Times 25756: Oofed

74 comments on “Times 25756: Oofed”

1. Useful for cutting-sharp with front removed, Default -welsh.
2. RAZOR EDGE Anon nearly has it: It’s an alleged homophone of raise (rally) a reg(istration) (number associated with car. Depends on treating the middle syllable as a schwa.
   On edit – sorry Ulaca, you were there first!

   Edited at 2014-04-09 06:52 am (UTC)

   1. It was a damned close run thing! Hopefully, a sign of good equine things tonight at the Valley.
3. 36 minutes of hard work, with a lot of elusive word matching going on: appeared/figured, pick up/master in two of my last three for starters. Perhaps the very weirdness of the anagram fodder for UZBEKISTAN should have given it, but it held out till last for me. I never did work out where the TA came from and was trying to work out what “we” had to cut from what. It also looked wrong – the I in the middle – when written in.
   Sympathies to McT – I’m present at a lot of funerals, and the playing or singing of already-poignant music is desperately difficult. Maybe it should be gently banned. Lead Kindly Light turns up occasionally, too. I’ll be thinking of you on Friday with much sympathy.
   1. McT, please add my positive thoughts and good wishes for Friday to Z8’s.
4. 3D is HOOFED IT I figured. Came here to find out what HOOF was a pirate. At least it means “ran off”

   I didn’t know the hymn so guessed “lead lonely light” which meant I could only fit PILFER for 10A and wondered why LF meant fair.

   Total mess.

5. rally (razo, raise), car number (redge)??
6. Sorry to hear about your troubles, Alec.

   Parsing (these would normally be a walk in the park for you):

   3d: HOOKED IT (Hook + Edit – ‘version that’s been amended’)

   19a: AS LONG AS (literal: ‘provided’; AS LONG (‘with matching extension’) + A + S[econd])

   25a is quite cunning, a ‘sounds-like’ clue: RAZ (‘raise’ – gather together, rally), OR EDGE (‘a reg’ – [car] registration)

   Edited at 2014-04-09 09:13 am (UTC)

7. Just over the hour for me in the latest of a run of fine puzzles. CONFIGURED last in after the excellent IN JOKE.

   MULCT is indeed an ugly word to describe an ugly action. HOOKED IT is, I assume, American slang, as I had never heard of it…

   I managed to invent a new hymn at 2d, ‘Come kindly light’ before seeing the, um, light. We have had a very evangelical last few days of it!

   1. Hi ulaca. If HOOKED IT is American slang, it’s new to me. I thought it must be UK slang.
8. My sympathies too, mct.

   For what it’s worth I would have been unable to blog some of this with any confidence and I had a wrong answer at 3dn (hooked on) which led me to ‘convoluted’ as the only word that fitted the checkers at 13ac. Of course I’d no idea why that would be the answer, and on another day I would have persevered until I found an alternative, but I already had 1ac only partly understood and 25ac was completely beyond me so I decided to give up on it.

   I got through about half the puzzle without any problems and then hit a brick wall and struggled over every remaining clue.

   For the record I think 18 down has to have a hyphen and certainly Collins agrees with me.

   I didn’t like this one but I’ll be interested in what others think.

   PS: This may demonstrate that I’m losing the plot, but have bloggers with ‘maintainer’ rights always been able to see an ‘Edit Entry’ option on other bloggers’ threads? I thought it was only visible on one’s own. It doesn’t actually give edit rights as far as I can see as, once in there, everything is greyed out. I only noticed it today when I went to edit my comment on another thread and clicked the wrong Edit link. I find it hard to believe I’d never have done that before in the past 7 years if the option had been there.

   Edited at 2014-04-09 07:17 am (UTC)

9. When you work through the clues in order and the first one that you write in is 22dn, you know that you are in for a struggle. Some nice clues though. Chambers has HOOK IT as ‘to decamp, make off” (slang).

   My sympathies, Alec.

10. Thinking of you Alec and wishing you well

    Not my cup of tea this puzzle. I had to get every checker in place and then work to derive answers to both 2D and 7D. The hymn I’ve never heard of and the funeral song I recall but wouldn’t have readily thought of it. Not convinced 25A really works – again needed the R.Z.R to guess the answer.

    30 minute slog with gritted teeth as far as I was concerned

    1. Candle In The Wind was written by Elton John on his famous Yellow Brick Road album as a tribute to Marilyn Munro – for me one of the only easy clues. Some came grudgingly to me and several not at all. A really convoluted set of clues for a beginner like myself. The NY Metropolitan Opera is known as “the Met” never “Mets” which is one of their baseball teams…..so didn’t consider Metz, and even if I had “Razor Edge” would have been too cryptic for me!
       Thanks for the help on parsing and the blog – really helpful as I take up this great hobby:)
       1. You need to include the ‘of’. ‘. . . of US opera company’ = Met’s, sounds like Metz
          1. Ok – got it now. Thanks!
11. Well that’s my hope of a first sub-20 week dashed. Solved (I thought) from the bottom up in 28 minutes. I nearly said yesterday that I never looked for pangrams on the basis that one was more likely to waste time looking for one than gain time by assuming one but that route would have helped with my LOI, 18D. Unfortunately forgot to go back and check 14ac where I bunged in PICA on first pass despite being worried that it was not a full reversal but just a reversal of two (valid?) elements. I think any appeal to the referee be as futile and unjustified as that of the Cambridge cox the other day (sorry bigtone).
    1. Having just listened to the magpies in my garden they are certainly not “singers” so, no, not valid.
       malcj
12. Is “O reg” a plausible car detail? But then the other two clue components are “reported” and the O isn’t. The schwa idea seems nebulous as does the “or”. Otherwise I rather liked this puzzle but blew it with “hoofed it”. “Hooked it” though clearly right I may have met in Mark Twain as a child but probably not since. The pangram loomed but no X. 28.20 with the one wrong.
    Sympathies McT.

    Edited at 2014-04-09 08:59 am (UTC)

    1. As I remember, when we had Letter and Number plates in the form LLLNNNL or LNNNLLL, they were known as L-reg cars. But the O and the 1 never turned up, nor did Z or Q, to avoid confusion. Hence the ingenious visual gags that made words out of reg numbers. z8b8d8k would have used 4s if LJ had allowed it and followed convention.
13. Reading ulaca’s parsing more carefully I realise the “a” in the clue is the “o” in the answer and it works. In a teeth-gritting way.
14. 30 mins, and this one felt like hard work.

    IN-JOKE was my LOI after CONFIGURED, both of which I really struggled to see. I found the NW difficult to complete because I didn’t know the WELSH HARP and I was only able to tease it out from the wordplay after I got PARK KEEPER (slow to see the definition). I may have come across HOOKED IT before but if I have I’ve forgotten about it, and that was another answer that took me a long time to see even though “Hook” was obviously going to be the pirate once I’d solved 1ac. RAZOR EDGE had gone in unparsed earlier in the solve once I had all the checkers, although now that I have seen the “raise a reg” homophone I don’t think it is too bad a clue.

15. Some clever stuff in the puzzle – I liked WELSH HARP and the two elaborate anagrams at 17A and 23A (UZBEKISTAN and SIGN OF THE ZODIAC).

    I managed to finish, but came to grief at 3D where, like paulmci and joekobi, I “hoofed it” rather than HOOKED IT. I heard of “slinging one’s hook” but didn’t know “to hook it” as meaning more or less the same thing. If I do say so myself, I thought my parsing of the wrong answer was quite ingenious: HOOK (the pirate) on EDIT is amended to become HOOF. It almost seems to work just as well!

    I agree with Jimbo and others that 25A (RAZOR EDGE) doesn’t work properly, and where is the definition at 6A (MACAW)?

16. 41min : held up in NW because I was still looking for the missing X.
17. sympathies to Alec, well done for doing the blog. Didn’t like this one, a lot went in without fully parsing. Razor edge actually seems quite clever, but very difficult to solve by parsing. Hadn’t heard of hook it or satie, was pleased to know something that Jim didn’t (the hymn). Don’t like the macaw clue.

    Edited at 2014-04-09 10:48 am (UTC)

18. See Ma and l from claw but where is the indication that the answer should be macaw? ‘What gives’? Thought there were some poor clues here among some good ones.
    1. I didn’t get the reference to MACAW, either!
    2. Isn’t this an &lit clue, namely where the whole clue is the definition? A MACAW could give an old lady a large cut with its talon.

       Edited at 2014-04-09 10:33 am (UTC)

       1. Thanks for that. I guess your reading must be right. I’d failed to see that possibility when I entered my earlier comment (below). The ? gives the setter cover. Quibble withdrawn!
19. Good blog under distracting conditions. Thank you Mctext. Rather difficult puzzle despite the 2 long clues. I greatly prefer Rodgers & Hammerstein to either of the 2 musical clues today. Hope it goes all right for you.
20. Hoof was indeed a pirate

    http://www.unionstation.org/realpirates/the-pirate-crew.php

    1. You are correct , in which case I demand a recount!
       1. I agree about the recount, but good to have a new pirate
          on board.I wonder how often this Swede will appear on our plates.
       2. In fact, having now read of Peter Cornelius Hoof and the Whydah (thankyou anonymous), should be a film, I wonder if the setter would tell us if by any chance the Hoof was on his mind.
    2. Unspammed
       1. Thanks Jackkt

          How does one join this forum ?

          1. Hi, Anon,

             The forum is open to all, but if you open an account with Live Journal you will be able to register a user-name, set up an avatar user-pic and also edit your comments after posting if you spot spelling errors or other mistakes – that’s as long as nobody has tacked a Reply message onto yours.

             To sign up there is a Create Account button at the top of this page. It’s free unless you want additional services but I doubt any of the regulars here pay anything so you won’t need that.

             Edited at 2014-04-09 12:59 pm (UTC)

          2. May I add to Jack’s advice by saying that it is fine to stay outside the game (as for instance Nairobi Wallah below has chosen to do) but at least there the group knows who is commenting. What does slightly grate on the nerves of this ineffably polite forum is anonymous unconstructive comments. From my own viewpoint, the ability to correct typing errors is worth the small amount of time to register and I am proud of the dog!
             1. Great dog
21. My sympathies too – this was hard enough to solve never mind blog. 16:12 with two lots of the correction fluid!
22. HOOF WAS A PIRATE

    http://www.unionstation.org/realpirates/the-pirate-crew.php

23. In my opinion, this was a diabolical puzzle designed purely as an obscurantist ego-trip for the setter. Simply awful!
    1. The puzzle was generally excellent except for a couple of dubious clues so think your comments are OTT , ? .
24. Really enjoyed Mon and Tue, didn’t much enjoy this one but finished it after some years of wrestling with it. London is about the only place in the UK I know and in my student days there (which admittedly were just a few years after Noah came out of the ark) I often heard the phrase, “‘E’s ‘ooked it, ‘e ‘as.” Didn’t make much sense then, but came in useful for this puzzle. How remarkable that there was a pirate called Hoof!

    Lead Kindly Light was written by Cardinal Newman and is a lovely hymn.

    Nairobi Wallah

25. Stared at this for at least 5 minutes before I could put anything in (CANVASSES). After that, it came together slowly but without much enjoyment. Never heard of the hymn, in spite of my Catholic upbringing (must be a CE number). Spotted MULCTS as a hidden word, but couldn’t believe it actually existed – bunged it in at the end not being able to think of anything else.
    1. It was written by John Henry Newman who was indeed an Anglican, but then converted to Catholicism during the Oxford Movement. I believe he wrote the hymn while in Italy recovering from an illness, not sure if it was before or after his conversion.

       Nairobi Wallah

       1. Thanks for that. I reckon he wrote it before his conversion. Of course, it’s many years since I attended a church service (other than weddings and funerals) of either persuasion, it’s perfectly possible that I’ve just forgotten it!
26. 
    … and that one error was at 22dn, where I had ‘lenz’ (my LOI), thinking that was the name for the Austrian city. I had no idea about the US opera company.

    I took an eternity on this one, keeping coming back to it through the day. Lots went in with a shrug, without fully understanding the wordplay (RAZOR EDGE, WELSH HARP), or knowing the literal (SATIE, MULCTS).

    In fact I still don’t really understand how WELSH HARP works.
    Instrument (WELSH HARP) useful for cutting with front removed (s+HARP) by default. Why does WELSH=default? Sorry if I’m being really thick here…

    Anyway, best wishes for Friday, Alec. I’m sure you weren’t blogging at your best today, but heartwarming to come here and see comments such as your ‘no idea at all!’ against 25ac!

    1. If you welsh on an obligation (debt) you default
    2. Janie,

       ‘Welshing’ is defaulting on bets. Chambers says for WELSH

       “
       To run off from a racecourse without settling or paying one’s bets (horse-racing)
       (with on) to fail to pay (one’s debts, esp in gambling)
       (with on) to avoid fulfilling (an obligation) or fail to keep one’s promise to (a person)”

27. And watch out for “bilk” which means much the same – used particularly by London Black Cab drivers.
    1. A bit harder to do these days with locked cab doors. Having said that, my NY friends just cannot believe that you can just get out of a black cab and then pay at the window from the pavement. Try that in NY they say and you could get shot!
       1. My Canadian father was a London Black Cab musher for many years and was often mistaken for an American. It was a frequent source of discussion with Americans, who as you say found it hard to believe. These days do they lock the fare in the back until he/she has paid – I haven’t been in a London Cab for years.
          1. Jim,

             The doors typically cannot be opened from the inside when the cab is moving or held on the footbrake. I use them pretty regularly and I have never had a problem over climbing out andpaying through the window but then I can look respectable sometimes!

28. Many thanks. I think I may have heard of that use of WELSH, but it’s clearly not something I use often. I’m obviously blessed to be surrounded by so many honourers of debts, promises etc.

    Edited at 2014-04-09 03:29 pm (UTC)

29. Just to throw a teeny tiny spanner in the hoofer’s hopes: the dictionaries I’ve consulted may not have issues with Captain Hoof, but they don’t hold out much for hoofing it meaning running away. Going on foot, dancing, kicking a ball, all ok, but running away? Nope. I’m sure Cap’n Hoof was a brave soul who wouldn’t consider it.
30. I had pica for 14 across. Anyone else, or just me?

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