Times Cryptic 27878

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 41 minutes. I found this one fairly straightforward but with one or two MERs along the way.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Rocket, say: why not all there? (10)
LOCOMOTIVE : LOCO (not all there), MOTIVE (why). Stephenson’s Rocket designed in 1829 and built in Newcastle.
6 Enemy caught by Tasmanian tiger (4)
ANTI : Hidden in [caught by[ {tasmani}AN TI{ger}. ‘Enemy’ seems a bit strong, but I guess it works colloquially.
9 Unchanging, those full of beans, say in early part of tennis match? (3,2,5)
SET IN STONE : TINS (those full of beans, say) contained by [in] SET ONE (early part of tennis match)
10 Over eight thirteenths of the alphabet? (4)
ATOP : A-TO-P accounts for 16 letters of the 26 in the alphabet. 16/26 can be simplified to ‘eight-thirteenths’.
12 Fighting with chorus in challenges such as these (8,6)
CROSSING SWORDS : SING (chorus) contained by [in] CROSSWORDS (challenges such as these)
14 Chinese Revolution topping the bill, alas, ultimately for communist (6)
ENGELS : {Chines}E {revolutio}N {toppin}G {th}E {bil}L {ala}S [ultimately]. Friedrich Engels 1820-1895.
15 Lawn weed: cut the whole lot back (8)
PRUNELLA : PRUNE (cut), then ALL (the whole lot) reversed [back]. Only the Oxfords have it as a plant and there’s no mention of it being a weed, nor that it’s particularly associated with lawns, however I found this on a gardening site: Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) is a tenacious perennial weed that loves lawns and will stick close to the ground in order to survive even the closest mowing.
17 Cow neatherd almost forced onto back of cart (8)
THREATEN : {car}T [back], then anagram [forced] of NEATHER{d} [almost]. I looked twice at ‘forced’ as anagrind, but it’s on the Chambers lists.
19 One hit by player, icon reportedly (6)
CYMBAL : Sounds like [reportedly] “symbol” (icon)
22 What could shock   more or less, for example? (4-6,4)
FOUR-LETTER WORD : Two meanings
24 Nation that had me as president? (4)
IRAN : And a cryptic hint to the alternatively spaced I RAN
25 A vale heading north, man on deviating path (2,1,7)
AT A TANGENT : A, TA-TA (vale – farewell – Latin), N{orth} [heading], GENT (man). ‘Heading’ is redundant other than for the surface reading  as ‘north = N’ would have sufficed, but I’ve tried to accont for it in the wordplay.
26 Female animals expressed milk (4)
EWES : Sounds like [expressed] “use” (milk). Chambers defines ‘milk’ in this sense as ‘obtain money, information or any other benefit from someone or something, cleverly or relentlessly; exploit’. In other words ‘take advantage of’ or  ‘use’.
27 Sweet and spicy food: wanting it with coating of saffron in bread (6,4)
BRANDY SNAP : RANDY (wanting it – nudge, nudge!) + S{affro}N [coating], contained by [in] BAP (bread). The traditional spice content is ginger, hence the alternative name, ginger snap.
Down
1 Lovely soak (4)
LUSH : Two meanings, the second in the sense of an alcoholic
2 Dance that has guru act wildly (3,1,3)
CUT A RUG : Anagram [wildly] of GURU ACT. An expression previously unknown to me. Here’s the Collins entry: New Word Suggestion: Cut a rug – to dance really well to impress others. Submitted: 28/05/2013. Approval Status: Pending Investigation. I’ve never seen that for a crossword answer before, and they still haven’t come to a decision nearly 8 years after it was submitted! It’s in Lexico as ‘North American’ with ‘Cut the rug’ as an alternative.
3 One is late (not early): only some changes holding delivery up (12)
MONOSYLLABLE : Anagram [changes] of ONLY SOME containing holding BALL (delivery – cricket) reversed [up]. ‘Not early’ because that’s disyllabic.
4 Rubbish game for King Edward, according to Wallace? (6)
TATTIE : TAT (rubbish), TIE (game). King Edward is a variety of potato. The reference to (William) Wallace  indicates the Scottish slang for the vegetable.
5 Sharp swing restricting batting, say (8)
VINEGARY : VARY (swing) containing [restricting] IN (batting) + EG (say)
7 Musical character   in one’s blood (7)
NATURAL :Two meanings. In musical notation the natural sign (♮) countermands a previous sharp or flat sign or one that’s in the key signature.
8 Completely shut off, there’s nothing exceptional about me? (10)
IMPASSABLE : Another secondary cryptic hint relying on alternative spacing: I’M PASSABLE.
11 Score doubled, perfect in one faculty? (6-6)
TWENTY-TWENTY : TWENTY (score) x 2 [doubled]. 20/20 is the measure of normal visual acuity, so ‘perfect in one faculty’. More info here if needed.
13 If food found at bottom of hole, teeth cleaner (10)
DENTIFRICE : DENT (hole), IF, RICE (food). I wouldn’t define a dent as a hole but no doubt it’s in a dictionary somewhere.
16 One leaving land, perhaps, with river on a hill (8)
TESTATOR : TEST (river), A, TOR (hill). Leaving in a Will.
18 Boy caught by wolf, one’s stuffed (7)
ROULADE : LAD (boy) contained [caught] by ROUE (wolf). Sweet or savoury, delish!
20 Bearing rocks, enter with some force (5,2)
BARGE IN : Anagram [rocks] of BEARING
21 Source of sugar working for old cook (6)
BEETON : BEET (source of sugar), ON (working). The setter perpetuates a common misconception, that Isabella Beeton was a cook. No doubt she could turn her hand to it if required (though she probably had servants to do that sort of thing for her),  but she was principally a journalist, editor and publisher, and any recipes published under her name were stolen collected from elsewhere.
23 End with jars upside down (4)
STOP : POTS (jars) reversed [upside down]

74 comments on “Times Cryptic 27878”

  1. Fun, and not too hard to do while also cooking. It was unusual to have both the MONOSYLLABLE (with late/early) and FOUR LETTER WORD (with more/less) in the same crossword. I put ENGELS in as being obvious from the checkers, but I was too slow to see the rest of the clue and was bemused what he had to do with the Chinese. But I spoiled it by carelessly typing BEATON even though (a) I know her name and (b) the sugar gives you the spelling.
  3. Pretty hard for me and took 64 minutes to eventually get there. Thanks for the horticultural lesson about PRUNELLA and for explaining the unknown CUT A RUG; no risk of that for me anyway. Mrs. BEETON – well, who’d have known.

    A bit like yesterday’s ‘apostrophe’, I liked the MONOSYLLABLE and FOUR-LETTER WORD clues today.

    Thanks to setter and Jack

    1. Wikipedia:
      Prunella
      Most are native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, but Prunella vulgaris (the Common Self-heal) is Holarctic in distribution, occurring in North America as well, and is a common lawn weed.

      Wiktionary:
      cut a rug: (idiomatic) To dance, especially in a vigorous manner and in one of the dance styles of the first half of the twentieth century.
      Andyf

  4. Technically DNF, as I had to look up TATTIE. I knew he was a potato, and I finally thought of Wallace, but I couldn’t come up with TIE. I’m glad BEETON had the right checkers, as I probably would have spelled it BEATON if given half a chance. Liked MONOSYLLABLE, FOUR-LETTER WORD, but COD to BRANDY SNAP even though I’m tired of IT (and SA).
    1. “Wallace” means welshman! So it is ironic that he is used as indicating scottish usage.
      Andyf
      1. Scots wa hae wi Wallace bled
        Scots wham Bruce has often led
        Welcome to your gory bed
        Or to victory
        Now’s the day and now’s the hour
        See the front o battle lour
        See approach proud Edward’s power
        Chains and slavery
        Robert Burns (and see Myrtilus infra)

        Edited at 2021-01-19 02:05 pm (UTC)

  5. My careless start to the week continued today, putting in SYMBOL at 19A, not having read the clue properly. Damnations!
  6. Snitch at 107 so it was moderately hard, but rather Anglo-centric and Mrs Beeton might well induce a few ‘Barbara Cartlands’.

    FOI 22ac FOUR-LETTER WORD of which we were warned yesterday, so I won’t be giving any more examples – I note Jack has also avoided the subject.

    LOI 18dn ROULADE as this not exactly stuffed – but rolled! “I stuffed myself on Swiss Roll!” might be OK.
    I also like 27acs

    COD 1ac LOCOMOTIVE – the first train to leave the station

    WOD 15ac PRUNELLA – look out particularly for the ‘Margaret Rumney West’ variety, the actress* Prunella Scales.
    *a seven-letter word as per Wikipedia.

    Time 45 mins.

    Edited at 2021-01-19 08:10 am (UTC)

  7. …I’ll smoothly steer
    My little boat, for many quiet hours.

    After 30 mins I had five left and took another ten mins to finish.
    It is undoubtably very clever. I especially like the coupling of King Edward and Wallace.
    Thanks setter and J.

  9. This morning i have to enthuse
    A puzzle with many fine clues
    CROSSING SWORDS, i would say
    Was the clue of the day
    But it really was quite hard to choose
  11. I found this puzzle quite hard and quirky. I completed it correctly in about 60 minutes, but was unable to decode the cryptic parsing of several of the clues. Many thanks to Jack for explaining it all. I liked 12A with its smooth and entertaining surface read.
    1. ‘Minor Eyebrow Raise’. There’s a glossary on the top right of the page which explains this and the other silly words we use.
  13. 21.05 but one stupid mistake led to two wrong answers. Lazily put in atom without checking where m was in the alphabet. That made impassable impossible.

    As for the rest, enjoyable puzzle with some real pearls. Never did work out the reasoning behind engels . But a very tasty clue.
    FOI anti, LOI impassable ( after checking the answers and discovering my mistake). Tattie my COD. My Scots wife once educated me- not for the last time- on the description of seasonal agricultural workers in days gone by as tattiehowkers. Can’t wait to see that in a puzzle.
    Dentifrice stayed in my memory from a trip to a chemist in Paris for toothpaste and struggling to describe it. Creme pour les dents said I. Ah, dentifrice quoth he.

  14. 22:02, with a stupid error of the kind I am making an awful lot of late. The good news is that I seem to have lapped an error on the leaderboard today so my total for the last month is still only (!) 7.
    I found this really tough, but I enjoyed the struggle. Unfortunately I fitted the word VAGARY for ‘swing’ into the gap around IN at 5dn and didn’t pause for long enough to see either that this left ‘say’ unaccounted for, or that the resulting construction wasn’t a word. I then failed to spot the error when checking. I do know how to spell VINEGARY, I swear!
    I had no idea what was going on at 27ac. I didn’t know BRANDY SNAPs were ginger biscuits so thought the definition was just ‘sweet’, which made the wordplay difficult to unravel.
    Great puzzle, in spite of the user error, so thanks setter.

    Edited at 2021-01-19 01:16 pm (UTC)

  15. This was a struggle, compounded by the top left corner resisting to the last. Couldn’t get away from the lettuce version of rocket which threw me for everything else in the area. so just over 25 minutes in total.

    The only place I’ve come across DENTIFRICE (knowingly) is Denham’s version in Fahrenheit 451, which my enlightened school got me to study for O-level. Odd how things stick in your mind – that was 50 years ago.

    I see I failed to parse BRANDY SNAP, and couldn’t see the wordplay for ENGELS, so thanks to Jack for those and a delightful blog. It may be of interest to know that as I solved the BEETON clue I thought “Jack’s not going to like that”.

  16. I struggled in just under the hour. Found this very hard, as attested by a WITCH in the mid hundreds. Grudging respect to the clever setter, who left me feeling I had gone several rounds with a Tysonesque opponent. Thanks Jack for explaining the several that I entered with a blank look.
  18. Pretty straightforward, like yesterday’s. Are the puzzles getting easier or am I getting more attuned to crosswordese?
  19. 25:53. I found this quite hard, failing to parse ENGELS and DNK CUT A RUG or PRUNELLA. I liked CROSSING SWORDS best.
  20. I was cutting a rug down in a place called the Jug with a girl named Linda-Lou, when in walked a man with a gun in his hand and he was looking for you-know-who. That’s how I know the expression. Fans of southern rock will understand. Tougher challenge, this one, and I feel happy with my time. Thanks, Jackkt, for explaining Engels and Tattie. I missed the Scottish connection on Tattie. Prunella, too, I guessed. Prunelle means sloe in French, not that that helped.
    1. Ah yes, probably my second-favourite Skynyrd song (my favourite isn’t one of the obvious two).
        1. No, but that’s a cracker.

          Technically my fave isn’t really one of theirs, it’s the live cover of T for Texas.

  21. Struggled with the NW corner too, had the rest done in short time, saw TATTIE as assumed the Wallace Simpson was misdirection. Ending with 3d unsolved so came here; was so convinced it ended with the Y although I had the right anagram fodder. Guessed the lawn weed from prune = cut.
    1. Not really as she was Wallis. As myrtilus has pointed out (I missed it myself) there’s a rather nice tie-in between (William) Wallace and King Edward (I).
  22. Very entertaining. ATOP, in particular, was a nice twist on the oft-seen ATOM. Today’s ear-worm comes courtesy of 27ac and involves me doing Austin Powers impressions to myself in the kitchen (fortunately for the benefit of me and nobody else).
  23. …not my idea of food, but then I’m from south of the border. 43 minute for this late arrival at the ball, following car problems and a visit to the vets. LOI was DENTIFRICE, not a word I was over-familiar with. I liked LOCOMOTIVE, ATOP, BRANDY SNAP and COD AT A TANGENT. A decent challenge. Thank you Jack and setter.
  24. Jack quite correctly points out that the setter perpetuates a common misconception with the BEETON clue, but another common misconception is that 20-20 is perfect vision, which I was surprised to discover recently it isn’t. It looks as if the setter reckons that ‘perfect in one faculty’ is ‘perfect in the visual department’.
    1. Wil, slightly off-topic, but I’ve been trawling the TfTT archive researching another matter and happened to notice that you have been contributing here almost forever. I knew it was a long time, but not that long! I was still anon in those days but you preceded me and maybe all of our current regular contributors with the possible exception of Jerry. I think you’ve earned a medal for special service. Long may it continue.
      1. Most interesting Jack; I was totally unaware of that. Thanks for your kind words. I suppose I was posting in the Biddlecombe days.

        It probably seems less of a time because for many years I had no avatar: I tried, but couldn’t get it to work. The one I use was when I was 25. Now I’m half a century older.

      2. Thank you for thinking of me, Jack … Livejournal tells me I opened my account on 10 April 2007. I don’t remember commenting much here before that although TfTT began in October 2006 and PB’s single-handed version in December 2005.
        I suspect that Wil and I might be the longest-serving regular commenters, but there are some earlier who pop up from time to time such as Linxit, Magoo, Koro and of course PB himself, Our Founder ..
        1. You’re welcome, Jerry. And you still have the same avatar!

          My earliest confirmed posting (so far) was 2nd July 2007 but as I was anon at the time (and not adding a name!) it’s difficult to be sure that was the first. I’ve identified the IP address of my work computer but not as yet that of my home PC. I’m planning another rummage around tomorrow.

        2. I’m up to October 2007 now and they’re all coming on board! George, Jimbo, Vinyl…

          I still haven’t got my user-id, but that’s coming on the last day of the month.

  25. Annoyed today that, not being able to remember if it’s sugar beet or sugar beat, and similarly not being able to remember if it’s Mrs Beaton or Mrs Beeton, I had it right and then changed it.

    However, I also made up VENTIFRICE at 13d – I agree that a dent isn’t a hole, but the ‘dent’ makes a lot more sense in a teeth-related word – so all in all not a great attempt. Nine minutes with errors.

  26. I found this slow to crack open but easier once things got going. I knew PRUNELLA as a kind of fabric used by Ede & Ravenscroft to make the stuff gowns of ordinary barristers. QCs get silk. 22.29
  27. I live a sheltered life, but I’m sure I’ve seen this expression before. I think it’s quite old – suggestive of the Charleston or even the Black Bottom.
  28. Couldn’t finish this one, some of cryptic elements stumped me completely; thanks for the explanations Jackkt.
    I am often fascinated to discover that words or phrases which I thought were common (eg “cut a rug”) are unfamiliar to expert cruciverbalists who whizz through the toughest puzzles in a fraction of my time.
  29. An excellent puzzle imho. Minor quibbles apart, for me, just the right amount of interesting “stuff”, clue variety and enjoyable moments. Shame about poor Mrs Beeton: she was indeed not a cook, and never became old either; died after complications in childbirth at tender age of 28. Quite a prodigy in the publishing world, however and remarkable how her legacy persists. The “pros” whizzed through it, doubtless biffing away, but I rather savoured the challenge at my own steady pace.
  30. Never heard of ‘cut a rug’ in relation to dancing. I’d have believed wig making. But the anagram couldn’t be anything else. Also got fixated on ‘rocket’ being something to do with lettuce, especially with the L from LUSH to start.
    Like the ‘vale’ in 25a being ‘ta-ta’, thanks to Jackkt for pointing it out.
    26’54”
  31. My FOI was CUT A RUG, which was lurking in the recesses of my mind, but apart from SET IN STONE, the rest of the NW resisted for quite some time. I had more success in the NE where ATOP made me smile and opened up the corner. I then worked steadily in a clockwise direction finishing in the NW with TATTIE and VINEGARY, for which, like Keriothe I had considered VINAGARY. Fortunately I reconsidered and spotted EG for say. Nice puzzle. 33:20. Thanks setter and Jack.
  32. Nearly 47 minutes, but slightly distracted by India’s stunning victory over Australia.
  33. After 60m I retired hurt (pride) and looked at Jack’s characteristically helpful blog to find out about the lawn weed, the communist and the teeth cleaner. I can’t explain why I found this so impenetrable but I did. Tip of the hat to the setter, perhaps, as I don’t think these were obscure. Thanks to both setter and blogger today.
  34. Hesitated for a long time over LUSH, not knowing that both it and soak mean heavy drinkers (LOCOMOTIVE took a while too, which didn’t help). Didn’t parse BARGE IN, which now it’s been explained wasn’t actually that tricky, and like many others have never heard of CUT A RUG. Didn’t know DENTIFRICE either, though I don’t see any problem with dent = hole if you think of losses in income, for instance.

    FOI Anti
    LOI Lush
    COD Tattie

  35. I thought this good fun, and I’m obliged to the blogger for the information about Mrs Beeton of which I was not aware.
    Mind you, whenever her name comes up I imagine her sailing away at the end of The Great Gatsby.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  36. ….cheated with the NHO DENTIFRICE which I’d given a good five minutes thought to – I’ve managed 56 years without knowing this word for something which we use so frequently. Does anyone actually use it?

    Otherwise, after completing the bottom half in good time, CUT A RUG was no problem and then LOCOMOTION really opened up the top half.

      1. Back in the 60s, Crest toothpaste became the first toothpaste to be endorsed by the American Dental Association (I think they were the first to add fluoride), and they pushed that endorsement for all it was worth in their advertising: “Crest has been shown to be an effective … dentifrice …” That’s where I learned the word.
  37. Finished in a reasonable time with no errors and despite a brief interruption. Pretty tough and a bit unusual.

    COD: BARGE IN.

  38. I was a DNF, never got anywhere near the “wavelength”, and found it far harder than yesterday.
    Andyf
  39. A solve of fits and starts. Nothing I had not heard of but did biff quite a few. LOI was ATOP.
  40. On the tougher side of things this. I’ve definitely come across cut a rug before, though I’m not sure where (it’s not just from the song Leskoffer has reminded me of), and I know cut some rug as rather good song by The Bluetones.

    I just biffed BRANDY SNAP from “sweet” and checkers so didn’t get bogged down in the fancy wordplay and spicy element.

    The first WALLACE I thought of was the cheese-loving plasticine one, which didn’t help.

    Edited at 2021-01-19 02:59 pm (UTC)

  41. 34.16. I found this difficult and had to reverse engineer quite a few, though I did enjoy them once I’d twigged the parsings. Engels was bunged in from definition and checkers, never did cotton on to the wp.
  42. A strange experience with this one. Having done half it before lunch in about 35 mins thinking “this is a toughie”, I completed the rest of it on resumption in 4 mins flat! Does this mean that my subconscious was working on it in the background and I only had to look at it again to know all the answers. I’d be interested to know if others have the same experience
    It was CROSSING SWORDS that I had been stuck on. WOD FOUR LETTER WORD which of course word is.
    1. Yes – I often find that a break helps. The little grey cells must be whirring away in the background somehow.
      Enjoyed today’s puzzle – some nice “penny-drop” moments.
      Mike Cowking (don’t know why I’ve suddenly gone anonymous).
    3. I seem to have that experience on nearly every puzzle. The brain works in odd ways.
      1. Definitely agree. I surmise it might be because it clears some of my “locked-in” thoughts, and I can see other possibilities.
    4. Oops… replied to the wrong person.
      Definitely agree. I surmise it might be because it clears some of my “locked-in” thoughts, and I can see other possibilities.
  43. A good challenge today. I particularly enjoyed FOUR-LETTER WORD and MONOSYLLABLE cropping up together. Really struggled to see BRANDY SNAP for some reason. Otherwise testing but fair, I thought.
  44. ….going off the BEETON track, but luckily I knew my sugar beet. My main delay was at 10A/8D where I tried vainly to justify “atom” before the truth dawned.

    FOI ANTI
    LOI IMPASSABLE
    COD AT A TANGENT
    TIME 11:02

  45. Enjoyed this mainly because I finished it, but it was like pulling teeth. Nho dentifrice so alphabet trawl to find the food. Mrs Breton was a journalist! Ylsned. Next we’ll be told mrs craddock didn’t make doughnuts….
  46. Like yesterday (when I was too tired to post) I solved this in JUST under an hour (59:08). My LOI was TATTIE, which I completely misunderstood, because I too equated Wallace with Wallis and had no idea what she might have called her Edward. It was solved from wordplay, of course. Lots of other clues which held me up, like IMPASSABLE (fortunately I corrected my first entry, IMPOSSIBLE). A definite COD to CROSSING SWORDS.
  47. And just as I thought I was getting the hang of these! Really struggled with quite a few of the clues and hopeless at parsing some of those I did get from the definition, such as Crossing Swords and Monosyllable. Much harder than yesterday. Invariant

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