Times 24680 – Hot Tip for Etna

53 comments on “Times 24680 – Hot Tip for Etna”

1. …I could not figure out the cryptics for ‘booby trap’, ‘redneck’, and ‘ailed’, which went in from the cleverly concealed literals.

   In a puzzle like this, it’s hard to get going. I opened up with ‘yuppie/bone china’ and ‘smut/oyster/Tasso’, but then was stuck for quite a while. If you can’t get crossing letters you’re in deep trouble, but gradually I wrestled first the SW and then the NW into place. Getting ‘Scarborough Fair’ should have been a major breakthrough, but it took a while even then. There were many clues that should not have been that difficult, like ‘unopened’, ‘boxers’, and ‘sprayer’, that I just could not see for a long time, even though I suspected how the clue worked.

   Mega kudos to the setter.

2. Agreed, a great puzzle. Scarborough Fair in right away: not a lot of songs staring with “Scar…”. And, while made famous by S&G, it’s by no means their own. The trad song was played to a young P. Simon by Martin Carthy. S&G’s “Canticle” addition is from Simon’s other song: “Side of a Hill”.
   34 minutes of solid parsing!
   Minor correction: Uncle Yap, you need OWE (not OWED) in 24dn.
   Underwear, soft porn … do I detect the hand of someone we know?
3. ‘ice’ as in ice the cake, or top it off.
4. 60 minutes of fun on this one, with one wrong (‘covers’, in desperation, for BOXERS). 24 dn no problem as I’ve just read, in translation, Orlando Furioso by Ariosto, Tasso’s predecessor in the Italian romantic epic tradition. Italian speakers (and teachers) will be having kittens about the central ‘o’ sound of that language being turned into a diphthong.

   With the autumn internationals just a week or so away, I had ‘all black’ for a while at 15, having failed to lift and separate ’20 billion’, and it took me a long time to get SPRAYER. Thanks to Yap Suk for the lowdown on 27ac and 3 and 8dn: ‘neck’ in the tourist sense was new to me. COD to PAVAROTTI.

   Note to blogger: 24dn, ‘are indebted to’ = OWE.

5. had me going this one. just over the hour. didnt see the rationale for camera shy until i came here
   I must say that this was a tricky offering!
   Quite liked Smut!
6. Found this exceptionally hard but most enjoyable. 64 mins so longest by far for ages. Stupidly put in hedge for 6 Down which caused a hold-up with repartee of course. But maybe some kind soul can see why I thought it had to be the answer for h.d.. as a hedge is renewed by clipping, which is a laborious task…neverteless ‘put an end to’ left me perplexed…
   1. I had HEDGE in mind for 6dn as soon as I had the H starter. Then thinking the 3rd letter might be D put DRONE in my mind for 10ac. But I couldn’t quite justify either of these so I’m glad I resisted the temptation to write them in so it all came right in the end.
7. Retired with a DNF after an hour and a half’s slog with five still to go in the NW corner. Feel slightly better after reading the comments here, but not much.
8. Working with a major handicap this morning (I won’t bore you with the details) so no timing to offer. I got through this eventually and solved it correctly without aids for the first time since last Friday so that’s a plus.

   A lively and interesting puzzle which I thought was going to ba a pangram but it’s a Q and a Z short.

9. Found this difficult. re 8dn, I got ‘neck’ from the def of ‘down’ as drink. Chambers gives ‘Neck’ = to drink.
   1. To aloo2: agreed about’neck’.
10. Brilliant crossword, and hard work for me.. must have been close to 40mins in all. I agree with Uncle Yap’s fine blog that the cryptic defs and the surface readings were top class. I disagree with the parsing of 8dn as I am pretty sure down = neck as in to down a drink is what is meant.
    COD to Pavarotti, “Air ace” 🙂
11. Excellent puzzle. Floored by Boxers, ridiculously, after negotiating my way to the rest in about 35 minutes – then ten more on the undiscovered underwear. Didn’t know Scarborough Fair and couldn’t get Widdicombe out of my mind – the fair not the best Prime Minister we never had and dancer. Had to work it out as with so much else, but a truly inventive setter made it a treat.
12. SCARBOROUGH FAIR straight in and WHISTLE-STOP TOUR shortly thereafter so thought this would be a breeze, but no such luck. Thought some of the clues a bit laboured so I was not as impressed as the rest of you (as per yesterday). I guess my taste will be refined in time.
    Entered without full understanding: NO DICE, REPARTEE, CAMERA-SHY. I am of the NECK being to swallow school.
    COD to the ace of airs.
13. 45 minutes. This puzzle certainly blew the cobwebs away. Didn’t get BOXERS, I’m sorry to say: I put in “covers” in the hope that they were some ancient form of underwear like drawers or combinations, with “coves” being the “hems” where a wall meets a ceiling. (Stretching it, really, isn’t it?) This ignorance of modern underpants must say something about my age: I was brought up at a time when the better-off wore Y-fronts and the rest of us those loose, itchy, knee-length, woollen nether-garments from the Army & Navy Stores. So naturally I had no trouble with VALENTINO, CORDUROY and SMUT; what a wonderful granny-word that last one is!
14. Not in the best of moods this morning, so did this one in untimed bits. Did like a lot of the clues once I got started, with the SE corner, from JET-BLACK downwards, a cluster of little d’oh creating gems.
15. DNF. Managed only 5 of the 30 in half an hour (ABOUT FACE, DROID, HACKSAW, OYSTER & DIVORCEE) and with few checking letters wouldn’t have finished even with aids. All those indirect defs made it just too hard for me.

    Very well solved and blogged Uncle Yap. I’ll be in admiration of the setter later today but my pride is too hurt right now!

16. Inventive, yes, hard, definitely, but I was never on the wavelengh and think it is OTT is places.

    Jet = sprayer seems questionable. And is it not another rogue possessive in 20dn?

    1. It’s not a possessive. It’s an abbreviation of “is”.
17. Failed in the NE having thrown DRONE in with no real thought. Missed BOXERS and TASSO as well. Very good and hard challenge for me, as others have stated getting going was a trial – SW then NW gave up first.
18. Very challenging but outstanding puzzle, completed with great satisfaction (and relief) in 40 minutes.
    I couldn’t for the life of me see where ICE in 11ac or EE in 12ac came from, and although TASS rang a vague bell I wasn’t sure why, so thanks for the blog.
    I’m with the neck = down crowd.
    Lots of great clues but I thought CAMERA SHY particularly brilliant.
19. Not so much a DNF today, as an almost DNS! But one of the very few I did get was BOXERS, so am surprised that that one stumped some others. Let’s hope tomorrow’s is as straightforward as last Friday’s…
20. 26:01 minutes – really enjoyed this one. 14 minutes until the scrap with 19 ac. Wrong age and gender for that one!
21. Could not NECK equally be a synonym of DOWN in the sense that one can, in slang terms, down a pint or neck a pint
    1. Sorry, missed earlier comment to same effect
22. 35 minutes and one wrong, found this really hard work. Stumbled over BOXERS. Will seek respite in the Super Fiendish Suduko…

    Oli

23. 25:02 .. a veritable extravaganza of wordplay and cunning. There were a fair few where my analysis got as far as “and something like that”, so thanks for the blog, yfyap.

    Last in BOXERS.

    Slightly confused about CAMERA SHY even after ‘seeing’ the wordplay while solving. Is the ‘came’ supposed to be tagged onto the ‘Be’, or does ‘developed’ somehow equal ‘came’?

    1. It’s supposed to be tagged on:
       “Be this” = “became rashy”
       1. Thanks, keriothe. One of those where the more I looked at it the less I saw.
          1. Thanks to keriothe from me also for his/her full explanation of 27ac. In my case, this was a case of the setter casting his pearls of cleverness before unappreciative swine. The “became rashy” reading completely passed me by, and I got to the solution by the prosaic route of assuming that camera shy is what you might be if you had a skin disorder. How boring can you get!

             As all have said, wonderfully ingenious puzzle.

             1. Well you’re right – on my reading the whole clue IS the definition.
                I’m not sure if this makes it an &lit (I’m never quite sure what they are) but it certainly makes it a brilliant clue.
                1. It is an &lit – The whole clue being the def is half of the requirement, and the whole clue being readable as the wordplay (BE+CAMERASHY = BECAME RASHY) is the other half.
24. Completed in three sittings. Superb crossword. Hats off to the setter.
25. 7:28 here. BOXERS also last in.

    My favourite bit of cluing was 12A, with “been uncovered” leading to EE.

26. Magnificent stuff this – no acrosses solved on first look until 4D, followed by three or four other downs in the bottom half. AILED and REDNECK entered without full wordplay understanding, and clock stopped at 19:18.
    1. Add 11 and 28 across to the EWFWU list.
       1. …
          1. entered without full wordplay understanding
27. A very good, but very difficult puzzle that’s taken me an age and forever to finish! I didn’t help the cause by over-hastily scribbling in DIVORCED for 17d, until the checking letters for 28ac finally led me to revisit the clue!

    My last few were in the NE corner, where it took an embarrassingly long time to spot the anagram in 5d and open up the other clues.

    My only gripe concerns 6d and 24d, which I thought were rather over-obscure.

    Too many clues with ticks to pick a COD.

28. Agreed, an excellent work out with lots of fine clues. I particularly liked CORDUROY at 21A. About 30 minutes to solve.
29. Warning, master at work (yes McText, I think it’s Him).

    Absolutely terrific stuff. 28:20 although it felt longer. I had drone briefly but redneck sorted that out.

    I haven’t seen this much “lift and separate” since I last thumbed the underwear pages in my Mum’s catalogue in 1976.

    COD – all of them (except Hydra and Tasso).

    1. Is Him Anax?
       1. Peter’s rules include:
          “… attempts to identify the setter of a Times daily or jumbo puzzle – whether I agree with ‘setter anonymity’ or not, it’s not our role to change it in this way”. See “About This Blog”, top of the page. Hence the due caution.
30. I was convinced it was ‘cherry-red’ for 27 A! Apart from that, I might even have finished within the hour. ‘Camera-shy’ is definitely better, COD in fact.
    Thanks to Mr Yap for his excellent blog.
31. What a brilliant puzzle – could be even better than the ones from the Championship final.It’s all been said. 11,12,13,15,27 entered on faith. HYDRA typical of the brilliant clueing. 24.56 according to the online time and wouldn’t have been much quicker with a pen and paper.
    Almost seems a shame for so many goodies to be in one puzzle. It was like being a child on Christmas morning again. Thanks to the setter!
32. Agreed this was a lot of fun, didn’t see the wordplay for NO DICE, or AILED. Some surfaces like 15 across are jaw-dropping! Had to grit my teeth entering 14 though. Shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but in his last few years he made a habit of burning small opera companies by accepting huge advances and canceling last minute (or showing up, getting some accolades and suddenly being unable to perform).
33. Agreed, a fantastic puzzle, that, like others have said, was very hard to start. I ended up cracking the SW and proceeded counterclockwise around to the NW, with the last entry being AILED. Took maybe 50 minutes or so, though. Lots of great stuff, but COD to HYDRA. Regards to all.
    1. As an etymological note, I see Uncle Yap describes REDNECK as deriving from the southwestern US, and a quick check at Dictionary.com shows a citation from Collins saying precisely that. I don’t think that’s correct, though. All the other citations say ‘southern US’ or similar, which usually means the area of the once-Confederate states here in the US, and that is also my understanding of where the REDNECK originated.
       1. You mean Jeff Foxworthy didn’t invent it?
34. Can I claim the wooden spoon for this one? 100% completed in 4 hours 39 minutes. If at first…
35. Wonderful puzzle, completed in 60 minutes. Must be a contender for “Memories”!

    No COD: possibly all of them!

    1. Added to the “Good Puzzles” category.
36. Agreed very nice crossword which was too much for me as I had SORES instead of SITES (had never heard of the SIS or even the SOS), and my knowledge of Cinderella is shaky.

    But the reason I’m posting is that infuriating ad. I’m resigned now to sitting through it because if I click on the cross top right it simply freezes and I don’t get rid of it as someone said recently.

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