Times Cryptic 28106

67 comments on “Times Cryptic 28106”

1. I biffed a couple–PADDLE STEAMER, FORTUNE COOKIE, BILLSTICKER– parsed post-submission. WHISTLER was vaguely familiar, although I couldn’t have said where it is, and I Googled it once I’d entered it. I needn’t have bothered, though, since I immediately thought of POI HYPONYM and then LOI EMANCIPATE to finish. I took FOI PURPLE to be a double definition: purple as in prose, and violet. And I read ‘content’ as meaning ‘contented’.

   Edited at 2021-10-12 01:52 am (UTC)

   1. Thanks re PURPLE. I think mine works just about, but yours is better.
2. I parsed 6a as flowery=purple as in ‘purple prose’.
   Yet another local bird makes an appearance! ROSELLA is also an Australian brand of TOMATO SOUP. The crossword is becoming as antipodean as the TfTT site.
   16:13
   1. Our day is coming, Corymbia. Maintain the rage!
3. ….it’s easy to see what your FOI is likely to be. But I had a lot of trouble really getting a grip on the puzzle, and the end proved tricky as well. I suspect the hyponym/whistler/rosella area will give some solvers problems, although not Australian skiers who took Greek in college.

   I did take earth science in 9th grade, and well remember the types of rocks: sentimental, ignorant, and metaphoric! Well, we were a bunch of 14-year-olds.

   Time: 44 minutes.

   1. I’ve been skiing in Whistler, but did Latin not Greek at school.
4. My downfall was inventing a word EXTOSE or 25a, which fitted the wordplay and seemed likely as a real word meaning bare. For some reason I never thought of EXPOSE or SOP instead of SOT. So one pink square after 28 minutes. I didn’t know either HYPONYM nor the Australian bird du jour so that held me up a little at the end, until I got WHISTLER (where I have been cross-country skiing about ten years ago).

   I got 8D (LYRICAL) before the referenced 4D, so I could basically write LILAC in without even bothering to look at the clue, although obviously I did.

   Edited at 2021-10-12 02:12 am (UTC)

5. “I never inhaled”.

   “My Mum gave me the tablets”.

   “No, I don’t know what that white powder was on the table in front of us in the video”.

   Beyond those standard excuses, I have no explanation for my much-faster-than-usual solve today. But it was a lot of fun.

   11ac came easily, as I had a young neighbour in Perth who I nicknamed “Dialos”, because he was so laid back. Too many cryptics maybe?

   Anyway, thanks setter and Jack. Back to normal speed tomorrow, presumably.

6. Jack, I think you have the parsing wrong here.

   The anagrind is “sort”. The anagrist is OAPs out. Also, I think the surface does make sense, in that tortured cryptic clue-like way. ie if you read it as “Can a happy cat sort out older people?”.

   1. Thanks, galspray and anon immediately below. This is one of the hazards of writing the blog whilst not also referring to the notes on parsing so carefully prepared whilst solving! I had annotated the clue exactly as you have kindly suggested but then carelessly reworked it when blogging. The surface also makes perfect sense when not distracted by the bold underline linking ‘content’ with ‘can’ as required for the definition.
      1. Cheers Jack. Your blogging was always meticulous, but I think I’ve observed on my return that it’s become even more so, and errors are rare.

         But!!!! Kevin also makes a comment above re the definiton of PURPLE as in prose. This may be not so much an error as a different reading of the clue, but I admit my first thoughts were aligned with Kevin’s interpretation.

         1. Thanks for your kind comments. I have added Kevin’s suggestion to the blog now, which I admit hadn’t occurred to me but once one’s seen an explanation that works (as I think my original does – just about) one tends to stop looking for others. Nice to have you back as a regular.
7. 23 ac FORTUNE COOKIES are not native to China! When I first arrived in Hong Kong/Shanghai I thought they would be ‘endemic’. They were invented in 1914 by one Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese gentleman who ran a tea and cookie establishment in San Francisco. My favourite message – “Nobody likes you! A. Friend” – My WOD

   FOI 1ac WHISTLER my eldest son was flying and ski-ing there four years ago

   LOI 14dn INTRODUCE – Mussolini still has a presence- I’ve never seen Hitler in a crossword!

   COD 26ac TAXI RANK where Mr. Jordan used to hang out

   1. Meant to add that I thought “one that has a lot in it” was the definition of the day.
      1. I thought that too, until I read the blog. ONE is part of the wordplay.
8. Re. the explanation to 18a, the anagram is actually of “OAP’s out”, and the surface has “content” in the sense of happy/contented.
9. True, true, but I don’t think that changes the quality of the definition.
10. Strangely off the wavelength, bottom half was very slow. Partly the brain not working… had igneous and metamorphic but couldn’t bring sedimentary to mind; and could only think of Lakotah, couldn’t get to Sioux. Always thought a claymore was a club. No problem with the bird – an introduced pest sometimes culled in these parts – but trouble with the English town, having HIL mentally pencilled in. LOI Lulu unknown, so needed both checkers. 2LOI billstickers never seen, only bill posters.
    Mussolini’s granddaughters were/are active in Italian politics, one just re-elected to Roman city council, one an ex-Italian and ex-Euro MP.
    COD fortune cookie, for the (almost) definition.
11. After having been next to bottom on the SNITCH yesterday I find myself near the other end today, though I was never going to match galspray’s blistering time.
    LULU puts me in mind of the album of that name that was a collaboration between Metallica and Lou Reed and is commonly viewed as being absolutely dreadful. Having never heard it, I’m tempted to give it a go today. It’ll either be a pleasant surprise or delicious Schadenfreude.
    1. I can confirm Lulu is not a Lulu. God it’s awful!
       1. It’s by Berg; I mean, duh.
12. Good to see our Australian feathered friends make a re-appearance. I didn’t have too many problems with this although had never come across HYPONYM before.

    A bit gloomy, but instant word association for CLAYMORE =”Culloden” from “The Skye Boat Song”.

    32 minutes with LULU my last in. Very close to putting in ‘Lola’ which would have compounded yesterday’s ‘imposter’ boo-boo.

    Thanks to Jack and setter

    1. The Kinks’ “Lola” is actually a LULU !
       1. Couldn’t agree more.

          Lo-lo-lo-lo-Lo-o-la…

          51 year-old earworm for the day.

13. 43:50
    Tough challenge; enjoyed it.
    Excellent blog, jack.
14. And purple-stained mouth;

    25 mins pre-brekker. I quite liked and have been reminded — again — that in crosswords, doctor sometimes means cook.
    I did think that needing Hyponym and Rosella to get checkers in Whistler was a bit tricky.
    Thanks setter and J.

    1. It’s nice to know the technical term structuring DBE
15. …wow, she’s something else. That’s LULU for you, when she’s not being a smarty spoiling the party. 26 minutes with LOI HYPONYM after I dredged the WHISTLER winter Olympics from somewhere. COD to LAID-BACK. I had PURPLE attached to PROSE too for its flowery meaning. The Lancastrian’s prayer: From Hull, Hell and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us. Amen.
    Decent puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
16. 10:55. Good one.
    LULU meaning ‘remarkable thing’ is a word I only know from crosswords, and I’ve never heard of the opera so I got a bit lucky there. I think I learned ROSELLA from crosswords too, but I’ve also seen them in Australia. HYPONYM was new to me I think.
17. ROSELLA’s a HYPONYM word
    For that SLIPPY concept, the bird
    Am I LAID BACK? Oh no!
    In fact I cry WHOA!
    To EXPOSE the crime that’s occurred
18. Well, nearly — was fixated on LOLA until the singer came into mind, and then… Nho the opera at all.

    I will drop HYPONYM into conversation sometime. COD to GNOMIC.

    16′ 14″, thanks jack and setter.

19. Like others I had never heard of HYPONYM. Looking it up now in Lexico, I see there is the converse: HYPERNYM where, in Jack’s example, tree would be a hypernym for oak or cedar.
    I managed to solve 8d first so that made getting 4d much easier.
    Liked how the anagram in 18ac for TOMATO SOUP was cleverly hidden. From my memory of “The Meaning of Liff”, a Bodmin is the inevitable and irreconcilable difference between the amount of money pooled at a group dinner and the actual bill. “Well, I didn’t have the tomato soup!”
    Also liked EMANCIPATE and INTRODUCE.
    Thanks, Jack, for your decode of FORTUNE COOKIE. For a while with about three checkers in place I had FARMERS MARKET.
20. Liked this one.

    Is a hyponym the same as a DBE? And in 2dn, are “Pony” and “Hyponym” examples of hyponyms, since most ponys aren’t trekkers and a specific word may or may not be a hyponym?

21. Encouraged to get FOI PADDLE STEAMER after considering the anagrist for a few seconds, then became increasingly worried as the solutions came at a drip-drip pace. Picked up a bit when the X-es of HALIFAX and SIOUX made the crossers easy.

    Didn’t fully parse PURPLE, INTRODUCE, FORTUNE COOOKIE, and had a break at 38m – 3 clues to go – for a morning walk with a musician friend, and sneakily asked for an opera fitting L-L-. TBH I think I would probably have plumped for LOLA otherwise

    On the other hand, I’m fully culturally in tune with MAE WEST – She Done Him Wrong has to be one of the greatest pre-code talkies:
    Cary Grant (as staid Sally Army Officer): “Has any man ever made you happy?”
    Ms West: “Sure – lotsa times”

    Finished in the NW with HYPONYM, immediately followed by LOI GNOMIC (which was reasonably fresh in the mind from an appearance a few weeks ago). Very pleased with the sightly-assisted full completion.

    Thanks J and setter

22. I’ve enjoyed reading these … and have now worked out how to contribute. 🙄 Must remember correct spelling of SIOUX. LOI WHISTLER
    1. Looking forward to reading your contributions!
23. FOI 3dn Sedimentary my dear Watson! Tricky, but with lots of goodies: Tomato soup: Fortune Cookies – I never realised they were ‘Japanese’!; Paddle Steamer; Halifax; Mae West and umpteen others. COD to 2dn Hyponym!
24. I have two men drilling right outside of my window so would probably struggle to do any crossword today. Still, I will have superfast broadband tomorrow. HOORAH!

    This was tough but I got there in the end. It didn’t feel very ‘Times’ to me. Surprised HALIFAX wasn’t clued as Canadian.

25. Banged in LILY as LULU as an opera was a NHO and I don’t think I know the other definition either. Oh well.

    I did know WHISTLER as I was once near there. HYPONYM guessed at. Good word. I liked FORTUNE COOKIE and TOMATO SOUP.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

26. A fine puzzle where a lot of the clues took a while to macerate in the just-below-consciousness section of my brain before emerging fully formed into the daylight. I had blank spaces all over the grid – even PURPLE didn’t fall automatically – and for several entries the wordplay remained, shall we say, blurred.
    I’m pretty sure the LAID BACK ploy was used recently, perhaps in a currently embargoed crossword: searching for it I found an example in a crossword I blogged 7 years back, when it was “Relaxed face?”. Matures well.
    My entry for HYPONYM was delayed by trying to fit Spock, Kirk, Sulu or even Uhura into the mix. That’ll be the day.
    Just under 20 minutes.
27. 16:11 Nice puzzle. Held up by the unknown HYPONYM. Curiously, when I googled it later I found PURPLE -> VIOLET as an example of hyponymy. I liked FORTUNE COOKIE, BILLSTICKER and TOMATO SOUP best.
    1. Just don’t dip the FORTUNE COOKIE in your TOMATO SOUP !
28. I thought there were some nice clues here. Amongst them GNOMIC, CLAYMORE and my COD, FORTUNE COOKIE

    WHISTLER was the LOI and only got from the crossers. I did know about HYPONYMs; I thought “specific word” a bit vague, but I couldn’t then think of a better crossword-suitable definition.

    Thanks to Jack and the setter.

29. Nothing really to say. 42.46. All went in at a slow rate but no major hold-ups. For some reason I don’t like the word ‘slippy’ and feel it should be ‘slippery’. Perhaps that’s because David Coleman [he of Emerson Fittipoldi fame] used it.
30. One of those which I found tricky until I finished it, at which point I couldn’t really see why I’d struggled, which I guess means the setter did their job perfectly.
31. I was actually very slow to spot TAXI RANK, and it was SLOI !
32. Nice puzzle today.
    I didn’t parse “Mae West” as I was fixated on the pole being S, or possibly even E or W, but the answer was clear enough.
    Flying to Jersey in the sunshine today for a postponed holiday.
33. Sorry – don’t get explanation given. could someone please elucidate? Thanks!
    1. Dial reversed = laid back
34. ….this was just the tonic I needed ! One of my favourite puzzles of the year so far.

    NHO HYPONYM, but was able to biff it once WHISTLER was in. Dastardly Denise’s horse was called SIOUX.

    FOI PURPLE*
    LOI TOMATO SOUP*
    COD GNOMIC
    TIME 9:23

    ** This effect can be achieved by adding beetroot.

    Edited at 2021-10-12 10:42 am (UTC)

35. 22.35 and a quicker finish than I expected after a first run through. FOI gin which didn’t work out too well. LOI tho right after fortune cookie.
    Hyponymy a new one on me but the cluing was very fair. Struggled with paddle steamer, due to temporarily forgetting how to count. Nice to see rosella make an appearance, can only be a matter of time till lorikeet gets a showing.
    Oh, before I forget, I did eventually replace gin with rum. An intoxicating moment.
    Thx setter and blogger.
    1. Just realised on reading your comment that it’s lorikeets which are an introduce pest in WA, not rosellas as I wrote at 04:37. I suppose it confirms my brain really wasn’t working too well.
    2. We’ve had ROSELLA before, or I wouldn’t have got it this time.
36. A memory from my youth. A notice on a hoarding “Bill stickers will be prosecuted,” and by it a bit of graffiti “Bill Stickers is innocent”.
37. finished this one, unlike the QC.

    Very enjoyable puzzle, just about at the edge of my comfort zone – hard enough to make me scratch my head, not so hard that I throw in the towel.

    GNOMIC being hidden passed me by, v much a biff, also guessed LULU NHO of either definition.

    27:17.

38. Same probs as others with WHISTLER, HYPONYM (even though saw the HYM(N) early) and the unknown LULU.

    Apart from those,a soft ride. I liked EMANCIIPATE.

39. 17.39. FOI purple. LOI Whistler – dnk the resort. Got a bit mixed over introduce where I was trying to bring in the SS for a while and over fortune cookie where it took some time to alight upon the correct strain and the required doctor. Otherwise this was a pretty straightforward trot round the grid for me.
40. Some tricky stuff in this one, but it eventually turned out to be my only crossword of the day without a pink square. LILAC got me off to a start and it was fairly slow going from then on until LULU. Lots of PDMs to brighten the solving process. 37:04. Thanks setter and Jack.

    Edited at 2021-10-12 12:49 pm (UTC)

41. Also bruised by this morning’s QC, I tried this and enjoyed it over a leisurely lunch.
    2d LOI where I wrote HEPONYM despite getting the Hymn part. I’ll put it down to tiredness.
    HYPONYM unknown, until now.
    Lots of good clues. COD to TAXI RANK.
    David

    Edited at 2021-10-12 01:27 pm (UTC)

42. (Can one use the expression ‘pink square’ when solving on paper? Let’s do it.)

    Like Paulmcl, I invented extose as a new word, only having thought of ‘sot’ and not ‘sop’.

    NHO hyponym, rosella. LOI Lulu and only after a vowel trawl. I was determined that I did not know a Native American ending in x until I got the initial s.

    Liked 10ac, ‘read as Arabic’ for the reversal indicator.

    Thanks to the setter and to Jack for the explanations.

    1. Mr. Booth this has had an airing a few months back. When solving on paper and a ‘pink square’ is gained, use a pink/red highlighter to fill in the erroneous letter(s). In that way one can keep up with those who use the electronic method. The novella-iste Barbara Cartland was known by Griff Rhys-Jones as ‘Her Pinkness’, when her relative Lady Diana Spencer became a member of the Royal Family. Babs later was immortalised by Matt Lucas in ‘Little Britain’ and returned to being just a ‘Pink Square’ before her demise in 2000. Meldrewpedia

       Edited at 2021-10-12 07:24 pm (UTC)

43. HYPONYM. TAXI RANK. A ski resort called WHISTLER.
    Not sure I’d heard of BILLSTICKER either, but worked it out. I must have encountered ROSELLA before, but only recognized it thru the wordplay.
    A real highlight was the new (to me, anyway) device (!) to indicate right-to-left reading.

    Edited at 2021-10-12 04:18 pm (UTC)

44. Surprised (and miffed) to see such a low Snitch. I thought I was doing pretty well on a toughish puzzle. Got four-fifths in, then slowed right down. FOI Halifax, cos my dad’s from there, well Cleckheaton. LOIs Whistler and Lulu. Both guesses. Narrowly avoided Toponym, but luckily couldn’t think of a four-letter song beginning T-O-M. I too thought a claymore was a shillelagh-type thing. Good fun – thanks to all.
45. Late comment even by my standards following Google denying me access to this site for most of the evening.
    17:01 earlier this evening. A very good puzzle, albeit with the odd MER, and several fine clues.
    FOI 4 d “lilac” then not an always smooth path to completion.
    Liked the neat 16 ac “whoa” and 23 ac “fortune cookie” but COD probably 10 ac ” gnomic” an inventive variation on the “reverse hidden” clue.
    NHO 2d “hyponym” although my feeling that the word ended “nym” was a help.
    Thanks to Jack and setter.
46. Can someone please explain “pants” as an anagram indicator?
    1. It’s slang for rubbish/nonsense.
47. Not having seen Hitler in the puzzle or the in the relaed commentary over the past 15 years pretty much gives the lie to the commonplace that no conversation on the internet can proceed for longer than [pick your short time period] without someone being accused of being “like Hitler”, doesn’t it.
    Wallace

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