… but I have to say I didn’t enjoy this as much as our usual Wednesday workouts. Hard to put a finger on why, there’s nothing unfair or too obscure; I just felt some of the surfaces were a bit ugly and the random DBE’s like “role on stage” were loose. The other queries are covered below.
Apologies, Mr Setter, if it was just me in a grumpy mood.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
Across | |
1 | Suggesting my words are false introduces pressure (8) |
IMPLYING – I’M LYING with P inserted. | |
6 | Revolutionary has fun pets (6) |
STROPS – reversal of SPORTS = has fun. That kind of pet. | |
9 | Ruler favouring the Tories crows, stifling unknown protest forcefully (3,4,6) |
CRY BLUE MURDER – CR (Charles Rex), BLUE (Tories) MURDER (collective noun for crows), insert Y an unknown. I admit I biffed this and parsed it afterwards. | |
10 | Retailer’s opening guide for one making a career (6) |
RUSHER – R[etailer], USHER = guide. Do you ‘make a career?’ Rushing can be careering, yes, but I think this is a dubious surface. | |
11 | They may hold drugs from ace smugglers smuggling a lot of marijuana (8) |
AMPOULES – A[ce], MULES (smugglers) with PO[t] inserted. Another one solved first and parsed afterwards. | |
13 | Wide, rotten boat full of animals covers miles (3,3,4) |
OFF THE MARK – OFF (rotten), THE ARK with M[iles] inserted. | |
15 | It holds large quantity of alcohol still ultimately doubled (4) |
BUTT – still = BUT, double the last letter = BUTT. A butt can store wine, or beer, or be a water butt in your garden. | |
16 | Go nuts, giving a twirl (4) |
STAB – BATS (nuts) reversed. As in have a stab, have a go. | |
18 | Hack off lizard’s tail with inarticulate sound? Man perhaps admits it (10) |
DISGRUNTLE – D (end of lizard), ISLE (Man perhaps), insert GRUNT. | |
21 | Sunny capital of Eritrea maybe pedestrianised around the outside (8) |
CAREFREE – Pedestrianised could be CAR FREE, insert E[ritrea]. No need to go looking for Asmara. | |
22 | As yet struggling to dress wife covered in beads (6) |
SWEATY – (AS YET)* with W[ife] inserted. | |
23 | Scottish runner offering to conserve energy now (3,3,7) |
FOR THE PRESENT – FORTH (Scottish river), PRESENT (offering), insert E for energy. | |
25 | On vacation, Croatian houses dear in Split (6) |
CLOVEN – insert LOVE (dear) into C[roatia]N. | |
26 | Sort of music that is at a higher tempo than the rest (8) |
RAPIDEST – RAP music, ID EST = i.e., Latin for that is. Neat. |
Down | |
2 | Entertainer accepting a dodgy role on stage (7) |
MACDUFF – MC (entertainer), insert A, DUFF = dodgy. I wasn’t keen on this clue. An MC is the bloke who introduces the entertainers, not the entertainer per se. Does duff mean dodgy? And a random pick of a million possible stage roles to get to one from the Scottish play. | |
3 | Athlete ably running in set places (3,3,5) |
LAY THE TABLE – (ATHLETE ABLE)*. | |
4 | Youngster losing head hands round drug, one unlikely to work (5) |
IDLER – [k]ID = youngster losing head, L and R are hands, insert E our usual drug. | |
5 | Socialist Party in summer time uprising (7) |
GUEVARA – RAVE inside AUG[ust], all reversed. Another clue I’m luke warm about. I thought Che was a Marxist, not a Socialist. | |
6 | Game is fine, with Reds put in new positions on the wings (4,5) |
STUD POKER – OK = fine, put that into (REDS PUT)*. Another biffed then parsed. | |
7 | Half-hearted, cross staff (3) |
ROD – RO[o]D. | |
8 | Sign nothing’s missing in substandard holiday accommodation (7) |
PORTENT – a POOR TENT could be substandard holiday accommodation, remove an O = nothing. | |
12 | Account not meriting credit or PIN in refined neighbourhood’s banks (5,6) |
URBAN LEGEND – URBANE (refined), insert LEG (pin) gives you URBAN LEGE, add N[eighbourhoo]D. | |
14 | Pernod drunk hot and cool? It makes you feel good (9) |
ENDORPHIN – (PERNOD)*, H, IN = cool. This one I solved from the wordplay. | |
17 | He leaves the lecture in an emotional state (7) |
TEARFUL – THE EARFUL could be a lecture, remove HE. | |
19 | Someone who sells fish turned over a kipper? (7) |
SLEEPER – all reversed; REP (someone who sells), EELS (fish). | |
20 | 50 old songs played at gig coming up, including It’s Not Unusual? (7) |
LITOTES – L (50), IT, O[ld], SET reversed. If you don’t know what a litotes is, it’s not unusual, look it up. | |
22 | What’s up with album’s mindless followers? (5) |
SHEEP – EH’S? = What’s? Reversed = SHE, add EP. I thought an album was an LP not an EP but I’m in a pedantic mood today. | |
24 | Soldiers see gun (3) |
REV – RE (soldiers), V (vide, see). As in rev / gun the accelerator. |
My only complaint was that it was over very quickly, at about 17-and-a-half minutes fully parsed. In hindsight I should’ve given in to the biffing and tried to wring a p.b. out of it…
39 minutes. Enjoyable enough. I put SHEEP at 22dn with a shrug at EP as an album, but I have a vague recollection of this coming up before when some (or just someone) justified it by citing a more recent use of the term EP than the days of the 7-inch 45rpm discs that I used to buy.
Got the left side in smoothly but really struggled on the right side. Solved everything correctly in the end but only after nearly 2 hours.
Thank Piquet
Hard yards, a couple left at the hour mark. NHO LITOTES, went with LOTITES, which just about also works, if “it” is seen as part of the reversal instruction.
No idea what was going on with REV, never come across v=see, where is that used?
RUSHER doesn’t seem like a proper word.
COD MACDUFF
Abbreviation: v – vide – see, refer to – used to direct a reader to a specified place in a text, another book, etc
SOED: rusher a. A person who or thing which rushes. M17. b. Amer. Football. A player who rushes; esp. a forward. L19.
Further to Jackkt’s response, I took “see” to be “the See of Rome”, namely the Vatican, i.e. V. Either are acceptable I think.
Lay on, Macduff, And damned be him that first
cries, ‘Hold, enough!’
(Macbeth)
20 ish mins pre-brekker. Well, unusually I disagree with our esteemed blogger. This was definitely my cup of tea and seemed a big notch up from our usual fare in terms of surfaces, elegance and trickery. Just look at the surfaces for Guevara, Tearful, Sleeper and the gem, Litotes.
Ta setter and Pip.
Often you’ll hear “Lead on, Macduff” used as an expression when one person asks someone else to go first. It’s wrong on two counts, it’s not what Macbeth says, or what he means. (“Lay on” means “bring it on”)
30:15
Slowish, on the train up to Glasgow, but I rather enjoyed it. I did think there was some looseness e.g. album = EP, but I thought MACDUFF, GUEVARA, URBAN LEGEND and LITOTES were all very good.
For 9a, BLUE means “favouring the Tories” rather than just “Tories”.
Thanks P and setter
This was a real struggle for me. No precise time because I was required to come and go, but I’d guess around 70. Got several essentially by guesswork and needed piquet’s blog to figure them out. Some terrific clues but a lot that I found hard. Twelve inches, not seven, is an album for mine.
From Tweedle-dee Dum and Tweedle-dee Dee:
They’re lying low and they’re makin’ hay
They seem determined to go all the way
One is a lowdown, sorry old man
The other will STAB you where you stand
“I’ve had too much of your company,”
Says Tweedle-dee Dum to Tweedle-dee Dee
Some to like here, like CRY BLUE MURDER and OFF THE MARK. Some I don’t agree with too. An album is an LP (long playing) and an EP is an extended play, an EP does not an album make. I think 17d is more like HE leaves THE, which gives simply T followed by EARFUL (LECTURE) but it works both ways I guess. COD to LITOTES. It’s not unusual for me to forget the word too!
Thanks P and setter.
Re TEARFUL I thought that was what I said.
Apologies. I misread your meaning.
15.35
I did enjoy this one, with a caveat over EP for album. There did seem to be an awful lot of obscure definitions in the wordplay, but nothing ultimately unfathom/biffable.
LOI AMPOULES
COD LITOTES
Well I’m with our blogger on this one. A hard slog and I gave up on the hour with 4 clues in the SE remaining. NHO LITOTES, and I can’t see that an EP ia an album.
Thanks pip for the hard yards.
I must admit to coming here less than gruntled having spent over the hour solving this, only to find that others had got one well with it, and that the clues did all make sense. It must have been me. I did like CAREFREE at the time. Thank you Pip and setter
11.19
I thought this was very good indeed, although only twigged some of the cleverness after biffing an answer (MACDUFF, URBAN LEGEND, GUEVARA). Didn’t help myself by typoing ENDROPHIN for a while, leading me to think 21a would end -SOME. I knew LITOTES was a word, and something to do with rhetoric, although even with the DBE I didn’t know quite what.
Couldn’t have told you what you keep in an ampoule, and will probably forget.
Thanks both.
13:50. I enjoyed this – as Myrtilus said. LOI CAREFREE. SLEEPER and DISGRUNTLE among my favourites. Thanks Pip and setter.
About 20 minutes, with the last 5 of those taken up with STUD POKER – I’m not familiar with it, and even though it seemed like the only feasible option it took me a while to work out the parsing.
– Didn’t fully parse AMPOULES
– Wasn’t sure why the clue for BUTT included the reference to alcohol – of course I know a butt can store alcohol, but as piquet says it can store other things as well
– Always forget what LITOTES means, but I got there from the wordplay
Thanks piquet and setter.
FOI Implying
LOI Stud poker
COD Rapidest
I agree with our esteemed blogger. I was definitely on the wrong wavelength and found it frustrating. Not sure why. Hey ho, it’s almost Christmas!
9:17. Held up on the right hand side. Felt a bit clunky but still enjoyable.
8:32. I seem to have been in the wavelength for this. No problem with any of the definitions. ‘Album’ for EP seems fine to me. It’s certainly not a single!
58 mins. Another game of 2 halves, the left half easier going than the right.
NHO an Urban Legend, myth yes, legend no.
One might Scream Blue Murder, NHO crying it.
RUSHER is a clunky word.
COD and LOI: RAPIDEST
Nothing to complain to the referee about but a bit off the mark for me.
56:09
Not a great crossword. An EP, as others have said, is not an album. Spot the Pigeon is an EP; Foxtrot is an album. Cry blue murder? Not really. It’s scream. Rusher – yeah, whevs. Anyway, got through it slowly.
Thanks, p.
Interesting examples HR. Big fan?
A disciple of the holy trinity: ELP, Genesis, Yes 🙂
Wow, we are musical brethren. Present at ELP Welcome Back My Friends tour 197(4?), and at Wembley for Lamb Lies Down + Musical Box? and The Knife, Yes at Reading Festival, supported by Supertramp, two nights at Hammersmith for Trick of the Tale, also for Wind and Wuthering, and Gabriel at Knebworth. The holy trinity indeed! Do you go to the George meetings in London?
We are indeed, OC. Was at Empire Pool Wembley on 18/04/74 for ELP (an almost unbelievable display of power and virtuosity), same venue the following year for TLLDOB. Yes more recently at Bridgewater Hall and Hammersmith. Quite a few other shows featuring those bands too. We now survive for live music on the Carl Palmer trio, Steve Hackett, The Musical Box, Rick Wakeman. Phil Toms also excellent for Tubular Bells live. Not a George regular, but will look out for forthcoming meetings 🙂
I see no reason why an EP cannot be described as an album. Of course, the word is normally applied to a long-playing 33.3 rpm release but it has only assumed that meaning by common usage. An ‘album’ is simply a collection of things. In the early days bands would release singles. And if enough people showed that they liked the music, the band might have decided to produce a collection, or ‘album’, of songs for their fans’ greater listening pleasure. The term was surely adapted from the idea of a photograph album which has no implication of any meaning other than a collection of favourite photographs.
Two online definitions I have found for ALBUM:
“a record or set of records containing several musical selections, a complete play or opera, etc.”
Also:
“a collection of audio recordings released together as a collected work”
And an EP could be described as either of those.
Plus there are certain ‘albums’ that are not really ‘albums’ at all but simply extended pieces, such as Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’, or Brian Eno’s ‘Thursday Afternoon’ or ‘Neroli’ which are both single hour-long ambient compositions.
Oh, okay then. My bad.
Not your bad at all! We’re just having a light-hearted discussion as we always do here and your point is completely valid in terms of how the words are commonly used. Plus there are a lot of people commenting who agree with you!
Our esteemed blogger included!
Cheers 🙂
I see your point of view, but I read (and agreed with) the one on Wikipedia, which argues for an EP being not the same as an album –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_play
Pip
I agree that as the terms are generally used they are different. I am just saying that as a matter of pure definition an EP could be considered an ‘album’. The waters are further muddied by an animal such as The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” which was released as a double EP in the UK but when it crossed the pond it magically morphed into an LP ‘album’.
Oh and thanks for the blog by the way, which I greatly enjoyed, although unlike you I also enjoyed the puzzle – so thank you setter as well!
vinyl may weigh in on this, but in the States, after 78s, the first extended playing discs were called EPs. 45s were singles. Technology allowed the EP grooves to become narrower, and the term LP replaced EPs. Then, in the 2000s, the term EP was brought back for single song discs similar to 45s. I have several multi-song records which are labeled “EP”
This is what I love about this community. Or one of the things anyway. How a small comment can escalate and develop a life of its own until often a closet expert member comes forward and tells it like it is. Like Sandy did with French poetry the other day, or Jack did with the Greek poetry yesterday I think? Great stuff.
vinyl is the person who, for obvious reasons, really understands and can explain the disc progression.
I’m sure. I just hope he’s listening…
I thought it was scream blue murder as well, although I liked the clue. 38 mins although I didn’t manage to parse stud poker until a while after that.
12:17 thanks to a lot of answers leaping out from definitions and/or enumeration, so quite a bit of clever word play was wasted on me. Take little wins where you can is my motto.
Really enjoyed this; 29m of thought and satisfaction. Haven’t seen good old ‘litotes’ for a while: it used to be more of a staple. I wonder if it is actually ever used in conversation. Agree with the MER brigade about EP.
26a Rapidest. POI. Wiktionary has:
“Adjective rapidest
superlative form of rapid: most rapid. Considered erroneous.”
So do I add it to the Cheating Machine or not? Well, CM is there to finish Xwords, and if compilers put it in, then it belongs in CM.
10a Rusher doesn’t look a proper word to me either, but I checked and it’s in Wiktionary, and CM.
21a Carefree COD, or is it a chestnut? Anyway I enjoyed it.
2d MacDuff. I struggled with this, trying to make (MacROLE)* without success, then suddenly saw. Lay on MacDuff! No trouble with MC or emcee as entertainer, but only because I didn’t notice the error.
5d Guevara. IMHO all Marxists are socialists, not all the reverse. USSR supports this thought.
20d Litotes. I thought it meant understatement so the brilliance of the clue was totally lost on me.
22d Sheep. I have forgotten any discussion on the EP/LP front.
I think in rap or hip-hop music the term emcee can refer to the performer.
That’s true (think MC Hammer, Young MC, Ultramagnetic MCs, MC Solaar and many others) but it’s also the case that an MC is generally expected to do a bit more than simply introduce acts. There’s usually an element of entertainment involved.
Today’s brilliant clue is tomorrow’s chestnut.
The MC of Live at the Apollo (Hammersmith) is part of the entertainment, imho.
Well. I’ll go down the middle. I did it in just under 25 minutes, with a lot spent at the end on GUEVARA, which indicates a) that I’ve never knowingly spelled him beyond the Che and b) I have a strong suspicion I’ve come across lots of Socialist philosophers in my time that might fit but I’ve forgotten them.
Nothing else worried me much, the bits that others are picking at being well within what I would regard as acceptable smudginess in wordplay. I did like the prevalent multi-word clues, not just because the usually make life easier but also because they were pretty decent.
I quite enjoyed this after a desperately slow start, although I biffed GUEVARA and URBAN LEGEND (I always knew it as urban myth), and wasn’t impressed with EP, which was just a glorified single in my day. I’m also rather more attuned to SCREAM blue murder. I thought the puzzle had a rather David MacLean-ish feel to it….
FOI SWEATY
LOI BUTT
COD LITOTES
TIME 13:10
10A
Need clarification please. Which of these two definitions below were used in this clue? The verb or the noun.
noun:
one’s professional life; one’s progress in one’s job.
verb:
(careered, careering) intrans to rush in an uncontrolled or headlong way.
Well, in the clue it is “a career” so noun IMO.
Ummm, I see your problem; I shouldn’t have answered.
It’s neither, it’s this one (from Collins): ‘ a course or path, esp a swift or headlong one’.
I just took 54 minutes with the last 15 or so spent on CAR(E)FREE. I finally thought of EE at the end, which led me to FREE, which finally got me to the answer. Perspiration not inspiration!!
I did find this hard -obviously – didn‘t really enjoy it so much but that‘s probably just a personal thing.
Thanks setter and blogger
Yes, CAREFREE was the LOI that held me up as well. I couldn’t stop thinking about ‘pedestrianised’ having something to to with ‘PAVE’ until like you I noticed the second half could be FREE and the penny went kerplunk.
34 – misses tends to be wide of the mark rather than off it and blue murder tends to be screamed rather than cried, in my humble, though I suspect I’d have liked it more if I hadn’t been so wide or off.
33 mins. Tickled by the thought of an URBANE LEGEND. LOI LITOTES, biffed, had to come here..
I really enjoyed this puzzle, a lot.
It would be absurd to reply to the question “are you a socialist?” with “no, I’m a Marxist”.
MACDUFF is a brilliant clue.
18′ 53″, thanks pip and setter.
To be fair, I think a lot of Marxists would say precisely that! (But I agree there’s no issue with it)
Splitters!
We must unite against the common enemy
NB: LITOTES is also an anagram of a modernist poet who featured in the crossword recently.
So are TOILETS!
As a QC person who occasionally has a go at the 15×15 I was cheered (and very surprised) to complete yesterday’s offering. However, back to normal with today’s: could only do 3!! Found it pretty incomprehensible.
I thought this crossword was pretty good, although it took me ages (83 minutes). Lots of very nice clues. I rather agree with people that an album is really a 12-inch thing, but Collins does say “a collection of recordings released as a single item”, which is what an EP is, like it or not. But it does have no entry for RAPIDEST, so they don’t regard it as a word. Their entry for RUSHER is as American English only.
All done in 35 minutes. I can’t say I particularly liked or disliked it, and did not feel I was really on the wavelength. I agree with most of the comments above about some looseness in some of the clues, but I am happy to cut the setter some slack if I can still find the right answers!
FOI – RUSHER
LOI – CAREFREE
COD – CRY BLUE MURDER
Thanks to piquet and other contributors.
Took me ages, but finally collapsed across the line. I have no problem with MACDUFF or socialist=Marxist. This was tricky, I thought.
No problems, all done while waiting on the phone to speak to somebody at EE.
Yes, that long.
No issues, but not keen on “Rusher “. It’s acceptable, I just don’t like it much.
I understand the raised eyebrows for the use of EP, but definitions would seem to support our esteemed setter.
Thanks P for the helpful blog.
Yes I spend a similar amount of my life waiting for EE, among others, to answer my calls which are invariably ‘very important to them’. It’s a good way of relieving my natural guilt at ‘wasting my time’ doing the crossword as it is a comparatively more productive activity than listening to the messages and what passes for music while you are forced to wait.
One to suit a biff and parser like me. Nothing remained unparsed in the end, though my LOI BUTT did require a bit of a trawl. Got there in the end via George Plantagenet and his untimely death by drowning.
I liked MACDUFF best I think.
18:56
Ah! The butt of Malmsey!
35:53. Fine. I’m afraid I didn’t notice most of the points that have bothered others above, although I did think RUSHER was a bit odd. LOI DISGRUNTLE (a fine word to finish with) COD CAREFREE
19.54. I’m sure that I was never on for a PB, but, like gothick, I’m also sure that I could have been quicker if I had trusted to my subconscious rather than parsing as I went along. Like others, a shrug at EP but I’m old and Millennials may see things differently.
Just over 18 mins but a frustrating solitary typo – despite what I thought was careful checking.
Don’t care what anyone says, an EP is simply not an album and would never have been called this when they were once popular
see my comment above – in the US the progression was 78s, EPs (33rpm), then when the grooves narrowed LPs (also 33rpm). The term EP was dropped due to the new technology, only to be brought back for something more like a 45 in the vinyl revival.
No time to report as split between am and pm, but around the 50 minute mark at a guess. I had my doubts about finishing this as I thought it was pretty tough, but I’m pleased to have got there in the end with everything parsed. It took me quite a while to get CAREFREE even with all the checkers, but AMPOULES was my LOI mainly because I couldn’t get CAPSULES out of my head. An enjoyable puzzle, but they always are when you’re stretched and manage to finish aren’t they!
When IMPLYING, LAY THE TABLE, GUEVARA and IDLER dropped into place as I read the clues, I thought I was on for a decent time. How wrong I was! A biffed AMPHORAE held up the NE and URBAN LEGEND for ages, and I was held up in the SW by a biffed TURMOIL making CAREFREE rather difficult. It was only when FOR THE PRESENT arrived that TEARFUL came with it. CAREFREE still didn’t surrender for a while though. Meanwhile pin for leg emerged and an URBAN LEGEND was born. AMPOULE duly followed, but STROPS, PORTENT and finally BUTT held out a while longer. I finally put the thing to rest at 37:30. Thanks setter and Pip.
I did OK, but I had a lot of trouble finishing. The clue for Guevara seemed uncrackable, even though I thought of Che but didn’t think his surname would fit. I finally had to use the cryptic to get Aug, and then work out what the party might be. Aha, it is Che Guevara!
Time: 39:28
I’ve got a wicked head cold, so I’m thinking a little slowly. I found that to be just what I needed for this puzzle, which I quite liked.
As above, no problem with EP, which in my youth was a multi-track 33rpm disc which came between 78s and LPs in the technology progression
I liked Cry Blue Murder. And how nice to see Guevara given full value instead of just making a contribution to a word which had -che- in it.
In schoolboy Latin, litotes meant understatement. Had to biff it. And urban legend.
Couldn’t get going on this at all. Gave up with only a third done. After reading the excellent blog, I realised that was the wise thing to do.
We go again tomorrow, hoping for a change of fortune.
This took me over an hour, hung up on Ampoules, Butt and Urban (I was thinking Human Legend for a while!).
I thought it was a very good puzzle despite my slow time, with my COD “Cry Blue Murder”.
Thanks for the blog.
23:07 and a vote of thanks to the setter as I really enjoyed this. (A time of between 20 and 30 indicates the ‘right’ level of hardness for me: tricky enough not to bash through but not still banging my head at the 40 mark.)
Very enjoyable- just my cup of tea. All correct and I think unusually all parsed. I gave a colleague one of the books of times crosswords in secret Santa today- I think he was pleased!
Thanks setter and blogger
I love doing the crossword daily, but when my mother gave me a book of Times Crosswords (and tore out the answer pages to stop me cheating) I just couldn’t get into doing them. Somehow, without the challenge of having to finish that day the attraction was not there.
An hour for a DNF, since the only thing I could think of fitting the crossers in 5dn was GRENADA, which, um, was wrong. I liked CRY BLUE MURDER, but not much else.
I was also in the GRENADA club, a tricky crossword in general, I though the SNITCH would be higher