Times 27409 – A Typical Friday Puzzle?

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Yes, this was pretty straightforward – the type of puzzle to have our esteemed Friday blogger working hard to keep his emotions in check after completing the thing in a paltry four minutes or so. One or two definitions seemed a bit loose as I solved, but, since, frequently, the looseness is more in my interpretation than in the setter’s intention, we will see how that particular battle pans out. The picture is the view from the terrace over dinner in Naxos – in case anyone was wondering. And my music? Bach Cantata BWV 21 by Bach Collegium Japan (Masaaki Suzuki). Though they’ll have moved onto the next one on the playlist by the time I finish writing this up, no doubt. A Suzuki doesn’t hang around, you know. 17 minutes.

ACROSS

1 Jam producer needing place to sleep on All Fools’ Day? (7)
APRICOT – APR I COT
5 Nags wife, grabbing a sharp tool (7)
HACKSAW – A in HACKS (nags as in horses/hacks) W
9 Where turtle may be found heading for the rocks? (2,3,4)
IN THE SOUP – Actually, mock turtle soup is better known than the original stuff; if you are ‘in the soup’ you are in trouble, i.e. headings for the rocks
10 Maugham, oddly neglected, fashionable once more (5)
AGAIN – [m]A[u]G[h]A[m] IN
11 Pilsner beer he brewed? It’s very bad (13)
REPREHENSIBLE – anagram* of PILSNER BEER HE
13 Idiot that tells you oil is running out? (8)
DIPSTICK – tongue in cheek, slightly naughty by Times standards double definition (DD)
15 Chance to secure release of son in exchange for diamonds (6)
RANDOM – RANSOM with the S dropped in favour of D
17 One looks radiant, finding such supporters (1-5)
I-BEAMS – I (one) BEAMS giving the architectural element, also known as H-beam, w-beam, universal beam, rolled steel joist, or double-T. There’s a Monty Python sketch there somewhere
19 Mum entertaining an English woman of voracious appetite (3-5)
MAN-EATER – AN E in MATER for this slightly nudge-nudge-wink-wink, SAY. NO. MORE clue
22 Rather unattractive, unlike the Mona Lisa? (2,3,8)
NO OIL PAINTING – John Inverdale once described Marion Bartoli as not ‘a looker’, which I have always transcribed as ‘no oil painting’
25 Hate old allegations coming back to bite one (5)
ODIUM – O I in MUD (allegations) reversed
26 Stupidly deal in LSD? It’s a disaster (9)
LANDSLIDE – DEAL IN LSD*
27 Doleful daughter departs, made redundant (7)
EJECTED – [d]EJECTED; not quite sure if ‘eject’ has the same sense as ‘make redundant’, but either way, as the Don would say, ‘YOU’RE FIRED!’
28 Son getting out more? That’s good (7)
SINLESS – if your nerdy son (S) went out more, he would be IN LESS!! Moving straight on…

DOWN

1 Muslim boy’s expression of disbelief? (2,2)
AS IF – my last; AS IF is the expression of disbelief, while ASIF is a relatively common name among Muslims. For me, it will forever be associated with the floppy-hatted, open-stanced, pigeon-toed Kent all-rounder
2 Gin some sailor knocked over (3-4)
RAT-TRAP – PART TAR reversed
3 Dictator’s vulgar tweet (5)
CHEEP – sounds like CHEAP. Does Kim Jong-un perchance have a Twitter account?
4 Town regularly unlocked church for a small sum (8)
TWOPENCE – T[o]W[n] OPEN CE
5 American painter with only one good leg? (6)
HOPPER – Edward Hopper was a realist painter and printmaker; this clue will perhaps cause a smile to crease some lips
6 Charlie supported by female assistant, a chum from school (9)
CLASSMATE – C LASS MATE
7 Posh girl hits back, being wounded (7)
STABBED – DEB BATS reversed
8 Men weirder somehow here in Lake District (10)
WINDERMERE – MEN WEIRDER* for the largest lake by surface area in the Lakes
12 Diarist is a mad loner, I suspect (6,4)
ADRIAN MOLE – A MAD LONER I*
14 Item revised and bound, making deadline (4,5)
TIME LIMIT – ITEM* LIMIT
16 Revenue wants head dismissed (8)
EARNINGS – [y]EARNINGS (first letter – ‘head’ – removed)
18 Controversial book upset half of Hove, including yours truly (7)
EMOTIVE – I in TOME reversed [ho]VE; while something emotive can be controversial, it needn’t be. Although I suppose there’s always someone out there who likes to give things a good stir whenever the opportunity arises.
20 Game children play on train, ending in a joke (3,4)
TAG LINE – TAG (children’s game) LINE (‘train’, in the sense of a series or perhaps a line of gunpowder). Perhaps this is more common hyphenated, but then many multi-word phrases are.
21 Everyone asleep, perhaps, curled up (6)
BALLED – ALL in BED. Geddit?! One can ‘ball’ wool, for example, if one is so inclined. Moving swiftly on…
23 Dramatist whiNES BIography is holding him up (5)
IBSEN – reverse hidden
24 What cat does in the street? (4)
MEWS – more or less a DD, methinks

59 comments on “Times 27409 – A Typical Friday Puzzle?”

  1. Fairly Mondayesque for a Monday, although LOI IN THE SOUP took me a while. DNK the Muslim name. And I never did parse EMOTIVE, failing to see TOME and instead trying to make OT work. U, 12d needs the I for the anagrist.
  2. 1dn AS IF was my last one in, holding me up no end!

    I resisted obvious answers at 3dn and 24dn and would have preferred the answer at 4dn to have been Timothy TUPPENCE rather than the more prosaic TWOPENCE.

    FOI 1ac A P R I C O T what a doozie! Folk in Shanghai don’t like apricots as they believe they bring on nose-bleeds! Careful with what you pop on your croissant Myrtilus!

    LOI 1dn as above

    COD 13ac DIPSTICK Rodney!

    WOD 8dm WINDERMERE

    Time as per the good Lord Ulaca 17 Monday minutes.

    One for the QC Squad methink.

    1. I’m a bit undecided about apricots. We have German friends who claim they are the best Jam fruit. Recently they persuaded Mrs M to buy (and eat) some fresh apricots on the basis that they were from Spain and ‘those are the best’. To be fair, they were not unpleasant.
  3. I hope the Naxos grub was as good as the view, and that both lasted longer than this quickie. Like horryd, As If took forever to see. Otherwise, I liked Odium.
    1. The food at this place was good, but overall grub is still Greece’s Achilles heel.
      1. Have to disagree, lived there in rural seaside for 4 years, avoid the kekabs and love the aubergine and tomato concoctions i think its a delicious healthy cuisine
        1. I’ve never had a kebab in three visits to Greece over 40 years! Compared to the yardstick – France – I’d have to say it lags behind, and these days we have the benefit of Tripadvisor as well as personal recs by our hosts.
  4. I had the same MER over the def to EMOTIVE, but it was nothing to get worked up about.
    ADRIAN MOLE, eh? Good thing it was an anagram!
  5. 28 minutes with a 3-4 minute hiatus towards the end in the SE corner where ODIUM, EJECTED and the LIMIT (of time limit) temporarily eluded me.

    DNK HOPPER so with only checkers and a cryptic hint to go on, that was something of a guess. At 20dn ‘train / line of thought’ did it for me.

    Edited at 2019-07-22 03:59 am (UTC)

  6. I have four books on Edward Hopper and have view’d his exhibitions in New York and London. An American Icon.

    For an English contemporary see Eric Ravilious. He has a permanent exhibition in Eastbourne. which I saw in May. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

  7. 13.19, so yes, on the easy side.
    You slow down a bit, though, if you essay FRETSAW for the sharp tool: nags – frets, it sort of works if you’re not thinking horses. Then the US painter begins with F, and the end of the turtle location stays ?O?? because, well, it could be anything. And how do you fill in E?A?S?A?E for the school friend?
    After sorting that lot out, I was left with an alphabet trawl for 27ac, where daughter is supposed to depart but is still there at the end. Fortunately J is not too far down the alphabet, though I overran a bit thinking there might be a better match for “made redundant” than EJECTED further down.
    Giggles today for APRICOT and BALLED.
    1. I also went for FRETSAW first, but wasn’t sure enough to do more than pencil it in, and luckily I’d heard of Edward HOPPER so it was an easy enough correction once the penny dropped.
  8. 20 mins (as quick as it gets) with yoghurt, granola and nectarine – well it is summer.
    The eyebrow twitched at Train=line and redundant=ejected, but only twitched momentarily.
    I liked it as a nice confidence booster.
    Thanks setter and U.
  9. DNF. All but done in 17 minutes, but got stuck on the unknown american painter and where to find a turtle. I see there is such a thing as un-mock turtle soup.
      1. Or a variant on mulligatawny, such as mulligasnowy? There is a Red Windsor, but a cheese or apple rather than a soup.

        Edited at 2019-07-22 07:42 am (UTC)

        1. There is a Royal Blue Windsor soup – only enjoyed by the Blues & Royals at Windsor, where they are garrisoned. And before you ask – a dash of Blue Curaçao Syrup.

          Honi soit qui mal y pense

  10. Carly didn’t pronounce it the way I do. 22 minutes. LOI MEWS, as I usually think of the stables and not the street made from them. Special mentions to ASIF and SINLESS but COD to NO OIL PAINTING. I wasn’t keen on 27a, as usually with a redundancy the leavers are given enough time to say goodbye to those who are left, and leave rude messages lurking in software. We always called it TIG or TIGGY, so TAG LINE also took a while. I can’t remember if the past tense was ‘tigged’ or ‘tug’. I’m happy with this sort of introduction to the week. Thank you U and setter.
      1. Warren Beatty? Mick Jagger? James Taylor? She admits the second verse was Warren Beatty and claims none of it to be about Mick. I am able to confirm that I’ve never owned an apricot scarf.
  11. Fortunately Hopper came up only two days ago, in one-we-can’t-talk-about-yet
  12. I don’t feel like too much of a DIPSTICK for putting FRETSAW in briefly at 5a, especially as I got to the bottom of this one in 25 minutes. ADRIAN MOLE is my era of diarist, though at 13¾ he was a few years older then me when he was published!

    FOI 1a APRICOT, LOI 1d AS IF (I don’t think I’ve met an Asif in real life, and I don’t have sports knowledge to fall back on.) Liked 21d BALLED.

  13. I don’t often do the 15×15 Cryptic but was encouraged to do so by horryd’s post on the QC blog. This was accessible and gave pleasure. I must say that ASIF and SINLESS taxed me and I didn’t like the emotive clue but I appreciated 9a, 12d, 13a, and 22a. I must graduate to the ‘full’ cryptic more often…..
  14. 43 mins, of which half was trying to figure out that one clue. And yes, ’emotive’ is not necessarily ‘controversial’. Not setter’s finest hour.
  15. 27 mins, but not rushing. Like Matt and others, I was a fretsaw fan until I figured out the artist. Frets=nags seems okay, especially if you don’t spot the equine reference straight away. Train=line; er, yeah, I guess so… Thanks, u.
  16. A pleasant solve for a lazy Monday morning, when I was relieved to find the puzzle a little less taxing. 1a went straight in and the rest followed fairly painlessly. HOPPER went in from the P from soup, the E from 11a and the wordplay, so I wasn’t worried by FRETSAW. STABBED and RANDOM were my last 2 in. 18:52. Thanks setter and U.
  17. 14’10, a rare sub-quarter. A tad depressed to see A. Mole in the Times; and a major eyebrow raise at emotive. Could ‘line’ be ‘train’ as in ‘aim’? Looking forward to tomorrow’s landslide.
  18. Nothing too taxing here, with one of the few question marks being the use of TAG LINE to mean punchline, which apparently it does. 5m 51s.
  19. 13:30 … I have no idea why it took me 4 minutes and an alphabet trawl to get AS IF, as I can never hear the name Asif without mentally making the same pun. But glad to see I’m not the only one temporarily stumped by it.

    Being quite fond of Christmas cracker jokes, I certainly smiled at HOPPER.

    But COD to AGAIN — that’s just a beautiful clue

  20. Yes obviously correct, but I wonder if anyone else, like me, had AMIN? As James Vince might say if he’s selected for the first Ashes test.
  21. Indeed, as Del Boy would address Rodney “You DIPSTICK !”

    I should have flattened this, as the top half was cleared in around three minutes, but I was unforgivably slow in seeing things in the bottom half. ADRIAN MOLE was hiding in the wardrobe, and NO OIL PAINTING only crept out when he emerged. Quite why my LOI earned that status, I am at a loss to understand !

    As soon as someone on the QC blog suggests that the 15×15 is relatively easy, I seem to run into invisible brick walls – so it’s Horryd’s fault !

    FOI APRICOT
    LOI EMOTIVE
    COD NO OIL PAINTING
    TIME 9:02

    1. Brick walls with a time of 9:02!!? I took almost twice as long, mine must have been Great Walls! And I get the blame. Well at least the ‘Oldblighter’ enjoyed it!

      And now you inform that Adrian Mole’s out of the closet!

      Jordan, Sir, you are a bounder!

      1. Guilty as charged ! Time was that I would regularly polish off the 15×15 in under 10 minutes. Either it’s getting harder, or old age is beginning to take its toll….
  22. Legend has it that Monday is the easiest day and Friday the hardest – but last Friday’s was a doddle and was unusually themed (Weddings).

    Today’s was not at all difficult our Mr. Maufew crossed the line in 5:51 which going some! Mr. Jordan (NO OIL PAINTING) was rather slow at 9:02.

    Glad you made it.

    Edited at 2019-07-22 12:39 pm (UTC)

  23. A doddle all the way to In the soup and Asif, at which point I ground to a halt and briefly slept. Briefly considered for one down but thankfully excluded: AL IS, AZ IZ and AM IN

  24. Congratulations to our anonymous first-time solver! We’ve all been there, although I suspect some of the solvers here were born with a genetic ability to solve these things.

    My time was 21 minutes, about my average. I did spend a while considering Ahha as a Muslim boy’s name, otherwise all fairly smooth going.

  25. First time finisher of the 15×15 here! When I try I rarely get more than a few clues. Last two today were sinless and balled which I liked a lot. Usually a (rather slow) QC addict. But will try the 15×15 more often. Is the Monday 15×15 generally the easiest of the week?

    Ged

    1. Congrats on the first time finish. If you follow the link to the “Crossword SNITCH” (top right somewhere) you’ll find an indication of difficulty by days of the week. Monday is generally fairly gentle.
  26. 10:32, first timed solve after a couple of weeks in the sun.

    The soup and Asif took a while at the end. Like Ulaca I arrived at the latter via the Kent cricketer, having spent a good dollop of my formative years in that fair county.

    1. I don’t know if you saw that Jack Bond died last week. That catch he took to dismiss Asif in the 1971 Gillette Final is forever etched in my memory.
  27. Since I had the C already, I was thinking about BUCKSAW but not thinking about horses at all. Didn’t help that I’d NHO HOPPER, nice clue mind, was trying to think of an American painter with 2 G’s in in order to remove one of them to find a leg. One’s cryptic mind sometimes goes too complicated.
  28. 11:27. I found most of this easy but then got completely stuck with IN THE _O_P. I just couldn’t get IN THE LOOP out of my head: it was obviously wrong but somehow blocked up the bit of my brain the answer needed to come from. Funny how that can happen. I got there eventually via a painstaking alphabet trawl.
  29. I’m not that bothered if this was the easiest crossword ever, successful solves are still few and far between, so I will take them whenever and however they come along. Last two were 1d and then 3d, with a good dose of mental torture over Cheap/Cheep, having thought about the wrong sort of dictator. Invariant

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