Times 26197 – Oh, rapture! The bloody train has finally come!

59 comments on “Times 26197 – Oh, rapture! The bloody train has finally come!”

1. Apart from a bit of GK. What I don’t know about yachts is more than Chichester had forgotten.
   3dn reminded me of a chap in Anthony Burgess’s biog. who refused to use Latin words and so called a “bus” a “folk wain”.

   ((Burgess also had a hand in this: http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/andy-warhols-1965-film-vinyl.html))

   V: 11ac uses “liTeralistic”. Not sure if “liBeralistic” exists. Perhaps so?

   Edited at 2015-09-07 01:26 am (UTC)

   1. Typo corrected, thanks.
2. We had a clue recently with MILK FLOAT as the solution; which was lucky for me today, as I’d never heard the term before then; the vehicle the milkman drives to deliver the milk, or would, if milk was delivered–is it still in the UK?

   Edited at 2015-09-07 01:48 am (UTC)

   1. Yes, that was it. Maybe I’ll manage to remember after two exposures.
   2. We still get milk delivered on a milk FLOAT.
      1. Whereas I’m just barely old enough to remember milk bottles in the 50s. Mind you, this was San Francisco, and delivery may have lasted a good deal longer in rural areas.
3. Biffing left and right, including pre-eminently PAKISTANI (you’ve got a typo there, vinyl), which I couldn’t figure out until coming here. (Nor did I figure it out here, for that matter.) Also ORIGAMI, REGULARLY, INERTIA, etc., but did parse them at leisure after. A nice Mondayish puzzle.
   1. ‘Kist’ seems to be some sort of Scottish dialect word for a coffin or large chest. I can find no confirmation that it is stone, however.

      Typo again corrected.

      1. Sorry; that was badly worded. What I meant was that being told is not figuring it out.
4. Either I possess the requisite amount of cleverness, or this was just quite easy. Either way, I had it all done and dusted in 20 minutes + change. Had a quiet chortle over the agricultural conveyance clue.
5. Nice straightforward Monday fare. Having just returned from holiday, I’m still in Far North Queensland mode, which seems to have slowed me down by about 21 seconds.

   Thanks setter and blogger.

6. 
   Managed in just over 8 minutes which is around my zenith.

   I would recommend the ‘I-Spy’ books from the fities to our American friends who have never heard of milk float.

   horryd Shanghai

7. 17 minutes which must be near my PB if I knew what it was. I can’t be sure I’ve ever beaten 15 minutes but have the vaguest recollection I may have done.

   Didn’t know DRIFT-SAIL but didn’t need to, nor KIST, which apparently is an alternative to “cist”. Chambers confirms it’s made of stone whereas Collins has it as consisting of stone slabs or a hollowed-out tree-trunk. In looking this up I came across “kist of whistles” as a church organ, which I rather like.

8. 14:19 .. I was a bit slow on the uptake on some of these, but I enjoyed them when the penny dropped.
9. 11m, slowed down a bit by a careless SUB-EDITOR. What’s the term for bunging in from the wrong definition?
   Straightforward but with a few unfamiliar words to help get the brain in gear on a Monday morning. I remembered learning that bitterns boom from a past puzzle.
   1. “What’s the term for bunging in from the wrong definition?”

      I’m thinking Biffed On Mistaken Basis, so bombed. Is it okay to nest acronyms?

      1. I was thinking of Biffed On Line Letting Over Confidence Kill Success.
      2. Me too, which meant I puzzled over 19a for a while before I realised my mistake. 17:51.
   2. 20 minutes because I, too, put in SUB EDITOR and DOORWORKS was never going to be right. It should have been a very quick time. I can think of a word for what I did but not to be used on this blog?
10. Easy even for a Monday
11. Another SUB-EDITOR here, stuck when the crossers S-B —T– appeared but luckily IRONWORKS dawned on me. Quite a few here solved by thinking of a word then looking at the clue. 11:14
12. Not much to add. What is a DRIFT-SAIL? I can’t find it in any online dictionary and even a Google search draws a blank.

    Dereklam

    1. It’s a sail weighed down and trailed in the water as a sort of floating anchor.

       “A drift sail is one bent to a spar, weighted and bridled and streamed overboard as a drogue.”

       1. Thank you. That’s a lovely nautical definition! Where did you find it?

          It sounds like an improvised arrangement for use in emergencies. Judging by the rather vague definition, I suspect that the setter may be uncertain about it.

          There is a Hornblower story I read as a kid where Hornblower has the problem of stopping a slave ship ( I think it was called the Estrella del Sur or something similar) which can outrun their ship, so while it is in harbour the intrepid English sailors attach a sail to its stern (underwater) as a drogue. Once the ship is underway the drogue not only slows it down but tears the rudder from the pintles. Not exactly the same thing, I know, but thought I’d mention it.

          Dereklam

          1. Your Hornblower story does sound rather like a drift sail to me. I’m impressed with your memory!

             I sort of knew what it was, anyway (I’ve sailed a bit), but checked it online and found it in The Sailor’s Word-List: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms. It’s available in Google Books online. I tried to add a link to the page but LJ doesn’t like it.

             If you’re having trouble finding a collocation of two common words like “drift sail” in a search, it helps if you put them in inverted commas, so enter the following into Google (including the quotes):

             “drift sail”

             Edited at 2015-09-07 08:20 am (UTC)

             1. I’ve just got home and found it in Chambers, but I like your definition much better!
13. A shade over 15 minutes. My own drift sail was a confident STAND ONE”S CORNER as FOI, neglecting to read the whole clue. DITHERING eventually got me out of that one.
14. I managed SUB-EDITOR and STAND AND DELIVER, which, together with dreadful, hasty not-looking-at-the-screen typing rather slowed things down. It might have been better if I stuck to my original intention of doing all the across clues first when the first three surrendered pretty much without a fight. But male=HE, something about bitterns and something about well dressing at the next dished that. I flatter myself that I’d have got IRONWORKS easily without checking letters.
    A chuckle at the wain and the Flanders and Swan big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower omnibus.
15. 14 minutes, nearly BOMBed sub-editor, biffed 15d without knowing KIST, biffed the Japanese artwork, liked the iron working and the wain.
16. PAKISTANI went in with a bit of a quizzical expression on face, but other than that fairly plain sailing.

    Enjoyable puzzle – 3dn my favourite. Thanks to setter and vinyl1 for the blog.

    1. Biffing trumps quizzicality! No idea till I came here. Dolmen us about the extent of my barrow knowledge.
17. 6d. Milk float!
18. 6d. Anagram of a loft – penthouse
    1. No, it’s “O” in “FLAT”, as explained in the blog. Indirect anagrams are not allowed.
19. I was biffing left right and centre in the hope of a rare sub-10 but came in at 10:36.

    IRONWORKS the COD for me as it raised a smile.

20. 23 minutes. Easier than some Mondays have been. I didn’t bother to parse several clues. Glad I didn’t because I might have doubted PAKISTANI, KIST being unfamiliar. I did pause with NOTEPAPER, failing to see where TE came from (poet’s never being usually ne’er) but moved on. 26 was LOI, after 10, both of which held me up for a couple of minutes.
21. 9:37, pretty straightforward. As our blogger points out, I didn’t need to know about drift sails and kists to solve those clues.

    I enjoyed the iron joke.

22. In a rare foray into 15×15 (online) world I managed 27 minutes – which is about as good as my times have ever been. DNK ‘kist’ or the George Washington story but didn’t need to.
23. This is obviously an easy one for many of you, but as Jackkt says, it’s a good one for the less confident / experienced of us, and
    – oh joy! – I’ve completed it in about half an hour without recourse to any aids. Both a first and a record for me. Many thanks go to all you bloggers out there who give such clear advice and friendly support 🙂 Penny
    1. Welcome to TftT Penny. Hope that your time here will be helpful and enjoyable.
       1. Thanks Bigtone! P
    2. Welcome to TftT, Penny, and since you have referred to my comment I assume you also read my Quickie blog posted earlier. It’s gratifying to know for sure that we are read by more people than those who comment, though one sort of assumes this is probably the case.

       Edited at 2015-09-07 05:08 pm (UTC)

       1. Oh I read you all every day – I couldn’t do this without you guys! So thanks again – and keep up the good work 🙂 P
       2. Oh I’ve been following you all for ages! I find your advice invaluable, so keep up the good work! Thanks again P
24. 7 mins, so my run of decent times after a day’s work continues. Count me as another who almost bombed “sub editor”, but I couldn’t see where the D was in the wordplay so I decided to leave it until I’d solved 19ac, and SOB SISTER was eventually my LOI after the FACER/CHINA crossers. I don’t remember seeing “kist” before but as has already been pointed out above it wasn’t needed to solve 16dn.
25. Careless entering sub-editor, and then defeated finding a word 19ac. Doh!

    BW

    Andrew K

    1. This was 15 minutes of straightforward solving stretched out to 27 minutes by me. I have not been performing well on these puzzles of late, and I am inclined to lay the blame on my latest fad-diet. It involves simply replacing two meals per day with vodka and, although the pounds are falling away, it is not improving my concentration.

       NHO SOB SISTER, but fortunately “sub-editor” didn’t spring to mind. DRIFT SAIL was equally unknown, and I have added yachting to cricket and salmon fishing on my list of activities created and bejargonned solely for the benefit of crossword setters.

26. Speedy solve.
27. Got it right in the end after correcting the ‘bombed’ ‘sub-editor’ (as others have also done), and having ‘biffed’ ‘notepaper’. Just as well that the latter was correct, as I’m not sure that I would have seen the parsing, so thanks for that Vinyl, – and for the test of the blog. Cliffhanger for Northern Ireland in the football, and very sad for Scotland after a commendable effort against Germany
28. 6:33 here for a pleasant, straightforward start to the week.

    I could have been significantly faster if I’d taken more of the several possible biffing opportunities. However, I might have come to grief, as my first thought for 12ac was DRIFT-RAIL, assuming that it was similar to a TAFFRAIL.

    1. I nearly put in ‘drift-rail’ myself, Tony. Fortunately, I saw the Irish House in time.
       1. I think it must actually have been the “split’s” that you saw.
          1. Nope. If you see ‘Dail’, then what’s inside cannot be ‘riftr’, can it? Not unless it’s Old Norse….
             1. But if you only saw “Dail”, you might not notice what was actually inside. Whereas you have to see “rift’s” to eliminate DRIFT-RAIL.

                PS: I’m hoping that this conversation, delightful though it is, isn’t going to go on too long, as I’m in the process of writing a couple of letters to my solicitors pointing out their latest pieces of incompetence, and finding it a bit exhausting at the end of a tiring day.

29. About 35 minutes for me (I think a personal record) and almost finished on the day it came out!

    DNK the second meaning of Facer and The Ring was only distantly familiar, but the answers were fairly clear.

    I’m still in the dark about George Washington. Again the answer seemed clear but I feel a bit thick here as no one else seems to have needed further explanation, so if anyone could further clarify?

    That said, all very enjoyable and not just because it was at my level. I particularly liked Ironworks.

    1. The second definition refers to American History as taught to little kids. You can Google something like “George Washington never told a lie” and find out all you need to know.
       1. Thanks for this vinyl1 – something else for me to tuck away in my knowledge bank. Not, then, some obscure piece of upright furniture or cockney rhyming slang as I had in my head!
30. Many thanks for the blog as always. Cleared up a few unknowns for me.

    Just to clear my understanding of the category of clue in 5d, my first impression was that it was a cryptic def, not a dd..?

    Regards,
    Harry

    1. You could take ‘but does it convey’ as one definition, and ‘universal delight’ as the other, or just call it a cryptic definition. Makes little difference.

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