I enjoyed the puzzle a lot, with plenty of entry points but a lot of clues that needed some thought to put down with confidence. I was host by my biffer’s petard on more than one occasion, entering first SEMIDEMIQUAVERS and then trying out HEMI in various configurations until ANCHORED finally swam into view. Likewise I *always* but always spell it CACCHINATE on the first try, by false analogy to Gracchus or Bacchus or something I’ll be bound.
My compliments to the setter for a not at all 25dn Friday outing!
ACROSS
1 Cockney worker accepting dull job fast (8)
ANCHORED – ‘AND accepting CHORE
6 With this music, see the joint jumping? (3-3)
HIP-HOP – in which we see HIP [the joint] HOP
9 For all to see, what FDR did for the world (6)
URANUS – U [for all to see, at the cinema] + RAN US [what FDR did, between 1933 and 45]
10 Game ending in hullabaloo, filming abandoned (4-4)
MINI-GOLF – ({hullabalo)O + FILMING*) [“abandoned”]
11 What’s said to drive away mule? (4)
SHOE – homophone of SHOO!
12 Wrongly believed hotel is obliged to put on film (10)
MISTHOUGHT – H OUGHT [hotel | is obliged to], put on MIST [film]
14 Swindle flourished: moneylenders flee (8)
FLIMFLAM – FL. I.M.F. LAM [flourished | moneylenders | flee]
16 Volume’s dedication to its author? (4)
TOME – or TO ME, a dedication by an author to themself!
18 Turn down short side road (4)
SPUR – SPUR{n} [turn down, “short”]
19 As Di having left, lively party’s ending (8)
QUASHING – QUA SHIN{di}G [as | lively party, with DI “having left”]
21 A commotion’s beginning in church — natural to laugh (10)
CACHINNATE – A C{ommotion} in CH, + INNATE [natural]
22 French writer rejected fancy English (4)
GIDE – reversed DIG [fancy, as in like] + E
24 Gas that is to escape slowly after houseroom evacuated (8)
SCHMOOZE – SC. [that is] + OOZE [escape slowly] after H{ouseroo}M
26 Unconventional lad, tho’ far from fashionable (3,3)
OLD HAT – (LAD THO*) [“unconventional”]
27 Men rebuked for bloomer (6)
ORCHID – O.R. CHID [men | rebuked]
28 Light oriental dish around noon, one without starter (8)
SUNSHINE – SUSHI around N, + {o}NE
DOWN
2 Player given hand, being latest in series to receive gold (5)
NORTH – NTH [latest in series] to “receive” OR [gold]. One of the four players dealt a hand in the game of bridge.
3 Old barbarian — cause of complaint — leading demo (6,5)
HUNGER MARCH – HUN GERM ARCH [old barbarian | cause of complaint | leading]
4 Sort of mirror on small badge cut off (8)
RESEMBLE – RE S EMBLE{m} [on | small | badge, “cut off”]. If you resemble someone, you sort of mirror them, sort of?
5 Tremble when passing notes around, short ones (15)
DEMISEMIQUAVERS – QUAVER [tremble], when DEMISE MIS [passing | notes] “around”
6 Big cheese sandwich on cholesterol-packed wraps (6)
HONCHO – hidden in {sandwic}H ON CHO{lesterol-packed}
7 Drop litter and stuff (3)
PIG – double def. “Pig” means both “to give birth to pigs”, and “to eat greedily”.
8 American monk with a halo that’s slipping (9)
OKLAHOMAN – (MONK + A HALO*) [“slipping”]
13 The responsibility of school to carry out: head of history fired (2,2,4,3)
UP TO HIGH DOH – UP TO HIGH [the responsibility of school] + DO [to carry out] + H{istory}. I’d never heard of this expression (thankfully the cryptic was straightforward!) but it does indeed mean “in a state of great excitement or agitation”. Not to be confused with being “for the high jump”, which could be a different kind of fired!
15 Erotic performer’s comeback reportedly overlooked by Hollywood police? (3,6)
LAP DANCER – homophone of ANSWER [comeback], preceded by L.A.P.D. [Hollywood police]
17 What old sailors must follow to go beyond headland (4,4)
CAPE HORN – EH O R.N. [what | old | sailors] must follow CAP [to go beyond]
20 Hanging underneath leg, sway (2,4)
ON HOLD – HOLD [sway], underneath ON [(cricket) leg]
23 Last of liquid? Tip it down sink (5)
DRAIN – {liqui}D + RAIN [tip it down, rather British-idiomatically]
25 One’s not moved border up (3)
MEH – reversed HEM [border]. An expression of indifference or boredom, which surely only a Victorian queen would feel the need to express as “one is not moved” instead.
But surely a VIctorian queen would say “we are not moved”!
Other than that, some clever stuff, I thought.
DNK CACHINNATE nor UP TO HIGH DOH. Thanks Verlaine for those and for DEMISEMIQUAVERS and FLIMFLAM. I didn’t know that meaning. Thought it just meant waffle.
Putting PUP didn’t help with MINI GOLF. It gave me MINI POLO which didn’t work, obviously.
COD to URANUS.
Edited at 2020-01-17 08:00 am (UTC)
Liked QUASHING. FLIMFLAM unparsed. Dnk CACHINNATE.
21′ 20″ thanks verlaine and setter.
Edited at 2020-01-17 08:14 am (UTC)
I think I must be a bit too literal-minded for certain kinds of puzzle. Or just dim.
CACHINNATE has come up a few times over the years, mostly in Jeff Pearce puzzles on Sundays, and I recognised it this time, perhaps for the first time ever.
I agonised a bit at the end over 7dn. PEG might conceivably mean ‘drop’, and I didn’t know the ‘drop litter’ meaning of PIG. It seemed feasible though so in the end I went with the answer where I had at least a working theory of how the clue might work.
Clearly, I’m the old-fashioned type as I wanted to put in FAN DANCER for a while. Glad I didn’t, as FLIMFLAM and SPUR were hard enough with the right crossers. At least I know that I don’t know how to spell CACHINNATE, despite having had a stab at learning some Latin last year…
49 minutes, and probably only that fast because I got DEMISEMIQUAVER in right off that bat. WOD QUASHING.
CoD to RESEMBLE for resisting longest and having the sort of definition which sends you chasing after obscure technical terms. Mirrors I conjectured included rosemill, rustmold and rassmile, any of which and more could be possible.
CACHINNATE was unknown to me, and I didn’t parse the DEMISEMIQUAVERS – I seem to remember SEMIHEMIDEMISEMIQUAVERS from my piano-playing days – or figure out why RESEMBLE meant ‘sort of mirror’. GIDE went in quicker than it would have done if he hadn’t been almost identically clued in a recent crossword.
COD probably CAPE HORN for some sneaky wordplay and a natural-sounding surface.
11a across reminded me of the time I went for an interview for a summer job with a farrier. He asked me if I’d ever shoed a horse before. I said “no, but I once told a donkey to f*$k off”.
Anyway, bravo setter and thanks V.
However once I sat down to the puzzle on my return I could see it looked very difficult so did not waste time and came here.
My main reason for commenting is that I vividly remember hearing “up to high doh” from my late Scottish mother-in-law; a phrase she often used.
And I was considering PUP at 7d when I gave up.
David
The newly restored SNITCH shows it only slightly harder than yesterday’s (135 vs 122) but I found it much tougher.
DNF even with aids.
17dn CAPE HORN – well I never! IKEAN with the wrong instructions.
28 ac SUNSHINE that was IKEAN with the correct instructions, DOH!
DNK 13dn UP TO HIGH DOH but it was passable and parsable.
FOI 3dn HUNGER MARCH
COD 14ac FLIMFLAM
WOD 5dn DEMISEMIQUAVERS
I need a stiff drink and a 15dn
Thanks to V for parsing FLIMFLAM and DEMISEMIQUAVERS. I parsed QUASHING and HONCHO afterwards. The latter was more “duh” than “doh”, which was NHO. Didn’t care for PIG.
FOI HIP-HOP (another thing I don’t care for)
LOI QUASHING
COD SHOE
TIME 17:47
For me, although I tried to be restrained above, I did not bother even to look up the last three answers – I cannot remember the last time that I lost interest in a Times crossword. For Penfold it was the best if the year.
Fascinating?
I don’t think CACHINNATE, a great word, is used often enough these days. I am going to insert it as soon as possible into a conversation.
Edited at 2020-01-17 04:53 pm (UTC)
That aside, this was a tough one for me. UP TO THE DOH seemed too Homeric to be right (but was), and CACHINNATE was to be found only on the highest, least-used shelf of my memory. QUASHING, SCHMOOZE and several others also held me up.
I thought it was a great puzzle, thanks to the setter and to Verlaine.
Perhaps they use internet aids, but surely the true test is whether you can solve it on paper, enthroned.