Comments on: Guardian 24,628 / Pasquale

By: Pasquale

Pasquale — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:59:01 +0000

Belated thanks — I’ve been away

By: Barnaby Page

Barnaby Page — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:47:32 +0000

TACHE is in SOED with several meanings but not the meaning of “moustache” (which surprised me). TASH and TAZ are both given as shorter forms of “moustache”.

By: dave

dave — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:52:33 +0000

Rattled through this last night and wrote shopping list simultaneously. Have now purchased far too much mayonnaise.

By: smutchin

smutchin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:16:17 +0000

Wil – I had similar doubts but came to the same conclusion as Eileen, ie that “baring” was leading you to the definition.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:55:31 +0000

Wil: yes, I can see that it’s rather ambiguous but you start with ‘matters of principle’ and then teeth comes at the end, where you’d expect to find the definition [or at the beginning!] and baring means ‘revealing’. [I've [just] ‘cheated’ and MOLARS is the solution given.]

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:33:13 +0000

And I only did this because I was in Sainsbury’s and had to buy something to use their cashback facility. What a good thing that was — this was really good and 12dn was memorable.

The only slight doubt I had was with 1ac: is it quite clearly MOLARS? Not MORALS? It’s not totally clear to me which part “One changes sides” refers to. Neither reading seems quite satisfactory.

By: stiofain_x

stiofain_x — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:39:33 +0000

A great puzzle and nice to see The Don back and on top form.
As I have said before I dislike the hidden answer form of clue but MAYONNAISE is an absolute classic.
Too many good clues and surface readings to list but I loved 14ac in particular and the slang ref in 2 down.
All the obscurities were fairly clued and although i wasnt confident filling in TASH the explanation from Eileen satisfied me totally.
Great one, thanks Don.
Stiofain

By: smutchin

smutchin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:00:04 +0000

Jim, I think you were right first time – tache is the short form of moustache. But if it’s in the big red book… sigh!

In any case, can’t argue with the fairness of this or any of the other clues today – this is a totally by-the-book crossword, and a fine example of How To Do It Right. Unfortunately, that being the case, there’s perhaps slightly too much reliance on hackneyed devices (21d being the most horrible example) – but then Pasquale goes and pulls the utterly brilliant 12d out of the bag! Genius!

I rather liked 11a as well – lovely &lit, as already mentioned. And the use of “changing sides” in 1a was very neat.

Word count bores might like to note that today’s puzzle weighs in at an epic 8.6. Was he being paid by the word? It’s positively Dickensian!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:58:33 +0000

Speckled Jim: it’s not really like that: I rarely ‘rattle through’ a puzzle just like that, and when I say, ‘The word play’s absolutely clear’, that, too, is usually with the benefit of hindsight and a feeling of ‘Why couldn’t I have seen that ages ago?’ Personally, I don’t really appreciate a puzzle unless I’ve had to wrestle with it. We bloggers are really only solvers who have stuck our necks out, you know!

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:58:16 +0000

Hi Speckled Jim
Both tash and tache are in the 11th Ed. of the Concise OED, the latter being defined as a variant of the former. Just to complete the list, Collins (5th Ed., I don’t have access to a later one) only has tache.