Comments on: Guardian 25,572 / Paul

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:32:08 +0000

I printed this out because I read your preamble and thought I’d print it out to enjoy on holiday…… And we dis! The last one in was 17d and it really made us smile. Paul on top form. Great fun.

Thanks Eileen, see you soon!

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:07:52 +0000

Thanks Eileen for explaining WIMP, I would never have got that one by myself. A very good puzzle.

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 09:28:30 +0000

Anyone else have Opium House instead of Opium poppy? House is a modern form of music right..? haha – getting old…

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:29:53 +0000

In Australia wimp and wuss are fairly common and, in the UK, probably familiar to viewers of neighbours.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:18:26 +0000

Thank you,Giovanna, for the reference to ‘The Highwayman’ which I nearly mentioned, as being my first [and perhaps only] acquaintance with OSTLER – but, more importantly, for me, age ten, it opened up the world of poetry.

I’m glad you enjoyed the mondegreens.

Buona notte x

By: Giovanna

Giovanna — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:47:58 +0000

Thanks, Paul, for an excellent puzzle and Eileen for her superblog.

Came to it late today, as the fine weather tempted me into pruning duties.

I followed your lead into mondegreens etc., Eileen, and had a good laugh.
Lots of brilliant clues and more of a prize puzzle than a Thursday one. I liked Ostler at 20d, which leapt out at me and reminded me of Tim the ostler, who had ‘hair like mouldy hay’ in The Highwayman!
5a reminded me of stranding on the Goodwin Sands as a possible extra layer of meaning.

Giovanna x

By: tupu

tupu — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:20:04 +0000

Thanks Eileen and Paul
Completed this on return from a day out. Some very good, amusing clues. I did not understand ‘wimp’, and I misinterpreted ‘gismo’ as an anagram of egoism minus e. I much enjoyed ‘in denial’, and also ticked several others including 10a, 11a, 18a (some fond memories of that great ‘hamster’ especially with Mitchum and Russell in ‘His KInd of Woman’), 3d, 7d, 15d.

By: Robi

Robi — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:08:03 +0000

Thanks, Thomas99 @20; I get the sense now.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:03:27 +0000

I’ve been out since mid-day and am glad to see everyone enjoyed this puzzle as much as I did. I actually wrote a longer preamble [in my usual hyperbolic style] but ran out of superlatives, so summed them up in one sentence. I certainly think it’s one of Paul’s best puzzle in ages.

PeterJohnN

Just a couple of points on how I [and several other people] do blogs:

It seemed quicker to supply a link for BOLL WEEVIL, which explains that it’s notorious for destroying cotton crops.

Re 16dn: I put ‘on the radio’ in brackets immediately after ‘sounds like’, as I would with ‘reportedly’, ‘they / some say’, to show that’s the indicator [cf 14ac: 'anagram [criminal]‘; 15dn: ‘anagram [foolishly]; my further comment that this might actually have been heard on the radio was to emphasise what a good clue it was!

I agree that it would have been helpful to explain ‘humour’.

Re GISMO: I meant to check the spelling. I’d have thought it was GIZMO but the ISM leapt out at me, so I assumed this must be right. Chambers does give this as the first spelling.

I read 1dn as Thomas99 did.

By: liz

liz — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:26:49 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Eileen. Fantastic puzzle, which I rushed through this morning before going out. That’s my excuse for failing to get ENTOURAGE and missing the brilliant definition ‘no sir’…