Times 28,283: Sorted for E’s and Pot

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

I liked this a lot, with its very correct quotas of interesting vocabulary, artsy GK, and humorous constructions. COD to 12ac as the idea of a boatload of Father Christmases very much appealed. Thank you setter!

Done and dusted inside of 10 minutes; video evidence at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1476097154, from the 10 minute mark. Please excuse the increasingly wild and straggly beard, I’ve lost the power cord for my trimmer.

Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Health ought not to be taken wholly for granted (8)
ALTHOUGH – {he}ALTH OUGH{t}, “not to be taken wholly”
5 Exercise in order to be cheerful? (4-2)
CHIN-UP – double def; if you tell someone “chin up!” you are ordering them to be cheerful
10 Going places, free at last? (5)
LOOSE – LOOS [places for “going”] + {fre}E, &lit
11 Post articles, including place for Creole dish (9)
JAMBALAYA – JAMB [post] + A and A “including” LAY [place]
12 Old naval commander’s spoken of Christmas holiday at sea? (5,4)
SANTA CRUZ – homophone of the delightful concept that is a SANTA CRUISE
13 Raffles maybe run once in newspaper, going back (5)
THIEF – HIE [run, once] in reversed FT. Raffles was E.W. Hornung’s gentlemanly literary cracksman.
14 Passage ancient poet largely avoided in recitation (7)
OVIDUCT – OVI{d} + homophone of DUCKED
16 A necessity to be originally called a dame (4-2)
NEED-BE – NEE [originally called] + DBE [Dame Commander]
19 Little plastic models (6)
SELDOM – (MODELS*)
21 Australian peach brandy factory employee? (7)
BOTTLER – a bottler is an excellent fellow, or suchlike, Down Under; and an important job in a brandy factory
23 More trouble as head’s dismissed (5)
OTHER – {b}OTHER
25 With cold, not on various drugs: drink from this (9)
COFFEEPOT – with C(old), OFF [not on] + E, E and POT
27 Conflict that was ended by The Sun (3,3,3)
SIX DAY WAR – began on Mon June 5, 1967, and was all over by the Sun (June 11).
28 Mammal’s four limbs it oddly passed over (5)
ORIBI – {f}O{u}R {l}I{m}B{s} I{t}
29 People moving, and people opposing, keeping bats caged (6)
NOMADS – NO’S [people opposing] “caging” MAD [bats]
30 For diversion, try C-list celebrity show (8)
STRICTLY – (TRY C-LIST*)
Down
1 Every American satellite passing over Pole, it’s implied (8)
ALLUSION – ALL U.S. IO [satellite of Jupiter] + N [pole]
2 Old player that you’d not want in your side finally vetoed by president (9)
THORNDIKE – THORN [that you’d not want in your side] + {vetoe}D + IKE.  Sybil, with whom in mind for the title role George Bernard Shaw wrote Saint Joan.
3 East Ender perhaps who aspires to appear on a musical show (5)
OPERA – ‘OPER [Cockney unaspirated aspirant]  on A
4 Asian state prison turning over an informer (7)
GUJARAT – reversed JUG + A RAT
6 Sign of life in bather swimming before lunch? (9)
HEARTBEAT – (BATHER*) before EAT
7 Outlet for soldier’s natural aggression, as fighting is, primarily (5)
NAAFI – N{atural} A{ggression} A{s} F{ighting} I{s}
8 Irrational: a very loud English Trot going nowhere! (6)
PIAFFE – PI: A FF E. On-the-spot dressage move
9 Long-distance runner to stagger after cutting leg (6)
AMAZON – AMAZ{e} + ON [leg]
15 Evidently give not enough away, being so secretive? (9)
UNDERHAND – if you under-hand out something, you don’t give enough away
17 Writer’s function and aim (9)
BALLPOINT – BALL [(social) function] + POINT [aim]
18 Yankee repairman quietly turning over deck (8)
PRETTIFY -Y FITTER P, all reversed
20 Parrots raising racket across wide area (6)
MACAWS – reversed SCAM “across” W A
21 Motion’s opponents won’t face rebuke (2,3,2)
BE FOR IT – and the opponents of a motion will be against, not “for” it
22 Continue to hoard old pennies and shillings for favoured child (6)
GODSON – GO ON, “hoarding” D S [as in LSD, pounds shillings pence]
24 Dickensian scavenger, he lifted as much as possible? (5)
HEXAM – HE + reversed MAX. Appears in Our Mutual Friend, right in chapter 1, messing about in boats on the Thames
26 Cause of complaint from lycée? Endless one (1,4)
E COLI – ÉCOL{e} + I

55 comments on “Times 28,283: Sorted for E’s and Pot”

  1. Lovely crossword. A few (HEXAM, THORNDIKE, and PIAFFE) where I had to trust the wordplay since I didn’t know the names/dressage-move. I couldn’t believe it took me so long to get E-COLI given that I go the E fairly early on. 35 minutes for me. Several I biffed like JAMBALAYA (how many Creole dishes are there that might appear in the crossword?).
      1. Etouffée is a Mephisto word. I’d be surprised to see it in the daily. Also, technically Jambalaya is Cajun not Creole, but I think you have to live in NOLA to have a strong opinion.
  2. I slogged painfully through this (FOI 3d!), only to overlook a typo (BR FOR IT). DNK SANTA CRUZ, BOTTLER, PIAFFE. Is a GODSON favored? Over who?
  3. Enjoyed this … and it is Dressage at Badminton today so PIAFFE may appear frequently.
    1. Yes, that’s how I knew that kind of pfaffing around Sawbill. I never could get a horse to do anything of the sort, they always did exactly what they wanted.
      1. You have reawakened one of my most deepseated childhood traumas. In my tweens I was on a summer camp in west Wales with the rest of my class and one of the activities was horse riding. Everyone got on their horses, took up the reins and off me trotted, except for my own steed, which proceeded to go round and round and round in a patient circles. “You’re telling it to do that by the way you’re pulling on the reins! Stop doing that!” rebuked the instructor, but I couldn’t work it out, so eventually I was told, in a withering tone “Look, just drop the reins for the rest of the day, the horse will follow the others.” Which it did immediately. Deeply humiliating!
  4. I also slogged painfully through this but after reaching nearly double Kevin’s time I gave up with three or four answers missing in the NW segment.

    I won’t bore you or embarrass myself further by listing the things I didn’t know here, but I take some consolation in that I managed to overcome most of those failings because with cryptic puzzle clues there is nearly always another way to the answer.

    I was thrown at 2dn by ‘old player’ as I had the T checker and nothing else at that stage to prevent the answer beginning with TREE. Old players are getting younger as Sybil was born in 1882, 30 years after the wooden one!

    My confidence didn’t need this today having been trounced yesterday by the beast that appeared in The Guardian.

    Edited at 2022-05-06 06:36 am (UTC)

  5. Or Jambalaya? Buddy Holly or Hank Williams? I’m spoilt for choice. 54 minutes with LOI BOTTLER, not an expression I knew in that sense. Terrific puzzle, although I think HEXAM properly belongs in the TLS crossword. COD to Dame Sybil, who helped me with NEED-BE too. I loved PRETTIFY and SANTA CRUZ as well, even if I remembered him better as a footballer. PIAFFE was constructed but did ring a faint bell. I thought it must be a dance step, but not one for horses. Four legs better than two. Thank you V and setter.
      1. Great version but it was Hank’s first. I remember Gerry and the Pacemakers singing it on one of their albums too. Emmylou’s is the best, I agree.
    2. Yes and in a Broteas at that. I read OMF – once. Did not remember the name.
  6. 37:54
    Good puzzle. Had to come here to see how need-be worked.
    Thanks, v.
  7. Summer’s joys are spoilt by use

    25 mins pre-brekker. NeeDBE was LOI.
    I liked it, but had to guess Hexam.
    Thanks setter and V.

  8. 17:04. Nice one! DNK HEXAM or PIAFFE but the wordplay left no alternatives. Lots of good clues. COD to PRETTIFY. Thanks V and setter.
  9. 72 minutes. Thrown by putting in “objective” for 17d which works (sort of) with ‘aim’ as the def, so that did me for the SE corner until I realised the ‘dame’ bit of 16a was DBE. A few things I didn’t know such as the’Dickensian scavenger’ and I’d forgotten PIAFFE as a horsey term. PRETTIFY also took a while to see.

    SIX DAY WAR and NAAFI were good but BOTTLER was a real peach.

  10. 11:44. I thought this was a great puzzle. A nice range of interesting words requiring proper engagement with the wordplay but everything – including the unlikely-looking PIAFFE – clearly indicated. Lots of great clues but I thought the definition for SIX DAY WAR, which manages to be extremely precise while also disguised as something different – particularly brilliant.

    Edited at 2022-05-06 11:08 am (UTC)

  11. After noting on other puzzles this week that often one answer could open things up nicely, I decided to move quicker through the clues today in search of such answers. It seemed to pay dividends as I ended up with a good personal NITCH. Let’s see how this approach continues next week…
    I was a bit hesitant to submit today with my LOI, NEED BE, unparsed, but I went with the old “what else could it be” approach. Interesting to learn that a BOTTLER is an excellent person in Oz, where here it refers to someone who has lost their nerve, and typically wouldn’t be considered excellent.
    1. More often – perhaps exclusively? – an excellent situation, rather than an excellent person.

      Edited at 2022-05-10 10:12 am (UTC)

  12. ….and NHO HEXAM (even doing the TLS puzzle has evidently still not beefed up my Dickensian knowledge sufficiently). I didn’t know that Aussie sense of BOTTLER, but it was eventually obvious. I biffed OVIDUCT, resisted ‘go for it’ by a whisker, and took far too long sorting out STRICTLY (which Sheila force-feeds me with when it’s on).

    FOI LOOSE
    LOI PRETTIFY
    COD SANTA CRUZ
    TIME 15:07

  13. Gave up on the hour with the unknown PIAFFE just not showing itself. Frustrating not to finish a very tricky one like today’s.

    NHO BOTTLER in that sense despite family in, and many visits to, Aus. Lots to like including SANTA CRUZ, STRICTLY and SIX DAY WAR.

    Thanks V and setter.

  14. Great challenge today. Tricky but very enjoyable. 29m. Many thanks to setter and V for enlightening me (and others!) on the parsing of ‘need-be’.
  15. UNDERHAND to include the MACAWS
    OTHERwise there NEED BE no pause
    I can’t STRICTLY BE FOR IT
    And ALTHOUGH I deplore it
    The birds can’t prevent the applause
  16. 25.20 indicates how tricky I found this, Dame Sybil, Jesse the Waterman, the bonzer Aussie and having “be” already in the clue for NEED-BE all proving elusive.
    This seems to be the Friday setter who likes to cosy up to Verlaine and tease the rest of us with a not-Quite pangram.
  17. 29 minutes, with HEXAM thankfully forgotten.

    For tonight I’m gonna meet ma cher amio…

  18. It looked as though it would be a pangram, and with the last in being 14a O-I-U-T and still short of a V and a Q, it would have to be OVIQUIT, right? That could be a thing, especially as the unlikely PIAFFE and HEXAM seemed to pass muster. Luckily a moment’s reflection revealed OVIDUCT to be better.
    33:21
  19. …mostly because I got stuck on BOTTLER/BE FOR IT.
    I lived in Sydney for 15 years but no-one I knew ever used the word BOTTLER.
    JAMBALAYA? I’ve just spent a pleasant 3 minutes listening to EmmyLou Harris’ version from “Elite Hotel”. For that reason alone, 11ac has to be my COD.
    Thank you, Verlaine, for E-COLI, NEED BE, BE FOR IT and LOOSE.

    Edited at 2022-05-06 09:29 am (UTC)

  20. This certainly rounded out a week of very good puzzles. A journalist pal from years ago covered the SIX DAY WAR for the FT but he always called it the June War. Neat clue. 25.26
  21. Clearly on the wavelength, and even the ones I didn’t know (PIAFFE, HEXAM, the Aussie BOTTLER) were pretty unambiguously clued and looked convincing enough not to waste time worrying about. I suspect I know PIAFFE for a couple of weeks every four years while watching coverage of the Olympics – see also: specialist terms used in curling, gymnastics, skating etc. etc. Lots of good stuff, but particularly liked the truncated French school.
  22. Another good’un. Piaffe was new to me, and I was held up by thinking an Australian peach was a “beaut” and that the second part of 17 “must be” print.

    COD SANTA CRUZ

    Thanks to Verlaine and the setter

  23. My GO FOR IT held me up at the end, but as Oz slang is not my strong point, it took a while.
    A classic Friday crossword, with unknowns fairly clued, what could be better?
  24. Another who had to construct the unknown, HEXAM and PIAFFE, and who didn’t know the Oz term, but the wordplay was generous. PIAFFE was actually my FOI as I was sure 5a was going to end with UP, and followed the wordplay from the P. PRETTIFY was eventually LOI. Nice puzzle. 29:47. Thanks setter and V.
  25. 31:08. Some of the subtler wordplay appreciated only when coming here – SIX DAY WAR a case in point, and one of a batch of generous and lovely clues.
  26. What a lovely puzzle, with superb work in the definitions in particular. ALTHOUGH, LOOSE, SIX DAY WAR & PRETTIFY were my favourites.

    BOTTLER was an unknown, but gettable from the checkers, and OVIDUCT was my LOI.

    If I had any complaint at all, it would be that Christmas is the last time that Santa should be going on a cruise.

  27. Enjoyed figuring out much of the grid though one or two had to rely on reasonable guesswork — PIAFFE, HEXAM, BOTTLER

    I liked ALLUSION for which I had only the O checker.

    Last two in: STRICTLY — not something I watch – and PRETTIFY which took longer still to arrive at.

  28. A very enjoyable challenge which I needed two sittings to complete. There were a number of unknown words figured out from wordplay, including HEXAM, ORIBI, PIAFFE and JAMBALAYA, as well as words I didn’t know in the sense of the clue, namely Raffles as the THIEF, the naval commander SANTA CRUZ and the Australian meaning of BOTTLER.

    FOI Naafi
    LOI Jambalaya
    CODs Six Day War / Although

  30. A difficulty with tricky puzzles is the inclination to over-extend — for example, I didn’t remember Raffles as thief, but I did happen to know the word Treff (a place where spies meet to exchange secrets) and I knew the Singapore bar. You can see where this is going. Elsewhere I had the same almost know / not quite knowns as others, but my SE problem was In For It. Nice puzzle, setter. More please, ed. Thanks for the somewhat necessary blog verlaine

    Edited at 2022-05-06 12:38 pm (UTC)

  31. 60 minutes. I was a bit irritated by the larger than usual number of clues where the answer was a more-or-less unknown word: JAMBAYALA, SANTA CRUZ (which I thought was a place; I can’t see the link with the naval commander), PIAFFE, HEXAM, BOTTLER in that sense, so one only had one way of getting the answer. But they were largely clued with unequivocal wordplay.

    CHIN-UP = exercise? Why?

    1. Like push-ups and sit-ups ,chin-ups are a common workout routine exercise. I remember it from PE class in school and I know I’ve seen it in army movies showing basic training. You stand under a horizontal metal rod and pull yourself up till chin is above bar. If you come down all the way to ground and push off with your legs for the next one that’s cheating- your arms have to do all the work!
    3. Wilransome, Who is your avatar? Looks very familiar.

      Edited at 2022-05-06 06:51 pm (UTC)

      1. Me, many years ago. Unless you were around in 1970 the familiarity may be a coincidence.
      2. My ‘theory’ is that wilransome is the spitting image of Eddie Redmayne in ‘The Theory of Everything’. Or was in 1970. In fact I actually wondered if that was a still from the film until he ‘fessed up. Maybe that’s who you were thinking of?

        Edited at 2022-05-07 08:25 am (UTC)

  32. Good stuff, 45 minutes sluggish after golf, had to get HEXAM and PIAFFE from wordplay only. Nice to see an antelope, and liked the SANTA CRUISE idea. BOTTLER was a guess from worker in booze factory, never heard of that Aussie expression.
    1. I lived in Sydney for 15 years in total but never heard the term BOTTLER. No-one I knew used it.
      1. I would say only used in one sense, an exclamation of joy when something good happens: “You little bottler!” So rarely heard – maybe Bill Lawry on the cricket commentary going OTT, as was his wont.
  33. Twenty minutes for me; not often I approach the “2 Verlaines” mark. I’m solving at the end of a nice week off in Cornwall, and in the afternoon rather than the morning, so perhaps my brain has had more of a chance to warm up than normal… Or maybe listening to a few hours of Jeeves & Wooster in the car on the way home put me in the right frame of mind!
  34. 35.43. I thought this was a terrific puzzle. Really stretched the little grey cells. Bravo setter!
  35. Well, I finally finished! Hurray!
    Couldn’t parse NEED-BE; took ages to see BE FOR IT as a version of what I’ve always heard, “be in for it”; was thinking “brandy factory” should probably be split… and didn’t know the Aussie expression; didn’t know the navy bloke, or the Dickens character either. But joining the consensus that the wordplay was all fair and helpful.
  36. 24.57 achieved late on after a very boozy golf day. Hic.

    DNK Hexam or piaffe and wasn’t totally convinced I was right with need be . Thx for the explanation. Time for zzzs.

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