Time taken: 12:27. Not all the way to Tricky Thursday, but I found this one the most difficult of the week so far.
I smacked myself on the head with my last one in, 8 down. When I was a new solver and learning from this site, I got something wrong because I did not know LSE as the abbreviation for a school. The founder of this site made sure I knew that he was a graduate, and I promised to never be slipped up by it again, and it nearly happened today.
How did you get along.
| Across | |
| 1 | Intermediate puzzle with new opening (6) |
| MIDDLE – RIDDLE(puzzle) with a different starting letter | |
| 5 | Perhaps fighter needs to display cunning (8) |
| AIRCRAFT – AIR(to display), CRAFT(cunning) | |
| 9 | “I say there!”, mostly about laughter (8) |
| HYSTERIA – anagram of I,SAY,THERE minus the last letter | |
| 10 | Three times as much left in rubbish (6) |
| TRIPLE – L(left) inside TRIPE(rubbish) | |
| 11 | What could cut Bush down to size was brought about after dispute in outskirts of Pyongyang (7,3) |
| PRUNING SAW – WAS reversed after RUN-IN(dispute) inside the external letters of PyongyanG | |
| 13 | Element of flight record on the way (4) |
| STEP – EP(record) on ST(street, way) | |
| 14 | Beware being caught by hail (4) |
| CAVE – C(caught) next to AVE(greet, hail) | |
| 15 | Still in HQ, cautious to oust leader (10) |
| STATIONARY – STATION(HQ) then WARY(cautious) minus the first letter | |
| 18 | Remove restrictions from escort carrying key gun back (10) |
| DEREGULATE – DATE(escort) containing E(key) then LUGER(gun) reversed | |
| 20 | Cover floor (4) |
| DECK – double definition | |
| 21 | Drug’s given over bar (4) |
| STOP – POT’S(drug’s) reversed | |
| 23 | Occupation that could be habit-forming (10) |
| DRESSMAKER – cryptic definition | |
| 25 | Somewhere above ground, where I can be found? (3-3) |
| MID-AIR -I can be found in the middle of aIr | |
| 26 | Subordinate FBI guy short of fare (8) |
| UNDERFED – UNDER(subordinate), FED(FBI guy) | |
| 28 | Behind displayed by naked herald, beginning to laugh in spite of everything (5,3) |
| AFTER ALL – AFT(behind) then the interior letters of hERALd, and the first letter of Laugh | |
| 29 | Folk commit to living in virtual bubble — all may introduce this recollection (6) |
| MEMORY – very strange clue, and reminiscent of a type I’ve seen more in US puzzles. Folk memory, commit to memory, in memory, living memory, virtual memory and bubble memory are all phrases. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Any fierce criminal is aggressive (2-3-4) |
| IN-YER-FACE – anagram of ANY,FIERCE | |
| 3 | From French and Spanish wine, English easing of tensions (7) |
| DETENTE – DE(“from” in French), TENT(Spanish wine), E(English) | |
| 4 | Among nearest and dearest, it’s common sense (3) |
| EAR – hidden in both nEARest and dEARest | |
| 5 | Adult service in store (5) |
| AMASS – A(adult), MASS(service) | |
| 6 | Brutes violently wrestle with trio (11) |
| ROTTWEILERS – anagram of WRESTLE and TRIO | |
| 7 | Announcement of rules — pub checks (5,2) |
| REINS IN – sounds like REIGNS(rules) and INN(pub) | |
| 8 | Nothing at all on university’s fake (5) |
| FALSE – FA(sweet Fanny Adams, nothing at all), LSE(London School of Economics, university) | |
| 12 | Man resounds when performing aria (6,5) |
| NESSUN DORMA – anagram of MAN,RESOUNDS. One of the signature arias of Pavarotti | |
| 16 | Official also must drop in (3) |
| AGA – AGAIN(also) minus IN | |
| 17 | Bat at all times suppresses onset of violent gangster (9) |
| RACKETEER – RACKET(bat) then EVER(at all times) minus the first letter of Violent | |
| 19 | Make up for resident abroad, European, around India (7) |
| EXPIATE – EXPAT(resident abroad), E(European) surrounding I(India) | |
| 20 | Plan Indian city in 27 (7) |
| DIAGRAM – AGRA(Indian city) inside DIM(the answer to 27 down). Those who dislike reference clues register your indignation below. | |
| 22 | Who could be undone by introduction of his E-fit? (5) |
| THIEF – anagram of the first letter of His, E-FIT | |
| 24 | Last in House by virtue of being Liberal peer (5) |
| EQUAL – last letter in housE, QUA(by virtue of), L(Liberal) | |
| 27 | Obscure setter is capped by duke (3) |
| DIM – I’M(setter is) under D(duke) | |
I found this fairly straightforward considering it’s a Thursday puzzle. I was convinced there had to be a ‘U’ in 8d which held me up. I also thought the ‘FA’ was abbreviation for something different from Fanny Adams, but of course it couldn’t be as ‘ALL’ was in the clue. Thanks for the parsing of MEMORY, I had no idea there.
COD to UNDERFED.
Thanks glh and setter.
Around 60 minutes Generally straightforward but I had problems with the NE which took a good deal of time. I also looked for a U in 8D. FOI IN YER FACE LOI AIRCRAFT. COD DRESSMAKER.
Thanks glh
28:34
I submitted off leaderboard, I was so in doubt about some of my (actually correct) solutions. I forgot about LSE and Ms. Adams. I was ridiculously slow to think of AFT to stick on ER/ALL (POI). And I had no idea about MEMORY.
I also found this the hardest so far this week. I gave up on parsing MEMORY, and now wish I’d given it more time. However, I was not aware of “bubble MEMORY,” so wouldn’t have gotten all the way there anyway.
No clue what was going on in the MEMORY clue. Thought IN-YER-FACE was a bit modern for the Times crossword. Could Tebbit’s ‘on your bike’ be similarly styled, I wonder? Would he be allowed to say it now? Likely he’d be arrested for causing someone to perceive a non-crime hate incident.
15:52, so five seconds inside target.
He never actually said ‘on your bike’ in the speech referenced here. If he wanted to say it now, he could do so freely and would not be arrested. Those who heard him would agree or disagree with him, or have no view about his remarks.
You can’t say Happy Christmas and set fire to a hotel these days or they put you in prison.
🙂
Since I’m not the blogger, I don’t worry about the parsing, but just put in the evident answer. So memory didn’t bother me, and I didn’t even really look at the clue. The one I struggled with was deregulate, but I finally biffed it and then parsed it, and I also had a hard time remembering the title of the aria. I agree that rottweilers are unlikely to be found in the works of Austen!
Time: 43 minutes.
No problem with the aria; it’s easier to remember when you only know three, and the other two don’t fit. (One and a half, actually; I didn’t know ‘vedremo’.)
38 minutes. I parsed FA as something less delicate. No idea about parsing MEMORY, but as it was my LOI I didn’t hang around. Anyway it’d have been a waste of time as I wouldn’t have recognised the ‘folk’ or ‘bubble’ expressions.
I didn’t think that 4dn worked particularly well until I read the blog and realised that ‘in common’ was part of the definition. Now I think it’s an exceptional clue to a 3-letter word.
Liked this one, didn’t find it hard; some clever and original clues eg 4dn, 29ac. Too original for me in fact, I had no idea what was going on with MEMORY..
I found this on the easier side for some odd reason, 36 mins. After a week when I have struggled this was a welcome relief. LOI FALSE held me up a bit though, until the penny dropped.
MEMORY unparsed, (thanks g) and EXPIATE a NHO, but worked out from wp.
I liked PRUNING SAW & DRESSMAKER.
Thanks g and setter.
14.23. A bit offbeat, but fun. I liked MEMORY, though ‘bubble’ was new to me, and indeed it’s marked as obsolete in Chambers.
Thanks both.
I found this relatively straightforward and got home in 21.49. It took several minutes of staring at D-C- before DECK finally emerged, I never figured out MEMORY and I’m confused about 4dn EAR. Is the def ‘sense’, as G says, or Jack’s ‘in common sense’, and why is ‘ear’ the answer to either? Obviously I’m missing something if it is being given COD status. Enjoyed what was going on with FALSE when I finally figured it out. I’m happy to accept the FA as being Fanny’s initials but we all know that was a euphemism so the point is somewhat moot.
From All Along The Watchtower:
There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the THIEF
There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.
‘ear’ is a sense, and ‘nearest’ and ‘dearest’ have EAR in common.
I didn’t like this one, I felt ear isn’t a sense (surely that’s hearing?), and that the common bit was “earest” making it a poor wordplay too.
That was my problem, ‘ear’ being a sense. I too thought that would be hearing. I get the way ear was in the WP but I’m still a bit mystified I’m afraid.
Chambers has as definition 2: “The sense or power of hearing.” Perhaps as in he has an ear for good music.
That’s what I was thinking, to the extent that I was thinking.
I think 21a is the drug STP given O for over?
Well, it works as wordplay, but I’m not sure how far down the Setters’ List of Substances STP comes. Might be more of a US usage?
I looked STP up. Defs 5 & 6 in Wiktionary are:
(especially LGBT) Initialism of stand-to-pee.
(uncountable, slang) A hallucinogen (2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine), chemically related to amphetamine but with LSD-like effects. [from 20th c.]
STP for sodium thiopentone was a standard abbreviation in the 1980’s for the almost universally used anaesthetic agent.
STP plus GOH (gas- N2O- oxygen halthane) was a common abbreviation of the old anaesthetists, when I was learning my trade in the late 80s. Propofol (Michael Jackson’s drug) quickly supplanted STP.
POT’S reversed?
yes definitely that one! not sure where they were going with the other STP … maybe just in jest?
This above all- to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
(Polonius in Hamlet)
25 mins pre-brekker. LOI False, like others. I’m not sure the attempts at originality (e.g. Memory) quite worked.
Ta setter and G
38 minutes, with a slow start. LOI MEMORY, the Bubble version unknown or forgotten. All I could think of was the memory of a particle in a bubble chamber. I guess IN YER FACE has to be COD as it was a shock when I saw it. Quite tricky, but I never abandoned hope. Thank you George and setter.
10.35
Bit of an odd one, especially MEMORY. I liked UNDERFED and FALSE.
What kind of car did Pavarotti drive?
A Nissan Dormobile.
LOI ROTTWEILERS
I had no idea what was going on with MEMORY and just slung it in. I thought it was a rather “ho-hum” puzzle overall.
FOI MIDDLE
LOI REINS IN
COD MID-AIR
TIME 8:07
FALSE STEP and STOP THIEF in the corners somewhere between a nina and a theme maybe. Is this something we have to be looking out for in the cryptic . . . gratified to score a healthy 13 or so minute jog.
I can echo feelings about 29 but not 23 though obvious to me unconvincing
There’s also ‘middle ear’ and ‘dim memory’. Maybe there is something going on!
About 15 minutes.
– No idea how MEMORY worked
– Didn’t parse AFTER ALL
– Took a long time to parse 22d, despite the F at the end making clear it had to be THIEF
– For 2, had to cross out the letters in the anagrist making up ‘in’ and ‘face’ before getting the ‘yer’ part of IN-YER-FACE
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI Middle
LOI Mid-air
COD Underfed
36m 41s
Thank you, George for MEMORY and FALSE.
The performance in a shopping mall in Leeds of 12d is one of the best flash mob performances I know. I just love the way the chorus just drifts in and then out again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgYh3BG4w4U
Where are the musicians?
I’m guessing that whoever organised this performance arranged for the music to be played over the shopping mall’s PA system.
Wonderful, thank you for the pointer!
Enjoyed the crossword – on the wavelength for a rapid (for me) sub-20min solve. No idea about MEMORY – strange clue, indeed.
14.31, so continuing my “getting progressively easier” week. I did parse memory, but only after submitting. Perhaps a clue for aficionados of Only Connect’s connecting wall, where it would be an absolute natural.
I did jar a little at “bat” cluing racket: once your hitting device develops from the ping-pong paddle to having strings “bat” just feels wrong, whatever Chambers says.
31:04
Pleasantly challenging puzzle without major dramas.
Thanks, g.
20:41
As someone said yesterday the smaller clues are often the most daunting and I took this to heart by struggling with STOP, MID-AIR, and DECK.
Otherwise straightforward and for the most part I raced through it. As per yesterday I didn’t give MEMORY too much thought and lobbed it in when the checkers permitted.
Thanks to both.
42:59, full solve with just a couple of cheeky checks. No idea what was going on with MEMORY, well cracked, blogger.
COD MID-AIR
35:34. A bit odd in places, nothing wrong with that, but I doubted riddle/middle thinking there must be more to it and I don’t think I’ve seen A as an abbreviation of Adult before. I did see what was going on with MEMORY (except bubble) – “all may introduce” was actually a pretty strong steer. LOIs AMASS and FALSE. I liked MID-AIR
A pleasant work-out, all done in 20 minutes, though I had no idea why AGA or MEMORY was correct.
FOI – TRIPLE
LOI – STOP
COD – AIRCRAFT
Thanks to george and other contributors.
I took just over 34 minutes, but never having heard of the aria I put NESSUM DORNA as my LOI, so close but no cigar, as they say.
The rest I found somewhat slow going but not -very- hard.
Thanks blogger and setter
PS I did get the memory thing immediately, because I still remember an episode of Tomorrows World back in the 70s where bubble memory was introduced as a technology of the future
Like others, had no idea what was going on with MEMORY, but at least it was clearly right. Loved FALSE. This was slow, but all gettable with a bit of thought. 42 mins.
Like many others I was completely at sea on the MEMORY clue, and this, as well as ROTTWEILER (where I was slow to see the equivalence with brutes) and RACKETEER were my LOsI. Apart from that I was on for a solve in around 30 minutes. EAR as a sense struck me as wrong at the time, but I’m now convinced by the comments here. An ear for music. 41 minutes.
20 mins. As an aficionado of Only Connect, agree with Zabadak. Can our American friends watch it? Well worthwhile.
15 minutes, ending with MEMORY which couldn’t explain, and think is a dodgy clue as @Myrtilus said. I think it’s only FANNY ADAMS if you say “sweet” first, I was on the more profane path.
IN YER FACE was FOI accompanied by a mer at YER. I proceeded from the NW in a clockwise direction, omitting most of the SE en route. Took a while to get THIEF, STOP and AFTER ALL. MEMORY went in from definition and checkers, but now that George has explained, I recognise all the variants. Returning to the SW, STATIONARY brought up the rear. 22:15. Thanks setter and George.
13.56 WOE
NESSUM DORMA. Oh dear. Liked it otherwise with MID-AIR particularly taking my fancy
Thanks Setter/George
A joint fraternal failure – and I checked the anagrist and still got it wrong!
Rather slower than my twin though: 28 mins
Another who was confused by MEMORY but it didn’t hold me up
8:33. A curious puzzle, which I found mostly pretty easy, but I wasted ages at the end trying and failing to come up with an explanation – other than the last word in the clue – for 29ac. I just gave up in the end, and I’d never have figured it out. NHO the virtual or bubble varieties.
4m 30s, with lots of biffing. Thanks for explaining MEMORY!
Don’t know why, but found this very easy. Not far off that rarity – for me – of a sub 7 minute.
Enjoyed this one more than some recent puzzles where I felt totally inadequate for not holding a PHD in Ancient Greek or Hebrew.
Only mistake was silly one. Always had it in my head that it was NESSUM not NESSUN DORMA so biffed it without checking the anagram letters. Doh.
24:49
Held up for ages in the SW on MID-AIR, EXPIATE and LOI STOP. All seems so obvious now.
Biffed MEMORY of course.
Particularly liked PRUNING SAW.
Thanks all.
Re NESSUN V NESSUM, glad to see I wasn’t the only one to err here. I think that subliminally, my O-level Latin, the phrase ‘cognito ergo sum’ and the knowledge that the phrase means ‘I cannot sleep’ conspired to fix the idea of SUM as ‘I’ in my head.
Mind you, still should have checked the letters!
Managed to finish in a few sittings. Biffed MEMORY, STOP and AFTER ALL. Checked a couple along the way (EAR, EQUAL). Thanks for the parsings g. Liked MID-AIR and PRUNING SAW. Thanks all.
Some comments seem to suggest this was on the harder side of average, but for some reason I found it fairly straightforward finishing in 26.44. The only answer that went unparsed was MEMORY, which I just couldn’t fathom. AMASS was my LOI and more time was spent on this than anything else.
Had a problem getting to the website with a server error being reported. Anyways another fairly straightforward solve and enjoyable puzzle at 25ish mins. I did get held up having confidently put “down” in for 20ac “cover/floor” which complicated things for RACKETEER until the penny dropped. I’m afraid Ms Adams never entered my head and MEMORY was was a mystery to me. Thanks George and setter.
I am not keen on cross referring of clues and I maybe picky but to me “setter is” leads me to “I am”; “setter’s” to “I’m”. Yes it is picky! Just miffed that i did not get it.
All correct, but AMASS REINS IN and FALSE all took a while to twig. MIDAIR went in without understanding, and MEMORY seemed an unusual clue. Enjoyed UNDERFED.
37 minutes.
Almost went with DRUGDEALER for the habit-forming occupation; I’m glad it was the more wholesome DRESSMAKER.
21:31
No idea about the parsing of MEMORY. Otherwise all good.
Thanks G and setter
Another NESSUM DORMA. Whoops. Isn’t DRESSMAKING the occupation, rather then DRESSMAKER? Or is that being fenickety? 21’26” if we ignore the error.
37:07 DNF as I had DUCK not DECK. not sure why! I rather liked the puzzle though and it offered some fun and slightly unusual wordplay. thanks both!
36 minutes, DNF. I was unsure of several unparsed answers – MID-AIR, THIEF and MEMORY – but they were all correct. NESSUM DORMA wasn’t. Drat. Though there seems to be lots of us. Thanks glh.