23,947

23 comments on “23,947”

1. 1ac: COD = bloke up north, apparently. It’s in Collins but not the other two.

   14: OF ONE = individual’s. Broadcast= SOWN and Correspondence =ACCORD.

   18: I know a blinder is a drunken binge but don’t know if the orgy is compulsory!

   1. Further to this, apparently excessive anything (drinking for example) can constitute an orgy, and other naughties are not compulsory.

      I think our setter has a preference for Chambers as two of today’s words, CEDARWOOD and THORNTREE, are listed there but not in Collins or COED. Both tree-related too.

      25 also sounds like “raise”

      Loved WHISTLE BLOWER doing some shopping at 3dn so it’s my COD.

      I took 45 minutes to solve this one. Following an encouraging start I spent about 10 minutes in the doldrums before getting back on course.

      1. Please explain the “shopping” part – Vijay
         1. I think others below have now covered this.
   2. Oh, and I think 1dn is C(ED)AR, WOO(e)D
2. 10:25 late last night – one of those I felt should have been quicker as some of the answers emerged.
3. c. 20 mins, I found 3D and 17A amusing. In 1D, I found the wordplay for CEDAR confusing as the exemplification is reversed between the two elements.

   Tom B.

4. About 40 minutes here, but I felt I should have got closer to 30, unaccountably missing the answer to 17 for a long time, and even though I guessed immediately that ‘shopping’ indicated ‘informing on’ in 3, I didn’t get the answer until I had the W from 20a. Some good cryptic constructions, but 3 is my choice for COD also.
5. My type of puzzle, this one, with a good level of challenge that saw me come in at about 25 minutes.

   A couple of clues were slightly laboured but were outweighed by some really good def choices; “green light” at 24 is great.

   I ticked 3 as well, but COD choice is 5 OUTWORN – a limiting set of letters craftily worked into perfect surface reading.

   A highly enjoyable and satisfying start to the week.

6. A pleasant enough 35 minutes. I guessed COD=bloke up north. I’ve never heard this before I don’t think – is it in common use? Estate=CAR at 1D with no “perhaps” or equivalent irks me. I too liked the use of “shopping” for blowing the whistle. Jimbo.
7. 11:28 here, but would have been quicker if I hadn’t rushed WATERFALL into 7D early on, which mucked up 14 and made me doubt THORN-TREE at 13, which I’d also put in without understanding the wordplay.

   I also ticked 3D as my COD.

8. 23:25 but I appear to have mucked up on 14, putting “on one’s own accord”, parsing it as broadcast = on, one’s own = individual’s. Guess I should have recited the West Indies joke to myself.

   Tom, please can you articulate your comment on 1dn in plain English? Man in estate = c(Ed)ar as far as I can see with no reversal.

   Plenty of good clues. I liked the wordplay for 19, resolve, but the surface is a bit nonsensical, and 7 doesn’t quite work for me as an &Lit. Other good’uns were 10, 13, and 1d. I think I’ll go for 10 as COD.

   Again no proper entries in the Uxbridge today so here’s my two penn’orth:
   cedarwood – what you can’t do for the trees in Ireland;

   1. ‘Man’ to indicate ED; Ed is an example of (a) man.
      ‘Estate’ to indicate CAR; (an) estate is an example of (a) car.
      As Jimbo mentions below, it’s ‘estate’ indicating CAR which is problematic (for some of us). It seems now to be acceptable, but it will continue to catch me out, I think.

      Tom B.

9. 15 and a half minutes.

   Applause for LOOKOUT, OUTWORN, ROOST and the triple homophone in 25 RAYS, among others.

   No quibbles worth the quibbling. Very enjoyable.

10. My clue of the day is 1D.

    I want to introduce myself as the idiot who, anonymously, claimed that ABU SIMBAL was a possible response to a clue on an earlier crossword. Thanks to Peter’s help, I have now revealed myself as suggested reasonably by some respondents to my inane comment.

    1. Philip, you’re joining an elite club. On behalf of all idiots here, a thousand welcomes.
    2. Welcome to nit-pickers no longer anonymous. Nobody was suggesting idiocy, I think everyone here is trying to be helpful by showing why answer X does not completely fit both wordplay and definition.

       Last year I took an educational psychology of online teaching course (amazing what I’ll do when I’m getting paid for it), that had a lot of examples to show that online comments are easily viewed as harsh criticism because of the nature of the medium. You get to interpret the words without hearing the tone or inflection of the writer. My favorite part of it was suggesting saying something positive before criticising

       e.g. You brought up some well-reasoned and clearly well-thought-out arguments for your suggestion. Now let me tell you why you are utterly wrong in all aspects…

11. I didn’t win the dictionary in the Crossword Centre competition. Oh well… congrats to Richard Morse who did.

    I didn’t get much uninterrupted time this morning, so solved this in three sittings. Last two in were POONA and THORN TREE both guessed from wordplay.

    The dirty old man in me was tickled by 5D. 17A may be chestnutty, but it’s the sort of chestnut I can get into.

12. I did the puzzle in about 25 minutes except for ‘blinder’, which must be a UK-ism, which I’ve certainly never heard before, so count me as stumped today on that one. I also didn’t know ‘car’=’estate’, or the ‘shopping’ reference meaning ‘inform’, but got those from the wordplay. Otherwise I enjoyed it, my favorite clue being ‘resolve’. Regards all.
    1. Kevin, an ‘estate’ is what you’d call a station wagon, so it’s a type of car – which is what annoys some of us diehards. We’d be happy with ‘car’ to indicate estate, saloon (sedan to you!) and so on but not vice versa. But it looks like we’ll have to get used to it.

       Tom B.

       1. Thanks for translating Tom. I appreciate it.
    2. As another US solver, I knew estate and shopping, but not blinder.

       I thought ‘cod’ = ‘northern bloke’ was a cod expression, but not a COD.

13. For 22dn, did anyone else write in “Yinma” (hidden in citY IN MAharashtra)? Yinma is indeed a river, and though “close to” as a hidden indicator is a stretch, it’s a plausible alternative answer.

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