Times 26851 – What do they sell at record shows? Reports?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time: 48 minutes
Music: Stan Getz, Sweet Rain

My time was not very good on this one.   Most of it was pretty easy, but there were a few tricky clues, and I had a wrong word.   You can probably guess from the blog title what it was, and it certainly made ‘webcam’ very elusive.   You would think that after spending several hours at the WESU Record Fair this morning, I would have records on my mind.   But even as I listened to some of my purchases, I sitll put in a very wrong answer. 

I would imagine that solvers with all the necessary knowledge will do very well with this puzzle.   It does have a rather old-fashioned feel, redolent of a garden in the country in the early part of the twentieth century.   But those who are missing one or two vital bits of information will be quite frustrated, and may be stuck for a long time before just constucting an answer from the cryptic and hoping for the best.

PS – This time I remembered to proofread the puzzle number – it was wrong, of course.

Across
1 Lose a grand at start of plum contract again (2-6)
RE-ENGAGE – [g]REENGAGE, a fruit not widely used here in the US.
5 Father grabbing whiskey and wife fruit (6)
PAWPAW – PA(W)PA(W), where two different single-letter indictors come into play.
9 Young horse’s short saddle (3)
COL – COL[t].   I nearly biffed ‘cob’, but held back.   This is the geographical sort of saddle, I believe.
10 Unpopular — completely tasteless — left to fade away (3,2,6)
OUT OF FAVOUR – OUT OF F[l]AVOUR, a simple letter-removal clue.
12 A fish served in French bread is an item for parties (5,5)
PAPER CHAIN – PA(PERCH)IN.   It took me a few minutes to remember the French word for ‘bread’.
13 Cheese served up for tea — not yellow (4)
FETA – anagram of F[or] TEA – you must leave out the gold!
15 Remote sensor network affected with loss of power (6)
WEBCAM – WEB CAM[p]. 
16 A Balkan native importing British tumbler (7)
ACROBAT – A CRO(B)AT, a bit of a chestnut.
18 Bone is concerning when turned over in organic material (7)
HUMERUS – HUM(RE backwards)US. 
20 Take away conduit after damage on outside (6)
DEDUCT – D[amag]E + DUCT.
23 Dismiss what’s upsetting to us (4)
OUST – anagram of TO US.
24 Forbid going adventuring without son having a good meal (10)
BANQUETING – BAN QUE[s]TING, which would ruin many medieval romances.
26 Drop scone naughty Edgar licked (11)
GRIDDLECAKE – anagram of EDGAR LICKED, where the surface describes a bizarre farmhouse scene in King Lear that was cut in the final version.
27 Cut in contributions to the Treasury uncovered (3)
AXE – [t]AXE[s]
28 Exactly describe backward condition in deep valley (6)
DEFINE – DE(IF backwards)NE. 
29 Dull person’s tidy bed? (8)
DEADHEAD – DEAD + HEAD, where the literal is a verbal phrase referring to the practice of pruning deceased vegetation in a garden.   The only two meanings I knew involve either long rock concerts or tedious journies with empty railroad cars. 

Down
1 Concerned with cold and broken pie dish (6)
RECIPE – RE + C + anagram of PIE.
2 Oval: English run out with second of deliveries on the up (7)
ELLIPSE – E + SPILL  + [d]E[liveries], all upside-down.
3 Thug with criminal history is to make a statement (2,2,6)
GO ON RECORD – GOON + RECORD, perfectly simple, right?
4 Become wise, absorbing subjects to understand (3,3,7)
GET THE MESSAGE – GET (THEMES) SAGE, which most solvers will proably biff.
6 What’s designed to hold back architect of Scottish nationality (4)
ADAM – A DAM.   The literal is very explicit, and most solvers will have heard of Robert Adam.
7 Saw dog in pub — not acceptable (7)
PROVERB – P (-u +ROVER) B, a clue where a whole word is substituted for a single letter, but the base word is supplied directly.
8 Guarded about bluster which salesman often offers (8)
WARRANTY – WAR(RANT)Y.
11 Conservative after market also honest (4,3,6)
FAIR AND SQUARE – FAIR + AND SQUARE, in different senses.
14 Brigade he’d manoeuvred to make strong position (10)
BRIDGEHEAD – anagram of BRIGADE HE’D.   A little awkward, crossing with ‘deadhead’. 
17 Did press good to get in on seat at court (8)
THRONGED – THRON(G)ED. 
19 Dog seen in mother’s picture file (7)
MASTIFF – MA’S TIFF.   A .tiff file is an uncompressed, high-resolution digital image.
21 Prevailing attitude of European after court has capital injected (7)
CLIMATE – C(LIMA)T + E.   I wrote in ‘crigate’ and erased it immediately!
22 Admitted elderly need intake of right energy (6)
AGREED – AG(R,E)ED.
25 Row after Oscar for superhero role? (4)
ODIN – O + DIN, probably in some Marvel comic.

55 comments on “Times 26851 – What do they sell at record shows? Reports?”

  1. Well, it had to be MASTIFF, and it pretty much had to be DEADHEAD, though I didn’t know why in either case. If Tuesday is the new Friday, it would seem that Monday is, ah, Monday.
  2. Only hold up today was penetrating the SW–had to detangle the drop scones with only a couple of checkers

    Didn’t parse ellipse or deadhead, ta very much

    Know my image files and marvel characters, but not so hot on Scottish architects

  3. Only 20 minutes for this one, so perhaps the “rather old-fashioned feel, redolent of a garden in the country in the early part of the twentieth century” suited my soul, and the fact that I struggled a little with ‘remote sensor’ as the defintion of WEBCAM and TIFF as ‘picture file’ was predictable, as they are terms from another world.

    Greengages as such are none too common in the UK either and I don’t remember ever seeing one in a shop or eating one raw for that matter, although I believe they are used in preserves as perhaps our breakfast correspondent can confirm?

    Edited at 2017-10-09 05:26 am (UTC)

  4. 8:27, but with an error. I knew the answer to 2dn was ELLIPSE, but my fingers somehow managed to type ECLIPSE and unsurprisingly it didn’t leap out as a typo when I checked my answers. My solve was characterised by a lot of biffing – in fact I put in the answer to 11dn without even looking at the clue – so it’s not really surprising I made a careless mistake. I did get a bit stuck at the end on 29ac and 6dn, where I thought of ADAM but it took me an embarrassingly long time to see the wordplay.
    I’m making a lot of silly mistakes at the moment. Bodes well for next month.

    Edited at 2017-10-09 06:17 am (UTC)

  5. dnk a TIFF file, started with PAWPAW and ended with THRONGED. Slow and steady all the way. Nuff said. (At 21dn I wrote in ‘cromete’ and erased it immediately…!).

  6. 22m and a first solve on the iPad on the Crossword club site, which seemed quite user friendly and more obvious than the puzzle on the actual paper. Back late from a trip to Cambridge I did this before turning in – another first for me. Final first of the hatrick, I was 7th on the leaderboard, but this occasioned an unexpected nosebleed so I went to sleep.
    I had the same guesses – TIFF and WEBCAM – as others but for once was on the wavelength and was able to biff quite a few. Thanks to setter and blogger today.

    Edited at 2017-10-09 07:48 am (UTC)

  7. 13:34 .. nice description of this puzzle, vinyl (okay, maybe they didn’t have webcams in Belle Époque country gardens, but otherwise…)

    I got a bit bogged down in the SW, with a long time to get THRONGED. Otherwise, fairly straightforward. I quite liked the style of this one, too.

  8. 15 min; didn’t know .tiff but answer was clear enough. Very pleasing solve. Now I’ve got used to the new format when producing a paper copy I’m quite happy with it. I just re-size to 109% (that seems to be the maximum without losing the border of the grid) and away we go. At least it comes out on a single sheet! It would be nice though to be able to print out older versions than Jan 2015 as I always used to do a ten year old one on Sundays. Still, as I have zero recollection of these relatively recent ones I suppose it doesn’t matter that much; then again, what is the problem?

    Edited at 2017-10-09 07:57 am (UTC)

  9. … was a beautifully made 1961 film with Susannah York. We thought we had a greengage in our garden when a tree given me 20 years ago as a shrub by my late father, now height 30 feet , fruited for the first time in 2014. The fruit wasn’t quite right though. It’s still known as Granddad’s tree. 14 minutes for this today, bang on wavelength. Loved DEADHEAD (it’s been a good year for the roses, as Elvis Costello noticed) but COD has to be GRIDDLECAKE for the Lear reference, not that I was aware of it before. Enjoyable start to the week.
  10. Pretty straightforward. Only really dithered over DEFINE/ODIN where I thought it might be DEFILE/ODIL. It helps if you wake up properly before attempting crosswords.
  11. I found this a fairly Mondayish offering – nothing too taxing. I’d not heard of a GRIDDLECAKE but given the clue and having seen cake in the anagram fodder this one fell early. Having since Googled them they appear just to be pancakes.
  12. Under 25 mins chewing through healthy breakfast of yoghurt and fruit. There is something unsatisfactory about fresh fruit compared with pastry or cake – so maybe that accounts for my view of this crossword. Fair but unsatisfying.
    Mostly I didn’t like: Pawpaw, Webcam, TIFF, Deadhead, ‘Throned’.
    Hey ho.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
    1. After your birthday regards to me last week, I checked your profile and see yours was yesterday. After all that birthday cake, you’re better off with yoghurt and fruit, but have some a slice of your cake for elevenses. That’s if you’ve any left. Belated happy birthday wishes.
      1. Thank you. Trout Pate from the fantastic Herbie in Stockbridge has put me in a better humour.
        Tell me – are you John Uttley, or just a fan?
        1. I am John Uttley, or at least one of the John Uttleys presently on this planet. I see you’re Bob Price, eating at a highly-rated Edinburgh restaurant. I’m getting as bad as my wife who stalks our grown children on Find Friends.
          1. Our Herbie is the Deli, not a restaurant. Your book sounds good – I’ll have to try it.
            1. I’ve sent you my email address by LJ message. If you’d like to give me an address, I’ll send you a copy of WSJ, Where’s Sailor Jack and not The Wall Street Journal. that is.
  13. Ah, those smooth green lawns of the Edwardian era, over which the sun seemed always to shine. I felt like I was making quite heavy weather of this, entering GET THE PICTURE and therefore puzzling hard over such possibilities as WEBCAP before the pennies fell into place… but 5m45 isn’t too bad especially after significantly vinous celebrations yesterday.
    1. I considered GET THE PICTURE but then that would put _E_C_P in 15A as you imply. I remembered we had a recent clue with these checkers and the only thing I could think of for ages was teacup until I finally got redcap. With neither of these appropriate here I thought it couldn’t be picture.
    2. Seems I sent you Facebook-prompted birthday greetings a day late! But maybe I’m jumping to a conclusion. Aren’t “significantly vinous celebrations” a near-quotidian event for you?

      Edited at 2017-10-09 10:27 pm (UTC)

  14. 15:14 for what felt like a traditional Monday offering. I might have shaved a bit off that if I had just accepted ODIN at face value instead of wondering what superhero had to do with it, but conversely TIFF is an everday word for me. Win some, lose some.
      2. I accidentally caught a bit of Thor 2 at the weekend and it did look very silly. I was reminded of the time I saw Timmy Mallet at Bradford Interchange railway station carrying what I assume was his mallet in a large mallet-shaped bag.
  15. At 27:45 my first ever sub-30, so a good start to the week. I knew things were going well when perch was the first fish I thought of.

    COD 29a, just because the verb was cleverly disguised as an adjective.

    Thanks blogger and setter.

  17. Fourteen minutes which, allowing for the time dilation effects of several G&Ts, is not bad going for me. I too was puzzled at ODIN being a superhero, but I guess being a god counts. In fact, if deities had been presented as superheros a la Marvel, I might have paid more attention in RE classes. As it was, the most interesting thing to come up in RE was the claim by our (rather odd) teacher that God had sent him a new washing machine.
  18. My second ever sub one hour time and a new PB at 54:17, so it must have been fairly gentle. Thanks for the explanation of Webcam, Ellipse and Feta.
  19. 10:54. It could have been a very rare (for me) sub 10 minutes, but I took an age to see the definition of 29a was ‘tidy bed’ (My LOI). I actually managed a clean sweep of the down clues along the way. Very mondayish, but good fun. 27a my favourite. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

    Edited at 2017-10-09 09:33 am (UTC)

  20. A gentle start to the week, starting with RECIPE and finishing with ADAM to the accompanying sound of pennies dropping, after 22:28. GREENGAGE was another penny drop moment after some crossers had gone in. No problem with the familiar file extension or GRIDDLECAKE. WEBCAM needed crossers to jolt me back into the present. 7d presented no problems as Saw is now embedded in my brain. Knew the gardening expression, although gardening is something I tend to avoid, apart from running the strimmer and mower around occasionally. An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and V.
  21. 27 minutes for me so I must be in tune with an old English country garden or whatever is the style of this setter as this is a good time for me. Enjoyed the many multi-word answers. Didn’t parse ‘define’ and ‘deduct’ and last in was ‘webcam’ (something cam needed). Was not sure of ‘throned’ at first instead of ‘throne’, clue needed ‘in on’ which I reread properly.

    Can someone enlighten me on the Lear connection with griddlecake please? Ah no, got it from earlier, was mistaking ‘Edgar’ for ‘Edward’!! Not my best suit, better on birds …

    Thankyou to the setter and blogger

  22. Another one from My First Big Book of History (last week we had Raleigh and the puddle). What came to mind was not Lear but King Alfred burning the scones while escaping from the Vikings. I think they are a/k/a “girdlecakes”. Deadheading is the only garden chore I don’t mind when our NE US weather turns hot. 11.36
  23. 11:50 with DEADHEAD last in although I’m not ungrateful (no pun intended) for the Don Henley earworm it has given me.

    I failed to parse the ADAM clue so just had to trust my extensive knowledge of Scottish architects (I make it two if CRM is allowed).

    Congrats, by the way, to today’s PB beaters / milestone achievers.

    Edited at 2017-10-09 11:43 am (UTC)

  24. Didn’t know the meaning of DEADHEAD so looked it up and it’s someone who has a free ticket to something – named after the Romans ‘free admission tickets were small ivory death heads, and specimens of these can be seen in the Museum of Naples’. What this has to do with dull I’m not sure…
  25. and it has nothing to do with dull as I had the clue the wrong way round! Ah well……..
  26. 31:07 for me so pretty gentle. FOI 5ac. LOI 29ac. Held up a bit at the end by ignorance of Scottish architects and at 29ac. Bunged in Adam at 6dn from wordplay. The crossing bridgehead into 29ac caused me to think deadhead pretty quickly but took a while longer to see the tidy bed bit of the clue as a gardening reference, once I did, I was happy to bung it in and assume that it meant a dull person. I have also just seen how thronged works where I take it to be “on seat at court” to account for “throned” rather than just “seat at court” which obviously doesn’t work. Keeping up with the breakfast preserve of choice of certain fellow contributors helped 1ac fall much quicker than might otherwise have been the case. It felt a bit chestnutty but I rather liked 3dn so that’s my COD (sorry blogger).
  27. I see now from re-reading the blog and from eniamretrauq’s comment above that I parsed deadhead wrong and that I should have lifted and separated dull and person to arrive separately at dead for dull and head for person, not dead head for a dull person. Ah well, as long as the answer falls into place I won’t worry too much about how I got there.
  28. As this is a Monday perhaps we get not just “architect” but “of Scottish nationality” to clue ADAM at 6d.

    On the 10th of October 2007 – a Wednesday – we just got 6a Bob the builder (4). I only know this as I just happen to have completed it in my trawl of back numbers. Sad I know.

    On the subject of Verlaine’s OKAY SUPER HERO movies I watched most of “Thor: the Dark World” on Saturday night where 25d ODIN was played by Anthony Hopkins. It left me wondering how such a barely okay film could be made with such a star-studded cast?

    1. The first Thor movie was interestingly directed by Kenneth Branagh, which may have lured the likes of Sir Anthony in, only for him to discover later that the rest of the trilogy would not be so illustriously/luvvieishly helmed…
  29. The third movie (hopefully in the trilogy?) is due out in the UK on the 24th of this month. This time it is directed by a Kiwi stand-up comedian and artist and now film director / actor. He has drafted in Lady Galadriel as a baddie and half of the cast of Jurassic Park it seems to swell the ranks of the glitterati on the crew. I hope it is all worth it in the end …
  30. A Monday for me, too, which translates into a couple minutes over the half hour (allowing favourably for several trips back and forth to the coffee pot). Spent a long time trying to cobble PAYE into something at 27a, didn’t know dene and hadn’t heard of paper chain in the context of a party (decoration?), but neither was very difficult. Nice blog, Vinyl, and a nice puzzle, too, setter. Thx
  31. Hi all. This took about 30 minutes, despite my not knowing of ADAM the architect, and thinking ‘throned’ didn’t look right. DNK what a ‘dene’ is either. Happy to be correct after those, and not parsing DEADHEAD correctly. As vinyl explains it, it’s quite well done. Regards.
  32. As it’s Monday I thought I’d give this a try. Made good progress until I had just one left- 15a. I put the puzzle down and came back to it after a break and finally derived Webcam. Otherwise I was pretty much on the wavelength. Could not parse Feta. David
  33. 15 minutes late in the day whizzing down the right side and crawling back up the left.
    I’m not convinced Odin is a superhero: he might be Thor’s daddy, but surely superheroes defend Earth against criminals and intergalactic baddies, not to mention Thor’s unpleasant brother. Odin seems much more concerned about protecting Asgard: can’t see him fighting alongside Iron Man or Hulk.
  34. Due to travelling I was behind schedule but for the record came home in just shy of 40 minutes.

    COD 29ac DEADHEAD my late mother was a dedicated DEADHEADER in her beds. Smart clue.

    WOD 26ac GRIDDLE CAKE breakfast anyone!?

  35. As it’s only the second time I have finished the main crossword I feel I should post a comment. I fully expected to see a lot of remarks about how unbelievably easy this one was and that it should have been a Quick Cryptic so was pleasantly surprised that has not been the case even though many of you have recorded very good times. It can be demoralising if whenever I get close to completing the grid the comments are dismissive of the standard set.
    I had to sleep on Feta and just biffed it in the morning without parsing so thanks for the explanation.
    Phil R
  36. Quite simple and clean.

    I bravely biffed FETA in order to come in under 40 minutes, which is a very good time for me, especially as I was quite sleepy. If I’d been awake I might have translated “yellow” heraldically.

    Nits:
    – Can’t see how to parse “on” in 20A
    – “re” appears in both 1D & 18A

    I particularly liked 17D & 29A for the elegance with which the definition was concealed.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

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