Times 25555

45 comments on “Times 25555”

1. 9ac: IN is burning, as in “the fire is in”, or “… lit”. We’ve seen it a few times before I think.
   6dn: This appears just to be a cd, with misdirection re politics and newspapers.

   Liked this a lot and especially the mentioned 18/21 connection where the ellipses actually mean something. A rare sight.

   Was I the only one to toy with HARM at 16ac? HA!

   1. i was confused by burning too. because i took the IN iin the clue to be the in in the solution. liked pedestal. so often linked clues are poor and often do n’t even improve the surface. FLUX caught me for a time as did SWAB
   2. Thanks for explaining the “burning” reference at 9A, which seems to have puzzled a few others as well. I guess that if you can speak of a fire being “out” it is entirely logical to describe one that’s still lit as being “in”. All I can say is that I’ve never encountered this usage before in either speech or writing. But at least I’ll know to look out for it from now on in the world of cryptic xwords.
2. 39 minutes, but one wrong for the fourth time this week – this time it was ‘drag’ for DRUG. I’m trying to put it down to my lack of first-hand knowledge of all things drug-related but I haven’t quite convinced myself yet.

   Cryptic definition-tolerant as I am, I thought both 28ac and 6dn were very weak, while I liked SICKIE, which I am certainly familiar with…

   IN for lit gets me every time, as I’ve never used it, never heard it and never knowingly read it.

   I spotted the reference to POO immediately at 1ac, which made me wonder if this was a Moorey puzzle.

   1. Agree with you that 6dn is pretty awful though, as a life member of the AC/DC (anti cryptic def collective), I didn’t mind 28ac so much. At least it involved a bit of surreal fun.
3. 24dn and the second word in 27ac took me over the half hour, but not by much. A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with lots of nice touches. I particularly liked 28ac and its chocolate soldier.

   My only unknown was SPELT for ‘wheat’ which may be another case of failing memory, but I’ve been caught out by IN with reference to fires too often not to spot it this time.

   1. Isn’t spelt bread common in your parts? Round here, it’s all over the place like dog shit now that so many people claim to be glutin intolerant.
      1. Isn’t that putting it just a bit too forcefully, McT? (Should be gluten, I think.)

         Edited at 2013-08-16 01:01 am (UTC)

         1. Oh yes … gluten.
            And apologies for any offence. Again, a common expression to me.
            If I had my time over, I’d have echoed your remarks about pooch poo! A much nicer way of saying it.

            Edited at 2013-08-16 01:32 am (UTC)

            1. Actually… SPELT is not gluten free (just low-gluten). Very important distinction if you’re a diagnosed coeliac…
4. 22:36 .. full of good things yet again, but I’m glad the setters aren’t too perfect (yesterday’s awkward ‘dot’, today’s unconvincing PLANET) – how dull that would be!

   I’ve also had a couple of mistakes recently, mostly due to catching a nasty dose of stoopid, but I seem to be recovering.

   Very much liked SICKIE and PASSE, but FLUX gets my vote today.

   You know you’ve been doing crosswords a long time when you see ‘mailer’ and immediately start typing NOVELIST.

   1. …and you know you’ve reached the intermediate stage when you try to fit Norman into an 8-letter clue.

      Edited at 2013-08-16 02:29 am (UTC)

5. I submitted M + AIM, so 100%, but was worried about the use of “ability” in the clue – there’s a lot of difference between aiming and actually hitting.

   Another arguably valid answer is an old word LAMM (Googleable to both Webster’s and Merriam-Webster), which is listed as an alternative spelling for LAM, and which I fell foul of in another cryptic crossword many years ago, and has rankled ever since.

   That would parse as LAM (hit) + M (mark)

   regards, Keef

   1. I wondered about this too, but it passes the substitution test in utterances such as ‘his aim was perfect’, I reckon.
   2. I won’t be surprised if somebody comes up with an example of an exception, but it would be very unusual for a word to be in a Times cryptic that’s not listed in COED, Collins or Chambers.
6. 24’46, with 2 errors. DNK SICKIE, put in ‘sickin’ Lord knows why; probably should have thought about the parsing a bit. And ‘drag’ instead of DRUG. I got INTERRUPT while wondering about in=’burning’. This has been an embarrassing week; no doubt it will continue so.
7. 17 minutes also missing the IN for burning but what else?
   Are there female clerics out there that call themselves PRIESTESS? I don’t think she of Isis, for example, would conversely call herself a cleric. CoD to anything except PLANET.
   Today’s experience was solving on tablet, so on the “Times” version rather than the Club where there’s no means of entry. Curiously unsatisfying in that you can’t press “submit” at the end with that mix of triumph and fear that you might have typo somewhere. Perhaps when the club ceases to be we’ll have the best of both?
   1. One of CS Lewis’s least PC offerings was entitled ’Priestesses in the church’, which goes some way to provng your point, as a) it was written 65 years ago and b) he had a habit of using words to annoy people (“Scotch” for Scottish and “Papist” for Roman Catholic come to mind). I chuckled at your COD nomination.
   2. Have I missed something? I’d assumed the club would continue as normal despite the change in subscription arrangements.
   3. We did eventually hammer out a workaround for that last week – http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1000765.html?view=24433981#t24433981
      1. I’ll check it out, though mine’s not an ipad but an Asus/android device, which although fabulous, has things it doesn’t really consider doing, like showing Sky Sports. On the Times version of the crossword, it’s all rather neat, with an integrated touch keyboard just below the clues. At present, on the club version, no keyboard no matter what you press, though my browser is Chrome (easy to synch with my other devices).
8. 
   Enjoyed this one a lot, despite have fine point, drag and phases where they shouldn’t have been. Should have cared less about my timing (never seem to worry about it when I solve on paper!) and more about accuracy!
9. Just under 17 minutes, and thought this a very good puzzle with the exception of 6 down. I only went for it when I realised that there was a possible surface reading which could then be seen as a cryptic def.; but I don’t think it should work that way round, should it?
10. 23.10 after a double take on sickie. 6 comes from an alien same. I don’t know why, but priestess seems a beautiful word to me; I hope it stays around. Liked 17.
11. What with the question mark and everything, I am wondering if the intention is to make us think of Page 3? Just a thought.
12. Purely it’s simply a solar system PLAN-E-T

    PLANT (Sequoia or industrial “heavy plant”, both qualify as a “significant body”) – around the direction East.

    That was my rationale.

    regards, Keef

13. 26 mins, and I never felt like I was on the setter’s wavelength.

    I found this a strange puzzle, with some very good clues, such as those for PEDESTAL, STATUE and FLUX, and a couple of poor CDs at 6dn and 28ac. The top half went in a lot faster than the bottom half, particularly the SW corner. PASSE was my LOI after I decided that 28ac really was a CD and entered EASTER EGG, which also gave me DRUG.

14. I was left staring at 9A and 4D, sorely tempted to put in INTERJECT and FLEA because they both partially fitted the clues, but having had a slew of errors already this week I spent an extra couple of minutes until I saw the light. No doubt that level of caution will have been cast to the four winds by tomorrow.
15. A pretty slow 29m 20s today. No real excuses, but I spent some time trying unsuccessfully to parse ‘interrupt’ before putting it in on the basis that it couldn’t really be anything else, and if I continued to procrastinate I would tip over the half hour mark.
    By the way, I could not bring up a blog for yesterday on my iPad. Was there a problem? I gather from a comment above that I had one wrong anyway as I opted for an unknown word ‘dat’ (reversed ‘tad’), which was the only way I could see to get the wordplay to work.
    George Clements
    1. The blog was very slow to load at times yesterday so there may have been a problem.
16. Two missing today – Planet and Deign. Thought Sickie was a terrific clue (‘ill-deserved leave’ indeed!!).
    Made a fast start in the NW corner by getting the first five on first look (Pooch, Priestess, Horrible, Optic and Swab). That was as far as I got towards a ‘clean sweep’.
    Toyed with Intervene for a while at 9ac before thinking of the correct answer.
17. 13.04 and I too toyed with harm at 16a but luckily changed my mind.
18. I found this the easiest of the week, finishing in 25 minutes. I expected to be quicker but was held up by 15 and 17 for a while. I agree about the weakness of 6, but liked the clues of the two that held me up.
19. I hate it when people use ‘antisocial’ (29) for ‘unsociable’: if I’m asked to sing and I don’t, that’s unsociable; if I do, that’s antisocial!
20. The problem is still apparent, and I am still unable to access yesterday’s blog. In the ‘Latest Month’ calendar, the 15 is not underlined, and if I try to select it, it redirects to 14th.
    George Clements
    1. The publishing time for yesterday’s blog was actually on the 14th, so if you click on the 14th then scroll down (or click on Previous Entry from today’s blog, or click on Times for the Times then scroll down) you’ll find it.
       1. Thanks for the suggestions mohn2, but I had tried those work-rounds and they didn’t work. Still haven’t managed to get the blog.
          George Clements
          1. Maybe your browser’s caching the site incorrectly. Can you perhaps try with a different browser?
             1. Just noticed an earlier comment of yours that you’re using an iPad – please ignore my suggestions as the iPad is a law unto itself which I have no knowledge of!
21. About 25 minutes, LOI’s the crossing SPELT and STATUE. Petty much the same feeling here about the cd’s, but otherwise many nice touches. Regards.
22. 21m. Nothing to add to previous comments really. I know “in” for “lit” from crosswords past: never encountered it in real life.
23. Slightly better than yesterday’s and the day before’s, but at 14:13 I’m still off the pace. Just going through one of my periodic bad patches I suppose.

    I made heavy weather of 28ac (failing to twig the significance of “soldier”), and I agonised for a while over PLANET wondering if I might be missing a better solution. Apart from the latter, a nice puzzle.

24. Got it, but can’t see how it works. Help!
    1. Ross, it references the British practice of ‘dunking’ into a soft-boiled egg a slice of bread (often toasted), which has been cut into slices thin enough to fit (called ‘soldiers’). The setter takes us on a journey in which he speculates on how this might happen at Easter with all those eggs about.
       1. Thanks. A lttle abtruse for a hung-over Kiwi.

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