Times 27327 – at least I had time to read all about dear old Alfred.

Author   pipkirbyPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I like a struggle on a Wednesday; I enjoy the frisson of solving a tough test under pressure and understanding every clue so as to write a convincing account. This week I was disappointed. This is a perfectly good puzzle, of course, but it was done and dusted in 12 minutes, an equal PB for me. The parsing, likewise, held no difficult secrets.
It’s always good to see a less popular element come along, here at 6d, although these days if you watch the Pointless quiz show at tea time on BBC you’ll know that everyone is swotting up on them; especially from 95 Americium to the latest to be named, 118 Oganesson, of which 5 atoms have been fleetingly produced.

Across
1 They’re a blow to Conservatism? (5,2,6)
WINDS OF CHANGE – Cryptic definition.
8 Seafood, cold, local sent back (4)
CRAB – C followed by BAR reversed.
9 Zest of primate left clutching sword (6-4)
ORANGE-PEEL – ORANG = primate, L = left, insert EPEE = sword.
10 Single idea lost in translation (8)
ISOLATED – (IDEA LOST)*
11 Marrow jam (6)
SQUASH – Double definition.
13 S American rang up AA a year after crashing (10)
PARAGUAYAN – (RANG UP AA A Y)*.
16 13th or 15th, team’s heading into last place (4)
IDES – SIDE = team has its S moved to the end. In Roman times the Ides was on the 15th in March, May, July and October, and on the 13th otherwise. Thanks to deezzaa for pointing out I had initially typed 13 / 15 the wrong way round. My Latin master, one Mr Percy Cushion (really!) didn’t make it stick well enough to last 60 years.
17 In which one could be expecting stick (4)
CLUB – Double definition; a stick, and if one were ‘in the club’ and a female person, one could be expecting.
18 Ace having people following India in test (10)
EXPERIMENT – I (India) MEN, inside EXPERT = ace.
20 Display containing goods one can’t choose? (6)
BEGGAR – BEAR = display, insert GG = goods; beggars can’t be choosers, they say.
22 Tracks one in run continuously (8)
RAILWAYS – R = run, ALWAYS = continuously, insert I.
24 No longer having to conduct tourist periodically alfresco (3-2-5)
OUT-OF-DOORS – OUT OF = no longer having; DO = conduct; O R S = alternate letters of t O u R i S t.
26 Reversed bank’s repeated instructions (4)
LOOP – POOL = bank, reversed.
27 Read wrong notes: foreign articles tolerated (13)
MISUNDERSTOOD – MI’S = notes, UN, DER = articles in foreign, STOOD = tolerated.

Down
1 Wife formalised renewed expression of astonishment (5,4,2)
WORDS FAIL ME – (W FORMALISED)* where W = wife.
2 Chemist’s lack of alarm when speaking (5)
NOBEL – Sounds like “NO BELL” = lack of alarm. With time on my hands I read up the life of Alfred Nobel on Wiki, he was a more interesting chap than I’d realised.
3 Quick temper of female with uniform — wearing trousers, note (5,4)
SHORT FUSE – F and U have SHORTS around, then add an E note.
4 Charity event in Florida welcome in Australia (4,3)
FLAG DAY – FLA = Florida; G’DAY what allegedly Australians say in greeting, although I’ve never met one who did.
5 Trips with school society (5)
HIGHS – HIGH school, S(ociety).
6 Element in UN put me off (9)
NEPTUNIUM – (IN UN PUT ME)*. Element 93, not surprisingly being the one following Uranium and before Plutonium.
7 Girl’s flat unfinished (3)
EVE – EVEN = flat; unfinished.
12 Serial killer sugared rum to entrap marshal (7,4)
SWEENEY TODD – SWEET (sugared) ODD (rum) has Marshal NEY inserted.
14 Equivocal claim to generosity by posh old American (9)
AMBIGUOUS – AM BIG could be a claim by a generous person, big-hearted for example; U (posh) O(ld), US.
15 Drug agent I figure out on reflection is a plant (9)
NARCISSUS – NARC = drug agent, I, SUSS (figure out)  reversed.
19 End of contract entered into by Post Office (7)
PURPOSE – PURSE = contract, e.g. lips; insert PO. END as in ‘to what end?’
21 Stick with popular French form master (5)
RODIN – ROD = stick, IN = popular. The sculptor or ‘form master’.
23 I’ll do that when I’m legally called on, initially (5)
WILCO – Initial letters of W hen I ‘m L egally C alled O n. Origin WILL COMPLY in early radio talk.
25 German city firm ludicrously upset hosts (3)
ULM – City reversed hidden in FIR(M LU)DICROUSLY.

64 comments on “Times 27327 – at least I had time to read all about dear old Alfred.”

  1. As you say, Pip, pretty plain sailing. I still had some coffee in the cup at the end of my 29 minutes (I’ll know I’m getting good when I still have porridge left in the bowl at the end of the puzzle!) Thanks for the parsings on several I biffed or wasn’t sure about, especially 17a where I completely missed the “in the club” pregnancy reference.

    FOI 1a WINDS OF CHANGE to LOI 26a LOOP (though I thought that was some kind of reverse hidden until I got the more certain 23d WILCO.)

    Enjoyed 22a RAILWAYS; DNK the charitable FLAG DAY or ULM. That’s quite some minster!

  2. 17 minutes must be a PB or very near it as I don’t recall ever beating 15. Delayed marginally at the end parsing OUT-OF-DOORS as biffed earlier, and coming up with LOOP as ‘repeated instructions’. Can we have a break from IDES please? It seems to be in every other puzzle at the moment.

    Edited at 2019-04-17 05:11 am (UTC)

  3. Evidently there haven’t been enough IDES for me, as it was my LOI, taking my final 2 minutes. Once again failing to see a hidden, I biffed ULM–not a very daring move on my part–and only spotted it post hoc. Not a pb for me, but the fastest I’ve been in quite a while.
  4. At 17 ac, with just an L, I pencilled in GLUE (in which one would expect “stick”). It ended up as LOI after 2nd-LOI AMBIGUOUS necessitated a change. I biffed it from stick, noted in the club as pregnant, but completely forgot to read the rest of the clue for the agreeable PDM.
    Quite straightforward as noted, but some nice amusing clues – form master for sculptor, 1 ac, 9 ac, even 7 dn. Didn’t know the ides could be the 13th. And as an Australian I say g’day all the time, though only in Australia to other Australians.
  5. Fell at the last again with ides, stuck in item as it fitted.
    Quite frustrating.

    Cod nobel.

  7. was hoping for a toughie today with time on my hands. LOI IDES had no idea what it was on about. Held up for a wee while by biffing GOOD DAY until I realised that -G in 1a wasn’t going to work.
  8. I was on for a very quick time today but got held up in the SE corner, finishing with PURPOSE. It helped that there was only one obscurity from my perspective today, the German city of ULM which I’ve not heard of.
    1. The home town of Monty Python’s favorite Baroque composer,
      Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm
    2. Also birthplace of Einstein Pootle, in Wurtemburg. We are a couple of miles off Wurtemburg Road in Rhinebeck.
      1. For a brief, but delicious, moment, I wondered who Einstein Pootle was, and why I’d not come across him before.
  9. You got the definition of Ides round the wrong way, old fruit.
    As my Latin master taught me: “In March, July, October, May the Ides are on the 15th day”.

    Edited at 2019-04-17 06:52 am (UTC)

    1. Quite right, I read it up to be sure then typed it the wrong way round. Will correct.
  10. 8:54. This was mostly extremely easy, and I was heading for a comfortable sub-5-minuter, but then I got stuck on a few at the end. My biggest problem was LOOP: ‘bank’ seemed a bit loose and I didn’t know the computing term. It seemed perfectly logical but since I wasn’t sure of either element of the clue I wasted a few minutes trying to come up with something better.
  11. 25 mins with yoghurt, granola, etc.
    It was the blast from the past, ‘Flag day’ that reminded me of Tony Hancock’s claims of charitable giving in The Blood Donor: “I contribute to every flag day that’s going. The lapels of my suits are always the first thing to go”.

    I was held up by my last two. I turned to Mrs M and said, “There must be a serial killer I don’t know, something like Suegney Radd?”
    She glanced across. “Sweeny Todd you **** and that one’s Loop”. She has an elegant turn of phrase.
    Thanks setter and Pip.

  12. Yes easy, would have been a sub 10 but I did get held up on a couple at the end .. POOL/LOOP and for some reason, 19dn PURPOSE .. just slow parsing them, I suppose, nothing wrong with the clues. Any grid where you get 1ac and 1dn straight off is not likely to be overly challenging.
    Re elements: I’m rather a fan of Livermorium myself, at least I can pronounce it. I see that elements up to 126 have already been named, even though not yet discovered. There’s confidence for you ..

    Edited at 2019-04-17 07:58 am (UTC)

    1. When Mendeleev first published his table there were I think something like 60 known elements. Using his groupings he predicted the existence of several more and their likely characteristics – this spurred scientists to go look for them and all his predictions were proven correct. So its not really confidence – they’re there, all we have to do is isolate them!
        1. Just to keep on producing them by increasing atomic number seems to be pretty anal. Given that we already have Arsenic, could we stop after the next one, and call it Retentivium?
          1. I agree that Arsenic is a wonderful name for an element.. hard to improve upon.
            Luvvium? Ukipium? Eugoneium?

  13. At my school, the Head abolished the alarm bell between lessons. He told us in Assembly that we were entering for the Nobel Peace Prize. 14 minutes with LOOP LOI. The ‘instructions’ definition meant nothing to me, I’m afraid. I didn’t know the German city either but in that case the instructions were clear. Harold Macmillan had a singular wind of change in his famous speech. Apparently the expression had been used years earlier by Basil Rathbone playing Sherlock Holmes in a wartime propaganda film. A pleasant if easy puzzle with COD to SWEENEY TODD. I could kill for a meat pie. Thank you Pip and setter.

    Edited at 2019-04-17 08:06 am (UTC)

  14. Yesterday met Michael Palin at Belsize Park.

    Today it was sweeney Todd.

    FOI 1ac WINDS OF CHANGE
    LOI 19dn PURPOSE
    COD 20ac BEGGAR
    WOD 6dn NEPTUNIUM

    Half an hour with granola and berries.

    horryd Hampstead

  15. Easy-ish, with the apparently obligatory delay at the end to work out IDES and LOOP.
  16. 25 min, with last five spent trying to think of something better at 26ac, as I didn’t think that POOL could be ‘bank’.
      1. Can’t a bank be equivalent to the pool or kitty when playing a card game? That’s what I assumed, but I’m no card player.
        1. I’m no card player either but I don’t think it’s the same thing. A pool or kitty would be shared among the players at the end, which isn’t the case for a bank. I could well be wrong about this, although the dictionaries I’ve looked at seem to support the distinction.

          Edited at 2019-04-17 12:13 pm (UTC)

          1. It isn’t a card game sense necessarily.
            Collins for example:
            POOL: “any supply, store or reserve the future use”
            BANK: “any communal combination of resources”
            Concise Oxford:
            POOL: ”a shared supply … to be drawn on when needed”
            BANK: “a stock of something for use when required”
            1. ‘Any communal combination of resources’ is a definition of POOL in Collins.
              The Oxford definitions are pretty close but I still think there’s a distinction. A POOL is combination of resources that can be used by the contributors. A BANK is a stock that can be drawn on by anybody.
              It’s admittedly a pretty subtle distinction though so it’s not a hill I’m going to die on.
                1. Yeah I guess so, although generally if you’re relying on a higher-number definitions in Chambers you can be on thin ice!
          2. It isn’t a card game sense necessarily.
            Collins for example:
            POOL: “any supply, store or reserve the future use”
            BANK: “any communal combination of resources”
            Concise Oxford:
            POOL: ”a shared supply … to be drawn on when needed”
            BANK: “a stock of something for use when required”
  17. Around PB time for me, but still yet to duck below that 5 minute mark – 5m 23s today. Like others, LOOP & IDES were my last two.

    Any idea what “No longer having to conduct tourist periodically alfresco” might mean? There are some nice surfaces today – 12d for example – but that one is a struggle.

    1. I guess it could be something said by the conductor at Glyndebourne when the experiment of allowing guests from abroad with instruments to join the orchestra on a Monday is abandoned.
      1. Now not obliged regularly to take a tourist around on an out of door excursion?
        What else?
  18. Thanks, Pip, for the blog on a fair and easy-ish puzzle. Although I give Ulaca a hard time for using out-of-date Australian slang, I wouldn’t include G’day in that class. I have several colleagues who use it regularly and I’d often say it to them.
    1. I was in Australia recently and I definitely heard g’day a few times. Funnily enough I was having a conversation with my youngest yesterday about the fact that the French and Australians have the same word for ‘hello’.
  19. ….and I was only three minutes slower than on the QC.

    Thanks to Pip for parsing OUT OF DOORS.

    FOI ISOLATED
    LOI LOOP
    COD CLUB
    TIME 8:25

  20. 10:33. Another who was slightly dubious about POOL for bank, but a suppose a pool of shared resources is like a bank as in a supply or stock for future or emergency use. I liked WORDS FAIL ME.
  21. 8:14, LOI LOOP. No problem with Ulm: I did O and A Level German and there was a tongue-twister of sorts our teacher often came out with that supposedly helped one remember adverbs or something. ” In Ulm, um Ulm und um Ulm herum”.
  22. Back after a longish break, and a nice easy re-entry this was. In an unusual burst of clarity I saw the CD at 1ac immediately (which I rather liked), and which made me hope for something chewy so that I could make good use of all the checkers. Otherwise knew Ulm, the Ides, and the anagram element was pretty clear. Thx Pip

    Edited at 2019-04-17 01:08 pm (UTC)

  23. I hoped for a while that I’d suddenly become really good at crosswords, but coming on here shows that everyone else found it even easier than I did.

    Oh well. I had my few minutes of feeling clever, and it did at least push me into posting on here after many months of reading only.

    1. As others have said to me, to do them at all is an achievement. Perhaps you can emerge from your cloak of anonymity now.
  24. I made hard work of this one after a pleasant drive across the Highlands from Strathpeffer to Ullapool and back. A beautiful sunny day with lovely views, and a very tasty Scotch pie from the butchers in Dingwall. I was flying at first with more than half the puzzle done in 12 minutes, but got bogged down in the SE, with PURPOSE taking an age to come and then getting completely stuck with IDES, LOOP and SWEENEY TODD outstanding. I eventually stopped trying to use sugared as anagrist and spotted the Demon Barber, after which LOOP came from an alpha trawl. 5 minutes later IDES appeared accompanied by a weary groan. A dispiriting 43:18. Thanks setter and Pip.
  25. Was unexpectedly struggling with 12d, thinking of diseases and animals, when, for a break I opened the paper to read something else and opened straight at the theatre review in Times2 p11. Couldn’t believe my luck. Does this sort of thing happen regularly or was this a complete fluke ?
    1. Karl Jung is the chap to read on this sort of thing, as one who loved the idea of synchronicity and collected every example he could find.
      But you might prefer Hitchhiker:
      “Those who study the complex interplay of cause and effect in the history of the Universe say that this sort of thing is going on all the time, but that we are powerless to prevent it.”
      Or perhaps:
      Arthur: “All my life I’ve had this strange feeling that there’s something big and sinister going on in the world”.
      Slartibartfast: “No, that’s perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe gets that”.
  26. 23 minutes, but I wasn’t really trying, as the TV was burbling in the background.
  27. I found this pretty simple, and finished in a quick time, but I actually can’t say what it was. But it didn’t last very long. LOI, for some reason, PURPOSE. Not much to say about it either, nothing really stood out, but thanks to setter and blogger. Regards.
  28. 24:30, but the last minute was just spent proofreading, so more like 23 minutes, my best time ever. Nonetheless enjoyable with a few clues not quite run-of-the-mill. SWEENEY TODD and WILCO were my unknowns today, but the wordplay helped on those. I liked the foreign articles in MISUNDERSTOOD.

    Edited at 2019-04-17 05:38 pm (UTC)

  29. Either I have improved drastically in 24 hours, or this was as easy as others have mentioned. Pretty much a write in for me.
  30. 16:05 a quick time for me but I can’t help feeling slightly frustrated because the tantalising prospect of a first ever sub-10 minute solve was very definitely on. The top half was comfortably inside 5 mins. A couple in the bottom half slowed me down though. I had misunderstand for a while across the bottom until 23dn set me straight. Pool and railways needed a bit of thought but really it was purpose which scuppered my visions of sub-10 glory. Couldn’t see it straight off and struggled to rethink it.
  32. I’ve just started doing the main xword every day, moving over mainly from the Quick, but I’m very inconsistent so I never really improve much. To remedy, I’ve set myself the challenge of doing the quick, normal and main cryptic each day for the next three months which is a bit of an ask for a slow yet busy person like me! What I’ll do at the weekend I’m not sure – might also tackle the knowledge, latin and big cryptic. Mephisto is out of reach. I tried it once and couldn’t get a single sausage. Managed this one today in four sittings over about 2.5/3 hours in total. The third sitting was actually standing for an hour in an incredibly packed tube train heading out towards Heathrow. Seems everyone is leaving UK for Easter or perhaps because of B-word, for good? I still managed to clutch onto the paper (yes, I prefer the dead-tree variety even though I have the e-version too) and glance at it as sardine-space allowed. I didn’t get a single clue during this time, but the fourth sitting a pouring fourth of answers happened and I had the end in sight. Like others ides occurring on 13th was a revelation to me and was the LOI. 19D was my favourite, but trickiest to parse I found. I was right in my early hunch that ‘End’ was the definition, but couldn’t jump from that to PURPOSE. I kept thinking ‘End of contract’ could be T, and was fooled into NOT thinking that contract was the shrinking definition.

    If anyone has any good learning resources (like classic Ximenes or whatever) in order to improve then please let me know. I’ll study this blog even if I don’t manage to finish the grid (as was the case yesterday). Thanks for all the solvers doing a sterling job of writing up the answers and explanations – lesser mortals such as I would be lost without your help sometimes.

    WS

    Edited at 2019-04-17 11:07 pm (UTC)

    1. Glad to hear there are other slower solvers out there. It is a bit intimidating seeing how quickly others manage but perseverance does bear fruit. I’ve definitely got quicker on the QC (being a co-founder of the Slow Coach Club or SCC, whose target for the QC was a leisurely 20 minutes plus) with a number of sub 10 times under my belt now. More regular efforts at the 15×15 mean I finish more often than not, with a few times under the hour. Ximenes ‘On the Art of the Crossword’ is a classic book on the subject. My edition even has a foreword by Colin Dexter. Good luck.
    2. It’s all about perseverance – and the more you do, the quicker you are to see things. Personally, I’d recommend that you do the QC and Cryptic every day, and then the Sunday Times cryptic (adding the Observer Everyman is no bad thing). Sticking to a single style of crossword is the key to progress.

      Take notes when you find a new compiler’s trick, and if you can remember new words when they crop up it helps. It’s not unlike learning a new language – think of the ways in which clues are set as the rules of crossword grammar.

      Good luck, and keep plugging away !

      1. Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, perseverance is key to success in any field pretty much except for Idling or Slacking!!! I do make notes, but generally on the top of the crossword which inevitably finds its way either into the bin, fire or use a decorating/workshop paraphernalia. I should start to be more meticulous like having a decent notebook. I wonder if other solvers do that? Or electronic resources like OneNote? I was sticking to the QC for a few months and got quite slick at that – my best time was 12min, sub 10 was a dream. However, some compilers just flummox me. I guess that in a deeper study of the crossword art, one would make a note of the setters one finds difficult then study their methods to make yourself more universal in your grammar, so to speak. With the main xword that seems to be a bit tough since all we have is a number – the identity is not known (or is it, I wonder…)

        Ta
        WS

  34. Thanks setter and pip
    Was able to finish this one before the coffee was finished or gone too cold ! Pretty similar experience to many of the others in the forum, working quickly through the top half and finishing in the SE corner with PURPOSE (took ages to parse too), SWEENEY TODD and that LOOP (which became clear when it dawned on me that they were talking about computer instructions).
    Was right across IDES which was a very early entry and had seen ULM before. Lazily didn’t see the word play for BEGGAR – only that he/she had no options. FLAG DAY was a new term for me.

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