Times 27448: Is 18 down a little more than deyard?

58 comments on “Times 27448: Is 18 down a little more than deyard?”

1. …and took nearly an hour – I’m not sure, as I accidentally erased my starting time.

   I did see a surprising number of them right away, but then I really bogged down. The SW corner was particularly tough, as I struggled with ‘accuracy’, ‘surreal’, and ‘dawn chorus’. It would have been helpful if I had known Woking was in Surrey.

   Sciatica is usually associated with pain shooting down the legs, although it originates in the back.

2. Whew!
   LOI CALAIS, and I still don’t quite get the wordplay.
   Minutes later: OK, the I wouldn’t be half of CI sans the C at the start…

   Edited at 2019-09-05 05:53 am (UTC)

   1. The C is at the start of the answer, the I is ‘claimed’ by ALAS (regrettably)

      Edited at 2019-09-05 05:56 am (UTC)

      1. Yes, I said I did figure it out.
         1. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I thought you were saying without the C at the start, but that’s where it is.
            1. I analyzed this easily enough, but what tells us that there is a C, inside or out? Half of CI is (c or) I; it doesn’t follow that the other half is present.
               1. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen this type of clue before, or very rarely, but it would seem illogical to me to have Channel Islands cluing CI only for the C to then be redundant. In that case it could just have said ‘island’ which is used for I almost every day of the week.

                  To my mind the wordplay clearly results in two elements, CI and ALAS, which then have to be fitted together, with ALAS containing [claiming] half of CI. I suppose that leaves room for doubt as to whether the C or the I is being ‘claimed’ but that’s where the definition part of the clue comes into play.

                  Edited at 2019-09-05 09:13 am (UTC)

                  1. I whacked it in due to elements ALAS and French port, so not fatal, but I don’t really dig this construction. Difficult to parse. Rest of it was all right though.
                     1. Yep, it’s a nonsense. Mr Grumpy
3. Ran out of steam eventually and gave up on the anagram at 8dn using aids to get me kick-started again as I was stuck in that corner. I suspected CHIRRUP at 5ac but had no idea about X for CHI. Biffed DAWN CHORUS but I think of ANCHOR more as a restraint than a support.

   Ninja Turtled 18dn, knowing of DEMETER only by way of ‘The Archers’ in which she was one of Linda Snell’s two goats. The other was called Persephone.

   Edited at 2019-09-05 05:38 am (UTC)

   1. That is such a fine ninja turtle that I think we should introduce ‘Linda Snell’s goat(s)’ as a synonym.
      1. She also had llamas called Constanza and Salieri.
4. 19:49 … top notch stuff, especially LUNATIC FRINGE, PURCELL and CALAIS.

   Only thing I couldn’t quite resolve was “Activity linked to drawing” leading to HAUL. Feels like the wrong part of speech to me, but perhaps I’m misconstruing it.

   Ta, setter and the mighty George

   Edited at 2019-09-05 07:27 am (UTC)

   1. ‘Haul’ as a noun? Seems fine to me. “It was a long haul.”
5. I had DAWN something, and couldn’t think what, so looked it up. And 1d had to be either HOUR or HAUL, and neither seemed to fit, so I went with HAUL. (‘haul’ and ‘hall’ aren’t homophones in my dialect.) Only parsed COERCE post-solve. This took me forever, even with aids; I see I’m top o’ the SNITCH, (which welcome back!).
   1. Thanks. It’s nice to have it running smoothly again. Quite a spread of results today – you’re not alone at the red end.
6. 45 mins with yoghurt, granola, blueberries.
   I liked it a lot. I was stuck for a while on Prehensile having been tricked into thinking the ‘ready for grasping’ might include pennies, or something.
   Mostly I liked: Rat on, Human Interest, Demeter, Error and COD to the excellent Nudism.
   Thanks setter and G.
7. 42 minutes with LOI DAWN CHORUS, never a burden to me, and much preferable to finding any HUMAN INTEREST stories in the newspaper. I trust that The Times will never sink that low. FOI was MIDDLE C, given away by its structure. I was glad we didn’t have to travel too far to reach the French port. I’ll give COD to the LUNATIC FRINGE, while making no reference to our PM’s haircut. What’s wrote under the ROTUNDA? New Street. Or at least it used to be when I lived near Birmingham. Hardish puzzle, but worth the frowns. Thank you George and setter.
   1. Apologies if this is obvious but I think the setter means burden in the second sense in Collins (‘chorus or refrain’) rather than the first (‘something… oppressive’).
      1. Agreed, see below.
      2. Thank you, K. No, it wasn’t obvious to me. I didn’t know the second meaning, and assumed our setter was a townie struggling to get on with the delights of the countryside.
         1. I guess it’s obvious if you know it! This meaning of ‘burden’ is something I’ve learned from crosswords.
            1. I learned it from Poe:
               “Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store,
               Caught from some unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster
               Followed fast and followed faster, till his songs one burden bore, –
               Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
               Of “Never – nevermore.”
8. 11:45. I didn’t find this too hard, in spite of putting INTERFONE. It looks silly now but I thought it might be a brand name. Although in truth I didn’t think about it very much.
   1. I suppose “Interfone” could be a joint venture between Interflora and Vodafone, set up to enable flowers to purchased using one’s mobile.
9. That was quite tricky. I got HUMERUS straight away followed by a tentative RERUN, which I didn’t see the parsing of until later, and SCIATICA. Then things slowed down. I think RAT ON was my next entry. However, I plugged away and was eventually left with 5d and 19a. FIREBALL XL5 arrived first and I then saw COERCE fitted, and les deux M est arrive. Pleased to have solved without resort to aids. 39:26. Thanks setter and George, and welcome back to the SNITCH.
   1. Thanks, John
10. 40′, worth it. COERCE LOI. Delayed a long time by LUNATIC FRINGE, and was convinced first word of 11ac must be LIGHTER.

    I wonder if Handel thought of meaning two when he wrote the music to ‘His yoke is easy, but his burden is light’ ?

    Thanks george and setter.

11. I managed to squeeze in under 20 minutes, despite a very slow start. Another off-beat puzzle, with plenty of unusual-seeming elements to make it interesting.
    It seems I completely failed to parse my last in, DAWN CHORUS, as the explanation came as a complete surprise when I read it in George’s excellent analysis.
    Couldn’t see any problem with HAUL/hall, as I took haul to be a noun rather than a verb. As for the pronunciation, Chambers makes them identical (höl).
12. Worth it for NUDISM alone. Quite like COERCE as well.
13. Another nod to NUDISM.

    In my youth I joined a nudist colony. The first week was the hardest.

    1. 1st professor – ‘ tell me, have you read Marx?’

       2nd professor – ‘ yes, i think it’s these wicker chairs’

14. ….verging on the SURREAL in places. Thanks to George for parsing CALAIS (I really hope this sort of clue remains rare !), and HAUL.

    I always think that NUDISM is a pastime totally unsuited to the British climate.

    FOI HUMERUS
    LOI ANIMAL
    COD COERCE
    TIME 15:34

15. Remember Fireball XL5 with Steve Zodiac – I’m still waiting for ‘oxygen pills’ to be invented – would help a lot with asthma.

    . . or is it what a cat coughs up after finishing off a vindaloo?

    Edited at 2019-09-05 11:07 am (UTC)

    1. 🙂
16. Smooth run after yesterday’s fits and starts. Nice puzzle. I hope you’re safely inshore from Dorian George – it looks nasty and it does seem to be heading your way (not via Alabama as a certain map-maker would have us believe). 14.31
    1. Asheville seems to be about 200 miles from the shore, so they should do pretty well.
       1. Yep, I’m in no imminent danger – Asheville is a pretty popular spot for people who have been evacuated, particularly from Charleston and points further south, interstate 26 takes you straight here.
17. Not an easy one, with the lower half remaining stubbornly blank for a while. 13m on the dot for me, with a little bit of biffing – in particular DAWN CHORUS, where I didn’t parse the wordplay and didn’t know the definition.
18. LOI ANIMAL sensual man? Any suggestions or explanations? I’d have thought he’d be pretty much the other way, but what do I know? Some brilliant clues here, many of which were wasted on me.
    1. I thought this was odd. Chambers has ‘a brutish or sensual man’ but I still think it’s odd (I mean these two things are not remotely the same) and neither Collins nor ODO has the ‘sensual’ meaning.
19. I thought this was harder than yesterdays, especially the lower half; I didn’t know the second meaning of CHORUS and took an age to unravel the anagram at 22a. Don’t quite understand 23d – sensual = animal? A slow hour while watching Steve Smith heading for yet another ton.
    1. sorry, LJ keeps logging me out when I’m using the VPN.
    2. I took it in the slang sense of “can’t get enough of IT” “He’s an animal”
20. Going along steadily till a few in the lower half held me up, with DAWN CHORUS as my LOI. At least I’ve learnt – or more likely re-learnt – a new sense for ‘burden’, for future crossword use if for nothing else.

    I liked the ‘position of dam’ definition for 26a and the ‘answer as anagram’ LUNATIC FRINGE. I agree with vinyl1 about SCIATICA, which was a minor annoyance.

    Finished in 49 minutes.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

21. In answer to the question in your title, George, I think a little more than ‘deyard’ is ‘deyard II: deyarder’.
22. A slog. Took ages, and I fell asleep almost as soon as I started, as I’d just come in from 18 holes of golf. It was like pulling teeth from start to finish. Thanks george.
23. Oh dear! MITRE for 10A meant 6D was out of contact.
    Some excellent hidden definitions. Thanks setter and blogger.
24. This took me a full 40 minutes, so I was a little miffed to see the SNITCH rating this one as moderate. On the other hand, I’m still on holiday and approaching a persistent vegetative state, so perhaps 40min isn’t so bad. LOsI were MATERNITY/ANIMAL, the latter aided by my ongoing Bond-fest; Fleming has Bond forever characterizing people in minute detail based on their appearance and way of moving, and I’m sure the phrase “animal sensuality” has cropped up at least a couple of times in respect of men and/or women.

    Regarding my ongoing holiday, I am relieved to be able to report that Mrs. Thud has decided that “finding ourselves” might not be such a great idea after all, and has settled into the backup plan of finding decent restaurants instead.

25. I am pushing myself to try the daily puzzles more frequently (than the usual never). I was pleased as punch to finish this puzzle, even though I had to grind out my last answers in each quadrant. Loved how PERPLEX sprang into being.
26. 33:25 I found this chewy in parts, maternity took forever to crack, but satisfying to solve. Purcell’s middle C was a highlight. I think the exhibition of nudism is positioned perilously close to the fireball in the grid. It’s an accident waiting to happen.
27. FOI 4d, as I have been suffering with it for 10 weeks now and my mobility is severely restricted. Thank goodness for challenging crosswords!
    I thought this was a very enjoyable puzzle. The presence of nine question marks in the clues suggests a setter who is prepared to stretch things a little. Bravo for that!
    I still don’t really understand how we are supposed to know where to put the C and the I in 15a, but the definition makes it very easy to biff.
28. 28 mins. Quite enjoyed this, though I don’t think ‘dome’=ROTUNDA (the rotunda is cylindrical, surely) and my Oxford dict doesn’t include hat=tile (though I think I’ve come across this in Crosswordland before). I chortled at the NUDISM clue and felt smug at recognising both the musical sense of ‘burden’ and Diana’s target.
    Thank you, George, for your blog. Thanks, setter.

    1. You may have a point re rotunda/dome although a dome can be part of a rotunda so there’s probably some overlap in usage.

       Tile = hat is in the Shorter Oxford and Collins but not in the smaller Oxfords or Chambers. It’s old-fashioned slang, though not CRS I think, and turns up quite frequently in Times crosswords. It’s mentioned in the lyric of the song “Any Old Iron” in the line “brand new tile”.

29. Because this offering was not in the same league as yesterday’s. Apart from the Calais controversy, there’s an unnecessary and misleading ‘a’ in 4D. The clue reads just fine without it. September is usually abbreviated to Sept in my book-although I will obviously be wrong on that. NHO ‘sensual man’ described as an ‘animal’. 27a apparently just uses a random town in Surrey. Surely there’s a better way of phrasing that particular clue? And yesterday’s was ‘flaky’? Some of this was simply bizarre. Mr Grumpy
30. Found it quite hard to get going but some nice words there.

    Didn’t parse DAWN CHORUS and took ages to comllete the SE corner.

31. I still do not understand CALAIS. So I would be grateful for any further explication. Also, what part does the question mark play in the clue?

    I first looked at this puzzle on Sunday – on a long train journey. I read sequentially through all the clues but was unable to solve any. Until I reached the very last down clue, which I could solve. This made me chuckle and drew the couple at the table into the solving process…

    1. I think I can now understand the setter’s intentions.

       French port regrettably claiming half of Channel Islands? (6)

       French port = definition for CALAIS
       regrettably = ALAS
       claiming = including
       half of Channel Islands? = half of CI = I

       So, we might arrive at ALAIS. What we should do with the other half of the Channel Islands (the C) is unspecified. So the clue just does not work.

       If a clue indicates that we are to use the middle letter of QUONDAM in some way, we do not usually worry about to do with the other letters of QUONDAM.

       However, consider the following clue for ARREST:

       Stop most unusual remainder claiming half of Royal Artillery (6)

       Stop = definition for ARREST
       most unusual = RAREST
       remainder = REST
       claiming = including
       half of Royal Artillery = half of RA = R

       So, we split RAREST into RA+REST and the REST then claims half of the RA, giving A+R(R)EST. Such a clue would, in my opinion, work properly.

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