Times Quick Cryptic No 3132 by Pedro

Author   Mike HarperPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Solving time: 9:08

Nothing too tricky it would seem, just took a while to piece it together and fill in the blanks. I suffered a minor eyebrow twitch at 17a where I felt the answer wasn’t the optimum phrase in regular use – see my notes below – and was mildly irked by the seemingly superfluous word at the start of 4d.

On the other hand, I very much enjoyed each of 6d, 13a and 13d and full marks to Pedro for 4d’s wonderful anagram.

Let me know how you got on.

Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. The tilde ~ indicates an insertion point in containment clues.

Across
1 Dairy product person in society fed to pet (9)
CAMEMBERT – MEMBER (person in society) inserted into [fed to] CA~T (pet)
6 Best score at snooker recalled (3)
TOP – POT (score at snooker) reversed [recalled]

‘score’ is a verb here
8 Recalled learning about new record (5)
ENROL – LORE (learning) reversed [Recalled] gives E~ROL – insert N (new)
9 Entertainment for kids by drama writer (7)
PLAYPEN – PLAY (drama) PEN (writer)
10 Time not at school felt unsettled amidst damage (4-4)
HALF-TERM – Anagram [unsettled] of FELT inserted into [amidst] HA~RM (damage)
11 Single copy not initiated (4)
LONE – CLONE (copy) without its first letter [not initiated]
13 Group continue to swing in popular trend (9)
BANDWAGON – BAND (Group) WAG ON (continue to swing)

The meaning of jumping on the bandwagon i.e. “attaching oneself to anything that looks likely to succeed,” is attested by 1899 in the writings of Theodore Roosevelt.
16 Piano melody or two (4)
PAIR – P (Piano i.e. musical notation) AIR (melody)
17 Refused to participate and became prominent (5,3)
STOOD OUT – Mildly cryptic word play

SAT OUT or STOOD DOWN might have fitted the cryptic better, but would not have fitted the definition (nor the enumeration).
20 I note past, present or future could be deeply emotional (7)
INTENSE – I N (note) TENSE (past, present or future)
21 Daughter escaping peril shows passion (5)
ANGER – DANGER (peril) with D (Daughter) removed (escaping)
22 Send back negative information (3)
GEN – NEG (negative) in reverse (Send back)

The only example that I can think of, where NEG is actually used as a short form of negative, is from the world of Citizens Band (CB) radio, where a positive answer to a question might be ‘That’s a Rog’ (i.e. Roger) and the corresponding negative answer would be ‘That’s a Neg’ (i.e. Negative).

I expect I shall, very soon, be inundated with other more obvious examples.
23 Doubtful behaviour is wrong in any ethics (9)
HESITANCY – Anagram [is wrong in] of ANY ETHICS
Down
1 Nursery care avoided by a revolutionary (6)
CRECHE – CARE with the A removed [avoided by a] CHE (revolutionary)

From 13th century Old French cresche, creche “crib, manger, stall”.

The meaning of “a public nursery for infants where they are cared for while their mothers are at work” is attested from 1854.
2 No time for human message from story (5)
MORAL – MORTAL (human) with T removed [No time]
3 Turned tail when collared by new activist (8)
MILITANT – Anagram [Turned] of TAIL inserted into [when collared by] MI~NT (new)

Unusual anagram choice – ‘Turned’ would more often indicate a reversal than an anagram, but the phrase ‘Turned tail’ is in common use, so perhaps makes for a smoother surface reading.
4 One specialist disposing of sixteen twerps? (6,7)
EXPERT WITNESS – Anagram [disposing of] of SIXTEEN TWERPS

‘One’ seems superfluous…

Bravo Pedro for producing this amusing anagram.
5 Warmer weather that cut short start of winter (4)
THAW – THAT without its final letter [cut short] then starting letter of W{inter]
6 Source of hurricane in printing error about storm (7)
TYPHOON – First letter [Source] of H{urricane} in TYP~O (printing error) then ON (about)

Amusingly, at the beginning of its TYPHOON entry, Wikipedia takes the trouble to add the warning ‘Not to be confused with Typhon or Typhoo’. While Typhon was a monstrous serpentine giant, Typhoo is a brand of tea in the UK.
7 Fruit basket appearing in online joke community? (6)
PUNNET – an online joke community might be known as PUN NET (NET being short for network)

One of the best known online communities using a similar naming format was USENET (circa 1980s).
12 I concede accepting negative comment will be foolish (8)
IGNORANT – I G~RANT (concede) containing [accepting] NO (negative comment)
13 Composer plagued by mosquitoes crossing river (7)
BRITTEN – B~ITTEN (plagued by mosquitoes) with R (river) inserted [crossing]

Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
14 Leap year’s subdivision? (6)
SPRING – Double definition, lifting and separating the first two words

The ? seems a trifle superfluous to me.
15 Industry finally supporting shop floor (6)
STOREY – Final letter of {Industr}Y underneath [supporting] STORE (shop)

This is the British preferred spelling. The American spelling excludes the E.

‘supporting’ is apposite as this is a down clue.
18 Musical instrument helping to sustain a group, on reflection (5)
ORGAN – Reverse [on reflection] hidden [helping to] sustain a group
19 Move slowly in church (4)
INCH – IN CH (church)

Today’s chestnut.

 

67 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 3132 by Pedro”

  1. 17:13!

    I found the bottom half of this much easier than the top.
    I don’t have an issue with ‘stood out’ – if you’re in PE class at school and refuse to participate, I would say that you’re standing out.. Standing out of the queue or the activity.

    I always forget the American spelling of STOREY in the NYT crossword. ‘story’ looks so weird to me in the context of building levels.

    I also enjoyed the idea of 16 twerps.

        1. Thank you for asking! No, not a curious tourist (though we ended up being that). No: our younger son (21st birthday while we were there) is studying Russian, which obviously you can no longer do in Russia. And Kaz seems to be the place of choice. Almaty is attractive, so clean! and overlooked by awesome snow-capped mountains, very friendly, delicious food, especially (and most unexpectedly) their chocolate cakes everywhere and of incredibly high quality at the delightful cafes open all day and evening. And it was warm and sunny! (not for much longer, though).

  2. 9:46
    Very slow. I biffed CAMEMBERT, MILITANT, and probably others. PUNNET showed up very recently here, so it was fresh in my memory. I didn’t know ‘neg’ as a word, in CB talk or elsewhere, but it’s common enough as an abbreviation. (I just went to ODE, where I find ‘neg’ as a word meaning ‘(photographic) negative’.)

  3. I enjoyed this more than the 15×15, which I gave up on as the sun was shining and was getting nowhere fast in the lower half. STOOD OUT was my LOI as I couldn’t get ‘stuck’ out of my head despite having an ‘O’ in as the fourth letter. Liked the EXPERT WITNESS anagram. MILITANT took a while to see and had to wait for checkers. Not sure about ENROL/RECORD but I’m sure it’s in a dictionary somewhere. Liked BRITTEN.
    Thanks mike and setter.

  4. Collins has ‘stand out’ – refuse to consent, agree, or comply. I think ‘one’ adds to the surface of 4dn, contrasting one versus sixteen.

    I’ve no solving time to report as I nodded off. No disrespect to Pedro intended; my sleep patterns are all over the place at the moment.

    1. I agree about 4dn. Not strictly necessary for the clue but I read it as a contrast between the value of one specialist and a large number of non-specialists. Reminds me of when I was working as a consultant for a respected company in an organisation that also employed some less than reputable suppliers and one of the customer people said to me, “There’s a reason why you cost twice as much, I’d rather take one of you [XXXX] people than 10 of those [YYYY] idiots!”

  5. 8:20 for a thoroughly infuriating crosswording morning. Nobody’s fault but mine. I believe ‘negging’ was a word in the so-called alt-right ‘scene’ ten years or so ago, referring to intentionally doing someone down so that they would supposedly be keener to win your favour. But even then, ‘to neg’ wouldn’t be swappable for ‘negative’.

  6. 15:51. Slow but I doubt I could have finished in less than 10 minutes even if I’d been more on the ball. I liked MILITANT and the ‘sixteen twerps’ anagram.

    LEAP YEAR seems to be one of those double def + whole clue as def (SPRING is a ‘subdivision’ of a ‘Leap year’ as well as an ordinary ‘year’) clues. I’m not sure how to classify these and it’s probably best just regarded as a double def.

    Thanks to Pedro and Mike

  7. 15.38 sprightly in these parts. Lots to enjoy with quite a few BTP producing a handful of PDMs

    As always the dad jokes are my favourite, so COD to pun net with wag on raising a titter too.

    Thanks Pedro, and John for a couple of the parsings, enrol and organ

  8. Had to pass over four clues before HALF TERM got me going. Struggled to parse the first part of CRECHE and took time to sort out the tense trauma of getting from stand out to STOOD OUT. That made IGNORANCE much easier. All green in 15.03.

  9. 10:39 for me which is about par – nice puzzle with nothing too tricky but seemed to plod my way through. Thanks setter and Mike.

  10. I found the NW tricky but the rest of the puzzle didn’t put up too much resistance.
    Started with TOP and finished with the CAMEMBERT/MILITANT combo in an over average 9.10. COD to BRITTEN.
    Thanks to Mike and Pedro

  11. Nowhere near Pedro’s wavelength today but that is nothing new because he usually takes me to 20(+/-4). I also found a standout DNF in my records.
    The bottom half went in fairly quickly (BRITTEN and HESITANCY ‘STOOD OUT’).
    The top half was a painful crawl despite getting the long down anagram fairly easily (good clue). I shot myself in the foot by writing in POT (what a prat) but finally staggered over the line with ENROL (enrol/record a MER for me) in 25 mins. A (wrong sort of) record on the blog so far today.
    I don’t know why I don’t get on with Pedro; he produces lots of very good clues.
    Thanks for the tussle, Pedro, and for the blog, Mike. Now to explore the wet Norfolk coast with my family.

  12. 18:22 The moral of the expert witness with a punnet of camembert. Ho hum bit of a tasty stinker but I enjoyed it.
    Ta MAP

  13. My time of 12:05 would suggest a medium-difficulty puzzle, but I found it an odd mixture of write-ins and head-scratchers. LONE took a letter search, and GEN went in with reluctance – it had to be that, but not Pedro’s best clue IMO. Like others I am both impressed by and much enjoyed the anagram equation that 16 twerps equals one EXPERT WITNESS, not least as I am currently acting as one in a court case!

    Many thanks Mike for the blog.

  14. I thought this one had some nice clues in it. Enjoyed it very much, and managed a pretty quick (for me) 6:06. Agree about the anagram for 4dn, although I thought the first word did help the surface as I’ve commented above.

    Thanks setter, thanks Mike.

  15. 12:43
    I was halfway through the across clues before getting my first word in, so thought it was going to be a very hard solve, but the lower half was easier.
    LOI was ENROL. COD to BRITTEN.

    Thanks Mike and Pedro

  16. 7.06

    For quite a few, I found myself not seeing the literal straight off and working out the answer from the w/p – for me, the mark of a good crossword.

    Shared Mike’s twitches; agree SIXTEEN TWERPS was very clever but COD to HESITANCY.

    Thanks Mike/Pedro.

  17. Sorry, NW corner “too tricky” for me. That’s the third QC recently in which the hardest have been 1a and 1d. Thanks Mike for the necessary instruction.
    Humph. Person in society = MEMBER: does that refer to an MP?
    Does record = ENROL?
    Golly, MILITANT super-hard. No wonder today was a DNF.

    1. Am ok with MEMBER of society being any one of us..however, am with you on record = ENROL. To me, one may lead to/effect the other, however, not convinced they are synonymous.

      1. I read this not as Society (ie all of us) but society as in eg the local amateur dramatic society, where anyone who is in it is certainly a member.

        1. Isn’t that “person in a society” as opposed to “in society”? Sorry, Pedants’ Corner here.

  18. 18 mins…

    I agree, nothing too complicated but it took a while to untangle. A fair chunk of time was spent on getting my last three clues in the NW corner (2dn “Moral”, 8ac “Enrol” and 3dn “Militant”). Not convinced a Playpen is really entertainment for kids – more a mini prison to dump young children in when the adult was doing something around the house.

    FOI – 6ac “Top”
    LOI – 3dn “Militant”
    COD – 7dn “Punnet”

    Thanks as usual!

  19. 15.32 with stop and start progress.
    Needed blog to fully parse 6D and 12D.
    Agree with JamesED 46, PLAYPEN possibly more of confinement for kids than entertainment : )
    NHO WAG ON = continue to swing – nor of origin of phrase. Interesting, thank you.
    Thanks to Pedro and to Mike Harper

    1. I don’t think WAG ON is actually a phrase, rather a whimsical concoction of the setter, a bit like defining ‘army’ as ‘to do with arms’ (to extrapolate from my favourite crossword clue)…

  20. Nearly gave up on 3d and 8a but then, lo, a PDM with MILITANT confirmed my guess about ENROL.
    Took rather a long time at first as I was chatting to the gardener about the vast carpet of leaves.
    Liked CAMEMBERT, INCH, SPRING, and BRITTEN made me smile.
    Yes, a PLAYPEN is where you dump a crawling baby to keep it from danger, rather than entertainment.
    Thanks vm, Mike. Was not sure about Wag On!

  23. Pretty straightforward, though I thought I remembered Pedro’s being trickier in the past. Perhaps, as appears to be the case, he’s been asked to tone down the difficulty a bit, as many of the chewier setters seem to have become easier and IMO, less interesting as a consequence. Which just goes to show you can’t please everybody…

  24. Found this chewy but fair. My photographer husband used to refer to NEGS, so no problem there. Also initially wondered about ‘one’ in 4D, but on reflection think it improves the surface, making it my COD. Thanks Mike and Pedro.

  25. Bad fail, many missed.

    Started badly with not getting CAMEMBERT at 1a.
    Didn’t understand “wag on” for continue to swing. This is going to be my new insult.
    Blood group O NEG was one example I thought of.
    Couldn’t even unpick the EXPERT WITNESS anagram, in spite of having loads of checkers. The X couldn’t go in many places, but it could make EXPRESS, and that’s as far as I got.

    And yes, for British schools we are bang in the middle of HALF TERM.

  26. 19:35

    A slow but steady solve. Main holdup was the top left. Failed to parse MORAL and LOI ENROL.

  27. 18 minutes, all parsed. I got the first two across clues straight away but the middle section remained a desert until 16ac. Completed from the bottom up where the NW corner offered stout resistance despite having 1ac. No problem with STOOD OUT meaning refused to participate.

    FOI – 1ac CAMEMBERT
    LOI – 11ac LONE
    CODs – 13ac & dn BANDWAGON and BRITTEN. Loved wag on for continue to swing

    Thanks to Pedro and MH

  29. Whipped through nice ride. Thank you Pedro and Mike.
    To “Wag on” for continue to swing made me chuckle.
    My only MER was ignorant = foolish, a professor of astrophysics getting a crush on a 14 year old schoolgirl he met on the bus is foolish, it doesn’t make him ignorant.
    A meaning of enrol is to write (record) someone’s name on the roll. (as in roll-call etc.)
    I think society means e.g. chess society not the establishment.
    POS and NEG used to be stamped on e.g. car batteries.
    By co-incidence I was away in Riga all last week watching the grand-daughters compete in the European Karate championships.
    Riga is a truly beautiful city, wide boulevards, and impressive and varied architecture with hardly a tinge of concrete in sight.

    1. On ignorant/foolish, I had the same reaction as you, but reflected that after all it’s common usage to more-or-less equate them, and only my pedantry that classifies ignorance as nothing to be ashamed of. Riga sounds lovely, glad you enjoyed it.

  31. On wavelength today, from CAMEMBERT (COD – made me chuckle) to HESITANCY in 06:40 for a Red Letter Day.

    I hope that the INTENSE ANGER across the lower grid isn’t a coded message from Pedro about his current mood. Excellent puzzle, regardless. Many thanks to him and Mike.

  32. My thanks to Pedro and Mike Harper.
    I thought it was fairly hard.
    DNF, 11a (c)Lone didn’t occur to me so I hopelessly biffed Sole. Bah!
    Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle.

  33. Another NE start, having drawn an initial blank with 1ac/d. Slow progress thereafter before crossers came to the rescue, especially with CoD Bandwagon. That prompted Ignorant and forced a re-think over Stuck Out, which I had thought was a pretty good match for resited/Refused and Prominent. All sorted in the end, but only just in time to scramble for one of the last few seats. Invariant

  34. Judging by some of the times so far submitted by solvers who are usually speedier than me, I can only conclude that this was a more difficult puzzle than I seemed to make it, finishing in 7.23. Definitely on Pedros wavelength today even after a sluggish start.

  35. I found this fairly monstrous, requiring 26:27 to finally struggle to the end, but I seem to be in the minority so perhaps it’s just me.

    Thank you for the blog!

    1. Only “fairly” monstrous? I found it utterly gruesome, right from the start and never even reached the finish line.

  36. Having yet again marred the Concise with a typo, I took this very carefully and checked each individual answer as I entered it. It worked.

    FOI TOP
    LOI IGNORANT
    COD HESITANCY
    TIME 4:36

  37. Took 29 mins.
    Some answers were entered not fully parsed.
    Much to enjoy. COD for me was BRITTEN.
    Thanks Pedro and Mike

  38. Very nice, worked my way through in 11 minutes. Got held up at the end because I put hesitance instead of hesitancy without really reading the clue, which prevented me from getting storey until I went back and looked at it.

  39. 8.10 On much better form today. CAMEMBERT went straight in at the start. I nearly biffed SOLE before finishing with LONE. Thanks Mike and Pedro.

  40. Found the NW tricky and needed all the checkers for MILITANT and ENROL. I liked the surfaces for THAW and BRITTEN. Many thanks Mike and Pedro.

  41. 10:55 today. We join others in thinking that a PLAYPEN is more of a means of confinement than entertainment unless you consider it to be an infant escape room. On the other hand I loved PUNNET. Thanks, Mike and Pedro.

  42. DNF, but but enjoyed quite a lot, and pleased with my timing on throwing in the towel, as the remaining three clues would never have come to be.

    I cannot claim to NHO PUNNET since apparently it beat me last week too, but surely that was the first time. Certainly NHO CRECHE.

    I was able to learn some new English spellings and phrases on the fly from the wordplay (STOREY, HALF-TERM, etc) but ENROL with one ‘L’ was beyond my wildest imaginings. I am still a little unsettled by it.

    Thanks, great puzzle and write-up!

  43. 14:51 for me, starting with TOP and ending with PUNNET, which I had evidently pushed back into the “won’t need that word again for another decade” section of my brain after dredging it up last week. Liked the punny BANDWAGON best today.

    Thanks to Pedro and Mike.

  44. Slow, slow, quick quick slow for me today, and a dnf as I biffed PANIER for a fruit basket and forgot to go back and see if it parsed. It doesn’t. The cheese and the nursery care went straight in, as did HALF TERM (so few cars on the roads near me this week) and despite SCC and dnf, an enjoyable challenge- thank you setter and blogger!

  45. Think the bitten reference for “plagues by mosquitoes” should have had maybe as you could be bitten by wasps or whatnot.

  46. Many little things slowed me down just a bit, but thankfully I didn’t get stuck, so finished in a decent 11:35. That “uh oh” feeling at the mention of snooker, the British spelling ENROL, the distantly familiar HALF TERM, and an over-all feeling of HESITANCY — excuses, excuses.

    I loved the twerps, but COD to BAND WAG ON. Corny humor wins the day.

    Thanks Pedro and Mike. Old Usenetter here, not that it particularly helped me get the answer.

  47. An absolute shocker! 80-85 minutes, but still a DNF with 3 clues unsolved.

    CAMEMBERT, ENROL and MORTAL defeated me, but virtually every clue required a huge amount of work on my part. It’s simpler, in fact, to list the five clues (only!) that came relatively easily – PAIR, ANGER, GEN, CRÈCHE and THAW. Everything else proved a complete nightmare.

    Pedro’s QCs have become much, much more difficult since I started 5+ years ago.

    Many thanks to Mike for the blog.

  48. 20 mins.

    Thought I wasn’t going to finish for much of the solve. Didn’t enjoy it or learn anything from it, and was frankly lucky not to have one of my nightmare days.

    Attempted the 15 x 15. A mistake. Just 12 clues solved. Way out of my depth (and yet when I look at the blog in a minute most of them will appear simple).

    PS Yes, they were hard but most were gettable. As I have said before, you either have the brain for this or you don’t. It’s like being a natural sportsperson. You can have all the coaching in the world, but you still won’t be as talented as the person with innate ability.

  49. Very slow start going through the across clues until half through and then most were written in quickly.

    Having Stand Out, gave me a very awkward spelling of Ignorant. Couldn’t get Enrol and Hesitancy despite having all the checkers and the anagrist.

    Thanks Mike and Pedro

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