Times Cryptic 27399 Pip’s got a busy week.

Author   oliviarhinebeckPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Yes, it’s me again.  When I blithely agreed to babysit Pip’s slot this week I didn’t immediately have in mind that the previous 2 Wednesday puzzles that fell to his lot had been brutes, or beauts depending on your viewpoint.  And then came last week’s “lapin bouilli” which was my first and so far only DNF this year.  So I approached this with a degree of caution.  It turned out to be a neat and admirably succinct example of the setter’s art with no nasty surprises.  I didn’t do this on the Club board but my approximate time was between 17 and 18 minutes.  Tip of the hat to Jackkt for some timely help with a certain protocol.  Definitions in italics underlined.  Answers in bold caps.  I still can’t remember how to do the colour coding.

Across

1.  Old copper in standard valve (8)
STOPCOCK.  OPC=old copper contained in STOCK=standard.
5.  Rigorous limit avoid by engineers (6)
STRICT.  Remove the engineers – RE – from [re]strict=limit.
9.  I’d forget to recycle sack (3,3,2)
GET RID OF.  Anagram (recycle) of IDFORGET.
10  Stole what diner may leave with dog? (6)
TIPPET.  Unless it’s service compris, that’s what you give your waiter, with the family dog.  This article of clothing doesn’t seem to appear in the Georgette Heyer oeuvre, probably because it came in later, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.  I just about remember an elderly female relative who had an evil-looking (and smelling) sort of fox thingy with beady glass eyes that was draped about her shoulders.  It may also be a part of clerical wear, though not in fur probably.
12.  Will’s lost unpaid work (6,2,4)
LABOUR OF LOVE  Reference to Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.
15.  Take notice?  No point (6)
ADOPT.  AD=notice.  O=no. PT=point.
16.  One hard poet translated is Paris prizewinner (9)
APHRODITE.  Anagram (translated) of I=one with HARDPOET.  In ancient mythology she competed in the beauty pageant with Hera and Athena and was awarded the golden apple by Paris as the fairest of them all.  Much trouble ensued and there wasn’t even a swimsuit contest.
18.  Unlimited confidence in primordial bird (9)
FIRECREST.  [S]ECRE[t]=confidence contained in FIRST=primordial.
19.  Gather urgent request needs time (5)
PLEAT.  PLEA=request with T.
20.  Profitable business’s general condition leading to worry (5,7)
GOING CONCERN.  GOING (as in tough going)=general condition with CONCERN=worry.
24.  A pound in the bank; are you sure? (6)
REALLY.  A L=a pound contained in RELY=bank.
25. A number of families from America turned back at the frontier (8)
SUBORDER.  A taxonomy term.  SU=America reversed with BORDER.  An inescably topical clue, in effect flipped on its head.
26.  Shelter in squalid place, from such weather? (6)
SLEETY.  Perhaps continuing the motif from the previous clue.  LEE=shelter in STY.
27.  Woman and writer go off to marry (8)
PENELOPE.  PEN=writer with ELOPE.  When I was a kid I thought that was exactly how  the name was pronounced.

Down

1.  Pundit’s second childhood, for one (4)
SAGE.  S with AGE, a nod to Will’s seven ages of man.
2.  Grass is needed by horse, I swear it? (4)
OATH.  OAT=grass with H for horse.
3..Rise briefly over ocean, leaving river and coming to a high point (9)
CLIMACTIC.  CLIM[b]=rise briefly then drop the R from the A[r]ctic ocean.
4.  Brown and black farm animal, sweetly pretty (9-3)
CHOCOLATE-BOX.  CHOCOLATE=brown.  B=black.  OX= farm animal.  It seems that once upon a time the boxes were adorned with faces of conventionally cute girls.  In my childhood they seemed to come with pictures of bijou thatched cottages surrounded by hollyhocks and delphiniums.  Nowadays I try to walk quickly past the Godiva display with its smart gold wrappings.
6.  One to be taken by the force? (5)
THIEF.  THE F containing I.  A nice “and lit.” (see glossary).
7.  Better to conceal one’s made up (10)
IMPROVISED.  IMPROVED=better, contianing IS=one’s.
8.  With drink man would take food at hotel without ever letting up (2,3,5)
TO THE DEATH.  TOT=drink.  HE’D=man would.  H=hotel in the NATO alphabet this time.
11.  Teach recruit badly, it’s a fine art (12)
ARCHITECTURE.  Anagram (badly) of TEACHRECRUIT.
13.  Put down sums for models (3,7)
LAY FIGURES.  They’re jointed human figures, often wooden, used as models by artists.  LAY=put down.  FIGURES=sums.
14.  Full of noise, harangue in support of county match (10)
COORDINATE.  CO=county and ORATE=harangue containing DIN=noise.
17.  Deliberately forward contract, work being held up (2,7)
ON PURPOSE.  ON=forward.  PURSE=contract (as in lips), containing OP=work reversed (being held up).
21.  Gold edging for English jacket (5)
GILET.  GILT=gold containing E. Here they’re just called vests.   I believe Pip has had some experience with les gilets jaunes.
22.  Tropical plant not fully bedded down (4)
EDDO.  Hidden in [bedd]ED DO[wn].  Root veg used in some cookery.  I don’t know why I knew it – probably from the NY Times puzzles.
23. Liberal, like some public houses (4)
FREE.  In other words a pub not tied to a particular brewery, but of course you knew that!

54 comments on “Times Cryptic 27399 Pip’s got a busy week.”

  1. I found this rather rough sledding (I see I’ve got the highest Nitch so far), but finally came through with LOI SUBORDER, where at last I realized that that isn’t someone who subords. I spent too much time trying to fit OCU into 1ac. Biffed 12ac, never stopping to wonder what Will was doing. I also biffed CLIMAXING from ‘rise briefly’ plus ‘coming to a high point’, then thought, “in the Times?” and looked more closely at the clue. DNK FIRECREST, and, like Olivia, I imagine I ‘knew’ EDDO from the NYT. When I was a child it seemed that every old lady, and many not so old, had a dead fox to wear on their shoulders; I didn’t know they were called tippets, or even if they were called tippets, but they were definitely ugly.

    Edited at 2019-07-10 04:59 am (UTC)

  2. Nice to see the ‘Megan Rapinoe’ of the Crossword Field at the helm.

    DNF as I went for SET FIGURES at 13dn rather than LAY FIGURES which was oddly a DNK. This made 15ac E-O-T pretty difficult unless an E-BOAT was to hand.

    So my 50 minutes in vain.

    FOI 2dn OATH

    COD 4dn the emotive CHOCOLATE-BOX

    WOD 10ac TIPPET I have never kmowingly worn one ! I thought Sir Michael was a bus conductor.

    At 25ac SUBORDER I believe that the setter is trying to bring partisan politics into the 15×15! Well done matey!

      1. Having never darkened Olivia’s portals, I know her only slightly from this blog. She appears to be most charming and ‘right-on’, apart from the occasional meanderings along Georgette Heyer Avenue!

        Edited at 2019-07-10 09:02 am (UTC)

    2. It’s going to be a typical NYC summer day, very hot and sticky so not ideal for a parade. As you no doubt know, there is no more tickertape and you can’t open the windows in the tall office buildings downtown any more even if you wanted to toss the contents of your shredder out.
  3. EDDO! TIPPET (Wikipedia says it may “be likened to a stole in the secular rather than the ecclesiastical sense”)! And… LAY FIGURES! I had WAX FIGURES, having thought of the correct term but not knowing that it had that meaning, and having discovered that “wax” as a verb can mean to record or, uh, lay down some tracks (though you won’t find this in every dictionary).
    1. I had WAX FIGURES too with the same unconvincing musical reasoning. But I’d never heard of LAY FIGURES
      1. I am also a WAX FIGURES advocate. My alphabet trawl for some thing more convincing only reached GA_ before boredom engulfed me.
  4. I considered chocolate cow too. Didn’t know about the history of the boxes, CHOCOLATE BOX is a phrase I often use about cottages when on holiday, as mentioned. No idea at all on LAY FIGURES.

    26′, thanks Olivia and setter.

  5. As it turned out I had solved all the clues correctly just within my target half-hour but I didn’t do the equivalent for solving on paper of clicking ‘submit’ online for another another 15 minutes whilst I went through an alphabet trawl on ?a? at 13dn hoping that a better solution than LAY FIGURES (i.e. one I had actually heard of) might occur to me.

    Did anyone else consider CHOCOLATE COW at 4dn? Just me then.

    DK TIPPET or EDDO but both were unavoidable from wordplay.

    Edited at 2019-07-10 05:37 am (UTC)

    2. I wasn’t going to confess, but I did entertain the thought.
      The only time I’ve ever heard LAY FIGURE was decades ago at Berkeley: a lecturer criticized Arnold’s “Dover Beach” for using the addressee as one (‘Ah, love, let us be true to one another’), someone for the poet to address his thoughts to, like an orator practicing.
    3. Chocolate cow, in desperation that’s what I settled on – the only competition being chocolate log!!
      I should’ve got it, I just couldn’t see how ‘black’ could fit.
      Chocolate cow should mean something – maybe the opposite of white elephant…
  6. I continued my good form of this week by finishing with the unknown LAY FIGURES. I considered PAN FIGURES but thought LAY sounded somewhat more likely. I’m glad I didn’t consider WAX as I reckon I’d have gone with that.

    The CHOCOLATE COW mentioned by some above posters sounds like an alternative to a chocolate teapot – “that’s about as much use as a chocolate cow”.

  7. Steady top to bottom solve. Knew LAY FIGURE but not TIPPET. Don’t think I’ve ever seen one. In my youth old ladies wore shawls and sipped Guinness in the Bricklayer’s Arms – not a place to wear a dead fox round ones neck.
  8. This time essaying IMPROVISER which only works if you slip a few gears between someone who bets, someone who makes up, and someone who gets better. No, right, it doesn’t work.
    I have, it turns out, a LAY FIGURE left behind by my artistic daughter-in-law when flying the nest. I thought it was a manikin. I also thought a lay figure was an undogcollared clergy person. We live, learn and probably forget.
    I fear I thought of a CHOCOLATE PIG before sanity intruded.
    I spent ages on COORDINATE, would have got it instantly if Ed had bothered with a hyphen. Economy?
    Near enough 25 minutes.

    Edited at 2019-07-10 07:37 am (UTC)

  9. 16:10. Quite tricky this. I was glad LAY FIGURES, which I had never heard of, wasn’t something else.
    I’ve always associated CHOCOLATE-BOX with Cotswolds villages, and the dictionaries support this usage: the first example in ODO (or Lexico, as it’s now called) is ‘chocolate-box cottages’.
    We still have a fur thing that might for all I know be a TIPPET which belonged to my grandmother. The last time it was used was when went to a fancy dress party as Jon Snow.
  10. 40 mins with yoghurt, granola, raspberries, etc.
    And that just left _A_ Figure. I spent a pleasant few minutes making a convincing case for: Eat, Fax, Gas, Lam, Sad, Rap, Nap, Map, Pan, Sat, Wax and Zap. But I plumped for Lay, Hoorah.
    Mostly I liked: Will’s lost, Paris prizewinner, but COD to Chocolate Box. Yes, I toyed with Cow.
    Thanks setter and Olivia.
  11. I came here hesitantly after 29 minutes with WAX FIGURES. Maybe I should have hesitated longer, but I think I was lost either way. I’ve never heard of LAY FIGURES. I didn’t know TIPPET either, but that was reasonably easy to construct, once I’d found my glasses to see if the service was compris(ed). I liked LABOUR OF LOVE but COD by a short head to CHOCOLATE BOX. I once had a thatched cottage in Oxfordshire with hollyhocks, delphiniums AND foxgloves, Olivia. My football team are still more of an onGOING CONCERN. “This one will run and run” – Fergus Cashin, Daily Sketch isn’t quite the review you want to give to an Administrator. We’ll be starting the first match with seven players. Enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Olivia and setter.
  12. 25:17 … so my personal Nitch today far exceeds Kevin’s, and I really did make hard work of it. No excuses, just very slow to see some of the clues that would have opened up the grid a bit (STOPCOCK, for instance).

    CHOCOLATE BOX IS very nicely done, as is SUBORDER — a poignant reversal of reality indeed.

    Great to see you back on parade, Olivia. But what’s a “lapin bouilli”? I did one quick web search which threw up Merriam-Webster’s def. for lapin as a castrated rabbit, and decided I’d better just ask instead.

  13. I found this hard going with a spell where I could make no progress until an inspiration gave me SUBORDER and ARCHITECTURE, after which APHRODITE hove into view. I considered, but rejected SOW and COW as possibilities for the second word in 4d. It was eventually my LOI when I saw CHOCOLATE from the checkers. I had ECRE for a while before spotting FIRST for primordial. LABOUR OF LOVE was a late entry and LAY FIGURES was a “what else can it be” biff. 48:09. Thanks setter and Olivia.
  15. ….I came to a brief STOP, COCK, in the NW corner. This was the least of my problems as it turned out. I’d been distracted by thoughts of chocolate log, but had also biffed “set figures”. Once I finally saw ADOPT, I entered LAY FIGURES with some trepidation. Thanks, Olivia, for explaining that, and for parsing CHOCOLATE BOX.

    FOI APHRODITE
    LOI LAY FIGURES
    COD THIEF
    TIME 14:41

  16. ….but with WAX FIGURES. My reasoning was the same as Guy du Sable’s and quailthrush’s. “Let’s get something down on wax.” Would a jointed wooden hand count as a LAY FIGURE? Sue had one and used it as an aid when painting. Whatever, the term was new to me.
    Thanks for an entertaining blog Olivia. I do admit to considering both pig and cow when it came to words to accompany chocolate but when I think of CHOCOLATE BOX I automatically think of Renoir.
    The only things I (think) I know about Megan Rapinoe are that she has pink hair, scored a goal in the recent Women’s World Cup Final and has refused to attend any ceremony at the Trump White House. I’m sure you would be happy with one comparison out of three!
  17. 42 mins: half asleep this morning. Glad I didn’t think of wax, or I would probably have fallen into that trap. NHO eddo. Thanks Olivia.
  18. An hour and a minute, or thereabouts, as I struggled all the way through this one from 2d OATH to 13d LAY FIGURES. As it turned out, I’ve owned one of these in the past, without ever knowing what it was called. That went in once 15a ADOPT had put paid to my SET FIGURES—happy to see I was in good company on that one.

    The SW was definitely the toughest for me, and it was only constructing 18a FIRECREST from wordplay that got me started off after becoming becalmed. TIPPET and EDDO also unknown, and CHOCOLATE-BOX only vaguely familiar.

    16a APHRODITE my favourite; it’s one of the first clues where my recent attempts at retro-fitting a classical education have paid off a little…

  19. Medium hard, I thought, but with a runny centre .. did not know lay figures so fingers crossed there, but wax didn’t feel right.
    Tippet I knew from somewhere, the Tailor of Gloucester perhaps.. or Ms Heyer
  20. Like others I fell at the last hurdle, entering WAX FIGURES on the basis that they exist, whereas LAY FIGURES – which was the only other possibility I’d entertained – didn’t, as far as I knew. At least 2 minutes and two alphabet trawls for that error, and about ten and a half minutes overall.

    SUBORDER was my favourite clue today.

  21. At my 30 mins brainpower-timeout I had about 40% done. Solving aids enabled me quickly to identify the missing 60% starting with FIRECREST which I DNK along with LAY FIGURES. Never heard them called that. I have one of a hand and I always know that my nephew has been as he leaves it indicating a rude gesture.

    FOI was 1d then 1a
    LOI 5a
    COD for THIEF and OATH, latter is semi-&-lit too.

    62/64. Nearly done with my three month-challenge. Will post a summary of my progress (yes, there has been progress!!)

    Best wishes and thanks to Olivia and setter.

    WS

    Edited at 2019-07-10 12:20 pm (UTC)

  22. Done on the train from Chippenham to Bristol. No problems but could not have told you what an EDDO or TIPPET was beforehand. ADOPT my LOI. COD to the CHOCOLATE BOX. Thanks OLIVIA.
  23. I don’t think I was meant as an insult. Golden Boot, World Cup winner. Doesn’t get much bigger than that.
  25. Got stuck on a couple 15a and 14d so am here for enlightenment. Thanks for that. I had Admit at 15a and something ending in TIRADE at 14d where I had the wrong end of the stick.
    Annoying as I got LAY FIGURES from somewhere and worked out the unknown TIPPET. Oh well.
    Now back to India v NZ -exciting!
    David
  26. At least I was original (I think) – RAW FIGURES for me after the usual unsuccessful LOI trawl.

    70 minutes in front of the cricket. Those Kiwis…

    I thought THIEF was very good.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  27. Just under the hour but distracted by cricket/tennis. Thought LAY FIGURES a difficult one, and to be honest I looked it up. LOI COORDINATE for no apparent reason other than brain seizure. GILET nice and topical with the Tour and protesters both active.
  28. I also considered CHOCOLATE COW, and in fact I entered it, so a fail for me today. I can’t recall hearing of the CHOCOLATE BOX term used in this way. And had I thought of WAX before LAY I would have entered that too, but I never did, so I got that one correct despite not knowing of those things either. Regards.
    1. I am hardly surprised that ‘Chocolate Box’ is unknown in NY
      as this is an English Crossword ‘Old Bean’!
      No more tickertape? Well I’ll be blowed! Regards.
  29. I toyed with cow, hog, and even log before I got there. And I was with horryd for set figures.

    Nice blog, Olivia. Thx.

  30. 36:39. I appear not to have noticed when solving that I didn’t know what a tippet was or what an eddo was. I had difficulty remembering the first word of the expression at 12ac even with the nod to the bard. Firecrest took a while to decrypt. Needed an alpha trawl for the first of the two words at 13dn. I ended up with a toss up between wax and lay. For wax I was thinking of the waxing of the moon which didn’t really seem equivalent to put down. So I ended up going for lay figures. I have seen plenty of them in post-exhibition strolls round the shop at Tate Modern and various other galleries without knowing what they were called.

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