Times 27997 – Tantantara tzing boom and all that caper

69 comments on “Times 27997 – Tantantara tzing boom and all that caper”

1. …as I only really got stuck on whit. I didn’t bother to parse the longer ones, but suspected they might be some sort of anagram. I did nearly put threnodys, but then I looked at the cryptic.
2. Not much to say that ulaca and Jeremy didn’t cover: I had all the GK; I would have whined about the use of “away” as anagrind if 3D had been a trickier clue and had held me up, but it wasn’t and it didn’t; I liked the cute Thirteen Down anagram. Thx ulaca
   1. As much as anything else, it was the AWAY that did for me, so, with your permission, I’ll whine away for a while.
      1. I also looked at it twice but it’s listed as anagrind in Chambers Crossword Dictionary and the Wordgame Companion supplement to the 12th edition of their dictionary.
   2. I did wonder if it was yet another typo, and “awry”” was intended, but it doesn’t read well. I shrugged and moved on.
3. This should have been easier I suppose, but I was held up by a lot of head-scratchers: MOSES, KNOT, WHIT, DARESAY, and the spelling of THRENOD*E*S, kept me from racing to a finish.

   The ‘moonlight’ anagram was very fooling and truly delightful when the penny finally dropped.

4. I am always pleased to share whining and moaning duty and to get the chance to pick up some pointers. Welcome aboard!
5. Just 22 minutes

   LOI 3dn I DARESAY – whine

   FOI 6ac CAPES

   COD 14ac WHIT

   WOD 25ac THRENODES

   9ac LEAD A DOUBLE LIFE – I wish!

   Edited at 2021-06-07 02:42 am (UTC)

6. I forgot about the bird KNOT, and didn’t know it was a wader, but ‘granny’ sufficed. DNK CAHIER (as an English word). Biffed PAINT THE ETC. & ENCHILADA, forgot to double-check the former. I’ve never seen ‘threnody’ spelled with an E; neither has ODE. [ON EDIT: I see from Collins that THRENODES is a possible plural of ‘threnody’; so what I’ve never seen is ‘threnodies’ spelled without the I.] PEACHES and MOSES struck me as QCish, as did ‘G&S’; but then it’s Monday. COD to 9ac.

   Edited at 2021-06-07 05:49 am (UTC)

7. 20 minutes is about as quick as it ever gets for me for a 15×15.

   CAHIER was one of the first French words I learned as my introduction to the language, before starting on grammar etc, was simply to learn the names of the things around us in the classroom where there were always plenty of exercise books. I therefore wrote it in with confidence, however it was news to me that it had found its way into the English language.

   Parsing WIG for ‘slate’ foxed me whilst solving but I went back to it afterwards.

   My first thought at 25ac was THRENADES with DAN as the biblical land but the lack of a reversal indicator made me think again and remember NOD.

   I thought the clue to LOVE LETTER was feeble and wondered if I’d missed something, but apparently not.

   At 26 minutes for both Monday puzzles I felt a bit cheated and hope that The Guardian has something a bit more challenging on offer.

   Edited at 2021-06-07 06:12 am (UTC)

8. I found this quite tricky in parts, not least with my last two, the crossers of I DARESAY and CAHIER. For the former I initially thought I was looking for an operatic princess from whose name I needed to remove a Y and thus thought I was going to struggle. Eventually I thought of Princess Ida, though I couldn’t tell you she was from an opera, and things fell into place. I was nervous about CAHIER, which looked like a word I’d made up and thus fully expected to end up with egg on my face so the lack of pink squares was a pleasant surprise.
   1. … will not detain you for long today, I fear. Like you, I am going to find something else to fill the time. For me, unfortunately, that means weeding.
9. 18 minutes. I didn’t know CAHIER but it was obvious. I too would have put an i in THRENODES if there had been space. COD to LEAD A DOUBLE LIFE for the PDM when it fell out of the anagram. Easyish but very enjoyable. Thank you U and setter.
   1. First Billy Wright and now the Andrews Sisters – did the Beverley Sisters record it too!?

      Edited at 2021-06-07 06:28 am (UTC)

      1. It was The Chordettes, H, later than the Andrews Sisters. And Emmylou, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt did a great version much later.
      2. I had custard and cream first. Did anyone record that?
10. …And Leaden-eyed despairs

    15 mins of gentle enjoyment (notwithstanding the NHO Cahiers) left me with the two impossible ones: I Daresay, Threnodes.
    I am ashamed to say I couldn’t even fathom what G&S stood for.
    Thanks setter an U.

11. 19:22
    Steady solve; no dramas.
12. Relatively few birds of late
    Which obviously I think is great
    KNOT so happy today
    But I’d venture to say
    I’m dis”chough”ed more than irate
13. Recklessly fast this morning, overwhelmed by knowing all the idioms and all the GK.

    Daughter#3 did G&S at school and at university, so I have sat through many productions, some of which were good.

    I have seen the film of ‘Little Big Man’, reminds me now of a rather serious Forrest Gump of the nineteenth century.

    This was very nearly a PB, thanks ulaca and setter.

14. John – The Emmylou, Dolly, Linda ‘Mr. Sandman’ is terrific – but I wondered if you remembered that Billy Wright was married to Joy Beverley from ‘Befnal’ Green?
    1. Of course. I can even remember them singing the song Siesta the evening before the 1958 Final, with changed words. Babs and Teddie sang Bolton for the Cup, and then Joy sang Manchester. My avatar of course shows who was right.
       1. VAR would say otherwise!l
15. Couldn’t see 3D at all so used aids. The only answer I found had DARE SAY as two words, so that confounded me more. Came here to find that most people seem happy with one word so too bad for me. Oh well. CAHIER no problem and I liked the long anags. Thank you U as ever.
    1. Good point about DARESAY. I hadn’t actually noticed the enumeration but having checked, it’s in Collins and Lexico both as one word and two.
       1. That would seem to settle it then (unhappy face)!
16. A steady 13.51, with I DARESAY last in. Same issues as others have noted, though I don’t think I can readily recall a G&S princess other than Ida. Didn’t think the rest was an anagram, did think the answer was 3 words.
    SPECTATOR I got for the wrong reason. I couldn’t understand why it was hinted as a soundalike but some of my potatoes definitely are marked with eyes and an eye is….
    PAINT… I buffed, expecting to understand the wordplay when 13d fell. Didn’t happen, and I shrugged and moved on, a pity as that was a spectacular anagram.
    A gentle Monday puzzle, and a genteel blog, thanks U.
    1. Is your paint shiny, now that you’ve buffed it?
       I wondered what was going on there too, missing the anagram and not seeing a cross-reference.
       1. The perils of working on an unfamiliar tablet, with auto-guessing.
          1. No, I reckon you’re onto something there: ‘to bung in from a smooth surface.’
17. I was also a trifle surprised that DARESAY could be one word.

    Didn’t bother parsing REPAIR KIT nor TABLE LINEN and didn’t ‘get’ the WIG in WIGWAM.

    Otherwise, no problems apart from a momentary thought that the last vowel of SPECTATOR might be an ‘E’!

18. Most of this went in easily, but a biffed TABLE CLOTH held me up with the region, where I invented EAST ASTELY until A GOOD SPORT helped me out. ANGLIA then corrected my CLOTH to LINEN, and LAST(omega) LETTER to LOVE LETTER. CAHIER went in reluctantly from WORDPLAY, and I belatedly remembered IDA and raised both eyebrows at the enumeration of DARESAY. Sorting out that 5 clue tangle probably took the best part of 10 minutes. I also wondered about the spelling of THRENODES, but followed the wordplay. 23:50. Thanks setter and U.

    Edited at 2021-06-07 08:41 am (UTC)

19. 8:13 Rather Mondayish but I hesitated over I DARESAY thinking it should be (1,4,3) and THRENODES, expecting the plural of THRENODY to be THRENODIES. EAST ANGLIA and ENCHILADA parsed only after completion. I liked a HEAD FOR FIGURES best.
20. FOI: 17a. LOVE LETTER
    LOI: 21d. MOSES

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 4

    Clues Answered with Aids: 6

    Clues Unanswered: 17

    Wrong Answers: 25a

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 10/28

    Aids Used: Chambers

    25a. THRENODES – A spelling error rendered this answer incorrect. I had put THERNODYS.

    20a. WIGWAM – An answer I got even though I was not sure how the “slate” part of it worked.

    Only 10 answered correctly today, with the help of aids.

21. An increasingly rare sub-20 for me at 18m so I’m guessing this was an easier offering today. I was helped by having the necessary GK for MOSES, the snack and the exercise book. I enjoyed the solve, so thank you, setter, and U for the words of wisdom.
22. 6:28. No problems this morning. Quite a lot of biffing but a few where I needed the wordplay. The unfamiliar form of THRENODIES being one, and 11ac (where I started with KEEP IT UP) another.
    I didn’t know this meaning of WIG. As a verb (with or without the addition of ‘out’) to me it means to freak out, go crazy, and reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
    MER at DARESAY as a single word.
    U you have a little HTML glitch at 14ac.
    1. Thanks for the advice, and thanks for reading that far.
23. I didn’t know the G&S princess, and I think it should be 1,4,3, and the Charles Lamb reference was a new one for me.
    Thanks for the blog explaining it all.
    1. Taste!
       1. doacajk. As you have a Live Journal account you can edit your posts to correct errors. There’s a pencil [edit] icon near your username – you may have to hover the mouse pointer or touch the screen depending on your device. You can’t edit when somebody has replied though, so too late for this one.
          1. Thanks Jack.
24. A gentle start to the week with pretty much a top-to-bottom solve. I liked the attempted mis-direction with the “thirteen down” anagram, but I saw straight through it.
25. Back from hols so time coming back down again, whew, thought I was losing it. LOI A GOOD SPORT for which I was too fixated on a spot for the L. A few DNKs but easily clued
    COD A HEAD FOR FIGURES
26. What Lord Horryd said, easy Monday, 15 minutes ending with MOSES and THRENODES without knowing why it was NOD.
27. Pleasant start to the week, which was over in short order, with minor pauses as already noted by plenty of others (wondering about the enumeration of I DARESAY and attempting to put in THRENODIES before realising there must be an alternative possibility). CAHIER also took me back to my first lessons in French avec Monsieur Vert when I had seven years or so.
28. This would have been among my best times, but having raced through in about 12 minutes (with several unparsed),
    a perfunctory check for typos failed to spot one in 7d.
    FOI 9a, but had to write anagrist down, as LIVE was clearly not possible for first word.
    LOI 25a, as needed to fix error – THRENODIES is too long to go in
29. I read the commentary but don’t often contribute because I’m not very good but managed to finish today’s unaided, after thinking initially that this one was beyond me. Truth be told a fair amount of biffing was involved, but still..
    Thanks to all for your helpful and interesting comments.
    1. Or welcome back, philbstoke! Solvers of all standards are welcome here and enjoyment is what counts above all else.

       Edited at 2021-06-07 01:16 pm (UTC)

30. Ulaca there are quite a few stories (based on real life) about children of colonial settlers kidnapped by a local tribe and not wanting to go home again when rescued. No unknowns here but you know you’ve been spending too much time on these things when you think the “a” in 6d and the “the” in 15d may be superfluous. 14.03
31. Beg to differ – “True Grit” as Great A.Novel – rated as a masterpiece by Roal Dahl and
    Donna Tartt.
    1. Thanks for the recommendation. Wouldn’t have known it was a book, which, I suppose, a lot of people would say about Little Big Man.
32. Unsure of THRENODE until all the crossers were in. Previously only knew the “threnody” variant (pl “threnodies”). Apparently in good company on that. Otherwise about as Monday as Monday gets. 10 mins.

    Edited at 2021-06-07 11:20 am (UTC)

33. For a change decided to try the online version today. Wished I hadn’t, finished in 13.07 but hadn’t noticed thick fingers- or maybe it was all of me- decided to spell love letter with three Ts and one E. Aarggh.
    Pretty standard Monday fare but no less enjoyable for that. COD threnodes.
34. …them were the days. Find myself only sluggishly drawn to these things (crosswords, apart from from the GK variety) these days. Ambled through this in 21’03. Unlikely to visit the site much more – it seems to have played itself out for me. Enjoyed the craic while contributing no more than would-be winged words in the dark. If I may I’d like people to know of my website: joewinter-poet.com on which I’m currently engaged on a kind of all-purpose poet’s blog. All the best.
    1. Happy to ‘unspam’ the link to your website, joe. I’m sorry to read this community is no longer for you but I’ve enjoyed your contributions. People move on! All the best.
35. …but pleased to be able to get about 8 unaided before looking for answers and explanations here. DNK threnodes or capes, and NHO grandma Moses! A complete newbie to the 15×15 and only just starting to regularly finish the QC… The consensus seems to be that this was straightforward — will it be days or years before I can finish one of these?! 😆
    1. Don’t worry about finishing them, just enjoy the process.
36. Pleased to close it out with LOI THRENODES, a word I had come across a couple of times in crosswords.

    DNK MOSES the artist, and could not parse EAST ANGLIA.

37. ….insert an unwanted “I” into THRENODES. CAHIER was in the back of my mind as being a valid word, but I couldn’t have told you what it meant. I biffed WIGWAM without seeing how “slate” worked.

    FOI CAPES
    LOI I DARESAY
    COD LEAD A DOUBLE LIFE
    TIME 7:24

38. 36 minutes; very fast for me on the 15×15 so I’m highly delighted! All this practice is paying off at last. There was a bit off biffing, mind….thanks blogger for post- solve parsing help.
39. Three of the longest ones went in first, and the fourth one just a few clues later, so I was well on my way. LOI I DARESAY, as I was thinking it might be some “obscure” (to me!) character from a comic opera and not an expression I am wont to use myself.

    I like it, bien sûr, when French words pay a visit.

    Now I’ve got Beck’s “Peaches and Cream” (from Midnight Vultures) playing in my head.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i55TYUQsi9s

    Edited at 2021-06-07 02:40 pm (UTC)

40. This was a pleasant enough start to the week. COD EAST ANGLIA – my neck of the woods, these days, although I was born in Boston MA: English mother.
41. Nice and easy does it, which suited me fine after filling in my French tax form.

    Re WIGWAM – The film of Little Big Man is well worth hunting down.

    Thanks to Ulaca and the setter

42. 7:55. I realise from the SNITCH that today’s puzzle was easy but it gave me a lot of pleasure — I seemed to pick up on the setter’s intention for every clue and the long anagrams gave up their secrets quickly which is not often the case.
    NHO of cahier but in the circumstances trusted the cryptic element.
    COD 9 ac, very concise and clever.
    Solved this after a 4 mile countryside walk and a bottle of Japanese beer but I doubt that combination will guarantee similar performances in future!
    Thanks to Ulaca for a witty blog and to setter
43. 11.23 a brisk but satisfying solve. Thought 9ac was very good and enjoyed the misdirection in the surface cross-reference at 7dn.
44. I did indeed fall into the embarrassing trap of the SPECTATER. Horrible when I type it out like that but I stuck in TATER without realising the homophone applied to both bits. Otherwise I DARESAY needed 3 minutes at the end. Was getting a bit confused with my operas and operettas and associated princesses but IDA came to mind eventually

    Thanks setter for an enjoyable 20 minutes and Mr U

45. This came as a welcome relief from trying to find homes for all the stuff in my kitchen whilst we have a new one fitted. I enjoyed the distraction of the solve, especially since I eventually managed to complete it. I think it took me an hour or so. An hour pleasantly spent, especially compared to my other activity today. Thanks, U, and setter – and Jack for encouraging those of us who solve at a snail’s pace compared to some. GW.

46. This one needed knowledge that I didn’t have — never heard of “Threnodes” — forgot the Land of Nod — never heard of Grannie Moses — and couldn’t spot Linen. Correctly guessed Cahier but NHO. Also DNK Elia.
    Something of a disaster for me today.
47. The odd experience here of having finished it but without necessarily knowing how or why. A lot of biffing going on, so the blog will be studied at length to figure out quite how my brain was working! FOI 1ac REPAIR KIT, LOI 3D I DARESAY, with guesswork fir CAHIER and THRENODES. Liked the clue for AFAR. Neat. Done in about 40 minutes on paper.

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