Times 24704 – As Fluid As Whisky

36 comments on “Times 24704 – As Fluid As Whisky”

1. ….although I suspect some may find it as difficult as the previous three. You need to know a little bit about primates, the RAF, and Japanese printmaking, among other topics. I was beating my brain for American astronomers, but couldn’t think of any, so finally put in the answer from the literal. My last in was ‘scabious’ – I was thinking that a scab will come out to work, and then realized they mean come out on strike.

   This will be our only chance to make ‘cod’ the COD – what do you say?

2. Yay, I completed one! 12 minutes. Hale is best known as one half of a comet (Hale-Bopp). Needed the wordplay to get 2 down, that’s not a word I remember seeing before, NEPENTHE and NILSSON. Back to the Test…
   1. … Siddle’s hat-trick just on now.
3. The clues seemed to be on the same level of difficulty for a change, with any obscurities (UTAMARO, POTTO etc) being nicely balanced by easier cryptics. For an unusual animal (to me at least) POTTO crops up quite a lot – it must be good clue fodder for some reason.

   Very polished stuff and easy by recent standards – 27 minutes, about as fast as I go on a very good day.

4. 50 minutes, a correct completion and a sigh of relief. I thought Potto must be an obscure archbishop, mind. Just as well they don’t check your “working”, only your answer.
5. The nice thing about this was that all the obscurities could be worked out from the wordplay – unlike two days ago, for example. COD not to COD (sorry vinyl) but to OPUS DEI, a neat anagram that got me out of a sticky situation in the NW corner. 53 enjoyable minutes.
6. 22 minutes. Intrigued by the complexities of 2dn. (Maybe it’s my week to be 2-downed?) So, after finding the darned reverse inclusive, I had to look up this “floating world” biz. Turns out it’s from the Japanese, Ukiyo-e: painting showing the everyday world. Why ‘floating’ then? Anyone?
   Is it my lousy memory, or have we had NOT UP TO SCRATCH and NEPENTHE in recent times?
   1. This is lifted straight from Wikipedia: “Usually the word ukiyo is literally translated as “floating world” in English, referring to a conception of an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki, courtesans, geisha) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world; “pictures of the floating world”, i.e. ukiyo-e, are considered a genre unto themselves.”
      1. Thanks for that Rich.
      2. So that would make today’s youtube link something from Goethe: Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis or as Huxley would have it Alles Vergängliche ist nicht ein Gleichnis, except that I see below that Peter prefers some Wagner from the beautiful Birgit. I don’t know who the very intense young man in the clip is, but he seems to enjoy the music.
7. Yes, I liked 1. ac. too: simple and surprising. Slowish start then drifted along nicely. 19 minutes.
8. 50 minutes with one error at 20dn where I had ‘dowser’ for BOWSER (I know the difference but they are both associated with water and I confused them at the critical moment), and for the second consecutive day I was two-downed and failed to spot the answer even though I had looked for a contained word. I think that may have been before I had all the checkers so I should have looked again once they were all in place. Needless to say I had never heard of said artist. NEPENTHE and POTTO were also unfamiliar as was the spelling of BALTHASAR with an S.

   I like 18dn for its oblique reference to another Scandinavian soprano, Jenny Lind, the original Swedish Nightingale.

9. nice crossword, hard but not too hard. About 25 enjoyable minutes
   Uncle Yap, it is George Hale, not Alan..
10. Anyone as familiar as I am with the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro will have been familiar with the floating world reference, so why did it take me so long to see it despite OPUS DEI being my first in? (OPUS DEI nevertheless gets my COD for Oedipus complex). POTTO and NEPENTHE from wordplay but a finish at last.
11. 15 minutes for my first all-correct completion of the week. A great relief, particularly given the number of unknowns: UTAMARO, POTTO, NEPENTHE, SCABIOUS, NILSSON. As noted by richnorth they were all nicely gettable from wordplay. NEPENTHE in particular didn’t look like a real word to me so would have caused trouble if the wordplay had not been so straightforward.
    I was travelling yesterday so didn’t get an opportunity to comment but I’d like to make special mention of ANAGRAMS. It defeated me (for my third DNF in a row) but I don’t mind being defeated by such breathtaking brilliance.
12. Slowish but steady solve. 45 enjoyable minutes. Nice to see Birgit Nilsson getting a mention. Quite a musical puzzle today. I was going to say it makes a change from cricket – but I notice the obligatory cricket clues are there as well.
13. Thanks to tips I have picked up here in recent months I managed to complete this in something under an hour; notably Peter’s hint a little while ago to look for concealed words when otherwise stuck let me crack 2dn (otherwise completely unknown to me). I would have spelt ‘Balthasar’ with a ‘z’ if the wordplay had not forced me to use an ‘s’. So, thank’s all and that includes yfyap for a great blog which showed the limits to my grasp of some of the wordplay (notably 26ac which I construed simply as ‘sand’ (where children may play with spades) and ‘pit’ (where men may work with picks).
14. That was me. Still not used to this!
15. A pleasant 15 minutes, and like others, I cant resist the temptation to give CoD to COD, even if other clues were better.
16. 11:30 today, watching the Test Match and staggered by Strauss’s dismissal. Anyone who uses the A1 in the north will be familiar with Prestons of Potto, Yorkshire’s version of Eddie Stobart or Norbert Dentressangle – worth lots of points in travel games!
17. I was quite pleased with 6:53 until I just saw Magoo’s time, well under 5 minutes without the “musical mafia” advantage I enjoyed for 3 answers.

    Birgit Nilsson certainly deserves a mention for her combination of power and accuracy. Here’s one of her crowning moments, in two parts from a BBC documentary.

    1. Ah, Peter. Would have put good money on you providing this link this morning. Went to my Solti Ring set to check the spelling of Nilsson and then proceeded to play the Immolation scene. If there is anything more electrifying on record I would like to know what it is. Such hair as I have left on my head is still standing on end.
       1. For some reason, the first part of the Solti Ring I listened to was Siegfried, so the final “lachender Tod!” was amost certainly my first unforgettable Nilsson moment. But apart from several Brunnhilde possibilities, you could have had Salome (or Elektra if I liked the music a bit more), Isolde, Turandot, or the Fidelio clips I just found on Youtube. The difference was a bit of context from Humphrey Burton and the summoning of Loge, our last Wagner reference (for firelighting duties rather than trickery), in the second clip.
18. 27 minutes. Some amusing anagrams today: particularly liked Oedipus complex. Took a while to work out the correct spelling of NILSSON; always confuse Carl, Birgit and Harry. Never heard of Utamaro, and a quick Google search explains why. In the words of Alan Bennett: “That’s not art, lad, it’s smut!”
19. Far more straightforward today, despite the unfamiliar answers to 2 and 20. 35 minutes, with BRAINLESS (appropriately) taking a few minutes to get at the end.

    1 across was a delicious clue.

20. A wonderfully clever puzzle. I endorse dyste’s verdict on 1ac, in which the use of “complex” as the anagram indicator is beautifully disguised in the brilliant surface reading. UTAMARO and TROOP were both exceptionally well-disguised reverse hidden word clues, and I liked the clever way “ought” was used in in 7dn (THOUGHT). The specialist general knowledge required – NEPENTHE, UTAMARO and NILSSON (at least for non-opera buffs) – was fair because eminently get-at-able via the wordplay. Thinks setter.
21. Yes, I agree, much more straightforward than others this week. Finished all but BOWSER, not a word I’d heard of, and somehow couldn’t think of BOWER for the sheltered spot. As others have said, easy to work out other unknowns from wordplay, and there were several of them, so feel I’ve learnt quite a bit today.

    ps I always enjoy the diverse links some of you guys include… Monty Python yesterday, opera today… Thanks!

22. 1 left after an hour. Didn’t know BOWER or BOWSER so could have stared at it for another hour without joy. Lots of unknowns – CONCERTO GROSSO, UTAMARO, POTTO, NEPENTHE, SCABIOUS, NILSSON and the aforementioned BOWER/BOWSER, but all the others were established from the wordplay.

    COD to OPUS DEI, but several other good anagrams, and I liked SANDPIT too.

23. 13 minutes done online but I found I had one marked wrong (although I ‘solved’ all correctly), maybe a typo? Thought this was not too bad until I saw Mark’s time.2,8,17,18 and 20 all unknown and I ,too, thought POTTO must have been a bishop!!
    Learnt quite a bit today and thought it was a good puzzle
24. The easiest so far for me this week, completing all but 20d in 50 minutes, with another 10 minutes on that with a trip to the thesaurus to confirm half dredged up memories of the word.

    Ticks by 23ac, 2d and 16d, with COD to the very well hidden word, which I only got when I was stuck and figured – I wonder if there’s a hidden word amongst the remaining clues?

25. 35 minutes and a relief to finish after yesterday’s brainteaser. Didn’t understand how 7 worked or what NEPENTHE was, so thanks Uncle Yap. And I almost had apoplexy thinking “left bone” was B until I saw the correct construction. COD has to go to OPUS DEI. Extraordinary.

    And special mention to the England boys for their extraordinarily generous birthday present for Peter Siddle.

26. 27 min today, a decent workout without being horrendous and as others have said, with the possibly unknown words very fairly clued. I particularly liked 6d, although perhaps it’s an old chestnut?
27. Much the same as others. A straightforward 20 minute puzzle with no surprises. I didn’t know NEPENTHE and couldn’t spell UTAMARO so just as well it was hidden! A pleasant solve.
28. Dear Uncle Yap,
    I know, I am a day or so late and nobody is going to read down this far after solving the puzzle but I have to point out that the men in Matthew visiting the supposed site of Jesus’ birth were neither numbered three nor wise. They are Magi followers of Zoroaster and astronomers. There is nothing in the book about how many came or if any of them were female. Sorry to quibble.
29. Held up for a while before changing absinthe to nepenthe. So many fishy clues in this one! Potto and utamaro never seen before, but happy to have them right. Great blog, thanks Uncle Yap. Great puzzle, thank-you setter.
30. Oh, and what a coincidence for Peter Siddle to be again taking wickets some month since other comments on this blog.

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