DT 26359

71 comments on “DT 26359”

1. Not much to say, other than nice picture! Thanks to setter, and to BD.

   1. That’s disgusting – she’s smoking!

      1. You’re too fussy!

      2. She sure is smokin’

         1. If you take a closer look I think the ‘cigarette’ is actually some white object in the crowd background.

            1. I think you’re right Jemux

            2. I keep looking at the picture but am having difficulty seeing the background!

               1. Have to say that really made me laugh

                  1. I mean your comment, not the picture!!

2. Not bad, but as you say fairly straightforward with similar clues and no particuar favourites. Thanks Mysteron and BD.

   Toughie is relatively straightforward too, in my opinion, although I am waiting for the review to find out how the obvious solutions of two clues relate to the wordplay.

   1. Is Mysteron one of your entries for the all-new OED? By the way, where’s Mary today? Ominously silent!

      1. Gone to the pictures – she commented on Comment earlier.

      2. Bet you thought I was hiding in those bushes

   2. I thought the Toughie much harder than yesterday. Finished, but waiting to see the explanation to 17a. There are 4 letters in the middle bothering me!

      1. The dog in the HMV advert – he waited endlessly – take the last letter of his name off (R)

         1. Sorry Sue – you’re wrong – it’s a waitress in a Lyons Corner House

            The review is being prepared at the moment.

            1. I knew it was something like that. The dog is called Nipper, though, isn’t he?

               1. Yes – it’s a stock quiz question along with Dorothy’s dog and Tintin’s dog.

                  1. Thought 8D anagram indicator odd. 20d arrows surely not bolts which are used by crossbows 13A Don’t see connection to viweing choices.
                     Having said all that as a novice I enjoyed it because I, for once, completed it

                     1. With regard to 20d, the setter confirms this in today’s Quickie. See Quickie 15d – “Bolts that are shot(6)” – ARROWS

                     2. 13a Once upon a time, when we only had two TV channels, you’d hear “This is rubbish. Shall we see what’s on the other side?” – a decision not to be taken lightly since it involved getting up from one’s chair and going to the set!

                        1. I remember those days.

         2. i think it’s more likely to be the waitress in the Lyons Teahouse.

         3. Nice try but not quite right! Glad Jezza found it hard – it was designed to be!

            1. My comment was addressed to Cryptic Sue. Gazza is of course correct

               1. In my defence, I have been tied to two very hot photocopiers all through my lunchhour – several forests worth of trees have bitten the dust, so it is no wonder my brain is confused. However, I didn’t find the Toughie quite as Shamus-like as usual but can’t put my finger on why. Did enjoy it even though I didn’t find it that tough (sorry!!)

                  1. Whatever happened to the paperless office?

                     1. No idea – its a bit much having to give up lunchtime puzzling time and then there’s the worry about the trees – we have an on-line thingy where you can check how much of a tree you have used in a particular time period – it doesn’t say whether its a redwood or a tiny sapling but I think several forests have gone today.

3. I enjoyed today’s puzzle – partly because I could do it! Didn’t have much trouble with anything and didn’t need the hints, but read them anyway. Wasn’t very happy about the anagram indicator in 8d but it had to be what it was. Favourite clues today are 1d, 4d and 18d. Least favourite 3d – blasted cricket again!!

   1. PS Thanks to the mystery setter – is he (or she) always the same one – and to Big Dave.

      1. The editor told me that he rotates the Thursday setters. Occasionally a new one, like Messinae a few weeks ago, appears. As far as I know Excalibur and Warbler, both Toughie setters, are the only women on the panel.

         1. I’ll put a fiver on Ray T as the Setter

            1. He would have told me if it was! Put the fiver behind the bar of the Bree Louise.

               1. Campbell maybe??

         2. Thanks BD

   2. Didn’t see the cricketing reference in 3d Kath; thought along the lines of xl, as in clothes size.

      1. Damn it – thought that I might even be getting to grips with some of the things that I KNOW I can’t do! Also thought (perhaps wrongly) that ‘wide’ and ‘extra’ are both cricketing terms (although I don’t have a clue what they mean!) and that if something is ‘exceptionally’ something it is also ‘extra’ something. Oh dear – never mind, you can’t win them all ….

         1. Kath, I agree with you – I think it’s a cricket reference! Just checked the review – BD mentions cricket, too!

            1. Thanks Franco – also just checked what BD said in the hints. Phew! What little belief I have in myself at EVER being able to do cricket (along with lots of other sporting things) has been restored!!

               1. Kath, I think that Geoff tried to bowl you his “Doosra” but it ended up being a “No-Ball”!

                  1. Never heard of a Doosra, but looked it up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_terminology It just struck me as obvious, exceptionally wide, extra large. Could post another cricketing link, but I’d go into BD’s automatic spam filter, as I discovered recently.

                     1. You have actually been spammed Geoff!!??

                        1. Indeed, I was caught in the filter and binned. I guess it was the auto email to BD that brought it to his attention.

                           1. I am pleased to say that I don’t get emails for spam – several thousand so far – but they do show up on the main dashboard.

                              I’m not at all sure how the filter works but it catches 99.999% of all spam and only a handful of genuine comments. The two hyperlink rule is one of the options I could turn off but prefer not to.

4. Enjoyable puzzle today. Thanks B Dave and the other Mysteron.
   Fantastic day outside so I’m going for a nice long ride up the NorthEast coast to St Mary’s lighthouse and back via Seaton Delavel Hall. Tuna sandwiches all packed, see you all later.

   1. On my bike of course!

      1. Does your horse not fancy the outing then??

5. I enjoyed this today, too. It’s good for us CCers to have the occasional puzzle we can do without too much frustration — even if they seem too straightforward for the more experienced. So thanks to the Phantom Setter.

   I thought 1d was the funniest clue, didn’t realise 4d was an anagram but got the answer anyway because it fitted. Thanks to Big Dave for the hints which clarified some of the clues for me — I so often put in the right words without understanding why. The one I liked most today was 24d.

6. I also noticed the similarity between a number of clue constructions but found it perfectly OK.
   Thanks to BD and our mystery setter.

7. I don’t usually do very well with the mid-week puzzles, but this was more straightforward. I’m probably in a minority here, but I’m afraid I got a bit bored with it and read the blog instead of finishing it. Sides for tv viewing choices ?? How many years ago ?

8. The Bree Louise huh? Went there to meet up with some old pals myself a month or so ago. Pretty simple today I thought – not too happy with “high” denoting an anagram, but hey – whatya gonna do?

9. I didn’t enjoy this at all, I would have given it 2* for difficulty and 1* for enjoyment, shame because some of the Thursday setters are really quite enjoyable. Thanks for the review and the picture of Miss Rose,BD.

10. A straightforward, straight down the line, answers straight onto the grid type of crossword. Many thanks to the Mysteron from all the Spectrum operatives and thanks to BD for the review.

11. Thought this a definite 3* puzzle unlike others i.e. Nubian!
    Fine day here also but having the eaves replaced so unlike Nubian cannot go out and enjoy the weather. Long time since I visited St. Mary’s Lighthouse.
    Thanks to BD and the mystery setter.

12. 5a and 15a were my favourites today: they’re both quite similar but that construction always brings back such happy memories of didgeridoo a few weeks ago…
    Mrs Tub and I are off to Kent for a few days on Monday and she’s made it quite clear that there’s no room in the suitcase for my dictionaries (I found one of them in the dog’s basket on Saturday). Are those little Franklin machines any good? I’m sure I could smuggle one of those along without raising too many suspicions…

    1. Hi Mr Tub,
       I’ve had several of the little machines over the years and curently have a Collins Lexibook which I think is most useful, its compact and not too expensive, I too also have the problem of finding them in the dog’s basket usually in pieces, my fault for leaving it lying about, maybe the dog is trying to tell me not to use it and use brainpower instead.

    2. Hi Mr Tub, I also have two I use, The Franklin Chambers one and The Seiko ‘Concise Oxford Thesaurus’ I like either

       1. Thank you Gari and Mary, that’s very helpful. I may try eating more fish as well and seeing if that has any effect!

13. I actually managed to finish this before setting off for the cinema! On first read through I could only do three and thought it was going to be really tough, but as someone once said, (I don’t know who)” the less time you have , the more you get done” ! I was held up particularly because I’d put ‘prowess’ for 10a, anyone else?? and deperately wanted 6d to be photograph, even though there weren’t enough letters!! For 8d, I didn’t know why the high was there and thought the anagram ind. was ‘put around’ ! I’m not sure about saying this was an easy one for us CCers today though, I think a 3*. The film by the was was the new Julia Roberts film ” Eat, pray, love” it was 21/2 hours long and was mostly boring, so disappointing as I like most of her films, I could watch ” Pretty Woman” again and again, there isn’t another film I could say that about, ok off to feed my very patient dogs now, back later

    1. Mary, I think you were referring to Parkinson’s Law, which says that work expands or contracts to fill the amount of time you have to do it. How true! I didn’t put ‘prowess’ for 10a, but think that might be a ship’s mistress. As for the Julia Roberts film, I had a look at the book at a friend’s house and didn’t think it was for me either. Better luck next time.

       1. Thanks for that Franny, I’d never heard of Parkinsons law, interesting, I like your comment of ‘prowess’, wish I’d looked at the book first, the whole film could have been condensed into less than an hour!

    2. Sorry you were disappointed in the film Mary – the film that I could (and do) watch over and over again is “Dirty Dancing”. I love (unfortunately, now, loved) Patrick Swayze and love watching dancing. There is one bit in that film that makes me giggle how ever many times that I watch it.

       1. I do love ‘Dirty Dancing’ too Kath, we went to see the show in London last year and I was disappointed with it, not a patch on the film, If you watch the American version of ‘Strictly’ its on Thurs evenings on ‘watching’ channel , ‘Babe’ from the film is one of the contestants she is really good

14. Have only just started on clued up and it has shut me out when I clicked on submit to check if I had a correct answer. This has happened a few times recently especially in the last week trying the toughies Is it me or are they out to get me????!!!

    1. Liz

       They changed it on Tuesday so that you can only press submit 6 times. It’s in the FAQ, but as far as I’m aware it was otherwise unannounced.

       1. many thanks BD… now I understand!! Shame for me as anovice Toughie!

15. Found this the easiest for quite a while – last in 5a.

    Super picture above – quite breath-taking.

16. I thought this was harder than yesterday which I guess makes me unique. Sleep well all.

17. Very average puzzle today.
    20d was best for me.
    Looking forward to tomorrow’s fare.

18. She sure has a pair of beauties Dan!

19. Finished it over breakfast, but a day late! Bottom right corner last to go.

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