Times 27,941: Euler? Euler? Anyone?

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Nothing against this puzzle per se but I found it a little bland for a Friday slot: mostly ordinary words straightforwardly enough clued, and quickly enough put to bed. I guess I didn’t know a DYNAMIST was a philosopher or that RAMP could mean a swindle, so those were interesting. COD to 14dn just because I live within a stone’s throw of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory these days. Thanks setter!

ACROSS
1 Puzzle when bird is restricted by farmyard disease (6)
BEMUSE – EMU is “restricted” by BSE

4 Latin maybe is hard — time to go off and flop? (8)
LANGUISH – LANGU{age} IS H

10 Confidence of a revolutionary faced with censure (7)
PANACHE – A CHE, “faced” with PAN

11 Gem that’s very bad being put back in container (7)
PERIDOT – DIRE reversed in POT

12 Cubes of frozen stuff applied to wound ultimately (4)
DICE – ICE applied to {woun}D

13 Get rid of scholar no longer showing benefits of education? (10)
OBLITERATE – O.B. [scholar no longer] + LITERATE

15 OAP wild with anger about hotel accommodation not suitable for his age group (9)
ORPHANAGE – (OAP + ANGER*) “about” H

16 Nameless chum under the influence of drugs? (5)
FRIED – FRIE{n}D

18 Mathematician showing hesitation about principle that’s not right (5)
EULER – ER “about” {r}ULE

19 Decorated garden lad redesigned (9)
GARLANDED – (GARDEN LAD*)

21 Freshly dispatched soldiers needing little time to show bitterness (10)
RESENTMENT – RE-SENT MEN needing T

23 Crop: staple source of sustenance, on reflection (4)
SNIP – PIN S{ustenance} reversed

26 Traveller to ancient city street spanning island (7)
TOURIST – TO UR ST, “spanning” I

27 American football player maybe in old camp (7)
LEAGUER – double def

28 Woman felt the absence of outspoken type of philosopher (8)
DYNAMIST – homophone of DINAH MISSED

29 PM briefly appearing in school to give talk (6)
SPEECH – PEE{l} appearing in SCH

DOWN
1 Man perhaps in gym getting tender on the outside (5)
BIPED – P.E. getting BID on the outside

2 German city with hospital demolished by one friend in local government office? (9)
MUNICIPAL – MUNIC{h} by I PAL

3 Stay to get temperature taken — when one’s this? (4)
SICK – S{t}ICK, semi-&lit

5 Brief very quietly delving into issue (7)
APPRISE – PP into ARISE

6 Accommodation with some beds nearby? (6,4)
GARDEN FLAT – cryptic def

7 I may represent this country (5)
INDIA – double def (I in NATO phonetic alphabet)

8 Impulsive, as Harry and Helen are seen to be? (9)
HOTHEADED – Harry and Helen both begin with H (= hot)

9 Half-hearted cry of derision when meeting snake and rodent (6)
JERBOA – JE{e}R meeting BOA

14 Radioactive element that has “warm nuclei”, roughly (10)
LAWRENCIUM – (WARM NUCLEI*)

15 Excessively admired sweetheart, not the first to get told off (9)
OVERRATED – {l}OVER + RATED

17 Agreement to get tough, hiding depression (9)
INDENTURE – INURE “hiding” DENT

19 Clever trick group conjured up in cells (7)
GAMETES – GAME + reversed SET

20 Upset as a result of row and left half abandoned (6)
RANKLE – RANK [row] + LE{ft}

22 Refuse encouragement, having taken note (5)
SPURN – SPUR having taken N

24 Entrance of some members of top orchestra (5)
PORCH – hidden in {to}P ORCH{estra}

25 Swindle going unchecked puts worker perhaps off (4)
RAMP – RAMP{ant}

66 comments on “Times 27,941: Euler? Euler? Anyone?”

  1. The invisible worm,
    That flies in the night
    In the howling storm:

    After 25 mins pre-brekker, I guessed Dyna and couldn’t be bothered with Leaguer. Surely a DD should have at least one D that is recognisable?
    Four other crosses and no ticks.
    Thanks setter and V.

    3. Not only that, but I’ve never heard a football player called a leaguer (and I pay attention to the sports section). Baseball players sometimes are called Major (or Minor) Leaguers, but baseball is different to football.
      1. They do play in leagues though (at least)? Not that I’m even sure of that…
        1. Actually, they don’t play in leagues, they play in conferences.

          The overarching organization is called the National Football League, but the teams are grouped into conferences (National and American) (with subsections — North, Central, West, etc). The AFL and NFL conference names come because years ago there were separate businesses, National and American Leagues, but they merged. And for the icing, College Football (NCAA) is also organized into “conferences”: Southeast C, Pac-12 C, Southwest C, etc.

          By contrast MLB (Major League Baseball) is organized into two Leagues — also National and American. And as above, pro baseball players are Major Leaguers; pro football players are Pro Football Players.

  2. Crashed and burned after 43m with DINAMIST on the basis that Dyna is not a female name. Like Jack, NHO LEAGUER, LAWRENCIUM (obscurity clued by anagram) or JERBOA. And how does arise mean issue, or rated mean told off? Harumph.
    1. Aha I now see a secondary meaning for RATED that I had never heard of — familiar with berated, but I have never knowingly rated anyone. I still cannot think of a sentence where ARISE could be substituted for ISSUE.

      Edited at 2021-04-02 08:00 am (UTC)

      1. They are both synonymous with ‘originate’. Lexico gives the example ‘the struggles of history issue from the divided heart of humanity’, where I think you could substitute ‘arise’.
  3. That was a struggle. My last two in were LEAGUER and RAMP.
    NHO LEAGUER and agree with myrtilus that surely at least one definition in a DD should be recognisable.
    RAMP really foxed me and got for the wrong reason. NHO the swindle definition and, for want of anything else I took the last two words “perhaps off” as the definition: ‘off RAMP’.
  4. 41 minutes with LOI LEAGUER. I didn’t know either definition and I’ve only found one since. I wasn’t totally sure about RAMP either, so I came here expecting to be wrong. COD to MUNICIPAL, which is more my territory, particularly when used in conjunction with golf course, gardens or bandstand. Nothing dynamist in me! Thank you V and setter.
    1. But your team are dynamist (or dynamic) at the moment, and long may it be so..
      1. Slipped up yesterday though. Watching on iFollow, admittedly not the best view and with 75 year old biased eyes, I couldn’t see anyone offside in the disallowed goal.
  5. 45 minutes with a few guesses along the way to get the unknowns JERBOA, LEAGUER (knew neither the word nor either meaning), GAMETES and DYNAMIST, but I was pleased to remember EULER as he’s on my list of mathematicians thanks to Jimbo. NHO LAWRENCIUM as I assume the news of it had not yet come to Harvard when Tom Lehrer wrote ‘The Elements’, my only source for the lesser-known ones.

    Edited at 2021-04-02 07:53 am (UTC)

    1. I read Physics, but my source for more recent elements is Pointless.
  6. No, actually with RAMP. NHO of the swindle meaning, and was semi-convinced by the off-ramp definition like Martin, otherwise the ‘perhaps’ is superfluous, isn’t it?
    Are peridots common gemstones? Or is it just me finding a lot of them recently?
    28’22”
  7. Sub 40 minutes to get this done
    LAWRENCIUM was the best fun
    But “What’s in a name”?
    I have to exclaim
    Is Dinah a girl? Never met one.
    1. Dinah Shore was a singer in the 50s. Not the sort of singer you’d name your daughter after, I grant you, but. And Tristram Shandy had a great-aunt Dinah (but Truth was his aunt).
      1. Is there anyone finer, in the state of Carolina etc. sung by Fats Waller and just about everyone else you can think of. Also Alice in Wonderland’s cat, though not a girl obviously.
        1. Can’t let a rare mention of Fats Waller pass without saying how much I admire his work. If ever you’re feeling down in the dumps he’s the guy to cheer you up!
      2. Also I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad. ‘Dinah blow your horn… someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah’ etc etc.

        Edited at 2021-04-02 10:47 am (UTC)

    2. 1 A daughter of Jacob and Leah. (biblical character)
      2 A female given name from Hebrew of biblical origin. Alternative form of Dina.
      Andyf
    3. I worked with a Dinah in Seattle once, so can confirm. Maybe more common in Jewish parts?
  8. I think I may have come across RAMP, once, in the distant past, but I wasn’t about to enter it on that basis. And LEAGUER, for heaven’s sake! I vaguely knew the camp meaning–something Tolkien would have used, and fit for a Mephisto–but no American football player has ever been called a LEAGUER. A baseball player, yes, but with ‘National’ or ‘American’ modifying it (or ‘Pacific’ or ‘Central’ in Japan). As the poet says, feh.
  9. Knew LAWRENCIUM from getting all the elements on sporcle.

    EULER went straight in (am available to do a day school on him and his work, low rates).

    Agree re LEAGUER, DYNAMIST, nho.

    We had PERIDOT very recently, and other appearances of CHE.

    COD to LANGUISH.

    14′ 35″, thanks verlaine and setter.

  10. Much the same trouble as others — RAMP and LEAGUER. After taking a break I came back and eventually thought of rampant which enabled me to finish. Before my break I was fairly sure “American football player maybe” was going to be something like “LA striker”. LEAGUER is familiar from “major leaguer” or “little leaguer” but I’ve never heard of the camp.
  11. 47:31
    I though some of the surface readings were a bit clunky. Not the most elegant of puzzles. Apprise is a word that is increasingly mixed up with appraise. It’s up there with restauranteur and criteria as a singular noun, both of which make me see red.
    Thanks v; great blog.
  12. What seems to happen to me at present is that when I have a quick finish, as today in 15.27, I end up with a pink square form what I thought was a correct spelling but which wasn’t, I suppose it should have been obvious that LAWRENTIUNM is spelt with a C – after all, whoever heard of T E Lawrente? And then there was the anagram fodder.
    L?A?U?R looked so unlikely I kept on rechecking the dead cert surroundings. The two definitions are both dodgy, aren’t they? There hasn’t been an American Football League since around 1970 (though I doubt if current players are known as conferencers) and the antique meaning of camp as in lay siege to (presumably beleaguer) is worthy of a(n) MCS
    Tough luck, V: they kept this week’s Monday until today, apparently imagining that one late-on curve ball would compensate.

    Edited at 2021-04-02 08:58 am (UTC)

  13. DNF Had to use wordfinder to get the unknown LEAGUER which lef me to RAMP as LOI. It was all going swimmingly ’til then. I liked EULER best.
  15. Another DNF here. DYNAMIST and LEAGUER a stretch too far. Just like the No 74 bus, you never see PERIDOT for ages then two come along together. EULER dragged up from somewhere and GAMETES took an age. Oh well.

    Thanks V and setter.

  16. Another average crossword (nothing wrong with that) but the LEAGUER/RAMP crossing was unhelpful. I didn’t bother after a quick alphabet trawl.
  17. Leaguer was new to me and I agree it could have been better clued – but then I might have glue ear. One or to others seemed a little weak – Hotheaded, Garden Flat.
    I did like Dynamist and Languish though.

    Thanks to Verlaine and setter.

    1. For a while I had GRANNY FLAT for GARDEN FLAT (beds are vaguely appropriate for grannies). And I had ITALY for 7dn, no excuse perhaps since it’s surely It not I, but this is what happens when every crossword seems to have a couple of CDs, some of which are very weak. Often when you see a clue you think well it could possibly be a CD, and with a CD there’s no way of working it out another way.

      Both these threw me for a while, until the peridot sorted it out.

      Edited at 2021-04-02 10:06 am (UTC)

  18. I started with DICE, smiled at the EMU associated with the farmyard, and constructed the not-a-gerbil from wordplay. DYNAMIST was from wordplay too. LEAGUER went in last from an alphabet trawl, and on a wing and a prayer! The second PERIDOT in a week put paid to a postulated(but not typed in) GRANNY FLAT. 31:24. Thanks setter and V.
  19. Rather similar experience to yesterday’s, some very easy stuff mixed in with some real head-scratchers. I knew RAMP for some reason and saw the parsing (finally) but “game”=clever trick seemed a bit of a stretch. 23.52
  20. 12:56, although my computer died mid-way and I think the timer continued while I looked for my charger, so let’s call it 4 minutes.
    Same experience as others, really. LEAGUER is poor: obviously the setter was stuck with those checkers but it definitely wasn’t the word to clue with a double definition, particularly as one of them seems dodgy.
    The obscure word clued as anagram seems OK to me here: it’s not hard to deduce and clearly the right answer once you have.
    P.S. I enjoyed your heading, v. There is an interpretive theory of the movie that Ferris Bueller doesn’t exist, which actually makes an awful lot of sense.

    Edited at 2021-04-02 10:34 am (UTC)

  21. What is it with me? I rattle off all but 3 clues in record time, and am then left scratching my head for 15 mins. No need to mention which ones, adequately discussed above, although I will say that I missed the homophone indicator for DYNAMIST which left me wondering who DYNA was.
    Setter could have used LANGUOR and SNAP for a more satisfying solution if he really couldn’t come up with a better clue for LEAGUER.
  22. But at least I’m in some good company today. Was pleased to remember peridot from a couple of days ago (before which I’d never heard of it.)
    NHO fried as anything to do with drugs. (Why are there so many references to drugs and drug use in crosswords? It’s most unpleasant.) And why is the chum nameless. Surely the word nameless is redundant.
    Having read the comments, I was pleased to have worked out ramp without having heard that meaning before but compensated by failing to get rankle and indenture which should have been straightforward.
    Even though I studied philosophy (many years ago), I hadn’t heard of a dynamism. Or perhaps I had but have since forgotten. But it was well-clued.
    I agree with many that leaguer was not a reasonable clue.
    Thanks to Verlaine and setter.
    1. How is ‘nameless’ redundant? As our blogger says, chum=friend; friend minus the N (=name, hence nameless)= fried.
      1. Kevin, I still haven’t got used to the workings of LiveJournal so only saw your reply recently. Don’t know if you will ever see this but let me say you are completely right. That clue scrambled my brain (fried it?) until I was talking nonsense.
        Thanks for putting me right.
        Joe
  23. I still think GARDEN SEAT and SKIED are better solutions – pity it doesn’t provide for the ‘chum’ bit

    Edited at 2021-04-02 01:22 pm (UTC)

    1. GARDEN SEAT is close but ‘accommodation’ isn’t really a valid definition. For a homeless person perhaps but not generally. And how can SKIED be a better solution if it doesn’t, as you say, fit the wordplay?!
      1. I had garden room .. and I actually have one of those. Got there in the end but the clue is flawed for that reason.
        1. That certainly fits the definition, so I can understand the frustration. But generally I think ambiguity that can be resolved from checkers is fine. All in the game.
  24. ….but luckily I didn’t need too long to see it off.

    Where BW uses “Pointless” I tend to the more cerebral “University Challenge”, and EULER crops up fairly frequently. RAMP is an old chestnut which I haven’t seen since the ’90’s. NHO LAWRENCIUM, LEAGUER, DYNAMIST, or this usage of FRIED.

    FOI PANACHE
    LOI DYNAMIST
    COD HOTHEADED
    TIME 10:31

  25. I got most of this but included a garden seat and invented peridan.
    I didn’t get RAMP but remember clearly the bad practice of ramping shares on a new issue; and I think the noun Ramp fits with that.
    Apologies if that’s repeating a previous comment.
    David
  26. 68.13. Oh dear! A regulation solve but frustratingly hung up at the end on the ramp / leaguer crossers. I knew I needed to take ant off the end of something like flippant but the word wouldn’t come to mind and the clue for leaguer wasn’t giving me anything, I could only see languor or lacquer despite numerous fruitless alphabet trawls. Eventually ramp came to me and with those checkers I took a punt on leaguer. Also had fingers crossed for the unknown dynamist as a philosopher.
  27. Gave up after 40 minutes , totally defeated by leaguer and ramp. Even after reading the blog. I still didn’t understand either. NHO of leaguer as another word for a camp nor swindle as a ramp.

    Never mind , maybe I’ll recognise them next time.

  28. All good, as V says a bit bland for a Friday, except for LEAGUER which was unknown and meant nothing to me (and still does). Spoilt a quite reasonable puzzle.
    2. So, does the (well-known-ish) word BELEAGUER actually mean “encircle with camps”?
  29. No problem with ramp (Heyer), but I did not like garden room/flat or the americanism leagure ..
    Curate’s egg, this one, but it was nice to see Euler and lawrencium

    Edited at 2021-04-02 04:51 pm (UTC)

  30. I suspect I am not alone in being a solver who avoids barred crosswords because I do not enjoy having to deduce obscure words and then having to look them up to see if they exist. I am disappointed when they appear in the times classic and they seem to have started appearing regularly on thurdays. Like last week, one of them was an anagram although on this occasion it was at least deductible on the grounds of probability. Tony
    1. I do the Friday crossword on Thursday evening due to timezones so I’m with you, Tony!
      2. Now that I have moved to New Zealand, it feels like I’m doing it on Wednesday!
  32. FOI Dice. Thank goodness there were a few write-ins in this one because there was quite a bit to do after them. I managed most of this very slowly, lightbulb moment by lightbulb moment, but was defeated by ramp and snip. Someone on the blog mentioned Euler recently, otherwise I would not have got that either. I biffed hotheaded and still don’t like it much, overrated ditto. There was stuff to like, though. But not leaguer. COD municipal. Satisfied to get so close to finishing, then closing the deal with the help of the grid checker. Moneys worth today, took me an age. Thanks, V, and setter. GW.
  33. Deducing an obscure “type of philosopher” from a homophone of an equally obscure girl’s name is a tad unreasonable isn’t it? And I’m glad to learn that leaguer means camp (because “beleaguer” now makes sense) but I share the general sentiment about the clue. Hmmm.

Comments are closed.