Times 27,893: Here’s a 1ac… Wear More Toppers

77 comments on “Times 27,893: Here’s a 1ac… Wear More Toppers”

1. Did well here, but locked up on the last three. The main hold-up was I had STONE but said to myself, STONEBILL sounds like something (it isn’t), but STONETALK or STONECHAT couldn’t be right?! Well, STONECHAT was right, and now I have written down that ‘chat’ is a kind of bird. Note. To. Self.

   From there I could get SIT TIGHT (I had had SIT STILL thinking of a reference to distillation but it didn’t seem to work), and then IMMEDIATE. Sadly, I knew ‘metre’ was being referenced, but didn’t think to try IM for it. ‘Channels’ for MEDIA was also unexpected but a wonderful definition.

   Thanks, v, for explaining the wordplay for HORUS! It went it almost immediately but I couldn’t figure out what HOS or SOH meant!

   Looking forward to clarification on LIVING WAGE.

2. I do see Chambers has “A parson of a parish (who formerly received only the smaller tithes or a salary) (C of E)” for ‘vicar’. Collins also mentions that a vicar would not receive tithes but only a stipend or living wage.

   Edited at 2021-02-05 01:50 am (UTC)

3. I had PE + ACHES + {h}AND CREAM.

   Edited at 2021-02-05 01:53 am (UTC)

   1. Hmm, HAND CREAM works fine for lotion I expect but is ACHES any better than ACHE for “painful” (as opposed to “is painful”)?
      1. No I don’t believe so! Haha. Yours is better.
4. I thought a vicar’s pay was called “a living”. I may be wrong, but thinking that LIVING WAGE worked perfectly for me. I was another person confused by how HORUS worked. I could see the UR but HOS or SOH? My only other doubt was the PIER was a kind of glass, but it seemed plausible enough and “construction in the sea” couldn’t be much else. I also thought it was “top off handcream” although like everyone else I just biffed it from the enumeration and the skin.
   1. Church “livings” do seem to have been a thing: https://randombitsoffascination.com/portfolio/vicars-curates-and-church-livings/ Bit fusty though!
      1. See also Collins: ‘another term for benefice’. Of course.
   2. That’s my understanding about a vicar’s wage, too.
      1. I think I knew it from Trollope’s Barchester Chronicles.

         Update: sorry Corymbia, see you’ve already commented on this below.

         Strangely I though of WIDOWS MITE for this at first (obviously nothing to do with clue) and this helped later.

         Edited at 2021-02-05 10:29 am (UTC)

5. A living, sometimes called a benefice, is any ecclesiastical office with spiritual duties, or sometimes even without any real spiritual duties, and revenue attached. Wasn’t this in ” The Barchester Chronicles” ?
   25’35”

   Edited at 2021-02-05 02:53 am (UTC)

6. …and I really liked the puzzle. Yes a ‘living’ is what an 18th-century clergyman aspired to, if he happened to have the right contacts.

   The quality of this puzzle is very high, with every clue a little masterpiece, and quite original. I parsed them all except for peaches and cream, which was so obvious I didn’t bother.

7. Finished without too many aches or pains, understanding them all more or less apart from BEHEMOTH (Doh). It’s funny how sometimes a faint echo from one answer helps another spring to mind more readily. Examples for me in this one were PIGEON and STURGEON, CUPIDITY and ACERBITY and TITUS and HORUS. Anyway, back to the cricket, still fuming over Burns’ nightmare.
8. I enjoyed that.
   My understanding is that a clergyman’s wage was a “living”.
   FOI: ASIDE. LOI: BUSIER
   CUPIDITY was my COD
9. I was off the pace today, limping home with PIER and HORUS. I feel vaguely like I’ve heard of pier glass though I couldn’t have told you what it was. As for HORUS I’d got the UR bit but not the full parsing. Now I see it it’s a contender for COD but I might just plump for CUPIDITY for the cute definition.
   As well as being half the name Budapest, PEST is also half the city, it being divided into Buda and Pest by the Danube. A fact already familiar I’m sure to most of the GK giants here.
10. …Pull droopingly, in slanting curve Aside…

    25 mins pre-brekker. I liked it, especially the ‘be mother’, ‘boy quivered’ and Homer pigeon.
    LOIs were the Pier and Bier.
    I like the way V just underlines ‘A pastoral letter’ with no further explanation as if he would not presume to think we hadn’t read it.
    Thanks setter and V.

    1. Oh go on then. “Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus are known as ‘pastoral letters’ because they give instructions to Paul’s fellow-workers on the pastoral care of the young churches. “
11. All correct in about 25 minute while watching the cricket, so at the easier end for a Friday. Not a great shot by Rory Burns. Is there a clue type that we could call a reverse sweep? LOI a biffed PIER. COD to BEHEMOTH. Thank you V and setter
12. The point about LIVING WAGE is political, not religious. It is a specific phrase used to describe the lowest acceptable level of income, according to some: https://www.livingwage.org.uk/

    In addition, since vicars have livings, it can describe their income too ..

    Also, I think it is PE + ACHES + (H)AND CREAM, so painful is OK ..

    Edited at 2021-02-05 08:44 am (UTC)

    1. LIVING WAGE has I think become political relatively recently. It used to just mean ‘enough to live on’, but as your link shows it is now used in contrast to the minimum wage.
       As V says above, ACHES is no better for ‘painful’ than ACHE, although I agree hANDCREAM is better. ‘Take top off’ doesn’t really equate to SAND IMO.
       1. It still means “(at least) enough to live on,” which the minimum wage, at least in my country, has not been for quite some time now.
          1. Well Sleepy Joe may have something to say about that!
             Without wishing to get into a political discussion (we might be banned!) I would add that the overwhelming conclusion from many studies over many years is that minimum (or living if you will) wages have no discernable effect on employment. This is a counter-intuitive result on a basic supply/demand analysis but one of the most robust findings in economics of the last few decades.

             Edited at 2021-02-05 08:30 pm (UTC)

             1. Yep. Those are simply the facts. And if we went into further into analyzing them, we would indeed be getting political.
                1. Another time and place!
13. 21:47. Held up for about 4 minutes at the end by my last two – ICEBREAKER and BUSIER, taking ages to think of BIER. I’m another who couldn’t parse HORUS, so thanks for that. DNK what the reference to a “pastoral letter” was although the answer was clear (I see now it is a reference to the epistle from St. Paul). Nor did I understand what MITE has to do with an offering, so hesitated over that, or that PIER GLASS was a mirror. I liked PIGEON, THOR and SPARKS, though. Thanks V and setter.

    Edited at 2021-02-05 09:01 am (UTC)

    1. Our setter is assuming that we are acquainted with Scripture: the widow’s MITE is contrasted favourably by Jesus with more substantial offerings in that it was all she could give, so a much greater sacrifice.
    2. Each to their own, K .. “My leg is painful/my leg aches” are close enough for me. I’m not to an is. Come to think of it, the setter could have put “After exercise is painful, …” Using pain upsets the surface rather

       Edited at 2021-02-05 11:51 am (UTC)

       1. Maybe the setter is asking us to imagine Tarzan saying it: ‘LEG PAINFUL!’

          Edited at 2021-02-05 02:03 pm (UTC)

14. 45 minutes in two sessions as I got stuck with 3/4 of the grid complete and decided a break might prove beneficial, which it did.

    DNK PIER as glass. I know ‘tip one’s hat’ but have never met HAT TIP before. Was pleased to remember the scientist at 27, which shows I have learnt something from doing crosswords.

    What is it with the Epistles of Paul the Apostle this week?

    I fancied I felt the hand of Don about this puzzle.

    1. HAT-TIP is quite commonly used on social media and the like (usually abbreviated to h/t) when someone wants to acknowledge a source for a particular idea, quote, reference or whatever.
       1. Thanks. That would account for my not knowing it then! In that context it would seem more logical to spell it with a hyphen as you have done, but the only one of the usual sources that lists it (Lexico) spells it without, as did the setter.
          1. Chambers has it too, without reference to the internet and also without a hyphen.
             I regard hyphens as almost always a matter of personal preference, and in this context I think I would generally use one.
             1. Is that the paid-for Chambers app? I remembered to check my printed (12th) edition before posting above, and didn’t find it there.
                1. Yes, the app updates automatically so it’s the 13th Edition.
                   1. This puzzle actually felt fairly off-Chambers to me… pier glass and living (in the vicarious sense) were hard to locate in it.
                      1. Pier glass is listed under… pier…?
                         Were you perhaps wearing oven gloves?
                         😉
                         1. Coo, so it is. Joy Division Oven Gloves, yes that’s right.
                            1. Piccalilli shinpads ftw
       2. Somehow convinced myself that F (forte) was ‘hard’ and arrived at the plausible sounding Fat Tip.
          NHO Hat but have heart of Fat (in the world of tipping)
          Philip
    2. This didn’t feel like on of Don’s to me, despite the ecclesiastical references. The imprecision of the P & C clue isn’t something I’d expect to encounter in one of his and overall it felt less “old-fashioned” than a typical Don.
15. It’s a BEHEMOTH crossword, I know
    But the setter’s a right so-and-so,
    Cue SPARKS from the PEST
    Who likes space-stuff best
    Two birds was a massive no-no
    1. You called it, vinyl1!
16. Some DNKs along the way — only vaguely heard of ANGSTROM (probably appeared here before?); ANTHER vaguely remembered from school biology; PIER and CUPIDITY unknown definitions so entered with all checkers in place and a shrug.

    My problem area was along the top, where eventually PIGEON ‘confirmed’ BEHEMOTH (pencilled in earlier but still didn’t see the trick), LIVING WAGE, ACERBITY and finally BUSIER.

17. 12:30. Slight hold-ups today with TREVI (wordplay initially led me to TIELI, which didn’t look right), HORUS (obvious answer, tricky wordplay) PIER (didn’t know the glass) and the unknown TITUS.
    As mentioned above I can’t make PEACHES AND CREAM work however I parse it.
18. As indicated by V, a rather attractive puzzle for those of us with a catholic taste in general knowledge, with gods, (ecclesiastical) literature nature and science in the mix. If only I’d known what PIER glass was, or even that it was a thing, I’d have submitted with less trepidation.

    Interestingly (to me anyway) my Chambers lists “TIP one’s HAT but not HAT TIP as a thing: round these parts it’s much more likely to be recorded as “chapeau”, so sophisticated are we.

    My last two were ICEBREAKER and PEARLIER: both resolved very quickly when I physically wrote the crossing letters down, something I can recommend and should do more often.

    CoD (and giggle of the day) to the quivered boy.

    Edited at 2021-02-05 10:06 am (UTC)

    1. See my exchange with jackkt above: HAT TIP is in the 13th Edition.
19. I had no problem with living wage – I took ‘living’ to mean the church position or benefice that young men of the cloth used to aspire to. Victorian literature is full of them. The living could be lucrative or poorly paid depending – I guess – on relations with the local toff, and the extent of the tithe. Jane Austen, P and P: “The late Mr Darcy bequeathed me the next presentation of the best living in his gift.” (Don’t worry I filched that from OED, it’s not from memory). Came in at 18’19” with LOI pest.
20. 28.20 and glad to see all correct , hasn’t been the pattern this week. FOI peaches and cream, LOI busier having finally managed to stop myself thinking of bustle which I was misspelling anyway.
    Almost thrown by practise being more used to practice but got there in the end which come to think of it might have been an appropriate description of my struggles with the incorrect bustle!

    Excellent puzzle so thanks setter and setter, especially for the enlightenment on pier.

21. Pleased with 16:55 for a Friday but then entered “Pearlirr” which meant that there was just grit in the oyster.

    Scratched my head over “ache” and “in additional employment but I did like “Hat Tip” “See Fit” “and Pigeon”

    Thank you setter and blogger

22. Tackled this with 15 minutes to go before I had to pop into town for my covid jab; nearly finished it in time, but had to leave 16d, 12a and 23a undone. Back in less than an hour (with a LIDL doughnut or donut) for coffee and polished off the excellent CUPIDITY straight away, then for some reason couldn’t see BUSIER, bunged in BUSMEN thinking it was something to do with working on holiday. Doh!
    What a fine puzzle. Well done V for blogging this after slogging through a Jumbo blog at unsocial hours.
23. Same NHOs as others. Just could not see BUSIER. BASKET, BUSKER BASSET etc? So a DNF which is frustrating as I enjoyed this offering and was looking forward to finishing a « Friday » in a reasonable time. Liked TREVI, BEHEMOTH(er) and SPARKS. Very neat. Thanks V and setter.
24. Rather than put this aside, I put ASIDE in as my FOI. I then had a dry spell with nothing more going in until I saw PEST. TRIMESTER followed and I was off. EXTENSION gave me the impetus to continue down the LHS where PIER seemed to be a viable answer, but I didn’t know the glass definition, so left it until HORUS sort of confirmed it. ANGSTROM then gave me enough to biff PEACHES AND CREAM. Back in the NE, PRACTICE sat refusing to be parsed until STONECHAT turned the light on. CUPIDITY made me laugh out loud. BUSIER confirmed ACERBITY with BIT for “was effective” giving the PDM. That left me with _E_R_IER, which needed pen and paper and a bit of an alphabet trawl before revealing a flashing grin. An enjoyable puzzle. 30:14. Thanks setter and V. I shall now have my porridge, bananas and grapes before heading off for my appointment with a Covid Jabber.
25. Nice crossword. Perhaps vinyl1 is correct in saying that every clue is a little masterpiece.

    But I’m not convinced. Nobody, so far as I can see, has yet explained how ‘ache’ or ‘aches’ is equivalent to ‘painful’. Like many others, I can’t see it at all and it seems to be a serious blemish. Perhaps there’s a misprint and it was meant to be ‘is painful’ or something like that.

    Edited at 2021-02-05 11:58 am (UTC)

26. As others have noted, the possession or non-possession of a clerical “living” and the power of disposal of them provides the plot twist in a great part of Jane Austen. One of the mysteries of Pride And Prejudice is how the obsequious Mr. Collins came to be given his by Lady Catherine. And the fact that the living often did not in fact provide a LIVING WAGE is central to the Last Chronicle Of Barset. I’m not sure when the reforms were made but they were the subject of intense debate during the Trollope era. Close of lecture. Very nice puzzle. 15.06
27. 40m today in a generally slow solve with time needed to deconstruct just about every clue, though, as others have noted, a life reading Austen and Trollope meant LIVING WAGE was one of the few quick solves today. I hadn’t noticed the parsing problem with the skin and I did enjoy the quivered boy clue. I confess also to not understanding why titus is a pastoral letter. Thank you, V and setter.
    1. I have updated the blog with further information about the pastoral letters of St Paul.
       1. Thank you, V. I wasn’t so lazy as not to check it out after the solve, but appreciate your update.
28. Was I alone in being stuck with INEBRIATES or INEBRIATED before the penny eventually dropped and broke the ice? Fine crossword. Thanks setter and blogger.
29. Can’t see all the fuss over painful/aches, yet clue to living wage still looks weak.

    How’s your back today? Painful.
    How’s your back today? Aches.

    1. This kind of libertartian latitude will revolutionise crossword setting! 😀

       Edited at 2021-02-05 05:15 pm (UTC)

30. FOI 2D: ASIDE
    LOI 12A: BUSIER

    Some very enjoyable clues. DNK – but correctly filled 25A: PIER (NHO first, more obscure definition).

    All bar one completed in, at most, 45m but quit after an hour on 9A: LIVING WAGE.

    Thank you, verlaine and the setter.

    Edited at 2021-02-05 02:11 pm (UTC)

    1. 12 Across. BUSIER.
       What does the comment SOI at the end mean?
       1. Second One In – POI Penultimate One In
          Ain’t in the Glossary yet awhile – where’s that cat!?
31. Went for speed again today so plenty of biffing but the NHO PIER meaning was the only one I had any doubt about. My LOI was SEE FIT.
32. Possibly general lassitude on my part at the end of another week in lockdown, but I gradually ran out of steam and took a long time to get BUSIER, and then the crossing of HORUS (suspected what it must be, couldn’t see why) and PIER (never heard of one meaning).
33. After 45 minutes I surrendered, as ‘er indoors had returned from a ‘4dn luncheon’ with her mother (I was out at the new IKEA earlier). The DNF culprit 12ac BUSIER – horryd little thing! Just couln’t see it!

    FOI 15ac SIT TIGHT

    (LOI) 6dn ACERBITY more IKEA

    COD 13ac PEST

    WOD 11ac BEHEMOTH – Lord Verlain’s middle name apparently!

    1. One wrong. Busmen should have been busier. Otherwise 26:49.

       COD: HAT TIP to 1 across.

    2. Just realised what a disappointment it is that SIT TIGHT wasn’t clued via any reference to the good Reverend Spooner…
    3. Also my middle name is LEVIATHAN not BEHEMOTH, very different…
34. Just remember not to confuse FOI (Fourth One In) with FOI (Fifth One In)
    1. Someone mentioned the PAPOI the other day: pre-antepenultimate one in.
35. ….and am grateful to V for parsing CUPIDITY and HORUS. I’d never seen HAT TIP before, although, as Pete Townsend put it, “I tip my hat to the new constitution”.

    FOI THOR
    LOI ICEBREAKER
    COD BEHEMOTH
    TIME 13:02

    Edited at 2021-02-05 05:21 pm (UTC)

36. A vicars income is/was called ‘The Living’. Referred to as such in some pre-war novels. (Mr Grumpy)
37. 43.02. I found this a real struggle. Several sticking points where my Friday brain wasn’t nimble enough to quickly identify and perform the required cruciverbal operations. Boy quivered and pour tea without hesitation were very good.
38. 44 minutes, so not too hard for me, with a number of lovely clues (and I seem to be getting better at seeing the tricky ones like HORUS, CUPIDity with the boy quivered, or the homing PIGEON, which occurred to me right away). LOI was BUSIER, which I didn’t see so quickly, POI was STONECHAT, which was the only way I could reconcile the H_T at the end with the wordplay of the clue. Nice puzzle.
39. A vicar’s position in his parish is referred to as his ‘living’
40. Very late solve today. Got there in the end though, LOI SEE FIT. Easy then difficult 38 mins

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