Times 28993 – Just like riding a bicycle

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

 

It’s almost as if I hadn’t been away, as I return to a steamy Hong Kong and a straightforward (for me – but clearly not for everyone) Monday puzzle. Many thanks to the Catwoman for standing in for me. Nice to have a touch of class on alternate Monday mornings for a change…

15:01

Across
1 Chap’s tax-free savings account (5)
ISAAC – an ISA (Individual Savings Account) followed by AC (account). Two ‘accounts’ to account for, but the first one must be discounted to make sense of the clue. The interest you earn on money in a cash ISA remains tax-free for the life of the ISA, providing all ISA conditions are met.
4 Presentation speech is holding record (9)
DEPICTION – EP in DICTION
9 Closest human perhaps circling bull? (9)
PROXIMATE – OX in PRIMATE
10 Choral piece assembled around Biblical texts (5)
MOTET – OT IN MET
11 One of two I encountered in upper atmosphere (6)
EITHER – I in ETHER. There’s a pattern here…
12 Revolutionary is one cutting food plants (8)
NARCISSI – IS I in SCRAN all reversed. Scran is a slang term for food, which I have never knowingly come across.
14 Kuwait’s capital Arabs are changing old settlement (5,4)
SKARA BRAE – anagram* of Kuwait ARABS ARE. A site on Mainland Orkney. I have spent many happy weeks on Gairsay, one of the smallest inhabitated isles in the UK.
16 Port’s initially like Erith but without river (5)
LEITH – Like ErITH. Continuing the Scotch theme
17 Decapitated poet’s killers (5)
ORCAS – lORCAS; Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a poet and playwright who was one of the 500,000 victims of the Spanish Civil War
19 Firm in Russian city concerning for Scotland (9)
PERMANENT – PERM (Russian city) ANENT (‘concerning’ or ‘about’ in Scots)
21 Corresponding material in rubbish promos is rejected (8)
ISOMORPH – in chemistry, this refers to ‘the existence of two or more substances of different composition in a similar crystalline form’ (Collins)
22 Get browned off about theatre that’s boring (6)
TREPAN – REP in TAN (get browned off – I’m not quite sure if this works, rather than just ‘get brown’); a cutting instrument, especially as used in surgery
25 It turned dark, turning fearful (5)
TIMID – IT and DIM both reversed by their own reversal indicators
26 Transported cup at Holi for aromatic oil (9)
PATCHOULI – CUP AT HOLI*
27 Problem with sister getting in fake spirit (9)
CONUNDRUM -NUN in COD (fake) RUM
28 Short TV feature about northern tip (5)
PRONG – N in PROG; some of us will remember the ‘JY prog’, AKA the Jimmy Young programme on Radio 2
Down
1 Just like one mimicking, say, Renoir in cinema early on (15)
IMPRESSIONISTIC – IMPRESSIONIST (say, Renoir) In Cinema, ‘early on’ being an instruction to take the initial letter
2 Nothing being in touch is concerning (5)
ABOUT – O in ABUT
3 Crimea suffering being invaded by hard monster (7)
CHIMERA – H in CRIMEA*
4 One’s leaving perfect bargain (4)
DEAL – iDEAL
5 Possibly flat pastry mistake over putting fruit in (4-1-5)
PIED-A-TERRE – DATE (fruit) in PIE (pastry) ERR reversed (mistake over)
6 Mike invested in fuel — that’s ridiculous (7)
COMICAL – MIC in COAL; MIC and MIKE are two ways to abbreviate microphone
7 One new exam in English of which colon is a part (9)
INTESTINE – I N TEST IN E
8 In spite of being without status (15)
NOTWITHSTANDING – if you are a bit of a pariah, others might say of you that you are ‘not with standing’. All in all, better to be a pariah from such people, perhaps.
13 Wrapping ground pepper with care (5,5)
CREPE PAPER – PEPPER CARE*
15 Host’s mooring on island (9)
ANCHORMAN – ANCHOR MAN (Isle thereof)
18 Rambling on downs and upland (7)
SNOWDON – ON DOWNS*
20 Broadcasts invitation to cheer flyer (7)
AIRSHIP – AIRS HIP (invitation to cheer as in it is the first word in the formulation ‘Hip-hip-hooray!’)
23 Body that’s downgraded parking on most of airport (5)
PLUTO – P LUTOn (airport of Lorraine Chase fame)
24 I am cut by the heartless couple (4)
ITEM – ThE in IM

65 comments on “Times 28993 – Just like riding a bicycle”

  1. 15.04, with a couple of minutes trying to see what I was missing in PERMANENT. Turns out I knew neither the city nor the Scots! Didn’t parse NARCISSI, although I know SCRAN.

    Thanks both.

    PS. If, like mine, your app isn’t showing a message upon completion and the timer’s still running, your finish time still shows if you return to the page listing the day’s crosswords.

  2. 36 minutes for all but one answer which I was unable to solve without resorting to aids so this counts as a DNF. The culprit was PERMANENT which might have been biffable from ‘firm’ but biffing tends to be one of my weak spots when solving. I was completely baffled by the wordplay, never having heard of PERM as a Russian city nor of ANENT (archaic according to some sources) meaning ‘concerning’ although I note now that it has come up a few times over the years in wordplay.

    Another unknown was SKARA BRAE although I managed eventually to unravel that one.

    PATCHOULI, assembled from wordplay, sounded only vaguely familiar.

    ISOMORPH didn’t ring any bells but the wordplay presented it. I later found that its only previous appearance here (actually ISOMORPHIC) was in a Jumbo I blogged 4 years ago.

  3. 9.10
    Back from a week at the Edinburgh fringe to a similarly straightforward Monday solve.
    I got 12ac from Martin Carthy’s rendition of The Sheepstealer:
    “They fought the whole of the afternoon,
    They stopped to get some SCRAN
    But the kids had eat up all of the meat
    And the bones was in the pan”.
    That’ll be my earworm for the day (or possibly PATCHOULI by Squeeze.)
    LOI NARCISSI
    COD PLUTO

    1. I saw Martin Carthy playing last March and will see him again in November. Still going, still brilliant.

  4. Didn’t enjoy this much, and needed a belated Ron Burgundy moment to finally give me a chance of biffing the last three Across answers in the SW quadrant. NHO the old settlement, the poet, or the corresponding material. Definitely NOT a Monday puzzle.

    FOI MOTET
    LOI ORCAS
    COD TREPAN
    TIME 12:06

  5. Didn’t (which means couldn’t) finish in the end, defeated by EITHER and NARCISSI in about 35. NHO scran, didn’t know the upper atmosphere was ether, never been there. A couple of other unknowns were complete jags, like SKARA BRAE and ISOMORPH (though belatedly identifying the reverse hidden saved me there). PERMANENT combined two complete unknowns, quite a feat. Thanks Ulaca, I found this tougher than many of my predecessors today. I’m going to miss the Olympics but I have had enough of nouns like podium and medal being verbed.

    From Like A Rolling Stone:
    You said you’d never compromise
    With the mystery tramp, but now you realise
    He’s not selling any alibis
    As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
    And say do you want to make a DEAL?
    How does it feel…

    2. It feels like I’ve been Robert McNamara’d into submission.

      “He’s so unhip, if you say Dylan, he thinks you’re talking about Dylan Thomas – whoever he was. The man ain’t got culture……”

      1. Um…not sure of where that’s at, with McNamara and all, but I remember Dylan (who always insisted he didn’t choose his name because of Thomas) saying in an interview:

        “I did more for Dylan Thomas than he ever did for me.”

        Which is pretty funny…

  6. 25:05. This would have been much easier if the words hadn’t been so hard. I have been to SKARA BRAE (but not in the tourist season so it was closed and I did not see it) and I still had to struggle a bit with the anagram. ISOMORPH stumped me at first, and then I saw it – a hidden! I liked ANCHORMAN

  7. 29 minutes with LOI PATCHOULI. I knew of SKARA BRAE from digging Alice Roberts. NARCISSI took some parsing but, fortunately, the excellent Marc Iles, chief football reporter at the Bolton News, still uses SCRAN to describe the food given to reporters at the game. COD to PLUTO. A bit harder than it looked.Thank you U and setter.

  8. 22:22
    NHO the Brae, and looked it up to make sure. No problem with PERM and ANENT, once I thought of PERMANENT. DNK SCRAN. As Phil says, not a Monday puzzle.

  9. 13’46”, happy to finish accurately.

    Had to construct SKARA BRAE. Leonard Cohen loved LORCA’s work. PERM known only from thrillers. ANENT was in an old AZED recently. ISOMORPHisms are a thing in mathematics. Fifty or more years ago, I went out with a woman who used a lot of PATCHOULI oil.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

  10. So many unknowns today, SKARA BRAE, ISOMORPH, TREPAN, SCRAN PERM ANENT etc that I eventually gave up and resorted to aids. Not very enjoyable, imho.

    Thanks for the blog and welcome back U.

  11. 8:19. I had a few doubts on submitting – is ANENT Scottish for about?; is SKARA BRAE the correct random arrangement of letters?; how does the biffed NARCISSI parse? Thankfully all were unfounded. It appears solving in an airport works for me – not LUTON, but down the road in Stansted.

  13. 20:42
    A few unknown elements (PERM, ANENT, SKARA BRAE, PATCHOULI, LORCA) but generally no major hold-ups.

    As a Welshman I’d rather SNOWDON be called YR WYDDFA, which would be much more of a stretch to both clue and solve.

    A meatier Monday than some so glad to have been given the green light on completion.

    Thanks to both.

    1. SNOWDON:
      – easy to pronounce and spell
      – everybody knows it and where it is
      YR WYDDFA
      – unpronouncable and hard to spell
      – nobody, including 99% of Welsh folk, has ever heard of it. Daughter is in Wales at present, and confirms this ..

      1. Relax Jerry.
        I understand that this is an English language crossword and English language versions of places will be the norm, Vienna rather than Wien for example.
        Also, as I know someone who has holidayed in Austria I am able to speak with authority on such matters.

  14. About 25 minutes.

    NHO SKARA BRAE but my guess based on the checkers I had proved right; don’t recall seeing ‘anent’=concerning before, but I knew Perm is a city so PERMANENT had to be; only vaguely aware of PATCHOULI; not familiar with CREPE PAPER but it was the only thing that fitted; and took ages to see that ISOMORPH was a hidden.

    Fairly tough for a Monday. Thanks ulaca and setter.

    FOI Deal
    LOI Skara Brae
    COD Conundrum

  15. Astonished at how many of you have actually been to SKARA BRAE, still the only assortment of letters that seemed to work for this ignoramus. Nothing else caused any serious problems today, beyond the racking up of “there’ll be letters” moments. Still pushed my time to 21.13 after the various internet anagram solvers all proved to be ignoramuses too.

  16. I did find this quite hard taking 31 minutes
    LOI ORCAS, NHO this del Lorca guy
    Knew ANENT, didn’t know it was specifically scottish though
    PATCHOULI took ages to work out, I’d vaguely heard of it when i got there, but I needed that to break the SE corner which then came pretty quickly, I think this was my main holdup maybe
    Thanks setter and blogger

  17. 21.10. Thanks to Amoeba for the tip as, indeed, the timing clock failed to stop when I finished.

  19. 21:13

    I see that I matched Zabadak’s time today so feel like I was in tune somehow with what was going on here. Stuff I didn’t (quite) get as follows:

    SKARA BRAE – NHO, with all checkers in, this seemed the most likely combination
    ORCAS – NHO LORCA the poet meaning I needed all checkers to see what was going on
    PERMANENT – didn’t know either piece of wordplay, so bunged in from definition
    ISOMORPH – couldn’t have said what it was, but think ISO means ‘same’ in one of the old languages (?) and luckily saw the reversed hidden.
    TREPAN – couldn’t have said exactly what it was, but the wordplay was clear.

    Pleased to say I know what SCRAN is, and PATCHOULI – Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” cassette tape (and other formats?) was drenched in it). LOI PLUTO.

    Thanks U and setter

  20. 5:47 Nice easy Monday puzzle, but too many biffable answers to my liking. ANENT comes up all the time in crosswords but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it used in speech after 31 years living in Scotland. SKARA BRAE is a magnificent prehistoric village and well worth a visit. I think I vaguely knew that PERM was a Russian city but it didn’t really matter. The only NHO was ANCHORMAN, though ANCHOR itself is well known from American TV. I’m really surprised that many folk aren’t familiar with PATCHOULI, which was ubiquitous in the 1970s in certain circles, though I’m probably just showing my age here. The (coincidental?) juxtaposition of SKARA BRAE and ORCAS is interesting, since the name “Orkney” may be related to the word “orca”, there being lots of whales in the region. COD to ISOMORPH for the well-hidden reversal.

  21. I think I have used this week’s ration of luck already- lots of unknowns here- PATCHOULI, SKARA BRAE, the poet, TREPAN, PERM & ANENT. Very relieved to complete correctly!
    Thanks setter and blogger.

  23. About 20 minutes; no unknowns (not in the answers anyway) so no significant problems. Most went straight in, but held up by a handful.

    NARCISSI was more or less a biff, because I couldn’t see how it parsed; I have heard/seen the word “scran” and know what it means, but I’m from S.E. England and it’s not a word I would use myself and it didn’t spring to mind.

    Similarly PERMANENT; I knew the Russian city Perm and, given the checkers, the answer had to be “permanent”; I guessed that “anent” must be a Scots word meaning something like “about”, but I don’t allow myself to look anything up until I’ve finished or given up.

    LOI was “TREPAN”; I agree with Ulaca, that the word “off” in the clue is redundant and it put me on a wrong track that it took a while to get off.

  24. Got there despite all the biffing and the NHOs, only to discover that I had somehow entered PLTOO for the downgraded body.

    LOI was the biffed NARCISSI.

    Thanks for all the explanations Ulaca!

    19:36 but fat fingers

  25. 27 mins pressing the completion button hoping that PERMANENT was correct. Went to Skara Brae last year, loved Orkney. Didn’t know so many cruciverbalists were so archaeologically minded.

  26. Btw Susie Dent’s new whodunnit about Oxford dictionary sleuths is out on Audible today. Just started it, might be worth a read…

  27. It was obviously PIED-A-TERRE but I looked at it for ages without understanding how it worked. So many Es, and I kept choosing the wrong ones. Biffers would have just put it straight in based on the numeration, date and err. 47 minutes (and aids for a couple of them), but it would have been quite long even if I had been a biffer. Likewise NARCISSI, and SKARA BRAE was a NHO, although it did seem likely. And the reverse hidden ISOMORPH got me, always irritating when this happens.

  28. SCRAN is commonly used in Royal Navy and Royal Marines, but I have never heard it anywhere else.

      1. Having lived all my life in Sheffield, Leeds, Inverness and Carlisle I have only heard it from Fish heads.

        1. I’ll add fish head to my list of fairly derogatory nicknames. I live in an army town …aj for army jerk raises its non pc head from time to time among the older inhabitants.
          NHO scran, but an alphabet trawl lead to the inevitable.
          Much thanks to the setter for a chewier than usual Monday, and to you Ulaca for a concise and clear blog.

  30. 35 minutes. I blame Tom Lehrer for my slowish time; PERM isn’t in “Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky”, my source for the names of less well-known Russian cities. I did know SKARA BRAE even though I haven’t been there; a planned visit never eventuated because the ferry couldn’t set sail in the 60-70 mph gales blowing on the day. I thought ‘off’ was included in the clue for TREPAN both for the surface reading and for misdirection, ie nothing to do with getting annoyed.

    This seemed tougher than your average Monday and I was glad to finish.

  31. 11a EiTHER. I think “upper atmosphere” just squeaks in as legitimate for ether, but it hasn’t IMHO been used that way since the ancient Greeks.
    DNF 12a Narcissi. NHO (or have forgot) scran, but narcissus was the only plant I could think of.
    14a NHO Skara Brae. Didn’t enter it. Wasn’t expecting “Brae” in “old settlement” Bah! Added to Cheating Machine. Having read Wiki it does look interesting, but it’s a loooong way from here so probably I won’t go. Now I’ve read the blog above I think I might have seen Prof Alice Roberts there but the name went in one ear and out the other.
    19a POI. PermAnent. Knew the city, knew anent but not that it was Scottish. Not a word I use.
    21a Isomorph. Was misled into thinking it an anagram, “promos is” has no “h” and too much “s”. Isomorph was the only one that fitted so in it went. Score 1 to the setter for hiding a hidden.
    18d Snowdon; is Mt S “upland”? I suppose Snodonia is mainly upland but that is more than the mountain.
    Anyway despite the DNF I enjoyed it.

  32. 35:59
    Hard going but got there eventually. SKARA BRAE dredged from the edge of my consciousness. I’m amazed that the number of commenters who have been there exceeds the number of commenters on the QC who have read the Harry Potter books.
    I took ages to spot the reverse hidden ISMORPH.
    NARCISSISI LOI, eventually parsed by remembering the “Scran and Scallie” gastropub in Stockbridge.

    Thanks Ulaca and setter

    1. “I’m amazed that the number of commenters who have been there exceeds the number of commenters on the QC who have read the Harry Potter books.”
      Indeed.
      I’ve not been to SB but have heard of it. Having said that, Mr SR got it first (as is so often the case…).
      However, I suspect that those who draw their metaphorical skirts away from Harry Potter would have to adjourn to the fainting couch if offered “Riders” by Jilly Cooper but that’s where I first encountered Lorca.

  33. 20:35 – all except the guessed-at old settlement parsed in more or less average time, though proceedings felt somewhat more difficult than usual while solving.

  34. 14.08 but got lucky with narcissi and orcas. For the latter Dorcas came into my mind and I just didn’t see scran in the former though I do know the term.

  35. I’m ecstatic to start the week with a crossword I can complete, even if I don’t understand what an isomorph is, and didn’t know scran ( I did try Paulo before Pluto.) Happy, if hot here, Monday!

  36. Seven mins for all bar three; 22 mins. So still a best for me ever by one minute. Downhill from now on I imagine.

  37. From ABOUT to PLUTO in 18:25. Knew all bar the Russian City, so was able to parse as I went. Thanks setter and U.

  38. 35.31 This felt hard but in hindsight it doesn’t look so bad. EITHER, PERMANENT and ISOMORPH (a hidden!) were unparsed. There were many I did parse (e.g. NARCISSI and PIED-A-TERRE) but couldn’t have solved from the wordplay. Pleased to finish. Thanks ulaca.

  39. Well I finished with all correct in a fairly speedy (for me) 34.45, but with fingers crossed on quite a few. Like others before me, SKARA BRAE was unheard of, as was SCRAN as a slang term for food. I put PERMANENT in as the probable answer, but the Russian city and the Scottish term were both unknowns. Does anyone of a certain age in the UK not think of Lorraine Chase when Luton Airport is mentioned? It took me a while to think of Luton on my airport trawl.

  40. about 25′ all in, in between chores. All GK known but PERMANENT was biffed. Even as a Scotsman I’d never heard of “ANENT”. Thanks Ulaca and setter

  41. Well, I learned a new word, SCRAN, and a new place, SKARA BRAE, and also that “anent” is Scottish—I always thought it was only rare, and the American dictionary Merriam-Webster doesn’t tag it as Scots. Not a hard one otherwise, but not boring either.

  42. Anent not in my Lowland Scottish dialect. I would use ‘aboot’ for ‘about’/ ‘concerning’. Didn’t parse narcissi as scran is unknown. Happy with Skara Brae and always pleased to finish a Monday crossword. Only ones I can do !

  43. A few unknowns (no idea what was going on with PERMANENT and NARCISSI where I didn’t known SCRAN). No problem with SKARA BRAE since I’ve been there. But I carelessly typed SCARA BRAE which is clearly wrong since there is the K of Kuwait, so DNF.

    My thoughts about Skara Brae when I went there is that if I was going to create a settlement, I’d pick somewhere less exposed and windswept. Apparently it was warmer back then but even so. Similar thoughts about Stonehenge.

  44. Well, no nhos although would not like to define an isomorph.
    Shame on those who haven’t heard of Skara Brae, a World Heritage site, and the most impressive neolithic settlement in the whole of Europe ..

  45. I’m rubbish with plants (there were two), not so good at biffing, and didn’t know Scarn so you know how this solve got off going in the wrong direction. Then it took me a long time to dredge up Sutton Hoo as a two word archaeloligical site only to find it didn’t fit anyway. There’s more, but you don’t need to hear it. thanks, ulaca, and welcome back

  46. All correct but with so much guesswork that it felt rather unsatisfactory. As someone else said I think I’ve used up my quota of luck already this week.
    LOI NARCISSI

  47. DNF

    Constructed SKARA BRAE and knew SCRAN from school days in Newcastle but PERM not known and ANENT at best forgotten whilst even with all the checkers I couldn’t see the answer from the definition.

  48. 7:57. I happened to have all the knowledge except SKARA BRAE, and I was all ready to complain bitterly about clueing such an obscurity with an anagram, but then the collection of letters I came up with turned out to be right so the clue is obviously perfectly fair.
    I’m surprised at the number of people who’ve never heard the word SCRAN, it’s obviously less common than I thought.

  49. 28:38. I’m happy with the time, I couldn’t parse NARCISSI, though I do know scran (is it a naval word?). perhaps too many clues of the same type (as identified by ualaca). otherwise fun. thanks U and setter

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