Times Cryptic 29294

62 comments on “Times Cryptic 29294”

1. I got into a lot of trouble, with Brussells sprouts and propenultimate, neither of which exist or fit. Having straightened those out, the C in contribute looked like an L, causing further difficulty. I finally saw caboodle from the cryptic, and then biffed cusp as a likely answer with no idea how the clue worked.

   PS. To address Jack’s question, Manhattan probably just indicates US usage. You get a mimosa at nearly every all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch buffet.

   Time: 63:20

2. A toughie, for me anyway. I liked it but fell short of a few answers. CABOODLE was one where I just couldn’t see what was going on with the wordplay thinking ‘pet’ would be either a cat or dog. Thought of Brussels sprout first but knew it was wrong as it didn’t have enough letters and it didn’t fit in with the anagram of 10a SATELLITE. The squash appeared pretty soon though. Saw ANTEPENULTIMATE straight away with it coming up quite recently. Had OUTPUT but didn’t parse it, clever. Missed MONOMANIAC, a NHO. Had no idea what was going on with NARCISSI, my only knowledge of daffodils is that they are yellow. Didn’t know the meaning of ACTA and CUSP was another miss, but clever when you see it. COD to OKLAHOMA.
   Thanks Jack and setter.

3. Very hard, DNF and gave up at 45′. Thanks for spelling out CABOODLE, never would have seen that. I understood the wordplay for CUSP but had POST instead. Less forgivably, didn’t get OKLAHOMA. But, enjoyed some of the clues I did get. ACTA is common in the names of scientific journals.

4. The line from Wordsworth, though I know it well, did not occur to me. But I found this in Wikiipedia: « Narcissus poeticus, the poet’s daffodil, poet’s narcissus, nargis, pheasant’s eye, findern flower or pinkster lily, was one of the first daffodils to be cultivated, and is frequently identified as the narcissus of ancient times.… Narcissus poeticus was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his book Species Plantarum on page 289 in 1753… »—that’s 17 years before Wordsworth was born.

   1. After I looked it up I found roughly what you did, including a comment about ‘poetaz hybrids’. I suspect you’re right, though, Guy.
      Doesn’t really matter to me as both references are equally abstruse, so if we’re not missing something simpler, and if either one is what the setter intended, well I have an intention for the setter which I’m betting he or she will like even worse than I disliked this!

      1. Well, I wasn’t claiming that the clue had anything directly to do with this information. Certainly, “host” is a nod to Wordsworth! (D’oh!) I find it amusing that I didn’t think of that and intriguing that this daffodil had an association with poets before this poet chose to immortalize it in verse.

5. Bit of an epic fail with this one. At stumps only had 11 answers – but notably included 1d CUSP, 6d OUTPUT and 9d CELIBACY.
   Could have looked up Zeus’s daughter to see the hidden, but didn’t.
   The parsing overall did make sense and was mostly fair (once demostrated), but I/we did not see the Wordsworth connection – which is clever but a little tough, and there were some double insertions which one may need to be in the mood for.
   (Oh dear, I ended that with a preposition)
   Liked the BUTTERNUT SQUASH 2d (which did not get) as best of the bunch.
   Thank you jackkt and setter.

   1. Zeus had a lotta daughters, possibly 27. It had been prophesied that he would be overthrown by a son so he ate most of those (obv) so your research might have been quite lengthy.
      A preposition is a perfectly OK thing to end a sentence with. I think.

6. I found this hard since so many of the definitions were cleverly hidden. Since I worked in the semiconductor industry, I know way to many words related to chips so I completely missed that it was “chip in” I was looking for. Some clever stuff here, and I too never felt I wouldn’t finish (unlike last Friday) and, indeed, I was right and was all correct in a horrendous time.

7. I fell short too – could not get 1ac and 1dn – and that messed up the whole caboodle!

8. About 40 minutes with 1 error.

   Like others I struggled with this and it took an age for me to come up with CABOODLE, but it was CUSP that did for me. I’d convinced myself that the vessels would be CATS (CATAMARANS) and I thought that if you squinted and crossed your fingers then CAST might just fill the brief. Of course CUSP is a much better and more obvious answer so no excuses.

   After yesterday’s stroll this was a welcome challenge.

   Thanks to both.

   1. I did the same with CAST, hoping it might be like pitch/lean/keel etc. I’d always thought of ‘cusp’ as a threshold/line rather than a point but a) see that I’m wrong and b) the word didn’t occur to me anyway!

9. 12:17. Quite tricky. Lots of single errors on the leaderboard today, I wonder what the mistake is.
   As vinyl says ‘Manhattan’ just refers to the fact that MIMOSA is the American name for what we Brits call a Buck’s Fizz.

10. About an hour, needing aids to finish (with CANOODLE and CUSP LOI). Incidentally I didn’t know that BEVY means a specifically female group, on looking it up in the OED I was pleased to see that it also applies to “roes, quails and larks”.

11. A poor puzzle imo. I earned two pink squares with CAST for 1dn (cats = catamarans), which I think works better than the actual answer.

    1. But cast does not equal tip. I thought of it but discarded it.

12. Even with resort to underhand tactics and after an unconscionable time, DNF.
    Defeated by 1ac, 1dn and the NHO ACTA.
    Saw ANTEPENULTIMATE immediately but made heavy weather of IMPAIRMENT, STONEWARE and CELIBACY.
    Oh well, tomorrow’s another day.
    Thanks setter and Jack

    1. On my hard copy (I keep records) I wrote: ‘A little naughty’.

13. Defeated by the NW today, had CAST, which didn’t quite work, and missed OK for ‘fine’.

    Thanks jack and setter.

14. I thought I’d gone through a timewarp to Friday. Found this very tough and failed with cusp and celibacy. Both good clues but for the first I thought only of using four letters from capsized and wondered why I’d never seen case as an alternative for tip.

    Not on the wavelength at all for celibacy.

15. 45 minutes, surprised ACTA and MIMOSA were right. I liked NARCISSI but COD has to go to CELIBACY. Good puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.

16. Gave up again – twice in five days, an unwanted record. I wrote CABOODLE under the grid but couldn’t believe that it worked as a solution (still can’t, neither in definition or wordplay).
    I liked “Rejection of the other”.
    Hey-ho, tomorrow is another day.

17. 44 minutes. I know what our blogger means by having 1a +/- 1d weighing on your mind when they remain unsolved as the rest of the grid is filled. It was the same for me today until I solved CUSP followed by CABOODLE as my last two in. As for the rest, I had no idea about the ‘poet’s host?’ def for NARCISSI and didn’t know that ERATO was ‘Zeus’s daughter’.

    I found the Russian doll wordplay of MONOMANIA and the parsing of MIMOSA tough to work out. All in all, harder than your “average Tuesday”.

    (PS: Sorry Jack, but the defs of 3d & 16d need underlining in the blog).

    1. Many thanks. I only read it through about 20 times before posting!

18. No time as I was interrupted by a phone call, having hit a wall at around 20 minutes with five interlinked answers missing in the centre of the grid. As soon as I picked it up again I saw the wonderful ‘rejection of the other’ and the rest followed swiftly. Some tricky and clever stuff and most enjoyable.

19. DNF

    Didn’t get the w/p for 1d and there are a lot of (a) definitions for tip and (b) even more possible checking combos, which made that too hard. Well done for those that got it – thought of the “cuddle” definition of pet but that was also too hard without the C so the rather good OKLAHOMA was also missing even with all the other checkers. STONEWARE was also a fail wanting something ammo like and not seeing “new” for “different”. (Is it just me or does that surface make no real sense?)

    Liked CELIBACY.

    I actually did better on Friday’s than this one, which is not saying a lot!

    Thanks Setter/Jackkt

    1. There does seem to be a trend towards cryptic definitions, which can be too much with other complexities in a clue IMO.

20. 55 mins. I concur with jackkt. Felt I should have done better, some of the hold ups were self-inflicted:
    RAILS for LAIRS, obsessing over sprouts, TEAH until I accepted TECH, LIST for CUSP.
    NHO of ACTA but thought it might be what actuaries do, I’ve always wondered.
    COD to CELIBACY. For once an original and enjoyable use of the hackneyed sex euphemisms.
    No let up in toughness. Thanks jackkt and setter.

21. Well, I thought I was just being slow at 33.24, but I find myself at a fairly elevated place on the leaderboard so maybe his was just a tricky one. I didn’t help my cause by the misspelling CELEBACY, despite the word coming up frequently in the recent Jesus Army documentary. I also invented (apparently) PAENEPENULTIMATE which fortunately didn’t fit, but these two scuppered progress on the RHS. Looking for an island instead of a fish kept me a long way from GREY MULLET: perhaps it should have been clued as a OAP hairstyle.
    Are we in a run of tougher grids ?

22. Quite tough, took me the best part of 45 minutes and ended with 19a unfilled because I couldn’t be sure about ACTA or ACTS. Some beautifully disguised definitions in a very nice puzzle. CELIBACY was good, took ages to see it was an anagram and spot the witty definition. Well blogged, jackkt.

23. Gave up at 45 mins with the CUSP/CABOODLE nexus and CELIBACY missing. They were fairly clued, should have got them. Was never on the wavelength really.

24. Beaten by the American law firm CABOODLE and CUSP. I’d thought of caboodle early on but couldn’t make it fit. Started well, with BUTTERNUT SQUASH and ANTIPENULTIMATE leaping out at me. Wasn’t helped by two idées fixes: tip must be LIST and college must be ETON.

    Lots of clever cluing; in particular CELIBACY, STONEWARE and GREY MULLET (which brought the Doobie Brothers to mind)

    Thanks to Jack and the setter

25. One of those that was tough but not entirely sure why afterwards. Just how I like it.

    The two long down answers were straight in which helped a lot.

    ANTEPENULTIMATE is one of those words I encounter in crosswords but never anywhere else. There must be a word for that.

    Ultimately failed on MIMOSA. Can’t even remember what I guessed. I have an encyclopedic knowledge of beer and cider but any other type of alcoholic beverage is mostly just red, white or fancy cocktail to me.

    COD CONTRIBUTE

    Thanks blogger and setter.

26. DNF, annoyingly completely failing to see OUTPUT which with hindsight looks to be one of the easiest clues in the puzzle. ACTA was a guess from the cryptic and I’m not keen on the device in CUSP. Some fine clues though, CABOODLE perhaps the pick.

27. Started with LAIRS and finished with CABOODLE then CUSP. Sadly I had a pink square for NARCISSA where I’d stupidly miscounted the Is and As. Eeejit! 46,07 WOE. Thaks setter and Jack.

28. DNF.
    Was fixated on Bruxelles Sprout for 2d for a while. Was surprised ACTA at 19a was correct. Was glad 26a Erato, Zeus’s daughter, was a hidden as he had a lorra daughters. 3d Oklahoma I cheated. Was glad and surprised NHO 21d Mimosa was right. 12a Tech for college was a bit odd IMO, but actually we did call them techs; where you went if you didn’t go to Uni.

29. All went well enough for most of it, but it took me 72 minutes, about 40 of which were spent on CUSP/CANOODLE/OKLAHOMA. But all good clues and once I had them (with the help of aids) they were fairly obvious and I wondered what the problem had been. Only CANOODLE was particularly difficult. Was unhappy with EPOCH = date in 23ac, but Collins refers to a point in time so it’s OK.

    1. Well done for finishing it, although 1 across is caboodle, not canoodle! I missed both cusp and caboodle, so a dnf for me. My only consolation is that the snitch seems to show this as the most difficult Tuesday on record!

30. DNF, relieved to see many others were beaten by the same as me: CUSP, CABOODLE and CELIBACY (feels like there could be a joke in there)

    – Aware of ERATO but not that she was a daughter of Zeus
    – Didn’t know which poetic reference was being made for NARCISSI
    – Same MER over date=EPOCH as Wil above, though I see he’s resolved it

    Thanks Jack and setter.

    COD Tehran

31. Tough going. After 60 mins, with a few blanks on the LHS, I broke out the 1000 page Chambers Crossword Dictionary which didn’t help much (its six letter cocktails do not include Mimosa).

    Always on the lookout for an ETON, I tried {PHA}ETON, with Phaeton=Coach, a word I learnt here just last week, maybe PHA=first class? BUTTERNUT SQUASH squashed that. And my 6 letter capital starting with T looked like TALLIN, with ALL IN = “just published”. Also had RAILS, as it was “better than LIARS”. NHO ACTA, saw it sitting there in the oatcakes but ruled it out. Saw the state as Alabama, which also has Lama in it, but it didn’t fit, so decided the clue worked the other way around. Wasted time looking for a word for “fine”.

    Anyway, pleased to get the NHO GREY MULLET, and some other toughies. Worked back from ESE to get my African, trying Congolese, Malinese etc.

    COD THIEVERY

    1. I went down the same false trail for a while with PHA/ETON!

32. A typo with VEVY for BEVY meant I didn’t finish this one.

    Very tough for a Tuesday I thought, especially LOI the tortuous CABOODLE.

    COD to THIEVERY which tickled me somehow.

33. DNF, and not a fan. CUSP meh for the wordplay. Serious? And as a mathemetican a cusp isn’t a tip. Even the editors of Chambers, who make up random definitions on a whim, don’t have CUSP as a tip.
    Apart from that and the elephant in the room, no problems or quibbles.

    1. On reflection the definition of CUSP I chose for my blog was not the most apt. However leaving aside the specific definitions used in science, elsewhere CUSP can be a ‘point or pointed end of something’ (Collins) e.g. a tooth, and in that context the broader term ‘tip’ as a synonym seems fair enough to me.

    2. Completely agree about Chambers.
       I thought it was just me, but then I’m not a massive fan of dictionaries in relation to crosswords anyway, especially when the only way of solving is via a dictionary-trawl🪖

    3. Unless you have lost them all you will have some bicuspids in your mouth…

       1. Indeed, I’d like to remove my comment based on its ignorance, but it’s too late. Something on the cusp of/on the point of happening certainly works, let alone all the other definitions: horns, points etc. I retire, abashed and ashamed. Apologies.

          1. Feel all the shame the situation demands, ie none at all 🙂

             1. Thank-you for your generosity.
                Still embarrassed.

       2. And I still have all my teeth except a few wisdoms. Fluoride is a wonderful thing! (Oops, RFK and Putin’s Agent Orange will be out to get me.)

34. Took ages, but got through it.
    Thanks, jack.

35. Over an hour, stuck on CUSP and CABOODLE at the end. Still don’t like CABOODLE for group.

36. Ignoring Friday Snitches which are traditionally high, this one and last Thursday’s are the two highest in the past twelve months.
    Are we being punished at the moment for some reason?

37. 38:12, now looking at other people’s times, I see I did “not too badly”
    I had never heard of MIMOSA cocktail so I was pleased with myself for working it out from the clue, even before I got TEHRAN.
    Got how CUSP was going to work, but I needed CABOODLE to finally get it.
    My last 2 in were THIEVERY and finally EPOCH, which cost me several minutes at the end. It was trying THIE for “one in article” which finally cracked them.
    Thanks setter and blogger

38. Got there in the end but had long since stopped timing myself when I eventually did. They like to keep you humble, these puzzles.

39. After Friday’s puzzle (which I DNF!) everything has seemed almost easy. 37 mins today. CUSP held me up but I got there in the end. COD CELIBACY.

40. All done and enjoyed (especially ‘celibacy’) with the exception of 1dn where I had ‘cast’. Half capsized vessels ‘cats’ (short for catamarans) giving the definition cast=tip – from cast iron where it’s tipped/cast into its mould. Difficult to know when you’re over-complicating a cryptic crossword which are sometimes extremely complicated!

41. I liked rejection of the other and taking things wrongly. As above, I definitely did not like the poet’s flower, nope I didn’t, even if being an anagram can allow for the introduction of some additional difficulty. But maybe I’m just not well-enough read. Acta was a shrug, but only because you can’t ever really complain about a hidden.
    thanks, jack. I think more than one perplexed solver owes you a drink for your help today.

42. Although BEVY was my FOI, I didn’t and still don’t understand why the clue begins “Female group”; a bevy, surely, is simply a group, the members of which may or may not be female. Am I missing something?

    1. Traditionally, it does refer to a group of girls – I’m sure I remember seeing the phrase ‘a bevy of beauties’ – but it’s probably quite old-fashioned!

       1. I think that originally it was applied most often to birds – partridges, quails, that kind of thing. But yes, bevy of beauties is a phrase I vaguely remember, probably uttered by that smarmy Eric Morley (I think that’s the right name) bloke who used to run Miss World; Elvis Costello also quotes it in his song “Clubland”.

          However, the concise OED definition of bevy is simply “a large group of people or things”, which kind of backs up my point that “female” here is redundant.

43. Came back for last two clues in top left on Wednesday evening. CANOODLE fell (very clever). And then — aaargh — I put in CAST. Okay, CAST does not mean TIP. But it might have. I was thinking about rubbish tips, tipping rubbish, casting rubbish, deep-cast slag-heaps …. there’s definitely a connection there somewhere! 43’16” with the one error.

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