Times 27067 – The avenue of penitence..67

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 39 Minutes
Music: Fleetwood Mac, Then Play On

I found this puzzle a bit more difficult than one might expect, but maybe that’s just me.   I had particular trouble with ‘to the life’, which doesn’t seem to be clued with the exactness I would expect.   On the other hand, there were some truly fine clues in the toreador’s whirl and the object added to gallery, so I would say there is much to admire here.

The blog is a little late because I spent the day watching the US Open, and then could not resist going out and hitting a few shots on the holes adjoining my condo.    Congratulations to Brooks Koepka, and condolences to Tommy Fleetwood, who I really thought might win.

Across
1 Calm after retreating journalist went off (10)
DECOMPOSED – ED backwards + COMPOSED.
6 Some time, so to speak, for you and me (4)
OURS – Sounds like HOURS.   If you reversed the clue and put HOUR, the crossing letters will set you right
10 Defector in pursuit of spy, one going underground in Africa (4,3)
MOLE RAT – MOLE + RAT, in entirely different senses, making the actual animal a double agent.
11 Singular protection for pugilist in love (7)
SMITTEN – S + MITTEN, where the pugilist is more often said to be wearing boxing GLOVES.
12 Feline in revamped Disney corporation (9)
SYNDICATE – CAT inside anagram of DISNEY.
13 Here the Spanish may meet Dad carrying short loaf (5)
PLAZA – P(LAZ[e])A,   The urge to see ‘the Spanish’ and put EL must be resisted here.
14 Restrictive level (5)
TYING – Double definition, the second not exactly fitting, but close enough.
15 Precisely where the reader may resort for memoirs? (2,3,4)
TO THE LIFE – Double definition, one factitious.
17 Elder priest shunning current hosts by turning about (9)
PRESBYTER – PR[i]S(BY)T + RE backwards.
20 Fraudster making journey back in regret (5)
ROGUE – R(GO backwads)UE
21 Supposed repository of lost car, with black interior (5)
LIMBO – LIM(B)O.   With a glancing allusion to the comic folk meme that lost objects end up in Limbo, found in mock-heroic poetry of the 16th and 17th century.
23 Closeness of Jane and Cecily in distress, Neil having left (9)
ADJACENCY – Anagram of JANE AND CECILY – NEIL, a rather awkward cryptic technique, in my opinion.
25 Object added to gallery a very timely gift (7)
GODSEND – GODS + END, where GODS refers to a seating area in the theatre so remote from the stage that it is closer to heaven.
26 Tweet greeting bishop in competition (7)
CHIRRUP – C(HI RR)UP.
27 Charge for using ring on regular basis (4)
TOLL – double definition, very well put-together.
28 Boy participating in gym to improve as an individual (10)
PERSONALLY – PE R(SON)ALLY, a clever cryptic, but most solvers will just biff the obvious answerr.
Down
1 Marches taking up a number of days (5)
DEMOS – SOME D upside-down.
2 Plant borders of Chinese territory in East (9)
CELANDINE – C[hines]E + LAND IN E.
3 Union negotiator (8-6)
MARRIAGE-BROKER -Cryptic definition, an easy one.
4 Keep going past contrary sailor in old hat (7)
OUTLAST – OU(SALT upside-down)T
5 Most relaxed English afternoon break, last to start (7)
EASIEST – E + SIESTA with the last letter moved to the front.
7 Extremist detected in unlawful trading (5)
ULTRA – hidden in [unlawf]UL TRA[ding]
8 Asian gets a breath of air in Kent, perhaps (9)
SINHALESE – S(INHALES)E, where it helps if you are familiar with the two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.
9 Division represented by lowly Republican in caucus (6,8)
SIMPLE FRACTION – SIMPLE + F(R)ACTION.
14 Fantastic escape after vessel overturned (3,6)
TOP FLIGHT – POT upside-down + FLIGHT
16 College ultimately cuts organised learning across the board (2,7)
IN GENERAL – anagram of [colleg]E + LEARNING.
18 Toreador whirls, primarily to confuse bull (7)
TWADDLE – T[oreador} W[hirls] + ADDLE, which will certainly confuse the solvers who try to make an anagram of some part of TOREADOR
19 Those excluded from court amid random jeers (7)
REJECTS – CT in anagram of JEERS.
22 Olympian dreams of this mess, it’s said (5)
MEDAL – Sounds like MEDDLE, probably as a verb.
24 Tail of husky walking on air, commonly barking (5)
YAPPY – [husk}Y + ‘APPY.

37 comments on “Times 27067 – The avenue of penitence..67”

  1. This is a fine puzzle, and seemed as chewy as Sunday’s by Dean.

    Vinyl, I don’t think one has to resort to poetic allusions to justify the definition of LIMBO as “repository of lost,” but your reference is intriguing, and I have tried (in vain, so far) to find, via Google, an example of such 16th- or 17th-century verse.

    I might’ve seen the word CELANDINE somewhere, but had the impression I was building it solely from the wordplay.

    My LOI was TYING, which seemed, in retrospect, very easy—but now that Vinyl mentions it, TIED would be a better fit with “level,” wouldn’t it?

      1. Thanks! I was searching too broadly. I read “Paradise Lost” once upon a time. (Do we call it “mock heroic”?) I was forgetting there was anything funny in it. But Harold Bloom writes in a January 1, 2006, New York Times article, “Paradise Found, Limbo Lost”:

        [quote]John Milton in “Paradise Lost” gives us the Paradise of Fools as a “limbo large and broad,” where winds blow about Roman Catholic cowls, hoods, habits, relics, beads, indulgences, pardons and Papal Bulls.[/quote]

        Milton here is using “limbo” in a figurative sense, “a limbo.” I maintain that the original sense, the “real” Limbo, fits the definition “repository of lost” well enough.

        Bloom again: [quote]In the Italian Renaissance poet Luduvico Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso,” the knight Astolfo visits the moon’s Limbo and discovers there all of earth’s wastages: talents locked up in named vases, bribes hanging on gold hooks, and much besides.[/quote]

        Well, that’s the moon’s Limbo. These various “limbos” are called that simply because their purpose, broadly speaking, matches that given in the original concept (which is not part of Catholic dogma—as a publication authorized by Pope Benedict XVI merely confirmed. This publication, and erroneous headlines about the Pope’s abolishing Limbo, is what prompted the Bloom article).

        Edited at 2018-06-18 04:01 am (UTC)

  2. I struggled to finish this one and eventually gave up, resorting to assistance for the last two answers as the hour approached and I got past caring.

    The DNK I solved without difficulty was MOLE RAT.

    My problems in the NE segment started when I wrote in HOUR at 6ac – a perfectly acceptable answer when solving without checkers in place, so not the best of clues in my opinion – and it was quite late in the day when I realised my error and that much of the time and effort I had invested in trying to solve 8dn had been wasted attempting to think of an answer begining with R?N.

    15ac also foxed me for ages but eventually I came up with TO THE LIFE which to me seems absolutely fine. As does TYING / ‘level’ at 14ac as competitors in a game that’s still in progress might be said to be ‘level or tying at the moment’, although ‘tied’ would probably be the word of first choice to describe this situation.

    Elsewhere I spent time considering MARRIAGE AGENCY at 3dn but when BROKER occurred to me it seemed a better fit and therefore more likely. VULGAR FRACTION seemed perfectly possible at 9dn until checkers ruled it out.

    Finally I failed to spot the obvious at 22dn and thought ‘Olympian’ was a reference to something in mythology that sounded like “muddle” (mess), so in the end I used aids and kicked myself.

    Edited at 2018-06-18 03:37 am (UTC)

  3. 17 mins and much enjoyed, though I goofed with a biffed PRESBITER. That’ll learn me (or not).

    A lot of satisfying moments when the light suddenly dawned, especially SINHALESE

  4. DNF after 45mins with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    I enjoyed it until the NE where I corrected Hour to Ours but still was floored by the Simple/Smitten/Plaza/Sinhalese combo. And the last bit of To The Life – never heard of it.
    Well played setter.
    And thanks Vinyl
    1. I also struggled to come up with it but I had heard of it in the context of portrait painting where an artist may be said to have captured their subject’s likeness ‘to the life’.
      2. I like it. It prompted me to re-watch the video for Walk this Way. Now I’m the one with an ear-worm. Only one thing for it, the universal ear-worm remover: the theme from Bullseye.
  5. I’ve never heard of TO THE LIFE so I opted to go for a phrase I’ve heard of, ‘TO THE WIRE’, though it didn’t fit the clue. I didn’t like the clue but maybe that’s just sour grapes. I did however like LIMBO and the well hidden definition so my COD to that clue.
  6. 33′, but with SINGALESE, never parsed, I should know by now. Like others, HOUR was my FOI and hence long holdup. Liked GODSEND. Have learned things! Thanks vinyl and setter.
  7. TO THE LIFE did for me; took me past the half-hour, and made me run through the alphabet a couple of times, where I managed to skip the F. Not having 15ac made me call into question OUTLAST, and since I couldn’t see TLAS at first I wasted a lot of time on thinking of a parsing. Liked GODSEND and TWADDLE inter alia.
  8. Beaten by the NE with TO THE LIFE a mystery and the idea of boxers in mittens just plain daft. Shame, because I really enjoyed the rest.
    1. Collins and the Oxfords have MITTEN as slang or informal for for ‘boxing glove’.
  9. It’s that thing, is it not, of the number of indicators an anagram needs if you are required to subtract bits of it before making your answer word. And that thing of whether or not subjective or compound anags are either elegant or allowed (I’d thought not in The Times). So I think I agree with the blogger on that one, even if the puzzle itself is of good quality elsewhere.

    DNK to the life.

  10. Another unparsed SINGALESE here, thinking GALES were a bit strong for a breath of air. 43 minutes anyway, held up by COMMON and VULGAR FRACTIONS, both of which fit the definition at least as well. I’m never sure if TYING is spelt TIEING which does look daft, I admit. GODSEND was just that as I struggled in the SW, with a MEDAL then appearing out of LIMBO. SMITTEN took time too, with three little kittens wearing boxing gloves almost as silly as the Yellow Submarine Happy Socks received from my eldest yesterday. And why not? Good puzzle. COD MARRIAGE-BROKER. Thank you V and setter.
  11. 27m for me; like others, held up by ‘life’ but concluded it must be that. Enjoyable start to the day; thanks setter and Vinyl.
  12. Like many I hadn’t heard of the expression TO THE LIFE. I rejected TO THE WIRE but was torn between LIFE and LINE, which a reader might also look at, so I looked up both to see if they existed. LIFE was the better fit. An unsatisfactory way to complete, but I wasn’t going to resolve it without help. The rest of the puzzle was quite enjoyable with DEMOS my FOI, SINGALESE rejected as being too breezy, soon after which the correct answer blew in. Liked LIMBO and TWADDLE. 28:10. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  13. I was taught about limbo (and purgatory) in Catholic primary school. Don’t know if either concept still exists in Catholic teaching but no problem to solve.
    I thought there were some clever touches here: RR not B for the bishop in 26ac; ‘gods’ not ‘Tate’ for ‘gallery in 25ac and I thought the anagram in 23ac was clever.
    My LOI was TO THE LIFE. I had heard of it but it didn’t suggest itself as a solution for a long time.
    Incidentally, vinyl1, what is your view of Mickelson’s bit of cheating? I thought he should have been disqualified. In footballing terms he has ‘brought the game into disrepute’.
    1. Quite simply, a disgrace. Unbelievable he wasn’t disqualified. The powers that be need to take a good, hard look at themselves.
  14. I had a blank where TO THE LIFE should have been. I considered it as a possibility based on ‘memoir’ but couldn’t believe a phrase like that – made up of such commonplace words – could exist without my ever having come across it.
  15. 21:37 but held up by VULGAR FRACTION. DNK TO THE LIFE but got lucky. Also toyed with EGLANTINE which grows extensively in Crosswordland. Anyway, thanks setter and V.
    The parson told the sexton and the sexton tolled the bell.
  16. Tricky for a Monday. DNF. 29 mins with two wrong. Singalese and To the wire. I’d not heard of Sinhalese or To the Life.

    Some nice clues here. I liked Easiest, which I couldn’t parse, not spotting siesta, Sinhalese, Godsend and Tying.

    COD: Tying for first place, EASIEST and SINHALESE.

  17. I had yet another way of destroying the NE corner, with OUTRATE at 4d – it’s got the reverse sailor in it and the rest composed of the Old UTE,which as well as being the old form of an SUV is, of course, a little known utility hat. Add HOUR for 6a, VULGAR for the fraction (obviously) and nothing much else was solvable. Their ADJACENCY (surely a made up word for crosswords made solution impossible.
    Eventually scrubbed anything in the NE that could be scrubbed, and arrived at the right answers, though I was tempted to put in SAMPLE FRICTION more or less as a commentary. 31 minutes, excessive for a Monday.
    Jack’s spot on about TO THE LIFE, a compliment to the portrait artist.
    I never could do LIMBO dancing, not so much a repository of a lost (art) but a never found.
  18. Gave up after about 14 mins with TO THE LIFE & SINHALESE missing – like others, I’d considered the former but had never heard of it; I don’t think I’ve come across the latter but probably should have been able to deduce it.

    I was another who put HOUR at 6a, which I agree is a perfectly plausible answer, but fortunately 7d was an easy one that quickly clarified the situation.

    For 23a I’m of the school that says removed letters either need to be consecutive, or indicated as an anagram (e.g. “Neil unexpectedly having left”).

  19. Another one with all done in 24 minutes except TO THE LIFE, what on earth is that about? Not a phrase we’d heard of and too many other options for the spaces. Not a great puzzle IMHO.
    1. I didn’t pick this up in my post because I hit upon the answer early having realised from ‘memoirs’ that the last word could well be ‘life’. Having tried two different prepositions, it was then I thought of TO THE LIFE in the context of a painter having caught a subject particularly well. The evidence from all these posts certainly suggests that not many knew the expression, but some of us do. And if you know an expression, you do tend to assume that it’s in common currency. I imagine the setter thought just that.
  20. Glad to learn I wasn’t alone in finding this tricky for a Monday, or, for that matter, any other day. I had at least heard of the expression TO THE LIFE, though my answer remained stuck at TO THE _I__ for quite a long time until I realised that was what I was looking for; in the meantime, there was more than enough to hold me up in TYING, SINHALESE etc. Testing.
  21. Close, but no cigar. I gave up on 8d and put in “Sundanese”, which turns out to be a word (and a people) as I’d thought, but naturally bears no relation to “fresh air” (though there is some “sun” in there). I suppose I might have got it eventually from the wordplay, had I been more persistent, but then my time would have been even longer than the actual 40 minutes. But, nevertheless, a very enjoyable and chewy one.
  22. 28 mins. I spent at least 10 mins at the end on the DECOMPOSED/OULAST crossers, followed inevitably by TO THE LIFE, which went in with a shrug after a few alphabet trawls couldn’t come up with an alternative that made sense. I should have known it wasn’t going to be straightforward when my FOI was the incorrect “hour”, but as mauefw said ULTRA fairly quickly made the correct OURS easy to get. Unless several others I didn’t have a problem with SINHALESE.
  24. DNF. Didn’t know the expression to the life. I did an alphabet trawl and considered life, wire, line amongst others but nothing seemed to stand out. A shame because I enjoyed the rest of it.
  25. I did most of this rather quickly last night, but it was late and I put it aside overnight, missing SINHALESE and TO THE LIFE. I filled them in this morning in quick fashion, but obviously I have no overall time for this. No real problem re TO THE LIFE, I knew it, but didn’t think of it very rapidly. It also has been used when watching someone do an impression of someone else. Regards.
  26. Thanks for uncurling my three ?s. Just for the benefit of the archive, noting that the puzzle number is 27067, not 27006.

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