Times 27663 – no flooring me with this one.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Another Wednesday with a reasonably straightforward puzzle, made easier by the grid shape with four long clues around the edges. All four went in early on, once I’d accepted that the preserve required could be not just the ordinary sort. After 20 minutes or so I was left with just 7d to parse, the answer being clear enough, and 16a to fill in. I had to check for the American usage of this, which at least is signposted in the clue, as it certainly has a different meaning in UK (or France for that matter). I know my dog breeds but if you didn’t, 22d might require some guesswork. You get some good anagram workout practice at 1a and 26a.

EDIT: the SNITCH is showing now at only 80, although some below seemed to find it more difficult. There were certainly some clunky surfaces, not least 26a, but I am surprised how many didn’t know the dog breed. Interesting that so far none of our US residents had heard of the usage at 16a ! But it is in Collins.

Across
1 Oncology nerd is confused about one branch of physiology (13)
ENDOCRINOLOGY – (ONCOLOGY NERD I)*, the I from one.
9 Poison in canned beef (5)
TOXIN – OX (beef) inside TIN (can).
10 Significant distance for vehicle with slope underneath (9)
WHEELBASE – W (with) HEEL (slope) BASE (underneath).
11 A pal around Oriel, struggling to improve (10)
AMELIORATE – A MATE has (ORIEL)* inserted.
12 Song musician at first cut from role in West Side Story (4)
ARIA – Maria, as played by the lovely but tragic Natalie Wood in WSS, loses her M (musician at first).
14 What appears on disc of Mozart produced in Australia (7)
AMADEUS – MADE inside AUS.
16 American stalls in Quebec during break (7)
PARQUET – PART = break, insert QUE (abbr. for Quebec). I put this in from wordplay and checkers then looked it up to find out that although PARQUET is a wood block flooring in UK, it can mean the stalls area of a theatre (or a theater) in America.
17 Great anger with object returned in bulk (7)
MADNESS – END (object) is reversed inside MASS (bulk).
19 Rest live outside university (7)
RESIDUE – U inside RESIDE. A chestnut if ever I saw one.
20 Right to remain head of negotiations (4)
LIEN – LIE (remain) N (head of negotiations).
21 Oppose United and, later, European entering formal agreement (10)
COUNTERACT – CONTRACT (formal agreement) has U and then E inserted at the relevant places.
24 Fuss follows despot giving away drug for every ruffian (9)
DESPERADO – DESPOT loses his POT (drug); PER = for every, ADO = fuss.
25 Tent was initially of poor quality fabric (5)
TWILL – T W (initial letters of tent was) ILL (of poor quaity).
26 Our hydrangea’d turned out rudely vigorous (5-3-5)
ROUGH-AND-READY – (OUR HYDRANGEA’D)*.

Down
1 Preserve former electric vehicle, topless car built outside LA (5,9)
EXTRA MARMALADE – EX (former) TRAM (electric vehicle) AR (topless CAR) MADE (built) with LA inserted.
2 Pot from southern US states (5)
DIXIE – Double definition.
3 Am I not able to prize open-ended support? (10)
CANTILEVER – CAN’T I (am I not able) LEVER (prize).
4 Sind badly disrupted by conflict moving to the centre (7)
INWARDS – (SIND)* has WAR inserted.
5 Just taking off hot record for dance (3-4)
ONE-STEP – HONEST (just) has the H (hot) removed, then EP = record.
6 Unctuous and cunning when wife’s over (4)
OILY – Oily becomes WILY if you replace the O (over) with a W (wife).
7 In short, what could be railway operating every month (4-5)
YEAR-ROUND – YR being short for year, turn it round to get RY which is short for railway. Get it?
8 Go with crew to record how ministries are structured (14)
DEPARTMENTALLY – DEPART = go, MEN = crew, TALLY = record.
13 One looks for mine to do well without time in company (10)
PROSPECTOR – PROSPER = do well, insert C(T)O = time in company.
15 Dispatch worker maybe with commercial furniture item (9)
ADDRESSER – AD (commercial), DRESSER a furniture item.
18 Accept opening with church (7)
STOMACH – STOMA (opening) CH (church).
19 In a poor state getting bad wound in the navy (3-4)
RUN-DOWN –  (WOUND)* inserted into RN (Navy).
22 A small cat and a big dog (5)
AKITA – A, KIT, A. Breed of large dog, of Japanese origin.
23 Exercise before game for World Cup team, perhaps (4)
PERU – PE (exercise) RU (Rugby Union).

​

91 comments on “Times 27663 – no flooring me with this one.”

  1. NHO PARQUET in the required sense, only the flooring sense, so surprised by the definition. I biffed 1d, having a vague recollection of the term showing up in a cryptic once; otherwise NHO. Never did figure out YEAR-ROUND, but fortunately didn’t have to. FOI ENDOCRINOLOGY, LOI WHEELBASE. My ODE has ‘prize’ as the American spelling of ‘prise’ (although ‘prise’ is my spelling, too); I assume the setter chose this spelling to mislead, but is that legit?
    2. I was a bit surpris(z)ed by this but both Collins and Lexico have ‘prize’ as an alternative spelling without specifying that it’s American.
  2. 21 minutes with PARQUET LOI. It’s a meaning I’ve never heard of, despite having gone to several Broadway shows. Penultimate was WHEELBASE, a clunky clue. I’d already biffed YEAR-ROUND which I didn’t fully understand until coming here, but I’ll concede it was clever. I’d noticed the spelling of ‘prize’ but shrugged. I did know the dog but needed the crossers. The clues for ADDRESSER and ROUGH AND READY were none too smooth either. But it was still a puzzle that was enjoyable to solve, so thank you setter, and to Pip.
  3. Thanks for the parsings Pip. Reverse cryptics like YEAR ROUND usually leave me floored, and this was no exception; also shrugs and prayers while entering WHEELBASE (base = underneath is quite oblique for me and I was ages trying to cram in wheels = vehicle), PARQUET, EXTRA MARMALADE (is that just a hungry Myrtilus?) and CANTILEVER where I agree with Kevin that unflagged US spellings in clues are not cricket.

    We have a Samoyed and a Siberian Husky so the Spitz dog came easily; it’s also the breed of the famous Japanese dog Hachikō that waited outside Shibuya station for nine years for its dead master to return, and now has a statue there.

    Nice to have the Eagles earworm. Their best song IMO, from the innocent days before the hard drugs got to them.

    Edited at 2020-05-13 06:52 am (UTC)

  4. 25 mins pre-brekker.
    For some reason I’m fancying Gin&Lime Marmalade from the excellent Lewis and Cooper in Northallerton.
    Mostly I liked: Toxin, Amadeus and Year-Round.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2020-05-13 06:53 am (UTC)

    1. Mr. Myrtilus, you should ask Messrs. Lewis & Cooper to bring out a new ‘Extra Marmalade’ in the autumn. I am fairly sure you have a suitable recipe? I would go for Ortaniques!
  5. I read 10a as a semi-&lit, as I believe the wheelbase of your vehicle does become a more significant factor on slopes: a shorter wheelbase is less likely to bottom-out on a hump-backed bridge, say.

    But that (my LOI) and the other ones people have mentioned did definitely slow me down, and I wasn’t confident in the unknown 22d AKITA when I came here after my 28 minutes. Luckily I’d got off to a good start with both 1d EXTRA MARMALADE and 1a ENDOCRINOLOGY entered in the first minute, so that compensated somewhat.

    Edited at 2020-05-13 07:01 am (UTC)

  6. All but three or four answers completed within 30 minutes but after another 15 I gave up and resorted to aids. It’s easy to lose heart when most of a puzzle came quite easily yet there are parsings as yet unexplained and a missing word that one has quite definitely never heard of and the wordplay is unfathomable.

    My unknown was the dog at 22dn and although I’m familiar with ‘kitty’ as a variation of ‘kitten’ I’ve never use KIT for referring to a cat. Obviously if I’d known the word AKITA I would have worked it out. Oddly enough if the clue had said ‘a small ferret’ I would have got that!

    Another that made me lose heart was YEAR-ROUND where I had the correct answer but had no idea what was going on in the wordplay. With PARQUET it was the definition that stumped me and I didn’t know for sure that QUE = Quebec.

    WHEELBASE also stumped me although I had WHEEL and the remaining checkers. I just didn’t understand what the definition was referring to. I suppose the distance is significant but no more so that the length or width or height of the vehicle?

    We know all about ‘extra jam’ from previous discussions, one of them very recently, but I have never heard of EXTRA MARMALADE. I must now check to find out if like the jam it’s an officially designated description enforced by our former EU masters.

    Finally I thought that ADDRESSER defined as ‘dispatch worker’ was made-up.

    Edited at 2020-05-13 06:09 am (UTC)

    1. Jack, I think the ‘extra’ label is associated with an EU food standards directive that seeks to ensure that we get a decent amount of actual fruit in our preserves rather than just processed sugar, colouring and setting agent 🙂
      1. Yes, that’s the case with Extra Jams as discussed here previously, but a lot of those are advertised as ‘Extra Jam’ on the front label whereas I’ve never seen it on a marmalade. It may be in the small print in the ingredients on the back, but I’m not sure that qualifies it for inclusion in a crossword puzzle.
        1. My jar of Frank Cooper’s doesn’t say ‘extra’ anywhere. As we have discussed before, EXTRA JAM was originally a French thing that made it into EU regulation. The French aren’t big eaters of marmalade so perhaps the makers have never seen the need to add the designation since it isn’t really recognised in the UK as it is in France.
        2. Extra marmalade is in Chambers (app) as a thing so the other dictionaries may have it as well.
          1. It isn’t in Collins or Lexico, but then neither is extra jam.
            It’s occurred to me that you might not see it on jars of marmalade because you need more sugar relative to citrus fruit for it to be non-minging.
  7. My best Wednesday for a while. NHO the sense used of DIXIE, PARQUET, didn’t know EXTRA MARMALADE was a thing – it’s under EU regulations, apparently, was trying to put extra marital in, also tried to put sweeper in the bottom of PROSPECTOR for a bit.

    COD I actually liked 15dn in the QC best (won’t reveal it in case you haven’t done it yet), but of this one, AKITA.

    Yesterday’s answer: milkshakes were requested to be withdrawn from sale near certain election rallies last year.

    Today’s question: which Japanese dog is one of two breeds specifically banned by the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, the other being the pit bull terrier?

    2. Barker and Corbett’s lead part dismissed by singer, tragically (4)
    3. There are 4 banned breeds.The two you mention and the Dogo Argentimo and Fila Brasileiro
  8. 8:55. Luckily got the ong ones fast and not derailled by my unknowns. LOI the unknown AKITA with fingers crossed. Also NHO the American meaning of PARQUET or DIXIE as a pot. I liked AMADEUS best.
    1. OK could you please explain the definition part of Amadeus? I don’t get it!
      This is tringmardo by the way as something seems to have gone wrong with my access.
      1. Mozart’s middle name was Amadeus. A disc label normally has the full name of the Composer on it – in this case Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
        1. Thanks John. As I thought, but I wonder if a question mark at the end of the clue might have been a good plan?
  9. Nothing new to add. It’s all been said, particularly by Jack.

    What is going through a setter’s mind when they use an obscure meaning of a word like PARQUET in the full knowledge that 95% of their audience won’t ever have come across it? That a dictionary will be required to verify the answer. For me, it is bad technique.

    2. Jimbo what are your thoughts on the Monthly Club Special where the dictionary is ever at the ready?

      Edited at 2020-05-13 09:45 am (UTC)

      1. I have no problem with that or the Mephisto. Those puzzles are of a genre that make it clear from outset that reference works will be needed. Mephisto (like Azed) even tell you to use Chambers

        The daily cryptic is not of that ilk. It should be possible for a person of reasonable vocabulary to solve it without recourse to the dictionary. There will always be a subset of solvers who don’t know a particular word but when its 95% of them that seems excessive to me

    3. I feel that it is only truly bad technique if it prevents the answer from being deduced using the wordplay. I thought this one was acceptable on that basis, and it encouraged me to go to Chambers afterwards for the full SP.
      1. I agree. I had to look this one up to be sure, but I didn’t really think the answer could be anything else.
  10. Very easy, except when it wasn’t. Some of the clues were a bit rococo, leading to some contrived surfaces, I felt. But I did like the last three down clues.
    1. Nothing to do with today’s crossword but where can we see a blog of your crossword from last week?
      1. Jonathan was going to do one, if there was interest, but I don’t know when.
  11. 12′, helped by 1ac and 1d going straight in. Dnk PARQUET. AKITA was a mind stretch. Is KIT anything to do with KIT KAT?

    Thanks Pip and setter.

  13. Pretty straightforward. At one stage I thought I might be good for a fast time but the bottom half of the puzzle took longer.
    NHO of that sense of PARQUET.
    The double use of OLOGY in 1ac reminded me of the lovely Maureen Lipman and her ad for BT. “Ooh, he’s got an ‘ology!”
    1. Martin – Maureen, now a trouper on Coronation Street, did indeed appear in the BT ad, but it was written by one Richard Phillips – one his jewish mother’s ‘mots’.
      1. I once saw her several years ago on the London stage when she presented a lovely one-woman show about Joyce Grenfell called “Re:Joyce”.
      2. I so miss those witty BT ads. Such gems from Lipmann et al. Remember Anthony got O level pottery as well as his ology. “Anthony, people will always need plates.” Brilliant writing.
  14. As with everyone else, a fast time for me with 90% cake-walk, 10% exploding cigar. I liked Amadeus. Thanks for the parsing of Year Round, Pip.
  15. 10:34. I got extra marmalade very early in proceedings (inferring its existence from its jammier counterpart) which helped to open up the LHS.

    No surprise that PARQUET and AKITA both went in on a W and a P but I sussed what was going on with YEAR-ROUND.

  16. Didn’t enjoy this one too much. 1a OLOGY in the clue? PARQUET, really? Prize? Kit in AKITA? and Hydrangea’d is so clunky.
  17. A workmanlike effort here with 5 mins inspecting my Wheelbase.

    COD: STOMACH.

    1. Inspecting my wheelbase has become more difficult with the passage of time !
  18. 22’55, with a new dog that seemed welcoming enough. I also didn’t know the American stalls but it’s the sort of word one can have a hunch about so OK by me. Liked the clue for 7.
  19. 34 mins with one incorrect at 22dn. In despair I stuck in ANIMA, a cat being an animal and suitably docked! As for the dog………!? AKITA was unknown! I later rang Elton but it didn’t ring a bell. I note that Kevin doesn’t like pit bulls – beware – like the Osakan akita, they are very instinctive creatures.

    FOI 1ac ENDOCRINOLOGY naturally.

    LOI 16ac PARQUET which kinda made sense as a parquet floor had to start somewhere!

    COD 2dn DIXIE except I thought it was a tin and not a pot.

    WOD 11ac AMELIORATE – not the aviatrice who went missing near Howland Island in 1937.

    I fear I will lose face if I don’t get a poodle as an avatar soon – would Mike Pence do?

    Edited at 2020-05-13 10:16 am (UTC)

    1. Osakan? The Akita comes from, oddly enough, Akita, way in the north of Japan. Never seen one in the flesh, myself. Around here it’s generally irritating little yippers that I’d be happy to feed to a pit bull; although there is a group of elegant salukis that I come across from time to time.
      1. Wow! I’ve just remembered. This was the Japanese dog in the Richard Gere film based on the true story of the Akita dog named Hachikō. The dog waited nine years at Shibuya station just to the west of Tokyo, for his master. Statue erected etc.

        Kevin, have you watched it – very moving? More than a touch of the Greyfriar’s Bobby!

        Edited at 2020-05-13 03:45 pm (UTC)

  20. I’ve had too many distractions recently leading to a collapse in my solving and no time to comment on here so it’s nice to finish with all correct and post here today.

    Given my recent mishaps I wasn’t confident with PARQUET where I had no idea of the definition but in the end relied on the parsing. LOI AKITA, where I knew I’d heard of the dog but couldn’t have come up with the name without the parsing.

  21. 9:58. Quite straightforward. Same unknowns as pretty much everyone else it seems, and it did feel like the setter was stretching things a bit with the funny words and/or meanings at times. But I like funny words and/or meanings (as long as you can solve the damned clue) so I enjoyed this.
  22. RE AKITA I knew it was a type of husky, but couldn’t remember it until the KIT bit came to me.
    As above, several MER’s here, no need to repeat them.
    LOI OILY. Had to come here for the reason for that
    COD EXTRA MARMALADE although I think it’s been made up
    Sticking my very intelligent collie for now
  23. To add, just curious why I have an ad for PARQUET flooring below my last posting. Just wondering….
    1. Re-PARQUET that’s what is known as targeted advertising! The computer knows your interests! It is not a coincidence – so for the time being, buy the flooring but not the theater tickets – they will come later!
  24. Anyone in the US in the early 90s would remember the AKITA from the OJ Simpson murder trial. I’ve seen a fair number of Broadway shows (including AMADEUS) and have always known those kind of seats as “orchestra” seats so I certainly NHO PARQUET in that connection. 17.43 after a slow start.

    Edited at 2020-05-13 10:30 am (UTC)

  25. I have a friend with an AKITA, so had no trouble with that one, but had never heard of PARQUET in that sense. It was my LOI and I confirmed it before submitting. I raised an eyebrow at PIRZE, biffed YEAR ROUND, remembered EXTRA JAM, but didn’t enter MARMALADE until I had a few crossers and saw the parsing. 26:53. Thanks setter and Pip.
  26. When I tried to reopen the puzzle before commenting, I got the 403 Forbidden message again. This time, instead of clearing browsing data, I just logged out of the main Times Site and logged back in again, and it worked fine! First thing to try next time too.
  28. Another American here to testify that the PARQUET identification as a US meaning is a NHO. Regards.
    1. Nice to see you back Kevin. Long time no see. Hope you and yours are well.
  29. Well, we do seem to have a bit of a weirdo here, and my experience was , well, weird.
    The dog, the YR/RY, the car (I never remember that with sometimes means W, didn’t think HEEL and slope were convincing bedfellows and struggled a bit to go from underneath to BASE) the ruffian (gave up on parsing, for each to PER another blind spot), the floor/ing all seemed, well, weird.
    I know ONE-STEP is a thing, and turns up in this place more often than its doubled version, but there remains a suspicion that it would be difficult to spin it out over a couple of minutes minutes in Strictly.
    The only place I can recall where feline KITs get a mention is on the way to St Ives.
    For what it’s worth, nearer 17 minutes than 16. If I could, I go and put extra marmalade on my toast, but I’m out of bread until shopping day tomorrow
  30. Knew AKITA – handsome dogs, but my dog Dan doesn’t like them – ditto large dogs, black dogs, large black dogs ( his bete noire), in fact just about any breed you can name. Makes for some interesting walkies ……

    Never seen PRISE spelled as PRIZE and put in PARQUET because it was the only word that fitted.

    All correct in 28.02.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  31. 12:26 – PB, I think, with no significant holdups. 16a from wordplay, but theatrical meaning rang a faint bell (I guess it’s an obsolete usage which I came across in a story where it was clear from context).
  32. about 40 minutes, with Akita LOI when I finally unraveled the clues in the clue! Thanks to blogger for explaining year-round and one-step the parsing of which had me scratching my head. Learnt a new definition of dixie today. Thought this was harder than the SNITCH suggested and again did wonder if I would get over the line. Thanks blogger and setter.
  33. ….as in the puzzle, and I was surprised to break the 10 minute barrier. Thanks to Pip for parsing YEAR-ROUND which constitutes a labour of love in my book.

    The first thing I wrote was “ology”, hence my unusual starting point.

    As a non-league football fan, I’ll just point out that CANTILEVER Park is the home ground of Warrington Town. Everything else has been addressed by others.

    FOI/COD OILY
    LOI WHEELBASE
    TIME 9:25

    1. Why, pray, are they collectively known as ‘The Wires’? And will they survive?

      Who play at the Vertigo Stadium and like Tottenham Hotspur FC are known as the Lilywhites’?

      Edited at 2020-05-13 03:55 pm (UTC)

      1. Warrington was the major UK producer of wire for many years. As to their survival, one can only hope. Many small clubs will go under I’m afraid, but my beloved Altrincham should be safe. Their fund-raising efforts have already brought in £30K.
      2. For the record they (and their egg-chasing neighbours) are known as the WIRE, singular.
  34. No problem with parquet, always happy to expand the old vocab etc

    ‘Are we on the parquet tonight Mrs H?”

  35. But with one typo and one stupid misspelling – prospecter. Rendering my good time nul and void. I am sure I was not the only one to find one across a bit lame (sorry i haven’t read all the comments yet). Guessed akita, then I admit I checked with google.
  36. Thought I was going to have a stormer here but alas it was not to be. Eventually finished in 14.20 getting stuck on the RHS. FOI extra marmalade and LOI wheelbase after finally cracking departmentally. Too much time looking for a religious ministry connection. Some interesting new contexts for me especially parquet . Enjoyed it.
  37. 28 minutes, with PARQUET the only one I had to do what I was told without reasoning why. I spent a few minutes at the start staring at 1a, wondering how I could get ‘dendrochronology’ to fit. Well, trees are living and their function must be studied by someone, somewhere. Maybe they even get diabetes? Who knows.

    Time for bed.

  38. 15:38. I got off to a racing start with endocrinology, extra marmalade and a few of the other downs coming off 1ac going straight in. I kept the pace going with only a slight delay at parquet, wheelbase and the unparsed oily and year-round. Dnk the pot definition of Dixie. Always good to see the canned beef at 9ac. I enjoyed this a lot and found it a very satisfying solve.
  39. I hate long answers around the perimeter unless I’m lucky enough to get 1a straight away. Today was my lucky day – though I was surprised to see OLOGY in both clue and answer. No real problems. I knew the required meaning of PARQUET – I must have read it in a novel somewhere. I would have been faster but was interrupted by a nuisance call. (I normally let calls go to answerphone but these days I am concerned that I will miss calls from lonely friends) 22 minutes. Ann
    1. Just thought I’d drop by to thank you for your recent Georgette Heyer recommendations. My mother didn’t have The Unknown Ajax or Cotillion but she let me have Sylvester which I have now read and a few others to look forward to. I enjoyed Sylvester. Some laugh out loud moments in the verbal sparring between Sylvester and Phoebe and a wonderful comic scene inverting the genre’s usual expectations where he is forced to sit through a performance of her abject musicianship. From a crosswording perspective it was terrific to see a rhino meaning money in the wild as well as the frequently used ton and plenty of other vocab that appears in the puzzles from time to time.
      1. I’m glad you enjoyed Sylvester. Georgette Heyer isn’t as girly as some of her book covers would suggest. As you noticed, there’s a lot of sparkling comedy among the romance. Btw, what’s with T J Hooker? The image of Bill Shatner running after the ungodly is indelibly fixed on my retina. He should have stuck to Star Trek.
        1. They were showing reruns of it on Pick TV at about the time that I de-lurked here. I used to love it as a kid and of course watching it as an adult there is a certain pleasure in seeing its many flaws, hammy dialogue, stagy action scenes and that kind of thing. It just brought a smile to my face so I thought I’d have him as an avatar. Besides, Shatner’s good value whatever he’s in.
  40. 36m here in a rare sole and even rarer finish. Thank you setter and blogger.
  41. Arriving late to the parquet, I find that others have vocalised my experience, i.e. remembering previous discussions of the mysterious extra jam suggested its orangey companion, and momentarily puzzled by the American stalls.
  42. Just under 30 minutes, I found this fairly easy today, except, well, for AKITA, which for a change turned out to be right. No problems with KIT for small cat (as a reminder: “As I was going to St. Ives,I met a man with seven wives,…,each sack had seven cats,each cat had seven kits …”). Also no problem with PARQUET, but actually because it’s German usage, no idea what it would be called in America. I did manage to parse YEAR-ROUND in the end, but not when I first filled it in.
  43. Under the thirty mins. Only PROSPECTOR and PARQUET holding me up at the end.
  44. The postal abbreviation for Quebec is QC . I didn’t see many google entries suggesting que. I did manage to guess at the answer, more luck than judgement. LoI 22down
    1. I’d assumed it was an alternative spelling of Sindh, one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Oddly my Chambers refers to “Sind” with that spelling in its entry for Sind(h)i, the language, but doesn’t have an entry for Sind itself.

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