Times Cryptic No 27744 – Saturday, 15 August 2020. Lift, separate … and seek enlightenment

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This flowed steadily for the most part. There seemed to be more clues than usual that required one to “lift and separate” common phrases into individual words, but on review perhaps not. All went smoothly until I was left with only 27ac, and no hint of enlightenment. Eventually I looked it up. Well done if you got it from wordplay, without knowing the answer! Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Notes for newcomers: The Times offers prizes for Saturday Cryptic Crosswords. This blog is posted a week later, after the competition closes. So, please don’t comment here on the current Saturday Cryptic.

Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions are in {curly brackets}.

Across
1 Is it paste produced in this plant? (8)
SHAMROCK – a little pun about paste as fake diamonds.
5 Crone‘s smile entertaining lord soldiers deserted (6)
BELDAM – BEAM ‘entertaining’ L{or}D, after OR (soldiers) ‘deserted’. BELDAM is a word that’s appeared previously, but I had to look it up to satisfy myself it really means ‘hag’. It seems such a nice descriptor!
10 Butter perhaps old farmer gives politician (6,9)
RAMSAY MACDONALD – the RAM is the butter, SAY is perhaps, Old MacDONALD had the farm.
James Ramsay MacDonald (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was the first Labour Prime Minister of the UK.
11 Who believes there is no God witnessing crime? (7)
ATHEIST – did you witness the crime? Were you AT the HEIST?
12 Parrot — friend keeps it on island (7)
IMITATE – I for island, MATE or friend ‘keeping’ IT.
13 Press involved in backing outlet for novelist (8)
TURGENEV – URGE in VENT backwards. I constructed this from wordplay and thought, “this looks plausible; even perhaps vaguely familiar”. And so it should have been! I blogged the same answer with quite similar wordplay in March.
15 Brightest star in Norwegian band penning album (5)
ALPHA – LP in A-HA (a Norwegian band, obviously, since I always believe the setter!)
18 Leading by goal, change things drastically (5)
UPEND – UP (leading), END (goal).
20 Too brash in design, it’s felt, with tassel (8)
TARBOOSH – anagram (in design) of TOO BRASH. A hat like an upside-down flower pot, with a tassel. Made of felt, obviously … see the comment in 15ac.
23 Choking smoke beginning to burn Basil? (7)
POTHERB – POTHER, B{urn}. DNK this meaning of ‘pother’.
25 Mischievous goddess one flat-out in drawing room? (7)
ATELIER – ATË is the Greek goddess of mischief, delusion, ruin, and folly. The LIER might be flat on the floor, say. A room where an artist draws, not where Virginia Woolf entertained!
26 Speech rewrite‘s moving result? (6,2,7)
CHANGE OF ADDRESS – double definition – both a little contrived, perhaps.
27 One rolls over in sudden awakening (6)
SATORI – take I (one), and add ROTAS (rolls). Then turn the whole thing over!

In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori is commonly translated as enlightenment. It refers to the experience of “seeing into one’s true nature”.

28 Brilliant light installed in tree (4-4)
FIVE-STAR – VESTA in FIR.

Down
1 Amusing person makes you laugh uproariously (6)
SCREAM – straight-forward double definition.
2 Accommodation for poor soul has me troubled (9)
ALMSHOUSE – anagram (troubled) of SOUL HAS ME. You need to lift-and-separate POOR SOUL.
3 Studies at home, grade revised externally (7)
READING – anagram (revised) of GRADE round IN (home).
4 Traveller round sun bed the writer occupies (5)
COMET – COT (bed) is to be occupied by ME. Again, lift-and-separate SUN BED.
6 Ace quote about old times turned up in curious collection (7)
EXOTICA – A (ace), CITE (quote), around O (old) and X (times); all turned upside down. Separate OLD TIMES.
7 This writer would read up on anecdotes, hunting deity (5)
DIANA – I’D backwards (read up), then ANA (anecdotes).
8 Old-fashioned Peter out with Victor, tucking into food (8)
MEDIEVAL – DIE (peter out, with or without a capital P), and V for Victor, all in MEAL.
9 Successful person a Greek character always follows (8)
ACHIEVER – A, CHI (Greek character), EVER.
14 Tablet to be smashed in corner (8)
NOTEBOOK – anagram (smashed) of TO BE, in NOOK (corner). I was a bit dubious about the definition. To me an iPad is a tablet, a MacBook Air is a notebook.
16 Causing nuisance, shut up about access to field (9)
PESTILENT – PENT (shut up) around STILE (access to field).
17 Gold adds interest to patronage (8)
AUSPICES – AU (gold), SPICES (adds interest).
19 Doctor over limit on river boat (7)
DREDGER – DR, EDGE, R (river).
21 Late deliveries expected (7)
OVERDUE – OVER (6 or 8 deliveries in cricket), DUE (expected).
22 Our leading lady as herself — in rubber? (6)
ERASER – E.R. AS E.R. (herself).
24 Food browned perfectly, seconds having been consumed (5)
TOAST – cooked perfectly would be “done TO A T”, consuming S (seconds).
25 Craftsman on the fiddle a dull one (5)
AMATI – A MAT I (one). According to Wikipedia, Amati is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families.

30 comments on “Times Cryptic No 27744 – Saturday, 15 August 2020. Lift, separate … and seek enlightenment”

  1. No problems, other than not knowing that POTHER. FOI ATHEIST, LOI FIVE-STAR. I biffed TURGENEV from the V, ATELIER from ATE, parsed both post-submission. Didn’t care much for SCREAM. I have no idea what the difference is between a tablet and a notebook when it comes to computers, but then I didn’t think of computers when I solved, and paper tablets and notebooks are near enough.
  2. SATORI was last in, a slow dawning rather than a sudden awakening. The difference between a TARBOOSH and a FEZ is mainly in their relative frequency of use in scrabble.
    25:48
  3. Exhaustive alphabet trawl left 2 options: SOTART (over in start) or SATORI (< 1 rotas). Not my favourite clue ever, diminishes the enjoyment. For some reason I’ve heard of Ramsay, so he went straight in. Liked shamrock and five-star, NHO pother.
    1. It occurred to me to wonder if this would cause trouble. It was a gimme for me, with the word coming before the parsing. But then Zen was more of a thing in my generation, I suppose. I’ve used the word often enough in conversation.
  4. 32 minutes. LOI SATORI, constructed more than remembered. COD to RAMSAY MACDONALD. I liked SHAMROCK too. SCREAM in that sense was much used in my youth but I haven’t heard it for a long time. Somehow, I never used to find somebody so described very funny, but that probably says more about me. Nice Saturday puzzle. Thank you Bruce and setter.
  5. NHO SATORI, which I was left with after 9 minutes, and ended up cheating it 3 minutes later. Spoilt the puzzle for me.

    COD ERASER

  6. …but technically a DNF as I had to use aids to get SATORI. I also had a mental blank when it came to SHAMROCK. As soon as I saw it I remembered that we have had that before.
    Thanks, Bruce for SATORI and for the ATË in ATELIER. i also agree about TABLET and NOTEPAD.
    My one quibble is with ERASER. I feel that there should have been a Cockney pronunciation indicator..
    COD to SHAMROCK although FIVE-STAR was also very good.
    2. It’s just Elizabeth Regina as Elizabeth Regina though, no Cockneyfication required.
  7. Got into a pother (DNK) on this and also failed to find SATORI (another START plus O). Constructed TARBOOSH but I don’t recall Tommy Cooper ever calling it that. BELDAM another unknown constructed.
    The rest was a pleasant challenge. I liked CHANGE OF ADDRESS.
    David
  8. I was another stumped by 27ac. Just like Isla I had SOTART (O = over inside START = sudden awakening). My confidence had been boosted earlier by constructing the unknown TARBOOSH from wordplay and then finding out it was correct, but I was not so fortunate with SOTART.

    NHO the required meaning of POTHER.

    Edited at 2020-08-22 06:50 am (UTC)

  9. 20:01. A tricky one spoiled a bit by SATORI. I happened to know it from somewhere but I think the clue is poor. 1dn is one fo those double definitions that don’t seem very double because the meaning is essentially the same. And I agree about NOTEBOOKs and tablets: not the same thing at all, almost opposites in fact. Listen to me moaning, I actually enjoyed the puzzle.

    Edited at 2020-08-22 09:39 pm (UTC)

  10. I managed to construct TARBOOSH and remembered our Russian writer from a previous outing, but having never heard of SATORI, needed help to have my eyes opened. I also agree that a notebook is not a tablet. A notebook has a physical keyboard whereas a tablet doesn’t. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the puzzle. SHAMROCK always makes me smile. 37:05. Thanks setter and Bruce.
  11. I suppose I was lucky to get SATORI, since it rang a very faint bell, an TARBOOSH was generously clued, necessarily as it’s got alternative spellings.
    I just assumed that the setter’s NOTEBOOK was one of those laptops which has a detachable keyboard, perhaps coupled with a non-tech’s innocence, rather like that chap walking into the hi-fi shop asking for a gramophone and enduring relentless teasing. You want a woofer with that?
    18.20, so a smidge above easy.
  12. 20:41. As K said, but I NHO SATORI. I had to check the unknown TARBOOSH. COD to FIVE STAR.
  13. 31:24 I was a bit slow with some of this should’ve been quicker to get the politician from the butter and wasn’t entirely sure about potherb. When I saw satori I didn’t know exactly what it meant but I instantly associated it with Kerouac (though I haven’t read any Kerouac for about 25 years) and was confident that it was correct.
  14. I was ages getting started on this because I didn’t see 1a early enough. Annoying because it should have been so obvious. So I started in the SE corner and worked up. 32 minutes with the last 5 spent trying to decide between SATORI and SOTART at 27a. I eventually picked the correct answer simply because it looked more like a proper word. Ann
  15. Liked this, a steady solve.
    Satori is a basic Buddhist concept, disappointing that so many seem never to have heard of it.
  16. Nicely-balanced Saturday puzzle with some great wordplay.

    SATORI I knew, and still know, despite my excursion to the pub last night (I need to get out more, but this virus thingy is ridiculous). Wasn’t one of the FT compilers called this back in the day? I’m sure I recall someone setting under that name. Anyway I thought the clue absolutely fine, I plus ROTAS reversed for ‘one rolls over’: if there’s something wrong with that I’m unable to see it.

  17. Surprised (even disappointed, like Jerry) that so few knew SATORI. I guess we won’t be getting KOAN any day soon. Zen masters love to drink. Cheers!
    1. “Auspices: propitious influence exerted on behalf of any undertaking; patronage, favouring direction; esp. in under the auspices of” (OED)
  19. My last answer, yes, but I did get it from wordplay being helped, I think, purely from memory (I’ve not checked back), from the fact that someone used to comment regularly on this site using that as their name.

    Many thanks for blog and thanks also to the setter.

    1. You may be thinking of Sarah, one of our occasional bloggers who posts as ‘sotira’.
  20. Did anyone else get held up by thinking a novelist fiitting -U-G—V must surely be BULGAKOV?
    1. The Master and Margarita, great book. But never even considered him, saw the UGV crossers and said, “Turgenev!” without even reading the clue.

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