN TRACK)*, D maybe stop. Great surface, concise.
27 NEARBY – Two old chestnuts in this: BRA again for support, reversed inside Marshal NEY a crony of Napoleon; D not far.
28 STRATEGY – Insert R into STATE, then GY = extremely ghastly; D plan. Topical stuff!

Down
1 SHUFTI – Insert F for fine into SHUT, then I for island; D gander, peek, look. Apparently an Arab word brought back from the ME by British soldiers, so it may not be familiar to our overseas cousins.
2 ACQUITTAL – QUIT and T (leave, convict finally) inserted into A, CAL (state); D release.
3 WREATHE – W (with), RE (about) A, THE (two articles); D crown.
4 ROTOR – R (runs) O (over) TOR (hill): D spinner.
6 TUITION – INTUITION = hunch, shed the IN; D instruction.
7 ANGLE – Double def.
8 LAY ASIDE – LAY = bet, A, SIDE = team; D reserve.
9 TOP-HEAVY – TOP = leading, HEAVY = villain, D likely to fall.
14 ENOLA GAY – ALONE = unescorted, heading north = reversed = ENOLA, GAY = not straight; D noted B29, named after the pilot’s mother, noted for dropping a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. Sorry for dyslexic typo earlier.
16 SHORT WAVE – (WORTH)* inside SAVE = rescue; D radio?
17 SAUCEPAN – S, AU = gold, (PECAN)*, anagrind ‘nuts’, D in which to boil, or &lit. perhaps, if you wanted to boil pecan nuts.
19 TWIN-TUB – WIN = scoop, inside BUTT = drum reversed; D this, &lit., an old fashioned design of washing machine.
21 ORGANZA – OR = men, GAZA is your strip, insert N = new; D material.
22 CAR-KEY – D driver needs this; sounds (a bit) like KHAKI, which is a bit like brown.
24 NINJA – D local (Japanese) warrior, hidden in WOME(N IN JA)PAN.
25 HOIST – IS inserted into HOT = really attractive; D Jack.

58 comments on “Times 26481 – Saucepangram”

  1. I did fairly well, but got bogged down in the south east. I blame trying to solve on an iPad (yes, I caved in and got one) for being completely unable to come up with PUNCTUATION MARK until I finally resorted to digging out pen and paper. That helped a few things fall. I wish, however, that I’d noticed the puzzle was a pangram — then I wouldn’t have had to cheat to get my LOI, ORGANZA. Never heard of it, didn’t think of Gaza for the strip, so fell at the last hurdle.

    I think I’ve recognised a crossword as a pangram about a dozen times since someone here explained the concept, and this is the first time it would have actually been helpful. Sigh.

    As with our esteemed blogger I also think of HAITI as “hey-tee”. I also tend to think of khaki as green rather than brown, it seems.

    Edited at 2016-08-03 08:30 am (UTC)

      1. Well, in some ways yes, and in some ways no 🙂 It’s a quick change from yesterday, but I’ve been umming and ahhing over an iPad for about half a decade now. I finally decided that as a sometime-iOS developer I should probably take the plunge and see what it’s like to own one…

        Oddly, I’m not finding the Times Crossword experience in the app very good compared with the iPhone version. Okay, there’s more on the screen, but there’s no visible timer, no pencil, no next/previous clue buttons, and you can’t tap on the grid to get to a particular answer. It’s oddly braindead compared with the iPhone app, where I would have rather expected it to be better. Ah well.

        1. I agree that being able to tap on the grid as you can with the Android version would be a welcome addition. I mentioned this to The Times but I expect it fell on deaf ears.

          However, I’m glad the timer’s not visible until you finish. It would put me on edge to see it throughout!

  2. SHUFTI is used by Australian military as well Pip, but yeah, it might be a challenge for our US co-solvers.

    TUITION and NOSED were my LTI, and I don’t think I parsed STAR WARS at the time of solving, but otherwise pretty straightforward.

    When it comes to homophones, the dodgier the better I reckon, so I enjoyed 25A.

    Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2016-08-03 08:33 am (UTC)

    1. SHUFTI came up a while back here, otherwise I’d have been up the proverbial this time.
  3. I wondered about 25ac, to the point that I went to the ODE afterwards to see if this was another country (like Nicaraggyua) that unbeknownst to me the Brits pronounced differently. So I don’t know what the setter was thinking. Didn’t know, of course, ST=stumped (don’t know ‘stumped’). I was also totally at a loss to explain CAR KEY, although now I recall a similar khaki problem from some time back; aside from the rhotic/non-rhotic problem, I (we?) pronounce it ‘kakky’. 10ac and especially 26ac quite impressive.

    Edited at 2016-08-03 08:42 am (UTC)

    1. I’ll try to explain!

      As batsman stands in front of wicket waiting for bowler to bowl he has a designated piece of pitch in which he is safe to stand limited by a line in front of him called the crease

      Bowler bowls; batsman advances down pitch, misses ball; wicket keeper catches ball and breaks wicket before batsman gets back to safety behind crease; batsman is out “stumped”.

      Now I need a drink!

      2. Jimbo, I wish you had explained that to the Australian captain before his innings against Sri Lanka last week!
      3. Brilliant explanation! Before you finish the bottle could you do the offside rule, Duckworth Lewis method and Fermat’s Theorem?
      4. Great explanation Jim but if you are not careful, you will be caught in a definition spiral. The next obvious question is what ‘breaks wicket ‘ means!
  4. couple of *very* dodgy homophones today! Which I quite like 🙂

    I have been on board the Enola Gay, they were filming some tv programme about a wartime air station in East Anglia, so of course they came to Kent to film it ..

    1. Oops, actually that’s not true! It was the Sally B I went on board .. which is a flying fortress, and not a Superfortress like the Enola Gay .. everything correct otherwise! 🙂
      http://www.sallyb.org.uk/
  5. … won’t leave me alone since I challenged his authority this week. Zipped through this in 20 minutes with ENOLA GAY LOI. Her contents dropped in on the world just before I did. I’ve always been partial to HIGH TEA type places, with a sturdy teapot and bread and butter to accompany a plate of bacon, eggs etc. but I’ve pronounced the island Hey Tea too since reading Graham Greene’s The Comedians way back when. Enjoyable puzzle. 20 minutes, no biffs.
  6. Easy enough puzzle with ENOLA GAY going in straight from “noted B29”.

    Don’t understand 25A. Liked OXYMORON. Haven’t heard anybody say SHUFTI for years. Used to own a TWIN TUB that waltzed around the kitchen when performing and had to be anchored down!

    2. Ah, that would have been the Rolls Rapide, then, product of the amazing John Bloom. If you had the washing in the spinner reasonably evenly distributed, it was fine while spinning, but tended to bang about a lot when slowing down. It liberated many, many households from the basic washer/boiler with mangle attached, direct to the consumer on easy terms. We were amazed at ours. There’s one in the Science Museum.
      1. I am amazed you know so much about Jerry’s missus, but I should be amazed by nothing after six years on this site.
  7. 11:03 .. fun stuff, especially the OXYMORON and the dodgy homophones (agree with others: best kind).

    There was a very similar treatment of Enola Gay in a January Saturday puzzle:

    She flew solo to the West? Not straight (5,3)

    (no criticism intended — setters are bound to come up with similar clues sometimes). You can see linxit’s blog on that one here: http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1452947.html

  8. Relatively easy but very enjoyable.10a and 26a were excellent.

    Pip, I think it was Elona Gay on the way back???

  9. I needed 50 minutes to crack this one, held up mainly in the SW corner where I failed to spot the hidden answer until the very last moment. CETE for whale was new to me.
  10. You say HAITI I say HIGH TEA – for me the homophone is pure.

    LOI ENOLA GAY – bit a surprise to find her here!

    COD 26ac PUNCTUATION MARK WOD OXYMORON

    37 minutes – can do better.

    horryd Shanghai

  11. 35 minutes, but held up for goodness knows how long (22 minutes, I guess) by putting EBOLA GAY at first. I knew I’d bombed but couldn’t think of a cure.
  12. Loved the homophones, always pronounced HIGHTEA just like that. However, Haiti is not an island, but part of Hispaniola. Didn’t spot the pangram. 20’05” today, thanks pip and setter.
  13. 23:46 with no issues about the homophones. The iffier they are, the greater the smile. I was also on EBOLA GAY as the only B29 I ‘knew’ until I bothered to read the clue. Missed the pangram although suspected one after Q, X and J. Thanks setter and Pip.
  14. Knowing SHUFTI was a disadvantage for me today as in biffing it I spelled it SHUFTY.

    Other than that a comfortable 15 or so minutes.

  15. Distinctly average time at 17.36. No serous holdups, and a proper smile at HIGH TEA. There are places in any case where they pronounce high tea as heigh tea anyway so take your pick. (I liked the little sandwiches but only if there were lots of them)
  16. 19 mins so a tad slower than Mon and Tue even though I encountered no obscurities. LOI was NOSED. Homophones were also fine by me. If I didn’t know better, 3 sub-20’s on the trot might tempt me into entering the annual competition.
  17. 13:24 finishing with the same two as the rapidly-becoming-rapider Galspray.

    I didn’t know the whale and the fungus was, thankfully, not terribly familiar. I thought the Star Wars clue was top-notch.

    I think I manage to stretch Haiti to three syllables but pronounce car key and khaki the same.

  18. Thank you to all for some very witty comments today.
    I’m almost surprised that someone didn’t object, even gently, to ENOLA GAY as someone once did in the club forum on the basis that it was specialised knowledge.
    SHUFTI was one of the words my father came back from WWII with after his time in North Africa; that, and imshi!
    Ah, SHORT WAVE! Those happy days in Saudi Arabia in the 80s trying to listen to the BBC World Service on a short wave radio when the r^£!pt*&n co£)ld be so@(*th£ng li$ke t&%s.
    As for ‘dodgy’ homophones, my view can be summed up by this exchange from M.A.S.H. between Klinger (on guard duty, in his dress) and Hawkeye (mad as heck and on a mission to confront someone)
    “Halt! Give the password!”
    “Get out of my way or I’ll beat your brains out!”
    “That’s close enough!”
    COD jointly to 10ac and 26ac. 35m 39s

    PS…Pip Kirby, After the reference to Martinu in a recent cryptic, I’ve just finished listening to the four concerts by the Berlin Phil. that are in the catalogue of their Digital Concert Hall and which feature his music. I’m now a fan!

    Edited at 2016-08-03 02:16 pm (UTC)

      1. No, I’m afraid not, Pip, but I’ve just checked the Berlin Phil’s catalogue and there are six concerts listed and the 5th is in two of them! I look forward to listening to them.
  20. I thought the ‘Noted’ part of 14d referred to OMD’s 1980 single of the same name.

    At 11:37 my first sub 15mins Yeehi!

    Chris. London

  21. But is the aftershave HIGH or HEY KARATE?

    Nothing much to slow me down in this very enjoyable puzzle; could have been a 5-minuter but I did get a little held up by 23ac and 24dn for some reason. I do like a pangram…

  22. 12m. I did this last night after yesterday’s (I’m in Canada at the moment) so the two rather merged into one, and now I have nothing to solve over my morning coffee. Maybe I’ll do the Guardian.
    I’m all for dodgy homophones, but I can’t really see anything wrong with either of these. I say HAY-TEE, but I assumed (confirmed by Chambers and a few contributors here) that some people pronounce it like this. CAR KEY is perfect as far as I’m concerned.
    1. That is what the jumbos are for .. put them to one side, and use them over the week to fill in the gaps. Completing them at one sitting is just plain greedy, where I come from ..
      1. I use Mephisto and Azed for that. I like to try and do jumbos in one go (the usual silly obsession with time), which means that ideally I need a clear hour.
  23. 31m here and a very enjoyable half-hour plus it was too. I also assumed ‘noted’ was a hint at the pop song about the plane. First pass through the down clues yielded zilch and I feared the worst but 13a got me on my way. My COD to the stop at 26a today. Held up by the saint and 6d at the end for a few minutes or it might have been 3 sub 30s in a row. Equally enjoyable blog and commentary today- thanks one and all.
  24. Sounds like no one made the error i did when looking for a homophone for brown stuff. I initially plumped for New Key, as in Newcastle Brown ale, but then couldn’t think why a drive would need a new one, so the penny dropped…
  25. Hi all, about 20 minutes, no real complaints, but had to find SHUFTI from wordplay, guessed ‘st’ for stumped, and TWIN TUB from wordplay and crossers. We pronounce khaki to rhyme with whacky, as Kevin suggested, and we pronounce Haiti as hay-tee. I totally overlooked the fact pointed out by robrolfe that Haiti isn’t an island at all, but merely a country on an island. But we all apparently solved the clue, dodgy homophones and geographical misstatements notwithstanding. Regards.
  26. Found this a bit trickier and spotting the pangram didn’t help much since there was just an F missing when I saw the possibility (I guess it helped SHUFTI jumped to mind). I do say khaki that way (though nobody else in Trumpland does), but I don’t say Haiti that way.
  27. 9 mins so I’m having a good week thus far. Cue a knock-ridden stinker tomorrow or Friday. CANDIDA was my LOI from the WP after the “candid” penny dropped. I had no problem with either of the homophones, and in fact my cousin told me recently that her daughter sent her a text to say that she’d bought a new coat and it was coloured “car key”. I kid you not.
  28. 39 minutes for me. FOI STAR WARS, LOI ST PAUL. Liked OXYMORON and PUNCTUATION MARK. In fact I quite liked all of this puzzle. Thanks Setter and Pip. Was distracted while doing this one hoping my daughter would make her connection at Birmingham New St, as the Darlington train was late, eventually leaving her 4 minutes to get between the 2 furthest away platforms to catch the connection to Cheltenham in order to drive me and my car home from Gloucester Royal where I spent the last few days having a PE diagnosed and treated. If anyone else asks me when I’m having the second knee replacement, they had better watch out for a negative response. Still, comfortably settled at home now.
    1. Sorry to hear of your problems, but hope that your treatment proves fully effective. Back on the bike?
      1. Thanks George, no, I have to avoid vigorous exercise for a couple of weeks(good excuse 🙂 ) and let the treatment do its work. Luckily it was the end of my holiday rather than the beginning. I also have to say that the people I met in Gloucester are lovely.
  29. Pretty much what everyone else has said, except that I still do not like clues like 5a with Saint Paul abbreviated to St Paul and enumerated (2.4). Otherwise, a cracking puzzle, which I much enjoyed.
  30. Back to my old slow (brain feeling as if it was wading though marshmallow) but accurate self with a sluggish 10:07.

    A delightful puzzle apart from the dodgy homonyms which are just a bit too dodgy for my taste.

  31. I was told (or read) many years ago that the country is pronounced “HA-EE-TEE”, but that didn’t hold me up spotting the obvious homophone. Glad that so many people are owning up to liking the dodgy ones (sorry Jimbo and Tony), as there’s nothing in the clues that implies “sounds exactly the same as”.

    14:10 for me on the train this morning, can’t remember what held me up other than usual morning sluggishness. Brendan’s puzzle in the Guardian went in quicker although it was arguably harder, but I’d warmed up by then!

  32. Chambers gives ‘unquestioning’ but not the adverbial form. Re 25 ac: Haiti isn’t an island. It’s part of an island.

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