Times Cryptic 29132

95 comments on “Times Cryptic 29132”

1. 18:32 with an unparsed OLD HAND. Hmmph.

2. Don’t feel so bad about OLD HAND now I see so many others made the same mistake.
   FOI SHOOT-EM-UP
   LOI ELDER
   COD EGOMANIAC

3. 29 minutes. I considered OLD MAID but went with OLD HAND. We had a similar GOOD-LOOKING clue very recently, which helped. I’m pleased with the time despite the DNF. Thanks Jack.

4. For virtually the whole time, I had OLD MAID in mind, but on the basis that I couldn’t parse it, I eventually changed it to OLD HAND, which at least made more sense of the definition being veteran than OLD MAID being just ‘cards’. NHO ‘made’ being shuffled. Rather cross, as the rest was painstakingly worked out, with LOI PUT, on the basis of tup being ‘to mate’ – put not being understood. IRAQI was also correct.

5. What I knew today: tup, put, raki, gam, mollycoddle, even side, and maybe others.

   What I learned today: a puzzle with a large number of seventh- or eighth- definition synonyms can give the setter lattitude to create some very smooth surfaces, but it will be very tricky and the reward for wading through will be a grimace rather than a smile.

   I also learned that it’s annoying when the off-beat definitions are used outrageously loosely: Old Maid is a card game, it is not ‘cards’; a shoot-em-up is a kind of video game, it is not the name of any game; no matter how you spin it good does not mean use.

   1. I also wondered about ‘cards’. You might say ‘We’re playing cards’ when you’re playing Old Maid (or any other card game), I suppose. SHOOT-EM-UP works fine on similar logic; ‘game’ for SIM, which is also a genre, pops up sometimes and doesn’t seem to generate any particular comment, maybe because it’s not in such a controversial puzzle overall.

      USE seems absolutely fine to me. Not only is it in Chambers, but there are also quite common examples of it being used interchangeable with good: it’s no good/use, what’s the use/good in that?

      1. Yeah. I thought about the use/good bit, especially after reading Jack’s comment, but if I’m being picky (and it’s perfectly fair that I am, I think, given how picky today’s clues are), ‘what’s the use?’ and ‘what’s the good?’ mean something enough different that I’m going to whine. Kind of the same as “cards” for “card game” – too loose for my taste.

6. Pleased to finish what I thought was a tough test, only to find I was another to add to the list of those who put OLD HAND with fingers crossed. Enjoyable puzzle nevertheless, but tinged with disappointment.

7. DNF – 25:53 for another OLD HAND. Otherwise thought it was a fair, if sometimes tricky puzzle!

   I had a Major ER, about the RAKI clue … As the clue is a homophone, and Turkish spirit is pronounced Rah-Kuh, (the I having no dot on it – if it were Rak-Ih, it would be RAKÍ)

   Otherwise, thank you both!

8. Did someone else say this already? In bridge it is standard terminology to say ‘make the cards’ meaning prepare them for dealing the next hand. Actually I think it means both shuffle and cut to be precise….but I suppose shuffle is close enough.

   1. I said it up top before I got to your comment!

9. I’m making a claim for originality in that I got Old Maid right (without understanding), did understand Put, but had Imani (as articulated by Istanbul’s leader) and Ender for Elder, so no better really.

10. Another OLD HAND. CARDS = HAND. It doesn’t = a game of cards. But that still left OLD sounding like SHUFFLED, which it didn’t. So something was wrong. Not much happier with the correct answer. Otherwise 19’02”. I’m having a terrible run of mistakes! Are setters setting more traps?

11. Lots of OLD HANDS, cheeringly, but didn’t anyone else try to make “urophilic” work for “Number one fan”? No? Just me then. How embarrassing.

12. Ha ha I see I‘m not the only „OLD HAND“
    I was so pleased with myself for getting IRAQI I simply wrote in old hand immediately without thinking, I‘m sure that was a delberatr trap by the setter. It then took me a long long alphabet trawl to finally get OLD MAID, with 23:54 as the final time. Thought the triple definition of PUT was very clever.
    Thanks setter and blogger

13. 20.19 WOE

    I do know that sense of “make” and didn’t entirely understand the parsing, but..

    Quite enjoyed it overall

    Thanks setter/Jackkt

14. 33:59 with 2 pink squares. Yet another OLD HAND here. I’m glad I am in such excellent company.

15. Meh

16. 45 minutes, but it doesn’t count because I was yet another old-hander, desperately hoping for the past tense of a synonym of shuffle that sounded like ‘old’. And, although I solved the ‘put’ clue, I interpreted the wordplay as ‘mate with stock’ (as in the ovine reference in Othello). Thought this was tricky, but then again I’d had a tough day at work followed by a few glasses of vino…

17. Agree about the strange feel to this crossword: there was a US/Japanese overview? But I did have OLD MAID in straight away, without being able to parse the “made” part…really liked EGOMANIAC, but I suspect it’s been done before? Thought the Spoonerism was quite good (for a change), but COD to GOOD LOOKING.
    (Time: lengthy)

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