Apologies for the late post – I wrote half of this earlier in the week and then forgot that I hadn’t finished and scheduled the post. As ever with Paul, this was a witty and fair puzzle, although for me it was much harder than I typically find his puzzles, perhaps just because of a few key words that were unfamiliar to me? Anyway, there’s lots to enjoy here, I thought – thanks, Paul!
Across
1. As some stones of course ground, grit’s back (4-3)
ROSE-CUT
(COURSE)* + [gri]T = “grit’s back”
Definition: “As some stones” (referring to gemstones)
5. Say what you might do with cheese for bird? (4,3)
GREY TIT
Sounds like “grate it” (“what you might do with cheese”)
Definition: “bird”
9. Player referring to publication’s withdrawal (5)
GAMER
RE = “referring to” + MAG = “publication” all reversed (“withdrawal”)
Definition: “Player”
11. Fruit: bloke gets one out (10)
MANGOSTEEN
MAN = “block” + (GETS ONE)*
Definition: “Fruit”
12, 18. Be honest, singer flat: lack of effort about the same? (4,1,5,1,5)
CALL A SPADE A SPADE
CALLAS = “singer” + PAD = “flat” followed by EASE = “lack of effort” around PAD = “the same” (i.e. the flat)
Definition: “Be honest” – for an interesting history of this expression and whether it has racist connotations nowadays, this NPR article is worth reading
14. Fun with a tot never in doubt for abandoned child (6,6)
ENFANT TROUVÉ
(FUN A TOT NEVER)*
Definition: “abandoned child”
21. Father held back by mother, I see (4)
SIRE
Hidden reversed in [moth]ER I S[ee]
Definition: “Father”
22. Britain is split about one getting behind party — what might reward loyalty? (3,7)
DOG BISCUIT
GB = “Britain” + IS + CUT = “split” around I = “one”, all “behind” DO = “party”
Definition: “what might reward loyalty?”
25. Laying off vodka in particular, atmosphere initially has turned sour (9)
OVIPAROUS
O[ff] V[odka] I[n] P[articular] A[tmosphere] + (SOUR)*
Definition: “Laying” (i.e. egg-laying)
26. Part needing no introduction, slow burner (5)
EMBER
[m]EMBER = “Part needing no introduction”
Definition: “slow burner”
28, 10. Programme that’s tedious? (7,9)
OUTSIDE BROADCAST
A reverse clue (note the question mark) – BROADCAST is a common anagram indicator, so OUTSIDE BROADCAST might clue “tedious”
Definition: “Programme”
Down
1. Ruling system, for example, welcomed by prince after revolution (6)
REGIME
EG = “for example” in EMIR = “prince” reversed
Definition: “Ruling system”
2. One day in solitary on the borders for religious offence (6)
SIMONY
I = “One” + MON = “day” in S[olitar]Y = “solitary on the borders”
Definition: “religious offence” – I somehow managed to drag this word up from memories from school, where it came up as one of sins committed by people in Dante’s hell
3. Stew seeing German city commercial: worry about that (10)
CARBONNADE
BONN = “German city” + AD = “commercial” in CARE = “worry”
Definition: “Stew”
4. Norman’s half-hearted uprising in Far Eastern land (5)
TIBET
TE[b]BIT = “Norman half-hearted” reversed (“uprising” in this down clue)
Definition: “Far Eastern land”
5. March, when bird with budgies and canaries flying north? (5-4)
GOOSE-STEP
GOOSE = “bird” followed by PETS = “budgies and canaries” reversed (“flying north?” in this down clue)
Definition: “March”
6. Current dispute, sound and fury ultimately (4)
EDDY
[disput]E [soun]D [an]D [fur]Y = “dispute, sound and fury ultimately”
Definition: “Current”
7. Where pain registered like that, a hit lodged? (8)
THALAMUS
THUS = “like that” around LAM = “hit”
Definition: “Where pain registered”
8. Wrecked, having carried round the entire load (8)
TOTALLED
TOTED = “carried” around ALL = “the entire load”
Definition: “Wrecked” (as in “the car was totalled”)
13. I go on trail that’s colourful (10)
IRIDESCENT
I + RIDE = “go on” + SCENT = “trail”
Definition: “colourful”
15. Similar capital in Uganda, Angola so different (9)
ANALOGOUS
(U ANGOLA SO)*
Definition: “Similar”
16. Key pulling spring up in timing mechanism (4,4)
CAPS LOCK
SPA = “spring” reversed in CLOCK + “timing mechanism”
Definition: “Key”
17. Role is in religious text for Riley, say? (2,6)
OP ARTIST
PART = “Role” + IS in OT (Old Testament) = “religious text”
Definition: “Riley, say?” referring to Bridget Riley
19. Asian metropolis offering relative security, briefly (6)
MUMBAI
MUM = “relative” + BAI[l] = “security, briefly”
Definition: “Asian metropolis”
20. Go without eyeball having restricted vision, primarily (6)
STARVE
STARE = “eyeball” around V[ision] = “vision, primarily”
Definition: “Go without”
23. Voice of albatross, a bird ascending (5)
BASSO
Hidden reversed in [albatr]OSS A B[ird]
Definition: “Voice”
24, 27. Produce little balls of fluff and feel hair stand on end? (4,7)
HAVE KITTENS
Double definition: “Produce little balls of fluff” and “feel hair stand on end?”
Liked MUMBAI, DOG BISCUIT.
New: carbonnade, oviparous, enfant trouvé.
Did not parse:
4d – never heard of Norman Tebbit
17d only got as far as PART in OIST?
Thanks, both.
Thanks Paul and mhl
I wasn’t impressed by GREY TIT (South African, apparently – the British Great Tit would have worked better, though it didn’t fit, of course), or ENFANT TROUVE without a foreign language indication.
I’ve made a carbonnade for dinner tonight!
Thanks mhl. I did wonder if Paul was suffering a case of the Mondegreens with 5ac – such a bird exists but not in the UK where the Great Tit is native. Thanks Paul.
Great Tit may be native but is pronounced ‘Grate Tit’ with three distinct ‘t’s, not ‘Grate It/Grey Tit’ with only two.
Thanks for the blog, GREY TIT did sound right and it did sound like a bird but needed our Southern African bird guide to find it.
OVIPAROUS and OP ARTIST were neat. Quite a few fairly obscure answers but with clear word play .
Simony and carbonnade were new but gettable; mangosteen I knew because mrs ginf used to have its bottled juice [which is supposed to have healing properties; who knows, but it probably did no harm … ]. Often heard spade as slang for African-American in the ’60s; afaik, it was in good spirit, non-derogatory, and received as such; as for the origin of calling one one, no idea. Enjoyed the puzzle, ta both.
Croc @4
I actually agree, but crossword setters swould readily step over that line”
Found it hard. Didn’t finish bottom left hand, but it was do-able. Liked 12,18 ac and 22ac. Needed word-fitter to get obscure fruit 11ac and Google for carbonnade. ‘Infant’ was the obvious first word fit for 14ac, so did not get the non-indicated French expression – irritating timewaster clue.
Mangosteen and carbonnade were new to me. Struggled to think of French without indication for ENFANT TROUVÉ. Also couldn’t see SIRE in the clue!
Thanks Paul for the good test and mhl
This required a few rounds of putting down and coming back to later, but well worth it in the end. Fave was CAPS LOCK.
I had not heard of ENFANT TROUVE, but I speak French and when ENFANT emerged from the anagram pool, it had to be that and TROUVE soon came from the residue, despite it in this phrase having literally the opposite meaning to the English counterpart. But I suppose in practice an abandoned child is only recognized as such when found.
Found this tough and didn’t finish a few in the SW.
My favourite was OUTSIDE BROADCAST as I don’t usually work out clues like that.
Also liked GREY TIT, TIBET, THALAMUS
Thanks Paul and mhl
Didn’t get HAVE KITTENS. If I have kittens I am angry – my hair does not stand on end.
I was enjoying this right up to the last one in – but without any indication that we were looking for a French phrase, ENFANT TROUVE defeated me. I’m sure it’s the correct term in French, but have never seen it used in any English context.
I liked the DOG BISCUIT and HAVE KITTENS and the reverse-anagram in OUTSIDE BROADCAST, managed to remember SIMONY and THALAMUS from lessons long ago, and to construct CALL A SPADE A SPADE from the kit of parts supplied. A slight raised eyebrow for GREY TIT, but it is a real bird, so it will have to pass.
I had the opposite experience to most solvers who have commented so far. I got ENFANT TROUVE from the anagram fodder and four crossers, despite have not knowlingly ever come across the phrase. The cat & dog clues at 22 and 24/27 fell out similarly easily. Even MANGOSTEEN was pretty easy. I had similar doubts as others about the unknown GREY TIT, but what else could it be?
I thought calling a spade a spade was just about plain speaking (with the alternative being “a digging implement” or some such), and I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard it used with racist connotations.
Thanks to Paul and mhl.
Foundling = enfant trouvé. I said to my OH, is a grey tit a European bird, but it had to be that. A big shout out for the quality of the Saturday Prize on the whole this year, from someone who only finds time to do the Saturday one.
I decided it had to be ENFANT NATURE and came here to observe the furore about the incorrect anagram fodder. Which just goes to show how silly a billy I can be. Worth the effort (and even the self-imposed public humiliation) for the cracking OUTSIDE BROADCAST.
Thanks to Paul and mhl
SW@15: It’s true about the prizes – well said.
I’ve slept since doing this but I do recall being pleasantly surprised at how doable it was for a prize crossword, and a Paul at that. Not easy but definitely doable. My main stumble was confidently popping in GRATE IT as my FOI, not having checked the numeration. So my last few in that corner took a while until I retraced my steps and realised my mistake.
The long multi-clue phrase was my main foothold, and I’ve realised that this is quite often the way for me – I can crack phrases much more easily than words.
I got ENFANT TROUVÉ as I speak French, but confess I hadn’t ever heard it in English. But it’s in my Chambers, so OK.
Now waiting for tomorrow for the furore about the factual error in the last Everyman…!
Great crossword as ever from Paul. I don’t expect to be familiar with bird clues so wasn’t bothered by this one and I just assumed 14 would be a foreign phrase. Missed CAPS LOCK and HAVE KITTENS which turned out to be two of my favourites. Thanks mhl and Paul.
Most enjoyable puzzle from Paul with a good spread of vocabulary. Nothing I hadn’t come across, fortunately, apart from ENFANT TROUVÉ, but the wordplay was clear, as was the meaning of the phrase.
As others have remarked, my first thought for 6ac was GREAT TIT, which obviously didn’t fit. As Croc @4 points out, it is pronounced differently from GREY TIT. The former is a possible example for English speakers of how to pronounce double consonants in Italian, where ‘peto’ (fart) is not the same as ‘petto’ (chest) 🙂
Thanks to S&B
Thanks mhl, agree that this was witty and fair despite some new words and phrases for me. I am pleased to say that I have never seen a spade, but is there the tiniest of themes with 12/18 and 14? CAPS LOCK my favourite too, thanks Paul.
Gonzo @3: Why should the bird be native to the UK to be included in a puzzle? Neither is mangosteen.
Enfant trouve does not appear as an English phrase in any online dictionary I have tried (including Chambers OL).
Thanks, @manehi, for the spade link.
PS. in 7d, you missed an A (A LAM)
Calgal @22 – ENFANT TROUVÉ is in the Chambers dictionary iOS app. Not sure why the web version differs though.
Thanks mhl. If anything I thought this was a little less of a challenge than we have come to expect from Paul recently but nonetheless typically enjoyable. FOI was 12,18 which wrote itself in immediately, I only bothered to find the explanation later and any racist overture never occurred to me. LOI was 17d, I have never heard of Bridget Riley and couldn’t see past ‘up’ as the first word. 6d took me far too long to understand.
Pretty much what others have said. Harder than I expected from Paul, mostly due to the number of words that were new to me – MANGOSTEEN, OVIPAROUS, THALAMUS – but tractable given the clueing. (It’s not my field at all, but I looked in Wikipedia for thalamus afterwards and it talked about routing information, but nothing specific about pain.) I remember getting is good start with 12,18 and remembering “call a spade a spade, not a bloody shovel” from so far back I have no idea where that came from. As far as the poor foundling goes, at one point I had -N-A-T for the first word and wrote in INFANT, as you would, and then wondered if this really was an anagram. At some point I realised ENFANT would fit and the rest dropped out, but it did seem both obscure and unindicated. Oh, and as for Norman Tebbit…
Thanks to Paul, quibbles aside, and thanks mhl.
Thanks mhl. Just the bottom caused difficulties, beginning with the little balls of fluff. Tom Jones – a Foundling translates into French as 14A. Took a while to get CAPS LOCK and OP ARTIST. All good, Paul.
So many good clues here.
Loved OUTSIDE BROADCAST. Such a surprising anagram, somehow and such a happy chance that there is such an expression. Maybe one day we could also have: Transmission of evil? (4,9)
Didn’t know of MANGOSTEEN before, but they sound very interesting, so I’m glad I have now. Thanks, Paul.
I got ENFANT TROUVE playing with the letters and wondering why there wasn’t an I for INFANT. Kenning* French (a little), I spotted ENFANT TROUVE eventually and assumed it must be English adopted from French. Seeing others’ comments here and googling, that’s not apparently the case. However, it’s in my old Chambers under enfant — where, interestingly, I also learn enfants perdus (‘lost children’) can mean ‘shock troops’.
The story of Simon Magus, whose name gave rise to the word SIMONY, is in Acts 8:9-24. I have a book called the Illusionist, by Anita Mason in which he is the protagonist and St Peter the antagonist.
Spent a long time try to think of a famous Riley without success. Googling just gives (mostly Americans, I think) people with first name Riley. Then I noticed it was (2, 6), not (8) and got OP ARTIST it very quickly from the ‘_ P’, immediately remembering Bridget.
I agree with Fiona Ann@12: I don’t associate the expression HAVE KITTENS with the feeling of the hair standing on end and although I put it in lightly I didn’t feel totally confident that it was right until I finally got CAPS LOCK.
GREY TIT has the correct single /t/ to be homophonic with ‘grate it’ (unlike ‘great tit’), but the stress is still on the wrong syllable. Not complaining, just saying.
Calgal @22 & Rob T @23, on the Chambers website, you can search: Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Chambers 21st Century Dictionary isn’t the same as The Chambers Dictionary.
*I entered ‘knowing’. Spell correction wrote ‘kenning’. Cool.
After spending a couple of hours over two sittings and getting only 7 answers I put this crossword in my paper-to-recycle bag; I went on to tackle Monk in the Indy and Artexlen in the FT so I enjoyed my weekend nonetheless. Congrats to those who solved this. Thanks mhl for the blog.
Like Dr Whatson@ 10, ENFANT TROUVÉ sounded counter-intuitive for ‘abandoned’, until I thought of the English word ‘foundling’, mentioned by Keith S@25. As a commenter said last week on the Guardian site, it’s familiar in the sense of property eg, Lost and Found. You can’t have the second without the first.
Let’s CALL A SPADE A SPADE. Agree with sheffield hatter@14, I don’t think Paul meant anything other than “be honest”. The phrase has been around forever, although the ancients probably only had one or two words. We’ve got whole hardware stores with numerous varieties.
Further to mhl’s link to the NPR article I found this in Free Dictionary:
“To speak frankly and bluntly, to be quite explicit. The term dates from the sixteenth century, but may go back even to Greek and Roman times. One translation of Cicero’s Ad Familiares reads, “Here is your Stoic disquisition . . . ‘the wise man will call a spade a spade.’” There are numerous repetitions throughout the 1500s, such as John Taverner’s (“Whiche call . . . a mattok nothing els but a mattok, and a spade a spade,” Garden of Wysdome, 1539), and later uses by Ben Jonson, Robert Burton, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain, among others. A cliché since the nineteenth century, it acquired a more sinister meaning when spade became an offensive slang word for a black person.”
I have never heard it used in the racist connotation, but then I don’t live in North America.
ENFANT TROUVE is in Chambers93 which is , of course, the definitive source for all crosswords.
Gervase @ 20
Single and double consonants and vowels are phonemic in Finnish too.
Vesa is a boy’s name. Vessa is the toilet.
Tuli, tulli, tuuli, all different. Many many other examples too.
English speakers (most foreigners, in fact) have problems pronouncing the single consonants, tending as they do to double them naturally.
I won’t say any more, as I know I have bored people with my linguistic ramblings in the past.
Overall, I thought the puzzle was fairly easy.
Thanks to Paul and to mhl.
Lots to enjoy with clever misdirections. 5a and 11a were new to me and I wish that 8d was.
Thanks to Paul and mhl.
Thanks Paul and mhl.
This one took all week. ENFANT TROUVE last one in. I had trouble with 24d/7a because I could get the much more vulgar rhyming version of the phrase out of my mind. But that’s my problem, suppose!
Roz@30, what nonsense! Development of meanings in the English language reached a full stop with the publication of Chambers 1988!
Anna@31, I must disagree. I’m sure that, like me, many here have found your “linguistic ramblings”, as you style them, some of the most interesting parts of what you write.
Graham@33,
“the much more vulgar rhyming version of the phrase”
That being? (Feel free to use asterisks if you fear giving offense, although I’m sure we’re all grown-ups here.)
Anna @31 please continue, I get my language lessons from you , Essexboy, PDM , Gervase and others .
These blogs provide a lot of education outside my own narrow field. I always read them even when the crossword has really annoyed me.
Tony@ 34 , 1993 was actually the first edition of “The Chambers Dictionary” . More importantly it is the only copy I have owned and has seen me through many crosswords. As you are no doubt aware, since I am special the setters should only use this edition.
Calgal @22 I don’t know, why?
Tony @36 only. Well, it’s an anagram of NIGHT SIT
Tony Collman @27 : Your comment about the stressing of syllables in GREY TIT got me wondering. My sense of it is that if GREY were an adjective qualifying the standalone noun TIT, then the noun TIT retains its stress. On the other hand, when an adjective-noun pair becomes a defined entity in its own right, a single unit, such as if it were the common name for a type of bird, then the fusion may be signalled by a migration of the stress towards the first syllable. With that pronunciation in mind, I had no problem with GRATE IT as a homophone.
For example, I would stress “blue tooth” differently from “Bluetooth”, and likewise “blue bottle” differently from “bluebottle”.
Graham@40, let’s call a spade a spade. Do you mean you were unfamiliar with HAVE KITTENS, but knew an equivalent expression (look away now, Mrs Grundy) ‘shit kittens’? I’ve never heard that, although I can easily imagine it being used as a vulgar version of the original for intensification. I have heard the same word used with ‘bricks’ or ‘a brick’, with a slightly different meaning to my mind, one more likely to go with feeling the hair standing on end, in fact.
Girabra@41, I think you may be right. I don’t think I’ve ever heard ‘great tit’ or ‘grey tit’ pronounced, so may have jumped to a false conclusion. I have heard ‘blue tit’ pronounced, though, and it fits with your thesis, which, assuming it’s correct (and I’ll certainly give you the benefit of any doubt that may remain), makes it a perfect homophone. Hooray!
Roz@38, it must be if you say so (the more so as you’re special). I haven’t got my BRB to hand, although I did when I mentioned 1988. I’m not sure of its exact title, but when I was checking the date, I noticed it said that it was descended from the Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary (although it’s not that, either – I just know it as ‘Chambers’).
Tony @44 It was Chambers English Dictionary for a short while. The new and heavily revised The Chambers Dictionary was produced in 1993 , just for me .
Roz@45, ah, yes, I have it to hand now and, of course, you’re right: it’s the Chambers English Dictionary, 7th ed., “first published (as Chambers’s [sic] Twentieth Century Dictionary) in 1901″.
As the completely revised “The Chambers Dictionary” was published especially for you, you are clearly responsible for this major corruption of the English language from its perfected form.
Is there some rule that solvers have to buy the Chambers dictionary? I use a 2-volume set of the SOED (3rd edition) and Google for modernisms. The SOED includes one entry under ‘Enfant’, namely ‘Enfant terrible’. I am familiar with that expression. A quick Google search confirms that ‘Enfant terrible’ is very well known in English. The first 3 pages of a Google search of ‘Enfant trouve’ show many translations, but no evidence of usage in English. I suggest that it would be helpful to many solvers, who like me do crosswords for both fun and challenge, if compilers would back up appearance of a foreign phrase in one dictionary with some evidence of usage in English.
For some reason, this only appeared on my iPad just now (Monday 11th). I am very pleased to see it, so thank you mhl.
As per usual for a Paul for me, it started fairly impenetrable but gradually gave up with more visits. I finished the last two clues on Sunday morning this week.
Oh and my grandfather, who was a Yorkshireman, used to ‘call a spade a bl—dy shovel!’ Hw was what he liked to call frank, or blunt, but what I with my softy southern wimpishness would have called tactless, or even rude!
JohnJB @47 : Others have more experience than me and can make this more precise, I’m sure. My memory over the years is that there are several crosswords that stipulate Chambers as the recommended dictionary, sometimes going so far as to indicate how many clues have answers not in Chambers.
There’s an interesting corollary to this choice to have a “dictionary of record”, when it comes to those barred crosswords (too difficult for me, usually) where the entries are taken from a much larger vocabulary set. Very frequently I find myself constructing conjectural words from the wordplay and then turning to Chambers to validate them. (There’s no way I can avoid this, because my vocabulary is small compared to the pool that the words are drawn from.) What often happens is that the setter will, for these obscure words, intentionally use the exact wording in Chambers in the definition part of the clue. It’s like doing a scavenger hunt: when you’ve found the thing, you want to be in no doubt that you’ve found the thing.
For example, consider a clue where “single-minded” could be the definition part. The rest of the clue, treated as wordplay, leads you to an unlikely but not impossible AEFAULD. You go to Chambers, and you find that it is a word, and that “single-minded” is the second of six entries. This precise match is the indication that your search has been successful. If the clue had used “dogged” or “resolute” as the definition, then you would not have this near-certainty that you had found what the setter wanted you to find.
For words in the typical solver’s active vocabulary, there is much more latitude for the setter to define words in accordance with the solver’s presumed awareness of its usage. This device is for the more obscure words, and depends on specifiying a canonical dictionary.
I would be glad to hear from more experienced solvers what they think about this.
Girabra@50, the Azed crossword in The Observer always specifies that Chambers 2014 is recommended and will mention any clues for which the reference is not there.
For the dailies there are no actual “rules” about Chambers but I would imagine most setters use it as a guide. It is the most comprehensive, single volume dictionary that is reasonably affordable.
You make a good point about obscure words, the more obscure it is the clearer the word play should be and the closer it should match an actual definition .(again no rules).
There is no need for solvers to own Chambers, I need it for Azed each week or I could never check my answers. It is also nice in the week for looking up anything obscure and also first letter abbreviations. That is another issue.
I enjoyed this… mostly. Surprised myself at how far I got despite almost nothing on the first pass.
I didn’t get HAVE KITTENS. I’m afraid ‘feel hair stand on end’ does not work for me. Having one’s hair stand on end is when you are tingling with excitement; having kittens is when you lose the plot. Having answers in multiple places on the grid is great but where they cross over and are therefore dependent on each other for letters — I hate that.
Mike S, I agree on both points (except that I’m not sure that “lose the plot” best clarifies the meaning of HAVE KITTENS).
As regards the problem of reducing the number of checking letters by having the individual parts of multi-light answers cross one another, Paul is a serial offender. In the instant case, it means 24dn has four letters with only one check letter and 27ac, seven letters with only three check letters. Of course, there is the extra check of the internal cross, but that can only help verify the correct answer, not suggest it.
Very late finding the blog. SW corner was very tough but all fair. Much enjoyed. Never dreamed that ?P might be OP.
Said with a Northern accent, “Shall I grate it for you?” made GREY TIT perfect. Not sure HAVE KITTENS deserved much fuss either. My synonym would be “an overstated adverse reaction”. Maybe in the world of (children’s) comics, this might be drawn as someone with their hair standing on end?
Many thanks, Paul
Choldunk@54, taking at face value what Girabra@41 says about the stress in GREY TIT, you don’t need to say all that when using a southern (British) accent: you can just say “grate it” as if giving an instruction and it’s spot on. Not sure what it is about a northern accent that requires the baggage?
Choldunk@54, taking at face value what Girabra@41 says about the stress in GREY TIT, you don’t need to say all that when using a southern (British) accent: you can just say “grate it” as if giving an instruction and it’s spot on. Not sure what it is about a northern accent that requires the baggage?
As for hair standing on end, I hadn’t considered the cartoon trope but was thinking of hair on the back of the arm, for instance, standing up, aka getting ‘goose pimples’.
I came to this late as I held on to the puzzle for two weeks before finally giving up (and finding that I’d filled in my FOI wrongly). I get why some people might wish to convince themselves that racist language was used and received in good spirits in the halcyon days of youth, but the article helpfully included by mhl will, I hope, persuade them otherwise.