Times Cryptic 27752

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

This was fairly straightforward but I needed 42 minutes to complete it, missing my target by 12. There were a couple of unknowns but the wordplay got me to the answers.

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 Second blast outside is very close (5)
BOSOM : BOOM (blast) contains [outside] S (second). Bosom buddies, very close friends.
4 Plant in estate well clear of borders (9)
GROUNDSEL : GROUNDS (estate), {w}EL{l} [clear of borders]
9 Worthless person, erstwhile Prime Minister, shows zest (5,4)
LEMON PEEL : LEMON (worthless person), PEEL (erstwhile Prime Minister). Not sure about lemon as a worthless person which seems a bit dismissive, but ‘simpleton’ and ‘loser’ are in the dictionaries.  Robert Peel was PM 1841-1846.
10 Horse served in Bordeaux perhaps causing belly-ache (5)
WHINE : H (horse) contained by [served in] WINE (Bordeaux perhaps)
11 What’s unimportant as compared with former currency? (6,3,4)
BESIDE THE MARK : BESIDE (compared with), THE MARK (former German currency). Not an expression I knew but I’m familiar with ‘beside the point’ and ‘wide of the mark’.
14 Lying between two rivers, what was that industrial region? (4)
RUHR : UH (what was that?) contained by [lying between] R R (two rivers). More Germany!
15 Youth in the quarter for Valentine’s Day? (10)
FOURTEENTH : TEEN (youth) contained by [in] FOURTH (quarter). The definition by example is mitigated by the question mark.
18 Almighty muddle in poem not finally relevant (10)
OMNIPOTENT : Anagram [muddle] of IN POEM NOT, then {relevan}T [finally]
19 Auntie coming back just the same? (4)
BEEB : Two slang terms for the BBC. ‘Coming back just the same’ indicates the palindrome.
21 Deer that transformed stops car in dramatic event (4,2,7)
COUP DE THEATRE : Anagram [transformed] of DEER THAT contained by [stops] COUPE (car). A sudden and surprising turn of events in a play. I’ve seen a few unforgettable ones in my time.
24 At sea stop son boarding a vessel (5)
AVAST : S (son) contained by [boarding] A + VAT (vessel). Avast there me hearties!
25 Hanger-on in French city initially expecting pay back (9)
REIMBURSE : BUR (hanger-on) contained by [in] REIMS (French city), then E{xpecting} [initially]
27 Dad’s Army cast entertaining English illusions (9)
DAYDREAMS : Anagram [cast] of DAD’S ARMY containing [entertaining] E (English)
28 Serviceman in receding tide finds protection (5)
AEGIS : GI (serviceman) contained by [in] SEA (tide – poetically) reversed [receding]
Down
1 One scorer surprisingly able, another satisfactory (4,6)
BELA BARTOK : Anagram [surprisingly] of ABLE, then BART (another – Lionel, composer of ‘Oliver!’), OK (satisfactory)
2 Southern Greek character raised total (3)
SUM : S (southern), then MU (Greek character) reversed [raised]
3 Byron’s end portrayed in melancholy lament (6)
MONODY : {Byro}N (‘s end) contained by [portrayed in] MOODY (melancholy)
4 Petersham‘s much-admired film? (9)
GREATCOAT : GREAT (much-admired), COAT (film). SOED has Petersham as a kind of heavy overcoat with a short shoulder cape, fashionable during the Regency period in Britain, named after  Viscount Petersham (1790–1851), an English army officer.
5 Love line and false statement seen in Hardy? (5)
OLLIE : 0 (love), L (line), LIE (false statement). Another fine mess!
6 Port not vintage — enjoy last of Semillon (3,5)
NEW HAVEN : NEW (not vintage), HAVE (enjoy), {semillo}N [last]. It seems the reference is to the port in Connecticut but when solving I was thinking of the one in Sussex near Brighton which turns out to be Newhaven, all one word.
7 Stay in order to see well-camouflaged creature (5,6)
STICK INSECT : STICK (stay), IN, SECT (sect)
8 Barge capsized shown in national emblem (4)
LEEK : KEEL (barge) reversed [capsized]. A word that has caused controversy on previous occasions. Collins has:  a flat-bottomed ship; esp., a low, flat-bottomed coal barge or lighter, used on the Tyne.
12 Stench terrible with decay in New York City (11)
SCHENECTADY : Anagram [terrible] of STENCH DECAY. Never ‘eard of it! I hope the anagrist is not intended as a comment on the place.
13 Group for example, east European, appearing in Greek city (3,3,4)
THE BEE GEES : EG (example) + E (East) + E (European) contained by [appearing in] THEBES (Greek city). At least this gives me the opportunity once again to post this rather cruel satirical take on their output.
16 Collar on dogs or catlike mammals (9)
RINGTAILS : RING (collar), TAILS (dogs)
17 Son left in club to speak explosively (8)
SPLUTTER : S (son), then L (left) contained by [in] PUTTER (club)
20 With short sudden movement snake gets rodent (6)
JERBOA : JER{k} (sudden movement) [short), BOA (snake). Another answer unknown to me.
22 Spider-Man’s inner skin layer (5)
DERMA : Hidden in [inner] {spi}DER-MA{n}
23 Almost entirely lecherous American writer (4)
RAND : RAND{y} (lecherous) [almost entirely]
26 One’s mad having lost this   cleaning cloth (3)
RAG : Two meanings. Brewer’s advises the first is ‘an allusion tto he ‘red rag’ or tongue which is unbridled when one is in a rage’.

80 comments on “Times Cryptic 27752”

  1. 25 mins for me (anything under 30 mins is fast for me). I didn’t know RINGTAILS or JERBOAs, I’d heard of the New York city but had no idea exactly how to spell it despite it being an anagram. Interestingly, RANDY doesn’t mean the same thing in the US and it is a fairly common name. I wasn’t sure who BART was either, although I knew BELA BARTOK so it was almost a writein from the anagram of “able”. I, too, had never heard BESIDE THE MARK but it had to be.
    1. It has the same meaning so far as I know; perhaps not as commonly used in the US, hence the ease with which it’s used as a nickname for Randall or Randolph. Oxford American lists it, as does ODE, neither entry specifying region.
      1. No one gets called Randy in UK these days! Do they!?

        That being said I’m a big Randy Newman fan – hard not be.

      2. Not sure if this is true but I was told feeling randy related to a Victorian red light district round Randolph Crescent in Maida Vale. Anyone heard similar?
  2. Why has no one written as song about 12dn? GALVESTON, TULSA, SAN ANTONIO, CHATTANOOGA, VENTURA all done and dusted. This is Mohawk Country and skahnéhtati’s, meaning is ‘beyond the pines’. Dear POTUS should hold a virtual rally there. Beyond the pale. MY LOI & WOD

    FOI 9ac LEMON PEEL

    COD 1dn BELA BARTOK who didn’t write ‘Shuffle-off to Schenectady’

    45 inglorious minutes.

    Edited at 2020-08-25 02:02 am (UTC)

    1. Someone has. Michael Marra – Scottish songwriter – with a song about Peerie Willie Johnson, who learned his vamping style of guitar accompaniment by listening to Radio Schenectady, which apparently could be heard loud and clear in Shetland.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G7b1En01eQ

      A longer, clearer, live version, with Michael telling the story of the song. A very funny man who wrote very funny and touching songs.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVhlxsXX1jw

      Edited at 2020-08-25 08:54 am (UTC)

  3. Very slow, getting stuck up in the NE (appropriate, given a couple of the place names) with the ‘Plant’ that turned out to be not too difficult, and GREATCOAT for ‘Petersham?’ for which I needed all the crossers. Finished with the new to me as well JERBOA.

    SCHENECTADY mightn’t have a song written about it, but looking on Wikipedia, it does have a memorable ZIP code anyway. NEW HAVEN on the other hand instantly makes me think of the classic song “Connie’s Got Connections in Connecticut” – Connie “had a cravin’ for old New Haven”. Lyrical licence?

    1. The lyric that wormed into my ear was Mr. Mojo Rising’s “There’s blood in the streets in the town of New Haven.” Which turns out to be Peace Frog.
  4. I went to the dictionary to finish GREATx, never having heard of Petersham or petershams, and too tired to run through the alphabet. SCHENECTADY surprised me–and no doubt a lot of others–but it was an instant BIFD once I had the H. On the other hand, DEUS EX MACHINA was also an instant biff, but one that didn’t last very long. Is it OK to clue a defunct group of living people? I’m assuming the Bee Gees are still alive severally. Liked JERBOA; nice surface.
    1. Of the original trio, only Barry is still (stayin’) alive.

      Edited at 2020-08-25 03:08 am (UTC)

  5. Another doddle which for some reason I found less fun than some of its clever cluing should have made it.

    New Haven is a port, I guess, but that’s not what comes to mind first or even second (Yale, out-of-town theater try outs, even. a eponymous railway company), especially with the working port of New York / Elizabeth / Brooklyn etc, the US Naval port of New London / Groton, and the playing port of Newport all within spitting distance. .

    I’m surprised when setters expect UK GK to extend to Omaha, Wichita, and the postal abbreviations for otherwise uninteresting States, but Schenectady is a step past unreasonable for non-Yanks, I’d think.
    Thanks, jack.

    Edited at 2020-08-25 03:07 am (UTC)

    1. SCHENECTADY was one of the few I got after a quick perusal.
      Have other things to do today.
  6. LOI GREATCOAT. I was held up by the fact that I didn’t know what “Petersham” signified but even more so by my having for some unaccountable reason divided the answer into two words, and (4,5), not (5,4)… I could find no reference to a “grey trout” known as a petersham, though I see that they do stock fish in the waters near the town by that name.

    Edited at 2020-08-25 03:23 am (UTC)

  7. Same as others, mostly straightforward, but GREATCOAT last in just after GROUNDSEL. Jerboa known, ringtail a (Edit: what was I thinking?) rodent marsupial in these parts, and Schenectady known from Kurt Vonnegut. Not sure if he lived there, or if he set his books there e.g. Slaughterhouse 5?

    Edited at 2020-08-25 04:39 am (UTC)

  8. Schenectady was a write-in for us Charlie Kaufman fans who love Synecdoche, New York…
    2. Curses! That’s one of the two films I’ve got from Cinema Paradiso this month, but sadly I chose to watch* The Tree of Life first, so I’ve not got around to it yet.

      *Well, I tried to watch it, but I found it terribly dull. One of the Letterboxd reviewers said it was like watching a Powerpoint presentation of Windows screensavers and I rather agreed.

        1. I think I might actually have seen the first one at the Barbican with the Philip Glass ensemble doing some of the music live, back in the day. Maybe as a double bill with something featuring Mike Oldfield? Maybe not; my memory of what I did last week is pretty hazy, let alone thirty years ago…
  9. Well, I learned a lot here, not least the reason behind the name of The Place Beyond the Pines, an excellent film set in SCHENECTADY. I’m surprised the unknowns, especially the particular meaning of “petersham”, the rodent and the COUP DE THEATRE didn’t hold me up for longer, but I was done and dusted in 36m.
  10. Worked out the city eventually, but didn’t submit, random collection of letters. Nho BESIDE THE MARK, and RAND was the only plausible answer for me, although ‘lecherous’ has a different meaning to RANDy.

    Thanks jack and setter.

  11. 20 mins of fun pre-brekker.
    I liked it. I vaguely remembered Petersham from crosswordland, but I only knew of ringtailed lemurs before today. Now I know of a Cacomistle: what a cutie!
    Thanks setter and J.
  13. .. and words are all I have, to solve this tricky puzzle. 47 minutes with the unknown SCHENECTADY LOI as the best option. What with that and NEW HAVEN, which I did get with a shake of the head as to why the Sussex one wasn’t preferred, can I just say that the 4th of July is my wedding anniversary and signifies nothing else in my life? RAG was in on just the one definition. COD to FOURTEENTH, which was staring me in the face for too long. I found this hard work but with some good stuff. I did half know JERBOA and also worked out GREATCOAT quickly. Thank you Jack and setter.
  14. Agree with Keriothe on the NY town. This is a British crossword and cluing that from anagram is impossible for many including me. The rest was fine though. 23D reminds me of a call with a US supplier many years ago where I was unable to continue after the opener: “Hi I’m Randy, can I help you?”.
    1. My mother spent some time in Boston, in her 70s, and in a supermarket handed her purse to the checkout man saying “Take the money but don’t diddle me, will you?” .. and eventually discovered that the word has a very different meaning indeed, in the US
  15. No unknowns (thanks Georgette, for Petersham)though I had to write Schenectady out in the margin and tick the letters off to be sure I had it right. And Newhaven should be one word, in The Times of London.
    My son’s first pets were a pair of stick insects. We kept losing them ..
    1. I agree about Newhaven, it’s a perfectly valid and reasonably well known one-word UK port. I wonder why the setter opted for the American one.
      1. Because they are not really an English newspaper any more. There is no sign whatever of any remaining national identity. Not surprising perhaps, when it is owned by an Australian and corporately domiciled in Delaware, USA.
        C’est la vie, as we say here in England 🙂
  16. Managed pretty well with this one as I’d heard of SCHENECTADY, just along from Poughkeepsie. Did take a while to get (Ayn) RAND, though.

    COD: BELA BARTOK, very nice surface.

    Yesterday’s answer: Darryn Frost (not Jones, sorry) used a narwhal tusk to defend himself during the London Bridge attack – it was displayed on the wall of the Fishmongers’ Hall where the attack started.

    Today’s question: in what sport is an ollie a technique?

    1. Guessed the sport half-wrongly, so got lucky, the result still came up on the first google page.

      Fed pig (skin on the outside) to good sport (13)

    4. I can never remember whether Tony Hawks was an exponent of this sport or just a man who pushed a fridge around Ireland, among other silly things.
  18. 11:43, but there was no way of deducing the small American town from the available letters so I had to look it up. Dreadful.
  19. Found this harder than most of you. Several write ins were wrong including MISSES THE MARK which didn’t help with the composer. No idea with the Petersham or the author, who had as BAWD at first, except that bawdy isn’t quite lecherous, but then I don’t think randy is either. LOI THE BEE GEES where I failed to lift and separate the ‘for example’.
  20. Well beaten by this one with 12d, 23d and 24ac all unentered. Gave up after an hour to come here for enlightenment. Thank you Jackkt.
  21. 15:38. Held up for a good couple of minutes at the end by misspelling the American place. DNK the theatre event either, which didn’t help and spent some time to make 13D some sort of BOY BAND. COD to DAYDREAMS.
  22. .. was one of the stations on the dial of the Pilot valve radio I had when I was a boy. Always wondered where it was.
  23. Thoroughly enjoyed this, though my solving time suggests it was very much up my street. As always, one man’s obscurity is another’s pleasing ramble away from the conventional vocabulary (though I am another who came quickly to Schenectady via Charlie Kaufman, otherwise my opinion might have varied).
  24. NEWHAVEN is where you catch the ferry to Dieppe. It’s not (3,5). The “New York City” was NHO, but looks as if it should generate the response “gesundheit”. I’ve had to use Wikipedia to find out who Ayn Rand was (they say he’s Russian-American so that was misleading, even if I’d heard of him). Overall I’m unimpressed. Obviously DNF – would have preferred DNS. A warning should be printed for puzzles likes this – it’s a British newspaper dammit !

    FOI WHINE (more like whinge from me)
    COD GREATCOAT

    2. She’s worth reading one of if for no more than to glimpse a Nietzchean strand on the far American right, where she’s much loved. joekobi
    3. Ayn Rand rote Atlas Shrugged (which everyone had to read?) Wherein she perfectly predicted modern America: inferior criminals with no scruples or honesty or intelligence or, for that matter, any admirable qualities take over the country; bullying out people of intelligence and integrity. Republicans for some reason seem to lionise her; but she clearly thinks they are the scum of the earth.
      1. The Republicans somehow convince themselves they’re the people of intelligence and integrity, in constant danger of being bullied out by the unscrupulous liberals! I don’t know how they can look themselves in the eye any more with Trump as their spokesperson.
        1. “As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” (HL Mencken)
          Prophetic, or what?
        2. I know one life-long member of the Republican Party who is now thoroughly ashamed of what it has become. I am personally well to the left of the median Democrat but I have known plenty of Republicans with intelligence and integrity over the years. I honestly don’t know how the party – or indeed the country – comes back from this.

          Edited at 2020-08-25 09:01 pm (UTC)

      2. She spent her life arguing for individual freedom and responsibility (‘ethical egoism’, or ‘being a dick’, as I think of it) and against the involvement of the state in people’s lives and ended it entirely dependent on social security and Medicaid.
  26. 22.33 but had to take a break at 16 mins so definitely a game of two halves. FOI sum, LOI Rand having initially wondered if there was an American writer named Bawd!

    Like the blogger, NHO beside the mark. Monody was a newbie but gettable from the cluing. COD The Bee Gees, must be nostalgia can’t be anything else.

  27. I got lucky on JERBOA and pieced together SCHENECTADY from the letters available and a vague memory of hearing it before (possibly from The Place Beyond the Pines, which, I’m afraid, I didn’t like at all). Unfortunately GREATCOAT stumped me – with 15 minutes on the clock, a third of that time spent alphabet-hunting for GREAT?O?T, I gave up and tried GREATFORT. Seems obvious now, even though I didn’t know what a Petersham was.
  28. Gave up after 20+ minutes with 4 missing and aids used for the NY City. Not my cup of tea at all.
  29. No complaints from me, thought it was a nice puzzle 25 minutes no issues, except never heard of BESIDE THE MARK but it had to be. As a boy I had a pet stick insect (called “Sticky”) so that was easy, as was Bartok and the IOM trio. I’d seen the NY City named on a map sometime (probably looking up where Olivia lives, must be nearby), and remembered the odd name. I’m surprised Randy doesn’t mean the same in US, even though it’s a common first name. I’ve yet to finish ‘Atlas shrugged’ although I like it in theory. The print is too small in my copy, I’ll have to Kindle it.
    1. isn’t all that close (75 miles or so) to Rhinebeck Pip, as you will have seen. It’s just beyond Albany where NY State makes a dogleg turn to the West and the Great Lakes.
  30. That was quite hard work but I stuck it out, and I’m glad I did, because I finished it, fully parsed, and thought it was fun. Not a great time though. I had heard of the New York city but needed all the checkers to get everything in the right order, and – as Olivia says – PETERSHAM was only known as a sort of sewing tape. Strangely, it took ages to get the composer – not sure why as it’s pretty obvious. There are ticks and smiles all over the place – WHINE, BELA BARTOK, NEW HAVEN and THE BEE GEES. Have had Spirits Having Flown in my head for the last few days and was actually humming it as I filled in the grid!

    FOI Sum
    LOI Bela Bartok
    COD Daydreams – brilliant, closely followed by Ollie
    Time 1 hour

    Thanks setter and Jack

  31. I knew Schenectady was lurking around in there somewhere but it took a time to haul it out. For a moment I wondered if there was a larger Rottingdean across the pond. Good set of clues, enjoyable puzzle. 26’24. joekobi
  32. is the name of a kind of corded stiffening ribbon used in dressmaking which I did know. DNK the GREATCOAT although as Jerry says the man himself pops up in the Heyer oeuvre. 18.24
    1. He does, just wondering if his coat did too? Can’t remember now .. I might have to read them all again!
  33. I found that hard going, although I eventually finished with all correct and parsed. BESIDE THE POINT was an unfamiliar expression, but considering it gave me the S for 12d which enabled me to bring the town from the depths of my memory. For some reason, the name conjures up memories of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. THE BEE GEES were a long time arriving too. NHO Ayn RAND. JERBOA emerged from somewhere. MONODY appeared somewhere recently too. 50:46. Thanks setter and Jack.
  34. thanks Jack for the blog, and for the hilarious HeeBeeGee link! To have WHINE and THE BEE GEES close together was surely no accident from the setter.
    Very glad that MONODY, penultimate one in, came up recently
    or I could have been lamenting. Schenectady no problem- can’t forget a name like that.
    26:56
    1. Thanks, I’m glad at least one person appreciated it! But come to think of it I have used it before when the group came up so probably most people had their say about it then.
  35. DNK GROUNDSEL, SCHENECTADY or JERBOA (which I’ve just learned can walk upright and perform long jumps – very frightening!)
    I was trying to think of a Thomas Hardy character but OLLIE was obvious from the wordplay.
    Some of my favourites were LEMON PEEL, DAYDREAMS and SPLUTTER and my COD has to be THE BEE GEES for taking me down memory lane.
    Thanks to Jackkt for the amusing blog and link – and thanks to the setter for a good workout – coming in at just under 36 minutes.
  36. Ayn Rand had a thing about it for some reason. When I had to do a bit of commuting between Albany and NYC I always liked to hear the conductors on the Empire Line reciting the stations: Yonkers, Croton-Harmon, Poughkeepsie, Rhineciff, Hudson, Albany Rensselaer, Troy, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Niagara Falls.
    1. You’re better than Katherine Hepburn in Desk Set. And you know which one comes at the end of the line.
  37. 25:46. No particular problems with this one just a few places where I was being a bit thick (greatmist). Beside the mark didn’t sound quite right. Coup de theatre took ages. Had heard of Schenectady not sure where from though. I was quick to see Thebes but far slower to get from there to the Bee Gees.
  38. Ah yes, Paul, the Harlem Line which had one of my favourite stations – Valhalla!
  39. Cheated with the unknown SCHENECTADY – what a horrible word!

    No idea about RAND either – if you had never heard of this author, this is nigh impossible to get.

    Edited at 2020-08-25 11:43 pm (UTC)

  40. I wholeheartedly agree with all the negative comments about the US bias. DNF of course.
  41. I wholeheartedly agree with all the negative comments about the US bias. DNF of course.
  42. I should imagine the NY city slowed the speedsters down a bit, but since I don’t care about my times, it was simply a nice new word to learn. Or so I’d thought: after unravelling I found I’d heard of the place.

    My time was around 35 mins if anyone is interested, but more important to me a nice Tuesday puzzle with some slick clues.

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