Times 28180 – FUN

69 comments on “Times 28180 – FUN”

1. Yes, straightforward for me too, as I knew most of the vocab and could guess the rest (CLAPPER BRIDGE, SNAPPER). Once I remembered the crossword person was Arthur someone, the rest was fairly easy.

   A nice puzzle, however, and thanks, George, for the blog.

   Edited at 2022-01-06 05:18 am (UTC)

2. Not knowing either SNAPPER or CLAPPER (bridge) slowed me down some. DNK PEPPERCORN. Also NHO ARTHUR WYNNE, but with a few well-placed checkers in, it was easy enough. Some of the clues were too easy, barely QC material: ARM, ROT, SCOOP.
3. 38 minutes for all but 26 which I looked up with some difficulty as, given the checkers and the left-over C with only one place to go, there were many possible answers to work through according to the placement of the remaining 3 vowels. After a couple of stabs at it using Collins I gave up and tried the Chambers letter jumbler to unravel it, but that was no help as Chambers doesn’t have the word either. I eventually found the answer using Crossword Clue Solver. It turns out the word is in the Oxford dictionaries and it’s either of Greek origin or derived from a word that is. I wish setters would stop cluing words like this as anagrams, or the editor would step in and stop them doing so.

   Elsewhere the unknown PONIARD was clued fairly and SNAPPER as a baby was a reasonable guess although I didn’t know it or had forgotten it. ANNEAL(ER) came up only yesterday otherwise that would have been another unknown but gettable from wordplay. ARTHUR WYNNE was unknown to me too but was fairly clued as an anagram because once the checkers were in place as A?T?U? had to be ARTHUR and W?N?E with Y and N left over could only be WYNNE.

   Edited at 2022-01-06 07:25 am (UTC)

   1. ET (38:17) and thoughts almost identical to the above, except that I took a stab at ESCHATON and got it right – maybe the word was somewhere deep in my subconcious memory, or maybe that arrangement just seemed the most credibly “wordy” to me.

      Orderly solve, reasonable time, very happy to get the right outcome – thanks George and setter.

   2. A reasonably educated person, even with no Greek, should be familiar with the subject of eschatology. It’s no great leap to eschaton.
      1. I note you post anonymously. Please define a reasonably educated person.
         1. Please do something about these Anonymous posts – you need to!
            1. Many of our regular contributors, including myself, started out as anons. That’s one of the ways in which we draw in new blood. Their postings, along with those of named contributors, are still subject to moderation according to their content.
   3. Well, I went with Ascheton rather than Eschaton — so, according to Anon, I am either not reasonably educated or unreasonably educated.
4. Not so straightforward for me. Fell at the last by guessing the A and the E in the wrong order for ESCHATON so a 44 minute DNF. Learnt about a CLAPPER BRIDGE and ARTHUR WYNNE so a couple of positives out of the failure.
5. Just over 30 mins for me. Didn’t know CLAPPER BRIDGE nor the Dublin bit of SNAPPER. I had no idea about ARTHUR WYNNE but pieced it together from the letters, as was ESCHATON which I’d never heard of and seemed unlikely as a word (and, as others, I looked it up afterward in Chambers who doesn’t consider it a word either!). PONIARD was another I either didn’t know or had long forgotten. It all seemed fair escept, perhaps, ESCHATON since other letter orderings are available.
6. With a still, mysterious Stealth.

   25 mins pre-brekker to leave the OWAA! (Obscure word as anagram).
   As Sawbill said when we had another a few weeks back, “Pick a vowel, any vowel.”
   Thanks setter and G.

7. Like others I had never heard of ARTHUR WYNNE. I had heard of PONIARD and eschatology so ESCHATON as an anagram was straightforward.
   The one I didn’t like was SNAPPER because I think it’s a bit much to have to descend to the depths of Collins Online meaning #6 to provide a crossword clue.
   FOI: ARM (I agree with Kevin about ARM, ROT and SCOOP)
   LOI: PEPPERCORN/PREPAREDNESS
   COD: WINDOWDRESSER.
8. 12:19 but 1 wrong – ASCHETON guessed for 26A, picking the wrong vowel. Aaarggh! CLAPPER BRIDGE and ARTHUR WYNNE also unknown but derived from wordplay. Thanks George and setter.
9. CLAPPER and SNAPPER gave me some pause. As for ESCHATON, I was a little surprised to see it (it isn’t even allowed in Scrabble), but it went in immediately – doing a smattering of Greek at university may have helped, or also being married to a former Anglican priest. Anglican priests do sometimes discuss The Eschaton over dinner.
10. 38 minutes with LOI PONIARD, constructed but needing all crossers. I got the ESCHATON early on, despite its meaning and it being the last one across. COD to WINDOW-DRESSER. I had trouble seeing elicit as meaning prompt, until I thought of prompting a reaction. I found this tough in the middle, but I started and ended well. Thank you George and setter.
11. 45 mins but technically a DNF as others, 26 ac doing for me. All has been said, I will just add my pet gripe that ESCHATON was not only an anag but an unch starter too. Yuk. I have learnt the name of the initiator of the modern crossword though and I did like T’ RUM PETER.

    Thanks G and setter.

12. 13:52. I found this pretty chewy but didn’t get particularly stuck at any point.
    I’m not sure about ESCHATON. It’s an obscure word clued by an anagram but unlike TENREC it’s deducible from ‘eschatology’, which ought to be a more familiar word. Mind you I’m no doubt only saying that because that’s how I convinced myself it must be right, without remembering what ‘eschatology’ means.
13. A quick 31 minutes for me. Just as well, given how late I got up; I really must get my body clock back to normal following this holiday… ESCHATON no problem for anyone who’s read The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which starts with the line “It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton.”

    Wynne seemed to go in quite easily, but while he didn’t seem familiar I have read a couple of books on how to solve crosswords which probably started with a history lesson. Oddly, my LOI was 1a FLAGSHIP.

14. Found this easy despite several unknown words:

    ESCHATON – despite having read The Illuminatus books (a long tine ago)
    PONIARD – I thought it had a “Y” in it somewhere
    CLAPPER BRIDGE
    ARTHUR WYNNE – but what else could the anagram give

    But no problem with SNAPPER (I remembered The Snapper by Roddy Doyle of Commitments fame)

    Thanks setter and G

15. I too got ESCHATON from eschatology, and ARTHUR WYNNE couldn’t be much else. I taught about the CLAPPER BRIDGE on my first teaching practice in 1977, nice to be reminded. Have I been spelling LAMBAST(E) wrongly all my life?

    I have earwax adverts back 🙁

    16′ 06″, thanks george and setter.

16. 19.06, with SNAPPER my last in after FLAGSHIP because by then there wasn’t another word that would do for photographer and the baby could stay home alone in Dublin for all I knew. I still half expected a pink. Is it connected to whippersnapper?
    In my Theology days in Bristol we rarely talked of anything but the ESCHATON, but thought we were being terribly esoteric and sophisticated and I was surprised to find it turning up here. Like thief in the night?
    The ARTHUR WYNNE clue was interesting, constructed from wordplay, but with the answer in place I could convince myself that I knew who he was.
    Thanks for the blog, George: I would have foundered on the baby snapper, since it’s not in Chambers.

17. I’m guessing that glheard referred titled the blog with reference to the graphic novel by Paulo Bacilieri, which is where I first learned about

18. Quiet work day so a morning solve, and it seems to help because the brain was firing nicely. Several words (and a name) that I didn’t know were easy to work out. Dublin child could have been Chiseller (had it fitted), but as centralline says it was Roddy Doyle that helped. 4 down was a bear trap. That letter combo permits of several answers. I stopped myself before bunging in Interjection (I think my brain was making a link with object – objection). Didn’t we have anneal a day or to ago?
19. Today a tribute to Liverpudlian Arthur Wynne, who begat the world’s very first crossword in the ‘New York World’, 21 December 1913. As per my latest avatar, here on the World’s latest crossword from ‘The Times’ of London. Arthur who lives ever on, is my COD and WOD. Time 9:14 mins.
20. FOI 9A LAMBASTE
    LOI 19D STEALTH

    Apologies for my earlier (anonymous) comment – now logged in!

    I presume that the blog was titled FUN with reference to Paulo Bacilieri’s graphic novel, from which I first learned about Arthur Wynne? Otherwise, I guessed at ESCHATON based on eschatology, and knew of PONIARD from the French (poignard). An enjoyable solve.

    Thanks to glheard and the setter.

    1. FUN was the insert in the New York World where the first crossword puzzle appeared. The grid had the word FUN already entered.
21. I bunged in pennard where poniard belonged. I miseread work as worker and consequently couldn’t parse an answer that fitted.

22. As did others I got ESCHATON from eschatology although I don’t really know what it means and it looks and sounds a bit like another sort of -ology which is something else altogether. PONIARD is the sort of word Athos or Porthos might use – I will impale thee on my trusty poniard thou lily-livered poltroon. 22.17
23. Was going along quite well, but slowed towards the end, 50 minutes: there were several answers that held me up — eschaton (of course, never heard of it, could have been anything because I didn’t know what eschatology was — obscurity-as-anagram, dreadful, why doesn’t the editor stop this?), snapper as baby, clapper bridge, felicitate, poniard.
    1. Is there an editor?

       Edited at 2022-01-07 01:03 am (UTC)

24. 29:37. I had gone for ASCHETON for 26ac but checked before submitting and switched to second choice ESCHATON. I know it’s not allowed, but how else? I don’t feel guilty at all. I’m counting it as my third sub thirty minute solve this week
25. 34 minutes. I thought this was going to be much like the Tuesday and Wednesday puzzles,with a lot of easy clues, but a handful slowed me down, adding 11 minutes to yesterday’s time. I didn’t write in SNAPPER immediately because I was puzzled by the Irish reference. CLAPPER, FELICITATE, PEPPERCORN and ESCHATON took me ages to get. I didn’t know the last, but it looked the most likely arrangement of the anagram fodder.
26. 25 mins
    No problem with eschaton, but nonetheless, there it is again: an obscurity clued by an anagram.
    Thanks, g.
27. Lots of memories triggered by today’s words. The film version of The Snapper was pretty well received, as I recall, and starred a lot of well-known Irish talent. And I’d love to say my first thought of ESCHATON was back to studying Greek, but in fact I was ear-wormed by a track from early 90s electronic music mischief-makers The Shamen, called Destination Eschaton, such are my reliably low-brow instincts. And, as always, unable to shake the nagging feeling that LAMBAST doesn’t need an extra E. Enjoyable, anyway.
    1. Reliably low-brow your tastes may be, but that’s exactly where I knew eschaton from (I trawled the blog really just to see if anyone would make the reference). Anyway, one of Verlaine’s old blog titles name-checked Ebeneezer Goode, so we’re in good company.
       — Rupert
28. Hello everyone.
    Not sure I’ve posted a comment before, although I found the blog during the first lockdown and have found it both enjoyable and illuminating, for which many thanks all!
    I found today’s, rather like others posting comments, something of a mixed bag – some pretty straightforward (like ARM) and others a bit of a guess. I remembered that the chap who invented the crossword (in the New York Times, is that right?) was called Wynne, so getting to Arthur was fairly easy. Eschaton was my most fingers-crossed entry. WOD to ‘poniard’, reminding me of Much Ado About Nothing from schooldays (‘she speaks poniards and every word stabs’).
    Something of a red-letter day for me overall, though. Pleasing to get a fairly quick time, especially after a couple of poor days, astonishing to have completed both standard and QC today more quickly than the esteemed Verlaine! I’m not sure that’s ever happened before and I shan’t be holding my breath for it to happen again. He must have had an off day…
    Happy New Year to all!
    Mark
    1. Hi, Mark. I just noticed your post so here’s a belated Welcome. I hope you will contribute regularly in future.
       1. Thanks, Jack!
29. I started with ARM and SNAPPER(another derivation of ankle biter I presume), then APATHY set in and I found it a bit TAXING, before SCOOPing a few answers in the SE. Irritation set in as it became obvious that 26a was another OWCA, and I postulated ESCHATON as the probable arrangement, and had no scruples about using an INTERVENTION and typing it into Google, where The End Of The World was revealed. The checkers were conveniently placed for me to derive the unknown crossword compiler, WINDOW DRESSER providing the required W for the anagrist, where I’d come up short with RY for the abbreviation. I finished off back in the NW where FELICITATE and FLAGSHIP were last 2 in. 21:52. Thanks setter and George.
30. AI raised a wry smile for Eschaton as a nod to the book (as glheard points out) from which my username is (at least partly) derived.

    Enjoyed today’s puzzle, thanks!

    Edited at 2022-01-06 12:58 pm (UTC)

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