Times 24399 – so how’s your art, literature and geography?

35 comments on “Times 24399 – so how’s your art, literature and geography?”

1. I went through this quickly, in less than 15 minutes. I agree with Anon on 4D, which I found clever. I liked this a lot, and was disappointed to finish quickly as I was enjoying myself. The only hold up was my last entry, the long ARGENTIFEROUS, never heard of it, and needed all the checking letters to hazard a guess. Those who want more science in here (Jimbo) may not have bargained for obscure geology. Don’t know who Edmond de Goncourt is, like George, but that didn’t really hinder anything. I’m continuously surprised about how much Americana – US state nicknames – finds its way into these puzzles. A quick but enjoyable romp. COD nods to SRI LANKA, REMAIN and PIPED, great surfaces. Regards all.
2. Isn’t it OUTWIT HIT, and the definition simply “Tell me”?
3. Is there a new setter in town? I’ve whizzed through the last two puzzles, and whizzing is not my forte. And I had brought this to today’s faculty meeting in the hope it would last me long enough.
   ‘argentiferous’ was easy — I cheated, going to my electronic dictionary to see what could complete argenti_e_o_s
   1. I don’t think there’s a new setter, just one of those sequences of easier puzzles we sometimes get. For me, new Times setters are just as likely to be suggested by a slow puzzle as a quick one – they’re likely to write really original clues which I can’t crack from their resemblance to previous material.

      Edited at 2009-09-24 08:42 am (UTC)

4. After getting the 2 top across clues instantly I thought this was going to be as straightforward as yesterday but had a real struggle to finish and aids needed to get there. PB advises to do synonym type puzzles and I am beginning to realise how true this is. Having got ARGENTIFEROUS without even realising it was an anagram it was only when I sussed CAPON that I was able to think of RANK for row/foul. Embarrassing especially in light of George’s suspicion that this will result in very quick times.
5. 40 minutes. I might not have been taken so long if I had written APT at 2dn to get me started in the NW corner. It was the first clue I read and I thought of the correct answer immediately but couldn’t see why so I skipped past it and went to its opposite number in the SE corner EON at 26dn. From then on I was working upwards through the grid which is not the best thing to do. Another hindrance was picking the sound-alike instead of the solution at 19ac and as a result taking far too long to solve 13dn.

   I have very little knowledge of geology but I didn’t find 11ac too difficult as having selected the correct anagrist and with a couple of checking letters in place I soon spotted FEROUS as the ending which I have met before relating to this sort of thing. And all but one of the remaining letters made ARGENT which I know can mean silver so ARGENTIFEROUS seemed a pretty good bet.

   George is right that DUN with the meaning required here came up recently but I had forgotten it.

6. 8:03 here – good start with 1A confirmed by 2 and 3, and 4A very easy. Chambertin recognised from previous puzzles – it’s a famous wine but also an old xwd favourite for reasons evident in today’s clue. Also managed to remember execration fairly quickly, and New Jersey’s rather optimistic nickname. Minor trouble in the SE corner where early checkers suggested Philomela as a possible woman for 25A (as she’s something in Greek myth I feel justified in thinking her a possible Botticelli subject), and the first 5-letter Mitford I could think of was Unity. Neither felt convincing enough to write in though.

   The hardest clues for me turned out to be simple structures well-hidden, like 20.

   Agree with the first two commenters on 4D.

7. ….so 42 minutes for me. I was very dense on ‘chambertin’, ‘commandeer’, and ‘skedaddle’, but what really got me in the end was the ‘anchored’/’argentiferous’ crossing. Naturally, I don’t think this was that easy a puzzle, although it was probably not as hard as it seemed.

   I don’t know how familiar UK solvers will be with the soubriquets of US states, but ‘THE GARDEN STATE’ has been written across the bottom of every NJ license plate for the past 60 years or more, so it is certainly familiar around here.

   1. Good point about the license plates – any Brit who has visited New York and kept his eyes open will have seen the name that way. I wonder if we’ll ever get:

      What’s seen on every Idahoan’s plate? (6,8)

      1. And the answer is…
         1. FAMOUS POTATOES
8. Quite fast, this, only a one-cup crossword.

   Apropos Garden State; with 50 states, each with its own abbreviation, nickname, flower, animal, bird and god knows what else, this is a slippery slope we have here. At least Garden State is a well known one, though rather a mystery given the (very few) bits of NJ I have actually seen 🙂
   Posted from the Garden of England, also becoming steadily less accurate..

   1. Well, in the late 19th and early 20th century, all the vegetable farms that supplied NYC were right there across the water. They have been steadily retreating south over the years, but they still grow good peaches, tomatoes, and blueberries in southern NJ.
9. Much more fun for the brain than yesterday, first in 4a, last in 6d, filled in mostly from bottom up, 17m. Most enjoyed 21a and 27a.
10. 
    16m here so under the PBx2 target. As more of a humanities than a science type, I liked this a lot. But hey … you stuff up some times and I did to start with. Saw the juicy anagrams on offer at 9ac, 11ac and 12d and started to tuck in, but managed to find GARNETIFEROUS (is that a word?) for the second of them — which held me up a bit until the crossings ruled it out.
    Wonder if we’ll ever get Victoria as the Garden State? Doubt it.
    COD to 3dn because, depending on one’s views, Sterne is hard going and, for those who find him so, there’s an &lit-ish quality for added value.
    1. Yes, there is such a word as “garnetiferous” and it fits the clue!!
       1. Phew! I thought I might be having a conniption. The rarefied atmosphere of Minjup on a 4ºC morning can do strange things to the unscientific brain.
11. I wonder if anyone fell into the same trap as me and put in GREENE for 3D (with green being hard in unripened fruit). I was quite pleased with having figured out the green-hard connection that I did not countenance it being wrong – that lead to five minutes or so trying to work out why CLANG might be excellence!!

    Other than than a middle of the range, no nightmares type of puzzle.

    1. I didn’t quite fall into that trap, but GREENE was the first possibility I considered.

       Tom B.

12. 20 mins, I got quite stuck in the NW corner. No dissent from me on 4D OUT WITH IT as COD – rare unanimity – but I’m not sure about the parsing. Is it OUTWIT=how to be to clever for + HIT=success, with ‘Tell me’ as definition, or is the def. meant to be ‘Tell me how’ (less convincing, I think)?

    Tom B.

    1. Ceteris parabus, I’d always choose the one with the clearest def. as the intended reading. As “to be too clever” and “how to be too clever” are pretty much equal as choices for OUTWIT, ceteris parabus applies and “Tell me” wins.
       1. ceteris paribus?
          1. Whoops – glad I never had that one in a competition puzzle, as I’ve had it wrong in my head for decades.
13. 19:19 .. I did pencil in ‘Greene’ for 3d, which took a little sorting out. Enjoyed OUT WITH IT and, like Barbara, the evocative MOONSHINE – a little bit of crossword poetry.

    My introduction to the ‘Garden State’ was a shoot-out in the airport parking lot (I wasn’t involved, I hasten to add. Having carelessly forgotten to pack any heat, I had to stay inside the terminal with all the other schmucks. Next time I’m taking the Magnum).

14. My favorite clue: It’s more than a DD, it’s a triple!
    1. light of the moon
    2. whiskey produced illicitly in home-made stills, usually at night on one’s premises.
    3. nonsense
    Barbara
    1. Good call on the meanings used, though you might count “Light in the still of the night?” as a doubly-punning cryptic def, with “Nonsense!” supplying a plain def.
15. We seem to be having an easy time of it this week. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. However, I did screw up by entering ATTACHED for 6 down (not sure why I thought being an attache is uninteresting – possibly I overlooked ‘un-‘ in my careless reading of the clue), so what should have taken 25 minutes stretched to 35 sorting this error out.
16. one small cheat at 4ac of all places, had become fixated with 4d as ‘get with it’, so was looking for a painting starting with god. did not see the anagram at 11ac until i had all the checking letters. very enjoyable for people at my level. cod – will join the consus of 4d.
17. 25 minute dawdle with no particular hold ups. Luckily knew GARDEN STATE but no idea who Edmond was or where Goncourt is (I wonder if the setter did or did he/she look it up when casting around for a clue?)- but had heard of Nancy Mitford. Humbly accepted the scientific crumb even if the anagrist can give rise to two acceptable answers!
    1. I didn’t recognise E de G, but did recognise the Prix Goncourt when reading about him. I look forward to the puzzle that uses identical clues for ARGENT/GARNETIFEROUS, after they’ve given us a few months to forget about them.
18. 19 minutes, held up for a while in the NW corner. I went all the way from admiral to cabin boy before commander finally occurred to me (they obviously aren’t showing enough James Bond fillums on the telly for that one to remain fresh in the memory) and thereafter the rest went in straight away.

    Ticks against moth-eaten, skeddadle, anchored, incendiary and apes, blotches against argentiferous (in workings doesn’t cut it as an anagrind for me) and Nancy (just, well, pah).

    George, re 21: “the use of POSSESSED here is pretty close between the two parts of the clue”, where did you make the split? I saw possessed as just “had” in the wordplay. Mind you, I always seem to be wrong about this stuff so doubtless Peter will be along shortly to cuff me lightly round the ear.

    1. you’re right – I missed “had” as part of the wordplay. Could be from doing it online, I couldn’t see the clues when I was writing the blog. Off to the office supply store!
    2. Just along shortly this time. But not shortly enough to beat George! You’ve got it dead right – “to be” is a wordplay/def link and “cool, calm and collected” is the def. This must be the right split because if you treat “had” as an indicator of “went next to” for the charade, the indicator for “possessed” as a charade element has to include “to be”, and although “cool” can match “possessed”, it cannot match “to be possessed”.

       Edited at 2009-09-24 01:05 pm (UTC)

19. I got off to a flying start but, in my haste to do the unthinkable and beat PB three times in a row, I threw CAPE into 23d which caused a massive holdup in the bottom left corner. Lesson learnt? Probably not. Came in at a reasonable 10:42 in the end. ARGENTIFEROUS and ANCHORED were the last to fall. My COD nod goes to 21a

20. I’ve just picked this up for £12.50 at WHSmith. It’s half price at £17.50 and they’ve been giving out £5 off vouchers.

    It’s been recommended by some contributors, and it’s a lot of book for £12.50!

    Paul S.

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