Times 25,225 – Alley to the Home Stretch

45 comments on “Times 25,225 – Alley to the Home Stretch”

1. ….since I had ‘crab apple’ for a long time, thought that ‘stray’ was the encloser for 13, just could not see ‘high-flying’ and ‘stand-off half’. To add insult to injury, when I finally finished all correct, I forgot to solve 22, so technically DNF, although I probably would have seen it had I noticed it was missing.

   Maybe we will get a hard one tomorrow….

2. 31 minutes to complete the grid but then I went through the clues again to understand all the wordplay and picked up three errors, BOLT for COLT, YESMAN for YESSIR and NAEVA for NAEVI so it was more like 45 minutes in all before I was satisfied with my answers.

   I had also toyed with CRAB APPLE at 18ac but then thought of the correct answer which I learnt here only about a month ago. I didn’t really know DE QUINCEY or STAND-OFF HALF but the wordplay got me to these. I wasted a while on the anagram at 10ac trying think if what I was reading as ‘WE-BLOG’ actually existed!

   Things have been on the easy side so far this week so I’m in fear and trepidation of what may turn up for my blog tomorrow.

   Is anybody else experiencing problems with the display of the grey menu bar (user name, post commands etc) in TimesfortheTimes? My difficulties started out of the blue yesterday and are only experienced when using Firefox (it’s the same when starting FF in safe mode, so nothing to do with add-ons as originally suspected). It displays correctly once I have clicked to open the ‘Leave a comment’ box but goes funny again once I have posted: http://jackkt.livejournal.com/8068.html

   Edited at 2012-07-26 02:47 am (UTC)

3. I had the literal as ‘expression of agreement’, with ‘no lady contradicts’ as the wordplay, where the ‘opposite’ (contradiction) of ‘no lady’ is YES SIR.

   Edited at 2012-07-26 08:30 am (UTC)

4. Took me ages to get going, if you discount SKINNY-DIPPED, which I pencilled in lightly because it seemed totally devoid of crypticity! The next one in was the last I read, TSAR.

   After that, a relative breeze (though the easy ones went in by and large from the literals, though I didn’t help myself by chucking in ‘Dr Johnson’) until reaching the SW. Strangely, it was YESSIR that kickstarted me with just an ‘i’ to work round – from ‘sir’ if I recall correctly.

   With two chestnutty books, a non-cryptic clue, a strange anagrind (as I read it, ‘sort of clubs’ is performing this function at 7), this ought not to have been as good as it was; the whole better than the sum of the parts in my opinion.

   Anyone wishing to visit the Golan Heights – nice walking country – should look no further than the Frenkels B&B at Korazim, near Rosh Pina, just across the ‘boundary’ in Upper Galilee.

   Edited at 2012-07-26 02:40 am (UTC)

   1. I suppose ‘sort’ can stand for ‘sorting’. – joekobi
      1. Of course. I wasn’t accounting for the ‘c’ in the anagram fodder. [Goes and stands in the corner]

         Thanks!

5. 16 minutes for this. Pretty middle-of-the-road Times stuff, I thought. On the easy side but none the worse for that.
   I winced at 20ac though, where the setter has unfortunately (and I assume unintentionally) strayed into political controversy. Describing the GOLAN HEIGHTS and the other occupied territories as “disputed” is something that gets a lot of people very worked up indeed.
   1. Such people can scarcely dispute they are disputed.
      1. Sorry – me. – joekobi
      2. I think when it comes to this subject every can be – and is – disputed! But in this context the term “disputed” is so loaded that by using it the setter is effectively taking sides, which I think is unfortunate.
         1. It is a minefield, if you’ll pardon the pun. Many are irked, rightly in my opinion, by the use of the single word ‘Palestinian’ rather than ‘Palestinian Arab’ or ‘Palestinian Jew’.
            1. Indeed. And of course the term “occupied” is no less controversial than “disputed”. All best avoided I’d have thought.
6. 32 minutes for quite a tricky number, I found. Uncle Yap, regarding 26 I think it’s ‘Yes Sir, no Sir, three bags full’; possibly ‘Yessir, she’s my baby’ but still probably ‘Yes Sir’ there given the clearly divided syllables as sung…maybe it’s only ‘Yessir’ in old novels. All this is a bit Martian. I think ulaca’s right in the parsing. 4 seems far too simple – is there any attempt at misdirection at all? – joekobi
   1. The only misdirection I think is “had nothing on” in the sense of “had nothing to do”.
      1. Ah. Fair enough I suppose. Regarding 20 ‘disputed’ is scarcely in the same class as ‘occupied’. Words must be allowed their true meaning as well as the slant put on them by the political football roundabout. – joekobi
         1. I’d put it in exactly the same class, that class being words that have all sorts of different meanings depending on the context, but very specific meanings in this context.
7. 30 minute of mostly pleasant struggle, but with, in the SW corner, YESMAN parsed desperately as a consequence of NAEVA, which started life as NEVIA, with a subconscious echo from Robert Heinlein’s Glory Road. Once I’d corrected the first four letters because of WICKED, NAEVA looked OK and had the advantage of being reversed in the clue.
   First in was today’s non-cryptic, SKINNY DIPPING (many thanks), and at the other end of proceedings, ISAIAH was last in because I was initially looking for a city not a book. Anyone for ASBIAH while theologian hangs his head in shame?
   The stew flavouring had to wait until I had the essayist, because the stew bit of the clue kept throwing up a curious mix of Solomon Gundy and salmagundi (accommodating the I of DICTATOR). Add the splendidly isolationist conviction that Phosphorus in 18 was K, and you have my dodgy solve for today, with too many mines stepped on. CoD to DREADLOCKS.
8. When did this come to mean very good? If we accept wicked, how about “bad” meaning very good?

   Enigma

   1. I would suggest wicked has meant very good since at least the 1980s. Delbert Wilkins (Lenny Henry) used the word frequently to mean this back in the early 80s, and one assumes he didn’t personally introduce this meaning. As such, it’s been in the English language longer than weblog!
   2. I’m almost sure that’s what Michael Jackson had in mind when he named his eighth album “Bad”, though there are still some cynics who think it was because he couldn’t spell “mediocre”
   3. “Bad”, “ill” and “sick” do, in certain contexts (principally when yoof is talking among itself), mean very good.
      “Wicked” has the distinction of being more common in this sense now than in the original.
   4. Bad = good was used in the wordplay at 14d of Mephisto 2698 by Tim Moorey in May this year! (Blogged by Jim)
9. This kept me happily occupied this morning, though I fell into all the traps mentioned by others above.

   My only problem concerns 21, where I can’t really see what “burrowing” is doing in the clue. I’d written in NEVIA, thinking that the IVE must be inverted and also “burrowing” between the N and the A. That led me to YESMAN and so it took quite a while before I manage to sort out everything.

   Also couldn’t get BOLT out of my mind for 22, though I eventually chose COLT. As a lad, I used to own a bolt-action shotgun and the bolt ran in a slot to push the cartridge into the chamber.

   Bad to mean good? I think I have heard the expression “That’s bad, man,” meaning the exact opposite. I’ve tried searching Cab Calloway’s Hep Dictionary and Slim Gaillard’s Dictionary of Vout, but without success. I’m sure the usage dates from the early 1940s.

   1. At one point in Jaws Brody says “that’s some bad hat Harry”. He’s either saying the hat is good, or that it’s bad. Or possibly good but ironically, meaning bad.
      I’m not really helping, am I?
   2. I’m not alone! Thank you, thank you!
   3. I took this simply as part of the reversal indicator ‘burrowing up’ that adds to the surface and misdirects with reference to ‘moles’. So, I’VE + N (any number) ‘burrows up’ covering A (small area) in the process.
      1. Yes, I see it now. Thanks jackkt.
10. 19:28 .. not so breezy here. Quite a few tentative entries which had to wait for confirmation.

    I’m fairly sure we’ve had ‘bad’ meaning ‘really good’ before. WICKED likewise. Very well established usages now. I won’t be concerned until totes amaze (clued to end-rhyme with ‘raj’) crops up.

    Last in: AIRER. I always want to stick a ‘Y’ in the river.

11. 
    Bit trickier than of late, and for me a DNF: hadn’t heard of a STAR APPLE, and sadly couldn’t work out the cryptic.

    Top right caused most problems: at 16ac I didn’t know DE QUINCEY, and took some time to drag up QUINCE from MND, and for 12ac, I was unsure as to whether the footballer (or rugby player, I guess) was a S-O YARD, or HALF until I got HIGH FLYING.

    As others, SKINNY DIPPED was my FOI, with a ? as it just seemed too straightforward.

12. A bit of a struggle here whilst recovering from dehydration caused by 18 holes in baking heat and celebrating 70th birthday. Very surprised by editor allowing definition of GOLAN HEIGHTS. Thought 4D very weak. “Wicked” to mean good presented no problem.

    1. Can we say that 4d was barely cryptic?
       1. Yes, definitely one for the buff
    2. Congratulations both on surviving the unaccustomed heat and on passing such a milestone. Many happy returns!
       1. seconded
    3. Happy big birthday Jimbo (assuming it was your own 70th you were celebrating).

       A tad under 24 minutes handicapped by a day of management speak and three of the last bit of 12. I got a bit stuck in the SW until I started going through 4-letter rivers to get 15a (working in Leeds putting me at an advantage).

    4. Many happy returns on your 70th! Wish I was playing a round instead of painting all day!! Hey-ho, will look forward to retirement. Have a great day.

       Roger

    5. Possibly one of seven entangled by a third. This might mean something to you. (5, 8)
13. Rather fun puzzle – didn’t time it, since a friend of mine asked me to explain it as I was going. I must be an OK teacher, since after that he got one entry in the Granuiad today which is sometimes more than I get with that particular setter.

    GOLAN HEIGHTS and BOUQUET GARNI, from wordplay, everything else worked out nicely. I liked the clue for DREADLOCKS, you see a lot of them around here.

14. Many happy returns Jimbo!

    Found this one hard going but almost got there in the end. Didn’t help myself by mis-enumerating 16 as (7,2) not (2,7). One wrong too – a desperate guess at Yeshim for Yessir.

    Colt reminded me that the racing tips on this morning’s R4 Today programme included a horse named Usain Colt – made me chuckle.

    1. Also see ‘Authentic Usain Bolts (for DIY Do-ers)’ in the Official Olympic edition of GNOMEMART (Private Eye).
15. My day got away from me, but Happy Birthday to Jimbo. The puzzle, about 35 minutes, LOI: COLT. COD: DREADLOCKS. Regards.
16. 
    An enjoyable puzzle spoiled by failure in SW corner.13D made very difficult by the use IN alleyway – why IN ?
    I have to admit I found YESSIR an unlikely word, although no doubt i n some dictionary somewhere,and still have no idea of the meaning of STAR APPLE.

    More importantly HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMBO

    MIke and Fay

    1. YESSIR is in the Oxfords: interjection. Expr. assent, esp. to a superior, or (chiefly N. Amer.) emphatic affirmation. E20.

       STAR APPLE is simply a fruit.

       At 13, try thinking of the clue as “Be lost without guide, losing heart IN (this word for) alley”.

17. 19:32 for me, overcome by the heat, even at this late hour. This was a fine puzzle, but my brain just refused to cooperate in solving it.

    Here’s wishing dorsetjimbo many happy returns.

18. Many thanks for all the birthday wishes – including John’s cryptic offering. All much appreciated.

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