Times 27645 – one term or another

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I took a gentle 29 minutes for this pleasant puzzle, parsing as I went along. There were no real unknowns, although 7d is not a word I’d often seen and 15d is a word that looks as if it was invented for the crossword. I suspect someone in a hurry could post a single digit time and our usual speed kings go under 5 minutes. Explaining 21a properly worried me a little, but I enjoyed 16a the most for its witty definition. Unusually, there is only one anagram clue, at 17d.

Across
1 Is hotel involved in chart error? (6)
MISHAP – MAP = chart, insert IS and H for hotel.
4 Illogical argument against getting married? (8)
CONFUSED – CON (argument against) FUSED (married).
10 Time to abandon unbiased and clear computer system (6,3)
NEURAL NET – NEUTRAL (unbiased) loses its T, NET = clear.
11 Spar joining front half of ship to rear (5)
SHAFT – SH(ip), AFT (rear of ship).
12 Sent material made an impression with staff (10,4)
REGISTERED POST – REGISTERED = made an impression with, POST = staff.
14 Expression of surprise about recording getting top position? (5)
ALPHA – AHA ! around LP old recording.
16 Something worn for going out, good in nearby shopping centre (9)
NIGHTGOWN – NIGH (near) TOWN (shopping centre), insert G. Going out as in going to sleep.
18 End of serenade — wordless singing — my German is a battle (2,7)
EL ALAMEIN – E (end of serenade) LA LA (wordless singing) MEIN (German for mine). Instantly biffed as soon the German for mine comes to mind. Jawohl.
20 Second, then less specific date reference (5)
MONTH – MO(ment) = second, Nth = less specific (than second).
21 Mike expert initially modifies: hearing OK now? (10,4)
MICHAELMAS TERM – MICHAEL (Mike) MASTER (expert) M (initially modifies). The parsing is easy enough, but explaining the definition may not be. Michaelmas term is (at Oxford) the Autumn term, so named for the feast of St Michaeland All Angels on Sept. 29th. So not “now”. However the judicial system also uses these terms (Michaelmas, Hilary, Trinity) for periods when trials can be held, so I assume that’s what our setter is intending by “hearing OK now”. Other thoughts welcome.
25 Flower: item for sale by our group (5)
LOTUS – LOT (item for sale) US (our group).
26 Corruption? Small decrease after leader’s deposed (9)
SEDUCTION – S for small, DEDUCTION has its D removed. EDIT or if you prefer, as proposed below, REDUCTION has its R removed. Either works for me.
27 Friendly lad displacing new guy to embrace one (8)
SOCIABLE – SON (lad) loses N, then CABLE = guy, insert I for one.
28 Be very critical of accepting odd bits of talk, brooking no argument (6)
FLATLY – FLAY (be very critical) has odd letters of T a L k inserted.

Down
1 Pitman inspires awe as a capturer of thoughts? (4-6)
MIND-READER – MINER = pitman, insert DREAD = awe. No shorthand needed.
2 Weapon a Parisian dropped being pierced (5)
STUNG – STUN GUN (weapon) loses the final UN = a in French.
3 Body of water in addition almost filling region (4,3)
ARAL SEA – AREA (region) has ALS(O) = ‘in addition, almost’ inserted. When I was at school, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest inland body of water in the world, somewhere over there in the southern USSR. Now it’s dried up into 2 very much smaller lakes between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and a huge dry seabed. Not global warming, but Soviet irrigation schemes did the damage.
5 Unusual uproar after loss of silver (5)
OUTRE – OUTRAGE (uproar) loses AG, Ag, silver. Outre in French without the accent means ‘besides’, but outré means excessive, I think in English it means bizarre or unconventional, hence unusual.
6 One very particular about things in song and dance fund (7)
FUSSPOT – FUSS (song and dance) POT (fund).
7 Ship carrying pale blue soft material (9)
SWANSDOWN – SS (ship) has WAN inserted, then DOWN = blue.
8 Information a little upsetting (4)
DATA – A TAD reversed. My FOI.
9 They sense poet’s beheaded after capturing old Queen in revolutionary way (8)
ANTENNAE – (D)ANTE = poet beheaded, insert Queen ANNE reversed; (D)ANT(ENNA)E.
13 Well-off, linking those people to individual in one US city (2,3,5)
IN THE MONEY – I, NY = one US city, insert THEM (those people) and ONE (individual).
15 Photograph capturing an island in it, being especially good at keys? (9)
PIANISTIC – AN IS inside IT all inside PIC.
17 Satellite many misinterpreted to have jagged edge all round (8)
GANYMEDE – (MANY)* inside (EDGE)*. Our first and only anagram is a double one. Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter, first noted by Galileo Galilei in 1610. He must have had better eyesight than I have.
19 Inability to talk quietly, interrupting exclamation over continent (7)
APHASIA – P (quiety) inside AH ! (exclamation), ASIA.
20 American I caught in bad French show (7)
MUSICAL – US, I, C, inside MAL French for bad.
22 Support a bit of leisure — after relaxation (5)
EASEL – L a bit of leisure, after EASE = relaxation.
23 US-born poet upset John? Not entirely (5)
ELIOT – JOHN in America = TOILET, reverse that and delete the initial T (‘not entirely’).
24 Promotes eradicating source of Government benefit (4)
PLUS – PLUGS (promotes) has the G from government erased.

​

58 comments on “Times 27645 – one term or another”

  1. I managed to overlook the blank squares in 24d when I hit the ‘submit’ button, as well as the sign telling me I hadn’t completed the puzzle; if a buzzer had gone off, no doubt I wouldn’t have heard it. I solved 24d, first taking a moment or two off to scream some obscenities, in about 10 seconds. SWANSDOWN biffed, parsed post-submission, SOCIABLE just biffed. MICHAELMAS TERM suddenly appeared to me from a couple of checkers; it no doubt helped that I’m re-reading “Bleak House”, with its famous opening chapter beginning “London. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.”

    Edited at 2020-04-22 05:54 am (UTC)

  2. I biffed REGISTERED MAIL and it took me some time to realize since I’d never heard of SWANSDOWN and so it didn’t leap to mind to show me the error of my ways for a time. I was bemused by MICHAELMAS TERM since I thought it was in Autumn, so the definitino went over my head. I had no idea it was a legal term (at a different time). But all correct in 30 minutes in the end.
  3. PIANISTIC? I shall drop that into my next conversation.

    Liked MICHAELMAS TERM, and parsed it in the judicial sense.

    Galileo used a telescope to spot Ganymede, Io, Callisto and Europa, as they were later called. Galileo called them the Medicean stars, to honour his patrons. The discovery was immensely important because it showed that heavenly bodies orbited something other than the Earth, effectively dismantling the geocentric model.

    Why only two posts?

    21’20” thanks Pip and setter.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 06:19 am (UTC)

    1. When I tried to look in earlier I got a ‘server not found’ error – so I’ve come back later. Had the same problem. Maybe others
  4. Not so easy for me as I NHO (or HF) NEURAL NET, and although I worked out the first word as NEU{t}RAL I was unable to think of a suitable second word until I had both its checkers. You may take it that neither ANTENNAE nor OUTRE hurried to reveal themselves to me.

    We used to have MICHAELMAS TERM at my school so it went in easily enough but without understanding the definition ‘hearing OK now’.

    Never heard of FLAY meaning ‘criticise’ other than figuratively in the expression ‘flay (someone) alive’.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 05:26 am (UTC)

    1. More properly, artificial neural network, supposedly based on, or inspired by, the natural neural networks in the brain. The resemblance is dubious.
  5. 34 minutes, which was probably helped by my not really knowing when MICHAELMAS is anyway, and therefore not being too put off by the definition seeming to be “now” until I’d worked out the wordplay.

    I also didn’t know SWANSDOWN, where it took until the last crosser for me to stop trying to crowbar SOAPSTONE in, and had apparently completely forgotten T. S. ELIOT, but perhaps that’s because I’ve recently read Silas Marner…

    FOI 8d DATA, LOI 15d PIANISTIC, which I’d thought of but had problems parsing earlier on.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 07:06 am (UTC)

  6. On reading 19d I thought I was going to learn a word meaning ‘inability to talk quietly’ as I know someone I could apply this to. Unfortunately the clue didn’t work out like that.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 07:14 am (UTC)

  7. ..an expression already in use in Oxford in the late sixties, if the scriptwriter to one Endeavour episode is to be believed. 39 minutes. Everything was parsed, although with the same uncertainty about MICHAELMAS TERM as others. I thought there must be a legal reason for the apparent anachronism. Perhaps this was one occasion when the Oxford education was a hindrance. Who just said there have been many others? I didn’t actually know of LOI SWANSDOWN, but the crossers just about gave it. Similarly, PIANISTIC was constructed rather than known, although I have since convinced myself I have heard that before. NEURAL NETwork was the expression I knew, and it took me a couple of minutes to drop the work. Nice puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.
    1. Easy to mishear, but he said “confused, uncle”. I sense the development of another urban myth that could easily be prevented by a quick Google search!
      1. I didn’t get this from t’internet but my own ears. They may well have misheard, but I can’t google everything I ‘hear’ to check out how many decibels my hearing is down.
  8. Found this a bit of a slog (and shouldn’t have, as a WITCH of 132 demonstrates) although popped a few in easily enough. NHO but could deduce PIANISTIC, didn’t parse SOCIABLE. Sneaky to have Mike meaning Michael rather than the usual M.

    COD MICHAELMAS TERM, which was nearly LOI too.

    Yesterday’s answer: a bit of a chestnut, but typewriter can be written using just the keys on the top row of itself (as can repertoire, perpetuity and proprietor, should you prefer). Inspired by SPACE BAR.

    Today’s question: who became famous because of an interval show at the Eurovision Song Contest?

    3. As your Qs are inspired by answers in the grid I was going to guess at mind reader Ganymede Swansdown but out of the corner of my eye I spotted something that set a huge bell clanging.

      Entertainer reinterpreted Hamlet facilely (7,7)

  9. 42 minutes and off wavelength a little on this one. Lots to enjoy, but the very obscure definition in 21a held me up for ages: after years at school and university I could not get past Michaelmas not being now. Thanks for explaining it Pip. I rather think 26a knocks the R off reduction, not the D off deduction as suggested in your excellent blog.

  10. And yet another friendly stroll in the park. Knew NEURAL NET of course – a powerful tool in the world of artificial intelligence – used in pattern recognition such as face identification

    No idea what M-TERM definition was all about and seems somewhat unsatisfactory. A pity because I enjoyed the rest of it. Well blogged Pip

  11. 17:35. Like Paul I had a biffed REGISTERED MAIL at first, but FUSSPOT corrected me. LOI OUTRE, thinking “What does AGOUTRE mean?”. Doh!
  13. As a former music teacher I would mention that I have heard the word PIANISTIC a lot and have even said it myself on occasion, though I’d tend to use to describe a passage of music rather than a musician as perhaps suggested in the clue.

    Also I forgot to mention that I was fortunate that GANYMEDE came up only yesterday as the answer in a daily trivia quiz I complete on line. It was an option in a list of satellites from which one had to name the largest.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 07:24 am (UTC)

  14. 25 mins pre-brekker.
    MERs at the ‘hearing ok now’ def and shopping centre=town and ‘jagged’ as anagrind.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
      1. Your fingerprints are all over it.
        I thought town = shopping in the medieval sense of a town having commerce and a market while a village or hamlet does not. But I did have to think to think that.
  15. Just enough quirks to make me have to stop and think. I thought there were more than the usual number of clues where a not-so-obvious word (reduction, son, outrage, Dante) lost letters, but maybe I think that because I often find those tricky.
    I liked LaLa for wordless singing. Thx Pip and setter.
  16. Pleasant enough but I was slow at just short of 50 minutes.

    FOI 1ac MISHAP followed by 1dn MINDREADER (Dennis Waterman)

    LOI 9dn ANTENNAE – for some reason I was off the radar.

    COD 23dn ELIOT – his English wife Valerie is worth a visit on Wikipedia esp. the Scrabble and the cheese!

    WOD SWANSDOWN – as I read this on the week-end in a 1930’s Frank Godden ad for his De Luxe Warwick stamp album – which boasted a ‘swansdown finish interior’ (Godden’s Gazette). Little did I know it would come in so handy so quickly! Zzzzzz….

    I’d never heard of NEUTRAL NET but no difficulty.

    I suppose Mike is synonymous with Michael?

    My mother was PIANISTIC

  17. Pleasant midweek solve with brief pauses over the term (I remembered the legal usage, but only after a minute – I know time is passing in a very odd way right now, but surely it isn’t September already, thought my brain), the musical term, and “town”. If I’m going shopping, I often say I’m going into town, I think it’s close enough. And ayone who’s been watching the latest adventures of Admiral Picard will be well up on NEURAL NETS by now.
  18. Thanks, Pip, especially for STUNG and NIGHTGOWN. I was going to suggest that a question mark was necessary at the end of 16ac but you explained “going out” well.
    And thank you for MICHAELMAS TERM.
  19. Today’s crosswords have been very kind and this was no exception. A completed grid after 35 minutes but with no idea about MICHAELMAS TERM which I only barely knew wasn’t ‘now’. We’re IN THE MONEY and MUSICAL have put a tune in my head…
  20. MISHAP went straight in followed by ARAL SEA. I then took a scattergun approach and wandered around the grid. Apart from DATA and SHAFT the NE held out until late in the proceedings, when REGISTERED POST gave me FUSSPOT, and I finally figured out the unknown SWANSDOWN. I had no idea what was going on with MICHAELMAS TERM, and put it in purely from the crossing letters. After completing the NE I went back to my one missing entry, 23d. The penny dropped eventually. 34:09. Thanks setter and Pip.
  21. 13:58. Now that I’m solving online and submitting to leader board I seem to have developed a fear of pink squares so there were a few here I would normally have biffed (such as Michaelmas Term, in the money and El Alamein) that I actually took a while to parse fully before going pat.

  22. Michaelmas term beyond me, unknown in any sense so I was never going to get it. Its crossers uncertain as pianistic only a guess, didn’t see the double containment. Found the clues quite wordy overall; had to guess many answers, then tease out convoluted parsings to confirm.
    Proprietor was my guess yesterday; then saw Horryd’s typewriter.
    Has anyone read any Afferbeck Lauder? I vaguely remember from about 1970 that when the queen went swan-upping he went swan-downing.
  23. ….NEURAL NET is considerably faster than REGISTERED POST. Post-solve parsing was required for SOCIABLE, PIANISTIC, and MICHAELMAS TERM (I was another in NATO alphabet mode for ages). It was fortunate that “shotg” was completely infeasible at 2D.

    FOI SHAFT (Richard Roundtree)
    LOI MICHAELMAS TERM (I never bothered about dates)
    COD NIGHTGOWN (loved “going out”) *
    TIME 12:26

    * I love going out, and I sure as Hell miss it right now !

  24. DNF. A good time for me (14.28) spoiled by a mistyped Micheelmas. Aaaargh! Very annoying. An enjoyable puzzle though.
  25. Enjoyed this.

    Like many others I had no idea of MICHAELMAS TERM in its non-Oxford sense, but the cluing was fair. Didn’t understand why NIGHTGOWN was for going out until coming here, and I was stuck on ANTENNAE for a long time until I remembered “old queen” can be the specific early 18th century one. Needed both the checkers for the second word of NEURAL NET too, and I tried to fit “socially” instead of SOCIABLE for 27a before figuring it out.

    One question (apologies, I’m sure it’s come up before but I haven’t been here that long): how does “island” give you IS?

    FOI El Alamein
    LOI Neural net
    COD Swansdown

    1. Chambers has “Is.” as an abbreviation with “Island(s), Isle(s)” as the second definition. The first definition is the book of Isaiah, but don’t give the setters any ideas, as it will cause grief with half the solvers posting here 😉
  26. This one was well within my ken so of course I enjoyed it. Georgette Heyer’s young ladies often carry SWANSDOWN muffs and wear pelisses trimmed with the stuff. When you are a fledgling barrister you are obliged to keep the law terms by eating 12 dinners at your Inn of Court. Those were happy days for me when my particular college buddy and I took the train to London on a Friday and ate dinner at Lincoln’s that evening and Saturday and lunch with the Benchers on Sunday before staggering back to Paddington (there was always a great deal of wine). 16.33
    1. I ate once at Lincoln’s Inn when becoming a barrister was a youthful ambition. The food was a not particularly convincing liver and bacon, but the company was memorable, the amazing Lord Denning. Had I then known more about the law, I might have been even more starstruck.
      1. I wish I had known you then Z. The food was so-so as you say but we used to put away a fair amount of wine. There was one memorable so-called Grand Night that happened to coincide with when John and I were eating our dinners. The Queen Mum and Princess Margaret were there so we positioned ourselves at the very end of one of the long student tables thinking we were quite safe from official notice and proceeded to work our way through the sherry, white wine, red wine and port. At the end, to our utter dismay, the royal party decided to work its way down the line of students shaking hands. I didn’t dare try to execute a proper curtsey and John kept a restraining hand on the back of my gown just in case and afterwards we went reeling home on the tube to my parents’ house.
  27. 9:00. A bit of a biff-fest for me. 21 was typical: my brain vaguely registered that the timing was off but with Mike for MICHAEL and a few other checkers it was obviously the answer so in it went. Not sure I’ve ever come across SWANSDOWN but it’s hardly a stretch.

    Edited at 2020-04-22 11:43 am (UTC)

  28. This morning’s QC was a bottom-up solve.I solved this top to bottom but ended up stuck on three so came here.
    Had no idea about Michaelmas Term and had to read the explanation above twice.
    I was not helped by a couple of incorrect biffs -TAGUS at 25a (tag, an item for sale?) and MOHICAN at 20d; harder to explain that one, erreur mauvaise.
    Otherwise as above. David
  29. Not my finest hour. Never got going on this puzzle and gave up after 38 minutes with about a quarter of the grid blank- just like my mind. Ah well, one of those days when you can’t make a connection with the setter.
  30. Fell asleep while looking at 13d so no idea what my time should have been, and definitely not IN THE MONEY. At least our setter was very helpful with the unknowns APHASIA and PIANISTIC.
    Liked NIGHTGOWN, which most of us are wearing all day…

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