Times Cryptic Jumbo 1599 – 11 February 2023

11 comments on “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1599 – 11 February 2023”

1. I had everything in but 25d ANXIOUS & 29ac BOXING CLEVER (NHO) and was ready to throw in the towel when suddenly I thought of NOUS, and the X gave me BOXING (I’d already got CLEVER). I think, Jack, you meant to underline ‘practical sense’, no? Also the ‘in’ in 13ac. DNK the Burns poem, so the definition was lost on me; also DNK ‘woolly bear’.
   Re 17ac: The ‘test’ meaning of ‘prove’ survives in e.g. ‘proving ground’ and ‘the proof of the pudding’; also in the specific sense of testing a firearm (ODE sv ‘prove’ sense 2).
   TIA is yet another NYT chestnut (with an occasional TIO).

   1. Also in the saying “The exception that proves the rule,” which many somehow manage to see as showing the accuracy of the rule, rather than testing it.

      1. As someone who recently used this phrase on TTfT site I realize now from JerryW’s comment that I might not have understood what I was saying. After reading the long, open-ended entry in Wikipedia on this, however, with its references to Cicero, Fowler, scientific and humorous uses etc, I think I might just sensibly consider not using the phrase at all in future!

         1. I did look up the Wiki entry, and now I wish I hadn’t .. how complicated, some folk want to make life!
            The bottom line is that it is a patently nonsensical phrase in the first place.
            There, I said that in one sentence, but Wikipedia took an entire page ..

2. Sorry about the slips now corrected. Jumbos take a lot of proof-reading! As speaking of ‘proof’, I’ve never had a problem with ‘prove/test’ as they substitute perfectly in examples such as yours, but I know some people complain whenever it comes up so I was trying to pre-empt that.

3. Just over an hour and a half, with a lot if it spent slowly dragging out the last few including WEBCAM, LIBERATE, ENAMEL and the last two FRILL which gave me the I for AMATI. A big PDM when I saw what “Zoom” was about for WEBCAM.

   Like you, jackkt, I noticed Sweetheart cluing E in ENAMEL but I’ve become wary of saying it’s “against the rules”. Never mind. Perhaps it’s a better way of clueing E than the drug references we have had to learn and which we have twice in this puzzle.

   Thanks for the blog

   1. “An unwritten rule isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”
      Sayings of Jerry, (after Sam Goldwyn).

      I do so agree re drug references.. I have become inured to E, but having to learn and remember drug cant always irritates those of us who prefer to be law-abiding. Well me, anyway ..

   2. The ‘sweetheart’ device is not something that bothers me and I certainly don’t regard it as a rule, buy it’s so rare in Times puzzles that it seems worthy of mention when it occurs on one of my blogging days.

      Incidentally it’s not giving anything away to mention that there’s a different device that breaches convention in today’s Jumbo that I’m not sure I’ve seen before even in The Guardian. The answer is straightforward but the parsing may fox some solvers at least for a while. I look forward to discussing this further when the blog appears in two weeks.

4. Quite liked this one … two sessions, so under the hour in all.
   Not overly keen on “Hardly careless” = anxious. And was puzzled by row D, though on further examination it is quite clever, I suppose..
   LEMAN no sweat for the Heyer crowd; though one does occasionally come across the word even nowadays

5. Straightforward one. I think the only thing in here I didn’t know was what Greta Garbo said. I did worry briefly about my last in, AMATI, where I knew exactly who I was after but wasn’t sure of the missing letters until I worked out the wordplay.

6. A relief after last week ! I liked ‘in row D’. As for sweetheart, the example I recall – possibly from Don Manley’s book – is ‘Gateshead’ for G – I think this sort of thing is thought a bit unsound by many, but on balance – as it’s clear – it’s OK by me!

Comments are closed.