Times 28036 – my home in a crossword

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time taken: 11:21.  Just on my average time, though looking at the first set of solvers I might have had a leg up, particularly with one clue.

A lot of hyphenated clues, and I wonder if the setter was going for some sort of theme, with three of the four long edge answers being 5,5 or 5-5.

I will check back in the morning for a postscript, but as I am on the East coast of the USA, I will not be able to answer questions, so check the comments first.

Postscript: glad the commenters were with me on liking 1 across, and sorry about my flub in the blog where the intention was PARENT HES, and some careless underlining of definitions.

Away we go…

Across
1 Liverpool’s two sides are so evenly matched? (5-5)
FIFTY-FIFTY – I liked this clue! The first and last letters of Liverpool are both L’s, meaning FIFTY in Roman numerals
6 Ditch, the largest, is jumped initially the wrong way (4)
JILT – the first letters in The Largest Is Jumped all reversed
10 Dish from the French, outwardly more Italian (5)
PILAU – LA(the in French) inside PIU(more, Italian musical term)
11 Criticise book that’s eclipsed the writer’s play (9)
PANTOMIME – PAN(criticise), TOME(book) containing I’M(the writer’s)
12 Clubs do like the odd person to bring fruit (4,10)
CAPE GOOSEBERRY – C(clubs), APE(do like), GOOSEBERRY(the odd person in a threesome)
14 Distinctive sound coming from pub, I note (7)
PHONEME – PH(Public House, pub), ONE(I), ME(musical note)
15 Something that dissolves, once mixed with tea (7)
ACETONE – anagram of ONCE and TEA – that Chemistry degree coming in useful here
17 Clement largely in December, after vacation turning unsettled (7)
RATTLED – Clement ATTLEE missing the last letter inside the outer letters of DecembeR reversed
19 Type article out of disgust? (7)
VERSION – remove A(article) from AVERSION(disgust)
20 Bracketing together of dads perhaps by one: both evil and good (14)
PARENTHESISING – I think I have this parsed… the dads are PARENTS and HE PARENT HES (see comments) , then I(one), SIN(evil) and G(good)
23 Month in travelling circus ok for loud entertainment? (4,5)
ROCK MUSIC – M(month) inside an anagram of CIRCUS,OK
24 Got to fly: inspector’s outside at the front! (5)
IRKED – KED(fly) after the exterior letters in InspectoR
25 Totalled a large amount (4)
SLEW – double definition, totalled meaning killed here
26 Revealing article about state of Raleigh’s carelessness (10)
NEGLIGENCE – NEGLIGEE(revealing article) surrounding NC(North Carolina, the US state which has Raleigh as the capital).  I have lived in NC for 22 years, so this was a simpler one for me.
Down
1 Large leaks from tanks affected people (4)
FOPS – remove L(large) from FLOPS(tanks)
2 Laugh loudly — quite a fit! (4,5)
FALL ABOUT – F(loudly) then ALL(quite), A, BOUT(fit)
3 The solver’s counting on the setter, indeed! (5,7,2)
YOURE TELLING ME –  YOU’RE(the solver), TELLING(counting votes), ME(the setter). A little grammatical liberty perhaps…
4 Press learning of mischief? (7)
IMPLORE –  the learning of mischief could be IMP LORE
5 State of muesli ingredients maybe served up without starters (7)
TUNISIA – the muesli ingredients are RAISIN and NUT.  Remove the first letter of each and reverse
7 Circuiteer in places that are even more distant (5)
ICIER – alternating letters in cIrCuItEeR
8 Very little to go on, ultimately, in adolescent years (5-5)
TEENY-WEENY – WEE(to go to the toilet), and the last letter of oN inside TEEN(adolescent) and two Y’s(years)
9 Taking for a ride that leaves one back at same ferry port? (6-8)
DOUBLE-CROSSING – if you double crossed you would end up where you started
13 Fancy paper’s used with skill on small items for repair (5,5)
SPARE PARTS – anagram of PAPER’S then ART(skill), S(small)
16 What an expert knows related in special paper (5,4)
ONION SKIN – an expert knows their ONIONS then KIN(related)
18 Burst of French welcome — that is, when meeting English (7)
DEHISCE – DE(of in French), HI(welcome), SC(scilicet, that is) and E(English). Another time the Chemistry degree came in handy, as it is often used to describe cell destruction
19 Bladder’s thus situated in calf (7)
VESICAL –  SIC(thus) inside VEAL(calf)
21 Scout in park descending on church (5)
RECCE – REC(park) and CE(church)
22 From trailer’s picked up dresser of wood (4)
ADZE – sounds like AD’S(trailer’s)

55 comments on “Times 28036 – my home in a crossword”

  1. Very slow going. Fortunately, I remembered DEHISCE, a DNK from some time back, and GOOSEBERRY from a more recent cryptic. Had to work out the CAPE part. It took me a long time to figure out who Clement was. Biffed NEGLIGENCE, parsed post-submission; North Carolina is in a QC clue today, as well. I was reluctant to enter SLEW; I’ve never seen or heard ‘total’ used to mean kill, only wreck. I liked IRKED, but COD to FIFTY-FIFTY. ON EDIT: VESICAL being adjectival, shouldn’t the underline extend to the ‘s?

    Edited at 2021-07-22 05:57 am (UTC)

  2. The opposite to Kevin, very speedy, seemed to see everything with unusual clarity. Except the last 2 in, JILT and ICIER, which ironically were sitting there staring me in the face. PARENTHESISING harder to parse than fill in – I decided the fathers were parent hes, as the clue was written, the “one” must be the first I.
    I’m not a stalker (honest) but you are about as far as it is possible to be from Raleigh and still be in NC, George? You said once you were in Asheville, I think? When a clue came up for somewhere due south, and I looked up a map.
    Also liked fifty-fifty a lot, but COD to NEGLIGENCE.

    Edited at 2021-07-22 03:36 am (UTC)

    1. Yes, Asheville is up the other end of the state, takes me about 4 hours to drive to Raleigh, which I have to do a few times a year as one of the programs I administer locally is run out of North Carolina State University. I guess if the setter knew it was my turn to blog they could have sneaked Asheville in (I once appeared in a Listener clue).
  3. My parsing is PARENT HES, “dads” etc. (I don’t see any insertion indication.)
    GOOSEBERRY, in one sense alluded to here, came up in a Sunday cryptic I blogged. I had to get the CAPE from the wordplay.
    DEHISCE is a bit technical but I first made its acquaintance in a poem.
  4. 46 minutes, with all parsed except for TUNISIA; I tried to fit in “oats” as a ‘muesli ingredient(s)’, which didn’t work and I wondered why NUT was ‘served up’ with a starter instead of ‘without’. I liked the ‘Got to’ and ‘Totalled’ defs for 24a and 25a and was helped by being able to remember KED as a ‘fly’ which infests sheep.

    In a surgical sense, when a wound starts to DEHISCE, a bit of TAXIS is usually needed PDQ.

    Thanks to George and setter

  5. 37 minutes with quite a lot of time lost trying to parse several clues. I got there with most of them in the end except ‘state of Raleigh’, and PARENTHESISING which I think is unsatisfactory.
  6. Like yesterday I finished with everything either parsed or confidently biffed which makes a pleasant change. I was pleased to remember DEHISCE as having come up before, particularly as I tend to forget sc for “that is”. ADZE was easy enough to remember given it came up last week! Strangely enough when I searched to see when it last came up, the first hit was dorsetjimbo commenting on that and PHONEME in a crossword from 2008.

    COD to FIFTY FIFTY. I thought straight away that the clue was referring to the two Ls but it took me to nearly the end for the penny to fully drop.

  7. After 20 mins I had Tunisia to parse and Slew to convince myself that it could mean totalled.
    I liked it. Some very clever stuff, e.g. Atlee, double crossing, teeny weeny.
    Thanks setter and G.
  8. 26 minutes with LOI ADZE. VESICAL was constructed and DEHISCE remembered from previous encounters rather than Chemistry lessons. ACETONE did come from there. COD to DOUBLE CROSSING, I liked RATTLED as well. I didn’t parse TUNISIA, even though I was eating MUESLI with both ingredients at the time. Enjoyable. Thank you George and setter..
  9. 33:13
    One to test the memory of recent puzzles. Adze, ked and dehisce are tricky, but we’ve had them before not so long ago. LOI implore; couldn’t get the learning bit for a while, then just saw it.
    Thanks, g.
  10. One just had a sense from the start
    That this puzzle was one set apart
    So many great clues
    About which to enthuse
    This was criciverbalist art
  11. 16′ 16″, with ADZE LOI.

    ACETONE — peardrops, first aid, diabetes, ketoacidosis was my knowledge, I didn’t know it dissolved.

    Thanks george and setter.

    Edited at 2021-07-22 07:57 am (UTC)

    1. It dissolves almost anything plastic, seemingly, if you’ve ever tried to clean something with it.
  12. 16.33, with more time spent on proofreading than usual. A clever crossword where I found I needed to be sure of the (often tricky) wordplay to enter confidently.
    I’ll add RECce to the list of recent appearances: it’s becoming quite a regular.
    Raleigh didn’t help me find North Carolina: I’d remind fellow solvers of the potato and bike connections, which puzzled me for a bit.
    I was prepared with my VAR appeal for SLEW: I thought there might well be other solutions.
    My first crack at 1d was FAYS, taking tanks to mean beats soundly, hence flays, and no L. I could squeeze it to mean affected people, with perhaps a bit of risk. Clever, huh?
    50/50 was a fine clue, probably one the setter has been saving up for a while and put into pride of place.

  13. I enjoyed this a lot. For those of us who see a urologist on a reasonably regular basis, VESICAL was not a problem!
    Haven’t we had ONION SKIN recently?
    10ac: I’ve been playing my Deutsche Gramophone CD of the highlights of The Marriage of Figaro in the car recently and one of the arias I hit ‘repeat’ on was ‘Non PIU Andrai’.
    FOI: JILT LOI: SLEW…opposite corners of the grid.
    I really liked PILAU, IRKED and IMPLORE but COD to FIFTY FIFTY. The Everton FC retail store in the Liverpool 1 mall is called ‘Everton 2’. Clever, yes?!

    Edited at 2021-07-22 08:33 am (UTC)

    1. I once learned Non piu andrai to sing as an audition piece for an amateur production (not of Figatro, but of something else). Took me a long time, listening to the recording by Ezio Pinza in my car on an endless loop as I travelled to and from work.

      I got to the rehearsal room, got the accompanist to give me my note, launched into my rendition and was stopped by the music director after 20 seconds with a smiling ‘Thank you.’

      Not like Glee at all…

      Edited at 2021-07-22 09:42 am (UTC)

      1. Oh, ulaca, my sympathies! My one singing role was in a Jeddah Light Opera production of “Die Fledermaus” back in 1987 or ’88 in Saudi. I played Dr Blind. Evening rehearsals were invariably interrupted by the evening prayer call from the local mosque. The muezzin might at least have made his calls in the same key as us!
        I once saw an entertaining English language production of The Marriage of Figaro as part of the Thaxted Festival in Essex.

        Edited at 2021-07-22 10:06 am (UTC)

      2. At least you weren’t asked to mime at the Wolf Cub Concert because you were putting the others off. I was.
    2. Yes we definitely had onion skin the other day. i have given up commenting on these repetitions, which I think are probably software driven

      Do tell us more Martin, about your regular urologist visits? I think I am pleased to say that VESICAL was a nho for me

      1. I think I will pass on that invitation, Jerry. A recent appointment involved the use of probes in sensitive areas!
        1. Wise.

          When I fell off a mountain a few years ago, I spent long enough in hospital that I had to have a catheter inserted. One is never quite the same person, after that ..

  14. Pleasing puzzle with some good wordplays. I would raise slight eyebrow at “on, ultimately” for N; just think the last letter of a 2-letter word is a tad feeble. Very clever idea for TUNISIA slightly spoiled by fact that NUT has a T at its end. But these really very minor quibbles in an accomplished crossword. Many thanks, as ever, to setter and blogger.
  15. 12:24: medium difficulty. A few words I only know from solving these things: REC, KED, DEHISCE, ADZE.
    I also read 20ac as PARENT HES, otherwise the ‘bracketing’ has to be doing double duty.
    For a few years I was a regular visitor to Cary in North Carolina which involved taking the Glaxo Express from Heathrow to Raleigh.
    1. I’m with you on ADZE, KED and DEHISCE but REC is very familiar to me. I spent many a happy time “up the rec” in my childhood.
      1. RECCE, though, I first encountered in the twisty, misty lanes of Crosswordland.

        Edited at 2021-07-22 03:28 pm (UTC)

    2. Not that I’ve been stalking you or anything, but I thought the wife was from Canada…
  16. Having battled my way through this tricky offering in 39:34, I was particularly miffed to discover a typo at 4d. INPLORE. Dratted fat fingers and careless proof reading! Like Z, I was unsure of SLEW, but after FLOPS for tanks, I figured it’s just how this setter was thinking. Thanks setter and George.
  17. Some nice stuff here, with pennies dropping in various places at varying speeds (I especially liked the “state of Raleigh”). Took a long time and an alphabet trawl to fill in S_E_, however, mostly avoiding the temptation to force SHED into two meanings, neither of which it will quite stretch to.
  18. Lovely puzzle.

    George, I think you’ve underlined a bit too much of the clue for ICIER. I had it that the definition is just more distant with “in places that are even” being the instruction to take the even letters of circuiteer, which I thought was very cleverly done.

    I couldn’t parse the () clue myself but I’m in the PARENT HES camp now.

    Edit to add that I originally had SHED instead of SLEW but it didn’t quite fit either def or WP.

    Edited at 2021-07-22 09:17 am (UTC)

  19. Time 50:15 minutes.

    FOI 1ac FIFTY-FIFTY that was too easy to be COD! And Everton (The Toffee’s) don’t fit – innit!? Scousers!

    I had 4dn as IMPIOUS for a while too long

    LOI 10ac PILAU – didn’t parse

    COD 14ac PHONEME

    WOD 12ac CAPE GOOSEBERRY (physalis) or CHINESE LANTERN as they are known outside of China.

    What was unsatisfactory regardingtghe IKEAN (PARENTHESISING)?

  20. On the harder side.

    Alpha-trawl for SLEW. Biffed NEGLIGENCE with several checkers — no idea about Raleigh.

    Liked FIFTY-FIFTY and ONION SKIN.

  21. Off the scale slow and finally threw in the towel with VESICAL and VERSION unsolved.

    Edited at 2021-07-22 11:34 am (UTC)

  22. Liked it! Not hard but some fun clues. 25 minutes, LOI was SLEW which I had to get comfortable with, wasn’t sure. Biffed TEENY WEENY so thanks for explaining.
  23. Did not parse TEENY WEENY (thanks George) and had the same reservations as others on SLEW=totaled. The Outer Banks of NC is where hurricanes tend to hit first if they’re coming up the East coast (rather than slamming into Florida or the Gulf of Mexico), so this is the season when we keep an eye on that area. 19.52
    1. I suspect that if someone slew you, you might think differently about that, O
      [on edit: I am quite proud about being aware that Raleigh is in North Carolina and not just finishing his game of bowls in Plymouth, after all]

      Edited at 2021-07-22 02:17 pm (UTC)

  24. 32 mins but put phonete rather than phoneme and never got dehisce. Worked out the dehi and e but didn’t see sc as a version of that is.
    Been a tough week for me but good fun.
    Thanks setter and blogger.
  25. Spent last four or five minutes on slew. I associate totalling with wrecking inanimate objects like cars so this felt a bit ff. And like many others I am not happy with parent-hes = dads. Clever as far as it goes, but it’s not English. Guessed dehisce.
    1. All the dictionaries give “kill” as the primary sense of TOTAL, even if “wreck” appears a more common meaning.
  26. I liked 1d FOPS, 9dn DOUBLE CROSSING but had no truck with 25ac SLEW. My COD 26ac NEGLIGENCE because of Raleigh’s presence 18.09 minutes
  27. …..on the fingers of one hand, but only just. I resolved PHONEME and TEENY-WEENY afterwards, but needed George’s wisdom for ICIER and ADZE, and that of others here for the unnecessarily convoluted PARENTHESISING.

    FOI JILT
    LOI ADZE
    COD CAPE GOOSEBERRY
    TIME 11:36

  29. 47 minutes, so not easy for me, but very enjoyable. I especially liked the PARENT HES, but also the ONIONS as expert knowledge, the VEAL in VESICAL, the go+on ultimately in Y(ear)s in TEENY-WEENY and many other bits in these very imaginative clues. A few unknowns, like DEHISCE and VESICAL, but the wordplay was always fair.
    1. That’s accounted for by the apostrophe in the definition as underlined by George in the blog.
  31. 34.02. This was a bit of a struggle, rewarding though. Stuck at the end trying to summon vesical and trying to parse negligence. I thought the clue for fifty-fifty was terrific.

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