Time: 38 minutes. A very enjoyable solve. I missed some of the parsing which added time when I came to write the blog. 15dn in particular gave me trouble in that regard.
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Plant holding partition down (7) |
| SWALLOW – S~OW (to plant) containing [holding] WALL (partition) | |
| 5 | Company note port is full of spirit (3,4) |
| CON BRIO – CO (company), NB (note – nota bene), RIO (port). A musical direction. | |
| 9 | Tribal yet unusually free (2,7) |
| AT LIBERTY – Anagram [unusually] of TRIBAL YET | |
| 10 | Where drinks are made without added carbon dioxide (5) |
| STILL – Two meanings, the first as in distilling, the second e.g. ‘still orange’ as opposed to the fizzy drink. | |
| 11 | City kept changing sides before international (5) |
| DELHI – HELD (kept} changing sides becomes DELH, then I (international) | |
| 12 | Go into the Spanish sort of institute (9) |
| ESTABLISH – STAB (go – shot, try) contained by [into] E~L (‘the’ Spanish), -ISH (sort of) | |
| 13 | Drunk groom got us ice as proof of life? (6,4,3) |
| COGITO ERGO SUM – Anagram [drunk] of GROOM GOT US ICE. The saying associated with the French scientist and philosopher René Descartes usually translates as “I think, therefore I am”. |
|
| 17 | Sharing on social media popular with men only? Smashing! (13) |
| INSTAGRAMMING – IN (popular), STAG (men only), RAMMING (smashing – colliding) | |
| 21 | Emigrant touring island next to Iona, not quite making amends (9) |
| EXPIATION – EXP~AT (migrant) containing [touring] I (island), then ION{a} [not quite] | |
| 24 | Short characters sitting in booster seat (5) |
| TERSE – Hidden [characters sitting in] {boos}TER SE{at} | |
| 25 | One’s observant in probing high-definition movie certificate (5) |
| HINDU – IN contained by [probing} H~D (high-definition), then U (movie certificate – universal) | |
| 26 | Writer originally identifying location for Robin Hood (9) |
| ISHERWOOD – I{dentifying} [originally] SHERWOOD (location for Robin Hood – Sherwood Forest). Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) is perhaps most famous as the author of Goodbye to Berlin. | |
| 27 | A head bitten by short seabird’s beak (7) |
| TEACHER – EACH (a head – per person) contained [bitten] T~ER{n} (seabird) [short]. Complaints will be voiced in some quarters as ‘beak’ is British slang for judge, magistrate, headmaster or schoolmaster, and most of the usual dictionaries qualify it as being dated. It was abundant in the schoolboy books of my childhood such as Jennings and Billy Bunter. I love to be reminded of words like this that conjure up nostalgic memories. | |
| 28 | Song about Cambridge University lacking in scope (7) |
| LIMITED – LI~ED (song) containing [about] MIT (Cambridge University – a chestnut by now along with Harvard) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Salomé’s opening nearby, it could be in the round (6) |
| SHANDY – S{alomé’s} [opening], HANDY (nearby). ‘Round’ as in a round of drinks. | |
| 2 | Social cycling doesn’t involve national sports team (3,6) |
| ALL BLACKS – BALL (social) cycling becomes ALL/B, then LACKS (doesn’t involve) | |
| 3 | Launching activity to influence legislators with years to go (7) |
| LOBBING – LOBB{y}ING (activity to influence legislators) [years to go] | |
| 4 | Brag about compound in Midlands city (9) |
| WORCESTER – CROW (brag) reversed [about], ESTER (compound). ‘Ester’ featured in the QC I blogged yesterday when it was clued as ‘floral smelling compound’, so it was fresh in my mind. | |
| 5 | Tomb Raider: you play at first in skin of Croft (5) |
| CRYPT – R{aider}+ Y{ou} + P{lay} [at first] contained by [in] C{rof}T [skin of…] | |
| 6 | Ban goes awry where muzzle may be covered (7) |
| NOSEBAG – Anagram [awry] of BAN GOES. More nostalgic memories of our Express Dairy milkman’s horse and cart! | |
| 7 | Therapy that’s more pointed without special backing (5) |
| REIKI – (sp)IKIER (more pointed) [without special] reversed [backing]. When this answer showed up in the 15×15 on Monday of last week I noted that it had appeared here on 4 previous occasions and each time I had said I didn’t know it. Finally today I have remembered it! | |
| 8 | Running amok with Halo, OK? (8) |
| OKLAHOMA – Anagram [running] of AMOK HALO | |
| 14 | Swiss production cast Hamlet around king and queen, say (9) |
| EMMENTHAL – Anagram [cast] of HAMLET containing [around] MEN (king and queen, say). In the game of chess all pieces are classed as men. ‘Say’ is there to cover the DBE in the wordplay. | |
| 15 | Increase appeal of cold Italian sauces, recalled on the way up (5-4) |
| SUGAR-COAT – C (cold) + RAGUS (Italian sauces) reversed [recalled], then TAO (the way) reversed [up]. SOED: Tao – Confucianism. The way, method, or norm to be followed, esp. in conduct. I’m glad I didn’t need the wordplay to come up with the answer. | |
| 16 | Instantly appreciate formal headwear when out of work (4,4) |
| LIKE THAT – LIKE (appreciate), T{op} HAT (formal headwear) [when out of work – op] | |
| 18 | Where you shouldn’t pull with difficulty? (2,1,4) |
| AT A PUSH – A cryptic hint precedes the literal | |
| 19 | British playwright dismissing top writer’s acting (7) |
| INTERIM – {p}INTER (British playwright – Harold) [dismissing top], I’M (writer’s) | |
| 20 | Get very tired after knocking out American amongst the best at Wimbledon? (6) |
| SEEDED – SEE (get), DE{a}D (very tired) [knocking out American] | |
| 22 | Chinese native with makings of father? (5) |
| PANDA – P AND A (makings of father – PA) | |
| 23 | More distant royal once found beneath here in Versailles (5) |
| ICIER – ICI (‘here’ in Versailles), ER (royal once) | |
21:32
I biffed SEEDED, failed to parse it. Biffed REIKI (glad it had appeared recently), ESTABLISH, SUGAR-COAT, parsed post-submission. I liked ESTABLISH.
Failed on the Latin phrase but should have seen the ergo/therefore which may have allowed me to get the rest with checkers, but I was in a hurry. LIKE THAT reminded me of Tommy Cooper. Liked AT A PUSH thinking of the old joke about maternity ward doors all saying ‘PUSH’. Wouldn’t have known who ISHERWOOD was but the wordplay was more than kind. I only know BEAK as a judge. Liked LOBBING. Got SUGAR COAT but missed the ‘tao’ bit. Liked PANDA for the Chinese native. Liked CRYPT and EMMENTHAL.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Well, I didn’t remember reiki, and had to use spikier to get the answer. I did biff cogito ergo sum, an obvious answer, as well as sugar-coat. I ended up with the tricky like that, not being sure of the definition, but eventually saw it.
Time: 24:30
Thanks to Jack for the parsing of SUGAR-COAT. I biffed quite a few to finish in 18:27, which I’m not yet sure is within target or not.
Re INSTAGRAMMING, I wonder how many people here are not on any social media at all. There must be one or two. I have to own up to Facebook, since the wife and daughter signed me up for it 20 years ago. I hardly use it – primarily, the messaging function. Also on WhatsApp, but not sure if that counts…
I’m one of them.
Me too. I spent a lifetime in IT and resolutely avoided screen time away from my desk. I only started doing the crossword online when I retired. I do use messaging apps and email and have done since before many people even knew they existed.
I use Facebook for restricted special interest groups (mostly local history) but have all the default settings for interaction turned off. I don’t even know what WhatsApp is.
I’ve left Facebook, with its algorithm that makes things either fomo or gloomy, promoting extremes. I use WhatsApp for small groups of colleagues.I liked the clue for INSTAGRAMMING but do not go near it. I was for a while on the one that is now X but the same problem applies – you cannot have nuanced discussions with very small word limits, and thus end up with binaries.
I was on Facebook for a while when grand-kids were small, but left after annoying messages even with privacy settings set to max. I’m on no other social media, it’s a bad day it was created but the genie won’t go back in the bottle.
INSTAGRAMMING wrote itself in immediately, given ‘popular’ and ‘men only’. I do use FB and WhatsApp, the latter for family and friends, the former because I joined years ago and have friends and ex-colleagues on it, though it’s increasingly irritating. The others I avoid!
Enjoyed this very much. It didn’t seem a hard one, but I didn’t try for a quick finish, instead tackling it at a leisurely pace while conversing via Facebook with one friend (Zvi) about biblical exegesis (and genocide) and via email with another who is also a colleague (Haesun) about a letter she ran in our latest print issue… and about the Protestant Church (Evangelische Kirche) in Germany. Instantly appreciated that “One’s observant” meant a religious adherent!
I have to say l’m not really one for chit-chat, preferring to talk on more serious topics with my friends.
🙂
I had a MER at the definition: I would imagine there are plenty of Hindus (Christians, Jews, …) who are not observant but would call themselves Hindus (Christians, Jews, …).
I have a friend , originally from Pakistan, who describes himself as a cultural Muslim.
About 27, enjoyable but I’m not fully convinced that the TAO part of the SUGAR COAT clue is fair. I mean, let’s face it, a Confucian term used upside down beneath an upside down Italian word…never mind. Needed more of Jack’s help to understand SEEDED, INTERIM (oh, Pinter), TEACHER (beak? huh?) and REIKI.
From Floater (Too Much To Ask):
You can smell the pinewood burning, you can hear the school bell ring
Gotta get up near the TEACHER if you can, if you wanna learn anything
Romeo said to Juliet You got a poor complexion,
It doesn’t give your appearance a very youthful touch.
Juliet said back to Romeo
Why don’t you shove off if it bothers you so much?
A lovely puzzle which I very much enjoyed. 21 minutes on the dot – but without parsing the TAO bit of SUGAR COAT which I’d agree is a bit tough. Everything else parsed, though, and I enjoyed the economy in the cluing. STILL, EXPIATION, ALL BACKS, WORCESTER and INTERIM my faves today.
I am enjoying the irony of the nascent discussion about whether or not we use social media. I’m pretty sure we’re on it!
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Well, I did put the kibosh on private messaging at TftT, wanting to resemble social media as little as possible. You can’t post pictures, either, and inappropriate posts will be promptly deleted. The biggest thing: absolutely no advertising.
An interesting point, Vinyl, as I’ve often wondered what you do if you want to get in touch with one or more people on the site outside the blog. I have contact details for two here, but only obtained through a face to face meeting at The George in central London organised by John. I mean, if I were to visit NZ or Australia, for instance, and wanted to meet up with some willing commenters while there, how would one go about that? Hypothetical, at present, sadly…
Ha! That did occur to me…
43 mins. On a roll after yesterday’s PB. Enjoyed the international flavour today. FOI Con brio. LOI Shandy.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Enjoyed this, been a good week so far.
Got round the TAO problem by not needing to parse the clue at all.
As for thinking, most don’t, they only react. “Most people think once or twice a year. I have built an international reputation by thinking twice a week.” (GB Shaw)
12.15
Biffed a few including ESTABLISH, ALL BLACKS and SUGAR COAT, but otherwise all very gettable.
LOI LIKE THAT – I may not be the only one to have read it out with a Tommy Cooper impression.
COD INTERIM.
39:20
LOI LIKE THAT. Thought that out of work meant it was missing a w (as in physics).
Didnt understand WORCESTER, had LEICESTER for some time.
LOI INSTAGRAMMING, something I’ve never got the hang of as the message I was thinking of replying to always seems to have disappeared before I’ve got round to it. I’ve never forgotten Denis Norden’s take on Descartes on that lovely programme My Word, when he had to explain to party guests that the cakes were for later. “I think they’re for one a.m.” The Tao of Physics used to be a must-read for physicists of my age. Seeded was my only biff. An enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
My memory of Denis Norden in this context is that the philosopher wanted to enjoy a bit of friskiness with his wife, to which she retorted ‘oh no Descartes, take that away from me!’ After some further discussion they agreed, I think, for 1.00a.m.
Technically a DNF and I’m kicking myself because we had the ruddy REIKI (NHO) only last week, as Jack points out, and I still couldn’t remember it! Damn.
Anyway, otherwise enjoyable. SUGAR-COAT bunged in without parsing as was COGITO etc.
Thanks Jack and setter.
13:50 but I failed to parse ALL BLACKS and SEEDED. I liked COGITO ERGO SUM. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
A quite quick 18:06 today, CON BRIO FOI and STILL was LOI with INTERIM, SEEDED and DELHI unparsed. COD to ISHERWOOD.
10’47”, no issues. Didn’t bother to parse SUGAR-COAT. Didn’t parse LOI LIKE THAT. Wasn’t sure about SEEDED.
I’m wondering why I haven’t heard Pink Floyd as background to the news? Seminal part of my growing up.
Thanks jack and setter.
I took about 18 mins. Unfortunately, I was solving amongst and distracted by my three young children on the Easter holiday, and before entering the final three, I pressed submit rather than pause. So my time isn’t officially registered.
I really enjoyed this.
COD to C/E/S.
NHO ISHERWOOD, but kindly cluing.
18:24. Only LOI TEACHER causing much pause for thought. NHO that usage but the wordplay made it fair.
COD to SUGAR COAT, my Tao knowledge coming from “The Tao of Pooh” but I enjoyed most of this being quick enough for me to get the laugh in real time rather than 10 minutes later.
Thanks to jackkt and setter.
33 minutes. Needed a bit of thought but in an enjoyable way. Eventually all parsed with ALL BLACKS, SUGAR COAT, SEEDED and my LOI the obliquely defined SHANDY worth the trouble to see how they worked.
30:55 so twice as long as yesterday and my slowest for some time.
Liked INSTAGRAMMING although it’s not something I have ever done. Good balance for the Latin phrase.
ISHERWOOD I don’t think I have encountered his work and could only list one off the top of my head.
REIKI making its second appearance in quick succession. My wife is into all that nonsense which is quite the mismatch for the decades I have worked in evidence based medicine.
LOI SEEDED which was my first thought but I held off until the checking letters and lack of any credible alternative forced me to enter it. Needed the blog to understand how it parsed.
Overall I really liked this puzzle even if in hindsight I think I should have been quite a bit quicker.
Thanks blogger and setter
If it helps, he wrote the books on which Cabaret was based.
Much enjoyed, as @jerry says, a good week so far, I biffed SEEDED and SUGAR COAT so thanks ulaca. 21 minutes. Agree with comments about HINDU. Didn’t know instagramming was a verb.
Very slow start but all correct in just under the half hour. A fair bit of biffing involved eg SHANDY where I couldn’t see the round’s function – perhaps it was my shout. The parsing of SUGAR COAT was quite beyond me . I thought HINDU was a bit off too.
Thanks to setter and jackkt.
12.56, no issues except SEEDED, where I didn’t get get for SEE. I just had to hope no players were NEEDED at Wimbledon.
I use Facebook for the Listener Crossword: the group there doesn’t mind discussing answers. I deleted Instagram, use Whatsapp rarely for a small favoured group of connections, and wouldn’t want to use X. Discord to back up this group and prize crosswords before revelation day. If TftT counts as social media then I’m glad it doesn’t ever descend into vile abuse, tribal violence and tinfoil hat stuff the way FB does, however “monitored” it’s supposed to be. Cogito, ergo sum things are not wanted on voyage.
Just under 20 minutes with LIKE THAT and SEEDED unparsed. Glad I unraveled the Latin phrase correctly and ISHERWOOD was in a Jumbo I was attempting on the train yesterday. Some clever clues here. Thanks to the setter and blogger for their work.
After learning to do crosswords from Jack’s excellent Quick Cryptic blogs, it was nice to do this one in sub 20 mins (not at all typical). Must have been on the setter’s wavelength this time Thanks as always for the blog.
30:55 I liked this a lot. Lots of witty and imaginative cluing. Needed Jack to fully explain SEEDED and SUGAR COAT. COD and LOI SHANDY.
Thanks to Jack and the settter
Two goes needed.
– Took ages to get DELHI, even after thinking of ‘held’, as I thought ‘changing sides’ meant replacing an R with an L so couldn’t see how it might parse
– Didn’t see how the definition for SHANDY worked, even after getting it from the checkers
– Had no idea about the ‘oat’ part of SUGAR COAT
– Didn’t parse SEEDED
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI At liberty
LOI Shandy
COD Interim
Beaten at the last gasp by LIKE THAT. Had all the crossers, obv, but just stared at it blankly without inspiration for 20 mins. Very very irritating. Knew ‘beak’ as ‘teacher’ from Jennings. The rest of this was fairly straightforward, with only REIKI offering much resistance.
39:31
Think I must have left the timer running when I had to attend to something else, as this didn’t seem overly tricky. I had CON VIGO for a long time until I eventually worked out 7d, didn’t notice that the answer would be a musical term – three I checkers seemed unlikely! Didn’t know that TAO means ‘the way’, but I do now. Recently read ‘Goodbye To Berlin’ – must say, that while it’s good to have a little insight into the Weimar Republic era, I’m not sure what the fuss is about…
Thanks Jack and setter
MER at the Cogito: thought, for Descartes, is proof of existence as an individuated entity. That’s not the same thing as life.
16:30 – quick sprint through and no quibbles, though there might have been if I’d stopped to parse SUGAR COAT.
One or two slight problems, the greatest of which was the inability of The Times app to accept my login (I uninstalled and reinstalled on advice) on my tablet. I am assured that this is a known problem and will be dealt with soon. I hope. So I did it on the desktop. As for the crossword, all easy enough although I had my doubts about ‘way’ in 15dn: thought it might be that, but … I never parsed SEEDED. For a while I thought it was TE(A CHE)R at 27ac and wondered how Che = head.
FOI was LOBBING. Biffed ALL BLACKS, SEEDED and SUGAR COAT. TEACHER ad PANDA were last 2 in. Enjoyable puzzle. 19:02. Thanks setter and Jack.
DNF as I could not convince myself that LIKE THAT was a recognised expression. Has it been sanctified by Tommy Cooper? Otherwise I rather enjoyed this, though the clues were not quite a match for yesterday’s, in my view. Still took 42 minutes before throwing in the towel.
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
7:48. Really enjoyed this one.
I have to confess to high biff total on this one, but I parsed everything successfully later, though ALL BLACKS took a minute or two. “Cycling” clues are generally troublesome for me.
FOI CON BRIO *
LOI SHANDY
COD INSTAGRAMMING $
TIME 8:02
$ I was quite pleased with myself to get this on the first pass.
* The last two words of a gloriously smutty limerick about a concert pianist from Rio, which isn’t suitable for sharing here.
13.41
Also liked it, especially COGITO ERGO SUM.
I enjoyed this one, taking almost 40 minutes. I couldn’t account for EACH in TEACHER; Tao in SUGER COAT (great clue) passed me by too. I might have seen AT A PUSH some time but it went in with some trepidation. Thanks setter and jackkt.
Always felt on the wavelength for this one and thoroughly enjoyed the misleading surfaces of SWALLOW, ESTABLISH, TEACHER and SHANDY. Got caught out by Cambridge University, which I should have bifd instead of trying to fit CU in. It may be a chestnut, but I fell for it again. Only when the M and T were in did I kick myself. LOI SEEDED, bifd and post-parsed. COD to AT A PUSH.
I struggled with what in retrospect I see was a good, straightforward puzzle – 33 mins. It took me ages to get the COAT part of SUGAR-COAT, even though I know that ‘the way’ always = TAO in crosswords. The NW corner foxed me for a long time despite AT LIBERTY and LOBBING having gone in just LIKE THAT. On the other hand REIKI was a gift – I’d never heard of it ten days ago! Thanks Blogger for explaining ALL BLACKS’ wordplay. First in was CON BRIO and last SUGAR-COAT. Favourite clue: to SHANDY. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
Most of this went in fairly quickly, but I came unstuck in the NW. I’d biffed Shallow instead of SWALLOW, so OWL club today.
Thanks Jack, for the detailed blog and explaining how the cold ragu Tao clue worked.
Thanks Setter.
This seemed very similar in style to yesterday’s. Perfect stuff for the early part of the week.
20’16”. Wasted a bit of time at the end on 1 ac, thinking the DOWN in the clue was LOW and the whole thing meant PLANT – HOLDING meaning COMPRISING. A SPARLOW was nearly invented, not that SPAR means PARTITION, but when you’re up against it all sorts of things become possible. BURKE was briefly a possibility for TOMB RAIDER. Many thanks.
All done in about 45 mins. Got SUGARCOAT, but didn’t understand the OAT/TAO bit.
First one in was COGITO ERGO SUM … I always start off with the longest answers to maximize crossers.
22:53
LOI SHANDY.
Never parsed SEEDED, but easily biffed.
Thanks boltonwanderer for the memory of Muir and Norden’s excellent puns on My Word.
Thanks Jack and setter