Times Quick Cryptic No 1063 by Tracy

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
I know we bloggers tend to repeat ourselves overly much, but I’m not going to apologise for doing it again here.  This is a lovely crossword puzzle, with some excellent surfaces, hidden subtleties, disguised definitions and pure, concise clueing.  Often, when solving, and in the rush to complete, it is possible for Solvers to miss some of the beauty that lies in the Setter’s art.  Whilst Blogging, we are forced to look back, to understand and explain or account for every word in the clue, and as a result, we are forced to revisit and appreciate these sometimes hidden or under-appreciated gems.  That is why I like to blog, but I wouldn’t want to do it every day!

As examples, look at how cleverly Tracy has hidden the definition in 8a, how succinct are 17a and 2d, and the misdirection in 7d.  Lovely!

This took me 11 minutes to complete, and about 90 minutes to fully appreciate.  Thanks Tracy.

Across
1  Excessively sentimental message shortened(4)
TWEE – The shortened message is a TWEE{t}.  A tweet apparently is a message posted on Face-Twitt or something, which is itself to do with ‘new meejia’ and a worldwide interweb social networking site thing
3  Information given before summit in bureaucratic language (8)
NEWSPEAK – Information given is NEWS with PEAK as the summit.  NEWSPEAK is the language of Oceania in Orwell’s 1984, designed to limit the freedom of thought of the masses, and promoted by the ‘Inner Party’.
8  Perhaps a recital to be broadcast (7)
ARTICLE – Definition by example here, using the indefinite article as the example.  Easy anagram (broadcast) of [RECITAL].  A beautifully hidden definition contributing to this excellent surface.
10  Struggles to accept western opinions (5)
VIEWS – Struggles gives us VIES, into which is inserted (to accept) W{estern}
11  Sergeant Major cultivated?  Rubbish, a know-it-all (11)
SMARTYPANTS – S{ergeant} M{ajor} plus ARTY (cultivated) and PANTS (rubbish).  Reminds me of a funny story about a Regimental Sergeant Major in the Marines that I once worked for, but he still intimidates me after 40 years, so I’ll say no more.
13 Square Italian dish containing anchovies, primarily (6)
PIAZZA – PIZZA (Italy’s most famous dish) containing A{nchovies} (primarily)
15 Timetable information ringed by a District Attorney (6)
AGENDA – GEN is the information, inside (ringed by) A and D{istrict} A{ttorney}
17  Forced, prisoners exercised (11)
CONSTRAINED – CONS are the prisoners and TRAINED serves for ‘exercised’
20  Girl in care, I suspect (5)
ERICA –Anagram of [CARE I] (with suspect acting as the anagrind)
21  A modern resort?  You wish! (5,2)
DREAM ON – Anagram (resort) of [A MODERN].  Resort here is the transitive rather than the intransitive verb or noun, i.e. to change the order of, rather than to have recourse to, or in reference to a ski resort for example!
22 Legendary knight in a cell, not free (8)
LANCELOT – Sir Lancelot du Lac from the Arthurian legend.  Anagram of (free) [A CELL NOT]
23  Reportedly lazy superstar (4)
IDOL – Sounds like (reportedly) IDLE (lazy)

Down
1 Part of church school – one removed faulty step (8)
TRANSEPT – To school is to TRA{i}N (one removed) with an anagram of [STEP] (faulty).  I am led to believe that the TRANSEPT is that part of a church that crosses the nave, or the main part of the building
2  Run more (5)
EXTRA – Two word clue = double definition (invariably).  In this case, it also provides our nearly obligatory cricket reference.  An EXTRA in cricket is a run scored by a means other than the batsman hitting the ball and is also referred to as a ‘sundry’.  EXTRA also means more – think Oliver Twist – “Please Sir!  I want some more / extra”
4  Release former partner, almost lacking emotion (6)
EXEMPT – EX is former partner, and (almost = drop last letter) EMPT{y}.  Empty could mean ‘lacking emotion’, as in having nothing inside.  I’m not entirely satisfied with this, but I think it is right.  To EXEMPT is to release from obligation.
5  Discount kindness as a redeeming feature (6,5)
SAVING GRACE – A discount would be a SAVING, and GRACE a type of kindness.  Put them together and one gets a compensating virtue or redeeming feature (apart from the more specific theological meaning of the phrase).
6  Individual, first off, has me engaged, a US poet (7)
EMERSON – The individual is a {p}ERSON (first off) with ME engaged (inserted).  The answer refers, I think, to Ralph Waldo E., but there are other potential candidates.
7 Peck: his last is first in sequence (4)
KISS – {pec}K (his last), followed by IS (is) and S{equence} (first in)
9  Zimbalist originally wearing necktie in a moving picture (7,4)
CITIZEN KANE – Z{imbalist} (originally) in (wearing) an anagram of [NECKTIE IN A] (the anagrind here is moving, but moving could also serve as part of the definition if doing double-duty) to give the famous Orson Welles debut film / picture.  A Zimbalist is a player of the ‘cimbalon’ – it helps knowing that, doesn’t it?
12 Principal character in a line (8)
CARDINAL – CARD is the character, followed by IN (in) A (a) and L{ine}
14  Movement round university where lots go (7)
AUCTION – Movement gives ACTION (as in the movement of events in a drama, novel, etc. which can be described as the ACTION) and this surrounds (round) U{niversity}.
16  Diligent American leaving for workshop (6)
STUDIO – Diligent gives us STUDIO{us} (American leaving) to leave our answer.
18  Wayfarer with small number on loco (5)
NOMAD – NO (small number or No.) on MAD (loco).  Wayfarer is a traveller, usually on foot, so NOMAD fits the definition nicely.
19  Touch lucky, at first, after charge (4)
FEEL – FEE is the charge ‘after’ which comes L{ucky} (at first)

24 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1063 by Tracy”

  1. Slowish going, even though I biffed a couple–including ARTICLE, thereby missing the cleverness of a really nice clue. Wasn’t sure about EXTRA, but I guessed that it was a run in cricket. I never think of EMERSON as a poet, although of course he did write poems as well, probably the only one anyone can think of being the one about ‘the shot heard round the world’ (and I can’t think of its title). Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. was an actor, probably best remembered, to the extent that he is remembered, as the detective in the TV series “77 Sunset Strip”; so using him for the Z makes the surface all the more plausible. 7:44.
  2. Struggled getting going again today and found myself working upwards through the grid, which is always harder. Very little in the top half leapt out at me so I had to rely on working my way through wordplay and relying on checkers to come up with the answers, eventually completing the grid in 14 minutes.

    EMPTY is certainly not the first word that comes to mind for ‘lacking in emotion’ (that would be ‘cold’) but Collins does have, way down its entry, ‘drained of energy or emotion (after the violent argument he felt very empty)’.

    Thank you for that earworm, Kevin. Altogether now:
    Seventy-seven Sunset Strip (Click Click)
    Seventy-seven Sunset Strip (Click Click)
    Seventy-seven Sunset Strip (Click Click)

    Also the image of Kookie with his comb.

    1. I had actually managed to write that about Zimbalist without bringing to mind the theme song or Edd Byrnes; but now I’VE got the earworm!
  3. This was all a bit rich for my palate and I struggled to get over the line in around 50 minutes. For some reason I had difficulty spotting the anagrinds: thanks to the Rotter for the resort explanation. Didn’t help my cause with chainganged as my answer to 17ac. One of those answers where, a little like my map reading, I convince myself I am in the right place whilst conveniently ignoring blatant clues.

  4. 21:34, though I have to confess to a typo at the end. Some great clues and some nice new words such as “tweet” and “pants” giving those of a younger demographic a bit of balance in a world of “pi”, “it” etc.

    SMARTYPANTS great clue, and a good Britticism I promise to use today.

    My first ever girlfriend was Erica, so apologies to her (wherever she is) for trying to jam “Ceria” and “Arice” in at 20a.

  5. 24 minutes but with genspeak bunged in for 3a! Well it is Thursday.

    Had siss for a while for 7d, and other one that held me up was emerson.

    COD Citizen Kane or cardinal.

    1. I started with GENSPEAK, but couldn’t account for the S and rethought it.
  6. Well, three times my target time….. An excellent puzzle but one to remove any complacency in this solver.
    The blog helped me to reach equilibrium (and appreciate the setter’s skill).
    Thanks to Tracy and therotter.
  7. A very nice puzzle, as Rotter says. Fortunately I’d seen the a as an article device before and wasn’t caught out. Started with TWEE and finished with ERICA, as I suppose Merlin must have done too:-) 8:22. Thanks Tracy and Rotter. Off to see Fingal’s Cave now so there’s another earworm:-) Da da Daa Da…..
    1. I would have thought the finishing was done by Erica if Merlin couldn’t remember her name!!
  8. Built up from the bottom, starting with idol at 23a. LOIs were exempt and cardinal. Can’t explain why cardinal took so long even with all the checkers for ages – but thanks to the Rotter for the explanation of empty in exempt – before a confident biff I’d been trying to persuade myself I had been spelling except wrong all my life (but could parse “cept” as a shortened emotionless either). Good puzzle, good blog, thanks.
  9. I was also toying with GENSPEAK at 3ac – also thought 20ac might be EVITA or ELIZA before noticing anagrind. LOI 4dn, then as over 10 min submitted without typo check, so had one there – I never learn !
  10. A painfully slow 50 mins, and even then I left Genspeak in place for want of the obvious answer. . . The left hand side of the grid wasn’t too bad, but really struggled with a few of the clues down the right. All looks perfectly reasonable now. A little thank you to NtN for yesterday’s primer on pants/rubbish – all help gratefully received. Nice informative blog from Rotter. Invariant
  11. Hard work. An hour and still left with NEWSPEAK. My memory of 1984 is that Newspeak was a propaganda language designed to distort, rather than a bureaucratic language, but OK. I read ARTICLE completely differently to the blogger. I took “perhaps” as the anagrind and an article as something that is broadcast via publication. But I agree, obvious anagram.
    PlayUpPompey
  12. Well, I seem to have bucked the trend – 8:33 is quick for me. I enjoyed it as I went through, then enjoyed the blog which allowed me to further enjoy the puzzle. Am now as sunny as the weather – thanks all.
  13. Another slow solve today until I was left with 3a, where I managed to avoid the urge to put in genspeak and 12d. It wasn’t until I’d corrected an dozy ‘idle’ at 23a that I could finally complete the puzzle in 28.09. 11a made me smile
  14. My wife took the T2 first this morning so I warmed up on the main puzzle; in fact I solved about 10 clues very quickly.
    So I thought this would be easy. But far from it. Lots of challenging clues and I really had to work. LOI was 4d where I could not improve on Exempt. Saw the parsing but did not feel entirely happy. About 25 minutes in total. David
  15. Found this very difficult as I often do with ‘Tracy’. He/she has a knack of picking obscure synonyms to construct solutions that leaves me extremely frustrated at my inability to be on the same wavelength. So this was a grumpy dnf for me. Pexiter.

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