Times Cryptic 29270

95 comments on “Times Cryptic 29270”

1. The last couple were tough, and I was surprised to not really know either definition of Twister. Thanks for clearing up the non- ‘on’ at 6a, jackkt

2. NHO the Barnacle Goose so was slow to accept BARNACLE. I had an inkling that 6d CARTRIDGE was something to do with ammunition rather than snails but it took a while to see the answer. Had no idea about A POSTERIORI and couldn’t make the anagrist fit into anything that looked likely. Most everything else was fairly easy but for some reason it took me some time to see the answers, which came slowly. Missed ORRIS but should have seen it from Morris. Really liked HOOPLA, MARLIN only after all checkers were in place and then I saw ‘marine/sea’. OLD BOY NETWORK came after seeing ‘network’ but it seemed a strange anagrist with only Os and one E. Soundly beaten but enjoyed it. COD to PYRENEES.
   Thanks Jack and setter.

3. Twister was a wild guess that turned out to be correct – although the standard request would be “hit me”. Way to go is definitely US idiom, so a write-in for me. A posteriori was an obvious biff.

   Time: 26:25

   1. The clue to TWISTER doesn’t specify a particular card game, but I’m advised that in pontoon the traditional term is ‘twist’ or ‘twist me one’ whereas in blackjack ‘hit me’ is the standard. But of course there’s crossover between the two and other variations, sometimes depending on house rules.

4. 56:23, no cheats or checks.

   LOI the simple DIP, with the only plausible vowel, I still struggled to see either definition, getting tired by then.

   NHO ORRIS the lace, knew it as a scent. NHO ROSELLA, what a pretty name and bird.

   WAY TO GO was a write in, very common exhortation in the US, and starting to become prevalent here as well.

   2d required a convoluted definition to go with the cryptic definition. Sure, someone dishonest is “twisted”, but a TWISTER? Maybe the clue would have worked better with Tornado=TWISTER

   COD CARTRIDGE

   1. TWISTER

      a swindler; a dishonest person:
      she’s a back-stabbing, double-dealing twister
      [Premium Oxford / Concise Oxford Dictionaries – first definition]

      a swindling or dishonest person
      [Collins – first definition]

      dishonest person
      [Chambers, not first, but ahead of the American ‘tornado’]

   2. Ridiculous Thoughts by The Cranberries begins:

      Twister, oh, does anyone see through you?
      You’re a twister, oh, an animal

5. Yep, fairly straightforward but fun. Did it at about 4.00 am after having to get up and let the dog answer a call of nature.

   Thank you Jack and setter (not the sort that needs help in the middle of the night).

6. 33.43, slowed down at the end by the NW. ORRIS finally arrived from somewhere and I assumed there might have been a Morris somewhere who designed something, possibly a very early car. Fingers crossed on TWISTER and the legal term. An enjoyable puzzle, thank you Jack.

   From It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only Dying):
   My eyes collide head-on with stuffed
   Graveyards, false gods, I scuff
   At pettiness which plays so rough
   Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
   Kick my legs to crash it off
   Say OKAY, I’ve had enough
   What else can you show me?

   1. Like the ‘very early car’ reference.

7. The best clue for BARNACLE would be “Nora,” with some cryptic reference to her husband! Ha.
   Have been saying “Way to go!” my whole life, surprised that y’all have to rely on the damnable CoBuild!
   I enjoyed this.

8. This took way longer than it should have (even for us). It was fairly but not stylishly clued.
   DNF due mainly to not knowing the latin in 12d, choosing ‘a certiarori’ which did not look right. And therefore rejected friend’s offering of OKAY for 15ac and MARLIN for 22ac. Mia culpa.
   Still not sure about the acceptability of the ‘unopened’ bottle of (T)OKAY in 15ac.
   Can see the (fairly obvious, now) parsing for 22ac.
   Thanks to setter and Jackkt.

   1. Actually a small MER also about 6d.
      I thought a cartridge was the whole piece of ammunition, not just the projectile or ‘slug’.

      1. Yes, you’re right. The clue unfortunately demonstrates firearms ignorance. The ‘slug’ is the bullet that’s fired from the cartridge. What is ejected from the breech (assuming a breech-loading weapon) is the cartridge CASE or casing (usually brass).

         1. On reflection I think you – and my initial reaction to this – are right. The usual dictionaries all define a CARTRIDGE as a ‘casing’ or similar, but it’s always a casing containing a charge and a bullet: the contents are integral to the definition and what remains once they’ve gone is no longer a CARTRIDGE. I knew this in the context of a shotgun (you’d never refer to the empty shells as CARTRIDGEs) but thought it might be different in the context of rifle shooting. Apparently not!

            1. So much for dictionaries (no surprise British ones wrong, owing to lamentable firearms ignorance in the UK). A cartridge is a cartridge whatever it’s shot in, ie casing, primer, powder and bullet (aka slug) – or other projectile(s) – all in one.
               In muzzle-loading firearms, there would be nothing left at all once the ‘slug’ was fired, given that everything that makes up the ‘cartridge’ (powder, paper and ball) is fired out of the barrel.

               1. But I think the dictionaries are right! Collins says ‘a cylindrical, usually metal casing containing an explosive charge and often a bullet, for a rifle or other small arms’. ‘Containing’ is integral to the definition so by implication without the contents it’s no longer a CARTRIDGE.

   2. Not sure I understand the problem with {t}OKAY. It a wine that’s unopened, so OKAY. It’s standard to talk about ‘opening the wine’ – or not opening it in this case.

      1. I guess it’s a small point, but shouldn’t the clue have said ‘opened’ for the ‘top’ to be taken off? And would that be a common wording for a structural direction?
         (pardon if I’m not using the correct terms)

         1. Ah, I see what you mean now. I think it’s okay though as one reading of the clue is that it’s the word for wine that’s unopened.

            1. OK . . . That’s all folks ?
               Or should I say OKAY ?

9. 13:01. I broke one of my unwritten rules today in looking up ORRIS before submitting. I came up with the answer as the only thing I could think of which fitted, but didn’t know the lace. With hindsight I knew the designer though whilst solving I didn’t think of him either.

   1. Tsk Tsk.
      U know what they say about verbal contracts: not worth the paper they’re written on.

10. If anyone can explain to me how the Americanism ‘way to go’ can possibly mean ‘well done’ I’d be grateful.

    Didn’t know the lace but I like William Morris’s work and ideas. The Latin phrase was last in.

    13’44”, thanks jack and setter.

    1. I’ve always assumed it’s “that is the way to go [proceed, do it]”.

       1. I have encountered by US persons in the sense of endorsing conduct, that is: ‘What U did/suggest is the way to go’.
          Of course if RobR’s was a spurious question in relation to US behaviour in general, then ‘way to go’ anyway.

       2. Like Mr Punch: “Thats the way to do it”

       3. You see the same construction in the form ‘way to [do X]’, which is usually ironic (indicating that you have not done X, or indeed achieved the opposite of X).

    2. From An Officer and a Gentleman: will this do?

    3. In much the same way that they use the phrase “I could care less” to mean I’m not bothered, making it totally nonsensical

11. A sad end to this, as all in by 12′ then spent 8 minutes staring at the unopened wine before admitting defeat. Not as irritating as it could have been when I saw the answer here, as NHO TOKAY. Thanks!

    1. I recommend Terry Gilliam’s film of Baron Munchausen, in which TOKAY plays a significant role.

12. NHO the lace (not in ODE), DNK either TWISTER. Wondered about ‘on’; thanks, Jack, for clearing that up. Like Vinyl, biffed A POSTERIORI, didn’t bother to parse. I started to read Jack’s blog before realizing it wasn’t the QC, so I got STANOOUT for free.

13. PB for me in 13:58 quite glad to remove that outlier of a simple one from a few months back from the number one spot.

    Just felt on wavelength with this. I’ve never had such a run of straight-ins. TWISTER was one of them. It’s always been twist for pontoon, hit for blackjack and draw for poker the occasions I have played cards.

    Not only did I know the fish and bird (very rare for me in the Times) I could pick them out of a line-up as well.

    Don’t know the BARNACLE goose but with the B at the start I was confident enough with the answer.

    Last two in A POSTERIORI (which I’ve heard but never read) and ORRIS which was a nho but Morris was the only person I could think of that fitted the wordplay and checking letters. A bit of luck there.

    Could have been quicker but missed the obvious with MARLIN, LEFTISTS and MOTIF.

    As a keen geocacher when I’m not solving cryptics WAY TO GO is my COD.

    Thanks blogger and setter.

    1. Well done!

    2. Congrats on PB!

    3. Well done!
       What’s the difference between pontoon, blackjack, and 21 for that matter? In the (one and only) casino down here it’s called blackjack, and you don’t say anything – tap the table for another card, slice the air horizontally to say no more. From memory… only been about half a dozen times in my life.

       1. Not my area of expertise but they are all variants of each other and very similar. Pontoon has one deck of cards, you can’t see either of the dealers cards and a five card trick (5 cards below 21) is second only to Pontoon (ace+10/face card) amongst other things. I think Spanish 21 is very similar to pontoon but without the 10s in the deck.

          I’m rarely in casinos but etiquette in the UK seems to be say what you want as long as you are clear about your intentions. The phrase “stick or twist” has its origins in pontoon.

          Thanks all for the congratulations.

14. 34 minutes with LOI DIP. Are all creamy? Rosella was constructed and I wasn’t keen on TREMBLE. Otherwise, I liked this. COD to HOOPLA. Thank you Jack and setter.

15. Another quick one today, 14 minutes ending with [t]OKAY. I would have appreciated an “American” reference to WAY TO GO as it’s not a Brit expression IMO. CoD CARTRIDGE.

16. 7:14. A couple of MERs in here, both resolved post-solve:
    > ‘Creamy’ in the definition of DIP. Certainly not a defining characteristic, but Collins says the same thing so I’ll take it up with them.
    > ‘Remnants of slug’ for CARTRIDGE. In a shotgun the CARTRIDGE is the whole piece of ammunition not just the ‘remnant’. However in a rifle it refers to the metal casing that remains after shooting.
    ORRIS my only unknown today, but only in this context: I knew it was a word (a kind of root) which always helps.

    1. My (New) ODE published 2001 has (for one meaning): ‘a casing containing a charge and a bullet or shot for small arms or an explosive charge for blasting.’
       Always understood the casing on a rifle cartridge to be the shell.
       In any case, we all know what the setter intended.

       1. Yes Collins has something very similar: ‘a cylindrical, usually metal casing containing an explosive charge and often a bullet, for a rifle or other small arms’. I’m a bit puzzled by the use of the word ‘often’ here: if you don’t put the bullet in what’s the point?!

          1. Some people like to fire blanks 🙂
             But I would write “normally,” rather than often

17. 9.30
    The linked taxonomy of the BARNACLE goose and goose BARNACLE is extremely weird.
    The philosophical term A POSTERIORI features in my favourite pun of all time, in a line from a Jake Thackeray song which is unfortunately too misogynistic to quote here (Google ‘On Again! On Again!’ if you don’t know it).
    COD INVERTEBRATES
    LOI DIP

    1. I have a couple of Folkie friends who can both do splendid renditions of On Again On Again. As you say one needs to know one’s audience before performing this one!

    2. It’s on Youtube.
       I had forgot what a fine guitarist Jake Thackray was..

18. 22 mins. Slowed in the SE at the end. LOI: A POSTERIORI. NHO but I do know A PRIORI and even my limited Latin could work it out given the letters. Dead languages, another obscure bird and nothing more scarily modern than Winnie the Pooh so presumably everyone will be much happier today.
    Thanks jackkt and setter

19. About 25 minutes

    – Didn’t know the BARNACLE goose but the wordplay helped
    – Stared at O_R_S for a while before I thought of William Morris, and I was happy to assume that ORRIS is a kind of lace (the or=gold connection helped)
    – Not familiar with that meaning of slug, so CARTRIDGE went in on wordplay alone
    – Thought ROSELLA was a plant rather than a bird
    – Needed all the checkers before I could get A POSTERIORI
    – Slightly surprised that a few here haven’t heard WAY TO GO as an expression – perhaps it’s a generational thing

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    FOI Covert
    LOI Orris
    COD Invertebrates

20. 25 min so pretty easy. Lots of write-ins and a couple of guesses which turned out to be correct. ORISS (though I did work out William Morris) and ROSELLA, just followed the wp.

    I liked CARTRIDGE & REAL ESTATE.

    Thanks Jack and setter.

21. 13:49. I was a little slow getting going. ORRIS was a bit of a guess as I only knew of it as a root (I sometimes use powdered Orris Root in the botanicals of my gin) but the designer had to be William Morris. Thanks Jackkt and setter.

    1. Last comment from me . . . promise!
       As the UK day is just about done.
       Actually my first port of call for the designer was Gabrielle Chanel.
       Maybe a little left field.
       Or even rive gauche?

22. I keep getting 500 error messages on this site, is it just me?

    1. No, I’m getting a lot too

       1. And yesterday. It’s likely overload on our shared platform and our resident techie is aware. It’s only intermittent so persevere and copy any contributions to your clipboard before clicking Post Comment.

          1. It’s been going on for a few days for me.

    2. Not just you. Certainly some error fails on access today
       Maybe it’s the extra traffic ?

23. I biffed my LOI after writing down the anagrist and working out the most viable option. I’d have thought A POSTERIORI would be a description of Donald Trump’s speaking pattern (out of his backside).

    FOI INVERTEBRATES
    LOI A POSTERIORI
    COD HOOPLA
    TIME 8:55

    1. I chucked that same LOI in very quickly at the end, knowing I was on for a good time (as it happens, my third-best). For once, my haste wasn’t punished, but I look forward to getting my just deserts soon.

       1. Hate to be picky (as everyone now knows), but would that be Ur Just ‘desserts’.
          Surely not !

          1. Alas, it is in fact spelled with a single S – it comes from ‘deserve’. I even checked before posting 😉

             1. Well, that’s one reason why this place is so educational.
                And a good thing too that no pudding has been interfered with.

    2. 😂

24. Nice comic touch describing the current Labour party as LEFTISTS.

    1. ‘Labour supporters’ – not quite the same thing!

       1. None of the LEFTISTS I know, including myself, would go anywhere near the current Labour party.

          1. Stan Orme, the former Labour MP for Salford West, was one of my regular taxi customers. The morning after Tony Blair came to power, I suggested to him that he must be happy to have a Socialist government. “Most of this lot wouldn’t know what Socialism is if it kicked them in the arse” he replied. 28 years later that still applies.

    2. According to our tangerine transatlantic friend Labour, like the Democrats, are way further left than leftist. Though he apparently quite likes the obsequious Kier.

    3. Since 1997 I have just assumed the setters are referring to Labour parties outside of the UK.

25. Two days in a row! And a frisson of excitement over using my hardwood timber knowledge – sadly left untapped.

26. Shame about CARTRIDGE – what’s left after the slug (bullet) has been fired is the casing, not the cartridge (that’s what goes into the firearm before it’s shot). Still, the correct answer was obvious. Only the NHO ORRIS missing, otherwise quite easy.

27. 18 mins.
    Straightforward. I first heard of orris when I read Jake’s Thing by Kingsley Amis: Jake lives in the fictional London suburb of Orris Park. That said, I associate it primarily with orris root rather than with lace.
    Thanks, jack.

28. The top left held out longest in my 17.29, and I thought the whole puzzle had a certain eccentricity that made it interesting. I had an inkling ROSELLA was a disease rather than a parrot, and ORRIS was a root rather than lace. I’d have put a S’ in the OB NETWORK, but never mind. A POSTERIORI took some spelling. Like Woodwizard, I came close to calling up my list of hard woods: just yesterday I came across a cribbage board inlaid with named NZ woods, most of which seemed to be candidates for entries containing Ts, Ks and Hs.
    Weren’t the original CARTRIDGES made of paper, discarded once you’d decanted their contents into your musket?

29. Took quite a time, maybe 45′ in between chores. Much of it came quite quickly, eg priori/posteriori I remembered from way back. But a few NHOS. I took an age on ORRIS before the wallpaper guy came to mind. Don’t know the French dictionary so MOTIF was a write in. The bird was constructed and the wine I only know from here.
    I think of a twister (or being twisted) as someone who is being deliberately awkward (usually my kids when younger..), never came across it as being dishonest.
    Thanks Jackkt and setter

30. Continuing the conversation about bullet casings I recall one of the causes of one of the 19C Indian mutinies was the issue of cartridges allegedly greased with animal fat which had to be bitten in some way which therefore was unacceptable to the religious sensibilities of the sepoys. Can’t say I remember much else about my O level history but that fact has always stuck in my mind.

31. A couple of careless errors spoiled this one. I should’ve remembered that our esteemed Blogger MERLIN is a magician, not a fish! I even know about MARLINs, but the correct answer swam way over my head. I also misread the anagrist I wrote down for 12d and finished up with A POSTERIOSI. Eejit! 16,57 with 2 DPS. Thanks setter and Jack.

32. 19:18

    Snitch only 67 suggests this was a bit easier than I found it. Didn’t know the bird, so checked on its existence before committing. Didn’t know the goose either so only committed to that when BARCELONA went in. Wouldn’t have known what A POSTERIORI meant, but had most of the checkers when that went in. Feel sure that ORRIS has been seen in these parts before.

    Thanks Jack and setter

33. I skated happily over the CARTRIDGE problem and it seemed fine to me, but now that I read the comments perhaps not. ARSENAL in that sense I didn’t know, so was held up in that corner until I looked it up because it had to be. Some people have said we’re back to the old Times crossword ways, but what about the football reference re BARCELONA, or WAY TO GO, which I knew although I never say it? But if the modernisation of the crossword involves changing from cricket to football, then I’m against it. 41 minutes.

    By the way things are terribly slow to load on the site at the moment. But no doubt the people who can do anything about this are aware.

    1. Well done Will! I managed a slightly better 31 minutes today, assisted enormously by my familiarity with the US “way to go’, to the extent that, much to the irritation of my friends, I turn it into cod German as “Weg zu Gehen!”! I also skated over the cartridge question, being a paper era sort of guy!

    2. Barcelona were founded in 1899, 30 years before the first Times crossword.

34. A fairly workaday puzzle, I thought, with no standout clues (not even 1 ac) though ‘Terrible 11’ sent me on more goose chases than it should have.
    Minor gripe: I wasn’t too happy with ‘wood’ as the definition leading to ‘THICKET’ — a mere thicket is surely much less than a wood — but the wordplay meant it had to go in.

35. I second the comments that ‘Labour’ is far from Leftist, so it was by far the weakest clue and I’m also surprised that so many people either consider ‘way to go’ as an Americanism or even don’t know the expression. I also had an error message trying to connect earlier too.

36. 17.46 ( but I must have spent two minutes trying to find a pen to work out a posteriori). Have to confess that , though easy enough, I had a little giggle over vet.

    Setter ( pun originally unintended) take a bow wow.

37. Found it quite straightforward, except for NHO orris and twister. But of course I know orris from these puzzles, a root? Couldn’t remember if it was a scent or a taste (licorice). Like others wondered if Morris had designed a car, or a dance, or if it was someone else entirely: Borris or Corris or Dorris etc. Do know “Stick or twist”… perhaps it’s a card reference? But thought they were the two weak clues in the puzzle. (My last 2 in; clearly it’s not bias or pomposity 😉

38. 27 minutes. (I, too, thought of “An Officer and a Gentleman” when solving 17D.) Quite a restful puzzle, slightly tougher than yesterday’s but nowhere near as tough as Friday’s (or indeed Saturday’s, in my view). Hadn’t heard of the bird or the lace and hadn’t thought of HOOPLA as meaning a big commotion (as in brouhaha), but no problems with parsing.

39. No problem with the puzzle (15 mins) but I always thought ‘Way to go!’was just a variant of ‘In the hole!’ One lives and learns.

    1. Way to go ?
       Break a leg !

40. In spite of all the reservations posted above my COD goes to CARTRIDGE. It made me smile. Several unknown words here but all guessed correctly so I’m happy.
    FOI INVERTEBRATES
    LOI ORRIS (with crossed fingers)

41. Annoying DNF today, defeated by the joint pairings of PYRENEES/ARSENAL and ROSELLA/OKAY, and I could also tell right away that 2d was entirely outside my area of expertise on both counts, so looked up gold lace & designers to find a pair that matched. Aside from that, found this enjoyable – the long anagrams in particular were very helpful.

42. 30 minutes but I had to look up the correct assembly of “A Posteriori” – I was toying with “A Pretoriosi” which was making the unopened wine very tricky.

43. A pleasant problem, all done in 37 minutes either side of a family visit, which put me off my stroke a little. If there was a problem with CARTRIDGE I did not see it, and was just relieved to find a word which fitted in there. THICKET brought to mind an anti-Irish joke, told to me by an Irishman, which I had better not repeat here. No other issues.
    FOI – INVERTEBRATES
    LOI – BREAK BREAD (after struggling to make BREAK the second and not the first word)
    COD – TWISTER
    Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.

44. I can’t hear the expression WAY TO GO without thinking … IDAHO. And lo and behold, there was IDAHO in the clue for REAL ESTATE. Does this indicate that the setter shares with me a love of TOY STORY? You will recall that the pig says WAY TO GO, IDAHO to Mr Potato. Idaho being famous for its potatoes. I was definitely on the wavelength. 9’14” – a rare under ten. Thankfully BARNACLE put me right on A POSTERIORI. Otherwise I might well have put E POSTERIORI.

    1. That was entirely coincidental, but FWIW the setter does indeed share your love of Toy Story! 😉

45. 16.19

    Late entry after Day 2 of the Lechweg (sure no one will read this so late so will happily burble on to say it’s highly recommended if you like Austrian picture postcard scenery and your bags arriving at the right place and on time (I do)).

    Two minutes at the end alpha trawling O_R_S unsuccessfully so paused and tried to (successfully) think of a 19th designer.

    Otherwise liked it a lot including the cartridge clue. I’ve noticed that in my area (law) there are often clues/answers with a legal bent that are strictly not quite right but close enough. For me CARTRIDGE falls into that category but I get the MERs.

    Thanks Jackkt and setter

    Ps Never knew that titbit from Jumeau even though we would have been in the same class. You live and learn.

46. 22:05. Mostly straightforward indeed. However stuck on ORRIS for a long time … i did look up ORRIS in Chambers and it didn’t seem to be there – only the reference to iris root perfume. My only real clue – not having spotted the designer, was that it might start in OR given its golden description. Oh well… nice puzzle despite my griping at my own ignorance!

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