Times 26728 – know yours P’s and C’s

58 comments on “Times 26728 – know yours P’s and C’s”

1. Having finally brought 18d to its knees, I forgot to check 1d and 14ac. Well, I’d never heard of AEROBATICS, so why bother checking it? And ‘left guard’ is a position, right? And I actually knew of the LIFE GUARDS. DNK DOCUSOAP, and forgot about OAP, so I had to play with the alphabet, a lot. Ah, well, tomorrow is another day, rumor has it.
2. Though I didn’t fall into the ACROBATICS trap. Double checked the fodder though, just in case. I’ve an idea (in retrospect) that we might have had the (carp)ENTER device before, but that still didn’t help me get it. Most trouble in the right-hand side, especially at the foot of the grid where I was sure there had to be an N in 24dn, thinking chess notation. Where is it that “knight” becomes K? I’m sure there’s something simple I’m (still) overlooking. As ever!
   1. I delayed putting in DUKES for the same reason; but there’s a world outside of chess, and out there, it seems, K can stand for ‘knight’. As in KCB, for instance.

      Edited at 2017-05-18 03:45 am (UTC)

      1. Yeh … I did think of KBE etc. But I’m a bit low on partial abbreviations. They open up the doors to all sorts of silly possibilities. E.g., could E = EDUCATIONAL from UNESCO?
         1. That was just off the top of my head, but I agree with you. And I notice that ODE does not list ‘knight’ under either K or k.
            1. It’s not in Collins, but it is in Chambers. So it will just have to stand at that eh?
         2. I’ve heard people on TV shows talking about someone “getting his K” meaning his knighthood. Seems close enough.
3. Another here with ACROBATICS (sigh). Also failed to parse ENTER. Rather a good puzzle, I thought.

   Edited at 2017-05-18 02:45 am (UTC)

4. For me it was a puzzle in two halves, or more accurately three-quarters and a quarter.

   Sped through most of it, then got bogged down in the Cape York corner, mainly because of having LEAN instead of PLAN for some reason (think I read “power” as “energy” or something). Not so bad once that was sorted, though TOCSIN took a while and I never did parse ENTER.

   Just managed to dodge the ACROBATICS bullet. Thanks setter and George.

   1. I also had “power” as “energy” for a bit and came up with “mean” for “intend”: “E” in a Medium Area Network. Seemed reasonable at the time.
      1. MAN actually stands for Metropolitan Area Network, so it’s a valid interpretation
         1. Good job it didn’t fit the crossers! I suppose it’s possible that someone will clue MAN with “network” at some point, then…
5. Another ACROBATICS one here. Took far too long on GENT for some reason, my LOI (well, not counting ACROBATICS which never went in correctly)
6. 12:00 … no great problems, although the southwest stayed empty for a while.

   Hats off to the clue for ENTER. I love that surface [Gain access to chips but not fish (5) ]

7. About 45mins over porridge and banana. I don’t know what took so long as nothing too tricky. I was helped by the wordplay on Tocsin (not a word I am too familiar with) – and helped by the ease with which you can turn a C into an E in Aerobatics.
   The old chestnut I remember is ‘Come in after fish and chips’ so one sight of a fish/chip combo and Bob’s your uncle.
   Thanks setter and blogger.
8. 11.52, and very glad I didn’t even think of ACROBATICS, otherwise I’d be slumming it in the back pages with the rest of you (tee-hee).
   I wondered whether there was a Trump thing going on here, with “off the cuff gent” and “tocsin docusoap” in close proximity: “Mr President, have you been playing with that button again?” (doom doom doomdoomdoomdoom). But I couldn’t quite make “prescient poser” work, or “contempt Buddha”, come to that, and it’s not “golden thriller”, that’s for sure. “Data tomfoolery” could be part of it, though.
   Nice gentle puzzle, loved (carp)ENTER, which I’m pretty sure we’ve seen the other way round, but as Sotira says, the surface is a thing of beauty.
9. 36 minutes here, so 3 minutes longer than for yesterday’s Championship qualifier. Starting to feel like I’m on a roll.

   Happily avoided acrobatics (a lifelong choice of mine) and managed to guess the right GUARD, though if I’d thought of “left” I might have been in trouble. Biffed a few, so happy to have the parsings, especially for 8d. I miss “chips” for “carpenter” every time it comes up, it seems.

   Happy with “K” for “knight” as I’ve heard “getting his ‘K'”, too—my guess would be Yes Minister; perhaps the episode “Doing the Honours”.

   All in all, a good start to the day. Thanks to setter and blogger.

   Edited at 2017-05-18 07:44 am (UTC)

   1. Yes Minister sprung to mind for me too. Also pretty sure it comes up in the Le Carre books, perhaps Tinker, Tailor or Honourable Schoolboy, during small-talk amongst sundry ministers and mandarins.
      Otherwise mostly quick but 3 or 4 at the end took forever to get, including ENTER – totally missed (the known) CHIPS, in an excellent clue.
10. Lots of “I really ought to have remembered that from a previous puzzle” going on here, esp. TOCSIN and orbit = EYE SOCKET. Chips = Carpenter aren’t linked in for me, hopefully they will be henceforth… PAYMASTER was a bit of a wing and a prayer as LOI. COD goes to ENTER, even if it’s been done before.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

11. 22 minutes but another with lazy ACROBATICS. CODs to BUDDHA and ENTER both of which I feel we have had before?
    My local is The Horseguards so I am used to discussions about regiments.
12. LIFE GUARD maybe well known to manrchists and most people in UK, along with Household Cavalry. COD ENTER. In 21d, are the words ‘running water’ redundant? Thanks gl and setter.
    1. Yes but the surface is better with them included? Also, it makes the clue harder as one might think H + the name of a river. Hot and cold taps would have been shorter but too easy?
       1. “c” is actually a recognised abbreviation for cold water
13. About 35 minutes, but falling into the ACROBATICS trap, which was far too tempting a biff. I spent much of my time in the NE corner, where I kept trying to think of a word beginning in T for a person from a certain region of Scotland, which I now realise is Teuchter, and was not the answer anyway.

    I had no idea of the parsing for ENTER but now I do that’s a clear COD. Great clue.

14. 22.41 – should have been quicker. Lost focus half way through, including a couple of minutes trying to solve a clue in the wrong position. Anyone got the number for Specsavers?
15. Never quite got going with this one so it became a bit of a struggle. Got there in the end and no real complaints. (carp)ENTER certainly not original. Didn’t know the Arizona city but had come across DOCUSOAP before. Never even thought of “acrobatics”!
16. …still nobody whould have thought me the Son of God but I might have parsed 8d. I had a dog called Rex from 1949 to 1965, a wonderful companion from infancy to adulthood, but who had had his tail docked before we got him, as was the wont back then. 2d still vigorously applied, but with a little stub. Found this tricky today, taking 40 minutes, with DOCUSOAP construction the LOI. I hope I never watch one. In fact I would prefer not to see either of the component parts again. COD TOMFOOLERY for putting almost every pudding I could think of in front of me first. What kind of fool am I? Thank you George and setter.
17. … who wrote in ACROBATICS without properly checking the anagram. And like jackkt didn’t parse ENTER. A slow 35 minutes. Good puzzle, liked the chips no fish once explained, and the eye socket clue particularly. Thanks George.
18. On a bap currently 15 for the qualifier and today. No doubt tomorrow will kick me off the perch. Have to admit I didn’t twig the carp. Tocsin is for some unknown reason my default for alarm so deep joy when it appeared today.
19. 11:49. I’m glad I didn’t think of ACROBATICS first because I’m pretty sure I’d have bunged it in.
    I wondered about K for ‘knight’ but not for long, since I had the K from EYE SOCKET and there aren’t many noblemen with a K in the middle. Speaking of EYE SOCKET, ‘orbit’ in this sense was something remembered from relatively recent puzzles, as was TOCSIN. Some of these things do find their way into my non-15dn memory over time, which is encouraging.
    1. >there aren’t many noblemen with a K in the middle

       True, but I couldn’t think of any until I had the D as well. Duh.

20. Comes in Tale Of Two Cities. 15.05 which included a violent fit of sneezing (tree pollen probably) when of course there was nothing resembling a handkerchief anywhere near.
    1. Clearly the trees are not Davidia involucrata.
21. Pleasant middle of the road stuff, except for DOCUSOAP, which is an ugly word (obviously the setter is not to be held responsible for this, any more than I blame him/her for the existence of EDUTAINMENT or DRAMEDY).
22. Left guard for me, plus a typo, so a fairly undecided fail.

    Ulaca – gearing up for the champs.

    1. That should be ‘unepic’. Even that failed…
    2. If you’re serious (and why wouldn’t you be?) I look forward to seeing you in November.
       1. I think I’ll wait till the AM is up to scratch…
23. I managed to avoid falling into the safety net during my 14a, but biffed ENTER and got TOCSIN from WP. Up this way the usual term for a woodworker is a Chippy, in the same way as a bricklayer is a Bricky. Great clue! I also managed to get LIFE GUARD correct. 30:42 or 29:13 if you don’t count the time taken to answer the door to the delivery person. Liked BUDDHA. Thanks setter and George.
24. I got aerobatics right and got away with biffing enter and exist but not so LEFT GUARD, where accounting for F, the anagram of “a drug” and “position” was enough at the time. Is there a left guard in American football?
    1. There certainly is, and, indeed, a Right Guard, who is doubtless more fragrant.
       1. Love it!
25. Route 66 lyrics. …
    You’ll see Amarillo
    Gallup, New Mexico
    Flagstaff, Arizona
    Don’t forget Winona
    …….
26. Just on the 20 min mark so much the same as yesterday’s qualifier. The latter probably not good enough.

    Went along with OFF THE CUFF although I have no shirts with buttons on the cuff. All double-cuffed needing cufflinks.

    Much preferred the format of M C C Rich’s Championship a quarter of a century ago. Anyone could attend a regional qualifier (if successfully completing a stated puzzle or if necessary, an eliminator) and you met all sorts. I was delighted to solve my four puzzles quicker than chess Grandmaster Jon Speelman and as pairs could also compete, it was a pleasure to meet Jane Asher and her mother. It was sponsored then though.

    Edited at 2017-05-18 05:18 pm (UTC)

27. Completed in about 40 minutes but have never heard Gent = Cove ?? So this went in with toes crossed. Toyed with Acrobatise until I solved the anagram correctly. COD 27a for me. One in the eye for Kim maybe. So combining 28a and 25d I predict another miserable failure for tomorrow. Thanks all
    1. Has nobody ever said you were a rum cove?
       1. Odd, isn’t it? I don’t think I remember seeing it as a stand-alone word; it always seems to be coupled with mildly derogatory adjectives: “he was a queer old cove”, etc.
    2. A youth spent reading P.G. Wodehouse made that a write in for me 🙂
28. 11 mins. RETENTIVE was my LOI after the GENT/PRESCIENT crossers. I never considered “acrobatics” for 14ac because I saw the “e” in the anagram fodder and I interpreted “some spinning off the ground” as an air show almost immediately. Everything was parsed as I went along so I was pretty much on the setter’s wavelength, although not as much as was for yesterday’s qualifier.
29. About 20 minutes, ending with raised eyebrows at the widely separated GENT and LIFE GUARD. I think I’ve seen the fellow=cove usage in these puzzles somewhere along the line, but it’s not part of my vocab, and the LIFE GUARD cavalry person is completely new, as far as I can remember. I resisted ‘acrobatics’, my immediate thought, due to the “e” sitting there, so that worked out OK. Regards.

    Edited at 2017-05-18 05:27 pm (UTC)

    1. From the online etymology dictionary:
       cove (n.2)
       “fellow, chap,” slang from at least 1560s, said to be from Romany (Gypsy) cova “that man.”
30. Over the hour (and the hill) today coming to a grinding halt halfway through and needing aids to complete. No complaints, mind, just not up to the task today. Thanks for the blog – ENTER would have had me scratching me head for long enough!
31. A quickish solve for me taking up 24 mins on the morning commute and a further 10 mins at lunchtime. Still an enjoyable challenge though with lots of decent clues, I rather liked the last 3 acrossers. Thanks for the explanation of life guard for which I just followed the word play and entered with a “well that must be a cavalryman then”. I actually wrote out the anagram fodder at 14ac which helped avoid the acrobatics trap. FOI 1ac. LOI 8dn. COD to the rather neat 16ac.

32. Came here to find out how ENTER worked. And found I’d gotten AEROBATICS wrong. Bah.

33. 10:45 for me, but with ACROBATICS. I’m relieved to see I wasn’t the only one, but annoyedwith myself as it’s my first mistake for quite some time. Strangely, in all my years of solving, I don’t recall coming across this trap before (unlike yesterday’s TENOR v. TUNER, which I seem to remember falling into many, many years ago).

    Must make a note of it!

34. Well, at least I’m in the majority (ACROBATICS, I mean. If even Tony bunged that in, I really don’t feel so bad). Of course I was in the majority in the US election as well, the three-million-vote majority, and what good did that do us? And of course I couldn’t parse ENTER either.

    Nice puzzle it was.

35. Route 66 lyrics. …
    You’ll see Amarillo
    Gallup, New Mexico
    Flagstaff, Arizona
    Don’t forget Winona
    …….
36. Why not “Left” GUARD as a position in American Football ??

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