Times 26,435: The Peeping Tom’s Tale

56 comments on “Times 26,435: The Peeping Tom’s Tale”

1. I wasn’t having a bad week until today. This was a brick wall of a puzzle for me. After my hour I had six answers. Because I was up early I tried for another half an hour and got a seventh. But I can’t see too much in here that should have stymied me that much. (I may not have got the unknown HEDGE SPARROW or FRANKLIN, even having guessed correctly at the diarist, but the rest all seem quite gettable now.)

   Thanks for the education. One thing — I didn’t put in FEARSOME because I couldn’t see where the SOME comes from. I still can’t!

   Edited at 2016-06-10 08:53 am (UTC)

   1. My thinking was along the lines of ‘that’s some crossword!’ = ‘that’s a remarkable crossword!’.
      1. Clearly jackkt gets out more than me.
         1. Hah! Thanks both.
   2. You might say “that was SOME party!” meaning it was remarkable.
      1. But does it pass the direct substitution test? I must admit I hesitated over that one, but what else could it have been…
         1. It would work in the plural: ‘those were some parties’. But I’m not sure it’s ever used like that.
   3. Some cars are red. My car is red. Therefore my car is some car!
      1. I can’t see anything wrong with “some” = “remarkable”. Perhaps the most famous example is Churchill’s response — “Some chicken! Some neck!” — to the sneering comment in December, 1941, of Marshal Petain, soon to become leader of France’s Vichy Government, that Britain “would have its neck wrung like a chicken” if it continued to defy Nazi Germany.
         1. The issue is just that in most cases ‘some’ would be replaced with ‘a remarkable’ rather than ‘remarkable’. But your example works.
            1. Actually I think I’ve hit on a good one: “You’ve got some nerve!”
               1. Ooh yes, that is a good one!
2. I managed to spoil a week’s successful solving by bunging AERIAL in 2D as the train rolled into Waterloo and I wanted to get finished. This after having agreed with topicaltim this week that if you can’t parse it it’s probably wrong! A couple of minutes thought after detraining got me the correct answer ABROAD.

   I’ve been consistently around the 30-40 minute mark recently. Going back perhaps 6 months to a year I was solving quicker, so to my mind the general standard has got harder recently. Has anyone else noticed this? Of course it could be that I’m getting worse. If this has been deliberate on the part of the setters/editor then I thank them for it – much prefer more of a challenge.

   1. I think the difficulty level just fluctuates naturally. I keep track of my times (I like to measure my progress, terrible geek that I am) and there are just periods when the puzzles are harder or easier. I’m sure it’s not done on purpose.
   2. I definitely agree level of difficulty has gone up recently, specifically in the last 3 weeks, either that or my brain is going, since all becomes clear after coming here.
3. Heart sank, like Jack, when I saw ‘Italian football team’, but sorted it. Failed to parse both BRAINBOX and FRANKLIN. Thought of vest and pants, now question occurs, is a sports bra underwear? A good workout again, 31’30”.
   1. A freeholder, a man who is not a serf; which I must confess I did not know until I looked it up just a second ago. But some dim memories of Chaucer having written a “Franklin’s Tale” must have resurfaced at a crucial moment.
4. The top half was done at a canter, SW at a trot, and SE like a recalcitrant donkey. I’m obviously still an idealist, I didn’t link PRECIOUS with COSTLY for a long time. Or maybe it was the tears in my eyes from 20 Across.
5. 22 minutes, and a fun solve. There is something very special about the clue for CASTRATI, starting with that terrific definition.
   It took me a long time to remember that pong (and similar) translates to B.O. I’m looking forward to “game of pong?” as a clue for TENNIS, which works if you allow for the space, or possibly even if you don’t.
   1. I hadn’t seen B.O. in a crossword for ages, but it’s been in both of the two I’ve solved today. I find it unsurprising that B.O. is a bit like buses.
6. Four and a half Verlaines – south east corner held me up in what was a fairlyable offering for a Friday.

   FOI 2dn ABROAD
   LOI 27ac COSILY

   COD & WOD CASTRATI

   DNK Frankin’s Tale – assumed it was to do with young Bejamin.

   horryd Shanghai

7. 57 minutes, either side of an appointment, for this splendid puzzle. I owe my knowledge of the ‘other’ sense of dungeon to Walter Scott’ Marmion, where it is I believe rendered ‘dunjon’, and my particular favourite was 5a (which needs numbering, V) ahead of 13 and 16d.

   Pondered the goddesses Artemis and Astarte – whom I thought a mere mortal while solving – until the penny dropped on Ariadne, who enjoys a kind of intermediate status – a bit like my wife, on reflection.

   I did wonder while solving if this or Napoli (first guess Torino) would give problems.

8. I also found this heavy-going but mostly rewarding. My heart sinks when I see such things as “Greek maiden” and “Italian football team” but neither proved insurmountable.

   Edited at 2016-06-10 09:05 am (UTC)

9. 24 min, with 2dn LOI, NW corner not yielding till I realised that the diarist wasn’t our old friend Elia.
10. One of the unsung benefits of the NHS is that it provides comfortable waiting rooms where one can solve crosswords in comparative peace whist waiting until 10.30 for Mrs DJ’s 9.45 consultant appointment!

    No problem with this one – nice steady solve. Liked the CASTRATI clue and the “source of lamb”. No problem with WAR homophone – assume that’s how he pronounced his name. And I’ve met the Greek girl before – sadly only in crossword land.

    1. I’m sure *he* pronounced his name like “war”, I just always expect someone to get shirty about the fact that “well, everyone *here* always sounds that final ‘r’…”
    2. I do hope Mrs DJ’s health is improving.

       Although it is always good to have time to do crosswords, the best way I know to get seen on time for a hospital appointment is to take a book you are desperate to finish. 99 times out of 100 you will get called in straight away.

       1. If only the NHS lexicon included the words “sorry for the delay.”
          In my experience these simple few words are never uttered however long the delay. One of the consequences of Free at the Point of Delivery I guess.
          1. Perhaps the (twisted?) logic is that apologising for the delay would just increase the delay.
    3. Good grief! The NHS waiting rooms in Dorset must be very different from those in London.

       On the other hand, our local NHS hospitals (Hammersmith, St Mary’s Paddington and Charing Cross – all part of the Imperial College Healthcare Trust and within easy reach by public transport) are first-class when they eventually get down to the actual business of treating you, so you win some and you lose some.

11. 30 mins for me. ‘Deprived Singers’ – lovely definition.
12. 31m. Crikey, talk about not being on the wavelength. I got completely stuck on this with five or six to go, and I think I went for ten or fifteen minutes without solving a clue! I managed to grind it out in the end but boy I found it hard. Of course now I can’t see why.
13. Over the 30 min mark but with distractions. Ran through my knowledge of NY areas and considered HARLEM but in my mind, I saw HAARLEM, the capital of the Northern Netherlands and a place which I must have had to visit 5/6 times a year for 23 years. Got there in the end with crossers. Not all parsed so thanks V.
    1. I’ve never been to Haarlem but this is all set to change in August as I’m off to a conference nearby for work. If you’ve got any Haarlem/Amsterdam tips!
       1. Haarlem is a fine and enjoyable city, unless you go out to the east, in which case you are on polder land, reclaimed from the sea and all industrial (the area is known as Waarderpolder). In all my visits, I have only about twice managed to pronounce this to the satisfaction of a Dutch taxi driver. What you get up to in Amsterdam is up to you.

          Edited at 2016-06-10 02:35 pm (UTC)

          1. I’ll probably sit in a cafe and do some crosswords in Amsterdam, to be honest…
       2. Many moons ago my late husband and I had to give the place a miss because they’d introduced voucher parking with impenetrable rules. We went to Leiden instead. Very rewarding. I later made a return solo visit to Haarlem. Nice cafe’s in the main square and good beer. (It’s the birthplace on Frans Hals btw. I remember visiting his museum. OK but imo not worth a major detour) I’d stick to the beer!
14. Off to a weak start when I tried to get BROAD into 2d and then started entering 3d into 4d (I still do my crosswords the old-fashioned way, with a pen). Fortunately I just about managed to get back into my stride, finishing in 13m 03s. LOI was 9ac, from wordplay.
15. Too tricky for me today… after about an hour I was left with four in the NW. Thought 9ac had to have Ann in it somewhere (sooo close), and didn’t see the FRANKLIN despite having studied his tale for A-Level English back in the day. Again with MULTIPLES I was so close, having thought of mules with an L in it. Didn’t see the requisite meaning for products, though.

    Thanks, V, for sorting it all out.

16. Incidentally, is the Toughie in the actual paper Telegraph? I had a flick through but I couldn’t spot it.
    1. Ooh, good question, I did it off a printout so I’ll have to ask. It is a stunning crossword (full of unbelievably clever things that only became visible to me after the event) though could easily take hours to complete, I tell you, hours.

       Edited at 2016-06-10 01:23 pm (UTC)

    2. I hear word that it *is* the paper Telegraph, in the middle somewhere, in the vicinity of some other puzzles?

       Edited at 2016-06-10 01:24 pm (UTC)

       1. Aha! Thanks, found it. I must’ve turned over two pages at once while searching in my hungover state. Still, at least I managed the standard cryptic during my lunch hour.

          I’ll bear in mind the toughness of the toughie. I’m in Clevedon this weekend to get away from some noisy neighbours, but looking at the rather damp forecast I could have a lot of time to kill indoors…

17. 13 mins plus Tippex – I did come to this much later than usual in the day and I’d already done the aforementioned Toughie so the cryptic brain wasn’t as quick as it might otherwise have been.
18. 30 mins which is about par for me on a Friday i.e. 3 x Verlaine. Nothing too obscure but I concluded FRANKLIN must be an author of some sort. Never did Eng. Lit. beyond “O” level so my Chaucerian knowledge is somewhat limited. LOI was OBSCENER.
19. I struggled with this one – brain can’t be on all cylinders today since looking back nothing was too too difficult, though a bit of GK. FRANKLIN had a question mark, though as soon as I saw the title of the blog I smacked myself on the head. Loved the clues for CASTRATI and BRAINBOX. MULTIPLES also very cunning.
20. 37 mins with the excuse that I took the knock in the middle of it, as has happened on a few Fridays of late. I join those who struggled in the NW and FRANKLIN was my LOI after the MULTIPLES/NAPOLI crossers. I’m another who, in retrospect, shouldn’t have made such heavy weather of it, even allowing for whatever amount of time I lost through dozing.
21. Regarding consultants, delays, the NHS and apologies, I can do no better than quote the philosopher Simpson: “I _never_ apologise. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way I am.”

    No idea of my time for this one, but probably around the half-hour mark, with HARLEM (inexplicably) and MULTIPLES being my LOsI.

22. Was comprehensively defeated by this one with 1a, 9a, 27a and 2d unsolved. I had a busy day with a visit to Durham for a guided tour of the Cathedral owned parts of the Riverside walks as part of the 150 Alumni celebrations, which cut short my morning session, and when I revisited later I got almost nowhere, only adding FEARSOME and TITLED to the grid. I then headed for St Mary’s Church in Stockton where my elder daughter was singing in Tees Valley G&S Society’s Spring Concert of songs from the shows, which was a Tour de Force 🙂 I then was whisked off to the said daughter’s abode where, being off the warfarin, I partook of a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz and a large single malt before blagging a taxi home and having another go at the crossword, which failed miserably. Having said that, I enjoyed the Shiraz and whiskey, it being last November before the knee op since I last partook in quantity. Unlike V, it doesn’t seem to have improved my solving ability, although it has kept me up until the wee hours. However, I have nothing to get me up early in the morning, so Saturday’s crossword may have to wait until Sunday. zzzz
23. Would one not say ‘more obscene’ ? Looks as though the solution has been constructed for the sake of the grid.
24. A rather belated comment as I needed to tackle and unsolved jumbo and forgot all about this one.

    A miserable 19:11 for me, spooked (with horrible predictability) by the vocalphobia-inducing 11ac. For no very good reason, I got it into my head that the answer was going to end in CI, and that the football club was one of those that a) I didn’t know and b) like JUVENTUS, didn’t obviously relate to a particular town/city. Doppio doh!

    Apart from that, an interesting and enjoyable puzzle.

    1. Look out for Atalanta of Bergamo.
       1. Chievo of Verona
          Sampdoria of Genoa (Genova)
          Lazio of Roma (Rome)
          Inter of Milano (Milan)
          etc.

          And for English crossword solvers (I always have trouble with the incorrect English crossword spellings of non-English words):
          Torino of Torino
          Fiorentina of Firenze
          Genoa of Genoa
          Roma of Roma
          Padova of Padova
          Livorno of Livorno. (Leghorn? That’s a giant chicken in cartoons!)

          Very tricky crossword, but got there in about 25 mins, NW the last in – Harlem unexpected and don’t know Chaucer so Franklin was a guess.
          Rob

25. ..but would someone be kind enough to explain the sweeper’s action (which will no doubt be blindingly obvious – so apologies in advance)?

    I’m with garden_mole with regard to ‘obscener’.

    Thanks

    1. If you pan with a camera, you sweep across the view
       1. aaaaargh! Of course. Many thanks 🙂

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