Times 26992 – don’t get 27 in the 22, it’s rather a 15

65 comments on “Times 26992 – don’t get 27 in the 22, it’s rather a 15”

1. I believe SLOSHED is SLO(B) (layabout virtually) + SHED (abandoned).
   1. That was certainly my assumption too.
      1. I wouldn’t have thought “virtually” meant… not quite all there, but I guess it can.
2. This one started quite slow, and I was ready to give up when I decided to check if Ambler was an author. (I only had the ‘A’.) That cracked open the whole upper-left corner and gave me the encouragement I needed to power through.

   Some notes:

   I was most proud of getting 11ac (DOE), as I recognized the UK slang, and was determined not to get fooled by an homophone of ‘dough’ twice in two days!

   My favorite solve was 12ac (ADMIRER). I was seduced into the possibility of anagramming ‘a more’ and started down the yellow brick road of ‘Romeo’, ‘Amor’, ‘amorous’, what have you. When the penny dropped and ‘direr’ came into focus with the oddly-placed ‘m’, I was quite pleased.

   Laughed out loud at the surface for 10ac (POWER SHOWER).

   * * *

   Many answers went in with incomplete understanding of either the definition or the wordplay, and thus I am deeply indebted to the blogger. Thank you, glheard!

   1. AMBLER is a great example of what I was talking about in Pete’s. I only know of his existence because of solving these things, and the way you learn all this stuff is by doing the puzzle and checking everything you don’t understand in the blog. When I started doing that my solving skills improved very rapidly after years of stagnation in which I would only complete the darned thing maybe one day in three. If you don’t know what you don’t know, then you still don’t know it next time it comes up.
3. I was trying to get ‘TED’ at the end but SLOB it was. My LOI unparsed Thanks PJ for your ‘probity’

   FOI 1ac AMBLER – excellent read (and Phyllis Bottome!).

   COD 21ac UMPTEEN

   WOD 17ac NECK OF THE WOODS I remember a distraught Chinese copywriter ringing me at home as she had to translate this strange piece of English dfor a client.

   27 minutes to touchdown.

4. The first 15′ was taken up largely by vacant staring at the grid, with an occasional keystroke that finally produced 5 or 6 words. Finally picked up some speed to get in almost under the 30′. DNK POWER SHOWER, and wondered if it was what an executive took before going to a power lunch. I parsed SLOSHED as Jeremy did, after toying with ‘smashed’; I’d thought that a layabout was something other than a slob, though; and ODE has it meaning loafer. DNK ‘humpty’, but it didn’t matter. I second horryd’s recommendation of Eric AMBLER, the fons et origo of thrillers (not mysteries, George) and, unlike his verbose successors, someone who could write.

   Edited at 2018-03-22 05:36 am (UTC)

5. 38 minutes for this, which is about as long as the first nine wickets lasted against New Zealand. I thought SLOSHED was very good, and AND THE SOME is a nice expression (even unparsed). UMPTEEN completely passed me by too, now I come to think of it. (It seems to be becoming increasingly popular among setters.)

   PERFORM was my last in, after I’d finally zeroed in on SLAP-BANG as the likeliest answer – likelier than ‘slam-bang’, at any rate.

   1. SLAM DUNK didn’t get me far!
6. Add an hour to George’s solving time for mine! I really struggled to get started and then I solved in fits and starts with very few answers leaping out at me until I had a checker or two to prompt me. DK ‘humpty’ and failed to parse PERFORM (my LOI) because I started from the false assumption that FORM accounted for ‘style’ in the clue and what was left over made no sense.

   Edited at 2018-03-22 06:25 am (UTC)

7. 44 minutes, all rather enjoyable once I’d pieced together enough answers for everything else to start slotting into place. DNK “humpty” (I’ll have to check Chambers later, as it’s not in the ODE and seems impossible to Google for as it’s swamped by kids’ Humpty Dumpty-themed chairs!)

   FOI 11a DOE LOI 6d FERFORM COD either 10a POWER SHOWER or 7d AND THEN SOME. Thanks to setter, and glheard for introducing me to etouffe as well as for the blog!

   1. Matt, you can often cut to the chase by Googling ‘humpty meaning’ or ‘humpty definition’. Both will take you where you need to be.
      1. Ah! Thanks. I’ve got so used to relying on the Chambers and Collins apps that I’ve forgotten what to do when I don’t have my phone to hand.
8. 15:36 … the write-in at 1a proved to be a bit deceptive, the rest was trickier for me. But the right kind of difficulty throughout.

   COD to the clever TWENTIES

9. So DOE not SUE I see. Women!
10. 30 mins with a croissant and the unsurpassed Lime&Gin marmalade (hoorah!).
    A little time spent in the Buffet/Knesset area and toying with Sloshed/Perform.
    Mostly I liked: Admirer, disappointment, Athens ‘ome and the Scots islands (COD).

    Something reminded me of:
    Life drawing is something for evening courses (6,5)

    Thanks setter and George.

11. I say that for two reasons: I was glad my last ones in, the utter guesses at the inevitably perilous crossing of SLOSHED and PERFORM, were correct.

    And I’m also glad to be back here, after the last time I was SLOSHED myself, when I went SLAP-BANG onto the edge of a stair at a famous tavern in my employer’s former NECK OF THE WOODS on Irving Place in Manhattan, where I was meeting with fellow denizens of the blog.

    I am usually a fast-walking New Yorker, but taking the advice of the occupational therapist, I am going to revert to my West VIrginia roots and be an AMBLER for a while.

    It was a great DISAPPOINTMENT to me that I could not belt them out and belt it down at karaoke tonight, but I am still deaf in one ear from blood behind the eardrum, and taking (I could almost be paranoid about this puzzle) EARDROPs to prevent infection. And yes, they are really eyedrops I’m putting in my ears (you can’t do it the other way around!).

    I don’t remember the fall, but do remember seeing James and Jeremy standing by when I awoke in what I gradually learned was Bellevue Hospital with an orbital fracture. Having friends by my side certainly helped raise my (pardon the pun) SPIRIT LEVEL.

    When the docs from the (physical!) rehab floor came by to invite me to visit them for a few days, I declined. But they still wanted to test my brain. A couple days before, I took the same basic competency test Trump was so proud to pass. Now I was asked to spell “world.” As part of my CHARM OFFENSIVE to get the hell out of there, I said, “W-H-I-R-L-E-D.” They looked impressed, said they’d never heard that one before. But then I called it a “homonym.” I knew it was wrong the instant I said it. I told myself that if I had to stay another day (and I did), I would ask if it was because I didn’t say “homophone.”

    I got home Tuesday and have been swamped by work (telecommuting), so this is the first of this week’s puzzles I’ve even tried, though I printed out yesterday’s. I was quite glad it wasn’t a stinker.

    Now, I’ve never been to the RIVERIA, though I’ve seen a lot of France, and in a little over a month I am going to spend eight nights in a spa hotel in a little town in Languedoc, noted for the “stone forest” of dolomite limestone formations, and then fourteen night in the famous (there’s an eponymous film) Hôtel La Louisiane in Paris. Come hell or high water. But I am going to be walking very, very carefully. Call me the midnight AMBLER. Oops, done that one.

    Edited at 2018-03-22 08:31 am (UTC)

    1. This ADMIRER APPLAUDS this impressive MASTERPIECE of narrative, if not the BUFFET from the stair that occasioned it. Wishing you a full recovery, AND THEN SOME.
       1. Thanks, Z! I was quite happy with it myself (though I just now spotted a typo). Felt inspired. I didn’t use MASTERPIECE because I wanted someone else to. Ha ha.
    2. Aha, you’re back – and in record time. Good news! Mind how you go in all that slush out there.
       1. Thanks, Olivia! I am staying IN a few more days. La patronne is sending a food basket (was delayed yesterday because of the precipitation).
    3. This post was quite the tour de force! One might even say, a MASTERPIECE.

       Good to see you up and running… er, well, good to see you back, anyways. 🙂

       1. Merci, +J !
          I had a series of fantastically vivid dreams the other night, one in which I was indeed running.
    4. Bravo!!
       1. Grazie!!!
    5. And this innocent blogger had two beers and dinner, went down those stairs in Pete’s most cautiously, caught the 8:07 back to Connecticut, got home and went to bed. I nearly missed the flurry of emails next morning, as I had to turn around and drive to Forest Hills for my weekly do there.

       We were kind of on the fence whether to mention this unfortunate affair in the blog of not, but now it’s out in the open. Everyone I’ve talked to has said yes, you have to be really careful with those stairs at Pete’s.

       We have all been wishing our honorable friend a speedy recovery in private emails, and it looks like he’s doing OK. Apparently, most orbital fractures heal by themselves with a little time and care.

       Edited at 2018-03-22 01:13 pm (UTC)

    6. I’m very late to the blog today, but it’s great to see you back here, and in such fine form!
       It was quite an adventure. Next time I’m in New York I’d suggest we skip the Bellevue segment of the evening, I’m sure you’ll agree.
12. 45m after a very slow start of only 1d – my FOI- after the first pass through the clues. Gradually though the clues were deconstructed until I was left with the SLOSHED/AND THEN SOME crossing which took another 5m and were guesses rather than biffs. I was glad of the blog today especially as a number were unparsed so thanks to our blogger and also the setter for a good challenge, which felt fair but then I knew some of the more obscure answers like AMBLER and the Parliament.
13. 16.16 for me. I have’t seen the word HUMPTY in this context since childhood, but I think I might revert to it to avoid any possible offence with POUFFE. Thanks for parsing it, George: I realise I hadn’t (like others) while solving.
    I liked the clever &littish nature of LEWIS and co, and the ATHENS ‘OME.
    I once had to counsel a colleague of mine regarding assertive behaviour that had occasioned complaint, and recommended he try a CHARM OFFENSIVE. I’m pleased to say he took me at my word, and Charm Offensive romped home at 20-1 in the 19.45 at Taunton.
14. I really struggled with this, and finally had to resort to an aid to nail SLOSHED as I simply couldn’t see a word that would fit, thus my 21.50 is irrelevant. I would submit that sloshed is drunk on a particular occasion, whereas drunken refers to frequently getting totally stocious, but it’s a weak argument.

    Lulled into a false sense of security by the write-in AMBLER (excellent chap indeed, Horryd), I equally slapped in APPLAUDS. I’d only just come out of our POWER SHOWER, yet failed to see it until later.

    Luckily resisted the temptation to biff CHOP-CHOP at 4A, and was a long time spotting SLAP-BANG, maybe because it was at the top rather than in the middle.

    Didn’t resist the temptation to biff RIVULET at 19D, so made life hard in this NECK OF THE WOODS (COD).

    DNK humpty which made UMPTEEN difficult to parse.

    So deserved victory to the setter, and no complaints here.

15. A late start today with the England cricket car crash a major 15a. I hope there are no Kiwis on here today. 31 minutes solving time with LOI SLO(B)SHED, after COD AND THEN SOME dawned on me. I deduced there must be a padded seat called a humpty for the UMPTEENth time. I liked POWER SHOWER, although I always seem to soak the bathroom floor with ours. The TWENTIES had me roaring with frustration until I saw it. Thank you George and setter.
    1. Let’s take refuge in the England Ladies team, who in reply to India A’s 85/9 in 20 overs scored an impressive and remarkable 210/4 when the umpires omitted to end the match once they’d reached the required figure.
16. Like Kevin and Horryd, I’m an ADMIRER of AMBLER (the writer). I was unconvinced about the “slob” in SLOSHED because I thought it was just someone incurably untidy, but Jeremy is clearly right. And I thought a “humpty” was just my mother’s name for the extremely under-performing heater we had in the dining-room when I was a kid (and used to sit on in frozen desperation if Nanny wasn’t looking). 17.20

    Edited at 2018-03-22 10:11 am (UTC)

17. SLO(B) SHED (abandoned) ?
    1. Um – Anonymous – did you not read Jeremy’s comment supra?
       1. Anonymi never do.
18. Delayed in NE, SLAP BANG particularly. Possibly because SLAP BANG is one of those phrases which does not exist on its own, has to be followed by ‘in the middle’. Some great clues today and a worthy challenge 37′.

    I have mentioned this before. Cricket on the other side of the world which I have not yet watched……… I guess I won’t be contributing to the blog for a few weeks again, to avoid spoilers. Sorry.

    1. Sorry, Rob. I forgot.
19. Whoo-hoo! 23 mins, done and dusted. Got off to a good start with NECK OF THE WOODS a write-in from the 4,2,3,5 pattern, then WAVELET dropped in easily. The ones that held me up were 1a (NHO Eric Ambler), 6d PERFORM (which I didn’t parse until I was reviewing the completed grid at the end) and TWENTIES. Parliament beginning with K? – has to be Knesset! Liked the matching ‘sounds-like’ clues of FOE and DOE.

    COD to 13d — a masterpiece of clue-writing, I thought. Lovely surface.

    And thanks to George for a masterpiece of concise blog composition.

20. The only time I’ve heard the key word at 21ac was in relation to Headingley 1981; when Graham Dilley arrived at the crease with England still in a hopeless position, and asked Ian Botham what the plan was, the answer, apparently, was “Let’s give it some humpty”, and the rest is history. As a result of this, I always assumed it wasn’t actually a real word, so I’ve learned something new today. Anyway, nice puzzle, which required more analysis than biffing.
21. 14 minutes, but the obligatory STFTW (Stupid Typo For The Week) made it count for nothing. Damn.
22. DNF in 30 mins.

    I got off to a flying start but the biffed Earring and took time to get back on track. I came here for Slap Bang, as I knew Slam Dunk didn’t really work, and got moving once again. But I still needed help to get out (of) the Neck of the Woods.

23. I found this tough today, taking more than an hour, with a large minority of the time spent working on the NE corner, in particulat SLAP BANG, DOE and GREEDY, although these were all fairly clued.

    Good puzzle, if tough. Thanks setter and blogger.

24. Oh dear! On completion, I discovered a hastily biffed ARCHER for 1a, along with a very dodgy COW for 2d, which messed up what I thought was a good time for a fairly hard crossword. SNITCH doesn’t match my view however, so this obviously just didn’t suit me. COD’s POWER SHOWER AND THEN SOME.
25. I got hung up on a perceived adverb/adjective mismatch between drunken and sloshed, and spent too long with Sue/Sow/Sou, but otherwise enjoyed the puzzle. Like Sotira, I liked the clever Twenties.

    Welcome back, Guy.

    1. Thanks, man. I didn’t manage to mention above that you sat with me in the hospital room that first night, a fact of which I was totally unaware at the time. Here’s some good news: I thought the emergency team had utterly destroyed my suit, but it was only the pants.

       Like you and Sotira, I noted the clue for TWENTIES as particularly rusé.

       1. In this forum they’re trousers, Sandy. They’re only pants now that they’re ruined.
          Keriothe and Jermey did the tough work; I got there late and just sat around until A&E sent you up to a room whilst shooing me out the door. I did, though, encourage them to give you another 15 minutes before they got serious with flexible tubes, and 15 minutes was enough this time.
          1. Ha! I only recently learned that in the UK one never refers to legwear like I was wearing as “pants,” but Wikipedia says that even over here “trousers” is the more appropriate term for the kind of tailored garment I was wearing. Well, live and learn. But retailers over here, even Brooks Brothers, refer to them as “suit pants.”

             The emergency team did also rip up my pants—in the proper UK sense.

             I am mystified and a bit alarmed about this “flexible tubes” thing. Could you be more explicit?

26. 8m 27s today. I’d not heard of AMBLER but was happy to enter it from the A & B; also don’t remembering coming across HUMPTY in that context before.

    COD by some margin, for me, was the wonderful POWER SHOWER.

27. 13:28, with humpty unknown but not necessary to solve the clue and a big tick against power shower.

    Speedy recovery to G_d_S.

28. …as I plugged along, and finished in 34 minutes, with ‘sloshed’ and ‘umpteen’ unparsed but obvious. I didn’t bother parsing ‘neck of the woods’, figuring it must be some sort of anagram.

    For once, the four long answers were pretty good, being gettable but not too obvious.

29. I had a similar experience to KevinG today, but it was around 30 minutes when I glanced at the clock and then noticed I only had 5 or 6 entries. I didn’t get a clue until FOE and then VAN, slowly followed by STONED. I was also unaware of a HUMPTY, but as others didn’t need it, as E’EN was already surmised and checkers did the rest. I liked Athen’s ‘ome and SPIRIT LEVEL. In fact I liked all of this puzzle, despite it taking me 45:13 to get through it. SLAM DUNK was a small aid to getting LEWIS AND HARRIS, before it was discarded when I finally cracked GREEDY. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and George. And wishing a speedy recovery to Guy!
30. I was sitting in front of the telly watching ‘Morse’ as I tried to do this. It was the episode in which he dies (that’s not a spoiler is it?). Despite the presence of the Great Man and his love of crosswords, it was a bit depressing as well as being a distraction so I was even slower than usual at about 65 minutes.

    Didn’t know ‘humpty’ (any mention of the 1981 Headingley Test should be banned by the way – it still haunts me) but everything else was at least recognisable. Yes, I liked the ‘Period of ten years’ and the ATHENS’OME, but the seemingly innocuous PERFORM wins my COD.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

31. ..is what our neighbour from Harris always calls it so I slapped it in. Confusion until I counted the letters. Anyway, daft to give one island two names
32. 14 A
    SLOSHED
    SLO (B) = LAYABOUT (VIRTUALLY)
    SHED = ABANDONED
    1. I’m astonished that wasn’t mentioned in any of the previous 50 odd comments. Lucky for you, or you’d have looked a right idiot.
33. DNF. I entered SLAM BANG at 4A, meaning I had an M at the head of what should have been PERFORM, and thus didn’t see what it could be. It didn’t help that I was sure SLAM BANG was right, and that I’m not familiar with the SLAP version. Oh well. Regards.
34. And I’m sorry to hear of Guy’s misfortune, and pleased, Guy, that you’re on the mend. Best wishes.
    1. Merci bien, Kevin.
35. This took me some 55 minutes, though I think some of that was spent leaving the meter running while I did something else. Even so, it was a slow time even for me. My first pass gave me only MASTERPIECE, and then it was all stop-go until only the south-left corner was unfilled. I’d never heard of a humpty, and failed to spot the homophone faux/FOE, but in the end I just wrote them in regardless, whereupon BUFFET presented itself.

    Good value for money, this one. Thanks to the setter and to George for the blog.

36. 51:33 seem to be struggling to get any rhythm going or tune into any wavelengths this week. This was a bitty solve in fits and starts around the grid. An erroneous discontentment didn’t help (I was thinking of sacking in the “of Troy” sense – not that it helps make any more sense of discontentment). Finished up in the SW with umpteen, buffet, foe and twenties all taking time to materialise. I didn’t even twig the parsing of twenties I thought “passed amid restrictions” was a cryptic reference to prohibition – not that there’s any reason it would appear unqualified in a UK paper where the decade was not subject to prohibition.
37. 10:10. I seem to have been on the wavelength for this one. I have spent some very enjoyable time on LEWIS AND HARRIS, which helped a little bit. Loved POWER SHOWER.
38. Thanks, James. Great to be back. And yes, I think that is a capital suggestion.
39. Really liked this puzzle. Neat and amusing clueing no obscure literary or scientific references and the first fully correct solve this week. Thank you blogger and setter. Approx 50 mins.
40. UMPTEEN means “a great many”. It flatly does not mean “a great deal”. For the umpteenth time, setters rightly are allowed a great deal of liberty, but that does not include simply reinventing the English language. “Umpteen of liberty”?–don’t make me laugh.

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