Times Cryptic 26936

59 comments on “Times Cryptic 26936”

1. …as I came home in 23 minutes, biffing ‘Euterpe’ and ‘harrumph’, and using the simple cryptics for ‘septate’ and ‘tabaret’. The clues for ‘chorister’, ‘notorious’, ‘draftees’, ‘salient’, and ‘discourse’ are chestnuts or near-chestnuts that should not delay experienced solvers much, and they’re always trying to think up a new clue for ‘risotto’, without much success.
2. Same as yesterday – really easy, except for the really hard bits. A very fast 12 minutes for all except EUTERPE which took a few minutes to parse/guess, and account for all the words in the clue. Tabaret rang a faint bell, septate right for all the wrong reasons – obviously it’s cod-Latin for “divided in 7 parts.”
   Liked the contrasting long downs CREATIONISM and EMPIRICISM. Enjoyable overall.
   1. Septum, a divided part, or, in the case of the nasal septum, the divisor,is obviously the past participle of saepire. Onions confirms this. I would expect to see a late Latin form septare with septate as the past participle though I confess I have not and Onions is silent. Seven is a red herring.
      1. Well, yes. I was very much bewailing my own ignorance – the hint might be where I say: “right for all the wrong reasons.” And I don’t speak Latin, beyond stock phrases like ‘Illegitimi non carborundum.’ Onions are what the Jacksonville coach has, according to www. nfl. com
3. I liked this one better than yesterday’s, which, as others have remarked, seemed very easy until it wasn’t—and then you had to convince yourself that something like PATCHILY and (Jesus!) ETHNICAL was worth the trouble. Nevertheless, my LOI here was SEPTATE, which I rather doubt I will ever use, and which I got entirely from the wordplay, like TABARET and ANNULET—but these are all somewhat interesting words.

   When all I had was the O for 25, I said, “Oh, no, not RISOTTO again.”

   The EMPIRICISTS will prove the CREATIONISTS wrong every time. Just sayin’. (But the creationists won’t understand.)

   Edited at 2018-01-16 05:14 am (UTC)

   1. Young earth creationism is one of the oddest precepts ever to be adhered by otherwise – presumably – normal people.
      1. I can’t believe the simulation that we are so evidently located in has been running for more than a few millennia of subjective time, I mean you wouldn’t really bother doing all that cooling down of molten rock and b/millions of years of only unicellular life in real-time would you, you’d hardcode that and cut to the interesting stuff?

         Edited at 2018-01-16 07:03 am (UTC)

         1. We’re living in a black hole, or in a hologram, or in a computer simulation? All bright ideas, as relativistic spacetime in a quantum field or strings in ten dimensions are, so give equal status to the thoughts that gave rise to them. Descartes lives.
         2. I’m assuming it was a heuristic self-training process, V, but it does seem a bit slow. DeepMind’s AlphaZero taught itself to play chess better than any existing computer in about 4 hours last month.
      2. From my perspective it’s not materially odder than the rest of it.
         1. Ah, perspective is all…
            1. Indeed. It’s important in life to respect the perspective of others, even if one doesn’t really understand it. Heck, I’m even still friends with some Brexiters. 😉
4. 17 minutes, so nicely on the wavelength. Mine, that is, not the mighty Heard’s.
5. My main problem was entering a hasty DASHBOARD, which led to some head-scratching later. Otherwise BILLYCAN was a bit of a guess, but a pleasant lunchtime diversion (lunchtime in Melbourne, that is)
6. I would definitely agree with the chorus above that this was “like yesterday’s, but a bit easier”, because yesterday’s took me till the 10 minute mark to tease out the last few recalcitrant clues, and this was a straightforward 5 minuter. COD to 3 down because I liked the definition (which I didn’t understand fully until reading the blog – thanks Jackkt!)

   Starting new job today. Hopefully I’ll still have time to do all the crosswords I have been heretofore accustomed to! It’s located in Farringdon if that opens up any new possibilities for lunch/pub with anyone – I may for instance be trying to turn up at some Quiz League London things in the near future…

   1. A very old and historic part of the City. It comprises two WARDS, Farringdon Within and Farringdon Without. The names relate to the old London Wall which split Farringdon in half!
   2. Does this impact your email address? If so, please send me an update.
7. 40 minutes, from 2d RUN to 20d SEPTATE, which would have been entered more confidently if I’d thought of “septum”. As it was, it sat in the same camp as TABARET of “well, it fits the wordplay…”

   Nearly scuppered my NW corner by bunging in JERRYCAN, but thought better of it fairly quickly once I couldn’t do much with the J. And though I don’t know much about royalty, Billy did seem rather more likely once I’d thought of it.

   The toughest spot was the SW, with the crossing dances and WOD HARRUMPH adding to my troubles, though once I found my way in everything fell fairly quickly.

   I liked this one, perhaps because the old-fashioned bits were ones I knew or could work out this time! Thanks Jackkt and setter.

8. A real stroll in the park. EUTERPE from wordplay – don’t recall meeting her before. Knew all the rest, including good King Billy who landed at Brixham in Devon – worth a visit
   1. https://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1811899.html

      🙂

      1. That’s only a few months ago! Now I’m really getting worried.
         1. Suggests that solving the Mephisto (which I usually cannot, although I do try), where you generally work backwards from the word play, and solving the daily, where you generally work forward from the definition, trigger different memory channels.
            1. I think may be true, but there’s also the question of sheer volume: for me at least the number of unknown words I encounter in my Mephisto solving is such that there’s no way on earth I could remember them all.
9. 30 mins with the usual. For a bit of a change, I did use my Illy (washing machine pattern) cups this morning. So stylish.
   Unlike yesterday I thought the easy bits were less so (which is a good thing) and the tough bits were less so (which is a good thing).
   I was ok with Euterpe: in fact I’ll make it COD for the ‘country club’ – although the surface does conjure a bizarre image.
   I also liked Harrumph.
   For me, the setter got it right in terms of vocab. The obscure words were (a) gettable from wordplay and (b) sort of known from others, e.g. Septum, Annulus.
   Wasted some time trying to fit the 12dn anagram into the 7dn grid. Ha. Should have gone to Specsavers.
   Thanks brilliant setter and Jack.
10. DNK EUTERPE, TABARET or SEPTATE but got there in the end. Initially biffed RECAP which meant I had to make CREATIONISM work despite not fitting the facts.
11. 32 minutes, which would have been quicker if I hadn’t been fixated on Queen Mary’s husband being Bothwell. Wrong Mary. I’ll make BILLYCAN COD as I took so long to solve it. LOI SEPTATE after I corrected ‘therapist’ to THERAPIES. Not my best day. DNK TABARET but it couldn’t be anything else. Personally I find the strict EMPIRICISTS almost as bad as the CREATIONISTS, but then I’ve read Physics and Divinity! The SE corner suggested that the setter has been watching too much ‘Strictly’. Decent puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
12. 7:53, in spite of a rather awkward solving experience poking at the iPad while standing on a busy train, so I would certainly classify this as easy. I happened to know most of the more arcane words, and even where I didn’t the wordplay was kind. So as myrtilus says in this respect I think the setter got it right. In fact overall I think this was excellent: a model of how to include interesting words without resorting to impenetrable obscurity. Not that I have anything against impenetrable (or at least near-impenetrable) obscurity in itself, I hasten to add.
    Like others I got to SEPTATE from ‘septum’, a word forever associated with Daniella Westbrook in my mind.

    Edited at 2018-01-16 10:52 am (UTC)

13. Drat and double drat!
    Having successfully and skillfully negotiated BILLYCAN, EUTERPE, TABARET and SEPTATE I shoved in ROTE for 16a.
    1. *Muttley laugh*
14. Undone by the sort of typo you wouldn’t have if using pen and paper, but otherwise, unlike yesterday for me, starting sluggishly and accelerating through to 16.48.
    CREATIONISM will of course be totally vindicated once they find a fossil in this condition. That clue was good, though, with a decent &littish feel to it
15. Flying today (for me), 16’03”. RU for game keeps coming up, liked ‘country club’ for EU. Thanks jack and setter.
16. Found this very easy indeed. Filled in all the outside, the long crossers, then the rest. Euterpe and her 8 fellow muses worth remembering, as they come up fairly often though still waiting for Polyhymnia…
    1. Are you thinking of this sketch? If someone would be kind enough to unblock?
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1e_wVzGurE
       1. Heavens, 1968, that is impressive recall, Myrtilus! I did have a very vague memory of seeing that sketch before, mind you, and thinking how well the train had done in getting from London to Rochester in about 4 minutes.

17. Somewhat held up by -O-E and an alphabet trawl, which eventually got me to CODE, but had forgotten COD for fake. LOI SWATHE where I was trying to find an alternative meaning for WAT (duh). EUTERPE unknown – wouldn’t know a muse from a sea cucumber. All this classics stuff just passes me by….
18. 20D is SEPTATE

19. Hmmm … bit miffed ‘ecterpe’ wasn’t right… I think I’ve seen ‘club’ abbreviated as ‘c’ before, but can ‘England’ ever be abbreviate as ‘E’?

    Also, I biffed ‘lore’ at 16ac without much conviction.

    Other than that a pretty good time! 🙂

20. Oh dear! A miserable failure on this one, and a time just over an hour. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on two of the wrong Queen Marys (wife of George V and Queen of Scots) and never thought of The Glorious Revolution and couldn’t see the definition in the clue. That was my LOI.

    NOTORIOUS went in because it had to, but I don’t know ‘ton = fashion’. I stupidly wrote in CREATIONIST rather than -ISM, and so I wasted another 10min with the weird ‘R_T_P’ unsolvable. The arcane words went in quite smoothly: ANNULET surely related to annular and Latin ‘annulus’=ring; DNK TABARET but it had to be from the straightforward wordplay; AWN ditto.

    But enjoyable nonetheless. Thanks, blogger and setter!

21. I remembered EUTERPE from cryptics in various places but was held up by incorrectly entering ‘-ist’ for ‘-IES’ at 19a so took just on 30 minutes with SEPTATE as my last in.

    I’m now old enough to be able to HARRUMPH legally so this was my favourite.

    A welcome gentle solve after a couple of hard ones elsewhere today.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

22. 20’41. Slightly held up by a crunch between the old and the new. Liked the philosophical divide.
23. As has been observed, some things which live on the edge of regular vocabulary, but they all went in without any need for finger-crossing, which means the clues must have been fair. I thought “country club” was very good, though I can see that if you’re a non-classicist, it doesn’t necessarily improve your odds of choosing EUTERPE over ECTERPE. And yes, she makes a nice change from Erato. I didn’t help myself by constantly thinking of Bertie instead of Billy for 3dn; wrong royal house entirely, and Queen Mary was his mother, not his wife, but apart from that, good thinking…
24. 12:19. Euterpe cropped up in a Jumbo I blogged in September 2016. I noted that I needed aids to “get” her at the time and the name must have stuck as she was one of my first in today.

    At 17 I have to confess to wondering what rough game HARRU* might be.

25. After unheard of top 15 places (at the time) on the club board with both the Concise and Quickie today, I made the mistake of looking at the SNITCH which invariably puts me under pressure if it is green. I eventually finished in 25:38 after first THERAPIST and then THERAPISE(?) had made my LOI SEPTATE somewhat impossible. The trouble I have solving on the IPad (apart from the typos) is having to do anagrams in my head.
26. This may have been my fastest time nearly going below 6 minutes with FICHE the last one in. Good wordplay here.
27. 21 mins. Nice puzzle and blog, cheers.
28. Coincidentally, FICHE was my FOI, but was distracted by a phone call, and only got going again about a quarter-hour later, finishing in 37 minutes. NE corner was last, as I’d been trying to make –R-BOARD some sort of wall planner.
29. Didn’t know TABARET, ANNULET or SEPTATE, but the wordplay was clear enough that they went in without a second thought. EUTERPE was somehow remembered from previous puzzles. DARTBOARD was my FOI and FICHE my last. 25:16. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Jack.
30. Started with a one ‘l’ Calliope (whoops), then I was fortunate to remember Eutrope (whoops again). At least the crossers worked for her, though the submit button saw through that. So while the rest of the team was setting speed records, I was scratching my head. I liked the cluing, and as a couple others have commented, the high quality vocabulary.
31. 11:50 .. should have been several minutes faster but I did like a few others above and shoved in a careless THERAPIST, making 20d (SEPTATE) temporarily impossible.

    Fun puzzle.

32. 36 minutes today, so I thought this was fairly easy, until I came here and read all the comments. I guess there were some stinkers in it (BILLYCAN, EUTERPE, SEPTATE, maybe even the wordplay for EXPLAINER), but they didn’t really hold me up since the wordplay was quite clear. I did spend 5 minutes at the end making sure there was no alternative to CODE (since I wasn’t sure about COD as fake). And NOTORIOUS seems to have settled in for permanent residence in crossword land — it’s at least the third appearance in the last week or so.

    Ah yes, I very much liked the country club too. Of course living in Germany, I’m staying in it.

33. Euterpe did for me.
34. Did this in two bites in different places, so no time recorded, but, like others, I thought that this was a top class puzzle.
35. I did most of this in 20 mins on this morning’s commute and tidied up the rest in 10 mins at lunchtime. At the easier end of the spectrum but very enjoyable. I was slightly held up by not checking the anagrist at 19ac and putting in therapist but the unknown septate put paid to that. Tabaret the only other unknown. Nice to have two tees crossing at 11ac / 1dn with separate definitions. Thought “country club” was terrific. FOI 1ac. LOI 16ac where my first thought was rote but it wasn’t sufficiently convincing to stop a quick alphabet trawl (well it was quick because it only went up to “c” before I alit upon the much more convincing code).
36. This must have been an easy one, because I’m far from a regular solver, but completed this in about twenty minutes while simultaneously watching football on the telly. I usually struggle with words that I haven’t encountered before and there were two in this puzzle “tabaret” and “septate”, but they were easy enough from the clues, especially once I had most of the letters already.

    I don’t like the clue to 14ac at all though – it just feels wrong, clumsy and inelegant. I’ve tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, but no, it’s horrible.

37. Don’t understand why “TON” means “fashion”
    Richard
    1. TON means fashion – see dictionary – French origin
       1. … and for that matter, I’d NHO “awn”
          1. … or Tabaret or Euterpe (the latter was the only clue I didn’t solve)
38. Thanks for the enlightenment

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