Times 26689 – Paging General Knowledge!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 28 minutes

Music: Steve Turre, Viewpoint

As I was driving out of the grocery store parking lot this morning, the car immediately in front of me had a bumper sticker “I Love My Coton de Tulear”. Ooops, there’s another breed of dog I’ve never heard of, and I watched the most of the Westminster Dog Show on TV this year. I do hope that they don’t have bumper stickers like that in the UK, as we wouldn’t want to give the setters any ideas.

General knowledge is so vast, it is impossible to know everything. Today’s puzzle had some very clever clues based on very specific bits of general knowledge, and if you happen not to know a necessary bit of information, you’re going to be reduced to biffing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

I was actually rather amazed to be able to solve this one as quickly as I did. I certainly had to dredge up a lot of half-remembered bits to explain some of the clues. Fortunately for our loyal followers, I will be sure to carefully research my vague memories as I write the blog, so that no one will be further confused by misinformation.

Across
1 PUFFING, PUFFIN + G[et].
5 CASHEW, C(A S[econd])HEW, where ‘chew’ is used as a noun.
8 PALANQUIN, P(A)LAN + QUIN. A brilliant and tricky clue, with a cleverly concealed literal. Over here in the USA, it’s ‘quint’, not ‘quin’, so UK-centric as well.
9 ROUTE, OUTER with the R moved to the beginning, as is clearly stated in the very explicit cryptic.
11 EDGAR, anagram of RAGED. None the wiser? Edgar, Earl of Gloucester is disguised as Poor Tom in King Lear. If that’s not bad enough, EDGAR is also the SEC’s automated system to access corporate filings, so watch out for that one, too.
12 TRUMPED UP, TRUMPE[t] + D.U.P, the Democratic Unionist Party.
13 ANYTHING, an allusion to the Irving Berlin song “Anything You Can Do”. Never heard of it? Too bad.
15 MIRROR, double definition, with a question mark indicating that you may prefer a different publication.
17 DOMINO, DO + MINO[r]. Yes, besides being a game tile and a mask, a domino is also a cape.
19 BUNGALOW, BUNG (A) LOW, utilizing one of the lesser-known and UK-centric meanings of ‘bung’.
22 ACCORDIAN, ACCORD + AI reversed. I can’t explain the N, maybe my GK has run out? Er, let’s try this one again. ACCORDION, ACCORD + NO. I backwards. There we go…
23 DEBUT, DEB(U)T. Debt has only recently become the chief feature of a university education.
24 THORN, THOR + N, one of the few write-ins.
25 INVENTIVE, INVE[-c,+N]TIVE, a clever letter-substitution clue.
26 SEVERN, SEVER[e] N. The difficulty here is seeing that you are looking for a specific estuary.
27 REREDOS, R.E. + REDO + S[mall]. You may have wasted a lot of time looking for an anagram of S SCREEN.
 
Down
1 PEPPER AND SALT, anagram of APPALS, PRETEND, a bit of an &lit. The title of the very mediocre daily cartoon in the Wall Street Journal.
2 FALL GUY, FALL + GUY, where the chief deception involved reversing the order of the elements.
3 INNER, [w]INNER, another easy one.
4 GLUTTONY, G(L)UT + TONY, presumably a glutton.
5 CONCUR, CON + CUR.
6 STRIPLING, STR(I PL)ING.
7 ECUADOR, ECU + A.D. + OR. As usual, it is unclear whether the 18th-century French ecu or the European Currency Unit is meant.
10 EXPERT WITNESS, EX (PERT WIT) NESS, constructed from stock crossword elements.
14 HINDRANCE, HIND RA([broke]N)CE.
16 TURNOVER, double definition, or possibly a triple. ‘Pastry’ and ‘that firm makes’ – I’m not sure about ‘case’. Discussion invited.
18 MICROBE, OB in anagram of CRIME, where ob. = obit, ‘he died’.
20 LOBBIED, LOBB(I)ED, a very good and misleading surface.
21 MINION, MINI + ON.
23 DINER, sounds like DINAH, or it would if you were a non-rhotic proper chap. Now what was the name of that cat?

51 comments on “Times 26689 – Paging General Knowledge!”

  1. Hello, all have recently joined and hope to contribute regularly. I found this chewy for a Monday as others have said. Took 30 mins on the train to do about 3/4 then another 17 mins at lunchtime to polish it off. FOI Edgar remembered from seeing Simon Russell Beale as King Lear a couple of years ago. The real problem was the SW corner struggled to get 14dn, 18dn, 22ac and LOI 17ac which was unknown as a cape but guessed from wp. DNK Alice’s cat but got from Cafe def and checkers. Honourable mention to Fat Tony in 4dn but COD to palanquin, a word I knew but still had the pleasure of watching it appear as I constructed it from wp.

    1. Welcome aboard! Must say the SRB version of King Lear was fab! Only got to see it in the cinema (NTLive), but still magical.

      1. Hello Janie, I wanted to reply yesterday to thank you for the welcome but live journal was off line for a bit last night. I agree SRB was spellbinding. The change in his countenance from pompous but assured dictator to bewildered, lost and frightened old man was quite the most extraordinary feat of acting I can recall. Some confident glint or other just vanished from the eyes. Never seen anything like it.
  2. 8:53 for this delightful start to the week. The GK required had a rather old-fashioned feel to it (Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare, …), so no problem there, but I still missed some easy wins at a first reading. (Sigh!)

    I see that my name appears at the end of 4dn and the start of 26ac, but I assume that’s not deliberate. (I used to play the (piano) ACCORDION, but no longer do so, thus qualifying as a “gentleman”: someone who knows how to play the piano accordion, but doesn’t.)

  4. Sorry I called your Serengeti Siamese potted kitty a fatty.
    The picture wasn’t very clear and was misleading. I’m sure she’s gorgeous and slim. BTW, I think you have mistake me for a different Barbara who claims to be a beginner at these puzzles. I have been doing and loving them for the past 100 years. Another Barbara
  5. That was tough! I usually find Monday’s crossword doable, and use it as a bridge in my effort to improve from quickie to 15X15, but not today. DNF, but found the blog helpful to explain all the gaps – thank-you.

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