Times 27901 – Nice and easy does it…one more time

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A very Monday offering, which I managed in a smidgen under 14 minutes. Not much to say, as we’ve been busy entertaining this Lunar New Year and are expecting more visitors today.

Afore ye go…

ACROSS

1 Early stage shoe’s warmer (4,4)
HEAT PUMP – HEAT (early stage of an athletics contest, for example) PUMP (shoe)
5 Baby, curiously, last to go in church (6)
CODDLE – ODDL[y] in CE
9 Monotony of chaps in rough seas bearing south (8)
SAMENESS – MEN in an anagram* of SEAS with another S in it (bearing south)
10 Cutting from papers I found in a volume (6)
ACIDIC – ID (papers) I in A CC (cubic centimetre)
12 The British oddly unable to follow routine (5)
USUAL – US (Brits!) followed by U[n]A[b]L[e]
13 Cheats go round following drivers for top car parts (4,5)
ROOF RACKS – F (following) RAC (Royal Automobile Club) in ROOKS
14 Roaming at night, numb Somalis staggered miles (12)
SOMNAMBULISM – NUMB SOMALIS* M
18 Theatre regularly left Bill filling horsey pantomime part (12)
HARLEQUINADE – [t]H[e]A[t]R[e] L (left) AD in EQUINE
21 Teas and coffee putting paid to second dance (3-3-3)
CHA-CHA-CHA – CHA CHA [mo]CHA
23 Pan, and what may be in it? (5)
ROAST – double definition
24 Reptile, one to the fore in S American region (6)
IGUANA – GUIANA with the I in initial position; ‘The Guianas…is a region in north-eastern South America which includes three’ or more territories, depending on what you are counting.
25 Through which to view star? (8)
SKYLIGHT – cryptic definition, methinks
26 Mentioned chap’s hot tourist attraction (6)
GEYSER – sounds like ‘geezer’, if you pronounce it that way
27 Gas initially envelops your old tip, according to reports (8)
ETHYLENE – E (initially E[nvelops]) THY (your old) LENE (sounds like ‘lean’ – to everyone, hopefully)

DOWN

1 American in hotel twice finished whitewash (4,2)
HUSH UP – US in H H (hotel twice) UP (finished, as in ‘the game is up’)
2 Affair involves head of Royal Mail perhaps (6)
ARMOUR – R (R[oyal]) in AMOUR (affair – sounds better in French)
3 Corrective system of exercising alone with CD playing (5,4)
PENAL CODE – PE (exercising – well, I guess) ALONE CD*
4 Wrongly deliver small part of speech among timid types (12)
MISPRONOUNCE – S PRONOUN in MICE
6 Old police company, climbing, come to pass (5)
OCCUR – reversal of RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) CO (company)
7 Performed first part of play cold? That’s edifying (8)
DIDACTIC – DID ACT I C; depends who’s spouting their wisdom, to be fair
8 Can I get through dance? (6,2)
EXCUSE ME – double definition, and a very nice one, even if the enumeration gives it away
11 EEC high flier stealing my French and German cash once (6,6)
COMMON MARKET – MON (‘my’ in French) MARK (German unit of currency before the euro raised prices overnight) in COMET (high flier); great surface summoning up images of banking types doing rather well for themselves, thank you
15 To perform subtly, felt maybe piano should intervene (9)
UNDERPLAY – P in UNDERLAY (felt maybe); nice surface too
16 Repulsive joint found in prison, half of it missing (8)
SHOCKING – HOCK (horsey joint) in SING [SING] (can in New York State with which Olivia will be familiar)
17 Arrest guy stupidly wasting first of government funds (8)
TREASURY – ARREST [g]UY* (fodder loses first letter of government)
19 Bunch of flyers, doubly good in strong wind (6)
GAGGLE – GG in GALE
20 Bust university acquired by nation (6)
STATUE – U in STATE; an escapee from the Quickie
22 There’s nothing exceptional holding in this opening feature (5)
HINGE – hidden in [not]HING E[xceptional]

66 comments on “Times 27901 – Nice and easy does it…one more time”

  1. Monday, it would seem. Semi-biffed HARLEQUINADE–‘equine’ was enough–and CHA-CHA-CHA (why bother parsing? but I did, after). Haven’t we just had IGUANA? or was it GUIANA? Is a comet a high flier? They may have been for the Ptolemaic astronomer, who if I recall correctly placed them in the sublunary sphere and hence a matter for the meteorologist, but still.

    Edited at 2021-02-15 03:05 am (UTC)

    1. Aerodynamics are needed to fly
      So comets are much much too high
      Harlequin is a duck
      So I muttered “O….dear”
      And entered my last with a sigh
      1. Deceptive capitalization of words not often capped is allowed, but uncapping what has to be capped (“comet” if you mean the jet) is forbidden.
  2. Thanks for HARLEQUINADE and CHA-CHA-CHA, ulaca.
    Biffed the second one without parsing it properly but had to get most, if not, all of the checkers in 18ac before HARLEQUINADE suggested itself.

    Things look gloomy in both the Chennai Test and the Prada Cup. I see Wednesday’s races have been postponed (until?) because of the snap lockdown imposed upon Auckland.

  3. Held myself up unnecessarily with the wrong placement of AD in HARLEQUINADE which held up COMMON MARKET and UNDERPLAY. Then I really held myself dithering over HINGE / GEYSER because for the former I was trying to put IN in something, and for the latter I was trying to find a homophone of “guy’s + something”. I say unnecessarily for these because I knew the answers but I wasn’t convinced of the wordplay.

    I don’t believe we pronounce ‘geyser’ like that in the US.

    Edited at 2021-02-15 03:56 am (UTC)

    1. I did exactly the same with GEYSER, which is odd because I’m perfectly aware that there are two possible pronunciations and ‘geezer’ is apparently the UK one. I don’t know how I’d pronounce it: I haven’t used the word often enough to have settled on a version.
      1. And to complete the picture, the word derives from the original spouter in Iceland, spelt GEYSIR with an I and pronounced gay-seer.
        Cedric
        1. This will get spam-blocked I assume. I’ve never tried ot post an image before, but here is the original in Iceland.
          image
  4. I was racing through this but then suffered delays, putting HARLIQUINADE which needed to be amended later to accommodate PENAL CODE, and being stuck for a while on 27ac where my fragile knowledge of chemistry let me down as I didn’t know that ETHYLENE is a gas so it didn’t come to mind for a while. 26 minutes

    A point of pedantry possibly at 8dn where I think we have a straight definition and cryptic hint as the dance takes a hyphen.

    Edited at 2021-02-15 05:40 am (UTC)

  5. Ulaca, re your comment on 16d; are you sure that Olivia has been up the river? It would certainly explain her facility with the crosswords if she’s had a lot of time inside to devote to solving.
    No problems with this, though HARLEQUINADE was unknown and as LOI took careful parsing-sing. 18’07”

    Edited at 2021-02-15 07:12 am (UTC)

    1. Ah, my bad – what I meant to suggest was that Olivia, being familiar with the Hudson River valley, would no doubt be aware of the penitentiary.

      I wasn’t aware that they took distaff prisoners, but then again in the US these days, one might get prosecuted if one opened a prison and only let men in…

    2. I see I should perhaps respond to Ulaca’s slightly ambiguous name-check…. No I haven’t actually been “inside” (it’s men only) but I have passed it frequently on the train up the river. Rather heart-breaking little groups of women with small children often get off as Ossining – visitors.
      1. Strangely, David Ackles’ song about a man released from prison travels in the opposite direction.

        “Times change, times change I know, but it sure goes slow DOWN RIVER when you’re locked away”.

        Well worth a listen, but avoid cover versions !

  6. No problems with this while manifesting masochism watching the cricket, taking 15 minutes while somewhat distracted. HARLEQUINADE was the only slight hold-up. COD to EXCUSE-ME. Thank you U and setter.
  7. …A mighty silver bugle hung,
    And as he rode his Armour rung,
    Beside remote Shalott.
    25 mins pre-brekker. I liked it, mostly the elegant Harleqinade, EEC and the neat Excuse Me.
    A tiny MER at the construction of the hidden Hinge.
    Thanks setter and U.

    Edited at 2021-02-15 07:57 am (UTC)

  8. A gentle start to my week off work which unfortunately means I can start the decorating sooner. I’d never considered that GEYSER could be pronounced any way other than as a homophone of geezer so interesting to see our US friends mention it. Having consulted Chambers I see “gazer” and “gizer” are alternative pronunciations. I presume the latter is the more common way in the US.
    1. Never come across ‘gazer’ in the US, or ‘geezer’ for that matter; only ‘gizer’ (rhymes with Kaiser).
  9. 9:48. Very Mondayish. LOI HINGE taking a while to spot it was hidden. I liked ROOF RACKS best.
  11. Skein. That’s the word. A GAGGLE is a bunch of geese on the ground. Thinking about this held me up for a few seconds.

    Knew Harlequin but not HARLEQUINADE.

    I have a slight headache following Oxford vaccine yesterday, apparently this is quite normal.

    12′ 39″ thanks ulaca and setter.

    1. I had mine on Saturday and was completely hors de combat yesterday. Better today however..

      You are right about skein but of course the clue does not say they are flying, only that they can

      1. I had the Phizzy one on Thursday, and have since experienced a strange pain low in the body, which I think must be pure coincidence, since I can’t find anything of the sort in that comprehensive set of notes they give you.
        Maybe Bill Gates can tell me what’s happening.
    2. Mine on Friday ; aches and shivers for 2 days but now better. The injection site felt as if she’s injected the bone 2 days later. Now wait 3 weeks and the kids might not feel guilty about visiting!
    3. Same as Jerry – AZ whacked me good and proper for a day, and thereafter absolutely fine.
  12. Off to good start to the week, all done in 29 mins. Only got HARLEQUINADE from the cryptic, but it seemed reasonable. LOI HINGE which held me up hiding in plain sight. COD SOMNAMBULISM. Thanks U and setter.
  13. Completed this without seeing the hidden HINGE and without parsing SHOCKING and CHA-CHA-CHA, so thanks for the explanations.

    Otherwise this wasn’t too tricky, though 19d had me looking for something involving RAF with “fliers” at first. Didn’t know HARLEQUINADE either, but the wordplay made it clear.

    FOI Somnambulism
    LOI Shocking
    COD Common market

  14. FOI 6D: OCCUR
    LOI 27A: ETHYLENE

    A slow start followed by what felt like sluggish progress. For example, I saw CODDLE but failed to parse first time around; needed all of the across clues for MISPRONOUNCE and similarly wavered over SKYLIGHT until the K from COMMON MARKET appeared.

    Thank you, ulaca and the setter.

  15. I’d have made things simpler for myself if I hadn’t thrown in NOCTAMBULISM, feeling quite clever because the clue said “roaming at night”, later feeling stupid because Somalis don’t supply NOC. So my time was 14.30.
    I can never come across UNDERLAY without thinking arriba arriba, which also (perversely) probably cost me seconds.
    Of course I didn’t parse CH-CHA-CHA: why not just “teas dance”? Well done U for going that extra mile, and Xīnnián hǎo!
  16. 20m but I raced through 75% of this in about 5m (heady stuff for me) to come to a grinding halt in the SW with an increasingly frustrating failure to see any of them until IGUANA floated into view and then the rest quickly followed. I think if it was golf they would call it choking! But a pleasant puzzle and start to the week so thank you, setter and blogger, for the entertainment.
  17. A gentle start to the week with yesterday’s Sunday Crytpic, the Concise, QC and this puzzle offering minimal resistance to my not exactly incisive brain, after yesterday’s celebration of my reaching three score years and ten. USUAL was my FOI and SHOCKING brought up the rear. Liked MISPRONOUNCE and ROOF RACKS. An enjoyable puzzle. 19:22. Thanks setter and U.
    2. Welcome to the ranks of the septuagenarians. It’s the place to be, knowing you’re on borrowed time. Live dangerously, once it’s three weeks since you had the second jab!
      1. Thank you BW. I’m lying low(on a physical plane) until I have the second jab in April:-)
    3. Congratulations on the three score and ten…. and I hope you have plenty more.
  18. 18.55 with too much time spent trying to spell somnambulism correctly as a result of which mispronounce was my LOI. Other than that glitch the rest went swimmingly. Liked harlequinade but coddle my COD. Hopefully the brain will be a bit sharper tomorrow.
  19. Glad to see I wasn’t alone in failing to spot the hidden HINGE. We visited Old Faithful on our honeymoon eons ago. 11.17
  20. No problems with this, except had to guess the end of LOI HARLEQUINADE as was unknown. 15 minutes. Never occurred to me there might be a second way to say GEYSER other than geezer.
  21. No real problems here apart from the SW corner where couldn’t think of HARLEQUINADE and then SHOCKING took a while to come.

    Couldn’t quite see how GEYSER worked, was using American pronunciation i.e. GUYS-ER, but where did the ER come from? Thanks for explaining — simples really!!

    LOI HINGE where I too was trying to stick IN into something else but eventually saw the hidden.

  22. A clean sweep in 15m which is about as fast as I go. Didn’t parse CHA-CHA-CHA while in full flight and couldn’t immediately make sense of it in my post-solve look-over. Thank you for the enlightenment, as always.
  23. I had this as a DD, not a CD. We view through a skylight, and a star is a light in the sky, a bit fanciful so there’s a question mark.
    1. I think you could be onto something. When solving I just thought it was a weak CD.
  24. Having only seen geysers in NZ I can only think of them rhyming with Kaiser which is how the kiwis say it — so spoiled a record time by entering “guyser” doh!
  26. but spent a while on HINGE and bunged it in in the end with a shrug. And I’m usually pretty good with hiddens
  27. Par for a Monday but spent far too long on Hinge and Geyser.

    Harlequinade sounds like an essential kit item for a rugby player

  28. A multitasking morning so pleased to have a sub 30 minutes whilst listening to the cricket – that probably didn’t help.. fetched the bins in and the lightbulb came on for 15dn. Amazing how a few seconds away from the grid lets the mind follow other trains of thought. Liked 18ac but like others , only got it from wordplay. Always glad to have medical terms, it’s the legal Latin that gets me. Liked 4dn and 1ac. Back in the day a pump was a gym shoe, but now they seem to be fashionable flat ladies shoes , probably overpriced. LOI 26 ac .
    MER at 16dn. Are we in for more US terms?

    Thank you setter for a good Monday. Shame couldn’t be said for the events in Chennai. Thanks to gracious blogger.

  29. Another GUYSER. I can’t blame daktarib’s kiwis so i guess i just can’t spell. I’m still pleased with my time of 33:30 (good for me) even with the one pink square. I liked ARMOUR, nicely confusing
  31. Shoving in HEAT LAMP did not help PENAL CODE, but once I realised that PUMP was a much better synonym for shoe, it went straight in. The unknown HARLEQUINADE was my favourite.

    15:49.

  32. My FOI was CHA CHA CHA although I did not find the coffee till I came here.
    After that I found this a bit of a struggle until, ironically, over coffee the largely empty SW fell like England batsmen in the current Test. LOI SHOCKING although I had to return to 2d ARMOUR to confirm parsing.
    I enjoyed this; my favourite was HEAT PUMP but many others enjoyed.
    David
  33. Finished in 29 minutes, fast for me …
    … but needed the blog to understand 8D Excuse me (NHO the dance) and 21A Cha-cha-cha (did not think of mocha).

    Slightly surprised at first to see the spelling Guiana being used in 24A, as the ex-British colony has been Guyana for decades — but then remembered the French still have a full overseas department there.

    Many thanks to Ulaca for the blog
    Cedric

  34. ….for 7 minutes at most, but, after a slow start (7th clue attempted), I’d already gone beyond there when I got stuck in the SW corner. I can’t explain my slowness in spotting TREASURY, but other comments on here may point at my LOI. NHO HEAT PUMP.

    FOI SOMNAMBULISM
    LOI GEYSER
    COD ROOF RACKS
    TIME 9:46

  35. A steady (slowish) solve, but very enjoyable all the same. I had more than my usual difficulty in spotting the definition with a few of the clues, for example 1ac where I spent too long targeting ‘early start’. I also had Fanlight (seemed very plausible at the time) before Common Market prompted an adjustment. Loi was the unknown Harlequinade, where I just followed the cryptic. Rook for cheat was new to me as well. Invariant
  36. I completely forgot about the crossword until this evening. Fortunately it was very Mondayish so it did not take me too long to finish it despite having one eye on Emmerdale.
  37. 15.49. A pleasant and not too demanding solve. I missed the (mo)cha in cha-cha-cha and harlequinade was new to me. Arrest -uy took a long time to re-arrange itself into something recognisable. FOI roof racks. LOI roast.

Comments are closed.