Times 27991 – A pencil with a big eraser, actually!

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 61 minutes
Music: Mendelssohn/Schumann Piano Trios, Casals/Thibaux/Cortot

I certainly did not do very well with a puzzle that should not have been very difficult.   Yes, there are tricky bits, but we have seen most of them before.  The iron that’s used for decreasing, the barker who is really a dog, the letters that the drug squad is after – nothing really new here.   There is one very unusal clue that could have been worse – the boundaries of Finland, say?   I did note that there is a UK Bank Holiday going on, and they do like to save the meatier puzzles for those with all day to solve them.

Tonight’s music is notable for being recorded nearly 100 years ago.   The remastering, although anonymous, is quite good, and the listener can clearly hear how three men born when Brahms and Liszt were still alive performed some of the finest chamber music ever written.

Across
1 Profit greatly in contest, keeping in shape? (5,2)
CLEAN UP – C(LEAN)UP.
5 A good laugh? Pious role model is taken aback (6)
AGHAST – A + G + HA + ST.
8 Such characters a matter for the drug squad? (5,4)
UPPER CASE – That is, a criminal case of amphetamine dealing.
9 On a farm, refuse drink very loudly (5)
CHAFF – CHA + FF.  I had essayed swill as a DD, but spaniel knocked that one out.
11 Figure from writer of some reportage from the east (5)
TROPE – Backwards hidden in [r]EPORT[age].
12 European steals in, after forging key (9)
ESSENTIAL –  E + anagram of STEALS IN.
13 Desert island left having good grounds (8)
RATIONAL – RAT + IONA + L.
15 Picked up little key ring (6)
EYELET –  Sounds like ISLET.
17 Wound up hem here? (2,4)
ON EDGE – Double definition, or cryptic hint if you prefer.
19 Possibly scratch hamstring (8)
HANDICAP – Double definition, the first one from golf.
22 Popular old means of decreasing, not right for an increase (9)
INFLATION –  IN + FLAT I[r]ON, which removes the creases.
23 Recalled primitive weapon being used with drug business (5)
TRADE – DART backwards + E.
24 Muses, say, why fishing might be unsuccessful? (5)
NONET –  NO NET, for the group of nine Muses.
25 Back in pub, saying when about to drink? (7,2)
BOTTOMS UP – PUS(MOTTO)[pu]B backwards……I think.   I made a real mess of this, it’s [pu}B + MOTTO backwards + SUP, an &lit, or course.
26 Show criminal in the cooler (3-3)
AIR-CON – AIR CON.   Quite difficult for me, as this is not a US expression.
27 Ex-president failing in style (7)
YELTSIN –  Anagram of IN STYLE, hard to spot without checking letters.
Down
1 Opposing suggestion with token gesture (13)
COUNTERMOTION –  COUNTER + MOTION.
2 Lover once and I getting in bed? It’s a bold act (7)
EXPLOIT – EX + PLO(I)T.
3 Languages once spoken and not used — only internally (5)
NORSE – NOR + [u]SE[d].   Modern Icelandic is in fact Old Norse, nearly unchanged from the days of Snorri Sturluson. 
4 Cover on board with fancy metal cap (5,3)
PLACE MAT – Anagram of METAL CAP, and not PLATE CAM either, as I first supposed.
5 Does it hinder people getting on? Answer is set in stone (6)
AGEISM – A + GE(IS)M.   An eliptical literal, but we have seen the like before.
6 Overworked boss at the Shoreditch Times? (9)
HACKNEYED – HACKNEY ED.   Shoreditch is in the borough of Hackney.
7 Barker’s sales pitch about auction that’s empty (7)
SPANIEL –  SP(A[uctio]N)IEL.
10 Writer considered unbalanced shut up (4-6,3)
FELT-TIPPED PEN – FELT + TIPPED + PEN.
14 One in go-cart is spinning out of control (9)
ORGIASTIC – Anagram of I in GO-CART IS.
16 Old lady wearing corset, finding special staple (8)
MAINSTAY – MA IN STAY[s].   Finding seems like an odd way to indicate losing.
18 Title for gent regularly fined, we hear (7)
EFFENDI – F[i]N[e]D – read out as letters!
20 Charlie not only child in part of car (7)
CHASSIS – CHAS + SIS.
21 Forest dweller turning elephantine head around (6)
GIBBON – BIG upside-down + NOB upside-down, hence two reversal indicators.
23 Republican admitted to charge, a provocateur (5)
TROLL – T(R)OLL, one ejected by the moderators.

39 comments on “Times 27991 – A pencil with a big eraser, actually!”

  1. Harder than usual for a Monday but with some good ones including the wordplay for EFFENDI and the AGEISM and CHAFF defs. I agree with plusjeremy about the BOTTOMS UP parsing. I parsed CHASSIS as C (Charlie) + HAS SIS (not only child).

    Slow, but satisfied to finish in 64 minutes.

  2. Also 61 minutes. So its a Bank Holiday in UK and Memorial Day in the US.

    FOI 4dn PLACE MAT

    LOI 26ac AIR CON

    COD 22qac INFLATION – just around the corner

    WOD 5ac AGHAST!

    27ac YELTSIN – not my President!

  4. I struggled with just about every clue; it’s something of a comfort to see that several better solvers are also in the red in SNITCH. I spent much too much time on 27ac before deciding that it wasn’t an American president. I spent another too much time trying to justify INFLATION. Biffed EFFENDI, after toying with ESQUIRE. LOI GIBBON. Like Horryd, my COD goes to INFLATION.
  5. I guess I should feel good about this time! I had a sense when it got to EFFENDI that this puzzle had some tricky bits in it. But like Vinyl has taught me, follow the cryptics.

    My take on BOTTOMS UP is… well, biff it first, and then B + MOTTO reversed + SUP. Is that what you put in the blog? I saw PUS and I never like seeing PUS.

    The Schumann piano trios are some of my very favorite pieces in the repertoire — I’ve performed the D minor, which is my favorite of the three. Of course Cortot, Thibaud, and Casals are also incredible musicians. I didn’t know this recording and am looking forward to listening to it.

  6. Given the time taken to get my FOI I felt I was quite lucky to finish this in 48 minutes. It was CHAFF, which is only at 9ac but I didn’t spot it until going round for the second time having read all the other clues first.

    I had COUNTER for ages at 1dn but MOTION didn’t come to mind until checkers were in place and that slowed me down considerably in the SW corner which was the last area to fall into place. It didn’t help that I had written ORGAISTIC at 14dn, not a slip of the pencil as I had convinced myself it was a word.

    Spent far too long thinking the show at 26ac was CAN-CAN but never actually wrote it in.

    Edited at 2021-05-31 05:15 am (UTC)

  7. Excellent crossword with tight clues … only problem was I ran out of time.

  8. FOI: 1d. COUNTERMOTION
    LOI: 23d. TROLL

    Time to Complete: DNF

    I only managed to get 7 answers right, with another 2 answered incorrectly.

  9. 64 minutes and I know why it took that long, It was difficult. LOI was EFFENDI which I neither parsed nor knew what they were but I vaguely knew the word. I didn’t parse BOTTOMS UP although I’ve a feeling there’s been a similar clue before. I particularly liked CHAFF, AGEISM and COD YELTSIN. Maybe he was stuck on the crossword at Shannon Airport. Thank you V and fine puzzle, setter, but a bit easier next time please.
  10. A DNF after I hour. I too had CAN-CAN but stubbornly retained it so EFFENDI was never going in. A lesson to learn there! Had no idea what fined was doing. Thanks v and setter.
  11. Relatively flying this morning, and blown away by the cleverness of BOTTOMS UP (made easier by the enumeration), and the sublime EFFENDI (a word I learned when watching Midnight Express). Also really liked HACKNEYED.

    It’s a Bank Holiday, no rain forecast, all shall be well….

    20′ 43″, thanks vinyl and setter.

  12. 13:40. What fun. I liked INFLATION, EFFENDI, CHASSIS and, my favourite, BOTTOMS UP and managed to navigate the tricky bits without getting a puncture. Thanks vinyl and setter. P.S. We had CASALS in a recent Mephisto. A very fine cellist.

    Edited at 2021-05-31 07:55 am (UTC)

  13. 19.35, a lot of it spent in the bottom half. Unlike poison w, I couldn’t sus what followed the COUNTER in 1d until I had the crossers: that didn’t help.
    I submitted thinking BOTTOMS UP had an error in the clue, not accounting for the S: it was so obviously MOTTO in PUB backwards.
    EFFENDI was brilliant, and certainly raised a smile.
    I was so convince that “failing in style” was a something SIN, I failed for a long time to notice it was just an anagram. What sort of a style is YELT?
    I ran my charity out of Shoreditch, so I shouldn’t have been tempted to think of it as an H-drop indicator. It still has its own rather splendid Town Hall, now an arts centre, and doesn’t really think of itself as part of Hackney.

    Edited at 2021-05-31 09:05 am (UTC)

    1. I was reminded of that too – it was still played at children’s parties when I was small and the the chopper part always made me nervous. DNK Shoreditch was part of Hackney, just that it was in East London.
  14. I thought for a long time that I was going to be defeated by the unknown EFFENDI and AIR CON crossers. I just couldn’t make sense of the EFFENDI clue, toying with the idea of “gent regularly” being ET and trying to come up with something that sounded like a synonym of “fined”. I also had a tentative CAN CAN, as the mention of “criminal” and “cooler” had drawn me that way. Eventually I looked at the alternate letters in “fined”, and as I read out F-N-D it occurred to me that sounded like a word that might fit. After that PDM, AIR CON went straight in and I crawled over the line.
  15. On song today, in spite of early awakening by visiting grandchildren. 16 minutes with AGHAST my LOI, no complaints. 1d first in helped. Fav clue HACKNEYED.
  16. TROPE was my FOI, but I didn’t make much progress for a while after that. Somehow, things seemed to get better and the grid began to fill until I was left with a few in the SW and the US president that wasn’t. YELTSIN was my LOI, but AIR-CON and EFFENDI took some fathoming. EFFENDI allowed me to biff INFLATION and MOTION then dropped in to complete 1d. An enjoyable puzzle. 22:23. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
  17. Thanks for the explanations for BOTTOMS UP, INFLATION & EFFENDI, which I hadn’t managed to parse. That last one stays with me, as I got it wrong in the Times championship a few years ago – never heard of it then, but seared into my memory now.

    8m 03s – a gentle start that got rather harder as the puzzle progressed. I briefly had both PLATE MAC and CAN-CAN, and thought the SIN of YELTSIN was the failing, so I fell into most of the traps going.

  18. On wavelength today which seems not to have been the case for many. Enjoyed many of the clues even if some only parsed after biffing answers and submitting. EFFENDI raised smile. Thanks to blogger and setter.
  19. Terrible start with just TROPE (is that what it means then?) and BOTTOMS UP (failed to work out the OTTOMS part, thinking B____/UP was PUB backwards) pencilled in from the first run through.

    PLACE MAT, AGHAST, ESSENTIAL and HACKNEYED got me going after which it was a steady solve, though did not see the trick with EFFENDI (bunged in with three checkers) and paused for thought as to whether COUNTERMOTION or COUNTERNOTION would be better.

    Very enjoyable challenge!

  20. Glad to see that others struggled. I was doing ok until I was left with *i*-c*n at 26a and simply could not see it so got another cup of tea. In these parts it’s either written out in full or abbreviated as a/c so as Vinyl says it’s unfamiliar and looks odd. The kind of Memorial Day weekend we’ve had this year called for a roaring fire or toasty central heating, not AIR-CON – absolutely freezing. 22.56
  22. 13:27. More or less bang on my personal NITCH. Some of this was tricky but none of it held me up for too long. I did have a mild panic at the end with only AGHAST, HACKNEYED and EYELT left and no idea what was going on, but eventually I managed to discard all the wrong ideas I had about how 5ac worked (reversal of IS, good laugh = GAS, PI) and spot the right ones.
  23. Struggled a bit. Knew EFFENDi but needed to remember the decreasing idea to get the crossing f.

    It was MAINSTAY that defeated me. Noone else has commented on it but I still don’t understand how “finding” can indicate losing the s. Had forgotten that special could be s as well as sp but even so

    BOTTOMS UP went straight but unparsed and came out at one point but it had to be. Even when saw the backwards motto still couldn’t quite work it out. Brilliant clue

    Thanks Mr Vinyl for the blog and music recommendation, and setter of course

    1. I took special as part of the definition – special staple / mainstay. I can’t see it working as part of the wordplay.
    2. I should add, I did find some support in Chambers and in Collins for stay singular rather than stays to mean corset. Not in ODE online though.
    3. Ignorance helps. Ma in stay, for me, is old lady in corset. Special staple as mainstay worked for me at the time, but not in retrospect. The clue doesn’t seem to work… special is one word too many; and “finding” as a link word is… OK by me, just. Does special clue ‘S’? Not in Chambers, and they make up more words that don’t really exist than any other dictionary.
      I solved it easily, but give it a fail.
      1. Thanks. If it makes sense I tend to solve more by w/p than definition so if the w/p baffles me it can distract from just finding the synonym. Tbh mainstay didn’t spring to mind not least as I was looking for one word. I have a twin who does these things — he was a dnf on the same clue funnily enough
  24. 23.36 a very satisfying tussle for the Bank Holiday. I failed to parse effendi properly so grateful for the explanation in the blog.
  25. Sometimes they just seem to fall into place; in this case, aided by very helpful crossers. I did like EFFENDI but I’m not sure about MAINSTAY.

    Thanks to vinyl and the setter.

  26. Nice puzzle, though pretty chewy for a Monday. NE corner took some time to yield, but I got there in the end and was somewhat surprised to find that I’d come in under the hour (by 23 seconds), even after listening to a lady on the phone telling me, for the second time today, that there is something wrong with my broadband and that BT just needs me to confirm my password so they can fix it for me. So kind of them to offer, but I wonder why every time they call me it’s from a different international number?
    1. I’m glad the lady has found more secure employment. She’d been ringing me from the Central Crime Agency about my NI number being involved in fraud — clever, since there ain’t no such animal.
  27. ….and down with the frog !” (10cc: “Oh Effendi”).

    A clever and engaging puzzle that didn’t fail to entertain. Slow start, similar but steady progress.

    FOI ON EDGE
    LOI AIR-CON
    COD EFFENDI
    TIME 14:46

  28. 28:58. My progress was achieved very much in fits and starts incorporating a fair amount of biffing and I felt I just about staggered over the line this evening.
    One of those puzzles where I can only tip my hat to the setter for a superbly clever set of clues and to Vinyl for his clear explanation of the subtleties I did not see!
    COD ?? all of ’em!
  29. Didn’t enjoy this all that much while solving it (or better, inching my way through it), but I did solve it in 4 minutes under an hour and after looking at the other postings that doesn’t even seem to be too bad. In retrospect it is a very clever and subtle puzzle. Many of the comments have far better parsings than mine, although they also worked (give or take the odd S as in BOTTOMS UP). My LOI were the EFFENDI-NONET crossing (a relief since NO(3-letter fish) wasn’t going anywhere), followed by correcting CAN-CAN to AIR-CON (the last time I heard that it was in Belgian French, though). Nice puzzle.
  30. Not a hope on this one. It’s pretty much incomprehensible to the beginner and I managed only three answers. (11 & 26Ac, 2D.) At least they were correct! I bow to all you finishers.
  31. colonialboy posting from iPhone…hoo boy! 8 ac is a real stretch 😎

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