Times 27885 – add time to reminisce.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
An enjoyable puzzle, free from obscure plants, antelopes and poets; it took me about the usual 20 minutes. That was excluding my time to wander off piste and remember Galsworthy’s epic televised, and do some homework on the origins of giant bottles. I’m expecting to see some speedy times for this one.

Across
1 Stole from cupboard finally put on bishop in formal dress (6)
ROBBED – ROBED (in formal dress) around B for bishop.
4 Break up day with snarled-up traffic (8)
DIFFRACT – D(ay), (TRAFFIC)*. For me, a word usually seen in relation to a light beam or x-ray beam in physics and chemistry.
10 Refined rough girl, slim-waisted (9)
HOURGLASS – (ROUGH)*, LASS = girl.
11 Sprinted, heading off being tracked down (5)
RACED – TRACED loses T.
12 Store to have to keep one in always for Christmas, say (4,7)
BANK HOLIDAY – BANK (store) HOLD (have) AY (always) insert I.
14 Two bits left smoother (3)
OIL – 0 and 1 are the first two bits in a byte; L for left.
15 Being agitated may be a source of quarrels (7)
AQUIVER – a quarrel of arrows may be in a quiver
17 French city boundaries visited by ambassador (6)
RHEIMS – RIMS has HE inserted.
19 Hopeless sort of case one finally checks out? (6)
BASKET – double definition, a basket case is a hopeless one, and we check out our baskets in a store.
21 When one knocks out November, calendar gets less complicated (7)
PLAINER – PLANNER has an N replaced by I.
23 Son has left aforementioned charity (3)
AID – SAID loses S.
24 Analysing joining the cast? (6,5)
TAKING APART – taking a part = joining the cast.
26 Doctor short Panorama feature (5)
MOVIE – MO (Medical Officer) VIE(W) = short Panorama.
27 I’m wearing green, following party instructions (2-7)
ON-MESSAGE – ON ME’S SAGE = I’m wearing green.
29 Level an area for building? It depends (8)
PARASITE – PAR (level) A SITE, a parasite depends on another organism, e.g. mistletoe.
30 Axes regularly pronounced in surplus (6)
EXCESS – a X e S = XS, sounds like excess.

Down
1 A lot to drink as engineers tramp over a mile (8)
REHOBOAM – RE (engineers) HOBO (tramp) A M(ile). A rheoboam is a large wine or champagne bottle, holding 4.5 litres or equivalent to 6 normal bottles. It’s named after Rheoboam, a Biblical chap who succeeded Solomon as King; he had 18 wives and 60 concubines, so he’d need more than one rheoboam to keep the party going.
2 Bear being bowled? Disaster (5)
BRUIN – B for bowled, RUIN = disaster. Bruin is an old English folk term for bear, from Dutch bruin meaning brown.
3 Say, good source of protein (3)
EGG – E.G., G(ood).
5 Prisoner, maybe, one of an exclusive group (7)
INSIDER – a prisoner is “inside”.
6 Go faster, say, translating a trilogy (7,4)
FORSYTE SAGA – (GO FASTER SAY)*. I remember watching the TV series with Eric Porter, Kenneth More, Susan Hampshire and Nyree Dawn Porter, on Sundays in 1967-9; my parents were addicted but I probably didn’t fully appreciate it at the time (except for fancying Susan Hampshire). Apparently it was the first TV to be sold to Russia (then USSR) by the BBC.
7 One presenting an unwelcome task left incomplete by crew (9)
ANCHORMAN – AN, CHOR(E), MAN = crew.
8 Swallowing 10cl, neat, may make one this? (6)
TIDDLY – 10 cl make a decilitre or dl, insert dl into TIDY = neat.
9 Screw top of jar I dropped into real mess (6)
JAILER – J(AR), I inside (REAL)*.
13 A cat may be very nervous (4,7)
HAVE KITTENS – double definition.
16 Sort of door sadly unproved to secure area (2-3-4)
UP-AND-OVER – (UNPROVED A)*, A from area.
18 Assembly workers eating the last of their fried food (8)
FRITTERS – FITTERS has R (last of their) inserted.
20 On application obtain perhaps licence to kill (4,3)
TAKE OUT – double definition.
21 Airline no longer flying over a country (6)
PANAMA – PAN AM (defunct airline), A.
22 Intensify struggle over stupid person abandoning pet (4,2)
WARM UP – WAR (struggle) then MUPPET (stupid person) loses PET. I had a few possibilities for this with PUP involved, such as RAMP UP, but this one works best.
25 A month’s said to be stunning (5)
AMAZE – sounds like A MAY’S.
28 Happens to be over ten? Apparently not (3)
SIX – IS = happens to be, “over” = SI, X = ten.

​

88 comments on “Times 27885 – add time to reminisce.”

  1. 38 minutes with a couple of less than familiar words clued by generous wordplay, REHOBOAM and DIFFRACT. Actually I vaguely remembered ‘diffraction of light’ from my schooldays but had no idea it was spelt that way though I suppose I must have known it at the time. I’d have spelt it ‘defraction’ if someone had asked me yesterday.

    I missed the parsing of TIDDLY.

    ON ME’S SAGE was great, and only fully appreciated when I realised there wasn’t an un-clued S in the middle, as had been my first assumption.

    Edited at 2021-01-27 05:54 am (UTC)

  2. FOI DIFFRACT, LOI AMAZE.
    Oops, I neglected to parse ON MESSAGE. Thanks!
    I thought HAVE KITTENS was just the cutest expression… But then I found this:

    “The idiom is attributed as an established idiom in 1918. According to the BBC, particularly painful pregnancies were thought to be as a result of a witch’s curse. Instead of being with child, the woman was thought to have kittens inside her, clawing to get out.”

    Edited at 2021-01-27 06:23 am (UTC)

    1. I don’t believe this story for the usual reasons, and it seems the idiom dates from the late 19th century at the latest which makes a link to witchcraft unlikely.
      1. Right, and if anyone believed such s thing, they would not be apt to make a facetious comment about it.
          1. I wasn’t being facetious, really. I hadn’t thought it thru yet. I was referring now to the hypothetical person who believed in witchcraft.
  3. Enjoyed that, optimum level of difficulty for an averagely quick solve.
    Also failed to parse on message… I had the M in I’m wearing the ONE = I in I’m, but couldn’t account for the extra S.
  4. In my haste I ended up with CASKET instead of basket. It was close to fitting the clue — I was thinking of “checks out” as dies but clearly it didn’t actually work. That’ll learn me (though it probably won’t).
  5. 27 mins for me, without any difficulties that I can recall. I liked ON MESSAGE although I just biffed it on the enumeration and SAGE, and worked the rest out later. I needed the wordplay to get REHOBOAM spelt correctly since I thought it started RHE… (it’s spelt like that three times in the blog so I guess I’m not the only one!). A bit is not really anything to do with the first digit of a byte, it is simply a one-bit value that is either 0 or 1 (or, in something like the phone or computer you are using, the power supply voltage or zero volts aka ground).
  6. Thanks, Pip, particularly for your owlish words of wisdom on TIDDLY. I didn’t know 10cl = 1 Decilitre.
    In our Hash House Harriers pack in Sydney one member was called 10cc…because he was a little squirt!
    For a long time I thought ‘stole’ in 1ac might refer to an item a lady might wear.
    LOI were FRITTERS and ON MESSAGE with COD going to the latter. I’ve never heard of a REHOBOAM but it was straightforward to work out.
    Silly thought: Is DIFFRACT anywhere near PONTE….?
  7. Many thanks for ON-MESSAGE, a great clue, and OIL neither of which I understood at the time. This blog sometimes makes me lazy to try and pass clues post solve. I paused slightly at AMAZE which only worked for me when I took ‘to’ out of the definition. I enjoyed this with, as Jack says, the two unfamiliar words generously clued. I wish they always were.
  8. The appetite may sicken, and so die.

    30 mins pre-brekker. Slower than it should have been as I took time seeing the Basket.
    It may just be me, but do you think a couple of the DDs took a slight liberty? “A cat may” and “one finally checks out”. I think some editors might ask for a closer fit to the part of speech required.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

    1. Wheñ a clue has two definitions, one straightforward and one more oblique, I’m never sure whether to call it a DD or one D with a cryptic or tongue in cheek second part. Advise me please!
      1. I know what you mean about ‘whimsical’ DDs as I would call them, but I don’t think these are in that category. I think they are plain DDs but, in order to improve the surface reading (and that has its merits), one of the definitions has been loosened and left to the reader’s imagination.

        Having said that… one reading of the DD in 19ac is (Hopeless) (sort of case one finally checks out) and the fact that the ‘hopeless’ can also refer to a ‘case’ is a bonus. Although the basket one checks out isn’t really a ‘case’.

        Edited at 2021-01-27 09:09 am (UTC)

        1. A plain DD in which one of the definitions has been loosened or whimsified… is not a plain DD! Given that plain definition + a cryptic indication is a perfectly valid clue type it seems perverse to insist that these clues are plain DDs and criticise them on that basis.
          1. I assure you I wasn’t meaning to be perverse. I have no issue with ‘cryptic indications’. Maybe it is just a grey area as to how loose the syntax of the ‘indication’ can be.

              1. I know how to parse them, explain the construction, I just don’t know how to label them; same with &lits, I’m never sure when it is or isn’t.
                1. The distinction between a double definition and a single definition + cryptic can be quite subjective and subtle. Sometimes it’s just a matter of whether there’s a space between two words.
                  The thing I look for with &Lits is whether there is any part of the clue that doesn’t contribute to the wordplay. If there isn’t, it’s an &Lit, if there is, it isn’t.

                  Edited at 2021-01-27 11:37 am (UTC)

              2. I once did a clue for GAMP, the nurse in Dickens who was a drinker – whose name is now used for an umbrella. The clue was:
                A nurse who drinks used to stay dry (4)
                My editor wouldn’t allow it.
                A nurse who drinks this used to stay dry (4) was ok.
                So the syntax mattered to him.

                Edited at 2021-01-27 12:12 pm (UTC)

                1. Harsh! To me that is a perfectly sound (indeed excellent) clue.
                  I suppose the one criticism you could make is that it requires one of two (or arguably one, since the origin is common) quite esoteric pieces of knowledge.

                  Edited at 2021-01-27 01:13 pm (UTC)

      2. I have taken to saying ‘straight definition with a cryptic hint’ in order to cover all bases. Alternatively ‘two meanings’ is less precise than ‘two definitions’ when one of them is a bit whimsical. I normally indicate definitions in the clue using underline, bold and italic and I resolved at one time to omit the bold for the secondary meaning, but alas I’m not always consistent in doing so.
      3. In my Jumbo blogs (there are blogs for Jumbos? Who knew?) I classify such clues as DDCDH, being DD/CD Hybrid, aka a straight definition with a cryptic hint.
        1. That’s a good one. Uncle Yap, formerly of this Parish, used to use TICHY for whimsical definitions, derived from Tongue-in-Cheek, but that on its own doesn’t cover the straight part; maybe DWT (Double with TICHY) could serve.
            1. Okay I won’t press further on that one! I used to enjoy his blogs. I think he still contributes very occasionally.
  9. Martin – naughty chair!

    What a delightful puzzle – CODs abounding. Time 43 minutes – around 100 on the SNITCH presently but it was quite a bit higher early on. And no sign of Kevin or Jeremy.

    FOI 15ac AQUIVER

    LOI 8dn TIDDLY-OM-POM-POM! Seaside Song!

    COD 28ac PARASITE (also rans 4ac DIFFRACT and 21dn PANAMA)

    WOD 1dn REHOBOAM

    NB Godley & Creme’s reason for calling the band ’10cc’!

    Edited at 2021-01-27 08:18 am (UTC)

      1. Not so fast Mr. Penfold! Back in the day Kev and Lol were the go-to MTV video team. They were hired by the Brooks Fulford Production Company, with MD John Cigarini. They also did excellent soundtracks for commercials – I did about three spots with them and director Mike Seresin (who was Sir Alan Parker’s longstanding DP) and Len Fulford. I heard the 10cc story from them, whilst we had a full orchestra on ‘G Stage’ at Sheperton. Those ‘Deceptive Bends’ are to be found just outside Guildford. Their album covers were a/d by Storm Thorgerson, who worked for the great Terry Day in New Bond Street – we did the album covers in those days for Bob Millar at EMI. Everyone was very easy going, except Bob Brooks. Vangelis who composed the new track ‘Figaro’ for our Fiat Strada ‘Handbuilt by Robots’ spot c. 1979 was really hardwork.
        Come – come, Mr. Penfold – 10cc story was no urban myth! Noddy Holder of Slade (remember him?) took his name from a ‘Walsall Contraceptive Machine.’ Honest! Crumbs eh!
  11. 30 mins so quick for me today, and very enjoyable. We are having quite a boozy (winey?) week what with Beaune, (Burgundy), Kir, ditto and today RHEIMS, the heartbeat of Champagne and, where you’ll meet all the RÉHOBOAMS as you mention Pip. LOI DIFFRACT. Like others, only really knew diffraction from school. COD then to 1d. Thanks Pip and setter.
  12. Top half flew in, then slowed right down to finish in 22′.

    Liked TIDDLY, didn’t parse ON-MESSAGE.

    iPad went crazy after a while, deleting what I’d just put in — advice please.

    A byte is eight bits, all of which are 0 and 1. A bit is a binary digit, i.e. 0 or 1, the only digits in base two. This is not necessary to know to solve the clue 🙂

    Thanks pip and setter.

    1. … whose 1900 series computers had 4 characters of 6 bits which formed a “word” if I recall correctly. I went into computer programming in the early 70’s straight from a degree in Classics and found myself surprisingly good at it despite never even having seen a computer before.
  13. I’m clearly in the minority today…..

    Clunker of the day (CLOD)
    Is ON-MESSAGE – oh my god!
    Else happy i am
    Cos i like a pangram
    The setter”s a most clever bod

  14. I took pootle’s advice from yesterday and didn’t look at the snitch before starting and lookitthat, second fastest time ever.
  15. 27 minutes. LOI MOVIE after WARM UP eventually dawned. PANORAMA had me trawling too long for memories of Richard Dimbleby. DIFFRACT also had me back then, in the Clarendon looking at Fraunhofer patterns, while everybody else seemed to be smoking pot to Mr Tambourine Man, even if they weren’t inhaling. COD to ON MESSAGE, although I do still much prefer to listen to people who aren’t. Nice puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.

    Edited at 2021-01-27 01:41 pm (UTC)

  16. Found this pretty tricky. Took 19a was as a cryptic definition (partially indicated by the question mark).
  17. 23.38. Quite a toughie for me. FOI rehoboam but a lot of grinding through thereafter. LOI oil, biffed and wouldn’t have worked it out in a month of Sundays so thanks blogger for the explanation.

    COD plainer mainly because I was convinced the answer was an anagram of calendar without the N. A fruitless endeavour!

    Liked bruin, aquiver, warm up and panama.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  18. 16:36 I tried in vain to make 1D JEROBOAM before eventually remembering the bigger bottle. Neat puzzle. I liked BASKET and HAVE KITTENS best. Thanks Pip and setter.
  19. Thanks Pip but isn’t the collective noun for arrows a quiver – a quarrel being what is shot from a crossbow. Or am I missing something?
    And as pointed out above, a bit is either 0 or 1, bytes not relevant here.
    1. A quiver is a case for arrows, and a quarrel is as you say an arrow for a crossbow. So you could have a quiver of quarrels.
  20. Another unparsed ON-MESSAGE here, and I didn’t understand the bits in OIL either. Thanks for the explanations.

    Not too tricky otherwise, though I made life difficult for myself by putting in ‘Ashoboam’ for 1d, which stymied ROBBED until I looked at it again, realised I hadn’t accounted for the engineers, and remembered REHOBOAM.

    FOI Diffract
    LOI Robbed
    COD Have kittens

  21. 11:54. I found this mostly straightforward but then I got completely stuck at the end on 18dn. My problem was that as I alphabet-trawled for feasible options I didn’t really consider F as a starting letter on the basis that ‘fried food’ was never going to indicate a word with ‘fry’ as its root. I kicked myself hard when the penny finally dropped.
  23. Really enjoyed this puzzle. Witty, elegant and straightforward. Lots of good clues.. many thanks, setter
    And thanks Pip .. nb: a quarrel is a synonym for an arrow (usu. a crossbow bolt, though not always) not a collective noun
    1. According to all the dictionaries a quarrel is necessarily for a crossbow, which was news to me.
        1. Isn’t an arbalest just a big crossbow? My practical experience with them is quite limited.
  24. After a rubbish start (three or four in the first eight minutes or so), picked up nicely, unable to see where the mental block had been.

    Completed corner by corner, though not sure I’d heard of DIFFRACT before, and didn’t see how LOI PARASITE worked, but entered with an ‘Oh well’.

  25. Felt like it should have been quicker but was really enjoying each clue. Nothing too fancy just elegant and precise. (My own slight mutter would be that for me at least 10cl = 1dl and thus should have been IDL rather than just DL, but clue was a fun idea which could be worked out). Many thanks to setter (and blogger, of course).
  26. Enjoyed this. Just tricky enough. Joint-COD Warm up and On-Message.
    An intellectual is someone who can see the words Forsyte Saga without immediately thinking of Bill Tidy’s Fosdyke Saga.
    1. was someone who could hear the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger
      and Tonto.
      Andyf
  27. Sorry but Susan Hampshire just didn’t do it for me ….but Nyree Dawn Porter…now you’re talkin’!!
    BTW she was the victim of a pretty terrible stalker back in the day, who I think was eventually imprisoned ( and no, it wasn’t me!).
  28. Thanks for explaining ON-MESSAGE, the only one I biffed today and lovely / groan-inducing clue. There were a couple that I semi-biffed, I guess, having not really understood the double definitions of either BASKET or TAKE OUT.

    Briefly tempted by PIE at 3d, which just about works, depending on what you put in it.

    6m 33s, finishing on BRUIN.

  29. 17.45 today, though that included a brief interruption for the postman. I see I’m not alone in failing to parse ON-MESSAGE, but that was partly because I was too worried about TAKE OUT – one definition (kill) being ok but the rest I just didn’t see, trying to make it some sort of complex wordplay.
    IO (or in this case OI) has perplexed before, but I remembered the bit bit and thought myself clever.
    Back in the day, non-conformist churches in particular had their 6.30-ish evening services as the main event, with larger congregations. There was no sport to speak of, and TV was limited. Then along came the FORSYTE SAGA, and almost overnight numbers crashed and never recovered. Another true story, to go with the one above about kittens.
  30. Second day in a row I was completely off-wavelength. There’s 4-5 inches of snow outside (TIDDLY pom) which may have distracted me. Another who failed to parse ON MESSAGE. 19.49 P.S. This was a pangram right?

    Edited at 2021-01-27 11:17 am (UTC)

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