Times Cryptic 27512

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 52 minutes. There are some quite complicated constructions here but easy stuff too so that it was not difficult to get footholds around the grid and build from there.

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]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Impressed by onset of emotional charge (8)
STAMPEDE : STAMPED (impressed), E{motional} [onset of…]
5 Sort out hostelry? I’m amazed about that (6)
WINNOW : WOW (I’m amazed) containing [about] INN (hostelry). SOED advises that ‘winnow’  is to expose (grain etc.) to the wind or to a current of air so that unwanted lighter particles of chaff etc. are separated or blown away – sorting the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. It can also be used figurativly and more generally to mean  separating things of value from the worthless.
10 Wears effeminate clothes below the belt (15)
UNSPORTSMANLIKE : UNMANLIKE (effeminate) contains [clothes] SPORTS (wears). I’m not risking any further comments on this one.
11 Cypriot man’s broken handle (10)
PATRONYMIC : Anagram [broken] of CYPRIOT MAN. A name derived from that of a father or ancestor, esp. by addition of an affix indicating such descent. Being of Ukrainian descent I know all about these.
13 Classical writer of film given Oscar at first (4)
OVID : O (oscar), VID (film)
15 Mike donning American cowboy’s garment (7)
ROMPERS : M (mike) contained by [donning] ROPER’S (American cowboy’s)
17 Blow up general engaging in manoeuvres (7)
ENLARGE : Anagram [engaging in manoeuvres] of GENERAL
18 The writer’s twice musing (7)
PENSIVE : PEN’S (the writer’s #1), I’VE (the writer’s #2) [twice]
19 Awful   drivers may stop here (3,4)
THE PITS : Two meanings
21 Eastern ruler open to the west (4)
RAJA : AJAR (open) reversed [to the west]. When is a door not a door?
22 Wholly good air introduced by singer (10)
ALTOGETHER : ALTO (singer), G (good), ETHER (air). I’m guessing this may upset some of our resident scientists, but ‘ether’ in literary usage can just mean the clear sky or air.
25 Sadly banking most of payment (like this) (15)
PARENTHETICALLY : PATHETICALLY (sadly) containing [banking] REN{t} payment [most of]. There’s always a lot like this in my blogs.
27 Hard – of hearing? (6)
TRYING : Two meanings
28 Bill collecting £50 for surveyor (8)
POLLSTER : POSTER (bill) containing [collecting] L (£) + L (50). A busy time for these at the moment! And a very similar clue has just appeared in a puzzle that’s currently under wraps.
Down
1 Sink second drink (7)
SCUPPER : S (second),  CUPPER (drink). I always thought it was spelt ‘cuppa’ but apparently this alternative is valid.
2 Like swallowing first of beers in six-pack? (3)
ABS : AS (like) containing [swallowing] B{eers} [first of…]. As a beer-drinker, the irony of ‘six-pack’ being used to describe toned and well-developed abdominal muscles is not lost on me. ‘Party 4’ might be nearer the mark!
3 Attractive, e.g. on being shot in image? (10)
PHOTOGENIC : HOT (attractive) + anagram [being shot] of EG ON contained by [in] PIC (image). The defintion is &lit.
4 Races through homework, a simple piece (5)
DITTY : TT (races – Tourist Trophy) contained by [through] DIY (homework – Do-It-Yourself). Shades of Barry Bucknell, famous on TV in the 50s and 60s for covering up historic features of older houses such as fireplaces and panelled doors with plywood and hardboard and then adding a lick of gloss paint. Formica was another option and didn’t need painting.
6 Somewhat paranoid about where Scots live (4)
IONA : Hidden [somewhat] and reversed [about] in {par}ANOI{d}
7 Polish cop to go AWOL, crossing river (4,7)
NAIL VARNISH : NAIL (cop), VANISH (go AWOL – Absent Without Leave) containing [crossing] R (river)
8 Flatter, like vehicles with raised base (7)
WHEEDLE : WHEELED (like vehicles) becomes WHEEDLE when the D (its base – in a Down answer) is raised
9 Two versions of the writer’s books at hand (8)
IMMINENT : I’M (the writer’s #1), MINE (the writer’s #2), NT (books – New Testament) [two versions]
12 Alcoholic drink   animated couple (3,3,5)
TOM AND JERRY : Two meanings, the first of which is an Americanism of which I was unware. I understand it’s a hot rum cocktail or highly spiced punch.
14 Suppress dodgy licence, pub losing 100 litres (4-6)
BLUE-PENCIL : Anagram [dodgy] of LICEN{c}E PUB [losing 100 – C], then L (litres). SOED has: (vb) to score through or obliterate with a blue pencil, make cuts in, censor.
16 Copy what used to be your secret (8)
STEALTHY : STEAL (copy), THY (what used to be your)
18 Do like to put in some defensive work (7)
PARAPET : APE (do like – copy), contained by [put in] PART (some)
20 Dispenser of liquid sulphur supported by petition (7)
SPRAYER : S (sulphur), PRAYER (petition). Glad so see we have the correct spelling of the element today.
23 Wrong note gives beat (5)
OUTDO : OUT (wrong), DO (note)
24 Before Norman’s denial, answer shortly (4)
ANON : A (answer), NON (Norman’s denial – yer actual French)
26 Good deal for item to be sold (3)
LOT : Two meanings

66 comments on “Times Cryptic 27512”

  1. The Tom and Jerry cocktail is pre-prohibition and dates back to the early 19th century. I assume the cat and mouse were named after it, although it’s hard to imagine naming animated characters after an alcoholic drink these days.

    I misread the clue for ANON as “Norman’s denial” NON and “answer shortly” for A. And I had a MER at the definition being “before” rather than “soon.” Doh.

    I’ve also never seen CUPPER spelled like that, but it couldn’t be anything else.

  2. I didn’t realize TOM AND JERRY was an American drink. I put in ARAN at 6d at first; couldn’t remember which was the one-R and which the two-R. I biffed 25ac once I’d twigged to the definition, didn’t parse until post-submission. I liked UNSPORTSMANLIKE and PARAPET.
    1. According to Chambers Slang Dictionary are lots of meanings associated with TOM AND JERRY going back to the Regency and even beyond that. They’re mostly to do with drinking and cheap taverns known as ‘tom and jerry shops. The only CRS reference has the expression standing for ‘merry’ presumably in the sense of being drunk.

      Edited at 2019-11-19 10:00 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks for mentioning the Chambers Slang Dictionary, which I’d never heard of. A bit of digging, et voilà, there’s the ‘Green’s Dictionary of Slang’ site. What a treasure.
  4. 31’. WHHEDLE’s a fine word, but COD to parenthetically.

    The HK Police Force just issued a pronouncement in which they called the protesters’ actions ‘flagitious’, which I thought was a bit special.

    ‘Milud, I was proceeding in a northerly direction when I became aware of a flagitious individual wearing a mask and carrying a petrol bomb.’

    1. We often talk of words that we only come across in a crossword context. But I confess I had to look up “flagitious” since I’d not even come across it in a crossword context before, let alone in real life. But now the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon will kick in and it will be 1A in the quickie tomorrow.
      1. I had to look it up as well. Amazing word, but if the Chambers pronunciation — /flə-jishˈəs/ — is right, I can see why it hasn’t caught on. Try saying that after a few Tom and Jerrys!
  5. I was just pleased to finish today after a run of two DNFs due to unknowns then two due to typos.

    I’ve not heard of the drink TOM AND JERRY but it sounds good. I did enjoy a good rum cocktail at the introduction to a ‘Whisky of the Year’ tasting at the Whisky Exchange in Covent Garden last night. Although the winner hasn’t been announced yet the Benriach 15 was popular in the room. I’d certainly recommend it to any tipplers here (of which I’d presume clynelish is one).

  6. At 25ac I presumed that the answer was MELANCHOLICALLY. Sadly it weren’t! It didn’t parse muster, screwing up 12dn- something AND JELLY!?

    I knew not that a TOM AND JERRY was one of Brother Jonathan’s tipples. It appears however that it was the invention of a British Journalist, Pierce Egan in the 1820s. Add to hot milk and eggs – white rum! I don’t think this is a punch, more a kiddies nightcap up in Friesland! Not spices plural but simply nutmeg. It appears on page 186 of Charles Schummann’s wonderful ‘American Bar’ The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, a book I have treasured for years. Although, I have fought manfully against the evils of ‘Eggnog’ – Warnink’s and all that malarkey! Snowballs!!

    At 12dn GIN AND TONIC appeared to work; well it does for me! To ‘gin’ the base and ‘a tonic’ are both aids to animation.

    I also learn that Tom & Jerry is a cartoon. That’s All Folks!

    Edited at 2019-11-19 08:15 am (UTC)

    1. Chambers Slang Dictionary mentions him too, adding that his ‘Tom and Jerry’ were two fictional men-about-town in ‘Life of London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom’ (1821), who lent their names to a low inn and to a drink which is still being drunk in Damon Runyon’s short stories more than a century later.

      Edited at 2019-11-19 10:06 am (UTC)

  7. I was happy to finish this in well under my average time, even if I was pipped by the man from HK. DNK ROMPERS, so was trusting in the word play.

    Thanks, Jack, for the blog and to the setter for allowing me to be on the wavelength for a change.

  8. A very exact hour for moi, crossing off 15a ROMPERS at the very moment my bell sounded. I started off quite well, but slowed to a crawl, with the oddly plural ROMPERS, the only-vaguely-heard-of BLUE PENCIL and the unknown cocktail causing problems, among others.

    My dad must’ve watched a fair bit of Barry Bucknell back in the day; I remember many nice features of our house being boarded over and glossed to a mirror-like 1970s style.

  9. For those interested in such things, I’ve started showing the Wavelength Indicator of Times Cryptic Hardness (the WITCH) as requested by Pootle and others. (And I’m happy to be currently leading the pack on this, though I’m sure that won’t last.)

    Regular commenters who report their times here might also be interested in the daily detailed SNITCH results, as I’ve started to track your times as well.

    Feedback is, as always, welcome.

    1. I prefer not have my times tracked and shown in a league table thank you as I don’t want to be in competition with others. Not that I’d be any threat to those interested in speedy solving anyway.
    2. I’m happy to be included. My position in the charts will prevent me from getting any delusions of adequacy. And I don’t have the excuse my team have of having started the season with a big points penalty.
    3. not for me please, I like to relish the puzzle unless I am being hassled to finish and go shopping. Although I do usually report my time when doing a blog, as an indication of personal difficulty.
      1. Thanks, Pip, for the feedback. I’ve removed you from the list, so you should feel free to continue to post times without fear that they will be tracked.

        In fact, in the light of the feedback, I’ll make this an “opt in” system. So I’ve only retained those who’ve shown an interest from past comments. I’d be delighted to add others, but only if they want to be included.

        Thanks again.

        1. Starstruck, firstly, thank you and your SNITCH, for adding so many new dimensions to solving and to this blog.
          I am more than happy that you include me not that I will trouble anyone; you may have to introduce new rows to accommodate my less than impressive times.

          Edited at 2019-11-19 04:35 pm (UTC)

    4. Is your program adaptable to include each Saturday’s WONITCH (week-old numeric… etc.)? Someone asked that within the past few days.
  10. 25:35. After racing through the QC I didn’t get on so well with this. I was, like Vinyl, very slow at getting started, but I eventually got on the wavelength and finished in a rush. Like Kevin, I had ARAN at first for 6D, although when I though about it, I remembered the ARAN islands are Irish, and the Scottish isle of ARRAN, of course, is spelt with 2 Rs.

    Edited at 2019-11-19 08:27 am (UTC)

  11. I am very happy with my print-out and wrist-watch (a beautiful 1925 ‘Laco’ from Pforzheim) I would live in terror of ‘pink squares’ and other cruciverbal phenomena.

    Old Square

    Edited at 2019-11-19 08:28 am (UTC)

    1. I felt similarly before I gave it a go but now I wouldn’t like to revert to paper. Come on horryd, dive in!
      1. My dear Pootle,
        I have tried recently (for two weeks) but to avail. When I first arrived in Hong Kong, I paid as lot of cash to have The London Times in my office (1 day late my production chief Aiden got a print-out). It was quite a wrench when I converted to print-outs.
        I am at a difficult age, and like Messrs. Jack, Jim, Pip and others prefer ye treeware.
        I happily embrace new tech., living in China it is essential – VPNs etc. I daren’t even risk on-line banking! I can programme. I am no Luddite but like to write, with a pen. I have never done the 15×15 with a pencil – heaven forfend!
        1. Horryd

          I am a newspaper print, ink pen and cup of tea man.
          I can afford the alternatives and (probably) could master the technology.
          We have to hold on to some constants in life?

  12. 31’33”, pleased to finish. COD PARENTHETICALLY. What are ROMPERS? Found SW particularly trying. I’d recommend Iona, but go in the right frame of mind, it’s a holy place.

    I remember Party 4, never seemed to be enough. Found out years later that the intentionally misleading description referred to American pints.

    Thanks jack and setter.

  13. 45 mins with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    Got stopped for about 20mins in the SW: NHO Tom & Jerry, and the “to put in” in 18dn completely threw me. Surely the Ape is just “put in”? The “to” helps the surface but messes up the wordplay, IMHO.
    Thanks setter and J.
  14. 25:09 … I got distracted during this so my time’s a bit off, but I wasn’t exactly quick anyway.

    I found the southwest especially intractable, made harder by not knowing ROMPERS was a thing (I’ve always thought of it as ‘a romper suit’). Same eyebrow raise as myrtilus at 18d.

    COD to the ()

  15. 46 minutes. LOI THE PITS, with a groan that it had taken me so long to see it. I didn’t parse PHOTOGENIC or PARAPET, so I wasn’t on form today. And I’ve never heard of a TOM AND JERRY as a drink. I usually stuck up for Tom when I watched the cartoon as a boy, thinking that the plot line needed an alternative ending. I guess I can’t make UNSPORTSMANLIKE COD despite its great surface,or else I’ll be consigned to the depths, so it will have to be PARENTHETICALLY. TOUGHISH today. Thank you Jack and setter.

    Edited at 2019-11-19 10:01 am (UTC)

  16. I limped across the line, just over the half hour, having got stuck for 5 mins on my LOI: ROMPERS.

    COD: PHOTOGENIC. I do like an &lit.

  17. Nice steady untroubled solve. Didn’t know the drink but the J and “animated couple” gave it away. Not CRS that I’m aware of. Enjoyed PHOTOGENIC
  18. 9:43, so no problems today but I was a bit worried about ROMPERS, because of the odd-looking plural and being far from certain a ROPER was a thing.

    Edited at 2019-11-19 10:28 am (UTC)

  19. Once again proving that I can neither spell nor follow the wordplay, my () had too many A’s and not enough E’s. Otherwise 23.18. I also failed to parse PHOTOGENIC, and only just sorted out PENSIVE when checking (fruitlessly) before submission. To have one version of “the writer’s” is fine. To have four is plain greedy.
  20. I failed to parse PARAPET, and didn’t know the cocktail, otherwise all done and dusted in 36:38, with the last 2 of those trying and failing to see how 18d worked. Thanks setter and Jack.
  21. Tom Collins yes, but like others DNK T&J. It sounds like the stiffish sort of bracer Bertie Wooster would have Jeeves whip up for him after a night out in NY. Yes, “cupper” does look a bit odd and it took me a while to justify ROMPERS for some reason. 18.53
  23. A slow but pleasant romp, knew the garment but not that a ROPER was a thing. Nor the American drink although it had to be. Flirted with ARAN before IONA but remembered visiting the Irish ones with only one R so the Scottish one must have two. OUTDO was LOI once it had to be. Liked SCUPPER a lot, although as above I’d spell it cuppa. Time between 30 and 50 minutes Mr WITCH.
  24. Liked this a lot – double double writer’s was good, also the ()LY. My only problem was the ROMPERS, which I knew but needed to complete PHOTOGENIC to get. LOI and easiest of the lot – SPRAYER.
  25. Much harder than yesterday. I solved a few at the bottom and then,like Horryd, had a GIN AND TONIC at 12d.
    Thus I ground to a halt and came here.
    David
  26. Had no troubles with this – even the unknown drink, where the J and the animation left no alternative. Only slowdown was POLLSTER, where I had brainfade on poster so did an alphabet trawl which never gave an S… polluter? Collator? Got there in the end, just inside 20 mins, so again going against the grain witha a quickish time.
  28. I don’t know if it was deliberate but having T*E in the answer for a clue containing the word driver was a stroke of genius. I was stuck on the golf-course for 20 minutes! Then outdo and pollster finally clicked too. It’s good to be flummoxed, I keep telling myself! Don’t want things too easy! But I should have done better than my 39’08” (and that doesn’t count a nap).
  29. A tractable puzzle, but it would have been more tractable if I had know “nail” for cop, which would have prevented the difficult Acid Varnish (which seemed like a kind of polishing method), then if I had started at Do I wouldn’t have plumped for Outre (kind of beat, in it’s own way).

    I liked the quadruple setters at 9d and 18a.

    Thanks, jack, ed, and setter

  30. Pretty straightforward though guessed WINNOW and BLUE PENCIL based on checkers. Didn’t parse the biffed PARENTHETICALLY until right at the end.

    Think POLLSTER appeared recently so was in mind.

  31. I finished my second session at this (not that it was so hard, but I got distracted) so late that I went promptly to sleep, and so here I am late again to the party. POI SCUPPER, LOI ROMPERS.
  32. ….WINNOW, what do you see ? (The Hollies)

    Struggled with this and missed my target. NHO ROPERS or TOM AND JERRY as a cocktail. Thanks to Jack for parsing PARAPET.

    FOI STAMPEDE
    LOI ROMPERS
    COD PARENTHETICALLY
    TIME 21:37

  33. Not so hard except for the hard ones. Like ROMPERS. I never heard of ‘ropers’, for instance. Nor TOM AND JERRY as a drink. Thanks setter for the animation hint. About 30 minutes all told. Regards.
  34. Very satisfied to finish this in 62 mins, even parsing PARAPET (well, after staring at it for a couple of minutes). My highest ever SNITCH solve, I think. Oh how I struggled to think of anything that would fit –TDO, especially after I had initially biffed TEMPO as soon as the O appeared. Biff in haste, repent at leisure.

    Thanks for the blog, Jack.

    Templar

        1. ‘Hearing’ can be a verb too. To extend templar’s example, ‘the judge is hearing / trying a case’.

          It’s a noun in your example only because you’ve put ‘a’ in front of it which isn’t what’s in the clue.

  37. I messed this up by managing to reflexively enter OUTRE for 23dn, which left me struggling over 28ac for several minutes. Kicked myself a lot when I saw it was a clue I’d struggled almost as much over only recently! I guess I’m allergic to POLLSTERs.

    Edited at 2019-11-19 09:37 pm (UTC)

  38. 38:20. I found this tricky and was pensive through most of my solve. Had heard of a romper suit but not rompers. Knew the animated couple but not the drink. A tester.

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