Times 27028 – when a spirit fails to possess you

Solving time: 17:11, with about three minutes of it on the last entry, which was 19 down.  I thought I was off to a good start on this one, but really slowed down for the last dozen or so answers, hunting and pecking through the alphabet.  There’s a few unusual definitions here, but the wordplay is clear, although obscure in a few places. It’s been an odd week for puzzles with one most found a stinker that I breezed through, then a few more tricky ones.

I am heading out shortly after this and will not be able to edit until the morning (early afternoon UK time), so if I have an error, please check the comments. Definitions are underlined.

Away we go…

Across
1 Japanese verse reporting shrill sound made by dove? (5)
HAIKU – sounds like HIGH COO
4 His kind goes around gaping (9)
DEHISCENT – HIS with DECENT(kind) around it. I knew the verb DEHISCE, don’t think I’ve used this form before
9 Southern Europeans put off trapping a bird, perhaps (9)
SEEDEATER – S, E, E (two Europeans), then DETER(put off) containing A
10 Trying to get hold of beams endlessly (5)
AFTER – remove the ends from RAFTERS
11 Anticipate former teacher’s favourite touring clubs (6)
EXPECT – EX then the teacher’s PET c
12 Graceful fleet regularly observed in sea (8)
BALLETIC – alternating letters in fLeEt inside the BALTIC sea
14 Bacteria? Poetic sort sadly harbours hundreds (12)
STREPTOCOCCI – anagram of POETIC SORT cotaining two C’s(hundreds)
17 Music in motet Verdi revised? (12)
DIVERTIMENTO – anagram of IN,MOTET,VERDI
20 European river engulfing slender shrub (8)
OLEANDER – the river ODER containing LEAN(slender)
21 A minister recalled in Tennessee lodging-place (6)
TAVERN – A then REV reversed in TN(Tennessee, soon to be joining a periodic table near you)
23 Bitter as a native of Belgrade, by the sound of it (5)
ACERB – sounds like A SERB
24 I sit out in court abandoned like some holidays (9)
TOURISTIC – anagram of I,SIT in an anagram of COURT. Had to get this one from wordplay
25 Producer of rolls finally invests in a famous racehorse (5,4)
SNARE DRUM(invest)S, (i)N, A, RED RUM(racehorse) the rolls being drum rolls
26 Railwaymen once given points to look after (5)
NURSE – NUR(National Union of Railwaymen) then the points S and E

Down
1 He’s swallowing a novel hospital drug (8)
HASHEESH – HE’S containing A, SHE(the novel that has been noticeably absent lately) then H(hospital). I don’t see that spelling often
2 Bungling agent held up by one immediately following (8)
INEXPERT – REP(agent) reversed in I, NEXT
3 Innocent, but lacking capacity to cover special case (15)
UNEXCEPTIONABLE – UNABLE(lacking capacity to) containing EXCEPTION(special case). Didn’t think this could mean “innocent” but Chambers has “not liable” which is close enough
4 Figures perhaps slightly raised (4)
DATA – A TAD reversed
5 On radio, learn of storm primarily in this area (10)
HEREABOUTS – sounds like HEAR ABOUT, then S(torm)
6 Firm in Monaco quietly replaced Arab fellow? (6,9)
STABLE COMPANION – STABLE(firm) in than anagram of IN,MONACO,P – the Arabs are horses here
7 Object songbird found in English city (6)
ENTITY – TIT(songbird) in E, NY
8 Most of the people in ancient Balkan country (6)
THRACE – TH(e), RACE(people)
13 More sensible to engage one’s orthopaedic auxiliary (10)
BONESETTER – ONE’S inside BETTER(more sensible) – had to piece this together from wordplay too, the definition was not a great deal of help
15 Forebear caught stabbing a wise old king (8)
ANCESTOR – C inside A, NESTOR(wise old king)
16 Company runs hotel in pleasant coastal road (8)
CORNICHE – CO, R(runs) then H inside NICE(pleasant)
18 Jam Scottish girl left unfinished on ship (6)
MORASS – MORA(g) on SS
19 Spirit finally haunting wide Russian river (6)
GENEVA(hauntin)G, (wid)E then the river NEVA. I was worried about this – I now know that it is a type of gin.
22 Sticky substance overrunning a Pacific island (4)
GUAM – GUM(sticky substance) surrounding A

69 comments on “Times 27028 – when a spirit fails to possess you”

  1. 1ac, a gimme, gave me hope that this might work out well, quickly dashed as I had to wait for DIVERTIMENTO for another solve. I biffed 25 on the assumption that ‘producer of rolls’ =drum; never got the horse, although now I do remember coming across the name here once. DNK 6d, so even though I had COMPANION early on, it took a while. Once I got HEREABOUTS, I was able to biff DEHISCENT, although I couldn’t really remember what it meant. LOI SEEDEATER; it took me a long time to think of EE. Glad to get in under the half-hour.
  2. 50 minutes hard work but enjoyable and rewarding to solve and understand all the wordplay. At 26ac it’s ‘railwaymen once’ because the NUR became the RMT in 1990. I’m of the opinion that it’s not really necessary to indicate this but I know others prefer such things spelt out.
  3. As someone who drinks no spirits, I guess I was at a bit of a disadvantage with 19d, which I finally looked up after a few alphabet runs. Knew the river too, but not top of mind like some of the other, longer Russian rivers.

    About 45 minutes bar time spent on that, with ticks at 10a and 5d – I’m a sucker for well clued preposition and adverbs.

    1. I do drink spirits, if not gin (well, haven’t for years), and I only got this because of NEVA. I knew, sort of, genever, which helped; just now looked in the ODE, which gives ‘geneva’ as a literary variant of genever. So not that easy even for such as I.
  4. GENEVA was my LOI too, right after DISHISCENT, a word I’m sure I first encountered, believe it or not, in a poetry review.

    I just realized I forgot to say anything about yesterday (“George Cross,” eh? Hmppfff)… Today, I have to wonder aloud what “perhaps” is doing at the end of the clue for SEEDEATER.

    Edited at 2018-05-03 02:59 am (UTC)

      1. Sure, and more than one animal eats ants. But “anteater” is the name of a certain kind of animal. And “seedeater” is a certain kind of bird. Wikipedia: “The seedeaters are a form taxon of seed-eating passerine birds with a distinctively conical bill.”
        1. Didn’t know that. So the setter would have been justified in not including the ‘perhaps’. But he may have wanted to cover his proverbial, since ‘seedeater’ could refer to some other animal (although I would have spelled it ‘seed-eater’ or ‘seed eater’, but then my enumerations and the setters’ are often different).
          1. But “seed-eater” or “seed eater”—or “seedeater,” if there weren’t a kind of bird by that name—would be no more crossword-worthy than, say, SODA DRINKER… or GREEN PAINT.
            1. Ironically, I was in a discussion here some time ago where I was taking your position, I forget what the term was at issue. Anyway, to me it’s a question of whether the phrase counts as a lexical item. GREEN PAINT (as opposed, say, to GREEN THUMB) clearly doesn’t, nor does SODA DRINKER. I can see SEED EATER as one, though, on the lines of MEAT EATER.
                  1. I remember arguing with Peter about GERMAN WINE, now that Mohn reminds me, but MORE DISTANT?
  5. And I failed on the obscure/foreign/retarded anagram VIDERTIMENTO (or whatever) but it didn’t matter because I managed not only to enter an extra N in OLEANDER, but to also completely miss the typo when I did my pre-submit check of answers. Probably caused by solving on a PC rather than my phone — one advantage of the mobile-friendly crossword is a “List” option that shows each clue as a distinct entity, very useful for checking answers

    Edited at 2018-05-03 02:59 am (UTC)

    1. If you’re on a Windows PC you can use ENTER repeatedly to step thru the answers for proofreading
  6. Not on the board thanks to a typo but a tad under 17 minutes for this, with GENEVA a lucky guess. I didn’t know the spirit, never heard of the river. 74km in length? I mean, come on, that’s barely a trickle.

    Satisfying stuff for the most part, especially being able to assemble DEHISCENT with confidence once the checkers were in place, so COD to that one.

    I’m off to bag some HASHEESH on the CORNICHE at a less TOURISTIC TAVERN

    1. It is, in fact, the 4th largest river in Europe, in terms of discharge. So not a trickle. According to Wikipedia, just the Volga, the Danube, and the Rhine are ahead.
      1. It also flows through St. Petersburg. I neva knew it was that short.
  7. An experience much like George’s, starting very quickly, then slowing down to assemble the likes of BONESETTER and SEEDEATER, though DEHISCENT is a bit of a write-in for smug classicists.
  8. My brother has often plied me with that Geneva spirit although I always thought it was Jenever with a J. Either way, it never ended well… Not a pretty sight in the morning.

    Edited at 2018-05-03 07:35 am (UTC)

    1. It is Jenever if you are a Dutch speaker. Two types – Oude (old) and Jonge (young)

      Edited at 2018-05-03 10:39 am (UTC)

  9. 50 mins to DNF and come here – while being a yoghurt, banana and seedeater.
    I spent far too long deciphering 6dn and eventually getting Stable. Doh! I kicked myself so hard I gave up on the DNK Dehiscent and Neva. I hadn’t got Data which made Dehiscent even harder.
    Note to self: swot up on Russian rivers (while sipping gin).
    Thanks setter and for explaining G.

    Edited at 2018-05-03 07:40 am (UTC)

  10. This took forever (or 28+ minutes, whichever is longer) with both long ones escaping solution for most of that time. I was convinced that, with the special CASE involved, 3d had to begin UNESCAP… and couldn’t shake that off. And I got the COMPANION bit (because it couldn’t be anything else) of 5d but couldn’t work out where to replace ALI or MOHAMED with P. Sometimes you get trapped in a particularly vicious thinking circuit. Not being able to shove in (r)AFTER(s) didn’t help.
    As for the bottom left, a shrub?! A Russian river (wide or otherwise) with a spiritual connection?! A Scottish girl?! What malevolent whim persuaded the setter to put that lot in one place? Two of those had wordplay which required you to take two “final” letters in succession. That’s mean.
    Actually, I realise now that I’ve known the Neva as it flows through fabulous St Petersburg. If you go down to the dockside, where traditionally newlyweds break a glass on the bollard and have their picture taken, the Neva has, way out in midstream, a set of fountains whose sole purpose is to provide a rainbow background for the happy couple in the afternoon sun. Now that is soviet class of a very high order.
  11. Only a one-cup today, about 12 minutes although it never felt easy. I panicked when I saw “famous racehorse,” since I only know of one, but fortunately that was the one!
    No problem with geneva/genever .. I am probably the only one here who remembers Nicholas Van Rijn, Poul Anderson’s swashbuckling spacefarer.. he liked genever, in massive quantities I seem to recall.
    1. You must know Arkle too. He won the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times, then broke his foot in what turned out to be his final race – still coming in second. Derek Randall was nicknamed after him.
      1. I guess .. Mill Reef, Eclipse, Brig. Gerard .. somethingbiscuit .. that one that got stolen by the IRA or whoever.. one or two others as well, given enough recollection time. But not one of them fit to be compared with Red Rum 🙂

        Edited at 2018-05-03 08:02 am (UTC)

        1. Shergar. That’s the only one I can ever remember apart from Red Rum, but now you mention it ‘somethingbiscuit’ rings a bell.
            1. Seabiscuit. Now I’ve looked him up I see that he raced in the 1930s, but there was a movie made about (and named after) him in 2003 which is probably where I’ve picked up the name.
              Actually having done a bit of idle googling on the subject I find that even my prompted memory of racehorses only extends to Frankel and Desert Orchid, so this is definitely a subject I don’t want to see much more of!

              Edited at 2018-05-03 09:45 am (UTC)

      2. And Desert Orchid who was famously spirited away. Oops, I mean Shergar…

        Edited at 2018-05-03 12:19 pm (UTC)

      3. We bought a beautiful wooden rocking horse for our eldest when he was four or five. Faced with all these possibilities of names, he went for Dobbin.
  12. Only here to report a time just inside 10 minutes and to make some kind of awful “Neva say Neva again” Russian-river related pun, today.
  13. I didn’t know the Russian river or the spirit so I went for GENERA with no particular rationale. Otherwise about 20 minutes.
    1. Don’t feel bad. I ‘got’ GENEVA on the basis that there was probably a river Geneva, and explaining the rest of the clue as ‘something I don’t understand’
    2. I came up with GENERA too, on the basis of (hauntin)G (wid)E (russia)N ERA. (Wiki)The Era is a river in Tuscany in Italy. It rises near Volterra and flows into the Arno river at Pontedera. The Era is 54 km long, and its main tributaries are: (to the left) Cascina river, Ragone torrent, Sterza torrent, and (to the right) Capriggine torrent and Roglio torrent. In 1966 the river flooded the town of Pontedera. I wasn’t really convinced that the genus of a plant could be its spirit, but I’d never heard of the NEVA river, or Geneva as a drink. There is however a River Geneva.
      1. and now, just imagine the outcry here if a setter was misguided enough to use a 30 mile long Italian river in a clue … 🙂
  14. “Japan and Belgrade,
    Tennessee and Monaco.
    I like Geneva”.

    How many tads in a smidge or is it the other way round?
    No seedeaters in our garden, only nectar eaters (Tuis) and insect and fruit eaters (Fantails and Waxeyes)
    41m 39s

    Edited at 2018-05-03 08:53 am (UTC)

  15. 36′ today, with much time spent on STABLE COMPANION, had COMPANION but was convinced this was some obscure financial term like white knight. As noted, 1ac a gimme, as was 26ac. Heart sank when I saw ‘shrub’ but it was the near-ubiquitous OLEANDER. First came across STREPTOCOCCI in sick bay where Sister abbreviated it to STREP, as in throat.Thanks gl and setter.
  16. Another good puzzle, what a week! All done in 33 minutes except 19d where I had no answer even after a trawl. Knew of Genever or with a J but not its rarer spelling. Cod 6d, like others I had COMPANION early but the Arab horse connection took a while to see. SEEDEATER sounded like a made up thing to me and 2 words but plonked it in reluctantly. Not helped by having HEARABOUTS at first.
  17. For once I knew all of the GK so that helped. OLEANDERS are DEHISCENT (more importantly poisonous). LOI SEEDEATER because I know so many birds and this was a hindrance as I tried to find a specific bird that fitted.

    I have spent many a March day over the years on the Corniche in Cannes at the Property Festival MIPIM. Happy days.

    1. I checked out MIPIM on Wiki just to make sure you weren’t taking us for a ride round the Corniche, S. Why do you go on the International March for Professional Immobilisers?
      1. It is a bad translation from the French. It should be, “let ‘s get legless in Cannes in March.”
        It’s basically the most expensive pub crawl in Europe.
        I went for 11 years but not recently since it has gone all PC; now they expect you to discuss work.
        1. Sounds like ‘Professionally Immobile’ is quite a good description of the event.

          Edited at 2018-05-03 10:28 pm (UTC)

  18. Didn’t get on with this at all, taking 67 minutes. I get slower and slower at long anagrams, with DIVERTIMENTO and STREPTOCOCCI proving the point, the last particularly pathetic as they’re quite likely the only bacteria I know. DEHISCENT unknown. SEEDEATER LOI. The birds in my garden do eat seeds, I suppose, when I remember to fill up the feeder, but I have since checked that it is the actual name of a Central American bird. GENEVA was put in as a DNK but NEVA was indicated from my St Petersburg trip last year. COD to STABLE COMPANION. I think Mr Ed would have made a better job of this today. Thank you George and setter.
  19. but around an hour in a cruel week. Tomorrow could be massive I hope Lord Verlaine is in for an early knight!
    (chess term)

    1ac HAIKU is a write -in these days but 4ac DEHISCENT isn’t nor ever will be.

    FOI at thew bottom as noted as it printed out on the faithful old Epson 22dn GUM
    LOI 19dn GENEVA
    COD 4dn DATA!
    WOD 17ac DIVERTINENTO

  20. Off the scale on this one, about an hour and a half with one wrong
    (Gelena instead of Geneva) – well the River Lena is at least pretty long! I am in awe of those of you who found this reasonably straightforward, and my average time is about 20 mins, but I thought this was the hardest for many months.
  21. Whose corsets grew too tight to lace.
    Her mother said “Nellie…. (that’s quite enough of that ! : Ed)

    19:34 with the last three clues taking almost 4 minutes.

    FOI HAIKU, but couldn’t build on it. After wandering all over the grid I hit the wall at the quarter hour mark.

    The SW corner gave me the most trouble, but I eventually cracked GENEVA and BONESETTER ( didn’t care much for “one’s” if I’m going to nitpick on a generally excellent puzzle), before LOI HASHEESH, where the spelling held me up.

    COD STABLE COMPANION
    WOD SEEDEATER

    I can’t remember the last time I was biff-free !

  22. I think it’s a derivation of the French word for juniper – the berries used to flavour gin. Warm weather at last here in NY so the idea of a G&T is pleasant. 21.19
  23. 10m (no precise time as I was solving on my iPad and the club site still isn’t working, grr).
    I’m glad I knew the gin, because I didn’t know the river. A bit mean, that one, to say the least.
    I also felt glad that ‘dehisce’ (or some variant of it) has come up before, although the wordplay was pretty helpful in that case.
  24. What a workout! I can’t remember the last time I stared so blankly at so many clues for so long. DEHISCENT, STREPTOCOCCI, DIVERTIMENTO (not helped by transcribing the anagram fodder with an extra N)… even STABLE COMPANION, BONESETTER and HEREABOUTS, which are much more English, fell very slowly. I finished on the bottom left corner with a very shaky GENEVA – having never heard of the spirit or the river. Alas, my stab at the non-existent MOLASS rather than MORASS at 18d means this is another failure, in a little under 20 minutes (as I now know I have to say!).
  25. Again it seemed to be a Mondayish sort of puzzle, and then the rot set in. Eventually remembered STREPTOCOCCI, but was then left with 2 long ones with all the letters in place. I was barking up several wrong trees with UNEXCEPTIONABLE and then had to come here for the simple BONESETTER which had me flummoxed(looking for an IS in the middle).
  26. 40 mins. LOI GENEVA, just bunged it in because it might be the name of a river or of a liquor: DNK Neva. But coming here I realise that I did know jenever (coming from French form of juniper) as a gin distillation. Aha!
    Red Rum is surely the *only* ‘famous racehorse’. Or maybe Lester Piggott was another… hmmmm.
  27. Foiled by the gin. As explained in my reply to Pootle above. A tough one for me. DEHISCENT was unknown, but derived from wordplay. HAIKU was my FOI, but then I scrabbled around the grid trying to get a foothold. It was a long time coming, but I eventually clawed my way through until I was left with GENE_A. I chose between V and R unwisely. Bah! Liked STABLE COMPANION. 49:26 with one wrong. Thanks setter and George.
  28. 19:16 with GENEVA thrown in on trust in the hope that it was a variant of the unopened bottles of Jenever in our drinks cabinet (a Christmas gift).

    I’ll throw Desert Orchid into the glue pot. And Mill Reef.

    1. Tied cottage. won the Grand National and Cheltenham GC (not George Cross) but fell when leading in 1979 when Mrs Pip had her shirt (blouse?) on him. Never to be forgotten.
  29. I also remembered the Lena very quickly as a significant Russian river, so I threw in GELENA. Follow the wordplay indeed. Apparently that doesn’t always work out. I doubt I would have related Geneva to liquor anyway. Overall about 30 minutes to fall short in the end. Regards.
  30. 32:40. I ground to a halt after about 20 minutes with the NE corner having yielded only ENTITY. I took an age to see STABLE and didn’t know DEHISCENT, which I had to derive from the wordplay. HEREABOUTS my COD, once I’d seen it, but I liked SNARE DRUM too.
  31. This one took me about 50 mins with a fair bit of that at the end alphabet trawling and then convincing myself of an alternative “Swiss” spelling of the Dutch gin at 19dn, especially when the Russian river was only vaguely heard of. Strepto-thingy and diverti-whatsit went in fairly quickly and without too much of a struggle, which helped. I also wasted time looking for an anagram of “in Monaco quietly” around “co” at 6dn until the right sort of Arab came to mind. Unexceptionable was a bit tricky but otherwise no real problems.
  32. This one beat me soundly, with GENEVA, THRACE, DEHISCENT and DATA all completely absent. I also had “cradle companion” for 6d, for which I can only plead idiocy in mitigation.

    I was sure that gin got it’s name from Geneva, but apparently not, so gin will have to be added to my already extremely long list of wonderful things not invented by the Swiss. Still, they came up with the roll and the army knife, which I suppose is something.

  33. Fortunately, I went to Leningrad (as it was then in the 80s) so was familiar with the Neva. I thought that ‘wide’ translated to ‘E’ as in shoe sizes.

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