Times 27640 – let ‘er 24

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time taken: 11:14

Not sure what to say about this one – there’s a lot of phrases in the grid that I wouldn’t use, and most of them have wordplay that helps you to get them. I’m less taken with the cryptic definitions, though they are pretty easy to see.

My time is pretty close to my average, but of the times available so far, this is a bimodal distribution, several faster than their average time some much much slower.

Hope everyone is safe and as sane as they can be under the circumstances.

Away we go…

Across
1 Call girl to play idly with dog, say (8)
STRUMPET – STRUM(play idly) and the dog could be a PET
5 Military ruler’s command to soldiers about bad error in field (6)
SHOGUN – atten…. SHUN surrounding OG(own goal, error in the field)
9 The plebs are so great, they say (not in Bath?) (8)
UNWASHED – tricky double definition based on the phrase “the great unwashed” and that you could be unwashed if you were not in the bath
10 Artist’s percentage twice has inflated (6)
CUBIST – the percenrage is a CUT, insert BIS(twice)
12 Counting the corpses perhaps can tell you where you stand (4-9)
DEAD-RECKONING – if you were counting the corpses you could be RECKONING the DEAD
15 Irritable, getting dry in a little sun (5)
RATTY –  TT(dry) inside RAY(a little sun)
16 What’s wrongly said is not pretended (3-6)
SOI-DISANT – anagram of SAID,IS,NOT
17 Fit of temper in vehicle — seize travelling case (9)
CARPETBAG – PET(fit of temper) inside CAR(vehicle), BAG(seize)
19 A long way round a state for itinerant (5)
FRIAR – FAR(a long way) around RI(Rhode Island, state)
20 For team, colleague entering play horribly roughly (13)
APPROXIMATELY – PRO(for), XI(team), MATE(colleague) inside an anagram of PLAY
22 Flexible creeper pruned in part (6)
PLIANT – LIANA(creeper) missing the last letter inside PT(part)
23 Enthusiastic about new beginning of partnership, after this? (3,5)
HEN PARTY – HEARTY(enthusiastic) containing N(new) and the first letter of Party
25 Heavy vehicle an expensive failure? (6)
TANKER – double definition based on a failure tanking
26 Bold print splashed across English papers (8)
INTREPID – anagram of PRINT surrounding E(English) then ID(papers)
Down
1 Wholesome to follow the progress of accompanying music (10)
SOUNDTRACK – SOUND(wholesome) and TRACK(follow the progress of)
2 Crude sketch, not the first (3)
RAW – DRAW(sketch) missing the first letter
3 In Micawber’s overspent state a pound is ungenerous (7)
MISERLY – MISERY(reference to the character in Pickwick Papers David Copperfield… I knew it was a Dickens I had read just couldn’t remember which one) containing L(pound)
4 Where to jot down manoeuvres by military reserve (8,4)
EXERCISE BOOK – EXERCISE(manoeuvres by military), BOOK(reserve). Don’t think I’ve heard a jotter called this since the 80s
6 Once he started his act there was no holding him (7)
HOUDINI – cryptic definition
7 Leaving local, forgetting what it’s like at home? (5,6)
GOING NATIVE – GOING(leaving), NATIVE(local). New phrase for me.
8 Crazy teachers’ society (4)
NUTS – NUT(National Union of Teachers), S(society)
11 Message carrier with a lofty target (6,6)
HOMING PIGEON – cryptic definition
13 Row over Atlantic, losing very badly (11)
ALTERCATION – anagram of OVER,ATLANTIC minus V(very)
14 After vermin passed up on crop, you would become radiantly happy (6-4)
STARRY-EYED – RATS(vermin) reversed, then RYE(crop) and YE’D(you would)
18 Centre for cost moved to a large region (7)
EXPANSE – EXPENE(cost) with the middle letter replaced by A
19 One flustering young woman once (7)
FLAPPER – double definition
21 Provide sample of body fluid in hospital (4)
SPIT – hidden inside hoSPITal
24 Late message? Almost ready (3)
RIP – RIPE (ready) missing the last letter

83 comments on “Times 27640 – let ‘er 24”

  1. I knew all the phrases, but did find a lot of the wording to be just a bit different to the way I would use it, or more to the point, think of it whilst solving. I didn’t help myself by seeing that Mover (mile, round, Ver – old abbreviation for Vermont) was so clearly the correct answer at 19a that it took a lot before I changed it out. I liked Hen Party. Nice blog, George. Thx setter.
  2. 33 minutes, the last 10 on 21dn, 22 & 25ac and feeling somewhat foolish when I realised that 21dn was a hidden answer. 12ac was a bit unfortunate at this sad time, but presumably not so when the puzzle was set and accepted for publication. I don’t understand what’s odd or unusual about any of the phrases in the grid but perhaps it’s a transatlantic thing.

    Edited at 2020-04-16 02:38 am (UTC)

    1. obviously doesn’t exist Trumpland as it does in LB and Shanghai!
      In the nude, in the nuddy, starkers, in one’s birthday suit; try it George – you’d like it!

      Edited at 2020-04-16 07:10 am (UTC)

      1. Doesn’t necessarily mean ripping your clothes off, H! It just means, as happened to my Comparative Religions teacher, forgetting that you’re (say) British and adopting the customs, language and style of the locals, in his case Ugandans. Taught me heaps. But think Sam Worthington’s character in Avatar, or (at least in fantasy) Jenny Agutter’s in Walkabout, though come to think of it that DID involve an absence of clothing.
        1. Yes, I was surprised by our Shanghai correspondent’s interpretation of the expression as I’ve never heard that before and I doubt that the gentle folk of Leighton Buzzard indulge in such behaviour – not at my end of the town anyway, I can’t speak for what goes on on H’s brother’s side of the tracks.
        3. The phrase always makes me think of Colonel Kurtz though if anything I think he went above and beyond just going native…
      2. I thought it meant something like not changing into a dinner jacket when dining in the jungle. “Going commando” popped into my mind but that just means going sans underwear.
      3. I think I’ve also come across this in the context of spies becoming untrustworthy in the eyes of their controllers. “Are you quite sure our man hasn’t gone native, 007?”
        1. Oh Dear me! – while I was out and about (at the supermarket for tonic water and fresh broad beans) the natives have been somewhat restless!
          OK! let’s assume the natives are ‘sans underwear’ as per Lady Rhineneck, then a few carefully placed beads and leaves may help improve matters. (I’m in my dinner jacket as we speak!)
          But having had a peep at gals in M. Gaugin’s daubs, their undies do appear to be entirely missing and on more than one occasion. I had to avert my gaze in case ‘er indoors threw a fit. Just checking something, darling.

          I further wish to apologise to the Honorable Member for Leighton Buzzard SW (brother Peter is NE) for intimating that he indulged freely in such escapades! However, I can see my twin brother naked most any time – simply by looking in a half-length mirror on bath night. So there!

          Matron the smelling salts..quickly now!

  3. 7.30 a.m. BST and only two posts!

    15’40”, seemed okay, like jack my LOI was SPIT, well-hidden. Not really happy with TANKER, although familiar with something tanking. Spent some time looking for the name of an artist.

    Thanks george and setter.

    1. I thought of this more as a straight definition (heavy vehicle) with a cryptic hint (expensive failure?) rather than a double definition as indicated in the blog. The question mark at the end suggests the setter is aware he’s stretching things a bit and that part of the clue is not to be taken too literally.
  4. Sorry Mr. Heard, but this was a delight. Much enjoyed even though it took me 4Georges.

    I was looking for a NINA after 1ac STRUMPET appeared and 19dn might have been FLOOSIE but was FLAPPER, and at 23ac a HEN PARTY was in full swing. But that was the last of the STARRY -EYED naughty ladies.

    FOI 3dn MISERLY – Copperfield?

    LOI 1dn SOUNDTRACK

    COD 9ac UNWASHED which baffled me for a yonk. 14dn RIP was also decent.

    WOD must be 1ac STRUMPET! with 18ac SOI-DISANT on the podium

    Never did parse 21dn SPIT and I note Harry Houdini was on the loose again.

    Edited at 2020-04-16 06:54 am (UTC)

  5. Went over par at the last, the infernal hidden. Why are they so hard to spot? HOUDINI had escaped from the Concise which I’m having a go at now that time permits. That helped.
  6. 23 minutes. The top half went in quickly, but the SW lagged behind, with PLIANT and the hidden SPIT taking their time, only then spotting LOI TANKER. I read the CARPETBAGgers many decades ago, and all the other expressions are ones I’d use. COD to GOING NATIVE. Thank you George and setter.
  7. That felt longer than it actually was. No unheard of words, but I didn’t think of a FRIAR as necessarily itinerant, and liana is fairly obscure to have as part of the wordplay. HOUDINI is a rare example of the same word appearing in the concise and the cryptic on the same day.

    COD: HEN PARTY, ALTERCATION also good.

    Today’s question: what is the intersection between HOUDINI and Micawber (3dn)?

  8. …Of Starry Ice the grey grass and bare boughs.
    30 mins with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    NHO Soi-Disant. I must, erm, get out more.
    Thanks setter and G.
  9. Ahead of my average for another day. Like other commenters, I liked HEN PARTY and wondered about TANKER. And I was glad to have done some French for SOI-DISANT.

    Thanks, George, for the blog. A minor correction: Micawber was a character in David Copperfield (not Pickwick Papers).

    The “misery”, of course, is from the character’s quoted line: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

  10. A bit more of a push today at 20.21, but still inside my average. There was a diagonal streak across the puzzle which proved elusive, from 1ac in the north to 23ac in the south, and the HOMING bit of the pigeon was the reluctant last entry, as I failed to spot the UED “lofty”. I have no idea what other kind of pigeon I thought might exist.
  11. 34 minutes for this; it had a touch of the old-fashioned about it, but I’ve been reading Saki this week so perhaps that put me in the right mood. Not for spotting that LOI 21d was a hidden, mind, but at least I find myself in good company there…

    A lot put in on faith; no idea what the OG was doing in SHOGUN, or that FRAIRs are particularly itinerant (Chambers and the ODE give no support) but at least I remembered the referenced quote at 3d even though I’ve never read David Copperfield (it’s on my “incoming” shelf, but so are forty or fifty other books!)

  12. …after spending over 30 minutes to solve the first 5 clues.
    I didn’t particularly like ‘attenSHUN’ and I made a mess of FRIAR. I had no idea a friar was an itinerant. I put flier for want of something better.
    Thank you blogger and setter.
  13. 17:22. LOI SOUNDTRACK. I see I failed to parse SHOGUN, which I thought was maybe a homophone, never thinking of ‘SHUN. FRIAR held me up a bit as I didn’t equate one with an itinerant until I thought of Friar Tuck. COD to HEN PARTY.

    Edited at 2020-04-16 07:25 am (UTC)

  14. Very enjoyable. All vocabulary was well known to me. Liked HEN PARTY and UNWASHED. I might award COD to SPIT as a fine example of a hidden clue.
  15. Read 1A, thought STRUMPET, and decided it was another slightly old fashioned offering. So it proved with for example DEAD RECKONING that modern technology has rendered obsolete, thank goodness. Try navigating an aeroplane by dead reckoning in a strong cross wind!

    Anyway, pleasant enough relatively easy puzzle with SPIT an excellent clue.

    1. … only makes old techniques obsolete when it works. I’ve just been listening to 13 Minutes To The Moon, series 2, an excellent BBC podcast about the almost disastrous Apollo 13 mission. When their navigation equipment became unusable because of a massive power failure, they navigated their way home with, among other things, direct sightings of the sun, stars and a shadow on the Earth’s surface. Plus, I guess, a pencil, paper, a set of trigonometry tables and a big vote of thanks to themselves that they didn’t all goof off during maths lessons at school.

      Excellent listening anyway in these necessarily idle times. A search on the BBC website should find it.

      1. It’s worth pointing out, I think, that Apollo 13 launched in 1970 – some 50 years ago. Navigation systems have improved just a tad since then.

        My navigation training included dead reckoning. I’ve no idea if they still teach it but quite likely not.

        1. Dead reckoning was certainly touched upon in the robotics course when I did computer science at Warwick, but there’s a panoply of cheap sensory equipment you could use instead these days.

          The replica Matthew has a replica traverse board that you can take a look at, and I think that was the last time I heard anyone actually mentioning dead reckoning…

  16. Straightforward without being a biff-fest, mainly delayed by trying to catch the pigeon. HOUDINI might have taken longer if not, as noted, I had already found him in the quick puzzle. Mr Micawber made me think wistfully of the cinema, which I am missing a lot – seeing Peter Capaldi play him in Armando Iannucci’s version of David Copperfield (less than three months ago) seems like a lifetime ago now…
  17. The word ‘target’ made me think I must be looking for another word for a clay pigeon.
    1. Uxbridge. Took me a long time, too, to see that the pigeon was heading for its loft. Held up at the end by SPIT (not seen at all) and tanker, which doesn’t feel right.

    2. Uxbridge English Dictionary.
      Lofty: a bit like a loft
      The UED is a product of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, possibly the funniest ever radio half hour much enhanced by the only just late but very great Tim Brooke-Taylor

      1. Thanks Isla and Z. I actually have a copy of the complete UED in my desk at work, although that’s not much use when I’m WFH.
  19. 17:54, getting stuck for quite a while at the end on ALTERCATION and TANKER.

    Quick Q to those of you who do both the quick cryptic and 15×15, which do you do first?

    I only recently started doing the quick and for a while did that first, thinking it would warm up the old solving muscles. Unfortunately it seemed to put my mindset in completely the wrong mode for the main puzzle, so I’ve flipped.

    1. These days, I always work upwards in difficulty level, having had the same thought as you that a pre-match warm-up is always a good thing. Impossible to say if it’s helped, really, I suspect it makes very little difference…
    2. I do the quick most of the time, and the quick cryptic maybe a third to half the time. I always do the 15×15 first, for similar reasons. The mindset is different as you say, and I often get completely stuck on a couple of words (my times are often quite rubbish) and fairly often can’t finish at all without cheating so it’s not much of a confidence-booster.
      I always submit off leaderboard, partly because I often cheat and partly because I can’t be bothered to take particular care with it or check for typos as I do with the main cryptic.
    3. QC for breakfast but just on paper with all sorts of distractions, 15×15 for lunch via the club site under proper controlled conditions.

      Edited at 2020-04-16 12:15 pm (UTC)

      1. QC first to ensure that brain is functioning correctly, then blog it here before moving to 15×15.
    4. I do the Concise, the QC and then the 15×15, often with a pause for porridge between the QC and the 15×15.
      1. 15×15 first then the QC to relax – except sometimes on a Monday I do the QC first so I am in gear for what hopefully will be the doddle-day offering. I just wish Jack would always blog the Monday QC!
  20. 11:24, held up a bit at the end trying and failing to see why SPIT was anything other than a slightly weak cryptic definition. After a minute or two I just shrugged and put it in.
    I was also unsure about ‘itinerant’ in the definition for FRIAR. None of the usual dictionaries specify this (although they all say ‘mendicant’) but Wiki says ‘the term distinguishes the mendicants’ itinerant apostolic character’. Fair enough.
  21. Ho hum. A bit too chewy today – spent far too long on the SW corner, and couldn’t for the life of me see the parsing for FRIAR until the explanation here.

    COD APPROXIMATELY with an honourable mention for CUBIST, just because I like seeing ‘bis’ used.

  22. Nothing horse-scaring, twenty minutes, LOI PLIANT and SPIT, took an age to see why it was SPIT and like jackkt felt silly when saw why. No problem with GOING NATIVE, frequent expression heard in my 12 years in France for expats who try to be French (which is IMO impossible, culturally, even if you get citizenship!).
    Not convinced soi-disant means pretending, but I guess it’s fairly close.
  23. Very slow to get going this morning but picked up the pace as things went along. Apparently the boffins in New Jersey have invented a SPIT test for covid that’s much safer for the people administering it. How long will it take to reach Rhinebeck NY I wonder. The body-count was a bit wince-inducing but that’s not the setter’s fault as Jack says, 21.06
  24. A gentle saunter through in about 50 minutes today.HOMING PIGEON went in early on but left the first part of 16 ac. ending in I. Since SKI obviously didn’t fit I was a bit flummoxed for a while until I had sorted out the anagrist.

    I’m always slightly surprised when our setters bung in a French term, though I shouldn’t be, given the number of years I’ve been doing these things and that French is my second language.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dvae.

  25. … longer than it took me to solve today’s QC.
    I particularly enjoyed APPROXIMATELY, HEN PARTY and STARRY-EYED which were very satisfying.
    I may well try the 15×15 again with so much more time on my hands these days!
    1. Assuming you didn’t take a ridiculously long time over the QC, that’s an outstanding achievement ! I was three times as long on this one.
  26. How embarrassment. Completely missed the hidden SPIT, so tanked on TANKER as well for a one hour DNF. HOUDINI, the ‘lofty target’ and the ‘Plebs are so great, they say…’ almost made up for the frustration.
  27. ….to try to forget what it was like at home (but it didn’t really work).

    Thoroughly enjoyed this one, despite a slow start. This wasn’t helped by pencilling in “body” at 12A.

    FOI RATTY
    LOI PLIANT
    COD SPIT (HOUDINI was good too)
    TIME 14:34

  28. RAW went in first, followed by MISERLY, then I was becalmed in the NW and moved on to the east, where the SHOGUNs reside, with the CUBISTs and NUTS. HOUDINI sprang into view GOING nowhere, as I didn’t decode the NATIVE until the final denouement with FRIAR. The PIGEON was unqualified for quite some time, but once I’d established it was loftward bound, I spotted the pretentious SOI DISANT. Lots to like in this puzzle: HEN PARTY, FLAPPER and APPROXIMATELY, which was fun to construct. I finally got on TRACK at 1d, which allowed me to add STRUMPETS to the great UNWASHED and head back to finish off with GOING NATIVE and put aside any thoughts of a (way)FARER at 19a. 36:01. Thanks setter and George.
  29. 25.57. As with the previous two days got stuck on one word- spit. Well camouflaged hidden word I thought. Otherwise steady progress, LOI tanker once I guessed spit.
    COD for me was strumpet and I also liked shogun and cubist. Now for Friday ooh er.
  30. FOI STRUMPET, then RAW and SOUNDTRACK. Unusual for me to start at the beginning. All this practice is undoubtedly helping.
    MY LOI was CARPETBAG where I persisted in trying to fit the rage inside the CAR.
    Did not parse everything but did spot Spit. Also wondered about the travelling FRIAR.
    Finished just after lunch. Most enjoyable. David
  31. I agree with horryd! I really enjoyed this. Lots of fun clues. I wasn’t quick which somehow didn’t bother me today. I had one typo despite a quick check before submitting.

    COD: SPIT. I didn’t spot the hidden spit.

    2. Sir/Madam, you are very unusual in that respect! Regards,

      The Loose Canon (sic).

  32. I should probably have posted this earlier but forgot…
    I am getting a 403:Forbidden message when I try to access the club site on my laptop. Has anyone had this before, and if so have you managed to fix it? I have tried clearing cookies, which is pretty much the only IT-related thing I know how to do (apart from switching things off and on again, and a tiny bit of HTML code for blogging!)
    1. Clearing Browsing data for the last 4 weeks is my first action with my Chrome Browser and usually fixes the problem. Sometime I need to sign out of the Times website and log back in again too.
    2. I had same problem a couple of weeks ago. Error message every time I tried to go to the site. Eventually did a Google search for the times crossword and having clicked on one of the results it asked me to sign in and then all worked normally.
      IT is fantastic when it works but so frustrating when it doesn’t.
      Regards
    3. FWIW I had this problem a couple of weeks back when using Chrome to access the puzzles on my tablet. As a short term fix to access the puzzles I downloaded Firefox. To resolve the issue with Chrome I went to settings, apps, Chrome on my device and cleared cache. The problem persisted so eventually I uninstalled Chrome completely and then downloaded it again. That’s a bit drastic and will get rid of any favourites you’ve saved or auto-filling for forms or any sites and passwords you might have saved (it was a bit difficult remembering my tfTT login) but none of that bothered me too much and it resolved the issue.
      1. Thanks SB, and others. I’ll try all of these things, although I’m a bit reluctant to lose all of my log-in data.
        1. I get it about twice a week, and simply reloading the page has always cleared it so far.
    4. I always open the club site in Incognito/Private mode but in recent times even that has been giving me the 403 error, so I now additionally have to go to the main Times site, log in there, and then click on Crossword Club in the Puzzles section to get back to the club site.
  33. 33:35. This one kept me on my toes. I never really tuned into the wavelength so it was always a slightly skew-whiff never entirely comfortable solve. Hen party was very good. I finished in the NW with LOIs soundtrack and the great unwashed. A satisfyingly chewy completion.
  34. Two in a row, and the third this week. I could get used to this. Bunged in CUBIST from def and checkers (always miss BIS), and missed the hidden SPIT, but apart from that, all parsed and correct in 22:08. Last few were in the SE with FRIAR last in.

    Edited at 2020-04-16 02:20 pm (UTC)

  35. Must be having a bad day. Completely off the wavelength with this one, and had to come here to complete. SW corner had me flummoxed.
  36. 23:03. No dramas. Briefly fell asleep, so could have been quicker, I guess. Thanks g.
  37. Took me ages to get this one out.

    Had never heard of CARPETBAG, or indeed pet for fit of temper, so in the end it went in on a wing and a prayer as the best thing I could think of. SPIT took me embarrassingly long to see, SOI-DISANT was a term I didn’t know but sounded right and was gettable from the anagram, and I didn’t associate FRIAR with being itinerant. Have only just now figured out why HOMING PIGEON works as a cryptic definition, so I hesitated for a long time before putting it in. CUBIST went in unparsed as well, as did SHOGUN before I figured it out. Overall a taxing but enjoyable workout.

    FOI Raw
    LOI Carpetbag
    COD Hen party

  38. I scuppered myself in the SW corner by confidently entering “limber” for 22ac, my pruned creeper being a (c)limber. Drat! Jeffrey
    1. That’s a great example of wrong answer superbly parsed (WASP) , irritatingly hard to dismiss once it’s landed.
    2. That’s a great example of wrong answer superbly parsed (WASP) , irritatingly hard to dismiss once it’s landed.
  39. Appalling that 12A was left in. I can understand them leaving the answer in but they should have altered this insensitive clue.
  40. Took me ages (an hour 15 minutes) to wrap my brain around many of the clues, but I did manage in the end. CARPETBAG I knew from my American history lessons in school, since the Northerners who went to the former Confederate states during Reconstruction after the Civil War were called carpetbaggers, since that is perhaps how they brought their baggage with them. I completely misparsed SHOGUN, since I heard “SHO(W) GUN” and thought perhaps letting your weapon be visible was the error in the field. But some bits were really fun (the great UNWASHED, the HEN PARTY).
  42. Not especially enjoyable.

    NHO SOI-DISANT – ‘O’ Level French didn’t stretch that far.

  43. I kicked myself for the few clues I muffed, rather than thinking “How the heck could anyone get that?” as I did with some recent ones. Clues were witty and not laboured.
    In Oz I see these a couple of weeks late.

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