Times 28041 – on this day, July 28 …

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

… in 1928 the IX Olympiad began in Amsterdam, and in 1984 the XXIII in Altanta; how will the XXXII Tokyo  Olympiad be remembered, I wonder, prompted by the answer to 8d?
I found the top half of this puzzle easier than the lower half, taking about half an hour all told, then spent a while reading about 26a who, it seems, was not your run-of-the-mill philosopher and verging on bonkers.
Nothing unknown or hard to parse here, although it took me a while to get my LOI 19d, it being a northernism not in my everyday vocab.

Across
1 One who’s cunning by filling seats from the back (8)
SLYBOOTS – STOOLS (seats) has BY inserted and then is reversed (from the back).
6 Upset with vegetables I had rejected (6)
DISMAY – YAMS I’D reversed.
9 Jaws of whale possibly catching swimmer back in seaside town (5,8)
GREAT YARMOUTH – A GREAT MOUTH (the jaws of a whale possibly) has RAY reversed inserted.
10 Sweet easily chewed? (6)
TENDER – double definition.
11 More than one intended to invest new money (8)
FINANCES – FIANCES has N inserted.
13 Ten labouring on a chain — harsh (10)
ASTRINGENT – A, STRING, (TEN)*.
15 Oddly, the Welsh river in England (4)
TEES – alternate letters as above.
16 Fancy woman seen with that bloke (4)
WHIM – W(oman), HIM.
18 Biscuit type and bloomer to the left? (6,4)
BRANDY SNAP – BRAND (type), then PANSY reversed.
21 Gaudy stock stuffed in pocket (8)
TINSELLY – SELL (stock) inside TINY (pocket, small).
22 Day coats unfashionable in dyed sheepskin (6)
MOUTON – MON (day) coats OUT (unfashionable). I knew the French for sheep so just popped it in. Apparently in N. America they mess about with sheepskin to make it look like beaver skin, and call it mouton fur.
23 Teen chose wrong oven dish (6,2,5)
CHEESE ON TOAST – (TEEN CHOSE)*, OAST an oven for roasting hops.
25 Fireman back shortly, fine to go in (6)
STOKER – STER(N) = back shortly, insert OK= fine.
26 Old philosopher stops gathering old information (8)
DIOGENES – DIES (stops) insert O and GEN (info). Diogenes was a rather odd character, it seems, he lived in a large jar in the marketplace and wandered around with a lamp in daylight.

Down
2 Pickled, like worms, say? (7)
LEGLESS – amusing cryptic definition, pickled as in inebriated.
3 The necessary goodness in stuffing ingredient (11)
BREADCRUMBS – BREAD (a necessary thing), CRUMBS ! (Goodness !).
4 Heading off rat, aquatic animal (5)
OTTER – ROTTER (rat) loses R.
5 Pixie lover’s sent up a bit (7)
SNAFFLE – al reversed; ELF (pixie) FAN’S (lover’s). A horse tack thing.
6 After vandalising Monet, dad and I ran! (9)
DOMINATED – (MONET DAD I)*.
7 Individual cut, minimal amount of money (3)
SOU – SOUL loses L.
8 Competitor in lather out of bounds having caught obstacle (7)
ATHLETE – Lather “out of bounds” gives ATHE, insert LET = obstacle, legal meaning.
12 Nothing in season, Augusta having exported American plays (3,1,7)
NOT A SAUSAGE – remove US from AUGUSTA = AUGTA, anagram that with SEASON: (SEASON AUGTA)*. Does this phrase work abroad?
14 Device administering drug when mountain climbing rule is broken (9)
NEBULISER – BEN (mountain) climbs = NEB, (RULE IS)*.
17 Bob, say, helmeted Irish copper? (7)
HAIRCUT – IR CU (Irish copper) is “helmeted”, i.e. has HAT put around it.
19 Free choice at junction, regardless (7)
ANYROAD – Any road being a free choice at a junction; ANYROAD means the same as anyhow, oop north.
20 Column penned by perhaps bitter advocate (7)
APOSTLE – POST (column) inside ALE (perhaps bitter, beer).
22 “Head for Munich”, German saying (5)
MOTTO – M (head for Munich) OTTO (German chap popular in crosswords).
24 Time to dispense with leader — oh no! (3)
EEK – WEEK (time) dispenses with W. EEK! I’ve finished blogging already! Just need to add a few words of intro and a meaningful title.

​

46 comments on “Times 28041 – on this day, July 28 …”

  1. The last few –HAIRCUT, POI TINSELLY, LOI ANYROAD– took quite some time, but they came almost simultaneously. I knew YARMOUTH, of course, and assumed there was a GREAT one. DNK MOUTON or NEBULISER. I first encountered NOT A SAUSAGE quite recently, so it was fresh in memory, and I never did parse it.
  2. I also took some time to get TINSELLY and ANYROAD to finish (although in the other order). NEBULISER sounds more like some sort of ray-gun Dr Who might use. I’d never heard of MOUTON (in that sense) either, but I knew it was the French for sheep so I just assumed it was some piece of GK I didn’t know. I nearly put in TEST as my river in England before I slowed down and checked the letters more carefully.
  3. Enjoyed a lot of the cryptic bits in this – Crumbs!, 1ac being so literal, “head for Munich”, elf fan’s. Found it quite tricky and satisfying – not least because approximately 18 out of 28 answers are far outside my regular vocab.
    First guess was SOL{e} for 7 dn… there’s solidus, maybe it’s shortened somewhere? Finished on the left with tinselly, the unknown slyboots then tender.
    Thanks setter and blogger.
  4. 47 minutes for me too. The one I had most trouble with was TINSELLY. The ‘stock’ and ‘pocket’ wordplay suggested nouns and it took a while to think of ‘stock’ as a verb and ‘pocket’ as an adjective. Even so, ‘stock’ for to SELL, rather than to ‘store’, didn’t immediately come to mind. ANYROAD initially just went in from wordplay – I’ll nominate Claude Greengrass as my northerner who I could imagine using the term. NHO MOUTON or SLYBOOTS, though both seemed plausible enough. TENDER was also my LOI – perhaps in retrospect it shouldn’t have been.

    Favourite was DIOGENES, he of syndromic fame.

    Thanks to Pip and setter

  5. 47 minutes. I had completed the grid all bar 4 answers within my 30 minute target but I needed the rest of the time to come up with TINSELLY/ANYROAD and FINANCES/SNAFFLE.

    I quite surprised myself by getting SLYBOOTS quite early on.

    MOUTON was an educated guess based on wordplay and knowledge of French.

    I always thought it was ‘anyroads’. I can almost hear Hilda Ogden saying ‘anyroads oop, chook’ to Stan.

  6. I’m all or nothing so far this week with sub-10, DNF, sub-10. Today’s puzzle worked well for me in that unusually I knew all the less regular words. I never thought being asthmatic would be an advantage, but the thankfully rare use of a NEBULISER helped today. Like Pip and I’m sure many others MOUTON went in from the French for sheep. I thought my LOI TENDER was going to push my time out a bit as I was trying to think of some sort of dessert or confectionery. Possibly I had today’s foodie trip up to the Lake District in mind!
    1. Ah! The Land of Kendall Mint Cake which in lieu of 10ac is a sweet and not a cake (see also Pontefract Cake which is never featured in ‘Bake Off’!). I’m sure that Wainwright and ‘Ows’istrousers dined out on this less than tender delicacy.
      The Rambler
  7. Another French sheep here. I didn’t have too much trouble with the RHS, but the NW plus TINSELLY and ANYROAD held me up for quite a while. A biffed (t)ERM, at 24d held up STOKER too. Eventually LEGLESS broke the logjam in the NW, and SLYBOOTS appeared from nowhere to allow a rapid finish. SNAFFLE was LOI with a Doh! moment. 30:40. Thanks setter and Pip.
  8. …And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,

    30 mins pre-brekker with the last few unravelling Tinselly.
    I liked it and was pleased to fathom Slyboots, Snaffle, Anyroad.
    A MER at Woman=W. Usually we have Women’s (from clothes sizing, I assume) or Women (from WCs ?) — but where is W an abbreviation for Woman?

    Thanks setter and Pip.

    1. Good spot on the woman. Chambers has “Women or women’s” but not woman.
        1. I think the W=Wife is a family tree abbreviation, like Born, Died, Married.
  9. 14:03 No difficulties until I was held up at the end by TENDER and TINSELLY, which I initial spelt TINSELEY before the wordplay came to the rescue. I liked HAIRCUT and LEGLESS best. Thanks Pip and setter.
  10. Many unknown words that steady contemplation finally unraveled. My solving is largely down to the subconscious: stare at a clue and the empty squares, and the answer comes to mind, followed by the explanation. Rarely the other way around. I guess others work mainly with logic leading inevitably to the answer and still more mix it up. Interesting how the brain works!

    Thanks setter, Pip and my subconscious.

    1. This is usually my first approach, unless there’s a very obvious bit of wordplay that leaps out. I only start looking at clues analytically when I have to! For me one of the marks of a really good puzzle is when the first approach doesn’t work.

      Edited at 2021-07-28 09:35 am (UTC)

      1. Good point and one of the things I enjoy about the Mephisto and the Listener — the first approach rarely works!
  11. After 18′ I had a quarter to go, felt I was heading for a dnf, but it all fell into place and I finished in 23′ and a bit.

    BREADCRUMBS took a while, ANYROAD was OK, really liked NOT A SAUSAGE.

    Thanks pip and setter.

  12. The NW corner held me up while I was held up from completing this puzzle by watching Roglic win the Olympic Time Trial.
    The main hold up here were doh moments with LEGLESS and TENDER.
    NHO SLYBOOTS or MOUTON. So that’s what the French put in Chateau Mouton Rothschild: fermented sheep!
    Thanks, Pip, especially for explaining BRANDY SNAP. I see what you mean about DIOGENES being bonkers.
    In 11ac, whoever has more than one intended is in deep doodoo I would say!
    Favourites today were TINSELLY, GREAT YARMOUTH and DOMINATED.

    Edited at 2021-07-28 09:17 am (UTC)

  13. Almost exactly half an hour in total, interrupted by transport demands of daughter and constitutional requirements of her dog. LOI was TINSELLY, with neither Tiny or Sell immediately coming to mind. I only knew MOUTON as French for sheep. As a northern lad, COD has to go to ANYROAD, although I’d have had it as two words. I recall from my sojourn in the Midlands that it was ANY ROAD UP there. Definitely three words! Nice puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.
  14. Nothing too tricky today, and I particularly enjoyed the word SLYBOOTS – not in my everyday conversation, but I’m thinking of starting to use it.

    DISMAY was my last one in, taking longer than it should have after I couldn’t get DISMAL out of my head. Also slightly slowed by biffing GINGER SNAP, but fortunately DOMINATED was nicely clued to show me the error of my ways.

    7m 24s.

  15. 25.26. Slow start and even slower finish. FOI Great Yarmouth and LOI anyroad trying to fit in a T for junction proving a distraction. Tinselly was another teaser.

    Liked this one a lot especially slyboots and snaffle, my gold and silver winners. Bronze to haircut.
    Thankssetter and blogger.

  16. 40 minutes of which 10 minutes spent divining “Snaffle” and “Tinselly”.
    “Eek” reminds me of reading the Beano and the Dandy all those years ago — usually exclaimed as the characters were caught up to no good by the schoolmaster.
  17. According to her indoors ( Northern), “anyroad” is more of a synonym for “however”, than “regardless”. I tend to agree.
    1. My Yorkshire born father always began the final sentence of an argument he couldn’t win by saying “Any road up, we’ll agree to disagree”, so I’ve always taken it to mean “regardless”.
  18. Nice puzzle, including various things which I didn’t know (MOUTON) or had to carefully assemble from wordplay and crossing letters (SLYBOOTS). Pleasant and not entirely straightforward (although possibly not quite as tricky as my time suggests, for which I blame the final of the rugby 7s, which, to be honest, is a bad choice of background viewing, given that the action basically never stops).
  19. “not a sausage” is used here, but “anyroad” isn’t. That made ANYROAD LOI by quite some distance. Looking at A-Y-O-D, all I could come up with was a demented AMYLOID. It didn’t parse at all well, so I didn’t put it in (thank you Idol).
    Anyroad, ANYROAD finally occurred to me , and sounded Coronation Streetish enough to be correct. Parsed beautifully too.
    33:45
    1. “… a demented AMYLOID”. Very good, whether you believe in the hypothesis or not.
  20. 11:54. Mostly quite straightforward but I was slowed down by the smattering of rather oblique equivalences – sweet/tender, tiny/pocket + stock/sell in the same clue (tricky!) – and some less-than-familiar terms: SLYBOOTS, MOUTON, NEBULISER (I knew exactly what word I was after but couldn’t think of it), SNAFFLE, ANYROAD. The dyed sheepskin was the only out-and-out unknown.
    No complaints though, a nice puzzle.
  21. Most of which spent in the NW. I had MERs about TENDER and SELL. Having been a shopkeeper, I can’t equate STOCK with SELL. Am I missing something?
    WOD CHEESE ON TOAST. Quite fancy a piece.
  22. No time — interrupted by a neighbour looking for a lost dog — but nothing too frightening once I had got started. Not sure about DOMINATED = ran, but it doesn’t seem to have bothered anyone else.
  23. I’ve never come across MOUTON fur this side of the pond but I recall that beaver pelts were highly prized because they were waterproof as well as warm and were the foundation of the Astor family fortune. So if you couldn’t afford the real thing you bought mouton dressed as lamb (beaver). Nice puzzle. 17.58
  24. This took 25 minutes in a taxi to Downtown Pusi – then luncheon – and a then few minutes more to tackle 14dn NEBULISER, which sounds like a decent bet for Goodwood, and the EEK/STOKER intersection.

    ANYROAD up! (19dn) I had a much needed 17dn last week.

    FOI 9ac GREAT YARMOUTH – which is somewhat superior to Skeggie in that it has some lovely Art Nouveau buildings, courtesy of John ‘Concrete’ Cockrill.

    LOI STOKER Dracula’s Dad

    COD 3dn BREADCRUMBS which ‘spadgers’ prefer to coconuts – so I am reliably informed.

    WOD 18ac BRANDY SNAP which takes the biscuit although it is more than that to me, and doesn’t really come in that category – well the proper ones, anyroad!

    21ac TINSELLY was also a nice treat – memories of Dick Powell Theatre.

    Now, for the naughty lunch – fois gras decorated with caviar and wallflowers! Really!
    Erysimum teretgifolium is an endangered species in California; mind you so is mankind and much else!

    Edited at 2021-07-28 12:30 pm (UTC)

    1. Another thing Great Yarmouth has over Skegness is a racecourse rather than a stock car track. The view of caravans as far as the eye can see is common to both however.
  25. More troubled in the NW than anywhere else — SLYBOOTS was last in having pencilled in SNAFFLE earlier and finally ‘getting’ LEGLESS (doh!) which had closely followed ASTRINGENT (hadn’t been sure whether the likely mixed up ‘ten’ would go at the start or the end of the word).

  26. Another Olympic background affected 19 minute solve. Despite dressage being in the menu, SNAFFLE just didn’t occur to me as a bit, and went in last after a period of not really thinking about it too seriously. Once I realised I wasn’t looking for a pixie’s inamorata/o the ELF popped up and the rest followed.
    I thought “ran” more than a little oblique for DOMINATED, and it’s not directly given in my CHAMBERS. But heigh ho.
  27. While waiting for the clock to tick round before pressing submit, I came here and lost track of the time. Hence I haven’t submitted today, having overrun by 6 minutes.

    I reached the SW corner in 7 minutes, saw off three clues over the next 2 minutes, then needed almost as long again to wrap it up with SLOI TINSELLY (you can guess the rest).

    Thanks to Pip for “pocket = tiny” which I totally failed to grasp.

    FOI FINANCES
    LOI ANYROAD
    COD TINSELLY
    TIME 10:49

  28. Quite pleased with my effort here. Had all but 14d and 21a done before an hour and a half had passed (with a 20 minute tea break to think), but couldn’t see what they were. Went out for lunch, and realised what 14 was on the drive home.
    Had to look at thesaurus for STOCK=SELL and then realised POCKET was an adjective.
    Nice puzzle and clear explanation in blog.
    I continue to slowly improve.
    Regards
    Andrew
  29. I thought ‘necessary’ in 3d was a slang term for money, as is :bread’.
  30. Yes, I agree with that (necessary = money = bread). I found this hard today, 50 minutes to solve, with many expressions I have never heard of (SLYBOOTS, ANYROAD, even BRANDY SNAP) and others, like CHEESE ON TOAST, a bit less than impressive, almost as if the setter couldn’t quite think of anything better to fill his grid with.
  31. A slow start; after five minutes I’d barely made an inroad. But then things began to click. I was a near ginger-snapper but drew back just in time. Isn’t Eek a bit more than just Oh no? There’s fear in there as well. There was a 1970s reggae ‘toaster’ called Eek-a-Mouse, I seem to remember.
  32. 29.51 another plodding, steady solve. Got completely stuck in the NW. Legless, tender, slyboots, breadcrumbs and astringent simply wouldn’t come. Eventually cracked slyboots and then legless before rounding up the rest.

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