Times Crossword 25,738 – a Brazilian coin treat

Solving Time: 17 minutes for a fairly gentle crossword with few obscurities. Well none at all, really, apart perhaps from naseberries. Another good showing for technology, with octals and ergs and rhombs..

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across

1 prosperous – PROSPERO + US. I know little Shakespeare but the main characters in the Tempest are well known. I once saw the Tempest (at the Globe) with Vanessa Redgrave playing Prospero, Duke of Milan… confusing, a little
6 twin – T(IME) + WIN
9 surreal – U + RR in SEAL, the RR being “Right Reverend.” More reverend than very reverend, but not so reverend as an archbishop, who is most reverend.
10 ducking – dd. Ducking stools were more instruments of humiliation than anything else. There are still a few around..
12 endue – ENDU(R)E.
13 perimeter – EMIR rev. in PETER. Petermen, ie safecrackers, were common at one time, in the Saint or the Raffles books for example. Less so now perhaps, but still not too uncommon here in crosswordland
14 green revolution – NE + ERG rev., + REVOLUTION. Not a phrase meaning something ecofriendly, as one might imagine, but rather the opposite; a reference to agro-industry, and its effect of increasing food production
17 right-mindedness – *(THINGS MEN DESIR(E)D). A clever anagram.. right-mindfulness is a part of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path
20 priorship – port = RIO in P(AI)R, + H(OUR) in drink = SIP. Clever surface..
21 rhomb – R + HO + MB, a bachelor of medicine. A diamond shape
23 scholar – SOLAR energy containing CH a Companion of Honour. Mostly they are politicians, but I was pleased to see Stephen Hawking in the list of members, not to mention Dame Judi Dench
24 evictor – girl = VI in city = EC, + TO R(UN). I know nobody called Vi.. presumably it is short for Victoria (Queen Vi?) or something
25 onyx – ONLY X, with the L (pounds) removed
26 ethereally – the Brazilian coin, a REAL, in ETHEL + Y(OUTH). 1R$ = 26p today

Down

1 passenger – col = PASS + *(GREEN), the def. being fare as in a taxi fare
2 oared – A(REA) in O RED
3 preternatural – R in PETER, + NATURAL, a musical note which is not a sharp or a flat
4 relapse – drink = LAP in RE, the Royal Engineers, + SE, compass quarters.
5 undergo – UN and DER, foreign articles, + turn = GO
7 waistline – I in WAST, “once used to be,” ie an archaic form of was, + track = LINE. Took a bit of unravelling, that did
8 Niger – GIN rev. + ER, our own dear queen. The Niger is Africa’s third largest river after the Nile and the Congo, and gives countries Nigeria and Niger their names
11 come under fire – a cd, referring to a firedog, an andiron
15 Englishry – *(SINGLY HER). Not a term familiar to me but easy to get to from the clue
16 naseberry – E + R + R in NASEBY, a well-known battle of the English civil war. Naseberries not so well-known.. I would call them sapodillas, and had some when in Qatar recently. A rather peculiar flavour, not helped by them only becoming edible when soft and on the point of rotting.
18 inherit – IN + HER + IT. IT = sex appeal came up only a week or so ago, didn’t it? Clara Bow was the original “It Girl,” appearing in a film of that name (ie IT) back in 1927, which gives you some idea how old-fashioned a reference this is..
19 deplete – P in strike out = DELETE
20 pesto – quickly = P(R)ESTO. Pesto nowadays always brings to mind Wallis’s business in that wonderful film “The Were-Rabbit,” called Antipesto
22 octal – hidden in concOCT A Letter. Omitting a couple of digits, I suppose, since octal is a base-8 numbering system as opposed to decimal base-10

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

43 comments on “Times Crossword 25,738 – a Brazilian coin treat”

  1. I rattled through this in 35 minutes – something of a surprise after my tentative start, however I was unable to parse 13ac and as it turned out I had the wrong answer. There’s some sort of unwritten rule about this, I believe. PARAMETER might possibly fit the definition but MARA reversed inside PETER does not match the wordplay.

    Jerry you have a typo at 12ac with an E missing. I’m not sure I knew that word and definitely didn’t know NASEBERRY or ENGLISHRY. Nor GREEN REVOLUTION, come to that.

    Edited at 2014-03-19 01:40 am (UTC)

  2. Good puzzle and easiest of the week so far. The obscurities were well enough clued to get us there.

    Vinyl writes “If we knew what mindedness was right …”; I was thinking more along the lines of “If we knew what mindedness was, tout court”. What a stupid word!

  3. Under 30 minutes for me. Never heard of ENGLISHRY but what else could it be.

    So tech joke of the day, given we have OCTAL. Why do programmers mix up Halloween and Christmas. Because OCT 31 is the same as DEC 25. Boom boom

    1. At my shop we think there at 10 kinds of people: those who prefer binary, and those who prefer octal.
  4. I thought this was a nice middle-o-the-road offering – not too hard but a lot in it to make you think.

    I think VI as a girl’s name is short for Violet, which is about the only girl’s name starting VI with a long I. It seems to belong with names like Phoebe, Brenda, Ivy, Ethel, Doris etc which were common in the early 20C but have since rather fallen out of favour .

    1. Well spotted regarding Vi = Violet not Victoria. My 2 year old Granddaughter is a Phoebe, the name took off in popularity again in USA in the late 80’s (possibly after ‘Friends’ on TV) and is around no 35 in the list in UK.
      1. I think you’re right about the influence of the TV show. But “Friends” was mid 90s. I think there was also a Phoebe in “Charmed” which also aired in the 90s. I find it very strange that people name their children after characters on TV. Ann
  5. Agreed with Derek on Vi. I used to have a great aunt Vi(olet), who counted among her sisters May and Daisy. Around 40 minutes for this in and out of the doctor’s waiting-room. I got PERIMETER, but until coming to the blog was wondering just what type of Muslim leader a ‘Mire’ was. Especially liked DEPLETE, where I was looking do a word meaning ‘strike out’, and the co-occurrence of SURREAL and ETHEREALLY.

    Is chestnut a constituent of PESTO, perhaps?

  6. A rather surreal experience over 24 minutes wrestling with the Times android app interface compounded with the vagaries of my tablet’s iffy touchscreen.I barely seemed to be noticing the clues. I suppose I was being sort of OCTAL, all fingers and no thumbs.
    That, together with the made-up-specially feel of NASEBERRY and ENGLISHRY added to the weirdness. I kept going with an almost preternatural right-mindedness to overcome the twin hazards of online solving and resistential technology to finish with ETHEREALLY. Does that make me an E-VICTOR?
    CoD to the devious PASSENGER. Only when writing this did it occur to me that it should have been Col Mustard.
  7. So what does it mean if I can complete this in about 20 minutes, but couldn’t finish the Quick Cryptic? Something’s wrong somewhere – I don’t envy today’s blogger.
    26a LOI, but then I do object to proper names like this being used as part of the answers. Other than that a pleasant amble.
    1. Reversal of expectations, perhaps? If anyone tells me something is easy that’s often enough for me to make a meal of it. As a matter of interest, which puzzle did you tackle first?
      1. Quite probably! Unusually for me, I started the Quick one first as a bit of a “warm up” for a change. Serves me right.
    2. Well, having read your comment (and Jack’s below), I turned to the Quickie with some trepidation… and raced through it in under 10 mins or so, with no problem in either vocab or parsing. And yet I took over an hour for this one. Maybe Jack’s got it… it’s all about expectation management!

  8. A real puzzle of two halves for me today… plodded through the first lot, finding it tricky, and then came to a long block, until I got PASSENGER, and then the rest all fell into place. Maybe I suddenly found that elusive wavelength.

    LOI; EVICTOR, with that pesky VI in the middle. Not sure I totally agree with Derek above: Ivy and Phoebe seem to be enjoying a renaissance amongst the littlies of certain well-to-do neighbourhoods…

    PS: Like Z’s idea that solving correctly online makes us E-VICTORS!

  9. 28/28 today with FOI Twin and LOI Ducking.
    Almost blundered with Parameter for Perimeter before thinking carefully about the wordplay.
    I was struck by the number of words I hadn’t heard of today but which were gettable from the wordplay: Englishry, octal, Green Revolution, endue and naseberry.
  10. 15 minute stroll in the park today

    I don’t like 1A. If you know The Tempest it’s a write-in. If you don’t it’s a guess from checkers. Too close to those old “To be or … to be” clues. Not really sure what “printing” is doing in 5D.

    Enjoyed Col Green. For me PESTO is the eccentric BBC commentator on banking and other financial matters.

  11. Re quick cryptic, in The Guardian often the Quiptic is harder than the main cryptic puzzle. Especially on a Monday! I can’t be bothered with either ‘lite’ version, to be honest.

    NASEBERRY & ENGLISHRY = what?, but overall an easy solve. That’s what crossing letters are for.

    Cheers,
    Chris.

  12. 14 mins but with a careless “parameter” at 13dn. I just assumed a “Mara” was a type of Muslim ruler I hadn’t heard of, but it isn’t like “Emir” is uncommon so I really should have got it. Of the clues I didn’t screw up ENDUE was my LOI after PASSENGER.

    I thought ENGLISHRY was a good word that I’m happy to add my lexicon.

  13. Thank you very much Jerry.

    Another DNF for me but I got a lot more in today than earlier in the week so it must have been easier. Seem to be learning my lessons too because I immediately got IT=appeal in 18d.

    PETER=safe and RR=bishop were new to me even if well known to all of you. I had ENGLISHRY and ENDUE but didn’t think either could be proper words – ho hum.

  14. Yup, that caught me too. One reason I don’t like speedy ones is I get careless with the parsing. Only self to blame but glad to see I’ve got plenty of company. I agree with others that it’s Vi as in Violet. My sister Victoria is V, Vicky or Tori.

    Re the quick cryptic, it’s well into week 2 and I’m still having trouble with letters appearing that I haven’t ordered. “Chibby” for “chubby” today, and no it wasn’t a typo and I do switch off the letter-skipping thing.

    1. Again, I haven’t done the quickie yet!
      I’m going to have to avoid coming here until I have I think…
  15. NE, middle, and SW went right in, the other two corners took some work, but still under 45 min. Not helped by deciding that Col. Green was probably a Cluedo character I know as the Clue character Col Mustard.
  16. 13m. Straightforward puzzle, with the obscurities gettable from wordplay.
    I don’t understand 3dn. How do you get NATURAL from “staff”? No doubt missing something obvious.
    The only Vi I’ve ever known was a Victoria. I’m not aware that there’s a rule.
  17. 24min: after first five minutes had only one of the acrosses, but downs came more quickly, hence finished in a good time.
    A natural may be found on the staff in music, though one only needs to be written to override the sharp or flat in the key signature.
  18. Some nice clues in this one but the long answers really opened up the grid by providing a heap of useful checkers. Like ulaca, I had a great aunt Violet so that’s the name I always associate with Vi. We had NASEBERRY in December 2012 with the similar clue “Tree sheltering English king and queen in battle”. COD to the cooking colonel.
      1. This year I’ve been trying to make sure that I parse everything fully before submitting, as the parameter/perimeter type of clue is exactly the kind of thing that tends to catch me out if I’m aiming for speed alone, but the first few answers went in so quickly on this one that I decided to just go for it and my luck held.
  19. A minute smidge over 11 mins, the last bit of which was spent trying to convince myself there must be such a thing as a naseberry.
  20. 20:02 but happy just to finish today.

    I almost fell into the parameter trap but I didn’t like the singular/plural conflict and realised I wasn’t necessarily looking for a religious leader laike an imam to put in the safe and that’s when emir ocurred to me.

    At 14 I wasn’t sure how much of NE ERG I had to reverse and wondered if there had been a negre revolution somewhere, sometime.

    COD to onyx and I also enjoyed the red herring non-anagram of Col Green’s.

  21. I had a similar experience to vinyl1 and janie_l_b. A slow start saw only about half finished in 45 minutes. I have just returned to it and knocked off the rest in about 15 minutes.

    It probably helped having pen and paper for the anagrams in the second stint. Does anyone know of Android software which is useful for anagrams (as in replicating what you do with pen and paper rather than actually solving them for you)?

  22. I thought I knew all the words for the English in Ireland, but had never heard of ‘Englishry’ though the anagram was obvious. Post-solve research on the Internet reveals that Englishry more often refers to the identification of dead soldiers in the reign of William I. I eventually found the correct reference in my very old paper edition of Chambers which has: ‘In Ireland, the population of English descent’. Always good to learn something new.
  23. Nice puzzle and blog. Naseberry and Englishry were unknown to me, but helpfully clued and easily guessed. I have no excuse to forget natural notes again, with natural appearing twice in a few weeks.
  24. 18.28. 1 across is a throwback that nicely reveals what the up-to-date style is founded on: to wit, wit. Wonderful word, Englishry. ‘Once used to be’ was neat.
  25. About 15 minutes for this, which I (evidently) found on the easier side of things. Surprised by the NASEBERRY, never heard of it. LOI was ENDUE, which is not a word seen very often, at least by me. Thanks Jerry, and regards to all.
  26. I groaned audibly at 1ac, which must be the simplest clue to have appeared in living memory. Thankfully, the rest provided more solid fare. The first twenty went in on a trip from Balham to Putney, under 20 minutes, the remaining eight in about 10 minutes scattered throughout the morning.

    The convenient NASEBERRY surely a word invented by crossword compilers. PRIORSHIP smacked of desperation. And somewhat annoyed that The Times should spell “praeternatural” as PRETERNATURAL. ENGLISHRY new to me, but a nice word which “fits” its context very well.

    Had “parameter” in for some time before “mara” began worrying away at me. Nice clue. Parsing essential!

    FOI the execrable PROSPEROUS, LOI EVICTOR, COD RHOMB, simply for being a lovely word.

    1. …if you don’t know The Tempest. Finally guessed it as knew Prospero was Shakespearian, via Ken Russell’s “Prospero’s Books” starring fave singer Deborah Conway, the voice of “Man Overboard” and composer of “Bitch Epic” on which cover she appeared naked covered in chocolate.

      Otherwise 28 min, just on the hard side of average. Took a while to get going, the unknowns were gettable, ENDUE was a known. Quite enjioyed it.

      Rob

  27. Oh dear. Shame is what I’m hanging my head in.

    DNF, by a long mile. Re. our blogger’s comment //I know little Shakespeare but the main characters in the Tempest are well known// – well, not by me they’re not. Nor did I know ENDUE (I considered it, but then decided it didn’t exist), nor PRIORSHIP. I also blew PRETERNATURAL, as I was looking for some element of music annotation (on staff) involving an anagram of “resistance”.

    Was fairly happy to have deduced the unheard-of NASEBERRY, NASEBY being probably one of the two battles I could probably name. Nice to see the slightly techie RHOMB and OCTAL in there.

    I’d put my miserable performance down to long hours and overwork, but that’s an excuse I usually reserve for malpractice cases and, even there, it’s wearing a bit thin.

  28. 8:03 here for a pleasant, straightforward solve, with PROSPEROUS getting me off to a good start.

    NASEBERRY last appeared in No. 25,343 (11 December 2012) with a very similar clue: “Tree sheltering English king and queen in battle (9)”.

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