Times 27892 – you can’t pass heat from the cooler to the hotter

Solving time: 9:59, which is pretty close to my target time, so I feel good about this one. It isn’t simple, but not too tricky.

It is very rare that a Times daily puzzle has a theme, and I don’t recall in my time here having the luck of blogging one with a theme.  Today the setter has managed to sneak in a number of references to the muscial comedy duo Flanders and Swann, who can be found in symmetrically-opposed entries and that makes me extremely happy. I teach thermodynamics almost every semester and subject students to the First and Second Law song.

Given the answer to the first clue in today’s QC, I wonder if Joker wrote this one as well?

Away we go…

Across
1 Female is drunk, engaging another female in tussle (9)
FISTFIGHT – F(female), IS, TIGHT(drunk) containing F(female)
6 More than one picket comments on website (5)
POSTS – double definition
9 Love family vacationing perhaps in Scotland or Japanese city (7)
OKINAWA – O(love), KIN(family), AWA’ (Scots form for away, vacationing)
10 Produced a lot of revolutionary dry wine (7)
MADEIRA – MADE(produced), and then ARID(dry) reversed, missing the last letter.  F&S song “Madeira, M’Dear”
11 Moved twistily, heading off out of cover (5)
NAKED – SNAKED(moved twistily) missing the first letter
12 Trace European policy in time (9)
DELINEATE – E(European), LINE(policy) in DATE(time)
13 Awkward study with a run bagged in Test (8)
CONTRARY – CON(study) and A, R(run) inside TRY(test)
14 Part of the world, mostly unchanged area (4)
ASIA – AS IS(unchanged) missing the last letter, A(area)
17 Tubing that is partly interfering with pianos? (4)
PIPE – I.E. (that is) messing with P, P(pianos).  Swann did the piano playing.
18 Footwear placed outside toilet when giving display (8)
SHOWCASE – SHOE(footwear) outside WC(toilet) and AS(when)
21 Take on chief leading all-English league at last (9)
CHALLENGE – CH(chief), then ALL, ENG(English), and the last letter of leaguE
22 No remorse, ditching University bridge player (5)
NORTH – NO, then RUTH(remorse) minus U(university)
24 No flights for me? East of Germany well-supplied (7)
OSTRICH – OST(East, in German), RICH(well-supplied).  Another F&S song… peek a boo, I can’t see you…
25 Omnipotent in general (7)
OVERALL – double definition
26 Silence covering revelation of resignation (5)
SHRUG – SH(silence) and RUG(covering)
27 Ready-to-wear accessory? (5,4)
MONEY BELT – cryptic definition
Down
1 Admit being kept under by father displaying severe expression (5)
FROWN – OWN(admit) under FR(father)
2 Item in first-aid kit: splint, say, and gear with splint, possibly (8-7)
STICKING-PLASTER – STICK(splint, strip of wood), then an anagram of GEAR and SPLINT
3 Location in Europe’s fine planetary vehicles? (8)
FLANDERS – F(fine), LANDERS(planetary vehicles)
4 £1000 getting a lot of rubbish wine (5,3)
GRAND CRU – GRAND(a thousand pounds) then most of CRUD(rubbish)
5 Critical comment about origins of Manchester United likely to produce uproar (6)
TUMULT – TUT(critical comment) surrounding the first letters of Manchester United Likely
6 Particular person in prison will be visited by US lawyer (6)
PEDANT – PENT(in prison) containing DA(District Attorney, US lawyer)
7 One ascending by twisted means will aggravate a satirical press (6,9)
SPIRAL STAIRCASE – anagram of A,SATIRICAL,PRESS
8 Computer programs to do some running battle in London area (9)
SHAREWARE – HARE(to do some running), WAR(battle) in the SE(London area)
13 Extensive international lying not admitting of remedy (9)
CAPACIOUS – CAP(international), then MENDACIOUS(lying) missing MEND(remedy)
15 Squeeze garden into trimmed surroundings (8)
SHOEHORN – HOE(garden) inside SHORN(trimmed)
16 Is this a pen-supplier? Answer (Y/N) after review (8)
SWANNERY – anagram of ANSWER,Y,N and a pen is a type of swan
19 Travelling overseas? There’s romance about the unknown (6)
FLYING – FLING(romance) surrounding Y(unknown)
20 Articles on source of music, church music? (6)
ANTHEM – AN and THE(articles) with the first letter of Music
23 Composer’s vacation close to forest (5)
HOLST – HOLS(vacation) and the last letter of foresT

64 comments on “Times 27892 – you can’t pass heat from the cooler to the hotter”

  1. I only thought of HARE when it was too late, having given up and thrown in SPACEWARE. OKINAWA was my FOI, although I thought ‘surely “city” is wrong?’ But there is in fact a city of Okinawa, formed in 1974 by the merger of another city and a neighboring village. I have never seen it referred to.
      1. Shareware was also my LOI, and I was in the IT business for 46 years!
        Shade over 20 minutes for me in a mostly clockwise solve.
  2. A good time for me — somewhere around 20 minutes is what I expect these days for a doable puzzle. Plenty of unknowns (like HARE) worked nicely with several guesses from the definition (like SHAREWARE). I was lucky enough to get a strong start in the upper left corner, which made the rest of the solve easy. A lot of lucky guesses made it easy too!!
  3. Quite quick, mostly easyish but most importantly no holdups. Like Kevin I’d always thought Okinawa an island, but it fit the cryptic perfectly. No problem with hare/shareware. See I forgot to check showcase, which I biffed and wrongly assumed was WC in shoes. And took a few minutes post-finish to find mendacious, brain was trapped by fallacious.
    Really like the ready-to-wear clue; a good CD is difficult to find.
    1. Okinawa is an island, the largest island in Okinawa Prefecture. I didn’t realize that it’s also a city, on the island. I wonder if the setter knew.
  4. Quite gentle, but unaccountably held up by PIPE and CAPACIOUS — I had a plural image in my mind for ‘tubing’.

    Didn’t even think about OKINAWA, and Flanders and Swann passed me by.

    Thanks george and setter.

  5. After my dreadful run of late I decided nothing was going in unparsed and that was nearly true except for my LOI CAPACIOUS. After a fair bit of thinking I got the CAP then decided it couldn’t be anything else. Seeing George’s explanation I think it would have taken me a fair deal longer to fully parse it, particularly as I’d been thinking of the wrong sense of “lying”. Anyhow, I was much relieved not to see the pink square that I thought had become mandatory for me.
  6. 34 minutes. I spotted a hint of an F&S theme in the QC (hard not think of it, given 1ac) but decided it was unintentional, which I don’t think now. It never occurred to me in this one though which I solved immediately after the QC.

    I also missed the parsing at 13dn where I thought the word for ‘lying’ that needed cutting down was {fall}ACIOUS but couldn’t find anything to indicate this.

    Edited at 2021-02-04 07:04 am (UTC)

  7. …like Kevin I opted for SPACEWARE. It seems that’s not a thing.
    Got the CAP in CAPACIOUS but couldn’t parse the rest although it had to be what it was so thanks, George.
    No problem with OKINAWA City as, once a year for my work I used to have to visit Kadena Air Base, one of the very many US military bases on the island of OKINAWA.
    COD for me was MONEY BELT.

    Edited at 2021-02-04 07:18 am (UTC)

  8. 6:43. On the wavelength this morning. No unknowns, no problems. If you had asked me whether OKINAWA was a city or an island I wouldn’t have been able to give you a confident answer. A little ignorance can help sometimes.
  9. …To fit the Naked foot of poesy.
    15 mins pre-brekker so it must have been a gentle one.
    MER (as usual) at Cru being wine rather than the vineyard.
    Thanks setter and G.
    1. I sort of take your point about cru in isolation, but Grand Cru, Premier Cru etc are very commonly used to describe the wines themselves. It’s also on the label!
    2. Cru, literally meaning « growth » refers both to the vineyard and the wine emanating from it as Keriothe states. Grand crus, premier crus etc were generally designated as specific sites where, historically the wines produced there were of a higher quality then their neighbours and recognized as such. Hence the famous Bordeaux classification of 1855.
  10. There was lots to like in this, especially FISTFIGHT and MONEY BELT. I knew no more of Flanders and Swann than their names (shame on me) so the numerous lyrical references in this and the QC all passed me by. I now have my research project for today. I often pass Holst’s nice little blue-plaqued house by the river in Barnes.
  11. I’m composing this verse with a sigh
    And if anyone’s wondering why
    SWANNERY made me sad
    And OSTRICH is bad
    Still a bird, even if it can’t fly
  12. For some unknown reason I went bottom up and fairly breezed along – until I hit my LOI 8dn SHAREWARE (what CHER sports when at Knotty Ash.) IKEAN victory.

    FOI 25ac OVERALL OshKosh?

    COD 13dn CAPACIOUS – 27ac MONEY BELT was just too-too obvious. ‘Ready’ is ever a spoiler alert!!

    WOD 16dn SWANNERY to go with 3dn. Is there a link here to the QC?

    And who put in BAND AID at 2dn, without spotting the anagram?

  13. 12:32 so not very slothful, but I failed to parse CAPACIOUS. FOI FISTFIGHT LOI SHRUG. COD to SWANNERY. I like the F&S theme. Thanks George and setter… I had the same thought about it being Joker here too.
  14. Another “spaceware” here. Hare never once occurred to me. Blast. Didn’t parse the “acious” in CAPACIOUS or the “cru” in GRAND CRU, so thanks for the explanations.

    SWANNERY is lovely word, which pleasingly I put in not long after hearing Flanders and Swann’s “The Slow Train” on Radio 3.

      1. Mine too. Not so well remembered perhaps because later, and thus not on At The Drop of a Hat or Another Hat, their big-selling LPs
  15. I went for a LOI SPACEWARE too, so a DNF in 33 minutes. I don’t recall Flanders and Swann singing about Capacious Shareware. Otherwise a steady solve. COD to SHOEHORN. Thank you George and setter.
  16. No real problems with this – DELINEATE, PEDANT and POSTS last three in.

    The two fairly-easy long downs opened things up very comfortably.

  17. Lots to enjoy, particularly the SE sector. Had Spaceware for a while but it didn’t feel right. Missed the Flanders and Swann theme but very pleased that it’s there.

    Test Match on Channel 4 tomorrow. What larks!

    Thank you setter and blogger.

      1. They’ve got Cook and Strauss as pundits in the studio with Rishi Persad acting as host. Otherwise they are using the world feed commentary team, and I don’t know who that is.
  18. 13.47, so rather on the easy side in my terms, but didn’t feel simple. I (shamefully) missed the Flanders and Swannery theme, and couldn’t work out where the -ACIOUS came from. I did, however, dodge the SPACEWARE (though I thought of it) and didn’t have any qualms about OKINAWA (due to ignorance).
    MONEY BELT made me giggle.
  19. back on track after a deux of mistakes this week. No holdups, though LOI CAPACIOUS went in unparsed. I was initially looking to shoehorn ‘cure’ in somehow for ‘remedy’ after seeing the two C’s.
    14’42”
  20. Enjoyable solve, no hold-ups, so clearly on the wavelength. I didn’t see the hints at a Nina, but then I never do, even when it’s something I am familiar with, as with F&S.
  21. 19 minutes and one to go …. 8dn. Ten minutes later it finally clicks. Fair dos to the setter.
  22. About 45 minutes for me, which is probably better than my average for these puzzles. I had been forewarned of the F & S theme by George’s comment on my QC blog this morning, but after seeing FLANDERS and OKINAWA (as well as MADEIRA, ASIA, and less obviously FISTFIGHT, TUMULT) I did wonder if there was also a battle theme going on, but I assume it’s just coincidence.

    I rarely comment on the 15 x 15s as I do them less frequently than the QCs, and occasionally resort to aids from time to time, but today was unaided, but with a biff — ACIOUS. Thanks both.

  23. LOI Spaceware, saw “some running” and jumped to the wrong conclusion. At least I see I wasn’t the only one!

    Very enjoyable otherwise, embarrassed not to have spotted the Flanders and Swann theme (but I save the quicker puzzles for tea time)

  24. FOI 1D: FROWN
    LOI 13A CONTRARY

    I sailed through the NW then SW other than 13A everything was so promising. Alas I had stupidly entered 4D GRANNCR (for GRAND CRU) and therefore reluctantly entered 13A CONTRACT and moved on. In the SE corner, SHOEHORN held me up but inevitably SHOWCASE followed very quickly afterwards. Things ground to halt in the NE corner until I finally spotted my earlier error in 4D and everything eastward fell into place. Fortunately, I realised at the last moment that CONTRACT must now be also wrong and I was home. I very much enjoyed this – but I either have to sort out my constant errors using the Times online – or arrange to collect the physical newspaper every morning.

    Thanks, glheard and the setter

  25. Wonderful echoes of my childhood. Still play the hippopotamus song on the guitar.
    LOI SHAREWARE where I had the cryptic all wrong, looking for some obscure London borough.
    20 mins while waiting for wife at the surgery.
      1. Sorry I don’t get the reference! Maybe my London knowledge isn’t too great. Just a hick boy from North Wales..
  26. Seemed like a solid set of clues, with no particular standouts and no noticeable bumps along the way to an 18m finish.
  27. A good sub 30 minutes for me . Shareware LOI , couldn’t get ‘app’ out of my mind, or fisticuffs for 1ac.. Once 2 & 7dn went in things got easier. Missed the Flanders & Swann theme , but I’d heard ‘The slow train’ this morning. Whatever tomorrow’s 15×15 brings, consolation with live terrestrial test match cricket.
  28. 17.38 with FOI frown and LOI overall. Puzzled by okinawa for a time as I thought it was an island but on checking – after completing-there is an Okinawa City as well , so not only is the setter omnipotent but he/she/ other is omniscient as well.

    Another rewarding puzzle and for the first time this week avoided those annoying traps.

  29. My first one went in with a FROWN, which changed to a smile when my second was GRAND CRU. Then the TUMULT heralded a FISTFIGHT as I HARE(d) down the SPIRAL STAIRCASE. The only one I didn’t bother to parse fully was CAPACIOUS as I’d already decided it ended CIOUS from the crossers, and CAP for international was fresh in my mind. That was my LOI as it happens. Liked SWANNERY and OSTRICH. 20:22. Thanks setter and George.
  30. I’m another SPACEWARE, alas. Just like The Who, it was 5.15 for me with that error – LOI and the longest time spent on GRAND CRU.
  31. The initially high, then decreasing, sense of fear when biffing in an answer without previously checking that the number of letters actually fits?
  32. In my element today with two vinous clues. Marvelous. 99% done at 32 mins then another 8 mins trying to work out 8d which I too was convinced was a London borough. Eventually fell on SHAREWARE and crossed my fingers. COD GRAND CRU. A nice Richebourg would go down very well right now. Thank you G and setter.
  33. I started this at lunchtime on paper then had a quick go online to see where I could get to. In fact, it all went in very quickly with LOI SHAREWARE so no stalemate. Prior to that SHOWCASE and SHOEHORN.
    14:31 on the clock but add another 30 minutes for the paper session.
    Fun puzzle. Missed the nina despite reading the QC blog (not very carefully).
    David
  34. Another Spaceware. Otherwise all correct in 15:20. A steady solve. I didn’t hare. I kept pace.

    COD: Money belt.

  35. Biffed SHAREWARE and my LOI CAPACIOUS so did not suffer the anguish of trying to parse them.
  36. Yet another SPACEWARE, so one error in 53:31. I liked PEDANT and NAKED (I tried out snaked, took the S off as indicated, and didn’t immediately see I’d got naked) COD FISTFIGHT
  37. Good one! It’s been a good week, so far (though I left CORRIE unfinished Monday). Today, I couldn’t parse CAPACIOUS, so will now peruse the other comments as my first recourse to fathoming why CAP is “international.”
    EDIT: I had to go to Google… Oh, hell, it’s a sports term. Well, I’ll remember it now.

    Edited at 2021-02-04 05:49 pm (UTC)

    1. In short, no. The clue says ‘a lot of revolutionary’, and this interpretation doesn’t account for the word ‘dry’.
  38. DNF. A 20-ish minute solve marred by a typo – pedent. Very frustrating. I found this puzzle required a little thought here and there but overall wasn’t too demanding.

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