Times 27315 – all that glisters is not gold.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found this tough. One of those puzzles where it takes an age to get going properly, then turns into a slow but steady plod, unravelling some of the more obscure wordplay afterwards. Had I not been on duty, I might have abandonded it unfinished, as it wasn’t bringing me the necessary quota of smiles and smug satisfaction. However, I was tired, sitting half asleep in the sun in hat and shades, and not at my sparkling best. In the end I think I have it deconstructed, as they say on MasterChef. (Wasn’t it really good this year?)
Maybe the SNITCH will tell us it was not hard at all. I don’t have a time for it as I wasn’t continuously awake.

Across
1 Loose underclothes? How foolish to pirouette! (8)
SLIPSHOD – SLIPS = underclothes, DOH! = how foolish, Homer Simpson style, reverse it = pirouette.
6 Heartless priest dealing with Biblical knowledge (6)
CARNAL – CARDINAL loses its heart. ‘Knowing’ someone in the Bible meant having carnal knowledge, as in ‘Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived.’ It’s not what you know, it’s who you know, perhaps.
9 He spreads dirt around in foreign land — no germs (13)
SCANDALMONGER – (LAND NO GERMS)*, then insert CA = around, approx.
10 Move carefully, spinning top in game (6)
TIPTOE – (TOP)* inside TIE – game, as in cup tie.
11 Girl cut hair: she wears the trousers? (8)
MISTRESS – MIS(S), TRESS. Tempting to ramble on about what various kinds of mistresses might wear, but I’d probably get hate mail and have to become an ex-blogger, so I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.
13 Vomit from gut — agree it needs treatment (10)
EGURGITATE – (GUT AGREE IT)*. Of course, I initially began to write in REGURGI… then ran out of space so re-examined the fodder.
15 Invalid not fully well, unfortunately regressing (4)
NULL – Hidden reversed in WE(LL UN)FORTUNATELY.
16 Very fond of a joke taken the wrong way (4)
GAGA – A GAG reversed. It seems GAGA has two separate meanings, one being ‘very enthusiastic’ (about), and one closer to losing the plot, as I am doing occasionally these days.
18 Elaborate clothing right for Brit abroad? (10)
EXPATRIATE – To EXPATIATE is to go on about, to elaborate; insert R to get an EXPAT like me.
21 Moles, deprived of energy, running in ditch (8)
JETTISON – JETTIES can be called MOLES, piers, drop an E and add ON = running.
22 Flock’s leader goes off, a sheep’s tail twirling (6)
PASTOR – Reverse all of: ROTS = goes off, A, P = last letter of sheep.
23 Total area covered by a Parisian train line (13)
UNCONDITIONAL – Took me a while to see how this works. I think it is CONDITION = train, as in go to the gym; insert into UN (a Parisian) and A (area), add L for line. As in unconditional surrender. I was working on some sort of Continental train line for too long.
25 Mineral, the very thing found in wood pile (6)
PYRITE – IT = the very thing, insert IT into PYRE a wood pile. I remember as a chemistry-gaga kid of around 8, finding lumps of this ‘fool’s gold’ on the surface of the chalk lands on the Jurassic coast, where we had a caravan, and finding out it was FeS2, not the real McCoy.
26 Say nothing, dropping by for second drink (8)
ESPRESSO – EXPRESS O would be ‘say nothing’, drop the X (by) and replace with S.

Down
2 Grace maybe topless is a source of drama (7)
LESSING – Well, I get BLESSING (Grace maybe) topless, but am a bit vague about the drama thing. Lessing is a common German surname and there were probably dramatists of note with that name. I only know of DORIS the writer, who as far as I know doesn’t do plays. This clue seems a bit TLS-worthy to me although the cryptic is clear enough.
3 Gone to drink clarets, possibly a sign of a break (7,4)
PLASTER CAST – Gone = PAST, insert (CLARETS)*.
4 Horse to go over boundary fence (5)
HEDGE – H for horse, EDGE. My FOI.
5 Cover up girl’s doubtful state (7)
DILEMMA – DIL = LID (cover) ‘up’, EMMA a girl.
6 Chaucer’s opening lines: bits of verse in lines (5,4)
CROWS FEET – My heart sank when I read this clue, as Chaucer is a non-subject for me. Fortunately, all you need to know is that Chaucer begins with C, then you have ROWS for lines, then FEET being bits of verse; the lines are to be found on your face, at a certain age.
7 There’s nothing odd in trying outfit (3)
RIG – The even letters of t R y I n G.
8 Heading north, look angry with a fog? (7)
AEROSOL – Another ‘reverse it all’ clue; LO = look, SORE = angry, A, turn that all around. You can have ‘fog in a can’ aerosols, which I remember being used on the sets of TV commercials to create the hazy effect.
12 Survey overlooking Conservative revival (11)
RENAISSANCE – You need to imagine RECONNAISSANCE meaning survey, then drop the CON.
14 Basically, where some Germans live with religious body (2,7)
IN ESSENCE –  Indeed some Germans do live IN ESSEN, some 600,000, in the largest urbanisation in Germany apparently, the Ruhr. Then CE = Church of England.
17 Where ancient stones are put in ground under thoroughfare (7)
AVEBURY – AVE = thoroughfare, BURY = put in ground. Avebury is a Neolithic site not very far from my native bit of Dorset, in Wiltshire. Even if you’d never heard of it the word play is easy enough.
19 What writers need, the writer’s musing (7)
PENSIVE – Writers need PENS; I’VE = the writer’s.
20 Bard’s hero has much faith about artwork (7)
TROILUS – Insert OIL (artwork) into TRUS(T). T and C is a Shakespeare play of which I have managed to remain ignorant for all these years, and having just read a chunk on Wiki about it, I don’t think I’ve missed a lot.
22 Groom‘s proper place at the front (5)
PRIMP – PRIM = proper, P = front of Place.
24 One character abroad, two would be stylish (3)
CHI – 22nd Greek letter χῖ; CHI-CHI I thought meant over-elaborate, pretentious.

52 comments on “Times 27315 – all that glisters is not gold.”

  2. I unthinkingly typed in EXPRESSO, spoiling a pretty good time for a (pace Pip) fairly easy puzzle. I also started typing REGURG…, as I expect lots of us did. Had the IT in PYRITE long before getting the PYRE. And I spent a lot of time trying to get INTER into 17d before finally remembering AVEBURY. I had the same doubt about ‘chi-chi’ as Pip, and the same attitude toward ‘Troilus and C’; I think it’s the one Shakespeare play I’ve never finished. Gotthold LESSING was an 18th-century German dramatist; and that’s all I know about him, but he did come to mind before Doris.
    1. I was reading the other day that apparently baristas privately mock those who confuse EXPRESSO and ESPRESSO, probably the highlight of their day.
      1. If they do, they’d be in good (sc. bad) company, along with e.g. those who mock people who insert an apostrophe in “its”.
  3. 27:25 … phew! is all I can say. I got very stuck in the northeast, with CROW’S FEET and CARNAL taking up a good chunk of my time.

    Is EGURGITATE what you do after swallowing a dictionary?

    Very clever stuff. I was happy just to solve it completely in the end.

  4. I made it harder, perhaps, than it might have been by deliberately avoiding working any that crossed one I’d already worked for as long as I could. The parsing was often elusive but I had no doubts about any of it when I’d finished. I liked JETTISON (“oh, that sense of ‘moles’…!) LESSING and CARNAL (my LOI). But who capitalizes “biblical”?

    Edited at 2019-04-03 05:51 am (UTC)

    2. I don’t, but I think the capitalization triggered ‘carnal knowledge’ in my mind, where ‘biblical knowledge’ just looks like knowledge of the Bible.
  5. A very similar experience to others so far, including REGUR.. (oh no, there’s not going to be enough room!), INTER, and wondering if Doris Lessing wrote any plays.

    I was a bit doubtful about GAGA where I think ‘of’ may be surplus to requirements as part of the definition as ‘very fond of’ would surely translate to ‘gaga about’?

    I fell at the very last hurdle as the hour solving-time approached, when I ran out of steam and used aids to find CROW’S FEET. I’d been fixated on the first word being ‘cross’.

    Edited at 2019-04-03 05:47 am (UTC)

  6. Cor. Took me bang on the hour, this one, and I despaired of finishing. Add me to the “tried to crowbar in ‘REGURGITATE'” club, which didn’t help.

    If I hadn’t been to a few winter solstices at AVEBURY (they’re more civilised than the summer ones and you don’t have to get up so early) I might’ve still been writing as my bell went off. Thanks for the parsings; in my rush I biffed CROWS FEET, RENAISSANCE and UNCONDITIONAL.

    Also happy that Doris LESSING exists, as I’d never heard of Gotthold Ephraim LESSING, the only playwright by that name in the ODE, and presumably the one intended…

    FOI 4d HEDGE, LOI 13a EGURGITATE, enjoyed 1a SLIPSHOD and 22d’s PRIMP (nice surface!).

  8. Excellent challenge and most enjoyable, though pretty tough. 35.40 to complete, all parsed, so thank you setter for a great start to the day.
  9. As others have said – a bit of a relentless slog with no lighter moments. Biffed LESSING – no idea who the very obscure dramatist was. Off to a dark room now for a period of recovery.
    1. He’s actually quite well-known; otherwise, I wouldn’t have known him. But he does belong in the TLS.

      Edited at 2019-04-03 09:42 am (UTC)

  10. 51 minutes, with LOI AEROSOL. I can recall being told when young that the biblical “know” meant CARNAL knowledge, which didn’t make me much the wiser. EGURGITATE was superimposed over REGURGITAT as an early entry. JETTISON was biffed with a pretence that I knew moles were jetties. I came to LESSING via Doris, but I remembered there was a German philosopher called that, and I gather he wrote plays too. COD to IN ESSENCE, one I didn’t struggle with. Thank you Pip and setter for a tough one.
  11. Thanks Pip for SCANDALMONGER, CARNAL, TIPTOE and UNCONDITIONAL. As some have said, this was a bit of a slog. No COD. LOI was CARNAL.
    Glad to have internet back after 24hrs without.
  12. ….on 6A/D and only bloody minded determination got me through. One alpha trawl in a puzzle is a bind, but both TIPTOE and CARNAL took me down that route.

    Same problems as others, and on a scale from 1-10 my enjoyment level was a 3.

    FOI SCANDALMONGER
    LOI CARNAL
    COD PRIMP
    TIME 22:40

  13. Well, I rather enjoyed this, what with CARNAL knowledge and TROILUS (Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde is arguably his best work), not to mention accessible sciency stuff. I wonder which wizard was responsible for naming those ancient site towns so similarly (what with Stonehenge being near AMESBURY).
    1. As a Wiltshire lad I have always preferred Avebury (probably because it has a pub in the middle). Ludovic Kennedy used to live in a cottage inside the stone ring.
  14. Pretty much gave up on this after half an hour with hardly anything in right half. 9ac was FOI, and 6ac/6dn last, after much use of aids. (I’d been trying to make 12dn from ‘survey’ + TORY, also wanting some sort of garment at 18ac.)
    Eventually completed and submitted off-board, but forgot to make the change specified at 26ac.
  15. 29:30 but two embarrassing errors. EXPRESSO and CROWSNEST.

    COD: CARNAL. I couldn’t work out the wordplay or the cryptic definition. Clever.

  16. Interesting that it was the Bard’s Troilus that was referenced in the puzzle. Incidentally there is lots of Biblical knowledge in Chaucer.

    Same comments as everyone else, hard work. Liked JETTISON, only know CHI CHI as the panda. Have been to AVEBURY, where some centuries ago several stones were destroyed by burning to clear the land 🙁

    28′, thanks pip and setter.

  17. As appears to be compulsory, I learned more than one new thing today i.e. that you can EGURGITATE rather than regurgitate, and that Doris LESSING didn’t write plays, but that it didn’t matter that she didn’t. Challenging solve, expecially (sic) in the SE corner, but got there in the end.
  19. My 26 minutes and change would have been pretty good for a TLS but denotes a struggle for one of these. I see from Google that Doris LESSING did in fact write a couple of plays and some opera libretti, none of which I’d heard of any more than the German guy. I also wondered a bit about the MISTRESS wearing the trousers. Wouldn’t she be more likely to be clad in a slip or other loose underwear? I never did parse UNCONDITIONAL completely (thanks Pip) and spent time trying for some sort of underground.
  21. I got most of the way through this, with 4 or 5 left, in 25 minutes but then had to save it and take the car in for its parking sensor replacement appointment. Having got the bus back I called into the pub for an OJ and then walked the last mile and a bit home where those last few clues occupied a disproportionate 18 or so minutes. CROWS FEET fell first, then PASTOR which gave me TROILUS, then TIPTOE came with an alpha trawl and I finally spotted LESSING. I also regurgitated the anagrist a couple of times at 13a until I got something that looked likely. RIG went in first, JETTISON and UNCONDITIONAL were not fully parsed, so thanks for those Pip. A bit of a slog but I didn’t not enjoy it. Thanks setter and Pip. Another 25 minutes and it will be time to head for the bus back into town. Just enough time for another cuppa.
    On edit: 38:14.

    Edited at 2019-04-03 02:12 pm (UTC)

  22. Slog. Liked the moles because I like surprising meanings like that, but sometimes people moan about ‘difficulty for the sake of it’ when setters do that. Not today though.
  23. In spite of some interesting clues I found this generally an enenjoyable slog. I was held up trying to parse UNCONDITIONAL and by trying to tease out the anagram for EGURGITATE. (I tried regurgitate and gurgitate without success) I fell asleep in the middle so no time but think it was over the hour. Ann
  24. Definitely tough. It had to be Lessing, but since when was Doris a playwright? And it had to be Carnal, but again I couldn’t see why. Do now. Thanks.
  25. Didn’t help that I threw in SLANDERMONGER…well I’m sure he exists somewhere. Got in just under the hour but as many have said, more perspiration than inspiration.
  26. 21:55. Solved on a plane to Mallorca (sorry, you didn’t need to know that, except that I couldn’t cheat had I needed to). Like others I started 13A with REGURG… before I realised. I also put PYRITE in 22A at first, which didn’t help. But, unlike some others, I enjoyed this, particularly CROWS FEET and SLIPSHOD. I thought JETTISON clever and CARNAL too. Thumbs up from me!
  27. As (quite a few) others have said, this felt pretty hard without being especially entertaining, though it wasn’t *not* entertaining either. Sometimes that’s all a Times puzzle needs to be, a good solid challenge.

    My LOI, for an agonising length of time, was TIPTOE as *I*T*E is quite a cruel set of crossers for this.

  28. First time commenting after some weeks of checking answers here.
    Got Times free from the airport (I travel a lot). Don’t know how long it took but definitely more than an hour.
    FOI was RIG, LOI was PASTOR, COD was PYRITE, but I’m a sucker for science clues.
    Went up a blind alley thinking slandermonger instead of slandermonger, but DILEMMA put me right.
  30. 55:59. on the tough side, some perseverance required. Glad to finish all correct in the end. Lessing my LOI because I only knew of Doris and did not think she had written any plays.

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