Times 26944 – for want of a queue

57 comments on “Times 26944 – for want of a queue”

1. ….as I got stuck at about 20 minutes, but I had to get up to turn over the record. As usually happens, when I returned to the puzzle everything suddenly became very obvious. I was left with 13, which I assumed was some sort of obscure textile term, only to light upon a common word.

   I had assumed that ‘verset’ was some physical part of the organ, but the cryptic was enough to provide the correct answer.

   Here in the US, the ‘degree day’ is a measurement usually given in the weather report, to show how much oil you can expect to be using in your furnace.

2. Well, I never… I couldn’t finish because there wasn’t a word that went CRA?ING that fit the definition, and I had LUISA for 7 down—that seemed obvious, with the L for “large” and the “country” being “USA,” and the “I” lost, although I didn’t much like it. Unfortunately, my objection to the clue holds just as well for LINDA, where the country is India. The clue says “where I lost,” which is horrible pidgin English when the cryptic meaning is parsed, and not “where I is lost,” which wouldn’t fit the surface and doesn’t sound like good grammar either, but if I were writing that clue, I’d rethink the whole thing then.

   “Sent” is in 19ac only for the surface, which was confusing for a bit.

   I thought I would never get the one that goes “Clay um I adapted…,” as “Clay um” is only seven letters and it was obviously an anagram. Really, Times, change the freaking font already.

   I liked “carrier of canvas” for “ketch” in 9.

   Edited at 2018-01-25 05:47 am (UTC)

   1. But I isn’t lost in LUISA, it’s smack dab in the middle. And ‘where I lost girl’ is fine, no? Still, I suppose ‘where I left’ would have been better.
      1. I was thinking the idea of saying the “I” is “lost” was, like, what is it doing there? There’s no “I” in USA, so the “I” wandered in from somewhere!
         In any case, “where I lost girl” is fine for the surface. But the cryptic meaning is that the “I” in “India” IS lost.
         Where clue stupid.
   2. Agree on the font. I also read “um” for “urn” until I had enough checkers to see the answer and reverse engineer the clue
      1. Me too with the font.

         (Ditto the late entry for Culinary today)

3. I got stuck at about the same time as Vinyl, with 16ac, 25d, and LOI 23ac eluding me. DNK 11ac or 29ac, but in both cases the wordplay was enough. (Jon’s definition of DEGREE DAY was new to me, as where I come from we don’t use oil in our furnaces.) Also didn’t know that a GROUNDHOG was a marmot (or a woodchuck, for that matter), but the G was inviting, and for once my biff was correct, although I didn’t parse it until post-submission. 17d was troublesome, too, as I attached ‘extremely’ to ‘loving’ to get LG. Having finally straightened that out, I thought of calzone, which I hadn’t thought of as pizza, and Bob was my uncle. COD 13ac; loved the definition.

   Edited at 2018-01-25 05:58 am (UTC)

4. Stuck with one left again, zone. Searched for a hidden in desperation!

   Couldn’t parse lied (was = lived).
   Dnk (s)ketch and crannog.

5. All but three answers in 30 minutes but after another 15 I settled for a technical DNF and used aids to get the unknown CRANNOG as my last one in. Other unknowns, but worked out from wordplay, were CHIGGER and VERSET (despite having a degree in music). And talking of degrees, I never heard of DEGREE DAY which in my experience is more usually ‘Graduation Day’ or ‘Presentation Day’ or the like.

   I’d vaguely heard of ‘calzone’ as something 28ac but had no idea what it was or that it was associated in any way with a pizza. I was pleased to remember ABALONE, something learned from previous puzzles.

   Edited at 2018-01-25 07:07 am (UTC)

6. 44 minutes, with most of the last ten spent on 11a, and quite a while spent on 7d to get there. Couldn’t get “Laura” out of my head!

   As it turns out, I’ve actually been to a CRANNOG, though that was on Islay, in Scotland rather than Ireland, and I don’t remember them calling it that. Still, maybe that’ll help it stick in my mind for next time. Took ages to unpick as like guy_du_sable I wanted it to end ING, but was also trying to cram something like “erin” in there, too, and also wondering if “casually going” meant something like “French leave”.

   Shame to get so hung up in that corner, as the rest felt like rather a breeze, though 21a AUSPICIOUS took me a while to see. Happy to have constructed SEURAT, ABALONE and ZONE from the wordplay rather than biffing.

   1. I’ve been to one in Ireland, a reconstruction at Craggaunowen in County Clare. Most people think of the large huts but the CRANNOG is actually the island they are built on.
      1. Sorry, that wasn’t meant to be totally anonymous and the hyperlink turned it into spam. It was meant to include a Wiki reference to Craggaunowen. Kind regards, Bob K.
   2. I’ve been to one in Ireland, a reconstruction at Craggaunowen in County Clare. Most people think of the large huts but the CRANNOG is actually the island they are built on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craggaunowen
      Kind regards, Bob K.
7. 25 mins (plus a couple to parse Crannog) with yoghurt, granola, etc.
   We have lots of Crannogs in Scotland.
   DNK Verset or Chigger but the wordplay was generous.
   I had specsaver issues too this morning: (a) thinking the ‘urn’ was ‘um’ and (b) putting the answer to 15dn in the grid for 17dn. Ha.
   Mostly I liked that Tapestries is an anagram.
   Thanks setter and George.
   PS Going skiing tomorrow.

   Edited at 2018-01-25 08:09 am (UTC)

   1. Um, break a leg, or is that only for actors?
8. 32 minutes with LOI INDECISION. Several unknowns including CRANNOG, VERSET, SEURAT and CHIGGER. As kids, we’d chig strawberries, ie remove their stalks, on the very few occasions when we could afford them. COD to MAYBE, posing as it does the existential dilemma which makes the manager’s INDECISION final. I first came across SHAWL in actual conversation from an early age as used by my mother, perhaps to suggest that the invalid was playing it up a bit too much. I was unsure of GROUND(hog) as meaning ‘moved with great effort’ as it’s so often followed by “to a halt” but the crossers were clear. Nice puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
9. 17 minutes, especially enjoying the anagrams TAPESTRIES, ARMY SCOUT and, yes, CLAY URN (+I). Now look chaps, yes, to my equally if not even more defective eyesight it looks like UM, but crossword clues are supposed to make some sort of sense and clay um I just doesn’t, especially without commas. And clay u r n (my helpful spacing) looks very much like something you might use in cooking. Good clue.
   I don’t think I knew VERSET as an organ piece but that clue really looks like a hidden, for which incontrovertible relief much thanks to setter.
   CRANNOG, on the other hand, went in on faith. I’ve despised the idea of writing “going to” as “gonna” ever since the early days of whoop-de-doo church choruses where we were supposed to sing “gonna dance/sing/praise and so forth. Shudder.
   Nice, mostly gentle crossword, with thanks to setter and to George.
   1. Writing ‘gonna’ is an abomination, I agree; but pronouncing ‘going to’ that way is what we do.
      1. Haters gonna hate 🙂
         1. It’s spelled h8, Tim.
            1. It’ll be emojis in the puzzle next, and then we’ll all be sorry.
               1. 😱
   2. With the R crosser, I spent a lot of time assuming um = er, and the possibility of a cooking ingredient ending in eri was plausible enough

10. Another easy one today, with only CRANNOG, VERSET and CHIGGER being unkknowns. ZONE provided the alphabet-trawl to finish.

11. Stopped after 30’ with ZONE not found, have never heard of CALZONE. Nor, indeed, of DEGREE DAY which I had to assume was an Americanism. Thanks gl and setter.
12. Please note Headmaster! As per Brother myrtilus the clue to 28ac reads ‘um’ and not ‘urn’ so CULINARY was my LOI. Sad!

    I can’t remember what I had for brekker!

    FOI 1ac SLOWLY

    COD 18ac MAYBE!

    WOD GROUNDHOG
    WOD GROUNDHOG
    WOD GROUNDHOG
    WOD GROUNDHOG
    WOD GROUNDHOG etc.etc.

    27 Minutes.

    Edited at 2018-01-25 09:21 am (UTC)

13. A PB beckoned until I foundered on ZONE. Calzone unknown and according to my Chambers app there are 136 words that fit the -O-E pattern and zone is of course the last of them in an alphabet trawl…
14. ‘Break a leg’, I have it on good authority (never you mind), was long ago replaced by a four-letter word I won’t spell out here.
15. I agree – a very gentle puzzle with some interesting moments. Once you’ve seen a CRANNOG you don’t forget them – and I’ve seen them mainly in Scotland. Didn’t know/had forgotten CHIGGER but a write in from the cryptic. Enjoyed 3D – LIED – nice construction
16. We appear to be on a run of puzzles which combine somewhat obscure vocabulary with very clear directions from the wordplay, so no complaints about being educated in that way. If I ever had anxiety dreams about crosswords*, pretty sure they’d involve filling in the blanks in sequences like _O_E, and _I_K, but my fears were unfounded today.

    *my anxiety dreams are extremely unoriginal, and involve sitting exams I haven’t prepared for, though not, as yet, in the nude, which I am led to believe is a popular variation on that theme.

    1. The anxiety comes not from the nudity but the lack of hiding places for your mobile phone, crib sheet etc?

       As to this crossword, a CNF (could not finish). There was a huge inkblot across 19, 21 and 23 in my paper edition. Well, that’s my excuse.

17. Well I for one found this exceptionally difficult! DNF after about 50 mins because of ZONE which is irritating as I used to eat calzone regularly at a little Italian restaurant in Tring. Got, but had a lot of trouble with, crannog, chigger though it had to be that, and degree day. I am in awe of those who found this easy.
18. Can’t add much to previous comments, so just to say that this was a very easy crossword with some very difficult bits in it. LHS done in 5 minutes, but I then typed SPECKLES which left me trying SIGNET DAY, which I had to look up and turned out to not mean anything. I usually do my PACKING before the holiday starts…
    1. You’re still technically on holiday when you pack to go home, of course.
19. All fairly straightforward except for CRANNOG and DEGREE DAY both which held me up for several minutes at the end. The GROUNDHOG has appeared prematurely, with Groundhog Day being on Feb 2. A few years ago I discovered this much to my delight as it is also the birthday of my oldest friend. He has received the same ‘Happy Groundhog Day’ card every year since!
20. 21:30 All but done in about 18 minutes but then took another 3 1/2 on SEURAT (who I didn’t know) and, my LOI, AUSPICIOUS. 3d my favourite, once I worked out the parsing.
21. Funnily enough I was at a party last night where groundhogs/marmots featured in the conversation, so 15a was a write in. I have also visited a CRANNOG on the island of Coll in the Hebrides, so another write in. After 19 minutes I was left with 20d, 21a and 23a, these taking me to 34:12. VERSET, SEURAT(my LOI), CALZONE, CHIGGER and DEGREE DAY were unknown. The wordplay was clear for all except ZONE, which I guessed from definition and crossers. Nice puzzle.Thanks setter and George.
22. I’ll repeat the typeface comment above; it comes up just often enough to be a nuisance, and not often enough for me to remember to check from one occurrence to the next.

    Didn’t know Crannog (do now), and didn’t thing of the gonna construction. Also didn’t know Verset, but had better luck deciphering the instructions there. Agree with Myrtilus about tapestries, definitely the COD here. I am somewhat interested in hearing exactly how groundhogs and marmots came up in dinner table conversation, though I fear the worst. Thanks George and setter

    Edited at 2018-01-25 01:52 pm (UTC)

    1. One of the guests had been on holiday and was at an animal park of some kind. He was invited to enter the marmots’ enclosure and feed them. He really enjoyed being surrounded by these friendly creatures which frolicked all over him and devoured the salad plants he was provided with 🙂
       1. I’m glad for the clarification on which way the feeding went!! I won’t say I was really worried, but…
       2. La Marmot is a famous annual cycling sportive which takes place in July and finishes at the top of Alpe d’Huez. It is named after the eponymous creature featured in today’s puzzle. I’ve participated in this event and images of this apparently cute animal abounded but I must confess I never knew they were also known as groundhogs.

          45 mins with one wrong, a biffed and unparsed rack which I failed to return to. My first mistake this week so a little annoying. Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle. I particularly liked Zone.

23. 16 minutes, fair enough, also saw UM for URN in 28a which caused a small delay and wondered about the choice of typeface in the PDF version. Knew my CRANNOG and guessed VERSET was right.
24. Didn’t stand a chance with CRANNOG and couldn’t get degree day either.

    I knew CHIGGER though thanks to faux blues man Seasick Steve singing a song about them.

25. Very easy, apart from the 2 I couldn’t do. Much the same thought processes as Guy in the northwest, with a speculative Luisa that I knew didn’t make sense, and zero chance I was ever gonna get CRANNOG. Even if I’d arrived at the answer, I would have rejected it as a made up word.
26. 28 mins. All good; thanks setter and blogger.
27. Fine puzzle. I knew ‘crannog’ from watching too much Time Team, but ‘verset’ and ‘chigger’ had to be deduced from the wordplay which, as others have said, was generous.
    Strange coincidence that, like myrtilus, I also entered the solution to 15d in the spaces for 17d. Must have been the lure of the initial ‘G’ and nine spaces.
28. About 25 minutes, ending by dredging up CRANNOG from somewhere in the memory banks, merely as something old and Irish, after correcting the always unlikely LUISA to LINDA. I’d never have known what a VERSET was, still don’t, except that I deduce you can play one on an organ. Otherwise, no great problems. Regards.
29. Very slow going (GRINDING, I suppose), but I got there in the end. Also held up for ages by Clay um I and it took a while to parse my LOI, CRANNOG and DEGREE DAY. Actually, I had the DAY part very early, which proved my undoing because I simply ignored it while trying to parse the clue as a whole until I finally realised something had to yield that too. Then GREEDY was complete and the rest was clear.
    I also went through LUISA and LUCIA and God knows what else before finding LINDA.
    Nice puzzle, very enjoyable.

30. 14:29, a big chunk of that at the end on CRANNOG. I nearly gave up but saw the wordplay eventually. A very tough clue. VERSET and CHIGGER also unknown but much easier to figure out.
    I wonder how many of those who didn’t know SEURAT by name would recognise A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatt.

    Edited at 2018-01-25 07:27 pm (UTC)

31. 32:34. Crannog unknown and had to be painstakingly parsed. Verset unknown so glad it was a well signposted hidden. Knew the fancy pizza, the tropical pest and the pointillist. LOI was 25dn I was tempted by pate but couldn’t convince myself that pat was a hat, so did an alphabet trawl, fortunately only needing to go up to “c”. I liked this puzzle but one MER (to coin someone else’s expression) I thought that the words used as synonyms in 4ac (sled for sledge) and 21ac (suspicious for suspect) were so closely related as to be a bit unsatisfying in the solving of those clues.
32. verset unknown (whatever the opposite of musical is, that’s me) but I’ve been in a crannog and knew about chiggers.
    All groundhogs are marmots, but not all marmots are groundhogs. the ones on Alp d’Huez for example, different species though same genus. Marmots are lovely, and interesting animals. They died out in the Pyrenees, but in the 1950s a dozen or two individuals taken from the Alps were released and now they are a common sight..

33. I loved this one too. May have seen the anagram before, but the surface was particularly nice.

    Edited at 2018-01-25 11:26 pm (UTC)

34. 45 min 27 secs – with an intermission.
35. After many hours, on and off, I finished this one. It’s such a rare event that I like to put something on the blog even though I’m so late no one will read it.
    Inevitably my pleasure is somewhat reduced by the number of comments about how easy it was. Anyway I found it very satisfying and was particularly pleased to get crannog and zone.
    Phil R
    1. Did read it, and congratulations.
36. First ever 15×15 completion! At c10th attempt and in well over an hour. So I suppose was probably on the easier side!

    Quite a few unknowns but trusted the wordplay and pleased on checking the blog that all went in correct.

    Thanks setter and blogger.
    Mighty

    1. Well done. I remember the sense of satisfaction when I achieved my first completion and, as they say, the first one is the hardest.

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