Times 28,121: When Will You Pay Me? Say The Setters Of 14ac

61 comments on “Times 28,121: When Will You Pay Me? Say The Setters Of 14ac”

1. And common Wellingtons turn Romeo Boots;

   After 15 mins pre-brekker I was left to guess/construct the NHO Yeshiva and to enjoy my LOI and COD, Leaving.
   Thanks setter and V.

2. ‘Faith school’ struck me as an odd locution, but I had no problem with the wordplay; but then I knew the word (I’m not sure what checkers I had when I solved). Biffed BUCKTEETH, parsed post-submission. Like V, I liked ‘soon to be’ and ‘due to church’; and I was happy to have spotted ‘on’ in LEAVING. A major MER at STAPLE GUN; not something one finds in most offices. All in all, rather a letdown for a Friday.
   1. ‘Faith school’ is a common term here, describing a type of school with an explicitly religious governing framework.
      1. A
   2. A STAPLE GUN would more likely be found in a teacher’s cupboard.
   3. “Indoctrination” would be a less kind, but more accurate rendering
3. 28:40
   Tidy puzzle; not too tricky. NHO Yeshiva, but wp was pretty obvious.
   THanks, v.
4. Not bad for a Friday, but no time registered as the man from Epsom arrived, a day late, to replace my paper-feed and bring vast quantities of ink for my ever thirsty machine. I think he’d been out on the pantiles with Lord Verlaine!? So I was able to re-print my ‘Crossie’ and storm through it with renewed vigour! ‘Er indoors arranges all these events, as my ‘Shanghainese’ is not up to muster. And all for just two hundred quid! Cash on the nail, mind!The Lord giveth as he taketh away.

   FOI 4dn TURN IN ONE’S GRAVE- Hallelujah!

   LOI 10ac YESHIVA — Oh! Ye of little faith!

   COD 5dn RAYMOND CHANDLER who I was researching just last night — his newly found correspondence with Ian Fleming, regarding the loss of his dear wife. Serendipity,

   WOD 16dn LIBRARIAN(s) they never get enough praise (Joe Orton)

   3dn WHIPPIEST was interesting, considering the aforementioned Mr. Fleming.

   Edited at 2021-10-29 07:21 am (UTC)

5. I for one was glad of a straightforward puzzle.
   COD to LEAVING and TURN IN ONES GRAVE.
6. 21 minutes with LOI YESHIVA. COD to LEAVING. I liked TURN IN ONE’S GRAVE too. I was unsure about GRAND, but it made sense and I had nothing else. PATHÉ left me with fond memories of the opening credits, the upbeat music, the cockerel and the news from several days or even weeks ago at the flicks. It was a bit like watching Mock The Week on Dave nowadays. Easyish but pleasant puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
7. 29 minutes but a technical DNF as I looked up 10ac as my LOI. I knew I wouldn’t know the word and was unable to unravel the wordplay after giving it 5 minutes of undivided attention, so why waste more time? I note both answer and wordplay require knowledge of religion, which might seem a little unfair.

   Edited at 2021-10-29 06:39 am (UTC)

   1. Exactly as jackkt says, except that it took me five minutes longer.
   2. I can’t really believe that “requiring knowledge” is an unfair thing for setter to ask of solver…
      1. Expressed like that, it does seem like a foolish comment, and perhaps it was anyway, but what I meant was that both ways to the answer required knowledge of different religions, and I was not alone amongst the contributors in not knowing either.

         Edited at 2021-10-29 03:53 pm (UTC)

         1. The word sometimes appears, without explanation, in The Times of London, as a search on the site will confirm. Yeshiva University is also not infrequently mentioned.
8. Well done on the fast time, “$rosedeprovence”. If it’s any consolation I also bunged in YASMINA (hoping “asmina” was some sort of eastern religious school)…

   …however, being on the same wavelength as this thoroughly mediocre solver is probably no accolade.

   Consolation #2 – I took 56m and also failed on LEAVING (cricket references in clues nearly always pass me by)

   1. Even when I toyed with it as a possible/probable answer, as my LOI, I couldn’t for the life of me see the derivation. Very clever.

   2. Thank you. I am glad to be in your company. You are certainly not a “mediocre” solver. If you solve, as you do, more often than not, you are far from mediocre.

      My “raison d’être” in life is that there will always be someone fitter, better and quicker than me but, there will also always be someone less fit, less able and slower than me.

      I am sure I speak for most solvers when I say that the enjoyment is actually solving the crossword and, although times are relevant, they are not the be all and end all.

      PS. On is often used for “leg” but was particularly well hidden in this clue.

      1. Where does Jeremy get to these days?
9. Fast Friday, 14′ 21″, pleasing.

   I agree with kevingregg re STAPLE GUN. Very much liked PUBESCENT, although the pub made it easy.

   Thanks verlaine and setter.

   1. Glad to see at least one other solver saw that the definition doesn’t work.
10. 6:22. Talk about wavelength. On Tuesday I had one of the highest WITCHes on the SNITCH at 256, today I have (at the time of writing) the lowest at 63.
    No problems this morning, obviously. I had all the required knowledge, although I needed the wordplay to remember YESHIVA.
    1. Please, what is a “WITCH” on the SNITCH?
       1. Checkout this link. It can also be found at the top or bottom of this webpage depending on which device you are using.
          https://xwdsnitch.herokuapp.com/
11. Not a dictionary BACKWATER day
    And one OUTLIER word is ok
    I did not know YESHIVA
    As I’m not a believer
    But a LIBRARIAN would, I dare say
12. My LOI was LEAVING too, like many. A typo so a technical pink square but in a correct answer. It wasn’t hard but I can’t believe Verlaine did it in 5 minutes. I very occasionally do the quicky that fast but it is half as many clues.
13. I found this a mixture of straightforward and quite tricky clues, but very enjoyable. STAMP was FOI and I then dotted around the grid picking off the easy ones before returning to deal with the harder ones. I laughed out loud at TURN IN ONES GRAVE, my COD I think. LOI was the unknown YESHIVA, constructed from wordplay. 27:14. Thanks setter and Verlaine. V, I’ve sent you a link to my Personal Zoom Meeting in Discord and will monitor it from time to time during the event. If you don’t get a response, try messaging myself, Johninterred or Phil. I notice Kitty has just decided to attend York at the last minute too.
14. 22 mins so probably my best time for a Friday except that I bunged in YASMINA (NHO YESHIVA) without really understanding the clue. Doh. Note to self: don’t bung in words without working out how the clue works. Mood: disappointed of Provence. I did like ELECTRA and LEAVING.

    Thanks V and setter.

    Edited at 2021-10-29 07:53 am (UTC)

15. 16.31 so given past toils on a Friday, I suppose that does indicate this was a bit easier than usual. But I’m certainly not complaining. FOI vibes and LOI Electra, largely down to initially being convinced the soon to be was ere. Got there in the end.

    Biffed buckteeth but having seen the explanation, nice bit of jollity. COD earphones though I think Wyatt may have described himself as a lawman rather than a gunslinger. I doubt the Clantons and McClowerys would have agreed with him though, being victims of his lead poisoning.

    Thx setter and blogger.

16. What’s happening there then?
    1. http://www.fifteensquared.net/2021/10/02/sloggers-betters-york-2021-update/
17. Liked this one, though not too hard. Echo the various doubts expressed about staple guns .. I have one but regard it as a DIY tool rather than office equipment.
    Also recommend you not refer to Wyatt Earp as a “gunslinger” in his hearing, were you about at the relevant time.
    1. What’s he doing with that gun if not slinging it? I don’t think you have to sling a gun for dastardly purposes necessarily.
       1. It is/was a socially unacceptable description, V … like – well, you can think of lots of other potentially accurate but nonetheless impolite nomenclotures, I’m sure 🙂
          1. Verlaine is quite correct: a gunslinger is someone who is simply quick on the draw, and nothing more. Thus not impolite.
             Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday we’re indeed quick on the draw — ‘OK’! On line he is described by ‘Britannica’ as a ‘Gunslinger’🥨🥨
18. Almost 18 minutes, so not so tricky for a Friday.
    My charity was behind setting up a construction skills training centre for YESHIVA bochurs in Stamford Hill, which earned the headline “Black hats to hard hats” in the Jewish Chronicle. For me, therefore, hardly an NHO!
    I did like “soon to be leading” once I got it, though ELECTRA was eminently biffable.
    I missed the obvious US capital = money for BUCK, somehow satisfied that BUCK meant the “jolly good” version of capital(!) in American. Probably thinking of buck private, whereof course it means the exact opposite.
19. Not a Friday Beast, but it had its moments. Like others, took a while to assemble YESHIVA, which, once constructed, rang at least the faintest of bells. Also made sure I was satisfied with my parsing of LEAVING, which took a lot more time than biffing the answer did in the first instance.
20. A 44 minute DNF. Might have seen it on a good day but missed YESHIVA, despite knowing the word. Deserved those pink squares for bungling 2d. How does CATHARTIC = ‘bungled’?

    I liked the not so simple LEAVING and SPARE TYRE.

    1. “bungled” is the anagrind for (most of) CHARITY.
21. No major challenges. Wanted Russian food beginning with B to be borscht and for a moment pondered a shorter spelling, but luckily couldn’t find one. LOIs Leaving and Grand. Leaving had a great clue. Grand, not so much.
22. ….due to the NHO YESHIVA, which stopped me from getting BLINI. Thanks to V for the parsing of LEAVING, which I didn’t enter. Not submitted after about 12 pre-capitulation minutes.
23. I wasn’t very comfortable with BUCKTEETH, which was given as ‘(9)’, and I was thinking (wrongly, perhaps) that if it had been the definition then it would have said ‘(4,5)’, so shrugged and assumed it was the wordplay and that there was some prominent US capital force called the buckteeth. 36 minutes, although there was some mild looking in lists at the end and they were silly really (couldn’t think of a 5-letter word for footwear with a T in it, pathetic), and couldn’t remember the faith school — yashiva? Then how does one explain the first a?
    1. It’s yEshiva wilransome, E being east. I didn’t get it either.
    2. Yash queen, as the younger generation might say at this point, for reasons still a little obscure to me,
24. Settled in for a good Friday workout, and now have time on my hands. It was a toss up between YASMINA and YESHIDA, until I realised the latter was actually YESHIVA. LOI GRAND. MER on the definition.
25. A little easier than average, particularly for a Friday, but the clue for LEAVING was delightfully misleading – excellent work.

    YESHIVA was my LOI, an unknown put together from wordplay. I also didn’t expect to see BUCKTEETH as a single word, but I see that it is – live and learn.

    I shared Verlaine’s concerns on GRAND, but thought of the Grand Tour and assumed that it was probably fairly comprehensive.

    7m 02s

26. Took about 9 minutes to actually write in my first answer — rankled by pink square in the QC — been getting a few of those lately — so not on the wavelength for a while.

    Once I’d started, progress was reasonably swift — NHO YESHIVA so that was a bit of a punt, LOI LEAVING — hadn’t managed to parse LIBRARIAN and was unsure of GRAND so though I had all of the other checkers, I wasn’t 100% sure that fifth letter was I. Failed to parse in the end, so pencilled in and smote the ‘submit’.

    Edited at 2021-10-29 11:02 am (UTC)

27. Struggled to get going fast on this, held up by YESHIVA and SPARE TYRE intersection and too long pondering OLD BAILEY and (the excellently deceptive) LEAVING. So definitely one up to setter, for whom thanks and to blogger who zipped through it all despite being jetlagged. One day …
28. I had all the GK, and was only slowed down once when Orestes came to mind before his sister did. He comes close enough to parsing to have been worth a little thought, but fortunately for my solve he seemed just a little too abstract for the rest of the vocabulary in this grid and I decided to wait on a couple crossers. Thanks Verlaine, setter, ed
29. Couldn’t think of the god or the faith school, other than some false etymology based on ASHRAM, so YASHIMA, with the rather desperate hope that an ashima might turn out to be an ashram for girls. As is now widely known, it didn’t. 19:30 up to that point, FWIW.
30. 20.23. This was generally plain sailing though the faith school had to be worked out. Came here to see if I was missing something in the clue for grand. It appears not. I couldn’t see how force meant teeth when solving but I guess it’s in the sense that a regulatory body or authority might be said to have teeth. The soon to be bit of Electra and the contortions involved in leaving were pretty good.
31. Like others, LOI yeshiva, not known, used aid. Otherwise nice challenge from FOI degas. Grand had me puzzled. Circa 30 mins but a technical DNF. Thank you all.
32. Another of those ‘easy until it was impossible’ puzzles. Many clues which were surprisingly (disappointingly?) easy for a Friday. Agree with the MERs previously noted.
    Failed with yeshiva which seemed harsh to me. Never heard of the school and there are many gods to choose from. Tried yasmina, possibly because my daughter spent a year in a (non-faith) school in Abu Dhabi called Al Yasmina.
    Also failed with 25ac which was very clever. Opted for ‘leading’ but had no idea how the clue worked until I came here. COD.
    Thanks to Verlaine and setter.
33. Synonyms for grand:-compleat, complete, comprehensive, entire, full, intact, integral, perfect, plenary, total, whole. Merriam Webster.
    COD 19ac STAPLE GUN – it depends what sort of office does it not? Essential in the office of a Criminal Investigation Centre (CIC) for nailing suspects to the wall – in the line of duty etc. Time: 11.22

    On edit: at 25ac I immediately noted the first word ‘Going’ and realised the rest of the clue was simply chaff. Nicely misleading for neophytes.

    Edited at 2021-10-29 02:56 pm (UTC)

    1. Same here – but I was thinking of horse racing and the ‘going’ – hard, soft, heavy etc and went off course! Horses for courses.
       A. Neophyte
       1. What a splendid idea from Mr. Neophyte

          In their preview of the 15×15, each blogger could enter their forecast as per ‘The Going’ for the day.

          ie Soft – Easy – Moderate – Firm – Heavy

          Then we would be able see how accurately their assessment lines-up with Mr. Snitch.

          Then Professor Starsruck would be able rate the bloggers – what fun!

          Edited at 2021-10-29 03:33 pm (UTC)

    2. And I was thinking that, if I were a thoughtful schoolteacher (as in some comments above), the exact last thing I’d have in my classroom would be a staple gun — for exactly the reason you suggest (though replace ‘perps’ with ‘pals’)
       1. Thanks to the fine Aronofsky movie “The Wrestler” I now mostly associate staple guns with the wrestling ring. OUCH!
34. Finished but DNF. Did not get leaving. Had to look up Yeshiva. FOI Old Bailey, having had the Star Chamber yesterday. Misspelt Electra. K for c. Otherwise quite pleased with self. Husband supplied the librarian, which opened up the SE for me. We reached for the staple gun together but in our offices we only ever had staplers except maybe for borrowing a staple gun from the workshop for putting up notices. COD Earp hones.Did not parse buckteeth, Electra, leaving, visor, blini, librarian or adept, all got from definitions alone. Thanks, V, for the blog explaining all this, and setter for hours and hours of entertainment for two.

    Edited at 2021-10-29 06:15 pm (UTC)

35. Did not like the double “one’s”.
    Thought “leaving” was very neat. Let’s hope we get plenty of runs through/over the leg side tomorrow.
36. Despite my 48 minute solving time, this didn’t feel so hard, but my brain felt as if it was tacked down with a STAPLE GUN. I spent perhaps 20 minutes staring at the SW corner until I finally saw OLD BAILEY, then quickly followed by AUTOGRAPH, LIBRARIAN, GRAND and LEAVING, which is certainly the COD with its “on” = LEG. Nice puzzle, but a bit strange for a Friday.

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