Times 26836 – you can’t fool me, Times Crossword Club!

68 comments on “Times 26836 – you can’t fool me, Times Crossword Club!”

1. Came here for the parsing of Egyptology, not disappointed (then again, where’s the anagram indicator?)

   Mostly a good puzzle, but I don’t like paragon for pattern

   And if someone could explain how/why EY = centre, I would be grateful

   1. The anagram indictaor is SUPPLY

      EYE is centre (think of a hurricane), remove the last letter

      PARAGON in Collins Dictionary “a model of excellence; pattern”

      1. Oh supply as an adverb. Tricksy. And eye was not looking properly at EY, thanks.

         Paragon for pattern might be technically correct, but I still don’t like it. Can’t think of a single instance where I could exchange one word for the other

         1. You may be pleased to hear that I didn’t parse EGYPTOLOGY or work out why EYE was a centre, so you’re in good (ish) company…
         2. paragon of virtue = exemplar for behaviour
   2. It is ‘eye’ shortly, or without the last letter, as in the eye of a hurricane.
2. ….picking away here and there, hoping for a crossing letter or two. I might have been stuck if ‘happy as a sandboy’ hadn’t come up in the Sept 2 Saturday puzzle. I skipped the parsing of ‘Egyptology’, and struggled at last over ‘cameleer’.

   Hobart, eh? U of Tasmania? That must be quite off the beaten path from an academic standpoint.

   1. Yep, did postgraduate studies – it is not one of the biggest universities in Australia but it has an excellent reputation (good enough to withstand the insult of me being an alum)
      1. I had to use an aid to get HOBART (though it was my papaw’s middle name). Lucky you!
3. I had the 99% warning, too, but ignored it; not that it mattered, as I’d failed to get 9ac. Totally missed the ‘bloom’ bit, and never thought of UR (of the Chaldees). Like Vinyl, I biffed EGYPTOLOGY, and was helped to recall 4d by its recent appearance (and HAPPY). DNK the owl, but it seemed to have to be. One of these days, I’ll remember what ISINGLASS is; thought it was mica.
   1. It’s glassine I always it get confused with, and today was no exception.
4. Liked quite a few of these, couldn’t parse quite a few too. A big hold up was getting the M in 9ac right off and assuming Bloom’s partner was good old Molly. So about 45 minutes. Thanks GLH and setter.
   1. Exactly what I did; I don’t think I ever got her out of my head.
      1. Yes I did, yes.
         Makes me think that ****** the setter saw us coming and left a carefully planned trap.
         1. Glad I’ve never heard of her!
   2. I did that too. Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes… no.
5. with LOI 14ac DONNE news = NN ah! and Donald Trump told us it was CNN (but that’s Fake News from him with the fake tan!?).

   7dn PARAGON held me up considerably – not a proper clue for me or Lou Weed!

   FOI 10ac ERIN

   COD 11ac EGYPTOLOGY

   WOD 16dn CAMELEER

   Does Lou Weed’s Stalinist Mister Man ‘avatar’ annoy anyone else!?

   1. Well, it’s very red, but life’s too short. Red-kerchiefed skulls, on the other hand…
   2. It annoys me too
      I wish he’d hurry up and change it
6. DNF .. even after taking a break and coming back to it, I couldn’t crack the BRETHREN / CAMELEER pair. No good excuses — I was just way off-beam with my thinking on both clues.
   1. CAMELEER is what you call the mahout when he’s got the hump.
      1. I thought that it was the look you gave a camel when you had spent too long in the desert alone?
         Fortunately I was only in Riyadh for 2 years. They do have long eyelashes, though.
         1. 😀
7. Hard but enjoyable. 48 minutes all parsing included.
8. Found this an enjoyable challenge, done with coffee in the morning once more, slid in just under 8 minutes. Rather embarrassingly my last one in was 13d because I couldn’t shake NIGHTMARE out of my mind once I saw it fit the checkers.

   12ac comes up in crosswords a lot more than you’d think statistically normal, doesn’t it?

   1. Probably easily Googleable (?), but I wonder if anyone knows the name of the song from a vintage Broadway show and film that features the word ISINGLASS in its lyric?
      1. Saw a production of this at the Polesden Lacey open air festival.. as Curly hit O wha the skies opened and the lightning flashed biblical downpour for the rest of the performance.. being British stoics they carried on and most of the audience remained. Oklahoma.. Surrey with a fringe on top.
      2. The Surrey with a fringe on top? The crossword had me singing ‘People will say we’re in love’ last week. It’s the Oklahoma season.

         Edited at 2017-09-21 10:36 am (UTC)

      3. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s curtains is the only time I think I’ve ever seen the word used and like Jack I thought of it right away.
         1. Maybe I should have put that in the blog, since the Oklahoma reference came to me immediately. I was Ali Hakim in a 2015 revival at the Haywood Regional Arts Theatre. Looking all dapper and wooing Annie Oakley: https://georgevlistener.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/in_oklahoma.jpg
            1. Very dapper George 🙂
            2. Wrong show for Annie Oakley, George – that was Annie Get Your Gun by Irving Berlin. Ado Annie’s the girl in Oklahoma! There was some suggestion that Groucho Marx should play Ali Hakim in the original Broadway production but R&H didn’t want an established star. I’m not sure whether he was ever asked if he was interested.

9. Same as sawbill, about 35mins with a blank at CAMELEER. Parsed the others ok, though. Not sure I’d have got CAMELEER if I’d stared at it all day…

10. Struggled with this over 30 minutes, with CAMELEER being made up in desperation and STATESIDE resisting to the bitter end. Would have helped if I could have chucked in AGE GROUP, but with UP in place I couldn’t think of problems that ended GRO. Sometimes you just have to admit to being dense.
    I also failed to parse, though without really noticing, both EGYPTOLOGY and PESTILENCE, so perhaps it’s just as well it wasn’t my turn this week. Well done, George!
11. It’s a boost to my confidence that I can be a ninety degrees to a setter’s wavelength and still finish a puzzle, so thanks for that today, setter! As our blogger says, very “hunt and peck”…

    59 minutes and about 30 seconds, just getting in before my timer went off. I really hadn’t helped myself by an unjustifiable STEPMOTHER in 1a—one of my weaknesses is a tendency to biff wildly after a couple of clues where I can’t see the parsing (EGYPTOLOGY and the “little” of LITTLE OWL in this case.)

    I also wasn’t helped by a far more justifiable LAY OVER for 18d, but luckily I saw the error of my ways.

    FOI 5d REMOTE (when the first one in is the hidden you know you’re starting badly), LOI 24a HOBART, after eliminating HOLAWT and HODAST. I hang my head in shame, but I didn’t have our blogger’s advantages for that one… WOD CAMELEER, which I loved conjuring up.

    1. When the last one in is hidden you know you are finishing badly.

       Edited at 2017-09-21 09:28 am (UTC)

12. Strange puzzle with a vaguely Old Testament feel to it with those references to Egypt, Israel, PESTILENCE and camels. A smattering of excellent clues though with some clever wordplay that I enjoyed “hunting and pecking”. Thank you setter and nice one George
13. DNF. 35 minutes with only CAMELEER to get. Enjoyed the crossword but kept getting visions of this setter as a retired daydreaming vicar making his own beer.
14. Fits and starts for me,a long pause in the SE until a rush of brains to the head saw off the camel chappie et al. Always a sucker for the shortened abbreviation St today. About 30 with a microwave incident. Ty setter and G
    1. Now there’s a superhero origin story. “How did you get your amazing crossword-solving powers?” “Well, there was an incident with a microwave and a particularly recalcitrant Times puzzle. I don’t really like talking about it…”
15. 27 minutes. Quick to start, very slow in the middle and divine inspiration to see EGGY and MELEE at the end. A good workout I thought.
16. About 45 mins spanning hotel breakfast – including an eggy, plus delicious smoked haddock.
    Staying at The Cross in Kingussie (great name) – great place.
    Mostly I liked the eggy and the ‘bashful associate’. Cameleer (LOI) is a funny word.
    Thanks setter and George.
    1. Don’t give the setters any ideas – Ruler that is found with a ship in Scotland
       1. Neat.
          Went to Abernyte this afternoon.
17. Heavy going all the way, but I somehow managed to get it done in just under the hour.

    This was supposed to be my first crossword club submission but having got the 99% message, and then being presented with a grid that was entirely green (presumably meaning correct?) I gave up on the whole thing as a bad lot.

18. 48 minutes struggle. My trouble was in the NE, convinced that Bloom was Molly or Leopold or that the partner was Stephen Daedalus, difficult to fit into a six letter clue. UR of the Chaldees is so commonly used in crosswords too. I must be through MATURE and into my dotage. It then took me ages to plump for LITTLE to go with the OWL. We didn’t have a LITTLE six in the Wolf Cubs, my source for owl names. Biffed PARAGON on the basis of ‘For he is our childhood’s pattern’. But did get ISINGLASS, CAMELEER and BRETHREN quickly. Dearly Beloved Brethren, words from the Evensong of my youth, a few years later than Cubs; sweet sixteens as brilliantly descibed by Lonnie Donegan, waiting for the youth club afterwards. Happy days! Thank you George and setter.
19. It’s always UR. Dnk CAMELEER, although did ride a camel a couple of years ago in the Canaries. COD HAPPY AS A SANDBOY. 27′, thanks gl and setter.
20. I was held up at the end for five minutes retyping my entries in case I’d accidentally pencilled something in, due to the spurious 99% message. Grrhh. Still it was all in vain as I eventually submitted regardless, and found that I’d been duped into sticking with the wordplay at 24a and finished with a mombled HODAST. Eeejit! 40:42, but was really 35 and a bit. Apart from that I enjoyed this puzzle, teasing out all of the parsing as I went and raising eyelashes at the camel driver. STEPFATHER AND LOPE were my first two in, and the SW brought up the rear as I struggled with SLATED and PESTILENCE, whilst wondering about HODAST(but not enough). Thanks setter and George.
    1. 5 minutes? I finished, submitted, got the message, spent 15 or 30 seconds checking – all complete. Re-submitted, got the message and figured there was a glitch. Spent a little over 3 minutes (from a few seconds under 25 minutes to a few seconds over 28 minutes) retyping every single answer in the puzzle. So as a neutrino I’d be a bit over 3 minutes. Marvel at Magoo and even Tony Sever who’ve legitimately been under 4 minutes – unbelievable.
       Like others found there were a few tricky bits – HOBART (I’m Australian!), NEGOTIATE I knew the word I wanted but couldn’t bring it to mind, and SLATED were the last few in.
       1. You are very welcome here .. but do give a name. Anonymous comments lack something.
          1. Apologies – I thought I was logged in.
             1. Fortunately, I had my polite hat on 🙂
21. 31.06. One for the mature age-group. As spare in its way as a Donne Elegy. – joekobi
22. DNF, as I couldn’t think of a possible writer at 14ac (it seemed to be a girl’s name plus N) in half an hour. Apart from that 15dn was LOI, with rest done in about 20 minutes.
    I had the 99% message too, but assumed because I had one wrong, so didn’t submit to leaderboard.
23. Tough going for me at 41 minutes, with CAMELEER/ISRAELITE my LOsI. I thought this was a value-for-money puzzle (or would have been if I’d paid for it), nice and chewy and lacking in obscure plants and birds. Since I still can’t access the club site, I had no problems with “99%”.
24. Toughest one for a while, I thought, but all very fairly clued. I was done in 15m 4s, taking an age over NEGOTIATE, which I needed before I could fill in ISINGLASS & HOBART (never lived there or, indeed, heard of it).
25. Surprised to complete in about an hour. Didn’t like many clues as they seemed to stretch definitions too far. Definitely a biblical feel. Reports that the Liberal Conference had two adjoining stands – Friends of Israel and Friends of Palestine. Presumably a tunnel joining them. Great time Mr Blogger
26. Just me who found this pretty straightforward (or at least easier than average)? Anyway, 11:16.

    Way back in my student days I spent an “industrial placement” working in the brewing department at Shepherd Neame so was made aware of isinglass then. One of my jobs was to conduct guided tours and we had to explain where it came from and what it did.

27. I spent 24:53 on this on the train this morning picking at scraps and never really finding a rhythm. I got more into the swing of things at lunchtime and finished it off in 29:09. Chewy but enjoyably so, like a Cadbury’s Curly Wurly. Main hold up was ornithological ignorance prompting me to enter litter owl which made egyptology unfathomable until I reviewed all the crossing words and decided that litter was the most suspect and that little was just as plausible. Glad isinglass came up recently. Also took ages to see past nightrate, nightmare, nighttime etc at 13dn where n-g-t seemed to offer up night as the most likely start to the word. I enjoyed working out the unlikely looking cameleer.
28. Certainly a bit slower than usual but just over 30 mins, although not sure why. Nothing was impenetratable, it just took time. I blame the dog who does not get a walk until the crossword is finished and knows this. LITTLE OWL put in with a prayer as have never heard of them.
    1. I have visions of your best friend depositing a mangy tennis ball in your lap while issuing a high-pitched, cock-eared whine. Meanwhile, your dog is sleeping contentedly in his basket…
29. Over an hour, but all eventually in and parsed more or less correctly. Some of the wordplay was pretty complicated, eg 27a and 4d and there were a few unfamiliar words such as CAMELEER to hold me up. I liked the ‘What some soldiers get’ and the ‘Bashful associate’. Also good to see UR as something different than the usual ‘old city’, even if I was thrown by the ‘biblical site’, which meant MATURE was my last in.

    I can’t get that certain 12a song out of my mind “Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry…”

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

30. 27 minutes for all bar three, then another 15 for those. Cameleer is a smashing word, but COD to happy as a sandboy because dad used to say it and it’s beautifully bizarre. A variation (jolly as a sandboy) comes up in The Old Curiosity Shop, in which an inn is called The Happy Sandboys.
31. Another one whose first though for Bloom’s partner was Molly.
    I thought this was an excellent puzzle. I particularly liked EGYPTOLOGY,HAPPY AS A SANDBOY AND NEGOTIATE. COD to EGYPTOLOGY.
    Spent too long trying to make LESSER OWL fit the clue.
    77m 18s
32. Nice puzzle – I too got the erroneous ‘99% complete’ warning, biffed a few here and there (EGYPTOLOGY etc), and wondered about MOLLIE for a while.

    I love HOBART, not too far south of me here in Melbourne, as it is an anagram of ATHROB. Which in turn fits nicely inside a BATHROBE.

33. 12:12. I didn’t get a chance to comment on this yesterday, and today’s blog isn’t up yet so I will comment on this one now, even though at this point no-one is going to read it. I obviously found this more straightforward than many, particularly considering I had LAY DOWN at 18ac, thinking DOWN and ‘have’ could both be synonymous with ‘drink’. It took me a while to reconsider this which made PESTILENCE possible. I quite liked this: some odd words with usable wordplay.
    1. I’ve read it. No surprise that one of us finding it straightforward also meant the other did.

       Edited at 2017-09-22 07:24 am (UTC)

       1. Yes I thought the same when I saw your comment.

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