27850 Thursday, 17 December 2020 Say no more.

Author   johninterredPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A pretty whizzy solve today after yesterday’s championship swine, which occupied me more or less straight through for a second or so under 13 minutes. Even the plant at 16 was familiar enough for me not to concern myself over whether it was pink in colour (it isn’t, just a member of the family of plants called pinks), and while I wasn’t sure of the cavity in 13 the setter was kind enough to include it as a “hidden”, safe enough to guess.
I did quite like the one clue with a slightly unusual construction at the end of the set, to which I’ll give my clue of the day.
It (and the rest) I have unravelled below, with clues, definitions and SOLUTIONS

Across 
1 Valets turn grey at Versailles occupant’s extended household (6,1,5)
MÉNAGE A TROIS A valet is in Woosterish terms just a man, so here MEN AGE (turn grey). AT is in plain sight, then a bit of Franglais gives you the Versailles occupant ROI with an English possessive ‘S. “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded” How we gasped!
8 A first-class average reflects weakness (7)
ANAEMIA A plus first class AI and average MEAN reversed (reflects)
9 Stop drinking broth laced with beer if short of energy (5,2)
SOBER UP Broth is soup, this one laced with BEER minus one E(nergy)
11 Loosen black tile occasionally that’s on the house (7)
FREEBIE Loosen is FREE, then B(lack) and the even letters (occasionally) of tIlE
12 Pitch close to perfection, for example (7)
PATTERN Pitch gives you PATTER if you think of it as a market trader’s pitch. Add the last letter (close) of perfectioN
13 Organ transplant’s helping bone cavities (5)
ANTRA Today’s hidden in orgAN TRAnsplant’s. the indicator is “helping” as in a helping/slice/portion of cake. An antra is a cavity in some anatomical sense, though I’ve seen it in other settings.
14 Make concrete target, providing front piece of yellow (9)
OBJECTIFY Target is OBJECT, providing is IF, and the front piece of Yellow is – um – Y
16 Sort of pink bird confronting tiny daughter (9)
CHICKWEED 
I got (tiny) WEE D(aughter) quite quick
But the bird took much longer to click
Was it CRANE, CROW or CHOUGH?
No, it’s easy enough
Even astro_nowt’s heard of a CHICK
19 Spoke briefly about hot Biblical site (5)
SINAI Spoke (briefly) gives you SAI(d), into which you insert IN for hot. Think current, hip, happening.
21 Impresario who’s trained crew (7)
SHOWMAN Careful to make it the singular. An anagram (trained) of WHO’S plus MAN for a verbal crew.
23 Unpredictable grass invading Morecambe perhaps (7)
ERRATIC ERIC Morecambe, of –and Wise fame is common enough in these corridors. Turn grass into RAT by thinking of a snitch.
24 Round, plump and purple (7)
OROTUND Round is O, plump is ROTUND, and together they make “pompous, grandiloquent” language, or purple prose, if you will.
25 Dash across European court area (7)
HECTARE Dash is HARE, E(ueropean) is its usual single letter, and CourT abbreviates. Assemble.
26 How a free port transported seal? (12)
WEATHERPROOF Looks like an anagram, confirmed by “transported”. Use the first 12 letters of the clue
Down
1 Most tight locks save energy close to aqueduct (7)
MEANEST Tight as in tight-fisted. MANES from locks, “save” E(nergy) and wait for the close (that word again of aqueducT
2 Chap flies up over Ibiza, avoiding unknown African state (7)
NAMIBIA Chap is prosaically MAN, and flies up just means reverse it. Then add IBIZA without the “unknown” Z.
3 Embellishment in bar once thrown in fireplace (5,4)
GRACENOTE A musical term (hence in bar) and an anagram (thrown) of ONCE in GRATE for fireplace.
4 Storyteller‘s revolutionary main work (5)
AESOP  My first in, a reverse (revolutionary) of SEA for main plus OP(us) for work
5 Unemotional old boy in trio ruined opening of concert (7)
ROBOTIC O(ld) B(oy) in a “ruin” of TRIO plus the opening of C(oncert)
6 Poet’s put up in islands belonging to Mediterranean state (7)
ISRAELI LEAR, our poet, with his ‘S is reversed (put up) in I(sland)s
7 City hospital is cold, when toured by a dictator (3,9)
SAN FRANCISCO SAN for hospital, then IS plus C(old) “toured” by Generalissimo FRANCO, from the days when people liked to be called dictators.
10 Cheapskate woman supporter accepts new cash limits (5-7)
PENNY-PINCHER PENNY is our random woman, PIER our support, with N(ew) and C(as)H limits.
15 Hardy hero’s cool, pinching grand lawman’s post (9)
JUDGESHIP Hardy’s hero (complete with his ‘S) is JUDE the Obscure. He’s cool, becoming HIP, and pinches (inserts appropriately) a G(rand)
17 Elemental form is uppermost in poet’s heart (7)
ISOTOPE My last in, once I had divested myself of the idea that this might be a mythical elemental or spirit. IS in plain sight, TOP for uppermost, and OE to enclose both from the heart of pOEt
18 Arrive as stated at absorbing question: is it a fruit? (7)
KUMQUAT I completely misparsed this when solving, thinking the QUA came from “as”, but that’s not it. KUM is a homophone (as stated) of come, arrive, AT is in plain sight, and question provides the “absorbed” QU.
19 Teacher loves drinking a tiny amount, producing wind (7)
SIROCCO Back in the day, we all called our teachers SIR (or if the appropriate cues were there, Miss). Loves are of the tennis variety, two 0s, and the tiny amount they “drink” is CC
20 Northern spouse is missing her very much (3,4)
NOT HALF N(orthern) plus ones OTHER HALF or spouse minus the HER bit.
22 Reminder: start to get undressed? (5)
NUDGE Perhaps the wittiest of today’s clues: if the start to Get was undressed it would be in the NUDE

71 comments on “27850 Thursday, 17 December 2020 Say no more.”

  1. Quite pleased at this zippy romp, which must be a personal best I think. Would have loved to have cracked the 10-minute barrier, but after having made an error on the Quickie, I took some extra seconds to check all the wordplay.

    Definitely a few unknows scattered throughout, so thanks to Z for looking everything up for me!

    1. Great time, Jeremy – well done! It’s certainly a PB as far as my SNITCH records are concerned, your next fastest was 27777 (Wed, 23 Sep) at 11:22.
      1. Thanks! Good old 27777. We’ll see which puzzle ends up with the lower SNITCH!
  2. Under 20 minutes – so is within my top 10 times. No real hold-ups but I certainly wasn’t just writing answers in. I was very glad that the Hardy hero was referenced in a recent puzzle.
      2. HENCHARD (as in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’) turned up once but it was about 7 years ago.
  3. or 3 seconds faster than today’s Quickie. FOI MENAGE, which I didn’t parse until after submitting; LOI GRACE NOTE, which ditto. I thought I’d parsed WEATHERPROOF at the time; I don’t know what made me think that, as I totally missed the anagram. Wasted time at SINAI thinking that ‘hot’ was H.
  4. Against the grain, I didn’t exactly struggle, but was feeling sluggish and 21 minutes is just over average. Needed a couple of minutes at the end to untangle NHO grace note; looking at the wrong end for Hardy’s hero; always thrown by poet clues. Isotope was easy, from chemistry back when. Enjoyable crossword… does the ‘a’ in 19 down dangle, or is CC a small amount?
  5. Home made KUMQUAT marmalade for breakfast

    FOI 2dn MAMIBIA

    LOI 16ac CHICKWEED – SHOCKING was my first thought but….

    COD 24ac OROTUND

    WOD 1ac MENAGE A TROIS – anyone?

  6. A steady solve completed in 28 minutes, so within my target time. What more could one wish for?

    I knew ANTRA as something anatomical so that went in without hesitation when spotted as hidden.

    My only unknown was CHICKWEED as a sort of pink. I just knew it as a weed.

    The most common GRACE NOTEs in music are the appoggiatura and the acciaccatura, neither of which has ever appeared as an answer in my time at TfTT.

    Edited at 2020-12-17 06:21 am (UTC)

  7. I raced through all but 5 clues then those 5 – MÉNAGE A TROIS, MEANEST, GRACE NOTE, CHICKWEED and ISOTOPE – took me about as long again. It might have been a different story if I hadn’t spelt KUMQUAT with a C instead of a K. So not on the wavelength today, but as ever pleased to come through without one of my characteristic errors.
  8. Smooth going today, didn’t have to engage the low-range 4WD needed yesterday. It helped that Jude came up recently. Having the C starter for 16a, CARNATION seemed the likely pink , but couldn’t be parsed, even with a full court press. Had to settle for chickweed after the wee daughter succumbed.
    21’15”
  9. 33mins so a very good time for me today. FOI MÉNAGE À TROIS, LOI OROTUND. NHO ANTRA but, as Z says, the clueing was generous.
    I knew GRACE NOTE from trying to decipher Hendrix solos, he uses a pile of them. COD 1ac. Thanks Z and setter.
    1. Can you give a Hendrix example, please, so I can try to understand what they are? Do you know The Wings’ song “Let me Roll It”? Is that a grace note with the bass immediately after the first guitar riff, about 29 seconds in? It doesn’t occur after all the other guitar riffs.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWFehaQEMYI
      1. Nope – just an extra note, a triplet quaver. The most common form of the grace note is a note one step above or below heard briefly before it resolves to the ‘real’ note, e.g. D resolving to C# (or C hashtag, as one of my pupils called it). You’ll find dozens of examples here, the first one at 0.07:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQzUx3QW2Y

        There’s also a tune in there you might recognise.

      2. Isla, one of the best examples is the last note of the second bar of the intro to Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac song, Need your love so bad. I describe it (badly) as a »half » sound.
        1. There’s no grace note in m.2 of the studio version. (You don’t count the anacrusis as a bar.) The last note in the first phrase, which ends in m.2, is simply played staccato. The actual last note in the guitar intro in m.2 is another anacrusis.

          Edited at 2020-12-17 02:07 pm (UTC)

  10. So a similar time to rosedeprovence.
    I enjoyed this. I particularly liked MENAGE A TROIS, GRACE NOTE and NOT HALF but now that you’ve explained it Z (Thank you), COD has to be NUDGE.
    In 10d I started the wrong way round with PINCH something. And in 18d I started with CUMQUAT as pootle73 did.
    Like corymbia says, Jude cropped up very recently.
  12. …And drinking largely Sobers us again.

    20 mins done and dusted. A confidence booster.
    I especially liked Ménage a Trois. And the blog is great, especially the nod to astronowt.
    Thanks setter and Z.

  13. A clue done in verse! Well I never!
    Dear Z, you’re most awfully clever
    I thought chick was a sin
    But your rhyme made me grin
    So this was my favourite blog EVER!

    😀

    1. I wanted to compose a limerick in praise of your limerick in parais of the blogger .. next time, perhaps. Good work all round though 🙂
  14. 16:25. I didn’t find this as easy as some. I was completely baffled by 1A which held up the top half. GRACE NOTE my LOI. I liked NUDGE best.
    1. Baffled by 1ac? Surely we’ve all been there at one time or another, John? 😉
  15. But technically a DNF as I got a dreaded pink square at ISRAELI – festina lente again. Also held up by initially misspelling SAN FRANCISCO – couldn’t see how STINKWEED could be described as pink, even with my rudimentary horticultural knowledge.
  16. Reasonably quick today completed in two sittings, only slowed by the SW corner, SHOWMAN, ISOTOPE and the unknown CHICKWEED, and the random body cavity.

  18. ….easily seen through. 14 minutes. LOI GRACE NOTE. DNK ANTRA but the hidden was signposted. COD to NUDGE (nudge wink wink) about the behaviour in the MÉNAGE À TROIS. A straightforward but pleasant puzzle. Will it be a stinker tomorrow? Thank you Z and setter.
  19. 15.52 so a sight better than my previous efforts this week. FOI sober up, LOI grace note. No particular favourite today but that’s not a criticism, I thought the puzzle was uniformly well put together.
    Thanks setter and blogger.
  20. 11′ 50″ no problems.

    Hardy gave up writing novels after Jude, it being so depressing.

    Thanks z and setter.

      1. I recently tried to re-read The Mayor Of Casterbridge, not having finished it the first time eons ago. Gave up again.
        1. You don’t know what you were missing, Olivia. If you struggle with Hardy, you could always try ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’, which is a bit unlike his later novels and also quite short
          1. I could tell Olivia what she was missing .. but will refrain. I am no fan at all of Thos Hardy. If I want to be depressed I can just watch the news
            1. I’m not a great reader of 19C novels, but I LOVE Hardy’s books; The only one I don’t like is The Trumpet Major which I had to do at school. Sorry to be contrary. I like Trollope too, although he wasn’t from my native Dorset.
              1. I’m OK with Trollope, Pip, he can write and unlike Hardy he has not had his sense of humour surgically removed. Of Victorian novelists, he might be the best of the bunch. There are others.. Disraeli wrote several interesting novels, though better seen as social history than as gripping page-turners perhaps
      2. “The Woodlanders” was a set text for my English A Level. A bit grim, but nothing like as bad as Jude (which I’ve never been able to finish either). But Hardy thought of himself as a poet, rather than a writer, & certainly I think “The Ruined Maid” is better at making roughly the same point than Tess (which I couldn’t finish either).

        Anne L

        1. My only exposure to Jude the Obscure, was an excellent Radio 4 adaptation about 30 years ago; never tried the book.
    3. What was depressing for Hardy, and the reason it was his last novel, was the furore the theme raised of divorce.
  21. Not as fast as many here but as a relative newbie, pleased with my third sub-25 solve of the week particularly as there were a few words here that I wasn’t that familiar with such as GRACE NOTE, OROTUND, CHICKWEED and ANTRA.

  22. Four seconds off a PB today – lots of biffing opportunities, especially when some checkers went in, including SAN FRANCISCO, MENAGE A TROIS, OROTUND, GRACE NOTE, NUDGE, JUDGESHIP, ISRAELI & PENNY-PINCHER. With a good time in view, I was brave enough not to read the full clue for a few of those.

    ISOTOPE was my LOI as well.

  23. Very enjoyable and remarkably doable for a Thursday.
    For once medical training came in useful!
    Thank you Zabadak for helpful notes.
  24. ANTRA tend to intrude themselves this time of year because they’re another word for sinuses. When it gets light we’re going to have to go and dig out the car and then we wait for Pat the Plowman to come through to make the road navigable. Vinyl’s probably in the same case. Jeremy, Paul and Guy in the city will just have been hearing the sanitation trucks all night. Thank goodness our power didn’t go out. 12.14
    1. Bingo, Olivia – got it in one. Even though the Mayor is not up for re-election he is taking no chances with career-killing poor snow removal. The trucks were out all night, but from the window what it looks mostly as if all they did was build a nice little wall of icy snow beside the cars parked on the street so that they cannot easily get out. And the longer the owners wait before trying to dig out, the more frozen the wall will get.

      Meantime, like pretty much everyone else, I found this a quick go. I liked Not Half, more for the vocabulary than for the clue. I saw the connection, but I thought “purple” was a bit of a stretch for Orotund.

      Thanks, z

      Edited at 2020-12-17 02:50 pm (UTC)

        1. No, not London. Caught in NY, probably for the duration as there is no easily visible way to get away.
          1. Well enjoy the snow, it is a gift from god, especially if you have a sled and no business appointments 🙂
            1. Even better, at our age, if you can find a child to do the hard work with the sled or to toboggan.
              1. Ha, you are so right. And then you can watch them crash and burn, without even a bruise yourself. And they are indestructible 🙂
  25. 12 mins, which is about as fast as I imagine I will ever be able to read 30 or so clues and write down the answers
  26. nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
    they were but sweet, but figures of delight,
    drawn after you, you pattern of all those.

    Limpid lines from the Bard’s own version of a 1 across. A rare (now very rare) 15-minuter for me. A MY! (Mild Yelp) at the irresistible nudge of ‘providing’ for ‘provided’ into accepted usage (14).

  27. My NHOs today were ANTRA and CHICKWEED, with OROTUND in the “heard of it but don’t know what it means” category, but I got them all in the end. NUDGE was a nice clue, and I liked WEATHERPROOF to. I read some Thomas Hardy when I was younger, but not Jude the Obscure, though I knew the name and figured out JUDGESHIP without too much difficulty.

    FOI Aesop
    LOI Chickweed
    COD Nudge

  28. After being specifically directed from QC land by plusjeremy (though I do come over most days) . 2 mins 30 secs slower than the QC at 12:02.

    LOI was ANTRA – I was thinking ATRIA, but was determined that MEANEST was definitely right. Eventually spotted the hidden…

    MENAGE A TROIS made me smile when I eventually parsed it, having initially biffed it from enumeration and definition.

  29. Obviously on the easier side today as my 17:41 saw me just scrape in to 97th on the Leaderboard, but very enjoyable for all that. MENAGE A TROIS went in on sight without bothering to parse and it was all downhill from there, apart from the unknown ANTRA which was helpfully clued, and LOI GRACE NOTE which was obvious once I lifted and separated correctly. Liked NOT HALF. Thanks setter and Z.
  30. Yes, raced through this helped by getting 1ac “Menage a Trois” straight away and barely having to cross my fingers on “Chickweed” and “Antra”.
    Despite rarely having to pause for thought, this still took me around 30 minutes, so how I’m ever going to go sub-20 I don’t know.
    Onwards and upwards!
  31. I also noted Jeremy’s report on the QC blog. Not too hard this. LOI GRACE NOTE, something about which I know nothing. DNK ANTRA. Also liked NOT HALF.
    Under an hour and fun. David
  32. Right on the wavelength, which always makes for a pleasantly smooth experience. And I got the opportunity to say NOT HALF to myself in an Alan Freeman voice, which always makes the day go better.
    1. You’ve just transported me back to Fluff’s Radio 1 rock show. There was something more rewarding about discovering music in those days compared to today when it’s all there at the click of a button (thus speaks an old fart).
  33. On the slow side today but in my defence I went out to the garage and forgot to pause.
    Another item from my health shop days today CHICKWEED usually sold as an ointment.
    WOD MÉNAGE A TROIS
    COD NUDGE
  34. ….ERRATIC course through the grid, I saw this off without too much trouble. I parsed 4 clues afterwards.

    FOI MENAGE A TROIS
    LOI ISOTOPE (I blame Astronowt)
    COD NOT HALF
    TIME 7:52

  35. 18.38 and not quick enough to get onto the top 100 on the leader board. I was slow to see the long ones at top and bottom which probably didn’t help. Grace note took a while. This was a nice puzzle to work through even though I did sense I was being a bit sluggish with it.

Comments are closed.