Times 27553 – It’s That Bird Again!

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Pretty much where I left off in 2019, puzzle difficulty wise, with this pleasant offering doing nothing to disturb any swallow-like creatures who might be constructing their nests in soft cliff material and digging in for what looks likely to be the long haul in Crosswordland. 24 across was rather cunning and my last in.

12’52” for me, so presumably the real speedsters like Magoo, Verlaine, Aphis and Starstruck will be sniffing out PBs, with a disproportionate number of clues having the solution at the front.

ACROSS

1 Where you might see film star making first appearance? (5)
ONSET – ON SET
4 Magistrate perversely rejecting current plan (9)
STRATAGEM – anagram* of MAG[i]STRATE
9 Study by unit head is being prepared (9)
READINESS – READ I (unit) NESS (head)
10 Better sort of dash back — joiner’s outside (5)
AMEND – ME (EM reversed) in AND (conjunction, AKA joiner)
11 Arrogant yuppy regularly lacking compassion (6)
UPPITY – [y]U[p]P[y] (‘yuppy’ lacking letters in a regular fashion) PITY
12 Ideal citizen displaying love for autocratic leader (8)
NOTIONAL – NATIONAL with the A (initial letter of A[utocratic]) replaced by O (love)
14 Dodgy, being at the mercy of cards one’s dealt (9)
UNDERHAND – UNDER (being at mercy of) HAND
16 Jewellery I found in Scarlett’s place (5)
TIARA – I in TARA (Scarlett O’Hara’s pad down Atlanta away)
17 Flop as lover after heart transplant (5)
LOSER – LOVER with S for v
19 Monk’s date needing massage? I’ve no idea (4,3,2)
DONT ASK ME – MONKS DATE*
21 Protection from decay and drugs surrounding one (4,4)
RIOT GEAR – I in ROT (decay) GEAR (drugs); a lot of coppers in Hong Kong wear this these days, even if most of them seem to have lost their warrant cards
22 Make pretty sailor stick around (4,2)
TART UP – TAR PUT reversed
25 Raise embezzler’s case before European court (5)
ERECT – E[mbezzle]R E CT
26 End the heartless destruction of minaret (9)
TERMINATE – T[h]E MINARET*
27 Submission of monarch, held by resistance (9)
DEFERENCE – ER in DEFENCE
28 Mollified, stopped to let Charlie out (5)
EASED – [c]EASED

DOWN

1 Novel, one we both know well (3,6,6)
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND – double definition (DD)
2 Troublemaker pitches tent, moving south (5)
SCAMP – CAMPS with the S moved to the front
3 Laugh about women’s idle talk (7)
TWITTER – W in TITTER
4 Go after religious adherent in speech (4)
SEEK – Sounds something like ‘Sikh’
5 Returner of questionnaire gloomy after change at top (10)
RESPONDENT – DESPONDENT with R for D; there’s a pattern emerging here, I reckon
6 Asserts aristocrat is sheltering enemy of the revolution? (7)
TSARIST – hidden answer in [asser]TS ARIST[ocrat]
7 Environmentalist to sponsor bill in Washington (9)
GREENBACK – GREEN BACK; these are still legal tender in the US, even though they haven’t been issued since 1971. Best hold on to them for their rarity value, mind.
8 Corporation with origin in the forties? (6-3,6)
MIDDLE-AGE SPREAD – a fairly accessible cryptic definition
13 Son and another boy, summer visitor (4,6)
SAND MARTIN – S AND MARTIN; and winter…
15 Dump detective overturning rival’s operations (7,2)
DISPOSE OF – DI (detective inspector) FOES OPS reversed
18 Pen-pusher said to be one who corrects what’s wrong (7)
RIGHTER – sounds like ‘writer’ to most Brits at least
20 Greed, a weakness holding painter back (7)
AVARICE – RA reversed in A VICE
23 Backing rapid alternative to buses? (5)
TRAMS – SMART reversed; as in ‘She directed the show at a smart pace’
24 Sovereign with nothing on (4)
FREE – Our cunning DD, where ‘nothing on’ refers to appointments

70 comments on “Times 27553 – It’s That Bird Again!”

  2. I held off on 23d, failing to think of a usage for SMART, and 21ac, since I didn’t know GEAR for ‘drugs’. 5d and 18d are both ambiguous–I forget the term Vallaw coined. Indeed, I would have chosen WRITER except 7 letters were needed; luckily the initial letter of 5d was a checker. A GREENBACK is a dollar bill; it would be odd if it wasn’t legal tender.
    1. ‘Double helix’. I would argue that 18dn is unambiguously unambiguous, because of the number of letters. You could argue the toss about 5dn depending on your view of whether the setter is allowed to rely on checking letters to guide the solver to the right answer.
      I was a bit puzzled by ulaca’s GREENBACK comment too, and am wondering either what happened in 1971 (other than decimalisation in the UK) or what subtle gag I am missing.
      1. Thanks. I keep thinking of Möbius strip, and it keeps not being that.
        ON EDIT: As Olivia notes below, and as she and I both mentioned the last time UPPITY came up, this word has become, understandably, taboo in the US, where, as late as my childhood, it served as a justification for lynching.

        Edited at 2020-01-06 11:29 am (UTC)

      2. A little Googling is a dangerous thing…

        I rather missed the wood for the trees, I think, getting enrapt in this article online, which mentions the difference between United States notes and Federal Reserve notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Note

        Must stick to something I know about in the future.

      3. I wondered if he was thinking about Silver Certificates – notes specifically able to be converted into silver – which were stopped (along with the conversion feature of Silver Certificates already in circulation) in the early 1960s. They looked almost exactly like a dollar bill, except that they had the silver conversion guarantee printed on them in small blue text.
      4. I don’t think it’s sufficient for the letter count to tell you that the answer is the reverse of the way the clue would most logically be read. And I am confident that the puzzle constructors I edit for The Nation would take the point and fix the clue.

        Edited at 2020-01-06 11:27 pm (UTC)

        1. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that. As far as I’m concerned the grid is an integral part of the puzzle so it’s fair for the setter to use it, and I would include checking letters in this. Some people hold the view that any clue should be solvable without reference to the grid but if that’s the idea why bother with the grid at all?
          1. In non-cryptic puzzles, it’s often the case that more than one word will fit the definition and the right number of letters. I do feel that cryptic clues should ideally have just one possible answer and workable with certainty in isolation from the grid (number of letters being given).
            1. This is definitely an ‘agree to disagree’ point. The grid is part of the puzzle!
              1. As most cryptic clues do have just one possible answer (enumeration given), one comes to expect such elegance from all of them. I know some setters aim for this ideal.
    2. I don’t see how the answer for 5d could conceivably be “despondent,” because the definition is in the middle of the clue.
      1. It’s a fact of clue construction that the definition is almost always at the beginning or end of the clue; but I know of no rule that requires it to be.
  3. 20:13. FOI OMF. I made slightly harder work of this than necessary. Some clues which should only have required one look took three or four. Fortunately others around them were falling with sufficient regularity that I never got really stuck. My 2LOI free and LOI notional did give me pause for thought but I worked them out ok in the end.
  4. Thanks, U, but it’s back to usual I’m afraid. I enjoyed this, despite not being able to race through it. It took me far too long to get 1d, 8d, 13d (have we had a few sand martins recently?) and numerous others. No unknowns and COD to 15d for the clever construction.
    1. Sorry – that was me – logged out for some reason. And sorry to miss U’s opening reference to the SAND MARTIN – they do seem to be a regular feature here these days. Never seen one in Australia, of course.

      Edited at 2020-01-06 03:32 am (UTC)

  5. Smooth sailing, but the clue for RIGHTER would work better for “writer,” methinks.
    GEAR for drugs, I see, is Australian. I checked that ere inking it in.
  6. 6:56. I was pretty sure I was heading for sub-5 minutes again but then a handful of clues proved a bit more tricky.
    Great time, u. Personal NITCH of 39!
  7. 1dn OUR MUTUAL FRIEND might have been better clued so my FOI

    LOI 12ac NOTIONAL

    COD 7dn GREENBACK

    WOD 11ac UPPITY

    Not terribly satisfying 28mins. Aha! GK6.

    Edited at 2020-01-06 06:38 am (UTC)

      1. Thanks for the heads up on “It’s Trad Dad” which was my guilty pleasure earlier this afternoon. I never realised it was done by Dick Lester before he found fame with “A Hard Day’s Night”. I was wrong about Robert Morley – I was thinking of his turn in “The Young Ones”.
  9. I couldn’t parse free either from sov, but suppose sovereign state is free/independent.
    Also had Our August Friend for a while which didn’t help.

    Apart from that completed with no issues.

    COD terminate.

    Edited at 2020-01-06 07:58 am (UTC)

  10. I was rather slow on this morning’s QC but I whizzed through this in 27:06.
    LOI was RIOT GEAR after SEEK. FOI was STRATAGEM.
    I now have the day free to think of a clue for Bactrian Camel (see Sunday Times).
    David
      1. I have been working on a variation of “one h/lump or two vicar?” but am in a dead-end. It’s harder than it looks, setting clues.
  11. 11:45. DNK Scarlett’s place nor GEAR for drugs – RIOT GEAR my LOI. FREE took a while to come too. Otherwise a gentle Mondayish offering.
  12. … punctuated by fallow pauses. 18 minutes with LOI NOTIONAL. COD to FREE. I did like OUR MUTUAL FRIEND too which I didn’t see as quickly as Horryd did. A pleasant start to the week. Thank you U and setter.
  14. Bizarrely, I raced through this, then spent about ten minutes getting NOTIONAL, then spent another ten minutes staring at S_E_ at 4d without getting anywhere. In the end I gave up around the 39 minute mark. I suppose if I’d carried on thinking while waiting for my usual hour to be over I’d’ve got there, but there’s only so much staring at two remaining blanks I can do before throwing in the towel, it seems.
  15. 25 mins, gently, pre brekker.
    Sovereign seems a tad loose for Free, but otherwise I liked it – mostly the Middle-age Spread.
    Thanks setter and U.
  16. 10:19 … like others, it took me a while to find a home for various strays at the end — specifically SEEK, NOTIONAL and FREE.

    COD to DON’T ASK ME, entirely for a surface that raises many, many questions

      1. I am sat in a Head nun’s room now as I write – I bought an urban nunnery as my company offices thirty years ago. If only I could get the answers to the crossword.
        1. So you actually got thee a nunnery? Brilliant. I would imagine the place has wonderfully serene vibrations.

          @BoltonWanderer – Carry On Nun?

  18. A steady solve for me. I got delayed by RIOT GEAR, which I eventually worked out and liked, and NOTIONAL, which I didn’t.

    COD: RIOT GEAR.

  19. Lucky, for me anyway, that STRATAGEM was an anagram because I tend to misspell it with an E in the middle.I zoomed through most of this but was left staring blankly at R*O* G*A* and just not seeing anything for a measurable time. UPPITY is a word that’s acquired serious freight in the US where it now tends to mean not arrogant so much as a person of colour who doesn’t know their place. 11.41 P.S. In your intro Ulaca you mean 24D not across.
  20. A nice easy start to the week. FOI SCAMP, LOI FREE. I found the SW more tricky than the rest. 17:39. Thanks setter and U.

    Edited at 2020-01-06 11:29 am (UTC)

  21. LOI FREE the clue wasn’t as cryptic as it appeared. In fact I could say that about the whole thing. Also took a moment to decide on AHEAD or AMEND. Not being a literary sort, had only vaguely heard of the book.
  22. 8m 15s, finishing on FREE – a cunning double definition indeed. No serious hold-ups other than an unjustifiable UPPISH at 11a, and a brief EMEND at 10a.
  23. As per the experience of others, this started out as a near write-in but various stragglers had to be rounded up at the end, finishing with the hard to spot RIOT GEAR and FREE. My newest bird discovery is the hadeda which has been encroaching on the bowlers’ run-ups in Cape Town while I sit watching the Test match, but which has yet to make it into a Times puzzle.
  24. 16 minutes, last in ‘free’. Reading through the clue surfaces as a collection post-solve, something I’ve no doubt other also do occasionally for the entertainment value, one feels a Times crossword or two should definitely go into the next space capsule. One can imagine the intergalactic computers of the future trying for light years to make sense of it all. If they do of course the game will be up for us. joekobi
  25. 8:02 with FREE LOI. U, you fallen into the old across/down trap in identifying your last in (sorry, can now see that Olivia has already pointed this out).

    As for the two double-helix clues, 5d would (unusually) have to have the def in mid-clue for despondent to work, and at 18d “pen-pusher said” was enough to make my mind up on the spot.

    Despite the appearance of Greenback this doesn’t appear to be a Dangermouse-themed puzzle, alas.

    One final comment: on the day that I have received an email from the Energy Networks Association about their not being able to publish certain reports, it was a bit of a shock to see ENA R MUTE in the 14th column.

    Edited at 2020-01-06 04:53 pm (UTC)

  26. Took bloody ages to get going so I was pleasantly surprised to realise I was nearing the finishing line in about 13 minutes. Then came FREE, which held me up for bloody ages (again) and meant I was still holding my breath when I hit submit.
  27. 12’51” late in the day.

    Like others, held up by SEEK, FREE, NOTIONAL.

    OUR MUTUAL FRIEND is not one of Dickens’s best.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

  28. ….that hasn’t been said already. I tried to insert a third D into MIDDLE-AGE SPREAD, and paused to wonder if King Donald of TWITTER would consider the heartfelt plea at 26A.

    FOI UPPITY
    LOI RIOT GEAR
    COD TSARIST (a great example of the “hidden”)
    TIME 9:04

  31. A gentle Monday puzzle, done with wind-sore eyes after a cold, bracing game of golf on a reasonably dry course, in good humour after winning the money. The long ones at 1d and 8d went in quickly, making it easier. Held up at the end by a few in the SW corner, RIOT GEAR and FREE only got after looking at many options and rather disliking FREE = sovereign. Smells of Brexit to me.
    UPPITY my CoD, never heard of its ‘issues’ in America.
  32. A Good Day at 31 minutes, with a similar experience to others. Things fell into place quite easily, and I didn’t have any problems with the sound-alike identifiers for 4d and 19d.

    19a made me smile, but I did think: No – please – DON’T ask me! I was determined that 3d was Chatter, even though I couldn’t parse it, but Twitter finally revealed itself. I also liked Uppity, but will have a very different view of the word from hereon.

    I tentatively put in Free for 24a, so was relieved to find that it was correct. I’m not sure now why I was so hesitant.

    FOI Scamp
    LOI Free
    COD Middle age spread

    Earworms An Aztec Camera / Del Amitri mash-up after yesterday’s comments!

  33. No issues. I didn’t time it, but not long and no real quibbles. LOI was FREE, needing only a brief pause before it came to mind. Not much else to say. Regards.
  34. Started late today just after the cup draw.. Too much excitement with my team possibly entertaining Man U if we can dispose of Watford.Ooh er….

    Just under 13 minutes so a good start to the week. 4 down caused a jam as I originally put sikh rather than seek in as the answer but once I rectified that mistake it flowed pretty well.

  35. I was on track for a sub-5-minute time but then fell at the final hurdle, which proved to be the slightly trickier SW corner. By the time I’d picked myself up and dusted myself off, we were looking at more like 6.5 minutes.
  36. ..from the QC.
    29:58, with 3 minutes alphabet trawling for NOTIONAL. I’m blaming the trappist dubbel.
  37. Because of the word order, though, this clue is most logically read as asking for another word for “Returner of questionaire” and not for “gloomy.”
    1. You can read this clue two ways:
      – Returner of questionnaire the product of gloomy after change at top
      – Returner of questionnaire becomes gloomy after change at top
      The fact that one reading is more natural, logical, call it what you will, is beside the point as long as the other is not invalid: in a competition you’d have to allow both. I don’t think either version is invalid here so you need (in this case) the checking letter to be sure of the answer. As I’ve already said I don’t mind this!
      1. If the clue actually read
        Returner of questionnaire becomes gloomy after change at top
        I would still think it is asking for a word meaning “Returner of questionnaire” that happens to become a word meaning gloomy after changing the first letter, which is just an inverse way of saying “Returner of questionnaire[,] the product of gloomy after change at top.”

        “Returner of questionnaire” is the only part of the clue that is presented as if it could be the definition. The rest of the clue has to do with a process by which that word is obtained—either way it is read!

        Edited at 2020-01-10 05:07 pm (UTC)

        1. I really don’t agree. There is no rule that says the definition has to be at the beginning.
          If the clue read: ‘returner of questionnaire after change at the top: gloomy’ it would more clearly indicate a synonym for ‘gloomy’ as the answer. But grammatically I think you can read it that way with the word order as presented, even if it’s a bit more awkward.
          Perhaps we’ll just have to agree to disagree again!
          1. That the definition is at the beginning or the end is not my point here; it’s the grammar of the clue, which the positioning of the defintion is incidental to. I can’t read that clue as written and think that it’s asking for another word for “gloomy,” as I tried to explain. (Well, if it were an &lit, the definition might be a word for the process by which “despondent” becomes “respondent,” if there were such a word.)
            1. OK, so let’s agree to disagree. I can read the clue to indicate gloomy, rather like a newspaper headline: BEAST HANDSOME PRINCE AFTER BELLE’S KISS.
              1. The answer is JEAN MARAIS?
                Ha.

                Your reading could be done as below, changing nothing essential:
                “After change at top, returner of questionnaire becomes gloomy.”

                I have a strong preference for Ximenean clues, and don’t care for those which only and explicitly spell out the construction of a word, which rather obviates the need for real (more subtle) wordplay.

                In any case, and in principle, I think we can agree that it would be regrettable to force the least plausible or even least elegant interpretation (if this distinction can be made) by the contingencies of the grid.

                Edited at 2020-01-10 06:14 pm (UTC)

                1. Yes that clue would be clearer, for sure. I’m not arguing that the ‘gloomy’ interpretation is better, or more elegant, or the more natural reading: it isn’t, in fact it’s the opposite of all those things. But I still think it’s a valid interpretation.
                  1. That clue would be “clearer,” for sure, but it’s atrocious, with that “becomes” sticking out like a sore thumb.

                    I was going to delete or rewrite the middle part, but you had already replied.

                    Let’s keep our eyes peeled for another clue that works the same as your alternate reading of this one. But I don’t know why anyone would write one that way.

                    1. Yes I agree it would be atrocious, but if there was a valid answer that fitted the grid and meant ‘gloomy’ I don’t think you could say it was wrong, is all.
                    2. Well, I’d have to concede it was the right answer (the answer intended), but I’m afraid I would still fault the construction.

Comments are closed.