Times 27661 – When Horryd Met the God-intoxicated Man

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A very neat and tidy Monday puzzle, offering something for everyone without ever threatening towards the overtaxing. A few chestnuts, a trip down memory lane to one of Monty Python’s best known skits (SAY. NO. MORE.), a tantalising glimpse into the childhood of one of our own, a rather nice little cryptic definition and a reference to an enlightenment philosopher who baffles most people (possibly including himself) combined to make this a very pleasant sub-20 solve for me.

I am expecting fast times from the usual suspects: Magoo, Verlaine, Jason, Heardy and the Snitchmeister.

ACROSS

1 Mothballs, feature of a wardrobe? (7)
SHELVES – double definition (DD), one whimsical; very nice
5 Order shed to be picked up (5)
CASTE – sounds like ‘cast’
9 One from sultanate soon to be recalled (5)
OMANI – reversal of IN A MO
10 Tough coming together around sport (9)
GRUELLING – RU in GELLING; see ‘sport’, think rugby union (RU)
11 Betrays count — and his successor? (5,2)
TELLS ON – TELL in the sense of to count votes + SON (whimsical consanguinity); rather nice too
12 Model mostly impressive, in my opinion (7)
EPITOME – EPI[c] TO ME
13 What makes Salerno a famous city (3,7)
NEW ORLEANS – anagram* of SALERNO, marked by and including NEW; this place is known to me via its football team, Salernitana, which crept into Serie A once
15 Stuff to knock back? It’ll make you tiddly (4)
MARC – reversal of CRAM; MARC is a drink preferred by crossword setters to its Italian equivalent grappa, because it’s handier for filling in grids
18 Story’s a hoot, on reflection (4)
SAGA – reversal of A GAS
20 Toy with ape’s wobbly nose (10)
PEASHOOTER – APES* HOOTER; who didn’t have images of horryd terrorising the pipsqueaks at his prep school when they read this?
23 Popular novelist continues to work in kitchen? (7)
COOKSON – COOKS ON; Catherine Cookson wrote more than 100 books, none of which I have read. Perhaps Olivia or myrtilus or one of the TLS crowd can tell us more…
24 Manage to do it across the pond (4,3)
MAKE OUT – DD and a bit of a naughty one, to boot; while ‘How did you make out?’ means ‘How did you manage?’ to upstanding folk, to some Americans, I’m afraid, it means something that could have been lifted straight from the pages of my current reading, The 1,001 Nights. Not just canoodling, but full on…SAY. NO. MORE.
25 Lying tout beaten up? It wasn’t me! (3,6)
NOT GUILTY – LYING TOUT*
26 Past poetically revealed by wizened local, looking back (5)
OLDEN – reverse hidden in the preantepenultimate and antepenultimate words
27 Prod naked figure holding Gorgon’s head (5)
NUDGE – G[orgon] in NUDE; a nod is as good as a wink to a blind bat…
28 Yankee bruiser in Bow, a worker on the tracks (7)
YARDMAN – Y (NATO speak for the letter Y) ‘ARDMAN (a tough Cockney, alwight?)

DOWN

1 Frivolous conduct entertains everyone (7)
SHALLOW – ALL in SHOW (frivolous conduct)
2 English teacher cautious in absence of head delegate (8)
EMISSARY – E MISS (teacher) [w]ARY
3 Picky eater’s vehicle containing 50% eggs (5)
VEGAN – EG[gs] in VAN; nice definition
4 Foolishly sneer at US wine (9)
SAUTERNES – SNEER AT US*; when I was courting my wife, I took her to a restaurant before heading to the comedy club next door. Instead of Sancerre, I ordered a bottle of Sauternes with the meal. Needless to say, we didn’t finish it. I think she found that funnier than the scheduled comedy.
5 Dog runs away from pitman (6)
COLLIE – COLLIE[r]
6 A last note turning up down under, written by a philosopher (7)
SPINOZA – PS (‘A last note’) reversed (‘turning up’) IN OZ (‘down under’…’written by…’) A (a); Baruch Spinoza, a great influence on Coleridge. I sometimes feel my job is redundant, so if you didn’t bother to work out the cryptic for this, a shout-out would be a tremendous fillip for me. Thanks.
7 Ship, heading off, symbol of military might? (5)
EAGLE – [b]EAGLE; one of Darwin’s ships, as it were
8 Claims guard’s involved in more than one scam (8)
CONTENDS -TEND (guard) in CONS (more than on scam)
14 Stop daughter leaving new partner for good (9)
ETERNALLY – [d]ETER (‘stop’, D[aughter] leaving) N ALLY
16 Looking after eccentric cigar nut (8)
CURATING – CIGAR NUT*
17 A Reading fan?
BOOKWORM – cryptic definition; this will mislead some by directing them to the Madejski Stadium in the Royal County of Berkshire; elegant and pithy
19 Crew suggested changing leader (7)
GLOATED – [G for f]LOATED; very good too. ‘CREW’ as in boasted
21 Rum in fashion briefly, as are grapes (7)
TRODDEN – ODD in TREN[d]
22 Convince Jenny to go by river (6)
ASSURE – ASS (Jenny or donkey) URE (river oop north)
23 A clergyman and all his works? (5)
CANON – nice DD
24 Chief has judge succeeded by unknown official (5)
MAYOR – MAJOR (chief) has its J replaced by Y (unknown); ‘succeed’ in its sense of taking the place left by, or taking over

87 comments on “Times 27661 – When Horryd Met the God-intoxicated Man”

  1. 8:52 – so faster than my average but not lightning. I was held up near the end by GLOATED which took a long time coming. I liked PEASHOOTER and SPINOZA.
  2. Slow going for a Monday. I never did get SPINOZA, so I’M REALLY GRATEFUL TO ULACA FOR EXPLAINING IT. I flung in BOASTED at 19d, wasting some time. NHO COOKSON. LOI BOOKWORM, for some reason.
  3. It was Gilles Deleuze who turned me on to Spinoza, of whom he wrote, “C’est sur Spinoza que j’ai travaillé le plus sérieusement selon les normes de l’histoire de la philosophie, mais c’est lui qui m’a fait le plus l’effet d’un courant d’air qui vous pousse dans le dos chaque fois que vous le lisez, d’un balai de sorcière qu’il vous fait enfourcher. Spinoza, on n’a même pas commencé à le comprendre, et moi pas plus que les autres.” “Spinoza is the one I worked on the most seriously according to the norms of the history of philosophy, but it was he who most gave me the feeling of a gust of wind that pushes you in the back each time you read him, of a witch’s broom that he makes you straddle. Spinoza, we’ve not begun to understand him, and myself no more than anyone else.”

    Fine puzzle! LOI GLOATED.

    I must have seen a book cover with that Cookson on it some time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen “succeeding” for “replacing” in this context before.

    When I was growing up, anyway, MAKE OUT merely heavy petting, at the most, but I see that Merriam-Webster now has going all the way as the first definition.

    Edited at 2020-05-11 01:48 am (UTC)

    1. I was going to make the same comment; no doubt a change in the definition reflecting a generational change in behavior.
  4. I too went down the BOASTED blind end, life being too short to try all 25 alternatives to find one that meant suggested. My LOI, ETERNALLY, took way too long. I think I was trying to find a word where I could remove D and add G.
  5. I too was going to mention the upgrade the UK dictionaries seem to have given Make Out. Instead I’ll say that my US pals will understand why I biffed LINEMAN when I saw Yankee Bruiser / track worker. I liked TellsOn. Thanks ulaca, and setter.
    (And special thanks to Guy for the highbrow quotation and translation).

    Edited at 2020-05-11 03:09 am (UTC)

    1. You’re welcome! To me a lineman is what my dad was, climbing poles for the Monongahela Power Company in West Virginia. And the eponymous subject of a great Jimmy Webb song, made famous by Glen Campbell.
      1. In the UK, they are called linesmen, the same as the guys who run up and down the line at football. The latter have became Assistant Referees more recently though, as if to confirm their delusions of adequacy. As a football-playing guy who had a long career in the electricity industry, I met many of both sorts. You could tell them apart. The guys who shinned up and down the pylons had good judgement and eyesight.
        Incidentally, is it the case that Jimmy Webb intended to write another verse to Wichita Lineman but that Glen Campbell recorded it before he had chance? Great song.
  6. Thanks for your confidence, U, but like “Heardy” I managed ahead of my normal time but not excessively so. It always takes me far too long to think of dog breeds.

    I’d give you a shout out on the blogging, but it might go to your head, and I figure that would be un-Australian. Also, I feel the need to channel galspray every now and then, and not just on those odd occasions when I come in a few seconds ahead of you.

    1. Thanks for the sentiment, and even more thanks for staying true to yourself. I wouldn’t want to have to bear the responsibility for unmanning you or anyone else.
  7. All the migratory birds are on the wire this morning – Glen Campbell redolent. Much impressed by Guy’s old man’s clamberings. I don’t think Lord Ulaca (Wanchai Central) is back to normal quite yet! Am I being compared to Spinoza!? Baffling!

    Time 27 minutes after a slowish first few overs.

    FOI 4dn SAUTERENES then a gap. (Sancerre everytime, unless the Chablis opened?).

    LOI 5ac CASTE

    COD 13ac NEWOR’LEANS

    WOD 20ac PEA SHOOTER – its been a long time.

    What’s the ruling on masks in Xiang Kong presently?

    Edited at 2020-05-11 04:51 am (UTC)

  8. Very high biff count for me on this one so many thanks for the blog, particularly SPINOZA. More thanks for the courting story though which, I’m afraid, called to mind some similar personal experiences.
  9. 32 minutes. I didn’t have a problem spotting SPINOZA at 6dn, although it’s a name I know only from crossword puzzles, but parsing it was another matter because of the setter having placed a redundant A at the beginning of the clue. Perhaps a bit dodgy in my view as it adds nothing to wordplay, definition or surface reading.

    Edited at 2020-05-11 05:19 am (UTC)

  11. A sharpish 21m for me, not bothering to parse 6d fully on the way through, so an obligatory shout-out to our blogger… FOI 1a SHELVES LOI 5a CASTE; it seems my strategy of leaving 5a/5d and coming back for them once I’d done the bottom half was a good one…

    I liked seeing MARC so close to TRODDEN, but I can’t see any continuance of that alcoholic theme.

  12. 21 minutes with LOI CONTENDS. This was a wickedly witty puzzle which seemed a cakewalk at first but then needed plenty of light bulb moments. COD to PEASHOOTER. But sorry U, I had parsed SPINOZA. “Make out” has always had an unambiguous meaning to me and I hadn’t previously seen it as American. Maybe it was introduced to Lancashire by those overpaid, overfed, oversexed airmen at Burtonwood celebrating VE Day. A very enjoyable puzzle. Thank you U and setter.

    Edited at 2020-05-11 06:52 am (UTC)

    1. The Warrington Guardian on-line was showing photos of the old Burtonwood hangars the other day.

      Edited at 2020-05-11 05:43 pm (UTC)

  13. About 22 mins pre-brekker.
    LOI was the convoluted Gloated.
    Thanks setter and U.
  14. My solving times seem to vary wildly, today’s was a good one, steady progress throughout. Do setters deliberately put in anagram red herrings like ‘toy with ape’s wobbly’? I like Chambers’ definition of MAKE OUT: ‘to engage in lovemaking (with) (chiefly N American slang)’, as I hadn’t thought it meant going ‘all the way’. Surely a vegan wouldn’t have any eggs in his or her van?

    COD GLOATING, hangs together nicely.

    Friday’s answer: the co-ruler of Andorra is the bishop of the nearby Spanish town of Urgell. Odd to have an independent country ‘ruled’ by people from two other countries.

    Today’s question: which dog breed is considered the most intelligent?

    2. Much more normal to be ruled by only one person from another country, as we Aussies are.
    3. We had one for 15 years. He was wonderful dog, one, as I told the children, who greatly increased the average intelligence of the household.
  15. A rapid 23m for me and very enjoyable too. LOI GLOATED took an age due to not recognising the irregular pp of crow: very clever, setter.

    I biffed SPINOZA from crossers (and one or two others) so came here to have all revealed, as usual. The blog is an essential part of my crossword experience, so never feel redundant, Ulaca! Speaking as a foot soldier, you bloggers are heroes all, educating and entertaining in equal measure – not to mention being the dust mote to the wondrous snowflake that is this forum. You are most appreciated!

    And you too, setter.

  16. 19 minutes, perhaps slowed by completing the Listener before settling down to it. Takes a while for the brain to relax into “words I’ve heard of” mode.
    The bottom right was my gluey section, so much so that I considered changing YARDMAN because I couldn’t get anything else to work around it. Last in was PEASHOOTER once I gave up trying to find an anagram of the first three words to mean nose.
    Compliments to U for a very fine and entertaining blog, though I did manage the wordplay for SPINOZA. Should I apologise?
  17. Didn’t find this as smooth going as most Mondays but not too disappointed to finish in 13.50. LOI gloated. Plenty of clues with appeal I thought- New Orleans, saga, peashooter and yardman being my favourites.
    The latter brings to mind the old chestnut about what’s the first question in a Scouse quiz- “who are you looking at?”

    Boom tish….

  18. Quite tricky in parts. I once tried to study SPINOZA and gave up completely defeated- incomprehensible!

    The use of CREW in 19D is particularly clever but fortunately we had a top rate blogger to steer us through the word maze and bring us unscathed to a successful finish … (that’s enough of that nonsense – Ed)

  19. 14:39 A pleasant Monday puzzle just chewy enough to stir the grey matter. I liked PEASHOOTER and NOT GUILTY.
  20. Neat crossword, neat blog.. thanks both.
    Some marc is very good, some very bad; best not to “knock it back” but to sip it with caution..
  21. I don’t see much merit in BOOKWORM. If the capital R wasn’t there in Reading it would be a straight definition rather than a cryptic one. And as it is, the capital R feels like a cheat because a bookworm is a reading fan, not a Reading fan. Or am I being too harsh?
    1. It’s just a casual red herring allowed by the interchangeable lower/upper case convention. (The herring could have an eyebrow lifted if it regards Reading fans as illiterates.)
  22. The cry of the Glasgow schoolboy: “It wisnae me, an ah wisnae the only wan.”
    1. You remind me of the 3-point defense proposed by the lawyer defending someone accused of stealing a valuable Ming vase: 1) my client did not take the vase; 2) anyway, it’s not an antique, it’s a fake; 3) anyway, he intended to return it.
    2. 🙂 Reminds me of something my son once said: ‘it’s not fair, you blame me for everything I do!’
    3. The presiding officer at the military disciplinary hearing – “Bring in the guilty man and his lying friends”.
  23. LOI = BOOKWORM. I live near the unpronounceable stadium in Bekshire, but was not misled since I have the good fortune to live with one of the Royal County’s leading bibliophiles!
  24. Nice Monday-style puzzle, with a very clever twist at the end in CREW, which took me a while to see through. I biffed SPINOZA, and made a note in the margin to the effect that the blogger would doubtless explain it, so no need for me to worry about such things.
  25. I didn’t have an issue with make out as it was clearly signposted as a US term and even in the UK it crops up often in dramas and films, I am a little more surprised that describing a vegan a s a picky eater wasn’t picked up on 🙂
    2. I think the question in the minds of the US solvers is that, in our day (for those of us older than 40), making out stopped well short (all too well short) of doing it, for which a different term was used.
  26. A pretty much top to bottom solve but SPINOZA was left unparsed. However, I did not weep; I did not wax indignant. I finally understood. Thanks ulaca.
  27. I built my SHELVES courtesy of the picky eater who was my FOI. I only managed to parse the OZA bit of our philosopher of the day, so thanks to our erudite blogger for filling in the details. I had come across Herr SPINOZA as one of Jeeves’ bits of light reading, as well as in previous crosswords. PEASHOOTER took some thought and it was only when I got CURATOR that I stopped trying to find the anagrist for the whole word. An enjoyable 25:48. Thanks setter and U.
  29. It was on the tricky side for me, but it might just be me having a slow day. For instance shelves and curating I knew immediately what words were needed, but couldn’t bring either to the front of my brain so both remained stubbornly blank. Spinoza heard of (never read) and parsed, though parsing took a while. Too many As in the clue, as Jack says. Otherwise very enjoyable and witty. Saga and gloated last in – liked gloated.
  31. 12:14. I started quickly on this but then got a bit bogged down, particularly in the NE.
    MER at the definition for MAKE OUT: it’s always just meant snogging to me. This ambiguity, if it really exists, seems liable to create unfortunate misunderstanding.
    As Jerry says, marc can be very good or very bad. The same is true of grappa. In both cases you are far more likely to encounter the second variety.
    You’ve underlined the wrong bit in 13ac, u. I point this out just to stop you getting carried away with all this adulation.
  32. The top half went in very quickly but time dragged with the bottom half.
    Yes, thank you for SPINOZA, Ulaca. I was one who biffed it.
    ETERNALLY was a good clue but my COD goes to NEW ORLEANS. I’m getting much better at spotting that type of clue.
  33. 11:30 so probably just right for a Monday. I parsed Spinoza all by myself so U has just wasted ink on that one as far as I’m concerned.

    I can’t say I’ve ever spent a lot of time considering just how far “making out” is taking things but I’d probably have put it somewhere between K’s snogging and the setter’s doing it. I certainly have no idea what the various “bases” mean.

    LOI was GLOATED once I’d finally seen what was going on with SAGA.

  34. So perhaps GDS’s suggestion above, immortalised in swimming pool posters of yore.
  35. Forgot that today is Monday… maybe I’d have been a bit quicker?
    COLLIE the QCOD (quickie clue of the day, unless there’s another acronym already out there?) and a pic of our Welsh Collie, still going strong at 17.
  37. About 20 minutes, very pleasant, no significant issues, ending with CASTE and SPINOZA whom I have never tried to read; I think the above quote ensures I probably never shall. CoD PEASHOOTER for me, good fun was had, are they banned by H & S now?

    martinp1: avatar is our second poodle, a bouncy 28 kg called Tigger, sadly departed with (French) tick fever aged four.

  38. Sorry can’t help you with COOKSON Ulaca – she’s no Georgette Heyer and I’ve never read her. Speaking of Reading, that clue took me back to train journeys to Paddington as a kid which always stopped there. They had a female station announcer with an excruciatingly “refained” voice who used to intone “the treen now stending at plitform 1 is the…”. Further on reading, philosophy is a closed book to me but I had at least heard of this guy (does he feature in the Python philosophers song?). 14.56
    1. My entire knowledge of philosophers is gained from crosswords and Python’s wonderful song, which doesn’t mention SPINOZA.
      1. Ah yes Cartland – thanks K. Heyer wanted to sue her for barefaced plagiarism of character names (and for debasing the genre) but was talked out of it. Cookson was at least authentic.
  39. I often drank marc when I lived in France – the quality was terrifyingly variable depending on whose grandad had knocked it up in a spare outbuilding.You could have stripped paint with some of it.

    Time: 27.20

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  40. I can never hear of him without laughing quietly to myself because of his regular appearances in PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories. In fact I just Googled it and it seems it only appeared once, in the magnificent ‘Joy in the Morning’. Or did Spinoza appear again somewhere?

    SLEEVES at 1ac as well. An MER and on I went, stupidly.

    Edited at 2020-05-11 11:54 am (UTC)

  41. No furlough for you pal ! Thank you for both SPINOZA and ETERNALLY (grateful !)

    My late first wife was a BOOKWORM. In 1969, while she was laid up in hospital for six weeks after coming off the back of my Lambretta, I bought her half a dozen assorted novels. She enjoyed five of them, but warned me to never again push Catherine Cookson in her direction until she reached a suitable age to enjoy it (I think 90 was the proposed figure).

    YARDMAN also caused a MER, they were shunters in my day.

    One of the problems with entering the grid on an Android phone is the inability to get it back to check what the rest of you call “pink squares”. Today I’ve managed to create three errors somehow, but I haven’t a clue what they are ! My paper copy is definitely all correct, so knickers to technology !

    FOI OMANI
    LOI CONTENDS
    COD GLOATED
    TIME 10:35 (but with my Nitch screwed)

  43. About an hour to finish this. Is there any room left in the LOI GLOATED club?
    FOI SHELVES and mainly I could see what was needed even if I couldn’t immediately think of the answer.
    SPINOZA held me up as did EAGLE.
    Excellent puzzle. David
  45. Needed the w from SHALLOW to get anywhere with NEW ORLEANS, and even then it took me a while. Hadn’t heard of MARC but trusted that ‘stuff’ could only be ‘cram’, and SAUTERNES was an educated guess based on the checkers. MAYOR was a biff, so thanks to the blogger for explaining it 🙂 I got nowhere with CONTENDS until I noticed the apostrophe in ‘guard’s’, which ruled it out as an indicator – a clever clue.

    FOI Nudge
    LOI Contends
    COD New Orleans

  46. For 13 across, I couldn’t get it out of my head that the first three letter word was Bad, and the whole a small town in Germany. Even though it was obvious Bad Ems and the rest could not possibly qualify as famous cities. And there was no anagram of Salerno that would work. Still — I look forward to seeing the device in a future clue.
  47. Could not see what nips had to do with Spinoza so thanks for the explanation. I appreciate all the effort you and you colleagues put into this site.
  48. Another DNF for me in around half an hour. I came here to find out how costings worked. It doesn’t. Contends does. I didn’t parse Spinoza. Thank heavens for the blog. Perhaps it was because I had no coffee this morning but I found this quite tricky to get into. The relatively straightforward anagrams for not guilty and curating also held me up, even when a few checkers were in, the anagrist just didn’t look like it was going to rearrange itself into something recognisable.

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