Times 27547 – Something to grind, in the US….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 30 minutes
Music Mahler, Symphony #5, Levine/Philadelphia

I found this a bit on the tricky side, with some clever bits that lead to unexpected answers.   Fortunately, as an experienced solver, I know when to biff, and when to follow the cryptic wherever it might lead, so I managed to finish in a reasonable time.   The SNITCH indicates easy, but few results are in yet.

Having done a fair bit of biffing, I will now have to figure out how some of the clues work, if I can.  Otherwise, I’m sure the commenters will be happy to fill in.

PS: Now for an important blog announcement!  After posting the blog, I continued working, and I have managed to get the new About This Blog finally posted.  Anyone who read the old one will know it was about seven years out of date, so we had to completely redo it.   I would like to thank Jerry and Sandy for their help in getting this done, since left on my own I probably would have just kept it on my to-do list forever.

The new About This Blog contains a summary of our policies and procedures, a table of the bloggers who currently cover the various puzzles, and brief autobiographies submitted by many, but not all, of our bloggers.   Any bloggers who didn’t submit their cryptic CV are still free to do so if they wish, you all have my email.   Unfortunately, in order to keep the document to a reasonable length, I had to remove the biographies of previous bloggers, at least for the time being.

PPS: If you are using a phone instead of a computer,  the link will be labeled ‘Profile’ instead of ‘About this Blog’, presumably to save space.

Across
1 A couple of lines crossing everywhere (3,4)
ALL OVER – A + LL + OVER, my FOI.
5 Beatle’s back in USSR, playing tricks (5)
RUSES – anagram of [beatl]E + USSR.
9 Check a Buddhist at regular intervals (5)
AUDIT – A [b}U[d]D[h]I[s]T, an amusing idea, with a team of accountants examining the books at the temple.
10 One male voice giving nothing away (9)
IMPASSIVE –  I + M + PASSIVE, an entirely different sort of voice from the meaning in the context of the surface.
11 Singular cup-bearer with vacant expression still here? (7)
SHEBEEN – S + HEBE + E[xpressio]N.   I grasped the significance of the literal early on, but couldn’t think of a place where a still was likely to be found.
12 Lug in that case of clay (7)
EARTHEN – EAR + THEN.
13 Worker occasionally draws injured people (10)
CASUALTIES – CASUAL + TIES, once again a brilliant surface that is hard to break down.
15 Head, bowled out in past times (4)
ONCE – [b]ONCE, requiring knowledge of a slang term that is used only in the UK, as well as the more common cricket-score abbreviations.
18 Obstinate person endlessly holding a hammer (4)
MAUL – M(A)UL[e].
20 Break out with Toad’s means of locomotion (10)
SKATEBOARD – Anagram of BREAK + TOAD’S.
23 Producer of keys? Not for Ghanaians (7)
ASHANTI – ASH + ANTI, one I biffed.  I didn’t know it, but apparently the bunches of seeds produced by the tree are known as ‘ash keys’.
24 Emperor, short and fat, mostly as a figurehead (7)
TITULAR –  TITU[s] + LAR[d].
25 Tool displays more wings for aircrew (6,3)
SCROLL SAW – SCROLLS + A[ircre]W, as we scroll through this blog…..
26 Treatment of savant by university (5)
USAGE – U + SAGE, the closest thing to a chestnut you’ll find here.
27 Trifling child (5)
MINOR – Double definition.
28 Pray with heart not with head, returning thanks (7)
ENTREAT – [c]ENTRE + TA backwards, another obvious answer I just biffed.
Down
1 Begin to deal with notice on deck (7)
ADDRESS – AD + DRESS, in the sense of deck the halls.
2 In airport goddess replaces old Christian (8)
LUTHERAN –  LUT{-o,+HERA]N.   A brtilliant clue, where a whole word is substituted for a letter.
3 Gesture saving ground with a shed (1-4)
V-SIGN – anagram of S[a]VING.
4 Stand for show again? (9)
REPRESENT – Double definition, the second one semi-jocular.
5 Stop outside or go (6)
RESORT – RES(OR)T, as a verb.
6 Son embraced by saint (7)
SWITHIN – S + WITHIN, as a general term of inclusion.
7 Letters from schoolmaster never enforcing discipline (5)
STERN – hidden in [schoolma]STER N[ever].
8 Aspic possibly combined with pepper (8)
CAPSICUM – Anagram of ASPIC + CUM.  I had a little difficulty spelling this correctly, delaying ‘shebeen’.
14 Bear children and be disagreeable (4,5)
TAKE ISSUE –  TAKE + ISSUE, where you have to lift and separate ‘bear children’.
16 Conclusion about county, not quite approved (8)
ENDORSED – EN(DORSE[t])D, a well-known county hereabouts.
17 Busts are terribly hard to grasp (8)
ABSTRUSE – Anagram of BUSTS ARE.
19 Introduce American drug, ignoring blood group (5,2)
USHER IN – US HER[o]IN.
21 No fewer than fifty each in a test (not English) (2,5)
AT LEAST – AT(L EA)[e]ST, a rather elaborate clue for an obvious answer.
22 Strong feeling about large person fastening flies? (6)
ANGLER – ANG(L)ER.   An angler, however, does not necessarily tie his own flies, althought it is traditional to do so.
23 Tea from northbound service area (5)
ASSAM – MASS A upside-down.
24 That is how to move a trailer (2,3)
TO WIT – TOW IT, of course.   How many solvers stuggled to find a non-existent anagram?

42 comments on “Times 27547 – Something to grind, in the US….”

  1. As V says, a bit on the tricky side, and I was surprised to get in under 20′. Definitely not a typical Monday puzzle. I biffed a couple–25ac, 28ac, 21d–where I didn’t bother to parse until after submitting. Lots of misleading surfaces: case of clay, with heart not with head, occasionally draws, bear children. I blush to say I rather liked the naughty 17d. I never heard of ash keys, and just assumed that piano keys are made of ash.

    Edited at 2019-12-30 02:38 am (UTC)

  2. I had no idea how ASHANTI worked, had to think about RESORT for ‘go’ and spent far too long trying to figure out what ‘id est’ had to do with moving a trailer.

    Home in 38 minutes.

    Thank you to our blogger/owner/administrator both for today’s blog and for the About This Blog… update which was very helpful and encouraging for others who might be thinking about joining in.

  3. Largely straightforward but ended up as a technical DNF as I had never heard of SCROLL SAW and also needed assistance with SHEBEEN where there was little to go on by way of definition and part of the wordplay (cup-bearer = HEBE) was beyond by ken. I deduced ASHANTI, vaguely remembered from somewhere, but had no idea how ASH related to ‘keys’.
  4. I found this very easy at the start and very hard at the end, mostly due to gaps in my GK, like not knowing how to spell St SWITHIN, or who the ASHANTI are, or what an ash key is… In the end I just assumed that ash was used to make piano keys, or something!

    My last big hold-up, though, was putting in CAPISCUM rather than CAPSICUM (even though I think I got it right the last time it came up) which made SHEBEEN (where I didn’t know the cup-bearer) even more difficult. Still, I managed to get there in the end, finally untangling it all at the 57 minute mark. Now off to read About This Blog…

    Edited at 2019-12-30 08:42 am (UTC)

  5. 38 minutes, with SCROLL SAW LOI, constructed from crossers and not known. Georgia was on my mind for too long before I eventually saw RUSES. I found this a mixed bag of easy and hard. I didn’t begin to parse ASHANTI, never having heard of Ash Keys. COD to SWITHIN. It will rain for the next 40 days now, but then it seems like it has for the last 120. Thank you V and setter.
  6. 18:04 … some very smart stuff in this, not all of it entirely understood while solving.

    None of the needful was entirely unknown, though I did have to keep rifling through the bulging mental box file labelled “or something like that”.

    Same issue as Matt with the spelling of the saint, the wordplay not adding up until after a rethink.

    COD, irresistibly, to RUSES

  7. Nice to see the updated “About this blog” published at last .. but you seem to have omitted Pip Kirby and Verlaine, Vinyl. I can resend them to you, if you wish.
    If you did want to create a link to a list of past bloggers I am willing to maintain the document(s). They do rather raise the tone of TfTT, including as they do several illustrious setters and past champions, not to mention the present one 🙂
  9. What in the name of Eric and Ernie is a SCROLL SAW!
    I went on line, but they no longer appear to be available.
    No ANGLER either (terrible clue IMHO!)so a miserable thirty minute DNF.

    FOI 1ac They think it’s ALL OVER (Ken Wolsteholme!)

    (LOI)27ac MINOR

    COD 23ac ASHANTI also exported in Cockpit Country, Jamaica. As kids we used to make little ‘helicopters’ out of ash keys.

    WOD SCROLL SAW I suppose!

  10. Flying today, 11’52”. St. SWITHIN’s Day is my birthday.

    Tried to fit GANYMEDE instead of HEBE. Like others, no idea how ASHANTI worked (cue jokes about beer and lemonade and sea songs).

    I did indeed try to get an anagram of how and i.e.

    Great blog as always and will now have to investigate the menu which seems to have appeared for the first time on my iPad.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

  11. Interesting puzzle that I found rather tricky in parts. Had a memory of ash keys, possibly from a Mephisto. Liked SHEBEEN which reminded me of my Irish uncle who introduced me to poteen in such an establishment. The end of Dorset that is missing is the part that’s currently under a great deal of water
  12. … by assuming (wrongly, obv) that white piano keys are made from ash wood. Delightful to have my misconceptions/errors actually working FOR me, for once…
  13. Thank you Vinyl, Jerry and Sandy for the updated Who’s Who at TFTT. At last I know why and where John was interred! I managed to whizz through this in spite of only having a vague idea about the tools. Good puzzle and I liked the short fat emperor. 11.21
    1. Lol. Apologies. I think it was Keriothe at the Crossword Championship get together at The George 2 years ago when I explained it who said. “That’s a terrible pun”. He’s right.
  14. I flew through most of this – but got stuck in the South West. I eventually solved that bit, except for one typo. However I was another to go with CAPISCUM where CAPSICUM belonged – which led to the very dubious IHEBEEN.

    COD: ANGLER.

  15. I was tripping along merrily until I was left with half a dozen clues on the LHS. These took me longer than the rest of the puzzle! Perhaps I’m still dozy from the festivities. SHEBEEN, CASUALTIES, LUTHERAN, ASHANTI, SCROLL SAW and ANGLER caused me the grief. Eventually scraped to a finish in 47:11. I think I need to lie down again now. I was also held up by having RINGO at 5a: back of uss(R) play(IN)g GO. Presumably you don’t earn tricks when playing go. Saw sense eventually when STERN presented itself. Thanks setter and Vinyl. Many thanks for the updated “About this Blog” and thanks to all the bloggers for their invaluable assistance.

    Edited at 2019-12-30 12:00 pm (UTC)

  16. ….I became bogged down in the SW (Jimbo appears to really have that problem !)

    I reached that corner after a shade under 10 minutes, needed a further 3 minutes to get down to my LOI, and just over 2 minutes more to get that one, which was NHO. Like many others, I biffed ASHANTI. I concur with Vinyl1 as to when one should biff. After certain recent transgressions, I need to learn when not to !

    FOI ALL OVER
    LOI SCROLL SAW
    COD ABSTRUSE
    TIME 14:49

  17. 9:18. No problems today, guess I was on the wavelength. Knowing slightly unusual words like ASHANTI (no idea about ash keys), SHEBEEN and CAPSICUM no doubt helped. I didn’t know (or more likely had forgotten) SCROLL SAW and it was my last in, once I had figured out the slightly tricky wordplay.
    Thanks to all concerned for the updated ‘about this blog’.

    Edited at 2019-12-30 12:32 pm (UTC)

  18. I had no idea there was an “about this blog” until now, and jolly interesting it was too.

    Got through this one in 25 minutes, which isn’t far off my average. I toyed with all possible spellings of SWITHIN/swithen/swithan/swithun before noticing that I was looking for a “within”, which rather narrowed the choice. SHEBEEN was an NHO, and I had to guess that Hebe was a cupbearer to the gods. I wasn’t even sure what a cupbearer was, but a little Wikipediaing tells me that it’s a simple job decription – a sort of divine tea-lady.

    No problem with the keys in ASHANTI. I was surprised to learn that ash isn’t related to sycamore, despite their similar winged seeds. Also pleased to learn that both types of seeds are known as samaras.

    With regard to biffing, I try to adhere to “Доверя́й, но проверя́й” (trust, but verify).

    1. Maple trees have aerodynamic seed pods, too, with a seed in one end of what otherwise is flat and about as long as your finger. If you are the right age you can split the seed bit open and use its sticky inside to attach it to your nose, like a rhinoceros horn.

      Edited at 2019-12-30 07:14 pm (UTC)

  19. 15:51 and like others I found the SW corner the trickiest part, with the SAW my last in. I wasn’t 100% confident on SHEBEEN, ASHANTI & RESORT but all’s W that ends W.
  20. …a scroll saw is a motor-driven or hand-operated very fine saw blade, used for cutting around corners and curves so as to produce scroll shapes in wood or any other material.
  21. I didn’t know the saw. But now I’ve seen the video and am impressed by the fine work it can do. I’ve got a cousin who used to edit “The Woodworker” and makes musical instruments.I bet he’s got one of these. I got the answer by trawling the alphabet but it took over 10 minutes out of the total 42. I’m another who didn’t get the ASH/KEY reference but the ANTI was obvious so what else could it be? A very enjoyable puzzle. Ann
  22. Came to this as the sun was setting, a bit mesmerised by traffic after driving the A1 down to London and back again. Expecting to be dumb and half asleep, but managed to finish it off just under the half hour even with Mrs K (having been alone all day) chatting. Knew ASHANTI were Ghanaians but didn’t see how it worked, also like a few others I had ID EST at 24d until deciding it wasn’t correct as 24a was impossible. A nice puzzle to start the week, and thanks admins for posting the updated blogger profiles.

  23. 2d is an ok clue if you can accept the completely meaningless surface where old Christians and goddesses anachronistically hang around in airports. But ’brilliant’ is surely over-egging it? Mr Grumpy
  24. 40 min, online for a change, which always gives me trouble with the anagrams. I like Capsicum, Shebeen, and (B)once because they were just within my GK, and I liked Titular because it was an emperor other than Nero or Bony.
  25. How do I access the above? I cannot find it in the glossary. I read the blog daily and very occasionally contribute but would be interested to learn more. Thank you.
    Barry J
  26. 21:17. Late to the party here… done after a 400 mile round-trip taking my daughter to York, so maybe not at my freshest. I failed to lift and separate 14D so had MAKE ISSUE, which rendered CASUALTIES impossible and It took me a while to see the light. Never mind. Some good entertainment here. I liked ONCE and TO WIT.
    And thanks to the team for compiling the “About This Blog”. It is very entertaining to read about my fellow bloggers.

    Edited at 2019-12-30 07:52 pm (UTC)

  27. 17:02. I raced through this and seem to have produced A Monday-ish time for a not entirely Monday-ish puzzle. I don’t remember consciously parsing earthen. Perhaps it was just obvious from checkers and Def by the time I got to it. I didn’t know the ash keys or the scroll saw but they didn’t cause me any problems. I was too long trying to use son as a container for by in 6dn. And yes, too long also struggling to find a non existent anagram of how to in 24dn. A refreshing start to the week.
      1. Provided he’s on a computer. On a tablet or phone it’s under Profile, and that in itself can be elusive sometimes requiring a menu to be opened first.
  31. Only managed to get to the crossword late evening. Started quickly but slowed up then a spurt at the end. Finished in 16 minutes finally. All correct but had to do a check on scroll saw , not a tool I’m familiar with but I tend not to be familiar with most as my wife would no doubt testify.

    Didn’t get ashanti but knew they were Ghanaians so a reasonable guess. Similarly with Lutheran.

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