Times 29191 – Echo Alpha Sierra Yankee!

90 comments on “Times 29191 – Echo Alpha Sierra Yankee!”

1. Thought waste for lose in 22d was a bit strange and can’t think of how they would be interchangeable, maybe lose weight/waste away?
   Some convoluted wordplay which turned out to be quite easy once the penny dropped: PAELLA, LOWLANDER. Liked NEW SCOTLAND YARD and DELIVER THE GOODS. NHO POTATION or PANDIT.
   Thanks V.

2. Dopey here missed PANDIT (NHO TBH), biffed an unparsed pundit, forgot to go back to check so DNF in about 30. It started quickly for me but slowed down considerably in the SW with MAYING, CHIEFDOM, ERRANDS and RALLY combining with the hard-to-believe-but-it-must-be POTATION to add about ten. A fun puzzle, thanks vinyl. Next spring I will most definitely may.

   From Subterranean Homesick Blues:
   Ah get born, keep warm, short pants, romance
   LEARN to dance, get dressed, get blessed
   Try to be a success
   Please her, please him, buy gifts, don’t steal, don’t lift
   Twenty years of schoolin’ and they put you on the day shift
   Look out kid…

   1. Try as I might I’ve never been able to get through the whole thing in time with Bob without stuffing it up. It’s not just remembering the words, it’s trying to find time to breathe.

      1. He and Ginsberg did more or less spell it out for you in what is always said to be the first video. Never did find out what NODOZ were in that pre Wiki world.

         1. The first ‘video’ and is there another one as memorable? I’m struggling to think of anything at all tbh

         2. Speed

         3. Nodoz were uppers, popular with truckies.

3. DNF. Same story as Lindsay, forgot to go back and check PUNDIT. Not that checking would have helped of course, if you’ve NHO PANDIT it’s a toss of the coin between the wordplay and the (admittedly loose, as per Kevin’s comment below*) definition.

   Other NHOs such as MAYING and POTATION were less problematic.

   Otherwise, a breezy 8:46, so a shame to stuff it up. At 1ac a dopey line from F Troop (“any palomino is a pal o’ mine-o”) had lodged itself in my brain for over half a century, apparently just waiting for this moment to arrive.

   Thanks Vinyl and setter. And Corporal Agarn.

   *On edit.

   1. I’ve seen PANDIT with names, e.g. Pandit Nehru. ODE’s corpus examples s.v. ‘pandit’ mostly use ‘pundit’. (I notice that ‘pandit’ but not ‘pundit’ gets a red underline here.)

   2. ‘My’ PALOMINO comes from Tyrannosaurus Rex’s ‘Salamanda Palaganda’ first heard 40+ years ago. Otherwise never heard of.

4. 13:42 WOE
   There are quite a few 1-error scores, and I suspect most of them are for PUNDIT. Not me; I dithered for a moment, but only a moment. (ODE has two entries, with PUN as a variant spelling, and also meaning ‘expert’, where PAN means ‘wise man’.) But I biffed ALDERSEY at 8d; not a typo, a faulty memory. (Which would have been corrected, you say, had I but bothered to read the clue. Shut up.) I also wasted time on 26ac by reading ‘courtiers’.

5. Another PUNDIT here.

   When you know there’s a meaning you don’t know, you have to go with the devil you know. In this case, since PUNDIT works, I just assumed ‘slated’ could be a definition of PUNNED. Turns out that PANDIT was the word I didn’t know and ‘slated’ meant PANNED. But there’s really no way to differentiate between the two without knowing the vocabulary, hence I went for the word I’d actually heard of and which fit the definition!

   1. Everything that J said…

6. Found this easier than today’s QC. A very rare occurrence for me.

   And PANDIT for me, too. For some reason immediately thought of Nehru’s honorific.

   Thanks Vinyl and Setter.

7. Around 40 minutes. I looked at the crossers P_N_I_ and thought of “Pandit” Nehru. I looked it up to confirm. FOI NEW SCOTLAND YARD and once I got the “V” DELIVER THE GOODS was a write-in. NHO POTATION but saw PETITION was wrong. Potato was the first starchy food I could think of. Liked PALOMINO, PAELLA and MARMOSET. Biffed MAYING because NH spring is always something I have to think about as it’s my autumn. Plenty of oldies in HAREM, ANDIRON, NICHE, CROWS FOOT, ASHEN and MARINER.
   Thanks V.

8. Depending on how dodgy you like your homophones, PUNDIT works better anyway

9. 24 minutes. I knew PANDIT from Pandit Nehru (as mentioned by Kevin and others). Although Pandit wasn’t his given name, that’s how he was widely known by the time he became Prime Minister of India in 1947. It’s a Hindu word applied to a wise man, sage, teacher, priest etc. Another Hindu word for wise man, sage etc that now appears here regularly is ‘Rishi’, also associated with a Prime Minister. Leaving Mephistos aside, PANDIT last came up as an answer in 2008, but ‘Pandit Nehru’ provided anagram fodder for a clue in a 15×15 I blogged only last month.

   NHO POTATION which has made one appearance in 2013, but the wordplay today is super-friendly.

   Only one person has mentioned ‘spring celebration / MAYING’ so far, which surprises me. I know it only because I am familiar with many English part-songs (madrigals and the like), one of the most famous of which is called Now Is The Month Of Maying by Thomas Morley, with its glorious ‘fa-la-la’ chorus.

   1. I thought of the song, which made me more confident about YIN (which I checked nonetheless).
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7VirCScp0

      1. I went in the other entrance – I reminded myself Billy Connolly is The Big Yin, so that was probably ‘one’, and MAYING seemed plausible in a folky, morris dancing sort of way.

      2. Exquisite!

   2. The final lines of Corinna’s Going A-Maying by Robert Herrick:
      “So when you or I are made
      A fable, song, or fleeting shade;
      All love, all liking, all delight
      Lies drown’d with us in endless night.
      Then while time serves, and we are but decaying;
      Come, my Corinna, come, let’s go a Maying.

10. 19.19 WOE

    No excuse as I suspected PANDIT was right but forgot to change it.

    Otherwise, MAYING ANDIRON and POTATION all needed the w/p as they rang only degrees of faint bells.

    Nice puzzle – liked the NSY clue.

    Thanks Vinyl/setter

11. It is an ancient Mariner,
    And he stoppeth one of three.

    25 mins pre-brekker. Leisurely. Held up a bit with Potation and last two, Chiefdom/Maying. Nice one.
    Ta setter and V.

    1. Presumably he was also a rather poor goalkeeper?
       Sorry, couldn’t resist.

       1. I vaguely recall an old Arsenal goalkeeper who was called the Mariner, because he stoppeth one of three ..

          1. The one nicknamed Dracula? Who shied away from crosses?

          2. Ipswich, Arsenal, England centre forward Paul Mariner RIP

          3. I vaguely recall an old Arsenal striker called Mariner*. Main recollection is his mullet, and a magnificent nose. Back to keepers: wrote a clue once: “Arsenal keeper’s third amazing calamity (8)“, when Almunia, M. was it. Not Times quality, but I liked it nevertheless.
             *Must have had the browser open an hour; AlanB’s comment was not there when I replied.

             1. I like it. I was thoroughly misdirected.

          4. Everton had a forward whose nickname was jigsaw- because he went to pieces in the box!

12. I thought I was on for a sub-10′, but was blocked by RALLY, MAYING, CHIEFDOM and ERRANDS, hence 15’09”.

    Didn’t even think about PANDIT, until I came here.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

13. Would have been quite quick today had I not stupidly misspelled PALOMINO.
    NHO MAYING but cluing made sense and memories of Nehru immediately brought PANDIT to mind.
    Unaware of ALDERNEY as a breed of dairy cow, but as a Channel Island it seemed fairly straightforward.
    Pleasant start to the week. Thanks to setter and vinyl.

14. 17:35* (PUNDIT)

    No excuses as I should have followed the cryptic. Otherwise a fairly steady solve, apart from dithering over MAYING and POTATION. Tomorrow is another day.

    Thanks to both.

15. I avoided PUNDIT OK but NHO 1ac and put PAL O ME NI(L) so DNF 🙁

16. 42 mins with the last three all in the SW, ERRANDS, RALLY & MAYING all holding me up.

    I managed to get PANDIT right, as others have mentioned via Nehru.

    POTATION & ANDIRON also unknown but once one had all the checkers they weren’t difficult.

    I liked NEW SCOTLAND YARD.

    Thanks V and setter.

17. Gentle start to the week, would have been under 20 minutes had I not been interrupted by a burning toast emergency. NEW SCOTLAND YARD and DELIVER THE GOODS went in very quickly and from there everything flowed, I avoided the PANDIT trap and, being in Edinburgh, appreciated LOWLANDER.
    Thanks V and setter.

18. Just under 10 minutes.

    – Not sure I could have told you a PALOMINO is a horse but it was helpfully clued
    – Felt that ‘the legendary jazz singer?’ wasn’t necessary in the clue for PAELLA
    – NHO POTATION but the wordplay was kind and the checkers helped
    – Considered PUNDIT but went for PANDIT based on Pandit Nehru
    – Also NHO (or had forgotten) ANDIRON but again the cluing helped

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

    FOI Palomino
    LOI Potation
    COD Idleness

19. A last minute save on this one. I had my cursor over submit when I thought PUNDIT doesn’t quite work and it was changed to the NHO of PANDIT. A couple of other words which were either NHOs or my uncertain knowledge of things equine and bovine added to the time. The horses may not have been scared by this but they certainly perturbed me. The wordplay was very generous fortunately.

    I also wasted a lot of time by not just conceding that MAYDAY was not the answer and by trying to fit the very inviting ANE into a word. The NHO MAYING finally came once the ‘weekly’ clicked.

    It could have been a quick one if my lexicon was just a little more up to Times standard.

    FOI: IDLENESS
    LOI: ALDERNEY (or PANDIT technically)
    Liked: EXPOSURE, LOWLANDER

20. 4:27. Clearly very much on the wavelength today, with one of the lowest NITCHes on the SNITCH: at the time of writing only our blogger is lower.
    No problem with PANDIT: if in doubt, follow the wordplay. It helped that I knew the word of course, whether via Nehru or otherwise I couldn’t tell you.

    1. I think I just remembered PUNDIT was a loanword (from Sanskrit via Hindi, as it turns out), so there being another vowel as an option that fit the wordplay nicely wasn’t a big surprise.

    2. 4.27? Crikey! Well done K

    3. Well, Punt It follows the wordplay too.

       1. How does PUNT equate to ‘slated’? Even allowing for that, ‘pundit’ isn’t pronounced that way!

          1. The pronounciation is pretty close, and wouldn’t be the worst homynym we’ve ever seen in these pages; punt means to kick downfield, possibly out of play. It can mean as little as defer / postpone / fail to take any action, but stretched a little it could get close to slate.

21. Could we have some butter for the royal slice of bread?
    PANDIT obviously accounts for my 13.30 (I slowed in the lower reaches) being as high as 33rd on the ‘board. You could say I’m lucky to have all the required GK, but I didn’t think there was all that much required here anyway.
    The qualification of “old” dairy cow meant that ALDERNEY was a giveaway: last time she came up I was bemused, and discussed at length, to see that she no longer exists. The downside is that I’m going to have AA Milne running through my head all day.

    1. Milne was my reference too.

22. 17:08 (super-fast for me), with the only delays being the NHO POTATION and MAYING. Saw ‘panned it’ immediately, so fortunately didn’t get to wrestle with the alternative (though I don’t see how ‘punned’ works, anyway)
    Nice crossword, thanks vinyl and setter.
    PS. I’ve just watched ‘Now Is The Month Of Maying’ on youtube – thanks, Jack!

23. A straightforward 20 mins.
    P + Slated led straight to Panned.
    NHO POTATION or ANDIRON but easy enough.
    The only hold-ups were CHIEFDOM and MAYING.
    Thanks both

24. Quick today, yes, and no holdups. I had not realised the Alderney breed is extinct. That seems sad..

25. A slightly sluggish 12:40, held up at the end with MAYING and POTATION, both words I am unlikely to need until they pop up here again. Having long ago learned that PANDIT was Nehru’s honorary title not his name I avoided that elephant trap. Otherwise gentle and very Mondayish.

26. 20a Potation. I was convinced the def was starchy food and couldn’t shake off potatoes even though I can’t spell them and the clue needed a singular answer. The 16d Crow’s foot put me right although I NHO singular version. Foot added to Cheating Machine (alongside Feet.) NHO maying. Hardest was the 17d Chiefdom, no way I could cram a cardinal in there.
    8d Alderney reminded me of the King’s Breakfast, AA Milne. ‘The alderney said sleepily “Many people nowadays like marmalade instead”.’ (As Zabadak said above.)
    Wiki (and Z): “The Alderney is an extinct breed of dairy cattle. It originated in, and is named for, the island of Alderney in the Channel Islands.”
    Thanks setter and vinyl.

27. Sluggish for what people and the SNITCH are saying is an easy puzzle, but I was also relatively slow to complete the QC, so I’m going to say it’s a me problem!

    All for naught anyway, as I entered EXPOSURC which is an inexplicable typo, as C is nowhere near E on a keyboard! Maybe if I enter my time below, SNITCH will give me a score, even if the Times club will show an error.

    LOI was CHIEFDOM, and I was generally slow to see synonyms, or construct wordplay.

    14:04

28. 21:10

    Mostly easy but the cluster of CHIEFDOM, MAYING, ERRANDS and RALLY held me up for quite a while. No trouble with PANDIT.

    Thaks to vinyl and the setter

29. Oh the frustration. I thought that this was going to be my quickest solve ever as almost everything went straight in, until I was left with just what turned out to be CHIEFDOM (NHO) and ERRANDS I just didn’t see them, mainly because I came up with the equally NHO ‘CHAIRDOM’ as a possible answer for 17d – I could see that it didn’t quite work – the DOM bit I was sure was right, AIR could be ‘notes’, but the problem was CH was a letter short and also the I in that position didn’t help at all with 23ac; instead of abandoning it, clearing my mind and having another go, I kept looking in vain for a way to make it work and eventually gave up. Cross with myself now.

30. If I can take 18 minutes then it must be easy, and I fully expected the SNITCH to be even lower than it was a couple of weeks ago, but it isn’t at the moment, and that must be because there are several words here that are ever so slightly unusual, and one needs the — always generous — wordplay. I shall be interested to see what my time is on the QC later today. Recently I have been comfortably under 18 minutes for it, but you never know.

31. Not having heard of PANDIT, I sadly went with PUNDIT. 13,34 WOE. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

32. 32:36
    Too long to figure out DELIVER THE GOODS, and CHIEFDOM. Didn’t know DOM, was thinking of the Spanish Don. Not heard of YIN, saw AY in MAYING, close enough was good enough this time.

    I invented the FRELLA, where “father” = FR. I’m going to make some for breakfast tomorrow.

33. Assisted by son’s dog again, who’s going through a hole digging phase. She didn’t need to dig me out of any holes but that didn’t stop her. No time but all correct despite POTATION and MAYING.Thank you V and setter.

34. Tempted by pundit, but pandit almost rang a bell as being a word. Nehru? Maybe not, but chose PANDIT anyway. Maying NHO but seemed feasible, LOI was POTATION even having said potato out loud immediately on reading the clue. Alderney as a cow NHO, but Jersey and Guernsey are, so why not? Is Sark a breed of cow?
    For all its easiness, there were a few tricky bits.

35. potation known from falstaff: if i had a thousand sons, the first human principle i would teach them should be to forswear thin potations and addict themselves to sack.

36. 13:00 – Top half in under 5 mins raised hopes of a sub 10 sprint, cruelly dashed by the pesky MAYING and some unnecessary dithering in the SE.

37. I’ve seen enough football pundits on TV to realise that another answer was required.

38. Only I will know how I ruined a 5:55 solve by throwing in “pundit” without even trying to parse it. Stupid boy.

39. Speed-of-light Timesville here surely ed. Bit too easy I thought for a Thunderer. Liked IDLENESS because it looked like a container, and ALDERNEY for not being immediately obvious from definition.

    Cheers vinyl, setter.

40. 22:07. Solved in 2 sessions while on a day off. Some quite unusual words in there but generously clued. Very suitable for a Monday, thank you!

41. About 25′ after golf, an early tee off which seemed even earlier given the clocks had gone fwd. No great problems, the 2 NHOs were generously clued and I felt Nehru had more claim to be a wise man than Carragher or Neville…

    Thanks Vinyl and setter.

42. NHO PANDIT, but assumed it couldn’t be a play on ‘punned it’, which made no sense, so mercifully got it right. NHO MAYING, either, but the answer could be nothing else. The rest of this was pretty easy.

43. 18:25

    Got PANDIT early on after FOI NSY. Held up by IMAGERY, AROUSAL and LOI CLOSED, with a MER at LOSE.

    Thanks Vinyl and setter.

44. 14:21

    Same four in the SW as a few others. The unknown MAYING needed all of the checkers to understand it. Heard the word ANDIRON before but did not know what it was. POTATION was new on me too though abroad, one sees plenty of notices saying the water is not drinkable, i.e. ‘non potable’

    Thanks V and setter

    1. I’m glad someone else wasn’t sure about ANDIRON! I don’t think I’d never heard of it.

45. Had to look up Scottish for ‘one’ to get MAYING and I also carelessly bunged in PUNDIT. Otherwise seemed very doable for this QC-er. NHO POTATION but helped by knowing ‘non-potable’ for not drinkable. Thanks for the blog V.

46. A silly error on IMAGERY, where I was looking for an I,L plus name of sorcerer construction, and a rare language, so bunged in ILAVERY.
    Nevermind.
    Otherwise very easy.
    I like the NEW SCOTLAND YARD clue.
    Thanks Vinyl and Setter

47. Is it just me or would 5a have worked better as just dish made by father Fitzgerald? Without the extended coda that leads you directly to Ella?

    1. Definitely not just you – I said the same!

48. Slid from likely best ever (8 mins something) almost to SCC territory by four clues most discussed by others before me. Please keep the odd easy one on Monday’s for bods like me who could not do it in five mins if Verlaine or the like dictated to me.

49. 10:58.

    COD: MACHETE

50. DNF. All done in 25 mins but I was another pundit. Knew Nehru was a Pandit but thought it was just another Indian name. NHO maying butat least got that one right.

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