Times 27388 – in which LiveJournal chucks a wobbly

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 21:11. This is a difficult puzzle, but I was under a few adverse circumstances here, I am jet-lagged and at the family home in Melbourne for my father’s funeral this afternoon. This means that there are multiple relatives, particularly the more childsome of them wanting to know what I am doing on the laptop, whether I can play video games with them or if I want a refill on my coffee. Of course I’m lying about the last one.

The puzzle – tricky! I was relieved when it came in as all correct, as there are several that went in from wordplay alone.

Definitions are underlined, and away we go…

Across
1 What actor performs in isolation? (5)
APART – an actor performs A PART
4 Doctor joined in group round hospital with many others (3-6)
MOB-HANDED – MO(doctor) then BANDED(joined in group) surrounding H(hospital)
9 Got up, dressed, and made to leave (6,3)
TURNED OUT – double definition of a sort, the underlined one is the one I am more familiar with
10 Long walk needing transport and parking (5)
TRAMP – TRAM(transport), P(parking)
11 Page suppressed by very severe correspondent (3,3)
PEN PAL – P(page) inside PENAL(very severe)
12 Contracted military base to cover most of coast (3,5)
FOR SHORT – FORT(military base) containing SHOR(e)(coast)
14 Move acrobatically, hearing of a certain attack (10)
SOMERSAULT – sounds like SOME AUSSAULT
16 Start of March cold and damp from the east? On the contrary (4)
WARM – M(arch) and RAW(cold and damp) all reversed
19 Woman’s address in fine city (4)
OMSK – MS(address for a woman) inside OK(fine)
20 Legendary German woman, briefly, that employer’s taken in (10)
TANNHAUSER – ANN(woman) inside THA(t), USER(employer)
22 Sort of order that’s typically American (5,3)
APPLE PIE – double definition
23 College port finally — following this perhaps? (6)
CLARET – CLARE college then (por)T
26 Informally, about to get large lizard away from an area (5)
GONNA – GOANNA(Australian lizard) missing an A(area)
27 Unfairly claimed school has no boundaries — kept in (9)
ARROGATED – the school is HARROW, remove the outside letters, then GATED(kept in)
28 Worth mentioning: crossing south summit take base from the rear (2,5,2)
TO SPEAK OF –  S(south), PEAK(summit) inside FOOT(base) reversed
29 Not a serious piece, a shocker (5)
TASER – hidden inside noT A SERious

Down
1 For the present perhaps nothing as starter (9)
ANTIPASTO – if you are for the present you may be ANTI PAST, then O(nothing)
2 Protector’s army at first liable to shrink (5)
APRON – A(rmy), then PRON(e)(liable)
3 Reference books are thus improperly used by one (8)
THESAURI – anagram of ARE,THUS, then I(one)
4 Debatable witticism about love (4)
MOOT – MOT(witticism) surrounding O(love)
5 Essential question: “What is Pyramus? A lover, or a tyrant?” (6,4)
BOTTOM LINE – the quote is said by Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so it is a BOTTOM LINE
6 A nuisance, accepting time needed to get very fit (6)
APTEST – A PEST(nuisance) containing T(time)
7 Round sultanate, unwillingly takes guides (9)
DRAGOMANS – the sultinate is OMAN, it is inside DRAGS(unwittingly takes)
8 From container, remove base (5)
DEPOT – if you remove something from a container, you DE-POT
13 In a flash, from a distance one shows where the game is (6,4)
SAFARI PARK – SPARK(a flash) containing AFAR(from a distance), I(one)
15 Girl is waiting for blues (9)
MISSPENDS – MISS(girl), PENDS(is waiting) – blues as in to waste or fritter away
17 Dead at last in mortuary, horribly bloody woman (4,5)
MARY TUDOR – D(dead) inside an anagram of MORTUARY
18 Steps round an elevated aperture (8)
FANLIGHT – FLIGHT(steps) surrounding AN
21 Ply with beer, knocked back with tablet? (6)
REGALE – LAGER(beer) reversed, then E(tablet)
22 Particular language to investigate Monet’s work, as it were? (5)
ARGOT – if you investigate Monet’s work you GO INTO ART, so put GO in ART to get ARGOT
24 Spicy sandwiches — spit half out (5)
ROTIS – ROTISSERIE(spit) with the second half missing
25 Tart female? That’s academic (4)
PROF – PRO(tart, prostitute) then F(female)

45 comments on “Times 27388 – in which LiveJournal chucks a wobbly”

  1. Really sorry to hear about your father. Best wishes. And a good solve and blog under the circumstances.
    It’s possible that Turned Out is a triple definition – got up as in turned someone out of bed.
    1. You reminded me that I was going to suggest the possibility of a triple definition, although it would have been a double of sorts: got up=dressed (got up/turned out/dressed like a lounge lizard). Did anyone else have trouble getting through to this site? I was timed out several times, and was surprised to find my original comment.
      1. I had trouble accessing it shortly before midnight but it was okay after about 10 minutes. It kept timing out.
  2. Sorry to hear of your loss, George.
    This was indeed a toughie, and I was tempted to log off at 30′ and wait for lunch, but that would have meant getting to work on tomorrow’s classes. LOI ROTIS, which I didn’t realize were sandwiches (ODE just has ‘Indian bread’); indeed, which I probably didn’t know at all, having rosti in mind (spicy?). 2d to LOI CLARET, rather embarrassing as I’m a fellow of Clare Hall, an offshoot of Clare College. I never did spot LAGER, fixating on ALE and wondering what GER or REG was. I also had memory problems, failing to recall ‘goanna’ (never got past Gondwana) or ARROGATE. I did, at least, finally remember ‘blue’. OMSK was another problem; I tried OKAY for a while (‘O, Kay!’ address to a woman; fine), but of course could do nothing with ‘city’. Very pleased to have got through in one piece.
  3. The LJ site has been a little wobbly this morning – my second attempt at entering a comment or three.

    Time 75 minutes which appears better than I’d hoped.
    Lord Snitch is presently at 146 and with yesterday at 131,
    Lord Verlaine should get a day off tomorrow!

    FOI 9ac TURNED OUT which I had as a triple.

    LOI 6dn APTEST I however would say ‘most apt’.

    COD 12ac FOR SHORT (96 n.o.) also enjoyed 19ac OMSK

    WOD 20 ac TANNHAUSER and mention to 7dn DRAGOMANS

    Edited at 2019-06-27 05:52 am (UTC)

  4. I needed well over an hour for this one and still failed to solve the SOMERSAULT / MISSPENDS intersection without resorting to aids.

    I also failed to parse ARGOT, and GONNA where I fixated on ‘iguana’ as the lizard despite ‘goanna’ having been an answer or part of wordplay at least 5 times over the years, most recently in October 2016 in a puzzle blogged by me which contained the clue: Am about to monitor missing answer (5).

    My greatest achievement here was DRAGOMANS arrived at via wordplay and then recalled from the depths of my mind.

    Edited at 2019-06-27 05:03 am (UTC)

  5. …and heroic blogging under the circumstances.

    My LOI was OMSK off the rather clever MISSPENDS. Quite a long time staring at O_S_ looking for any woman or city. I thought “in fine” might be an exceptionally brilliant “last letter of” indicator… but the PDM was very satisfying even though this was not the case.

  6. 19:04 … helped by a couple of recent encounters in my reading, though nearly led astray by another. I recently read a book where GONNA in speech was always rendered as GUNNA, and as I couldn’t remember the lizard this left me crossing my fingers as I went for the more common rendering.

    I did enjoy groaning at SOMERSAULT. And like verlaine, admired the MISSPENDS / OMSK combination.

    Good on you, George, for getting this done. Very best to you and yours.

    1. One of the Jackson Lambs? I found it irritating, although it is, of course, a better representation of the pronunciation (at least in my neck of the woods).
      1. Scary, Kevin! But yes. As you say, it makes more sense, but like many attempts to make things more sensible it’s a bit annoying.
        1. Scary Kevin: that’s what a lot of my friends call me. I have no idea why.
    2. As a Strine person, it’s definitely spelled GUNNA, not GONNA.
      Yesterday there was Napier (of laogarithm fame), who also feature in an iconic Strine book:
      He had little dog with him, no bigger than a logarithm.
      The dog’s name was Napier, ‘He’ was Isaac Newton, before he was a Sir, and just after he chopped down the cherry tree. Yes, it wasn’t George Washington, it was Isaac Newton.
  7. 55 mins and gave up (DNF) with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    I liked it, but (sour grapes) didn’t like the Gonna/Misspends crossers which did for me.
    Thanks setter and George.
  8. What on earth was going on in that SW corner? I got misspends in the end but only by convincing myself there was a mistake in the clue – that it should have been ‘blows’ (I imagined setter dictating copy over the phone old-style!). It had to be argot and I finally worked out why. But gonna I just had to bung in. Something to do with iguana I assumed wrongly. Phew! The rest was fine!
    1. I had to justify blue cued as waste just a week ago, and there were similar “you what?!” comments then. I think we’re gonna hafta get used to this bit of setterspeak.
  9. I started well enough in the NW with ANTIPASTO FOI, but after that short bursts were followed by agonisingly slow extractions of meanings and definitions. ARRO took forever to see but got me moving again after a particularly arid spell. MISSPENDS took a while, but fortunately BLUE for waste cropped up recently and was still fresh in my mind. ROTIS was another sticking point. Finally after more than an hour I was left with 22d and 26a. ARGOT arrived first and was partly biffed, then GONNA wwas totally biffed as I didn’t know the lizard. Tough stuff! 67:48. Thanks setter and George. So sorry for your loss George and well blogged under difficult circumstances.
  10. Heroic blogging under the circumstances George. Best wishes to you and your family.

    Another DNF for me after 40 mins. Stumped by MISSPENDS, (I had miss but I’d not heard of blues meaning wastes), GONNA, (I thought it might be an informal word for “about to get large”; e.g gorging!) and REGALE, (I couldn’t see past ale for beer). I also had Diagonals for DRAGOMANS.

    COD: SAFARI PARK

  11. Condolences, George: I have no idea how you managed either the crossword or the blog under those conditions.
    I settled early on for this being a struggle: neither monologue or soliloquy (great answers, I thought) would fit at 1ac and I couldn’t get to the (much simpler) answer until that bit of my brain which chunters away in the background did its thing.
    Hold-ups all through, really: just as an example, I was trying to work out how to get from teaser (not a serious piece) to TASER (shocker) with no way to cross out the E. Very well hidden.
    ROTIS went in with a bit of a shrug, getting the half-cut serie bit but thinking roti is at best a wrap when it isn’t just the flat bread itself. I thought “sandwiches” was a bit naughty.
    A long-ago Catholic Priest friend of mine would have bridled at Bloody Mary, muttering about the far more bloody Elizabeth that followed her. History is written by the winners.
    Gonna? Urgh!

    Edited at 2019-06-27 09:25 am (UTC)

  12. Well blogged, George, at such a sad time. I was late starting, having taken son’s car with dodgy fan belt, warning lights flashing, through rush hour traffic to the VW dealer on the North Circular. It sounds like we’re in for a couple of grand. I found this very hard, not helped by first having put TOGGED OUT for 9 across, and I’ve been 75 minutes on it. LOI was ROTIS. I try to become more in tune with today’s social mores and then a clue like PROF comes along and sets me back a few decades. Anybody else remember Clinton Ford singing about Fanlight Fanny, the frowsy nightclub queen? I hadn’t realised it was a George Formby song. COD to MARY TUDOR because I was chuffed to see it straightaway. As I didn’t remember the quotation, so also was pleased to see the BOTTOM LINE. Eventually. Thank you George and setter.

    Edited at 2019-06-27 09:23 am (UTC)

  13. Thoughts are with you, George.
    38 mins for this fizzer. The snitch is currently on 146, so clearly it’s a toughie. Dragomans was a write-in, as I used to live in Cyprus, where there’s a famous Dragoman’s residence. Safari park was good.
  14. Didn’t find this particularly hard except my last two, MISSPENDS and GONNA, where I didn’t recall the Oz lizard even though it appeared in 2016 apparently. 25 minutes for the rest, 10 for MISSPENDS and a word search for GONNA / GOANNA so a tech DNF. My FOI was 1d then OMSK as could only think of 2 cities spelt O***. CoD CLARET.
    Sorry George for your loss.
  15. Condolences, George. Another tough puzzle today, one of those where practically every clue had to be carefully broken down and analysed – in fact I was left with the SE corner, struggling to find a way in and wondering if this might even be my first DNF for a long time. Instead it was one which wasn’t actually impossible, just that the pennies had a long way to drop.
  16. ….they come for the empties, and they cart away FANLIGHT Fanny, the frowsy night club queen.” Like Bolton Wanderer, I recall Clinton Ford charting with that Formby song.

    My condolences George, and sincere thanks for blogging my slowest correct solve for many a moon.

    Usually, solutions fall into quadrants, or halves. This one had me in trouble with the bottom third, having reached that point in around 13 minutes, and with SAFARI entered, but not PARK, which fell very late.

    I never knew ROTIS were either spicy, or sandwiches. As an IPA drinker (though I enjoyed a 10% stout last night !) I was ridiculously late getting to “lager”. Swore volubly on finally spotting TASER, and really disliked PROF. Loved MARY TUDOR, but not quite COD.

    FOI TRAMP
    LOI GONNA
    COD ARGOT
    TIME 29:19

    1. I’ve made ROTIS on an Indian cookery course, and I also don’t recall any measure of spiciness or sandwichness. Chambers, though, has “A kind of sandwich made of this wrapped around curried vegetables, seafood or chicken” as its second definition. Hrm.

      Edited at 2019-06-27 11:54 am (UTC)

  17. Condolences to you, George, and thanks for writing the blog.

    This was the trickiest puzzle for a long while, which took me 21m 57s to struggle through. I’m embarrassed by TASER, though: it must take the record for the longest it’s taken me to solve a hidden word. Once that was in, FANLIGHT, CLARE & ROTIS didn’t take too long to fall.

    There were a few entries where I considered and rejected the correct entry some time before I realised it was right: MISSPENDS and REGALE in particular, the latter of which I had ALE for beer and couldn’t figure out the REG… oh dear.

  18. My condolences, George.

    I gave up on this one after about an hour and a half. I was slowed a lot by my unknowns or near-unknowns—I’ve seen Midsummer Night’s Dream this year, but still didn’t figure out 5d, only just recalled DRAGOMANS from its last outing, knew the name TANNHAUSER only from Rutger Hauer’s famed Tears in rain monologue, DNK ARROGATED or that definition of ROTIS, goanna, etc., but in the end it was the “simpler” ones—REGALE, FOR SHORT, CLARET—that felled me.

    I’m on some pills that are really slowing my brain down at the moment; it’s an unfortunate coincidence that they arrived at a time when the puzzles seem to have leapt up a level of difficulty! This one also seems to have been set by a Cambridge classicist, which is pretty much the opposite of my own education 😀

    Edited at 2019-06-27 01:34 pm (UTC)

  19. Condolences to you George, and this was exemplary work under difficult circumstances. There is this to be said for our favourite pastime – it’s about the best way to occupy the brain in trying times.

    I had the same troubles as others with “iguana” and “ale” rather than lager, and stared at ROTIS (rites, rotes, retes, what?) for several long moments at the end. Two hard ones in a row indeed. 25.02

  20. Condolences, George, it’s an awful time.
    Crossword seems somehow inconsequential.
  21. 28:22 and I reckon the last 10 minutes of that was spent on ARROGATED, ROTIS, CLARET and FANLIGHT in that horrific SE corner.

    That must be the first time Mary Tudor has been anywhere near a taser.

    Condolences George & thanks for the blog.

  23. Sorry to hear your news, George. All the best to you & yours, and thanks for the blog.
    This was tricky, especially the bottom left corner. I’m perfectly familiar with this meaning of ‘blue’, albeit only from crosswords, but it took me an age to think of it. SAFARI PARK also took me forever.
    31:27.
  25. Got there in the end. GONNA and MISSPENDS being the final two in.

    Thanks for the blog G.

  26. This one took me about an hour and a half all told across two sessions. I found it very tough. I saw flash, thought ‘strip’ and had ‘safari trip’ in for ages. My mind is obviously always in the gutter. I was pleased to eventually get through all correct. I dread to think what they are saving up for tomorrow if the week so far is anything to go by.
  27. 6d aptest (if one really uses that word instead of ‘most apt’)-is a superlative and should be clued accordingly as ‘fitter than the rest’. NHO of apple pie in either context. No idea what’s going on in 15d, unless it’s an error. 8d is a bit clumsy. ‘Remove from container and base’ might work better. The Shakespeare quote doesn’t appear to be famous either. It’s not in the O D o Quotations. But then again I’m possibly showing my ignorance.
    1. There’s nowt wrong with 15d. Blue is a verb meaning to squander and is a useful weapon in the setter’s armoury.
  30. Took me long enough to get the first one in, and then things seemed to get a lot easier. However that didn’t last, and I finished with the favourite LOI, ROTIS, which I have never eaten to my knowledge. COD MISSPENDS for teaching me a new meaning for blue
  31. Condolences, George. Never easy losing your parents – they are truly special. I can see a crossword provides some kind of sanctuary from it all.

    I found this quite beastly and only tamed it through aids. I got about 50% done at the 30 min mark with brain alone, then resorted to the dictionary.

    I think ARGOT is a touch of genius, and my LOI and COD. It was BIFD.

    Nice material for the notes like rotisserie=spit, base=foot and tablet=e.

    Thanks for blog and puzzle.

    WS

  32. Thanks setter and George
    This pushed well into the 2nd hour across numerous sittings … with additional electronic help required for a couple of them. There were a number of new terms for me and some just plain tricky clueing.
    Started off well enough with MOOT and eventually ground my way up to the NE corner with DRAGOMANS (one of the new terms), MOB-HANDED (and another). with BOTTOM LINE (only gettable with all of the crossers and then having to do a Google search to see whether there was such a quote in AMSND.
    Always satisfying to get the grid filled, even if it takes up way more than a reasonable amount of time to do it.

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