Times 27841 – And the play?

58 comments on “Times 27841 – And the play?”

1. 38′ for me. Took far too long to see DOCTOR BARNARDO. When I had no checkers I realized Andrew Carnegie fitted, but that theory didn’t last long. EYE CANDY was LOI.
2. …and took 44 minutes. Never heard of Doctor Barnardo, put the divider in the wrong place in wafer thin, couldn’t parse repent, didn’t think enclose meant bound, didn’t like champion for apologist, etc, etc. Still, all correct, so I can’t really complain.
   1. I’m with you on ENCLOSE/bound and APOLOGIST/champion.
3. I had a problem with REPENT too, since I was parsing it as RE (about) PE (gym) and NT (charge…say what?). But it couldn’t really be anything else.
   1. That’s how I thought of REPENT, too. I wondered how ‘charge’ = NT.
4. On steroids? If you call 30 minute solves “on steroids”, then I suppose so! Hey, maybe the steroids are to blame for all the errors which keep me from actually counting my good times!

   But, I digress. 15 minutes is not a personal best (thanks to Times 27777, 23 September 2020, which might be everyone’s personal best!) but it is very good for me, especially on a day where Kevin and Verlaine both took longer than average.

   I confess I was frightened to click Submit. Hadn’t understood the wordplay in NICK and GREENGAGE, or the definition of ENCLOSE (how does the part of speech work?).

   I haven’t seen INST and DADO in nine years, but they came to me immediately, and I was grateful for having taken my lumps all those years ago.

   Thanks, ulaca, for setting me straight on GREENGAGE especially.

5. I struggled a bunch, and it seems so far that I was alone in struggling. DNK the philanthropist, DNK the Irish broadcaster, DNK GIG, forgot that meaning of NICK, never parsed WATERSIDE, having forgotten about WAT. I noted three clues where a word goes in as such: ONE in SET IN STONE, FROM in FREEDOM, IN in LUCINDA, as well as ESC in DESCALE.
6. I didn’t so much struggle with this as run out of steam.

   The NE and SE went easily but I slowed in the remaining quarters until only 5ac and 24ac remained, and there all progress stopped.

   I thought of GAGGLE at 5ac, wondering if the collective noun might be applied to ducks as well as strolling geese, and once that thought was in my mind it was hard to get past it even though it wouldn’t have fitted with the rest of the clue.

   At 24ac there seemed to be too many options when all the checkers were in place (Chambers offers 48). The oh-so-obvious PE for ‘gym’ should have narrowed it down and settled the matter, but by that stage I’d decided that the need for sleep was more pressing.

   33 minutes for all but the last two.

   1. Yes, I put in “Gaggle” and meant to come back to it. Completely forgot and therefore DNF.
      I spent a while trying to make sense of “Apolonius” as some famous Roman champion (as I suspect that the Setter intended).
7. This was the first time I’ve been under 10 minutes for quite a while, albeit squeaking under by 9 seconds. I found this a puzzle of two halves, the bottom half being much easier, as epitomised by IN STITCHES. I was slower in the top half, where I needed most of the crossers to biff ABRAHAM LINCOLN (nice to see him not appear as Abe for a change) and I finished with BENTHAM.
8. Straightforward? Not for me it wasn’t.
   Like Vinyl, I didn’t know ENCLOSE equalled bound and I didn’t like APOLOGIST equalling champion.
   In 24ac I had RE for ‘about’ and wondered how NT could mean charge.
   LOI: DOWNBEAT
   COD: WATERSIDE.
9. …The first house by the Water-side
   Singing in her song she died,
   The Lady of Shalott.

   25 mins pre-brekker. Hmmm…I liked it, but the eyebrow did twitch at a few synonyms, e.g. Kindly=Well, Panel=Dado, Champion=Apologist. All defendable, I’m sure, but tell that to the eyebrow.
   Thanks setter and U.

10. At the easier end for me. Good fun for a Monday. COD to EYE CANDY.
11. 9:48. No problems here, although I didn’t parse RESENT. A hastily-biffed DROPS IN might have slowed me down but I reconsidered.
    Isn’t an APOLOGIST just a champion you disagree with?
12. Good morning all, liked the Brit references today – BARNARDO, BENT. Dr. Barnardo is a very well-known philanthropist. BENT has a wider meaning of bad or corrupt, as in ‘bent copper’. The said Jeremy BENTHAM is wheeled out annually at the University of London (look it up after breakfast).

    APOLOGIST has an original meaning corrupted by the use of the word apology. Christian apologetics means arguing for Christ, not saying sorry.

    With hindsight, I really liked WATERSIDE, Bank and Temple being underground (subway) stations in London. It helped that an ancestor of mine was a Thames waterman.

    11′ 30″, thanks ulaca and setter.

    1. Yes, I was also thinking of Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua.
    2. I don’t know about corrupted, but I’ve always assumed that someone who apologises is an apologiser. APOLOGIST for me has always been what you say: like (see Olivia below or above, depending on where this shows up) Newman, and so many others.
       1. Lexico defines APOLOGIST as ‘a person who offers an argument in defence of something controversial’, and gives the example ‘an enthusiastic apologist for fascism’. I think this is the way the word is usually understood these days, and it’s one of those cases where using the ‘correct’ meaning is likely to cause confusion.
          1. I was responding to robolfe’s comment; as far as I can see, the Lexico definition is the same as mine (mine being implicit). I mean, you wouldn’t bother to offer an argument for looking both ways before crossing the street, would you?
             1. Well no but the modern usage contains (I think) the implication that what is being argued for is disreputable. The APOLOGIST is not apologising, but ought to be.
13. Easy enough to give 15.21, with the last two the crossing pair of ENCLOSE and REPENT: I wanted the short dash EN to go round a defeat of some kind for the former and struggled to work out the wordplay of the latter.
    I’ve learned what DADO is from this hobby. When I were a lad, it was the thin strip of decorative paper that went round the top of the wallpaper, especially when the fashion was to have a foot or so of ceiling coloured painted wall above that. Looked nice at the time.
    I didn’t work out the wordplay for WATERSIDE, it seems. Why was “before” giving WIDE? and what sort of “temple man” is an ATERS? Thanks for lightening my darkness, U!
    I quite liked the cryptic definition for Honest Abe, even while thinking the “great shot” was from outside the box and Son Heung Min is Korean, not American. What it is to be a Yiddo in these heady days!
    1. That goal was indeed a thing of beauty. I can fully accept Mourinho’s pragmatic approach when it’s punctuated by moments like that 🙂
       1. Marcelo Bielsa has gone on record as saying that teams that set out to win games without entertaining should be punished. Having watched the second half of your game yesterday I’m inclined to agree.
          1. Can’t you be entertained by an impressive defensive display (as I never said of any previous Mourinho team 😉 )?
14. 24:40. This felt a bit like drawing teeth, taking ages to see both long across gentlemen, (not knowing how Abe was assassinated) and stuck in the NE corner trying to get 7D to be BELINDA, not knowing GONDOLA was a cabin or GIG a vessel. A triumph over general ignorance to finish at all, I suppose. I was also unconvinced by the parsing of REPENT. About X’s Y = Y about X, then? Never mind. Tomorrow is another day and I’ve learnt several things today.
15. An easy-ish start to the week with 31 minutes on my Laco 1925.

    FOI 23ac IN STITCHES

    LOI 5ac GIGOLO after bunging in GAGGLE! Ducks mon arse!

    COD 2dn WATERSIDE at Bray

    WOD 25ac EYE CANDY

    I do enjoy a bit of GREENGAGE jam – Mr. Myrtilus?

    Edited at 2020-12-07 08:53 am (UTC)

    1. I can’t remember having Greengage Jam. I’ll look out for it. BTW I opened my Frank Coopers yesterday to enjoy with a croissant, hoorah. I was looking forward, having not had any for years, and was a bit disappointed. Either the ‘coarse cut’ bits have reduced in number or maybe just sunk lower in the jar. The top inch didn’t have any.
       As compensation, the Sunday Times crossword was a belter!
       1. And the author of that superb Sunday crossword was – Myrtilus. Indeed!
       2. Hats off to you sir – it was indeed a great offering and it took me a long time to crack the NW corner. When I finally did 2D was a delight.
16. 43 minutes. I didn’t get on with this, which seems from comments to have been a Marmite puzzle. Success equating to Luck for LUCINDA didn’t feel right, nor FREEDOM for exemption. WATERSIDE was a biff, as I didn’t know the temple was named after a person, and I only saw GONDOLA to mean cabin having been down most of the canals in Venice. I did like IN STITCHES, and ABRAHAM LINCOLN was well hidden. Thank you U and setter.
17. Not too bad but got stuck in the SW corner. Didn’t understand WATERSIDE, for which bank is a bit of a dodgy definition. Was trying to think of DOCTOR BARNARDO’s first name, it turns out to be Thomas.

    COD: ENIGMAS, nice surface.

    Previous answer: the second most densely-populated state is Rhode Island, and I do mean area divided by number of people.

    Today’s question: Joe Biden will supposedly be the 46th US President. How many US presidents have there been before him?

    1. The answer is X. X is less than 100.
       Divide X by 3, remainder is 2.
       Divide X by 5, remainder is 4.
       Divide X by 7, remainder is 2.
       You now have enough information to calculate X.
       1. Had to refresh my use of the Chinese Remainder Theorem. The answer is 254 (mod 105) = 44 given the condition X < 100.
          1. Hoorah. I knew there was a mathematician out there. I thought it was you.
             1. Surprised non-one else has done this, as you can just list multiples of seven, plus two (13 possibilities), cross out those that don’t end in 4 or 9, and check the remaining 3.
    2. A question of remembering that this is an occasion where 22=24
18. Well I found this extremely difficult for a Monday and came home in just over 40m. Unconvinced that bent = stolen, too, but it’s not the end of the world. Really liked the Lincoln clue though.
19. 30 mins. Snitch says this is a tad tricky.
20. Definitely not a PB here at 48 mins. Held up in the SW until the DOCTOR B penny dropped and took a while to see REPENT. Never really did parse the US President properly so thanks U for that. COD WATERSIDE a nice clue, and I remember having a super lunch there many years ago when Michel Roux was cooking. Fab, though I had to call the bank manager afterwards.

    Thanks setter and ulaca.

21. Not a bad Monday. Didn’t parse WATERSIDE but everything else was gettable. Took a while to puzzle out the four clues in the NE corner though.
22. End of puzzle snooze so no time. My unknown / forgotten for the day was DADO but it seemed a safe bet. Overall I found this of about usual Monday degree of difficulty.

    LUCINDA Prior-Palmer married (since divorced) an Aussie equestrian and became the rather more pedestrian Lucinda Green. Somehow her maiden name seems to suit her better, especially as Wikipedia tells us her grandfather was a certain “Prior Spunner Prior-Palmer of Dublin” – no kidding.

    COD to BENTHAM. Never saw his annual “wheel out” but regularly enjoyed a pleasant after work half-pint in the pub named after him.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

23. I remember the ubiquitous papier mache collecting boxes shaped like a cottage which are now collectors’ items.
    https://i.etsystatic.com/15936362/r/il/39ee68/1738902098/il_794xN.1738902098_8s6b.jpg

    I took a while to see the GIG, the GONDOLA and the Irish channel but no major hold-ups. 17.05

24. Not a PB, held up in the SW. LOI ENCLOSE
25. Whoops not logged in.
26. Held up all over the place, basically by slow thinking. Still, the usual endorphins at the end. Last in by a length eye candy. 37’13.
27. Had to work at this one. Very little went in without a struggle. The SW resisted longest. I also struggled to see ENCLOSE=BOUND. DESCALE ad DOWNBEAT went in first. WATERSIDE was a late entry. The Transporter Bridge at Middlesbrough has a GONDOLA hanging on wires, so that was one of my write-ins. https://www.enjoyteesvalley.com/activity/transporter-bridge-and-visitor-centre/ ENCLOSE was my LOI. 38:21. Thanks setter and U.
28. Slow to start and numerous hold-ups en route. I got the president, but couldn’t work out why until coming here and the escape of descale escaped me to the end. Many of the clues struck me as wooden in surface reading and clunky in construction, but that is probably just sour grapes.
29. An out-of-form 33’34”, with the top right doing me nut in for the last 15 minutes. I was convinced there was only Melinda and Belinda and couldn’t see why it should be either. And in Gondola, having the ‘o’ and the ‘a’ I couldn’t get ‘nova’ (star) out of my head.
30. Previous comments suggest this was a real wavelength puzzle, in which case I was clearly right on it. Enjoyed the definitions of the two long ones; in general, pleasingly concise.
31. Chewy for a Monday but tasty.

    The LINCOLN clue is astonishing not least for being a totally straight definition: there is literally no cryptic.

    1. The surface reading is designed to look like it’s about sport, which is the cryptic element.
32. ….and nothing to add to earlier comments.

    FOI DOWNBEAT
    LOI GIGOLO
    COD ABRAHAM LINCOLN
    TIME 9:06

33. A late entry after spending most of the day walking the Devil’s Punchbowl in the mist and the rain before a late lunch and a gloomy drive home.

    18.20 so not an easy one for me. I’ll take the tiredness excuse.Very slow start with well fed my FOI. LOI radiate. Despite the slow time for a Monday, I enjoyed this puzzle, abraham lincoln my personal COD but gondola, artemis( having eventually realised it couldn’t be demeter after all) and bentham all good. Is eye candy allowable these days? Hope so!

34. 17 dn. EN isn’t a dash, it’s a space, and never visible.
35. Never heard of the good doctor; assumed a literary figure whose physical hideousness must be proverbial for some. Ah, was but a pun…
    Didn’t get to this at all till this morning, while I waited for my Internet connection to be restored so I could start my work day. No problems. Had to guess at “bent,” of course.
36. 20.06. I felt a bit dozy whilst solving and couldn’t quite square some of the synonyms but made my way to the checkout in a roundabout way without ever really feeling that a clear round might be in jeopardy. I was assisted by having skimmed through the print edition of the paper on the way to work this morning, the story on the top of page 7 was: “Barnardo’s accused of virtue signalling in white privilege row”. This meant 21ac popped into my head much sooner than it otherwise might have done.
37. Definitely not my wavelength (90 minutes, although after the hour there was no need to hurry), but at least all correct. Certainly not an easy puzzle, with IN STITCHES my FOI and GONDOLA my LOI and everything else seemingly coated in treacle (or molasses, as I would prefer to say). DADO, the DOCTOR and BENTHAM all unknowns but at least guessable from wordplay.
38. I felt reasonably sure 1a was going to end in BEAN as the pulse. BEAT beat it at the end.
    Thanks for parsing WATERSIDE, which was put in without understanding, with fingers crossed it wasn’t WATERLINE, or even WATERWISE , which is a thing in these parched parts.
    On the wavelength in 17’28”

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