Times Cryptic 27710

76 comments on “Times Cryptic 27710”

1. At 17A I think ETHERISED is hidden. As you say, not a word anyone ever uses. My LOI. Otherwise pretty easy. I didn’t have any trouble with PERT after I’d given up trying to put “EX” in the middle of something.
   1. Thanks for that Paul, and I’ve amended the blog. I was about to console myself that Kevin missed it too, but at least his was a genuine biff made in the haste of the moment whereas I missed it again and again, when writing the blog and on numerous proof-readings before posting.
      1. Since I’m so bad at spotting hiddens, I do want to make it clear that I did spot this one after submitting.
         1. Thanks. Point taken!
2. I solved SPLIT HAIRS post-submission; at least assuming that my solution, which is the same as Jack’s, is the solution. Also biffed ETHERISED, embarrassingly yet another hidden I missed. They haven’t used ether since God knows when, but the word is famous from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”: “…when the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherised upon a table.” I couldn’t figure out what OFF was doing in OFFERER; thanks, Jack, for enlightening me. I wasn’t bothered by pert/jaunty; I just now looked in the Oxford thesaurus, and while it doesn’t give ‘pert’ as one of the dozens of synonyms for ‘jaunty’, ‘jaunty’ is the first word listed as a synonym for ‘pert’. Go figure. I took ORDER ARMS as (SM ROARED R)*.
3. I liked the long hidden, and I liked the puzzle. I see the anagram for Order Arms, but I don’t know what SM would stand for to give the surface meaning. I didn’t have a problem with Pert, but I did have the same kind of almost-but-not-quite problem with Invoice and Account – regardless of whether they are nouns or verbs, they’d be different in my usage. thanks, jack. and thanks, setter

   Edited at 2020-07-07 02:21 am (UTC)

   1. Sergeant Major
      1. Of course – thanks Kevin. I’d been thinking some kind of unknown to me manual of arms.
   2. I think one might say ‘send me your account / invoice’, although personally I’d be more likely to say ‘send me the bill’.
      1. I’d expect to get sent an ‘account’ (or statement thereof) as a polite reminder that I had failed to pay a few invoices.
      2. I agree, jack, and I wasn’t really whining – it’s more than close enough for crosswords, but not exactly the phrasing I’d use
4. DNF much like Jack with 27ac PERT being the offender. Can one have jaunty nipples? Not the finest clue.

   FOI 1ac CLOT – Remember Coproral Clot?

   COD 21ac PRINTER’S DEVIL ‘This is an apprentice or errand boy in a printing establishment.’ I think the past tense is to the fore, as with POWDER MONKEY.

   WOD 15ac SHOW TRIAL – always good telly, although the last in the series can be a bit messy.

   Will Donald Trump get his own statue? He does have an awful lot of chissellers working for him.

   1. Early in his term, there were a half-dozen statues, in plastic, life-size, naked, placed in various cities; one on Castro and Market in SF. The police took it away, alas.

      Edited at 2020-07-07 04:58 am (UTC)

      1. I wonder if the balloon depicting him as a nappy/diaper clad baby that took to the air in London when he was there is still in existence?
         1. According to Wiki, the balloon, or a facsimile thereof, appeared as recently as June 20th this year to welcome the Orange One to Tulsa on the occasion of his mighty rally.
            1. Oh, good! I hope it makes more appearances between now and November!
5. “These to the printer,” I exclaimed,
   And in my humorous way,
   I added (as a trifling jest)
   “There’ll be the devil to pay.”
   That’s Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Height of the Ridiculous.”

   Nice puzzle! I forgot to check SLIPS, glad I guessed right!

6. Finished eventually, but invoice, slips, printers devil, flashlight, and LOI took me over the hour.

   Had slight doubts about the parsing of split hairs, but I presumed it was as Jack explained.

   WOD girth.
   Cod ta(r)tar.

7. 34:59. Sped through most of this and thought I might be on track for a personal best. But I had to work hard for many of the words crossing PRINTER’S DEVIL which took me almost to the end. The penny drop for TATAR (my last one in) was more of a groan than satisfaction.
8. 23 minutes with LOI SLIPS. I guessed they must be some sort of seats near to the stage. As with Kevin, ETHERISED came courtesy of J Alfred Prufrock. I also struggled with PERT meaning jaunty, but could come up with nothing else. PERIODIC TABLE was a write-in as I at last remembered the He subterfuge. COD to HEAR BOTH SIDES. Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Guess who’s coming to dinner? Didn’t the Hepburns lunch? Easy start and hard ending today. Thank you Jack and setter.
9. On the wavelength again today so no problems. Biffed SLIPS. Had no problem with PERT, my last in. Nice to remember both HEPBURNs but could have done without the Sergeant Major
10. Morning all. I have finally taken the plunge and gone online with the Times so I now can do the crossie (and comment) on the same day. Access to the paper here in France has been erratic for some time and now in the SE has dried up altogether. Came home in 40 mins with this one, but, like Jackkt, foundered and gave up with PERT. COD to 12 ac for me. Thanks for the blog J and belated congratulations on your milestone last week. Keep up the good work. Francois.
    1. Thanks for your kind words, Rose, and welcome to the same day blog!
    2. Welcome! I’ve done The Times crossword every day for many years and for most of them, it made our regular trips to France rather fraught! It costs the earth over there, and is also a day behind, or was .. and hard to find outside a city, as well. The advent of Times Online was a real godsend ..
       I do hope you got an overseas subscription? Only £5/mth
       1. Thank you so much for responding. It certainly has been frustrating not being able to comment on the day. I have , however, always followed the blogs and feel that I am very much part of the community. I once even met Verlaine (Marcus) at a pub get together in London. Great fun.

          I did get an overseas subscription but the price is now £9.99 per month. Inflation I guess! Still well worth it. Regards Francois.

          1. Here in Melbourne I’m still paying £5…maybe they haven’t caught up with things
11. Ok, today’s poetry was going to be Prufrock, but BW beat me to it. (And Kevingregg beat us both).
    20 mins with a croissant and strawberry jam, hoorah!
    I hadn’t realised Cambridge used different term names to Oxford. I am used to Hilary.
    I agree that ‘gives’ is clunky in 23dn.
    Thanks setter and J.

    PS, I was reminded of the risqué clue: Balls in briefs – they split hairs (7)
    It was from when he was a famous politician.

    Edited at 2020-07-07 07:25 am (UTC)

12. 30 minutes, delayed at the end by initially entering PLAY BOTH SIDES for 6D. I think that is also a phrase, but clearly not the one required here.
13. Definitely on the wavelength today, and luckily didn’t get stuck on the somewhat iffy PERT. Not sure why Agnes is ‘holy’, I had thought she might have been pierced like St Sebastian, but apart from a possible single stabbing it doesn’t seem so.

    COD: ETHERISED, I like a long hidden one; PERIODIC TABLE very nice too.

    Yesterday’s answer: the golden hare was buried near Ampthill in Bedfordshire, and its unearthing was all a bit dodgy.

    Today’s question: what is the only chemical element with more than five syllables?

    1. On quiet summer day I wander about – O rare earth!
       1. Obscure word clued by (part) anagram alert!
          1. The checkers will be very generous.
    2. As an ex winemaker, is it trichloroanisole, the bane of our lives regarding cleaning residues, especially in corks?
       1. No, that is a compound, not an element.
          1. Oops you are right; back to my text books.
    3. Albert’s?
14. Liked this one, more than some it seems. Bit of 3ac going on if you ask me.
    “Holy” Agnes might be so described because she is often known as “Holy Agnes.” https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/church-of-holy-agnes.html
15. 13:19. Like others I took a while to spot PERT, my LOI. I liked the hidden Prufrock quote most.
16. 8:14. On the wavelength today.
    I regret to report that the second definition of PERT in Collins is ‘jaunty’. This was a surprise to me too: the example given is ‘a pert little hat’ which is not a usage I’ve ever heard.
    1. Bradford’s doesn’t list either under the other’s “synonyms”. It should be said that, although it was SLOI, I was happy enough with the clue.

       Edited at 2020-07-07 11:48 am (UTC)

17. Another clear round.

    COD. I liked SPLIT HAIRS but the Victor Ludorum trophy goes to PERIODIC TABLE.

18. I think the definition in 3a is “ fault unreasonably found”
    1. FAULT here is verbal, so FOUND is part of the wordplay.
    2. Yes, that works too and may well be what the setter intended.
    3. Doesn’t work for me. That would suggest a noun whereas to split hairs is verbal.

       Bit slow. What he said.

       Edited at 2020-07-07 09:30 am (UTC)

19. 28’15, after staring at T-R-E-I for quite some time at the end for some kind of seriously sectarian member of said community and finally realising I’d scrawled the I for the first letter like a T. Glancing down I then wondered briefly about my sanity in writing in periodictable. On with the day.
20. Thanks for SHOW TRIAL and ETHERISED, Jack. I had difficulty sorting out the definition in the latter.
    COD to PERIODIC TABLE.
21. Made a bit of a horlicks of this, thinking (among other things) that a clue starting with He would lead to a PERSONAL something and that the Jewish community member would be a CHAREDI, with creed somehow chopped up. TATAR was my last in, trying to work out what mistakes I’d made in surrounding clues so as to accommodate AMEN for the last word or THAI for the Asian.

    I never did quite fathom SPLIT HAIRS but I’m impressed by Jack’s persistence in working it out

    Perhaps the setter is simply letting slip his/her cynicism when it comes to saints by putting holy in “”. Can’t see any other reason.

    Does anyone, apart obviously from Vinyl, hear both sides any more, now that even CDs are becoming obsolete?

    1. Yes, I do.

       Vinyl records earned $224.1 million (on 8.6 million units) in the first half of 2019, closing in on the $247.9 million (on 18.6 million units) generated by CD sales. Vinyl revenue grew by 12.8% in the second half of 2018 and 12.9% in the first six months of 2019, while the revenue from CDs barely budged. (Report published September 2019)

       1. Wow!
    2. Yes, me. I treated myself to a Bluetooth turntable last year and rescued my LPs from the attic and have bought a few more (some new, some second hand) since. The trouble is, since lockdown Mrs P and the Penfoldettes are seldom all out of the house at the same time so I don’t often get the chance to listen.
       1. My (fairly extensive, though not like Vinyl’s) collection of LPs is long since digitalised, but I still have a decent turntable from the first time round (and round), and still sometimes play the proper LPs .. and somehow they do sound better, or seem to at least. And they are so tactile …
22. 22:10
    Enjoyed this.
    Thanks jack.
23. Nothing too tricky today, although I spent a while getting to TATAR, a word I didn’t know. Also didn’t help myself with the old periodic table wheeze by biffing PERSONAL for the first word.

    PERT went in without a second thought, but coming here I can see why people aren’t entirely sure about it. And, like others, I completely failed to spot that ETHERISED was a hidden word – always the sign of a good bit of hiding.

24. We had ‘Sassy pro bumping off former partner’ for PERT only last December. Not sure if the clue’s better than the one today. Better definition perhaps. I don’t think anyone complained, as they have done today. By extraordinary coincidence I was using that (simple but good) old crossword with my U3A group only yesterday so I had no trouble today.

    I thought the SM clue was a very good &lit.

    The element is the truncated icosahedron, if indeed that’s an element.

    1. I suspect I wouldn’t have given it a second thought today if the clue hadn’t beaten me!
25. Held up by SPRINTER DEVIL until I saw the light, although I had NHO it. LOI SEEN which took longer than it should have to arrive. Got the He clue quickly for a change ( I usually miss those) and the other long clues were also easy which helped. The double S in PREMISSES didn’t look right, in fact it still doesn’t.
26. Mrs Topical had a day off yesterday, so now my brain is convinced it’s Monday, and this felt like quite a Mondayish puzzle, which doesn’t help. Specifically one of those Monday puzzles which is straightforward but with some nice flourishes, like the chemistry clue. I am another who knew ETHERISED from Prufrock (I have recently been re-listening to the Radio 4 programmes in which Jeremy Irons read the entire Eliot canon).

    At the risk of being like Harris in Three Men in a Boat, who always knows a little place round the corner where you can get a good drop, I used to drink occasionally in a pub called The Printer’s Devil near Fleet Street, long gone (rather like the actual printers, of course).

    1. Remember it well along with Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, Ye Olde Cock Tavern, El Vino and of course the Wig and Pen Club. Great place to eat and drink Fleet Street – no idea what its like these days.
       1. I used to work in The Aldwych at one time and remember all of those, though I never dared go into the Wig & Pen .. assuming that you had to be a member, rightly or wrongly. I see it is called the George, now
27. Defeated by 27a – I put “bent”, as in at a jaunty angle, desperately hoping it would be right.

    Hadn’t heard of PRINTER’S DEVIL or SLIPS as in the sides of a stage, but neither could really be anything else. Didn’t understand how SPLIT HAIRS worked either, so that was a biff.

    FOI Clot
    LOI Slips
    COD Periodic table

28. I started off at a trot in the NW corner, and made some progress in the SW too. I saw the hidden ETHERISED fairly quickly. I then ground my way hither and thither until I was left with 19a, 22d, 24a and 27a. These 4 clues took my time from 30 minutes to 40:13, which put me at a disappointing 111th on the Leaderboard. As with many, PERT was the last to fall. SLIPS as a theatre term was unknown, and I spent far too long with OPUS before lifting and separating 24a properly. Thanks setter and Jack.
29. The Club web site was buggy this morning so I did the Guardian first. It seems to have settled down now. Speaking of poems, I’ve no idea what Agnes was famous for but I did remember the Keats narrative verse about St Agnes Eve, ah bitter chill it was etc. Just under 18.
30. Pert and Tatar kept me occupied for the last seven or eight minutes. A bit excessive, because neither was that hard. The pert=jaunty match doesn’t overly bother me. I can see that someone with a pert character could be described as jaunty.
31. Another like our blogger who got through all except 27a in good time. Then stumped, thinking it must be _EXT. Now I see the answer I am not keen on MAESTRO for expert or PERT as a synonym for jaunty, but I expect some dictionary will offer it.
32. ….without worrying too much about the niceties of some of the clues, and without parsing ISRAELI until coming here (I hadn’t considered “religion”, but why change the habits of a lifetime ?)

    On reading through after submission, I thought SPLIT HAIRS was simply an allusion to the splitting of the word “hairs” between the two parts of “chair sometimes”. It was my only other biff. I’ve discussed PERT earlier.

    FOI CLOT
    LOI ETHERISED
    COD PERIODIC TABLE (I was another to try “personal”)
    TIME 7:50

    I’m currently the 4th fastest solver on SNITCH, which is a PB in that context.

33. What everyone else has said! I was on course for a reasonable time, but spent well over five minutes doing an alphabet trawl for 27a. INPUT took too long – I was trying to shove a synonym for data into a testament, before the penny dropped. I didn’t entirely understand SPLIT HAIRS, ORDER ARMS or (obvs) PERT, so thanks for the full explanations Jack. Otherwise, quite straightforward but with lots to enjoy and some super surfaces – SHOW TRIAL, PRINTERS DEVIL, and KINGS CROSS all made me smile. After the bad times I had last week, I was very glad to finish in under an hour today.

    FOI Brotherliness (it took me a long time to get started!)
    LOI Pert (with a shrug)
    COD Periodic table ( I know we’ve seen a similar clue quite recently, but it’s still a good’un)
    Time around 50 minutes

    Thanks setter and Jack

34. 18.11 but took me seemingly ages to finally get printers devil. With that in place, tatar suddenly made sense. COD to my LOI the aforesaid tatar.

    Another good puzzle made more enjoyable by the absence of any words I’ve never heard of!

35. I bunged in a few at the end unparsed: LOI TATAR, ETHERISED,ORDER ARMS. They all seem to be right on this occasion. SLIPS also a puzzle. I have a time slot at the council tip at 15:45; have to book weeks ahead;so was filling in time before then.
    This seemed easy at first but got much harder. I liked KINGS CROSS.
    David
    1. You meet a better class of person at the dump.
       1. Just got back. It was very civilised. Looks like half the bookings are not being taken up. Don’t start me on fly-tipping.
36. The only reference to “slips” in a theater that I can find is seats with a restricted view on on less comfortable benches. Surely the sides of the stage are the wings? I also object to 8dn on usage grounds: certainly you can say “I see” to mean “I understand” but this can only be used in the simple not the perfect tenses.
    1. My Chambers app has this for def 16 of slip:
       (in pl) the place at the side of the stage for slipping scenery from.

       As for seen / understood, something like “If I’d seen what was going on sooner I might not have fallen into the trap” would work I think.

37. OK, I’m still new to the grown up version of this game, but 23d is surely back to front? ‘Gives’ just doesn’t work – from yes, but not gives. On the other hand, I had no trouble with (ex)Pert, so swings and roundabouts today, in an average (yes, I now have enough completed scores) enough 2 hours. Invariant
    1. Yes that was exactly my point about 23dn. I had originally explained it in more detail (as you have) but in the end I just settled for saying that ‘gives’ confuses the wordplay. My suggestion for improving the clue was to remove ‘gives’ and replace it with a dash:

       Wine — unpleasant surprise when head goes

38. 18:27. I zipped through this without any problems. The stage slips and the printers devil were unknown.

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