Times 28065 – as you like it.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
At first sight I thought this was going to be hard but it unravelled quickly once 1a and 1d went in and was all done in fifteen minutes. There are a couple of rather obscure words (14a, 28a) and an archaic one (4d) but the wordplay is clear enough to work them out. I hope you enjoy the setter’s art and wit in this as much as I did.

Across
1 What we may have in summer for a period of instruction (6)
LESSON – we wear less in summer because it is warmer. Not this week, though, or last, in this neck of the woods.
4 Give away extremely useful key in seedy bar (7)
DIVULGE – U(sefu)L and G (key) inside DIVE = seedy bar.
9 Jacob’s father lives with a retired accountant (5)
ISAAC – IS (lives) A, CA reversed.
10 Mad Peter and I out for a spin (9)
PIROUETTE – (PETER I OUT)*.
11 Oddly it draws in a believer in natural selection (9)
DARWINIST – (IT DRAWS IN)*.
12 Slow road engulfed by Scottish river (5)
TARDY – RD inside the River Tay, which I crossed last week twice. I’ve escaped from Nicolaland back to Rutland now.
13 Way in which third of wolves utter plaintive cries (4)
HOWL – HOW (way in which) L (third letter of wolves).
14 Country house girl introducing European verse form (10)
VILLANELLE – VILLA (country house) NELL (girl) E (European). A French verse form with 19 lines, I think we’ve had it before.
18 Wasteful academic delayed welcoming soldier back (10)
PROFLIGATE – PROF (academic) LATE (delayed) insert GI reversed.
20 Excessively sentimental message? Not entirely (4)
TWEE – TWEET, not entirely. I have yet to tweet, or follow anyone on twitter.
23 Ambassador in temperate area — a character! (5)
THETA – HE (ambassador) inside TT (temperate) A(rea).
24 Snowslip burying a northern church in a dale (9)
AVALANCHE – insert A, N, CH into A VALE.
25 Scented mixture first brought back for French king and emperor (9)
POTPOURRI – TOP (first) reversed, then POUR = French for ‘for’, then R for king and I (imperator) for emperor. Or imperatrix for a lady emperor.
26 Storyline inspiring current TV try-out, perhaps (5)
PILOT – PLOT (storyline) has I for current inserted.
27 Like some wine yours truly had talked of, showing no emotion (3-4)
DRY-EYED – DRY = like some wine, EYED sounds like I’D = yours truly had.
28 Worsted yarn wife found in fish basket (6)
CREWEL – W for wife inside CREEL a fish basket. Crewel is a wool yard used for embroidery, or something along those lines. I relied on the wordplay.

Down
1 One visiting fat son with joint landowner’s position (9)
LAIRDSHIP – LARD (fat) has I inserted, then S for son and HIP for joint.
2 Flyer’s broadcast gripping sixth wife (7)
SPARROW – SOW (broadcast) has Katherine PARR 6th wife of Henry VIII inserted.
3 Plant soldiers concealed outside entrance to camp (6)
ORCHID – OR (soldiers) C(amp) HID (concealed).
4 Dared do cleaner‘s job, getting round resistance (5)
DURST – to do a cleaner’s job is to DUST, with R inserted = DURST, an archaic present or past tense of DARE. Shalespeare liked to use it, e.g. “when you durst do it, then you were a man” (Macbeth).
5 Leaping over arched work in roof (8)
VAULTING – double definition.
6 Genuine misprint (7)
LITERAL – double definition.
7 8 soldiers stopping the old adversary (5)
ENEMY – soldiers -= men, inside YE = the old, “uprising” (answer to 8) = E(NEM)Y.
8 Union leader forcing insurrection (8)
UPRISING – U(nion), PRISING = forcing.
15 Libertine group originally haunting a former capital (8)
LOTHARIO – LOT (group) H (originally haunting) A RIO (former capital of Brazil). Apparently Lothario first appears in Don Quixote (1605) and has been a seductive or romantic character in several more plays and stories since.
16 Primitive tribe finally allowed a man to keep servants (9)
ELEMENTAL – E (end of tribe) LET (allowed) AL (a man) insert MEN = servants.
17 Drink a politician offered, depending on chance (8)
ALEATORY – ALE (drink) A TORY.
19 Devout Cockney crossing green in full view (7)
OVERTLY – A devout cockney might be ‘OLY, insert VERT = green.
21 Reason for fading light in part of Leinster? (7)
WICKLOW – a candle could be fading because its WICK was LOW. I lived for a year or two in beautiful County Wicklow before moving into Dublin because the worsening traffic was making the commute too long.
22 A holiday-maker is more affected (6)
CAMPER – double definition.
23 Lukewarm fare served up quietly inside (5)
TEPID – DIET (fare) reversed with P for quiet inserted.
24 Pungent account run by certain papers (5)
ACRID – AC (account) R (run) ID (certain papers).

58 comments on “Times 28065 – as you like it.”

  1. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1128484521 (stream cut off at the end — sorry)

    Was going methodically at first, then after being interrupted by the kids several times, I turned my biff-engines on and raced to the end. Didn’t know WICKLOW but wasn’t going to stop to dither about it.

  2. I raced through most of this and had all but one word – 15dn – within 20 minutes, but for some reason my mind went blank and I was unable to get a grip on the wordplay until after a further 7 minutes LOTHARIO suddenly came to mind.

    Elsewhere I was concerned about the parsing at 23ac as although I surmised that TT might stand for ‘temperate’ I’d never heard of it. I’ve since tried to find it listed in one of the usual sources but without success, so I’m still not sure about it. On edit: Got it now, ‘temperate’ as in tee-total! I had been thinking climate.

    I also didn’t know VILLANELLE but it came to mind from checkers and wordplay as I recognised it as the name of the villain of the piece in the TV series ‘Killing Eve’ so I bunged it in. Does that count as ninja-turtling?

    Edited at 2021-08-25 12:36 am (UTC)

    1. Villanelle / verse form / Killing Eve has twice been a question on University Challenge.
      1. Thanks, Rob. I haven’t watched it regularly since the days of Bamber G. When I do see it I’m depressed by the number of questions I don’t even understand, never mind not knowing the answers. On the other hand occasionally there’s an answer I know and assume it’s common knowledge but the students don’t have a clue!
      2. “Do not go gentle into that good night” is probably the best known English villanelle. It is a wonderful verse form to write.

        PPJS

  3. Some rather QCish clues, like 9ac (although brain freeze kept me from recalling ISAAC), 11ac, 23d. I couldn’t think of a Scottish river besides the Ayr, until I finally got the Y. I biffed THETA, POTPOURRI, ELEMENTAL, parsed post-submission. I believe Stephen Dedalus offers a VILLANELLE in ‘Portrait of the Artist’.
  4. 36 minutes. Doing well until taken over the half hour by the crossing LOTHARIO and VILLANELLE, going into “I’ll never get this” mode when I saw ‘verse form’ as the likely def. Vaguely remembered CREWEL and ALEATORY.

    We see VERT often in crossword land. I’d always thought it was such a well-known French word that it didn’t need a “foreign” or similar indicator, but I finally got around to looking it up today and see that it is a term used in heraldry. All very interesting.

    Thanks to Pip and setter

      1. Thanks. Yes, heraldic language and the conventions of blazon seem like something out of the Middle Ages, but I find it a fascinating link to the past.
  5. VILLANELLE (which I wasn’t sure was right) and LOTHARIO took a bit of time at the end, but otherwise easy. I’d never heard of CREWEL but there is only one fishbasket as far as I know, so in it went.
  6. …as the literals were right out in the open – villanelle, aleatory, lairdship, etc. I did get stuck at the end on Lothario, but only for a couple of minutes.

    Time: 14 minutes.

    I went on to do the Guardian, which was also rather easy.

  7. Plenty of interesting words hereabouts…

    FOI 6dn LITERAL

    LOI 16 dn ELEMENTAL

    COD 1ac LESSON!

    WOD 4db DURST prithee!

    Not to mention 14ac VILLANELLE; 25ac POTPOURRI; 28ac CREWEL and 21dn WICKLOW

  8. Similar experience to others, the unknowns were clearly clued, and LOTHARIO took a little while to tumble at the end.

    Made me feel like I was getting back into the swing of these things. Thanks Pip and setter.

    Oh, and not for the first time this week, Jack has come to the rescue with the futher explanation of the parsing of THETA.

      1. Sorry, I had thought it was clear, once I had said TT = temperate i.e. tee total. I’ll be even more explicit in future!
        1. Ah, no Pip, I did see it from the Blog. What I meant was that I hadn’t lifted and separated Temperate and area and was still thinking in climate terms until I read the Blog.
  9. Back on the Glasgow train for first time since March 2020. Fairly comfortable but slowed up with last few — ELEMENTAL and LITERAL providing more checkers to biff VILLANELLE which in turn gave the first letter of LOI LOTHARIO.
  10. …or if a sparrow come before my window I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel.

    15 mins pre-brekker. Very gentle and enjoyable. ‘Temperate area’ is clever.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

  12. Flying today, had to check carefully before submitting.

    LESSON FOI, construction helped with WICKLOW, which (now) brings to mind the above quoted VILLANELLE.

    9′ 29″, thanks Pip and setter.

  13. 8:30. I was up after midnight last night so thought I’d have a crack at this, which proved sufficiently gentle and went in very steadily. DK CREWEL.
  14. 19 minutes with LOI VILLANELLE, unknown apart from through Jodie Comer. I didn’t know CREWEL either but the cryptic led nowhere else. COD between SPARROW and DURST. Being archaic, I’ll give it to DURST. A very pleasant puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter.
  15. LOI CREWEL not helped by typeface kerning: “Worsted yam…” – finally looked it up and DNK crewel or creel. Life can be so cruel!
  16. 11:01 Mostly pretty QCish, but held up by inserting DARWINIAN for 11A without checking the anagram (serves me right) and my LOI LOTHARIO. VILLANELLE was a guess from the wordplay. Thanks Pip and setter.
  17. Should have been my first sub-10 today but got a bit nervy and held-up at the VILLANELLE, LOTHARIO, ELEMENTAL area.

    Pleased with 10.44 though but feel a bit of a flat-track bully as there was a lot of straight-forward stuff in there

  18. New PC, and now answers zip in as fast as I type them. So, I can start to chase the whizz kids….Greatly helped by very gentle backpager, recording my quickest time ever(4:55)- even if slight hesitation about CREWEL (nho)- and with 4:05 for the QC, first time I’ve managed sub-10 for the pair … Thank you to these kind setters for letting me tick off one of my bucket list challenges…
  19. ….that the puzzle was only 98% complete, as I pressed submit when I cracked LOTHARIO (Rio pointed me to it) only to find a missing clue I’d not even looked at ! Fortunately it was a write-in.

    FOI LESSON
    LOI WICKLOW
    COD PROFLIGATE
    TIME 5:42

  20. All finished bar two at 29 mins but then another ten figuring out the unknown VILLANELLE and LOTHARIO. A common problem for me at the moment. Maybe my brain is getting slower! Anyway, generally enjoyed this and liked POTPOURRI and WICK LOW. Thanks Pip and setter.
    1. Same for me, rosedeprovence, – I’ve had many recent instances recently of a plain-sailing solve, except for two or three at the end (which you complete, but cause me to DNF)

      Today I was left with
      VILLANELLE – “country house” = VILLA has tripped me up before – so that’s now on the learning list
      LOTHARIO – I expect “ex-capital” = RIO will come up again.
      I also had a careless error, entering DARWINIAN instead of DARWINIST, preventing me from getting DURST

      Anyway, making progress – my learning list worked for “papers” = ID this time – so hoping to reach your level in due course. Best wishes

  21. I started fast but then got a bit stuck. Putting in Darwinian didn’t help.

    I’m off shortly to attend my niece, Olivia’s wedding. The date or venue has had to be changed repeatedly because of Covid and today is Plan F, I think. And the groom’s name? Isaac. Honoured, by happy coincidence I’m sure, at 9 across. Thanks setter.

  22. Cantered merrily through this, pausing only to think for a moment about the “temperate” in THETA and a new word to me, CREWEL.

    For a more light-hearted villanelle than “Do not go
    gentle…”, Wendy Cope’s “Lonely Hearts” is worth googling.

    Thanks to the setter and Pip (I envy you your two years in Wicklow)

  23. I scorched my was through the top half of this puzzle, with LESSON FOI, but then was slowed considerably, particularly by the SE corner. ALEATORY was unknown but constructable. I once went on a training course at Dell’s site in Cherrywood, which is only a short drive from WICKLOW Town, where I have some aged relatives, so I popped along to see them while I was there. Happy memories! I then spent quite a lot of time on the last few answers with CREWEL opening up ELEMENTAL, then the unknown VILLANELLE emerging from the wordplay with the helpful crossers, and LOTHARIO LOI, spotted from definition and crossers, then parsed. An enjoyable 18:37. Thanks setter and Pip.
  24. This was shaping up to be very easy – until the VILLANELLE/LOTHARIO pair. 7m 59s, with the last 3+ minutes spent on those two.
  25. 14.00 so much better than yesterday. Must have been the heat, so unexpected after our summer so far. A couple of unknowns- villanelle and crewel- but generously clued. LOI lothario , FOI lairdship. Thx setter and blogger.
  26. Ok so strictly speaking it’s not John Cage’s most aleatoric work, but ALEATORY always makes me think of him. On the other hand, this random collection of mostly generous clues occupied me for 15’33”, so not the most demanding puzzle of the week.
    I’m not entirely sure what it was about LOTHARIO that made it last in for many, including me: perhaps it was trying to come up with a former capital beginning with L, or trying to fit in G(roup) originally.
    I claim originality for DARWINISM despite the lack of an M anywhere in the clue. Made DURST trickier.
    Pleasant, with a couple of more aleatoric selections from the dictionary to test the dustier archives.
  27. and completed inside that, which is quick for me.

    NHO ALEATORY, VILLANELLE, CREWEL, and DURST is not part of my daily discourse.

    All fairly clued though.

    12:18

  28. I think the difficulty with LOTHARIO was both trying to find a capital that fitted and also not quite remembering exactly what a libertine was. And also trying to squeeze a G in there somehow.
    Otherwise, a doddle.
  29. Perhaps it would be good if the language developed so that ‘aleatory’ became more widely known, since people could then use it in the old/original/arguably correct (whatever that means) sense of ‘fortuitous’, and there would be no confusion with ‘fortunate’.
    1. I think Parr alludes to Henry VIII’s 6th wife. Sixth in its own would be too obscure

      Edited at 2021-08-25 11:59 am (UTC)

      1. gcook is right, W=wife is unnecessary (I’m assuming that PARR was H8’s 6th wife; I’m not going to look it up).
      2. The final w has nothing to do with “wife”, so can be omitted from the explanation.
        1. It looks as though I was referring to the clue itself, whereas GC’s comment was referring to the blog. Hey ho, the world is still turning!
  31. Did most of it in about 20 minutes, which is fast for me, but then struggled for another 10 minutes with ALEATORY, VILLANELLE and CREWEL, none of which I knew but got there by trusting the word play. LOI LOTHARIO.
  32. 10.42. A bit of a whizz-fest but some neat cluing along the way made for a fun solve. I had all the potentially tricky bits of vocab. I thought I might be on for a PB at one stage but just got held up slightly in the bottom half. LOI lothario. It was hard to see a word that would fit those checkers and not immediately clear which end of the clue the definition was, nor how the wordplay divided up – was it libertine or libertine group, was it group originally or originally haunting etc. Managed to bag it in the end though.
  33. A day for the sprinters, a group which doesn’t always include me as the years roll by. LOTHARIO must have something especially tricky about it, as I seem to be in good company in having that as my only real hold-up.
  34. I guessed this would be classed as an easy one when the grid started to fill up without the usual long periods of bewilderment. Aleatory and Crewel were unknowns but kindly clued. The same could be said of Villanelle, except that I opted to start it with Pile-, which made the girl’s name quite tricky. Common sense eventually prevailed and loi Lothario then just needed the crossers writing out horizontally. 18d, Overtly, was my favourite today. Invariant
  35. 10:22 this morning (for once!). A straightforward offering but a satisfying solve nonetheless.
    I expected to see some scorching times from the Premier League today.
    Could have possibly broken the 10 minute barrier but for the 14 ac/15 d crossing as several others have already mentioned. NHO “villanelle” but ignoring “manor” for “country house” and concentrating on “villa” helped. LOI “Lothario” yielded quickly thereafter.
    A couple of other NHOs “crewel” and “aleatory” but wordplay was generous
    COD 21 d “Wicklow”, although I vaguely remember coming across it somewhere in the past, so a potential chestnut I guess?
    Thanks to Pip and setter.
  36. Keep bashing on Denise and you’ll get there. If I can do it, anyone can :)- Well done for retaining ID, comes up very frequently.
  37. Good time for me — just with fingers crossed on “Aleatory” which I didn’t know — also didn’t know “Crewel” but didn’t have to cross my fingers for that one.
    Thanks Setter and Pip.
  38. Home in 9:25mins! So I did a little 10ac! My only real trouble, like the rest of the world, was with LOTHARIO. I also left ALEATORY to Lady Luck. COD VILLANELLE.
  39. Seems a bit pointless using a different form of the same word (durst/dare), and I’m not sure it’s totally archaic either. I use it still, but perhaps that’s why I get funny looks.

    Accepting that it is archaic, the setter could have used ‘challenged once’ instead. (Mr Grumpy)

  40. In 12a I had TARRY using the verbal form of ‘slow’
    with the rather rare abbreviation RR for Rural Route.
    Would this be an acceptable alternative?

    mike04

  41. 2 hours, but a solid finish with no aids. Just checked Crewel and literal=misprint. Now back to QC-land.

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