Times Quick Cryptic 1656 by Izetti

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

At 8:04 this solve was 1 second faster than yesterday’s which was generally considered to be an easy start to the week.

Lots to enjoy. With a fair smattering of question marks, I’ve been trying to sort out definitions by example – DBE. These are where the definition is not a synonym of the answer and may be an example or sub-type of the answer. I’m sure our regular posters will sort me out and I look forward to all comments.

ACROSS

1. Medical practitioner dwelling by old track (9)
HOMEOPATH – dwelling as a noun (HOME), old (O), track (PATH).
6. Energy of half a dozen maidens (3)
VIM – half a dozen in Roman numerals (VI), maidens (M). Although it’s just one M, the surface needed the plural.
8. Peculiar stone associated with mountains (7)
STRANGE – stone (ST), mountains (RANGE).
9. Rope, see, that is tied around donkey (5)
LASSO – see (LO) around donkey (ASS).
10. Dilapidated postwar sheds: they’re there to help workers (4,8)
SHOP STEWARDS – anagram (dilapidated) of POSTWAR SHEDS.
12. Drink noisily, not quietly? That brings disparaging comment (4)
SLUR – drink noisily (SLUR)p – not quietly (no P).
13. Old animal set about Mexican food (4)
TACO – old (O) and animal (CAT) set about – backwards. Not too many four lettered Mexican foods? Go on – tell me if there are.
17. Confused daughter is taken to gig by boy (12)
DISCONCERTED – daughter (D), is (IS), gig (CONCERT), boy (ED). ‘Taken to’ and ‘by’ are positional instructions.
20. Religion for Marx shows nothing holy? Let me think now! (5)
OPIUM – nothing (O), holy (PI – pious), let me think now (UM). The ever changing kaleidoscope of language has turned so that younger generations use ‘like’ as their filler word rather than ‘um’. Unless it’s moved on again and I’ve missed it. I do think it must be exhausting to be young these days as everyone seems to be excited or super-excited to do reasonably normal things. Oh yes, forgot to mention – Marx’s quote ‘Religion is the opiate of the people’ is, apparently paraphrased and misinterpreted. Here’s the real truth from Wikipedia (so it must be right): The full quote from Karl Marx translates as: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”. Often quoted only in part, the interpretation of the metaphor in its context has received much less attention. So, now we know.
21. Schemer heading off with yen for risky operation (7)
LOTTERY – schemer with its heading letter missing p(LOTTER), yen (Y).
23. Youngster‘s little drink (3)
TOT – double definition.
24. Soldiers getting dealt with for having withdrawn from battle? (9)
RETREATED – soldiers (RE), dealt with (TREATED). I think this is a DBE and that question mark shows that withdrawal from battle is one example of retreating – the tide can also retreat.

DOWN

1. Army entertainer (4)
HOST – double definition – although if an army entertainer can also be described as a host then this would also be a cryptic definition.
2. Officer in boggy land by a lake (7)
MARSHAL – boggy land (MARSH – I tried for ‘fen’ for a while), a (A), lake (L).
3. Individual to confess (3)
OWN – double definition.
4. Warnings from realist sadly I ignored (6)
ALERTS – anagram (sadly) of REALiST – without the ‘I’.
5. Stand up, getting dreadful row halted (4,5)
HOLD WATER – as in an argument/solution – anagram (dreadful) of ROW HALTED.
6. Victor is leading soldiers – his face showing through this? (5)
VISOR – victor (V), is (IS), soldiers (OR – ordinary ranks). Another DBE?
7. Tom is a violent Communist (6)
MAOIST – anagram (violent) of TOM IS A. Not much else to be done with all those vowels.
11. Queen entertained by quiet old actor? (9)
PERFORMER – Queen (ER) inside quiet (P) and old (FORMER). The third DBE?
14. The French fellows in court showing mercy (7)
CLEMENT – the in French (LE) and fellows (MEN) inside court (CT).
15. A doctor with occupational therapy, one bound to be skilful (6)
ADROIT – a (A), doctor (DR), occupational therapy (OT) with one (I) bound inside. OT is a new acronym abbreviation to me.
16. Old bed accommodating the Spanish cat (6)
OCELOT – old (O) and bed (COT) accommodation ‘the’ in Spanish (EL). I’ve seen ocelot many a time in crosswordland but have never before looked it up – one benefit of blogging. It’s a feline mammal inhabiting the forests of Central and Sout America having dark-spotted buff-brown coat.
18. Relations in street unable to spend any money?
SKINT – relations (KIN) inside street (ST). So here we have another question mark but I don’t think it’s a DBE and I’m not sure what it’s doing there – except to confuse me – which is Izetti’s prerogative!
19. Last bit of puzzle you had looked at (4)
EYED – puzzl(E), you had (YE’D).
22. Letter said to offer little support (3)
TEE – homophone of the letter T. Tee also appears in column 8.

49 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1656 by Izetti”

  1. Steady solve with some clues needing thought before the penny dropped, eg 17a. Finished spot on our 30m target, so happy with that being Izetti.
  2. …as a medical practitioner? I think that is a bit like clueing “astrologer” as “astronomer”, at least as far as most doctors are concerned. Is it me, or is Izetti getting easier? Hope that doesn’t encourage a real stinker for the next one!
  3. Completed this in fits and starts with plenty of pauses for thought in between. I didn’t find it as easy as some contributors obviously did. However a nice puzzle and I got there in the end.

    FOI – 6ac VIM
    LOI – 21ac LOTTERY (I was another that considered LANNERY and then of course couldn’t get it out of my mind)
    COD – 7dn MAOIST mostly due to the mental image the clue conjured up.

  4. I decided to try the (revolutionary) technique of actually moving on to the next clue when the answer wasn’t immediately obvious (eg my stab at Houseman for 1ac didn’t fit – or parse for that matter) and was rewarded with an 18min Izetti solve, so definitely worth trying again. Thoroughly enjoyed this, especially as I had to subsequently explain how CoD 15d, Adroit, worked to Mrs Invariant (definitely one back after yesterday’s shaming with Caprice). I knew the last bit of the Marx quote (thanks for the rest, Chris), so 20ac was a write-in, which I then ruined by stopping to parse. Old habits die hard. A very enjoyable puzzle from start to finish. Invariant
    1. I always move on if I can’t get an answer – focussing on any clues with a crossing letter (preferably a start letter). It’s much quicker but you have to be careful with biffing – much more tempting when you have a few crossers and think of a word which fits!
      1. Ha! That’s why I prefer to parse as I go along: some of my biffs are truly shocking.
      2. Like Chris, I always move on if I can’t see the answer as a) getting checkers and b) letting your subconscious mull it over while you are solving other clues helps. I usually make sure I parse the answers before stopping my clock, but sometimes I wait until after when they appear obvious. A huge number of 15×15 solvers today were caught out by biffing a clue. Good rule of thumb – if you can’t work out how your answer fits the wordplay, you’ve probably got the answer wrong.
  6. … which is STRANGE as i often find Izetti quite chewy. But 10:30 for all green and only 3D Own not parsed satisfactorily. How can you not parse a 3-word clue with a 3-letter answer, you ask? To which I can only say I struggle to see own = individual. Reading others’ comments I see I am not entirely alone, but we are clearly in the minority so I accept the majority verdict.

    That apart, a very nice puzzle and COD to 19D Eyed, if only for the unusual use of ye’d for you had.

    Thanks to Chris for his blog.
    Cedric

  7. I remember working with the MOD and even they laughed about the number of TLAs which were ubiquitous.
    Notwithstanding doing the QC since the start what is DBE?
    About 20 mins today. Please with that after almost nothing on the first read.
    Johnny
    1. DBE – definition by example. If you look at the glossary – top of this page on the right – there are lots more!
      2. I googled it and was taken aback by one of the “urban” definitions offered. I knew it couldn’t be Dame of the British Empire but found the answer where you said.
  8. Hold Water was the trickiest for me but LOI was Opium where I just remembered Pi in time.
    Somehow they all just dropped in very nicely. Hesitated at Ye’d for eyed but moved on.
    Danced all round the grid on this one and steadily back to Homeopath for POI.
    Thanks all,
    16 mins for me and an Izetti can’t be bad.
    John George
  9. Not sure what I did with my copy of this. I may have used the other side of the page for my shopping list. (Sacrilege, I know). I neglected to comment earlier and probably not a lot I can add at this stage. I remember enjoying OPIUM. Maybe too late for anyone to notice, but for fans of The Don, he also provides today’s Guardian (as Pasquale). Not too difficult if you’ve got to grips with his style. What with the Mephisto on Sunday that’s 3 Dons in 3 days for me. 4:07 for this.
    1. I’ve started doing the Guardian puzzle as well recently and finished todays. Interesting to note that both Times and Guardian solvers thought that the puzzle seemed easier.

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