Times 27,959: In Beano Veritas

69 comments on “Times 27,959: In Beano Veritas”

1. Held up at the end by the EBENEZER, IDEE FIXE, and CONVEX corner. I got EBENEZER, and then CONVEX was a long time coming. Then I realized the down one was probably not in English, and didn’t end with WIRE or FIRE (“that is crossing river”). Got there in the end and felt a sense of accomplishment.
2. Just over an hour to drag myself over the line only to discover a typo in ICE CUBB so in the pink again after all that. Very tough, verging in wilfully obscure: has anyone said BEEZER in the last 40 years? But as V notes, many clues deserving of a ripple and some a standing ovation. Thanks setter and V for unlocking the three or four I stared blankly at, especially LIFE SENTENCE and OFFICEHOLDER.
3. I retired overnight with about a quarter of the clues unsolved and scattered more or less evenly around the grid.

   On resumption this morning, there was still nothing forthcoming so I used aids at 15dn in a bid to get myself going again. As it turned out I had correctly deduced KINSH?SA from wordplay and checkers but was unable to make the leap to the full answer because I have never heard of it or have forgotten it if it has come up previously. Would the new K-checker at 15ac help me with that clue? No. So I used aids on that one too and found another word I never heard of. At that point I gave up on the whole thing.

   1. Kinshasa is a capital city of 17 million people, not a small place! I wouldn’t be surprised if there were (at least) 17 million diehard fans of kabaddi, but like Kinshasa they are probably localised to one particular part of the world map.
4. …but then it never does. DNF after 45 minutes with no idea fixed in my head for 18d and Scrooge not obliging either for 27a. I guessed GOTHIC and the unknown KABADDI, which won’t be showing up in our family quiz this weekend. Mrs BW already says it’s too hard for expecting the offspring to know of Montague and Capulet in the Shakespeare Round celebrating his birthday. ONASSIS was either brilliant or terrible, but as I saw it straightaway I’ll make it the former. COD to UH-OH though, as our old border collie used to bark if anybody said it as he rushed to investigate. Thank you V for the explanations and setter for the challenge.

   Edited at 2021-04-23 07:06 am (UTC)

5. Several to do after 30 minutes. AESOP’S FABLES my COD.
6. …The blaze, the splendour, and the symmetry,
   I cannot see—but darkness, death and darkness.

   30 mins pre-brekker left the Idee Fixe/Ebenezer crossers which I was never going to get, so quite pleased I abandoned.
   I liked Onassis and COD to Convex.
   Thanks setter and V.

7. Some tough stuff in there. Two flat out guesses to finish which is never satisfying: Ebenezer, never heard of beezer, never read English comics of the 50s. Wasn’t actually alive then. Vaguely wondered if they once had chemical execution in UK using the drug benezer? And Gothic I really should have figured out, not just guessed in desperation, a good clue. NHO the suburb, the plant or the bird but they were clued generously enough; and I suspect Pip has a snowy owl as his avatar. Heard of the sport but wouldn’t have been able to spell it, and didn’t know what it was – I was thinking goat polo. Overall I liked it as it made you stop, think and work things out. Thanks setter and blogger.
   1. The goat polo is called BUZKASHI I think, very easy to confuse with kabaddi — I’ve done it myself.
   2. You suspect correctly, I have a large collection of owl pictures and avatars and Snowys are the nicest. Magnificent birds to see in real life.
   3. Beezer:: an English comic? How very dare you! A product of Scotland, Dundee specifically, a city famed for its Jute, Jam & Journalism with an amazing output of world-famous comics and magazines from D C Thomson.
8. 
   Call me Colonel Blink. but I don’t understand how Beezer becomes “topping?”
   NHO of the Indian game or the French obsession
   FOI: Pursue
   COD: Onassis
   1. It’s school slang from a bygone era.

      Excellent, fantastic; of the highest quality

   2. I suppose if comics were still a thing today they’d be called things like Sick, Lit, Dope or Gucci. (Any kids reading this are now rolling their eyes at me using terminology that’s, like, so 2010’s, grandad.)
9. I had to take a break with CONVEX and IDEE FIXE unsolved, and as is often the case they came to me during said break. In that respect my “real” time would be more than the half hour recorded. IDEE FIXE took much longer than CONVEX and I did consider whether I’d spelt ONASSIS wrongly, and it perhaps should have an E rather than an I. This reflected my uncertainty over the parsing — I thought donkey rides could be “on asses”. Despite my uncertainty I still very much like the clue and it’s funny Yoda style parsing.
10. 28:38. Very tough overall. I filled most of the grid quite quickly but solving MACARONI, OUTFIELD, KABADDI, EBENEZER and IDEE FIXE was like getting blood from a stone.
    Some of this is borderline unfair: MACARONI isn’t really a dish, ‘face family’ takes oblique definitioning to new extremes, random and rare name clued with a word that really needs an archaism indicator…
    But ONASSIS is brilliant and raised a smile.
11. DNF
    Idee fixe and convex just wouldn’t come through. Fair clues, nonetheless, imho.
    Also entered kabaddy, as I didn’t read the clue properly.
    Thanks v, and good luck with the NYT champs 🙂
    1. Couldn’t be bothered to look up KABADDI
       Wrote kabaddy — came here — had a paddy
       I did all those tough clues
       But I now have the blues
       One letter wrong — I’m a saddy
       1. Bravo! 🙂
12. 37:19. Held up mostly by NE and then SE corners, taking an age to see STARKER and EBENEZER and then did double alphabet trawl before conceding IDEE FIXE was the only thing that fit, but still didn’t understand it. Tough, but a feeling of satisfaction at getting there eventually.
13. Hm. Bit of a struggle today with a lot of clues needing inspired guesswork before working out what the definition and the wordplay was.
    Let’s use GOTHIC as a case in point. You’re not going to get that “face family” is “a group of typefaces” until you get the answer, and until then the wordplay is an infinitely variable jumble. Even if you think greeting is going to be HI, putting it “earlier” suggests putting it quite a bit before C(old) not just in front of it. Sure, it works, but it’s all clearly designed to scramble the solving brain.
    1ac was CALAMARI for most of its life, but the “put a feather in his cap” moment opened up most of the northern section.
    Funnily enough, I got EBENEZER quite easily, though obviously without going via thinking of BEEZER first. Something to help us into what sort of name would have been kind but clearly our setter believed (any old random) name was sufficient. Thank goodness he didn’t clue it as stone or chapel, or the noise of weeping and gnashing of teeth might have been heard from the outer darkness into which most of us would be thrown.
    A tough one, took me 38.31, last in IDÉE FIXE with its borderline unfair “thing” definition. Where is Hector Berlioz when you need him?

    Edited at 2021-04-23 08:55 am (UTC)

    1. I used to do many a Shakespeare and Austen readthrough in Ebenezer Chapel in Belper, Derbyshire (https://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g499573-d5962701-Ebenezer_Chapel-Belper_Derbyshire_England.html) — I’m assuming there are many of the same name and this is not the Ebenezer you’re thinking of, or else that’d be spooky.

       1. The Ebenezers I knew were mostly in the South Wales valleys, where the Revival of the early 1900s created chapel capacity far in excess of the local populations. Other biblical names proliferated, Tabor, Shiloh and of course Tabernacle. Even in the 70s, when I knew them most were hanging on, sometimes very honourably, with tiny congregations. There are still viable and lively congregations around, but an awful lot of extra warehouses and workshops!

14. Did not get ‘Ebenezer’ and failed to parse ‘Alleluia’, so defeated by the setter. Just too tough fir me.
15. Beaten by a doctor’s-appointment-imposed time limit. Made little difference. Would have taken all day with only the slimmest chance of success. Chapeau to all sub-40 minuters.

    Thanks to Verlaine and setter

16. Very difficult for me. Thank you verlaine, for all the explanations ,especially GOTHIC, IDEE FIXE, EBENEZER, and MACARONI. The last three were my LOI.
    NHO BEEZER.
    I’ve always thought it was BADDY but I see Lexico gives that as an alternative to BADDIE.
17. Ouch. Very hard indeed. KABADDI familiar enough as I remember watching it on telly years ago. Very strange.

    I biffed ALLELUIA (how many different spellings are there though?) and was unsure on MACARONI as I only knew the donkey and not where he got his name.

    Good luck at the weekend V.

    1. Donkey?
       1. Ah yes, that wouldn’t rhyme would it?. Pony. I was put off by the other donkey, clearly.
          1. This is why you’ll never make a dandy, Penfold, riding around on broken-down donkeys like you do! (But if it’s good enough for Greek shipping magnates…)
18. A bit of a struggle. I eventually solved all bar OFFICEHOLDER and EBENEZER which I used a wordfinder for. I had thought of Mr Scrooge but discounted him as I thought he was Ebeneezer, and couldn’t see beezer for topping anyway. A tad obscure to say the least. 75:10 with 2 look ups. No sense of achievement. Thanks V.
19. Just on the hour but at least finished. Several clues unparsed of course. Liked IDÉE FIXE as it made think of Obelix’s dog, idéfix, or in the UK, dogmatix. Took a while to see STARKERS, CONVEX, and LOI, EBENEZER. Great comic many moons ago. I agree with you V on the parsing of ONASSIS. That’s how I saw it. Thank you V and setter.
    1. Didn’t know that – Idéfix/Dogmatix – but that’s brilliant cross-language punning.
       1. The English translations of Asterix — by Anthea Bell — are absolutely brilliant throughout. Often better than the original!
       2. I agree, clever guys Goscinny and Uderzo.
          1. There’s a new generation of Asterix now isn’t there? (I just looked it up and the new team of Didier and Conrad have been at it since 2013. “Asterix and the Griffin” coming out later this year) I hope it lives up to former glories.

             1. Yeah, I’ve heard about that. Not read any though. As you say, let’s hope. Maybe I’ll read the new one.

20. Fast going until I was sunk by the clever IDEE FIXE having become appropriately fixated on an incorrect interpretation of the clue’s mechanics. Two DNFs in a row, which is alarming.
21. Praise the Lord for the word that shouldn’t be in services during Lent, and for Yankee Doodle who perhaps appears in both 1ac and the excellent 16ac.

    Before the DRC, in the sixties, the two Congos were distinguished in school Geography by one of them being known as KINSHASA Congo.

    I got AESOP’S FABLES by jumbling ‘false’, which was wrong but worked. And NOCTURNE sprang to mind, as my first thought for ‘engine trouble’ had been ‘knock’.

    Excellent puzzle, EBENEZER LOI.

    30′ 51″, thanks verlaine and setter.

22. barely cheating (I did check the odd letter online) but I had to ask my gf (less than a year doing xwords) for ALLELUIA.

    Great puzzle, thanks to setter

23. Sutton is in Surrey — a bit rich calling it a suburb of London
    1. As a native of Stanmore in Middlesex I share your grief, but I’m afraid it’s a sad fact of life that since Grocer Heath had his way with it some 40 years ago, Sutton has been a London Borough.

       Edited at 2021-04-23 01:17 pm (UTC)

       1. I never forgave Heath for his barbarism with traditional English counties, not just around London but also getting rid of Rutland and my beloved Huntingdonshire. The former managed to hang on to its identity and is now a unitary authority, but Hunts has disappeared completely into downmarket Cambridgeshire
    2. I used to live in Wallington near Carshalton, not too far from Sutton itself, and definitely considered myself to be still in London, though Zone 5 is nobody’s idea of centrality. Trying to go, or more relevantly return from, parties in North London while living there was a terrible, terrible mistake.
24. That was a struggle – after 21:16 I bunged in EBENEZER thinking there could be no other possibility. I did like ONASSIS and CONVEX
25. 51.00 DNF. Defeated by the crossers of convex and idee fixe. Should have got convex but would never have got idee fixe, even after reading the blog. A really good challenge which I enjoyed and absolutely delighted to have worked out ebenezer. Topper of a clue!
    1. Topper! Another comic I used to read back in the day but had completely forgotten. Sinking into a warm duvet of nostalgia now.
26. Idee fixe seems to have slowed or defeated many. With the I and E crossers of idee it seemed it was going to be a foreign word – you know, not item or ibex or iced. And foreign words in The Times are Latin or French, with the odd exception of the Spanish el, the Italian il, and the German der plus a ein. It clearly wasn’t any one of those, so must be Latin or French, because no other foreign languages are allowed. 206 languages in the world and only English, French and Latin allowed in the Times. I got lucky, knew idee fixe. But not impressed with the clue.
    1. Note: I pulled 206 out of Onassis’s ass – I suspect there are many more languages existent.
    2. It’d be funny if languages followed the same rules in the Times crossword as people and were only allowed in once dead. As a classicist I’d be pretty well set up!
       1. “It’d be funny if languages followed the same rules in the Times crossword as people and were only allowed in once dead”
          I suspect 2/3 of the setters would be cactus.
    3. “That’s crossed the channel” was a rather large hint it would be French,, and certainly not Latin.
       1. No Rubicons crossed in this puzzle…
27. Too distracted by beautiful Anglesey to record a time. Held up by CONVEX, STARKERS and VOID. LOI MACARONI
28. Nearly gave up on the SE corner, but struggled on to get EBENEZER and IDEE FIXE in 32’12”, even managing to justify them with parsing. I am not keen on random names as answers, especially as these days virtually any combination of letters and numbers can be given to a child ( X AE a-12 Musk for example). Had to guess whether the villain in 15a would be a BANDIT or a BADDIE and hence KABANDI or KABADDI as the unknown sport. Guessed correctly for a change- flushed with triumph!
    Macaroni was known from the species of penguin, which was named after the Italian dandy.
    We’re back in lockdown for 3 days. The first community case of covid-19 here for 14 months was confirmed today.

    Edited at 2021-04-23 02:48 pm (UTC)

29. in spite of being a French speaker I didn’t see IDEE FIXE as was fixated on it ending in -I(R)E for river in that is. Put EBENEZER into the four E checkers without knowing why. Took an age to see UH-OH, the rest was tough but sorted eventually. A real Friday job, this one. ONASSIS was clever.
30. My favourite was the BEANO, (ta for the by-line) especially the Bash Street Kids. Well, if it’s good enough for Eric Clapton……..

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