Times 28063 – What every woman needs?

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 36 minutes
Music: Mahler, Symphony 5, Levine/Philadelphia

I was a little off when doing this puzzle, and while I started quickly enough I had trouble finishing.  I found the intersection of time-lapse and manometer very difficult, and I couldn’t think of gorgon for the longest time, being convinced I needed to rearrange virago.   Asparagus, too, came as a bit of a surprise, so I made rather a mess of the puzzle despite making good progress at the beginning.   It was probably a little harder than usual for a Monday, but not as hard as I made it.

Here in the middle of Connecticut, the hurricane turned out to be a bust.   We got a moderate amount of rain, and very little wind to speak of.   It was evidently a mixed bag, with Jeremy reporting heavy rain in NYC, 60 miles to the west.

Across
1 Dismay with end of aged relative (5)
DAUNT – [age}D + AUNT.
4 TV programme in the main sent round with no changes made (2,2,5)
AS IT COMES – A(SITCOM)ES, with SEA backwards as the enclosing element.
9 What could be spears in a box — a blow not being all there (9)
ASPARAGUS –  A SPAR + A GUS[t].
10 White brandy is in per cent over (5)
PISCO – P(IS)C + O, where it is helpful to know the word.
11 Fierce woman knocking alcohol back — concerning (6)
GORGON – GROG backwards + ON.
12 Look to return in army post where duty is relaxed.(4,4)
FREE PORT – F(PEER backwards)ORT.
14 Spell failure for this shooting style? (4-5)
TIME-LAPSE – TIME + LAPSE, in entirely different senses.
16 Captain dropping very soft sportsman in Winter Olympics (5)
SKIER – SKI[pp]ER.
17 Second fine fabric artist (5)
MONET – MO + NET.
19 Concerning swindle, company is to check again (9)
RECONFIRM – RE CON + FIRM.
21 Try to sound important? Pardon me, that’s wrong (4-4)
NAME-DROP – Anagram of PARDON ME – great clue!
22 Bond’s enemies succeeded — runs into snare (6)
SMERSH – S + ME(R)SH, where it helps to know the basics of James Bond.
25 House has permit rejected for commercial accommodation (5)
HOTEL – HO + LET backwards.
26 Small sum we might invest in American prospector (9)
SOURDOUGH –  S + OUR DOUGH – a bit of American metonymy.
27 Representation changes area to old city used by pirates (4,5)
PORT ROYAL –  PORTR(-a,+O)YAL, a simple letter-substitution clue.   A little knowledge of Caribbean history will help here.
28 Cortege, oddly quiet and slow movement (5)
CREEP –  C[o]R[t]E[g]E + P.
Down
1 Result of a good hand in game — run succeeded with it (15)
DRAUGHTSMANSHIP –  DRAUGHTS + MAN + S + HIP.    Evidently, run is used as a verb, in the sense occupying a post, as in run a carnival ride.
2 University pressure? A stimulant is the answer (5)
UPPER – U + P + PER, where you can either biff or spot the meaning of A.
3 I got mixed up with rum lot in trouble (7)
TURMOIL –  Anagram of I + RUM LOT.
4 More than one star which was once used to navigate (4)
ARGO –  A constellation, named after Jason’s old ship, so a very weak double defintion.
5 Rising in singular haste (10)
INSURGENCY –   IN + S URGENCY.
6 Type of conifer company cleared out on one of the estates (7)
CYPRESS – C[ompnaY + PRESS.
7 I love very big problem coming up for dictator (9)
MUSSOLINI – I + NIL + OS + SUM, all upside-down.
8 New growth starting by fruit just come out with it (5,4,3,3)
SHOOT FROM THE HIP – SHOOT + FROM THE HIP, a fruit that occurs only in Crosswordland.
13 Drive recorded debt with crafty way fake news appears? (10)
SPURIOUSLY –  SPUR + IOU + SLY.
15 Chap who finally encountered Queen in Tube under some pressure? (9)
MANOMETER – MAN + [wh]O + MET E.R.
18 Little fish: young child has swapped ring for one (7)
TIDDLER – T(-o,+I)DDLER, our second letter-substitution clue.
20 Roving about domain? (7)
NOMADIC – Anagram of C + DOMAIN, an &lit.
23 Concerning about impossible flight path (5)
ROUTE – R(OUT)E.
24 Struggle between two parties of right and left (4)
DUEL –  DUE + L, where right and left are used in entirely differeent senses.

82 comments on “Times 28063 – What every woman needs?”

  1. Top to bottom solve with only ARGO and PISCO out of sequence. COD SOURDOUGH. Also liked SMERSH, but then who doesn’t like Bond – James Bond?
    2. I can’t stand Bond, though it may have been okay in its day about 50 years ago. I was impressed by the first Bond film I ever saw (Goldfinger, on its first release, but then I was of an age) but nothing since – not that I have seen many except under protest.
    3. Connery, yes. Mostly.
      Moore, rubbish. Every single one of them.
      Didn’t mind the last one or two with Craig which were less comedies and more character-driven.
      1. Forget the films, Connery, Moore etc. The original stories are the important element of the Fleming oeuvre. ‘Thunderball’ tells the story of the death of Sir Harry Oakes. (Ivar Bryce).

        It is hardly known that before he left Eton, Ian Fleming became a ‘ghost’ for E. Phillips Oppenheim – one of several, including Leslie Charteris and Agatha Christie.

        ‘The Prodigals of Monte Carlo’ (1925) contains some of the basic elements of ‘Casino Royale’- penned by IF when he was just seventeen (Biddulph). In 1937 Phyllis Forbes-Dennis used Ian to write the last chapter of ‘The Mortal Storm’.
        In late 1938 Geoffrey Household gave up on ‘Rogue Male’; Fleming knocked it into shape in 1939. (Op. Foxley)
        And ‘The Adventures of Hiram Holliday’ with Paul Gallico – and much, much more.

        But please be sure not to tell anyone – as they will never believe you! (Meldrew)

        Edited at 2021-08-23 03:21 pm (UTC)

        1. I’ve only ever read one Ian Fleming book: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, at about age 9.
          Do I vaguely remember that more than a few Ian Fleming/James Bond books were penned by various people after Ian Fleming died. Or was that just the movies?
  2. No real hang-ups here — a few bunged in with the requisite shrug — MANOMETER sounds familiar but couldn’t tell you what it does; PORT ROYAL — educated guess; SOURDOUGH — had all checkers and couldn’t come up with owt else that fit.

    Final two mins on ARGO again bunged in with a shrug never having heard of the constellation.

  3. Oh dear, DNF in around half an hour. I got a pink square for insurgence, must pay attention in future. I struggled with some trickier ones but eventually managed to find time-lapse, free port, Port Royal and sourdough. Manometer was unknown or forgotten but easier to find. Some real ummming and aaahing over LOI Argo, not knowing the constellation. Alit on SMERSH pretty quickly after SPECTRE wouldn’t fit. Found nomadic a bit odd with about not directly part of the anagram fodder. Wasted time looking for a homophone in the clue for Mussolini. As it comes and name-drop probably my favourites in an uneven solve as others have said.
  5. 14.17. Pretty straightforward for the most part but I still don’t get sourdough. I see the small and sum we might invest but I thought sourdough was a type of bread. What’s the prospector all about?

    Answers on a postcard please…or email will do.

    1. It is 19th-century American slang. The gold prospectors carried sourdough starter in their knapsacks, figuring they would have a hard time getting fresh bread in remote mining camps, so came to be called “sourdoughs”.
  6. I found this a mixed bag, like most people. I’d never come across SOURDOUGH in that sense but living in the San Francisco bay area it was an easy leap. My downfall was that I lazily put INSURGENCE, so I got pink square. In my defense, the URGENCE meaning is in Chambers (although marked rare) as a synonym of URGENCY.
  7. Joint effort, long solve, but got there in the end – with a little help from the odd pink square here and there, which we don’t mind if they nudge us in the right direction for a finish. A technical DNF, we know. FOI daunt, easy. Saw upper early but couldn’t parse it so left it till later. Needed the blog to parse or finish parsing many clues. We are just pleased to complete a 15 x 15 even with a bit of help. All the clues were COD for us. Thanks, V, and setter. GW and husband.
  8. With a break in between to mull over Duel/Sourdough and Argo.

    Maybe I’m overthinking it but could it be “Sum we might invest in American” = “our dough” and “prospector” = “sourdough” — i.e. dough being US slang for money? Doesn’t matter either way, I suppose.

  9. Failed to get Sourdough, even though mine is quite good! NHO Port Royal. I thought the clue wanted more than one constellation so put in ARGI. Other clues were relatively easy
    BW
    A
  10. 53 minutes, of which much was spent puzzling over ARGO, DUEL and SOURDOUGH. The latter as an American prospector was not a problem, but having SHOOT FROM THE TOP for 8dn really did hold me up for a while until in desperation, I reviewed it. With the H at the end, SOURDOUGH came quickly, followed by DUEL. PISCO also held me up for a bit until I saw the wordplay. And I never did parse DRAUGHTSMANSHIP. I had the same doubts about ARGO as others did, but as it seemed reasonable that it could be the name of a constellation and as “navigate” might simply mean “sail” it went in with a prayer.

    Edited at 2021-08-23 06:11 pm (UTC)

  11. Well hello there — it is good to hear from you again. Hope you and MC text are well over there in WA?
    1. Hi Steve. I was released from Perth a few years ago, living in Sydney now.

      Had a couple of emails with Alec recently. Will catch up with him for a coffee and solve one day, but currently Sydney-siders (and everyone else) are persona non grata in the west.

      Hope you’re doing well.

  12. There is something more than just mildly satisfying in getting the answer to a clue on the 3rd/4th/5th time of asking. 13d Spuriously finally came and unlocked the last few to allow a finish that had seemed beyond me up until that point. Very pleased to finish this one — just a shame the Snitch is below 100, as it certainly felt harder. Invariant

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