Times 26733 – don’t get shtuck in a confiture de circulation; use your bonding set.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A splendid puzzle, I thought, with a mixture of easy clues and much trickier ones, and not without wit. I don’t have an exact time as I was doing it in between doing something else. I’d estimate half an hour or a bit more. The SW corner was last to go in, with 18d, 22a and 25a holding me up.

As usual, definitions are underlined.

I’ve become a barn owl, for a change.

Across
1 A month after one leaves school one comes across the church (8)
TRANSEPT – TRA(I)N = school, one leaves; SEPT = a month.
5 Fireball rounding corner finds old dictator (6)
SHOGUN – Insert HOG = corner, keep for oneself, into SUN = fireball.
9 Report of someone critically examining historian (8)
ANNALIST – Sounds like ANALYST.
10 English poet has to suffer misfortune in the end (6)
BROOKE – BROOK = suffer, E = end of misfortune; Rupert Brooke, WW1 poet I have never read.
12 Tense, given Pollyanna’s expectation? (6,7)
FUTURE PERFECT – Cryptic reference to the 1913 book Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter, in which a girl was always trying to find something to be glad about in every situation. No I haven’t read it. A more academic book by a Mr Gottlieb followed in 1990, The Pollyanna Principles, of which I had vaguely heard.
15 Little chamber orchestra’s first instrument (5)
CELLO – CELL = little chamber, O = orchestra’s first.
16 Shelter for the needy soul — shame dilapidated (9)
ALMSHOUSE – (SOUL SHAME)*.
17 Nothing revolutionary about Lenin unfortunately, the
worm! (9)
ANNELIDAN – Insert (LENIN)* into NADA (nothing) reversed. One of those words where you have to guess where the missing letters go, and trust the wordplay, unless you’re a helminthologist.
19 Peach, sliced, is eaten initially (5)
CUTIE – CUT = sliced, I E initial letters of is eaten.
20 Extremely disappointed, soon to feature in famous comedy sketch? (4,2,1,6)
SICK AS A PARROT – A reference, I think, to the sketch in Monty Python where John Cleese returns his Norwegian Blue to the pet shop and tries to persuade the seller it is “dead, no more, deceased, a late parrot, an ex-parrot” and so on. EDIT see my comment below (#4 in list).
22 A spring flourish (6)
ABOUND – A, BOUND = spring.
23 Funny person about right? (8)
JOKESTER – I’m going to say &lit. but as usual I’m probably going to be chastised for that. OK (right) goes into JESTER to make another funny person. I had COMEDIAN for a while but couldn’t make it work, mainly because it was wrong.
25 Hard to break staff routine (6)
SHTICK – H = hard, inside STICK = staff. As well as poetry, Hebrew or Yiddish words are not my thing, but I guessed this one. “Routine” in the sense of act or party piece.
26 Hard-working souls due to appear lazy (8)
SEDULOUS – (SOULS DUE)*. I thought, sedulous is a word but it doesn’t mean lazy, does it? Then realised it meant hard-working and the anagrist was lazy. Doh!

Down
1 Buying and selling stuff, lines not shifting? (7,3)
TRAFFIC JAM – TRAFFIC = buying and selling, JAM = stuff. As an aside, the French call it a bouchon (a cork), in early days here I once tried ‘confiture de traffique’ and it didn’t seem to be understood, or get a laugh.
2 Beard beginning, shaved at the top (3)
AWN – DAWN (beginning) loses its D. Beard as in a bristle-like bit on a plant.
3 New Orleans, a seaport (7)
SALERNO – (ORLEANS)*, a seaport in Southern Italy.
4 After lunch, upright piano moved quickly, put upright! (4-8)
POST-PRANDIAL – POST = upright, P(iano), RAN (moved quickly), LAID (put) reversed. Latin prandium, meal.
6 Difficult having bottom pinched by lewd fellow somewhere in Wales (7)
HARLECH – HAR(D) = difficult having bottom pinched; LECH = lewd fellow.
7 Suspicion over man, hunter of some spirit (11)
GHOSTBUSTER – GHOST = suspicion, BUSTER = man, US slang.
8 Turnip once called ‘parsnip’, originally (4)
NEEP – NÉE = born (female), i.e. ‘once called’: P(arsnip). As in the neeps and tatties with your haggis.
11 Author, unusual in brown cloak (6,6)
TRUMAN CAPOTE – TAN = brown, around RUM = unusual; CAPOTE is a sort of coat or cape with a hood.
13 One looking for that special something in cryptic clues, not tat!(6,5)
TALENT SCOUT – (CLUES NOT TAT)*.
14 Bonds exist in bonding set (10)
DEBENTURES – BE = exist, inside DENTURES = bonding set. Ha ha.
18 Short party, secular hosts (7)
LACONIC – This stumped me for a while. CON = party, inside LAIC = secular.
19 Church primate put on gold hat (7)
CHAPEAU – CH(urch) APE = primate, AU = gold; French for hat, n’est-ce pas.
21 Try climbing to get nuts or bananas (4)
BATS – STAB = try, reversed. I know, it was easy once you had it, but…
24 A little difficult working for company, apparently? (3)
TWO – A hidden word in DIFFICUL(T WO)RKING. As in two’s company, three’s a crowd, I presume.

41 comments on “Times 26733 – don’t get shtuck in a confiture de circulation; use your bonding set.”

  1. Had to work particularly hard for the last few, SHOGUN, NEEP, DEBENTURES and JOKESTER. And obviously HARLECH was unknown, which didn’t help.

    Really good puzzle though. Enjoyed it even more at the exact time that I realised we weren’t looking for the name of an historian.

    Got SEDULOUS without knowing whether it meant hard-working or lazy. Fortunately it would work either way.

    Saw JOKESTER early but couldn’t convince myself. Eventually parsed it post-solve.

    All good fun. Thanks setter and Pip.

    1. You must have forgotten the performance of ‘Men of Harlech’ for bicycle bells on Monty Python.
      1. Clearly I had, though I just youtubed it, and got the added bonus of all-in cricket and John Cleese demonstrating the art of giving influenza to a cat.

  2. Aargh…another day, another with one wrong! I had ‘desulous’ (something vaguely akin to ‘desultory’…) at 26ac. Took an age to see SHOGUN, GHOSTBUSTER and BROOKE, but at least they were correct…

  3. 55 mins over croissant – the last several of which spent failing to get Jokester/Debentures. Took a while for 2dn to dawn on me and had to convince myself Desulous isn’t a word. Some nicely obscure synonyms knocking about in this one.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
  4. Mostly completed in 30 minutes, with fingers crossed for SEDULOUS and ANNELIDAN (fortunately someone on Countdown mentioned NADA yesterday so it was fresh in my mind), but 14dn and 23ac almost completely baffled me and I needed nearly as long again to complete the grid. But perhaps I nodded off for a while and things weren’t quite as bad as all that..

    I think Pip is right that 23ac is &lit, if only to avoid accusations of double-duty, but I’m always open to correction on such matters.

    Edited at 2017-05-24 06:27 am (UTC)

  5. I changed ‘annelidin’ to ‘annelidon’, neither seemed to parse, so I looked it up and only then spotted the ‘nada’. My legitimate LOI was SHOGUN, where it finally dawned on me we were looking for a generic not a name. We had a longish discussion about SHTICK here the last time it showed up. I wonder if anyone else tried to get an author’s name out of (in brown cloak); no, I thought not. 14d reminded me of a Chon Day ‘New Yorker’ cartoon from ages ago: at a board meeting, a timid-looking man is raising his hand and asking, “What’s a debenture?”
  6. Debentures was the cause of the troubles for me today, as with others. I was toying with either exist being _ebe_t_r_s (as was the case), _e_e_tares or the unlikely be_e_t_r_s, which could be – he justified – because bonds could be a verb. Anyway, I gave up on it in the end. Post prandial delayed as rather embarrassingly I had LAMEHOUSE at 16a. Never heard of this optimistic Pollyanna character, but knew it had to be right.
    COD to TWO – any hidden which is amongst my last three in the grid is always majorly impressive.
    Many thanks setter and blogger.
  7. This took me about 40 minutes, but I couldn’t remember if it was annuls or annals and went the wrong way and I guessed at DESULOUS, not knowing SEDULOUS. JOKESTER was my LOI, which I couldn’t parse, but now I see it it’s a clear COD for me.
  8. I’ve just noticed the letters ASAP appear in the middle of the answer to 20a, which might explain the otherwise redundant word “soon” in the clue?

    Edited at 2017-05-24 06:46 am (UTC)

  9. i think a sick parrot might soon be a dead parrot? Thanks blogger and setter.
  10. DNF. Two left as my hour bell went off, so I desperately bunged in JOKESTER and was surprised to find that it was right. That left _E_E_T_R_S, and I’d never heard of DEBENTURES and probably would never have got “dentures” for “bonding set”, so I randomly shoved in CEMENTARES, being “are” in “cements”. Oh well.

    Happier than yesterday to be beaten as there was so much fun along the way. I think my favourite kickself moment was the “fireball”, but the NEEP was also excellently clued.

    1. We must be sharing the same thought process as that’s what I bunged in too and for the same reason. Oh well never mind,
        1. I looked it up afterwards to see where I’d gone wrong. It does exist, but not in English…Spanish[edit]. Verb[edit]. cementares. Informal second-person singular (tú) future subjunctive form of cementar.
  11. Called it a day after about an hour and a half with JOKESTER still unsolved. A struggle but with some good clues to make it worthwhile. I liked the ‘one comes across church’ and ‘lines not shifting’ defs for 1a and 1d, but my favourite, and last solved, was that humble little 3-letter hidden at 24d.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

  12. 40 minutes with ANNELIDAN biffed. How have I lived more than 70 years and not heard of ‘nada’? Delay on 23a, until 14d DEBENTURES hit me and I could finally give up on it being a comedian. Philip Collins caught the mood in today’ paper by quoting John Cooper Clarke. “The bloody scene is bloody sad/ The bloody news is bloody bad.” Hardish but fair puzzle, apart from the worm. Thank you Pip and setter.

    Edited at 2017-05-24 09:03 am (UTC)

    1. For me it automatically brings to mind Kramer’s immortal “Manana I’m doing nada”, but I’m guessing you’re not a Seinfeld fan BW?
      1. Seinfeld, Cheers, Frasier and even the ubiquitous Friends are more or less a closed book to me. As a single man I was never in to watch television. Once married I’d more or less lost the habit of watching series. I’ve missed out on a lot.
        1. Yeah, you missed all that TV-watching while you were out having a life. What were you thinking?
  13. DNF. I couldn’t get 14dn for some reason. I considered the financial meaning of the word ‘bonds’ but DEBENTURES didn’t occur to me. Perhaps I was disadvantaged by my profession: I deal with bonds all the time so when I didn’t think of a synonym to fit the checkers immediately I moved on. When I hear the word ‘debenture’ it’s usually something akin to a season ticket for rugby and tennis fans. Of course even in these circumstances it’s a bond of sorts so no excuses.
    Ah well, tomorrow is another day.
  14. DEBENTURES and JOKESTER did for me. I’m afraid after an hour I get a bit bored, or desperate, or both.
    12a was my FOI but then I’m of an age that remembers Hayley Mills in the 50’s Disney film.
    DNK CAPOTE for a cloak or AWN for a beard, still one lives and learns.
  15. My time rose to around 26 minutes because of one of those hit the wrong button start all over again things, but I enjoyed the rest of the experience.
    Pollyanna was cheerful childhood reading (how could it be otherwise?) and I think I also read Pollyanna’s Door to Happiness (guess the theme).
    Not only is JOKESTER an &lit, I think it’s a very good &lit.
    DEBENTURE was my last in, not least because CEMENT is “bond” but nothing else fits beyond that.
    The worm went in strictly on wordplay, though I knew the ANNELID bit..
  16. 30 min. with at least 10 of that on 14dn and 23ac, not helped by putting ADO at 24dn. I’d also been trying to make something like CEMENTARES, or COMEDIAN.
  17. 20:37 For me, the two 3-lettered ones were the hardest. TWO was bunged in in preference to TOO but without knowing why, and AWN was a complete unknown but seeming the most likely on a trail through the alphabet. Liked JOKESTER, my COD. Thanks setter and Pip.
    1. AWN is yet one more chestnut in the NYT’s collection; wouldn’t have got it otherwise.
  18. Took me back to second year company law. Also to an extremely un-PC joke that made the rounds at my inn when I was in pupillage. 19.21
      1. Commonwealth student in viva for company law exam is asked what are debentures. He replies – dey are de governing body of dis inn…..
  19. CHAPEAU to the setter. An excellent puzzle which had me struggling to finish in the SW, which had me self-flagellating when I had worked it all out. An untimed 60 mins, I think.
  20. After 45 minutes I paused and went to make a cup of tea. Another 7 minutes saw me complete the grid with one wrong, which turned out to be CEMENTARES, which went in in desperation. The club site has me down for just under the hour. Even after getting JOKESTER I couldn’t quite see the parsing. I’ll put it down to being 20a with the dreaded lurgi. FOI was CELLO and last correct one was JOKESTER. A challenging experience. Thanks setter and Pip.
  21. I see what you mean. I shouldn’t have asked. Now if you want lawyer jokes… ah, sorry, no, I mustn’t, you’re a lawyer!
  22. I had all but two answers in 11 mins, it took me another minute to see JOKESTER, and then two more minutes before I mombled “cementares” for the same reason a few others did. I’m a little annoyed with myself that the financial meaning of “bonds” didn’t occur to me because I’m sure I’d have then thought of DEBENTURES and I’d have been able to reverse engineer the parsing. DENTURES as a bonding set wouldn’t have crossed my mind otherwise. I should probably have spent more time thinking about it. Other than that I really enjoyed the puzzle.
  23. Just over an hour, many answers going in on a prayer (I also don’t know what SEDULOUS means) and I didn’t quite get the wordplay on the sick parrot (ASAP = soon steals the P of parrot, so that can’t work), Brooke seemed only vaguely possible, but in the end all was OK. Very enjoyable puzzle. (I especially enjoyed DEBENTURES.)

    Edited at 2017-05-24 05:17 pm (UTC)

  24. For what it is worth, there is doubt about what NEEPS are. Chambers confidently says turnips but the orange things that I call swedes are apparently known as turnips (and hence neeps) in parts of Scotland. Certainly, my Scots wife means orange swedes when she talks about neeps and tatties. Much discussion on Google.

    Edited at 2017-05-24 08:55 pm (UTC)

  25. DNF. Too tough for me. Couldn’t get 23ac or 14dn. I did consider jokester but could not parse it. Once I had thought cement at 14dn it was very hard to see anything else. Left the grid with those two blank. Sedulous went in on the basis of the anagrist. I’ll pretend that I knew it meant hard-working – I definitely did not think mmm, sounds like it might be related to sedentary so it probably means lazy.
  26. Well done PK, and thanks. Equally well done setter, and equal thanks.
    Question if the day – and wishing I’d logged in earlier to ask it: if you had to name all the famous comedy sketches, what would they be? I got the dead parrot, fork handles, who’s on first, and possibly don’t mention the war, and then couldn’t think of any others of quite that class and broad appeal.

    Edited at 2017-05-24 10:22 pm (UTC)

    2. Two soups- Julie Walters? It would be a shame not to have one Victoria Wood there.

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