Times 27,689: A 1ac, a 1dn and a 5dn walk into two hostelries…

53 comments on “Times 27,689: A 1ac, a 1dn and a 5dn walk into two hostelries…”

1. ….probably due to only elite solvers having posted as of 2:30 BST. There is some tricky stuff here; the GK should not be a problem for experienced 15 x 15 solvers, although I can never remember what prunella actually is. I nearly biffed cinnabar, but couldn’t parse it, only to come back much later and find out it was right all along.

   Time, 30 minutes.

   1. Prunella seems to be a plant as well – certainly I felt a momentary twinge of surprise to come across it as a type of fabric this time.
      1. The lovely Ms.Scales, apart from admiring your impressive stature, was also one of my “co-stars” on the TV show I did on “How to Tackle a Cryptic Crossword”. Alas, we never actually met, as the segments were all filmed separately and edited together later.
         1. I did have the privilege of meeting her once. The surrounding circumstances were tragic; I was a police officer manning an outer cordon at the scene of the Clapham rail disaster. However I was right outside her house for the best part of 10 hours. She and Timothy West, her husband, kept my colleague and I well supplied with tea, cake and ‘comfort station’. A nicer person I have rarely met.

            Definitely the most enjoyable of the week.
            My thanks to setter and blogger.
            22’30”

2. Off to a slow start, with no acrosses on the first pass, FOI ASKING, but picked up speed, thanks to some surprising biffing, like LEAD KINDLY LIGHT from the N. Also biffed HIGH WIRE, PRUNELLA, PANCAKE DAY. Couldn’t remember ALEMBIC until I had the checkers. Didn’t see, as usual, the hidden until I had SESTINA from checkers. POI HIDALGO, LOI HOBO. I see ‘covered’ was used twice, for HID and CAKED. COD ORIENT; I persisted in looking for NIL or O.
3. My FOI and LOI was 1A. I put in COBS since I thought (I should check if it is true) that COB means a buttock so COBS is a bum. Now I think about it, that is more Guardiany than Timesy. So HOBO ended up being my last one in once I finally got HIDALGO to show me that it was HBO and not CBS I was looking for. A few words I’d not come across like AVESTA, and some that I don’t really know what they mean like PRUNELLA and SESTINA. But I found it much harder than the others this week.
   1. I came up with COBS by the same reasoning, although I refrained from typing it in.
   2. I was going well. Then I arrived at POBS by broadly similar reasoning and typed it in. And there it stayed for half an hour or so before I amended it to COBS. And then much later the spanish gentleman deigned to appear to produce HOBS. And then finally I saw the blighter.
4. CIRCUMNAVIGATOR was FO! and I got WALKINGWOUNDED and KREMLINOLOGIST fairly early, with the church song having to wait a bit. LOI was, of all things (so I thought it was pretty clever), the backward hidden word SESTINA. I doubt if Walt wrote one of those.

   Edited at 2020-06-12 03:28 am (UTC)

5. No time, thanks to a mid-puzzle nap. I enjoyed this, mainly because of the crosswordy words pointed out by Verlaine, to which I would add PRUNELLA as a barely remembered ‘Silk fabric’.

   I liked the ‘One producing reports’ in HACKSAW, my POI, though I’m not sure that the highly educated, politically aware younger members of the journalistic species would be too enamoured of the term HACK. I can reassure them it’s a term of endearment (I think).

6. I thought this on a par with the others this week difficulty wise so it was interesting to see the SNITCH reveal this was due to me being on the wavelength today. There were several unknown, half known or unusual words today – HIDALGO, ALEMBIC, AVESTA, SESTINA to name but a few but all were generously clued.
7. I was doing rather well with this puzzle, somewhat more difficult than the past couple of days, with quite a few words and/or meanings not known to me or I was only vaguely aware of. But then I got bogged down in the NW corner and eventually ran out of steam with 1dn and 13ac still missing and I resorted to aids. I knew HIDALGO as a Spanish gentleman and ORIENT, but the combination of wordplay and checkers didn’t nudge my thoughts in the right direction for either. I had no idea what ALEMBIC meant and PRUNELLA as a fabric rather than a plant was new to me. Offence was taken here quite recently over the use of ‘hack’, so we’ve done that one.

   Edited at 2020-06-12 05:33 am (UTC)

8. Home in 42 minutes. LOI PRUNELLA when the scales fell from my eyes. I thought I’d done well and that this was hard, so am surprised at some of the comments. COD to LEAD KINDLY LIGHT as it was always my Grandad’s favourite hymn. I got HOBO late on, but didn’t know HBO as a broadcaster. I think I’ve seen ALEMBIC before but constructed it. I liked this. Thank you V and setter.

   Edited at 2020-06-12 06:46 am (UTC)

   1. I see what you did there John 😄
   2. Hadn’t seen your pun before I posted mine- honest. Great minds and all that….
9. Well, you know your crossword knowledge is improving when you can get ALEMBIC from the definition… This flowed more easily than yesterday’s, though I only solved it a minute faster, at 37m. DNK 12a LEAD KINDLY LIGHT, 16d PRUNELLA, 1d HIDALGO.

   I thought I recognised 20d AVESTA from somewhere: by helpful coincidence, I read the introduction to Thus Spoke Zarathustra at the weekend and I imagine it came up in there. Maybe this weekend I’ll actually get around to starting the actual text…

   FOI 1a HOBO (thank you, The Sopranos) LOI 1d HIDALGO, just after 10a DENMARK finally put paid to my idea of HERELTO.

10. 35 mins with a Fat Rascal, hoorah.
    Mostly I liked the curving aromatic bananas.
    Last time we had Sestina, I drew attention to Two Lorries (Seamus Heaney), so I’m doing it again.
    Thanks setter and V.
11. The expected Friday stinker was not to be, although the Snitch is reporting that it was the hardest of the week and somewhat harder than average. NHO SESTINA, AVESTA, PRUNELLA as fabric, but wordplay clear enough.

    COD: ORIENT, I’ll go for rien over acht in YACHTING

    Yesterday’s answer: Ohio is the only state with no letters in common with the word mackerel – originally, this question applied to tube stations (and the answer’s a bit iffy) but it’s surprising how many other lists of things only have one exception too.

    Today’s question: what is next in the series Austria, Belgium, Cuba, …?

    1. Looks like an Only Connect style question to me, (rather than GK hence why I’m not responding in the style of a cryptic clue) so before Tim gets here I’m going to say Eritrea.
       1. It does, doesn’t it. At first I thought there must be something elementary about it, but Gold-Beryllium-Copper doesn’t make a lot of sense. On further reflection, I suspect the answer requires a bit of licence, as it were.
    2. State it’s mostly relevant to have a male chromosome (7)
12. 15:35. LOI PRUNELLA which, like others, I didn’t know as a fabric. Fortunately I remembered HIDALGO and SESTINA somehow, even if I couldn’t have told you what they meant. As for ALEMBIC, I have a rather fine little copper one I was using earlier this week. COD to BANDAGING.

    Edited at 2020-06-12 07:18 am (UTC)

    1. “Sestina: Altaforte” was the first poem of Ezra Pound’s I ever read, and probably the only sestina. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53967/sestina-altaforte
       A rather elaborate form: the 6 lines of each stanza end with the same 6 words, in a different order but with the last word of the last line being the last word of the first line of the next stanza.
13. Top to bottom solve of mostly obvious clues that again rely upon obscurity rather than cleverness to create difficulty.
14. Hardest of the week from my point of view, but still in under 20 minutes (by one second!).
    My last was ORIENT: it didn’t help that I got plenty of (possible) nuthin’s to work through and rien wasn’t one of them. The def was not obvious either, and the only other word (nearly) that fit was ONIONS, which was almost my despairing entry.

    I wonder if our increased leisure time, faux de mieux, is in some way responsible for so much green on the SNITCH?

15. Lots of Ks around today. I thought this was hard. Was similarly fixated on the buttocks.

    ORIENT LOI and COD.

    30’22” thanks verlaine and settr.

16. 15:22. This had Don Manley stamped all over it I reckon. Hymns, members of the clergy, sacred works, a smattering of “funny” words (I had to trust the wordplay on HIDALGO, ALEMBIC and AVESTA).

    I agree that the clue for Orient was very good.

17. A little more difficult this one, quite enjoyed it.
    Mention of that hymn always reminds me of an amusing passage in “My Family and Other Animals” by Gerald Durrell, about an elderly aunt of his who was given to singing hymns while on the lavatory. “Lead Kindly Light, while the rest of us queued on the landing”
18. was early in as it was my maternal grandmother’s favourite hymn, which reduced the family to hidden laughter as she sang it so often! Have we not had this recently?

    I was home in 42 mins and note this was a good work-out after a very slow start.

    FOI 1ac HOBO

    LOI 19dn PORTAGE

    COD 6dn KREMLINOLOGIST and not 13ac ORIENT never been a fan!

    WOD 21ac CIRCUMNAVIGATOR – the moyleman?

    8dn is a horryd word – what’s wrong with yachtsman/ yachtswoman/ yachtsperson?

    I am cookieless! Help! – horryd

19. Religion, obscure words and no wit. Not my sort of crossword.
20. Plodded along, as has been my habit all week, until reaching a halt in the SW corner. Finally remembered PRUNELLA, which unlocked HIGH WIRE, which unlocked HACKSAW which unlocked WITHDRAWAL in a sudden rush. Consulting my List of Words, I find that Pru has been on it since 2015, so really shouldn’t have taken so long to present herself.
21. My FOI was HOBO, probably due to my addiction to the series Sex In The City, which always started with a large HBO logo. HIDALGO followed, then I started to struggle. CHAPLAIN got me moving and led to CINNABAR, but then it was a wander around the grid looking for crumbs. I spotted the reverse hidden and vaguely remembered SESTINA from a previous puzzle. Eventually I assembled most of the obscurities and was left with AVESTA and AGUE to finish off with. KREMLINOLOGIST and CIRCUMNAVIGATOR were big helps. 30:30. Thanks setter and V.
    1. Similar for me with HBO but replace Sex and the City with Game of Thrones, The Wire, The Sopranos, VEEP, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under… and I don’t even watch much telly!
       1. I have to admit that I’m aware of most of those series, but have never intentionally watched any of them:)
          1. I’ve watched most of them in bits and pieces but I confess to binge-watching the whole of The Wire (best TV show ever made) and GOT. HBO’s output is pretty impressive.
             1. I must get round to watching The Wire!
             2. Haven’t seen The Wire, it might be better, but did you see Edge of Darkness in the 80s? For me, nonpareil.
                1. Great show. I have the DVD right here, and it could be due for a re-watch. As a kid I loved Joe Don Baker’s rambunctious CIA man the best, but as I’ve grown up I’ve learned to appreciate Bob Peck’s performance more and more…
                   1. Don’t forget the gorgeous Joanne Whalley.
                2. No, but having done a bit of research into it I found a DVD box set on Amazon for a fiver so I’ve bought it. Will let you know what I think!
                   I see there was a remake with Mel Gibson that I imagine may have been less good.
22. As Rob mentions, lots of Ks and a sprinkling of Ws. I was certainly on the wavelength here, that is until I got to 17a where I took a detour trying to make an anagram of “with rage”. 14.09
    1. I thought the clue was very clever, if all was intentional. I was trying for anagrams with “with rage” and also with “hard walk” until the “g” appeared!
23. I was hoping to complete a pink free week – with all solved in less than 30 mins and an average per puzzle of less than 20 minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever managed to achieve this. My LOI toppled me and as I couldn’t parse it I was expecting trouble.

    At 27.03 I entered HIDELIO for HIDALGO and as soon as the pink squares the right answer came to me!

    Still the checking is working so the quest goes on.

    COD: Up the ORIENT.

24. ….HBO have never been encountered. Fortunately I knew my bum from my elbow, so “H-B-” was soon sorted.

    I had to write out the anagrist for KREMLINOLOGIST, and simply entered “ologist” to start with. PANCAKE DAY finally pointed me to Eastern Europe.

    FOI DENMARK
    LOI PRUNELLA
    COD HIDALGO
    TIME 10:44

25. 18:20. I seem to have been thoroughly off the wavelength for this: I found it hard. It was a bit of an odd solve in that at one point I had the whole of the right-hand side filled in and almost nothing on the left.
    There were an awful lot of funny words in here that I knew, but only vaguely, so they took a while to come to mind: ALEMBIC, CINNABAR, SESTINA, HIDALGO, AVESTA. One word (PRUNELLA) and one hymn I definitely didn’t know. But I like funny words and puzzles that force you to use wordplay so I did enjoy this one.
    PORTAGE is what you do with a canoe when you need to get from one lake to another: a skill I have acquired late in life thanks (ha!) to my kids.
26. Hit by a few thunderbolts coming up with some of these answers.

    Only heard of ALEMBIC as a musical instrument manufacturer, but guess the name had to come from somewhere.

    AVESTA and uncertainty about PRUNELLA as a silk held me up.

    NW corner was the slowest part to unravel, DENMARK and ORIENT finally giving the unexpected final letter of LOI HIDALGO

27. …but got there finally in a little over the half-hour. Liked the buried simplicity of 17 ac. which took ages.

    Edited at 2020-06-12 12:50 pm (UTC)

28. 19.10 but a stupid mistake. Forgot to fit in the appropriate letters to alembic( to be honest I’d been thinking of acerbic so not sure I would have got it anyway). Confession over.

    Not too hard for a Friday but some interesting new words, fortunately for prunella I managed to remove the scales from my eyes!

    Liked lead kindly light (as a clue rather than a hymn), hidalgo and yachter.

    Enjoy the weekend one and all.

    1. Aargh! Just seen someone beat me to it on the scales pun. No plagiarism intended.
29. with a nap in the middle.
    Liked ORIENT a lot when I finally twigged. Some nice if not particularly hard long anagrams here, and the unknowns were well parsed.
    Finally got a round of golf in, only to get rained off after 14 holes. Well, it’s a start…
30. 55:53. I made reasonable progress with this but then couldn’t unpick the NW corner. The unindicated French in Orient and the unindicated Spanish in hidalgo caused problems that my brain was too tired to handle. I didn’t know the hymn, got the second and third word quite quickly but then struggled to come up with a 4 letter metal, third letter a. Came close to bunging in Horatio at 1dn and nearly went for Dundalk instead of Denmark, for no good reason. At least I managed to drag myself over the line. I get the same frisson of excitement every time the HBO letters pop up on my telly accompanied by that sort of static noise to announce the start of another episode from whichever box set it is I’ve got on the go. It always tells me there’s some quality viewing ahead.
31. Pleased to complete this as a few new words. Favourite was lead kindly light as a well constructed clue. Coincidentally identified a cinnabar moth in the garden yesterday so that helped!
32. Circumnavigated all the crossword words save prunella which was a nho as either a plant or a fabric and not helped by thinking “completely” was “all in” so I was looking at a unwanted “i”

    Enjoying the Great British Seeing Bee so there’s hope yet on the fabric front but I still have a slight involuntary shudder every time I see “plant” in a clue.

    35 mins bar that one then a few more minutes before in chucking the towel

    Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle and blog

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