Times 28787 – puff’d and reckless

Author   william_j_sPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

29:32

Nothing too scary in here, with the long across answers holding out satisfyingly until the end. The stone monument was a half-guess for me; the tea and glasses I know only from this blog.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Speaking out, you spill the beans on drugs (5)
USING – sounds like “you” + SING (spill the beans).
4 One keeps stocking up pubs, periodically interrupting consumer (9)
SUSPENDER – every other letter from pUbS inside SPENDER (consumer).
9 Fixed this person’s shoe worn by Bill in America (9)
IMMUTABLE – I’M (this person’s), then MULE (shoe) worn by TAB (bill in America).
10 Like Sprite? A German drinks litres loudly (5)
ELFIN – EIN (‘a’ in German) containing L (litres) and F (loudly).
11 Think e.g. ham sandwiches fine? This makes me despair (4-3,6)
FEEL-BAD FACTOR – FEEL (think) + BAD ACTOR (e.g. ham) containing F (fine).
14 Ways for Edith Piaf to show regrets (4)
RUES – ‘roads’ (ways) in French (for Edith Piaf).
15 Love to slip in appreciative remark for soldiers (5,5)
OTHER RANKS – O (love), then ERR (to slip) inside THANKS (appreciative remark).
18 Fail to see sign introduced by European delegates (10)
EMISSARIES – MISS (fail to see) + ARIES (sign), with E (European) at the start.
19 Queen once performed last in Glasto (4)
DIDO – DID (performed) + last of glastO.
21 After some green tea, pressure group attempted coup (9,4)
GUNPOWDER PLOT – GUNPOWDER (green tea) + P (pressure) + LOT (group).
24 Old lady carries you across the Channel in fact (5)
DATUM – DAM (mother, old lady) containing TU (‘you’ in French).
25 Hedonist not half like Mr Wooster around noon (9)
LIBERTINE – half of LIke + BERTIE (Mr.Wooster) containing N (noon).
27 Glasses upset — ten Grolsch bottles overturned (9)
LORGNETTE – reverse hidden in upsET TEN GROLsch.
28 Seek someone the church approves of for a date (5)
TRYST – TRY (seek) + ST (someone the church approves of).
Down
1 Ignorant, as police may be about how investigation ends (10)
UNINFORMED – UNIFORMED (as police may be) containing last of investigatioN.
2 Upright character recalled writing practice (3)
ISM – I (upright letter, character) + MS (manuscript, writing) reversed.
3 “Great” millionaire happy to save high-street bank (6)
GATSBY – GAY (happy) containing TSB (high street bank).
4 Bottom pinched by admirer, one checking for dodgy characters? (9)
SUBEDITOR – BED (bottom) contained by SUITOR (admirer).
5 Why don’t we put up a stone monument? (5)
STELA – LETS (why don’t we) reversed + A. Slab-like ancient monument.
6 Participants in equestrian competitions never set off (8)
EVENTERS – anagram of NEVER SET.
7 Criminal relented, if receiving answer showing respect (11)
DEFERENTIAL – anagram of RELENTED IF containing A.
8 Possibly magical symbol that has left Potter unexcited? (4)
RUNE –  hidden in potteR UNExcited.
12 Making smooth arts broadcast, Sky’s brilliant feature (7,4)
EVENING STAR – EVENING (making smooth) + an anagram of ARTS.
13 Agree to keep frames of Monet and Rothko around in collection (10)
ASSORTMENT – ASSENT (agree), keeping the outermost letters of MoneT and RothkO reversed.
16 English chaps are dilettantes, only half-heartedly open to improvement (9)
EMENDABLE – E (English) + MEN (chaps) + DABbLE (are dilettantes, with only half of its middle letters).
17 On same ground, a header from Newcastle United (2,3,3)
AS ONE MAN – anagram of ON SAME + A + first of Newcastle.
20 Boring rhubarb — this can make fruit crumble (3,3)
DRY ROT – DRY (boring) + ROT (rhubarb).
22 Young flier heading skyward without impediment (5)
OWLET – W/O (without) reversed + LET (impediment).
23 Learner sinking in swimming pool one’s adored (4)
IDOL – LIDO (swimming pool), with L (learner) lower down in the word.
26 Yours truly drained cloudy bitter (3)
ICY – I (yours truly) + outermost letters from CloudY.

57 comments on “Times 28787 – puff’d and reckless”

  1. What felt like a slow 25 minutes. I like feel-bad factor as a term and hope it gets more usage. Not terribly keen on the synonyms for seek and practice. And wearied to the bone by the hagiographic reference to a writer whose style is anything but magical. (Not that I don’t respect her as a person for her recent stands.) Didn’t see the parsing of owlet. Nice to see the old use of gay.

  2. DNF, in the NorthW.
    The South was surprisingly easy once I started on it. I should be less rigid in my top-down approach. However even if I had completed the South it didn’t help to cross into the NW especially as I had biffed GATSBY at 3 down while walking from the shop, but forgot to write it in and never read the clue again. Never noticed the TSB. DOH!

  3. I needed all the crossers to get USING, late in the solve, but finally getting GATSBY did the trick. I meandered happily through the rest of the puzzle finishing up with ASSORTMENT. FEEL-BAD FACTOR was new to me too. IMMUTABLE went in as IMMOVABLE until I couldn’t parse it and spotted MULE for shoe. 17:28. Thanks setter and William..

  4. 30:43

    COD to LOI GATSBY which took all the checkers and a couple of minutes exclusive thought for the penny to finally drop with a clunk. Thought FEEL-BAD FACTOR was a bit meh but what else could it be? Nice hidden in LORGNETTE.

  5. A steady 17 minutes plus change solve but shot in foot by a mistype on emissaries😡

    Very enjoyable puzzle, some excellent surfaces and one of the best reverse hidden we’ve had on lorgnette.

    Thanks W and setter

  7. Probably the easiest of this week’s offerings… except for my LOI, 2D, which I read as meaning ‘writing practice’. I had the I and the M, and went through the alphabet trawl both ways, and the only thing I could think of was IUM, with I as the upright and MU as the character recalled. I remember a crossword some years back that showed up some really obscure acronym for the teaching of reading, that some older solvers had heard of, so I bunged it in and hoped for the best. Bah! I don’t like the term ISM for practice, and that’s not sour grapes, as I’ve been able to work it out previously. Otherwise all correct and parsed. Liked GATSBY. TSB was the first bank I thought of…

  8. 16.23, fairly gentle but plenty of enjoyment, including TSB, the BAD ACTOR, and the smart SUBEDITOR and LORGNETTE.

    Thanks both.

  9. 35 minutes plus a minute or so of proofreading (or subediting), so fairly easy for a Friday, but very enjoyable. I liked GATSBY, although the sense of GAY it involves has unfortunately not been current since my (distant) childhood and I also had to make up an explanation for TSB, as TS for high-street, i.e. street, rising, and B for bank. I liked the heartless dabbling in EMENDABLE, too.

  10. 18:50 – elegant cluing and rather inelegant solving. Another NHO the DRY ROT/fruit link, and LORGNETTE went in without doing the maths as soon as had a couple of the crossers, meaning I missed the neat hidden reversal. Like Keriothe, I was surprised to see gunpowder tea clued as green. I see there is a black version too, but both looking pretty dark to me – all a question of oxidisation, apparently.

  11. A fairly fast time for me by my standards at 38.23. A full two minutes or so however were spent on my LOI 8dn RUNE. I thought of the answer but couldn’t parse it; what is it with me and hiddens? I initially couldn’t get Harry Potter out of my mind and then moved on to Grayson Perry before embarking on an alphabet trawl. In the end I decided on RUNE and put it in with a shrug of the shoulders.

  12. Most un-Friday-ish: I was going fine and heading for 25 or 26 minutes but even with all the checkers I just couldn’t see FEEL-BAD FACTOR and couldn’t believe that anything fitted. Fred-bed matter etc. So I gave up and did a search in my Chambers, which found no matches. (Yet the word is there in C — you can just type it in and there it is. Very odd.) So I gave up and asked it to reveal the word. Doh. So obvious, and what a good clue, as was that for LORGNETTE. I learnt that the word is not lorgnettes, as I had thought.

  13. A reasonably straightforward and positively un-Friday-like 7:16 here (probably my fastest Friday on record).

    As per others, an eyebrow raise for the feel-bad factor, but definitely only minor as worked on the basis that anything positive must have a cancelling-out negative so if there’s a feel *good* factor it logically follows that there must be a feel *bad* factor too.

    TSB sprang immediately to mind, probably because I came to the crossword as some light relief from sorting out a new mortgage deal with them (many more pennies now required).

    Have vaguely heard of Gunpowder Tea (I suspect only from the crossword) but as that was biffed based on a couple of checkers and “attempted coup” I didn’t even notice it was in there until I read the blog. A moral lesson that sometimes striving for speed can make you lose out on some of the nuances of the cluing?

  14. Finally this week a correctly completed crossword. Feel bad factor my LOI but my mood now is distinctly positive.
    Thanks thus to setter and blogger.

Comments are closed.