On Tuesday I fainted in the shower and had to spend the day in the ER, not so much fun especially when a CT scan revealed that my aortic root is dilated in a dangerous way that will necessitate cardiothoracic surgery. I wonder if solving ability can be improved by bionic enhancement? Maybe they can build in a fast-lookup dictionary along with the new aorta…
ACROSS
1 Less bothered about meat bone one’s left for dog’s dinner (8)
SHAMBLES – (LESS*) [“bothered”], about HAM B{one} [meat | bone “one’s left”]
5 Noxious gas is dispersing, after bottling by old lady (6)
MIASMA – the old lady is MAMA, “bottling” IS, but dispersedly: M{I}A{S}MA
9 More than one top down in flash car (9)
ROLLNECKS – NECK [down] in ROLLS [flash car]
11 Turn back actor’s script (5)
OGHAM – reversed GO [turn], + HAM [actor]
12 Lot mostly affected where pounds are lost (3,4)
FAT CAMP – FAT{e} [lot, “mostly”] + CAMP [affected]
13 Rough cases fine on old watch (7)
LOOKOUT – LOUT [rough] “cases” OK O [fine | old]
14 Representative soldier given arm? (7,6)
PRIVATE MEMBER – PRIVATE [soldier] given MEMBER [arm?]
16 Warmer politician to put up with waffle (10,3)
GREENHOUSE GAS – GREEN [politician] + HOUSE [to put up] with GAS [waffle]
20 Mostly torn bananas back in dish (7)
STUNNER – reversed REN{t} NUTS [“mostly” torn | bananas]. The human kind of dish
21 Rearing bats in wild to a greater extent (7)
ANGRIER – (REARING*) [“bats”]
23 Guarantee to knock out right result (5)
ENSUE – ENSU{r}E [guarantee, “to knock out (R for) right”]
24 What Royal Mint employees do to prepare (4,5)
MAKE READY – double def
25 Cat grabbing a rat’s head and part of throat (6)
LARYNX – LYNX [cat] “grabbing” A R{at}
26 Impasse with man arresting criminal don (5-3)
STAND-OFF – STAFF [man] “arresting” (DON*) [“criminal”]
DOWN
1 What priests offered queen wearing undies (6)
SHRIFT – R [queen] in SHIFT [undies]
2 Grant nothing from Matthew on? (5)
ALLOT – as Matthew is what begins the N.T., if our collection stops before Matthew it must be ALL O.T.
3 Clay under mountain grand for Asian (7)
BENGALI – ALI [(Cassius) Clay] under BEN G [mountain | grand]
4 Role champagne’s playing in brain still? (13)
ENCEPHALOGRAM – (ROLE CHAMPAGNE*) [“is playing”]. Still as in “image”
6 I really put the sauce away in elementary form (7)
ISOTOPE – I SO TOPE [I | really | put the sauce away]
7 Train journalist about what moves children (6,3)
SCHOOL BUS – SCHOOL [train] + reversed SUB [journalist]
8 Stripped cars with fully developed motor component (8)
ARMATURE – {c}AR{s} + MATURE [fully developed]
10 Producers favour this character, say, in comic film (7,6)
SELLERS MARKET – MARK [character, say] in SELLERS E.T. [comic (Peter) | film]
14 Herald opening of picture with touching on-screen presence (9)
PRECURSOR – P{icture} with RE [touching] + CURSOR [on-screen presence]
15 Fragile material goods woman kept in building wing (8)
EGGSHELL – G G SHE [(two) goods | woman] “kept in” ELL [building wing]
17 News covering article piercing fabric (7)
NANKEEN – N N [(two) news] “covering” A [article] + KEEN [piercing]
18 Out of this world Soviet jelly dipped in alcohol (7)
GAGARIN – AGAR [jelly] “dipped in” GIN [alcohol]
19 Shriek at great volume, welcoming United’s star player (6)
CRUYFF – CRY FF [shriek | at great volume], “welcoming” U [United]. Dutch football legend who died in 2016, making those tricky _R_Y_F corners of the grid finally cluable by Times setters
22 Ideal notion of this person’s past (5)
IMAGO – I’M AGO [this person’s | past]
I got through this unaided, though I did look up CRUYFF after writing it in. My last ones in were ROLLNECKS, followed by SELLER’S MARKET. Clever stuff (“What’s ‘Soviet jelly’?”)
Wonder why the reference to “priests” is in the past tense (a consummation devoutly to be wished as it might be)…
“SUB” for “journalist” refers of course to a “subeditor,” meaning one who doesn’t assign stories but merely makes them perfectly readable (my job).
How soon do you have to have the surgery?
Edited at 2019-11-01 07:33 pm (UTC)
I’ve just had a flu jab;hope it works.
David
Thank you so much for blogging today – if you can do this in nine minutes feeling utterly c…., what hope is there for us mere mortals? The idea of a bionic Verlaine is daunting 😊 I hope you start to feel much better soon, and that your heart surgery is a success.
The crossword? Ok-ish. On first glance, I panicked and thought I’d never get started! Tried to focus and did most of it, with a flurry of PDMs around the grid, but came unstuck at 1a and 1d. No idea of time.
FOI Larynx
COD Greenhouse gas, although I did like Gagarin too
DNF
Best wishes to you, and thanks to the setter
I did have a little difficulty with “private member” and “greenhouse gas”, not expecting that direction. There were some clever clues here, like what the setter did with “miasma”. I would not have gotten “Cruyff” without the cryptic, even though I had vaguely heard of him.
Edited at 2019-11-01 08:01 pm (UTC)
I’m very familiar with that op and am pretty confident a piece of dacron won’t slow you down. Just make sure to shop around for the best centre (and take comfort they spotted it now rather that too late!)
– Rupert
PS Nice puzzle, though I fluffed 1d. COD the medically themed 4d. SHAMBLES was subject of a recent Times clue writing competition, and the setter’s offering is much better that my feeble entry…
78 mins for me with precisely the same list of unknowns as Jack. But I enjoyed the ride – a proper case of forgetting about the time and patiently untangling each devious misdirection until done. I also really liked 2d; spending ages looking for something ending in NT or ONT until realising what was going on. Full marks and thanks to the setter.
All the best, V, for your journey back to health. I hope the flu, at least, goes away quickly.
Get well soon, V. Very sorry to hear of your medical problems.
9 minutes??! A cracking time for a tricky puzzle.
As for the puzzle, I took about 38 minutes, if I recall correctly, with nothing entirely unknown—even CRUYFF has come up twice before. It’s odd to have a footballer be a crossword-only word, but I’d never have heard of him otherwise…
Since learning of the “Ell” from crosswords, I did actually encounter the word in the wild recently, in a GK Chesterton collection, so some of this studying is at least coming in handy!
Edited at 2019-11-01 09:32 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2019-11-01 09:58 pm (UTC)
I’m amazed by your 9 mins solve in the face of such alarming news, Verlaine and wish you well.
14:38 for the puzzle, which I thought was a cracker. Nice to get revenge on my old nemesis OGHAM.
And, Verlaine, fainting in the shower could well be the best decision you’ve ever made. There are two ways to discover an aortic dilation, and the other one is a much poorer choice. You have my best wishes for a successful treatment.
(*This is, of course, completely untrue.)
Stunning time – very tricky, took me ages, though with distractions. Fortunately knew of Cruyff (and Cruyff was a United player! But still-living son Cruyff not dead dad) and knew of shriving from looking up Shrove/Pancake Tuesday once. And remembering tennisista Pam Shriver.
In the same way you can solve crosswords by going away and doing something else, I wonder if being a bit delirious with flu can create the same connection to the subconscious to speed up solving?
I was 9 minutes too!
(plus one hour)
FOI 5ac MIASMA
LOI 10ac ROLLNECKS after 1dn SHRIFT ensured it wasn’t POLONECKS.
COD 19dn CRUYFF footballer of the World Cup 1990 who invented the Cruff Turn.
WOD 18dn GAGARIN Guy agar is the jelly, Soviets are Rudie’s mates.
I have a routine aortic screening on Monday. V, you should be grateful that the issue was discovered at this stage. Prayers for you and yours.
Thanks also for the blog, and to the setter.
Great puzzle that I found tough but rewarding