Times 27379 – Citrus deluxe!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 28 minutes
Music: Dvorak, Symphony 7, Davis/LSO

This is a fairly easy Monday puzzle, well-suited to biffing.   As I begin to write the blog, I have parsed fewer than half the clues, but I can probably figure them out as I go along.   There were one or two tricky answers where you might have to rely on previous solving experience to get home, but other than that it is pretty clear sailing.   Skilled solvers should post fast times.

Here at Times for the Times, we are moving forward.   Regular readers will have noted our new Jumbo blogger, Kitty_404, who is taking over for Mohn2.    While he is one of our top solvers and best bloggers, Mohn2 has a very demanding job and is no longer able to devote as much time to crosswords and TftT as he might wish.   Besides his activity as a blogger, Mohn2 was also instrumental in developing and improving the script nearly all the bloggers use to generate blog skeletons, which saves the bloggers a lot of time and many mistakes.   I would like to offer my thanks to Mohn2 for all the time and support he has given to the TftT.

On another front, former blogger JerryWh has kindly offered to help with some needed improvements to the blog.    Jerry and I have already finished and posted the new Times for the Times Glossary, and he has volunteered to work on fixing the sorely out-of-date information in ‘About this Blog’, which has not been changed in about 10 years and is thoroughly obsolete.   This will take a little more time, but we hope to have something ready soon.

Now, for the puzzle….

Across
1 Calm, provided defended by fleet (6)
PACIFY – PAC(IF)Y, where I wasted a lot of time trying to make a noun.
4 Process of character identification, magic? (8)
SPELLING –  Double definition, where spelling a word involves identifying the characters in it.
10 Crumbling and remote gothic landmark (5,4)
NOTRE DAME – Anagram of AND REMOTE.
11 Half-hearted stuff for parent (5)
MATER – MAT[t]ER, either Latin or public school slang.
12 Warmer knickers under trousers (3)
SUN – Hidden in [knicker]S UN[der].
13 Calculus papers ending on van, in principle (6,5)
KIDNEY STONE – K(ID, [va]N)EYSTONE.   Fortunately, we had ‘calculi’ as an answer about two weeks ago – hope you did that one!
14 Youthful nurse? (6)
TENDER – Double definition, as in ‘tender years’.
16 Tramp seen half cut alongside first of innumerable gin bottles (7)
TRAIPSE – TRA(I[nnumerable])P + SE[en], which caused me to reconsider ‘limestone’ going down.
19 Plan to get captain finally onto pitch (7)
PATTERN – PATTER + [captai]N
20 Figure proceeded to rip apart teddy, removing stuffing (6)
TWENTY – T(WENT)Y
22 European nationals claiming officer beat retired author (4,7)
IRIS MURDOCH – IRIS(CO, DRUM backwards)H, one nearly every solver will biff.
25 Blade cutting head from pig (3)
OAR – [b]OAR
26 Reportedly big jar (5)
GRATE – sounds like GREAT.
27 Anger dissipating about narrow, narrow escape (4,5)
NEAR THING – NEAR(THIN)G, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of ANGER.
28 Measure of radiation, not energy almost entirely kinetic? (8)
ROENTGEN – anagram of NOT ENERG[y], a write-in from the definition.
29 Knowing fury, daughter (6)
SHREWD – SHREW + D.
Down
1 Fine maybe after twisting in breaking elbow (6)
PUNISH – PU(NI)SH, with ‘twisting’ as a reversal indicator for IN.
2 Function clear, belt secured (9)
COTANGENT – CO(TAN)GENT, one that I boldly biffed with only a single checker.
3 Rare for me, walks taken at regular intervals (5)
FREAK – F[o]R ]m]E, [w]A[l]K[s].
5 Showing plan, rates, I note, subject to change (14)
PRESENTATIONAL – anagram of PLAN, RATES I NOTE
6 Story about fiery spirit, flaky stuff (9)
LIMESCALE – LI(MESCAL)E.   I did wonder for a bit if ‘limestone’ was the answer, but could not recall a ‘meston’.
7 Opening in new trousers rather obvious, initially (5)
INTRO –  I[n] N[ew] T[rousers] R[ather] O[bvious] – yes, it’s obvious!
8 Heard old Hollywood actress, one working on plot? (8)
GARDENER – sounds like GARDINER.   There are apparently dozens of actresses with this surname, but Ava Gardiner is probably the intended target.
9 Official sort of order for fruit (8,6)
MANDARIN ORANGE –  MANDARIN + ORANGE, i.e. the Orange Order.
15 Most fanciful case of supplement supporting paper in decline (9)
DREAMIEST – D(REAM)IE + S[upplemen]T.
17 Frequent points are bandied about (9)
PATRONISE – Anagram of POINTS ARE.
18 Dog salivating, Pavlov starts with bell (8)
SPRINGER – S[alivating] P[avlov] + RINGER, as in a Springer Spaniel.
21 Cold day: like to get up? (6)
FRIGID – FRI + DIG upside-down.
23 Picture every second of film era (5)
IMAGE – [f]I[l]M + AGE
24 Come up with opening (5)
HATCH – double definition, as in hatch a plot.

57 comments on “Times 27379 – Citrus deluxe!”

  1. Penultimate One In (POI?) was SUN and then I got PUNISH.

    “Crumbling” has been a too accurate term for NOTRE DAME for at least forty years (the parts you’re not shown on a tour, anyway).

    1. I just hesitated to use my normal margin shorthand of “2LOI” for my penultimate here, and I’m glad you have a less moué-inducing alternative for public use!

      Edited at 2019-06-17 07:06 am (UTC)

  2. 16:31 … just the right amount of tricky for a Monday. Funny, too. Warmer knickers under trousers … fnarr.

    Thanks, both. And to Mohn2 … cheers and much thanks

  3. 24 minutes, so wih an easy QC on offer too I was sorry just to miss half-an hour for the two of them by 2 minutes.

    Quite a few in this one went in unparsed and two of them remained so, IRIS MURDOCH because I forgot to return to it post-solve, and KIDNEY STONE because I simply missed all three elements of the wordplay.

    As mentioned in the blog, it was fortunate that ‘calculi’ came up here so recently, and Susie Dent talked about ROENTGEN only last week when she identified it as the longest word to be made from one of the selections of letters on COUNTDOWN. I happened to know it anyway, but without that I’d surely have taken much longer to retrieve it from the recesses of my mind.

    I also toyed with ‘limestone’ at 6dn but once I’d spotted LIMESCALE as an alternative I decided that MESCAL seemed more likely to be a ‘fiery spirit’ than did ‘meston’ because I’ve heard of ‘mescaline’ as a hallucinogenic drug.

  4. 11:48. Not terribly easy, but not terribly difficult either. I took a while to get going, only solving for or five of the acrosses on my first pass and then building it up steadily. Nothing completely unknown today, although I needed CALCULI from the other day for 13ac.
  5. I had to wait a few hours before the 403 notice stopped appearing and I could actually access the club; no one’s mentioned this, though I know I wasn’t alone. No word yet from Snafu Central as to what went wrong, or an apology for the going. I never did parse KIDNEY STONE or IRIS M, so thanks V for those. I did the ‘meston’ thing, too, although it didn’t ring a bell as a spirit, or anything else, and I didn’t think limestone was particularly flaky. Liked SUN, snicker snicker. Thanks to Mohn; I hope he’ll at least be showing up with comments.
    1. I had problems accessing the whole Times site (newspapers and puzzles) around 23:30 UK time yesterday – I got to some front screens but when I drilled down to open something the next screen wouldn’t open. It was okay by midnight though.
    2. “… though I know I wasn’t alone.”
      Yes, we we few, we happy few! And I haven’t had a response from The Times yet either.
  6. I too had a 403 notice initially. I started on the i-pad before being able to print out, which I much prefer. But then the internet has also been all over the place in these parts recently.

    FOI 26ac GRATE

    LOI 19ac PATTERN

    COD 12ac SUN

    WOD 28ac ROENTGEN

    13ac KIDNEY STONE was a write in – (from a fortnight back)

    No mention of the fire at NOTRE-DAME – it will all be put back together, I sincerely hope.

    1. I wonder if there was a regional connection: horryd in Shanghai, Martinp in NZ, me in Osaka, all being 403ed, in my case, and I believe Martin’s, for several hours.
      1. If the region includes just outside the M25, then yes, as I was reduced to doing Mephisto on the newspaper site. I do dislike “you’re not supposed to be here”.
  7. 34 minutes, so not too bad, and it felt like plain sailing apart from a few in the NE. FOI 1a PACIFY for a good start, LOI 13a KIDNEY STONE, where I did pop that meaning of “calculus” on my Big List of Words when it came up, but clearly haven’t revised enough recently.

    I think my second-to-last, LIMESCALE, probably helped, and I wonder if the setter deliberately crossed these two unwanted calcium deposits!

    IRIS MURDOCH and ROENTGEN biffed. I have in this very room a Geiger counter that measures in ROENTGENs, oddly. Really must get around to having a clear-out.

    Edited at 2019-06-17 07:03 am (UTC)

    1. Bloomin’ ‘eck, Matt. You can’t just say “I have in this very room a Geiger counter” and leave it at that. WHY do you have a Geiger counter?
      1. I learnt a new English word whilst in Germany during April!

        I enquired about a Geiger counter and was offered a dosimeter.

        These may be in the form of a sticker, badge, pen/tube type, or even a digital readout. All measure the total accumulated amount of radiation to which one has been exposed during ‘an event’.

        1. It’s not usually in the lounge, but I’m considering taking it down to the militaria shop in town and seeing if counts as history yet…
          1. I would keep it as you’re downwind of Berkeley power station, aren’t you?
            1. and further Milk River Spa Baths, Jamaica has the highest radium count in the Americas. According to Fleming in Horizon (1947) the highest in the world!
              1. Thanks for the info, Horryd. I am back in Jamaica next week and will be in Mandeville on Wednesday. Perhaps I should borrow Matt’s counter and see if it works?
            2. If I knew of anywhere I could source military spec 30 volt batteries for less than I paid for the counter, I might count it an asset! (Though being a training device, it’s also calibrated to be a tad over-sensitive, going hammer and tongs when exposed to low-radiation training sources, apparently.)
        1. Phew! Thank you, I was thinking *they* had got to you after your careless mention of it.

          In truth, that’s not quite as exciting as I was hoping, but still if we ever have a TfTT game of I Spy I know who to put my money on!

          1. If you ever a setter with the pseudonym “Quiller“, that’ll be me, but I wouldn’t hold your breath!
  8. On paper on Glasgow train amid some very loud messages over the PA, some of which are lengthy and not only disrupt for their duration but take a while to recover focus from.

    I too had LIMESTONE for a while, was grateful for CALCULI a few days ago, failing to parse only KIDNEY STONE and COTANGENT both of which relied on checkers.

    ROENTGEN took a while to recall too, had the feeling it was somdthing foreign-sounding…

  9. I didn’t find this quite the breeze suggested, and was going to commend it as a proper, grown up puzzle, so I will. 22.15, taking time to check the wordplay, though I missed that on KIDNEY STONES until post solve.
    ROENTGEN fresh in the mind from watching the excellent Chernobyl series, which deserves to be more widely available than it was.
    I understand there are a finite number of Times grids: I’m idly wondering whether the tender traipse we were offered today was through pattern twenty. Me at my dreamiest, perhaps.
    1. I keep hearing great things about Chernobyl. I imagine it’ll pop up on UK Netflix fairly quickly.

      Edited at 2019-06-17 09:29 am (UTC)

  10. Putting in PATER didn’t help leaving me with LIP-S-A-E. SHREWD was actually my LOI having to do an alphabet trawl. Thanks Mohn, Jerry, Vinyl and everyone who has made and continues to make this blog such an enjoyable experience.
    1. I meant to say that I was distracted throughout by imagining that I could see the word NINA appearing in different forms. There are N, I and A in every row, column and answer ….. until I put in SHREWD.
  11. I only managed to see the last two of the five parts of HBO’s Chernobyl. As you note it was excellent with Jared Harris giving a brilliant finale performance.

    Edited at 2019-06-17 08:14 am (UTC)

  12. I was determined to finish this with only pacify, punish, and LOI roentgen remaining. Total around 80 mins.

    Like sawbill I had pater and lip___ for a while.
    Also held up forgetting gin/trap and blade/oar.

    Dnk calculus for ks, mescal, or author iris.

    Cod sun.

  13. … a level I’ll never reach as a solver. I struggled on this, taking 37 minutes. I had a surfeit of marzipan yesterday when two of my offspring brought my favourite sweet stuff for the Fathers’ Day celebration and the third a bottle of Rioja to wash it down, so I’m feeing somewhat seedy. I also feel guilty, as I do every year, because I never celebrated the day with my own father. I notice that the clue after IRIS MURDOCH contained A Severed Head with the down clue before her name containing The Bell. Despite last week’s clue, I spent a lot of time differentiating and integrating before getting KIDNEY STONE. But I did finish, avoiding A Fairly Honourable Defeat. It was a good Monday offering. Thank you V and setter.
  14. Tough enough I thought.

    COD: KIDNEY STONE. I couldn’t parse this one at all.

  15. Nice stuff, and a touch trickier than the average Monday. I enjoyed the crumbling cathedral, and like so many others, I am glad to see, went a long way towards convincing myself of the demonic MESTON.

    For those of a quizzical persuasion, I am on BBC Radio 4 again this afternoon. It’s been so long since recording that I may have to tune in to remind myself what happened…

  16. Monday, Monday, so good to me. Did not know, but made an informed guess about, KIDNEY STONE, ‘calculus’ being Latin for ‘pebble’.

    Interesting fact about Ava Gardner (not Gardiner) – that was her real name. The studio wanted to change it to something else, but she bravely refused.

    12’05”, thanks vinyl and setter.

    Edited at 2019-06-17 10:23 am (UTC)

  17. Appropriately enough, PACIFY was my FOI after last night’s irritation at being unable to access the site. I usually do the Concise and QC puzzles before retiring and do the 15×15 with breakfast. A clean sweep this morning did indeed 1a me. 12a raised a titter and COTANGENT went in from definition and was only parsed in a light-bulb moment as I did a quick pre-submit proof read. I also did a detour through the LIMESTONE before the inability to make anything of 16a(I was trying to do something with trollop) made me rethink and change it to SCALE. I did indeed BIFF IRIS and move on. I was also helped by the recent CALCULI. SHREWD was my LOI and required an alphabet trawl. Enjoyable puzzle. 31:57. Thanks setter and V.
  18. I’d have had difficulty with LIMESCALE if I didn’t have to rinse out our kettle regularly with a vinegar solution to get rid of the calcified lumps that form in it. In NYC the excellent water almost fizzes out of the tap but our Rhinebeck well water is full of mineral deposits (and tastes of them). Kudos to BW for noticing the IRIS MURDOCH themed clues (I missed them) – neat stuff. 17.04
  19. 9m 5s, finishing on PATTERN after being unable to get postern out of my head until at least COTANGENT fell. That one went embarrassingly slowly, not least because I thought of COT pretty early but didn’t expand it.

    Never heard of mescal. The perils of teetotalism.

  20. Rather too long with this one, being held up by SPELLING and LIMESCALE. Had I heard of MESCAL would have been easier. KIDNEY STONE a little sensitive here as I have only one kidney after a donation to the cause and had kidney stones in the past. And no, it wasn’t on my bucket list, as another donor I met described his donation. COD SHREWD always liked that word.
  21. 13:12 – I wasn’t quite on the wavelength and the left hand side of the grid took a while to piece together.
  22. I was massively distracted when solving so managed to drag this out for 22 minutes.
  23. But otherwise neat and precise stuff. Limescale isn’t flaky. It’s hard and crumbly. I humbly submit ‘Story about fiery spirit in the pipeline possibly?’ Mr Grumpy
    1. I thought that too, and I’m sure it’s right, but Collins only entry under ‘limescale’ is ‘a flaky deposit left in containers such as kettles by the action of heat on water containing calcium salts’. One for the lexicographers, methinks!
      1. Ah. . .good old Collins. Eccentric as ever. Sometimes they are just plain wrong. A couple of weeks ago they were telling me that a keep is a fort. Mr Grumpy
  24. Couldn’t get kidney stone not knowing that definition of calculus- will try again tomorrow
  25. I have been doing The Times for years and usually visit this excellent site to see what others thought of the puzzle, so I thought it was about time that I joined the blog.
    I have no idea if I have set up my profile correctly – no doubt all will be revealed as soon as I press Post Comment!
    A very enjoyable Monday puzzle with some good surface reads. I thought 16a painted a lovely picture!
    Thank you setter and Vinyl.
  26. Crikey it worked! For the avoidance of doubt, that is me on the LHS of the photo!
  27. 24:20 I ran through most of this in comfortably sub-20 mins territory but got held up by LOI 29ac. I think the problem was seeing fury in the required sense.
  28. Beaten, inexcusably, by SHREWD. I trawled the alphabet forwards, backwards, and combinatorially, but still failed to get it.
  29. Similar experience to Special Bitter, with the difference that SHREWD was not LOI; it was Never In.

    Ulaca (saving up for Sotira’s Amazon brain)

  30. In addition to limestone I also wondered if styrofoam was the answer. “Story about” can certainly clue ‘styro’ – if fiery spirit can clue ‘foam’ it works perfectly…
  31. Tougher than a typical Monday puzzle, I thought. “Traipse” was one of my Dad’s favourite words – he used to make up a lot of words so I wasn’t completely sure that it was a real word until today!
  32. Thanks setter and vinyl
    Started off well enough with PACIFY first up. Don’t try and race the clock and parse everything as I go (where I can) with a final pass through to double check all of the answers. Still it didn’t feel Monday-ish, with some tough word play and the new term in MESCAL.
    The ‘tramp’ clue was going to be the last in until it proved my initial answer of LIMESTONE incorrect and then getting to learn my new word for the day.

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