Times 27427 – ‘Til the girls go home

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Music: Bach Violin Concerto #2, Gidon Kremer
Time: 25 minutes

Another easy Monday – if you have a lot of obscure knowledge sitting in your brain, that is!   If you don’t, you may have to either biff or trust the cryptics.   As an overeducated twit, I tend to whip through this sort of puzzle, but some of these had me searching every nook and cranny of my brain for long-dormant neurons.   But in the end, I came home OK – it’s amazing what you can remember if you put your mind to it, and I haven’t been a stamp collector for fifty years or more.   It was only Frank Whittle, the man who invented the jet engine, that I had never heard of.

Across
1 Mere game (4)
POOL –  Double definition, with a lot of possibilities. I waited for the checking letters.
3 After year in London college, monk is messing up old genetic theory (10)
LYSENKOISM –  L(Y)SE + anagram of MONK IS.   Familiar to any student of Stalinist Russia.
10 Noble reduced allowance astrologer is after (7)
GRANDEE – GRAN[t] + DEE.  If you have forgotten that fascinating Elizabethan, John Dee, we just had him a few months ago, so take note.
11 Girl in work in a chiropodist’s concern (7)
TOENAIL – TO(ENA)IL
12 Odds-on mercenary destroyed school in the past (9,6)
SECONDARY MODERN – Anagram of ODDS-ON MERCENARY, a biff for me and many others.
13 Like bad housing, oh dear, after much economic downturn (6)
SLUMMY – SLUM[p] + MY.
14 Prone to try for concessions in confrontation (4,4)
FACE DOWN –  Double definition.
17 How stamps can be posted — about five pairs with article (2,6)
SE TENANT – SE(TEN + A)NT.  I managed to dredge up this philatelic term: it refers to a printed block that contains stamps of different designs or denominations.
18 Injunction about little house in high country (6)
BHUTAN – B(HUT)AN.   I thought this had something to do with ‘but’ and ‘h’ – then I saw it.
21 Although anything but a fool, a good person in passing (15)
NOTWITHSTANDING – NO TWIT + H(ST)ANDING, another biff, only I intially entered ‘nonwithstanding’.   Reconciling to the cryptic forced me to correct it.
23 I am in place, I note, round London district (7)
PIMLICO -P(I’M)L + I + C + O.   I had a hard time thinking of London district ending in -O that wasn’t Soho, so I had to use the cryptic to get this one.
24 Engine inventor is to cut deal? (7)
WHITTLE – A simple double defintion, where deal is the type of wood.   If you wanted to put ‘is’ in something, you were not alone.
25 Fashioned model tiara, created to fit (6-4)
TAILOR-MADE – Anagram of MODEL TIARA.   I got the -MADE readily enough, but could make nothing of the other letters for a while.
26 Get irritated with mist coming off the sea (4)
FRET – Double definition, one that only experienced solvers are likely to know.
Down
1 Matter about wise man looking up constellation (7)
PEGASUS –  P(SAGE upside-down)US.
2 Monaco uncovered separate charge as an instalment (2,7)
ON ACCOUNT – [m]ONAC[o] + COUNT, as in what the DA files against the accused.
4 Yeah, we organised shout at rodeos (6)
YEEHAW – Anagram of YEAH, WE, a starter clue in case you’re stuck.
5 Perhaps US door guard has missed second approach (8)
ENTRYWAY – [s]ENTRY + WAY.
6 Put own employee under house arrest to retain capability (4,4,4,2)
KEEP ONES HAND IN – Double definition, one jocular.
7 Vision of latter half of hadj? (5)
IMAGE – [pilgr]IMAGE, another biff for me.
8 Much of significance about lake pigment (7)
MELANIN – ME(L)ANIN[g].
9 Certainly, yours truly is not concerned about current dog (1,4,4,2,1,2)
I DONT MIND IF I DO – I DON”T MIND + I + FIDO, where I is the symbol in equations for electrical current.
15 Clothier’s forbidden more trim (9)
OUTFITTER – OUT + FITTER.
16 Bird dropping fine maggot and caterpillar (8)
INCHWORM – [f]INCH + WORM.   These used to be common in Connecticut when I was a child, but I haven’t seen any for decades.
17 Covers students’ union over black mark (7)
SUNSPOT –  TOPS NUS upside down – National Union of Students.
19 Uncared-for state’s new elite around top of government (7)
NEGLECT – N + E(G[overnment])LECT.
20 Horse eating tip of yew was in agony (6)
STEWED – STE([ye]W)ED.
22 What’s taking place in First Empire times (5)
TEMPI – Hidden in [firs]T EMPI[re].

49 comments on “Times 27427 – ‘Til the girls go home”

  1. Not that easy a Monday for me, my last two–SE TENANT & WHITTLE–slowing me down a bunch. I suppose I must have come across WHITTLE here, but it was as near as dammit to a DNK, and I had to give up the idea of inserting IS to see what ‘cut deal’ meant. Definitely didn’t know SE TENANT, but the obvious SO and ST looked like non-starters. Recalled LYSENKO after getting the Y and K, biffed BHUTAN from the H, once I gave up HO.
  2. Never heard of SE TENANT although I guessed it might be a special term for a self-adhesive stamp having worked it out from wordplay. WHITTLE was my LOI mainly because I’d mistyped NEGLECT and was trying with the wrong crossers…plus I was trying to put IN or even IN TO into something. Plus WHITNEY invented the cotton gin which maybe qualifies as some sort of engine. Once I corrected NEGLECT it was obvious.
  3. Definitely not an easy Monday… for me. Managed the unknown DEE and SE TENANT, knew Whittle and Lysenko, but failed on Lysenkoism – I would have spelled it with an S, but the London College of Economics (LCE) brooked no argument.
  4. This was a technical DNF as I gave up and resorted to aids for the genetic theory, the high country and the stamps – NHO any of them, nor DEE the astrologer, even if he did turn up here before as advised above. Also had to look up the unknown ‘hadj’ to be in with a chance at solving 7dn. On the plus side, FRET and WHITTLE were write-ins and the 14- and 15-letter answers were dead easy too.

    3 and 17 made me realise very early on that I was never going to finish by relying solely on my own efforts and this put rather a damper on the whole proceedings.

    Edited at 2019-08-12 09:38 am (UTC)

  5. 16:00 … well, that woke me up.

    SE TENANT correctly worked out, though I’ll freely admit to checking that one before hitting Submit.

    Some pretty fine stuff in here. COD clinched for me by the brilliantly bizarre surface of the Scrabble-worthy LYSENKOISM

  6. As an FRPSL 17ac was a write-in. One thinks of India KGVI and the Baltimore Postmaster Provs. 1847. The perfs. must not even be folded, which renders them ex-se-tennant!

    FOI LYSENKOISM

    LOI BHUTAN another philatelic area

    COD 17ac SE-TENNANT

    WOD POOL

    Time 45 sleepy minutes

    Strange how Frank Whittle is unknown stateside as he died at his home in Columbia, Maryland in 1996!

    Edited at 2019-08-12 06:59 am (UTC)

    1. I notice you spell it with a hyphen and Collins has it both with and without and also as one word. I can’t help feeling that if the enumeration had been given as (2-6) or (8) rather than (2,6) I might have worked it out as I had considered all the correct elements of wordplay: SENT (posted) TEN (five pairs) A/AN (article), but lacked the confidence to put them together because of the standalone 2-letter word at the beginning of the answer.
      1. Barracuda. I do know all about Whittle – I used to go Cranwell back in the day. Brits can live and die abroad!

        Edited at 2019-08-12 12:17 pm (UTC)

    1. Ah, the lovely old KGVI Jamaica 5/-. A beautiful stamp with lots of shades to keep sad collectors happy for hours.
    2. Apologies! My office has been working with Writtle on a garden at Hampton Court this year (We won a Silver medal). Less well-known for their early jet engine designs.
  8. 19.39 for this odd but not unsatisfying puzzle. I submitted with mild concerns over GRANDEE and ENTRYWAY: both looked OK, but none of Tweedle, Dave, Jack or Simon were into astrology as far as I knew, and I wasn’t convinced of the Americanism of the door (not in my Chambers).
    Come to think of it, STEWED for being in agony didn’t really convince: worrying or being agitated, sure, and I suppose if you’re being boiled alive in the cannibal’s pot it’s going to be a bit on the painful side, but still.
    SLUMMY ? Well, I couldn’t work out why economic downturn was just S, ‘cos oh dear was definitely LUMMY (alternate spelling).
    I was uneasy about the idea of deal as something you’d whittle: the dictionaries confirm it as a plank of wood or cut timber rater than the sort of stick you’d take your penknife to, but at least I knew and welcomed Frank, surely deserving a place in the pantheon of Great British Inventors.
    So yes, a bit odd, as confirmed by V’s excellent and honest analysis.
  9. 25 mins (to give up on Se Tenant) – with yoghurt, granola, blueberries, etc.
    There were too many unknowns (Lysenko, Dee) and dodgy bits for me to be bothered with the final unknown.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.

    Edited at 2019-08-12 07:52 am (UTC)

  10. Pleased to have got the theory and knew BHUTAN and WRITTLE. However should have paid more attention to my Stanley Stamps Gibbon Album.

    Edited at 2019-08-12 06:59 am (UTC)

  11. 48 minutes, with some crossed fingers for the unknowns. If we have had Dee in the last few months, he didn’t make it to my Grand List of Crossword Knowledge, so I must be slacking with my homework! Frank WHITTLE, LYSENKOISM and SE-TENANT also unknown, with the last two looking the unlikeliest…

    Thanks for untangling it all, and thanks to the setter for the firm-but-fair puzzle.

  12. I remember the Danny Kaye song “Inchworm” from a children’s radio programme years ago.
    I read part of the Wikipedia entry on LYSENKOISM post-solve. Apparently Lysenko’s crackpot ideas were supported by Stalin and 3000 mainstream biologists were fired or sent to jail. How awful life must have been under Stalin.
    I’m genuinely surprised that there are people who have not heard of Frank Whittle.
    Regarding Vinyl’s choice of music, I had the great pleasure of seeing and hearing Gidon Kremer play live with the Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin 3 or 4 years ago. He played a piece by the modern Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina which I described at the time as thrillingly exciting or excitingly thrilling.

    Edited at 2019-08-12 08:30 am (UTC)

    1. And I’M surprised at how many of us old farts don’t remember Lysenko. If Jimbo shows up, I’m sure he’ll have something to say.
  13. I found this a little unsatisfactory with some, to my mind, obscure general knowledge (the genetic theory, the astrologer and odd philatelic term) and a couple of loose definitions – PUS for “matter” being one and STEWED for “was in agony” the other. But I enjoyed FIDO the dog in 9D. 18:04
  14. I was surprised to get through this without any errors. In particular I had severe doubts about both Lysenkoism and Se Tenant. So a good start to the week.
  15. Steady solve; 30 mins. Se-tenant… DNK, so went with the wp. But why a comma in the clue? Oh well. Thanks v.
  16. Royal Mail usually issues its commemoratives in se-tenant pairs, announced as such in their bulletin, the latest being ‘Curious Customs’ which include first and second class and overseas rates., though the forthcoming ‘Forests’ don’t include the seconds.
    30 minutes, so no problem after wasting a couple of minutes trying to make LAMARCKISM fit at 3ac.
    Now trying to be rid of the Danny Kaye earworm from 16dn.
  18. 24 minutes. Didn’t know Lysenkoism, but it parsed ok. Use to be a philatelist, so se-tenant came easily enough. COD se-tenant. Not really happy about worm for maggot, but I know it’s used.
  19. When I was at university I lived in Earlsdon, just the other side of the railway track from where Frank Whittle was born. Hearsall Common, nearby, claimed to be the place where Whittle first experienced the wonder of flight – although I think this was based on the possibility that he flew the odd kite there. One fine day a housemate and I happened to saunter into Coventry on the day that Whittle’s statue was unveiled.

    For the rest of the puzzle, there were unknown elements – SE TENANT, LYSENKOISM – but the wordplay was generous so they didn’t hold up progress too badly.

    The LOI for me was OUTFITTER, after I’d been pondering a CLOTHIERS anagram for longer than I should have done. 9m 10s.

  20. 13:53. No major problems today, and I like constructing funny words from wordplay so I enjoyed LYSENKOISM and SE TENANT.
    I’ve heard of WHITTLE, but not DEE.
    My first thought at 26ac was HAAR. Solving crosswords is very good for your knowledge of terms for ‘sea mist.’
    1. FRET is pure Lincolnshire/Yorkshire. My mother used it fequently when living at sea-misty Chapel-St-Leonards.
        1. Ah, but you don’t live in Scarborough ! If neilr were to drop by, he’d soon put you right !
        3. I lived a few years in the Wirral, where sea frets were not uncommon .. they were also pretty opaque .. I remember leaning out of the passenger window of our car looking for the kerb, so I could tell my dad how far away he was. “There’s a white line down here, dad!”
  21. Twenty-two minutes for this reasonably straightforward one. I’d never heard of SE-TENANT despite having collected stamps as a child (my home-made album had a page for that mysterious tropical island of Topay).

    Good to see LYSENNKOISM, if only as a reminder that nature pays no heed to political ideologies.

  22. I really liked this one for some reason. Particularly chewy. I had to look up SE TENANT because it didn’t seem like a word, but there it was. (That’s not cheating according to my own personal code of X-word morality, but I know it is for others!)
  23. All done in 20 minutes except the unknown 17a, so ended DNF with S*TEN*N* remaining. The rest was good.
    1. but surely it had to be S* TENAN* didn’t it, because of the article? All you need then is either S*N* or S*N to account for “post” ..
  25. ….about one on a scale of ten I’m afraid. Five biffs in one puzzle is a tad excessive, although I did parse PIMLICO post-solve.

    NHO LYSENKOISM, ENTRYWAY (ugh !) or John Dee (how many months is a few V ?). SE TENANT rang a vague bell, but I’d no idea what it entails.

    FOI POOL
    LOI ENTRYWAY
    COD WHITTLE
    TIME 11:37

  26. I managed to construct the unknown SE-TENANT and LYSENKOISM, bur confess to confirming they were actual things before submitting. It was all in vain anyway, as I’d carelessly biffed YEEHAH at 4d, and incorrectly lifted and separated at 5d, putting in ENTRYMAN. Didn’t know DEE the astrologer or parse IMAGE, but shrugged and moved on. I quite enjoyed the puzzle which took me 19:33. A bit more time spent on 5d wouldn’t have helped as 4d was wrong anyway. Thanks setter and V.

    Edited at 2019-08-12 02:35 pm (UTC)

  27. Possibly quite tough for a Monday with such beauties as “Lysenkoism” and “Se Tenant”. Or possibly I was off the pace after a two week holiday. Quite enjoyed the puzzle.
    In Liverpool, “slummy” is slang for loose change.
  28. A minor typo, comrade blogger: the anagram is MONK IS. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to unravel the previously unheard of pseudo-scientist. Jeffrey
  29. Some nice material, but not exactly my cup of tea – quite a few “drop this letter or that letter, or half of a word…” constructions, and I’m not good at those.
  30. I looked up LYSENKOISM and SE-TENANT before entering. I hadn’t known of either. I also confess that I was unfamiliar with the inventor WHITTLE, although the ‘cut deal’ bit led to its going in straight away. A little more obscurity than the normal Monday, but since there isn’t supposed to be a normal Monday vs. any other day, I shan’t complain. Regards.
  31. REALLY liked this crossword, which played to my strengths .. random useless knowledge, mainly. NHO se tenant but when I saw it, it looked vaguely as if I’d seen it before. It’s been in a Mephisto and a jumbo, not recently
    Some fine surface readings too
  32. 30:39 there was quite a bit here far enough out of my ken to make this an awkward solve but I managed to get there in the end. Didn’t know the -ism at 3ac, so glad of the clear wp. Didn’t know the astrologer in 10ac. Dnk the stamp terminology in 17ac. Dnk Whittle and was trying to fit James Watt around “is” for ages until the “cut deal” penny dropped. Dnk the pus definition of matter in 1dn.
  33. Common experience here, as I didn’t know (or at least wouldn’t have claimed to know) LYSENKOISM or SE-TENANT, but obviously got to them anyway, so I guess the wordplay did everything it needed to. That certainly contributed to it not feeling like a typical Monday puzzle, even though when I hit the button, rather less time had elapsed than I thought. All in all, quite interesting.
  34. Having lived very much in that vicinity as well, I had similar recollections of Whittle, so I’m surprised at his apparent obscurity.

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