So obviously I was delighted by this grid and if I was in the zone with a time under 12 minutes last night it’s only because the zone quite literally had my name on it. I’m pretty sure many of the clues are brilliant in their own right though, starting from the wonderful definition part in 1ac. The two &lit type clues are perfect, I loved the “trouser-clad Christian convert”, and my top hat goes off to 25ac for doing something that felt fresh with a rather chestnutty crossword word. All the surfaces are really good, I mean really good, and there are enough mildly pretentious literary references even for this exacting (neo-)classicist. Hard to choose a Clue of the Day objectively then, but of course for me it had to be 16dn.
Anyway I am a happy 
verlaine this morning, and I don’t even have to go to work once I hit the post button on this blog so I might go lie down with some Magpies instead. A big thank you to the very silly setter and I shall go away humming slightly modified bits of the Nina to myself:
Suis-je né trop tôt ou trop tard ?
Qu’est-ce que je fais en ce monde ?
Ô vous tous, profonde est ma peine :
Priez pour le pauvre Verlaine!
ACROSS
1 Seats at end of a line that are bound to be filled? (6)
ALBUMS – BUMS [seats] at end of A L [a | line]. Albums are bound books intended to be filled with something.
4 Method of calling painter comparing exhibits (8)
INTERCOM – hidden in {pa}INTER COM{paring}
10 Eighties film seen in bar — retro or what! (5,4)
LOCAL HERO – LOCAL [bar] + reversed OR EH [or | what]. 1983 Scottish comedy-drama featuring Peter Capaldi and, probably more memorably to non-Doctor-Who-fans, Burt Lancaster.
11 Ultimately, screen idol keeps lacking originality (5)
BANAL – {scree}N kept by BAAL [idol]
12 No answer managed to come to West Indian writer (7)
NARAYAN – NAY A RAN [no | answer | managed] running from east to west. Probably referring to Graham Greene’s pal R.K. Narayan, but there’s an Indian writer just called Narayan who won something called the “Economist Crossword Book Award” in 2011, and that sounds *very* prestigious…
13 Perhaps first sound from farmyard machinery (3,4)
LOW GEAR – LOW [sound from farmyard, i.e. mooing] + GEAR [machinery]
14 These rates no good for doing different office jobs? (5)
TEMPI – TEMPI are rates; add them to NG [no good] to make TEMPING [doing different office jobs]
15 Rank or ratings associated with old music maker (8)
ABSOLUTE – ABS [ratings, as in sailors] associated with O LUTE [old | music maker]
18 Left way before trouble returned in UK town (8)
LLANELLI – L LANE [left | way] before AIL [trouble] reversed, making a no doubt delightful South Welsh town not too far from Swansea.
20 One needing her mic reset occasionally? (5)
EMCEE – {h}E{r} M{i}C {r}E{s}E{t} on and off, rather good semi-&lit.
23 A number keeping swine in ideal rural setting (7)
ARCADIA – ARIA [a number] keeping CAD [swine]
25 Tête-à-tête for entente cordiale allies in Moslem’s office (7)
IMAMATE – if the entente cordiale is an Anglo-French agreement, the two allies are an AMI and a MATE, having a head-to-head here, in any language.
26 Leads on social activism up to Elizabeth Fry (5)
SAUTE – S{ocial} A{ctivism} U{p} T{o} E{lizabeth}
27 Broadcast, one repeated, state TV makes up (9)
TITIVATES – (I I STATE TV*) [“broadcast”]
28 Using fliers to defend new recording of tune? (3,5)
AIR COVER – also suggesting a COVER [new recording] of an AIR [tune]
29 Swedish girl showing where poem’s title hidden here (6)
INGRID – both a Swedish girl and an unusually helpful pointer towards the existence of a Nina
DOWN
1 Large English translation of that goes around, eventually (2,6)
AT LENGTH – L ENG [large | English], which (THAT*) [“translation of…”] goes around
2 What’s used to bind dollar to pound (7)
BUCKRAM – BUCK [dollar] to RAM [pound]. I never really knew what buckram was apart from a word irresistible to crossword setters, but it can indeed be used for the binding of books.
3 Places one appreciates at first, visiting island in eastern state (9)
MALAYSIAN – LAYS I A [places | one | A{ppreciates}], “visiting” MAN [island]
5 Accession lists sorted for group of composers (14)
NEOCLASSICISTS – (ACCESSION LISTS*) [“sorted”]
6 Crook: a pusher, often (5)
ELBOW – a cryptic definition, really, the elbow being the crook of one’s arm, often used for, well, elbowing things aside I suppose.
7 Chapter having presumably now left union (7)
CONCERT – C [chapter] having ONCE RT = “once right” = “presumably now left”
8 Old term of respect, or mild ragging (6)
MILORD – (OR MILD*) [“ragging”], probably &littish too. Not that horryd would ever use it except as a term of utmost respect…
9 Trouser-clad Christian convert drawing on philosopher (4-4,6)
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE – PAUL in JEANS [trouser-clad Christian convert, effectively] + ART RE [drawing | on]
16 Old actor played Verlaine around end of film (3,6)
LEE MARVIN – (VERLAINE*) [“played”] around {fil}M
17 Knowledgeable, with bible lessons being put back (8)
REVERSED – VERSED [knowledgeable] with RE [bible lessons]
19 Polish person missing something at audition (7)
LACQUER – homophone of LACKER [person missing something]
21 Move quickly to lag hot pipe (7)
CHANTER – CANTER [move quickly] to “lag” H [hot]. This is a bagpipe pipe, not a smokable one.
22 What comes in waves after an upset tum, inside? (6)
NAUSEA – SEA [what comes in waves] after AN reversed + {t}U{m}, &lit, AND a reference to the work of 9dn.
24 Spaniard, perhaps, to pass on turn (5)
DIEGO – DIE [to pass on] + GO [turn]
JPS (and I don’t mean the coffin nail lending it’s name to the 1972 F1 World Championship winnning car) as the ‘Trouser-clad Christian convert’ was my favourite.
Great stuff.
Thanks to setter and our chuffed blogger
And I am ashamed to say several of those mins staring at LOI 9dn. Good grief. And we had Levis in the quicky yesterday.
Brilliant Nina and tribute.
Mostly I liked: ‘bound to be filled’ and Nausea.
Thanks tough setter and honoured V.
Happy Easter everyone.
PS – speaking of ‘dangling’ “a”s as we sometimes do. My only MER was at ‘a number’ = aria. I would say ‘a number’ is ‘an aria’ and actually the dangler on this occasion was unhelpful.
Edited at 2018-03-30 08:22 am (UTC)
FOI 20ac EMCEE
LOI 14ac TEMPI
COD 5dn NEOCLASSICISTS
WOD VERLAINE (again!)
12ac refers to Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (a handy avatar?)
Time: immemorial
So it’s GASPARD HAUSER (rows 6 and 8) and CHANTE(R) in 21d, oui?
Edited at 2018-03-30 08:38 am (UTC)
So who did the Guiness Ads?
Edited at 2018-03-30 08:51 am (UTC)
Edited at 2018-03-30 08:39 am (UTC)
To be honest I got very little pleasure from the 69 minutes spent on this. I was grouchy about several points: “eighties film” for LOCAL HERO was a poor def; ‘C’ isn’t an abbreviation for ‘chapter’; the “once rt” = “presumably now left” in 7d was daft; 9d might be COD-worthy clueing, but was wasted on a write-in for a philosopher in (4-4,6); the extraneous ‘a’ in the clue for AR[CAD]IA; “ragging” as an anagrind??
Ah well. Chacun à son goût, as Verlaine might have said.
Edited at 2018-03-30 10:13 am (UTC)
If our blogger has time, perhaps a guide for those new to the Times puzzle who have come here? Lots of jargon throughout the blog.
Thanks both Verlaines and setter.
MILORD reminded me of my first (and most embarrassing) court appearance in NY. In my acute state of nerves I inadvertently called the judge m’lord instead of your honor and got the most freezing look from him. It was only afterwards that I remembered that his first name was Millard so I suppose he thought I was being familiar. 31.48
Edited at 2018-03-30 10:37 am (UTC)
FOI EMCEE, so I already knew it was going to be tough, and didn’t like the clue at all. HER mic ? What, pray, is a Mistress of Ceremonies ?
Didn’t spot the “nina”, and since Gaspard is a DNK, it wouldn’t have been of any benefit to me. But if I HAD known him I might not have biffed CONCEPT.
Also DNK NARAYAN, and did not like ALBUMS, LOW GEAR, MALAYSIAN, NEOCLASSICISTS (I expected a hyphen, but Chambers agrees with the compiler), ELBOW, or DIEGO (Maradona wasn’t a Spaniard, but he blighted my life).
To make my DNF worse, I can offer no excuse for biffing RECESSED at 17D.
There were good bits. LOCAL HERO is already causing a Mark Knopfler earworm, IMAMATE is a worthy COD, AIR COVER runs it close, and WOD TITIVATES. However, whilst thanking V for his usual insights, I am totally unable to agree on his “Puzzle of the Year” nomination. There have already been two better puzzles this week in my opinion. This one was just an unwelcome chore, though I’m probably expressing a minority view.
Just couldn’t spot 7d, or 25 despite having vaguely worked out what might be going on there, nor the unknown TITIVATES even though I considered it, having spotted the anagram, nor the unknown CHANTER, having been fixated on the possible unknown of “chareer”. Sounded like it might be a pipe to me, anyway…
Oh well. I’d have tried to persevere, but there’s only so much time I can gnaw away at a puzzle, even on a bank holiday!
The best puzzles are the ones that beat you
Struggling to find a bad clue… the welsh one, maybe, if it wasn’t 50% Ls
Well now we know what the reference to Verlaine on Monday was building us up to! Thanks “Verlaine” for the great blog.
I needed to look at a list of films to find 10ac before I could anything in the NW corner, so this was a technical DNF.
So birthday greetings and best wishes to Verlaine !
I have an idea about tomorrow’s crossword. Will post afterwards here re this if I’m right.
My theory for today’s crossword, number 27,000, is that it might have a cubic theme. 300 cubed is 27000. I will find out next week if I’m right!
And I only realized on coming here that I’d left a few mysteries unplumbed (though I meant to go back to it). This was a corker.
I twigged from INGRID that there was a poem lurking in the grid but was surprised to find that my unlikely guess of “Coco Gaspard Hauser Nasc” wasn’t a million miles away. It was a bit wasted on me though as I haven’t worked my way through all* of the great man’s works yet.
*any
I did not spend too long looking at the puzzle partly because of the off-putting pictures of Steve Smith and Darren Lehman just above it.
I did manage to find Diego, Ingrid and Lee Marvin before giving up. David
Yes, definitely the best puzzle for ages. Several clues went in straight away, enough to suggest that it might be a breeze, and then it became apparent that a whole nother level (HIGHER GEAR?) of lateral thinking was required to get there in the end. And I would say that the gear metaphor is on reflection most appropriate as there was more than one gear change required to get to the top of the hill before being able to look back and survey the wonders I had just climbed through. Half way through I was thinking, yes, this is real Friday fare. And then I was thinking I wonder what V thought of it, bet he loved it. And then, thank God or the Universe or something, I finished it correctly (I would have been gutted to have got so close and then fallen over on such a beautiful day) and then went to the blog and was really pleased to see how much V really did appreciate it. And then on reading the comments it became clear that it really was a specific gift (and as pointed out by the man himself a special birthday one).
I thought every clue was brilliant, and have no problems at all with ARCADIA or LOCAL HERO or IMAMATE or CONCERT as posted by others. They all work beautifully. In fact my LOI was CONCERT and it was also my COD, because with all the checkers in there were several words that ’almost’ worked, such as CONNECT and CONVENT. But one of the great pieces of wisdom I have received from this community, from one particular excellent blogger whom I cannot remember for the moment (please own up?), is to the effect that if you don’t understand it you haven’t got it right. Thus where in the old days I might have biffed one of those two words, this time I held on for the correct CONCERT and actually loved the way it was clued. Someone else has called it daft, but it really worked for me. Then with all the theme work going on I think it was about the closest thing a DC has ever come to a Listener.
Brilliant puzzle and blog, thanks so much to both setter and blogger for one of the most enjoyable experiences of recent times. This is such stuff as crossword dreams are made on.
a) been what it really is, a cross between a TLS and a (well, ok, rather easy) Listener
b) not been on Good Friday, a preposterously busy day in my year
c) not had AIR COVER instead of AIR POWER, which I ran out of time to notice properly
Ah well.
I thought every clue was brilliant, and have no problems at all with ARCADIA or LOCAL HERO or IMAMATE or CONCERT as posted by others. They all work beautifully. In fact my LOI was CONCERT and it was also my COD, because with all the checkers in there were several words that ’almost’ worked, such as CONNECT and CONVENT. But one of the great pieces of wisdom I have received from this community, from one particular excellent blogger whom I cannot remember for the moment (please own up?), is to the effect that if you don’t understand it you haven’t got it right. Thus where in the old days I might have biffed one of those two words, this time I held on for the correct CONCERT and actually loved the way it was clued. Someone else has called it daft, but it really worked for me. Then with all the theme work going on I think it was about the closest thing a DC has ever come to a Listener.
Brilliant puzzle and blog, thanks so much to both setter and blogger for one of the most enjoyable experiences of recent times. This is such stuff as crossword dreams are made on.
Edited at 2018-03-31 11:01 am (UTC)
Now to find out what delights/horrors puzzle 27000 has in store…
Edited at 2018-03-31 11:03 am (UTC)