Times 27681 – I’m all for good living.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Another gentle Wednesday I think; pleasantly satisfying while it lasted, which was around 15 minutes before writing the blog. I managed to find a way to bang on about one of my favourite books in reference to 9a; I had to ask Mrs K if 5a was indeed a plant; otherwise not much else to say.

Across
1 Cajolery frequently succeeded in ongoing saga (4,4)
SOFT SOAP – OFT (frequently) S (succeeded) in SOAP.

5 Attempt to save plant (6)
THRIFT – double defintion. Thrift is a flowering evergreen, Armenia maritima also called sea pink. You’ve probably seen it but not known what it was. Like me.

8 Scheming felon caught in Vienna in disguise (10)
CONNIVANCE – CON (felon) (VIENNA)* with C inserted.

9 Two parties that never got off the ground? (4)
DODO – DO (party) twice. Extinct bird endemic to Mauritius, and a character (a caricature of the author C L Dodgson a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

10 Where to see scholars getting on train? (8,6)
BOARDING SCHOOL – Cryptic &lit.

11 Warning about echo in that place (7)
THEREAT – THREAT about E.

13 Children ultimately in pathetic fight for play area (7)
SANDBOX – N (end of children) in SAD, BOX = fight
.
15 Tentative article replaced by another in journal (7)
DITHERY – DIARY, replace A by THE.

18 Rope seaman primarily leaves alone (7)
STRANDS – STRAND = rope, S = seaman primarily.

21 Biographer’s material, what’s known of it? (3,5,2,4)
THE FACTS OF LIFE – double definition, the second referring to ‘it’ as sex.

22 Source of light to cry over (4)
BULB – BLUB reversed.

23 Flavouring ingredient, mixture of melon and peach (5,5)
LEMON GRASS – (LEMON)*, peach meaning to inform as a verb = grass.

24 Four outsiders in theatre with unfinished business (6)
TETRAD – T E (outsiders in theatre) TRAD(E).

25 Revolutionary went off round city, one finds (8)
DETECTOR – ROTTED = went off, ‘revolutionary’ = DETTOR, insert EC for the City.

Down
1 Under fire, however, players blew it (7)
SACKBUT – SACK = fire, BUT = however.

2 Mine, I agree, finally hit bottom (9)
FUNDAMENT – FUND = mine, as in ‘mine of information’, AMEN = I agree; T = end of hiT.

3 Rotters hosting oddly dull do (7)
SWINDLE – SWINE (rotters) has D L (odd letters of dull) inserted.

4 In contact with foreign leader this month (7)
AGAINST – AGA = foreign leader’ INST = this month.

5 Powerful transport turning right to start with (9)
TRENCHANT – RT = right, ‘turning’ = TR; ENCHANT = transport.

6 Timber cross we’d erroneously inscribed (7)
REDWOOD – ROOD (cross) has (WE’D)* inserted.

7 Contrarily put on Grease though opera’s wanted (7)
FIDELIO – Reverse OILED IF (put on Grease, though).

12 Sent by plane across India, member was sick (9)
AIRMAILED – insert I (India) into ARM (member), AILED = was sick.

14 Foodie heading for tavern after exam in postwar capital (3,6)
BON VIVANT – BONN (postwar capital of W. Germany) insert VIVA (exam) add T (heading for tavern). French literally ‘good living’.

16 Enter unwanted suggestion, commonly coarse (7)
INTRUDE – (H)INT = suggestion commonly, RUDE = coarse.

17 Lean over counter in repair shop (7)
HEELBAR – HEEL (lean over) BAR (counter).

18 Internal contraction due to extremely speedy boa? (7)
SYSTOLE – S Y (extremely speedy) STOLE (boa). Contraction of the heart muscles; the word systolic is more commonly heard, in reference to blood pressure.

19 Judge associated with the top people: I’m surprised he’s been driven out (7)
REFUGEE – REF (judge) U (top people) GEE ! (I’m surprised !).

20 Poet‘s son writes about uprising (7)
SPENSER – S (son) PENS, RE (about) reversed.

​

60 comments on “Times 27681 – I’m all for good living.”

  1. Thanks, Pip, for explaining TRENCHANT, which I biffed. I also biffed BON VIVANT, but was able to parse it afterwards. DNK THRIFT or HEELBAR. Liked SPENSER and the nicely misleading LEMON GRASS.
  2. Spent ages looking for 21a and failed. Great clue – my bad for missing it!
  3. I had, a bit reluctantly, to change STUFF to FACTS in order to finish this. Hated Spenser and his Faerie Queene (an A level set book), but liked his clue.
      1. You tell him, U! Although maybe 6 and change is enough. (Do you think he really intended the whole 12?)
        1. Quite possibly, Kevin, but his duties in Ireland may have proved too onerous and time-consuming.
          1. I think it was Northrop Frye who suggested that in fact he wrote what he intended to write.
      2. Ah, I wish I’d known that the time. Actually I’m not sure I ever finished it. On the very plus side we also had Portrait of the Artist, which reminds me it’s virtually Bloomsday. No day out in Dublin this year alas. Which further reminds me that I came across an early edition of The Faerie Queen in the Dublin Writers Museum once which brought back a few memories.

        Edited at 2020-06-03 10:49 am (UTC)

  4. 40 minutes for this tricksy number, held up by a mistaken SANDPIT (well, to “pit” yourself against something, maybe?) at 13a and my lack of knowledge of both plants and opera for my final two, 7d and 5a. I probably only finished this puzzle because Inspector Morse watched FIDELIO at some point!

    Along the way from FOI 9a DODO, I also learned that “peach” could be a verb, and it had completely passed me by that Bonn was ever a capital, though I’m not sure how I missed that fact given how recently it stopped being one. I really didn’t pay much attention to the humanities when I was young…

    1. I learned the word from Joyce: Simon Dedalus’s parting words to Stephen as he leaves him at boarding school is, “Never peach on a friend”.
    2. hereabouts a ‘sandbox’ is used by domestic cats. Children would not be encouraged to play in them. A ‘sandpit’ is for children, so we were with you until it became untenable.
  5. Liked this puzzle, not too easy but accessible. COD to SYSTOLE, LOI. Knew Beethoven’s only opera from quizzes. Two answers went straight in due to overlap / resonance with QC – ed. please note.

    THRIFT was the plant on the back of a threepenny bit, I seem to remember.

    21’27” thanks Pip and setter.

  6. Bah, put STRINGS without really thinking about it. There can’t be another word for rope that goes STR_N_ after all…

    Hadn’t heard of peach meaning tell on, no doubt deliberate to make you try to anagram melon and peach together. Derived SYSTOLE from asystolic. Can I just say EC doesn’t really mean city? No-one uses it as such, surely.

    COD: SANDBOX, liked the surface

    Yesterday’s answer: Herbert Hoover was president at the start of the great depression.

    Today’s question: who coined the most words in the English language?

    1. Fish fertiliser working, he made pastures new (6)

      Edited at 2020-06-03 07:59 am (UTC)

    2. EC for the City of London has only I think ever worked with addresses, and goes back all the way to 1856, which I found surprising. It includes areas not in the City where no doubt the common folk say ‘INT instead of HINT. I guess it survives in Crosswordland because it’s so convenient but I think it’s one of those cliches which is best avoided. There’s always the European Commission…
  7. 38 minutes, with everything parsed, though I’m not really sure if I knew that meaning of PEACH. I’ve convinced myself I did. LOI THRIFT after FIDELIO came in. COD to SACKBUT for its simplicity. You need a good liver to be a BON VIVANT. A decent puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.
  8. 35 mins with yoghurt, granola, banana, etc.
    No dramas.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
  9. Unremarkable puzzle – you’re due one with a bit more personality Pip. Knew SPENSER from Mephisto because Chambers is full of his strange spellings of words tat frequently crop up in the answers
  10. Just inside my 6V target and a 101 WITCH so I’m not alone in finding it slightly on the hard side. It was very enjoyable though.

    NHO peach=grass but what else could it be? LOI 21a where I too had STUFF and on reluctantly removing it no other idea came for the longest time. I thought IT = SA not just sex in crosswordland? But now I have a Marc Bolan Get It On earworm reminding me that in the real world IT can be thoroughly euphemistic.

  11. 33 minutes, with enough distractions along the way to account for not meeting my half-hour target. ‘Spender’ came to mind first for the poet at 20dn but after a little thought about wordplay I came up with SPENSER. Similarly ‘strings’ was my first thought at 18ac before arriving at STRANDS. But my worst idea was SYSNAKE at 18dn – worst because I actually wrote it in. Getting the answer at 23ac then forced me to rethink it. No doubt SYSTOLE has come up before* but it wasn’t any more familiar to me than my original solution.

    *On edit: SYSTOLE has indeed come up before, only once, but in a puzzle I blogged three-and-a-half years ago. It had a more user-friendly definition on that occasion though, ‘bit of a pulse’ making me think immediately of blood pressure readings which are systolic and diastolic.

    Edited at 2020-06-03 07:11 am (UTC)

  12. ‘Strings’ for STRANDS and ‘sands of time’ for FACTS OF LIFE meant a deserved DNF and 71/72 (so far) on the Club site.

    Not my day, but I still enjoyed this and learnt a new meaning for ‘peach’.

  13. 26:10. Held up for 5 minutes at the end by having FIRMAMENT for 2D making 8A very mysterious. When I eventually sorted that out CONNIVANCE fell into place. Like Jim, although I’ve never read him, SPENSER came quickly to mind from dictionary look-ups solving the Mephisto.
  14. 15:33. A tricky one, which I made trickier for myself with a couple of errors: a mis-biffed SANDPIT (with much the same half-justification as GM above) and an inexplicable DYSTOLE. I sorted it all out eventually.
  15. That all fell into place this morning, and I’m very happy with a WITCH of 79. I didn’t know that meaning of PEACH but I biffed it as soon as I’d got the LEMON bit. Some fine clues, but my COD is FIDELIO for the wonderful “put on Grease”. Incidentally doesn’t U refer to the whole phrase “associated with the top people” rather than just “top people”?
  16. 36:15

    7 seems a funny clue: if = though? Don’t geddit; must be missing something as usual.
    Thanks pip.

    1. Though = if, reversed, E.g. ‘She was attractive, if a bit overweight.’

      Edited at 2020-06-03 09:28 am (UTC)

  17. Like some others, I was held up by a false sandpit – though somewhere in the back of my mind I must have known it was dodgy, because I came back and quickly saw how I was wrong.
  18. I really enjoyed this. Very fair. No obscure vocabulary.

    COD: The facts of Life.

    Re Dodo. From Wikipedia – A popular but unsubstantiated belief is that Dodgson chose the particular animal to represent himself because of his stammer, and thus would accidentally introduce himself as “Do-do-dodgson”.

    I have held this unsubstantiated belief for many years. Next they will be telling me bats are not blind after all!

  19. I was way off the wavelength today, taking 51:54 before I was able to shove FACTS into 21a and submit. I really struggled to get a start, with DODO and a biffed FIDELIO being my first 2 in. Guessing that SCHOOL might be the second half of 10a allowed me to fill in the NE and move to the SE where I spent an inordinate amount of time building on SPENSER, whom I’ve never read, but know about from his regular appearances in these puzzles. Eventually SWINDLE got me a start in the NW. I think I need a lie down now. Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2020-06-03 09:54 am (UTC)

  20. Way off the wavelength… left hand side very slow, Facts of Life last in. But all to no avail… confidently entered (yesterday’s?) BANDBOX, another name for the orchestra pit where musicians play. Or something.
    1. I was another BANDBOX. I couldn’t remember what it meant, maybe something like a BANDSTAND. Actually, it’s a hat box and doesn’t seem to have any musical association. So one pink square.
  21. After trudging through yesterday’s, much sprightlier today, again for no apparent reason in particular. Such is the joy of cryptic crosswords. No great leaps of imagination today, perhaps, but there are far worse things to be than solid and workmanlike.
  23. Nelson at Copenhagen was not a scheming felon. Best avoided, unless you intend “winking”.
  24. 19’05, straightforward enough, little to say. Except that I recommend the Spenser detective novels of Robert B. Parker. Something of a literary cove, S. enjoys telling people his name is spelt as the poet’s.
  25. Took close to an hour, but in fairness to me I was on a video conference (process safety!) throughout. COD to 7 down, but to be pedantic oil and grease are different things!
  26. ….as, having already struggled with the QC, I turned this into an absolute dog’s breakfast by :

    1. Biffing “firmament”
    2. Biffing “sandpit”
    3. Entering “moon” at 22A (unrequited love may make you moon, but the tears are optional !)
    4. Joining the “stuff of life” club, although I didn’t actually write in “stuff”.
    5. Thinking that “four outsiders in theatre” gave “thre”.

    Enough mistakes there for a whole month, and I was relieved to eventually crawl over the line with everything correct.

    FOI DODO
    LOI DETECTOR (after SANDBOX led me to BON VIVANT !)
    COD CONNIVANCE
    TIME 18:55

    Edited at 2020-06-03 11:44 am (UTC)

  27. I was hoping to come here and find someone else who’d tried to make “syncope” work in 18d. I mean the definition sort-of worked and a cope could be a sort of stole which left a dangling N and I thought – I’ll deal with you later. Except that then left “the ? of life” and a muddle. Also took far too long to see what to do in 24a because I was trying to squeeze the four outsiders in there. Glad after all to finish in 18.25
    1. Did you see Rhinebeck in the Times today, Olivia? It appears it may not be good news!
      1. Thanks edonnis. I’d heard about this through the local grapevine (our Postwoman Patricia). Her view was that those kind of people wouldn’t like the ticks, the snakes and the poison ivy so it would be short-lived. I don’t suppose we’ll notice them anyway.
    2. I too thought of you, Olivia. Also, I’ve been meaning to say that I’ve been reading a Georgette Heyer novel, following your comments, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, it helped massively with a recent clue! I won’t mention the answer as it was in the Saturday prize cryptic 😊
      1. Welcome to the club PeeBee! I think the one you must have read starts with A because that’s the one that’s linked to Saturday’s clue indirectly. It’s enjoyable but I don’t think it’s one of the best – but they’re all good escapist fun.
        1. You’d be right! It must be the best part of 50 years since I last read one but shall look out for more – good fun, as you say, well written and very witty in places. I shall have to mug up on my Regency slang though 😊 Penny
  28. Wednesdays in particular seem to be my downfall. Too hard for me today – even some of supposedly easy ones. I did a bit of gardening before starting this and checked on my dwarf thrift, but still couldn’t see it at 5a!

    Five gaps at the end – I was another one with strings for STRANDS, I didn’t know TETRAD, and so it goes …

    FOI Soft soap
    COD Dodo
    DNF

    Hoping for a better day tomorrow

    Thanks setter and Pip

  29. Certainly found this a challenge. Eventually finished in 24.35, the facts of life being the last one in. FOI dodo and took a long time to get going. Along the way, I thought tetrad, systole and lemon grass were very nicely constructed clues.
  30. in fits and starts – busy day. LOI FACTS OF LIFE where I was tempted by SANDS OF TIME (as above) until I saw the light. COD SOFT SOAP for the 2 soaps.
  31. A bit of a beating for me today, 35 mins before cheating for STRANDS as I just could not get STRINGS out of my head, but could not make it work.
  32. as I just didn’t get DITHERY – Ikean twattery I gave up after 35 mins. SW5 deserted. Much like Dunn & Co.

    FOI 9ac DODO

    COD 13ac SANDBOX

    WOD 5ac THRIFT on all the Scottish stamps etc.

    I thought 24ac was horryd!

    1. And thrift of course was the design on the old ‘thrupenny bit’, by a certain Frances Madge Kitchener in the 1930s.
  33. 41:33. I got off to a fast start on this but gradually got stuck in the weeds. I couldn’t think of an alternative to sandpit or summon up the opera. Those blockages meant I took ages to unlock trenchant and thrift. Strands, systole and bon vivant were also out of reach for some time along with tetrad. All tidied up in the end though.
  34. A late evening solve in just under 13 minutes, so a good limbering up for tomorrow’s and my midnight solve.
    I’d have had SANDBOX more as the attachment to steam engines to facilitate grip than the play pit, so I’m not surprised many went down t’pit.
    I’ve managed to avoid Spenser my whole life, except of course for all those variant spellings without which Mephisto would be full of blanks.

    There’s a NINO (sic)

  35. Found this a real challenge, maybe not on the same wavelength as the setter but stuck at it and got there in the end!
  36. ….and the Trumpet sounded for me at 1dn, but too literal alas, eventually Sackbut dawned.
    Last comment on the Thrift. It appeared on coinage in 1937 as a subliminal hint by the gov’t of the day for people ‘to save’.
    I’m going to be told no doubt that 10ac Boarding School is some old chestnut, but I loved it and it kept me out of the NW corner for quite some time.
    I thought this under-nitched at 101, this was a hard puzzle surely ??!!

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