Times Cryptic 27386

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Another blog with no solving time to offer as I nodded off part of the way through. There were a few unknowns as detailed below including one word I cheated on and another where I checked the answer was correct before proceeding.

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 Hide as Conservative involved in business purchase (4,5)
TAKE COVER – C (conservative) contained by [involved in] TAKE OVER (business purchase)
6 Stern-faced little pet in toddler’s book? (3-2)
POP-UP – PO (stern-faced), PUP (little pet). Suggested synonyms for ‘po-faced’ are ‘humourless, disapproving, solemn, prim’, so not a million miles from ‘pious’ which we often meet abbreviated to ‘pi’. Unlike ‘pi’ however, I can find no support in the usual sources for abbreviating ‘po-faced’ to ‘po’ which would put us back in the realm of chamber-pots as discussed here only last week.
9 Devon town house that’s not fashionable facing west (7)
HONITON – HO (house), then NOT + IN (fashionable) reversed [facing west]. NOT clued by ‘not’ seems a bit unnecessary in a 15×15 and I wonder why the setter didn’t  substitute ‘unfashionable’? This Devonshire town has been mentioned here a few times recently in connection with lace-making.
10 Rightly following the greatest physicist (7)
MAXWELL – MAX (the greatest), WELL (rightly). James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879), I assume. Still unknown to me, I’m afraid, despite appearing in a puzzle I blogged as recently as January this year.
11 Lady first appearing when it gets dark (3)
EVE – Two meanings. I had to search to find this defined specifically as ‘evening’ i.e. a time of day when it gets dark, but it’s in Collins described as ‘archaic’ . Normally it means the day or evening before an event.
12 Verdict is doubly bad for habitual criminals (11)
RECIDIVISTS – Anagram [bad] of VERDICT IS and IS again [doubly]
14 Corrupt place needing purge (6)
PUTRID – PUT (place), RID (purge)
15 Getting guided around, I certainly will be unhurried (8)
LEISURED – LED (guided) containing [around} I + SURE (certainly)
17 Out-of-date old boys look back, wanting summer in Paris (8)
OBSOLETE – OBS (old boys), LO reversed [back}, ÉTÉ (summer, in Paris)
19 Burdened, with leader gone — it’s rotten (6)
ADDLED – {s}ADDLED (burdened) [with leader gone]
22 Shop’s final salesperson managed to call just before dinner? (11)
PREPRANDIAL – {sho}P [final] REP (salesperson), RAN (managed), DIAL (call)
23 Problem, not the first, to make one worry (3)
NAG – {s}NAG (problem) [not the first]
25 Small private room with nothing near (5,2)
CLOSE TO – CLOSET (small private room), 0 (nothing)
27 Old person keeping dry in enclosure, simple accommodation (7)
COTTAGE – O (old) + TT (person keeping dry – teetotaller) contained by [in] CAGE (enclosure)
28 Celebrity entertaining one that’s fretted (5)
SITAR – STAR (celebrity) containing [entertaining] I (one). ‘One’ serves double-duty here as part of the definition and the wordplay.
29 Get confused in store aimlessly trailing after woman (9)
DISORIENT – DI (woman) anagram [aimlessly] of IN STORE with ‘training after’ as a positional indicator.
Down
1 The heartless Dickensian sycophant letting out quiet chuckle (2-3)
TE-HEE – T{h}E [heartless], HEE{p} (Dickensian sycophant – Uriah Heep) [letting out quiet – p]
2 Most considerate type taking time in Panama for example (7)
KINDEST – KIND (type), EST (time in Panama for example  – Eastern Standard Time). I delayed myself here trying to fit ‘hat’ into the answer.
3 Provide food and drink support — grub you may not want to eat! (11)
CATERPILLAR – CATER (provide food and drink), PILLAR (support)
4 Very English resort, a major tourist attraction (6)
VENICE – V (very), E (English), NICE (resort)
5 Group of engineers passes on repairs (8)
REMEDIES – REME (group of engineers – Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), DIES (passes on)
6 Dad getting cross? Let’s have peace! (3)
PAX – PA (dad), X (cross)
7 Quiet tenant may be someone to whom gratitude is due (7)
PLEASER – P (quiet), LEASER (tenant). I wasn’t entirely sure that either ‘leaser’ or ‘pleaser’ exist as agent nouns but Collins confirms that both are valid.
8 Friend is given help, not one to be fenced in (9)
PALISADED – PAL (friend), IS, A{i}DED (given help) [not one]. Cue Bing and the Andrews Sisters…
13 Aorta’s vol. I can change, diameter having been restricted? (11)
VASODILATOR – Anagram [can change] of AORTAS VOL I  containing [having been restricted] D (diameter). I gave up on this one and looked it up. On edit: I forgot to mention earlier that this word has never appeared before in any puzzle in the TftT era.
14 Expectations to have various coppers on street after upset (9)
PROSPECTS – Anagram [various] of COPPERS,  ST (street) reversed [after upset]
16 American university not against getting external support (8)
STANFORD – FOR (not against) contained by [getting external] STAND (support). Didn’t know this.
18 Move apace, determined to bag record (4,3)
STEP OUT – STOUT (determined) containing [to bag] EP (record)
20 Descent with rope possibly taking a long time (7)
LINEAGE – LINE (rope possibly]. AGE (long time)
21 Show moves around, late getting away (6)
CIRCUS – CIRCU{late}S (moves around) [late getting away]
24 City has good hospital department for otolaryngology (5)
GHENT – G (good), H (hospital), ENT (department for otolaryngology – Ear, Nose & Throat)
26 The artist has such a good sense of music (3)
EAR – Hidden in [has] {th}E AR{tist}

44 comments on “Times Cryptic 27386”

  1. No questions! Easier than yesterday’s, IMHO. LOI: Honiton, and strictly from the wordplay.

    Edited at 2019-06-25 02:37 am (UTC)

  2. One question. Tougher than yestrrday’s IMHO LOI: 13dn VASODILATOR!What’s one of them!? A drug! Whatever next!?

    Time a 15ac 41 minutes

    DNP 2dn KINDEST

    FOI 6dn PAX

    COD 1dn TE-HEE

    WOD 22ac PREPRANDIAL – always up for one of those.

    re 24ac GHENT – Ear Nose & Throat – Nöel Coward’s name for Ian Fleming’s ‘ghastly house’, Goldeneye.

    Edited at 2019-06-25 03:18 am (UTC)

      2. Thanks Messrs. Bletchleyreject and Johninterred.

        I am able to access the clues but not the grid!?

        Any advise to the gridless?

        Edited at 2019-06-25 04:48 pm (UTC)

        1. Managed to find grid – dear me what a kerfuffle!

          Will attempt tomorrow – looks highly IKEAN!

  3. I couldn’t parse VASODILATOR properly, but I think you’re correct and it’s an &lit. Only problem is that in real life, vasodilator drugs have their effect on much smaller blood vessels, though I suppose mechanical vasodilators such as stents could dilate the aorta.

    I was held up by this ‘simple’ anagram, trying to work out what ‘Panama’ was doing in 2d and by ignoring the ‘fretted’ bit of 28a and initially putting in ‘stair’. Finished in 53 minutes.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  4. 18 mins for me so quite easy. Nice to see JC Maxwell making another appearance. He may indeed be the greatest physicist. VASODILATOR is an attempt at an &lit which doesn’t quite work. And shouldn’t a chuckle be TEE-HEE?
  5. I was undone by two careless mistakes today. Firstly for unhurried I’d biffed MEASURED, not bothering to fully parse it (I saw SURE for certainly and thought that was good enough). Secondly I went for VASIDILATOR. Long anagrams can be tricky as I solve on the iPad and have no ready way to write down the letters and cross them out. Now’s the time I think that I must carry pen and paper for this purpose then promptly forget until the next time.
    1. I put in VASIDILATOR initially, and didn’t have a pen and paper to hand. My technique when this happens is usually to count the vowels, which takes a while but works.
      For me it was all to no avail this morning because I’m spite of checking my answers I failed to notice that I hadn’t put the A in EAR.
      It took me 11:25 to complete the rest.
  6. Easy, yes, but fun. Aware of vasodilation, no idea what it means but I supose one can more or less guess.
    26dn: the artist in question presumably was not Van Gogh..
  7. Apparently easier than yesterday’s in my book by all of four seconds. I thought VASODILATOR was a bold attempt at an &lit, though “aorta’s vol. I” looked rather “hey, it’s an anagram!”. “I” to denote an inanimate object is a bit suspect, but happens often enough. I assumed when solving it was a mechanical device, shortly before taking my morning Vascalpha™.
    Add me to the number who wondered where the frets were on a stair.
    I might be prepared to eat caterpillars, though they’d have to be disguised and not wriggling. But then I’m not a celebrity.
  8. 15’12”, with VASODILATOR LOI, figured it must be something to do with dilation. Liked PREPRANDIAL, and once accidentally stayed in HONITON.

    Thanks jack and setter.

  9. 15 minutes with LOI the unknown VASODILATOR. Not being a Medic, I’ve no idea how obscure this is. I had the anagram fodder from early on but couldn’t make head nor tail of it without all the crossers and an assumption that it must begin with VAS because ‘vascular’ does. It finally hit me that the answer might be something that dilated the VAS or VASO, which could be the same as a vein. Physicists tended not to do biology in my day! Otherwise, a very easy puzzle. COD to PREPRANDIAL, because it suggests a glass of Tio Pepe before a pleasant lunch in a bygone business era. Thank you Jack and setter.
  10. 25 mins with yoghurt, blueberry compote, etc.
    Could have been very quick, for me, but the CottAGE and LineAGE needed Ages (geddit?).
    I doff my cap every time I walk past Maxwell’s birthplace on India Street.
    Thanks setter and J.
  11. LOI CIRCUS, which I failed to parse. Thanks for that Jack. And I’m another who tried find a hat in 2d until the K appeared in 1a. Fortunately I knew the type of drug at 13d. 11:44.
  12. Easy puzzle apart from a guess at the long anagram at 13D

    Maxwell – how can anybody not know of him? – changed our understanding of the world around us by unifying magnetism, optics and electricity as different examples of the same underlying phenomena. His ideas led eventually to the quantum theory

  13. Thank you Jack, particularly for VASODILATOR and CIRCUS, oh, and for Panama in KINDEST.
    Readers of the Sunday Times will probably know Niall Ferguson who is listed as a Fellow at STANFORD.
  14. 13:56 … which felt slow, as I got totally stuck with only a few in the southwest to do. I’ll join those generously calling the clue for VASODILATOR “a brave attempt” … (sorry, setter!). I wouldn’t really say the word itself was obscure. Booze is one, which is of course why you don’t give brandy to anyone suffering from hypothermia … unless you’re a St. Bernard, in which case it’s cute.

    After misreading a couple of comments above (stairs, sitars) I had to check if a SITAR actually does have frets but am now reassured that it does. The tanpura, on the other hand ….

  15. A good time, for me, of 18:09 was spoiled by a careless EER at 26d, where I looked at the space in the middle and thought that needs an A. Drat! No problem with VASODILATOR. II failed to parse CIRCUS. Otherwise a pleasant interlude. Count me in with the PANAMA??? crowd. Thanks setter and Jack.

    Edited at 2019-06-25 08:03 am (UTC)

  16. Twenty-six minutes, with the last three spent staring at CIRCUS. I had it in my mind that it was “circles” minus the “L” for late, which would be an error on the part of the setter. Thanks to [jackkt] for the correct parsing.

  17. Yes it was easy. One of the few I completed quickly and with no look-ups or aids.

    Edited at 2019-06-25 09:04 am (UTC)

  18. Disrupted slightly by taking the car for its MOT this morning, so this was 30 minutes at home plus another five in the delightfully named Dick Lovett dealership to finish off. Happily I’m rewatching House at the moment, and VASODILATOR sprang to mind quite readily. It was my LOI CIRCUS that took me the most time to figure out. It might’ve been easier without the final S making me think I was looking for a plural.

    Edited at 2019-06-25 09:21 am (UTC)

  19. I didn’t find this as easy as many here did but eventually got across the line in one piece. Putting He-Hee for 1 down didn’t help.

    LOI: PUTRID. COD:DISORIENT.

  20. Nice puzzle; no time today as I was doing other stuff while solving. Thanks jack.
  21. As previously observed, this felt very Monday-ish with no real alarms, though I’d be another whose attempt at spelling 1dn would have been TEE-HEE.
    1. Definitely TEE-HEE for mee, but the NYT has accustomed me to the short TE. I am not, however, accustomed to ‘te(e)-hee’ expressing a chuckle. There’s at least 2 octaves separating a chuckle from a giggle.
  22. As easy as yesterday, 16 minutes watching the toss at Lords. All parsed except CIRCUS which was neat once I read the blog. No bother with vasodilator and Maxwell a write-in. Thanks jackkt.
  23. Quick time but with a visadolator – if I’d thought I’d have seen ‘dilator’ and got it. Enjoyable Times offering as always, in part for the exercise in thinking accurately, in part for the free-ranging ingenuity in a patterned display, in part simply for what I call the verbarium. Every now and then one sees what one takes for granted – thanks to whatever the collective noun for setters may be.
  24. ….PUTRID and ADDLED to the left and right of mid-puzzle. Thanks for KINDEST Jack. Would never have parsed it.

    I finally wrote out the anagrist for VASODILATOR, and “vaso” seemed more likely than “vosa”. Wasn’t keen tbh.

    FOI POP-UP
    LOI PUTRID
    COD CATERPILLAR
    TIME 10:08

  25. Heard of vasoldilators in medical context, perhaps as I’m asthmatic, but drugs for that dilate lungs not veins.

    Ghent is interesting as I’ll be cycling through there in the summer as part of a two week biking holiday.

    FOI was 11a
    LOI was 25a
    COD for me 13d, I thought it was cleverly constructed – I think the &lit surface works fine?

    Thanks to blogger and setter.

    WS
    Total 52/54

  26. No time today as I forgot to pause. Held up for a long time by CIRCUS and DISORENT. Never saw the anagram, much to my dismay.
  27. Well I was due for an invisible typo (a D instead of an S on the end of REMEDIES) so my 15 minutes went down the tubes. I agree with Jack that PLEASER looks a little funny but there are “crowd-pleasers”. And I’ve always had a slightly different meaning for STEP OUT – my late mother-in-law used it to mean dating someone (her son was stepping out with me eons ago). Not to mention Fred Astaire and his white tie and tails steppin’ out with his baby.
  28. DNF. Bah! All done in 25:45 but to no avail, I had a couple of vowels the wrong way round in the long anagram ending up with vasidolator (worshipper of false Vice-Admirals? Vicar-Apostolics?) instead of vasodilator. A particularly annoying failure given that I think vasodilator or at least the elements of its construction are quite reasonably gettable.

    FWIW re. 6ac, my Chambers does have as a second entry for Po:

    po – adj a shortening of po-faced.

  30. Mostly fairly straightforward here, with just a bit of a delay at the end for CIRCUS, which I couldn’t parse. I should have, but it was late and I was getting tired. So I had to biff it in. Nice wordplay that eluded my drowsy brain last night. Regards.
  31. Rather pleased to have completed this crossword which makes me think it was easier than usual!
  32. Held up for ages by entering RECIVIDISTS – had it in mind that it might be something to do with hardened crims receiving stolen goods. Eventually worked out REMEDIES – not easy with a V as fifth letter and have NHO REME. VASODILATOR would have been fun if all of the vowels had been checkers…
  33. Around 45 minutes for this one. Honiton was new to me, and was held up by putting in stair at 28 ac. Thanks to Jack and setter.
  34. 30 minutes: my medication made 13dn clear, but I couldn’t see how to parse 2dn & 21dn, so thanks for explanations.
  35. Got there in the end, albeit with some help in getting the letters in the right order for 13d. Definitely easier than Monday’s puzzle and more enjoyable for it. Invariant
  36. Thanks setter and jack
    Was able to complete this in a single session very early in the morning, only needing aids to get the blood vessel dilator.
    Strange with the CIRCUS clue where the ‘late’ was given to us, but it still took an age to see that it had to be taken out of ‘getting around’ – clever ! Thought that EAR was particularly good as well – a lot of words to hide it – and it made me grin when I saw. My English geography has improved over the years and HONITON was an early entry.
    Finished in the NE corner with that VASODILATOR and ADDLED (which needed to fix up a careless S at the end of 8d).

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