Times Cryptic 27890

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Considering the number of bits and pieces I didn’t know, I was pleased to complete this in 31 minutes. Rather heavy on classical stuff and soap operas.

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 1940s swinger‘s cheers returned by male police officer (6)
HEPCAT : HE (male), PC (police officer – Police Constable), TA (cheers) reversed [returned]. This is defined by Collins as obsolete slang – a person who is hep, esp a player or admirer of jazz and swing in the 1940s. ‘Hepcat’ may be obsolete, but ‘hep’ and ‘cat’ both survive in the context of music from that era so it was no great challenge to stick them together.
4 Situation thus involving Asian country backed by church (8)
SCENARIO : SO (thus) containing CE (church) and IRAN (Asian country) reversed [backed]
10 Recommendation of good Scottish priest born in Paris (9)
GUIDELINE : GUID (good, Scottish), ELI (priest), NÉ (born, in Paris).  ‘Né’ is the male equivalent of the more familiar ‘née’ used when a woman has changed her surname. Men tend to change their surnames less often but you might see, for example, George Orwell (né Eric Blair).
11 Student workers’ association given support on course (5)
TUTEE : TU (workers’ association – Trades Union), TEE (support on golf course)
12 Mood palpably altered with two rooks in tree (8,6)
LOMBARDY POPLAR : Anagram [altered] of MOOD PALPABLY RR (two rooks – chess). I can’t say I knew this although I may have met it before. POPLAR as ‘tree’ stood out from the anagrist and the remainder just fell into place.
14 Gunpowder constituent soldiers can put back at front (5)
NITRE : TIN (can) reversed [put back], RE (soldiers – Royal Engineers)
16 Profusion of bakery product served during a social (9)
ABUNDANCE : BUN (bakery product) contained by [served during] A + DANCE (social)
18 Paul was one, always carrying weapon (9)
EPISTOLER : E’ER (always) containing [carrying] PISTOL (weapon). Another word I didn’t exactly know but I am familiar with the The Epistles of Paul the Apostle so I didn’t take long to figure it out. In the long-forgotten days when he was still funny, Eddie Izzard used to do a very amusing routine on the subject of Paul and his epistles.
20 Tragic day briefly captured in very old film (5)
VIDEO : IDE{s} (tragic day – for Caesar –  Ides of March and all that) [briefly] contained by [captured in] V (very) + O (old)
21 Stuck with animal coat, promises to pay, being very quick (4,3,7)
FAST AND FURIOUS : FAST (stuck), AND (with), FUR (animal coat), IOU’S (promises to pay)
25 Revolutionary figure, one about to entertain team (5)
IXION : I (one) + ON (about) containing [to entertain] XI (team). Another unknown that was easy enough given a combination of wordplay and checkers. In Greek mythology Ixion was a king of Thessaly punished by being bound to an eternally revolving wheel in Hades.
26 Shop assistant is large and extremely slothful, sadly (9)
SALESGIRL : Anagram [sadly] of IS LARGE S{lothfu}L [extremely]
27 Residence of Catholic dignitary in charge of French island (8)
DOMICILE : DOM (Catholic dignitary e.g. Dom Pérignon), IC (in charge of], ILE (French island)
28 1 down’s circular hollow in TV soap, familiarly (6)
CORRIE : Two meanings. The first is a cross-reference to ‘Highlander’ at 1dn signalling a Scottish word. The second is a popular nickname for the TV soap Coronation Street which celebrated 60 years on air a few weeks ago. The actor, William Roache, who played Ken Barlow in the very first episode in 1960 is still in it!
Down
1 Eg native of Wick taking school exam without gain? (10)
HIGHLANDER : HIGHER (school exam) containing [without] LAND (gain – e.g. land a prize)
2 Formal setting for a Trojan king (5)
PRIAM : A contained by PRIM (formal) [in a formal setting]. He features in the legend of the Trojan horse. A reminder of another excellent Izzard routine.
3 Mean to declare advancing years? (7)
AVERAGE : AVER (declare),  AGE (advancing years)
5 Inexpensive headgear worn by ambassador (5)
CHEAP : CAP (headgear) containing [worn by] HE (ambassador – His/Her Excellency)
6 Poet messed around with and getting writer’s block? (7)
NOTEPAD : Anagram [messed around] POET AND. At my school a ‘block’ was a pad of loose sheets of lined paper for preparation and presentation of work.
7 Unemotional son leaves, given refresher course (9)
RETRAINED : RE{s}TRAINED (unemotional) [son – s – leaves]
8 Outstanding work of Pindar possibly read aloud (4)
OWED : Sounds like [read aloud] “ode” (work of Pindar possibly). A Greek poet who wrote an ode or two, but  was unknown to me.
9 Sentence about everything a booby may produce? (8)
BIRDCALL : BIRD (prison sentence – slang), C (about), ALL (everything). Collins advises that a ‘booby’ is any of several tropical marine birds of the genus Sula: family Sulidae, order Pelecaniformes ( pelicans, cormorants, etc). I didn’t know that, but assumed it had to be a bird of sorts
13 Insect I see around lakes at end of March? (10)
DEMOISELLE : DEMO (march), I, then SEE containing [around] L L (lakes). It’s a dragonfly. apparently. Another unknown.
15 Neat cover for Indonesian island’s ethnicity (9)
TRIBALISM : TRIM (neat) contains [cover for] BALI (Indonesian island). Let’s move on…
17 Smooth out articles in French about old card game (8)
UNRUFFLE : UN + LE (articles – indefinite and definite – in French) containing [about] RUFF (old card game). I ‘d never heard of the card game but I gather it’s of the whist variety.
19 Some thought it a nice old vessel! (7)
TITANIC : Hidden [some] in {though}T IT A NIC{e}
20 Retired priest is second to identify Puccinian style (7)
VERISMO : REV (priest) reversed [retired], IS, MO (second – wait a mo!). I knew the word but not its meaning in relation to music, but Wiki advises Verismo was a post-Romantic operatic tradition and Puccini was one of its leading exponents. I thought he just wrote good tunes.
22 Like hooter US space administrators lacked at first (5)
NASAL : NASA (US space administrators), L{acked} [at first]. Hooter being slang for ‘nose’.
23 Basket-maker, or provider of stockings in Albert Square? (5)
OSIER : {h}OSIER (provider of stockings) [in Albert Square]. Albert Square is the location of Eastenders, the cockerney soap opera in which  heveryone drops their haitches.
24 Look out! It’s planted with explosives, we’re told! (4)
MIND : Sounds like [we’re told] “mined” (planted with explosives)

89 comments on “Times Cryptic 27890”

  1. I found this to be mostly easy with some rather tricky bits that fortunately I had the right knowledge for. CORRIE, however, was never going in — no way, no how!

    Thanks, Jack, for explaining the other meaning of OSIER, which was totally lost on me.

    Edited at 2021-02-02 05:42 am (UTC)

  2. Never seen a minute of Coronation Street, but fortunately knew the nickname.

    Your comment on Puccini put me in mind of CS Lewis on his predecessor, Verdi.

    ‘It’s rather the fashion now [1954] amongst the musical snobs to look down their noses when Verdi is mentioned and talk about “the cheapness of his thematic material”. What they really mean is that Verdi could write tunes and they can’t!’

  3. Too much specific knowledge required for me: higher = exam, where Wick is, Ixion, Verismo, Pindar’s work, etc. I managed nearly everything but, like Jeremy, was never going to get CORRIE without aids.

    Thanks, Jack, for all the explanations.

  4. I threw in the towel early with a couple unsolved, including, of course, CORRIE, but also DEMOISELLE, which I actually knew, sort of (it’s been here before), IXION, which I also knew and should have got, and MIND. I realize now that I biffed HIGHLANDER and never parsed it; I’m not sure I could have, not knowing HIGHER. Two DNFs in a row.
  5. I messed up the last two. I went for HEED (high explosived) instead of MIND. And EXION (anagram of “one” around XI) instead of IXION, neither of which I’d heard of. So my last two were wrong.

    Caithness, where Wick is, is actually flat and people up there talk about the highlands as being south of them.

    3. Wiki says that Highlands is an area and although it includes most of the highlands, not all of them, and the Lowlands has some high-is land. The Highlands are agreed to go all the way down to the sea.
      Andyf
  6. Thus continues my 50% success rate of the previous two weeks. Today’s boob was an unparsed but confidently spelled DOMECILE. I was so sure it was spelled this way, like domestic, that I do wonder if it’s the dictionary that’s wrong rather than me. I’d avoided a pratfall elsewhere, like Paul having been tempted by HEED for “look out”, with HE for high explosive, hence planted with it being HE’ed.
    At least I’m in good company today seeing the number of DNFs before me.
  7. So two Greeks balanced by two soaps with the scales tipped towards the arts by VERISMO.
    I enjoyed that but took a long time to get IXION which was my LOI. COD to DOMICILE.
    Here in NZ, Coronation Street is very popular with promo clips occasionally featuring some of the cast. Here the vernacular is not Corrie but Corro.
  8. Several learnings, which is part of the fun isn’t it? Booby, Pindar, Ixion, verismo, demoiselle and epistoler were all new to me — but not hepcat, thanks to the brilliant Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive album. I saw that band live at the Forum in Kentish Town in 1981 and boy did they jump. Hepcats to a man. I also remembered corrie from O level geography; the Welsh version I think is cwm which must have featured here at some time.

    Though Caithness does have some lovely Bens, Wick is indeed in a very flat bit. It’s also my nearest Specsavers but they haven’t been up to visit us in Orkney for over a year due to the pandemic and my glasses are definitely in need of replacement. Still good enough to do the crossword on an iPhone though, so we soldier on.

    Thanks setter from a tutee and Jack for the excellent blog as always.

  9. Mostly straightforward except that for reasons unknown I wrote windfall instead of birdcall…

    People write epistolary novels, which are novels in the form of letters.
    For a while many years ago I was lucky enough to live on the Kintyre peninsula, bang opposite the Isle of Arran and its beautiful corries… can see them now 🙂
    On edit: a demoiselle technically is a maiden, or damsel, who in time becomes a mademoiselle .. also thus a damselfly, and also an early French aeroplane, one of which is maintained in flying condition (for the brave) by the Shuttleworth Trust.

    Edited at 2021-02-02 08:23 am (UTC)

    1. I once had a perfect day at Shuttleworth (with my charity team on a day out) when the evening turned to absolute, sunlit calm and they flew everything including the Demoiselle, which is a replica built for Those Magnificent Men. To see it, the (original) Deperdussin, Bleriot and Blackburn taking to the air, all entering their 2nd century, was an experience beyond magical.
      1. Yes, one of my favourite places. The Bleriot is the world’s oldest aeroplane that still flies.
      2. Snap z it may even have been the same day that I was at Shuttleworth, absolutely riveting — a storch performing impossible low level stuff, someone gliding from miles up in what looked like a Gerry Anderson creation and then everything came out as evening approached. Pure magic not likely to be repeated
  10. 27 minutes but with one wrong, EXION for IXION. I had it as an anagram of one around the XI. That was my LOI too.I didn’t know PINDAR or his odes either, but eventually I saw what the outstanding was doing. UNRUFFLE was constructed without knowing the card game. Back in 1960, I watched the first episode of CORRIE, which contained a terrific diatribe by Ena Sharples in Florrie Lindley’s shop. I think I last watched it when Ida Barlow was knocked over by a bus a couple of years later. I started this puzzle FAST and FURIOUS but finished in AVERAGE time. A challenging mix of easy and tricky. Thank you Jack and settter.
        1. I didn’t. I biffed HEED as per my reply to Pootle below.

          Edited at 2021-02-02 10:26 am (UTC)

      2. Sorry, I didn’t. I biffed HEED, a corruption of High Explosive verbalised. Two errors!
    2. Minor GLITCH in the SNITCH?

      I note that this time is included in the SNITCH workings today. Should only error-free solutions get listed here?

      SD

  11. 25 mins pre-brekker.
    No dramas, no MERs. Nicely clued.
    LOIs were the booby and Guid Eli Ne.
    Thanks setter and J.
  12. Surprisingly I managed to finish this all correctly. Same unknowns as Jack and everybody else, but I seemed to have managed to bung in the odd letters in the right place. 50mins, so not quick with a time taken over the HIGHLANDER/HEPCAT pair and luckily had MIND before NHO IXION. I knew the soap but not the hole. LOI OWED. simple clue really but it took me an age to see it. Thanks Jack and setter.
  13. 12:15 I mostly had the required GK but had to trust to the wordplay for VERISMO and hadn’t seen EPISTOLER before. We get a profusion of pretty DEMOISELLEs on the River Lark in late spring/early summer. I liked the deceptive wordplay for NOTEPAD. Nice puzzle. Thanks Jack and setter.
  14. 48:55 (after 48:50 yesterday) so clearly a bit more tricky today. I knew DEMOISELLE, but if the blogger didn’t, it makes me wonder about my own belief that it is an insect native to crosswordland. The O looked odd in EPISTOLER but it had to be.

    With GK gaps (IXION VERISMO) or bells just ringing very faintly (PRIAM PINDAR) I pressed submit with a sense of living dangerously. But all OK.

    WOD A BUN DANCE and COD BIRDCALL

  15. – you have been banned from commenting in this journal

    .

    I seem to have been banned – any idea why?

    2. A comment saying you have been banned from commenting is a bit like those people you see complaining about being silenced in their weekly newspaper columns!
  16. OK that seems to be me back in OK. I certainly don’t recall ever saying anything untoward! Anyway, this was a great crossword, 19m 48s, but it was a case of ‘fingers crossed’ for Ixion and Verismo. Also I only know the verb ‘to ruff’ from bridge, not realising it was a game in itself. Thank you setter and Jack for a very pleasing start to the day!
    1. How very mysterious, tringmardo. I have just checked the records and there’s nothing to suggest you have ever been banned from TfTT. Probably a Live Journal glitch.

      Edited at 2021-02-02 10:40 am (UTC)

  17. Too many unknowns for me: a random tree which I had to look up (even with the anagrist and five checkers in, including the first letter of each); a random ode-writer which I had to look up (and still entered the wrong answer); a random card-game which was fortunately easy enough to guess with checkers; and though I’d never heard of IXION, I like the idea of binding the setter to an eternally revolving wheel.

    (Un)fortunately, I’m a bit too familiar with CORRIE to get that one wrong.

  18. 23.18. A really chewy puzzle which I very much enjoyed. Steady progress with priam my FOI and tribalism last , having managed to dissuade myself from trying to make tasmanian fit- a pretty stupid idea for all kinds of reasons.

    A few NHOs but ixion and lombardy poplar were well clued. Loved hepcat though I’m far too young(ish) to have been a king of the swingers. Favourite was abundance .
    Thanks setter and blogger.

  19. I agree that this was not too taxing despite a high count of funny words.

    Having paid at least some attention at school did help, with Priam (Troilus and Cressida) and corrie – I can remember revising “cirque, corrie or cwm” for O-Level geography. (I can also remember how an oxbow lake is formed).

    I haven’t watched Corrie for years but the name hasn’t changed.

  20. Quite a few NHOs for me here (HEPCAT LOMBARDY POPLAR, IXION, PRIAM, DEMOISELLE, VERISMO), but all were fairly clued.

    Wasted time trying to find a word for a Scottish priest – it feels like there must be one – before realising that they didn’t go together.

    An enjoyable workout all told.

    FOI Video
    LOI Ixion
    COD Abundance

  22. Lot of Scottish stuff, so very much on the wavelength at 10.11. Higher exams still exist in Scotland.
  23. I found this a tough challenge.

    Some enjoyable clues went in reasonably quickly e.g. CORRIE, HEPCAT and OSIER.

    Managed IXION on wordplay alone, but had 8D ODES and had never heard of 13D DEMOISELLE.

    Thank you, jackkt and the setter

  24. Breezed through this Highbrow/Lowbrow selection in just over 15 minutes, despite the top left corner taking a while to resolve. 1ac is one of those which gets you thinking about named “swingers” like Glenn Miller and won’t let you go to the generic, especially since my mind (and Chambers, it turns out) associates HEPCAT with the ’50s. Nice.
    IXION from Pope’s the Rape of the Lock (and other places). I knew my A levels would eventually pay off. I wonder if Ixion ever got so used to the motion of the wheel that pain became pleasure? He had eternity to find out.
    Splendid blogging Jack, with much entertainment therein.
  25. Seems to me, HEED / HE-ED is a better answer to 24d than MIND, but it does mean I had EXION as a guessed rotating thingy. And I never quite decided how to finish H-P-A- for 1a, never heard of HEPCAT after finding HIPHOP didn’t work with 3d.
    the rest, including the tree, the Puccinian style, the seabird song and the soap, went in properly in 20 minutes, so it was good in parts.
  26. Wick is in “Highland” – one of the old “regions”, but it’s not in the Highlands, and there are no corries nearit.
  27. Found this tough, but got there in the end. Nho IXION but with the checkers and the exact parsing in he went. Looking him up afterwards , I now see that the ancient Greeks were the inventors of the soap opera, though obviously the original ones involved more blood-letting than Corrie.
    38’48”
    1. Believe me, the amount of blood spilt in CORRIE is exceeded only by that in Emmerdale.
  28. Never heard of IXION.
    Never heard of Pindar, so looked up who he was, and only then got OWED.
    For HIGHLANDER, wouldn’t a native of somewhere in the Highlands been better than Wick?
  29. One of those days where the difficulty lay much more in the required knowledge than untangling the wordplay; happily that knowledge all fell on the right side of what a classicist who is familiar with both Scotland and soap operas would call “general”.

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