Times 28,025: Citpyrc Acid

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A pretty plain puzzle for a Friday, not easy to blaze through as it’s harder to *find* the component parts of a clue when they’re short and straight down the line. I don’t have an awful lot to say about the clues: the two reverse cryptics probably being the standout feature. After 5 years of fooling around I finally cracked and let Vinyl recommend to me Mohn’s blog generating script, and it was indeed quite convenient, so thanks setter and Mohn!

Real-time solve video available here (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1081086200) from about the 7m15 mark. There is even audio by that point, all mod cons!

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Accommodate man in bar for a fight (12)
QUARTERSTAFF – QUARTER [accommodate] + STAFF [man]

9 Receives permission to get key (5)
ISLET – or IS LET [receives permission]

10 Cryptic indication of pets out of public view (9)
BACKSTAGE – a reverse cryptic: if a step is a STAGE then to get to “pets” you have to BACK STAGE

11 Guarantee doctor cures one case in Torbay (8)
SECURITY – (CURES*) + I + T{orba}Y

12 Pulse is fast, almost unhealthy (6)
LENTIL – LENT [fast] + IL{l}. FOI

13 Notable eastern meat wraps gent uncovered (8)
EMINENCE – E MINCE “wraps” {g}EN{t}

15 This person’s item in hamper (6)
IMPAIR – I’M [this person is] + PAIR [= couple = item]

17 Place currency the wrong way, a bit of our capital (6)
PUTNEY – PUT + reversed YEN

18 Inclined a certain way, criminal now hid £50 (8)
DOWNHILL – (NOW HID*) + L L [£ | 50]

20 Red Guards where children play, or where they’re tended (6)
CRECHE – CHE “guards” REC. “They” refers back to the children

21 Settlement has hotel in rubbish place (8)
TOWNSHIP – OWNS H, in TIP

24 Successfully sought fish one wants fostering (9)
FOUNDLING – or FOUND LING

25 Extreme characters with anger about Asian (5)
AZERI – A + Z + reversed IRE

26 Amazing seed, if so, could become seaweed (3-9)
AWE-INSPIRING – another reverse cryptic: if SEED “inspires” AWE, it becomes SE{AWE}ED

Down
1 Agree to cut air-conditioning pipe down (7)
QUIESCE – {ac}QUIESCE

2 Good position that red-top journalist may have (1,5,2,3,3)
A PLACE IN THE SUN – idiomatic/more literal double def

3 Rejecting seconds, one who tries starchy food (5)
TATER – TA{s}TER

4 Strips covering of ear in technologist’s domain (8)
ROBOTICS – ROBS [strips] “covering” OTIC [of ear]. LOI

5 Speaker’s changed direction, showing sensitivity (4)
TACT – homophone of TACKED

6 Female — is the lady’s beau James or John? (9)
FISHERMAN – F + IS HER MAN; Biblical ref

7 Poet, I hear, detailing suffering (5,9)
DANTE ALIGHIERI – (I HEAR DETAILING*). This is a good anagram but is it, I ask you, as good as RAGE IN THE ILIAD (© Tees)?

8 We’re told where to find wine merchant (6)
SELLER – homophone of CELLAR

14 Some slap got by dog chasing our setter, we’ve heard (9)
EYESHADOW – SHADOW [dog] chasing homophone of I

16 Provided old pine carried by soldiers (2,4,2)
SO LONG AS – O LONG “carried by” S.A.S.

17 Quick to conceal tiff, at heart calm (6)
PACIFY – PACY “concealing” {t}IF{f}

19 Softly land in trail for flier (7)
LAPWING – P WIN, in LAG [trail]

22 Part of Bologna a filthy mess, perhaps (5)
NAAFI – hidden in {bolog}NA A FI{lthy}. Stands for “Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes”

23 Note repeated in soprano’s part (4)
MIMI – MI [note] * 2. La Boheme ref

67 comments on “Times 28,025: Citpyrc Acid”

  1. I can’t believe you never used the script before. I can imagine quite accurately what putting the blog together without it would be like, and the difficulty would be exponentially greater because you don’t have a week to fiddle with it like I do. Of course, I also always make a few adjustments to satisfy my own æsthetic sense, and I’ve never gotten around to incorporating those extra steps in the script, which would be easy enough to do… But one of those adjustments is adding vertical space between the entries, as you don’t get that with the version of the text that I use (the only one, of the two, that worked for me)…

    I am glad to have caught up with this week’s 15x15s, having finished Wednesday’s and done Thursdays before doing this one, which I found quite satisfying, though I had to look up NAAFI after the fact.

    NHO (AFAIK) QUARTERSTAFF, parsed BACKSTAGE and ROBOTIC post-biff, LOI PUTNEY. (Oddly enough, the movie Putney Swope had already been brought to my attention today, but that has nothing to do with—any—London.)

    Edited at 2021-07-09 05:02 am (UTC)

    1. When I started blogging I used to compile the blog in Excel using a self-written Visual Basic macro script before transferring into LJ for final editing. This required many a manual intervention along the way and was an absolute nightmare although I didn’t think so at the time. I also wrote an instruction to myself to follow each time to make sure I did everything in the right order which was essential if it was to work, and that ran to two sides of A4. Later on this all had to be reworked when we decided that blogs should incorporate the clues. We’ve certainly come a long way since those days!

      Edited at 2021-07-09 06:35 am (UTC)

  2. Fast for me for a Friday, but it certainly didn’t feel easy. I never did figure out AWE-INSPIRING, which I biffed from the W. Also biffed BACKSTAGE (LOI), where I did see ‘step’ reversed, but didn’t make the connection to STAGE. I liked CRECHE, and QUARTERSTAFF (‘bar for a fight’). V, your defs are underlined, but not in italics.
    1. Oops, I just realized that I didn’t parse that one either… After all, I’d just worked two puzzles and was glad to have finished with the rest of the night still ahead of me!

      Edited at 2021-07-09 05:00 am (UTC)

  3. I was up with the lark to finish an essay and was able to download at 7.05 local time and finish just before breakfast at 8.00am*. It was already baking-hot even with the AC full-on.At 1dn the AC was full-off!

    FOI 2dn A PLACE IN THE SUN

    LOI 5dn TACT

    COD 17ac PUTNEY – where the Boat Race begins and Harry Selfridge ended.

    WOD 7dn DANTE ALIGHIERI which I had vaguely remembered around 7.30am

    *Note to Mr. Myrtilus re-brekker – small imported (South Africa) grapefruit are absolutely top notch here in Rainbow Bridge, Shanghai! Along with the old Jamaica Blue Mountain and a spot of brown toast with fresh blackberry jam. Fig jam arrived yesterday! The goat cheese awaits.

  4. Three days of hurt never stopped me dreaming…that I could finish a crossword successfully. As is typically the case, I still had certain doubts on submitting — had I got the letters for DANTE in the right place? Was MIMI definitely the soprano part and not TITI? Hopefully my turn of form is an omen for England this weekend. It is coming home isn’t it?

    Edited at 2021-07-09 05:59 am (UTC)

  5. I had to work out DANTE’s name from the letters but luckily there was really only one plausible alternative. This was slower going than it should have been since there were no real obscurities.
  6. Robotics definitely COD, because it beat me, and it shouldn’t have. Just couldn’t see a word to fit, and missed the otic part trying various parsings. And I spent half my life working with underwater robots. Liked the awe-inspiring, not so much the backstage where step and stage aren’t the first things you’d think of.
    Dante a foreign anagram, normally hated, but I know his name. Other possible anagrams:
    Haiti realigned (very topical)
    Genitalia hider
    I’d inherit algae (from 26 ac?)
    Die again, Hitler!
    Italian dirge, eh? (aka The Divine Comedy)
    etc.
  7. Not the motto of this site.

    25 mins pre-brekker to get to the LOI alpha-trawl for Putney. I’m not a Lahndener.
    Then went back to understand the seaweed. Very clever.
    Thanks setter and V.

    1. No quince jelly, which I used to buy from a tapas bar in Walthamstow Village. Should that not be ‘Lunnoner’!?
  8. SO LONG AS you get 16 right
    Then the end of the grid is in sight
    If “AS LONG….” is your fill
    Then it all goes DOWNHILL
    And 18 wiil take you aĺl night

    When you get the final it’s swell
    But then you exclaim “Bloody hell!”
    As a terminal sting
    It’s a bird, the LAPWING
    When lapping would have done just as welll

  9. Not difficult, but I gave up on 7dn as my LOI and looked it up. I suspected DANTE-something but I wasn’t sure, and the remaining anagrist didn’t look promising. I was going to say I never heard of his second name but I see it came up in a 15×15 once before, again on Verlaine’s watch, on 14 July 2017, when I also didn’t know it.
  11. Wonderful to watch the live solve. I’ve often wondered how the speed merchants do it.
  12. Pleased to be close to Jason & Verlaine for once … relatively plain sailing for a Friday puzzle (although I think Thursday’s tend to be harder) … with very neat, concise, unambiguous clues and no real heffalumps of consequence (one might biff CELLAR, and AS LONG AS as some seem to have done). Many thanks to blogger & setter. I, for one, shall not be “coming home” for a while as I have only received the superior (to AZ) Moderna jab but got it where I live and not on the NHS .. bah humbug!
  13. I didn’t know that DANTE ALIGHIERI was his full name, but the checkers were helpful and only really left one option for filling in the gaps. It took me longer than it should have done to remember that ‘notable’ can be a noun as well as an adjective, which held up EMINENCE, and the last ones to come were QUIESCE and the unknown QUARTERSTAFF. Had no idea what was going on with NAAFI either, and I initially ruled the hidden out as with two As in a row it looked implausible until other answers pointed me in the right direction.

    FOI Tater
    LOI Quarterstaff
    COD Robotics

  14. 34 minutes. LOI AZERI which at last confirmed I’d spelt Dante’s second name right. COD to FISHERMEN, though I was disappointed not to be able to fit Zebedee in. Boing! Good puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
  15. 23:16. Stuck for an age in the NW corner where I had only 2D 11A and 13A solved. I eventually thought of acQUIESCE and the rest came in a rush. LOI TACT failing for a long time to spot it was a homophone. Doh! Pleased to get there in the end after being becalmed for so long. I liked TOWNSHIP and AWE-INSIPIRING best and that we had 4 words ending in I down the bottom. Thanks V and setter.
  16. 22:47. I got completely stuck for a good ten minutes with six clues left to solve at the top of the puzzle. There were a couple of these (TACT, TATER) where I really should have got the answer more quickly but I thought QUARTERSTAFF and QUIESCE were genuinely difficult clues. At 10ac I was utterly convinced that the answer was going to be a cryptic indication for CAT, DOG, HAMSTER or something.
  17. 21.13 for this, the top left being most resistant. QUIESCE both is and looks like a part of longer words rather than a stand-alone, and needed QUARTERSTAFF, (well they might have given him a whole one ISIRTA) to emerge.
    Liked the reverse cryptics.
    Took care after yesterday that it was FISHERMAN.
    Had a quiet smile at the idea of children playing in The Rec, getting mown down Boris style by Bath rugger types, though I gather it’s home to other sports too.
    More fun than the occasionally more earnest V-pleasing Friday.

    Edited at 2021-07-09 08:46 am (UTC)

  18. The NW corner got too difficult for me. NHO QUARTERSTAFF and failed to get it from the clue. Also failed to get BACKSTAGE and QUIESCE. Solved all three with aids in the end but mistakenly “submitted with leaderboard”.
      1. I did see the article, Jerry, but didn’t want to read it as I knew the effect it would have on me but I did follow the link you sent me and sure enough….Thank you, anyway.
  19. This was the weapon of choice for Little John, was it not?
    Enjoyed the reverse cryptic-fest, SEAWEED particularly.So COD to 26ac AWE-INSPIRING – like Verlaine’s Vids.
    I was on the wave-length and flew home in 17:37 mins.
    1. Unspammed. You need to have a space after every full stop or Live Journal thinks it’s a url and treats it as suspicious.
  20. Glad to see no pink squares today. Didn’t parse AWE-INSPIRING or LAPWING. At least I managed to spell DANTE right at the first attempt (and then checked the anagrist).

    Thanks V and setter.

  21. Tough going, with QUARTERSTAFF and QUIESCE last 2 in. Took an age to see why 5d was TACT, doh! TATER also puzzled me for far too long. Was trying for much too long to solve 1a as an anagram of (man in bar for a)* defining fight(which of course precluded TATER and TACT). Had to juggle the anagrist to get DANTE’s second name. Liked AWE INSPIRING. Enjoyable puzzle. 46:22. Thanks setter and V.
  22. All was going swimmingly until I had to try and remember Dante’s full name. Alas, ARIGHIELI looked plausible enough, although if I’d given a bit more time to thinking about it perhaps I’d have realised that -ERI was more likely than -ELI. 5m 46s with that error. Shame, as I felt on the wavelength otherwise.

    I had BACKSTAIR initially at 10a. According to my Chambers this isn’t a word – only BACKSTAIRS (‘secret or underhand’) – but I suspect if I tracked down a dictionary big enough I might be able to claim it.

  23. But with Gigi for Mimi and a typo, so two errors GRRR. Wasn’t mad about the backstage clue, though I see now how it works. Luckily I didn’t put in Backspace, but it was a close call.

        1. In crosswordland one has to think forwards and backwards. With today’s 15×15 one is required to think backwards (five times!), sideways a couple of times and even out of the box.
  25. Yes, the 1a/1d intersection was tough. Then I recalled Robin Hood (riding through the glen) meeting Little John on a bridge where they fought with QUARTERSTAFFs. I can’t remember who won but LJ joined the Merrie Men of Sherwood. Did not parse BACKSTAGE, thanks V. 21.20
    1. Robin definitely won. Else it would have been Little John’s Merry Men presumably!
    2. I hate to disagree with V, who no doubt is right, but I remember Robin going into the water first. Maybe it was the best of three.
        1. I was remembering the Richard Greene version on ITV in the fifties. Surely the definitive version would be Errol Flynn in 1938, which was still playing in about 1950. I got so excited that I ran up and down the cinema aisle swashing my buckle or is it the other way round?
        2. But for me, the mystery is how did the Americans ever come to the conclusion that Robin Hood should be pronounced with a heavy emphasis on the Robin and the Hood almost as an afterthought?
  26. I found this harder than everyone else. Over an hour and a half, but finally made it with an unparsed BACKSTAGE my last in. I was pleased to have cottoned on to the ‘Some slap’ def at 14d and to have remembered NAAFI from somewhere – ? Spike Milligan.

    Thanks to Verlaine and setter

  27. AZURI was a problem. Sent me into extra time. I finally prevailed though, I’m pleased to say.
  28. Slowish start but once out for the lunchtime walk, flow increased.

    Failed to parse both ‘reverse cryptics’ and took a while at the end to see 1a and 1d. Until I hit on ISLET, could not place what word might be missing AC. With the Q in place, 1a was simple.

  29. Another week of silly mistakes and general failure finishes with me totally on the setter’s wavelength. Didn’t parse AWE-INSPIRING or go back and check the fodder for DANTE ALIGHIERI so was happy not to see any pesky pink squares. FOI was PLACE IN THE SUN after which (as I often seem to) I went south and worked around clockwise without *too* many hold-ups. Good stuff.
  30. Found this tough going, but worth persevering with. Took ages to see TACT and BACKSTAGE.

    All worth it for a mention of Putney. Footfalls echo in the memory…The Duke’s Head, The Jolly Gardeners The Bricklayers …

    Thanks to Verlaine and the setter.

  32. NHO either of the Qs at top left and ROBOTICS and ISLET wouldn’t yield without them. Some nice stuff here though, esp AWE-INSPIRING and BACKSTAGE which, perhaps not coincidentally, are the two reverse cryptics. Plain it may be to our blogger, who inspires awe every week, but not to me. Thanks to blogger and setter.
  33. 36.10 with persistence if not genius rewarded. A good end to the week. LOI downhill, largely due to having as long as rather than so…. for too long. Struggled in the NW corner before quarterstaff was solved and more or less guessed quiesce without working out the ac bit.

    Backstage was solved due to the crossers and it’s only after reading Verlaine’s explanation three times that I finally got it.

    A toughie I thought but thanks setter and blogger.

  34. 14:25 this afternoon. Another puzzle I really enjoyed, only MER at 4 d, where my immediate thought was “robotics” but I didn’t really equate “rob” with “strip”.
    LOI 5 d “tact” which I couldn’t parse until I finally appreciated there was a homophone indicator staring me in the face.
    There is always a risk in concentrating too much on the clock and I had my come-uppance with 16 d “so long as”, where I began with “as” without parsing which in turn caused problems with 18 ac “downhill”.
    Although I particularly liked 26 ac “awe inspiring”, my personal COD was 22d “naafi”. Bologna is possibly my favourite Italian city and indeed has its share of messy graffiti-strewn walls, but it also has some wonderfully unpretentious neighbourhood restaurants. So for me at least the surface was somehow appropriate.
    Thanks to Verlaine for his blog and the setter for providing a fine end to another week.
  35. ….and found this to my taste. It took me a little while to spot QUARTERSTAFF, and I might not have got my LOI without the crucial Q. Thanks to V for parsing BACKSTAGE, which I really should have seen.

    FOI SECURITY
    LOI QUIESCE
    COD LENTIL
    TIME 8:26

  36. However I’ve been out for the day and was only just able to post having been off grid all day.
    As a non literary science type, I don’t know DANTES surname, so ended up with AGILHIERI.
    Slow due to much snoozing!
  37. DNF. This was a fairly routine 20 min solve for me with a slight hold up at quiesce and quarterstaff. Unfortunately I saw pets reversed was step and thought of pace, that led me to backspace. Should’ve tarried a little and thought harder, perhaps I would’ve seen that backs wasn’t right and that it had to be back. Unless space is synonymous with step in which case I claim a valid alternative. I suspect that at best they might be linked via a three point turn in the dictionary rather than true synonyms though.
    1. I also thought this, but if you use definition and answer as NOUNS then it works. As in ‘he was greeted by a notable’ and ‘he was greeted by an eminence’.
  39. 37 minutes, late after tennis and dinner, no problems, LOI TATER, wavered between SELLER and cellar. Plumped correctly.
  40. I had a hard time with QUARTERSTAFF and QUIESCE, but I roughly knew Dante’s name, so assembling the fodder was quickly done. I took NAAFI on faith.

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