Times 27,125: Meet The Barents

54 comments on “Times 27,125: Meet The Barents”

1. I semi-biffed HOT CHOCOLATE & INVERNESS, getting the COL and SS post-submission. Never did parse AIREDALE. DNK ISOPOD, and still don’t. At 21d, I immediately thought of MA ER, and then came to a halt; either CHALKY settled it, or getting the K gave me CHALKY, I forget which. I think MWAH deserves some sort of COD award, although I hope not to see similar in coming cryptics. Fun, and fun to come in in less than 2 Verlaines.
   1. what is a semi-biff?
      1. quasi-? proto-? Anyway, 1) I saw ‘bad toothache’ and ‘drink’ and decided there was material there for ‘chocolate’ and bunged it in, dealing with COL later; 2) I saw ‘popular’ and ‘old writer’, decided (duh) it’s IN something, thought of Inverness, dealt with SS later.
2. Yes.
3. 45 mins with a pain au raisin. Scrumptious.
   I guess 1dn set the tone for this quirky one.
   LOIs were Like a Charm and Oxide after twigging the ‘by’ must be there for some reason.
   Mostly I liked: Pancake day and COD to the excellent old men falling apart.
   Thanks setter and V.
4. The one I couldn’t parse was AIREDALE, probably because I was too whacked to think of the required sense of either part, though both now seem vaguely familiar. I enjoyed this muchly.

   Edited at 2018-08-24 07:22 am (UTC)

5. Pancake Day was okay … I fell at 22D, typing in RATE (ugh!) Very enjoyable morning and quite an experience to solve and then see the blog, whereas in KL (GMT+8), I would finish and mostly have to wait a long long time for this blog, by which time I would be elsewhere …
6. My 27 minutes were mostly absorbed by the lower left and the dreaded ?A?E, where rate and race were among the many options to be considered.

   I used my alphabet soup strainer there (obviously) and for O?I?E at 15, seriously considering OGIVE and OLIVE before remembering the old Facebook warning about Dihydromonoxide – at the wrong end of the alphabet for speedier solving.

   Those of us feeling less offended over the “godless” slur earlier this week got our come-uppance with 21. Only having M?K?? to go on (should have twigged SOMBRE sooner) I scoured the entire Golden Bough and then some for arcane names of the Deity, almost deciding that MAKMA belonged to the Aztecs or some such. And I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve sung “Mater Dei” where the required version of mummy conveniently nestles against yet another version of God. A little learning…

   I haven’t worked out whether the clue for INTIFADA risks a fatwa.

   Well blogged V, and welcome home.

   Edited at 2018-08-24 07:28 am (UTC)

7. … shouldn’t that have been ‘due deference’?

   Edited at 2018-08-24 07:39 am (UTC)

   1. Snap!
   2. I wondered about ‘reVerence’… either way, I think it contains a typo. Kind regards, Bob K.
      1. Perhaps the setter, like Justice Shallow, hesitated between ‘deference’ and ‘reverence’, and came out with a portmanteau, as Lewis Carroll suggested:

         Supposing that, when Pistol
         uttered the well-known words—‘‘Under which
         king, Bezonian? Speak or die!’’ Justice Shallow
         had felt certain that it was either William or
         Richard, but had not been able to settle which, so
         that he could not possibly say either name before
         the other, can it be doubted that, rather than die, he
         would have gasped out ‘‘Rilchiam!’’’

8. Gave up overnight with only 8 answers in but they came with more ease on resumption this morning. Really liked the cryptic PANCAKE DAY. Needed aids to finalise OXIDE. I worked out O and IDE but missed ‘by’= X, which was annoying for me. The early appearance of Y and Z had me expecting a pangram (thwarted eventually by the lack of J and Q) and this only added to the pain of my last letter in being an X.

   Edited at 2018-08-24 07:35 am (UTC)

9. Curses! Another DNF. After 45 minutes I finally shoved in ROYAL FIAT at 17d because it was the only thing I could come up with. That’s only one successful completion for me this week; goodness knows what tomorrow’s going to be like…
10. …doing this in 21 minutes. It must have been Lancashire’s win last night, after the heartbreak at Surrey the day before. LOI PACE, having spent a couple of minutes rejecting RATE. DNK ISOPOD but constructed it on first run through with fingers crossed. Similarly with SCHMO, which I assumed was a SCHMUCK. I find MWAH a horrible word, but then I’ve always detested cheek-pecking greetings. They’re not for civilised folk. We always called it PANCAKE (Tues)DAY as kids, usually followed by “it’s on a Wednesday this year”. I only managed to parse AIREDALE after the event. I’ve never had one but I know they don’t moult much. COD to SELF-CRITICAL. Thank you V and setter.

    Edited at 2018-08-24 08:16 am (UTC)

    1. At least one dog leaves black and white hairs all over the place!

       Edited at 2018-08-24 11:15 am (UTC)

       1. We’re still vacuuming them up 17 months after our Timmy died!
11. Slow going but glad to get there. 41’40. Reference or deference in 22? The latter has the edge but may make it too easy. Some nice surfaces in this one.
    1. For the record, I thought “with due reference to” was fine for PACE!
       1. I, too, thought the “due” perhaps qualified “reference” enough.
12. 24′ but with CHANTS instead of THANKS, careless after getting the hard ones. CODs to MWAH and LIKE A CHARM. Thanks verlaine and setter.
13. Not for the first time this week, held up by a couple of pesky clues at the end… in this case ROYAL MINT and, my LOI, INTIFADA… constructed from the wordplay but previously unheard of to me. Those 2 added a full 6 minutes over the 20 the rest took. Never mind. I enjoyed this quirky puzzle with its MWAH and SCHMO and chuckle-inducing PANCAKE DAY. Thanks V and setter. 26:45
    1. previously unheard of? John, please Google INTIFADA and read up on it!
       1. Yes. Previously unheard of, I said…. I did google it post-solve to find out. Do I escape detention for my ignorance now, Sir?
14. Not as challenging as some Fridays, but it certainly had its moments. For my LOI, I joined the crowd jostling around O_I_E (that cheeky little X=by always takes me a long time to spot, it seems), but at least I wasn’t seriously tempted by the possibility of OPIKE. I also thought a SCHMO was a nobody, rather than a dunce, but it seems that only applies when it’s part of the phrase “Joe Schmo”, which is, indeed, the equivalent of the English Joe Bloggs, so I’ve had my Yiddish knowledge enhanced. Those _A_E clues are a potential nightmare, but I, too, remembered the recent discussion of how to pronounce PACE, so happily it sprang to mind at once.
    1. I gave about 3 seconds’ consideration to OHAKE.
15. 12 minutes, but unfortunately I had MURDANSK instead of MURMANSK. Never heard of it, but given GDANSK I thought I was onto something.

    I was also unfamiliar with INTIFADA so got lucky there; didn’t have a clue what was going on with AIREDALE but it had to be. Unlike others here, I thought PANCAKE DAY was a poor clue (and not just because I spent some time trying to get MARDIS GRAS to fit!).

16. Not sure that wanting your country back after it has been taken from you is ‘rebellious’ but still. There are some strange and often contrary views on that subject, I note!

    Quite a nice level of toughness for a Friday I thought, not too evil, not too nice. I came in at around 40 mins for this, so coasting a bit perhaps. CoD the fast start: nice one!

    Many thanks setter and Verlaine-on-English-soil.

    Edited at 2018-08-24 11:44 am (UTC)

    1. Nice point!
       1. Aren’t most “rebellions” occupied nations rising up against the “oppressor”?
          1. Point taken, but I don’t know about “most.” In fact, I hear more often about a rebellion within the ranks of those who would normally be expected to follow a certain leadership—say, within a party. The Palestinians did not willingly submit to this government in the first place. Different point: this definition, 2.a at Merriam-Webster Online: “a : open, armed, and usually unsuccessful defiance of or resistance to an established government.” It’s the “usually unsuccessful” that rankles here.
17. 23:01 .. with a long time for the wordplay penny to drop on OXIDE, but greatly enjoying things like MWAH (,darling) and ROYAL MINT. Hugely enjoyable puzzle all round.

    I happened to read in the NY Times this morning that back when he was sane, when Rudy Giuliani was the US DA for New York’s southern district and doing a lot to dismantle the Mob, his office was known as The House of Pancakes because of all the flipping that went on inside. Something of a sore point for Rudy’s current boss.

    Enjoyed the blog title, V. Have a nice weekend, all

18. Struggled somewhat on the last 2, which would have been easier if I could spell a biffed SOMBER which left MAKER rather hard to get. Rather liked CHALKY when I finally got it and corrected my mistake. However earlier I had put in RATE as a provisional and forgot about it when I pressed done. No problems with the rest of this offering. We’re off to IONA next week. Will report back when I eventually get some internet as apparently it is WiFi free where we are staying. Who booked this?
19. All done and enjoyed in 21 minutes, except 1d which remained unsolved until I came here and discovered MWAH was a word, but not one I relish.
    Welcome back to Blighty, V. Not much has improved and the £ is going down the toilet.
20. …as unlike our esteemed blogger, I started at the beginning and promptly put in ‘mwah’ and ‘Murmansk’. My main problem was not knowing how to spell ‘intifada’, and not being able to remember the Uk-ism ‘Pancake Day’, which had given me trouble before. Once I had that, I concluded that ‘thanks’ must be right, although the usual meaning of ‘tank’ is to deliberately throw a match.

    Time 37 minutes, about average for me unless the puzzle is very easy.

21. If it’s any consolation, Verlaine, this is the 1327th puzzle to push my solving time over 10 minutes. Got through this one in 36, once again making it an excellent value-for-money puzzle in my book. My LOI was SELF CRITICAL, which probably says something about my character.

    Thanks to both setter and blogger, and a good weekend to all and one.

22. 41 min, but interrupted by post with package (not the one expected from 17dn) so really a bit less – 25ac was LOI. No real hold-ups, though I didn’t parse 6ac or 4dn completely.
23. My only problem was my LOI, where I was trying to decide between RACE and RATE, and never thought of PACE. I couldn’t see a good reason for either of them, since they are both wrong.

    I just looked and the Chambers on my phone tells me there are 165 words that fit _A_E. I don’t know if that is the absolute most for a 4-letter word, but it must be close.

    So I had one letter wrong since I went for RACE.

24. Sometimes I just accept that I’ve been well and truly routed, and give up. 15 minutes in, I was down to five clues – five minutes later I was no wiser and resorted to aids.

    FOI YEARN

    Parsed AIREDALE after biffing it, understood OXIDE, INTIFADA, and PANCAKE DAY once I’d used the said aids, and the last of those enabled me to nail THANKS.

    Had to come here for SELF CRITICAL, so thanks to V for putting me out of my misery.

    COD ROYAL MINT

    I also tried last Saturday’s this morning, and failed on that too, of which more tomorrow evening when I get home from hopefully witnessing a vastly improved performance from my team at Darlington.

25. A fail for me today, with PACE, RATE and RACE considered, but as I couldn’t make anything of the wordplay to justify any of them, I eventually went for CARE, as in DUE (with)CARE, with reference to speeding perhaps. I also questioned whether the clue should read deference or reverence. CHALKY and MAKER held me up for at least 15 minutes, and even if I’d managed to get PACE, I’d have failed with my careless PANKAKE DAY. Ah well, Monday starts another week. Liked GO TO PIECES and LIKE A CHARM. 57:13 with 2 errors again. Thanks setter and V.

    Edited at 2018-08-24 02:23 pm (UTC)

26. 22 mins. Nice puzzle; much easier for me than yesterday’s. LOI was 4dn. Got the X in 15ac as we’ve had by = X quite a few times of late. Is operation the same as method?
27. Around 30 minutes today, so a bit longer than usual, and that’s not counting putting it down with one missing and coming back later to see MWAH immediately. I haven’t bothered to look it up since I assume it’s in a dictionary somewhere. Odd, as I don’t recall seeing it in print, but certainly have heard it said a million times. Regards.
    1. Yes, this is the entry in ODO: mwah (also mwa)
       EXCLAMATION informal
       Used to represent the sound of a kiss, typically one given in an exaggerated or theatrical way.

       ‘Mwah, mwah! How are you, dahling?’
       Origin: 1960s: imitative.

       It’s also in Collins, but not (despite some of the comments above on other matters) in Chambers.

28. DNF in 50 mins.

    Couldn’t get Pancake Day despite thinking that it was probably about Lent and Mardi Gras. Doh! I’m a flipping schmo.

    Also stumped by Thanks having considered Shores and Shucks only to rightly dismiss them.

    Lots to like here. COD – a dead heat between GO TO PIECES and LIKE A CHARM.

29. DNF, the culprits being PANCAKE DAY, THANKS, INTIFADA (DNK), OXIDE and PACE (for which I biffed RATE). I also note that I biffed incorrectly MURDANSK for a port. My COD is 14d for LIKE A CHARM. This was one of my last ones in but made me smile.
30. Nice puzzle, nice blog.
    Like Vinyl, I only know tank to mean deliberate self inflicted loss. Usually I don’t like words like Mwah (Kerchoo, etc) but this was clued so neatly that I didn’t mind for once.

    Regarding Schmo, please refer to the film Topkapi from the mid 60’s: Maximillian Schnell to Melina Mercouri regarding Peter Ustinov “what we need now is a schmo”

31. 53:17. A good mix of stuff in this one and a satisfying struggle. I enjoyed Pancake Day and I thought sombre was excellent.
32. 11:03. I found this pretty straightforward for some reason. I’d have been quite a lot quicker if I had been certain it wasn’t AYREDALE. I wasn’t, so I felt I had to figure out the wordplay, which is quite tricky.
33. My usual hour, and when I submitted I was sure I would have something wrong, but I didn’t. Lots of Britishisms I didn’t know, so I couldn’t parse AIREDALE (not only couldn’t I equate ALE with wallop, I couldn’t fill in *IRED for whacked either) and I just bunged in PANCAKE DAY and hoped it might have something to do with Lent and races. ISOPOD was constructed from the wordplay, but it seemed likely since the woodlouse is a rather specific creature requiring a rather specific term of description I was probably not going to have heard of. COD to MWAH, which took me the longest time to see (though PANCAKE DAY was my LOI).

    Edited at 2018-08-24 09:24 pm (UTC)

34. A little bird has informed me that there was a very well-hidden Nina in this puzzle, so I thought I’d share it: 10ac 9ac (hospital) 22dn 21dn 18ac!
35. Late to this, but pleased to complete what might be my first Friday CW within an hour. No real hold ups, 4 or 5 only semi-parsed, so thanks for clearing those up.

    Mighty

36. So I’m probably the only solver who wrote in HARE at 22 down, which means speed in its verbal form, otherwise all correct in well over the hour, but no aids used . Thanks setter (friend of 9a by any chance?) and Verlaine
37. Thanks, Verlaine, for informing us about this. Thanks also to the setter for the puzzle.
38. I am an amateur that never finishes – although only recently having graduated from the QC.

    However I had RACE for 22dn.

    Reference being RE, with Due being account – AC

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