Times 27909 – we have mad cow disease, but no complaints.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I buzzed through this in twenty minutes or so, going off piste a couple of times at 5d and 8d, having a grumble about 13a and being slightly surprised, but not delayed, at 23a. I liked the homophone clue at 2d (for once!) and raised my hat when I finally saw how my LOI 5d worked. No red text today as no hidden word clue, and no plants or antelopes to worry about.

Across
1 Dropped a stock complaint food shop rejected (8)
ABSEILED – A, BSE (stock complaint, bovine spongiform encephalopathy), DELI reversed.
9 Flyer left in drier houses (8)
AIRLINER – AIRER (drier) has L and IN inserted.
10 Sailor’s beginning with a bucket initially and mop (4)
SWAB – Initial letters of Sailor’s, With A Bucket.
11 Artistic movement wasting time with this case (12)
AESTHETICISM – (TIME THIS CASE)*
13 Star devouring liqueur? It’s a slippery slope (3,3)
SKI RUN – KIR (liqueur?) inside SUN (star). KIR is however definitely not a liqueur, it’s an apéritif cocktail made by mixing white wine with cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) or a similar fruit spirit. Invented by Monsieur Kir, the one time Mayor of Dijon. We’ve had this issue before on my watch.
14 Hawker originally flies a recluse across Cape (8)
FALCONER –  F (originally flies) A, LONER (recluse), insert C for cape.
15 Withdraw Home Counties game against good Roma (7)
GYPSIES – all reversed; SE (home counties) I SPY (verbal game), G(ood). Roma are an itinerant people originally from North India, now almost everywhere, who don’t much like the term gypsies.
16 Waterproof paints with ink ground (7)
OILSKIN – OILS (paints) (INK)*.
20 Tricky meeting involving priest and chapter (8)
DELICATE – DATE (meeting) has ELI the priest and C inserted.
22 Leading European twice acquiring posh rug (6)
TOUPEE – TOP (leading) EE (European twice) insert U for posh.
23 Embrace German repeatedly downing stein in secret (6-6)
HUGGER-MUGGER – HUG (embrace) GER GER insert MUG for stein. I thought hugger-mugger meant in a state of confusion, but it can also mean in secrecy apparently.
25 Spout English with German (4)
EMIT – E for English, MIT being German for with. Second time in three days for ‘mit’ for with.
26 This writer’s wife invested in old money that mustn’t be touched (4,4)
LIVE WIRE – I’VE (this writer’s) W(ife) both inside LIRE for old money.
27 Driver allowed tablets to be hidden in spirit on way back (8)
MULETEER – LET (allowed) E E (tablets of ecstasy) inside RUM (spirit) reversed.

Down
2 Shop ineffectively as stated every fortnight (8)
BIWEEKLY – sounds like “buy weakly”. A witty and accurate homophone, I thought.
3 Awkward Eastern doctor has to tweet under curtain (12)
EMBARRASSING – E (eastern) MB (doctor) ARRAS (curtain) SING (tweet).
4 Lots of Swiss here walk round university hospital (8)
LAUSANNE – Insert U and SAN (university, hospital) into LANE (walk).
5 Split wood: remove to the periphery (4,3)
DASH OFF – I had options for this, initially I thought DEAL for wood and OUT for remove to the periphery. But the checkers soon said it had to be DA*H *F* so a rethink arrived at DASH OFF meaning split, leave quickly. I think it’s ASH (wood) inside DOFF as in doff your hat.
6 Frank‘s very dry with a learner (6)
BRUTAL – BRUT as in dry champagne, A L(earner).
7 Opposed to conservationists blocking artificial insemination (4)
ANTI – NT (National Trust) inside AI.
8 Abridge article about Arabian craft (8)
TRIMARAN – I think this is TRIM (abridge) AN (article) about AR for Arabian, although I don’t recall seeing AR as that abbr. before. I was off on a DHOW at first.
12 Pass over most recent turbulence at sea (12)
CROSSCURRENT – CROSS = pass over, CURRENT = most recent.
15 One who’s sponsored idol given stick crossing line (8)
GODCHILD – GOD (idol) CHID (given stick), insert L for line.
17 Essential current books by big revolutionary (8)
INTEGRAL – I (current) NT (books) LARGE reversed = big revolutionary.
18 Glorify ladies cavorting in middle of audience (8)
IDEALISE – (LADIES)* inside the middle letters of aud IE nce.
19 Wish to avoid second Republican mass for another one (7)
REQUIEM – REQUIRE (wish) loses its second R, then M for mass.
21 Help to finish a French chicken (6)
AFRAID – A, FR(ench), AID (help).
24 Present golf foursome approaching second in Wentworth (4)
GIVE – G for golf, IV for four/some, E the second letter of Wentworth, a posh golf course near London.

​

60 comments on “Times 27909 – we have mad cow disease, but no complaints.”

  1. Many years ago there was a discussion on this site about saving money on printing by changing the printing to dots or some such. Can someone help me.
    I’ve been using this site fo eons and cannot understand why I am banned from the site. My name is not a secret and I can be reached on [email protected].

    Thank you

    1. When I went to enter a comment I was told I have been banned. However I am allowed to type this and if it appears as a comment it may be just a glitch in the system. I did get a justifiable light slap on the wrist from Vinyl a few weeks ago but I don’t think it was enough to enough to ban me. On edit. It has I’m not.

      Edited at 2021-02-24 04:22 pm (UTC)

    2. Brian, what is your Live Journal username? If you let me know I shall check whether it is on the TfTT banned list. I believe only one bona fide poster has ever been banned so it’s very unlikely.
      1. Jack, I haven’t appeared here for quite a while, also because I’ve been banned. Don’t know why either. Somewhat mysterious.

        kevin_from_ny

        Best regards.

        1. Hi, Kevin, and it’s good to hear from you as I have missed your daily comments on the blog. I can assure you that as far as TfTT is concerned you have not been banned and indeed you are on our Members list with Unmoderated access rights, a level that very few other than our blog-writers have. I can only assume the ban is some sort of glitch at Live Journal admin. I guess you could try contacting them and querying it but a simpler option might be to create a new user-id and use that instead. I hope you can sort something out as you are always welcome here.

          1. Thanks Jack. I certainly can’t explain this situation and as you say a new ID appears the best workaround. I’ll give it a try.
            1. Thanks Kevin. Might I suggest you keep your user-id recognisable e.g. kevin_from_ny_2, so as not to lose associations with the past?
  3. Interrupted by cricket and patio cleaning, this felt hard work but rewarding. Just over an hour (which I try to make my limit).
    FOI biweekly
    LOI Godchild – even with all the crossers I needed an alphabet trawl on the fourth letter before the penny dropped
    Wrestled with aestheticism, requiem, dash off and trimaran. I was desperate to fit a dhow in their somewhere.
  4. Got about two thirds through at a steady pace then really slowed down for no obvious reason since the remaining clues, when I eventually got them, seemed perfectly straightforward. Finished with DELICATE.
  5. I found this quite a bit harder than than yesterday’s, and had to check the unknown Muleteer and Hugger Mugger. Godchild and Requiem both took ages to see, but then Lausanne was a write-in given the number of times I’ve driven through it, so it was swings and roundabouts. CoD to 5d, Dash Off, which was another that I struggled over. Invariant
  6. Not a regular for the 15 x 15 but I do try it occasionally. If only three go in at first pass I tend to leave it. About half of this went in at first, then checkers helped with all but the NE corner. Biffed a few of those and ended up with a close-run thing, setter 2, me 25. In other words, DNF. FOI oilskin, failed on dash off and aestheticism, both of which must be LO’sI and C’sOD. Enjoyed the process and am satisfied with the outcome. What a mix of the sublime and, not the ridiculous, but the rather obscure. Common parlance (rug) and last definition in OED for aestheticism. I learned something today which is one of the main reasons for me to keep at crosswords. Thanks to Pip for many parsings, and to setter for a very enjoyable time exercising my brain. GW
  7. Better effort today; even better if I hadn’t spent 3 minutes on my LOI TOUPEE

    Loved “stock complaint” like others; did know MULETEER though goodness knows from where

    DASH OFF was rather good

    Thanks all

  8. I gave up with 15d missing. ‘GOD’ was obvious and I had the ‘H’ and ‘L’. I knew I needed a four letter word with ‘H’ as the second letter that might be a word for a stick or might be a word meaning ‘told off’ or ‘criticised’, but ‘CHID’ didn’t come for a moment and probably would never have come. I think that the only time I have ever come across it is in Macbeth, when he is pondering Banquo’s murder: “He chid the sisters when first they put the name of king upon me…” (Yes, I’ve read it so many times that I know most of it off by heart).

    And no way is kir a liqueur – I’ve watched my wife drink it often enough to know.

    Edited at 2021-02-24 09:52 pm (UTC)

  9. Managed 58 minutes which is not bad for me, but slipped up by putting in Pigskin at 16a, no doubt channelling pigment in my imagination. Lower left took most of the time, with LOI 15a Gypsies which had to wait for 15d before I had any clue what sort of a word might fit in. Seems so obvious when the penny drops!

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