Times Cryptic No 27450 – Saturday 07 September 2019. From frostbite to tropical heat.

36 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27450 – Saturday 07 September 2019. From frostbite to tropical heat.”

1. A very good puzzle (loved 20dn!) only slightly spoilt by the non-cryptic definition at 7dn. It was only ever necessary to pay a penny for use of cubicle, so roughly half the population wouldn’t have needed to spend a penny in order to ‘spend a penny’.
   1. The phrase ‘spend a penny’ originated in the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. This saw the introduction of the world’s first flushing public toilets. There were separate facilities for men and women, also a novelty. Your penny entrance fee also got you a clean seat, a towel, a comb and a shoeshine. They were used by almost a million people during the course of the exhibition.

      Edited at 2019-09-14 08:02 am (UTC)

      1. It seems clear that the penny charge was introduced around that time, also in the toilets outside the Royal Exchange in London, but there’s some doubt as to when the phrase came into use. Once source I’ve seen says 1930s onwards and another as late as 1945. It doesn’t sound Victorian to me. Perhaps someone with access to the multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary could look it up?
         1. The full OED online version (free with a proper library card from many UK libraries) has 1945, Jack. I’m not sure if the print edition has more, or if it’s the same.
            1. Thanks, Paul, unfortunately Bedfordshire libraries withdrew access to OED some years ago – insufficient usage or some such. I looked into taking out a private sub but the cost was prohibitive.
               1. It’s possible to get a library card from another public library if your local one doesn’t provide access – I joined Manchester even though I’m nowhere near
2. 7d was rather a disappointment in a good, if not difficult, puzzle. I didn’t know IB or CARE LABEL or NAO. Liked 27ac and 20d.
   1. I was also a little puzzled by IB (actually ib.) which I had not seen before, although ‘ibid.’ and ‘ibidem’ were familiar and would have fitted the definition so I took it on trust.

      MER to CARE LABEL which was surely invented around the same time as the ‘twin-tub’ but known then simply as ‘washing instructions’. I wonder if there was ever a symbol for ‘don’t mangle’?

      NAO for National Audit Office has been around since the 1980s but is still missing from some of the usual sources, most notably Collins.

      1. Ibid., op. cit., loc. cit., I remember having to learn these asinine forms of reference as an Eng.Lit. major. A relief to turn later to APA style or the natural sciences.
         I assumed NAO= Natl. Accounting or Audit Office, but it’s not in ODE either.
         1. NAO is in Chambers, which is the first place I always look, because it has the best iPad app.
            1. Interesting. It’s not in the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary available on-line here: https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=NAO&title=21st, but it’s in my 12th edition printed in 2011.
         2. Yes, Kevin, it’s missing from all three of my printed Oxfords (COED, SOED and ODE) but it’s in the Oxford on-line which has recently been renamed Lexico for some reason: https://www.lexico.com/en
3. 32 minutes with LOI EILEEN. Takes me back to the Children’s Bumper Fun Book jokes. ‘How to fall off a cliff’ by Eileen Dover. I had the privilege of meeting the great trade union leader Frank Chapple before he retired, who fitted both the literal and the anagram solution to 12d, so ELECTRICIAN COD. It would have otherwise gone to INCONVENIENCE although, as Jack says, in those days for half the population that process came free. I know that we early baby boomers have been an extremely fortunate generation, but life does have a habit of getting its own back, and today’s closure of so many public conveniences when I’m at the age they are most needed is doing just that. I liked the appearance of the National Audit Office too, a fine body of professionals with the luxury of criticising others in retrospect. CARE LABEL came hard but was remembered, despite my wife’s claim that I don’t know which is the washing machine and which the tumble dryer. An enjoyable puzzle. Thank you B and setter.
   1. Unfortunately the ‘spend a penny’ clue has reminded me of a childish graffito beginning ‘Here I sit broken-hearted…’. I’m sure the cryptic minds here can work out the rest if they don’t already know it.
      1. In my experience, the answer was often written on the walls or doors of the cubicle in the days when Kilroy had been there.
4. ….what with CRACK, POT, USERS, and toking on a spliff, there was a distinctly narcotic feel to this one !

   A prematurely biffed “Imogen” was resolved once I got CLOSENESS, and told myself “Come on ! EILEEN !!”.

   I parsed my LOI afterwards, and assumed NAO, which was NHO (“Haudit” anyone ?).

   FOI USERS
   LOI NACHO (hardly exotic – Walkers make them)
   COD CARE LABEL
   TIME 12:30

5. Topicalness award to CAMEMBERT I’d say, alternative synonyms also applying (IMV). Very nice puzzle.
6. 52 minutes, so I must’ve found this tough going, but I seem to remember feeling LOW (FOI) that morning.

   Enjoyed 21 INCONVENIENCE—charges for use of the toilets in stations had risen to 40p in some places, before Network Rail announced that they would be scrapped this year. Chief executive Mark Carne was quoted as saying it was “quite wrong to penalise people when they are in discomfort”, thus clearly demonstrating that he’s never actually caught a train in this country, otherwise he wouldn’t be piddling about with the toilets…

   I didn’t record my LOI, but I have a feeling it was somewhere in the SW, having also tried to crowbar “ibid” into 23d rather than the bird for a while…

   Edited at 2019-09-14 08:27 am (UTC)

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8. I started with IGLOO and finished with either IBIS or NEEDY. Didn’t know ib. Liked CAMAMBERT. The rest of the puzzle didn’t cause me much INCONVENIENCE, apart from having to change my TACHO(sic) to a NACHO and I was done in 30:19. Thanks setter and Bruce.
9. A gentle trundle over 18 minutes, like others wondering if the GUN clue was more complex than an uncryptic definition.
   My Tesco’s divides has a special aisle for foreign or exotic stuff, which includes Polish, Kosher, Sub-Continental, Japanese and (it’s true, I tell you) American, but you won’t find NACHOs there. They’re just called tortilla chips and fill out the crisp section.
10. I have “Groan-worthy” written on my paper copy, a tribute to the witticism on display here, with yuk or groan written against 7 clues. LOI EILEEN (one of the groans). Great fun. Thanks Bruce and setter. 15:51
11. I got through most of this quite quickly but came to a halt on two in the SE. At 28a I wondered about WEEDY and at 20d I had a number of girls in mind -Di,Vi,Fi even Liz-but Eileen failed to appear. And at that point I gave up.
    An enjoyable puzzle but I’m still a bit mystified by the “on the rocks” in 28a; I know that’s how whisky can be served. David
    1. Chambers has as its first definition for “on the rocks”: penniless.
       1. Thanks Brian but to my mind “on the rocks” implies something a lot more serious than needy. Online Collins has “in a state of ruin or destitution”. No one else seems to have been bothered by it, perhaps because the cryptic( I now see) is clear.
          1. Definition and answer are often not exact synonyms. If you can replace one by the other in a sentence without destroying the meaning, that’s good enough, even if as here one’s stronger than the other. (And, you’re welcome to call me Bruce.)

             Edited at 2019-09-14 09:20 am (UTC)

             1. Thanks Bruce!
12. I am aware it is not done to discuss the prize crossword before the closing date for entries but I believe there are two clue errors (one a word omission and the other an inappropriate word). Not sure where else to mention this.
    1. I’m not sure what you’re thinking of–although I do have a ? at one clue–but in any case, submit a comment to the club forum by starting a thread in the General category. I’m curious to see if you get any responses.
       1. Thanks Kevin, I have done as you suggested.
    2. I agree about the inappropriate word but I can’t see a word omission. We’ll have to wait until next week!
13. 20:19 I thought this was a fun puzzle. COD and LOI 21ac. Impossible for me to hear the name Eileen without thinking of Dexy’s Midnight Runners. I assumed 7dn was meant to make us think about grounded jumbo jets but like everyone else, for me, the other type of jumbo immediately came to mind making it barely cryptic or at least not so cryptic as to detain me for any length of time. DNK Colonel Blimp was a cartoon but saw the Powell and Pressburger film not too long ago so knew it from that.
14. For brnchn and anyone else remotely interested [cue tumbleweed], Eileen was the solution that I indirectly referred in last Saturday’s blog as having a legitimate alternative. I’ve known three women called Aileen – one pronounced it Ay-leen (long A), and two pronounced it the same as as Eileen. (Clearly won’t have tripped up many solvers, but still!)
    1. ^ Sorry, should have been “referred to”, and I omitted my moniker. – Nila Palin
       1. Good point. No idea where we find a list of “normal” names though!
          1. There’s the “Some first names” section at the back of Chambers 13th. Under Aileen it gives both pronunciations.

             – Nila Palin

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