Times 26884 – a constant battle between technology and sleep deprivation

Author   glhPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 15:14, but it should have been a lot faster – when I got home from rehearsal my computer decided it needed to update and reboot, and that means I have sat here for nearly four hours waiting for my computer to be back in business.

Hopefully I can stay awake for as long as it takes to finish this blog.

As I was writing this I lost my connection, so had to save it to a Word file and do another restart. Let’s just call it not my day.

Away we go…

Across
1 OVERFEED: anagram of DROVE containing FEE(payment)
5 OOMPAH: A inside OOMPH(vigour)
9 INFORMER: INFER(reason) containing O(love), and RM(royal marines, men)
10 PINCER: PRINCE(young royal) with R(king) moved
12 OASIS: O(nothing), AS IS(left alone)
13 CAREERIST: IST(first) with CAREER(race)
14 HOUSE-WARMING: anagram of HOW,GERANIUMS
18 CASTERBRIDGE: CAST(pick players for), then BRIDGE(game) with ER(hesitation) inside
21 IN THE LOOP: IN THE LOO(where to spend a penny) and then P(Penny)
23 ABHOR: hidden in kebAB HORrified
24 LENITY: NIT(foolish person) in LEY(landscape line)
25 MINORCAN: MINOR(youth), CAN(detention center)
26 RECANT: RANT(diatribe) surrounding EC(group in Brussels)
27 STEERAGE: anagram of SEA,EGRET
 
Down
1 ORISON: O then SIR(lord) rising, ON(touching)
2 EFUSE: reversal of E and SUFFE(r)
3 FORESHORE: FORE(warning), then SHORE(sounds like SURE)
4 EXERCISE BOOK: ER(queen) inside EXCISE(tax) then BOOK(reserve)
6 OVINE: O(enophil)E with VIN(booze from abroad) inside
7 PACK IT IN: PACK(group of animals), then I(this person), TIN(can)
8 HERITAGE: you should never ask a lady HER AGE, surrounding IT
11 BROWNIE POINT: BROWNIE(cake) and PINT(beer) with O inside
15 RIGMAROLE: RIG(doctor), MA(degree), ROLE(job)
16 Friedrich SCHILLER: S(second), CHILLER(novel that is frightening)
17 ISOTONIC: I, SOT(drinker), then ON IC(e)
19 CHA-CHA: repetition of CHA(tea)
20 FRINGE: FE(iron), surrounding(clad), RING(jewellery)
22 EATEN: scheme ends in E, then A, TEN(number)

52 comments on “Times 26884 – a constant battle between technology and sleep deprivation”

  1. I was slowed down by a couple at the end, CAREERIST being my LOI, and only parsed post hoc. LEY took a while to remember, as did BROWNIE for some reason, long after getting the POINT. 18ac and 19d were gimmes, but I liked a lot of the other clues, e.g. 9ac for its definition, 2d, 7d, and my COD 1d.
  2. best crossword this week, even if it did feature obscure writers, books, nouns, prayers, and a homophone even I’m not shore of
  3. I’ve no solving time to offer for this one as I had interruptions and completed it over several sessions. But I can report that I was held up at the end by the unknown ISOTONIC (as ‘type of drink’) and LENITY. Two rather obscure words intersecting was not exactly helpful, but then I don’t suppose that’s in the 15 x 15 setters’ job description.

    George, you’ve a typo at 2dn with only one F in the answer.

    Edited at 2017-11-16 06:39 am (UTC)

  4. Finished in 44 minutes. Some LENITY (admittedly my last in) for a Thursday from the setter, though a few trickier ones, particularly in the SW. Even if ‘Corporation’ is a bit of a chestnut, I still liked EATEN and the related OVERFEED.

    Thank you to setter and blogger

  5. 21:13 .. enjoyed this a lot without ever feeling tuned into it.

    STEERAGE was my last in — a problem, as it allowed me to go on thinking 11d must end in PRIZE, which of course it doesn’t. The connected CAREERIST was the other big hold-up but worth the perseverance.

    FRINGE also tickled my fancy.

    Talking of perseverance … thanks, George.

  6. I was glad to be able to finish this after karaoke—and two more shots of whiskey (already had a double with my dinner sandwich) and one glass of wine. Had never heard of FORESHORE, and didn’t expect to find a dreadful American mispronunciation as a homophone (I grew up in West Virginia, where I heard that all too often). I wrote in LENITY chuckling to myself that it would be nice if there was indeed such a word (“ley” lines, of all things! I read about some wild theories back in the day). My LOI was CASTERBRIDGE, got strictly from the wordplay, as I am not terribly familiar with the works of Thom Hardy.

    Edited at 2017-11-16 08:19 am (UTC)

  7. 40 mins with yoghurt, granola, banana, etc.
    I really liked this: chewy in parts, witty, neat and some great, funny words: cha-cha, oompah and especially rigmarole (COD).
    No real hold-ups, just all the clues needed a bit of a brain work-out. Brilliant.
    Mostly I liked: Drove all over the place, person shopping, anag at 14ac, pick players for game, endure endless, Fore sure, pack it in, her age, tea dance and Rigmarole. Superb.
    Thanks setter (more like that please) and George.

    PS And Ironclad, and Sheepish, and Orison….. great work.

    Edited at 2017-11-16 08:29 am (UTC)

  8. Very tired today. Fell asleep with BROWNIE missing. A fair crossword with a few chestnuts but, then, it is almost Christmas.
  9. 20.17, and pleased with it, as this was a proper workout, as indicated above. My last two in were EFFUSE and OASIS, partly because “nothing left untouched” had to be OL-something.
    I believe the term for your beleaguered condition, George, is resistentialism, (“les choses sont contre nous”) coined or possibly purloined by Paul Jennings. People worry about the advance of artificial intelligence, but the truth is computers and their allies are always looking for ways of bu**ering up our lives. Sometimes they can be cowed by a stiff talking to, with a few choice Anglo Saxon words thrown in, but I believe it’s now against the law to administer a good hard whack round the motherboard. You have my sympathy.
  10. 19:35, standing on a crowded train so forced to do battle with the club site’s quite laughably dreadful iPad interface. Ah well, seeing the grid as you solve clues is overrated.
    Very nice puzzle, I thought. Trickiness not derived from obscurity. I don’t think I’ve come across LENITY before but it was close enough to ‘lenience’ for me to be sure even if I’m never certain how to spell LEY lines.
    11dn took me a while to see. I think of BROWNIE POINTS less as a reward than as a currency that can be traded for future rewards. Amounts to the same thing I guess.
    I’m puzzled by the objections to the homophone in 3dn. They sound the same when I say them, and whilst I don’t hold myself out as a model Collins confirms that I’m at least not an aberration.

    Edited at 2017-11-16 08:54 am (UTC)

    2. I knew this from Lucio’s comment to the Duke in Measure for Measure ‘a little more lenity to lechery’ in that wonderful scene where he disses the Duke to the Friar aka Duke in disguise.
    1. It shore is. What is it with this complaint about sure=shore. We’ve had it before. But I say them the same. Is it just me? Do others say shooer?
      1. Yes, I sat shooer, not strongly as it’s not an explosive, if that’s the right term in linguistics. So ‘sure thing’ naturally sounds sarcastic. * On edit. The ‘for’ in ‘for sure’ would be pronounced with a schwa too in Standard Lancastrian, whereas it would be fully pronounced in FORESHORE.

        Edited at 2017-11-16 09:40 am (UTC)

        1. If it were a requirement that a homophone has to work in every possible accent then we wouldn’t see any homophones! Some might not object to that, of course…
          1. I’m happy with homophones, K. I like a wide variety of clues. On this occasion there was a different sound in both syllables from what is a widely-used English accent, but I had no problem solving it. I only mentioned it as an aside as the matter had already been raised.
            1. A Lancashire man was sure
              That ‘pure’ rhymed with ‘skewer’
              His brother Luke
              Said: In by booook
              There should be less homophones… or fewer

              Edited at 2017-11-16 10:59 am (UTC)

  12. 27 minutes, ending with brownie points, where I couldn’t get past house points for a while. What an economical language Standard British English is, pronouncing sure, shore and shaw the same, with no one ever getting confused.
  13. 38 minutes with LOI INFORMER once I’d EFFUSEd enough. DNK LENITY but it made sense once I’d realised that a nut could also be a nit. COD IN THE LOOP followed by the smooth mayor of CASTERBRIDGE. I doubt if BROWNIE POINTs are available for not having sold one’s wife. On 14a, before the days of central heating, apparently guests were meant to bring firewood. Maybe it was a scuttle of coal. by Victorian times. Wiki tells me that, in Lancashire, the must-have present was a frog to bring fertility. I guess that explains the number of aunts and uncles I have. FORESHORE not a great homonym in the accent of the aforesaid county, by the way. Good puzzle though. Thank you George and setter.

    Edited at 2017-11-16 09:19 am (UTC)

  14. This took me 18 minutes but I forgot that lay lines are spelled ley lines thus coming up with LANITY. Should really have worked out it was LENITY from it’s similarity to lenience (I presume they’re derived from the same root).
  15. The Times reports that one Ralph Tarrant had to stop solving The Times puzzle a couple of years ago because he couldn’t read the clues. It’s encouraging to know, however, that he was 108 at the time. Pleasing, too, that he didn’t stop solving crosswords — he simply switched to a different puzzle with a larger typeface. Still going strong at 110.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/a-sherry-a-day-or-better-genes-the-secret-to-living-to-110-9bgrsfmqg

  16. 10.10 but somehow managed to enter BOOX instead of BOOK. One of those days when the obscurities weren’t obscure, the crossing letters fell most helpfully and only the typing failed.
  17. 20′ 45″ today, hooray! Familiar with FORESHORE as used to play in the River Orwell mud. Shrugged at the unknown LENITY, doesn’t one show lenience? Never did understand that line about ‘abhors not the virgin’s womb’, still don’t. COD OOMPAH. Thanks gl and setter.
    1. Yes, the line presents a certain divine fastidiousness for once in abeyance, or something. Surely an anachronism more worth replacing than Gladstone’s name from a Liverpool University hall of residence, the latest villain whose family (father) profited from slavery. Feel a bit guilty myself as I’ve always belted that line out and always will. 25.07 here.
    2. If one is serene, one shows serenity; if lene, lenity. I mean, duh. Actually, in linguistics one speaks, if need be, of lenition, e.g. in Spanish where b,d,g become β,ð,γ after a vowel. But no lenity.

      Edited at 2017-11-16 11:17 am (UTC)

  18. @15dn RIGMAROLE was my WOD.

    FOI 19dn CH CHA

    LOI 21dn EFFUSE COD 1ac OVERFEED – smart cluing.

    Time taken 44 minutes which seems to be par score for us tortoises.

    Enjoyable puzzle.

    I was missing yesterday as I was cruising downtown Shanghai on a shopping expedition. So a hiatus from me.

    I am informed our news papers are being delivered late as the Post Office still has an overload of undelivered parcels from Singles Day (11 Nov)
    when all of China shops on line for an entire day!! What rigmarole!

  19. A workmanlike 26 minutes for this pleasant offering. I have given up caring about homophones on the ‘life’s too short to stuff a mushroom’ principle.
  20. I was cruising along fairly comfortably until I was left with largish chunks of the NW and SW. Half a dozen clues here took me longer than the rest of the puzzle! Namely 1d, 2d, 9a, 17d, 22d and 24a. I eventually ground them out of the mental processor and submitted at 50:06. FOI FORESHORE, LOI ORISON. An enjoyable puzzle. Liked CASTERBRIDGE and EXERCISE BOOK. Thanks setter and George. Sympathies for the IT meltdown, George, I had my own battle yesterday after some forced Win 10 updates played havoc with Edge and Chrome!
  21. I’m running on 2 hours’ sleep today after getting home from a Lemon Twigs afterparty at 5am this morning – sadly the need to get the kids to school starting at 7am is non-negotiable. Pleased therefore to finish this inside of 8 minutes without really being able to feel my hands. Very happy to have bunged in CASTERBRIDGE as soon as the “Hardy official” penny dropped, unparsed. Quite liked the puzzle overall, seemed very to the point and unfrilly without sacrificing its sense of fun.
  22. Totally made me think of Valley-Girl-speak from the 80s when it was pronounced fer sherrr. CASTERBRIDGE was neat although I can’t read those Hardy books any more – too depressing. Sorry about the techno miseries George. Firefox just went ahead and changed my format in the middle of the night on Tuesday (without asking naturally, grrr). 18.33
      1. Funnily enough we were discussing Frank Zappa in the office this morning. The song in question was Bobby Brown though. Which if you haven’t heard, and decide to google, is probably NSFW (depending on the location I guess).n
    2. A month or two ago I I paid out quite a bit to an outfit called Zoom Support. It was a bit of a risk as their techos take over your computer and supposedly clean it up for you. It worked first time and again last night, although I had to spend about five minutes telling the woman ‘no, I don’t want to buy yet another level of belt-and-braces’ protection’. The result is that Firefox now operates normally again to the extent I can post comments on the Club site without being told I’m posting “malformed content”!
  23. Not having read Thomas Hardy 18 across was a bit difficult. I was pleasantly surprised after entering “casterbridge” into a Google search.
  24. Pleasant and more demanding than I thought it was going to be after a first run through the clues. Plenty of good things along the way. As far as I can tell from adverts on public transport, isotonic drinks are no longer the cutting edge of hydration and have been replaced by something called smartwater (though my suspicion is that anyone who’s prepared to pay a hefty premium for something indistinguishable from tap water needs something to give their brain a boost).
  25. Quite a masochistic solve this – quite enjoyed it with never really feeling like i was enjoying it. Or indeed should be.

    2 unknowns were last in – ORISON and LENITY (although the former did ring a vague bell somewhere, but only post-solve)

    My daughter is a Brownie – and carried the flag for her group at the Remembrance Day parade on Sunday, so no problem seeing her point there.

    25a – must remember that they are always mInorcans in the times, but i go on holiday to mEnorca. (See also Kos/Cos)

    Felt like a long solve so surprised in the end to only just go over 20 minutes.,

  26. 15:30. I got stuck in the NE corner on account of deciding that what you don’t ask a lady was just going to be AGE so I confidently put the A in as the first letter of 8d. Once I’d spotted the error and entered HERITAGE I immediately then got OOMPAH, OVINE and CAREERIST (attorneys at law) to finish off.

    I sure say sure and shore the same.

  27. Always enjoy Hardy references. My affection for his work dates back to ‘O’-Level Eng. Lit. when “The Trumpet Major” was a set book. If you liked “The Mayor of Casterbridge” you may also like (!) “The Claim”, a movie set in the days of the California Gold Rush but which uses The Mayor of Casterbridge story.
    Thanks, George, for INFORMER and PINCER. I didn’t see the movement of R in pincer and in INFORMERI was working as ‘men serving’ as OR, as one was meant to do, of course.
  28. Ugh. Got through in 40 minutes due to the brain not working well, along with a few unknown items, such as the Hardy reference, ley lines, ISOTONIC as a drink. Otherwise, I think it was mere mental sluggishness that slowed me down. My LOI was EFFUSE, which wasn’t that difficult once you read the clue correctly. Regards.
  30. 40m and 3rd all correct in a row so well pleased tonight. Slowly through this enjoyable puzzle, just my cup of cha (cha). ‘Lenity’ was a write in – Lucio wants more ‘lenity to lechery’ in Measure For Measure, a favourite play of mine. Enjoyed the Hardy reference and the Schiller (my lad’s ‘Mary Stuart’ hits the West End in the New Year, so another write in). More like this one please, setter! Thank you and George for the blog.
  31. DNF and feeling a bit deflated. I had four answers outstanding at the end and I’m pretty sure I have previously seen (and solved) at least two of them appearing in a similar guise. A third one should also have fallen with a bit of thought. The fourth was “effuse” an unfamiliar word but I could see what the word play required, just couldn’t put it all together. I’m having a bit of a run of rigid thinking and struggling to throw away ideas that aren’t working to come up with new ones at the moment. Maybe tomorrow’s TLS will refresh the parts that other crosswords cannot reach.

    Edited at 2017-11-17 12:21 am (UTC)

Comments are closed.