Times 26,747: Festina Lente

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I’m going to blame exit poll excitement for my going off by one on this – I had at 1dn FIREDECK, thinking “fire, energy, that makes sense, never heard of a firedeck but I’m sure it’s something”. I blame the poetry of Felicia Hemans. It was of course only the work of seconds to see the much better solution once I knew something was wrong, and hopefully that’ll teach me to 8dn and 20dn to the submit button in an unseemly bid to sneak in under the 10 minute mark.

To be honest I found this a little on the plain end of the spectrum for a Friday, but perhaps the powers that be were being kind and realising that we might have other things on our mind this morning! All the anagrams went in very quickly on sight, and a lot of the other clues were straightforward but fiddly affairs (reverse this, put it inside that and add a one letter abbreviation for something else). Punning definitions can also prove a tad Marmitey, though I do like the mental image of top execs being given a bicycle as their company car. Nothing actively objectionable though so I’ll take a leaf out of horryd‘s book and nominate WOD 25ac and COD 27ac as I like the smoothness of the surface. Thanks setter, and see you all tomorrow, no doubt somewhat blearily, when I shall manfully strive to avoid talking about the electophant in the room!

Across
1 Preferred feminine greeting, historically (4)
FAVE – F AVE [feminine | greeting, historically]
3 Further book penned by singer’s a little cleaner (10)
TOOTHBRUSH – TOO [further] + B [book] “penned by” THRUSH [singer]
9 Engineers reversing charge briefly called again (7)
RENAMED – RE [engineers] + reversing DEMAN{d} [charge “briefly”]
11 Takes over when Aussie runner gets back on board (7)
ASSUMES – AS [when] + reversed EMU [Aussie runner “gets back”] in SS [“on board”]
12 Authority and income tumbling (9)
DOMINANCE – (AND INCOME*) [“tumbling”]
13 Going in starkers is grand way to get attention (5)
NUDGE – going in NUDE [starkers] is G [grand]
14 Retort token bachelor has to endure (12)
COUNTERBLAST – COUNTER B [token | bachelor] has LAST [to endure]
18 Fashion mart’s price war, not a problem for correspondent (7,5)
WRITER’S CRAMP – (MART’S PRICE W{a}R*) [“fashion…”]
21 Bean coming from abroad UK imports (5)
ADUKI – hidden in {abro}AD UK I{mports}
22 Disease, in a manner of speaking, learner’s overlooked (9)
INFECTION – INF{l}ECTION [a manner of speaking, “overlooking” L]
24 Barbarism‘s not in fashion (7)
OUTRAGE OUT RAGE [not in | fashion]
25 Heartless church worker suspended (7)
ABEYANT – AB{b}EY [“heartless” church] + ANT [worker]
26 Shy infidel running like the devil (10)
FIENDISHLY – (SHY INFIDEL*) [“running”]
27 Unlikely to lash out at close quarters (4)
NEAR – double def. Where lash out means “splash the cash”, and near “stingy”.

Down
1 Where you could find ratings for energy pack? (8)
FOREDECK – FOR E DECK [for | energy | pack]. Ratings as in seamen.
2 Malevolent rodent almost beneath cooker, moving over (8)
VENOMOUS – MOUS{e} [rodent “almost”] beneath {o->}VEN{O} [cooker, “moving” O from the beginning to the end]
4 Ancient line in poem forgotten, finally (5)
OLDEN – L [line] in ODE [poem] + {forgotte}N
5 Agent and therapist’s top person entangling (9)
TRAVELLER – T{herapist} + RAVELLER [person entangling]. Agent as in travelling salesman.
6 Trading phenomenon, the green equivalent of company car? (8,5)
BUSINESS CYCLE – punny alternative def
7 Apparently rational European ruined (6)
UNMADE – UNMAD [apparently rational] + E [European]
8 Fly goes through inverted trap (6)
HASTEN – HAS [goes through] + reverse of NET [“inverted” trap]. Not 100% sure how “has” means “goes though” I must admit, but since “to have” and “to go” both have dozens of definitions, I’m sure it must work somehow. “Has breakfast”?
10 Minor riot lad stirred, snaring unknown reptile (7,6)
MONITOR LIZARD – (MINOR RIOT LAD*) [“stirred”], “snaring” Z [unknown]
15 Shopmen trying to repeat dockers’ work? (9)
RETAILERS – to dock and to tail can both mean “to cut the tail off”, so a RE-TAILER could be one trying to repeat a docking.
16 Drool when rising tardily about four (8)
SALIVATE – reversed AS [when “rising”] + LATE [tardily] about IV [four]
17 Lone woman threatening to seize power once one’s gone (8)
SPINSTER – SIN{i}STER [threatening… “once one’s gone”] “to seize” P [power]
19 Settle raconteur’s punch line? (6)
PAYOFF – or, split differently, PAY OFF [settle].
20 Damage extremely lucrative career (6)
HURTLE – HURT [damage] + L{ucrativ}E
23 Female beside bar easily tempted (5)
FRAIL – F [female] beside RAIL [bar]

52 comments on “Times 26,747: Festina Lente”

  1. So that’s what ‘unlikely to lash out’ is doing there! Glad you came along early to explain that, Verlaine. I also wondered about ‘has’, but ‘has’=’undergoes’ seems likely enough; still, I don’t care much for that sort of clue. I biffed 3ac and 6 and 7d, then solved; on the other hand, I biffed INFIRMITY at 22ac and PENDANT at 25ac, which did me no good at all. 10d was a cinch, once I noticed the enumeration.
  2. Hesitated for a while at the end over PAYOFF, but otherwise, as Verlaine says, a fairly un-Fridayish puzzle.

    COD to WRITER’S CRAMP I think. Thanks setter and V.

  3. Am I alone in thinking that “bustle” is an acceptable answer to 20 down – damage = bust plus the le from lucrative?
    1. Indeed not. That’s what I had and thought it quite convincing, but having now seen the correct answer I can see that it’s preferable for a couple of reasons. Firstly “to bustle” is more than just to move quickly (or career); it’s to do so in a busy and fussy manner. Secondly I think “damage” = “bust” only works in loose colloquial or ungrammatical speech, and if “bust” was what the setter had in mind he’d have clued it using “damaged”.

      45 minutes with one error as discussed.

      Edited at 2017-06-09 05:37 am (UTC)

      1. If two answers are valid, it surely doesn’t matter if one is preferable. The less preferable one remains valid. ‘Bust’ as a transitive verb meaning ‘break’ is in all the dictionaries and is pretty close to ‘damage’ (at least it’s a close as ‘damaged’), and there’s no doubt that to ‘bustle’ is to move quickly. The whole thing is a little loose but I’m not sure it’s beyond the bounds of what we normally see.

        Edited at 2017-06-09 07:27 am (UTC)

      2. I too had 20dn as BUSTLE – without a care! Along with Jack, paulmcl, anonymous and Mr. Keriothe on board I find it perfectly valid. If Lord Verlaine would care to take a second leaf out my book, then I finished in 37 minutes with few parses – again! I see a slight improvement in the Galspray camp! Good luck with the weather tomorrow! Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

        What does our esteemed editor have to say? BUSTLE or HURTLE or both? HUSTLE!!?

        LOI 20dn BUSTLE! FOI and my COD 3ac TOOTHBRUSH!

        WOD 21ac ADUKI which comes originally from round these parts – better known as the ADZUKI (d.Japanese) bean.

        Interesting Election result – completely baffled my Chinese friends – what’s the point, they exclaim!?

        Edited at 2017-06-09 09:17 am (UTC)

        1. A Danish colleague arriving to work at the same time as me plaintively asked me “can you tell me what has happened? who has won? who will be leading the country?”, but of course the Byzantine intricacies of British politics cannot really be comprehended by the foreign mind.
          1. Au contraire: FPTP makes British politics remarkably simple. The politics in countries with more proportional systems is much more difficult to understand, and often beyond the comprehension of simple-minded Anglo-Saxons. Like me.

            Edited at 2017-06-09 09:35 am (UTC)

            1. Yep, it’s about time the UK embraced democracy and introduced a preferential voting system. Makes for a lot more fun on election night as well, especially for political and mathematical geeks like me. (I suspect I’m not the only one that fits that description around here).
              1. So what’s wrong with the American system, where the person with the most votes loses? Oh, that.
                1. Come on Kevin, you are forgetting the checks and balances (in this country we would spell that ‘cheques and balances’).
              2. I propose a first-past-the-puzzle system, where the candidate in each constituency who completes 3 crosswords most swiftly and accurately within the hour is returned. Magoo for PM!
                1. Not sure about your country, but that would render a very large proportion of Australian politicians ineligible.

                  Bring it on!!!

    2. Nope. I had bustle too. Once I thought of it I didn’t have a second thought. Got held up on OUTRAGE (does it really mean Barbarism?) and eventually put it in only because I couldn’t think of anything else.
    3. I , too , had BUSTLE but I suppose it implies a different type of rushing.
  5. 21:58 … it was surprisingly hard to concentrate this morning. Who knew an election with no actual result could be so compelling? A bit like test cricket.

    10 minutes for most of this the another 10 or so for WRITERS CRAMP, RETAILERS and, most of all OUTRAGE. I had ‘repairers’ at 15d for a while, which doesn’t seem much more of a stretch than the actual solution.

  6. About 45 mins (with Fat Rascal, my fave). Lots of fiddly wordplay I thought, but worth it. Raised eyebrow at ‘goes through’ for ‘has’, lash rather than splash, and thought the retailers would be undoing the dockers’ work rather than repeating it (so thanks V for the explanation).
    Thanks setter and V.
    1. Yes, that was my first thought with the dockers too. I can see that the clue works as it stands, but there was a nagging feeling that the other way round would have been even nicer, what with the nice mental image of someone sewing the tails back onto injured dogs.
        1. There is an old joke about a pub dog (docked) dying, but not being allowed into doggie heaven without his tail. So his ghost goes back to the pub at midnight – only to find that they can’t retail spirits after 11pm.
    2. To tail is a job a docker does (it involves ropes apparently) so repeating that work is to retail.

      Regards,
      Chris

  7. 9:04, which puts me second on the leaderboard behind a solver called clytemnestra, appropriately enough. So I seem to have been very much on the wavelength for this. This has put added spring into a step that already had a spring in it this morning in spite of a relatively small amount of sleep.
    I’m not sure I’ve come across ‘lash out’ meaning ‘splash out’ before but it went in with a shrug.
    1. Clytemnestra has neutrinoid tendencies, so you can probably add a bit more spring to the step.
      1. I don’t want to get carried away before the results are in from Jason North and Magoo Central.
        1. Looks like Jason North was a strong hold … but I’m still wearing my keriothe badge
            1. I’m game. After all what level of chaos can be worse than the extreme ‘no crossword is better than a bad crossword’ attitude of the ultra-purists?
              1. We’ll have to have a campaign meeting in a pub at some point before too long…
                1. Agreed. We’ll gather under a banner saying ‘Strong and stable leadership (3,7)’.

                  [Don’t try and solve that]

                  Edited at 2017-06-10 12:06 am (UTC)

  8. What was pleasant about this one was that if you persisted, it all eventually fell into place even if many of the answers were not what you were expecting. So PENDANT eventually became ABEYANT, (if briefly ABAYANT and something COCOA for 6d’s business). NEAR can’t be but is. ADUKI didn’t need the Z I expected. The “top person” in 5 wasn’t ER after all, all that sort of stuff, with my current slo-mo sneaking in just under 30.

    The only advice I can proffer to the Tory party this morning is the same as (rather hopelessly) appears at the end of the gambling adverts. “When the fun stops, stop.” Please.

  9. Nice clue in the Graun puzzle today: Labour fails to suppress female PM (7)
  10. 38′ today, bleary eyed and no resolution….How about ‘has’ in the sexual sense, i.e. goes through half the office….thanks V and setter
  11. Another 579 pointer today – I still think it’s valid. A few too many dodgy definitions for me (as detailed above) for it to be an easy crossword. Rather too many anagrams too.
  12. A hung crossword for me this morning, as I didn’t work out ABEYANT. Never thought of “abbey”, and didn’t know ABEYANT, and nothing I seemed to shuffle into my two blank spaces seemed to work.

    Shame, as I got the rest pretty quickly, though was slowed down by the NE corner, coming very late to TOOTHBRUSH especially.

    I blame the regular (pub-based) camera club meet-up followed by a mostly sleepless night watching the results come in…

    Thanks to setter and blogger, especially for explaining how NEAR worked.

    Edited at 2017-06-09 10:30 am (UTC)

  13. Another BUSTLE here. Feeling FRAIL after being too late to bed. Hung parliaments are not good for the creative juices and I’m suffering a bad case of writer’s block on my novel. It might as well be 18a. Steady solve to a steady puzzle in 45 minutes. COD NEAR. I wonder why I got that quickly? We’re carrying on up the Baltic next week, so this is the last post for twelve days. Thank you V and setter.
  14. 22 min, but after a few minutes worrying about definition of 5dn and trying to think of anything that would fit, decided to submit as wordplay was clear enough. So didn’t do a check for typos, and failed to see I’d started in wrong place for 25ac, giving AABEYAN, and nonsense for crossers. 🙁
  15. 40m but one wrong – bustle for hurtle. Seems fine to me. And grandson slept through it all on this my sons wedding day here in a beautiful b… Kos (can’t say the colour in case it’s infectious! Thanks setter and V
  16. I’m glad I thought of HURTLE and didn’t think any further. All correct in 48:50. FOI FAVE, LOI PAYOFF. Found this hard going but persevered. Liked BUSINESS CYCLE and WRITERS CRAMP. Loads of effective misdirection in the clues. Thanks setter and V.
  17. 18:04 so it must have been quite easy for a Friday. I too liked 27a, and also 6d – having got a folding one myself for getting from the Park&Ride to the office (when it’s not dark, cold, windy or rainy).
  18. 23 mins. I drifted slightly mid-solve but I don’t think I lost too much time because of it. I just never felt fully on the setter’s wavelength. I struggled the most in the NE quadrant and the TOOTHBRUSH/HASTEN crossers were my last ones in after UNMADE. I entered HURTLE without thinking about it too much, and “bustle” never sprang to mind. If I’d thought of it first I may have bunged it in but I wouldn’t have been happy with it.
  19. About 30 minutes, ending with NEAR. I did get held up halfway through this, but managed to get going again with TOOTHBRUSH. I had never heard of the ADUKI, or the ADZUKI either, so I’m glad it was a simple hidden. I had HURTLE, never thought of the alternative. Regards.
  20. All (or so I thought) but my LOI, 5dn, done in 28mins on the train this morning. Spent another 10 mins walking to work desperately trying to justify “enamelled”. 11 mins at lunchtime sorted the problem. I’m not sure I’ll ever live this one down but, having worked out half of 3ac was a brush, instead of plumping for the thing that was obviously a thing I went for the thing that sounded like it might be a thing but wasn’t – coverbrush – on the basis of “over” for further and “b” for book all wrapped up in Bobby Crush who I had vaguely heard of and thought might be a deceased American singer (apparently not – maybe confusing him with Bobby Vee or Vinton or someone else?). Needed some perseverance to spot the error and complete all correct. Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle. Did not pick up on “lash out” and the “stingy” meaning of “near” which went in from def. COD to 15dn where I struggled to shake the image of shop stewards and stevedores.

    Edited at 2017-06-09 07:34 pm (UTC)

  21. Didn’t know that meaning of near, but it seemed reasonable. Luckily I stumbled on hurtle first. Otherwise it went better than usual for me on a Friday. Thanks Verlaine and setter
  22. Didn’t know that meaning of near, but it seemed reasonable. Luckily I stumbled on hurtle first. Otherwise it went better than usual for me on a Friday. Thanks Verlaine and setter
  23. I don’t get this one ….. Is a raconteur’s punch line a payoff? 🙂
    1. Yup; common parlance among comedians, certainly.

      SETUP: How do you think the unthinkable?
      PAYOFF: With an itheberg.

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