Times 27787 – Put that in your lapel!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 60 minutes!
Music: Schubert, Piano Sonatas, Wilhelm Kempf

Yeah, my time was 60 minutes, but it was 25 minutes on all but one clue.   Since I had never heard of the fastener, and there a zillion words that fit _ A _ E _, I had quite a bit of difficulty there.   I suppose the UK solvers just wrote it in without scarcely a second thought.   The rest of the puzzle was pretty typical for a Monday, with a couple of clever twists but nothing too tricky.

I saw a couple of days after the fact that  another commenter had posted an answer to a different current puzzle in the comments.   Please try to avoid this, as some of our readers may not have gotten to that particular puzzle yet.   

Across
1 Enchanting publication I name shortly (7)
MAGICAL – MAG + I + CAL[l]
5 Announce two poor grades at college (7)
DECLARE – D + E + CLARE (an Cambridge college)
9 Time of payments: edited round number gets stuck up (6-5)
TOFFEE-NOSED – T + OF + FEE(NO)S + ED.
10 They order the troops salad (3)
COS – Commanding Officers, COs.
11 Gave approval for a grand instrument (6)
AGREED – A + G + REED.
12 Fixer of team to pinch back (5,3)
PANEL PIN – PANEL + NIP backwards….aaargh!.
14 Writer in trainers popping pill (13)
TRANQUILLISER – Anagram of TRAINERS around QUILL
17 Unseen helper’s paper and coin no longer used (8,5)
GUARDIAN ANGEL – GUARDIAN + ANGEL, in entirely different contexts
21 Club entertainer ultimately impresses tourist (8)
STRIPPER –  [impres]S + TRIPPER.
23 Give up game after opponent captures rook (6)
FOREGO – FO(R)E + GO.
25 Father seen in good sort of light (3)
GUV – G + UV, ultra-violet.
26 After very short time, pastor abandoned defunct browser (11)
TRICERATOPS – TRICE + anagram of PASTOR, which I wouldn’t have gotten quickly if we hadn’t just had one!
27 Recycling: say I’m sorry about Victor’s going west (7)
SALVAGE – E,G, A(V)LAS, all backwards. 
28 Sticker finally put on first compartment (7)
BAYONET – BAY ONE + [pu]T. 
Down
1 Dangerous driver, crazy, circling right round (2,4)
MR TOAD – M(RT O)AD.
2 Choose computer career and take the risk (2,3,2)
GO FOR IT – Double definition, one jocular.
3 Cold, even with president (9)
CLEVELAND – C + LEVEL + AND.   I wasted a lot of time with Coolidge, who sounds a lot cooler, but doesn’t fit.
4 Long and thin piece of wood, not soft (4)
LANK – [p]LANK.
5 Did initially request a piece of advice, turning up a large book (3,7)
DAS KAPITAL – D[id] + ASK + A + TIP backwards + A + L.
6 Bum died in prison (5)
CADGE – CA(D)GE.
7 Admits church has added page in holy book (7)
ACCEPTS – AC(CE + P)TS. 
8 European learning about evil in tragic setting (8)
ELSINORE – E + L(SIN)ORE.
13 City plaza lies oddly across major road (6,4)
SQUARE MILE – SQUARE (M1) L[i]E[s].
15 Old soldier on island line (9)
LEGIONARY – LEG + IONA + RY.
16 Something delightful more than once in middle-class novels (3,5)
AGA SAGAS – A GAS, A GAS….jumping Jack Flash!
18 Coming first in race, bumping into a fellow competitor (7)
ARRIVAL –   A R(R[ace])IVAL.
19 Having told a story, have to rest (3,4)
LIE DOWN – LIED + OWN.
20 My collection of items stays (6)
CORSET – COR + SET.
22 Part of stomach revolting at bread (5)
PITTA – PIT + AT backwards.
24 Letters associated with pencil broken by Queen Rosemary, perhaps (4)
HERB – H(ER)B, where HB is from the graphite grading scale.

54 comments on “Times 27787 – Put that in your lapel!”

  1. Never heard of panel pin, so my alphabet trawl stopped at LAPEL PIN, thinking I was looking for “side” rather than “team” and lapel is almost side? No. Ooops. But the rest was reasonably quick, slowed down by Legionnaire spelled wrongly, (Grauniad also), and Das Kapital, which I really liked when I got. COD to triceratops.
  2. Well, I was looking for a dictionary definition of PANEL meaning “team,” but then just said screw it and came here.
    Hadn’t seen AGA SAGA for a while, nor SQUARE MILE in this sense. MR TOAD was a guess. Just for the hell of it, I’ll register my usual futile objection to cluing FOREGO with this definition.

    Edited at 2020-10-05 04:30 am (UTC)

  3. No problem with PANEL PIN. My hold up was on 6D where I read “Bum” in the clue as “Burn”, and was looking for a stream (or perhaps charring or something). I also hadn’t got DECLARE so it took a bit of time to sort that out.
  4. 30 minutes for all but 12ac where I had PIN from ‘pinch back’ but no idea of what the first word might be. After 10 minutes of trawling the alphabet I gave up and resorted to aids. NHO PANEL PIN.
  5. Well, this UK solver spent about 9 minutes of his 39 finding the PANEL bit of 12a, so don’t feel too bad. I’ve also only ever seen AGA SAGA in crosswords, so that took a while, as well.

    FOI MAGICAL, LOI 12a PANEL PIN COD 26a TRICERATOPS—great def!

  6. Not just me then. After several fruitless alphabet trawls I bunged in LAPEL PIN. I’m glad I didn’t spend any more time as I don’t think I’d have come up with PANEL PIN.
  7. I remember Barry Bucknell, TV DIY expert in the 50s, using panel pins to secure the hardboard and plywood he used for every job, large or small.
  8. …and ears as a make-believe that there are no monsters.
    15 mins and the another several alphabet trawling the pin.
    I chose Panel on the guess that there was such a thing and a panel is a team (sort of). But let’s face it – that clue is very unsatisfactory.
    Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  9. …thanks to a man from Porlock.
    I spent most time on LEGIONARY and FOREGO.
    I thought 22d was GUTTA for a while even thought I couldn’t see the connection with bread.
    So it wasn’t SAFET PIN then?! PANEL PIN went in eventually.
    It’s only through cryptic crosswords that I know AGA SAGAS.
  10. 16.44 thinking it was much quicker, except that PANEL PIN was a long time coming.
    Panel pins are probably still available at B&Q, but my mind fixes them in the same epoch as “Does the Team Think?” a panel game of the late fifties on the Light Programme.* We used panel pins when we needed to fix hardboard to something.
    The other hold-up was AGA SAGAS, where I was sure the only thing that fit ?A? was EGG.
    Today’s fun clue was undoubtedly the defunct browser. Not Netscape Navigator, then.

    * Wiki says Does the Team Think… was revived as recently as 2009. Must have passed me by.

    Edited at 2020-10-05 08:13 am (UTC)

  11. Guessed LAPEL PIN after a while, knowing it wasn’t right, but couldn’t think of anything else – NHO PANEL PIN. Was more of an ‘really? OK’ than a ‘of course!’

    COD: AGA SAGAS, couldn’t penetrate for ages.

    Friday’s answer: the cleft below the nostrils is the philtrum.

    Today’s question: Bayonne is the tenth largest city in the Franco-Spanish Basque Country; what is the largest?

    Edited at 2020-10-05 08:18 am (UTC)

    1. Took travelling companion’s cousin around a city (6)

      Edited at 2020-10-05 09:10 am (UTC)

  12. DNF. Never heard of a PANEL PIN, and ‘team’ for PANEL was too oblique for me. I had already wasted time over LANK where ‘long and thin’ didn’t seem sufficient as a definition, limpness being indispensable to the meaning. Uncooked spaghetti is long and thin. GUV is a bit odd too, although the checking letters didn’t leave much choice.

    Edited at 2020-10-05 03:00 pm (UTC)

  13. My Hornby Double-O train set was held together with Barry Bucknell’s PANEL-PINS. A feature of the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earl’s Court, once Oswald Mosley was no longer using it. Our Colonial friends must have used something else to support their locomotives. The joy of being British, especially after The Wild Colonial Boy took his excursion. What isn’t he on!?

    FOI 1ac MAGICAL

    LOI 25ac GUV’ after remembered AGA SAGAS at 16dn

    COD 12ac PANEL PIN!

    WOD MR.TOAD of Toad Hall (Wind in the Willows)

    Time – forgot to look but about 35 mins.

    Edited at 2020-10-05 08:29 am (UTC)

  14. 32 minutes. LOI GUV, after the penultimate ARRIVAL gave the V. I didn’t parse BAYONET despite the fond memories of Corporal Jones. I did get PANEL PIN, accompanied by less than fond memories of putting up a Habitat self assembly shelf unit from nearly half a century ago. Sir Terence did bring style into our dreary lives, but not always quality. COD to TOFFEE-NOSED. A bracing start to the week. Thank you V and setter.
  15. Well I found this quite hard. Like others spent ages on CADGE (didn’t see the other meaning of bum for an age) DÉCLARE and PANEL PIN. Although I had heard of the latter. Par contre, NHO AGA SAGA, which took another eon. For once the intended meaning of MY did not beat me, but ON/LEG did! Wasn’t sure about GUV for Father either but it’s in the dictionary if you look hard enough. I am a lover of anagrams of which this puzzle was singularly devoid. Only half of one clue (26ac) in fact so that didn’t help my time either. Thank you V for the explanations.
  16. DNF. All but 12A done in c15 mins, then after 2 alphabet trawls and trying to think of all the types of pin I could, still didn’t find PANEL PIN after another 15 minutes, so came here to find the answer. “Team” for “panel” is a bit of a stretch, I think, or at least not very helpful.
  18. DNF. I’ve got a box of panel pins, but I still couldn’t get it here. Team = panel, yeah whevs.
    Thanks v.
  20. Glad it wasn’t just me! 7 minutes on all but one of the clues, another 6 minutes alphabet trawling before putting in LASER PIN with a shrug. Obviously wrong.

    Never heard of a panel pin and, having googled it, I’d just call that a nail. Ah well.

    BAYONET was excellent, as was TRICERATOPS – indeed, a number of lovely clues in the bottom half of the grid.

  21. Obviously right on the wavelength here; momentary pause over _A_E_ PIN when it clearly wasn’t SAFETY or DRAWING, but luckily the right answer occurred to me quickly enough. In Irish sport (more so than British, I think) you’ll regularly see something like “Munster have selected their panel for Saturday’s game against Saracens”, though admittedly it’s always seemed a rather old-fashioned expression.
  22. Well I think it was that stupid nail that got me but I don’t know for sure. I used to be able to see where my pink square was if I got one but now all I can get when I hit “review” on the Club site is the page that tells me my time and how many errors I have and I can’t seem to get behind it to see where I went wrong. Any ideas?
    1. Try the X in the top right Olivia. That does the job on my Android phone (it’s taken a very long time to work it out !)
      2. And after all that I had the PANEL ok (I thought I did but you know how one’s fingers can get a mind of their own) but had a typo in the Marx thing. Well, I was due for one.
  23. Got PANEL PIN in the end – a panel of experts can be a team of experts, so I think it works. Hadn’t heard of AGA SAGAS, but I like it and the clue. Didn’t know “angel” as a coin either, but with “Guardian” it couldn’t be anything else, and the college in DECLARE took a while to come. Wasted time looking for the name of a city as an anagram of “plaza lies” around “M” before seeing SQUARE MILE.

    FOI Magical
    LOI Panel pin
    COD Legionary

  24. The GUARDIAN ANGELS were anything but unseen when they patrolled the Tube some years ago !

    AGA SAGAS and BAYONET parsed afterwards. I’ve used PANEL PINS in my youth, but still spent the last minute of my solve alpha-trawling !

    FOI MAGICAL
    LOI PANEL PIN
    COD CLEVELAND
    TIME 9:38

  25. After a long alphabet trawl couldn’t come up with anything better than LAPEL. Do DIY stores outside the UK have panel pins? 36:59 with the two pink squares.
  26. It just goes to prove that general knowledge is what you know. I wrote in panel pin with only the thought that the clue was an escapee from the quicker. I was amazed to find that many experienced solvers had not heard of it.
  27. Another LAPEL PIN here. Sadly PANEL PIN came to mind as soon as I saw my pink squares and wrote out _A_EL. Irritating, as I’d spent 15 minutes trying to come up with something that was better than LAPEL. 52:45 WOE. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  28. Did fine with this for three quarters – including the well known panel pin from DIY days – but had problems with the SW corner. Couldn’t see GUV and don’t like it for = father, my Dad wouldn’t have been happy with being called that by me or anyone. Never heard of AGA SAGA (although Mrs K had)and still not enamoured with A GAS for something delightful; thought A GAS was a bit of a larf messing around. Likewise had MATSO in for 22d (anagram of part of STOMA(ch)) and why is PIT = just a part of stomach?
    Like others, spent too long trying to anagram PLAZA LIES M for a city at 13d.
    Apart from that, much to like – 8d, 26a, 9a my CoDs.

    1. SOED has:

      pit of the stomach (a) the bottom or floor of the stomach; (b) the depression below the bottom of the breastbone.

      It’s where one feels things figuratively. Or felt them. I suppose these days people feel things in their gut.

      1. Dictionary corner noted. But it’s only a figure of speech, a feeling, not a real thing, pit of the stomach, you can’t stay it’s a ‘part’ of a feeling. OED please revise. Thanks jackkt.
  30. I just checked in the toolbox I was using for some DIY at the weekend, and lo and behold: a 250g bag of panel pins was sitting in plain sight. I suppose the fact that it’s a metric weight bag with a barcode on it suggests it’s of more recent vintage than Barry Bucknell, but I couldn’t pin the purchase date down (ahem) to a particular decade.
  31. I struggled today. I had all but the damn pin in 27 minutes (though I took a long time to see GUV). After a further six minutes I was about to put LAPEL PIN in when the penny dropped. Odd really, since I have several boxes of them, acquired from my dad, who would have been DIYing in the 50s and 60s. I occasionally use a few to fix a thin bit of something to a thicker bit of something. I have enough to last several lifetimes I suspect.

    H

  32. 32:52. A quick Monday solve derailed by panel pin which just wouldn’t come to mind and defied a first alpha-trawl, revealing itself only after a second.
  33. My very own Leighton Buzzard moment – faced with a lot of vowels, and there was one in my pocket.
    Mystified by the various confusions around ‘panel’. Went straight in.
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