Times Crossword 25,547 – Do give a damn

48 comments on “Times Crossword 25,547 – Do give a damn”

1. [Userpic showing Lisa rejoicing in 26ac.]

   Otherwise, I thought, too many cd- and dd-type clues with some obscurities in the rest of the puzzle, and also a sprinkling of good clues. 14ac was rubbish.

   27ac was nicely hidden (to me) because I’d assumed {g}RACE rather than WEND{y}. But then I already had OLDEN at 4dn, so the cross-reference meant that had to be wrong. Talking of which: the reference to the Forster novel would have worked well, except that it has no apostrophe. Once I got it, I immediately thought: Oh Catherine! John would have suited me better were it historically true.

2. 13:45 .. great fun.

   LOI .. OLDEN, for the same reason as Jerry.

   COD .. Easy choice: MAGISTRATE, a sort of Dick Emery clue [“Ooh, you are awful … but I like you!”]

   (anon beat me to it with the ‘Madge’ point)

   Edited at 2013-08-07 01:39 am (UTC)

   1. Odd that this rather dodgy homophone gets the thumbs up. I think it;’ a bit of a stretch top say the least, relying on a dubious “magis-strate” pronounciation. Not sure, if I was gay, that I would care for the image possibly presented in the surface reading either
3. …as I had everything in 20 minutes except for ‘olden’ and ‘diamond’. Those two took another 15. I saw that ‘olden’ might be a possible answer, but I wanted 9 to be ‘dragoon’, but couldn’t justify it. I eventually worked it out, but speedy I am not.

   Two points one might mention: ‘Darling’ is actually Wendy’s surname in the book, her full name being Wendy Moira Angela Darling. And Americans of a certain age tend to associate Camelot with a certain golden political era….

   Edited at 2013-08-07 02:19 am (UTC)

4. A lively and mostly enjoyable puzzle with just enough of a sting in its tail to take my solving time over my 30 minute target.

   My problems were the linked clues (4dn and 17dn) where I needed one answer to solve the other but neither was forthcoming for ages, and 7dn where I couldn’t think of a book title beginning with what Sir Humphrey Appleby once referred to as “the perpendicular pronoun”.

   The double use of ‘things’ at 8dn also took me by surprise but I had already spotted the answer so it didn’t take me too long to realise what was going on. Very clever, as was the 4/17dn device. I could have done without three homophones today though.

   Edited at 2013-08-07 01:11 am (UTC)

5. Your supposition at 26a seems to overlook the possibility of Madge rather than Maggie.
   1. oh yes … the most famous Madge of all being Madge Allsop the long-time companion – and former bridesmaid – of Dame Edna Everage.
      1. I agree that Margaret must = Madge here. Madge is straight/magistrate is surely one of the classier homophones we’ve been offered of late and would raise no quibble, I suspect, even in the Dorset region.
6. Didn’t enjoy this much: the GWTW clue wasn’t really a clue, and the two other US-based (state) clues were pretty underwhelming as well. Back on this side of the pond, the beverage clue was weak beer. OTOH, 4 was clever. 33 minutes.

   Edited at 2013-08-07 01:43 am (UTC)

7. A bit tricky for me today, and I finished in about 45 mins, with an incorrectly spelt ‘beveredge’ at 2ac. Did look a bit odd at the time.

   Most went in very quickly (e.g. the GWTW clue), then the last few seem to take an age. REDEFINE took longer than it should have done (didn’t know rede), and that gave DIAMOND as my LOI.

   Edited at 2013-08-07 06:58 am (UTC)

8. A rare sub-15, though the golden reasoning and the odds and ends of things (lovely clue) perplexed till after the event. Quite a variety of clues, and enough good ones to give it that zing.
9. 37″ on the timer, but actually 13 following a catalogue of crashes, glitches and snafus while I’m getting used to new kit.
   Odd sort of crossie this: I kept thinking clue were more complex than they were. Exemplum: SITCOM, where I thought some very clever stuff was happening on the lines of a word for “see it coming” disassembled into constituent parts then with the solution (“this”) added making something that meat fun. But it wasn’t, it was “just” a hidden. Ditto Christmas tree, an awfully twee CD.
   And I’m not sure of the “conventional” 1/I at 7 either. It just looks wrong, like it was originally intended to be Chinese philosophy but the light was too long.
   Mr Grumpy this morning then, which meant I was more irritated than enchanted by the paired clues. I’ll be better tomorrow.
10. Up early after a very late night and too much brandy, I expected this Wednesday puzzle to take me a long time but it was all done in 20 minutes. I thought some of the clues most elegant, though it took me a while to see 3 (thought bow = arc and couldn’t work out what mhist was supposed to be).

    I learned that Madge is a diminutive of Margaret; always thought of it as a form of Margery, but that, it turns out, is also derived from Margaret.

    Thanks for sorting out VISIT; I just couldn’t see how that worked.

    An excellent start to the day; I shall be humming Tara’s Theme to myself for the rest of the morning: da dum de dum ….. da dum de dum ………

11. IMO a nice easy stroll in the park including the best of cryptic clues – which of you didn’t chuckle when you twigged why OLDEN was the correct answer; OTOH, surely any setter worth his salt could have made some effort to introduce a cryptic element to GWTW.
12. I enjoyed this one. All correct in about half an hour. Particularly liked Draw Lots and Sitcom but best of all Madge-is-straight. FOI Exhibitor, LOI Sitcom.
    Thanks Jerry for explaining Olden, New Hampshire, 1 Kings and Wend – couldn’t parse those.
13. Oop here int North West, some lasses are known as “Mag” OR “Mags”

    so MAG IS STRAIGHT went straight in

    Keef

14. I thought I was doing well when I saw that z8b8d8k had taken longer than my 18m 48s, then read on to find that it was only because of new gear – so I still lag behind in reality. Heigh ho. By the way John, are you humming a theme from ‘Gone With The Wind’, where Tara is the plantation, or ‘Lara’s Theme’ from David Lean’s superb film of Dr Zhivago?
    1. Definitely Tara’s Theme. I would have provided a link but that would have sent my contribution to the spam box. Besides, Lara’s Theme goes: dum da de dum … da de da dum de dum ……. 😉
       1. If it does John, I will unspam it. But if you do it like this,
          for example: Lara’s Theme .. it will be fine. But demonstrating html, in a space that accepts html is rather difficult! What you type should look like this:
          <a href="[put the url here]"></a>[put the words to highlight here]

          Also, if you click on “memories” at the top of this page and then on “tips for this blog” there is an article about it..

          Edited at 2013-08-07 12:20 pm (UTC)

          1. OK, sorry, that didn’t come out quite right, and now I can’t edit it..
             – delete the square brackets, as well as their contents, when you use the html
             – the highlighted word(s) should come a bit earlier, between the two pointed brackets facing each other, and not right at the end
             – use the “preview” button to see if it works or not!

             Really it isn’t so hard, once you get used to it!

             1. Thanks Jerry; I’ll give it a go:

                Tara’s Theme from Gone With The Wind

                Hope it was worth waiting for. There shouldn’t be a dry eye in the house: after all, tomorrow is another day.

       2. I’d be interested to hear your rendition of Lara’s theme. I’m wondering if you dum da de dum it in 3 or 4 time. I’ve been playing it for a U3A singalong group for years and have always played it as a slow waltz. Then someone actually brought in the sheet music and it’s in 4 ! Another illusion shattered.
          1. My interpretation owes more to Somewhere My Love sung “in the club style” than it does to the film score: a slow, hesitant waltz.
15. Sorry about the anonymous, I really should register. It was me.
    George Clements
16. I expected 27 to be an anagram of ‘I say Margaret’ less ‘gay’, but found I needed to lose ‘Ray’, and gain a T somehow. So I needed all the checkers before entering it, not having got the homophone.
    7 was LOI – it seemed that I Qingh (or some variant transliteration) was the only book that would fit, but could not be reconciled with the wordplay.
17. 14 mins with the same quibbles that have already been mentioned vis-a-vis the quality of some of the clues. I think overseas solvers who aren’t ex-pats could have struggled with BEVERIDGE. I didn’t bother to parse NEW HAMPSHIRE, and I couldn’t parse OLDEN so thanks for that. WEND was my LOI.
    1. Although I agree with you about Beveridge that isn’t really a problem, is it? It is an English crossword and importantly, I wouldn’t want to see it “Internationalised.” Nor the New Yorker’s, come to that..
    2. No, Beveridge is part of the basics of post-war English history, famous around the world.

       It is the TV series, cricket, and snooker that gives us fits.

       1. could be worse though, it could be football (sorry, “soccer”) or darts..
          1. I was just making an observation about BEVERIDGE, not complaining about the clue. I do the Washington Post puzzle every day and I wouldn’t expect to find anything other than its current level of US-specific clues, and when I’m solving it I feel absolutely no guilt about using aids when there are two crossing clues that require local knowledge.
       2. The Cockney Rhyming Slang is high on the list too.
18. Third consecutive day that I’ve broken 10 minutes. I suspect there’s a beast waiting for us tomorrow.
19. 14 mins – for some reason Beveridge and beheaded held me up longest.
20. 13:21 here, first time I’ve solved it online using my new iPad. Might have been considerably quicker using pen & paper today, as I’m not that keen on the interface. Completely different from the Crossword Club one. The only good point is that it skips over letters that have already been entered.

    I didn’t have a problem with 14ac, anything that can get written in without a second glance is good as far as I’m concerned! Not all clues have to be masterpieces.

    1. Am I right in thinking that solving on an iPad requires more than the basic web pack subscription, linxit?
       1. Probably, but you get a 30 day free trial anyway. Others here know a lot more about it than me, but I seem to remember the full Digital pack is required, and that’s twice as expensive, about £4 a week. Still cheaper than buying the paper every day (which I haven’t done for many years), but I’ll probably just take my free month and unsubscribe.
          1. My Times subscription is the one that I was “given” for the rest of the year when they stopped taking subs for the Crossword Club. I have a first generation iPad. I can’t type into the grid in the crossword.

             🙁

             PS Must admit I’m a bit of a Luddite where technology’s concerned, so maybe it’s a case of user-error…

             1. As mentioned below, you have to tap on the clue, not the grid. Possibly the problem? I dunno. I would never under any circumstances describe myself as a Luddite but my kids are much better at this stuff than me, and they’re not even teenagers yet. God help me.
          2. I think you’re right, Andy. I just tried and, even though you can access the puzzle through Safari, you can’t type anything into it, even using an external bluetooth keyboard.

             Shame. I’m off on my travels soon and don’t want to have to take a laptop just for the crossword (and I’m too poor, or certainly too cheap, to upgrade my subscription).

             [on edit: that’s the same experience I just had, Janie – I think you have to access the puzzle through the Times App in order to type into the grid, and that requires the Digital Subscription.]

             Edited at 2013-08-07 03:36 pm (UTC)

             1. There’s a thread about this on the Crossword Club forum. Someone recommends downloading the free Puffin browser for the ipad. I tried it and that didn’t work either. There seem to be plenty other browsers available though, so maybe one of them works.

                But anyway, I used the Times App, not the browser. In that, you have to tap on the clue rather than the puzzle to enter answers, then the keyboard pops up and you can’t see the clue any more. As you type, the word appears in a box to the right of the grid, and only goes in when you’re done. Takes a bit of getting used to.

                1. I did finally get the Puffin browser to my work on my iPad with an external keyboard (I have a Logitech keyboard/cover thingy).

                   Once you have the puzzle open you have to tap the Puffin options (the 3 vertical dots top-right), click ‘keyboard’ but don’t click ‘done’. Then it seems to work fine. Works with the iPad’s virtual keypad, too.

                   From the sound of it, it might be easier than using the app.

                   Edited at 2013-08-07 11:04 pm (UTC)

                   1. Thank you so much, this seems to work, which is quite exciting (yeah I know). I’ve got used to the app but I’ll give it a go. If it works out I might even be able to try for Tony’s leader board next week: doable for me when on holiday in deepest Ontario, impossible at home in London. Go figure.
21. Didn’t time this as it was in two quick breaks at work this morning, but I wasn’t really in synch with the setter and put a lot in from definition coming back to wordplay later – in the end I still didn’t know who BEVERIDGE was (wrong sort of expat), didn’t see the wordplay for NEW HAMPSHIRE or really what was going on with BEHEADED (though I was glad that OLDEN was there to confirm it).

    On the other hand I did like 26, which I read as MAG IS STRAIGHT.

22. About 20 minutes for what I thought was a good puzzle. I agree that there are weaker clues, especially GWTW and the xmas tree, but the good ones outweigh them for me. COD for me is OLDEN, and my last one in was WEND, where I thought of the Peter Pan WENDY, but wasn’t entirely sure why she would be a darling. Regards to all.
23. As the tour guides tell you at nearby Sudely Castle, the home of Catherine Parr, the easy way to remember the fate of the Mrs Henrys is: Divorced, Beheaded, Died; Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.
    1. …provided you can remember the order of the wives of course 🙂
24. 17m. Bit of a mixed bag I thought. Some excellent stuff, some blindingly obvious stuff, and some rather contrived stuff.
25. A rather late comment from me as I was too exhausted by end of Wednesday to tackle it on the day. And I’m glad I left it till later as I enjoyed it very much, despite making heavy weather of one or two easy clues (finishing in 10:07).

    The only clue I took any exception to at all was 17dn (BEHEADED), where the apostrophe inserted in Howards End kept poking me in the eye (though of course it was needed for the sense of the clue). 14ac (NOT GIVE A DAMN) was just fine – a nice old-fashioned Times crossword clue.

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