Times 25405 – Got away with it again!

24 comments on “Times 25405 – Got away with it again!”

1. 28 took me back 40 years or more to when Man United signed Ian Ure from Arsenal, who’d been trying to get rid of him for ages. He was a centre half as I recall, in the days when centre backs were but a twinkle in some journalist’s bloodshot eyes. It was a small, harsh but not totally undeserved step from Ian Ure to the nickname Manure.

   53 minutes for this, held up by having no clue who or what LISTER was (though I bet we’ve had it in the last year or so) and by wanting in turn ‘dolled up’ and something of the pattern CO–ED UP at 29. Last in, though, was JEER – a complete guess. Thanks, then, to Jack for sharing his penny drop moment with us and a call-out, as almost always, to the setter for more fine entertainment, even if REDECORATE was a little weak.

   Edited at 2013-02-22 03:27 am (UTC)

   1. I learned of him through the product named after him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listerine

      The original has a remarkably high alcohol content and using it is like it swilling one’s teeth in whisky!.

2. … in two sessions. (Fridays are like that for me.) But I’d guess over the half-hour all up. Like Jack, had to get as far as 24ac before anything obvious dawned. Even the two long answers weren’t spectacularly in-one’s-face. (Though, together, they might make a couple of lines from a bad song.)

   Only managed to parse CHAP (25dn) post-completion in the shower. It’s a very good clue.

3. Thanks for that. I am now less likely to forget him, given the peg on which I can hang his hat in my mental schema!
   1. Any mention of Lister should give rise to a small salute to first Ignaz Semmelweis and then Louis Pasteur. The story of Semmelweis is truely appalling and demonstrates the destructive arrogance of the medical profession in the 1800s
      1. 
         Semmelweis. What a truly horrible story. I’m ashamed to say I knew nothing about him but I won’t forget now. Thanks Jimbo.
      2. Thanks for the reference. Like Olivia, I’d never heard of Semmelweis. It’s good though that he’s now getting belated recognition. Ann
4. 25 minutes for a meaty challenge. I was another who went with JEER because I couldn’t see anything else it could be, so that’s another good clue which went right over my head.

   Pedantry Alert. With my classical hat on, I feel obliged to point out that the girl in 4dn ought to be ERXCIXA, as IC isn’t really 99, at least as far as I remember the rules (and I’m fairly sure I’ve said this before on these pages about IL not =49). That said, I don’t imagine this loose treatment of Roman numerals will prevent anyone solving the clue as it was intended, so I merely mention it as a technical point, not a serious criticism.

5. 99 in Roman Numerals is really XCIX

   Paul S.

   1. Sorry, just seen that Topicaltim has aready pointed this out.

      Paul.

6. Aaargh…another all but one for me again today… and that one was COOLIBAH. Have always known the word from the song, but never really thought about what it was…

   All the rest went in pretty quickly, although the wp eluded me on a couple (APPRENTICE, despite having ice as reserve a couple of days ago, I seem to remember), NAILBRUSH (again I didn’t spot the near-anagram), and JEER (I assumed Mr Jeerwell was some sort of diamond trader…doh!)

   Many thanks to setter and Jack. Best wishes to all.

7. All the puzzles this week have proceeded at a decent pace until the last couple of clues and this one was no different, with a good 5 or 6 minutes being spent on the COOLIBAH/POSHED UP crossing. I’m glad that COOLIBAH suddenly popped into my mind, as that helped get me out of the DOLLED UP/CO__ED UP dead-end that I’d otherwise perhaps still be stuck in now.
8. 17 minutes, with a lot of proper crossword enjoyment packed in.
   I was solving 2d word by word, filling in once I’d got crossing letters (it was that sort of clue) when I got to “Northerners home” and instinctively put in IGLOO. That took some sorting out.
   A welcome back to Ur of the Chaldees in the finely tuned 28a footie report, but JEER gets my CoD in the “great clue when the penny drops” category.
   LISTER was nearly the less well known TILTER,which I couldn’t get out of the way. KEPT was another of those clues left ’til later because the crossing letters give too great a legion of possibilities (122 according to Chambers) and surely lifting a hat means writing it backwards.
   I quite liked “eco-rate” in 20 – the setter’s licence for plausible neologism should be encouraged, since it embiggens the language. So should the generous spirit that tells us,at least in this case, how to spell the Waltzing Matilda tree without having to look it up.
9. 38 minutes with a good ten on coolibah at the end and seeking an alternative to poshed up. I remain in blissful ignorance of almost all the words of W. Matilda. A nice global spread however with Inuit, Sligo and Tahiti. 17’s a beaut.
10. I had all but 29 and 18 done after 20 minutes, but gave up after a fruitless half-hour staring at those two. I even had PO????UP for 29 but would never have got the answer. Is this really an expression?
    I know all the words – and the chords – to Waltzing Matilda but that clue was too hard without the H.
    I didn’t know LISTER but he seemed more likely than TILTER.
    1. “Posh something up” is in the COD.
11. Struggled a bit at times with this. Couldn’t think of GROUND at 2D for some reason nor could I parse APPRENTICE for some time all of which held me up in the SW corner. Nice puzzle.
12. Agree with topicaltim on IC, but it’s a setters’ cliché – solution obvious. 20ac an unfamiliar expression, so didn’t enter till all checkers known.
    Lister known from the local hospital: http://www.enherts-tr.nhs.uk/our-hospitals/lister/
13. Count me as another who had never heard of him but having read the Wiki entry I’ll remember him from now on. As far as the puzzle is concerned I took 21 mins, being held up a little by the 18 down/29 across pairing, and being reluctant to enter JEER at 17 across because I couldn’t see the wordplay; I went for the “obvious” EARN yesterday and didn’t want to get caught out twice. In the end I went for JEER on a wing and a prayer and had the proverbial d’oh! moment when I came here and saw the parsing.

    Andy B.

14. Rather fun puzzle, I thought. Doodled on it while half-listening to a lecture, but even then I had it, the guardian and the independent all finished within 40 minutes so it can’t have been much over 10. Only one I couldn’t see all of the clue for was JEER. Chuckled at COOLIBAH (rare case of it being as asset to be Australian).
15. 25 mins for me – I always for some strange reason imagined the tree in 18d started with a K. An enjoyable puzzle
16. One of the easier Friday puzzles. About 45 mins for me. Like Jack, I wasted much time at 29 ac, having convinced myself that DOLLED UP was required before eventually hitting on the correct answer. I thought JEER was very good. Add my thanks to Jimbo for directing me to the Wiki entry on Semmelweis, about whom I was completely ignorant. An appalling story, indeed.
17. Oh phooey! This was very much my sort of puzzle, but I had a total brainstorm in the middle of it and typed in PROCEDINGS for 15ac (presumably thinking of PROCEDURES) – overwriting the N of DEFIANCE in the process! – and took minutes to spot it, struggling to a miserable 11:48 instead of the 7 or 8 minutes I should have taken. (Deep sigh!)
18. Tackled this in fits and starts but still had 18d and 29a incomplete at the end. Not sure i would have got POSHED UP as seemed to be fixed on COED for the school. But a pleasant puzzle over all.

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