Times 29215 – To be continued…..

92 comments on “Times 29215 – To be continued…..”

1. TWENTY is XX, two votes. My LOI.

   Port of Rio de Janeiro
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Rio_de_Janeiro
   It is the third-busiest port in Brazil…

   That DORMICE hibernate is seemingly indicated in their name, which is thought to possibly come (and looks as if it does) from Old (and still current) French dormir to sleep, from Latin dormīre + mouse.

2. 26 minutes. I agree with Guy about TWENTY. As usual I found both the cryptic defs hard to spot and solve. I didn’t know POSSES for ‘gangs of youths’ and my knowledge of the way of life of DORMICE is zero, making 11a more difficult than it should have been; thanks to Guy for the interesting etymology.

   The flag of Angola features a machete and a gear wheel; funnily enough I happened to see it in Wikipedia yesterday.

   Thanks to setter and Vinyl

   1. 27 minutes with LOI DORMICE. I first encountered posses in westerns at the Saturday morning flicks. “We’ll cut them off at the pass.” COD to MAKE DO. Thank you V and setter.

   2. I mostly complete these puzzles in something between 2 hours and 2 days.
      I struggled with ‘Two votes for this cardinal’ and finally came up with AYEAYE: 2 yeses or a primate.
      Even though nothing else fitted around it, my only alternative had been ‘twelve’, also wrong.
      Never mind, I keep trying

3. Sorry if this has been discussed — is anybody else’s leaderboard not appearing? Mine hasn’t been up since Saturday. Tried logging out and deleting cookies.

   1. I’ve never looked at that!

   2. Yes, same here.

   3. Nobody’s leaderboard is appearing; see the club forum for a bunch of inquiries, none of which has been responded to, since the problem arose during the weekend.

   4. Interesting that the SNITCH is somehow still pulling the leaderboard times.

      1. The Snitch also seems to have given us our April averages now.

         And my Quick Snitch average hasn’t updated since Jan, although I’m apparently not a reference solver there, which could be something to do with it.

         1. Sorry about that – I’ll have a look.

      2. The top 100 are showing for me. That’s how the SNITCH picks them up.

4. 16:45
   I couldn’t figure out 27ac, so thank you, Sandy. I no doubt would have got SIDON if only from the checkers, but it recently appeared here and was fresh in my memory. DORMICE took a while, although I think I knew of their hibernation; the dormouse at the Hatter’s tea party is on the verge of dropping off.

5. I wasn’t keen on the non-Menuhin, but otherwise anodyne. I’d thought that the Masons’ compass and square were prominent on some state or country flags, but it seems not. thanks vinyl

   1. I think the hammer and compass, along with a sheaf of wheat, were in the flag of the former East Germany, or as the right-wing German press used to call it “the so-called German Democratic Republic”.

      1. I’ve always been impressed by the Astrolabe on the flag of Portugal.

         1. it’s not strictly speaking an astrolabe but a representation of an armillary sphere. Although the two are closely related and I sometimes struggle to see the difference. Something to do with astrolabe being in a single plane as opposed to a sphere.

            But of course a flag is single plane, isn’t it? So does that make it…

            I give up 🙂

   2. A hoe and a gun appear on the flag of Mozambique.

      1. India has a spinning wheel I believe

         1. The spinning wheel featured on the Congress Party flag associated with Gandhi and was designed in 1921. However on independence in 1947 the current flag with no spinning wheel was adopted.

      2. plus an open book.

   3. I agree.
      I don’t see how a matter of opinion makes it into a Times cryptic?

6. 30 minutes. I lost time right at the beginning over 10ac thinking ‘hair’ rather than SHIRT and as I was writing it in realised that it wouldn’t fill the spaces available. I also followed the general convention by favouring ONE’S rather than YOUR, and that error actually went in and stayed for a while giving me problems with 3dn and 4dn. I should have remembered the convention doesn’t apply when the expression is an imperative, and it’s even indicated in today’s clue which ends with an exclamation mark.

   I had no great problems with SIDON other than feeling it bordered on double usage of ‘city’ but I suppose one can get round that by treating ‘that’ as reflexive.

   I share Paul’s dislike of the Menuhin clue.

7. Found the top quite easy with FOI KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON followed quickly by the crossers. I slowed significantly with the bottom. Had HAMMER AND SICKLE quickly but had lots of problems confirming it by solving the crossers. I knew Zion but NHO Sion but used it as soon as I got SCRAPER. How is it a violinist?? There is a percussion musical instrument but where is the reference to violinist.
   I took Frenchman as homme and couldn’t see how the H was changed to S.
   Thanks V.
   Can someone please explain violinist and scraper with a reference.

   1. Yehudi Menuhin is a world-famous violinist.
      A fiddler with crude bowing technique is sometimes described as scraping the strings.

   2. Further to Guy’s response, Chambers has “A fiddler (derogatory)” as sense number 3 for “scraper”.

      1. That makes it a bit better. I hadn’t found the reference in the other dictionaries I had to hand at the time I checked.

         1. ODE also has ‘to play a violin tunelessly’ as a verbal definition.

         2. No one whose child has briefly taken up the violin would have quibbled with the Menhuin clue.

         3. if you see this reply… Bradford has scraper as an acceptable word for violinist!

   3. And Wiktionary has
      “One who plays a violin incompetently, producing cacophonous sounds.” quite a long way down the list.

8. A most agreeable and stimulating start to the week – exercising the ol’ neurons, answers going in steadily, never leaving me bogged down. FRIEZE was something of a leap of faith, never came close to parsing TWENTY, finishing sequence POSSESS – EUROSTAR – ROISTERS.

   Avoiding over-excitement, I even did a typo-check before filling in the last square…
   …at least I thought I did – but still got a pink for SOMEE. Grrrrr! – 21:45 fail, thanks V and setter

9. 7:54. No major dramas. Like jackkt I initially followed the usual convention and put KEEP ONES SHIRT ON, but ACUTE quickly corrected the error. It also struck me that a SNAPSHOT is not really the kind of picture a paparazzo takes.
   As I write this I’m sitting in St Pancras waiting for the 14dn.

   1. Paparazzi often have to move fast to grab an image, and rarely get to enjoy best angle, pose, lighting etc so I would think a lot of their output could be classed as SNAPSHOTS.

10. I was mystified by a few of these, mainly along the lines others have outlined above. XX (well-spotted Guy) eluded me completely and I didn’t know old woman could be represented as OW. Still not convinced TBH. But a lot to like here, finished in about 23, thanks vinyl.

    From Fourth Time Around:
    And when I was through
    I filled up my shoe
    And brought it to you
    And you, you took me in
    You loved me then
    You didn’t WASTE time
    And I, I never took much
    I never asked for your crutch
    Now don’t ask for mine

    1. O for Old and W for Women’s are both in Chambers – take them separately, rather than the phrase “old women’s” giving you OW.

       1. Ah yes, separately! Problem solved!

11. 12’19”, with TWENTY LOI, not parsed.

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

12. April is the cruellest month, breeding
    Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
    Memory and desire, stirring
    Dull roots with spring rain.
    (The Waste Land, Eliot)

    25 mins on IPad. Not too tricky until my last two: XX and RoIsters. That sort of rolls.
    Ta setter and V

13. Would have been 22 minutes but for fat finger typing errors and lamentable failure to review.
    Biffed TWENTY and stupidly wasted time trying entourage in 14dn.
    But a very friendly welcome to the week.
    Thanks to setter and vinyl1.

14. 17:26
    No major hold-ups but I didn’t exactly speed my way around the grid. I wasted maybe a couple of minutes or more on 27A thinking “it’s got to be TWENTY” before submitting. As such that is my COD as it had me stumped.

    Thanks to both.

15. I started off really fast and thought I was on for a good time, but ended up taking 25 minutes. The Eurostar anagram eluded me for ages, then ROISTERED was my LOI.
    The XX = 20 thing I did see pretty much immediately though!
    Thanks setter and blogger

16. TWENTY could have been ‘Two kisses for this cardinal (6)’ but probably best avoided.

17. 39 mins with my last 4 in taking more time than they should have done. SWEARWORD, ROISTERS, PHYSICS & EUROSTAR all held me up.

    I agree that some of the cryptics were pretty tricky. Didn’t see the XX. Very clever.

    I liked SHEEP’S KIN and the flag most.

    Thanks V and, yes we do read your blogs, with pleasure. Ta setter too.

18. Very quick but failed by own knowledge. NHO PINCE-NEZ which made the CD impossible and I spelt FRIEZE with an S. I like cryptics partly because my spelling is below par but there was no wordplay help here.

    TWENTY I got early, I always assume cardinal is going to be a number and after none fitted which two X’s the penny dropped.

    Like HAMMER AND SICKLE, SCRAPER and SHEEPSKIN

    Not the best start to the week.

    1. Pince nez feature in at least two Sherlock Holmes stories, if I remember correctly

19. 23.43. Made heavy going of this, particularly in the NW. Bit of a change from recent Mondays so perhaps I had been lulled into a false sense of security .

    Good start to the week.

20. I enjoyed this one – some clever stuff here. No problem with Yehudi, though I’m more of a Stephane Grappelli man myself.

    Like Jack, I had “ones” at 10A, causing the same delay with 3/4D.

    FOI MISSPEAK
    LOI FRIEZE
    COD TWENTY
    TIME 8:40

21. 27a Twenty biffed. Thanks Guy du Sable & vinyl.
    23a Possess; DNK posses=gangs of youths, but was guessable and knew of posse=gang of sheriff’s helpers.
    25a Scraper. DNK this insult, but guessable. Pencilled in lightly.
    14d Eurostar. I was foxed, cheated, and it was in Cheating Machine.
    16d Sheepskin. Loved the PDM. I needed all the crossers. Was thinking of Hello Dolly, which is all I can remember of the musical.
    22d Frieze; wasn’t certain which spelling was required, guessed rightly, but I still don’t really care which is right.
    Thanks to setter & blogger.

22. Mildly grumpy 20 minute start to the week. I did (eventually) get the XX reference for my last in, but spent ages trying to justify SKID ROW, and SCRAPER could have been better. There are surely many on whom femmes fatales have no impact, so I’ll question the (unnecessary?) “undoubtedly” if only because I’m feeling picky. I think MAKE DO works either way round – Chambers has “occasion” as its 18th entry for MAKE, but that’s the way I squeezed it anyway. Although it doesn’t work, I got to ROISTERS via Rolls’ partner: just lucky, I guess.
    I wonder if Cardinal Number is one of the candidates now that Cardinal Sin is no longer with us?

    1. Neither have a chance as long as the charismatic Archbishop of Kabul is strutting her/his stuff.

23. 14:37
    Fairly straightforward but I dithered over SCRAPER where I thought I must be missing something. I liked the topical TWENTY but, for me, COD was PINCE-NEZ.

    Thanks to vinyl and the setter

24. Started off at a gallop with MISSPEAK, ASLEEP and KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON going straight in. I did make a mental note to be aware that YOUR could be ONES, but as it happens, it wasn’t! I slowed slightly as I progressed, especially in the nether regions, but eventually spotted how the Cardinal worked once I had the crossers. The SE held out longest but was opened up by SCRAPER once I realised which aspect of Yehudi was being referenced. ENTRANCE, SHEEPSKIN and FRIEZE finished the proceedings. 16:31. Thanks setter and Vinyl.

25. 45 mins.
    Good puzzle. Didn’t see XX = 20. Clever.
    Thanks, v.

26. The only type of posse of which I was aware came in High Noon, so ‘youths’ at 23ac seemed odd, but now I’m vaguely aware of it. 33 minutes, with TWENTY entered without understanding but now liked (Sandy?). I had eleven until Mount Everest blocked that one: a very tenuous answer which I was happy to cut, based on pointing upwards when you vote for something.

    1. Referring to Jamaican slang instead of John Wayne movies was either unfair or clever, depending on whether you got it or not.

       1. You may call it Jamaican slang, but it’s a common phrase here in Sarf -East London.🙂
          Especially a young group of boisterous youths (to be polite) known by us bus drivers in the
          late ’90’s as ‘The Peckham Posse’.

    2. My name here is a pun (Guy of the Sand) on the name everybody knows me by IRL, Sandy (although on my birth certificate, bank accounts, passport, etc., my name is George). Some bloggers, and I imagine commenters, don’t like to have their secret identities blown, but I’ve given… vinyl my permission.

27. Got it done in an hour, but a pink square for FRIEZE.

    Didn’t see TWENTY, and THIRTY also fitted for a bit.

    COD SHEEPSKIN, but surely Shaun the Sheep is better known than Dolly?

28. A swift start to the week for me finishing in 19.48 (the year I was born funnily enough). I had to trust to luck that SIDON was right having never heard of it. The only one to trouble me really was 27ac TWENTY, which I thought of quickly enough but couldn’t parse. I stopped the clock and hoped for the best, but strangely enough the parsing came to me shortly afterwards.
    SCRAPER brought back memories of the time my middle son at the age of twelve decided to take up the violin. Three months of aural assault were thankfully over when he decided to give it up.

29. Can anyone help with a couple of general queries (or even minor gripes, if I’m honest)?
    (a) Why does DUN imply ‘horse’?
    (b) is it really fair for the word ‘women’ to stand for the letter ‘W’? Why? (It’s not a convention I’m familiar with.)
    (c) I’m familiar enough with the convention that ‘success’ (or its variants) stands for the letter ‘S’ but whence does this convention arise? For me it’s in the same class as (b) above.

    1. Hi Bazzock

       A bit of light shed below:

       a) a dun is a horse of dun colour
       b) the obvious answer is “It’s in Chambers!” I’m not sure where it comes from, as M doesn’t seem to give “men’s”. You can see it in initialisms like the WI, but there is probably a standalone example.
       c) only ‘succeeded’ gives S (again in Chambers), but again not sure where from, maybe something royal?

       1. W = Women is often seen on toilet doors

          S = succeeded comes from genealogy

          1. I considered that regarding W, but then why doesn’t M give Men/Men’s?

             That makes sense about ‘succeeded’, thanks.

             1. Collins has W = women’s as a reference to clothes sizes. No M though!

                1. M for clothes sizes indicates medium, so would not stand for men, which begs the question how are men’s sizes indicated then?

                   1. ODE also has W for women’s, but nothing under M. Curious.

                      1. Must be men’s is the default setting. Patriarchy.

                      2. My conclusion, because it was the only way I could parse it, was that ‘Frenchman’ gives us ‘M’ because M is the standard French abbreviation for ‘Monsieur’; but only when writing somebody’s name. It’s a bit like using ‘Englishman’ to indicate the letters ‘MR’ in the answer. If my assumption is right, I think it’s a pretty poor clue.

                         Maybe this is just sour grapes because ‘Posses’ didn’t occur to me and, rather than biff it as I should have done, I settled for a DNF.

30. Finished but took about 45′, finding the LHS a bit of a struggle. Too many unparsed to take too much enjoyment though. NHO “DUN”, obviously didn’t get XX (I had “second” for a while, confusing my cardinals and ordinal) and a few others were partial biffs. But I got there, thanks Vinyl and setter.

    1. I biffed this one. I was a bit dubious because, although I know ‘dun’ is a brown colour and that a horse might be that colour, I’ve never heard of a horse being called ‘a dun’ – a grey and a bay yes, but never a dun. But this might be because I’m not at all horsey – Edit: the Concise OED confirms that it is my ignorance at fault, not the clue.

31. 16.28

    Pretty smooth solve but TWENTY went in unparsed

32. Is the trident on the flag of Barbados a “tool”?

    1. Probably mainly a weapon but I suppose you could use it to grill fish over a fire on the beach.

33. 32:36. the anagrams completely eluded me today… the train company for example as my LOI… I even thought it might end in STAR. lovely puzzle to start the week, thank you both.

34. 21 – the also-ran cardinal went in last and unparsed and I didn’t get the youth reference in posses, but the rest seemed uncontroversial

35. 15:12. I got off to a fast start but then slowed down particualrly as a result of my last two which I doubted were correct. SIDON and SCRAPER.

    COD: ENTRANCE

36. I never got into this one; solved quickly but never felt that satisfaction of “a good clue solved”.

37. This was definitely a puzzle for the biffers – and I can’t count myself amongst their number, alas, or my finish times would be considerably faster. For some reason I find anagrams -unless written out – and biffs a lot harder than most of the solvers here. Is it a male/female brain thing, I wonder? So I got there in the end, though without parsing TWENTY. The bottom half was completed long before the top and my last log-jam was on SWEARWORD, DORMICE, ROISTERS and PHYSICS, where I nearly gave up. COD to SHEEPSKIN, very elegant!

    1. Absolutely! I too had the same problems, maybe for the same ‘brain-thing’ reason? Also found SHEEPSKIN very elegant.

       1. Nice to hear from you, Jacaroo. We seem to be pretty much on the same page with regard to puzzle-solving, if geographically poles apart. As an example, my partner claims to be not nearly up to my level of solving, yet he’s able to biff answers that I then have to parse for him! Very frustrating! Also, I will spend much longer over solving than he has the patience for – if I timed myself, I think I’d give up altogether!

38. 51m. ROISTERS, FRIEZE gave me all sorts of problems (never heard of the latter in that sense). TWENTY unparsed but guessed. Felt harder than a 71 SNITCH IMO!

39. 32.01 This is quite thick of me, but I’ve only just realised that Sion, Zion, Boney M, The Bible and Zionism are all referring to the same place. Thanks vinyl1.

40. Skid Row Joe: Last night that’s who I found in the dirty part of town
    Lost, forgotten, with no place to go,
    Tormented with a bitter taste, outcast by the human race
    A mask of torture was the face of Skid Row Joe

    Porter Wagoner.

    14’49” No probs, and I saw the two votes thing.

41. 23:57. I liked DORMICE and SHEEPSKIN. I do remember Dolly

42. Very slow today, but all correct. Very Mondayish with the cryptic definitions.
    ROISTERS was LOI.
    I never managed to parse TWENTY. Good one.
    Thanks V and Setter

43. Unlike others I thought TWENTY was straightforward, and a nice clue.
    FOI MISSPEAK
    LOI PHYSICS
    COD EVEREST

44. 29:23
    Paused last night with PHYSICS and TWENTY unsolved. In the light of morning I managed to finish.
    Kicking myself for not seeing PHYSICS more quickly. I was a Medical Physicist, and occasionally the post room at our hospital would erroneously deliver to our department letters intended for the Regius Professor of Physic.

    Thanks Vinyl and setter

45. On 22 down I had FREEZE because (as surely everyone knows) there was a band called FREEZE popular in the early eighties.

46. 19:14

    Late to the party for this one, sneaking in under the 19:30 wire for a Snitch of 69. Not much missed – wasn’t entirely sure how PHYSICS was constructed, and SKID ROW was an educated guess from checkers. I took it on trust that FRIEZE is a band and that SIDON was built by the Phoenicians.

    Thanks V and setter

47. Didn’t have time to post yesterday. DNF, beaten by SKID ROW where I had absolutely no idea what was going on.

    – Hesitated over KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON as I’m much more familiar with ‘keep your hair on’
    – Didn’t see how the clever (and timely!) TWENTY worked
    – Was on the verge of biffing SEDAN for 25d before I thought of Sion and then SIDON

    Thanks vinyl and setter.

    COD Twenty

48. As above reply to alto_ego.

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