Times 27,677: Put Through Our Paces

53 comments on “Times 27,677: Put Through Our Paces”

1. Loved it, seemed so hard but all fell out in the end. Arch straight in, chinwag a few seconds later, then… 50 minutes of bafflement. Thanks setter and blogger, particularly for the bits I missed: the ‘ll in dilly, and loom/tower over.
   1. Oh, and as a Latin-ignorant, non-classicist I’d pronounce pace as par-kay. A while back you(?) and Dr. Thud discussed using forensic linguistics to deduce “correct” Latin pronunciation, linking to an informative and enjoyable youtube video.

      Edited at 2020-05-29 03:02 am (UTC)

      1. Try choral singing
      2. Your ancient Roman would have said something like “pah-kay”, but the modern pronunciation is usually “pah-chay” or “pay-see”, as if taken from Italian or French, even though the word was borrowed directly from Latin.
2. ….I had less than half of the grid filled. So I took a long hot shower, being sure to douse my head and shoulders most thoroughly. It worked! With my cleaned-out brain, I was able to complete the puzzle correctly in another twenty minutes. The only thing I couldn’t parse was the ‘gold’ in ‘Ascot gold cup’, but that had to be the answer.

   I was just a bit annoyed at not seeing ‘chipmunk’ immediately; we have a lot of chipmunks here, and I was watching a few dart around this afternoon on my daily walk. I should also have seen ‘prima donna’ and ‘apostle’ more quickly, as they are common inhabitants of these grids.

   My LOI was ‘jumble’, and I had to think a long time about the cryptic before I saw how it worked.

   A fine puzzle, right now at 166 on the SNITCH, but I suspect more than a few reference solvers will not complete their grids and submit.

3. At 70 minutes I gave up on this and used aids for the missing four answers. Two of the problems were linked as I didn’t solve 8dn so couldn’t make sense of 14ac which I don’t think was biffable.
   1. I did get ‘abnormal load’ without solving 8, and then used the extra letters from that to give me ‘abloom’.
      1. Likewise. Sorry Jack.
         1. Ah, but did you have checkers? Does it count as a biff if you have more to go on than just the definition? Starts whole new debate perhaps?
            🙂
            1. I think I had A-N-R to help me and I concede it wasn’t a true BIFF as I could see some of the letters I needed to add to the jumble in the “rand a large” part of the clue.

               Whilst I’m not totally au fait with the rule book governing TfTT nomenclature I’m pretty sure that a biff implies no reliance on wordplay, but can imply at least some reliance on enumeration and n checkers, where n = 0-8.

               Clearly BIFDEANC has less of a ring to it that BIFD.

               1. All absolutely fair enough, of course. I suppose what I meant in my original post was that I doubt if anyone faced with the definition ‘Enormous charge’ even given (8,4) as enumeration would have thought of ABNORMAL LOAD.

                  Edited at 2020-05-29 10:32 am (UTC)

4. Took forever after my 30′ online, over a long lunch break. I was ready finally to throw in the towel with 2 or 3 left: MICROsomething, DILLY-DALLYING (which I could make nothing of beyond DI and YD), and what I expected was ASCOT CUP (why I couldn’t think of GOLD, aside from not getting ‘or’, I don’t know). I was finally tired enough to look up Ascot Cup, which gave me microBLOG. Submitted off leaderboard. A major workout.
5. I was pleased to finish this with all correct in what felt like a lot longer than 40 minutes. After 20 minutes I must have had only about a quarter finished. Finally I saw BUGATTI (having tried all the more common makes) and the rest gradually flowed from there. My LOI was ALCATRAZ which I found torturous to parse. A fine puzzle.
6. I dillied and dallied at first but found my way home in 48 minutes with LOI APOSTLES. It was fingers crossed that TOMATILLO wasn’t tomatello. The NW had a couple of US connotations, but eventually the birdman place and Alvin singing Ragtime Cowboy Joe did come in. I did also encounter Chipmunks later via Disneyland, so I associate them with the smell of corn oil and tomato ketchup. ABLOOM was solved by deconstructing the ABNORMAL LOAD. COD to DILLY-DALLYING.A tough but enjoyable puzzle, particularly since I solved it. Thank you V and setter.
7. 30 mins pre-brekker and pleased with that.
   Some tricky stuff, e.g. D.I.’ll. I’ll remember that ‘ll trick.
   Thanks setter and V.
   1. I suppose I had better remember it too, then 🙂
8. Quite pleased with that time as there were some tricky bits there – UKASE/GANGES, ALCATRAZ/TOMATILLO to name two. Glad to have spelt CHIPMUNK correctly, it once being an error of mine (‘chipmonk’) in the Times crossword championship.

   Verlaine, you have a little typo – aslo instead of also.

   COD MICROBLOG, lovely surface.

   Yesterday’s answer: the longest capital city with no repeated letters I can find is Bridgetown (Barbados), not as good as Bricklehampton in Worcestershire. Inspired by BUDAPEST.

   Today’s question: what is the brightest star in the (night) sky? John McEnroe might deny it.

   1. Goddess coming back to American star (6)
      1. Dreadful American automated voice (6)
   2. Depends if you mean greatest apparent brightness or absolute brightness
      The former would be Me on a knight with you (6) (there’s a reason why I’m not a setter) but The sound of a car extract (10) is over 100,000 times brighter than the Sun (if my cod physics is right)
   3. I believe that in the monastery the chipmonk worked alongside the deep fat friar.
9. 46 minutes (brain?) dead, so many of the clues concealing their true intentions like a SPAD explaining Barnard Castle. JUMBLE my last in, convinced that it started with a reversed U/S for no good. Like other, I got 8dn deconstructing 14ac, having been on the right lines with ABROAD.
   Might have been a bit quicker had I spotted ARCH and CHIPMUNK, which turned out to be relatively easy but which stayed blank until near the end.
   No complaints, thanks to V for persisting with DILLY so we lesser mortals could understand it, and to the brilliant B’stard of a setter.
10. Tomatello :((
    Thanks v.
11. Ta to MICROBLOGger and setter.

    Tiny fettle at 15 Across A TONE, rather than A TOME

12. 35:24. With everything parsed bar DILLY-DALLYING. ALCATRAZ and ABNORMAL LOAD my last 2 in as I persisted in thinking TC for “can of talc” for far too long and never considered the solution to 8 as part of the anagrist until I saw the answer. Lots of great clues – I can’t pick a COD. Thanks V and setter.
    1. I also spent considerable time trying to get TC to fit in somewhere.
13. A three cups of strong coffee puzzle intermixed with a couple of breaks! Some superb stuff here – well blogged V

    I now can’t stop humming “my old man said follow the van”

14. ‘My old man, said “follow the van, and don’t dilly dally on the way”..’, isn’t that the wonderful allusion in the surface?

    JUMBLE took a while, as did ABNORMAL LOAD. TOMATILLO, great clue.

    But COD to DILLY-DALLYING.

    29′, thanks verlaine and setter.

15. Enjoyed this, which I thought medium difficult rather than actually hard. No unknowns today.
    Pace pace, Latin pronunciation has changed dramatically during my lifetime, and I am fairly confident pachay and passay and packay are likely all wrong guesses. Data is lacking..
    One of AP Herbert’s more amusing Misleading Cases was about a young barrister using the “new pronunciation” in court, and being sent packing as a result..

    Edited at 2020-05-29 09:12 am (UTC)

    1. I think Sellars & Yeatman had the last word on the “new pronunciation” Jerry, when they had their ancient Brits take exception to being called “weeny, weedy and weaky” by the invading Romans.
16. 22:40. Dead hard, I hope you’re happy now Verlaine. LOI JUMBLE whose parsing was tortuous to say the least but hats off to the setter for having me wondering if I knew the Latin name for Amazonian guju tree blight.

    Edited at 2020-05-29 12:20 pm (UTC)

17. A nice finish to the week, in which the top half fell quite quickly but the second half proved trickier. I was slowed by entering WITH REGARDS TO (looking it up, it seems Chambers only has WITH REGARD TO, so perhaps I’ve been saying this wrong for years).
    1. I’d also have said with regards to over both with regard to and with respect to. Happy to stand corrected.
18. Many thanks to setter and Verlaine for tough but excellent puzzle and blog.

    I agree with earlier comment that the the parsing of 15D should read A TONE (rather than TOME) followed by reversal of EMIT

    1. Alright, who is it with the edit privileges who’s coming in and editing my blog to look silly? (Sillier.) Thanks for the heads up!
19. Phew, relieved to get away with no pink squares in just under the hour. Parsed it all apart from the ‘LL in DILLY. Even managed to get ABLOOM, once I had APOI COLONEL, without deconstructing ABNORMAL LOAD, which was a semi biff from checkers and definition. NINTHS was my final one in, with a big sight of relief, which was followed by a louder one when UKASE turned out to be a word! My FOI was a partial: CUP at 18a. or for GOLD was a breakthrough moment. 59:31. Thanks demonic setter and V.
20. ….but ever so faintly tainted by the Grauniadesque 14A.

    FOI CHINWAG
    LOI JUMBLE
    COD ALCATRAZ
    TIME 15:52

21. Once I realized that this really was hard and not just me being thick I settled in for a very enjoyable 35.16. Like Vinyl we have a lot of CHIPMUNKS and they’re cute to watch, although we had to deter one from nesting in the woodpile and nibbling all the young plant shoots on the porch.
    1. There’s always that nagging doubt, is it me or is it the crossword? That’s why I always head straight to the SNITCH when I finish. Today it was the crossword. On another day I’m sure it will be me.
22. Baled out with ALCATRAZ and TOMATILLO unsolved.
    It didn’t help that I was looking for an old term for toilet at one down…….

    DNF in about an hour.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

23. And I was a Tomatello!!! Aargh! I was thinking tell as in have an effect. Great puzzle.
24. 72mins, but felt like more. Pleased to finish with all correct. Yahoo! From a PB earlier this week to a PW today, but both thoroughly enjoyable. Need a lie down after this.Thanks to V and setter.
25. Thanks for all the explanations. I think you have a minor typo in 15d. Apologies if it is mentioned above.
26. Very enjoyable, topped off by the penny drop moment which produced JUMBLE.
27. Best describe this as a masochism tango. (There’s another ear worm for you). Several gems here including the PACE thing, JUMBLE, DILLY-DALLYING and one that really held me up, ALCATRAZ.
28. I found this really tough and looked up examinees to finish in 74 mins. For me, the archetypal tough Friday though, as many have observed, that particular day is getting less predictable in difficulty. Still, enjoyed the challenge and there’s always room for personal improvement. See if I can fare better next Friday.
29. a few new words today. As well as the fact that modern motorcycle batteries can be fitted laid on their side if the terminals are the wrong way round to fit a particular velocipede. Who knew?
30. 15:41. Late today, pesky work got in the way. I absolutely loved this puzzle. It required but also rewarded close attention to wordplay, which is just how I like it. Also a 15-minuter is the perfect level of difficulty for me, as I think I commented last time we had one.
    Thanks very much setter and v, and have a great weekend everyone.
31. Can’t moan about this at all. Far too good for me. Gave up after getting about five clues. Even the homophone works for once. Mr Grumpy
32. 51:26 I struggled to put this one to bed. A few clues which twisted and turned and needed looking at from multiple angles (1dn I’m looking at you). I didn’t recognise abnormal load as an expression. A typo in dilly-dallying delayed examinees. I thought microblog was terrific. Never did crack the ‘ll bit of dilly. Tough all over but rewarding.
33. I had to sleep on this one. Great crossword but tough.
34. Wow that was hard work! About half went in easily then a hard slog and to finish needed a good nights sleep and start again today! Only solved 8d by getting 14a, and even then still struggled.

    Edited at 2020-05-30 02:23 pm (UTC)

35. At least 3 or 4 hours hard work spread over a few days hence this probably being the last commentary by far. All correct, equally pleased and amazed, as I could not parse 12ac Tomatillo or 19 dn Jumble (seemed it could be burble, bumble or tumble). 1 dn Alcatraz (led me to discover that an Alcatras is a Pelican-like bird) has to be one the best clues ever, on the surface it all seemed impossible and was my one-but-last-in followed by the Jumble guess.

    Great puzzle, but I had to skip some other days offerings due to the time spent on it. Appreciate the blogger V. of course (Can’t begin to imagine how this was solved in under 10 mins !!).

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