Times 27,833: Blue As The Gendarmerie Were The Waves Of The Sea

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
FOI 12ac, LOI 18dn. I’m assuming this was quite easy as I managed it in 6m after tottering back from a Thanksgiving repast involving plenty and I mean plenty of wine. MER at 9ac as Epicurus was assuredly not a pleasure-seeker. WOD to 14dn, COD I think to 23ac with is saucy surface. Thanks setter, I’m off for my post-cheesecake nap now!

ACROSS
1 I’m surprised by refusal to back name-giver (6)
EPONYM – MY! [I’m surprised] by NOPE [refusal], all reversed

5 Model soldier like millions (8)
PARADIGM – PARA DIG M [soldier | like | millions]

9 European Pope defending rogue pleasure-seeker (8)
EPICURUS – E PIUS “defending” CUR

10 Male with head turning for Sally (3,3)
BON MOT – TOM [male] with NOB [head], all reversed

11 One’s inclined to travel in this vehicle and clear off (5,3)
CABLE CAR – CAB [vehicle] + (CLEAR*)

12 Virtuous person knowing formal behaviour (6)
STARCH – S(ain)T + ARCH [knowing]

13 Something burning affected tree close to copse (8)
CAMPFIRE – CAMP FIR [affected | tree] + {cops}E

15 Duck appears from the east without its head (4)
SMEE – reversed {s}EEMS

17 After alcohol, kiss boy or girl (4)
ALEX – X after ALE

19 Reptile quietly buried in ground (8)
TERRAPIN – P in TERRAIN

20 Bow milliner, perhaps, put on line second (6)
LATTER – ‘ATTER put on L

21 Damned instigator of riot has charged around (8)
ACCURSED – R{iot} has ACCUSED around

22 Just bank on reversal of rating (6)
BARELY – RELY on reversed AB

23 Fancied a military man in tight denim (8)
IMAGINED – A GI in (DENIM*)

24 Rugby player’s leg with which ball may be struck (8)
BACKSPIN – BACK’S PIN

25 Gutted, Edgar was on the bench, perhaps an unknown substitute (6)
ERSATZ – E{dga}R + SAT [was on the bench, perhaps] + Z [an unknown]

DOWN
2 After drink, Englishman abroad welcomes plug for Indian food (8)
POPPADOM – after POP, POM “welcomes” AD

3 Ornament put away rapidly on spike (8)
NECKLACE – NECK [put away rapidly] on LACE [spike (a drink)]

4 Visitors arrived in greater numbers around British seaside resort (9)
MORECAMBE – MORE CAME “around” B

5 After sectarian conflict, dispatch part of army deployment (4-11)
POST-REFORMATION – POST R.E. FORMATION

6 Supporter lost ground in a sport (7)
APOSTLE – (LOST*) in A P.E.

7 Wrong about temperature, which won’t be perishing (8)
IMMORTAL – IMMORAL about T

8 Lucifer may be here, game to fight (8)
MATCHBOX – MATCH BOX [game | to fight]

14 Touching new peach, extremely gentle heat (9)
REPECHAGE – RE + (PEACH*) + G{entl}E

15 Sweet course not finished by bishop (8)
SYLLABUB – SYLLABU{s} by B

16 I’m not sure highly colourful clothes will be for the general public (8)
EXOTERIC – ER [I’m not sure…] clothed by EXOTIC [highly colourful]

17 With poles, carrying current mechanical beings (8)
ANDROIDS – AND RODS, carrying I

18 Release men thus possessing a legal right (8)
EASEMENT – hidden in {rel}EASE MEN T{hus}

19 Rest breaks around bad climbing frame (7)
TRELLIS – (REST*) “around” reversed ILL

65 comments on “Times 27,833: Blue As The Gendarmerie Were The Waves Of The Sea”

  1. I get where Verlaine is coming from, but also those who clocked in with high times. I felt utterly stumped for the first 10 minutes or so. With almost nothing in the grid, I thought this might be a complete bust! But once the answers started coming they didn’t stop and I finished just over my average time.

    A largish pause at the end where I wanted to give up and put ESOTERIC, even though I knew that couldn’t possibly be right. Glad I paused to work it out!

  2. Epicurus was a pleasure seeker in the sense that, because for him feelings were the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong, he believed we should seek out pleasure, and avoid pain.
    1. To an extent, but given that he is quoted as saying “the pleasant life is produced not by a string of drinking bouts and revelries, nor by the enjoyment of boys and women, nor by fish and the other items on an expensive menu, but by sober reasoning” then I think it’s a case of how far you’re willing to redefine what “pleasure” means…
      1. Yeah that’s the sense in which I think the definition uses wordplay: first I guessed HEDONIST, but then once I realized that wasn’t the answer I had to rethink it. There’s no question, though, that someone who debates the fine points of what pleasure is or isn’t could be cryptically termed a pleasure-seeker!
  3. 50 minutes with an overnight break. The only two that completely stumped me last night and accounted for about 15 minutes of my overrun came to me immediately on revisiting this morning: PARADIGM and EXOTERIC.

    My other long delay was over the unlikely-looking REPECHAGE where I trusted the wordplay and then looked it up immediately because I couldn’t believe it would be correct.

    Other than those three I was within my target half-hour.

  4. Following on from topspin earlier in the week today we have BACKSPIN. Look out for sidespin appearing soon. Like plusjeremy I hesitated over EXOTERIC but it sounded a plausible opposite to esoteric. I recognised REPECHAGE from TV sport viewing. I thought it might have been from three day eventing but Mr Google says it’s common in rowing so possibly I’ve heard it whilst watching the Olympics. Roll on Olympics 2021!
  5. In 6d I question whether P.E. is a sport or not. I reckon it’s just physical exercise, as the initials indicate.
    Like plusjeremy, I struggled for quite a while at the beginning.
    No real COD but LOI was EXOTERIC. I was looking at the clue the wrong way. I thought it must start ER….
      1. Yes, while P.E. lessons could involve team sports they could equally just be a paid thug making the panting fat kid run backwards and forwards with a medicine ball for half an hour. Which I guess is sport for the P.E. teacher, so…
          1. When I click on the title space, the first entry to appear is October 2019! Have mercy on the poor guy: he’s more than usually – um – tired and emotional, did amazingly well both to solve and intelligibly blog in the first place, and should be crashed out by now!
          2. This happened to me once before and confused everybody no end back then too. Something about Livejournal, or Chrome, or both, decides that it wants to aggressively cache a subject line and won’t let it drop…
  6. I became becalmed in the north-west passage – mainly as I reckoned 2dn was CHAPAT(T)I which it certainly wasn’t.

    I had 16dn EXOTERIC early on my WOD

    COD 11ac CABLE CAR one being the ski-lift not one’s self.

    FOI 8dn MATCHBOX Ringo!?

    (LOI) SMEE – the name of a very old ad agency – the nadir of ad agencies!

    I’ve been playing 12ac TERRAPIN Station all week – Dead Head

  7. …Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
    25 mins pre-brekker so not too tough for a Friday.
    Syllabub was neat.
    Thanks setter and V.
  8. DNF here. I was torn between EXOTERIC or “esotic” being the word I didn’t know at 16d. At least I came up with the unknown and unlikely REPECHAGE.
  9. Yes, straightforward today. Knew repechages from watching the rowing. Nho exoteric but trusted the wordplay.

    V, according to Seneca the gate to Epicurus’ school had: “Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure.” written over it ..

    1. I’m going to guess that the Greek word was something that doesn’t translate to “hedonism” in English though!
  10. Hang on – isn’t Smee Captain Hook’s mate and smew the duck? Or is it the other way round? (Just checked in OED – smee and smew are ducks. Smew also known as a white nun – let’s see if a setter picks that one up. Smee can be a smew but also a widgeon, pochard or scaup-duck. So there) Came in at 23’29” . How Verlaine managed in six beats me. LOI the Bow hatter. Clever.
    2. Exactly. Smee only exists in dictionaries and crosswords. It isn’t a word anybody uses
  11. 29 minutes, taking a while to get going. LOI APOSTLE, an over-contrived clue I felt, solved when BON MOT, which I also didn’t have a good word for, fell into place. I too raised an eyebrow at EPICURUS, and REPECHAGE was constructed more than known. But I have been improving on my BACKSPIN this week, and it was nice to see MORECAMBE clued without reference to Eric. Thank you V and setter.
  12. 31:07

    Thought this fairly gentle for a Friday. Choosing the wrong leg for the rugby player held me up for a while

  13. Just 17 minutes, so looked much harder than it turned out to be. My last one in was CABLE CAR, since a) I was obviously trying to think of a C5 or something that you rode in a recumbent posture and b) it was obviously an anagram of AND CLEAR.

    Apart from that, most everything else turned out easy enough, even the EXOTERIC, which is an opponym.
    The wordplay was handy for spelling POPPADOM and REPECHARGE.

    May I offer V best wishes for a surprisingly clear-headed Day After Thanksgiving.

    1. Alternative forms
      A large number of spelling variants exist, but most are very rare; the only common forms are papadam, pappadam, papadum, pappadum, poppadum and poppadom, and to a lesser extent pappadom, papadom, popadum and popadom.
      So we were compelled to rely on the wordplay
      Andyf
  14. Fingers crossed for my first sub-100 WITCH in over a week. Currently at 90 but of course that’s likely to change as the day goes on.

    I felt kind of on wavelength when PARADIGM was my first in (interesting to note that it was one of jackkt’s last).

    I knew the word REPECHAGE from Olympic rowing (as alluded to by Pootle) but needed the wordplay to spell it. Thankfully I have no idea who EPICURUS was so just let the wordplay guide me and made the link between fine food and pleasure. I was almost undone by the very well hidden EASEMENT.

  15. Quite a few single-letter insertions (TERRAPIN, ACCURSED, MORECAMBE, IMMORTAL…) but all very charmingly clued. My last was BON MOT, where I had been looking for a TOP reversal, but ended up in average time.
  16. 26.33 so much better than yesterday’s outcome . But Verlaine finished in 6 minutes- I am not worthy!

    Took a while to get started, morecambe my FOI and finished with cable car having finally given up on the answer being an anagram of and clear.
    NHO exoteric but an inspired guess which stopped me putting in esoteric in desperation.
    Puzzled by the duck, heard of smew. Is American a variant?

    1. Damn predictive text must be in celebration of Thanksgiving! The question relates to smee as the variant.
  17. Felt like hard work, with PARADIGM taking a long time, and BON MOT scraped together.

    31′, thanks verlaine and setter.

  18. PARADIGM was my FOI. I had to contruct unknowns, REPECHAGE, EXOTERIC(my LOI) and EPICURUS from wordplay. Took ages to see the well hidden EASEMENT. Chuckled at LATTER. Liked SYLLABUB. Like Z8, I wasted time tying to make an anagram of AND CLEAR, but eventually got it. 41:55. Thanks setter and V.
  19. 18:20, but with a stupid typo: MORECAMEE. Very annoying because I really liked this one, even if (or perhaps because) I seem to have been off the wavelength.
    I’ve never come across EXOTERIC before, and REPECHAGE was unfamiliar although now I know what it means it does ring a vague bell.
    Am I missing something at 11ac? Sure CABLE CARs generally go up inclines but a) not necessarily (e.g. the one that goes over the Thames) and b) even when they do the user is not inclined.
    Interesting about poor old EPICURUS: it seems he gets a bad rap, treated by the stoics rather as Richard III was treated by the Tudors. I had no idea.
    1. I agree. There are many that are not for the purpose of going up mountains. My favourite is through the rain forest in Costa Rica.
  20. Very slow start and no excuse from lack of caffeine this morning. I was sure REPECHAGE was some “esoteric” term from French cuisine – perhaps EPICURUS put the idea in my head. Also failed to see CABLE CAR for a while after thinking that people who drive “rally” cars seem to assume a semi-prone position and it fitted even if it didn’t parse. 20.11
  21. About an hour, but was listening to the radio at the same time.
    Tougher than yesterday, I thought.
    Thanks v.
  22. …a fitting tribute to the vinous verlaine. No serious hold-ups here in 22’37. Perhaps one day we’ll stop assuming the East End is synonymous with the dropped aitch. Good to be fleetingly reminded of the undeniably immortal Eric M.
  23. Like above I hovered for ages before entering anything, until APOSTLE came along. From there it was a steady solve, until the last 2. I got a LATTER but couldn’t parse it, until the doh moment with Bow. NHO that meaning of Sally, only knew ‘go forth’, so BON MOT entered on cryptic alone.
  24. Bunged in ESOTERIC and didn’t think much more of it, esotic having – in my stunted vocab – as much a chance of being an unknown word for brightly coloured as exoteric had of being an unknown word for, um, not esoteric.

    Edited at 2020-11-27 12:02 pm (UTC)

  25. How does BOW MILLINER give ATTER please someone? I get the HATTER, but don’t get the instruction to take off the first letter (even though I biffed the answer).
  26. Didn’t equate exotic with highly colourful, so went for “exeteric”. Damn. Otherwise this was OK, though EASEMENT took a long time to see, and I didn’t know sally as a witty remark so had to trust the wordplay.
  27. I spy the ACCURSED SMEE
    Let’s reverse the psychology
    If you do birds again
    From my verse I’ll refrain
    And then think how sorry you’ll be!
  28. To Verlaine for blogging under the influence of turkey and much trimmings.
    Surprised to finish this unaided as it seemed hard at first, but ending with EXOTERIC after a reasonable (for me) 25 minutes. I like the Bow hatter and remembered the duck. Didn’t know whether Epicurus was a fun guy but he sounded like he enjoyed his turkey etc.

    Edited at 2020-11-27 12:53 pm (UTC)

  29. I had only 2 penned in after 20 mins (ERSATZ and CAMPFIRE) followed by CABLE CAR and then POST-REFORMATION with just the R and F checkers, which opened things up a lot.

    SMEE, REPECHAGE (what else could it be with all of the checkers in place?) and EXOTERIC were the sticking points towards the end.

  30. One pink putting MORECOMBE instead of MORECAMBE. Undone by another English town. Should have read the clue more carefully and seen ‘arrived’ not ‘arrive’. Combe seemed a much more likely end for a town than Cambe. Aren’t there lots of Biddlecombes, Buddlecombes and Suchlikecombes?

    Nearly failed with LOI EASEMENT, didn’t spot it as a hidden and was trying to parse the men’s release as something to do with semen, which was inside ‘easement’. Surely not in the Times! And it wasn’t. Thanks for the correct parsing Verlaine.
    46:56

    Edited at 2020-11-27 01:29 pm (UTC)

  31. Pleasant, and not as testing as some Fridays, even for those of us who haven’t been on the (cranberry) sauce. Stopped to think about EXOTERIC for a bit, but it had to be what it was, really. I feel sure I probably once had to answer the question “Can Epicurus be called a hedonist, and if not, why not?”
  32. All correct, thankfully. I thought 10ac must be “Pop Out” until I saw “Immortal” which gave me the M crosser.
    Nice workout to end the week.
  34. ….but once I got going it was straightforward and enjoyable.

    As a very small boy, I remember my Dad reading a holiday brochure about that particular Lancashire resort. “Is Morricambi in Italy ?” I asked, dreaming of a first flight from nearby Ringway Airport. I’ve been to Morecambe recently, but it was closed (as the late Colin Crompton was wont to remark). When it isn’t closed it makes Skegness seem like Cancun.

    FOI ALEX
    LOI EXOTERIC
    COD MORECAMBE
    TIME 11:49

  35. Like others I started slowly, but then I fell into many traps. I liked the Bow milliner, and wasn’t so sure of tight as anagrind.

    Edited at 2020-11-27 05:57 pm (UTC)

      1. Thanks Jeff. I got the connection, I just didn’t like it

        Edited at 2020-11-27 06:45 pm (UTC)

  36. 58 minutes, so not entirely easy, but enjoyable. This certainly required careful reading of the wordplay (especially considering the large number of, well, esoteric words like EXOTERIC). Strange that so many people had a hidden word clue, EASEMENT, as their LOI (I did too).

    Edited at 2020-11-27 06:59 pm (UTC)

  37. I put in ESOTERIC and meant to come back and check since it didn’t seem to quite work. But I’d never heard of EXOTERIC so that was never really a choice. Some people found this easy but I did not. I fell asleep when I was first solving it and finished this morning, so no time. But it would have been embarrasingly long.

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