Guardian 28,224 / Philistine

107 comments on “Guardian 28,224 / Philistine”

1. Clearly, from the clue for 1ac, the 22’s were going to be important and I was pleased when JANIS JOPLIN was first in, having cracked the New Year’s Day device.  But the 1ac song wouldn’t come to mind until much later, even though I’d worked out it included both ABE and, possibly, NZ!  I guess I wasn’t looking for a brand name. Whilst I know some here will probably object to ‘product placement’, I’ve never had a problem with that and both MERCEDES BENZ and PORSCHE appear in what I eventually recalled as a well-known lyric.

   BATHTUB and INNIT both caused a smile, SARABAND was a delightful definition and other ticks went to the smooth ADOPT, the elegant POETRY IN MOTION and the misdirection in REPLACE.  COTD is DINOSAUR: what a clever construct.

   I wasn’t taken with two of the wordier clues for CHILLI CON CARNE and SYMMETRIC, even though the last is clever.  They just seemed clumsier than the rest.  I do have a quibble, at last, with AT LAST.  I thought he was condemned to support the heavens rather than hold the earth and am not sure the latter follows the former as Eileen suggests. No doubt our classical scholars will correct me if I’m wrong.

   Thanks Philistine and Eileen for the blog.

2. Enjoyable and not too demanding. Like the theme, love the singer – sadly one of the ’27 Club’. Thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

3. Thanks Philistine and Eileen

   rodshaw nominated yesterday’s as “easiest of the decade”. I didn’t agree, but this one was certainly my fastest of the year – I started over breakfast and finished before I had finished my cereal (avoiding advertising!) – and it was a Philistine to boot!

   It helped that the 22s were a write-in, which immediatley gave me the linked solutions. All great fun, though.

   I agree that “torpid” would be better overall, but “torpid prose” wouldn’t make sense.

4. Lovely to discover Janis Joplin in today’s Philistine puzzle. When reading 1,6 across thought this was going to be tough, but once JJ had been revealed this slipped very nicely in. Didn’t know SARABAND, but I had all the crossers and that was LOI. PORSCHE was fun, neatly garaged away in 18d. Lots of memories, hearing Ball And Chain played at a Californian wedding in 1968, from that great album of hers…

5. My quickest solve this week strangely enough as The setter is usually a lot tougher. FOI was 8ac and then 1ac helped me get the iconic Janis Joplin rather than the other way round. The resignation of Shinzo Abe could have given the setter an interesting alternative but obviously Lincoln was apposite to the clue. I though Dinosaur was brilliant. Ta Eileen & Philistine

6. Thought it was going to be a write-in, with the south all going in pretty quickly. A bit of a hold-up in the north and ultimately defeated by SARABAND.

   Favourites were CHILLI CON CARNE and SAN MARINO for the smooth surface.

   Thanks to both.

7. Eileen, isn’t MERCEDES a friend of CARMEN, 19a?

8. Oh FAB FAB FAB!  I really enjoyed that puzzle today – the surface reading of many of the clues make it seem much harder than it is but once you get going, they just really drop in.  FOI was POETRY IN MOTION which obviously describes me in a perfect way (ahem) – LOI was JANIS JOPLIN mostly because there I was trying to fit SCOTT JOPLIN…

   Thank you Philisitine and Eileen.

9. Thanks both. Agree with Lord Jim @ 7 about Mercedes being a character in the Carmen opera. Also a missing “S” for the end of JaniS in 22d

10. Lord Jim @7ac – so she was, darn it! I looked up the wrong thing – but I was chuffed at finding what I did.

11. Mercedes wasn’t a car man. Or any kind of man, actually.  She was the daughter of one of Gottlieb Daimler’s customers if i recall rightly. The car company was called Daimler-Benz. As a fan of Janis I enjoyed this puzzle immensely. 

12. A Pearl of a puzzle, with plenty of musical references: Ms Joplin and her Merc, Johnny Tillotson’s ‘Poetry In Motion’, Bobby (Boris) Pickett And The Crypt-Kickers, Fleetwood Mac were the ‘Sara’ band and Eric Carmen (I got that one All By Myself).

    The UK went metric in 1965, did it? Well, 55 years later, all those grams still don’t make an ounce of sense to me. Try asking the barman for a litre of ale.

    Thanks Philistine and to Eileen for the blog.

13. Lord Jim @7, yes she is in the opera 19. That is how I parsed it too. Unlike others JJ was one of the last ones in though I got 1ac fairly early on. I have little or no knowledge of popular music. This was certainly the easiest this week surpassing yesterday (pace Rodshaw yesterday). The answer to 24 was so obvious after a few crossers I didn’t even stop to parse it!
    Nonetheless good fun so thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

14. Smugness comes before a fall I know – but I am so chuffed that I solved this without looking anything up! The mini-JANIS JOPLIN (22d,22a) theme was delightful, especially the reference to her prayer for A MERCEDES BENZ 1a, 6a – and its lyrical cross-reference to the PORSCHE (Porshay as Janis sings it) at 18d. I really appreciated Philistine’s sense of humour when those clues led to 19a CARMEN. I also very much liked 6d BATHTUB – and I think I will raise a glass of bubbly to the memory of Janis when I have drinks with my “Unhousewives” gathering at sunset today.

    Huge gratitude to Philistine for the unfettered enjoyment today and to Eileen for the great blog.

    P.S. It’s the little touches in the Philistines that make solving his offerings such a pleasure – for instance, isn’t “negotiable” in 7d (NO OFFENCE) a terrific anagrind?

15. Very neatly done. I had forgotten that it was a solo vocal- the band never did join in

    Those were the days. thanks Eileen, Phil and Janis

16. It took me a while to get going on this. I guessed 22,22  then parsed it as I had the PL for place. I considered that Janis Joplin was a singer, not a musician, although I suppose that she did play tambourine sometimes.

    After that, the theme helped a lot.

    Thanks, Philistine and Eileen

     

    Lord Jim @ 7

    For the parsing of 1,6 I agree that Mercedes is a friend of 19 Carmen

17. Gosh, with Aoxomoxoa @2 and Deadhead @11, plus my own previous confession to following The Grateful Dead, we’re actually outnumbering the HMHB fans at this point in the day!  And thanks to the latter for the interesting snippet about Mercedes.

18. Thank you Eileen, I learned some more Latin today and couldn’t parse CARNE having assumed the “leading” only applied to creative, then that AR was artist =RA with restored somehow meaning reversed, and then applying the golden rule of last resort in just taking the first initial of a letter when in doubt to get the N and E. (I struggled also on SYMMETRIC until I realised that again the instruction to take the first letter applied to several words. Do some setters make this more explicit?) My way in to the linked entries was PORSCHE and, though I don’t particularly like JJ, her work is well-known enough to me that the others followed easily enough and I thought 1A etc was a good clue – but not as good as DINOSAUR, innit, which wins today’s rosette. (In case no-one else has mentioned it Wikipedia tells me that Mercedes is a friend of Carmen in the opera, since there is no reference to 19D in the clue, just 19 which would mean 19 across.)Thanks Philistine.

19. michelle @16: my partner is a singer and would certainly consider herself to be as much a musician as the instrumentalists in the band.  And singers are welcome members of the Musicians’ Union.

20. Mark @19 We musicians still deliberately annoy singers by saying “singers and musicians!

21. Vastly contrasting musics evoked here, the raspy deseperada’s “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me….” while in 10ac there’s Hans Hotter doing Schubert’s Atlas.. “Die ganze Welt muss Ich tragen”. But, loved the theme. I think I have the Pearl vinyl downstairs, but my Cheap Thrills, marvellous album, got lost along the way. Even without sussing the theme, I was filling the grid and, to stretch it out, made an omelette and more coffee, then idly flicked thru the G thread…mistake! Someone said the word “song” and the 22s went clunk as the beloved scratchy voice soared. Should go back to paper, now that Windows 10 recognises my old Epson (thanks to ginf junior), but have got used to online..funny how one adapts. Anyway, elegant puzzle, yet another testament to Eileen’s adage re ease v enjoyment, which she refrained from restating yesterday ?. Thanks both.

22. Mark @1 – I suspect that you didn’t write the whole of your comment in the two-three minutes following my posting the blog. 😉 You’ll see that, as one of ‘our classical scholars’, I did write  ‘compelled to carry the heavens on his shoulders’ and rather had my tongue in my cheek when I added the rest. I’ve added a question mark now.

23. I have to admit to being a bit put off by all the cross-references, especially as the very first clue depended on solving the last but one. I’ve read before that setters often like to make the first clue something special, to set the tone. I don’t think I could say that here, and given the next clue was two together I was nearly half way down the grid before I could start. However, the rest were pretty straightforward with some lovely bits, though I balked a bit at the repetition of the “first letters of lots of words” trick.

    Another who agrees that Atlas was holding up the heavens, not the earth, and that Mercedes was in no sense a car man! A pity that factual errors like this slip through, but I guess they only spoil it if you know they are errors (or someone points them out on the blog…)

    Many thanks Philistine, and Eileen for spelling it all out with the links.

24. Apologise for the cut-and-paste post from yesterday – but for those who missed it (Hi Philistine, btw, fun as ever)

    Here’s a chance to meet Philistine’s boss on Zoom with Paul!
    If you’ve ever wanted to ask Hugh Stephenson, the Guardian crossword editor, anything now’s your chance. He’s very kindly offered to be my (John Halpern (aka Paul)’s) guest on his next Zoom call, this coming Tuesday, September 1, 7.30pm.
    To be on the call, simply subscribe via johnhalpern.co.uk and you’ll get posted the link to the call.

    Hope to see you then! All the best,
    John (aka Paul)

     

25. [Munromad @20 We singers deliberately annoy <other> musicians by singing…]

26. A gentle puzzle and a very enjoyable solve, a nice way to end a bumpy week. Got 1A almost immediately, although wondered what the ‘A’ was doing there.  Soon worked out why. All very nostalgic of a different era. Was not familiar with the tune so asked my wife, and she has been singing that and other JJ songs ever since.                                                                    Very amused by SARABAND — probably best clue —  also CARMEN, which rounded the whole thing off nicely as the last-one-in.

27. Eileen @22: you’re right, of course.  If the blog is up early (no criticism implied), I’ll go straight there but, this morning, I had time to draft it out in Word.  And I did read your comments in those two-three minutes to see what your take on Atlas might be and edited my comments accordingly.  I still don’t think it follows that supporting the heavens means holding the earth.  Dare I suggest that Philistine might have lived up to his name and made the ‘classic’ mistake based on the famous statue of Atlas which – somewhat confusingly – depicts the heavens as a globe, supported by his hands, on his shoulders.

28. Hic haec hoc, horum harum horum, his his his, etc. It’s a long time since I recited that!

    Great fun, especially the 22s.

    My thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

29. As someone who normally only splashes nervously around in the Monday and Sunday puzzles, I was delighted to complete this fairly quickly. However several went in without having the faintest clue why, so thanks to Eileen for the explanations. I was delighted to be able to work out DINOSAUR which appeared to be completely impenetrable at first. Thanks also to Philistine.

30. I liked the links between different clues, and adored the Joplin references. NEOLITHIC, DINOSAUR, SARABAND and INNIT were my favourites.

    Good blog Eileen, and I think you’re spot on in suggesting confusion between turgid and torpid; I’ve been guilty of misusing the former word myself.

    A few years ago I compiled a cryptic puzzle for a friend’s birthday, including several of her personal details among the answers, one being the name of her cat, DOODLES. I’m pleased to see that Philistine clued the word in almost exactly the same way that I did.

31. Auriga@28 I used to ask my Latin teacher out, but she was always declining.

32. MaidenBartok@25-Touché!
    However it reminds me of the joke:
    What’s the difference between a soprano soloist and a Rottweiler?
    Answer: The jewellery.
    I’ll stop now before I enrage anyone else, but in my defence I have been listening to Lise Davidsen singing Strauss-wonderful!

33. Lots of fun, especially the JANIS JOPLIN clues – I didn’t get 1a and 6a until I got PORSCHE and CARMEN. Favourites were DINOSAUR, BATHTUB and the JJ clues. Many thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

34. Well, that was fun. With all the cross-references I thought I was going to be difficult, but it all went enjoyably in a single session. DINOSAUR was as stand-out, but many other neat clues. Many thanks to Philistine for a nice end to the week, and thank you Eileen for the blog.

35. Penfold @ 31. Were you hoping for conjugation?

36. Just to add my thanks to Eileen for the links which also led me into more research on JJ.

    She is such a household name that I was surprised I only knew 2 of her songs by name (B McG & 1a). Sad to see she was another of those talents extinguished at that early age.

     

37. Not a huge fan of linked clues, but in this case it was the only aspect that presented any challenge. I feel sorry for anyone trying to solve this who isn’t familiar with Janis Joplin’s work.

38. Auriga@35 The Fates were against me.

    Pedro@36 Her life was over, spent at 27.

39. To amplify Deadhead@11, Mercedes cars are named after Mercedes Jellinek, daughter of Emil Jellinek who was not so much a customer of Daimler but a businessman who put up the money for Daimler to manufacture cars.  I only know this because I once shared an office with a Cindy Jellinek.

40. Atlas is nearly always depicted carrying the globe of the world on his shoulders, with his hands keeping it steady, though in descriptions of the myth this seems to be interchangeable with heavens or sky. I think the clue is about right.

    Not so sure about 1,6 though. What is the A doing at the start of the clue? In the parsing it belongs to ABE, so is it “a friend of Carmen”=MERCEDES? (Those who are criticising the setter for including Mercedes as one of the car men – Deadhead @11, TheZed @23 – should note that he did no such thing. Only Benz and Porsche are referred to in the clue for 19a.)

    I was very pleased to get 22d,22a without recourse to aids. I could hear the voice in my head, but the name of the singer wouldn’t come, so I distracted myself with the killer sudoku and very soon she appeared. Or does killer sudoku count as an aid, in which case this would be a dnf? (Only kidding.)

    Just in case Wiggers is looking in (see comment#4 in Wednesday’s blog), I did this without using pen and paper (except for writing the answers in the grid, natch). I join JinA @14 in feeling a little smug at completing this without grinding completely to a halt, or having to look anything up.

    Thanks to Philistine for a very enjoyable solve, and to Eileen for the usual enthusiastic blog.

41. TheZed @23: re the “factual errors” you refer to.  There are numerous depictions in artworks of Atlas holding up the Earth, and 10a reflects that visual version of him.  And 19a refers to 6a BENZ and 18d PORSCHE, not Mercedes, as car men.  (Though in fact I think it would not be unreasonable to refer to the Mercedes company as “car men”.)

    Eileen, I agree with you in liking the word INNIT!  It cropped up in an Everyman a few months ago (3,826) and sparked a bit of discussion.

42. About halfway through I noticed I was putting happy-ticks by just about all of the solved clues!
    I loved the JJ mini-theme – and thank you, Eileen, for the link to further info about that song: I had no idea she recorded it only three days before she died.
    The surfaces to DINOSAUR, SARABAND and IDENTIFY were brilliant, and there was something rather endearing about CRYPT, INNIT and DANDIES.
    Thanks to Eileen and Philistine for a delightful end to the week!

43. SH @40

    I don’t see your point on the A in 1a. JJ prayed for “A Mercedes Benz”.

44. From Wikipedia:

    Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison all died at the age of 27 between 1969 and 1971. At the time, the coincidence gave rise to some comment, but it was not until Kurt Cobain’s 1994 death, at age 27, that the idea of a “27 Club” began to catch on in public perception. Blues musician Robert Johnson, who died in 1938, is the earliest popular musician who has been included in the members of the 27 Club.

     

45. Really loved this today – and what a cracking and unusual theme. Made things a little difficult for myself by reading the 22s wrong, and was trying to fit in a 6,5 answer rather than a 5,6 … got there in the end though.

46. Munromad @20. I thought it was musicians, singers and drummers.

47. Among all the musical references here I was delighted to spot DANDIES (4d) who were a fine Brighton band from the 70s. In which I just happened to be rhythm guitar and vocals. Who knew that the future Philistine was in the audience!

48. Enjoyed this crossword but yet another with an ear worm. I shall be carrying Janis around with me all day!

49. Very enjoyable and over far too quickly. DINOSAUR was my favourite too. And, Frankie the Cat@7 I solved it without being familiar with that song of JJ ( though I did google her post solve and listen to the song; the only song I previously knew was Me and BMcG).

    Thanks to Philistine for the fun and Eileen for the blog

50. sheffield hatter @40 – I wonder what he’s standing on?

51. sheffield hatter @40 I like to memorise the entire crossword in one read through and complete it entirely in my head. Any recourse to pencils, pens or typing is a DNF in my book 🙂

52. Eileen @50: it’s turtles all the way down!

53. muffin @43. I had a problem with A in the clue, not in the answer!

54. sheffield hatter @40: Heavens Above, I’m clearly getting a bee in my bonnet about this but, if you look closely at the globes being carried by Atlas on the page to which you link, many either depict stars or astrological references which would accord with a depiction of the heavens.  One does appear to be carrying an Earth: the section of the map looks suspiciously like Africa with Madagascar off the coast and India to the North but it appears to be a cruder statue and I wonder if that particular one is more recent.  The most famous statue would appear to be the Farnese Atlas which dates back to 2AD and certainly depicts heavens/sky.

55. RE: Eileen’s comment in the blog about her students using INNIT all the time. When I was still working as a betting shop manager, some of the young Asian lads who used to bet with us would say it in place of “please”. As in “Let’s have a drink of water, innit.”

56. Octopus @ 44. You can add Amy Winehouse.

57. [Munromad @32 “…Lise Davidsen singing Strauss-wonderful…”  is that the Phil/Salonen on Decca? If so, flippin’ good, isn’t it?  Stunning reading of the 4 Last Songs, IMvHO. Much blubbing every time for me].

58. A quick and very pleasant solve. Favourites were the linked JJ clues plus INNIT.

    I see no problem with the initial A in the clue for 1a. It’s defining MERCEDES as “A friend of Carmen”. The clue would be valid without the A,  but that doesn’t mean it’s not valid with it.

    Thanks Eileen and Philistine.

     

59. Mark @54. You are right about the celestial globe in the Farnese Atlas (though the Wiki article you link to dates to 2nd century AD, rather than 2AD). However, there are so many depictions of Atlas holding up a terrestrial globe, with or without turtles, that I think the clue is still justified, even if not entirely accurate.

60. [bodycheetah @51. I’m working on an algorithm that will predict the name of the setter, the shape of the grid, the theme and all the clues so that I can solve the crossword before it is published. While doing the next day’s killer sudoku.]

61. So not minotaur (21a).

62. pnin @61. No, not MINOTAUR. But here’s a song for you, as consolation: https://genius.com/The-incredible-string-band-the-minotaurs-song-lyrics

63. It’s been a stunner, this week, and Philistine completes it worthily. Not as difficult a week as the one before, by any means, and so some on the blog might be dissatisfied, but for me it was sweet spot after sweet spot. More please.
    Today I loved the theme meandering round the grid, with the unlikely conjunction of Bizet and one of the Joplins at its core. Where do these setters get their inspiration? I’m in awe.

64. Wonderful!  Sorry to see it go!

65. MaidenBartok@57-Yes it was. I agree about 4 Last songs. It almost (but not quite) eclipses my personal favourite Janowitz with Berlin Phil and Karajan. Definitely a Brunnhilde in the making!

66. I knew Penfold @12 would get all the musical references. Loving your work.

    I agree with Trailman @ 63 this has been a great week (while I accept for some, more expert solvers, it’s probably been the opposite). I found today’s puzzle to be finished almost before it started but no less enjoyable for all that. Just like the song.

67. Not been posting recently, mainly because by the time I get here I usually have nothing more to add. However still around, and today’s puzzle reminded me of one by Bunthorne many, many, years ago. I cannot remember the wording of the clue, but the answer was (2,4,4,3,3,2,1,8,4). No prizes for guessing what the answer was.

    thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

68. sheffield hatter @40 I’ll take the point about Benz and Porsche but I am with Mark and don’t accept that because a couple of sculptures are wrong (and most show him carrying the heavens) and people misquote something as a reason to pass this error. But then I am the sort of person who complains that the statue in Piccadilly Circus is Anteros, not Eros. I’m sure that does not surprise you in the slightest! Now if you’ll excuse me two of my pencils are out of their correct order and one of my pens is not quite straight… Good luck with your predictive project – I hope the algorithm does not go mutant on you.

    As for “innit” I think possibly the most defining “yoof culture” sentence I ever heard from a student was “I’m not gonna lie, them Russians are proper crazy, innit?”. Two generations divided by a common language.

69. This was a nice birthday present for me (21 again more than three times round) and managed to finish it. Yes, Frankie the cat @ 37. I did need the help of Mr Paddington Bear who knows about Janis Joplin and I don’t.

70. A lovely moment when all the linked clues came at once.  I’m with sheffield hatter on Atlas and the world, even if it’s technically incorrect. Thanks to Philistine and Eileen

71. Thank you Philistine and Eileen. This was utter delight.

    Lots of favourites such as the dinosaur, but 10ac was a standout for me for its reference to the evangelical song “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” – which my elder daughter used to refer to as “in His Hat”.

    Apologies if anyone else spotted the reference – a lot of comments today.

72. PetHay @67

    “Rock singer’s prayer upsetting Ebenezer Scrooge: “No good! My old BMW’d ‘aunt you!” (1,4,4,3,3,2,1,8-4)”

    🙂

73. And of course ‘“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” brings to mind the HMHB classic “Paintball’s coming home”

74. All went in at a steady pace but lots to enjoy while it lasted. Some lovely surfaces such as 15ac and 20dn, and with a variety of topics from arts to science, history, geography, classic cars, Latin, poetry, cookery and music (both opera and blues), plus Desperate Dan, Philistine is no philistine.

    I think my favourite was 21ac, with its definition at both beginning and end, and the three times repeated ‘is around’ as interchangeable anagrind, anagrist and definition.

    Thanks Philistine and Eileen.

75. [Munromad@65 – I raise you Schwarzkopf with Berlin/Szell…  Don’t know the Janowitz – I’ll go and dig that out next time students come and annoy me.   Oh look – students ahoy!]

76. Shouldn’t the clue for DOODLES be “starts to draw”?  But then that would be too many letters … oh dear.

    20d is a pretty clue, but “substitute” does NOT mean “replace,” any more than “buy” means “sell.”  In both cases, the two words refer to the same event, but from different points of view.  It’s a bugbear of mine, sentences like “they substituted butter with margarine,” meaning either “they replaced butter with margarine” or “they substituted margarine for butter.”  Can anyone produce a sentence where both work?

    I’ll add that in almost all cases where two words are confused, only one of the pair is used incorrectly.  If you can’t remember whether to say “imply” or “infer,” for instance, try “imply.”  If it sounds right, it is.

    Octopus @44  Some time ago there was a Guardian cryptic on the theme of the 27 Club.

    This puzzle was lots of fun.  I finished it last night in bed with no computer or reference works at hand.  Thanks for an enjoyable tour, Philistine, and for your usual witty blog, Eileen.

77. Bodycheetah@72. ThanksFor that I remember it now. I was so chuffed to crack that one. A rare event for me with Bunthorne.

78. Just realised I forgot to comment again this morning. This was very enjoyable, and easier than most Philistine puzzles. Thought the cross references would be trickier.

    Thanks to Philistine and Eileen

79. Valentine @76: If a football player is substituted they are replaced.

80. MaidenBartok@75 Ah the classic Schwarzkopf version. I don’t know why, but it has always left me rather dry eyed. Good luck with students, I am now happily past having to deal with pupils anymore.

81. [Munromad@80

    When Schwartzkopf was on Desert Island Discs, she chose 8 records – all of herself!]

82. Valentine @76. I see what you mean. I think the confusion comes from writers who think that “substitute X for Y” means the same as “replace X with Y”. You are right, it doesn’t. However, this does not mean that replace and substitute are not synonyms. Chambers: replace – “to provide a substitute for”; substitute – “to put in place of another (often with for)”. In the clue, Philistine uses the correct construction of “substitute … with …”, where replace would do just as well. My thesaurus gives the example “she substituted the real diamond with a paste replica”, which is exactly the same form as the clue.

83. I know it’s late but so pleased so many like Lise Davidson. Saw her at the proms What a singer And as for JJ a legend in her short lifetime. Thanks Philly and Eileen for stirring memories

84. Pretty much a write-in, but what an enjoyable one! Thanks Philistine.

85. [My standout classical singer at the moment is Ruby Hughes. Anyone else come across her? I’d recommend giving her a listen. At lunchtime I heard Karen Cargill making nasty noises in the loud bits of my favourite song cycle, Mahler’s RuckertLieder (though, to be fair, she was fine in the quieter bits).]

     

86. For those who like their Wagner Lisa is tailor made for Brunhilde!

87. [muffin @85; has she sung at ENO? It’s a name I recognise but can’t think why…  Munromad @80.  Please take mine…PLEASE!]

88. [MaidenBartok @87

    Google tells me yes, but at the Young Vic:

    https://theartsdesk.com/opera/return-ulysses-eno-young-vic

    ]

89. Hi, all.  This is my first post here, though I’m a long time cryptic solver (thus much in the minority here in the US!).  For those arguing the inaccuracy of Atlas carrying “the Earth,” that may well be valid, however let’s read the clue again.  The setter does not refer to “the Earth” but to “the whole world,” and the latter can in fact have a much more expansive meaning.  I checked at least a half dozen major online thesauri, and nearly all include a concept of “world” as the broader universe, not just Earth alone, with synonyms including: universe, cosmos, creation, heavens.  So arguments about Atlas and “the Earth” miss the point, and the real question is simply whether one accepts a broader meaning of “world”… something I think well supported by reference literature.  In the end, I think the clue “holds up” nicely :^)

90. [You are very welcome, OddOtter]

91. Strauss 4 last songs.

    Renee Fleming and Abado!!

    Any Jessye Norman.

92. Oh dear that should of course be Abbado!

93. [I have Jessye Norman and Soile Isokovski recordings – gold and silver (and I’m referring to their voices rather than positions!)]

94. [My favourite Jessye Norman story is of her trying to get through a narrow gap. Her assistant said “Perhaps you might try sideways?”

    “My man, I ain’t got no sideways!”]

95. OddOtter @89. Yeah, good thinking on the whole world, the universe and everything. And welcome to our world, of course.

    The clue “holds up” nicely. Also there’s a question mark, which suggests that the setter doesn’t want to be taken too seriously and/or he’s not being totally accurate. I always thought it was a good clue.

    You can come back another time.

96. Thanks Philistine for the enjoyment. This fell together more quickly than I was expecting for a Friday and I was pleased to see JANIS JOPLIN and the mini-theme around her. Loved AT LAST and Eileen’s blog, of course.

97. My story of the late much lamented desperately shy Claudio Abbado, was of him rehearsing the European Youth Orchestra (I think) in Mahler’s 6th; that of the hammer blows.  It was his birthday and on the last hammer blow Abbado with a flourish indicated the FFF.  There was utter silence followed in a few moments by the orchestra singing happy birthday.  Abbado recalls thinking he had gone suddenly stone deaf…….. but he saw the funny side of it.  He was a legend!!

98. SH@40.  Only just dropped in. Nice one.

99. Anon@91 the Jessie Norman recording is too slow. I heard Renee Fleming do the 4 last songs at Snape a couple of years back and she was very good, I don’t know the recording. Janowitz reigns supreme in my book and has done ever since I was a student. Also I remember Abbado conducting the LSO in a Beethoven series when he was their chief conductor. Pollini was the soloist for the piano concerti. I remember coming out of the Festival hall walking on air after the 2nd and 4th concerti plus the 4th symphony. All my favourites in one concert.
    MaidenBartok@87 ?

100. That should have been a smiley face MaidenBartok. What happened?

101. Not my best blogging day by a long chalk and I was just wanting to go away and forget about it, with abject apologies to Philistine – but just have to say welcome to OddOtter @89 and thank him / her for a valuable contribution.

     As well as being mortified by my mistakes re clue numbers (I have now managed to get an overdue optician’s appointment) I also managed to miss (how?) MERCEDES in CARMEN.

     But – re  ATLAS (thanks again OddOtter), I’ve been wanting to say all day that, folks, it’s just a story – it’s not really Atlas that’s holding up either the earth or the heavens – but I’ve  felt obliged by Mark @1, as one of our classical scholars, to delve into Hesiod’s Theogony but could only come up with this.

     Please keep commenting, OddOtter.

102. [Munromad @87 – I was a student at City Uni very close to The Barbican when Abbado was with the LSO in the days of cheap standby seats.  Also spent far too much time at the South Bank as well with some mighty-fine concerts.  Failed my second year engineering first degree but went to some damn good concerts.  Resit was fun though as it was in the summer and I went to the Proms every night!  THAT’S what student grants were for.  At least that’s what I told my parents :-)]

103. [muffin @88 – ah yes.  Thanks – link is a choral director I know does vocie coaching at ENO/TrinityLaban and works with her.  Knew I’d get the link sometime today.]

104. anon @various

     Please stop using multiple pseudonyms.

     Others @various, please keep comments relevant to the puzzle under discussion, this is not a debate about sopranos, it is about the puzzle that was published today..

105. Dear Admin @104

     Refreshing tonight’s page, I felt impelled to bravely post with appreciation of Eileen, Philistine, a hatter, an Otter …  and you. Et voila!

     Thanks, everyone.

     [Davidsen & Hughes – noted]

106. Most enjoyable, a Pearl of a puzzle with a great mini-theme. Hello to Aoxomoxoa!

107. A delightful puzzle, solved over a couple of days, which raised a smile on several occasions. Will have to look out for more of Philistine’s puzzles.

Comments are closed.