Times 28,001: Just One More Wafer-Thin Clue

Author   verlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Very straightforward for a Friday – I did this while articulating my thought processes as I’m trying to work out how to livestream, and it still look me only 7 minutes odd. The surfaces are pretty coherent and I did like my deceptively simple LOI 10ac, the nice word 27ac, the device at 17dn and the surface of 14dn, which reminded me of Mr Creosote and inspired this blog’s title. Many thanks to the setter, and maybe by next week I’ll have worked out how actually to get a recording of my musings!

ACROSS
1 Trainee giving nitrogen to plant (6)
INTERN – give N to INTER [plant, as in bury]

5 Risqué nature of playwright’s succeeded (8)
RACINESS – RACINE’S S

9 Denial duke takes House of Lords allowances, perhaps (10)
DISCLAIMER – D IS CLAIMER

10 Atom bombs? Ring for security (4)
MOAT – (ATOM*)

11 Vacant Berkshire farmland is unlikely to be rejected (8)
BEARABLE – B{erkshir}E ARABLE

12 River in India, certainly (6)
INDEED – DEE in IND

13 Punt ace, not the brightest (4)
BETA – BET A. Second brightest, of stars

15 Break’s very warm — a record at the moment (8)
SNAPSHOT – SNAP’S HOT

18 Volume of Poe needs a note for scholarly readers (8)
LITERATI – LITER [American volume] + A TI

19 Host is very foolish wasting billions (4)
ARMY – {b}ARMY

21 Country taking power from an older one (6)
RUSSIA – {p}RUSSIA

23 Semester, say, in which one may get to train (8)
TERMINUS – a “semester” is a TERM IN U.S.

25 Cheese of fine character (4)
FETA – F ETA

26 Scribbler’s tattoos don’t fade away? (3-7)
INK-SLINGER – INKS LINGER

27 A serving girl over in hotel, one carrying tea? (8)
INDIAMAN – A MAID reversed in INN

28 Island dividing traffic gets railing (6)
TIRADE – I dividing TRADE

DOWN
2 Disturbing sounds perhaps not at all lacking in watts (5)
NOISE – NO{w}ISE

3 Former partner with company, one brought in to evaluate and criticise (9)
EXCORIATE – EX + CO + I brought into RATE

4 Close Scottish bank set up in US financial centre (6)
NEARBY – reversed BRAE in NY

5 Dwarf with odd skin mostly raises family (15)
RUMPELSTILTSKIN – RUM PEL{t} STILTS KIN

6 Red woollen jacket, new key line (8)
CARDINAL – CARDI N A L

7 Not one check over migrant (5)
NOMAD – NO [not one] + reversed DAM [check]

8 Where the Queen entertains most are to run round (9)
STATEROOM – (MOST ARE TO*)

14 Gourmet’s colossal waste ending in bin (9)
EPICUREAN – EPIC UREA {bi}N

16 Supplier of paper one artist ordered (9)
STATIONER – (ONE ARTIST*)

17 Metal vehicle carrying goods for street at one end of sports ground (8)
VANADIUM – {st->VAN}ADIUM

20 Thrash metal involving right band (6)
ARMLET – (METAL*) involving R

22 Trod water, perhaps, with one teacher (5)
SWAMI – SWAM with I

24 Overturn university marker over delta (5)
UPEND – U PEN over D

61 comments on “Times 28,001: Just One More Wafer-Thin Clue”

  1. Likely a Friday PB for me. I never did see INTER=plant. And I didn’t (don’t) get the H of L allowances. I was surprised to see ‘skin’ in the clue for RUMPELSTILTSKIN; it was enough for me to biff it, only parsing it later. I’d forgotten about CARDI, and spent some time trying to figure out where the G went. A couple of clues–for STATIONER & SWAMI, for instance–struck me as QCish. I liked LITERATI, TERMINUS, & EPICUREAN.
    1. Members of the House of Lords may not be salaried but can claim allowances, I don’t know if it’s any cleverer than that! Not that great a clue if there isn’t any more to it than that…
  2. Once I got a proper foothold with the very accommodating with 5dn RUMPELSTILTSKIN. Today he would probably on the sex-offenders list.

    FOI 25ac FETA (it was not BRIE!) On edit: EDAM and TOME to add to the Cheese Shop Sketch.

    LOI 5ac RACINESS – I don’t think I have ever seen one of his tragedies, nor his comedy.

    COD 12ac BEARABLE

    WOD East INDIAMAN – a wonderful sight under full sail – Masefield etc

    26ac INK SLINGER was interesting

    Time: a leisurely 39 minutes with all parsed.

    Edited at 2021-06-11 02:59 am (UTC)

  3. 32.10. Held up by a few at the end, including VANADIUM, which I’d NHO, but figured it out eventually. It took me far too long to see INDEED. I thought I was looking for the name of a river and came *this* close to inventing INIYES before the penny dropped…
  4. An annoying 50 minute DNF. Stuck on ‘River’ as the definition for 12a, so I put in ‘Indyes’ even though It was obviously wrong.

    Never heard of the term before, but I liked the INKS LINGER at 26a and the misdirection of the ‘Volume of Poe’ at 18a.

    Thanks to Verlaine and setter

  5. Fastest of the week. No problems. Why not use another word for pelt other than skin … there are plenty? COD to MOAT.
  7. It’s been a while since I made a bit of a boob, but I managed to invent the INDYES river today. I was doubtful enough to give it further thought, but only to think how else the name of the river might end other than -YES. At least I have company — thanks bletchleyreject!

    Edited at 2021-06-11 05:55 am (UTC)

  8. A steady solve mostly finished in 40 minutes but I ran out of steam with 17, 26 and 27 outstanding. I guessed that 26 would begin with INK but INK-SLINGER was unknown to me and eventually I resorted to aids. Also for VANADIUM which features in the Tom Lehrer song but is rather thrown away at the end of a line so it hadn’t registered with me. The M-checker then brought INDIAMAN to mind to complete the grid. I agree with those who feel that the clue to DISCLAIMER was not very good.

    Edited at 2021-06-11 05:12 am (UTC)

    1. I had forgotten all about Lehrer’s ‘The Elements’. Platinum! How do I know of vanadium pentoxide? Was it an old colouring in a long discarded paint box?

      Edited at 2021-06-11 07:17 am (UTC)

      1. Vanadium pentoxide is used as a catalyst in the production of sulphuric acid.
        Andyf
  9. …. all back to normal then. Another who had INDYES for a while but after looking at it for the fifth time , I thought, nah, that can’t be right and restudied the clue. NHO INK SLINGER but bunged it in with fingers crossed. LOI SNAPSHOT. Clever in its simplicity. I also liked VANADIUM, my COD. Thanks V and setter.
  10. After 25 mins pre-brekker I was left with Ink-somethingI’veneverheardof.
    Thanks setter and V.
  11. 11:07. Mostly straightforward but I was held up a bit by the various quasi-unknowns in the bottom half: VANADIUM, INDIAMAN, INK-SLINGER. I say ‘quasi’ because they’re all vaguely familiar now that I know what they are but they all had to be constructed from wordplay.
  12. 16:37 LOI the deceptive INDEED. I liked EPICUREAN and VANADIUM best, the latter for reminding me of my days researching the corrosion resistance of stainless steel made with Vanadium instead of Molybdenum. I think I’ve still got a bit of my steel in the attic.
  13. Tattoo-ist – I mentioned mine ‘Pendragon’ only yesterday! Bizarre! COD thus goes to 25ac INK-SLINGER. Time 17.23
  14. But it is a thing… some peers turn up, claim their daily allowance then go away without participating in our great democracy….
    1. I seem to remember there was a bit of a scandal about it some years ago when some of them were claiming large allowances for the purported expense of living in London when away from home when in fact they already lived in London and the home-away-from-home in the country was not in fact their residence. I also recall that one of them used the money to build himself a MOAT on his weekend property. Moatgate?
    2. I am not quite sure whether you are employing irony here, Rob? The thing is that they are not democratically elected.
      Was that your point? Ed
  15. 25 minutes with LOI the unknown INK-SLINGER. I vaguely knew INDIAMAN. I wonder why the setter didn’t use a word such as fur instead of skin in the dwarf clue. Otherwise, a pleasant Friday excursion.Thank you V and setter.
  16. Two occurrences of US English, I really liked TERMINUS, albeit some UK universities now use the word. INDIAMAN well-known from Hornblower, Aubrey etc., where the ship was a most valuable prize, which could make an entire crew relatively rich.

    I nearly invented a playwright called RECKLE.

    17′ 53″ thanks verlaine and setter.

  17. 22:45
    Fun puzzle; enjoyed it. Nice to see my chief tormentor from uni days, Racine, in there. Thanks, v, and have a nice weekend.
      1. Johnny Root and Pete Crow (the other one doesn’t translate) :))
  18. Lots of shrugging today.

    INTERN and NOISE were only pencilled in (but it was 1am).

    Biffed NOMAD and INDEED towards the end.

    Saw the VAN from VANADIUM but nothing else.

    LOI INK-SLINGER took a lot of CPU cycles to come up with.

    Quite enjoyable though.

  19. Possibly the quickest of the week in 13.48, with my last in VANADIUM, partly because I went at least part way through my list of sports grounds and their surrounding thoroughfares. Cleverest clue of the set, I thought.
    Checking pre-submission revealed BEARABLE does not have two Ls at the end and the dwarf is not RUMPLEd. Which also enabled me to give up wondering what sort of skin starts PLE.
    Thanks for the blog, V, and my sympathy on having to settle for a Friday freebie.

    Edited at 2021-06-11 08:17 am (UTC)

  20. As I solved it I thought “V isn’t going to like this much..” not hard enough for him, though about right for me.
    No problem with vanadium for us engineering types, a common ingredient of stainless steel often printed onto spanners, etc.
    Failed to parse 2dn but fine otherwise, top class surface readings today.
    1. You’re right. I have a (very old) collection of chrome vanadium spanners! Didn’t think of them when answering the clue.

      On édit, sorry I did not see John’s entry below.

      Edited at 2021-06-11 01:33 pm (UTC)

      1. Look after them them Rose, much better that what you get nowadays 🙂
  21. Enjoyed this. Quite pleased to be done and dusted in less than 24 minutes but the dreaded pink square for mistyping VANADIOM -a metal only found on the Isle of Man. I liked TERMINUS and LITERATI, not so keen on INTERN.

    Thanks to Verlaine and the setter.

  22. A pleasant not-so-Fridayish solve, starting with NEARBY, BEARABLE and EXCORIATE in short order. I then skipped through the rest of it, with RACINESS the order of the day. LOI was INK SLINGER, constructed from wordplay. Liked INDIAMAN and VANADIUM. As Jerry mentions, Chrome Vanadium spanners were a feature of many a tool box! 18:58, probably a Friday PB for me. Thanks setter and V.
  23. Like yesterday, this was about my optimum level of difficulty.
    I have never heard of INK-SLINGER.
    EPICUREAN was my COD
    1. As far as I can tell, no one here has heard of INK-SLINGER, and that includes me. Collins, Chambers, Lexico don’t recognize it. My English-Japanese dictionary does, and says it’s an Americanism. News to me.
      1. No I didn’t know it either – the closest seems to be “ink-stained wretch” and I’ve no idea where that originated. An octopus or squid could be an ink-slinger.
      2. It is in Chambers, FWIW. It’s terribly obscure but I didn’t mind it: deducible from wordplay and makes sense as a derogatory word for a writer.
      3. Ink-slinger is in my Chambers,and not as an Americanism, although “ink-jerker” is. Also in the OED: “originally U.S. a contemptuous appellation for a professional writer, esp. a reckless writer in the newspaper press.”
        All of them crass terms, that I would never use.
  24. Looking forward to the streaming!

    I didn’t find this one so easy, partly because I misspelled RUMPELSTILTSKIN (as I always do, I think) and mistyped INDIAMAN at first. But no excuses for INDYES, thinking that maybe it was a river I’d never heard of, or perhaps an alternate spelling of INDUS. Silly.

  25. In my haste, D IS CLAIMER and TERM IN US passed me by. Nice to come here and find out what I biffed. NHO INK SLINGER but fortunately the LINGER bit occurred to me without too much delay.
    Started with SAMARIUM but it didn’t work. Like most INDEED was my LOI, forgot about IND for India.
  26. I found this progressively harder as I descended the grid, ending with the unknown INK SLINGER. I didn’t see INDEED and invented an Indian river I am too embarrassed to admit to, which had the additional novel quality of fitting neither the definition nor the cryptic.
  27. Very appropriate with the Test Match at Edgbaston today.
    Nice puzzle with some well constructed clues — not as tough as I feared for a Friday.
    I did not know the word “Nowise” but I do now!
    Thanks V.
  28. I see it’s back. Thanks Starstruck. 15.04 for me on this one.
  29. Didn’t fully parse DISCLAIMER, TERMINUS or LITERATI, but I enjoyed this and completed it in one of my quicker times. I only know Racine from Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and had no idea what he was famous for, but the cluing made it clear. Hadn’t heard of INK-SLINGER, but now I really want to use it in conversation.

    FOI Nearby
    LOI Vanadium
    COD Ink-slinger

    1. Chris – why not have yourself a tattoo! And then tell us all about it! I had mine done in Copenghagen.
  30. I just keep a picture of Oscar Wilde in my attic. Each to their own.
  31. Pleasant puzzle, a softie for a Friday, no problems, 30 minutes, didn’t parse LITERATI or NOMAD, VANADIUM was a gimme for me. Had to ask Mrs K how to spell the dwarf (RUMPLE or RUMPEL) then the checkers told us.
  32. 24.50. I felt quite good about that for a Friday. Then I saw Verlaine’s time! Not to worry, it still meant a decent end to the week. FOI excoriate and LOI moat. The NE corner was troublesome but indeed and nomad meant the alphabet trawl for moat was eventually pretty straightforward.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  33. The Snitch is back, as Elton John nearly sang! Not a Friday beast, in fact a quite amiable puzzle, though I took a while to work out certain elements, such as avoiding the temptation of the river Indyes and the lesser playwright Monsieur Rudene.
  34. ….I found myself staring blankly at 12A. It was almost a full minute more before the PDM.

    FOI BEARABLE
    LOI INDEED
    COD MOAT
    TIME 6:58

  35. I’ve been doing more 15x15s of late – on paper and in a relaxed way without trying for a time. I really enjoyed today’s and was surprised to complete a Friday’s puzzle so relatively simply. Enjoyed a great many of the clues. LOI the nho VANADIUM which I was well pleased to get from the parsing.
  36. I seem to be in the minority in finding this difficult, maybe I was tired last night crawling home in 16:40 with MOAT being my last in. Yikes.
  37. 18:24. For first time in ages, we had lunch in a bistro, sat outside, with a couple of glasses of rose. If that explains my subsequent feelings of sluggishness while tackling this puzzle then so be it — it was worth it!
    I experienced a few MERs e.g. 1 ac “intern” where I know inter means to bury in the ground but has anyond interred any roses recently? Also felt 9 ac “disclaimer” was rather laboured.
    On the other hand I enjoyed several other clues e.g. 5 ac “raciness”, 14 d “epicurean” ( visions of Monty Python indeed), 17 d “vanadium” and LOI 12 ac “indeed”.
    Thanks to Verlaine and setter
  38. Embarrassing to see V’s time. I don’t think I could write them in that fast, but I see all the usual suspects are correspondingly quick, too. It took me the best part of 90 minutes (no exact time) while invigilating an exam, but I am always glad just to finish a Friday puzzle, and I did at least parse everything correctly, so no complaints.
    Gill D
  39. Only defeated by INDIAMAN after a long tussle.
    Enjoyed it.
    Liked MOAT and LITERATI best.
    David
  40. Not hard, but certainly not boringly easy. LOI VANADIUM. Also got INDIAMAN strictly from the wordplay. Guessed what was going on with the duke in the HL. (Marine Le Pen’s far-right—and anti-European—RN members were doing the same kind of scandalous thing in the European Parliament as Olivia details…)

    Coincidentally, a puzzle I’m test-solving today has GUN-SLINGER. Interesting discussion above about the elusive lexicographical substantiation of INK-SLINGER. I just assumed it must be in Chambers.

  41. Can we make “clue-slinger” as a synonym for “setter” happen, do you think?
    1. How about “pink-slinger” for someone who, on submitting their completed solution, is horrified to see there’s a pink square?
  42. 21.55. Par solving time for a beta-difficulty level Friday puzzle. Atom bombs was nice if fairly gettable (with two Ts of course).

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