Times 27913 – Soames, Anyone?

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Sorry, folks, I’d written up a goodly part of the blog when I slid my fat fingers onto the wrong bit of the laptop and lost the lot. So, this will be short and sweet, and between gritted teeth. 25:30.

I dedicate this to Dorsetjimbo, AKA Jim Biggin, who I will always think of as The Father of the Blog, even if he pretended to be a bit of a curmudgeon.

ACROSS

1 Protean spirit of record spinner in Islington area (6)
DJINNI – DJ IN NI (‘North One’ in London)
5 German bar inspiring Verdi’s first operatic song (8)
BAVARIAN – V ARIA in BAN
9 Hatching a plot? Fascinating! (10)
INTRIGUING – double definition
10 Take courses at home in centre of Philadelphia (4)
DINE – IN in DE (central letters of philaDElphia)
11 Hesitating to own item of jewellery (8)
HAVERING – HAVE RING
12 Ready in Brazil to accept new tenant’s first payment (6)
RENTAL – N T[enant] in REAL
13 Young woman launching a festival (4)
GALA – GAL A
15 Obsessive knight, socially acceptable, wearing blue? (8)
NEUROTIC – N U in EROTIC
18 Light vehicle going around head of rare crustacean (4,4)
LAND CRAB – LAND (light, as in come down to earth) R[are] in CAB
19 Legendary vessel’s slow movement leaving lake (4)
ARGO – [l]ARGO
21 Universal wit entertaining third of listeners (6)
COSMIC – liSteners in COMIC
23 Most junior guy on set, surprisingly (8)
YOUNGEST – anagram* of GUY ON SET
25 Porter, say, primarily consuming Guinness? (4)
ALEC – ALE (porter, say) C[onsuming]; I was fixated on The Forsyte Saga actor, Eric Porter, and chucked in ERIC
26 Factory transformed into a cultivated area (10)
PLANTATION – PLANT + INTO A*
27 Right over the top, learner breaking the fuel regulator! (8)
THROTTLE – R OTT L in THE
28 Mum meeting Granny? Any time will do (6)
MANANA – MA NANA; nice definition

DOWN

2 Cabal originally taking over area after thirty days (5)
JUNTA – JUN (thirty days) T[aking] A (area); I suppose ‘Jun’ can be thirty days, inasmuch as it’s the abbreviation for the month, but it seemed a bit odd to me. Less so, now that I explain it. I think I have convinced myself.
3 Directions devised, we hear, after athletic activity upset Nanny (9)
NURSEMAID – RUN reversed (athletic activity upset) SE (directions) MAID (sounds like ‘made’, AKA devised)
4 Girl employed in teaching riding (6)
INGRID – hidden(-ish) in teachING RIDing
5 Doctor dealing with Banbury’s charity event, possibly (5-3-3,4)
BRING-AND-BUY SALE – DEALING BANBURYS*
6 Lively operatic prince feeding you in Paris (8)
VIGOROUS – IGOR (the eponymous fellow in Borodin’s opera Prince Igor) in VOUS
7 Stick in the name of a sculptor (5)
RODIN – ROD IN; he must have done something beside ‘The Thinker’, but he’s a bit of a Randy van Warmer of the sculpting world, to be honest
8 Girl going to West London district for toughening (9)
ANNEALING – ANN EALING
14 Religious leader’s Indian maid skirting coral reef (9)
AYATOLLAH – ATOLL in AYAH
16 Primate telephoned by old sick aunt (5-4)
ORANG-UTAN – O (old) RANG (telephoned) AUNT*
17 Nutter’s constant stand on marijuana (8)
CRACKPOT – C (constant) RACK (stand, as in something you get from IKEA, which could be either) POT
20 Copper’s cat’s habitual practice (6)
CUSTOM – CUS TOM
22 Virile army doctor ringing a key hospital (5)
MACHO – A C (musical key) H in MO (medical officer)
24 Faint, without disturbing younger family member (5)
SWOON – W/O (without) in SON

71 comments on “Times 27913 – Soames, Anyone?”

  1. Rodin also did ‘The Kiss’; and I had to look up van Warmer. I had some trouble recalling HAVER and wasted time trying to work in BLING. NHO B-A-B-S, and now I realize that I never tried to parse it. LOI NURSEMAID, mainly because it took me a while to parse.
    1. And all some people know of Leonardo is Mona Lisa and maybe The Last Supper. I think immediately of Rodin’s Balzac (which had la bourgeoisie rightly épatée !) and The Gates of Hell—which I’ve seen a number of times at the Musée D’Orsay—but Rodin was extremely prolific, in a variety of mediums.
  2. Well that’s as quick as it gets, under ten minutes. Took 3 extra seconds to decide it must be NHO havering not wavering; 2 extra seconds to confirm DE in the middle of Philadelphia; cosmic and nursemaid needed a few crossers, but everything else went straight in on first read. No missing knowledge, bring-and-buy sale remembered from a previous outing. Thank-you setter and blogger.
  3. My third-fastest time, so very Mondayesque for me. Unknowns (or dimly remembered items) including EALING, NI for Islington, HAVERING, Igor and BRING-AND-BUY SALE clearly didn’t slow me down for too long.

    Thanks, U, for the timely blog. Sorry to hear that you had to repeat your work. I’m already imagining the erudite flights of fancy and subtle, insightful iconoclasms lost forever into the ethereal void.

  4. No real difficulties but I spent too long looking for an “operatic song” as the solution to 5ac.
    I also was working on “amah” as an Indian maid for too long.
    FOI: JUNTA LOI and COD: ALEC.
  5. I was also looking for an operatic song for 5a. The German bar would be a KNEIPE, but then it got messy.
    For 5d I saw the anagrist as DEALING W BANBURY, which led to an unlikely ‘bring-and-buy wale’ until the doh moment.
    16’33”
  6. A good time for me. Found this very straightforward, but was held up by a few head-scratchers like HAVERING, LAND CRAB (not SAND CRAB!), and others where I had to take a little time to fish out the right synonym. BRING-AND-BUY SALE was completely unknown to me and probably spent three minutes arduously constructing it from the given letters.
  7. I spent a while ‘Hesitating’ over HAVERING, or is it HAVERING over ‘wavering’, but otherwise not too difficult. I was another looking for an ‘operatic song’ for 5a, which also held me up for a few minutes. I’m still not convinced by the JUN(E) abbreviation in 2d.

    Finished in 25 minutes.

    Hasta MANANA.

      1. Yes, I’m probably being a bit picky, or expecting things to be made too easy for us solvers, but I would have thought that it would have been reasonable for the setter to have indicated in the clue that an abbreviation for the ‘thirty days’ was required, rather than the complete word. Still, no real complaints as the def. and rest of the wordplay made the answer pretty clear.
  8. At 17 minutes I felt I didn’t really get my money’s worth out of this one and when I had finished I was pleased I had a DT puzzle printed out a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t yet got round to tackling.

    I had some of these answers ready to write in before I’d finished reading the clues properly, so if I wasn’t in habit of always at least trying to parse before entering an answer I’m sure I would have achieved a sub-15 minutes solve which would have been a very rare experience for me, if not actually a first.

    It was helpful that I’ve seen ANNEALING or possibly ANNEAL elsewhere within the past two weeks and I had looked it up then.

    Although I originally come from what’s loosely termed ‘North London’ these days, Islington was known to me only through the name of property on the Monopoly board and I first became aware of its postal district in recent years when the area and its postcode became associated with a particular view of the current UK political scene which has received a lot of often derogatory press coverage.

    Edited at 2021-03-01 01:48 pm (UTC)

  9. BRING AND BUY SALE is very familiar to me. I’m surprised people haven’t come across the term – it must be an age thing. I wonder what the equivalent is these days
    1. More likely just not known in America. The early contributors tend to be on that side of the pond.
    2. I’ve brought and bought at such sales so no problem there. Or indeed elsewhere. Djinni came lately to be my LOI.
  10. 22 mins today so definitely one of my best times. Nothing too scary. Knew the B-A-B-S and wondered about ANNEALING, but it had to be. A very pleasant Monday jaunt. Thank you U and setter.
  11. The new SNITCH page tells me that four of my ten fastest solves, including this one, have been on a Monday, helping to confirm the view that Mondays tend to be easier.

    I rewatched the film ARGO at the weekend, the true story of the six escapees from the Iranian hostage crisis, who were brought out by the CIA under the guise of being Canadian film producers scouting for a location for their sci-fi film called Argo. I was then reading about it afterwards where I learned that coincidentally the Swissair plane on which they left was named Aargau after one of the Swiss cantons. That wasn’t in the film — probably thought it would make it seem too far fetched!

    1. Yes, that was a really enjoyable movie Pootle. Mind you, I’d watch Alan Arkin in just about anything.
  12. …Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
    The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry.

    Less than 12 mins pre-brekker. No ticks, no crosses.
    Thanks setter and U.

  13. Not INTRIGUING, and therefore not slow,
    No NEUROTIC HAVERING, no,
    It was more “COSMIC trip
    In a fast rocket ship”
    THROTTLE open — all systems ARGO
  14. 14 minutes with LOI SWOON, so a steady top-to-bottom solve. I was slightly held up by LAND CRAB. COD to BRING-AND-BUY-SALE, which I remember as slightly upmarket of a jumble sale. GALA day, pronounced Gayla, was the highlight of the year in the village where I spent my first days. The prize silver band led the procession, headed by the Queen of the May. One of the floats was pulled by Gee Gee Jack, the milkman’s horse, groomed and decorated. There were donkey rides, on one of which Neddy ran off with five-year-old me clinging on for dear life. And there were running races, where I won a threepenny bit for finishing third. What a day! Back to the puzzle. Enjoyable. Thank you u and setter.
  15. A PB by quite a long way at 22.50, only held up by biffing FAIR at 5d and the beautiful ALEC which was LOI and so COD of course.
    By the way, I am still being told I have been banned from commenting on the journal , but I can still post this. I have noticed on the Club comments people are saying they are banned, perhaps there is a glitch somewhere and they should try posting, it may go through.
    1. Tim, I can confirm you have not been banned from commenting on TfTT as evidenced by the fact that you can do so. It must be a Live Journal glitch.
  16. 9:40. DNK what protean meant, but the wordplay got me to DJINNI. LOI NURSEMAID after toying with LAMP CRAB for a while before I came down to earth. COD to HAVERING. Thanks U and setter.
  17. I would walk 500 miles…. When I HAVER : the only time I’ve ever come across this word, and it’s a different meaning.

    I have visited La Musée Rodin in Paris. The Kiss is an amazing sculpture.

    I didn’t pass ‘O’ level metalwork. 50 years later, I have learned what ANNEALING is.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

  18. 17 minutes, from FOI 1a DJINNI to LOI 18a MANANA. Not quite a p.b., but close, and that’s thanks to our dedicated bloggers like Jimbo, whose entertaining posts helped me out a lot over the last few years.
  19. No real probs here for my second fastest time. I too had the wavering over HAVERING, didn’t fully parse NURSEMAID or bother to work out BRING AND BUY SALE, and also alighted on Eric before ALEC.
  20. 12.05 but a panic stricken extra minute before I finally got manana. FOI bring and buy sale, LOI as already mentioned. Nice non too taxing start to the week allowing me to head off for my walk in the park with a spring in my step.

    Might have struggled with djinni if I hadn’t recalled a previous answer within the last couple of weeks I think. I’ll now consider what my three wishes might be if I had a personal djinni, that should help to fill the time for a nanosecond.

    COD ayatollah but had a passing fancy for alec and throttle as well.

  21. 22m today, after a slow start, indicated by 4d as my FOI. Once on the move, progress was steady until the LOI, AYATOLLAH. Thank you for the entertainment, setter, and commiserations to our blogger on the digital disaster, a common occurance in these parts!
  22. This is the second one in recent times that I’ve managed to solve during (extended) breakfast. I used to just try the Saturday version but for the last year have subscribed, printed and attempted daily. Admittedly it’s a Monday, but definite signs of progress! Thanks to all the bloggers (and commenters).

    Bring and buy sales call to mind Blue Peter charity appeals of my childhood.

    Didn’t know NI (N1) for Islington, but should do since my company has an office there. Not been there for a long time…

  23. I was fixated on Cole Porter for 25a before I realised it was ALEC Guinness being alluded to – quite a clever clue, I thought.

    Didn’t parse NEUROTIC, as U for socially acceptable hasn’t yet embedded itself in my brain and I didn’t see the blue = erotic connection, or AYATOLLAH, for which I required all the checkers.

    Not too tricky otherwise, though I had the same brief hesitation over HAVERING as others and had to think a bit to get away from ‘rag’ as the charity event in 5d.

    FOI Dine
    LOI Ayatollah
    COD Plantation

  24. I’m more familiar with HAVERING as a London Borough. Coincidentally I see that Ealing and Islington also featured today.
  25. Despite being thrown by the “protean” as my mind flipped to promethean, I’ve added to my short list of sub-10 solves today (hurrah! Only one to go and all my top ten will be sub-10!).
    The one which caused me most palpitations was GALA, as the _A_A fill looked infinitely variable, and I expected the young girl to be a SAL or some other abridged woman. Festivals, for all I know, might fill the spaces in any number of ways.
    In my experience, village churches, choral societies and WIs rely on BABS for a sizeable chunk of their income, often recycling the same items multiple times, as in raffles.
    I sympathise on the blogslip: I once almost completed writing up a blog before realising I was on the previous day’s crossword, and had to start from scratch (including solving, of course). At 1.30 in the morning, that’s not funny (except in retrospect, and perhaps to everyone else).
    1. One of the neighbours was banging on the door at 1:30 this morning. Fortunately he didn’t wake me up as I was still up playing my bagpipes.
  26. At 1.30 in the morning, that’s not funny (except in retrospect, and perhaps to everyone else).

    As Mel Brooks said, “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.”

  27. A zippy Monday, enlivened by today’s ear-worm being The Proclaimers, rather than Randy VW, which is fine by me.
  28. Slight hesitations with GALA where I couldn’t (and still can’t) see what “launching” was doing, and ALEC where, like chrislutton, I developed a bit of a Cole Porter fixation.

    Like Tim I always think of The Proclaimers when I see HAVER(ing).

  29. A straightforward Monday, heading for a PB, but ended with a pink square! As had bunged in WAVERING without enough thought; never heard of HAVERING although it parses and mine doesn’t. Doh.There’s always Mañana.
  31. I don’t think I have ever completed a weekday crossword in less than 10 minutes so delighted with 9m (and 16s) today, particularly as I am feeling decidedly under the weather after a CV jab yesterday evening. Happy days.
    1. I don’t know if this was your first or second jab. My first was uneventful but my second hit me like a 2 by 4 about 12 hours later. It passed off in 24 so I hope you have a similar experience.
      1. Thank you. I am sure it will. From talking to friends who have already been vaccinated, I rather think the effects have been underplayed — at least in the “older” age groups. I don’t know anyone who didn’t have noticeable symptoms — some quite debilitating. Better than a ventilator though.
  32. A rather relaxed solve today, which ended with a SAND CRAB which didn’t work. Took rather too long to see the light.
  33. At 7.46 this was my third fastest time ever – and the other 2 were fakes back in 2017. Haven’t looked at the club board but Mohn probably clocked in at under 2. As a devotee of Barbara Pym the B&B SALE was a write-in. Perhaps we’ll get a “sale of work” one of these days. I’ll certainly commiserate with you U on losing your work. Happened to me once with one of the TLS puzzles.

    Edited at 2021-03-01 11:30 am (UTC)

    1. Congratulations on the quick time Olivia. Mohn only managed 3:02, 37 seconds quicker than Verlaine:-)
  34. I got off to a slow start, as the NW resisted my efforts right until the end, apart from INGRID who was my FOI. The CRAB also had to wait until NURSEMAID came along. No problem with the BABS. ALEC didn’t take long and GALA was an early entry. In fact there were no real holdups until I returned to the NW where I finally spotted which end of the clue the definition for NURSEMAID was at and also spotted JUNTA which gave me DJINNI. That just left me squinting at 9a which finally yielded INTRIGUING. That took me to 20:59 which, to my surprise, put me at 106 on the Leaderboard and thus leaves me banished from today’s SNITCH. An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and U, and commiserations on the lost blog!
  35. I was a slow starter on this one and ended up with one error. I went for Janoa. I havered over Junoa. Of course neither were right. All done in 12:12.

    COD: THROTTLE.

    Some zippy times from our group today.

  36. ….than I should have done. Spent too long trying to anagrind “Banbury’s charity”, convinced it was a race, then needed a minute plus change for my LOI to be trawled.

    FOI DJINNI
    LOI INTRIGUING
    COD MANANA
    TIME 8:02

    1. See my post from earlier. Just try posting even though it says you are banned. I’m told I am banned but I can post and Jack has confirmed I am not banned
    2. Tringmardo, I can confirm that you have not been banned from posting on TfTT. Keep trying, or post as Anon and add your user name.
    1. Hi there.

      The ready or currency in Brazil is the “ real”.

      Hope that helps.

      Cheers. Jovan.

  39. 4:33. My third fastest time ever. Sign me up for the havering Proclaimers club.
  40. The rest of the field just flew off and left me for dead. A complete disgrace! Giddy-up Tringmardo!

    FOI 1ac DJINNI

    LOI 25ac ALEC

    COD 8dn ANNEALING

    WOD 5dn BRING AND BUY SALE

  41. I did most of this in 20 minutes but needed at least as long again to finish. Held up mainly by NURSEMAID and INTRIGUING.
    Liked ALEC very much. Thought the maid was an AMAH but correctly ignored that to get the answer.
    Unfortunately I caught a SAND CRAB. Must remember that parsing is important.
    David
  42. I was also on track for a personal best (to beat last Monday’s time of 31 minutes) but I was fixated on finding a word for a German bar which, with V inserted, could become an operatic song. Plumped for biersal becoming bi-versal. Was grumpy that such unusual GK should be inserted into an otherwise straightforward puzzle. Doh! Doh! Doh!
  43. A bit slow today when I see the times posted by those who are usually in my time range. Must have spent a good couple of minutes on my last 2 which were NURSEMAID and LAND CRAB.
  44. I don’t care how easy it was — I finished it, despite my appallingly slow QC. I may even try again tomorrow.
  45. Well, my run of successful completions continues, despite the setter’s foray into London postcodes. I suppose it makes a change from obscure south coast towns… My parsing skills were not up to Neurosis and Ayatollah, but both answers could be bifd with help from the crossers. Loi was 28ac, Mañana, which I mistakenly thought had a ‘y’ in the middle, but nothing else would fit. Invariant

    On edit: Having had a closer look at the solution this morning, I can now see why Neurosis resisted parsing. Neurotic, on the other hand, would have been a doddle.

    Edited at 2021-03-02 11:50 am (UTC)

  46. Crossword girls in West London usually mean Acton Bell so Annealing was a nice change.

    Thank you setter and blogger (though the latter a little harsh on Rodin I thought)

  47. Two sessions to complete this today each of about twenty minutes. Only eight on first pass so marginal as to whether to continue to try to solve. FOI dine. Got stuck so left it for an hour or two, then got going again. LOI Ingrid, without seeing her hiding. Did not parse neurotic either. This was a work-out for me. I’m always pleased to complete the 15 x 15. There isn’t anything especially obscure here but the clueing is clever, and I enjoyed them all. Thanks blogger and setter. GW.
  48. Really a very easy puzzle (actually under 30 minutes), but nevertheless DNF. Having never heard of HAVERING, I was half expecting the pink square, but of course that’s not where it was. When I saw the A and the D in ?A?D CRAB at 18 ac, all I could think of was SAND CRAB, and since “sand” is a light colour I didn’t haver to put it in. Oh dear.
  49. A very disappointing DNF. I raced through this and it would’ve been my second quickest ever solve and only my second ever time under 10 mins but I convinced myself that light in colour could justify sand and so went for a sand crab over a land crab.

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