Times Cryptic 26434 – June 9, 2016: Mostly harmless

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Not particularly difficult this one, but I stretched it out to nearly 29 minutes by allowing concentration to drift at the end of a busy day. It’s pretty stolid, workmanlike stuff, with a couple of smiles along the way (I quite liked 4) but no serious heffalump traps to stumble into and no obscurities (unless, of course, you don’t know different). There are a couple of agent nouns and one comparative that, although perfectly formed, look as though they may have been created just to fill in a couple of spaces ending in R.
Here’s how I dozed my way through: clues, definitions, ENTRIES

Across
1 Member of the unprivileged classes needs a following — now’s the time  (6,3)
COMMON ERA  What we used to call AD, “now” being the last two thousand years or so since the birth of Common.. Place an A to follow your silver spoon lacking COMMONER and introduce a space. These days we let such people marry future Kings.
6 Bit of land needing order, wicked place  (5)
SODOM  BCE city famous for being naughty enough to warrant total destruction. A bit of land is a SOD (so is being rained on by fire and brimstone) the needed order the one of Merit, abbreviated to OM
9 Sort of cover one aunt knitted  (7)
TONNEAU  looks like an anagram, is, of ONE AUNT. Used to be the open rear part of a topless car, and by extension came to mean its detachable cover.
10 Dreadful rooms one of the two kings abandoned  (7)
PARLOUS  The rooms are PARLOURS, in which for our purpose the second R (King) is abandoned.
11 Gambler first to last? Such will misuse money  (10)
PECULATORS  Shift the front end of Speculator to the back, and you get people who misuse money
12 Expression of surprise about line in song  (4)
GLEE  GEE is your expression of surprise, a contraction of Common, L the line you find a place for. Turns out glees as songs have a far older history than I thought – mid 16th century – and not just cloying American TV shows.
14 Watercourse runs into part of camp  (5)
TRENT  As easy as they come: R(uns) into TENT
15 Exhausted cricketer, first out, entering crude pavilion?  (9)
SHATTERED   A bATTER with his first letter gone introduced to a SHED, which might pass for a crude (cricket) pavilion and often does.
16 Asked to protect bird having a problem walking maybe  (9)
BOWLEGGED I’d expect a hyphen or space. Insertion of OWL, bird into BEGGED, asked. A condition that might/not affect walking, hence the maybe.
18 Player touring America — not all of it  (5)
GAMER. Not all of tourinG AMERica.
20 Record with old identifying symbol (4)
LOGO. Record LOG, plus O(ld)
21 Hesitation to go on holiday with bad weather? One holds back  (10)
RESTRAINER  Holiday{ REST, badweather RAIN (from a certain perspective), plus hesitation: ER
25 Faced with future, maybe, saint becomes most nervous  (7)
TENSEST  Future is one example of a TENSE, saint the familiar ST
26 Feeling a glow by the fireside? (7)
ATINGLE  “by the fire side” translates to AT INGLE
27 Democrat a left-winger challenged (5)
DARED:   again quite easy, D(emograt), A RED (left winger)
28 Fabled member approaching death, casual, one drifting away  (9)
LEGENDARY. Member: LEG, death: END, casual AIRY, remove the 1
Down
1 Clue to all the workers’ unions being distressed  (3-2)
CUT UP  A clue for “all the workers unions” could well be CUT UP? Which would give T(rades) U(nion) C(ongress)
2 Fellow holding dance, not half, upset one of two bands?  (7)
MANACLE  The journey from manacle to band looks quite a trek, but with fellow giving MALE and half a dance being a CAN can,  together with a reversal instruction *upset” the options are limited. Perhaps we are talking of the cable tie variety.
3 Communication shared with the public exposed character  (4,6)
OPEN LETTER  Exposed: OPEN, character: LETTER
4 No longer last? Jump for joy  (5)
EXULT You are meant to infer that a one-time ULT(imate) is an EX ULT (it is no more, it has ceased to be)
5 Sign impedes worker in the East End (9)
AMPERSAND   Our cheeky East Ender drops the aitches from hAMPERS hAND, impedes worker &c
6 Unhappy note — and another  (4)
SORE  The two required notes are SO (a needle puling thread) and RE (a drop of golden sun). I thought there were many, many options here, but really only one that worked
7 Duke with posh car becomes more whimsical (7)
DROLLER  D(uke) with ROLLER for posh car.
8 Stingy person keeps material on roof, not one to be trusted  (9)
MISLEADER  Stingy person, MISER, hoards LEAD, roof material as in Pb.
13 Inactivity of party man leading country  (10)
STAGNATION A male party-goer could easily be a STAG, and NATION is the equivalent of country
14 Listed as ‘banned’, former character initiating donations  (9)
TABULATED   Banned TABU, former: LATE, initiating Donatios D. In the form of a table is adequate for “listed”.
15 Like bits of speech from head of school, say — ridiculous  (9)
SEGMENTAL Head of school is of course S, for example EG, ridiculous MENTAL in the modern argot. The underlining of the definition here is prompted by Kevin – thanks!  Only Dog is prefect.
17 Driver of vehicle getting on in risky enterprise  (7)
WAGONER  place ON for  – um – on into WAGER, risky enterprise unless, of course, youv’e learned how to gamble responsibly.
19 Staff meeting Arab ruler outside university in the capital  (7)
MANAGUA, capital of Nicaragua, formed from MAN: staff (verb) AGA: Arab ruler and U(niversity appropriately assembled
22 Sound and smell outside front of works  (5)
TWANG onomatopoeic word, formed from TANG to include front of Works, here just W
23 Prepare to change one of the vitamins, being tall and thin  (5)
REEDY  The vitamins inside the word READY (prepare) are A, D, and E change one of them to a lucky selection, A to E
24 It’s crazy when drug’s put in alcoholic drink  (4)
MEAD   Crazy provides MAD, insert E(cstasy)

52 comments on “Times Cryptic 26434 – June 9, 2016: Mostly harmless”

  1. Indeed, nothing to scare the horses, or even me, although I failed to notice the ‘upset’ in 2d so didn’t get the dance, and was as slow as usual to notice the hidden GAMER. I liked EXULT and ATINGLE. Z, you forgot the underline at 15d: Like bits of speech (the phonetic segments, or sounds, of speech).
  2. Around an hour. Initially I thought 1dn was HET UP but soon realised it was indeed CUT UP. The bottom half flowed in nicely with 20 ac LOGO the FOI.
    But the NE corner was 10ac PARLOUS. 5dn AMPERSAND should have been a write-in but I was, for some reason, looking for a place in the East End – how silly! 1ac COMMON ERA took ages.
    LOI and COD 4dn EXULT. WOD 26ac ATINGLE.

    Friday looms!

    horryd Shanghai

  3. … with the two 4-letter answers (6 & 24dn). Is SORE really “unhappy”? Upset or angry perhaps? As usual, I’m probably missing something rather obvious and will soon be suitably infomed.

    24: like others, I assume, wanted an E in a 3-letter drink. Note to self: if you can’t find the answer, look for the def. at the other end of the clue.

    Brief general query: after yesterday’s puzzle in Another Place, does the Times allow “see” (the spelling of the letter) in a clue to stand for C in the answer?

    On edit re 6ac: what did they do in Gomorrah? I’ve always wondered.

    Edited at 2016-06-09 04:31 am (UTC)

    1. I had the same doubts about SORE. And 19d also raised a bit of eyebrow: weren’t agas Ottomans?
      1. ODO has “especially Ottoman” — so I guess agas must be elsewhere — including kitchens in posh country retreats!
        1. Yes, the same country kitchen Aga I was trying to fit into the beginning of 26a for quite a while!
    2. Chambers has “see – the third letter of the alphabet – C” so I’d expect it to be permissible.

      Edited at 2016-06-09 04:39 am (UTC)

      1. With your 28ac ability to look back through puzzles, has it ever been used?
        1. I can’t think of anything specific enough to search on, I’m afraid, but I have a vague idea it has come up and perhaps not too long ago.
    3. When solving I contented myself with a rather vague connection through “sore loser” – I was more concerned with the number of possibilities for answering the wordplay and only the crossing letters made me more or less confident.
      In my Thesaurus, the two words touch by way of “inapt”, but I certainly wouldn’t have made that connection.
  4. Enjoyed this one. There were a number of clues (TRENT, GLEE, LOGO, GAMER, DARED) that would have seemed more at home in the quickie and others (DROLLER, EXULT, PARLOUS, COMMON ERA) that seemed insurmountable until the pennies dropped.

    Trusted the wordplay for MANAGUA and didn’t get the parsing of CUT-UP. COD to AMPERSAND.

    Thanks setter and Z.

  5. I also dozed my way through this in the latter stages and therefore have no accurate solving time to report. The main feature of the session was that I had difficulty bringing any sort of flow to the proceedings and I had gaps in every quarter of the grid until the very end. DK MANAGUA, but once that was in place I was confident enough to write in GAMER which I had been toying with for some time at 18ac. This was my LOI so I was disgusted with myself when I looked again and saw the answer was hidden in the clue and clearly signalled by “not all of it”! Not a good day at the office.
  6. Pleased to have solved this as my time at the moment is very limited (my wife is unwell and I’m doing all the shopping, cooking, washing, etc – very good for me really)

    Artisan puzzle of no particular difficulty which I solved top to bottom. Didn’t know how to spell MANAGUA but like others just went with the wordplay

    Off to Tesco now – a carers work is never finished!

    1. I wish you both all the best in the world.
      Send my good wishes for a speedy recovery.

      Alec

    2. So sorry to hear that. Z8 could well empathise! With good wishes and prayers for your wife’s health.

      Monica (Mrs Z)

    3. Sorry to hear Mrs Jimbo is unwell, hope she is soon mended and back “carrying the bag”.
    4. I join others in wishing your wife a speedy recovery, Jim.

      When my wife was recovering from an operation a few years ago and I was in a similar position to yours, I packed her off for a week’s stay at Rustington Convalescent Home (supported by the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, but you don’t have to have any connection with them), and her improvement was really quite dramatic. If your wife is up to it, it might be worth considering that or something similar.

  7. Eek! Nor did I see the hidden GAMER until coming here, and mark me down as another who was unfamiliar with the Nicaraguan capital. All done and dusted in about 45 mins, ending in the NW with the unknown TONNEAU.

    PS Best wishes to Mrs Jimbo

  8. Biff’d RANGY without thinking which held me up for quite some time.

    Really good week for puzzles, thanks setters.

  9. Straightforward today, or at least until SE, where ATINGLE (COD) and REEDY held me up. Is SEGMENTAL now in the KS2 grammar test? Thanks to setter and blogger. 16′.
    1. Only as a full-frontal semi-adjectival anomoly with authentic vacuous fatuity.
  10. I got all but six or seven in my hour, and I was still feeling confident, so I pushed it by five minutes and got all but two. As it turned out, one of them — EXULT — I should have just biffed, but I lacked the confidence. I’ve never seen “ult” as an abbreviation for “ultimate”. Sadly that meant I never quite got to the unknown PECULATORS.

    Happy enough with myself for a Thursday effort with a bit of a hangover, though, especially getting the unknowns MANAGUA and SEGMENTAL, and remembering TONNEAU from previous puzzles. COD 5d for me.

    Edited at 2016-06-09 09:21 am (UTC)

  11. Never have quite seen what’s common about the present era but have had to learn to go along with it. Interrupted twice and finished in 40 minutes as Cook and Hales emerged. COD AMPERSAND.
  12. 20 minutes, one coffee, no issues with this one although GLEE was a wordplay-only thing. Nice cheery blog Z.
  13. Like Matt, I had not seen ULT as an abbreviation of ultimate, but I was brought up on ‘ult, inst and prox’, relating to last, this and next month. Ult there is however an abbreviation of ultimo. A workmanlike puzzle but pleasant nonetheless and thanks to z8 for his chatty blog.

    Every good wish to Mrs Jimbo

    1. I thought of ‘ultimo’ too. I encounter it fairly regularly in things written (in English) by my German colleagues, so I think it must be a more common usage in German than it is in English, where it’s very rare these days.
  14. 15m. I found this quite tricky, particularly in the NW where I got stuck for a while. I had to construct TONNEAU (which has appeared before, quite recently), MANACLE and MANAGUA from wordplay, and I worried that PECULATOR might be PECULATER. But I thought it was a fun puzzle.
    Very best wishes to Mrs DJ.
    1. Many moons ago I worked in the motor trade (not as a used car salesman I hasten to add) and the most common optional extra on pickup trucks was a tonneau cover.
      1. I had never heard of it before it came up in a Dean Mayer puzzle in April.
  15. 33 min – but must confess to having a look in Bradford for 6dn, being completely stuck in NE, being unable to get beyond SADE (unhappy + note), so 10ac was LOI.
    Although I’d biffed RANGY at 23dn, that didn’t hold me up very much, but I did spend a while trying to make something of COMMON MAN (or DAY) at 1ac, and then looking for a zodiac sign or an ANT in 5dn.

    Edited at 2016-06-09 12:11 pm (UTC)

  16. Started slowly with DROLLER going in straight away and then a dearth of answers until I got a restart in the SE with REEDY. Worked my way back to the NW with penultimate EXULT and then finished with GLEE after an alphabet trawl. Laughed out loud when I got 5d. 50 minutes in all. Recognised all the wordplay today. Thanks to Z for the usual entertaining blog.

    Edited at 2016-06-09 11:59 am (UTC)

  17. Mostly very easy indeed, but a handful of teasers in the upper half stretched my time to 32 minutes. 8 and 10 were slow solves, and I was stuck for ages on 1a, 2, 4, and 11a. 11 is a rather nice clue, for both the surface and simple, but hard-to-see wordplay.
  18. 31:26. I wasn’t sure of the spelling of MANAGUA and thought staff could have been MAN or MEN. Fortunately I went the right way.
  19. 11:45 and I rather enjoyed this. Managua unknown but the wordplay was helpful and I was only dimly aware of glee, exult rather than exalt and segmental having anything to do with speech as opposed to oranges.

    Jack, don’t beat yourself up, gamer was very well disguised. I thought of it early on but couldn’t see the wordplay as touring and America could both be interpreted in several ways.

  20. Half an hour on the bus on the way to Happy Valley racecourse. (It’s a holiday here.) I’ve never used CE and suspect I never shall. Liked AMPERSAND and ROLLER and chuckled at STAGNATION. CS Lewis once wrote to his brother that if there were a Stagnation Party, he would vote for it. Charles Lamb’s essay ‘New Year’s Eve’ is possibly the greatest pean to tradition.

    No idea what ‘character’ is doing in 14a.

    My thoughts are with Jimbo and his wife.

    Edited at 2016-06-09 12:39 pm (UTC)

    2. Assuming you mean 14dn, D is indicated by ‘character initiating donations’.
      1. Thank Gawd you came in with your lucid explanation, K. If I’d had only Zed’s allusive, nay, anomolous, explication, I would have been as bamboozled as a Tasmanian…

        1. Ah, yes, right. I read 14a and assumed you meant 3d, a simple mistake to make. Mrs Z has already picked me up (publicly, too) on anomaly’s alternative orthography, locking it in place and allowing no redemption. Her recuperation might take a while. Just saying….

  21. Seems a lot of us are having a similar experience – I finished and looked back and thought “that wasn’t so hard, why did it seem so?” – very good clues throughout, consistent wordplay – needed it for MANAGUA, and a smile at the ‘AMPERS ‘AND
  22. 25 mins with no unknowns. Ended up in the NW and needed PECULATORS to help me get my LOI which was MANACLE. I did toy with AKINDLE for a while though I prefer paperbacks myself.
  23. I found this middle of the road. LOI’s were the crossing GLEE and MISLEADER. I expect over here the lead on the roof is much more rare than you see over in Europe. Around 20 minutes. Note to Jimbo: good luck and best to Mrs. J, but try not to cook very well, elst Mrs. J may find it tempting to prolong the convalescence. Regards to all.
  24. 13 mins, finishing in the NE with MISLEADER after PARLOUS. I’m surprised a few of you didn’t know MANAGUA, but that’s maybe because place names seem to stick with me.

    I’ll add my best wishes for Mrs DJ’s recovery.

  25. Methinks “Muslim ruler” might have been more appropriate. The word itself comes from the Turkish, and originally meant an officer in the Ottoman Empire. There are, today, Kurdish agas, or aghas. But then you also have the hereditary line of Shiite imams, the Aga Khans (which title is Persian).

    Edited at 2016-06-09 06:59 pm (UTC)

  26. I am back from a very trying and rather bloody week, made all the more so by its lasting a full nine days. Today’s (and by “today’s” I now mean “yesterday’s”, since yesterday’s tomorrow is now today) is the first puzzle I have had time to sit down properly with for some time.

    I managed to spin this one out for three quarters of an hour. I was not so much on the wrong wavelength as trying to get an analog signal on a digital radio, with many clues causing me unnecessary difficulty.

    Anyway, if you’ll excuse me now, I have nine days of sobriety to rectify.

  28. There are three of them here: GAMER, RESTRAINER and (ugh) MISLEADER! Re 19 down: I rather think ‘aga’ is a Turkish commander.
  29. Thanks for all the kind wishes and shrewd advice from Kevin. Mrs J is making slow but positive progress and I’m learning to multi-task!
  30. Spent too long trying to justify ‘Vacillater’ thinking the holiday must be vac(ation) etc.. Didn’t work of course, and caused a significant hold up.

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