Times 27,785: Off To The Races At The 23d 28a

67 comments on “Times 27,785: Off To The Races At The 23d 28a”

1. Lots I biffed without bothering with the wordplay. And several I had to work out from the wordplay since I’d never heard of them: ELYTRON, ALKANET, YOUNGSTER defined by “shaver”. But I was all correct. Took far too long to get the obvious MAIN although I am attending a virtual conference at the same time as doing the crossword, so not able to give it all my brain.
2. Once again I biffed, made a note to return to see if it worked, and forgot; in this case PENETRATION, where all the wrong letters were unches so there was nothing to call my attention to it. Got the right word immediately I saw the pink, of course. DNK EPROM or ALKANET, or houseman. And DNK that a recorder was part-time.
3. Did very well until I got to the lower-left corner, which was one slog after another. Mixed up ‘malingerer’ and ‘misanthrope’ (though the etymology should have given it away) which made me struggle unnecessarily there. I still didn’t get the accuracy of KANE until coming to the blog, thinking, well that’s a stretch to call Charles Foster Kane a Hollywood citizen, just because he’s in a movie. Yes, yes, think of the title next time.

   I confess to having checked my guesses at ALKANET, ELYTRON, and EPROM (I guess ROM rather than ROMA should be worth remembering), because I had no intention of getting more pink squares. Not that it matters — the extra time I took gave me a score almost as low.

   Originally wondered about PENETRATION, like Kevin, but erased it so that I would not accidentally submit without checking. Was glad to have figured it out, for honor, if not points.

4. I came up short on ELYTRON and EPROM for which I had ETYLRON and ETROM. The former was just a random arrangement of letters. Perhaps with hindsight elytron seemed more likely. For the latter despite having worked in IT for 24 years I’ve never heard of EPROM. I had seen rom elsewhere recently but didn’t recall it today so instead guessed ET to be the traveler.
   1. I also never heard of it but EP is so often ‘record’ and I had heard of CD-ROM so it seemed a reasonable possibility. Collins advises it stands for ‘erasable programmable read-only memory’ so nothing to do with Extended Play records after all.
   2. EPROMs are basically obsolete. They got replaced in the early 1980s by EEPROM (electrically erasable, an EPROM required you to shine ultra-violet light on the chip, so there was a quartz window in the package). Now we have flash memory, sometimes called NAND (since there is another type of flash called NOR which is less efficient). Since the semiconductor technology builds layers and layers of this stuff now, it is also sometimes called 3DNAND. Those are the chips in your solid-state disk drive, and the chips you get more or less of in your phone depending on how much you pay.
5. My sympathies to both Kevin and Pootle; I came within a gnat’s whisker of putting in PENETRATION and ETYLRON respectively. (Luckily EPROMs are fairly familiar; I think I even programmed one two in my youth. The chips have a little clear window in the top and you can erase them by putting them in a UV lightbox for a while; double-E EEPROMs, which are electrically-erasable, don’t require such specialist equipment.)

   FOI 1d SWAHILI, LOI 8d ELYTRON, not long after deciding 16a must be MAIN, which took a while. 43 mins.

6. As my 30 minute target passed I had four answers outstanding and another 5 minutes yielded three of them but I was stuck on the ‘flower’ (would it be a real flower or an obscure river?) at 25ac. Of course as this was to be my LOI I had all the checkers and I also considered LT for ‘officer’ but the Hollywood citizen had me completely baffled and after a further 5 minutes consideration I threw in the towel. Shame, as the wordplay is so obvious in hindsight, but at least I’d never heard of the flower and a search reveals that its only previous appearance in the TfTT era was in a Mephisto (2016) above my non-existent pay grade.

   Also NHO ELYTRON or EPROM, but the wordplay was clearer to me in those clues. ROM, as opposed to Roma, was new to me last time it came up, and thankfully I remembered it.

   Generally a very enjoyable puzzle, unlike the awful one we had midweek, and I was pleased to have parsed everything bar the final clue correctly.

   Edited at 2020-10-02 05:52 am (UTC)

   1. I’m pretty sure we had ELYTRON, or maybe ELYTRA, before; as with so many of these DNKs, I can’t imagine having come across it elsewhere. Whereas I could swear that EPROM is a newcomer.
      1. Yes, you’re right I didn’t know it once before when it came up in Dean’s ST puzzle 4602 in 2014. As with today’s clue the wordplay was easy enough: ELY (see), anagram [badly] of TORN, but the definition ‘beetle wing’ was perhaps a little more generous.

         Other than that it has only appeared in a Jumbo in the days when I rarely did them.

         Edited at 2020-10-02 06:17 am (UTC)

         1. Jack, where is the database you consult to produce these fascinating stats?
            1. This may be different depending on the device used to access TfTT, but as viewed on a standard PC there is a Search field in the top RH corner of TfTT indicated by a magnifying glass. Click on that and type in the word you want to research.

               Edited at 2020-10-02 08:11 am (UTC)

      2. EPROM seemed familiar to me but I think it’s because it is a word that has appeared in the “create a crossword at random” function of Crossword Compiler when I’ve used it. It is a terrible word, but when you’re looking at E_R_M, what else are you gonna do?
7. I’d never heard of ELYTRON, nor met an ALKANET,
   But i had lots of crossers; they weren’t so tough to get,
   We had both NOSEY and NOSTRIL, and they weren’t hard at all,
   “Two wheezy” for a Friday would be my final call
8. With exactly a month to go, Trump has been advised by wiser heads that after Tuesday’s performance he’s blown it. Those Wisconsin rallies will be have to be cancelled. So he’s opted for the Covid 19/sympathy exit and cut his losses. He’ll be ‘too fazed’ to take on Uncle Joe and in a fortnight or so Pence will have to stand – and fall.
   The Captain leaves his sinking ship first. God bless America.

   FOI 2dn GAG

   LOI 22dn EPROM a ROM with a rubber!

   COD 17dn WATT-HOUR

   WOD 25ac ALKANET a borage Italian bugloss used for dyes.

   I thought this was rather easy at 31 mins for a Friday as the good Lord Verlain was kept well away from Tuesday’s
   heavy lifting.

9. What a week! On Tuesday we had the likes of EXURB, IGBO and KNUR. Thursday saw COPEPODS, INTRADOS and CHRISOM. today we have EPROM, ALKANET and ELYTRON.
   I surprised myself by solving all without using aids but fell down yesterday on PLATERS.
   I found this much more user-friendly
   Like Verlaine my COD was CHAMPAGNE.
   Now to look up the derivation of the term NOSEY PARKER.
10. Glad to be much more on the wavelength for this one, after putting in a sluggish performance for most of the week. Like others, I had to think carefully to avoid “penetration” and was glad that ELYTRON was correct.

    I was glad to see EPROM as I suspect it gave me the edge against our HK correspondent, with his nose buried in James Joyce.

11. But for the second day in a row, a fine time ruined by a single mistake. This time I biffed penetration. Teach me. I saw ‘getting into ground’ and thought – yes that’s a good definition of penetration. Not. Never heard of the flower or the wing and had CDROM for a while.
12. …With webbed feet and long ruddering tail
    And a round head like an old tomcat.

    30 mins pre-brekker for all but the (for me) ungettable flower.
    Thanks setter and V.

13. Clever clues with some good surfaces. COD to either AFRO-ASIAN or CHAMPAGNE.
14. What a strange crossword! Was flying through, then was left with what turned out to be the random arrangement of letters ELYTRON; the completely unknown EPROM (guessed correctly, discarding EPRAM); and the flower ALKANET (river?plant?).

    A WATT-HOUR must be very cheap, whatever the fuel.

    COD to CHAMPAGNE.

    <15′, pleasing in the end. Thanks verlaine and setter.

    1. Doh! Never did get it. Fluked the flower and the beetle wing, but they have both appeared before methinks.
       Andyf
15. 29 minutes. LOI WATT-HOUR, somewhat ironically for a guy who spent his career in the electricity industry, but the clue sounded like it lacked the killer factor. Like others, I didn’t know ALKANET, ELYTRON or EPROM, but they were all constructible, although only the traveller saved me from EPRAM. COD to AFRO-ASIAN. A strange mix of very easy and toughish, but none the worse for that. Thank you V and setter
16. Really enjoyed that clue, my LOI, as well as the other homophone, the Orson Welles reference and the jaunty German Times. A nice puzzle done and dusted in just over the half hour, with all the unknowns fairly clued for once. Thanks setter and Verlaine.

    Trump has COVID and I am starting to like Mourinho after this epic week for Spurs. These are strange times.

17. I echo most most of the comments above. Relatively easy for a Friday, but, as Verlaine says, with some “chestnutty” clues. I was quite pleased with myself for getting ALKANET, ELYTRON and EPROM, words I’d never heard of before, from the cryptic parsing alone.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

18. 8:39. Another one with a few funny words but with serviceable cryptics on this occasion. I remembered SHAVER from its appearance last year in possibly the worst Times crossword clue of all time.

    Edited at 2020-10-02 07:17 am (UTC)

    1. I remember that!It was a shocker!

       Edited at 2020-10-02 07:30 am (UTC)

    2. After following that link I thought for a moment you meant 1A, and was about to tell you to put your dukes up!
       1. Ha! Certainly not that is of course a marvellous clue.
          I remember we were in agreement about he ‘shyver’ abomination.

          Edited at 2020-10-02 05:58 pm (UTC)

19. A couple of naps, so no time. My luck is due to run out soon. After yesterday’s PLATERS, I managed to semi-guess ELYTRON and EPROM correctly today. I didn’t know the ‘flower’ either, although wordplay here was more helpful; I liked the ‘Hollywood citizen’ bit. Favourite was the surface for YOUNGSTER.

    No complaints, but a short break from all these new words wouldn’t go astray!

    1. They’ll run out of new words eventually!
20. 45 mins for this effort with too long spent on my last two in, REGULATOR and ELYTRON. Otherwise ditto most things Jackkt said. COD CHAMPAGNE. Yum, a glass now would liven me up! Thanks V and setter
21. Shame for V to get the easiest of the week, solved here in 15.25 with a little extra thinking time to make sure ALKANET, EPROM and ELYTRON couldn’t really be anything else.
    AREA CODE was my last in: I just couldn’t see that the ARE bit could be clues by -um- are.
    I quite liked (once I twigged) WATT HOUR for it’s cheekiness, putting what our in plain sight.

    * My “useful phrases in Swahili” says this is Swahili for “my hovercraft is full of eels”. Google translate says it translates as “my parked car is full of midwives”. Possibly a fine piece of Pythonesque double bluff.

22. 25:00
    Steady solve. Thansk v.
23. Much more approachable today.

    Really liked the WATT-HOUR clue and the ‘Hollywood citizen’ reference too.

    Thanks Verlaine – sorry it wasn’t more of a challenge for you!

24. Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d,
    Crooked eclipses ‘gainst his glory fight,
    And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.

    All too true. Nevertheless finished despite being light on vocab. 26’29. The Swahili phrase may be very useful – who knows? – but it certainly has a ring to it. I’m reminded of a Shona (see recent) morning greeting dialogue I learnt when in Zimbabwe. Translated it’s ‘Have you slept well?’ ‘I have slept well if you have slept well.’ ‘I have slept well.’ ‘Then I have slept well.’ It can take you half an hour to get down the road but it sets you up for the day like nothing else.

    1. Bantu in the MCS, and now so much Swahili today! I’m finally ready to go on safari.
25. An enjoyable puzzle. Although I also had to construct the unknown ELYTRON and ALKANET from wordplay, I was familiar with EPROM after a working life spent in the computer industry. GAG was my FOI, WATT-HOUR was my POI and AREA CODE brought up the rear, as, like Z8, I couldn’t quite believe that ARE was clued by ARE! Didn’t consider PENETRATION as I saw punctual quickly. 26:37.Thanks setter and V.
26. No Friday horrors this week, but perfectly good. Don’t remember encountering EPROM, but it’s one of those which has to be what it is, really, especially once you have three of the five letters. Liked the sham pain.
27. I found this one quite chewy, with EPROM, ALKANET and ELYTRON all unknown – and I really wasn’t expecting the first of those to go green. Didn’t help myself for putting WELL for 16a, which I guess isn’t really cryptic enough. 12m 04s.
28. ….is the ability to clue obscure words in such a way that they can be worked out with relative ease. So I raise my hat to today’s setter as regards ALKANET, EPROM, and ELYTRON (which Chambers has a secondary entry under “elytrum”) since all were DNK. Hat down, and up again quickly to Verlaine for parsing AREA CODE.

    BW : I see what you did with that killer watt !

    Surprisingly, I’m currently 12th on the leaderboard (probably 10th really !) which is quite a confidence booster at the tail-end of a week of poor performances.

    FOI SIGNATORY
    LOI AREA CODE
    COD YOUNGSTER
    TIME 6:50

29. ALKANET and ELYTRON unknown.

    EPROM, REORDER and DOC were the others that held me up.

30. set a cracking pace at first , after GAG in first biffed MAGNIFY at 9a, then WAVE for the deep sea power source. Back on course eventually after sorting the mess out. At least PENETRATION was avoided, like Bill Clinton.
    26:29
31. I whiplashed through this between the very easy and the unknown stuff and floundered here and there. Crazy week and I do thank heaven for crosswordland where things make sense (usually) and people know how to behave. 18.49
32. But felt a lot longer. NHO ALKANET or ELYTRON

    COD: NOSTRIL, nice surface

    Yesterday’s answer: Harrow and Hackney are verbs, I don’t think there are any others.

    Today’s question: what is the vertical cleft below the nostrils called?

    1. With a nod to keriothe having earlier made reference to the dodgy homophone “worst clue ever”:
       South African experienced odd sensation on hearing in-your-face groove (8)
    2. Left with triumph wrested from under one’s nose (8)
    3. I always get this word mixed up with “plectrum”, but seriously, don’t play the guitar with your face, it won’t turn out well.
       1. Words to live by.
       2. I seem to recall it working OK for Jimi Hendrix.
    4. Barking. And if you extend to sub-borough areas, Bow

       Edited at 2020-10-02 05:35 pm (UTC)

       1. Technically it’s Barking and Dagenham…
          1. I guess it is. And Ealing has the discourtesy to be spelled incorrectly.
    5. Some might pick this site for the Bullring? (6)

       OK that’s not what you wanted, but I liked it.

       Edited at 2020-10-02 06:06 pm (UTC)

33. Jambo everyone! That bit of misdirection was pushing me towards the Swahili greeting, rather than just SWAHILI, especially when I only had the A entered at that point, but I did know I was on the wrong track 😅 I enjoyed this – the most fun I’ve had with the 15×15 this week, and must have been on the wavelength, as it was all done and dusted in just over half an hour – pretty quick for me, especially with the unknowns.

    I didn’t know ELYTRON or EPROM (both went in with crossed fingers) but did know ALKANET was the name of a flower – I just didn’t know what it looked like. Having just looked it up, it’s really common and you’ll see it all over the place!

    FOI Rupee
    LOI Eprom
    COD Champagne – but Watt hour was good too
    Time 33 minutes

    Many thanks setter and Verlaine

34. 49 minutes with all the unknowns guessed or deduced correctly :ALKANET,ELYTRON,EPROM. But I had Penetration in my rush to finish which I knew seemed weak.
    Still not bad for a Friday , or any day of the week.
    Am going to The George tomorrow. Will think of you all.
    David
35. “Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends!” (I got that from Francis Bacon, though he’s surely not the first person to have thought of it.)

    Seemed remarkably easy, surely not the hardest of the week, though I had to guess at “houseman,” ALKANET and EPROM.

    Edited at 2020-10-02 03:23 pm (UTC)

36. 14:45. Late to the party today having been out walking the second half of the Boudicca Way from Tasburgh to Norwich. NHO ELYTRON or ALKANET but the wordplay for both was clear. LOI WATT HOUR – a fun homophone. Ashamed to say I failed to parse RUPEE. COD to the other homophone CHAMPAGNE.

    Edited at 2020-10-02 03:21 pm (UTC)

37. Held up by AREA CODE ELYTRON and ALKANET, without which my time would have been 10 mins less. Knew EPROM fortunately.
    Verlaine, I play Scrabble and there’s plenty more where this lot came from….
38. 31 minutes (but really 30 to solve it — I took an extra minute just to make sure that there were no typos and no better alternative to ALKANET), so for me pretty much the easiest puzzle of the week. ELYTRON and ALKANET were about the only unknowns, although it took a moment to recall EPROMS from the distant past (when men were men, women were women, I suppose, and microcomputers were microcomputers).

    Edited at 2020-10-02 05:29 pm (UTC)

39. Nice puzzle, 28 minutes. A few unknowns put in from clear word play – EPROM, ALKANET, ELYTRON. Liked the two homophones. Wondered about EPRAM or EPROM but the latter seemed more likely as ROM is more permanent.
40. Could this be parsed as ARE A (amps = current ) CODE ( = lines, as in computer program )
    1. I entered this half parsed, having thought of lines of computer code. I’d say your parsing works.
    2. That’s how I parsed it.
41. 39:11. I was very slow on the uptake with some of this, especially the SW corner. The flower was unknown but I should’ve twigged the Hollywood citizen a lot sooner than I did. Struggled to see champagne. EPROM was unknown and again took far longer than it should’ve done.
42. Absolutely no idea why “Youngster” is “shaver” – got the anagram but it makes no sense to me ……
    1. Because ‘young person’ is a dictionary definition of ‘shaver’. How ‘shaver’ came to mean that is another matter and there seem to be several conflicting suggestions in various sources.

Comments are closed.