Times 26697 – Mr Grumpy today.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Maybe I was just in a bad mood, but I have to say I didn’t enjoy this much (unlike Monday’s cracker; I haven’t done yesterday’s yet). It wasn’t overly difficult and the three words I didn’t know were gettable from wordplay, yet it felt somehow a chore. I hope you all enjoyed it more, and can explain 25d to me. 25 minutes, with a few parsed as I wrote this afterwards.

Across
1 Workers’ organisation’s functioning in US city (6)
TUCSON – TUC’S ON for workers organisation’s, functioning.
4 Carriage fetched, losing little time in the morning (8)
BROUGHAM – BROUGH(T) = fetched losing T, AM = morning.
10 Defeat a swinger in game, we hear (7)
CONQUER – Sounds like conker, as in the horse chestnut on a string. When you see a U in the checkers, think Q.
11 Bishop is with cross, having consumed one wafer? (7)
BISCUIT – B(ishop) IS CU(I)T, where CUT = cross, as in intersect.
12 Retreating country folk mostly killed (4)
SLEW – WELS(H) = country folk mostly.
13 A pet dog gun disturbed in drive (3-2-3-2)
GET-UP-AND-GO – (A PET DOG GUN)*.
15 Ruined southern city once involved in exploit (9)
DESTROYED – S(outhern), TROY = city once, inside DEED = exploit.
16 Plateau with a black bird: the last to travel west (5)
KAROO – A ROOK has the K (last) travelling to the front. The (Great) Karoo is a desert plateau area of South Africa inland from the garden route,
large and rather boring as I remember it.
18 Thus street in Paris set about making money there (5)
EUROS – SO = thus, RUE = street in Paris, all ‘set about’, giving you money there i.e. in France. Until Ms Le Pen takes us back to francs, that is.
19 Plant in ancient river protected by deity (6,3)
GOLDEN ROD – OLDEN R(iver) inserted into GOD.
21 Intransigent troublemaker left a message (10)
IMPLACABLE – IMP = troublemaker, L(eft), A CABLE. When did you last hear of a cable as a message?
23 Churlish type exposed in speech (4)
BEAR – Sounds like BARE = exposed.
26 Humorous type offering funny renditions, no end (7)
IRONIST – take END out of R(END)ITIONS and anagram the remainder. Not a word I’d seen before, or admire.
27 Retro stuff at the Tate the woman had criticised (7)
TRASHED – ART = stuff at the Tate, reversed = TRA, SHE’D = the woman had.
28 Came to before the start of day, dazed before that (8)
NUMBERED – ERE = before, D(ay), preceded by NUMB = dazed. ‘Came to’ in the sense of added up to.
29 Fan club ultimately let down? (6)
BLOWER – B = club ultimately, LOWER = let down.

Down
1 Parasites cling, first to last (5)
TICKS – STICK = cling to, S moves to the end.
2 Prisoner getting more stupid — one may get charged (9)
CONDENSER – CON = prisoner, DENSER = more stupid.
3 Burden — that we must cope with? (4)
ONUS – If it’s ON US then we must cope with it. Latin word meaning burden.
5 Recover, be on the up in the course of events (7)
REBOUND – BE reversed inside ROUND.
6 International body’s taken the initiative to get imprisoned journalist released (10)
UNSHACKLED – UN’S, LED, insert HACK.
7 House, ruined, evicting one despicable person (5)
HOUND – Not so sure how this works. HO for house, then alternate letters of r U i N e D, does it, but then it would be ‘evicting ever other’ not ‘evicting one’? I think hound is an odd word for a despicable person, and dogs are not despicable. EDIT undone = ruined, drop the ONE, thanks to jackkt below.
8 Romeo diet, specially for a heavenly body (9)
METEOROID – (ROMEO DIET)*. If a meteoroid (in space) enters our atmosphere, it becomes a meteor or a meteorite, depending on its size.
9 Sinister howl goes round tower after beheading (6)
CREEPY – CRY = howl, goes aorund EEP, which could be KEEP beheaded, or JEEP beheaded, for a tower.
14 Interrupting someone at match, American has disregard (5,5)
BRUSH ASIDE – BRIDE = someone at match, insert US HAS.
15 To cut out red meat may feature in my recommendations (9)
DIETITIAN – Is there more to this than a weak cryptic definition? Ah no, it’s very clever; I had it mis-spelt as dietician, see 3rd comment below from paulmcl explaining the truth. Note to self; don’t write blogs late at night.
17 War heroes dancing in carnival (5-4)
RAREE-SHOW – (WAR HEROES)*. Apparently originally a peep show in a box, touted by foreign gentlemen whose pronunciation of RARE was more like RAREE; I’d never heard of it but the anagram left me little choice.
19 Female relation, Peg, one receiving a sum of money? (7)
GRANTEE – GRAN for female relation, TEE for PEG.
20 Controversial book — not all allow it to be distributed (6)
LOLITA – Anagram of (ALLO[W] IT)*. On browsing Wiki to deepen my knowledge, I was surprised to find it was written in English and later translated into Russian by Vlad himself.
22 First piece in concert conveying energy (5)
PROEM – Insert E into PROM concert. Apparently a proem is a preface or preamble, I’d never heard of it.
24 Robber, not a Dick Turpin type? (5)
RIDER – The best I can do here is RAIDER = robber, loses an A, to leave you a chap who rode.
25 First character in London street turned over barrier (4)
WALL – MALL has its M inverted, thanks again jackkt.

52 comments on “Times 26697 – Mr Grumpy today.”

  1. DIETICIAN is wrong (I submitted it like that not understanding the clue and had one wrong). I realized it is DIETITIAN. I think it is DIE TITIAN (cut out, red). Then the literal is “meat may feature in my recommendation”
    1. Yep, that’s right. But I’m still glad that Jack has explained the M=>W shift at 25dn and the “und{one}” bit at 7dn. In terms of parsing, they were my downfall.

      Can well understand the biffing at 15dn. I tried it too. And ODO has:
      dietitian |dʌɪəˈtɪʃ(ə)n| (also dietician)

      1. I fondly remember my (Parisian) French mistress at school being physically unable to pronounce the word for dietitian in her own language. Which is, admittedly, the tongue-twistery diététicien(ne)…

        Edited at 2017-04-12 03:04 pm (UTC)

  2. MALL is the London street. Turn the M upside down.

    Ruined is UND{one}

    Edited at 2017-04-12 05:49 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks jackkt. Doh! I just spent a restless night trying to reconcile 25D with a connection to LONDON WALL and WALL STREET.
  4. I had many a problem along the way and snuck home in 2 minutes under the hour although I had all but three or four answers long before that. Particular sticking points were KAROO, RAREE SHOW, PROEM and HOUND and WALL where I could see likely the answers but held off writing them in until I could justify them. Overall I rather liked the puzzle. I was on the point of resorting to aids a few times but managed to resist until the job was done.
  5. 19 min but with the ‘deitician’ mistake. A glance at the leader board shows a wealth of one-error returns so presumably this caught many of us out. And now that Paul has enlightened us with the parsing, I have to say it’s a brilliant trap. I assumed it was a questionable CD but shoulda known better. I assume ‘cut out’ is ‘die’ as in “the engine died / cut out”.

    I have to disagree with Pip as I found this very satisfying, lots of clues that led nowhere at first becoming clear once a checker or two was in place.

    COD … DIETITIAN

    2. I thought it was die as in “die cut” stuff (made with a punch and die, usually). But your way sounds more plausible still. Mine didn’t seem quite right.
  6. A proper case of trust the wordplay, especially for DIETITIAN (Paul has it spot on) and CONDENSER, which I might well have spelled with an O, though you’re not supposed to. RAREE SHOW was trust the anagram, more because I did not think of it as a carnival. WALL was brilliantly simple/dam’d annoying.
    For “Fan club ultimately let down?” I instantly and gleefully thought of A**enal, but it didn’t fit and, after all, this is a cryptic crossword and there’s wordplay involved. 26 minutes, the last four remembering I’d left WALL blank and wondering why it was right
  7. Fairly enjoyable alongside overnight oats with dates. But I Plateaued at the Carnival and gave up.

  8. Was racing along, with a couple thrown in from defs / checkers along the way (WALL, RAREE SHOW, KAROO) until I got to the SW where it turned into a bit of a car crash: I was semi convinced it was ‘noirist’ (comedie noire is a thing, non?). I had dismissed IRONIST as it just looked wrong, as does the unknown PROEM. I can see now that DIETITIAN is a great clue, but without it, I failed to get anywhere near NUMBERED (pesky definition, that, ‘came to’).

    Thanks for working it all out Pip et al, it thoroughly defeated me today!

  9. Definitely enjoyed this one, despite failing to understand WALL, RIDER, and LOLITA. I bunged in ‘dietician’, but something looked wrong, and I finally twigged to ‘red’. Didn’t know what a KAROO was, but knew there was a great one. We had RAREE SHOW recently. COD to DIETITIAN, with LOI NUMBERED close behind.
    1. RAREE SHOW appeared most recently last December in a Jumbo. I last encountered it in a Sunday Times puzzle in 2013 but failed to remember it. Fortunately today’s wordplay and checkers left little room for alternatives.
        1. I’m trying to remember if that was a Rag Mag joke, or a Frank Muir/Dennis Norden. I’d like to believe it’s the latter, because it would have been preceded by a long, diverting story which often left you no idea of how the punchline would fit.
          1. The Muir/Norden one that I remember was to do with devils in football, the punchline being that Demons are Argyle’s best friend
          2. I remember the joke and the shaggy dog story leading up to it from the 50s. But it was playground stuff when I was a kid. Source unknown. I’m sure it predates Muir and Norden.
  10. Just too hard for me today; my hour bell went with about a quarter left to do, all in the bottom half. It didn’t help that the unknowns were entirely unknown; I’d considered and dismissed as implausible both RAREE SHOW and PROEM. Maybe I should have pencilled them in and tried the rest…
  11. Best crossword for a while, I thought. Hope you feel better soon, Pip!
    Knew of a raree show, but I don’t think I’ve ever attended one. Wouldn’t recognise a raree if I saw one..
  12. Sorry the heading refers only to males. Flanders and Swann are from another time. Thank goodness that, because of Easter, the gardeners arrived a day early or I’d have not finished. The time taken making them a cup of tea after the mandatory walk round the garden saved me from tearing my hair out over why on earth was it DIETICIAN, which of course it wasn’t, was there really a word PROEM and what was the synonym for ‘dazed’. ‘Numb’ hit me in the garden, NUMBERED making the tea, PROEM was then safely biffed and finally gawping at the food expert’s spelling until it didn’t look right brought DIETITIAN into view. I then realised that an engine dies when it cuts out, something the gardeners’ mowers are doing regularly. They’ll probably be using the BLOWER next, blowing the leaves next door. Tomorrow, next door’s gardeners will blow them back. I can’t really give any sensible time after all this activity. See some of you tonight I hope. Thank you Pip and setter.
  13. Got all but 12a slew, 26a ironist and 15d dietitian.

    For 22d (proem) I knew it was e in prom but tried preom first!
    raree show went in on the second attempt after earer show.

    Couldn’t parse brush aside, hound, wall or 15a destroyed, where I had the TROY inside desed, putting southern city once as troy.

    Dnk: brougham, karoo, golden rod, and condenser for capacitor but all were fairly clued.

    COD 10a conquer.

  14. After a good round on Monday, I’ve scrambled through the last two days to be level par for the week.

    Was sailing along today until becoming becalmed in the Margaret River corner, similar to what others have reported. PROEM and IRONIST looked unlikely but inescapable.

    Thanks setter and Pip, and thanks Jack for the parsing of WALL.

  16. Off the scale today after a bit of a nightmare in the SW. I too fell foul of DIETICIAN which is embarrassing because my wife qualified as one many moons ago.
  17. I actually verty much enjoyed this one, some clever stuff, including DIETITIAN which initially looks like a terrible straight definition, and I was glad when I realised it wasn’t, to confirm the spelling! I got pushed over the 10 minute mark by WALL and trying to work out how on earth a LAW could be a street (I’d already agonised over YAWL and decided that couldn’t possibly be a barrier… could it?) And then the very satisfying PDM to complete the puzzle.

    Will be at the pub later, as will Keriothe if he doesn’t get stuck in Sweden it seems… join us!

  18. 15m, but with not one but too silly errors. I fell into the DIETICIAN trap, and also managed to construct YAWL from the wordplay at 25dn. It doesn’t mean ‘barrier’ of course, but it could, right? What can I say, it was early and I hadn’t had any coffee.
    See some of you later. I’m in Stockholm at the moment but I’m on a flight back that should get me there for 6.30ish.
    1. Excellent! I’m going to try to get off work a little bit early but even if I get dispensation, it’s going to be touch and go whether I get there for 6.
  19. Two wrong today, DIETICIAN and YAWL. Oops. Titian as red and remembering mall as a street were beyond my powers on this one. Regards.
  20. Finished finally in around 40 mins after getting stuck in the SW like many and nearly throwing in the towel. A couple of DNK’s today which is not the norm. I biffed WALL after, like V, discounting “yawl” as a potential barrier. I solve on my IPad without paper and pencil and spent ages trying to work out what the first word of the anagram at 17 dn might be (having never heard of it).
  21. A DNF for me today.However I can tell you there is a law street in SE1 not a million miles from where you are meeting tonight.Sorry can’t make it. Have fun!

    Edited at 2017-04-12 12:41 pm (UTC)

  22. DIETICIAN and YAWL here too. Took ages as well. I blogged the recent Jumbo that had RAREE-SHOW in it but I didn’t know KAROO and PROEM.
  23. One of those annoying puzzles that start easy and then get harder and harder and harder. Enjoyable though. Thought ‘numbered’ was clever, once I’d got it.

    43 minutes, although with a dietician.

  24. 17 mins. I saw red/titian so didn’t fall into the trap at 15dn, although I confess that HOUND was biffed. My last minute or so was spent trying to think of a reversed three-letter word for road that would make some kind of sense for 25dn. In the end I biffed WALL but then saw how it parsed about a minute later. I was a little surprised by the 6,3 enumeration of 19ac because I’ve only ever seen GOLDENROD as one word.
  25. Got less than half way through this, in a depressing 40 minutes, when it became time to head for the meet with the rest of the family at Feall beach. A bracing walk against a strong headwind blew the cobwebs away, and a pleasant sit in a secluded nook surrounded by hills and rocks passed away another 45 minutes. Returning to the flat, I continued where I left off and discovered that the dispersing of the cobwebs had had no effect on my ability to solve this puzzle and I resorted to aids to get moving, having lost patience with it. I filled in __M_ERED in this manner and finally spotted DIETITIAN, which I also checked the spelling of otherwise I would have had 2 wrong, as I also failed to get WALL, having biffed RAIL in a hands up in the air moment before the walk, and once again forgot to revisit it. Didn’t know KAROO or PROEM. A 3 pointer to the setter I think! Thanks Pip and all for the explanations.
  27. Ah well, I’m glad I’m not alone — at least now I know why I couldn’t parse DIETICIAN (or there seemed to be no wordplay too it). I did get KAROO and RAREE SHOW right, which eases the pain somewhat.

    At least it wasn’t the difficulty I had yesterday, where I had two mistakes due to using foreign spellings for place names; if you only ever see them in the papers with their German spellings, as I do, you forget the English ones.

  28. Bit late in the day but regarding blog question re cables, out in the Gulf, local potentates are forever sending cables between themselves, congratulating each other on some insignificant anniversary or another. Of course, each cable must be responded to by a cable of thanks from the recipient, and the exchange of cables is dutifully reported on the front pages of the national press of all concerned parties, usually accompanied by a picture of the local deity sitting in a Trumpesque style palatial reception room surrounded by table loads of fresh flowers and boxes of tissues. Occasionally, the cable of thanks itself requires a cable of thanks, leading to another round of reports, photos and tables of flowers and tissues, etc. Andrew
  29. I rather enjoyed this one and I was surprised to find nobody else has gushed over what a wonderful clue that was for BRUSH ASIDE! That clue alone was worth the price of admission.
  30. 21:59 for me, way off the setter’s wavelength.

    I realised that DIETICIAN/DIETITIAN and RAIL/WALL made biffing extremely hazardous but spent ages working out which were the correct alternatives. At least I got there in the end.

    And I bunged in GRANDAM (= “female relation”) reasonably confidently at 19dn, based on GAM (= “leg” = “peg”) receiving RAND (= “a sum of money”)

    Edited at 2017-04-12 11:52 pm (UTC)

  31. Very tricky, took me well over an hour. I was lucky to get away with an unparsed hound and an unparsed wall. Unfortunately I couldn’t see what was going on at 15dn and bunged in an unparsed DIETICIAN. Bah! Nice to see some of you at the pub earlier.

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