Times 27856 – t’was the morning before Christmas

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time taken: 8:21

Still got a little bit to unravel before confidently writing this up, but this was on the easier side with many generous definitions, fortunately my only guess was correct, and now I look up part of the wordplay, it seems to ring a bell.

There’s some really good surfaces here – I’ll point out what I noticed, but maybe you found more.

I hope everyone is saying safe and sane! My county just announced a ban on multiple-family gatherings starting January 2 (why wait that long???) and that you can buy take-out cocktails from restaurants and bars. So have yourshelf a merry little Christmas!

Away we go…

Across
1 Finish degree course in ferry port (6)
DIEPPE – DIE(finish), and PPE(Philosophy, Politics and Economics). I guessed this as I could not figure out the second part.
4 Disdain shown by agency worker after working in court (8)
CONTEMPT – TEMP(agency worker) after ON(working) inside CT(court)
10 Author in store with novel penned by Greek (11)
GHOSTWRITER – anagram of STORE,WITH inside GR(Greek)
11 Nothing left at home? Quite the reverse (3)
NIL – L(left) and IN(at home) reversed
12 Admirer cheers following popular princess (7)
INFANTA – FAN(admirer) and TA(cheers) after IN(popular)
14 Boy on French island gets a thrill (7)
FRISSON – SON(boy) next to F(French), IS(island)
15 Please wait a moment for what groom may do? (4,4,6)
HOLD YOUR HORSES – double definition, with groom meaning stablehand
17 Met employees here having come through Waterloo? (7,7)
WEATHER STATION – WEATHER(come through) and WATERLOO station
21 Moore’s ultimate in standing figures (7)
STATUES – last letter of moorE inside STATUS(standing). Clever clue referencing the sculptor Henry Moore
22 Rings about the lines in play (7)
OTHELLO – O and O (rings) surrounding THE, L and L(lines)
23 Mendicant would appear when this food produced in bar (3)
EGG – don’t often see this sort of clue. The menidicant is a BEGGAR, so remove BAR to get EGG
24 Film of polar bear shot round mouth of Horton River (5,6)
PEARL HARBOR – anagram of POLAR BEAR containing the first letter of Horton, then R(river). The Horton River is one of the most northern rivers in Canada, so this is another clever surface.
26 Concern, though not about one in isolation (8)
SOLITUDE – SOLICITUDE(concern) missing C(about) and I(one)
27 Case missing in carriage (6)
STANCE – the case is an INSTANCE, remove IN
Down
1 Follow key number, heading off for battle (8)
DOGFIGHT – DOG(follow), then the key of F, and EIGHT(number) missing the first letter
2 Morale, say, on first of ops (3)
EGO –  EG(say) and the first letter of Ops
3 Number diving into Italian river, extremely choppy, might (7)
POTENCY – TEN(number) inside the river PO and the outside letters of ChoppY
5 Wizard coming from where we do? (3,2,4,5)
OUT OF THIS WORLD – double definition (I think) since we are of this world
6 Reservist having row about blunder (7)
TERRIER – TIER(row) surrounding ERR(blunder)
7 Short series of episodes about television’s top executive (11)
MINISTERIAL – MINI(short) SERIAL(series of episodes) surrounding the first letter in Television
8 Flair shown by almost everyone appearing in marquee (6)
TALENT – remove the last letter of ALL(everyone) and place inside TENT(marquee)
9 Animatedly, auntie reads RLS adventure story (8,6)
TREASURE ISLAND – anagram of AUNTIE, READS, RLS, with RLS also being the initials of the author
13 Immoral investor’s evil spirit (6,5)
FALLEN ANGEL – FALLEN(immoral), ANGEL(investor)
16 Heading in the right direction playing links? (2,6)
ON COURSE – double definition with the links being a golf COURSE
18 Mutter in agitation about parking for orchestra member (7)
TRUMPET – anagram of MUTTER containing P(parking)
19 Deep down in U-boat, hear torpedo (2,5)
AT HEART – hidden inside u-boAT HEAR Torpedo
20 Gauge outdated, failing to show power on steamship (6)
ASSESS – PASSE(outdated) missing P(power) on SS(steamship)
25 Outlaw‘s trial cut short (3)
BAN – BANE(trial, annoyance) missing the last letter

53 comments on “Times 27856 – t’was the morning before Christmas”

  1. A shame to have not finished. It only took me 15 minutes to reach DIEPPE and WEATHER STATION, which is among my fastest times ever. But I knew both would require some sort of knowledge of British/European culture I don’t have. Somehow I thought of the Battle of Waterloo and then thought of ‘war’ and that popped WEATHER into my head, even though I didn’t understand it. And of course I had the idea of DIE for DIEPPE, but knew neither PPE nor DIEPPE and there was no way to reasonably guess either. I typed DIEMPE into my browser and of course DIEPPE came up. Ah well.

    Edited at 2020-12-24 01:20 am (UTC)

  2. Really good crossword, even if (mostly) easy. Clues like Moore and RLS make me happy, Horton would have too if I’d known where the river was. Surprisingly BAN/STANCE crossers second last – couldn’t think of anything BAR_ or BAN_ that meant trial, and took a while to see STANCE. Finally needed an extended alphabet trawl for WEATHER – though of MET opera and MET police but not the people with the supercomputers and the dartboard. The last 3 took fully half of my 25 minutes.
  3. Yes, I had DIEPPE and WEATHER STATION as my last ones in. They took quite a few of my minutes. I also didn’t think of bane = trial, so was a bit unsure of BAN in the end.
  4. There are elements that the America First Brigade will not understand in The Times of London Crossword, any more than we can grasp Washington’s myriad acronyms: I would not even attempt an American crossword.
    My Christmas Avatar was displayed, many years ago, 100ft high, outside Takashimaya in Tokyo. The British and American Ambassadors objected. Artist Yoshio Itagaki revived it for Easter 2005.

    FOI 8dn TALENT

    LOI 20dn ASSESS

    COD 17ac WEATHER STATION – nothing to do with Scotland Yard

    WOD 13dn FALLEN ANGEL

    Time 19mins – so here’s one for the QC Brigade!

    Edited at 2020-12-24 02:41 am (UTC)

    2. If that indeed is your creation, it’s time to put the record straight. A Google search reveals any number of articles describing Santa on a cross in Tokyo as an urban myth. Fame (of a sort) awaits!
      1. Interesting! I note this piece says that the myth ‘reflected growing anxiety among Americans about the USA’s position as the world’s economic superpower: the Japanese electronics and motor industries were outstripping theirs’. See also Die Hard.
    3. Please don’t tar all we Americans with the same brush. Some of us live 10,000 miles south of Washington.
  5. Thank you setter for a pre-Christmas puzzle that was pretty easy.
    And thank you, George, for STATUES. It had to be that but I couldn’t parse it.
    COD to EGG for the unusual construction, as described by our blogger.
  6. FOI DIEPPE (thought of PPE + ‘ferry port’; at least one member of what Horryd offensively calls the America First Brigade knew the abbreviation, and George (Australia First?) didn’t); LOI MINISTERIAL; for some reason MINISPECIAL came to mind, and following Gresham’s Law, got in the way). I put in HOLD ONES HORSES, while thinking it was odd, so certain was I that it’s always ONE(S). Similarly, I hesitated over PEARL HARBOR because of the spelling. I dithered between BAN and BAR because I couldn’t come up with the 4-letter word that was truncated; fortunately STANCE saved the day, and I retrospectively thought of BANe. Liked STANCE and especially EGG.
    1. In my blinkered British way, I was surprised at the Harbor spelling; but shouldn’t have been, of course.
      In a similar manner, I lived in Sydney for 20 years but it was only after I left that I discovered that the left-of-centre political party there is the Labor and not the Labour Party.
  7. 26 minutes. I hadn’t noticed the exception to the usual one’s/your until Kevin mentioned it but it doesn’t seem odd, at least to me, because the given definition ‘please wait a moment’ is a direct request / command to another person in which case ‘one’s’ would not be appropriate.

    I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to hesitate over the spelling of PEARL HARBOR. I must have seen it written down a million times and of course it has always been an American name so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but I still looked twice at it today.

      1. I would have assumed that you, or Jack, would write Harbour when referring to Pearl Harbor, just as I would write Labor when referring to the British Labour Party. But I just now looked up PH in ODE, and the entry is Pearl Harbor, although the definition begins “A harbor in …”
        1. Ah, but if you look up Pearl Harbour in ODE, you will find there is an entry for that too. ODE/Lexico clearly wants to have its cake, and eat it..
          1. …as which of us doesn’t? I see that I mistyped my comment: ODE’s definition begins “A harbour in …”
            1. Harbor did not surprise me; firstly that was indeed the spelling of the film title, and I think (as an Englishman) I would write Pearl Harbor out of deference to the place anyway, film or no film, just as I know to pronounce the Kentucky Derby Dur.. not Dar..
              1. Being an American movie, it’s quite clearly non-U, but were I to spell it thus in writing, it would be non-u. And yes, I do have an honours degree in pedantry !
  8. Of course, the clue for 21 does not necessarily refer to Henry Moore, though it’s certainly a fillip, and even a treat, if you happen to think of him. It’s certainly my COD.
    My favorite variant of HOLD YOUR HORSES is “Cool your jets!”
    The precise sense of PPE wasn’t clear to this American, and I wasn’t sure what was going on with BAN either, but I picked the right answers anyway.

    Edited at 2020-12-24 11:47 pm (UTC)

  9. 33mins, so good for me today. PEARL HARBOR (the remake) was on TV the other day so that helped. Loi the WEATHER bit of 17ac as, after the other day, I was looking at the NY establishment, and trying to fit Theatre (or theater) in somewhere. COD to STATUES which was a great clue as others have said. Thank you G and setter.
  10. 14 minutes, held up briefly by WEATHER STATION, the spelling of PEARL HARBOR (which spell check isn’t liking here but presumably is authentic despite the Union Jack on the Hawaii flag), and LOI STANCE. I thought I was on for a sub 10 before encountering these little difficulties. An enjoyable puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
  11. 9:39 Held up only by putting in HOLD ONES HORSES at 15A, but TREASURE ISLAND fixed that and my LOI, BAN, even with both checkers! A gentle wind down to Christmas. Thanks George and setter.
  12. …And then my heart with pleasure fills,
    And dances with the daffodils.

    20 mins with half a Fat Rascal, hoorah!
    No dramas. Mostly I liked Treasure Island and Solitude. Or that’s what my mother used to tell girls.
    Thanks Setter and G.

  14. I spent 30 mins on the QC today and DNF so I am very pleased with a sub 60 solve over here. Exact time not known as I took a break after being held up with the first word of WEATHER STATION. After that, the rest of the bottom half dropped in quickly. LOI STANCE ( also held up by BAR/BAN dithering)

    After a year like this maybe the setter could have come up with a different definition of PPE, since it’s primary meaning now is surely Safety Equipment, not some obscure degree.

    I don’t really see either of the definitions of OUT OF THIS WORLD. Not really a double def, probably 1.2 or 1.3 defs for me.

    By referring to the title of the film, the setter eliminates the arguments about American or British spelling in
    Place Names like this. Similar arguments persist about Côte d’Ivoire in English.

    COD SOLITUDE

  16. 19 minutes here, all but, with no real holdups apart from the BAN/STANCE pair.

    I did struggle a bit with GHOSTWRITER, not quite believing that was anagram fodder and expecting the Greek abbreviation to be GK.

    I wonder if the clue for OUT OF THIS WORLD contains a misprint? “Coming from where we GO” would make more sense, since it reflects what happens to us at the end of life. I was left wondering “where we do….what?”.

    As one who watch-the-keyboard-types, PEARL HARBOR presented no difficulties, as the U disappeared when I typed in the R. Until then, I don’t think I ever noticed that the film (and the place), repeated interminably on Sky, is spelt that way.

    I liked the clue for EGG, nicely inventive.
    Neat blog and decent time, George

  17. Straightforward, only with minor pauses at the Harbour and for your/ones .. but ones doesn’t quite fit the definition.
  18. FOI 1a DIEPPE. It’s always encouraging when the first clue read can be entered. LOI the ‘weather’ of 17a. Thought first of the opera, then the thin blue line as others did, before the pdm frisson of the meteorological service dawned. Over 40degrees Celsius here today- they got that right unfortunately!
    15’42”. That’s about as fast as I can go.
  19. MINISTERIAL POTENCY NIL,
    Massive EGO, no TALENT or skill
    We’re ON COURSE for a mess
    They’re asses we ASSESS
    We may die – our CONTEMPT never will

    But, HOLD YOUR HORSES, don’t mope
    AT HEART there’s a FRISSON of hope
    Despite Boris’ BAN
    Trust your Christmas still can
    Be OUT OF THIS WORLD – we can cope!

    Our STANCE we can’t TRUMPET today
    TREASURE ISLAND is not the UK
    British TERRIER might
    Win out in a DOGFIGHT
    And if not – DIEPPE’s not far away

    1. WEATHER STATIONs on the plain, out in Spain
      Might warn an INFANTA of rain
      And GHOSTWRITERs at times
      Can run out of rhymes
      In SOLITUDE there is much pain

      We raise STATUES to Shakespeare, the fellow
      Who wrote FALLEN ANGEL OTHELLO
      But not for the chump
      Who is EGG-shaped Trump
      His PEARL HARBOR has come – he should go.

    2. HOLD YOUR HORSES, we’ve now got a deal
      Though faulty chaps MINISTER-IAL
      Tried a SOLITUDE STANCE
      Re Europe (and France)
      Is the DOGFIGHT now over for real?

      Britain’s POTENCY may be diminished
      And our ISLAND as TREASURE be finished
      Thanks to Boris’s EGO
      To the future now we go
      Hope nearly, but not quite extinguished.

  20. Nice stuff, though I paused for a while in the SE corner; having got STANCE, I was tempted by BIN(d), but couldn’t make that mean “outlaw”, no matter how many three-point turns I did in the thesaurus, which was lucky, given that it didn’t work because it was simply wrong.
  21. 8:49. I panicked a bit at the end faced with _E_T_E_ STATION and no idea how to derive the first from either the police force or the opera, but fortunately the penny dropped before too long.
    Fun puzzle, I particularly liked EGG.
  22. 17′, of which a full seven minutes was taken up by WEATHER, being fixated on the police.

    Thanks george and setter.

    I take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Christmas. God bless you all.

  23. So that makes the fourth possible Met this week. I was a bit puzzled by the “having” in there because it seemed to suggest “weathered” rather than WEATHER but it was nice to be reminded of the Air Ministry Roof school of meteorology. On a visit to PEARL HARBOR a certain POTUS said – remind me, what actually happened here? I believe the disaster at DIEPPE was at least useful in the planning for D Day. Nice puzzle. 12.34

    Here’s wishing a (modified) but very merry Christmas to all.

  24. Another held up by thinking MET = London police, at the end, but twigged eventually. Otherwise a quick one, 21 minutes; a more than MER at EGO for morale though. And seeing HARBOR without its U from the anagrist took too long. Didn’t know it was the name of a film either. I’m nearly as bad at movies as I am at poetry.
  25. My first 3 in were EGO, POTENCY and DIEPPE, then it was a gentle romp until I arrived at _E_T_E_ STATION. It then took ages to come up with the correct MET. Got there eventually, but it spoiled what would have been a sub 20 finish. Didn’t have to worry about ONES/YOUR as I already had POTENCY. Nice puzzle. 20:28. Thanks setter and George and a Happy Christmas to all.

    Edited at 2020-12-24 04:01 pm (UTC)

  26. Like others, got hung up on the police version of the Met and needed to come here for the explanation of the biffable BAN. Otherwise a non-stop romp home in 17m.
  27. Even with a few early familial interruptions, this was pretty straightforward – biffed a few at the end without fully parsing: SOLITUDE, ASSESS, DIEPPE, GHOSTWRITER

    Merry Christmas one and all.

  28. A good line (with stage direction) for breakfast. Held up at the end over five minutes on ‘weather’, finally landing in 20’53. Bane for trial is watering the old word down I’d have thought. With a Brexit deal in the offing the grid seems simply crammed with descriptive asides on the whole light-year-long palaver. Fingers crossed it really is on course.
  29. … with all done and green in 21 minutes. That’s at least 6 minutes faster than ever before, and only 5 minutes more than my run at today’s tougher-than-usual QC (my usual stamping ground). With the two crosswords coming so close in solubility, a conjunction to rival the “Great Conjunction” between Jupiter and Saturn earlier this week!

    Next challenge will be to parse all the answers before turning to the blog. Nearly did today, but 26A Solitude was biffed and I wasn’t fully sure that I understood Terrier = Reservist in 6D. 17A Weather station not a problem though – I applied a trick I often use when stuck which is to read the clue backwards, and then “station”, “come through” gave the answer with Met confirming it as right rather than being part of the solving process.

    Cedric

  30. ….SOLITUDE, my best wishes, in the hope that you can enjoy Christmas, different though it may inevitably be.

    Held up only slightly at the end – I saw the possibility of WEATHER, but couldn’t initially parse it.

    Although it didn’t quite get COD, I enjoyed the EGG. Hopefully a suggestion that all our fortunes will have improved by Easter !

    FOI CONTEMPT
    LOI WEATHER STATION
    COD TREASURE ISLAND
    TIME 7:37

  31. Finished this, but with three clues I didn’t understand.

    I didn’t parse GHOSTWRITER (thought it was store = host, which sort of works, then with = w and a novel called “Rite” all inside the GR); I didn’t understand why EGG was right, but it couldn’t have been anything else; And I didn’t get concern = solicitude from which to remove the C and the I. So thanks for all the explanations.

    I also originally put “out” for 11a, thinking that nothing left = out (i.e. of stock), and then out as in the opposite of at home. Seeing TALENT for 8d put paid to that.

    FOI Contempt
    LOI + COD Weather station

  32. 15.44. This wasn’t quite a shackles-off sprint in top gear, feeling the need for the occasional pause to parse ban, egg, and a couple of others, but it wasn’t far off. A delay at the end piecing together ghostwriter and with the first word of LOI 17ac where I cycled through encountered, the opera house and the rozzers before arriving at Michael Fish, Ian McCaskill et al.
  33. This was done over lunch with less headscratching than the QC. LOI ASSESS: I plumped for my first thought which I could not parse despite several looks. The anagram fodder led me to HARBOR, so no real problem there.
    COD to SOLITUDE or EGG.
    I wish I had timed this but somewhere north of 30 minutes and less than 45. David
  34. Made a rare foray here from QC Land, having failed there on one last clue that was most people’s LOI but my DNF, and surprised myself to complete this with only minor biffing. Pass the mince pies.
  35. 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!
  36. 37 minutes, so not too hard. My LOI were WEATHER STATION and BAN, but only because it took me a while to parse them correctly. I appreciate the careful wording of the HOLD YOUR HORSES clue to make it quite clear that it had to be YOUR rather than ONE’S for a change. And PEARL HARBOR only gave me pause very briefly, since everything about it is American.

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