Times Cryptic 28586

83 comments on “Times Cryptic 28586”

1. Luckily I didn’t know that La-La of Teletubby fame should have been spelled Laa-Laa. Thank you Jack for this. Obviously I wasn’t paying enough attention when I watched it.
   The chemical in 3d was very clever. RNA as “ran” out! COD for me. Though I did spend some time considering which acids might be vital. Some of the fatty acids maybe?
   LOI DISPERSE, as ‘per se’ took a while to see as ‘essentially’.
   Very enjoyable. Thanks to setter and blogger.
   21:17

2. 21:00
   Some DNKs slowed me down a bit: TIPCAT, BISTO, RIAD. I biffed the two long downs, parsed post-submission; COD to RNA. A bit surprised to see elate/elation show up twice. A MER at IONIC; it’s an adjective, ‘bond’ is a noun (or verb); a bond can be ionic, but not an ionic.

   1. Absolutely correct on the adjective – noun/verb inaccuracy.

3. Agree in awarding COD to RNA. I liked FOURTH DIMENSION too. Liked this well enough and it went smoothly enough that I didn’t notice the several nits plainly there to be picked (not that I would’ve noticed the Laa-Laa-land goofs). “Pep” seems just wrong. Also made a guess or three (“bisto,” TIPCAT…) and didn’t look back at the biffed RIYADH.

4. Since I solved the puzzle, I’m not going to complain. Fortunately, riad is always coming up in Mephisto, and I eventually remembered it. Aided by crossers, I biffed ribonucleic acid and fourth dimension, leaving only the fool and the plate. I eventually remembered the flummox/lummox chestnut, which enabled me to see lamella.

   Time: 37 minutes

5. Erik Lamela was playing just a few days ago? So in mind, though I would have spelled the layers lamela because of. Didn’t know the spelling of Teletubbies (which surely should be capitalised in the clue?) or Laa-Laa; M(I)ELE is honey in Italian presumably from Latin, so no problem there. Vaguely heard of for a scandal when one of them carried a handbag, or something.
   IONIC just wrong. RNA easy, all you have to do is think of Deoxyribonucleic acid, and extract it </withdraws tongue from cheek>. RIAD forgotten or NHO. Held up for a minute or two at the end by IONIC, NARKY and finally IRISH then INCHES, of all things. No problems outside those four.

   1. Capital T.

      Indeed. How is it possible to have so many mistakes in a single clue?

      1. He/she was always La-La to me and my family and it is spelt this way on the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/march/teletubbies-begins/#:~:text=The%20programme%20was%20created%20by,produced%20a%20number%20One%20single.

         could the misspelling of Teletubby be a nod to those who would spell La-La as Laa-Laa?

         1. One sighting on a BBC website doesn’t make La-La correct I’m afraid.

            CBBC (the channel that broadcast the show) always had it as Laa-Laa as did contemporary synopses published in Radio Times and later on BBC Online. E.g: Preschool comedy combining fun, fantasy and education. The Teletubbies watch a girl called Rebecca with her dog, who performs some tricks. Laa-Laa plays on a swing which appears in Teletubbyland. E.g: Preschool fun, fantasy and education. Tinky Winky, Dipsy and Laa-Laa eat some Tubby Custard, and watch some children go on an Easter egg hunt.

            1. ENOUGH! I never want to know ANYTHING about anything Teletubby!

               1. The whole puzzle was an absolute Noo-Noo for me and I gave up. I knew about the ridiculous children’s program, but RNA was too much like hard work.

            2. What happens next?

6. Thank you Jack for picking the nits that badly needed picking out of 20dn.

   Think I’ll leave it at that today.

7. 38 minutes. I was a bit sloppy solving this and the valid points raised in the blog and subsequent posts passed me by. Same unfamiliar ones as others except for LAMELLAE which I did know, even if I didn’t spot the inaccuracies in the clue.

   RIBONUCLEIC ACID was a satisfying LOI. Favourite was 28a for the reference in the wordplay to the legendary (well they are here anyway) 1970’s Australian rock group.

   Thanks to Jack and setter

   1. I’ve never heard of the band, but I do now have an ear worm of the song Daddy Cool by Boney M.

      1. Thankfully I thought of the Darts version. Boney M are the biggest blight on popular music in the world, ever.

         1. Their version of Sunny is a delight.

            1. But for the River of Babylon they should have suffered the same fate as the gardens.

               1. Damn right.

         2. Different songs with the same title.

            1. Good pop trivia. Thanks Mike 👍

8. Slightly surprised I was all green when I submitted. I had never heard of LAMELLA and I knew the French for honey is “miel” so maybe “mel” or “mil” means honey too. And somehow I knew there was a teletubby called LALA. I knew “flummox” but not LUMMOX. I think TIPCAT has come up before but I’d totally forgotten it. Didn’t know RISHI but it seemed plausible. I’m sure overseas solvers have never heard of “bisto” but with the checkers it pretty much has to be BISTRO.

9. 11:37. I was worried as the checkers were going into the long down one that I was going to be looking for an obscure word with no way in if you didn’t know it, and my worry was partly confirmed (not obscure, but certainly not an everyday word). With all checkers in I realised it was an acid which led me to RNA, and though I thought I knew it I’ll admit I broke one of my rules and looked it up to check I had it correct before entering.

   Fortunately I didn’t give LAMELLA much thought!

10. I also failed with two left, but they were INCHES, where I think I’d thought of every red other than Che, and IRISH, which I probably would have got if I’d had the helpful H but just couldn’t see otherwise. (I didn’t know RISHI was a sage but I’d probably have pieced it together if I’d seen IRISH.)

    I had no problem with the unknown LAMELLA, apparently because I know as little about the Teletubbies as the setter!

11. 48 minutes, but only after googling “names of teletubbies”. LOI was then LUMMOX not a word I know but became obvious with LALA’s L.
    Thought I was going back to O Level chemistry with ionic bonds and RNA!
    Enjoyed that puzzle a lot and was a bit annoyed I couldnt quite finish without aids, but without knowing any of LALA LUMMOX or LAMELLA I reckon I probably had no choice.
    It was the bottom right corner that slowed me down and I thought both DOMINICAN and PAINLESS were very clever.
    Thanks to today’s setter much appreciated, thanks blogger and contributors.

12. DNF
    Nibcat. Pfft.
    Thanks, jack.

13. A few short after 45 mins. (LUMMOX, IRISH, TANGELO) and a couple confirmed with aids. I thought this puzzle had some great clues: the PER SE in DISPERSE, RNA from “ran out”.

    My father played TIPCAT as a boy, and he got the “cat” from his father. It’s a little wooden cone.

14. 58 mins but had to look the acid up as I sort on knew what was going on but wasn’t sure how to spell it! Bit of a struggle today.

    Last three in, LAMELLA, IRISH and INCHES all unparsed guesses with no idea what was going on with the “tellytubbies”. Like Paul, got“Mel” from the French miel. Thanks Jack for the work (and words) on that lot.

    TANGELO dragged up from my mental list of crosses/hybrids.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

15. 54 minutes with LOI IRISH, first biffed and then I half remembered something I’d read about Sunak. I constructed LAMELLA having thought of LAMINA while also trying to remember how many Ls the former Tottenham player had. TIPCAT was also unknown but was the best solution to the cryptic I could manage. A tough one.Thank you Jack and setter.

    1. That’s funny, you didn’t mention not knowing TIPCAT when it last came up in 2019. 😊

       1. Was it the same clue?

          1. Game bird stuffed with proper cooking apples, originally (6)

             1. Well, I would have inevitably gone for TIT as the bird and there wasn’t anywhere else to stick the PCA, so perhaps I didn’t think to confess my ignorance. There’s no way I remember!

16. I balanced all, brought all to mind,
    The years to come seemed waste of breath,
    A waste of breath the years behind
    In balance with this life, this death.
    (Yeats, An Irish Airman … Definitely worth a read if you don’t know it)

    25 mins pre-brekker. I really liked it, especially the RNA thing. (F)lummox is always a PDM for me and was LOI. Fingers were crossed on Tipcat and Lamella.
    Ta setter and J.

17. Excellent puzzle. Spent some time trying to get a plate P…….O. Only knew the Teletubbies’ names as I learned them for pub quiz reasons, and from the discussion I may have been wrong all along.
    Had no idea about LOI IRISH, other than it being a race. LUMMOX was POI with all crossers. BISTO was a childhood perennial.

    18’03”, thanks jack and setter.

18. 11:33. Tricky one. I had no problem solving it but I thought cluing RIBONUCLEIC ACID without wordplay to guide you was a bit harsh, and it’s an indirect anagram which is extra naughty. I didn’t notice the various problems with LAMELLA and ‘mel’ for honey was familiar, probably from Mephisto. I had the most trouble coming up with IRISH and finally INCHES.

19. 15:32 but one wrong. Didn’t remember the game, which I think has come up in a crossword before, and guessed PINCAT. LOI LUMMOX took a while to see. I thought it odd to have both ELATE and ELATION in the downs, but never noticed a problem with LAMELLA. Thanks Jackkt and setter.

20. 14:32. I didn’t know TIPCAT and checked with Dr Google before submitting.

    COD. A dead heat between CLEAR OUT and OEDIPUS.

21. 30.29. Having given LAMELLA barely a second thought I’m shocked to see how many errors there are in it! I also assumed IONIC could be used as a noun, but a quick google suggests otherwise which is pretty shoddy. I spotted the gimmick in the RNA clue but couldn’t work out what it was referring to until I could, and correspondingly I felt it was a little unfair until I got it. Thanks jack & setter.

22. 35m 56s
    LAMELLA: I know the French for honey is ‘miel’ so ’twas but a short step….
    I see we have ELATE and ELATION in the same puzzle: 7d and 2d.
    Thanks Jack, particularly for 3d.

23. Gosh, that 20dn is a car-crash of a clue, isn’t it? Shocking. Mind you, Teletubbies was a car-crash of a TV programme.
    On the other hand, no sympathy for those unscientific types who struggled with 3dn, if only because of all that hoo-ha over mRNA covid vaccines .. Moderna, Pfizer et al. You can’t say you haven’t heard the term! DNA, RNA, such basic knowledge. COD for me.
    Overall I found this hard and a little bit clever-clever. Not my faviourite of the week, and it’s still only Tuesday..

    1. I wasn’t suggesting I hadn’t of heard of RNA only that I didn’t know the scientific name it stands for, and the clue was of no help in that regard.

       1. Oh, OK .. but still, every article will have the full name in it somewhere. And I reckon we are old enough, you and I, to have heard of Crick and Watson and the double helix … still very basic stuff imo.

24. 12:48

    Put me down as another who very much enjoyed this, despite the slackness of the LaLa clue.

    I certainly got a lot of exposure to the Teletubbies while daughter #1 was growing up but didn’t notice either mistake in the clue. I’ve seen MEL on enough honey jars around Europe to know the meaning, and it’s in the Chambers app as a pharmacy term.

    I backsolved the acid from knowing what DNA stands for and vaguely recall ionic bonds from helping daughter #2 revise for A level sciences.

    FOURTH DIMENSION was great. Wasted Time is an Eagles song on Hotel California.

25. Anyone else spend some time wondering how “revolt” could mean LEGEND?

    1. Yes

26. No time recorded as I took a break and failed to stop the clock. Biffed ‘ribonucleic acid’ once I had all the crossers in. Also biffed ‘Riyadh’: I thought that it must have something to do with the football player who had such a stellar game against Brighton recently, but not so.

27. 33 mins. LOI DISPERSE. I’ve been caught out by PER SE quite a few times now, never seem to learn. Your lack of science knowledge is my lack of knowledge of literature and classical composers!

28. 22:19

    On the wavelength for this though some unparsed:

    RIBONUCLEIC ACID – didn’t know this was called RNA so missed the trick – had enough checkers to bung it in with attention to spelling.
    LAMELLA – NHO – knew MEL as a possible spelling for honey – had to pick the right Tt – didn’t even notice the shenanighans going on in the clue
    DISPERSE – didn’t know that PER SE meant ‘essentially’ – still rubbish at Latin
    INCHES – got the IN part but didn’t see the rest

    Pleased with TIPCAT and RIYADH (saw that H and Y included and bunged in from that). Liked LUMMOX.

    Thanks setter and Jack

29. Like you, gave up on the hour with a few unsolved – LUMMOX and IRISH. Thought the latter might be right but couldn’t parse and dared not write it in.

    This was tough, and yes – LAMELLA is a tough ask. An obscure word in a misspelled TV character producing a recondite anatomical word that few would know. I bunged it in more in hope than expectation, and was stunned when it was right. Knew it must be RIBONUCLEIC ACID early on, but couldn’t see why. Thanks for explanation.

30. A pleasant work-out, with some enjoyable (and occasionally controversial) clues, all done in 32 minutes. I biffed 3dn and 6dn, confident they were right but not sure why, so thanks for the full explanations. Fortunately La-La (however spelt) was the only Telly-Tubby (however spelt) I had ever heard of so 20dn did not hold me up for too long. I found even the more obscure answers could be found from the clueing.
    FOI – TRIBUNALS
    LOI – TIPCAT
    COD – STRIPPER.
    Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.

31. About an hour, and by the end of it I used aids freely so DNF really, with several entered without understanding, so I was a bit surprised to see that it was all-correct. But many of those I was unsure of turned out to be very good when they were explained, particularly the RNA one. How is this an indirect anagram? I thought indirect anagrams were where you have to solve a clue first and then make an anagram of the answer, but here we have ‘ran’ in plain sight. And there’s a question mark at the end just in case. Pity about the Teletubbies clue (whose misspellings I didn’t notice).

    1. I would say that a direct anagram is one in which the relevant letters in the answer are an anagram of letters that appear in the clue, and an indirect anagram is anything else. That can be either an anagram of a word you have to derive from the clue, or a synonym of a word that you have to derive from an anagram.

       1. Thanks, yes I see. But actually ribonu…. isn’t a synonym of a word you have to derive from an anagram — it’s just the word in full. Does this justify the clue?

          1. Can’t see it makes any difference: the answer is not a direct result of solving the anagram so it’s indirect! Whether the device is justified is another question.

32. 12:02, and one of those occasions where it turns out to be handy to know enough to successfully solve the clue, but not enough to realise that it’s faulty (my field of quiz-acquired knowledge is quite broad, but, in many areas, astonishingly shallow).

33. 47:41 a fair bit of which was needed for the last few in. 3dn though went in without too much trouble once the crossers had built up. The wordplay – ran out – was very good, too clever for me.

    At 27ac I wrote in RIYADH and looked at it and decided riad- the Moroccan home – was familiar from previous appearances. I looked it up afterwards. It has appeared at least twice before in the 15×15, most recently in December 2000 (puzzle no 27836) blogged by (you’ve guessed it) you, jackkt. You said you didn’t know the word and quoted the same definition you have given us today. Impressive consistency, Sir, in not knowing riad.

    I just assumed ionic bond was a brickwork pattern. LOI 20ac which gave me both my joint WODs: flummox and lummox

34. NHO LAMELLA, TIPCAT or mel as honey and got well bogged down in the SE, but eventually emerged triumphant in 28:54. FOI, CLEAR OUT, LOI, ORDAIN. Thanks setter and Jack.

35. 30:42. Too tied up in deciding between MIL and MEL for honey to spot the multiple slip-ups in 20d. Only knew the order of classical architecture for IONIC but had an idea it might also relate to ions and atomic bonds. I see the noun/adjective mismatch, but happy to give the setter a bit of leeway.

36. I took INCHES to be a nice allusion to the current creep in Red Square.

37. As I had some time to spare also as I spotted ACERB before I printed I decided to tackle this but ended up a DNF.
    I used aids for the ACID and had DISSECTS for 8dn even though ‘SECTS’ didn’t parse. So I had no answer for the ‘Tragic hero’ which I should have got and may well have prevented my DISSECTS error if I had read that clue first.
    Same problems with LAMELLA as our blogger but luckily guessed the ‘MEL’ part from the checking letters.
    Other than that, most enjoyable.

38. Two goes needed to complete this one. Completely missed the problems with LAMELLA (or rather, I always – and in this case helpfully – thought La-La was the correct spelling, though clearly I’m wrong), and had to trust the wordplay for the unknown TANGELO. Got RIBONUCLEIC ACID by thinking of deoxy… once enough checkers were in place, and then parsed it.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

    FOI Clear out
    LOI Tipcat
    COD Ribonucleic acid

39. Fairly slow progress, with a few grumbles on the way. I’m not particularly ashamed to admit I know nothing about the Teletubbies, and have no wish to know anything about them As far as I’m concerned this was MEL with a guess as to what might contain it. The errors pointed out by jckkt make the clue even worse. RNA is capitalised in all my dictionaries, so I don’t accept ‘ran out’ as a fair indication of it. The conventional maxim is false capitalisation is ok in cryptic crosswords, the converse is not.

    I suppose it’s almost inevitable that ACERB is almost always clued the same way, and we’ve had the word repeatedly in recent weeks. Time for a change of wordplay, methinks.

    I wasted far too much time trying to think of a word with CAR (Tesla possibly) in it for 2d.

    45 minutes.

    1. In 2d I was wondering how Nikola or inventor or engineer could fit in… or maybe even unit, trying to remember how many gausses a tesla was… without even being sure they were the same thing. Even now that they’re rife I’m still not comfortable with brand names.

40. DNF, but a lot of fun had. Failed on TANGELO (pep = tang?), TIPCAT (I had NIBCAT) and LUMMOX (just didn’t see it).

    RNA was v good, and FOURTH DIMENSION too.

41. 18.04 I knew enough to make “lamella” relatively easy and not enough to make it difficult. I spent time watching the Teletubbies when my children were small but never felt the urge to read about them, so “Teletubbies” could just as easily have been “tellytubbies” and Laa Laa was always La La to me, (and the most difficult to buy come December). I had no problem with “bond” as the definition for “ionic”. Not strictly grammatically correct but “type of bond” or “bond type” would have given the game away.

    1. I’m glad you said that about BOND as that was my thinking too but everyone else seemed united against it.

       1. Because The Times is usually strictly correct where grammar is concerned.
          Would you accept “column” clueing Ionic? Or would you raise an eyebrow that it wasn’t “type of column”?

42. Gave up after 32 mins flummoxed by lummox – which was annoying because I’m sure I was defeated by the same word not so long ago. NHO lamella but as our helpful blogger has pointed out already, Laa Laa is the correct name of the Tellyblobby.

    Thanks blogger, setter not so much😊

43. Well, I found it hard even using aids, so DNF. Was cheating on the teletubby thing but failed to notice that LaaLaa was not LaLa, so wrote correct answer for wrong reason. Never twitched about MEL=honey, but was very unsure of the details, even cheating.
    Never thought of Rishi, although it has come up recently, so IRISH a biff.
    Never worked out how EV = Tesla, DOH!
    I vaguely remembered the RIAD from a fairly recent 15*15.
    Never bothered with the anagrist for Fourth Dimension.
    INCHES pure biff, thanks for that blogger.

44. Lamella I knew but unfortunately also knew the correct spelling of Laalaa (for my sins..) but went for it anyway! I assumed ev as electronvolt somehow linked to the s.i. unit tesla… not sure now if that’s quite right. Never heard of tipcat and couldn’t biff it so dnf in the end.

45. Very pleased to complete this by making up unknown words which happily do apparently exist, TANGELO, LUMMOX, but alas not NIBCAT.

    Liked INCHES, so straightforward yet concealed.

    Thank you for RNA

46. Liked this one, except had to guess the game TIPCAT then look it up to see if it was correct. Good to see RNA and Fourth Dimension as well as Bist(r)o (brand names seem to be okay on weekdays now). 30 minutes.

    1. Brand names have been fine in the daily for as long as I can remember, and complaints about brand names have been around for almost as long: in fact a search of the comments unearthed one particular solver remarking on the appearance of GLENLIVET in 2012. 😉
       https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/times-25172

47. A long grind, with LOI LUMMOX guessed at the 1 hour point.

    COD to RIBONUCLEIC ACID.

    I watched Teletubbies a lot when my children were small, and actually enjoyed it. Having determined that Po was too short, and Dispy and TinkyWinky too long, it had to be LaLa; luckily I had never learned the correct spelling of LaaLaa so was not distracted.

48. I got the DNA clue without parsing it because it fitted the checkers and I knew it was a vital chemical. 26a also unparsed. A good work out that needed 2 sittings.

49. Too many obscure words here, although the clues were admirably succinct. I could only think of one teletubby that has an L in it, even if it’s spelt incorrectly. LAMELLA feature in anatomical structures, but I was flummoxed by TIPCAT.
    Not a cracking puzzle.

50. I enjoyed this.
    I had to look up 3d, which was a difficult but clever clue.
    Fortunately I knew RIAD. We were in Tarifa in southern Spain last week and our apartment was called RIAD and, being a bit of a word nerd, I looked it up. I’m glad I did now!

Comments are closed.