Times 27721 – Hello Honky Tonks!

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A very pleasant start to the week of crosswords, with a little bit for everyone, especially, perhaps, the astronomer. A particularly good two-word clue, I thought.

‘Unprincipled men are useful, enabling those who have more scruples to keep their hands tolerably clean in a world where there is much dirty work to be done.’ (Romola, George Eliot). Just one punchy statement out of many in this rather good historical novel from 1863. Plus ça change…

Dix-sept minutes

ACROSS

1 Ghost finally vanishes, joining a series of shades (7)
SPECTRA – SPECTR[e] A
5 In less, I book transport (7)
MINIBUS – IB in MINUS
9 Usual memo recirculated was a great wonder (9)
MAUSOLEUM – anagram* of USUAL MEMO; the original Mausoleum was built for a chap called Mausolus (not to mention his sister-wife) in 350 BC in present day SW Turkey. It was the last surviving of the six destroyed wonders of the world, succumbing to earthquakes in the 12-15th centuries. The Great Pyramid of Giza is left to fly the flag.
10 Acceptable shape of neck with a top (5)
VALID – V A LID
11 Crudely hang sort of gate that nobody at first goes through (5)
LYNCH – a LYCH-gate is the roofed gateway to a churchyard, formerly used at burials for sheltering a coffin until the clergyman’s arrival; lych (also lich) is an old word for corpse.
12 Nerve and wit I deployed in formal meeting (9)
INTERVIEW – NERVE WIT I*
14 Various relations had more children? (8,6)
EXTENDED FAMILY – if you have more children you extend your family
17 I’m surprised to see you describe Mercury (3,1,5,5)
ITS A SMALL WORLD – Mercury is nearly 20 times less massive than Earth, but big enough, I guess, to evade the fate of Pluto.
21 After dealing, saying one is meant to cut (6,3)
COPING SAW – COPING (dealing [with]) SAW (saying)
23 Person in office one playing rates (5)
TEMPI – TEMP (person in office) I (one)
24 Demanding to be beheaded: doing it? (5)
AXING – [t]AXING; a sort of all-in-one, I reckon
25 Great cheers and no end of criticism given to supporter (9)
FANTASTIC – FAN (supporter) TA (cheers) STIC[k] (no end of criticism)
26 Follows sailor? Sailor may follow this (7)
DOGSTAR – DOGS TAR; Sirius (AKA the Dog Star) is the brightest star in the night sky
27 Spare rooms at last given to uncle (7)
SLENDER – [room]S LENDER (uncle/pawnbroker)

DOWN

1 Just succeeded, given hint (6)
SIMPLY – S IMPLY
2 Time of year when zebra almost mounts zebu? (7)
EQUINOX – EQUIN[e] OX; a zebra is a horsey thing, while a zebu is a humped cow
3 Perhaps needing plates inserted, without force (9)
TOOTHLESS – if you have no teeth left, you may need plates
4 From DNA remains, I reconstructed indigenous people (11)
AMERINDIANS – DNA REMAINS I*; according to Wikipedia, the term Amerindian (referring to indigenous peoples of the Americas) ‘finds preferred use in scientific contexts and in Quebec, the Guianas and the English-speaking Caribbean’.
5 Half speak unintelligibly, keeping this quiet (3)
MUM – MUM[ble]
6 Resolve to move rook to the fifth? No way (5)
NEVER – NERVE with the R moved to last place
7 Artist changes one hand in capital, Ionic at the top (7)
BELLINI – the composer, not to be confused with the sculptor Bernini, as I usually do, when not inventing Berlini; BERLIN becomes BELLIN by changing R to l, then add I[onic]
8 Team methods not progressive (8)
SIDEWAYS – SIDE WAYS
13 Game, having drunk whiskey and other fluids (11)
TIDDLYWINKS – TIDDLY (drunk) W INKS
15 Turn to confront after an attack (5-4)
ABOUT-FACE – A BOUT (an attack) FACE (to confront)
16 Fish edge up — another fish died (8)
PILCHARD – LIP reversed CHAR D
18 Trying to remove minute little growth (7)
SAPLING – SA[m]PLING
19 Small child put in helmet, then put on cap (7)
LIMITED – MITE in LID; ‘put on cap’ as in ‘limited/capped the budget’
20 Short, quick steps taken by one who prepares meat (6)
MINCER – A sort of amalgamated-double-definition/cryptic definition; the most famous mincer of the 1970s was Dick Emery’s [TRIGGER WARNING] Clarence
22 Time out? (5)
NIGHT – a cryptic definition which relies on the ‘unconscious’ sense of ‘out’. Very nice. My COD
25 It may fly in endless rage (3)
FUR – FUR[y]; it the fur flies, someone is not happy…

73 comments on “Times 27721 – Hello Honky Tonks!”

  1. I’m out of ink so had to work this online. I could get used to it.
    The clue for MINCER seems to be asking for a word for the steps, rather than a word for the one making them.
    LYNCHING does not necessarily indicate hanging, though that has historically been a common method; the word primarily means an extrajudicial execution. “Lych” seems Mephisto-worthy. I haven’t looked any further, but Collins online has it defined as “lich”—!—sans a link, and marked as “obsolete.” “Lich” is defined as a corpse. Seems like that latter should have been the definition of “lych” standing alone.

    Edited at 2020-07-20 01:50 am (UTC)

    1. I took this to be a double definition “short, quick steps taken by one” being the first and “who prepares meat” as the second.

      I’m not sure what U had in mind as the “amalgamated-double-definition/cryptic” part, but perhaps I’ve missed something. (Dick Emery didn’t seem to be dressed as a butcher in any of the clips, for example.)

      1. Bur “…steps taken by one” doesn’t define MINCER. Inserting “are” would fix it, “…steps are taken by one.”

        Edited at 2020-07-20 06:22 am (UTC)

      2. Ah, thanks starstruck, I had the same query as GdS. I think the ‘are’ he’s looking for is implied.
        1. Yes. A very, maybe too simple clue with “are”; take out “are,” and it becomes quite cryptic, merely at the expense of grammar and sense.
  3. 40 minutes. The top half almost solved itself for me but I was delayed for ages further down with IT’S A SMALL WORLD and COPING SAW taking far too long to bring to mind. As has been referred to above, and unless there’s something we’re missing so far, I can’t make sense of first part of 20dn.
    1. I thought ‘one’ must be needed in both of the definitions. Then wondered if that was legit or if it needed a ‘- one’ inserted after it.
  5. I spent a fair proportion of my time today on my last two, MINCER and SLENDER. With the former I spent some time thinking it could be MINCES – I thought prepares meat might be the definition and wondered if mincing steps could be called minces. With the latter I spent time looking for a word for given to uncle, such as hocked, rather than just uncle.
    1. We often have ‘steps’ cluing dances so I wondered if ‘The Mincer’ might be a dance involving short quick movements, and having watched the link to Dick Emery I can almost imagine it! That would have made the clue a perfect double definition, but unfortunately research seems to confirm there’s no such thing.
  6. As for others a straightforward solve except for MINCER which makes no sense. LYCH indeed from Mephisto-land where I’ve met it before.

    Did you know that Larry Kahn is the world tiddlywinks champion?

      1. Indeed. There are two national associations, the English Tiddlywinks Association and the North American Tiddlywinks Association. These organisations are responsible for conducting tournaments and maintaining the rules of a very difficult game that combines strategic thinking and physical ability.
  7. I don’t think Sidney Mincing (KEN CONNOR) or POLARI extend to the New World. My COD is 20dn MINCER (or MINCEUR si vous-voulez). Attempting to get into this definition is ‘beyond our Ken’!

    Kenneth Williams where are you when we need you?

    FOI 12ac INTERVIEW By Dame Celia Molestrangler

    LOI 24ac AXING – just a minute

    WOD 8dn SIDEWAYS – lovely movie

    27 minutes – really enjoyed thank you setter and the Honky-Tonk from Hong Kong!

    Edited at 2020-07-20 07:16 am (UTC)

  8. At 18 minutes it seems I was on the wavelength today. Starting at 1a SPECTRA I later had to come back to the NW corner to finish off with 11a LYNCH and then LOI 3d TOOTHLESS, not really remembering dental plates, but apart from that it was a straightforward top-to-bottom solve.

    Almost a shame, really, as I’ve taken the day off work to get my car serviced and MOT’d so I have plenty of spare time on my hands this morning…

      1. I think I’d need more than an MOT and an oil service to give me enough time for The Listener!
  9. 25 mins pre-brekker.
    I liked it, but there was a tiny bit of looseness. As others have said, Mincer, but also what is the ‘then’ doing in 19dn? And in 9ac there is something unsatisfactory about the ‘was’ being there to suggest the wonder was ancient.
    Thanks setter and U.
    1. The ‘then’ in 19d could I suppose be construed as ‘therefore’. Agree that 20d makes no sense.
      1. I think we’re being harsh on the ‘mincer’ clue. Not every clue is a perfect sentence grammatically and I for one had no trouble in accommodating the elision. Similarly the use of ‘was’ in 9 is clear enough even if the wonder is as great or greater now. There’s a kind of looseness that’s OK and another kind that isn’t; this in my view is. Great poetic ref. though, as ever and anon.
  10. 17 minutes. LOI MINCER after TEMPI dawned on me. EQUINOX was a semi-biff, not knowing the cow, but it could be nothing else. I’ve seen Lych-Gates at many Churches so LYNCH was a write-in. As well as for corpses waiting for the afterlife, they were useful as a place to park your bike in wet weather. Who else gets a sinking feeling at the sound of IT’S A SMALL WORLD after all? Just the thought brings back the smell of the tomato ketchup and corn oil at Disney more than twenty years later. COD to SPECTRA, although as a Lancastrian I’ve always known that Richard of York gave battle in vain. Nice start to the week apart from the stink. Thank you U and setter.
    1. If you’ve got an annoying earworm exchange it for a more pleasant one by listening to Roddy Frame’s Small World. A lovely little ditty used as the theme tune to the under-the-radar sitcom Early Doors.
      1. Another fan of Early Doors, which I thought was beautifully written and performed.
  11. Derailed by the NW and SE corners, which took forever, I limped home with a WITCH of 141 in just over 40m. LYCH is very obscure and the definition rather loose, but I have no problem with MINCER, where it seems to me that ‘one’ is doing double duty in a fun DD.

    Thank you setter for a good test, despite my being off-wavelength, and to Ulaca for explaining several that went in unparsed.

  12. Made good progress but got stuck in the SE corner with SLENDER, MINCER etc.

    COD: IT’S A SMALL WORLD – made me laugh

    Friday’s answer: tennessine is (currently) the last element in that column of the periodic table. IUPAC, who decides their names, changed its mind about all new ones ending in -ium and allowed that column to continue its -ine theme, and the next one to continue the -on theme. Some nice clues presented for that answer – perhaps I should construct a crossword with them but I think that would be too much to have a link to the day’s crossword and all fit them together…

    Today’s question: why was 1972 the longest year there has ever been?

    1. What a jumper does without back adjustments being made in time (4,7)

      Edited at 2020-07-20 10:05 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks for the clues, very good. They are sort of the main reason for the answer, but it also needs an extra ingredient that, say, 1973 wouldn’t have…
        1. Yes but they differentiate it from 1976, say and all the others with only one of them.
  13. 11:31. I was a bit puzzled by NIGHT, but see it now, thanks U. I looked “lych” up after finding a rather fine example at Great Cornard Church on a walk last year… “A lych-gate is a roofed gateway to a churchyard, formerly used at burials for sheltering a coffin until the clergyman’s arrival.” I liked FANTASTIC but COD to TS a SMALL WORLD.
  14. Thank you, ulaca, for explaining the derivation of LYCH. I know what a lych gate is and had no problem with this clue, but didn’t know the derivation of the term.

    No problems with any of the clues. MINCER was, I thought straightforward.

    I see we have two LIDS; one in 10ac and the other in 19d.

    In 16d I was focused on RIM for ‘edge’ for too long.

    I thought MUM and IT’S A SMALL WORLD were excellent but my COD to EQUINOX.

  15. !6.18, resisting the temptation to spell LYNCH with an I, and taking rather a while wondering how SPAWNED could mean spare when it was so obviously the result of the wordplay in 27.

    I just accepted that MINCER was a bit minced.

    Clue of the day to IT’S A SMALL WORLD, even though, in my book, it should have been Pluto (that heart!), and has left me with a truly horrible earworm.

    2. I have endured that ride at Disney parks too many times and that hideous song stays with you for days afterwards. I fear it will again now that you’ve awoken the Kraken!
  16. No problems apart from needing SLENDER to resolve whether it was MINCES or MINCER.
  17. 36:37 today, so quick for me and that was after correcting a lot of poor biffs: BACKWARD at 8d and MINICAB at 5a which had been CHARIOT ( I, OT = Book); Extended Labour to fit Backward.
    Anyway I managed to unravel all that and LOI was BELLINI.
    COD to It’s a small world.
    Julian Clary (age 61!) was featured in yesterday’s Sunday Times magazine -“Born to mince”. His words not mine.
    David
  18. 10:13, with a couple of minutes at the end trying to come up with something better than LYNCH. I’ve never come across the gate before and I thought the definition a bit loose.
    Amazing to think that Dick Emery was considered funny. The past is a foreign country.
    Similar ear-worm problems to others. I’ll try penfold’s recommended treatment.

    Edited at 2020-07-20 09:06 am (UTC)

  19. Pretty Mondayish I thought. I’m happy to accept “quick steps (are) taken by one” as the first def with a silent verb. E.g. “Goals scored by one” for striker would be OK, IMHO (after the delights of the weekend* it would be churlish of me to add “unless you’re Patrick Bamford”).

    *
    Friday – Leeds promoted. Drinks.
    Saturday – Leeds champions. Drinks.
    Sunday – a hungover Leeds B team put one over on Wayne Rooney’s Derby County. Drinks.

    1. There are very few good strikers in the Championship -because they are so valuable they get snapped up by better teams.
      Bamford is yet another who gets in the right position and misses 5 out of 6 chances. Best I’ve seen recently is Mitrovic. Che Adams was good but barely makes Southampton’s first team. He did score that wonder goal recently. David
  20. DNF. I was comfortably under 14 mins despite a little hesitation at the unknown lych gate and not seeing how mincer worked (I see it now thanks to comments above). However, I couldn’t quite see how 1dn worked for some reason and impatience caused me to enter the incorrect ‘sample’. At 9ac I thought of the Taj Mahal.
  21. Ambled along in 22’56. MER at Dogstar as one word. Aha – Broad about to bowl.
  22. Definitely sluggish this morning which was a pity because there was some nice stuff here. i went looking for a slicer in 20d, dunno why. Cuisine minceur has nothing to do with minced meat. 16.38

  23. It’s all been said, really. Got a bit stuck in the SE quarter – LOI SLENDER.

    All correct in 35.55.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

  24. LYNCH was my FOI, with the gate vaguely remembered. MAUSOLEUM was next and led to a flurry of entries in the NW, and then the NE. The whole top half was done in less than 10 minutes. I slowed down a bit then, with COPING SAW holding me up until PILCHARDgave me the C. Then TEMPI and LOI, MINCER took some mental gymnastics. 22:31. Thanks setter and Ulaca.
  25. 35:18 so about par for me. Would have been a tad quicker if I hadnt mistyped tiddlywiGks and wrongly biffed (r)ant at 25d thereby making fantastic tricky. Minced and slender my last two.
  26. 28 minutes, which puts this on the easier side for me. Nevertheless, I had to work hard in the upper-left and lower-right.

    “Steps taken by one” meaning “Steps are taken by one” is completely unproblematic for me. Maybe I’m wrong but I feel we see this all the time in crossword clues.

  27. Found myself with time again this week, so had a crack. 23:29, so neither too easy nor too hard! My LOI was FUR – thought I’d finished with PILCHARD and AXING, but no, FUR was hiding away, unsolved. SLENDER was biffed, I always forget that UNCLE is a pawnbroker/lender. MINCER gave no problems once all the crossers were in.

  28. Thought this took longer that it actually did! Quite a slow start, but then things sped up.

    Lych didn’t cause me any problems – so many family weddings and funerals have passed through the lych gate at Bray churchyard! I thought it was a very well constructed clue, although the answer is horrible. In fact, I thought there were a lot of entertaining clues with good surfaces – INTERVIEW, IT’S A SMALL WORLD and DOGSTAR all had ticks next to them.

    On the subject of astronomy – has anyone managed to see the comet? Too many houses in the way here, that’s when it’s not cloudy 😞

    BTW Giovanni Bellini (1430ish – 1516) was a Venetian artist – probably the most famous of a family of painters; Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) was a composer. In fact he wrote that frequent visitor to the grid – Norma.

    FOI Lynch
    LOI Axing (got dying stuck in my head for too long!)
    COD Fur
    Time 36 mins (not 46 as first thought)

    Thanks setter and Ulaca

  29. Savouring a personal best (or possibly second best), which suggests that from now on I do all crosswords after a brief siesta. Totally on wave-length. The answers just spewed out. All my instantaneous biffs were correct. Won’t see the like again for a while, I’ll warrant.

  30. 14.13 but one wrong. Opted for (p)aging rather than (t)axing. Guessed night but lucky to be right. As for the rest, no real problems just got a bit stuck in the LHC which might explain the rush to a wrong solution. Hoping for better tomorrow.
  31. 20:00
    Reservations as above about mincer. 70s great for music; some other aspects best forgotten.
  32. ….to what others have said.

    FOI MAUSOLEUM
    LOI MINCER
    COD SPECTRA
    TIME 10:31

  33. After a wretched start, finally everyone else left the room and things improved markedly.

    LOI BELLINI – Was he an artist, or a composer? Not sure they are always the same thing….

    2. See above! Different people from different centuries 🎨🎵 Not forgetting the cocktail!
  35. Very upset that my 4m20 had converted to a 2-away by the time it had finished submit! I am very confident I did enter the word MINCER, so was surprised to see it registering as “MINDER” in the final analysis. Perhaps a case of mince over matter though 🙁
      1. Hey, I grew up on Heinrich Hoffman’s fine childcare instructional manual Struwwelpeter. Child sucking its thumb? Call in the great long-legged scissor man…
  37. and half of it spent on the last 4 in the NW. Finally got SPECTRA, which I had early on but couldn’t work out what it had to do with ghosts, until the penny dropped. Clue was too simple for me. LOI TOOTHLESS went in with a shrug, no idea why.
    Nice Monday crossword.
  38. Managed about 2/3rds of this in about 25 mins, which equates to blistering by my normal standards. Unfortunately the SW corner took as long again, and as for the SE… Eventually realised that the small child was a mite and not a tot, which unlocked Limited, Tempi, Mincer and Slender in that order. I can now finally go to bed. Invariant

    Edited at 2020-07-20 11:21 pm (UTC)

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