Vanilla? Chewy toffee? Tutti Frutti? Neither, but a pleasant enough picnic. Times 25727

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A rather exciting sub-10 for me, and even then I wasn’t the first on the board having started at midnight local time. I’d like to suggest there’s a bit of an outdoor party theme trying to make itself felt here, with some browned bread, quite a lot of butter, a roll perhaps from Geneva, some wotsits, a wine waiter in attendance and the traditional contents of a teapot. There is also a plague of insects, the inevitable fate of a picnic, especially one close to a trout (and amphibian) river.
What’s really tricky about writing this sort of intro is the avoidance of actual answers so that people who glance at the blog before proceeding to the crossword don’t see any spoilers. So perhaps it’s better if I just get on with it.

Across
1     MOSQUITOES  Moses the leader of the early Israelite nation, not unconnected with 1d, surrounds an anachronistic
      capital, Quito, for troublesome flies. The wordplay forces the optional -es ending.
6     SARI  Appositely hidden in AmritSAR, India.
10   NEMESIS was a Greek goddess before she became the worst ever Star Trek movie. A doubly-indicated anagram of Meissen
11   COHABIT  Coho is one of the 375 words for salmon you may need here but nowhere else. Cut one letter add A BIT from
     “somewhat”, and be a “bidie-in”
12   AVERTABLE  State=AVER crops up often enough. TABLE is your organised data collection, together they give avoidable
13   UTTER Straight double definition. If you’re not sure of UTTER=without any qualification, I refer you to the excellent 1970’s
      book on Bristol dialect, Krek Waiter’s Peak Bristle, which essays “Saul a nutter’s candle”
14   SWISS  Famous Swiss may well be outnumbered by famous Belgians, but (William) Tell features as an example. Front ends of
      Striking Workers If Stoppage’s Suspended..
15   DISCHARGE Release the literal, made up of D(uke) and an anagram of HIS GRACE. Quite neat.
17   FOREARMED  Nest EAR=organ in FORMED=arranged. You have been forewarned, so no excuse.
20   RIVET  Split gives you RIVE, add a little T(ime) and you have join together, hopefully better than the plates on the Titanic.
21   TOAST  Here’s (to) the “browned bread”. Warm (verb, here) from T(emperature) in front of OAST, a kiln for drying hops.
23   FERMANAGH Two separately indicated anagrams of FRAME and HANG for the NI county
25   PALERMO  Friend=PAL and an anagram of ROME, for the capital of Sicily
26   INITIAL  A double definition, first and signal agreement with your initials. Two or three? W. P. U. J. C. Vass, Sri Lankan
     cricketer, might cavil.
27   NEWT  Proverbially p-ssed as a, Like frogs, newts go through a legless tadpole stage.
28   DISENGAGED  Definition “unattached”, formed by D(aughter) IS ENG(lish) and AGED. A relatively rare outing for English
     being not just E.

Down
1   MANNA  Back to Moses. The surprising but not impossible white flakes that were sustenance of a sort for the Exodus
     Israelites. Means “What is it?” in Hebrew. Turned up on my watch 4 weeks ago, almost identically clued with (Thomas)
     Mann and A article
2   SOMMELIER  French and posh English for a wine waiter, anagram of SMILE MORE indicated by falsely
3   UNSATISFACTORY  Setter perhaps just asking for witty comments with this in an easy sort of puzzle. Anagram of AS UNITS
     and attached to FACTORY
4   TEST BED  As used for example for experimental jet and rocket engines (I lived near Handley Page in my youth). TEST is a
     river dedicated to trout fishing, and  features in Watership Down. Like any river, it has a BED at the bottom.
5   ETCHERS  William Blake my favourite. They often produce pictures. And so on gives ETC, belonging to female HERS.
7   ABBOT  A B(ishop)X2, plus O(ld) T(estament
8   INTERSECT  Cross the definition. SECT=religious group, place INTER=put in ground before.
9   THOUGHT READING  However=THOUGH, putting one’s foot down=TREADING. Split 7,7 for telepathy.
14  SAFETY PIN  I’m pretty sure something very similar to this clue has turned up in a Christmas cracker. No more than
     cryptic-ish definition
16  REVEALING  REV=Minister, EALING is London W13 and some other postcodes, together “discovering” in a rather old
     fashioned sense..
18  MAFIOSI Sicily again, and its criminals, an anagram of IF I AM SO. Omerta forbids further disclosure.
19  DORMICE  Legendary dozy animals that occupy teapots in Wonderland. DO=clean, RM=room, ICE=reserve. “Kept in” only
     there to make sense of the sentence.
22  AGLOW  “Shining” AG=silver, LOW=base.
24  HOLED  Double definition, what a sinking ship is and what a successful golfer did.

52 comments on “Vanilla? Chewy toffee? Tutti Frutti? Neither, but a pleasant enough picnic. Times 25727”

  1. Nothing much to report here. (Amazed, as so often, that Zab can say so much!) Wondered about “did sink” at 24dn until the stick-and-pebble reference twigged.

    LOIs lane: 1dn and 1ac. Perhaps a lack of Hebrew knowledge on my part? Though there’s almost a GOYIM taunting me to learn more in the 12th row of unches.

  2. Nice blog, thx. A fast time here, too, though my fast means circa 30 minutes, not sub 10. I’d quibble that mosquitoes aren’t flies, and that revealing isn’t discovering, but that would be picky picky picky, and more to the point I can’t complain that lack of precision slowed me down any. I did think there were rather a lot of anagrams and partial anagrams, some clever but not overly well disguised.

    Edited at 2014-03-06 02:42 am (UTC)

  3. 8:04 .. dithered over HOLED at the end before the putt dropped, at which point I realised it was rather ingenious.

    SARI may rate as easy, but it’s a beautiful clue.

  4. 18 minutes. Didn’t know ‘coho’, though that didn’t hold me up. If people don’t know the county in Ulster/Norden Irn, that may hold then up…LOI ETCHERS.
  5. Quick for me too, which means, as it does for Paul_i_L, about 30 mins or so.

    DNK COHO, and didn’t get the golf ref at HOLED (no surprise there), but all others ok.

    LOI MOSQUITOES which unaccountably held me up for a few moments at the end.

    Edited at 2014-03-06 04:04 am (UTC)

  6. About 15 mins. I live in California and if you go to the supermarket Coho salmon is one of the options, not just something that shows up in crosswords (whereas I’ve never see any IDE for sale)

    And why is QUITO anachronistic? It is still the cpaital of Ecuador (and, trivia fact, the highest capital in the world)

    Edited at 2014-03-06 06:06 am (UTC)

    1. “Moses led the Children of Israel up into an high mountain, and said unto them
      Behold, the great city of Quito, highest of all great cities, of the house of Quitu, which shall be great in the land of Ecuador
      And the people, with one accord, said unto Moses, sorry mate, nothing to see here
      And Moses did say unto them, yea, but wait but two and a half thousand years and ye shall see the foundation thereof and its earliest days
      And the people did say unto him, verily, thou speakest of a time beyond our imagining, for lo, we did think two score years was a long time to be hanging about in the wilderness.
      Of a surety, we will all be long gone before this city is even a twinkle in a Conquistador’s eye”

      That anachronism.

  7. 21 minutes fully parsed, so I may well have achieved an almost unheard of sub-15 if I’d gone for it – maybe even a PB if I could be sure of my target time for that.

    Anyway they don’t come much easier than this and I’m afraid, following on from yesterday’s sub-30, this does not bode well for my return to blogging tomorrow.

    88 comments here on Monday, 90 on Wednesday! I’ve never seen so much activity on such easy puzzles, whereas Tuesday’s stinker only attracted 55. By these standards I’m expecting 100+ today, which I don’t recall ever being achieved before.

    I just realised I wrote all this without reference to a single clue because none of them inspired me to say anything about them.

    Edited at 2014-03-06 06:37 am (UTC)

  8. A PB on the iPad and would certainly have been an all-time PB if I was writing them in the paper. Nothing really to say; they just went in.
  9. I read ‘kept in reserve’ as an instruction in a down clue to put DO+RM ‘on ICE’.
  10. Early start for me and a rare sub 15 at 13.12 which is I think a PB so need to be at it sooner more often. Thx for the detailed blog which explained some I had just bunged in. Happy day after so many abject DNF!
  11. Back to Monday territory today with answers flying straight in until I was delayed slightly by MANNA and MOSQUITOES pushing me beyond 10 minutes.

    I can’t remember having two sub-15 minutes in a week before so either it’s unusual to have two such offerings so close together or I’m improving. I hope it’s the latter!

  12. 10m. No hold-ups today, although there were some things I didn’t know about MANNA and NEMESIS, and I wouldn’t have been able to spell FERMANAGH without the anagram fodder and checkers. I had 19dn like ulaca.
    1. How on earth can you say such dismissive things, every day, Jim? Look at 15ac, one of a number of brilliant clues today. As good as it gets..
      1. Well said and about time somebody did. Many of us enjoy finding a puzzle which we can virtually finish in half an hour or so (I had other more important things to do and left 3 unsolved in the NW corner). The high-handedness of a small number of the commentators on here lets the delightful majority down. I agree about 15, and I thought 6 across was charming. As a W1-ite during the week, not sure that Ealing is properly part of the capital and as a Hampshire person, enjoyed 4 down also. PS I have 4 initials
      2. Well said, Jerry. There’s nothing wrong with easy puzzles, and this one had some nice touches.
  14. Well done all you speedsters! I was just happy to complete one unaided even if it did take me over an hour. Had to come here to understand COHABIT. Thanks for that.
    1. Bet you got at least as much pleasure completing this in an hour or so as Magoo did in the 3½ minutes it took him. While this site is “Times for the Times”, all times are relative. Magoo may well have been slightly disappointed! It took me much longer to blog than to complete (recalcitrant fingers), but I enjoyed both.
  15. Certainly the fastest I’ve ever finished (hour and a bit) so pleased with that, albeit this was clearly at the easiest end of the spectrum.

    As a newcomer to this magnificent obsession, it’s interesting to me just how broad that spectrum is – particularly comparing this offering with the last two days (which left me utterly floored). One day you are taking on Real Madrid, the next day it’s Taunton Town with a few key players missing.

    Would be fascinated to learn of any insights into whether the varying degrees of difficulty are deliberate (I assume they are), what is regarded as “difficult enough” to get through the gateway and onto our plates etc.

    And thanks for a great blog. Had not understood COHABIT (clearly need to expand my salmon-related lexicon).

  16. 10 mins. I also finished with the MANNA/MOSQUITOES crossers. Anything else I was going to say has already been said.
  17. 14 min: LOI MANNA, but only because I usually after going through clues in order, my next step is to work back from the SE corner to fill as many undone as I can.

    Initially pencilled ORATE at 13 (O ‘without any’ RATE ‘qualification’) but that was clearly wrong as soon as I went on to the downs, so no time lost there.

  18. 30/30 today in 2h 51m on and off.
    FOI Abbot, LOI Mosquitoes.
    Agree with Sotira that Sari is a gem of a clue, albeit a gimme.
  19. Although this was relatively easy (6:45 for me) I would like to pay tribute to what I think are quite exceptional surfaces. 24D was probably my favourite, but I also enjoyed 14A, 22D and many others. I prefer this type of puzzle to an ordeal.

    Tom B.

  20. Sub 40 minutes for me I think (I never time myself) so one of my better efforts. A remarkably easy puzzle, but enjoyable.

    Sorry to be a fusspot but for an Indian 6ac is a no no, though I agree it is a nice clue. Amritsar is, of course, in Punjab and the Punjabis do not wear saris, they wear what is called a Punjabi dress or Salwar Kameez. After Mrs. Gandhi (a sari donning Hindu) ordered the Indian troops to storm the Golden Temple in Amritsar (an action for which she paid with her life) feelings against Hindus in Amritsar was so strong that for years no one dared wear a sari as this identified them as Hindus. It may be different today as fortunately these things don’t languish in the memory.

    On a completely different note, I am aware that a number of folks on this site are Australians and as a neutral want to congratulate their team after yesterday’s incredible effort at Newlands.

    Nairobi Wallah

    1. This is why I love this site!

      I’m going to take my life in my hands and, based on several minutes of experience, beg to differ.

      I Googled “Should I wear a sari in Punjab?” and the issue of religious affiliation didn’t seem to come up at all. Mostly the discussions I found were based on what looked “cutest”. As you suggest, NW, things appear to have moved on.

      This conversation, started by Preeti (16), gave me great joy, especially the comment from “Mr Sam” who says that at 16 the best advice is to forget about what to wear and stay at home.

      Link: http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080529174056AAEMCke

      Other conversations I found were mainly concerned with what was ‘age appropriate’ and with the need to ensure that you knew what you were doing when tying a sari before venturing out in public. Apparently they have a tendency to fall off, which would definitely turn heads (and not just in Punjab).

      1. Hi Sotira,

        Do you know it never occurred to me to google, Should I wear a sari in Punjab!! But I did the next best thing and popped into the office next door where a Punjabi woman runs a travel agency. She has just been to the Punjab (Jalander not Amritsar) for a wedding. (As an aside, I have long held the theory that if weddings ever go out of fashion in India then the whole Indian economy will collapse!). Anyway I asked her if she would wear a sari in Amritsar and her answer supports yours.

        She remembers the Golden Temple tragedy vividly as she was in India at the time (another wedding!!) and the fact that at the time the Indian Government had issued a travel advisory to anyone traveling to the Punjab to travel only if necessary and under no circumstances wear a sari. Now, however, all that has happily passed from the national memory and she tells me that Amritsar even has shops selling saris. What a good thing it is that we forget some of these tragedies and move on.

        So in summary I accept your challenge and withdraw mine.

        And yes it is a great site, which is why I come here every day.

        Kindest regards

        Nairobi Wallah

        1. Incidentally, I followed up your link to Google answers. Isn’t it interesting that there are still some people saying sari is not Punjabi, salwar kameez is Punjabi and that she should wear the salwar for this mela that she is going to.

          NW

          1. Absolutely. But it is a relief, really, to see that the most heated debates seem to be about decorum and fashion, and whether either salwar kameez or sari is ‘overdressing’ for a young girl (except at parties).

            An Indian wedding is high on my list of “must do one day”.

    2. Assuming you’re prepared to accept that Amritsar is in India, there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with this clue provided you separate the definition (“Something worn”) and wordplay (“in Amritsar, India”). It’s quite possible that the setter chose the wordplay deliberately in order to throw experts like you off the scent.
  21. 7 mins, the NW causing the most trouble. I enjoyed it despite the couple of quibbles mentioned further up the page.
  22. Do we deduce that the new editor is getting rid of his stockpile of “Monday morning” crosswords, so as to feed us only with solid fare later on?

    Lightning quick for me today, under 15 minutes, even with my usual ticking off and parsing as I go on. But with one wrong: INTERCEPT for INTERSECT – parsed INTER + CE (CofE=religious) + PT (part=group). Ah well, INTERSECT far superior.

    Didn’t know COHO, so one unparsed, which would have made it a DNF (my rules) anyway. FOI SARI, LOI HOLED, and COD DORMICE for reminding me of a famous tea party.

  23. 20 minutes. Enjoyed the feeling of speed and this time only got briefly held up in SE. 9dn didn’t take too long and then the puzzle finished rather like water leaving the bath?! What a wonderful feeling. As mentioned above the range of solving times (and highly intelligent humour) on this site is it’s attraction. I can only marvel at quite what it’s like to be in the sub 10 minutes crew. Maybe it’s like pro-golfers who get grumpy if scoring over par?
  24. 9:08 with coho unknown and the niceties of holed overlooked, so thanks for the enlightenment.

    I agree with the “on ice” treatment but that’s an expression that always leaves me a bit uneasy given that, when applied to champagne, it sort of takes on the opposite meaning of what is intended.

  26. First time in a couple of years that I’ve solved online, as usually I take a printout to do on the train, so I was very pleased with my 5:58, especially as I started typing in the wrong place a couple of times. It felt very easy today but I’m still amazed at Mark Goodliffe’s 3:31.
  27. 35 minutes, with the last 5 trying to figure out 1 down and 12 across. Could have been perhaps 5 minutes faster if I’d tried harder. Brought back memories of visiting the catacombs in Palermo many years ago. Rather sobering.
  28. 15:12, which is good for me. Parsed everything apart from COHABIT, never having heard of a coho. The only collective noun I know for salmon is “buffet”.

    Liked SOMMELIER and MOSQUITOES.

    Slow day here – so much so that one of my esteemed colleagues had to resort to injuring himself using a patient hoist. The NHS was a lot safer when we left the heavy lifting to 4ft10 Filipino nurses.

  29. About 15 minutes, no hold ups. No real comments either. LOI was DORMICE because I had forgotten about the sleeping part. Regards.
  30. I never time myself either, partly for the simple reason that I have never ever sat down and finished a Times cryptic in one session …
    … until, that is, today! So I must either be getting a bit better or this was the easiest (or most sympatico)of puzzles I’ve attempted over the past few years.
    For what it’s worth, retrospective consideration of circumstantial evidence suggests I took between 10 and 15 minutes.
    Robert
  32. 4:54 for me, pleased at finishing in under 5 minutes (quite rare for me nowadays, particularly since I’ve taken to checking my answers very carefully).

    I boggled a bit at FOREARMED, having got it into my head that the “organ” was ARM (doh!), and at DORMICE, wondering why a DORM should necessarily be clean (doh again!), but apart from that things went pretty smoothly.

  33. Not quite as swift as Monday, but good by my standards.
    As others have said, an easy puzzle for experienced solvers, but encouraging for newer or more pensive ones, so many congratulations to those who have completed for the first time, or more speedily than usual. It’s not how quickly you solve that matters, only how much enjoyment you experience, and different folk get their crossword pleasure in different ways.

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