41:26, though I had to look up to confirm my final answer. Tomorrow is the last exam of my PhD program, so I feel grateful that this puzzle wasn’t too hard. My sense while solving was that some of the definitions were a bit loose or vague, but perhaps I simply didn’t appreciate the subtlety while solving.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Occupied housing fine is steep (6) |
| INFUSE – F in IN USE | |
| 4 | Car trailer perhaps thrown into roll (8) |
| ROADSTER – AD in ROSTER | |
| 10 | Morning person sorted library edition digests (5,4) |
| EARLY BIRD – anagram of LIBRARY in ED
|
|
| 11 | Flower in bog picked up with stick (5) |
| LUPIN – homophone of LOO (bog) + PIN
How annoying. I nearly biffed LUPIN from the start, but couldn’t work it out, as I didn’t know ‘bog’ as slang for LOO. I thought the answer was LIPPY for ‘with stick’ but I couldn’t make that work either. |
|
| 12 | Prominent speech in support of London Transport (11) |
| PROTUBERANT – PRO TUBE RANT
I’ve seen this one before. |
|
| 14 | Past article retracted embarrassing blunder (3) |
| AGO – A + reversal of O.G. (‘own goal’) | |
| 15 | Pages on American bank sites internally still hold good (7) |
| REAPPLY – RELY around (sites internall) PP on A
I’m probably just missing it but this definition doesn’t make sense to me. |
|
| 17 | Call the shots I’d returned on court (6) |
| DIRECT – reversal of I’D + RE + CT | |
| 19 | Over in parking spot with cast after theatre’s out (4-2) |
| POST-OP – O in P + anagram (with cast?) of SPOT
Do I have this right? |
|
| 21 | Short play performed in front of Highlanders (7) |
| SPORRAN – SPOR{t} + RAN
I had to look up to confirm. But does ‘front of Highlanders’ mean something worn in the front by Highlanders? |
|
| 23 | Time police radar traps (3) |
| ERA – hidden | |
| 24 | Set ankle in it to begin with moves? (2-4,5) |
| IN-LINE SKATE – SET ANKLE IN I{t} anagrammed
Pretty good! |
|
| 26 | Right turn goes around bypass (5) |
| SKIRT – SKIT (turn) around R (right)
Again, do I have this right? A ‘turn’ can be a theatrical performance, so, yes, I think so. |
|
| 27 | Hand over new charger, maybe binning last display model (9) |
| MANNEQUIN – MAN (hand) around (over) N (new) EQUIN{e} (charger, maybe)
|
|
| 29 | Clip and groom one dog that’s in shock (8) |
| MANICURE – I CUR in MANE | |
| 30 | Duke breaking head off “For Sale” sign? (6) |
| ADVERT – D in (breaking) AVERT (head off) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Touch of indigestion right after eating a ham (8) |
| INEXPERT – I (touch of indigestion) NEXT (right after) around A
I didn’t quite know this meaning of HAM. |
|
| 2 | 50 per cent growth of stocks boosted yield (5) |
| FORGO – OF around (stocks) GRO{wth} reversed | |
| 3 | Check written without a pen (3) |
| STY – ST{a}Y | |
| 5 | One’s experienced what affectionate couples may do when naked (3,4) |
| OLD HAND – {h}OLD HAND{s}
I love this clue. |
|
| 6 | Causing hurt, cut cross off unopened grave (11) |
| DELETERIOUS – DELET{e} (cut) {S}ERIOUS (unopened)
Really nice. |
|
| 7 | Person hammering floor and fitting in worsted carpet (3-6) |
| TAP-DANCER – AND anagrammed (fitting) in CARPET anagrammed (worsted)
I think I have this right. ‘Fitting’ like ‘having a fit’. Otherwise the scrambled AND is unaccounted for. |
|
| 8 | Did scamper exhaust male stray? (6) |
| RANDOM – RAN (did scamper) DO (exhaust) M
In the end this is very clean but I had a hard time thinking past TOM being part of the answer! |
|
| 9 | Sardonic hosts in European chateau? (6) |
| WINERY – WRY around IN E | |
| 13 | Trained in Riot Act, up against state (11) |
| UNPATRIOTIC – anagram of IN RIOT ACT UP | |
| 16 | Loving bustle I found in shop (9) |
| ADORATION – ADO + I in RAT ON (shop) | |
| 18 | Communications system runs on board in principle (8) |
| INTERNET – R in (on bound) IN TENET | |
| 20 | My old album covers all propped up on old Queen vinyl? (7) |
| POLYMER – MY + O in LP (old album covers) reversed + ER | |
| 21 | Child worker could be given voice (6) |
| SONANT – SON ANT | |
| 22 | Raven’s morning rummage on the beach (6) |
| JETSAM – JET’S A.M. | |
| 25 | Blue film topped half hour charges (5) |
| AZURE – {ho}UR in (charges) {h}AZE (topped) | |
| 28 | Goal from corner after striking edge of ball (3) |
| END – {b}END | |
15.16 Tough one to blog Jeremy but I thought this was an excellent puzzle. And probably a PB for me in terms of multiples of Verlaine’s time (less than 1.2*V). The great man must have paused to accept a delivery, make a cuppa and write a novella before submitting.
FWIW, I don’t think there’s any double duty at 10ac. ED “digests” the “sorted” LIBRARY.
In 27 across, the “over” works if you take MANN to be N inside of MAN. Slightly unnecessary for the wordplay but it helps the surface make sense.
Agree with you re the apparently loose definitions for REAPPLY and SPORRAN (still a good clue though).
Thank you and thanks setter.
Agree on LIBRARY and MA(N)N.
The problem with REAPPLY is that ‘still holds good’ necessarily implies that the thing never stopped applying, whereas REAPPLY necessarily implies the opposite. So yes a little loose.
I agree with Jeremy about the looseness of this puzzle. Reapply, sporran, and tap dancer and just a little off in precision, compared to the very best puzzles. However, polymer, deleterious, and in-line skate were very good indeed.
Time: 60:08.
42:18 WOE
Typed in DELETARIOUS. I had, and have, a ? at SPORRAN. And one at REAPPPLY, but I suppose it sort of works if ‘apply’ is intransitive: the rule still applies. I liked a number of the clues–FORGO, ADVERT, SKIRT inter alia–but COD to OLD HAND.
Very slow but I managed most of this before eventually giving up and using aids to find IN-LINE SKATE as my LOI. I never heard of it and even though I realised it was an anagram I was unable to make any sense of it as I had no idea what the clue might be defining.
TAP DANCER was an early entry and I had no misgivings about the clue, but I agree that REAPPLY and SPORRAN are bordering on the dodgy with the latter certainly needing a question mark if it was to stand any chance.
Perhaps the definition of SPORRAN is “ in front of Highlanders”. That’s where it’s worn!
That would require ‘thing’ or similar. Otherwise you have a proposition defining a noun, which would be very dodgy.
No way. Noun answer requires a noun definition, otherwise what are we doing here…
Ambiguity bothers me but “looseness” usually doesn’t, so I really liked this clever crossword.
I agree that the def. for sporran includes the “In”. Lovely clue.
And no, no double duty for EARLY BIRD.
REAPPLY seems a car crash of a clue and I don’t understand the definition. But good stuff, otherwise.
See comment to branch above.
IN-LINE SKATE was LOI by a long chalk and it would definitely have helped to have heard of it. Doubtless I shall now see frequent references.
Much more commonly known as roller blades in my experience. One of those cases of a brand name being adopted as the generic term I think.
29.30
Tricky Friday following a slightly-less-tricky Thursday; quite a few biffs, but suspecting a pangram (which it turned out to be) helped me with JETSAM and MANNEQUIN.
COD OLD HAND (a bit cheeky).
LOI FORGO
14:36. Tricky one, but judging by the leaderboard I seem to have been on the wavelength.
I was a bit concerned about JETSAM: I wasn’t familiar with the ‘black’ meaning of ‘raven’, although it’s obviously completely logical.
I agree that some of this was a bit loose, but I think that’s a price well worth playing in a witty and creative puzzle like this. To the list of ‘a bit loose’ I would add 13dn: not believing that your country ‘is superior to all others because you were born in it’ doesn’t necessarily mean you’re against it.
“Patriotic” means only to love and have devotion to one’s country; your definition equates it to “jingoism.” You can love and have devotion to someone, a family member, say, and still realize that they have faults, that they objectively aren’t the best or the brightest. Political protesters are often (always) accused of being “unpatriotic,” indeed. And they (WE) always retort that of course we aren’t against our country, per se, just because we’re against the current regime; we only want our country to live up to its potential. To my mind, then, UNPATRIOTIC does mean “against one’s country,” and not merely feeling like maybe you could be just as happy or happier elsewhere and just happen to have been born where you are, as that feeling can accompany still loving the place and people where you happen to be, enough at least to want to try to make things better. (Of course, I work at a mag called The Nation, so I would say that.)
That’s a way of looking at it. I don’t feel any particular love for my country, any more than I love France or Spain for instance. I am of course invested in it because it’s my home, and that means more than just a physical location but I still wouldn’t use the word ‘love’. Maybe this just makes me ‘not patriotic’.
D’accord.
Georges Brassens, “La Mauvaise réputation,” stanza 2:
Le jour du 14 juillet
Je reste dans mon lit douillet
La musique qui marche au pas
Cela ne me regarde pas
Je ne fais pourtant de tort à personne
En n’écoutant pas le clairon qui sonne
Mais les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Non, les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Tout le monde me montre au doigt
Sauf les manchots, ça va de soi
That last line is a bit of a surprise!
Ha! You really should hear the whole song. I do this one in karaoke.
https://youtu.be/ye8lmjjiOn4?si=wycJvqPTzmPAeeY0
Au village, sans prétention
J’ai mauvaise réputation
Qu’je me démène ou que je reste coi
Je passe pour un je-ne-sais-quoi
Je ne fais pourtant de tort à personne
En suivant mon chemin de petit bonhomme
Mais les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Non, les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Tout le monde médit de moi
Sauf les muets, ça va de soi
Le jour du 14 juillet
Je reste dans mon lit douillet
La musique qui marche au pas
Cela ne me regarde pas
Je ne fais pourtant de tort à personne
En n’écoutant pas le clairon qui sonne
Mais les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Non, les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Tout le monde me montre au doigt
Sauf les manchots, ça va de soi
Quand j’croise un voleur malchanceux
Poursuivi par un cul-terreux
J’lance la patte et, pourquoi le taire?
Le cul-terreux se retrouve par terre
Je ne fais pourtant de tort à personne
En laissant courir les voleurs de pommes
Mais les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Non, les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Tout le monde se rue sur moi
Sauf les cul-de-jatte, ça va de soi
Pas besoin d’être Jérémie
Pour deviner le sort qui m’est promis
S’ils trouvent une corde à leur goût
Ils me la passeront au cou
Je ne fais pourtant de tort à personne
En suivant les chemins qui ne mènent pas à Rome
Mais les brave gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Non, les braves gens n’aiment pas que
L’on suive une autre route qu’eux
Tout le monde viendra me voir pendu
Sauf les aveugles, bien entendu
Love it! I need more George Brassens in my life.
Given it’s a Friday, I shall happily take my time of 30 minutes for a full solve and parse. Some delightful surfaces in here. EARLY BIRD, IN-LINE SKATE, MANNEQUIN, INEXPERT, TAP DANCER, WINERY, UNPATRIOTIC and POLYMER all earned big ticks from me.
Thanks to setter and blogger
29.47, happy to squeeze in under 30. My bad habits contributed: eventually I’ll go from A to PER in less than several minutes, and from theatre to things surgical likewise. But not today. Still enjoyed the tussle, the pangram helping with INEXPERT, my last in, after earlier trying THESPIAN, which is at least as apt.
I did think there were some liberties taken: “over” in the MANNEQUIN clue is not helpful, I’m not convinced a TAP DANCER “hammers” the floor, REAPPLY is a real stretch, and I’m not convinced by “rummage on the beach” for JETSAM, but I still landed them.
Liked the blog, best of luck with the PhD!
Apparently ‘rummage’ can be a noun meaning ‘a jumble of articles’ (Collins).
Not apparently really. ‘Jumble sale’ and ‘rummage sale’ have been interchangeable terms all my life.
Those two phrases being interchangeable doesn’t require ‘jumble’ and ‘rummage’ to be synonymous: ‘rummage’ could be a verb in the latter case, as in ‘bring and buy sale’. I’ve always assumed it is, but that’s just because I didn’t know that ‘rummage’ can be a noun!
Jetsam doesn’t seem right, but my Oxford has RUMMAGE as a noun meaning things found while rummaging. So rummage found on a beach could well be jetsam. Chambers tells me rummage was originally the disposition of casks – presumably rum – in a ship’s hold. And that another specific meaning is: A thorough search of a ship by customs officers. Who knew?
Yes loose, but liked it anyway. Bottom right slowest. In-line skates gave me flashbacks of the 80s.
A very long time, but finally got there after going down a few dead-ends (eg trying to make “apt” work for ‘fitting’ at 7d and not being able to shift “plastic” instead of POLYMER for 20d). The pangram definitely helped, especially with INEXPERT for which, like Zabadak, I had “thespian”, another one which messed up the crossing answers. Same MER’s as others, but I was just happy enough to finish and wasn’t too bothered.
Thanks and good luck to Jeremy for your exam.
Too hard for me. Gave up on the hour with a third of the answers missing. Would never have got INEXPERT, not knowing that meaning of ‘ham’. I got REAPPLY, but it’s a crap clue.
I was, stupidly, missing SKIRT and thus JETSAM. Not many folk seem to use BOG nowadays (I don’t mean they cross their legs) but it was the preferred usage in the years of my youth. Thank you setter and Jeremy. Good luck in the exam.
DNF. Ran out of time. Agree that a few were pretty loose, particularly REAPPLY, but this generally felt above my pay grade anyway. Thinking that IN LINE SKATE could be IN LIKE FLYNN didnt’t help.
I did like PROTUBERATE.
Thanks to the setter and to Jeremy. Best of luck tomorrow.
39:52 a rare time I spotted the pangram and used it to my advantage helping with JETSAM and MANNEQUIN and confirming AZURE which was unparsed.
NE gave me the most woe fixated that what turned out to be ROADSTER had to have TOW in it somewhere. After that RANDOM, DELETERIOUS and LUPIN flowed within seconds to finish this off.
OLD HAND favourite and first in today. Thanks for the schoolboy giggle.
Thanks blogger and setter.
33’48” for this excellent puzzle.
I had ‘thespian’ at 1d for a while, ‘then’ for ‘after’, but it went nowhere.
Thanks jeremy and setter.
My thanks to plusjeremy and setter.
A few bits were easy, but not much of it. DNF, particularly in the South.
15a Reapply, I got it but was with plusjeremy on the def; very vague.
19a Post-Op. Umm. DN get this one.
24a VVHO In-line skate, but never even identified the anagrist.
5d Old hand, a bit of light relief and a good clue.
8d Random, got it but CNP.
16d Adoration, ditto.
21d Sonant, NHO, risked it.
Just under forty four minutes, but with a biffed IN LINE StAkE. Saw the anagram but had no idea what the definition was supposed to be. Bah humbug! Thanks setter and Jeremy. Good luck with the exam.
Got there in the end – but over an hour – enjoyed the challenge. Personally I thought “front of Highlander” was fair for sporran, but I am no expert.
DNF
Rarely completely fail but I did here. I just couldn’t get THESPIAN out of my head for ham in 1d. NHO IN LINE SKATE. Just couldn’t make all the words and w/p work for POLYMER. Etc etc. Also kippered by FORGO though that was vg indeed.
Well done Jeremy and everyone else who seemed to breeze through this.
49:13. I mistyped OLD HADD so my score doesn’t count, but that was a genuine typo.
I really enjoyed this, where the difficulty was all generated by ingenuity. I was staring at the puzzle for a while before getting going. Then gradually worked through.
SHORT is a better answer than SKIRT for 26ac in my book, which held me up until I saw it had to be ADORATION. I was parsing SPORRAN as SP for short play, with the OR being unexplained. INFUSE took me almost 49 minutes to see, having seen the word play immediately, but being unable to come up with ‘IN USE’ for occupied till the very end. A lot of time spent trying to fit words like ‘overact’ in 1dn. LOI was in fact POST OP.
COD certainly PROTUBERANT.
How does SHORT mean ‘bypass’?
As in an electrical circuit, as a verb.
Hmm. I’m not qualified to opine on technical accuracy of that but the Collins definition of ‘short-circuit’ does at least include the word ‘bypass’! Not exactly everyday English but you may have a point.
‘by putting water on the plug he shorted/bypassed the circuit’. I suspect most electricians wouldn’t have a problem with the equivalence; whether that makes its way into dictionaries I don’t know. Any electricians about?
I agree and had SHORT in for ages. Done more electronics than -tricals but it made perfect sense to me.
I also disagree with SKIT = turn. A skit is a short scene or short play; a turn is a performance by an individual actor.
Both words can refer to a ‘short comedy sketch’, which is the Collins definition of ‘skit’.
This is probably just a gap in my knowledge…
Anyway the other relevant point is that SHORT doesn’t fit the grid!
Which makes the clue perfectly fair! No complaints here, just observations.
DNF after two goes, back in OWL Club with a complete guess of FARGO rather than FORGO – I had absolutely no idea what was going on with that clue.
– Held myself up by putting SHORT rather than SKIRT until ADORATION forced a rethink
– Didn’t see how MANNEQUIN worked
– Can’t recall coming across SONANT before, but it seemed plausible and the wordplay helped
A toughie. Thanks setter and Jeremy (and good luck for tomorrow!)
COD Deleterious
Just under 40 minutes for this challenge, which I enjoyed- helped of course by completing it correctly. PROTUBERANT raised a smile. Was lucky with the in-line anagram as my first guess was going to finish stake! RANDOM my LOI.
Much thanks to blogger and setter for their work.
42 mins – not easy and I share above mentioned misgivings about REAPPLY etc. It seemed a little impressionistic in parts rather than scrupulously precise.
Yes and they don’t like it, do they? 🙂
But i do.
Really? “A car crash of a clue” where you don’t understand the definition? 🤨
Ha, well there is looseness and looseness I suppose. I couldn’t make head or tail of that clue; still can’t. So looseness doesn’t cover it. But eg the sporran, no complaints there… or skit = turn.
Really enjoyed the tussle, with clues frequently looking impossible until they suddenly weren’t. Very satisfying alphatrawl, with two clues remaining, to find the pangram’s missing X, otherwise INEXPERT would have been some time longer. And much needed for LOI REAPPLY, to come in at 44:27: glad I didn’t hang around too long after trying to decipher that particular definition. Any other looseness was amply absorbed by my much looser solving. Must try to remember ‘over’ as a containment indicator. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
Like our blogger, I’ve been working to get my last bit of university work in (though for a lowly bachelor’s degree in my case, not Jeremy’s doctorate), so it’s a while since I’ve picked up the crossword. I wish I hadn’t started with a Friday! Unlike several posters here who seem to have rated this as an easy-ish outing, I just couldn’t make sense of much of it. Well over an hour to get about a third done, and, having read the blog, it could have taken me as long to do the next third and I’d never have got the last one. Maybe I’ll try again on Monday.
43:09
Lots of tricksy stuff in here, some of which I failed to parse. No unknowns but at least one “oh really, does it mean that?”.
REAPPLY – as per Jeremy, not keen on the definition here, thjough the wordplay works
POST OP – my LOI, didn’t think of an O before the final P, thought it would be something-UP
IN LINE SKATE – had me foxed for ages, roller skates went out with the dinosaurs, to be replaced by the snazzier roller blades
SKIRT – failed to parse
ADVERT or ADVENT (sign?) – didn’t think of AVERT = head off, but luckily guessed right
INEXPERT – failed to parse
JETSAM – rummage as a noun? You can rummage (verb) or have a rummage (noun)
UNPATRIOTIC – took ages to get any checkers for this, then got it straight off from the first checker in (C)
SONANT – assumed this was probably the answer but didn’t know it was a word (heard of resonant, assonant and dissonant of course)
DELETERIOUS – couldn’t have told you what it meant…
Thanks PJ and setter
Enjoyable challenge all completed bar”forgo” and “post-op” with a small handful on top not really understood/parsed (including “reapply”).
Thanks Jeremy for the explanations and good luck for tomorrow.
I took a long time with this – 1 hour 14 minutes – finishing with just one pink square. I had SHORT at 26ac, as discussed by JPTC and others above. This became SHIRT without me noticing when I put ADORATION in and, because it is a word, it didn’t set off any alarm bells in the final quick check. I still enjoyed doing battle with this crossword
58 mins. Had to pause for later with stuff to do which breaks the mood a little but enjoyed the battle and pleased to finish. Had the odd error recently but not had to just concede for a while now.
Esp. enjoyed POST-OP and POLYMER and was happily primed for stray = RANDOM today.
Thanks to setter and Jeremy and all the best for tomorrow.
All done in 45 mins early this morning bar 1d& 15ac, but had to leave it there as Iwas going out. Came back At 5:30 pm and immediately saw INEXPERT , then REAPPLY.
Same mers as our blogger, but they’ve all been mentioned and dealt with.
I liked OLD HAND & TAP-DANCER.
Thanks pj and setter. Good luck with the exam.
Re 15ac
If a principle applies, then it holds good. So if it reapplies it still holds good.
I would had said that it implies that in the meantime, it did NOT hold good. If it had, you wouldn’t need to reapply it…
I thought yesterday ‘s was tough, but … 64 mins. I’m not usually willing to spend that long on a puzzle but I was determined to fill the grid with answers that had a sporting chance of success. I don’t think I knew SONANT and certainly didn’t know IN-LINE SKATE – what is it and what’s it doing in a daily puzzle? The NW corner held me up for a long time, as I wrongly inserted THESPIAN at 1D and spent some time trying to understand its supposed wordplay, and I spent further minutes wondering whether REAPPLY could = ‘still hold good’ (I still am). Thank you Blogger for explaining the wordplay to REAPPLY, MANNEQUIN and POLYMER. My first in was ERA and last REAPPLY. I found the puzzle enjoyable as well as hard work, otherwise I wouldn’t have spent over an hour on it. My favourite three clues: to TAP-DANCER, ADORATION and JETSAM. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
Thank you setter for a fab crossword – I really enjoyed it.
51 minutes. NHO IN LINE SKATE, NHO my LOI FORGO and also I had SHORT instead of SKIRT (shot round r, short circuit) which held me up.
I’m amazed at these people who can finish a puzzle like this in 20 minutes, chapeau
Anyway thanks setter for this challenge