Times 27987 – a Scottish symphony and a thing of beauty.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A terrific crossword, in my view, medium to hard, with a few unusual words, some misleading surfaces, a Scottish flavour in a few clues and a couple of familiar chestnuts. 32 minutes for me with a bit of unscrambling afterwards. As a Periodic Table buff (bore?) it’s a chance to bang on a little about a very rare element.

Across
1 Perhaps the lorry left paper off (7)
ARTICLE – lorry = ARTIC (articulated truck), LEFT loses FT the Financial Times of London.
5 Current measure in Soho upset cleaner (7)
SHAMPOO – AMP (current measure) inside (SOHO)*.
9 Girl’s back impeding soldier’s view from premises (9)
SYLLOGISM – this one gave me some trouble, I had to work out a word that fitted (which I knew but not its exact meaning) then find out if it indeed had something to do with logical deductions from ‘premises’. GI’S = soldier’s; insert that into MOLLY’S (girl’s) reversed. Thank Aristotle for starting all that stuff off.
10 African expresses disapproval with India (5)
TUTSI – TUTS = expresses disapproval, I for India. I vaguely remembered the Tutsi and Hutu were tribes in Rwanda and Burundi with a long history of killing each other, but I couldn’t write you an essay on it. As Arsenal shirts now encourage us to “visit Rwanda” I assume it’s now died down, but I’m in no hurry to go.
11 Squirm on TV and lie about dummy act (13)
VENTRILOQUISM – (SQUIRM ON TV LIE)*.
13 Respect quartet I left in town (8)
CIVILITY – IV (quartet) I L inside CITY (town).
15 Hide needlework display in Edinburgh (6)
TATTOO – double definition. This year’s Edinburgh Military Tattoo is on in August, tickets are on sale.
17 Notice dispute off course (6)
ADRIFT – notice = AD, RIFT = dispute.
19 Youths with it claim Yankee title (8)
LADYSHIP – LADS (youths) HIP (with it) insert Y for Yankee.
22 Popular paper by leaderless authority’s beyond words (13)
INEXPRESSIBLE – IN (popular) EXPRESS (a newspaper) IBLE (‘authority’ without its B). I had to think how to spell the ending, IBLE or ABLE, but then BIBLE was the only authority type thing I could think of. So it was -IBLE.
25 Green where spring water comes from, seen travelling west (5)
NAIVE – given I had N*I*E, this was biffable, then I saw we were talking about the town of EVIAN-les-Bains in SE France where a so-named brand of bottled water allegedly comes from. Travelling west = reversed.
26 Old writers briefly endure dealing with technique (9)
STYLISTIC – STYLI = old writers, the Latin plural of stylus. STIC(K) = briefly endure.
27 Deposit, say, posh pharmacist in Hebridean stack (4,3)
LUMP SUM – At first I was off in search of Hebridean sea-stacks of rock with funny names. I guess that was our setter’s intention! Then I started again and saw U (posh) MPS (pharmacist, Member of the Pharmaceutical Society) is inside LUM a Scottish word for chimney or stack, as in ‘lang may your lum reek’, (which a Scots friend actually said to me on a Christmas card).
28 Coach line supporter (7)
SLEEPER – as you take the SLEEPER coach train to Edinburgh, you can see your rail track is supported by SLEEPERs. Double definition.

Down
1 An orchestra’s on top of that (4)
ALSO – A, LSO = London Symphony Orchestra.
2 Clean up the fourth Mediterranean city (3,4)
TEL AVIV – Reverse VALET = clean up, add IV = the fourth.
3 Start to chop tree without a top (5)
CROWN – C (start to chop) ROW(A)N = tree without A.
4 English judge inspires fighter to leave country (8)
EMIGRATE – E (English) RATE (judge) insert MIG (Russian fighter plane).
5 Like Simon or Herb (6)
SIMPLE – Simple Simon met a pieman, and Collins has “simple – noun archaic; a plant, esp a herbaceous plant, having medicinal properties”.
6 Collector opposed mine, right away (9)
ANTIQUARY – ANTI = opposed, QUARY = quarry (mine) losing an R.
7 Group punching glib country fan (7)
PATRIOT – glib = PAT, as in “learnt off pat”; insert TRIO a group.
8 Old one’s in to raise work with puny margins for drug supplier (5,5)
OPIUM POPPY – O (old) I in PUMP (raise) OP (work) PY (margins of puny). Once I had O***M this was a biff and I hope I have deciphered how it works, I had a few versions that nearly work.
12 Random “Notes on a Small Island” seen in Circle Line (10)
OCCASIONAL – CC (notes) A S(mall) IONA (an island in Scotland) all inside O L (circle line).
14 Occupants of house provided in scruffy 28 (4,5)
LIFE PEERS – IF (provided) inside an anagram of the answer to 28a. q.v.
16 They reflect action sure to curb traffic primarily (4-4)
CATS-EYES – CASE (action) has T (traffic primarily) inserted then YES = sure.
18 Element of watery discharge swamping part of UK (7)
RHENIUM – RHEUM (watery discharge) has NI (Northern Ireland) inserted. Rhenium (element 75) is a heavy metal used in alloys in jet engine exhausts, it is one of the rarest on earth and the last stable one to be discovered (in 1925).
20 Lift remains of drink (7)
HEELTAP – double definition. We’ve had this recently so it came to mind more readily that it might otherwise have done.
21 Flies before noon found in deep litter (6)
JETSAM – JETS (flies) A.M. (before noon). I liked the definition ‘deep litter’, it took me a while to see it was two words together, not just litter meaning rubbish or puppies.
23 Bung joint in bloke’s case (5)
BRIBE – RIB (joint of beef) inside B E (case of bloke).
24 Run under superb service tree (4)
ACER – ACE (superb service) R. Tree of maple family.

​

54 comments on “Times 27987 – a Scottish symphony and a thing of beauty.”

  1. I typed in INEXPRESSABLE, thought ‘Shouldn’t that be an I?’, made a mental note to check on that, and threw the note in my mental wastebasket. Worse, when I did come back to it to parse it, I actually did an alphabet trawl on _ABLE to find the authority, which of course I never did. Biffed TEL AVIV from a V, DNK VALET=clean. DNK MPS, but inferred it meant something like Master of Pharmaceutical Science. DNK bung=BRIBE. I only got OCCASIONAL after submitting, and never figured out OPIUM POPPY.
  2. 67 minutes, with a good 20 minutes of that spent on CROWN (no excuses, just thick) and especially SYLLOGISM, a word I’ve never known the meaning of. Not that it would have made any difference, but in my ignorance I was thinking that the ‘Girl’s back’ was contained within the ‘soldier’s’, rather than the reverse. I was glad for the recent appearance of HEELTAP for ‘remains of drink’ as I didn’t know the ‘Lift’ sense. SIMPLE for ‘Herb’ was also an NHO.

    Otherwise no major difficulties. I always like to be reminded of the quintessentially Scottish “lum reekie” and working out the OPIUM POPPY parsing was satisfying.

    Thanks to Pip and setter

    1. If it’s any consolation I interpreted the structure of syllogism the same way – that’s why I eventually biffed it!
    2. I agree. The surface of the clue is the wrong way round.

      Apart from that, and a senseless surface at 24d, I thought this was the best crossword for some time. (Mr Grumpy)

  3. I’ve been on a terrible streak with the main lately. I’ve only completed 4 of the last 12 puzzles (now 5 for 13). Each time it’s been roughly the same progression: off to a flying start, then suddenly getting bogged down 80-90% of the way through, slowing to a crawl, and finally getting stuck on the last word or two. This puzzle was little different, but thankfully I finished. I’ve been having trouble with the quickie as well.

    My only suspicion is that in the last few weeks I’ve been preparing to go back to school in the fall (Master’s in mathematics), studying pretty hard, and consequently my brain is probably tired out.

    In any case, nice to have finished today. I too was helped by HEELTAP having come up recently, as well as other semi-chestnuts. LUM has been stuck in my head since we last saw it in a puzzle and I’ve been waiting to trot it out again. 🙂

  4. I was another INEXPRESSABLE but otherwise no real problems until the end with SYLLOGISM and SIMPLE. There were some wonderful clues here. I was also distracted wondering what Hebridean rock I was expected to know. Old Man of Hoy, but that is in Orkney which is not Hebridean, as far as I know. There are too many somewhat obscure elements along with RHENIUM, like Rubidium and Rhodium, both of which are used in modern semiconductor manufacture (and can never remember the two-letter abbreviations correctly). I also had different derivation for OCCASIONAL with CCA being the notes but then ON A S I inside OL. Now I see there is no anagram indicator so it doesn’t quite work, but at the time it all seemed fine. I liked “deep litter”, “country fan”, and “hide needlework”.
  5. 14dn ‘Occupants of House’, surely…not ‘house’, m’Lud!?

    FOI 17ac ADRIFT

    LOI 9ac SYLLOGISM (My Master’s is in Epistemology & Quantum History)

    COD 3dn CROWN

    WOD 11ac VENTRILOQUISM – Archie Andrews (Peter Brough on radio) and Lord Charles (Ray Allen on TV) – my UK faves. Anyone remember the 1944 classic horror, ‘Dead of Night’?
    Mike Pence (Donald Trump) Stateside were quite hilarious.

    Much the same as ‘Scrambled Eggs’ – 53 minutes

    3. Thank you for inspiring me to a new career — I just about have the talent to be a ventriloquist on the radio!
    4. Seems fair to have “house” in lower case as long as an indefinite article is used or implied.

      Edited at 2021-05-26 11:02 am (UTC)

    5. I was always rather amazed that a ventriloquist could perform as such on the radio. Wouldn’t have to worry about his lips moving for a start, I suppose.
      1. Peter Brough made the mistake of appearing on TV occasionally with his doll Archie Andrews from which it was clear that he wasn’t simply a bad ventriloquist, he was hardly a ventriloquist at all.
  6. Nice puzzle, just a little too difficult to finish off while the ball game was on, but easily completed once that distraction was over. (Except for The A/I mistake at 22ac.) Thanks for the parsing of Cats Eyes, Pip
  7. Great puzzle. I was happy to know SYLLOGISM (and helped on the spelling by the cryptic), TUTSI and HEELTAP. I also toyed with “inexpressable” and even thought of “capable” without the “cap” but resolved it correctly in the end. As for others, I liked “deep litter” and LUMP SUM.
  8. Yet another to wonder what authority _ABLE was. All else enjoyed, but some took a long time to parse e.g. OCCASIONAL, LUMP SM, OPIUM POPPY etc. Liked JETSAM the best.
  9. CC for notes? As in musical ones? Seems rather random.
    With the first C checker I initially biffed SCATTERGUN for ‘random’, but it didn’t prove either parsable or parsible.
    A month now with no pink squares….walking a tightrope.
    22’43”
  10. 39 minutes with LOI ALSO. I thought I might have invented the Pharmaceutical Society so I’m pleased it exists. COD to TATTOO for the two brilliantly hidden definitions.This allowed me to biff OPIUM POPPY, unparsed as were the CATS EYES. This was a fine puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.

    Edited at 2021-05-26 07:00 am (UTC)

  11. This seemed harder whilst solving than my time (34 minutes) might suggest. I failed to unravel the wordplay of CATS EYES, so thanks for that and I didn’t know the ‘lift’ meaning of HEELTAP although I am familiar with ‘lifts’ with reference to raised heels.

    Edited at 2021-05-26 06:30 am (UTC)

  12. After 30 mins I still needed the Article, Also, Syllogism, Crown quartet.
    I liked the Ventriloquial one, which reminded me of one of my Clue writing entries:

    Like Keith Harris’s performing monkey with Orville — quaint! (13)

    Thanks setter and Pip.

    1. Like the clue (and surface).
      I once saw Harris and Orville at a large black tie lunch in Park Lane. Something wrong hearing Orville swear like a trooper.
  13. Thanks, Pip. You unfurrowed my brow in quite a few clues.
    I had most trouble with HEELTAP.
    “Visit Rwanda” on Arsenal shirts? That’s novel! I presume to see the Mountain Gorillas.
  14. After yesterday, another puzzle which required a bit of thinking. I suspect that if HEELTAP hadn’t come up comparatively recently, it might have been one of those definitions which I’d be saying I’d never come across before, for the third or fourth time. Lang may yer lum reek, setter.
  15. I agree with Pip’s assessment of this puzzle. Great fun. I had no trouble with INEXPRESSIBLE but dodged a bullet with VENTRLIQUISM, which, fortunately, looked daft once entered. Rhenium was new to me but fairly clued.

    Always been fascinated by false syllogisms. The role of Prime Minister requires, diligence, integrity and hard work. Boris Johnson is Prime Minister. Therefore….

    Thanks to Pip and the setter.

    1. Therefore his role requires… The syllogism’s fine; the problem is with the PM.
  16. Or, after dark, will dubious women come
    To make their children touch a particular stone;
    Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
    Advised night see walking a dead one?
    11:03 but another INEXPRESSABLE. I vaguely thought that if you have the authority to do something you are able, that must be it, move on.
    Some cars are red.
    My car is red.
    Therefore my car is some car!
  17. Nice puzzle. ARTICLE was my FOI, ALSO and SYLLOGISM were my LOsI, however an extremely careless TUTTI negated my efforts, especially as I knew the tribe. My brain must have nodded off while I was entering that answer! 26:22 WOE. Thanks setter and Pip.

    Edited at 2021-05-26 10:13 am (UTC)

  18. Yup. With an A. “Pip will reveal what it has to do with authority”.

    How about this one? Remains of drink: TEA LEAF, CRS for thief (as a verb): lift. Perfect. Great clue.

    Tougher than yesterday’s, and in my book not quite as much fun, though obviously very clever, apart from “random notes” for CC which is downright lazy, a sacrifice to the Bryson connection.

    SLEEPER and SYLLOGISM were both entered and deleted several times, the former confirmed only by their Lordships (and, of course, LADYSHIPs).

    All pink squares indicate an error
    My grid has a pink square.
    B*gger.

    22.38

    1. Yesterday’s was definitely better, but today’s was still in the upper echelons. Tea leaf is brilliant, except it doesn’t work – the clue is enumerated (7).
  19. Not a chance of finishing this. So many things I didn’t know: syllogism, heeltap, MPS.
    Defining the Express as a (news)paper is pushing it a bit 🙂
    Thanks, pip.
  20. 40m for this pleasant offering. HEELTAP was a guess but it might easily have been TOP or anything else. I, like others, spent ages remembering the completely unhelpful Old Man of Hoy. I found it also took longer to parse some of the clues than to think of the answer — SYLLOGISM and OCCASIONAL for example. Thank you setter and Pip for the entertainment.
  21. 44 mins, with about 10 on SYLLOGISM. Elegant cluing, in which the parsing took longer than the solving.
  22. Helped by a memory of an old English teacher who deplored the use of ‘simplistic’; he said it meant ‘pertaining to the gathering of herbs’, rather than being a synonym for ‘simple’.
  23. On wavelength for this apparently, and this despite the fact that anything involving philosophy causes an immediate fog in my brain. I have actually mastered “solipsism” after 4 years of the “former guy”, but not much else. No trouble with the spelling of INEXPRESSIBLE because that’s the term used (in the plural) for men’s breeches in Georgette Heyer. 15.43
    1. I still have trouble distinguishing it from “solecism”. (Gregg’s Binary Amnesia [GBA]).
      [on edit] Bertrand Russell spoke of a woman who told him that she was a confirmed solipsist, and that she wondered why more people weren’t.

      Edited at 2021-05-26 12:23 pm (UTC)

  24. Well, I’m depressed. Finished 99% of this in 30 mins and then spent 10 more looking befuddledly at 9 ac. There was no way I was going to see THAT word. Just could not work out the wp either. Also another ABLE here. Oh well. (Sad face emoji).

    Olivia, I must read more Georgette Heyer, as you often quote her.

    I did like VENTRILOQUISM and the very Ikean OCCASIONAL.

    Thank you Pip and inscrutable setter.

    1. It’s partly a joke Francois – her stuff is certainly not to everyone’s taste but it does come in handy with obscure fabrics and old carriages. Jerry and Falooker are also among her fans here!
      1. I would count myself as a moderate fan. I generally prefer a bit more to chew on but in the right time and place they’re great fun.
  25. SYLLOGISM took the longest to work out.

    Didn’t know the herb variety of SIMPLE.

    HEELTAP seen recently so a write-in with first and last checker.

  26. 29.25 but opted for able rather than ible at 22 ac without determining why. Damn.

    No hard feelings though, really good challenge with patriot recycled from a recent ST offering I believe. NHO of syllogism but delighted I managed- eventually- to work it out.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  27. Fairly trotted through this so I must have been on the wavelength. An awful lot of biffing went on, and it’s as well I checked with the clues because I nearly put Tutti for Tutsi. Luckily saw the clue was more African than musical. Lots in the news about Rwanda recently here in France, none of it reflecting well on Mitterrand. But there’s an interesting counter-tale told in a new book by the journalist Michela Wrong. Liked ‘Notes on a Small Island’. Thought long and and about inexpressible, and made the right call.
  28. 15:20 but I felt that I was winging it today with several BIFFs, so basically flattered by my time.
    I found many of the clues downright tough with several misleading surfaces – all very much part of the game of course.
    LOI “Syllogism” – I had a vague recollection of a link with premises in the logical sense and decided just to go for it.
    My COD was probably 21 ac “Jetsam” but there were several other close contenders.
    Thanks to Pip for the first rate blog providing the parsing that was beyond me when I submitted and to the setter for the mental stretch
  29. NHO HEELTAP (and didn’t remember it coming up recently) so an error today – it would have been my third choice after HEELTIP and HEELTOP.

    SYLLOGISM was my LOI, a nice definition, but like others I was expecting GIS to be impeding MOLLYS< rather than the other way round.

  30. DNF. FOI shampoo, managed about half of the rest, gave up, enjoyed the blog. Thanks, Pip and setter. GW
  31. ….than today’s QC. Cracking puzzle, although I’d forgotten HEELTAP and biffed it, as I did OPIUM POPPY.

    FOI SHAMPOO
    LOI BRIBE
    COD TATTOO
    TIME 8:37

  32. As I am in the Hebrides at the moment, I found the stack a little hard. Plenty of stacks around here but not that kind of stack. However since I’m off to Iona in the morning that suited me fine!
  33. 25.11. I did like the hide needlework definition of tattoo. Never quite bothered to fully parse opium poppy. Stuck for ages at the end on syllogism and simple. Eventually saw the light on the former and then took it on trust that simple could also mean herb.
  34. Got off to a very optimistic start in the top right – sorry, north…east corner, then stalled and never got going again. Super tricky. I’m just not at this level yet, but again found the blog explanations helpful and informative. Maybe one day….Thank you.

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