Times Quick Cryptic 2776 by Jimmy

71 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 2776 by Jimmy”

1. Like Jack I came in at 8 minutes on the dot. FOI IMPEL, LOI PALINDROMES which became clear once I actually concentrated on the clue. An entertaining and reasonably straightforward puzzle from Jimmy, with a few – like CHIRRUP, CATASTROPHE and TAXIMETER – that required a bit of thought and the help of checkers. I missed the NEAR THING hidden but bunged it in early as a definition-inspired guess. I’m also not sure I knew there was such a thing as a taximeter. Thanks both.

   1. Nice to see LindsayO and Tina, regular contributors to this blog, referenced in the Feedback section of the Saturday Times. They are watching us out there!

      1. Dear Prof, I noticed my sometime drinking buddy* Tina got a shout-out, but I saw Cedric’s name there, not mine. Agree with the general sentiment though, they’d be mad to ignore this hotbed of sarcasm, disappointment and sage advice!
         *Possibly an exaggeration but at least partly true…

         1. You are correct, apologies – it was Cedric and Tina.

2. Straightforward. I liked PALINDROMES. TAXIMETER looks odd as one word; looks like it should be pronounced taxIMMeter. 5:27.

   1. The word TAXIMETER has been around since the 19th century and started with horse-drawn cabs.

      1. As a retired cabbie, I can confirm that the TAXIMETER was invented in the late 19th century, and in fact the word ‘taxicab’ is a shortened form of ‘TAXIMETER cabriolet’.

         1. This blog is a fund of great things you had never thought to ask about!

         2. Dear Busman,
            Was your cab no. 1729?
            1729 (the Hardy-Ramanujan number) is the most famous Taxicab number in mathematics.
            Ramanujan was the subject of a film a few years ago, The Man Who Knew Infinity.
            I daresay you already knew all of this.

            1. Alas, we didn’t have enough licenced cabs in Trafford to aspire to 4 digit numbers. I was no.48.

            2. Thanks so much for this. Hardy’s was a standard text when I was at university.

            3. Of course this compelled me to google the Hardy-Ramanujan number. And I learn something new yet again from this blog. There is an almost infinite amount of stuff I don’t know that I don’t know.

      2. Not easy. But doable – at least I finished this one.

3. 9:43. Enjoyed PICASSO and CHIRRUP the most. I used to wonder about TOTE in “tote that barge”, as I figured wouldn’t barges be towed? Now I feel I have to go look up that long-winded STROPHE description!

   1. Collins has: tote – carry, convey, drag.

4. I started off well, putting in the first seven across answers with hardly a pause, but these things never last. It took a moment to realize that near thing was a hidden, and I was slow on assembly. I was left with the crossers for palindrome, and had to write down the anagram letters before I saw it.

   Time: 7 minutes

5. 11 minutes for me with LOI PALINDROMES once I realized what was going on and had all the checkers. I know nothing about BLUR but they seem to keep showing up here (AHA too, who seem to be Norwegian).

   1. just came here to say how much I liked
      “Desperate Dan implores Bob, Eve and Anna, say”.

6. I enjoyed PICASSO and TRANSIT particularly. Thanks jimmy and jack.

   The Weekend QC is available via johninterred’s blog on Friday for those craving more.

7. Quick out the blocks with seven on the first pass of acrosses but slowed from there to end up all green in 11.25. I had trouble in the SE where having initital though of ‘peach’ for PLUMP it took too long to accept I wasn’t looking for fruit, only cracking that when CATASTROPHE finally fell which led to ASSEMBLY and SHARPLY too.

8. Fairly gentle going but got a bit bogged down in the SE where, like Mendesest, I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for LOI PLUMP … Also took a while to remember that harps exist.
   NHO (or forgotten) ‘strophe’ but with most of the checkers in place the answer was clear.
   Finished in 6.39.
   Thanks to Jackkt and Jimmy

9. Nice puzzle with lots of lovely clues. A good time for us of 15.32 which would have been shorter had we not spent a good minute trying to fit the Spanish painter into the wrong place on the grid and could only think of Dali 😧 Once we had the right place and the first p it was a write in.

   The school boy in me particularly enjoyed the barman’s couple of cups, thanks Jimmy for the giggle. COD to near thing.

   Thanks Jack for the parsing of apostrophe which we biffed and trophe is NHO.

10. Thanks Jack and Jimmy.
    Another NHO strophe but as @Plett11 had to be. Palindrome: on radar no problems and completed before I’d finished a couple of cups in a rare sub 10 for me so on the easier side.

11. I’m starting to enjoy Jimmy’s puzzles, which, to me, are the epitome of a QC. TAXIMETER (see earlier) made me smile, but didn’t quite pip Desperate Dan to today’s accolade.

    FOI CHAMPERS
    LOI SIKH
    COD PALINDROMES
    TIME 3:51

12. 7:07, definitely at the easier end of the scale for me, but a nice puzzle I thought

13. 7:23
    I would not want all puzzles to be this easy, but a pleasant start to the week.

    Thanks Jimmy and Jack

14. 5:22. Nice one. About my average time so the difficulty is spot on. We’ve seen similar clues for PASTRY (QC 2766) and PLUMP (Jumbo 1683) recently. I enjoyed PALINDROMES most. LOI CASTILE. Thanks Jimmy and Jackkt.

15. On the wavelength today and pretty quick.
    BRA, THONG and ASS. I hope this isn’t a theme. Had a sense of humour failure re the cluing for Bra.
    Anyway a female donkey is a jenny. Hence the question mark after ASSESS perhaps.
    Thanks vm, Jack.

16. Most enjoyable, took me 7 minutes with quite a few smiles on the way. Our setters seem collectively to be determined that even oldies like me are made fully aware of Blur, a band I had barely heard of before its recent multiple appearances in the QCs.

    LOI was PLUMP; I started with the opening P and immediately thought the clue was “definition, a fruit, made up of P + a word for fleshy”, but neither each (giving Peach) not rune (giving Prune) really parsed as fleshy. So well misled on this one until the final P checker appeared and all was made clear. The only other real hold-up was over ASSESS, which I biffed but simply could not parse until a grand PDM, upon which it made me laugh and became my COD.

    Many thanks Jack for the blog
    Cedric

    1. I spent a while wondering why “lump” meant “fleshy” – durr!

17. 15 mins fully parsed and casual, which is fast for me so not surprised by lots of very fast times above. Lots to enjoy in this one, my favourite was ASSESS which made me chuckle.
    Nice to see the new puzzle rules emerging with reference to APPLE and Blur as more modern themes. Related to that, and as I mentioned in a reply above, previous blog entries (moans unfortunately) from LindsayO and Tina were referenced in the Feedback column of the Times on Saturday, so a reminder that folks are watching what we write here. Prof

    1. Edit – the Saturday Times referenced Cedric Statheby and Tina, not LindsayO. My apologies to the latter.

18. Yes: indeed today’s was much better – thank you, Jimmy. LOI SIKH (depended on POI SIX-PACK). DNK bears = TOTES (but had to be), but I think this is again American culture. Liked the palindromes. Also liked the quasi-Nina, with both BRA and THONG?

19. Nice start to the week, not difficult.

    Schoolboyish grin at BRA, LOI SIKH, COD PALINDROMES.

    4:35

20. Fun, quick, Happy Mondays (to continue the recent band name trend). All done in under 13 minutes. Any faster and I’d get a nosebleed. And I’ve learned about taxis and strophes to boot.
    Had I not been focused on a James Bond theme for Sir Sean’s clue, and quicker on SIKH, I might have been even faster, but that might have given rise to dangerously competitive urges for yet more speed. I know my place. Thanks Jimmy, Jackkt, and Busman for a piece of GK that I’d never even considered, and that actually probably isn’t GK. Who knew?!

21. 10:08
    Nicely pitched QC. Still not keen on the modern approach, ie.blur/apple.
    Maybe they should limit it to 1 per puzzle similar to the hiddens in the 15×15.

    Liked bra, thong, transit, six pack, and palindromes.
    LOI sikh.

    1. These modern references are both at least 30 years old.

22. Steady solve of a very enjoyable puzzle. My LOI was PALINDROMES, because my anagram hat has fallen down the back of the sofa, and it was a clever clue, but the female donkey made me laugh and so that gets my COD.

    All done in 08:30 for 1.6K and a Decent Enough Day. I’m on a slightly slow run at the moment. Many thanks Jimmy and Jack.

23. From CHAMPERS to SIKH in 6:55. Some smiles along the way 🙂 Thanks Jimmy and Jack.

24. Breezeblocked by the NHO TOTES and SIKH, which took around seven minutes to unravel. Until then I had been solving at a very fast pace (for me, at least) and I was hoping to steer clear of the SCC. It was not to be, however, and I crossed the line in 24 minutes.

    My favourite clues today were ASSESS and PALINDROMES.

    Thanks to Jimmy and Jack.

25. Quite quick to start with, but then Jimmy changed wavelength and I struggled to reconnect – I think it was down to the shock of seeing Strophe in a QC. Plump and Repeal were my last two, and it was a good job they didn’t intersect or I would still be there. Overall, a decidedly sluggish solve with just seats at the back available by the time I finished. CoD to 3d for the surface: Desperate Dan indeed! Invariant

26. 7.29 Mostly straightforward. CATASTROPHE and PALINDROMES took a moment. TOTES was LOI. Thanks Jack and Jimmy.

27. An unusual write-in for me (ie every clue solved at first read), but nevertheless an enjoyable 5 mins while listening to TMS. Another couple of wickets needed pronto…

28. Late to this today as BT have been installing my super fast Broadband. My solving speed on this was in line with my newly improved internet speed stopping the clock at 6.15. My only minor hold up was with PALINDROMES where I couldn’t see what was happening for a short while.

29. 17 mins…

    Fairly straightforward I thought, with the main unknowns being “Strophe” for a bit of verse and 18dn “Totes” (I nearly put Koala until it didn’t parse, and then I remembered that I don’t think they’re actually bears). Is “Champers” an actual name or just slang?

    Other than all that, an enjoyable start to the week.

    FOI – 1ac “Champers”
    LOI – 3dn “Palindromes”
    COD – 19ac “Bra”

    Thanks as usual!

30. 7:21

    Fruit fooled me for a while before LOI SHARPLY.

    Lots to like, thanks Jimmy

31. Finished, eventually.
    Some good clues. Ass-ess was my COD.

    Thanks to both.

32. 6.40

    Good stuff – liked CATASTROPHE

33. A nice Monday puzzle finished in 11:15. FOI CHAMPERS which is there in its own right in Collins. Some coincidences that turned out not to be themes – there was also SIKH TRANSIT… which didn’t develop into something in Latin.
    COD (Character Of the Day) DESPERATE DAN. There is a statue of him in Dundee

    1. Maybe Jimmy was wishing us a “Glorious Monday”? 😉

       1. Good one!

34. Great puzzle. A couple of new words for me but easily getatable.

    LOI CATASTOPHE

    Thanks Jimmy and Jack

35. 15/26. Still not easy enough for me.

36. Just right for aQC, although it took some time before I realised s* x was in fact ‘Six’ than ‘sex’

37. Finished in an hour. First success for a while. Hooray !

    Nothing remarkable. Not that easy but doable.

    I thought that the answer for 7 Down – THONG – was a bit racy for this milieu.
    Do you remember this song:
    “Just a thong at twilight, when the lights are low …. “

38. Definitely on the easier end (14:17 for me) but more importantly, this puzzle entertained me!

    Maybe 2D APPLE was “too easy” but I loved the combination of classical and current references; well, I see that is not the orthodox parsing, but the judgment of Paris is where my mind went. I was unfortunately very dull about the PALINDROMEs, which slowed me down. Loved NEAR THING, ASS-ESS haha, THONG, CATASTROPHE! I wonder what in the world I’ve read that allowed me to dimly remember the very ugly word CHAMPERS, and “hamper” for US “picnic basket”. We put dirty laundry in our hampers. I only recognize Blur from doing these puzzles, yes, I live in a cave.

    Thanks Jimmy and Jack!

39. A nice gentle Monday. No hold-ups. Liked CHAMPERS and TOTES – ‘sign o’ the times’ by Prince anyone? (“High on crack and totin’ a machine gun”). Agree TAXIMETER looked a bit odd as one word. Very interesting discussion (thanks for insight Busman). NHO strophe so more learning today. Thanks Jack and Jimmy.

40. A speedy 7:40 for me, so definitely one that I too found to be at the easier end. SIX-PACK and ASSESS both made me smile.

    Thanks to Jimmy and Jackkt.

41. I was getting there in record time but sadly thought 22A was “Luke”. It fitted for 14D but made 18D unsolvable. Feel rather cheated as I still think my answer was better.

42. A very pleasant 13:00. PALINDROMES took me a while as I’d convinced myself that the definition had to be “desperate”, but the penny finally dropped.

    Thank you for the blog!

43. Nice one, much enjoyed.
    Is there perhaps a Scottish reference in all of Jimmy’s puzzles?
    I also had LUKE for 22a before TOTES sorted it out.
    NEAR THING was a very good hidden.
    Thanks both.

44. After a slow start we picked up speed to finish in a reasonable time for us. Enjoyable start to the week.

45. 10:46 so quite a bit faster than average but nowhere near a record. NHO STROPHE so trusted that the full parsing of 10d would be cleared up in the blog (thank you, Jack!). Wasn’t wild about 2d which seemed rather too straightforward but that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise very enjoyable crossword. Thank you, Jimmy.

46. Loved CHAMPERS and that set the tone for some fun clues: pants as the anagram indicator for HOT was new to me! Took longest in the SE corner where (like others) I assumed the initial P meant soft so looked for a 4 letter word meaning fleshy to give a fruit. Duh. Anyway, got there in the end but 15 minutes needed. Thanks Jimmy and Jack.

47. 7:16

    Still solving by phone – balcony overlooking the pool. After a stormy morning, it’s turned out nice in Croatia. LOI was SCOT as I had been wondering whether it was a play on Connery’s ability to turn every S into SH. I’m disappointed to say the least 😀

    Thanks Jack and Jimmy

48. 14:46

    A fairly gentle offering. Took a while to see the correct meaning of bears and get TOTES. That then unlocked LOI SIKH.

49. 10:30, nothing to scary, with TAXIMETER LOI.

50. Very enjoyable puzzle. Liked BRA and cluing of PALINDROMES.
    Thanks Jack and Jimmy

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