Times Cryptic No 27318 – Saturday, 06 April. What’s a Grecian Urn?

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All done on the morning of, so not outrageously hard. Still, harder than the week before. Fortunately, I had the luxury of doing it on paper, not on a phone, and so, again fortunately, don’t have a time. It all went fairly smoothly except for the south-west corner, in particular 19ac and 23ac. They were my last two in.

I always struggle with the long clues involving assembling random pieces, particularly when I don’t know the answer I’m looking for, but with 23ac I saw the theatre after a while, and then had an “aha” moment when I saw the sacred part! There it was: an ode, but no connection to what a Grecian earns.

I also didn’t know the answer for 19ac, and had to struggle with the wordplay. My clue of the day was 2dn, for the elegant wordplay. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Clues are in blue, with definitions underlined. Answers are in BOLD CAPS, then wordplay. (ABC*) means ‘anagram of ABC’. Deletions are in [square brackets].

Across
1 Boycott is no way to face discrimination (9)
OSTRACISM: O (no), ST, RACISM.

6 Panic, grabbed by fanatical army (5)
ALARM: hidden in fanatic(AL ARM)y.

9 Freedom-fighter’s actions inept — I am worried (15)
EMANCIPATIONIST: anagram (“worried”) of (ACTIONS INEPT I AM*).

10 Muscles relax, about to let oneself down (6)
ABSEIL: ABS (muscles), EIL=LIE backwards=relax “about”.

11 Preach, or otherwise censure (8)
REPROACH: anagram (“otherwise”) of (PREACH OR*).

13 Analysed range of perception dog nearly had in colour (6,4)
BROKEN DOWN: KEN (range of perception), DO[g], all inside BROWN (colour).

14 Poet’s dry, but sounds visionary (4)
SERE: sounds like SEER.

16 Stink in river that’s frightening (4)
REEK: R for river, EEK.

17 Entirely unopened, white wines which may be placed in bed (10)
HOLLYHOCKS: [w]HOLLY, HOCKS.

19 Told to go round capturing Ice Age in painting (8)
SEICENTO: SENT (told to go) + O (round), all “capturing” ICE.

I struggled for some time trying to think of a three-letter word for “Ice Age”! The key is to realise you need to separate “Ice” and “Age”.

Seicento is Italian for 600 but, oddly, in this context refers to the 1600s. Presumably the millennium is taken for granted. The seventeenth century must have been big for Italian art, but don’t press me for details! You can see for yourself here.

20 Diagnostician perhaps right person to see about infestation (3,3)
DRY ROT: DR (doctor, or diagnostician), YROT=TORY i.e. right(wing) person “about”.

23 In theatre, compere retains vigour to introduce sacred verse (3,2,10)
ODE ON MELANCHOLY: ODEON (theatre), MC (compere) “retaining” ELAN, HOLY.

Apparently one of five odes composed by Keats in the spring of 1819, along with “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Ode on Indolence”, and “Ode to Psyche”. I didn’t know it.

24 Rhythm is just keeping time (5)
METRE: T in MERE.

25 One stops diver unintentionally moving fast with energy across river (6,3)
SAFETY NET: the river TYNE inside an anagram (“moving”) of (FAST E*). I’m not quite sure how to read the definition. If they dive, wouldn’t it be intentional? But, you get the gist. Acrobat artists or high wire performers, for example.

Down
1 For example, Julius Caesar’s works in Latin (5)
OPERA: Julius Caesar is an opera, and “opera” is Latin for the noun “works”.

2 I’m happier now I recognise St Thomas: say so on Facebook? (5,4,4,2)
THAT’S MORE LIKE IT: “That’s (Sir Thomas) More”. I’ve never liked any part of Facebook, but “liking it” is what you do there.

3 Skilful composer makes records (8)
ARCHIVES: an ARCH composer, IVES may have been.

4 Cheeky fellow, one in African force (4)
IMPI: IMP, I. A Zulu word.

5 A team of Scots make good parents (10)
MOTHERWELL: ho ho.

6 “Riding a pig” day (6)
ABOARD: A, BOAR, D[ay].

7 Suggesting no actor involved in this? (8,7)
ANIMATED CARTOON: one of those clues with the roles reversed. The answer is suggesting an anagram (“animated”) of (NO ACTOR*).

8 Unique, unlike Andersen’s little girl (9)
MATCHLESS: reminding us of The Little Match Girl, a short story by Hans Christian Andersen

12 Notice sister working with no finesse (10)
ADROITNESS: AD (notice), then an anagram (“working”) of (SISTER NO*).

13 Tour show in pubs across the north — decline to go up motorway (9)
BARNSTORM: BARS around N, ROT “going up”, M for motorway. Strange word, that. Perhaps originally referring to stunt flying?

15 Easier way to get a number one? (5,3)
SHORT CUT: double definition, the second referring to the size of comb you ask the barber to put on the hair clippers.

18 Pulse, that is, one on the head (6)
BEANIE: a BEAN is a pulse, IE meaning “that is”.

21 Hear hard men are thrown out of short meeting (5)
TRYST: TRY (hear), then remove H OR from S[hor]T.

22 Young trumpeter’s signal that’s short and loud (4)
CALF: CAL[l], F. The trumpeter here is an elephant, of course.

16 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27318 – Saturday, 06 April. What’s a Grecian Urn?”

  1. I had everything but 19ac in 25′; I’d reached the point of considering STILETTO before I finally thought to separate ‘ice’ from ‘age’. My COD. There were quite a few beautiful surfaces, like 1ac, 1d, 20ac, 24ac, inter alia.
  2. Found this very tricky, needed to put it aside and come back to it. On reflection there’s nothing too hard, so one of those crosswords that’s very well set.
    19 ac also the last in, mostly as not expecting a non-English word, and not knowing anything about art periods. Though I have enough Italian to know the word and know they leave the millennium off centuries. I think the latest Fiat Bambino is also a Seicento, no longer a Cinquecento.
  3. Half an hour, with LOI SEICENTO, constructed rather than known, although when I looked at it, it felt right. COD to MOTHERWELL. I know (ARCH)IVES is a composer from previous puzzles. This time I looked him up. I gather that he is Charles, a modernist American composer largely ignored in his own lifetime. And afterwards, sadly, in my case. I do remember Burl Ives though. He fell out with Pete Seeger too, but that was about giving evidence to the Un-American ActivitiesCommittee and not going electric. We’re going home from our Lancashire hols today. The melancholy fit shall fall sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud. I just looked that up too. I have only vague recollections of reading the odes at school. Good puzzle. Thank you B and setter.

    Edited at 2019-04-13 06:44 am (UTC)

  4. Another stuck on 19ac. I cheated in the end as I knew I’d never herad of it and couldn’t fathom the wordplay.
  5. I eventually resorted to aids to clear that clue after being stuck for three minutes of fruitless alpha-trawling. I’d done the rest in around 20 minutes

    The clue for ANIMATED CARTOON is beautifully presented, but not strictly accurate. These days, cartoons are sold on featuring well-known actors to voice the characters.

    If said cartoon was a weepie, and left you sad after watching it, would you be suffering from ODEON MELANCHOLY ? I biffed that one, having never encountered the poem in question. Nor had I met the OPERA at 1D – I’m just a Philistine really.

    COD ABSEIL

    1. It’s particularly odd in that you would only use the phrase ANIMATED CARTOON to distinguish it from the non-animated kind, and therefore it is definitionally much more likely to feature actors!
  6. A slower version of other people’s experience for me it seems.I managed to get down to two clues 19a and 23a after a long but enjoyable struggle. Decided to go with STILETTO expecting it to be wrong but 23a was blank when I gave up.
    Could not parse Dry Rot or Tryst so thanks for those.
    Also did not know Julius Caesar was an opera.COD to Motherwell.
    Had planned to go to West Brom today but all the away tickets sold out very quickly because it’s gentry day today when the Preston fans wear bowler hats, shirts and ties (honestly). It happens at one away game a season. So I’ll have Radio 5 Live and the Masters later on Sky instead. David

    Edited at 2019-04-13 07:38 am (UTC)

    1. Do they wear those for when they go to Wetherspoon’s and Nando’s too?
  7. An hour and a minute here, so pretty tricky. Luckily I drove a Fiat Cinquecento for a few years, which made me familiar with its successor, the SEICENTO, so even though I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, at least the word was familiar!

    I wasn’t quite as lucky with 23a ODE ON MELANCHOLY. I got there in the end, but I might’ve got there faster if I’d so much as scanned the contents page of the elderly hardback of Keats’s Poetical Works that I’d bought the previous week.

    FOI 6a ALARM, LOI 22d CALF, where I totally missed the exact definition, as I thought the whole “trumpeter’s signal” was cluing the “call” bit. D’oh.

    Enjoyed 16a’s R-EEK, among others.

  8. And another in the SEICENTO look up club. I had the SENT and the O but failed to lift and separate ICE and AGE. I managed the ODE TO MELANCHOLY from crossers. Otherwise a 54 minute slog to get to the end. Quite a challenge, but none the worse for that. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  9. 9:57 but with a careless ABSAIL, a word I know perfectly well how to spell. I suspect I didn’t check my answers in an attempt to get in under ten minutes, I don’t remember.
    I do remember that my last in by some margin was SEICENTO, constructed from the wordplay. Tricky, but when I had put the right bits in the right order it looked feasibly like something an Italian might call the sixteenth century.

    Edited at 2019-04-13 08:35 am (UTC)

    1. I sympathise on 10a. I only got it right because I know for sure that I never know how to spell it!
  10. No time recorded. I did the easy bits at breakfast, left it all day and finished it off late evening. I was pleased with my progress, though. My arts and culture GK ensured that the Keats ode, Handel opera, Andersen folktale, flourishing age of Italian art, composer (didn’t know he was American) and poetic diction for ‘dry’ went in quite quickly. I didn’t know that BARNSTORM meaning but I eventually assembled the Ikea clue. And I thought the clues were generally really clever, with some excellent surfaces. My COD probably to the inverted clue of ANIMATED CARTOON, but I also admired OSTRACISM, SHORT CUT, OPERA and DRY-ROT.
    Thanks for the blog, brnchn.
  11. I found this tough and did it in two sessions a few days apart. Couldn’t remember the ode and had to work out seicento the hard way. Lots of neat touches. I enjoyed 2dn.
  12. Thanks setter and brnchn
    This took a number of sessions over a few days to get out and was only able to finish with referential help in the end.
    Couldn’t parse DRY ROT beyond the doctor / diagnostician and the inverse anagram at 7d was lost on me.
    Didn’t know the opera at 1d, the poem at 23a or the art period at 19a.
    A cleverly constructed puzzle that took care of another concatenated hour or so of leisure time … and made me happy to finish !

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