Times 27535 – “Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 27 minutes
Music: Stan Getz, Sweet Rain

We’re back, I would say, to easy Monday, although there were a few things I just didn’t know.   Fortunately, you can just take the cryptics and run with them, so this didn’t slow me down too much.   In a puzzle like this, it doesn’t do to worry too much about the obvious answer, when it is evident you just don’t understand the literal portion of the clue.   If it’s a word, put it in and go on.

I have probably used tonight’s music for another blog, but I tend to play my favorite albums often, and neglect the bulk of my 4000-LP collection.  Looking at my listening logs, I find I have played it no fewer than 15 times since acquiring it at a record fair in March of 2017.    That’s a lot, but it really is a great record.

OK, back to crosswords!

Across
1 People’s food likes oddly exposed (5)
FOLKS – the odd letters of F[o]O[d] L[i]K[e]S.
4 June’s last tango: it hit her badly (9)
THIRTIETH – anagram of T + IT HIT HER.   As usual, “tango” is from the NATO alphabet.
9 Grasp a fighting European by the head (9)
AWARENESS – A + WAR + E + NESS, a very nice surface here.
10 Card player’s score put out? (5)
PIQUE – A double definition.   A ‘pique’ is a possible score in piquet.  From the Wikipedia: “If elder scores 30 points in declarations and play combined, before younger scores any points, then elder gains a pique and scores an additional 30 points.”   I thought it must be something like that.
11 I’m sharp, but would I ever make a fast bowler? (6)
HATPIN – Double definition, the second jocular.   Presumably, men who wear bowler hats do not use hatpins.
12 Bloomer I committed originally in city of star-crossed lovers (8)
VERONICA – VERON(I C[ommitted])A, the city where Romeo and Juliet is set.
14 Battle had around American, 50, in posh hotel (10)
AUSTERLITZ – A(US)TE + R(L)ITZ.  Putting on the Ritz….
16 Request one’s placed between wife and husband (4)
WISH – W(IS)H.
19 Port contributing to high-risk obesity (4)
KOBE – Hidden in [highris]K OBE[sity], like the fat cows they have there.
20 Quality of fine champers, maybe, or Pilsener, as drunk (10)
PEARLINESS –  anagram of PILSENER AS.  I didn’t see the literal until after I finished.
22 Prime journal, not the first treatise on animals (8)
BESTIARY – BEST + [d]IARY, a chestnut.
23 After battle, Napoleon evacuated a part of Austria (6)
VIENNA – VIE + N[apolea]N + A.
26 Marry supporter of international organisation? (5)
UNITE – A UN-ite!
27 Sampled bottles without means, at first, such as schooners? (3-6)
TWO-MASTED – T(W/O M[eals])ASTED
28 Fine-tune variable way of working on holiday (9)
HONEYMOON – HONE + Y + M/O + ON.
29 Current age of US lawman given in play (5)
TODAY – TO(D.A.)Y
Down
1 Sudden vivid memory of, say, Gordon Champion (9)
FLASHBACK – FLASH [Gordon] + BACK. 
2 Did spring article in Paris: fitting! (5)
LEAPT – LE + APT.
3 Corruption of niece’s MP, for example (8)
SPECIMEN – Anagram of NIECE’S MP.   You have to lift and separate “for example”, which is rather unnatural for experienced solvers, since it almost always indicates either E.G. or a definition by example.
4 Row concerning whose turn it is to catch up (4)
TIER – RE IT upside-down.
5 Those who investigate report of tavern ghosts? (10)
INSPECTORS – sounds like INN SPECTRES.
6 Excellent advice to papa (6)
TIPTOP – TIP TO P, where “papa” is from the NATO alphabet.  Interestingly, the predecessor alphabets used different words for ‘P’. 
7 Lover once wholly transfixed by island of great beauty (9)
EXQUISITE – EX + QU(IS)ITE, where today’s abbreviation of “island” is “Is”.
8 Scavenger has briefly to contain hunger (5)
HYENA – H(YEN)A[s].
13 Quickly, singer grabs large wader (10)
ALLEGRETTO – AL(L EGRET)TO.   Now, every time you hear an allegretto, you will think of flocks of egrets!
15 Survivor of The Archers broadcast absent as ISIHAC’s beginning (9)
SEBASTIAN – anagram of ABSENT AS I[sihac’s].   I didn’t get the literal at all – it apparently refersr to the legend of St Sebastian.   But the cryptic tells you all you need to know. 
17 Initially has sort of connection with railway’s sound management (9)
HUSBANDRY – H[as] + USB + AND + RY.   I just biffed this one, and only figured out the cryptic as I was writing this blog.
18 Six huge guards left keeping watch (8)
VIGILANT – VI + GI(L)ANT.
21 Like the Dutch, prudently changing shillings to francs (6)
WIFELY – WI(-s,+F)ELY.   A letter-substitution clue, where the setter has put the CRS in the literal rather than the wordplay.
22 Branch to yield to auditors (5)
BOUGH – sounds llike BOW.
24 Celebrated day school being over (5)
NOTED – D + ETON upside-down.
25 No place for Scott or Janis to wed (4)
JOIN – JO[pl]IN.   Two disparate musicians who shared a surname.

56 comments on “Times 27535 – “Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear….”

  1. No idea who SEBASTIAN was either. I can’t come across the name now without thinking about the homoerotic PA character in Little Britain with a thing for the Tony Blair character.

    Dumbing things down on a Monday morning, I hear you say, Yeah a know! 29’

    Edited at 2019-12-16 05:41 am (UTC)

  2. I didn’t realize that St. Sebastian survived (only to be bludgeoned to death and tossed in a sewer, as ordered by the emperor, who was not unreasonably annoyed at having him turn up alive and preach at him). At the time, I assumed he was some character from the soap opera; it all worked out for the best, anyway. (There’s also Sebastian Flyte, of course.) 20ac took me awhile, even though I had the NESS; misled by ‘champers’. LOI HATPIN.
  3. Very tired after a somewhat stressful weekend I managed only half-a-dozen answers last night before deciding I wasn’t going to make it to the end without falling asleep so I gave in. On resumption this morning I was met with early success but still struggled a bit to finish off in the SW corner.

    Liked the HATPIN clue. DNK the SEBASTIAN reference. Wasn’t quite sure about ‘score’ in 10ac although I knew of the card game. Never quite parsed HUSBANDRY, wondering if U.S. BAND was some sort of connection (doh!).

    Nice to be reminded of Fred Astaire, whose real surname was AUSTERLITZ.

  4. Also tired, also struggled with the SW. Really liked some of the smooth surfaces – the six large guards left keeping watch, for example.
    Ninja-turtled Sebastian from Nick Cave – O’Malley’s Bar.
  5. Got there in the end but at 27A I went for TRI-MASTED (since I had no idea how many masts a schooner had) and I saw TRIED around the outside. The wordplay almost works. But it made JOIN take a long time despite Janis Joplin being the only Janis I know (I know several Janices). I had no idea what was going on in the SEBASTIAN clue since I thought he was a martyr who was killed by arrows, and ISIHAC meant nothing. But I could see it was an anagram so I just wrote it in and assumed it would all come right. Then my browser refused to upload my solution, and started telling me the Times website was sending stuff that was too long. I’ve seen that before so I deleted all the Times cookies and it started working again.
  6. A lovely new crossword spoiled by my LOI. Oh Calamity!

    FOI 1ac FOLKS

    LOI 25dn as I had it correctly earlier but changed it to OPEN because I convinced myself that 27ac was TOP-MASTED and not TWO-MASTED – a bugger of a muddle, indeed! It took time to realise who Scott and Janis were, but discovered we are old friends. I also like Laura Nyro back in the day.

    COD 11ac HATPIN

    WOD 15dn SEBASTIAN (FLYTE)

  8. 15:15 … well done to sawbill for spotting the nina, which always puts a different spin on things.

    Some quite old-school clues, but that makes a nice change. I was especially taken with WIFELY

    I was as unaware as everyone else that SEBASTIAN had survived the arrows. He must be up there thinking “I don’t know why I bothered.”

  9. 32 minutes. It started and finished easily but was hard in the middle, a bit like a microwaved frozen lasagne. How can you tell I’m on my own this week? On HATPIN, I first biffed HATTIE, trying to remember if Becky had a sister, before another way of fixing a hat dawned. LOI was ALLEGRETTO. COD to THIRTIETH. Lots of nice puns today so thank you to setter and to V for the blog.
    1. It’s only hard in the middle if you didn’t do it for very long, BW .. I’m sure you know microwaves cook from the inside out 😉
      1. Microwaves don’t cook from the inside out, of course. But my problem is also that they don’t travel very far either. You are right that it needed longer though. I was hungry.

        Edited at 2019-12-16 12:00 pm (UTC)

  10. St Sebastian is referenced in both REM’s video for Losing My Religion and the film Carrie in which (spoiler) Carrie’s mother ends up getting ‘Sebastianed’ after Carrie loses her rag.

    No idea how many masts a schooner might have, guessed TRI-MASTED initially until I saw the JOplIN trick. Switched to TWO-MASTED and hoped for the best.

    Held up at the end by the EXQUISITE/PIQUE crosser.

  12. 57 minutes, stretched nearly to breaking point by my lack of GK, as is often the case. I had at least heard of SEBASTIAN, AUSTERLITZ, the game of piquet, VERONICA and KOBE, I think, but they were right on the far reaches of my ken and it took me a lot of time staring at wordplay to come up with them.

    Was it ISIHAC where I heard the exchange “I hear you’re something of an orthinologist?” “Oh, just a word-botcher, really…”

  13. 12:13. I started very quickly on this, then slowed down in the bottom half. I also had TRI-MASTED for a while which made JOIN difficult. Fortunately the clue was very clear.
    I’m also in the ‘didn’t know he survived’ club with SEBASTIAN. I’m familiar with the chap at least: I must have seen several dozens of paintings of him over the years.
  14. Mildly confused by the survival of SEBASTIAN, recalling Derek Jarman’s film (he added an E) in which survival didn’t seem to be an option.
    By pure coincidence, I can explain the Pearl wedding anniversary of Veronica and Sebastian yielding HONEYMOON TODAY: for Mrs Z I contrived on our 30th a surprise return to our Cornwall honeymoon resort. We visited “Cornwall Pearl” while there, picked out two oysters from the tank and found two pearls, one pink, one blue. You couldn’t make it up – exquisite.
  16. As for others, largely easy puzzle. Didn’t know SEBASTIAN and no idea who Seb and Veronica are. A schooner can have two or more masts.
  17. Twenty-seven from soup to nuts. I was another one who didn’t know the number of masts on a schooner although, to be fair, it seems than can be tri-masted or even more. But then the penny finally dropped with Mr. and Ms. Joplin, which straightened that one out.
  18. …. but thanks to Vinyl, whose collection is four times the size of mine (and caters to a very different taste in music), for explaining PIQUE. Turns out I knew the game but not the score ! I also wondered what a “US band” was (other than Aerosmith), so further enlightenment there.

    Also thanks to Kevin for the full SP on poor old SEBASTIAN, who I’d always assumed to have met an ‘arrowing death.

    Following a slow start, like Jack, I found the SW quadrant heavy going.

    FOI WISH
    LOI BESTIARY
    COD HATPIN (once I’d corrected a stupidly biffed “hatter” – I must be mad !). Honourable mention to JOIN.
    TIME 14:34

  19. … refers to ‘Dutch wife’?

    New one on me. Never heard this phrase in 51 yrs on the planet. Just shows. Blink and you miss it.

    1. “Duchess of Fyfe” is the CRS, but some say “Dutch” is just an abbreviation of “Duchess”, an affectionate way of referring to one’s spouse.

      Edited at 2019-12-16 11:55 am (UTC)

      1. ‘Dutch’ for wife is widely believed to be CRS, but in fact isn’t. The term predates the existence of that title!
  20. Well spotted. Complete lack of THIRTIETH AWARENESS on my part, however obvious it seems once you see it…
  21. My mind wandered a bit with the reference to battles – did VERONICA stick SEBASTIAN with a HATPIN in a fit of PIQUE when she had FLASHBACKS to the HONEYMOON while he laughed like a HYENA. I knew I knew the pair from somewhere and then remembered they were principal characters in a favourite series of books by Lorna Hill which I read as a little kid. She’s a dancer and he’s a musician and they marry. Dream Of Sadlers Wells, Veronica At The Wells etc. 15.04
  22. LOI was “Austerlitz” which took me a while to see despite the other reference to Boney’s victory over Austria.
    I thought fairly tough for a Monday?
  23. Very nice stuff, even without the Nina, which, as usual, was completely wasted on me until I came here. I especially liked the SEBASTIAN clue, once the penny had dropped (though it turns out the details of his demise are yet another thing I was a bit hazy on till now); it was only afterwards that it occurred to me that the Radio 4 references might be utterly baffling to some – luckily I have been to several ISIHAC recordings, as it’s obviously the only way to appreciate Samantha and Sven properly, not to mention the laser display board.

    Proud to say that my last one in was 4ac, as I muttered to myself “I can’t think of any festival which happens on the 30th of June, as far as I know the last day of June is just the 30th of June…so what on earth can this answer be, which fits in T_I_T_E_H?” I got it eventually.

  24. I was shoving in answers with abandon until I reached the SW, where I hit a wall. I eventually climbed over it when I decoded SEBASTIAN(of whom I knew nothing), then immediately saw AUSTERLITZ which reminded me of Mark Knoffler’s lost eye in Done With Boneparte. I finally got BESTIARY for a time of 32:00 which could easily have been 22 except for those last 3 clues. Liked PEARLINESS. I saw THIRTIETH quite early in the proceedings. Another US BAND here. Doh! I had JOIN before the Schooner, so wasn’t distracted by wondering how many masts it had. Nice puzzle. Thanks Setter and Vinyl.

    Edited at 2019-12-16 12:10 pm (UTC)

  25. 47 minutes: but at 6dn, seeing on pre-submit check that I’d mistyped it as TIPTOO, hastily fixed it by changing to TIPTOE without looking at clue again. DNK Janis Joplin, but as I needed J for pangram, 25dn went in unparsed, as I didn’t think of the relevant Scott. SW corner took much of my time, as was reluctant to enter 15dn, because the pictures of the Saint didn’t appear survivable. (Also, I still don’t get whose pearl wedding is referred to by previous commenters – I suppose they are fictional celebrities I know nothing of, as living people are normally excluded.)
  28. As it’s Monday I gave this a try and found it mainly straightforward with some nice clues. COD to WIFELY I think.
    Most done before a trip to the council dump with ten bags of leaves; the lawn is now clear. On my return I corrected the biffed HATTER which doesn’t parse to HATTIE which does, and like BW, I assumed there must be someone out there of that name. After Janis Ian, I found Janis Joplin and then Scott was obvious; but Sebastian appeared without Belle and I was flummoxed; but the anagram made it certain.
    Came here for confirmation of victory and see that I’m not sharp enough.
    David
  29. I’m afraid the Veronica and Sebastian references are lost on me too. Could someone please explain? I also got in a muddle with ISIHAC, as I could only think of I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again! Although, as it turned out, that would have done just as well in the circumstances! I got Sebastian from the checkers, then twigged the archers bit, but – like others – didn’t realise that he survived only to suffer many more torments.

    I had the same experience in both the Quickie and the 15×15 today – started off pretty quickly, only to get bogged down in the SW. Bough, wifely and Sebastian all took their time, and I never did get join. I thought of Janis Joplin and Janis Ian, but couldn’t think who Scott might be. A shame, because I much prefer his music (memories of The Sting) to hers. For a while, the only schooner I could think of was the sort you used to get in pubs or Berni Inns, filled with Harvey’s Bristol Cream!

    Lots of entertaining clues today – hatpin, pearliness, inspectors, allegretto and vigilant all got ticks!

    FOI Folks
    POI Bough
    COD Thirtieth
    DNF at 45m with -o-n at 25d 😒

    1. Very occasionally Pebee we get a sort of bespoke puzzle and this looks like one of them. Either the setter or the editor wanted to celebrate a pair known to them. We had one earlier in the year that featured a niece of our blogger Vinyl. Couple of years ago we had one from our editor Richard Rogan – I can’t remember the names but there was a “pretty Welsh girl” in it somewhere. The TlS very kindly did one for me in 2018 on the occasion of a significant birthday. I don’t suppose they want to make a habit of it but it makes an amusing change to the routine now and then.
      1. Ah thank you Olivia. I wondered if it was something like that, or if I’d missed something! I remember the puzzles for both the Welsh proposal and the American wedding – very romantic 😊 And how lovely to have a special one yourself too. Congratulations to today’s celebrating couple.

        I must admit to never seeing Ninas – too busy just trying to get the answers right! Penny

  30. … survived being shot with innumerable arrows, and was then clubbed to death soon after. Tough work being a Saint.
  31. Having battled through this, via a Tri-masted diversion, I was undone at the end by the 7d/10ac intersection. Wrong end of the clue issues with 7d, compounded by not knowing where to start with 10ac. All so obvious now I’ve read the blog. I did however enjoy a PDM along the way with Wifely. Invariant
  32. A quick 25 minutes, and too many nice clues to have only one or two likes. I missed the saint, assuming that Sebastian was an Ambridge visitor I didn’t know.
  33. To 15×15 land, and a moderately successful one at 24:54. Reading the blog made me realise i biffed, or at least only semi-parsed (HUSBANDRY going in from the H and the RY) more than a couple, so many thanks to Vinyl for clearing those up.
  35. Nice start to the week. Stuttered a bit after swift opening but happy enough to touch down in 15 minutes. Personally liked the downside 6,21 and 25. Loved Scott Joplin rags from the first time I heard them as a soundtrack to The Sting. Janis wasn’t bad either…
  36. 22:39. For a crossword celebrating a marriage I thought this one had a bit of a martial feel to it with battles, war or a fit of pique seemingly at every turn. I’ll leave it to those who’ve actually taken the plunge to say whether that sounds like married life. I did not parse the UN-ite properly. Struggled to remember the city of star crossed lovers. Hatpin needed a bit of thinking too. Thirtieth my LOI, I could make nothing of it, until finally I could.
  37. 26’58, pleasant outing, lovely hinterland references with a few dark ones to make it real. Intrigued by the hatpin somehow. joekobi
  38. I am surprised there has been no comment on this. Am I the only one baffled by the definition part of the clue?

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