Times 28227 – normal service resumed; alors, Milou.

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Well, after last Wednesday’s SNITCH-bitch, this was a pleasant twenty minute stroll with some clever clueing, I thought. I liked the French island and the Indian mountain, but wasn’t so keen on the Australian cooking prevention surface. 4a was a neat anagram too, and it’s always nice to be reminded of a famous Belgian apart from Poirot and Maigret. Here’s the blog.

Across
1 Like a dunce cap Charlie is given after trick with iodine (5)
CONIC – CON (trick) I (iodine) C for Charlie.
4 A spot to get drunk with grub? (9)
GASTROPUB – (A SPOT GRUB)*.
9 Dashes to represent Tom in this? (5,4)
MORSE CODE – as all boy scouts with the badge know, TOM in Morse is – — –. Kind of guessable, if you didn’t know.
10 Gym class skipped by more irritating sportsperson (5)
SKIER – PESKIER = more irritating, remove the PE for the gym class.
11 Not initially pleasant to fight for refrigerator (6)
ICEBOX – (N)ICE = pleasant not initially, BOX = fight.
12 Leaf pattern in range of colours worn by maiden (8)
PALMETTE – PALETTE has M for maiden inside.
14 Socialist embraces a strange character — The Devil, perhaps (5,4)
TAROT CARD – TROT (socialist) has A in, then CARD is a strange character.
16 United supporters flipped, creating a big mess (5)
SNAFU – U FANS reversed. WWII US acronym for Situation Normal All Fu**ed Up.
17 Ugly cut in garment (5)
TUNIC – *CUT IN)*.
19 Lifts hex mysteriously surrounding European show (3,1-5)
THE X-FILES – (LIFTS HEX)* with E inserted. I don’t think I ever watched any of the 202 episodes, in spite of it featuring Gillian Anderson. In those days I had better things to do; maybe they’ll do a repeats run on a Gold channel. Maybe they already have!
21 Old record label with award for expatriate (8)
EMIGRANT –  EMI (old record label) GRANT (award).
22 Quickly typed a letter for dictator? (6)
PRESTO – sounds like (“for dictator”) PRESSED O.
25 Garden area essential to occupation (5)
PATIO – hidden, not very, as above.
26 Signal heard to unexpectedly attack and gain an unfair advantage (5-4)
QUEUE-JUMP – QUEUE sounds like CUE = signal, JUMP = unexpectedly attack.
27 I’ve returned, following female and male relatives to see mountain (5,4)
NANDA DEVI – NAN, DAD (female and male relatives) I’VE reversed. Very high pointy mountain in India in a National Park.
28 Cyclist‘s condition (5)
RIDER – double definition, RIDER as in a conditional clause in a contract.

Down
1 Emerge and enter golf tournament? (4,4,3,4)
COME INTO THE OPEN – double definition, one flippant.
2 Two possible directions from Trondheim, perhaps (5)
NORSE – North OR South East.
3 Bird grabs the lady’s cigar (7)
CHEROOT – COOT a bird grabs HER = the lady’s.
4 Liquor — almost overindulge when upset (4)
GROG – GORG(E) reversed.
5 Cleared out messy desk to confuse daughter (10)
SKEDADDLED – (DESK)* ADDLE (confuse) D (daughter).
6 After a break, begins summaries (7)
RESUMES – double definition, where resumés has an accent.
7 Drink bottles beginning to affect party game (9)
PAINTBALL – PINT (drink) has A (beginning to affect) inserted, then BALL = party.
8 Hairdresser covers PC’s toupee clumsily — that’s controversial in Sydney! (8,7)
BARBECUE STOPPER – BARBER (hairdresser) has (PCS TOUPEE)* in the middle. An odd definition, I’d have thought ‘unpopular’ rather than controversial.
13 Drink what in Spanish island? (10)
MARTINIQUE – An island in France, made from MARTINI from Italy and QUE = what in Spanish.
15 Dog runs home with animated Belgian (3,3,3)
RIN TIN TIN – R (runs) IN (home) TINTIN (cartoon hero by Hergé who is a famous Belgian.)
18 Brazilian vehicle, one local uncovered (7)
CARIOCA – CAR (vehicle), I (one) (L)OCA(L). Referring to Rio de Janeiro.
20 Refrain from terror when circling globe (7)
FORBEAR – FEAR circles ORB.
23 Animal pound (5)
SQUID – double definition. SQUID is a less common slang than QUID but both mean a pound.
24 At first, Jimi Hendrix regularly shown to be forceful character? (4)
JEDI – J(imi), h E n D r I x.

57 comments on “Times 28227 – normal service resumed; alors, Milou.”

  1. … but what a struggle. Nearly 50 minutes today after a lot of work to construct all the unknowns. Struggled with PAs as the male relatives in 27ac before seeing the much more likely looking DAD. COD MARTINIQUE, WOD SKEDADDLED
  2. 17:19. NHO of India’s second highest mountain (or its first) but the cryptic was suitably giveaway. Having spent some years in robust Australian society as a lily-livered Pom and never having heard the phrase BARBECUE STOPPER, I can only imagine how outrageous a comment would have to be to have such an effect.
  3. NHO Barbecue stopper, but I have heard of Marmalade dropper, which one sees more and more signifying an alarming or suprising piece of news. English equivalent, I suppose. And I didn’t know Carioca referred to people from Rio. I just bunged it in because I thought I’d heard of it – but it occurs to me now that what I actually had in mind was karaoke. Which raises an interesting possibility – the 1933 song being performed badly on a pub stage in a C.K.
  4. Same NHOs as most, and all eventually attained, but oh-so-much-slower than most! Frustrating that I still miss partial anagrams that in retrospect seem blindingly obvious, eg LOI Skedaddled
  5. Didn’t like BARBECUE STOPPER. No one seems to have heard of it; it’s not in my dictionary and I still have no idea what it means! To be fair the cryptic was kind but even so.

    That and PALMETTE were my last two in

    Hesitated over CARIOCA as wondered whether it could be CARNOCA with the n uncovered from ine

    Imagine my grumbles if I’d got that wrong!

    Thanks Pip and Setter

    1. “One” that should have said

      Now looked up the STOPPER. You live and learn

      Need to get a new dictionary…

  6. I normally do the QC as a warm-up, and my times have been improving pleasingly – but after a dismal effort today, I decided to postpone the 15×15 until after I’d been to the swimming pool.

    Felt to me like 2 different puzzles – started off thinking this was super-easy, and the LHS a good few immediate write-ins – but the RHS required some proper thinking. Ended up in the NE, unlocked by GASTROPUB, with LOI PALMETTE from the wordplay.

    First ever time I’ve done Mon through Wed all error-free, so this is a my best chance so far of achieving my medium-term goal of a full set of weekdays. Excitement mounting…

  7. Defeated by the leaf pattern and the Indian mountain but chapeau to the setter for 4across — best surface I’ve seen in a long time.

    Thanks pip and setter

  8. Worked the west side first, and the east was definitely harder, with the NHO PALMETTE, the NHO slangy SQUID and also NHO, I think, Aussie expression (mercifully, an anagram). LOI QUEUE-JUMP (as I obviously didn’t).

    I (and the woman who used to live with me) have seen all episodes of The X-Files on TV, and a movie. In college, the male star dated the publisher of the magazine I work for. Saw the great Gillian recently in Sex Education.

    Edited at 2022-03-02 03:46 pm (UTC)

  9. A late afternoon solve today which clearly didn’t help things. Same blank spots as everybody, and BBQ CORK took forever to imagine. Wouldn’t it be BARBIE STOPPER in Oz?
    PALMETTE looks more like a miniature miniature computer: apparently it’s more architectural than horticultural.
    Idly looking up CARIOCA classes in my area, confusing it (I think) with capoeira, I discovered that round here its a decent looking motor home: I wonder if they know?
    With any luck, the second highest mountain in India will be a quiz question tonight.
    I entered SQUID with trepidation, thinking (see above) it was only thus in my close family, and in any case dubious as an animal.
    A mildly grumpy 30.48 after a very fast start promised much better.
  10. Yes I have heard of a conic section, but it wasn’t clued as such, which was in my opinion why it was inelegant.
  11. Very easy indeed, except for the last three or four cues, so in the end I did take 42 1/2 minutes, with five of those devoted to the S in SQUID until I gave up wondering about it. That was my LOI, after GROG and PALMETTE. And of course BARBECUE STOPPER just had to be believed, although I could imagine it might be controversial in Sydney.
  12. I’m fairly new to the game of believing it’s possible to solve the 15×15 without any help, so it was a pleasant surprise to finish sans aids in 36:22, even if it didn’t quite crack the ton on the snitchometer. Could have been home in much closer to the half hour if not for the SQUID and RIDER double in the SE. Turns out middle-of-the-road DDs are often harder than precisely clued NHOs. Thanks Pip for the helpful blog.
  13. 15.27. A decent time given that there were a few unfamiliar elements – barbecue stopper, squid and palmette.

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