Quick Cryptic 2768 by Wurm

150 comments on “Quick Cryptic 2768 by Wurm”

1. Well my run of 8 consecutive sub-10 minute solves (not achieved since December 2022 when I had 10) has come to an end with this DNF.

   The clock was on 20 minutes when I finally gave up on ‘The London Eye’, and of course I kicked myself when I saw MINCE PIE as I really should have spotted the CRS indicator which would have made the answer obvious. My feeble excuse is that I was disconcerted by the realisation that Wurm had set out to take advantage of recent changes of rules and customs so that I didn’t trust him not to have come up with something else new that would know nothing about.

   I agree with curarist’s misgivings about such changes, and whilst I am not totally averse to having the odd living person thrown in the mix, having three in one puzzle was too much too soon for this solver. Plus BLUR of course, but the rule as it applied to pop group names had been unclear for some time.

2. It seems the convention has not just been binned, but totally trashed with not one, not two, but three living persons. Never mind MERs, my E’s went above my hairline.
   Thanks for the blog, Curarist – pithy as ever.

3. DNF. Gave up after 6 minutes, failing on both ASSANGE and MINCE PIE. COD BRAILLE.

4. Yes, our setter has taken to the living-person rule change with great glee. I wondered when this was going to happen, because here and in the 15×15 there hasn’t been a marked change until today. 14.07 for me, LOsI ASSANGE and BLEUGH. Thanks both.

   1. Yes I think BLEUGH could be the answer to quite a few of these clues too!

5. DNF, in fact threw in the towel with no less than 7 blanks, my worst performance for several years. How Wurm thinks Letterman is a reasonable clue when the man is not famous (outside the US), not British and not dead defeats me. I had never heard of him, nor do I think the average QC solver could be expected to have.

   Also failed on Assange – neither of my hitherto infallible aids (a word search engine and Mrs S) were able to assist even with all the checkers. Again, not (that) famous, not British, not dead, not in my view QC material.

   Most of the other blanks were ones I might have got if I had put in the effort but I had by then given up. A question – is mince pie ever used in the singular? I have only met it in CRS in the plural, mince pies = eyes.

   I will be interested to see what the Snitch is on this one!

   Many thanks Curarist for the blog
   Cedric

   1. Absolutely agree

6. I gave up which is rare for a Quick Cryptic. NHO Letterman or Blur .

   It seems to me that most newspaper trivia quizzes these days comprise at least 50% questions about pop music, TV, and films, and the risk of abolishing the “no living persons” rule is that our beloved cryptic crosswords will go the same way.

   I teach cryptic crosswords to a small group of (mostly) retired people and we often work through a Times Quickie. This one would have gone straight into the bin.

   Thank you Curarist for the blog.

   1. … and the names of Olympic medallists ….

7. Tough but got there in the end. 16 mins.

   No complaints from me about the rule changes.

   COD to BRAILLE.

   Thanks all.

8. It’s a No from me. DNF. Could not make hide nor hair of A-S-N-E.
   Don’t know or care about a relationship between Blur and Oasis other than I’ve never liked either, nor Letterman, but doubt my opinion matters. Eventually got MINCE PIE once all the checkers were in place to give a begrudging 👍
   COD TENDON
   Thanks Curarist and Wurm

9. In my very humble opinion, all of the living people in today’s crossword are ridiculously famous. And I was glad to see them. However I did think putting three in was pushing it! I think changes like this should be gentle and slow or you risk losing your core audience before you’ve attracted a new one.

   Anyway I DNF today because I didn’t know MINCE PIE was rhyming slang and I’ll add it to my list. I mean, glad to learn it, would be mightily annoyed if there were three rhyming slang words in the crossword you know?

   Edit: I also want to say I’m always amused by all of the comments that people do not care to know or like modern (in the past 25 years!) things be it pop singers or Harry Potter, but where are these opinions about the various plays or composers that get mentioned? Why are they all worth knowing?

   1. Why is it worth knowing the plays or composers of the past? Because they have stood the test of time or because their works was significant for how it changed conventions and kickstarted a new movement. Obviously there is some old stuff that really should be forgotten.

      But a lot of modern stuff will be forgotten in less than a decade. Think of Rebecca Black’s Friday, 90% of the Country’s Got Talent winners, the Ice Bucket Challenge, planking or most of the other stuff that’s occurred recently.

      Harry Potter should be remembered for the reasons given in para 1, likewise Swiftie – those are big deals.

      (Generally agree that Assange, Letterman, Swift are big enough to warrant inclusion. The problem for me is whether there’s enough help with “secret sharer” and “US Host” given the vast array of living people available)

      1. The thing is, we got a lot of comments last time that ppl did not care to know about Harry Potter – the biggest book series of the past thirty years, not a new phenomenon

         I would argue that the inclusions in the crosswords have indeed stood the test of time ALREADY. The clues are not who was on this season’s Love Island, but a band that helped define a whole genre and movement of music/cultural touchstone for the past thirty years!

         As an aside: Rebecca Black now makes excellent excellent music, having now come out the other side of some brutal worldwide online bullying at age 14, 13 years ago. She might not stand the test of time but I just wanted to give her a shout out 🙂

         1. NHO Rebecca Black, but then I’m an old fogey – I’ve actually turned into my father.

            1. She was inescapable on the internet in 2011 because she, a 14yo, had made a song and accompanying video named Friday, for herself and her friends. It was simultaneously the catchiest and worst song ever 😂 it was panned, parodied, covered, every comedian had something to say, viral meme. There was a moment where you couldn’t say ‘it’s Friday’ without someone singing the rest of the chorus.

               She was relentlessly bullied for it, despite being 14 and just doing something for fun.

               I don’t know how much value it has as art, but as social commentary and a view on how the world reacted to it, I think it has a lot of value.

               1. She escaped me!

            2. Here you go … https://youtu.be/kfVsfOSbJY0

               A fun tune … 171 million views … almost a million comments. What’s not to like?!

         2. We seem to be in agreement that Harry Potter has stood the test of time. If there are people here who haven’t deemed it worth investigating, that’s on them. Equally it’s on us if we don’t attempt to find out about the historically important stuff – I attempted to read Dickens a decade ago (gave up after three books) and have seen six Shakespeare plays and never get on with them but at least I tried.

            The problem with including living people is how do we know when they’ve come significant enough to become GK? Most of us can agree Swiftie is obvious because she has been doing this stuff for a decade and is regularly mentioned in the papers. But someone like Bruno Mars – who is equally successful but doesn’t make the main papers despite being on a global tour and having played the Super Bowl halftime – is he includable? I’d say no.

            This question of relevance isn’t restricted to modern people. As Plett1 says, there’s been actors/actresses from the b&w era included never heard of. I seem to recall a recent Cryptic (maybe the 15×15) including a Spanish painter who some said was famous – I’d not heard of them but Cedric was able to name 5 or 6 more famous Spanish painters who I had.

            Think of this way – if you’re asked to name a band from the 1960s – The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys are fair game – The Kinks might be – Herman’s Hermits is pushing it! But we have the passing of time and continued airplay to help us support who is worthwhile including – we don’t necessarily get that with living people.

            1. Living vs dead is just as arbitrary as your Bruno Mars vs Taylor swift example. Dying doesn’t automatically promote someone to fair game GK, surely? If Bruno Mars died tomorrow would you suddenly change your opinion on his inclusion? Surely you will admit that there are dead people, included in historical XWDs that are significantly more obscure than Bruno Mars?

               There are plenty of things I have encountered during my time answering cryptics which I think are extremely dubious ‘General Knowledge’. Then again there have been equally many things I have thought are bleeding obvious, but have found armies of commenters complaining about their inclusion. For the most part, whatever GK is included, the people who knew it will think its fine and those that don’t will insist its too obscure. As Chris Tarrant (too obscure?) used to say: they are only easy when you know the answer!

               1. Fully agree, being dead doesn’t automatically promote someone to being fair game GK.

                  It’s just that being dead is usually a decent substitute/proxy measurement for whether their work or renown has stood the test of time and can now be seen as fair game for GK.

                  As you say, people have different levels of GK and it’s always open to interpretation. I do the Monday GK puzzle most weeks and can get down to last 5-8 answers in 5-6mins. But I’m at a complete loss when it comes to food&drink or literature especially the modern stuff which has won awards.

         3. Tina, your reference to people who “did not care to know about Harry Potter” struck a chord with me.
            I am always amused by people who not only “don’t care to know” about something but have Absolutely Never Heard of it – and Don’t Want to!
            I always think “If they’ve never heard of it, how do they know they don’t want to? They might love it”.

            1. Yes even my children have to try everything on their plate at least once before they say they don’t like it 😛

               1. Hopefully you know they need to try it 17 times.

                  That’s general knowledge by now isn’t it?!!? 😜

                  1. Look, i want these kids to still want to contact me when they’re adults haha

               2. Mine too!
                  I’ve got an acquaintance who’s a very fussy eater. I have to bite my tongue every time I hear “I don’t like that; I’ve never tried it”.

      2. I think the best comparison is with the English Heritage Blue Plaque scheme, whose criteria are dead for 20 years or past centenary of birth, and considered to have made an outstanding (and therefore enduring) contribution to their profession. It certainly excludes the passing fads.
         I think getting into the Times Crossword is equivalent to a blue plaque, though not any more obviously.

      3. Assange is a controversial figure so am not sure why he was allowed. See wiki for further details.

         1. I admit I don’t know much about Assange but I would wager sooooo many people mentioned in crosswords are problematic in some way. I think it would be difficult to remove all of them, and you can try and not include the worst of them but where is the line? I do understand if it puts a bad taste in your mouth – many a clue does that to me – we’ve had the word ‘fag’ twice in recent times and that’s just a slur as far as I’m concerned, cigarette or no.

            I’ve seen complaints about other clues, so I guess at least we have the blog to air our grievances and share some knowledge.

            1. I’ve submitted an entry to the Sunday Times Clue Writing Competition for “Three Legged Race” which involves a Rolf Harris song. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be allowed, but then I’m not remotely woke.

               1. I’m extremely ‘woke’ and Rolf Harris has done some despicable things but he has also contributed to society and while I would not support his work now (eg if he put out a piece of work now I would not consume it or monetarily support it) if I saw him in a crossword I don’t think i would remark upon it. I might wrinkle my nose at the recollection of his behaviour.
                  I can imagine that some people might have a stronger more personal reaction, but again, famous people – so many of them are awful!

            2. Custody battles with his ex, fathered unknown number of children, accused of rape and sexual molestation in Sweden. Kicked out of the Ecuadorian embassy for smearing faeces on the walls, being rude to staff and generally ignoring the rules they wanted him to abide by when they were providing him with asylum.

               Plus convicted of hacking in the 1990s by the Australian government only avoided prison time through a plea deal.

               He’s not just Mr Wikileaks.

   2. Hear hear! I’m reasonably well read but there was a poem related answer in the 15×15 on Tuesday this week that I had never heard of and which I would humbly suggest was far too obscure and likely to discourage new entrants. Not a fan of Blur and have no idea what David Letterman looks or sounds like but I suspect they are both reasonably well known amongst the general public.

   3. True words Tina. Some are happy for us all to have to know obscure church nouns but heaven forbid there is a person still alive as an answer 🙂

   4. I’m inclined to agree. Letterman is arguably a bit iffy for a primarily UK-based audience, but on the other hand I can’t think of a more famous US TV host over the last 30-odd years. And I think that one would have to try quite hard to have never heard of Swift or Assange.

      Speaking of the latter, did anyone else have ASS___E and briefly consider a rather different word?

      1. Oprah Winfrey is probably more famous. After that I might go with Jerry Springer.

         Johnny Carson and Jay Leno qualify as not general knowledge.

         Does James Corden count as an American host? 😬

10. DNF, same as Phil: ASSANGE & MINCE PIE
    DNK the latter, and had no idea what London Eye was supposed to mean. Having seen SWIFT and LETTERMAN, it should have been clear to me that the new dispensation had finally arrived, but ASSANGE remained out of reach. (I think it’s a good clue, actually, and I have no objection to living people in the QCs.) I wondered about ‘proud’ when I got BRAILLE, but I assumed it was as in ‘proud flesh’; looking at ODE afterward, I saw that def. 3 is “(Brit.) slightly projecting from a surface”. [on edit] Forgot to note that INHO BLUR, and don’t want to.

    1. Believe me, you’re not missing much with Blur – Oasis weren’t so bad though.

       1. The great debate from 30 years ago – was generally split geographically at which lot you preferred.
          Personally I was Pulp – Different Class.

          1. I was also Team Pulp!

          2. Oh yes, give me Pulp over the others any day. Something Changed is by miles the best thing to come out of the Britpop scene, in my view.

       2. Not sure I’d agree. With the passage of time I find Oasis a bit one dimensional whereas Blur seemed to do slightly different and more thoughtful stuff; and Gorillaz were OK too. In saying that neither would be near the top of my lists.

          1. My thoughts too. I listened to What’s the Story Morning Glory after the reunion announcement and was much less impressed than I recall being back in the day.

             Began listening to Best of Blur earlier and their range is much wider.

       3. 1991 my first Liverpool Uni gig was Blur. They were shocking. I didn’t forgive Damon until Gorillaz who were and are astonishingly good. Pastic Beach.
          As for the crossword…top half ok. bottom half had loads of NHIs.
          I was enjoying the QCs this week until today.

11. Different experience here, finished in a typical time of 22.30 but needed Curarist to parse several where we were pretty sure of the answer but stumped by the word play, step forward eaglet, loophole and ashen.

    Agree with Mr C that braille was a fantastic clue, and for me (with a cockney dad) just followed by mince pies – mainly because I spotted the device immediately and with only the M in place and the enumeration it was a write in 😀

    Thanks all.

12. I was unaware (or had forgotten about) the convention change re. living people so eventually just went with it and assumed it was covered by the ANON LOOPHOLE across the middle of the grid.
    I did think LETTERMAN could have passed away and there might have been a possibility that I’d missed ASSANGE’s death but Ms SWIFT’s appearance made me realise that something different was going on.

    On the whole I think I’m for the change as it does make puzzles more relevant for newer solvers – and personally I’m more likely to have heard of them than some of the GK that does come up from time to time – as an example I remember getting beaten all ends up by an actress who was a star decades before I was born (I’m in my early 50s).

    With regards to the puzzle I thought this was Wurm back at his trickiest and a lot of head scratching was required. I eventually crossed the line in 12.16 with LOI SWIFT and COD to BRAILLE.
    Thanks to Curarist

13. DNF with ASSANGE unsolved.

    Perhaps one good reason for never including living persons is that they can lead to strong reactions whereas you should never speak ill of the dead. Given Assange’s character, this clue left a very bad taste for me – any appreciation I had had for clues like BRAILLE, BLUR and MINCE-PIE gone.

    No particular concern over Swiftie and while I think David Letterman, as host of a major US chatshow through the 80s, 90s, 00s and into the 10s is well known – I don’t see how including him will add appeal to bring in my early 20-something daughter or nephew. They won’t know him.

    I’m screwed though if they start including the ‘stars’ from Strictly, Youtube or Made in Chelsea

    1. DNF too for the same reason! Enjoyed your thoughts on GK suitability, test of time and related- makes a lot of sense.

14. 13:00. Wow. How weird was that. Three living people and a band. I agree with Tina that they are all ridiculously famous. I know nothing about pop music but even I have heard of Blur and Taylor Swift. Well done Wurm for coming in with a bang.
    I liked BRAILLE, ASSANGE and MINCE PIE

15. 5:00. LOI ASSANGE. I think our setter had fun today taking advantage of the recent announcement of relaxing the rules about referring to living people. I liked BRAILLE best. Thank-you Wurm and Curarist.

16. 17 minutes, plenty to think about and very satisfying for that. Enjoyed the misdirection of ‘proud’ for BRAILLE and the small but perfectly-formed MINCE PIE. EXTROVERT took some effort, but was well worth it when it came. Not sure I like having so many living people in one go but all are familiar, and Blur are still going strong.

    Some unparsed (as usual for me), so thanks Curarist for the blog – and thank Wurm for giving us something just a little out of the ordinary without resorting to the contortions of meaning and spelling (yes, EMEER, I’m still thinking of you!) that we sometimes see.

    FOI EXTRAS
    LOI MINCE PIE
    COD GENOESE

    1. Indeed I thought EMEER got an easy ride on the blog yesterday, because we were all so upset about IMAMATE. Must learn all these Moslem/Muslim spellings.

       1. Really? EMEER came in for a lot of stick. I only got involved because somebody suggested the setter was illiterate to have used it so I felt obliged to defend it as being a valid alternative spelling along with two others in addition to ‘Emir’.

17. My final solve in a tent for 2024 – thanks Cornwall. Surprised it was Wurm when my phone let me see, I’d assumed a new setter trying a bit too hard. Got to ASSANGE via ‘sasange’ once I’d seen ‘sang’ was going to feature, thought that was odd and then got LETTERMAN. New convention had escaped me. How Telegraph! Hadn’t noticed SWIFT – I guess that’s a sign of proper fame. All green in 17.29.

18. 16:11, tough going, pleased to get through that. LOI MALADY after scratching my head over ASANGE which I got by building up the clue as instructed.

    At one point I was trying to squeeze ABSENCE in either 7d or 3d, but decided it was unlikely with ABSENT already appearing.

    When is CHESTNUT not a Chestnut?

    LETTERMAN was hard because I thought I was looking for some odd Americanism like Corpsman, Upperclassman etc.

    No problem with Swift, never has a single artist been so widely seen and appreciated around the world. In multiple art forms as well: composition, Dance, vocalist, instrumentalist. A true phenomenon.

    COD ASHEN

19. 7:44. Felt like this was at the tougher end of the Quickie spectrum, but really enjoyable. LOI ASSANGE was a fabulous penny-dropping moment.

    As one who thought the old rule about living people made little sense, I’m completely unfazed by the relaxing of it. Admittedly there may be a short period of readjustment required.

    Thanks Wurm and Curarist.

20. DNF. Threw in the towel after 25 minutes, with ASSANGE not spotted.

    MINCE PIES familiar from the Richard Digance song “drinking with Rosie”

    Everyone wanted to be drinking with Rosie,
    When Rosie was drinking with me.
    She never had eyes for good looking guys,
    I was the apple of her old mince pies.
    Everyone wanted to be drinking with Rosie,
    When Rosie was drinking with me.

    Thanks Curarist and Wurm

    1. Ah, Richard Digance… I remember going to see him 45 odd years ago, when he was supporting The Wurzels 😅 He was excellent – actually they were surprisingly good too. I wouldn’t have chosen to go but it was a freebie and turned out to be a very entertaining evening. Obviously – as I still remember it!
       I saw Chas and Dave in a huge pub in Bethnal Green around the same time (worked for the record company) – they were brilliant too.

21. I’m with the moaners I’m afraid. I’m not keen on references to figures from the past either, unless they are generally well known.

22. Couldn’t do more than half this; nor do I berate myself for the other half, all wildly too difficult. Misery. NHO LETTERMAN (nor can it be guessed) – more US culture being forced down our throats!

23. The QC is a fount of knowledge for words for drugs! Worked out EASE from the checkers but NHO MDMA. Taylor Swift and Blur/Oasis came after my pop days of the 60s, but think they are all sufficiently well-known for GK. A few PDMs made this an enjoyable QC for me. Thanks Curarist and Wurm.

24. Apologies to the retired but not late David LETTERMAN. I thought it was a possibility until I solved SWIFT and then BLUR in a blur. LOI was the tricky ASSANGE at which point I cried foul. I did finish in 8:41 with COD to the excellent BRAILLE.

    1. To be fair, I thought he was dead as well.

25. Once I realised there was something different about this QC , I discarded my Beerbohm Tree hat and went for a bucket hat, a bit more Oasis perhaps. BLUR duly appeared and many more. My first thought on American Host was Johnny Carson; he’s dead now but he annointed David Letterman whom I regard as very famous and if you watch bands on Youtube, you will see how many appeared on his show at some point.
    As to the solve, LOI was EXTROVERT; I did not parse this and Rover =Pirate did not occur to me.
    There was some very good stuff in here as well as some less so.
    I liked BRAILLE and ASSANGE.
    Time taken 23 minutes.
    David

    1. I think Johnny Carson wanted David Letterman to succeed him but the network and Tonight Show producers decided on Jay Leno instead.

26. 9:35

    So my run of three sub-5-minute solves came to an end. Well done Wurm for stretching us all with some innovative clueing – needed an alphatrawl to fill in LOI ASSANGE (as it couldn’t be ABSENCE). I had heard of and have probably seen clips of LETTERMAN (though can’t honestly say I’d ever deliberately watched him), and as for Taylor SWIFT, she cannot be avoided currently. BLUR was also a write-in merely from the Oasis (very topical this week) reference.

    Thanks also to Curarist for the explication

27. 20 minute DNF with ASSANGE and GENOESE and MINCE PIE defeating me. I would never have got Assange however long I looked. Was he really a sharer, or a publiciser/disrupter? Not sure.
    For the London Eye I put MONEY PIT, thinking of the cost of each outing in one of those pods. Cockney eye might have been an easier clue! Plates of meat up the apples and pears…
    On the other hand, I did get LETTERMAN (very fairly clued) and I chuckled over AIRED and BRAILLE – both very neat. So lots of pleasure en route to a seat in the SCC – is one allowed in with a DNF?

    1. Assange shared state secrets, so I guess he is a sharer of sorts.

28. What do you MEAN there’s been a rule change?? I didn’t get an owl down the chimney from the Puzzles Editor and I jolly well expect one for something as fundamental as that.

    Unsurprisingly, therefore, DNFed. I was sure that 1a was MALADY but I was equally sure that 3d was ESSENCE, since I could only think of two words that fitted –S-N-E and ESSENCE sort of means “secret” but ABSENCE doesn’t and ABSENT was already at 12a. However, MALADY just had to be, and that gave me A-S-N-E, so after many minutes of squinting sideways trying to find a homophone (thinking “sharer” might be indicating someone speaking, straws being firmly clutched by now) ABSENCE went in, submit was pressed and up came a fistful of DPSs.

    Fuming!

    FWIW I don’t like the inclusion of living people but I am a curmudgeonly old git so don’t listen to me.

    Thank Wurm and curarist.

    1. Yes it was in one of the newsletters after RR’s death although it had been on the cards anyway I gather.

    2. Right, I have the reference now posted by Mick Hodgkin in the Newlsetter 29/6/24 in response to feedback re the ‘Sign of The Times’ cryptic published the previous week:

       “In response to feedback we will now take a step that has been under consideration for some time and allow the mention of living people in Times crosswords. This is already the case in The Sunday Times and other puzzles such as the Listener (see, for example, Enigmatist’s brilliant puzzle themed on two contemporary singers, whose solution is published today). We will, however, exercise caution in avoiding topical references that could prove controversial.”

       I posted the whole of the relevant section of the Newsletter in the QC discussion on that date, which you can access in full here if you wish.

       1. Oh rub it in why don’t you! Mutter grumble moan. (Thanks Jack. I’ll try to remember now.)

          1. You didn’t comment that day, and not everyone subscribes to the newsletters so I just assumed you hadn’t seen it.

             1. Thanks again. (It’s genuinely going to be a bit of an adjustment, isn’t it? The field of “currently famous living people” is pretty large. Anyway, at least I know now!)

                1. I’m prepared to accept Mr Letterman is living. My concern is whether – outside the world of US TV that is – he is famous. Or at least well known enough for a QC in a British paper.

                   I think Tina’s comment was the most relevant here. Yes the rule has changed, and those who don’t like it will rightly be told to lump it, but setters should exercise care in using their new freedom to avoid too hostile a reaction from the Colonel Bufton-Tuftons of this world. And – with due allowance to the fact that Wurm too is feeling his way in this brave new world – I think the three names (and one pop group) he chose to include were not quite the perfect way to inaugurate the new freedoms.

                   1. Not forgetting the mention of Macron in one of the clues!

       2. You could argue that “Assange” is somewhat controversial.

          1. I agree. (signed) Amelia Bufton-Tufton.

             1. Nice to finally learn your first name, Ms B-T!

29. I seem to have bucked the trend here finishing in a quick time for me in 7.06. At least 40 or so seconds of that were taken up by my MINCE PIE which was my LOI. Although I solved ASSANGE easily enough constructing it from the clue; amazingly I somehow didn’t connect it with the whistle blower himself, instead convincing myself it must be an obscure word for someone that wished to remain anonymous when sharing things. The man himself of course was anything but anonymous! I was surprised to see LETTERMAN as an answer, although it didn’t delay me much. I wouldn’t know the man if he stood next to me, but I’ve heard of the American show and that was enough. I would imagine many solvers on this side of the pond will never have heard of him. Equally, many solvers outside the UK will find MINCE PIE unsolvable.
    My best week for a while with all five solves under my ten minute target. In fact today at 7.06 was the quickest, and 8.10 on Wednesday the slowest. This gives me a weekly total time of 38.35, and a weekly average of 7.43.

30. I’ve spent the summer learning how to crack a cryptic crossword with my two twenty-something sons. Thanks to your blog, we’re almost there.
    As Taylor Swift has been headline news, for several years, I think it’s reasonable to see her as a clue in a national newspaper. As a Scot, however, I’m still getting to grips with the arcane cricket clues, clearly having missed something in my formative education.
    Learning something new every day has certainly opened my mince pies!

31. Well, that’s livened things up even more than EMEER did. Had no idea how to cope with 2D to start with, “secret sharer” only made me think of “secret Santa” presents in the office, and that clearly didn’t help me! Only once SWIFT and LETTERMAN had surprised me, but gone in without much pondering, did I realise the options were wider than I had originally assumed.
    All finished in quite a long time, but done nevertheless.
    I enjoyed Blur, judge me as you like. Not top of my playlist, but I’ll sing along.
    Given the “new rule” ( guideline, convention, whatever), three at once plus a current band seemed a bit strong, but three of the four were write-ins for me even if LETTERMAN was more from definition and then, oh yes, him.
    As we are still suffering “U”, “IT” and various other anachronisms, I see no reason not to have some newer clue fodder, (drugs aside) and I am more likely to know Blur and Swift than some composers and artists that appear.

    1. There’s an excellent short story by Joseph Conrad “The Secret Sharer”, but unfortunately the protagonist is called Leggatt not ASSANGE.

32. I didn’t consciously notice the change as I regularly solve the Indy and Guardian puzzles which have no restrictions on state of existence, so just got on with solving the puzzle. As I assembled the wordplay for 3d a penny dropped and I thought it was a good clue. I’d heard of David LETTERMAN so didn’t struggle with that one. I did like MINCE PIE and BRAILLE. From YON to GENOESE in 7:50. Thanks Wurm and Curarist.

33. 8.59

    Great to see so much chat and comment. Personally I loved this because it really forced you to focus on the w/p to get some of the harder ones (ASSANGE and LETTERMAN for example). Definitely some “main fare” quality/difficulty today and nothing wrong with that.

    Thanks Wurm and Curarist

34. Very difficult, v slow. A technical DNF because I needed the CCD for inspiration for EXTROVERT and MALADY.
    PDMs with ASSANGE, BRAILLE (COD), BLUR (VHO).
    Eventually biffed MINCE PIE, and definitely NHO LOI LETTERMAN, also biffed.
    Is the latter famous?? An American talk-show host seems out of place here.
    At one point, depressingly, I had only solved a few clues, hence resorting to the CCD to enable me to progress.
    Thanks vm, Curarist.

35. Totally unaware of the rule change and just quietly noted things seemed a little different today. Finished in my fairly usual ‘one large coffee’ sort of time. Paused over MINCE PIE and GENOESE, but everything else went in very smoothly. I don’t know why but including living people seems to dumb these puzzles down. It might just be that they were write-ins for me personally today and I prefer to work a bit harder or preferably even come across someone I’ve never heard of and do a bit of research… Jury still out. Thought BRAILLE was sublime. Thanks for the blog C.

36. Well that was rough. felt more like the classic than a quick to me.
    A DNF, nearly 30 minutes with a couple reveals.

    tricky ones:
    Extras – NHO bit players = extras, and unusually being extra is a new one for me.
    Eaglet – just too many synonyms of joy and swallow to get the answer. couldn’t think of the right combinations
    Mince pie – I don’t know my cockney slay so this one was hopeless. Its quite clever now I know it.
    Letterman – couldn’t parse this one and I have only BHO David Letterman.
    Genoese -although parsing this one correctly I couldn’t get the right bit for small number, I tried “ONE”, I tried “SN” and “SNO” but nothing looked right. I have BHO genoese.

    FOI: Malady
    LOI: Extras
    COD: Loophole

    1. I definitely object to NO for small number. Surely small number implies something more than zero?

       So it was a DNF from me for several reasons as well as GENOESE.

       1. I think the idea was ‘No.’ being an abbreviation of ‘number’ – ie a ‘small’ version of the word number. That’s how I got to it, but my approach is often a little left-field!

37. Paused at my usual 30min cut off with barely half the grid (just the easy ones) completed, and wondered whether to carry on or just stop and register my worst attempt at a puzzle in years. Well, I’m nothing if not stubborn, so had an extra coffee and began the trawl through the remaining Hyde part of Wurm’s ‘QC’. Nearly an hour later, loi Mince Pie concluded what seemed more like glacial erosion than a solve. I mentioned last time out that I thought Wurm was getting harder, but this was ridiculous. Invariant

    1. There was definitely some main puzzle type clues there – but, for once, I didn’t mind it. However, it helps when you complete it of course.

38. Definitely a different vibe to this one. 16:01 for me having started at pace got held up by LOI ASSANGE. As a noob didn’t know there was a convention re living people so that wasn’t an issue.

    MINCE PIE was a write in despite being a northerner.

    Like others enjoyed BRAILLE.

39. Some great clues, as noted by others but really tricky! No problem in principle with conventions changing, but shouldn’t we be told? like some others, not heard of Mr Letterman! Grateful thanks as ever.

40. Another moaner here. NHO Letterman.

    Usual spelling is mortiSE and tenon btw 😬

41. I feel happier about my DNF now I’ve read about so many others. For me it was MINCE PIE that did it, as well as spelling 5d EXTRAVERT which meant I didn’t get LOOPHOLE. I think I’m generally in favour of including living people as long as they are reasonably famous. I’ve always thought the dead people rule gave older solvers even more of an advantage than they already had, and after all, we surely want to encourage the next generation to take up crosswords. COD to BRAILLE. Thanks Wurm and CURARIST.

42. That was a bit hard in places, and I resorted to my Cheating Machine for Assange and “letterman” which made no sense to me as from Wiktionary:
    “letterman (plural lettermen)
    (US) A student who has attained a specified level of participation in a sporting or other activity, and is awarded a cloth “letter” to be affixed to an item of clothing.”
    It fitted, but NHO David Letterman, so it didn’t parse. I don’t watch much US TV apart from American PBS progs on nature or WWII.
    Have heard of Blur, Oasis, Taylor S, although I have a tin ear and listen to no music. I am OK with living persons.

43. I loved BLUR! I’m 67 – go figure! They did some very clever, witty songs. Try ‘ Park Life ‘ with an hilarious cockney turn from excellent actor Phil Daniels! And ‘ There’s no Other Way ‘ … dont knock ’em till you’ve tried ‘ em!

    1. Well, at least there’s two of us who will be at the QC’s Blur gig!

       1. Woohoo!

       2. We’ll be reading Balzac, knocking back Prozac.

       3. Three – Song 2, Girls and Boys, and The Universal for starters. Much more versatile than whiny Liam’s band, although his big brother did write some catchy tunes 😅

44. DNF.
    Disaster – much too tricky or me. At least one level above my capabilities. Very dispiriting.
    I still do not do understand the solution for 5 Across:
    “5 Sociable old pirate stops avoiding alcohol (9)
    EXTROVERT – O + ROVER inside TT”

    I am probably being stupid but I do not understand this parsing. Can you help ?

    1. Gordon, There is a slight typo in the blog. It’s Ex for old and then Rover for pirate (as in one who wandered the seas) inside (stops is crossword language for break, ie put inside) TT (teetotal- avoid alcohol). Ex T Rover T, Extrovert.

       1. Thanks.

45. DNF in half an hour. I solved the controversial clues but completely failed to get the simple 1a. Perhaps I’m coming down with one. BRAILLE was nice. Thanks Curarist and Wurm.

46. Did not like this at all.
    DNF
    Never heard of Letterman – why should I? I don’t watch American TV.
    Aren’t there enough words in OED plus historical figures for the setters? I don’t see the need to include contemporary people.

    This is the sort of cryptic that Hello! Magazine might print. Will kill the QC for me.

    Thanks for the blog!

    1. It was confirmed by Mick H that they were looking at finding a regular slot for more contemporary puzzles like the one-off in June, but I’ve not heard anything more about it.

    2. I agree. If the Times crosswords turn into a pop and tv culture quiz I will be cancelling my subscription.

       1. Glad it is not just me!

    3. Personally, I don’t mind it all. Why not balance some of the old fashioned stuff with something a little more modern. As long as it’s not overdone, I don’t see a problem.

       1. That’s the thing, James – I think today was definitely overdone! But a balance is fine 😊

    4. We get a number of 30s/40s/50s film actors, singers etc that I’ve barely heard of, seen or heard. I see no reason not to include people who have some relevance to me, of my lifetime. It’s a word puzzle not, as it sometimes feels, a history quiz.
       I don’t see Hello! using that clue for Assange anytime soon! If you found that too easy, I salute you.

       1. It was not a comment on the ease. (I was a dnf) More a comment on the inclusion of so-called celebrities. I had heard of them all bar Letterman, but why pop and television stars? If living people are to be included then perhaps a few scientists, poets and the like. Then I might not be so harrumph about it.

          1. I guess that the setter has to decide who’s sufficiently famous for the answer to be accessible to the majority of solvers, and that that pushes them towards pop, TV and sport (can’t wait till they start cluing Premier League footballers …) because of the sheer reach of those names. Mind you given the obscurity of some of the dead people I’m not sure that setters are always worried about accessibility!

47. I was solving on paper, and thought this was pretty chewy. Even if we disregard the novelties, the regular cryptics were main-puzzle level – look at loophole and extrovert, which our blogger has misparsed. It’s EX + T(ROVER)T. Of course, as a hard-core solver, I can use the cryptics and get the answers, coming up with Assange without really wondering who or what the answer was – if it fits the cryptic and the crossers, in it goes.

    At the end, I got stuck on mince pie, and nearly gave up. I rose from my chair to walk into the other room to see what the answer was, and a mere change of position caused the correct answer to pop into my brain.

    Time: 15 minutes

48. 32 mins…

    I found this tough, but incredibly enjoyable. Personally, I was surprised to see 3dn “Assange”, 11dn “Letterman” ( although I thought he had died) and 19dn “Swift”; however it didn’t detract from a great puzzle. Whilst Britpop ‘garbage’ may not be the blogger’s cup of tea, the clue was pretty topical.

    Quite a few smiley faces on my paper copy, so a number could have been the clue of the day, but special mention to 3dn “Assange”, 11ac “Loophole” and 15dn “Genoese”.

    FOI – 4dn “Yon”
    LOI – 11dn “Letterman”
    COD – 13dn “Braille”

    Thanks as usual!

49. DNF 30 mins; could not believe ASSANGE could possibly be a QC answer, not that I got it anyhow, SWIFT reasonable, as you would need to be in parallel universe not to have known her name

50. I must have missed the announcement about the new ‘names of living people’ rule. Was it published somewhere?
    Thanks, C.

    1. See above, Jackkt’s reference to it.

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