Times 26749 - Through taverns measureless to man....

Solving time: 42 minutes

Music: Chopin, Preludes, Arrau






A number of difficulties today. I was late starting, and was just about to print out the puzzle when I received a phone call that delayed me half an hour. OK, ready to go, but almost immediately I got another phone call that lasted two hours. So I finally started at twenty after ten, hoping the puzzle was going to be easy, and I could not see a single answer after looking through all the clues. So everything that could go wrong did go wrong, including a convincing but totally erroneous answer and an incorrect enumeration holding me up at the end. So I consider myself fortunate to be able to finish in the time I took.

Was the puzzle really that hard? Probably not, as at least some of my difficulties were of my own making. still, there were some pretty subtle clues, including a few that have yet to be analysed as I start the blog. It should all make sense in the end, and I am rather sure that my solution is correct.

Across
1	MACAROON, MA(CAR,O,O)N, where 'wheels' is slang for a car.
5	SUBDUE, SUB, DUE, where 'sub' is slang for 'subscription', loosely used.
8	DEMOBILISE, DEM(O BIL[l])ISE, a word that is not often given in full.
9	ALPH, ALP + H.
10	CARDINAL NUMBER, anagram of MURDER: CANNIBAL, with a well-disguised literal.
11	MUSETTE, MU(SET)TE, piece of cake for a folkie, but maybe difficult for others.
13	FAR EAST, F(AREAS)T, my FOI, but hardly an easy starter clue.
15	MAYPOLE, M(A)Y, POLE. I nearly put 'coranto', but luckily it didn't parse.
18	RECITES, R(E.C.)ITES. I was fixated on L.A., and had 'relates' for too long.
21	WHIPPERSNAPPER, WHIP(PER)S + NAPPER. 'Napper' is an obscure slang term for 'head' that I had never heard, but the answer is pretty evident.
22	FRET, [pom]FRET. It took me a while to see this one, but I did.
23	THE LIKES OF, T(HE LIKE)SOF, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of SOFT. You will never solve this if you mark it 3,4,3.
24	STURDY, STU(R)DY. This one should have been an easy starter clue, but wasn't.
25	FAIR COPY, anagram of PIRACY OF, a very well-concealed anagram.
Down
1	MODICUM, MO + DIC[t]UM, a very clever clue indeed.
2	CAMERA SHY, CAME RASH[l]Y, just biffed by me.
3	REBUILT, REBU(I, [quarre]L)T, another biff.
4	OIL CAKE, OI + L(C[ow])AKE.
5	SPECULATE, SP(anagram of CLUE)ATE.
6	BRAMBLE, B + RAMBLE, one of the few relatively straightforward clues.
7	UMPIRES, U(MP + IRES)S.
12	TELEPATHY, TELE + PATH + [amicabl]Y. Think of TELE as being pronounced 'telly', making it a set, even though there's no 'sounds like' indicator here.
14	ANTIPASTO, P.A. in anagram of STATION.
16	AT WORST, A TWO + R[e]ST.
17	POINTER, a clever double definition referring to your computer mouse.
18	ROSELLA, ROSE + ALL upside-down. It sounds like a colorful bird, and research reveals that it is one.
19	CRACKER, double definition, a Christmas cracker or one of us.
20	SCUFFY, S + CR[y]UFF(==>Y). A very clever letter movement clue, but if you never heard of Cryuff, you can just biff it.