Times 27607 – “Sea-borderers, disjoin’d by Neptune’s might…..

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 31 minutes
Music: Pictures at an Exhibition, Leibowitz/RPO

This puzzle was not as easy as I first supposed, primarily because of various obscure usages that I will have to research for the blog.  I had most of it down inside of fifteen minutes, but in the end I was really slowed down by not being able to get anything in the northeast corner.  Evenentually, I broke through with ‘Isle of Man’ and ‘plotters’, allowing me to finish without too much further ado.  Even the chestnut clues were very well-disguised, and I would not be surprised if you encountered unexpected difficulties or blind spots.

As many of you are aware, Jim Biggin has been forced by health issues to discontinue his blogging duties.   He is one of our oldest bloggers, having joined Times For The Times shortly after it was founded, and having been continuously involved for the past dozen years or so.   He was a daily-puzzle blogger for many years, splitting the Tuesday spot with Topical Tim; in later years, he has been the alternate Mephisto blogger, partnering with George Heard.   We will all miss him, and we hope that he will at least be able to continue to comment in the blogs when he feels up to it.

I have taken over the Mephisto spot on alternate Sundays, and next Sunday will be my first blog.   I have become rather obsessed with solving Mephisto without reference books, but you can be sure I will do whatever is necessary to finish the puzzle and explain all the clues.  I would like to encourage some our better solvers to tackle Mephisto, and I will be writing more elaborate and discursive blogs in an attempt to get some additional people interested in these intriguing puzzles.

Across
1 Dictator’s honest sound (6)
STRAIT – Sounds like STRAIGHT, but ‘sound’ is NOT the homophone indicator, but the definition.   This certainly threw me off in my analysis of the clue.
4 Accessible university in East End district (7)
POPULAR – POP(U)LAR.    Poplar is a metropolitan borough that I had never heard of, but the answer is obvious enough once you have the crossing letters.
9 Defeated king flees, revealed as gay? (5)
OUTED – [r]OUTED.
10 Location of a film one’s shot (4,2,3)
ISLE OF MAN – anagram of A FILM ONE’S.
11 Unruly teens seen in a state (9)
TENNESSEE – Anagram of TEENS SEEN.
12 Currently Democrat’s moving to the right. Such a creep! (5)
TOADY – TODAY with the D moved to the right.   A well-disguised chestnut.
13 A rebellious vicar’s protest (4)
AVER – A + REV backwards, where ‘protest’ has an obscure dictionary meaning.
14 Conked out clutching bottle? That’s sad (10)
DISPIRITED – DI(SPIRIT)ED, as in ‘the engine died’.
18 Right lad, likely somehow to become a Lothario (10)
LADYKILLER – Anagram of R LAD LIKELY.
20 Godfather chopping tail off fowl (4)
CAPO – CAPO[n], an obvious chestnut, but the only one.
23 Note about keeping quiet is revealed (5)
BLOWN – B(LOW)N, where ‘note’ = N.B. = nota bene, and a secondary meaning of ‘blown’ is used – enough to confuse anyone!
24 Director put to death with intravenous injection (9)
EXECUTIVE – EXECUT(I.V.)E.   A ‘director’ and an ‘executive’ are roughly equivalent in many cases, but not all.   I am a director of a tax district, but not an executive, since my only duty is to vote ‘aye’.
25 Winemaker’s found with stolen ammunition (9)
GRAPESHOT – GRAPE’S + HOT.
26 Sign bishop invested in currency once (5)
LIBRA –  LI(B)RA
27 Hero’s boyfriend died in comparatively poor surroundings (7)
LEANDER – LEAN(D)ER, where the trick is to find the literal.
28 Regularly defends having clock outside running fast (6)
SPEEDY – SP([d]E[f]E[n]D[s])Y.   I would like to see why  ‘clock’ = ‘spy’, which it evidently does.
Down
1 Unexpectedly autumn leads to deficit (9)
SHORTFALL –  SHORT FALL, as in ‘caught short’ – very clever!
2 Followers of desperate mutineer, miles away (7)
RETINUE – anagram of [m]UTINEER.
3 How one may sin? Exactly (6)
INDEED – IN DEEDj, or in word, perhaps.
4 Heartthrob perhaps turning up at university (5)
PULSE – UP turned + LSE, the London School of Economics.
5 Young wizard’s handling spell, ultimately intriguing people (8)
PLOTTERS – P([spel]L)OTTER’S, one I should have seen more quickly.
6 Attack a doctor in city street (7)
LAMBAST – L. (A MB) A. + ST.  I would have preferred an attack on an MBA.
7 Sexy clothing for Rosy? (5)
RANDY – R AND Y, another misleading clue, where ‘rosy’ is not the literal.
8 Who’ll eat these slops? (8)
PIGSWILL – PIGS WILL!
15 Penny envies hosts (8)
PRESENTS – P + RESENTS
16 Marry odd European, eccentric creature (9)
DROMEDARY – Anagram of MARRY ODD E.
17 Gang member’s boss going under cover (8)
SKINHEAD – SKIN + HEAD, in entirely different senses.
19 Scene in play about Greek maiden (7)
DIORAMA – D(IO)RAMA, a clue which is on the verge of becoming a chestnut.
21 Is one intelligent and good-natured? (7)
AMIABLE – AM I ABLE?
22 Stop running up and down (4,2)
PULL UP – A palindrome, as indicated.
23 Roll made by first two in bakery on rising (5)
BAGEL – BA[kery] + LEG rising.
24 Article inspired by Her Majesty’s knockout drops? (5)
ETHER – E(THE)R, a rather loose literal.   The whole clue might allude to Queen Victoria’s use of anaethetics in childbirth.

58 comments on “Times 27607 – “Sea-borderers, disjoin’d by Neptune’s might…..”

  1. Slowed down in the NE, where POPULAR, POI LAMBAST, TOADY, & LOI RANDY were all to varying degrees recalcitrant. I knew POPLAR (we’ve had it here, V) but just couldn’t recall it; plus thinking there might be a CRS element. No problem with ‘protest’ (or AVER, which is a NYT chestnut); as in Gertrude’s famous line. I thought 27ac was a gimme; the setter could at least have said ‘Hero’s lover’. ODE sv ‘clock’ v. 2 (Brit.) (informal) notice or watch. I liked RANDY. Vinyl, you’ve forgotten the underline at 10ac, 12ac, 19d.
  2. Collins tells me ‘clock’ is British slang for ‘notice’ or ‘observe’. Not sure of the origin, but I feel I’ve heard it London-based TV shows.
  3. I thought “location” was very vague for ISLE OF MAN. I didn’t know that meaning of AVER but it seemed unlikely anything else would fit. Is RANDY really a synonym for “sexy”? I always think that Hero and Leander sound more like a gay couple. Hero is not a very feminine name. This was one of those crosswords where it mostly went in steadily but at the end I had 3 or 4 clues left that didn’t intersect at all, each requiring a little bit of teasing out.
    1. It is quite vague (and I also don’t much like clues where the answer is “a name” or “a city” without any further specifics); however, my immediate thought was that it worked because the Isle of Man is a very popular shooting location for feature films (at least relative to its size and perceived importance in the world). Not sure if this is down to particularly attractive scenery or buildings, or an advantageous tax arrangement – possibly a bit of both. Anyway, not knowledge which is necessary for solving, but it does make it smoother, should you happen to be aware of it.
  4. OED states this is of American origin arriving in UK c.1942 – US military?

    At 4ac Poplar is just about ground zero of Cockneyland being next door to Bow, so if the wind is in the right direction… it now is now the admin. centre of Tower Hamlets.. awlwitegeezer!?

    FOI 2dn RETINUE

    LOI 23ac BLOWN

    COD 18ac LADYKILLER Ealing Comedies anyone?

    WOD 8dn PIGSWILL (fly)

    Time 22 mins 30 seconds so a possible for the QCers.

    Go to You Tube to see MacTom’s ‘Beckhamesque’ goal against the noisy neighbours!

    Mancunia goes red!

    Edited at 2020-03-09 03:34 am (UTC)

    1. How odd: ODE says it’s British, and the New Oxford American Dict. doesn’t mention it.
      2. The OED says: “To watch or observe; to look at, notice. slang (orig. U.S.).
        1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §482/2 Look at; see, clock, decko,..take a gander (at), [etc.].”

        1. This exemplifies the problem of recording the origin of slang expressions – the earliest datable occurrence doesn’t reflect actual usage.
    2. The Bow Bells, within earshot of which Cockneys are born, are at the church of St Mary le Bow in Cheapside. Not related to Bow in East London.

      Jim

      1. The term cockney has had several distinct geographical, social, and linguistic associations. Originally a pejorative term applied to all city-dwellers, it was gradually restricted to Londoners, and particularly to “Bow-bell Cockneys” – those born within earshot of Bow Bells, the bells of St Mary-le-Bow in the Cheapside District of the City of London.

        However, it eventually came to be used to refer to those in London’s East End, or to all working-class Londoners generally. The traditional core districts of the East End are Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Stepney, Wapping, Limehouse, Poplar, Haggerston (Moscow!), Aldgate, Shoreditch, Millwall, Cubitt Town, Hackney, Hoxton, Bow and Mile End. No mention of Cheapside alas

        Many moons past I had an art-buyer, Roy Knapp, who was born in Marble Arch. He always claimed he was a Cockney as was HRH. Back in the day, with the wind in the right direction he was probabaly right as the bells can be heard four miles to the west and six miles to the east on a good day.

        I need a stiff gin!

  5. 26 mins, finishing with PLOTTERS. There was a time in the 80s when everyone seemed to be an executive, complete with an execucar (Ford Cortina) and an execubeard – vaguely goateeesque. I think it was these guys who sired the EMBA…
  6. 41 mins, which is probably pb territory.

    LOI diorama. Didn’t parse strait, randy, or diorama, not knowing the greek maiden.

    COD randy.

    Edited at 2020-03-09 07:53 am (UTC)

  7. This was very tricky so I was pleased to complete it in only 5 minutes over my target half-hour.

    I missed the chestnut cricketing term in BAGEL and was wondering how it worked although the answer had gone straight in. I like to think I would have spotted it if I’d been on blogging duty.

    I regret I have never been able to get myself into the Mephisto. I’ve attempted half a dozen over the years of which I completed only one after Jim tipped me off that it was a particularly easy example. I’ve spent a lot of my cryptic solving life weaning myself off reliance on dictionaries so it feels like I’m going against the grain to need to look almost everything up, but good luck to Vinyl trying to solve without using them.

    In addition to meaning ‘notice’ or ‘see’ something, ‘clock’ can also mean to punch in the face.

    Edited at 2020-03-09 06:10 am (UTC)

  8. 5:51. I found this very easy, largely because I ignored most of the intricacies of it and just bunged in the obvious answers.
    I’m a great fan of Mephisto but I wouldn’t dream of attempting it without my Chambers app to hand. The great satisfaction of the puzzles is constructing an unlikely-looking answer speculatively from wordplay (itself often very obscure) and discovering that it exists. I look forward to your blog, V.

    Edited at 2020-03-09 06:30 am (UTC)

    1. You describe my experience of doing the Mephisto exactly. It took me a few long struggles to get used to the setters’ styles, but I do them every week now, and my old-fashioned paper version of Chambers is now looking well-thumbed. Thanks to Jim for his blogs. He and George were great help in getting to understand the tricks. I look forward to your first Mephisto blog, V.

      Edited at 2020-03-09 08:44 am (UTC)

      1. Yes it took me absolutely ages to get accustomed to the style, but I’m reasonably used to it now. I’d never have got there without the blogs.
        1. I concur with all the above. Having the Chambers app in your pocket opens up the possibility of doing the Mephisto on the train (I now rather look forward to long train journeys with difficult crosswords to pass the time).
      2. Yes it took me absolutely ages to get accustomed to the style, but I’m reasonably used to it now. I’d never have got there without the blogs.
  9. I completely misparsed CAPO thinking I was taking the last letter off CAPONE to get CAPON but still managing to put in CAPO regardless of this. I only knew CAPO as a device used a guitar.

    Curious to see DIORAMA after it was the word for the clue writing competition last weekend then appeared in last Monday’s puzzle if I remember correctly.

    Sorry to hear about Jim. He is one of the most familiar contributors to me in the years I’ve been coming here thus one of the people who has helped me improve to the extent I have.

  10. 34m with several pennies dropping in satisfying fashion. Lots of fun, thank you setter. One MER: a capo is not a godfather. In Puzo (and in Wikipedia) capo or more completely caporegime is a rank like captain, reporting to the Don. Don Vito’s were Tessio and Clemenza.

    Thanks for the blog Vinyl, I’m off now to listen to that recording of Mussorgsky!

    1. I would bow to your superior knowledge of Mafia affairs, but the OED says “The leader of a branch or ‘family’ of the Mafia.” .. which seems close enough

      Edited at 2020-03-09 09:32 am (UTC)

  11. I’m sure we’ve seen the exact same clue and solution for 8d in a cryptic not too long ago.
  12. ….I’ve often thought that Mussorgsky’s first name would make a good multi-choice question in a trivia quiz:
    A/Patient B/Modest C/Blessed
  13. 20 mins with yoghurt, granola etc.
    Eyebrow twitch at unexpectedly=short and intelligent=able.
    No dramas and some nice touches.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  14. 23 minutes. LOI BLOWN. COD PIGSWILL. In my first job, the cost code (chart of accounts for the younger) had a Pigswill Account. Very useful it was too, alongside the NIHWSI one (no idea how we spent it.) Just to think that such professionalism is now being replaced by robots! Straightforward but pleasant puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
  15. 12:57. I tried to get 1A to be FRANCO, but there’s no O in the clue. Yes I was got by the wrong definition like Vinyl. The other I failed to parse was BLOWN wondering where the N came from. I liked PIGSWILL but I don’t remember seeing it here recently. But following Martin’s suggestion thatit had, I searched and found it was in July 2017 – see here.
    TOADY, however, clued the same way has come up twice in the last month, once in a QC I blogged and in last week’s TCC semi-final puzzle.
  16. Going to try solving online regularly from now on to track solving progress or mental decline.

    COD 1ac for misdirection; LOI 23ac; not convinced short means unexpectedly.

    Reminded of the puzzle question ‘Which two signs are always found in libraries?’

  17. Not a hard puzzle but I thought some of the clues a bit iffy. Didn’t like 13ac, not keen on 1dn or 7dn
  19. 17.45 after a stodgy start. LOI Plotters, mainly due to being wild about harry. Faves today were 7 ,8 and 21 dn
  20. Mainly held up thinking about PIGSWILL – lovely word.

    Wasn’t entirely sure about BLOWN – didn’t see how it worked

  21. A decent trundle through in 16.23.
    I put in SHORTFALL having rather skated over the wordplay: I had a hazy notion of Autumn coming unexpectedly to an end, but it doesn’t really bear scrutiny.
    On the other hand, BLOWN I only entered (last) once I had nailed down the wordplay. Not much else it could be, but I had a pink square concern that wouldn’t go away.
    All good wishes to Jimbo. His regular assurance that it was ok to look things up while doing the Mephisto was always encouraging.
  22. The setter managed to bamboozle me for quite some time with 1a so a tip of the hat for that. I think Mrs. Malaprop says things like “Sir, I vow and protest” so no argument from me on AVER. BLOWN as in the gaff also looked fine. And I recall that Vito Corleone was aka capo di tutti capi so I can’t quarrel with that either. 15.03

    P.S. Vinyl, DorsetJimbo is Biggin in our biographical material but Biggins in your intro. One of them is surely right. I’ve always much enjoyed his comments and wish him a SPEEDY recovery.

  23. Only hold up was the CAPO, which was unknown to me, never having watched the Godfather (I am the only one?).
    1. Yes, ‘fraid so.. but don’t watch it, read it .. as is usual, the book is far better than the film

      Edited at 2020-03-09 02:18 pm (UTC)

  24. I wonder if SHORT in 1dn is a reference to the phrase to ‘stop short’, which the dictionaries define variously as stopping suddenly or abruptly. ‘Unexpectedly’ seems quite close.
  25. The NW corner stayed bare for some time, my first entry being 4d. POPULAR as the London district with a U in it has cropped up several times, so came straight to mind after I had the P from PULSE. I then worked in a clockwise direction, but had to come back at the end to EXECUTIVE, which I just couldn’t see until I wrote it down and did an alphabet trawl. Needed BAGEL to convince me SHOWN was wrong at 23a. SHORTFALL finally opened up the NW. STRAIT was my penultimate entry. Nice puzzle. 26:33. Thanks setter and V.
  26. Would have been under seven minutes but agonised for a while over STRAIT before the penny dropped. Rest pretty straightforward.
    1. Thanks for the link Olivia – I’d never seen this before, and it’s excellent
  28. 9:24 and unlike our blogger I found this easier than I first supposed – I read a few clues before I found one I could solve but once I got going things went in pretty quickly.

    I didn’t bat and eyelid at clock and my only MER was at the “short” in 1d.

  29. ….RANDY DROMEDARY down the right hand side. No hump jokes please !

    I felt I should have seen this off quicker, but I hit a flat spot in the NE corner, and then had to iron out 1A/3D which I took far too long to see.

    MER at “once” in 26A – the lira is the existing currency of Turkey.

    FOI TENNESSEE
    LOI STRAIT
    COD BAGEL
    TIME 10:53

  30. 34:09 on the clock for me and all correct; signs of improvement.
    Not everything was parsed and LOI was BLOWN after correcting SHOWN. That caused quite a hold-up as the BAGEL could not emerge; agree COD to that.
    STRAIT was not fully understood as I thought Sound = Homophone.
    Agree Isle of Man is a rather arbitrary definition of location.
    Anyway, much enjoyed. David
  31. Re ether and Queen Vic. She actually received Chloroform in labour, so the original clue suits!
  32. 22 min., no severe hold-ups. Good to remember the Alec Guinness etc. ‘Ladykillers’ masterpiece. All the best to Jimbo. Thanks Olivia for the link to his brilliant April jape.
  33. I won’t sleep tonight! RANDY Ok – no bother. But I simply can’t parse it. Put me out of my misery, please.
  34. Not too far off a p.b. at 21 minutes, even though I started in the middle at 13a and flowed up and down from there, finally finishing with 23a BLOWN. (Other Quiller fans will note the sinister BLOWN EXECUTIVE across that line, a terrible end to a mission…)

    Happily I knew CAPO both from guitar and The Sopranos, and if you’d’a clocked as many episodes o’ Minder as I ‘ave, you’d’ve ‘ad no Barney Rubble workin’ aht 28, me ol’ china…

  35. Done and dusted in about 35 minutes – no definite time as I had two or three interruptions, but quick for me. Yes, Monday-ish, but lots of fun on the way, which is fine by me!

    Ticks went alongside dispirited (which I was last week), amiable (which aptly describes this crossword) and dromedary. Popular was nearly last one in as I was trying to think of a location which was missing an initial H – ‘ackney perhaps! We have seen Poplar quite often, usually in a clue like this, so I don’t know why it took me so long.

    I wasn’t sure about 1d either – it almost feels as if a word is missing.

    FOI Capo
    LOI Pulse
    COD Pigswill – it may be an oldie but it’s a goody

    Sorry to hear about Jimbo’s health problems – best wishes

    Thanks setter and Vinyl

  36. thought this was going to be easy having completed 34 on train from Huddersfield to Leeds but struggled in NE.
  37. 16:24. Late home after an evening at the cinema. It felt like I was making heavier weather of this than I should when solving. I did not find it necessary to read beyond the second word of 27ac. The only real pauses for thought were strait and blown. Straightforward but with some nice touches.
  38. For the longest time I was trying to make TURK(EY) fit because of the character “Virgil ‘The Turk’ Sollozzo” in The Godfather.

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