Lily/Liver [May 2 - May 7]

The liver is looking at me, man.

This is my 30th Times puzzle and it looks like it's going to get the better of me. I'm stuck on 3 clues.

I agree 11AC needs a question mark, then again, maybe the man in question was also great in bed. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for 15AC but until someone enlightens me it's a big huh here too.

I also don't understand all of the wordplay in 7DN.

Archies one day...Logies the next. Oh, the life of a multi-media celebrity! DA, I'm surprised you didn't get a bait to Will and Kate's?

Just call me Zelig, SK.

@RK - last month in crosswordese can sometimes be ULT, as in ultima. Throw that in SAN, another esoteric shorthand, and you're pretty much home.

Speaking of Zelig, a surprise that no-one used MOCKUMENTARY in the last storm.

I've solved 8992 and will try to join in when I can on others in your quest for the Holy Grail, DA. I had a couple of queries tho:

- 15A, use of crossing (got the rec but where's the other imp?)

- 'this writer's' in 21D (got the set/gel bit hence gimel).

Your question made me see the second trouble-maker, namely Ate, Greek goddess of vengeance and havoc:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At%C3%AB

Hence IMP[REC]+ATE

One down - five to go this week.

@Boniface: Maybe 'this writer's' is meant as 'this writer is' being 'I'm'.

@RK - Yes, that seems right. Tried to justify 'I'm' before but didn't think to interpret the apostrophe as a contraction.

@DA - Ate - must have missed lectures that day...

Still, 1/1, saved on the defs.

Quick! Who's going to be first to clue Abbottabad! Any hints required?!

"A great night, by the way. Quite surreal to look along the marble wall of the Crown Palladium’s urinal, and see in profile the who’s who of TV doing you know what. "

A higher class of peers, hey? :)

Times 8993 finished before morning tea? Must be another 'gentle' rating.

Nothing too taxing, but nothing that really delighted me either.

My two queries relate to exactly how the first two letters of 4DN are derived, and the wordplay of 19AC.

As for how yesterday's puzzle ended up, I'm just not ready to talk about it...

Beat me to it. A doddle really, with something of a transport theme - four clues - draped around two literary works. Odd.

Loved the surface gloss of 3dn and 5dn. While 17ac prompted a smile.

After a weekendus horribilus, I'm back in business.

RK, for my money, 4dn - if my car works, it XXes; 19ac is a deletion of one letter - perhaps an instance of piracy? Sleeping on the job, perhaps?

I'm stuck on the wordplay for 18dn, though the answer's obvious. 11ac was my last - I was taking business too broadly.

Seems to me that the clue for 6 down has an unnecessary s at the end. And not a fan of the type of clue used for 22ac, given the obscurity of the answer. Still, it's a long way from the appalling pinata-fail of the Sunday Times!

Oh der, I was thinking 'last character' meant R, so I was very confused.

I didn't have OBVIOUS for 18DN. Ah, just a little joke there Anthony. The def is the first two words, then 'heavy goods vehicle' is the first 5 letters, followed by left and then E for the last letter of warehouse.

My der moment. It's an abbreviation. I was trying to riff off polar icecaps, find ways to move the last letter (of the five) to the front, everything. Even thinking of warehousing T (at last).

I'm through too. Hey did you notice the Z-deletion was the same one I used in my example when we did the deletions alphabet? "Maybe the" to define article in 18D was a tad tricky. I'm cautious with the 4-letter words as I suspect Airy-like behaviour at times...

Times 8994 seemed inpenetrable at first, but ended up quite achievable with nice tight clues and no obscure words in sight.

I particularly liked 3DN, for both definition and wordplay as well as 20DN for a well hidden def. 9AC didn't seem like it had enough words in it at first, and 4DN is an underutilised word.

Two fairly easy ones in a row.

Agreed. I liked 6D def as well as 20D. 26A def a bit wide if you've never been to the UK.
3/3 for me I believe...

Yet to solve the whole. I find this compiler - the prince of 12s often in his outer framework much tougher, and less fun.

At first sweep, netted 11 answers, though in disparate corners. This could require a stiff coffee and maybe a Thai beef salad. About now.

Zucchini & bacon soup instead. Pretty chilly in Melbourne today. And crossword cracked - No 18 for anyone who's counting.

Still reckon 4dn is a rude word, or is that just my upbringing?

My picks were 15dn - tidy - and the deception of 3dn. Curiously, I introduced myself to the waiter, a lovely bloke I'd seen before, and his name was 5dn.

My lunch wasn't as fancy as yours DA, but the sun's out in Sydney (finally) and it's feeling almost balmy.

I know what you mean about 4DN, but maybe that's just an Australian expression?

And for another 5DN see Nib at Adios a Maniac @11.47.

Continuing with 5dn...

I'm not having as good a time of this one - got 9ac first, and then nothing at all in the top half of the puzzle. Figured I'd be doing this one bottom up. Had looked at 5dn, figured which bit was defn and which wordplay, picked the first three letters...and stuck. Unbelievable how the brain works (or not!) some days. And then, simply hearing about DA's waiter instantly put the answer in my head.

Not strictly done without unauthorised information, but still. And then the next couple of minutes cleared the whole top half, barring 10dn. Also not a fan of 12-letter words!

At some point, I expect I'm going to have to ask for the wordplay explanation on 1ac. I'm completely in the dark.

Anthony - think rancid.

Thanks Bon - kind of you to to presume I'd remember the other word's more obscure defn! ;-)

2 to go to make it 2 in a row...

Done, with the proviso that 21ac seems, well, to be an awkward definition. Fingers crossed.

I feel the same way about 21AC, Anthony.

Just did the Araucaria from yesterday's Guardian. For someone with a bit of a moth phobia, I don't know how I feel about being described as a 12AC! An enjoyable puzzle though.

I haven't been playing in the Premier League this week as you folk have, but I was just mucking around with today's SMH (by DP) and came across one of those great clues that has two equally viable (and in this case amusing) answers. I wonder if DP realised this.

26a "Unmarried female spider?" (8)

I immediately wrote "HUNTSMAN", and had a chuckle. But I was wrong...

SK, doesn't that one belong on the sexism post?! Nice find.

RK - let's join the revolution. Won't be the first time we've been wrong together ;-)

Yeah, good point Anthony.

(Btw, before all the purists get up in arms, I did realise that, technically, the clue would have to be something like "What might an unmarried female spider do?" for my answer to truly fit. But the presence of the question mark implies trickery, and with many setters, a fair degree of liberty, so I didn't think my HUNTSMAN answer was a million miles off the mark)

(For viewers at home, the bona fide spider was SPINSTER. It's quite a nice clue in the libertarian vein.)

As for today's crossword - took four minutes to solve, and rates 4/10. I solved it in robotic fashion as the tea cooled - far too many prosaic clues.

Thought 26dn was a comic addition to our gender chat, while 8dn seems to have a miscast definition. Felt as though I'd seen it all before, which is eerily possible.

Gosh, someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning. Maybe this one is your 'prince of 12s'. It's taking me a bit longer than 4 minutes, but I'm doing ok so far. (My tea is still brewing.) I like the Victorian chapter heading tone to 3DN and I thought 18AC was clever enough. I actually have written beside 26AC 'sexist!' and was imagining the response if it was a dim wife instead.

Where's that tea....

OK, it was a bit of a non-event.

DA, when you said '8dn seems to have a miscast definition' were you referring to 8AC? If so, I'm not sure what you mean. I think the clue works.

Yes, I meant 8ac. Surely the answer is a display of false emotion, rather than false emotion unto itself? OK, maybe I did wake up grumpy, but still - ?

I can see your point, but I think you're just looking for flaws. The definition which threw me was 21DN. I've never heard it used in that way, except in the negative as in, something is 'not all it's cracked up to be'.

Yep, no-brainer today. I think this setter needs to make the definitions a bit harder, like DA, this was a bit of a fill-in for me. At least Greenland wasn't clued using lime-light.

4 minutes? Really? That's very quick time just for reading and writing! I'm satisfied with my under four hours (with breaks) - 3/3 for me.

Oddly, for such an easy puzzle, I'm unclear (there's a pun) on three of the wordplays (9d, for the pun, 8ac, 19dn.

18ac was clever, but would have been better if they'd used 'for' rather than 'needing' to smooth the surface sense.

I note (re an earlier discussion) that key in 22ac was not a one-for-one abbreviation.

9DN: LUCE (fish) in - TRANS (schools, not one) and C (caught) in NY (city)

8AC: CROCODILES (a succession of children's) about TEAR (race)

19DN: CU (copper) in AIT (island) Y (variable)

Off to BrizVegas at first light, heading up to a literary festival that competes directly with a Trans-Tasman League Test. (Let's see which lure has the stronger draw: books or biffo.)

Will tackle the Times both days, but maybe not so easy to post my comments afoot. Normal services to resume Monday.

Thanks RK - I'll assume ait is another Scrabble word. Crocodiles left me no clearer, so I resorted to the web...more British slang. Makes the clue even easier over there, I guess.

Ait = eyot. Ok, I get it. There was one of those in spitting distance from me that just sold yesterday or the day before (in the Shoalhaven River).

Knew it was all too good to be true. The easy run had to end sometime. Times 8996 has been a hard slog. I'm sure it even took DA a little longer than 4 minutes.

At this stage I only have one unfilled answer (5DN) but there are several others that have me concerned.

I'm not asking for any clues/spoilers for 5DN at this stage, but I am wondering if anyone else has got it.

Yup, it's harder, alright. 5 to go for me, and I expect 5 dn will be my last if I get there! I'll let you know if I make it...

Just worked out 5DN in the shower! It's amazing how a seemingly impossible clue can be solved when you allow your mind to approach the words from a completely different angle. It was one of those clues that really locked my brain into a certain way of thinking.

(I hope I'm right...)

I'd figured out the various options for the two words, but didn't know the term and was nowhere on the wordplay. Still kicking myself on 23dn, having thought of peers as a possible fit.

Today's is going much better - just 20dn to go. I have a word that fits, but it doesn't quite 'make the penny drop' as far as the clue goes.

Survived yesterday's somehow.

Today I'm annoyingly stuck on 20DN. The only word that springs to mind is the same as yours, Anthony, which doesn't seem right at all. No doubt it's someone's name like our friend Mr Airy.

I really want to get this one out, as it will be my 5th in a row. Not quite a PB, but the best I've done in a while.

Got it! Goodness knows whether I'd read the name some time in the distant past, or it happened to coincide with another person with a similar moniker, but I got it.

I hope that this leak won't dissuade you in your quest, but URINAL it ain't.

If you work from the premise that it's a name, it is possible to get there on wordplay alone.

I think I've got it, but I can't be sure as it's not a name I know. My wordplay consists of three components. I'll sleep on it.

Gday RK and Anthony - seems you two have been conducting a workshop a deux. Well done for cracking Friday's walnut.

Just home from Surfers, a great lit-fest in the eternal sunshine, and have yet to spot a Weekend Oz. Will unravel the puzzle and prattle tomorrow.

Nailed Friday's and Saturday's so I am on 6. Friday's was a sweat but recalled the haircut eventually. The engineer is gettable from the word play if not familiar.

About to sit down with my other half, a long whiskey, a movie, and Saturday's puzzle on my lap, for #20 - after that pesky haircut, and the champion fish.

(Loved the rabbit stew of 3dn. A clue to chew for days.)