Tony

@Moira I think some of the clues are tricky for Tuesday, but I found once I got the revealer and cut 50% of the letters to a vowel it was quite easy to fill in. Being UK based I always struggle with a one or two clues that are especially American themed. Today’s was HiLiter. We don’t have them here, but the vowel trick let me see it. (If you are doing a UK crossword with the same clue the answer will be Stabilo!)

@HeathieJ I live right by Marlow… it’s a cozy little place for a cozy little mystery. I can forgive them the pain when I need to go into the town and the roads are blocked because they are filming by the church!

@John I got stuck on that as I originally entered HAVEABIT, which when I worked out my error made the naughty parsing inevitable!

@Ιασων On a Friday I think we have to expect a bit of wordplay, even on science clues. A system could be described as having a low chaotic state (low ENTROPY) or a high chaotic state (high ENTROPY). We are drawn to assume that the clue must mean a state that is actually chaotic, but that’s the misdirection intended. As a scientist by training I struggled to see through it, but I think it’s valid.

@Snarf disliker I too balked at this the first time it came up, but it is quite a frequent answer, much more so than scarf. You might need to snarf down a few more crosswords before you get used to it though.

@Andrzej Agree I think I would have been lost without knocking half the letters down to a 1 in 5 choice. I have never heard of Hi-Liter markers… until now, but it was easy to guess with the vowel trick.

@Matt I don’t think paragon of a heart attack makes sense, but if you look at legitimate uses of paragon e.g. ‘of virtue’ or ‘of simplicity’ then textbook example fits fine. I’m not a crossword expert by a long shot, but maybe clueing as ‘Paragon, say’ would be appropriate.

@Jack McCullough Funny that’s the first thing I thought when I got the revealer. No OREO or ETNA today. Was expecting an OPI though that didn’t materialise.

@Mike It would have been easy! Clothes horse Charlie horse Rocking horse Shaving horse (Neil Young and) Crazy Horse Erm… interc-horse?

@Dan Yes this answer was my last fill because PUREEVIL seemed frankly a bit over the top. Then again, maybe this partly reflects our shifting attitudes towards acts of turpitude. Fraud, bribery, even adultery would once have brought down public figures without fail. These days they seem less remarkable, accepted even.

@Lewis I’m instantly reminded of Lost in Translation which features said crossing in Tokyo, and wipes the floor with this year’s Oscar contenders.

@Veevee This makes the most sense. You would say ‘The past five AGs have been scratch golfers, not the past 5 AsG have been golf scratchers!

@Jane Wheelaghan I did miss a few as well. OCONNOR was gained entirely from crossings, as was ICE, but then I couldn’t name any Supreme Court justice man or woman, and my knowledge of rap, Grammy winning or otherwise is limited. Hermione Granger was of course created by JK Rowling, who is estimated to be the 7th best selling author ever on Wikipedia. In fact they have women as 7 of the top 10. Seemed like a good stat for today!

@Jane Wheelaghan My favourite car nomenclature is the ‘shooting brake’, used to describe an estate car with a more sloping trunk/boot profile and generally more sporty appearance. They still get released now and then, though I’ve seen them called things like sport back and fast back more recently. It originates from the days of horse drawn carriages when they were used to transport hunting parties.

@Grant This UK contingent member works in ‘The City’ and would only that term to describe that financial district itself. London overall (including The City), is London. Certainly this UK interloper is very happy for anyone to use The City as they please, or indeed London, of which I think there are over 10 in the US alone!

@jennie They do more hard science than you’d think, at least here in the UK. Enough for my son (13) to laugh at my lame cooking/chemistry joke when he burned some cookies… the Maillard reaction has gone to completion! There’s also a lot on safe cooking temperatures, including bacteria destruction rates at various heat levels and durations.

@Jack McCullough I’m not sure I follow. The start of each theme answer makes no sense in its own right, though they are cleverly all real words that could definitely be clued in a different way. In fact they have been in previous puzzles. The rest of the answers including one or more ‘dark horse’ squares complete the theme, and also match their individual clues.

@David Hartin It’s a UK thing as well, or was. The older players at my club used to say AD-IN or out, and sometimes van-in/van-out. Seems to have died out though. Now we have bagels instead!

@Bill Great trivia! Or maybe it’s common knowledge in motor city… it probably used to be!

@Richard I solved faster than my average, but the median solve time of 8ish minutes makes my 20 feel very sluggish in general!

@Stephen It was a big clue, but didn’t stop me filling in ELPHABA across and down at first, making my solve tricker than it needed to be!

@emma I like to think it’s because you always regret giving up. They the link on purpose, giving you another chance to solve unaided before you look it up on xwords anyway.

@Alan That is the late great Dickie Bird, Patrick Meyer, who was a professional footballer (soccer to the home crowd), and later also a cricket umpire. In the middle is Patrick Eager, which is somewhat surprising since he was a professional sports photographer, so you might have expected him to be the other side of the camera. Lords is indeed a special place. I had the privilege of watching Dickie Bird officiate there on several occasions, including a couple of woeful displays by England against the baggy greens. I am pretty sure that Mr Gates is not a cricket fan. The most high profile US billionaire that was is Alan Stanford, and the less said about him the better!

@Tain Yes several US schools, which always trip me up. Even when the answer turns out to be one I do know I’m inclined to assume it’s going to be a different, more obscure one (at least to me). Fortunately the lovely Latin gave me enough crossings to finish under average, but it was close.

@Jane Wheelaghan That section was a stinker even with the 2 letter head starts. I got Lienee as I’ve worked on US finance deals, but I didn’t recognise triple A even after filling it in, and I was convinced a pitcher was retired, not relieved. Was 2 mins ahead of my best heading into the last 5 clues, but ended up missing by miles!

@Aaron I also srirachad! Happily MIOSIS gave me the I that exposed my error.

@Dc I’m starting to wonder if the midi is entirely edited by AI. Today’s clanger was clueing TURBO as ‘supercharged engine’, when turbocharging and supercharging are two distinct engineering processes.

@Throckmorton I suppose strictly the Irish would include the northern Irish, a lot of whom would be unlikely to use EIRE. I’m inclined to avoid the political hornets’ nest though and accept the clue as meaning loosely ‘Gailic for Ireland’.

@Petrol Reminds me of the old British joke. What does a policeman have in his sandwiches? Truncheon meat! I don’t think it crosses the pond very well.