Times Quick Cryptic No 2953 by Jalna

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

Another fair-to-middling puzzle, again with a couple of trickier bits.

I made pretty good progress with this, coming in at 5:33, about a minute quicker than yesterday. I was glad to remember PLANGENT from my extensive reading of high literature crosswords past – it’s quite a tricky clue otherwise. Some particularly good surfaces on show today (not least the plangent one), all much enjoyed – many thanks to Jalna!

Across
1 Unforthcoming of late, holding it back (8)
RETICENT – RECENT (late) holding IT “back”
5 Excited and getting overly giddy at first (4)
AGOG – And Getting Overly Giddy “at first”
8 Computer hypothetically retaining much when reconfigured (6,7)
TURING MACHINE – anagram (when reconfigured) of RETAINING MUCH
10 Old judge to give a lecture (5)
ORATE – O(ld) RATE (judge)
11 Dutch scholar’s problems are returning (7)
ERASMUS -SUMS (problems) ARE “returning”
12 Timely  question fed into an AI tool, say (6)
PROMPT – double definition
13 Key on map is large. So what? (6)
ISLAND – IS L(arge) AND? (“so what?”, delivered sarcastically). A KEY is an island, the ON MAP bit is there for good misdirection.
16 Once again begin to relax by painting, perhaps (7)
RESTART – REST (relax) by ART (painting, say)
18 Snack bars brought back some of these facilities (5)
CAFES – “brought back, some of” theSE FACilities
20 Somehow, not being alone is fixed (3-10)
NON-NEGOTIABLE – anagram (somehow) of NOT BEING ALONE
21 Power cut that was a close call (4)
PHEW – P(ower) HEW (cut)
22 Ringing spy to get hold of information (8)
PLANGENT – PLANT (spy) to get hold of GEN (info). OK, so I was pleased I was able to remember the word, but I see it’s appeared more than a dozen times since 2019 – admittedly with most clues defining it as “mournful” rather than “loud” or “resonant”. Too late now to know how on earth I would have defined it had I been given the word cold: isn’t that a line of medieval kings, or something?
Down
1 Fixed allowance almost in proportion (5)
RATIO – RATION (fixed allowance) “almost” = dock the tail
2 One blowing rent on a party (7)
TORNADO – TORN (rent, as in asunder) on A and DO (party)
3 Think about constant working pattern (11)
CONTEMPLATE – C (speed of light = a constant) on (working) TEMPLATE (pattern)
4 Singer’s selection   with less feeling (6)
NUMBER – double definition
6 Stern male storyteller (5)
GRIMM – GRIM (stern) M(ale)
7 Wedding invitee loudly indulged in speculation (7)
GUESSED – sounds like, as in uttered “loudly” or audibly as GUEST (wedding invitee)
9 Stylishness rendered in coat or suit common in the States? (5,6)
CLASS ACTION – with CLASS = with stylishness, anagram (rendered) of IN COAT
12 Standard, cut vegetable (7)
PARSNIP – PAR (standard) SNIP (cut)
14 A fine story, easy to relate to (7)
AFFABLE -A F(ine) FABLE (story)
15 Turn round after extremely short walk (6)
STROLL – ROLL (turn round) after ST (“extremely” ShorT)
17 From that moment, gluttony possibly leads to certain excesses (5)
SINCE – SIN (gluttony possibly) “leads” to Certain Excesses
19 Climb without a track (5)
SCENT – ASCENT (climb) without A

80 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2953 by Jalna”

  1. 12:11 I thought CONCENTRATE first instead of CONTEMPLATE, and also could only think of ascend at first for climb, which didn’t give a word when the A was taken away! NON-NEGOTIABLE was very helpful moving me along when I was stuck. ISLAND and PHEW were most fun to figure out.

    1. Welcome back to British Summer Time and top of the blog! 🤣 I was in the concentrate camp for a while, knew it was wrong and while I knew there was going to be a word like it just couldn’t get it until prompt finally dropped in there.

      1. A clue like that is frustrating because the wrong word seems to fit the checkers you have and the meaning is close so my brain shuts off looking for another word!

  2. Enjoyed this but had one error after my last one in, PLANGENT, I bunged in BLUNGENT. I know, stupid. The Plantagenets are the kings. Didn’t parse PROMPT. Liked ERASMUS, wouldn’t have known he was Dutch though. Quite a lot of thinking to do in this I thought. COD to TURING MACHINE.
    Thanks R and setter.

    1. I’m sure there are plenty of historians on here more qualified than me, but I believe the name Plantagenet derives from a flower emblem worn by one of the first kings (Henry II perhaps).

      1. Plantagenet derives from the Latin “Planta genista” ,for the Common Broom plant. This is a
        deciduous shrub with yellow pea
        sized flowers.
        The last Plantagenet king was
        Richard III who was defeated by
        Henry Tudor at the battle of
        Bosworth Field in 1485 (and died there).

  3. TURING MACHINE is a great clue, the highlight of a very enjoyable QC for me. It took me a while to convince myself that PLANGENT is a word but smooth sailing otherwise.

  4. 10.08. SCENT for track and plant for spy threw me off course for a while but all told a decent QC. Thanks to Jalna and roly, I needed all the latter’s help to figure out what was going on with PROMPT (oh, a simple DD), ERASMUS (oh, it’s all backwards) and the so what part of ISLAND.

  5. After a slog through the main, was happy to finish this in 4:36. Very nice vocabulary — and I’ve just spent the last month or so learning investigating Turing machines in depth in my logic class.

  6. 17 minutes, so missing my extended target by 2. Last to fall was CLASS ACTION where I took too long to come up with the second word and it was only after the event I realised it was an anagram. I wasn’t aware of the specific AI reference re PROMPT, but I have since found it in POD and Collins.

  7. Bletchley is one of my stations so TURING MACHINE came readily to mind. PROMPT didn’t though, or CLASS ACTION or CONTEMPLATE. Took a lot of effort at the end to come in all green in 19.30 to extend run of finding crosswords hard. At least I finished today!

  8. Hurrah, no pink squares today which came as a relief after my recent struggles.

    I found the top half of the grid to be fairly straightforward but the bottom put up more resistance. Started with RETICENT and finished with the CLASS ACTION/PLANGENT combo (with the latter very vaguely remembered from previous crosswords) in 8.29.

    Thanks to rolytoly and Jalna.

  9. Arrgh! We thought we had avoided the SCC. Sadly, no.
    At our level, inability to parse doesn’t mean our answer is wrong, so, we plodded on with the seemingly entirely possible, CHIPS (snacks) and AMIABLE (easy to relate to) in lieu of CAFES and AFFABLE.
    We know better now!
    Initially biffed ENIGMAS in lieu of ERASMUS – checkers sorted that
    Needed Rolytoly for ISLAND and DD of PROMPT – thank you.
    LOI (embarrasingly) PHEW
    COD TURING MACHINE
    Thank you Jalna.

  10. Good puzzle from Jalna but after yesterday’s heroics this was back to reality coming in all green in 16:28.
    Slightly hampered myself with the erroneous TURINS for the machine and lazily CONCENTRATE without thinking about the parsing.

    Last two in were both COD contenders being CLASS ACTION and ISLAND both of which I enjoyed the definitions for.

    Cheers Roly – just shows its horses for courses as I was 5:33 on yesterdays puzzle!

  11. 7.02

    Some excellent clues here I thought including TURING MACHINE and lots of nice smooth surfaces.

    CONTEMPLATE took longer than it should have but no pinks so like Plett1 very happy with that.

    Thanks RT and Jalna

  12. A good but quite taxing QC. For me it was a classic ‘game of two halves’. I went through the top half quickly and without any gaps. I liked TURING MACHINE.

    I thought I was on for a quickie. However, the lower half was a slog even though SCENT, AFFABLE, PLANGENT were very fine clues (once they clicked) and NON-NEGOTIABLE a clever anagram.

    I finished with a resounding PHEW! but, by this time, I was knocking on the door of the SCC.
    Thanks to Jalna and to Roly for an excellent blog.

  13. Nine but it did take me 20 minutes to get that far. FoI ratio from which the T gave Turing Machine. I half parse half biff most of what I get. With the anagrams I tend to think of the answer and then look for the letters. I have to use the auto insert to check my spelling on occasions.

    Thank you all for tolerating me 🙂

    1. We all went through that stage once! I remember it well, staring at the clue “sentences” which were not really sentences, just evil traps for struggling newbie solvers. However, fall into those traps often enough and the patterns start to emerge amid the bruises. And it becomes more fun as you do. Hang on in there!

    2. I got into this through our village quiz. I was tasked with making up ten clues for musical artists / bands. Some were obvious like “American spy plane has the edge” and some not so obvious like “two quarters”, unless you happened to be into gangster rap in the early noughties. Unlikely given the average age of the village quiz participants.

      It became a thing when I was in Stoke Mandeville for spinal injury rehab for seven months. One a day for the OTs and the physios to solve.

  14. I did MSc in Information Processing and Neural Networks in 1996/7, in which we studied quite extensively Turing Machines and what they mean for modern (as it was then!) computing. So without a doubt that was my COD. I found this one tough, taking just over 20 minutes, after getting nearly every across clue in the first pass. On reflection, I’m not sure quite why I found it so hard but there you go.

  15. 24:28 for the solve. Ten mins in the middle trying to break into last seven. The prompt/contemplate pairing and the rather nasty intersection of CLASS-ACTION/ISLAND/SCENT/PLANGENT which was dimly known but went in on trust of the wordplay. In hindsight I rather like those clues. PHEW LOI with a short alphatrawl. Very smooth surfaces from Jalna throughout perhaps making this a little tougher for me.

    Thanks also to Roly for the blog.

  16. “Couple of trickier bits” exactly right: stumped by the pair key + stylishness. NHO key = island (where’s that, then?) nor “AND?” which seems far-fetched (not in Collins; corroborated by any written authority?). NHO CLASS ACTION (more US culture; what does it mean, please?). Thank you, Roly.

    2. Class action is when a group of individuals with the same civil case coalesce under one legal challenge against a plaintive. There is a designated principal member of the class the other claimants are all members of the class.

      I recommend watching “Suits” on Netflix 🙂

      Or Better call Saul ….

      1. Thank you both. So, indeed all US stuff … OK I suppose Florida Keys might rate as GK, but that CLASS ACTION thing sounds extremely obscure – is it really GK for us here in the UK? Presumably you know about it from watching TV, and maybe you’ll say that if a large enough proportion of the UK population watches US dramas on TV and picks up this kind of terminology, it becomes GK. Depressing but inevitable. Thanks.

        2. Class actions exist in the UK eg these collaborative claims against car manufacturers for deception on emissions but the expression isn’t common parlance like it is in the litegeous United States.

  17. Don’t worry about dropping the pink square baton, Plett, I picked it up and slammed in GUSSSED. That gave me only one DPS but two errors (since the wrong letter was also the last letter of MACHINE). Brilliant.

    Jolly good puzzle, COD to PLANGENT. Didn’t know about AI prompts.

    10:22 but. Many thanks Jalna and roly.

  18. Straightforward until the SE corner held me up for a while, resulting in 7:59. PROMPT went in with a shrug, COD to TURING.
    Very nice puzzle, thanks Jalna and Roly

  19. 19m
    Not on the wavelength today.
    Last 8 or so took an age. I should have done my usual break.

    COD Prompt

  20. The top half went in quite easily. The bottom half required more thought but the SE corner eventually yielded. I made very heavy weather of the SW however which put me well into the SCC at 24 minutes. I don’t really know why – there’s nothing obscure or complex there and I have definitely seen the parsnip clue before.

    FOI – 1ac RETICENT
    LOI – 21ac PHEW
    CODs – 2dn TORNADO and 8ac TURING MACHINE

    Thanks to Jalna and Rolytoly

  21. I’ve visited Bletchley Park, and the Museum of Computing next door, several times, so TURING MACHINE was no trouble. Took a moment or two to see PLANT for spy, and a bit of thought to see PROMPT. RATIO was FOI and CONTEMPLATE was LOI. 7:42. Thanks Jalna and Roly.

    1. Funny thing is, the “hypothetical computer” isn’t the machine Turing built at Bletchley, which was real.

      Here endeth the know-it-all’s lesson.

  22. 7:52

    Underwhelmed by TURING MACHINE – saw the second word quickly but couldn’t imagine what the first word was, even with the T and R in place, had to write out the letters. (Yes, I have been to Bletchley Park too). Remembered PLANGENT after a few moments thought, though as with others, couldn’t help thinking there should be an AGENT in there somewhere. No idea what a CLASS ACTION is, but it’s a phrase that pops up in legal dramas, so in it went…

    Thanks Roly and Jalna

    1. Just looked at prompt engineering. More IT bullshit IMHO; despite 35 years before the mast in IT I always found the jargon to be deliberately obfusc and there only to show how clever some IT guru was.
      PS – only the IT profession could come up with a nine syllable acronym for a three syllable “world wide web – www.”

  24. All but four to complete with about eight minutes expended and then brain freeze set in. Having said that I think the clues in question were pretty tough. I eventually worked out SCENT thinking I should have got it sooner, and then got PLANGENT without really knowing the ringing definition. As for the last two, well I so very nearly threw in the towel, but belligerence paid off and I finally worked out CLASS ACTION, the ACTION part coming a minute before the rest. A further couple of minutes trying to convince myself that LEGEND wasn’t an answer before finally ISLAND came to me. I staggered over the line, and a glance at the clock told me I had barely beaten the twenty minute mark at 19.32.

    1. I convinced myself that LEGAND was indeed correct, and so missed out on class action. DNF, sadly.

      1. I was lucky in having a senior moment and the word Legend refused to shimmy up to the surface, so eventually I got to the Island.

  25. I found this quite difficult and resorted to biffing quite a few, then having to reassess and finally seeing the light. LOI PLANGENT – see above!

  26. Another DNF, four clues in the SE did for me, I’m sure any one of the four would unlock the others, but threw in the towel at 20 mins.

    NHO PLANGENT. I’d thought of GEN for information as well. “Key on map” tough as well couldn’t get “legend” out of my mind. I’d toyed with AND, for “so what” but didn’t think it was Times speak, although of course we had INNIT on Tuesday.

    For ASCENT I was Looking at “without a” for “an a is within”. And for CLASS ACTION I was trying to make CHIC work for stylish.

  27. This felt the trickiest one of the week so far although it was all done and dusted in a fairly typical time (one large leisurely coffee). There were only a few write-ins with most needing a bit of thought, especially NHO PLANGENT and (bizarrely) CONTEMPLATE which I had misparsed (CON for constant!). COD ISLAND for the misdirection and wry smile when the penny dropped. Also appreciated SCENT for similar reasons. Couldn’t parse PROMPT. Very nice QC. Thanks to Jalna and Roly.

  28. Another ‘off wavelength’ solve – this week can’t end soon enough for me. Two sittings and sheer stubbornness eventually got me over the line, though my loi, Plangent, was a nho crossed fingers follow-the-cryptic guess. Invariant

  29. 17 mins…

    I really enjoyed this and thought there were some terrific clues. I particularly enjoyed 4dn “Number”, 2dn “Tornado”, 9dn “Class Action”, and my COD 13ac “Island” – especially as I had initially bunged in “Legend”.

    I dnk 22ac “Plangent”, even though it appears it’s been on here a few times. Luckily the clueing was fairly generous.

    FOI – 5ac “Agog”
    LOI – 22ac “Plangent”
    COD – 13ac “Island”

    Thanks as usual!

    1. Nice one. Just looked up PLANGENT – doesn’t seem to have come up on the QC since mid-Dec 2021 which is a couple of weeks after I started, so not sure how I remembered that. Orpheus gave us “Mournful bloke weighed down by scheme (8)” that day.

Comments are closed.