Guardian 26,859 – Arachne

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It’s been a while since I blogged an Arachne puzzle, but this was worth the wait, with clever clueing and characteristic wit. Thanks to Arachne.

Possible Nina alert: I notice that JENNER appears in the third row from the bottom. I can’t see anything else that might relate to this, but I did notice while solving that there are a few rather “awkward” words in the grid, for example LAMBER, STERNAL, ARDENCY, SFO, that might indicate that something else is hidden in there.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
7. GALATIANS Letter from Scotsman in POW camp returned (9)
IAN in reverse of STALAG
8. CUMIN An hour and two thirds to dress Posh Spice (5)
An hour and two thirds is 100 minutes, or C MIN; put a U (“posh”) in there to get the spice
9. OBSTETRIC Erotic dancing over seven month time period aiding childbirth (9)
BST (British Summer Time, which lasts from the end of March to the end of October) in EROTIC*
10. CHUBB It should be impossible to pick husband largely on chum’s tip (5)
C[hum] + HUBB[y] – Chubb won a competition in 1818 for locks that could only be opened with the correct key, i.e. they are unpickable
12. ORKNEY Ignore wife in labour, longing to be back in Scottish islands (6)
WORK “ignoring” W + reverse of YEN. You can say “Orkney” or “the Orkney Islands”, but “the Orkneys” is regarded as a bit of a faux pas by the locals
13. ELDORADO Cockney retained or kept old soap from the ’90s (8)
‘ELD OR ‘AD + O – Eldorado was a short-lived and much-derided BBC soap opera about ex-pats in Spain
16. STERNAL Antlers composed of bone (7)
ANTLERS* – meaning “related to the sternum”
19. WAYBILL Taken aback by a boring legal document, one listing goods (7)
Reverse of BY A in (“boring”) WILL
22. OBSCENER More 3 in job scene, reportedly (8)
Hidden in jOB SCENE Reportedly – cunningly suggesting a homophone clue
25. CHILLI One in pursuit of raw meat dish (6)
CHILL (raw) + I
27. UNFED Runs off and weds, unclothed and hungry (5)
Remove the outer letters of rUNs oFf wEDs
28. KEYNESIAN Clue 9 as “eccentric economist’s acolyte” (9)
KEY (clue) + (NINE AS)*
29. COPSE Run away from stiff brush (5)
CORPSE (stiff) less R
30. SCHOOLING Church loves to plug support for education (9)
CH + O O in SLING
Down
1. LAMBER Sheepish labourer, first to bathe in the sea at Calais (6)
B[athe] in LA MER
2. FASTENER Perhaps catch nothing, upset about cricket practice (8)
FA (nothing, as in “sweet FA”) + reverse of RE NETS
3. FILTHY Despicable file they have finally redacted twice (6)
FILE THEY with [hav]E removed twice
4. UNDINES Ban organisation over rackets involving drug and spirits (7)
UN (United Nations, run by Ban Ki-moon) + E in DINS – Undines or Ondines are water spirits
5. AUTHOR Source gold after gold filling falls out of tooth (6)
Using the two familiar abbreiviations for gold: AU + T[oot]H + OR
6. SINBAD Partly believes in Badger, storybook hero! (6)
Hidden in believeS IN BADger (Badger being a hero of “The Wind in the Willows”)
11. IDEA Thought Gide gag no good at all (4)
GIDE GAG less all occurrences of G
14,17. AMIENS Like inhaling air in northern French city (6)
MIEN (air) in AS (like). I went to Amiens in August 1999 to watch the total eclipse of the sun. Fortunately the clouds cleared just in time.
15. OYL Cry for attention close to waterfall animated Olive (3)
OY + [waterfal]L – Olive Oyl was Popeye’s girlfriend in the animated series
16. SFO Anti-corruption agency as of now regularly failing (3)
Alternate letters of aS oF nOw. As this abbreviation for the Serious Fraud Office isn’t a pronounceable word it should surely be indicated as (1,1,1)
18. ANNE Article read aloud for Queen (4)
Homophone of “an”
20. BY ITSELF Loveless lad is left confused and alone (2,6)
BOY less O + (IS LEFT)*
21. ARDENCY County evacuated after historic forest fire (7)
ARDEN + C[ount]Y – “As You Like It” is set n the forest of Arden, named after an area of Warwickshire
23. BANJO Judge supporting embargo on outsize instruments (6)
BAN (embargo) + J[udge] + OS
24. CHEESE Bottom of league in Cheshire and East Lancashire? (6)
[leagu]E in CHES + E
25. CANNON Pointless snooker shot from John Higgins’s sixth frame of Open (6)
CAN (toilet – John) + sixth letter of higgiNs + O[pe]N – a cannon scores points in Billiards but not in Snooker
26. LEARNT Got to know sailors in leathers, half-cut (6)
RN in LEAT[hers]

74 comments on “Guardian 26,859 – Arachne”

  1. Thanks Arachne and Andrew

    I found this tough, with a lot of “guess, check, parse” (or in some cases, not parse – FASTENER and CANNON for instance). Nevertheless it was satisfying to complete the grid.

    I thought I was gong to have an easy ride when I wrote in GALATIANS immediately, but the first pass only yielded two more!

    I agree about SFO, especially as it must be pronounced “ess eff oh”, but it seems that this is a lost cause.

    Favourite amongst many amusing clues was CHEESE – next to LOI, before UNFED.

  2. Just brilliant! Fantastic surfaces, and unusual subtractions in FILTHY and IDEA. Arachne never disappoints. Invidious to pick favourites, but maybe COPSE, KEYNESIAN and ELDORADO. Many thanks to her and to Andrew.

  4. Andrew, you Should persevere with your thoughts about a Nina. If you follow the grid at 1 down just one more letter than you cited, you will see another significant name, which should get you launched.

    Another dazzling display of wit and ingenuity from the slightly wonderful Spider Lady.

  5. PS I too went to France for the eclipse. Tried to get into Laon but it was jam packed, so went back to the old mill that was my gite, and watched it out of the kitchen window, reflected in the mill stream

  6. I failed to solve 27a, 1d, 25d and could not parse or fully parse 13a (ADO), 3d, 2d, 24d.

    New for me was SFO.

    My favourites were COPSE, UNDINES, KEYNESIAN, ARDENCY, CUMIN.

    Thanks blogger and setter.

  8. Thanks Arachne & Andrew.

    Great puzzle with, as Conrad Cork says, all five police spies being NINAed!

    The usual sparkle from the Spiderlady. Very impressive setting to get the NINAs to work.

    Lots of great clues; too many to single out.

  10. Thanks Andrew. Wit and playfulness in so many of the surfaces, from the word go. Loved e.g. the Gide gag. As always with Arachne, it got a lot tougher towards the end, with some tricky clues in the top half. 5D and 10A last in. Loads of fun.

  11. Thanks to Arachne and Andrew, and of course to the commenters who have put me out of my misery re the hidden elements. Now I know the answer, I can’t beat myself up for not getting them; although I spotted Jenner right away, it meant nothing to me in the context of the puzzle.
    I know CHILLI is in Chambers as an informal abbr. for chilli con carne but it grates with me a bit. A few years ago, in an Exeter pub, I chided the landlord for having “vegetarian con carne” on his specials board. He told me to go to the Foreign Office.
    Nice weekend all.

  12. Robi @8, congratulations. If you look around the grid you will see five terms for police as well. Icing on an already rich cake.

  14. Thanks to Arachne and Andrew. I had great trouble getting started but finally got going with ORKNEY. I could not parse FASTENER and new to me were SFO, CANNON as a snooker-billiards term, and ELDORADO as a TV show, and I had to stare at the crossers for a long time before catching on to UNDINES. Still, as usual with this setter the process was highly enjoyable.

  15. Thank you Arachne and Andrew.

    A fantastic puzzle, but solving many of the clues was beyond me, however I enjoyed going through the parsing – well done Andrew!

    The police spies were unknown to me, but I see that there was a Chitty, wonder if Arachne originally thought of that for 21a?

  16. A lovely puzzle, well worth the effort of keeping it under my work and peeping at on and off all morning.

    Thanks to Arachne and Andrew too.

  18. Muffin @ 17 – me too! All I can spot is LAMBERT plus slang for the police: BILL, FILTH, COPS and SCUM.

  19. @muffin…
    it’s a huge scandal; police officers were embedded into what were deemed to be “radical” organisations, and they became deeply involved in personal relationships with some of the women they were spying on

  20. Thanks baerchen
    As I said, I’ve entirely missed this story. Arachne obviously feels strongly about it.

  22. Ok, I see JENNER (3rd row from the bottom), LAMBERT (LAMBER + t from STERNAL), DINES (end of UNDINES), and BOYLING (down the right hand side) – what other ones are hidden? Going from the names in the BBC report, I’d guess the last one is KENNEDY, but I can’t see where it is. Going south from the K of ORKNEY gives KENS, and the letters of “KENDY” are hidden where KEYNESIAN meets ARDENCY – are either of these the Nina?

  25. Just sometimes you want to disappointed, if only to know that the setter on the other side is a mortal just like you are. But it never works with Arachne. Like many others I have a tick system for clues I like. Today I gave up, but only to invent a new double-tick category for AUTHOR and CANNON; not a letter of surface, definition or cryptic element wasted.

    And then there’s a nina! That gives implicit comment on a matter of public concern! Went well over my head, naturally, but thanks to all who have wrinkled it out.

    Oh hang on. Last in CHILLI requires the rather dodgy raw = chill. Well, maybe she is a little bit mortal after all.

  27. Well I missed that Nina completely – that makes it a real tour de force. As always with Arachne there was plenty of wit, mischief, and misdirection, but nothing too obscure, though I needed all of the crossers to convince myself that GALATIANS was right. Favourite was CHEESE.

    Thanks to Arachne and Andrew

  28. Good puzzle; I cheated on three items at the end (CANNON, CHEESE, CHILLI).

    Why did the British decide to spell “chili” (a Tex-Mex dish, so an American import–and for that matter a Spanish word) with two L’s?

  30. Amazing. And what a Nina. To find Kennedy you need to go NW (and back again) from K in Keynesian not SE as has been suggested.

  31. xjp @30 – not necessarily – as Schroduck @23 says there is a simple diagonal straight line from the K in Orkney to the Y in KEYNESIAN

  34. No, Xjpotter@30: due SE from the K of ‘Orkney’ to the Y of ‘Keynesian’. A fantastic puzzle. Now I know what ‘lights’ are. Very many thanks to Arachne and Andrew.

  36. Apart from 2 little quibbles, chill = raw and sfo, this was sheer joy from beginning to end. I wondered what the erroneous Ban was doing in 4d untill i read the blog. Just brilliant.

    Thanks Peter and Arachne.

  37. Amazing puzzle! Chill =raw is ok I think. Chill can be ann adjective in my book, ‘a chill day’…can’t it? The same as ‘a raw day’.

  39. Wonderful puzzle, great blog!! Thanks to both Arachne and Andrew, and all those who pointed out the nina to which I was completely oblivious!! Very small typo Andrew your answer for 23d has BANJO whereas it should be BANJOS.
    My favourites among so many great clues were CANNON and CUMIN!!

  40. I’ve little to add to all the good things that have been said about this crossword.

    It was an amazing feat to fit all those hidden names into the grid – I didn’t spot any of them, of course, because I never do.

    In a weak grid where 10 answers had fewer than half of their letters crossing other answers, Arachne has nevertheless created an exemplary puzzle including many clever, fair clues with excellent surfaces.

    Some clues slowed me down a bit, but that was down to being a bit dim today. I didn’t immediately get ‘dress’ to mean ‘outside’ in 8A (CUMIN) or ‘boring’ to mean ‘inside’ in 19A (WAYBILL), but I got there in the end (I usually do!). My first in was 14/17D (AMIENS), which came to me in a flash on seeing ‘northern French city’, but that was just luck.

    I thought 25D (CANNON) was a brilliant clue apart from the word ‘pointless’. Shots in snooker may or may not score points, irrespective of the type of shot (e.g. a cannon). In other words, a cannon may or may not be pointless.

    poc @13: I’m sure ‘Perhaps catch’ in 2D (FASTENER) is there because this is a definition by example. ‘Catch’ is an example of a type of fastener.

    Thanks to Arachne for a super puzzle, and to Andrew for the blog.

  41. Beery @ 29: But this is not a case of us Americanizing a spelling to make it simpler–it appears to be a case of y’all Anglicising a spelling to make it more complicated. Like I said, the concept of chili con carne is an American one. The food item was invented by Mexican-American women in Texas. It arrived on your shores ready-made with just one L. Then…you stuck an extra one in there just to be a bunch of stubborn cusses?

    Oh, and by the way. Baerchen @11: Here in the land of its birth, you hardly ever see it called “chili con carne” any more. It’s just chili. Carne is assumed to be involved unless it’s specifically labeled as vegetarian chili.

    –M.

  42. Alan @40 makes a good point – normally this grid would have me spitting blood, not just for the minority-checked clues, but also for only two clues (2d, 20d) linking the two halves of the puzzle. But did I care? No! Incredible.

  43. @mrpenney
    [I recall sitting in a Philadelphia crab shack and asking a waiter if my appetizer of soft-shelled crab could be served with chilli. The guy looked at me as if I was barking mad]

  44. I could not disagree more with you sycophants. This crossword was appalling. S.F.O. is not a three letter word. A copse is not brush. Chilli does not necessarily contain meat. I could go on! Araucaria and Custos must be spinning/

  45. mrpenney, no that is not why. It is because you American’s were too idle to learn the language properly. In particular you totally ignored the concept of vowel softening and decided to rip double Ls out of words because you were ignorant of why they were there. But, being Americans you made a bad job of it, so you left “appalled” alone for example whilst changing other endings from “lled” to “led” because your understanding of the relationship between spelling and pronunciation was severely lacking. The second L stops the preceding vowel from being softened. A simple concept which Americans strangely have difficulty grasping. Without two Ls it would be “ch-eye-li”, because of vowel softening. Think of “filing” and “filling” and note the different I sound. Now replace the f with ch and maintain the pronunciation of the rest of the word.

    It would have helped if some of your ancestors were less hell bent on creating differences for the sake of being “not English” without any reference as to whether those changes actually worked.

    Foreign words are foreign words and should be left alone when in that context, but when adopted into English then spellings have always been Anglicised in order to avoid inconsistencies because, heaven knows, we already have a shed full of those and don’t need any more thank you.

  46. A number of you helped me understand ‘lights’ in a crossword context a couple of days ago. Would anyone care to explain ‘nina’? The meaning is clear from the context, but what’s the etymology? All contributions welcome.

  48. Cookie: very many thanks. Fascinating. (I was deliberately ignoring the greengrocer’s apostrophe in @45 — or should it be “greengrocers'”? Decisions…. Decisions….)

  49. monzolia @ 44: You are certainly striking a discordant note. Whether you like the puzzle or not, to label people who do as sycophants is ridiculous (and suspiciously troll-like).

    If you google ‘chilli’, you will find it’s a common abbreviation for chilli con carne. One online dictionary gives the following as synonyms for copse ‘brush, coppice, thicket, brushwood’. SFO is indeed not a word, but it’s not uncommon to find acronyms in crosswords.

  52. Drofle I suspect that your reference to trolling has a basis in your own insecurity. I have been solving the Guardian crossword for over thirty years, my use of sycophant is a result of the fact that you all patronise the setter and follow blindly without criticism. Amiens as two separate words sums up the competence of this compiler. Add in dubious agent nouns along with ardency and I rest my case.

  53. Apologies to Schroduck. I was trying to be too clever by half, and consequently not clever at all. I should have read your direction more carefully. Thanks to beery hiker and others for pointing out the error of my ways.

  54. monzolia @ 52: I suspect that many of the people who post here have also been solving the Guardian crossword for a very long time, even if not for thirty years. I’m sorry that you don’t appreciate the delights of an Arachne puzzle. She is tremendously inventive, and the nina here (which I didn’t spot as usual) is a bonus. Which Guardian setters do you like?

  55. Yes this was pretty good but it was bloody hard as well. I started this late and it took me an age to get started- with GALATIANS- and then nothing for what seemed like most of the afternoon- and then the puzzle began to yield. It proved to be one of Arachne’s most challenging. I loved CHEESE and COPSE and, oh,quite a lot more.
    Thanks for the workout.

    P.S. Yes, I missed the hidden extras.

  56. monzolia @52
    I did raise an eyebrow at AMI ENS, but both are genuine words (though the first, admittedly, in French, though not an obscure one). An “en” is a size of space in printers’ terminology, and it is perfectly possible to have more than one of these spaces.

    btw I think you don’t mean “patronise” – different sense entirely.

  57. @drolfe

    I agree that “chilli” is in Chambers as an informal abbbr. for chilli con carne.
    So that’s fair play to the setter.
    But that doesn’t make it right, any more than miso=soup or latte=coffee with milk

  58. baerchen @ 57: well, ‘right’ is maybe not the issue: surely it’s a matter of what’s conventionally accepted in crossword land.

  60. An amazing feat to have included so many thematic entries in so many different guises.

    All good fun …….. as far as the solve was concerned.

    Thanks Arachne and Andrew.

  62. Derek @45

    It’s getting very late, but I thought I would respond to your strongly-worded comment.

    I studied language quite a lot as an amateur and quite recently read the book by Professor David Crystal called “The Stories of English”, part of which is devoted to (1) the influences that British and American English had on each other at different times and (2) the spelling reforms introduced by Noah Webster in the US.

    Webster’s influence was profound. Consciously or otherwise, you have given an example or two of the type of reforms he introduced. He wanted US English to be distinctive (different for the sake of it, in the opinion of many people), and he wanted it simplified.

    Contrary to the tenor of the bulk of your post, I cannot ascribe the differences in the orthography of varieties of English to idleness, ignorance, or a failure to grasp simple concepts. There are many factors – cultural, social , commercial, … – that contribute to the development and diversity of languages.

    Your arguments concerning the spelling variations of certain words are very logical, but both British and American English have examples of illogical word formations and spellings. I wouldn’t say it is all good on one side of the Atlantic and all bad on the other.

    Finally, I don’t think we are in a position to implicate mrpenney (or his ancestors) in any tendency to contaminate the written language in any way, whether through undesirable personal qualities or other means. Noah Webster is one of the few people we can ‘blame’ for spellings we do not like, but others might praise him.

    I haven’t seen you here for a while – I hope you’re ok.

  63. Oh dear Alan, you missed the essential point. If anyone wants to have a go at us for our spellings then they are inviting a response in kind. So that is what I did. Otherwise the subject would have been broached differently.

    However, logically, it is the case that Mr Webster and his cohorts cared more about being different than about making rational linguistic decisions. In the case of the double L, making it impossible to derive pronunciation where previously it was possible to do so is not a linguistic simplification. That claim, which is usually made by my American friends, to be implementing a simplification is basically a lie in this instance.

    If someone wants to simplify our chaotic language then I am all for it. But it has to be a genuine simplification, not an apparent simplification based on an inadequate understanding of the language.

    Your penultimate point is somewhat misplaced. I had already noted that.

    But you are right, Mr Webster and his cohorts are the main culprits. However, I refer you back to the first paragraph of this post.

    Thanks for asking. Actually, I have snuck in the odd post when no one was looking! I’ve basically just been too late on parade most days to have anything to add. Overall I’m still ahead of the game. The stats say I should have needed a second treatment for the cancer 3 to 5 years after first treatment. Well 5 years was last November and the critical blood count is still one third to half way up to the level where further treatment is needed (depending on other blood counts as to which fraction). So I’m well ahead of the game, yee hah and mine’s a pint!

    Just to prove I’m no stick in the mud, did you spot “snuck”? Grin.

  64. Hi Derek
    I was considering your point overnight, and the pair child/children occurred to me. Why does it take three consonants to soften the vowel in this case?

  65. Derek @65

    This has gone off the main topic of the day’s crossword, so I’ll keep this brief.

    Thanks for the update and your further comment. We don’t agree on everything, but we have some common ground where the influence of Mr Webster is concerned.

    And yes, I noticed the ‘snuck’ before you pointed it out!

  67. Alan, and the rest of you, remember that when this site shows my name in blue which means you can click on it and get to my web site. There is a feedback link there which allows you to mail me. So if you ever want to go seriously off topic do that.

    I just love not agreeing on everything. It keeps “the little grey cells” active.

  68. Also, Derek, there is the General Discussion page on this site, which is rarely used but can (obviously) be used for an off-topic discussion involving others if that is what one wants.

    To keep my grey cells active in retirement I do cryptic crosswords and so-called ‘killer’ sudokus.

    I wish you well.

  69. I didn’t finish this until late last night. I found it as difficult as I usually find her puzzles, but just as enjoyable as usual. I missed the theme, of course. My favourite is definitely CUMIN.

    Thanks, Arachne and bridgesong.

    Alan Browne @68
    “To keep my grey cells active in retirement I do cryptic crosswords and so-called ‘killer’ sudokus.”

    Me too. I much prefer ‘killers’ to the standard type.

  70. jennyk @69

    [Yes – the ‘killers’ are much more interesting. Mastering the difficult ones can be very rewarding.]

  71. Alan @70 – as a fellow killer solver, it appears that the Guardian is listening – today’s edition has a puzzles page like the one the Indie had – if only they hadn’t moved the crossword so that it crosses a fold…

  72. beery hiker @71
    I’ve just got my paper today but not opened it yet. Delights to come, then – hope it’s all worth the cover price.

  73. Thanks Andrew and Arachne.

    Enjoyable workout.

    I missed the Nina – so no change there!

    A lot of elegant clues here including 29ac – COPSE – and 3dn – FILTHY.

    The last few in the NE to a while to grind out but well worth the effort.

  74. Thanks Arachne and Andrew

    Found this one tough and took most of the day on and off to get it completed. Unlike others, GALATIANS was my last one in – not one of the New Testament books that I was aware of. OYL was actually my first in followed by SINBAD – so it was obvious what had priority over biblical studies !!!

    A lot of her usual tricky clues, although there did seem to be an unusual amount of clues that required the subtraction of letters in a variety of methods – 10a, 12a,29a, 3d, 5d, 11d, 20d and 25d.

    It’s the story telling of the clues that makes her stand out from the crowd …

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