Times 28279 – Slow-motion solving, or….

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Time: 25 minutes

Music: Strauss, Don Quixote, Karajan/Fournier/BPO

This was a not-so-mild puzzle for a Monday, that took a little doing. I got off on the wrong foot almost immediately, looking at the first clue and thinking: is the magazine Life, or Look? Fortunately, I managed to get a toehold with a few of the across clues, got a few of the downs, and was off. The vocabulary is just a bit outside the usual: marlinspike, intendant, psychodrama, Afrikaans – I don’t think we see these very often.

Important blog announcement.   I have received a number of emails asking about the new site.   As you know, creating a new web site entirely from scratch is not a simple undertaking, even with modern development platforms   In our case, we are using volunteer developers with various levels of experience, and our progress was slow at first.   However, the new site is nearly complete, and is currently being tested by our bloggers as the developers add the final touches.   Unless something goes wrong, we are expecting to open the new site to the public in the middle of May, and abandon Live Journal forever.   Everyone who sent me an email will receive a notification, and we will put a final post here to let stragglers know where we have gone.     I think you will be very impressed with what the team has done.

Across
1 Type of photography US magazine used by mistake? (4-5)
TIME-LAPSE – TIME + LAPSE, which I should have seen quickly but didn’t.
6 Dark brown fur bishop found in auction (5)
SABLE – SA(B)LE, a starter clue.
9 English motor yacht collecting fish for government building (7)
EMBASSY – E M(BASS)Y – not a very natural-sounding surface.
10 Exchange views on field event with son (7)
DISCUSS – DISCUS + S.
11 Boy king reversed it, employing all the players (5)
TUTTI – TUT + IT backwards.
12 Unassuming character sounding buzzer (9)
HUMBLEBEE – HUMBLE + sounds like B.
14 Despicable person, endlessly uncivil (3)
CUR – CUR[t].
15 Like subscribers, not meant to receive rebates initially (11)
UNDERSIGNED – UNDE(R[ebates])SIGNED.
17 Historian entered vaguely at first in press and TV register (11)
MEDIEVALIST – MEDI(E[ntered] V[aguely])A LIST.
19 Save area covered by old rail service (3)
BAR – B(A)R – British Rail, of course, back in the 50s.
20 Language old Turkic rulers picked up after a day? (9)
AFRIKAANS – A FRI + sounds like KHANS.
22 Study aids provided by heavyweight backing French art (5)
NOTES – TON backwards + ES. Thou art, tu es.
24 Old company head’s aloof manner (7)
ICINESS – I.C.I. + NESS. Imperial Chemical Industries.
26 Infelicitously snooze in country, missing start of auction (7)
INAPTLY – I(NAP)T[a]LY.
27 Moved slowly, like sharpened blades (5)
EDGED – Double definition, another starter clue.
28 As many illnesses are, primarily requiring drug in form of a tablet (9)
TREATABLE – Anagram of A TABLET around R[equiring] E, the setters’ favorite drug.
Down
1 Shelter penetrated by river, one rising on Biddulph Moor (5)
TRENT – T(R)ENT.
2 Fiend’s name covered up by British gang member (7)
MOBSTER – MO(-n,+B)STER, a clever letter-substitution clue that I just biffed.
3 Weariness shown by girl initially unwavering in new diet (9)
LASSITUDE – LASS + U[nwavering] in an anagram of DIET.
4 Film of card shop Amy unexpectedly produced (11)
PSYCHODRAMA – Anagram of CARD SHOP AMY.
5 Top journalist covering current Muslim festival (3)
EID – E(I)D, another easy one.
6 Fibre displayed by boy supporting little sibling (5)
SISAL – SIS supported by AL.
7 Advantage plugged by pope rejecting an alcoholic drink (7)
BOURBON – BO(URB[an])ON, another rather feeble surface.
8 Cockney’s aim to be admitted to feast (4,5)
EAST ENDER – EAST(END)ER.
13 Prank I smile about, finding tool for separating rope (11)
MARLINSPIKE – Anagram of PRANK I SMILE. I knew the word, but not what it was used for.
14 Bell tower originally placed advantageously between two rivers (9)
CAMPANILE – CAM(P[laced] A[dvanteously])NILE.
16 Mean busybody, an opera administrator (9)
INTENDANT – INTEND + ANT.
18 Animal protecting Republican family in Surrey town (7)
DORKING – DO(R KIN)G.
19 Club raised objection, installing hot container to wash in (7)
BATHTUB – BAT (H) BUT upside-down.
21 Vocally expressed demand to work in bakery (5)
KNEAD – Sounds like NEED.
23 Way cathedral city set up fashion (5)
STYLE – ST + ELY upside-down.
25 Oddly smooth — and lush! (3)
SOT -S[m]O[o]T[h].

54 comments on “Times 28279 – Slow-motion solving, or….”

  1. Very easy and quick for me at first, but slowed to 29 minutes by various words that were difficult, HUMBLEBEE, INTENDANT, MARLINSPIKE, UNDERSIGNED in that sense. I’d always thought that in British English it was mediaeval, (medieval in American English), but evidently that’s wrong.
  2. Definitely a bit trickier than some recent Monday puzzles. I filled most of the lower half fairly quickly, but it took me a while to sort out the long anagrams at 4 and 13 to enable me to finish top and bottom.
    I was interrupted by a long phone call, so not sure of my time.
  3. 26 1/2 minutes, nearly my best time ever. So not hard and very unimpressive, despite my not knowing what HUMBLEBEEs and MARLINSPIKEs are. And no, I don’t like DORKING (which did sound more likely than HORKING, though). I also thought a moment about the spelling of KNEAD, but AFRIKAANS was clear and INTENDANT was no problem, since it appears frequently in German.

    Today Live Journal was offering me townhouses in Yalta starting at 17 million (what?). I’m glad we are leaving soon.

  4. 15.05 . A bit lumpy in solving with LOI undersigned. Worried about spelling of medievalist and afrikaans so pleased to have avoided making a mess of the puzzle. Brain fade on sot, put in soh and left it there till finally recognised my dumbness.
    Ths setter and blogger.
  5. 14.25. A smooth solve for me today with only a slight hesitation over the unknown humblebee and intendant.
  6. Very quick time for me, only really UNDERSIGNED took a while to see undesigned plus r. Really liked that clue plus INAPTLY and CAMPANILE. Learned what I.C.I stood for.Thanks for all the explanations!
  7. …since I didn’t get to it until I’d made my morning coffee. Having started with easy downs at the very end, and then solved a bunch of others without crossers, I fairly rushed thru this, though I was slowed down by having to work out MARLINSPIKE. But if I had tried it last night, after karaoke and a number of shots of Jack, it would probably have been tougher.
  8. Had a weekend away, and felt terrified I’d forgotten everything I ever knew about solving – but the juices started to flow again after a while, and even the unfamiliar CAMPANILE, HUMBLEBEE and LOI INTENDANT were entered with some confidence.

    Good to be back (even though the absence was only a few hours more than a normal weekend). Thanks V and setter.

  9. All bar one clue done in a session over lunch -under an hour.
    Returning to 12a I derived HUMBLEBEE quickly without knowing what it means.
    I also managed to construct the unknown MARLINSPIKE. Is it anything to do with the fish which helped me?
    Similar queries to others, but not too hard overall.
    David

  10. 11:19. Another who had never heard of HUMBLEBEE so that went in with fingers crossed. Likewise INTENDANT. Thanks Vinyl and setter.
  11. Please will you include here Very Simple instructions for finding the new site when it is ready? It took me a long time to find this one! (Just this once, nothing cryptic, please!)

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