Times 26731 – The Lonely Sea and the Sky

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A pretty standard Mondayesque offering, with a bit for everyone, including a mathsey bit which I’ve heard of but would be hard pushed to explain. But that’s pretty much me and maths in a nutshell. I’d also heard of the poem and amazed myself by being able to recite the first two lines, even if I got the seventh word slightly wrong. But I think you’d have to be a bit of a pedant to get it right. A good challenge after a boozy evening with friends – quote the first line of this poem and fill the blank in this Reg Dwight song: ‘Daniel is ****** tonight on a plane’. 24 minutes.

ACROSS

1. ARCHAIC – CHAI[r] in ARC.
5. GRAMPUS – SUP reversed on GRAM. Nagoya’s football club used to have eight of these cetaceans.
9. SCURVIEST – S A CURVIEST.
10. VISTA – ST in VIA.
11. RICER – R + ICER. Not heard of this N. Am. word defined by Oxford as ‘A utensil with small holes through which boiled potatoes or other soft food can be pushed to form particles of a similar size to grains of rice.’
12. FUSILLADE – US + ILL in FADE. ‘Deviation in the air’ describes my golf shots admirably, and sounds so much better than slice, which is what we hackers call our ‘fade’.
14. PLAIN CHOCOLATE – INCH O’ COLA in PLATE.
17. ACHILLES TENDON – so biffable, I thought it was an angram of A VERY COLD DEATH. But, as John points out below, it’s actually A, CHILLEST (very cold), END (death), ON (possible). My mum ruptured each of hers, both times playing tennis.
21. STOP WATCH – STOP WATCH. Come on then, how many of you bunged in ‘slow coach’? TOP in SWATCH.
23. PLANK – PLAN[c]K. Heard of this ‘un.
24. IGLOO – [b]IG + LOO.
25. FRIGIDITY – F + RIGIDITY. If I was given to such pronouncements, I would say there was a whiff of sexism about this. As it is, I love it.
26. TUMBLER – a whimsical clue with very modest pretensions.
27. TIE-DYED- – [pictur]E in TIDY + ED.

DOWN

1. ASSERT – sounds like ‘a cert’.
2. COUNCIL – UNC[o] in COIL. Unco can mean strange as well as very.
3. ADVERBIAL – VARIABLE + D*.
4. COEFFICIENT – CO + EFFICIENTLY. Would that all scientific clues were clued so generously!
5. GET – TEG reversed.
6. ANVIL – hidden. I got a ‘treble treble’ with ANVILLED in Scrabble yesterday, so watch out for the verb.
7. PASSATA – S + A in PASTA. A tomato paste I’ve never heard of.
8. SEA FEVER – EA + F in SEVER for the Masefield encomium to life on the ocean wave.
13. SHORT-SHRIFT – R in SHORT SHIFT. We had this phrase the other day.
15. OENOPHILE – PI[g]EONHOLE*.
16. DAY SHIFT – well, if you cross the date line you change day.
18. HOODLUM – LOUD* in HOM[e].
19. OPACITY – A + Y in OP CIT.
20. OKAYED – KAY in OED. Kay pops up in Malory’s Morte Darthur, most notably in Book 4 with Gawain, Arthur and Gryfflet to defeat those pesky northern kings.
22. WHORL – WHO + R + L. My last in, even though I now use a fingerprint to access my iPad. Well, when it works.
25. FAR – FAR[e]. Last by name and very possibly last by nature…

58 comments on “Times 26731 – The Lonely Sea and the Sky”

  1. Submitted with qualms, as I had no idea whatever how COUNCIL and PLAIN CHOCOLATE worked. I remember Sir Kay as the rather unlikeable seneschal of King A’s; don’t recall ever reading of any adventure of his. But then I never read Malory. I biffed 17ac from checkers and enumeration, parsed it as Jack does, some time later. Liked 19d; no doubt the setter was thinking of some postmodernist.
    1. You should read The Once & Future King, Kevin, a lot more readable and entertaining than Malory. And it tells you a lot more about Kay, though maybe doesn’t make him much more likeable
      2. I did, ages ago but. And now you mention it I remember Kay bullying young Arthur before Excalibur and all.
  2. 17ac not an anagram as indicated. I think it’s A, CHILLEST (very cold), END (death), ON (possible). Needed 51 minutes to crack this puzzle.

    Edited at 2017-05-22 12:19 am (UTC)

    1. Forgot to say, very wordy clues today. I needed to zoom to 94% to fit on one page (printing in the Club).

      Edited at 2017-05-22 03:09 am (UTC)

        1. That’s in Firefox where I can’t remember using less than 95% previously. My usual favourite for printing from the Club is Edge where 100% with narrow margins selected fills an A4 page perfectly, but the “fit to page” option, along with many other features in Edge, doesn’t work, so when there are really long clues as today they spill over to a second sheet. The next zoom down from 100% in Edge is 75% which uses barely more than half the sheet and my failing eyesight can’t cope with the small print that results. In that situation I revert to Firefox which has good zoom options but is SO SLOW to open and navigate. More generally I use speedy Chrome as my default browser but I have problems printing the puzzle in the club there as sometimes the shading doesn’t align with the grid. It’s better at printing from the new platform but again the zoom options are restricted and I end up with smaller print than I would really prefer.

          Edited at 2017-05-22 05:10 am (UTC)

          1. I only print off the Jumbo and was happy using Chrome with a B3 (i think cos the option has gone) setting which put it all on one side of A4. With reading glasses all good but ‘they’ changed the settings choice and now all settings render the grid out of alignment with the clues all over the place. I was thinking it was our printer until i read your post. I’ve haven’t tried other printers and have been adjourning to library on a Saturday having put it down to the ‘vagaries of the internet’. I didn’t want to fret over it as they’ll only change it again . .
            1. Alan, I just found this posted in the Club forum on 18th May. Sounds as if it might be worth trying Chrome again now:

              Thank you to the Crossword Club technical team for sorting out the Chrome zoom problem which caused grids to be a jumbled mess in any zoom factor other than 100%.

              Much appreciated.

  3. Standard Monday offering, non-standard Monday hangover. The Rabbitohs only come to Perth once a year, and it’s hard to watch them sober these days, so that’s my excuse.

    I got one out of two in the blogger’s quiz (Daniel being an old favourite), and a pass mark in the crossword, so a good solid start to the week.

    Thanks setter and U.

  4. … excuse to Galspray. It’s not often that Liverpool feature on the SBS match of the week — and Europe beckoned. And I turned OENOPHILE. Great word, even if I’m never sure how to pronounce it.

    But a good puzzle only slightly harder than our fixed idea of Mondays. Got the CHOCOLATE bit of 14ac, then had to work out the adjective.

    Passed both parts of U’s quiz. But now I’m wondering if “unco unco” can mean “very strange”.

    1. But you must have noticed down here that unco only ever means uncoordinated, as in a person with poor motor skills. Like the Burgess twins trying to catch a football.
  5. Total failure here. I’d forgotten the GRAMPUS meaning and I had pencilled in ‘massala’ for 7d so ended up with GRAMMES/MASSALA. I sort of knew it was all wrong but couldn’t see any way forward so I did the sensible thing and said ‘bugger it’ and clicked Submit.
  6. 22+ mins seems to be a competitive time ( no sub10s at time of writing) especially since i was doing it before falling asleep. Don’t think I’ve come across Op Cit before , ibid of course. Like to think my latin is sound though i can’t be bothered with the new Saturday offering which hasn’t found it’s way on to the website I notice. As far as i can see that is
    1. Op cit to refer to a book just referenced, ibid to refer to a page just cited.
  7. About 25 mins (quick for me) with a Betty’s Fat Rascal. The Op Cit rang bells, but the Unco was an ‘uncknown’ – so a few mins spent on LOI Council. Nice to see Masefield get an outing. I left my shoes and socks there, I wonder if they’re dry?
    Thanks setter and Ulaca.
  8. Can’t count the number of Es in pigeonhole, so managed a misspell of the alcoholic. Otherwise I thought this felt harder than my 16+ minutes would suggest, with not much happening in the early clues.
    If Myrtilus hadn’t quoted Spike, I would have: I’d have to work very hard to stay on track with the proper second line. And Spike missed off the S in word 7, so it’s Masefield that’s wrong.
  9. 17m. I found this decidedly tricky, in spite of knowing most of the necessary stuff. Kay was the only exception but with the K and the Y it just had to be. I use my RICER whenever I make mashed potatoes so no problems there.
  10. I don’t think I’d have finished this a year ago, but today I was all done in 46 minutes, albeit with crossed fingers for COUNCIL and a couple of others. I think “unco” has only come up once before in my cryptic career, but at least words like GRAMPUS are settling vaguely into my memory, and I’m more confident about throwing unknowns like SEA FEVER in.

    Thanks to setter and blogger—as my biffing skills improve it’s great to be able to come here and see how I would have got there the long way around!

  11. All done in about 30mins or so, but with brain freeze and a blank at COUNCIL. Even after coming back several hours later to see if it would leap out at me.

  12. Biffers beware today I think. Surely 2d has something to do with TRUNK? TRUNCAL? Yes, that sounds right… 17a not an anagram, although getting the crossing N of OENOPHILE at the first attempt helped there. Would’ve shaved a good 3/4 minutes for the top right. UNCO, SEA FEVER, and KAY all new to me. COD to the endearing GET.
    Many thanks setter and blogger.
  13. Ploughed steadily through in about 20mins, my par-for-the-course time these days. Never properly parsed the cola clue or the op cit
  14. Thought this harder than usual for a Monday. STOP WATCH excellent. Does anyone use tie dying any more? Learning SEA FEVER by heart was my first task in English lessons at secondary school. And here’s a pro-maths joke: why did the cat slide off the roof? – because it lost its mew. Thanks ulaca and setter.
  15. Isn’t it loc. cit. that refers to the same page? Ibid. to a book cited immediately before, different page, Op. cit. to a book cited earlier? It’s been ages and ages since I had to do any reading or writing in the humanities lit, or deal with its asinine referencing practices.
  16. Another quick one for me, but with some apprehension at the end as to whether my biffing was correct. PLAIN CHOCOLATE was nowhere neat parsed and 16D sounded more like night shift to me, as the date could change if you were on a night shift.
  17. 35 minutes with all correct (but with 4 answers biffed). Presumably UNCOVER is very, very short.
  18. I knew op cit from all that education which of course included the Masefield poem. As a Physicist, I’ve been accused before of being as thick as two short planks, which is ironic as the Planck length is really the shortest length when distance means anything.Totally biffed COUNCIL, forgetting unco if I’ve ever known it. I seem to remember its use in Trainspotting, the movie that is, not the Ian Allen book of Scottish colloquialisms. I thought PASSATA was a trade name for tomato paste and wouldn’t know if we had a RICER in one of those kitchen drawers I don’t dare go in, but both clear from the cryptic. Liked GRAMPUS, ACHILLES TENDON and SCURVIEST but prefer the milk variety to COD PLAIN CHOCOLATE. About 25 minutes. Thank you U and setter.

    Edited at 2017-05-22 08:48 am (UTC)

  20. I thought a bit harder than usual Monday, took me 25 minutes going steadily with no interruptions and one coffee. At first had PUT for 5d (TUP reversed) until the puffer became clear.

    I liked DAY SHIFT and PLAN(C)K especially. His constant is quite important.

    Ulaca I have at least one thing in common with your Mum, I ruptured both of my Achilles playing squash – two years apart – the second time was worse because I knew what a long tedious recovery was ahead.

    Re printing – I use Chrome, and A4, print grey, if it says 2 pages in preview I just cancel and downsize to the smaller type option, which always fits (except for a Jumbo).

    1. In Chambers:
      3. Someone who breathes heavily and loudly, a puffer and blower (archaic)
  22. Like others, I did a fair bit of biffing today: ARCHAIC, ACHILLES TENDON & OKAYED all went in without being fully parsed. All in all nothing to get too worried about: 9m 22s.
  23. I’ve had a beef with him for misspelling “quinquereme” (as “quinquIreme”) in Cargoes, thus causing me and Tony Sever invisible typos a while back. 16.11
    1. If the sequence goes bireme, trireme, quadrireme… then I can see exactly where Masefield was coming from!
      1. I remember BIREME coming up without any helpful wordplay in a Championship final long ago, and praying that I’d remembered it correctly and that the answer wasn’t DIREME.
    2. Fortunately the Es were checked in the grid, otherwise we’d both have been sunk. (Or perhaps you never recovered?)
  24. I managed this in 40:19 with Unco and Op Cit unknown, which made COUNCIL and OPACITY my last 2 in. I assembled SEA FEVER from the WP, but on looking it up later, found the poem very familiar after all. That also removed my puzzlement at Myrtilus and Z’s comments. TIE DYED was a vaguely familiar expression. My FOI was PUT, soon changed to TEG after I became aware of some heavy breathing. I’m with Verlaine in wondering if Grampuses do actually make nuisance phone calls! An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and U.
    1. Well, they’re big and they breathe – till they’re harpooned. What more do you want?
  25. I found this comment on the Cryptopia(exploring the hidden world) website:
    “While there’s not much of a written record concerning this unique beast, what has been passed down through the centuries are eyewitness accounts of a strange, wheezing animal that was said to resemble — at least on the surface — a dolphin or porpoise. What’s even more odd is that, unlike its ostensibly marine mammalian kin, the Grampus was said to dwell in the branches of an ancient yew tree located in the Highclere Churchyard.
    While the Grampus was not considered to be a particularly dangerous vermin, it did manage to terrify locals by emitting a disturbing cacophony of guttural noises and, even more alarmingly, chasing anyone – primarily, it would seem, young women — foolish enough to wander too close to its domicile. What method of locomotion it used to propel itself in these pursuits remains a mystery.
    Needless to say the Highclere natives believes this bizarre beast to be a denizen of the hell, and they promptly enjoined a local clergyman to help rid them of what they perceived to be a demonic entity. The anonymous clergyman agreed and through the rite of exorcism — by means of bell book and candle — managed to banish the beast into the Red Sea for a period of no less than 1,000 years”.
    1. Was the place just called Clere before they ate the mushrooms?

      Edited at 2017-05-22 02:14 pm (UTC)

    2. Highclere? Isn’t that where they train racehorses? Maybe the cross-breeds go well on heavy going.
      1. Yes it’s near Newbury and there’s a racehorse training establishment. It’s also home to the set of Downton Abbey in Highclere Castle. All sorts going on in the vicinity, so it’s hardly surprising that the Grampus wanted to get in on the act!
  26. I still don’t really understand why a GRAMPUS is a “heavy breather”, can anyone elucidate? I mean I see that it’s heavy and it breathes, but you could say that of a lot of things; what am I missing?
    1. Snoring like a grampus is an expression I’ve heard, so I guess that’s it. I thought it was spelt Quinquireme but then I just misspelt Nineveh according to spell check. What can you expect from a dirty British coaster?

      Edited at 2017-05-22 11:39 am (UTC)

      1. Ah, I was just wondering what proverb had been furnished, after scanning Moby-Dick for GRAMPUS:


        BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER I. (Grampus).—Though this fish, whose loud sonorous breathing, or rather blowing, has furnished a proverb to landsmen, is so well known a denizen of the deep, yet is he not popularly classed among whales. But possessing all the grand distinctive features of the leviathan, most naturalists have recognised him for one. He is of moderate octavo size, varying from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length, and of corresponding dimensions round the waist. He swims in herds; he is never regularly hunted, though his oil is considerable in quantity, and pretty good for light. By some fishermen his approach is regarded as premonitory of the advance of the great sperm whale.

  27. A very well constructed crossword with many unknowns for me but all easily biffable. LOI Council – had to be with the given letters but no idea about unco.
  28. Got to the offices of the COUNCIL eventually, via the UNCO GUID. But damned if I could remember what that means, as I too have the unscheduled Monday hangover.
  29. Glad I wasn’t the only one to think of the Nagoya Grampus 8 – when I taught there a bit over 20 years ago I was taken by the silly mascots of their soccer clubs and wore my Nagoya grampus and Kagoshima antlers jerseys for years. Rest of this I found pretty tricky, coming in at 17 minutes.
    1. There must be a homophone clue in there somewhere – if a grampus went to Nagoya it would get 8 (as sushi).
  30. Again, I thought I was going to struggle, but the bottom half went in very quickly and I worked back to the top with council LOI (and I’m a Scot!). I saw passata first time round, but left it out since I reckon passata is an ingredient, not a dish. 18 minutes.
  31. My 13 mins appears to be decent now that I’ve read all the comments. I didn’t start off too well and I thought it was going to be an atypical Monday beast, but once a few answers went in the rest seemed to flow. I few answers were biffed but they didn’t take long to parse post-solve. COUNCIL was my LOI after SCURVIEST.
  32. All complete in 33mins on this morning’s commute. Quite pleased with that time because even though this was a Monday puzzle, as others have noted, some of the vocab and parsing were a bit more of a test than usual. FOI 11ac, LOI 2dn. COD 22dn, very neat.
  33. 13:36 for me, nowhere near the setter’s wavelength. Although I appear to have met RICER and PASSATA before, they’d slipped from my memory – an awkward tendency of foodie words. I’m only faintly aware of the required meaning of FADE, and I wasted time trying to fit IB(ID) into 19dn and ICC into 14ac.

    I love the poem SEA FEVER (made easier today by having SEVER as part of the wordplay :-), but am less keen on the song. I’m simply not convinced that “I must down to the seas again …” in the original is a misprint. It could be that it’s because that’s the version I was brought up on, but it just sounds so right, whereas “I must go down to the sea …” sounds wishy-washy.

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