Times 24859 – A Stroll in the Park

41 comments on “Times 24859 – A Stroll in the Park”

1. When you’re stuck on 6 across and the only thing that comes to mind is SPARK. Oh well…
2. …for S _ A _ K. I finally settled on ‘smack’, but wasn’t quite convinced, then thought of ‘box’ as a noun, as in ‘box on the ear’.

   The puzzle could have been quite difficult had not ‘nine day’s wonder’ been a gift from the setter, opening up the whole bottom.

   The ‘kidney’ usage bought to mind Eliot’s ‘A Cooking Egg’:

   I shall not want for Honour in Heaven
   For I shall meet Sir Phillip Sidney
   And have talk with Coriolanus
   And other heroes of that kidney.

   My time was reasonable, about 40 minutes.

   A CD is not a record, either, but at least it is crossed with ‘tinny’.

   1. Of what category of things is a CD?
      I genuinely wish to know this for clueing purposes. You’ll understand how handy it can be?

      Edited at 2011-05-26 02:28 am (UTC)

      1. A cd is a magnetic data storage medium. As such, it seems to me that working into a clue is tricky. Still, there is always the Corps Diplomatique, cash dispenser, or cadmium…
         1. Magnetic? No, sir, it is an optical data storage medium. Nothing magnetic in the CD itself (plastic and aluminium) or in the laser that reads and writes it.

            Rob

3. 37 minutes. Amazingly compact clues today; lots of which were, I thought, quite difficult without crossers. E.g., 9ac: where all sorts of things are possible. Let’s hope that tomorrow’s does not prove to be of similar kidney!

   NB to Uncle Yap: you need ORCA at 23ac. But thanks for explaining it. I, for one, didn’t see the parsing until now.

4. My second day online, managed 37’07”, but I’m definitely going back to pen and paper as soon as poss. Watching the clock makes me feel compelled to push on, without a chance to savor the clues; and that’s half the pleasure. At least a half-dozen ‘solves’ that I got only from checkers and gut feeling, working them out after submitting: 10, 11, 23ac, and 1,3,7d. Like Vinyl, I got NINE DAYS WONDER right off; unlike him, I got little benefit from it.
   One little typo in an elegant blog: it’s TAB ORCA reversed.
   1. When I do it online, I scroll the page down so far that the time is concealed.
5. Not so bad once I had corrected 20d. I originally entered “covert”.
6. 55 minutes with one wrong: ‘Morecombe’. Serves me right for putting ‘-ombe’ in after getting a couple of checkers and then failing to check. FACER unknown, MOONRAKER and SIDECAR unfamiliar. Some nice clues, especially 1ac. SMACK last in.
   1. Don’t feel too bad. Having lived there, I can tell you that Morecambe isn’t a resort’s bootlace, however you spell it.
7. I studied at Lancaster for a while and even walked across Morecambe Bay. Lived out at Cockerham, ‘though – beautiful spot.
8. Definitely not a stroll in the park for me as I took 10 minutes to write in the first two answers and a similar time sorting out the last four in the NE, 7dn, 12ac, 8dn and 6ac. In between it was a steady but rather slow solve and I completed the grid in 66 minutes.

   I couldn’t parse 23ac either and I still have doubts about ‘cease’ = ‘lose’ at 20dn.

   It would be nice to finish a puzzle in under 30 minutes again but I’m taking nearly that to do the Concise on-line at the moment, always getting stuck on one or two words that just won’t come.

   1. It’s ‘cease to have’ = ‘lose’!
      1. Doh! Thanks, u.
9. 
   I, too, found this quite a struggle, but managed all correct …bar one (quelle surprise!). Having alphabet-run to figure out the two missing letters at 6ac, I figured it must be an unfamiliar word, so bunged in the unlikely SLANK.

   Thanks, Uncle Yap, for explanations for 2dn, 20dn and 23ac, and many congrats to your granddaughter.

10. 36 minutes. I found this tough, although neither as tough nor as enjoyable as yesterday’s. A very good and perfectly fair puzzle though and a good mental workout.
    Like vinyl1 I was greatly helped in the bottom half by NINE DAY’S WONDER but ACCOMPLISHMENT didn’t come until quite near the end and I found the top half generally very difficult. I’m not sure why in retrospect.
    A few unknowns today (FACER, TABLELAND, SOFT SOAP) but with perfectly clear wordplay. Thankfully the antelope was one of the commoner inhabitants of the Crossword Zoo.
11. 25 minutes for what I thought was a tough set of clues, but then I missed yesterday’s. Apart from SMACK, which I also struggled to divorce from SPARK, it was more a case of each clue taking a bit longer than usual rather than a few demanding challenges.
    I thought the lower half in particular was loaded with strong contenders for CoD, though like Kevin I got quite a few on gut instinct, using wordplay for confirmation. Let’s say ACROBAT as a short head winner.
    Could have done with Uncle Yap’s granddaughter to help out with spelling – how tempting were MorecOmbe and AmalgUm?
12. Another day of mild surprise to have got them all correct, with FACER a complete unknown and SMACK a trifle hesitant, and I’ve only just twigged why OVERDUE is unsettled. As for the rest, not such a struggle as yesterday but not easy by any means; 6d about sums it up. Not much slack in any of the clues, but COD to TINNY.
13. 21:55 today so quite slow for me. However I enjoyed this one much more than yesterday’s – the clues were much more fun to disentangle. To Kevin Gregg – if you persist online you will soon learn to ignore the clock and to enjoy the clues.

    Congratulations to blogger and to granddaughter – it’s obviously in the genes!

14. Abject failure today, as with most days this week. Could not finish the NE corner because I had SCRAP at 6a, and couldn’t finish the SW either because I had COVERT at 20. Both seemed perfectly reasonable, and fit with a checking letter, so I never considered changing them.

    After a dismal week, I’m not looking forward to blogging tomorrow’s – I could be having a late night!

    1. Chin up, Dave! I get that feeling every time these days and so far it has never been as bad as feared.
       1. Oh dear. With hindsight it WAS that bad this Friday. Congrats on coping with it so well.
    2. Good luck with the blog.(At least we look good in tuxedos.)
15. 17:30 online. Struggled at first until nine days’ wonder appeared and as as been mentioned that opened up the bottom half nicely. NE corner trickiest with smack and kidney last in.

    COD to overdue for the excellent definition.

    I enjoyed this with the unknowns clued fairly enough to get with a bit of head scratching and some interesting non-obvious definitions. It was comforting to encounter a plant I’ve actually heard of.

16. After yesterday’s stumble was glad to finish this just before the hour cut-off at 55 mins. All very fair and meticulous though not as elegant and inventive as recent ones.
17. 14 minutes; several of them finishing off 6ac and 8dn… some very elegant clues, again, such as 5dn – in fact overall the surface readings are top class
18. Definitely not a stroll in the park for me either. It took two sessions totalling 50 minutes to complete. My soggy brain couldn’t bring LAMA to the fore, even though I knew what ‘monk’ was indicating, but what really screwed me up was, like some others, entering COVERT for 20d, thinking ‘cease’ might be a misprint for ‘ceased’ (OVER), only detected when I began to suspect it was wrong and got LOBELIA. ‘Cease’ for LOSE seems dubious to me. Chambers has ‘cease to have’, which is not the same at all.

    I didn’t understand the clue to LOLLY at all. LOL means nothing to me, but then I abhor online jokes and discourage anyone from sending me any.

    There were some excellent clues – 5, 6a (took ages to get) 27 and 28 for example.

    1. LOL = laughing out loud, or loads of laughs, online responses to jokes
       ‘tips for lawlessly’ = LY
       LOL + LY = making money
       1. I overstated my puzzlement. The indication of LY was clear, indeed obvious. My point was that the indication of LOL wasn’t clear at all until I read the blog, since I’ve never come across the abbreviation (neither has the COD, though the latest Chambers has “laughing out loud” or “lots of love”).
19. Not a stroll in this park either but difficult to tell quite how hard it is due to tiredness after yet another 18 holes played in a gale. As others have said not quite as inventive as yesterday but a very good 25 minute mental workout. Congratultaions to your grandaughter UY
20. Agreed, no walk in the park, confirmed by the fact that, a la George, I went with SPARK, so 1 wrong today. About 35 minutes here, for another very clever puzzle. Like others, I started with COVERT until I finally saw LOBELIA, I’ve never heard of FACER, I don’t get why ‘condemned’=’slated’, and LOLLY and the KIDNEY temperament are not common, to say the least. Other than that, pretty darn good, and my COD to the simple KRILL. Regards everyone.
    1. Hi Kevin. To slate means to criticise severely as in “the theatre critic slated the production”. I hadn’t realised this was UK centric.
       1. Thanks Jimbo. That meaning of ‘slate’ isn’t in use over here, so a new piece of knowledge for me.
          1. It is strange how I know these things. I must have read more UK popular novels from the 1900-1960 period than I thought. ‘Facer’ is the sort of word an ordinary bloke in 1910 would use.
21. dyste: as per ulaca’s comment above “cease to have” is there in the clue: “Secret clubs cease to have time 6)”

    It’s easily missed with the “to have” just appearing to be a link between wordplay elements.

    1. I’ve only just seen your comment. My brain was even soggier than I thought, not reading what was staring me in the face.
22. Not that easy, I agree. The NE corner was the most troublesome for me, with SMACK, KIDNEY and OVERDUE all causing considerable delay to the dropping of the proverbial penny. However, it would have been a lot harder without the relatively easy anagram at 17ac (NINE DAYS WONDER), which provided the way in to other solutions. Another enjoyable and clever puzzle. I liked the neat allusion to “texting/online speak” in LOLLY, and KRILL impressed by its simplicity and deployment of one of the less obvious crustaceans.
23. My broadband has been on the blink all day and I haven’t had time to fiddle with it. Have now finally got it back after much messing with the modem! A slowish (42 minutes) but quite pleasant solve. Last in the NE corner where I had some trouble with SMACK and KIDNEY. Didn’t think at first of this particular meaning of KIDNEY. When will Uncle Yap’s granddaughter start putting us all to shame? Give her a few years and she’ll probably end up in the “under 10 minutes” brigade. Congratulations.
24. I didn’t feel it was exactly a stroll in the park while I was solving it, but I finished in 8:23 so perhaps it was easier than I’d thought. Some interesting clues.
25. … more like a 40 day trek in the desert …
    kidney – meaning temperament
    facer – meaning ????

    pass me a flagon of Sparkling Fruity Lexia by which I can drown my disappointments

Comments are closed.