Times 27757 – Mother and Father of all. Biff. Fests.

Author   ulacaPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
My current reading is Deus nobis haec otia fecit a book written many years. Online am I reading it that means bookmarkingitisvery difficult. So I am always reading the same bits twice the same bits twice without realising. It. How wonderingly I ponder while reading can a book to read take longer than the time period it covers that is one day in the life of a blokeman in Dublin. Che sera sera while je connais un peu de Francais aussi any other languages I can get in? Clever am I see you j’espère.

As for the crosswordfillingintime 15 minutes with thirteen seconds.

Εύρηκα!

ACROSS

1 Item of tableware in broken state quietly put back (5,3)
PLACE MAT – reversal of TAME CAL P
9 Busy period requires routine with no time off, hospitals admitted (4,4)
RUSH HOUR – RU[t] (routine with no T) HH (hospitals) in SOUR (off); it’s fun seeing how these things parse…
10 Agency, largely understanding manufacturing needs, arranges openings for graduate (6)
ALUMNA – initial letters of the first six words
11 Uncertain about one religious group after daughter finds trouble (10)
DIFFICULTY – I CULT in IFFY after D
12 Put another way, nothing doing (2,2)
UP TO – anagram* of PUT O
13 Fluid taken in by hippopotamus, say — one that’s shy? (10)
WALLFLOWER – FL in WALLOWER; a song beloved of my wife…in the Diana Krall version
16 Best man’s embraced by old friend (7)
OPTIMAL – TIM in O PAL
17 Girl runs along with a bunch of keys (7)
REBECCA – R EBECCA (random musical keys); my wife is called Rebecca
20 Food‘s ready, with baker excited — bravo! (5,5)
DONER KEBAB – DONE (ready) BAKER* B (as in Juliet Bravo – NATO phonetic literal stuff)
22 Go first in division after gaining three points (4)
WEND – WEN (three random points of the compass) D[ivision]
23 Meat product novel writers “luv” (10)
LIVERWURST – WRITERS LUV*
25 Thing that is regularly what ballet dancers wear (6)
TIGHTS – alternate letters in the first three words
26 Crew provided obsolete engine part, for example (8)
MANIFOLD – MAN IF OLD
27 One German mug? On the contrary! (8)
EINSTEIN – EIN (one in German) STEIN (beer mug)

DOWN

2 Three pounds secures ring, I report — that’s sweet (8)
LOLLIPOP – O (ring) in LLL (three pounds – libra in Latin) I POP (report=bang)
3 Give firm assurance, investing millions (10)
COMPROMISE – M in CO (firm) PROMISE
4 One flyer in drink, another being on rescue vessel (10)
MEADOWLARK – MEAD OWL ARK
5 Female chef, ultimately limited by time restriction, serves delicacy (7)
TRUFFLE – F (female) [che]F in (limited by) T RULE (restriction)
6 Sparkler hastily shortened at each end (4)
ASTI – [h]ASTI[ly]; a bit random with the shortening. Must be a female chef!
7 Touring lochs, picked up something from dog track (6)
FOLLOW – LL in WOOF (something from dog – a bit weak) reversed; L as in L Ness (Loch Ness)
8 Where it’s unclear, agree to differ about chap that’s upset (4,4)
GREY AREA – RAY (random chap) in AGREE*
14 Worn-out fan belt bodged together with tie (4-6)
FLEA-BITTEN – FAN BELT TIE*
15 One carrying spare tyre may be finished with boat crew (10)
OVERWEIGHT – OVER (finished) W (with) EIGHT (boat crew)
16 Letting down front, crease fabric and squeeze once (3,5)
OLD FLAME – FOLD (crease) with the F moved down > OLDF LAME (fabric – actually lamé)
18 It’s usually broadcast after the match (8)
CONFETTI – LOL; Americans use rice, which seems a waste…
19 He died, supported by Duke in real push forward (7)
OBTRUDE – OB (third person singular past tense of obire (to die) is obiit (he/she died) abbreviated to ob.) D in TRUE
21 Nut enters rising river — that’s devotion for you (6)
NOVENA – EN (a unit of measurement, half the width of an em, also called nut) in AVON reversed: Novena is ‘a devotion consisting of prayers or services on nine consecutive days’. My last in
24 After whiskey, John spins yarn (4)
WOOL – W LOO reversed

45 comments on “Times 27757 – Mother and Father of all. Biff. Fests.”

  1. I did my share of biffing, too: RUSH HOUR, DIFFICULTY (from CULT), MEADOWLARK (from ARK), TRUFFLE, GREY AREA, OLD FLAME. REBECCA: what a dreadful clue! U, can I assume that your wife’s name is Rebecca?
  2. I didn’t do any biffing, but the MEADLOWLARK/PLACE MAT crossing was my last in, and time was 8:53.
    Looking forward to the Bank Holiday jumbo, since Saturday’s was polished off pretty quickly.
  3. Some parsing was not so easy. I struggled to explain PLACE MAT and never did get to grips with how RUSH HOUR worked, apart from HH.

    Random musical notes or random points of the compass would have been bad enough, but not both in the same puzzle.

    I liked ‘One German mug? On the contrary!’ although the answer was a write-in.

    NOVENA was unknown or more likely forgotten, but getable from wordplay.

  4. Seemed a really weak offering… weird mix of clues… all biff… baaahhh… but perhaps it is just me
  5. 25 mins pre-brekker.
    I enjoyed its wittiness, notwithstanding the ring=O and the random blokes.
    Mostly I liked Mead Owl Ark.
    Thanks setter and U.
  6. I think this would have been about a 30 minute puzzle for me, but elapse time was much longer despite the assistance of Penny the Puppy. LOI WEND, with three points for a win making WIND my first thought. COD to WALLFLOWER. I needed all crossers for NOVENA, then convinced myself I knew it from my Graham Greene reading days more than half a century ago. I thought this puzzle good in parts but I’m not keen on clues with groups of semi-random letters as in REBECCA and WEND. Thank you U and setter.
  7. 15:24 but failed to parse RUSH HOUR. I don’t think I want to see LIVERWURST, TRUFFLE, DONER KEBAB or a LOLLIPOP on my PLACE MAT today, but I wouldn’t mind a glass of ASTI. COD to WALLFLOWER. Mud, mud, etc…
  8. My dad was a printer, so very familiar with en, but had never heard of nut for the same…..hence novena was my LOI too.

    In my youth, Meadowlark was a famous basketball player for the Harlem Globetrotters, not a bird.

    1. You’ll be delighted to know the British had a rocket in the Skylark series rechristened as MEADOWLARK and launched from Woomera in 1974.
  11. I gave a good go at this one, and came up 4 or 5 clues short. Nothing too impossible, although EN=nut was a DNK inside another DNK (NOVENA)

    I liked the REBECCA clue, so that was COD for me.

  12. < 17′, felt longer. Really liked MEADOWLARK. No biffing at all for me, at least not without careful parsing before submission. Dnk NOVENA. DIFFICULTY LOI as was fixated on something to do with ‘diffident’ for uncertain.

    COD to EINSTEIN.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

  13. Very easy puzzle. Agree with Jack about the random notes and compass points. Can’t make head nor tail of the intro to the blog. Has ulaca been on the ASTI? I think we should be told.
  14. Not a Monday puzzle then, and I was surprised it only took 17.40.
    It’s just possible I may spend much of this Bank Holiday trying to find another girl’s name that fits the conditions of 17ac: the random notes can surely include sol-fa without offending, and German notation (at least) allows a lot of extra letters. Shostakovitch managed to include DSCH as his signature in many pieces. Such random clues are perilous, a random name clued by random letters: is the compiler perhaps channeling Stockhausen or Bruno Heinz Jaja?
    I also spent a while wondering how SEND could mean go. Or WEED or SNED or SEED or….
    More aleatory with ASTI, (why not just a “hidden”?). Back in the day, we had a tendency to emphasise the first syllable of the spumante version to express our knowing distaste for the cheap plonk.
    Written excellency blog is!!מזל טוב‎
  15. Yes very easy for the older hands. One or two neat clues but I doubt if this will be my favourite of the week.
    En or em = nut is close to being a regular, isn’t it? Right up there with flower = banker = river or Eli = priest

  16. Couldn’t get into this one but some of the answers were easier than they at first appeared. I thought I’d had a good August but my average h has gone up by two seconds, oh well. Didn’t know nut for en. Three points and a bunch of keys a bit vague for solvers.

    COD: EINSTEIN, perhaps a chestnut but I hadn’t seen it before.

    Friday’s answer: Crown Court and Viz both take place in Fulchester.

    Today’s question: which Meadowlark used to play for the Harlem Globetrotters?

    1. Clown Prince in Harlem once (5)

      Globetrotter’s answer to an unanswerable question? (5)

      Edited at 2020-08-31 10:24 am (UTC)

  17. 7m 04s but with WIND rather than WEND. I’d argue it just about works – three points is a WIN (synonymous in footall, at least), and WIND means ‘go’… just about. OK, it’s marked as obsolete in Chambers, but you can’t blame a guy for trying.

    I found the top half very difficult to get into – although I’m not sure I’m on form, as I didn’t even get ALUMNA at the first attempt – but the second half was kinder. REBECCA came in last with its string of notes.

    Does ‘writers “luv”‘ win the prize for the most obvious anagram fodder of all time?

  18. Nice quirky puzzle, smugly pleased with myself to finish it in 20 minutes, only to find I had my LOI 22a wrong, having hurriedly bunged in WANE (go) without proper parsing. Can’t explain why I had an A instead of a D with three compass points. Doh.
    Now to do the jumbo, for a change.
  19. Two shockingly awful clues for the price of one today: the random name indicated by random letters and the ridiculous obscurity indicated by another obscurity. 10 minutes of my life I won’t get back.
    1. If you’ve ever got any other minutes back, even 5, let me know how; I’m running out.
  21. ….I was left with 4 clues in the NW corner. It would have been much better had I not stupidly biffed “alumni”. I eventually biffed PLACE MAT (thanks Ulaca), but of course I couldn’t see MEADOWLARK because of that damned I. Luckily, I rechecked all my crossers and my carelessness became readily apparent.

    FOI RUSH HOUR
    LOI MEADOWLARK
    COD WALLFLOWER (rather liked UP TO)
    TIME 16:42

  22. It probably helped that I tackled this after a walk down the Avon Gorge here in Bristol, as I’d never heard of 21d NOVENA. As it was, I found that quite easy compared to putting together the MEADOWLARK and a few others. Still, 28 minutes all told, not bad for a puzzle tackled late on a bank holiday. I hope everyone else is taking it easy today!
  23. I was hoping for a harder Monday due to the holiday, but Meadowlark satisfied me. Wend was my LOI, since there are so many combinations and so many of them are plausible that I wanted the crossers. thanks, ulaca, for the bits I understood
  24. Hmm – some complaints this morning but not from this quarter. I liked the echoes of Flanders and Swann in the NE corner. And I like the odd sliver of TRUFFLE in my pate although why it’s so much nicer than LIVERWURST I couldn’t say. 17.18 P.S. Is our blogger channeling Yoda in his intro?

    Edited at 2020-08-31 03:38 pm (UTC)

  26. As did I, limping in at 44’04. Not Mondayish at all for me. Stopped too long to parse on the way. Liked the picked-up woof.
  27. Pretty straightforward except for LOI OBTRUDE which didn’t seem to fit my understanding of the word. There again it’s not in my daily vocabulary so what would I know.
    Liked RUSH HOUR and the hippopotamus.
    Not a crossword for us veggies but managed all the same.
  28. I was pleased with my time of just under 30 minutes but had to biff a few including PLACEMAT (as I didn’t think of ‘tame’ for ‘broken’, REBECCA (didn’t like the random keys) and NOVENA (DNK nut was a measurement).
    WALLFLOWER, DONER KEBAB and FOLLOW were all satisfying to unravel and my COD goes to CONFETTI for the misdirection.
    Thanks to the setter and to the blogger who was obviously having a good day!

  29. DNF in around 24 or 25 mins. Too impatient to hang around for the meadowlark I went for meadowhawk spotting the correct answer a second after I submitted.
  30. 21.38. Found this a bit of a challenge today, perhaps too complacent over today being Monday. Asti was my FOI and compromise the last. Some roadblocks along the way, rush hour being a prime example. Biffed it but thanks ulaca for showing what a clever clue it was.
    Meadowlark also took a while as I was fixated on raft rather than ark. I think this has been used relatively recently as I seem to recall a string on Meadowlark Lemon? COD doner kebab but I was peckish when I tackled the puzzle.
  31. Well I’ve never heard of NOVENA either and REBECCA finally beat me. I’m having a bad run at the moment finding myself one or two clues short of a completion. Bah. When I worked late into the night in London years ago, donner kebabs were my saving grace. Thanks for the explanations ulaca, but your intro has left me completely perplexed. Mind you, Latin was never my strong point!
  32. 50 minutes, with a very slow start, and I was also not too pleased about the clues with sequences of random notes and directions. REBECCA was easy, though (not my wife, my daughter) and WEND a bit harder, since I had to convince myself it couldn’t be WIND. COD to MEADOWLARK. NOVENA, my LOI, from the upside-down AVON, after believing that “nut” could refer to EN (the E here was the only vowel that seemed to make something that could refer to a devotion, the other possibilities just didn’t sound right).
  33. WINS instead of WEND, mombled it: 3 points for wins, plus 3 points of the compass, plus first of ‘in’ dividing it………silly really.
    20 mins.
  34. Firstly, many thanks to the bloggers and setters for an instructive breakdown of the daily 15×15. As a peripheral lurker this has helped me improve my completion rate and times significantly. However, I’ll never be a speed merchant merely being happy to finish within the hour with as much parsed as possible.
    Re 26a: I had WING. Where ‘division’ was the definition and the ‘G’ in ‘Go’ comes after WIN – having gained 3 points for a win in a league soccer match. WING being an RAF division which probably hints at my professional background!
    Somewhat drawn-out I accept but possibly a plausible alternate parsing that works? I note from previous blogs that the definition doesn’t always have to be at the start or end of every clue – or does it?
    Thanks again everyone and keep up the good work!!

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