Times 25792: Nursery made

59 comments on “Times 25792: Nursery made”

1. Please explain. – Vince
   1. It is an old business-letter abbreviation, reflective of a style of language that went out after WWI.
      1. Thanks!
      2. That particular usage (as in “We are in receipt of your favour of the 14th inst.”) certainly seems to have disappeared.

         However much of my work involves encouraging the use of plain English, and the old-fashioned idea that legal drafting and business correspondence require particular artificial and stilted forms of English is regrettably alive and well!

         Edited at 2014-05-21 05:58 am (UTC)

         1. To be honest, I grew up with this, having been taught it as a “proper form” for business letter writing — Grammar School English classes in the 1960s. (We also learned how to address most of the titles in Burke’s Peerage.) Now I like to use it to confuse bank “executives” (do they employ anyone else?) who might be 27 years old max. They deserve it, especially in letters replying to theirs claiming I was a day late with a particular deposit. Not my fault that electronic banking is still attached to the antiquated notion of “working days”. Of course, all they want is the interest gained on weekends and public holidays. An actual letter in the actual post including old-skool terms like “inst”, and “ult” is mild by economic comparison.

            That’s my 2¢.

            Edited at 2014-05-21 06:20 am (UTC)

            1. In my experience Germans still use ‘ultimo’ quite regularly. Perhaps it’s just the Germans I know.
   2. Full form ‘instante mense’ (in the current month); look out also for ult and prox (last and next month, respectively).
2. …without any real difficulty. The cryptics were fairly straightforward, and the literals not hard to find. I admit, I couldn’t parse ‘crab’, even though I was familiar with the expression. I probably would have thought of it were I the blogger.
3. 25 minutes but with ‘cocklesfell’, having preferred it to ‘cockleswell’ – I never could really accound for the place. Liked the DREAM clue.

   The Scottish town in the Concise is likely to cause a lot more trouble than this one.

4. 
   All done in 35 minutes, but with a couple of ?s in the top left: dnk ARCHANGEL port, Mr FOX (nor did I know Mr Gardner at 19ac), and cnp ALFALFA, so thanks for those.

   CRAB loi, after alphabet-running.

   cod to DREAM for King misdirection.

   1. He’ll be known to the US solvers. The Wik tells us:

      Erle Stanley Gardner’s name is well-known among avid crossword puzzle solvers, due to his first name’s containing an unusual pattern of common letters, and few other famous people have the name Erle. As of January 2012, he is noted for having the highest ratio (5.31) of mentions in the The New York Times crossword puzzle to mentions in the rest of the newspaper among all other people since 1993.

      1. Thanks, McT…clearly one to remember!
         1. His Perry Mason books (mentioned in the blog) became a long-running TV series (1957-1966) starring Raymond Burr. Mason has turned up in Times cryptics and on at least one occasion was clued as ‘detective’ which seemed a little unfair as he was actually a lawyer.

            Edited at 2014-05-21 04:36 am (UTC)

            1. Must have been confusing him with Ironside…
               1. Which was, of course, ‘rebooted’ last year. And recancelled after 3 episodes. Crime dramas, the good ones, have moved on. We’re half-way through watching True Detective right now ….. dang, but that thing’s written good.

                  Edited at 2014-05-21 07:34 am (UTC)

                  1. The buddy-buddy cop show was due for a makeover and they sure did it with this vehicle. The two principles are both worthy of best actor gongs, with the Louisiana badlands a strong contender for best supporting actor.
                     1. Hear, hear to all that. Matthew McC is stupendously good, and Louisiana …. oh yeah. Great to hear some fairly uncompromising Southern talk, too, even if we’ve found ourselves switching on the subtitles a couple of times!
                        1. We’ve found ourselves using the subtitles more and more. Recent examples were a detective in the Shetlands and a woman called Vera in Durham/Newcastle are – all incomprehensible 50% of the time through dialect and 50% through the way modern actors mumble.
                           1. In fairness to True Detective, the only reason we’ve had to resort to subtitles now and then (including French subtitles by mistake, which added a whole new dimension to things), was that the show includes what I believe is some full-strength, cooked-up-in-a-still-way-out-in-the-woods, Louisiana dialect. It’s a joy to hear, just slightly baffling to the uninitiated. Jamaica Inn, on the other hand …
                              1. I gave up watching American Hustle about half-way through because I couldn’t understand half of what they were saying. I didn’t have a strong feeling that I’d be very interested if I had understood, which may also have been a factor.

                                 Edited at 2014-05-21 10:11 am (UTC)

5. Hit a wall about half way through and then (and this is becoming a habit) nodded off before resuming afresh, so I have no overall solving time. Didn’t know PAU and failed to spot the wine in 25ac so was unable to parse it (though of course I would have thought of it were I the blogger!). I don’t really think of vermouth when I think of wine but it’s a fortified variety.

   Edited at 2014-05-21 02:44 am (UTC)

6. A fairly straightforward solve, except that I carelessly had AIR instead of AYR at 27. Just as the setter intended presumably by using “broadcast” but not as the homophone indicator.

   Like many others, I imagine, I knew COCKLESHELL only from “The Cockleshell Heroes”.

7. After yesterday’s stinker, a nice gentle 20 minutes. Thanks mctext for explaining quite a number I couldn’t parse (18a, 19 & 25).
   Talking about confusing the under 27 year olds, I recently went into a petrol station and asked for a quart of oil to be met by a totally bemused look.
8. A welcome stroll after yesterday’s disaster. COD DREAM.

   I have always felt sorry for Hamilton Burger, Perry Mason’s courtroom opposition, for losing his case every single week. Must have been depressing. As for the under 27 year olds, horseracing in the UK is still full of oddities, like horses being priced in guineas, races measured in furlongs and betting odds like 100/30.

   1. As a kid going to point-to-points I was enchanted by such cries from the bookies. Hadn’t a clue what it meant for years!
9. 13:35 .. with several minutes at the end spotting and correcting the numerous typos. I’m still adjusting to early morning solving. I like it, but I’m not sure staring at a computer screen before breakfast is either civilised or wise. I’m seriously thinking about going back to solving on treeware.

   Last in .. CHEERLESS

   1. Love “treeware” on which I most commonly solve. Not heard it before: yours?
      1. I wish. I first met it in the Late Michael Dibdin’s last novel – End Games. It’s used scornfully by a deranged, and screamingly funny, computer mogul from California.
10. 25. ERUDITE. E (European); IT (vermouth) inside RUDE (simple)
    Grateful of explanation for IT (vermouth)

    1. The It is short for ITalian Vermouth, especially when used as a mixer drink. You might order a “gin and it” for example, You might. I wouldn’t!
       1. OK …. thanks
11. You can tell it’s easy when the digressions in this blog easily outnumber the initial comments
    11 minutes, and yes, CoD to DREAM.I’ll get my young apprentice to try it after she’s done the Simples.

    DNK Erle, but what else? Checking afterwards on Google, the sequence of helpful hints got to “stanley gardene” before it popped up with “stanley gardener” and “stanley gardener crosswords” Now there’s fame.

    1. The young padawan, actually 15 months older & much greyer, did have a go – see blog below!
12. A fairly gentle 25 minutes. I didn’t know COCKLESHELL and hadn’t heard of The Cockleshell Heroes which dereklam mentions – for me it was the children’s TV programme COCKLESHELL BAY from the 1980s which helped here.

13. 12m. Straightforward, despite a smattering of unknowns. I slowed myself down by putting EMIR at first: ‘Eliot initially’, then a reversal of the Royal, er, Institute of… um, Machinegunners…?
    As it seems to be the subject of some discussion at the moment, I’ll just add my two penn’orth and say that I very much welcome and enjoy the variety of difficulty in these puzzles.
14. One extreme to the other. A real 15 minute stroll in the park with no outstanding features. Good to see the FOXTROT, that most elegant of dances, get a mention.
    1. I quite agree with you about the FOXTROT, Jim. (My wife and I were once having a lesson on one side of a very large dance studio at the same time as the current world professional ballroom champions (Arunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova) were having a work-out on the other side. Their foxtrot was quite something!)
15. Under the half hour, so exactly the right puzzle to follow yesterday’s stinker. Humorous too: particularly liked the STIRRER and CRAB.

    in re: inst.

    Captain Spaulding, dictating a letter to his secretary, begins:

    in re: yours of the fifth inst. yours to hand and beg to rep.

    Google: “take a letter Jamison” for the video clip from Animal Crackers

    Edited at 2014-05-21 09:42 am (UTC)

16. 20 mins, with the last 5 of them spent on 18ac. I wasn’t 100% sure that a fiddler is a type of crab so I didn’t enter it until I’d dredged the rowing reference from deep in the memory banks. There were quite a few answers that should have been write-ins, such as FOXTROT (once the X checker was in place) and ALFALFA that I took much too long over.
17. When the first few went straight in I was hoping for a fast time and was a bit disappointed with 16 mins. Not sure where the hold-ups were though keriothe’s “emir” tempted me too. Some nice economical clueing and I liked the misleading surface of “had one specially made” which had me puzzling over a synonym for bespoke.
18. Yes, indeed, an extraordinary contrast with yesterday’s toughie, with its array of definitions so fiendishly disguised as to be nigh on invisible. Today’s, with the exception of a few testing clues here and there, was more like a Quick Cryptic. But enjoyable for all that. My LOI was CHEERLESS (entered on the basis of def alone, as I failed to make the “Erle” and Stanley Gardner connection).
19. About 11 mins with interruptions from people wanting more cake from my charity cake ‘event’. (we aren’t allowed to have ‘sales’ any more) so on a ‘normal’ day might have been about 8 I suppose.

    I particularly liked the ‘stirrer’ and the ‘King had one’.

20. Found this much easier than yesterday’s but DNF with Crab missing. Liked Dream and Squally.
    Cheerless from checkers and definition.
21. Couldn’t work out the parsing for foxtrot – which is now obvious, didn’t realise you could use pilau as a dish in its own right and I don’t immediately associate vermouth with wine but hopefully now will. 46 minutes in the sunshine – using Sotira’s tree-ware and a bit of lead-ware to go with it.
22. 11:43 but I felt this was an opportunity to dip under 10′ as there wasn’t too much to cause hold-ups. I don’t know Stanley Gardner from Ava Unwin so I had to rely on def and checkers there and I couldn’t parse alfalfa so thanks McT.

    I only started yesterday’s puzzle latish, and then had to cope with Mrs Penfold urging me to keep looking up at the telly to see the lovely flowers and that at Chelsea, so I retired to bed with the puzzle as yet unfinished but I enjoyed what I did get.

23. I passed it very differently. EU for European, RED for the wine (displaying my noted oenological prowess:) then had no idea what the IT was for, but – whatever works! Thank you for the explanation.
    Raced through the top half then slowed down. I loved the DREAM clue. 35 mins for a personal best – hurrah!
24. My first ‘biggie’! 56mins with 3 levels of clues some all by myself, some gently hinted by Z8 & a few where he had to drop massive hints. The last straw was when he knocked on the wall to hint GNOCCHI having previously misled me by hinting racecourses/hippodromes etc GRR.

    15 dn LOI – I should have got it far quicker as I recently left my job because of the Bclue.
    COD 11ac a witty all-by-myself solve, though DREAM made me go all misty-eyed.

    1. Congratulations munk1. I am sure that it will soon be you giving z8 hints!
    2. Didn’t realise Z8 did hints charade style. A new blog sensation! Any videos? 🙂
       1. Z8 just muttered ‘Only if he’s very lucky!’

          Seriously, gents, I really do appreciate the encouragement – but I have 40 years worth of solving to catch up on!! 🙂

25. About 20 minutes, and not many hold ups at all. ERLE came right away, and made me think he might have been British for his appearance here. I’ve seen plenty of episodes of the show, but never read a single book; they might have a distinctly British feel, for all I know. Regards.
    1. They don’t.
26. 25 min: LOI AIR at 27dn. after a while rereading the clue and eventually deciding that AYR didn’t quite work.
27. Quite happy with this one, and I’m still feeling pretty satisfied (alright, smug) after eventually finishing yesterday’s without aids.
28. Ah, but good lady you have to take account of the dreadful toll that supporting Tottenham Hotspur takes, not to mention the effect of gnocchi-ng one’s head against the wall.
    1. Love it!

       I may stop gnocchi-ing my head against the wall if we appoint an effective manager!

29. 40min here, which is a relief after yesterday’s abject failure. FOI GATED, LOI WEIGHTING.

    I can’t say I found this one particularly easy (I never do) – more of a slow grind to the end.

    Today was enlivened – before I even arrived at what I laughingly call “work” – by my helping a man to have a heart attack. To be precise, he had started having a heart attack all by himself at the petrol station where I was filling up, and I helped him sit down and wait until the ambulance arrived. He was alive when I last saw him, which is more than I can usually say.

    This is the second impromptu heart attack I’ve seen recently (the first being a gentleman who had the good sense to have his in the waiting area whilst awaiting treatment for an unrelated injury), and I’m hoping it doesn’t become a trend.

30. 6:47 here for a pleasant straightforward solve.
31. Most of this was write-ins on my trip this afternoon from Balham to Warren Street via Victoria, FOI ARCHANGEL and the rest followed more or less in order, but CRAB proved singularly tenacious and the light-bulb duly lit up only on my (very late) trip back. Should really have got this one, as my college fourth eight, which I coxed, came to grief in just such a fashion on the last day of Eights Week with my girlfriend watching from the bank – this happened a long time ago, and I had obviously blanked it out from memory …

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