Times Cryptic 27578

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 37 minutes. I found this reasonably straightforward but some of the clues took a bit of untangling for the blog.

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 Neglect ache crossing South America (6)
DISUSE : DIE (ache) containing [crossing] S (South) + US (America). I wasn’t entirely happy with ‘ache = die’ but I suppose one might be ‘dying / aching’ to do something.
4 Evangelist before long beginning to rant (8)
PREACHER : PRE (before), ACHE (long), R{ant}[beginning]. Two ‘aches’ in two clues already!
9 Upstart after a year runs meeting-place briefly (7)
PARVENU : PA (a year – per annum), R (runs), VENU{e} (meeting-place) [briefly]
11 At uni, Jack pens work of an acceptable standard (2,2,3)
UP TO PAR : UP (at uni), TAR (Jack – sailor) contains [pens] OP (work – opus). In order to be sent down from university in disgrace one has to have been ‘up’ in the first place.
12 What pilot may do, caught in European plane (5)
EJECT : C (caught)  contained by [in] E (European) + JET (plane)
13 Conduct Beethoven’s Fifth, with a bouvier barking (9)
BEHAVIOUR : Anagram [barking] of {beet}H{oven} [‘s fifth] A BOUVIER. I’ve only heard of ‘Bouvier’ as the family name of a former First Lady but apparently it’s a Belgian breed of dog which makes sense of the second part of the surface reading.
14 Unable to see the way, I curse (5-5)
STONE-BLIND : ST (way – street), ONE (I), BLIND (curse – effing and blinding). Not an expression I’ve met before, although ‘stone-deaf’ is common enough.
16 Wine doesn’t start very well (4)
OKAY : {t}OKAY (wine) [doesn’t start]. Traditionally Hungarian, but the name can be applied elsewhere now. Nelson Eddy celebrates it here in song…
19 Nimble Scotsman’s left resisting (4)
DEFT : DEF{ian}T (resisting) [Scotsman’s left – Ian]
20 A church intimate with no name, lacking colour (10)
ACHROMATIC : A (a), CH (church), ROMA{n}TIC (intimate) [with no name]
22 I can still broadcast a little bit (9)
SCINTILLA : Anagram [broadcast] of I CAN STILL
23 Small diagram has three headings in it (5)
INSET : IT (it) contains [has… in] N S E (three headings – North South East) 
25 Fodder reportedly nearly all stolen? Oh, well (5-2)
HEIGH-HO : HEIGH sounds like [reportedly] “hay” (fodder), HO{t} (stolen) [nearly all]
26 Table item, last of lousy dry alcohol I swallowed (7)
YTTRIUM : {lous}Y [last],  TT (dry – teetotal), RUM (alcohol) containing [swallowed] I. An item from the Periodic Table known to me only from the Tom Lehrer song.
27 Dominate worst tour (8)
BESTRIDE : BEST (worst – get the better of),  RIDE (tour). Collins: To bestride something means to be the most powerful and important person or thing in it.
e.g. America’s media companies bestride the globe.
28 Impoverished north on its knees (6)
BROKEN : BROKE (impoverished), N (north)
Down
1 Document about papers under paperweight? (9)
DEPRESSED : DEED (document) containing [about] PRESS (papers). Collins: put or kept down by force or pressure, which is just what a paperweight does, I suppose.
2 Swell guy in theatre not performing (5)
SURGE : SURGE{on} (guy in operating theatre) [not performing – not on]
3 Tiny tip one’s left in main plant (5,3)
SWEET PEA : WEE (tiny) +T{i}P [one’s left], contained by [in] SEA (main)
5 Crude old carpet’s acquired, useful to cover study (5-3-5)
ROUGH-AND-READY : RUG (carpet) contains [has acquired] O (old), then HANDY (useful) containing [to cover] READ (study)
6 Voice last part of play, not loudly (6)
ACTIVE : ACT {f}IVE (last part of play) [not loudly – not f]. One of the two ‘voices’ in grammar. Modern plays tend to have fewer acts but Shakespeare’s plays  and most up to the 18th century had five.
7 Cool pot, somewhere to keep flask? (3,6)
HIP POCKET : HIP (cool), POCKET (pot – pocket  / pot a ball e.g. in snooker). SOED:  a flask for spirits etc. designed to be carried in the hip pocket.
8 Army groups initially return more bloody (5)
RARER : RA RE  (army groups – Royal Artillery /  Royal Engineers), R{eturn}[initially]. Just how I do not like my steaks served.
10 Locum laid crib out for babyfood supplier (9,4)
UMBILICAL CORD : Anagram [out] of LOCUM LAID CRIB
15 Banned old exotic film qualifies to be shown outside (3-6)
OFF-LIMITS : O (old), then FITS (qualifies) contains [shown outside] anagram [exotic] of FILM
17 Sailor is toady inviting in German eight, not English (9)
YACHTSMAN : Y{e}SMAN (toady) [not English – not E]  -> Y(ACHT)SMAN [inviting in German eight – acht]
18 Make sour beer after middle of November (8)
EMBITTER : {nov}EM{ber}[middle], BITTER (beer)
21 One who chases old playwright out of Florida (6)
ETCHER : {fl}ETCHER (old playwright) [out of Florida- Fl]. SOED: chase – ornament (metal) with embossed work, engrave in relief. There’s more than one Fletcher who might qualify as the ‘old playwright’ but I imagine the setter is thinking of John Fletcher, the Jacobean dramatist famous for his collaborations with Francis Beaumont.
22 Prejudice about adopting Henry’s form of address (5)
SAHIB : BIAS (prejudice) reversed [about] containing [adopting] H (Henry)
24 Hum first of tunes in flop (5)
STINK : T{unes} [first] contained by [in] SINK [flop]

54 comments on “Times Cryptic 27578”

  1. Another quickie, aided by some biffery–13ac and 23ac parsed post-submission; never even noticed the ‘bouvier’–and some semi-biffery: 20ac A CH + def, 25ac HEIGH + def 5d HANDREADY + def. Didn’t understand ‘pot’ in 7d, or ‘curse’ in 14ac. FOI PREACHER, POI DEPRESSED (too much time with ID) LOI DEFT: I was sure once I had the F, but it took me until the end to figure out the wordplay (2 clues with ‘left’ marking deletion).
  2. I’d never heard of the expression with BLIND either, and found it in Collins before inking that in. DIE for “ache” was slow in coming, and over here—and in the Disney movie when the dwarfs sing—”Heigh” is pronounced like “high.”

    I find it odd that the Anniversary Jumbo Cryptic is still not available on the club site. The customer service rep assured me that the tech staff is working on this, but how hard can it be? I downloaded it from the link she sent.

    1. If you get it from the main paper instead of the crossword club site, then it works fine. I did it on Saturday morning.
      1. I guess that’s the link Ms. Wendy sent me, and I printed it out and have started it. Just odd that the link is still bad on the club site. This can’t be an intractable technical issue!
  3. I’d never heard of STONE BLIND either, although “stone deaf” is common. My LOI was 1A, mostly because I’d put REPRESSED for 1D without thinking too much about it, other than thinking that “under paperweight” seemed a bit dubious as a definition. Once I put a D in then it was obvious. I didn’t know the playwright Fletcher, although it was obviously plausible there was one. I suppose if it had been clued with something to do with making arrows, it would have been too obvious.
    1. The expression I had to look up wasn’t “stone blind,” which I think I’d heard, but “effing and blinding,” which may be the only circumstance in which “blind” means “curse.”
      1. I recently came across the expression ‘effing and jeffing’, which was new to me but I rather like it.
      2. ‘blind’ never means ‘curse’: it’s one of these ‘can substitute in at least one context’ clues, which I dislike but have learned to put up with. I always supposed that ‘effing and blinding’ was a bowdlerised’ f**king and bl**dy-ing’
        1. Nevertheless it’s in one of the source dictionaries so it’s fair game for setters and solvers alike:

          Collins: blind

          24. verb (intransitive) British slang
          to curse (esp in the phrase effing and blinding)

  4. Similar to Vinyl, I had all but three clues done in 25 mins, then was left with STONE-BLIND, OFF-LIMITS and DEFT to complete. I did spend some time wondering if BESTRIDE was right. But, overall, I’m not sure why it took so long.
  5. I could have sworn-blind that 14ac was SWORE-BLIND!!
    Unable to see the way = blind (as per St. Paul heading for Ephesus) OK! – curse = swore etc Where’s the ‘I’, I hear you ask? Blindness indicates no ‘Is’

    And another couple of things: at 1ac is ache equivalent to ‘die’, or to ‘die for’!? Answers on a postcard.

    And 1dn was an ‘I suppose’ moment as per the Leighton Buzzard Bloggist.

    Rest of it was great!

    FOI 11ac UP TO PAR

    LOI 3dn SWEET PEA

    COD 22ac SCINTILLA

    WOD SWORE-BLIND

    All screwed-up nicely in 55 minutes.

    Edited at 2020-02-04 07:10 am (UTC)

    1. ‘Dying for’ something you’d also be ‘aching for’ it, so I don’t see a problem once one has made the leap of faith to equate the two words in the first place.
  6. Nothing held me up for very long today, but I did have pause for thought with my LOI, ETCHER. Not knowing the playwright or the required definition of ‘chase’ I worried it could be another kick myself moment, but I couldn’t think of any other letters that fitted and a playwright called Fletcher seemed plausible enough.

    COD to UMBILICAL CORD for the lovely definition alone.

  7. 22 minutes with RHS complete much quicker than the left. I didn’t know STONE-BLIND and like H would have biffed SWORE-BLIND if I could have got the tense to work, which fortunately I couldn’t. COD ETCHER for its mix of obscurity and complexity which would have irritated the hell out of me if I hadn’t seen it. YTTRIUM was clever also, but a write-in for anybody sad enough to be waiting for Pointless to come on some afternoons. Nice puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.

    Edited at 2020-02-04 08:21 am (UTC)

  9. 9:49. No real problems today. My parents’ dog is half labrador, half bouvier, so I had a bit of an advantage there.
    ‘Dominate’ on its own for BESTRIDE is a bit odd. I assume it’s made its way from ‘bestride the world like a colossus’ in Julius Caesar and just lost the colossus bit over time. I suppose it’s implied but it still seems strange to me.
    I also always find this spelling of ‘hey-ho’ strangely archaic.
  10. Finished in 42 minutes. Same reservations as others about DIE for ‘ache’ (OK, maybe just works) and DEPRESSED for ‘under paperweight?’ (doesn’t really work). Both ho-hum rather than HEIGH-HO. I missed the parsing of DEFT and didn’t know STONE-BLIND either but obediently followed the wordplay. Maybe obvious now, but ‘Table item’ was good.

    I also learnt that Ronnie and Nancy R. owned a Bouvier des Flandres called Lucky, a “ball of fluff” who grew to “be the size of a pony”. Pics at the Presidential Pet Museum site. Yes, really.

  11. 39 minutes with a few already-discussed shrugs along the way. The two I was least convinced by were the crossers of BESTRIDE and ETCHER and I was pleased to find I’d got them right.
  12. 25 mins with yoghurt, etc.
    I got on a bit of a roll. No MERs, no dramas.
    I quite liked the babyfood supplier.
    Thanks setter and J.
  13. Enjoyed this. Yttrium a write-in, it is interesting, in being one of no less than FOUR elements all named after a tiny village in Sweden called Ytterby. (cf Ytterbium, Erbium and Terbium)
  14. Pleasant and even puzzle, with not much that stood out as good or bad, though the NW corner was last to fall, mainly because I, too, had a MER at a paperweight “depressing” papers. I am another in the camp for whom Bouvier means either Jackie or Marge, so today I have learned something new. Which is nice.
  15. 21’10. Didn’t get round to parsing deft or inset. Whole puzzle deft yet scarcely witty – that scintilla lacking. Still a good work-out. jk
  16. Struggled in the NW, forgetting for a while that South America could be SUS as well as SA. Also DEPRESSED took a while to parse until I realised it referred back to the document. Had vaguely heard of FLETCHER, who I think is alleged to have written some bits of plays attributed to Shakespeare. STONE BLIND LOI. Got to HEIGH-HO, recollect that the first occurrence is an octave interval.

    22’24”, thanks jack and setter.

  17. No real problems with this, agree with much above, never heard of stone-blind. Doesn’t make sense to me. Can we have blind as a post, then?
    Liked the baby food and the table item, yttrium being one of the five metals with single letter symbols (unless you believe they’ve now created metallic hydrogen).
  18. Seems to crop up in 19th century literature. It’s in Dickens’s Hard Times and Rochester is so described to Jane Eyre by the old servant towards the end of the novel. Also from that era – HEIGH HO is a frequent exclamation of Trollope’s Glencora Palliser. I lost concentration in the NW corner for no particular reason and actually had to work for DISUSE and DEPRESSED. And I had act IV in ACTIVE and wondered what the E was doing on the end (thanks Jack). 16.58
    1. I think I’d come across STONE-BLIND before, but wasn’t sure about ‘stone-deaf’. I don’t remember Lady Glencora using HEIGH-HO, but you reminded me that Plantagenet reproves her for saying ‘That’s the long and the short of it’. I think it’s time for me to read them again.
      1. Trollope isn’t nearly so inventive as Dickens with names but that’s a good one! I re-read the Palliser and Barchester novels now and then and skip the boring sub-plots.
  19. 22 mins. Steady little solve; not much else to say, really. Thanks jack.

    Edited at 2020-02-04 12:09 pm (UTC)

  20. ….”BESTRIDE the narrow World like a Colossus”, I’m grateful to him for parsing DEFT which totally bypassed me. Otherwise no problems.

    FOI UP TO PAR
    LOI DISUSE
    COD SAHIB
    TIME 8:26

  21. My 16:06 suggests that I found this trickier than many. I thought I’d done well with a difficult puzzle too. Oh well.

    Same unknowns and MERs as others.

  22. Took me a while to get my last 3, DISUSE, DEFT and DEPRESSED, but once I’d accepted die=ache, I was on the way. SURGE took a while too. Hadn’t heard of STONE-BLIND, but it fitted the cryptic and the checkers, and I knew-stone deaf. Liked YTTRIUM and UMBILICAL CORD. I did the same as Olivia with ACTIVE and wondered about the E. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Jack.
  23. Fairly smooth progress today. LOI was STONE BLIND and I couldn’t really justify it. I liked the use of “headings” in 23a.

    Newbie question: what is MER please?

        1. Now you’ve discovered that you’ll be mombling and ninja-turtling with the best of them.
            1. The glossary is for crossword/TfTT usage. ‘Chestnut’ (or more often perhaps ‘old chestnut’) is in more general use so I’d say a glossary entry is unnecessary.

              Edited at 2020-02-04 04:59 pm (UTC)

  24. Also one to complete the RHS quickly but slowed down by the left which came in fits and starts.

    Another who has not heard of STONE BLIND.

    PARVENU, OFF LIMITS, DEFT and DISUSE all took a while. ETCHER biffed with all the checkers.

  25. Harder than yesterday – well, twice as hard, in fact.

    Count me in as another one who struggled with disuse / depressed and wondered how the stray E got tacked onto Act 1V! Stone blind also new to me.

    It was a bit of a slog to get started, until my eye fell on 24d. I really didn’t go through all the clues before I spotted that – promise! So I worked in a strange way today – bottom SE, top SE, bottom SW, top NW but got there in the end. I did make a few problems for myself when I entered ice bucket for 7d -ice=cool, bucket=pot (well, it’s a sort of container), ice bucket – where you’d put a bottle (flask)!

    I liked the cluing for Broken, although it was a bit sad. Didn’t parse Rough and ready or Off limits, so thanks for the explanations Jack.

    FOI Stink
    LOI Surge
    COD Yttrium
    WOD Achromatic
    Time 55m

    Thanks setter

  26. Another one I found a challenge. 24.30 in the end , last ones in were disuse and deft. Kept thinking SA rather than SUS for the former. Enjoyed the fight though and pleased to finish in what I thought was a reasonable time. Another new expression unearthed, never heard of stone blind before , thought stone usually went with deaf. Heigh ho….
  27. Damn. All OK apart from having “itcher” at 21d, since I had the wrong type of chasing in mind. On reflection, it doesn’t seem plausible even then.

    Nice to see YTTRIUM popping up.

    Time: glacial, due to interruptions and desultory efforts.

  28. ….STONE BLIND love”. A Tom Waits song, although I have it by Bob Seger. It’s taken me all day to remember it, so it’ll only be an earworm for a short while !
  29. Count me as another who swore blind; and that was after correcting SWEAR BLIND. Cannot recall ever seeing stone blind.
    I gave up with two unsolved: HEIGH HO and ETCHER. I wasn’t really close to either.I thought that STAYER might work being a horse that chases. Lou Reed has Florida as FLA so I was looking to delete an extra letter as well.
    David
  30. 35 minutes, finishing, like Vinyl, in the NW corner, with SURGE my LOI and COD (though YTTRIUM as a table item was also good). Not too hard, but enjoyable (actually, too hard wouldn’t be totally enjoyable, would it?).
  31. A bunch of semi-mysterious vocab, at least to me, held this up a bit. Say 35 minutes, ending with STONE BLIND, one of those things I wasn’t really familiar with. That also includes HEIGH-HO and the ETCHER as someone who chases. So a spell of struggle at the end, with those. So something of a challenge overall. Regards.
  32. 21:09. I found this mostly plain sailing but got held up by a few on the LHS. Having swear-blind gave me an R in the middle of my sweet-pea, that took some unravelling. I was slow to see past SA to SUS to get disuse. I was briefly considering ayrforu before seeing parvenu but common sense prevailed. Depressed, stone-blind and off-limits were also troublesome but managed to work it all out okay.
  33. Never thought of “Worst” as a verb and bizarre that it can mean “Best”. Heigh-ho.
    Can you use it in the past tense – i.e. “worsted”? – a material question.

    Edited at 2020-02-04 11:43 pm (UTC)

  34. 29 mins. Liked Yttrium, and the informative comment above regarding the Swedish village it was named after. Didn’t know Bouvier as a dog, so thanks for that too. The setter has not followed convention, in that there is no cricket related clue! (Unless 27a obliquely refers to ball tampering in the. Australian tour of South Africa)

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