Times 28943

68 comments on “Times 28943”

1. I thought this was pretty damn clever, and lots of fun. POI MUG UP, LOI NO MORE.
   10 recalled Groucho Marx as a hotel manager in Coconuts, addressing his bellhops:
   “Wages? You want to be wage slaves? Answer me that! Of course not. What is it that makes wage slaves? Wages! I want you to be free.”

2. 42 minutes with at least the last 5 spent on the intersecting answers ABBE and BAAED, neither of them easy. I think goats are usually said to bleat but I wasn’t sure how the sound might be represented, but then I thought, well, sheep bleat and are said to BAA, and that got me to the answer.

   I couldn’t parse CAPITAL OFFENCE when solving and forgot to return to it later.

   MER at ‘mess up / MISDO’ but I suppose it’s okay.

   1ac puzzled me for ages but the answer was eventually forced by checkers and enumeration.

   NYLON was easy because the myth about its origin isn’t easy to forget once heard.

3. Quite a tricky puzzle, and I biffed a good few. I too crossed my fingers with MISDO, but I think William’s interpretation is correct – it was the only one I didn’t manage to eventually parse.

   FOI EMBASSIES
   LOI CAGLIARI
   COD CAPITAL OFFENCE
   TIME 14:27

   1. Aren’t you on holiday?

      1. Ha ha!

      2. Brilliant!

      3. lol

      4. Bravo!

4. Got everything apart from dealt which is a bit annoying. Time was already over an hour so had to concede.

   COD no more.

5. If there is a “Best Surface” prize, then 16A is definitely a contender. There was indeed a tragic fire on Apollo 1.

   1. Agreed, even if the resulting answer is completely out of keeping with the event.

      1. I always think of the passage in the Dunciad, when the schoolmaster speaks:

         “Then thus. ‘Since man from beast by words is known,
         Words are man’s province, words we teach alone,
         When reason doubtful, like the Samian letter,
         Points him two ways, the narrower is the better.
         Plac’d at the door of learning, youth to guide,
         We never suffer it to stand too wide.
         To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence,
         As fancy opens the quick springs of sense,
         We ply the memory, we load the brain,
         Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain,
         Confine the thought, to exercise the breath;
         And keep them in the pale of words till death….

         That’s the cryptic crossword in a nutshell – we don’t care what the words mean, we focus on the words themselves.

         1. Magnificent from Pope, who like my favourite George Herbert, just ahead of Pope, would undoubtedly have been an enthusiast for the Times and, one would hope, a playful and entertaining contributor to these pages.

   2. It is unusual for me to be sniffy about crossword clues but, given the tragedy that was Apollo 1, I thought that clue was pretty tasteless. Even more so when I got the answer.

      1. You’re not alone

      2. My husband agrees that this clue was distasteful.

6. Really liked this one.. loved 6dn and 20ac.

7. DNF Spent nearly 3 hours and found it impossibly hard for me. Too many difficult clues together. WAGE SLAVE was completely unknown to me and ROSETTE clue to me was gibberish. The NW corner was a write off
   How is ROSETTE a favour. I can not find any relationship between the two. Help would be appreciated.
   Had WORKING HOLIDAY which seems reasonable since I have never heard of BUSMANS HOLIDAY. This meant the SW corner was gone.
   I only got the middle, the NE corner and most of the SE corner

   1. Chambers:
      Favour, 10. A knot of ribbons worn, eg at an election, to show one’s allegiance.
      Rosette, 1. A knot of radiating loops of ribbon or the like in concentric arrangement, esp worn as a badge showing affiliation, or awarded as a prize.

      1. The next definition is also perhaps relevant: “a thing given or worn as a token of favour or love”.

         1. Rosette definitions don’t seem to use these words.
            Wikipedia talks about awards and medals but doesn’t appear to mention favour or love.

         2. Yes, Rob, and I think that’s the earliest usage.

            Collins defines ‘favour’ as “history – a badge or ribbon worn or given to indicate loyalty, often bestowed on a knight by a lady”, without actually mentioning ROSETTE, but SOED gives examples: “Something given or worn as a mark of favour, celebration, or allegiance, as a knot of ribbons, a rosette, a cockade, etc. L16″.

            This is something I seem to have known forever but couldn’t say where I picked it up.

            1. Thank you for that. It answers my concerns. I did an extensive internet search and there seems to be masses of crossword clues which assume favour and rosette are synonyms.

      2. I looked at this but to me any relationship is rather tenuous. I looked for a statement that a rosette is a favour. You have to infer this means rosette is a favour from two things which look similar but there is no election or prize in both and allegiance and affiliation are related, not synonyms.

8. Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!
   Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep,
   Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care, …
   (Macbeth)

   35 mins pre-brekker. I liked the cleverness, despite the need for Baaed, Susie and Misdo.
   Ta setter and W.

9. 48 minutes with LOI MILKSOP, despite my Dad being a Petty Officer in the war. I spent some time deciding what two letters went round ABBE.I liked USERNAME and CAPITAL OFFENCE but COD to SOMEDAY. I found this harder than it looked.
   Thank you William and setter.

   1. And your Dad would certainly have told you that, the name notwithstanding, petty officers are NCOs, not officers. A slip from our setter there, I’m afraid, and one which caused me rather more than a MER.

      1. My Dad did go before some sort of panel to become a commissioned officer, I guess around 1943. He felt that his broad Bolton accent didn’t work in his favour, especially when asked by some crusty old son of privilege whether that was rugger or soccer when he’d said he played football. I do admire that glorious generation, but not all of them.

10. Pretty tricky but very enjoyable, all done and dusted in 53 mins. L2I DEALT & SPOTTY. Also got stuck on USERNAME for a while which then gave me RUSSELL.

    I really liked NEWSCASTER, SCRAM & APRIL FOOL.

    Thanks William and setter.

11. 20’15” with LOI ELMS, for which I needed USERNAME, POI. I once wrote a clue for ‘username’ in a Christmas TfTT puzzle.

    Not too sure about the device in MISDO, also a nho word.

    Thanks william and setter.

12. 52:10

    Another enjoyable, slow and steady solve in which I wavered repeatedly over MISDO and BAAED (LOI), was unsure from where I knew CAGLIARI and did not properly parse CAPITAL OFFENCE. A SPOTTY performance.

    Thank you, william_j_s and the setter.

13. 19:42. Lots of cleverness here. I took ages to get started, my FOI being 2D, but the Downs got me going. I liked USERNAME, CAPITAL OFFENCE, ROSETTE and the neatly hidden EVERYONE. Last 2 in were MISDO, with a shrug, and BAAED. Thanks William and setter.

14. Finished in 28 mins but entered misto ( missed O) rather than misdo. I thought an Italian mixture was reasonable but 5 for S is a new strategem on me.

    Thanks setter and blogger and hopefully see some of you tomorrow.

15. 36 minutes. Most of the ones I found difficult have been covered by others, especially MISDO. I’ve seen ROSETTE for ‘favour’ before but only in crossword land; thanks to commenters above for the background information on this sense. I enjoyed working out the parsing of CAPITAL OFFENCE and SUBJUGATE.

    Thanks to William and setter

16. 32:45
    A clever and enjoyable puzzle. I made heavy weather of it – not quite sure why now. Not getting USERNAME for a long time didn’t help. Hesitated a long time over BAAED and MISDO. A toss-up between BUSMANS HOLIDAY and SUBJUGATE for COD.

    Thanks to William and the setter

17. 56:08
    Steadily ploddedd through this.
    Thanks, w.

18. 35:56
    I never quite felt on wavelength but it was worth the effort when the answers did reveal themselves.

    I stared at the gaps in BUSMANS HOLIDAY for what felt like an age, I eventually entered BAAED with a shrug and fingers crossed, and the last couple of minutes were spent on MISDO.

    I enjoyed it, even if I wasn’t on top form.

    Thanks to both.

19. 32:39

    Well under 30’ with only LOI ROSETTE left. Oh, he’s a setter!
    It occurred to me that as MI5 and MI6 are both Ministries of Intelligence, ‘Mess up spooks’ function’, MIs’ do may have been neater than 5=S.
    Very clever and enjoyable puzzle.

    Thanks William and setter.

20. “What mighty men misdo, they can amend.” Shakespeare/Kyd, Edward III.
    I know (because I looked it up!) that Spooks was based on MI5, but why not just interpret the clue as MI’S DO – saves the awkward and questionable 5=S.
    Anyway 18 minutes for this beauty, a classic of the setter’s art if not as quirky as yesterday’s.
    The Apollo 1 clue in particular was a gem, combining an entirely tasteful evocation of a desperately sad event with an answer far removed from solemnity.
    What surprises me from the correspondence above is that favour and ROSETTE are so hard to match in the sources, as it was one of the more instant connections for me.
    Meanwhile add NEW(S)CASTER and Paris to my list of clues with the wow factor. This is why we do these things.

21. This took me around 1 hour – I found it tricky, especially the 5-letter clues.
    I almost went with Risotto for the favour (after all, I like risotto) and Sir Otto could well be an old man – fortunately Susie put me right.
    Enjoyable puzzle.

22. DNF. Gave up at 45 mins missing USERNAME, RUSSELL and ELMS in the NE corner. Might have got them eventually, but Life intervened. Enjoyed the rest of it.

23. Second DNF this week, not being able to think of BAAED,nor MISDO and to be honest I won’t beat myself up for either! Cagliari remembered primarily from the football team who won the Italian league in the late 60s. Didn’t particularly take to the Apollo reference. Thanks William and setter

24. 10:44. Another excellent puzzle.
    I slowed myself down by confidently entering GALLIPOLI at 9dn, based purely on GI for ‘private’, failing to notice that 1) it doesn’t fit any of the other wordplay elements, 2) it has too many letters and 3) it’s not a port*. Apart from that though it’s a perfectly good answer.
    ‘Favour’ for ROSETTE is familiar from past puzzles (I think) but it’s a bit archaic and/or three-point-turn-in-a-thesaurus-ish.
    I thought I knew CAGLIARI from the doctor with the cabinet but that’s CALIGARI.
    *It turns out there is actually a port in Italy called Gallipoli but I didn’t know that so it doesn’t count.

25. Took for ever to spot the partially missed hidden SUSIE, then DOH!
    Quibble; MI5 is supposed to catch the spooks rather than being spooks. Doubted MISDO for a while, and never sussed 5=S.
    Failed to parse CAPITAL OFFENCE. DOH! Easy-peasy when it is explained.

26. 23:13 – Not the hardest of the week but another stretchy puzzle, with far too much time spent staring at BAAED and ABBE – or at least the empty spaces where they should have been.

27. 10:57, on the wavelength for this very enjoyable puzzle. CAPITAL OFFENCE was marvellous.

    Thanks William & setter.

28. 35m today and I felt the need to add my voice in favour of this excellent offering today, some quite outstanding challenges especially CAPITAL OFFENCE and NEWSCASTER.
    Hope you all have a jolly time at the George!

29. I always thought a spook was indeed a spy, and Chambers confirms this. So I’m perfectly happy with the MISDO clue. The poor old setter comes up with a very clever device, which in my opinion justifies the ‘letter-change without any direction of how it’s changed’ criticism, and he gets a whole lot of flak. I think it’s an excellent clue. As was the crossword as a whole, which tried hard to stop me from finishing, but I did eventually, with one or two entered without full understanding (the capital of France clue was brilliant and I never thought it was anything more than a rather odd CD until coming here), in 55 minutes, with one or two prods.

30. I eventually crossed the line in 54.15 but with my LOI wrong. For 25ac all I could think of was BEARD, I think because of the reference to a goat, or in my mind a bearded goat perhaps. Alphabet trawls didn’t help me here because I quickly discounted a double A. Disappointing not to finish with all correct, but enjoyable nonetheless.

31. I was totally off the wavelength, but finished eventually. I was sure that what eventually turned out to be rosette would have ‘as I’ in the middle, I wasted a long time on making an anagram of kid with a and e, I wondered if snutty is a word, etc, etc. I even thought of nabbed right away, but did I see the obvious abbe in there? No. I did appreciate the glorious substitution clue – capital of France, indeed!

    Time: 61 minutes.

32. 20 minutes, easy for a Friday, ending with MISDO and BAAED both of which raised a serious eyebrow. I too think goats bleat and sheep baa.

33. Easy enough with a little bit of crossing the fingers over BAAED (doesn’t look like a real word) and MISDO (which I’ve never heard of but certainly plausible). The Paris clue CAPITAL OFFENCE was briliant.

34. 30:50

    Another here less than delighted with the marmite MISDO. I liked BAAED rather better though baulked slightly of the notion that kids might BAA rather than bleat. Other than those question marks, this was very enjoyable.

    Thanks William and setter

35. Despite thinking NO MORE for 1a straight away, I didn’t put it in, as I didn’t twig the late definition until much later. Facepalm moment! MUG UP went in first. I plodded through most of the puzzle but had gaps in the NW and SE. NEWSCASTER eventually unblocked the NW and MILKSOP opened up the SE. MISDO was LOI. Had to think about it for a while before submitting and pondered MI’S MI5 and MI6 before shrugging and submitting anyway. Liked BUSMANS HOLIDAY. Had to laboriously construct CAGLIARI. 30:37. Thanks setter and William.

    1. Still don’t understand the clue for NO MORE

       1. Oliver Twist asking for more…

36. DNF with MISDO not a word I have ever used. No complaints about it though.

    Some great clues with Paris the COD

37. DNF, defeated by MISDO and MILKSOP. Was nowhere near figuring out what the clue for the former was getting at, and I never thought of draws=milks for the latter. I also now realise that I got SPOTTY wrong – I put ‘scatty’.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

    COD Busman’s holiday

38. 34 mins. Reasonably easy since i fell asleep in the middle. Like most, I struggled at the end with ROSETTE and MISDO

39. Slow, even for me, in 61 mins. I was a bit dim today. Loved 12 ac but 25 ac a tad annoying.

40. 42.56, with the page skipping on my iPad worse than ever. My temper was not improved by the fact that, unlike many of the regular and much respected commenters, I did not enjoy the puzzle.

    1. Me neither.

       A biff-fest where one had to reverse-parse the majority of the clues.

41. I struggle to see the porridge that was MISDO coming from the same mind as the wonderful BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY but that apart I enjoyed this one. Thanks for the blog!

42. Not too bad, three short at the hour mark. BAAED doesn’t look like a real word. Also missed MISDO. Some cracking clues here.

43. When I stopped after an hour, I was missing the NW corner, BAAED and SOMEDAY, MILKSOP and MISDO, and I was sure I would never finish. But when I returned after a break, it only took another 15 minutes and a lot of careful thought. Like yesterday’s I thought this was very tricky and brilliant, especially CAPITAL OFFENCE, my COD.

44. Clever, and the definitions were just oddball enough to require some good old cryptic assembling instead of biffing.
    Add me to the “I wouldn’t have set April Fool that way” crowd.

45. Having huffed puffed biffed and blogged finally on the hour mark ended with m-s-o at 20 across. Although tenuous began with mis—(mi5) and entered “go” for function. An archaic work for a cock up apparently. Do I claim my coconut or shall I grovel in shame ?

46. Done Monday. Rather brilliant. 24’39”

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