This was a relatively mild crossword for skilled solvers, but there were a few I had to think about. Fortunately, I have the skill to handle words I never heard of, whether in the definition, the cryptic, or the answer.
Author: vinyl1
Times Quick Cryptic 2553 by Teazel
This puzzle struck me as quite difficult, but as I write the blog it doesn’t seem that tough. The QUITCH is over 100, but not particularly high. However, I often have difficulties with Teazel’s puzzles.
Mephisto 3302 – Thanks, Paul, I needed that!
Yes, for the first time ever, I used one of Paul’s awful puns to complete the puzzle. I was really stuck in the upper right, and needed something to get me searching my Chambers. After checking a couple of possibilities, I saw what was going on.
Times 28783 – “To statesmen would you give a wipe….”
This was not a terribly difficult puzzle, although some of the cryptics were obscure. Since I had decided to solve the puzzle as fast as possible, and then blog it as fast as possible, I pushed ahead. Obvious answers were entered without parsing, so I had quite a few biffs by the end of my solve – these are noted in italic type.
Mephisto 3300 – Four horsemen and it’s going to be us!
This one wasn’t too bad, but there was a burst of obscurity in the NE. I did about 2/3 of it on Saturday night, and finished most of it up on Sunday morning.
Times 28771 – Nope, he’s still at his post!
I thought this was going to be an easy Monday when I saw a number of answers as the puzzle came out of the printer, but the some of the remaining clues proved rather formidable.
Mephisto 3298 – To suck eggs, presumably
I did not find this too bad, but I was tired last Saturday and put it aside half-finished to go to bed. The next morning, I finished fairly easily, but I was a bit concerned about one biff I couldn’t justify.
Quick announcement
We recently had a bot attack that created new accounts on TftT, but did not reply to the email for account confirmation. Johninterred has fixed that problem, but we were left with a large number of inactive accounts, including genuine attempts dating back to May of 2022.
Since these accounts are not confirmed, they are not of any use to anyone. Accordingly, I have cleaned up our user accounts, and deleted all unconfirmed accounts created prior to November 1, 2023. No one with a valid account should be impacted.
Times 28759 – On The Shore
I don’t think there will be much to slow down the top solvers here, no strange vocabulary, and relatively straightforward cryptics.
Mephisto 3296 – I get by with a little help from my friends!
I thought this was going to be hard at first, but it turned out otherwise. I had to check a few things in Chambers, but at least they turned out to exist when I looked them up.