Times 27,863: Seafood Diet

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Happy New Year! 2021 gets off to a gentle start with this five-minuter (from where I was sitting) – probably best not to risk anything too challenging when people are nursing their hangovers from Hogmanay. I enjoyed the salty sea-creature-y flavour throughout but my favourite clue was probably 26ac for having found persimmon in imprisonment; honourable mention to 18dn, which raises the intriguing possibility that the Times setters could submit pictures of their lockdown manes to us to be judged, Am I Hot Or Not? style. Thanks fetchingly hirsute setter, and as for the rest of you, how’s your year going so far?

ACROSS
1 Vigorously hearty drinking by rugby players (12)
BACKSLAPPING – LAPPING, by BACKS

8 Negotiator in better condition importing goods (7)
HAGGLER – HALER, “importing” G(ood) G(ood). FOI

9 Criminal’s partner from America caught a slug? (7)
MOLLUSC – MOLL US C [criminal’s partner | from America | caught]

11 Strength enlivens pirouettes lacking in energy (7)
STAMINA – reversed ANIMAT{e}S

12 Duck stores protein regularly in type of feather (7)
TERTIAL – TEAL “stores” {p}R{o}T{e}I{n}

13 Fateful date: the 6th of August, to be specific (2,3)
ID EST – IDES + {augus}T

14 Miss Roman cutting short boring appeal (9)
SIGNORINA – IGNORIN{g} “boring” S.A.

16 Side with marks, ripe bananas showing surface (9)
EPIDERMIS – (SIDE + M + RIPE*)

19 Lover ultimately may be represented thus? (5)
ROMEO – the last letter of lover is R, which is Romeo in the phonetic alphabet

21 Old restaurant keeping cold fish out (7)
EXTRACT – EX TRAT “keeping” C

23 Fabled island, not island with a city, abroad (7)
ATLANTA – ATLANT{is} with A. For some definitions of “abroad”

24 Eric leaving spice and cooking ingredient in chaos (7)
TURMOIL – TURM{eric} + OIL

25 Terror regarding painting technique (7)
IMPASTO – IMP [(little) terror] AS TO

26 Diced persimmon in new tin getting put in can (12)
IMPRISONMENT – (PERSIMMON*) in (TIN*)

DOWN
1 Pride, perhaps, in a relegation six-pointer? (3,4)
BIG GAME – double def: lions, or something mystifying to do with crucial sportsball fixtures

2 In Paris, it’s wrapping bad back for player (7)
CELLIST – C’EST “wrapping” reversed ILL

3 A grass runs wild, problem growth in the main (9)
SARGASSUM – (A GRASS*) + SUM. Initially I thought the problem was an SOS

4 University supporting case of assisted grant (5)
ADMIT – MIT [university, though some readers may vociferously disagree], supporting A{ssiste}D

5 Capital of China — Rome, strangely? (7)
PALERMO – PAL + (ERMO*). Capital of Sicily

6 Around Uist’s edge, catch isle’s sea creatures (7)
NAUTILI – around U{is}T, NAIL I

7 One’s wearing simple pieces, time for dressing down? (12)
CHASTISEMENT – I’S “wearing” CHASTE, + MEN, + T

10 Protocol laboratories will show fellow worker (12)
COLLABORATOR – hidden in {proto}COL LABORATOR{ies}

15 Development, say, around transport hub (9)
GESTATION – reversed E.G. + STATION

17 When schools are open, including one for acting? (7)
INTERIM – IN TERM, “including” I

18 With hair swept back, Times compilers’ charm (7)
ENAMOUR – reversed MANE + OUR

19 Run, pass and turn poorly again (7)
RELAPSE – R ELAPSE

20 Rubbish I send, filling empty Microsoft Outlook (7)
MINDSET – (I SEND*) “filling” M{icrosof}T. LOI

22 Relations picked up tea and other drinks (5)
TALES – T as a homophone of TEA, + ALES

73 comments on “Times 27,863: Seafood Diet”

  1. Sub-20 to end the year? I’ll take it! 2020 was the year I decided to work at attempting the puzzle every day and improving my time. I’ve come a long way in the past five months, and I owe it all to this community — just as this community was responsible for me learning to do the Times in the first place, ten years ago.

    Thanks everyone, and happy new year!

  2. Happy New Year, all! Pleased to start the year with a clear round, carefully checking IMPASTO, SIGNORINA and the unknown TERTIAL before submitting.

    Nice, to have your contributions, Jeremy. And indeed yours, V, over many years. Like Jeremy, I owe my ability to solve these things in great part to this blog.

  3. Not so bad for a Friday – a bit on the vanilla side with only 85 on the snitchometer.

    FOI 2dn CELLIST Y-Yo Ma?

    LOI 4dn ADMIT – a seat of learning

    COD 15ac SIGNORINA

    WOD 13ac ID EST

    1dn Prem. Jan 15 Man U v Liverpool – go you reds!

    Edited at 2021-01-01 05:44 am (UTC)

  4. Fully parsed including the NHO duck at 12 TARTIIL – rti in a tail-feather.
    Oh, well.
  5. 41 minutes. NHO TERTIAL. Failed to parse ATLANTA and IMPASTO whilst completing the grid and forgot to go back to them at the end.
  6. Got my Italian and Spanish girls mixed up and put SIGNORITA in for my LOI. The IT even matched the “appeal”, although of course that is actually the SA. So DNF the first puzzle of the year (well, it is still not midnight here, so it’s the last puzzle of 2020 for me really).
    1. I did exactly the same thing but as it was my LOI I hung on to check the wordplay and spotted my error.
  7. No time for this, as I did it partly over lunch before coming back home and getting the final half-dozen in 5-6 minutes. DNK TERTIAL, but a bit surprised not to find it in ODE afterwards. It was nice to see a setter get MIT right.
      1. Oxford Dict. of English; now, I believe, called Lexico. My edition dates back to 2005.
            1. Well because it includes works like tertial, for one thing 🙂 .. it is the most comprehensive free online dictionary I know of. You can use it for things like mephisto and the club monthly, most of the time.
              Though I also have access to the OED and have Chambers in hard copy. You can’t overdictionary 🙂
              1. Ermm Kevin, it is OED not ODE, as per Jerry. Oxford English Dictionary and not Oxford Dictionary of English.
                1. Both exist, but are different. The OED is definitive. The ODE is a single-volume extract from it. Lexico is smaller still, and online only
                  1. An extract from it? The text seems to me to be quite different from the OED’s (clearly, the entries must be a selection of OED’s, since OED has every bloody word in the language). My ODE is one of about 100 dictionaries and other reference works–most of which I’ve never looked at–in my I don’t know what you call it, electronic thingy which I carry around in my valise or whatever you call it (the tales I could tell if I could only speak). I seldom go online to Collins or elsewhere.

                    Edited at 2021-01-01 01:12 pm (UTC)

                  2. ODE is not an extract from the OED, it’s a quite separate dictionary with its own approach. The idea is to reflect modern English as it is actually used by native speakers all over the world. It also seeks to use modern technology to stay up to date with usage. It doesn’t actually exist any more, having been merged with dictionary.com (which I believe was trying to do much the ame thing) and renamed Lexico. But it’s still an Oxford dictionary and the definitions are all written by Oxford lexicographers.
                    I think it’s brilliant!
                    1. Should these acronyms not therefore be included the 2021 Glossary?
                      And WOD?

                      Edited at 2021-01-01 01:50 pm (UTC)

    2. It’s in the Shorter Oxford, not very helpfully defined as: Ornithology. (Of or pertaining to) a tertiary feather.
  8. I’m glad verlaine inserted “from where I’m sitting” as I didn’t find it that easy. I thought it was a good test.
    And M.I.T. is described as a university in Wikipedia so that will do for me.
    I’m afraid that my team, Brighton, will face a few relegation six-pointers. They are perilously close to the drop.
    1. Wikipedia Shmikipedia, MIT IS a university. They call themselves an institute, but I believe Eton calls itself a college. Eton’s a school, MIT’s a university.
  9. 24 minutes with LOI EPIDERMIS. COD to ID EST. A reasonably gentle start to the New Year, which was as well after an evening with Paddy McGuinness, Alicia Keys and a bottle of red wine, with wife and daughter drinking more exotic concoctions and sons under house arrest elsewhere. I’m not sure if Alicia has ever made it to the Unibol. Great venue for a concert. Thank you V and setter. Here’s to 2021.
  10. …An endless fountain of immortal drink,
    Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.

    20 mins pre-pancakes. I liked it, mostly Turm(Eric), chastisement and COD to Interim.
    Thanks setter and V and HNY all.

  11. In the TALES that are told in PALERMO
    A SIGNORINA might ENAMOUR a ROMEO
    IMPASTO’s also from IT
    And ID EST, I’ll ADMIT,
    Our setter’s MINDSET Italiano?
  12. 14:26 Lots to enjoy about this. DNK TERTIAL but it sounded likely and fit the wordplay. Mostly I liked ID EST, TURMOIL and ENAMOUR. Thanks V and setter.
  13. Nho TERTIAL, but knew some feathers are primary. The chickens are doing well egg-wise, considering the long darkness.

    Corrected SIGNORINA, took care with IMPASTO, had only heard of the Sargasso Sea.

    One of my New Year resolutions is ‘no pink squares’. This hopefully will last longer than ‘cut down on drinking’.

    17′ 22″, thanks verlaine and setter.

  14. I struggled with only 3 complete answers after 30 minutes, but was determined to persevere after yesterday.’s poor performance Even though I was unsure on IMPASTO, I submitted to discover:

    5D – PSLERMO (another – check, check, check!!!)
    6D – NAUTICA (an incorrect guess) making 14A incorrect too

    However, I was pleased to have pushed on reach as far as I did.

    Happy New Year and thank you to verlaine, the setter and all the people who contribute here.

  15. Like our excellent limerick-ist Astro_nowt, I thought this had a strong Italian flavour, past and present: IDES, SIGNORINA, ROMEO, TRATtoria and IMPASTO in the answers plus the clue for 5a. Surprised not to see antipasto, some random pasta shape and tiramisú making an appearance from this clearly Italophile (or Italian?) setter.

    Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed it and breasted the tape in under the half hour, always a win for me. Molto grazie setter and cheers Verlaine – and here’s to a much improved year for all in 2021 – and some clear skies for my new hobby, astronomy, which promises endless levels of geekdom combined with cosmic awe!

  16. One down, 364 to go. This was done in my average time. A very satisfying start to the year as the snow begins to settle (pitch, stick) outside.
  17. … to the New Year with a PB ! In spite of quite a few large whiskies last night. Maybe that’s the answer to all Friday mornings, well, it’s worth a try. 11 minutes without pausing for more than a half a minute on any of these excellent clues. (Well I would say that, wouldn’t I!). No doubt will fall to earth when I get into the Jumbo.
    11 minutes and change.
    1. Wasn’t that Verlaine’s method some time back? Congratulations on the time 🙂
      1. I had a very small whisky before bedtime last night. I’m a shadow of the hard drinking solver I used to be…

        Edited at 2021-01-02 12:57 am (UTC)

  18. I got a slow start to this, dithering over what end to put on SARGAS*** and distracted by what on earth a “relegation six-pointer” could be (some kind of stag perhaps). In the end I came home in 15.27 which is a nice way to begin the year. All eyes on ATLANTA GA next week for the run-off elections for the US senate.
    1. Indeed, and at first I was reading “regulation” and thinking of the limits placed on hunters (and of my brother in the West Virginia hills, who always has freezers filled with venison that he has brought home by skillful use of rifle, pistol, bow and compound bow).
  19. Didn’t know TERTIAL and still slightly puzzled by the sporty meaning of BIG GAME, but neither deficiency mattered in the end as everything fell into place in 20 mins.

    A happy new year and my heartfelt thanks to all the bloggers and contributors who have made this civilised corner of the internet such a pleasure to visit each day.

    1. It’s often described as a ‘big game’ when two football teams adjacent at the bottom (or top) of a league are playing each other; with 3 points for a win, the result involves a six-point swing against the other team depending on whether you win or lose. Unless it’s a draw, of course. Is that as clear as mud?
      2. I was wondering about this. How do you get a six-point swing? If teams A and B are both on X points, a win for either team results in one of them then being on X and the other being on X+3.
        1. If Teams A and B both had 10 points, the winner would now have 13. If they had lost, their opponents would have 13. Hence it’s the difference in being three points ahead rather than three points behind. The six points is the virtual difference.
              1. Example

                Team A are to play Team B. Team A currently have 50 points and Team B have 47 points. If Team A wins they will be 6 points ahead of Team B but if Team B wins they will become level on points. The “relative” points difference from a winning outcome will either be 6 points or 0 points.

                SD

            2. In the context of the position relevant to the opponent.

              You start level. If you win you are +3. If you lose you are -3. The difference between +3 and -3 is 6. That’s the root of the expression.

                1. Peter Dinklage is a six footer if you measure him up on leg and down the other, possibly.
                  1. I think that’s what this is: just double counting!
                    It’s like saying ‘if I give you a quid, you’ve got one quid more than you had before, and I’ve got one quid less, so relatively speaking I’ve given you two quid’.

                    Edited at 2021-01-02 10:53 am (UTC)

                2. Technically yes. But the colloquialism is in common use where the two teams are in danger of relegation, or involved in a battle on the fringes of promotion. In mid-table it doesn’t really matter.
                  1. It doesn’t really matter then either does it? It’s still a game in which 3 points are available, and no more significant to either team than any other match.
                    If team A is four points ahead of team B at the bottom of the table and each has two games remaining, one of which is A v B, then if team A wins either of the remaining matches it beats team B. Team B has to win both the remaining matches to have a chance of coming out ahead, and in fact even the game it’s not playing in is as important to it as either of its own games. A v B isn’t more important for either team.
                    The match can appear to have the status of something close to a decider but this is just because of timing: it would have been equally significant (with the benefit of hindsight) if it had been played earlier in the season.
                    The ‘six point’ thing is a mathematical illusion isn’t it?
                    Sorry to bang on about this but it’s bothering me as you can tell!
                    1. “A mathematical illusion” sums it up pretty well. Football fans aren’t pragmatists though !
                      1. I’m glad you agree. This concept is new to me but it seems to be a fairly common trope, and not just in football. I thought I might be going mad!
  20. A pleasant, not too difficult way to usher in the New Year. Thirty-seven minutes with IMPASTO unparsed and TERTIAL and SARGASSUM entered courtesy of generous wordplay. I liked the surface of BACKSLAPPING for reinforcing pre-conceived notions (tut, tut) and the misdirection of the wordplay for MOLLUSC.

    A thanks to Verlaine and our setter and a happy New Year to all here at Times for the Times.

  21. I think doing Izetti’s QG toughened me up for this. It looked very hard at first but once I found FOI PALERMO and then the MOLLUSC, I was off and running. I liked the breadth of references; I was explaining to my daughter just the other day what a relegation six-pointer was; and ID EST is a candidate for my COD. Last in were the unknown SARGASSUM and lastly SIGNORINA. TERTIAL also unknown. Finished at 12.39pm after 40/45 minutes. CsOD: BIG GAME and ID EST.
    David
  22. 11:49. Interesting puzzle, that even included some English words 😉
    I somehow managed to type EMPRISONMENT though, so not a good cruciverbal start to 2021 for me.
    Happy new year everyone!
  23. Nothing in after 3 mins but then seemed to hit the wavelength and was quite steady thereonin.

    A coffee break halfway through, while feeding the cat, seemed to settle the little grey cells and three or four went straight in on resumption.

    Only TERTIAL unknown, but clueing was generous.

  24. I floundered around the grid for a while unable to get a foothold apart from ID EST and ADMIT. Eventually, NAUTILI joined the fray and led to a MOLLUSC. A biffed INTROIT at 2d held things up for a while until I reread the clue and substituted player for prayer. I think I need to see an optician! A dogged determination saw the grid gradually fill. My non-fitting SENORITA soon morphed into a SIGNORINA. SARGASSUM was constructed from wordplay and a guess at the Sargasso Sea for main. EPIDERMIS unlocked the SW and the penny finally dropped for my LOI BIG GAME. 26:34. Thanks setter and V.
  25. Struggled at first to get a foothold but then solved steadily. Failed to parse IMPASTO but what else could it be? LOI was the unknown TERTIAL which I quickly got once I had abandoned the assumption that “tail” was the feather.
  26. 20.34. A bit sluggish today but I enjoyed the challenge. Sargassum worked out from The Wide Sargasso Sea. Tertial from wp.
  27. ….STAMINA, despite being 6 clues in before kicking off, not knowing SARGASSUM, not being convinced by BIG GAME, juggling before nailing TERTIAL, and only parsing IMPASTO and CHASTISEMENT afterwards.

    FOI ID EST
    LOI EPIDERMIS
    COD ENAMOUR
    TIME 8:48

  28. Found this hard going for a long time then finished at a canter and wondered what all the fuss was about.

    I believe that, for some folks, chastisement entails dressing up.

    Thanks to setter and blogger and a happy new year to all.

  29. An all correct start to the New Year. Not a fast time though.

    I found this fairly tough and I didn’t spot the long hidden word until almost at the end. I was intrigued to know what “laboratories” might represent. ICI in the past, I think. But not now.

    I’m going to see how far through the year I can get without a pink square with a 30 minute maximum time allowance per puzzle. So far it’s 1/1.

  30. Nice steady solve in 2 sessions. LOI as above I couldn’t parse SIGNORINA and wasn’t sure about the N or the T. Fortunately chose the right one. Otherwise pretty straightforward including the unknown SARGASSUM and TERTIARY.
  31. New year, old me. I realised that 3dn was going to be something unfamiliar (although Sargasso Sea was a helpful pointer) and wrote in SARGASSOS as a placeholder; then failed to go back and check it after I’d overwrittem the end of it with EPIDERMIS, so that’s a 100% failure rate for 2021 so far…at least things can (probably) only improve from here. HNY to all, anyway.
  32. 18.24 so at least I start the year with a 100%record. How long’s that going to last?

    Happy New Year to one and all. Must be better than the last one surely…

  33. I didn’t get the sports ref either so didn’t bag the BIG GAME till near the end of a surprisingly quick solve. I was in the groove, having just worked a few other puzzles, but I guess it wasn’t so hard either.

    Edited at 2021-01-01 06:12 pm (UTC)

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