Hello again. This I thought was another excellent crossword, medium difficulty or a tad easier, with nothing to object to, good surface readings, and some fine clues. I’ve been solving The Times crossword for nearly sixty years, and I think for at least the last month or so they have been as consistently good as any I can remember. I know some of us love to complain, but I suspect they may struggle to do so with today’s. A little bit of stretchy vocab perhaps, (4dn, anyone?) but nothing genuinely obscure. Enjoy!
I use the standard conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(anargam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” and in case of need the Glossary is always handy
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Confused situations transgressed more than once? (7,5) |
| CROSSED LINES – A sort of DD…if you have crossed lines you are in a confused situation .. and if you have transgressed more than once, you have crossed more than one line. | |
| 9 | Cream tea uncovered, with fewer calories? (5) |
| ELITE – (t)E(a) (tea, uncovered) + LITE, with fewer calories, for those that can’t spell. | |
| (10 | Plain French, neutral in translation supplied by a university (2,7) |
| AU NATUREL – A U(ni) + *(NEUTRAL). Au naturel usually means naked, but in France it is a cookery term too: plain, uncomplicated. | |
| 11 | French writer to get excited about source of Spanish gold (8) |
| ROUSSEAU – S(panish), in ROUSE (get excited) + AU, gold. Au is the chemical symbol for gold, from the Latin, aurum.
I am tempted to write a modern version of the periodic table that anyone can understand. Gold would be Bl, from “bling.” |
|
| 12 | Weird small creatures found around wood after temperature dropped (6) |
| FREAKY – (t)EAK, wood with no T(emperature), inside FRY, small fry to be precise. | |
| 13 | Mostly lie to get to consume hot slice of meat (4,4) |
| PORK CHOP – PORK(y), most of a lie, + H(ot) in COP, to get. I don’t tend to think of chops as slices but they are, I guess. | |
| 15 | Constant collection of birds? Not unknown for eggs (6) |
| CAVIAR – C(onstant) + AVIAR(y), a bird collection without the Y, one of the three standard arithmetic unknowns alongside X and Z | |
| 17 | Party of ordinary people returning, well in front (6) |
| SOCIAL – This is SO (well, very) + LAIC rev. OK, laic was nho but it is only a short stretch from lay or laity so not so hard, especially given the crossing letters. | |
| 18 | Sensitive French not initially accepting quantity of work (8) |
| ALLERGIC – ERG (quantity of work) in (g)ALLIC, French but not initially. Ten million ergs make one joule, as any fule kno. | |
| 20 | Old film story involving King and I? (6) |
| TALKIE – K(ing) + I in TALE, a story. Almost all films are talkies nowadays of course, this term dates from when they were mostly silent and speech was exciting and new. | |
| 21 | Long broadcast taking hours in review of brief communication (8) |
| TELETHON – H(ours, in NOTELET, a brief communication, rev. A neat clue! | |
| 24 | Bell tower old man placed between rivers (9) |
| CAMPANILE – The old man is PA, sandwiched between the rivers CAM and NILE. | |
| 25 | Russian forests end abruptly beside Georgia (5) |
| TAIGA – TAI(l) (end, abruptly) + GA, Georgia. | |
| 26 | The writer’s recalled challenge distressed old artist (12) |
| MICHELANGELO – IM (the writer’s) rev., + *(CHALLENGE) + O(ld). A slightly unnatural surface reading, but this is not an easy word to clue in only seven words! | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Explain appearance of tragic figure in tournament (5,2) |
| CLEAR UP – (King) LEAR in CUP, a tournament | |
| 2 | Place for late news? (8,6) |
| OBITUARY COLUMN – a jocular CD, in this usage late = deceased.
From that seminal work, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Come quickly, or you will be late.” “Late? Late for what?” “Late, as in the late Arthur Dent. It is a sort of threat, do you see? I’ve never been very good at those.” |
|
| 3 | They help one see small muscles (5) |
| SPECS – S(mall) + PECS, pectoral muscles. I have them I suppose, though barely visible to the naked eye. | |
| 4 | Settled up with a lad? Stop (8) |
| DIAPASON – PAID (settled) reversed (up) + A SON. Diapason has come up before a few times, but not since October 2017 in a daily cryptic, one that Ulaca blogged. So he at least will be bound to remember it .. | |
| 5 | Bars island adopting new name (4) |
| INNS – N(ew) + N(ame), in IS, island. | |
| 6 | Completely destroy former gallery containing indecent reproduction pictures primarily (9) |
| EXTIRPATE – I(ndecent) + R(eproduction) + P(ictures), in EX TATE (former gallery) | |
| 7 | Barman’s preparation perhaps getting the party going (8,3,3) |
| BREAKING THE ICE – A DD of sorts, one jocular. | |
| 8 | Course supporting piano performer (6) |
| PLAYER – P(iano) + LAYER (course, as in a course of bricks perhaps) | |
| 14 | Arch-rival cut down, confounded — I will make a row (9) |
| CHARIVARI – *(ARCH RIVA(l)), + I. Charivari (Collins: a confused noise; din) is a word that comes up regularly enough in crosswordland, perhaps not so much elsewhere. I remember it from the column of that name in the old Punch magazine. Which indeed, titled itself “Punch, or The London Charivari.” | |
| 16 | Plant in place for divers, like the sea, at first (8) |
| BLUEBELL – BLUE (like the sea, at least where Southern Water doesn’t operate regular illegal sewage discharges) + BELL, a place for divers. | |
| 17 | Criticism about husband’s routine (6) |
| SHTICK – H(usband) in STICK, criticism. A Yiddish word used, apparently, to refer to a comedian’s routine. | |
| 19 | Just a small amount? Church never accepting raising of tax (7) |
| CENTAVO – CE (church of England) + VAT (tax) reversed in NO, never. | |
| 22 | Licked? No bit of blancmange consumed (5) |
| EATEN – (b)EATEN, ie beaten without the B from blancmange | |
| 23 | Long, elegant, but topless (4) |
| WISH – (s)WISH, ie topless swish. And long = wish, as in “I wish for/long for the war to end.” | |
Just over 21 minutes, which is fast for me. I had a MER at SO in SOCIAL being “well” and it held me up for a moment as it was my LOI despite (obviously) having all the checkers. A bit odd that the last two clues are both take-the-first-letter-off ones. No unknowns for me either.
14:11, DIAPASON certainly unknown but looked better than DIAPABOY! NOTELET was the bit of wordplay I didn’t parse.
19:24
I biffed TELETHON, after spending some time thinking of how to complete TELE_; parsed post-submission. I also biffed DIAPASON once I had all the checkers, only then realizing that I had no idea what the word meant or how to pronounce it. Nice to come in under 20′ for the first time in ages.
I like the puzzle, but there was some tricky vocabulary – which I knew. Charivari, campanile, and taiga from crossword puzzles, and diapason and shtick from GK. Of course I didn’t seen notelet, but the answer was obvious.
Time: 23:54
Unfortunately got my wires crossed at 1A. This clue almost crossed the line!
I made things rough for myself at the end by (confidently, proudly) throwing in OBITUARY NOTICE as my FOI.
I have a friend who used to have a “sound gallery” (installations and performances—I performed some computer-created music there once) called DIAPASON. But he and everyone else involved always mispronounced the word—almost sounding French, but not at all English—despite my constant (you can imagine) remonstrations.
16 minutes.
Like Corymbia above my first thought at 1a was CROSSED WIRES. I didn’t go so far as to write it in because I soon thought of CROSSED LINES as an alternative, but my mind was wavering between the two all the time I was solving the rest of the puzzle, which I felt slowed me down even more. Eventually I decided that CROSSED LINES fitted better with ‘transgressed’ so I plumped for that.
I associated DIAPASON with the organ and its stops anyway, but I’ve recently been watching videos about organ music and English country churches on You Tube presented by a delightful fellow posting as The Salisbury Organist, so it was fresh in my mind.
Despite falling into the same holes as others (WIRES, NOTICE, DIAPA + 3-letter word for lad like boy, Ron, Tom etc) I did this in 23.53 which seemed pretty good. I was under 20 before hitting a wall in the SE where CENTAVO, BLUEBELL and TELETHON were my LOsI. The parsing of the latter, as well as ALLERGIC and ROUSSEAU, eluded me completely so thanks Jerry.
From Thunder On The Mountain:
I got the PORK CHOP, she got the pie
She ain’t no angel and neither am I
Shame on your greed, shame on your wicked schemes
I’ll say this, I don’t give a damn about your dreams