Times 25386 – !!!!!!!!!!!!

38 comments on “Times 25386 – !!!!!!!!!!!!”

1. … is SEMI. Reverse I’M and ES (tu es). Cf semi-final. Can’t help with OWN-LABEL as yet. I’m working on it!

   On edit: It may be W (with) in ONL{y} (just, cut short), ABEL (first victim of murder (=dispatched)).

   Edited at 2013-01-31 06:07 am (UTC)

2. Two sessions for this; the first over the hour. As I said yesterday (noted by George): we were due a stinker eh?

   Came here hoping for the missing parsing of OWN-LABEL but, as you can see, had to make it up for myself … and that’s probably wrong!

   In Oz English, SURPLUS and ‘surplice’ are pretty much the same owing to the tendency to schwa-ise as many vowels as possible (except, oddly, in words like ‘necklace’, ‘python’, ‘lilac’ and all the English -shires).

   Most trouble in the KYUSHU corner. I also have JOSH at 24dn. It must be right. And … we’re an X short of a pangram.

   Edited at 2013-01-31 06:36 am (UTC)

3. I agree with mctext about 4D, SEMI, as MATCH. Brilliant puzzle, though hard, took me 90 minutes. Whoever wanted to collect nominations for the best puzzle of the month, this is it. I also have OWN-LABEL, which we Americans call “store brand”. I can’t explain the wordplay either. The BLIZZARD clue is outstanding. The ENSLAVE clue was my LOI, also wonderful. Regards to all.

   Edited at 2013-01-31 06:11 am (UTC)

4. What a wonderful crossword. I was over an hour I think but I also had SAME. Wasn’t convinced it was right since it seemed like the ME needed to be reversed to make the wordplay precise. But it fitted the literal (match) and was sooo close on the wordplay.

   I was convinced for ages that LEVER ARCH FILE was THREE RING FILE (it has an EER in it although I didn’t see how the rest of the wordplay worked, but at that point I had several other answers that were correct but took me ages to work out the wordplay to convince myself).

   Thanks to the setter.

5. I wrote in my first answer (ELM at 10ac) after 10 minutes of staring at a blank grid and seriously wondering if I would ever get started. Then I needed another 90 minutes for all but two in the SE where I eventually gave up and reached for the dictionary.

   As things turned out I had 4dn wrong having plumped for SAME on the basis that having worked out the wordplay and arrived at SEMI I couldn’t for the life of me see how that could be defined as ‘match’. I never even considered a possible sporting context but my brain was somewhat addled by then, suffering from shell-shock!

   1dn held out almost to the end and I finally arrived SQUASH (from ??U?S?) by thinking we were in for a pangram and still lacking a Q. Never did find an X, but otherwise it’s all there.

   I agree with mct’s explanation of OWN-LABEL and the consensus that 24dn is JOSH although I’m not sure how valid it is that all books within the ‘Good Book’ can be called ‘good’ in their own right.

   An exceptionally clever puzzle that once again I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with on my watch.

   Edited at 2013-01-31 06:44 am (UTC)

6. 64′, which I am more than happy with, but 1 error: For some reason (stupidity suggests itself), I put in ‘two-label’, which means that JOSH and SEMI are correct. Kudos to Mctext for what must be the right parsing of OWN-LABEL. I spent a lot of time (well, duh) trying to justify ‘goat’ at 24d (‘kid’), but finally saw reason. Spent more time trying to do something with ‘weaver’ (Bottom). Never heard of HEEL BAR, or LEVER-ARCH FILE, although the latter was easily enough inferrable from the wordplay; HEEL BAR went in faute de mieux (how does one do italics here?). Gripe though I do at quasi-homphones, I wasn’t bothered by ‘surplus/surplice’, although I think my own pronunciation distinguishes them. (I don’t have much occasion to talk of surplices.) CODs aplenty, but I especially liked ENSLAVE & BLIZZARD.
   1. Bung these around a [i]word[/i], but with angle brackets instead of square.

      Edited at 2013-01-31 06:57 am (UTC)

      1. As in ? Ta; hadn’t even thought of that. I don’t suppose you know a way to type phonetic symbols? On edit: I typed in the words ‘faute de mieux’ in angle brackets <>, and voilà.

         Edited at 2013-01-31 07:09 am (UTC)

         1. You need to know the HTML code for each symbol. They’re listed here:
            http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/ipa-unicode.htm
            This sort of /θɪŋ/.

            Edited at 2013-01-31 08:17 am (UTC)

7. This was a significantly tortuous and twisted puzzle, which left me struggling at every turn

   I have completely given up and instead embarked on what I know will be a much easier task … I intend to teach my dog how to boil an egg.

   1. In the Australian version with two skiting dog-owners sitting at the bar, after the second bloke’s dog has boiled the egg it moves next to its master and stands on its head.
      “What’s that for?” asks the first dog-owner.
      “He knows I don’t have an egg-cup,” says the second bloke.

      Stopped the clock and put it aside with only 4 answers in after 40 min. Kept worrying at it through the day, and eventually only defeated by HOGweed and JOSH. Think RAGweed exists, thought about DOGweed, but nither convinced. Semi was a guess, though I did see the tu es.
      A great crossword.
      Rob

8. My first answer (ZERO HOUR) didn’t go in for 21 minutes and I was just delighted to finish 80 minutes later with no mistakes. Unlike, Jack, I got the literal for SEMI but not the wordplay.

   Last in was VIRGOAN: I was onto a star sign early – for once not hampered by having no clue as to when these things fall – but couldn’t see ‘Vi’ and ‘ran’, so this went in on trust. I also had to work FAIRY RING laboriously out from the wordplay, as most things astronomical (not to mention, mathematical, though I believe we’ve had Godel before) are as arcane as things astrological to me.

   So many clues one could mention – I will limit myself to those I ticked as they fell: 5ac, 5dn, 7dn, 8dn, 17ac, 20 dn and 27ac. Brilliant stuff!

9. Found this something of a slog. Hadn’t heard of FAIRY RING or HEEL BAR but got them from the wordplay.
10. 25:46, and here was the toughie we were all expecting – unlucky with that short straw, George. Realised very quickly that this was one of those puzzles where half the struggle is in isolating what the definition might even be in the first place (or at all) before working out the wordplay: no gimmes here! Very good puzzle at the tough end of the spectrum.

    Another who thought this was going to be a pangram (not that it would have helped much in the end, I suspect).

11. I found this an entirely logical offering that simply required consistent analysis and then synthesis. 30 minutes to solve.

    For example at 12A “the first to be dispatched” can be little else but “abel” which combined with “supermarket goods” makes it a relatively easy solve. Again at 4D the phrase “art in Paris” should trigger “(tu) es” as a reflex. I don’t like 24D (my last in) because “good book” to me means the entire offering rather than some portion of it.

    A lot of very good clues with 26A VIDEO PIRACY my personal favourite. Well done George and thank you setter.

    1. There is considerable license with matters Biblical in crosswordland, which seems unnecessary and is I agree rather irritating. OT and NT can both from memory be clued as ‘book’ or ‘books’. If by ‘good book’ is meant a book giving moral instruction or tending to make the reader good, then that seems just too weak. According to the Catholic news agency, the book of Joshua can be abbreviated as Josh, Jos or Jo, so no problem there, even if it sounds more like a shortened form of the character’s name rather than the book named after him.

       I agree that video piracy was superb – didn’t tick it I suspect because I was too busy enjoying the penny-drop moment.

       Edited at 2013-01-31 11:00 am (UTC)

       1. My knowledge of these things is indeed sketchy. I associate Joshua, being a book of the Old Testament, with the history of the Israelites more than anything else. Leaving Egypt, wandering around worshiping gold, Moses being given the Torah, and the whole tribe generally waging war on Caananites. Some mixed messages there in terms of moral instruction?
    2. I reckon “[just] the first to be dispatched” would more often mean that the first letter of a synonym of the preceding word(s) – in this case “just” or “short” or “in short” – is to be removed. There are many ways 12ac (and a good number of the other clues) could be parsed, which is why most people found it tough.
12. This one set me back ten years – going back to the Daily Sport concise till I recover.
13. What a stinker, but not unexpected, as others have said. After 60 minutes I had only 6 entries (the last few Listeners have been easier). Then I gradually tuned in to the setter’s wavelength, got 5dn and everything went reasonably smoothly from there on. Once I had a few more letters in place a lot of entries went in on the basis of possible fits rather than solving the wordplay initially, such as 17, where the V and the H alone were enough to suggest the answer. I did manage to parse every clue except 19dn (for which I just managed to avoid entering ENSNARE).

    Done in two sessions. No precise time but at least one and three-quarter hours.

    Congratulations to the setter for a very intricate, clever and demanding puzzle. Brilliant definition in 13.

14. 51:23 .. and every second of it much enjoyed.

    I had to pencil in a few tentative solutions and partial solutions just to get going (some of which proved more inspired than others), but it always felt like a winnable challenge.

    A puzzle filled with good things, but BLIZZARD, VIDEO PIRACY, BUOYED and ENSLAVED probably my favourites. Compliments and thanks to the setter (and to George).

15. Having seen the other times I’m delighted to have finished this in 24 minutes. As Jimbo says it was all just a case of piecing together what was in front of you. It’s just that much of the time it was a Rubik’s Cube.

    I had my fingers crossed on 19 – I’d convinced myself that “involving ladies… topless” was (h)EN which meant I could justify neither SNARE or SLAVE for the rest of it and so just hit and hoped.

    Brilliant puzzle though, cap doffed to the setter.

    I’d also be praising you, George, if you hadn’t passed up the chance to give us a Monty Python link to accompany number one, the larch.

16. Good stuff, even though it took me an hour. Once adapted to the setter’s way of thinking, I was able to make steady, if slow, progress. We need a puzzle like this each week, don’t you think?
    1. Yes!!
       1. Just one, mind you! Might get my ear bent if I spent over an hour each day on crossword puzzles.
    2. … or just a tad harder, perhaps. First setter to get Magoo into double figures on the leader board ought to get a prize (9:39 for this one).
17. 22m. I must have been very much on the wavelength for this one! Super puzzle though.
18. 4dn LOI by a long way – 4d eventually decided on SAME (am in es rev.) – couldn’t see possible relevance of SEMI, but spent a while looking for someone by name of Syme who could have been OK.
19. 22:46 here, although it felt quicker than that (!)
    4D was about third one in, no problems there. LOI was 27A, as I toyed with DANDLER for a while. I also considered ENLOOSE at 19D and didn’t see sense until KYUSHU went in. COD has to be a tie between 5D MILLWRIGHT and 26A VIDEO PIRACY.

    I’ll put up a page to record our votes for the month later on, as I suspect this puzzle might have a few supporters.

20. 20 our omission for the day.

    So you couldn’t do that one, either.

    1. Just in case you really are in doubt, it’s BUOYED, anagram of “you’d be” definition “cheered”.

       If you read the section “About this blog” linked at the very top of this page you will see why certain clues are omitted by the duty blogger.

21. A poor show here, with two-label and giving up on the josh/hogweed cross. But cross myself at the very doubtful homophone first off. In a puzzle of this quality it’s odd to say the least. Does anyone really say surplice like that?
22. Very pleased to almost finish this. At one point I thought I’d have to abandon it half completed. In the event it was only the SE corner that defeated me. I had **GWEED for 28a and could only think of RAGWEED, which didn’t fit the cryptic. I thought of GOAT for the “kid” in 24d and spent ages trying to justify OAT as a book and even considered it as a abbr. of an OT book. Close but no cigar! I had to leave it after 74 minutes to get on with the rest of my life. A very chewy puzzle. But fun. Ann
23. 23:16 for me. I’d had a horribly busy day, and, as you say, this wasn’t one to tackle when you’re feeling tired. After the slowest of slow starts, I eventually got going and plodded through, but I’d have done better to leave it for another day.

    A brilliant puzzle, though – my compliments to the setter. Unfortunately I’m just too tired to choose a COD from the wealth of possibilities.

24. I am so glad I was not the only one stumped. There was I, waiting in an anteroom of a medical centre for some blood to be drawn. Brummie (Guardian) took less than 30 minutes but when I started on the Times, it was a long period of inactivity with only the two three-lettered words in. Well over an hour later, I still had the SAME error plus inking in DOGWEED (dogleg as in a bend/corner on the golf course)and GOAD. Isn’t there an Oxford American Dictionary for OAD?

    Later on, when I started on Nestor (Independent) what a surprise to see 15A Night hunter secures new victim with peculiar branding (3-5) Deja vu

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27. Buoyed: anagram of “you’d be” = cheered

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