QC 1995 by Breadman

78 comments on “QC 1995 by Breadman”

1. Biffed EXPERIMENT, MOTHER-TO-BE, & INEBRIATED, which saved me some time; parsed post-submission. 4:57.
2. 9 minutes. Some of the parsing took longer to unravel than finding the answers. I’ve never seen a bottle of port that required a corkscrew to open it but no doubt some do.

   Edited at 2021-11-01 01:04 am (UTC)

   1. If you will buy your port from the supermarket instead of a proper wine merchant….😉
3. …is to be the first to finish, which I did at 6:29. Now I am just about last. I did have to proofread, discovering an opuu that could have wrecked my score.

   I didn’t bother with the more complicated cryptics; mother-to-be, inebriated, and open-ended were the obvious answers.

   I call the attention of newer solvers to the cryptic for corkscrew, which is very popular with setters. There are many variants, but don’t be fooled.

4. jackkt I would usually agree about not needing a corkscrew for port, although one is often needed for a vintage port where the cork has crumbled. I opened a bottle of 1996 Fonseca last weekend that I’d been given as a present about 15 years ago. I’d been saving it for a special occasion. Corkscrew was needed, but it was very nice too!

   More importantly this was the first QC I’ve completed with no aids. Thanks Breadman and @astartedon.

   1. Thanks for the comment, Anon, and congrats on your achievement. If there’s any of that vintage port left over you should award yourself another glass of it!

      General note: I had to unspam Anon’s comment. I wondered why it was treated as suspicious and can only conclude it’s either because the poster made use of the new quotation facility or the use of @ sign.

      1. Any chance of an updated Jackometer ranking the degree of difficulty we can expect from each setter? I find it invaluable when deciding whether to attempt the QC before or after my first cup,of espresso.
         1. If the cork has crumbled – then it’s a gonna!
            1. During our 2 year house renovation I filled the wine fridge in our garage with 100 ‘good’ bottles which appear to have survived. Everything else, reds and whites alike, have turned to vinegar through two hot summers, save for the port which have all (it seems) survived, .
               Moral: Drink it, don’t keep it unless you have the right storage conditions.
            2. A crumbly cork can always (almost) be removed using a two-pronged ‘Butler’s friend’ (also known as a ‘Butler’s thief’ or ‘Ah-So’). They work fine on old Port, Bordeaux, old Chateau Musar, and similar bottles as long as the existing cork has not been butchered too badly. If that fails, filtration through clean muslin will separate the bits. John.
               P.s. Contrary to a fairly common view, a bottle with a crumbly cork is not a ‘corked’ bottle. A corked bottle has a cork that has been contaminated with TCA (trichloroanisole) which give rise to a characteristic, unpleasant, smell.

               Edited at 2021-11-01 09:55 am (UTC)

               1. Interesting re ‘corked’.
               2. Another mention of the Random household’s favourite wine. Alas, I don’t possess a bottle at the moment.
                  1. I only mentioned it because quite a few older bottles of Musar suffer particularly from cork crumble.
                     I am always amused by the reviews on, for example, the W-rose Wine website where some purchasers get angry and return wines because the cork crumbles a bit (they usually say it is ‘corked’). I now use the ‘Butler’s Thief’ in preference to a corkscrew for most older wines.
         2. Thanks for the enquiry. It’s been on my to-do list for months but I haven’t felt motivated to update it. I’ll see what I can do later in the week.
5. EDAM is such a lovely place with awful cheese, whereas Gouda is such an ugly place with gorgeous cheese, when it is allowed to mature.

   FOI 23ac OPUS

   LOI 24ac CORKSCREW — as per Jack, this clue doesn’t quite work as port has a ‘bung’

   COD 6dn EDAM but Gouda preferred

   WOD 3dn DOBERMAN — the stooge in BILKO!, my favourite ever American boxed-set.

   Booked for the new Bond movie tomorrow.

   Edited at 2021-11-01 06:22 am (UTC)

6. Poor start to the week with three left. Maybe threw the towel in too early, but have a busy day so can only allocate 20 mins. No Time for the SCC.

   Missed EXPERIMENT, AMIDST, DESPOT. All fair, sometimes one just can’t see ‘em.

   PO=potty? In what context? Like most, I know dozens of slang words, but never heard of this. I work in Purchasing, and a PO is a Purchase Order. My offering,

   Authority to buy American work of music (4)

   COD CORKSCREW

   Edited at 2021-11-01 08:07 am (UTC)

   1. May I refer the Hon. Gent. to Messrs Flanders & Swan?

      “ Ma’s out, Pa’s out, let’s talk rude:
      Pee! Po! Belly! Bum! Drawers!
      Dance in the garden in the nude!
      Pee! Po! Belly! Bum! Drawers!”

      08:01

      Templar in haste

      1. Fair enough, and thanks for the link @jackkt. But as someone trying to get his children interested in cryptic, having to keep referencing slang from two generations ago, that they have never, and will never encounter makes it hard. I’ll add this to my list of slang due for retirement by setters, with IT, SA, PI.
         1. from ‘pot de chambre’=chamber pot. I knew this from reading Anthony Powell, if I recall; but is ‘po-faced’ also too old for your kids?
         2. I worry how you will cope with ‘guzunder’ if it ever appears!
            1. Hello Jack. Have you heard of ‘gerzinter’, the fifth arithmetic operator?
               1. I wasn’t even aware there was a first one!
   2. Collins has:
      po
      in British English

      NOUN
      Word forms: plural pos
      British an informal word for chamberpot

      Templar beat me to the F&S refreence, but here’s a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSrXqOI9988

      Edited at 2021-11-01 08:29 am (UTC)

7. I started with ICED and quickly filled the top half, but then got bogged down a bit, eventually finishing with CORKSCREW. A careless AMONGST held up INEBRIATED. 9:31. Thanks Breadman and Don.
8. I have become ever more despondent and frustrated of late where these QCs are concerned. So often they just seem to hard for a “quick” crossword. Yet, I also tackle the Daily Mail cryptic crossword during the week, and invariably do far better there than here, even though I consider it to be a more difficult puzzle than the Times QC

   I approach the two cryptic crosswords very differently. With the DM you do not get the answers for a few days, as they are all prize crosswords. Due to that, I take my time with each DM cryptic, taking a few days for each one, only stopping when the answers are revealed a few days later. Often, I complete it with no aids used.
   However, with The Times “Quick” Cryptic I am a lot harder on myself, allotting myself an hour only from the moment I start. This, I assume has been putting too much pressure on me. I guess I misinterpreted the word “quick” here.

   Therefore, a new approach for the Times QC is needed. From now on I will not time myself, and if it takes me a full day to solve, so be it. Because I am no longer timing myself, I will also restrain from the use of aids. I have been attempting cryptic crosswords for almost one year now, so I feel I need to wean my reliance off them.

   Now, on to today’s QC. Very enjoyable – probably because I did not pressure myself as I usually do. My FOI was ICED, LOI was CORKSCREW, which I thought was a very clever clue.

   23a. I always think of Steptoe and Son when I see the word “Po”. It reminds me of an episode where Harold is buying himself a new bed, one that has no space between the underside and the floor. Puzzled, Steptoe asks the salesman, “Where do you put the ‘Edgar Allan’”?

   I know I said I was not going to time myself, and I did not, but I do happen to know it took me 37 minutes. I started at 0717, and only paused once to let the cat out.

   No aids used.

   Edited at 2021-11-01 08:32 am (UTC)

   1. Dear PW,
      Well done for adopting your new approach, and I wish you all the best with it.
   2. I’ve banged on ad nauseam that the QC isn’t a competition and nobody wins a prize for being ultra-quick (apart from in their own head, I guess). The pleasure I obtain from doing these puzzles comes from solving the tricky little blighter clues and completion is a welcome bonus. Also, I’d thoroughly recommend giving up as soon as it all seems too hard; it’s only a daft little puzzle and moving on to something more reliably enjoyable is always a delight.
9. Now you’ve let the cat out of the bog!
10. I enjoyed the bottle opener clue surface, after I had mentally trawled through the Irish map. Wasted a lot of time on that. AMIDST was last one in.
    A steady medium difficulty puzzle for me. 30 minutes over breakfast with some interruptions to make tea etc.
    BW
    Andrew
11. Breezed through this one, with my only slight query the PO/POTTY meaning, which was new to me so OPUS went in with a shrug. Otherwise a top to bottom solve finishing with the clever INEBRIATION, which just happened to be the last clue I looked at. Also enjoyed DOBERMAN and TONE DOWN. Finished in 5.47.
    Thanks to astartedon
12. An unusual one for me. It was deceptively easy!
    I whizzed through the grid having Biffed 7 clues (a record) and then spent 6 minutes trying to parse them (with mixed success) to finish in a satisfactory 21 mins.
    Thanks Breadman and Astartedon.
13. Must have been on the wavelength. Biffed quite a few from the checkers or just biffed, eg MOTHER TO BE, DOBERMAN.
    LOI AMIDST, which I did have to work out.
    Liked EXPERIMENT, OPEN ENDED, DANUBE, CORKSCREW.
    Thanks all, esp Don.
14. 12 minutes and no real problems, which is a fair start to the week. LOI was NEED only because I worked top left to bottom right and it was the last clue I looked at. No stand-out clues here for me, but a generally even standard. Thanks to Breadman and Astartedon.
15. … which took me just under 10 minutes, faster than my usual time for a Breadman puzzle. Some very nice clues — I particularly liked 24A Corkscrew when the PDM arrived — and no real hold-ups. Only minor hesitation was over 7A Open-ended, where I needed a couple of looks to convince myself that it was a close enough synonym for Changeable.

    I particularly like the classic “lift-and-separate” in the surface for 19A Euro. Managing to get “old currency” into the surface for the newest major currency in the world is very good!

    Jack — the deleted comment in reply to yours at 01:03 was mine; it was merely to observe that vintage port often has real corks, but others made the point much more elegantly further down. Memo to self — read all the posts before adding one’s own, to avoid repetition!

    Many thanks to Don for the blog
    Cedric

16. An enjoyable puzzle with lots of easy biffing as crossers emerged. I went straight from top to bottom (I’ve never managed before) although I parsed every answer. I must have been on Breadman’s wavelength to finish in 11 mins. Lots of good clues but CORKSCREW (my COD) nearly did for me — it was not a chestnut in my experience.
    The first true Quick Cryptic for many a day, in my opinion. Many thanks to Breadman for a nice start to the week and to Don for his usual informative, economical and enjoyable blog. John M.

    Edited at 2021-11-01 09:38 am (UTC)

    1. Congrats on the clean sweep — and the time 😊
    2. Been close, and I do acrosses then downs, but never done it. I do tend to move on if nothing presents itself after 5-10 seconds though, which naturally precludes the sweep in favour of the faster time.

       Congrats!

17. 9 minutes for me for which is pretty much on par with a PB.

    I’ve always found Breadman to be one of the easier setters and I personally think this was one of the more straightforward QC’s in quite a while ( I think we were due one). As has been mentioned above, a lot of them were biffable and it took more time to working out the parsing rather than the answers.

    Main hold up was 24ac “Corkscrew” where I felt into the trap of running through every Irish city imaginable thinking it was the full answer.

    FOI — 1ac “Iced”
    LOI — 24ac “Corkscrew”
    COD — 10ac “Experiment”

    Thanks as usual!

18. It’s all been said. FOI iced, LOI amidst. Nine minutes, then stuck for three on corkscrew and amidst so twelve minutes in total. Seven biffs because the answers were obvious from the definitions and I got lazy. COD Danube. Thanks for unravelling the biffs, Don, and for the puzzle, Breadman.
19. For me this puzzle had hidden depths: lots of easy clues but several that caused me a deal of trouble. Best example, LOI CROFT- I just couldn’t think of a a word for a small farm and wasn’t sure if councillor was C, CO or CL; all wrong of course, hence my trouble. DESPOT another hold-up as was CORKSCREW which would be my COD if we can agree that port is opened with one; I have never done so.
    In the end, all correct in 14 minutes. A good QC.
    David
20. Just adding my tuppenceworth to the PORT debate.

    Yes the cheaper bottles you get in supermarkets usually don’t have a cork, just a stopper that you pull out by hand. I suppose the ‘bottle end’ is made of cork but you obviously can’t put a corkscrew through it. But the good bottles definitely have corks — or do they? I note that horryd (who I believe is a bit of an oenophile) commented that they don’t have corks, they have bungs. And I wonder is that a technical distinction that I was unaware of? That a ‘cork’ in a bottle of port is correctly called a ‘bung’?

    In the context of the clue though, it doesn’t matter a damn of course. Whether it is a cork or a bung you still use a corkscrew not a bungscrew to extract it, so the definition is correct as ‘that’s driven in and out of port maybe’.

    I do like port very much although I am told it is going out of fashion except for a small contingent of the young set who apparently like it with lemon (I think the noble drink would probably rather die a dignified death than be subjected to such adulteration). We inherited two very nice bottles of ‘85 a couple of years ago, and for a wedding present back in 1990 a dear friend who was then the cellarmaster at New College Oxford gave me a bottle of ‘55 from the vaults. And another dear friend who sadly died young laid down a few bottles of ‘63 in my father-in-law’s barn before he passed away. He was another oenophile, but too much so. Although his demise was not caused directly by alcoholic addiction it was certainly a contributory factor. His bottles were not bequeathed to us, but everybody concerned says that my wife and I are morally entitled to them. Me because I had known the guy since I was about 5 and my wife because she had a 6-year relationship with him before they broke up and we got married.

    I just need to find the time to get out to the barn to claim the bounty!

    1. Only a bit. Many years ago I worked for Saccone & Speed and then as a correspondent for Malcolm Gluck, of Glug, Glug, Glug! Malcolm is an avid advocate for the removal of cork from the whole scene. It is responsible for the death of so much wine from the off. Cork is also a scarce resource these days and is just not necessary, as has been shown by so many fine New World wines and their screw tops. One thing I do share with the Old Blighter is his love of Chteau Musar. Malcolm introduced it to me in 1985.And a sommelier’s tip for one and all, never drink port with fresh, repeat fresh, walnuts!🍷
       1. Nice to know you are a Musar fan, Horryd. I first met Serge Hochar of Musar in the 80s at a wine fair in London and was smitten by the man and his wines. I used to meet him (and on many occasions, his brother and sons) every year at the London Trade Fair and have now amassed around 15-20 vintages of the red going back to the 80s plus around half a dozen vintages of his (stunning) whites. It was a terrible shock when he died so tragically. He was a one-off. The first Decanter Man of the Year.
          I still have a vivid memory of his Memorial Service in London and of tasting his first vintage (among others) with his family and friends at the Athenaeum afterwards.
          1. My paternal grandfather worked for over thirty years for wine merchants Ridlingtons, in Boston. They specialised in ports, sherries, Madeira, the Hanseatic Hocks; Nuits St. George and Sancerre were pretty much our house wines! I love good Champagne and a pre-prandial Chablis. My ‘tome’ for Desert Island Discs would be Michael Brodbent’s ‘The Great Vintage Wine Book’ horryd 🍷🥂l

             Edited at 2021-11-01 12:13 pm (UTC)

             1. I omitted to mention that I am entirely behind Malcolm Gluck in his wish that cork be removed from the wine scene. Quite apart from TCA cork taint, I have never had an ‘out of condition’ wine that was bottled under screw cap (or one of the alternatives available).
                I was impressed to be offered aged Riesling and Semillon by famous Clare Valley winemakers from their Wine Libraries and to find that, despite being 2 or 3 decades old, they were always bottled under screw cap and were in perfect condition. And the wines had aged beautifully; the winemakers were not convinced by the claim that wine only ages if some air can get past the cork (does it anyway?). The only great wines I have tasted that were ‘off’ were bottled under cork; the resulting disappointment after waiting years to taste a cherished fine wine is something one remembers!
                However, when the change away from cork accelerates, the last to fall into line will be the Port bottlers. Most cork comes from Portugal, after all.
                1. Up until this year I would have agreed with you about the taint proof nature of a screw cap. Sadly, in the last six months I’ve had at least two bottles of George Duboeuf’s Fleurie that have had to go back.
                   1. That is a pity. However, I would put money on the fault being in the winery/bottling plant rather than the closure. Hope you get (good) replacements! (Check the batch numbers).

                      Edited at 2021-11-01 03:51 pm (UTC)

                      1. I’m sure you’re right — I just hope standards aren’t slipping now that Georges has ‘moved on’ to higher things.
                         1. I hope so, too. I’ve had disappointments recently with wines from long-established wineries that have seen changes of ownership, have decided to expand too quickly, or are simply resting on their reputation. No reviews are truly reliable but I tend to use Cellartracker as a guide these days before taking anything for granted.
    2. I’ve always found it amusing that the French word for a Cork (un bouchon, and hence tire bouchon for corkscrew) also doubles as their word for a traffic jam…
       1. The French must find it ‘très amusant’ that ‘Les Anglais’ think in terms of sticky fruit preserves when describing their blocked arteries. And when English soccer fans proclaim their prowess, why do they invoke thoughts of mushrooms and fungi?
          1. Indeed, but surely better to laugh with/at each other as friends than squabble?
             🇪🇺🇬🇧🇪🇺🇬🇧🇪🇺
21. of biffing, then post-solve parsing.

    LOI and favourite was CORKSCREW, which you’ll definitely need for your better bottles of port.

    4:32

22. …. I’ve changed my style, and simply go through the clues in order — all the Across, then all the Down. Anything left after two passes is then picked off randomly. This morning I missed 6 Across clues, but totally wiped out the Downs, making the second pass fairly easy. In view of which, I was a little surprised to finish so quickly.

    FOI ICED
    LOI OPUS
    COD MOTHER-TO-BE
    TIME 3:31

    1. Piss-poor time, Phil! Keep taking the tablet(s)!
23. Pretty straightforward. COD CORKSCREW.
24. On the easier side, or maybe I was just on the wavelength. Biffed a few where the answers were obvious without bothering to parse them, or parse them completely (HEARSE and OPEN ENDED for example). Thanks Astartedon for assisting with those. Finished in 14 mins with only the NE corner proving much of a hold-up, but even that fell relatively quickly once I had unravelled the complexities of 10ac EXPERIMENT.

    FOI – 1ac ICED
    LOI – 4dn DESPOT
    COD – the very succinct 13dn HAT

    Thanks to Breadman for an entertaining puzzle.

25. I didn’t find this quite as easy as others. Having to combat a bad case of man-flu doesn’t help, and I can only think that’s the reason I toyed with that less well known small (Scottish?) farm, the Cloat for 2d, before wiser thoughts prevailed. Eventually all done and parsed, with loi Corkscrew, in 23mins. CoD to 12ac, Mother-to-be, which happily is my daughter’s condition. Invariant
26. 4:08 this morning. A “wavelength day” for me, unusually for a Monday — especially after our double-jab yesterday!
    COD 24 ac “corkscrew”, evidently a popular choice. Which reminds me, I have two bottles of ’77 Fonseca, untouched for some time. Just waiting for an opportunity to share, certainly these days Mrs P and I would require assistance !
    Thanks to Don for his entertaining blog and to Breadman for a pleasant start to the week.
27. Very enjoyable puzzle. It’s a while since we finished in 10 mins — so it was a pleasing start to the week.

    FOI: ICED
    LOI: CORKSCREW
    COD: MOTHER TO BE

    Thanks Astartedon and Breadman.

28. A Satisfactory Day — I did this in 8 minutes but it wasn’t a stand-out puzzle for me, I’m afraid. Like others, I biffed MOTHER-TO-BE and INEBRIATED so thanks for the explanations Don. Still it was nice not to face the curse of the last one in for a change 😅
    FOI Iced
    LOI Despot
    COD Euro
    Thanks Breadman and Don
29. 12 mins here with the usual target being 15 mins for this Russian. Biffed some of the longer ones (PLANTATION, MOTHER-TO-BE, EXPERIMENT).

    FOI: ICED
    LOI: AMIDST
    COD: CORKSCREW

30. After a truly torrid time last week (on review, my worst week ever!) Breadman has come to my rescue. Thankyou, thankyou Breadman! I started well today and managed to keep it going throughout to finish successfully in 26 minutes, which is a very good time for me.

    My FOI was ICED and, unusually, I solved several clues on my first pass down the grid. It felt so good being able to parse each clue without undue angst or hopeful biffing. Let’s hope I can continue today’s form for the rest of this week. My final two in were AMIDST (my CoD) and CORKSCREW.

    So, an enjoyable and successful solve, and I will come back later when Mrs Random has had a chance to tackle it (she has just arrived back from a walk and lunch with a friend).

    Many thanks to Breadman and astartedon.

    P.S. I braved what I think will be my last sea-swim of the year earlier this morning. I say “last” because I don’t currently have a wetsuit and the water temperature was below 12°C. I know some people who are hardy enough to swim throughout the winter, but just 10 minutes was enough for me today.

    1. Hooray 😄 After this slice of good fortune from Breadman, all we need now is for Oink to bring home the bacon, Wurm to keep to the straight and narrow, and Orpheus to keep it light and airy!!
       1. ……and for Joker to give us a bit of a larf (for a change). 😄
31. Just popped back to report that, as expected (by me), Mrs Random did not suffer the ignominy of completing today’s QC in a slower time than me. She finished in 16 minutes, well inside the SCC threshold. And, her LOI was the same as mine – CORKSCREW. Mrs R tends to pace her solves according to the number of things on her ‘To Do’ list, so her quick time today may be a sign that I will soon be called upon to pitch in on something-or-other.
32. Found 21a difficult to unravel with the choice apparently of two anagrinds, but solved from the crossers. All done in just over 20m so a good day for us and a pleasant start to thr week.
33. A rare sub 10 today. Held up at the end by AMIDST where I was slow to see where the ST came from.
34. A new PB -> 18:56 — and the first time out of the SCC!

    In fact, I had everything other than CROFT in after 12 minutes with an agonising 6 minutes looking blankly at C_O_T.

    Very chuffed indeed! Looking back at my stats, I’ve finished 3 out of 4 QCs by Breadman, so must be on his wavelength.

    There was a bit of biffing involved today, but everything was parsed by the end.

    Edited at 2021-11-01 04:19 pm (UTC)

    1. Congratulations and very well done, Mr Taxis! I hope you enjoy the rarefied atmosphere out there, and that you get to experience it many more times. Perhaps it will become the norm.
       1. Thank you 😁

          I fear it’ll be business as usual tomorrow with DNF after 45 minutes…

35. One more thing — from Saturday’s Times Diary (if you didn’t see it)

    Earlier in the week, we mentioned the unfortunately truncated film title “Who Framed Roger Rabbi”. It reminded Wadham Sutton, a reader, of one of his favourite jokes. “A Catholic priest, an Anglican vicar and a rabbit go to a clinic to give blood. The nurse asks the rabbit if he happens to know what blood group he is. The rabbit thinks for a moment and then says, ‘I think I must be a Type O’. “

    Brilliant 😂 Definitely a joke for all crossword lovers, which is not surprising, as Wadham Sutton is better known to us as Orpheus!

36. Poor old Cork, dissected today, a very old port of course. Time calibration 1.3 score minutes, faster than ever.
37. As easy as they come. Just over half my target time. No real hold ups. But it does put me in awe of all those 5 minute solvers.
38. As most have said a gentle one today
    About half a course with lots of biffing
    Not sure about the walnuts and port though
39. Mostly sailed through this one, though I have to confess there was a fair bit of biffing going on. Ended up on 15:05, which I think is my 16th fastest ever. Not much else to say really. COD to CORKSCREW. Thanks Astartedon and Breadman.
40. … plus (e.g. 4 plus 8 = 12)
    … minus (e.g. 13 minus 7 = 6)
    … times (e.g. 5 times 3 =1 5)
    … divided by (e.g. 6 divided by 2 = 3)
    … gerzinter (e.g. 7 gerzinter 28 four times)
41. An enjoyable challenge but not too taxing for the first of the week. As a newbie, loved corkscrew.

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