Times Cryptic 26263

Posted on Categories Daily Cryptic
28 minutes for this one. I blogged this as a last-minute stand-in so I haven’t written much, but please ask if further explanations are required.

{deletions} [indicators]

Across

1 CAPSICUM – CAP (beat), anagram [rocking] of MUSIC
6 CASBAH – AB (sailor) reversed inside CASH (money)
9 STUN – STUN{t} (wheeze)
10 ACCUSATION – C (conservative) + USA (country) inside ACTION (hostilities)
11 JUST AS WELL – JUST (very recently), AS WELL (too)
13 LEEK – LEE (shelter), {par}K
14 I DARE SAY – Anagram [novel] of IS A{l}READY
16 VIRAGO – A inside VIRGO (sign of a house)
18 ODDISH – DO (serve) reversed, DISH (food)
20 ITERATES – {c}ITES (names) encloses RATE (judge)
22 FAZE – Sounds like “phase” (chapter). My last one in very much aided by realising we probably had a pangram but were still missing F and Z.
24 RENT-A-QUOTE – Anagram [oddly] of NOT A QUEER T (time)
26 BOTTICELLI – B (British), OTT (excessive), ICE (coolness), ILL (poor) reversed
28 DUEL – U (united) in DEL (key)
29 NO BALL – NOB (aristocrat), ALL (everyone). ‘Lord’s decision’ is the definition.
30 DEMERARA – Hidden and reversed in {pe}AR A REMED{y}. ‘From the east’ indicates reversal.

Down

2 ASTOUNDED – A (answer), then {righ}T inside SOUNDED (seemed)
3 SENATOR – N (new) inside SEAT (constituency), O{verfamilia}R
4 CHAOS – CHA{d} (republic, minus D for Democrat), SO (very) reversed
5 MAC – Two definitions
6 C’EST LA VIE – Cryptic definition with ‘Nice’ indicating the answer is in French
7 SETTLER – L (learner) inside SETTER (me – or rather him or her)
8 ATONE – ON (working) inside ATE (scoffed)
12 ELYSIAN – ELY (see), {place}S,  IAN (boy)
15 SPHERICAL – Anagram [awkwardly] of RILES CHAP
17 GUEST BEER – Anagram of SURE BET EG
19 INERTIA – IN (ruling), ER (monarch), then {p}A{p}I{s}T{s} reversed
21 ASUNDER – A, S (small), UN + DER (foreign articles)
23 A GOGO – AGO (in the past), GO (travel)
25 AXIOM – A, XI (team), OM (honour)
27 LAD – DAL{i} (painter) reversed

29 comments on “Times Cryptic 26263”

  1. After a slow start, I was happy to knock this one off in 23:19, but whoops, 14ac! Too embarrassed to even describe my error there.

    COD to 24ac, as according to the Premier of WA I was part of a Rent-A-Crowd yesterday. Presumably the cheque’s in the mail.

    Thanks setter and Jack.

  2. I didn’t notice the pangram, and I wonder if it would have helped me get FAZE; as it was I threw in ‘care’ (chapter=C? ‘are’=’is read out’?–well, I was desperate). DNK RENT-A-QUOTE. Just barely remembered GUEST BEER. 6d came fairly quickly since ‘nice’ has clued something French a couple of times recently. All in all, fairly Mondayish.
    1. 24:09 but… I had CARE too for 22a as my LOI. I didn’t know what A GOGO meant, although I remembered a family holiday in my youth where we pitched our caravan at a site called Cala Gogo on the Costa Brava. COD to 6d… very Nice.

  3. A good Monday morning workout but I too thoughtlessly shoved in CARE for 22 across

    FOI DEMERARA SOI GUEST BEER LOI ODDISH

    biffed LEEK

    COD 7dn SETTLER Enjoyed 4dn & 6dn too.

    I imagine 29ac will be tricky for some.

    horryd Shanghai

  4. A bit harder than your average Monday. Like others, FAZE was last in and also on the basis of the probable pangram. Otherwise, I’d have been lost.

    Was going to complain (1ac) that CAPSICUMs are not hot — I eat the big red ones three times a week (at least). They’re tasty but mild and very good for health. Now I see that they’re part of the grossum group (sweet peppers). The longum varieties (chilli peppers) are another matter — but never called capsicums in these parts. Always wondered why capsicum spray worked as a weapon.

    1. The extractable oil, capscaicin (I may not have spelled that correctly) is a HT-uptake agonist, so it can be used as an irritant. Dredging that back from memory because it was one of the compounds we were testing a pharmacaphore algorithm on at University of Tasmania in the early 90s. Chembomb!
  5. 18m, of which at least 8 on 22ac. I actually thought of FAZE quite early but I thought I was looking for a homophone of something meaning ‘chapter is’ (and “fay’s” didn’t fit the bill) so I dismissed it and moved on. The pangram point didn’t even occur to me, but I got there eventually.
    No-one in Nice (or indeed France) actually says C’EST LA VIE. Like ‘déjà vu’ it is a ‘French’ expression used only by the English. The French have their equivalents: le shampooing, for instance. Or ‘build-up’, which is what my French colleagues call an acquisition.

    Edited at 2015-11-23 08:37 am (UTC)

    1. Rowan Atkinson’s stage show song, I hate the French, includes the lines
      “They even steal from us the words they lack,
      Le weekend, le camping and cul-de-sac”
    2. “No-one in Nice (or indeed France) actually says C’EST LA VIE. “

      Yes, I discovered that the hard way as a youthful exchange student. Très embarrassing.

      1. It’s ages since I resurrected a lyric for the forum but this discussion has reminded me of this one from Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend:

        I’m often asked if I would like to travel
        And visit other lands across the sea
        But though it might be pleasant
        I think that for the present
        This is the place where I prefer to be
        Let others go to Sweden or Siam
        I think I’ll stay exactly where I am

        They say it’s lovely when a
        Young lady’s in Vienna
        But it’s nicer, much nicer in Nice
        In Amsterdam or Brussels
        The men have great big muscles
        But they’re nicer, much nicer in Nice
        I’ve heard that the Italians
        Are very fond of dalliance
        And they’re also keen on it in Greece
        But whatever they may say
        This is where I want to stay
        For it’s so much nicer in Nice

        Some people’s one desire is
        To go to Buenos Aires
        But it’s nicer, much nicer in Nice
        The laws are rather vague in
        The town of Copenhagen
        But they’re nicer, much nicer in Nice
        And some may like a flutter
        In Bombay or Calcutta
        But they might have trouble with the p’lice
        Other places may be fun
        But when all is said and done
        It is so much nicer in Nice

      2. Perhaps the setter intended us to imagine an English tourist in Nice saying C’EST LA VIE and eliciting blank looks from the locals.
  6. 19:11 … more thinking required than I’m really up to on a Monday morning. Definitely a two coffee puzzle.

    Now I’m intrigued to know what galspray’s mistake was for 14a. I did wonder for a while if I had missed a Len Deighton novel called I Dark Spy or something. Was it that?

    1. Ok Sotira, but don’t tell the others…

      On my first run through, it was “obvious” that we were looking for a three-word novel title, so I pencilled in “A” as the first word. Came back to it after the checkers were in place, and was happy that there was only one possibility, given the anagrist.

      A dire say I’ll be more careful in the future.

      Edited at 2015-11-23 10:44 am (UTC)

  7. Heavy going so needed the aid of the iPad, especially since I first spelt CAPSICUM as CAPISCUM. Struggled with 2d, 22a. Favourite was 6d.
  8. Trickier than the average Monday. The thing I dread most apart from plants is that four-letter answer with two common checkers and a vast number of possible candidates, _A_E being possibly the worst of them all. Especially if the pangram has completely passed you by.
  9. 19.51, but with the embarrassment of misspelling DEMERARA (too many As) even when it’s actually spelt out in the clue. ?A?E was always going to be a problem at 22, and I left it ’til last and ran through the alphabet. Fortunately, I didn’t think of care and didn’t have to go much further, as it happens. Wish I’d spotted the missing Z though, .
  10. By the 23rd century, apparently, we’ll all be saying it. From Star Trek III, The Search for Spock:
    Kirk (to Klingon Captain:
    “Sorry about your crew, but as we say on Earth, c’est la vie.”
    While researching, I came across this truly Kwirky video of Emerson Lake and Palmer’s hit. The words are synched in at 2.10.
  11. 10.20 but stupidly wrote ELYSION at 12d: I saw the ‘son’ and immediately forgot what letter I was supposed to be inserting. Must get better at checking!

    I also had FAZE as my last one in, and was working through the alphabet to get there. Fortunately F isn’t too far down.

  12. Re 19ac: Have we not had rather too many Papists recently? It is surely pejorative and outdated (and I write as an Anglican).
  13. 18:31 and seeing as I’m virtually on my death bed with a cough and a bit of a sniffle I’m not displeased with that.

    I rather liked the clue for C la V until it was pointed out that they actually ne say it pas en France. I’m another who was looking for the title of a novel for far too long at 14. No problem with faze but as I was writing it in I did think I was lucky that it occurred to me so quickly.

  14. Add me to the list of those who ended with -A-E and didn’t get to the homophone or see the pangram (although when the Q appeared I did wonder, then forgot).

    Around here they certainly don’t say ‘C’est la vie’, they say ‘tant pis’ or worse things, usually ‘merde’.

  15. 8:45 on this tricky little number (for a Monday).

    Count me in as another person who left FAZE till last. Didn’t occur to me that we might be looking for a pangram; that’d probably have helped!

  16. FAZE went in earlier than a lot of the top, and I didn’t think about the pangram until the end when I went to check and there it was. Fun puzzle, tricky for a monday.
  17. About 15 minutes, so not very hard in my book. FAZE came relatively quickly, so my LOI was DUEL. Naturally I didn’t see the pangram so it was of no assistance to me. If I’m ever in France I’ll try to remember not to impress anyone with a C la V. Regards.

    Edited at 2015-11-23 05:34 pm (UTC)

  18. 13 mins. I had the most trouble in the NW quadrant and CHAOS was my LOI after ACCUSATION. Thankfully I saw FAZE relatively quickly. I thought this was a little trickier than some recent Monday puzzles so I was quite happy with my time. Although I’ve been to France several times I’ve never felt the need to use “c’est la vie” while talking to the locals, but I’m glad I’ve learnt that I never should if I ever go again, so thanks for that snippet.
  19. A slow (even for me) 51 minutes, with the last 8 of those spent systematically trawling the alphabet with _A_E for 22ac. Just my luck I decided to clock through the second _ instead of the first one. I had also thought of “care” and “bane”, but neither parsed and I wasn’t willing to put them in unless I’d excluded all other options, having been caught that way before.

    Apart from that, I thought this was quite a chewy one, but very enjoyable and well worth the £1 that it cost whoever’s paper it was that I stole.

    I was slowed down somewhat by Peter O’Toole, I fear. I spent last night watching him in “Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell” on DVD, and played “drink along a’Jeffrey”. On reflection this may have shown poor judgement. There really should have been a warning along the lines of “Do not attempt. Stunts were performed in a closed bar by a trained drinker.”

    Edited at 2015-11-23 06:37 pm (UTC)

  20. FAZE beat me completely. And I didn’t know Americans called each other MAC, though the answer was obvious
  21. I just did (at random) Times 24,000 from 2008, and what’s this I see?

    26 Throw from stage to audience (4)

    It was my LOI there, too… should probably have gotten the hang of this word by now.

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