Times 28167 – fairly rich, indeed.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A few unusual words in this one, two of which were new to me, (buckaroo and lewisia) but no doubt not to everyone. You’ll have a pink square at 13a if you put in INES as I did at first. Nothing really difficult, but a bit tricky here and there, and I don’t really understand how 23a works, if it does. 3d gets my CoD for a clever surface.

Merry Christmas, one and all!

Across
1 Men turned against officers, absurdly over-decorated (6)
ROCOCO – OR (men) reversed before CO, CO, 2 officers.
4 Herb such as sage, mostly one appearing in meadow (7)
LEWISIA – Meadow = LEA; insert WIS(E) = sage mostly, I = one. I’d not heard of it but put it in from checkers and wordplay. It seems to be more of a rock garden plant than a herb.
9 In addition to pennies, I felt something in pocket (5)
POUCH – P (pennies) OUCH ! (I felt something hurt).
10 University near High, but with no affiliation (9)
UNRELATED – U (univ.) NR (near) ELATED (high).
11 Old women graduates containing wild country spirit (9)
BABUSHKAS – BAS (graduates) has inserted; BUSH (wild country) KA (Egyptian spirit).
12 Character no longer granted a service (5)
THORN – THO (abbr. for though, granted,) RN (a service). Old letter þ for th in English, Norse etc, still used in Icelandic.
13 Valladolid miss some half-dozen international backs (4)
INEZ – lady from a random Spanish city, found reversed as above. I wrote in INES before trying to explain it then saw the hidden word.
14 Timely preparation for retreat into immorality (10)
PROVIDENCE – PRO (for) VICE (immorality) insert DEN (retreat).
18 Superior toy, it hit you, not quite made as required (5-5)
HOITY-TOITY – (TOY IT HIT YO)*, the YO being you not quite.
20 Each thing critic can have? (1,3)
A POP – as in “a pound a pop” for pricing; and you can “take a pop” at something or someone.
23 Taking part of the bloke’s remains (5)
ASHES – AS HE’S = taking part of a bloke’s.
24 Post aperitif, initially produce eggs and a rice dish (9)
JAMBALAYA – once I had an initial J from 24d, this was a write-in, I only know one rice dish beginning with J… then had to explain how it works. I wondered whether JAMBA was some kind of pre-prandial drink? But then saw, JAMB = post, as in door jamb; A initial letter of Aperitif; LAY = produe eggs, A.
25 One of fifteen left in race — then one of five (9)
HARLEQUIN – HARE = race, insert L, add QUIN one of five. Member of the Harlequins, a leading UK professional rugby union team.
26 Cool, running water, for mud-lover (5)
HIPPO – HIP = cool, PO river in Italy.
27 Last words to sailor recalled? It’s not ringing a bell (3-1-3)
RAT-A-TAT – reverse TA-TA TAR = goodbye sailor. Groan!
28 Radio broadcast’s ending with what Gracie Mansion resident did? (6)
TRANNY – T (end of broadcasT) RAN NY (New York). As our transatlantic solvers will know, Gracie Mansion is where the NYC Mayor lives, officially. I was surprised the other day when this word TRANNY appeared as an answer and some of our overseas brethren didn’t know it (not old enough perhaps?); I remember when radios no longer had high voltage valves because of the invention of transistors, then newly portable radios were for a while called trannys. These days tranny means something different.

Down
1 Pickle bottles tavern put out again (9)
REPUBLISH – pickle = RELISH, insert PUB for tavern.
2 About to find out what’s for afters? (7)
CRUMBLE – C (about, circa) RUMBLE (find out, discover).
3 Salmon on the way for party organiser (not sole) (6)
COHOST – as we were reminded recently, a COHO is a sort of salmon; add ST for way. “Not sole” meaning a co-host not a lone host (or a fish!).
4 Primates coming from aristocracy, duke being one (5)
LORIS – LORDS has its D changed to I. LORISES is the plural of loris but I think primates plural here is the order of mammals, of which the genus ‘loris’ is a member of the subfamily Lorinae in the family Lorisidae. So it’s okay.
5 Fairly rich source in need of attention (4-2-2)
WELL-TO-DO – WELL (source) TO DO (in need of attention). How rich is fairly rich? Can you be unfairly rich? I am well-to-do, but not rich enough!
6 One interrupting phone system with personal protest (3-4)
SIT-DOWN –  I vaguely recalled STD is or was a phone system (subscriber trunk dialling); insert I into STD and add OWN = personal.
7 Extra publicity academic (3-2)
ADD-ON – AD (publicity) DON (academic).
8 Kids play this at first, once our back is turned (8)
BUCKAROO – (O OUR BACK)* where the O is ‘once at first’. I’d never heard of a buckaroo, but apparently it means cowboy, in N America (a corruption of ‘vaquero’) and kids play cowboys and indians. Or did before Indians became a non-word). Didn’t like this clue much.
15 Volunteers six fur wraps in compound to control bleeding? (7,1)
VITAMIN K – VI (six) TA (volunteers) MINK (fur wraps). Vitamin K is needed for blood clotting; the K comes from its Danish language word Koagulation, as it was first characterised by a Dane. Eat spinach and you won’t need K supplements.
16 To repay with one kiss somehow is this? (9)
EXPIATORY – (TO REPAY I X)* where X = kiss. To expiate means to atone for something.
17 Military command point indeed abandoned (4,4)
EYES LEFT – E (point) YES (indeed) LEFT (abandoned).
19 Popular woman’s appeal to succeed (7)
INHERIT – IN (popular) HER (woman’s) IT (appeal). A chestnut clue.
21 What dramatist’s done to swap parts that children can be in? (7)
PLAYPEN – a dramatist can PEN a PLAY, swap parts = PLAY PEN.
22 Ring for help in the kitchen? (6)
WASHER – double definition.
23 Hate crime: case for officer (5)
ABHOR – ABH (actual bodily harm) OR (outside letters of OfficeR).
24 Council promotes area for outing (5)
JAUNT –  JUNTA (military council) has its A promoted.

71 comments on “Times 28167 – fairly rich, indeed.”

  1. I’m guessing it’s actually 28167, but I haven’t tried it yet so I won’t look at the answers 🙂
  2. I rattled in 1ac ROCOCO and 1dn REPUBLISH but then froze for five minutes before I found the correct wavelength. I finally powered up in the last ten minutes. I finished on the hour but failed to parse 13ac Jamaica’s INEZ Knibb Sisley.

    COD 18ac HOITY-TOITY — up one’s own parse

    WOD 4ac LEWISIA

    DNQF but a great puzzle nevertheless.

    Edited at 2021-12-22 04:38 am (UTC)

  3. A nice enough romp, slowed at the end in the SW where expiatory, washer and a pop were slow coming. Figured Harlequin was something to do with Christmas pantomimes – obviously not a rugby follower. Never heard of buckaroo as a game, or indeed as a cowboy. Lewisia easy enough, liked babushkas for memories of Kate Bush, vitamin K, providence and the succinct add-on. COD to crumble.
  4. I also assumed JAMBA was some aperitif cordial I’d never heard of, since “rice dish beginning with J” is pretty a write-in. But I messed up LEWISIA getting confused as to which end my LEA was and putting LEWISEA. I had a vague feeling “Valladolid” was in Mexico (there is one but I suspect the one in Spain is meant). I don’t even know if INEZ is used as a name in Mexico but the Spanish connection was enough for me since it was hidden.
  5. Yes, fell into the trap with INES and therefore a DNF. Disappointing, but hopefully I’ll learn to be more careful.

    Good to see a couple of old-fashioned words/terms in TRANNY (again) and STD for the ‘phone system’. I don’t remember hearing about STD for years and don’t know if it’s still a thing. Both LEWISIA and BUCKAROO were new to me too.

  6. We covered HARLEQUIN(S) yesterday as a Rugby team in yesterday’s QC!

    43 minutes. I didn’t know LEWISIA but constructed it from wordplay. Another unknown was the sprit at 11ac, not that it mattered as the answer was clear. INEZ gave me some prob,ems until I realised it was hidden.

    Re 23ac, AS = ‘taking part of’ should be familiar to anyone who’s listened to plays on the radio where the announcer reads out the cast at the end.

    Edited at 2021-12-22 03:55 am (UTC)

  7. Think BUCKAROO is a popular board game* for kids Pip, but what would I know, I had the unjustifiable PLUSH at 9ac.

    Pity to mess up what I thought was an excellent puzzle. Didn’t mind humming a bit of Kate Bush along the way, but my COD is 23ac because…well, just because.

    Thanks Pip and setter.

    *On edit: Not so much a board game as a game of skill for young children. And favoured by the younger priest in Father Ted, according to Wikipedia.

    Edited at 2021-12-22 05:31 am (UTC)

  8. I bunged in ‘buckeroo’ and had no clue about the ASHES. So, I’m qualified to play for England, I guess.
  10. After my recent poor run of form I nervously finished with the unknown LEWISIA, where thankfully my parsing proved correct. At a glance it looks like today’s offering is a pangram which is not normally something I tend to spot.

    I’m surprised more people don’t know BUCKAROO from the “board game” that galspray mentions. It involved players taking in turns to place items on a packhorse until it got too heavy and triggered it to buck. The sort of game I hated as a child as I couldn’t take the anticipation!

    1. In physics we often use G
      Symbolising the force gravity
      But unless I’ve gone blind
      It’s the one i can’t find
      So close to a pangram! Aw gee!
  11. See a K and O in a kid’s game, write in Peekaboo, obvs.
    What a mess.
    After 35 mins sorting it out, undone by Lewisia.
    Thanks setter and Pip.
    1. I’m another who had PEEKABOO. It took me ages to escape from that trap. (I am trying to post this comment under my name but can’t access live journal)
      Ann Looker
  12. Fairly surprised to finish this in forty minutes, given that I had about ten question marks in the margin by the time I was done!

    Helpfully I have fond memories of playing Buckaroo™ as a child—one of those games where I didn’t own it myself, so it was a rare treat to visit the friend who had it in their collection. I also correctly deduced that LEWISIA was named after one half of Lewis and Clark.

    I did suspect it was a pangram once I put in JAUNT shortly after HARLEQUIN, but as it turned out I didn’t need to try to use that knowledge to finish this one off.

        1. Did you do Listener 4641 – Continental Drift by Opsimath back in January 2021? It was one of my increasingly rare successful forays into Listener territory and very enjoyable IIRC 🙂
  13. … said to myself at the end. Not my finest hour but what a stinker! I was actually well over the hour on this, and that was with writing 1a and 1d straight in. I needed RAT-A-TAT and HARLEQUIN to get JAUNT, and then at last JAMBALAYA fell into place. I’d taken so long by then that I took time out to check the Hank Williams song, although the Gerry and the Pacemakers version was the one I best remembered. I also checked LEWISIA was a thing at the same time. LOI WASHER. It’s as well we had TRANNY recently too, as I was desperately trying to remember why I knew Gracie Mansion. I was thinking it was from Batman. Thank you Pip for explaining much and setter for a great challenge.
      1. I love everything Emmylou does, so just listened. What a fantastic version! Terrific band behind too
        1. I think “The Hot Band” was best with Albert Lee in it. There’s an Old Grey Whistle Test concert on YouTube with Emmylou. His solo on “Luxury Liner” is dazzling. He would definitely be the lead guitarist in my eclectic rock band!
          1. I saw that on BBC4 not that long ago. Wonderful set. You’re right, Albert Lee is class throughout. I wish she’d done Boulder to Birmingham too but I guess that Gram Parsons was all too raw with her at the time. She and Mark Knopfler did some gorgeous stuff later, including If This is Goodbye.
  14. Couple of NHOs -LEWISIA and BUCKAROO but gettable from the clues.
    Like Pip, I was puzzled by 23ac but Jack has explained it well.
    Thanks, Pip, for explaining the THO in THORN. Also, thank you, for explaining KA in BABUSHKAS.
    FOI: ROCOCO
    LOI: BUCKAROO. I assume the required meaning is in a dictionary somewhere but I can’t find it in Lexico or Collins Online.
    As mentioned, we’ve had COHO(st) and TRANNY recently.
    INEZ was a good clue but COD to JAMBALAYA especially as it gave me an excuse to play YouTube recordings by the wonderful Emmylou Harris….several times!
    1. So agree about the wonderful Emmylou’s version. (And everything else she does). Also enjoy Hank’s. And INEZ gave me an excuse to dig out her and Charlie’s Mockingbird.
  15. Well, another DNF. Fell at the pair of BUCKAROO AND BABUSHKAS. Just couldn’t see it. The first NHO and the second I did not know the meaning as “old women”. I also had PLUSH for some odd reason, best known to my subconscious mind. DNK Gracie Mansion either but having had TRANNY the other day I was alert to it.

    Oh well roll on easy Friday, as someone said the other day…. (I bet it’s not!)

    Thank you Pip and setter.

    1. Mayor Bill de Blasio and his family currently live in the Gracie Mansion.

      In 2001 Rudy Giuliani was forced to move out after he had been barred by a judge from bringing his then-girlfriend Judith Nathan to live with him in the mansion. A matter complicated by the fact that his estranged wife Donna Hanover – refused to vacate the premises.

  16. 24:22 Lovely puzzle. I was held up for ages at the end by 13A before finally spotting the reverse hidden. Lots of great clues, CRUMBLE, BABUSHKAS, WASHER and PLAYPEN were among my favourites. Thanks Pip and setter.
    1. Hello harmonic_row,

      I don’t know if you’re having the same problem I had. I always used to type my comment without logging in first. I would then log in by clicking the down arrow of the “From:” box above the top left of the “Message:” text entry area, select “LiveJournal” from the drop-down list that appeared, then type in my username and password and click the “Post Comment ” button.

      In the last few weeks I’ve found that if I don’t log in before typing my comment, clicking the down arrow of the “From:” box does nothing, ie the drop-down list including “LiveJournal” doesn’t appear. By logging in first, before typing my comment, my username appears next to the “From:” box and I am able to post under my username as usual.

      I realise things may not be so simple for you, but logging in first would be worth a try if you have only been logging in, or trying to log in, after typing your comment.

      Good luck.

      1. Hi BR, and thank you so much for your kind suggestion. Gave it a go, but no luck, I’m afraid – it still wouldn’t let me in. However – I can log in on my iPhone (Safari). The problem seems to be just with my Windows 10 laptop. I guess I’ll keep trying and see if it resolves itself. Thanks again! 🙂
  18. A very fine puzzle with a nice retro feel to it. A mild panic after a blank first pass, but then I got a start in the South East and worked steadily up. I thought I had played BUCKAROO but when I checked I found that I’d been thinking of Kerplunk.

    Haven’t heard HOITY-TOITY for years, which is odd because I fear I’m often guilty of being so.

    COD JAMBALAYA

    Thanks to Pip and the setter

  19. I’ll keep the Emmylou thread going by mentioning her brilliant duet with John Denver ‘ Wild Montana Skies’. It opens with the line ‘He was born in the Bitterroot Vally…’ and Bitterroot is the common name of Lewisia rediviva, believed by some native tribes to have special properties and therefore justifying the setter’s use of herb as the definition.
  20. Gothick Matt is right about this being named for one half of the early 19th Century Lewis & Clark expedition. DNK lewisia but DK clarkia so it followed. TRANNY and STD do indeed have completely other meanings nowadays. Also DNK BUCKAROO and spent some time unraveling it. We are about to get a new occupant of Gracie Mansion. His opponent in the election was Curtis Sliwa who started the anti-subway-crime group the Guardian Angels in the late 70s when Ed Koch lived there. 21.48

    Edited at 2021-12-22 11:20 am (UTC)

  21. I found this slightly annoyingly tricky over 23 minutes, party because the layout seemed to divide the grid into more discrete areas than usual.
    LEWISIA was not only a plant, but one I really hadn’t herd of. Not the sort of herb you can buy in Tesco’s.
    BUCKAROO I knew (I’ve played it) but I wondered about product placement this close to Christmas. At least it wasn’t Hungry HIPPOs.
    It took me a long time to work my way from ring to WASHER, partly because MASHER (mine’s sort of ring shaped) kept getting in the way.
    And Gracie Mansion rang a bell, but not loud enough to place it in New York, Nashville intruding somewhat. I wonder when we’ll have TRANNY defined in a more contemporary fashion for the benefit of the under 60’s.
    I’m glad I didn’t go searching for the missing the G.
    1. Tranny in my vocab has three meanings – a portable radio – a photographer’s tansparency (which is hardly used these days) – and the more contemporary a transgender person.

      Edited at 2021-12-22 03:09 pm (UTC)

  22. Similar time to yesterday – 45 minutes, after an initially promising start. A fair proportion of that time was spent fully parsing clues to yield answers such as 4a (completely unknown) and 24a (only vaguely familiar), and others such as 16d.

    I don’t really understand 21d. Surely ‘what dramatist’s done’ = PENNED PLAY. Souldnt it be ‘what dramatist may do’?

    1. This late in the day I cannot be fagged to scroll back to check out what 4a, 24a, 16d and 21d are! If everyone did this without entering the appropriate word/answer – where would be? Outnumbered I guess!

      Edited at 2021-12-22 03:16 pm (UTC)

      1. I agree – putting the words in, rather than the numbers, would really help: entering LEWISIA, JAMBAYALA, EXPIATORY and PLAYPEN would be far easier for all. Sorry to be so 18a!

        Edited at 2021-12-22 03:27 pm (UTC)

      2. If you can’t be “fagged” then don’t bother. It’s very simple.I’ve seen fairly irrascible replies by you to comments by others. As a result, I never read what you have to say. Likewise you can ignore me.
  23. Over an hour, with plenty of cheating to finish off. Nice crossword, but I found lots of the words rather difficult. Wordplay covered my ignorance quite often, but jambalaya and buckaroo strained it to the limits. Never got pouch (another who unaccountably wanted it to be plush, as if something to do with snooker) and 23ac is still a mystery. Has anyone really explained it yet?

    Edited at 2021-12-22 11:26 am (UTC)

    1. Jackkt explained 23a supra. To expand, if Laurence Olivier takes the part of Hamlet he appears AS Hamlet. HE’S=the bloke’s.
      2. That would be ‘As he’ though if the apostrophe represents ‘is’. If it’s a possessive- the blokes. . .(what)? If a plural ‘hes’ is intended, there’s no need for the apostrophe at all.
  24. were too obscure for me, so DNF. Really don’t understand the parsing for 23ac.

    Otherwise enjoyed this. COD TRANNY.

  25. Pretty much on the wavelength, with the exception of the unknown (OK, possibly forgotten) KA, but, in the context of completing BABUSH__S, not the biggest hurdle to overcome. I am also of the right age to have played Buckaroo as a child; like a lot of games, one of those things which in my memory produced brief excitement at Christmas before being put away again for the rest of the year, or possibly forever.
  26. A very interesting crossword that had me chasing across the grid, with lots of good words Hoity-Toity, Jambayala, Buckaroo, Babushkas and Harlequin (again). However my COD to 13ac INEZ which took a while. My time 26:09. Another Emmylou fan here.

    Edited at 2021-12-22 02:51 pm (UTC)

  27. A rare daytime solve for me. 42m but needed aids to check the long list of unknowns: the game, the herb, the mayoral residence and the spanish/mexican woman. Thank you to our blogger and setter for the enlightenment and befuddlement respectively.
  28. ….WASHER. Only on solving that one (SLOI) could I finish off the puzzle — NHO Gracie Mansion. That apart, I was right on the setter’s wavelength from the get-go.

    FOI ROCOCO
    LOI TRANNY
    COD A POP
    TIME 10:05

    1. Phil – POI (Penultimate One In) is already in the Glossary – it would save a finger or two for other purposes, would it not!!?
  29. DNF in just under 25 mins because of a stupid typo in unrrlated. Grr! Otherwise a nice puzzle with some interesting vocab to keep me on my toes.

  30. I found this took ages, each clue took a lot of working out. We had JAMBALAYA for supper last night so that was a bonus.

    At the end was left with 6d and 12 AC. I went for SITDOWN and THORN but had no idea how they worked. So many thanks for the blog and explanations.

  31. About 50 mins. A real challenge for me but one I felt good about finishing even if I probably came near the back of the field. Didn’t help myself by putting in expatiory at 16 dn but realising my mistake did mean I had a quickfire ending with jambalaya, junta and LOI harlequin. Bit embarrassing the latter as I had a season ticket to the stoop when they first turned pro.

    COD tranny. Priceless. Thx setter and Merry Xmas to our esteemed blogger.

  32. I can’t get access to live journal and can only post anonymously. Can anyone help? I’m useless when technical thiings don’t work as they should..

    This took me about 55 minutes because I had peekaboo instead of BUCKAROO. I can’t remember when it last took me so long to unscramble a wrong answer. Ann Looker

  33. A pleasant workout which I finished within my target time of 51 mins.

    BUCKAROO was a ninja turtle for me, knowing the board game but not knowing the cowboy.

    LEWISIA from the cryptic, THORN unknown but seemed a reasonable guess with RN as the service.

    BABUSHKAS from ‘O’ Level Russian nearly 40 years ago.

    COHOST from definition plus all checkers — not sure I recall salmon = COHO

    2. Coho is one of the Pacific salmon along with King, Chum (dog), Sockeye, Pink and Chinook.

  34. I started this puzzle in between a Click and Collect run and a barber’s appointment, and got slightly over half way through in 20 minutes or so, before having to don my mask and get tidied up. Returning to the fray sometime later I managed to finish off in a tad under 35 minutes overall. ROCOCO and the now familiar COHOS(t) went in first. I managed to work out where the KA came from in the old women, but BUCKAROO took a lot longer to spot. My LEWSAGIA held up WELL TO DO and SIT DOWN for quite a while, and my LOI, WASHER, held me up for a good 5 minutes as I started my alphabet trawl from A. 34:11. Thanks setter and Pip.
  35. 20:57 late this afternoon.
    One of those puzzles where I wasn’t totally convinced by some of my answers at the time, but got there intact.
    I see Harlequin, Tranny and Coho are back again in the frame already. At least they provide a good test of short term memory retention.
    COD 24 ac “jambalaya”, which totally misled me early doors, when I was looking for a 3 letter word for an aperitif (Kir didn’t help — maybe I should have had one) and trying to include “ova” for eggs. Only when 24 d “jaunt” was cracked, did everything fall into place.
    LOI 22 d “washer” where the dreaded brain freeze almost kicked in but then the solution suddenly appeared from somewhere. Not surprising really, since it’s my main household chore among those that Mrs P and I have divvied up since time immemorial.
    Thanks to Pip for a neat blog and to setter for an entertaining puzzle.
  36. 49 minutes, nothing much to say about this. Parsing the clues helps in avoiding a) pink squares and b) fast times, so there you are. COD perhaps to SIT-DOWN.

  37. Great crossword. All went swimmingly, except I had to look up Thorn. Never heard of it as a character. Love Emmylou Harris, especially her duets with Gram Parsons. Nice to hear her on that recent History of Country music documentary extolling my particular favourites, the Louvin brothers.

  38. Yes, I thought of that after Matt mentioned Lewis and Clarke. I don’t know how often you dabble, but the past couple of Listeners have been on the easier side.
    1. I do look at them most weeks but I find them quite an investment of my time so I do need to get some sort of foothold to really put in the effort. I will go back and have a look at the last couple of weeks and see if I get anywhere!

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