Guardian 25,905 – Chifonie

25 comments on “Guardian 25,905 – Chifonie”

1. Thanks, UY.

   I won’t comment on the easiness or the merits of denying new setters a place in the Guardian sun. As you anticipated: STABBED: BA in DEBTS all reversed (going west).

2. Thanks Uncle Yap. Yes. Solvers, Neil?

3. Thanks Chifonie and Uncle Yap
   Straightforward, except that I was Googling the (less-)well-known German philosopher “Gayer” when one of the hits led me straight to this page (and the correct parsing).
   “HORSE LATITUDES” (reading across)are geographical regions – see:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_latitudes
   I wonder if that was deliberate?
   I misread 17ac and was intending to complain about rung = ladder, but it’s “run” (as in stocking), of course!

4. Thanks UY and Chifonie.

   14d Is greed really synonymous with longing? Close enough for us I suppose.

   Muffin above, thanks for the interesting HORSE LATITUDE link. The derivation’s a bit hard to swallow though isn’t it?

   I agree there was not much to push the more experienced here but, like our Uncle, I well remember the rare delight of completing those early grids and if the odd one appears now and then and motivates others, I say jolly good.

5. William @ 4
   Yes, the derivation reads like a desperate attempt to create a “just-so” story for a phrase that no-one knows of its origin.

6. Thanks UY and Chifonie.

   Yes this was straightforward, but not without complication, in 16d, for example.

   In 6d, HOT=”lustful”; “inflamed” is the definition. Apart from that, good, precise blog, as always.

   Thanks for the interesting link, muffin.

7. Thanks UY and Chifonie.

   The RHS went in in 10′ or so, but the left took another 20 or more; don’t know why, nothing really hard there. I suppose PAGE for CALL in 13a was a bit off my usual thinking, and I thought of TEA ROOM for 1d for a while.

   muffin @ 3 I was going to look him up too; doh!

   Enjoyable Xword

8. Thanks Chifonie and UY.

   A lot of men seemed to be getting an outing today: Bill, Cliff, Mark, Nick, Pip. The latter was, I thought, bound to be some sort of literary reference, but luckily not. Not much need for Google today although I don’t know much about philosophers.

9. Easiness is indeed relative, I found this a quick solve, but by no means an unentertaining one. Those answers I’d not met before were easily accessed via wordplay, so just the thing for a Tuesday, really.

10. Don’t see how this is much different from yesterday’s Rufus really, it’s cliche-ridden, too easy for most people, and dotted with Guardianisms like ‘youth leader’ for Y, and yet no-one has slagged it off, or ‘ripped into it’ which is what people did yesterdat!!!

    Cheers
    Rowlu

11. Thanks to Chifonie and Uncle Yap.

    Another very pleasant diversion. I guess we are being led gently towards a seriously challenging Easter special. I certainly hope so.

12. Rowland @10.

    To say it’s “too easy for most people” is surely the same as saying it’s below average difficulty. But what’s wrong with that? Where place is there for beginners and improvers in a crossword world full of uniformly difficult puzzles?

13. Sorry That should be what place . . .

14. I’m not criticising ‘easy’ Colin, which as we know can be V GOOD, but just notingnthat a similar puzzzle was not rammed with a trireme!!!

    Rowly

15. Thanks, Chifonie and Uncle Yap as ever.

    Robi @8, I thought the same re Pip and started thinking of Great Expectations.

    PIT STOP was topical as Mark Webber was leading the race at a pit stop on Sunday.

    Giovanna x

16. If all you want is a diet of tricky puzzles, then there are sites and publications that can assist. The whole point of the Guardian and its variety of setters is that, over time, there is a range of difficulty which can assist learning. And a good thing too.

    That said, the NE corner held me up a little, mostly by my trying to fit in an L (for scholar) into DEBITS (not DEBTS) reversed. Doesn’t work I know. So there are always elephant traps for the unwary.

17. RCW hated Rufus didn’t he.

18. Rowland @17 Unless you know something horrible I do not, I would prefer to ask; “RCW hates Rufus doesn’t he”? But he would not put it like that, he would only be unhappy with how easy Rufus’s puzzles are to solve.

    But RCW please come back soon and give us your true opinion!!

19. Glad to some people sticking up for us less experienced solvers. I wonder sometimes why those who go on about how easy the puzzles are bother to come to this site. They obviously don’t need the help we do. Having said that, I, finished this though I couldn’t parse 4a or 5d

20. I enjoyed this puzzle by Chifonie which I thought was very clearly clued, and I was able to finish it very swiftly and almost unaided apart from needing to check on the existence of a philosopher named ( A.J.) Ayer.

    Last in was STABBED (which I could parse, by the way).

    My favourites were OSCAR, FREIGHTER, BLOODSHOT, ELEGY & CHIDE.

    The new word I learnt today was RETROUSSE.

    Thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap.

21. They come for the pleasant company, I should imagine, or for the meticulous blogging, or for the interesting though often widely varying opinions.

    However I learned a new word: GAYER (sorry about that one, Michelle), which seemed to me (or to my general opinion about Guardian puzzles, at least) to miss some kind of opportunity.

22. Michelle, your comment seems oddly appropriate given that philosophers seem to spend so much of their time checking their own existence.

23. A delightful, well clued puzzle. Very enjoyable and very easy! (It is possible.)

    I managed to stretch it to 20 mins by entering CASUISTIC for 27A. (Creative annagramming/solving at its best. :0) )

    No comparison with yesterday as it was clearly clued and wasn’t loaded with dodgy DDs and CDs.

    Anyway now got time to watch to England fulfill the nation’s expecation! 😉

24. I think the expectation is on the Montenegrin side, Brendan.

25. Ahh … no it’s not.

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