Times 27447 – Oh the Times, oh the goings on; Cicero had it all right.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I found this a curate’s egg of a puzzle; about half the clues seemed easy and flew in all across the grid, then it took another twenty minutes to polish it off with several not fully understood until I came to write this blog. There was nothing unacceptable in the end, just a few MERs, and a few bits of Latin which I knew, and a Russian writer I’d heard of. I think 4a gets my CoD award, if my explanation is correct!

Now to tackle last Sunday’s ‘replacement’, which at first sight looks a toughie.

Across
1 Revealing blouse might be tough for ladies to get into (3-3)
LOW-CUT –  a LOUT is our tough, into which we put WC for the Ladies loo.
4 All pieces for playing with at five o’clock must go in box (5,3)
CHESS SET – I think SSE here is the direction of the clock hour hand at 5 o’clock; so SSE goes into CHEST = box.
10 Celebrate noisily with band: I arranged backing (5,2,2)
WHOOP IT UP – W (with) HOOP (band) then I then PUT (arranged) reversed.
11 Long forgotten, maybe, or needing no introduction (5)
OLDEN – OR = GOLDEN, as in heraldry; drop the G = no introduction.
12 Quite a posh residence in the East End? (3)
ALL – Another H-less cockneyism I suppose, an ‘ALL being a posh house, and ALL = quite as in “are you quite finished?’
13 See a Greek MP rallying workers on estate (11)
GAMEKEEPERS – (SEE A GREEK MP)*
14 As end of chapter, closed book (6)
QUARTO – QUA = Latin for as, R = end of chapter, TO = closed, as in ‘put the door to’.
16 Solid girl placed in sink to the left (7)
PYRAMID – MARY a random girl is put into DIP = sink, then all reversed.
19 Enough to swap tips with lover of old illustrations (7)
EXEMPLA – EX = lover of old, then the ends of AMPLE (enough) reversed.
20 English town’s fresh flood defence (6)
NEWARK – NEW = fresh, ARK = flood defence, well, flood escape mechanism.
22 In school on Thursday: a dance and whatnot (11)
THINGAMAJIG – TH (Thursday), IN, GAM (word for a school of whales), A JIG = a dance.
25 Who’s reading this letter out loud? (3)
YOU – I see this as a DD, you’re reading it, and you sounds like U.
26 What one can see through stone blocks (5)
VISTA – VIA = through, insert ST.
27 Art master’s responsibility, taking class for one (9)
REMBRANDT – I put him in from checkers and definition, and eventually, at the end of the blog, saw why. REMIT = responsibility, substitute BRAND (= class?) for the I (one).
28 Soldiers needing medic, subject to stress: most faint (8)
REMOTEST – RE = soldiers, MO = medic, TEST = subject (verb) to stress,
29 What you find at bottom of the author’s bunk! (2,4)
MY FOOT – Whimsically cryptic, if you like.
Down
1 Sheriff’s grass keeping mum (6)
LAWMAN – LAWN has MA inserted.
2 Simple creature to pursue revolutionary ancient custom (9)
WOODLOUSE – WOO = pursue, DLO = old reversed = revolutionary ancient, USE = custom. Are woodlouses or woodlice simple? They look quite complicated to me.
3 Out of bed around noon, for one’s release (5)
UNPEG – UP = out of bed, insert N for noon, EG = for one, for example.
5 Athletic event’s hard work: miss start also having entered (3,4,3,4)
HOP SKIP AND JUMP – H (hard), OP (work), SKIP (miss), AND (also) JUMP (start). If I wasn’t obliged herein, I’d just have biffed it.
6 Guards collecting old clubs, lifting one each? (5,4)
SCORE DRAW – Guards = WARDERS, insert OC to get WARDEROCS then reverse it all.
7 Edge of wheel discovered to have shrivelled up (5)
SIDLE – Hidden reversed in WHE(EL DIS)COVERED. Edge as a verb.
8 Deny site could become an urban sprawl (8)
TYNESIDE – (DENY SITE)*. Well, Tyneside is a conurbation, but I doubt the local Councillors would think of it as a sprawl any more than, say, Greater Manchester.
9 Some poem confused with orator Cicero’s observation (1,7,1,5)
O TEMPORA O MORES – (SOME POEM ORATOR)*. Cicero might well have applied it to today’s policital scenario, I think. Nil desperandum. As Cicero also said, salus populi suprema lex esto, Boris.
15 Right to feed English dog bread that’s disgusting (9)
REPUGNANT – RT = right, insert in order, E, PUG, NAN = bread.
17 Join by tying knot (5,4)
MARRY INTO – I can’t see any more in this other than, the surface meaning, marry someone and you become integrated into their family.
18 Scrap involving Labour politicians in the past (8)
LEFTOVER – LEFT = Labour politicians, OVER = in the past.
21 Short skirts getting shorter? Too bad! (3-3)
TUT-TUT – Two TUTUS get shorter.
23 To recap, not always out to be understood? (2,3)
IN SUM – A homophone, I think, IN SOME meaning sometimes in, not always out.
24 Writer going into horrific detail about monk’s end (5)
GORKY – end of monk = K goes into GORY detail. Is gory really a synonym for horrific? I mean, gory can be horrific, but horrific isn’t necessarily gory, is it? I’ve never read Gorky’s stuff but I know they named a Moscow park after him because I’ve read Martin Cruz Smith’s fine novel of that name.

44 comments on “Times 27447 – Oh the Times, oh the goings on; Cicero had it all right.”

  1. DNF. All done in 44 mins but an inexplicable marry unto rather than marry into. Started briskly but slowed down towards the end with just a few proving highly resistant. Repugnant, score draw, sidle, woodlouse, olden and chess set were, I think, the ones that stretched the grey matter the most.
  2. Because I thought this a pretty decent crossword, despite two errors. Certainly in the top ten this year. I obviously haven’t got a monopoly of grumpiness if the blog is anything to go by! I would question whether ‘quite’ quite means ‘all’ in the example given. And ‘gym’ is also a school, therefore with no crossers to indicate otherwise, I’m claiming ‘thingymajig’ as correct. Mr Grumpy
      1. I don’t know. I was surprised to find it was a real word TBH. I just assumed therefore that ‘anything goes’ really.
  3. NW corner relied on aid for QUARTO. I thought latin was meant to be a dead language. Poor clueing as the latin answer shouldn’t perhaps rely on translation into latin of a random word in the clue. Some of us only did a bit of church latin. This is not ‘O Tempora’….

    The clue for ALL was not great either – ALL = QUITE?

  4. Just over the hour for this, with THINGYMAJIG ; gym for school as mentioned above. Is there a correct spelling for this word?
    Once again a time of 2 Olivias . If only she could get faster!!

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