Times Quick Cryptic 1510 by Joker

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 7 minutes. Quite straightforward I think, but we shall see what others made of it…

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Do some needling, upsetting bored emir (9)
EMBROIDER : Anagram [upsetting] of BORED EMIR
6 Taking shilling off self-satisfied fool (3)
MUG : {s}MUG  (self-satisfied) [taking shilling off]
8 Running outside is boring (7)
TEDIOUS : Anagram [running] of OUTSIDE
9 Trunk with entangled roots (5)
TORSO : Anagram [entangled] of ROOTS
10 Very big poplar gets cut down (5)
LARGE : Hidden in [cut down] {pop}LAR GE{ts}
12 Enquire too intrusively about diamonds being expensive (6)
PRICEY : PRY (enquire too intrusively) containing [about] ICE (diamonds). One of the colloquial meanings of ‘ice’; another worth remembering is ‘kill’.
14 Look forward to speech: spit it out! (13)
EXPECTORATION : EXPECT (look forward to), ORATION (speech). It’s the act of expectorating or, as here, the matter that’s expectorated.
16 Stamped / like eggs can be? (6)
BEATEN : Two meanings. I wasn’t sure of ‘stamped’ but Collins has: ‘stamp’ as: to beat, crush, etc. in a specified way by treading on heavily,
to stamp the grass down to the earth
17 One with unpleasant views returning to Gibraltar (5)
BIGOT : TO GIB (Gibraltar) reversed [returning]
19 Daughter’s after sentimentally pretty fabric (5)
TWEED : TWEE (sentimentally pretty), D (daughter)
20 Diabetic treatment mostly degrading when temperature’s out (7)
INSULIN : INSUL{t}IN{g} (degrading) [mostly] [when temperature’s out]
22 Boater, perhaps, that’s wasting time (3)
HAT : {t}HAT [wasting time – t]
23 Member is arriving after time to enact law (9)
LEGISLATE : LEG (member), IS, LATE (arriving after time)
Down
1 One praising former bellringer? (8)
EXTOLLER : EX (former), TOLLER (bellringer?)
2 Poor brandy is regularly thrown away (3)
BAD : B{r}A{n}D{y} [regularly thrown away]
3 Toxic gas round area (5)
OZONE : O (round), ZONE (area). Colloquially OZONE can be defined as ‘fresh, invigorating, clean and bracing air’ so as science is not really my thing I Googled IS OZONE TOXIC?  and came up with this: Anything, including water and oxygen, is toxic if given in amounts that exceed the body’s capacity to utilize it.
4 Democrat is getting put into post. Sad. (13)
DISAPPOINTING : D (Democrat), IS, APPOINTING (getting put into post). I think we have a problem with grammar here as ‘getting put into post’ is ‘being appointed’ not ‘appointing’. I tried to make it work by ignoring ‘getting’ as part of the wordplay but ‘put into post’ would be ‘appoint’ or ‘appointed’.
5 Unfortunately nastier type of Greek wine (7)
RETSINA : Anagram [unfortunately] of NASTIER – very apt as this is a nastier type of wine with strong overtones of disinfectant.
6 Promoting after-hours activity of teachers around Eton — not on (9)
MARKETING : MARKING (after-hours activity of teachers) containing [around] ET{on} [not ‘on’]. After school hours perhaps.
7 Good line to develop (4)
GROW : G (good), ROW (line)
11 Act as MP for about now? (9)
REPRESENT : RE (about), PRESENT (now)
13 Example of popular position (8)
INSTANCE : IN (popular), STANCE (position)
15 Fortress — it’s captured by rogue with the Spanish (7)
CITADEL : IT contained [captured] by CAD (rogue), EL (‘the’ Spanish)
17 Foundation degree son is chasing (5)
BASIS : BA (degree), S (son), IS
18 Impatient desire to behead a sorceress (4)
ITCH : {w}ITCH (sorceress) [behead]
21 Initially leave England an open country (3)
LEA : L{eave}, E{ngland}, A{n} [initially]

31 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1510 by Joker”

  1. Once again missing a hidden clue, I had to wait for the checkers at 10ac and then biffed! Spotted it only post-submission. I also queried 4d; the best I could come up with is to take the phrase as a causative: to get someone put into a post is to (indirectly) appoint that someone. But that best is none too good, and I agree with Vinyl. 4:44.
    1. There must be a clue to something when Kevin Gregg, who possesses an intellect at least 50 points above my own, struggles with clues that I thought were write-ins and there were no Transatlantic Issues. Weird. My eternal thanks to you brilliant mentors from whom I have learnt so much, apart from Dorset Jimbo and George Heard who remain smug and aloof.
      1. It’s always nice to receive compliments, and constructive criticism is fine, but we don’t take kindly to insults and even less so when posted anonymously. All the bloggers here are unpaid volunteers giving up their spare time to keep the place going. I’m glad you find the site useful and hope you will continue to do so, but please bear that in mind.

        Edited at 2019-12-24 12:18 am (UTC)

  2. “My brother Robert I’m getting put into the post of attorney general,” said John.
    “My brother Robert I’m appointing attorney general.”
    Seems fine.
      1. The historical instance evoked aside, I think that colloquially it can come to the same thing.
        The judge sentenced the thief to prison: he got the thief put into prison.
        But I’m getting tired of this.
  3. Nothing to delay the Christmas shopping in this. FOI was Embroider and then progress was pretty quick.I too wondered whether ozone was toxic; the seaside was supposed to be the provider of healthy ozone. But I rarely think for too long when solving if the word obviously fits;same with Disappointing. LOI was BEATEN which did require some thought.
    08:59 on the clock.
    David

    1. The presence of Ozone in the air at the seaside is a longstanding myth. There is none. Ozone is definitely toxic. Trust me, I’m a Research Chemist. Interestingly, Wikipedia claims that low concentrations of sulphur compounds are responsible for the seaside smell. They apparently include dimethyl sulphide (released by microbial activity) and that is not pleasant, either. John M.

      Edited at 2019-12-23 10:00 am (UTC)

        1. So did I! I knew about ozone but only discovered the sulphur compounds when I double-checked online. John.
  4. Happily back in PB territory at 6:34. Cracking start to the week and a relief to get the Q back into QC. I’m guiding my brother in law into Crosswordland and puzzles like this will be a great help.
  5. Unlike David, I did my Christmas shopping first. No more food shopping needed this year, I expect. My only hold up in this was the same as Kevin’s – failing to see the hidden at 10A at first. Like Jack I had a MER at OZONE being clued as a toxic gas, but had no trouble with ‘appointing’. 4:23.
  6. No problems with this one. EMBROIDER was FOI and LEGISLATE brought up the rear. I agree about RETSINA. I glossed over 4d. 6:42. Thanks Joker and Jack.
  7. Nothing held me up today and I flew through this in 6.21, finishing with BEATEN. A tip of the hat to EXPECTORATION.
    Thanks for the blog
  8. Definitely a PB at just under 6 minutes (and sub-1.3K) – a nice easy pre-Christmas puzzle I think, to help us all get on with the rest of our busy preparations for Wednesday.

    FOI 1A EMBROIDER, but that was because I know a professional embroiderer so the word is very familiar!

    LOI 16A, BEATEN, but that was a guess: I am not sure about Beaten = Stamped, but it was the obvious answer.

    Am I alone in seeing a post election theme? Not just REPRESENT and LEGISLATE, but a TEDIOUS campaign with politicians who EMBROIDER the truth, MUGs who vote for them and (depending on your views) a DISAPPOINTING result with a LARGE majority for some while others were BEATEN. And I shall pass no comment on whether any of the candidates were BIGOTs…

  9. A nice stroll around the grid with lots of easy markers. Still a few chewy ones and I ended up at 2.9K. I quite liked MARKETING, EXPECTORATION and REPRESENT. EXTOLLER raised a smile. Thanks to Joker and Jack. John M.
  10. 10:13 here.

    I really enjoyed this puzzle!
    EXTOLLER, EXPECTORATION, LEGISLATE, MARKETING and ITCH tickled me and I also appreciated the Trumpian sad.

    Thanks to Joker and Jack

  11. I was heading for a PB but lucked out with my LOI 16a BEATEN which held me up for nearly a minute more. I biffed it as I wasn’t convinced of the double definition. I too missed the hidden at 10a LARGE so that was another biff which I failed to parse after submitting in 7:26. Thanks jackkt for the blog and Joker for a doable QC.
  12. I always enjoy Joker puzzles. They make me chuckle. I especially liked 1, 11 and 13 down. Like many here, my LOI was 16 across. The whole puzzle took me 15 minutes but 5 of those were spent trying to work out that last clue. Again, following the lead of others posting today, I did not see the hidden in 10 across but knew that it was right. I did ponder whether “larch” was some kind of poplar and whether both that and “gets” were being “cut down”. As to 6 down, as an English teacher, the answer is a trigger word for distress that no amount of mince pies can assuage. Merry Christmas, everybody. Thanks to Jack and Joker.
    1. Sorry… Meant the part of the clue that referred specifically to the “after-hours activity ” part of the clue. Involuntary shudder.
      1. Agreed! “Moonlighting”, “Midnight Feasts” and a host of other after hours activities came to mind.

        When the penny finally dropped it made me chuckle.

  13. I did want the rogue in 15d to be Del ( as in Del boy)… Oh well.

    I agree that this was a nice, approachable puzzle and a nice start to the week (one in which we will lose one QC due to Dec 25th).
    I forgot to parse 6d and didn’t see the anagrind in 8a – I don’t think I’ve seen that one before.

    MERs for the odd definition at 16a and, as others have said, the grammar in 4d – my LOI, as it happens.

    No time as I did it over lunch on paper but probably less than 30 mins, so not a bad day for me. Thanks to Joker and Jack for the blog.

    1. In keeping with tradition since 2014, a QC (#1512) will be available on-line on Christmas Day. There will also be a 15×15 for those interested.
  14. ….which took 88 minutes to complete a 64 minute scheduled journey. I think I broke 5 minutes, but couldn’t parse LARGE. Lack of WiFi (Warrington is the land that Time forgot, and I blame Time not one jot not for that omission) means I’m entering this five hours later. Therefore what has been said about the clumsy and DISAPPOINTING 4D needs no embellishment from me.

    FOI EMBROIDER
    LOI LARGE
    COD RETSINA (certainly nastier than most drinks !)

  15. Started this late due to Xmas travel and completed it in about 45 mins (which was fairly slow based on recent attempts)

    Overall, I didn’t think it was too difficult either. Oddly, the thing that made me think on 4dn wasn’t the “put into the post” but whether “disappointing” = “sad”. For some reason I don’t always equate the two together. The rest of the hold ups were in the NE corner and 16ac “Beaten”.

    FOI = 10ac “Large”
    LOI = 16ac “Beaten”
    COD = 14ac “Expectoration”

    Thanks as usual.

  16. A very slow 26mins, with a good 5 of those trying to sort out the anagram in 4d… I can always be relied on to complicate even the most simple of clues. I have half (1/4?) an excuse that, as others have mentioned, the grammar doesn’t really fit a present participle, but I should have seen what was going on a lot quicker. Overall, a friendly enough QC from Joker, with 23ac, Legislate, my favourite today. Invariant
  17. Evening all! I actually did this in the morning before tackling the shops – I think we have enough food to last us till Thursday, when the shops open again 😉

    An nice, friendly puzzle from Joker, with lots of his trademark humour. I couldn’t agree more with his definition of Retsina! But, as has been said, disappointing was a bit confusing.

    FOI Embroider
    LOI Beaten
    COD Retsina
    Time just under 11 minutes

  18. Is there another taste that is so redolent of place that retsina and a remote Greek island? I go, I drink, I can do no other.

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