40 minutes on the nose, with one error. Today (Thursday in the US still) is the 44th anniversary of my birth. So not even my silly error can get me down!
I quite enjoyed this, but I think it was not quite the puzzle for a solver with limited UK-specific knowledge.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Portrait of interest to police stolen from among mine (8) |
| PHOTOFIT – HOT (stolen from) in (among) PIT (mine)
Did not know this registered trademark. Apparently it is an alternative to “identikit”, which I also do not know! |
|
| 6 | Recognized perch from the rear flap (6) |
| TISWAS – SAW (recognized) SIT (perch) reversed (from the rear)
Did not know this — or perhaps it vaguely rang a bell once I got it from the wordplay. It means a tizzy, flap, state of excitement, commotion (Chambers). |
|
| 9 | Dutch brought back through Jaguar factory (4) |
| FRAU – hidden reversed in (brought back through) JAGUAR FACTORY
Synonym for a wife. |
|
| 10 | Dirty half of yard in which five play (5,5) |
| UNCLE VANYA – UNCLEAN (dirty) YA{rd} (half of) around (in which) V (five) | |
| 11 | Terms of Endearment remade, so new The Sting? (5,8) |
| SWEET NOTHINGS – anagram of (remade) SO NEW THE STING | |
| 13 | Clear skin that’s surprising close to your ears (6) |
| CORNEA – COR (that’s surprising) + homophone of (to your ears) NEAR (close)
I was surprised to learn that CORNEA is defined by Chambers as the transparent horny membrane that forms the front covering of the eye. |
|
| 14 | Thrash unknown, entertaining mum with great show (8) |
| FLASHILY – FLAIL (thrash) Y (unknown) around (entertaining) SH (mum[!])
I rejected this line of reasoning for many minutes, specifically because I did not think that ‘mum’ could be used as an interjection to bring quiet, à la SH and ST. |
|
| 16 | Ten asses’ worth of silver rani’s due after trading (8) |
| DENARIUS – RANI’S DUE anagrammed (after trading)
And to think, now it’s just a blinking penny. |
|
| 19 | Polish brought west to fight make dugouts? (6) |
| BURROW – RUB (polish) reversed (brought west) + (to) ROW (fight) | |
| 21 | I see complications involving trigonometry — [that’s] normal in maths (2,5,6) |
| AT RIGHT ANGLES – AH (I see) TANGLES (complications) around (involving) TRIG (trigonometry)
‘Normal’ is a mathematical term meaning AT RIGHT ANGLES. ‘Perpendicular’ is also seen, though it has a more specific meaning. |
|
| 22 | Language unit struggling with Danish (10) |
| HINDUSTANI – anagram of (struggling) UNIT + (with) DANISH | |
| 24 | Belt to put in loops and tighten around (4) |
| TONK – KNOT (to put in loops and tighten) reversed (around)
Really nice clue. |
|
| 25 | One of those cases that blow up enormously (2,4) |
| AS HELL – A SHELL (one of those cases that blow up)
I’d feel worse if this clue was unfair, but in fact it is simple and brilliant, so I can only tip my cap to the setter. (I suppose I’d also feel worse if I weren’t among the vast majority of solvers who also made the same mistake!) |
|
| 26 | Trouble getting into costume and performing dance (8) |
| RIGADOON – ADO (trouble) in (getting into) RIG (costume) + (and) ON (performing) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | PC in house moved to higher level predictive text (9) |
| HOROSCOPE – COP (PC) in HO (house) ROSE (moved to higher level)
Parsing this clue for the blog took me ages! |
|
| 3 | May baby possibly start to appreciate nature rambling? (7) |
| TAUREAN – first letter of (start to) APPRECIATE + NATURE anagrammed (rambling) | |
| 4 | Dashing sailor with loud orange coat on (11) |
| FRUSTRATING – RATING (sailor) under (with … on) F (loud) RUST (orange coat)
Tricky definition for RUST! |
|
| 5 | Carpet / which parasite victim might want to get? (4,3) |
| TICK OFF – double definition
A parasite victim might want to get a tick off! |
|
| 6 | Ballerina’s support, on point (3) |
| TOE – TO (on) E (point)
TO = ‘on’ is not very strong for me. I’m sure they’re substitutable. But I was able to get the answer from the quite clear (to me!) surface. |
|
| 7 | Has Cnut ordered halt mid-flow? (7) |
| STAUNCH – HAS CNUT anagrammed (ordered) | |
| 8 | Gulf [of] America next to southern edge of States (5) |
| ABYSS – A (America) BY (next to) last letter (southern edge) of STATES | |
| 12 | Spooner’s hammock rocking violently (11) |
| HEADBANGING – switch first letters of (Spooner’s) BED HANGING (hammock)
Also brilliant. |
|
| 15 | Beauty fascinated by sounds (5,4) |
| LOOKS INTO – LOOKS (beauty) INTO (fascinated by)
Quite tricky, and not a common definition of ‘sound’. Such as in ‘sound the depths’, etc. |
|
| 17 | British papers in time put into reduced format (7) |
| ABRIDGE – BR (British) ID (papers) in AGE (time) | |
| 18 | Promising some tennis, not cricket? On the contrary (3,4) |
| SET FAIR – SET (some tennis) + the opposite of (on the contrary) UNFAIR (not cricket?)
Quite the combination of Britishisms, both SET FAIR for ‘promising’ and ‘not cricket’ for UNFAIR. I’d heard of the latter, but not the former. |
|
| 20 | Final part manufacturer has sent from the same stock (7) |
| RELATED – last letter of (final part … has) MANUFACTURER + ELATED (sent)
Parsing fixed courtesy Amoeba! |
|
| 21 | What replaced Clay, for instance? (5) |
| ALIAS – ALI (what replaced Clay) AS (for instance?)
AS = ‘for instance’ is attested in Chambers. Obviously ‘such as’ is more common. |
|
| 23 | Capital of Peru really Lima (3) |
| SOL – SO (really) L (Lima)
The currency. |
|
WOE – same as Jeremy. Oh, well or perhaps I mean Oh, hell!
Can’t complain -a v. good puzzle but beaten on the day.
Thanks and happy 44th to Jeremy and thanks to setter
I considered both “oh well” and “oh hell” as titles for the blog, but I was overruled. 🙂
Have you said what your error was at 25ac? I’ve read more than once and can’t see that you have.
This was going very well indeed for a Friday, but as I moved down the grid I found myself with 3 or 4 answers that went in with fingers crossed as I was not entirely sure of the parsing. My confidence started to wane and I lost a lot of time.
That was how I came to enter AS WELL at 25ac with a shrug as my LOI, based only on that it fitted the checkers and ‘blow up’ might have been cluing SWELL. As things turned out, all my other semi-gambles paid off but that one didn’t. Nevertheless I actually enjoyed my Friday solve for the first time in several weeks.
50 minutes. One letter wrong.
Well, on the other hand, it was a puzzle for someone with special mathematical knowledge, and on your birthday! I took “normal” on faith (what do I know about “normal”?).
I’m afraid I only did AS WELL as many others. But this was good fun.
I think it’s “final part [that] manufacturer has” for the R in RELATED 🙂
Happy birthday!
Lovely!
I’m assuming our blogger put AS WELL instead of AS HELL, as in fact I see I did too. Or rather, as well.
The error came immediately after looking at 22ac, for which I just had the second letter, and thinking ah, that’ll be Hindustani then. I was so pleased with this I must have been off my guard and it never occurred to me that “as well” could be wrong.
Otherwise I enjoyed it, now Jeremy mentions it it does look a bit UK specific (good 🙂 )
33:24 but I made that mistake AS WELL. I even justified it in my head – A swell being ‘cases that blow up enormously’/ one of those. Now the disappointment has gone AS HELL works so much better.
Have not seen the word TISWAS since the TV show was on.
A lot to like in this but COD to RIGADOON.
Thanks blogger and setter
That was tough, with an official DNF. I didn’t think for one minute it could be CORNEA which in my life has only ever been some part of the eye best left to professionals. I also put LOOKS INTO in with a shrug. COD to HOROSCOPE, usually about as accurate as predictive text in my experience. Today’s soundbite is one I won’t be sharing with many, Brenda Lee singing Sweet Nothings, although I think the 1959 version of spellcheck gave her a different spelling. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
16:29 but I had AS WELL as well. Oh hell.
This was another ‘spot the definition and reverse-engineer the wordplay if you can be bothered (and make a mistake when you can’t)’ puzzle but I enjoyed it. Just my mood I expect.
25.42 Avoiding (though without much confidence) the SWELL mishap: either answer can at least be smudged. I was going to complain about TONK (TINK works nearly as well) wondering about the verbose nature of “belt to put in loops” as the definition, but thanks to PJ I get the cleverness of creating a knot, even if it looks more like tying a bow.
Us Oldies obviously tried IDENTIKIT first, only abandoning because it wasn’t -um- a fit. Is it still PHOTOFIT in the late twenties?
Much to admire in this: a decent Spooner, the cinematic SWEET NOTHINGS, the predictive text (about as accurate as the AI version). Sympathy to the SWELL bunch.
AS WELL. Forty eight fifty five down the drain. Thanks Jeremy, and happy birthday!
Another AS WELL. Haven’t heard TONK for over 40 years, so didn’t get that. The rest complete, but quite a lot of guessing synonyms and then trying to back-parse; not my favourite way of solving.
Knew there were 10 asses in a DENARIUS, luckily, so that was a write-in. Had no idea that CORNEA had anything to do with skin, but just shrugged and bunged it in. UNCLE VANYA was my COD. Slightly irritated by ‘bed hanging’… a hammock is surely a ‘hanging bed’? At least crossers made it obvious.
I did enjoy most of this but fell into the AS WELL trap. I also misspelled CORNIA, though that was irrelevant given the genuine error on AS WELL. I have never heard of RIGADOON, only ‘rigaudon’, so that took ages. I put in NO RIGHT ANSWER for 21 across (a reasonable synonym for “I see complications”, I thought), but that couldn’t be right with the checkers.
SNITCH has this as 146, but I think it is far harder than that, given the AS WELL trap. SNITCH doesn’t include solvers who make errors. If you do (e.g. by using the average score on the website) I make this a 221!
Quite so – at the moment, SNITCH shows 18 solvers and 47 with errors (including me), which is a very high proportion to exclude.
Also unfamiliar with ‘tonk’, though it has an onomatopoeic quality. I’ll hope to remember if it comes up again.
This puzzle was far beyond the reaches of this wannabe solver today but the answers were all gettable.
Happy birthday to our blogger and thanks to our setter.
No accurate time as I was interrupted, but approx. 21 minutes… with the same one letter error as others, seeing SWELL for “blow up” and thinking no further. Oh well. I was 3/4 done in 12 minutes but struggled over FRUSTRATING. CORNEA and FLASHILY in particular. I liked the capital of Peru best. Very neat. Thank-you Jeremy and setter – and Happy Birthday Jeremy.
Much of this went in easily enough, but then I foundered. AS wELL of course, although the answer wasn’t really too difficult; excellent clue, as were a few others. I wasn’t sure about calling a HOROSCOPE predictive text: not necessarily text — when one goes into a tent and Madame Whatname tells you your horoscope she doesn’t write it down. Also rust = orange coat was a bit hard to find and maybe a bit doubtful.
31:20 but with AS WELL as well – plus another boob at TONK, just to rub it in.
A fine crossword, done in 30 minutes, after another visit to “golf” which involved coffee and bacon roll and no golf. Unfortunately I had AS WELL for no good reason and so DNF. I liked HOROSCOPE and a MER at CORNEA which isn’t “skin” although it is supposed to be clear.
So enjoying being 8th on the leaderboard at lunchtime. I may have finally, finally, finally learned the lesson: don’t submit until you can justify all of the clues’ wordplay.
Smug? Me?
There was something as hell strange about one of the definitions, but I enjoyed the rest of it thoroughly.
I thought this was a cracker of a puzzle, enjoyably difficult with some brilliant clues. Another AS WELL as well, of course, and I was initially a bit disappointed after getting the Unlucky sign after a lovely 31 minutes. And then very disappointed, on seeing an unholy mess of ungreen squares. And then some relief, on seeing that was mostly due to BORROW, FLISHILY and UNCLE VAYNA (the less-famous uncle who’s into his looks a bit too much, by the sounds of it). And then very pleased, on coming here to see I am in such good company with my solitary non-typo. (But I really might have to start learning to check my answers right after I enter them.) Super stuff – thanks setter, and happy birthday Jeremy!
I’m an AS WELL too, though I also didn’t see TONK, which is a bit more annoying since it’s such a nice clue.
Didn’t realise TISWAS had history, just knew the TV show. Remembered DENARIUS and 10 asses from somewhere (albeit only after solving the anagram..!). Nice puzzle and quite accessible for a Friday, despite failing.
Thanks Jeremy and setter
Great puzzle. Seeing as it’s Friday and the SNITCH count is so high, I was delighted to finish in 35 mins, having been held up for a while by FRUSTRATING and CORNEA.. I originally inserted AS WELL as well, but was not happy about it, and then AS HELL came to mind (after all, I was in the artillery section of the OTC). Thank you, Blogger, for explaining RELATED. First one in was PHOTOFIT and last CORNEA. Favourite clues: to AT RIGHT ANGLES, TICK OFF, STAUNCH, SET FAIR and ALIAS, and I liked HOROSCOPE = predictive text. Thank you to Setter and thank you and Happy Birthday to Blogger.
As of writing, only about 40 out of 130 have solved correctly. (Ignoring times that don’t seem real.) This feels unprecedented in my solving lifetime!
It will almost certainly be because of ” as hell”. If the clue remains as worded and the answer had been “as well” would there have been a deluge of comments complaining of a poor clue? I do not think so.If you find an answer that fits the clue in all repects there is no reason to wonder whether there is a better solution . The fault is with setter in my view.
How does “cases that blows up” mean SWELL, or “enormously” mean AS WELL?
It’s a difficult clue, with a tempting answer to half-parse and put in from the checkers. But I had no doubt I was correct when I entered AS HELL (I was more worried about TOE!), and nearly all the commenters here who got it wrong acknowledge they were fairly beaten (which is rare!).
I’m not quite sure I agree with you there, Will. I put in as well, but didn’t think it really worked.
Having said that, I’m trying to think of a sentence where I would substitute enormously for as hell. Any good ideas?
Sorry, I didn’t see Amoeba‘s comment above.
I was pleased as hell to get it right!
The fault is 100% with us as solvers. We are all part of the human species, and it is not surprising that many of us fell into the same trap. I hesitate to use the word “trap”, because I don’t even know that the setter intended it to be so.
I think most of us just saw the enumeration and the crossing letters and “blows up” and figured SWELL had to fit. But that parsing doesn’t make sense, either from the word play or from the definition.
Finally, I might mention that “ the majority of solvers making a mistake” is not even a situation that requires blame to be assigned. Nobody has been hurt, nothing needs to be redressed. It’s just a funny thing that happened.
Another
69:23 but with an error. yes that one. I liked some of it but the style just doesn’t quite work for me.
AS WELL got me too, alas. Made worse by immediately seeing the correct parsing on getting the error message. Well, having the offending letter helps. Still a lovely Friday challenge. Well done setter – ya got us good!
I made the same mistake as well. So DNF. Otherwise a fun challenge of a crossword.
My thanks to plusjeremy, happy birthday, well blogged, and ta setter.
We’ve had harder Fridays, but still DNF.
10a Uncle Vanya, never read it, if it didn’t pop up in Xwords I would never get it.
POI 16a Denarius. The D (of LSD) was only 5/12ths of a modern P, so those asses were cheap! But of course they were a small coin. The D was roughly a day’s pay in ancient Rome.
25a As Hell, not a hope, left it blank.
26a Rigadoon. I thought I knew this as a novel, but I don’t. Not sure if I HHO the dance or not. Cheated.
1d Horoscope biffed.
2d I thought Torean was March/April, not May. Wrong.
6d Toe, I biffed Tee and was wrong.
12d Headbanging. I usually can’t get Spooners, but I loved this one and saw it once I had the B. COD.
21a Alias, I missed the complexity of this.
23a Sol. Haven’t been to Peru for over a decade and the currency didn’t occur to me for ages.
It seems to be an unprecedented sort of day. It’s now after 4pm and with almost fifty minutes on the solving clock and the ubiquitous error, I find myself at 53 on the Leaderboard!
I got AS HELL, though I did initially consider ‘as well’, and I put TOE in, thinking it made a tiny bit more sense than ‘leg’, but does ‘to’ really equate to ‘on’? I didn’t get ‘set fair’ which is as archaic AS HELL, though I have seen this crossword-only phrase before. I had several other missing answers on this tricky crossword too.
I didn’t much like TONK, which to me is more like the sort of noise one might emit if a ‘real’ word is proving elusive, and even when AS HELL proved to be the answer the setter was looking for I struggled for a long time to find a sentence in which I could make it synonymous with ‘enormously’, so thanks to Seabee above for digging one up. To be honest, I don’t like it much anyway, but so be it. Otherwise a distinctly un-Fridayish offering, I thought, mostly due to having polished it off with one error in just over half an hour.
I was feeling quite pleased with myself solving this in 46.17, only to have the smug look wiped from my face. Yep, me AS WELL.