Times 25458 – dial-a-loser

51 comments on “Times 25458 – dial-a-loser”

1. … done in bits and pieces while footling around making brunch for the ANZAC Day public holiday —— eggs in purgatory to be exact. Highly recommended after a hard night.

   But this would easily have taken me the hour. And most of it in the NW corner. Even after getting ALARMIST, I had to pause a fair while for the construal of the cryptic bit. Earlier on, I was sure it had to involve an anagram of “oneself”. And much of the puzzle was like this for me.

   Agree with George that the 22, 23 and 25ac clues were very good indeed and had me fooled. At 22ac I was tossing up between the actual answer and THINK AGAIN. Then wondered how “calculate say” could be TWICE. I imagined a primary school classroom where kids might talk of “twicing” a number.

   24dn (WRAP) was also very good where “twisted in the middle” just had to be S. But it wasn’t. Full marks for a great clue to a 4-letter answer.

   GENDARME = Occupé in Englench?

   Best puzzle of the week so far.

   1. I have to thank you for at least part of 5 down, where I was stuggling until the discussion about Poms and gentlemen from the fair port city on the Mersey came to mind.
2. I was just pleased to finish this one, which contains some tough vocabulary (GATEFOLD, MIASMAL, ANA, MARGRAVE, LAPIDARY), as well as some tricky, occasionally bordering on the convoluted, wordplay (eg 14 and 21 ac).

   I got 16ac okay, but with the wrong bit as literal, but the real hold-ups were in the NE, where 7 (weirdly in retrospect), 8 (convoluted perhaps but clever), 11 (unknown and last in) and 14 (rather liked this), took an age to fall.

   I’d be rather coy about my time, except this is the only place I record it. So, for the record, 116 minutes.

   1. DNF… had a lot left unfinished after my allotted hour, but funnily enough I did manage the four that were your last in!
3. 35.26, so definitely on the dense side, though not sure whether that’s me or the crossword.
   The one that gave me most grief was PASS, even after I’d done the lift and separate properly. I think I was too obsessed with “road” being rd, so couldn’t see the the blatant lane. A puzzle like this can (temporarily, I hope) destroy your confidence in the more obvious solutions.
   For THINK TWICE, I kind of ignored the “and”, making “twice” an example of (very simple) calculation. OK, it doesn’t really work, but it put letters in the holes.
   So many evil misdirections: “end of scandal” surely had to be L; “part of Antarctica” was probably Ross or some such, nothing as easy as POLE; “comic figure” had to be someone like Mr Bean or stand-up or Touchstone (according to taste); “like a mule” was screaming “obstinate” especially in context.
   CoD to the most fun clue of the bunch RAMPARTS, though by the time I got there, I couldn’t remember whether sheep had hooves.
4. I’m glad I wasn’t alone in finding this hard. Things started well for me with 6,9,4,8,1,10 and 3 going straight in, but then I ground to a halt and when I eventually got going again (with 5, never having heard of RINGGATE, but the wordplay said it had to exist) I struggled all the rest of the way coming home in 3 minutes over the hour.

   I really liked the clues to PIER and RAMPARTS but was less keen on the DBE at 15.

   I’m grateful for the explanation of 22 where, like mct, I also had THINK AGAIN to start with and then having found the correct answer I was wrestling with the possibility that “twice” had become a verb meaning to multiply by two.

   1. >… but was less keen on the DBE at 15.

      I’ve been mulling over this, and I find it difficult to understand your objection. I can’t really see that it would be necessary to say “… like a mule for example”, since “for example” can be taken as implied by “like”.

      1. Yes, you’re probably right, Tony. Something of a knee-jerk reaction on my part! I’ve been trying to give up commenting on perceived DBEs and this met with some success, but as you see I have reverted. Must try harder.
5. Excellent crossword! 21 mins & very enjoyable stuff.
6. Tough, but excellent puzzle. Something over an hour for me. Lots of devious wordplay (e.g. PIER, PASS, WARP, ANATHEMA), and some mischievous mis-direction, of which the brilliant GATE for “end of scandal” at 11 ac was the most outrageous. RAMPARTS raised a chuckle. I too wasted time trying and failing to work out how TWICE could be an example of to “calculate” (22 ac). Thanks, George, for the explanation. I also entered TICK OVER without seeing how “over” could mean “for a visit”. Having now had time to reflect, I presume that “over” is here being used in the sense in which it appears in such a sentence as “Shall I come over at 5 o’clock?”. Sneaky. Well done blogger and setter.
7. George, you need to correct the spelling of VINDICTIVE at 12 ac.
8. So it wasn’t just me to find this heavy going. (I think I had fallen for all the misdirections mentioned in previous comments 🙁 ) After about an hour, decided to call on aids to find possibilities to fit checkers, so did finish eventually.
   After deciding AGAIN would’t work in 22a, I tried ABOUT before seeing that TWICE was OK.
   In retrospect, although this puzzle was so tough, it was completely fair, and I’d like to look out for more by this setter.
9. 23:55 and can’t argue with the “hard but fair” consensus. I also went along with the general decision to start by putting in THINK AGAIN, making the SE corner harder than it needed to be.
10. I struggled a bit with some of the more clever clues.

    As a record collector, I was quite annoyed at being stuck for a while on ‘gatefold’, which should have gone right in once I had all the checkers in place. Such a simple cryptic, too.

    At the end, I was stuck for five minutes on ‘alarmist’, even though I knew it must be built around A-list.

11. A battle here from which the setter emerged victorious by one fall and a technical knockout.

    39:28 .. but after a mighty struggle to crack the NE quadrant I was too tired to check properly and didn’t notice a careless ‘easy meal’.

    RINGGIT a guess. I didn’t know the currency and took ages to come up with anything that would serve as ‘miserable chap’.

    Cap duly doffed to the setter. Fine work. COD probably VINDICTIVE or COLD TURKEY.

12. The hardest of all today’s cryptics so far (I still have the FT to do – about 40 minutes – I too had to think again about think ‘again’!
13. Hardest of the week by a long way for me. I knew I was in for a struggle when 27a was my first answer. The right hand side fell into place before the left hand side. As a few of you have said, it is one of those puzzles that you look back at afterwards and wonder why it felt so difficult during the solve. PASS was my next to last answer as I was also looking to remove a ‘rd’ from somewhere and didn’t see the blindingly obvious. RINGGIT was my last in because I didn’t know the Malaysian currency, it took me a while to think of ‘git’ to complete the wordplay, and only then did it look vaguely familiar. 34 mins in the end.

    Andy B.

14. 33m. I’ll join the chorus and say this was very tough, but very fair, and very good.
    My one query is with 25ac: I can’t see how it works unless “count” is doing double duty. What am I missing?
    1. A MARGRAVE is a German noble of higher rank than a count
       1. Thanks Jimbo, that’s the bit we do get though – if “More than Count” is the definition, where does the subsidiary indication come from?
15. I struggled like others, taking well over an hour to finish. I didn’t get any of the acrosses first run through, but 4 and 5 down got me started as I’m very familiar with the RINGGIT. There are some excellent clues with all sorts of traps for the unwary. A couple of minor quibbles: since U is superfluous to the anagram fodder in 8, I cannot see a cryptic reason for “was” rather than “is”; and in 15 I’m not keen on the preposition used in “obstinate to the end” to indicate the final E.
    1. I think the setter chose ‘was’ to agree with the past tense of ‘argued’ in the surface reading. It’s still clunky anyway but ‘is’ would have been even more so in my opinion.
16. A 40-minute struggle but hugely entertaining along the way.

    Ringgit was one of my first in (as a treasuer I sort of have to know a bit about foreign currencies) and gatefold the last to fall. Like Vinyl I was mildly peeved at this as, when talk in the pub turns to music, I’m quick to bemoan the fact that downloading music doesn’t have the same tactile appeal as buying a record and I go on to describe the joys of getting a new shrink-wrapped LP home to find that it’s a gatefold sleeve with photos and lyrics across the centre spread.

    COD to PASS for having me desperately trying to think of something other than “fly” for go by plane. The clue also sounds like something George of this parish would say.

    Can some kind soul explain where the “over” part of 19 comes from?

    1. See melrosemike’s comment above: “come over” = “come for a visit”.
       1. Thanks James, I managed to miss that.

          Re your query on the Count, I figured that the QM was there to excuse the flakiness of “as a tomb robber” equating to “mar grave”.

          1. But it’s more than flaky isn’t it? The two just don’t equate. It has to be “count as a tomb robber”. No?
             1. Oh I agree that it’s more than flaky unless, as you say, we’re missing something. Maybe the whole phrase including “more than” is the def as the tomb is not just robbed but spoiled as well. Was there a famous Margrave who robbed tombs to make it an &Lit?
                1. See my commment above about MARGRAVE
                   1. Maybe it’s just a bit whimsical so where a pocket-picker is a pickpocket and a non-drinker is a sup-nowt (hereabouts at least), a tomb robber might be a rob-tomb or mar-grave.
                      1. Yes that makes sense. I could complain that it’s a bit loose but I don’t want to be a killjoy or a spoilsport.
17. Excellent puzzle today. Just the right level of difficulty for me – hard but doable with careful thought. Thank you setter. Came up four short with Tick Over, Think Twice, Powdered and Margrave missing. Got the ‘Think’ bit so I might for my records give myself 24.5 out of 28!
    Re Margrave: I was on the right lines with a made-up Marquisa.
    FOI Reel followed immediately by Ringgit which I knew. Thought Ramparts, Superman, Pier and Cold Turkey were all very good but COD to Gatefold for the laugh-out-loud Gate = end of scandal.
18. I actually felt that this was one of those “trying too hard” puzzles that was less than fair in places, although PASS, RAMPARTS, WAYFARER, COLD TURKEY and many others were excellent.
    However, constructions like “to staff…” meaning “staff (noun) next to” seems to me to be taking one liberty too many. And the wording for the STERILE and GENDARME clues was very iffy. “End of scandal” for “GATE” doesn’t seem quite fair to me either, as worded, though I am not sure I can put my finger on quite why.
    1. “staff (verb)” I should have said …
       1. I disagree on ‘to staff’. Misdirection on parts of speech is all part of the setter’s art. Lift and separate should be part of the solver’s.

          Footnote to yesterday’s puzzle: The occurrence of GLADSOME enabled me to score an 8-letter word in the first round of Countdown today! Neither contestant got it but Susie offered it from Dictionary Corner.

          Edited at 2013-04-25 02:32 pm (UTC)

19. An excellent and much appreciated puzzle. I thought “end of scandal” for GATE was brilliant. Finished in 25 minutes after playing 18 holes in the sun!!! So today has been a good day so far.

    Thank you setter.

20. What a gem! Had to guess gatefold and ringgit; the whole thing done in bits and pieces while going hither and thither in London; and as if it wanted a finishing touch the sun’s well and truly out. When we wantwits want wit this is the wit that we want. – joekobi in a mild delirium.
21. Tough but enjoyable puzzle. I know this may sound ignorant but can someone put me out of my misery and tell me why ana is stories please.

    Thank you

    SP
    Nairobi

    1. Chambers defintes it as “a collection of someone’s table talk or of gossip, literary anecdotes or possessions”. So a rather wide definition but “anecdotes” is in there!
    2. Be sure to remember the word as it comes up every so often.
22. Not sure “lifting and separating” is exactly what is required to navigate through “to staff”. It all depends if you think “to” is an elegant way of saying “beside” and I happen to think it isn’t.
    Having said that, the bits I found unsatisfactory weren’t the bits that held me up, in that I “suspected” them from the start.
    1. I’m pretty sure there’s dictionary support for “to” meaning “beside” and phrases like pulling a chair up to a table or fireside would also suggest it’s OK.
       1. There may well be, but I can’t think of an everyay case when I would use it without some concept of motion towards, which is not present in this clue.
          1. Nose to the grindstone?
23. 60 minutes and then the towel went in with GATEFOLD, RINGGIT. And STERILE unsolved. No complaints here though; good clues all three and too clever for me. Hats off again.
24. I was interrupted too often to get an accurate time today but guess it was about an hour. I came to a full stop after 45 minutes with the NW and the SE incomplete. I had THINK AGAIN and it was only when I followed that instruction and got the TWICE that I sorted out that corner. I couldn’t see the A-LIST in 2d, which is obvious in retrospect, and tried all sorts of alphabetical permutations before I got 12a. So not exactly covered in glory but very pleased to actually finish it. Interesting puzzle, though quite hard for me. Ann
25. Excellent puzzle; no hackneyed devices or formulae. Took me over an hour, but well worth it.

    Was looking at Joseph Wright’s painting “Miravan Breaking Open the Tomb of his Ancestors” the other day and convinced myself that 25 across had something to do with this; so wasted quite a time going up a blind alley. Well, it’s no more obscure than RINGGIT, is it?

    1. I surprised myself by knowing RINGGIT (I’m normally weak on foreign currencies), but I must confess to never having heard of Miravan. I see that the painting is normally in Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Is that where you saw it? My one trip to Derby (back in the 1980s) was taken up with performing with the Reading Cloggies at Dancing England, and sadly I didn’t have time to take in any high culture.
       1. I’ve admired Joseph Wright’s craftsmanship ever since I first saw “Dressing the Kitten” at Kenwood House and the famous “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” in the National Gallery, but I’ve never seen the collection in Derby, You’ve spurred me into action, Tony, and I shall make the effort to get there in the next couple of weeks.
26. 14:59 for me. I should really have tackled this when I was feeling less tired, as I made extraordinarily heavy weather of some easy clues. (As you say, in retrospect it doesn’t look that difficult.) But I thought this was a first-rate puzzle with all sorts of interesting ideas – I agree with dorsetjimbo that “end of scandal” for GATE is brilliant – and I raise my hat to the setter.
27. In common with most others, I found this a most enjoyable challenge and was pleased to complete it without recourse to reference sources. I thought that the clues were almost faultless, though I was not impressed by the wording of 19d as far as ‘over’ is concerned. For me, ‘being idle’ would define ‘ticking over,’ and ‘a visit’ would need to be ‘coming over’ or something similar. I am sure that there are other ways that the ‘over’ part of the solution could have been indicated that would have been equally baffling but less contentious.
    1. I think ‘being’ is the link word between cryptic and literal.

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