Times Quick Cryptic No 1368 by Izetti

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
A bit easier than average, I’d say, and certainly so for an Izetti: I came in with a bit of change from eight-and-a-half minutes, and that included a minute staring dumbly at 2d, for no particular reason. Nothing much in the way of obscurity, but some typically neat clues – much enjoyed, many thanks to Izetti!

Across
1 Demon going wrong with his excessive pursuit of pleasure (8)
HEDONISM – Anagram (going wrong of DEMON with HIS. Not necessarily an excessive pursuit, although that’s now the usual usage. As originally espoused by Aristippus, however, it was the much more noble aim of deriving pleasure from all circumstances, pleasant or adverse, and exercising control rather than excess.
5 Bird beginning to create racket (4)
CROW – C (beginning to Create) ROW (racket)
8 Huge car may be actor’s reward (5)
OSCAR – OS (outsize = huge) CAR
9 Dish in sink getting in the way (7)
LASAGNE – LAG (sink) getting in LANE (way)
11 Thrown into meanest type of accommodation (11)
MAISONNETTE – Anagram (thrown) of INTO MEANEST. I’d have spelt this with one “n”, but I see both are allowed. How long before an enterprising developer/estate agent comes up with a “luxury mezzaninette”?
13 Cope with time on isle (6)
MANAGE – AGE (time) on MAN (isle of __)
14 Wood in piece of furniture gets dented (6)
BASHED -ASH (wood) in BED (piece of furniture)
16 Girl with quiet speech drying up (11)
EVAPORATION – EVA (girl) with P (quiet) ORATION (speech). As a noun, as in the drying up of a puddle.
18 Coldness of manner of former company head (7)
ICINESS – ICI (former company) NESS (head)
19 Beastly sound nearby — escape finally inside (5)
NEIGH – NIGH (nearby) E (escapE, “finally”) going inside.
20 On loan for a period before Easter (4)
LENT – double definition. Lent, or Lenten, is an old word for Spring, from the Germanic for “long” from the lengthening days.
21 Socialist land gives warning of danger (3,5)
RED LIGHT – RED (socialist) LIGHT (land, as in to alight)

Down
1 Funny person making particular bird sound (4)
HOOT – double definition
2 Mad to continue churning out paper records? (13)
DOCUMENTATION – anagram (churning out) of MAD TO CONTINUE.
3 Men rush in, go berserk in one sort of residence (7,4)
NURSING HOME – anagram (berserk) of MEN RUSH IN GO
4 Bar one type of vehicle (6)
SALOON – double definition.
6 Logical, going against the ideas of left-wingers? (5-8)
RIGHT-THINKING – cryptic-ish hint.
7 Feeble-sounding objectives for periods off work maybe (8)
WEEKENDS – WEEK = weak/feeble “sounding”, ENDS (objectives)
10 Revolutionary Stalin as one evoking horror? (11)
SENSATIONAL – anagram (revolutionary) of STALIN AS ONE. Such as sensationalist journalism, peddling shock/horror/disgust.
12 Noble adult at first involved in risk (8)
IMPERIAL – A (Adult, “at first”) involved in IMPERIL (risk)
15 Lashes out when there is trouble (6)
HASSLE – anagram (out) of LASHES
17 After end of business, building is closed (4)
SHUT – after S (“end” of businesS) goes HUT (building)

30 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1368 by Izetti”

  1. Slow and not that steady progress on this one, made slower by trying COOT at 1d. I typed in MAISONETTE, saw I was one letter short, and dithered for a while before going with the NN. 7:12.
  2. 25 minutes, quite tough with the amount of longer words as Jack mentioned and cleverly disguised anagrams.

    Loi imperial.
    Cod lasagne.

    All the 15x15s have been ok this week.

    Edited at 2019-06-06 05:38 am (UTC)

  3. Can’t agree with Rolytoly, this was the slowest of a slow week at over 26m but at least all green. I might be in a minority though because I’m very, very low on the leaderboard. The slow time is due to the time needing to be taken on every clue rather than any particularly long hold up but MAISONNETTE my COD for surface and misdirection – it took a lot checkers to see it was an anagram. Enjoyed LASAGNE and WEEKENDS too. Good, stretching puzzle – hard but satisfying groans throughout.
    1. I agree – much harder than average – long anagrams can be easy to spot but difficult to solve – while perhaps not too obscure on their own, 12d (imperial) 18a (iciness) connecting meant I couldn’t “biff” either. Thanks to setter for an enjoyable puzzle (though a little easier would be better) and thanks to rolytoly for explanations. DavidS
  4. 9 minutes. The shortage of 4- and 5-letter words added a little to the difficulty but it was mostly plain-sailing. I looked twice at MAISONNETTE with 2 N’s and wondered about ‘dented / bashed’ rather than ‘bashed in’ but both seemed fine after a moment’s reflection.

    Edited at 2019-06-06 05:22 am (UTC)

  5. Was I very slow or was this very difficult? It took me 34:46, my longest time for ages.
    I had a big hold up on my last three: 11a, 9a and 4d.
    I thought the spelling of MAISONNETTE was wrong. I have never seen it with two Ns. However it seemed to be the only word for the anagram fodder. Then I finally saw Lasagne and last of all SALOON. I also thought Sensational was not really about Horror.
    Anyway I got there in the end. Thanks as ever to Izetti and hats off to those who raced through this. David
    1. I also looked twice at 10dn but concluded if horror is a sensation (a feeling or emotion) something ‘evoking horror’ might be said to be ‘sensational’ in that sense. I don’t think it’s quite cut-and-dried, but the question mark at the end of the clue allows some flexibility in interpretation.

      Edited at 2019-06-06 06:54 am (UTC)

    2. Collins on sensational: “causing or intended to cause intense feelings, esp of curiosity, horror, etc”
  6. Seeing Izetti’s name always creates a frisson, equal parts anticipation and dread. Fortunately anticipation triumphed this time, clocking in at 2 Kevins and a Good Day. How does he consistently produce such smooth surfaces?

    FOI and COD HEDONISM, LOI IMPERIAL (iffy definition to my mind – Collins gives 14 definitions for imperial and not one of them is “noble”). Whatever happened to ICI?

    Thanks Izetti and roly

    Templar

    1. Yes there aren’t many occasions where you could swap “imperial” for “noble” in a sentence and keep the same meaning, but I checked it out and was happy with the Venn diagram overlap in the sense of august/magestic. As for ICI, its Wiki page reads like a case study in how not to run a conglomerate!
  7. 14.49 so rated hard on my scale. Didn’t see anagram at 2D so stared for ages and then saw answer but only parsed by reading the blog. We must be due an easy one soon…

    NeilC

  8. I felt this was quite tricky in places but I managed to scrape in under my target time of 15 minutes. At times it felt like a bit of an anagram workout but was no less pleasurable for it, due to the excellent surfaces such as at 1a. Finished with 9a, 11a and 4d.
    Thanks for the blog
  9. I enjoyed this and agree that it was a little friendlier than many by Izetti. I struggled with some but when the penny dropped I realized they were fair enough. I was looking for something more terrifying or horrific than sensational but I suppose the question mark in the clue acknowledges that it might be a very particular use of the word.
    .
  10. An interesting and satisfying puzzle (and, as others seem to agree, not too bad for an Izetti). A few seconds over 2K for me so the best of the week so far. I quite liked LASAGNE, EVAPORATION, and ICINESS. The longer anagrams were good, e.g. MAISONETTE (oops! MAISONNETTE but I, too, have never seen 2 Ns before).
    I had to return to the NW to finish. LOI DOCUMENTATION (after HEDONISM and OSCAR which seem pretty obvious now). Thanks to both, John M.

    Edited at 2019-06-06 09:10 am (UTC)

  11. As I was making quick progress through the puzzle, I glanced at the setter’s name and was surprised to find it was Izetti. I usually find his puzzles trickier but nothing in this one caused much consternation. I found myself typing in MAISSONETTE as a first attempt to fill all the squares at 11a, but it looked all wrong so I quickly changed it to MAISONNETTE. I also wondered about SENSATIONAL, but horror is a sensation, so I moved on. An enjoyable puzzle. 7:49. Thanks Izetti and Roly.
  12. One of my best ever times, although still a relatively long 16 minutes by many solvers’ standards. Indeed, many “slow” solves were half this, but I’m not a sprinter. I found I was able to decipher most of the clues relatively straightforwardly. I wasn’t sure “imperil” was a word, but the crossers and context made me risk it.

    LOI: ICINESS – I’m not sure why head = ness, though. Google suggests there is a Ness Head in Scotland. Is this the reason? Is this a well-known usage of ness?

    1. Ness is a very common usage for a headland. Durness Caithness, Loch Ness, Foulness etc etc
  13. ….signalled by the RED LIGHT, and apart from the apparently OK double N at 11A I solved this smoothly.

    FOI HEDONISM
    LOI EVAPORATION
    COD ICINESS
    TIME 4:07

  14. I struggled with this, especially my last two in 4d and 9a. For some reason I just couldn’t see which part of the clues were the definitions.

    And all spoiled in the end by a typo with RIGHT THUNKING

    Thanks for the blog – interesting to know I’ve been doing hedonism all wrong for the last 30 years!

    1. If an ascetic derives pleasure from abstinence, that would make them a hedonist in my book, where they would lead an indistinguishable life from a masochistic sybarite… it all gets very confusing.
  15. I’m surprised 5a made it past the editor. Clueing CAR as ‘car’ in a five letter answer is about as weak as it gets, even for a relatively straightforward QC.

    I liked EVAPORATION, nice surface.

    My thanks as always to setter and blogger.
    5’10”

    1. but isn’t that what makes it difficult because you don’t expect it to be that simple? Certainly I was thinking of all sorts of options before I came up with the obvious!! MM
  16. I would have just about scraped under my 20 minute target if not for my last two LASAGNE and SALOON, which took fully another 10 minutes! Relieved to see that they were the last for many of us…. though I doubt anyone took as long as I did over them! Thanks to setter and blogger.
    FOI CROW
    LOI SALOON (easy once I had LASAGNE)
    COD too many to choose from when the setter is Izetti, but I think I liked 2d best. It resonates with the way we are encouraged to think now….. whilst we continue to print too much! MM
  17. At 30 mins dead, this was my fastest solve of the week so far – can’t believe it was for an Izetti, but there you go. Took some time to spot all the anagrams (and even longer to solve them), and I was also held up by 12d, Imperial and loi Lasagne, but got there in the end. My favourite today was 18ac, Iciness. Invariant
  18. I am definitely still a relative beginner – only really trying for the last two years- and was never an English expert – and no Latin – but managed this completely in 16 minutes so something is clicking in and I thank Izetti for a very balanced QC.
    Still in the esteemed SCC and fairly frequent DNF but this was balanced nicely where checkers fell in on those that I thought would escape me. The long anagrams dropped in nicely.
    Fortunately my son has a website dedicated to Hedonism (he’s a great lad) – (FOI) – thanks for the interesting original definition I will pass that on – and I saw Imperial just before throwing in the towel having not seen the word Imperil for some years – more to put at risk – but I got it.
    So yes great!
    Thanks all,
    John George
    1. I’d say that’s clicking together very nicely. And a website on hedonism sounds interesting – I’d like to check it out!
  19. PS. And probably nobody will see this – how great has Train Tracks been this week ?! My usual 45 seconds has been obliterated!!
    John George
  20. Oops. Rolytoly.
    9a lag = sink. Sag surely?

    But thanks anyway for blog and setter

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