Times 24775 – Smooth As Glenmorangie

69 comments on “Times 24775 – Smooth As Glenmorangie”

1. Uncle Yap: at 12ac, you might want to consider THIN (with little substance) with the T (time) moved on to the end.
   Also: you need an S in TORMentS.

   On edit: thanks, I see you’ve now included the S in the explanation for 22ac.

   Edited at 2011-02-17 03:09 am (UTC)

   1. ROSE – one of an eight on the Isis, say.
2. The setter was Arsenal to my Barcelona today, as I Messied up two in the NW, sloppily putting in ‘artfully’ and then being stuck with a four-letter word of the form ‘-i-u’ and sticking ‘lieu’ in just to complete the grid. COD to IDLE, now that I get the parsing as well as the solution. Thanks, Yap Suk.
3. I also had ROWA, which might just be worth an appeal to the judiciary, although I’m sure that ROWS was the intended answer.

   All done in 30 minutes apart from 6dn, which took me another 20 minutes to fathom. I’m not entirely convinced by the clue for 18dn, although if THOU is half a thousand or 500, I suppose that THOUS is more than 500.

4. Confusing myself. What I meant was ROWS, of course (thanks richnorth), otherwise you end up with the scary sounding ‘chemical sarfare’, which is the type of mutant you’d get if ‘chemical warfare’ were to be subjected to itself.
5. About 20 minutes for me, another of this week’s elegant but not mind-boggling offerings. Thanks for the thorough blog as always, Uncle Yap. I ended with ROWS, but I don’t know much about Isis. I thought it was a reference to the rows in this 15×15 grid. And I reached HINT in the manner mctext describes above. The only one I hadn’t fully understood was the RU reversed after ‘HO’, so thanks for the UY, and for explaining what in the world a MOTHERING SUNDAY might be. Regards to all, including the setters.
   1. … is the 4th Sunday in Lent, when workers were given time off for family visits. Some of us still observe it, in preference to that vulgar modern secular American institution of Mothers Day.
6. Add me to the ROWA mob. It was obviously the name of Ms Natkinson. With that mistake (?): 24 minutes.
   And I’m fairly sure my parsing of 12ac (see above) is correct. This was the only thing I had to actually jot on the paper today. And there’s no way in the world that anyone (barred puzzle freaks notwithstanding) would know what a hin might be.
   The cd at 10ac I found particularly weak.
   Giving my COD to 23dn only because it’s the first time my dearly-departed grandmother’s name has been in the Times for quite a while. Now I’m waiting for her middle name: Lucy.
7. It’s a comfort to find that I’m in good company in having gone with ROWA, and greater comfort to learn that it is indeed a name. Of course, if it were Rowa, why would it ‘be said’? Anyway, stewing over this one cost me 2-3 minutes of the 22 it took me. All around, easy and pleasant, and like yesterday’s, confidence-boosting.
   1. Sounds like “rower”.
      1. I agree re the HIN, and I also agree that ‘ROWA’ sounds like ‘rower’, in LT crosswordese. But ROWA as a girl’s name must be nearly as obscure as the HIN. And I never would refer to a member of a crew team as a ‘row’; a rower, yes, an oar, yes, but ‘row’ to me is what they do, not a noun in any crew/sculling sense I’ve heard. Hence I made up my own, perhaps far-fetched explanation/wordplay. If it is ROWA, I’ll buy all members of the ROWA mob a beer if ever we meet. Regards, to you, mct, and everyone else.
         1. All depends on the ‘is’ in the clue. If it’s a link word (=), then the second def is ‘one of the eight’ (ROWER), hence ROWA. But if ‘is’ is included in the second def, ‘IS one of the eight’, we get ROWS. Either is strictly correct. What kinds of beer do you have chez toi, Kev?
            1. The lag in reply due to sleep and drive time. Elegantly done, either way. You deserve a beer for that alone. Any kind you wish.
      2. Well, that’s in fact why I wrongly entered it as ROWA. I just had trouble after the fact parsing that answer. If it’s ‘girl, it’s said’, that’s ‘rower’ (you wouldn’t say ‘Rowa’ is pronounced ‘rowa’); and ‘one of eight’ is also ‘rower’, not ‘rowa’. If it’s ‘it’s said is one of eight’, that’s ‘Rose’. Maybe if the clue had been, ‘Girl said to be one of eight’? So I don’t see how one could make a case for Rowa. Then again, there’s a lot I don’t see.
         1. I believe that the definition is “is one of eight” (yes, all of that) and defines ROWS (a person who rows being one of the eight in the crew), and it sounds like ROSE the girl, it’s said.
8. Phew! Changed ROWA to ROWS while heading for this site.
   Of the THIN school and guess that setter sees Rose as a crew member.
   One and a half cups of tea for this.
   1. But the key question is do you stick your little finger out when you’re drinking it.
9. I couldn’t find a hidden answer to omit this time; so had to choose one of the four-lettered words and, on reflection, chose the right one to omit since homophone clues always create the most controversies and I was actually divided between the two answers. However, after reading the comments, I throw in my lot to

   Rose, Rose I love you with an aching heart.
   What is your future, now we have to part?
   Standing on the jetty as the steamer moves away,
   Flower of Malaya, I cannot stay.

   1. And as to HINT?
   2. Re: “Rose Rose I love you…”

      Which came first, that or the (I think) Chinese song with a title sounding like “May kway o may kway” with the same tune?

      Also, I have a memory of another song to the same tune “We are three sisters…”.
      This latter one contained a line similar to “one a something, one a somethingelse, one an engineer”.
      I am unable to locate the “three sisters” song anywhere via Google. I’m beginning to think it was a Wogan thing which didn’t have the same success as his “Floral Dance”.

10. 20 mins dead! I hadn’t even left the house on a commuting day, so this must count as my best time in several months.

    On THIN mctext is undoubtedly correct. The other interpretation takes no account of the last three words of the clue.

    And I don’t think one can ignore ‘is’ at 19ac either. I’d be interested to know if anyone submitting on-line has got away with ROWA as the correct answer. I somehow doubt it.

    1. Agreed. ROWS is right. But there must be leeway here for the other?
11. 11:10. I lost a couple of minutes thanks to putting in OMEGA at 4D, which still seems to me a perfectly good answer to the clue. Certainly more plausible than ROWA at 19A.
12. Like Jack, I finished this before leaving the house, so that constitutes for me a ‘dead quick time’! Nothing too complicated, thought I’d understood all defs/wordplay until, of course, I came here, and realised that I’d got ROWA. I agree that ROWS is a better answer.
13. About 20 minutes (very fast for me). Tempted by ROWA (mother’s name was Rowena) but opted for ROWS. With mctext on THIN. Knew of ‘formaldehyde’; glad to find that ALDEHYDE (which fitted wordplay) existed!
    1. Yes, ALDEHYDE was an informed guess for me too on the same basis.
14. Fast time for me too, c12mins. Thought of rowa but discarded in favour of rose. Hint is thin with the T “moved on”

    Some nice clues, particularly 2dn but also 16dn. And oooh, Ron, here’s Eth again!

15. Add me to the list for ROWA. I had 17ac as a simple double def. as well.

    I also got band = SASH from the late 90s music act (happened to coincide with my late teens), it was only when I got here that it dawned on me that there could be another way around that one. I had thought when putting it in that the reference might be a little obscure for some solvers.

    Otherwise slightly disappointed to not score a PB on this one, I got caught up unnecessarily in the NE of what was otherwise an easy solve.

16. 21 minutes with a (definitely wrong) Rowa. mctext also must be correct re thin. Aldehyde held me up though the park should have made it simple enough. Several very easy clues here, sub-Times (e.g. 15)and a few of the awkward squad. COD in fact to Rows – possibly the only one with the Timesian sleight in it today.
17. 11 minutes today, so very easy. It could have been a sub-10 but the long down clues took me a bit too long.
    I think ROSE must be the answer the setter was thinking of, but only because ROWA is a little bit obscure (using my standard definition, i.e. something I haven’t heard of). Both answers parse perfectly well, with “is” either a linking word or part of the definition.
    1. On reflection I’m talking rubbish. ROWA doesn’t really work for the reasons explained by kevingregg above. “It’s said” has to apply to “girl” I think.
18. 17 minutes, thankful not to have even thought of ROWA: “is” in the clue made it a verb rather that a noun to look for anyway.
    ALDEHYDE I knew pretty well from a curiosity: the common sweetener aspartame tastes very bitter to me, so I looked it up and found that it’s converted to formaldehyde by the digestive system, which sounds alarming, but apparently isn’t (or is, depending on which alarmists you read). It doesn’t explain why I find it bitter, though.

    CoD to ARTHOUSE, for its “more than half a thousand” device, which I thought was nicely devious.

19. It’s obvious that the explanation of this clue is wrong. Why hasn’t the blogger edited it?
    1. My goodness!

       I suspect UY has been getting some well earned rest after blogging this puzzle so eloquently. I’m not sure curt comments such as yours have any place on this board. Let’s remember our manners shall we?

       1. Hear hear.
          Bloggers put a lot of effort into these things, for our great edification and enjoyment but no reward other than our thanks.
          This is not some kind of utility.
       2. Ooops, I could have sworn that this morning (I am 8 hours ahead of GMT) when I read McText, I immediately corrected 12A. By some quirk of the system, the original wrong explanation crept back and I was undone while I went about my other daily functions such as enjoying the last day of the Lunar New Year celebration aka Chap Goh Meh (fifteenth night). Sorry if 12A caused some people some discomfit .. the fault is all mine … sorry
20. Best time for a long time. 10m 28sec on line.

    But one mistake, so it doesn’t count. I dived in with dive instead of mine.

    I think Mine is as a double definition rather than an insertion. Your setter’s = mine, dirty place for working in = mine.

    1. That’s how I interpreted the ‘mine’ clue.
21. Nicely blogged UY. I’m another to have gone for ROWA, my last in. Twenty five minutes for the rest. Socrates seems the philosopher of the moment – and easier to clue than Kierkegaard, Nietzsche or Santayana!

    Pit pony earlier in the week and now MINE. Thought the clue to “chemical warfare” was super.

    The 80+ year old lady who lives across the road from me is called Mabel – a lovely name that’s fallen in popularity since the start of the 20th century.

    1. We have hordes in Hong Kong, where it’s common based on the sound of two female given names(‘may’ means beautiful) and invariably pronounced Mayboh. Also, a living repository of Carmens, Adas and Fannys.
22. Under three PBs, so fast for ua too. Enjoyed 15ac, which we hadn’t come across before. Fortunately we never thought of ROWA.
23. Mistyped the ETHOS/SWEATSHOP – Grrr!
    I had an unsatis-factory(!) MILL pencilled in having mistyped RECOLLECTS online. When I corrected the latter I failed to review the formed so was left with MILE. My own stupid fault but apart from that quite enjoyable. ROWA didnt occur to me – ROWS went straight in.

    Note to self: Review before hitting submit!

24. Exemplary.
25. I don’t normally time as such but now have four categories of puzzle.

    A – solved before end of morning commute
    B – broken back of it on commute, a few left to fill in during morning
    C – needs hard work over several spells throughout the day
    D – DNF!

    Have been finding recent puzzles all in the A/B category and this was definitely an A – although I also opted for ROWA. Definitely wrong but glad to see I’m not alone!

26. 13:04 but undone by Rowa. That’s buggered my averages up. I think the clue is ambiguous in the extreme so I’m not a happy bunny.

    I agree with AV1 on his interpretation of MINE. There’s absolutely nothing to tell you to put IN inside ME.

    1. I did agree with this at first but I don’t actually think it is ambiguous. “It’s said” in the clue has to apply either to “Girl” or to “is one of eight”. So the answer is either something that sounds like a girl’s name or something that sounds like “rows” (“is one of eight”). ROWA doesn’t sound like a girl’s name, it is a girl’s name. So it has to be ROSE.
       1. but surely “rowa” sounds like “rower”, which can be one of eight? btw i put in rows, on the grounds that it could be one of eight rows on a chess board, which on further reflection seems to be the least plausible explanation.

          ak

          1. It sounds like “rower” but “rower” doesn’t fit the grammar of the clue. If the homophone indicator relates to the second half of the clue (which it doesn’t) then we need something that sounds like a word meaning “is one of eight”. “Rower” means “one of eight” so it doesn’t fit.
27. 12.20 online. Last in ROWS which took a minute to figure out altohugh I didn’t consider ROWA as I don’t know it as a name. HINT and MINE was the other difficult ones so, as often, it was the tiddlers which were difficult to catch. Good puzzle
28. just wanted to say the first anonymous is not me as i too comment anonymously from time to time. i agree with the previous two comments about what a good job the bloggers do. and i suppose i should get myself an account to distinguish myself from some of the other anonymouses (anonymi?)
    ak
    1. anonymice?
    2. Well, it is free to register on LiveJournal. An avatar is not required.
29. I’m glad I’d never heard of ROWA as a name or I might have been tempted. My mistake was bunging in ROSE straight away. This made 2 down impossible until I’d got all the crossing letters for CHEMICAL. I was a bit annoyed beause up to then it had been a smooth solve. The other girl’s name, MABEL, had me warbling G&S for the best part of the morning! 34 minutes.
30. I would like to add my appreciation for the bloggers on this site. It’s something I couldn’t possibly do because (a) I’m too slow and (b) I’d get the online equivalent of stage fright.

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