Times Cryptic 28262

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 27 minutes. There was lots of interesting stuff here and nothing that gave me major problems.

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 I’d exposure badly in tragedy (7,3)
OEDIPUS REX
Anagram [badly] of I’D EXPOSURE. A write-in as we had this answer clued as an anagram (including the word EXPOSURE) only last Friday at 1dn instead of 1ac!
6 Mostly sound mistake (4)
GOOF
GO OF{f} (sound (vb)) [mostly]. The answer was obvious from definition and checkers but it took me a while to parse it.
9 Persuasive son frequently gets work over in South Ken (4-6)
SOFT-SPOKEN
S (son), OFT (frequently) then OP (work) reversed [over] and contained by [in] S + KEN. For anyone who may not know, ‘South Ken’ is local shorthand for the ‘South Kensington’ district of London and its underground station. What I didn’t know is the second meaning of soft-spoken as listed in Collins:  2. able to persuade or impress by glibness of tongue.
10 God sculptor’s not got right (4)
ODIN
{r}ODIN (sculptor), [not got right – r]
12 Food is something eaten with biscuits by penguin (8,6)
MACARONI CHEESE
MACARONI (crested penguin), CHEESE (something eaten with biscuits). I didn’t know the penguin but was trying to make a connection between ‘macaroni’ as a ‘dandy’ and the ‘penguin-suit’ finerysometimes worn by men on formal occasions. There may indeed be a link as to how the penguin acquired its name.
14 Disquiet from blood type being associated with fingerprints (6)
ABDABS
AB (blood type), DABS (fingerprints). Collins has this as: British old-fashioned –  a case of extreme anxiety. I knew it has ‘habdabs’ but the wordplay directed me to the alternative spelling. It’s slang from the1940s and 1950s and I’m pretty sure that ‘the screaming habdabs’ featured in The Goon Show along with their other favourite ailment ‘the dreaded lurgy’. ‘Dabs’ for fingerprints will be familiar to followers of crime fiction and drama of the same era – very Dixon of Dock Green!
15 Plane is cutting weight in offload (8)
JETTISON
JET (plane), then IS contained by [cutting] TON (weight)
17 Stomach jewellery rapidly losing value (8)
TUMBLING
TUM (stomach), BLING (jewellery)
19 Jungle Book role‘s cut line in private (6)
MOWGLI
MOW (cut), then L (line) contained by [in] GI (private)
22 Funnily metamorphose in …. this? (9,5)
PANTOMIME HORSE
Anagram [funnily] of METAMORPHOSE IN. ‘This’ as definition presumably refers back to what’s gone before but I don’t quite see how,  and I have no idea what the ellipsis is doing. Perhaps somebody can explain it all better? Edit: Now explained in the comments below, although I still don’t see why the ellipsis is needed.
24 Report about mass ceremony (4)
POMP
POP (report – as in 6ac), containing [about] M (mass)
25 What unemployed Parisian does embroidery? (10)
NEEDLEWORK
An unemployed Parisian speaking Franglais may NEED ‘LE WORK’ !
26 Outfit introducing new phone (4)
RING
RIG (outfit) containing [introducing] N (new)
27 Worker in print company ordered import covering operating system (10)
COMPOSITOR
CO (company), then anagram [ordered] of IMPORT containing [covering] OS (operating system)
Down
1 River rodent, the first to go extinct (4)
OUSE
{m}OUSE (rodent) [the first to go extinct] There are three or four such rivers in England. My town is on a tributary of one of them that’s called the River Ouzel.
2 Farming authority regularly destroyed suede and fleece (7)
DEFRAUD
DEFRA (farming authority), {s}U{e}D{e} [regularly destroyed]. A little hard on our overseas contingent, DEFRA stands for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. I think in my time as a civil servant I was briefly under its banner during a Machinery of Government  reorganisation but a couple of days later the changes moved on and I was somewhere else. Not physically, as I was still at the same desk doing the same job.
3 Means of voting after Scotland raised tax (6,6)
POSTAL BALLOT
POST (after), ALBA (Scotland), then TOLL (tax) reversed [raised]. The BBC’s Gaelic TV service is called ‘Alba’.
4 Excellent drug lad’s brought round (4-2)
SPOT-ON
SON (lad) containing [brought round] POT (drug)
5 Preparation for viewers to look at ship (8)
EYELINER
EYE (look at), LINER (ship)
7 Uneven quality of empty devotion in poems on saint (7)
ODDNESS
D{evotio}N [empty] contained by [in] ODES (poems), S (saint)
8 Digital growth if learning is distributed (10)
FINGERNAIL
Anagram [distributed] of IF LEARNING
11 Book   a specific couple of planes that take up gliders (3,3,6)
THE TWO TOWERS
A straight definition and a cryptic one with ‘specific’ referring to the definite article, THE. It’s the second book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
13 Conflict about action copy discarded daily? (10)
WASTEPAPER
WAR (conflict) containing [about] STEP (action) + APE (copy). A somewhat loose definition, I think.
16 Literary character, another I altered (8)
ANTIHERO
Anagram [altered] of ANOTHER I
18 Islander with French mother outside New Cross (7)
MANXMAN
MAMAN (French mother) containing [outside] N (new) + X (cross). For anyone who may not know, ‘New Cross’ is an area of south-east London and its Network Rail station. Its underground station is called ‘New Cross Gate’.
20 Travel diversion in Hampshire town (7)
GOSPORT
GO (travel), SPORT (diversion). It’s on Portsmouth harbour opposite the city.
21 Parody finishes with the raising of spades (4-2)
SEND-UP
ENDS UP (finishes) becomes SEND-UP when S (spades) is raised
23 Curdled milk runs under container for fantastic pie? (4)
SKYR
SKY (container for fantastic pie – Pie in the Sky), R (runs). I didn’t know this word or get the ‘sky’ reference until I was writing the blog, so SKYR was a lucky guess. For some reason it rang the faintest of bells. It’s an Icelandic dish made from curdled milk.

56 comments on “Times Cryptic 28262”

  1. DNF in 14.43. Thwarted by a typo in jeetison. Annoying. A nice puzzle to work through. Didn’t get stuck anywhere except perhaps goof which resisted attempts to parse until I tried adding a letter to the end of two words: go of, rather than one: goof. The macaroni penguin was unknown but I just thought penguin might be another term for dandy and moved on. Should’ve got Oedipus Rex a lot quicker than I did given its recent appearance, then again perhaps that made it more unexpected.
  2. ABDABS was my LOI, had to check, and glad to learn it. I never did parse GOOF(oops). NHO DEFRA, but what else could it be? I didn’t know the MACARONI penguin either but was eating CHEESE with biscuits last night (leftovers from a party Sunday). I’ve always got some Siggi’s SKYR in the fridge. Je trouve NEEDLEWORK plutôt goofy.
  3. Like Gideandre, I felt the franglais clue was a bit mer. Sometimes we have clues that require basic French, and that seemed to be what the setter was driving at here. But he wasn’t really – just the definite article. I loved Miles Kington too, at the time. Today the humour feels a bit tired. Whinge over. Otherwise much fun had. Never parsed goof, so thanks. I thought it might be because it was three-quarters good , meaning sound. But it would hgave been a very poor clue if that had been the case.
    1. Yeah, that’s what I settled for too.
      Et nous sommes en accord sur NEEDLEWORK.
  4. DNF, as ABDABS defeated me (I had ABDIBS, but I also had no chance at all of actually knowing this word, so I am not quite so dismayed as I would be if I had made a really stupid mistake). I did not enjoy this, as there was absolutely no reason to include so many obscurities and nothing particularly amusing or witty to act as a counterweight.
  5. …due to my inability to enter the letters of ANTIHERO in the correct boxes, I ended up with three pinkies.

    Enjoyed ABDABS — nothing really unknown here other than SKYR as an actual thing — I just thought that was a product name!

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