Times Cryptic 26650 – February 16, 2017: A Lot of Lit

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
With a little tinkering, this could turn up in a couple of weeks as a TLS. Lots of Lit and Arts references, and decent, economical clues including an original-looking idea at 15 which works perfectly well. I managed to cruise through in a respectable tad-under-15 minutes, almost erasing the horrors of my bottom-of-the-table performance yesterday from the memory. The explanations below satisfy me, but rather unusually there may be several where an alternative construction may well be feasible
My usual conventions clue, definition, SOLUTION

Across
1. State capital not quite enough for Cathedral? (2,4)
ST PAUL  The London Wren memorial (or possibly Melbourne’s cathedral) loses its S for the Minnesota State capital
4. Making fist of PE, avoiding usual runs? (3-5)
OFF PISTE  An anagram (“making”, I think) of FIST OF PE for the boldly going version of skiing
10. The establishment no one has a pop at (9)
ORPHANAGE  “So this Jewish kid kills both parents and pleads for clemency  on the grounds he’s an orphan”, the classic definition of chutzpah. Because he has no father, or Pop, he’s given sympathetic accommodation in our answer.
11. Agitated old marshal clutching Bible (5)
NERVY  The Marshal is Napoleon’s faithful Ney (except when it suited him), and the Bible is the R(evised) V(ersion), the 1881/5 authorised revision of the King James, still the only officially recognised revision. Put the one inside the other.
12. Children’s book: due to order one in the morning (4,7)
JUST WILLIAM  Richmal Crompton’s opening salvo in an almost endless run of naughty boy stories. I’d always assumed Richmal was a he. Slightly embarrassing to discover the truth. The wordplay is, I think, due which gives JUST (think due reward), order which supplies WILL, and one in the morning which gives 1AM
14. Swimmer scaled gumtree, ascending rapidly at first (3)
GAR  A relative of the pike (TLS 1159, blogged by me less than a week ago) and therefore a scaled swimmer, drawn from the first letters of Gumtree Ascending Rapidly
15. Red Cross first to attend to damage (7)
MARXIST  X, cross, 1ST, first, MAR, damage. Rearrange.
17. No queen ultimately like a goddess (6)
HECATE  An all purpose Goddess Macbeth had heard of. A queen is a lady cat, so not a queen is a HE CAT. Add the E from the end of like.
19. It falls at start of January, end of July and middle of September (6)
STRESS  Just say the three months out loud. Nice.
21. Care with which the solver obtains qualification (4,3)
MIND YOU Care is MIND, and YOU is the solver. Mind you, that grammar looks wrong.
23. The works visit boycotted by clubs (3)
ALL  Drawn from such as the great British breakfast, where “the works” means everything on the menu fried to within an inch of its edibility. Yum. And therefore ALL. Visit is CALL. Remove the C(lubs)
24. Abuse reputation and profession (4-7)
NAME CALLING  In these sensitive days, mostly illegal. Reputation: NAME and profession: CALLING
26. Made contact on parking — this the result? (5)
PRANG Made contact RANG (as in telephoned) and P(arking) for the RAF slang, usually qualified as “wizard” for a crash.
27. Balkan who achieved greatness by stopping a lover drowning (9)
ALEXANDER  And a merry chase this led me on. I had a background memory of Alexander saving someone from drowning, and though I could not see that as the mainspring of his fame, I had to look it up. Google, I can authoritatively report, knows no such tale. So yes, it’s X for by (maths and timber) inside (stopping) A LEANDER, Hero’s lover who died on one of his frequent swims across the Hellespont.
29. Prevent ideological displays this late in the day (8)
EVENTIDE Today’s hidden.
30. Returning every so often, rushes onto the island (6)
HONSHU  Today’s every other letter, backwards in “rushes onto the”

Down

1. Turn up before start to compete at Hickstead? (8)
SHOW JUMP  Hickstead is equestrianism’s premier site (at least in England). SHOW: turn up, JUMP: start (as in Major Jump).
2. Diarist’s life’s covering years (5)
PEPYS  Diarist beginning with P, 5 letters. Hmmm. PEP is, I suppose, life, and YS an acceptable abbreviation for years.
3. On parts of the continent, a single girl (3)
UNA  Several ways of parsing this, I’ll stick with a Spanish feminine single being UNA (paloma blanca?)
5. Style attributed to Rubens himself, originally (7)
FLEMISH  Rubens was from Antwerp, the capital of Flanders, and therefore an anagram of HIMSELF, quite apart from being the leading figure in the Flemish Baroque style of painting. A rather decent self-referential clue.
6. Short cut parents put a stop to: a large crossing not available (6,5)
PANAMA CANAL  Parsed properly only after submission. PA and MA are the parents, CAN is “put a stop to), A L(arge) tags on the back, and N(ot) A(vailable) goes where it’s most needed.
7. Moving a lot of dope — with good reason (9)
SPRIGHTLY  With good reason is, of course RIGHTLY. The SP comes from the expression “what’s the SP?” (sc “starting price”) which morphed through slang into a request for  information, gen, DOPE. Best I can do.
8. Extremes of endurance long ago for a friend to bear (6)
EEYORE  Who was a friend to Pooh Bear. First and last of Endurance, and YORE (as in days of) for long ago.
9. Scoundrel ordered sailor uprising (3,3)
BAD LOT Ordered is TOLD, sailor A(ble) S(eaman), all reversed.
13. Chess champion? (5,6)
WHITE KNIGHT Essentially a CD. “A person who rescues a company from an unwanted takeover bid” (Chambers), so a champion who rides to the rescue.
16. Get back when expected: I subsequently returned (9)
RETALIATE  When expected: ETA, I: I, subsequently LATER, all reversed.
18. High point of month: girlfriend meeting artist, posh (8)
JUNGFRAU  Month JUN(e), girlfriend GF, artist RA, posh: U. The whole a mountain in the Alps, 4,158 metres, so definitely a high point.
20. Racism upset daughter in mobile phone store (3,4)
SIM CARD  one storage device on a mobile phone. Anagram of RACISM and D(aughter)>
21. What stand-up comedian holds vital — and which satirist takes? (6)
MICKEY Your stand-up holds on to the MIC for dear life, and it’s KEY, vitally important.
22. Maybe weekly case containing food and flyer (6)
MAGPIE  I liked “case holding food” for PIE, and your MAG may indeed be weekly.
25. Asian banker’s great effort to avoid tax (5)
INDUS  See “banker” in a crossword, think river. INDUStry is great effort, and loses try for tax.
28. Song and dance act led by foremost of artistes (3)
ADO  Act is do, tag onto the first letter of Athletes.

58 comments on “Times Cryptic 26650 – February 16, 2017: A Lot of Lit”

  1. I did something I haven’t done in ages, viz. used aids. Specifically, having not a clue as to what goes on at Hickstead, and ditto for WILLIAM–and of course they would intersect–I looked them up. No idea where the SP of SPRIGHTLY came from, either, but tant pis. When did the perfectly natural ‘mike’ come to be replaced by ‘mic’? I had thought that WHITE KNIGHT was generic, nothing specifically business-related. Liked 27ac and 18d.

      1. I considered SaP, and I think it has plausibility, and is one of my alternative interpretations noted in my “forward”. My hesitation is that “some of/not all of” clues tend to to indicate dropping the last letter, rather than one from the middle. However, if you don’t know the “What’s the SP?”phrase, and it’s certainly a bit period, it’s also incomprehensible.

  2. A set of mostly very neat clues – I especially liked 19ac which had me baffled for a while.

    I completed this in 35 minutes but needed extra time to parse PANAMA CANAL and forgot to revisit 27 to work out its finer details.

    It was handy that ST PAUL, Minnesota, came up in a puzzle I blogged on 31 January.

    I’m not entirely convinced by GF = girlfriend as it’s not in any of the usual sources, although for some reason Collins have felt the need to advise their readers that GFE stands for Girlfriend Experience, a special service offered to clients by some members of the oldest profession.

    1. GF for girlfriend is so ubiquitous on social media platforms that, if it’s not in the dictionaries right now, it certainly will be.
  3. Got everything except 10a, 11a, 15a, 17a, 27a, 30a, 3d and 22d !!

    I was thrown for a while by rat/tar in 9a.
    Couldn’t parse 12a order = will?

    Scaled swimmer I have noted down for the future.

    I didn’t know the mountain at 18d, but with ___gfrau I guessed jun as the most likely month.

    My favourite clues were 26a prang,19a stress and 8d Eeyore.

  4. Thank you setter for getting my day off to a good start and I would give special mention to 8d, it really made me laugh when the penny dropped. Jungfrau was a write in for those of us Swiss based.
    Thank you z for the blog
  5. Messed this up at the end. I solved on paper, and then when I came here I discovered I never solved ORPHANAGE, which I think I’d have got if not immediately. But I missed MAGPIE going for HARPIE which isn’t even spelt that way (HARPY HARPIES). It is a flyer though.
  6. Brilliant clues everywhere I loioked – I really enjoyed this one.

    I had SPEAKEASY at 10ac for a while but ORPHANAGE was an even better answer!

  7. All completed in a sprightly 25m for me, even if I’d no clue as to the SP in said answer. So thank you, Z , for that and other parsings, such as HECATE. I must one day finally remember the queen/cat link before I come to the blog. I did enjoy this puzzle and had a few memory lane outings from Just William, Eeyore and Pepys. So thank you, setter, too.
  8. Excellently crafted puzzle, albeit one where I needed some help at the end in the SW – especially having biffed HOOPOE as the flyer for no particular reason.
    LOI 19a which certainly gave me some.
  9. Maybe its just me but this was the best fun I’ve had with the Times cryptic for yonks . The clues to eclectic , obscure , and obsolent words in recent months , combined with the wildly differing degrees of difficulty , have come close to driving me elsewhere for the first time in 40 years . Many thanks to the setter .
  10. Absolutely loved it. Then messed it up by typing USA at 3d despite having figured out the clue. No matter. Great puzzle.

  11. I have no idea what “leading div” means in the Rubens clue: must have nodded off. Let’s say it’s a trendy word that means “developer”, or “divo”, then I won’t have to edit it and watch my spacing go haywire.

  12. This pleased me so much that I am even able to adopt Sotira’s ‘no matter’ view of my customary typo. I smiled more often during the 18 minutes or so it took me to solve than I usually manage at this hour of day.

  13. Great crossie, loads of pdms as the definitions finally showed themselves. Not too much GK, and what there was was fairly clued. Finished it all in 22mins (maybe a pb?), despite not knowing anything about what goes on at Hickstead or Leander’s watery fate.

    1. What falls on the first syllable of January, the last of July, and the middle of September? The stress does.

      1. 33 minutes but a DNF due to 19ac STRESS – REALLY! It could only be STRESS but this is the sort of clue that is IMO quite ridiculous – with expletive removed!
        For September my pronunciation has equal stress on all three syllables.

        Therefore WOD PISTE-OFF!

        1. I think on September you’re pretty much on your own. Try typing September pronounce into Google and the results are consistently pro stress on second syllable. It’s one of those somewhat original clues which raises a smile if you get it and a grimace if you don’t. Unlucky!

          1. SEP-TEM’BUR – I’m pretty much with pbzepplin!

            I await until Sunday when the word FLACCID will arise!

            1. Quite apart from the fact that, in this, um, incarnation (inskeletation?) you don’t have any legible lips, that clearly has the stress exactly where Chambers has it, on the middle syllable (that little apostrophe just after TEM). Chamber differs only in having a schwa instead of the U. Vindicates what the clue was indicating, surely?
              1. I would reckon that you and most others probably like cauliflower – I and George Bush Senior do not (he banned it (and broccoli) from the White House Kitchens. This clue, like cauliflower, does not please everybody. You will never get me to like it! It’s a matter of personal preference.
                If you wish to attack the second syllable of September, then please do so. It vindicates nothing. Not nice – nasty.

                1. Not asking you to like the clue: de wossname no thingy and all that. I do think the premise of the clue stands up: I think it’s impossible to maintain that the pronunciation of September doesn’t stress the second syllable. All the major sources are in agreement

  15. Fun, but a reach too far for my non-classical brain. Came here to find out my missing answers, mostly in the NW corner, after about an hour and a quarter.

    I wish I’d had time to push on; I was three quarters of the way through, but remembering things like HECATE (or even “queen” for the cat) and Marshall Ney only vaguely from previous crosswords—and not knowing where Rubens was from—this could have taken me a good long time.

    Glad to have correctly biffed ALEXANDER, worked out what happens at Hickstead, and got the cunning SIM CARD definition, at least.

  16. Even when I had the answer, I struggled today but have finished without resorting to aids I kept nearly reaching for in just under 50 minutes. I put JUST WILLIAM in straightaway, Richmal Crompton being orginally from Bury before she moved south. She had both polio and breast cancer but lived to a good age. My kids used to love the stories as read by Martin Jarvis on car journeys. So did I. Some great clues such as COD ORPHANAGE. I was stressed out with STRESS. I know from last week that a Macedonian is a Balkan claimed by Greece so got ALEXANDER once I had checkers, but didn’t get the LEANDER multiplication cryptic. LOI HECATE. Fingers were crossed on GAR. The EVENTIDE is falling faster, we had it very recently. Great puzzle.
  17. As for others a fun solve with just GF=girl friend causing some head scratching. Is it text-speak? Answer was obvious so no problem

    Liked HECATE, STRESS and FLEMISH. Biffed ALEXANDER and forgot to go back and parse it!

    Great blog z8

  18. I’d say you had a pretty good time Z. On my first pass I saw absolutely nothing until INDUS and thought oh so it’s one of those is it. DNK Hickstead and went off piste with “migration” in 7d (I mean the MIs have a lot of dope). Good puzzle. 20.14. P.S. It’s “artistes” not athletes in 28d Z but comes to the same thing. I had UN with A in 3d but your parsing is better.

    Edited at 2017-02-16 10:44 am (UTC)

  19. Fine stuff, indeed, with all bar four done within the half hour and ten minutes needed to polish the rest off, Honshu and Ado being last, as I recall. Thought the Orphanage clue was particularly good.
  20. According to the app, this took 2 hrs 23 mins but this includes a bath, walking the dog and driving to the spa where I finished it off. Would guess at around 30 mins for this very enjoyable puzzle. Much biffing and sticking in from crossers (eg ALEXANDER) so thanks Z for explaining things., although not fully convinced by SP in SPRIGHTLY. And of course a big up to setter.
  21. I’ve been trying the Times crosswords for about a year. This site has been such a tremendous help in my improvement (although some of the experts are dauntingly good). For the first time ever I have completed monday to thursday so I finally bucked up the courage to create a username. It took me a while to get Orphanage despite having most of the checkers and then the Rubens anagram finally clicked. I don’t hold out much hope for Friday, so don’t be surprised if I take a day off! Thanks blogger.
    2. Always good to hear from new solvers – and don’t duck out if you don’t complete the puzzle. Your experience encourages other new solvers who can most relate to your stage and we can all remember being there too!
  22. A very pleasing 25.53 for this still relatively inexperienced solver, with a big chunk of that sorting out JUNGFRAU/HONSHU at the end. Liked ORPHANAGE and ‘a friend to bear’.
  23. Two goes needed at this; first one led to a few in, such as INDUS, and some bafflement. Second go after lunch led eventually to a solve with much satisfaction and joy for getting there in the end, about an hour overall. Biffed ALEXANDER because he was a Macedonian, didn’t understand SP = dope, or parse MICKEY, liked 10a and 19a when the light eventually dawned. Great crossword. Thanks Z8 for the blog, glad it wasn’t my turn, there would have been moments of panic.
  24. Cracking crossword with LOI 8, a stuffed donkey would have solved it quicker.10 reminded me of an old SM joke (military) about a sergeant major who had been told to be more subtle when telling soldiers of deaths in their family.All those with fathers take 1 pace forward..NOT YOU JONES! 23m of enjoyment
  25. Two minor comments on z’s blog.
    In 2 down you don’t need YS as an abbreviation for years. “Life’s covering years” is PEP’S covering Y.
    In 9 down AB is not A(ble) S(eaman) but A(ble) B(odied) seaman.
    DavidB
    1. Hmm. Must have dozed off (again!). In the light of day, I agree with you on both, though at the time I felt the need to justify year as YS. Possible, but lest satisfactory.
  26. I had a new solving location today with the realisation that my MOT expired imminently taking me to Halfords, giving me an hour to pass in the waiting area.

    I found the puzzle pretty tough, and when I had several unconnected answers left at the end I feared I wasn’t going to finish, but gradually STRESS, ORPHANAGE, MAGPIE and MARXIST fell just leaving me with the goddess. An unparsed HECATE rang a vague bell, allowing me not to repeat a wrongly biffed LOI like yesterday.

  27. On behalf of the plodders…of the five that eluded me ‘sprightly’ was gettable, ‘gar’ look-upable, ‘honshu’ solveable but I won’t lose sleep over either ‘Hecate’ or ‘Jungfrau’. The clue for ‘stress’ was cute. T.
  28. Not easy due to my lack of the needed vocab or GK, such as whatever Hickstead is, ‘sp’ as ‘dope’, why satirists take a MICKEY, JUST WILLIAM, and what/where JUNGFRAU might be. All answers eventually worked out, thanks to wordplay, but my LOI was the very amusing STRESS. About 40 minutes all told. Nice challenge. Regards.
  29. 13 mins. I was on the setter’s wavelength and I had all the required GK and vocabulary. ORPHANAGE was my LOI after BAD LOT where, like a few others, I had spent time trying to reverse “tar”. I’ll add my appreciation for a fun puzzle, and my favourite was probably the “a friend to bear” definition for EEYORE. I needed all the checkers before the STRESS penny dropped, but once it had I thought it was a good clue.
  30. 11m. My train pulled in to Charles de Gaulle station just as I completed, cutting off my iPad signal, so I wasn’t able to submit for another minute and a half, approximately. I wouldn’t normally mention this but I thought Don M might be reading and he would want to know.
    Something of a biff-fest for me, this, so I think I missed the finer points. Still fun though.
    I am on my way home from Disneyland Paris, where I met 8dn earlier. The kids enjoyed it, but I can’t say it was my cup of tea. I’m lucky though: I travel a lot so I often get to stand in long queues at passport control. And they don’t even charge!
    1. The greatest joy about retiring nearly 4 years ago is that I never ever have to fly anywhere again.
      1. I don’t really mind it that much, which is fortunate as I am out of the country two to three days a week. I don’t do a huge amount of long-haul and most of the things (people) I like least about my job are in London.
        Still, travelling only by choice will be nice.

        Edited at 2017-02-16 09:30 pm (UTC)

  31. Any musical doubter might try listening again to ” Autumn leaves” sung by Sinatra or Nat King Cole ?

    JFR

  32. At last a chewy one, after the last two days’ offerings (disappointing, as I had long tube journeys both days and was left with little to do – apart from reading the wretched paper – after half-an-hour). Today, the top went in easily – almost write-ins, yet the bottom seemed to take forever although, in retrospect the clues were elegant, meticulous and fair – and absurdly simple after the penny had dropped. Exactly what clues should be!

    And proof positive that one can construct a good crossword without searching the obscure reaches of the OED.

    Mr Editor, if you are reading this, more like this, please!

    FOI St Paul, LOI Magpie, COD Marxist (which held me up for ages, although looking back, I can’t fathom why).

    Edited at 2017-02-16 07:38 pm (UTC)

  33. 2 hours in between table tennis matches tonight left me with one blank clue and had to get my team mate to finish off with MARXIST. Red face! Eniamretrauq
  34. Not easy (just over an hour), but good fun and fortunately no mistakes despite a few guesses. Lots I didn’t know, such as JUST WILLIAM, Hickstead, the SP in SPRIGHTLY and of course the parsing of ALEXANDER. COD to EEYORE (“for a friend to bear”, how delightful!)
  35. Another top-notch puzzle I thought. Not sure that MARXIST is getting the accolades it deserves, I’m giving it COD if not COW.

    No probs with the well-known SP, but have never heard of Hickstead. Resolved after a few checkers went in, helped by the fact that it sounds like a place were they’d do that sort of thing.

    Thanks setter and Z. Great blog. Fascinated by the possibility that any English-speaker could pronounce September with the stress on anything but the middle syllable.

  36. Thankfully I was pretty much on the right wavelength here, leading to a great deal of correct biffing. Unfortunately a DNF owing to my little knowledge of Greek mythology, obliging me to resort to aids to solve 17ac but managed to get everything else … eventually!
  37. Was a bit tired after a day travelling from Fuerteventura to Macclesfield followed by a day driving from Macc to Middlesbrough, almost being wiped out by a Co-op food truck en route, then driving from Middlesbrough to Ryedale and back to see the grandson play trombone at the school recital. Took 68 minutes to complete, but having worked out HERCATE from the wordplay, carelessly wrote in HERCATA. FOI ST PAUL, LOI ORPHANAGE. Liked EEYORE. Thanks setter and Z.
  38. 10:05 for this first-class puzzle, a delight from start to finish. My compliments to the setter. I join others in choosing 8dn (EEYORE) as COD.

    (Sorry this comment is a bit late. I got caught up in something else I really had to finish last night, and was so exhausted by the end of it that I completely forgot.)

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