Times – 23945 – No sweat

31 comments on “Times – 23945 – No sweat”

1. About 30 mins for me which is typical. At least compared to yesterday!

   Nothing too problematic but I had the situation of getting almost noting on the early acrosses before getting going and then working my way up. Once I got the two long ones it was plain sailing.

2. 12:16 here. Would probably have been under 10 minutes if I’d made the connection between Derby and hat quicker. It took me a couple of minutes at the end to get HAT PEG for 5A.
3. 7:18 – didn’t understand 20A while solving, thinking somehow that the answer used an anag. of ‘many’, and thinking that ‘fens’ was a bizarre anagrind. But now remember fens and jiaos.

   Struggled with the NE corner a bit, partly as my first try for Sleeping Beauty was DRAMATIC _______.

   Abu Simbel is not just a village but a well-known(?) tourist destination in Egypt – temples that would have been submerged by Lake Nasser, relocated to a new site in the 1960s.

   Initially thought a bilbo supported a sword, but that’s baldric, another fictional character…

   Edited at 2008-06-20 07:31 am (UTC)

4. I thought this a good daily cryptic. 35 minutes of fun. A nice mix of clues with some neat wordplay but nothing too obscure or outlandish and certainly nothing unfair. I liked things such as the misleading “fens” and the clever use of “derby”. My favourite is 6D, a clever anagram. Jimbo.
5. ABU SIMBEL or ABU SIMBAL?

   ABU SIMBAL with AL being “a lake”. Is this allowable? NB The double spellings are listed on Wikpedia.

   1. SIMBAL would not account for “be” in the clue.
      1. More accurately, it wouldn’t account for the B in the answer as “be” in the clue might be padding.

         I loved the clues to FURROW and CUT LOOSE

         1. As you say. Dashed off my response a bit too quickly.
   2. The clue is Intention to grab transport to be beside lake – here? Here’s the whole story except for ‘order of execution brackets’ which jackkt has already given.

      Intention = AIM
      to grab = containment indicator
      transport = BUS
      to = next to – a concatenation indicator (Concatenation = fancy lingo for ‘putting A next to B’)
      be = BE
      beside = another concatenation indicator
      lake = L
      – here? = the def, referring back to the rest of the clue (Abu Simbel is close to Lake Nasser).

      I wouldn’t quite claim that you can account for every single word like this in 100% of Times clues, but as a starting point you should assume that you can – especially for clues other than cryptic defs – and your thoughts about each clue should be this detailed until/unless you want to cut corners for speed, at your own risk.

      Expecting you to get from “a lake” to AL would be perfectly OK, but it’s not happening here – there is only “lake” in the clue. I think this is the clearest reason why Abu Simbal cannot be the answer. Although cryptic setters play fast and loose with “a {noun}” or “an {noun}” and “{noun synonym}”, I don’t think even the most unorthodox setter would expect you to do this with abbreviations and therefore get from “lake” in a clue to “A L” in the answer.

      The {be =?=> B} issue matters too, but I wondered whether our first anon was thinking of the ‘letter name’ words, like see³ in Chambers, which is ‘the letter C’ and quite popular with barred grid puzzle setters. If that was the idea, it doesn’t work here for two reasons: B is ‘bee’, not ‘be’, and more importantly, these letter names (for B and C at least) are not listed in COD or Collins, and therefore wouldn’t be used in the Times puzzle.

      Finally, ‘Abu Simbal’, although possibly valid as a transliteration, is so much rarer in English usage that no sensible setter would use it. Although you can find “Abu Simbal” on Wikipedia, it just redirects to “Abu Simbel” where there’s no mention of an alternative spelling except ‘redirected from …’. If you Google for the two names (with double quotes), “Abu Simbel” wins by about 2,000,000 to 3,000 – and the misspelling “Abu Simbul” scores a thousand or two, suggesting that many of the Abu Simbals are simply mistakes.

6. Went through horse race, china, cheese for derby, but had to look on here for the hat!
   Damn! Why can’t the Americans pronounce words correctly?
7. About 30 minutes for me too. I thought it was going to be quicker, but 5, 9 and 11 and 16 in the NE corner held me up. I liked the the clue for FURROW, whcih then helped to get ABU SIMBEL, which was totally unfamiliar to me, as was ‘many fens’ for YUAN and ‘sword’ for BILBO. In general I like daily cryptics to be free of these obscure references that really require a dictionary to confirm, so no particular praise from me, but I’ll pick 9 as COD.
8. A little under half an hour here, which must be my fastest time to date. My lack of knowledge of Chinese currency and German held me up with 20ac / 20d. Was pleased to get 11ac – unless I’d googled it, though, I’m not sure I would have been confident enough to put the answer in – Abu looking likely enough, but Simbel? COD 21d.
9. 
   By one of those happy coincidences I had watched Terry Jones ‘Surprising History of Egypt’, which dwells briefly on Abu Simbel, just a couple of hours before picking this up last night, so 11 fell easily into place. Perhaps an opportunity lost for a doubled clue with the temple being ‘rebuilt’ elsewhere on the grid. I’ve visited Abu Simbel (and that’s how my cheesy ‘real ancient papyrus’ bookmark spells it so it must be right), and got to thinking that maybe Dave Gorman could undertake another of his serendipitous travel adventures, packing his bags and heading for any and every geographical location that crops up in the Times crossword. Heck, if Channel 4 want to pay, I’ll do it.

   A little less than 15 minutes for me. I found this really enjoyable – an ideal ‘train’ solve. I didn’t know the Chinese units but there wasn’t much room for doubt with YUCATAN. File away those things Sinological ahead of the inevitable ‘Olympics’ puzzle.

   A belting good anagram for ANIMATED CARTOON. A lot of nice surfaces – I liked OWLET, and a lovely joke at 9 – FURROW.

   Good stuff.

   1. He’s a solver of cryptc xwds (Guardian rather than Times I believe) and mentions them occasionally on his blog. Example: http://gormano.blogspot.com/2006/09/cryptic.html
      1. Thank you. I hadn’t realised he was a crozzie buff, though it perhaps isn’t so surprising. Who knows, then….
10. I thought I was on for a new PB here having completed the entire LHS in 5 minutes (even wasting time on 3 as “studies of the sea” has 15 letters so could have been the fodder), but then took a couple of minutes to get anything at all on the right, eventually getting securable and working from there. Was also slowed by Abu Simbel being only half-remembered, by not knowing that bilbo=sword and by wasting time trying to justify weenie for 15.

    I liked the look of hat-peg for the Derby clue straight away but took a while to spot that find = get.

    Not as easy for me as Wednesday’s puzzle but I’d say easier than the norm, completed in 17:55

    From Milan to Yucatan every woman’s every man…

    None of today’s answers is in the Uxbridge today but as it’s Friday here are a couple that caught my eye:
    Bloater – Japanese Straw Hat
    Circumflex – to cut the end off a piece of wire

    1. 
       Weevil – a small anvil
       Strangler – a friend you haven’t killed yet
       1. Cartoon – The Top Gear theme
          Latte – French tea
          1. Yucatan – exclamation on seeing Robert Kilroy
             Ready-made – a willing girl
             1. There’s a challenge on Derek Harrison’s crossword centre for coming up with definitions for obscure words. One of mine is in the final.

                Abu simbel: a means by which deaf people can express their displeasure

                1. Like Yucatan!

                   Bilbo – a vibrator with a hare lip

                   Glyph – Mel Smith’s Japanese friend

                   Tutor – what it takes to tango

                   1. Tutor – Egyptian gold
                      Upright – a Chinese lantern directed toward the ceiling

                      I thought you said there weren’t any today! These must be in the Uxbridge 1st Supplement. And I love Cartoon and Latte.

                   2. Owlet – A variety of Starlet (cf 4D) who will do anything to become famous. Yes, even THAT.
11. Started last night, finished this morning. ABU SIMBEL (never heard of it, guessed from wordplay) was the last to go in. Left hand side considerably easier than right, I think before I fell asleep I had the whole of the left side done.

    Nothing really leapt out at me, but 9d raised a half-smile.

12. Much easier than yesterday’s steamroller, took about 25 minutes, and I agree left side was far easier than the right. The long anagram at 6D is my suggestion for today’s best clue. Have a great weekend all. Regards.
13. As the idiot who posted this comment, I realised my error as soon as I had pressed the button. I thank the people who corrected me and I apologise for wasting the time of everyone who read my inane query.
    1. Not at all. I, for one, enjoyed reading the correspondence that followed. Hope you will stick around.

       Btw, one can delete a message just posted until such time as it has a reply tagged on to it.

       1. Not if you’re an anonymous commenter (as you could delete any other anon comments..). One reason for getting a (free) LiveJournal account.
          1. Good point, PB, it’s long time since I was anon.
             1. Of course, if you’re ‘Anon’, those “What have I just done? moments aren’t half so embarrassing.
14. I wonder what that emoticon would look like?

    No need for it here though – a very entertaining offering and the opportunity to divine that 100 Fens (probably) = 1 Yuan despite never having set foot in China.

    I do remember watching a TV documentary on the moving of the Abu Simbel Temple to avoid its inundation by Lake Nasser when the Aswan Dam was built. That must have been way back in the late 1960s when I were a lad. It must have been on the BBC.

    There are 5 “easies” omitted from the blog:

    23a (Rescue)’s ruined with (lab)* having potential to be locked (9)
    SECURABLE

    25a Worker without cunning is against government (9)
    AN ARCH IS T

    27a What boys sing is in three parts (6)
    TREBLE

    4d Informers turning up hindered young celebrity (7)
    STAR LET. Those dirty rats!

    8d Girl learner wanting work to go quickly (6)
    GAL L OP(us)

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