Times 28119 – No terrorists are holding hostages in lunatic asylums.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Noah’s family and his rescue boat feature strongly today in this nicely constructed puzzle, as does yet another antelope to make me happy; thank you, Mr A Setter. I knew all the words, although had you asked me to define adumbrate without the clue to read, I might have adumbrated. I liked the drunken insect and the homeless gent, but my CoD was the maritime coastal officer, which took me a while to twig. I’m not 100% convinced I understand 19d, but I’ve come up with a parsing of sorts. 25 minutes and a bit more to decipher 20a and 19d perhaps.

Across
1 Those folk, hard to miss, quietly spoken, and not around for long (8)
TEMPORAL – THEM missing H, P (quietly) ORAL (spoken). Temporal can mean ‘related to time’ or ‘temporary’ as well as the opposite of spiritual.
5 Rants, seeing no one does business (6)
TRADES – TIRADES (rants) has no I in it.
9 Cardinal showing gravity — not weak, even at the end (8)
EIGHTEEN – Gravity here = WEIGHT, remove W for weak (is this a new abbr.?) add E’EN for even.
10 President as leader of Republicans featured in article (6)
PIERCE – R inside PIECE = article. Franklin Pierce, 14th President, 1853-57. Later he featured in MASH.
12 Broadcast from detectives beside house to the west of the country (13)
DISSEMINATION – DIS (detectives) SEMI (house) NATION (country).
15 Trouble squashing publicity when bloomers become evident? (5)
APRIL – PR (publicity) inside AIL (trouble).
16 Does tar at sea notice possible place for anchorage? (9)
ROADSTEAD – (DOES TAR)*, AD = notice. For example, Carrick Roadstead outside Falmouth in Cornwall.
17 Huge group of soldiers seizing part of hospital — big shock may be felt there (9)
EPICENTRE – EPIC (huge) RE (soldiers) insert ENT (Ear Nose & Throat department, as usual).
19 A smile from one side to another on journey? (5)
ABEAM – A, BEAM = smile; abeam =of a ship, at right angles to the stem to stern line.
20 Bedlam as terrorist is seen to do this — coastal officer appears (13)
HARBOURMASTER – took me a while to spot what was going on here; MASTER is HARBOURED i.e. hidden in these words.
22 One senses them being so backward, gloomy inside (6)
ODOURS – SO reversed, with DOUR inside.
23 What accounts for insect being drunk maybe — or cow? (8)
RUMINANT – RUM IN ANT would make the ant drunk.
25 One learner thus gives family disrepute (6)
INFAMY – if FAMY had I L inserted (IN), it would become FAMILY.
26 A theologian holding leading position, wanting the church improved? (8)
ADVANCED – A, DD (Theologian) insert VAN (leading position) CE (Church).
Down
1 We dart and tear around hopelessly — and fail to progress (5,5)
TREAD WATER – (WE DART TEAR)*.
2 Stick raised for attack (3)
MUG – GUM reversed.
3 Food nothing at all? Not quite — this person tucked in (7)
OATMEAL – O (nothing ) AT AL(L) insert ME = this person.
4 Making better sermon, perhaps, after declaration by priest? (12)
AMELIORATION – (I) AM ELI = declaration by the usual crossword priest; ORATION = sermon.
6 Bringing up son — no good providing fruity nibbles? (7)
RAISINS – RAISIN(G) S(on).
7 Disorder with Eden garment being abandoned? (11)
DERANGEMENT – (EDEN GARMENT)*.
8 Son on edge — one of those in rescue vessel? (4)
SHEM – S, HEM = edge; SHEM was Noah’s second son, so he was on the ark being rescued.
11 What could be a drape where troops assemble (6,6)
PARADE GROUND – if you have GROUND the letters of A DRAPE (i.e. made an anagram) you can make PARADE.
13 Homeless gent must be heard immediately (8,3)
STRAIGHT OFF – sounds (quite) like; STRAY TOFF for homeless gent.
14 Bad, mad true drunk is portrayed in outline (10)
ADUMBRATED – (BAD MAD TRUE)*. To adumbrate is a jolly nice word meaning to portray without any details.
18 Not all heard rumours — one’s needed to listen! (7)
EARDRUM – today’s second hidden word, in a relevant surface.
19 Like a number commonly seen having a coffee (7)
ARABICA – I’m not sure about this, I assume it is referring to ARABIC numerals or numbers being the common variety, with A (having A); arabica being a good quality of coffee.
21 What one discusses is tailless antelope (4)
TOPI – TOPIC is tailless. I am a happy blogger, nyala last week, another antelope this week.
24 Bow of rescue vessel in the sound (3)
ARC – today’s homophone, sounds like ARK.

68 comments on “Times 28119 – No terrorists are holding hostages in lunatic asylums.”

  1. Nice jog today, with some unknowns clearly shown by the cryptics. Disappointed that the setter didn’t mention Kenneth Williams in the INFAMY clue.
  2. Some more deftly clued words today, all of which happily fell into my very idiosyncratic definition of “general” knowledge (Pierce is one of those Presidents who is familiar to all list-learning quizzers, and well worth keeping up your sleeve in case you ever get accepted as a contestant on Pointless, along with the likes of Rutherford Hayes and Chester Arthur).

    Particularly enjoyed INFAMY, and astonished to have got this far into the thread without a mention of Kenneth Williams…

    edit: in the 2 minutes it took me to post this, both have now been mentioned, which makes me look even more foolish than usual

    Edited at 2021-10-27 10:38 am (UTC)

    1. Speed-posting is essential these days! However, you have never appeared to me to being the slightest foolish. My old friend Francis Howerd nicked the INFAMY line for ‘Up-Pompei’, but I suspect this was an age old Music Hall gag!
      1. The famous ‘infamy’ line is from ‘Carry On Cleo’ and was delivered by Kenneth Williams, not dear Francis. It originated in a ‘Take It From Here’ script by Muir and Norden and was lifted by Talbot Rothwell with full permission.
  3. About 50% done in 30 mins, gave up at the right time which is in itself a key skill.

    I like the new LJ capability, jackkt, you can do nice call-outs such as this. And thanks pipkirby for explaining those reverse cryptics, which always do my head in. INFAMY and HARBOURMASTER today well beyond me.

    COD RUMINANT

    1. I’m afraid the new facility is a waste of time, merlin, as bloggers are already notified by email when somebody responds. Also if you use the Reply option on any comment the person posting it will be notified. All this does is duplicate an existing system that works perfectly well, at least in the TfTT environment. It may have its uses elsewhere within Live Journal, but I wouldn’t know about that.
  4. A fine 45 minutes, but two wrong. I had EIGHTHED (which instead of ending with e’en, ends with the even letters of aT tHe EnD) and I invented a new antelope, the AOBI, from Any Other Business plus a tailless Is. Oh well. Roll on tomorrow.

    And yes, the comment box included a greyed out message saying Tip: You can write username to mention people

  5. …. and a bit surprised that I seem to be on my own in this. Never seen ‘w’ as an abbr for ‘weak’.

    COD SHEM

    1. Forgot to mention the MER at W = weak. Chambers has it in particle physics: W/weak boson is a hypothetical positive or negative, subatomic, massive (80.385 +/- 0.016 GeV/c2), charged particle responsible – in theory – for the weak nuclear force. That was 2011, but a quick google has CERN confirming it as real in 1983. Except then they say it needed the Higgs Boson to exist, and that was only discovered a few years ago.
      I think they’re making it all up 😉
    2. I was brought up on Horrobin’s ‘Japhet & Happy’ Annuals, which followed the
      Adventures of Mr. & Mrs. Noah and their animals from the News Chronicle.
      So along with my grandfather’s predeliction for the Old Testament, SHEM was a write-in.
    3. According to Chambers ‘w = weak’ is specifically related to physics. I also don’t recall seeing it before and Times crosswords are not generally given to using single-letter abbreviations that are not in very common usage.
  6. Late to the posting today as was trying to get a doctor’s appointment….eventually got one with the nurse practitioner, face-to-face.

    I knew PIERCE, eventually, from lists as mentioned.

    I once played SHEM’s wife in a school play, which helped, having toyed with ‘sark’. (I had to scream during the play, it was undoubtedly my best line.)

    27′ 41″, thanks pip and setter.

  7. Filled in clues pretty evenly around the grid without too much stop-start. The only unknown was ROADSTEAD as a word, but with all checkers, there wasn’t much else it might be – and I’d forgotten PIERCE as a president (I did have a book giving some details about all of the US presidents up to Clinton but haven’t read it for more than 20 years). Fortunately, SHEM remembered as a son of Noah (while still at school, I took part in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde — some things seem to stick), so PIERCE pieced together from all checkers.
  8. 15.07. I found this a pleasant, breezy solve. I was solving against the backdrop of a very noisy office environment today so pleased that I managed to maintain my concentration throughout. Roadstead was unknown and the unfamiliar Pierce crossing with Shem were temporal hiccups but fairly easily overcome.
  9. Shem should have been remembered as the father of the Semitic race (near-Eastern, e.g. Jews , Arabs etc.)
    Noah’s other sons were Ham (Hamitic = N.African) and Japheth (Japhetic = European) — I guess that the author of the Flood story knew nothing of the wider world.
    1. I’m sure he didn’t; but he also didn’t propose the idea of the 3 sons as founders of different ‘races’, although he does give tedious lists of descendants. The idea of Ham, who saw his father naked, being the cursed forefather of the black ‘race’, was used to justify slavery in the South.
    2. Well if you believe all that, there were only four survivors of the flood … plus four wives who barely rate any mention.
      Amazing, that we are still prepared to give it any houseroom. Perhaps it is because we are so inbred?
  10. Did well to get to 40 minutes with only three left. Then spent an inordinate length of time to get eighteen and to fail to get pierce and shem. I don’t feel embarrassed to fail to remember the names of Noah’s sons but to fail to think of a three letter word for edge is not my finest moment. Still don’t think I would have got the unknown president with all the checkers.
    Was particularly pleased to see the two reverse cryptics, infamy and parade ground, but had no idea what was going on with harbourmaster. Thanks pipkirby for the explanation and for the rest of your blog and to the setter for an enjoyable puzzle.
  11. Knew SHEM, but not PIERCE. A nice puzzle. INFAMY, ARABIC and HARBOURMASTER the pick of the bunch for me. ADUMBRATED and AMELIORATION, both lovely words.

    Thanks to Pip and the setter

  12. Bit slower today — 35 mins bogged down in SW and NE. The unknown Pierce / Shem crosser was a knotty problem especially having desperately tried to find animals beginning with s.

    As yesterday excellent clueing, loved ruminant and dissemination but chapeau to harbourmaster.

    Thanks Pip and setter.

  14. Around 30 mins. Quite a toughie I thought with my last one in being arabica- toyed with asarica for a while but inspiration struck just in time, though to be honest it wasn’t due to parsing merely knowing arabica was a coffee.

    Never quite convinced on eighteen so glad to see w is the new abbreviation of weak. Seems it should be multipurpose if that’s the case.

    Ditto with harbourmaster but couldn’t have been anything else. Saw Topi in the Serengeti so that at least was one clue I didn’t have to perspire over.

  15. 16:45 late this afternoon. A mix of some straightforward and some rather clever clues (e.g. 23 ac “ruminant” and 25 ac “infamy”) and a few minor obscurities such as 8 d “Shem” and LOI the increasingly, it would appear, “infamous Pierce”.
    Entered my COD 20 ac “harbour master” without parsing.
    Thanks Pip for the elucidation and for an entertaining blog and to setter..
  16. I consider it unreasonable that an obscure,log dead American politician should feature in the London Times crossword, especially with such unhelpful checkers. According to Wikipedia “Historians and scholars generally rank Pierce as one of the worst and least memorable U.S. presidents.” Least memorable would be underlined if I could. Stephen
  17. 36 minutes, so not too hard. Although I enjoyed clues like RUMINANT and INFAMY and the references to a certain rescue vessel, there were a few too many in this puzzle for my taste. Franklin PIERCE was not a problem, but he is a rather obscure president for a British puzzle — one horrifying fact that sticks out about him is that he lost his 11-year old son in a horrifying train accident (a derailment) in 1853.
  18. A day late, but much enjoyed. Thanks for explaining harbourmaster. No problem with Shem or Pierce, though I couldn’t have said exactly when he was president. I was vaguely aware of the sea-faring sense of ‘roads’ – and i see now it’s short for roadstead.

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