Times 27505 – Schindler’s Missed?

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
For those who were worried that Monday has become the new Friday, this was very much a throwback to the old days (like a fortnight or so ago). With all its recent bells and whistles in place, I don’t think this one has much to scare the digital horses of Starstruck’s creation – even if the dangling participle may have a few pedants up in arms. I got home in a little over 20 minutes, but then I am an official, Snitchified flat-track bully. I wonder how the rest of you got on. Not that it bothers me much, unless the neo-Gallerific one got in in a lower time than me. That would make me very upset…

ACROSS

1 Humorous issue that shakes corporation? (5,5)
BELLY LAUGH – a nice &lit to get us started
6 Chump expected to seize power (4)
DUPE – P in DUE
8 Attempt by government to leak information (2,6)
GO PUBLIC – GO PUBLIC
9 Nation embraces popular French playwright (6)
RACINE – IN in RACE; if Moliere doesn’t fit, it’s probably Racine, and vice-versa
10 Dad abandons Spanish dish for this woman (4)
ELLA – [pa]ELLA
11 Newspaper article by Belgian writer (3,7)
IAN FLEMING – I (newspaper) AN (article) FLEMING (non-Walloon Belgian); if you started to rack your mind to come up with a famous Belgian writer, you’d still be going now. Their only famous literary figure is of course Hercule Poirot.
12 Doing as ordered one’s reaching conclusion (9)
DIAGNOSIS – DOING AS* IS
14 Spiked wheel — gardening tool saving time? (5)
ROWEL – [t]ROWEL
17 Republican in disreputable club shows ambition (5)
DRIVE – R in DIVE
19 Unwind the flexes with plug in (7,2)
LIGHTEN UP – THE PLUG IN*
22 Untouchable carcass not to be moved (10)
SACROSANCT – CARCASS NOT*
23 Tongue forming content of metal container (4)
INCA – [t]IN CA[n]
24 Arab sycophants shunning second one (6)
YEMENI – YE[s]MEN I
25 Mourned day after soldiers brought in dead (8)
LAMENTED – MEN in LATE D
26 Love missing husband, not that she regrets (4)
OTIS – O T[h]IS (this = ‘not that’, minus H for husband); ‘Miss Otis regrets’ is a song made famous by Ella Fitzgerald
27 Junk entering island by river — Hong Kong feature? (10)
SKYSCRAPER – SCRAP in SKYE R

DOWN

1 Conceited editor to support significant source (9)
BIGHEADED – ED after BIG HEAD
2 Monk touring China comes to island (2,5)
LA PALMA – PAL in LAMA
3 Something for sucker picking up ball in game (8)
LOLLIPOP – PILL (ball, as in cricket slang) in POLO all reversed As vefatica points out, the game to be reversed is actually POOL. I blame my posh upbringing and all those years watching Major R.I. Ferguson at Smith’s Lawn, while his wife was watching someone else .
4 International body and state combine without strings (15)
UNCONDITIONALLY – UN CONDITION (state) ALLY (combine)
5 A king in control — in 1066? (6)
HAROLD – A R in HOLD and a nice, if ironic, @lit
6 Green politician in party starts to spout environmental rot (9)
DECOMPOSE – ECO MP in DO initial letters of S[pout] E[nvironmental]
7 Coppers must accept an imposed punishment (7)
PENANCE – AN in PENCE
13 Teacher beginning to grumble about head (9)
GOVERNESS – G[rumble] OVER NESS
15 What falls easily to one as Northerner? (9)
LAPLANDER – I think what we have here is a riff on the phrase ‘it fell into my lap’, such that ‘what falls easily to one’ equates to a ‘lap lander’. Other explanations may be forthcoming.
16 Regular myth, exploded, set in rich ground (8)
RHYTHMIC – a double anagram of MYTH in RICH, with ‘exploded’ and ‘rich’ respectively earning their stripes
18 Chemical substance spy used against sappers? (7)
REAGENT – AGENT on RE; a concatenation of chestnuts
20 New on street, work without break (3-4)
NON-STOP – N ON ST OP
21 Spots food in dining room — no starter provided (6)
ESPIES – PIE in [m]ESS

67 comments on “Times 27505 – Schindler’s Missed?”

      1. Tim Krabbe. But I like Ian Fleming better.
        Nice blog, thx.
        Easy puzzle, thx.
        Bedtime in NYC, tootle pip.

  2. 23A: Also a good clue for INCAN (“in can” = “forming the contents of metal container”).

    3D: Isn’t that PILL in POOL all reversed?

  3. Bang on 30 mins for a puzzle that started with a BELLY LAUGH at 1ac! FOI

    LOI INCA doh!

    COD 11ac IAN FLEMING, my Mastermind subject.

    WOD 14ac ROWEL – mind your fingers!

    At 12ac I initially had DRAGOONED but after DIAGNOSIS…

    15dn LAPLANDER was an especially weak clue.

    Hong Kong’s SKYSCRAPERS are noteworthy. When I worked at the SUN HUNG KAI (WANCHAI) it would take 30 minutes to get to my office on the 52nd floor, via two lifts during the rush hour. A verticle train stop.

    Shenzen and Shanghai’s SKYSCRAPERS have caught up.

  4. Not going to complain about my time of 204 seconds on this one, despite the disappointment of just missing breaking the 200 barrier… proper Monday stuff!
    1. When I saw your time, I thought ‘Verlaine will be gutted’, just like when I said those blokes were French, I thought someone would say ‘No, they’re Belgian.’
    2. Great time, V – well done! It’s certainly your best in the last six months – you hit 205 on 28 June.

      Since I’ve been collecting results it looks like you’ve gone under 204 seconds only twice – 179s on 20 Dec 2018 (NITCH 56) and 197s on 29 October 2018 (NITCH 44).

  5. Finished eventually, in about 75 mins, the last few fell quickly:
    Go public, lighten up, lollipop (unparsed), unconditionally and LOI Ian Fleming.

    I had yan something initially, with a Y in lollypop.

    Cod (pa)ella …for Horryd.

    Edited at 2019-11-11 06:06 am (UTC)

    1. Dear Flash – quite acceptable if the cod is of the salted variety and prawn is not available!

      See My Boy Lollipop!

  6. I was on course for 20 minutes, possibly even a PB, but had problems at the very end with the LAPLANDER / LIGHTEN UP / INCA trio. Spent too long trying to justify LOWLANDER. Still 29 minutes meant target achieved.

    Wasn’t sure about Government = PUBLIC until I thought of public expenditure, much in the news over the weekend.

  7. 9:41. Held up for more than a minute at the end with OTIS…. having failed to remember the song despite it turning up here as recently as 19th Sept. Nice gentle Monday fare. I enjoyed INCA and HAROLD.
    1. 9m 41s for me as well… rare to have two solvers with exactly the same time on here. OTIS was also my LOI.
  8. Back from holiday to a gentle offering. Thought the writer might be Chinese and begin with Sun. LOI OTIS. COD to LIGHTEN UP.
  9. Under 20mins pre brekker.
    Mostly I liked the Eco MP spouting rot.
    Thanks setter and U.

    Edited at 2019-11-11 08:13 am (UTC)

  10. Back to the norm, well behind you, U. It must the fact that I’m relaxed on holiday – looking at the white horses of the Pacific Ocean rather than the digital horses in U’s stable.

    Held up mainly by OTIS, having to get it from the cryptic as I keep forgetting about the Ella Fitzgerald song. I need to put it on my GothicMatt-esque list (which, alas, is non-existent).

    Thanks, U, for the blog (and for restoring the proper order of things) and to the setter (for also restoring the proper order to Mondays).

  11. Thanks to Pootle and others for the idea of the WITCH. I love it! And will endeavour to show it daily in due course.

    It did, however, send Mrs S into a fit of other _ITCH possibilities. PITCH for personal NITCH? Death Index for dying in the DITCH, Sewers’ Temporal Index (which must by multiplied by 9), and some others that do not bear repeating in polite company. I came away then, but suspect she’s still got a heap more.

  13. 24 minutes, dithering with LAPLANDER for too long. LOI was the naughty but nice SKYSCRAPER, after ESPIES was espied. I didn’t get round to parsing DECOMPOSE. I’m not sure that to GO PUBLIC is to leak: doesn’t it usually take place at an event with a fanfare of trumpets, or the modern-day equivalent, a bevy of PR advisers? We had a master at school called Fleming. His nickname was cough-and-spit, abbreviated to ‘cough‘ when you got to know him and realise he wasn’t a bad bloke. Easyish start to the week with a bit of trickery. Thank you U and setter.
  14. 32 minutes. It might’ve been shorter had my plan of getting 4d first borne fruit, but sadly I couldn’t crack it until almost the last minute, needing almost all the checkers to get there. Not sure why.

    Others that took a while were 8a GO PUBLIC and 11a IAN FLEMING, but most of it fell fairly steadily. FOI 1a BELLY LAUGH LOI the aforementioned 8a. DNK “pill” for ball, and I probably won’t know it next time, either…

  15. ONTA for INCA. I knew it was wrong as the metal part of the container was unused. 21 mins with one wrong.

    COD: HAROLD.

  16. 15 minutes, slowed at the end by DIAGNOSIS and LOLLIPOP unparsed. Still in bed, golf cancelled, more heavy rain.
      1. Jimbo is that Ashley Wood? Ferndown? Not Sherborne surely, that’s hilly. Here, Burghley Park is flat but dries quickly, should be fine by Wednesday. Some of my EGGs gang have apparently ventured out today in spite of wind and heavy showers.
        1. Sadly Pip my health no longer allows me to play serious golf courses. I’m limited to short and flat. Ferndown Forest is such a course that floats between the Uddens and Moores rivers.
  17. A good time for me. I have only beaten 10 minutes once or twice EVER and that was some time ago. How the likes of Verlaine et al smash 10 minutes every day, I cannot fathom. I definitely feel a urine test is in order!

    Edited at 2019-11-11 09:29 am (UTC)

  18. 10:00, but in my haste to get in under 10 minutes I didn’t check my answers properly so didn’t notice REATENT. Drat.
    I had the same thought as BW on GO PUBLIC: leakers usually stay hidden and let someone else do the public bit.
  19. Good to see my favourite party game referenced. Kevin is quite right, Georges Simenon being Belgian, as was Georges Rémi, who reversed his initials to become Hergé. Maigret and Tintin would make a great detective duo.

    Spent ages on LOLLIPOP, LOI, as, like ulaca, thought the game was POLO. There are crossovers to the QC again today, which I will not mention.

    15’17”, thanks ulaca and setter.

    Edited at 2019-11-11 09:42 am (UTC)

      1. The language of the Inca people is Quechua. The OED entry for Inca does not mention a language.
            1. It really is not that simple, Kevin .. the Inca did adopt Quechua at some point as their “official language” but the language predates them, was not invented by them, and is only one of several used, such as Aymara. Linguistics in S America is rather a mess!
  21. A gentle start to the week but non the worse for that. BELLY LAUGH FOI. 4d had to wait for the crossers before becoming obvious. Miss OTIS remembered from her last outing. ESPIES took a moment as POI. LOI was INCA after ONTA was discarded. 19:59. Thanks setter and U.
  22. Same as others. Very easy. Not happy with definition of GO PUBLIC.

    And for Anon-Derek, INCA is the language as well as the name of the people

  24. 12.20, at one point working straight through the across clues pausing to check the number of squares in the grid.
    As sometimes happens, I had a freeze at the halfway point when suddenly the clues became opaque.

    Last in INCA, as we hadn’t had a hidden and meTAL Container didn’t work on so many levels. ONTA as far as I know isn’t a language and ignored the metal bit.

    I did like Ms OTIS: the clue took some unravelling

  25. Nodded off a few times before finishing in a bit less than an hour.

    I did like ELLA and OTIS keeping each other company, Madame, even if it was across a crowded grid.

  26. Pleasant start to the week, and something of a LAP LANDER for many solvers, it seems. Only delay was INCA, where “language” isn’t the first thing that sprang to mind, though after a little thought, I realised that they had to speak something, and it obviously wasn’t Spanish, so why not. Also, I couldn’t see how IN CA[n] worked until I realised there was a missing [t] at the start as well. Good stuff.
  27. On paper on Glasgow train, having ousted the fat guy who was sitting in my reserved table seat by the window.

    Played cricket for 30 years but have never heard a ball called a PILL – usually referred to as a cherry. Didn’t bother parsing LOLLIPOP

    3. In the West Riding, we also didn’t refer to a cricket ball as a pill but a football was commonly called it. In those days, the heavy leather ball had a lace in it. I don’t suppose the modern ball is referred to as a pill since it is more like a beach ball.
  28. ….can share a BELLY LAUGH today. I couldn’t get into this at all, not helped by knowing Las Palmas but not LA PALMA. 25% of my time was spent alpha-trawling YEMENI before my LOI fell.

    FOI BELLY LAUGH
    LOI ESPIES
    COD LAPLANDER
    TIME 12:33

  29. A fast one today – 25 minutes, and although it was quite easy (even for me) I thought there were some fun clues, inc Ian Fleming, Skyscraper and Inca. I didn’t parse lollipop though – all I could see was polo, not pool! U, your memories of Smiths Lawn took me back a few decades when my grandmother used to drag us along there sometimes. It was ostensibly to watch the polo (yawn) but really she only went when the royal family was in attendance!

    A happy memory was sparked by Miss Otis Regrets – a Devon farmhouse holiday (also back in the 60s) with a wind-up gramophone and a pile of 78s.

    FOI Belly laugh
    LOI Inca
    COD Sorry horryd but I like Laplander – I like a bit of dodgy wordplay and it raised a wry smile
    Earworm Miss Otis Regrets (obvs)

  30. The QC blog said that this was not too hard and I managed to finish it in a second session over lunch, and before coffee; that’s my equivalent of 204 seconds.
    ELLA was FOI and I solved the bottom half first until a breakthrough on 4d. I remembered Miss Otis but did not see the exact parsing;thanks for that and a few others. DNK ROWEL.
    A lazy NORMAN at 5d meant that my last three were BELLY LAUGH,HAROLD and IAN FLEMING.
    Until then I had been thinking of Tin Tin and Herge.
    David

  31. We had Miss Otis very recently, when I commented that I would learn it on the guitar. Well I haven’t, so will renew my promise.
    A bit slow on this one, which I will put down to an intense weekend. That’s why Mondays should be easy….
  33. Annoyingly, one short here as well, though in this case it was 26ac, Otis. Not sure I would ever have got that, being totally unfamiliar with the song. Ah well, sometimes the journey is better than the destination. Invariant
  34. 22’30, slowly cantered along. Ulaca I found your previous image or icon a little “off”, the rear end of some creature or other I suppose; the new one is also a bit “off” somehow, why all this “inyerface”? Still, if it gives you and no doubt others enjoyment …

    Edited at 2019-11-11 07:04 pm (UTC)

  35. Hi all. A pleasant trouble-free solve until the end with a bit of a delay at ROWEL. There aren’t too many things that can fit ?O?EL, so it was narrowed down. I forgot the name of the spur doohickey, and I don’t think of a trowel as a gardening tool at all – it’s a mason’s tool to me. So I finally convinced myself that it had to be ROWEL, not DOWEL, which made even less sense. Regards.
  36. 42 minutes or so, with OTIS as my LOI — I didn’t know the song, but I did decipher the wordplay and nothing else would fit anyway. I also had IAN FLEMING correctly (after amending LOLLYPOP to LOLLIPOP) and fortunately forgot to think about why I is a newspaper (as apparently it is, but I haven’t spent much time in Britain recently and I have never seen it). Otherwise, truly a Mondayish puzzle.
    1. The i newspaper (note lower case) started as a sister-paper to The Independent, a sort of cut-down version. Since then The Independent went digital and is available only on-line and the ‘i’ was bought up by another publisher to continue in print.
  37. Thirty-seven minutes, with INCA my LOI. If I’d’ve had to guess, I’d’ve said that the Inca spoke Incan, but nothing else fit. RACINE was an NHO, but easy enough from the wordplay. FLEMING was also an NHO – I knew Flemish, and assumed the people were either the Flemish or possibly the Flems. Still, when it came time to hand out names, they were clearly ahead of the Walloons in the queue. ROWEL was another NHO.
  38. Late home from an evening at the cinema to see the new Terminator film in which a ragtag bunch work together to save humanity from a dystopian future. Sadly I was unable to go back in time to my lunchtime solve in order to save myself from a dystopian future in which my time of 16:21 was rendered void by typing La Pllma instead of La Palma. Oh well. I’ll be back…

Comments are closed.