Times 27373 – I fear the Geeks, even when they bring Gifs

59 comments on “Times 27373 – I fear the Geeks, even when they bring Gifs”

1. I was helped with 1ac by last Sunday’s puzzle; an expression one could do without, no? I failed to parse WARMONGER simply because I took ‘German’ to be the GER part, and couldn’t make sense of WARMON. Biffed 18d, but spotted the hidden as I typed. I also biffed SECRETIVE, and wondered about the definition, as I didn’t know ‘creative’ as a noun. UP TOP my LOI, after finally getting AFOOT; I only figured out how it worked after submitting. U, you have a typo at 8d.
2. ….some of the UK-specific terms like ‘dries’, and thought I was looking for a fruit in 24. It all became clear, eventually.

   When I was in college, there was a fellow in the class ahead of me who was taking honors English. He became so besotted with Proust, he read the entire thing twice during the school year, in French. He was the only honors English candidate to ever fail his oral exam completely!

   I stuck to Ulysses, which was the subject of my honors thesis.

3. Thanks – changed.
4. Finished in about 75 mins, or 21 Verlaines!

   About half of that on dries, afoot, up top and LOI ward, which needed an alphabet trawl, and it was the only word anything like protege.

   Dnk slaughterhouse was shambles.
   Cod Afoot.

   The puzzle number is 27373, not 27273 as I couldn’t find the blog on google.

   Thanks.

5. In a rush this morning. Off for a few days to Munich for the beer. So was glad this didn’t take too long. 17 minutes. SNIPPER reminds me of a very elderly lady who used to live next door. She was a Miss Snipper and her father had been a barber. Happy Families. “Miss Snipper the barber’s daughter”. (I learned later that he had been an immigrant from Lithuania in the late 1800s and had chosen the name himself to help him blend in – a bit like Ford Prefect in Hitchhiker.)
   1. Ah, the Frühlingsfest! I’m envious. I could just do with a Stein of the Maibock.
6. One of my early ones in was ‘Titanic’ at 26a, which I was very confident about, even if the definition was a bit loose. The crossers disabused me, with EMILY, my next to last in, showing the way to (in a crossword sense) true enlightenment.

   Guilty, M’lud, for not having read ‘Emma’ but 1a wasn’t too difficult even so. SLAUGHTERHOUSE for ‘shambles’ was good.

   Home in 29 minutes.

   Thank you to setter and blogger (and good luck with “À La Recherche du…”. You’re a better man than I am.)

7. A DNF, having solved everything briskly then coming to a thudding halt with 14a. I suppose I should have realised that DRIES must exist as the complement of ‘wets’, but I don’t recall ever hearing it. As it was, I spent 10 minutes gnawing away at the wrong end of the stick, looking for a synonym of ‘trifles’, before giving up.

   For all of us so used to reading ‘main’ as ‘sea’, the TSUNAMI clue isn’t cryptic at all, is it?

   Enjoy your hols, ulaca. A Greek island and Proust sounds just what the doctor ordered for, well, anything, really

   1. If one were to be picky, I suppose one could point out that the disasters caused by tsunamis are on land; they’re hardly noticeable on the main. If one were to be picky; I couldn’t possibly comment.
      1. With only the starting letter, I originally entered “typhoon”, which works just as well.
8. No solving time to offer as I nodded off briefly, not because I was stuck just v tired. This was all pretty straightforward but I lost a little time trying to get past CLIPPER* at 10 which had been my first thought but was obviously wrong. EMILY and TSUNAMI held out against me for longest.

   On 14acI’d have thought the plural of ‘Dry’ in this sense was ‘Drys’ and that’s how I seem to remember seeing it in print when the term was being bandied about in a previous Conservative Party civil war featuring Drys vs Wets. Anyway, FWIW Collins has both but my preference is listed first.

   *A little annoying as my town has both a ‘Clippers’ and a ‘Snips’, and ‘Snips’ is the one I have been using for the past 20 years.

   Edited at 2019-06-10 05:28 am (UTC)

9. .. who really should have been Madeleine, U, to match your holiday reading. Enjoy your holiday. 18 minutes with LOI GNARL. I didn’t know where CONAKRY was, although it sounded vaguely Irish, so I was desperate there for a hidden. I gave COD to DRIES. Are there any other sort nowadays? Thank you both.
10. I’m on a roll with two under 10 minutes in the space of a week. Looking back this was definitely helped by there being no obscure answers today (though there was an obscurity to me in the clues in the shape of Conakry).

    LOI DRIES which I’d looked at several times with bemusement but when it was all I was left with the parsing came quite quickly. It was only afterwards that I realised I did know the definition, albeit it’s not a term I’ve heard used often.

11. 123.36, with only DRIES, GUINEAN and UP TOP (!) resisting for any length of time.
    I didn’t know Conakry was the capital of Guinea and was looking for a hidden Irishman (any series of letters, really) in the debris. I subsequently had to look it up to find out which Guinea it was.
    On the Tory hardliners, I spent much time trying to work out what needed an S taking out. John Major had a different word for them beginning with B.
    I did wonder which of “aggressive” and “snarling” was the anagram indicator and which the definition. Probably Ulaca’s conjecture, I think.
    Don’t think I could stay awake through much of Proust, but I did read Emma for A level, wondering why us blokes should be forced to read something so obviously Mills and Booney. I have changed my opinion since.
12. On paper on Glasgow train. Alphabet trawls for A_O_T and D_I_S finished off. Both WARD and GUINEAN increased my general knowledge of Hereward and Conakry. I also entered TITANIC briefly but it did not last long. Liked GALLOWS.

    Read Swann’s Way years ago, pages and pages of description and not enough action or conversation. No inclination yet to move onto book two….

    1. On train OUT of Glasgow (to Greenock), and exactly the same two alpha trawls adding around 5 minutes at the end !

       FOI ON THE SHELF
       LOI DRIES
       COD LEGLESS
       TIME 12:56

13. I was straight off the blocks with ON THE SHELF, and kept on running until I dried up at 14a, which was my penultimate entry. GUINEAN was my LOI which took a moment or two to spot. I wasted time looking for a fruit at 24d. Vaguely remembered that The Shambles in York was originally not a street of shops and cafes. An enjoyable puzzle. 14:55. Thanks setter and U.
14. 12:45. Held up for a couple of minutes at the end with DRIES.. trying to get DRIPS to somehow work before looking for something else. Pretty Mondayish, really.
15. All straightforward. Glad I didn’t think of TITANIC when I just had the ‘T’ like bletchleyreject above.
16. 20 mins to fail, chewing yoghurt, granola, etc.
    Didn’t think of Dries, so put Dribs.
    Lime is certainly not an unknown fruit served up in this household.
    Thanks setter and U.
17. Like others, straight off with 1ac, agree with kevin that we can do without the expression (see 3d).

    Sat next to Jeffrey Archer at the theatre once……

    Spent a while trying to parse TSUNAMI with an anagram of main.

    Have studied EMMA – it was filmed (loosely) as ‘Clueless’, must be a clever clue in there somewhere.

    Knew that Shambles is an area of York and that it was the butchery quarter, which helped.

    10’14” thanks ulaca and setter.

18. Easy today.
    My son is in marketing and talks about “creatives” all the time. Usually disparagingly.
    Ulaca, do stick with the Proust, it picks up nicely from the Guermantes Way on. If you do finish it you might like to try a little Gibbon? Decline & Fall has the same attribute of appearing endless, but having such wonderful writing that it doesn’t (much) matter..
19. A good start to the week.

    LOI GUINEAN

    COD SLAUGHTERHOUSE

20. 9.07, or 2.7 verlaines. He’s not bad at these things, is he?
    I’m not sure if I’ve come across DRIES before, and it took a little bit of time at the end to make the connection with the more familiar ‘wets’.
    I agree that we can do without the expression at 1ac but then we largely do these days. It’s a very dated concept.

    Edited at 2019-06-10 08:08 am (UTC)

    1. I’m well pleased at knowing I’ve managed 0.996 keriothes!
       1. Grrr!
21. 16’15. It’ll be a sad world in which phrases such as 1 ac. are disallowed. As various intimate the wets and dries are both as one recalls of Tory vintage. I like the jumpy (or bird-watching) comparative. Well, so far from the great classics I’m re-reading Simon Raven’s ‘Alms for Oblivion’ series which is delightful, unexpectedly telling, and surely a minor one.
22. Why does 1ac upset our Jester so!? Note to setters, spinster or bachelor preferred.

    I am disparaged by Jerry’s boy. I was in advertising for many years and quite happy to be ‘a creative’ even Creative Director. We ‘creatives’ do tend to get up people’s noses.

    Time 24 mins.

    18dn GUINEANS was a write-in as I know the west coast of Africa pretty well.

    FOI 6ac WARD (Hereward local hero)

    LOI 14ac DRIES

    COD 11ac GALLOWS

    WOD (18dn) CONAKRY

    Do I hear the tinkling of bells?

    Edited at 2019-06-10 11:26 am (UTC)

    1. Ah, well, that explains it…!
       Ha ha
23. I think it works as follows: “Struck dumb, maybe” = an example of an expression. “But” = “less,” followed by definition.

    As for 26a, we’ve had two alternative sea disasters, beginning with T, mentioned here: doubtless there are more.

24. Thought I was on for a record score here, but held up in the NE. Left high and DRY by WARD which I had to come here to parse, not remembering much about Hereward the Wake. TSUNAMI too non-cryptic to get.
25. Hello again; this is becoming a habit. 49:15 on my clock but that includes time helping my wife to bring in the shopping. LOI was AFOOT having tried ABOUT without confidence.
    I have certainly heard of wets and dries in the Tory party, perhaps in the recent Thatcher documentaries as well as in newspapers. On the shelf reminded me of Frau -sehr gut.
    COD to AT ISSUE -childish fun I know. My dog’s got no nose …etc
    David
26. Never heard of the DRIES either but I had a few dates with one of the Wets back in that era (much nicer). Jonny Lee Miller makes a surprisingly good Mr. Knightley in that adaptation. Like Z I had Emma for A level and yawned – then. Now I re-read it every so often. My long book list matches our blogger’s and the only one of them I regularly re-read is Dance. Haven’t dipped into Proust yet – I’m in the midst of the complete Maigret oeuvre which is a bit more digestible. 12.33
27. 3m 52s, the first time I’ve ever gone sub-5 minutes, so a big day for me. Maybe I’ll buy a black & white cake to celebrate.

    WARD was entered with fingers crossed, as I wasn’t at all sure on HEREWARD, and EMILY would have gone in a few seconds quicker if my E in IRON HORSE hadn’t looked a bit too much like a C, but otherwise no real problems.

    Still not quick enough to beat Verlaine though!

    1. That’s a bit of a time! Now is an appropriate time to improve your avatar methink!
       1. Thanks! Not a fan of the avatar? A memory of my trip to Joshua Tree National Park some years ago.
    2. Cracking time! But for your first sub-5 to be sub-4 looks a bit too good. Did you use performance enhancing drugs?
       1. I had two cookies shortly before I started – perhaps that was it?
          1. I’m not sure, but I’m willing to try it myself 😉
             1. I got my sub-4m time today directly after coming back from a wine-tasting, so I recommend both wine and cookies, for a potential sub-3?
                1. I feel I could get away with cookies on the commute. I fear the wine may turn heads.
       2. I’d be very careful with taking drugs if I were you. You might inadvertently find yourself in the running for leadership of the Conservative Party.
    3. Brilliant time, congratulations!
       1. Thanks!
28. 10:58 with a few interruptions from a colleague, who began each conversation with “Sorry to interrupt you on your break, but…” Grrr! I was still amazed to find myself in only 50th position on the leaderboard though – it didn’t feel like a sub-5-minute puzzle to me. LOI was WARD, had to start trawling through the alphabet although it came to me when I got to M or thereabouts.
29. Sprightly solve this morning made me feel pretty bright, though these things are put in context by Verlaine’s time, not to mention our blogger’s reading habits. Mostly pleased that I paused to find an alternative to the instinctive first reaction of ABOUT, as that would have been an annoying mistake. Pleasantly Monday-ish.
30. 9:36 with about a minute of that on DRIES. WARD and AFOOT took a while as well.
31. I managed this in a fast (for me) 17 minutes, meaning that I only had time for one error – dribs instead of DRIES.

    Surely the plural of “dry” (were it to be nouned) would be “drys”? I see that [jackkt] has the same throught. Ah well.

32. 1a went in straight away, then for some reason nothing until 23, making me wonder if I’d somehow stumbled into Friday without noticing. Then things picked up…

    Didn’t think about the pluralisation issues around DRIES, and yes it definitely leads to a grammatical debate. As long as an apostrophe isn’t involved I’d accept any argument either way.

    Also threw in WARMONGER without spotting the anagrist.

    Having grown up around Fenland knew Hereward so WARD wasn’t a problem.

    7.37 in the end, right up there in PB territory.

33. So quite happy … with a PB for me and somewhat ahead of our esteemed blogger. Glad to have heard of Hereward, otherwise I might have dithered over 6a. Also fortunate that our Aussie conservatives have “dries” on the right, so assumed the Tories would be similar.

    Thanks to U and the setter.

34. I had this as about – a bout being a curved part of a string instrument. Perfectly viable imho. Anyone else go with this…?
35. Drat, I went with DRIBS. The wets/DRIES label for the Tories wasn’t known to me, and I didn’t spot ‘sundries’. I didn’t spot Hereward either, and I don’t know where Fenland is, but I did manage to biff WARD. But a DNF for me. Regards.
36. Didn’t time myself but that was probably a record for me – maybe around 15 minutes. Very happy – everything fell into place. Helps that I’ve been to Conakry. Also included one of my favourite bands and one of my favourite films.
37. 22:52 not much went in on a first pass but this one slowly came together, though I was not helped by needing to correct a couple of missed typos along the way. I had forgotten that meaning of shambles and was looking for something slightly jollier at 9dn until the real answer materialised.

    A recent alert from The Times has drawn my attention to a new crossword site from David Akenhead, son of former Times crossword editor, Edmund Akenhead. He has collated and digitised a huge archive of crosswords beginning in 1969 (though it promises some even earlier ones going back to the primordial days of the crossword) and continuing to 2000 when the club site began. For a limited time, this site which is entirely independent of The Times and Sunday Times is free. The site is crosswordsakenhead dot com (I have written in that way in order not to fall foul of livejournal’s blocking of posts containing such addresses).

    I just thought some of the crossword aficionados on this site might be interested (if anyone is still around at this time).

38. I didn’t know (or remember) OA(P)s… Nor did I, when I finally got around to finishing this (not that it seemed so hard), take the time to figure out the clue for WARD.

    I thought UP TOP was a bit odd.

    Emma is the only Austen novel I’ve finished, though I enjoyed it so much, I immediately resolved to read them all. Well, it’s the really funny one.

    I love Proust, but I didn’t until I read him in the original. Moncrieff’s version seemed so stuffy! I’m sure a later translation that doesn’t replace the title with a somewhat redundant line from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 must be superior.

    1. Can’t argue with the superiority of the original, of course, but in Moncrieff’s defence, he did it! Personally, I think Remembrance of Things Past is a better title, inasmuch that it captures the spirit of the work better and is – nod to the Bard – more lyrical. He also renamed one of the volumes after a quotation from De La Mare, so a bit of an iconoclast in his own way. The correspondence between an ailing Proust and Moncrieff when the translation came out is rather fun – like two old queens going at it with handbags!

       Edited at 2019-06-11 06:40 am (UTC)

       1. Moncrieff’s title is immediately clear: This is a book of memories, or a book about remembering. (Yawn.) Proust’s rather Bergsonian experience of finding lost time is deeper than mere remembering. The significance of Proust’s title is gradually made clear as the novel develops, becoming fully explicit at the end, which is the beginning of its writing, in the volume Le temps retrouvé.
39. So quite happy … with a PB for me and somewhat ahead of our esteemed blogger. Glad to have heard of Hereward, otherwise I might have dithered over 6a. Also fortunate that our Aussie conservatives have “dries” on the right, so assumed the Tories would be similar.

    Thanks to U and the setter.

40. Thanks setter and ulaca
    Not too hard a puzzle with some new learning to be had with ‘the capital of Guinea’ and this meaning of ‘shambles’. Hadn’t seen DOWNGRADE mean ‘denigrate’ before either.
    Started off with TWITCHIER and finished with that DRIES – as with the other Aussies here, it is well known as part of our Liberal Party.

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