Times 29221 – Ulaca on the Shore

85 comments on “Times 29221 – Ulaca on the Shore”

1. Sod’s Law is the reference at 17ac. If anything can go wrong it will go wrong.

   25 minutes as far as I went, but this was a technical DNF involving one use of aids. That was for LITTLE SLAM where an extensive alphabet trawl had failed to come up with a likely candidate to go with the clue and fit LITTLE S?A?. I have never played bridge and if I’ve met the answer before I’d forgotten it.

   I put LIMB at 22ac as what else could it be? But I didn’t know ‘limn’ as a word, never mind what it means. It’s not the easiest answer to search in the archive as the combination of letters appears in other words, but using a filter and searching in Google suggests that its last appearance here may have been in July 2011 (puzzle #24912).

   I found the rest of the puzzle pretty easy, even for a Monday.

   1. Same for me. I always feel slightly hard done by when esoteric vocab I don’t know is not clued in a way that’s solvable.

   2. small slam is the more usual expression in my experience.

2. Defeated by EGAD coming up with the made-up EHAD.I think I could have got it with another 5 minutes. I rode my luck though. Not heard of LITTLE SLAM (all my bridge and cricket knowledge comes from crosswords) and solved it by thinking less than a grand slam (achievement) was a little one. Also didn’t understand IMPERATIVE or TRAINSPOTTER until I read the blog (cheers blogger).

   I thought this was tougher than a usual Monday puzzle.

   COD: ALLITERATING

   Thanks setter and blogger.

   BTW I had SOD as referencing Sod’s law (pessimistic law maker)

   1. Thanks for explaining sod. I now think that’s a pretty good clue.

3. 18:22
   but like Jack, I resorted to aids for NHO LITTLE SLAM (which ODE explains is anothr term for ‘small slam’; oh). All I could think of was LITTLE STAR, which made no sense. I know as much about bridge as Jack does, if not less. (Baseball has grand slams,, but not little ones.) Finally twigged to KUDOS, long after submitting. U, it’s the quick that’s the sensitive flesh; why you don’t want to be cut to it.　I liked KUDOS & NAIL.

   1. I knew ‘Grand Slam’ from tennis where its true meaning is disappearing fast much to my irritation.

      1. How so Jack? I only know it to mean winning all four major tournaments.

         1. Well there you have it! It has to be in the same year. Only two men and three women have ever achieved it. Don Budge, Rod Laver (twice, and 7 years apart), Maureen Connolly (Little Mo), Margaret Court and Steffi Graf.

            But even more annoying is it is now in common parlance for people to refer to any one of the four major tournaments individually as a “Grand Slam”, which devalues the term still further. We never heard the end of it when Murray won his “first Grand Slam”.

            1. I don’t mind “Career Grand Slam” as it seems a good term to cover what is a special achievement. Agreed about referring to individual majors as a “Grand Slam”.

               1. I agree “Career Grand Slam” is acceptable because it’s succinct if people understand what it means. Still muddies the water though.

                  1. Why doesn’t golf get a mention? One doesn’t really refer to what are called ‘the Majors’ (the Open, the Masters, the US Open, the PGA) as ‘Grand Slams’, but the concept of ‘the grand slam’, the ‘career grand slam’ and variants such as the holding of all at one time although not in one season, which Tiger Woods achieved, although not perhaps as generally well-known as the tennis grand slam, is also widely talked about. There was an enormous amount of press coverage of Rory McIlroy both before, and after he had won, the Masters recently: would he achieve a career grand slam?

                     1. Good point.

                     2. Well you’ve mentioned it now Wil, and I guess our comments were down to our particular interests, Kevin’s in baseball and mine in tennis.

                     3. And an honorary mention for Ben Hogan who could well have been the first to win a Grand Slam in a season in 1953, if the organisers either side of the Pond had not scheduled the Open and the PGA Championship at the same time.

                        1. The original golf grand slam was the British and American open and amateur championships. Achieved uniquely by Bobby Jones

   2. In bridge, a Grand Slam is where you and your partner bid to make all 13 tricks. Small or Little Slam is where you bid to make 12 tricks.

      “Ah; must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it?” (The Hound of Heaven).

      About 10 mins today, old fashioned Monday level. Thanks for explaining Kudos. I did this with pen and paper today, I think I prefer it that way.

4. Took me a moment or two to realise what SOD had to do with lawmaking, but a smile ensued when the penny dropped. Have never played Bridge, but a faint tinkle of recognition brought LITTLE SLAM to mind. OUCH was FOI and NAIL, LOI. 16:00 Thanks setter and U.

5. In agreement with you jackkt. A stuttering 23.37 with NHO torus, unfathomable limb and rather more obvious- but not to me!-seasonable being my last ones in.

   Forgot to add kudos . Didn’t understand the sod bit unless it refers to certain legal practitioners.

6. 27. minutes with LOIs a biffed NAIL followed by LIMB. I also didn’t know the flesh under the nail. So that’s why we get cut to the quick. I had a false start with SIGH rather than OUCH until CHARLESTON put me right. I can remember as a kid being impressed by my Dad doing the Charleston, moving his hands between knees too fast to see. Doing crosswords does trigger memories. IMPERATIVE has always suggested a command to me, so that was also put in tentatively. An enjoyable puzzle. Thank you U and setter.

   1. Indeed. Sigh. It seemed to work perfectly and I had no doubt or reason to look further. Snookered me on opera house of course. I just thought it was some ancient theatre style I’d never heard of.

   2. I did the same with SIGH, which prevented me from getting 1 or 9a. I didn’t understand TORUS, LIMB, KUDOS or 8d either, so gave up in the end and DNF.

7. Flew through this, but held up by banging in ‘iteration’, and then staring at LIMB uncomprehendingly. No idea re KUDOS either, thanks jack.

   I only played bridge for a few years, but twelve tricks was always a small slam. A TORUS can be thought of as a ring doughnut or bagel, also the shape of a particle accelerator.

   I looked in vain for a snooker reference today, not even a ‘potter’ made an appearance.

   10’09”, thanks ulaca and setter.

   1. Well, trains potter did!

   2. The QC provides a snooker reference today.

8. 9:36. LOI LIMB not knowing what “limn” meant, but it had to be and failed to see SOD was a reference to Sod’s Law. Thanks U and setter.

9. 28m 27s
   Thanks to Jack for SOD and thanks to Ulaca for others such as LITTLE SLAM, LIMB and INDISTINCT.
   I did like NAIL.

10. About 15 minutes.

    – Glad I’m not the only one who didn’t figure out the ‘dos’ part of KUDOS
    – Wasn’t sure about NAIL as I missed what ‘over quick’ was getting at
    – LIMB went in with a shrug as I had no idea about limn

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

    FOI Opera house
    LOI Torus
    COD Trainspotter

11. DNF with NAIL and IMPERATIVE both considered but unparsed so not submitted. Heard of Form but not Mood in that context.
    After a week engrossed in Richard Browne’s 2004/5 compendium, I wondered if I was just struggling with a change of style but I think there were some toughies in here.
    Thanks to ulaca and setter.

12. 24 minutes. I can’t say I’d heard of LITTLE SLAM before, but the ‘couple holding hands’ hinted at a card playing term and the ‘Less than grand achievement’ at the opposite of a Grand Slam. “Limn” is one of those many words I think is an NHO but turns out to be in my “Words I’ve Forgotten From Crosswords” list.

    Favourites were the reference to the ‘Pessimistic lawmaker’ in the wordplay for KUDOS and the ‘something that’s over quick’ cryptic hint for NAIL.

    Thanks to Ulaca and setter

13. Hit the fence with LITTLE SLAM, even an extended alphabet trawl of S-A- yielded nothing feasible before boredom got the better of me at about 35. I mean who plays bridge anyway? OK quite a few of you, he put in hastily. I believe bridge players are the only people since about 1870 to exclaim EGAD! when surprised. Some tricky clues here (Sod’s Law, wow) but overall an enjoyable puzzle, thanks to U.

    From Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream:
    Well I rapped upon a house with the US flag upon display
    I said could you help me out? I got some friends down the way
    The man says get out of here, I’ll tear you LIMB from limb
    I said they refused Jesus too, he said you’re not him

14. Not happy about TORUS as I cannot understand the reference to lack of centre.
    And cannot understand IMPERATIVE as INTERROGATIVE.
    Harrumph!

    1. A torus is a ring, like those mints with the hole in the middle. The train to Oxford takes you through the village of Culham, home of the Joint European Torus, a doughnut shaped construction in which brainy people do brainy things with sub-atomic particles.

       1. Agreed but the clue reads “lacking centre” which is what I don’t understand.

          1. Like a doughnut it has a hole (i.e. nothing) in the middle.

             1. But is not the existence of an identifiable or discoverable central point essential to the concept of a circular entity?

                1. If you take a very strict mathematical approach then yes, I guess, but looked at more broadly the notion of a TORUS or doughnut being a disc without a centre seems fine to me.

                   1. Your point about a TORUS being a disc with a hole in the centre, like a gramophone record, reminded me of one of those school-day experiences from, I guess, about 1975. A class-mate had placed alongside his desk a record in a plastic carrier bag which he had bought earlier from the then little-known company, Virgin Records. Mr Miles, a fine teacher who affected a slightly snooty manner but actually was far from snooty once you knew him, while strolling through the class picked up the bag in two fingers and at arm’s length.

                      “‘Virgin Records’”, he intoned with a vaguely disgusted air. “And what, Smith, is special about a Virgin record?”

                      To which, quick as a flash, Smith replied “It’s got no ‘ole in the middle, Sir.”

                      Much laughter from class and a quiet acknowledgement from Mr Miles that Smith had won the exchange.

                2. I see your point that while a doughnut has “nothing” in its middle it still has to have a calculable geometric centre.

                   1. Well sure but ‘calculable geometric centre’ is not the only meaning of ‘centre’. It also has a more general meaning. The ‘soft centre’ of a chocolate is not a mathematical concept!

                      1. So a doughnut, say, both has and does not have a centre depending on the observer’s perspective? Reminds me of somebody’s feline….

          2. And an honorary mention for Ben Hogan who could well have been the first to win a Grand Slam in a season in 1953, if the organisers either side of the Pond had not scheduled the Open and the PGA Championship at the same time.

15. 20 minutes on the nose, held up in part by initially entering SIGH(t) at 1D, which I might argue is a feasible answer and should have been ruled out by tighter clueing. Then again, a sigh isn’t always ‘pained’ so maybe not. In any case, I spotted my error and got there in the end.

16. 17a Kudos. Murphy’s law states that if anything can go wrong it will. Sod’s law states that Murphy was an optimist.
    24a Nail Biffed, missed that meaning of quick.
    8d Little Slam, cheated for this, then smacked forehead. I do play bridge a bit.
    22d Limb biffed, forgot about limn.
    Thank you ulaca and setter.

    1. Indeed, as things will not only go wrong but in the worst possible way at the worst possible time.

       1. Finagle’s Law (of Dynamic Negatives): the perversity of the universe tends to a maximum, to quote Larry Niven. Quoted in Star Trek in an episode written by Theodore Sturgeon. Said to be the raison d’être of defensive computer programming.

          Dnf, defeated by 8d slam, was expecting the last letter to be R, clued by couple surrounding something meaning hands, doh. At least I’m enjoying unSEASONABLE rain.

17. Fast top, slow bottom, especially agonising over LIMB, even though it couldn’t be anything else. I’ve never really though of what SEASONABLE would mean, other than by association with seasonal, as in vegetables and such.
    So a sedate, not-Mondayish 19.14.
    Just an impression: haven’t STOICs been rather conspicuous recently?

18. 30:56

    Found this tough going. Couldn’t parse either LIMB or INDISTINCT and initially had ALLITERATION which made TRAINSPOTTER impossible.

    Particularly liked NAIL, TRAINSPOTTER and IMPERATIVE.

    Thaks to ulaca and the setter.

19. Isn’t 5dn a partial &lit. The whole clue is the definition and the first two words give the wordplay ie locality’s rebuilt.

20. Was going along in a very Mondayish fashion and looked like finishing in under 30 minutes, but came to a grinding halt on those long down clues at bottom left, as well as the hard-for-me-to-see-because-it-was- a- CD TRAINSPOTTING, eventually using aids and only finishing in 50 minutes. LIMB had to be, and I eventually looked up ‘limn’, having very vaguely heard of it.

21. 19:04.

    COD: KUDOS

22. Many thanks for the blog. I’m still struggling with ONCE. What am I missing?

    1. I missed the query in the blog on this. Although they are not generally interchangeable, both words can be used to denote a single occurrence of something.

       1. I think the definition is “solo appearance” with “in” to indicate the “hidden” answer.

    2. I think the clue is maybe a misprint, and the definition should read ‘sole appearance’?

23. 39 mins, on the easier side though having bunged in my first answer at 1d, SIGH(T) I held myself up a bit.

    Last three in INDISTINCT, NAIL & THEN also delayed me.

    I liked LITTLE SLAM, I used to play quite a lot of bridge luckily, and TRAINSPOTTER. Hogwarts; TRAINS POTTER anyone?

    Thanks U and setter.

24. 9:16. I didn’t think of ‘limn’ (and wouldn’t have been able to define it for you) so LIMB went in with fingers crossed. I managed to construct the NHO LITTLE SLAM.
    I’m also struggling a bit with ONCE. It can be a noun meaning a single occasion, in the phrase ‘just this once’, but ‘solo appearance’ doesn’t seem quite the same thing.

    1. In Scotland “painter and limner” is the artistic equivalent of Poet Laureate – effectively an honorary title conferred on a distinguished Scottish artist. Previous holders have included Raeburn (who came up in a recent cryptic clue) and Elizabeth Blackadder.

25. messed up by putting in ALLITERATION not ING at first, took too long to see the NCT ending for indistinct, and put in LIMB with no idea what it had to do with represent or the unknown LIMN. No problem with the bridge clue as am a regular player. I liked TORUS and NAIL for the definitions.

26. Gave up after 20 mins stumped, as I am by most things in bridge, by LITTLE SLAM.

27. I’m with many others above, the Bridge clue was impossible without specialist knowledge, this is supposed to be a cryptic crossword. That and NAIL and LIMB made a very easy crossword very hard.

    1. Inconsistency across the grid raises its ugly head again. Almost as if the setter themself realises towards the end that it’s just a bit too easy. So they throw in an unfathomable to over-compensate.

28. About 60 mins after the QC and Jumbo.

    NHO limn, so that was LOI. Didn’t understand NAIL either. SODs Law too clever to me as well.

    COD ALLITERATING, although I had ALLITERATION until right to the end.

29. I filled in the top half fairly quickly but slowed towards the end. Nevertheless, I finished within target at 38.45 with all correct. My time seemed quicker than that, probably due to the fact that I might have dropped off for a while sitting in the sun. Only two unparsed in LIMB and KUDOS, but I was satisfied there wasn’t a reasonable alternative. Particularly liked KUDOS now it has been explained.

30. Well, I don’t play bridge, but I put in little slam without a second thought – I must have absorbed all the terminology from my parents table talk. I did just biff kudos, but I knew limn and what it means.

    Interestingly, state capitals can be far from important cities, with the obvious exception of Boston. That’s why UK solvers are often at a loss, and US solvers are not far behind. Interestingly, Charleston is one.

    Time: 27:51

    1. But surely its importance comes from it being administrative centre and seat of legislature of its state- no matter how small or unimpressive the actual city may be.

       1. Wasn’t that the point? Put the Capital in what began as a smaller, usually agricultural, location so that the legislative power base would be separated from the finance and trade power base.

31. thanks, Ulaca for the excellent parsing. my LOI was little slam, which , as a bridge player I found rather disappointing, as like many others,I’d never come across it before. All I can say to that is I hope the setter gets rewarded with a few Yarboroughs for his/her trouble.

32. I made heavy weather of this, taking only about a second to see the “obvious” answer to 1 down, SIGH. This seemed to so completely satisfy the clue – a “pained expression” and is also a sense (sight) with a T removed that I had no reason to doubt it. Only once I’d struggled in the north west corner did I twig that it had to be something else. I also put ALLITERATION instead of ALLITERATING, which held me up with TRAINSPOTTER.

33. Found this pretty straightfoward compared to my usual fortunes, except for the NHO LITTLE SLAM, going in as LITTLE SOAP, which was more soap than expectation.

    24:28, possibly my PB.

34. 20.15

    Came to a halt with LIMB INDISTINCT and NAIL proving tough to shift. Seeing the “quick” thing gave me the N and I finally worked out how TORUS parsed (not knowingly knowing the word). Needed to come here to understand LIMB. Knew limn but not what it meant. No problem with the SLAM though now it’s mentioned maybe I have only referred to it as a small slam.

    Enjoyed it. Thanks all

35. Champagne may be called an area of France, but it is not classified as a region. It is in the region of Grand Est.

    1. A region doesn’t have to be an administrative one.

       Collins def for ‘region’: An area considered as a unit for geographical, functional, social, or cultural reasons

       Chambers: Any area or district, esp one characterized in some way

36. 55.27 I struggled in the west today. I also started with SIGH(T) at 1d and a careless ALLITERATION didn’t help. LITTLE SLAM was guessed from the vaguely known grand slam. Finished with a biff of IMPERATIVE. TON and DOS were also unparsed. Thanks ulaca.

37. 46 mins after too much ale. All parsed correctly, although I’d never heard of LITTLE SLAM (but that’s what it had to be) and have never thought of IMPERATIVE as a mood – thought the only moods were active and passive.

38. On reflection, I think I’m wrong and that active and passive are voices.

39. I just now got to this—busy night!—and absolutely loved it!
    There were moments when I thought I wouldn’t be able to get to the bottom of something, but all became clear quickly enough that I can get back to what I’m really supposed to be doing today. Ha.
    ALLITERATION was one of, if not the, first poetic device in early English, and is much more natural to our tongue than rhyme.
    LOI NAIL. Just brilliant.

40. Thanks for the quick of the nail, Ulaca.
    I had thought ‘cut to the quick’ refered to the same source of life-force referred to in Cranmer’s well known words “to judge the quick and the dead”.

41. LITTLE SLAM and TORUS ….. ugh. I won’t forget TORUS from now on…….. 2 errors, 42m, which is double the average time so pretty pleased there.

42. I didn’t know LIMN till I started doing crosswords, then I began seeing it a lot, in old novels. For me, it’s not totally obscure. Likewise LITTLE SLAM is not part of my everyday language, but it was in there somewhere waiting to be wiggled out with a clue. I have not the least objection to answers being words that are at or beyond the limits of my knowledge. If you can work them out, great. If you can’t, well you’ve learned something new. 18’27”. Thanks.

43. 39:30, with IMPERATIVE my LOI.

    NHO Limn,and only vaguely heard of a LITTLE SLAM.

    Thank Ulaca and setter

44. Learned something new today: LITTLE SLAM, the second word of which I couldn’t even guess ( having a feeling that a pair in Bridge was either N and W or E and S – “holding hands” being the clue). Ah well. Also entered LIMB with a shrug, as had forgotten the meaning of limn. Very much liked KUDOS and NAIL ( because I had no trouble getting them!) and the CHARLESTON , because it’s obviously a current clue and because I used to love the dance.
    A better performance than usual from me, so happy here.

45. The artist G.F.Watts named his home at Compton, Surrey “Limner’s Lease”.
    His irreverent chums called it “Dauber’s Den.” Remembering this amusing piece of trivia enabled me to parse LIMB.

    1. Nice area. I lived not so far away myself, and the sub postmistress at Compton was an old friend of the family. Fortunately, she retired before lunacy ruined so many lives.

       1. I went to the Watts Museum during my 2013 visit to the UK, particularly keen to see the chapel, which did not disappoint. So glad your family friend was not caught up in that appalling scandal. I’ve watched both films about it, utterly aghast.

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