Times 27532 – it’s mixed-up opera week!

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Time taken: 17:22. I found this one really difficult, and in the end I’m not going to be the biggest fan because (as happened yesterday) there are titles and proper nouns clued as anagrams. I thought it was particularly odd that we get two days in a row with operas clued as anagrams, though this one is better known.

Overall there’s some challenging wordplay here and I think I have pieced it all together.

Away we go…

Across
1 Tale of woe from Fisher never-ending, I notice (8)
JEREMIAD –  JEREMY Fisher (the Beatrix Potter character) missing the last letter, then I, AD(notice). Needed the J at the start to piece this one together
5 Islanders caught by embargo America maintains (6)
CUBANS – C(caught) then BAN(embargo) inside US(America)
9 Penniless, proper not to start clinging (4-5)
SKIN-TIGHT – SKINT(penniless) then RIGHT(proper) missing the first letter
11 Foreign character shortly put name to parent (5)
SIGMA – SIGN(put name to) missing the last letter, then MA(parent)
12 Poem in French is popular, widening appeal (7)
SESTINA – EST(is, in French), IN(popular) inside SA(appeal)
13 Given message to stay away from edges with light (7)
EMAILED – REMAIN(stay) with the first and last letter removed the LED(light)
14 Recent discovery of chap’s piano piece netting two grand (5,8)
HIGGS PARTICLE – HIS(chap’s), P(piano), ARTICLE(piece) containing two G’s(grand).
16 Chair here obstacle an ignorant lad’s damaged (5,8)
GRAND NATIONAL – anagram of AN,IGNORANT, LAD. One of the fences at Aintree is named the Chair.
20 Opening of tale genuine and touching (7)
TACTUAL – first letter of Tale, then ACTUAL(genuine)
21 Weary and greasy, I assume ship has to leave (7)
FATIGUE – FAT(greasy), then I, GUESS(assume) missing SS(ship)
23 Timid person I click with? (5)
MOUSE – double definition, the second referring to the computer peripheral
24 Moving unsteadily, part of body initially being secured in strap (9)
STUMBLING – the part of the body is the TUM, then the first letter of Being all inside SLING(strap)
25 Shoddy stuff, breaking eggs to make revolution (6)
ROTATE – TAT(shoddy stuff) inside ROE(eggs)
26 Traveller ate wrongly — did it again (8)
REPEATED – REP(traveller) then a wrong way of writing “ate” could be EATED

Down
1 Takes part in tournament, with lowest score placed last? Exactly (4,2)
JUST SO – JOUSTS(takes part in tournament) with the O(zero, lowest score) at the end
2 Transport losing time in monsoon (5)
RAINS – TRAINS(transport) missing T(time)
3 Getting entangled in church service good for son (7)
MATTING – MATTINS(chuch service) with G(good) replacing S(son)
4 Corrupt characters from USA, East Bengal, that Labour cleaned out (6,7)
AUGEAN STABLES – anagram of USA,EAST,BENGAL – reference to the Labours of Hercules
6 Parvenu’s new business the wrong way round (7)
UPSTART – STARTUP(new business) with the components switched
7 Article on musical cat pronounced heavenly (9)
ANGELICAL – AN(article) and then what sounds like the JELLICLE cat from the musical Cats
8 Overarching panel plans red revolt (8)
SPANDREL – anagram of PLANS,RED
10 A companion to Don Giovanni, I felt, caught me out (3,5,5)
THE MAGIC FLUTE – anagram of I,FELT,CAUGHT,ME both are operas by Mozart
14 Chief nobleman and a number of his staff? (9)
HEADCOUNT – HEAD(chief) and COUNT(noblemam) referring to the number that are on staff
15 Grains turned up for breakfast, for a limited period (3,5)
EGG TIMER – cryptic definition referring to the grains of sand inside the timer
17 Most determined to make uniform, then relax (7)
DOUREST – DO(make), U(uniform), REST(relax)
18 Striking reason to eat off one’s knees? (7)
NOTABLE – eat off one’s knees if there is NO TABLE
19 Magistrate’s about to arrest a ruler of the waves (3,3)
SEA GOD – DOGE’S (magistrate’s) reversed containing A
22 Sound investment may be shown in court (5)
GUILT – got this from the definiton and I’m a little lost with the rest of it. It appears there’s something called a GILT FUND which I guess is an investment which sounds like GUILT

62 comments on “Times 27532 – it’s mixed-up opera week!”

  1. I thought of gilt-edged stocks and left it at that, but I see now in ODE sv gilt that gilts are ‘fixed-interest loan securities issued by the UK government’.
  2. Off to a slow start–FOI MOUSE–but picked up speed after a longish while. Some senior moments added to the time, trying to remember a Greek letter ending in MA, or the name of the guy (Hobbs?) who found the thingy (couldn’t remember boson either). Biffed GRAND NATIONAL, not knowing what chairs had to do with anything. DNK Jeremy Fisher. Biffed 7d, assuming there was a cat in that musical with a homonymical name. Biffed 4d and 10d without bothering to parse. POI MATTING, where I was slowed down by the TT–never seen ‘matins’ spelled that way. LOI RAINS, since for me a monsoon is a wind. I didn’t think that DOUR meant ‘determined’. ODE gives ‘relentlessly severe, stern, or gloomy in manner or appearance’, which sounds rather different.
    1. I found this on the easier side. Not exactly wavelength, but all seemed clear. I liked the Egg Timer (whose sand might just taste better than the grains we otherwise get for breakfast – any view myrtilus?) and I had the same slowdowns as Kevin over dour and over Matins with two Ts.
      1. Ah, but home-made granola is the key. Relatively easy to do and worth it (although the ingredients, mostly nuts, cost a fortune).
        I liked the clue. I’m not great at spotting, solving or setting Cryptic Defs.
  3. I wondered about DOUR too, but Chamber’s first meaning is “obstinate, determined” so I guess its fine. Somewhat surprisingly I put JEREMIAD as my FOI (I saw the I AD bit and then it just leapt to mind). Didn’t know what the chair had to so with the Grand National but assumed there must be a fence with that name. Nothing else was going to fit, for sure. Unlike yesterday’s opera, I’d actually seen today’s.

    Higgs’ office was apparently one floor up from mine in the James Clerk Maxwell Building at Edinburgh University.

  4. I found this solid going, with generally the same unknowns and hold-ups as others. I constructed SESTINA from the wordplay. I was also tossing up between “spandler” and SPANDREL and was relieved that I’d guessed (or dimly recalled) correctly.

    Thanks, George, for the commentary and to the setter.

  5. I can’t edit my comment, I suppose because it’s a reply, but I meant ‘a poem of Ezra Pound’s, his much-anthologized …’
  6. Struggled a bit but got there in about 45 minutes. One minor point of detail, Jellicle is not A cat but a type of cat, more diverse in colouring and personality in ALW’s musical than in TSE’s original poems.
  7. Pleased to negotiate the sciency stuff but let down by my architectural knowledge, bunging in ‘spandler’, and not even considering the correct form. Thanks to George for explaining EMAILED and also the CD-esque nature of 15 down, which I couldn’t make head or tail of. That is, after discounting ‘age range’ – which seemed like a good idea at the time. 39 minutes for my DNF.

    Edited at 2019-12-12 06:22 am (UTC)

  8. I wasn’t confident in finishing with the unknowns AUGEAN STABLES and SPANDREL but they seemed the most likely arrangements of the anagrist.

    I was familiar enough with GILTS but it didn’t occur to me on solving that the term is probably not familiar with many of our non-native solvers. Expect to see a flood of them soon if whichever party wins the UK election lives up to their spending promises!

  9. My two doubts were MATTINS with the two Ts and that I thought the fence was The Chair not Chair.
  10. 25 mins pre brekker.
    I thought it was the TLS for a moment. The best Sestina I can think of is Two Lorries by Seamus Heaney, which is definitely worth a read, even if you don’t like Seamus.
    Re the crossword – OWAA! Obscure Word As Anagram, as I see no reason why Spandrel couldn’t just as easily be Spandler if you have never heard of one.
    Also, I thought 22dn needed a “that” may be shown in court.
    Thanks setter and G.
    1. ….or, indeed, slandrep. And I agree with you on “that”.

      Edited at 2019-12-12 11:38 am (UTC)

  11. 28 minutes. LOI EMAILED. I’ve always spelt MATTINS with one T, but I’ve seen it both ways. I would have given COD to ANGELICAL or EGG TIMER, but a Physicist with a son doing his PhD on what’s been detected by the CMS at the LHC (look them up if you’re that interested) has to give that honour to the HIGGS PARTICLE. If only my lad could find some WIMPS, we could call one of them The Wanderer. Dark matter indeed. I’m not good at anagrams so was delighted to see The Magic Flute quickly. I enjoyed this. Thank you George and setter.
  12. Defeated by 13ac, and unwilling to submit EMAILED or ENABLED unparsed, no worries.

    Let’s hope today is not cause for a JEREMIAD.

    Thanks george and setter.

  13. 19:00 …. and fun, though with a few eyebrow-raises as mentioned by various posters.

    I checked a couple of things before submitting: JEREMIAD and SPANDLER

    Proud to say I got the Higgs particle rather quickly, even though I wouldn’t know one if it hit me in the face. Has that happened? Or would I need to crawl around in a collider to meet one in the flesh?

        1. Unlikely. The calculation is that one might be made every 8 seconds in the whole of the earth’s atmosphere while the lifetime of one is ten to the minus twenty-two seconds. But knowing your luck…
  14. Didn’t have too much trouble with this one. Knew the GK which always helps. Some loose stuff as noted above which just takes the edge off a little

    GILTS are a mechanism that enables the Bank of England acting on behalf of the UK Government to borrow money on repayment terms declared at outset. They used to be evidenced by a certificate that had a gilt edging – hence the name

  15. Some good stuff – i.e. CUBANS, NOTAABLE, MOUSE – and some dodgy stuff, as noted. My main gripe is with 24a, for which I confidently entered SHAMBLING, which made what was obviously an anagram at 10d rather difficult. (Chambers defines ‘shamble’ thus: ‘to walk with an awkward, unsteady gait’, and the wordplay fits perfectly.) I’d guess a ten minute delay for this.
  18. A letter too much for me, it seems. Got through all this in 47 minutes, despite not knowing what THE MAGIC FLUTE had to do with Don Giovanni, or what a SESTINA or a SPANDREL are, or having a clue what chairs had to do with the GRAND NATIONAL, or knowing that mattins could have two ts, or…

    Unfortunately the other thing I didn’t know was JEREMIAD, and having thought that “I—aha!” could be the “I notice” that was being shortened, I plumped for JEREMIAH, which I at least remembered was a book of the bible.

    Oh well. All a bit too highfalutin’ for me, I think.

  19. A certain zest to this one. 24’05. T.S.Eliot’s (virtual) sestina in the Four Quartets (The Dry Salvages) knocks all others into a cocked hat as far as I’m concerned. To think that by tomorrow there could be a mouse stumbling to lead us.
  22. I haven’t yet done this week’s TLS but this one might have stood in for it. Same as others with DOUREST and “mat(t)ins” and I was another shambler until the Mozart theme emerged. 16.47
  23. I found that tough going, in fact wading through treacle sums it up nicely. Didn’t know jellicle as a cat, SESTINA or MATTINS with 2 Ts, and had to assume that there was a Jeremy Fisher. Couldn’t make head nor tail of the wordplay for EGG TIMER, so it went in from crossers and breakfast. FOI was CUBANS and LOI SESTINA, from wordplay but also checked before submission. 59:10. My head hurts! Thanks setter(I think) and George.
  24. Including a lookup with JEREMIAD and SESTINA, although that couldn’t have been anything else. SPANDREL FOI surprisingly.
  25. No problems with this one, much as paul in london, was on the wavelength. 25 minutes. Liked HIGGS PARTICLE and EGG TIMER. Also surprised to see MATTINS with two Ts. Thanks for blog George.
  27. ….The CHAIR briefly, it was my starting point here, and caused an immediate MER. It’s at Aintree Racecourse, and it’s not exclusively jumped in the Grand National, so I thought that “here” was totally wrong.

    Despite my slow start, and other quibbles shared with Myrtilus (luckily I knew SPANDREL), I was fairly quick to put the puzzle to bed. I biffed EMAILED and ANGELICAL, but both were parsed pretty quickly on completion.

    FOI GRAND NATIONAL
    LOI GUILT
    COD EGG TIMER just pips CUBANS
    TIME 9:02

  28. Fortunately, I wasn’t familiar enough with “mat[t]ins” to know that a single T is the more usual spelling. After all, we seem to pronounce it “mattins” rather than “mat-ans”, so who knows?

    JEREMIAD was an NHO, or perhaps a VHO (vaguely heard of), otherwise all fairly straightforward. Nice to see Prof. Higgs and his boson making an appearance. Twenty-seven minutes.

  29. I must have been on the same wavelength as the setter so I didn’t find this too taxing. NHO Jeremiad, Sestina or Spandrel but wordplay was helpful in each case.

    It was always two Ts in Mattins when I was a choirboy several decades ago.

  30. My VPN system gave up the ghost at the same time my account ran out, but all is well now. I have been getting the grids but no way of communicating with base. For some reason I missed Tuesday which was apparently a bit of a beast.
    I much enjoyed today’s but was a DNF stalled by the STABLES 4dn but did get the AUGEAN element.

    My main problem was the owner of the PARTICLE at 14ac. I knew it was HIGGS so why did I slap in HAGEL?

    Anyway it was pleasant ride for an hour.

    FOI 8dn SPANDREL

    COD 23ac MOUSE

    WOD 1ac JEREMIAD

  31. 18:30. I only vaguely remembered SESTINA was a word but I didn’t know it was a poem “consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set pattern.”… but I do know now I’ve looked it up post solve. DNK SPANDREL either but luckily guessed the right sequence of letters. I liked GRAND NATIONAL but COD to CUBANS. Very neat!

    Edited at 2019-12-12 01:09 pm (UTC)

  32. Could and should have been faster, but got sidetracked in the top-right. I had the non-existent Splander in my head, which led to an 11 across ending possibly in ..cal (as in short call). Mucal? Nucal? Anyway it all finally clicked. Earlier, the top-left had shot in at record speed. Cubans is a very clever clue so gets my COD. Tactual I just had to assume existed, though I would never have thought so. Thanks to setter and blog.
  33. Nicely wide-ranging puzzle, with nearly all the knowledge meeting my definition of “general”, especially once I realised I didn’t actually need to know the names of all the subsidiary characters in Don G. I think SPANDREL was one of those words I knew to exist, without being able to define; I’d probably have guessed it was something that would be part of King Henry VIII’s most elaborate suit of armour.
  34. 10:59 so it appears I can still play this game.

    I loved egg timer but agree with PJ about the Chair being at Aintree, not at the Grand National. The missing “the” didn’t bother me.

  35. 22:34 – so just over half my time for yesterday’s. Must be a wavelength thing. Again no DNK’s – my GK is very broad but my unravelling of cryptics is merely adequate.
  36. Certainly tougher than yesterday for me, around 30 minutes as I reached the finishing line. Never come across sestina but managed to work it out. Higgs particle took a while and final hurdle was matting. As with another contributor, I thought mattins was spelt with one T. You certainly learn something new every day with The Times Crossword!
  37. 16:16. Surprised by the double T in MATTINS like everyone else, and by the definition of DOUREST. SPANDREL seemed marginally more likely than SPANDLER but it’s not a great clue.
    My real problem with this puzzle was GUILT. I have no idea why but it took me over 5 minutes on its own, and seemingly endless alphabet trawling before the penny finally dropped.

    Edited at 2019-12-12 02:45 pm (UTC)

  38. Must have been on the wavelength. Even with all the unknowns, and obscurities as anagrams, I fairly sailed through this with only guilt at e end holding me up, not knowing gilt as an investment. Higgs particle not boson was a head-scratcher. COD to Cubans which I’d class as semi-&lit, as the whole clue describes the answer, even if the clue is standard definition/cryptic.
    Knew jeremiad but couldn’t have defined it; knew their were fishers in the bible and that one of the books (which the crossword often features) is Jeremiah (or maybe Nehemiah?), so got it for all the wrong reasons. Who knew that Jeremy Fisher was an-ex-person? Who knew that Jeremiah wasn’t a fisher of men? Not me.
      1. I can confirm that it was a trout (happily, the trout does not enjoy the taste of Mr. Jeremy Fisher’s macintosh. He does later observe “What a mercy that was not a pike!” however…)

        I didn’t recognise the name Jeremy Fisher this morning, but I’ve since dusted off my elderly collection of Beatrix Potter and found the tome in question. I don’t have kids, so I imagine this is the first time it’s been opened since the 1970s!

        Edited at 2019-12-12 04:43 pm (UTC)

      2. Neither Beatrix Potter, nor the bible. But mention of the frog brings to mind an old earworm, Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Had to look up who sang it – Three Dog Night.
    2. I wouldn’t even class this as semi-&Lit: it’s just a standard clue with separate definition and wordplay. The surface reading also makes sense as a definition but you don’t need it for the principal definition to make sense.
      1. You’re right, not a semi-&lit. Still enjoy it immensely when the whole clue leads you to the answer, even if it’s the standard structure of definition + wordplay. Equally enjoy it when the whole surface is incorrect and leads you away from the answer. e.g. “Retired former president – Democrat (4)” Answer: abed. Abe was assassinated, didn’t get to retire; and he was a Republican.
        1. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an excellent clue, however we categorise it!
          Lincoln would be horrified by what the Republican party has become today.
  40. Not a Bad Day – about an hour in two sittings, with some voting and Christmas shopping in between.

    I couldn’t sort out 8d, so referred to aids, so it’s a DNF. It was obviously an anagram but, to paraphrase Eric Morecambe, I had all the letters, but not necessarily in the right order!

    Otherwise I found this mostly enjoyable, although my heart did sink a little when I thought we needed a character from Don Giovanni. Similar issues to others with mattins, shambling and sestina until focussing on wordplay put me right 😊 Never did parse egg timer. I liked upstart and just so (o best beloved).

    FOI Jeremiad (Jeremy Fisher was a childhood favourite, along with Mrs Tiggywinkle and The Two Bad Mice)
    LOI Sestina
    COD The brilliant Cubans

  41. A leisurely solve in about 25 minutes, despite being surprised at the double “T” matins, and not knowing anything at all about ‘gilts’ or what a chair was doing in a horse race. LOI EMAILED. But I am completely familiar with a SPANDREL as a building component. Regards.
  42. An off and on solve during the course of the afternoon, albeit with Jeremiah at 1ac. Needed the blog to parse Emailed, Repeated, Angelical and Egg Timer. Like others, I raised an eyebrow at Mattins, but Google has it as the plural of Matins, which seems dubious to say the least. Higgs predicted the existence of the particle named after him decades ago, and was happily still around to see its existence confirmed experimentally. It makes life so much easier when the theorists and experimentalists can agree on something. Invariant
  43. 26:23 this was a very pleasant solve. Nice mix of vocab, range of GK and all satisfying to untangle. Not getting the Beatrix Potter reference didn’t cause any problems at 1ac, just assumed there must be a famous Jeremy Fisher. Never saw the endless remain in emailed but ‘given message’ seemed clear. Raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar spelling of matins. Had heard of the cat and the spandrel. Egg timer the most head-scratchy one for me, CDs always are. And now I know what happens when you stick your head inside a particle accelerator too.
  44. …one pink where I’d bunged in AEGEAN rather than AUGEAN even though the anag had a U in it. Doh!

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