Times 26,609: Memory of a Free City

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A straightforwardish (but entirely solid) puzzle to mark the last Friday of 2016. I did it on a train on the way to a Highgate pub crawl and stopped the timer at 8 minutes 50; on the way back it would presumably have been more like 50 minutes 8.

Possible clue to the setter’s identity at 2dn, who can say? I enjoyed the brace of Shakespearean females and the couple of classical references – 4dn had a pleasing surface but I’ll give my last COD of 2016 to 23ac, because not only did it send me into a Heinrich Schliemann reverie on first reading, it also sent me off to a Wikipedia article to find out what happened to Danzig to make it a “city once”. A crossword in which I learn something new is a great crossword. Anti-COD to 18dn, not because there’s anything wrong with the clue, but because the word RISIBLE seems to be coming up in crosswords with peculiar frequency recently, or am I just going crazy? Oh, and my LOI was 10ac, slightly embarrassing given that it’s essentially the same clue (one part of it, anyway) I submitted as my contribution to the Christmas Turkey…

Many thanks to the setter and all others involved in making 2016 another fabulous year for the crossword puzzling art. Have a great new year everyone, see you all in 2017!

Across

1 Inappropriately dump clever piece of advice (3-3)
FLY-TIP – FLY [clever] + TIP [piece of advice]

5 Soldier spies, having infiltrated staff as trickster (8)
MAGICIAN – GI CIA [soldier | spies], having infiltrated MAN [staff]

9 Backward boy, fool, messed about (8)
TINKERED – reverse of DEREK NIT [“backward” boy, fool]

10 Man who may wield the axe? (6)
FELLER – play on FELLER meaning both “chap” and “one who fells”

11 Beautiful heiress left a single article (6)
PORTIA – PORT 1 A [left | a single | article]

12 Bird from S American capital briefly seen with artist (8)
CARACARA – CARACA{s} [(Venezuelan) capital “briefly”] + RA [artist]

14 Simple men act inappropriately, being out of line? (12)
MISPLACEMENT – (SIMPLE MEN ACT*) [“inappropriately”]

17 Baddie, assessed by good person, protested (12)
DEMONSTRATED – DEMON [baddie] + RATED [assessed] by ST [good person]

20 Upholds company involved in tricks (8)
CONFIRMS – FIRM [company] involved in CONS [tricks]

22 Having rows, looking angry after match (6)
TIERED – RED [looking angry] after TIE [match]

23 Excavation in which to find an unknown buried city once (6)
DANZIG – DIG [excavation] in which to find AN Z [an | unknown]

25 Bit of bread with poison bird swallowed (8)
BANKNOTE – BANE [poison], KNOT [bird] swallowed

26 Condemn place of crime and swoop, removing leader (8)
DENOUNCE – DEN [place of crime] + {p}OUNCE [swoop, “removing leader”]

27 General occupying specific US territory (6)
CUSTER – “occupying” {specifi}C US TER{ritory}

Down

2 Learner wants excellent academic made available (4, 2)
LAID ON – L [learner] + A1 DON [excellent | academic]

3 Magazine involved in satire to do something different for a while (4, 4, 3)
TAKE TIME OFF – TIME [magazine] involved in TAKE-OFF [satire]

4 What you expect with group of students – idiot getting stuck in mountain (9)
PARNASSUS – PAR [what you expect] with NUS [group of students], ASS [idiot] “getting stuck in”

5 Decoration goes around one getting first in chemistry exam (7)
MEDICAL – MEDAL [decoration] goes around 1 + C [one | “first in” C{hemistry}]

6 Energetic person engaging female assistant for menial tasks (5)
GOFER – GOER [energetic person] engaging F [female]

7 Feature of mountain? It’s mostly chilly (3)
COL – COL{d} [“mostly” chilly]

8 Be taken in by complete rogue (8)
ABERRANT – BE taken in by ARRANT [complete]

13 Funny women do incense me unfortunately (11)
COMEDIENNES – (DO INCENSE ME*) [“unfortunately”]

15 Suffering from rigidity, jazz fan needs something invigorating (9)
CATATONIC – CAT [jazz fan] + A TONIC [something invigorating]

16 Unhappy miss, having been stood up, laid into boyfriend? (8)
DESOLATE – LOSE reversed [miss, “having been stood up”], inlaid in DATE [boyfriend]

18 Hilarious bishop is rising in anger (6)
RISIBLE – B IS reversed [bishop | is, “rising”] in RILE [anger]

19 Being listened to, group will become calm (6)
SETTLE – homophone of SET’LL [“being listened to”, group will]

21 Rescue one missing female in play (5)
REGAN – REGA{i}N [rescue, “one missing”]

24 Rush endlessly to see live exhibition (3)
ZOO – ZOO{m} [rush “endlessly”]

33 comments on “Times 26,609: Memory of a Free City”

  1. Zipped through this in under quarter of an hour. Only unknown CARACARA which was clear from cryptic and crossers. COD BANKNOTE.
  2. Slight typo in the grid Verlaine at 12A. It’s CARACA(n)-RA for “from S American capital briefly”

    Straightforward puzzle with no hold ups

    Best wishes for the New Year to everybody

    1. Hi Jimbo,

      I took from to be the link from def to wordplay so I think it works either way. FWIW I parsed it Verlaine’s way.

      1. I too parsed 12A Verlaine’s way – i.e. I took the clue to be telling us that the solution was to be derived from “CARACAS ” minus its last letter plus RA. This seems to be the obvious parsing. Jimbo’s version would also work if “Caracan” exists as a word to describe a citizen of Caracas, but I can’t find it any of my dictionaries.
  3. 9:35 .. all present and correct with just a few pauses in the obvious places. Last in BANKNOTE.

    Thanks, verlaine, not least for making FELLER an instant biff.

    HNY to those who don’t frequent the weekend blogs.

  4. 31′ which is good after earlier this week. Nods to REGAN and then PORTIA, do not know the play didn’t know she is beautiful. Could I please recommend today’s QC and blog? Thanks v and setter.
  5. at 2dn was my FOI and like Verlaine 10ac FELLER was my LOI.
    Missed the timing due to interruptions from new ai. I was however non too speedy and was probably around 50 mins and 8 seconds!

    Re – Verlaine’s clue at 3dn for ‘The Christmas Turkey’ I noted early that Sir, it was yours and compared it to a Brussel Sprout. My clue was liked by Mr. Biddlecombe but less by me.

    COD 25ac BANKNOTE WOD CARACARA which I used to see at Caroni (Trinidad)with the amazing Scarlet Ibis.

  6. 33 minutes with briefly having TIP OFF at 1ac and TAKE TIME OUT at 3dn causing me to miss my target half-hour once again. I didn’t think the listings magazine Time Out qualified as “satirical” (even assuming it still exists) but its politics were always pretty right-on and its reviews coloured by that and often somewhat caustic. DK the bird.

    Edited at 2016-12-30 10:42 am (UTC)

  7. Enjoyed this but I was a bit slow having just taken time OFF in the sun (as opposed to taken time OUT which held me up today).

    A Happy New Year to everyone involved in the crossword setting, the bloggers and all the contributors to this excellent site.

  8. As a weekend non-frequenter, I forgot to wish everybody a Happy New Year. Such a shame that Christmas is nearly over and the tree will be down, profile picture changed back. I’m in favour of Twelfth Night becoming a big festival again, if only folk could agree when it is. I’ve always thought it should be the 6th, as otherwise the three wise men missed the party.
  9. 19:40 with SW corner holding me up most until I spotted the Shakespearean daughter and Z as the unknown. I too enjoyed BANKNOTE. Thanks Verlaine and setter.
  10. I thought this a particularly neat one. After a good start I ground to a halt in the SW, because I was having definition problems with “regain” (?rescue) and “risible” which didn’t quite seem to fit “hilarious”. Still it was a fine puzzle. 2D didn’t give me any inkling as to the setter I must admit – what am I missing? Thanks for the blogs V and HNY to all! P.S. Forgot. 16.31

    Edited at 2016-12-30 11:28 am (UTC)

  11. A DNF for me; I started well, but ground to something of a halt and was left with a few crossers in the SW at the end of my hour. Not sure I’d have got REGAN, though I clearly am gaining a little Shakespearian knowledge here, as I found myself a PORTIA earlier on. Dragged PARNASSUS up from an earlier puzzle, too.

    Glad at least to have worked out CARACARA and DANZIG, despite my geographical and ornithological weaknesses.

    Hope everyone sees the new year in well!

  12. 15:05 with a good 3 minutes of that at the end trying to figure out what was going on with BANKNOTE. Once I hit on the right bird (after throwing about 50 stones) it finally clicked. Confidently starting it with BUN hardly helped.

    Didn’t know owt about Portia, the mountain, the bird or what ARRANT actually meant.

    Edit to say HNY all.

    Edited at 2016-12-30 11:42 am (UTC)

  13. Happy New Year to all !
    About 20 min for this, after false start with TIP-OFF at 1ac, and some minutes spent trying -ATE at 25a from ‘swallowed’ – so that was LOI.
  14. Glad to see I was not the only sap who put in TAKE TIME OUT thinking that Time Out was the mag, and then had major problems finishing the SW corner after the rest flew in nicely. Half an hour once the error was sorted out. HNY to all.
  15. A steady 25 min also googled Danzig.Ninas, 5 straight A’s and DENIER,very intelligent ladies stockings perhaps.COD 25.HNY all
  16. Finally managed to get an all correct after several failures this week. Spending at least 5 minutes on my LOI, BANKNOTE took me to 35 minutes. I finally saw the correct meaning of bread and saw BANE as the poison although the bird was unknown but believable. FOI was COL with the rest of the NE rapidly following. I was pleased to spot both of Will’s female characters quickly. Knew Gdansk’s previous incarnation. A lot to like about this puzzle. Thanks setter and V, and a Happy New Year to all.
    2. Thank you for all of the crosswords I know and will never know that you have set.

      I feel the relief of your partial revelation like the first time nudist on Studland beach; ok I am just speaking for myself.

  18. 13 mins. Like a few others BANKNOTE was my LOI, in my case after SETTLE.

    I had no problem with DANZIG as the previous name of Gdansk, although that might be because of my interest in both world wars, including the politics behind how they started. Hitler’s desire to reclaim Danzig for Germany was one of his reasons for going to war with Poland in 1939. I’ve also read Gunter Grass’s Danzig trilogy, the most famous of which is The Tin Drum.

  19. Well, having wished everyone a Happy New Year yesterday, I now discover that it’s Friday again, so here I am, and I shall have to wish you all a Happy New Year again.

    Zipped through this in 22 minutes (which is zippy for me), with TINKERED my LOI. I toyed briefly with “dikkered”, which isn’t a word but very nearly is, before an alphabet trawl provided the answer.

    CARACARA was half-known, and REGAN I half-remembered from here (remembering also that she wasn’t in The Sweeney).

  20. I did this in bits – coffee shop, supermarket car-park and sofa.

    My usual trajectory – started like a train, slowed down a bit, then hit the buffers in the SE. I begin to wonder whether there is a conspiracy among the setters…….

    BANKNOTE held me up for ages.

    Time: about 50 mins.

    Thank you to setter and blogger, and a Happy New Year to all. See you in 2017.

    Dave.

    Edited at 2016-12-30 04:43 pm (UTC)

  22. 12:12 for me, going quite well until left with a blank SW corner – bringing back ghastly memories of the NW corner in one of the puzzles in the first preliminary of this year’s Championship.

    No complaints, though. An interesting and enjoyable puzzle.

    Best wishes to all for 2017.

  23. Well I don’t know what happened to me today, but I found this extremely difficult, and gave up on it after about half an hour with three unsolved.
    Happy New Year everyoned.

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