Guardian 25,965 by Gordius

23 comments on “Guardian 25,965 by Gordius”

1. This puzzle by Gordius was fun and I really enjoyed it. I liked 2d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 24d, 17a & 28a (last in) and my favourites were MURPHY’S LAW & BARBECUED.

   New definition for me was ‘screw’ = ‘salary’.

   Thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap.

2. Thanks, UY. A strangely dated feel to this – as though Gordius found it down the back of the sofa.

3. Thanks Gordius and Uncle Yap,
   Easy but fun (though I did have LAMPS instead of LIMBS). Lots to admire. A slight pity that I solved 9ac from PANORAMA rather than its own clue, which deserved better!
   Isn’t “without difficulty” “easy” rather than “ease”?

4. Good morning everyone, and thanks Nuncle.

   Fair enough puzzle but a bit thin for my taste.

   Struggled a bit to equate PROJECTILE with BALLISTIC but then realized he’s using the former in its adjectival sense.

   Had to look up PROPAGANDA to find the connection with BALLYHOO. Interesting to see that propaganda comes from congregatio de propaganda fide; presumably meaning a group sent out to propagate or spread the word of the faith.

   Also, and this is a bit rich from an ancient, isn’t it a bit of a stretch to describe HI-FI as modern? Surely hi-fi is now demoted to old-tech leaving ‘modern’ to be reserved for MP3 (or now 4) or iTunes or some such incomprehensible new format?

   Quite liked MURPHY’S LAW and PAY PACKET, though.

   Have a nice week.

5. I agree with Neil@2. A very old-fashioned feel to most of the clues which is probably why it didn’t take long to solve at all.

6. Straightforward but no less fun for that. I too was struck by the dated feel and when entering HIFI found myself recalling Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones a the former tried to buy a gramophone.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXDK3x5lAYI

   So, lots of smiles. Thanks, Gordius, and Uncle Yap for the blog.

7. muffin@3
   Re 25d “ease” – some of the older setters in particular still do that – they use an adjective or adjectival phrase as “definition” for a noun. The idea, I think, is that they are describing rather than defining what the rest of the clue indicates. So you get old-fashioned but cheerful clues of the format “Girl you might find down the back of the sofa” = penny, “Copy with a parrot?” = pirate etc. (Azed accepts verb phrases for nouns but not adjectives, so he wouldn’t do what Gordius does here.)

8. Thanks UY and Gordius

   An easy solve for the most part but some mildly amusing clues nonetheless. Like others I found hi-fi a bit dated – perhaps Gordius has moved into the ‘post-modern’ era. I still sometimes use ‘gramophone’ for fun, but the leading recorded music magazine does still use the title.

   I ticked 9a, 19a, 4d, 15d, and 19d.

9. Pleasant enough with no real obscurities, although I didn’t know the screw=wages.

   Thanks UY; I got caught (again!) by the ‘layer’ at first. Yes, HI-FI=’modern sound’ did raise a smile. MAZE=bewilderment is given in Chambers as ‘now dialect.’ And thanks to PJ @6 for the humorous link.

   Some nice clues; I enjoyed PANORAMA, LUTE, SINATRA and LEGHORN.

10. Nothing too strenuous. Bit of a quibble over 11a – it suggests that it’s the cereal that’s heard, rather than the bewilderment.

11. He’s just got confused ‘with ease’ = =without dofficulty’.But as Nunmcle says. a humdrium experience today!!

12. Thanks to UY for the blog. You explained 9a where I had got as far as A(F)RICA but failed to parse the rest.

    I agree with muffin@3: the clue points to EASY.

    I was another who took ‘layer’ to mean stratum at first. Eventually I spotted a more appropriate meaning 🙁

13. I thought this was a straightforward enough puzzle, mostly, but I don’t quite understand 9a. “lay out on cont­inent? F-off” is enough to indicate COST + ARICA, so what does the “it’s not that one” refer to? Is it meant to be an indictation that the country in question is not located in Africa?

14. Cock- up I reclon — confuse d continments with countrues?

15. Thanks UY.

    Straightforward enough – it took me half the time of yesterday’s Rufus. Some interesting clues here.

    However (and there’s usually a ‘but’ with this setter), 25d isn’t the only clue which seems to point to the wrong part of speech. 7d indicates a noun (‘stuff of old boots’) rather than the adjective LEATHERN. And why put the ‘and’ into 15d? ‘Cynical view of potato salad’ would work just as well and read far better. Nice construction, though.

16. Yes Gervase… it predict ctatssatrophe in potato salads!!

17. Following on from Gervase @15, I’m trying to make sense of ‘Country lay out on cont­inent’ as an English sentence. It’s the sort of thing I find with Gordius; not every clue is quite ‘there’.

    A pity since there are undoubtedly good clues here, SINATRA being tops for me.

18. Trailman @17
    “Lay” here is the past tense of “lie”. It’s a sentence without a definite article – subject is “country”, verb “lay”, predicate “out on continent”. I think it’s a genuinely funny clue – almost literally LOL (I sort of snorted quietly). If you’re looking for badly written surfaces you’ve come to the wrong setter!

19. I thought this was a particularly clever crossword as it disguised itself as rather a difficult one at first.

    It then totally surrendered itself after a few clues were entered and became the more usual Gordius fare. (Or perhaps I was just a little slow putting brain in gear! I did mentally list the continents 3 times and each time missed Africa!! )

    Still quite enjoyable despite the odd slightly dubious clue.

    Thanks to UY and Gordius.

20. How aggravating that 27 down was not ARTY!!!!

    I (half) imagined Gordius was looking for ARTY-FARTY.. Arty being (perhaps) not loud, whereas Arty-Farty would be..

21. BARBEQUED or BARBECUED?

22. @Frank’ is dbe For one thing, trailman. iN sruface , whaty is a ‘fa5rnk offence’? An ope n and honest one?!!!

23. Rowland@22
    “Frank” can simply stand for “Sinatra” (“A classic Frank track” etc.), so it isn’t really definition by example. It’s hard to say that a name is “dbe” anyway – here you could say Frank is an example of a Sinatra, of which there are several (although I can only think of one other) – i.e. it’s a definition by example – but it would be more normal to say Sinatra is an example of a Frank (of which there are hundreds of thousands), in which case it isn’t dbe. For both these reasons I don’t think the objection is persuasive.

    A frank offence is surely either a shameless one or, more idiomatically, something that is frankly offensive. Your finding fault in that surface is surprising. Did you really find it incomprehensible? Not that surfaces really need to mean anything, but in this case the meaning seems pretty clear (and reasonably funny too).

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