Times 29103 – not the worst…

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

… 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.

 

91 comments on “Times 29103 – not the worst…”

  1. 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…

  2. 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.

  3. 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

  4. 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

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

  5. 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.

    1. 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”)

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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.

  9. 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

  10. 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.

  11. 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

  12. 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. 13:50. I enjoyed this – as Myrtilus said. LOI CAREFREE. SLEEPER and DISGRUNTLE among my favourites. Thanks Pip and setter.

  14. 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

  15. 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!

  17. 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!

  18. 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.

  19. 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.

        1. 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?

          1. 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 🙂

    2. 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.

        1. 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!

        1. 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!

      3. 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”

        1. 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.

          1. vinyl is the person who, for obvious reasons, really understands and can explain the disc progression.

    3. 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.

  20. 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.

  21. 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.

  22. 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.

      1. 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.

  23. 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.

  24. 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

  25. 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.

    1. Well, in the clue it is “a career” so noun IMO.
      Ummm, I see your problem; I shouldn’t have answered.

    2. It’s neither, it’s this one (from Collins): ‘ a course or path, esp a swift or headlong one’.

  26. 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

    1. 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.

  27. 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.

  28. 33 mins. Tickled by the thought of an URBANE LEGEND. LOI LITOTES, biffed, had to come here..

  29. 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.

    1. To be fair, I think a lot of Marxists would say precisely that! (But I agree there’s no issue with it)

  30. NB: LITOTES is also an anagram of a modernist poet who featured in the crossword recently.

Comments are closed.