Times 29185 – O Mountain, My Mountain!

81 comments on “Times 29185 – O Mountain, My Mountain!”

1. Smoked it in 12:52. A personal best by a mile, this is better than my average QC time.

   The parsings are missing
   for 17 is CHE (revolutionary) +V + {w}RON{g} [after shelling]
   16: GANG (group) + PLAN (develop) + K (core?)

   Ah, thanks Amoeba (below). PLANK= develop the core, as gym aficionados know.

   1. 🔥

   2. Congratulations!

   3. Happy and great start to the week! 🥳

2. A little under half an hour, with ASTROBIOLOGY last to fall, oddly. I initially looked at the anagram fodder and came up with BIOASTROLOGY, which seemed like it would be the opposite of a science. As a result I started from the OLOGY and ended up working right-to-left.

   The mountain shouldn’t be a problem for anyone who’s been using Macs for a while; Apple started naming their OS releases after California landmarks back in 2013, and 2015’s OS X 10.11 was named EL CAPITAN. Perhaps we should expect to see BIG SUR or MAVERICKS in the future!

   1. Bioastrology could be the study of how biological processes are affected by the zodiac. Such as always pick your asparagus when the moon is in Pisces. There’s a research grant waiting for someone.

      1. This already exists – it’s called biodynamics!

         1. That reminds me, whatever happened to biorhythms?

3. Two currently parsings missing above . I have CHE (revolutionary), V (very), {w}RON{g} [after shelling] at 17dn, and GANG (group), PLAN (develop) at 15dn but I am unable to account for K or ‘core’.

   [Edit] Sorry, Merlin, your explanations were not there when I first looked and was composing my posting.

   As for my solve, my time was 32 minutes with the last 7 of these spent on the NHO EL CAPITAN. I had been distracted wondering whether the long dash might be clueing EM.

   1. To PLANK is to develop your core (it’s a particular type of exercise).

      1. Ah, many thanks. Got it now. ODE mentions that core work sessions usually include lunges, planks, and squats.

         1. That’s interesting – of those, only the plank specifically targets the core, although it’s presumably recruited to a degree in the others.

   2. I found this re gangplank:

      “The term “gangplank onboarding” refers to the metaphorical use of “onboarding” as a process of welcoming and integrating new employees, drawing parallels to the act of boarding a ship via a gangplank.”

      I suppose it suits the use of the word ‘tool’ in the clue.

4. 7:50. Have to agree with our esteemed blogger as my equines were equally equanimous.

   Thought BREWSKI and PANDA were pretty good. Grateful that others such as EL CAPITAN were generously clued.

   Thanks setter and U.

5. 40 mins, LOI POT SHOT, after the unknown EL CAPITAN showed itself. Otherwise a steady top to bottom solve.

   I liked PARTY ANIMALS.

   Thanks U and setter.

6. 8:08. Steady solve, no major hold-ups, no unknowns. A brief pause at the end as GANGPLANK took a while to occur to me and then I spent a bit of time failing to parse it. I thought ‘develop’ was giving PLAN so ‘core’ for K was a bit of a mystery. Thanks Amoeba for that one.

7. That PANDA was beautiful!

   1. Can only second that. Our COD without competition.

   2. Clearly inspired by ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’.

8. A gentle 22 min start to the week. A bit too American but all kindly clued and now I know what planking is.
   I liked the definitions in PANDA and the Do Lovers.

9. 12.41 which I think should have been faster. Not quite as easy as last Monday but near enough. Benefitted from having seen El Capitan. Only puzzle was brewski which was new to me but not too onerous.

   Thx setter and blogger.

10. Oh dear, this would have been a 2nd best time but for putting TARDY instead of TARRY. I am a bit gutted as 1 or 2 extra seconds of thought and it would have been straight out.

    I knew this was going to be a fast time when the very helpful ACE IN THE HOLE fell immediately. LOI GANGPLANK which I totally misparsed as GANG (group) + PLANK (tool/ stupid person) with ‘develop core’ asking me to do something I didn’t understand. I would probably be the last person you would see performing a plank so it’s slightly understandable I didn’t get it.

    Liked: ARSENAL and TENANCY

    Thanks blogger (and fellow posters) for the parsings I didn’t fully get.

11. Struggled with 2D as was convinced it was a French city formed of a 5 letter word for residence inside T-E, also got fixated on 6D being Gold something

    1. Yep, me too…

12. 14:53
    No real problems and rather gentle fare to start the week. In hindsight I think I should have been a fair bit quicker but don’t we always think that?

    Thanks to both.

13. Completed this with only minimal use of aids. Part parsed and biffed nho BREWSKI. Can’t find references to it (except as a bar).
    Some other American new terms for me: ACE IN THE HOLE, EL CAPITAN.

    Loved PANDA. Definitely my COD.
    Thanks for blog. Helped me make sense of my biffed answers.

14. 6:32. I thought I was doing the QC. Thanks Ulaca and setter.

15. Around 40 minutes including taking 10 minutes to get started with the first answers. I essentially got the majority out in under 30 minutes which is very fast for me. Knew EL CAPITAN from watching films of it being climbed. For 1ac a science name of that length has to be an -OLOGY which made LAMBADA and GILL NET fall out quickly. After INGOT gave -IOLOGY I saw the anagram and with half the letters known.
    Thanks U

16. Just over 10 minutes.

    – Haven’t heard of EL CAPITAN but the cluing and the checkers got me there
    – Took it on trust that BORON has the atomic number 5
    – Tried to justify OPEN-AIR for 21a before PANDA pointed me towards OPEN-TOP
    – Not familiar with GILL NET but again the cluing was kind
    – Like others, I misparsed GANGPLANK and couldn’t account for the K, so thanks for the explanation

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

    FOI Intense
    LOI Pot shot
    COD Panda

17. 9:0 dead for a gentle stroll. The mountain was unknown but couldn’t be anything else and like gothick I constructed 1a from right to left with the voice of Maureen Lipman in my head – ‘an ology? You get an ology and you’re a scientist!’

18. 20:42.

    I really enjoyed this but found it trickier than others.

    COD: EL CAPITAN.

19. 12’27”, with POT SHOT taking some time.

    I knew EL CAPITAN as it features in a Star Trek film, with Kirk climbing solo. Liked PANDA, reminded of the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

    Are we back to usual Mondays in both crosswords?

    Thanks ulaca and setter.

    1. You beat me to it (just!).

20. Had a go thanks to suggestion from QC blog and finished in 43.27, although needed to check if BREWSKI existed (NHO) and guessing GILL NET (not a fisherman) and EL CAPITAN, suddenly dredged from memory.

    1. Ditto your experience exactly. Great minds!

21. Anyone familiar with the cinematic original Star Trek oeuvres will recognise EL CAPITAN from the fifth. If not try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL1WqN1XKK0&t=77s.
    13.34 for this, with the “new life and new civilisations” study a late untangling. The “eats shoots and leaves” echo was much appreciated.

22. About 16′ for me which us very quick. Mostly write-ins and parsing later. I did know the mountain from the climbing film but I had to construct BREWSKI, which I didn’t know despite many evenings drinking in New York. Almost wrote-in “tardy”, but felt it didn’t quite fit. “Arsenal” clued from “second” is quite mean! Thanks Ulaca and setter.

23. I took 25 minutes, but since I used reveal for BRE_SKI because I knew it would be a word I didn’t know and I knew no two-letter equivalent of ‘that’s gross’ that doesn’t count. Most of it was very easy, but there were several words that gave trouble as well as BREWSKI: EL CAPITAN, GILL NET, PLANK in that sense, and the US sense of ‘in the hole’.

24. I was doing well until I came to EL CAPITAL, GANGPLANK and BREWSKI. Ended up taking 21 minutes. NHO EL CAPITAN and took a while to piece it together. Thought GANGPLANK was gang-plan-k and couldn’t work out how k was core. Finally, had BR-E?-SKI and took several minutes to reach W and cotton on.
    Thanks setter and blogger

25. 18:56
    Very fast for me.
    NHO BREWSKI but it had to be.
    COD to PANDA.

    Thanks Ulaca and setter

26. NHO GILL NET, BREWSKI, or EL CAPITAN, but all were credible biffs. The first thing I entered was “ology” (pace Maureen Lipman) and it was the last to fall.

    FOI GYMSLIP
    LOI ASTROBIOLOGY
    COD TENANCY
    TIME 8:10

27. POI 1a Astrobiology. Wiktionary says this is study of life anywhere in the universe, including Earth. As we only know anything at all about terrestrial life the word is clearly redundant. I will therefore eschew its use. Put that in your pipe then!
    16a El Capitan was in Cheating machine so probably has come up before. I would say it was well-known, but then I have been to Yosemite. I wasn’t so stupid as to try to climb it, but did amble up the other side of the valley which has a good path.
    15d Gangplank. It looks like I biffed this as I had no idea about any exercise nor the abdomen.
    NHO 19d Brewski and was briefly tempted by breUski, but W seems much more likely.
    22d Panda; reminded me of the punctuation book; Eats, shoots and leaves. Dine & dash. (As RobR has already said.)
    Thanks blogger and setter.

28. 11.43

    Mildly surprised EL CAPITAN not more known but one’s person knowledge and all that. GILL NETs appear in Snow Falling on Cedars, otherwise that would have been (tbf an easy) guess. BREWSKI unknown but it had to be EW.

    PANDA was lovely

    What a difference in difficulty between this one and Friday’s. Hope William has recovered from having to blog that one.

    Thanks all

29. 25.52 a personal best by some margin.

30. Nice and easy, apart from agonising over BREWSKI for an age. At least no silly errors on this gentle Monday puzzle.
    Liked PARTY ANIMALS.
    I think ACE IN THE HOLE was an early Kirk Douglas film.
    Thanks to Ulaca and Setter

31. Apart from one freak sub-10 last year this was a PB for me, 12.15 knocking an entire second off my previous best effort. Never figured out EARTHEN, thanks Ulaca, and same NHOs as others but clueing was helpful. Enjoyable solve.

    From Can’t Wait (alternative version):
    Well my back is to the sun because the light is too INTENSE
    I can see what everybody in the world is up against
    That’s how it is, when things disintegrate
    And I don’t know, how much longer
    I can wait

32. A good Monday workout, but DNF, defeated by BREWSKI (NHO). A bit below the belt, that one.
    FOI 1 ac, LOI BORON, COD PANDA. Also liked BORON (well hidden), and PARTY ANIMALS.

33. 18:21
    Nice puzzle
    El Capitan caused a slight delay. The American element seems to be more noticeable these days. I really liked PARTY ANIMALS.

    Thanks to Ulaca and the setter

34. A gentle start to the week! Like others I started with -OLOGY. INGOT came next, but it was quite a while later, once I had all the crossers, that ASTROB arrived. BREWSKI and GANGPLANK were last 2 in. 12:34. Thanks setter and U.

35. 18:05 – gentle enough. Enjoyed GANGPLANK and a couple of others where extra effort was required to unmangle the word order.

36. 20:45

    Took me a while to bother to write out the remaining letters of 1a – had A______IOLOGY for a while until an impasse forced me to do so.

    Didn’t know the NY drink, heard of EL CAPITAN from Apple o/s updates – don’t use that expensive technology myself but get roped into upgrading it for everyone else in the house. Heard the term ACE IN THE HOLE before but no idea what it means.

    Thanks U and setter

37. After a fairly straightforward QC, I found this equally accommodating in terms of the solve. A smartish time of 26.37, but would have been quicker if I hadn’t deliberated for such a long time on ACE IN THE HOLE, where the solution came to me quickly enough but I wasn’t sure of the parsing. My LOI BREWSKI similarly held me up as I had problems parsing the EW part of it. Both words probably cost me four or five minutes as I sort other possible alternatives. Pleased of course in the end to find my first thoughts were right after all.

38. Following last Friday’s absolute nonsense, this was back to a normal , reasonable challenge .
    I see those horses remain not being scared- can we please put this expression to bed.

    1. I say we should halve his pay if he uses it again.

       1. Please don’t mention that, even in jest. Starmer will try to find a way of taxing it.

39. 24’40”
    Despite his jockey’s best efforts, miraculously failed to get boxed in.

    Seeing US peak, New York drink and a couple of others, I was convinced I’d get baulked at some point. I’m trying to think of a suggestion from our bioastrologist that would prompt a “ew”from me.
    A colleague once rebuked me with “These days any noun can be verbed!”; it seems that it’s true of adjectives too. I’d jump off any organization that tried to onboard me.
    Eats, Shoots & Leaves and The King’s English (K. Amis) both get a place in the suitcase when switching country; the latter is always a great way of starting a row in the common room on dull Wednesdays.
    Thank you Ulaca and well done setter; I’m always up for buying a brewski for being introduced to a new word fairly.

    1. Check out a replay of yesterday’s HK Derby. Best race in years.

40. Not too much trouble, except BREWSKI: I don’t speak much American at all, but I must have heard this at least once because it was lurking in the back of my mind.

    When it came to parsing it, BR was obvious, as was SKI – but EW for that’s gross? Does anyone actually say that and, if they do, is that how it’s spelt? It isn’t in the concise OED (I’ve just checked), but doubtless it can be found in some other dictionary (Collins probably) – I’m not convinced it should be.

    Apparently there are alternative spellings: “eew”, “eww” and “ewww”; it’s not really a word, is it……

41. 23 mins. LOI NHO BREWSKI, but EW was fairly recently added to the list of Scrabble words, so had to be. And, yes, eew is allowed as well!

42. A gentle 24:55 (yep, for me that’s good!) and much enjoyed. Didn’t see the hidden PANDA for ages (which is rather amusing for my little brain), and liked PARTY ANIMALS and the NHO-but-obvious BREWSKI.

    Thanks Ulaca and setter – nice job all round

43. 20 minutes. Very enjoyable puzzle. What others have said about Brewski, Gill Net and El Capitan.
    My COD to Party Animals – very neat.

44. 9.21, and I confidently predict this will be my best time this week. Got a laugh from PANDA. Biffed BREWSKI as I’d never heard of it. Is El Capitan a peak?

45. 22 minutes. Easy but fun Monday puzzle.

    I remembered BREWSKI from Clueless, my source for all ‘modern’ US slang.

46. 21:09 – It felt as though I should have rattled through this a lot more quickly – my brain’s been a bit fuzzy since Thursday. thank you for something gentler than Friday’s effort!

47. Late to this, as catching up with several puzzles after last week spent in Cape Town working.

    Slightly puzzle fatigued I think, but finished smartly enough, with a couple of face palms.

    LOI TENANCY.

    11:39

48. Thank you to those who flagged this in the QC blog as a, ‘give it a go’ 15 x 15.
    We don’t turn the clock on when in these hallowed halls, however, we finished, which for us is a first.
    NHO BREWSKI
    24 ac EARTHEN -(earn, the) homophone indicator? Is such not required in a 15×15?
    And El Capitan – he who scaled it with only experience, skill, nerve and presumably a modicum of luck – nutjob? Well, certainly different from most of us, yet the bell curve houses huge variation – and his exploit certainly made for edge of seat watching, regardless of whether the viewer knew the outcome. What a varied lot we humans are.
    Thank you setter and blogger.

    1. It isn’t a homophone. It’s the for article inside earn meaning bring home as in money.

       1. Oh, PDM!!.. of course ( now you wonder how we manage even the QC…). Clearly ‘article’ cannot be used twice…
          Hidden in plain sight.
          Thank you so much.

49. 17:31

    Enjoyed this very much. Unknowns for me (eg BREWSKI) but properly clued: ideal.

    Thanks both.

50. Put TARDY instead of TARRY which was a shame because this was very much more to my liking.
    FOI ASTROBIOLOGY
    LOI BREWSKI
    COD PANDA

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