Times Cryptic 26834

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I needed 10 minutes over the hour for this one and still ended up with a wrong answer having transposed two letters of anagrist in an unknown word. It was fortunate that the wordplay elsewhere was generally more helpful as there were far too many words and meanings unknown to me for this to be an average weekday puzzle 

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]

Across
1 Little creatures — adulthood’s beginning in them (5)
PUPAS – A{dulthood’s}[beginning] in PUPS (little creatures). I take the definition as &lit.
4 The old man touching bird — he is catching that disease (9)
HEPATITIS – HE + IS containing [catching] PA (the old man) + TIT (bird)
9 Field worker’s heading off as deliverer of goods (9)
ROUNDSMAN – {g}ROUNDSMAN (field worker) [heading off]
10 Stop maiden falling into very deep sleep (5)
COMMA – M (maiden) contained by [falling into] COMA (very deep sleep)
11 Communist gets new leader, one following ancient Chinese practice (6)
TAOIST – {m}AOIST (communist) changes its first letter [gets new leader] to something unspecified in the wordplay.
12 Player sat unhappily having lost a very old instrument (8)
PSALTERY – Anagram [unhappily] of PLAYER S{a}T [having lost a]
14 Plans made by one pal in his group? (10)
MACHINATES – CHINA (one pal) is among MATES [in his group]
16 A decisive blow, all right, with round coming to the end (4)
KAYO – OKAY (all right) with its O (round) moved to the end
19 Course in which Pole collects top grade (4)
ROAD – ROD (pole) contains [collects] A (top grade)
20 Behaviour shown by this writer after drink when sunk in depression (10)
DEPORTMENT – PORT (drink)  + ME (this writer) contained by [sunk in] DENT (depression)
22 Sweet little sound, as you might suppose? (8)
NOISETTE – A straight definition – a chocolate made with hazelnuts –  and a cryptic hint suggesting a made-up word for a small noise, -ette being a suffix meaning ‘small’ as in ‘cigarette’.
23 Officer commanding lowly worker to bring back work of art (6)
FRESCO – OC (officer commanding) + SERF (lowly worker) reversed [bring back]
26 Massage? Pushed by joint, we hear (5)
KNEAD – Sounds like [we hear] “kneed” (pushed by joint)
27 Petty official having a sort of appeal in old country always (9)
GAULEITER – GAUL (old country), then IT (a sort of appeal – aka sex appeal) in EER (always). Originally this was a political official controlling a Nazi district but later became a term for any overbearing official.
28 Scientific instrument got from dime store (9)
DOSIMETER – Anagram of [got from] DIME STORE. SOED defines this as a device for measuring doses, esp. of ionizing radiation. I didn’t know it. METER was obvious and the checkers took care of themselves but of the two choices available from the remaining anagrist I plumped in error for DISOMETER on the basis that are many words ending with -OMETER (at least 165, as it turns out) but far fewer ending with -IMETER (around 42, as I discovered later). Backed the wrong horse!
29 Miss perhaps having characters in nasty lesson (5)
STYLE – Hidden [having characters in] {na}STY LE{esson} The definition fooled me for a while but it refers to ‘style of address’ as often mentioned on official forms when one is required to say whether one is Mr, Mrs, Miss, Sir, Lord, Lady or other.
Down
1 Some send up worker who leaves work early maybe? (4-5)
PART-TIMER – PART (some), REMIT (send) reversed [up]
2 Dog star? /  A much smaller heavenly body (5)
PLUTO – A double definition with reference to the Walt Disney cartoon character and the former planet that was demoted during my lifetime to a dwarf.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a more erudite explanation of the dog definition but I’ve given the one that worked for higgerant old me.
3 Team player close to wicket making a skiddy movement (8)
SIDESLIP – SIDE (team), SLIP (player close to wicket)
4 Sound quiet in a fit of peevishness (4)
HUMP – HUM (sound), P (quiet)
5 Plant enclosure attracting a hundred? Check inside (10)
PENTSTEMON – PEN (enclosure), TON (a hundred) with STEM (check) inside. A plant I never heard of but I was pleased to arrive at from wordplay.
6 Delight in second article in Libération? (6)
TICKLE – TICK (second), LE (article in Libération?). The last bit is a reference to a French newspaper apparently. Another opportunity for me to display my higgerance which today seems to have no bounds.
7 Benign mood overcomes troublesome female (9)
TEMPERATE – TEMPER (mood), ATE (troublesome female). ATE is a goddess, the personification of ruin, folly and delusion in Greek mythology, who I only knew because she has caught me out in the past.
8 Appalling mark with you being denied Open University (5)
SCARY – SCAR (mark), Y{ou} [being denied Open University]
13 Liquid and what it can’t make one for sure (10)
WATERTIGHT – WATER (liquid), TIGHT (what it can’t make one – drunk)
15 Recital isn’t bad but it is lacking certain music-makers (9)
CLARINETS – Anagram [bad] of RED{it}AL ISN’T [‘it’ is lacking]
17 Exceptionally courteous place with a different supplier (9)
OUTSOURCE – Anagram, [exceptionally] of COURTEOUS
18 Cultures in which there are people looking to save time? (8)
STARTERS – STARERS (people looking) containing [to save] T (time). SOED has ‘starter’ as a culture used to initiate souring or fermentation in making butter, cheese, dough, etc. Yet another meaning unknown to me.
21 Old hag after havoc has twisted inside (6)
BELDAM – BEDLAM (havoc) in which D and L switch positions [twisted inside]. Didn’t know this one either.
22 College officer upset about king as he paraded when duped? (5)
NAKED – DEAN (college officer) reversed [upset] containing [about] K (king). A bit of an overlap here as the definition refers back to ‘king’. This is a reference to the Hans Christian Anderson story ‘Kejserens nye Klaeder’ which is so well-known I won’t reiterate it here. It translates into English as ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, but the song in the Hollywood film starring Danny Kaye referred to him as ‘King’ and I suppose the two terms can be interchangeable in some circumstances.
24 State needs volunteers brought in to provide hot food (5)
SATAY – SAY (state) contains [brought in] TA (volunteers – Territorial Army historically, but no longer except in crosswords)
25 Something rough in Mexican dish, one to cut out (4)
BURR – BURR{ito} (Mexican dish) [‘i to’, cut out]. The vaguest of definitions.

71 comments on “Times Cryptic 26834”

  1. Lots of unknowns for me too: Noisette, Dosimeter, Pentstemon, Gaulieter, Beldam

    I’m not above looking up words to make sure they exist before I bung them in, so no trouble with dosimeter. But then I put in ‘seamy’ for 8dn. Bugger

    Took 45m. Liked Pluto, Naked, and also Kayo

    1. Hello, Lou. I don’t recognise your user pic or name, so if you are a new poster, welcome! If I’m wrong about that please accept my apologies and put it down to my failing memory.
        1. …. and I had to look up “ogmo” just in case it comes up in the crossword clued as “Moog synthesized”. I didn’t know the word but , then, the last computer game I played was space invaders in about 1980.
            1. You may be right. The only other one I remember resembled a game of tennis involving two pieces of toast and a square ball. Gentle Giant used the sounds as the background to a catchy tune of the period.
  2. Quite like these tricky ones, but beaten by the unknown plant, guessed the wrong check. Surprisingly knew all the other words, some vaguely, except the definition of style as miss – and can’t really see it even if Chambers does define style as “designation.”
    1. I liked Pluto, but parsed him a bit differently – the first def being dog star i.e. a movie star who’s a dog. The second def refers back to the first’s words but with a different meaning.
      1. I wouldn’t argue with that, Isla. When writing the blog I considered it but decided Pluto was more of a co-star (to Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck etc). Having now done a little research I found his name appeared in the titles of 26 cartoon films and there were at least three times that number in which the story featured him prominently. A star without a doubt! I’ve amended the blog to include ‘star’ as part of the first definition. Thanks.

        Edited at 2017-09-19 06:33 am (UTC)

  3. I’d like to know if anyone knew PENTSTEMON! It was my last one in, and I was tired enough to give up and resort to an aid. Found out that another name for it is “Beardtongue,” which might be fun to clue. I wasn’t sure what was going on with STYLE, and was somewhat resistant to the alternate spelling of “pupae.”

    Edited at 2017-09-19 07:19 am (UTC)

    1. Certainly I knew pentstemon. If you want to fight back, ask me to identify one in the garden .. but my wife can do both with ease, dammit
      1. In my garden they are penstemons. I can’t find any reference to pentstemon. Not surprised this one caused so much difficulty.
  4. 53 mins on iPad pre breakfast. Too hard but just gettable with effort.
    Today we are on Skye. What breathtaking views!
    Mostly I liked Machinate and Outsource, both of which reminded me too much of work.
    Thanks testing setter and Jack.
  5. I pushed 15 minutes over my hour in the hope of getting my remaining few. In the end, I guessed BELDAM right, plucked a PSALTERY from somewhere, but still couldn’t put the unknown PENTSTEMON together, and I’m not sure I’d have thought it was a word even if I had thought of the right “check”. Ah well. At least I got the rest right, and remembered GAULEITER from an earlier puzzle (even though that took me about half an hour!)

    I actually own a dosimeter, so that was a write-in, at least…

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

    Edited at 2017-09-19 07:12 am (UTC)

  6. 27:31 … a bit like riding your bike up a mountain — not necessarily a barrel of laughs but nice when you get to the top.

    Predictable difficulties here — no clue what ‘style’ was about (thanks, jackkt). And a long time to convince myself that PENTSTEMON might be a word. I was worried that ‘-stamen’ seemed more likely. Delving into the dictionaries, I learn that Latin stāmen and Greek stḗmōn both mean ‘thread’ (and botanically have a similar meaning). I imagine vinyl knew that.

    DOSIMETER sounded a bit familiar. Turns out it came up in 2014, puzzle 25,773 as blogged by jimbo here: http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1105663.html?page=2

    Edited at 2017-09-19 07:08 am (UTC)

    1. I remember that puzzle and have just had a refresher – thanks for the link. I see it too was full of obscurities!
        1. Is that a polite way of saying “Will we never learn?”
          I remembered the Dosimeter, but not the exact puzzle or the blog. Thank you for the URL

          Edited at 2017-09-19 01:40 pm (UTC)

      2. Just amazed to see some of the comments then, quite bolshy .. and Penfold61 unable to solve it!? I expect he will be blushing now..

        nice to see that such a basic scientific word as dosimeter caused mayhem, both then and now 🙂

  7. Not my cup of tea. A collection of obscurities that had to be ground down. Life’s too short for this. Brilliant job Jack, especially STYLE.
    1. I on the other hand really enjoyed this. Jim surely you are not saying that style is obscure in that context?!
      1. No Jerry. I thought “miss perhaps” was rather good for STYLE once the penny dropped and thought Jack did well under blogging pressure to spot the usage
  8. This took me over 20 Minutes, with over half of that on PENTSTEMON. Unfortunately after all that I found I had an error with SIDESPIN, which seemed a perfectly good answer at the time.
    Lots of unknowns in this, and I found it a bit of a grind.

    Edited at 2017-09-19 07:11 am (UTC)

  9. Any more words in the clues and the crossword would have continued onto the back page. Sorry, this is one is not to my taste.
  10. Know this from Alan Price but written by Randy Newman. Did one of them set the crossword today? I’ve got penstemons in the garden but I’m sure they’ve never had another T on the label. Damned hard work, this one, but I’m home in 45 minutes. DNK BELDAM which doesn’t even sound right for a hag, but got it after I happened on ‘bedlam’. Unfortunately I wasted time on ‘mayhem’ first. Otherwise a terrific puzzle. COD Tickle. LOI STARTERS. Thank you Jack and setter.
  11. You see what happens if you keep on wittering about how easy the crossword is. I’m quite pleased to have finished this in just over 30.
    Funnily enough, though I stumbled through the same uncertainties as everyone else, it was 1d that held me up most. “Worker who leaves work early maybe” lodged P**S-TAKER in my mind and wouldn’t go away: it so nearly could be made to fit the rest of the clue too.
    There was clearly a good reason for going arrrgh when seeing the word “plant” this time: even Chambers has two spellings, and it looks as though it was named for a Welsh town (or possibly Cornish). Turns out it’s American not quite right Greek. According to Google, there are 250 varieties, all looking remarkably diverse. We live, we learn, we hope it never comes up again.
    BELDAM dredged from Macbeth, but apparently Neil Gaiman used it in Coraline – I’ve seen the film, but didn’t remember the word.
    1. And I’ve read the book, but don’t remember the word. I think this must mean that it’s quite an unmemorable word, rather than that either of us has anything less than a steel trap between the ears.
  12. FOI SCARY after going through all the across clues without the faintest glimmer of inspiration. I managed to get it all done in just under 50 minutes but not under battle conditions as I resorted to a dictionary to check the unknown words (PENTSTEMON, GAULEITER and DOSIMETER) so I’d have to call it a DNF from me.

    I’m not happy with MISS as a definition STYLE, but the great and the good of this parish seem to think it’s just about alright so who am I to argue?

    1. I would go further than ‘just about alright’ and say I can’t see anything wrong with it. The definition is actually ‘Miss, perhaps’ though: it’s a definition by example. Not sure if that’s what you object to though?
      1. I did a bit more digging prompted by your response and see you are quite correct. dictionary.com has…

        verb (used with object), styled, styling.
        17. to call by a given title or appellation; denominate; name; call:
        The pope is styled His or Your Holiness.

        Thanks for setting me straight.

        1. Unspammed, however I don’t think that’s the definition you want, as “Miss” is a noun whereas that is a verb. Collins has: “(mainly British) the distinguishing title or form of address of a person or firm”.
            1. Indeed, no need to write a stiffly worded letter to the editor, as I’m sure you would otherwise have done…
  13. Just like everyone else, unknown PENTSTEMON, DOSIMETER, but fortunately worked them out correctly. On a roll, so 21’25”. Did not parse STYLE or STARTERS either, so a few too many doubts….
    Thanks jack and setter.

    Edited at 2017-09-19 09:13 am (UTC)

  14. This was a real slog — like jackkt and vinyl1 it took 70mins. (My time is very often within a few mins of you guys.) There was a lot of arcanery, as many commenters have noted: BELDAM is a curious one since its etymology is obviously “belle dame” = ‘lovely lady’ and I knew the word from Eng. Lit. studies (16th and 17th C texts) but I had to check the dictionary to see that it has done a semantic U-turn to mean a horrible old witch! And “penstemon” was the plant name that immediately came to my mind, since we have lovely penstemons flowering now in our garden and some cuttings doing nicely in the cold-frame — but 5d ended up being LOI because I’ve never, ever seen it spelled with the extra ‘T’. The def for 22d NAKED is really annoying and silly. 14a MACHINATES seems to exemplify the setter’s concern with the integrity of the surface and hence COD to 13d: lovely!
  15. Found this as tough as old boots. Tougher in fact. Then, after spending the worst part of an hour on it I decided that DISOMETER sounded more plausible than DOSIMETER. It still does.
  16. 37:41 of very hard work with WATERTIGHT/GAULEITER holding out to the bitter end. DNK DOSIMETER so that was a toss up for what came first, the O or the I. Everything else known but the penstemons in my garden never have an extra T either. Glad to see Snitchy is rating it very hard.
  17. I foolishly elected to do this after coming back late and Sambuca’d from my third victory (out of three attempts) at the Shelverdine Goathouse pub quiz. Glad to hear it wasn’t just my level of intoxication that was making it feel so hard! GAULEITER seems hazily familiar but PENTSTEMON feels borderline unfair. In competition conditions I expect I’d have plumped for DISOMETER but drunkenness makes me immoral and with shame I must confess to checking it up.
  18. I did actually know this because it’s quite a popular annual in the NE US – it tolerates the kinds of extreme heat and cold we get. BUT around here it’s spelled without the first T so I certainly floundered around for a while and never did parse it (thanks Jack). Glad to see others found this hard going. 30.19
    1. It seems to have confounded crossword-solving gardeners both sides of the Atlantic. I guess though that originally it was PENTSTAMEN, meaning five stamen or five threads.
  19. Over the hour but by how much I know not.

    DNK 5dn PENTSTEMON or 28ac DISOMETER.

    FOI 10ac COMMA LOI 18dn STARTERS without parsing properly.

    COD 16ac KAYO!

    WOD 27ac GAULIETER which is well known in WWII parlance.

  20. Well over half an hour, and finally submit with a sigh of relief and (reasonably) happy – only to come up with 2 errors.

    Because I’d left some checkers pencilled in.

    I need a lie down in a darkened room now.

  21. Well, I’m pleased to see it wasn’t just me who struggled mightily with this one. I submitted at 73:19, but had to cheat on the plant as I had never heard of any of the spellings and couldn’t figure the parsing, apart from PEN and TON. Never got past VET and CH for check. I had heard of DOSIMETER so that wasn’t a problem. STYLE went in with a shrug. Biffed TICKLE, didn’t know ATE as a troublesome female. All in all a bit of a slog. The NW was last to fall. Thanks setter(I think) and Jack.
  22. welcome aboard, Lou. If you have never heard of “Gauleiter” (not gaulieter) – then you are a lucky person!

  23. Took a loooooong time today, but got there in the end. Well, all but DOSIMETER, which doesn’t really count, does it?

    Got held up at the end by thinking ‘io’ is a star (not a moon), so thought that 2dn had to be a heavenly body called a ‘pugio’ or ‘pupio’. So many unknowns, that it wouldn’t have surprised me. Yes, I too have penstemon plants, but without that extra ‘T’.

    Others that needed explanation in part: dnk those meanings for ATE or MISS.

    Pesky crossword, but I think I prefer these ones to some of the super easy ones that we’ve been having of late…

    1. Ate turns up regularly, twice this very week in fact (for me)

      Yes dosimeter does count, because our life is ruled by science, not art.. 😉

      1. Go on, Jerry, be a dualist, and give the mental some agency. Maybe Schrödinger’s cat can read the dosimeter.
  24. Mildly surprised to see how many weren’t keen on this one. I loved it – especially 13dn, a fine clue!
  25. 45:18. This was a bit tough, not helped by putting in VENUS for 2d, thinking of a double entendre for ‘heavenly body’. GAULEITER and BELDAM unknowns to me and I found 29a mysterious. Thanks for the explanations, Jack.
  26. My wife, a keen and very creative gardener, gave me 5d which I still managed to spell incorrectly. DNK 27a and got “trot” on my mind so also missed 11a. Otherwise I was quite chuffed to get the rest even if it took me half the West Indies (now known as Windies?) innings. Thanks to you all for a delightful blog today – maybe the tricky puzzles bring out the best comments.
  27. This was the sort of puzzle that seems to take a lifetime but gives you a great buzz when you finally finish it. There was nothing unknown here but I just didn’t seem to be on the wavelength. After 30 minutes the grid was still largely empty but I made grindingly slow progress and clocked out at 62 minutes. Ann
  28. A pleasant solve under pressure as I had to go to London after walking the dog. 19:13. Some nice ones.
  29. DNF. Bah! Too tough for me. Could not get the plant at 5d. Saw the pen and the ton but didn’t have the confidence to split the ton with a stem because it looked too unlikely. Also couldn’t work out beldam and I’m not sure I would have been able to define it as old hag either, it’s a bit counterintuitive with the Old French Bel at the front, dam notwithstanding. The rest of it, which I did get took ages to fall can’t really see why just not really on the wavelength and a bit of a slog. Unless I’m missing something, 23ac has a bit of a clumsy feeling, instruction to reverse lowly worker for fres (lowly worker to bring back) which doesn’t quite work for me, and no particular instruction for that to go in front of the CO from what I can see. I don’t see too much of that sort of thing going on elsewhere but I did find it a bit of a slog. COD 17dn, great anagram, well anagrammed.
    1. It’s not CO, it’s OC. The whole thing (OC, SERF) is reversed. I agree that the instruction ‘to bring back’ is a bit clumsy though.
  30. Ah! That makes sense of the positioning then. I did read the blog, honest, but the eyes wanted to see CO not OC and CO is what the brain told them they saw!
  33. Day late and a dollar short but I always like to catch up on your entertaining blog, Jack.
    My difficulty was with the plant. In the end I had to look it up. With my half-Austrian heritage, no problem with GAULEITER. COD to COMMA. Well over the hour and certainly over your time!

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