DT 30720

61 comments on “DT 30720”

1. I found this slightly harder than the usual offerings for a Monday but a bit of brain exercise is no bad thing. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I couldn’t get “maestros” out of my head for 5a. I didn’t enter it but the word stayed around to mess up the north east. I liked the question one should not ask a lady at 13a but my COTD is prospering in Germany at 10a.

   Thank you, setter for the challenge. Thank you, pommers for the hints.

2. The sun is shining and it’s a crissy crossy from Robyn. Life’s good.

   This was very enjoyable with a plethora of super surfaces.

   The word ‘migraine’ is in the all-time top 3 mispronounced words as the world and his dog pronounce the first syllable as ‘mi’ like ‘my’. But, it derives from the Latin hemicrania meaning half skull.

   My podium is 5a, 21a (any clue that includes ‘The Man’ automatically goes in to my top 3) and 25a.

   Many thanks to Robyn and Pommers,

   1*/4*

   1. But is a pronunciation actually ‘wrong’ if nearly everybody is doing it — surely it just means that the pronunciation has actually developed into being that? Many words (possibly even most?) have changed pronunciation over the centuries, so maybe it’s just migraine’s time?

      I was going to ask how long till dictionaries accept ‘expresso’, but I checked and I see The OED already has it as a variant (along with its corresponding pronunciation with a /k/ sound).

      1. The English language of course evolves but it’s all down to each individual word.

         Lots of people slip in an i after the v in mischievous. Maybe it’s a matter of time with that one.

         Will fink be a variant of think? Will the pluperfect sung be accepted as a variant for sang?

         I fink not. Well, I hope not.

         I was highlighting this one as it’s fairly informative and a completely understandable mistake. Whereas the above three are simply boo-boos.

         1. My mother, God bless her, used many strange pronunciations. Instead of “Look at that door” as normal she would say “Luke at that doe-wah”.

            1. Love it!

         2. Sufferers from migraines are beyond caring how to pronounce it!

            1. An extremely fair point, JB.

            2. Pommette is one of them and she uses both pronunciations in a fairly random manner!

               1. The first one I had was in Oxford Street, London as a student. I suddenly went blind, which was a terrifying experience. Then I had tunnel vision for about 10 minutes after which my sight returned. I breathed a sigh of relief then the headache hit and it was horrendous.

                  I still get them but these days I just have visual disturbances and no headaches.

                  I used to think migraines were just headaches until I had my first attack. I have every sympathy for those who suffer.

                  1. I used to get migraines a lot…..very scarey, as I needed to ring my husband in his office, and could not remember the number.
                     Found I was OK after sticking off the yeast extract stuff that people either love or hate!

      2. I blame Dire Straits and Expresso Love, Smylers. Speed dating instead of coffee bar smooching.

         1. Ha!

3. Great – all fair clues and satisfying to work out (rather more than 1 star for me) starting with a warm reception in the West except I couldn’t account for tablet in 3d. So many goodies from which I would pick 10a, 13a, 7d and 16d. Such an encouraging way to kick off the cruciverbal week. Thank you Mysteryone and pommers.

4. Great fun, slightly chewier than the average Monday. By dint of doing the downs first I had all the checkers for 1a and an entirely different derisive remark came to mind: I had to remind myself that this was not the Guardian crossword, and the DT is slightly more genteel!

   Good spot by setter of the 5d anagram. Some lovely surface reads (eg 24a) and plenty of humour throughout. Podium for me comprised 5a, 13a, and 8d – wonderful to include such a super word within the answer.

   Many thanks to Robyn and Pommers

   1. Yes Mustafa, in these brash days I too enjoyed the blinking 8d!

5. I agree with Steve C and Mustafa G that this was a little more challenging than recent Monday puzzles have been. It did take a while to ‘crack it open’ but it provided the usual amount of enjoyment – **/****

   Candidates for favourite – 10a, 24a, and 14d – and the winner is 14d.

   Thanks to, presumably, Robyn and to pommers.

6. Too many great clues to pick a favorite. Great puzzle.

7. A lovely start to the week, so many to like but I think 13a was my favourite! This was fun but needed some thinking about and is just what we expect for a Monday puzzle.

   Many thanks to the setter and to Falcon for the hints

8. Another enjoyable start to the week presumably penned by our regular Monday setter. Couple of pauses for thought along the way but nothing to cause alarm. Top three for me were 13&24a plus 16d with a giggle for 1a.

   Thanks to Robyn(?) and to pommers for the review – glad to hear that the heat is a little less intense for you now.

9. Gentle and enjoyable – what more do we ask for on a Monday? Thanks to our setter and pommers.
   My printout is awash with ticks; I’ll just mention 1a, 10a and 13a.

10. I agree with those who found this a tad trickier than the usual Monday fare but it was very enjoyable. As I have banged on about the deliciousness of Noon Tarts (I have 7 in the freezer now), I will try and attach a photo – they measure 5″ across and 1″ deep and for £5 reckon they are a bargain. They are very rich so one between the two of us is perfick. Thanks to the setter and Pommers

    1. Noon Tart, scrumptious!

       

       1. Looks delish, Manders!

          1. Believe me they are. I asked the chap who makes them if he would give me the recipe. He said he would gladly give me the recipe and then he would have to dunk my feet in concrete and drop me in the sea! Charming.

11. Solved unaided (hooray!) but a little head-scratchy in places. Some excellent glues from the setter.

    We are going out tonight (a weeknight!) and it’s not to Chelsea!
    Off to a musical tribute to an old pal of mine. Looking forward to meeting up with some familiar faces from my radio and TV writing days.

    Thanks to the setter and pommers from Vega Baja del Segura.

    Also Daisy – I hope all is well x

12. The wavelength dial was being twiddled incessantly on this puzzle so as to get some purchase. That said it was a good challenge for a Monday. My podium comprises 10a, 22a and in top spot, Darth Vader’s cool enemy in 24a. Thanks to compiler and to Pommers.

13. Definitely more challenging than recent weeks – that’s putting it politely.
    As soon as I see the answer I can understand how brilliant it is but would never manage to do it myself!
    The question is has my brain given up completely or is it just wavelength – I think/hope the latter!
    I’ve really enjoyed this one and has taken a long time.
    I liked 5 and 21a and 6 and 16d. I think my favourite has to be 15d if only because of how long it took me to see it!!
    Thanks to today’s setter for the crossword and to pommers for the hints.

14. A lovely start to the week.
    Top picks for me were 24a, 8d and 25a.

    Thanks to Pommers and the setter.

15. Just as Steve C, Mustafa G and Senf have said I thought this Monday puzzle was a little trickier than normal. More convoluted clueing IMHO.

    2*/3.5*

    Favourites 1a, 9a, 22a, 23a & 7d — with winner 7d

    Thanks to setter & pommers

    I include a picture of myself and my grandson participating in the Terry Fox Hometown Run yesterday. A great time!

    

    1. Well done, both you and grandson! Looks sunshiny.

       1. Was a gorgeous day and at about 22C perfect for the event.

    2. Congratulations to you both especially your grandson. Well done. 👍

16. Perfect for a busy, sunny Shropshire morning, with just enough pauses for thought to keep it interesting throughout the solve. I will go with the excellent 24a for my favourite.

    Many thanks to our Monday setter and pommers.

17. Finishing this without help was beyond me, which by one way of measuring I suppose makes it harder than yesterday’s Zandio Toughie? (Admittedly by other ways of measuring, such as time to fill most of the grid, or how hard clues subjectively felt to solve, this one generally seemed easier.)

    The ones that beat me were 4d, where the only Theodores I know (all children) are only shortened to Theo; and 10a, where I hadn’t got anywhere and the crossing letters weren’t helping. Thanks, Pommers.

    Talking of 10a, when translating £50 to its symbols, which comes first? Written down it’s £ then 50, but we say it t’other way round as “fifty pounds”, so I wasn’t sure whether the L for the £ should be before or after the L for the 50 …

    My top few were 5a’s double dose, 23a’s both parts of the Bible, 8d’s blinking upset, and 13a not asking a lady, Thank you to the setter for the fun and all the commentors for making this such a lovely place on the internet to hang out.

    1. Teddy Roosevelt? Teddy Bear?

       1. I thought of both Theodore → Roosevelt and Theodore → Theo.

          But Theodore → Roosevelt → Teddy feels like a 2-step transformation to me. I appreciate it isn’t actually, but that’s the only Teddy Theodore I’m aware of, so I’d have to go via him. Also that would end up being Theodore → Roosevelt → Teddy → Ted, which is 3 steps. And I wasn’t expecting the step count to be so high on a Monday!

    2. I’m with you, very difficult for a Monday.

       1. Hello, Brian. Nice to see that you are still with us — glad you managed to find a decent offer. (I saw your explanation of the offer too late to reply on that post.)

18. i disagree with only one * for difficulty. Although i managed to complete it without resorting to the hints, there were many head-scratching times enough for ** at least. thoroughly enjoyable and very fair cluing – a Monday treat indeed. my cotd was 11a
    Thanks to all the usual suspects

19. Pleasant start to the week. Bizarrely struggled with 14d at end though; kept thinking of legal terms! 🙄

20. I found this to be on the easier side of the spectrum, so tend to agree with the * difficulty rating. I didn’t have to resort to the hints, not even for subsequent parsing. 16d and 13a take 1st and 2nd place.

21. 2 different Kiwis are coming to stay this week. Not our hinters from North Island, but friends who live up the bay from Lyttleton. So today’s crossword had to be rushed, and the derisive remark and shortened form of Theodore delayed completion. I was reminded how one can lose one’s focus when time is pressing during an exam.
    But it was a good one to start the week. Thank you Robyn and pommers.

22. I’m slightly surprised that the diminutive of Theodore caused problems. I know Ted is more commonly Edward but I thought it was fairly widely known that the Teddy Bear gets its name from Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt and his love of bear hunting.

    1. Oh yes. Silly me.

    2. Oops! I hadn’t seen your post before I put my quattie in above!

23. Perfect Monday offering, but if you found it so easy pommers, I imagine that Steve M must have gone through this like a hot knife through butter. Lots of smilers for me, particularly the silly toshes, the need to pay £50, and the legacy, not necessarily in that order!
    Thank you setter, a great start to the week, and pommers for his hints and pics. Our high today should be around only 30C, thank goodness.

    1. We’ve had 31°C today but it won’t last much longer. At least the humidity has dropped a tad.

24. Add me to those who thought it a tad chewier than is the norm for recent Mondays. The blinking synonym the only unfamiliarity though still the odd head scratch here & there. Wouldn’t disagree with our reviewer’s podium picks.
    Thanks to Robyn (presumably) & to Pommers

25. Must be me but I thought this was very difficult, at least *** and to be honest very little fun. Rather weird and disappointing clues, far too many to itemise. I hope this isn’t the pattern for the week.
    ***/*
    Thx for the hints

26. I had a migraine this morning (which I’ve always pronounced as suggested but didn’t know the reason!) so luckily this wasn’t too tough for me, except for the English pigs who caught me out!

    1. It was the English pigs that made me hesitate for ages to write in the second word of14d! I thought it unlikely to have part of the answer in such close proximity to the same word in a clue … if I make sense!

27. Like others I found this guzzle tricky, particularly inthe NW, which i left until last. I liked the derisive remark at 1a and Farth Vader’s ebemy at 24a. I was puzzled by 15a at first, as rhe app on my phone would not highlight or showthe clue in print when touched. So I had to use the arrows t flick through through all the clues using the arrow until I got to 15a or wait until i had got the letters from the surrounding clues. It seems like the app must expect you to do all the clues in order, which I have never done. Thanks to the conpiler and to Pommers for the hints.

28. Like others I found this guzzle tricky, particularly inthe NW, which i left until last. I liked the derisive remark at 1a and Farth Vader’s ebemy at 24a. I was puzzled by 15a at first, as rhe app on my phone would not highlight or showthe clue in print when touched. So I had to use the arrows t flick through through all the clues using the arrow until I got to 15a or wait until i had got the letters from the surrounding clues. It seems like the app must expect you to do all the clues in order, which I have never done. Thanks to the compiler and to Pommers for the hints.

29. I didn’t find this that difficult just a bit so for a Monday. I understood the parsing for 4d but couldn’t really connect it to the answer. Still lots to like elsewhere. I did rather like unravelling the long anagram so I’ll go with that as favourite. Thanks to the setter and Pommers.

30. Found this more difficult than our esteemed blogger but very enjoyable non the less
    3*/4*
    Joint favourites 15/16d.

31. Pommers’ blog gives the wording of 7d as ‘Musical work, oddly trendy….’ but in my hard copy newspaper the clue is ‘Theatre work, oddly trendy….’ The former makes more sense (but the latter still worked ok). Was that how the online version gave the clue?

32. Thought i wouldn’t be able to solve it and suddenly i was finished. Once i checked that pommers called it as only *, i decided to stop being over-analytical and that was the key. But there were some weird, albeit accurate, clues.

    1. You’ve changed your alias so this required moderation. Both your aliases will work from now on.

       1. Sorry about that. I hadn’t posted for some time and i forgot my alias so made a new one. Apologies.

33. 2*/4* …..
    liked 17A “Father’s moving daughter back, getting tots up (4)”

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