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. Is the setter saying that the legal Michaelmas Term is different to the academic one, and implying that we are currently in that term? (‘now’). I’m confused as to the clue’s definition. Mr Grumpy
    1. I agree it was confusing, I decided (as it’s now between Hilary and Trinity terms) either he meant ‘now’ in the sense of holding a hearing only during a term time, or he set the puzzle in the autumn when it was Michaelmas term, and the editor didn’t notice that it was no longer “now”.
      1. I assume it was the latter, in the way that you might define December as ‘mince pies eaten now.’ It’s a bit odd though.

        Edited at 2020-04-22 04:20 pm (UTC)

      2. Not a good clue but my interpretation was that ‘now’ is referring to the answer taken in isolation and not to the current time of year. It’s for the solver to arrive from wordplay at an answer when a hearing would be OK.
  2. 29’10 with no idea of the M. term definition. I doubt the ‘now’ refers to anything but the term in which trials were held. Pretty grim clue, wrenching a link with ‘mike’; a pity as quite a nice puzzle otherwise. Good to be reminded of swansdown, lovely word.
  3. Thankfully my name is Mike/Michael and my son goes to a ridiculous grammar school where they refer to autumn term as michaelmas term. Didn’t get the hearing reference.

    Plenty unparsed or DNK such as SOCIABLE, SWANSDOWN and CONFUSED = illogical. Didn’t get that last at all.

  4. Again too late to comment. A slowish steady solve with no unknowns but more than a few biffs. 27 minutes Ann
    1. Never too late! My blogs are often responded to (I get notified) weeks after the event. And a special I did for the TLS on the day it wasn’t published still gets responses years on, though mostly they offer hacking services, bogus credit cards and spousal spying.
      1. I do the crossword every morning in bed with my first cup of tea. It’s a routine and I feel strangely unsettled if I break it. But I’ve never got into a routine of checking TftT. If I’ve had problems I like to know where I went wrong but otherwise… It’s a great blog though. I’m so glad I found it.
  5. I was more troubled by the parsing for MICHAELMAS TERM than the definition, which didn’t seem problematical at the time. But spotting that Mike wasn’t M and seeing Michael Master (duh!) added a couple of minutes to my time. I still came through in a shade under 17 minutes.
    I was mildly surprised at the ignorance of swansdown, though my local Dunelm (other retailers are available) only carries duck- and goose-down. I suppose, with all swans belonging to Liz, harvesting the raw materials might be tricky.
  6. I am a newbie among the referenced masters but had no problem with Michaelmas since I share the date with my birth. I took the ‘hearing ok now?’ in the sense that we are NOW HEARING from our government that schools will be OK to return in the Autumn.
  7. Agree. It normally means ‘effective on the keyboard’ and does not imply skill on the part of the player.
  8. Didn’t finish until Sunday so four days for this one. Michaelmas Term took ages.Enjoyed El Alamein v.much

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