Times Cryptic 27302

54 comments on “Times Cryptic 27302”

1. which is half again as long as it took me to do the QC; and I biffed a bunch on the QC. As Jack said, and speaking of QCs, there were a couple of clues here that would have been more appropriate there: 3d, for example, or 19ac. I could have sworn that we’ve had langur/languor at least once before. I was only slowed up remembering BLISS and getting BRISTLE. (I can remember a puzzle where ‘Bristol’ was neither a town nor a university; fortunately, that definition has not recurred.) BRISTLE gave me BIERCE, who is noted mainly for his “Devil’s Dictionary”, well worth looking at.

   Edited at 2019-03-19 06:55 am (UTC)

   1. I’ve just been reading up about him. One of 13 children all with forenames starting in ‘A’. Gosh! And then I chuckled that he was a journalist and named his sons ‘Day’ and ‘Leigh’. Shurely shome mishtake?
      1. A friend of mine was one of 6 children of a Lutheran minister: Faith, Hope, Charity, Joy, Felicity, and Fred. Hope died young, which led to numerous awkward situations when the sisters were introduced: “And where’s Hope?”
2. A DNF because of my ignorance of Mr. A. Bierce @ 21dn. I thought it might be Pierce and that somehow – 21ac was PRICKLE!? Then I simply gave up because I am so busy. I fly out on Friday for six weeks working holiday to Europe and beyond, The furthest north I shall be is Leighton Buzzard.

   FOI 18ac MAKE-UP

   LOI 7dn FORGATENK (from the Danish physics manual)

   COD 18dn SEASHELL What a lovely simple deception!!?

   WOD 13dn PUTRESCENCE

   I once spent an afternoon at Shepperton Studios with Omar SHARIF, Sam Kelly, and Jonathan Lynn. How we laughed!

3. The unknown monkey stymied me too though the barely remembered ANCHORITE was my last in.

   The SEASHELL def. was good but my favourite was (Ambrose) BIERCE, an extraordinary man whose mysterious end only adds to his legend.

   Home in 45 minutes.

   Thanks to setter and blogger

4. This was quite easy & took me about 20 mins. I thought there were some weak clues, in particular READER for half of muckspreader! And 21d could equally well have been BIERCY if, like me, you’d never heard of Ambrose B. But I liked MASS PRODUCE.
5. 19:12 … treacherous in parts. Personally, I was glad of the easy starters.

   Last in the lovely MASS PRODUCE, made trickier by ‘knowing’ that 5d was spelt LANGOUR. Oddly, I find that the Chambers thesaurus app does have it spelt that way in a couple of places, though the integrated dictionary doesn’t. Presumably a typo.

   SEASHELL is very sweet

6. 12:11. No problems today, unlike yesterday when I managed to navigate the unknown Irish town but managed to write MOYORALTY. BIERCE only vaguely known, I think he must have come up before.
7. 15:42. BIERCE only vaguely heard of. Held up in the end by FALSETTO. Arthur Bliss not the most well-known of composers – I struggle to think of any of his compositions I have performed. COD to SEASHELL.
8. FALSETTO pretty much a write-in as The Darkness were playing on shuffle at the time.

   SEASHELL raised a smile when I saw it, and never heard of LOI.BIERCE so trusted wordplay and crossed fingers.

   All in all an enjoyable workout

   11.40

   Edited at 2019-03-19 12:43 pm (UTC)

9. Enjoyed this. COD to SEASHELL or SMITTEN. While looking for a Nina (don’t know why) I saw VUG which reminded me of A level Geology a long time ago. A good three letter word I have never seen in a crossword. Actually, ANCHORITE sounds like a metamorphic rock.
10. I can be grateful to my background in computers for getting 21d, oddly: the Unix “fortune” program presents the user with a random saying on login, and the one in the CS labs at Warwick was equipped with definitions from Ambrose BIERCE’s The Devil’s Dictionary among its other output.

    39 minutes, starting with all four of the three-letter answers clockwise from 3d, leading me to start off the SW, where I finally found some consonants for crossers… LOI 9d BEMOAN, just after 15a SMITTEN. COD 18d SEASHELL.

    Edited at 2019-03-19 08:20 am (UTC)

    1. I thought that you would start with Bristol/Bristle? Or was it like when I struggled to see MILL RACE while staring blankly into a mill race?
       1. Heh. It was in very quickly once I got around to reading the clue, but I’m not one of those solvers who give the whole array a once-over at the beginning…
11. 27 minutes with LOI Ambrose BIERCE, a name I know best from the Frank Muir Book of Quotations. COD to MASS-PRODUCE. I was hoping for a few minutes to fit IL DUCE in before I saw I could. We certainly could do with his timetabling skills on Govia Thameslink. I found the NE the hardest quadrant, with LANGUOR, SECRETARIAT and FIRMAMENT needing me to see BLISSFUL first. Then I saw READER. I learnt to read from the Beacon Reader, the predecessor to Janet and John. SEA SHELL was a nice clue too. Thank you Jack and setter.

    Edited at 2019-03-19 11:12 am (UTC)

    1. I too recall the Beacon Readers – size, shape, even colour – from long agone.
12. … I think, though it’s hard to be exact while filling in between brief snoozes on the train. Had thought of LANGUOR before settling on BLISSFUL but wasn’t quite sure of spelling. NHO the monkey though. ANCHORITE and BIERCE tolled vague bells but enough to stagger over the line.
13. About 40 mins with a croissant and Lime&Tequila marmalade. Hoorah.
    For a time I thought ‘Glassful’ had come into usage to mean very happy.
    If thinking of getting a pet, choose a chameleon, then at least you know it will go with the curtains.
    Thanks setter and J.
    1. Lime & Tequila! Does that count as an opiate crossing the southern border?
       Much enjoyed your chameleon gagette!
    2. Do you have an opinion on Janice Miner’s Grapefruit & Gin? I was given a jar of it recently.
       1. I don’t know the Janice Miner’s; I’ll look it up.
          My search is for great Lime Marmalade, rather than fruit+booze combos.
          The Lime&Tequila is by Newton & Pott and is 37.1% limes.
          The unsurpassed Gin&Lime (which Horryd didn’t think special) is 44% (Lewis and Cooper, Northallerton).
          1. Thanks Myrtilus. I’ll have to see if I can track either of them down in NYC.
          2. My dear myrtilus as you say I was somewhat disappointed by Messrs Lewis & Cooper’s offering. I do like lime marmalade.
             Whilst I was in the UK last year, I ordered 3 jars of said Gin&Lime confection @ twentyone quid. One was smashed in the post, which they promised to replace but never did.
             My second MER was their godawful label it was just dreadfull, Golden Shred has more style and meaning. I know one should not judge a book by its dust jacket etc., but it was not a great start. It looks like a stationary label and I was not moved.
             A lady friend of mine naughtily suggested L&C had just taken some Roses Lime Marmalade and added a tot of Gordon’s and stirred (not shaken).
             So the following day we tried that, at about half the price. And to be honest I couldn’t really tell one from t’other. My friend and her mother we’re divided but the quantity of gin does make a difference – just a dash!

             In the end I had spent around thirty quid on the Great Gin&Lime Taste Test and really not felt any real benefit.

             I think Frank Cooper of Oxford should have a go, he probably has.

             1. I know. I’m sorry it wasn’t the best experience.
                Roses is 22% “citrus fruits”. Who knows how much is limes.
                And “Chlorophyll Extract” to make it green.

                Edited at 2019-03-19 03:51 pm (UTC)

    3. I’ve had a pet chameleon for years. Well, actually, I just bought the cage ….. nobody knows.
14. Very pleasant crossword with some fine clues – particularly liked 17ac and 18dn, and 6dn a very slick clue.

    I am a great fan of Ambrose Bierce. DO look at the Devil’s Dictionary, it is an easy download now it is out of copyright. Some entries are dated but many are still apposite..
    “Patriotism: the belief that a country is great, because you happened to be born in it.”

15. Priceless! – I will be getting the Devil’s Dictionary
16. 20′ 42”, didn’t parse ANCHORITE until afterwards. BACKMOST a clumsy word.

    Thanks jack and setter.

17. As Myrtilus suggests, this was a walk down Memory Lane, with Karma CHAMELEON (sung FALSETTO) and SHARIF Don’t Like It (Rock The Casbah) from the early 80s. BIERCE’s work often turns up in collections of ghost stories. 16.22
18. 21 mins. Tim and Ben – double whammy on random boys’ names, neither of which had the first letter as a checker. Not my favourite device, tbh; it’s a get out of jail card for a setter than can be overplayed. As noted elsewhere, Bierce could have been Biercy, leaving you with a coin flip if you’d never heard of him – fortunately I had. Thanks Jack.
19. 20.00, so the neatest of times. I was disappointed that 21a couldn’t in the end be BEOWULF, with “become angry” translating to BE A WOLF and some fancy shenanigans with Us and Os to produce the quintessence of Old English (I’ve seen the film). I thought TESTAMENT for the last word at 7d was pretty decent too, even if I couldn’t quite reconcile TEST with enduring. Rescued from the latter by the fractured English of Haydn;s Creation, my next big sing: “the wonders of his work displays (top A for the tenors) the firmament”. Rescued from the former by my uni being the one in question and memories of Krek Waiter’s Peak Bristle.
    1. The Heavens are Telling here as well. It’s a bit of a romp after the War Requiem at Xmas. (I knew that the original was German based on an English version which was then translated back into English from the German. A bit like Google Translate. “He sole on high….etc”) Our concert isn’t till April 13th and we’re already fed up with the Haydn so starting on the Bach B minor Mass this week. O bliss.
       1. I know the feeling. We’re currently on Rossini’s Petit Messenger Solonelle, light relief after the Britten, and can’t wait to get on to Haydn, believe it or not. I’m doing the Rossini fugues in my sleep. Not necessarily pleasant!
          1. I think that the Britten is exhausting in every way and choirs definitely need something relatively unchallenging after it. The strange thing is that after 5 weeks of the Haydn we find ourselves actually missing the challenge. The Petit Messe is fun (and cheap if you just use a piano – a big plus for most choirs). Choral singing is enjoying something of a renaissance around here even if a lot of it is not choral singing as we know it. The landlady of my local pub has just joined a “rock choir”. Good for her. I hope she gets as much pleasure from it as I have from Swansea Philharmonic.
20. And while we’re at it, how about a round of “Where are you now, Ambrose, when we need you?” I’ll start:

    “In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.”

    “What is a democrat? One who believes that the republicans have ruined the country. What is a republican? One who believes that the democrats would ruin the country.”

    “War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.”

21. ….in my finishing time if I hadn’t tried so hard to over-complicate 17A. I took a long time to spot SECRETARIAT, so didn’t have the “a” in place for READER. I was trying half of “rumour monger” or “gossip monger”, and with the “r” and “e” in place vainly sought an anagram indicator. In the end I biffed it, and the “duh !” moment when I came here was actually a much stronger expletive.

    Like Jack, I found the West Wing very straightforward before taking twice as long in the Orient.

    FOI CHAMELEON
    LOI READER
    COD SEASHELL
    TIME 15:43

22. Nineteen minutes for this, with SECRETARIAT unparsed. NHO the composer in BLISSFUL, but then again I’m sure he’s never heard of me either.
23. Brilliant final Bierce mordancy above. 23’57 here for puzzle, the office staff and the (simples) reader taking a little time. A bit shaken by the noun in the final across.
    1. I had no idea they were at all aggressive.
24. Ambrose must have stirred a faint memory, as I wasn’t tempted by BIERCY, although I relied on the wordplay to produce him. The ANCHORITE is also insinuating his or her existence into my consciousness, due to previous cruciverbal exposure. I was aware of Arthur Bliss and the monkey also rang a faint bell, so I was able to make reasonable progress with this puzzle. Omar was my route into Sharif too. I managed to spell INAUGURAL correctly for probably the first time thanks to the clear wordplay and past experience. The Not I in the clue for 13d tempted me to biff PUTREFACTION, but fortunately it didn’t fit. An enjoyable puzzle. 19:56. Thanks setter and Jack.
25. Held up at the end by the NW in particular BACKMOST where I had the answer but couldn’t read the clever clue correctly. That at last gave me SMITTEN where for once love wasn’t zero and my LOI being BEMOAN because I didn’t realise that MOAS are extinct. Bring back the moa!
    1. There is a moa in the newly reopened Museum of Zoology in Cambridge. A great place to visit. Revival is a long shot I think.
26. A very enjoyable puzzle. Not too difficult. Had a bit of a hold up with the monkey but eventually it clicked. I used to keep a copy of “The Devil’s Dictionary” in the downstairs loo but it proved too popular. I had to move it to the guest bedroom. Bierce was a master of the brilliant definition. Like the famous one for OBOE “An ill woodwind that nobody blows good” 29 minutes. Ann
27. Did the first third very quickly, then slowed to a near halt, then picked up speed at the end again. Not entirely happy with some of the clueing. If Bristol can be reduced to ‘university’ then so can just about anywhere. And I’ve always pronounced Whig as Whig, not wig. ‘Make-up’ was a weak clue too. I’m glad I remembered that is how to spell Languor. Still looks odd though.
28. My experience was rather like our blogger, with the LHS completed before embarking on the right.
    I did not know the monkey and spent much time on the When you see a U, try a Q theory- to no avail. My composer was the little known Cheer. There were so many potential misdirections in 6d that I have to make that my COD -I was nowhere near getting it.
    I did manage to derive the implausible BIERCE and now I have a new dictionary to explore.
    David
29. Another good day – there must be something in the air. Spring perhaps! All filled and parsed (unlike the Quickie which I biffed in haste). No accurate time as I do this on paper and stopped and started, but definitely less than an hour. COD to seashell, GR (golden raspberry) to 17a, MER to 30a. Have just pulled out my copy of The Devil’s Dictionary, with illustrations by Ralph Steadman – double the satire.
30. I found the mix of some very specific bits, e.g. ‘extinct bird’, with some real generalities, e.g. ‘university’, to be tricky; then a similar mix of very simple and reasonably convoluted clues – I’m thinking Backmost vs Putresence – kept me unsure of what to take at face value and what to worry through. Fortunately Bierce, Languor, and Anchorite were at the edge of my knowledge.
31. Ace clue = SEASHELL, Bierce known to me as I possess his actual dictionary. And very amusing it is.

    Thx jackkt and setter.

32. Replacing ‘on’ with ‘about’ in 26a would enable the surface to make more sense. Not sure how precisely cargo works even though it was clearly biffable. Obviously car + go, which I get, but then surely the definition is either wrong or at best questionable? I read it as ‘fuel for/of the tanker’-ie not the cargo. All that silliness is easily avoided by using ‘vehicle to move load’. Why use three words when one will do? Mr Grumpy
    1. Spot on with the brevity of your revised clue, i read the longwinded one as the fuel that an (oil) tanker carries is its cargo.
33. Having biffed POST-PRODUCE at 12ac early, I finally spent far too long trying to see why 1dn was BACKPOST, and eventually gave up and submitted after about 45 minutes.
    I agree that much of Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary is just as true today !

    Edited at 2019-03-19 06:18 pm (UTC)

34. 39:28. I was a bit slow today but also found this troublesome here and there. My last three in, and ones which I thought I was never going to get, were 1dn, 4ac and 7dn. Backmost was an unexpected oddity. I think I may have come across Sir Arthur in a past puzzle or two but such encounters had not been sufficient to lodge him firmly in the brain. And in firmament the synonymity between enduring and firm did not spring immediately to mind. I liked the clue for mass-produce.
35. Thanks setter and jack
    Off to a flying start with ICE that was quickly followed by MASS PRODUCE. Knew the monkey and LANGUOR was another early entry.
    Had SECRETARIES originally at 6d and was only able to fix this up late when CONTENTIOUS finally fell.
    Finished in the NW corner with SMITTEN (quite tricky), BACKMOST (unusual word) and BIGWIG (that became obvious with all of the crossers, but impossible before that).
36. Thanks (again) setter and jack
    This one was a gap in my ‘done pile’ record, so was able to find in my back issues of The Australian and managed to do it again without remembering any of it … and then stunned to see my comment above.
    Obviously there was some subliminal memories as it only took 25 min this time and finished in the opposite corner with REVEAL and ODE.
    (very red face !)

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