Times 27445 – If the poet doesn’t get you, the rod will

43 comments on “Times 27445 – If the poet doesn’t get you, the rod will”

1. A promising start, as I got the first 3 acrosses, but like many starts, this one didn’t keep its promise, and I had some trouble in the SE. I followed U’s lead and biffed EPISCOPACY, which stayed there until I finally got INFERRED. One bad biff deserving another, I biffed KNOT (DNK KNAR), which kept me from dragging CARMARTHEN from memory. Finally remembered IF, which gave me LOI CHISELLING. Never did parse MONOGAMY (I thought MONa, then stopped thinking); thanks, U, for enlightening me. This is Monday, I believe, but still the definition in 24d seems unnecessarily explicit.

   Edited at 2019-09-02 12:53 am (UTC)

2. I tried for TRIDOS before the checker put paid to that idea, and I remembered IF. My downfall was putting SONG MARTIN without thinking too much about the wordplay, which is obviously wrong. KNAR was a complete guess although I did know KNARLY so it seemed likely (I also tried hard for KNOT too).
3. Thought I might finish this, FOI croc, but defeated by staccato, thinking the def was censor. Also chiseling, I didn’t know the other meaning.

   Cod declaim.

4. DNF. No idea about 25ac. I suppose I should have thought of IF but I’m not sure I’d have believed that TRIFID was a real word.
   1. I fell at the same fence. Not exactly a Monday clue, Trifid!!
5. 39 minutes, having gradually spiralled down into slowness from a speedy start.

   By a happy coincidence, I was with a friend at the weekend who always wears T shirts with oblique film or computer game references, and his choice on Sunday was a replica of Cameron’s shirt in the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—CADUCEAN, in other words.

   That definitely helped in the SW, but in the SE the intersections of 15d, 18d, 27a and 25a were a quadrifidal (I’m assuming that’s a word) problem that held me up for some time. I really should’ve got 27a more quickly, but having two random names scared me off the wordplay…

   Anyway. Good fun, apart from wavering about whether the SAND MARTIN might actually be spelled “marten”, not knowing much about either birds or French saints. FOI 1a STACCATO LOI 25 TRIFID COD 9a FERRYMAN.

6. 15:19 … ending of course with the TRIFID, which went in with fingers crossed. Otherwise everything known, if uncertainly.

   Definitely one for the people who get picked first for quiz teams (so I’m quite surprised I finished it).

7. Judging by the speed I completed most of this puzzle I thought I was going to be complaining that it was too easy even for a Monday, however with 5 or 6 clues remaining I slowed to a crawl and eventually had to resort to aids for two of them making this a technical DNF.

   Admittedly I should have worked out FERRYMAN on seeing ‘transferring…between banks’ as I have seen similar before, usually with reference to Charon and the Rivers Styx or Acheron, but I can’t get annoyed with myself for failing to come up with TRIFID which was completely unknown. Obviously I got the T for Tennyson, and had considered RID for delivered, but I never got beyond ODE for ‘poem’ and was actually convinced that ‘three-part poem’ was the definition as I have the impression there are a lot of TRI- words connected with poetry and the arts more generally.

   Never parsed MONOGAMY beyond AMY as one of the girls.

   I made a silly mistake with the unknown CADUCEAN thinking ‘Mussolini addressed’ might be O, DUCE and ignoring the presence of ‘initially’ in the clue.

   I knew the required meaning of CHISELLLING as it has come up quite recently in one form or another. I’d never heard of it before that.

   Edited at 2019-09-02 05:42 am (UTC)

   1. I wonder if that’s an Americanism. I think it is pretty widely used in the US, but several people have mentioned not really knowing it.
8. 19.24. o putting in an early bid for the slowest of the week. Followed the cryptic on CADUCEAN – one of those words which you know exists but don’t know why. Likewise TRIFID (it just wasn’t their day) – these two my last entries.
   There must be lots of other ways of spelling KNAR, including ones using a G, but again I stuck with something that worked with the cryptic bit.
   SAND MARTIN was nearly SONG THRUSH for no good reason, and it took me a while to accept that the Greek character in 15d didn’t get buried in the rest of the clue. Plus I worried that it might be some variant on the shady chiaroscuro, which I would have had trouble spelling.
   Decent start to the week, and fine commentary, though I confess I had to look up Jennifer Lawrence.
   1. [Drops jaw]
9. Filled in 9 clues very quickly then a long period of dribbling ones and twos before 15 mins working out the SE corner.

   NHO SEERSUCKER. Like Matt, wasn’t certain whether MARTIN should be spelt with an E. Failed to parse the first five letters of MONOGAMY and TRIFID a guess once the poem popped up.

   NHO CADUCEAN either and KNAR an educated guess both with all checkers.

   Edited at 2019-09-02 07:53 am (UTC)

10. Same, but different DNF: knew KNUR and GNAR (back-formed from gnarly, dude!) but not KNAR. KNAR seemed unlikely, so I guessed GNUR – a rung is a step up the ladder just like a rank. But that was not the definition! Definitely undercaffeinated when I tried this.
    Otherwise TRIFID a guess, thinking carnivorous plants, and Caducean right but wrong – confused with Ascelpius as our blogger suggests.
    Also no idea who Martin is, or if Mo is a girl or not. Thinking boys: Moe who’s Homer’s bartender, or Mo Johnson the soccer striker.
    A sting in the tail.
    1. Mo is a diminutive of Maureen.
       1. Thanks. Not sure Maureen is an Allowable Name down under – a quick google didn’t give a single one I’d heard of.
    2. The only female Mo that I can think of was Little Mo, Maureen Connolly, a successful US tennis player in the early fifties. Can I assume that all of you knew that already? Oh, and Mo Mowlam.

       Edited at 2019-09-02 10:11 am (UTC)

    3. coz I’m made out of glue
11. A solid old fashioned puzzle. Biffed KNAR, CADUCEAN and TRIFID.
12. 18′, without TRIFID, an unknown word, and forgot IF like our blogger. EPISCOPATE FOI.

    Bit obscure for a Monday.

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

13. 35 mins with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    I liked it. Mostly I liked the Sack Race nested anagrams.
    Thanks setter and U.
14. It took me a while to get going, with CASHIER being my first entry. The unknown CADUCEAN was then assembled from CA____AN with DUCE a cert for Mussolini. Thus the rest of the SW appeared quickly with OAST, as Kevin mentions, practically given away. In the NE, EPISCOP__ went in, but I waited for some confirmation of the last 3 letters, as there was no Y in the anagrist. SEERSUCKER eventually emerged from the recesses of my mind. A possible Charon was INFERRED from 8d. I managed to substitute IF for ODE and came up with the unknown TRIFID, wondering how a plant with a long stinger could be part of a triad, but the wordplay seemed incontrovertible. Anyway John Wyndham’s creation would’ve needed another F. That left a few to solve in the NW, with OFFICER generously donating STACCATO, and KNAR(known previously as GNAR, but I deferred to the wordplay) preceding TANZANIA, which brought the proceedings to a close at 23:22. Enjoyable if less than Mondayish puzzle. Thanks setter and U.
15. 36 minutes, with LOI TRIFID. I’d thought for a while before that the poem would either be IF or perhaps the RIME of the ancient mariner. At last, IDEALISM and the memory of the turbulent priest threw up the unknown TRIFID. The unknowm CADUCEAN was constructed from Mussolini’s usual title. I liked FERRYMAN, but the row he got into somehow didn’t quite work, so COD to STACCATO. WINTRY was very nice too. It’s beginning to feel a bit that way on the morning constitutional. I didn’t parse MONOGAMY and fingers were crossed for KNAR, which I thought had an ‘l’ on the end. Fashion advice please, are my SEERSUCKER shirts in or out? I’ve had them several years. A tricky Monday offering, but one which repaid the effort. Thank you U and setter.
    PS I can’t believe that I’ve just come to this site for fashion advice.

    Edited at 2019-09-02 10:14 am (UTC)

16. This took me a not very Mondaylike 46 mins. Most of those minutes were spent on the triad of CHISELLING, IDEALISM and, of course, TRIFID. I also doggedly insisted that the Greek letter must be embedded. I toyed with ‘triune’ for a bit, allowing the possibility of rune = poem. NHO KNAR, but it seemed consonant with known gnarly, knotty, gnurlish words. The cryptic def at FERRYMAN is laudable for the attempt, though I agree with boltonwanderer that the getting into a row is slightly dissonant.
    And I was very chuffed at my GK in recognising that a kiln for drying hops, often seen in rural Kent, which typically had a timber cowl on top of a tapered brick-and-tile building, is OAST.
    Thanks for the fine blog, Ulaca.
17. ….TRIFID ? I was another who was lulled into a false sense of security by a tearaway start (just as I was in today’s QC), and thus spent a quarter of my solving time over my COD and my NHO LOI !

    I visited CARMARTHEN briefly two years ago, and finally ran down one of CAMRA’s classic ales, Felinfoel Double Dragon.

    I had no idea that St.Martin was a patron saint of France, and luckily knew the bird couldn’t be a “sand dennis”, even allowing some licence with spelling.

    I parsed MONOGAMY afterwards.

    FOI FERRYMAN
    LOI TRIFID
    COD CADUCEAN
    TIME 8:54

18. 16m 14s, held up at the end by IDEALISM / TRIFID, where I originally had TRIDEX under the assumption that it was a kind of three-part poem. With I?E??E?M to fill I could only come up with ICECREAM, which is two words and had nothing to do with the clue.
19. 32 mins. It took me ages to see IF in TRIFID. I remembered CADUCEAN from somewhere, but it’s hazy. Good puzzle. Thanks u.
20. My heart sank a little when I saw the need for a Welsh place-name at 3d. The Welsh are notorious for throwing together any assortment of consonants and deciding on a pronunciation later. For CARMARTHEN, though, they clearly subcontracted to an English toponomist, so a few checkers were sufficient. I also had qualms about 25ac, as I always do about obscure terms for types of poem, parts of poems, or parts of types of poems. Wordplay to the rescue there. KNAR was back-constructed from ‘knarly’, and CADUCEAN from Caduceus, and all was completed in 23 minutes.

    Inspired by a recent Goldfinger clue, I am re-reading a few of the Bond novels. I have to say that they are jolly well-written, but it takes the first half of each book to get oneself back into the 1950’s mindset.

    1. You could always go to Carmarthen?
       1. That would do it! Somehow, I can’t picture James Bond being set in Wales. Live and Let, Dai? From Rhuddlan With Love?
          1. Live and let Dai – excellent.

             Should it be followed with Dai another Dave?

             I hope Ann isn’t around today?

             1. Not forgetting ‘Licence to Rhyl’.
                1. Dr Llandudno?
                   1. Dear gods, what have I started?
                      1. 🙂
                   2. …. played by Daniel Craig-y-don.

                      (It’s where my father was born in case you’re wondering how I knew).

21. Couple of Club Monthly jobs in CADUCEAN & KNAR, but compensated for in other clues.

    Think I may have seen a version of the FERRYMAN cd on my travels somewhere, so perhaps the CAR MART and CHI SELLING the most fetching of the Monday batch for me.

22. I was going so well – 12 minutes – all done but one: the blasted Trifids. (I see in the book they are Triffids). In the end I gave up! So a did-not-finish for the first time in a long time!
23. Back after a brief holiday and thought I might be ready for Monday’s puzzle after a warm-up with Wurm in the QC.
    I got quite a bit of it but had to resort to some guesswork e.g. CONCERTO at 1a which was trumped by (an) Assessment that I should come here for enlightenment.
    CADUCEAN,KNAR and TRIFID I regard as almost off the scale. I liked Ferryman.
    Very tough puzzle I thought. David
24. All done bar 1 clue in just over 14 minutes, but I had to resort to a dictionary trawl to find the elusive TRIFID. Otherwise all rather fun.
25. Triode seemed like a no-brainer, and it was. Otherwise, I kind of liked Ferryman, and I struggled with the only-vaguely-known Caducean.
26. Like others I had to resort to a solver for TRIFID, was looking for a three-part poem (along the lines of the Divine Comedy) given by DELIVERED outside T which gave me a horrible-looking 5-letter word containing II. Otherwise not too bad I thought. Had to reach a bit for EPISCOPATE (not being of the religious persuasion) and KNAR. FOI STACCATO LOI FERRYMAN DNF TRIFID
27. IF occurred to me at the last moment, so I did get TRIFID as my LOI. CADUCEAN and KNAR were other unknowns which went in purely from wordplay, but I did complete the puzzle with no mistakes in just under an hour.
28. DNF. Bah! I raced through this in good time but then got completely stumped on trifid. Too subtle for me that one.

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