Times 25722

Solving time: 44:29

There was a lot of clever stuff going on here, so my time felt like a good one. It took me a while to get started, but I made fairly steady progress thereafter.

I think 4a just gets my COD, narrowly ahead of 5d, but there are plenty of other good clues here. My compliments to the setter.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 MA (the chick feeder) + CAW (squawk)
4 PYGMALION = GYP (pain) rev + MALI (nation) + ON – ‘the work of an Irishman’ is the definition, as George Bernard Shaw was from Dublin.
9 T(HE’S)AURUS
10 EX-CON – dd – a political defector being an ex-conservative
11 ROCOCO = OR (gold) rev + CO (joint, as a prefix) twice
12 TRAIN SET = TEST (to check) rev about RAIN
14 TEN-GALLON HAT – cd
17 BANTAM + W + EIGHT
20 I + DO LATER
21 UGRIAN = (AIR GUN)* – not a word I knew but with all the checkers in place there seemed no alternative.
23 CAB(A)Le
24 AMPLIFIER = (IMPERIAL)* about F (strong) – ‘mint’ is the anagrind.
25 S + POTTIEST
26 HONEY – dd
Down
1 MATURITY = RUT (hollow) rev + IT all in MAY (tree)
2 CRESCENT = C (curved shape) + RECENT (new) about moonS – &lit
3 WHATCHAMACALLIT = HATCH (fashion) + A + MAC (coat) + ALL (everything) all in WIT (mind)
4 PARR – cd – Parr being both the name of a fish, and of Henry VIII’s sixth wife.
5 G + ASTRONOMY (subject for those looking up)
6 AMERICAN ENGLISH – cd – In American English a ‘story’ can be a level of a building, to us a ‘storey’.
7 INCISE = IS in mINCEr
8 NINETY – I’m not sure of the wordplay, but I think it’s that ninety in Roman numerals is XC, which is hidden in ‘excess’ but must be written in capitals, hence ‘capped’.
13 ALL THE RAGE = (LovE + GAL + HEART)* – ‘Very much in’ is the definition.
15 IGNITION = IT + IN + GI all rev + ON
16 STINGRAY = STINGY (mean) about batheR + A
18 DISCUSs
19 BOO-BOO = BOOB (mistake) + O x2 (nothing to be repeated) – &lit
22 SPAT = TAPS (hot and cold) rev

60 comments on “Times 25722”

  1. 100 minutes for me, so quite the struggle, ending with NINETY, for the parsing of which (seems good enough to me) thank you, Dave. I only knew cabal as the plotters, but see that the archaic use of ‘plot/intrigue’ is in ODO.

    Ended in the NE, where I would give me COD to PARR just ahead of PYGMALION and IGNITION.

    A typo at 7a – should he BANTAM.

  2. I am SO pleased that the blog swap arrangement last Friday didn’t work out otherwise I’d have been landed with this brute. It took me 1hr 57mins even with considerable resort to aids after the hour had passed. I just couldn’t get on the setter’s wavelength.

    MA as “chick-feeder” tried my patience; I’m afraid I think it’s stupid, but of course this may have something to do with my inability to solve the thing!

    I had no idea how 8dn worked but I’m sure your explanation is the right one and it also accounts for the lack of a hidden answer elsewhere in the puzzle. 3dn was also not fully explained as I had A MAC ALL inside WATCH IT (mind) which left “fashion” in the clue and “H” in the answer unaccounted for.

    Well done!

    Edited at 2014-02-28 02:34 am (UTC)

    1. Yes, I think this was my reward for messing up last week! It was probably a good thing, though, as I seemed to be more on the right wavelength than a lot of others. Unusual for me, particularly in a post-midnight solve.
  3. 28:02 .. lots of fun and very, very clever (the puzzle, not me). It’s probably a good thing we don’t get one of these every day. That might be too rich a diet.

    By the weirdest chance I had typed the words PYGMALION, ROCOCO and MACAW earlier in the day (don’t ask), which certainly helped.

    Great work parsing NINETY, Dave. I gave up trying to understand it. Thank you. And thank you, setter, for a mind-warping solve (chick feeder, indeed!).

  4. Started this at 8:00 when it came out and put in my last (NINETY) as the 9:00 news theme started. Glad Dave could explain that one. It was wing-and-a-prayer stuff for me.

    Couldn’t see CO for “joint” (11ac) either. Great puzzle; but not to be faced without coffee.

  5. A masterpiece of parsing, Dave, very glad this wasn’t mine. NINETY in particular would have been entered with a “help wanted” sign.
    38 minutes plus one tick, and I was still on the first page. All very clever, off the wall thinking, so respect to the setter. Stetson my FOI, SPAT my last, struggling to find any word in which the H and C could be exchanged before thinking the setter just about got away with it.
    TRAIN SET for my (relatively easy) CoD
  6. 24m. Unlike everyone else, it seems, I didn’t enjoy this at all. Half of it was very easy, and the other half was very difficult but not for the right reasons. Too clever by half.
    Thanks for explaining NINETY, Dave. It was my last in, and I didn’t have a clue: it was just the only thing that seemed to fit. Too clever by… oh, I already said that.
  7. Great if tough puzzle, finished in 45 minutes with PARR my LOI (penny dropped at last) and several correct but not properly understood, like XC and THESAURUS. Thanks for the blog Dave. If these were every day I’d be even happier to pay my annual fee, which must be due any time…
  8. Just under the hour, starting in the NE and progressing slowly clockwise. Like everyone else it seems, I did not parse NINETY so thank you Dave.. Apart from the MA possibly, I don’t think that there was anything objectionable here but most clues had to be sledgehammered rather than just seen by being on the setter’s wavelength. Anyway, well done, setter.
    Based on my experience with teenagers, I did toy with SLEEPIEST.

    Edited at 2014-02-28 10:05 am (UTC)

  9. Glad it wasn’t just me then. I was a bit tired when I attempted this on the train this morning, and it took around half an hour. My cause wasn’t helped by starting to write in WATCHAMACA… before realising there wouldn’t be enough letters – A MAC + ALL inside WATCH IT (mind), with fashion ignored. I also had UNGARI at first instead of UGRIAN, so there was a lot of scribble! I also never figured out how NINETY worked before coming here, so thanks for that Dave.
  10. A few seconds under 17 mins so I was definitely on the setter’s wavelength if the comments above are anything to go by. I enjoyed this puzzle, but that may have been because it didn’t take up too much of my day. The only clue I didn’t bother to parse was that for MATURITY once all the checkers were in place.

    I was held up in the NE at the end by carelessly having entered “eighty” for 8dn, parsed as (w)eighty, which kind of made sense when I entered it early in the solve. It was only when I realised that 4ac was PYGMALION that I knew for sure it was wrong, although I already had a feeling it was because “?? C?G?” for 10ac looked very unlikely once I had INCISE. I then sussed out the XC in the clue for NINETY, EX-CON became very easy with the correct checker at the end, and AMERICAN ENGLISH was my LOI. I expect to see “storey” spelled “story” nowadays, possibly because I read a lot of American novels, so the clue didn’t automatically lead me to the answer.

  11. Proper arm-wrestle this, so felt happy to get in under the half-hour. I followed most other people in toying with UNGARI and the like until the checkers were all in place. And I held myself up by putting in FORD for Henry, on the basis that I knew there was a Mistress Ford in Shakespeare, though not a play I’d read/seen, so I was prepared to believe she was a fish-wife; one of those cases where a little learning is a dangerous thing, clearly.
  12. With 1D and 2D in place I realised 1A was MACAW which gave me MA=chick feeder. That irritated me and I never quite got back in the correct frame of mind. Little things I would normally just shrug off made it worse. Is 3D a word? And should it be hyphenated? Where’s the definition in 19D? Never did see the parsing for NINETY. All a bit like trying to hit a golfball off of mud.

    Great effort Dave – glad I didn’t have to come to the rescue on this one. Not my cup of tea at all.

    1. I’m glad to be reminded of a point I was going to make but forgot about. The word, hyphenated or not, does not appear in any Oxford, Collins or Chambers, though it’s in dictionary.com. If this is the new road we are on I feel I’m being cheated and I am not in a fair contest.
      1. I don’t believe this is a completely new road: I don’t think there is a fixed rule that answers have to appear in one of the dictionaries. They almost always do of course but I’m sure I can remember exceptions to this in the past (although not any specific examples).
        Personally it doesn’t bother me. As long as the wordplay is clear I can’t see why a new word isn’t just as fair game as something obscure just because the latter happens to be in a dictionary.

        Edited at 2014-02-28 02:48 pm (UTC)

        1. Agreed.

          I was much happier toady with whatchamacallit, which I’ve heard used many times, than I was yesterday with rager and rampager, which might both be in every bloomin’ dictionary under the sun but I’ve never heard uttered or seen in print in my 52¾ years on this planet.

          1. Sorry, that was me – I’ve just had to clear my internet history whatchamacallit (See! See!) to fix a work issue and forgot that I’d be logged off.

            Oh, and today, not toady.

        2. Actually I can’t remember any examples of single words since I started blogging here though there have been a number of two- or multiple-word expressions which haven’t been in the usual books – indeed we have such an example today in AMERICAN ENGLISH!

          On further investigation I have found WHATCHAMACALLIT in Chambers Slang Dictionary which dates it from c19+. OED has it as “chiefly US” with its first example dated 1942 though it appeared as WHATCHA-MAY-CALL-IT in 1926.

    2. I agree with you about this puzzle. I spent far too long trying to make a margay into some sort of gun in 21a, having got the wrong end of the anagram stick.

      Just caught up with your message from yesterday re Masonic influence on the grid layout of US cities. I’ve checked it out since. You exposed a giant lacuna in my GK!

  13. Found this very hard going. 24/28 with Pygmalion, Parr, Incise and Whatchamacallit missing.
    Compliments to the setter for some ingenious clueing but I found this too much of a struggle to be a pleasure.
    Very well solved and blogged Dave.

  14. … and that blank was PARR, where I’d not heard of the fish, and history is never a strong point…

    Was determined to finish today, and almost made it, but it did take a (very) long time. Couldn’t parse AMPLIFIER (doh!), BOO BOO, CRESCENT or NINETY, so many thanks to Dave for sorting it all out.

    I have three teenage sons, so SPOTTIEST raised a wry smile.

  15. In view of the difficulties of some above, I’m surprised I finished in 40 minutes, though there were a few clues whose wordplay escaped me. One or two quibbles (eg 19, which is not &lit, so therefore lacks a definition) but I enjoyed it and thought the clueing was refreshingly inventive.
    1. The “nothing to be repeated” bit isn’t required, but the whole clue still serves as a definition, no?
  16. Having not finished yesterday I was well pleased to find today’s relatively easy then see the comments on here. I guess that puts me on the setter’s wavelength.

    Not sure about time – 35 minutes on the train this morning, 4 more clues from memory whilst walking to the office then the last three (PARR, THESAURUS and MATURITY) straight in when I looked again just now. Liked PARR when the penny dropped.

  17. About 25 minutes with a few distractions. I think most has been said – I could not see the wordplay for MACAW or NINETY though the last in was the PARR / PYGMALION crossing
  18. Just over 15 mins with Tippex. As others have said, definitely a game of two halves but I got there eventually.
  19. A touch over two hours, frustrating at times but an enjoyable puzzle over all, very glad to have finished it. Didn’t parse 8d (did anyone?), 24a 22d, though I can see them now. I wonder if anyone got 3d from the actual word play rather than guess and then parse?

    Found some like 1a and 22a rather weak or silly.

    A good week for me, managed to do them all.

    Nairobi Wallah

  20. I was delighted to finish at all after yesterday’s miserable defeat and my time of 20:23 actually looks quite respectable.

    Camps I’m in:
    1) Didn’t parse 8 so thanks Dave.
    2) Very Enjoyable puzzle
    3) 19 works as an &Lit
    4) I seem to be alone here but MINT as an angagrind?

    COD to gastronomy for the looking up part.

    1. “Mint” can mean to make a word (for the first time). It’s on the Chambers list of anagrinds.
    2. I meant to COD GASTRONOMY for the same reason but forgot, so I’ll second your nomination, Penfold.
    3. You’re not alone. I still don’t really see how it indicates that you should mix the letters up. Surely if you mint “imperial” you have “imperial”.
      1. You mint “imperial” and place “f” inside it to get the answer. I really shouldn’t be defending this clue because I think “strong to eat” is very poor, but the basic anagram element with included letter is sound enough.
        1. But my point is that if you mint “imperial” you get “imperial”. When you mint a word, you invent it. You don’t change it.
          1. Right, I see your point which may well be valid. Still, as mentioned above “mint” as anagrind is not original.
            1. Yes, I accept that. It didn’t cause me a problem either: it was clear what was going on.
    4. I also chuckled at chick-feeder. I did start wondering though whether the male bird doesn’t do his bit of regurgitating too. Not that that would invalidate the clue, and anyway the synthesist in me typically pummels the R2D2 of my pedantic analyst side into submission.

      Agree with K about ‘mint’.

      Edited at 2014-02-28 03:08 pm (UTC)

  21. No GK requirement – so I have to praise that! Lots of nice clues, particular 6d and 4d (a real penny drop for me). Thought ma for chick-feeder was feeble, and I didn’t like 8d, but overall an enjoyable challenge.
  22. Hello all. A beast, I thought, but got there in the end, finishing with NINETY as the only thing that fit. I applaud Dave’s parsing, but that’s only because I can’t see any other possibility. It’s still not very compelling. On the other hand, PARR is very clever. It took me an hour, on and off. AMERICAN ENGLISH is pretty good also. But no endorsement for ‘ma’=’chick feeder’. Thanks to the setter for the mental workout, and compliments to Dave for fighting through this. Regards.
  23. DNF after an hour and needed aids. Overall I found this too challenging – I always seem to struggle with the ‘question mark’ clues and there are 11 here. I guess it’s the lack of certainty when you arrive at a possible answer. CRESCENT was like that for me as one example today and this meant I was unsure if the ‘c’ in ROCOCO was correct. In any case I thought it had a double c and wanted something more definite as a definition than ‘certain style’. So baulked in the NW. Add to that a struggle with ‘mint’ to indicate the anagram and only vaguely remembering the unlikely UGRIAN which blocked off the SE. And after saying yesterday there is always tomorrow! Not therefore for me a happy expression but great respect for blogger if not for the ‘question mark’ setter! Oh and put me in the ‘Ninety because it fits’ club.
  24. WHATCHAMACALLIT may not be in any of the standard dictionaries, but it is a perfectly cromulent word, and embiggens the english language.

    Edited at 2014-02-28 07:11 pm (UTC)

  25. Not so much on a different wavelength as on a different planet to the recent run of crosswords. Did this on many train/tube rides today, often standing jammed tight with the paper held against my nose and the solutions written in on alighting. Probably about 70 minutes in all. Entered, but couldn’t parse, NINETY (hats off to daveperry) or SPAT (d’oh), so a DNF for me.

    Can’t see the objection to WHATCHAMACALLIT – the word’s in everyday use, unlike quite a few we’ve had recently. Definitely not teotwawki.

    Liked the recursive clueing of CRESCENT, the subtly misleading GASTRONOMY, the clever AMERICAN ENGLISH, and the excellent PYGMALION, my COD. FOI ROCOCO, LOI SPAT and NINETY.

    A “Heineken” crossword, reaching those parts …

    More like this, please, just not every day!

  26. I read the clues all the way through before getting STINGRAY, so knew I was attempting a difficult one. But this was one of the most enjoyable puzzles for some time, despite niggles with the clueing which others have already commented on (and how does ‘spider’s legs’= 8? Hyena’s legs = 4? My legs=2?) But I love a puzzle that makes me think and smile with plenty of ‘penny-drop’ moments. Great stuff.

  27. Where’s the hidden word clue? Isn’t there meant to be one and only one in every Times crossword?
    1. As noted above there is a hidden answer at 8dn but you have to translate it from Roman numerals.
  28. 45 minutes and a very enjoyable puzzle – but then perhaps that is because I finished!
    Was I the only one that had (w)eighty for 8d until 10a made it untenable? Much better than the real answer, in my view.
  29. One hour and five for me.

    The whole process reminded me of abdominal surgery. Jumped in full of confidence, then realized it was all going to be a lot more complicated than I’d thought. Muddled along for a while, then put in the last couple of bits without really being sure.

    Still, it all ended well (the crossword, that is). I stared at 3d for ages with all but the first checker in place, wondering what on earth could have that many As in it. Having put it in, I couldn’t be bothered to parse it – I’m not keen on these Ikea-style clues where you have assemble the word from a multitude of small parts.

    Failed to parse NINETY as well. Looking at [daveperry]’s suggested parsing, I think this had the makings of a clever clue, but it somehow missed the mark.

    UGRIAN I only got because the anagram was so clearly flagged, and because “Finno-Ugric” had cropped up recently. What ever happened to the Ugs?

    LOI was 1ac (MACAW), which I didn’t think was a good clue although I can’t say why not. Overall, though, I enjoyed this one – challenging but doable.

    I’m working tonight and looking forward to brisk business. I’ve got an accumulator bet running with some colleagues, which will pay for a good weekend’s drinking if, by midnight: (a) we get at least one stabbing, (b) the total of lost extremities is greater than two (digits count individually unless they are lost along with the limb) and (c) there are no fatalities (DOA’s excluded). I’m fairly optimistic about (a) and (c), and can always give (b) a nudge in the right direction.

    Award for Most Unexpected Accident of the Day (so far): owl attack. Moral: think twice before attempting to rescue an owl that has been hit by a car.

    Edited at 2014-02-28 09:21 pm (UTC)

    1. Keep it up Thud

      This blog needs a little livening up

      I have a surgeon friend with a dark, dark sense of humour – goes with the territory no doubt.

  30. 18:08 for me. I’m afraid I never really found the setter’s wavelength and found it less enjoyable than usual for a Times puzzle. However, I think that’s just me having a bad day, as, looking back over the clues, I can’t actually find anything to complain about.

    I was slowed by bunging in EIGHTY for 8dn (capping WEIGHTY = “in excess”, admittedly rather loosely, and probably just a thinifer’s reaction to all those fattipuffs) and didn’t twig the true significance of “capped” until I came here. (Thanks!)

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