Times Cryptic No 29261 — Perhaps I should drink more

66 comments on “Times Cryptic No 29261 — Perhaps I should drink more”

1. Just finished this… came here to verify the fact!
   It’s funny: Before refreshing the page, I reread George’s hed for yesterday’s blog, “Tricky Thursday for those who don’t think,” and the phrase came to mind, “…for those who don’t drink.” And then I saw Jeremy’s hed.
   MILD was my LOI (after REDBELLY, after NEONATAL), and I was wondering, having read the pertinent definition, if you couldn’t have such a libation in other liquid quantities.
   This seemed to get harder as I progressed, basically quarter by quarter, with my being unable to finish or even get much started in the SE until after a break for food.
   DIVORCEE looks odd to me, with the definition specifying a man for a word in the (French) feminine form.

   1. I thought perhaps we were meant to twist the definition to mean “no longer united to a man”?

      1. You’d have to hyphenate “Man-United” to have the adjective.
         Collins says DIVORCEE can be male, in English (sans diacritical), so that’s all right then.

      2. Chambers has ‘divorcee’ for either, but also lists the French gendered spellings.

   2. “-ee” is not uncommon in English as an ungendered passive ending: “amputee”, “appointee” etc; but, admittedly, the literal meaning here leads one to look for a French-style gendering

      1. Not to mention “deportee.”

2. I had 55 minutes on the clock when I decided to abandon this for the night with several gaps in the NW and SE quarters of the grid. On resumption I forgot to note my re-starting time, but in the end it didn’t matter because eventually I needed aids for my last two in so this counts as a DNF.

   The two failures were UNSTEADY (really should have got that, but I’d thought of ‘unstable’ early on and simply couldn’t see past it) and DJIBOUTI which I didn’t know. I had considered DJ as host though, and I take a grain of comfort from that

   So that’s how SKYLIGHT works! I accounted for all the elements of wordplay including the ‘losing focus’ device, but was left with an odd definition (window up) that required some of them to do double duty: K{e}Y contained by S (small) + LIGHT (window). I knew that was the wrong reading, but once again I couldn’t see past it.

   Until I got stuck there was much to enjoy here.

   1. I found the answer thinking of light = window and only correctly parsed it when checking.

3. Got out the top left quarter and then even with aids I had problems getting much more out. I consistently read the clues differently to how they were meant to be read. In the BUILDER clue for example I couldn’t see past “I put up” as a reversal indicator. really needed the blog to get an understanding of many clues.
   Thanks Jeremy
   In 17ac I think the definition could be “newspaper work”

   1. Thanks!

4. I also had UNSTABLE in mind which I think fits the definition of ‘volatile’ better but stable for girlfriend was never going to work. Lots to like in this but also had to give the reveal key a workout at the end. Didn’t see DJIBOUTI, NEONATAL, and TIRESOME. I saw SKYLIGHT from the vacated key and the window up in the clue. Liked MILD but I thought the clue could have been improved with a definition other than ‘Pint’. COD to MARYLANDER.
   Thanks J and setter.

5. Well done to all who finished this. I was stymied by MARYLANDER, which made the clue with the Americanism too difficult for me too.

6. The ‘ pint and three quarters of liquid’ I felt sure would be an indication of a litre, which is very close to 1.75 pints – certainly close enough for The Times crossword. Clever misdirection left me trying to shoehorn an L into the solution for my last one in. But L-ID led nowhere and had to be abandoned . I realised MILD would parse though wasn’t convinced it fitted the definition ‘pint’. In it went with fingers crossed.
   31:13, another tricky Friday

7. I emerged bloodied but unbowed after 53 minutes of slugging it out with this crafty, challenging setter. Thanks to Jeremy’s excellent blog I now know what was going on with REDBELLY, TUTORIAL, COAT, MILD and my LOI OBSTACLE, whose diabolical wordplay I never would have got without help. Was pleased to figure out BUILDER and had to smile when poor old Joe appeared at SQUARE ROOT.

   From Subterranean Homesick Blues:
   Johnny’s in the basement, mixing up the medicine
   I’m on the pavement thinking about the government
   The man in the trench COAT, badge out, laid off
   Says he’s got a bad cough, wants to get it paid off
   Look out kid…

8. Too hard for me today, stopped after 35′. Gaps in NW and SE. I haven’t drunk mild for fifty years.

   Thanks jeremy and setter.

9. The combination of DJIBOUTI and MILD did for me!

   1. Likewise!

10. I had LAPDANCE for 16d until the V in DIVORCEE pulled me away from that. Just under 35 minutes to complete.

11. 73 minutes with LOI TIRESOME. COD to SQUARE ROOT. Once I saw MARYLANDER, I gained enough confidence to persevere, after spending the first half hour bewitched, bothered and bewildered. Then at the end the SE was proving tricky, with the unknown REDBELLY not showing, until I saw that the pint could be of MILD. Only then did I think of all the majestic theatre dames. Thank you Jeremy and setter.

12. DNF with REDBELLY and MILD missing on the hour mark. I pondered REDBELLY but NHO and couldn’t parse it and I like a pint (568ml) of MILD though its a rarity in pubs these days and it never occurred to me.
    This was a reality check after feeling a bit too pleased with myself this week.
    COD SQUARE ROOT.
    Thanks Jeremy and setter.

13. Well, another DNF. FRETTING did for me at 8d after looking up the American. So many unches which I hate.

    I thought Man United no longer was quite clever with acknowledgments to the comments above. I was quite proud the I managed to get DJIBOUTI and even parse it!

    Thanks Jeremy and setter.

14. I thought this was a cracker. Tough, as the Snitch shows (no-one under 10 minutes so far! UPDATE – ah, there’s Magoo…) but entirely fair, and with no doubt after you unravel the wordplay.

    I’ve never knowingly drunk it & I’m towards the younger end of commenters here, but I’ve certainly heard of a pint of MILD.

    19.41 for me. I sent myself down some blind alleys along the way, including being sure that the ‘contest’ and ‘nation’ combination in 25a was going to provide RACE.

    Thanks both.

15. A wind assisted 31.28, but I’m here today to report a first (for me, at least). Frustrated (like others) by the parsing of MILD, I chucked the clue into Google and got Google’s AI response , perfectly answering the clue: “The answer is MILD. In the cryptic clue, “pint and three quarters of liquid” refers to “MILK” (three-quarters of the word “pint”), and “in the van” suggests taking the first letter of “DIESEL” (which is “D”). Combining these, we get “MIL+D”, which equals “MILD”.” Our blogging days are numbered!

    1. Aside from that ‘pint’ is the definition, and it’s ‘liquid’ that gives you MILK – but a definite improvement on previous efforts…

    2. Yes, I’ve used it myself via its Gemini platform which is great because one can have intelligent conversations with it, query things and tell it when it’s wrong to which it always responds politely and constructively.

       1. It won’t be long before people are marrying these things.

    3. I can see how beer can be defined by pint, but I’m struggling to see likewise how milk is? Yes it’s sold in pints, but not by definition.

       1. Not that it’s directly relevant to the clue as set, but the Oxfords list ‘pint’ as a pint of milk, also ‘pinta’ (from the 1960s advertising campaigns).

       2. Milk is clued by “liquid”, of which you take 3 of the 4 letters. Pint doesn’t come in to the MIL part, just it’s a synonym (of sorts) for the ale.

16. DNF in 46 mins. Snookered by mild. Got into mental contortions trying to get three quarters of derv onto P . The best I could get was prev as an invented form of previous.
    That was scuppered when I solved redbelly.
    Mild as an answer completely eluded me as the last time I was in a round with someone who ordered a pint of mild must have been in pre decimal days.

    Even then it was well recognised that all the liquid from the slop tray was used to fill up a pint of mild. Ugh!

    1. In 1969 after spending most of the summer drinking bitter in various London establishments friends and I ventured up to Nuneaton and ordered three pints of bitter on arrival. The lady behind the bar looked us over and tactfully but forcefully suggested we surely meant to order three pints of mild.

17. NHO either DBE or REDBELLY, so I can forgive myself for not getting it. Managed the rest in 45 mins, and seemed oddly more on the wavelength with this puzzle than apparently easier ones that defeated me this week. Know of Joe Root, so enjoyed 22ac, but I fear our American solvers would be poleaxed by it. And yes, like others I’ve not seen mild for sale in a pub for decades. Another word that will likely bemuse non-Brits.

18. 27:52
    As an old colleague (a Yorkshireman) used to say, much of that was ‘like plaiting soot in a gale’.
    Hardly a gimme to be seen and the dreaded curse of the four letter words returned at the end with COAT and MILD last to yield. I enjoyed it in a faintly masochistic way.

19. 23.00
    Roooooot!!

20. 14:25. I thought this was superb. Like KensoGhost ‘I consistently read the clues differently to how they were meant to be read’, except that is how the setter means you to read them! This was a puzzle that required close attention to the wordplay, which is for me the best kind. And nothing obscure, with the possible exception of the fish.
    I don’t think I’ve ever seen MILD for sale in a pub but I have seen small beer recently.

    1. Bathams in the Black Country. Or you could try some Banks before they cease trading in October.

21. Glad that I’ve nothing pressing to do today. That was tricky! Had a fairly good start in the NW which filled up nicely, with BONE IDLE FOI, then COAT leading to OBSTACLE, where I saw CATS and moved on without pausing for a joint. The SW also went in without much difficulty,but then the struggle began. CHAI was the breakthrough in the NE, with FENG SHUI following on and opening up LEAP YEAR and FROTHING. MARYLANDER had already landed and opened the SKYLIGHT. The major hold ups in the SE were then tackled. REDBELLY, TIRESOME, DJIBOUTI and finally MILD were painfully extracted as the clock ticked on. 46:30. Thanks setter and Jeremy.

22. Was well beaten by this, failing to see OBSTACLE which should not have been very difficult but I got fixated on the idea that “bar” was part of the wordplay not the definition. I did not see COAT until I cheated on OBSTACLE which gave me the opening letter. I lazily put in fretting instead of FROTHING. REDBELLY was unknown and a bit of a lucky guess. Not my finest hour.

23. 49.48 WOE

    A slightly desperate and unparsed FRETTING bunged in at the end did for me. My problem was that I couldn’t see beyond the clearly incorrect OBSTRUCT and UNSTABLE (Cats eventually came to mind) so made much heavier weather of the NW than I should have. As Keriothe says you really did need to put your thinking hat on for many of the clues. Favourite was definitely DIVORCEE – fun and clever

    Thanks Jeremy and setter

24. 40 – another stinker, but at least completed in a single sitting, though MILD, REDBELLY and assorted difficulties on the way made it a close-run thing.

25. 31:26

    NE and SW corners managed to fill themselves in without too much bother. Less so for the other two corners. OBSTACLE took a while to come but gave the first letters for the missing 2d and 3d. Meanwhile, in the south-east, had to build brick by brick – NEONATAL then TIRESOME and DJIBOUTI, leaving 27a and 24d. NHO of the fish but alighted on DBE to replace the A (and checked for its existence). Couldn’t see the MIL part of the wordplay as had LD from the first letters of ‘liquid diesel’.

    Thanks PJ and setter

26. Two goes needed.

    – Had to trust that dit is the signal for E to get EDITING
    – Went through various awards before thinking of DBE to get REDBELLY
    – Didn’t know which last letter was being removed to get COAT

    Thanks Jeremy and setter.

    FOI Bone-idle
    LOI Mild
    COD Divorcee (great definition!)

27. 50′
    Really liked DJIBOUTI and TIRESOME. Not as harsh a Friday as some recent ones, but still a great workout and no pink squares today so my new sausage-finger cream must be working 🙂

28. Instructive puzzle, easier than a usual Friday. I finished about three quarters of it.

29. After one hour, I resorted to aids for Redbelly. A bit frustrating, as I had thought of Redbelly but couldn’t see why (and hadn’t heard of it, even though it sounded plausible).
    I did get (guess) Coat despite NHO coati.
    Some lovely clues today, not least: Djibouti, Addis Ababa, Elysian (nice misdirection) and Marylander .

30. A real cracker, REDBELLY and MILD took about a quarter of my overall time. “Losing focus ” was a new one on me but Ctrl for Key meant it was gettable. Lots of enjoyable devilry everywhere, I particularly liked DJIBOUTI DIVORCEE and ADDIS ABABA.

    I’m told that SHUI is Chinese for” “sense” and FENG means ” more money than”.

    Thanks to Jeremy and the setter

    1. 😂

31. I haven’t trawled through all the comments so forgive me if I’m repeating someone, but in the UK ‘pint’ is used colloquially as a generic term for any type of beer (mild, bitter, lager), and in almost any quantity. I think one could say it even extends to any kind of drink, not just beer. As in ‘Fancy a pint?’

32. DNF. cracking puzzle, got there eventually but with aids. DJIBOUTI did for me. is it just me or were there quite a few Americanisms? down with this sort of thing etc… thanks both!

33. Tough but mostly fair, finished in just over an hour. Only one quibble: as “un” is the masculine or neuter indefinite article in French, I feel it was a bit sneaky to use “girlfriend” rather than “boyfriend” in clueing UNSTEADY, but reading others’ comments suggests that I am in a minority of one.

    COD SQUARE ROOT

    Thanks Jeremy and setter.

    1. UNSTEADY may have been a deliberate ruse by the setter, but perfectly fair as an example of the need to be ready to lift and separate items of wordplay.

34. On a horrid run at the moment with DNFs for the last three. Hope next week is easier.

35. I managed to complete this in the intervals between play in the Draper tennis match this afternoon. No time, but I would certainly not have broken any records. I enjoyed most of the clues. A MER at DIVORCEE, but the dictionaries have spoken. I have not checked whether they also include the STANDEE much beloved in London buses. I had not only heard of MILD but actually served it in my days as a barman on the Norfolk Broads during vacations from University sixty years ago. Some customers, especially from the Midlands, seemed to like Brown and Mild, a 50-50 mixture of draft mild beer and a bottle of brown ale. Not my favourite taste but an improvement on the (then) ubiquitous Watney’s Red Barrel.
    FOI – BONE-IDLE
    LOI – MILD
    COD – SQUARE ROOT.
    Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.

36. DBE? Redbelly? NHO! DNF! Do like Dame Judi Dench and her oeuvre.
    Thought of MILD but not milk, so had the D pencilled in, but puzzles where half the respondents fail are not my cup of tea. MILD remembered from a British sitcom from the old days on Oz TV… Love thy Neighbor perhaps? (Shudder.)
    Otherwise: off the wavelength, found it difficult. CHAI an indirect anagram?

    1. The letters in CA and HI are intertwined, not anagrammed. And only 6 Snitch reference solvers with errors, so a very low failure rate (I know people might have submitted off leaderboard, but even so).

       1. I decided it was OK, mostly because the letters of the two indirect words are kept in their proper order, but I did think it was testing the boundaries of indirect anagrams.

37. Oh dear! About an hour and a half, but all parsed. LOI MILD despite (or perhaps because of (!)) my solving this puzzle in the pub. Very clever indeed (the puzzle, not me). I just don’t know how keriothe does it – his times are consistently so fast. Chapeau!

38. I took again 51 minutes, but did not really enjoy this puzzle. LOI was MILD where I first was thinking of WIN(E)D but luckily couldn’t convince myself that wind could somehow mean pint and kept thinking.
    I guess the “man united no longer” and one or two others were clever, but I found this a bit of a chore that I was glad to finish.
    Nevertheless, thanks setter and blogger

39. I’m feeling my age. In my youth in the West Midlands, Brown & Mild was a favourite tipple (Mann’s Brown and M&B Mild was the preferred mix).

40. Three sittings totalling 31 minutes, gave up without DJIBOUTI and MILD, neither of which I was remotely close to seeing

    You can always find MILD at any CAMRA beer festival (albeit there’ll only be one or two of them). Up here in the Manchester area Holt’s still brew it, and across the Pennines the York brewery Rudgate, and Samuel Smith from Tadcaster, still turn it out regularly

41. Only recently finishd since I was out earlier. 79 minutes on a crossword that was in places quite excellent I thought especially the Man United clue, but marred by one or two rather loose things: mild = p, steady = girlfriend potentially (what’s potential about it?), liquid = milk. And I didn’t think much of ‘losing focus’.

    1. I missed it in the blog earlier, but I had the definition as ‘potentially volatile’

42. Yes I suppose ‘potentially volatile’ will just about do for ‘unsteady’, although again ‘potentially’ is a little unnecessary perhaps.

43. Times subs have lapsed- deliberately- as I have lots of books to get through. Picked the paper up at the airport. Enjoyed most of this, but failed to get the SE corner. I’m a bit out of practice.

44. As several others did, I tried to lift and separate in the wrong place at pretty much every opportunity. I liked Skylight, Neonatal, and Square Root.

45. An incorrect lead at 24d meant Djibouti was unattainable. In my defence I wrongly picked in the van as the definition.
    Mild as a synonym of pint is out of my ken, but hho (Joe) Root, which is a particularly unfortunate name in Australian slang.

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