Times Cryptic 28058

71 comments on “Times Cryptic 28058”

1. I have a feeling some people needed to know the Greek thing, as, early doors, there were quite a few folk with one mistake, and I reckon that might be ‘demarara’.

   My favourite was DIACRITIC, since it is a nice word and nicely clued.

   Just snuck under 20 minutes, so some of the depression caused by England’s haplessness has been lifted.

   1. I don’t know if not knowing my Greek history was the problem…I read that bit as part of the homophone anyway.

      I just couldn’t remember how the sugar was spelled, and the clue was not helpful

2. A 48 minute DNF, not knowing “the Greek thing” and putting in ‘demarera’ as I thought it fitted the homophone better. I think I’ve misspelled this word wrongly before. HITMAN went in from wordplay with no idea about what was going on and I now know that EXTEMPORE is one word, not two.

   A clear failure, but some consolation with the ‘One’s relations are entertaining’ def for RACONTEUR and my LOI SCYTHE, an excellent cryptic def.

   1. Andyf
3. That should have been under 15′, but RAPIER was a long time coming, even with RAP_E_. I expect Ulaca’s right; I think I might very well have spelled DEMERARA with an A if I hadn’t known DEME. I didn’t realize that EASY STREET was a US expression; the Brits used to have a sort of antonym, Queer Street. COD to RACONTEUR.
   1. ‘Queer street’ is still very much in use in the UK. I came across it only the other day in the Guardian.
      1. I only knew it from Dickens, and just assumed it had passed out of use, especially given the current use of ‘queer’; and I see that ODE marks it as ‘dated’.
         1. I think its comeback might be due to the influence of gender studies and the noise around it
   2. Queer Street was apparently a corruption of Carey Street, where the old bankruptcy courts were. It is round the back of the Royal Courts of Justice.
      1. Apparently it wasn’t, just another folk derivation. From the OED:
         “an alternative derivation of this phrase < the name of Carey Street in London, site of the bankruptcy court, is unlikely, since the court was not located there until after 1840, and the phrase was apparently not originally restricted to financial difficulties”
4. Very happy to finish, and under 20 minutes, considering I have completed only 4 of the last 10 puzzles. I very much enjoyed solving this puzzle, though did not find it easy.

   I was very worried about DEM _ RARA. Come to think of it, that next-to-last A could have been an E by pronunciation, but I was pretty sure I’d seen it spelled RARA. My missing vowel, however, surely could have been A, E, or O, and in the end, DEME looked more like a thing than DEMA or DEMO. (Well, DEMO looks like a thing but not a territory).

   I biffed EXTEMPORE, but I couldn’t see how MPORE worked, so thank you for that parsing. And I really wanted SCYTHE to have another element to it, but I can’t find anything.

5. I enjoyed this one for its moderate level of difficulty, nice surface readings and a fair few cutting and pasting clues (which seem to suit me). DIACRITIC (as for ulaca) and the anagram for DEFENSIBLE were among the favourites.

   Fortunately I had a passing cook to consult on the DEMERARA spelling or I would have had little idea how to place the vowels. Not a great clue for those of us who lack a natural capacity for good spelling.

6. ….but I wasn’t total confident of -rara. There were a lot of good clues here, particularly morocco, talkative, and cadaverous. It is evident that the setter didn’t check out the poet’s personal life, as that is one problem he definitely didn’t have!

   Time: 35 minutes.

7. Not just me uncertain about spelling DEMERARA then. Luckily my first instinct was correct and I stuck with it. Elsewhere the mushroomy clue had me come up with APSLEROM — AP = “cap trimmed” and the reversed mushrooms being morels. An unknown mountain range? Fortunately my instinct was good here as well, telling my I’d invented this one. Having come up with the correct answer I was able to finish with the rather weak CD that was SCYTHE.
8. 25 mins pre-brekker.
   I thought some of the synonyms were a bit of a stretch. The fact that Jack has thought it necessary to explain ill (will) and tall (order) make my point.
   If some here think Scythe is a good CD then I am certainly on a different wavelength.
   Thanks setter and J.
   1. I tend to explain more than some because I blog both QC and 15×15 puzzles and either can’t be bothered to remember to adapt my style, or I do the 15x15s conscious that QC-ers like to have a go sometimes and may appreciate a little more help with the explanations.
      1. I was grateful for your explanations. I couldn’t see how to make demanding=tall. So thank you. I’ve only just got used to unlikely=tall (story).

         Edited at 2021-08-17 08:01 am (UTC)

         1. It’s a tall order to understand it.
   2. Like your work!
      1. Hi jack,

         I think you, or I, must have a different 5ac…I was referring to the image of murdering your wife, which I called ‘tasteless’.

         1. Ah, apologies, Rob. That’s what comes of having too many completed puzzles lying around! I have deleted my comment.

            I don’t agree with you about the clue to HITMAN as it happens but I respect your POV.

            Edited at 2021-08-17 08:30 am (UTC)

      2. One of the loveliest songs I know -and preferably sung by Bonnie Raitt- is “Angel from Montgomery”.
         The first verse goes:
         “I am an old woman
         Named after my mother
         My old man is another
         Child who’s grown old”

         Nothing offensive just a sad song.

         1. To change the mood entirely, this is the chorus from a song I sing quite often, needs to be sung in Yorkshire accent:
            Ee when I were a lad the times they were bad
            But not quite as bad as when me dad were a lad
            When me dad were a lad it were nearly as bad
            As when me dad’s dad were a lad
9. …..I am careful not to react to things without educating myself, having reached two-thirds of a century. But I found 5ac tasteless, as was the use of ‘old woman’ for ‘mum’.

   MOROCCO was an excellent clue, if it were not that ROC makes a vast number of appearances here.

   Attacking EN MASSE was particularly effective before machine guns.

   The Biafran ‘war’ remains a stain on the world, as I am reminded every time IBO appears.

   13′ 39″ thanks jack and setter.

   1. I’m almost 3/4 way to my century, and I don’t give a tuppenny cuss for the PC brigade — hence HITMAN was my COD as it made me chuckle.
      1. I also thought it was a good clue and made even better if one knows of the proclivities of the poet in question as hinted by vinyl1 above. I did, but decided not to mention it in the blog.
         1. I knew too — hence the chuckle !
10. 26:14
    Coin flip went the right way on demerara.
    Thanks, jack.
11. 23 minutes with DEMERARA, RECREANT, LESSEE and SCYTHE put in nervously. As with you Jack, I was singing “ Like Webster’s Dictionary, we’re Morocco bound” and had it pencilled in as my subject until I read your blog. Drat, I’ve got to think of another now. COD to HITMAN. I think I was within a few angstroms of wavelength today. Thank you Jack and setter.
12. SE corner was almost completely unfilled at around 55m – thought this was going to be a pretty feeble DNF until I got EQUIPMENT, triggering a bit of a flurry….
    …but failed to get a couple before the 1h mark, when I officially give up
    IBO (and obi) – jack’s blog comment says it all – I’m still a newbie in the world of cruciverbalism, I didn’t know either of ‘em.
    SCYTHE – crummy clue, and I ran out of time to do pattern-matching on the crossers

    Somewhat less miffed than I was yesterday, but I’m thinking about launching my own breakaway SNITCH (called DITCH, natch) rating of difficulty for naïve and innocent newcomers such as myself.

    1. Apart from IBO/OBI, some more crossword favourites today, Denise:
       ROC, RA for Royal Artillery and RE for sappers (Royal Engineers).
13. After yesterday this was another on my wavelength.
    Thank you, Jack, for the ‘Webster’s Dictionary’ reference. That was just what I was thinking when I solved the clue.
    I confuse DIACRITIC and diaeresis. The latter is a favourite of The New Yorker while the former is one of my two CODs; the other being TALKATIVE.
    1. Which is the one you need if your kidneys are dodgy?
14. ….more about sugar than I do about old Greek territories. Thanks to Jack for parsing PECCADILLO. I spotted the “Spoonerless Spoonerism” but tried playing with “flagon” before getting MAGNUM on my second pass. SCYTHE was within a whisker of being awarded COD — I thought it was rather clever. Does STEERAGE still exist ?

    FOI DEMERARA
    LOI RECREANT
    COD HITMAN
    TIME 8:26

    1. Yes, but it’s called “interior cabin” nowadays ..
    2. If pre-pandemic you flew “world traveller” class on British Airways you’ll know that STEERAGE does indeed still exist
15. 10:03 Fortunately spelling DEMERARA right as DEME sounded more likely than DEMA. I failed to parse PECCADILLO and CORSICA so thanks for explaining those Jackkt. I liked HITMAN best.

    Edited at 2021-08-17 08:54 am (UTC)

16. I fell into the ‘demarara’ trap – serves me right for not knowing ‘deme’, I suppose. PECCADILLO took me a long time to parse even with most of the checkers, and RECREANT was an unknown eventually constructed from wordplay. Hadn’t heard of EASY STREET as financial independence either, but it couldn’t have been anything else.

    Thought RACONTEUR was a nice clue.

17. Just under 20 minutes, with the sense that this was one for experienced hands, with a lot of lateral thinking required on the definitions and a lot of traditional abbreviations.
    Nearly got my sugar wrong, but oddly was prompted to DEME by its (unconnected?) ACA variant lower down the grid.
    I was reluctant to put in HADRIAN because I couldn’t make sense of the wordplay. Nick Breakspear (choose your own spelling) was either Adrian or Hadrian depending on where you read, so I couldn’t make sense of the Spanish conclusion and forgot entirely about the man with the wall.
    Only when I wrote my tentative answer in did I see DAVE in the gaunt clue. Too obvious, I suppose.
    Most of my Nigerian friends are Yoruba, but I still knew I(G)BO well enough, not least from the Mary Slessor story.
    I now know what RECREANT means. Not what it looks as if it should mean. Chambers says it’s archaic, code for should only be in Mephisto.
    Well deciphered, Jack, not the easiest.
18. Deme does crop up occasionally in Mephistos and Listeners, otherwise I’d have been similarly in a quandary. Overall, some very nice clues, though 22d is not amongst them.
19. Some tricky stuff today, starting for me with the sugar, which I managed to get right at the first attempt, although I wasn’t familiar with the Greek territory. I had to build RECREANT from the instructions. RAPIER took a while to spot. LOI was SCYTHE. 26:12. Thanks setter and Jack.
20. 11:12. I wasn’t sure about how to spell DEMERARA but the middle E seemed the more likely option and I thought DEME might be related to DEMESNE, which it isn’t. Whatever works.
    I thought SCYTHE was a bit weak.

    Edited at 2021-08-17 09:23 am (UTC)

21. Always understood it to mean living without any money problems.( ” Being on easy street.”)Still see it used, though possibly more American usage?
22. 16.54 but never felt this was an easy solve. Lots to tax the little grey cells. FOI morocco which confirmed my choice of demerara, remembered deme from A level Ancient History, the time I studied it being itself ancient history.

    LOI recreant a microsecond after parsing diacritic. COD hitman.
    Thanks setter for a very enjoyable puzzle and blogger for the usual excellent commentary.

23. 7m, and I was surprised to see some very quick times on the leaderboard, as this didn’t feel very easy.

    Seeing DEMERARA at 1ac with the vowels unchecked was painful, as I have misspelled it more often than not, but it looks like I’ve finally drummed EEAA into my head.

    Some nice stuff here, my favourite probably being DEFENSIBLE, and my LOI RAPIER was well-worked with the ‘artillery weapon’ bit.

24. Knew the deme, as any smug classicist should, but was slightly mystified by SCYTHE (thought it was clearly right but that some subtle part of the wordplay must be escaping me…apparently no, it is just what it is).
25. I found this a bit of a grind. I was often unsure of my spelling and needing Jack to clarify CORSICA for me. I did like RACONTEUR and EXTEMPORE.

    I was once told that a Pecadillo was equivalent to two gallons of dillo.

    Thanks to Jack and the Setter.

    1. I like peccadillo but prefer Fiano and Pinot Grigio
26. It seems opinion is divided about SCYTHE, with most people not being keen on it but one or two liking it. Fwiw I thought it was pretty awful.
27. I did this in what seemed like record time, and avoided all the traps to boot, but forgot to start the timer. Typical. Only false start was a biffed ETAGERE for the cheap accommodation, reasoning (if that is the correct word) that it might be some sort of broom cupboard sized accommodation between landings in a Parisian mansion block. Pfaff.
28. NHO ‘MOROCCO’. Knew it was some kind of leather, and that it must be contained in ‘moo’…. but still couldn’t see it. D’oh.
29. but with a HADRAIN typo and 5 mins lost while mrs E was trying to distract me.
    I for one give an upvote to SCYTHE.
30. I had all the GK, so my biggest slowdown was thinking a Hagnag might be a thing until En Masse came along. I kind of enjoyed this, though i went at a slow enough pace that the loosish definitions had time to settle into the ‘close enough’ bin rather than the ‘what the heck?’ bin.

    Edited at 2021-08-17 05:24 pm (UTC)

31. A mostly straightforward 16.56 although I gave up on parsing EXTEMPORE because I got stuck on tempo=time for some reason. There’s a song in the musical Annie called EASY STREET and I’ve always taken it to mean coming into unexpected and possibly ill-gotten wealth. DEMERARA also reminded me of an old song my father used to roar out on long car trips. Can’t remember much of it except the chorus which went: Here we sit like birds in the wilderness (repeat twice more) down in Demerara.
    1. You can find that song amongst others on the following page: http://singinggamesforchildren.com/A%20Cluster%202.2%20Awaywego/19%20Lavender%Lane%20A-H.htm
       1. That’s the one!
          1. I always think of that song whenever I come across demerara.
32. Slowish start due to various distractions, but flowed better once I’d got stuck in.

    DEMERARA — didn’t know the Greek bit but no probs with the spelling.

    Last three in: PECCADILLO (not fully parsed); HITMAN (a ‘doh!’ moment); RECREANT (NHO).

    STEERAGE took longer than it should have.

    Smiled at SCYTHE.

    How many Weimar dramatists are there?

    1. The number has been inflated.

       [boring point ruining the gag: the widely-believed (especially in Germany) idea that inflation under the Weimar Republic created the conditions for the Nazis is a complete myth.]

33. A 12 min DNF for me. I paused at the end over LOI recreant which was unfamiliar but the wordplay made sense and I knew miscreant so trusted it was ok. I should have paused over FOI my misspelt demarara.
34. A puzzle that got me rereading Walt Whitman. “Leaves of Grass” was the first book I bought with my own pocket money. I’ve still got it – an American edition bought in 1956/57. Since then I’ve sung Vaughan William’s Sea Symphony several times. Wonderful poetry set to wonderful music. Re the crossword: My only query was TAL in 6d. Too vague a definition for me. 23 minutes. Ann
35. nice
36. LOI the sugar, which must not be as obscure as it seemed to me last night…
    I also thought the SCYTHE should have been sharper.

    Edited at 2021-08-17 03:01 pm (UTC)

37. 36 minutes and I found this rather easy (unlike yesterday’s, which I thought was harder and took me nearly an hour). Like many others, I didn’t know DEME, but I read enough recipes that I was fairly sure of the spelling of the sugar. This was not really a very exciting puzzle and so I have little more to say.
    1. But it’s nice to hear from you anyway.
38. Didn’t like the homophone for rara (but I often have a problem with those, since different accents pronounce things differently).
    Really disliked (LOI) scythe.
    48 minutes in two sittings, well 3 if you count scythe.
    COD Morocco.
    1. The homophone has to be taken in the context of the whole word as spoken even though DEME is not clued as such. RARA on its own would likely be pronounced as in ‘rah-rah skirt’ but as part of DEMERARA it sounds like “rarer” – to my ear anyway!

       Edited at 2021-08-17 10:35 pm (UTC)

       1. But not to my ear, which is exactly my point.
          1. Occasionally setters add ‘to some’ or something similar when indicating a homophone but I think that’s a bit pointless as nearly all are dodgy to someone.
39. MER seeing on to as a single word. In my youff, this was always corrected. Times change.
    1. ON TO is still used where the ON bit is part of the verb (as in, say, MOVED ON), but according to dictionaries, and as you uspect, times have indeed ‘moved on’.

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