Times 28180 – FUN

69 comments on “Times 28180 – FUN”

1. Yes, straightforward for me too, as I knew most of the vocab and could guess the rest (CLAPPER BRIDGE, SNAPPER). Once I remembered the crossword person was Arthur someone, the rest was fairly easy.

   A nice puzzle, however, and thanks, George, for the blog.

   Edited at 2022-01-06 05:18 am (UTC)

2. Not knowing either SNAPPER or CLAPPER (bridge) slowed me down some. DNK PEPPERCORN. Also NHO ARTHUR WYNNE, but with a few well-placed checkers in, it was easy enough. Some of the clues were too easy, barely QC material: ARM, ROT, SCOOP.
3. 38 minutes for all but 26 which I looked up with some difficulty as, given the checkers and the left-over C with only one place to go, there were many possible answers to work through according to the placement of the remaining 3 vowels. After a couple of stabs at it using Collins I gave up and tried the Chambers letter jumbler to unravel it, but that was no help as Chambers doesn’t have the word either. I eventually found the answer using Crossword Clue Solver. It turns out the word is in the Oxford dictionaries and it’s either of Greek origin or derived from a word that is. I wish setters would stop cluing words like this as anagrams, or the editor would step in and stop them doing so.

   Elsewhere the unknown PONIARD was clued fairly and SNAPPER as a baby was a reasonable guess although I didn’t know it or had forgotten it. ANNEAL(ER) came up only yesterday otherwise that would have been another unknown but gettable from wordplay. ARTHUR WYNNE was unknown to me too but was fairly clued as an anagram because once the checkers were in place as A?T?U? had to be ARTHUR and W?N?E with Y and N left over could only be WYNNE.

   Edited at 2022-01-06 07:25 am (UTC)

   1. ET (38:17) and thoughts almost identical to the above, except that I took a stab at ESCHATON and got it right – maybe the word was somewhere deep in my subconcious memory, or maybe that arrangement just seemed the most credibly “wordy” to me.

      Orderly solve, reasonable time, very happy to get the right outcome – thanks George and setter.

   2. A reasonably educated person, even with no Greek, should be familiar with the subject of eschatology. It’s no great leap to eschaton.
      1. I note you post anonymously. Please define a reasonably educated person.
         1. Please do something about these Anonymous posts – you need to!
            1. Many of our regular contributors, including myself, started out as anons. That’s one of the ways in which we draw in new blood. Their postings, along with those of named contributors, are still subject to moderation according to their content.
   3. Well, I went with Ascheton rather than Eschaton — so, according to Anon, I am either not reasonably educated or unreasonably educated.
4. Not so straightforward for me. Fell at the last by guessing the A and the E in the wrong order for ESCHATON so a 44 minute DNF. Learnt about a CLAPPER BRIDGE and ARTHUR WYNNE so a couple of positives out of the failure.
5. Just over 30 mins for me. Didn’t know CLAPPER BRIDGE nor the Dublin bit of SNAPPER. I had no idea about ARTHUR WYNNE but pieced it together from the letters, as was ESCHATON which I’d never heard of and seemed unlikely as a word (and, as others, I looked it up afterward in Chambers who doesn’t consider it a word either!). PONIARD was another I either didn’t know or had long forgotten. It all seemed fair escept, perhaps, ESCHATON since other letter orderings are available.
6. With a still, mysterious Stealth.

   25 mins pre-brekker to leave the OWAA! (Obscure word as anagram).
   As Sawbill said when we had another a few weeks back, “Pick a vowel, any vowel.”
   Thanks setter and G.

7. Like others I had never heard of ARTHUR WYNNE. I had heard of PONIARD and eschatology so ESCHATON as an anagram was straightforward.
   The one I didn’t like was SNAPPER because I think it’s a bit much to have to descend to the depths of Collins Online meaning #6 to provide a crossword clue.
   FOI: ARM (I agree with Kevin about ARM, ROT and SCOOP)
   LOI: PEPPERCORN/PREPAREDNESS
   COD: WINDOWDRESSER.
8. 12:19 but 1 wrong – ASCHETON guessed for 26A, picking the wrong vowel. Aaarggh! CLAPPER BRIDGE and ARTHUR WYNNE also unknown but derived from wordplay. Thanks George and setter.
9. CLAPPER and SNAPPER gave me some pause. As for ESCHATON, I was a little surprised to see it (it isn’t even allowed in Scrabble), but it went in immediately – doing a smattering of Greek at university may have helped, or also being married to a former Anglican priest. Anglican priests do sometimes discuss The Eschaton over dinner.
10. 38 minutes with LOI PONIARD, constructed but needing all crossers. I got the ESCHATON early on, despite its meaning and it being the last one across. COD to WINDOW-DRESSER. I had trouble seeing elicit as meaning prompt, until I thought of prompting a reaction. I found this tough in the middle, but I started and ended well. Thank you George and setter.
11. 45 mins but technically a DNF as others, 26 ac doing for me. All has been said, I will just add my pet gripe that ESCHATON was not only an anag but an unch starter too. Yuk. I have learnt the name of the initiator of the modern crossword though and I did like T’ RUM PETER.

    Thanks G and setter.

12. 13:52. I found this pretty chewy but didn’t get particularly stuck at any point.
    I’m not sure about ESCHATON. It’s an obscure word clued by an anagram but unlike TENREC it’s deducible from ‘eschatology’, which ought to be a more familiar word. Mind you I’m no doubt only saying that because that’s how I convinced myself it must be right, without remembering what ‘eschatology’ means.
13. A quick 31 minutes for me. Just as well, given how late I got up; I really must get my body clock back to normal following this holiday… ESCHATON no problem for anyone who’s read The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which starts with the line “It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton.”

    Wynne seemed to go in quite easily, but while he didn’t seem familiar I have read a couple of books on how to solve crosswords which probably started with a history lesson. Oddly, my LOI was 1a FLAGSHIP.

14. Found this easy despite several unknown words:

    ESCHATON – despite having read The Illuminatus books (a long tine ago)
    PONIARD – I thought it had a “Y” in it somewhere
    CLAPPER BRIDGE
    ARTHUR WYNNE – but what else could the anagram give

    But no problem with SNAPPER (I remembered The Snapper by Roddy Doyle of Commitments fame)

    Thanks setter and G

15. I too got ESCHATON from eschatology, and ARTHUR WYNNE couldn’t be much else. I taught about the CLAPPER BRIDGE on my first teaching practice in 1977, nice to be reminded. Have I been spelling LAMBAST(E) wrongly all my life?

    I have earwax adverts back 🙁

    16′ 06″, thanks george and setter.

16. 19.06, with SNAPPER my last in after FLAGSHIP because by then there wasn’t another word that would do for photographer and the baby could stay home alone in Dublin for all I knew. I still half expected a pink. Is it connected to whippersnapper?
    In my Theology days in Bristol we rarely talked of anything but the ESCHATON, but thought we were being terribly esoteric and sophisticated and I was surprised to find it turning up here. Like thief in the night?
    The ARTHUR WYNNE clue was interesting, constructed from wordplay, but with the answer in place I could convince myself that I knew who he was.
    Thanks for the blog, George: I would have foundered on the baby snapper, since it’s not in Chambers.

17. I’m guessing that glheard referred titled the blog with reference to the graphic novel by Paulo Bacilieri, which is where I first learned about

18. Quiet work day so a morning solve, and it seems to help because the brain was firing nicely. Several words (and a name) that I didn’t know were easy to work out. Dublin child could have been Chiseller (had it fitted), but as centralline says it was Roddy Doyle that helped. 4 down was a bear trap. That letter combo permits of several answers. I stopped myself before bunging in Interjection (I think my brain was making a link with object – objection). Didn’t we have anneal a day or to ago?
19. Today a tribute to Liverpudlian Arthur Wynne, who begat the world’s very first crossword in the ‘New York World’, 21 December 1913. As per my latest avatar, here on the World’s latest crossword from ‘The Times’ of London. Arthur who lives ever on, is my COD and WOD. Time 9:14 mins.
20. FOI 9A LAMBASTE
    LOI 19D STEALTH

    Apologies for my earlier (anonymous) comment – now logged in!

    I presume that the blog was titled FUN with reference to Paulo Bacilieri’s graphic novel, from which I first learned about Arthur Wynne? Otherwise, I guessed at ESCHATON based on eschatology, and knew of PONIARD from the French (poignard). An enjoyable solve.

    Thanks to glheard and the setter.

    1. FUN was the insert in the New York World where the first crossword puzzle appeared. The grid had the word FUN already entered.
21. I bunged in pennard where poniard belonged. I miseread work as worker and consequently couldn’t parse an answer that fitted.

22. As did others I got ESCHATON from eschatology although I don’t really know what it means and it looks and sounds a bit like another sort of -ology which is something else altogether. PONIARD is the sort of word Athos or Porthos might use – I will impale thee on my trusty poniard thou lily-livered poltroon. 22.17
23. Was going along quite well, but slowed towards the end, 50 minutes: there were several answers that held me up — eschaton (of course, never heard of it, could have been anything because I didn’t know what eschatology was — obscurity-as-anagram, dreadful, why doesn’t the editor stop this?), snapper as baby, clapper bridge, felicitate, poniard.
    1. Is there an editor?

       Edited at 2022-01-07 01:03 am (UTC)

24. 29:37. I had gone for ASCHETON for 26ac but checked before submitting and switched to second choice ESCHATON. I know it’s not allowed, but how else? I don’t feel guilty at all. I’m counting it as my third sub thirty minute solve this week
25. 34 minutes. I thought this was going to be much like the Tuesday and Wednesday puzzles,with a lot of easy clues, but a handful slowed me down, adding 11 minutes to yesterday’s time. I didn’t write in SNAPPER immediately because I was puzzled by the Irish reference. CLAPPER, FELICITATE, PEPPERCORN and ESCHATON took me ages to get. I didn’t know the last, but it looked the most likely arrangement of the anagram fodder.
26. 25 mins
    No problem with eschaton, but nonetheless, there it is again: an obscurity clued by an anagram.
    Thanks, g.
27. Lots of memories triggered by today’s words. The film version of The Snapper was pretty well received, as I recall, and starred a lot of well-known Irish talent. And I’d love to say my first thought of ESCHATON was back to studying Greek, but in fact I was ear-wormed by a track from early 90s electronic music mischief-makers The Shamen, called Destination Eschaton, such are my reliably low-brow instincts. And, as always, unable to shake the nagging feeling that LAMBAST doesn’t need an extra E. Enjoyable, anyway.
    1. Reliably low-brow your tastes may be, but that’s exactly where I knew eschaton from (I trawled the blog really just to see if anyone would make the reference). Anyway, one of Verlaine’s old blog titles name-checked Ebeneezer Goode, so we’re in good company.
       — Rupert
28. Hello everyone.
    Not sure I’ve posted a comment before, although I found the blog during the first lockdown and have found it both enjoyable and illuminating, for which many thanks all!
    I found today’s, rather like others posting comments, something of a mixed bag – some pretty straightforward (like ARM) and others a bit of a guess. I remembered that the chap who invented the crossword (in the New York Times, is that right?) was called Wynne, so getting to Arthur was fairly easy. Eschaton was my most fingers-crossed entry. WOD to ‘poniard’, reminding me of Much Ado About Nothing from schooldays (‘she speaks poniards and every word stabs’).
    Something of a red-letter day for me overall, though. Pleasing to get a fairly quick time, especially after a couple of poor days, astonishing to have completed both standard and QC today more quickly than the esteemed Verlaine! I’m not sure that’s ever happened before and I shan’t be holding my breath for it to happen again. He must have had an off day…
    Happy New Year to all!
    Mark
    1. Hi, Mark. I just noticed your post so here’s a belated Welcome. I hope you will contribute regularly in future.
       1. Thanks, Jack!
29. I started with ARM and SNAPPER(another derivation of ankle biter I presume), then APATHY set in and I found it a bit TAXING, before SCOOPing a few answers in the SE. Irritation set in as it became obvious that 26a was another OWCA, and I postulated ESCHATON as the probable arrangement, and had no scruples about using an INTERVENTION and typing it into Google, where The End Of The World was revealed. The checkers were conveniently placed for me to derive the unknown crossword compiler, WINDOW DRESSER providing the required W for the anagrist, where I’d come up short with RY for the abbreviation. I finished off back in the NW where FELICITATE and FLAGSHIP were last 2 in. 21:52. Thanks setter and George.
30. AI raised a wry smile for Eschaton as a nod to the book (as glheard points out) from which my username is (at least partly) derived.

    Enjoyed today’s puzzle, thanks!

    Edited at 2022-01-06 12:58 pm (UTC)

31. Gave up at about 48 minutes with 1 ac uncompleted. Just couldn’t see it. Partly because I didn’t trust snapper to be right as I had no idea what it could have to do with a baby in Dublin. Nor had I ever heard of a clapper bridge. I didn’t know whether it was a type of crossing or game! NHO Arthur Wynne but the anagram was straightforward. Not heard the word eschaton but knew eschatology as the study of the last things so that was reasonable.

    A general point about timings. Is it a general law that it is impossible to imagine being able to complete puzzles in times significantly different (how significantly?) from one’s own regular times? For instance, I am pleased with a 35 minute finish and have managed to finish once under 30 minutes. Last evening, after everyone had gone to bed, I idly picked up yesterday’s QC. My daughter (aged 24)who is with us at the moment, grapples with the QC each day with me often helping with the last few so I had already seen about a third of the clues. I was completing it online which is quicker. It took me 8 minutes. Our esteemed blogger today completed the 15×15 in 7:03. I can’t read it in that time. My hypothesis is that a time of half of one’s average finishing time is imaginable and (possibly) a target to aim for. Beyond that is brain scrambling territory.

    Thanks setter and blogger

    1. Yes, I find I can not compute the clues and write them in quickly enough — guess it’s just lots of practice, learning of a great deal of new words as well as a wide-ranging general knowledge. I’ve been ‘doing’ the Times 15×15 for around four years now, and my times have definitely improved.

       One lucky day when nearly all of the answers went straight in on the first pass, I did manage just over 10 minutes, but my average according to the Snitch pages is over 32 mins — and today for instance, if I had heard of a couple of the previously unknown words, I might have finished a good deal more quickly — hopefully I’ll recall those words easily if they ever should come back around.

       I find the Snitch very useful in giving me a target to aim for each day — my formula is simply that starting with a Snitch of 50 equalling 15 minutes, every 10 on the Snitch adds 5 minutes i.e. 60 = 20 mins; 70 = 25 mins; 80 = 30 mins etc. Knowing the Snitch value before starting the crossword encourages me to try and beat the target time and also encourages me if I am finding the crossword particularly tough, that I am not alone.

       Depending on your perceived level, you may choose different target values.

       Having said that, I do also recognise the value of taking things more slowly and maybe greater enjoyment through unravelling the parsing of all of the clues.

       1. Thanks for the snitch idea. I haven’t engaged with the snitch yet (only having the vaguest idea of what it is or where to find it) mainly because, if the crossword takes an hour to complete, one has to get on with other things in the day! As my times have regularly reduced, I will take a look at it.
    2. If I could complete Times 15×15 puzzles in 5 or 6 minutes every day I’d give them up and find puzzles more challenging to occupy my mind.
       1. I agree totally. I was going to come onto this as my next comment. When I finish the QC in under 15 minutes it is only mildly enjoyable because it is so easy. I’m not sure where the pleasure would lie in finishing the 15×15 in under 10 minutes. Doesn’t it get boring?
    3. When I first discovered this blog I was not able to regularly finish the puzzle (the archives of 2007 show most of my comments being “I couldn’t get this clue”). When I started blogging my goal was to finish under 20 minutes, now I try for under 12.

       I’m a bit of an obsessive with things I like, so most nights I try to complete the Times, Quick, Guardian and Independent in an hour (they all become available at roughly 7pm on the East coast of the USA).

       1. Just thinking about your nightly schedule makes me want to lie down!
32. 16.12. A nice quick solve. DNK the Dublin baby and I don’t think I’d heard of a clapper bridge before but they weren’t too difficult to deduce. A short pause at the end over eschaton working out where the vowels went, was tempted by ascheton but fortunately tried a couple of other arrangements and eschaton called to mind eschatology, giving me a degree of certainty that I had found the correct solution.
33. A bit plodding after a quick start. If I couldn’t have looked it up, I suppose ESCHATON was the only possibility, but yet another unknown as an anagram. They’re coming thick and fast.
34. Pleased to get inside my target time (36 mins for a Snitch of 92) by just one second, though I did check on ESCHATON (three vowels randomly placed in an unknown word) and PONIARD as actually being things, and the NHO crossword inventor as actually being someone.

    Less certain about the type of bridge and the baby in Dublin, but helped by crossing answers.

35. On the wavelength today, done in 5m 24s, helped by the unknowns being all very fairly clued.

    After I realised that ‘RY’ wasn’t going to be a long enough abbreviation to get the inventor of the crossword, I went for RLY to get Arthur Lynne – fortunately the first letter of the surname was a checked cell, otherwise I would have ended up with that answer, but WINDOW DRESSING set me straight (even if I thought that was probably the weakest clue of a generally very good bunch).

36. 13:27, which is about maximum speed for me. ESCHATON from the more familiar ology, ARTHUR WYNNE vaguely familiar after unscrambling the Arthur bit, PONIARD which I would have spelled poynard (somewhere in Shakespeare?) and LAMBASTE which I cannot remember ever having been called on to spell but if I had been would have omitted the e (and by the same token have probably been mispronouncing all these years).

    Edited at 2022-01-06 01:52 pm (UTC)

37. 20.11 with a couple of reasonable guesses for Arthur Wynne ( who he?) and eschaton- NHO. Hadn’t heard of the Dublin term for a baby either.

    Still, a very enjoyable challenge with plenty to like. My COD probably felicitate just ahead of flagship.

    Anneal reference twice in a row. Can there possibly be a hat trick tomorrow?

38. After 3:16 for QC, thought I had a shot at my grail of 10min double. But held up too often here, not knowing of CLAPPER bridges, and wondering too long over ESCHATON as opposed to ASCHETON. PONIARD thankfully very accessible from wdp, which swayed from rather inspired to the lacklustre pair of “hiddens” of ARM and ROT; surely not the best choice of clue type for very short words? ARTHUR WYNNE I recalled as Mr Magoo splendidly commemorated his first puzzle in one of his Magpie constructions … anyhow, thanks to blogger and setter.
39. An hour’s entertainment for me, not completely alone, with husband providing Key Largo as LOI. It has all been said, I have nothing new to add. Did not see elicit, intention, redness, NHO Arthur Wynne, poniard or eschaton. Needed to check and correct these last three on the grid, which makes it a technical DNF. Nevertheless I am delighted to have got as far as I did with this. Thanks, G, and setter. P.S. I am unable to “like” any comments again today but there are several I would if I could.

    Edited at 2022-01-06 03:27 pm (UTC)

40. Quite enjoyed this one, though with the same thoughts as many above regarding ESCHATON, which I got by luck. NHO PONIARD, but the wordplay was generous. A bit of eyebrow elevation for FLAGSHIP, for which the definition is, in my view, a bit loose. But I’m on a (forward) roll this week after two weeks in which few Times puzzles yielded to my efforts so that I had to turn to The Guardian for solace.
41. I thought I had posted early in the day – but it appears to have disappeared! Recap:
    COD 17ac TRUMPETER & WOD 23ac ‘KEY LARGO’.

    I was simply scuppered by my LOI ASCHETON, as I judged that ‘E SCHAT ON’ to be tad vulgar – with foul-bowel-vowel play intended. Not thrilled with some of today’s cluing – 20ac WINDOW DRESSING ain’t just about mannequins! Is 1ac FLAGSHIP the best – or rather prime – does size enter into it? SNAPPER was fine as a photographer, but I could not imagine Terry Donovan as a baby. CLAPPER BRIDGE left me cold. Like Steve Bannon, I thought this puzzle self-consciously unreasonable. Mood Meldrewvian.

    1. How do you know what Steve Bannon thinks?
       1. Guy, You obviously missed his filmed statement yesterday; this is a quote!i

          Edited at 2022-01-07 01:08 am (UTC)

          1. Well, he never comments here, so I didn’t realize he had been lurking.
             Amazing that he talks about the puzzle on TV!
42. ….having NHO of ESCHATON, and being unable to parse KEY LARGO or ARTHUR WYNNE. I’ve never seen ‘rwy’ as an abbreviation of railway, and thoroughly sympathise with anybody who entered ‘Arthur Lynne’, then couldn’t make sense of 20A.

    Not a great puzzle in my book, but I had a positive SNITCH, and was quicker than Verlaine, so that’ll do me.

    1. I had Arthur Lynne for a while.
43. Even with the various DNKs.

    13:11

44. A late flourish at the end finishing with ESCHATON; unknown but the combination of letters seemed OK; PONIARD similar.
    Good job I learned ANNEAL yesterday.
    I think Key Largo is the one Florida Key I have been to.
    David
45. This was very easy, too easy in spots (half of ROThko, for example), despite many of the same unknowns as most other solvers (SNAPPER as a baby, CLAPPER BRIDGE and ESCHATON, for which with the S, H and T already in no other anagram made any sense). Too many things you could biff (TRICERATOPS without even looking at the clue) and too many you couldn’t really solve if you didn’t know them, like ARTHUR WYNNE (I did know him, from preparing for a talk on cryptic crosswords presented to German retired professors at my university 6 years ago). And too many repeats from recent puzzles (ANNEAL, SCOOP). Not a puzzle I really liked.

    Edited at 2022-01-06 06:40 pm (UTC)

    1. Beg to differ. I think this is a name that could be guessed fairly easily from the wordplay, at least with all the crossers in place.
46. LOI PEPPERCORN, had to guess at the definition. POI ESCHATON, which I couldn’t see coming, WOD. CLAPPER BRIDGE NHO. SNAPPER was also a guess. But no problems! Great fun indeed.

    Lo, ESCHATON is in Lexico, at least.
    https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/eschaton

    Edited at 2022-01-06 07:21 pm (UTC)

47. All but three in 20 or so but just couldn’t get Mr Wynne wrestled to the ground which caused hold ups to ANNEAL and the NHO PONNIARD

    On the ANNEAL clue, it’s probably just me but isnt ANNE pursuing AL not the other way round? Not the first time a pursuit has foxed me so possibly a blind spot

    No problems with ESCHATON — thank you Greek O-Level (again)

    Generally I liked it

    Thanks George and setter

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