Times 28005 – right on the money.

Author   pipkirbyPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This was one of those puzzles, for me, where the entry points are slow to arrive, then the answers come thick and fast, until you’re left with a couple of obstinate ones (2d, 4d) which in this case took half as long as all the rest. It took me half an hour, with a few still to be fully dissected when it came to writing this up. I thought it was witty and fair and a fine example of the setter’s art, with only one full-blown anagram.

Across
1 Find different plugs to heat generating station (4,4)
WIND FARM – (FIND)* inside WARM = to heat.
6 Original ally seen to cross border (6)
PRIMAL – RIM (border) inside PAL (ally).
9 Ragged person in Comedy Store? (8,5)
LAUGHING STOCK cryptic definition, where store = stock.
10 Perhaps like Sinbad, sailor put inside escaped (6)
FABLED – AB = sailor inside FLED = escaped.
11 Conservative on track in Bow Street? (8)
CRESCENT – C (Conservative) RE (on) SCENT (track). I like “Bow Street” as the definition for crescent.
13 Scottish head meets the Spanish composer in city (10)
HEIDELBERG – HEID = Scottish for head, EL = the Spanish, Alban BERG the composer.
15 Seconds in plenty with tenderloin put in place (4)
LIEU – assemble the second letters of the words pLenty wIth tEnderloin pUt. The surface doesn’t make a lot of sense.
16 Republican coming into club causes terror (4)
BRAT – R inside BAT for club.
18 Hare and hounds shown in daily — Charles ecstatic initially (5,5)
PAPER CHASE – PAPER = daily, CHAS for Charles, E first letter of ecstatic.
21 Progress slowly with polar explorer almost formless (8)
INCHOATE – INCH = progress slowly, OATES the explorer is incomplete. What a nice word inchoate is, I shall use it more often.
22 Important food not fresh, saving little money (6)
STAPLE – STALE (not fresh) has a P for penny inserted.
23 Having influential friends like Elsie, Lacie and Tillie? (4-9)
WELL-CONNECTED – as all Alice IW fans (like me) know, the dormouse told Alice and the other tea party guests a story about three sisters so-named who lived at the bottom of a treacle well. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/alice-VII.html
25 Is it smoking jacket that becomes one? (6)
BLAZER – witty cryptic, ha ha.
26 Travel day after day in desire for rare commodity (4,4)
GOLD DUST – GO (travel) D D (day after day) inside LUST (desire).

Down
2 I’m going to run away from border in disgrace (3,4)
ILL FAME – this was my LOI as I had ILL *A*E while searching for a suitable word for ages. Eventually I saw that the border is FRAME and it loses its R, after “I’m going to” = I’ll. Is ILL FAME a real expression? I’d never heard it.
3 Twin meeting wife gives incomprehensible speech (6,5)
DOUBLE DUTCH – DOUBLE  twin, DUTCH = wife, colloquially.
4 Chap does away with companion over veiled threat in bed (5)
APHID – this was my next to LOI, but it’s a good clue, I was just slow to see it. CHAP loses CH to give you AP, and HID = veiled, and aphids are a “threat in (e.g. a flower) bed”.
5 Visual aid designed for single pupil (7)
MONOCLE – cryptic definition.
6 Weak team member one transferred by coach? (9)
PASSENGER – rather obvious double definition.
7 Bachelor’s last words, popularly, in an artificial language? (3)
IDO – well a bachelor at the altar has to say “I do” and after that he’s no longer a bachelor. IDO is an artificial language, we’ve seen it before quite recently.
8 Quiz one about point that’s not straightforward (7)
ASKANCE – ASK (quiz) ACE (one) insert N for north.
12 Callous lord cheated outrageously (4-7)
COLD-HEARTED – (LORD CHEATED)*.
14 Club performer having stateside cops respond for audience (3,6)
LAP DANCER – My fav clue of the day. The LAPD being “stateside cops” and ANCER sounds like answer = respond.
17 Restoration novel in authentic setting (7)
RENEWAL – NEW (novel) inside REAL (authentic).
19 Old coin, Chinese one with note in typical moneybox? (7)
PFENNIG – a PIG or piggybank is a typical moneybox; insert money! A FEN is a Chinese coin, 1/100 of a yuan, and N for a note.
20 One seen at dusk endlessly following sun stroke (7)
SOLIDUS – SOL (sun) I (one) DUS(K) (dusk endlessly). The /.
22 Son having a nightmare sees skeleton (5)
SHELL – S for son, HELL for nightmare.
24 Girl needing a way to escape reptile (3)
LIZ – LIZARD loses A RD = a road.

​

63 comments on “Times 28005 – right on the money.”

  1. 8:43 – a rather fun challenge, it was HEIDELBERG that held me up, thinking it had to begin S,EL for a while. LAP DANCER and GOLD DUST very clever.
  2. I had the same misapprehension as George re HEIDELBERG; had to wait for checkers and to assume that HEID was Scottish. DNK PASSENGER but it seemed likely enough; DNK FEN. ‘Bow Street’ threw me off by suggesting something Cockney. ILL FAME is dated, but I can remember ‘house of ill fame’ for brothel. COD to LAP DANCER (I’m old enough that I first put in FAN DANCER).
    3. I must have watched too many American cop shows, as LAPD was a write in!
  3. I may be more familiar with ‘ill repute’. (No jokes please.)

    Anyway, not a terribly challenging puzzle, but there were plenty of head-scratchers that made it a delightful solve. APHID had a wonderfully misleading surface, and, not knowing OATES, the reparsing I needed to do from INCH-… to IN-CH… gave me an absolute thrill. It’s this sort of joy of wordplay that keeps me coming back every day.

    Edited at 2021-06-16 01:47 am (UTC)

    1. OATES was the member of Scott’s expedition who apparently uttered his last words “I’m going out and I may be some time”.
  4. was highly unlikely to be in Bow itsen as itz just awf’f Covent Garden; where Lisa Doolikkle mangled-the-lingo, darn by the owd flaaah markit. Innit.

    FOI 1dn ILL FAME

    LOI 20dn SOLIDUS

    WOD 13ac HEIDELBERG – I am ever drawn back to this rather charming town

    COD 21ac INCHOATE- In the last words of Captain Oates – I may be (was) some Time!

    Like Jeremy and Lord Ulaca, have never heard of 14dn!

    Edited at 2021-06-16 03:07 am (UTC)

  5. Delightful and witty with some interesting answers and superb definitions, like Bow Street or threat in bed. Didn’t know the Alice reference, long-forgotten since last read, but what else could it be? Fen also unknown, even though I’ve been to China a few years back. Red 100 yuan notes were commonest, can’t remember if we ever had coins or if their value was to low… search, search, search, found two 10 fen coins in the jar.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

    Edited at 2021-06-16 03:43 am (UTC)

    1. I forgot to mention that the clue was wasted on me, as I’d long forgotten the sisters’ names.
  6. …as a crossword should be. I must remember that solidus is not only a coin but also a slash. It held me up for a while No excuse, we’ve had it before. Thanks for the Alice in Wonderland education, Pip. I’d either forgotten this part or never knew it.
    17’29”

    Edited at 2021-06-16 04:22 am (UTC)

  7. I’ll add my appreciation to Bow Street and LAPD — a couple of very nice touches in a quality crossword. I also particularly liked COLD HEARTED for the quality of the surface. For whatever reason ILL FAME seemed reasonably familiar to me — I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as a noun but I’m sure I’ve seen someone or something described as “ill famed” more than once before.
  8. This was a delightful puzzle which took some time to get into but then fell into place very nicely. 38 minutes.

    If I don’t solve the first Across clue or first Down clue immediately I tend to look around the grid for easy pickings, starting with the shortest answers, and that happened today, so it was disconcerting when I was unable to write in either of the 3-letter answers on first reading. I eventually got started with LIEU at 15ac.

    My only unknown was the reference at 23ac although the answer was easy enough from the definition and checkers available by the time I got to it. I was never an ardent fan of Alice but had thought I was familiar with all the characters.

    The Bow Street clue was particularly good. I knew it was unlikely to be a Cockney thing because I’m familiar with its actual location, but I went off in another direction thinking of its connection with the Law, the Magistrates Court and Bow Street Runners, London’s first professional police force.

    Edited at 2021-06-16 04:59 am (UTC)

  9. 15 mins pre-brekker. No real hold ups.
    Didn’t know who Elsie etc. were.
    I felt on wavelength today (apologies to the rare contributor for whom this phrase is a bugbear).
    Thanks setter and Pip.
    1. Apologies accepted, but take a moment to consider what you really mean. Yes, there are days when the answers flow rapidly and others where each one has to be extracted like pulling teeth, but this is down to one’s mood on the day and/or the difficulty of the puzzle. Today was one of the former for you (and me too!)

      DavidH

      1. How can you say so definitively that it’s down to mood? My mood isn’t discernibly different today to yesterday’s, or Monday’s. My routine was the same, I solved the puzzle in the same place at the same time drinking the same coffee made in the same machine.
        The point of using the word ‘wavelength’ is that it’s actually extremely hard to pinpoint why this happens. Sometimes it’s because of vocabulary that you happen to have or not to have, but that wasn’t the case for me today: the things I didn’t know weren’t the things that slowed me down. I have absolutely no idea why this puzzle took me 30% longer than average, when most people seem to have found it relatively easy.
      2. I’m not sure the ‘wavelength’ bears expert analysis. It is a thing of magic and intangible beauty. As a genius once said…
        Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings,
        Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
        Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine —
        Unweave a rainbow….

        Edited at 2021-06-16 12:35 pm (UTC)

      3. I don’t think anyone is suggesting a telepathic connection, if that’s your objection. I’m a hard-headed anti-supernaturalist myself, and this term seems to me quite apt. The setter is indeed “telegraphing” the answers in a sense. There’s a hidden signal in the noise. You will pick up on a setter’s game—their style, their rhythm, their je ne sais quoi—at some times better than others.

        Edited at 2021-06-16 04:26 pm (UTC)

  10. 21:20
    Easy enough. No idea about the well sisters; thought it might have something to do with all the names ending IE. Nice puzzle.
    Thanks, pip.
  11. 13:06 I got all the way to 26A before I found an answer, but the downs got me going. Held up at the end by BLAZER, LIZ and my LOI, ILL FAME. Did not remember the girls, so biffed WELL-CONNECTED – thanks for reminding me who they are, Pip. Good puzzle. Thanks Pip and setter.
  12. I believe a marriage ceremony does not always contain the words “I DO” — the response is “I will” — hence the inclusion of ‘popularly’ in the clue.

    ILL-FAME was LOI. Liked FABLED. Dnk the Alice reference, despite being a fan. COD to APHID.

    14′ 11″, first all correct this week, thanks pip and setter.

    Edited at 2021-06-16 06:55 am (UTC)

    1. I think this is a US/UK (or US/C of E) thing: it’s generally ‘I do’ in the US. (Think Elvis: ‘Let’s walk up to the preacher/ Let us say ‘I do’ / Then I’ll know you love me / And you’ll know that I love you’.) J.L. Austin (‘How to Do Things with Words’) uses ‘I do’ (these were lectures at Harvard) and his editor thought it was a slip; which was how I learned of ‘I will’.

      Edited at 2021-06-16 09:39 am (UTC)

  13. 37 mins. DNK SOLIDUS or INCHOATE, but managed to scramble them together. LOI ILL FAMÉ. took a while to see. I also spent some time looking for a Bow Street runner, or copper, to no avail. V clever clue. My COD.

    Thanks Pip and setter

  14. I thought this was delightful and I concur with Pip’s intro. There were some delightful surface readings.
    I particularly liked APHID, GOLD DUST and CRESCENT but I didn’t know the Alice in Wonderland connection, nor FEN.
    Thank you, Pip.
  15. A very similar experience to Pip, the opening few clues initially making me fear a hard slog, but once started, everything crashed in pleasantly. My difference was that 2d and 4d posed no problem, but LIEU had me staring at the grid in bemused frustration. Too many words in the clue, none of them seemingly connected to anything crosswordy. At one point, I wondered if I might get away with LIED for put in place. Eventually saw the device, and completed in 16.04.
    I remembered the well sisters, though had to disabuse myself of the notion their names all began with M. That, I think, is another part of the tale.
  16. Elsie, Lacie and Tillie were based on the Liddell sisters: Elsie originated from the initials of Lorina Charlotte; Lacie is a transformation of Alice, and Tillie was short for Matilda – a name given to Edith by her sisters.
    There are further references to them in Cathy Dean’s text ‘The Duck and the Dodo’ – Martin Gardner. Alice (Hargreaves) had three sons – all were killed during WWI.

    A boat beneath a sunny sky,
    L ingering onward dreamily
    I n an evening of July—

    C hildren three that nestle near,
    E ager eye and willing ear,
    Pleased a simple tale to hear.

    (Acrostic Poem at the end of Through The Looking Glass)

    Thus WELL CONNECTED is my COD. Time 19.05

    Edited at 2021-06-16 08:07 am (UTC)

  17. 16:51. I found this tricky, and was clearly off the wavelength (as measured objectively by the SNITCH). I was completely bamboozled by PAPER CHASE and WELL-CONNECTED. I didn’t know ‘hare and hounds’, and my ignorance of Carroll’s oeuvre is exceeded only by my dislike of it.
    Both gettable in the end though, so no complaints and I enjoyed what for me was a challenge.
      1. I can’t read more than about five words without wanting to throw the book in the nearest available fire. I acknowledge this may have been an impediment to full understanding.

        Edited at 2021-06-16 10:12 am (UTC)

        1. Keriothe – Find a copy of Martin Gardner’s “The Annotated Alice” and the subtleties and adult-ness might open up to you. I can’t imagine why you have such an aversion.
          1. I find it unbearably twee and affected. And I spent more than enough time at university reading stuff that needed a guidebook to understand the subtleties!
  18. I started off with APHID, FABLED and DOUBLE DUTCH. Then saw MONOCLE, which gave me the LAUGHING bit of 9a. I had to wait a while for STOCK. WIND FARM and ILL came along soon enough, but FAME had to wait for HEIDELBERG. Liked CRESCENT. LIEU took ages to see. Didn’t remember the well sisters, so biffed that one. LIZ and then BLAZER were my last 2 in. 21:49. Most enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Pip.
  19. Didn’t know who Elsie, Lacie and Tillie were, but the clue made it clear that they were WELL-CONNECTED. Hadn’t heard of fen as a coin and I didn’t work out the ‘pig’ bit, so I didn’t get PFENNIG until I had all the checkers. Also didn’t see how CRESCENT worked – a very nice clue now that I know how it works.

    FOI Liz
    LOI Solidus
    COD Aphid

  20. No time to offer as left in charge of daughter’s puppy, bur probably more a 40 minute job than thirty. LOI ILL FAME. I struggled with CRESCENT and I live in one! Needed all the crossers for WELL-CONNECTED while racking my brains as to who the three girls were. I saw LAP DANCER straightaway but then I did once chair an LA based company. But fancy asking a former CEGB man to think of WIND FARM. I did though and I’m making that COD. Who says we weren’t green enough? A good puzzle which I wish I could have given my full attention too.Thank you Pip and setter.
  21. 44:52. A really good puzzle. My own struggle with 11ac came from trying to lift and separate Bow Street, taking Bow as the instruction to drop an H, leaving Street as the definition, so the actual location of Bow Street is just misdirection. Never mind. I got there in the end
    1. I did the same. After failing to see the need to lift and separate so many times I may have become over eager to do so! Once I got the initial C the right answer emerged.
  22. Much more like it imho with several witty definitions that brought smiles, not necessarily instantly. Clear favourites mentioned by others above but heartily agree with their assessment. Elegant and erudite, and fun. Many thanks to setter and blogger.
  23. A sleepy solve in the sun in 25 mins. SOLIDUS the only unknown — a much nicer word than the ubiquitous “slash”.
  24. Oh yes, there is such a thing as a wavelength and I found it this morning. Very enjoyable one and not just because the answers produced themselves this time – it was well-crafted. My only minor query was that a LAUGHING STOCK isn’t necessarily ragged. 12.56
    1. I may be misunderstanding your point but it’s to rag as in to make fun of.
      1. Duh. Missed it completely – not so wavelengthy after all…
    2. A laughing stock may be one who is being ragged by a bunch of people mocking and laughing at them, as opposed to the idea that they are ragged round the edges.
  25. Thanks for explaining the WELL-CONNECTED sisters – I did read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland many years ago, but that didn’t ring a bell at all.

    Nice crossword, with APHID the pick of the bunch for me. And the pedant in me was glad of the ‘popularly’ in 7d.

    BRAT was my LOI after 5m 57s, one of the first words I considered but it was only at the end that the correct meaning of ‘terror’ occurred to me.

  26. ….called Litu, but it isn’t the answer to 15A. A piece of crass stupidity by yours truly which caused a two minute hold-up before I cracked ASKANCE and CRESCENT. I wouldn’t mind, but I parsed it easily, yet still picked out an incorrect letter !

    Nice to see Elsie, Lacie and Tillie — they always remind me of the late Joyce Cansfield.

    FOI BRAT (slow start)
    LOI CRESCENT (almost COD)
    COD LAP DANCER (just my sort of clue)
    TIME 11:35 (disappointing)

  27. Well on the ball with this but pink square for spelling COLD-HRARTED — grr grr grr.

    No idea what was going on with WELL-CONNECTED. ILL FAME was another shrug job.

  28. I don’t understand what ‘that becomes one’ contributes to the BLAZER CD. I know what it means in the surface sense but I don’t see any cryptic sense to it. Is it referring to the fact that a blazer is just a jacket and not part of a suit?
  29. Enjoyable puzzle. Ground to a halt after the first few but was pleased to discover that concentration and application can pay off. Could not see ill fame at all.
    Thanks for the explanation of 23ac. I don’t remember the sisters at all but you have inspired me to re-read Alice which, pace Keriothe, is wonderful. Perfect weather for it too somehow (beautiful, warm sunshine in my part of the UK).
  30. Bit sluggish but enjoyed it for all the reasons have said. CRESCENT was excellent. Surface for INCHOATE was a bit lumpy but excellent pdm when the answer emerged from the mist, or should that be snow, after satisfying myself INCHSCOT was unlikely to be a thing

    Thanks setter and Pip

  31. …after waiting for morning. I saw WELL-CONNECTED last night, but wasn’t sure because I didn’t remember that episode from the Carroll book, so left the puzzle blank. After a good night’s sleep, and cracking a few more of the clues, I said “to hell with it” and wrote it in. I didn’t know the (British) sense of PASSENGER evoked here either so that was my POI. Well, or Antepenultimate… I had biffed TAP DANCER (missing all the fun), so had to correct that to get HEIDELBERG.
  32. Very enjoyable puzzle- more like this please- but failed on 9,11,2 and 4. Enjoyed 26 and 14.
    Thank you for a very enjoyable blog
  34. No time today. Because of other commitments I had to tackle the puzzle while watching Wales in the Euros. I do hope this behaviour is not considered sacriligeous!
    Anyway it was great fun, I enjoyed the variety of clues, the setter’s wit and skill evident throughout.
    Everything was parsed today apart from 23 ac containing the three sisters reference which I was not aware of, although the solution was pretty clear.
    Almost anything could qualify for COD today.
    Thanks to Pip for the blog and to the setter for a fine puzzle.
    Now come on Wales!!
  35. Very nice, but a DNF for me as I’ve never come across SOLIDUS: the word-play gave me the solution, but I reached for the dictionary before filling it in. I stared at LIEU for ages before seeing how the clue worked (agree that the surface is a bit lumpy).
  36. A slow start (even by my standards), but once I had the long answers in place the combination of crossers and the odd biff worked wonders. Sadly, despite the setter’s best intentions, the second half of loi 21ac, Inchoate, proved a step too far. Nevertheless, an enjoyable journey. Invariant
  37. A speedy solve given that there were some known unknowns in there (I had little idea why WELL-CONNECTED was what it obviously had to be, sorry, setter). Enjoyable anyway.
  38. 16.53. A pleasure to solve. I failed to get the well-connected connection but enumeration and checkers were helpful. Highlights were the Bow Street and threat in bed definitions.
  39. Chuffed to bits to finish this one, the first time in ages. Didn’t find it easy but even so completed it in around 50 minutes over morning porridge. FOI DOUBLE DUTCH, LOI the troublesome 2d and 4d which were totally biffed, as was WELL-CONNECTED. I thought that had something to do with all the Ls in the names! NHO SOLIDUS which I misspelled with an E thinking SOLE… Enjoyed actually understanding the wordplays and feeling the pennies drop. Thanks to setter for making it doable, and blogger for the usual lesson in how.
  40. My wife and I always do the crossword a day in arrears, which is why we read this blog every day but don’t comment because evrything has already been said. Nevertheless, we read the blog every day for amusement and enlightenment. We would usually expect to finish although we will never attain the times of some of the speed merchants. I hope that someone can help. Since Sunday morning, i have been unable to log on to the club site. Every time I try, Error message 403 is displayed. I spoke to a techie at The Times and we tried various solutions: switching from Chrome to Firefox, clearing history, attempting entry via The Times site etc but nothing worked. Not only that but half the screen is taken up by the “about us etc” section which can normally be scrolled up and down. If anyone has any ideas, I would be extremely grateful. Apologies for the rambling. Roc Walker (aka Frustrated of Bristol)

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