Times 27271 – Call me Deacon Blues

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 40 minutes
Music: Carmen Highlights

I have to admit this was a bit of a biff-fest, as I quickly discovered that this setter tended to use simple and obvious literals, often a single word.  Many of the longer answers were obvious once one or two checkers were present, and in they went.   It is only as I came to write the blog that I realize how casually I tossed in the obvious answer.

Another feature of this setter is rather loose usage of language.   Is a ‘maestro’ a ‘virtuoso’?   Can a Spartan be described as ‘austere’?   Is ‘E’ hallucinatory?   Does a ‘fisherman’ use a lobster pot?   Well, not exactly.

Tonight’s two long answers may cause some solvers trouble.   Had I not researched the origin of the South African currency unit, the rand, I might have come a cropper; as it was, I was able to get the most difficult part of the word, and just had to put the remaining letters in likely places – look what I found!   This is what I have been doing in my attempts to solve Mephisto without reference books, but unlike Mephisto not every letter is checked.   But if the word looks like it’s correctly formed in the target language, it’s likely to be correct.

Across
1 Scot left during talk with, say, another Scot? (10)
GLASWEGIAN – G(L)AS + W + E.G. + IAN – what could be simpler?
6 Dandy clutching large bomb (4)
FLOP – F(L)OP.   Formerly, a ‘bomb; was a big success in UK theatrical slang, but the US version seems to have taken over.
9 Society role played by an austere old Greek (7)
SPARTAN – S + PART + AN.
10 Authorise retired military engineers to lock up prisoner (7)
EMPOWER – EM(POW)ER, where the enclosing letters are a reversal of our old friends, the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
12 Executive area in feeding-place finally in regular use (10)
MANAGERIAL – MAN(A)GER + [f]I[n]A[l]L[y].
13 Instrument from east associated with this country (3)
UKE – UK + E.  Not particularly valid in Connecticut, but I see the intent.
15 University academic, a Times subscriber, perhaps? (6)
READER – Double definition, an Oxbridge title.
16 Malign ward supervisor entertaining at home (8)
SINISTER – S(IN)ISTER.
18 Cultural traits unexpectedly shown by current clubs (8)
ARTISTIC – anaagrm of TRAITS + I + C.
20 Fine-tune first of devices used in a fair (6)
ADJUST –  A(D[evices])JUST.
23 Large vessel initially unpopular with sailors (3)
URN – U + R[oyal] N[avy].
24 Self-educator executed turn with American car (10)
AUTODIDACT – AUTO + DID ACT.
26 Italian fellow’s extremely cool sound reproduction (7)
CLAUDIO – C[oo]L + AUDIO.
27 Amount of writing covering European leader’s ancestry (7)
LINEAGE – LIN(E)AGE.
28 Study used by English prime minister in the past (4)
EDEN – E + DEN.
29 Throw rest out, returning most important fisherman’s trap (7,3)
LOBSTER POT – LOB + anagram of REST + TOP backwards.
Down
1 A big blow when visitor rejects hallucinatory drug (4)
GUST – GU(E)ST.   Even I know that ecstasy is not a true hallucinogen.
2 A graduate with a research room in the Birmingham area? (7)
ALABAMA – A LAB + A MA….not the Birmingham you were expecting?
3 Intelligence steward deployed having worked in S African region (13)
WITWATERSRAND – WIT + anagram of STEWARD around RAN.
4 He may have a hissy fit — look! (6)
GANDER – Double definition, the first one allusive.
5 Mimic provided with Italian wine, possibly, before meal (8)
APERITIF – APER + IT + IF.
7 Case in which canon takes formal wear (7)
LAWSUIT – LAW + SUIT.     Besides being an eccleisiatic title, ‘canon’ refers to the one of the laws of the church.
8 Maintain right for union leader to perform (10)
PERPETRATE – PERPET(+R,-u)ATE, a simple letter-substitution clue.
11 Old man developed seaside land for social venue (6,2,5)
PALAIS DE DANSE – PA + anagram of SEASIDE LAND.   Thanks to the Kinks for this one.
14 Fantastic, one taking pledge — an older relative! (5-5)
GREAT-UNCLE – GREAT! + UNCLE, that is, the pawnbroker.
17 Curios thus gathering round maestro? (8)
VIRTUOSO – VIRTU (O) SO.   ‘Virtu’ refers to a group of artistic objects.   However, a ‘maestro’ is chiefly a conductor, while a ‘virtuoso’ is an instrumentalist.
19 Charge for carrying horse resting in shade (7)
TONNAGE – TON(NAG)E.
21 Release a French set finally missing end of prep (7)
UNCLASP – UN + CLAS[s] + [pre]P
22 Mature persons a police officer has arrested in the last month (6)
ADULTS – A D(ULT)S.   The officer is a Detective Sergeant, and the month is pre-WWI business English, now obsolete.
25 An achievement, having units of poetry recited (4)
FEAT – I believe this is supposed to sound like ‘fit’, even though speakers around the world use wildly different vowels in both words.   Er, sounds like ‘feet’.   I sometimes miss an obvious one.

55 comments on “Times 27271 – Call me Deacon Blues”

  2. Did a batch of biffing myself: GLASWEGIAN, MANAGERIAL, AUTODIDACT (rather a giveaway def), GREAT-UNCLE, WITWATERSRAND. Didn’t parse 12ac until post-submission. I didn’t know that WITWATERSRAND was a region; only knew the university. I wondered about VIRTUOSO, but ODO includes performers in its definition. I don’t see why the setter bothered to include ‘hallucinatory’; the clue would have worked as well without it. LOI PERPETRATE; it took me a while to twig the the substitution; it often does.
  3. I nearly came a cropper on NHO WITWATERSRAND, originally having gone for WITTAWERSRAND but changing it at the last minute. At first, I assumed it would end LAND but the wordplay was pretty insistent that it was RAND, and I knew the currency (but who names a region after a currency?). LOI was VIRTUOSO since I was looking for an italian conductor but is anyone other than TOSCANINI famous enough for the daily crossword? I also had the same queries about whether ecstasy is hallucinatory, and whether you’d start a fight in a Maine bar by calling lobstermen fishermen. I think spartan is fine (without the capital S anyway): a spartan room, a spartan existence. I think that’s fine for austere. I just looked it up in Chambers and austere is one of the meanings for spartan.
        1. Not Italian last time I checked! Also too alive for the Times crossword.

          Edited at 2019-02-11 10:43 am (UTC)

  4. Rather a mixed bag ending in another technical DNF for me as I got bored with staring at the three remaining clues and looked up the answers to two of them: WITWATERSRAND and AUTODIDACT. The first T in the latter then enabled me to solve VIRTUOSO but I couldn’t parse it as I didn’t know VIRTU. I also had an error, not being able to see past UNCLAMP at 21dn despite realising that it didn’t parse
  5. ….. with 5 spent on PERPETRATE and VIRTUOSO. Mostly biffed with clues like GUST, AUTODIDACT, SPARTAN etc. Quite liked the seaside development.
  6. DNF. 25 mins (with yoghurt etc.) for all but the last two. Another 5 mins and gave up. I think this was wise.
    It’s alright for those who have heard of Witwatersrand and Virtu. But tricky if you haven’t.
    Mostly I liked the reminder of the Palais De Danse.
    Thanks setter and virtuoso Vinyl.
  7. DNF, giving up after fifteen minutes staring at 3d. Just couldn’t piece together the wordplay, especially as I never thought of “ran”. Bah.
  8. I just love Emmylou, so any excuse. 18 minutes until I reached the unknown WITWATERSRAND. I had the WIT and the RAND but deciding on which anagram of STEWARD to use with the uncertainty of whether I was right or not meant I succumbed to an aid. My excuse is I’ve got to take my mother- in-law for an appointment in quarter of an hour, and I can’t be late for that. COD PALAIS DE DANSE. Thank you V and setter.
  9. Easy today.
    Our illustrious blogger may see loose use of language, but the setter seems to have the dictionaries on his/her side. For example (all from Collins):
    the drug e: 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine; MDMA: a powerful drug that acts as a stimulant and can produce hallucinations
    maestro: A maestro is a skilled and well-known musician or conductor
    spartan: very strict or austere

  10. Well, that was a flop. I biffed and assembled my way to all but one, then rightly surmised that I’d never encountered the South African region before and lost interest in trying to guess where the steward letters might go. I see I’m in good company.

    As vinyl says, some oddly loose defs. I’m still not clear on the ‘hissy fit’ thing. Are geese notorious for hissing? The ones that fly over my house on their daily commute just honk very pleasingly.

      1. Thanks, matt, and others below. Guess I’ve never got close enough to a goose. They’re very vocal creatures. We get huge numbers flying over — in late summer and early autumn it can be up to around 400 in the space of half an hour or so. And every year there’s one group that makes an incredible racket and which can’t get into a nice V shape to save their lives. I think of them as ‘the teenagers’.
    2. They hiss at my dog when she goes anywhere near them. She barks back, it’s fun for all concerned.
    3. Glad to see you’re back, Sotira, even with the wrong avatar. It’s been far too long.
      As I said, I biffed WITWATERSRAND, and it was only when I came here that it struck me how really un-GK it was.
  11. DNF as I couldn’t see VIRTUOSO. As remarked above, this is a bit of a dodgy clue (Virtu??) but I should have got it anyway. The rest took me about 20 mins so it was quite easy.
  12. Yes, they do hiss although not while airborne. I think it’s usually a warning before the head goes down, quickly followed by an aggressive charge. It may be accompanied by honking but that’s more of a general communication thing… a crescendo usually precedes a group take-off. Pleased to see that you’re back again. Kind regards, Bob K.
  13. 9:53, but with one error. It wasn’t WITWATERSRAND, which I have never heard of and had to construct carefully from the wordplay. I was at least half expecting it to be wrong, but my error turned out to be something else, so stupid I’m too ashamed to admit to it.

    Edited at 2019-02-11 10:05 am (UTC)

      1. No mine was much more stupid than that. I’ve made the DANCE/DANSE mistake in the past, so I was alert to it.

        Edited at 2019-02-11 10:16 am (UTC)

        1. UNCLAMP? I was on the verge of biffing that, until I remembered my new policy of actually reading more than half the clue before entering an answer.
  14. `Not for the first time, I forgot the French version of dance and failed to check the given letters, so a pink blob marred my viridian.
    Other than that, delayed by VIRTUOSO and by most of the top right. “Case” at 7d pinged “lower” into the forefront and I couldn’t find a way of fitting DJ in.
    I did like PERPETRATE once I twigged the instruction.
  15. All the way with the boltonwanderer (I love Emmylou) and jerrythecat (more trouble in the Americas) – a pleasant outing for a Monday methought. Thus 29 minutes from a chill Shanghai. And a duck luncheon with all the trimmings from her indoors. Ho mai!

    FOI 13ac UKE

    LOI 25dn FEAT

    COD 24ac AUTODIDACT

    WOD 11dn PALAIS DE DANSE

    I presume that the most celebrated 26ac is Claudio Granieri! But he was unable to weave his magic on Saturday against Les Rouges, darn at the Cottage!

    Edited at 2019-02-11 10:12 am (UTC)

  16. Whizzed along with this, until left after 16 minutes with N?T?S?I? for 18a, because I had a grand uncle not a great one. Doh! A cheating word search told me no such word, so had to rethink my uncle. 21 minutes with one cheat then. The rest was fine, remembered my South Africa geography and thought Spartan was okay.
  17. Ran out of patience with the unknown WITWATERSRAND (obscure?), and slipped up with DANCE.

    Emmylou Harris lovers (indeed anyone), please check out “Emmylou”, a tribute to her by First Aid Kit. Great song and band.

    1. Agree. I am listening to a lot of First Aid Kit at the moment. Particularly like their version of ” America” as a tribute to Paul Simon -who is watching in the live Youtube clip.
    2. Thank you for drawing my attention to this. Good stuff. I’m too square to know which way is up now. Davididav1 has persuaded me to go to a Fairport Convention concert next week, and even they are after my time. Johnny and June weren’t!
      2. You’ll enjoy Fairport Convention. I went to see them in Stockton last Thursday. Brilliant show!
  18. Nailed by WITWATERSRAND. Had never heard of it. It was ‘ran’ for ‘worked’ that I couldn’t see, so I bunged in Wittawersland, knowing that it was wrong, but life’s too short 🙁
  19. Pleasant Monday solve, though I spotted more than one elephant trap for the over-hasty biffer, and made sure I had the right version of DANSE/DANCE, UNCLASP rather than UNCLAMP etc. I knew WITWATERSRAND, or at least I thought I did: turns out my mind has always had it with an extra T, i.e. WITWATERSTRAND, as if it were a beach, perhaps (this would obviously be more understandable if it was somewhere near Durban, rather than several hundred miles inland). Anyway, untangling the anagram fodder made me realise I must have been wrong all these years, which shows the dangers of half-remembering things.
  20. A replica of Pip’s solving experience. PERPETRATE made me smile. I used to pass our local precinct (the 19th) on 67th Street when taking my children to school and it was surprising how often we would see a well-known person being given the “perp walk”. I somehow knew the beginning and end of the S. Africa place and just had to wait for the checkers to get the middle. 17.37
  21. Heavy weather today, and I fell at the WITWATERSRAND hurdle, having chucked in WITWATERSLAND in desperation. A bit more thought and I might have got there… I also didn’t know ‘virtu’ but couldn’t think of an alternative to VIRTUOSO.

    14m 45s with the error. Not my best Monday.

  22. ….at the PALAIS DE DANSE. I don’t often get the chance to reference the excellent Emerson Lake & Palmer.

    I was glad that I’d heard of WITWATERSRAND, or I might have struggled. As it was, 20% of my time was spent on MANAGERIAL and VIRTUOSO.

    I’d never considered E as hallucinatory, but then I’m from the LSD era.

    FOI FLOP
    LOI VIRTUOSO
    COD GLASWEGIAN (I tried to justify Caledonian)
    TIME 10:58

  23. Another Wit(less)watersland here though it felt wrong. Shoulda gone back to it. Otherwise pleasant going. Can’t help wondering who the Glaswegian flop is though. Maybe it’s just something that goes on at the palais de danse, together with the lobster pot. 22’10 with the one wrong.
  24. I breezed though this quite happily, until I got to UKE/LAWSUIT, which for some reason took me several minutes. Even so, my time was quite fast (for me!) at about 18 minutes. But then I managed to blow it by having not one but two typos in PALAIS DE DANSE. The first was due to my own clumsy fingers, the second was caused by the French, who clearly have no idea how to spell “dance”.
  25. I breezed through this in 20 minutes or so until my LOI, 3d. Having played with WIT and (STEWARD)* for another 15 minutes, I got as far as WITWATERS_AND, was sure it wasn’t L for LAND, thought it might be (IN S)* “worked” got impatient, couldn’t figure the RAN bit out and looked it up. Argghh!. 38:08 with one cheat. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
    On edit: On the plus side I didn’t fall into the bear traps at 11d and 21d.

    Edited at 2019-02-11 01:37 pm (UTC)

  26. South African regions might as well be Norwegian or Chinese regions. Shouldn’t have to guess the answer especially when all of the checkers are in.

    NHO poetic feet either – who thinks these terms up?

  27. I remembered the Rand from schooldays, so I must have had at least one off-day, during which I mistakenly paid attention. Ridge of White Water or something, a long scarp in which so much gold has been found, they named the currency after it (in 1961).

    Thanks setter and vinyl.

  28. But with a stupid mistake – dance for danse. And I live in France, for God’s sake! Thanks for the explanation of Virtu, which I did not know. Witwatersrand is the gold-bearing area around Jo’bourg, isn’t it? Just missed putting unclamp for unclasp.
  29. Pretty much of a stroll in the park for this one. My only issue being ‘virtu’, but as my LOI with all the checking letters in place, VIRTUOSO was the only plausible choice. I’m a bit surprised at the unfamiliarity at the WITWATERSRAND, yes, leskoffer the gold mine region near Johannesburg, the desire for possession of which was, I think, the unstated cause of the Boer War. Regards.

    Edited at 2019-02-11 06:22 pm (UTC)

  30. 51:17, quite a few minutes at the end on 17dn and 3dn. Didn’t know Virtu so couldn’t see how that worked just bunged it in hoping it was correct. Didn’t know the region of SA. Wit at the front seemed clear. I then needed to convince myself that there wasn’t another, better, three-letter synonym for worked than ran but the rand ending for a SA location was quite persuasive. That left the deployment of the remaining unchecked letters from steward. This was the hardest part. Witwatersrand seemed no more compelling than Wittawersrand or Witwaretsrand. Plumped for the former. Could’ve knocked me down with a feather when I found I’d guessed correctly.
  31. Hallucinatory [drug], American [car], European [leader]. The clues work fine without the adjectives. My understanding was that ‘e’ of itself isn’t classed as hallucinatory. It raises perception levels, and heightens excitement. It’s the prolonged use, and when it is cut with other stuff that induces the paranoia. A lot of the damage is done post-absorption, where to combat the resultant thirst, the user has to drink copious amounts of water, in effect intoxicating themselves (with water). But then I’m not ‘down with the kids’, so I’m probably wrong. Mr Grumpy
  32. I too found this quite easy and took about 40 minutes to solve it (by the current Times clock, which unfortunately stops the clock if you pause solving). In reality I took much longer because I was very suspicious of VIRTUOSO. I just couldn’t think of anything else to put in, but that required the leap of faith that “virtu” was actually going to mean “curios” and that seemed very risky (but nevertheless true, as it turned out). I only really liked one clue very much, the GANDER’s hissy fit.

  33. Finished apart from Virtuoso which I had to look up and then kicked myself as I had heard of Virtu (from watching those endless antiques programmes on BBC). Otherwise enjoyed this puzzle – very happy that I remembered Autodidact from an earlier puzzle and I did know Witwatersrand.
  34. Thanks setter and vinyl
    Reasonably steady work across three sittings to get this one out. Didn’t help early on by writing in an unparsed CALEDONIAN at 1a and then justifying it with an equally unparsed (and now unreadable) word at 1d. 3d’s W showed the error of this thinking after having to use references to find the previously unheard of South African scarp.
    Had seen VIRTU in a recent puzzle from elsewhere, so that wasn’t a problem in building the answer to 17. The metrical feet have almost become a standard in crosswords these days too.
    Finished in the NE corner with PERPETRATE (having to work out the logic to replace the U with the R and not the other way around) and SINiSTER (curiously enough in retrospect).
  35. Only doing this 9 months after the rest of you. This is what comes of photocopying the puzzles and putting them away to be done at leisure. We also semi-biffed CALEDONIAN for 1a — well it has two Scots in Don and Ian, and talk could be a call …..momble momble…. Took a while to sort this out , but finished in 24 minutes. I think I’d be channeling Tony Sever to express my dismay at the lack of knowledge of Witwatersrand amongst the solving community.

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