Times 27421 – God knows, they need all the publicity they can geth

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This was, I think, a rather unMondayish offering, with some interesting vocabulary (if tending to the cruciveralesque, perhaps), a minor prophet from the Good Book, a relatively famous Roman playwright (they are all pretty non-famous compared to their Attic predecessors) and a nod to those benighted souls who were forced to attend Fenland Polytechnic. (Surely no one would choose to go there?) My spirits, which had plummeted to the abyss on encountering that clue, were raised by the homophone for those attending God’s Own University at 8 across. Thank you, setter! No Prozac for me today! 21 minutes.

ACROSS

1 Game only the one behind can win? (7,6)
MUSICAL CHAIRS – I don’t get the thinking here, as it is, in my experience and understanding, the person(s) in front of – not behind – the chair(s) who has the best chance of winning. Maybe, as so often, though, I am missing something. And I was – only one person can win this parlour game, and that is by…wait for it, p-placing their bottom, tush, behind on the last remaining chair!!
8 Skinned foxes, and cattle (4)
OXEN – take the outside letters off (‘skin’) [f]OXE[s] and [a]N[d]
9 Identifies those responsible as men doubly crooked (5,5)
NAMES NAMES – double anagram* of AS MEN
10 Plans get lost crossing border area (8)
SCHEMATA – HEM in SCAT A; apparently; ‘scat’ is an Americanism, meaning ‘go away!’ Don’t remember hearing that in Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul or The Americans
11 Polluted motorway in wet surroundings (6)
SMOGGY – M in SOGGY
13 Show houses occasionally feel vulgar (10)
INDELICATE – [f]E[e]L in INDICATE
16 Bookmaker heading out from Greek island (4)
AMOS – [s]AMOS; keep them coming, setters, and don’t forget the Apocrypha
17 Hindu music‘s contribution to culture reversed (4)
RAGA – reversal of AGAR, which is a very useful word for cruciverbalists to know: ‘a gelatinous product made from seaweed and used as a base for bacterial cultures, as a laxative, in jellied and preserved foods, in electrophoresis, etc.’
18 An interest in action delights (10)
ENTERTAINS – AN INTEREST*
20 Boot that is put on properly (6)
WELLIE – WELL IE (‘that is’)
22 Go through on vehicle for last trip? (8)
REHEARSE – RE (‘on’) HEARSE (the vehicle for one’s final trip)
24 Thus connect painter with craft and establish union? (3,3,4)
TIE THE KNOT – I suppose you could call this a double definition(DD) but for me the non-congrousness of the first part (its crypticity, if you like) disqualifies it; a painter is ‘a line attached to the bow of a boat for tying it up’. If you want to be a sailor and make the mistake of calling any of the ropes a ‘rope’, your aspirations will be dashed forever.
26 That was close relative leaving north-east (4)
PHEW – [ne]PHEW; needs a bit of Yoda-speak to get to this, do reckon I
27 Deceptively real Mata Hari ensnares English flyer (6,7)
AMELIA EARHART – E in REAL MATA HARI; another for our transatlantic friends

DOWN

1 By stopping maniac we’ve crippled progressive movement (7,4)
MEXICAN WAVE – X [‘by’] in MANIAC WAVE*
2 Playwright to inform in audition (5)
SYNGE – sounds like ‘sing’; the author of The Playboy of the Western World, if memory serves. Not memory of reading it, but memory of knowing such things useful for quizzes
3 Melodious rendition from Cambridge priest doing turn (9)
CANTABILE – CANTAB (if someone is brave enough to put this after their name on their card, then it is an admission that ze (sic) went to the other place) ELI reversed
4 Letter from Athens about a dance (7)
LAMBADA – A in LAMBDA
5 Suggestions to go topless entertaining people (5)
HOSTS – [g]HOSTS; as in, ‘there’s no ghost of a chance he’ll make any runs’
6 Sailor from Muscat maybe stood up a lover (9)
INAMORATA – reversal of TAR OMANI then A; interestingly, this Italian word can mean either a woman with whom one is in love or a female lover
7 Saint Eustace cleared out church property (3)
SEE – S E[ustac]E
12 Welcome dogs with lowered head within tarpaulin (11)
GROUNDSHEET – HOUNDS with the H dropped to the end in GREET
14 Flashing of the shoulder from Oriental female? (9)
EPAULETTE – E PAULETTE
15 Fungus found by rodents up at badger’s place (9)
EARTHSTAR – RATS reversed after EARTH; never heard of this, but ‘earth’ sort of confirms one is on the right lines
19 Dramatist in ecstasy after recent plays (7)
TERENCE – E (‘ecstasy’) after RECENT* for the 2nd century BC Roman playwright; the chap with whom he is often bracketed, PLAUTUS , may pop up occasionally
21 Sweetheart in wood, one obtaining fragrant resin (5)
ELEMI – the middle letter of [sw]E[et] in ELM then I; both the tree and the resin obtained from it are thus called
23 As sometimes clarified on radio, a brilliant star (5)
ALPHA – DD; an alpha is typically the brightest star in a constellation; like I knew that without looking it up
25 Operatic role thought to lack energy (3)
IDA – ID[e]A; as in G&S’s Princess Ida, tiddly-dom-pom-pom…

48 comments on “Times 27421 – God knows, they need all the publicity they can geth”

  2. was my favourite at 1ac MUSICAL CHAIRS in this really fine Monday offering. Lots of goodies from 1dn MEXICAN WAVE to my WOD 27ac AMELIA EARHART the ‘bird who flew’ and tragically disappeared near Howland Island. I never forget, as I used to work in Howland Street in London.

    At 7dn St. Eustace is the patron saint of difficult situations; fire prevention; firefighters; hunters; Madrid; torture victims and trappers.

    FOI 25dn IDA

    LOI 16ac AMOS (and Andy? Correll, Gosden, Kingfish)

    COD 1ac MUSICAL CHAIRS also 26ac PHEW! (phew!)

    9ac I was up for ROMAN NOSES but NAMES NAMES it was!

    39 minutes with a hopeful Synge!

    Edited at 2019-08-05 07:05 am (UTC)

  3. I didn’t known Synge very well , so I had to guess between Y and I – by luck I got it right. In the US ’scat’ is what you say to a cat when you’re chasing it away. Usually ‘Scat! Get out of here!’ (Followed by a thrown shoe).

    Edited at 2019-08-05 02:57 am (UTC)

  4. Technical DNF as I had to look up SYNGE of whom I’ve never heard until today. And anyway I’d have pronounced him as “Singe” so I wouldn’t have got to him via the homophone. Doubly annoyed at being beaten by a playwright as that’s an area of expertise for me normally.

    Edited at 2019-08-05 02:50 am (UTC)

  5. I know SYNGE from “Riders to the Sea” (“It’s desthroyed we are”, as Buck Mulligan says); never read “Playboy”. And I know how to pronounce his name by remembering it’s different from William Inge. I slowed myself down some by typing in WHEW even though I’d parsed the clue correctly. No idea that SCAT was not transpondular.
  6. Didn’t enjoy this greatly as couldn’t seem to get any flow going. Often one answer leads to another as checkers enlighten, but was left with four or five mini crosswords with one or two to solve in each.

    Scrabbled somewhat for SYNGE and the ALPHA/PHEW axis had me perplexed for a while. NW certainly became easier on realising that 1d wasn’t MAXIMUM something…

  7. Sub-13 but with SINGE, which does feel a bit quizzy.

    I did like the MUSICAL CHAIRS CD.

  8. 53 minutes for a DNF as I guessed SINGE for the unknown playwright. It had already felt like pulling teeth for a while as I came up with the unknown CANTABILE, constructed the ELEMI, guessed that AMOS was a book of the Bible, and took ages to come up with REHEARSE so that I could guess the unknown EARTHSTAR.

    Oh well. With a clue like 2d, if you’ve never even heard of the surname per se, let alone the gentleman in particular, there’s not a lot you can do…

  9. Bang on time and much enjoyed. SCAT also means animal droppings as in Carl Hiaasen’s children’s book of that name (as in scatological, I presume). COD to the shuffling bottoms.
  10. 30 mins with yoghurt, granola, blueberries, etc.
    No dramas, just dramatists. I know of Synge but have never heard anyone actually say it.
    Mostly I liked: Musical Chairs, Terence and COD to the delightfully pretentious surface at 13ac.
    Thanks setter and U.
    All together now…
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition…
  11. …come and let’s TIE THE KNOT. Words first heard in 1960, sung by Brenda Lee, on Radio Luxembourg, brought to you by courtesy of Clearasil. 24 minutes. LOI RAGA, suspected earlier but not put in until parsed. COD MUSICAL CHAIRS, once I saw what the one behind was. I liked WELLIE too. I’ve always thought that anybody participating in a MEXICAN WAVE should be immediately ejected from the ground, although I accept that might create some problems for the stewards. Bit tougher than the mythical normal Monday. Thank you U and setter.

    Edited at 2019-08-05 08:25 am (UTC)

  12. 18.07, but I managed to get to SINGE as my playwright in a rather more ingenious way, essaying SINGH as a guess (Google lists quite a few of them) and not noticing when SCHEMATA changed the H to an E. At least I’d heard of TERENCE, and could spell AMELIA’s surname.
    The EARTHSTAR was a plausible guess.
    GROUNDSHEET last in, looking at the wrong end of the clue.
    Fine, honest and informative blog!
  13. I’d never heard of the playwright, so when I came to S_N_E as my last entry, I postulated SINGE and looked him up only to find he was SYNGE. Knew TERENCE though. Didn’t know CANTAB for a Cambridge alumnus, but knew the musical expression. Liked MUSICAL CHAIRS and MEXICAN WAVE. Failed to parse GROUNDSHEET, wondering where the Y in Greyhounds went. Liked EPAULETTE too. Not difficult, but not easy either. 33:00 with a little bit of help from my Googly friend. Thanks setter and Ulaca.
  14. Did not enjoy this. Feeling a bit SINGED in fact. Especially as I didn’t know the playwright the last time, either ..
  15. Eg I knew that a badger has a SETT so spent ages trying to fit it in. And then there was WHEW which I spent ages on as well. Once I’d got that, ALPHA went in LOI but had no idea what was going on. SYNGE rather obscure for a Monday and had to look him up (hate doing that) as it could have been SINGE. And thanks for the explanation of MUSICAL CHAIRS!
  16. I can’t get the parsing of Alpha. I know the star but ‘as sometimes clarified on the radio’ = alph ? Alf?
    Please help with many thanks
    Barry J
    1. A as in the phonetic alphabet Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta……….. for clarifying in radio transmissions.
  17. Of course!
    Thanks John. I really must learn this alternative alphabet by heart as it comes up so often.
    Barry J
  18. Not very Mondayish at all. 13m 21s for me, but with SINGE put in at a guess. All’s fair in love and crosswords, perhaps, but I do question how fair it really is to clue an obscure playwright as a homophone when there are two plausible answers.

    Elsewhere I was slow on the uptake for a few, including ENTERTAINS, GROUNDSHEET and REHEARSE. For AMOS I knew the book of the Bible but wasn’t sure enough of the Greek island until I had both checkers.

    ALPHA was one I didn’t understand on entering, but I like the clue a lot now it’s been explained and I think it gets my COD.

  19. An entertaining puzzle, as others have said.

    Did anyone else raise an eyebrow at “groundsheet” = “tarpaulin”? Surely, the latter is a water-proof cover used to protect a person or thing from rain etc falling from above, whereas the former is a similar piece of material used in a tent to protect you from damp seeping up from below.

    Having said that, I now see that the crossword setter’s friend, Collins dictionary, offers, as a secondary meaning of “groundsheet”, a waterproof cover “put over a sports ground to protect it against rain”, which I guess shoots down my quibble.

  20. Same as Quartermaine – I thought badgers had setts, and it was foxes that lived in earths. So that held me up until the checking letters decided it. Until sometime in the 60s Harvard degrees used to mention CANTAB(rigiensis) but since then they’ve been written in English. Yale stuck with the Latin. 14.05 P.S. I note that Magoo clocked in at 3.07. PHEW (meaning that’s hot, obviously I wasn’t even close).
  21. Like Olivia and others, was unhappy to be told badgers live in earths not setts, didn’t know the fungus, but plonked it in once the crossers appeared. The rest I thought was a better than usual Monday job. I was surprised how few knew Synge, I know little about plays but had heard of that one. I might even have seen the play at the Abbey years ago. Didn’t much like the musical chairs idea. 25 minutes.
  22. ….(MUSICAL) CHAIRS at home, and made heavy weather of this. Not helped by wondering if one behind was enough to win a game of Aussie Rules. A painfully slow start, and a nagging feeling that maybe it was Friday crept over me.

    Is aspic clarified ? Is there a star that sounds like it ? No ! You stupid boy ! Fortunately AMELIA EARHART put me right.

    I knew SYNGE, but still agonised over the spelling, since I’ve never heard his name uttered, and assumed it was pronounced like the result of dropping a fag end on the shag pile.

    Quite why I needed to alpha-trawl WELLIE is a mystery even to me.

    FOI REHEARSE
    LOI WELLIE
    COD TIE THE KNOT (although “bums on seats” appealed too)
    TIME 14:56

    1. Certainly kicking a single behind is good enough to win a game of Aussie Rules. Just ask Barry Breen, who famously kicked a behind to win St. Kilda their one and only premiership in 1966.
      Otherwise, I’m with the Singes. Bugger!
  23. … trying to figure out the easiest clue on the page, Amelia Earhart. D’uh.
  24. 30 mins. Guessed Synge correctly, choosing Y over I. Obscurity clued by a homophone. Hmm. That apart, it was a workaday puzzle. Thanks, u.
  25. Pretty much on wavelength, tad unMondayish, mefelt. Thought I had done quite well until I looked at stats and see Magoo at 3:07. I’m not sure I could write them in that quickly even if I knew all the answers …
    Liked Mexican Wave; studied Synge’s Playboy of the WW at school; AMOS took a mo; ALPHA clue clever but easily biffed; Ulaca’s “there’s no ghost of a chance he’ll make any runs” hint turned out way too prophetic …
  26. I didn’t find this Mondayish in the least, and had to lay it aside and return in the AM. Maybe it was me, since as often happens when done I wondered why it had caused so much puzzling. Well, the fact that I’d never heard of the EARTHSTAR or a GROUNDSHEET didn’t help. And SCHEMATA is fairly unusual and not springing to mind until all the checkers arrived. At least I knew SYNGE (and his pronunciation) right away. Regards.
  27. Of just feeling grateful if I’ve scraped in in under 2 Magoos. I really enjoyed this, a lot of very U GK instead of non-U knickers and lavvies… though of course both have their time and place.

    Edited at 2019-08-05 05:07 pm (UTC)

    1. Totally agree with all your points on the shuddersome other place, by the way, ulaca!

      Edited at 2019-08-05 05:18 pm (UTC)

  29. 27:52 I liked this puzzle with its interesting mix of vocab and GK. I missed the significance of behind in 1ac when solving. Luckily alpha cropped up in another recent puzzle still under wraps. I had heard of (or at least read of) the playwright at 2dn. Fortunately I have never had occasion to say his name in polite society because I would have embarrassed myself by pronouncing it with a soft G.

Comments are closed.