Times 27967 – Let me check….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 40 minutes
Music: Beethoven, Emperor Concerto, Schnabel/Galliera

This one was difficult in my book, although some may find it otherwise.   The answers persistently turned out to something I was not expecting at all, and the cryptics involved some obscure usages and some abbrevations I had to look up in Chambers.   But by a combination of teasing my way through the cryptics, and biffing the evident answers, I did manage to finish.

I suspect that bold biffers will be relatively more successful in this puzzle, while those who ponder every element of the clue will be working through many possibilities but not getting anywhere.   We shall see.

Across
1 Revile harmful gas American imported (4)
CUSS – C(US)S.   CS gas I had to look up.
4 Pompous leader has tattoo after first month on vessel (10)
PANJANDRUM –  PAN + JAN + DRUM.   This is drum as a verb, and tattoo as a verb, the tattoo derived from 16th-century Dutch rather than the one that comes from 19th-century Tahitian.
9 Cooking fish after commotion in front of guest (4,6)
STIR FRYING – STIR + FRY IN G[uest].
10 Due to kill first fly (4)
WING – [o]WING, with both fly and wing as verbs.
11 Cleric entertaining nonconformist leader shot at table (6)
CANNON – CAN(N[onconformist])ON, a shot in billianrds or snooker.
12 Desperate horse close (8)
HAIRLESS – H + AIRLESS, with the slang meaning of hairless that I had to look up.
14 Harrow playboy? (4)
RAKE – Double definition.
15 A solemn proposal brought about love’s consummation (10)
APOTHEOSIS – A PO THE(O)SIS, where po = po-faced.
17 Ride in this buggy cut off (10)
DISINHERIT – Anagram of RIDE IN THIS.
20 A lot of tennis outfits (4)
SETS – Double definition.
21 Dig in remains of fruit said to bring disease (8)
BERIBERI – I believe this sounds like BURY BERRY, and has nothing to do with rib = dig – but I could be wrong!
23 Pitiful debilitating affliction like case of lurgy (6)
MEASLY –  M.E + AS + L[urg]Y.   M.E. = Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, among other things.
24 Person having very little money left (4)
SOUL –  SOU + L.
25 Hotel goes frantic accommodating one’s religious disciplines (10)
THEOLOGIES – Anagram of HOTEL GOES + I.
26 Trendy daughter is presented poorly (10)
INDISPOSED – IN D IS POSED.
27 Tramp is some hiker travelling westward (4)
TREK – backwards hidden in [hi]KER T[ravelling].
Down
2 Animal mutated with truer colouring (11)
ULTRAMARINE –  Anagram of ANIMAL + TRUER.
3 Ground, i.e. Regent’s Park, given national status (9)
SERENGETI – Anagram of I.E. REGENT’S.
4 Dad bags country house’s top fish (7)
PIRANHA – P(IRAN, H)A.
5 Nothing stored in bulk following Arab’s call for consideration? (15)
NEIGHBOURLINESS – NEIGH + B(O)URLINESS.
6 An effusive talk masking one’s pain (7)
ANGUISH – AN + GU(I)SH.
7 Assemble notes for broadcast (5)
RAISE – Sounds like Res.
8 Amount put up to house a grand priest (5)
MAGUS – M(A,G)US, sum upside-down.
13 Vet relishes flexing arm (11)
SHIRTSLEEVE – Anagram of VET RELISHES.
16 Offensive cackle breaking on street (9)
ONSLAUGHT – ON S(LAUGH)T.
18 Load intercepted by English lieutenant remains in vessel (7)
HEELTAP – HE(E LT)AP, the dregs at the bottom of a glass, which I vaguely recalled.
19 Toppled tyrant ultimately disgraced, beheaded (7)
TUMBLED – T + [h]UMBLED.
21 Principles I lowered for singers (5)
BASSI – BASIS with the I moved down.
22 Global song in parts (5)
ROUND – Double definition.

57 comments on “Times 27967 – Let me check….”

  1. I knew CS gas for some reason, but didn’t think of it until I got SERENGETI. DNK ME, and DNK HAIRLESS. Otherwise no problems, other than my typing; my hair-trigger keyboard doubled the E to produce SERENGEET, and yet once again I overlooked the typo–third time in 2 weeks–to give myself 2 errors. Not best pleased.
  2. And felt lucky to get that time. A lot of the answers I’d seen before (PANJANDRUM, BERIBERI, etc), so I had a big leg up in the solve. Enjoyed NEIGHBOURLINESS.

    Incidentally, kevingregg, this weekend you were 192 on the leaderboard (avg 767.7) and I was 193 (avg 767.5). Not sure how that can be, as you routinely solve puzzles twice as fast as I do, but I felt honored to be in the running.

    Edited at 2021-05-03 01:49 am (UTC)

    1. Pink squares massively reduce the score, so I suspect that’s the reason.
    2. I’m often curious as to the total number of solvers on the leaderboard. Anyone got any idea?
  3. Yes, I struggled with some of this which seemed to be a wavelength problem. Finished after 45 minutes by looking up APOTHEOSIS as I was bored with it all by then.

    It was helpful I’d seen BERIBERI very recently. Wasn’t sure of HAIRLESS.

    Now for the BH Jumbo!

    Edited at 2021-05-03 05:23 am (UTC)

  4. 41 minutes with LOI the unknown HEELTAP. It took me a while to accept there are other offensives than the Tet one. Remembering the days when the Edinburgh Military Tattoo was a highlight in the television schedule helped me parse PANJANDRUM. COD and WOD to APOTHEOSIS. Quite a tough puzzle.Thank you V and setter.
  5. Indeed a wavelength thing, tough here, but enjoyably tough. Didn’t know heeltap, hairless, ME or the precise meanings of po (chamber pot?), apotheosis and consummation, so apotheosis was LOI and a bit of a guess. Liked onslaught and disinherit, where it took a while to realise it was an anagram.
    Thanks setter and blogger.
    1. po as in po-faced. As I now see was in the blog. Rather a good clue: ‘a po thesis’ …

      Edited at 2021-05-03 09:24 am (UTC)

  6. Very tough in my book with some rather distant definitions. Is a shirtsleeve really an arm? I suppose it’s the arm of the shirt, but who ever calls it that? Although personally HAIRLESS I have NHO that meaning desperate. Is a berry the remains of fruit — or are there dread danglers in that clue? Surely ULTRAMARINE is a colour, not colouring? And has anyone in the last century said HEELTAP?

    Nevertheless lots of clever and challenging stuff in here. Buggy is a new anagram indicator to me, and my COD to NEIGHBOURLINESS for the witty ‘Arab’s call’.

    1. PS Has anyone tried Saturday’s Jumbo, which I am finding utterly fiendish?
      1. Yup. 45% complete and at it over an hour, have a feeling it’s going to stay that way. I’ll have a go at today’s though.
      2. Yes, me. And yes, it’s well above average fiendishness for the Jumbos, consistently tricky throughout. But worth the price of admission for the brilliant 24a.
      3. Yup, and I’m only one third through. Agree 24ac a brilliant clue.
        1. Yes it was a stinker, completed in 1hr exactly with the final 10 mins spent staring vacantly at 47 across.
    3. In dressmaking and tailoring a SHIRTSLEEVE can be synonymous with the arm of a garment but I agree that outside of that usage it’s not.
    4. “Buggy” is a new anagram indicator to me as well. I still don’t see how it works. Can anyone enlighten me?
      1. It’s not in Chambers list of anagrinds either, but synonyms for ‘buggy’ include ‘disturbed’ and ‘defective’, both of which seem fit for purpose.
        1. Thanks, Jack. After further reflection, I came to much the same conclusion as you suggest, which is reassuring. An entertaining puzzle, with one or two slightly off-piste clues. For example, “hairless” in its slang sense is defined in all my dictionaries as “angry” or “raging”, for which at first blush “desperate” does not seem to be a particularly close synonym until you think of its use in such phrases as “a desperate criminal” etc.
  7. Why so few posts by now? It’s a Bank Holiday here in the UK.

    APOTHEOSIS LOI, needed all the checkers. John Fowles wrote a disturbing book called the MAGUS, but I thought it was the singular of MAGI, hence a sage or astrologer.

    Dnk HAIRLESS, but now wonder about the phrase ‘keep your hair on’.

    24′, thanks vinyl and setter.

  8. 22.43 after a fair few head scratches. Thought 17 ac was interesting, never seen buggy used as a clue to an anagram- or am I missing something?

    FOI ultramarine, LOI heeltap. NHO but cluing was clear. Similarly apotheosis emerged but not worked out. Thanks blogger for explaining. Beriberi came to mind after recalling it was an answer within the last couple of weeks. Would have been tricky if my memory had failed to deliver.

    Serengeti took a time as I was convinced the anagram was ie regent p. The comma after park was grimly fiendish.
    COD stir frying.

    Thanks setter and blogger. A tricky start to the week I found.

  10. I liked this one a lot, one of those designed to make you feel smugly clever when you finish it, which I did in 19.40 (smugly clever emoji).
    The long one and APOTHEOSIS were my last two in, the first succumbing only when I wrote out the crossing letters flat. Way too long trying to remember what the Muezzin’s call to prayer was.
    I didn’t know that meaning of HAIRLESS, though Chambers does. It called to mind a Listener from long ago (before Googling stuff was easy) when we were meant to know the phrase “he went at them bald headed” about the Marquis of Granby at the battle of Warburg.
    1. I’ve tracked it down! It was Listener 3166 from 15th September 1992. The Persistence of Memory!
      1. The persistence of long-term memory? I can remember things from the 70s and 80s, but struggle with what happened last week or last year.
  11. Well and truly beaten by this one. V, I definitely come within the second of your two solver definitions, which didn’t help today. Gave up on the hour.

    Just could not see HAIRLESS, DISINHERIT AND BERIBERI. NHO HEELTAP either. Did not know the meaning of APOTHEOSIS. I am now convinced today is Friday and am completely discombobulated as a result! Thanks for the blog vinyl.

  12. Found this very tough going. Neighbourliness the best of a number of good clues, though Sets seemed a bit weak.
    Hairless was new to me.
    Enjoy your UK holiday. Last Saturday and next Saturday are holidays here in France, though during lockdown it’s difficult to notice much difference.
  13. You know you’re off the wavelength when you singlehandedly bump up the SNITCH rating! I was pleased just to finish today after firstly RAKE and then APOTHEOSIS took an age to succumb. I was disheartened by the RAKE clue when faced with _A_E, which according to my Chambers app has 165 possibilities. It didn’t help that I thought “playboy” was a punning reference to a playwright. For APOTHEOSIS I had no idea as to the parsing and tried several alphabet trawls for each of my blank squares. Eventually I thought it might end in an S then APOTHEOSIS came to me and went in with fingers crossed as I was too weary to spend long on the parsing.

    Edited at 2021-05-03 09:05 am (UTC)

  14. After a slow start it all came together rather nicely having appeared somewhat ‘seventies’, except for 9ac STIR FRYING. Time 32 mins.

    FOI 11ac CANNON

    LOI 14ac RAKE

    COD 3dn SERENGETI with its flamingos

    WOD 4ac PANJANDRUM as per Sir Harry Luke

    18dn HEELTAP this was learnt of old – when this word was a more frequent visitor to the crosswords of the time. In my time on ‘Glug!Glug!Glug!’, I only came across the plural.
    12ac HAIRLESS also has cobwebs on it.

  15. I’m reassured I wasn’t the only one to find this hard – more like a Friday than a Monday. Dropped off half way through so no time, but even so I took well over an hour. Plenty of difficult ones including NEIGHBOURLINESS (fooled by the ‘Arab’s call’) and my last in APOTHEOSIS, one of those words whose correct meaning I’ll never be able to remember.

    Learned a new word in HEELTAP and a new sense of HAIRLESS. Loved the wordplay of BERIBERI.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  16. After a slow start, just two answers (PIRANHA and TREK) in from the first pass, the SE started to fill up, and never really looked back.

    Had a pause for thought over the two 10-letter answers in the NE — pulled PANJANDRUM out of nowhere which gave the important first letter NEIGHBOURLINESS before finishing with HAIRLESS, APOTHEOSIS and ANGUISH.

  17. As per our blogger, not necessarily a puzzle full of obscurities, but certainly a lot of clues where the answer turned out to be far from the first road you went down, so an interesting diversion. HEELTAP one of those “well I know it’s a word, but have no idea what it actually means, so why not” answers.
  18. Several anagrams that took some time to untangle – SHIRTSLEEVE in particular, as I was sure I was looking for a firearm. NHO HEELTAP but it was kindly clued.

    My POI (haven’t checked if that one’s in the glossary) was APOTHEOSIS, based largely on the checkers available – I read the clue several times but could have sworn it said ‘promise’ rather than ‘proposal’… it didn’t.

    7m 28s – an exact Verlaine, it turns out – with SOUL the LOI.

  19. 16:24. This was tough, and I became completely becalmed with five left to solve. The completely unknown HAIRLESS was one of them, but my last in was DISINHERIT. ‘Ride in this buggy’ is brilliant.
    I knew the word HEELTAP as the name of a bar, which turns out to be next to the George.

    Edited at 2021-05-03 09:20 am (UTC)

    1. I knew heeltap from the Heeltap and Bumper which used to be on Cannon Street opposite St. Paul’s.
      1. That rings a bell too, and I used to work near there. But presumably I’ve seen the name while standing outside the George drinking too much beer and discussing crosswords. So I don’t know where I knew it from, the important thing is I did!
    2. There’s a bar near the Chrysler Building called The Wheeltapper — I’d wondered about its name; perhaps its an American mishearing based on Heeltap
        1. thanks, jack, I learned something there. There is a tiny chance that that also makes sense, as The Wheeltapper (and the adjacent Chrysler Building) is also just across the street from Grand Central Terminal (and a short block from what originally was the Union Pacific Railroad Building). I do think that The Heeltapper would be a better name for a bar, though.
        2. No so! AS the heeltaps are left because they are generally undrinkable.
          Paul you still have me blocked!So I have replied to Jack.
  20. Tried PIRAHNA which held me up. Fairly steady solve, but as usual the last 2 were intractable, in this case RAISE and WING, neither as it turned out we’re that hard, liked APOTHEOSIS when I finally got it.
  21. I might be hairless, but not that. It had to be, but didn’t know that meaning, which is a bit insulting to us follicly challenged people.
    Otherwise, quite meaty for a Monday, 30 minutes, LOI MEASLY.
  22. 9 away, the most I’ve been in many a month- let’s hope it was just a wavelength thing because there’s a few there I would never have got -apotheosis being 1 and I still don’t understand the second definition of round
    Very disappointing
    1. I remember singing rounds at school — in particular Frere Jacques. One group would start by singing “Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques”, then when they were on “Dormez vous” the second group would join in on “Frere Jacques” and continue like this, always one line behind (thus finishing after the first group).
  23. ULTRAMARINE was my FOI. I put _US_ for 1a and took the S out when I got SERNGETI. I couldn’t get away from CO as the harmful gas, so eventually came back to it at the end and remembered CS gas. Prior to that NEIGHBOURLINESS and then APOTHEOSIS(alphabet trawl required) were APOI and POI respectively. HEELTAP was a new one for me. An enjoyable puzzle with a bit of lateral thinking required! 34:30. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  24. I’m glad I’m not the only one to have found this tough. And pleased to have completed it without potting a pink.

    COD: DISINHERIT.

  25. 16:26 in two sittings as I was only 2/3 way through when I had to go out to lead a walk through some of the most ancient bluebell woods of Suffolk. Whizzed through the rest when I got back. DNK that meaning of HAIRLESS. COD to ANGUISH.

    Edited at 2021-05-03 02:01 pm (UTC)

  26. …and not too frustrating. I had no distractions and finished it all before falling asleep. HEELTAP was new, and this (strange) sense of HAIRLESS, and I didn’t have a clue, or a cue, about the definition for CANNON. So learned something, which makes for the most satisfying kind of solve in my book.

    Edited at 2021-05-03 09:54 pm (UTC)

  27. Reading the comments from seasoned solvers, i was happy just to finish this one, in several sessions interrupted by the snooker etc.
  28. 28.49. Bracing bank holiday fare. Struggled in the NW for a time being unable to find ultramarine, wondering if greensite was a term for land designated protected status and failing to spot the correct type of frying at 9ac. LOI was rake but it fell pretty quickly when I had both checkers.
  29. It only took me 20 minutes to share your boredom with NHO APOTHEOSIS. Liked SERENGETI, but not much else.
  30. At least five minutes at the end were spent on disinherit. Congratulations on a marvellously misleading buggy. I was racking my brain for diligences and phaetons. I had never heard of hairless in that sense. Heeltap felt right, though I can’t say I really knew it. Sounds more like the stuff that comes out of a well-smoked pipe, but there’s another word for that in crosswordland, isn’t there, like pott or pugg or something ….

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