Times Cryptic 29004 – Saturday, 24 August 2024. Drunk as a specific teetotaller?

16 comments on “Times Cryptic 29004 – Saturday, 24 August 2024. Drunk as a specific teetotaller?”

1. Good surface for 18ac BIDET.

   I liked 26ac. I think it is referring to this:
   –“Grape or grain, but never the twain.” So runs the old folk wisdom that advises against drinking wine or beer on the same night.– https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140428-does-wine-beer-huge-hangover

   1. Actually that article’s written the explanation wrongly I think.

      Should be:

      …against drinking beer AND wine on the same night.

2. Had a chuckle at 19d, TITANIC being a historic vessel – didn’t have much of a history, I thought, but I get the picture. Personally, AGAINST THE GRAIN for me would be doing something I wouldn’t normally do or wouldn’t feel comfortable doing. I think you’re right about being selective in the choice of drink for specifically teetotal. Liked 25a PLAN-E, seem to be getting a lot like this lately such as yesterday’s FACE-T.
   Thanks B and setter.

   1. Spoiler!
      Some of us do them in date order (and are well behind)
      But I’ll have forgotten this by Friday anyway

3. I finished this over lunch, so don’t have a time, but evidently I didn’t have much trouble with it. I did raise an eyebrow over virtuoso=soloist. And does making someone a DBE thereby ennoble her? No problem with AGAINST THE GRAIN.

   1. Yes, “Dame” is the female equivalent of “Sir”, so making Dame Judi Dench for example a D.B.E. did ennoble her.

      1. But a knight isn’t a noble; the nobility includes barons and above, not baronets, and not knights.

         1. Per Wikipedia: Since there is no female equivalent to a Knight Bachelor, women are always appointed to an order of chivalry.

            Make if that what you can!

            1. I can’t make anything of it; the fact (so far as I know) remains that knights and dames aren’t nobles.

               1. That is one meaning, yes; but the main definition in Collins is far more general than that: “a person belonging to a privileged social or political class whose status is usually indicated by a title conferred by sovereign authority or descent”

4. Yes, there were a few loose usages, but I zipped through this one without much difficulty, seeing what the compiler was getting at. CashMERe.

   Time: 20 minutes

5. 46 minutes. I don’t remember parsing AGAINST THE GRAIN so I think I must have biffed it and neglected to revisit it after completion.

   Other than that, I noted the error in ROADBED, a word I didn’t actually know. DBE is a civil honour so holders of the title are not part of the nobility.

6. 46m 27s
   I’m quite possibly missing something here but I think the clue for 16d ENCHILADA is incomplete, i.e. what is an ENCHILADA. What is the solver looking for. The rest of the clue doesn’t provide that, in my view.

   1. As suggested by Bruce, the definition here is probably more than ‘hacienda cooking’ although I think that might just suffice on its own. I’d be inclined to say it’s the whole clue which I’d take as a pretty strong indication that the solver should be looking for a Mexican (or possibly Spanish) dish.

7. DNF, defeated by ROADBED – not a term I’m familiar with. No real problems otherwise.

   Thanks branch and setter.

   COD Codpiece

8. Enjoyed CODPIECE, not merely for its sauciness, but also as it sent me off on the wrong track looking for a shortened version of the crinoline! DOORJAMB, CASHMERE, BIDET, CORDON all very good too. No problem with AGAINST THE GRAIN, biffed. Fun puzzle that I had a chance of completing without too much cheating.

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