Times Quick Cryptic 1231 by Rongo

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
Those breezing through 1ac and 5dn may zoom through this. Less fortunate mortals, like myself, have to piece the rest together bit by bit until every checker is in place for these clues before passing the finishing post. The fact that I still came inside 10 minutes (by the finest of whiskers) means, I think, that the rest of the grid is reasonably straightforward. The proof of that particular pudding will be in your comments. I rather liked 16dnac (air guitar) but tip the cod hat to 5dn for all the moving about required for the parsing.

ACROSS

1. STREETS APART – very different. I went from working on an anagram of V RESULT URBAN to trying to start with SO (for very). The result of an urban dividing wall could mean that two properties adjoin but are on different streets. It could also mean that a block has been placed on a street thereby separating each end.
8. OXIDE – compound. Cow-leather without (emitting) hydrogen (OXhIDE).
9. HABITAT – living environment. Characters (of the answer) seen in sout(H A BIT A T)errible.
10. MEW – speak cattily? Myself (ME) and wife (W).
11. TESTIFIER – witness. More irritable (TESTIER) inside which is (being detained) if (IF).
13. DITTO – same here. Over the top (OTT) and identification (ID) all backwards (rejected).
14. SATYR – lecherous creature. Had a session with (SAT – as in posed for a painting), younger (YR). In Greek mythology satyrs were a class of sylvan deities, represented as goatlike men who drank, danced and chased nymphs. Sounds like a decent Saturday evening. It also means (rather less entertainingly) a man who has strong sexual desires (I’m not sure that reduces the field very much does it?).
16. AIR GUITAR – cryptic definition. A very good one too, I thought. An imaginary instrument used when pretending to play rock music.
17. RAT – traitor. Runs (R), a (A), temperature (T).
19. LATTICE – grating. Anagram (dancing) of TACTILE.
21. AGILE – quickly able to understand. Glycaemic Index (GI) in beer (ALE).
22. CONNING TOWER – top section of submarine – which was very biffable. Homophone (say) of deceiving (CONNING), tugboat, say (TOW-ER) – thanks to meadvale for the correction.

DOWN

1. STORM – rage. Street (ST), or (OR), motorway (M).
2. RAINWATER – output from cloud. Anagram (somehow) of RETAIN RAW.
3. ELECTROCUTION – not-so cryptic definition.
4. SCHISM – split. Singular (S), church (CH), doctrine (ISM). Ism is an unspecified doctrine or one ending in – ism.
5. PUBLIC SERVANT – government’s official. Landlord (PUBLICAN) accepting an anagram (wasted) of REVS and, finally, time (T).
6. RUT – unvarying routine. Rugby (RU), (T)eam.
7. STORER – I keep things. More sensitive (SORER) having tons (T) inside.
12. INTERVIEW – meeting for a job. To bury (INTER), opinion (VIEW).
13. DEADLY – very toxic. Anagram (mixed) of DYE LAD.
15. STREWN – scattered. Outer parts of (S)of(T) (R)o(E) (W)he(N).
18. THEIR – of those people. Homophone (mentioned) of that place – there.
20. TWO – a couple. Regular ingredients of s(T)e(W)p(O)t.

28 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1231 by Rongo”

  1. This is the first QC I’ve done by hand, and probably the last: I started off clicking ‘submit’ instead of the cogwheel to enlarge the clues, then clicked the ‘submit off leaderboard’ instead of the X! Anyway, it certainly took me longer than it felt. Biffed AIR GUITAR, INTERVIEW, PUBLIC SERVANT, and was slowed down only by CONNING TOWER, which took a bit of time to recall; ‘top of’–rather than, say, ‘part of’–was a helpful bit of information one wouldn’t be given in a 15×15. LOI was STREETS APART, a phrase I only know from reading this blog. 7:50. On edit: For what it’s worth, I took ‘session’ in the legislative sense: eg ‘Parliament sat until Friday’. I didn’t know YR=younger.

    Edited at 2018-11-27 05:07 am (UTC)

    1. Kevin, if you don’t do your crosswords by hand, how do you manage to do them? I see the use of either paper and pen or a keyboard as being ‘by hand’. If it is all using memory, yours must be phenomenal! Regards, John M.
  2. 9 minutes, but like vinyl1 I also had ALIVE at 21ac. This seemed reasonable at the time because, not knowing GI for ‘glycaemic index’, I was unable fully to verify the wordplay. To my mind in a Quickie an obscure abbreviation such as this should have had something to indicate that the first letter of each word was all that was required. Incidentally, my logic for ALIVE was supported by the knowledge that ‘quick’ can be defined as something that’s ‘alive’ and I assumed ‘quickly’ was a play on that.

    I was vaguely aware of YR for ‘your’ but I don’t recall seeing it in a crossword before.

    Chris, I think you mean 16ac in your introduction, assuming it’s AIR GUITAR you were referring to.

    Edited at 2018-11-27 06:09 am (UTC)

    1. I took ‘glycemic index’ to indicate GI only because I couldn’t imagine what the hell it was doing otherwise; I agree with you that it was a bit much for a QC. It just now occurred to me where I’ve seen YR=your: in 18th-century correspondence, where Dr. Johnson, say, ends by declaring himself,
      Sir,
      Yr. obdt. svt.
      S. Johnson
      1. Yes I thought of sign-offs in correspondence too but only came up with ‘yrs.’ for ‘yours’.
    2. Thank you – I did mean 16ac. On the YR discussion I have nothing useful to add except how I got to the correct answer. I was so convinced that I remembered this that I have only looked it up since these comments. I remembered the name William Younger (something to do with a misspent youth and trips to Scotland) and had no problem with the abbreviation. On look up however the abbreviation is Wm Younger. Odd how the mind works.

      Edited at 2018-11-27 09:28 am (UTC)

  3. 15:00 exactly today finishing with STREETS APART and PUBLIC SERVANT.
    There were some oddities today which made this difficult; STORER and STREETS APART do not come readily to mind.
    I had no problem with AGILE and YR for Younger seemed OK even if I had not seen it in a puzzle before.
    Somehow I got Conning Tower straightaway, amazing what the memory holds. COD to Air Guitar. David

    PS The written style of address of the heir to a laird is (for example) “John Smith of Edinburgh, Younger” or if abbreviated “John Smith of Edinburgh, Yr.” or in the case of the heir to a chief “James Salmond of that Ilk, Yr.” or “James Salmond of Salmond, Yr.”

    Edited at 2018-11-27 08:09 am (UTC)

  4. 13.54. Failed to breeze through 1ac and 5dn. Memory misled briefly as it played with Canning Town before reaching its destination on 22ac.
  5. Not as good as Dr Johnson, but “Be in love with yr life”, wrote Jack Kerouac in “Belief & Technique for Modern Prose”. I’m sure I’ve come across “yr” for younger before, possibly in the history notes about Pitt the Yr dictated to me at a tender age. Anyway, caused no issue unlike “ism” which I did not know.

    On edit: I had no problem with GI for glycemic index. “Low GI” foods were all the rage 10-15 years ago and the phrase was everywhere.

    All done and parsed in 1.2 Kevins, a Very Good Day. COD to AIR GUITAR from me, a real snorter! Thanks Rongo, and thanks Chris for a very clear blog (and teaching me about isms).

    Templar

    Edited at 2018-11-27 09:15 am (UTC)

  6. Found this quite tricky. Same hold-ups as those described above, and half of my 7:14 spent over STREETS APART, and COD/LOI AIR GUITAR.
  7. There was more to this than my quick start suggested – typical Rongo, to whom thanks.. Plenty to think about although I must say I biffed a few and parsed at leisure – e.g. 3d, 4d, 5d, 1a, 16a (thanks Chris). I liked Oxide and found Habitat and Two to be well hidden. LOI Testifier. 2.5 Kevins today. John M.

    Edited at 2018-11-27 09:44 am (UTC)

  8. 15.45. LOIs streets apart and public servant. Odd as it’s more often the shorter single words that I get stuck on at the end. Also enjoyed air guitar.
  9. This was my second 20 minute solve this week, so I expect a stinker tomorrow.
    I gave up worrying about abbreviations long ago – I now regard the first letter of any word to be a ‘possible’, just as any word or phrase (or none) can be an anagram indicator
    Having said that, Chambers has ‘year’, ‘yours’, and ‘your’ as definitions of ‘yr’.

    Brian

  10. All went well. FOI habitat, had to wait for a few checkers before 1a fell. Was left with the crossing SATYR and STORER, both fair but brought me to standstill. Storer went before satyr. A rare sub 2o minuter.
  11. I also failed to breeze through 1a and 5d, those being my antipenultimate and penultimate entries respectively. SATYR brought up the rear. I did get of to a STORMy start though. Liked OXIDE, AIR GUITAR and CONNING TOWER. 6:58. Thanks Rongo and Chris.
  12. After 30mins I was just left with S*t*r for 14ac, but I couldn’t read the cryptic so had to resort to aids for a disappointing DNF. 1ac and 5d only came late in the day, and I thought 11ac was on the tricky side as well. Incidentally, what most people think is the conning tower on a submarine is actually the fin (or sail in the US navy) – the tower itself is inside the fin and not visible from the outside. Invariant
  13. In the end this was an average 30 mins or so for me, but it had some very interesting features. Enjoyed STREETS APART and AIR GUITAR (my CODs). Thought CONNING TOWER and ELECTROCUTION were gimmes, and hardly cryptic. I also originally had ALIVE until I remembered that IV = intravenous and absolutely nothing to do with an index. Had no problem with YR = younger (Pitt Yr). FOI MEW. LOI OXIDE.
    Overall a bit unusual, and very enjoyable.
    PlayUpPompey
  14. I don’t think ‘say’ in 22ac is suggestive of a homophone on this occasion, more likely a definition by example – in this case ‘tugboat ‘ being an example of something that tows, therefore a tower. ‘Conning’ is simply a synonym of deceiving.

    I liked the surface and deceptive simplicity of 8ac so my COD. ‘Air guitar’ ran it a close second.

    1ac and 5dn were my last two in but still managed to complete in 4’45”.

    Thanks as always to setter and blogger.

    Edited at 2018-11-27 12:21 pm (UTC)

    1. Indeed, ‘say’ can’t be a homophone indicator, since there are no homomphones: the ‘tower’ of CONNING TOWER is not pronounced the same as the ‘tower’ of ‘something that tows’.
  15. All but 4 completed in 10 mins and then I needed another 10 mins to finish. Sorry Rongo but I struggle to get on your wavelength, particularly 16a AIR GUITAR and 1a STREETS APART. My other two holds up were my COD 5d PUBLIC SERVANT and 4d SCHISM. Thanks Chris for the blog.
  16. Not heard of air guitar so invented air cutter for 16a! We also had alive for 21a, otherwise ok. I & E.
  17. I see I neglected to comment earlier… I solved this pretty steadily without getting stuck anywhere although not many went in the acrosses first time through. AIR GUITAR my LOI. I liked OXIDE but STREWN my favourite. 4:47
  18. I was on Rongo’s wavelength today and got through this without having to think too hard. Although I did need all the checkers for 5d which gave me the nudge I needed for LOI SATYR (like a previous commenter I just assumed that YR could work as an abbreviation). I thought AIR GUITAR was a brilliant clue, so gets my CoD. Completed in 8.36
    Thanks for the blog
  19. Oh dear, everyone seems to have found this relatively straightforward. Frustratingly it became one of those where we had a minimum of checkers for the last few clues. As usual being medically qualified can itself cause problems with certain clues- sensitive = sorer- the dictionary is right of course but……….. Great blog as ever and thanks to Rongo. L&I
  20. Did not get STORER or SATYR , but got 1a and 5d pretty quickly. Oh well. Look forward to tomorrow.

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