Author   JohninterredPosted on 22nd June 2024 at 10:51 AM22 June 2024Categories Other Crosswords
Well that was fun! I only heard this was coming from our puzzles editor late yesterday afternoon. He said: “Just to let you know there will be a piece tomorrow in The Times about crossword frame of reference, attracting younger solvers etc for which I commissioned a one-off puzzle more broadly rooted in the 21st century (anon, but it’s our two younger setters, ie a bit younger that us!) One of the “younger generation” might want to blog it!“. It was a bit late to go round the group to get volunteers from a younger generation, so I’m blogging it myself. I was surprised to find I’m not as much of a fossil as I thought. Unlike the usual crosswords, your reference for answers is Google, not the usual dictionaries.
Sorry for the brevity of the blog. Ask any questions in the comments and I’ll endeavour to answer.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Wonder who made Madame Web? (6) |
| MARVEL – Double definition. | |
| 4 | Hold back unit producing type of modern therapy (4,4) |
| STEM CELL – STEM (hold back) CELL (unit). | |
| 10 | Simple earring worn by one of the Afflecks, for example? (4,5) |
| CASE STUDY – STUD (simple earring) in CASEY (one of the Afflecks) | |
| 11 | Lacking headgear? It’s true! (2,3) |
| NO CAP – NO (lacking) CAP (headgear). | |
| 12 | Catch Crystal Palace player in bar for high-flyers? (7) |
| TRAPEZE – TRAP (catch) EZE (Eberichi Eze; footballer) | |
| 13 | Rings guy from Steps near Los Angeles twice? How fancy! (3,2,2) |
| OOH LA LA – O O (rings), H (Ian “H” Watkins) in LA LA (los Angeles twice). | |
| 14 | Type of headphones one has close by (2-3) |
| IN-EAR – I (one) NEAR (close by) | |
| 15 | Remix of one samey Adele song (4,2,2) |
| EASY ON ME – [remix] (one samey)* | |
| 18 | Speaking honestly, I came first and still I get oddly ignored (1,4,3) |
| I WONT LIE – I WON (came first) and alternate letters (even numbered) of sTiLl I gEt. | |
| 20 | App featuring videos of fitness team regularly (5) |
| INSTA – Alternate letters,[regularly], of fItNeSs TeAm. | |
| 23 | Leave a music group on (7) |
| ABANDON – A BAND (music group) ON. A bit of a chestnut but younger solvers may not have come across it. | |
| 25 | License strange absence of noise (7) |
| SILENCE – (license)* [strange]. | |
| 26 | & 6 Run off to take in show – the final part of stylish LGBT celebration in June (5) |
| PRIDE MONTH – DEMO (show) in PRINT (run off), last letter of stylisH. | |
| 27 | Connecting, and heading for bed? (7,2) |
| HOOKING UP – Cryptic definition | |
| 28 | Comedian and mother seen outside a noodle bar (8) |
| WAGAMAMA – A in WAG (comedian) MAMA (mother). | |
| 29 | Uber lingering to cover capital city (6) |
| BERLIN – Hidden in uBER LINgering. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Non-alcoholic drink made from fresh oat milk infused with coffee, primarily (8) |
| MOCKTAIL – First letter of Coffee in (oat milk)* [fresh]. | |
| 2 | Everything else consumed — say again? (7) |
| RESTATE – REST (everything else) ATE (consumed). | |
| 3 | Singer wrecked sedan here (2,7) |
| ED SHEERAN – (sedan here)* [wrecked]. | |
| 5 | Royal investors arranged for notable re-recording? (7,7) |
| TAYLORS VERSION – (Royal investors)* [arranged]. | |
| 6 | See 26-Across (5) |
| MONTH – See 26 Across | |
| 7 | Cry out when hearing new Twitter allegation (7) |
| EXCLAIM – EX, sounds like X (new Twitter), CLAIM (allegation). | |
| 8 | Pet‘s buddy upset Cate, briefly (6) |
| LAPCAT – PAL (buddy) upwards -> LAP, CAT{e} [briefly]. | |
| 9 | Humble ad jingle composed for England footballer (4,10) |
| JUDE BELLINGHAM – (Humble ad jingle)* [composed]. | |
| 16 | Fine, go ahead and tell me what an obliging fish might say! (2,3,4) |
| OK ILL BITE – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. | |
| 17 | Large snake almost swallowing a pointy object? (5,3) |
| LASER PEN – A in L (large) SERPEN{t} (snake) [almost] | |
| 19 | Trying a bit of corn featured in part of KFC bucket? (7) |
| WEARING – EAR (bit of corn) in WING (bit of chicken from KFC). | |
| 21 | Eagles flying round northern birthplace of TikToker Khaby Lame (7) |
| SENEGAL – N (northern) in (eagles)* [flying]. | |
| 22 | By the sound of it, bad, bad fruit (6) |
| PAWPAW – Sounds like POOR POOR (bad bad). Love it! | |
| 24 | Fantasy featuring doctor who raps in the morning (5) |
| DREAM – DRE (Dr Dre; doctor who raps) AM (morning). | |
I was working on the blog at the same time!
Some additions from my notes:
“No Cap” is Gen-Z slang meaning “no lie” or “for real, No Cap!
I have HOOKING UP as a double definition, since it means just “connecting” to us boomers, and “heading for bed” for our kids.
5D is TAYLORS VERSION. Taylor Swift is re-mastering her back catalogue to get control back, these tracks are known as Taylors Version.
LAP CAT is just the kind of word you don’t want to look up in the Urban Dictionary
WAGAMAMA still makes use of the boomer slang of Wag=comedian.I thought this was really good, and very glad to see my pet peeves of PI, ETON, and IT mocked in the original article.
Gen Y tropes I see : Marvel, Uber, Twitter, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Adele, footballers, Wagamama, KFC, Apple, Instagram, Gay Pride, Oat Milk, Tik Tok, Dr Dre.
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Thanks. Yes I had TAYLORS VERSION on paper and mistyped the answer online in a rush to generate the blog. Fixed now. I’ll stick with Cryptic Definition for HOOKING UP as you have to “connect” before “heading for bed”.
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I was a DNF in 24.32 plumping for OK I’LL LIVE even though it didnt quite seem right. Rather an excellent puzzle I thought.
Thanks both of you for kicking off the comments
Ps Completely missed EZE – shocking – one of my fantasy football stars this last season (though looked rather less like that the other night)
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I got through it in a few minutes over an hour but I needed to check some of the answers and references after working out the answers from wordplay, and in 3 or 4 cases needed to look up something in a clue in order to have a hope of understanding what might be required.
All in all not an enjoyable experience as I never felt my intellect was being challenged or catered for, only my knowledge of contemporary ‘culture’, passing fads and fashions which I admit is signally lacking but I’m quite happy to go on living without. If this puzzle becomes a regular feature I shall not be attempting any more.
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Sheesh! Fin. A really dumb lit puzzle. Sksksk.
BTW 26A should be PRIDE MONTH, not MARCH (correct in 6d).Reply
Sorry another typo in the blog rushing to get it done. Corrected in 26A.
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I gave up at 37 mins with the NW unfinished – MARVEL, MOCKTAIL, TRAPEZE plus the OK-ILL-BITE. Managed to parse everything I got.
I quite like the idea of a crossword filled with contemporary stuff but would like to see that stretch back a few more years. For example, I don’t watch superhero films so had no idea what Madame Web is. If it had one from the past decade rather than this year – there’s a chance I’d have got it. Likewise the Adele song – I’d forgotten the 2021 abomination and needed the anagram and checkers.
Minor complaint about the specific GK of having a player from Crystal Palace. You’d have to be a real fan to know the players of a mid-table team.
I don’t understand why OK-I’LL-BITE is what an obliging fish would say?
All in all, quite good. Personally would like to see it catering to more than just Gen-Z. I’m too young for the Izetti-type clues but too old to know (care) about fads that may or may not last. Some references from the 2000s (or even 1990s) would be welcome.
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Substitute, ‘I’ll take the bait’, which I think dates from an earlier generation, and the ‘obliging fish’ reference should make sense.
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Ah – thank-you. I never considered it from the perspective that we were out fishing when we spoke to the fish!
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Think most football fans will know of Eze particularly as he’s now in the England set-up. As for ” mid-table team”, if they manage to keep their best players in the transfer window, Palace may not be mid-table for much longer 😉
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I like the idea and, even as a soon to be 66 year old, the contemporary references were no problem (less of an issue than the nymph and the poet in todays prize to be honest).
I did though think that the surfaces overall lacked subtlety and it felt a little contrived. I stopped half way through as I was not greatly enjoying it
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I’m 41 and I really felt like the target audience for this. Knew nearly all the references. Done in 27 min. Much easier than today’s Cryptic. I don’t know any footballers but I just looked those up unashamedly.
Would enjoy another instalment, understand it’s not for everyone, but neither are obscure classics references 😉
Thanks to setter and for the blog.
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Great to see this initiative. I got my daughter hooked on the QC during lockdown. Now 27, she rolls her eyes at many of the references to people or events before she was born. Thanks for blogging. Some of it too new for me.
11:00. I really enjoyed this. Some of the references (NO CAP, for instance) are only familiar to me from my kids but I knew everything apart from the footballer: even the TikToker.
I agree with Merlin that HOOKING UP is a double definition: one for the older generation, one for younger.
The story behind TAYLORS VERSION is pretty interesting. Her old record label sold the ‘master’ rights to her first few albums against her wishes. Since she retained the publishing rights to all the songs she was legally entitled to re-record her entire back-catalogue, and so that’s what she’s done. Loyal Swifties now tend to stream the new versions, which means that the purchaser of the originals probably feels they got a bit of a bum deal.Reply
Either that, or that they have very valuable collectibles.
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I’m not sure you can describe the legal rights attached to particular recordings as ‘collectible’! The price they paid (hundreds of millions of dollars) was derived from expectations of the streaming revenues they would receive.
(Note that performance royalties from eg radio play normally go to the songwriter so Swift gets those anyway).Reply
I mean the people who purchased the original LP or CD. They are going for a lot of money nowadays.
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Oh I see. I was referring specifically to the purchaser of the rights, not someone who bought the CD of, say, 1989 in 2014!
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It’s a stunning piece of marketing on her part, reselling the same dross twice over 😉
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Except that she never actually owned the originals!
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DNF, with a silly ‘lapel pin’ rather than LASER PEN.
I’m 31, so I guess I’m the demographic being targeted (if that’s the right word) by this, though I have to say I’ve never heard NO CAP as an expression. I biffed PRIDE MONTH and I was unfamiliar with the SENEGALese TikToker (I wonder which Senegalese person might have been used in the ‘traditional’ Times crossword). I also took a long time to move away from Ben Affleck and think of Casey to get CASE STUDY.
Thanks for the blog, and kudos to the setters for coming up with this.
COD Jude Bellingham
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You guys. I did this with absolutely glee abandon.
I finished under 20 minutes (!!!), the only hold ups the footballers – TRAPEZE i biffed from definition with checkers and Jude Bellingham was LOI with the anagram.
I did also try LAPEL PIN but couldn’t parse it so got LASER PEN.
Thank you for this puzzle, I don’t actually want the regular puzzle to be anything like this lol, but I had so much fun with it.
I’m also not actually very young at all and would not be caught dead saying something like ‘No Cap’ but my 90s teenage girl heart adored the reference to H from Steps 🙂
I’ve had such a hard couple of weeks in my life, this had been a little shining light.
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That’s super-quick – well done, and I hope it heralds a return to brighter things!
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The enjoyment shining through your comment is infectious!
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I enjoyed that quite a lot, though bits of it (Adele, the footballer and “no cap”) were new to me. A bit of a shame it’s a one-off, really. I suppose there’s a limit to how many puzzles they can bang out in a given week. I completed it around doing other things so can’t give a time, but probably getting on for 45 minutes or so.
Thank you for the blog!
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I’m in my early 70s and it took me almost 41 minutes to complete this, but I had to look up the footballer (sport generally passes me by) and I ended up with my LOI wrong. I put OK I’LL RISE for 16d. Managed to come up with the rest, but it was a struggle. 40:40. Thanks setter and John.
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41:15, including time googling phrases such as “no cap” to see if they had the required meaning, and whether there was indeed someone called Casey Affeleck.
A very enjoyable form of crossword. I’m in my sixties, and most of the cultural references were at least vaguely familiar. H from Steps familiar from his regular appearances on Pointless Celebrities.Thanks John for the blog.
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Great fun and good to see some new slang featuring, such as ‘no cap’ which I was familiar with. I put the more typical MLE phrase ‘I can’t lie’ instead of ‘I won’t lie’ which made WEARING unsolvable (I put ‘chasing’ without any conviction upon thinking of ‘wing’). I think ‘I can’t lie’ just about works as an alternative answer.
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This 70 year old loved it! Just the one error and I’ll settle for that. No problem with the Crystal Palace player who is one of the hottest properties in the PL right now and did after all play for England just a couple of days ago.
Stylistically it reminded me of the much missed Daily Telegraph Toughie setter John Pidgeon aka Petitjean.
Puzzles like this must surely have wider appeal than O Tempora?Reply
I would hope there’s room for both!
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Just utterly, utterly atrocious, a horrible experience to solve, full of vapid, instantly-dated pop-culture references and stupid wordplay, possessing virtually none of the subtlety and ingenuity in setting that makes crosswords such a joy. “LGBT celebration in June” is the most embarrassingly atrocious supposedly-cryptic definition I’ve ever seen in a crossword.
See AlsoSunday June 22, 2024 Gary LarsonI also dislike crossword jargon and pop-culture references from 60 years ago of current crosswords—I’m 24—but, as I’m informed the kids say these days, this ain’t it.
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‘LGBT celebration in June’ is just a straight definition, nothing cryptic about it, supposedly or otherwise.
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Sure, I meant “definition in a cryptic clue” instead of that kind of cryptic definition. My point is that definitions are usually non-unique or camouflaged to avoid this kind of egregious write-in.
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Fair enough. I generally get the sense with this puzzle that setter and editor were trying hard to compensate for the unfamiliar material with extra-clear wordplay and definitions.
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Yep, I’m sure that, come the end of 2024, all this modern stuff will be long-forgotten. Nobody will remember who that singer who did a big tour was, or who that guy who once played for Real Madrid was, or that we all used to use some taxi service thing to get everywhere, or that there was an app where people used to upload videos, or that there were some letters that stood for some community or other, or etc…
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I also enjoyed this a lot. DNF, had I CANT LIE for 18a which held up the whole of the SW corner.
I hope there are more of these!
Also, does anyone have a link to the article mentioned in the blog intro?
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Try this for the article mentioned.
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I was able to solve this without aids, despite not having heard of anything. This puzzle is particularly tough for US solvers, who are unlikely to know the footballers.
So I treated this one like a Mephisto, and just worked the cryptics, accepting whatever came up as the likely answer. Bingo, all correct.
As for the staff of bloggers here at TftT, I would say that the average age is about 70, so the regular puzzles suit us well enough.
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Excellent effort! If they had been Baseball stars I would have been in the same boat
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Dnf…
42 mins, but a couple of errors. I put “I Can’t Lie” for 18ac and “Clawing” for 19dn.
Not as bad as I thought it would be, although there were a couple of references like “No Cap” and “Hooking Up” that I’d never heard of. Not sure what a “Lapcat” is, but I’m presuming it’s not the feline version of a lapdog.
Whilst I’ve never heard a Taylor Swift song in my life, I was aware of her album re-recordings. I believe a documentary about it has just been released one of the streamers.
Later!
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It’s extremely unlikely that you’ve never heard a Taylor Swift song in your life. It is however perfectly likely that you’ve done so without retaining any memory of the experience.
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20 minutes at aged 78, as revealed last week. I do know my football. I have eaten at Wagamama in the last few months and am aware of Taylor Swift’s and Ed Sheeran’s existence. I parsed CASE STUDY after the event, not knowing Casey Affleck, and I gather that HOOKING UP has a different meaning from the one I innocently use. I’ve no idea what a lapcat is. The cryptics and crossers were perhaps too helpful. Given that solvers of the Times Cryptic are presumably between 15 and 100, why not regularly have clues from all generations? Eze may be a bit of a push for a general audience, but Bellingham is fair game. Of course, many clues should be from the arts, science, history, geography, politics etc. It doesn’t have to be a dumbing down. Only bright kids will want to join in.
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I liked LASER PEN, but not very much else. I won’t bother again.
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This 35-year-old enjoyed it well enough – carefully through in 9.09. NO CAP my only NHO. I did rather like TAYLOR’S VERSION.
It was (deliberately, I’m sure) far from a toughie in its wordplay, but the references would have raised the challenge for some. For those regular solvers who found it asinine, might I gently suggest it wasn’t really aimed at you. For what it’s worth, I doubt I would solve a puzzle like this regularly, but I’d be quite happy for it to be a part of the stable.
Having modern and less high-brow references is surely a part of attracting enough younger solvers to the cause for it to continue. There were plenty of gripes when the 15×15 acknowledged the existence of the 1990s recently – if not there, and not in a puzzle like this, where exactly?
Thanks setter(s) and blogger.
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18:08
I have to say I really didn’t expect to see something like this on the crossword club, but I’m very glad it has appeared and I had a lot of fun even if it was a significant deviation from the usual offering. I have to agree with Amoeba that it’s not one for the arch-traditionalists, but thankfully the daily isn’t going anywhere any time soon. I would like to see something like this again, as it is an enjoyable embellishment for those that are curious, and can be easily swerved by those who find the solving process utterly tedious. Thank you to all responsible!Reply
Was very late in the day in doing this…Done in around 30 minutes. Did I enjoy it? Not really, and I can’t put my finger on why. I guess I didn’t feel as intellectually challenged as usual, even though the classics/cricket/mythology etc etc of the normal cryptic can drive me nuts! Here it was the “yoof speak” that went over my head. But, like many here, I’m not the target demographic. I worked in publishing and thus respect and understand the dilemma of attracting new and younger participants while not losing an established audience. It’s a tricky balance to strike but this was an interesting toe in the water.
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Thank you for the rapid blog.
The puzzle was an interesting concept, and I enjoyed it.
Particularly, learning about “Taylor’s version”; and that “Insta” is used as shortened form – I was more familiar with “the ‘gram”.
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Out of curiosity I picked away at it throughout the day and finished, sort of, with resort to googling. Given that I’m a QCer, not a 15×15 habitué, I’m kind of amazed I finished. I guess the cluing itself was relatively gentle and that’s how I got through.
I am old and not British, and didn’t know of Casey Affleck, NO CAP, ED SHEERAN, JUDE BELLINGHAM, EASY ON ME, Mr EZE, the Steps guy, or the TikToker. COD EXCLAIM.
I might try one of these again if one appears on a slow day. Visiting the foreign land of youf speak is not so different from my regular visits to Brit speak!
And thanks for blogging! No way would I ever have parsed quite a few of these.
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I did most of this and then gave up as I wasn’t enjoying it. Too many question marks against clues that although I got the answer it was either NHO or unknown jargon. Certainly never heard of WAGAMAMA, Casey Afflecks, Madame Web, Khaby Lame, H, etc.
I respect the idea but I won’t attempt another.Reply
If it is a ‘one off’ isn’t the 1 somewhat superfluous?
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But if there is enough enthusiasm for it there may be sequels even though the commission of this one was a one-off.. We’ll see.
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I thought this was great fun and hope there are more to come 👍
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DNF ++.
Had to reveal most, so not enjoyable, but then I am very old and not acquainted with popular culture.😢
I only solved the few normal clues. NHO Madame Web, NO CAP, the footballer, the Afflecks – apart from Ben, the Adele song, and did not know Taylor’s version was a thing. Liked PAWPAW and INSTA.
Oh well. But thanks, John.Reply
I just watched Simon Anthony solve this on Cracking the Cryptic and him saying, ‘No Hat’ made me burst into absolute giggles. He did absolutely amazingly for not knowing references, which kind of shows how much the wordplay can really lead you through.
I am very surprised that people haven’t even vaguely heard of Casey Affleck – he won the Oscar for Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea – a movie that does seem rather high brow or literary or serious, and very popular. He’s also been in a ton of movies his brother Ben is in, and he’s part of the George Clooney Oceans Eleven!
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As a fifty-something guy who is in no way the target audience for this kind of puzzle (still patiently waiting for the ’80s/’90s to be similarly catered to), I did enjoy it despite a number of the modern references passing me by. I would have said that none of the clues relied entirely on those references in order to be solved, but some of the above comments suggest that others might disagree! I would have liked a few more one- and two-letter representations with a modern spin, to pension off the definitions of IT, AB, ON, U, OR, ER, PI, LO, etc that can flummox or cheese people off, but I think we only had “guy from Steps” = H and “new Twitter” = X, both of which are hardly unobtrusive. I’m guessing from the numbering that this is the first puzzle in a (weekly?) series, which will be welcome as a change of pace from the usual Times conventions.
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H from Steps is close to pension age now, surely? Felt a bit like being at the pub quiz when they ask us to guess the names of songs from the past ten years at times, although I found the football references the hardest.
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Fun references. I do hope they do more of these, as a young person myself it would be way easier to get my friends into cryptics this way! I would say ‘wag’ for comedian still feels a bit boomer though.
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Well, that was interesting, but I’m not sure it really worked for me. I do the QC every day, but very rarely attempt the 15×15 and I’m definitely not in the target age range for this puzzle. In the end, I DNF’d (no surprise), but only by three clues (big surprise) – MARVEL, OK ILL BITE and LASER PEN.
On the way I had to check a couple of things, e.g. H in Steps (I’d NHO either) and I didn’t fully parse every clue I solved (e.g. PRIDE MONTH), but I think I made a reasonable fist of most of it.
Many thanks to all involved.
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26:00
I was quite pleased to get as much as I did without references- must admit I was stuck with PRIDE __N_H for ages before STEM CELL popped up – is it really? I never knew…
OK I’LL BITE was LOI by a long way – with those checkers, I couldn’t shake LINE from my head.
The more straightforward clues helped certainly, but I wouldn’t be too upset if some of the others had appeared in the regular puzzle.
Thanks John and setter
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I am certainly not of the younger generation, but I managed well enough, once I corrected ITERATE for 2dn, which then enabled me to guess CASE STUDY (Casey Affleck at least sounded plausible). Other things not that familiar to me were easy enough to get from wordplay. So this was fun, if not quite of the usual quality of Times cryptics (well, of the good ones, since I frequently complain about some of them if I feel they are imbalanced).
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We finished in 53 minutes and 30 seconds. Loved seeing some modern references that we understood, such as NO CAP. Thought if a fish was obliging enough he would say any manner of OK ILL SINK/SWIM/TALK/WALK, before we realised BITE made much more sense. Thanks for the novel puzzle!
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Got there with a few hold ups.
23:06
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