Times 27091 – “All your cares, Now they seem, Oh so far away….”

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 29 minutes
Music: Schubert, Symphony #9, Krips/LSO

Not too hard a puzzle, but not for beginners.    Experienced solvers will be well aware of words such as ‘palimpsest’ and ‘thimblerig’ from past experience, and I wrote these in without difficulty.   My problems were getting the wrong end of the stick in some of the cryptics, which sometimes leads to the right answer by a stroke of luck, but often causes considerable delay.

I had gotten a bit behind in my solving due to various things, and I discovered on Saturday morning that I had not even printed off last week’s Saturday, Sunday, and Mephisto.   Fortunately, I am nearly caught up, except for Dean’s infernal masterpiece.  It is a real corker, but I had to tear myself away and work on my assigned puzzle to get the blog up.

Across
1 Edited parchment most faded, wicked things in it (10)
PALIMPSEST – PAL(IMPS)EST, an early example of recycling.
6 Cork has to plug bottles (4)
STOP – hidden in [ha]S TO P[lug], a very natural surface.
9 Might such vulgar humour be panned? (10)
LAVATORIAL – a jocular cryptic definition
10 Payment for transgression, OK (4)
FINE – Double definition, very simple and very elusive for me.
12 Accumulator having netted foreign cash for retirement, one stroking cat? (5-7)
MONEY-GRUBBER – MO(YEN backwards)G RUBBER.   I was working for a long time on the theory that ‘foreign cash for retirement’ was a non-UK retirement-account acronym. 
15 Drive off in public — go too far? (9)
OVERSHOOT – OVER(SHOO)T.
17 Last Oscar given to Titanic (5)
OMEGA – O + MEGA, the NATO alphabet again.
18 With river gone, river mammals back in conflict (3-2)
SET-TO – OTTE[r]S backwards.
19 It’s certain their guns will go off (4,5)
SURE THING – anagram of THEIR GUNS
20 Discussion on bread overheard that sounds so gentle (6-6)
PITTER-PATTER – sounds like PITA (for non-rhotic speakers only) + PATTER, which is not really = ‘discussion’, but is apparently close enough.
24 Register part to be read out? (4)
ROLL – sounds like ROLE for nearly all dialects.   Anyone disagree?
25 Bash mouse with every bit of the blooming thing! (10)
WALLFLOWER – W + ALL FLOWER.   I worked for a while on theory that an anagram of MOUSE + EVERY would produce the name for a part of a flower.
26 Pull someone across the Pond (4)
YANK – double definition,
27 Very energetic rogue, George IV’s deputy, perhaps? (10)
VICEREGENT – Anagram of V + ENERGETIC.   I was thinking of the Vice in medieval  morality plays, which was not it at all, but did lead me to the answer. 
Down
1 European supporter (4)
POLE – Double definition, a chestnut starter clue.
2 Flipping bad, potentially shocking? (4)
LIVE – EVIL upside down, another chestnut.
3 Streakers up in rest home wore pants (6,6)
METEOR SHOWER – anagram of REST HOME WORE. 
4 Gunk initially mopped up by dry cloth (5)
SERGE – SER(G[unk])E
5 Heading for slammer, best medicine they say for killing (9)
SLAUGHTER – S + LAUGHTER, the best medicine.
7 Infernal blighter, I’m a notorious con (10)
THIMBLERIG -anagram of BLIGHTER, I’M
8 During exercise, parent called to order earlier (10)
PREARRANGE – P(REAR + RANG)E, where ‘parent’ is a verb.
11 Suddenly able to paint with only two primary colours? (3,2,3,4)
OUT OF THE BLUE – Double definition, one jocular.
13 Do in? (5,5)
HOUSE PARTY – Cryptic defintion.
14 Held inside, Irish town’s brief event (10)
PENTATHLON – PENT + ATHLON[e].
16 Tubes in good shape after surgery, having removed five hundred and one (9)
OESOPHAGI – Anagram of GOOD SHAPE without D, and then add a I.  A tricky cryptic which I totally misunderstood, looking for OP at the beginning.  I finally biffed it, and then worked out the wordplay.
21 Current circling lake in wavy line (5)
TILDE – TI(L)DE.
22 Cute river, bottom dredged? (4)
TWEE – TWEE[d], a bit of a chestnut.
23 Red Rum’s first, in short (4)
TROT – TR[um])OT, where a ‘tot’ is a ‘short’ in the sense of a small drink.

53 comments on “Times 27091 – “All your cares, Now they seem, Oh so far away….””

  1. 3 down is hilarious too.
    I had to guess there must be a relevant Irish town for PENTATHLON, but otherwise no problem.
    As often, a cryptic definition was one of my last in—here, LAVATORIAL. Here in the US of A, we call a “lavatory pan” a “toilet bowl.”
  2. Then just why do our American cousins keep asking for the bathroom?

    25ac WALLFLOWER gave me cause for concern as I discerned that ‘bash’ had to be a BALL-FLOWER. I’m sure Mr. D’Arcy would have had a few Gothic BALLFLOWERS on his estate.
    My LOI – fine clue.

    So 30 minutes.

    FOI 1dn POLE (epls)

    COD 12ac MONEY GRUBBER (with no cricket reference!)

    WOD 1ac PALIMPSEST a gimme as was 7dn THIMBLERIG

    So France won the WC and Clochmerle lives on. Next Qatar!

    To balance things up I would like to see the World Cup played after that in the Antarctic – fairer to Scotland, Iceland and the Falklanders.

    Edited at 2018-07-16 03:27 am (UTC)

  4. I invented a cat, the HONEY-GRUBBER, which is HOG (accumulator) around YEN back + RUBBER. So I got that wrong. Was held up for an unreasonable time on TILDE, my LOI.
  5. 15:19 … nice chewy start to the week, and some memorable clues.

    Another cheer for ‘bash mouse’ as a definition.

    Tip of the hat to the setter

  6. I wondered about George, too, but Jack has answered my question. Wasn’t sure about ‘panned’, but the checkers called out for LAVATORIAL. I misunderstood 16d as deleting D and I, only to find I at the end of the word; then the Brit Oe- finally came to mind. If I were non-rhotic, my pita would rhyme with Peter not pitter; do you folks call the bread ‘pitta’?
    1. Yes, it’s usually pitta here, with a short ‘i’ sound

      Edited at 2018-07-16 06:46 am (UTC)

    2. Not clear whether you got there eventually, Kevin, but it’s a reference to ‘lavatory pan’ as also met in the expression ‘down the pan’, an alternative to ‘down the drain’ meaning ruined with no chances left.

      Edited at 2018-07-16 06:26 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks, I did put in LAVATORIAL, but not knowing why, until I came here and saw Guy’s, and now your, comments. Totally new to me.
  7. ‘Bash mouse’ for WALLFLOWER is one of the best and most original definitions I can remember seeing in a long time. Absolutely brilliant and a LOL moment once spotted!

    However today’s puzzle counts as a technical DNF for me as I needed to look up the long answers in the first and last rows.

    PALIMPSEST has come up three times before (December 2012, June 2105 and most recently in May 2018 in a Sunday puzzle), and on every occasion I wrote here that I didn’t know it. I seem to have no reference point to make it stick in my brain.

    I got myself completely confused over what was going on in 27ac and thought I was looking for a word (?I?REGENT) meaning ‘very energetic’. Mind you, the clue is a bit confused as well because the future king was only a prince when he was REGENT so as George IV could not have had a VICEREGENT. Additionally I’d have staked money on the word requiring a hyphen, but only the Oxfords agree with me.

    Edited at 2018-07-16 05:41 am (UTC)

  8. Not much to add to others’ comments—fine puzzle, chapeau for “bash mouse”, etc.

    FOI 1d POLE, which made me hope the rest of the puzzle would be as easy, but it was 39m later I finally figured out 23d TROT, so definitely not a doddle…

    (And yet again, I’m grateful to Blackadder the Third rather than history lessons for sticking the Prince Regent so firmly in my mind!)

    Edited at 2018-07-16 07:16 am (UTC)

  9. 30 mins with yoghurt, blueberries, granola, etc.
    Lots of fun – and 5 mins at the end to crack Pentathlon and Viceregent.
    Mostly I liked: ‘has to plug bottles’, Money-grubber, Tilde, Pitter-patter and COD to ‘Bash mouse’.
    Thanks setter and V.
  10. Well, that wasn’t easy at all: no Monday hohummery pushed my time to 21 minutes. In my book, 1a was the one with the simplest definition, and, yes, WALLFLOWER the one with the funniest. Donald Pleasence surely stars as the evocative MOG RUBBER. Has “do in?” been done before? Clever. So was “streakers up”.
    Admiration for both setter and our hard working and dedicated Vinyl
  11. 28’34”, with WALLFLOWER LOI (and COD). Unaccountably slow on TROT and TWEE. A great puzzle, thanks vinyl and setter.
  12. 21 minutes, torn between PITTER-PATTER and WALLFLOWER as COD. I’ll go for the latter, the bash mouse deserves to become the belle of the ball. On 9a, I wonder if the setter is confronting my oft-repeated remark that drug references in clues are the grown-up version of lavatory jokes at infant school? I liked this puzzle a lot. Thank you V and setter.
    1. I would be wary of the wallflower becoming Belle of the Ball. Remember Carrie.
  13. An enjoyable puzzle, with “Bash Mouse” the highlight. I had this completed in 28:04, but having spent 5 of those trying and failing to parse MONEY GRUBBER, I also failed to proof read and finished with OVERSSOOT at 15a. Bah! PALIMPSEST was a write in. After my ignominious failure to get it right last time, even after looking it up, it is engraved on my brain now! THIMBLERIG also remembered from a previous puzzle. Thanks setter and V.
    1. I didn’t like “bash mouse” for wallflower at all. I think that the straight part of the clue should be a bit straighter. In fact, I was so thrown by it that I thought there was a term “bash mouse” that I had never heard of, even when I cheated the answer. To be honest, I think I currently have a mouse in my house and I want to kill it in as inhumane a fashion as possible so I ought to have been on the setter’s wave-length.
      1. Dear Anonymous(e), Your attitude toward creatures who are only doing what comes natch’rally is downright sadistic. I will also take this opportunity to say that I agree with the consensus gentium here regarding “bash mouse.”
  14. ‘This puzzle was a lot of laughs, and if laughter is the best medicine…’
    Reader’s Digest
  15. one of those Pareto puzzles, with 20% of the answers taking 80% of the time, especially OESOPHAGI and WALLFLOWER which I couldn’t parse. A bit whimsical for me on a Monday morning. 20:45
  16. 10 mins, so I was pretty much on the setter’s wavelength. PENTATHLON was my LOI after the TILDE/WALLFLOWER crossers. It was a very enjoyable solve because the setter’s sense of humour is right up my street, and like others I think the pick of the bunch is the “bash mouse”.
  17. Disappointed with my time (37 min) for a Monday, but enjoyed it anyway. PALIMPSEST went in straightaway, along with the easy LAVATORIAL, POLE and LIVE in the north-west, but then I slowed. OVERSHOOT took me ages — I was sure it began OVER… and assumed the -VER- was evidence of an anagrammed ‘drive’. I biffed WALLFLOWER eventually and only post-solve saw the very witty ‘bash mouse’: like Vinyl I was expecting some botanical word like pistils and sepals and wot not.

    I thought 6a STOP was a devious hidden, and the chewiest of the four-letter clues. Splendid.

    Thank you, Vinyl. And cheers for the setter.

  18. Interrupted but in the twenties somewhere. Some delightful plays in this with the bash mouse already in the hall of fame. I do think though that with -R-T a setter might look beyond an old chestnut. After all Thatcher wasn’t frit to use a mocking term of her childhood to Healey. Great name for a game, thimblerig. What’s it called now, ‘Find the Lady’ or something?
  19. Is there also a word “vicegerent” that fits the anagram also and could be a sovereign’s deputy? Thought vice-regent would be hyphenated. Thanks blogger and setter.
  20. Couldn’t get into this at all and tossed it aside after about 20 minutes.

    Couldn’t parse PALIMPSEST, but at least I got it. TWEE wasn’t sufficient of a chestnut to fall into place, and WALLFLOWER therefore became harder to sort out, but grudgingly earns COD having beaten me.

    Also routed by MONEY-GRUBBER

  21. ‘Bash mouse’ and ‘mog rubber’? A bit far-fetched but I guess they work. I was Ernst (Stavro) Blofeld for “one stroking cat” but the hyphen put me off that. I made PREARRANGE my COD. Very clever.
    1. I also thought of Blofeld, but couldn’t see how it would fit. Mog Rubber took a while!
  22. Half an hour in taxi, half asleep after a bad night of thunderstorms and little rest. Was slow to see the TILDE chestnut or to see PENTATHLON in spite of having been to Athlone a few times (a strong candidate for most boring town in Ireland). Loved WALLFLOWER although I had it written in long before I saw why.
  23. I think I solved this correctly, though I can’t be certain, and I don’t have a time (just as I submitted, the Crossword Club site appears to have gone splat, at least from my POV). Anyway, an entertaining puzzle, and this time I remembered THIMBLERIG without having to say I’d never seen it before for at least the third or fourth time, so it appears to have stuck at last.
  24. I giggled my way through this. It’s one of the most amusing puzzles I can remember. Lovely stuff and just the thing to brighten a Monday morning. 28 minutes. Ann
  25. Just over the half-hour, but as with Tim, Club site didn’t respond to ‘submit’. Had to take a minute or so thinking about 24 to be sure it wasn’t ROLE, while 25 went in from wordplay, and it was only after coming here that I got the definition.
    PS – site back now, and time logged as 33 minutes – the wait doesn’t seem to have been added on.
  26. I’m worried now. I hope nobody reading is into telekinesis. It’s pretty similar to solving anagrams.
  27. 48m
    Had too many aitches and not enough ‘e’s when working out 3d (Mother Shower?) which foxed me on 12a and 7d for a while. Saw MoneyG but without 7d, couldn’t see the rest of the answer. Eventually spotted Thimble though had never heard of a Thimblerig so guessed as the most likely. 12d and 3d (once I’d sorted h/e) fell into place. LOI was 14d. Like 20a and 25a.
  28. No time today as I picked up and put down a paper copy in between swimming, sunbathing and lunching. I was also distracted by the firefighter planes circling about our home in Mallorca quenching a second local wild fire in just 24 hours.

    I needed 4 reveals to complete the grid. DNK PALIMPSEST and could not solve METEOR SHOWER (wanted to put bottom shower but couldn’t parse it), PENTATHLON and VICEREGENT. I am rather happy having read the blog that I got THIMBLERIG and OESOPHAGI though. Thank you Vinyl for the explanations.

    Edited at 2018-07-16 02:24 pm (UTC)

  29. Well it shows that time and effort do pay as 1a and 7d went in easily – words I would never have known without the Times crossword. I completed in 40m thinking that was good (for me) for a typical Tuesday. Oh dear – that’s what not working does to you! Great puzzle and nice blog.
  30. No idea of time for this one – I started it last night, then left the timer running until I picked it up again this morning. So, technically, about ten hours.

    I’m sure this unnatural spell of good weather is rotting my brain. I think we English need a decent bit of drizzle every so often just to remind us that time is passing and we’re not stuck in sort of perpetual groundhog day.

    The puzzle itself was probably fairly straightforward despite my making heavy weather of it. Glad to have encountered THIMBLERIG here before. CoD definitely goes to 25ac.

    1. Do be careful what you wish for, Thud .. if we get drizzle for the entire autumn, I will look at it and think of you..
      1. As far as I can tell, nobody ever listens to my weather wishes. The number of times I’ve written to the Met Office to complain…
  31. It didn’t take me long to polish this off (5 and a half minutes-odd), but even so, one of the most entertaining puzzles in a long time. My hat well and truly off to the setter – if only all crosswords could be this inventive and entertaining!
  32. Surely this should be vicegerent. Vice-regent has to be hyphenated and is a common misuse for vicegerent.
  33. Not a lot to add; nice puzzle, but I was slow on this – 30 mins 🙁
    Great blog, thanks.
  34. 29 mins. I found this a charming puzzle and a pleasure to solve. An overhasty money-grabber needed correction to grubber slightly delaying 11dn. There was also a pause while I tried to summon up the the short red and the cute river in the bottom. Other than that a smooth solve. I particularly enjoyed the clues for sure thing, pitter-patter, house party and of course the bash mouse in 25ac.
  35. Not your usual Monday puzzle – some clever clues and some off-beat answers. Nice one.
        1. Always reminds me of this exchange from Yes, Minister:

          JIM: Why were you so late last night?
          LUCY: There are some things it’s better for a father not to know.
          JIM: Don’t you start!
          LUCY: What?
          JIM: Nothing, nothing.
          LUCY: I was out with the Trots.
          JIM: Gosh! Are you going to see a doctor?
          LUCY: The Trotskyites!

          Edited at 2018-07-17 08:51 am (UTC)

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