Times 25226 – Delays on the line

29 comments on “Times 25226 – Delays on the line”

1. Well done, Jack, amd thanks in particular for the parsing of HOUSEHOLD NAME, where I was working around ‘house’ being the dwelling rather than HOME. I think this provides a good illustration of the difficulties of the puzzle, as most of the answers required the solver to work answers out from the wordplay and there were on occasions more than one route apparently available. A good example is AT HOME, where I was working on the assumption that the checked letter ‘O’ was clued by ’round’.

   I struggled mightily too but got home eventually, having come to terms with the fact that I was not going to get the unknown GOLDEN whatnot before most others in the SW. COLONY last in and clever but my COD to the lovely word picture that is MINION.

2. I found this one easier than yesterday’s but slipped up by putting Tribute not Tribune. No major difficulties with the rest but took a while to get my LOI Obiter Dicta.

   On the eve of the 28th Olympiad I thought we might have some references to the Games but it appears not.

   Liked the clues for At Home, Minion, Ducal and Colony in particular.

   Thanks Jack re explaining Etna – I couldn’t see how that worked.

   1. There’s Calgary where the winter games featured the Jamaican bobsled team. This took me 29 minutes with a prolonged pause at 5a.
3. 
   I too started swiftly with the ones and the NW corner, then slowed, and finally crawled in to finish (or not) with the NE.

   Like Daniel, I carelessly put in tribute, and ended with OD, which I got wrong, thinking the whole was an anagram of O+ADIRECTHIT. Yes, only one letter wrong, but what a difference that makes!

   COD: COLONY

4. Thought I was onto a really fast run after the first few, but there was some clever and devious stuff that rapidly slowed things down. Ulaca has it right: a decent number of clues required you to work through the wordplay to twig the definition, once you’d sorted out what belonged to the wordplay. TRIBUNE, DUDGEON, DIURNAL, STAFF OFFICER and ADHESIVE all cases in point.
   Chuckles at MINION and COLONY (my CoD), and (for me) a bit of a sigh at WOOLLY and especially ETNA – too many words.
   GALILEAN for Christian is a bit of a Victorian antique, even amongst those who could be so described. I’d more readily use it for the four major satellites of Jupiter.
   Thanks to my legal training for OBITER. Don’t think it’s used in any other context.
   1. I thought ETNA was rather a good clue, precisely because it had so many words. I spent ages trying to break it down into individual parts, when all you have to do is take one look at the whole thing. So for someone like me who tends to ignore surface meanings while solving the answer was hidden in plain sight. Doh!
      Incidentally “blowing” here is like “burrowing” that prompted some discussion yesterday.
      1. Yes, it was odd: I had ETNA straight away – one of those crossword intuition things, but didn’t enter it on the spot because of the verbiage. I’m not sure we should be encouraging short essays from our beloved setters just to bury the meaning deeper!
         By the by, I think I may have used an etna in my chemistry classes, but it’s a long time ago and not my favourite subject.
   2. Yes, on further investigation I have found ‘Galilean’ defined as ‘Christian’ however the Oxfords have it as both archaic and derogatory.
   3. Two interesting snippets I gleaned from the Internet:

      First, the definition of ‘Galielan’ from Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary: ‘An inhabitant or native of Galilee. This word was used as a name of contempt as applied to our Lord’s disciples (Luke 22:59; Acts 2:7). All the apostles, with the exception of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:11), were Galileans. Peter was detected by his Galilean accent (Matt. 26:69; Mark 14:70). This was also one of the names of reproach given to the early Christians. Julian the Apostate [the last non-Christian Roman emperor], as he is called, not only used the epithet himself when referring to Christ and his apostles, but he made it a law that no one should ever call the Christians by any other name.’

      Second, from Julian’s wikipedia page: ‘Considered apocryphal is the report that his dying words were νενίκηκάς με, Γαλιλαῖε, or “Vicisti, Galilaee” (“You have won, Galilean”), supposedly expressing his recognition that, with his death, Christianity would become the Empire’s state religion. The phrase introduces the 1866 poem Hymn to Proserpine, which was Algernon Charles Swinburne’s elaboration of what a philosophic pagan might have felt at the triumph of Christianity.’

      So, very Victorian, as you say, and not half as divisive as the Golan Heights!

5. I was right on the wavelength today: 11:28 on the club timer in spite of slowing down in the NE, particularly over AT HOME, ETNA and MINION).
   No unknowns at all today, which is unusual. There were however a few things that I’m sure are only familiar because I’ve met them in crosswords past: SCOW, AWL, DIURNAL, TRIBUNE, OBITER DICTA. These things do gradually seep into the memory.
6. I didn’t enjoy this puzzle. For me it was a grind from start to finish in which the setter and I were rarely on the same wavelength. 30 minutes of slog.

   Very interested to read the commentary on GALILEAN which as with so many clues I solved from wordplay. The “Christian” definition meant nothing to me and from above comments I think it more than a tad obscure. I can’t for one moment imagine this setter connecting it with Jupiter’s moons discovered by Galileo

   And many thanks for all the birthday good wishes yesterday – much appreciated

   Edited at 2012-07-27 10:29 am (UTC)

   1. Not a setter with a scientific background at work here, then, Jim! I’ve assumed that Galileo’s own name was similarly derived, but there seems to be some etymological confusion amongst the authorities.
      1. I wasn’t aware of the said confusion – thanks for that piece of info
   2. This seems to be a fairly extreme example of the “wavelength” puzzle… all I can say is I hope they’re like this in the championship!
      I just bunged GALILEAN in in on the basis of the association of Christ with Galilee. Sometimes a little ignorance goes a long way.
      And as I wasn’t around to say it yesterday afternoon, happy birthday!
7. Suddenly Swinburne’s poem comes back, ‘You have conquered, O Galilean!’ He (S.) loved tripping rhythms. Found this a grind, got there in 40, delays in NE and SW. I think 8’s OK in a preposterous sort of way. As always in spite of 12 on the way, a bracing and not undelightful journey. COD to the brazen 22. – joekobi (icon AWOL, maybe to relief of some)
8. I thought this one of the finest puzzles for some time. It was difficult, yes, but extremely clever and pleasing. Etna and colony were great. Took me a while though!
9. I recall this practice started in the football market where a player transferred by one club to another receives a percentage of the price paid, provided the player did not formally request the transfer. I think it then spread to, inevitably, the world of financial services

   I have no idea how common it is in these days of austerity

10. Similar experience to many others: made very rapid progress with half the clues then came to an abrupt halt. A bit on the solemn side for my taste, though I share tringmardo’s admiration for ETNA and COLONY, and thought the succinct definition of AT HOME very clever. Suppose I must have spent nearly an hour on it.
11. Would this necessarily stop you, or unfortunately indicate ok to proceed?
    1. On the Central Line, it most definitely means grind to a halt and stay that way for up to six months.
    2. Invariably leading on into a crash! – joekobi
12. As I was utterly flummoxed by this and no one else seems to be, I take it it’s quite common in the UK now. I left in 1987. Did anyone (non-Brits, perhaps) have problems here, or did ‘misery’ = HELL lead you straight there, anyway?
    1. It’s very familiar to me, along with the associated handcuffs, handshake and parachute (although I’m not sure a golden parachute would be a good thing).
       It’s probably because of where I work. They say the Eskimos have lots of words for snow. I realise that’s a myth, but in the city we do seem to have developed a lot of different ways of saying “reward for failure”.
    2. Glad I’m not alone. I never heard of it before today.
    3. Thanks for that. I did a google search for “daily telegraph” and “golden hello” and there are quite a few occurences – even from this year – which just goes to prove I frequently don’t get past the sport section, which is set as my homepage. Interestingly, it is unusual enough still to be presented in inverted commas, unlike, say, golden handshake.
13. Colony I have seen done with the same trick in Paul’s Guardian collection…so I hope it’s him recycling, and not someone else!

    Galilean didn’t strike me as challenging – the Bible is a fairly universal piece of literature, after all – and certainly less obscure than some of those random bits of poetry that one may have studied eons ago!

    Celebrating turning 21 today – 21 out in a row, that is 🙂

    1. I take your point but 2.5 years on this blog has shown me that you can’t take too much Biblical knowledge for granted these days. I think the Robert Powell flick may have more to do with the lack of challenge for many people!
14. 20 minutes, lots of things that took some head-scratching. GOLDEN HELLO, OBITER DICTA and HOUSEHOLD NAME from wordplay alone, DUDGEON from definition and SIGNAL FAILURE from looking like it would fit. Did like the clue for COLONY and thanks for the explanation of STAFF OFFICER where I couldn’t see where the other F’s came from.
15. About 35 minutes, held up in the NE by TRIBUNE (Popular protector? Or just popular?), MINION, and my last, AT HOME, to which I award the COD for tricking me with the ‘In order’ bit. I did like COLONY also, but I’d never heard of the GOLDEN HELLO. The latter’s wordplay seemed pretty clear, though. Same with the wordplay for GALILEAN, which wouldn’t be my first choice as a synonym for ‘Christian’. Regards.

Comments are closed.