Times 27937 – Never work with children or stuffed animals from Sheppey

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A sprinkling of unusual vocab gives this classically-flavoured offering a tad more bite than your average Monday offering. I came home in 25:39, but expect quicker times from the usual suspects.

ACROSS

1 Unbalanced leader of intimidating gang? (3-5)
TOP-HEAVY – well, if you were the Al Capone of your local bunch of hoodlums, one of your underlings might call you the ‘top heavy’. In many places, they just call you ‘President.’
5 State in revolt is Washington (6)
TISWAS – hidden in [revol]T IS WAS[hington]; tiswas is a marvellous word describing the right old state someone like Frank Spencer was always getting himself into
8 Woman turning out first of numerous stories (3)
ANA – N (initial letter of N[umerous]) removed from ANNA (first of our three random females) to give ANA (‘a collection of reminiscences, sketches, etc, of or about a person or place’). Interestingly, the word seems to be an 18th century back-formation from the suffix-like -ANA, as seen in Elizabethiana and (later) Victoriana.
9 Fussy girl with retired agent taking in film (10)
PERNICKETY – ET (film) in NICKY (random girl) on REP reversed
10 Element identified by Italian fellow endlessly in news (8)
NITROGEN – IT ROGE[r] (random fellow) in NN (news – two lots of N for ‘new’)
11 Bird so hard to draw in river (6)
THRUSH – R (river) in THUS (so) H (hard)
12 Relative’s husband leaving frequently visited place (4)
AUNT – [h]AUNT
14 Key explorer smiles broadly, supporting members (10)
CROSSBEAMS – C (musical key) ROSS (the fellow after whom Ross Island and Ross Sea is name – British explorer of the mid-nineteenth century) BEAMS (smiles)
17 Untidy soldier with dry bananas (10)
DISORDERLY – anagram* of SOLDIER DRY
20 Wickedness engulfing old Swiss town (4)
SION – O in SIN
23 Type of hound a devotee keeps in Grand Hotel (6)
AFGHAN – G (grand) H (hotel) in A FAN (devotee)
24 See about bed father gets without charge (4-4)
SCOT-FREE – COT (bed) FR (father) in SEE
25 A pine prop somewhere on the coast? (10)
ALONGSHORE – A LONG SHORE (as in to shore up defences); playing the Dictionary Game as a family – yes, very Bloomsbury – my brother once chose this word (with the definition ‘along the shore’) and none of us guessed it as the correct definition
26 Unidentified person on telephone, a West Country banker (3)
EXE – sounds like X; also a river in Devon after which Exeter is named
27 Chaste person of virtue tucking into meat (6)
VESTAL – ST (person of virtue) in VEAL
28 Bitterness of a professional lacking in good fortune (8)
ASPERITY – A [pro]SPERITY

DOWN

1 What the music director may do for old citizen soldiers? (9)
TRAINBAND – a music director might coach an orchestral group, while a TRAINBAND was a 17th century militia-with-a-musket exported from England to the USA, where it was given a semi-automatic and the second amendment…
2 Carriage papa originally had at college (7)
PHAETON – P (P in Nato-speak) H A (initial letters of H[ad] and A[t]) ETON
3 Use ultimately effective ruse to frame Mike (6)
EMPLOY – M (Mike in Nato-speak) in [effectiv]E PLOY (ruse)
4 Bones Uhle finally found buried in green hill (9)
VERTEBRAE – [uhl]E in VERT (heraldic green) BRAE (Scottish hill); Max Uhle was a German archaeologist celebrated for his spadework in South America, including Machu Picchu
5 Old historian’s account embodied in biblical book (7)
TACITUS – AC in TITUS; Titus was one of Paul of Tarsus’s mates, along with Erastus of this parish
6 Female eagle looking down on ship in port (9)
SHEERNESS – SHE ERNE on SS; Sheerness is a port on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. It is also the birthplace of Rod Hull (not to be confused with Roy Hudd)
7 Capone’s problem, concealing Yankee’s bloomer? (7)
ALYSSUM – Y (Yankee in Nato-lingo) in ALS SUM
13 Signal impatience: throw out a parasitical plant (9)
TOOTHWORT – TOOT (signal impatience if, say, on a motorbike) THROW*
15 Lewd woman upset about evidence of debts (9)
SALACIOUS – SAL (random woman) CA (circa – ‘about’) reversed IOUS (evidence of debts)
16 Function involving clubs supported by bank — honestly (9)
SINCERELY – C (club) in SINE (function) on RELY (bank)
18 Enrage trendy partner (7)
INFLAME – IN (trendy) FLAME (as in significant other); variant spelling of ‘enflame’
19 Party girl with quarters in the Lifford area (7)
DONEGAL – NE (quarters) in DO (party) GAL (girl); Lifford is county town of Donegal
21 Middle-Easterner lives with painter and priest (7)
ISRAELI – IS (lives) RA (painter) ELI (Samuel’s mentor – our faithful old priest)
22 Article about the eastern goddess of wisdom (6)
ATHENE – THE (the) in AN (article) E (eastern)

53 comments on “Times 27937 – Never work with children or stuffed animals from Sheppey”

  1. I would have finished a couple of minutes sooner if I’d ever heard of TISWAS, but I dithered, trying to see if there was some other way to solve, and wondering to the last, including now, what ‘state’ has to do with it. Your explanation, U, is at ANA, which is not explicated. (Also, do you mean Max Uhle?) Also DNK Lifford, or TOOTHWORT, not that it mattered.
      1. Actually, you’ve got M=M when you mean M (Mike in …).
        Also, how does ‘state’ clue TISWAS?
        1. A state of nervous agitation or confusion.

          ‘State’ on its own also serves, as in ‘getting oneself in a state’.

          Edited at 2021-03-29 04:17 am (UTC)

          1. Ah. My problem was that, as I said, I’d never heard of TISWAS. When I looked it up, all I saw were references to the children’s TV show; hence my puzzlement.
  2. 8A could just as easily have been AGA, a female name, “after turning out” first of SAGA, “numerous stories”? Otherwise straight forward Monday fare.
    1. I see your point, but saga is, in common use, at any rate, typically a story consisting of many episodes, and Aga is among the least common woman’s names, especially in the English speaking world.
  3. 29 minutes, but several unknowns or forgottens were arrived at via wordplay alone. TRAINBAND, SION (as a Swiss place name), TOOTHWORT. DONEGAL went in because it fitted as I never heard of Lifford.

    TISWAS was picked up as a suitable title for a very popular children’s TV programme through the 1970’s and into the 1980’s which was then reverse-engineered into an acronym standing for ‘Today Is Saturday: Watch And Smile’.

    Edited at 2021-03-29 04:29 am (UTC)

  4. I was a tad bemused by my FOI, TISWAS, being a 1980s kids’ TV programme rather than an actual word. Whatever next? Flumps? I was delayed finishing by a confident PERNICKITY. It had seemed to parse perfectly, having taken the film to be the movie version of the Stephen King novel ‘It’. Then I remembered there is only one two letter film in crosswordland and was able to correct my error and finish up with SHEERNESS.
  5. …Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat?

    25 mins pre-brekker, held up by the unknowns: Trainband, Toothwort.
    One tick so COD to Top-heavy.
    Thanks setter and U.

    1. You surprise me by not knowing TRAINBAND.

      “John Gilpin was a citizen of credit and renown,
      A TRAINBAND captain eke was he…..”.

  6. 18 minutes with LOI the unknown TRAINBAND. COD to TOP-HEAVY. I’d no idea who UHLE was apart from a furnisher of an E in VERTEBRAE. I did use TISWAS as an expression well before Chris Tarrant and Sally James. I think I’ve been misspelling PERNICKETY all my life though, with an i for the second e, until SHEERNESS put me right today. Nice Monday puzzle. Thank you U and setter.
    1. Sally James was the Dictionary Corner guest on my “Countdown” debut in 1991. A lovely lady, she was exhausted when recording finished. It was the last of 7 shows recorded that day, and she was 8 months pregnant.
  7. Nice puzzle and thank you Ulaca for explaining clues such as NITROGEN where I thought ‘news’ might be GEN.
    I also didn’t separate ‘Key’ and ‘Explorer’. Thought Cross might have been someone who explored the various Keys in and around the Caribbean.
    FOI: TISWAS
    LOI a combination of TRAINBAND, ANA and PHAETON.
    With the last named I thought ‘at college’ migh indicate ‘up’.
    Got there in the end, though.
  8. I Gave Up And Nodded Awf!

    FOI & WOD 9ac PERNICKETY

    (LOI) 2dn PHAETON

    COD 13dn TOOTHWORT

    NHO of 1dn TRAINBAND

    TISWAS was wonderful! Rather different to SESAME STREET with Spit the Dog et al. 5ac was horrid!

    Edited at 2021-03-29 07:39 am (UTC)

  9. 43m and held up for long enough after entering HOMEGUARD for 1d, which fitted the A*D I had at the end and the definition, but of course not the cryptic (perhaps ‘musical director’ might be some kind of house alarm I’ve never heard of, I mused). This made the north-west uncrackable of course until I stumbled over NITROGEN and reconsidered Id again. Entertaining puzzle and blog, so thank you, setter and U.
  10. When I were a lad, we spelled TISWAS with a Z (if we spelled it at all) out of deference to the tizzies we got ourselves into.
    Today I got myself into one because of a FFT (fat finger typo), wrecking my 14.24, which I thought was quite good considering the various assumptions I made on the way, like TOOTHWORT is a thing (looked quite likely). I wasn’t aware that Sion had been moved from north of Bethlehem to somewhere in Switzerland, or where Lifford was to begin with. I’m pretty certain I knew ALONGSHORE without its A, often with a man on the end.
    So yes, a lot of trust the wordplay and hope for the best.
    Cheersome blog U, for which many thanks.
  11. “Another bird!” he mildly cussed
    Was an avian really “a must”?
    Can we ask the setter
    Could you see nothing better
    Like the nice rockety word “thrust”?
  12. 9:53. Interesting puzzle with some unusual vocabulary. NHO TOOTHWORT, ALYSSUM or Lifford.
    I was never allowed to watch TV on Saturday mornings when I was a kid so missed out on TISWAS and Swap Shop.
    2. was strictly banned in my childhood home, as was almost all of ITV’s output. Swapshop was tolerated at best.
  13. 12:37 DNK TRAINBAND or Lifford and failed to parse ASPERITY. LOI TOOTHWORT (which I hadn’t heard of either). Furthermore, I only knew TISWAS as the name of a children’s programme… As vinyl says, Sometimes you just have to trust to the cryptics to make up for lack of required ‘general knowledge’ and vocabulary.
  15. …for this so I found it quite tricky. The last four in, TRAINBAND,(NHO), ASPERITY, NITROGEN and ALONGSHORE all held me up. Not helped by having ATHENA at 22d. TOOTHWORT only worked out from cryptic and I never did parse THRUSH. Feeling rather despondent. Thanks U and setter.
  16. Enjoyable this, not too easy, not too hard.
    Thank you, kind setter, for the geography lesson .. I assume you must be RR, given 19dn?
    Never knew Boney M were singing about a Swiss town in “Rivers of Babylon”..
  17. Rather held up at the end due to the biffed ATHENA instead of ATHENE. tbh my classical knowledge isn’t sufficient to know the difference. Once that was in, I got ASPERITY, but had to come here to get the cryptic.
    Earlier TRAINBAND seemed unlikely, but had to be right. Always used TISWAS as being ‘in a tiswas’ about something. You Americans should take it up, very useful.
  18. Perversely and inexcusably biffed WYE on sight for EXE and lingered on TISWAS longer than it deserved, but got there in the end. 23m.
  19. Interesting vocabulary, as already noted, with the result that I had to make educated guesses at the plants, but obviously successful ones. As always, the classics helped elsewhere. Pleasing and slightly tougher than the average Monday.

    A personal aside – some of you have been kind enough to affect an interest in my quizzing escapades in the past; if that means you, may I draw your attention to tonight’s final first-round heat of Mastermind, where some bearded fool is answering questions on The Films of the Coen Brothers. Here ends today’s self-promotion…

    2. Well played TT. I thought your GK questions were the hardest of the lot but you bossed it. Did the girl who came last think she’d applied for Tipping Point or summat?
    3. As Penfold says, you had the trickiest set of General Knowledge questions. I always play along at home, and only scored 9 on your set, as opposed to 10, 11, and 13 against the other three contestants. I didn’t get through the audition stage for the second year running, and it’s frustrating to see that the young woman who performed so lamentably obviously did ! I appeared way back in 2004, and I’d love another crack at it.
      1. The audition process for quiz shows is often a mystery to everyone involved, isn’t it*. Hope you get back in the chair – most other conestants who I spoke to were keen to have another crack, though possibly not everyone from last night…that was quite tough to watch, as I think at the time I was a bit wrapped up in my own thoughts and didn’t really pay attention to the other perfromances, apart from having a very good idea of how many I needed to win of course 🙂

        *I was listening to a talk with the finalists from Only Connect last night, and one team had been trying to get on since Series 3, I think, and made it at the eighth time of asking!

  20. EMPLOY, then PHAETON were my first 2 in. TOP-HEAVY took longer to see, but eventually led to a bit of backbone. A biffed PARTICULAR held up the NE for ages until ALYSSUM caused me to rethink. I was reluctant to stop trying to grin about 14a, but finally changed key and beamed instead. DISORDERLY SION was a big help in arriving at port and deducing the parasite. Took a while to see past acerbity but SALACIOUS put the kibosh on that thought. ASPERITY was my LOI after TRAINBAND and ANA. I got off SCOT-FREE from pink squares in 29:29. Thanks setter and U.
  21. Got into a minor TISWAS in the top right, thinking PERNICKETY but not quite twigging how it worked, before thinking INVERNESS for the port and consequently rubbing out PERNICKETY. Eventually the port penny dropped…

    Never heard of SION and completely failed to parse TOOTHWORT so relied entirely on checkers and bashed it in.

  22. Pleased to have worked out the previously unknown Alyssum and Toothwort then mistyped Salacious. Still, the sun is shining, the birds are singing…
  23. I believe they were an invention of the Stuart kings and were meant to be sort of what the National Guard is in the US but they deteriorated into more of a militia rabble and Charles II got rid of them. Like Z I only knew the biblical SION. Hadn’t heard TISWAS in decades and also like Z I felt it needed a Z or two. I got it mixed up with a V.S. Naipaul character but that’s Mr. Biswas. Harder than it looked this one. 16.37 P.S. I’d meant to say that PERNICKETY usually has an S in it (persnickety), in the NY area anyway, so that held me up briefly.

    Edited at 2021-03-29 11:06 am (UTC)

    1. Persnickety has the S all across the US to my knowledge, Olivia. That, Donegal, and Tiswas were real North American traps today.
  24. Relied on the wordplay for TISWAS, ALYSSUM and TOOTHWORT. Completely misunderstood ANA, thinking it was (r)ANA with ‘rana’ as a collection of possibly Hindu texts… still, no harm done I suppose.

    NITROGEN took a long time to come – ‘news’ giving two Ns has never quite lodged itself in my brain. That slowed down TRAINBAND, which I had also never heard of.

    FOI Sion
    LOI Trainband
    COD Top-heavy

  25. for a Monday, but the DNKs/NHOs were generously clued. When I pressed “done” I found I had spelled the port SHEARNESS and got a pink square, so DNF in 20:56.

    I’m unsure whether it was a typo or a brief mental confusion of ARNE and ERNE, both being relatively common devices, though with one being a composer, and the other a bird, I’m not really sure how the confusion could arise. Let’s just put it down to carelessness!

    LOI was TISWAS – I spotted the hidden, thought it a coincidence, left it until the end, saw the checkers and put it in with a shrug.

  26. ….to not parse “c-ross”, thinking that Cross was someone active in early Florida.

    I always tell novice solvers that if they parse the clue, even a NHO will emerge, and that was the case with ALONGSHORE, TOOTHWORT, DONEGAL (I didn’t know Lifford), and Uhle. I only parsed PERNICKETY afterwards. ALLYSUM and TRAINBAND were known.

    Tricky enough for a Monday.

    FOI AUNT
    LOI NITROGEN
    COD TOP-HEAVY (goes wonderfully with SALACIOUS)
    TIME 7:44

  28. Well done TT, I’m sure at one point your blink rate exceeded the Hz on my telly, you’re a better man than I an Gunga Din! Look forward to seeing you again!
  29. So sorry Tim – BBC wouldn’t let me watch. Were you bearded guy on right or left (from audience POV)?
    1. I am the one on the right (the one who didn’t take the opportunity to dress up for TV…)
  30. I had X on “EE”, where EE is a large mobile telephone operator for “Unidentified person on telephone”. Worked for me.
  31. I did think the Lifford reference would be a bit obscure for some, but since Lifford, Donegal is my postal address it didn’t bother me one little bit.
    I’ll mention in passing that one of The Times crossword editorial team (no names!) is a personal friend of mine…….

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