27346 Thursday, 9 May 2019 Keep taking the tablets

Author   johninterredPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
How anyone expects a coherent blog from me this evening after the ridiculously improbable progression of Spurs into the Champions League Final I cannot tell, but I’ll try. I polished this off in 17.09, which is a relief from the last couple of days of extended and faulty solving, but the clues are fine and fair and there is enjoyment to be had. I will leave it to my fellow contributors to reveal the obscurities I didn’t really notice. No Ninas to be found, not by me anyway, though I like the idea of a purloined lift at row 5, the professional scaremonger at row 12, and the recall of the not-all-that-long-ago gee-gee lasagne scandal at column 10.
Three clues involve illegal substances, which is a suspiciously high count, but our setter seems to be uninfluenced by their presence.
I have set forth clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS and hope that my still-spinning wits have not produced too many misprings.
ACROSS
1 Black wood — it shows rot (10)
BALDERDASH I didn’t find the DASH bit of the clue until now. Black gives you the B (none of this KYMC rubbish in the Times) and the wood is ALDER. The – (in plain sight) completes the answer. Sometimes punctuation is important.
7 Move head, given tablet for swelling (4)
NODE Last in. Move head NOD, tablet the (almost invariable) drug of setter’s choice E.
9 Chap’s in a seedy place doing some bonding (8)
ADHESIVE Chap’s (the apostrophe is important…) becomes HE’S (…. but you can drop it now). Insert into A DIVE for a seedy place
10 What’s offered by a letter’s opening and a letter’s opening (6)
RENTAL The Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy to practice rightly dividing the Word of truth, which practice you need here. The iterated phrase in the clue is intended to deceive, but you will put the divide after the first “letter’s”, and then opening gives you RENT, and A Letter’s opening gives you AL
11 Hot, sweet bread without its middle (6)
STOLEN Can’t resist it: this is a genuine Tweet from hashtagrealDonaldTrump 3 days ago
“Despite the tremendous success that I have had as a President, including perhaps the greatest economy and most successful first two years of any president in history, they have stollen [my emphasis] two years of my (our) presidency (collusion Delusion) that we will never be able to get back…” How prescient of the famously illiterate President to point us to our answer.
13 Leave rocky peak, one that goes up and down (8)
ELEVATOR First  anagram (rocky) of the day, using LEAVE and adding TOR for the peak
14 Person picking up drinks, heading for carousal in sister’s place (12)
CONVALESCENT I constructed this from the wordplay before working our what the definition meant. Drinks are/is ALES, heading for carousel obviously C, and sister’s place CONVENT. Assemble sensibly
17 Left gilded vessel in honoured position (12)
LAUREATESHIP L(eft) plus gilded AUREATE plus vessel SHIP
20 Drug made less pure? That’s a blow (8)
UPPERCUT Our setter’s E tablet is (among other things ) an UPPER. If adulterated, made less pure, drugs are CUT. So I’m told.
21 Paper trail from the right higher power (3-3)
SUN-GOD The Times’ dear sister paper as here indicated is the SUN, add DOG for trail reversed (from the right).
22 Youngster to receive support, it’s settled (4,2)
PAID UP Youngster is PUP, “receiving” support AID
23 Worrying individual member is to block VIPs (8)
ALARMIST Member (as in limb) gives you ARM and the VIPs “blocked by ARM are the A-LIST
25 Court favourite spotted making grammatical error? (4)
SEED For court favourite think tennis rather than royal pet. Spotted would be SAW, but might be written as SEED through grammatical solecism
26 Running men out, need close of play? (10)
DENOUEMENT Our second anagram, the crickety phrasing needing no knowledge of cricket. Use the letters of MEN OUT NEED. The denouement in the play is when Poirot reveals the butler did it

DOWN
2  Test car wheel cased in metal (8)
AUDITION The car is an AUDI (other marques are available), the wheel (‘s shape) gives you O, which you place in the metal TIN
3 Outstanding fellow drops off second daughter (3)
DUE (as in owing). The fellow is a DUDE who loses his second D(aughter)
4 Be in power shower, by the sound of it (5)
REIGN Sounds like rain, shower
5 Not getting on, sea legs needing to develop (7)
AGELESS Our third anagram, of SEA LEGS. The definition needs a bit of lateral thinking. But not much.
6 Food that could be made with more haste? (9)
HORSEMEAT Food? “In England, is generally given to the dogs, but in France supports the population”, as Johnson almost said. An anagram, our fourth, indicated by “could be made with”, of MORE HASTE
7 New patron saint almost amazingly fair (3-8)
NON-PARTISAN “Amazingly” anagram 5, The letters you need are N(ew), PATRON and SAIN, which is almost saint.
8 Fierce woman to prove tedious (6)
DRAGON A tedious woman, fierce or otherwise, might DRAG ON
12 Sensible grade by teacher of French is put up (5-6)
LEVEL-HEADED For grade, Chambers gives “an inclined or level stretch of road or railway” as an Americanism, but I’ve met it in the home of railway engineering. Anyway,, it’s the LEVEL version we need, then HEAD for teacher, and ED from the reverse of the French of, DE
15 Place for rocket in a boring meal and stuff (9)
LAUNCHPAD A is boring (into) the LUNCH meal, and stuff(ing)  is all right for PAD
16 Kind of stock car out of energy (8)
LIMOUSIN A kind of cow, for our purposes a fully stretched limo without its E(nergy)
18 After vacation, enliven school board (7)
ENTRAIN  First vacate EnliveN for the EN, then add TRAIN for school, verb rather than noun
19 Work the writer took for something stupefying (6)
OPIATE Our druggy setter indicated yet another mind altering substance as the OP (work) I ATE
21 United supporters turning up in a mess (5)
SNAFU  Situation Normal, All Fouled (other epithets are available) Up. US military slang (see also fubar). U(nited) FANS (supporters) are turned up. The surface has a certain current resonance in Manchester, methinks, but Tottenham’s fans are (believe me) also in an altogether different more emotional kind of mess.
24 Silent film’s ending with sign of uncertainty (3)
MUM An easy finisher: film’s ending is M and UM is the uncertain sign.

32 comments on “27346 Thursday, 9 May 2019 Keep taking the tablets”

  1. I was wondering if I’d finish this until finally some pennies dropped and I twigged to 2d, 21ac, and 16d. (I actually came up with SUN-GOD at one point, and couldn’t make any sense of it.) The only stocks I could think of were preferred and chicken, but with the O finally in place I could see LIMOUSIN. Biffed UPPERCUT, DUE, and of course BALDERDASH, solving post-submission. Liked PAID-UP, ALARMIST, COD to BALDERDASH.
  2. at 1ac was my FOI and gave pause for thought – clever stuff Mr. Setter, and thus a definitive COD

    The rest took 28 minutes, so nothing too worrisome.
    Methink 10ac RENTAL was a rather weak clue, and on the subject of van Rental,
    I notice Ajax were banjaxed! Three-up! Calamity! The team should be sold!
    The final should be a treat!

    LOI 25ac SEED once I’d SEED it!

    WOD 16dn LIMOUSIN

    I notice that 11ac STOL(L)EN chimed with a spelling error made by the mighty POTUS in a tweet earlier in the week. Maybe he was that setter?

    Edited at 2019-05-09 02:26 am (UTC)

  3. I stand corrected re-Phileas Fogg!Thank-you.

    However, I note that Verne supposedly based the character on one Phineas Bogg who he met in Montmartre!

    Phileas is also a men’s Cologne from Nina Ricci – so there was a hint of a Nina in yesterday’s puzzle!

  4. I struggled to complete this, taking forever to unravel the anagram at 6dn (and no wonder with HORSEMEAT clued as ‘food’ indeed!). Lost time after biffing ALARMING at 23ac. STOL{l}EN was my LOI.

    Edited at 2019-05-09 04:44 am (UTC)

  5. A fail for me, as my thoughts on stock were, like Kevin’s, all about finance and gravy. Unlike Kevin, I never got past that. The cow does now ring a bell (ahem).

    Smart puzzle, for sure. Plenty to admire, though SEE’D gets my vote for the smile it brought.

    Edited at 2019-05-09 05:45 am (UTC)

  6. 9:49. Smooth sailing for me this morning, with a fair bit of biffing and nothing holding me up unduly.
  7. Middling-hard for me; 39 minutes, but I’d’ve been nearer a half-hour if I’d known that a LIMOUSIN was a cow or that “aureate” meant gilded. Those two were last in; FOI 1a BALDERDASH; COD 10a RENTAL. Just happy to finish after yesterday’s debacle!

    Now off to write out the spelling of DENOUEMENT a hundred times so it doesn’t come as so much of a surprise to me next time…

    Edited at 2019-05-09 06:47 am (UTC)

  8. A better score for me at last. Nice puzzle and I seemed to be on the right wavelength. Much to like including the dash of 1 ac and the Seed error.

    But COD to CONVALESCENT for the cryptic definition, “person picking up”.

  9. 45 mins (but I’ll explain) with croissant (hoorah) and the delectable G&L Marmalade.
    35 mins of fun left four: the Stolen Audi in the NW and the Alarmist Cow in the SE. 10 more minutes and the job was a gud’n.
    Mostly I liked the Uppercut.
    Thanks setter and excellent blog Z.
  10. That’s football, and it’s not working too well for me at the moment. It’s hard to share the elation of Tottenham and Liverpool supporters while Wanderers are in such a mess, but what a night, what a night! It should be one hell of a final. 32 minutes today with LOI and COD SEED. The definition of CONVALESCENT was neatly hidden too. I was vaguely aware of the cow and the drug, so I was biff-free today. Thank you Z and setter.
  11. Excellent and clever crossword which I really enjoyed. 18 minutes with only three left.I saw the AU but could not transmute to AUREATE. Too many good ones to pick a COD. Thanks Setter and Z8.
  12. Another enjoyable and witty one .. thank you setter.
    I am off to France for the day tomorrow, and can take orders for horsemeat food if required .. buyer to collect from mid-Kent. Plenty of viande de Cheval to be had, au marché

    Edited at 2019-05-09 02:51 pm (UTC)

  13. Another excellent crossword. Thank you setter.

    No problem with HORSEMEAT as food – ate a lot of it when working in France. Liked the “-” at 1A and court favourite for SEED. Well blogged z8.

    1. I saw steak à cheval on a French menu the other weekend and thought “why not”. It turned out to be a beef fillet with an egg on top. So steak DE cheval is still on my to-do list.
  14. 17’32, seemed to canter along. Trump’s tweets (thanks z) are an index of the failings of democracy – they’ll probably get him re-elected. Liked the dash in its barefaced baldness. Poetry fans, steel yourselves for the next croakingly unpoetic holder of the Laureateship.
  15. 23a ALARMIST threw me, as I took “member is” in the clue as giving “arm is” and was left trying to account for “al – t”.
  16. A bit on the slow side, but enjoyable with some well constructed and modernist clues (apart from 1a). It’s nice to get through a 15×15 without literary or classical references.

    For those who are interested, a limousine was originally a car with a full-length roof, named after the hoods worn by Limousin shepherds.

    Thanks for the blog and thanks to the setter.

  17. Thanks to Z for pointing out the entertaining juxtapositions in the grid. In fact he adds a wince-worthy one himself putting Timothy’s “word of truth” next to the Trump tweet in the blog. I recalled that particular biblical text because it’s the one the late Alan Rickman, as the Rev. Slope, chooses for his first sermon to the worthies of Barchester. Good stuff.

    LEVEL crossings are indeed called grade crossings around here and are notorious on Long Island and on the Hudson Valley lines for causing horrible accidents when drivers get impatient and drive around the barriers. 18.26

  18. 20 mins. No dramas. Person picking up is good. Thanks z and setter.
  19. A second day in a row where I felt that the struggle was real. Lots of entertainment, even if I took a while to get to the bottom of it.
  20. Nice puzzle with lots of penny drop moments, of which SEED and STOLEN were a couple. Wondered why 1a didn’t say “woods,” having seen Alder and Ash, and conveniently forgotten about the stray D. Thanks for the enlightenment Z. Liked CONVALESCENT(which I built from components before understanding) and LAUREATESHIP(likewise). I also wondered how ALT were VIPs. Doh! LIMOUSIN was another PDM as was HORSEMEAT. Enjoyed this a lot. 28:24. Thanks setter and Z.
  21. DNF due to not being able to crack LIMOUSIN. Good puzzle, COD BALDERDASH for clever use of punctuation.
  22. 15:20, very nice puzzle indeed with plenty of clever and witty stuff. Balderdash was first in (somehow I saw immediately what the punctuation was doing) but I took ages at the end to get DRAGON and RENTAL.

    Thanks all round.

  23. About 45 minutes, with several pleasing dropping pennies. It’s hard to say what I liked about this one – I think mostly it was that there was no clue that I didn’t like, and none that I had any quibble with. Thx, Z, and ditto setter
    (And a tip of the hat to Mr Chumley – that’s the kind of factoid that makes reading the comments worthwhile)
  24. 1 across. What is KYMC in the explanation of the clue?

    1. KYMC are the four main colours in printing, Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and, um, K-black. Perhaps if they called it B we’d think it was blue or brown. Don’t think I’ve ever seen K clued by black in crosswords. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

  25. AUDITION and LIMOUSIN were my last in, the former due to me be fixated with Addition and the second cos I’d never heard of it. Otherwise a straightforward solve
  26. Behave yourself
    Some of us are Liverpool supporters
    And as for snafu – well….

    1. Well ok, though I imagine Liverpool supporters will understand the mix of emotions after their magnificent demolition of Barca on Wednesday. And of course I extend felicitations to any Barca and Ajax supporters.
      As for SNAFU, I’m not responsible for the jargon of GIs, and I think even (perhaps especially) hard bitten MU fans might not take exception to that characterisation of their clubs current condition. Not currently in their accustomed elite position.

  27. 28:12. A very nice puzzle. I particularly liked balderdash and rental.
  28. I realize I’m quite late today, so I’ll just say that BALDERDASH was very nice, but the SEED really made me smile, when I finally saw it. It was my LOI. Regards.

Comments are closed.