Times Cryptic 28082

57 comments on “Times Cryptic 28082”

1. 22.04. Progress in fits and starts getting snarled up in a couple of spots. Couldn’t make anything of sans serif at first, also momentarily pondered stemis. Tempus fugit helped with the momentary meaning of fugitive. Didn’t fully parse wind instrument while solving. A satisfying solve.
2. FOI tourist. First pass – LOI also tourist. Er, no others at all. Second sitting – to my utter amazement I began to solve this, and then finished it. OK, it took me an hour, but still delighted. Most parsed, but some nuances gained from the blog. Did not parse wind instrument, sans serif, deuterium, stasis or Incan. Thought the little hesitation in deuterium was er, not um. Looking for amen in the enjoy clue (biffed it from bijou) and did not see the last word of the server until coming here. Did not see the descent part of Incan. Thoroughly entertaining puzzle and blog on a very wet day, a nice break from weeding the filing cabinet. Thanks, Jack, and setter. GW.
3. My LOI was 27ac – I slung in SPACE – at the time I parsed it – now is a struggle! Sam Spade (Doh!)

   FOI 1ac PSEUDONYM – Meldrew in my case

   COD 17ac SWIMMING TRUNKS!!

   WOD 14dn NEW GUINEA

   “I don’t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.” The Maltese Falcon

   Edited at 2021-09-14 03:13 pm (UTC)

4. A few interruptions and much time expended on CYNIC and MOMENTARY. MAYFLY last one in. I liked the anagram at 17. Reminded me of ‘The madness of King George’ — where they addressed each other as Mr and Mrs King I think.
   Thanks to Jack and the setter.
   Andrew
5. Time 12.44 with pretty much a top down solve including the Pub Crawl, Agamemnon, Wind Instruments, Emcee and the Swimming Trunks. Sounds like ‘The Hangover IV’. COD 8dn MAYFLY. I cannot imagine how heavy deuterium is.
   1. Deuterium is twice as heavy as normal hydrogen. Two times! So it’s the second-lightest substance in the universe.
6. 13:16 this afternoon. I enjoyed this puzzle, with its number of witty surfaces.
   POI 10 ac “momentary” and LOI 5d “mumbler” required me to find the right synonyms for “warning” and “cross” respectively . Both took a little time.
   Good to see William McGonagall making an appearance in such hallowed print. Self-titled “poet and tragedian” who once suffered the indignity of having a plateful peas thrown at him by an irate publican after one of his (possibly uninvited) recitals. Anyway it didn’t seem to deter him.
   Liked 17 ac “Spade” where for a while I was looking for a homonym for “private” beginning with “I”. “What about that bar bill, mac?” “Don’t worry, Sam Spade” — was that from a Bonzo Dog number perhaps?
   COD possibly 26 ac “emcee” with its neatly misleading surface.
   Thanks to Jack for his informative blog and to setter.
7. Except for my last 3 – MOMENTARY, LACTEAL and CYNIC.

   I don’t recall any other problems.

   23:46

8. Solved after a lunch out. Came here to see if my guesses were correct. Could not parse INCAN. Nearly caught out by MOMENTARY and CYNIC. Finished with MAYFLY.
   Fun puzzle.
   David
9. 19.20 but a bit of a travail over the bottom third. Some chestnuts involved- sans serif and emcee to the fore- but once remembered they eventually set up the flashbulb moment. I was determined to make hiatus fit 20 dn but eventually saw the light when sans serif went in.

   Incan was my head slam clue, put it in without seeing the descent addition. Brought a smile though.
   Thx setter and blogger.

10. Chuffed to complete this in just over 17 minutes, but with MOMENTARY unparsed. Thanks to our blogger for the explanation, or rather the definition.
11. 28 minutes, which for me means “very easy”, but unlike yesterday’s consistently so. Congratulations, Jack, on parsing INCAN (I could never have managed that. The DESCENT which had to be cancelled had far too many letters). I liked this better than yesterday’s but still have the same criticism that the surface meanings are often very unnatural: “Aircraftman leaves in two litres of milk”. Really? And how does he contrive to do that?
    1. I’ve been saying the same on and off for years. Perhaps your comments will receive a better welcome than mine did.

       In the absence of any meaningful exchanges on the ToL Crossword Club boards, I thought it might be worthwhile trying to address some genuine criticisms on this thread, as it seems The Times Puzzles Editor and the setters look in on the discussion from time to time. Alas, and perhaps because of that and certainly in hindsight, any real criticism on here that cuts to the fundamentals of a crossword doesn’t gain any mileage. Setters are sacrosanct. Overly-so in my opinion. But with the continuing decline in popularity of cryptic crosswords, if you’ll allow me to mix my metaphors; I think there’s an understandable reluctance to ‘bite the hand of the baby in the bath water before throwing both out’.

       Alluding to your comment, it feels like there are clunkers day after day where the setter is trying to crowbar in an otherwise very neat piece of construction which they’re reluctant to waste. Call me old-fashioned, but if the clue doesn’t make sense as a surface, no matter how cleverly constructed it is, it should be either discarded or rewritten.

       And I’ve been pooh-poohed a lot for sticking to my opinion that the modern version of The Times cryptic is simply not in the same league as when I was cutting my teeth on it thirty odd years ago. Misplaced nostalgia it may be, but I was in awe of it then. Meaningless surfaces would have never seen the light of day. But times change ‘innit’ ? (Mr Grumpy)

       1. I’d say that sounds like valid criticism anon, and worth raising.

          Not sure about the setters being sacrosanct, but I think they’re highly respected, based on it being a not particularly easy job!

          Agree that a smooth surface is something to strive for, and the example that hydro cites is indeed a shocker. No harm in pointing that out, whilst acknowledging the general high standard of clueing we see on a daily basis.

          BTW, there’s a tendency here for regulars to be more dismissive of comments that are posted anonymously. Not saying that should be the case, it just is. Why not get a livejournal id and join the fun? You’ve already chosen a perfect user name!

       2. What Galspray said. I would only add that I doubt you’re the first person to think of Mr Grumpy as a Live Journal user id, so if you try to join and find it’s already in use you can add some numbers or symbols at the end to make it unique.

          Here’s how to sign up:
          Re: Joining the Community
          To sign up for LiveJournal go to this link https://www.livejournal.com/create
          choose a username and fill in your details. You don’t actually have to post anything on your blog. If you log in and go to Times for The Times you can post comments here and they will be tagged with your username. You will also be able to edit your posts later if you wish, until such time as somebody has replied to them.

          Edited at 2021-09-15 06:48 am (UTC)

          1. Thank you.

             However, I am the original Mr Grumpy and I’m sure I used to be signed in as such? But something went wrong and I can’t get in anymore. Any ideas what I should do?

             1. Yes, set up a new LJ account as Mr Grumpy1 or some other variation that hasn’t been taken.
12. Deuterium really held me up. I am constantly breaking my rule about not sinking more than 30 minutes into a crossword (no self discipline). I once read that highly successful types do not go in for crosswords (‘waste of precious time’).
13. Struggled through to a finish, but with Wind Instrument, Stasis and Incan only partly solved — in fact not at all with Incan. The NE corner was blank for a long, long time, before I twigged what sort of entrance was involved. That’s the second or third time I’ve been caught out with that. One day it will stick. Invariant

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