Times Cryptic 27368

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

My solving time was 38 minutes with several unknowns for which I had to rely on wordplay.

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

Across
1 Decay beginning to show in hideous couple (9)
DISREPAIR – S{how} [beginning] contained by [in] DIRE (hideous), PAIR (couple)
6 Cheat cold seeping into unfinished dwelling (5)
HOCUS – C (cold) contained by [seeping into] HOUS{e} (dwelling) [unfinished]. I didn’t know this word in its own right, but apparently it’s just an abbreviated form of ‘hocus-pocus’, which I did know.
9 Figure of one stone, perhaps, with front obscured (5)
EIGHT – {w}EIGHT (stone, perhaps) [with front obscured].  I think this is a variation on the ‘fill in the missing word’ type of clue that The Times generally avoids, with ‘one’ substituting for the blank space. For those who aren’t familiar with Imperial units, 1 stone = 14 pounds. On edit, kevingregg offers an alternative parsing: ” I took the definition in 9ac to be ‘Figure’, with ‘one stone, perhaps’ providing WEIGHT”. I agree this is possible, but if he was thinking along those lines I wonder why the setter didn’t simply put “Figure of stone, perhaps with front obscured”.
10 Greeting crew members with fish (9)
HANDSHAKE – HANDS (crew members), HAKE (fish)
11 An aspiration to entertain ambassador in Californian city (7)
ANAHEIM – AN, then AIM (aspiration) containing [to entertain] HE (ambassador). Displaying my higgerance I will reveal that I’d never heard of this place but I now understand that it’s the location of the original Disneyland.
12 Interpreter for example appearing in late summer in France (7)
EXEGETE – EX (late), EG (for example), ÉTÉ (summer, in France). Another word unknown to me, and its first 15×15 appearance in the TftT era.
13 Rock festival featuring Queen? (7,7)
DIAMOND JUBILEE – DIAMOND (rock),  JUBILEE (festival).  I don’t think Queen played at the Her Maj’s Diamond festivities but they famously did so at The Party at the Palace in 2002 to celebrate her Golden Jubilee.
17 Complaint in sheikdom — unease to spread (10,4)
HOUSEMAIDS KNEE – Anagram [to spread] of SHEIKDOM UNEASE
21 Expert thus securing a flat (7)
PROSAIC – PRO (expert), SIC (thus) containing [securing] A
23 Flighty African needs daily porridge (7)
SUNBIRD – SUN (daily – newspaper, sister to The Times),  BIRD (porridge – prison sentence). Another unknown, and another first appearance in a 15×15.
25 One allowed carrier in kit: something for soap etc (6,3)
TOILET BAG – I + LET (allowed) + BA (carrier – British Airways) contained by [in] TOG (kit). I thought at first that ‘carrier’ was cluing BAG which left me wondering how to account for ‘kit’ in the clue and ‘to’ in the answer. I think ‘kit’ as a noun equates with ‘togs’ rather than ‘tog’ which is a single piece of kit, but taken as verbs one can ‘kit or tog oneself out’ so the substitution works in that context.
26 Confuse theologian introduced to beer (5)
ADDLE – DD (theologian) contained by [introduced to] ALE (beer)
27 Yankee, ridiculously idle, has to give up (5)
YIELD – Y (Yankee), anagram [ridiculously] of IDLE
28 Fanatic to survive bracing term at sea (9)
EXTREMIST – EXIST (survive) containing [bracing] anagram [at sea] of TERM
Down
1 Detective Inspector Morse ultimately tough on southern reactionaries (8)
DIEHARDS – DI (Detective Inspector), {Mors}E [ultimately], HARD (tough), S (southern)
2 Disgraceful mark time erased in letter to Greeks (5)
SIGMA – S{t}IGMA (disgraceful mark) [time erased]. A version of this clue turned up in another (non-Times) puzzle over the weekend so my answer went straight in.
3 Course incomplete with reason given in confidence (5,4)
ENTRE NOUS – ENTRE{e} (course) [incomplete], NOUS (reason)
4 Embarrassed because news boss engages amateur (7)
ASHAMED – AS (because) + ED (news boss) containes [engages] HAM (amateur e.g. radio ham)
5 Little man with money recited poem (7)
RONDEAU – RON (little man), DEAU sounds like [recited] “dough” (money)
6 Leader abandons modest expedition (5)
HASTE – {c}HASTE (modest) [leader abandons]
7 One to blend in drink with energy-packed fruit (9)
CHAMELEON – CHA (drink – tea), MELON (fuit) containing E [energy-packed]
8 Small study about headless sheep in northern kingdom (6)
SWEDEN – S (small), {e}WE (sheep) [headless], DEN (study)
14 Brute concealing old record is to put things straight (9)
APOLOGISE – APE (brute) containing [concealing] O (old) + LOG (record) + IS
15 Hint Tunisian criminal gave at last (9)
INSINUATE – Anagram [criminal] of TUNISIAN, {gav}E [at last]
16 Boring race gives no decisive result (4,4)
DEAD HEAT – DEAD (boring), HEAT (race)
18 Carriage cutting horse in two — it’s gruesome (7)
MACABRE – CAB (carriage) contained by [cutting…in two] MARE (horse)
19 Understanding current things differently (7)
INSIGHT – I (current), anagram [differently] of THINGS
20 Eating too much, mole covered in pimples (6)
SPOTTY – SPY (mole) containing (eating) OTT (too much – over the top)
22 Up to each person (5)
AHEAD – A (each), HEAD (person)
24 Lemur visible in thin drizzle (5)
INDRI – Hidden [visible] in {th}IN DRI{izzle}. My final unknown and another first appearance in a daily 15×15, although it was in a Sunday Times puzzle in 2013.

60 comments on “Times Cryptic 27368”

  1. I could have sworn I’ve seen INDRI recently; maybe it was a Guardian puzzle. I took the definition in 9ac to be ‘Figure’, with ‘one stone, perhaps’ providing WEIGHT; I don’t think I get ‘figure of one’. HOCUS I knew from Dickens (and ODE marks it ‘archaic’) in the sense ‘slip in a Mickey Finn’; the ‘cheat’ sense was new to me. I biffed TRAVEL BAG for no good reason, which delayed APOLOGISE a bunch. And though I didn’t biff ALAMEDA, it stayed in my mind even though I was thinking of the HE; ANAHEIM is a place well worth not knowing. (Alameda’s not much either, but at least it’s on San Francisco Bay.)
    1. Thanks for your suggestion, Kevin, which I have added to my comment in the blog.

      My thinking was “Figure of one (of these)” or as it might appear in some puzzles: “Figure of ____”.

      “Figure of eight” is a well-known expression, at least in British English according to Collins, used in the following contexts:

      1. an outline of the number 8 traced on ice by a skater
      2. a flight manoeuvre by an aircraft outlining a figure 8
      3. a. a knot in the shape of a figure 8 made to prevent the unreeving of a rope
      b. a climber’s knot in the shape of a figure 8 made with a doubled rope to provide a secure loop
      c. an angler’s knot sometimes used to attach a fly to a leader or dropper

      Edited at 2019-06-04 04:25 am (UTC)

      1. In answer to the question you posed in the blog, I guess it might be that ‘stone’ is a unit of weight, whereas ‘one stone’ is an actual weight?
  2. this was a stroll for me at 33 mins

    FOI 26ac ADDLE with 25ac TOILET BAG thus I worked bottom up

    bar my LOI 17ac HOUSEMAID’S KNEE. Bit of an obvious anagram

    but it would not yield, KNEE being the tricky bit. But then KNEES usually are!

    Also my COD and 10ac HANDSHAKE was a decent clue

    WOD ANAHEIM (Disney’s Duck).

    12ac EXEGETE was new to me too, but easily worked out.

    Much enjoyed!

    Edited at 2019-06-04 01:27 pm (UTC)

  3. Done in 43 minutes with TOILET BAG my last in. We were taught TOILET was a non-U word when I was growing up – ‘lavatory’ please – and the ‘carrier’ should have been BOAC. My excuses anyway.

    Don’t know how, but INDRI did ring a bell, perhaps from the ST in 2013. EXEGETE was the only unknown, entered both from wordplay and a vaguely remembered ‘exegesis’.

    Thank you to setter and blogger

    1. I think toilet / lavatory may have been one of the original non-U / U examples in the glossary written by Nancy Mitford when expanding on an idea created by the linguist Alan Ross, but TOILET BAG is more to do with toiletries (cosmetics, washing and grooming products) than things lavatorial so I’d say TOILET is the correct word in that context.
      1. Thanks. Yes, I’m sure you’re right. Funny though how these things become ingrained and after all these years, ‘toilet’ and ‘toiletries’, even when used in their ‘correct’ sense, still grate a bit.
        1. Indeed. I was similarly brainwashed and words like ‘toilet’ and ‘pardon’ still grate. I can’t help it. In my defence I have not similarly indoctrinated my own kids.
  4. Defeated by 22d ahead. Still, nothing can dampen my mood after the football in Madrid.

    Cod addle or handshake.

    1. I fear I cannot share your damp-free mood (obviously), but then I did watch the match on a tiny screen in an over-heated pub with a boorish and incredibly noisy crowd in Northampton. Unrepeatable (I hope).
      2. Commiserations, but if spurs can manage to keep Pochettino a trophy won’t be far off.
  5. 10:00 exactly for this one – started slowly but managed to accelerate towards the end, and I actually had time to double-check my solution before submitting after a silly typo in the QC earlier.
  6. My LOI was SUNBIRD, as it took some time for the equivalent definitions of “porridge” and BIRD to surface (somewhat distracted as I was by the question, “Why does the porridge bird lay its eggs in the air?”).

    My parsing of EIGHT was the same as Kevin’s. I don’t see how “Figure of one” could indicate the answer. (Besides, the expression I’m familiar with is “figure eight,” no “of” involved.)

    I put in INDRI early on, though I’m sure I’d never heard of it before.

    Edited at 2019-06-04 06:42 am (UTC)

    1. The ‘of’ thing may be something of a transatlantic difference. The definitions I quoted in my response above are for the British entry “figure of eight” in Collins, although “figure eight” is also listed as an alternative.
      1. Sure, but that is not the essence of my objection. I don’t know how “FIgure of one” would indicate EIGHT; the definition then would seem to be “FIgure,” not a word replacing “one.”
  7. A pleasant 41 minutes for me, starting with 1d DIE HARDS (Bruce Willis may have something to answer for on that score) and finishing with 14d APOLOGISE, where as with 12a EXEGETE I was put off by the vowel-only crossers. DNK EXEGETE, INDRI or SUNBIRD, but the wordplay was doable. Glad EXEGESIS and RONDEAU (and its musical equivalent “rondo”) are on my Big List of Words To Try To Remember.

    Edited at 2019-06-04 06:47 am (UTC)

  8. 12:51 … exemplary stuff, and satisfying to be able to construct unknown or little known words with total confidence.

    Just assumed while solving that a HOCUS was a cheat but I see now that it’s a verb, to HOCUS, which is rather fun and very usable, especially as one of the definitions is “to stupefy with drink”.

    The clue for HOUSEMAID’S KNEE just made me think of the widespread domestic slavery in the Middle East. I’m such a Guardian reader.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

      1. Sounds like you and I need another session in the courtyard at The George sorting the world out (looking at the state of the world, can’t happen too soon). We definitely improved things last time around
        1. Hmm yes looking at the subsequent trends perhaps a period of abstention on our part would be better for the prospects of world peace.
  9. HOUSEMAIDS’ KNEE was delayed because I had an extra H in my letters.

    EXEGETE is a great word e.g. Phoebe was the first exegete of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

    I think TOILET in this context is little or nothing to do with excretion, rather liked BA as carrier. Dnk SUNBIRD.

    17′ 27” thanks jack and setter.

  10. Easy puzzle apart from the unknowns at 11A and 12A that had to be derived from wordplay. No problem with (w)EIGHT.
  11. 35 mins with yoghurt, granola, blueberry compote, etc.
    If, like me, 12ac was your LOI, then you were left with four Es as checkers. NHO Exegete so lucky that the wordplay was helpful.
    Thanks setter and J.
  12. 18 minutes, so right on wavelength. Between us, ENTRE NOUS was LOI. The US company I chaired was in Yorba Linda, birthplace of Tricky Dicky, and just along the road from Anaheim. For all the good I did, they’d have been better off with Mickey Mouse. No real hold-ups with HOUSEMAID’S KNEE coming in before I’d written down the letters. DNK INDRI but it had to be a hidden. COD to DIAMOND JUBILEE. I liked TOILET BAG and EXEGETE too, although I wasted a minute or two trying to remember les quatre saisons in French. It’s a long time since 1961 O level. Good puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
  13. 14 minutes and no problems. With regard to EIGHT, I do find the “one” odd now that jackkt mentions it; figure of eight is an interesting suggestion. I parsed it like kevin while solving. COD to 10a (or should that be HAKE?).
  14. 8:35. No problems today: lots of biffing, a few unknowns but with generous wordplay.
    I found 16dn slightly unsatisfactory because the meaning of the word ‘heat’ is the same in wordplay and solution.
  15. Re DIAMOND JUBILEE and Queen, I believe Brian May, appropriately, played “God Save The Queen” from the roof of Buckingham Palace at HM’s Golden Jubilee concert which was somewhat reminiscent of Hendrix playing “The Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock.
    Re EIGHT, I agree with Jack’s original theory. In fact it seemed so obvious that I scarcely gave it a thought before biffing it.
    1. Thanks for your support on EIGHT. I think you’re the only one so far! I certainly bunged in the answer straightaway on that basis (so not really a biff) without considering it further and only got to agonising over the finer details when I came to write the blog.
    1. A classic scene! The Pilot for that series was filmed on the site of a dual carriageway construction just behind my house in Middlesbrough.
  17. I needed all the checkers to get the HOUSEMAID’S KNEE: my mind was racing with all the conditions named after their discoverer/describers I’d ever heard of or could make up. In my household, of course, the maids are taught not to make a fuss, so the condition doesn’t exist.
    EIGHT I did on the “one stone for example” version but I can see it looks a bit smudged.
    TOILET BAG I see now I didn’t work out and I’m not sure I’d have got there, though it’s perfectly OK. Thanks Jack for care taken.
    !7 minutes a small change.
  18. 27 mins. Seemed a bit tougher than the snitch would suggest. Thanks jack and setter.
  19. ….in the TOILET, but had trouble with the BAG (didn’t see “BA = carrier”, but then I’m a non-flier these days).

    No other problems, although I didn’t care for the clueing of EIGHT, and was grateful for the helpful parsing of the vaguely remembered INDRI.

    FOI HOCUS
    LOI RONDEAU
    COD SPOTTY
    TIME 9:58

  20. I started off with SIGMA and EIGHT which I took as “figure” with “one stone” as the example for weight. Had vaguely heard of ANAHEIM. EXEGETE from wordplay. INDRI has come up very recently in a Times puzzle, but I can’t remember which. It may have been a Concise. Didn’t fully parse TOILET BAG as I had enough crossers. Liked CHAMELEON. Hadn’t heard the expression ENTRE NOUS, but my schoolboy French was up to the translation(along with Summer). Nice puzzle. 28:29. Thanks setter and Jack.
  21. A nice puzzle, done in 9m 11s but with an error at 12a – I’m aware of EXEGESIS but wasn’t sure how to adapt it appropriately, so plumped for EXEGENE. Recently I was pondering here how many foreign words we’re supposed to know – apparently more than I do, because I didn’t know the French for summer.
  22. My brain seemed to be shooting blanks this morning so I was glad to come home in 16.34. I didn’t get around to parsing the non-u bag (what my husband calls a Dopp kit) or the figure of EIGHT and I got too clever with EXEGETE trying to fit “Aout” (for late summer) in there somehow. As Vinyl says, I only knew ANAHEIM from the baseball team and a weepie family movie called Angels In The Outfield that I was conscripted into accompanying my younger daughter’s class to in the 90s.

    Edited at 2019-06-04 11:05 am (UTC)

  23. INDRI and EXEGETE unknown. Don’t think wordplay clear enough to determine whether EXEGETE or EXETEGE correct if you didn’t already know the word. On a 50/50 guess, I guessed right.

    HASTE = Expedition?

    Completed bottom half before getting any of the top half.

    1. To expedite is to hasten (Chambers – transitive verb, def 2), so presumably haste is an expedition. It took me a few minutes to convince myself without the aid of a dictionary on solving.
  24. 12:52, nothing new to add.

    ..hang on, just noticed that’s the second time in the last few days that Sotira has beaten me by one second. Grrr.

    Edited at 2019-06-04 11:59 am (UTC)

  25. 40 mins but somewhat distracted by also watching our Jo winning the tennis. Especially hard as I have to wear 2 pairs of glasses at once to do both at the same time.
    I appear to be one of only a few never to have heard of ENTRE NOUS, my LOI, and CHAMELEON wouldn’t come easily either. Very enjoyable.
  26. Stuck at home with the dog today so I had time to look at this. Not too difficult really. FOI was INSINUATE. INDRI unknown but easily guessed.I have been to Anaheim and once I had HE it emerged. LOI was the unknown EXEGETE; I remembered the word EXEGESIS from university (never really knew what it meant) but I know my French seasons.
    Was held up by putting SKATE into 10a but as we know there are plenty more fish in the sea. David
  27. Very enjoyable. The unknowns were relatively easy to work out from the cryptic so they weren’t as annoying as they often are. I’ve heard of Anaheim from pub quizzes as the first site of one of Walt Disney’s theme parks. 26 minutes. Ann
  28. Slowed down a bit by trying to figure out how the G in Omega got moved to the wrong place. Unlike antelopes and lemurs, the Greek alphabet is a set of things I know all the members of, but I still have trouble getting to the right letter quickly when I’m solving. I made up for the time lost by remembering that we’d had that use of expedition about a year ago in a similar clue. Thkkx, jackkt, and setter
  29. A gentle 25 minutes, watching the tennis, with EXEGETE deduced from wordplay before a check at the end. The other “unknowns” I knew. For some reason ENTRE NOUS was my LOI although it wasn’t a tricky one.
  30. A couple of lazy clues in this offering. Besides the issue with 9a discussed above, if a brace is a strut between two points, then it surely shouldn’t be used as indicating ‘containing’ in 28a? This silliness would be easily rectified with ‘braced by. . .’ Then we can start on whether to ‘exist’ means ‘survive’. Not totally convinced by that, or by ‘nous’ meaning ‘reason’ either. Mr Grumpy
    1. The Shorter Oxford has:

      brace (vb)
      2 Embrace. LME–L16.
      3 Encompass, surround, encircle. LME.

      And whilst we’re about it:

      exist (vb)
      3 Continue alive or in being; maintain existence. Also, live, esp. under adverse conditions. L18.

      and Collins has
      nous (noun)
      1 mind or reason, esp when regarded as the principle governing all things

      Edited at 2019-06-04 04:32 pm (UTC)

  31. INDRI comes up all the time in crosswords (that I do) – what else is a setter going to do with I_D_I? I’m sure there are other obvious examples of “strange word that fills common combination of crossers” but I can’t put my finger on any of them just now.

    I wasn’t quite sure what was going on in 9ac either, but I didn’t let it bother me today, for a sub-6m finish.

  32. 16:52 cantered through this without too much difficulty but much enjoyed along the way. LOI, just between us, was entre-nous. Glad the unknown indri was clued so clearly.
  33. Well, here I am a day late. I’m catching up on puzzles missed while I was off walking (bits of) Hadrian’s Wall. It’s jolly impressive, but they’d’ve got better visitor numbers if they’d built it further south.

    In any event, this was all reasonably straightforward apart from EXEGETE, which was an NHO. I finally put it in after deciding that (a) it was similar to “exegesis” and (b) I wasn’t sure what “exegesis” meant, so it could well have meant “interpretation”. Both words have now been added to my collection of things I am unlikely to use again but had best not throw away. No doubt at some point in the future I’ll have a clear-out and wonder why I kept them.

    No trouble with INDRI, which are memorable for getting around in a bizarrely balletic way and for being endangered.

  34. One stone is a weight. Obscure the front and you get eight which of course is a figure.

    Sven of Perth

    1. Dear Sven of Perth,
      I’m glad you figured that out! Congratulations! So did I. I was saying I didn’t agree with another commenter’s alternative parsing of the wording of the clue.
  35. Thanks setter and jack
    Got off to a quickish start in the NW corner with EIGHT being in quite early and not getting stuck with the details other than that EIGHT was a ‘figure’ and ‘one stone, perhaps’ was an example of a WEIGHT. ANAHEIM was next in – it’s interesting to see what people know / don’t know from the different parts of the world that we come from – it was the Disneyland connection that brought it to mind for me.
    It’s also interesting what becomes non-U for some folk – TOILET BAG has always been commonly used down here – maybe we’re just non-U here !
    INDRI is a word that has cropped up a number of times in various puzzles, but rarely in real life or in zoos for me. EXEGETE and HANDMAID’S KNEE were both the new terms but both readily derived from the word play.
    Finished in the SW corner with PROSAIC, SPOTTY and APOLOGISE the last few in.

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