Times 27,911: Vegan-Unfriendly

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A dreaded pink square for me in what wasn’t, otherwise, too testing a crossword despite potentially tricky vocab crossing like 6ac/8dn. I bunged “MEALINESS” straight in at 14dn on the assumption that it referred to a mealy-grub, though on more sober reflection it felt like that creature may actually be called a mealy-bug… onwards and upwards eh! It was the flycatcher clue that set me astray, officer, would’ve been under 7 minutes otherwise.

I liked: the scientific clue at 21ac (which is also the title of a brilliant YA book by Alan Garner), the PDMOTD when I finally cottoned onto “lot deemed odious” at 12dn, but let’s say my COD is 18ac as I liked “A BIT RATED”, which is broadly descriptive of my place in the crossword community. Thanks setter and heaven forfend the pink square of doom from the rest of you!

ACROSS
1 Experts to keep on retaining old fools (8)
BUFFOONS – BUFFS [experts] to “keep” ON “retaining” O, so BUFF{O{O}N}S

6 Flycatcher’s charge, we hear: insect being picked up (6)
PHOEBE – homophone of FEE + homophone of BEE. One for the twitchers amongst us

9 Repurposing curtains cut up, one uses needles (13)
ACUPUNCTURIST – (CURTAINS CUT UP*). FOI

10 Worker left half abandoned gets to manage (6)
HANDLE – HAND [worker] + LE{ft}

11 Prearrange patient for feature of study? (8)
BOOKCASE – BOOK [prearrange] + CASE [patient]

13 Disciple penning part of Bible with short word of prayer in bit of verse (10)
PENTAMETER – PETER “penning” NT + AME{n}

15 Appearance that is evident in heartless fellow (4)
MIEN – I.E. [that is] “in” M{a}N

16 Nymph gives companion love by edge of lake (4)
ECHO – C.H. 0 by {lak}E

18 Made a judgement not much appreciated about Republican (10)
ARBITRATED – A BIT RATED [not much appreciated] “about” R

21 What may be evident in aura from star in colourful garment (3,5)
RED SHIFT – double def, good Doppler-y science term vs a literal colourful shift/garment.

22 Holy person getting with it at church can be a pain (6)
STITCH – S(ain)T getting with IT at CH(urch)

23 Innocent chaps violently shoved into big vans (13)
PANTECHNICONS – (INNOCENT CHAPS*)

25 Music-makers love being in small groups (6)
CELLOS – 0 being in CELLS

26 Contact team to get best position to watch contest? (8)
RINGSIDE – or RING SIDE [contact | team]

DOWN
2 Ignorant article in Le Monde about a conflict (7)
UNAWARE – UNE [(French) article] “about” A WAR

3 Channels getting discovered for street in structures below ground? (11)
FOUNDATIONS – {st}ATIONS [(radio) channels] becomes {FOUND}ATIONS

4 Nothing put together can be practical (2,3)
OF USE – 0 FUSE [put together]

5 Instrument taken from bag by Aunt Sally, briefly (7)
SACKBUT – SACK [bag] by BUT{t} [Aunt Sally]

6 Rich person in airport town nearly nabbed by copper, despicable type (9)
PLUTOCRAT – LUTO{n} “nabbed by” P.C. + RAT

7 Charm of Japanese attire (3)
OBI – double def; in the Caribbean, ritual magic, in Japan, a kimono sash

8 Fine material is used in sock? Not right (7)
BATISTE – IS “used in” BATTE{r}

12 Lot deemed odious in firm battle to secure foreign capital (11)
COMPARISONS – CO MONS [firm | battle] “secures” PARIS. “Comparisons are odious” according to the old adage, or “odorous”, per Dogberry in Much Ado. LOI

14 Quality of some grub in each can brought into dining room (9)
MEATINESS – EA TIN “brought into” MESS

17 Desire heading off to get a bit of food that isn’t expensive (7)
CHEAPIE – {a}CHE to get A PIE

19 Killer only dear to the French (7)
BUTCHER – BUT [only] + CHER [dear, in French]

20 Former leader of Conservatives was wont to be forgiven? (7)
EXCUSED – EX [former] + C{onservatives} + USED [was wont]

22 Male of family that’s kept in charge, after upsetting heir (5)
SCION – SON that has “kept” reversed I/C

24 In ruin I leave nothing (3)
NIL – hidden in {rui}N I L{eave}

65 comments on “Times 27,911: Vegan-Unfriendly”

  1. Got off to a good start with the two long ones but then slowed to a trudge. A bit of biffing required. If I ever meet Ms Phoebe Batiste, I will give her a long hard stare.
  2. Pretty slow for 25 mins. Revisited after lunch and final dozen clues done in about 8 mins. Must have been the cheese sandwich.

    Only held up at the end by COMPARISONS — didn’t get the reference but guessed with all checkers.

  3. Flew through at high speed. Even the unknowns Phoebe and batiste went straight in, the former obviously a Greek god-dude who resident classics expert Verlaine would enlighten us on in the blog – her particular punishment involving flies. The second so close to so many famous people (Fulgenico Batista, Gabriel Batistuta, tenniser Roberto Bautista etc.) that it sounded like a word. LOI taking a minute or two to build was comparisons, having never heard of the saying.
  4. Defeated by PANTECHNICONS, unable to form a likely-looking anagram, but I’d already gone for the improbable RED SKIRT after a toss-up with RED SHIRT.
  5. Darted about the grid today. 4 acrosses on the first pass, then 2 and 4 down cracked the grid open somewhat for a while. Needed the dictionary for batiste. Did not parse comparisons. Half an hour all told. Had sideline for ringside at first but the down clues sorted it out. Mealiness/meatiness was a toss-up, but on balance meatiness seemed to fit the clueing better. Very enjoyable. I’ve been lucky enough to see a phoebe and could see how it fit the clue, but if I had not seen a phoebe I do not think I would have been able to work it out. I’m not a twitcher, the bird is locally common in its habitat. FOI mien LOI comparisons. All COD’s for me as I’m an occasional tryer at the 15 x 15, so I was chuffed to finish. Thanks V and setter. GW.
  6. ….by having TUAC (two unknowns as crossers). I eventually parsed BATISTE, trusted it to be correct, and the LOI could scarcely have been anything else.

    The only PHOEBE I ever came across was a nurse in Florence, SC, who I played for a couple of years on Words With Friends. After that her husband apparently saw me as some kind of threat and blocked me. I suspect she’s on the wards even now driving all the old men crazy !

    FOI ACUPUNCTURIST
    LOI PHOEBE
    COD ARBITRATED
    TIME 10:45

  7. Was encouraged to give this a go by Mrs S …
    … and to both of our surprise (hers more than mine I suspect), all done in 32 minutes. Quite a lot of aids used though to finish the puzzle — but when one has double definitions like 7D Obi where neither were known to me I shall treat that as fair. Very different from the other 3-letter clue, 24D Nil, which could have come straight from the QC (and was my FOI).

    Many thanks to Verlaine for the blog, very necessary for me today and all good education.
    Cedric

  8. DNF. A 26 min solve with one error. Navigated the tricky Phoebe / Batiste crossers only to enter red skirt. Should’ve paused a little longer over that one as I have heard of red shift but couldn’t see beyond shirt or skirt when solving.
  9. Total fail after 40 mins

    Couldnt see PANTECHNICONs; or CHEAPIE. NHO RED SHIFT though I remember a recent clue where I was tossing up between skirt and shirt only to find there was a third garment with the s_i_t checkers. And obvs no idea with PHOEBE and BATISTE.

    Can’t remember the last time I was 5 short and this was seemingly not the hardest

    And my twin did it in 25 mins! 😬🙂

    I did get MEATINESS …😀

    Thanks excellent blogger and setter

  10. DNF in about 40 minutes. Everything but PHOEBE, and I could see I wasn’t going to get it. I got BATISTE from the wordplay, but FEE BEE was a step too far.
  11. I don’t care if this has been the easiest 15×15 week since Adam was a boy, having completed Monday through Thursday (I’m conveniently ignoring Monday’s Thwart/Toward cock-up), I was determined to give Friday my best shot. Any other week I would have pulled stumps several times, but I persevered and finally finished (the same day that I started 😉) with loi Comparisons. Batiste and Phoebe were unknown (and checked to confirm I was on the right track), but Red Shift was well-known (even if I was initially tempted with Red Giant), as were Sackbut and Pantechnicons. Obi, Mien and Echo were only known from previous failures, but they all count! A special thanks to all the bloggers, and those who have encouraged me on this journey, particularly John Dun. Invariant

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