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.
On edit, well, crossed lines occurred to me straight off and crossed wires did not. So I dodged a bullet, as it were. Unfortunately, to many of you, it did! Mucho sympathy, but sorry, “transgressed” really needs lines. Wires is close, but no cigar.. |
|
| 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.
Agreed. I’m still not quite convinced about SOCIAL. 4D defeated me (and undoubtedly will do so when it next appears). But otherwise enjoyable.
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!
Me too, having been a peace activist, I think ‘crossed wires, is an entirely acceptable answer.
Same here.
me too.
Either is perfectly acceptable IMO.
But not in mine. See what I added to the blog ..
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.
Excellent time Jack.
Ah! That explains why I knew DIAPASON too.
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
9:50 but another CROSSED WIRES. I couldn’t explain it but the figurative expression for a confused situation is always ‘wires’ in my experience, and it didn’t occur to me that I was looking for a more literal interpretation. No complaints though, perfectly fair clue.
I agree that this was another excellent puzzle, a mixture of the pretty straightforward and the more chewy, with some interesting words.
You’re in good company: half the leaderboard has one error. ODE sv ‘cross’ has ‘get one’s wires (or lines) crossed’ meaning ‘have a misunderstanding’; its four corpus examples all have ‘wires’.
I have never encountered the ‘lines’ version in this sense. However ‘confusing situation’ is a perfectly good (if slightly vague) definition for getting telephone lines crossed so it works either way.
But “crossed wires” (which also occurred to me first) has nothing to do with transgression!
I agree that LINES is better for the transgression bit of the clue, but then again I’ve never heard that expression in all my 7 decades. Whatever it says in the dictionary, in everyday usage it is always WIRES
Interesting to relate, “crossed wires” is not an entry in Chambers, while “crossed line” (singular) is. But the definition there has nothing to do with transgression: “A telephone line connected in error to a different line or circuit.” I.e., crossed wires!
The transgression part of the clue is a cryptic hint, because CROSSED LINES is not, in itself, a recognised expression with that meaning. It’s an adaptation of ‘to cross a line’.
Yes, of course. I was just explaining that the definition is the same as the one assumed for “crossed wires.”
For a pure definition of irony, read the multifarious posts about crossed wires/lines 🙂
Yes, indeed!
Lots of people talking at cross-purposes!
I don’t mean that CROSSED WIRES works – it clearly doesn’t. I mean that CROSSED LINES works whether or not you think it has the figurative meaning (a misunderstanding) as well as the literal one (misconnected telephone lines). Because the literal one also describes a confusing situation.
Maybe there should be a complaint. You have summed up neatly why Wires is far more common than Lines
But doesn’t actually parse?
There are always, always, complaints 🙂
Exactly. “Transgressing” is crossing a line.
Absolutely correct.
But using it to mean CONFUSED SITUATIONS doesn’t work.
Doesn’t “crossed wires” refer to “confused situations” well enough for you?
What’s the difference?
Just over 30 minutes, of which the last five were spent on wrangling BLUEBELL, SHTICK and SOCIAL. A good mid-week workout.
Thanks Jerry and setter.
32 mins. I had WORDS for a bit at 1 ac until I saw EXTIRPATE (odd word) and then the LINES bit.
Three unknowns today, DIAPASON, CHARIVARI and TAIGA but all fairly clued to arrive at the right answer.
I liked the OBIT COLUMN.
Thanks Jerry and setter.
I think DIAPASON is not fairly clued, in the sense that DIALASON works equally well (LAID = settled), so if you don’t know the word itself, you are equally likely to get it wrong (as I did).
CHARIVARI was one of these half-familiar words to me. It contains a lot of social history which I didn’t know. And needed all the checkers for BLUEBELL as barely heard-of diving bell wasn’t a connection I could make.
23:17 but…
CROSSED LINES and CROSSED WIRES both fit 1a, so think the clue should have been more explicit. However, I fell down on the completely unknown DIAPASON for which I used aids – clearly, if one has never come across an unusual word, and the definition also has many meanings, it becomes exponentially harder to solve. I enjoyed much of the rest though – CENTAVO, SHTICK and TAIGA were all within my compass.
Thanks Jerry and setter
I’m not sure CROSSED WIRES works, because to cross a wire doesn’t mean to transgress.
In my head, I had CROSSED as the transgressed bit, and a bit of a shrug for WIRES, so LINES seemed the marginally better choice.
Ever been to demonstrate at a nuclear base?
You’re ignoring the other half of the clue though. I’ve never heard CROSSED LINES to describe ‘confused situations’.
It’s equivalent to “crossed wires,” so just as much a “confused situations” as that answer!
It isn’t being used in that sense in the clue. A crossed line is a situation in which you are are unexpectedly connected to a stranger on the phone – pretty confusing!
11:21 I’m another who thought of CROSSED WIRES first, but later corrected it to CROSSED LINES. LOI WISH. I liked CAMPANILE best, but the rest too – nice crossword. Thanks Jerry and setter.
I managed to avoid the CROSSED WIRES trap but created a novel one all of my own with DIALASON – which is just as unheard of as DIAPASON but with ‘laid’ for ‘settled’ rather than ‘paid’ which seemed reasonable at the time! I was delighted to encounter CHARIVARI – a word I only know because I had to clue it once when it was forced on me. (Gridfill trauma, as a friend dubbed it).
BLUEBELL and CAMPANILE my faves today in a second over 20 minutes but, of course, a fail due to the aforementioned. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Ditto on DIALASON.
Another WIRES instead of LINES (58 yrs old and NHO ‘crossed lines’ in that meaning). Dragged up CHARIVARI from somewhere. Couldn’t get TELETHON (which now I see is an excellent clue) or the NHO CENTAVO, though I suspected it was the right answer from wordplay. DIAPASON and CAMPANILE were brilliant clues. Indeed, much of this puzzle was deeply satisfying.
I was enjoying this and then I wasn’t. Finished 90% in 10 mins or so. Then SHTICK, SOCIAL, DIAPASON and BLUEBELL floored me, and I never got the latter two.
DIAPASON is completely NHO for me, since I haven’t been doing the crossword regularly for very long, and certainly wouldn’t have seen it in 2017. I had DIALASON in there – which works equally well for the cryptic, LAID = SETTLED. Just could not see BLUEBELL at all, so gave up.
CHARIVARI is another NHO, but it was the only real option for the anagram.
A frustrating time in the end.
14.43 WIRES didn’t occur to me, thankfully.
Otherwise a good’n, with the crossing SOCIAL and SHTICK last to arrive after a certain amount of consternation over WISH when I couldn’t see either the entry or the version to be beheaded. Putting the H somewhere within S_T_C_ looked highly implausible until I thought in Yiddish, completing an impressive spread of languages in the grid.
31 mins. I found that very tough with several NHOs (CHARAVARI, CENTAVO, DIAPASON) plus a few VHOs and some unlikely like SHTICK which I don’t think I’ve seen in writing and didn’t know the meaning of.
In 1ac to transgress is to cross a line not a wire so the wordplay is clear, it’s just a biffer trap.
Nothing unfair and some great clueing but it relied too heavily on obscurity to be my cup of tea.
Thanks to setter and Jerry, there is a HHGTTG quote for every occasion. Nice one.
12:54. I want to be smug about LINES being the obvious solution at 1ac, but I suspect that if I’d thought of WIRES first I’d have entered it and moved on. Commiserations for those that suffered.
Good puzzle with plenty of unknowns, or barely-knowns. Thanks setter and Jerry.
53 mins.
Quite challenging, I thought.
Thanks, Jerry.
15 minutes or so.
– Like many others, considered CROSSED WIRES before I thought of CROSSED LINES and saw that it worked better
– Always forget that there’s only one A in MICHELANGELO
– No problem with DIAPASON as my dad’s an organist (not that I could tell you exactly what it does)
– Dimly remembered CHARIVARI
– Had no idea about the diving bell, so BLUEBELL went in with a shrug
Thanks Jerry and setter.
FOI Elite
LOI Bluebell
COD Freaky
45′ so took a while.
Wires didn’t enter my head so 1ac went in with a few checkers. Luckily I did check the anagram fodder and changed AU NATURaL and didn’t parse TELETHON.
Never heard of DIAPASON, which just seemed more likely than other equally possible formulations (I’m with JPTC and others on this one).
Enjoyed OBIT COL & FREAKY for some reason..
Thanks Jerry and setter.
Another who put in CROSSED WIRES. I really should fully parse answers but those checking letters were too tempting. Tipped over the 30 minutes mark but my vocabulary was lacking for this one. On the plus side I spelt AU NATUREL correctly.
Couldn’t parse TELETHON
COD CAVIAR
Thanks blogger and setter.
28:06
Classy puzzle. Bifffed DIAPASON. CHARIVARI remembered from the Punch link. SHTICK the LOI, TELETHON the COD.
Thanks to Jerry and the setter
What do people want? This week we have had three very gentle crosswords (today’s perhaps not quite so gentle) and people have been singing their praises. Yet the very strong solvers revel in the hard (for mere mortals) ones. Perhaps it’s a matter of how good the clueing is.
As for today’s no particular difficulties, although DIAPASON and TELETHON were late in. So = well does seem to me to be a bit unsatisfactory, but I suppose ‘so’ is just the same sort of filler in conversation as ‘well’, both at the start of utterances while speakers are preparing their thoughts.
My thanks to JerryW and setter.
Well I agree a good Xword, not too hard, but I fell at the first fence.
1a Crossed Lines; I plumped for Wires. Originally I thought it was something Times from the wordplay, but that didn’t, luckily, give me any wrong crossers.
12a Freaky, I wanted to hammer in Creepy, from (t)REE in cpy, but I can’t even pronounce cpy.
21a Telethon biffed, never saw the notelet.
4d Diapason. Felt the need to check this.
6d Extirpate, not a word I use often, but HHO.
15m – but walked straight into the WIRES trap. No complaints though; it was perfectly clear.
From SPECS to SHTICK in 21:42. SOCIAL was POI. Those last 2 took quite a while. Thought of LINES first for 1a and it seemed to fit well. WIRES didn’t occur to me, although crossing lines seems closer to transgressions. BLUEBELL and ALLERGIC took a moment or 2 to parse. DIAPSON well know from looking at church organs as a youngster. Thanks setter and Jerry.
Similar difficulty to yesterday at 18:34 and another enjoyable puzzle. I never did parse TELETHON and DIAPASON is familiar to me as a chorister, though not actually an organist.
24 mins but went with crossed wires instead of lines. Frustrating. NHO diapason so googled diapa and lo and behold….
CROSSED WIRES, and a misprinted PORT CHOP. Otherwise a healthy 13’27”. Grrr.
Another wire here. Agree that lines are transgressed and wires are not but could also have got lines from situations – as in What’s My Line? Had a punt with another variation of CHARIVARI of which I had never heard, of course. Pleased to recall DIAPASON from the depths. So 2 errors in 43 minutes. Rather surprising snitch or perhaps I’m just getting dimmer.
Thanks to setter and Jerry.
A very enjoyable challenge and pleased to dredge up the likes of “centavo”, “extirpate”, “diapason” and “taiga”.
Sadly “laic” and “charivari” were very much a bridge too far.
Another who opted for “crossed wires”.
Thanks to both our setter and blogger.
9m, my third consecutive sub-10 this week so there must be a stinker on the horizon. Luckily never thought of wires and knew all the slightly unusual words. No particular favourite clue but an overall enjoyable crossword.
About fifteen minutes to get all but two, and then almost as long again to get the carefully constructed, but never heard of, CHARIVARI. Once this was in place SOCIAL followed on, but unparsed. The clock was finally stopped at 27.18, but annoyingly I find I am one of DIALASON brigade, so effectively a DNF.
Four short at a cut-off of 40 mins. Would never have got CHARIVARI as it doesn’t look like a word and I hadn’t managed to fully understand the clue. DIAPASON was another word that I didn’t get, maybe I vaguely remember seeing it on an organ stop when I was a choirboy. NHO LAIC either, but should have got TELETHON and SHTICK though.
Did guess LINES correctly, but can see the frustration from the WIRES crowd.
COD BREAKING THE ICE
Shtick probably comes into Yiddish from the German “Stück” – literally a piece or bit.
Some nice clues today.
Thanks to blogger.
Definitely a cognate; one might refer to Trump, say, as a shtikdrek.
Possibly harder than yesterday’s but not much – 16 mins. In 1A, WIRES and LINES entered my mind almost simultaneously, but the wordplay clearly indicated LINES, though I always say crossed wires not lines in this context. I had to dig deep for TAIGA, and I’m uneasy about ‘abruptly’ as a curtailment instruction. SHTICK held me up a little, I knew the word but had forgotten how to spell it. First in was ELITE and last SHTICK. Favourite three clues: to CAVIAR, TALKIE and OBITUARY COLUMN. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
I avoided the lines/wires debate by entering crossed times (crossed being transgressed and more than once being times) but I’m not going to argue it is correct as it fits the definition even less. Had to check Diapason and Centavo (and obviously wasn’t the first seeing how high xxx meaning was on google search). LOI Social, having needed aids for NHO Shtick.
Nice to get a mention (26a) after Emmet earlier in the week 😁
I think (o)ld in 26 across is part of the wordplay rather than the definition, although Michelangelo is indeed an old artist., so this is a little pedantic…
33:03. I really liked this one all the way down to TELETHON as my LOI. Some words were a bit dimly remembered e.g. CHARIVARI but the cluing was very fair for these. Lovely surfaces as well. thanks!
lots to enjoy although I too preferred wires to lines after considering both. I do think using cockney derivatives (pork:lie) is not fair on our non Brit friends. just a thought.
Cockney derivatives go with the territory, and this Yank enjoys learning (and remembering) terms from the many foreign branches of our multifarious tongue.
They are solving an English crossword, set by The Times of London. They know what they are in for 😉
Hear, hear, well spoke Our Jerry!
I have the highest regard for our overseas solvers, they take on an added difficulty compared to us locals, and by and large, they seem to cope extraordinarily well. My forays into the NYT crossword seldom end well.
But The Times crossword is what it is, and I fervently hope, ever more shall be. I would be mortified if it became some sort of global pandering crossword. I do so hope it doesn’t, even if it is owned by a US citizen from Australia.
For me, this crossword is equivalent to the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. And red L0ndon Buses. And Beefeaters 🙂
Enjoyable, but failed on the wires at 1ac, and I had DIAlASON, which felt like a word.
I got CHARIVARI though. Enjoyed SHTICK, but couldn’t parse SOCIAL or TELETHON.
One for the solver with a wide ranging vocabulary.
Thank you Jerry and Setter
20 mins and change to fail on ALLERGIC and TELETHON. The 15 is just on another level from the QC. Many thanks Jerry.
Another crossed wires!!! I didn’t think hard enough about “transgressed”