Times 27,947: Don’t Put Your Blogger On The Stage, Madame Guillotine

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A great Friday treat for us this week, with COD-worthy clues aplenty. I was very impressed indeed with the setter’s discovery of WW2 inside newswriting, with “how un-English!” (like not going out in the midday sun), the brilliant cryptic reimaginings of some very long words/phrases at 5dn and 9dn… so much to enjoy all told, so thanks muchly, your settership! I coulda got away with sorting all this out inside of 10 minutes if it hadn’t been for 6dn, where I stared blankly at T_O_I_S thinking about Trots and indeed Thomists for an embarrassingly long time before the in-no-way-Numenorean penny finally dropped.

Is anyone here doing the New York Times crossword competition (online this year) in a couple of weeks? If their servers can handle it, it could be a lot of fun, in a “slumming it” kind of way…

ACROSS
1 Minute spinner played best (6)
RECORD – triple def: if you record a meeting you “minute” it, a spinner that you play is a vinyl record, and your personal best is your personal record

4 They boast they’ve at last achieved firsts (8)
EGOTISTS – {they’v}E GOT 1STS

10 Conflict appearing regularly at the heart of newswriting in capitals? (5,3,3)
WORLD WAR TWO – {ne}W{s}W{r}I{t}I{ng}, expanded from WWII in the standard way

11 Victorian perhaps linked with books primarily (3)
BOZ – OZ [= Australian = Victorian, perhaps] linked with B{ooks}; &lit, as Boz was Charles Dickens (as in “Sketches By”)

12 Dracula, perhaps, put on a cape, one in red or black? (7)
ACCOUNT – COUNT (Dracula) put on A C. A bank account can be in the red or in the black

14 Flash Police Sergeant displaying muscle (7)
TRICEPS – TRICE P.S. First one in, partly because “triceps kickbacks” are the only yoga sculpt exercise I can actually do without vociferous complaint

15 Date with old female I persuade to make a special effort (2,3,2,4,3)
GO OUT OF ONES WAY – GO OUT [date] + O F ONE SWAY

17 Coward’s work in November storm, throwing wobbly (3,11)
MRS WORTHINGTON – (N STORM THROWING*). Don’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington!

21 Plant agents to catch one up early (7)
CLARKIA – CIA to “catch” LARK [up with whom an early riser proverbially is]

22 Impossible to find who’s originally featured in drama once before (7)
NOWHERE – W{ho} is “featured in” NOH ERE

23 In which to be either bored or excited? (3)
RUT – cryptic def, depending on whether your rut is sexual or not

24 Show how un-English is honest criticism (4,7)
FAIR COMMENT – FAIR [show] + COMMENT [how, un-English: i.e. French]

26 Sticky substance is green, with something served as starter (8)
BIRDLIME – LIME [green] with BIRD [= jail time = something served] starting

27 Tin, about to be returned, containing yellow kipper we hear (6)
SNORER – SN [tin] + reversed RE, “containing” OR. “We hear” not a homophone indicator for once, this is actually a sleeper that we can hear

DOWN
1 Be disputatious and pushy, displaying some craft (3,5)
ROW BARGE – if you ROW (to rhyme with cow) and BARGE you are being disputatious and pushy

2 Trouble when overlooking the fourth estate? (3)
CAR – CAR{e}

3 Defence in question again (7)
REDOUBT – or to DOUBT is to question, to RE-DOUBT to question again

5 Equip exhibition centre with computers, block finally to be carpeted (3,2,2,3,4)
GET IT IN THE NECK – GET I.T. IN THE N.E.C., plus {bloc}K

6 Revolutionary nature film’s set in Middle-earth (7)
TROPICS – reversed SORT [nature] with PIC [film] set in it. The tropics are equatorially located

7 Make bears, maybe, behave like hawks? (5-6)
SABRE-RATTLE – reverse cryptic – if you “rattle” SABRE you end up with BEARS

8 Picking on the large model, unknown one’s brought in (6)
SIZIST – SIT [model], Z I’S “brought in”.

9 Writing in Express, a top football official’s taken up religion (14)
RASTAFARIANISM – reverse all of MS IN AIR [writing | in | express] + F.A. TSAR [a top football official]

13 A musical director, I’m involved with orchestra (11)
CHOIRMASTER – (I’M ORCHESTRA*)

16 One maybe giving drug in city to junior nurses (8)
INJECTOR – IN, + EC TO “nursed” by JR

18 Restless auk flew erratically (7)
WAKEFUL – (AUK FLEW*)

19 Journalist’s cardinal sin cancelling home visits (7)
NEWSMAN – (Cardinal) NEWMAN “visited” by S{in}, having cancelled its IN [home]

20 Sacred creature, originally Egyptian? (6)
SCARAB – S{acred} C{reature} + ARAB [Egyptian?], &lit

25 Repairs, on and off, getting attention (3)
EAR – {r}E{p}A{i}R{s}

78 comments on “Times 27,947: Don’t Put Your Blogger On The Stage, Madame Guillotine”

  1. I started awfully slow–FOI REDOUBT, yet–but then I continued slowly, often tempted to throw in the towel. Biffed RASTAFARIANISM, never parsed it (and never would have come up with FA TSAR). Biffed MRS W, which I don’t think I knew. Inexcusably slow to see SABRE-RATTLING (couldn’t remember SABRE for the longest time, only thought of SPEAR and SWORD) TRICEPS and CAR (LOI!). I especially liked WWII and FAIR COMMENT. All in all, a terrific puzzle, which I failed to do justice to.

    Edited at 2021-04-09 05:35 am (UTC)

  2. I was pretty happy to have finished this one in just under an hour, with the exception of the LARK in CLARKIA, which I just could not see. My wife came over and saw it almost immediately, 12 minutes later, but of course I had already looked up many possibilities by that point, so I can’t fairly say I was able to finish.

    I managed to finish because I was able to biff some answers like RASTAFARIANISM off the F alone, but by the time I’d finished there were many I just could not parse, like that one, TROPICS (which I’d parsed as a reversal of ORT + PIC’S), FAIR COMMENT, and RUT, to be precise. So very grateful to V, and nice to end the week with good exercise!

  3. Doesn’t Oz = Australia, not Australian? That’s my excuse for not parsing 11ac anyway.
    1. That’s what I thought when I parsed it, but ODE has it as both an adjective (Australian) and a noun (Australia; a person from Australia). I didn’t expect the ‘person’ meaning either.
      1. Ah right thanks. That definition’s missing from my dictionary

        Perhaps it works as a nickname for a single Australian: “Hey Oz” “There goes Oz, he’s from Oz”. But I can’t see it working if there’s more than one of them: “We’re receiving reports of a wild gang of…” what? ozes? ozzes? Surely it’s ozzies dammit

        1. Ozzies? Never! Only Aussies!
          Ozzie is a person named Oswald? Ozzie Newsome, Ozzie Clarke.
          As one of them I’d only ever use Oz to mean the country.
          1. Agreed , it doesn’t work. A Victorian might be a cabbage patcher or a gum sucker ( though neither fits well in the grid), as a West Australian is a sandgroper and a South Australian a crow-eater
            1. I think it can work as an adjective in the same way as you might use UK.

              Oz beaches, Oz cricket grounds, Oz beers…

  4. Half and half, brilliant and trying too hard? Three or four outright guesses for unknowns: clarkia, row barge, comment, birdlime, Mrs W. A few clues way over the top with 5 or 6 cryptic elements. Scarab was brilliant, rut was neat, less enthused with the WWII clue, loved the “kipper we hear”. Pleasingly tricky, very little was a write-in.
  5. That was a struggle. I had ROW BARGE for ages but since I’d never heard of it I wasn’t convinced. Plus “some craft” hints at the plural. RECORD fooled me for a time, as triple definitions often do, since I was looking for Mxxx for too long, and not convinved the R of ROW BARGE was correct.

    Both BOZ and RASTAFARIANISM were very clever.

  6. The lockdown must be taking its effect because all the time whilst solving I was thinking to myself how hard this was for a Thursday puzzle, and how much more difficult can Friday’s be?

    Anyway I got through it eventually in almost exactly one hour. My only unknown words were CLARKIA and ROW BARGE, but I was surprised also to learn that PS stands for Police Sergeant which came as something of a revelation at my advanced age after decades and decades of reading detective fiction and watching cop dramas on film and TV. I’d swear I’ve never come across it whereas DS for Detective Sergeant, the plain-clothes equivalent, is used constantly.

    Delighted to see MRS WORTHINGTON. Here’s a link if anyone wants to hear the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7ay6E345e0

    Edited at 2021-04-09 04:23 am (UTC)

    1. Thanks for the link, but “blocked in your country on copyright grounds”; but I found Julie Andrews, and I can verify that I didn’t know the song.
      1. Thanks. Crazy, somebody enforcing copyright on a recording made 98 years ago!
        1. Particularly as there isn’t any copyright to enforce on a recording made 98 years ago!

          Edited at 2021-04-09 06:55 am (UTC)

  7. I was on the wavelength for the second day in a row to complete a rare clean week’s solving, and I found lots to like along the way. SNORER was probably the pick of the bunch for me for the way that it so blatantly suggested a homophone when one wasn’t required. Honourable mention to TRICEPS for the quality of the surface.
  8. …And the struggle’s pretty tough
    And admitting the fact
    She’s burning to act
    That isn’t quite enough

    25 mins plus another 5 to guess Birdlime and justify Row Barge. I then googled Row Barge, which seems to be the name of lots of pubs. Those were the days.
    Mostly I liked Snorer.
    Thanks setter and V.

  9. As you know of course, the word ‘biff’ is derived from ‘bunged in from definition’ (BIFD). I’ve observed though that people now often say ‘I didn’t know such and such a word but I biffed it’ which is of course impossible based on this definition.
    This is such a shame: there are perfectly good words to describe bunging something in from the checkers, we are losing a valuable linguistic distinction and therefore precision in our language, young people just don’t know how to speak properly any more, the country’s going to the dogs etc etc…
    1. I’ve often thought of raising this point myself, conscious that I’ve been guilty of using ‘biff’ loosely, and wondering how many of us are similarly guilty. (I use ‘guilty’ loosely, too, of course, as, as you will be the first (second, after me) to acknowledge, language changes etc etc.) And I had the definitions: “religion”, “Coward’s work”. And at least I know how to pronounce “February”.
      1. Or ROCked (relied on checkers).

        “most of the parsings eluded me so I biffed and rocked my way through the puzzle”

    3. Yes. I’m guilty as charged. Worse still, I suspected that I was in the wrong, guvnor.
      In future, do we have to write “It was a biff” or can we write “It was biffed”?
      Biff no longer acceptable as a verb?
    4. Mea culpa. I’ve committed the same cardinal error. I think my log should have been guessed rather than biffed.
    5. Notwithstanding its original derivation, I choose to read “biff” as “bung it first”, i.e. write it in lightly from the defintion or wordplay while I work out the rest of the clue, and if there is anything still written in lightly when I eventually give up it is, for me, a “did not finish”.

      Edited at 2021-04-10 03:05 pm (UTC)

  10. 15:26, but with SEXISM. I thought SIM=simulation=model was a bit loose. Damn.
    Very annoying because this was a really top-notch puzzle. Thank you setter and v.
    1. I’m crying foul on that one, because in a puzzle of this complexity SIM=model is loose maybe, but definitely possible. One of those where if you think SEXISM first, which arguably fits the definition marginally better, you don’t go back to see if something else is possible. VAR?
      1. I saw both SEXISM and SEXIST were possible before I’d parsed. I then saw that SIT worked and gave it no further thought. I now feel lucky to have thought of that rather than SIM.
    2. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to think of SIM = model (vaguely related to once having played The Sims, I suspect). I thought SIZISM was dubious, but was so pleased to have nearly finished by that point that I just chucked it in. If only I had thought a bit harder (but that’s what they all say).
    3. I outdid you by putting in ‘sizism’, which is pure dumb.

      Enjoyed my 70 minutes of travail, though, due to my masochistic gene.

      On edit: Ah, I see now (I think) that you put in ‘sizism’ (not ‘sexism’) for a good reason. Unlike me, who thought it odd but didn’t go back to it.

      Edited at 2021-04-09 10:24 am (UTC)

      1. Ah yes, seems keriothe has us all believing we put in a completely different answer 😂
      2. Ha yes of course, it was SIZISM. I did put in SEXISM initially but realised that didn’t parse at all.
        I’m not sure about SIM for ‘model’. In the usual dictionaries it’s only given as a word for the computer game, so we’re reliant on Chambers for the abbreviation of ‘simulation’. And model=simulation is, as I said, a bit loose.
        In conclusion, hmm.
        1. same reasoning for me , giving SIZISM as a better answer than SIZIST, which would be ‘one who picks on the large’ rather than the anti-Bunterism itself. Sim as a model , as in a computer flight-sim works for me.
          1. SIZIST can also be an adjective, so I would argue that it’s a better answer, since I do think model=SIM is loose at best. However the question is not which answer is better, it’s whether both are valid. I’m not sure.
        2. I put in SIZISM too, thinking SIM, and feel a bit silly. SIT is to my mind more than marginally better. It’s a shame, because this was my one mistake. This very entertaining puzzle hung me up for a while, and this one was maybe my LOI, even. I had other puzzles by that time to move on to.
      1. I was another Sizism, and with the same logic of parts of speech plus model = sim(ulation). I agree Sizist is better, as model = sit is certainly neater, but I might argue both work — and given how seldom I finish a Friday 15×15, I shall call this one Umpire’s Call I think. Which given that in this case I am the Umpire …

        Cedric

  11. Very enjoyable crossword with some clever clues. WW11 doesn’t quite work for me. I feel the setter just couldn’t let the idea go once they had thought of it … abit like ICEBERGS a few weeks ago.
  12. 25.48 with one apparent error which shouldn’t be: like keriothe, I had SEXISM at 8, which I think works perfectly well.
    WWII is way too clever (code for I couldn’t see the wordplay)
    BIRDLIME is wrong. You don’t serve bird, you do it. You serve time, or your sentence. It’s all very well the setter putting a question mark at the end, but there is a limit to what that excuses.
    ROW BARGE is down in Chambers as (hist), not so here. Grudgingly okayed by me, but a bit too Mephisto for the daily.
    RASTAFARIANISM is terribly clever: I biffed it from just the F, and then spent a good few minutes reverse engineering the wordplay.
    I think I would have accepted that this is one of the better challenging puzzles, but my pink square has spoiled it for me and left me feeling grumpy.
    2. Bird can also refer to the shuttlecock in badminton, which is served. That’s how I parsed it before seeing the alternative
      1. I was not aware the badmintonistas referred to the shuttlecock as a bird. Do they? Do they say “serve the bird?”
        1. I learned this the hard way when in a game of doubles my partner told me to give our opponents the bird.
  13. Ten across, (WORLD WAR TWO)
    Was really a very fine clue
    The grid took me a while
    And this could make you smile
    I thought BIRDLIME might be bird poo
  14. A belated tribute to a great Wanderer. 48 minutes solved either side of the dog walk with LOI SNORER. I thought it would be RASTAFARIAN on the first run through, expecting the FA to be in there somewhere, but I had to come here to have it parsed. Lots of great clues but COD to FAIR COMMENT. Terrific but tough puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
  15. DNF I thought I was doing OK with this after 15 minutes but then got stuck and ended up using a wordfinder for TROPICS to break into the tricky NW corner and finish in 36:46. I loved WORLD WAR TWO when I saw how it worked… and several others. Thanks V and setter.

    Edited at 2021-04-09 08:06 am (UTC)

  16. Technically a DNF as I just couldn’t see the BIRD bit of BIRDLIME, so looked it up. Spent ages trying to think of a starter B-R-. Oh well. Shame because I was enjoying the challenge even though, as others, I had a number unparsed. COD SNORER, and GET IT IN THE NEC was very clever. DNK CLARKIA or ROW BARGE but the wordplay was helpful.

    Thank you V.

  17. Managed this in a respectable time (for me), which would have been greatly reduced by the cerebral lubrication provided by a couple of pints of Theakstons Best . which should be possible from Monday . . .
    1. Since I noticed it in the supermarket recently I’ve had some Old Peculier, having not had it for many years. Most enjoyable ☺️
  18. In a flash = in a trice = in a very short time.
    November = N in the Nato phonetic alphabet.
    Sn is the symbol for tin in the periodic table of elements.
    Care and touble are close synonyms. An estate car in UK is a station wagon in Oz and I think also the US.

    Edited at 2021-04-09 09:35 am (UTC)

  19. A real toughie. Worth the price of entry for “How un-English” alone but several other excellent clues.

    Had convinced myself that the football official was a REF and almost misspelt Rastafarianism, but it didn’t look right. Parsing World War Two was making my head hurt and I knew that relief would be provided here.
    Still find it hard to believe that there really was a Cardinal Sin. Nominative contradeterminism apparently.

    Thank you Verlaine, and the setter.

    1. Comment removed as Isla has dealt with them all below.

      Edited at 2021-04-09 09:36 am (UTC)

  23. Sorry – explanation needed please!Understand 4th letter of estate, but not rest!
  24. Like Z, I feel cheated out of this one after struggling through for 53:29 and then getting a pink square for SIZISM. Bah humbug! Thanks V.
  25. Lots of biffing today — plenty I didn’t understand as well as a clearly made-up plant name — grrr!

    NHO: CLARKIA (reasonable guess), BIRDLIME (from all checkers, entered with a shrug); ROW BARGE (guessable from cryptic)

    Not fully parsed: RECORD (didn’t see all of the defs); EGOTISTS (only got the ISTS bit); WORLD WAR TWO (didn’t see the trick at all); NOWHERE (forgot the Japanese NOH theatre stuff); NEWSMAN (got the Newman bit OK); INJECTOR (didn’t pick up the junior nurses bit)

    I did like SABRE-RATTLE, SIZIST and SCARAB.

    LOI: TROPICS (after considerable thought)

  26. First class puzzle — the sort that makes you appreciate the amount of work that goes into the daily achievement of producing a Times crossword, something too easy to take for granted. A less than stellar 55m, but 0 complaints.
  27. is a perfectly good answer in my book. Especially as that’s what I had.
    Otherwise really enjoyed this.
  28. agree with eniamretrauq. The sizists are discriminating against us.
    39’04” with the pink M
  29. Thanks Verlaine for explaining WORLD WAR TWO, which I didn’t parse at all.

    COD for me is the beautiful GET IT IN THE NECK, but a special mention for the not-a-homophone-indicator in SNORER. RASTAFARIANISM took too long, despite me thinking of it fairly early, as I was sure the F?R was going to be a reversed REF.

    10m 19s.

  30. … as I biffed for England, guessing and scraping away at this really intriguing puzzle without seeing the parsing for rather too many, only to find that the Powers-that-be have an unexplainable bias against Sizism for 8D. As many have commented (including me above, so I won’t repeat myself), it does work well enough.

    1D Row barge looked an odd phrase to me, with hints of transatlantic usage I thought alone the lines of rowboat / rowing boat, frypan / frying pan, cookbook / cookery book and so on. But I see it is quite acceptable in British English as well (albeit usually spelled as one word); indeed the Queen’s Barge Gloriana is deemed a Rowbarge, and if it is good enough for Her Majesty …

    With whom one’s thoughts are today on the death of her husband.

    Many thanks to Verlaine for the blog; more than usually needed today.
    Cedric

  31. …. as I completed it either side of a dental appointment. Took me ages, but possibly I was somewhat distracted.
    I am disappointed that I did not see how the “comment” in “Fair Comment” worked before coming here. Very clever.
    Luckily I recognised “Boz” because we had a similar reference in the Times xwd recently.
    Thanks V for the blog.
  32. I haven’t commented much lately but had to come on to thank the setter for a first class puzzle. So much to admire.
  33. Didn’t finish due to just running out of time (and being stumped, to boot). My 8d problem was that my FOI was Boz, so ‘picking on’ was pretty clearly Hazing — which I couldn’t get out of my head upon re-think. That, of course, put paid to Egotists as well. I liked Rut and Snorer, but more, I liked them all.
  34. I am usually grumpy and dissatisfied at not finishing a puzzle but it was a privilege not to be able to finish this one. It was joyous to solve the clues I did and a joy to discover from our distinguished and helpful blogger how the others worked.
    Delighted to get a plant I’ve never heard of (although it has to be said there are many). Should have got Row Barge as I used to drink in one regularly..
    Unfair to pick out any other clues as they were uniformly excellent.
    Thanks setter for an excellent puzzle.
    How good must it be to be able to finish a puzzle like this. Should one even dare to imagine the setting of one?
  35. Great puzzle. Time off the scale but felt I would always finish it. Thanks setter and V for explaining many clues I didn’t fully understand
  36. DNF in 34 mins, would’ve been a reasonable time for a tricky puzzle but for my error. I went for ‘got it in the neck’ instead of ‘get it in the neck’. I’d managed to work out IT and The NEC but saw carpeted past tense and didn’t pay the rest enough attention. A fatal error in a puzzle of this calibre. In my defence though the grey matter had taken something of a pummelling by the time I got to the end. I liked WWII (at least I felt clever when I worked it out), how un-English, sabre-rattle, picking on the large and city to junior nurses – quite a lot in fact.
  37. As often happens on Friday in lockdown, I had several household things to do during the day (it’s the regular shopping day for a start), so the puzzle was left as a reward to be tackled with an early evening beer, which made it a very pleasurable 19 minutes indeed. Notable for the several very good &lits, my compliments to the setter.
  38. 51.00. Started yesterday evening but too whacked after golf so pressed the pause button. Glad I tackled again this morning but hard going. Completely becalmed in the NW corner for far too long before I finally plumped for row barge and record and car fell into place. NHO the expression row barge but I assumed it was some kind of diminutive of narrow barge?

    Tropics was biffed on the basis of pic for film so right answer but not a smart way of getting there.

    As I’m pretty useless with flora, I’ll opt for clarkia as my COD.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

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