Times Cryptic 26494 – August 18, 2016 So that’s what it means.

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
You need to know some stuff for this one at a level almost consistent with a TLS. Past brushes with Greek, Italian/music, Arabic, classic literature, various religious texts and French anti tech practices might come in handy, though most of the “stuff” is helped out with generous cluing. It took me 21 minutes to unravel it, though some of the finer detail required a bit of post solve research to relieve you of any such necessity. For example, I don’t easily recall the names of the gods in 6ac, or at least not as easily as I can their delightful and variously depicted bottoms. I suspect some may find the level of arcana irksome, but if it helps in anchoring bits of vocab or nuggets of knowledge, then surely all’s to the good. Here’s the unravelling:
Clues definitions SOLUTIONS
Across
1. See one store kept by person very helpful mostly (9)
BISHOPRIC  A very helpful person might be a BRICK. “Mostly” suggests knocking off the last letter, and “kept” suggests inserting 1 SHOP
6. Three goddesses, no good in competitions (5)
RACES This is a set of goddesses, comprising Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia and known as the Graces. No G(ood), and we have our answer
9. Upset journalist turning away from colleagues en masse? (7)
DEPRESS  ED is, as ever, our journalist, his colleagues the PRESS. ED turns away from the PRESS.
10. Athenian sage embracing second wise man (7)
SOLOMON    Some (most?) solvers will know the legendarily wise son of David. Some will know SOLON, one of the seven Sages of Athens. MO is “second” Add or subtract from the one you know to deduce the one you don’t
11. Greek island occupied by one of its characters in a mask (5)
COMUS Is a “mask” or dramatic poem by John Milton. Greek Island is COS, a Greek letter selected here is μ, MU, which occupies the island.
13. Destroyer coming back into room, showing more primitive characteristics (9)
ATAVISTIC The destroyer you are looking for is S(h)IVA, Hindu God 3. Back him into the ATTIC room. I’m pretty sure I thought atavistic meant something different.
14. Son set out travelling, being sustained (9)
SOSTENUTO  An anagram (“travelling”) of SON SET OUT for the music term borrowed from Italian
16. Genuine agreement for peace, about to be discarded (4)
TRUE  Agreement for peace TRUCE with the C(irca), about, missing.
18. A drink goes round for a win (4)
GAIN  De-Yoda the clue, and GIN, drink, goes round A
19. Wreckers after setback regret being heavily shod? (9)
SABOTEURS  SABOTS are your heavy shoes, into which you insert RUE, regret, backwards. Another Yodaish bit of syntax.
22. I hate sect struggling to be stylish? (9)
AESTHETIC  A straightforward anagram (”struggling”) clue, I HATE SECT the fodder
24. Poisonous element getting female sickly-looking (5)
ASHEN  As is arsenic, the female is HEN
25. What may be invested in Edinburgh? (7)
CAPITAL  A double definition, Edinburgh being a definition by example, hence the ?
26. Once I’d messed with one drug and another (7)
CODEINE   an anagram (”messed”) of ONCE I’D and the setter’s naughty drug of choice E(cstasy)
28. Pub wants leading party host to engender spirit (5)
DJINN  Place your party host DJ in front of INN for pub for your Arabic demon beloved of Scrabble™ players, not least because you can get away with almost any plausible spelling.
29. Leaders seem heartless, sadly lacking vision (9)
DREAMLESS   An anagram (“sadly”) of LEADERS plus “heartless” S(ee)M
Down
1. People concealing diamonds in undergarments (7)
BODICES   ICE is the crossworder’s convenient slang term for diamonds, here contained in BODS
2. Weak person in trench (3)
SAP  double definition, with the trench version coming from warfare, whence Sappers
3. Boss always pursuing maidens maybe (8)
OVERSEER  Today’s  cricket reference, maiden being the term for an over, set of six (sometime 8) balls from which no runs are scored. Give me a break, people, someone out there might not know. A poetic E’ER follows interpreting always.
4. Religious follower of sun-god, a good person at heart (5)
RASTA  Place A ST (good person) in sun-god RA’s heart and you get a follower of Ras Tafari (sure I’ve seen that recently around here).
5. Old loony turning up in dress was dear, very much so (4,1,4)
COST A BOMB  Not looking for an old word for loony, thank goodness, but O(ld) BATS here reversed into COMB, dress as in curry
6. Broadcast in the auditorium put in place again (6)
RELAID  Broadcast is RELAYED, which in the auditorium sounds like relaid. Fortunately you can work out which version is required by counting the letters
7. To survive as space traveller — hard and unpleasant (4,7)
COME THROUGH  Your celestial voyager is a COMET, add H(ard) and ROUGH. Rejig and allow for the vagaries of English pronunciation
8. Horrible lice on underside of hospital plant (7)
SANICLE  Ah me, a plant. Don’t know if anyone refers to a hospital as a SAN any more. This one has additional confused LICE. The plant is “a woodland umbelliferous plant with glossy leaves, headlike umbels, and hooked fruits”. Before today, sanicle was one of those words which float around unattached to any meaning. Apart from anything else, it doesn’t sound or look like a plant.
12. American flower girl is very good, imbibing only a small drink (11)
MISSISSIPPI  Flower in that sense. Follow the wordplay (girl: MISS, is: IS, small drink SIP, very good PI) or chuck in double consonants and single vowels until you run out of space.
15. Yet to be paid, and restless (9)
UNSETTLED  Double definition, no tricks.
17. A knight in traditional order breaking ranks? (2,6)
AT RANDOM  Like this: A, N (chess notation for knight) breaking TRAD(itional), plus O(rder) of M(erit)
18. Looked quickly in church — organ observed going round (7)
GLANCED The organ is the (slightly counterintuitive) GLAND, insert the traditional CE for Church (of England)
20. Boy needs practice session to produce poetry (7)
SONNETS  OK there’s another cricket term. Cricketers practice in a structure of netting to avoid losing the ball and/or breaking the neighbour’s windows. By association NETS are practice sessions (I think I’d prefer the plural here to get the S on the end.) Boy is, of course, SON.
21. Shame about basic accommodation for one who can’t get out (4-2)
SHUT-IN  SIN for shame surrounds HUT for basic accommodation.
23. Money reportedly in secret store (5)
CACHE  sounds like cash.
27. President to have regard for, leader no more (3)
IKE  Possibly the first political slogan I was conscious of, I Like Ike. Pretty amazing since I was in my early infancy when Eisenhower was elected. Take the L off like, have regard for the General who became a President, by election rather than coup.

44 comments on “Times Cryptic 26494 – August 18, 2016 So that’s what it means.”

  1. DNF for me. At 5D I put RESITE (homonym of “recite”). Or maybe the opposite since they are the same length. “put in place again” is RESITE and “broadcast in the auditorium” is RECITE. Well, I guess it’s not exactly broadcast but it’s close.

    Then I invented a new non-existent word at 13a ATANTETIC (“etna” reversed in “attic”) for something that sounded plausible for “with more primitive characteristics”. Then I couldn’t fit anything into 10A. Never having heard of SANICLE I thought that was the most dubious crosser but it was correct.

  2. With others here … no idea about SANICLE. Better on the music and poetry. Not to mention the underwear and the drugs. Had a bit of trouble equating “breaking ranks” with AT RANDOM. But what else could it be with all the crossers in there?
        1. I don’t know, just sounded like a catchy title. The music and poetry would be appropriate, I just threw in the underwear and drugs to increase sales!

          BTW, are you enjoying having Ms PH back in the public consciousness?

          1. As the anarchist argument has it: wish for the worst in government and so speed the revolution. BTW: were your computer skills behind the Census debacle?
  3. z – the 8 ball over was last bowled in England in 1939 (the only season) – Down-under it was last used in 1979 and only 6 ball overs are now legal world-wide.

    After a night at Sasha’s in Heng Shan Lu,so not at my best, this beauty took me 45 minutes, with a break for breakfast and then a further five minutes to mop-up 5dn COST A BOMB (COD),17dn AT RANDOM (not IN TANDEM!) with 19 ac SABOTEURS LOI.

    FOI 3dn OVERSEER (more cricket)

    WOD 6dn SANICLE

    Excellent blog and grid.

    horryd Shanghai

  4. Never heard of a SANICLE, so I lay in wait for checkers after SAN to figure out how to arrange ‘lice’, and there weren’t many choices. I hesitated a bit on SOSTENUTO, since it just means ‘sustained’, which seemed somehow unsatisfactory. I have no idea what names the Graces went by, or the Fates, another threesome if I recall, but then I didn’t need to know; there’s no way to eliminate the G from ‘fates’. My main problem was 5d, where all I could think of was ‘coat’ for ‘dress’; I gathered, at long last, that ‘cost a boat’ isn’t an idiom among the Brits. I’m sure that there are bombs that would set you back less than a boat would. I thought, hopefully, that ‘nets’ was practice at tennis or something like that. ATAVISTIC from checkers, interpreted the wordplay post hoc. Was a bit reluctant to do DREAMLESS given ‘heartLESS’, but. I’ve never seen ‘Comus’ described as a mask; a masque, surely?
    1. It’s confession time. When I put it in, I thought Comus was one of those dramatic masks you see like the comedy/tragedy one, or the one used by the Bafta awards. Blame late nights with the Olympics or never having been forced to read Milton at school (though I really have read all of Paradise Lost and the much less fun Paradise Regained).
      So when I looked it up post solve, Comus/mask into Google, I was mortified to discover the hole in my education. But it is there and seems to have been Milton’s original spelling: this example from 1645, just 11 years after composition.
      Arthur Rackham’s illustrated edition 1921 has a facsimile title page which spells it Maske, neither fish nor fowl.
      Perhaps Milton just missed it when the proofs came back from the printers (he was already having to squint a bit) but it does seem to be the way he wanted it.

      Edited at 2016-08-18 06:30 am (UTC)

  5. Think I meant to go back and check SOP when I entered it, but failed to do so. What a sap.

    Agree re the plural at 20dn Z. Where I come from (and where you come from) you go to the nets to “have a net”, so it should be sessions. No problem though, easy clue.

    DNK SANICLE or COMUS, but the wordplay was helpful. Also DNK SOSTENUTO, but with the checkers in place it was easily the most likely answer.

    Took much too long over RACES, RELAID and COST A BOMB. Good medium-level puzzle I thought.

    Thanks setter and Z.

    1. I’ve only heard of the cricket term from The Archers, where I’m sure I’ve heard “are you going to be at nets tonight, Neil?”, indicating a single session, so I was happy enough writing it in.
      1. Probably right Matt, although to me “be at nets” has the same feel as “trouble at mill”.

        Still, no need for a Spanish Inquisition.

        1. Need?! We need no need! We laugh in the face of need! Biggles! Bring out the soft logic!!
  6. Rather surprised to find I completed the grid within my target 30 minutes, just.

    SANICLE was unknown and produces no previous hits in a Google search of TftT so this is probably its first outing in recent years. “Masque” spelt MASK was also unknown to me even after studying the form some years ago for exams on music history. I’m still not entirely convinced by “shame” = SIN at 21dn. Was pleased to remember DJINN this time round. Good puzzle.

    1. Chambers makes the direct connection between sin and shame, listing it as old informal, but (earworm alert) I kind of agree with the Petshop Boys who evoke shame as the perceived consequence of sin:

      When I look back upon my life
      it’s always with a sense of shame
      I’ve always been the one to blame
      For everything I long to do
      no matter when or where or who
      has one thing in common too

      It’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a sin
      It’s a sin
      Everything I’ve ever done
      Everything I ever do
      Every place I’ve ever been
      Everywhere I’m going to
      It’s a sin

      1. If it pleases the court I’d also like to cite the Billy Myles song Have You Ever Loved a Woman? (recorded by both Freddie King & Eric Clapton):

        But you just love that woman
        So much it’s a shame and a sin.
        You just love that woman
        So much it’s a shame and a sin.

        …and Gordon Lightfoot’s Sundown:

        Sometimes I think it’s a shame
        When I get feelin’ better when I’m feelin’ no pain

        and later:

        Sometimes I think it’s a sin
        When I feel like I’m winnin’ when I’m losin’ again

  7. Despite getting one letter wrong, I really enjoyed this one. Sadly I’d rushed COMUS, which I’d never heard of, and put “comis” for some reason. (Maybe because I pronounce Greek letters in Greek in my head. “mi! ni! ksi!”)

    Saving that failing, I was done in 55 minutes, albeit with some obscurities on a wing and a prayer. I was pleased with myself for deducing the likely origin of “sapper” at the same time as writing in the previously-unknown trench. Lovely cluing all over the place.

    Also: a hangover isn’t always a disadvantage. I was literally reaching for the CODEINE at the moment I started looking at 26a!

    Edited at 2016-08-18 06:44 am (UTC)

  8. 24:28 but I thought that it was going to be a lot longer when I worked through the clues from top to bottom and the FYI was GLANCED. Wondered what a T(re)ATY was at 16ac and not really convinced about AT RANDOM being breaking ranks. Glad that I did not have to recall any of the other Athenian Sages. Enjoyable puzzle and fine blog so thanks setter and Z
    1. So what is the definitive answer to the strange definition? I’d be very happy to be put out of my misery.
      1. I’m not sure there is a definitive answer. I worked it along the lines of order/disorder. Anything that isn’t drawn up in ranks is distributed at random, breaking ranks introduces an element of chaos or randomness.
        There is a specific use of random in stonework to refer to irregular masonry but I can’t find an instance of regular masonry referred to as in ranks or ranked.
        I was just glad the clue didn’t wander down the lines of “what the Goodies ride sounds anarchic”.
        1. I think I’d have been happier with “breaking step” than “breaking ranks”, as you specifically want to randomise your marching so you don’t set up harmonic vibrations in bridges as you trot over them. Even then it seems a bit of a reach, mind.
  9. Several unknowns for me today, including DJINN, which rang a faint bell after I worked it out, SANICLE, for which I had HONICLE until the (G)RACES reared their (apparently delectable) rears, SOLON as a Greek sage, and COMUS as a mask. The wordplay was very fair however and I finished in 38 minutes. I used to practice in the nets at our village cricket ground as a teenager, so that wasn’t a problem. Couldn’t have defined ATAVISTIC off the top of my head, but was able to assemble it, guessing that SIVA might be a contraction of SHIVA. I enjoyed this puzzle. I hadn’t managed to fully work out the parsing of AT RANDOM, so thanks to Z for his usual eudite blog, and to the setter for an interesting workout.
  10. Knew SOSTENUTO from singing, but dnk COMUS – although MU is commonly used in mathematics for e.g. coefficient of friction. Surprised that no-one has yet mentioned the origin of SABOTEURS – it was indeed those heavy wooden shoes which (allegedly) were thrown into machines. 12d was a write-in after the penny dropped re flower, we all learned that it’s M, I double S, I double S, I double P, I. 22’17” today, thanks z and setter.
    1. I was going to, but I think at that point I was throwing a shoe at my keyboard for failing to correct fat finger typos, so probably lost it in transition.
  11. Plural ‘nets’ is good for me: ‘Can’t join you this afternoon, John – got nets at four’.

    Another ‘sop’, but a slightly slower one: 31 minutes.

    1. Got practice session at four. Still sounds like trouble at mill.
      But I think this was just a ruse to get us talking about cricket, which apparently I’m supposed to be avoiding this week.
  12. 24’40. Don’t think ‘more’ is needed in 13’s cluing. 17’s ‘at random’ is one of those surface-warped answers when one is asked to go along with the setter’s slight crinkle of a smile. I rather like them.
  13. Half an hour of partial concentration, surrounded by 2 grandaughters creating Play-doh sandwiches. No real problems although SANICLE was a guess from solid word play and sounded like a momble more than a plant. Like z8, I knew the word ATAVISTIC but couldn’t have told you exactly what it meant. Thanks for nice blog.
  14. DNF. DNK COMUS, SOSTENUTO or SANICLE. I had the latter as HELICON, an anagram of lice on h(ospital), thinking this to be the same as heliotrope, until eventually checkers enlightened me. Biffed SOSTENUTO. If mu had been clued as the coefficient of friction I might have got COMUS. Could not parse SOLOMON either. Definitely third tier stuff from me, and not unbeaten top of the league quality.
  15. Yet another ‘sop’ for SAP, but a much slower one than galspray or ulaca. New words such as SANICLE and COMUS were gettable from wordplay and a few others I liked such as ATAVISTIC. Favourite clue was that for COST A BOMB.

    Thanks for the names of the Graces, though I think I’ll have about as much chance of remembering them as the Godesses of Fate who l’ve been vainly trying to learn for years. Er… Clotho is it? That’s about as far as I ever get.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  16. I was apprehensive about attempting this at 5am (very early for me) before picking my granddaughter up at Heathrow, but it went smoothly and I agree with Verlaine’s early assessment on the club site “Good and Timesy” When RACES, COMUS and SOSTENUTO went straight in I wondered whether it might turn out to be an artsfest but there was plenty of variety.Thanks for the names of the Graces Z. I was trying to dredge them up from memory but had forgotten what they were yclept. PS Good time Olivia!
  18. Thanks for the blog Z. You’re quite right about the cross-training with the TLS. I sort of knew Comus anyway because the other half of my Alevel English class got it while my lot were assigned Samson Agonistes. All of us complained. However our lot got to go to Chichester to watch Michael Redgrave blow his lines more than once as Samson. 10.2, which put me briefly on p1 of the Club board which only happens once in a blue moon.
  19. Tricky one – glad it wasn’t my turn this week (sorry Z). SANICLE, AT RANDOM and COMUS in from wordplay (originally put CONUS as a guess, glad that M was checked).
    1. 24 minutes here – fast for me! SANICLE was unknown, implausible but inevitable. COMUS – didn’t have a clue, except for the clue.
  20. Tricky one at 20:08 perhaps not helped early doors by thinking of muses and fates but not graces for 6a.

    It certainly took a while to get going and there were unknowns a-plenty.

  21. Good clues, lots of obscure words. FOI gain, LOI bodices, fave clue (& tonic) djinn. I had “resite” and “in tandem” written in for a while, which slowed me right down.
  22. 12 mins, so it looks like this was a puzzle for which I was on the setter’s wavelength. SANICLE was my LOI with fingers crossed after ATAVISTIC, and like others COMUS had also gone in from WP.
  23. Not easy here, about 30-35 minutes. A lot of variety in the answers, all over the map, and not helped by having RECITE instead of RELAID until almost the end. My LOI was the troublesome COST A BOMB, which is not a piece of idiom in use over here, at least in my memory. It really was a guess from the checking letters and a realization that the middle could be >>BATS. And of course, I couldn’t have told anyone exactly what ATAVISTIC means, and missed the quibble about whether it was Shiva or Siva. Regards.

    Edited at 2016-08-18 05:31 pm (UTC)

  24. Just snuck in under 10m with this. So many unknown or half-known things in here that I felt sure I was going to come unstuck at some point, but somehow there was always a reasonably obvious definition or clear wordplay to get me through. Phew!

    Edited at 2016-08-18 06:34 pm (UTC)

  25. I enjoyed this puzzle and can only put my slowish time down to feeling a bit weary, but it seems not that long ago when I would have been very content to complete without aids after a couple of days of head scratching.
  26. 9:32 for me, feeling a bit dozy at the end of a busy day.

    Apart from SHUT-IN (easily guessable), there was nothing at all unfamiliar.

    A great great great grandfather of mine produced an edition of Comus “with notes critical and explanatory by various commentators” – said notes typically occupying at least seven-eighths of each page.

    For some reason a piece of doggerel (source unknown) lodged itself in my mind many years ago:

    Qui à la bugle et la sanicle
    Fait aux chirurgiens la nicle.

    1. Reminds me of the Arden Shakespeare: two lines of text and the rest of page full of notes. My editions of Milton were similar. Happy days.

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