Times 27853 – A Knot in the Tail

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
As hinted at in my heading, the last couple here were a mite tricky, I thought. The rest? Well, very Mondayish, indeed. Plusjeremy will be looking at a mohnesque time, I reckon, if he knows his pub food, his cupettes and his Shakespeare. 17 plus change for this moderately erudite non-computer type.

Afore ye go! Ite missa est! and all that caper…

ACROSS

1 My clue cooked up for Aristotle’s school (6)
LYCEUM – anagram* of MY CLUE; pretty straightforward for those who followed the arts, but maybe a head-scratcher for IT types
5 Small cup offered by girl in sanctimonious family (8)
PANNIKIN – ANN in PI KIN; pretty much a head-scratcher for everyone, I would have thought
9 Book written in African state, primarily on Shakespearean steward (8)
MALVOLIO – VOL in MALI O (first letter of ON); I once played Antonio in Twelfth Night. I couldn’t manage one of my five lines, which was ‘Put up your sword!’ I could only say it as if I was doing a Monty Python parody. It was so bad that I was nearly dropped from the play. And this just a year or so after wowing audiences in Zigger Zagger, where admittedly I didn’t really have to act.
10 Reindeer in peril, about to be substituted for good (6)
DANCER – DANGER with the G (good) replaced by C (about, AKA circa); I rather like the surface of this clue. The other day I looked up all the various Clausian reindeer (core and peripheral) but have since forgotten all bar Vixen. Not sure what that says about me apart from the fact I am losing my, um, what do you call it…
11 Attractive grassy areas used in first half of game (8)
PLEASING – LEAS in PING [pong]; the sort of surface a setter comes up with when he’s been on the sherry
12 Exercise gets first of bulky blokes losing eight stone (6)
PEBBLE – PE and initial letters of B[ulky] B[lokes] L[osing ] E[ight]
13 At home this person’s invested in fast pain relief (8)
LINIMENT – IN IM in LENT; thank goodness the setter was so precise with his/her cluing, prompting me to change my initial A to an I. I also thought of ‘lineament’, but fortunately that didn’t fit
15 Monster involved in rather gory comeback (4)
OGRE – reverse hidden in rathER GOry
17 A type lacking finish is similar (4)
AKIN – A KIN[d]
19 Article by Catholic dignitary about an Anglo-Saxon responsibility (8)
THANEDOM – AN (an) in THE (article) DOM (Catholic dignitary); took me while to sort this out, not helped by the DOM (not being of a monkish disposition), but instead being helped by Macbeth, who was the thane of somewhere
20 Bovine bloke protecting posh legislator (6)
LUMPEN – U MP in LEN (our first random bloke); for those of you who are wondering, Karl Marx’s Lumpenproletariat (magnificent word) and this lumpen have some kind of association, with the German LUMPEN (rag) influencing the German LUMP (vagabond) that is the root (apparently) of this English word
21 Old man with money picked up something to suck (8)
LOLLIPOP – POP follows sounds like ‘lolly’ (a slang term for money that almost no one with half a brain uses; quite popular in Australia, I am told))
22 Girl presented by one’s second son (6)
ISABEL – IS ABEL (Abel was the second son of Adam and Eve, the first being Cain and the third – and ancestor of Jesus in the Biblical account – being Seth)
23 Sustenance teachers finally sought, eating nothing in Paris (8)
NUTRIENT – RIEN (French for ‘nothing’) in NUT (National Union of Teachers) [sough]T; if music be the food of love, I’ll have a quarter pounder and fries
24 He reigns ineptly, though fairly committed to environment (8)
GREENISH – HE REIGNS*
25 Laid back about English knight’s disclaimer (6)
DENIAL – E N in reversal of LAID

DOWN

2 Peer that goes without golf throughout a number of months (8)
YEARLONG – EARL in YON (if the setter had moved on from the sherry to the Warninks Advocaat, he might describe the act of EARL going inside YON as ‘Peer, that goes without’) G; if some setters are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them, then I’m not quite sure where this one fits in. (cheeky emoji winky thingie)
3 Printing unit, sound and arousing jealousy (8)
ENVIABLE – EN (printing unit) VIABLE (sound)
4 Ordinal produced by philosopher in hot resort (9)
MILLIONTH – MILL (as in John Stuart) IN HOT*
5 Food for people with shares? (10,5)
PLOUGHMANS LUNCH – cryptic definition eliciting groans that thunder from those who got it and sighs of fire from those who didn’t; a Ploughman’s lunch consists of half a stale baguette, a lump of cheddar, tired looking lettuce and a spoonful from a jar of inferior pickle. Great British pub fare, in other words.
6 Most elegant farm animal is French (7)
NEATEST – NEAT (bovine creature) EST (‘is’ in French, n’est ce pas?)
7 Sweetener giving defensive player stimulation at first (8)
KICKBACK – KICK (stimulation) BACK (as in football, not rugby – unless you’re playing Bob Hiller at full-back)
8 Old Scandinavian identifies chap from the south (8)
NORSEMAN – reversal of NAMES RON (our second random bloke)
14 Greet journalist protecting usual extremists? That’s knotty (9)
NODULATED – U[sua]L (initial and final letters of the word, AKA ‘extremists’) in NOD AT (greet) ED (our generic hack); almost too hard a knot for me t’untie
15 Unacceptable mendacity? Not near the centre (8)
OUTLYING – OUT (unacceptable) LYING (mendacity)
16 Aussie native taking tea with male fellow lodger (4-4)
ROOM-MATE – ROO (our prototypical Aussie native – slightly more intelligent than ‘Bruce’) M (male) MATE (actually, maté – the tea-like milky drink favoured by some – I suppose)
17 Scope revealed by Oscar, standing in in goal (8)
AMBITION – AMBIT (scope) O in IN; okay, he’s now moved onto the brandy and has slid under the tree, wearing his new socks on his hands and asking for the Mariah Carey ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ to be played again. If you were asked to think of the most bizarre way to express the idea of the letter O going in the word IN, you would doubtless say, ‘Oh, yeah, “Oscar, standing in in”.’
18 Popular mason disturbed about current sleep disorder (8)
INSOMNIA – IN MASON* around I (electrical current)
19 Money divided by male soldiers in that place (7)
THEREIN – HE (male) RE (soldiers) in TIN (another slang term for money that no one uses)

Those that are fools, let them use their talents. Well, I have used mine as best I can.

A very merry Christmas to one and all!

69 comments on “Times 27853 – A Knot in the Tail”

  1. I’m not sure why Ulaca considers my times to be fast these days… in any case, struggled for about 6 minutes on THANEDOM. Would have been happy for an 18 minute time or a 25 minute time, but alas, I had THEREON rather than THEREIN and so the whole thing was a waste. I wonder what Verlaine missed during his 3-minute romp.

    And here I was, reeeeally hoping to start the week on a better note than Saturday’s puzzle, where I saw I had a typo just as I hit Submit and starting banging on the keyboard to try to get it to stop.

    As for the puzzle, yeah, I wasn’t sure how to get all the necessary letters in P _ _ N _ K _ N. Neither DI nor UNA seemed to work. But once I thought to try ANN, I remembered the requisite connotation of PI, which I always think means ‘pious’, rather than ‘holier-than-thou’. I’ve scarcely read any Shakespeare and grew up in California but my brain seems to have a knack for remembering things, and Malvolio sounded right, and PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH went straight in off the latter L, even though I don’t know what it is or where I’ve heard of it.

    Edited at 2020-12-21 01:11 am (UTC)

  2. Thanks for the entertaining blog, ulaca.
    No issues with this except my LOI, THANEDOM, took several minutes to sort out. I started with THE… and thus struggled with the rest.
    FOI was LYCEUM and COD to PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH. I twigged fairly early on that I should think of plough shares.
  3. Invented in the 1960’s when gastro-pubs tip-toed out. These days a 5dn can be a rather grand, but costly affair: pub’s in UK do lot better than Lord Ulaca of Wanchai West suggests – what passes in ‘Lang Kwai Trousers’ as pub-fare, may be inferior. My FOI.

    LOI 20ac LUMPEN

    COD 12as PEBBLE

    WOD 2dn YEARLONG – oh! for something new!

    Time: all of 41 minutes

    1. Not sure I’ve ever had one in the People’s Republic of Hong Kong. My memories of this delicacy go back to the 80s.
  4. I’m surprised by the idea that lolly for money is an Australian usage! Not in these parts. I was imagining Arfur or Tel saying it on Minder.
    1. Nor these parts. Less uncommon is “do your lolly” meaning lose your head, get very angry.
    2. Collins has lolly as UK, NZ and Australian slang for money. Their ‘Dictionary of Slang’ dates it from the 1940’s and Cockney rhyming slang: lolly = lollipop = cop – coppers – coinage.
  5. No problem, other than slow memory, with PANNIKIN. Biffed YEARLONG and PLOUGHMANS L, never did get around to parsing them. U, you’ve got the G/C substitution backward.
  6. Needed the crossers to see LYCEUM and like plusjeremy had to rely on instinct to get MALVOLIO. I agree, they sound good, but most of the PLOUGHMANS LUNCH(es) I’ve had have been on the LUMPEN and NODULATED side. THANEDOM was a good one to stop Monday complacency from settling in.

    If you think trying to say ‘Put up your sword!’ in a dramatically convincing way was bad, try emoting ‘Et tu, Brute?’ to a classroom of sniggering 15-year old schoolboys – they didn’t let me forget. A long time ago, but I still cringe at the thought.

    29 minutes with the tricky YEARLONG my POI and the very pleasing ‘first half of game’ wordplay for PLEASING a good way to finish off.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

    1. On the subject of cringe-making Shakespeare performances – eons ago I was impersonating the Lady in the Scottish play and had to speak the lines preceding “and take my milk for gall” in front of an assembled boys’ school. I was allowed to skip it in rehearsal on the promise that I would say it on the night.
      1. I saw Macbeth in an RSC production a couple of years ago. There were lots of school groups in the audience and when Niamh Cusack did that bit there was much giggling.
  7. A third of SNITCH’s reference solvers have been excluded due to errors. So now I am really eager to know what’s catching so many people out! verlaine? Oh no, starstruck_au, not you, too?!

    Edited at 2020-12-21 05:44 am (UTC)

    1. Things I might have biffed badly, if I were a biffer:
      MALVOGLIO (I type looking at the keys, don’t notice overwrites)
      LUMMOX ditto
      PANNEKIN, including Anne c.f. Ramekin
      1. Mine was LINEMENT:-( I even said to myself ME for setter is going westwards instead of eastwards and still didn’t pick it up!!
    3. Having successfully negotiated the LINIMENT and THEREIN traps, i had “yearling” rather than YEARLONG. Inexcusable, as it comes from not reading the clue properly. But really a nod to our esteemed and erudite blogger, to confirm his view of the intelligence of Australians and IT folk 😉
    4. I was a bonehead LINAMENT. Shame as I was in the 3.5 minutes ish range apart from that silly error! LINEAMENT may be a work, but LINAMENT should have rung some warning bells even while going at top speed.
  8. The single 15-letter answer down the middle of the grid caught my attention right away so that was the clue I tackled first and it went in with barely a second’s thought. I agree with our Shanghai correspondent that Ulaca’s report of what is served as a PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH in UK pubs is not correct, at least in my experience. He has the right basic ingredients but not their quality which is usually first rate, and often there will be any number of extra items or choices to justify what would be a high price for basic bread and cheese and pickle. It’s believed that the term was invented in the 1950’s but its use was not widespread until the 1960’s when the Milk Marketing Board promoted it nationally. Brewer’s Dictionary is way out with its assertion that it was invented in the 1970’s as I can date my first experience of it to 1960 or 1961.

    As for the rest of the puzzle, it played mainly to my strengths with the exception of PANNIKIN which was completely unknown to me.

    17dn and 19ac delayed me at the end, taking me from 25 minutes to 32 minutes.

    Edited at 2020-12-21 05:43 am (UTC)

    1. The invention of ploughman’s lunch as fake heritage was pointed out in the film of that name, starring Jonathan Pryce, written by Ian McEwan.
      1. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s fake, just a successful marketing exercise. I’m sure many a ploughman has eaten bread and cheese and pickle since time immemorial.

        I’ve seen the film made in 1983. Hired it on VHS a couple of years later.

        Edited at 2020-12-21 02:12 pm (UTC)

  9. No real problems, but no real speed, either, and a few tricky ones at the end. Surprised its Snitch is so low.

    Edited at 2020-12-21 06:31 am (UTC)

  10. A quite PLEASING 25 min
    OUTLYING noun – PANNIKIN
    Three rhymes THEREIN
    For the short word AKIN
    And THANEDOM my last one in
  11. 10:01.. but I wrong. I had IN AM in LENT for 13A. Close but no cigar.Some fun words today… LUMPEN, PANNIKIN and THANEDOM. COD to PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH.
  12. 25 mins with yoghurt, granola and a pannikin of mate.
    No dramas, but tiny MERs at the word order described by ‘with’ in both 21ac and 16dn.
    Thanks setter and U.
  13. 26 minutes with LOI ISABEL. YEARLONG was a semi-biff. I’ve said LOLLY for money since primary school days and thought it normal UK usage. PANNIKIN was constructed without quite knowing what one was. TLS solving is helping me because I saw ‘steward’ and thought MALVOLIO without seeing his stockings. So, I’m making that COD. Enjoyable start to the week after the upset of the weekend. Thank you U and setter.
  14. A steady solve and happily all correct.

    COD: PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH. I didn’t groan at this, I smiled.

  15. Same comments as others, held up in the end by THANEDOM, PANNIKIN and AMBITION. The rest went in quite easily. I always seek out a PLOUGHMANS LUNCH when I get back to the UK (rarely at the moment of course) , though they do seem nowadays to add all sorts of unidentifiable greenery as well as ham. Thanks U and setter.
  16. I hit the submit fully expecting several to be wrong. Had some help from the missus with Malvolio coz she iz better educated…
  17. Easy today. I knew pannikin, no idea where from. I was fairly sure it was linIment but checked anyway.
    I remember going into a pub on the North York moors not far from Whitby and asking if they did a ploughman’s lunch, only to be told that all the ploughmen round there ate pie and chips. This smart-Alec reply cost the landlord something since there were six in our party and we went elsewhere, the marvellous Magpie Cafe in Whitby. 1962, that was.
    1. What wouldn’t I give to visit the Magpie Café right now ! And there’s plenty of decent ale to be had nearby. I love Whitby.
      1. 25 minutes from my house with a lead-booted accelerator foot. I have a few friends live there and they reckon the tourists have been crazy recently though. Best avoided for now sadly:-(
  18. It’s comforting to know I’m not the only one who came up with LINAMENT today. I even thought to myself that it didn’t seem to parse properly but dismissed that thought as I was so convinced of the spelling. I was off the wavelength elsewhere, with it still taking me some time to come up with PLOUGHMANS LUNCH when I had all the crossers in.
  20. Desperately trying to think of a suitable farm animal other than a goat to finish off, but not knowing PANNIKIN made it rather hard. Lost about 7 mins on the last 2.
    Otherwise a stroll in the park, even THANEDOM was easy with the cryptic.
  21. With a time exactly twice as long as Verlaine’s, it’s not exactly a glorious day for me, but an unusual one in that I didn’t fall into the same bear-trap as many others – when the grid came up without any pink squares I was pleased and a little surprised: PANNIKIN was a stab in the dark.
  22. Wonderfully festive blog today, suggesting a veritable barful of accompanying libations. As for the crossword, I got the impression I could have gone under 10, but chose to make it that bit more challenging first by seeing how far I could get with just the across clues (not very, stalled at MALVOLIO) then deciding to go for not solving the two fully crossed 4 letter entries, which I did.
    It is possible I possess a PANNIKIN, but just thankful it wasn’t clued by “gettin’ hysterical about the cup” which Spurs may be doing on Wednesday against Stoke.
    Until we entered Tier 4 yesterday, local pubs were including half a scotch egg in their PLOUGHMANS to make it a substantial meal.
    My Australian friend and colleague from Uni days couldn’t get that LOLLY in the UK was a frozen comestible rather than a generic sweet, which may explain why neither of us would spend lolly on it.
    My ability to spell LINIMENT with barely a glance at the wordplay puts me currently at a lofty 13th today. Suckers!

    Edited at 2020-12-21 10:21 am (UTC)

  23. As for “put up your sword” moments, tenors in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms are required to sing a top A on the syllable U. Difficult to do with the required con butcho.
    1. But the phrase Ki Tov Adonai ends on a top Bflat. As a second tenor, once, I decided to show the first tenors (in rehearsal) who were wimping out and going falsetto how to do it “con butcho”. Much hilarity ensued and the conductor requested I do it in the performance too. And then he wrote me piano piece for me to commemorate it!
  24. Tis the season so a toast to our blogger. No trouble with MALVOLIO because that’s the one that has my very stupid namesake. Along the lines of Jerry’s experience, I think I recall from one of the Lord Peter Wimsey tales that he asks the pub landlord if that’s a real PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH on the menu and is told that if he’s a ploughman it is. 9.14 which is as fast as I get these days.
    2. Whenever I ordered the Ploughman’s Lunch, my Mum’s friend would always say “What’s the Ploughman going to have, then?”. Every time!
  25. I had l(in I’m)ent, not ‘me’ for this person but ‘I’m’ for ‘this person’s’, and can’t see how it works otherwise.
  26. All done speedily, 15 minutes, thinking Monday fare, until left with L_M_E_; couldn’t think of a bovine (which to me means like an ox) so bunged in LEMUEL thinking he was probably a Biblical chap and a legislator. Still don’t see why bovine = lumpen. Sulk.
  27. A question on 13A Liniment …
    … as I wonder if the parsing is not IN ME in LENT, but IN I’M – I’m as in I am, for this person is, ie this person’s?

    That apart, rather a large DNF for me, and thank you for the blog, much needed today
    Cedric

    1. Quite so. I have to admit to pinching some of the setter’s sherry by that stage of the blog.
  28. A 12 minute romp into the brick wall of a DNF with the errant LINAMENT, presumably some faint echo of LINEAMENT luring me onto the rocks.
  29. 11.48 so a much better effort for me than recent endeavours. FOI lyceum, LOI pleasing. Between them, nothing particularly comment worthy but a very enjoyable puzzle in the traditional Monday vein.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  30. 11:01. I started very quickly on this but a few tricky ones took me over the ten-minute mark. I was worried about LINIMENT: the spelling looked wrong and AM sort of works for “this person’s”. In the end I decided it would probably have to be I AM but I was far from sure. I was also a bit worried that I might have the wrong girl in PANNIKIN. So relieved to see an all green grid when I submitted.
  31. I had a feeling YEARLING wasn’t quite right!

    Great blog Ulaca, thanks very much – I enjoyed watching our setter getting progressively more sozzled. Very festive!

    A merry Christmas to you too.

  32. Moderately straightforward, though several clues required some additional thought. Only PANNIKIN was not quite known – take PI and KIN and stick a random girl’s name that has an N in it.
  33. Managed to avoid the traps including thinking that 5d was looking for a plural people answer, hence PLOUGHMENS LUNCH. Happily decided to stick to the pub menu version. My last in were THANEDOM and NODULATED.
    Tried to set 9a in CONGO at first but no big delays. 23 minutes on the computer pre lunch; then 15/20 minutes to wrap things up over coffee.
    Fun puzzle. David
    1. I had a good think about the singular or plural for the rustic fellow’s nutrition too:-)
  34. Despite my misgivings over me=setter going west instead of east, I fell into the trap and left it as LINEMENT. Drat! Otherwise a very enjoyable romp with ENVIABLE FOI leading to MALVOLIO, which I surprisingly conjured up and then reverse engineered just from the V. LOLLYPOP held up AMBITION until I rechecked the wordplay and replaced the Y with an I. That allowed me to shove in my LOI, THANEDOM. Like David I wondered if we were being tricked by the rustic’s fare into entering MAN’S where the setter wanted MEN’S, but decided perhaps not. I remembered NEAT for the farm animal eventually and that allowed me to shove ANN into our religious clan without further ado. I’ll have a glass of whatever Ulaca’s imbibing! Great blog U. Compliments of the Season to you too. I rushed out to bag the veg for our Christmas dinner before breakfast or doing the puzzle this morning just in case the usual suspects made a mad dash to clear the shelves. (#drattedfrogsrememberagincourt!)(no offence intended RosedeProvence!) Fortunately I was in time. The roads were heaving but LiDL was surprisingly calm and civilised. I’m in a bubble with my daughter and her family, 10 minutes down the road, and am dining with them, but as she works rather hard and also has a pre-assessment on Christmas Eve for some surgery she’s due, I’m preparing the veg. 25:48 WOE. Thanks setter and U.

    Edited at 2020-12-21 02:48 pm (UTC)

  35. ….but knew how to spell LINIMENT (I’d rather spell it than smell it !) which was one of three parsed afterwards, the others being PEBBLE and YEARLONG.

    FOI LYCEUM
    LOI LUMPEN
    COD PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH *
    TIME 7:29

    * Plenty of crusty bread, proper butter, at least three different cheeses (one must be blue, and no foreign muck !), and a pint of real ale.

  36. Trickier than the usual Monday, but mostly I felt pleased to have avoided biffing YEARLING instead of YEARLONG, getting the right vowels in the likes of LINIMENT and THEREIN, and dredging up PANNIKIN from the last time it came up here. Very pleasant.
  37. 36.14. I was somewhat ponderous with today’s solve. Needed some care with liniment and therein. Nodulated and thanedom were both a little knotty but it was pannikin and neatest where I drew a blank for the longest time, failing to translate the farm animal into the obvious and unable to conjure the small cup without the aid of the additional checking letter that then provided.
  38. Mate (with e acute accent) is a very bitter infusion common in parts of South America. Definitely no milk!
  39. Could’ve been a PB but the Met held me up. Methinks there are too many mets out there.
    Also BAN thrown in with a prayer.
    HOLD ONES HORSES, it’s nearly Christmas!
  40. Shakespeare will certainly have been needed for MALVOLIO and THANEDOM but he held me up for the small cup in 5ac: I was convinced this was CANNNIKIN, remembering Iago’s drinking song to befuddle Cassio in Act 2 of Othello (“Let me the cannikin clink”). Probably overexcited at the rare prospect of A level English being directly useful after 35 years.

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