Times 27,413: Word-Blindness

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I thought this was a thoroughly superior crossword, with sublimely economical clues almost every one of which manages in a tiny space to do something fresh and witty. I enjoyed every moment of it up until hitting the submit button at the 7.5 minute mark, only to freeze as I saw the dreaded pink square. Oh right, MYOPIC not MYOPIA. Given that the first two words of the clue loosely suggest a synonym for MYOPIA, and the next four words also suggest MYOPIA (what’s the matter with [a short sighted] viewer), I definitely think that having MYOPIA on the brain for this one might be a venial sin. Of course “such a viewer” no longer quite makes sense unless the answer is MYOPIC but I’d rather clues didn’t have to be read carefully through several times just to make sure you’ve understood the fine print… really gets in the way of one’s speed-solving, what!

Still Magoo, being named after one of the all-time great myopics, will probably have enjoyed it. And I did love a whole raft of other clues: 9ac, 27ac, 6dn and 17dn being some standouts, so many thanks to the setter for all the fun while it lasted. Was anyone else short-sighted enough to fall at the 22ac hurdle? Please tell me I’m not alone!

ACROSS
1 Mad, sad and moody in World’s End (8)
DOOMSDAY – (SAD + MOODY*) [“mad”]

9 In time, soon over obsessive self-love (8)
EGOMANIA – reverse all of: IN A MO [soon] in AGE [time]

10 Dracula might attack this French wine, after swallowing tablet (4)
VEIN – VIN [French wine], after “swallowing” E [tablet]

11 Run round barrier pursuing terribly aged author (5,7)
EDGAR WALLACE – RACE [run] round WALL [barrier], after (AGED*) [“terribly”].
Had to construct this unknown name from the cryptic, but it seems like a fair clue… given that he penned the script for a movie everyone’s heard of, King Kong!

13 Died having suffered flaying back in seaport (6)
ODESSA – “Flay” {p}ASSED O{n} [died], then reverse it

14 Housemaid reflected light that’s elevated (8)
ENNOBLED – reversed BONNE [housemaid] + L.E.D. [light]

15 Commended as pressure increased (7)
PRAISED – P RAISED [pressure | increased]

16 Fish unlikely to be sole? (7)
GROUPER – a cryptic definition for this presumably gregarious fish

20 Nothing 7 keeps in desert is waterproof (8)
RAINCOAT – RAT [desert] keeps INCA [7d] keeps O [nothing]

22 Sigh, cryptically, what’s the matter with such a viewer? (6)
MYOPIC – If SIGH is “short sight”, then it is the thing that is the matter with a MYOPIC viewer. I wish this had clued “short sight” rather than a word that needs to be convolutedly derived from a cryptic depiction of short sight 😛

23 Settled on region for sporting fixture (7-5)
QUARTER-FINAL – FINAL [settled] on QUARTER [region]

25 Single possible locality evacuated (4)
ONLY – ON [possible] + L{ocalit}Y

26 Barker requires excellent wine and beer (8)
AIREDALE – A1 RED + ALE [excellent | wine + beer]

27 Speech from fool in production of Lear (8)
NONSENSE – double def, Lear being Edward Lear, purveyor of nonsense verse.

DOWN
2 Flower in Germany choking slender shrub (8)
OLEANDER – ODER [flower (as in river) in Germany] “choking” LEAN [slender]

3 Change bowler is highly successful performer (5-7)
MONEY-SPINNER – MONEY can be pocket “change”, a bowler can be a “spinner”.

4 Shame of French importing rotten cigars (8)
DISGRACE – DE [of French] “importing” (CIGARS*) [“rotten”]

5 New queen after twelve months or longer (7)
YEARNER – N ER [new | queen] after YEAR [12 months]. One who longs.

6 Department advocating matricide? (6)
DOMAIN – as in an injunction to “DO MA IN”.

7 Content of metal container is ancient tongue (4)
INCA – indirect hidden in {t}IN CA{n}

8 Perfume and bible wrapped by mortgagee (8)
LAVENDER – A.V. [bible] “wrapped” by LENDER [mortgagee]

12 Unpaid work one shouldn’t hate doing? (6,2,4)
LABOUR OF LOVE – cryptic definition. Love is the very opposite of hate after all.

15 Water found in some pesticide (8)
PARAQUAT – AQUA [water] found in PART [some]

17 European or Asian controlled borders? (8)
ROMANIAN – OMANI [Asian] “bordered” by RAN [controlled]

18 Letters in stone found in English buildings (8)
EPISTLES – ST [stone] found in E PILES [English | buildings]

19 Make firm series of points to clinch argument (7)
STIFFEN – S E N [series of (three) points] to “clinch” TIFF [argument]

21 As some streets, old and modern, indeed (3-3)
ONE-WAY – O + NEW AY [old + modern | indeed]

24 Tailless amphibian beneath a large bush? (4)
AFRO – FRO{g} [“tailless” amphibian] beneath A

76 comments on “Times 27,413: Word-Blindness”

  1. I was another MYOPIA guy, having thought about MYOPIC and decided -IA was closer, but otherwise nothing caused much problem, except I couldn’t parse ODESSA although it couldn’t have been anything else.
  2. FOI 4d
    LOI 22a
    COD 22a

    My cryptometer rating 8

    Very clever clueing, hats off to setter.

    Biffed a few including MYOPIC and ODESSA. Got EDGAR _ALL___ and couldn’t get Edgar Allan Poe out of my brain.

    5 @ 20m brain alone
    10 @ 40m w/ check button

    My new 3-month challenge going well. 8/8 so far with a possible trend of brain-only solving improving, which is the goal.

    3 DNKs here incl PARAQUAT. Stuff for the archives.

    Thanks
    WS

    Thanks to Verlane and setter.

  3. I plumped for MYOPIC with out any idea of how to parse it. I think it was a very clever – but ultimately too clever – clue. I enjoyed ODESSA, which I did manage to parse, and EGOMANIA which would’ve been my FOI had I not hesitated until the parsing finally made sense.

    “Bonne” for a housemaid is something I’ve learned here and encountered nowhere else. It raises the question of whether the Times crossword community will – like Pitcairn islanders – eventually evolve a language which can no longer interbreed with English. Prize for the best Cryptese sentence?

  5. 12:33. I put in MYOPIC based on ‘such a viewer’, but it’s not the clearest clue. If you interpret ‘sigh’ as a short version of ‘sight’, the answer has to be MYOPIC (Short sight [is] what’s the matter with such a viewer). If it’s a short version of ‘sighted’ though the becomes a question (what’s the matter with a short-sighted viewer?) and the answer is MYOPIA. Conventionally ‘short’ more normally indicates the removal of a single letter but that’s a pretty flimsy basis for choosing the correct answer.
    I had never heard of EDGAR WALLACE.

    Edited at 2019-07-26 04:22 pm (UTC)

    1. Given that it was quite an unconventional crossword, I’m going to agree that legalistic reliance on convention knowledge for this clue was… a tad harsh!
  6. 7.5 minutes! We mere mortals remain in awe. I love the blog but tend not to get there till much later in the day.
  7. Caught by 22 situation. Really excellent puzzle though, so agree with our blogger. As others say, LOI for THAT one!

    Thanks both, great stuff.

  8. 32:35 but a short-sighted myopia made this a DNF. I didn’t even get to err on the finer points of the parsing as I failed to clear the first hurdle of twigging that sigh was short for sight.
  10. And saddened to note that The Times crossword is still a pale shadow of its former glory. I still think this was a good crossword, ruined however by two or three poor clues. I’m just not as tolerant as I used to be. The fact that a raging discussion on the merits of myopia v myopic is taking place at all is an indicator. And when it’s perhaps 75% of the puzzles that are generating similar discussions, there’s got to be something wrong-and it’s why I’ve more or less given up solving or commenting (“Thank God! The pall of gloom is lifted at last!”, I hear you say). Such imprecision was unheard of in my day. If only the setters would proof-read their own puzzles and just ask the simple questions “does this clue work?”, and “is it unambiguous?”. On this evidence, they clearly don’t. The result is a series of inaccuracies and (putting it politely) eccentricity, with the crosswords having a ‘thrown together’ feel about them. The Times really should be better than that. (Mr Grumpy)
  11. The answer to this clue funnily enough could be another writer Rider Haggard which threw me.
  12. I think that was probably the hardest one I have actually managed to solve without aids. It took most of the evening, off and on, with only Ennobled (DNK Bonne) and Odessa unparsed, so some progress. Fortunately never thought of Myopia, so didn’t have to worry about -ic Vs -ia. I thought Domain was a cracking clue and solving it certainly brought a smile. Invariant
  13. Somehow I managed to get all the right answers, but didn’t manage to see how they fitted with the rest of the clue in the case of 9 13 14 22 and 23 across and 7 and 18 down. I thought the sigh in 22ac was something to do with “O My”. I found the answer to 7dn by solving 20ac first.

    from Jeepyjay

  15. I also suffered from MYOPIA. While MYOPIC did cross my mind, I couldn’t really see that it was any more justified, especially as I didn’t understand the parsing anyway.

    Whatevs.

    Didn’t parse ODESSA and NHO BONNE for a maid. Otherwise quite enjoyable. Enjoyed the Lear misdirection

  16. A comparative novice, I managed the lot in about 10x your time, including 22ac, though without cracking the definition (I was looking at ‘sigh to mean ‘my’!) – maybe the addition of ‘Ed -‘ after the ‘cryptically’ might have worked? Also, didn’t work out the Odessa parsing. Otherwise a good crossword and a good and honest summary by your good self.
  17. Thanks setter and verlaine
    Really enjoyed this, notwithstanding the error. Actually managed to fill all of the rest in and fully parse everything – with a wry grin breaking out more than once after the penny did drop.
    Had a number of false starts with some – had written in SWINGER at first as the second part of 3d (thinking of trapezes initially), had a crazy OFF MAP at 21d until crossers and good sense prevailed and had CONVERSE at first (nearly worked – definition ‘speech from’, CON (fool) and VERSE (‘production of Lear’).
    Loved unpacking the clever 9a, 13a, 14a, 6d and 7d.
    Finished in just after the hour and a half (yep more a tortoise than a hare) in the SW corner with that ONE-WAY, STIFFEN and the previously unheard of PARAQUAT (which got pieced together from the word play and then checked).

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