Time: 23 minutes
Music: Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool
This was almost a typical Monday puzzle, but I got stuck in the end. I do know a fair number of English towns, but I am a little vague on their location. For that matter, even in Connecticut, I recognize the name of the town but have to look on the map to see where it is. But in the end, getting bludgeon gave me a breakthrough and enabled me to rapidly finish with plutonic and Nairobi.
So this shouldn’t be too hard if you know the names of the Mitford sisters, and that sort of thing. I wonder how long the Mitfords will even be remembered?
| Across | |
| 1 | Typical daily deed relating to logical disputation (14) |
| CHARACTERISTIC – CHAR + ACT + ERISTIC, from Eris, the goddess of arguing. | |
| 9 | Napier’s power to record a beat for listeners? (9) |
| LOGARITHM – Sounds like LOG A RHYTHM, a write-in for math nerds. | |
| 10 | Remove light from some proscribed images (5) |
| BEDIM – Hidden in [proscri]BED IM[ages]. | |
| 11 | Educational institution originally training young Mitford sister (5) |
| UNITY – UNI + T[raining] Y[oung]. | |
| 12 | Spy crosses river, initially heading for animal shelter? (9) |
| MOUSEHOLE – M(OUSE, H[eading])OLE. | |
| 13 | It shows us the way to authorise mail (8) |
| SIGNPOST – SIGN + POST. | |
| 15 | Mountain range’s condition observed by scholar’s son (6) |
| MASSIF – MA’S + S + IF. | |
| 17 | Dismal amount of herbs? (6) |
| RUEFUL – Cryptic hint, perhaps requiring two or three question marks???? | |
| 19 | Like igneous rock in film about Beds town (8) |
| PLUTONIC – P(LUTON)IC. | |
| 22 | English males, old-fashioned, changed for the better (9) |
| EMENDATED – E + MEN + DATED. | |
| 23 | Impecunious family in outskirts of Southport (5) |
| SKINT – S(KIN)T. | |
| 24 | Leader of Opposition leaves district over in African state (5) |
| NIGER – REGI[o]N backwards, where O is the leader of OPPOSITION. | |
| 25 | Novice’s ecofriendly producer of notes (9) |
| GREENHORN – GREEN HORN, of course. | |
| 26 | Agent about to stage musical from the East (14) |
| REPRESENTATIVE – RE + PRESENT + EVITA backwards. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | NCO’s firm scowl overwhelming cloth worker (6,8) |
| COLOUR SERGEANT – CO + LOUR + SERGE + ANT. | |
| 2 | No good piercing a fish when doing this! (7) |
| ANGLING – A(N.G.)LING, the constructor’s favorite fish. | |
| 3 | Cockney bloke adopting a rich apparel (5) |
| ARRAY – ‘ARR(A)Y. | |
| 4 | Clan member carries first of trophies across busy road (8) |
| TOTEMIST – TOTE(MI)S + T[rophies]. | |
| 5 | Commotion made by strange cat having tail docked (6) |
| RUMPUS – RUM PUS[s], a definite chestnut. | |
| 6 | Lessee aunt sent out to secure book (9) |
| SUBTENANT – Anagram of AUNT SENT around B. | |
| 7 | Men gatecrashing trendy parties within house (7) |
| INDOORS – IN DO(OR)S. The correct spelling of the plural of do is somewhat uncertain – maybe Microsoft knows? | |
| 8 | Writers use it incomplete, feeling strain (9,5) |
| IMPERFECT TENSE – IMPERFECT + TENSE, in entirely different senses. | |
| 14 | Quiet chap doing washing, shaking off a robber (9) |
| PLUNDERER – P L[a]UNDERER. | |
| 16 | Move forward bearing large club (8) |
| BLUDGEON – B(L)UDGE ON, a bit of life and separate. | |
| 18 | Table ornament kept in centre by green bananas (7) |
| EPERGNE – [k]EP[t] + anagram of GREEN, an item sometimes found in auction catalogs. | |
| 20 | Capital city VIP breathing in ozone on island (7) |
| NAIROBI – N(AIR)OB + I. Does ozone = air? | |
| 21 | Way advancing years finally progress, in steps (6) |
| STAGES – ST + AGE + [progres]S. | |
| 23 | Tropical plant Society woman raised (5) |
| SENNA – S + ANNE upside-down. | |
I was suddenly taken back 30 years or so, visiting my parents-in-law for the first time and asking what the thing on the table was, and being told it was an EPERGNE. Knew that would come in handy one day.
FOI SKINT
LOI RUEFUL
Usual amount of biffing (thankfully all correct) but done in a stunning 50 minutes, approx. I know, extraordinary. Thanks to Vinyl and setter.
I went back and forth between EPENGRE and EPERGNE, neither of them looking like real words, and eventually plumped for the wrong one.
Anyway, I would describe myself as a maths nerd, but foolishly I chucked in ALGORITHM without thinking properly – then, when I realised the error of my ways, only changed the first two letters. More haste, less speed.
12.40 with LOI rueful which didn’t entirely convince with the amount part but at least I wasn’t made miserable by discovering I’d got it wrong. Epergne was a DNK but the cluing was very fair.
Aside from that, as has already been noted a nice typically Mondayish puzzle to start the week. Thx setter and blogger.
A red letter day for me finishing in 14.05, just under 20 seconds inside my previous best. I am so pleased I went back to 18dn where I had initially put in EPENGRE, with the clock at 13 minutes exactly. The extra minute was enough for me to recall a very distant memory of a reference to the word on one of those antique shows on tv.
Didn’t have the foggiest concerning ERISTIC, but the answer was obvious.
Best time, and Newport County winning at home for the first time in eight games, who cares if it’s raining! 😀
Nice one!
My initial scan suggested this was going to be difficult/impossible, the first trawl through giving only SKINT and BEDIM. Shied like a startled horse as usual at the sight of 4 14 letter clues. However, more considered study gave me a steady solve from right to left, with only REPRESENTATIVE showing on the left-hand side initially. Luckily, each added letter led on to the next clue. From the crossers, I’d already bunged in -ISTIC as a likely ending, so CHAR, ACT was not a difficult step leaving only the second part of the word, which I took on trust. With the R in place I deduced RUEFUL was the correct answer, rue being the only R herb I could think of to fit, though a poor clue, I agree. However, it gave me both PLUNDERER and EPERGNE, which immediately rang a bell; quite likely, as Olivia says, from Georgette Heyer or other period writer. A nice Monday challenge.
A toss-up between the unknown EPERGNE and the non-existent epengre. Unfortunately I chose the latter after an otherwise okay-ish 17:45.
Unnecessary comment: Skint in CRS comes from Boracic Lint, often pronounced ‘brassic’.
Reminiscent of:
Q: Who led the Pedants’ Revolt?
A: Which Tyler.
Think you might have got that a bit backwards. Brassic comes from boracic lint, right enough, which is CRS for skint. Which is Glaswegian for ‘skinned’, ie broke. Which a lot of Scottish folk were (and are). Sorry, pal, that’s you telt.
25:30
NHO: ERISTIC, EPERGNE (guessed correctly), RUE as a herb but what else could it be.
Didn’t know who Napier was.
9:53 this afternoon, for what was an enjoyable and fairly straightforward puzzle.
FOI 9 ac “logarithm” (another maths nerd) and then a pretty steady solve. Although NHO the “eris” in 1 ac, it didn’t really hold me up and neither did 18 d “epergne” which I was only vaguely aware of as a word (possibly from another crossword) and had no idea what it looked like (I don’t think our local IKEA stocks them).
I’ve seen 15 ac several times in puzzles recently, so it didn’t come as a massif surprise.
Another MER at 17 ac “rueful” – I too, like Kevin, recalled Ophelia reeling off a few herbs to the Prince of Denmark at some stage, which helped.
Quite liked 4 d “totemist”, possibly because I couldn’t see what was going on at all at first.
Thanks to Vinyl and setter
Found this enjoyably challenging – having been challenged by all the challenges mentioned by others so will not repeat. Time slow as I do the crossword whilst binge watching Netflix in the afternoon with my son whilst we are both on holiday. Finished Stranger Things yesterday and moved on to Umbrella Academy today, which needed a bit more attention at the start than my limited multitasking was up to!
17.05 but…
…I was an EPENGRE. Didn’t even think of the correct answer tbh. I was rather hoping for more “obscurity clued as an anagram” but it seems I just need to read more Georgette Heyer 🙂
Thanks all
RUEFUL doesn’t seem right!!!
But all easy enough for a possibly slightly hung-over Monday morn. I just didn’t worry about the Beds town.
Apparently one of the few amongst us who actually owns a (silver plated) epergne. Nowadays only for Xmas Day. You can’t see the people opposite either round or over it but it can give you four more candles.
Loved the crossword today, apart from the regrettable herb.
Thanks setter and Vinyl
Agreed, this was a fun easyish crossword, but RUEFUL seems woeful!
I am very interested in the mechanics of things moving from “common knowledge” to “obscure historical fact”, and the similar process in literature – how at one point Dickens was just somebody you read because he was the greatest modern author, but in my lifetime he’s turned into classical literature, almost unreadably archaic to non-scholars. I think the Mitfords and indeed WW2 will soon feel to a lot of people as unimaginably distant as the Crimean and Boer wars do to me. Just another romantic chapter of history like the Six Wives of Henry VIII or the English Civil War. Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.
I only started doing the Times Cryptic about 5 or 6 years ago and am by no means an expert. PB of maybe 30 mins and average of 45-60 mins. Anyway I love the daily challenge and to improve myself I often do another one from years back (BC). I always print them out – hate the online version. So today I printed out No. 23375 from 23 August 2006. 9ac today – answer LOGARITHM. 11a in 23375 – answer NAPIERIAN – spooky or what!!
30 minutes or so for a fairly easy puzzle except for EPERGNE, from wordplay. Fortunately that spelling seemed more likely to be a proper French word than any other (EPENGRE not so much, so I guessed right). And nothing else really needed guessing. To me the Mitfords seem to be very interesting people with very poor judgment outweighing any other qualities they might have.
Some of them, certainly. Redesdale himself was not the intellectual type. But Jessica and Nancy were sound enough, and becoming Duchess of Devonshire seems like a smart move …
10:02 with one typo. Eoergne.
COD: Angling.
As usual, quite startled at the number of extremely literate bloggers here who confess to not knowing the herb rue! As a Shakespeare geek, I admit that part of the dreadful clue was pretty obvious to me – but “ful “?? Probably just sour grapes , as my first scan over the clues rendered me crestfallen , and things didn’t improve much thereafter…
Like Piquet, I’ve been to Luton only once, and don’t intend to return.
I did a search for RUEFUL on this page. 26 hits – most disliked clue of the year?