Guardian 24,107/Paul – whatchamacallits and thingummyjigs

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A typical Paul effort with clues ranging from easy to difficult, and a collection of words some will know, and others won’t.

I quite enjoy the mental challenge of a Paul puzzle, but wouldn’t recommend him for beginners or for those who don’t want to contemplate drugs and flatulation when having their morning coffee.
ACROSS

5 W(R)IGGLER – Don’t like this clue very much

9 TERRARIA – (rare rat I)* – glass cases that may contain an ant farm or the likes

10 FINISH – homophone of FINNISH

11 DROP CURTAINS

13,2dn BOW-LOVER

14 ADO-PTION (point)*

17 CAP-(<=ARAB-Y) – the largets living rodent, a native of South America

20 LABOUR-SAVING

23 FLAT-US – a typical Paul word, meaning the air expelled when one flatulates

25 0-PP-ONE-N.T.

26 TRYING – double definition, although the second of these is a bit loose

DOWN

3 CORN DOLLY – a figure made from wheat or other cereals, which were traditionally made at harvest time

4 PAR-DON

5 W(HATCH-A-MAC-ALL)IT – don’t have access to Chambers 2003 here, but it isn’t in the earleier version I have to hand.

7 G(h)AN(J)A – ganja is a drug made from hemp.  Interestingly, Ganja is also the name of Azerbaijan’s second city.  You learn something new every day.

8 EISENHOWER – (where one is)* – Dwight D Eisenhower, 34th President of the USA and a highly-decorated US general.

12 00-JAM-A-FLIP – similar to 5dn, I can’t find it in my version of Chambers, or in any online dictionary, but the wordplay leads to this word.  I could be wrong?

15 THIN-GUMMY – another word meaning the same as 5dn – not sure of the wordplay.  The setter seems to be indicating that if something is ghummy it can’t eat? (or be eaten?)

16 LAC(ROSS)E

19 (<=DIM)GET – is midget politically correct, these days?  I can’t keep up.

8 comments on “Guardian 24,107/Paul – whatchamacallits and thingummyjigs”

  1. Honestly: that silly, smirking, prurient, scatalogical, immature whateveritwas – I’m sorry to have to say I loved every moment of it.

  3. I got only a fistful and would like to meet Paul in a dark alley to convey that.

    Not the attitude I’m sure but it’s sould destroying stuff for most of us.

    What is 21D please o-t-o. I have no will to stare at it any longer. Someone please hand me the answer or a service revolver and show me the way to the drawing room.

    Thanks

  4. Mark

    The answer to 21dn was OUTDO – meaning to “beat”

    OUT = “unconscious”

    DO = “trick”, as in “you’ve been done”

    Hang in there, Mark – the more you practice, the better you’ll get, and of course keep visiting Fifteensquared for explanations.

  6. Could the Guardian please announce when Paul is going to be doing the crossword, so that I can arrange to take a day off to do it justice.

    Got the difficult stuff and failed to see “Eisenhower”. Think my mind is too highly trained …

  7. Could the Guardian announce when Paul is going to be doing the crossword about a year in advance of the day, so that I can go off and meditate on a mountain in Nepal and receive information from deities which will enable me to fill in answers to clues where the words aren’t available in the dictionary sources available to ordinary mortals?

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