Times 27487 – A Picasso in the works!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 66 minutes
Music: Oliver Nelson, Blues and the Abstract Truth

I don’t know about you, but I found this very clever and very tough.   If you don’t pay careful attention to the cryptics, you won’t get anywhere, because the literals are pretty well concealed.   I might have been a little tired from today’s golf, but even if I were fresh and rested I don’t think I would have done very well.   The SNITCH shows that most solvers found this pretty difficult.   My main problem was getting started, and after twenty minutes I had only a few answers.   Once you have a few crossers, then you may be able to pick up steam – which I did, only to get stuck again in all four corners.    In the end, I had only one answer I couldn’t parse, and I may discover how that one works as I write the blog.

Across
1 Spring tax returns for Picasso? (8)
SPANIARD – SPA + DRAIN backwards.
5 Reproductive organ of fish feels oddly deficient (6)
CARPEL – CARP + [f]E[e]L[s], not to be confused with carpal.
9 Small ducks ruined patch of ground (3)
LOT – LO[s]T, as a building lot.
10 Splendidly accoutred drunk embracing mean one thus (11)
CAPARISONED – CA(PAR I SO)NED.  ‘Caned’ is evidently an obscure UK slang expression, as I had supposed.
12 Ultimately frantic perhaps as jockeys refuse to go on these (10)
SCRAPHEAPS – Anagram of [franti]C PERHAPS AS.   I spotted the defintion early on, but had a hard time finding the cryptic.
13 Master mariner wearing breeches inside out (4)
BOSS – B(O.S)S, where the inside of breeches is ‘out’, so don’t use it!
15 Leaders of party salute your revolutionary spirit (6)
PSYCHE – P[arty] S[alute] Y[our] + CHE, a straight translation of Latin into Greek.
16 Drop unbounded passion for EU nation (7)
ROMANIA – [d]RO[p] + MANIA.  I was afraid ‘EU’ was part of the cryptic, and it would turn out to be a country from some other continent.
18 One’s favourite American drive (7)
IMPETUS – I’M + PET + US, my FOI.
20 Without a pair of spectacles, kiss and cuddle something wicked! (6)
CANDLE – CAN[oo]DLE, a simple letter-removal clue for a literal using a chestnutty concealment technique.
23 Complaint coming from Isaac Newton (4)
ACNE – hidden in [Isa]AC NE[wton].
24 Jumping beans, a meal for Jack (4,6)
ABLE SEAMAN – anagram of BEANS, A MEAL to give us the full version of AB!
26 Treated Uncle Tom, being doctor (5,6)
LOCUM TENENS – anagram of UNCLE TOM + ENS, a Latin word meaning ‘being’, widely used in philosophy.   A ‘locum tenens’ just means a substitute, but has come to be associated with the medical profession, since doctors can’t very well go on vacation and tell their patients to wait until they return.
27 Join old man, heading some way back (3)
ADD – DAD, with the initial letter moved to the middle, as it would be ‘all the way back’ if the end was meant.
28 Fury engulfing English crown (6)
WREATH – WR(E)ATH.
29 Lug instrument and books round room (8)
OTOSCOPE – OT + O + SCOPE.  I suspected early that ‘lug’ would turn out to be ‘ear’, but not in so literal a sense.
Down
1 Climbing southern mountains with husband in plaster (6)
SPLASH – S ALPS upside-down + H.
2 Star of panto was leaving wings with resolution (7)
ANTARES – [p]ANT[o] [w]A[s] + RES.   I saw early on that Antares would fit, but only discovered it was in fact the answer much later.
3 Weakness of urban housing control (10)
INCAPACITY – IN (CAPA) CITY.   I’m not sure of this one, but CAPA is a control point in QMS.    I’m sure glad I’m retired and don’t have to go to management training seminars any more.
4 Deplorable fellow stops fermenting Pilsner beer (13)
REPREHENSIBLE – HE inside an anagram of PILSNER BEER.
6 Too early? Stop regularly (4)
ALSO – [e]A[r]L[y] S[t]O[p].
7 Buccaneer less angry aboard working barge (7)
PONTOON – P[irate] + ONTO + ON.
8 Albatross heard above head of superstitious sailor and his guide (8)
LODESTAR – sounds like LOAD + S[uperstitious] TAR.
11 Criminal charge for tough guys in court is getting closer (13)
RAPPROCHEMENT – RAP + PRO + C(HE-MEN)T.
14 Supply insane sum to retain a literary assistant (10)
AMANUENSIS – Anagram of INSANE SUM, the closest we’re going to get to a chestnut today.
17 Refuse to sanction pallid policeman at first (8)
DISALLOW – D.I. + SALLOW, our old friend the Detective Inspector.
19 Flamboyant style long crushed by censure (7)
PANACHE – PAN + ACHE.
21 Delay arresting university doctor over complaint (7)
LUMBAGO – L(U M.B.)AG + O, one I biffed and then analyzed.
22 Third of troopers, say, retreat, upset and nervous (2,4)
ON EDGE – [tr]O[opers] + E.G. DEN upside down.
25 Belch while keeling over (4)
EMIT – TIME upside down, where belch has a metaphorical sense, as in ‘belching smoke’. 

50 comments on “Times 27487 – A Picasso in the works!”

  2. And while I’m here, 14 down is an anagram of ‘insane sum’ and ‘a’ (retain ‘a’)
  3. I agree this was hard. I gave up overnight after 50 minutes struggle with about a quarter of the clues unsolved and scattered evenly around the grid. On resumption this morning I gained confidence with a couple of immediate successes before continuing the struggle with the remainder. I’d estimate about 70 minutes in all but it was worth all the effort and rewarding so I’m pleased I didn’t give up and resort to aids as had seemed likely at one point.

    My only failure was in parsing the ENS of LOCUM TENENS. I didn’t know it could mean ‘being’ so my best guess had it as an alternative to EPNS (electroplated nickel silver) which added to the rest of the answer might be interpreted as having been ‘treated’. But it wasn’t to be, even though ENS would be a more logical abbreviation of the 3-word process than EPNS which includes a letter from the middle of the first word.

  4. I never know if the country is spelt with a O or a U, so had to attend to the wordplay at 16. Trickier than your average Monday. 47’
  5. Went offline at 31:36, with 5ac and 7d to do, and stared at those two for a while while eating a sandwich. Finally got the buccaneer–as Starstruck says, a great PDM– and the P led to CARP, and I guessed E to get the unknown word. Thanks, V, for 9 and 10ac, neither of which I could work out, while being convinced they were correct. Got the ENS post-submission. Definitely not your typical Monday fare.

    Edited at 2019-10-21 06:13 am (UTC)

  6. I really liked this as a “tough but fair” crossword except for LOCUM TENENS where I was left with LOCUM TENE_S and knowing neither “ens” nor the proper spelling of the full LOCUM doctor. So I had to resort to an aid to finish in an hour and a bit.

    Realising that “buccaneer less angry” was just P and “urban” was “in a city” were a couple of great penny-drop moments.

  7. I didn’t know LOCUM TENENS and I didn’t know ENS so I was left to guessing the missing letter. N was in the running but I went for A at random.
    1. Yes, I had N, S and T on my short list for that letter, the S from a vague recollection that ESSE had something to do with “being”. I doubted I would guess correctly, so looked it up.
  8. I knew that at 2dn the hero of the pantomime was not ALLADIN as he only has one L (ALADIN) but was mislead by the IKEAN – ANTARES. Boo, hiss, behind you! etc.

    9ac LOT was further beyond me at the check-out. What a horridly deceptive clue.

    13as BOSS was equally annoying

    At 26ac ENS was not in my Latin Primer but fotunately LOCUM TENENS was.

    FOI 18ac IMPETUS modernised to IMPOTUS

    COD 20ac CANOODLE – wicked!

    WOD 14dn AMANUENSIS

    I notice yesterday there were just eleven entries for the Sunday Times 15×15. Is this a record? And was it anything to do with the BREXIT Pantomime!? Not behind you Boris!

    Edited at 2019-10-21 07:31 am (UTC)

  9. An hour and thirteen here, despairing of ever finishing a few times along the way.

    FOI 27a ADD (you can tell I’m off to a bad start if I start picking off the little ones rather than cracking something in the NW corner) LOI 25d EMIT, very soon after finally figuring out 17d DISALLOW, which let me get 26a LOCUM TENENS and 28a WREATH.

    I will shamefacedly admit that I didn’t know (or had forgotten) that Picasso was Spanish, among other gaps in my knowledge, but it was mostly the cunning definitions like “something wicked” (my favourite) that had me struggling. Thank you, setter!

    Edited at 2019-10-21 07:43 am (UTC)

  10. LOI for me was boss. Just couldn’t understand the word play, so thank you for that.
  11. Tricky stuff. Never parsed BOSS or the ENS bit. Enjoyable.
    RIP Joyce Cansfield Times obit today.
  12. 45 mins left three to do. Another 5 mins for Rapprochement, then Caparisoned.
    But Otoscope escaped me. Doh!
    And NHO ‘ens’.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  14. …was I today. 64 minutes. LOI OTOSCOPE despite deciding that ‘lug’ would be as in ‘lughole’ early on. I just couldn’t get going. Mrs BW says that I’ve always stopped listening by the fourth item if she gives me a list. She’s wrong, it’s the third item if not the second. So long constructed clues like CAPARISONED and RAPPROCHEMENT are not my bag. I think this may be a defining characteristic between the physicist and biologist. Even so, COD to LOCUM TENENS, because I had vaguely heard of ENS. Thank you V and setter.
  15. Thanks a lot, Vinyl, especially for LOT, ROMANIA, SCRAPHEAPS and the ENS in LOCUM TENENS.
    That was tough! Somehow managed it in 46m 04s
  16. Greetings from the shadowy corners of TftT. Like (I fondly imagine) many others I lurk here daily, reading the exploits of my heroes and heroines. I feel I know you all after years of learning from this wonderful blog. Now I see I have become a reference solver in the extraordinarily brilliant Snitch I feel it’s time to come into the light.

    I thought this was a wonderful piece with some of the best surfaces and CDs for ages. My enjoyment undoubtedly helped by being on the wavelength today. COD to the weak urban development.

    Thank you all for your time and skill. You are helping many you may never know.

    Pleasuredome

    PS does anyone know how to remove the irritating Russian ads from this platform?

    1. any decent adblocker browser extension should do it .. I use Ublock Origin on Firefox and see no ads
    2. Welcome to the conversation and thanks for the kind comments! It’s always good to know that my Reference solvers are real people. And you should be able to see your individual NITCH results from next month onwards.

      You might like to create a Live Journal account and comment under that name, as it will let us know who you are more readily (and correlate your comments to the results).

      I’m sorry I can’t help with the Russian ads. After many years in Internet tech, I have my own mental ad filter that means I rarely perceive any ad on a web page.

      We look forward to hearing more from you.

    3. You can start by creating a (free) Live Journal account and having a proper user-ID. I find that when I am NOT logged in under my user name I get the irritating Russian ads but they disappear when I sign in.

      Having an account will also allow you to edit your own posts if you make spelling or other errors, provided that nobody has already posted a Reply to it.

  17. Turns out I did quite well on this at 24 minutes, but thought it was indeed a proper challenge with no concessions to our implied need for gentle treatment after a weekend of general debauchery. Mondays have not been giveaways for several weeks, now.
    This was fun, too. I did like the even tempered Pirate just to supply the P, LOT once I worked out what the ducks were quacked up to be, and “something wicked!”
    It can’t be the first time that Sir Isaac’s inner spottiness has been noted, but that was another grin, and urban to clue IN A CITY felt novel.
    I found the right side was my way in, with the left stalled with only SPLASH entered. Kudos to capable setter and to V for sorting it all out.
  18. 20 mins. Nice puzzle, and fairly straightforward; I was surprised to see the snitch at 116. Thanks v.
  19. 25’35 with an odd touch of post-biffing parsing while biffing the next. (Though ‘add’ was only selected after an alphabet trawl.) Poor old Che, treasured by such an unrevolutionary pastime. Didn’t know (I knew) the full locum but a Classical education puts such things in place.

    Edited at 2019-10-21 12:31 pm (UTC)

  20. 23′, did all the hard work but had a careless CARPAL, so dnf. I have promised myself to forget about the league table and look at the SNITCH instead.

    Dnk ENS, took a while to work out ANTARES, though CAP for ‘control’ a bit weak. ‘Caned’ also not used by me in this context.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

  21. 15:05. Interesting and enjoyable puzzle with some pretty devious touches. Fortunately I remembered ENS from previous puzzles, possibly Mephistos. I couldn’t have told you exactly what it means but it’s somehow related to ESSE.
    After years of forgetting I think I have finally learned what AMANUENSIS means.

    Edited at 2019-10-21 09:36 am (UTC)

    1. AMANUENSIS has stuck with me since reading about Will Self’s amanuensis. If I based my understanding on that alone it would mean someone responsible for obtaining copious amounts of drugs.
      1. Hmm, Will Self’s amanuensis would seem to have a great deal to answer for, given all the intellectual claptrap he is prone to spout..
  23. 36 min, with 25d LOI, have spent several minutes without noticing that I’d mistyped 26a – no problem with ENS, as some of the Latin I’d learnt for Cambridge entrance is still with me. However, it did delay me on 2d as ‘wings’ gave me ALA, so was then trying to make something of ‘DDIN’.
  24. 13m 22s, feeling fairly sluggish, but then I’ve not had a cup of tea yet today. Tougher than your average.

    LOT, ON EDGE and INCAPACITY went in unparsed or only partially parsed, and OTOSCOPE was the last to fall.

    ENS is very familiar from the Listener crossword, appearing as recently as the one before last (ahem).

  25. A tricky puzzle indeed! Lots of PDMs. I laughed out loud at “Lug Instrument”! I remembered CAPARISONED from a previous puzzle, and managed to assemble RAPPROCHEMENT from the kit. I failed to parse PONTOON, however, despite giving it another minute or two during proof reading. Having come up with LOCUM TENE_S, I was baffled by E_S for being, although ESSE came to mind, but TENESS just felt wrong, so I postulated TENENS and looked it up and there it was. I quite enjoyed this one. 37:37 with 1 confirmation look up. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  26. Having forgotten to pause after waiting for a new tyre, my time was well over an hour. I nearly got to the end, but the last 2 ANTARES and PSYCHE defeated me, even though on reflection they weren’t the hardest clues. Haven’t come across RES before, nor for that matter ENS.
    1. I believe we’ve had a discussion on DES RES as in desirable residence in the not too distant past….
  27. ….so today I can only estimate – and in my estimation this was an excellent puzzle.

    I didn’t know “ens” but did know LOCUM TENENS, so scratched my head and moved on. Biffed BOSS (parsed later), and INCAPACITY (thanks Vinyl).

    FOI IMPETUS
    LOI EMIT
    COD OTOSCOPE
    TIME about 20 minutes, which I’m delighted with.

  28. This was not the sort of thing to lay on a man with a Monday head, but very rewarding. Nothing I didn’t know (though CAPARISONED for one had to be dragged from the list of Tricky Words I’ve made a note of), but assembling all the parts was never straightforward.
  29. 31:16. Excellent puzzle. Appreciated refuse to go on these in 12ac, the inside out breeches at 13ac and the lug instrument at 29ac. DNK ens but was able to guess the likely ending of the second half of the expression in 26ac.
  30. Just finished! You mystified me with QMS, Vinyl, but I didn’t parse the clue like that either. I also made a wild surmise for “caned.”
  31. Pretty decent crossword in the end, but verging on the obtuse with some of the vocabulary. One shouldn’t need to be educated in Latin to complete a Times Crossword. And using ‘Spaniard’ as a definition for Picasso? Well yes. But accepting that it’s probably true (Catalonians might disagree), it’s an underwhelming definition to say the least. It just seems a bit random. And ‘plaster’ and ‘splash’ aren’t quite the same thing IMO. Mr Grumpy
  34. I still don’t see how a third of troopers is O from {tr} O {opers}? Why not a third of {h}O{rsemen} etc. I can understand if there was a 3 letter word for troopers beginning with O but just dividing a word into 3 unequal parts to pull out a letter is very poor in my opinion or am I missing something?
  35. Boss at 13a went in at the 37 min mark with a shrug, being unable to parse it. Even reading the blogger’s solution it took a while to recognise the ordinary seaman in the gutted trousers! Happy to come in under par , i.e. less than two Olivias.

Comments are closed.