Guardian 25108 / Rufus

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As usual, a gentle but enjoyable start to the week from Rufus. I found the last two long down clues the only tougher bits here. For once I managed to resist putting in any wrong answers before getting the checking letters, which is a small personal achievement 🙂 There’s no PDF on the Guardian’s site again, disappointingly.

Across
8. GO PUBLIC GO = “Attempt” + PUBLIC = “people”
9. REAGAN (ANGER)* around A = “article”
10. HIT OUT Double definition
11. BREAD BIN BREAD = “Money” + BIN = “box”
12. VERA (RAVE)*
13. EARTHBOUND Double definition
15. VISIBLE Cryptic definition
16. ALL TOLD Double definition
18. PROPAGANDA A very nice cryptic definition
19. EROS SORE = “Tender” reversed, referring to the statue known as Eros in Piccadilly Circus (apparently, it’s actually Eros’s brother, Anteros, but there seems to be strong family resemblance)
20. FRILLIES FILLIES = “Girls, maybe” around R = “right”; I guess the “maybe” is a nod to the “oh dear” that came to my mind…
22. LEAN TO Double definition
23. MENTAL (MAN LET)*
24. OVERLORD Double definition; Operation Overlord was the code name for the Normandy landings
Down
1. MOBILE LIBRARIES Cryptic definition
2. AUTOMATIC PILOTS Automatic pilots in aircraft are sometimes called “George” (something I only know through crosswords) – I guess this is a cryptic definition, also alluding to the expression “to be on automatic pilot” meaning to do something instinctively Thanks to Eileen for explaining this: it’s AUTOMATIC = “instinctive” + PI = “good” + LOTS = “many”
3. FLY THE FLAG Cryptic definition: “standard” as in a flag
4. ICEBERG Cryptic definition: “main” as in “sea”
5. FREE F = “loud” followed by E’ER = “always” reversed
6. CARDS ON THE TABLE Double definition: the tough clue for me – in bridge, the dummy has their hand visible for everyone to see
7. NATIONAL LOTTERY LOTTERY = “gamble” on NATIONAL = “race”
14. HALF ASLEEP Half of “40 winks” might be a “score of winks”
17. IN A SPOT (IAN OPTS)*
21. IDLE (LIED)*

29 comments on “Guardian 25108 / Rufus”

  1. Many thanks mhl this was a typical Rufus offering.

    With regard to whether or not we are offered a PDF, I suspect that this is yet another betting scam and I am now anxiously awaiting an expose in the News of the World.

  3. Thanks mhl and Rufus

    A pretty straightforward puzzle with what seems a specially large proportion of dds and cds, several of them clever and amusing, and relatively few anagrams – but this may be just my impression and it does not worry me.

    6d and 1d kept me guessing for some time. In 1d I kept thinking the first word must be police.

    Other pleasing clues were 4d (an old chestnut I imagine but I didn’t get it immediately), 14d, and 13a. I’m glad it took me a bit of time to get 20a!

  4. Thanks, mhl.

    Eileen, I agree with you but what’s the “a” doing before “good”? I realise it’s necessary for the surface but I don’t like it – as far as I know PI, is only an adjective?

  5. tupu, I was after the police too! I didn’t really like this clue finally. Apologies to Rufus but your CDs are normally a little more elegant.

  6. I enjoyed this as always with Rufus; my favourites were MOBILE LIBRARIES and CARDS ON THE TABLE (which were among my last to go in). Not too taxing, but for me a more enjoyable challenge than today’s Quiptic, which I found very much a mixed bag.

  10. Apart from PROPAGANDA, (which I seem to remember seeing before somewhere), and possibly 13 and 14, there was nothing here to please – the familiar overload of cryptic-style cd’s and dd’s padded out with a few mechanical anagrams and so on.

    I did this puzzle on line this week and noticed the advertisement for Cross Country Rail at top right, with the link to its website: “your search engine”. They chose the right day for that one.

  11. Thanks mhl – I’m not sure why you’re so keen on 18ac (propaganda): it seemed a bit unsatisfactory to me. Can you (or someone) tell me what I’m missing?

  12. Andrew: not sure – perhaps because I did a degree in Artificial Intelligence once upon a time, I found it tough to ignore the surface. AndI think the cryptic reading works well too, in that false information during a war might be propaganda (at least up the tolerance suggested by the question-mark in the clue  :))

  13. Thanks mhl and Rufus.

    Unlike some, from what I read, I found the East half more accessible than the West, with a few grins. In fact, I was beginning to think this was easier than the Quiptic, but got stuck for some time on 1 and 2 down – which I liked in the end, but couldn’t see the justification for pilots. Thanks for that, Eileen.

    In 13ac, we have a good example of how ambiguious our language can be 🙂

  14. Sorry, Eileen. “A good many = lots”, agreed but then where does the PI come from? I don’t see that you can really have it both ways.

  15. Well, a bit dull really. Going through the same old hoops is old Rufus!! I don’t like, or maybe don’t get, the AUTOMATIC PILOTS clue, which is

    It’s instinctive with a good many, all called George

    How does it work? I get as far as ‘automatic’, then stumble with the superfluous ‘a’, so why is it there? I don’t think Eileen explains it away @ 8!

  16. Just a quick thought, that ‘a good many’ could be ‘a PI LOT’, but still not quite there. And I can’t get a definition in the right tense.

  17. Hi NeilW and walruss

    ‘A good many’ = PI LOTS works for me as a cryptic definition – but I can’t explain it any further. 🙂

  18. Thanks, mhl. Like Stella, I found the lefthand side harder than the right, with 1dn last to go in. And I’m afraid I didn’t much like 18ac.

  21. For what it’s worth, I quite liked 18a and I agree with Stella and mhl about it. The OED gives inter alia:

    ‘The systematic dissemination of information, esp. in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a political cause or point of view’.

    So ‘artificial intelligence’ here = ‘created or concocted misinformation’.

  23. Hi Derek

    You are right it is not Eros.

    But Wikipedia has a different story. It says the statue is popularly known as Eros and sometimes called ‘The Angel of Christian Charity’ but it was intended to be Anteros, Eros’s brother and his opposite as God of requited love.

    History is clearly like an onion – layer upon layer and enough to make one cry.

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccadilly_Circus

    and also entry under Anteros.

  28. Does anyone else have a problem with the Guardian “Print version” page? I get blogs too.(Sorry if this is off topic.)

  29. Bella, so do I since the recent changes. It’s very annoying, but I put it down to my computer(Tiny, using Windows ME) being too ancient for consideration when changes are made.

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