Times Cryptic 28052

67 comments on “Times Cryptic 28052”

1. My last in UNINSTALL took an age; otherwise, a fairly even solve of a high standard puzzle.

   BIG GIRLS BLOUSE is a stupendous expression, capable of offending almost everyone, though none more so than the intended target. For some reason, I have always associated the phrase with Derek Pringle, who I played cricket against while at school.

   1. Am I right in thinking there was some discussion at the time about Derek Pringle sporting an earring?
      (I played cricket at school against Bob Woolmer. He did not wear an earring; this was the early-to-mid 60s after all!
2. I finally looked up LOI BIG GIRLS BLOUSE (NHO) after doing an alphabet trawl for the middle word where I’m pretty sure I forgot G. FU MANCHU was appalling even given its era. Biffed LIKE IT, FU, and PROLIX; LIKE IT took some working out. A half-dozen clues, I think, with initial or final letters (‘curry principally’ etc.).
3. ….with a lot of question marks. If indirect anagrams are banned, are indirect alternate letters permitted? Is a catamaran big? What the heck is a big girl’s blouse?

   Well, at least our blogger has answered one out of three.

   1. On BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE you can read all about it here: https://wordhistories.net/2018/10/20/big-girls-blouse/

      Is your concern re indirect alternate letters about 14ac?

      S{w}I{s}S (from Zurich for example) [oddly]

      I don’t have a problem with this. We have indirect deletion clues all the time with usually first or last letters getting the chop, as in VIAN{d} at 11ac and CHU{m} at 28ac, so I don’t see extending that to deleting alternate letters as being very much different. Indirect anagrams seem quite distinct to me and I wouldn’t want to see that boundary crossed at The Times, but since I took to solving the Guardian puzzle regularly I have started to get used to them.

      Edited at 2021-08-10 04:37 am (UTC)

4. LOI the ne’er-before-heard BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE. I finally figured that must be the phrase, but it didn’t immediately make me think—no more than did “wet”—of a milquetoast (i.e., an “unmanly” man—oh, please, spare me).

   I started with 1ac, for once, and got KICK IN THE TEETH next, so was off to the races. For some reason, I particularly liked TONSORIAL.

   Edited at 2021-08-10 03:51 am (UTC)

   1. I’m pretty sure that milquetoast is the best word in the English language, but I’ve never known how to pronounce it!

      Robin

5. 23 minutes, though with LIKE IT OR NOT unparsed (gave up trying) and NHO the ‘Huge insult’ meaning of BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE. Good to have an AVIAN creature at 14a which went in without too much trouble, unlike many we get here.

   I didn’t know about ‘Large boat’ for CATAMARAN either, but wonder if the setter may be referring to the “wide” or “broad” sense of ‘large’.

   Thanks to Jack and setter

   1. Thanks. That may well be the explanation but I still think it’s a bit dodgy.
      1. Thanks for responding. I agree, not a convincing explanation. Maybe someone here knows something about CATAMARAN(s) that we don’t and will be able to enlighten us.
6. A long evening of packing up the apartment in preparation for our floors being repaired after a flood. Accordingly, I started out slow, though I eventually picked up steam, only to be stymied in the end by GIRL’S. I thought the answer might be something whimsical like BIG BILLY BLOUSE, but no.

   Incidentally, I have been streaming some of my solves here: https://www.twitch.tv/plusjeremy. I say: why watch Verlaine solve puzzles in five minutes when you can watch me solve them in twenty?

   (j/k)

   1. Hey, why did I get thumbs down from Horryd? Did I breathe wrong again? 😂
      1. plusJeremy: noting today’s fantastic PB and your DNF – I would agree with horryd – why watch Verlaine & Co struggle when maufew can solve it in three and a half minutes!!
         1. And that’s what ‘joking’ means.
   2. Thanks, really interesting to watch – and must be tricky with the UK terminology. Watching you take on the NYT was the opposite experience, as I was left baffled by several references.

      Excruciating, knowing the answers now, to hear you get the right solution and then dismiss it, e.g. BYPASS – we’ve all been there.

      1. I tend to do pretty well at the UK-centric stuff, considering. For example, I knew BILLINGSGATE, somehow (even though I lacked the courage or understanding to put it in).

         I’m glad you found the stream entertaining. If you follow me on there, you should get notified next time I stream!

7. Early start and a reasonable performance for me. These days I usually get a few initially, then “hit a wall” and start thinking I’m going to DNF – until I get a key clue around 25m, triggering a cascade of answers that spurs me on to finish. That “cascade” moment sure is the best part of crossword-solving – and today it was the much-discussed BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE. FWIW I remember that phrase from a Lancashire childhood in the seventies – the father of a friend often used it when encouraging young boys to be brave, and take on “manly” challenges.
   1. Thanks, Denise. Your memory of BGB is spot on according to the origin of the phrase as described in my link (now in the blog and also my posting above). 1969 Lancashire and first given voice by Hilda Baker. She knows y’know!
      1. I’m just about old enough to remember Nellie Pledge, her catch-phrases and her trademark malapropisms. One that sticks in the mind (though I didn’t really understand it at the time) went something like “Ooohh I went to a pub the other night, and they had those erratic dancers!”

         The story of Ms Baker turned out to be a rather sad one – from being the highest-paid star of British TV, to almost completely forgotten in the space of ten years – a victim of Alzheimer’s. I think I read somewhere that her funeral was attended by ten people.

         1. I grew up with ’em! Hilda once noted, ‘We was so poor – we’ad nowt – my sister and I became completely prostitute!’ BGB was used a lot by Eric Morecambe, God luv’ ‘im!
8. 16:44 Away from home so done online instead of on paper and hence no notes. LOI PROLIX, unknown but derived from wordplay. SUPER is a super hidden – well it had me fooled for a while.
9. It took me a while to actually find the crossword today — seems the site is still having some issues. Once I got going I managed my fourth quickest time according to the SNITCH. One of those days where I was fortunate to have all the GK, not least for BIG GIRLS BLOUSE, which I think will be familiar enough to all UK solvers. It now always reminds me of Boris Johnson referring to Jeremy Corbyn as such in parliament a couple of years back.
   1. Once you found it then, you didn’t muck about!
10. On the wavelength with one of my better times. Maybe being on holiday helps. More likely knowing BIG GIRLS BLOUSE and successfully biffing a few where I needed to come here for the parsing. SCRUMPTIOUS for example where I still never think of PI or PIOUS for “very good”. Lovely word though 🙂

    Rather liked KICK IN THE TEETH

    Thanks Jackkt and Setter

    Ps I’m also still having major problems with the Crossword Club site but just about managed to submit a time for this one

11. At the easy end for me. Rather too many first/last letters for my taste: beginning, originally, principally, in the end, starts, ending in, ultimately and back.
12. Not quite as quick as yesterday’s but still very rapid. Last 2 in scrumptious and BGB, mostly because I didn’t get them on first read and went back with all the checkers in place. No unknowns, though I’m not sure if big girl’s blouse is in use in Australia, or if I heard it at work – head office was in Aberdeen so often worked with Scots and English colleagues. Tonsorial probably the pick, just ahead of Scrumptious. Thanks setter and blogger.
13. No issues today, agree re CATAMARAN not being necessarily big. BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE straight in, but my memory associates its usage with being jocular rather than insulting.

    Worked out NAIVE as I know ‘viande’ is French for a meat course, and we got most of our meat words from the invading Normans.

    FU MANCHU should be in the museum of racism.

    Oh, and BALTI is a UK invention, originating in Birmingham.

    12’04”, thanks jack and setter.

    Edited at 2021-08-10 07:13 am (UTC)

14. LIKE IT OR NOT, an AVIAN BUFFER,
    That PERISHING TOUCAN’s a duffer
    So we BYPASS all pleasure
    As we solve at our LEISURE
    EASY-PEASY, but the bird made us suffer
15. 7:30. My main problem today was somehow mentally substituting ‘tailors’ for ‘hairdressers’ in 6dn and writing in SARTORIAL. This is the sort of thing that can happen when you’re trying to go quickly without adequate caffeine stimulus.
    BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE is no doubt not very PC but I can’t get too upset about it. Low-level casual sexism like that is a bit annoying but the effort to smash the patriarchy has more important targets.
    As robrolfe points out BALTI is not a South Asian dish.
16. For some reason, I only have yesterday’s puzzles available on The Times site. There were problems with the server yesterday. The rest of the paper seems to be Tuesday’s edition.
    1. I had the same thing on the main page but found today’s puzzle under ‘cryptic’.
    2. Vinyl mentioned yesterday that it was likely a cookie problem. Off the back of that I have found that clearing browser data fixes the problem, at least temporarily.
17. 17:54
    BGB is the sort of clue one might expect a Murdoch paper to nod through. Sort of thing my PE teachers in the 70s would roar at boys who were doing their best.
18. Done in one sitting, in about 20 mins which is fast for me. Didn’t know FU MANCHU or PROLIX but trusted the cryptics to get me there. BGB went straight in. Never used to think of it as a great insult but, as others as have said, more of a mild tease. Wouldn’t use it now of course.

    Thanks to blogger and setter.

19. One of those extremely rare occasions where everything just fell into place. I think that’s my second or third fastest time.
    I have no problem with BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE nor with FU MANCHU and certainly not with ‘curry’.
    COD to FU MANCHU. When the ‘F’ went in, I was thinking ‘Fr. someone or other but couldn’t think of a villainous priest.
    1. Couldn’t think of a villainous priest? And you brought up a Catholic?
20. 19 minutes with LOI TWENTIES. As Denise says and Jack confirms, BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE came into common currency in my twenties when I moved back to Lancashire. Well before then, I remember Jimmy Jewell with Ben Warriss playing Blackpool summer seasons, and also Hylda Baker with her silent stooge Cynthia. COD to KICK IN THE TEETH. It was enough for me to find a boat that matched the crossers and had a river inside a can to worry if it was big enough. I enjoyed this. Thank you Jack and setter.

    Edited at 2021-08-10 08:19 am (UTC)

21. Pretty fast for me today at 12.50. One of those where there were no massive hold-ups or brain freezes.

    Liked “the champers” clue which I only parsed post-submission.

    Also, I see that my I’ve made it on the SNITCH reference solvers list so will be fascinating to see if I can improve my 25min average over time.

22. at 5dn was my FOI, so I knew this one was going to right up my ginnel! The American’s simply didn’t know this ‘stupendous’ ‘shiboleth’! And as Robrolfe rightly notes ‘jocular’! Another Gold to Team Great Britain! (Hilda Baker, Eric Morecambe and the Two Ronnies). And thus my COD.

    LOI 17dn UNINSTALL exactly as per Lord Ulaca

    WOD 28ac FU-MANCHU I am writing a book ‘Ghosts’ on the unknown writers and ‘ghost-writers’ of popular fiction. Researched in London, Leicester and Singapore’s Tiger Balm Gardens, Fu Manchu was initially penned by one Frank Odom (Sax Rohmer)- between 1913 and 1917 he wrote only three books. (Categorically this was not Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward, who had never been further east than Cairo!)
    Frank Odom worked for ‘Robinsons’ department store in Singapore. His stories were based on their amazing window dioramas from the very scary Tiger Balm Gardens. In the late twenties when Frank had lost interest; a well-known ‘ghost’ took over the mantle of Sax Rohmer and wrote 11 more adventures – but I won’t spoil it for you..!

    15dn Ocean-going CATAMARANS are absolutely ginormous (Sydney – Hobart memories 1999).

    Time 24:30 minutes – much enjoyed! 27ac

    Edited at 2021-08-10 08:41 am (UTC)

    1. Sax Rohmer (alias Arthur Henry Ward) has a blue plaque on a house on Herne Hill, near to where I live.

       https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/sax-rohmer/

       1. Unspammed. But better shh! about this or someone will start a campaign to have it removed.
23. And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

    25 mins after taking the car for its MOT.
    Nellie Pledge had some memorable lines — and I can say that without fear of contraception.
    Thanks setter and J.

24. Romped through most of this until hitting the 1As with REALM — spent ages trying to dredge up another obscure French officer to reverse. I have a new target: to drag my average time on the SNITCH down under 30m. Game on!
25. Thought this was EASY PEASY but pride comes before a fall.

    Christopher Lee is unintentionally hilarious as the lead in the Hammer film The Face of Fu Manchu.

    Thanks to Jack and the setter

26. If wavelength exists, I was certainly on it today! I was confident enough in many biffs not to need to check the wordplay, so from BUFFER to PROLIX in 15:11. Loads to like and a few giggles along the way. Thanks setter and Jack.
27. Another happy solver on the wavelength today. My parents were from Manchester so BIG GIRL’S BLOUSE was a write-in (never aimed at me, I hasten to add). I never knew how many of our household words were dialect until I was met with blank looks when using them in later life. I still can’t quite believe that “mithering” has never made it into mainstream English. 11 minutes — a near, and perhaps actual, weekday record, I think.
28. I found this a little tougher than some others. Particularly TONSORIAL, PROLIX, and for some odd reason, SCRUMPTIOUS. In mitigation, I did have a number of distractions. I thought TWENTIES was a strange clue/answer. I did like BGB and the hidden SUPER. Thanks Jack and setter.
29. Around 40 minutes with 5 minutes spent on LOI “Prolix”.
    For me, “Big Girl’s Blouse” is usually reserved for a footballer who falls over too easily. I won’t mention any names but there was that Portuguese fellow ……..
    1. Harry Kane is Portuguese?
       1. Good work mocking the Man City scumbag (in anticipation)
          A Spurs Fan.
30. Pleased to complete. Wasn’t sure about last few: naive, catamaran, and twenties, but apart from that pretty straightforward.

    Cod leisure or big girls blouse.

31. Today was a record for me! Plenty of biffing once I realised things were going well, including LIKE IT OR NOT, SCRUMPTIOUS, ON AIR, EASY-PEASY, FU MANCHU & CATAMARAN. I was helped by a couple of long multi-word answers, which I generally find easier to enter and which give a good skeleton for the rest of the puzzle.

    MER at SIS, and I wouldn’t want to see it with any more vague wordplay, but ‘from Zurich for example’ was pretty unambiguous.

    TWENTIES was my LOI, entirely unparsed and with fingers crossed.

    1. Cracking time!
32. for me.

    Quite a bit of biffing/semi-parsing, and a reasonable time.

    UNINSTALL LOI, with the TALL/unlikely bit passing me by again!

    15:47

33. Some years back this appeared in one of Dean Mayer’s puzzles – I’d never heard it before but for some reason it stuck. It took me a few beats to separate “unlikely” from “to take off” in 17d but otherwise more or less a quickie for me. 12.06
34. That’s two in a row we’ve completed — wonders never cease. Took us around 30 minutes although my iPad advised that it was over 6 hours!

    FOI: SPA
    LOI: PROLIX
    COD: BIG GIRLS BLOUSE

    Thanks setter and Jackkt (the blog is really helpful)

35. 12.09 an easy puzzle and a quick time but it isn’t showing up on the leader board and so not being pulled over onto the SNITCH. Very annoying. When tomorrow’s puzzle takes me an hour you can guarantee that time will show up.
    1. The club site has had problems yesterday and today. If you clear website data then reload you’ll probably see yourself on the leaderboard. The problems are also affecting the SNITCH — it was only showing 4 entries from the leaderboard for some time today.
       1. Thanks Pootle. I cleared and reloaded and I can see myself on the leader board now.
36. All easy bar LOI 8 dn, which I had to biff from available letters: Sure I’m being dim, but is ‘ties’ a ref to a cup tie in soccer, hence ‘games’?
    1. Speaking as the most unsporty person around here, anon, I can assure you that you’re not being thick at all. Yes, a tie can be defined as a match or fixture between opposing teams, though not necessarily in soccer. And you get a bonus mark for calling the game by it’s proper name!

       Edited at 2021-08-10 02:07 pm (UTC)

37. ….as I never got into any sort of rhythm on what, reflecting afterwards, was a fairly straightforward puzzle.

    Couldn’t parse LIKE IT OR NOT, FU MANCHU, or CATAMARAN. I’m not with it right now.

    FOI BUFFER
    LOI REALM
    COD SCRUMPTIOUS
    TIME 10:01

38. I almost solved this top down, bar 17dn UNINSTALL! Great time from mauefw! Just about four times faster than yours truly. Bonkers! My COD 5dn BGB!
39. A late solve today and 16.25, perhaps not firing on all cylinders. The NAIVE AVIAN crossing held me up at the end: couldn’t think of a food I could reverse or a plural for birds ending in N.

    Fu Manchu racist? That’s just Wong. Besides, in the cinema versions, he was never Chinese, always a Westerner in a funny moustache, heavy makeup and an obviously fake accent.

    I invite correspondents to come up with an expression that can be attached to female footballers who fall over too easily (etc) to match BGB. That should be fun.

    1. Maybe the irony is that female footballers don’t seem to fall over too easily?
40. I’m really amazed that this has more or less the same Snitch as yesterday’s puzzle. A slow but ultimately successful solve yesterday, but a good handful short today. At least I learnt a new word — Prolix. Invariant
41. Solved OK but just couldn’t see what FU was doing in 28ac – never thought of fur for hair – thanks.

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