i Cryptic Crossword 4148 by Tees
May 23, 2024
Difficulty rating (out of five) ⌛⌛⌛
This was an excellent puzzle, with several clues, starting with 1a ALL READY, which I was able to solve in little more time than it took to enter them into the grid, but the remaining half contained various challenges which, without the shortcuts which I will describe, could push a conscientious solver up to ⌛⌛⌛⌛. However the reward is smart wordplay in witty surfaces.
Unknown to me were the old woman at 5a (for which rival explanations are given in the link below) and the crossing 6d EQUIPOISE, on both of which I sought online help. I did not know the SEAWEED at 2d, but had enough crossers not to need to look it up. The loin cloth at 21 was tricky.
The Ulysses hero at 26a could have been from Homer, Joyce or neither; I was fortunate to guess correctly but needed Wikipedia to recall his name. I also googled the phrase at 20a, not only to check that it actually existed but also to remember exactly what it meant. And I was surprised that two contributors to the link below were unfamiliar with STAIR RODS as slang for what we saw in Hertfordshire (and, I understand, elsewhere in England) yesterday. I enjoyed the charade at 4d and the Cryptic definition – a PDM – at 22d. LEGO and HUGO were both PDMs; easy once solved.
For my Clue of the Day, I choose the cryptic definition at 13d, which, like the equally whimsical LEGO above it, is a particularly Tees-like clue: “Missile-launcher that gets the pulse going (10)”
An excellent blog in which you can find all the wordplay and comments when the puzzle first appeared four years ago in The Independent on Sunday:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/05/17/independent-on-sunday-1577-tees/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
Great fun and on the easy side for Tees I thought, done and dusted in ⏳⏳ time. I didn’t know the ‘old woman’ in 5a, but the answer had to be BEDLAM. Elsewhere I got BLOOMS from the crossers, although I seem to recall trying unsuccessfully to read Ulysses once upon a time. My LOI was LEGO which took longer than it should have to twig.
I agree with Denzo re PEASHOOTER, definitely the stand-out clue, but I liked DHOTI and BLAB too.
I suspect quite a few of us are in the “Started to read Ulysses” club. I also sat through the film and remember wondering what all the fuss was about. Looking at Wikipedia, it might make more sense if you read Homer’s version first. I probably won’t bother!
Three egg-timers sounds about right. Fun puzzle with a couple of oddities that needed picking apart from wordplay, but most trouble was caused here by TOWN AND GOWN, which I didn’t know. Favourite was DHOTI.
Well, we were not in form today!! We seemed to spend a long time trying to make things much more complicated than they needed to be! Not sure what it was but we had some quite silly answers which, once we had the right of it made us laugh at our own idiocy! I knew of “Town and Gown” from Uni days long ago, when we drank at a watering hole of that name!
Both Nanas regularly use 27a to describe the rain. We also knew the “old woman” element of 5a- no doubt we might be described as thus! I will confess that I answered a question in my finals on “Ulysses” but, like many here, I hadn’t read it! I had read the Homer and, no it didn’t help! I tried 3 times but had to give up and read armloads of critical essays instead to give me sufficient knowledge to answer in the exam. We did complete the puzzle and it was an enjoyable solve with some lovely touches which others have mentioned. We agree that 13d is a worthy COD.
I struggled a bit more than I usually do with Tees, but perhaps because I’m solving in the evening after a tiring day attempting to dig the garden (clay, and wet).
STAIR RODS went in early, as it is something we said yesterday when attempting to find an opportunity to walk the dogs.
LEGO was my favourite today.
Excellent offering; happy punter.
Tees often asks a lot of us general knowledge-wise, so it’s pot luck on whether things will fall your way or not. I got lucky this time (BLOOM, TOWN & GOWN, DHOTI) and guessed that maybe ‘Bel dam’ might be a bit like ‘Belle-mere’ which is mother-in-law. But then on Tuesday two of you knew a Latin phrase I can’t even recall 48 hours later!
All done and dusted in my quickest time for ages – only one egg-timer if that. But then, I sometimes struggle with puzzles that others find a doddle. Just a question, I suppose, of getting onto the setter’s wavelength.
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div dir=”ltr”>I actually completed
?
As it was my blog, I was notified of your post in my normal email inbox with a message to the effect that I could reply by email (ie without logging into idothei). I tried this and WordPress produced the gibberish above. What I wrote and have now retrieved from my sent box was:
I actually completed in under two, but gave three egg timers at I thought it was a marmite puzzle with quite a bit that might delay people, particularly BEDLAM which I entered when the M appeared without any idea of the wordplay.
Thanks for the clarification.