Times Cryptic No 26940 – Saturday, 20 January 2018. The anniversary waltz.

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This puzzle appeared on the first anniversary of the inauguration of the current US president, and not a single reference! Such restraint.

I finished this in a bit over 20 minutes on the timer, so quickly for me. I liked how well the anagrams were disguised at 4dn and 14dn. I think the clue of the day is 9 across, because the surface is so smooth. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Clues are in blue, with definitions underlined. Anagram indicators are in bold italics. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, followed by the wordplay. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’, deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 Relaxing journey through S American country, you say: Brazil? (8,3)
CHILLING OUT: CHILLI sounds like (“you say”) the English pronunciation of Chile, then NUT (Brazil) around GO (journey). Who else looked at the enumeration and assumed the second word was NUT? Nice clue.
7 Female secretary assigned to spy master (3)
PAM: P.A., then Bond’s spy master, M.
9 Coach that could be due? (9)
DILIGENCE: if you don’t do due diligence, you have no come-back when the deal turns out to be a dud! A diligence was a public stagecoach.
10 Old stone prison (5)
OFLAG: O (old), FLAG (stone). WW II German prison for enemy officers.
11 Higher education campus perhaps mostly overwhelmed by change (7)
VARSITY: SIT{e} inside VARY.
12 Namely, union’s bringing in police force (7)
IMPETUS: IE (namely), TU’S (union’s), bringing in MP (Metropolitan Police).
13 Head of chemistry has a way with English class (5)
CASTE: C for chemistry, A, ST (street, or way), E (English).
15 Musical work opening shortly with melody that’s suitable (9)
OPPORTUNE: OP (work), POR{t} (opening), TUNE (melody).
17 Who might point out errors in Biblical book? A clergyman (9)
CORRECTOR: a corrector might be a proofreader. I had to look up where the COR came from, but Cor. is Corinthians, RECTOR is a clergyman.
19 Police inspector seizing stolen garment (5)
DHOTI: DI around HOT.
20 Working at rear of house, as Cinderella was (3,4)
PUT UPON: PUT UP (house), ON (working).
22 Variation is introduced into Ravel composition (7)
REVISAL: IS inside (RAVEL*). I couldn’t see this until I had all the helpers, and the word still looks obscure to me.
24 US president put on gangster’s uniform (5)
ALIKE: AL (Capone) is the gangster, Ike (Eisenhower) is the president.
25 After working, you’re all black … and another colour (5,4)
ROYAL BLUE: (YOURE ALL B*), with B for black.
27 Old Arab maybe hitches away from borders (3)
NAG: {s}NAG{s}, being “hitches” with the borders removed.
28 Wee poet reportedly Quaker-like? (5,1,5)
SPEND A PENNY: the start sounds like the poet (Sir Stephen) Spender, then to be Quaker-like might be PENN-Y, after William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. Definition is “wee”, which I am surprised to find is what the euphemism specifically refers to. I always assumed it would cover all visits to the loo. But, ‘nuff said.

Down
1 Kid medic placed upside down (3)
COD: DOC backwards.
2 Reluctant worker regularly indulged, taking rest principally (5)
IDLER: alternate letters (regularly) of InDuLgE, then R from Rest (principally).
3 Torch found under large rock (7)
LIGNITE: L for large, IGNITE for torch.
4 Got any bananas to go with bread and butter? (5,4)
NANNY GOAT: NAN is the Indian bread, followed by (GOT ANY*).
5 Textual marks written up in Vile Bodies (5)
OBELI: backward hidden answer.
6 Review written up about upper class actor (7)
TROUPER:REPORT backwards, around U.
7 Soviet leaders surprisingly built awfully poor houses (9)
POLITBURO: (BUILT*) inside (POOR*).
8 Commanding soldiers wearing khaki, perhaps (11)
MAGISTERIAL: khaki is an example of MATERIAL, around the outside of GI’S being soldiers.
11 Possible future leader proud to tour polar region on time (4,7)
VICE CAPTAIN: VAIN is proud. Insert a polar ICE CAP, and T for time.
14 Their guns will go off, of course (4,5)
SURE THING: (THEIR GUNS*).
16 Showed what merchant dreads perhaps in hearing (9)
PORTRAYED: sounds like “POOR TRADE”, any merchant’s nightmare.
18 Old machine for printing newspaper (7)
EXPRESS: EX is old, PRESS is the printing machine.
19 Democrat and first lady see power as issue (7)
DEVELOP: D for Democrat, EVE the first lady, LO is see, P for power.
21 Sauce bottle? (5)
NERVE: double definition.
23 Law maker‘s final words not good (5)
SOLON: or, SO LON{g}, I’m leaving. Solon was an ancient Athenian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon
26 City bank losing capital (3)
ELY: {r}ELY would be bank. Both Ely and rely are regulars in puzzleland.

30 comments on “Times Cryptic No 26940 – Saturday, 20 January 2018. The anniversary waltz.”

  1. I found this puzzle most enjoyable, but I see from Bruce’s blog that I’ve done a bit of biffing with some parsing having sailed over my head, ie the Spender and Penn reference and the diligent coach. Nevertheless I got through it correctly in 23:19. Liked NANNY GOAT and OBELI is engraved on my brain now. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  2. An easy one, although I biffed a couple, parsing post hoc. I think I’ve always assumed that SPEND A PENNY meant generically ‘use the facilities’; hadn’t occurred to me that one would even euphemistically be more specific about how one was going to use them. Liked PUT UPON.

    Edited at 2018-01-27 03:31 am (UTC)

  3. Thanks, brnchn, particularly for CORRECTOR. The rector I got but failed to spot the Cor(inthians) bit.

    Incidentally, getting ahead of myself, 11d in today’s puzzle had me laughing out loud.

    1. I know we’re not supposed to say anything about “live” puzzles, but I had the same experience, and thought the whole thing an absolute cracker of a puzzle.
  4. A very enjoyable puzzle. Had PORTRAYED as a homophone for ‘port raid’ and thought it was a bit weak so I’m pleased there was a better explanation.

    I sort of knew that SPEND A PENNY was specific to one function although it seems somewhat anachronistic if applied to gentlemen as traditionally urinals in the UK were free to use and the penny entrance fee (to the cubicle) was only required for other business. Unfortunately, as it illustrates my point, this has reminded me of an old example of writing on the toilet wall: Here I sit broken-hearted, spent a penny and only …… (6).

    Edited at 2018-01-27 07:59 am (UTC)

  5. …which surprisingly I did. 26 minutes. DNK DILIGENCE as a coach but have done and suffered too many due diligence processes for that not to spring straight to mind. Unfortunately, frequently there’s too much undue diligence getting in the way of seeing the real issues. There are actually two books, 1 and 2 Corinthians, or in raising that have I become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal? LOI SNAG which I did parse. COD SPEND A PENNY, which of course, at least in pre-gender identity days, did not just mean a wee for Gentleman, that function usually available free of charge. Not sure that William Penn can claim the Quaker pre-eminence implied though. Surely that belongs to George Fox? I guess we can’t start a war about it. Enjoyable puzzle. Thank you B and setter.
    PS Written while Jack’s contribution above was being posted so apologies for the repetition.

    Edited at 2018-01-27 07:29 am (UTC)

  6. 16 minutes, with TROUPER very nearly misspelt and last in.
    Funnily enough, I didn’t think twice about SPEND A PENNY, as in my corner it’s been a euphemism for take a leak/answer the call of nature and so on regardless of the actual need to provide payment. And I’d love to find (especially on stations) anywhere which doesn’t require considerable greater expense than a lowly penny.
    1. I recall having lunch in London with my cousin’s wife on the day in 1971 when decimal currency was introduced and she had to spend a penny. When she returned we asked her what it now cost and she replied: still one pee!
  7. 17 min 01 sec with one wrong and one typo. OSLUG for OFLAG and MAGESTERIAL for MAGISTERIAL.

    I particularly liked Nanny Goat defined as “butter” and I thought “their guns” was a well disguised anagrind. I thought, incorrectly, that 16 down’s merchant (seaman?) dreaded a “port raid” rather than being afeared of the recessionary homophones correctly identified by our blogger.

    I did wonder whether the insertion indicator “through”, in 1 across, could justifiably be used to indicate the insertion of “go” into “Chilli nut”, as opposed to insertion in just the word “Chilli”, when some prior work had to be done to derive “Chilli” from “Chile”. I hope this doesn’t come over as unfairly picky but I’m interested in the extent over which an insertion indicator can legitimately range? Hope that makes sense.

    Edited at 2018-01-27 10:49 am (UTC)

    1. It seemed fine for me to have the insertion indicator range across the “S American country”, that part of the clue’s cryptic homophonic rendering indicated by “you say”, and then the nut indicated by Brazil. It all felt quite natural and not a stretch too far when I solved it at least. Maybe there are other examples when it doesn’t feel right.
    2. As a general rule cryptic indications can apply to any element of wordplay as long as the cryptic grammar makes sense. So in this case the cryptic grammar is: [go] through [South American country, you say: Brazil?]. The indicator could equally legitimately apply to any subset of these words: [South], [South American], [South American country] etc. The divisions are typically not indicated so figuring out where they are is part of the solving job, and making it hard to figure it out is part of the setter’s art.
  8. 37:26 for me. Had to get the coach from “due” and checkers. Lignite also took a while, not being one of those rocks on the tip of my tongue. Not bothering to check the enumeration at 28ac until the last made the euphemism my LOI.
  9. This must have been easy for me, since I took under half an hour, very rare for me. But it was a superb puzzle with very enjoyable clues to work out. I especially liked NANNY GOAT’s delightful surface reading and the Quaker-like PENNY.

    Edited at 2018-01-27 01:30 pm (UTC)

    1. It is a standard, though less common, definition – about no. 5 in the OED, and is considered slang. To cod is to kid, codding is kidding. The dictionaries don’t know where it comes from – possibly related to cod as false or pretend, possibly a long about back formation from codger (who, presumably, is easy to fool)
        1. I have to admit that it was only vaguely familiar here, too. Which is why I was ready with your answer – having had the dictionary open just before I logged in.
  11. All went pretty smoothly, about 40 minutes on and off. Didn’t know Dhoti, but it was clearly clued, and I had to look up the Dilligence. I, too, liked Put Upon. thanks Brnchn.
  12. 42 minutes, having stared at 17a for about the final ten, and finally bunged CARPENTER in in desperation. There was plenty else going on I wasn’t sure about—the unknown coach, “MP” for the Met., COD for kid, and so on, so when I had something with “carper” and “NT” I just gave up and said “that’ll have to do.”

    Oh well. Let’s hope I did better on today’s, because it took twice as long.

    Thanks for the explanations.

  13. 8:42, but with two stupid errors. MAGESTERIAL, which shows an inability to spell (probably confusion with ‘majesty’) and POT OPON, which shows an inability to check my answers.
    For me SPEND A PENNY has always only referred to number one, but I had no idea of the etymological origins of the phrase.

    Edited at 2018-01-27 08:00 pm (UTC)

  14. 17:58, so like others, I found it not too tricky. 28a made me laugh, as did 4d. Great entertainment, so thanks setter and Bruce.
  15. Had to google to get WEE =SPEND A PENNY with checkers in place.Also learnt about NUMBER ONE & NUMBER TWO from crosswordland.COD NAG.
    ONG’ARA,
    KENYA.
  16. Great puzzle with a big trap at 6d -Trooper or Trouper;which I nearly fell into.
    I remembered diligence from Lucky Luke books in French. The bandits were always robbing the stagecoach. Amazing what the memory hangs onto. David

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